At the start of the 20th Century, “commoners were second-class human beings yet certain middle-class officers became personal adjutants to the Kaiser;…Jews could claim no higher distinctions yet certain Jews were knighted and became friends with archdukes;…women had to observe traditional morality yet certain women could philander like a cavalry officer. Those were principles that would be labeled ‘hypocritical’ today because we are so much more relentless: relentless, honest, and humorless," but these exceptions to aristocratic principles were even liked back then.