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HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION

•The

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HISTORY

GERMAN CIVILIZATION

A GENERAL SURVEY

ERNST RICHARD, Pd.D.

LECTURER ON THE HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1911

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 191 1.

Nortoooti Igrtsa

J. 9. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO
THE GERMANISTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATIOX OF SUCCESSFUL

EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE KNOWLEDGE

AND STUDY

GERMAN CIVILIZATION IN AMERICA

-,;

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK THE FIRST
GERMANIC ANCESTRY — WANDERINGS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Meaning and Scope of History of Civilization

AND its Relations to National Psychology . 3
II. The Scandinavian Theory of Indo-European Ori-
gins 10

/!^III. Germanic Origins 27

IV. The Germans in their First Contact with Gr^eco-

RoMAN Civilization '34

I. Their Country and Mode of Life.

^- V. The Germans in their First Contact with Gr.eco-

RoMAN Civilization 50

II. Civil Organization. Individual and Society.

VI. The Germans in their First Contact with Graco-

RoMAN Civilization 60

III. Law, Poetry, Art, Religion.

^^VIL The Migrations 72

I. The Kitnbric Invasion of Italy and Ariovistus'
Fight with Caesar.

VIII. Conversion to Christianity 85

IX. The Migrations 91

l,.-'^'' II. The New Grouping of the States. The German
of this Period. Roman Civilization and the
Germans.

BOOK THE SECOND
THE CREATION OF THE FATHERLAND, 600-1400

, XL The Roman Empire of the German Nation . . 104

The State of the Franks 99

he Roman Empire of the Geri
Awakening Sense of Nationality,
vii

227429

Vlll

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CIIAI'TER PAGE

XII. The Feudal System in Germany . . . Ill

XIII. The Monasteries 125

Education and Literature in the Earlier Middle
Ages.

/JtEV; Emperor and Pope 133

XV. Chivalry. The Crusades 141

XVI. The Conquest of the German Soil by German

Labor 155

XVIL The Colonization of the East .... 170
XVIII. The Founding of the Cities ; Castles, Bur-
ghers, Peasants 175

XIX. Mining and Money 180

■ ; XX. Some of the Greater Emperors .... 183

BOOK THE THIRD

RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN NATION, 1400-

1650

XXI. The Rise of the Cities 191

I. Commerce. Craft. Arts.

XXII. The Rise of the Cities 206

II. The Change of Economic Basis and its Con-

sequences. Legal and Political Develop-
ment of the Cities.
VXXIII. The Height of National Life .... 214
About the Year 1500.

^ XXIV. Religious Development 235

The Age of Luther.
XXV. Humanism and Renaissance in Germany . . 258
Education after Luther. From the Journal of
Thomas Platter.
XXVI. Change in General Conditions .... 272

Beginning of Decay.
XXVII. Popular Risings. Political Development 278

XXVIII. Summary of the Destructive Tendencies in

German Life 284

XXIX. Of the Great War 299

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK THE FOURTH
REGENERATION

CHAPTEK

XXX.

> XXXI.

XXXII.

XXXIII.

XXXIV.

XXXV.

^XXXVI.

XXXVII.

XXXVIII.
XXXIX.

PAGE

309

Survivals of Culture

Development of German Music.
The Age of Absolutism and French Influ-
ence

Beginning of Modern Science and Industry

Discoveries and Inventions.
Academic Liberty

A Short but Important Chapter.
The Age of Frederick the Great .

I. General State of German Society.

Rationalism.
The Age of Frederick the Great .

II. The King.
The Age of Frederick the Great .

III. Strengthening of National Feeling.

provements. Imitators.
German Idealism .....

I. Reaction against Rationalism.

Klopstock. Storm and Stress.
Winckelmann. Herder.
German Idealism

II. Kant.

German Idealism 415

III. Its Culmination. Schiller and Goethe. The

German Religion.

Pietism.

Im-

Gellert.
Lessiug.

318
342

356

359

376
393

398
408

BOOK THE FIFTH
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. THE NEW EMPIRE

XL. Germany about 1800 425

XLL Romanticism. Dominant Theories of Life . 436
XLII. Downfall and Rise. Liberalism. Political

Reaction within, AVeakness Without . 442

CHAPTER I

MEANING AND SCOPE OF HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION AND
ITS RELATIONS TO NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

We live in a time when the intercourse between the
most widely separated nations of the globe hu: In-
come more swift and more active than it was, not
many years ago, between different parts of the same
country; a time when the settlement of differences of
opinion between governments by peaceful methods
instead of the brutalities of war has descended from the
Utopian realm of idealistic dreamers to the stage of
actual pohtics ; and when a federation of the civilized
world has entered the realm of possibility. Now that
the principle of violence, which has so long been re-
moved from the reciprocal relations of individuals,
is beginning to be removed likewise from the intercourse
of nations, it is more than ever important that the peoples
marching abreast in the great army of civilization
should not only know but also understand each other.
Although that old prejudice, inherited from the He-
brews, Greeks, and Romans, who used to look upon all
foreigners as inferior beings, has not entirely dis-
appeared, we find, nevertheless, an ever increasing
number of people who recognize the fact that their
neighbors have some merits, that our modern Western
civilization is not a national one, and that every nation
has contributed and is contributing her share to the
progress of all. It is in the service of these tendencies

^'''; ;.' ; '' , / HraTO.RY' dF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

that the present sketches from the History of German
Culture and CiviUzation are placed before the American
pubUc.

The term History of Civilization (German Kultur-
geschichte) is by no means settled or uniform. The
Germans make a very clear distinction between Civili-
zation and Culture. Under the former term they in-
clude the external relations of men to each other and
to nature as expressed in the organization of society and
in material progress. Culture, on the other hand,
refers to the development of the inner, the higher forces
of man as expressed in philosophy, science, art, and
religion. But this sharp distinction is not always ad-
hered to even in German, and in this book we shall con-
sider the History of Civilization as the science which
has for its object the investigation of the entire material,
intellectual, and spiritual life of mankind in all fields
in which it manifests itself.

Not a few historians of the old school deny to this
comparatively new science even its right to existence,
and the public at large usually connects with it the
idea of a description of customs and habits of times
gone by, a collection, so to speak, of curiosities and
anecdotes. But one of the greatest philologists de-
clares it to be the "queen" of all sciences, and, indeed,
the most advanced school of historians does not rec-
ognize any kind of history, except as a part of the
history of civilization. In other words, what most of
us in our school days learned as Universal History, to
wit, the history of wars and of the growth of states,
has interest only in so far as it has had an influence
on the evolution of civilization, or, rather, as it is a
symptom of a stage of development.

This interpretation of history, the first introduction

I MEANING AND SCOPE^ h

of the principle of evolution into the science of human
affairs, we owe principally to Herder, who was to some
extent anticipated by Vico. It is one of the most im-
portant achievements of the German intellect, and as
such is a part of our subject. And it is clear that with-
out a knowledge of the history of civilization of man-
kind, of which the knowledge of nature, hitherto gained,
forms a part, there is no possibility of an intelligent,
scientific view of the world and our position in it, of
what the Germans call eine wissenschaftliche Weltan-
schauung.

Thus the aims of our science seem to be clearly enough
stated, but it must not be imagined for a moment that
the task, indicated by this definition, has been brought
to any point near achievement ; the very formulation
of the problem is indeed hardly older than our young
century.

But there is still another aspect of the History of
Civilization. It may be considered as the first and
most important work imposed on the twentieth cen-
tury to restore unity to the human soul, the activities
of which, since the days of Alexandrine scholarship,
have been more and more scattered, to get at last the
results from all the specialization which has performed
such excellent service in the search for truth. There
is no doubt that, if we have not gone too far in specializa-
tion, we have, at least, been given to it too exclusively ;
we have almost lost the sense of the integrity of the
human mind. Let us hope that we stand at the begin-
ning of a new era when the human soul will again bethink
itself of its unity and indivisibility. Perhaps we stand
before another Renaissance, not a renaissance of Greek
antiquity, the distinctive character of which is intellect-
ual unity, but a renaissance of the human mind itself,

:0, ;• ,' 'mST.(>:ftY , OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

which will bring unity to the manysidedness which
makes our civilization superior to the ancient.

It will be seen what an important part history, in its
modern conception as the history of civilization, is
destined to play in the future ; indeed, a no less am-
bitious aim is placed before the historical investigator
than the establishment of the laws of social evolution.

The present author's aim, however, is less high. It
is not the general laws of human psychology which he
will try to expound ; his purpose is rather to tell the
simple story of the development of the German people.
But what has been said of the history of civilization in
general will make it clear that a moderately accurate
treatment of the chosen subject, even at this early
stage of the new science, must give a better insight
into the German national character in its fundamental
traits which the Germans have in common with their
relatives among other nations, — especially the Anglo-
Saxons, who in their island have preserved many a
treasure brought from the common fatherland, which
has been lost by those who stayed behind, — than
could be gained from an enumeration and description
of the qualities of the contemporary German. History
thus conceived will, in a much truer sense than the old
stories of wars and state intrigues, be indispensable to
the understanding of literature and art.

Who, for instance, can get a true insight into the old-
est monument of Germanic literature, continental and
Anglo-Saxon, that does not know the true relation
between the chief, the '^ alderman," and his sworn
follower, the thegn, which very word indicates a tie
that binds a child to his father ? How different a light
falls on many poems, if we remember that with our
ancestors rape was not something unusual or criminal,

1 MEANING AND SCOPE 7

but, at the period of their entrance upon the stage of
history, was, so to speak, a legal form of marriage?
How much does the character of Kriemhild gain in
tragic pathos, if we see in her conflict not a simple
contest between the love for her husband and her alle-
giance to family ties in the modern sense of the words,
but realize, instead, that it was the conflict between the
dying social system of the matriarchate, the mother's
right, where the brother and the mother's brother took
precedence over husband and father, and the new rule
of the father, as the true head of the family ; when, in
short, we see in Kriemhild the representative of a
new era rebelling against ancient and sacred custom?
Here is a new and interesting task placed before Ger-
manistic students, to search for those subtle and little
explored roots which strike from our literature and
art deep into long-passed epochs of civilization.

The farther back we go, the more are we hampered
by a scarcity of information, the more must we resort
to the imagination. And even the little that has been
done can be used only with great discrimination. As
this kind of history tries to reach the innermost soul
of the people, the subjective feehngs of the writer will
only too easily overcloud his scientific judgment. Facts
are interpreted, conclusions are drawn, to suit his
patriotic and ethical views. Some most conscientious
scholars fall into the opposite fault : for fear of being
considered partial to their own nation, they become
unjust and even more harsh in their judgments than its
avowed enemies. How far these dangers have been
avoided in the present book, I must leave others to
decide. Of course, space has not sufficed to point out
that traits claimed to be German may be found like-
wise among other nations; here we must limit our-

8 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

selves to proving them to be German. However
partial to his subject the writer may appear, it has not
been his purpose to exalt the Germans at the expense
of sister nations. The responsibility for all compari-
sons is left to the reader.

The best known description of ancient German con-
ditions, that of Tacitus, must be read with great caution
in spite of his wonderful power and historical skill,
for his purpose was not to tell the truth for its own sake,
but to give an object lesson to his Roman compatriots,
to show them the error of their ways. Although more
brief, Csesar is a much more reliable and unpreju-
diced witness, writing his report a century and a half
before Tacitus, and making his observations with the
cold eye of the general who weighs his chances against
an unknown enemy.

We are very fortunate in having our ancestors enter
history at a stage of civilization when they were not
able to write about themselves, but were under the
observation of highly civilized people. We are thus
afforded for the first time an opportunity to study, in
the clear light of authentic and trained observation,
the growth of a nation from a rather primitive stage to
the height of civilization. But what, from our modern
point of view, we call a primitive stage was, neverthe-
less, the result of countless ages of progressive develop-
ment, of thousands of years of physical and psychical
change and struggle, in view of which the experience
of the sixty generations of which we have an account
must appear infinitesimal.

The desire to know more as to the origin of our
ancestors is but natural to the human mind, which in-
stinctively searches for the first cause of everything.
The question concerning the first beginnings of the

I MEANING AND SCOPE 9

Germanic family, concerning the true character of the
German before he was at all influenced by Mediter-
ranean civilization, gains a special interest at the pres-
ent time, when, in consequence of the strengthening of
national feeling subsequent to 1871, the cry is raised
with ever increasing frequency that German civiliza-
tion should discard all foreign influence, return to its
own national sources, and develop a new, purely native
German culture. The advocates of this movement
would like, if they could, to start from the very begin-
ning, when the natural development of the Germans
was not yet disturbed, or rather interrupted, by contact
with Grseco-Roman civilization and with Christianity.
The comparative study of languages and the applica-
tion of its methods to the study of mythology, law, and
other spheres of human interest taught us, not a hun-
dred years ago, the fact that by their language the
Germans belong to that Indo-European family of na-
tions, of which the ancient inhabitants of India and
the Persians, on the one hand, the Greek, the old
Italic and modern Romance nations, the Kelts, the
Slavs, the Lithuanians, and the Germanic peoples, on the
other, are members. The question as to the origin of
these nations becomes of special interest to us, since
there are strong evidences that the home claimed for
the ancestral seat of the Germanic nations is identical
with that of the whole Indo-European family.

CHAPTER III

THE SCANDINAVIAN THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN
ORIGINS

For a long time comparative philology seemed to be
the only science which interested itself in the problem
of the relationship and origin of the nations that spoke
the so-called Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, or Aryan
languages. The field of the young science was so rich
in unexploited treasures that it was some time before
investigators began to question the correctness of its
first conclusions, and to discover that linguistic evi-
dence did not afford sufficient foundation for anthro-
pological or ethnological theories, and that language
alone could not tell us the history of the civilization of
a period from which no written tradition, no monu-
ments of stone or metal, have been preserved.

The fine diagrams that adorn our school and college
text-books, intended to represent the pedigree of the
Indo-Europeans, cannot be made to agree with the
results of science, no matter what arrangements of
"branches" are tried. Joh. Schmidt offered his in-
genious "Wellentheorie," which was greatly admired
by his colleagues, but which failed to carry with it
universal conviction. Compromises have been made,
other theories have been advanced, and what was once

^ This chapter was first published in the " Boas Anniversary
Volume."

CHAP. II THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 11

accepted almost as an axiom has been so discredited
that to-day hardly any philologist dares talk of one
ancestral nation as having spoken the original language
from which all the Indo-European languages have been
derived, and of which they may have formed, at a
remote time, only slightly varying dialects. It must
be said, to the credit of the philologists and of their
science, that this revision of first assumptions is not
due to outside criticism, but that, by patiently follow-
ing their own methods, they have found the fallacy of
the hypotheses of the founders of the science, and, with
almost suicidal intellectual honesty ,Jhey have given up
long-cherished theories. Surely a science which, by
applying its own methods, has been able to discover
the error of its most respected results cannot be declared
bankrupt, as has eagerly been affirmed to be the case
by some outside critics.

The strengthening of national feeling in the second
half of the nineteenth century has given to the question
of the origin and the relationship of civilized nations an
extraordinary prominence in the interest of wider circles ;
and the problem has been taken out of the cool atmos-
phere of scientific investigation into the heat of public
controversy, of national pride and international an-
tagonism, and, last but not least, of the rivalry of
specialists.

It has been said that the whole problem in itself is
worthless, that even a satisfactory solution is of no
value, and that the search for it is only the craving of
national, or, rather, racial vanity. But the search for
our origins has a deeper motive than national vanity :
it is a very important element of religious feeling. The
man who tries to prove his descent from what he believes
to be the superior race takes the superior mind of this

12 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

race to be the emanation or manifestation of the spirit
of the universe. It is a more spiritual modification of
the bibUcal conception of the chosen people ; from this
authority he derives his mission as the leader of the
nations to a better, a higher life. If this be vanity, it
is at least a kind of vanity nobody need be ashamed of.

Of course, this emotional aspect of the question can-
not find the approval of objective science, but it is at
the bottom of what is called the ''anthropological con-
ception of history," which for the present seems to be
in the ascendency. To push aside these tendencies by
characterizing them as ''dilettanteism" will not be
sufficient, for its representatives do not find their follow-
ing with the half-educated only. They are not to be
defeated by pointing out an insufficiency of facts from
the scientific point of view, since they claim that ''emo-
tional intuition," that "immediate knowledge," to be
an equal factor with reason and experience in the
structure of science. Even a scientist of established
renown cannot entirely avoid being influenced by this
modern tendency, not only when he leaves the pale of
his specialty, but sometimes even in judging of facts in
his own scientific field of investigation. The influence
of his racial predilection, unconscious as it is, does not
work in one direction only ; for sometimes the scholar,
whenever his conclusions seem to be favorable to his
own nation and race, is filled to such a degree with a
fear of appearing partial to his own relations, that,
from over-conscientiousness, he refuses to give them
what is right.

While we find these tendencies, perhaps, at work
mostly among German authors, still the prophet of the
new school is a Frenchman, Count Gobineau ; and the
race question was first brought to public attention

n THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 13

shortly after the Franco-German war, by another
Frenchman, de Quatrefages, who, with all his authority
as one of the foremost anthropologists, ''promulgated
the theory that the dominant people in Germany were
not Teutons at all, but were directly descended from
the Finns."

This general interest may be the reason why, in spite
of the apparent inabihty of finding a satisfactory solu-
tion, the ignorabirnus of many investigators has not
been accepted, and renewed efforts have been made to
reconcile the results of the different sciences. I speak
of different sciences, for the question of Indo-European
origin has long ceased to be a monopoly of comparative
philology. The philologists themselves, recognizing
the inadequacy of their science to cope with the prob-
lem, began to consult anthropology, and, more recently,
archaeology. This seems to increase the confusion.
No matter how competent an authority a representa-
tive of any one of these sciences is in his own specialty,
he is a layman as to the other two studies ; and even
if he has made himself sufficiently familiar with the
facts of the other sciences, he is looked upon with sus-
picion by those of the "other shop," It is indeed sad
to see some of the authorities ridicule and belittle the
efforts of an author belonging to another science, and
berate his ignorance, while the critic himself betrays at
least an equal lack of familiarity with the commonest
facts of the other's specialty. In a late review, for
instance, I find a great anthropologist sitting in judg-
ment on a book dealing with the present question. He
is probably quite correct in his anthropological objec-
tions ; but the assertiveness of his style leaves a bad
taste in the mouth when we find that he himself is so
innocent of the linguistic aspect of the question that he

14 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

still believes Sanskrit to be the language nearest to the
primitive Indo-European mother-tongue.

If it is really impossible for any single man to gain
sufficient control of the facts of the three sciences,
would it not be advisable to abandon all animosity and
fierce rivalry, and rather let a number of unprejudiced
anthropologists, archaeologists, and philologists join in
an investigation as to whether the results of the different
sciences cannot be harmonized?

The difficulty of getting a clear view of the subject
from a short presentation of the recent development of
the theory of Indo-European origins, as it appears in
German publications, has made it seem to me necessary
to give so much space to general considerations. The
race theories have now for some years commanded a
great deal of interest outside of scholarly circles in
Germany, especially under the impulse of such books
as Houston Stewart Chamberlain's ''Die Grundlagen
des XX. Jahrhunderts." The conclusive work for the
last century has been done by 0. Schrader, who, in his
two standard works, gives a comprehensive view of the
history of the problem, and his reasons for placing the
origin of the parent language in the lowlands of the
Volga River.

The more extensive studies of our problem published
in Germany in this century are inclined to agree that
southern Scandinavia, Jutland, and the country south
of the western Baltic Sea form the locality where the
people who first spoke an Indo-European language
developed their racial peculiarities, or, at least, were
living before they branched out to spread over Europe
and Asia. We may call this the Scandinavian theory
in a wider sense, leaving the question open whether we
shall ever be able to confine the supposed Urheimat to

II THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 15

the boundaries circumscribed by the purest represen-
tatives of the "Indo-European type" in southern
Sweden. The first important pubhcation of the century
was that of Mathceus Much. It was followed by an
extended article by Gustaf Kossinna. The last contri-
bution is by Hermann Hirt. Since Hirt's book repre-
sents the latest phase of the problem, I think it best to
make his argument the centre of this survey.

To begin with the name ''Indo-Europeans." I
prefer to use this term, as it has the widest scope. The
use of the term "Aryans" for the whole group is unde-
sirable, in spite of all tradition and the part the name
plays in anti-Semitic controversies, since this term is
restricted to the Indo-Iranian group. The term "Indo-
Germanic" owes its origin to the opinion that the
Indian Aryans and the Germanic nations formed the
extreme ends of the hne of nations, and not to the
national vanity of the Germans, as Ripley insinuates.
But it seems to hurt the sensibilities of some non-Ger-
manic nations, so it may be just as well to agree on
"Indo-European." At all events, philology has taught
us that to call the whole family, or its ancestors, Aryans,
is decidedly wrong; and certain anthropologists, who
deny the existence of a racial unity altogether, should
not insist on using it, as it will give rise to misunder-
standings.

Of course, the search for the cradle of the Indo-Euro-
pean family of nations presupposes the belief in the
existence of an Indo-European race or type anthro-
pologically distinct. Nobody will contend that there
is an anthropological relationship of the nations speak-
ing the Indo-European languages to-day; but it is
equally certain that these languages have a common
origin, and that there must have been a nation who

16 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

spoke that original language with some dialectical
variations, and who must have brought it to those
parts of the globe where its branches are used in his-
torical times. Indeed, for most branches, this immi-
gration is within the reach of historical evidence, or,
at least, of very sound prehistoric reasoning. These
immigrants were of a long-headed, blond, and tall type,
— traits which are found in their greatest purity to-day
in southern Scandinavia, Jutland, and northern Ger-
many. What Ripley concedes to be the fact for
Europe — that the traits which he calls Teutonic
"have become distinctive of a dominant race all over
Europe" — holds good as well for the representatives
of the Indo-European language family in Asia. More-
over, anthropological evidence, supported by legendary
tradition, mythology, and literature, — which repre-
sent gods and heroes as blond and tall, — permit the
conclusion that there has been a conquest by a race
with such characteristics. In speaking of Indo-Euro-
peans in this chapter, we mean, therefore, not the
nations who speak one of the related languages of that
family, but the immigrants or conquerors who spread
this language over Europe and parts of Asia.
^;s^ince philology has discarded the view that Sanskrit
represents the most archaic form of language, — that
is, was most closely related to the original Indo-Euro-
pean language, — the defenders of the Asiatic origin
of the Indo-Europeans have lost their strongest point ;
and, of all the arguments brought forth in favor of this
view, only one is thought by recent writers worthy of
consideration. This is the influence, pointed out by
Joh. Schmidt, of the Babylonian duodecimal, or rather
sexagesimal, S3^stem of numbers, on the decimal system
of the Indo-European languages. ''But," says Hirt,

II THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 17

'Hhe Babylonian culture is so old, and its influence is so
extensive, that any current starting from there may have
reached Europe. Indeed, we must say, that this
civilization is so momentous, that a residence of the
Indo-Europeans in the mountainous regions of the
Mesopotamian frontier would lead us to expect much
more decisive influences than those comparatively
meagre ones in the numeral system."
k It would take too much space to show that the assump-
tion of a northern origin would make the grouping of
the single branches, and the wanderings to be assumed,
fit into the whole of known historical facts and lin-
guistic conditions to a much higher degree than would
any other theory. Discussing Ratzel's theory that " a
single migration never has led to a lasting expansion
of habitation," Hirt finds that a separated racial branch
will preserve its nationality under especially favorable
conditions, such as are offered, for instance, by moun-
tainous regions. He points out that we find the
southern Indo-Europeans exclusively in mountainous
regions, whither they were forced to retire from the
fertile plains on account of the lack of supplementary
migrations from the parent stock. Here, after genera-
tions, over-population forced them to descend again
into the plains. Besides, there were climatic reasons
to recommend the higher regions to the northern set-
tlers, their cooler climate giving them a better chance of
acclimatization, while perhaps the smaller number of
primitive inhabitants facilitated the adoption of the
language of the new-comers.

Accordingly, Hirt finds the original home of Indo-
Europeans in the territory where they form the greatest
continuous mass ; that is, the region comprised to-day
by northern France, Germany, and western Russia.

18 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

At a certain time the western vnng of Indo-Europeans,
speaking the western languages, might have Uved west
of a hne from Konigsberg to the Crimea, since the
equation for the name of the beech-tree (Ger. Buche,
Lat. jagus, Celt. Bacenis silva, Greek, (pvy^'^) places them
within a region where the beech-tree is indigenous, the
name being transferred in Greece to the oak. East of
this line, which would make the Vistula River the
boundary, we find the East Indo-European wing, to
which the Letto-Lithuanians (Baits), the Slavs, and
the Indo-Iranians belong. The relationship of the
languages makes this original grouping highly probable.
If we assume that the ethnical expansion will spread
equally in all directions, the centre of expansion must
naturally be the seat of the parent tribe, which, in our
case, will be the region on both banks of the Vistula.
Hirt, accordingly, is inclined to find it very probable
that here the home of the Indo-Europeans is to be
found. But if he takes the Vistula to form a dividing-
Une sufficiently strong to explain the differentiation of
the centum and sate??! languages, he can only refer to a
secondary stage of Indo-European development.

It is true that the wanderings of all Indo-Europeans
would find easy explanation from this centre, near
which we find located the Letto-Lithuanians, who,
according to the present stage of linguistic research,
have preserved the most archaic form of Indo-European
language. If we would, with Schrader and others,
place the original home in the steppes of southern
Russia, the migrations of the Germans and Kelts
would offer almost insurmountable difficulties to an
agreement with historical and philological facts.

The results of linguistic science make it certain that
the country in which the Indo-Europeans originated

ir THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 19

must have been densely wooded. The animals and
plants of the northern forests were familiar to them.
The Russian plain has been bare of forests, probably
from the earliest times, since the squirrel, which is not
found in the forests of the Crimea, has not been able
to cross it. The sea was not unknown to the Indo-
Europeans, and it was a sea in which the eel was living,
— a fish which is found in the Baltic and North seas, but
not in the Black Sea and its tributaries.

A very important argument for the lowlands of the
Volga is based on the assumption that the parent Indo-
European nation was nomadic ; there would be no
room for nomads in any other part of Europe. But
Hirt offers a convincing mass of evidence that they were
not hunters, nor fishermen, nor nomads, but had reached
the agricultural stage of economical development before
they separated. Agriculture does not need so much
room, yet more arable land can easily be had by clear-
ing ; but, in general, the peasant will protect the forest,
which furnishes material for tools and fire. Another
fact that speaks against the nomadic life has already
been pointed out by V. Hehn, who shows that the horse,
although known to the Indo-Europeans, was not used
for riding or driving.

The investigations of Kossinna and Much introduce
archaeological arguments into the problem. They both
come, although by different ways, to about the same
conclusions. They confine the territory in question to
the lands surrounding the western part of the Baltic
Sea, including Jutland, so that the original home of the
Indo-Europeans and the Germanic nations would be
identical. Neither Much nor Kossinna thinks his
results conclusive. But what Kossinna says, especially
of the spreading of certain northern types of pottery

20 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

(the spheric amphora, the Bernburg type), agrees very
well with the conclusions of the linguists as to the
grouping and migrations of the branches. The period
in which the most important separations took part is,
in accordance with the results of comparative phi-
lology, the later neolithic age and the time of transition
into the bronze age. He assumes an early separation
of the eastern group, which, during the stone age, took
its abode for a time in southern Russia, where the
Slavs and the Asiatic branches developed. The ar-
chaeological conditions warrant the assumption of two
currents of migration southwards along the valleys of
the Elbe and the Oder.

A remarkable part is played by the curious stone
settings which, under the names of "Walls of Troy,"
''Babylons," ''Cromlechs," "Menhir, "Wallburgen,"
et al., are spread over northern Europe and correspond
to similar constructions, especially to the labyrinthic,
concentric buildings, in Mediterranean and, Asiatic
countries. The best known is Stonehenge ; but a most
interesting illustration is offered by a stone setting near
the city of Wisby, on the island of Gotland in the
Baltic Sea, which looks exactly like the original of the
representation of the Cretan labyrinth on the old coins
of Knossos. These stone settings are arranged to
represent the course of the sun. But, whether we find
them on the islands or in countries north and south of
the Mediterranean Sea or on the shores of the North
Atlantic and Arctic oceans, the sun's course as indi-
cated by the stones could never have been taken from
observations made in the Mediterranean countries, but
they correspond to the northern latitudes, and do not
admit of any other conclusion than that of a northern
origin for the builders.

II THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 21

We have seen that the physical type, which we may
well call the Indo-European, is found almost pure in
southern Scandinavia, Denmark, and northern Ger-
many. There is no reason why the results of philology
and archaeology should not warrant us in connect-
ing the people of this type with the Indo-European
language. They have occupied this territory, as an-
thropologists concede, at least as far back as the earliest
period for which the beginning of the branching-off may
be assumed, and the archaeological finds show that no
break in their culture-development has occurred, no
matter how strongly southern influences have been at
work; while immigration of another anthropological
type is undoubted, still the new-comers have been con-
fined to a very narrow strip at the shores of the sea, and
have not produced any considerable changes. There
may be anthropological reasons for ridiculing the efforts
to combine the results of anthropology with those of
philology and archaeology, but so far it is hard for a
non-anthropologist to see them. Ripley, for one, fails
to make true his promise to show that "all attempts
to correlate linguistic data with those derived from the
study of physical characteristics are not only illogical
and unscientific, but they are at the same time impos-
sible and absurd." He may possess sufficient data to
warrant this rather strongly worded statement, but they
ought to be given in such a way that a person of average
intelligence and education, trained in scientific thinking,
though not particularly in anthropology, might see them.

The question how these people reached these localities
is not of importance for our problem. But to suppose
that man, at the end of the glacial period, may have
followed the reindeer, does not seem — again in the
modest opinion of the layman ready to learn better —

22 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

SO absurd, either, as he certainly would have preferred
to follow his usual mode of hfe, rather than become
accustomed to a new environment. And against the
contention that the reindeer did not live in connection
with man in the part of Europe in question, there are
other authorities that tell us of finds of tools made of
reindeer-horn, and of bones of men and reindeer found
in the same tombs.

The geographical conditions favored the undisturbed
development of the blond, tall, long-headed northerners
in an environment adapted to the breeding of a sturdy,
intelligent race. The impenetrable forests and swampy
river-valleys prevented immigration from the conti-
nental side. Though there was easier access by sea,
no large masses could arrive by that way in primitive
times. But what kept off the outsider was not suffi-
cient to hold back the surplus when over-population
set in. Again and again a part of the population left
the crowded country, wandering along the river- valleys
and the lowlands to east and west. We see this process
still going on in historic times. The Germanic tribes,
without exception, have their tradition that points to
the north, to Scandinavia, as their home. We have no
right to belittle the value of this testimony. Historical
criticism has not shaken it. The length of time must
not necessarily have extinguished all memory of a past
that is relatively not so very distant. It is said that
lately a caldron has been found in Mecklenburg that
had been buried for two thousand years in a place
which popular tradition had always designated as a
spot where a treasure was hidden. Less time may
have elapsed between the first wTitten reports of the
Goths, the Langobards, etc., and the epoch when their
ancestors left their seats on the Baltic Sea.

II THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 23

We have seen that Hirt came to the conclusion that
the home of the Indo-Em'opeans would be found m a
rather vast territory, with the mouth of the Vistula as a
centre of radiation, and that the archaic language of
the Lithuanians points to their country as the probable
region of origin. \Miile he is very positive in excluding
Asia and southern Russia, he is not very explicit in
stating his reasons against the valley of the middle
Danube. Still, even Hirt feels attracted to the Scan-
dinavian theory. He himself points out that the fact
that Lithuanian is the most archaic, the least changed,
of Indo-European languages, affords no conclusive
proof that the Lithuanians must hve nearest to the place
of origin. It may be supposed that the Lithuanians
inmiigrated into sparsely settled districts, and that
therefore their language was not influenced by foreign
elements.

"We do not need, therefore," he says, ''to look for
the original home of the Indo-Germans just in Lith-
uania. If, however, we look for it in the ancient
Germanic territory, the fact should not be overlooked,
that the Germanic languages underwent marked changes
at a rather early period; and this is the only reason
which keeps me from identifying most decisively the
original home of the Indo-Germans with that of the
Germanic nations."

Hirt refers, of course, to the change of accent and
to the so-called Lautversckiebung, which gives to the
Germanic languages their distinctive character. He
does not find any other explanation for such decided
changes in language than the influence of foreign ethni-
cal elements, a strong admixture of people of a foreign
language. If there were another race living in the
eastern Baltic province, circumscribed sufficiently above,

24 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

before the immigration of the ancestors of the present
inhabitants, it must have been at a period much earUer
than the epoch in which the Indo-European origins
must be placed. The immigration of the Alpine type,
traces of which are found along the shores of the North
Sea, may, indeed, have had some influence. Though it
appears to have been rather too limited to explain
such strong effects, this invasion seems to have occurred
about the time of the change from stone to bronze
implements, and of the introduction of cremation for
burial, which means a great revolution in rehgious
ideas, — indeed, a combination of events which may
have convulsed the psychic hfe of the people.

This may have had some influence on language.
However, the investigations of Wundt permit us to
assume other influences on the change of language than
that of mixture with other nations and races. Natural
environment and cultural development play, according
to his view, an equally important part. As to the
change of accent and the permutation of consonants
of the Germanic languages, he points out that both
processes extended over an exceedingly long period,
and still continued after the division of the nations, —
in the Old High German period, for instance. He
compares the first, the common Germanic Lautver-
schiebung, with the second, the High German, which
took place in the light of historic times. He cannot
find that any mixture of race will account for these
phenomena. "The processes in both," he says, ''are
too much alike, two identical in general tendencies,
even in comparison with the analogous phenomena in
other branches of the Indo-Germanic family of lan-
guages. Furthermore, especially does the second per-
mutation show only too plainly its spontaneous origin

11 THEORY OF INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 25

in its historical expansion. Therefore, although lan-
guage-mixtures may have had their influence on other
sides of phonetic development — on vocalism, modu-
lation, accent, rhythm, — those changes of the con-
sonants will probably have proceeded from inner
conditions, originating in the language community
itself."

The acceptance of this theory will remove the stum-
bling-block which prevented the great linguist from
accepting the Scandinavian theory of Indo-European
origins.

I have purposely omitted the argument based on the
construction of an Indo-Germanic psychical type. It
is here that the fancies of the ''anthropological his-
torians," like Woltmann, make one extremely cautious.
Conceded that there be such a type, it may find its
explanation in the northern origin, but it could hardly
be used as an argument to establish it.

