Manifesto of the Ninety-Three

The "Manifesto of the Ninety-Three" (German: Manifest der 93; originally "To the Civilized World," An die Kulturwelt!, by "Professors of Germany") is a 4 October 1914^[1] proclamation by 93 prominent Germans supporting Germany in the start of World War I. The Manifesto galvanized support for the war throughout German schools and universities, but many foreign intellectuals were outraged.

The astronomer Wilhelm Julius Foerster soon repented having signed the document. Soon, with the physiologist Georg Friedrich Nicolai, he drew up the Manifesto to the Europeans. They argued,

It seems not just a good thing, but a dire necessity, that educated men of all nations direct their influence in such a way that the terms of the peace did not become the wellspring of future wars—uncertain though the outcome of the war may now still seem. The fact that this war has plunged all European relations into an equally unstable and plastic state should rather be put to use to create out of Europe an organic whole.

Whilst various people expressed sympathy with these sentiments, only the philosopher Otto Buek and Albert Einstein signed Foerster and Nicolai's counter manifesto and it remained unpublished at the time. It was subsequently brought to light by Einstein.^[2]

A report in 1921 in The New York Times found that of 76 surviving signatories, 60 expressed varying degrees of regret. Some claimed not to have seen what they had signed.^[3]