Left speaker:
Man verlangt, daß wir mit verschränkten Armen zusehen, wie unsere Feinde sich zu tückischem Ueberfall rüsten, man will nicht dulden, daß wir in entschlossener Treue zu unserem Bundesgenossen stehen, der um sein Ansehen als Großmacht kämpft und mit dessen Erniedrigung auch unsere Macht und Ehre verloren ist.
Es muß denn das Schwert nun entscheiden. Mitten im Frieden überfällt uns der Feind. Darum auf! zu den Waffen! Jedes Schwanken, jedes Zögern wäre Verrat am Vaterlande.
Kaiser Wilhelm II speech to the German People, circa August 1914, English translation here.Right speaker:
...for some time neither of us spoke. Then I went and stood behind his chair. 'So it's all up?' I said. 'Yes,' he answered, 'it's all up.'
After dinner, I joined my husband, Lord Crewe, and Edward Grey in the Cabinet Room. The night was hot. The windows were all open. We sat without speaking and listened to the distant sound of thousands and thousands of people, singing and cheering outside the railings of Buckingham Palace.
Other members of the Cabinet came into the room. We sat in silence. A clock on the mantelpiece ticked out the hours.
Then Big Ben struck, the crowd outside simply singing and cheering everywhere. But inside, the Cabinet Room was silent as dawn.
I left to go to bed.
No reply from Germany. We were at war.
Margo Asquith, wife of Prime Minister Asquith recalling the night of August 4, 1914