Hunnenrede

Verabschiedung des deutschen Expeditionskorps durch Kaiser Wilhelm II. [Hunnenrede] vor der Einschiffung nach China in Bremerhaven, black-and-white photograph, 1900, unknown photographer; source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-068-53 / CC-BY-SA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1970-068-53,_Bremerhaven,_Verabschiedung_des_ostasiatischen_Expeditionskorps.jpg, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en.

On 27 July 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II (centre, on the dais) delivered a speech to German troops sailing to suppress the Boxer Uprising. The speech has become notorious for a passage which the German foreign ministry tried to suppress in official versions subsequently circulated:

Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.

Verabschiedung des deutschen Expeditionskorps durch Kaiser Wilhelm II. [Hunnenrede] vor der Einschiffung nach China in Bremerhaven, black-and-white photograph, 1900, unknown photographer; source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-068-53 /https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1970-068-53,_Bremerhaven,_Verabschiedung_des_ostasiatischen_Expeditionskorps.jpg, Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

Quotation via German History in Documents and Images (GHDI), http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=755 translated by Thomas Dunlap.