Last but not least, under the heading of the organization comes the
financial aspect. Out of the five milliards of francs, the war
indemnity paid by France to Germany in 1871, 200,000,000 marks in gold
coin, mostly French, were put away as the nucleus of a ready war
chest. In a little medieval-looking watch tower, the Julius Thurm
near Spandau, lies this ever-increasing driving force of the mightiest
war engine the world has ever seen. Ever increasing, for quietly and
unobtrusively 6,000,000 marks in newly minted gold coins are taken
year by year and added to the store. On the first of October each
year since 1871, three ammunition wagons full of bright and glittering
twenty-mark pieces clatter over the drawbridge and these pieces are
stored away in the steel-plate subterranean chambers of the Julius
Thurm, ready at an instant's notice to furnish the sinews to the man
wielding this force. This is a tremendous power in itself, for there
are now close to 500,000,000 marks ($120,000,000) in minted gold
coinage in storage there. This provides the necessary funds for the
German army for ten calendar months. The authorities have no
necessity to ask the country, warring politicians--in this instance
the Reichstag--for money to start a campaign. They have got it ready
to hand. Once war is declared and started, if needed they'll get the
rest.
This money is under the sole control of military authorities.
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