--- title: Au Peuple Belge! (von Emmich proclamation, with Allied caption strip) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/emmich-proclamation-au-peuple-belge-1914/ description: An all-text French proclamation headed 'Au Peuple Belge!', signed by the German army commander as troops crossed into Belgium. section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Au Peuple Belge! (von Emmich proclamation, with Allied caption strip)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/emmich-proclamation-au-peuple-belge-1914.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/emmich-proclamation-au-peuple-belge-1914.jpg) # Au Peuple Belge! (von Emmich proclamation, with Allied caption strip) An all-text French proclamation headed 'Au Peuple Belge!', signed by the German army commander as troops crossed into Belgium. The tells: an appeal to a shared past ('the glorious day of Waterloo'), a warning that destroying bridges or railways counts as hostile, 'formal guarantees' of gold payment, and a contested claim about French officers as justification. A red strip at the foot, added later, glosses it in Allied terms. - **Date:** August 4, 1914 - **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi) - **Made by:** German Army of the Meuse (General Otto von Emmich), anonymous printer; caption strip added by a later seller acting for Belgian war-invalid charities - **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe) - **Country:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=german-empire) - **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster) - **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military) - **Regime:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-empire) - **Leader:** [Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=wilhelm-ii) - **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public) - **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance) - **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i) - **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) - **Regime:** [German Empire under Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/german-empire/) - **Leader:** [Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/german-empire/#wilhelm-ii) - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Musée Carnavalet, Paris Musées collections, inventory AFF5162)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Au_Peuple_Belge_C%27est_%C3%A0_mon_plus_grand_regret_que_les_troupes_Allemandes_se_voient_forc%C3%A9es_de_franchir_la_fronti%C3%A8re_d,_AFF5162.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (anonymous 1914 proclamation; Musée Carnavalet / Paris Musées CC0 mark) Anonymous printer; Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris (Paris Musées), inventory AFF5162, via Wikimedia Commons. Published before 1931. ## Text on the object Original (French) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` Au Peuple Belge! C'est à mon plus grand regret que les troupes Allemandes se voient forcées de franchir la frontière de la Belgique. Elles agissent sous la contrainte d'une nécessité inévitable la neutralité de la Belgique ayant été déjà violée par des officiers français qui, sous un déguisement, aient traversé le territoire belge en automobile pour pénétrer en Allemagne. Belges! C'est notre plus grand désir qu'il y ait encore moyen d'éviter un combat entre deux peuples qui étaient amis jusqu'à présent, jadis même alliés. Souvenez vous du glorieux jour de Waterloo où c'étaient les armes allemandes qui ont contribué à fonder et établir l'indépendance et la prospérité de votre patrie. Mais il nous faut le chemin libre. Des destructions de ponts, de tunnels, de voies ferrées devront être regardées comme des actions hostiles. Belges, vous avez à choisir. J'espère donc que l'Armée allemande de la Meuse ne sera pas contrainte de vous combattre. Un chemin libre pour attaquer celui qui voulait nous attaquer, c'est tout ce que nous désirons. Je donne des garanties formelles à la population belge qu'elle n'aura rien à souffrir des horreurs de la guerre; que nous payerons en or monnayé les vivres qu'il faudra prendre du pays; que nos soldats se montreront les meilleurs amis d'un peuple pour lequel nous éprouvons la plus haute estime, la plus grande sympathie. C'est de votre sagesse et d'un patriotisme bien compris qu'il dépend d'éviter à votre pays les horreurs de la guerre. Le Général Commandant en Chef l'Armée de la Meuse, von Emmich. [printed strip at foot, French:] Proclamation apportée, le 4 août 1914, par les troupes allemandes qui venaient d'entrer en Belgique, et distribuée par elles. Remarquez les mensonges relatifs aux officiers français. Dès le même jour les Allemands se mettaient à massacrer la population civile à Visé et à Herve. [printed strip, English:] Proclamation brought by the German troops on arriving in Belgium on Aug. 4th 1914 and distributed by them. Note the falsehoods concerning French officers. On the same day, Aug. 4th 1914, the Germans started the killing of the civil population of Visé and of Herve. [printed strip, Spanish: a parallel text, not transcribed here] [ink stamp, right, partly illegible:] SECTION DES DOCUMENTS de la Guerre / VENTE au PROFIT DE L'OEUVRE: ASILES des SOLDATS INVALIDES BELGES / [illegible] de M. le MINISTRE VANDERVELDE / [illegible] [corner mark:] CARNAVALET ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` To the Belgian People! It is with my greatest regret that the German troops find themselves forced to cross the frontier of Belgium. They are acting under the constraint of an unavoidable necessity, the neutrality of Belgium having already been violated by French officers who, in disguise, crossed Belgian territory by automobile in order to enter Germany. Belgians! It is our greatest wish that there may still be a way to avoid a fight between two peoples who were friends until now, even formerly allies. Remember the glorious day of Waterloo, when it was German arms that helped to found and establish the independence and prosperity of your homeland. But we need a clear road. Destruction of bridges, tunnels and railways will have to be regarded as hostile acts. Belgians, you have to choose. I therefore hope that the German Army of the Meuse will not be compelled to fight you. A free road to attack the one who wanted to attack us, that is all we desire. I give formal guarantees to the Belgian population that it will have nothing to suffer from the horrors of war; that we will pay in gold coin for the provisions that must be taken from the country; that our soldiers will show themselves the best friends of a people for whom we feel the highest esteem, the greatest sympathy. It depends on your wisdom and a well-understood patriotism to spare your country the horrors of war. The General Commanding in Chief the Army of the Meuse, von Emmich. [printed strip, French:] Proclamation brought on 4 August 1914 by the German troops who had just entered Belgium, and distributed by them. Note the lies about the French officers. From that same day the Germans began to massacre the civilian population at Visé and at Herve. [printed strip, English: as transcribed above] [printed strip, Spanish: not transcribed] [ink stamp and corner mark as above] ``` Spellings are as printed, including 'aient' and 'Souvenez vous'. The bold-face words in the body ('garanties formelles', 'payerons en or monnayé' and the final sentence) are set in heavy type on the original. The stamp is faint and only partly legible. The strip's wording is the sheet's own and is not FRAME's assertion. Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader. [← Unser Kaiser an sein Volk (Our Emperor to His People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unser-kaiser-an-sein-volk-1914/) [Aux Femmes Françaises (To French Women) — government appeal, 6 August 1914 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/aux-femmes-francaises-viviani-1914/) ## Using the same techniques - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity. - [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating) - [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal) - [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal) - [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)