The conclusions reached at the present stage of the
problem, then, appear to be these, — that serious
difficulties are in the way of the localization of the Indo-
European parent tribe, or nation, or group, either in
Asia, or in any part of Europe ouside of the Baltic
plain, Jutland, and Scandinavia; that philological
and archaeological considerations make it highly im-
probable that the people whose ancestors occupied the
western Baltic shores and their Hinterland for a period
reaching farther back than the formation of the Indo-
European languages, and who have preserved the
physical type that history and tradition point out as the
original Indo-European, are the descendants of the
stock from which the carriers of the Indo-European
languages branched off to be physically absorbed by
other races, while their languages survived; and that

26 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, ii

it is almost certain that southern Scandinavia, Jutland,
and the lands between the lower Elbe and Oder con-
tain the cradle of the Indo-European family of lan-
guages.

We can accept for this hj^Dothesis the concluding
words of Hirt : "In accepting the northern origin of
the Indo-Germans, we find the best analogies as to their
expansion. Their migrations are, in their chief traits
and in principle, not different from those of the Celts,
the Germanic nations, and the Slavs.

"Without having the support of historical testimony,
we may be allowed to distinguish between two forms of
expansion, — the gradual extension at the boundaries
and the expansion by conquering expeditions. In the
fourth century B.C. the Indo-Germanic language had
undoubtedly spread over the whole of northern Europe,
from central and eastern France to central Russia;
while advanced columns had reached, and in part Indo-
germanized, the tliree southern peninsulas. At all
events, the expansion is not uninterrupted. Separated
from the great stock, the Asiatic branch is located in
Iran and India."

This great gap between the Asiatic and the European
members of the Indo-European family may perhaps
find an explanation in the movements of the so-called
"Alpine" race, which, starting from Asia, has crossed
the paths of Indo-European w^anderings.

CHAPTER III

GERMANIC ORIGINS

Whether or not the controversy regarding the cradle
of the Indo-European family will ever leave the realm
of hypothesis is, of course, hard to tell. But, whether
or not we accept the Scandinavian theory, as explained
in the previous chapter, there can be no doubt that the
ancestors of the Germanic peoples Uved apart from all
the other Indo-Europeans in the regions described, and,
if not one united nation, they were yet a sharply de-
fined, compact entity with distinct boundaries. The
fact that there are some words in the Germanic lan-
guages found only in the Finnish points to a region
where the Finns were the only neighbors of the Germans.
This condition is met with on the Scandinavian penin-
sula, where the Germans were surrounded on three
sides by water, and on the fourth, their only land boun-
dary, by the Finns, who have occupied the neck con-
necting the peninsula with the continent from time
immemorial. This hypothesis, of course, needs the
support of other facts, which, indeed, are not lacking.
The archseologists, as we have seen, argue from the
findings in tombs that the people who hved in southern
Scandinavia a thousand or even three thousand years
before the Christian era were ethnologically of exactly
the same type as the people li\dng there to-day, and
that what is found of the handiwork of these ancient
people hkewise shows the beginning of what developed

28 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

later into a typical Germanic style. Furthermore, the
weight of evidence, while not affording conclusive proof,
makes it very probable that the Scandinavian penin-
sula was for a long time the home of our ancestors,
who there developed their own characteristic civiliza-
tion and racial pecuharities. The genealogical legends
of almost all German tribes mention the North, the
"Island of Scadia," more or less definitely as their
original home.

Thus we may accept it as a fact that in prehistoric
times the Germanic tribes occupied the southern part
of Scandinavia and the adjacent islands, the Danish
peninsula and the neighboring shores of the North and
the Baltic seas. Here they were found by the first
representative of Mediterranean civilization to men-
tion them, one Pytheas of Marseilles, a contemporary of
Alexander the Great, who reports of the amber fisheries
on the west coast of Jutland. But long before that
time they must have come in contact with Mediter-
ranean peoples. Three commercial roads, from the
Black Sea, from upper Italy, and from the mouth of the
Rhone, respectively, led to the shores of the northern
seas, where was to be found the much-coveted amber.
The tombs of Mykene and Crete, which antedate the
poems of Homer, contain ornaments of amber, and
northern sepulchres have revealed specimens of Egj^p-
tian art of equal age.

We learn from the archaeological finds that the
Germans passed through different stages of the stone
age, and we distinguish a number of epochs in the
bronze age. The grains of different cereals have been
found, and bear witness to the practice of agriculture, as
is verified by the rude rock carvings of men ploughing.
The industrial arts had advanced considerably. The

ni GERMANIC ORIGINS 29

stone implements of the neolithic age already show a
wonderful workmanship, that neatness proper only to
the craftsman who loves his work for its own sake.
Later the working of metal was brought to a high degree
of perfection ; nowhere have such beautiful bronzes been
found, and the art of making arms and metal ornaments
stood in high esteem until far into the times of docu-
mentary history. All their art has a character pecul-
iar to itself, which has been the very life of German
art throughout history; the lines, angles, curves, often
arranged in a manner not found in the products of
other people, — the beginnings of an ornamentation
which continued and was perfected in historic times.

Perhaps the most curious objects found are musical
instruments in the shape of horns which may be com-
pared to trombones. They are S-shaped, from four
to six feet long, made of bronze, and some of them are
beautifully decorated in the style which we may safely
call Germanic. Modern Danish scholars have named
them ''lurer," from " ludhr," the Old Norse word for
alphorn. The so-called Kiwik Monument, near Malby
on the island of Schonen, a relief cut in the rock esti-
mated to date from about the year 1000 B.C., shows two
men playing these instruments while in attendance at
a sacrifice. These ''lurer" have always been found in
pairs, one in perfect tune with the other. They com-
prise the diatonic scale and major triad, altogether
twenty-two notes, and indicate a relatively high stand-
ard of musical skill, "a, music of a warlike, solemn,
sustained, powerful, and noble character, not noisy
nor brutally piercing." These instruments were of
such character as with absolute necessity to evolve
in time polyphonic music. I cannot help finding some
significance in these early witnesses of Germanic musical

30 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

art, which seem to show that the very roots of modern
music, which sprang up in the Middle Ages, go back to
the earUest origins of our race. The National Museum
at Copenhagen possesses no less than twenty-three of
these ancient ''lurer, " of which fourteen are perfect.
Up to 1910, concerts were given with great success on
these instruments, some of which have the venerable
age of 3000 years. A report lying before me says some
of the pieces played were especially composed for the
''lurer, " and that the latter were distinguished by their
compass and softness of tone.

These interesting facts, which we owe to archaeology,
may be supplemented by the results of philological
research. Of literature we can hardly speak at a time
when writing was an unknown art ; for even if the runes
are, as some bold writers claim, of Germanic origin and
rather the source than the outcome of Mediterranean
alphabets, there is no evidence that they were ever used
for other than ceremonial and oracular purposes, or as
dedicatory inscriptions on some weapon, ornament,
or monument. Almost all inscriptions are, moreover,
of a post-Roman period. Still comparative science
teaches us that the Germans had some kind of songs.
They show that unity of poetry, music, and dance, of
symbol, melody, and rhythm which we find among all
primitive peoples. They were a part of their cult, and
accompanied all their religious acts. Even the songs
that were sung when they marched into battle and
when they returned as conquerors had this character,
for war, with the Germans, was an act of eminently
religious significance. All these songs were of an
epic character, and even their erotic poems must not
be supposed to have contained a lyrical expression of
emotion. A German scholar tells us that for the period

Ill GERMANIC ORIGINS 31

about the year 3000 B.C., besides this choric poetry of
religious hymns, of songs of war and victory, marriage
and mourning, they had some kind of riddles, referring
to the mysteries of their cult, as well as spells and
proverbs, all in poetical form. Their epic songs ex-
plained to the uninitiated the meaning of the ritual
ceremonies and sacrifices, and consisted of verses and
interpolated prose sentences. Many of the proverbs
so familiar to the German to-day, and not a few riddles,
bear marks of an origin dating from long before the
dawn of history. One of the oldest and most frequently
quoted is : "Sat a bird featherless — on a tree leafless
— came a maiden mouthless — caught it footless — ate
it armless." In addition to the rhythm necessitated
by the dancing step, poetic diction was bound by the
aUiteration, i.e., the putting of words beginning with
the same sounds {e.g., kith and kin) in the places accen-
tuated by the rhythm.

This aUiteration leads us to a quahty of the Germanic y
languages which, more than any archaeological dis-
coveries, or any number of conclusions of comparative
science, reveals the keynote of the Germanic character.
\Miile many quahties of our forefathers, pointed to
with pride and satisfaction by their descendants, are
common to a great many peoples in a corresponding
stage of civilization, there is one peculiarity common to
the Germanic languages which is as significant as it is
exceptional. It is this : WTiile all other Indo-European
languages allow a wide liberty in placing the accent,
and make external considerations, such as the quantity
of the syllables and euphony, of deciding influence,
the Germanic tribes show a remarkable and intentional
transition to an internal principle of accentuation, a
tendency to revert towards the beginning of the word.

32 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

As a result, of all related peoples the Germanic alone
puts the accent on the root syllable of the word, that
is, on that part that gives it its meaning. There is
hardly an ethnological fact extant which gives so much
food for thought as this. ^Tiat led these people to give
up a habit which must have been so old that it had
become instinctive, and to evolve out of their own minds
a principle which indicates a power of discrimination far
in advance of anything we are used to attribute to the
lower stages of civiUzation ? Circumstances of which
we are not now aware must have compelled them to dis-
tinguish the inner essence of things from their external
form, and must have taught them to appreciate the
former as of higher, indeed, as of sole importance. It
is this accentuation of the real substance of things, the
ever powerful desire to discover this real substance, and
the ever present impulse to give expression to this inner
reahty which has become the controlling trait of the
Germanic soul. Hence the conviction, gained by count-
less unfruitful efforts, that reason alone will never get
at the true foundation of things; hence the thorough-
ness of German science; hence a great many of the
qualities that explain Germanic successes and Germanic
failures; hence, perhaps, a certain stubbornness and
obstinacy, the un\\dlUngness to give up a conviction once
formed ; hence the tendency to mysticism ; hence that
continuous struggle which marks the history of German
art, — the struggle to give to the contents powerful and
adequate expression, and to satisfy at the same time the
requirements of aesthetic beauty and elegance, a struggle
in which the \dctory is always on the side of truth,
though it be homely, over beautj^ of form whenever it
appears deceitful; hence the part played by music in
German life as the only expression of those imponder-

Ill GERMANIC ORIGINS 33

able vibrations of the soul for which language seems to
have no words; hence the faith of the German in his
mission among the nations as a bringer of truth, as the
recognizer of the real value of things as against the hol-
low shell of beautiful form, as the doer of right deeds
for their own sake and not for any reward beyond the
natural outcome of the deed itself.

This is not the only revelation of Germanic character
which the language will so generously grant for the mere
asking, but this one trait is so overpowering, as it
flashes upon us from the first dawn of history, that I
shall not run the risk of detracting from its impressive-
ness at present by observations for which many an
opportunity may be offered in the pursuit of our
subject.

CHAPTER IV

THE GERMANS IN THEIR FIRST CONTACT WITH GR^CO-
ROMAN CIVILIZATION

328 B.c -ca. 400 a.d.

Their Country and Mode of Life

While the descriptions in the last chapter were
mostly based upon hypothesis, however strongly sup-
ported by archaeological and other evidence, we now
enter upon the stage of documentary history. We
find our Germanic ancestors, partly at least, occupying
the same country as their present descendants, and we
find them for the first time in direct contact with, and
soon under the influence of, Mediterranean civilization,
as it had taken final shape in the universal empire of
the Romans.

There are many Germans at present who seem to
doubt whether this influence has been altogether a
blessing; they appear to think that much better
results might have been reached, if the Germanic peoples
had been allowed to develop their own civilization,
according to their character, as manifested in the first
expressions of their mental hfe. However this may be,
one thing is certain, that, until far into mediaeval
times Roman influence was very slight, either because
German individuahty was too strong, or because Ger-

CHAP. IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 35

man intelligence was not strong enough to assimilate
a civilization so far above them.

At the time when the first information concerning
the Germans was brought to the ancient world by
Pytheas of ^Massilia, toward the end of the fourth
century B.C., we find the Germanic tribes in Scandi-
navia .and on the Danish peninsula. Westward of the
base of the peninsula they did not extend very far;
how far they reached toward the east we are not able
to say. We know only that on the south and west they
were surrounded by Kelts, and we must imagine the
time between the fourth century and the beginning of
the Christian era as a period of continuous expansion
of the Germanic tribes at the expense of the Kelts.

At the time of Caesar, who is the next to give fairly
reliable reports, we find the Germans abeady advanced
to the banks of the Rhine. By that time the Keltic
states had been conquered and destroyed, leaving their
traces in the names of localities and rivers, and in rehcs
of their civilization, which we must suppose to have
been somewhat above that of the Germans. Indeed,
so long were these border wars waged between Kelts
and Germans that the name of the most powerful tribe
among the Kelts, "Volcse," gave rise to the word
''Welsh" in its various dialectical forms, which, wher-
ever it occurs in a Germanic language, has primarily
the meaning of ''alien."

In the meantime, the Germans had become somewhat
differentiated; the dialects, which had probably orig-
inated when they lived closer together, had become
more distinct, and, at the time of which we speak, the
three divisions by which scholars distinguish the Ger-
manic nations to the present day were already in exist-
ence. The Eastern Germans, who appear to have

36 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

been the most gifted, lived on the banks of the Oder
and Vistula ; the best known of their tribes were the
Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, and the
Vandals, who play such an important role in the final
dissolution of the Roman Empire and in the formation
of the new Romance nations.

The Northern Germans, who remained longest in a
more primitive state of civiHzation, and whose languages,
especially that of Iceland, best preserved their old
Germanic character, then occupied the southern part
of Scandinavia, the adjacent islands, and Jutland.
Iceland was settled from Norway at a much later
period.

The Western Germanic tribes, of whom the present
Germans, the Dutch, the Flemings, and the English are
the descendants, and to whom we Americans belong by
language, and, as yet, by culture, occupied the base of
Jutland, and the oblong between the Elbe, the North
Sea, the Rhine, and the ]\Iain River.

It goes without saying that these different tribes were
not all in the same stage of development. There are
indications that the unsettled period of the wanderings
caused a retrogression from the conditions of civiliza-
tion attained in the ancestral home. "WTiile we follow
their development during the first centuries, as it is
shown by the successive accounts of ancient authors, we
shall try rather to give a complete and rounded descrip-
tion of their common civilization than to point out all
tribal and chronological differences. Naturally we
have most information concerning those who came in
direct contact with the Romans, who more or less inter-
mingled with them. These, later on, in appearance and
character, seem almost a different race from their
brothers in the North, who appear to have preserved the

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 37

racial peculiarities to a much greater extent. We may-
say in general, as Victor Hehn has pointed out, that the
Catholic population of Germany at present occupies
those parts that in heathen times had been most exposed
to Roman influence.

The character of the country inhabited by these peo-
ple was vastly different from that of the present day. It
was indeed so dismal that we can understand how
Tacitus concluded that the Germans must be autoch-
thonous, since no people by their own free choice would
have selected such a country for their abode. Impene-
trable primeval forests alternated with impassable
swamps; a long and hard winter, when the sun was
able to penetrate the fog only a few hours at best,
made the inhabitants almost forget the short summer.
Even toward the south the climate was not much more
propitious, as the increased elevation of the country
prevented the milder conditions which lower latitudes
might have brought about. The influence which this
climate must have had on the inhabitants can easily
be imagined. Even in those ancient times, however, we
know the German loved the soil which he had con-
quered in hard fight with the powers of nature, to
raise his scant grains, or to maintain space for his cattle
to roam in. Even to have a place to build his hut and
dry his nets out of the reach of the spring tides, which
tore wide stretches from the northern coasts, he was
obliged to heap up mounds in the midst of marshes.

To the Roman observer, the people who inhabited
this country seemed remarkably alike in appearance ;
yet we must not put too much stress on this fact, and
should remember how, to our own eyes, there seems to
be very little individuality at first sight among the
members of a foreign race, say the Chinese or Japanese.

38 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The purity of the race may have been already greatly
impau-ed by intermixture, especially with the Kelts,
since the description of the physical appearance of the
latter tallies almost exactly with that of the Germans.
Even less literally must be taken the Roman observa-
tion as to the gigantic size of the Germans ; at the present
time the southern races are of smaller stature than the
northern, and fear in all ages is apt to beget exaggera-
tion. Some bodies of exceptionally large size, as is
the case to-day, have been found in tombs ; but on the
average there does not appear to be any considerable
difference as compared with the present type of Scan-
dinavians or Germans. As to later times, it can
be stated that the sword-hilts and the armor of the
mediaeval knights would to-day fit only very small
men.

All accounts agree that the Germans were a fair
people, with reddish-blond hair and powerful, well-
knit figures. They belonged to the long-skulled, the
dolichocephalic, race. They must have been decidedly
good-looking ; on this all authors agree, and it is
confirmed bj' the plastic representations of Germanic
warriors and prisoners which have been preserved on
Roman monuments. Ausonius, the Roman poet, has
left us the description of a fourth-century German girl,
Bissula, who would appear attractive to a young man
of our times: ''Bissula, born and brought up on the
Rhine, the wintry river, German her features, golden her
hair, her ej'es of blue color ; Bissula, inimitable in wax
or by the brush of the painter ; adorned by nature with
charms which defy all artificial tricks. Well may other
maidens use powder or rouge, her face does not owe its
rosiness to the deftness of her fingers. Painter, mix
the whiteness of the lilies with the purple of the roses :

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 39

thus you will get the proper colors for Bissula's por-
trait." The Germans themselves seem to have been
vain enough of their personal appearance. They used
artificial dyes to preserve the color of their hair, and
carried on their belts, in addition to a sword, a leather
case for comb and bottle of hair-oil, probably in the
form of liquid butter.

Men and women were clothed almost alike. They
wore a tight-fitting under garment, and, especially in
winter, an outer garment of coarse wool or skins, often
adorned with fine furs. The monuments show that both
men and women wore leather breeches ; a fully dressed
body found in the marshes of Schleswig has the hose
attached to the breeches. Indeed, the same costume
is worn to-day in the Highlands of Bavaria, by farm
laborers of both sexes. For the protection of the feet
shoes made of one piece of leather were fastened with
a string around the ankles. This ''Bundschuh,"
which was to become of special significance as an emblem
in the Peasants' Wars of later times, goes back to the
primitive times of Scandinavian ancestry. The neck
and part of the chest were bare. The women also some-
times wore linen garments. Both men and women
liked to wear ornaments, — rings, brooches, clasps, and
the like.

There was also in use a cloak called ''chozzo" (Engl.
coat), or ''kamitzo" (Germ. Hemd), consisting of an
oblong or oval piece of cloth fastened at the shoulder
with a thorn or metal pin. This was often the only
garment worn by the men when they lounged about the
house, and for its comfort has been compared to the
''Schlafrock" (dressing-gown) of the German scholar.
With men, of course, weapons were an essential part
of the apparel.

40 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Even after the use of metal weapons was known, we
find remnants of a cruder period reaching far into the
Middle Ages. In the time of the Germans we must
suppose that the majority of the Romans were armed
with wooden spears, the points of which were hardened
by charring. How long the use of stone arms lasted
may be seen by the fact that in the battle of Hastings
many of the English still used stone axes and knives.
The characteristic weapon of the Germans was the
framea, a short javelin, fit both for throwing and for
hand-to-hand fighting. It is said that they could be
thrown a distance of one hundred and fiftj^ paces. The
long lance, sometimes eighteen feet in length, was not
frequent. Some tribes used, for hurling, a hatchet of
peculiar shape, called the francisca, with which the name
of the Franks has been connected. In addition we find
that a sling was used which could throw to a distance of
400 paces, also bows and arrows which carried 250
paces. The arrow played an important part as a
symbol. Thrown across the border of a tribe, or the
fence of a farm, it indicated a challenge or declaration
of war ; or, when sent from house to house, it summoned
the freemen to arms against an invader. Only later
do we find the short sword, about one to one and one-
half feet in length, originally made of stone, and called
sahs, from which the Saxons derived their name. The
long sword, swerd, or heru, gave their names to the
Swerdiones and the Cherusks. The only defensive
weapon was the shield, a frame of wicker work covered
with leather, or of boards made from the linden-tree.
With some tribes these were of immense size, sometinies
as high as six feet ; according to the tribe to which the
warrior belonged, they were oblong or oval and painted
in different colors, perhaps already in those times bear-

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 41

ing emblems in the mamier of the coat-of-arms of later
nobility. The shield was the most important part of
the man's armament ; its loss m battle brought ever-
lasting disgrace, and many a man chose suicide rather
than return to his people without this sign of manhood.
The shield was given to the boy when he was received
into citizenship, and was not to leave him during his
lifetime. On their shields they swam across the rapid
rivers of their country, and on them they shd with the
rapidity of an avalanche down the icy sides of the Alps
into the sunny fields of Italy. They were not given
to wearing armor; on the contrary, they went into
battle the upper part of their bodies perfectly naked,
then- arms and heads bare. Sometimes we find them
wearing the skins of wild beasts, apparently more to
frighten their enemies than to protect themselves.

The houses of the Germans were of the most simple
kind. Poles were driven perpendicularly into the
ground, and the spaces between filled in with wicker
work. There was at first only one window, called the
windouge, "wind-eye, "and placed above the door to give
the smoke a chance to escape. Some monuments show
houses of cylindrical form. The dwelhngs were in part,
as in prehistoric times, dugouts covered by a roof.
They consisted of one room only, part of which was
sometimes elevated for the use of the family, as the
domestic animals usually shared the same roof. They
were acquainted with the use of tables and stools, and had
benches running along the walls ; but they had no dishes,
the food being placed directly upon the table. The
chiefs probably had larger halls, but we must not
imagine for the earlier times banquet halls of the splen-
dor of Heorot, the hart's hall, described in " Beowulf."
In these halls each guest had his own table, and at the

42 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

banquet the wife of the host went about fiUing the drink-
ing-horns and cups with mead or beer.

Their houses were not huddled close together as in a
modern village, but even those of one community were
scattered. In those parts of the country where Keltic
tradition survived, the single farm, surrounded by un-
cultivated tracts, was the rule. The laying out of the
village varied with different tribes; in some the farm-
houses were arranged in a cluster, in others in rows, and
sometimes without any system at all.

All the fields of the community were cultivated in
common, the shares of each member being scattered
so that every one should have the same advantages
and disadvantages of soil and sun. Outside of the house
cavities, such as are still found in some parts of Germany,
dug in the ground and covered with leaves and dung,
served as store-rooms and as work-rooms for the women
in winter.

Pasture grounds and woods called the allmende, or
commons, were the common property of the com-
munity, a usage which has in some instances come down
to our own times. The great allmende of Schwyz,
Switzerland, for example, comprises an area of about
400 square miles (Engl.). The crops included millet
and spelt, or German wheat, a kind of coarse beans, and
especially oats, a grain not cultivated by the Romans.
These grains were ground into flour for bread and
porridge.

From prehistoric times also beer was extensively
brewed, and in some regions was considered the drink of
the nobles. It must not be compared, however, to the
beer and ale of later times, since hops were introduced
into Germany only after the great migrations.

The cattle were small and unsightly, but hardy and

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 43

rich in milk. Sour milk formed an important part of
the diet of the people. Caesar's statement that they
knew how to make cheese is an error ; butter they used
only in hquid form.

It seems that cattle were kept for dairy purposes only,
and that their meat was not eaten. Sheep were kept for
their wool. Hogs were common, and were allowed to
find their fill in the oak forests. We read of fowls,
such as chickens, geese, and ducks, but we are not
certain whether the last were domesticated. The use
of the horse for riding and carting was by no means
unknown, but it was mostly kept for its meat ; horse-
flesh, next to pork, was the principal animal food, espe-
cially at ritual and sacrificial feasts. For this reason,
the Christian Church made inexorable war upon the
habit of eating horse-flesh, until it succeeded in abolish-
ing the practice entirely. The wild native horse of
northern Europe continued a favorite object of the
chase even as late as the sixteenth century.

Of much more importance than to-day were bees,
wild and domesticated ; honey took the place of sugar,
and was also used in the manufacture of mead, the
stimulating drink of the poorer people. A beehive,
found in the forest, and properly marked by the finder,
became a piece of personal property, a practice still
survi\dng in some parts of New England.

The domestic work, which included of course all
handicrafts of the time, was performed by the women
and slaves ; they not only cooked, sewed, and spun, but
also wove the cloth and dyed it purple with the juice of
huckleberries, or green and yellow with broom. The
garments worn on solemn occasions they ornamented
with embroidery, which shows distinctly the movement
and interlacings characteristic of Germanic art. The

44 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

beating of flax and the pulling of wool was also part of
their work ; in short, the whole preparation of garments
and the material for them. We read that the sheep
were not shorn, but the wool pulled out, a custom which
was not so cruel as it sounds, since this operation took
place when the wool was falling of its own accord.

To the slaves was left all the work in the field. Aside
from war and the chase, the freeman had very little to
do, save one occupation, requiring particular skill,
strength, and inventive genius, that of the smith.
Indeed, the manufacture of arms and the ornaments
they Uked so well was almost the only craft considered
worthy of a freeman. We have seen that the finds
from prehistoric times show considerable progress in
this art ; its invention was attributed to dwarfs and
giants, that is, to divine beings ; this, in fact, is the only
handicraft practised in the imaginary world of Germanic
mythology. Besides metal work, the construction of
houses, and of the two- and four-wheeled wagons,
drawn mostly by oxen, fell also to the men.

The mines in operation at these times were probably
inherited from the Kelts, and were worked by the en-
slaved descendants of that race. Salt was indispens-
able, and salt works play an important part in early
German history. Victor Hehn has shown that all
the names of places ending in hall, including Halle,
indicate the existence of salt works in Keltic times.
Several wars have been waged between neighboring
tribes solely for the possession of such salt works. The
salt was obtained by pouring the brine over glowing
charcoal. Hence we read of the impurity and black
appearance of the salt, which really consisted of brine-
soaked ashes.

A great many words relating to the sea, to sailing and

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 45

fishing, are common to all Germanic languages, and indi-
cate great familiarity with maritime affairs, such as
was bound to follow from the character of the country.
In their southward wanderings many of the Germanic
tribes removed farther and farther from the ocean, but
navigable rivers prevented them from forgetting entirely
the craft of the sailor and fisherman ; and to-day life
on the ocean exercises an ever renewed fascination upon
the inland-born German. The first form of their boat
was the hollo wed-out tree, the Einhaum, several of
which have been found in a well-preserved state, and
are on exhibition in various museums. Large ships,
similar to the well-known Mking ship of a later period,
of a t}T3e adapted to the stormy seas of the North,
were in use as early as prehistoric times.

There was much leisure left to the Germanic freeman ;
some of it he may have spent in training in the use of
weapons the 3'oung boys, who grew up ''naked and
squalid, with the sons of the slaves and among the
cattle" ; a man known for his skill in this kind of work
might have been employed to train the sons of ethehngs.
Hunting, that excellent form of training for primitive
warfare, was, of course, a favorite pastime ; throughout
the ages a love of outdoor life, and especially of the
forest, has been characteristic of the German. Even
before the migrations we hear of hunting with the falcon,
which was later to form such an essential feature in the
picture of chivalric life.

But for days, no doubt, the free German would
lounge on the bear-skins in front of his hearth fire, doing
nothing but sleep and "think," thus, perhaps, acquir-
ing the habit of philosophizing attributed to modern
Germans. This lazy habit is one of the queer contrasts
in the old Germanic character; the same man would

46 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

in a moment be aroused to the greatest energy and
persistence when war or some other cause which he
deemed worthy of his interest stirred him up from his
rest. We can, it is true, observe the same trait among
many savage tribes ; but it must not be forgotten that
the long and violent winters must have confined the
German of those times to his hut for weeks. Here we
find the source of his intense individualism. He was
compelled to fall back on himself, and, if there was an
active mind within him, — and his language shows
that there was, — the habit of introspection, the devel-
opment of his inner and emotional life, as well as an
intimate family life, must have followed as natural
consequences. This dreamy meditativeness sometimes
takes the character of a less commendable brooding,
and gives the mind an unpractical eccentricity, as can,
curiously enough, be observed in the difference between
the eccentric German, — das Original, — who wants to
be left alone in his peculiarities, and the Anglo-Saxon
crank, who wants the whole world to join in his eccen-
tricities.

The change of seasons, as well as the constant atten-
tion required by his natural surroundings, may likewise
have been a source of the deep love of nature inborn in
the German, especially of his ineradicable love of the
forest. Emotion seems the controlling element of his
soul. His inner life, in connection with his love of
nature, gives rise to that quality which the Germans
call Gemilt. This self-concentration and emotional
idealism very often lead to serious ethical conflicts,
under which the Germanic soul suffers apparently more
than others. It is the tragic essence of all German
poetry ; and it is not without reason that in the begin-
ning of Eschenbach's "Parzival" we read of the zwivel,

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 47

or doubt. If it be true that the German inclines more
to suicide than others, this inner conflict may furnish
an explanation.

His very seclusion must, on the other hand, have
aroused in him a curiosity to see the world beyond the
narrow limits surrounding him, especially after travellers
from abroad had told him of sunnier climes, where
nature responded more readily to the efforts of man.
Hence his joy in travelling, his Wanderlust, one of the
strongest German impulses, but not strong enough to
overcome what has even been called by the French
la maladie allemande, the German ailment, his home-
sickness, of which history offers many striking examples.
To mention only one, let us remember that the French
found themselves compelled to enact a law placing the
death penalty on the blowing of the alphorn within the
hearing of one of their Swiss regiments, because there
were too many desertions every time this occurred.
Very early did this love for travelling drive the Germans
all over the world, so that Marco Polo, when he came
to China, found even there already a German globe-
trotter. ■^

Apart from hunting, the freeman found his principal
pleasure in the halls of his chief, drinking beer and
listening to the recitation of the great deeds of the
heroes of his tribe, or of adventures in far-away lands.
These narrations were sung in the early times not by
professional singers, but by some neighbor who had
heroic feats of his own to relate, or felt the gift and the
inclination to sing of others. The songs were inter-
rupted by wordy wars between the guests; making
fun of one's neighbors is an old Germanic trait, which
has not" disappeared with time. Often such feasts
! ended in drunken quarrels ; frequently a game of dice

48 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

was played with such passion that a man would not
stop until he had lost all his property, including his
most precious possession, — his liberty. This passion
for gambling seems to have been a conmion vice of
the Indo-European nations, while drinking was, on the
whole, rather more peculiarly Germanic.

The virtue of hospitality was practised to the highest
degree ; a visitor, with his tales of adventure in strange
lands and of recent happenings nearer home, brought a
welcome variety into the monotony of life. He re-
mained with his host so long as there was anything left
in the house to eat and drink, and then both guest and
host sought the hospitality of a neighbor's house.
They did not leave, however, before the guest had
selected from among his host's possessions whatever he
thought most desirable as a present. It seems that this
hospitality was not confined to the individual, but that
whole wandering tribes were received in the most
generous manner, and kept for entire seasons in the
countries through which they passed.

Almost as welcome as the traveller was the salesman.
The Roman merchant early found his way into the
forests and marshes of Germany, bringing the much-
coveted weapons of bronze and iron, and the silver
ornaments, which were preferred to those of gold. The
more the times advanced, and the more the sons of
Germany became acquainted with Roman civilization
in its own home, the more were its products in demand
among their countrymen in the interior of Germany.

All commerce was by barter. Roman coins they
coveted as ornaments or to be laid away in their treas-
ure boxes, together with their swords, chains, rings,
and other precious articles. Cattle formed the measure
of barter in most parts of Germany, and, like the Latin

IV THEIR COUNTRY AND MODE OF LIFE 49

yecunia, the English word jee, Gothic faihs, Old Saxon
and Old High German fihu, preserve traces of the cus-
tom. In spite of the differences in spelling, these words
are identical with the German Vieh, meaning ''cattle."
The articles of export which the Germans had to
offer were cattle, smoked meats, fish, skins, furs, geese
feathers (a pound of which in the Roman market
brought the equivalent of one dollar), oil for dyeing
hair the German shade fashionable with the Roman
ladies, the hair itself, and above all amber, which
they called glaesum, the Germanic word glass. The
routes of the trader were so many connecting hnks with
civilization. Three roads over which the amber trade
has been carried on since time immemorial have al-
ready been mentioned : the first up the Vistula and
down the Dnieper to the Black Sea ; the second up the
Oder, across the Danube, over the Alps to the banks
of the Po and the markets of the Etruscans, which may
account for certain similarities between Etruscan and
German art ; and the third up the Elbe to the Rhine,
up the Rhine to the Rhone, and down that river to the
IMediterranean Sea. The valley of the ^Mosel, however,
was the great highway by which Roman civihzation
entered Germany.

CHAPTER V

THE GERMANS IN THEIR FIRST CONTACT WITH GR^CO-
ROMAN CIVILIZATION^

Civil Organization. Individual and Society

In the civil organization of the ancient Germans, it
is interesting to observe the struggle between the cen-
trifugal and centripetal forces which are at the bottom
of all social organization, as of all systems of the uni-
verse. At the time of which we speak, the German
had no conception of the state, as we understand the
word ; he had not yet begun to feel that it was some-
thing objective, something outside of himself. With-
out being really conscious of the natural organism, of
which he was himself a part, he gave up some personal
rights, or rather some of his personal desires, only
just so far as seemed absolutely necessary for his self-
preservation. Thus, while on the one hand we find a
strong feeling of personality, it seems that the individual
had as yet no perfect sense of differentiation from the
rest of his family or clan. There appears to have been
no moral conscience outside of the community itself,
which coincided at first with the old group of related
families, called in German Sippe, Anglo-Saxon syh.
A number of clans, — which word I use to translate
Sippe, — sometimes larger, sometimes smaller, formed
the old German state, as we should call it ; the land,

CHAP. V CIVIL ORGANIZATION 51

or country, folk, or people, as they termed it. Imper-
meable forests, swamps, or high mountains, and, where
these were lacking, broad stretches of land, left waste
or laid waste on purpose, formed the boundaries between
which the peoples led their independent lives.

The only purpose of the state seems to have been pro-
tection or safety, Friede, Anglo-Saxon frith (with which
the words free and friend are connected), now meaning
"peace." We find, indeed, in olden times certain larger
federations for the purposes of cult; tradition kept
alive a consciousness of closer relationship between
larger groups, which found expression in myths relating
to the common descent of all the peoples belonging to
one group from a single hero or god. But beyond a
general unconscious feeling that Germans were distinct
from other peoples, there was no conception of nation-
ality, and each people led its own life within its boun-
daries.

All the land within the boundaries was common
property. It was divided among the clans into dis-
tricts, which in turn were divided into common pasture
and forest, and into fields for cultivation. Each family
had, besides the ground on which its isolated house
stood, its share of the cultivated fields in scattered lots,
as described above. The English word lot reminds us
that the distribution was made by drawing "lots."
A clan comprised perhaps fifty or one hundred fami-
lies ; the term hundred sometimes meant the number of
families belonging to a common mark, and sometimes
the number of warriors sent by a clan to fight side by
side in the common army. The different lots of the
fields and the homestead together formed the hide, or
hufa. The cultivation of the fields was a matter of
common concern.

