Mallorca And War: The Germans

In the article a couple of days ago about Gertrude Stein's time in Mallorca during the Great War, I mentioned the German ship the "Fangturm". Having been abandoned in Palma's port at the start of the war, work commenced on getting it shipshape when the Verdun battle began, only for the work to later cease. But whatever happened to the ship? After its half and incomplete paint job, it was allowed to rust away even more. In 1919, as part of reparations under the Treaty of Versailles, the Spanish navy seized the ship and handed it over to the care of the French consul. By then it was in such a poor state that it had to be towed to Marseille.

The ship was to be sold in 1921 to a Belgian company. It was renamed the "SS Antverpia" and eventually met its end when it was bombed by German aircraft in Boulogne harbour in 1940. Originally a German cargo ship, albeit one that was built by Swan Hunter, its fate was finally sealed by a German bomb.

The story of the "Fangturm" is one of only a few remnants of the wider story of Mallorca during World War One as told from the German side. Gertrude Stein's account of the ship left out plenty of detail. She implied that some of the crew had "gotten away" to Barcelona. In fact, it seems that they all got away, instructed to report for military service and ferried to Barcelona to start their journey to Germany. The German consul in Mallorca, Alfred Müller, issued an order: "Subjects of the German Reich, who are obliged to undertake military service, must present themselves without delay for this purpose to the Imperial German Consulate in Calle Concepción 82".

Stein had also understated the ship's function (or perhaps she had been sarcastic, and it is more than likely that she had been). Rather than selling pins and needles in the Mediterranean, the "Fangturm" was one of a fleet of large cargo carriers which bore similar names. It had been en route from New York to India when it headed to Palma to seek a safe haven just as war was breaking out. The crew had initially not known what to do. When they were ordered to report for military service, they did know, and so the ship was left behind.

Other Germans of military age were also obliged to leave and join up. The "Ultima Hora" newspaper referred to "our friend", a Herr Schmidt, a local silversmith, who had no choice but to report for service with an infantry battalion. The Germans who remained, those who were too old for service, must, one imagines, have been those who started painting the "Fangturm". It's hard to know who else would have done.

What seems clear is that there was no animosity to nationals on either side of the conflict. Indeed, there was obviously some affection: "our friend, Herr Schmidt". Sides were taken but only in arguments and debates in the cafés of Palma. Neutrality brought with it a ban on any public displays of sympathies for either side, so marches or demonstrations were out, but there was no ban on publications expressing their views or on individuals arguing their case. The two sides divided predominantly along class and occupation lines. Supporters of the Central Powers were the conservatives - the aristocrats, the church, the military and big business. The Allies' supporters were the educated middle class, the new bourgeoisie, teachers, unionists and workers. 

Opinion in Mallorca reflected that across Spain. As I mentioned in a previous article, a reason why Spain remained neutral was because of its own internal tensions. It may even have been the main reason. Mallorca was relatively unaffected at that time, but mainland Spain wasn't. Had Spain gone to war, those tensions would have split the country apart, the aristocratic and Catholic conservatives against the liberals, the anarchists, the Republicans, the Catalans. Just as it was to be some years later.

Though Mallorca and Spain benefited from the war - ships were built in Mallorca and blankets, uniforms, boots, guns and food were exported - the ordinary worker reaped little of the benefit. The cost of living rose but wages didn't. There was also famine in Spain during the war. Politically, there was the rise of Maurism, the movement started by the son of Antoni Maura. Though Maura supported the Allies, he had drifted so far to the right that the movement which took his name can be seen as a precursor to the Falange.

And then, just before the end of the war, came a different threat. The first Mallorcan death as a result of the worldwide flu pandemic was in Sineu on 11 September, 1918. Mallorca and Spain staggered out of the war. Neutrality had bought the island and the country some time. The inevitable was merely delayed.