THE DECLINE OF GERMAN-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP: BEEF, PORK, AND POLITICS, 1890-1906

During 1890-1906 the historic friendship between Germany and the United States declined. This spectacular transformation from amity to antagonism had profound implications for the twentieth century. Yet recent historians have neglected this change.; While diplomatic texts focus on the dramatic tensions of 1898-1902 in Latin America, the Pacific, and East Africa, Department of State archives supplemented by German and American statistics and Department of Agriculture reports reveal substantial evidence of earlier economic disagreements. During the 1890's the most persistent problem was American meat exports. Increasing local reinspections within Germany threatened the American pork trade. In 1894 Germany suddenly banned American cattle and fresh beef. In 1900 a German Meat Inspection Law severely limited American products. Without understanding the currents within Germany that created these problems it is difficult to understand the later differences that divided the two nations.; The safety of American meat and sufficiency of American inspection were central issues in this controversy. The German government accused the American pig of infecting Germans with trichinosis and the American beef of introducing Texas fever to livestock. The American government denied these charges.; Within Germany opposing groups repeated these same arguments. Here the debate reflected the new economic realities generated by the industrial revolution. As factories replaced farms, German industrialists welcomed inexpensive American meats to feed a growing work force. Agrarians feared this threatening competition and advocated a tariff barrier. The American pig and beef were caught in this power struggle between industry and agriculture.; Prohibition to protect the health of the German consumer or prevent the spread of cattle disease provided Agrarians with a politically acceptable alternative to protective duties. Scientific disagreements over both trichinosis and Texas fever during the decade furnished Agrarians with sanitary arguments to mask economic motives.; Agrarians feared not only competition from American meats but the successively higher American sugar tariffs of 1894 and 1897. When German diplomacy failed to eliminate these duties, Agrarians pressured for retaliation against the United States. Their antagonism limited any allowances for American meats without corresponding concessions for German sugar. The growing power of the Agrarians following the formation of the Farmers' League (Bund der Landwirte) in 1893 decreased political options for the German government.; In 1900 Agrarians exploited Kaiser Wilhelm II's desire for a larger navy in their fight for further meat restrictions. Agrarians refused to vote for more battleships without a strict Meat Inspection Law, and the German government paid this price for naval expansion at considerable cost to German-American friendship.; The Meat Inspection Law added one more resentment to the growing list of economic grievances between Germany and the United States. In comparison with the global clashes, these were not dramatic conflicts that dominated the newspaper headlines. But they persisted in the daily lives of Americans and Germans who coped with a changing world. Year after year diplomacy failed to solve these problems for American meats and German sugar. Tensions and frustrations accumulated. Both sides came to perceive the actions and reactions of the other as antagonistic and retaliatory. These new assumptions replaced the old. The legacy of friendship had been transformed by the turn of the century into a legacy of disagreement and distrust.