52 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

There were frequent alterations both within the mark
and within the larger boundaries ; and before the German
migration had reached the Rhine and the Danube,
where the Roman Empire set a hmit to its further
expansion, peoples often changed their country, leav-
ing their old settlements waste and empty. After that
limit was reached, we find the tribes settled in fixed
territories, and only then do we witness the slow begin-
ning of personal ownership of land.

This organization of the community, in which every
peasant was partner in all the land and every citizen
was a peasant, was common to all Germanic peoples,
and traces of it are found not only in all the Germanic
countries of Europe, but also in many American settle-
ments, especially in New England and the Middle
Atlantic States. I cannot better describe the signifi-
cance of this organization, which must not be under-
valued, than by the following passage from Karl
Lamprecht : —

''To-day we find the last traces of the Mark Com-
munity and of the Hundreds in the common administra-
tion of old frontier forests and remote fields. Much
more numerous are the mark communities of the clans,
which comprised several villages each and were pre-
served with their common possessions of forest, water,
and pasture, sometimes even of cultivated fields.
Before the foundation of the present political com-
munity, these local communities flourished everywhere
under Germanic laws. It is an evolution of almost
incredible power of resistance, in view of all the destruc-
tive tendencies of later times; an evolution in which
the necks of the German peasants have become stiffened
and their minds rigid ; but their lives remained honest,
their faithfulness golden, while they stuck to the advan-

V CIVIL ORGANIZATION 53

tages of their Germanic ways in spite of humanism and
Roman law, until the emancipation of the peasant and
the duty of universal military service introduced them
into modern life. Outside of the realms of the most
distinct, the most universal, and the most vivid emo-
tions of human personality, not even the most solid
institution would have made such a duration of primi-
tive beginnings possible.

"But this is the wonderful greatness in these associa-
tions, that they were not founded on any phenomena
of primitive or of any specific culture, but that they
were anchored in the Germanic man, in Germanic
being itself.

" The Germanic community from prehistoric times
down to the present has not been a community of land-
lords, or capitalists, or of classes of a certain education,

- it has been a community of men, of the nation as
such, of men in so far as their hearts were broad and
their minds were great, as their heads were clear and
their arms were strong for attack and defence, in as far
as their good name had proved itself immune against
calumny. If nothing outlasts the change of time, this
type of the Germanic man will last as the eternal foun-
dation of a both original and richer organization of our
public life."

And what the great German historian says about his
own countrymen is just as true of the farmer of Holland,
of Scandinavia, and of both Old and New England.

In speaking of the mark, it must be remembered that
it was not an artificial political subdivision of the state,
as our counties are, but it represented the common
property of the clan, or the hundreds, who had occu-
pied the territory necessary for the support of their
families, when they came first into the region. With

54 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the smaller tribes, there was no further subdivision,
although the larger may have already known the greater
unit of the Gau, Latin pagus, English shire, which plays
a very important part in later times. The growth of
the Germanic state, as it takes place in the open light
of history, is a direct refutation of the social contract
theory; it is the natural expansion of the family.

The population was divided into two classes : the
freemen and the slaves, or serfs. (The name slaves is
identical with that of the Slav race, but came into use
only at a later period.) The slaves were either pris-
oners of war and their children, or' else, though not
often, acquired by purchase. The tribesman who had
lost his hberty in gambling was not kept among his
former companions, but was sold to foreign traders as
soon as possible. The slave was as much a piece of
personal property as a horse or an article of furniture.
Cruel treatment, however, was not in keeping with
Germanic character, although it might sometimes
happen that the master, in quick wrath, would kill
the object of his anger. In the case of the marriage of
a freeman or a freewoman to a slave, the children were
unfree.

The work assigned to the slaves was the heavier
labor in the house and in the fields. In the early
times, when the property was not large, there was not
work enough, nor even room, for a large number of
slaves, and they formed an important article of export.
Caesar tells us that Germanic leaders distinguished
themselves in the Italic slave rebellions long before his
time.

We hear only very little of slaves receiving their
freedom, and the freedman had a very indefinite posi-
tion, not much above that of the slave. Tacitus,

V CIVIL ORGANIZATION 55

however, makes the interesting remark that with those
tribes which had kings the freedmen sometimes rose to
positions above freemen and noblemen, a state of affairs
which foreshadows the times of knights and courtiers.

The freemen in assembly represented the state;
whatever there was of government was executed by
them in common ; they were truly a sovereign people.
Montesquieu and Blackstone declare these assemblies,
called thing, mahal, moot, to be the foundation of the
British constitution.

The place of meeting was a sacred grove under the
shade of old trees, and George Washington, drawing his
sword under the old elm on Cambridge Common, may
well remind us of the ancient Germanic Herzog, elected -
by the moot to lead his people in war. The place itself
commanded peace, and the keeping of order was in
the hands of a priest, one of the ethelings, who opened
the meeting with the words: "Ich gebiete Lust und
verbiete Unlust." (I command good will and forbid
ill will.) But his office was more that of a sergeant-at-
arms than that of chairman. The moot decided ques-
tions of ofTensive warfare and treaties of peace and
alliance ; a war of defence needed no discussion, — an
arrow passed from hand to hand was enough. The
adventurous enterprises of ambitious ethelings, who
often asked for volunteers to accompany them on what
we should call a filibustering expedition or a plunder-
ing raid of bandits, were apparently to a certain extent
also under the control of the moot. The moot elected
the king or duke (Herzog), who was to be the general
in time of war, but who had to give up his office when
peace was restored. It was the moot which received
the youth into citizenship, sometimes when he was
quite young in years; the ability to handle arms,

56 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

proved by the killing of an enemy, admitted him to
manhood, according to a Gothic maxim, found in Cas-
siodorus : "Et qui valet hostem confodere ab omni se
iam debet vitio vindicare." (He who is strong enough
to pierce his enemy ought to be able to resist every vice.)

The legislative tasks of the moot cannot have been
very many in the simple life of earlier times ; the little
regulation that was necessary being provided for by
traditional law, handed down in rigid and symbolic
form, from father to son. Still new conditions some-
times demanded new measures ; Csesar mentions a law of
the Suevi forbidding the importation of wine.

The moot was at the same time the court of justice,
all the freemen forming the jury, another original Ger-
manic root of a modern democratic institution. The
moot was not only competent in all cases referring
to pubhc peace and order ; it was also the regular
tribunal for certain great crimes which demanded
death, not as capital punishment, but as a propitiatory
sacrifice to the gods. This pubHc sacrifice took among
some tribes the most horrible forms.

We have seen the freemen in the moot representing
the sovereignty of the nation in all its functions, exer-
cising all legislative, judicial, and executive power.
As far as political rights are concerned, the freemen
were the only class of citizens ; kings, where they
existed, seem to have had only the powers of an occa-
sional executive officer ; but on this point our knowl-
edge is limited. Not much more is known about the
nobility, the eihelings. There was such a class, who, by
the respect shown to them, not by any legal authority,
exercised a great influence. They prepared the business
brought before the moot, and out of their number was
selected the general in times of war. Whether they

V CIVIL ORGANIZATION 57

were the descendants of prehistoric royal dynasties, or
whether their famihes were distinguished by having
furnished leaders repeatedly successful in war, and hence
wealthy, we do not know. It is, however, not im-
probable that they date back to a time of a more dif-
ferentiated civilization, destroyed by the social up-
heaval incident to the migrations.

A peculiar institution, traces of which are found
also among the Kelts, is the voluntary allegiance of
young warriors to a distinguished etheling, who in
return gave them food, clothes, and shelter, as well as
rewards for deeds of valor and faithfulness in the shape
of weapons, rings, and other valuables. The chief was
called the elder, alderman, senior, his followers thegans
or thanes, in their entirety gasindi or irustio. A great
retinue was an object of rivalry between the ethelings.
The relation between senior and thane may best be
characterized in the words of Tacitus, who says: ''In
peace the retinue brings honor, in war protection. It
is disgraceful for the chief to be outdone in bravery by
the thanes, disgraceful for the retinue not to equal
the bravery of the chief. But it brings reproach and
lifelong infamy to survive the chief after he has fallen
in battle." It is easy to see what an instrument of
power such a retinue must have given to an ambitious
nobleman; but it is remarkable, we do not hear of a
usurpation of government by such help. This old
thaneship, moreover, gives the first evidence of that
faithfulness and loyalty which form a national ideal of
the Germans to-day. Die deutsche Treue, of which we
hear again and again in German songs and poems, is
a quahty which in these olden times is to be under-
stood as voluntary submission of personality by those
naturally proudest of all people to a superior authority ;

58 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

they gave up to this authority not only all family ties,
but even individual judgment of right and wrong. It
was a faithfulness that lasted as long as the chief
kept his side of the contract or remained faithful to
the ideal. No natural tie was ever stronger than this
allegiance. The Roman emperors already recognized
this virtue, and formed their body-guards of German
warriors. How strong a motive it forms already in the
" Nibelungenlied " ! Awe-inspiring was the effect in all
Germany when Rudolf of Schwaben, Gregory's rival
emperor against Henry IV, had his hand cut off and
was slain in battle: "This is the hand with which I
swore fidelit}^ to my lord, King Henry. Your ad\dce
placed me on the royal throne ; now see whither you
have led me." These words, with which he is said to
have reproached the bishops of the papal party, are
inscribed around his picture in the chronicles ; the
hand itself is preserved in the Merseburg cathedral.
We are reminded of the old relation between the hege-
lord and his thanes by the late Emperor William I
and his paladins, especiall}^ Bismarck. That Bismarck
himself cherished this conception is shown by the
words he chose for his epitaph. Field-Marshal Benedek,
the leader of the Austrian army against Prussia in 1866,
suffered, in order to keep his pledge to his emperor, a
life of bitter, unmerited disgrace, from which one
word of his would have freed him. The last English
poem before the Xorman-French invasion is but one
great glorification of this Germanic virtue, of the
fidelity of the Alderman Byrhtnoth and his followers.

This feeling helps to explain the strength of the
monarchy in Germany and in England, which is based
not on servility, no matter how far this vice may have
spread in Germany, but on the "love of the free man,"

V CIVIL ORGANIZATION 59

as the Prussian national hymn calls it. And may we
not ask whether that party loyalty which demands
blind obedience to the political boss, and which makes
faithlessness to the organization a crime, even when the
organization is wrong, may not have its roots in this
oldest form of fealty, Keltic and Germanic ? Indeed,
the association demands the same faithful allegiance
as the chosen lord. The voluntarily assumed obliga-
tion is liable to be stronger than the duty imposed by
the accident of natural bonds.

CHAPTER VI

THE GERMANS IN THEIR FIRST CONTACT WITH GR^CO-
ROMAN CIVILIZATION

III

Law, Poetry, Art, Religion

In discussing the comitatus, or retinue, we have
touched upon conditions which form, so to speak, a
transition from pubhc to private affairs. Although
we cannot speak consistently of private law in the
modern sense of the word, ancient custom had the
force of a rigid, though only orally delivered statute,
clad in symbolic and solemn language. It indicates
throughout a high sense of justice and respect for the
rights of the individual. It shows the German mind
at its best. With the English, Roman law has never
been powerful enough to make much headway against
the Germanic traditions, which have steadilj^ and con-
sistently grown out of the principles laid down in these
ancient customs ; neither have the latter, although for
a time threatened -^ith extirpation by the foreign law,
lost their influence entirely in Germany, and they are
asserting themselves anew in the laws of the new
Empire ; while even with the Romance nations, especially
in France, they have held their own to a considerable
degree.

The most important civil contract is that of mar-
riage, the German word for which, Ehe, in its old form

CHAP. VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 61,

exoa, had the original meaning of custom or law. We
can draw the conclusion from its survival in popular
customs as well as in certain legal provisions that there
was a time when rape was a common form of mar-
riage. Later it took the form of purchase, the bride-
groom paying to the family of his future wife a certain
amount to free her from their guardianship. It is this
transferring of the munt which forms the legal essence
of matrimony. As late as the fourteenth century we
find in the " Limburg Chronicle" the expression ''to
buy a wife" in the sense of 'Ho marry." The price
paid by the bridegroom might be explained as a com-
pensation for the work his future wife used to perform
in her parental home.

The father was the head of the family and the house-
hold. His power was called the munt, guardianship,
and extended over all members of the household and
all property. This independence of authority was in
constant conflict with that of the greater group — the
clan. For a long time the munt carried power of life
and death over both wife and children and over the
serfs. But for a long time also the friends of the wife
kept a certain control over her, which has been ex-
plained as a survival of the old mothers' right, the
existence of which, however, is denied by many authori-
ties. This may explain in part the position of the
German woman as compared with that of the Roman
or Greek matron. At the time of Caesar and Tacitus
monogamy was the rule, polygamy, however, occurring
in exceptional cases. The women were held in great
reverence, but, as will always be the case among
Jiealthy-minded people, they were not therefore ab-
solved from hard work. Chastity was their first virtue,
and a failure in this respect was rare ; adultery on the

62 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

part of the wife gave the husband the right to whip
her, naked, tied to her paramour, through the village,
and afterward to kill her. Toward men the laws were
more lenient. They reverenced in the woman some
mysterious power, attributing to her the gifts of divi-
nation and healing ; on many occasions we hear of
priestesses; virgins of noble birth were preferred as
hostages to youths, as making the treaties more bind-
ing. That in the woman motherhood was principally
honored is shown by the fact that the penalty for the
killing of a woman who looked for^vard to the birth of
a child was higher than for a freeman, in some cases
four times as high.

''A new monogamy," says Lamprecht, "was intro-
duced bj^ them into this (the Roman) world of shallow
conventionalism, a monogamy of strong masculine pre-
rogatives, but at the same time of reverential masculine
submission, a monogamy according to the different
gifts of the mascuhne and feminine nature. It was
not a case of personal merit, it was the product of a
particular stage of development which just then en-
joyed the equal benefit of patriarchal and matriarchal
principles. But this monogamy, entering into the
settled conditions of a highly developed ci\'inzation,
first \dolently, later unobtrusively, although with far
reaching effects, became, under the influence of Chris-
tianity, albeit with many changes, an established insti-
tution and the foundation of modern married life :
out of its existence the forms of mediaeval and modern
love have been developed; on this soil the ideal of
modern family life has grown up, and its fruit is the
ever youthful energy of the present, in spite of a
past of fifteen hundred years of rising cultural develop-
ment."

VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 63

As to the Christian element, to which reference is
here made, it is a question whether it was not due to
Germanic influences that the Church conceded a more
dignified position to women than she was incHned to
do at first. As late as 585 a Church Council of Gallic
bishops at Macon discussed the question as to whether
women were human beings or belonged to the animal
world, and as such, having no immortal souls, were ex-
cluded from the benefits of salvation. The ancient
view of a wife as salable property, on the other hand,
has persisted down to the most recent times ; in 1839
a man in Manchester, England, making use of his legal
right, brought his wife, with a halter about her neck,
to the market for sale ; a similar case was reported
from Halifax about the same time.

Criminal law in our sense of the word was unknown.
As a general principle it may be stated that he who
broke the peace had no more peace himself, that he
was outlawed. It was secrecy that was most abhorred
in all misdeeds. A man might rob, but he must do so
openly. Death sentences were pronounced by the
moot only for crimes which were so unspeakably bad
as to ruin all divine institutions and jeopardize the
existence of the state. Neidingswerke these were
called, cowardice in battle worst of all, and unnatural
crimes, faithlessness, and secrecy in a deed of violence.
Offences in which a person was hurt in body or property
were no affair of the state, but of the clan. Bodily
injury, even death, was still settled by means of the
blood feud, which, although the injury was an affair
of the whole clan, was still not the same as that popu-
larly known as the vendetta. The murderer himself
was not the object of vengeance, but the most promi-
nent member of the clan. He had to be killed before

64 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the victim of the first crime was buried, the kilhng had
to be done in the open, outside of the peace of the
home, and the dead body had to be marked by some
sign. Often the weapon with which the deed was
done was laid across the chest to show that the murder
was one of retribution. But what still more deprived
the blood feud of a part of its barbaric wildness was
the possibility of bloodless expiation. The injured
clan might accept a compensation for the injury, paid
by the whole clan to which the offender belonged.
The amount of the compensation, called weregild, was
fixed in olden times in each case by the court (the
moot) ; later a regular tariff was established which is
preserved in the oldest written laws. This gives valu-
able testimony concerning the scale of personal values
in the social life of the time. The choice between feud
and weregild lay entirely with the injured clan. If
they chose the latter, the matter came before the moot.
In case the truth of the accusation was denied, the court
did not proceed to take evidence as to the commission
of the deed, but as to the trustworthiness of the oppos-
ing parties. Such was the weight of personality in
those early times that he whose oath seemed to be
most reliable and who could bring the best and most
influential freemen to vouch for him was considered to
be in the right. These friends were called "oath-
helpers," and later, when the social differentiation
became more marked, their number was fixed by law
according to the social rank of the testifying party.
The oath was not so much the invocation of the Deity
as a witness to the truth, as in the Christian concep-
tion, as it was the giving of a bond or a pledge for
one's truthfulness, which was forfeited in case of per-
jury.

VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 65

The validity of an oath, however, and the justice of
a sentence might both be challenged {Eidesschelte,
UrteilsscheUe) , and in this case a duel decided who was
in the right. It is erroneous to compare this duel (the
Norse holmgang, as in the North the duel was usually-
fought on an island, holm) w4th the mediaeval ordeal.
The invocation of a just and omniscient God was a
Christian idea, foreign to Germanic mythology. To
understand the underlying thought we must remem-
ber that Gothic maxim quoted above, which says :
''He who is strong enough to pierce his enemy ought
to be able to resist every vice." The braver man is
also the better man, therefore the victor must be in
the right. A similar view underlies the modern duel,
with the difference that the bravery shown b}^ the
mere acceptance of the duel proves the insulted man
to be worthy of the respect of his fellows. This right
of challenge, by the way, was good English law, though
obsolete, as late as 1817, when it was invoked by one
Thornton, who had been sentenced to death by the
King's Bench.

If a man did not pay his weregild, he was outlawed
(peaceless). His house was destroyed, his fields were
taken awaj^, and he himself was left to die. But time
was usually given him to escape to the woods, where
he became a ''wood-runner," and everybody had a right
to kill him at sight. If in self-defence he inflicted
injury on anybody, his guilt was increased ; he was
like a beast of the forest, and like the wolf he was
called ware, the wrangler. At any time, however, by
declaring himself willing to pay the weregild, or if the
clan paid it for him, he might take his old place in the
community.

Laws, as has been said, were not written, but were

66 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

preserved by tradition delivered from mouth to mouth.
Their symbolical language, supplemented by actual
symbols, however, was of a character which did not
admit of the slightest deviation from the original form.
Indeed, although they did not become fixed in writing
until the fifth century and in Latin, their monumental
style makes their reconstruction easy in spite of the
foreign idiom. Since any mistake in the wording of
this unwritten law, any misappliance of symbols or
the most insignificant aberration from old custom,
made the act invalid, its transmitters underwent for
centuries a training in habits of exactness amounting
almost to pedantry.

As an illustration of the solemnity of this symbolic
language of the law, I give here the text of the old
Frisian law of the Three Needs, which states the con-
ditions under which the inheritance of a fatherless
child might be alienated, and at the same time shows
us a touching picture of misery. Nobody can tell how
often it was handed from generation to generation before
it was at last written down in the ninth century : —

''The first need is when the child is taken prisoner
and carried away in fetters, northwards over the sea
or southwards beyond the mountains; the mother
may then part with the child's inheritance, and thus
set her child free and save his life. The second need
is when years of dearth come and famine reigns in the
land, and the child is dying of hunger ; then the mother
may alienate his inheritance and buy him therewith
corn and cattle that his life may be spared ; for hunger
is the sharpest of swords. The third need is, if the
child is naked and houseless and the cloud}^ night and
ice-cold weather peep through the hedges, and all men
hurry to their hearths and homes, and the wild beasts

VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 67

take refuge in the hollow trees and rocky caves; the
innocent child cries and laments its nakedness and
wails because it has no shelter and because its father
who would protect it against the cold winter and
gnawing hunger is lying in the dark depths of the
earth, in the oak cofhn fastened down with four nails,
and hidden away; then the mother may alienate and
sell the child's inheritance." (Mrs. C. Connypeare's
translation.)

This wonderful instrument of expression, which they
knew so well how to wield, their scholars tried to ex-
change later for a foreign language which "they never
learnt," as a modern writer says, "more than to stam-
mer." From this language we may conclude that the
poetic songs of which Tacitus tells were of a high
standard ; however, as there are no written documents,
little more can be said regarding their poetry than
was said regarding that of their prehistoric ancestors.

There is a lack of any independent form of art, the
artistic sense finding expression in ornamentation only,
in pottery, the ends of wooden beams, stands, metal
utensils, etc. Their ornamentation developed along
lines already indicated ; it shows movement and those
peculiar entwinings with a frequent application of in-
definite animal forms, especially heads. A new tech-
nical accomplishment appears in metal work, filigrane,
and the so-called niello, and Tauschierarheit, iron
inlaid with tracery of silver wire. Some kind of crude
enamel had been known already to the prehistoric
Germans of the North.

As to their religion not much can be said either, in
spite of the fancies of patriotic enthusiasts from Klop-
stock to Richard Wagner and Johannes Scherr, who
have transferred to a time that lies one thousand years

68 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

earlier the figures of Norse mythology, themselves more
the products of poetic invention than deities who ever
had a real cult or were the recipients of prayers or
sacrifices. Some have even out of their own genius
produced new divinities, like Klopstock's Teut, who,
without any historical authority whatever, has been
construed as the mythical sire of all Germanic nations.

There was a belief in Fate, wurdh, wyrd, called by
the Saxons metod, Old English meotod, the measuring,
order-giving; Fate was personified later, probably
under Roman influence, by three sisters, the Norns,
who at a still later period received each a name. In-
dicative of the religious depth which some Germans
are fond of attributing to their national character is a
passage in Tacitus, where we read that "they call by
the names of Gods that secret something {secretum
illud) which they see only through their reverence.
They conclude from the vastness of the sky that they
cannot force the Gods between walls nor represent
them by the likeness of a human face."

The oldest conceptions are, indeed, rooted deepest
in the human mind, and last longest, so that at the
present day we may still find traces of ancient beliefs
in popular customs. Such traces exist even in the
streets of the modern, sober city of New York. T\Tien
the boys, on Hallowe'en, strike their elders with flour-
filled stockings, they find milder judgment not only on
the ground of youthful buoyancy, but also because their
act recalls the ancestral custom of strewing flour as a
sacrifice to the spirits of the dead, whose sighs are heard
in the moaning of the wind. And the turkey dinner on
Thanksgiving Day not only commemorates the pious
gratitude of the Puritans, but repeats the grateful
offering of the sacred fowl by our ancestors two thou-

VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 69

sand years ago, when they thanked Nerthus or Freya
for the gifts of the harvest.

The spirits of the dead were believed by the ancient
Germans to remain for a certain time, but not forever,
in the trees and springs of the forest near the scenes
of their former Ufe. Here, then, is another reason for
the veneration of the forest, which has taken a stronger
hold of the Germans than of most other peoples. The
secrecy of the shade beneath the trees, the awe-inspir-
ing silence, which is rather emphasized than disturbed
by the soft rustling of the leaves in the breeze, appeal
strongly to the mystical side of their character. Only
the Slavs possess the feeling in a like degree, so that we
need not look merely for economic reasons to explain
the fact that Russia and Germany have the highest
percentage of woodlands in Europe.

They believed, too, in the spirits^^of dreams and night-
mares (Alps), while out of the great mass of lower
spirits of nature there had risen dwarfs and giants,
and minor goddesses, like the Idisi, versed in the art
of magic healing. Of a belief in the Valkyries we find
no certain proof in the tradition of the earlier centuries
of our era, although later legends seem to know them.
We hear, however, of heroic women who in men's
armor took part in battles, and these may have given
rise to the later belief in the warrior goddesses.

Of the gods the oldest to be revered seems to
have been Tyr, or Ziu, corresponding to Zeus, or Jupiter,
the god of the heavens ; out of his attributes Donar,
or Thor, was personified, the powerful god of lightning
and thunder, followed by Wotan, who seems to have
represented the new culture influences. These three
follow one another as supreme gods with the ascendency
of different tribes ; they were all eminently war gods.

[

70 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Wotan seems to have remained unknown in southern
German^', as the name of Mittwoch (midweek) instead
of Wotan's day (Wednesday) would indicate that they
had no equivalent for the Mercury of the Romans,
with whom Wotan was identified, just as Thor was
identified with Jupiter or with Hercules, and Ziu with
Mars. The week as a time unit was taken over from
the Romans, and their names of the days were ger-
manized.

Of goddesses we find only one with a definite char-
acter, ^Mother Earth, called now Nerthus or Hertha ( ?),
now Freya or Frigg; she is always the wife of the
Supreme God. A great many other names have come
down without conveying any meaning to us. The
name of Easter, the preservation of which in Christian
times rather contradicts the supposition of a pagan
divinity, has led to the opinion that there was a goddess
of the spring, Austro or Ostara. Colored eggs like our
Easter eggs have been found in the grave of an Alemanic
child of the third century.

The cult of the gods comprised prayers and sacrifices
of animals and of human beings, prisoners of war,
criminals, and purchased slaves. The future was
prophesied from the neighing of horses, and the blood
or the entrails of the slaughtered victims. Divination
was also practised by means of runes, which were
scratched {writan!) on twigs, especially of the beech
tree, whence the German word for letter, Buchstahe.
These were thrown upon a white cloth, three were
picked up, and words beginning with the letters marked
thereon combined in alliterative verses gave the
prophecy. There was no special caste of priests ;
with many tribes priestesses and prophetesses stood in
high esteem.

VI LAW, POETRY, ART, RELIGION 71

German mythology, on the whole, seems to have been
less developed than that of Homeric times, which are
often cited as a similar stage of civilization. The fact,
however, mentioned by Tacitus, that they had no
images of their gods, which is confirmed by the de-
velopment of their art, permits the conclusion that at
a very early stage they had outgrown fetichism and
animism. A modern writer attributes to the long
survival of animistic religious conceptions the high
development of Greek sculpture. It was very long,
indeed, before German artists began to produce pre-
sentable pictures of human beings, while their other
artistic productions showed considerable skill.

CHAPTER VII

THE MIGRATIONS

113 B.C.-600 A.D.

The Kimhric Invasion of Italy and Ariovistus^ Fight
with CcBsar

First Active Interference of Germans in History ; Germans and
Kelts ; Germans and Romans

Before Christianity had replaced the religion
sketched in the last chapter, there occurred the great
migrations of the Germanic race, which are generally
dated from the arrival of the Huns in Europe in 375.
But the new impulse which this event gave to the
movement of the Eastern Germanic nations is only
arbitrarily chosen as an epoch. The migrations of the
Germanic peoples were in progress when the race first
appeared above the horizon of history, and in a cer-
tain sense they have not ended to-day. However,
migration here does not mean an expansion or an
emigration of some parts of the nation ; in many cases
whole nations left their countries, and, with their
wives and children, their aged and infirm, their cattle
and movable possessions, including in some cases their
huts, looked for another place large and fertile enough
to support them. The real cause in most cases was
probably the increase of population, which became too

CHAP. VII THE MIGRATIONS 73

large to be fed within the old boundaries under their
primitive forms of agriculture. This reason is given in
Layamon's " Brut " for the exodus of the Angles and
Saxons, as vrell as in Schiller's '' Wilhelm Tell," for
that of the Alemans, — a significant coincidence.

We have already heard of the aggressive expansion
of the Germans at the expense of the Kelts, a contest
lasting until the times of Csesar. After that we have
a continuous overflowing of Germans into Roman ter-
ritory, coming as a rule not as conquerors or raiders,
but as immigrants. Peaceably they ask for land to
settle on, and take up arms only when their repeated
demands are refused. 'By about the second century^
B.C. the first Germanic tribe has already reached the
frontiers of the Mediterranean world. These are the
Bastarni, the advance guard of the East-Germanic
branch ; they settle about that time in the district
along the lower Danube to the Black Sea as the
rulers of Slav and scattered Keltic tribes. They are
followed by the Goths, side by side with whom we
find them fighting during the second and third century
A.D. Soon after this their name disappears from
history.

The next Germanic people to break from the myste-
rious forests of the North were the Kimbers, who started
from the North Sea with kith and kin to look for a new
dwelling place. Perhaps they left their abodes on
account of one of those terrible floods of which we hear
again and again in historical times ; one in the four-
teenth century carried away 20,000 people. They were
the first of their race to break through the Hercynian
forest, which to the Romans seemed impenetrable, and
to open a way to the south. They reached the Adriatic
Sea, but failed to conquer the Volcse and the Boii, the

74 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

most powerful of the eastern Kelts, and in spite of a
victory (their first) over a Roman army, they turned
towards the west, ascending the valley of the Danube.
On their way to Gaul, they j&rst met the Helvetians,
in whose country they delayed four years. "WTien they
continued their western march, they were joined by
several Keltic tribes, among them the Teutons. After
this the Kimbers and the Teutons always appear to-
gether in old historic accounts, and, probably on account
of the similar sound of the word deutsch, it has come
about that the Germanic peoples are often called
Teutons to the present day, an error which has led to
all kinds of etymological fancies. The enlarged horde
entered Gaul, and, marking their way by plunder and
ravage, at last came to the Roman province, reaching
Narbonne, through w^hich ran the highway to Italy.
Here they were met by the Roman consul Silanus, who
had hurried his army by forced marches to the defence
of the province. A delegation of the invaders asked
him for land to settle on. The response of the Roman
was a sudden attack, which had, however, an unfortu-
nate ending for him. The Roman camp was taken by
the enemy. But the lumbers did not follow up their
victory. Another embassy was sent, this time directly
to the Roman senate. Again in vain ; the senate either
had no vacant territory large enough, or was afraid to
receive this warUke people within the boundaries of the
Republic. Several other Roman armies were anni-
hilated ; Tacitus mentions five. Probably convinced
that they would not be able to gain a permanent foot-
ing in any southern territory against the will of the
Romans, they asked again and again for land, but
always with the same unsatisfactory result. Their
greatest victory was gained in the battle of Arausio,

VII THE MIGRATIONS 75

Orange, on the left bank of the Rhone, over the double
army of a Roman consul and proconsul, where, accord-
ing to the accounts of the conquered, 80,000 soldiers and
50,000 camp followers were slain ; only ten men reached
the capital. Their reports spread among its inhabitants
that terror of the Kimbers, the terror Cimbricus, which
for centuries continued to make them nervous. Italy
lay open to the barbarians, but, either from an innate
respect for supposed greatness, which is a trait not
unfamiliar among the Germans of later times (making
them forget their self-assertion to the great advantage
of their enemies), or from barbarian shortsightedness
and ignorance of their superior strength, they lost
another two years and a half. Turning towards the
west, they crossed the Pyrenees ; but in spite of all their
victories in the open country, they tried in vain to
capture the fortified cities of the Kelts, and neither in
Gaul nor in Spain could they do more than devastate the
country. Thus the Romans gained time to recover and
to gather round their best general, Marius, one of the
must efficient armies they ever put in the field. When
at last the barbarians resolved to break into Italy, in
two immense columns, Marius was able to beat them,
principally on account of the extraordinary carelessness
and tactical and strategical ignorance of his enemies.
His first great victory was gained at Aix-les-Bains,
where the Teutons and other Keltic allies were anni-
hilated. The Kimbers, who had descended into the
Po vaUey across the Brenner Pass, sent another embassy
before the last battle, asking for land where they them-
selves and their Keltic allies might take up a peaceful
residence. Marius sneered at their request, telling them
their brethren were provided for. As a proof, he had
the chiefs of the Teutons brought in chains before their

76 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

allies. After the return of the ambassadors, Boiorix,
King of the Kimbers, rode to the Roman camp to
arrange a place and date for the battle, as if for a duel.
JMarius selected the thirtieth day of July, 101 e.g.,
as the day, and the plain of A^ercellae, the so-called
Raudian Fields, as the place of battle. This selection
suited both generals, the Roman because he could
display his cavalry, the German because he could unfold
his entire army. Of course the numbers given by Roman
writers, of 200,000 Germans against 52,000 Romans, are
greatly exaggerated. The military details of this, as
of other battles, we may leave to the description of the
specialist. It is of interest, however, to notice that,
besides the tactical superiority of the Romans, the vic-
tory is attributed to a small invention of JMarius, who
had the javehns of his soldiers fashioned in such a
manner as to make them stick tightly in the huge
shields of the Germans and greatly encumber them.
The defeat of the Germans was final; the mass of
their warriors were killed, and 60,000 prisoners fell into
the hands of the victors. Thus the first German
invasion of Italy ended in the complete destruction of
the people who, fourteen years before, had left their
homes on the coast of the North Sea. During their
wanderings they had, of course, adopted many a cus-
tom of the more civihzed Kelts. Nor must we forget
that a large contingent of Keltic tribes had joined them ;
even the name of the Kimbric king who commanded
at Vercellas, Boiorix, sounds more Keltic than German.
We find, however, many a trait which a later time shows
to be distinctly Germanic, and we must not suppose
that there was any considerable difference between
these semi-nude barbarians, who, vrdh their wives and
flaxen-haired children, and with their small, shaggy

MI THE MIGRATIONS 77

cattle, dragged along in endless procession, and those
who remained behind, north of the Herc3'nian forest.
The armored cavalry, at least, resplendent in knightly
breastplate, of which we read in Roman accounts of
the last battle, had certainly not been theirs when they
left their homes. The mass of the warriors, however,
much more hardened to cold than heat, exposed their
bodies gigantic, to Roman eyes, to the snow and ice of
the Alpine winters, with no other protection than their
immense wooden shields. Using these as sleds, the}''
slid down the icy precipices ; with them the men,
shoulder to shoulder, stemmed the rushing floods of
the mountain torrents, until the women and children
with the baggage trains and cattle had safely crossed
below. Already we meet the bulwark of wagons, die
Wagenhurg, where those who were unfit to fight
awaited the outcome of the battle, and whence the
women with songs and shouting encouraged the men
in combat, and in high disgust drove back with clubs
and axes those who attempted to flee. After the
battle was lost, the women, according to the Roman
historian Florus, tried to protect their virtue by request-
ing Marius to allow them to enter the service of the
Vestal Virgins. When this was refused, they first
strangled their children or threw them under the hoofs
of the horses and the w^heels of wagons, and then either
slew each other or hanged themselves on trees or to
carriage poles with cords twisted together out of their
own hair. Most of the warriors preferred death to
slavery, committing suicide by hanging, or bj^ tying
themselves to the horns of bulls and using their final
energies in exciting the mad beasts to drag them to
death. For a long time their fierce, warlike appearance,
their truculent glance, which no Roman could bear, and

78 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

their unrestrained violence were the objects of a some-
what uncomfortable admiration on the part of the
Romans, reviving continually in their minds the recol-
lection of the terror Cimbricus. But still more were
they astonished when these barbarians, in curious con-
trast to their own habits, gave evidence on certain occa-
sions of a remarkable lack of avarice. After the victory
at Orange, they destroyed and threw into the Rhone
the rich booty of the Roman camp, including even
armor and weapons, which would have been exceedingly
useful to them. Their prisoners were sacrificed by
white-robed priestesses, their blood caught in huge
caldrons, and from its appearance the future was fore-
told. We know that it was Germanic custom, before
important battles, to offer their enemy and his posses-
sions to the war god. Such sacrifice is related of the
battle in the Teutoburg Forest, where Varus was
defeated by Arminius. A treasure dedicated to the
gods has been found in a bog in Schleswig, battered to
pieces, not by the turmoil of battle, as its condition
shows, but intentionally. The dates of Roman coins
found with the treasure prove the existence of the
custom in the second century a.d. In reality, battle
itself was a ritual act for the German ; he offered him-
self and his enemy as a huge sacrifice to the war god
Ziu. The furor Teutonicus of later times was a counter-
part to the terror Cimbricus ; again and again we read
of the fierceness of Germanic fighting. The joy of
battle is undoubtedly inborn in the Germanic character,
and, although Germans are always ready for a peaceful
settlement, as we see from their laws regarding the blood
feud and from many instances in their history, they are
never displeased, if their antagonist chooses war ; then
they fight for their right with redoubled fury. But

VII THE MIGRATIONS 79

in their joy of fighting, in their resolute bravery that
knows no fear, they are often unable to see the advan-
tage of watching for an opportune moment.

