Hun speech

[1] After this shooting the Qing court declared war against all foreign powers in China and the Siege of the International Legations in Beijing began.

After seven weeks, the international expeditionary force prevailed, the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi fled Beijing, and the foreign alliance looted the city.

[1] The "Hun speech" was delivered by Wilhelm II during a farewell ceremony for some of the troops belonging to the German East Asian Expeditionary Corps (Ostasiatisches Expeditionskorps).

[5] After inspecting two ships, Wilhelm II returned to his imperial yacht SMY Hohenzollern II and invited the chairman of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, Geo Heinrich Plate [de], the General Directors Heinrich Wiegand (Norddeutscher Lloyd) and Albert Ballin (HAPAG), dignitaries from the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven as well as numerous officers to breakfast on board his yacht at 12:00.

[6] During the inspection, the Emperor delivered farewell remarks – the Hun speech as it was soon to be known – to the departing Corps and surrounding spectators, which were said to number a few thousand.

After the speech, von Lessei thanked the Emperor for the words dedicated to his men, and a band intoned "Heil Kaiser Wilhelm Dir".

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, so may the name Germany be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German!

[13] When giving the speech, Wilhelm II especially wanted his soldiers to avenge the assassination of Clemens von Ketteler, the German envoy to China, on 20 June 1900.

[14] In an earlier dispatch of 19 June 1900 to Bernhard von Bülow, Wilhelm II had already demanded that Beijing be levelled to the ground and called the coming fight a "battle of Asia against all Europe".

[15] The painting is considered to be an allegory of the defence of Europe under German leadership against the alleged "Yellow Peril", which had had long been a cause for worry for the Emperor.

This view was for example held by Bernhard von Bülow,[27] but it no longer reflects the state of academic debate, as the "Hun"-stereotype had already been used during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871).

[28][29] In 2012 an Edison-wax cylinder phonograph was discovered containing a recording of the slightly abridged second version of the speech (WTB II) from the turn of the 20th century.

[31] A voice comparison carried out by a member of the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt [de]) could not unequivocally confirm the speaker as Wilhelm II.