According to Robert Gaudi, "In "Mein Leben" von Lettow writes nostalgically of his decade as a junior officer in the Kaiser's Imperial Army: there were Dawn inspections in the biting cold, regimental maneuvers, glimpses of the luminaries of the day - the Kaiser, Crown Prince Friedrich, the "Man of Gold" Field Marshal Count von Moltke, who was Germany's greatest military strategist, and others. There were drinking parties with fellow officers, card games till all hours, and splendid dances in Berlin - the young women shivering in their off-the-shoulder dresses, the new officers in bright stiff uniforms - followed by the mad rush to catch the last train back to Spandau barracks before the last roll call".