The Keltic Boii, as we have seen, successfully with-
stood the attack of the Kimbers ; but only twenty-five
years later they succumbed to other Germans, and we
find the country to which they left their name, Bohemia,
i.e., home of the Boii, in possession of the greatest
German tribe, the Suevians, under the leadership of
Ariovistus. The Boii found a new abode south of the
Danube, whence they were expelled later on; their
name is only partially concealed in Bavaria, i.e.,
Boiovaria.

The Sue\dans were followed by other tribes pushing
south, so that in the second century after Christ we
find the eastern banks of the Elbe rehnquished by the
Germans. Less pretentious than they, the Slavs
settled on the deserted farms, enjoying the fruits of the
labors of their predecessors apparently without even
the trouble of an armed contest. The people along the
lower Elbe had found no rest since the East-Germanic
nations had emigrated. But their migratory instinct
took a new direction, turning towards the sea. The
Germans appear along the shores of Gaul and Britain,
now as pirates, now as settlers, precursors of the
Vikings, until an epoch in this movement is reached
by the founding of the German kingdoms in Great
Britain.

We see that the southern expedition of the Kimbers
was only an episode in these efforts of expansion. It
was at the time of Caesar that the Germans first
succeeded in acquiring permanent settlements on the
western banks of the Rhine. Caesar appears inclined
to think, and strong evidence supports this \'iew, that

80 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the Belgse, the tribes who occupied the northern third
of Gaul, were strongly intermixed with Germans,
those settled in the angle formed by the Rhine and
the ocean being called by that name. Shortly be-
fore the great Roman reached Gaul, the last tribe
of the Kelts, the ]Menapians, were driven across
the lower Rhine, and the Germans occupied their
territory. It seems the ]Menapians did not wait for a
battle, but retired voluntarily across the river as their
line of defence. The Germans simply made themselves
at home upon their deserted farms. We are reminded
of this half-peaceful conquest of Keltic lands by the
isolated granges, not organized into villages, which xse
find in some parts of Germany, especially in ^Yest-
phaUa, the old country of the IMenapians.

Caesar himself was encountered in Gaul by Ariovis-
tus, the first distinct German personality we meet m
history. This great king of the Suevians had left
Bohemia, proceeded down the valley of the river Alain,
and had crossed the Rhine in 72 B.C. He had entered
Gaul at the invitation of the Sequani, a Keltic nation,
whose memory is preserved in the name of the river
Seine. But after helping the Sequani to defeat their
enemies, he did not think of returning to Germany, but
took for his people first one third, and later demanded
another third, of the country of his allies. So powerful
was his position that the Roman Senate took the first
step in securing his good- will by sending him presents
and offering him the friendship of the Roman people.
But, when the Gauls asked the newly appointed Roman
proconsul, Csesar, for assistance against him, this
ambitious general and statesman gladly seized an
opportunity which promised to further his plans. Al-
though Ariovistus was perhaps Caesar's equal as far as

VII THE MIGRATIONS 81

natural ingeniousness is concerned, and far superior
to the Kimbers in his cool judgment and calculation,
Roman strategy succeeded in annihilating his army.
Nevertheless matters had been turning rather against
Caesar, and the outcome might have been different, had
not a young general of the Roman reserves entered into
the battle without orders, and thereby saved the day.
Ariovistus escaped with a few of his friends across the
Rhine ; his two wives and one daughter were killed,
and another daughter was made prisoner by the
Romans.

Twice after this Caesar was compelled to drive German
tribes back to the right bank of the Rhine ; twice he
himself crossed the Rhine, not for purposes of conquest,
but in order to inspire his enemies with an idea of his
strength, and, though without lasting success, to deter
them from further invasions. The ethelings of the
Usipii and Tencteri, who during a truce came to his
camp, were made prisoners by treachery, and the
Roman legions easily defeated their leaderless people.
He may have thus given his enemies their first lesson
in Roman faithlessness. Those tribes of the Suevi who
had already finally settled in Alsace he left in their
seats. The Ubii, who were continually attacked by
Suevian tribes, he transferred to the left bank of the
Rhine, where they lived as the faithful allies of the
Romans and as a guard against their own countrymen
in the region about Koln.

Soon we find Germans as auxiliaries in the Roman
army. Ten years after the defeat of Ariovistus,
German soldiers decided the battle of Pharsalus in
favor of Caesar, while compatriots of theirs were fight-
ing on the side of Pompey. This fact was a source of
great pride to mediaeval German writers, who point

82 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

out that the Roman Empire was thus founded by
German prowess, and therein find another claim for
the title of the German kings to the crown of the Roman
emperors. One year later, in Egypt, we find German
outposts in the army of Labienus exchanging jokes and
gibes with their countrymen on the other side.

Thus we see in these beginnings, which have there-
fore been treated with some detail, not only a number
of traits of character which have accompanied the Ger-
mans through period after period of their history, but
also a picture of the entire space of five hundred years
of war between Germans and Romans, of expansion by
land and sea, of the semi-peaceful Germanization of the
Roman army, of the transfer of whole peoples into
Roman territory, of advances on the part of the Romans
into Germany without lasting success, in spite of forti-
fied places and frontier intrenchments. The edifice
of the Roman Empire, for centuries sustained almost
alone by those German soldiers and their generals,
becomes more and more rotten, until at last Odowakar
makes an end of it all, and takes the title of King of
Italy, leaving the rest of the Empire to its fate.

Before this the Visigoths under Alaric had for a time
held Greece and Italy, Athens and Rome, in their
power; they founded their own empire in southern
Gaul, extending it in time into Spain. The Vandals had
crossed over from Spain to northern Africa, where they
founded their powerful empire, and only thirty years after
Alaric made a raid on Rome. The expression ''Van-
dalism," coined by French clerics at the end of the
eighteenth century, has unjustly caused them to be
represented as the worst type of savages. A contem-
poraneous author, the Roman-Gallic presbyter Sal-
vianus, judges differently ; he writes about 450 a.d. :

VII THE MIGRATIONS 83

"Whose wickedness is asgreatasours({.e., the Romans') ?
There is none of that kind found among the Vandals,
none among the Goths. One thing is certain, the
Vandals have been very moderate. Who can help but
admire the tribes of the Vandals, who, although enter-
ing the richest cities, concerned themselves with the
pleasures of the corrupt only in so far as they scorned
their moral corruption, and adapted only their good
qualities ? Among the Goths there are no unchaste
people but Romans, and among the Vandals not even
Romans ; not that they alone are chaste, but, to relate
something new, incredible, and almost unheard of, they
have made even the Romans chaste." We see that
those very Vandals were the ones to accept Mediter-
ranean culture most quickly and most completely, and
therefore were the first of the conquering Germanic
nations to perish in the newly acquired luxury. Soon
the same fate reached the Ostrogoths, the lords of Italy,
who were the last protectors of ancient art and litera-
ture, and who by wise agricultural improvements
restored the exhausted and devastated soil of Italy to
renewed fertility. Soon the Langobards succeeded them
in the rule of Italy. These, however, no less than the
Burgundians of the Rhone valley, and the Visigoths in
Gaul and Spain, disappeared in the course of time in
the irresistible process of assimilation with the much
more numerous mixture of peoples that formed the
Roman population. With them they form a new family
of nations, whose languages are based on the vulgar
Latin of the common people of the Roman provinces,
but whose customs and character show plainly visible fea-
tures of the Germanic race ; the pure and vigorous blood
of the German gave new life to a population that was
apparently doomed to perish by its own inner rotten-

84 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, vii

ness. It is useless to complain, from a Germanic point
of view, of the vanishing of these highly gifted peoples ;
they have left their indestructible imprint on the culture
of the Latin nations. They have given them those
traits which form the connecting link between the
Romance and the German population of Europe, and
perhaps have more influence in creating the undeniable
community of interest in our European-American civi-
lization than is apparent on the surface.

CHAPTER VIII

CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY

Of all the important results brought about by the
great migrations and the contact with the Roman world,
the acceptance of Christianity by the Germans takes
easily the first rank. But it was not the Christianity
of the earliest times which was presented to the con-
verts ; it was not the Church of Christ and his imme-
diate followers, the persecuted reHgion of love and of
the lowly, which they embraced. The clergy, after
Christianity had become the state religion under the
house of Constantine, on the contrary, had developed
into a powerful political organization. Outside of
the Church there was no prospect of advancement ;
whoever wanted to be somebody had to be a Christian.
No wonder that these so-called conversions, brought
about by selfish motives, did not cause any change of
heart. The whole of the Christian religion of that time
consisted in external form ; the leaders of the Church
used their position as an instrument of political power,
and, just as they might use their influence with the
emperor for some personal advantage, so the great mass
of Christians believed they could win the good-will of
the Almighty, especially by the patronage of the saints.
This conception prevented all deeper penetration into
religion, all attempts to master its eternal truths, all
attempts to live according to its high ethical ideals.
Political reasons, which had caused the acceptance of

86 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Christianity by the Roman emperors, were instrumental
in bringing about the first conversion on any large
scale among the Germans. Very early we find single
converts, and in some parts of Germany even small
communities, founded by Christian soldiers in the Ro-
man army ; but the Visigoths, who under the Emperor
Valens were allowed to settle in the lands south of the
Danube, were the first to embrace the new creed in
large numbers. Following the example of the Court
at Byzantium, the Goths professed Arianism, and theii*
example was followed by all the East-Germanic nations,
a circumstance which later in Italy, Gaul, and Spain,
where the Roman faith prevailed, proved a great ob-
stacle in the bringing about of friendly relations with
the conquered population. The orthodox faith of
Rome, held by the old inhabitants of Gaul, was accepted
by the Franks, whose king found it to his advantage to
be baptized, not only because he had vowed to become
converted in case the Lord gave him the victory over
the Alemans, but for important reasons of state. He
had long been prepared for the step by his CathoHc
wife, as it is the way of women to work energetically for
the Church. Thus the way was laid for Roman Ca-
tholicism to become the religious creed of later Germany;
and the dependence upon Rome was greatly strength-
ened when the Anglo-Saxon Winfred received from
the Pope the mission of bringing the Cross to the heathen
Germans on the right bank of the Rhine.

Conditions were everywhere the same, in England,
on the Danube, on the Rhine, and, much later, in
Scandinavia; no compulsion was used, as in the cruel
methods employed by Charles the Great to Christianize
the Saxons ; the masses turned to the god who proved
himself the stronger. If the god of the Christians would

VIII CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY 87

give them victory in battle, or if the gods of the heathen
failed to punish the profanation of their sacred trees by
the Christian priests, or, as is related in the Life of St.
Vedastes, if the beer disappeared from the mugs of the
heathen Franks before they could bring them to their
hps, while their Christian companions were allowed to
enjoy their potations, such incidents brought about more
conversions than any preachings of the missionaries.

There is one point I find generally overlooked in the
consideration of these early conversions. When we
think to-day of the gods of pagan worship, whether
they are clad in the splendor of Greek mythology or
the poor garb of savage fetichism, we think of them as
the products of the imagination with no real existence.
But in that age they were very real beings not only
for the newly converted pagan, but also for the priests
who converted them; throughout the Bible we do
not find the existence of the pagan gods denied ; they
are simply characterized as false gods. They were
looked upon as demons of an inferior kind, who were
continually striving to regain power, and therefore had
continually to be fought against; not as allegories of
the bad tendencies in man, but as very powerful external
forces, fighting for mastery. At first the German gods
were not even degraded to the places of satanic spirits.
In the churches we find the same priests worshipping
Christ and sacrificing to Wotan and Thor. Slowly,
under the influence of German priests, the Christian
saints took the places of the heathen gods. The sign
of the cross, baptism, and other Christian rites were
readily accepted as so many new spells.

On the whole, the Christianity of the period, with its
saints, was only another form of polytheism, one great
system of superstition, believed in by high and low, by

88 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

la}Tnan and priest. They all believed in the foretelUng
of the future by the flight of birds and by the position
of the stars ; they all beUeved in the healing powers of
the cross, the rehcs, and the holy water. Priests and
bishops gained and held their influence over the people
probably not so much as the representatives of a higher
civihzation or a more spiritual religion, but as the
\\delders of magical power. Not until much later did
the spirituahzing influences of rehgion become evident,
and to some parts of the people they have never reached
at all ; in the words of a Protestant clergyman, who has
published his experience as a village pastor: "The
German peasant has never been converted at all to
Christianity." Indeed, the crucified teacher of suffer-
ing and humiUty made small sympathetic appeal to
the Germans, to whom assertion of one's self is the
essence of life to an extent which w^as probably far
beyond the imagination of the Oriental founders of
Christianity; a self-assertion in which is to be sought
the psychological foundation of the separation of Ger-
manic Christianity from Rome.

In a sixth-century hymn in honor of St. Medardus,
Chilperic, the ]\Iero^dng, prays for "power and personal
assertion," and deprecates the "false humility which
takes the food from the one who eats and the sweetness
from the brave." Even more characteristic is the way
in which Christianity is Germanized in the " Hehand,"the
oldest continental German epic preserved in its entirety.
It was composed by a monk of Werden about 822, and
is full of the true Germanic spirit, in strong contrast
to the Gospels of Otfrid, written not many years later.
Christ is conceived as the senior and the disciples as his
trustio, his thanes. With dehght the author dwells on
passages like that where Peter, "the swift warrior,"

viii CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY 89

cuts off Malchus' ear ; "Then became enraged the swift
sword-thane Peter ; his wrath welled up, he could not
speak, so deeply it grieved him that they wanted to
bind the Lord. Fiercely he went, the bold thane, to
stand in front of his liege-lord. Not wavering was his
heart, nor shy his bosom. At once he drew the sword
from his side and smote the foremost of his foes with full
force, so that Malchus was reddened with the sword's
edge on the right side, his ear hewn off, his cheek gashed,
blood leaped forth welling from the wound. And the
people drew back, fearing the sword bite" (Kuno
Francke's translation). We look in vain, on the other
hand, for the verse that teaches us to offer the left
cheek when the right has been smitten.

If we look at the whole question with the judgment
distance gives, we must confess that Christianity in its
original form could never have been made acceptable
to this young and vigorous nation. It was a religion
of consolation, of salvation, welcomed as a relief by
decadent antiquity, by a world which was spiritually at
discord with itself, an age which had emptied the cup
of life to the dregs and had nothing left to hope for.
No such state of mind with the Germans ! Ascending,
brimful of life, all faculties eager to manifest themselves
in energetic action, confident of their strength, feeling
that all the blessings of the earth were awaiting them,
having just burst forth from the foggy, stormy forests
and wilds of the North, they saw their future symbolized
in the smihng, blue skies of Greece and Italy. Who
could ever have made palatable to them, or even have
made them understand, the doctrine of the renuncia-
tion of life, of the sinfulness of the pleasures of the
strong, of the hollowness of earthly splendor?

Thus the shallow Christianity of the time was much

90 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, viii

more acceptable by the Germans than the true teachings
of Christ, to which they were led in time by a deepening
of their own religious sentiment. But even now there
seems sometimes to come out of the depth of the Ger-
manic soul a cry as of men whose childhood has been
curtailed by too severe restraint.

In spite of the incompatibility of its fundamental
teachings, Christianity possesses some traits sympa-
thetic to the German character. The idea of the infi-
nite must have appealed to their mystical inclinations ;
their sense of personal worth must have been satisfied
to learn that the Lord of the Universe took an interest
in each individual — that the hairs on his head were
numbered. Christ and the Christian saints, further-
more, permitted much more intimately personal rela-
tionship than the indefinite nature divinities of the
German's imperfectly developed paganism. "They
were people of flesh and blood, and their teaching ap-
peared in that typical garb of legendary tradition,
just adapted to his state of development."

The entirely new conception of sin, the discipline
of the Church, enforced by temporal punishment, —
all this made for self-improvement. As time pro-
gressed, the Church gained its strongest friends, of
course, among the oppressed ; love for one's neighbor
and charity were not only preached, but practised. Of
special importance was the dignity the Church gave to
labor, of which we will have to speak in a later chapter.
These elements have slowly and almost insensibly,
but ubiquitously and incessantly, done their work among
the masses, and have brought about the inner and moral
change of the people, of which, in spite of examples to
the contrary, striking because exceptional, the present
time has a right to feel proud.

CHAPTER IX

THE MIGRATIONS
II

The New Grouping of the States. The German oj this
Period. Roman Civilization and the Germans

The important change from the innumerable small
tribes or peoples, described by Caesar and Tacitus,
to larger tribal unities, due probably to the necessity
of combining against a superior foe, took several cen-
turies, and is not traceable in all its details. In the
sixth century, besides the German empires in Italy,
Spain, Great Britain, and Gaul, we find on German
soil : the Franks, who had conquered Gaul, but still
kept their original homes on the banks of the Rhine;
the Alemans, who were the successors and descendants
of the Suevs ; the Bavarians on the Danube ; the
Thiirings, the Saxons, and the Frisians. We find most
of them under kings or dukes, but the laws, first written
do\\'n by the Franks primarily for the information of
the central government, indicate that in general the
democratic institutions of earUer times were not greatly
changed. The tribal duchies, though they threatened
to disappear under the centralizing influence of the
stronger Frankish kings, gained new importance, and
have remained of decisive influence on the political
divisions of Germany down to the present day. Their

92 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

influence appears too in the tribal differences, especially
in those of dialects, so distinctly characteristic of
modern Germany.

Saxons, Angles, and Jutes from the neck of the Danish
peninsula and the lower Elbe had founded new kingdoms
in England, where, until the Norman conquest, they
developed Germanic institutions in general on the same
Unes, only somewhat more slowly than their relatives
on the Continent.

The tribes on German soil were soon to take the
leading part in European politics, a position which they
maintained for nearly a thousand years.

Reviewing their progress from their first appearance
on the stage of history, it is rather astonishing to see
how soon they adapted themselves to Roman condi-
tions, how soon we find Germans in the highest and
most responsible positions of the Roman state, and
yet, in spite of all this, how superficial and gradual
was the influence of Roman civihzation.

As early as the second generation after the Germans
had become neighbors of the Empire, we find their
ethehngs Roman citizens and knights. Apt disciples
of the Romans, they used the strategy and the tricks
learned from them for the destruction of their teachers
on German soil. So early do we meet among them with
the same faithlessness, deception, and treachery as
among their Italic foes, that we must question ourselves
as to whether the straightforwardness, openness, and
truthfulness which their legal conceptions show as
principal traits of Germanic character were valid only
between fellow-tribesmen, and whether the famous
German loyalty referred only to the voluntary oath of
the thane to his Uege-lord. In the Roman army,
Germans were found by no means in the private ranks

IX THE MIGRATIONS 93

only. More and more frequently they occupied high
and important positions, and under Constantine and his
followers Germans were finally' at the head of the
mihtary and civil administrations. Against their own
nature, so to speak, they learned the foreign art of
siege warfare, which was intrusted by Emperor Juhan
to Dagalaif, the chief of his body-guard. The attack
on fortified places had been the weakest point in Ger-
man warfare, as they had no cities themselves, hating
the life in them and comparing it to that of snakes and
creeping worms in caves and cre\dces. Soon the
Germanic generals became the actual rulers. Arbo-
gast, the Frank, as early as 372 so domineered over the
Emperor Valentinian that he turned upon hmi with
the words, "What you have not given me you cannot
take from me." Valentinian paid -^dth his life for this
attempt at rebelHon, and Arbogast made Eugenius
emperor in his stead. IMatters went on in the same
way until Odowakar put an end to the comedy one
hundred years later. WTiat brilHant personages we
meet on the German side ! — from Ario\'istus, Arminius,
and Claudius Civilis do\STi to iEtius, the conqueror of
Attila, Alaric the Visigoth, Genseric the Vandal,
Theodoric the Great, the last three statesmen of a
grand stamp, who unfortunately lacked successors of
equal grandeur to complete their work.

The Franks were more fortunate in their royal family,
the Mero\dngs. After their kingdom was united, they
had a succession of five brilliant, tenacious rulers, who
were able to build up and secure their realm so that the
foundations laid by them are still ^dsible.

All this justifies the conclusion that the people we are
deahng with brought with them eminent intellectual and
moral quahties wdth which to begin their historical

94 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

career. Aside from the Germanic laws, however, which
retained their character throughout all migrations and
changes, there is no direct testimony to their mental
development except their language. Yet we have not,
as one might think, a literature in that language, for
nothing has escaped the fanaticism of bigotry. Only
the wealth of the language itself leads to the conclusion
that those songs, to which the Romans bear witness,
cannot have been of mean poetical worth. The nature
of the German language itself affords infalUble proof
that the Germans possessed peculiar psychic qualities,
one of which was pointed out in a former chapter, that
sufficiently explains the ease with which they were able
to find their place and their profit in an environment of
foreign culture. It shows that they possessed, as a
Frenchman puts it, the "power to follow things and
ideas through all their details without doing violence
to either " ; exactly the gift which must have been of
the greatest help under the conditions.

Indeed, the German language must be recognized as
one of the greatest cultural forces which have contrib-
uted to make the German. This language, of which
Schiller says that it expresses everything, the deepest
and the most transitory, the spirit and the soul, that it
is full of meaning, has been described most beautifully
in the simple words of Houston Stewart Chamberlain :
''The German language is infinitely deep: it feeds us
with good ideas, which flow to us without effort as a
mother's milk feeds the child."

As we are approaching the point where begins the
formation of a German nation with an independent
development, it has seemed appropriate to take another
glance at these fundamental traits of character which
are perhaps the most important, and with which a

IX THE MIGRATIONS 95

patriotic and romantic posterity likes to endow its
ancestors.

To get a picture of the life of the migration period, let
us look at the personality of one of the great warrior
kings who destroyed the ancient world, the Visigoth
king, Theodoric II, who fell on the Catalaunian fields
against Attila, the Hun. The description is taken from
a contemporary author: "Theodoric has a powerful
figure of middle height, a broad chest, strong limbs,
large hands and small feet, curly hair, bushy eyebrows,
remarkably large eyes and eyelids, a beaked nose, thin
lips ; he is lively, merry, passionate, exuberant of vigor
and health of body and mind. Before dayhght he goes
to chapel, and then holds court till eight o'clock. At
eight o'clock he leaves his throne in order either to
count his treasure or to see his horses. While hunting
he thinks it below his dignity to carry his bow himself
or have it ready-drawn ; a boy follows him carrying it.
If any game comes in sight, he asks a companion what
animal he should hit, draws his bow, and never
misses. At twelve o'clock he dines, plainly, but on
Saturdays with great splendor; he drinks little, and,
instead of sleeping after dinner, he plays backgammon
or throws dice. He loves play passionately, and com-
mands those about him to be merry, ridding themselves
of all backwardness before the king, for what he seems
to fear is to be feared by his subjects. When he wins
he is of extraordinarily fine humor, then is the time to
ask a favor of him, and," says the good bishop who
wrote this report, ''many a time I lost my game and
thus gained my point. At three o'clock the affairs of
state are taken up again. The suitors not attended to
in the morning are present, but likewise the servants
to drive them away and keep order. This is continued

96 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, ix

until supper-time or until important matters are brought
up by the palace officials, who must stay about him until
bed-time. At supper there are jokes and gibes ; biting,
cruel, or offending jokes, as were customary at the feasts
of the Roman emperors, are not allowed. As far as
music is concerned, water organs, players on the flute,
the lyre, the cymbal, and the harp are not admitted.
He enjoys only the ancient music of his people, whose
soothing tunes both soothe the soul and please the
ear."

BOOK THE SECOND

THE CREATION OF THE FATHERLAND

600-1400

CHAPTER X

THE STATE OF THE FRANKS

Of all the Germanic tribes who took a prominent
part in the destruction of the Roman Empire and
founded German realms upon its ruins, only one, the
Franks, succeeded in creating on the continent of
Europe a lasting organization. Their success was due,
in part, to their uninterrupted local connection with
their native German soil, and in part to the almost
complete separation of the Romance and the German
element under their rule, but in large measure to the
talented successors of the founders of the Empire.
These Meroving kings do not usually receive overkind
treatment at the hands of history; we are encouraged
to work ourselves up to a high pitch of moral indig-
nation over a series of unheard-of atrocities, and of
scandalous stories concerning the royal women. But
the stories, after all, are not worse than those told of
the imperial court of "highly civilized" Rome; in an
age which followed the continuous bloodshed of over
five hundred years, outrages were everywhere common
enough to mitigate, not the horror of the deeds them-
selves, but the moral guilt, at least, of the doers. St.
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, who might pass as a rather
good man to-day, tells such stories, more or less legen-
dary, in great detail, without feeling at all called upon
to show moral disapproval. On the contrary, when
the Church is benefited he detects the friendly ruling
of Divine Providence. To give only one instance :

100 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Gregory tells us that Chloderic, the son of Sigibert, king
of the Rhenish Franks, was instigated by Chlodowech
(Clovis) to kill his father and to usurp his throne.
After the deed Chloderic receives an embassy from
Chlodowech and exhibits to them his treasure, prepar-
ing to show his gratitude for their master's good advice
by sending him a present. WTiile he is opening a box
filled with gold coin, the ambassadors ask him to push
in his arm to give them an idea of how deep the gold
is, and as he bends over they cleave his skull with
the francisca. And Chlodowech, who had planned the
whole thing, hastens to Cologne and is raised on the
shield, i.e., made king. Next he packs off another
cousin of his, King Chararich, and his son into a
monastery, where they are rendered unfit for the
throne by the loss of their long blond curls, the pride
of kings. ^Tien Chararich's son lets his curls grow
again, both father and son are beheaded. Again,
King Rachnachar of Cambrai, and Richar, his brother,
this same Chlodowech treacherously loads with chains,
and before he beheads them, taunts Rachnachar for
dishonoring the ]Mero\4ng family by allowing himself
to be enchained, and Richar for not havdng sufficiently
assisted his brother. A great many more of his cousins,
kings of the smaller Frankish states, are killed by him
directly or through others. Sometimes it happens
that his accomphces complain that the gold ornaments
they have received as a reward for their treacheries
are of gilded lead ; Chlodowech sneeringly asks them
how they could expect honest treatment after having
themselves broken faith \^-ith their masters. Finally,
to an assembly of his people, he complains of his lonely
condition, and, it is said, the distant relative who did
actually come forward, either out of pity or hope of

X THE STATE OF THE FRANKS; ],(M.

advancement, was killed like the rest. The pious
bishop, after relating all this treachery, parricide, and
cruelty on the part of Chlodowech, ends by saying :
*'But God threw down his enemies before him, day
after day, and increased his empire, because he walked
before him with a righteous heart and did what was
pleasing in his eyes." This was by no means hypoc-
risy on the part of Gregory, but the natural point of
view of those savage times. It is easy for us to under-
stand, however, that the Franks of all Germans had
the worst reputation for trickery and falsehood. But
a touch of relief is not wholly lacking. It is told of
Queen Brunhild, whose cruel feud with Fredegund is
dwelt upon v.ith sensational explicitness by disgusted
moralists, that she spent not a little money to buy and
free captive enemies. Chilperich, a king who was not
afraid of blood, wrote Latin hymns, from one of which
we have already had occasion to quote in this book;
he wrote theological treatises, independent enough to
be pronounced heretical; and he added four letters to
the Roman alphabet for the rendition of certain sounds
in the Frankish language. The tomb of Childerich,
the father of Chlodowech, which was discovered in
Tournai on the Scheldt, indicates a rather advanced
state of civilization. The golden bees, which adorned
his royal cloak, were adopted by Napoleon the First,
and became a Bonapartist emblem. All the Meroving
kings were able to write, an accompHshment of which
the earlier mediaeval emperors could not boast.

The Merovings, like all German conquerors, allowed
their subjects to be judged each according to the laws
of his own tribe, the Roman inhabitants of Gaul by
the Roman law. The old German laws were some-
what modified by the new conditions. Roman law

J02< , <mSTQRY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

influenced the conception of the royal pov/er. The
functions of the moot, which in the expanded state
could not possibly meet regularly, were transferred,
generally speaking, to the king. But this new au-
thority the king found difficult to control to the exclu-
sion of the great landholders and officials.

The new administrative unit was the Gau, Enghsh
shire, which was divided into hundreds. The king's
representative in the larger districts was the count,
Graf, Old English gereja, from which word, combmed
with shhe, the word sheriff, is derived; the leader
of the hundreds was the hunno. In the court they
were assisted by the rachimburgi, corresponding to the
modern German Schoeffen, as distinct from jurymen.
The Schoeffen represented the ancient community, now
too difficult to assemble. But in spite of some external
developments, the principles of the ancient laws were
not changed.

The Merovings were the founders of the first national
monarchy. Under their reign the foundations were
firmly laid on which were based the legal and constitu-
tional growths of the Middle Ages. But the nobihty
gradually deprived royalty of its powers, and the
representatives of the aristocracy at the royal court,
the maiores domus, ministers of the palace, became
more and more influential. When after several changes
this office had come into the undisturbed possession of
the Karlings or Ai'nulfings, Pippin of Heristal suc-
ceeded in uniting in his hands the office of maior domus
at all the Meroving courts in the Frankish empire.
After this the Merovings were kings only in name.
Karl Martel, the son of Pippin, drove back the Moors,
who had crossed the Pyi-enees, defeating them in two
battles, and thus probably saving the young Christian-

X THE STATE OF THE FRANKS 103

German civilization from total destruction. His son
Pippin found it to his advantage to listen to the prayers
of the Roman bishop for help against the Langobards.
With this began that fatal connection between the
papacy and the Frankish, later the German, mon-
archy, which during the whole period of the Middle
Ages had a decisive influence on the development of
Germany, and to-day continues to affect its inner
policy. Pippin made use of the authority of the
Roman bishop to send the last Meroving into a monas-
tery and to have himself elected king of the Franks;
he was raised on the shield according to ancient custom
and shown to his people, but afterwards he was anointed
by the bishop, the first king by the Grace of God of
the German world.

As brilhant as the beginnings of the Merovings was
the start of the Karling dynasty. Greater than any
of them, Charles the Great followed his three ances-
tors. He found the Frankish empire externally united,
but the power of the nobility had already become
strong enough again to be felt. Karl's empire extended
from the PjTenees to the Rhine, and beyond the Rhine
the Thuringians and the Bavarians were subject to
him; on the left bank of the Rhine, extending to the
other side, the Alamans, in the North the Frisians,
were members of his empire. The Burgundians were
already Romanized. How Karl with a strong hand as-
serted his authority in all parts of his realm, how he
secured and strengthened the conditions he found, how
in a most cruel war of thirty-two years he brought the
Saxons, the last independent tribe, under his rule,
how he subdued the Langobards and crowned himself
\sdth their iron crowm, and how in his expedition to
Spain — in the song at least — Count Roland fell in
Roncevaux, — all this is too well known to need repetition.

CHAPTER XI

THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION

Awakening Sense of Nationality

The most far-reaching event of the reign of Karl
was the revival, in name at least, of the Roman Empire,
when the imperial crown was unexpectedly and pre-
maturely placed on the German king's head by Pope
Leo III. Karl had certainly conceived the plan of
reestablishing the Western Empire, but it was no
part of his plan to receive his dignity from the Pope's
hands. The significance of this simple and perhaps
unintentional action was not apparent at first ; its con-
sequences were reaped by the popes only after a long
period of patient waiting. The question might be
asked why Karl, instead of reviving the phantom of
the Roman Empire, did not proceed to found a new
Germanic empire in name as he did in fact ; but it
must be recalled that Daniel had prophesied four king-
doms. This number had already been made up by
the Roman Empire ; in the childlike faith of the times
there was no room for a fifth. With the Roman crown,
however, there descended as a heritage to the German
kings the ideal of universal monarchy, which for its
fulfilment demanded the possession of Italy. The first
Merovings had already conceived similar plans, but,
like Karl, had turned their eyes mainly towards Byzan-
tium. After the act of Leo, however, Rome became

104

CHAP. XI ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION 105

the centre, though, no doubt, the restitution of the
old Roman Empire to its full extent was the real aim
of the most ambitious of German kings, and for some
there is strong evidence that only death kept them
from an attempt to conquer Constantinople. ^

This imperial ideal created a unity of culture for the I
nations of western Europe during the Middle Ages. /
The community of the elements of civilization is an
advantage we must not underestimate. The greatest
benefit, however, accrued to the Roman Catholic
Church, which grew under the protection of this im-
perial monarchy until it was strong enough to with-
draw from German tutelage, to assert its universal
power independently, and to begin an avenging war of
Romanism against the northern barbarians.

But when in the first half of the eleventh century,
shortly before the victory of the popes, the idea of a
universal European monarchy had lost ground, the
" Holy Roman Empire of the German nation," consisting
of Germany, Burgundy, and Lombardy, continued, as is
justly pointed out, to afford a guarantee of peace as
a solid empire of central Europe. ''Too loosely con-
nected to indulge in a policy of conquest, far too
powerful to invite unwarranted attacks, its existence,
down to the time of its decay in the sixteenth century,
proved a blessing for the development of Europe."

