The Zimmermann Telegram was a coded cable sent by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, in the midst of World War I. In the dispatch, Germany promised to help Mexico regain its lost territories of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico in exchange for support of Germany against that country’s enemies: Britain, France, Russia and Italy. The Zimmermann Telegram helped push the United States into entering into World War I.

Arthur Zimmermann, German diplomat in the United States. Photo courtesy of The Daily Star. www.walled-in-berlin.com

What the Zimmermann Telegram proposed

The cable instructed German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich Von Eckardt, to approach Mexico’s president and propose a military wartime alliance between Germany and Mexico in the case that the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies against Germany. In exchange for a Mexican attack on the United States, Germany would provide military and financial support for the assault, and Mexico would be free to regain its lost territories.

Purpose behind the Zimmermann Telegram

Germany had long toyed with the idea of inciting a war between Mexico and the United States to keep the American forces busy at home and to slow the export of American arms to the Allies against Germany. The United States spent the first two-and-a-half years of the war watching from the sidelines. But the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915 had helped to rally some pro-war factions. Still, isolationist sentiment in the United States remained high. In 1917, Germany gave the Zimmermann Telegram in coded form to U.S Ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, for transmission to Mexico. On 16 January 1917 the missive was sent via Berlin, Copenhagen, London and Washington, D.C. to Mexico City. http://www.history.com/news/the-secret-history-of-the-zimmermann-telegram Shortly thereafter, Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic.

The Plot surrounding the Zimmermann Telegram thickens

British intelligence had been secretly tapping into the U.S. state department’s transatlantic cables since early in the war. On 17 January 1917 – two days before the Zimmermann Telegram arrived in Washington – a British crypto analyst encrypted the dispatch and passed the information on to Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, Director of British Intelligence. For several weeks, the admiral kept the telegram under wraps without informing his superiors or the United States. The reason was twofold: (1) Hall did not want Germany to know that the Brits had broken their codes and (2) Hall did not want the United States to know that the Brits were eavesdropping on their communications.

When it became clear that the US would not enter the war despite the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, Britain passed on the contents of the telegram to the United States but concealed its source. Instead, England claimed that it had intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram in Mexico and passed the information on to the U.S. Embassy in London. Still unaware of the British espionage involved, the U.S. agreed to pass off the information as something that had been intercepted by its own intelligence service.

Result of the Zimmermann Telegram

By 1 March 1917, the contents of the Zimmermann Telegram were splashed all over the front pages of newspapers throughout the nation. The telegram served as evidence of German aggression, and the American public was outraged. Public opinion turned against Germany and against German-Americans living in the United States. Where have all the German-Americans Gone? On 2 April 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson abandoned his policy of neutrality and asked Congress to declare war against Germany. In the meantime, both Mexico and Japan had already dismissed as infeasible Germany’ offer of a military partnership.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.