Semmler suspected another reason for His Majesty’s favor. He was acutely aware of his long arms and simian brows. He knew that “gorilla” or “monkey” looks would have doomed an ordinary soldier to a stagnant career in an army that revered the handsome features that epitomized superior races and ridiculed the ugly. But the kaiser’s own appearance was blighted by a birth defect—a withered arm that hung from his shoulder like a toy doll’s. Perhaps two refugees from the mirror felt a kinship?

When they were driven indoors by the rain, Semmler invited the kaiser into his library and entertained him by projecting films of galloping cavalry, armored trains, the new flying machines, and the ocean-churning dreadnoughts of Wilhelm’s beloved High Seas Fleet.

“Behold, Your Majesty, the newest weapon of all.”

The kaiser squinted at the screen. “Where is it?”

“The movies are a weapon, Your Majesty.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You know that the superior classes have always enjoyed theater and opera.”

“As they should.”

“The movies are an even bigger event in the lives of the workers. Millions crowd into Kintopps and tenement cinemas. They watch whatever appears on the screen. Mesmerized. Imagine millions upon millions assembled daily to watch the same thing—wanting to be mesmerized; hoping to be mesmerized. They are ripe for propaganda.”

“Propaganda?” The kaiser had frowned. “They boast in England that movies are a propaganda of democracy.”

“Movies are even better propaganda for love and hate, Your Majesty. Friendship and war. There are millions watching. They could watch your message.”

“What message, General Major?”

Christian Semmler stood face-to-face with Kaiser Wilhelm and said, “Friendship.”

“Friendship?…”

Semmler took a deep breath to remind himself that patience was the hunter’s deadliest virtue. He smothered his impulse to grip the kaiser by his shirtfront and shout that if propaganda could convince the German people to pay for a fleet of warships they didn’t need, propaganda could convince anyone of anything. But he could not shout that in so many words without instantly destroying his special rapport.

“With all the respect due the power of your splendid armies, Majesty, and your navy, when Der Tag dawns we will almost certainly have to fight England, France, and Russia simultaneously.”

“We will win,” the kaiser said. “Our rail lines will shuttle our armies from front to front, east to west, west to east. A two-front war holds no terrors.”

“To be sure, Your Majesty. But three fronts? Even Germany will be hard-pressed to fight on three fronts simultaneously…”

“America.”

“As you say, Your Majesty. America.”

It finally dawned on the kaiser. “Allies!”

“Allies, Your Majesty. The movies can defeat Germany’s enemies by turning them against one another. We will show propaganda movies that depict Germans and the immense German-American minority as America’s friends and the British, French, and Russians as her enemies. Can you imagine a more powerful weapon? Germany, their friend, and England, their enemy.”