But what about Germany? There is nothing more
sterile than to speculate as to what might have been
the consequence, if history had run in different channels.
All we can do is to state that the German kings, in
pursuit of the Itahan policy, lost their power at home,
and during mediaeval times brought Germany very
near to ruin and dissolution, dissolution indeed during
the Interregnum in the thirteenth and again at the

106 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

beginning of the nineteenth century. Who will say
that the absence of a strong central power has been
detrimental to German culture ? Of the ancient civih-
zation of Italy not a great deal was imbibed by the
Germans during their Roman expeditions. Most
ItaUans looked upon them as foreign oppressors, and
few of the Germans returned to Germany; for cen-
turies the flower of German manhood found an in-
glorious end not so much on the field of battle as by
epidemics or by the_dagger and poison of the assassin.
Hence the imperial pohcy, spite of all its splendor,
was not slow in losing its popularity in Germany.
Germans learned at a very early period what it was
to be only a cat's paw for the Pope. Thietmar of
Merseburg, who hved in the first decades of the eleventh
century, says of Italy: ''The air and the inhabitants
of that country somehow do not agree with our nature.
Much trickery and deception are found in the land of
Rome and in Lombardy. All who come there are
received with Uttle love ; everything that is needed by
the stranger here must be dearly paid for, and this
always at the risk of fraud. Many die of poison.
The German warriors are always glad to see their
native fields, which seem to smile so serenely upon
them." When Otto III revealed his plan of imperial
renovation, there was serious talk of giving him the
choice between the dignities of Roman Emperor and
of German king. At a later period the prospect that
Pope Gregory IX might transfer the imperial crown
from Frederick II to a monarch of different nationality
was welcomed as a blessing for Germany. When this
Italian policy of the Idngs had given the German
vassals an opportunity to gain strength, they refused
again and again to sacrifice their welfare to the external

XI ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION 107

splendor of the imperial power, which in consequence
had to succumb to the Italian policy of the popes.

In Germany in the meantime there had developed a
vigorous national spirit. The successes of the Ger-
mans during the Migrations and their conquest of the
Roman world could not but produce a proud sense of
the superiority of the dominant race. This is expressed
in their laws, where the weregild, the compensation,
for killing a Roman was only one-half or one-third
that for Idlling a German. In Alaric national pride
had already gained sufficient strength to make it hateful
to him to live among strangers as a Roman confederate
or to render service to them instead of concentrating
the strength of the nation on the founding of realms
of their own. He at least had understood the kinship
of all Germanic nations, although his own people had
left their old seats in Germany long before, and had
led a separate existence for centuries. For when he
forced Rome to surrender he insisted on the liberation
not only of all the Gothic, but of all the Germanic,
slaves in the city, which act set forty thousand Ger-
mans free. This difference between the Germans and
Romans was continually emphasized by their inherited
law and by their hostility to Roman influences, es-
pecially on the part of the clergy. The deliberate pro-
tection and furtherance given to Germanic institutions
look very much like conscious opposition to the new
civilization; we hesitate to attribute this refusal to a
lack of intelligence, a state of mind too weak to recog-
nize the advantages of the higher culture. It is justly
pointed out that in the material foundations of exist-
ence, which would appear to offer the nearest field for
Romanization, the national element easily asserts itself
either openly or slightly disguised. The attempts at a

108 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

classical renaissance by Karl and Otto the Great were
without lasting influence, and until late in the thirteenth
century we find the proper names exclusively German,
the best witness for the living ideals of a people. When
the Karling dynasty came to an end, the German
princes immediately looked about for a new head of
the nation, and found him among the Saxons, which
tribe had belonged to them politically for hardly more
than a century. Even the Langobards, though having
lost their Germanic language, still felt themselves one
with their racial associates, although they did not yet
have a common name. The Bishop Liutbrand, who
in 968 was sent as an ambassador to the Byzantine
emperor, the glorious Nikephorus Phokas, to ask him
to give his daughter in marriage to the son of the
German emperor, bears witness to this. Contemptu-
ously the Csesar said : ''You are not Romans, but only
Langobards!" To this the German proudly retorted
that Romulus had founded his city from the scum of
humanity and called them Romans. ''This," he con-
tinued, "is the noble pedigree of the so-called masters
of the world; we, however, we Langobards, Saxons,
Franks, Lothringians, Bavarians, and Burgundians,
despise them so deeply that we know of no better way
to insult an enemy than to call him a Roman. Coward-
ice and meanness, avarice, sumptuousness, lying and
deceit, in short, all vices are comprised in this one
word."

A few words may not be out of place as regards
the name of the Germans. The word Germani was
never used by the Germans themselves to denote
their nation, and the use of its German equivalent, die
Germanen, has been introduced by scholars in modern
times to denote all the people of Germanic family

XI ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION 109

which were comprised under that name by Roman
authors. The word is probably of Keltic origin, and
may mean the shouters or screamers, although there are
serious doubts as to this interpretation. The fact that
the English language has taken over the Latin word
Germans in its narrow meaning makes it somewhat
difficult to differentiate between the nation and the
greater Germanic family. In spite of its erroneous
appHcation, designating a Keltic tribe, " Teutonic " might
be conveniently used to distinguish between the nation
and the family, if English authors would only agree
upon its definite use. As it is, I have preferred to
avoid it altogether, and where it was of importance
took advantage of the two adjectives "German" and
"Germanic," which make the proper distinction.

The Germans' name for themselves, deutsch, is an
appellation which the English limited to those Ger-
mans who lived nearest to them, that is, the Hollanders,
who have been separated from Germany since 1648.
This word was originally an adjective, ihiudisk, and ^
referred to the language designating the language of
the people (thiuda) as distinguished from the Latin of
the clergy; so that ihiudisk, deutsch, means originally
popular or vernacular. In its Latinized form, theodisca,
it is found first in 786, in a bishop's report to the Pope
Hadrian regarding an Anglo-Saxon synod. Two years
later the annals of the monastery of Lorsch speak of
the theodisca lingua. During the ninth and tenth
centuries we find the form teutisca, and, probably in-
fluenced by the similarity of the sound in the name of
the Keltic allies of the Kimbers, there first appears in
the chancellery of Otto the Great, about 960, the
adjective teutonicus, but still applied to the language
only. A hundred years later it was applied not to

110 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xi

the language, but to the country ; in 1079 we read for
the first time the phrase teutonica patria, das deutsche
Vaterland, and in the Kaiser chronik, about 1150, we
hear of diutschi man and diutschi liuti, meaning Ger-
man man and German people.

CHAPTER XII

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY

Parallel to the expansion of the East Prankish
kingdom into the Roman Empire of the German
Nation, of which v/e spoke in the last chapter, there
took place the development of the feudal system.
Montesquieu and others try to trace its origin directly
to that peculiar institution of the comitatus, the
gasindi, or voluntary retinue, which played such an
important part in the social position and adventures
of the German etheling. In support they quote Taci-
tus: ''The thanes ask of the liberahty of then- chiefs
the warlike horse and the bloody and victorious spear ;
for food and supplies, rich but not luxurious, take the
place of wages." While the antrustiones of the Prankish
kings may very well be compared to these early thanes
and the relation of liege-lord and vassal to that of the
alderman {senior, Prench, seigneur) and his trustio,
direct derivation of one from the other, while possible,
is not absolutely necessary, as the same conditions
have produced "feudal systems" elsewhere.

The word feudal is commonly derived from the
mediaeval Latin feodum or feudum, which has nothing
to do with feuds, — however frequent they were in
the times of feudal law, — but consists of the old
word fee (from fihu, cattle, which, as we know, took the
place of money), and the suffix -od, which means
property; feodum therefore means property in fee,

111

112 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

that is, in loan, or as a reward, while allodium means
land which is all, i.e., absolute property with no con-
dition attached to it. When our law calls such allodial
property a property in fee simple, we have a relic of
the feudal system, which claimed that all land theo-
retically belonged to the king. This theory was realized
in practice much further in England under William
the Conqueror and his successors than in Germany,
although Charles the Great took the oath of fealty,
after the Prankish fashion, of every freeman in his
empire.

To follow up the thread of development from the
earliest times, let us recall the primitive organization
of the clan as the common holder of land. Everybody
was obliged to fight the wars of his tribe, and to take
part in the deliberations of the moot, especially when
it acted as a court of justice. The migrations had
brought about, especially where we have to do wdth
purely German, or, as we might as well say, Germanic
communities, hardly any other change than the gradual
breaking up of the clan, as strangers were adopted
into it and relatives emigrated, and its replacement
by the mere local community of the Markgenossenschaft,
the mark community. In this the families held their
hides {mansi, Hufen) in common with the other villagers,
and enjoyed the use of the allmende, the common pasture
and woods, just as in olden times. Gradually private
property increased, especially by the cultivation of
forest and swamp lands ; hereditary rights, at first
limited by the rights of relatives of a rather remote
degree, were more and more confined to direct de-
scendants, until the right of free disposal of property
was more or less recognized.

Soon we find large holdings of land in the hands of

xii THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 113

the great, who were not, however, the descendants of
\ the old nobihty, which, at least among the Franks,
I with whom we are most concerned, had perished in the
continuous strifes of conquest. In the interior of
Germany, to be sure, especially among the Saxons,
the old nobility had attained great power, but, as the
final results of their development were the same as
in the west, we can leave these and other varying
details out of consideration. In the Roman parts of
Gaul the most powerful of the conquerors took pos-
session of the large estates. Also the Church held
wide stretches of land in undisturbed possession. In
the purely German part the inequality of landed
property was especially increased by the rights attend-
ing the clearing of land; the thrifty man, the man
with a large family, and with numerous serfs, had an
immense advantage under the old Germanic law, by
which the work of cultivation gave the right of pos-
session, a principle which is the foundation of our
American Homestead Law.

As in primitive times, the freeman was obliged to
perform military service and to attend court, although
the legislative power and part of the judicial function
had fallen to the king. At first the large estates were
compact enough to be managed by the proprietor in
person from his manor house; the work was done by
serfs, as of old, and many of the latter had their own
parcel of land to till. On the Roman estates the new
proprietors found a graduated system of unfree tenants.
The smaller freeholder, seeing from the example of his
^more experienced neighbors the results of advanced
agricultural industry, and stimulated by the exhorta-
tions of the Christian priests, had learned the value of
work; he tilled the soil, slowly developing into the

114 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

peasant of the well-known type, but for a long time
not losing his warlike character; he fulfilled, too, his
civil obligations in the assembly of the hundreds, per-
haps of the shire or Gau, later in the smaller districts
of the 'Hens."

We have seen that the king exercised his rights and
attended to the administration through liis represen-
tatives, the counts. He required, of course, a great
many officials for these purposes, as well as for those
of the central government and the royal court. The
necessity of compensating these officials under an
agrarian system is the true origin of feudaUsm, since
compensation in kind was the only possible method in
a period which did not know the use of money. It is
true, the Germans had become acquainted with the
money of the Romans, they even adopted it, and
Chlodowech had already introduced the gold standard
of coinage, but as there was no commerce worth men-
tioning, the fundamental condition for the use of money
was lacking. The conquerors did not really know what
to do with it, except to put it in their treasure boxes.
As for the rest, business intercourse was based on
barter, and where money was used, it took the place of
the original barter value. Even the strongest Frankish
rulers had not succeeded, in spite of repeated efforts,
in imposing taxes on the German section of their sub-
jects. In consequence of the general lowering of the
standard of social life, the old dictum that the con-
querors accept the higher civilization of the conquered
was reversed, and with the Romance population also
the economical system based on money was replaced
by one based on natural produce. The revenues of
the king were derived from the "King's Land," i.e.,
all the lands that were not distributed and not settled,

XII THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 115

as well as from his share in new conquests, and from
the so-called regalia, regal prerogatives, which, however,
for the most part became remunerative only after they
had slipped from the king's control. The king's
regalia were principally the right of coinage and the
right of levying tolls and customs, comprising a right
of supervision of those in existence and the power to
grant new privileges or to abolish old ones. Others
were : sums received from Jews and foreigners for
protection; the principal share of the tributes of con-
quered peoples ; the appointment to vacant prebends ;
the right of higher chase and fishing; sole authority
to grant permission to erect fortifications; the mining
rights. The king also received frequent financial sup-
port from the princes, and especially the higher clergy,
mostly in exchange for valuable privileges. Some of
these prerogatives, however, were created later; and
for a long time we hear of those voluntary donations
which in primitive times under the name of hede formed
the reward of the kings or dukes. The share of all
fines and weregilds, which he had a right to claim as
supreme judge, went mostly to his counts.

At first the king was almost entirely confined to the
income from liis royal domains, which he received in
the shape of agricultural products. The condition of
the roads, as far as there were any, made transporta-
tion very difficult, and by water it was extremely slow.
Thus in order to enjoy the full benefit of his estates
he was obliged to change continually from one centre
of production to another. This explains the large
number of royal palaces (Pfalzen) in different parts of
the empire.

This kind of revenue enabled him to reward his im-
mediate followers, the court oflBcials, but it afforded

116 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap,

only a very inconvenient method of paying his ad-
ministrative officers, especially his counts and other
officers, in various parts of the empire. Therefore, in
place of our modern salaries, he assigned them certain
parts of his domain, the fruits of which were to be
theirs. The counts naturally received such estates as
were situated within their administrative districts,
and either because they sometimes held several dis-
tricts under their control, or for other reasons, their
lands were frequently not contiguous.

Karl Martel was obliged to provide for his nobles,
who were unable to stand the strain of the continued
warfare and the increased cost of equipment, with
horse and armor. The crown lands not being suffi-
cient, he had taken church property, a step which lost
him the good-will of the clergy, including the chroni-
clers. These donations, according to Germanic ideas,
estabhshed a personal relation between the donor and
the receiver, which imposed upon the latter the duty of
faithfulness. The benefices which Karl Martel took
from the Church had been of this character, and it
became customary to give them only as a loan for mili-
tary service ; but even where a certain rent was paid,
these beneficia were always distinguished from the
precaria, the old Roman form of land tenancy. But
no matter what the original form was, none of these
lands were given as free property, but as a loan returnable
to the king when the conditions under which they had
been given should come to an end or the term of the
office with which they were committed should expire.
From this comes the German word Lehnswesen (liter-
ally loan system) for the feudal system. An oath of
fealty was connected with the surrender of the fief and
was accompanied by symbolical actions. The relation

XII THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 117

between the senior and his vassal was that of mutual
obligation. The liege-lord was expected to protect and
help his vassal, while the vassal was pledged to service,
obedience, and faithfulness. This conception of vassal-
age also underlay the service of the lord and of woman
in chivalry.

Of course, the tendency of the holders of the fiefs
was to keep a tenacious grip on them, to make them,
if possible, hereditary, and not seldom did they succeed.
Since the office was connected with the estate, it natu-
rally became hereditary likewise. As soon as the repre-
sentation of the king became an hereditary office, the
functions of sovereignty came to appear not as trans-
ferred ty royal authority, but as proceeding from a
natural right. The vassals began to feel like sovereigns
on a smaller scale, and organized their own adminis-
trations and had their own followers just as the king had
his. The name vassal, is probably of Keltic origin;
the Germans use the names Lehnsmann and Lehnsherr.
"Vassal," w^hich originally signified the personal attend-
ants of the king, was later applied to all who held a
fief, whether as ministerials or for military services.
Another influence helped to make the position of the
vassal still more independent. The Christian religion
of the time was, as we know, not a rehgion of inner
sanctification or of an elevation of character, but was
superficial in its conception. For laymen and clergy
the human soul was, so to speak, the object of a con-
tinuous and violent combat between good and evil
! powers, without any ethical participation of the will.
! The important point was therefore to increase the inter-
I est of the good spirits in a personaUty in order that
' God, on their mediation, might put forth all his power
[ to defeat the devil and thus win the soul for heaven.

118 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

But nobody was more apt to influence God in this
sense than the saints, who by their merits had accu-
mulated such a wealth of divine grace that they had
more than they needed for their own salvation, and
thereby had earned the right to have their prayers
granted. The saints, therefore, were approached not
with prayers only, but also with personal sacrifices,
with donations to the Church. When the king did
this, in order to make his present a truly royal one, he
resigned some of his prerogatives over the territories
donated and exempted them from the jurisdiction of
his officers. The proprietor, i.e., the Church, became
the judiciary patron of the district, a privilege which
was extended in time to all the property of the Church.
No royal official was allowed to exercise his authority
in her territory. This privilege, called immunity, did
not remain confined to the Church ; the great vassals
thought it but fair that it should be extended to them,
and, to a greater or less extent, they soon obtained it.
To anticipate the gradual waning of the sovereign power,
due to the king's own action, I may add here that later,
when no King's Land was left to give away, and the
actual power of the king over his vassals had practically
disappeared, the royal prerogatives, the regalia, were
one by one given away simply to secure the good-will of
the vassals for the election of the king or other political
purposes, or to secure financial assistance, especially
from the Church and the cities. The example of the
king was followed by his vassals, who gave away parts
of their vast possessions as fiefs to their trusted followers,
while the latter apportioned them in their turn, until in
time a whole system of subordinated vassals, in seven
grades, had developed.
The increase of large landholdings had made living

XII THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 119

conditions unfavorable for the freeman who owned only-
one or a few hides; the frequency of wars and the
greater cost of equipment, especially when the horse
became indispensable in warfare, made the duty of
military service an unbearable burden. Likewise the
duty of court attendance called the peasant away from
his work, with consequent loss to him in the manage-
ment of his farm. If he failed in a contest with the law,
the fines imposed were altogether too high in proportion
to his means. The count, who as military leader of his
district had the right to call the freemen to arms, did his
best to make the life of the small freeholder as miserable
as possible, by frequent requisitions for service in the
army and in court, under penalty of heavy fines. The
working of the estates from the lord's manor had, in
time, become impossible, and the serfs had changed
gradually into tenants, who in return for personal
service at the manor and the payment of a small share
of their products, cultivated their lands for their own
benefit. They still remained unfree, however, and were
the property of their master, ''attached to the soil."
Out of their number the lord took his personal attend-
ants, his ministerials, who frequently attained high
honors, and from whom in time a new nobihty developed.
Such unfree men, or leudes, if successful, had thus a more
comfortable life, more influence, and a higher social
rank than a small freeman. The extension of the lands
and their scattered location had necessitated the estab-
lishment of plural administrative centres, where the
products representing the rental could be conveniently
deUvered, and where supervision could be made more
effectual. A steward, German Meier, was appointed,
and his farm (the Meierhof) was usually located in the
centre of the district. Such law as the lord had estab-

120 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

lished under the "immunity" was administered by the
steward, important cases being reserved for the lord of
the manor, just as a very few cases had still been kept
under the king's jurisdiction. The common manage-
ment of the large holdings made possible a much more
intensive application of improved agricultm-al methods,
and the lord's villains had consequently a great advan-
tage over the small freeman. As holder of a number of
hides the lord, of course, had a right to the use of the
commons, upon which he had already greatly en-
croached by clearings, and soon the freeman's old rights
were regarded rather as a charge on the overlord's
estates than a fundamental title.

There were thus many reasons why the small free-
holder should envy the villain w^ho Uved in the im-
munities, who had no burdens of military and court
service, and who seemed more prosperous and more
respected, with greater prospects of improving his
condition ; this was even more the case when his
manorial lord was the Church, a bishop or abbot, who
treated their tenants so well that the sajdng, ''There is
good living under the crozier" {Unterm Krummstab
ist gut leben), gained the strength of a proverb. The
result was that the freemen began to give up their
Uberty, surrendered their property to the manorial lord,
and received it back as a fief or benefice. The Church
especially received many vassals in this manner, as it
offered in turn, besides the advantages just mentioned,
the powerful patronage of the saints, a ticket of admis-
sion to heaven, as it were. The act of giving up
property and recommending one's self to the protection
of the lord or of the Church was called commendation,
a term taken from Roman law (German Hulde).
This, of course, had its outward symbohc expression,

XII THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 121

the giver laying both hands in those of his future liege-
lord. Then he received his property back as a benefice,
symbolized by a tuft of grass or a handful of soil. Later
in the tunes of chivalry, when the military character
of the vassalage became more emphasized, the vassal
received a flag or a shield and spear, or, if he belonged to
the clergy, a ring and crozier. At first the freeborn did
not lose their liberty, but, as the different kinds of serfs
and other unfree tenants were assimilated, they received
the former into their ranks, forming at last the new
peasant class of the Grundholden, which we may trans-
late with "yeomen" or ''villains." This change in the
character of the freeholders, who, we must remember,
had been the preservers of legal tradition, was of great
importance in the development of peasant rights,
securing continuity between the old and the new
peasantry. Although unfree, their relations to their
lord, or more directly to his steward, yet became legally
settled, and a great deal of the old popular law was
preserved in these Hofrechte or manorial statutes,
which were expressed in symbolical language, as of old.
In time, however, the legal practice of these courts
came to be written down in collections of their decisions,
called Weistilmer, perhaps best translated by rules
from precedent, which, like similar collections of munici-
pal decisions, contain many pure traditions of German
justice. (A comparison to the origin of the English Com-
mon Law is obvious.) Under these conditions was
formed the new peasantry, the old institution of serf-
dom remaining for centuries a legal fiction, which was
to be revived again under more unfavorable economical
conditions.

It may be stated here that, however dependent the
serfs {die Horigen) became in time, and how much

122 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

they were destined to suffer in years to come from
tyrannical lords, the institution of slavery disappeared
very early in mediaeval times. The need of a working
proletariat for gross production had become very much
less pressing than in the ancient world, for, in spite of all
complaints regarding the retrogression of civilization
following the invasion of the northern barbarians, the
new order of things included an extensive increase of
technical appliances, such as chainworks, watermills,
etc., of which, although invented in Roman times, the
economical importance had not been recognized. These
had now come into general use, and liberated a great
amount of human labor of that very kind which had
been performed by the slaves of antiquity.

In time the feudal system embraced almost all the
land, although in some parts of Germany the sturdy
freemen maintained their liberty and their old consti-
tution, especially in the border regions of the Alps and
of Friesland, and on the isolated farms in Westphalia,
Alsace, Suabia, the Mosel country, and the Wetterau.
The rest of the country was in the hands of vassals.
But the principle that every man must be the vassal of
somebody did not become so absolute a rule in Germany
as elsewhere. The fact that the great vassals held their
offices by appointment was forgotten, and their connec-
tion with the king becam^e purely ethical ; they were
bound to him by their oath of fealty. The pyramid of
vassalage left finally as the immediate vassals of the
king (as the vorderest empfaher, Fusten) only sixteen
grandees besides the high ecclesiastical dignitaries.
The old tribal dukes took a prominent place. While the
king was forced to lead a roving life among his various
estates and to make frequent visits to Italy, his vassals
stayed in immediate contact with their dependencies;

XII THE FEUDAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 123

as the king's control waned, their power increased.
For a time it looked even as if the country might be
divided into a northern and a southern empire. On the
other hand, the lower vassals obtained a comparatively
high degree of independence.

The head of the pyramid was the king ; the Emperor,
indeed, claimed theoretically to be the highest liege-
lord over the kings of Europe, although this claim was
strongly disputed by the Pope. Practically the Em-
peror's rights were acknowledged only where he ruled
as king, although it appeared under some strong and
ambitious emperors as if the ideal of the universal
empire might still be reaUzed. The conflicting claims
of the spiritual and temporal rulers led to a long and
embittered contest, which we shall have to consider later.

The king under the feudal system really ruled only
through his vassals. The only way for him to increase
his power was to enfeoff the members of his own family,
especially his heir, with fiefs which had become vacant
by the extinction of a family, by forfeiture, or by a
breach of fealty. Strong rulers used these oppor-
tunities to break the overwhelming strength of the
tribal duchies by dividing them. The kingdom never
was theoretically hereditary in Germany, but most
emperors succeeded in having their sons elected as
successors having homage sworn to them during their
lifetime. The vassals were the leaders of their mili-
tary contingents when the army was called out for
war, each contingent being composed of those of the
lower vassals. The organization, though based on the
tenure of land, was in reality mihtary ; the feudal lord
paid the expenses of equipment ; each of the seven
grades of vassalage was called Heerschild. It was the
fact that the freeman had to accept his equipment of

124 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xii

armor and horse from the Hege-lord or else withdraw
from miUtary service altogether, which lost him the
privileges of freedom.

In considering the main features of the German
feudal system as I have tried to describe them, it must
not be thought that they were in reality so simple or
that historical investigations agree on all points. There
were variations and complications, and it took centuries
for all the typical features to develop, including as the
final step the hereditary right of the vassal to his fief
and the obligation of the liege-lord to enfeoff another
vassal immediately after the fief had become vacant.
Just as the territories of the feudal lords were not
continuous, but were intermixed in a most confusing
manner, so were the legal competencies of the different
ruling powers ; and often the common man was at a loss,
between the royal, the ecclesiastical, and the different
feudal authorities, which master to obey. If we add
to this the right of private war, das Fehderecht, which
entitled anybody to settle by force of arms all real or
supposed injuries inflicted outside of his own judicial
circle, we can understand that at times conditions came
very close to anarchy. But on the whole we must see
in the feudal system the transitions from the commu-
nistic economy of primitive times to the private property
of to-day.

Alongside of the feudal system, which in Germany
never became identical with the legal or constitutional
system of the state, and did not include all landed
property, a new classification of the freemen had devel-
oped, which divided them into three classes, as well as
subdivisions of the unfree. There were transitions
and crossings between the different classes, nor was the
distinction from the feudal grades always very sharp.

CHAPTER XIII

THE MONASTERIES

Education and Literature in the Earlier Middle Ages

In those early restless times the protection of the
Church and the peace of the monasteries, although not
entirely removed from mundane troubles, offered a
refuge to many. Monks had been the first missionaries
to the German ; in the midst of the heathen popula-
tion they had built their settlements. The first to
arrive were Columba and his companions, who had
come from Ireland to introduce their stricter rule of
monastic life into the somewhat worldly monasteries
of Frankish Gaul. Columba, indeed, gave only rather
incidental attention to the conversion of the heathen,
as he crossed the country of the Alamans on his way to
Italy. His disciple Gallus remained behind and
founded the monastery which, under the name of St.
Gallen, was destined to become for a long time the
most famous seat of German learning. Much more effi-
cient was the work of St. Boniface, the ''apostle of the
Germans," and the English missionaries who followed
him. His remains are buried in the cathedral of Fulda,
where he had founded his most important monastery
on a site which at that time must have been regarded as
an outpost of civilization. The tomb at Fulda is to-day
perhaps the most sacred spot for Catholic Germany.
The bishops meet there for important deliberations

125

126 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

and the spirit of the EngUsh monk who bound Germany
to the Roman pontifex appears still powerful ; many a
manly resolution to break this bond, which was felt as
a heavy chain, has in the end proved futile.

The monasteries rapidly increased and in a com-
paratively short time numbered over a hundred.
They received immense tracts of land from their
founders. There was, however, sometimes a distinctly
economical side to this liberality; as soon as it was
seen that the monks were great cultivators, large tracts
of wild lands were granted to them, often in exchange
for smaller areas which they had cultivated with the
plough. We have aheady spoken of other causes for the
rapid increase of their landed property ; in this period of
agrarian economy, too, the monks as the holders of an
unusual amount of cash money were able to buy lands
on their own account. As the cathedral schools never
gained any lasting influence, in spite of a few apparent
exceptions, the bishops were mostly educated in the
monastery schools and were usually themselves monks.
Thus everything combined to increase the power of
monachism, to extend its influence in all directions,
among the masses as well as in the highest places.

The monks were the protectors of the poor ; hundreds
of beggars were fed and clothed in the gateways of the
monasteries, the inmates of which were the physicians
and the nurses of the sick, and in many other respects
showed, even in an age of worldliness and decay, that
Christian charity was for them not a matter of words
and sermons only. For this reason their preaching of
the gospel of pity had a great effect and the public
showed a readiness to help the poor and needy by dona-
tions and active assistance, an assistance involving
personal effort and work, even disagreeable work fre-

xin THE MONASTERIES 127

quently, which perhaps has never been equalled.
Whether this breeding of beggars in the name of God,
this fostering of dependence on others, was an advan-
tage to the healthy development of the nation may
appear doubtful to the modern thinker — but some-
how it seems in keeping with that time. It was a part
of the taming of the German spirit, a part of the lesson
in self-control, which was needed to make it fit for the
higher culture still to come. It was this active side of
Christian devotion and the honorable position of labor
v/hich was the principal and most important lesson
taught by the monks. This, in connection with the
vigorous health of the youthful Germanic race, pre-
vented an undue asceticism, which under the guise of a
needed monastic reform swept over Europe from time
to time, and among the Romance nations, especially in
[ Italy, approached its Oriental model. Germany did in
! truth have some examples of this loathsome form of
! religious insanity, of women who were so pious that
; they allowed themselves hterally to be devoured by
; vermin and who, if one of their little tormentors fell
[ off, put it back on their bodies with their own hands
\ in the behef that this would please God. But as a rule
I in Germany the ascetic tendencies worked themselves
out in hard, menial labor and a desire for solitude.
The male hermit usually withdrew into the forest, the
old friend of the Germans, and there, in immediate
contact with nature, sought and often found the mystic
unity with God. When the ascendency of asceticism
. had changed the attitude of the Church towards labor
as being a means to worldly, i.e., sinful, ends, fortunately
the education of the people had endured long enough
, to become effective ; especially in the cities new centres
of industrious activity had arisen.

128 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

It was a curious age, an age of contrasts, of powerful
and unusual emotions — perhaps the disturbed surface
was only the reflex of the revolution within. For in
this period, the centuries about the year 1000, took
place the real conversion of the Germans to Chris-
tianity. The new religion was now strong enough to
be conceived in its true character, not as a disguised
paganism, although how much of the latter has uncon-
sciously survived does not need to be pointed out.

In those times the Christian spirit showed itself in
humility and exaggerated modesty. Tears were shed
on every occasion and public self-abasement was
common. No bishop was elected without first refusing
to accept the dignity and actually fleeing to hide his
unworthiness, until at last, under an almost hysterical
stream of tears, he allowed himself to be invested with
the emblems of his office. It would have been disgrace-
ful had the Emperor not wept profusely at his corona-
tion. It is claimed that from this period date most
of those forms of present social intercourse which are
characterized by a show of modesty, and this may be
partly true.

Not only in the resistance to the ascetic habits of
their Romance brethren did the German monks show
their national character, but also in other matters.
They would not submit to that centralization of the
so-called Reform monasteries of France and Italy
which made them such powerful instruments of the
Church in the fight for the rule of the world, which was
fought under the disguise of the Christian spirit against
worldliness,of heaven against earth, of death against life.
A healthy German of the present day shivers when he
reads that life was so hateful to the pious people of that
time that they could not endure even the appearance

XIII THE MONASTERIES 129

of health and used to bleed themselves in order to look
sickly, which for them meant "spiritual !" There will
be occasion to return to this subject in a later chapter.

Reference has already been made to the monastery
i schools. They were in the main preparatory schools
for the clergy or for the religious orders ; it was cus-
tomary for pious parents to offer one or more of
their children to God. These pueri oblati, who were
surrendered to the cloister at a very tender age, were
educated in the so-called seven liberal arts and had to
learn to read and write Latin before they learned to do
so in their mother tongue, if, indeed, for the period
following the ninth century at least, they were al-
lowed to learn the latter at all, which is very doubtful.
A similar training was given to the sons of noble patrons
of the monastery, who were not intended for a clerical
career. The education of the common people was not
within the scope of monastic ambition, nor were the
efforts which were made by Charles the Great very
serious or lasting. The education of the daughters of
noble famiUes seems to have been intrusted to numerous
convents, the principal purpose of which was apparently
to offer a home to women of the nobihty who remained
unmarried or wished to spend their widowhood in seclu-
sion.

We read a great deal about the scholarship of the
monks and nuns, and are taught that we owe them an
immense debt of gratitude for the preservation of
classical literature. There undoubtedly were a great
many monks of scholarly achievements, like Hrabanus
Maurus of Mainz, and Fulda, who was honored with the
"title of prceceptor Germanice, teacher of Germany, or
Walafrid Strabo of Reichenau, or a great number of
monks of St. Gallen, and, to mention, at least one nun,

130 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Hrosvith of Gandersheim, who deserve a place of honor
even from a modern point of view, but must it not be
said in justice that they were exceptions? that the
interest in really scholarly work was not lasting and
that it was confined to a few monasteries only ? Where
it was not superseded by sensual barbarism, it took a
one-sided theological turn of little originality, often
confined to senseless copying. A hostile attitude
towards classical literature was the rule, which was the
same spirit that caused Bishop Theodosius to destroy
the invaluable library at Alexandria, a deed with which
a pious fraud has burdened the Mohammedans.

Under the influence of Otto the Great and his wife,
the Greek princess Theophano, there was another
renaissance of classicism of even less importance than
that inaugurated by Charles the Great. Soon hos-
tility to pagan writers, ignorance, and indifference
again held sway. WTiatever was preserved was done
so against the will of the Church authorities, and what-
ever was done by individual monks was done against
the spirit of their order. Does a ward owe thanks to a
guardian who on his coming of age turns over to him
only a small remainder of his fortune? Should he
praise him because he did not squander all ? But this
is exactly the position of monasticism in relation to
classical antiquity. Its most important part, the litera-
ture of the Greeks, which in Constantinople and the
Eastern Empire was accessible throughout the greater
part of the Middle Ages, was entirely neglected, al-
though attention had been called to it during the
Crusades and the reigns of those emperors who were
more closely connected with the Greek imperial family.
The valuable manuscripts were destroyed by the monks,
not, as we are taught to believe, by the barbarians of

xiii THE MONASTERIES 131

the Great Migrations, who, on the contrary, showed
the greatest respect for the rehcs of antiquity. The
monks even scraped off the writing from the parch-
ments in order to use the sheets for their insipid copy-
ing. In that famous nursery of intellectual life, the
monastery of St. Gallen, where, by the way, in the
height of mediaeval times neither the abbot nor any
of the monks were able to write, Poggio, the great
Italian humanist, found a most valuable unique manu-
script used as a padding for a wine barrel. That does
not quite agree with the praises of the mediaeval
monasteries as the homes and preservers of classical
education. It is not their merit that the products of
the Greek and Latin genius did not disappear entirely
from the face of the earth, just as they succeeded in
destroying the heroic songs of the Germans. More
than ever, the German of to-day misses those testi-
monies of the true character of his ancestors, the begin-
nings of his national literature. As long as the priests
were not certain of their new converts, they were com-
pelled to use the language of the latter as a means of
making the heathen understand their message. Thus
at the beginning of Germanic literature we have the
translation of the Bible by Ulfilas the Goth, although
twe must not forget that Ulfilas was not of Gothic
f descent, but came from a race which for centuries had
fenjoyed the highest intellectual culture. He found,
'aowever, a language almost ready for his use, a lan-
guage which shows a wealth and beauty, a pUability
A^hich makes us imagine what a pleasure it must have
Deen to listen to the songs recited by the skop in
.he halls of the great, when, in distinction to the gospel
;ranslation, subject-matter and language were the
)utcome of the same national spirit.

