- Having refused to leave his girlfriend Marie Kiesler, or “Mariechen”, as he calls her, William R. “Billy” Steinway stays with her throughout the war – not in Hamburg, as should have been probably expected from Steinway & Sons’ general manager in Europe, but in Berlin. However, William R. Steinway is quite in the loop of Steinway & Sons’ Hamburg operations: he writes to his brother Theodore E. Steinway that business in Hamburg is “fairly bright and steady […] always a couple of months’ orders behind”.
- William R. Steinway, being an American citizen, is considered by German officials as “enemy alien”, and must sign in at a government office every day. To befriend the clerk in charge of the procedure, William R. Steinway orders several rubber stamps made for him.
- The United States military intelligence discovers that William R. Steinway has attempted to correspond with his cousin Charles H. Steinway via A. Belmont, Steinway & Sons’ agent in neutral Norway, and through Spanish embassy in Berlin. The military suspects Charles H. Steinway of being a German spy, and put him and his wife Marie Ann are put under surveillance, jointly with the Bomb Squad of the New York Police Department. The report on Charles H. Steinway says that he, being an American patriot, “would give whatever aid he could to this country, as he believes the United States are fighting for a cause that is just.”