132 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xiii

When, five centuries after Ulfilas, the spirit of intol-
erance had gained supremacy, the national language
was contemptuously called the language of the mob.
Whatever there was of secular poetry was ruthlessly
destroyed, so that only scant fragments escaped.
Literature became Latinized, but this language did not
lend itself willingly to the German mind, and with a
few exceptions, soon degenerated, as it is correctly said,
into a mere stammering. The poetry consisted princi-
pally of hymns in endless repetition of the same thought.
Here and there other subjects were treated, usually
with a moral point in view, as the plays of Hrosvith of
Gandersheim. Like an oasis in a desert is the " Wal-
thariliet " by Ekkehard, which, though written in
Latin, is a German poem.

Little as can be found to praise on the literary side
of the monks' life, it would be unjust to forget their
services to history. Their annals and chronicles are val-
uable, not only as our principal source of knowledge for
that period, but in many cases for their literary merit.

When the monks discovered that they could not
succeed in stamping out the German language and the
spirit it stood for, — most of them were German at
heart themselves, — when in spite of their efforts the
people preferred to listen to the vagrants' German
songs than to their Latin hymns, they abandoned their
degenerated Latin, almost unfit for a vehicle of thought,
and returned to the vernacular ; but they never suc-
ceeded in out rivalling secular literature.

Although the monasteries failed in this one respect,
they well filled their place as a factor of advancing
civ'ilization, especially in those fields where the scholas-
tic and ascetic spirit could not subdue the energy of
the vigorous life of the Germans, such as agriculture and
the beginnings of industry and art.

CHAPTER XIV

EMPEROR AND POPE

In the last chapter it was pointed out that the change
in the German soul from paganism to true Christian
piety took place in a period of great unrest ; the inner
revolution was accompanied by outer convulsions and
disturbances. One of the disturbing elements was the
spirit of asceticism, which, while having naturally
an mimediate influence on the shaping of the general
aspects of life, was one of the causes of two important
movements, to ^vit, the Crusades and the great conflict
between the Pope and the Emperor. I say one of the
causes, for how much more complex must be the factors
which govern the life of the national soul than those
which decide individual actions ; how shallow a depth
have we reached so far in the investigation of either !
At what a disadvantage are we in trying to express our
observations in language, being obliged to enumerate
individually and successively what in reality is^simul-
taneous and combined action, energized by mutual
influences !

As we speak of the combat between priest and king
there comes to our mind the tradition of its most dra-
matic moment, that Christmas of 1076 when the king
of the Germans, accompanied by his faithful wife and
clad in the rough garb of the penitent, braved the frosts
and storms of the Alpine wdnter, and after a month's
travel, reached the castle gate of Canossa, which was to

133

134 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

be opened to him only after he had stood barefoot in
snow and ice for three days, while in his soul raged
storms it must have taken a superhuman effort to con-
trol. It was just 700 years before the battle of Trenton,
that Christmas, — a rather long time for American
memories, but a very real thing for the Germans, who,
as children, have listened with throbbing pulses to
Heine's thrilling poem, who have found that the pledge
of their greatest statesman, ''To Canossa we shall not
go," was nothing but an empty boast, and who see their
fatherland day by day torn in two by the same old
fight.

At about the same tim.e that protection was given by
the Frankish ministers of the palace, especially by
Pippin, the first Karling king, to the Roman bishops
in the possession of the land which by forgery had been
claimed as the dominion of St. Peter, Boniface placed
the newly converted Germans under the supreme rule
of the bishops of Rome. The clergy of ancient Gaul,
however, whose Christianity w^as a great deal older and
more far-seeing than that of the kings with whom it
was only skin deep, prevented the full consequences of
Boniface's act from taking effect. It was probably the
opposition of the western Frankish Church which caused
Boniface to resign his Archiepiscopal See at Mainz and,
in his old age, to return to his missionary work, which
ended in his death as a martyr among the Frisians.

The Frankish kings, while considering themselves the
protectors of the Church, by no means concluded from
this that they were to be the servants of the clergy;
on the contrary, they acted as the highest lords of the
Church, not alone in worldly matters, but also in ques-
tions of doctrine. Charles the Great was recognized as
the judge before whom the accused Pope Leo III —

XIV EMPEROR AND POPE 135

the same one who afterwards placed the imperial crown
on his head — had to plead and by whom he was
acquitted. Otto I made the Romans swear never to
elect a Pope without the consent of the king of the Ger-
mans. Numerous are the evidences which prove that
every strong Emperor claimed and held the highest
power over the Church and was considered the lieg-
lord of the secular possessions of the Pope ; even Greg-
ory VII, with whom originated the modern Cathohc
conception of the papacy, asked Henry IV for confir-
mation of his appointment, which was quite contrary to
his later claims. If the king had such power over the
Pope, it is clear that his rule over the national clergy was
undisputed. Still, whenever the character of the king
was less strong, and when he showed himself especially
accessible to the spiritual influences of the Church, the
clergy made immediate use of his weakness to increase
their power.

Thus, in reality we must consider three parties in the
struggle between the secular and ecclesiastical power;
besides the Pope and the Emperor there were the bishops
and the clergy. The submission of the Pope to the
Emperor was due to the weak hold he had on the clergy
and the protection he needed against political foes, not
only foreign conquerors, like the Lombards, Saracens,
and Normans, but also against the inhabitants of Rome.
Furthermore, the more religion in its true sense took
hold of the people, the less did the authority of the popes
find recognition, since their moral standing had sunk as
low, lower, perhaps, than when the visit of the German
monk Luther helped to bring about the Reformation.
Again and again the serious religious conceptions of the
Germans and the strong hand of their kings had saved
the Church from the moral depravity of its rulers and

136 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

had placed on the Papal See men worthy of the
office.

TMiile in reality the clergy allowed the Pope to inter-
fere with them very little, they found it to their advan-
tage in establishing their power over the laymen to
claim that only the Pope had jurisdiction over them
and that complaints must be brought before him. The
Pope was far away, and the whole mode of procedure
was such as to make a suit practically impossible ; in
most cases sixty or even eighty witnesses were requned,
all of whom had to have wives and children. These
claims were based on the so-called pseudo-Isidorian
decretals, one of the boldest forgeries ever perpetrated
and perhaps the most far-reaching in its consequences.

The causes which increased the worldly possessions
of the Church have repeatedly been pointed out in
these pages ; the clergy had become indispensable to
the kings, as they had the monopoly of education and
all higher government officials had to be selected from
their number. Besides, they were naturally more
dependent on the Emperor because their fiefs were not
hereditary, and therefore they formed a much more
reliable support than the secular vassals; they were
taxable under certain conditions and always available
for royal service; all diplomacy was in their hands.
When in the fight which ensued they took the part of
the Pope, it was because they thought that a success of
his claims would make them independent of the king,
while past experience led them to believe that the
Pope's power could not make itself felt very strongly.

When Emperor Henry V succeeded in getting the
signature of Pope Paschahs II to a treaty intended to
bring about the separation of ecclesiastical and secular
interests, a solution which would have best served the

XIV EMPEROR AND POPE 137

ideal purposes of each, the clergy, fearing to lose their
rich worldly possessions, which they owed to the
Emperor, in a special sj'nod anathemized the treaty ;
and this time the Pope found it to his advantage to
place himself under the authority of the synod. It was
the abiUty or inability of the popes to bring the German
clergy to their side which decided their victory or defeat.
The more the Germans learned to look upon the
priests as something more than mere sorcerers, the more
the awakening of the religious sense and of true piety
taught them to distinguish between the spiritual and
material world, the higher became the dignity and the
greater grew the power of the clergy over the minds of
the people. But this same religious awakening brought
with it the demand that the life of the priests be worthy
of their high office. It was but natural for the newly
discovered spiritual life to become unduly emphasized,
which led to an excessive contempt of everything
worldly. Thus arose a continuous antithesis of the
soul as the seat of purity and the body as the vessel of
sin, which brought about the denial of life and health
with asceticism as their avowed enemy. It has been
: shown that this mediaeval asceticism had its origin and
i found its greatest development in Romance monasteries,
• and that this monastic reform had a tendency to cen-
tralization ; the monks tried with success to place them-
selves outside of the jurisdiction of the bishops and
directly under the authority of the Roman See, which,
of course, as long as the popes were of the character
described, meant perfect independence. The reform
movement originated in the French monaster^' of Cluny
in the tenth century, and although the Germans did
not go to the same extremes as their French brethren,
yet this influence met with their own deeper conception

138 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of religion. This reform movenient found its strongest
and most efficient protector in Emperor Henry III.
He ended the shameful conditions at the papal court,
and, by the appointment of Bishop Bruno of Toul as
Pope, he gained, for monastic reform, possession of the
highest power in the Church. Henry, who had upheld
his imperial authority in spite of his genuine and deep
piety, died when his son, Henry IV, was only six years
old, and inmiediately the monastic party began its
intrigues. Monastic rules were made binding on all
priests ; celibacy, the introduction of which had been
previously attempted, but which hitherto had affected
the bishops only, was now enforced upon all the clergy
with the support of the lay world. The reasons,
publicly given, were not very complimentary to the
women. The true reason, however, why the Church
forbade marriage to the priests was in order that no
particle of the energy and interests of the servants of
the Church should be diverted to outside matters.
Three years after the death of Henry III — the same
year in which began the influence of Hildebrand, later
Pope Gregory VII in Rome — it was decided that the
Pope should be elected by the clergy of the city of
Rome, seven cardinal bishops and twenty cardinal
priests. This made the government of the universal
Church dependent on a local body, as it is practically
to-day, notwithstanding a few modifications of the
institution.

With the accession of Gregory VII began the open
fight between Romanism and the Germans, and not
with the Germans alone, but with all secular powers.
This endless antagonism has a character of its own
which will claim our repeated attention, not only
because this book deals with Germans, but also because

XIV EMPEROR AND POPE 139

of the position gained by the German clergy under the
feudal system, and because in the German character
the assertion of individuality is in continuous conflict
with Chiistian piety and humiUty. For this reason
it has seemed advisable to treat the origin of the
struggle with more detail than has been our rule with
political matters.

The point on which centred the attack of the Church
against the secular powers was a weak one. It was
simony, or the habit of selling ecclesiastical offices for
money, which, in consequence of the holding of temporal
powers and possessions by the clergy, had become a
common practice, indulged in both by the king and his
dukes, by the Pope and his bishops. The first period
of conflict had for its object the investiture by the king
of the clerical dignitaries with the sym_bols of ecclesias-
tical power, ring and crozier. One must remember
what an important part symbohsm played in the life
of the time in order to understand the significance of
this contention. The victory which the popes gained
in getting from the emperors the concession that the
bishops and abbots should receive their fiefs not under
the symbol of ring and staff, but by the handing over
of a sceptre, meant the acknowledgment of the rule of
the Pope. "\Miat the popes really wanted is shown by
the claim of Gregory : "The whole world is a fief of the
Papal See, and all the princes are only vassals of the
pope ;" he demanded feudal tribute from every house-
hold, but succeeded in getting it only where very weak
princes were in power. This claim has never been
given up, and England has seen at least one of her kings
submit to it. Its most famous expression, often quoted
to-day, is contained in the bull Unam sanctam, addressed
to all Christians by Boniface VIII, a Pope who before

140 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xiv

witnesses declared the divine law to be a human inven-
tion to keep the great mass of the people in fear by the
horrors of eternal punishment : "There are two swords,
the spiritual and the secular ; not only the former, but
also the latter, is under the control of the pope. It is
true the secular sword is held by the kings, but only
at the nod and suffering of the popes. The secular
power is subject to the spiritual, the latter instructs and
judges the former, but the pope has no judge above
him. We declare it as an article of faith that every
human creature is subject to the pope and whoever
believes differently cannot be saved." This claim,
which forms a part of the Canon Law, the law of the
Church to-day, must be kept in mind in reading of
the bitter conflicts wherever Church and state are not
separate and wherever the Church tries to gain political
power. Wherever a nation takes up a fight against
Rome, it is not a fight against religion, but a fight for
political liberty. The entering of this claim into politics
is of the greatest importance in understanding German
history and German culture, for here politics are inter-
mingled with the deepest interests of the heart.

CHAPTER XV

CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES

The rapid increase of papal power induced the Pope
to make use of the intense religious feehng of the times
by calUng all Christians to arms for the conquest of
the Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrimages to the shrines of the
saints and the holy places where they had shown their
power by working miracles, especially those of healing
the sick, had become a popular form of asceticism, of
satisfying that self-accusing spirit of sinfulness in the
sight of which the very instinct of life was a cause for
penitence. As these pilgrims did not have the use of
parlor cars and sumptuous state-rooms, their travels,
even if not as was usual, on foot, entailed real hardships.
The holy places that had witnessed the life and suffer-
ings of the Saviour had been the goal of pilgrims from
Europe for some time ; and the persecutions of the
pilgrims, which had increased after the Turks became
masters of Jerusalem, made such pilgrimages more
meritorious. As the Turks encroached more and more
on the territories of the Eastern Emperor in Constan-
tinople, he asked help of the Pope, who gladly embraced
this opportunity of showing himself lord of the Christian
world.

We shall see that the Crusades indicate the high-
water mark of papal authority, and at the same time
mark the beginning of its decline. The Church herself,
by placing in the service of the holy cause the physical

141

142 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

virtues and the very instincts she had constantly warred
against as vicious, strengthened the very spirit of
worldhness over which she had just gained a fancied
victory. In proper connection there will be occasion
to point out the influence of the Crusades on European
civilization and the German attitude towards them.
The immediate effects of the march through Germany
of the unorganized, undisciplined hordes, which formed
the vanguard of the first Crusade, were disgusting to
the inhabitants of that country. They brought in their
wake disturbances of all kinds, and roused to activity
the worst elements of the population. A savage perse-
cution of the Jews was the first new fashion introduced
by these instruments of higher civilization, as the Cru-
sades are usually described. But on the whole they
helped to success the reaction of the instincts of life
against the world-despising powers of asceticism. They
coincided with other factors working towards the same
end, of which the transition from an agrarian to a
financial system is the most important. Indeed, among
the causes which were responsible for the Crusades,
although not so prominent on the surface, commercial
considerations play a very important part. This
strengthening of the worldly spirit found its finest
expression in the development of Chivalry.

The origin of Chivalry dates back to the change in
warfare necessitated by the invasions of an enemy who
fought on horseback, who suddenly appeared, accom-
plished his work of plunder and destruction, and disap-
peared on his fleet horses before an army could be
marched out to meet him. The Saracens in France at
the time of Charles the Hammer had caused the trans-
formation of the army, making the cavalry its principal,
almost exclusive, body. The same cause led to the

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 143

same result in Germany a hundred years later, only
here, instead of Saracens, the enemy were Mongolians,
who for a long time periodically appeared on their
small horses, devastating the country and extending
their raids even to the left banks of the Rhine. Al-
though in reality the strength of the German people
was greater than that of the Mongols, still there was
no chance to display it. This was recognized by Henry
I, the first Saxon king of Germany, who felt keenly the
disgrace of being tributary to these wild hordes. He
set about creating a mounted army which should equal
the enemy in swiftness. i\.s in France, the foot-soldier
lost his importance and the horse formed the backbone
of the army. So important w^as this feature that only
the freeman who was able to keep a horse and to furnish
the corresponding equipment was considered to perform
fully his military duty. The influence this had in in-
creasing the power of the great landholders, and in the
development of feudalism, has been seen in a former
chapter. Knighthood originally meant nothing else
but this service on horseback, and was developed, as
mentioned before, without regard to the old distinction
between free and unfree. Many a villain in the employ
of his master rose to knighthood or even higher. The
English word knight recalls these conditions, as its
original meaning, preserved in the German Knecht, is
serf or servant ; the German Ritter, as well as its French
equivalent, being taken from the knight's military
calling as a horseman, chevalier, cavalier. Only in a
later period of the Middle Ages did it become a law
that only the descendants of three generations of free-
born nobles were admissible to knighthood.

Thus this occupation became a social order, an estate.
This indicates another change in social distinctions, as

144 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the place of the Grundholden and Grundherren, tenants
and landlords, who had grown to be the foundation of
society since the days of the Merovings, was taken by
the clergy, the princes, the knights, the peasants, and
alongside of these, the burghers. At the same time
the idea of equality in birth within the different estates,
Ebenburtigkeit, not altogether strange to primitive
Germanic conditions, became an established principle
of the greatest influence, and not without power to-day.

We have seen that circumstances had caused the
development of chivalry in France long before there was
a cause for it in Germany ; the influence of the old
provincial Roman culture, the contact with the highly
civilized Arabs, who, with a mental versatility far above
their Romance and Germanic contemporaries, had
rapidly developed a superior culture of their own, the
serenity of the southern climate, — all these factors com-
bined to foster the growth of the new order in the south
of France. Here were conceived and developed those
finer external forms in which chivalry moved and which
are comprised under the Middle High German word
hovescheit. They found their highest aesthetic expres-
sion in the poetry and the romances of knighthood
{hofische Dichtung). The English word courtesy
comes down from these times, like its French original
courtoisie, which really means the custom of the
court ; the German expression is only a literal transla-
tion of the same word.

Although foreign influences were at work to some
extent before the Crusades, it was principally the per- i
sonal intercourse of the French and German knights
during that time which gave finish to the institution in
Germany, which up to this time had in the main grown
along its own lines. At first the awkwardness of the

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 145

German knights exposed them to not a Httle ridicule
on the part of their brethren of the Cross, but it was not
long before German knighthood held its own, and
afterwards there is no end to the complaints of their
overbearing wa,js, their superhia, towards other nations.
The temptation to delay amid the splendor of the ro-
mantic side of chivalry is great, but on the one hand it
would take more time than is in keeping with its impor-
tance for the general development of our subject, and
on the other, it may be assumed that it is familiar to
the reader through Walter Scott.

The significance of Chivalry, however, is to be found
in this : For the first time there appears an exclusive
class culture which sharply distinguishes its participants
from the other classes, a culture grown upon national
soil, but become international under French influence ;
for the first time we observe the interchange of cultural
influences between the nations of western Europe, which
so sharply distinguishes our civilization from that of
the Mediterranean coast, which cannot be characterized
as a mutual fecundation, but as a transmission — some-
times rather superficial — of a dying civilization to its
successor. The region where this exchange between
France and Germany took place earliest and most
rapidly was in the country along the Rhine and in
Flanders, where the French and the German, not
separated by any natural boundaries, lived side by
side on the plain.

Chivalry is further important in that for the first time
we meet again an ideal of life outside of the Church;
for the first time we see a higher secular culture. Thus
the Crusades prevented the realization of the aims of
the Church in the long conflict between Emperor and
Pope just at the moment when they appeared to have

146 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

been attained. Both the acquaintance with Greek
CathoHcs, and the intercourse with Mohammedans,
which was very active during the periods of truce,
showed the Crusaders that manly virtue was by no
means wanting outside the folds of the Roman Church,
and that dogmatic differences in creeds were not at all
so important as had been taught. The different culture
of their opponents could not fail to impress the Chris-
tians, and continued its influence after they had returned
to their homes. Furthermore the unfortunate ending
of the Crusades, the dissolute behavior of the rabble,
who formed a considerable part of the army of the Cross,
caused some doubts as to the infallibility of the Church ;
a contemporary German bishop, indeed, in his account
of the second Crusade inquires whether the conquest
of the Holy Sepulchre was really in accord with the will
of God, and whether the Almighty, if he really cared,
might not have accomplished it without the sacrifice
of so many human lives. Especially in Germany the
conflict between the Pope and Emperor, between the
spiritual and secular power, although the former had
gained the upper hand for the time, had caused many
people to think independently, and thus the Church
had lost considerably in prestige and devotion. Even
among the clergy there was a strong national party.
In spite of German religiosity and mysticism, of all the
enthusiasm aroused by Bernhard of Clairvaux, the
Crusades were not very popular in Germany, and a great
German army, which followed the Cross for religious
reasons, was brought together only in the second
Crusade under immediate inspiration of the eloquent
Bernhard. There was not nearly the same enthusiasm
in the army of Barbarossa, and many vassals refused
outright to take the Cross with their contingent.

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 147

This tendency towards worldly interests, which, after
the consciousness of heathenism had died out, began to
conceive life as something more than a mere transition
to purgatory, hell, or heaven, was not at all confined
to the knights, but had taken hold everywhere, espe-
cially in the cities. Besides, there were certain matters
in which the Church in many parts of Germany had
never been allowed to interfere. As late as the fifteenth
century a priest who had come uninvited to bless a
marriage performed according to ancient German law
was sent home with ridicule by the peasants, who told
him that "matrimony existed before parsons."

The temporal side of the ideal of knighthood found
its highest embodiment in the conception of honor as the
essence of all manly, that is, of course, especially warlike,
virtues. And this idea was not conceived in an exter-
nal sense only, but as a moral standard, as self-respect.
"Now bethink you of your knightly honor and of your-
self, who you are," Tristan is told in Gottfrid of Strass-
burg's poem. Many are the passages in Wolfram von
Eschenbach and Walter von der Vogelweide which show
the loftiest conception of honor. In view of the pride
of the warrior the Christian ideal of humility cannot
have had a very lasting influence, though certainly in
the first enthusiasm of the Crusades, under the sway of
asceticism, the simple heart of many a knight opened
itself to this mood, so dangerous to manly dignity and
love of liberty. Likewise the knightly duty of the pro-
tection of the weak, the widows, and the orphans was
practised with less sentimentality, but also with less
regard for future rewards, than had been the custom of
the Church.

Besides a higher secular culture and the beginnings
of a morality founded on individual character, Chivalry,

148 .HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

in making the service of women the centre of its social
existence, for the first time introduces woman into social
life. By making the married woman and the woman of
a higher class the object of his wooing, the knight chose
a goal which was very difficult to reach, and therefore,
from the conqueror's point of view, not only worthier of
ambition, but also of veneration. For this very reason
woman, just admitted into society on an equal footing,
was raised to the exalted position of an unapproach-
able mistress, whose mere glance was a blessing, whose
lips by a few kind words gave compensation for the long
years of service of her pining knight. This artificial,
conventional side of the ''service of the ladies," as well
as its captivating politeness, had been implanted in
Chivalry by the French influence. The etiquette
actually observed in the Hfe in the castles lets us see
how much fiction there was in this exaltation of woman.

In Germany, however, this cult of woman, Frauen-
dienst or Minnedienst, did not confine itself to the con-
ventional adoration of the wife of another, but assumed
a deeper character; we find knights who are not
ashamed to praise their own wives in their Minnelieder,
and Walter von der Vogelweide gives poetic expression
to the pure love of a true German heart. But even
before the total decay of Chivalry, the service of the
ladies had already ceased, and the knight had directed
his desires towards village beauties and those of other
circles where his prayers would find more willing ears.

It is often said that Chivalry was an artificial prod-
uct without lasting effect. It is true that during and
immediately after its decay the ideals it stood for
seemed to have left very few traces. At first the
people, especially in the cities, showed a conscious
opposition to this artificial super-refinement, which

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 149

from the beginning had been mimicked by the peasants.
A coarse rudeness, which frequently took the form of
obscenity, spread even among the middle class, until at
last the Grohianus, the fellow who made it a point to be
rude, was introduced, and unfortunately survives. On
the other hand, the wealthy classes of the cities longest
upheld knightly customs in all their external splendor.
On the whole, when we consider that the qualities
which we comprise under the word chivalrousness,
Ritterlichkeit, have entered into the composition of
every respectable German to-day, that the conception
of honor plays such an important part in German life,
that the veneration of the gentler sex has freed itself
from that artificial conventionality, and that the rela-
tion of the man to the girl he woos has taken the nobler
form of which IMaster Walter sings, the German has
every reason to think gratefully of the age that produced
these ideals. And where to-day the ancient castles,
though only a few ruined walls, bring a mysterious
greeting from those bygone times, there the people
weave around them a veil of legends, in which a curious
mixture of the romantic life of the knight and his fierce-
ness survives in an ever-flowing current.

Renouncing the service of the ladies, the knightly
orders gave an ascetic tendency to chivalrous ideals.
We shall see how at least one of them, the Order of the
German Knights, usually called Teutonic Order, did not
confine itself to fighting, but became a powerful civiliz-
ing agent. These knightly orders left traces in modern
I life in the shape of crosses, stars, etc., which form a
cheap means for European and other governments,
monarchical and republican, to reward faithful sub-
jects or party followers and to win the good-will of
the ambitious. This successful exploitation of human

150 HISTORY OF^ GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

fondness for external honors owes its origin to Emperor
Sigismund in the fifteenth century.

Even before the introduction of gunpowder had made
the protection afforded by armor ineffective, the arms
of the knight had become so heavy that they had to be
carried by armor-bearers until the beginning of the
battle and then so encumbered the knight as speedily
to exhaust him. The defeats suffered in several great
battles, by the armies of the Habsburgs and of the Bur-
gundians at the hands of Swiss peasants showed the
helplessness of the knights against sturdy infantry,
and put an end to the use of the knights as the back-
bone of the army. Their place was taken by hired
mercenaries, who had already been introduced to some
extent ; the Swiss were most in demand, and after the
victories just mentioned they became instructors in the
new art of warfare in all European countries.

On the economic side the decay of chivalry was chiefly
due to the gradual change from an agrarian to a finan-
cial system, the consequence of the growth of commerce
in the cities. Many knights had given up all their
property during the Crusades to pay for their equip-
ment. This period of economic transition coincided
with and was indeed one of the immediate causes of the
decay of the empire, which reached its climax in the
so-called Interregnum in the thirteenth century. In a
period of general insecurity and weakened legal author-
ity, the reasons for which have been given in former
chapters, the right of private war, Fehderecht, became
confirmed as a social institution. The settlement of
legal disputes, however, had long ceased to be the only
cause for petty warfare ; the mere love of quarrel or lust
for plunder led the impoverished knight to wage war on
his neighbor, neglecting the challenge prescribed by law

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 151

or sending it only with the first assault upon the enemy's
castle. Soon challenges were sent to the cities, simply
as a pretext to harass their caravans of merchandise.
At last they came down to common highway robbery.
Knights without fiefs rivalled in violence the small
holders of castles.

The great vassals, who in the meantime had obtained
almost complete independence and, by their wise policy,
had successfully overcome the economic crisis, could
not look with equanimity on this disorder ; often they
took the field against the robber knights as aUies of the
cities and tried to get possession of as many castles as
possible, to be occupied by their o\\ti retinue. Grad-
ually, however, many of the smaller vassals became
officials, who held their fief, not as an hereditary usufruct,
but for a time only, and as soon as possible this was
replaced by a compensation in cash money, a salary.
Thus the territorial lords had distributed their officials
over their whole territory. The latter resided in their
castles, which were centres of administration ; they
were also, of course, the military leaders of their
districts and helped with greater ease to subject all
independent elements to the central power. Thus the
feudal state crumbled together with the imperial power ;
the great vassal had become the ruler of his territory,
der Landesherr; to a great extent the smaller vassal
had changed into an administrative official, and the
knights had become a court nobility, as the last stage
of the old German comitaius, the most faithful servants
of their princes. Emperor Charles IV showed a clear
understanding of this development by creating nobihty
by patent, the official end of Chivalry.

We shall not part from Chivalry without giving at
least one glance at the hterature of this period, which

152 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

owes a great debt to knighthood, a period not only of
high attainments in poetry, but of a great advance of
the German language, and we may say that the period
of Chivalry made the German language again respect-
able in its own country. We know that there was a
long period when all hterature in Germany was in the
hands of the clergy, who tried their best to replace the
language of the people by a very poor variety of Latin.
But the Germans had their own poetry in spite of this.
It was in the hands of a class of vagrants or wandering
musicians, called Spielleute, the successors, in part, of
the Roman mimi and gladiatores, who had appeared
among the Germans of earher times as Kdmpen. When
the highly respected court singer of migration times, the
skop, had disappeared, the Spielmann fell heir to his
subjects. Travel acquainted him with new subjects
here and there, he saw with his own eyes the more
advanced culture of the Romance nations and, perhaps, .
the ancient civilization of Constantinople. A great
many of the vagrants were clerics who had left their
profession, not always for honorable reasons, or students
who never completed their studies. Among them were
preserved, not only the old traditions in opposition
to ecclesiastical tendencies, but here was also prepared
that secular culture which found its highest development
in the time of Chivalry. These wandering singers
first brought French manners to Germany, and many
of them made Latin poems; they gradually found
admission and welcome at the courts of the nobles and
may be compared to the literary Bohemians of to-day.
In time their poetry rose to a higher grade, and soon
they became the teachers of the knights.

This is the only way in which we can explain the
origin of the great national epics, the NibelungenUed

XV CHIVALRY. THE CRUSADES 153

and Kudrun, in which the ancient heroic sagas suddenly
reappear far from the place of their original formation,
but still preserving all their characteristic features.
Especially a truly national lyric poetry is developed,
which, free from foreign influences, long leads an inde-
pendent life. We find many single stanzas of a remark-
able fullness and purity of feehng, like the well-known :

Thou art mine

I am thine

Of this thou shouldst be certain.

Locked art thou

Within my heart,

Lost is the key,

Thou must ever therein be.

Or the little dance song : —

Come, my comrade, come to me,
Eagerly I wait for thee !
Eagerly I wait for thee,
Come, my comrade, come to me.

Mtfuth, so sweet, of rosy wealth,
Come and give me back my health.
Come and give me back my health,
Mouth, so sweet, of rosy wealth.

The great field to be covered in this survey makes it
impossible to show more than beginnings and open up
new vistas. Thus there can be pointed out only the
first advance of secular poetry, which, combining with
the chivalric, the Hofische, the sources of which have
already been pointed out, at last ends with the two
great poets Walter von der Vogelweide and Wolfram
von Eschenbach.

And these flowers are no foreign growth on German
soil. "If we compare the wealth of the interests of the
heart," says one of the greatest German historians,

154 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xv

''which find expression during the great time of med-
iaeval lyrics with the scantiness of Provengal and French
poetry, which is almost exclusively erotic, we shall
from the start avoid the mistake of assuming that the
German lyrics of this time, as far as their contents are
concerned, are derived from a foreign model or are even
throughout dependent. With the exception of the
conventional ideal of love, which in the development of
its social forms was partly influenced by France, the
derivations are essentially confined to the form and
to the conventional expression of the poems. And
likewise here the foreign influence has really only a
purifying effect on a native development, as, perhaps,
classical art led to the simplification of many forms of
German ornament in the era of the Karhugs."

Similar is the relation of Wolfram von Eschenbach to
his foreign models. In him we find the first great
individuality of the world's hterature since the days of
classical antiquity.

With the decay of Chivahy, of the minnesongs, and
the higher epic, the stream of poetry is again lost in the
broad mass of the people from among whom it had risen.
Hence, in time, it comes to light again as the Volkslied,
the people's song, an evidence that whatever is accom-
phshed on the heights of cultm*e will gradually impart
its life to all parts of the nation, and that the apparent
infecundity and shallowness which often follow a time
of rich culture development mean simply that the
culture is permeating through all strata of the people
to become part of the intellectual composition of the
whole nation.

As to the arts and music, which owe theh highest
development to other influences, it seems preferable to
treat them in connection with a later period.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CONQUEST OF THE GERMAN SOIL BY GERMAN LABOR

No matter what our opinion regarding the Middle
Ages may be, whether we regret that the German
emperors found their principal interests outside of
Germany, whether we despise the mediaeval times as a
period of absolute intellectual darkness, or regard them
as the lost paradise of Romanticism, or whether we
speculate as to what might have been accomplished, if
things had been done differently, there was one task in
the service of culture which they performed to its full
extent and with exceptional thoroughness. This was
the opening up of the native German soil for cultiva-
tion, the clearing of the primeval forests, the draining
of the marshes and swamps, and the reconquest of old
Germanic lands for German settlement. When we first
hear of the vast expanse of lands in the East as far as
the Vistula, they are populated by Goths and related
tribes; these Germanic peoples are the oldest known
masters and cultivators of this territory, and here are
found their bones and their bronze swords in prehistoric
tombs. In the first centuries of our era we find them
leaving their settlements on the banks of the Vistula as
do other Germanic tribes on all sides. Why? Who
can tell? Some historians conclude from modern
analogy that the higher cultivated Germans gave up
their lands when the more barbaric, more easily satis-
fied Slavs began to reside among them. It seems

155

156 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

rather bold to transfer to these remote times the condi-
tion of the modern working-man of the cities, where the
foreigner with a lower standard of living cuts down the
wages. Whatever the true causes of the emigration
may have been, there are no traces of violent expulsion.
The Germanic tribes give up their country to the Slavs
as far as the Elbe and the Saale, and having extended
their migrations all over Europe, even to Africa, they
perish.

The Slavs occupied the vacated lands noiselessly.
Neither foreign nor German legends have preserved any
evidence of this process, which, therefore, cannot have
been the advance of a warlike, conquering race. We do
not hear of any fighting ; whatever Germans remained
were probably absorbed by the Slavs. Of the latter,
nothing is heard for a long time ; only in the sixth cen-
tury we get reports of their advance. During the
sixth and seventh centuries they took advantage of the
continuous quarrels between the Saxons and the
Thuringians and extended their raids across the Saale
River. In their settlements they did not follow the
example of the Germans, but employed a more primitive
kind of agriculture. Their higher civilized German
neighbors looked down upon them as the Romans had
looked with contempt upon the Germans. As we read
of the disgust of the Romans at the odor of the Germans,
so the German Sturmi feels his nose offended by the
Slavs whom he meets bathing in the river Fulda ; we
are reminded of this when we read that the Japanese
can hardly endure the odor of the white race. The
Slav people, those who appear under the collective name
of the Wends, as well as the Poles and Czechs of that
time, did not care much for agriculture and turned
to the different crafts ; the followers of one handicraft

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 157

occupied a village by the hundreds and swarmed out of
it to peddle their products or to look for work as wan-
dering craftsmen. It seems in some respects they
were more skilful than the Germans. Their fields
were small, close to their little villages, occupying the
space that had already been cleared and cultivated.
Thus they liked to benefit by the efforts of their prede-
cessors, but they did not think of increasing the area
of cultivated lands either by clearing off forests or by
draining swamps. Probably they did not feel the need
of it and their implements were not fit to cope with the
heavy, root-filled soil of forests ; they had no plough and
the art of draining marshes was unknown to them.
They grew the common kinds of grain, and had brought
along one new kind, hitherto unknown in Europe, rye,
which slowly spread among the Germans, with whom
it is so common to-day that corn means rye, just as in
America it stands for maize.

For a long time the Slavs were left in undisturbed
possession of their new lands, the Germans being satis-
fied to prevent their advance. The centuries of con-
tinuous wars against the Romans and the fierce struggles
during the great migrations had not allowed the normal
increase of population. Both on the old German soil
and in the former Roman possessions in the south and
west there was plenty of free land. At first nobody
took up more land than he could cultivate himself.
Acquaintance with the more advanced methods of
the Romans, however, and the instructive example
given by the monasteries, as well as economic changes,
had helped to introduce a more intensive mode of
agriculture. We have seen how the old German free-
man, who deemed all occupation save war beneath his
dignity, had turned into an active farmer. When times

158 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of relative peace had set in, the great work began of
transforming the country, which with its swamps and
impenetrable forests had hitherto been so dismal that
Tacitus could not understand how any people of their
own free will could have chosen to live there. The
settled districts were scattered like islands in the wilder-
ness and were literally islands of artificial origin in the
marshlands. Gradually, however, the small tribes of
warriors changed and united into a nation of peasants,
whose king, though the emperor of a universal mon-
archy, was to them only the most powerful landholder.
Even the Church considered the management of her
landed property and the effectiveness of her agricultural
methods of greater importance than the dogmatic and
political quibbles of the neighboring French hierarchy.
The clearing of the forests was the principal work.
At first this was done only according to the needs of the
community ; the younger sons of the family especially,
about to set up their own households, secured in this
way as much land as they needed for themselves. Later
the great landholders entered upon this work system-
atically, appropriating large tracts of the king's
land, often without leave, or claiming their share of the
allmende of the shire. Apparently wild lands were
looked upon as common property, and many a grant
was encroached upon by the axe of the cultivator.
The greatest work was performed by the monasteries,
which, almost without exception, were established in
uncultivated districts, so that by following up the time
and place of their foundation we get the history of the
conquest of the forest by human industry. It is as
''industrious men" — homines laboriosi — that the Ger-
mans of this period are described by their contempo-
raries. They are the descendants of the men who

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 159

only a few generations before were spending their days
lounging on bearskins, aroused only by the prospects
of a fight, a hunt, a feast, or a game of dice, whose only
serious business had been to attend their tribes' assem-
bly once a month. WTierever in Germany to-day there
are places with names ending in -roda, -roth, -rath,
-rent, -ruthi, -harr, -schlag, -schlatt, -schwend, -schwand,
-brenn, -brand, -hagen, -stocken, -oetz, -hart, -pasch,
there is evidence of this culture work performed about
the year 1000, and not later than 1300. One may
likewise be sure to find in the neighborhood of almost
all these places some old monastery, perhaps in ruins.

This work of clearing, which was the real work of
conquest in the colonization of lands occupied by the
Slavs later on, was the greatest work of culture per-
formed by the monks, not that they were the only
workers, but they were the leaders and teachers. We
willingly let them lose the glories of classical scholar-
ship and forgive them the neghgence with which they
treated musty old manuscripts for the grand work they
did in the fields.

As important as their work of clearing was the system
on which their farms were organized, the model for the
agricultural development of all Germany. The mon-
asteries, of course, differed in the size of their property,
in the number of monks, which as a rule was as high as
Dne hundred, sometimes two hundred, and in the mass
3f villains and serfs, the latter mostly Slav prisoners
Df war. The rule generally observed in German monas-
teries during the earlier times was that of St. Benedict,
v\-hich required seven hours of bodily labor daily from
Bvery monk. But soon this could be maintained only
n smaller establishments. The greater ones required
is extensive and systematic an organization as the

160 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

management of any farm of a manorial lord, with
numerous dependent laborers. The monks, however,
remained the skilful and expert supervisors of the
whole ; as in any great administration, different depart-
ments were allotted to those most fitted to be in charge.
They were superior in many respects to the secular
landlords and had the advantage of the traditions of
antiquity, revived from time to time by the reading of
ancient writers. A great many reforms were intro-
duced by visiting brethren from abroad and by the
travels, often in distant countries, of the resident
monks themselves.

A great monastery of the early IMiddle Ages was the
centre of many different industrial activities. Besides
the church, the living houses, and the farm buildings
proper we find watermills, wine-cellars and presses,
baking houses, shops for craftsmen, like smiths, tanners,
saddlers, etc., and even buildings for the manufacture of
glass. The production of salt was a regular industry.
The monks worked mines, built bridges and large aque-
ducts ; they were great architects, in fact, the only archi-
tects of earlier times.

As a period of agrarian civilization it is a time in
which health, vigor, and freshness prevail. This first
step upward still kept the Germans in close touch with
nature. The connection of nature with human life in
mutual penetration is characteristic of the peasant,
though he is limited in his activity and social outlook.
The cultivation of the land is the centre of his emotions
and intellect, as it forms the background of his customs.

Field and pasture, with preponderance of the former,
are for some time united in the same farm. But the
herdsman is looked down upon by the ploughman. The
former becomes in time unehrlich, outclassed, dishon-

xvr CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 161

orable. Before the ministerial nobility separate them-
selves from the peasant we have rather a uniform type
of life everj^'here, a great simplicity in all respects.
But in consequence of the development of the great
estates and especially under the influence of the mon-
asteries the methods of husbandry changed greatly.
The greater intensitj' of agriculture and the improve-
ments in cattle breeding brought about a general
prosperity by which not only the landlords were
Tbenefited ; rent in kind, paj-ment in produce, has a
natural limit, so that the peasant also could not fail
to derive advantage from the improved husbandry.

The raising of grain had become the most important
feature of farming. Oats are still the prevailing variety,
being used for porridge, bread, malt, and feed for hve
stock. Rye is also used for baking bread, while wheat
gains ground and is even preferred for the finer kind of
pastry introduced from the West, and used on the
manorial table. Barley begins gradually to take the
place of oats in the brewing of beer. IMillet, the old
Indo-European grain, continues to be cultivated;
on the manorial farm, beans, peas, and other vege-
tables, especially cabbage, are carefully and success-
fully raised ; hemp and some dyeing plants, especially
woad, were common ; flax was frequent in the western
parts of the country. The word garden begins to be
used in connection with vegetables. We find cabbage
gardens, turnip gardens, and hop gardens. Hops are
used first by the monasteries in the beginning of the
ninth century as a preservative for beer, and thereby
make the latter an article of commerce.

The culture of the grape-vine was much more extended
than it is to-day. It was, so to speak, the herald of
certain advances in civilization. It was introduced by

162 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the Romans ; whether by Emperor Probus, as is com-
monly said, is not quite certain, but it did not cross the
Rhine or even reach it before the sixth century. "With
the grape-vine," says Hehn, ''there came the stonewall
which enclosed the -vineyard, the paved street (via
strata) which passed it and connected the stone villcB,
the markets (mercatus) , the monasteries, the cathedrals,
and, later on, the cities." The monks gave special
attention to the vineyards and tried to improve the taste
of the wine by adding aromatic herbs. They spread its
cultivation over the eastern part of Germany ; in
Karling times we find vineyards in WestphaUa, later
in Hesse, Thuringia, and Saxony, spreading wdth the
advancing colonization into Bradenburg, Holstein,
Mecklenburg, even Prussia and Silesia. It has since
disappeared from all these territories. Fruit raising
was not popular except in the Rhine valley. Grafting
was a common practice. In the orchards, tree gardens,
as the German word is, we find several varieties of *
apples. The orchards were often connected with vege-
table gardens and soon became a regular place of recrea-
tion, the ornamental garden, Ziergarten, where in
summer almost the whole life of the family, including
meal time, was spent. Here again the monasteries
take the lead, bringing from the south the rose, the Hly,
and other flowers, also medicinal herbs. To the prod-
ucts of the orchard they add the apricot and the pear ;
they are the first to raise lettuce and other plants for
salads ; they introduce the eating of mushrooms and
other fungi, and teach an improved method of making
butter.

Cattle breeding lost continually in importance and
was left to the larger landholders, who were also almost
the only horse breeders. Horses were many and a great

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 163

number were needed for the knights and also for travel-
ling, as the roads were almost impassable for wagons.
Horses were also used for carrying burdens, but not very
often for carting, which was done by oxen. The
practice of eating horseflesh died out under the ban of
the Church, and beef was eaten in its place. Besides
this and mutton, pork held its old place as the staple
food.

Sheep raising was very frequent. The skins were
worn as cloaks and the wool was used to considerable
extent. A great variety of fowl were kept, among them
a bird which we should meet with astonishment in a
a farm-yard to-day, but which at that time shared honors
with the peacock, namely the crane. Bees had become
even more important than in primitive times, not only
on account of the honey, which was used as before in
place of sugar and in the brewing of mead, but for the
wax, the demand for which had grown extraordinarily
to supply the many candles used in the churches,
while in the household, if at all, tallow candles were

|Used.

I The manufacture of cheese was also very extensive.

iLakes, rivers, and brooks still abounded in fish, which

'were caught with the hook and net ; the great number
of fast-days made them a very important article of
food, and hatcheries in ponds, especially connected
with the monasteries, are mentioned at a very early
period.

As important as the clearing of the woods, with which
we started on this short survey of mediaeval husbandry,
was the draining of the swamps and the protection of
the lands against floods from sea and river. Irish
monks are said to have taken the lead in both, although
the Romans had already dammed up their highway

164 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap

along the banks of the Rhine. Mention has aheady
been made of the settlements in the marshes on arti-
ficial elevations, Warden, described in the first historical
records and stih to be seen in many places.

In the low countries, in the delta of the Rhine and the
Scheldt, the work of draining and of building the dikes
was done most efficiently. It was a kind of work which,
in its constant fight against the elements, must have
helped greatly in raising the intellectual standard of
these regions, and must be taken into consideration
along with the advantage of ancient Roman cultural
influences and the neighborhood of the French in order
to understand the leading part played by the inhabitants ;
of this district in the advance of German civilization. !
The area of swampy grounds in Germany, however,
was so extensive that its conquest for cultivation took
a long time and is not yet completed.

The defence against the inroads of the sea called for
an equal persistency. Floods continued to destroy the
works of man. In the tenth century the region of
Dortrecht was still a swampy forest of brushwood and
was called Holtland, woodland, the older form of the
name Holland. Much as was accomplished during the
period v/e are deahng with, i.e., before 1300, the work of
draining the marshes and swamps, of regulating the
watercourses, of protecting the shores of the ocean and
the banks, is still going on, supported by the state and
with improved modern methods. To-day, however,
as of old the community, die Deichgenossenschaft, of
those who built the dikes, and whose property is pro-
tected by them, look out for their preservation, which,
of course, requires eternal vigilance, constant readiness
for active exposure to danger, and stubborn courage.
Bismarck, in his younger years, once held the position

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 165

of Deichhauptmann, Captain of the Dikes, an office
to which the young nobleman attended with all the
conscientiousness it required, a conscientiousness which
distinguished him in all the responsibihties of his long
life. One-half of the kingdom of Holland, as is well
knoTVTi, is only held by an unrelenting w^ar with the
ocean. The deep gulfs and the bays of the northern
coast, among them the Zuider Zee, the Dollart, and the
Gulf of Jahde, have been eaten out of the continent in
historic times ; many islands have disappeared, larger
ones and parts of the old coastlands have been separated
into smaller islets, which we see gradually vanishing in
our own times. The separation of Great Britain from
the continent took place not so many centuries before
the beginning of our era and opened a road from the
south for the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea, making
the corner of it, adjacent to Germany, the meeting-place
of southwestern and northwestern tidal waves. In
the first centuries after Christ, the Zuider Zee was still
an inland sea, called by the Germans the Middle Sea,
and having only a small outlet. In the period from
515 to 1282 one hundred ravaging floods were counted ;
and in 1395 the last trace of the broad neck of land
which separated the ocean from the Zuider Zee was torn
away, creating an open gulf. In the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries its waters made further inroads,
taking SLway the land which separated four lakes from
each other, and creating another gulf, called the Harlem
Sea {Harlemer Meer). This was pumped out by the
Dutch between 1840 and 1853, one of the greatest
triumphs of nineteenth-century engineering enterprise.
The great island of Borkum was torn into four islands
in 1170 or 1362 ; two of them were buried in the North
Sea in 1675 and 1743. In the Rhine delta the so-called

166 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Hollandsch Diep owes its origin to a spring flood of
November 18, 1421, which engulfed seventy-two vil-
lages. One of the worst and most dismally famous
floods occurred on All Saints Day, 1570. It is said that
on the morning of the day on which the heavy north-
west storm started, the warden, Hans Petersen, had
stuck his spade into the newly completed dike which
connected the North Strand with the Frisian coast,
exclaiming : ''Trotz dir, du blanker Hans, mein ist das
Land!" (In spite of you, bright Hans, mine is this
land !), using the nickname {blanker Hans) which the
Frisians in genuine Germanic fashion had given to their
daily foe, the ocean. Twenty-four hours later the dike
had disappeared, and no less than 40,000 lives, it is said,
were lost. I shall not go on enumerating the changing
fortunes of this war, which was, with nearly the same
fierceness, waged on the shores of the Baltic Sea. On
the whole the victory was on the side of man, but these
conditions must be kept in mind in judging the char-
acter of the people who inhabit those regions, and in
reading about Stavoren, or Vineta, or other sunken
cities. A German in Norderney or Helgoland, probably
looks on the sea of which this tale has been told with
peculiar emotions, and it is not by chance that the
romantic grandeur of the ocean was introduced into
literature first by a German poet, in the Nordseelieder
of Heinrich Heine. His relations to Hamburg are well
known ; his native city of Diisseldorf is situated on the
alluvial plain of the Rhine, where the child may have
seen the dikes with his own eyes and have heard of the
heroic deeds of Johanna Sebus, which, when the poet
was only nine years old, filled all Germany with admi-
ration and inspired Goethe to write his beautiful ballad.
Likewise the last act of the second part of Goethe's

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 167

" Faust " gains new light ^ith the thought of the work
that has been going on in Germany for centuries.

As changeable as the coasts of the sea were the beds
of the rivers, in which the water seems to have dimin-
ished, at least during the summer, probably in conse-
quence of the draining of the swamps and lakes which
formed natural regulating reservoirs. A greater num-
ber of rivers were navigable, and others were so for a
greater length of their course, during the Middle Ages
than they are at present. To the element of erosion,
which is common to all rivers, we must add in the case
of the larger rivers this one peculiarity, to -wit, that with
the exception of the Danube they all run from south
to north, so that the lower parts of then- courses are still
covered with ice when the upper parts begin to swell
from the spring freshets caused by the m.elting of the
snow and ice. For a long time the danger of floods was
avoided by keeping away from the banks of the rivers
and placing the settlements on the slopes, until in time
the fertile soil at the bottom of the valley was occupied.
We need not enter upon a new description of floods and
the changes worked thereby. As one example may be
mentioned the town of Alt-Breisach on the Rhine.
Originally built on soUd rock, it was situated on an
island, but while still under Roman rule the left arm of
the river was filled out, so that the town was situated
on the left bank. During the tenth century we find it
on an island once more, while in the beginning of the
thirteenth century it had been for some time on the
right bank, the branch on that side being filled with silt.
Again during the same century it becomes an island,
until in 1296 it becomes permanently connected with
the right bank, and is efficiently protected by dams.
These changes of the river courses have naturally

168 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

brought about many curious boundary problems where
this unstable element has been chosen as the dividing
hne.

"WTiile this work of conquering and securing the soil
for cultivation was going on in all parts of Germany,
the great mass of the population was intently bound up
in its own business, the importance of which we can
well understand from what has been said. Thus occu-
pied with themselves, the different tribes had an oppor-
tunity to develop their own peculiarities. \\Tien slowly
the primitive houses were replaced bj^ more spacious
buildings, each tribe developed its own. style of archi-
tecture, which still enables us to distinguish among the
five different types of peasant house the tribe to which
the original settlers belonged. Gradually, however,
the prevalent tj^pe of a region absorbed the others, so
that now the north of East-Albingian Germany shows
the Saxon, the south the Frankish, type. Best known
outside of Germany is the Alpine type, represented by
the Swiss cottage so often reproduced in pictures and
toys. It is in the development of these types of farm-
houses, which were transferred to the cities, and of
castles, that the German artistic mind has created an
entirely original architecture. Different tribal types
can also be distinguished in the plans of the villages
and the distribution of land.

If we consider this work, accomplished by the German
on his own soil, if we compare the Germany described
by Tacitus with the country that supports sixty-five
million inhabitants to-day, we feel the weight of
Schiller's momentous words in " Tell " : —

"This soil has been created by ourselves,
By the hard labor of our hands : we've changed
The giant forest, that was erst the haunt

XVI CONQUEST OF GERMAN SOIL 169

Of savage bears, into a home for man.
We've killed the dragon's brood, that wont
To rise, distent with venom, from the swamps ;
Rent the thick misty canopy that hung
Its ch-eary vapors on the dreary waste ;
Blasted the solid rock ; o'er the abj'ss
Thrown the firm bridge for the waj-faring man."

{Th. Martin's transl.)

CHAPTER XVII

THE COLONIZATION OF THE EAST

Much as this energetic work in extending the pro-
ductive lands and the improved methods of agriculture
had increased the resources of the country, the time
came when the boundaries became too narrow for the
ever-increasing population, and the conquest of the East,
i.e., of the old Germanic country east of the Elbe, began.
This was not a conquest by warriors only, ruling over a
subdued nation of working slaves, nor a conquest led
by the head of the nation, but one accomplished more
by the plough than by the sword. In many instances
the Slav inhabitants were not destroyed, nor forcibly
driven away, and even to-day in the immediate neigh-
borhood of the capital of the German Empire, in the
Spreewald near Berlin, there is a district in which the
language of the Wends is still spoken, where for a thou-
sand years the Slavs have lived among their German
neighbors, peacefully and without friction, a phenome-
non which invites thoughtful comparison with the con-
ditions of Prussian Poland. These instances of humane
treatment may be offset, of course, by others of cruel
warfare.

There was plenty of land waiting for the plough ; wood-
lands were to be cleared and swamps to be drained.
Mostly the task of colonization was intrusted to
locatores, contractors, who undertook to procure a
sufficient number of settlers, and in turn received a con-

170

CHAP, xvir THE COLONIZATION OF THE EAST 171

siderable portion of the land and the position of head
of the new community under the rule of the prince or
count. But often his services were dispensed with.
A short notice from a contemporaneous chronicle will
give a typical example of the procedure. This says of
certain settlements of 1143 : ''Adolf of Holstein began
to rebuild the fortress of Seegeberg, and surrounded it
with a wall ; but since the lands on which the Slavs
had resided were devastated, he sent messengers to
Flanders, Holland, Utrecht, Westfalia, and Frisia, and
invited those who suffered from want of arable land to
come with their families to settle in the fertile country
which was rich in fish, meat, and woods. On this invita-
tion an innumerable mass of the different tribes started
and came to the Count Adolf to Wagria to settle in the
country. The count rebuilt the fortress of Rone, and
founded a city there and a mark. The Slavs who lived
in the villages of the neighborhood moved away.
Then the Saxons came and lived there." The monas-
tic orders which took the principal part in this work
of eastern colonization were the Cistercians and the
Premonstratensians.

Although the first advances in this movement were
naturally made by those nearest to the frontiers, all the
German tribes took part in the work of more or less
peaceful colonization. Only in its beginnings was the
expansion of the Germans in the frontier districts, the
Marken, under special royal officers, the Markgrafen,
as a defensive measure against the Slavs, and the inva-
sions of the Mongolians. Thus the Markgrafen of the
Eastmark, on the Danube, and of the Northmark, on
the lower Elbe, were the pioneers in this work. But
its principal part was accomplished later, after the
emperors, especially Otto III, had begun to neglect the

172 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

German interests. Indeed, Otto under the influence of
St. Adalbert, a Czech, strengthened the Slavs by a most
un-German policy, so that not only the Poles, but also
the Magj^ars, owe him their national existence. Later,
when the extreme East was conquered by the Teutonic
order, sent there by the Pope at the call of the Poles, on
a crusade against the Prussian heathen, we hear again
of bloody and stubborn warfare. But here, likewise, the
actual, peaceful conquest for German civiUzation and
Christianity soon took the place of bloodshed. Still
the settlement by the warlike knights has not been with-
out lasting influence on the great landholders, who more
than anywhere else in Germany lorded it over their
villains, and who, more than all other German aristo-
crats, have preserved the character of the feudal lord
in its modern unpleasant sense. In the northern part
of Germany east of the Elbe the largest landed estates
are still to be found, and their owners have a strong
influence on the shaping of German, especially Prussian,
policy, placing their agrarian and class interests in the
foreground.

WTierever swampy soil had to be cultivated or allu-
vial lands had to be protected against floods, Flemings
and Hollanders were induced by favorable offers to
settle, and founded communities under their own laws.
But not only did German nobles, bishops, and cities
transplant Germans from the western districts, but as
they progressed, far-seeing Slav and Hungarian rulers
began to see that it would take German peasants to
make their countries really valuable, and that German
culture was needed to uplift their subjects. German
colonists went into Poland and Bohemia at the invita-
tion of the kings ; Franks from the Mosel settled in
Transylvania, where under the mistaken name of

XVII THE COLONIZATION OF THE EAST 173

Saxons they now defend their nationaUty and their
language and their German culture, to which they have
clung with wonderful tenacity.

By the end of the thirteenth century, this immense
work had been accomplished ; from the Vistula to the
Scheldt in the north, from the Rhone to the Drave,
south of the Danube, from the Alps to the North and
Baltic seas, the wilderness had been changed into fertile
lands and rich pastures, occupied by the descendants of
those Germans who at one time were confined to the
small oblong between the Elbe and the Rhine, between
the Main and the North Sea. Thousands and thousands
crossed the boundaries in the course of the centuries,
and perished fighting with or against the Roman army ;
millions, lost to the German race, helped to build up the
Romance nations. Those who remained on their native
soil learned the great lesson that not by war, but by
peaceful, persistent industry, are the greatest conquests
accomplished. Once in the history of our Western
civilization has a similar work been successfully achieved;
the cultivation of the great Mississippi valley by the
common effort of all Germanic nations, in which the
descendants of those mediaeval pioneers had no small
share.

In considering the achievements of the mediaeval
Germans it seems fortunate that, under wise leadership
or from natural instinct, they preferred the open field
to the schoolroom, the plough to the pen. Whether they
might have combined the two is hard to tell, but this
much is certain, ''that those thousand years of living
on their own soil, of intimate contact with nature, of
preserving and developing their ancient customs, hav-
ing the centre of their existence in their families, whence
it is diverted only too easily in city life, have saved to

174 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xvii

the German people their youthful vigor, which has
helped them through the unspeakable misery of their
political conditions, let them overcome the horrors of
the Thirty Years' War, and, in spite of a long history,
assures them of their position as a nation of youthful
strength among the world powers." Though in the
finer externals of life, on the artistic-aesthetic side they
may have been surpassed by nations who submitted
more readily to Roman and Romance influences, this
is not too high a price for the preservation of health and
personality. It is even a question whether we may not
agree with the modern writer who claims that modern
science should reverence as its intellectual ancestors,
instead of the so-called humanists, those unscholarly
observers of nature, the collectors and describers of
herbs, who by the practice of their eyes found out the
natural relationships of plants long before the scholars
began to construct their scientific systems.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FOUNDING OF THE CITIES; CASTLES, BUEGHEES,
PEASANTS

The improvement and extension of husbandry and
the work of colonization had a direct influence on the
founding of the cities. Production soon exceeded the
needs of the peasant and his landlord. This caused the
demand for markets where the products could be ex-
changed. On the other hand, the necessity for being
continually prepared, at least during a long period for
the invasion of enemies, called the castles into existence.
Out of the markets and their assemblies of many people,
seeking the protection of the king's and bishop's resi-
dences, and of the castles, the cities resulted as a natural
growth.

We have had occasion to point out the aversion of the
early German from life in cities. Even the conquered
cities of the Romans were for a long time left to decay.
Perhaps nothing better shows how lightly they esteemed
the customs and the civilization of the great empire they
had destroyed. As late as the tenth century, at the
end of the Karling period, not more than twenty-seven
cities could be counted in Germany, and most of these
were Roman foundations ; among them Koln was the
most important for a long time. Legally no cities
were known before the eleventh century.

The colonization period gave a great impulse to the
increase of the cities. As we know, the occupation of

175

176 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the deserted German settlements had gone on in a
quiet, peaceful way. But after the fourth century
Asia began to send out ^Mongohan tribes, such as the
Avarians, the Huns, and the ^^lagyars or Hungarians,
who in the end stirred the peaceable, quiet, slow-moving
Slavs out of their indolence and forced the sword into
their hands. They became warriors of some account,
at last, under the leadership of one Samo of Koln, a
Frankish trader, who united a number of Slavic tribes
and gained a victory over the Avarians to whom they
had hitherto been forced to pay a tribute. Out of
gratitude he was made king. Once aroused from their
quiet, the Slavs soon took the offensive against the
German frontier districts. But when the Hungarians,
the third large ^Mongohan tribe that had broken forth
from the wilds of inner Asia, settled on the lower
Danube, the border wars of the Germans and Slavs were
interrupted by the regular ^lagysiT invasions already
mentioned. The Germans were so Uttle able to cope
with these rough riders and their unusual mode of fight-
ing that the}^ were compelled to pledge themselves to
pay a tribute. This was paid to gain time for the
evolution of a new militarj^ art suitable to the new condi-
tions. Besides the formation of a strong cavalry, with
which we have become familiar in a former chapter,
King Henry I, in pursuance of this poUcj^, began the
construction of strong castles everywhere in the frontier
districts. In the immediate neighborhood were settled
the men who had to provide for the needs of the garri-
son and who were obliged to hurrj^ inside of the walls of
the castle at the first call for defence. It did not take
long before other people found it to their advantage to
reside under the protection of these fortified places
(Burgen) ; and so the inhabitants of the cities were after

xvni THE FOUNDING OF THE CITIES 177

them called Burger, burghers. The old ethelings already-
had theu- hurg, Gothic baurgs, the only word Ulfilas
could find to translate the word city or town in the
Bible. The name Burger, while still used in distinc-
tion from peasant and nobleman, has extended its
meaning to comprise all citizens of the state, thus show-
ing us where modern civil rights have their origin.

With the rise of Chivalry and the increased power of
the vassals, the erection of castles in the interior on
spots that offered commanding positions, or on natural
or artificial islands where surrounding water provided
protection, became more and more frequent, in spite of
the fact that this meant an encroachment on the royal
prerogative. At last the west of Germany had one
castle for every German square mile. At first places of
defence in the times of the Fehderecht, the right of pri-
vate war, they became later the means of keeping the
surrounding country in subjection.

Having once begun, the building of cities kept step
with the expanding cultivation of the soil. The kings'
and bishops' palaces, castles, monasteries, and old
Roman cities did not remain the only places that in-
vited the builders of cities. As the markets had from
the beginning formed the nuclei of the cities, so com-
mercial considerations decided more and more the
choice of their location. They were built in the centre
of rich and productive territory, on places favorable for
traffic, on a large navigable river or on the shores of the
ocean, with a safe harbor or places convenient for land-
ing, near a ford or along the great highways, which,
originally an extension of Roman beginnings, now trav-
ersed the country, though not in a large number, from
east to west and from south to north, connecting the
river valleys; places where two or three highways

178 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

crossed each other were especially preferred, and nunes
and salt works also afforded an inducement for loca-
tion. As the burghers took their part in the German-
ization of the East, so we find that the period of
cultivation and colonization by the peasant is also the
period of the foundation of the cities ; both are finished
about the same time, and there are not many cities in
Germany which were founded later than the four-
teenth century.

Both the colonial movement and the foundation of
the cities were of the greatest advantage for the social
and economical condition of the peasant. WTierever
there was oppression or poverty, the new eastern coun-
try, or the cities with their broader right, offered a
better chance, and in order to keep the ploughman on his
land the landlord had to concede humane treatment.
In earlier times personal service at the manor or court,
or in the wars, gave the peasant a frequently coveted
opportunity to rise sometimes to the highest ranks.

During the thirteenth century most peasants held
their lands in hereditary lease, as we should say, and
this period, taken all together, afforded the German
peasant the best times he has ever seen. But after all
the peasant was not free, and soon economical conditions
caused nobility and landholders to get as much money
out of him as possible. At the same time the cities
were closed against rural immigration and the monopoly
of the municipal craft-guilds led to laws forbidding the
practice of any craft or trade outside. Thus the Ger-
man peasant began to sink into desolate serfdom at the
same time when his brethren in England, in Switzer-
land, and on the coasts of the North Sea secured or
regained their freedom.

It is often said that slavery was the original state of

ixvni THE FOUNDING OF THE CITIES 179

the common people. As far as the Germanic nations are
concerned, this is a mistake. On the contrary, freedom
had been the birthright of every German from the time
he appears in history. A number of causes, economical
and others, led to the loss of the rights which he has not
all reconquered, even to-day.

CHAPTER XIX

MINING AND MONEY

As a part of the exploitation of the soil, we may
consider mining, which, we have seen, forms a part of
German economy included in the ownership of land
taken over from the Kelts of pre-Germanic times,
and changed later into a royal prerogative. We are
told that the Romans worked mines in the Black
Forest and in the Vosges Mountains. The oldest
mines were the salt mines. The rise of the old German
mining industry may be dated from the tenth century,
when silver was found for the first time in the Harz
Mountains near the city of Goslar. ^Mining in the Ore
Mountains (Erzgebirge) began about 1175, near Frei-
berg. The first mining fief was given in 1125. In
1150 we read of boring works near Goslar. The miners
formed the first trade associations. They preserved
many of their old traditions and only lately have begun
to break loose from mediseval bonds. The Germans
became the providers of metal for all Europe, and
thereby, in a later period, made their great bankers the
leaders in the commercial world. Their technical
knowledge was greatly perfected, and as they experienced
special difficulties in the mines around Freiberg, this
city, now the home of a famous mining academy,
became the centre of the greatest progress. It was here
where, at a much later date, Abraham G. Werner, the
teacher of Alexander von Humboldt, estabhshed

180

CHAP. XIX MINING AND MONEY 181

geology as an independent science, teaching the law of
istratification. German miners were sought the world
(over to teach their art, which, after an interruption
I caused by the general decay of German life, to be treated
\oi later, has reconquered its old leading place in scien-
tific mining, so that there is hardly any country to-day
in which its first beginnings cannot be traced back to
Germany.

The production of gold and silver naturally had a
great influence on the development of finance, espe-
cially as the discovery and production of the greater
supply came at the same time as the general commercial
and industrial rise of the cities. The use of money
had, in spite of all limitations, never entirely disappeared
e\'en at the height of the agrarian period, when barter
was the means of exchange. A gold standard had been
established by Chlodowech, who ordained that seventy-
two shillings {solidi) should be coined out of one pound
of gold. Later this number was increased to eighty-
four. Pippin introduced the silver standard. At the
time of Charles the Great, twenty shillings were coined
3ut of one pound of silver. This is the English practice
to-day, surviving from that time. The word ' ' sterling "
s also a relic of mediaeval commerce, being an abbre-
viation of Easterling {0 sterling) , referring to the home
of the Hansa. Still more directly does the word
'dollar" point to German mining, its stem-word
Taler' being abbreviated from Joachimstaler, the
lame of the mine that furnished the silver from which
.t was first coined. This, however, belongs to a later
■period. When the cities had become the principal
centres of national life, we find that the south of Ger-
2iany maintained the gold standard, while in the north
:he silver standard ruled supreme.

182 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xix

With the increase of prosperity and capitalism, the
trade in silver bullion helped to take the money trade
out of the hands of the Jews ; and later we find that the
richest commercial houses, like the Fuggers, Hoch-
stetters, and others, prefer banking to trade in mer-
chandise. The general lack of money and the feoffing
of the regal prerogatives showed its baneful influence
on the coinage, as well as in other respects. Every city,
every small territorial lord, had an individual coinage,
and as times grew worse the money deteriorated more
and more, especially when the coining began to be
farmed out. In the seventeenth century came the
so-called Ki^jper and Wipper, who made the deteriora-
tion of money their business ; cheap metals were taken,
even lead, and good coins were melted to make bad
ones out of them, or the good ones were exported to
exchange them for bad money. Of course an inter-
national standard was necessary for the trade ; and the
''guilder" of Florence was generally adopted, whence the
name "florin." The florins of Koln and Regensburg
set the standard in Germany for a long time.

''yi

CHAPTER XX

SOME OF THE GREATER EMPERORS

[ Although the interests of the emperors were prin-
Icipally centred in Italy and the splendors of the
i imperial crowTi, they still had their influence on Ger-
, many. Indeed, every one of them who ruled over the
i rising nation, from Henry I to Frederick II, affords the
example of a good ruler, industriously and conscien-
tiously performing the duties of his office as he saw
them. While some of them saw their duty right at
home, the trouble with the most ambitious and most
powerful personalities among them was that they felt
themselves more in the service of the idea of the uni-
versal empire and took more interest in securing their
hold on Italy than was good for their German affairs.
We must not forget, moreover, that the conception of
' the royal dignity was not the same as in modern times.
It was considered as a personal property, and the priv-
ileges of the office could be disposed of at the will
of the monarch. All the emperors left their impression,
more or less, on the development of German history,
but some personahties stand forth prominently above
the rest, and survive more vividly in the memory of
posterity than others. Thus one of the greatest,
Henry VI, is not appreciated as much as he deserves,
probably on account of his early death.

The real founder of the national German state was
Henry I, the first Saxon king of Germany, who suc-

183

184 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ceeded in bringing the tribal duchies into a federal
unity. Although Charles the Great was a more brill-
iant figure, he does not belong to Germany alone, and,
thorough German as he was, the German part of his
realm was small as compared with the West-Frankish
territory, yet his conception of the Roman crown lifted
him, the "universal" sovereign, above all nationality.
Still the glory of his name has for a long time furnished
an ideal for his German successors, who worshipped at
his shrine, and more than one had his tomb opened to
gain inspiration from his relics.

In many ways comparable to Karl was Otto I, who
renewed the imperial dignity, but made it distinctly
an adjunct to the German kingdom. Under him the
power of the emperors was firmly established, and was
reasserted with varying energy by his successors until
Henry IV. This king, whose father had deposed and
enthroned popes, as he saw fit, furnished the world at
Canossa with the spectacle of the greatest humilia-
tion to which any German ruler ever submitted. The
scene at Canossa, of which mention has already been
made, is one of those events of such lasting influence on
the soul of the nation as to make them living forces in its
development for centuries ; the word " Canossa" is one
of deep significance for the living generation of Germans.
Henry IV, no matter what his faults were, lives in the
hearts of the people, and has gone down in German
tradition as a man who suffered great wrongs. Of
late he is recognized as one of the most powerful
personalities that ever sat on the German throne.

The favorites of the romanticists are the emperors
from the House of Hohenstaufen, whose last descend-
ant, at the age of fifteen years, met such a tragical
death through papal treachery. The greatest splendor,

XX SOME OF THE GREATER EMPERORS 185

however, surrounds Frederick I, Barbarossa, the Red-
beard. Six times he crossed the Alps. His conflict
with the Pope, on whose side we find France and the
Itahan cities, ended with Frederick's victory. His
greatest vassal, Henry the Lion, the Guelph, who had
failed his hege-lord in the hour of need, was humiliated.
Since the days of the great Karl, who in fact was his
model, no emperor had possessed such glory in the West
and East. As an external manifestation of his achieve-
ments, Barbarossa found in the knighting of his sons
Frederick and Henrj^, the occasion for the grandest and
most distinguished festival seen by the Middle Ages,
the acme of German chivalry. Invitations had gone
out a year before; and at WTiitsuntide, 1184, there
assembled on the plain near Mainz, on both banks of
the Rhine, over seventy thousand people of knightly
birth alone. The crowning of his romantic career
was his crusade, which, in spite of his seventy years, he
undertook after the conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin.
After having sent terror to the heart of the Mohammedan
world by the conquest of Ikonium, he met his death in
the river Saleph. Under Frederick I the German cities
took a great step in advance towards independence
from the territorial lords ; he fostered knighthood and
tried to find support in a national clergy.

Although more of an ItaUan than a German, Frederick
II must not be omitted, being one of the most interesting
personahties in history. As a prot6g6 of the Pope, he
owed his crown to the French \dctory in the battle of
Bouvines in 1214. Frederick towered high above his
contemporaries; he w^as the first of the great person-
ahties, of the "overmen" of the Renaissance, and in his
ways of thinking was rather modern than mediseval.
As a German king he gave away the last prerogatives

186 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of royalty, and completed the emasculation of the
central power. After his reign the German Empire
was hardly more than a name, a tradition, as it were.
Although emperors were still elected, there followed a
whole generation who would not acknowledge their
existence. After this period, which history calls the
Interregnum, we see an entirely different type of men
on the German throne ; for every one of them the royal
power meant in the first place an opportunity to in-
crease his family possessions.

With the name of Frederick II, the last true German
emperor, was first connected in the popular mind the
Kaiser sage, the legend, rooted in ancient Indo-Euro-
pean lore, which tells of the hero who is sleeping in the
depths of a mountain, whence he will come forth at the
proper time to lead his people to salvation. Later it
was transferred to the legendary accounts of Charles
the Great, until finally it was Frederick, the Redbeard,
of whom the people said that he was sleeping in the
KyfThauser Mountain in Thuringia; his long red
beard had grown through the marble table ; every
hundred years he woke up and sent a page to see
whether the ravens were still hovering above the moun-
tain. Whenever the boy said yes, the emperor had to go
to sleep for another hundred years. More and more
there were embodied into this tale all the memories
of past German glory, all the woes of the torn national
heart, all the longing of the people, down trodden, yet
conscious of strength, for national unity, for a brighter
future. He who knows German history of the last
century, who has heard the Kyffhauser echo with the
calls of the expectant nation, who has seen or read how
the gray-haired founder of the New Germany was
greeted again and again as the old Barbarossa, who had

XX SOME OF THE GREATER EMPERORS 187

at last burst forth from his tomb in the mountain,
knows that this myth has been as much of an active
historical force as any real facts, as the memory of
Canossa, indeed, as the mediaeval fiction of the Roman
Empire itself.

BOOK THE THIRD

RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN NATION

1400-1650

CHAPTER XXI

THE RISE OF THE CITIES
I

Commerce. Craft. Arts

We have already had occasion to notice the aversion
of the Germans to city hfe, which led them even to
abandon the old Roman cities to ruin and settle out-
side of them. But when almost all the land had been
brought under cultivation, and room for expansion
became scarce ; when more rational methods of hus-
bandry had increased the products of the soil, and grow-
ing wealth, the needs of the community, — a change from
the old habits was inevitable. The exchange of over-
production favored the development of numerous
markets, which were placed, as has been shown in a
former chapter, under the protection of the castles or
the palaces of kings and bishops, or in places which had
a geographical situation favorable to the assembling of
people or offered other advantages to commerce.

Although commerce was the cause, if not always of
the foundation, at least of the growth, of the cities
throughout mediaeval and even into modern times,
nevertheless agriculture formed a most important
element in their life, and for a long time the population
of the cities raised their own provisions.

Commerce was originally not popular with the
Germans, although a few tribes are mentioned as send-

191

192 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ing out traders. In Frankish times trade was carried
on by Italians, especially Lombards, by Slavs, or, as
was said at that time. Wends, and principally by Jews.
The latter had already appeared in Germany in the
Roman period, and had outlasted all the changes of
troublous times. The Jewish community of Koln, for
instance, can point to an uninterrupted history begin-
ning with the year 321, while the Jews of Worms
claim to have settled there as early as any in Germany.
The Jews enjoyed the special protection of the emper-
ors, which shows that they were considered as strangers,
and in return had to pay a special tax, which formed one
of the royal resources. In time, however, the settlers
who did not have sufficient land to get satisfactory
results turned to commerce as a more profitable occu-
pation; the travelling salesmen began to make their
permanent homes at the market-places, until gradually
residents took the place of transients, at least for the
regular daily business.

A lively inland commerce began to grow up along the
ancient highways ; and together with the German col-
onization of the East, or rather in advance of it, the
trader found his way into the country of the Slav.
The islands of the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia became
another lucrative field for his commercial enterprises ;
and the East and North became commercially and
industrially dependent on Germany for centuries to
come, while in the far East the cities of the Teutonic
Order joined in extending their commerce into the
interior of Poland and Russia. Under the influence of
these commercial relations the German settlements
in the Baltic provinces of Russia were founded, of
which the knightly order of the Brethren of the Sword
(Schwertbriider) formed an advance guard. Here, how-

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 193

ever, the whole country did not become Germanized, as
was the case of west of the Vistula, and the Germans
comprised only the leading classes, say, one-tenth of the
population.

Oriental commerce, which received a new impulse
from the Crusades, was in the control of the Italian
cities. From Italy the routes of commerce lay not only
across the Alps, but even more through France and by
sea to the north. In this trade the cities of Flanders
and the lower Rhine took a prominent part, especially
Koln, which, though situated relatively far inland, w^as
for a long time during the Middle Ages one of the prin-
cipal maritime ports of Germany. It is interesting
to note that with the present expansion of German
commerce, Koln again begins to send its ships across
the English Channel and to other seaports in slowly but
steadily increasing number. As early as the period of
the M^rovings, we read of trade relations between Koln
and England ; in the time of Charles the Great the
merchants of Koln had their own guild-hall and depot in
London, where they enjoj^ed substantial privileges until
the fifteenth century. In consequence of its ever-in-
creasing trade Koln soon outranked Mainz, which
from the Roman period had held the lead, and by the
wealth of her citizens had won the surname "the
golden." For centuries Koln remained the most
powerful city of the Empire, and was considered the
richest of Europe.

After the Portuguese, in whose expeditions German
merchant ships took part, had discovered the sea route
to India (in which voyage the merchant and geographer
Martin Behaimof Nurnberg participated) the merchants
of the northwest and of the south of Germany did not
allow themselves to be beaten without a spirited con-

194 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

test. The old houses changed their base of operation'
from Venice to Lisbon. A Uvely intercourse with
Portuguese ports was soon started, for which Antwerp
became the principal station.

The important cities were : in the south, Regens-
burg, Munich, Ulm, and Augsburg, Basel and Strassburg ;
in Switzerland, Bern and Zurich ; in the east, Vienna,
Prag, Breslau; in the north, Hamburg, Bremen, and,
above all, Liibeck, the youngest and most powerful of
the maritime cities; in the northwest, Brugge or
Bruges, which preceded Antwerp as the greatest em-
porium of Flanders, and Ghent, as well as Aachen
(Aix-la-Chapelle), the ancient city of the emperors
and favored by many privileges ; on the Rhine, Worms,
the champion city of municipal liberties, and Speyer
(Spyres), besides the great cities already mentioned.
In the interior important commercial towns were : at
the head of all, Erfurt, at one time said to be the most
populous city of Germany ; Magdeburg, whose charter
became the model for many newer foundations in the
East ; Halle with its old saltworks, Braunschweig, and
Leipzig. Abroad, German merchants settled in all
important commercial places in their own right as
citizens of their own towns. Thus we find them in the
old guild-hall, Stahlhof, in London. Frequently we see
them as the real masters of the city, especially if it was
of their own foundation, as in many Scandinavian
towns. Wisby, on the island of Gotland, was an old
German merchant city, which had to cede its supremacy
over the Baltic Sea to Liibeck; and in the midst of
Slavic territory, in Novgorod, Warsaw, Kracow, and
Lemberg, we find German merchants living under the
charter of their native towns, a parallel to the extra-
territorial rights of modern times.

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 195

This was, of course, not all the result of individual
enterprise. The German inherited from his old ad-
herence to the clan and the more recent Markgenossen-
schaft the habit of uniting with others in the settlement
of serious affairs. Furthermore, in the first stages of
commerce the individual had not sufficient capital
to undertake single-handed larger commercial enter-
prises ; and the dangers of travel even at home gave an
impulse to association. It seems that merchants used
for this the already existing form of the guild, origi-
nally a society for mutual assistance, feasting, and
certain religious observances, usually under the patron-
age of some saint, probably going back to heathen cult
communities. Not only commerce, but all transpor-
tation became an affair of the merchant guilds, and as
soon as these acquired special privileges, all traders
found themselves compelled to join. This system,
however, was not perfected everywhere in all its parts,
and at a comparatively early period we find indepen-
dent trade companies.

It was not long before the cities, more or less inde-
pendent republics, were also brought together by
common commercial and political interests. The best
known of these federations is the powerful Hansa, which
lat its height was one of the greatest commercial powers
of the world, and that at a time when the Empire, as
represented by the Emperor, had lost all power. A
much deeper and more lasting influence might have been
exercised by the cities and their citizens, had not Ger-
.man pettiness and particularism prevented any univer-
[sal and permanent union. Envy and jealousy, traits
'of character already observed by Tacitus, have been
great drawbacks to German success on more than one
occasion.

196 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The German cities were not content to be the inter-
mediary between South and North, West and East, or
to distribute foreign merchandise among their own
markets; even during the first stages of commerce
domestic goods had become an important article of
trade; the handicrafts developed into industries, and
soon domestic and intermediary trade was supple-
mented by the export of manufactured home products ;
a number of raw materials had, as we know, formed
the basis of exchange since the oldest times.

At first, as we have seen, it was the women, together
with the serfs, male and female, who practised the
primitive crafts. Everything in the line of utensils and
clothing for use in the home was made on the spot.
Sometimes wandering craftsmen of particular skill
found employment ; and in time, just as in the monas-
teries, a many-sided activity was developed on the
great estates. On the estates of Charles the Great
butter, cheese, salted and corned meats and sausages,
wine, vinegar, mulberry wine, mustard, malt, beer,
and mead were manufactured. The Emperor expressly
prescribed the greatest cleanliness. He demanded
hkewise that in the separate buildings for the women
raw materials for the clothing industries, as flax, wool,
woad, scarlet, madder, wool-combs, carding thistles,
soap, and the like, must always be kept in stock.
Furthermore, it was ordained ''that every overseer
must have in his district good craftsmen, as ironsmiths,
gold and silversmiths, shoemakers, turners, carpenters,
shield-makers, fishers, falconers, soap-boilers, brewers
who are able to prepare not only beer, but also apple
and pear cider and other drinks, bakers who understand
how to bake bread for our household, net-makers who
know how to spin nets for hunting, fishing, and bird-

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 197

catching, and all kinds of other craftsmen." Lumber-
yards, iron, lead, and other kinds of mines were com-
prised under the management of the farm.

These crafts received special attention in the mon-
asteries, as the monks themselves often possessed great
skill. Bishop Eugene of Noyes, who lived in the
Meroving period, was famous for his art of making
gold and silver ornaments, and later, Bishop Bernward
of Hildesheim, accompHshed in many arts, was espe-
cially known for his artistic tVork in bronze. Colored
glass, again, was made first in the monasteries ; and glass
painting is said to have been invented by south German
monks, but this is doubtful. After the Karhng time
the great landholders began to speciahze; skilful vil-
lains were placed as overseers over the shops, the prod-
ucts of which they sold in the market for the benefit
of the manorial lord.

With the growth of cities specialization set in with
greater vigor, craftsmen were in great demand, and we
find them mentioned at an early period together with
the trader and peasant. For the villain who under-
stood some handicraft, removal to the city meant not
only a chance of earning a better livelihood, but per-
sonal hberty as well ; whoever had spent a year under ( | >
the protection of a city could not be reclaimed by his '
former master. Stadtluft macht fret (city air makes
free) became not a current saying only, but a legal
principle. Under the influence of growing interna-
tional commerce the cities outstripped the country
districts in prosperity ; on account of their political
growth and of their relative security, compared with
the open country where feuds and raids disturbed all
healthy development, life in the cities became more
and more active and broad. New inventions, improve-

198 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ments, rediscoveries of a lost technique, and quick
appropriation of foreign industries are so many wit-
nesses.

The associative instinct could not fail to cause Ihe
craftsmen to join together according to their different
crafts in guilds ; in German the word for these is Zunft,
although there is no reason why they might not be
called Gilden, as well as the older merchant guilds.
As with the merchant guilds, once a member one's
whole life was regulated by the statutes of the guild,
and no one outside of the organization was allowed
to practise his craft. Competition was limited; an
attempt, often successful, was made to prevent the
massing of capital in a single hand, and regulations
were made in regard to apprentices and journejonen.
From the beginning the German craftsman showed
great love for his calhng, and pride in work well per-
formed. He thought much of his professional honor,
individually and collectively. The guild controlled
the quality of the work and the purity of the raw
material ; work might not be commenced on a new
order before the last one had been finished.

It was not long, however, before some capital was
saved and goods were produced above the immediate
need of customers. The institution of the journey-
men's travels, too, which were compulsory and re-
mained customary until long after the introduction
of steamships and railroads, may have caused a quick
exchange of all technical improvements, however
carefully they were guarded as secrets of the craft.
In this connection there may be mentioned innumer-
able tools, fire-arms, brass, spinning-wheels, organs,
mill works, copper- and wood-engraving, watches, gun-
powder, diamond-cutting, which have all been either

XXI THE RISE OP THE CITIES 199

invented in Germany or perfected so as to become
really practical.

Most important of all was the cheap process of mak-
ing paper out of linen rags, which, invented in China,
is first found in Europe among the Saracens in Sicily,
and thence spreads abroad. The first German paper-
mill was opened in Ravensburg in 1190. About 1320
we hear of paper-mills in Koln and IMainz. In the
earher IMiddle Ages there was no book trade what-
ever ; very precious manuscripts were loaned sometimes
for copying purposes, but were rarely sold. The new
cheap paper, however, made the production of a great
many copies possible ; wood and copper engravings
were widely distributed ; and in time whole texts were
cut in wood or copper plates page by page and printed.
Thus book-selling became a regular trade. This was
soon succeeded by the greatest invention of the German
crafts, an invention which had been sought after in
other countries and which placed Germany at one
stroke at the head of intellectual culture ; I mean, of
course, the art of printing, the great means for the
democratization of intelhgence. The contemporary
public did not fail to recognize the importance of this
i invention. Before the fifteenth century was ended,
twenty-five thousand books had been published, not
counting reissues. Abbot Tritheim speaks of the
"admirable art, unheard of up to this time, of printing
books by single t>TDes, invented and thought out by
;a citizen of Mainz, one Johannes Gutenberg"; and
n member of the next generation, Johannes Wymphel-
ing, rector of the famous school at Schlettstadt, says :
"There is no invention or fruit of our mind of which
'we Germans may be as proud as of the art of printing
books, which has raised us to the position of the intel-

200 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

lectual purveyors of the teachings of Christianity as
well as of all divine and secular science, and by this
means has made us benefactors of all mankind. How
different a hfe is seen now amongst all classes of the
people ; and who would not gratefully remember the
first founders and promoters of this art, even if he has
not, as has been the case of our teachers, known
them personally and enjoyed their conversation? As
formerly the apostles of Christianity went forth, so
now the disciples of the sacred art go forth from Ger-
many into all countries ; their printed books become
heralds of the gospel, preachers of truth and science."

Closely connected with the crafts in Germany, as
elsewhere, we find the plastic arts. The artist is above
all a craftsman, to the great advantage of the craft,
which thus develops into industrial art. In time, art
is separated from handicraft, and, after freeing itself
from its inferior position, becomes autonomous, indi-
vidual art with ideals of its own, while the craft sinks
back into mere usefulness, leaving for our admiration
those old masterpieces as a rehc of the lost unity of
art and craft. At present we are witnessing a renais-
sance of industrial art, not the natural organic unity
of mediaeval times, but the product of a conscious appli-
cation of art principles to the utensils of daily use.

It has been pointed out in former chapters that the
oldest products of Germanic art show a style of their
own. Mathematical elements, at first lines, curves,
zigzag lines, later on spiral lines, are entwined in the
most varied ways. A new motive is the entwined
ribbon ornament, reminding us of leather straps fastened
at the crossing points by nails, the heads of which
appear in the ornaments. As early as the Meroving
times we find such designs executed in silver inlay,

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 201

hammered into the engraved grooves of an iron surface
(Tauschierarbeit) . This ribbon ornament finds its prin-
cipal development in miniatm-e painting on manuscripts,
practised especially in the monasteries. Animal mo-
tives had in prehistoric times been introduced into
ornamentation by having the ends of the ribbons run
out into the heads of animals; and gradually entire
animal bodies were conventionaHzed in the entwinings
of the ribbons. Soon plant motives follow, and finally
human figures. We can observe the same develop-
ment of ornamentation in metal work, wood-carving,
and stonework, the latter being modelled after wood
ornaments. "\\Tiere antique models are imitated, e.g.,
in the capitals of columns, especially when the imi-
tating is done from memory, domestic motives are
frequently introduced instead of the unknown forms,
and German plants are used as models, gradually
standing out more freely and naturally.

But all their work is characterized by that Germanic
style which left its traces all over Europe wherever
Germanic tribes settled during the migration period,
and holds its owti until the ninth century; in the
Germanic North it finds its highest development still
later. Throughout the centuries of changing style it re-
appears from time to time ; to-day we see its revival in
the modern styles of America, England, and Germany,
the more remarkable since it seems, in its beginnings
at least, unintentional.

Scientific investigation along these fines is still in
its infancy, but two principles may be accepted as dis-
tinctly Germanic. The one is primarily of a technical
nature, and consists in the complete separation of the
ornament from the organism of the structure. Antique
and later mediaeval art made the ornamentation an

202 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

element of the constructive parts ; Germanic art finishes
its object, as demanded by its pm-pose, and then adds
the ornamentation to its sm-face. This is the principle
of woodwork ornamentation; but, at the same time,
may we not find the ultimate reason for the return to
a technique foreign to the new material in that racial
desire to separate the essential from the ornamental,
the purposeful from the decorative, element ?

The other characteristic principle of Germanic art
is one of composition; it puts eurythmy {gehundene
Bewegung) in place of or alongside of symmetry, which
plays such an important part in classical and related
arts. It prefers repetition to reversion, and gives
that impression of motion, of life, which is so character-
istic of Germanic ornament. '

It may not be out of place to mention as one of the
results of more recent research the discovery that the
well-known horseshoe arch of IVIoorish architecture is
not of Arabic but of Germanic origin, brought to Spain
by the Visigoths. The better our acquaintance with
the artistic products of those times, the more ''we are
surprised," to quote Hterally from Albrecht Haupt,
to whom our subject owes very valuable contributions,
"above all at the unexpected unity of this art, which,
different throughout from all other contemporaneous
art, influenced by it only in a small degree, proves that
this enormous mass of Germanic peoples possessed
one kind of taste, one way of adorning, of clothing,
of arming themselves, of living, certainly also of build-
ing, and using their homes." At all events it cannot
be said that the development of art in Germany is
due merely to the reception of Roman influences by a
people without any artistic tradition of its own.

The art which in our minds is mostly connected with

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 203

the mediaeval period is architecture. As the Germans
were untrained in the science of constructing stone
churches and royal palaces, architects and masons had
to be called from Italy and France, though monks and
clerics were often their own architects. At first classi-
cal models were imitated ; but soon a period of decay
set in, and even vaulting became a lost art. In their
poor imitations of the Roman models the Germans,
though they lost a great many of the finer elements,
showed a certain spirit of defiance, a sinister power,
which cannot be sufficiently explained by a mere disa-
bility to do more elegant work. While the Roman
basilica may have given the fundamental form, features
which cannot be explained by foreign influence became
more and more apparent. There is something massive,
sometimes even clumsy, about the buildings, but they
are broadly and solidly settled on the ground with a
plain austerity which seems to indicate a turning away
from the outside world. The Mausoleum of Theodorich
at Ravenna already shows a character of its own. In
time a regaining of technical skill is noticeable ; from
its broad and solid foundation the building comes to
strive towards greater height, the decorative side is
more emphasized, and in Saxon Germany we find the
first types of the Romanesque style of architecture.
At first the ceiling is flat, made of wood, but after the
rediscovery of vaulting the so-called Romanesque arch is
applied. This style, in its adaptation truly German,
spreads rapidly, leaving a great number of magnificent
churches for the admiration of the modern traveller.

In Germany the desire for still higher arching, vaster
space, for a disburdening of the stone, so to speak, for
a spiritualizing of matter, continued, and led to a transi-
tion style in the Rhine regions. In France, near Paris,

204 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

where an easily shaped sandstone facihtated progress,
this resulted in the style which, centuries later, the
Italians dubbed Gothic, a word intended in this case
to mean "barbarous," in which sense the expression was
long used by the Romance nations. The new French
style decided the development of architecture in Ger-
many at the same time that French courtoisie, hove-
scheit, was exercising its influence on German knight-
hood. The German race-theorists like to point out
that the cradle of this beautiful style of architecture
is to be found in that part of France where the German
invaders decided the character of the population in
spite of their acceptance of the Romance language. It
is a fact that at the time when the Gothic style was
first originated German was still spoken in Paris, and
the older church windows show German inscriptions.
It is not without significance that beginnings similar to
those of the Gothic style are found in the Germanic
North, where wooden buildings show the same tenden-
cies ; here the pointed arch seems to be technologically
founded on shipbuilding, the roof being in fact an in-
verted ship. It is a fact that the Gothic architecture
follows the Normans in all their settlements. The
Gothic churches of Germany are numerous and
beautiful.

In the meantime stone building had become a secu-
lar craft, as was bound to be the case when people
began to build cities. Princes and wealthy burghers
took the place of ecclesiastical dignitaries in adorning
their cities with magnificent cathedrals and minsters.
Secular buildings, palaces, and public buildings, as well
as the residences of rich merchants, also began to adopt
the new style. As the principal monument of secular
architecture in the Romanesque style may be mentioned

XXI THE RISE OF THE CITIES 205

the imperial palace, Kaiserhaus, at Goslar ; while the
Marienburg, the palatial residence of the Grand Masters
of the Teutonic Order since the fourteenth century, is
an example of the Gothic style.

Painting and sculpture in the course of development
had freed themselves from the mere ornamental treat-
ment of the first periods and showed more and more
characterization, life, and movement. As early as at
the end of the Romanesque period we find some mas-
terpieces of sculpture, such as the Sibyl in the Bamberg
cathedral. The Gothic style caused an arrest of de-
velopment, or rather a retrogression towards a stilted,
conventional treatment which had not quite disap-
peared from German sculpture at the end of the Middle
Ages. Gothic architecture did not leave any wall
surfaces for the painter's art, so that painting was
confined to altar panels and painting on glass.

In painting at first only the outlines of the subjects
are given, and in typical rendition, as of an animal or
bird without representing a definite species. Then we
find a closer approach to reality in a still very conven-
tional conception, until at last, at the time of the
strengthening of the burgher element in the cities,
a true naturalistic reproduction is reached. Thus the
development of art represents simply one side of the
transition from an unfree state to liberty, brought
about by life in the cities.

CHAPTER XXII

THE RISE OF THE CITIES
II

The Change of Economic Basis and its Consequences.
Legal and Political Development of the Cities

In the economic system of the cities the agrarian basis
was changed to a financial one, and the way thus pre-
pared for modern times. In following up the economic
process in all its psychological consequences, Lamprecht,
in his "Deutsche Geschichte," has been exceedingly
fortunate in showing the importance of this factor in
human evolution. "The increase of commerce," he
says, "leads to a hitherto unsuspected freedom of move-
ment in the individual ; it causes a breaking away from
the old, locall}' bound associations ; no longer local
attachments, but differences of calling, leaving the
local element out entirely, become the social ferment of
national society ; soon the social consequences of this
translocation become e^-ident in mental life. Among
these consequences is the release of the hitherto fet-
tered aesthetic conception : poetry advances to drama
and satire and with these to the beginnings of individu-
aUstic reproduction and criticism of the material world ;
art gains more and more the power of reahstic concep-
tion and rendition ; thought progresses to a truly
scientific control of the external world and leaves medi-
tation concerning the highest problems, the relations

206

CHAP. XXII THE RISE OF THE CITIES 207

of God, Universe, Man, of responsibility, to the con-
science of the individual. IndividuaHsm is awake ;
slowl}', out of an ever deeper penetration of the world,
and ever firmer control over it, the modern man is
born."

The causes governing this development in the German
cities were found in the conditions of trade and industry
described above. It first became evident in the field
of law and politics. In the earlier times the " law of
the market" was an imperial prerogrative. The attend-
ants at the markets enjoyed certain immunities, such
dispensations from certain legal limitations as common
sense suggested. A bundle of straw was raised to show
the duration of the market, and this was sometimes
adorned with the emblems of the imperial authority,
the shield and sword, which later gave rise to the erection
of the statues which are all named after the hero Roland
and arouse a curious interest at the present day. Some-
times a banner v/as displayed, which is the origin of the
market cross. These were the sjnnbols of the Markt-
frieden, i.e., the enforcement of the special legal con-
ditions pertinent to the holding of the market. Like
other regaha, the right of the market was transferred
to the vassals, especially the bishops, and in later times
the cities themselves. The territorial lord thus be-
came the lord of the market. In administrative matters
he was represented by a warden under different titles.

Wlien in its rapid development the " mark " became
more and more identical with the old political unit of
the hundreds or its subdivisions, and the city limits in-
cluded both, the administrative bodies became united ;
the guild obtained a share in the government, and
aside from the representatives of the judicial lord we find
the Schoffen, or lay assessors, and elected councillors.

208 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Since the political development of every city took place
independently, though, whether imperial cities or under
the lordship of a prince or bishop, more or less under-
going the same stages, the results were not by any means
uniform, and the "liberties" they enjoyed were of the
greatest variety. The city government begins to take
repubhcan form, at first, to be sure, under higher juris-
diction ; the king or the lord to whom the royal rights
had been transferred took part in the administration
through his officers and ministerials, but less for the
benefit of the cities than for the sake of increasing the
revenues which accrued to him from the right of coinage,
tolls, and customs, and the control of the market and
the police.

As was the rule under the feudal system, these offices
became hereditary, and the families of the baronial
officials associated and intermarried with those of the
guilds ; and later they sided with the burghers when the
systematic attempt began to abrogate all obligations
towards the territorial lord. This abrogation or limi-
tation of territorial rule was accomplished partly by long
and violent combat, partly, after the increase of cap-
italistic power, in a friendly way by the payment of
certain sums of money. Other rights, especially in re-
gard to trade monopolies, were obtained from the
emperor directly or were acquired by treaties with
neighboring lords. The city council took control both
as territorial and municipal administrator and adopted
a policy of far-reaching, paternal provision for the wel-
fare of the citizens which found expression in the pet-
tiest police regulations.

The administration of justice was largely a municipal
affair, so that the task of developing the legal foundation
for the new economic conditions fell to the cities. The

XXII THE RISE OF THE CITIES 209

Empire had manifested its impotence to put a stop to
the general insecurity and legal confusion which had
become a real scourge. Even the Sachsenspiegel, a cod-
ification of Low German law by Eike von Repgow, who
in an admirable manner tried to bring some system
into the general chaos of the thirteenth century, could
not as a private enterprise have very much practical
success. The attempt of the cities to adapt ancient
laws to the new conditions brought about a new con-
trast between city and country, which helped to widen
the breech between the two. Another consequence
of the certain legal conditions was the rise of the famous
Veme, a kind of mediaeval vigilance committee, based,
however, on old constitutional authority.

As to the financial side, the city council, which con-
trolled the coinage and the commercial regalia, pos-
sessed full power. Thus it was possible for the guild to
secure a trade monopoly. Jews were excluded from
commerce at an early period ; but as the latter developed
to such an extent as to make great enterprises impossible
without the use of credit, the money trade fell to the
Jews as a matter of course, the taking of interest being
strictly forbidden by the Church. It is true that, thanks
to a very high rate of interest, they soon acquired ex-
traordinary wealth, but by this very fact they aroused
the envy of the masses. With the increase of the cler-
ical power under the successors of Charles the Great
they began to suffer somewhat from reUgious intoler-
ance. During Holy Week especially the slaughter of
the Jews (Judenschlachten) became frequent, and the
existence of the Jews' tax paid to the emperor for pro-
tection proves the need for such protection. Persecu-
tions on a large scale, however, began only during the
Crusades, when the rabble combined avarice with re-

210 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ligious hate. From May to July, 1096, about twelve
thousand Jews were slain in the Rhenish cities alone,
not, however, by their fellow-citizens, but by the mass
of undisciplined people of all nationalities, who, as the
advance guard of the first Crusade, marched through
Germany to Constantinople and as bearers of the cross
took a great many liberties in the name of the rehgion
of love. The natives under the leadership of their
clergymen and bishops tried to hide and protect the
Jews, but with little success. After that time the per-
secutions increased in number, becoming especially
cruel in times of public calamity, when superstition
and fear overshadowed all reason. With the persecu-
tion of the heretics toward the end of the Middle Ages
Jew baiting became a regular institution. For the
reigning lords, however, the Jews afforded an unfailing
refuge from financial troubles ; this kind of robbery was
called a compulsory loan. With the increasing dis-
satisfaction of the penniless it soon became a favorite
trick of so-called statesmanship to divert the displeasure
of the masses by a skilfully managed persecution of the
Jews. These abuses reached their height at the time
of the Black Death, during the fourteenth century.
Ritual murder is first heard of in the time of the
Crusades.

Of course, the progress of commerce would not allow
the socialistic and communistic doctrines of Christianity
to stand in its way forever. In time the city coun-
cils regulate the position of the debtor. Soon after the
firm establishment of private property in land, mort-
gages at an official rate of interest were adopted and
certain regulations of credit decided upon. Alone or
in common with other cities the council took charge
of the money trade, founded the first state banks, or

XXII THE RISE OF THE CITIES 211

subsidized private banks already in existence. The
necessity of a basis of exchange in view of the many
kinds of coinage had been the beginning of banking.
As increasing capital strengthened the initiative of
the individual and broke the fetters of merchant and
craft-guilds, without however destroying these insti-
tutions, business soon emancipated itself from the
guardianship of the council. In all these respects
Germany followed the lead of Italy, where economic
development was more advanced. The first banks
had been opened in Venice in 1171. Many technical
expressions in commercial bookkeeping and banking
bear testimony to their Italian origin.

The cities also succeeded in overcoming the German
dislike for taxation, which increased with the power
of the lords. The ground tax seems to be the oldest
form. Indirect taxation took the shape of import duties
and of excise on wine, beer, salt, fish, meat, etc. Slowly
the council learned to organize a regular financial house-
hold, which later was imitated by the territorial lords.
The latter succeeded in the thirteenth century in
changing the voluntary gift of the Bede to a compulsory
tax, Nothede.

But in the meantime the city government had under-
gone a radical change. The merchant guilds had
already acquired considerable power and had combined
with the ministerials of the original lord of the city to
form a patrician aristocracy by the time the industries
came to found organizations of their own in the craft-
guilds. It was in the interest of the ruUng families, i.e.,
of the great mercantile houses, to allow them all the
privileges conducive to the development of industry.
But in time the increase of capital in the hands of the
craftsman and the development of manufacturing on a

212 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

larger scale brought the craft-guilds into about the same
position in relation to the patricians as the latter had
held not long before as regards their territorial lords;
and in course of nature the same development was bound
to follow. The craft-guilds demanded participation in
the government. The patricians had already begun to
degenerate under the influence of quickly acquired
riches. They tried to rival the knights in everything ;
indeed, many knightly families who had settled in the
cities were of their number. Neither did the nobihty
fail to better their straightened economical conditions
by matrimonial connections with rich patricians; and
likewise the knights for similar reasons sometimes re-
membered their rustic origin and their peasant relatives,
if the latter were blessed with a handsome property.
When an increased class consciousness, a stronger em-
phasis on the equality of birth, and the ever-widening
breach between the city and country put an end to these
personal relations, the burghers still kept up the chival-
ric standard of life and even outranked the gradually
declining nobility in intellectual culture and outward
pomp.

In their fight against the patrician families who were
already partially diverted from the more serious pursuits
of life, the craft-guilds had the advantage of a greater
famiharity with arms, as they formed the body of the
municipal militia. On them the city relied for defence.
It was sometimes in peaceful agreement, but usually
in very bloody civil wars, that the craft-guilds won
their rights. The democratic reforms were first ac-
complished in Speyer and Worms. In many cities
the patrician families, die Geschlechter or dieEhrbarkeit, as
they were called, were entirely expelled ; in others they
were compelled to share the administration with their

XXII THE RISE OF THE CITIES 213

adversaries, which frequently meant only an increase in
the number of ruling families. In justice, however,
it must be said that, on the whole, the cities which
stood under aristocratic rule had the better adminis-
trations.

But the development of individualism overtook the
reform before it had been accomplished. It was not
as a member of his guild, but as an independent person-
ality, that the citizen began to demand his rights ; while
outside of the recognized associations the poor of the
cities and the peasants were awakening to a conscious-
ness of human rights.

On the whole, this development, much as it may have
been influenced by economic conditions, was in accord
with Germanic character. In this, as has been shown
already in the conception of the state of primitive
times, ''there is combined a strong feeling of personality
of the individual who masterfully relies on himself with
a readiness to unite with others in faithful association
for the accomplishment of such tasks as overtax the
strength of a single person. But for those tasks only ;
, after their performance he retires to his own resources."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE

About the Year 1500

In tracing the different currents of German life in the
early stages of its development we have not paid much
attention to chronology. While we have not lost
sight of the threads connecting all the different phases of
life and have been able to discover, if not the origin, at
least the antiquity, of some institutions and traits of
modern Germany and its inhabitants, the epoch at
which we have arrived, standing at the threshold of
modern civilization, seems to invite us to take a survey
of the results of German evolution since the time of the
Migrations, when the nation began to live a life sepa-
rate from that of its racial relatives and when its
national life began to differentiate under the influ-
ence of progressing culture.

The time about the year 1500 is perhaps the time of
the greatest vigor of the German nation ; there is the
exuberant vitality of healthy youth, which seems to be
principally physical health, an excess of energy, which
must be worked off in action of some kind. There is
not of necessity an inferiority on the side of intellectual
and spiritual life, yet we get an impression of material-
ism, of sensualism. It is a people full of animal spirits,
prosperous, self-satisfied, passionate, impulsive, not
over-refined, still with a latent strength of intellect which

214

CHAP. XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 215

does not shrink from difficult problems, and with a
depth of feeling which manifests itself in many ways.
; The whole nation is unsettled, and signs of things to
; come are evident to the careful observer. The nation
\ has outgrown its childhood and is ready to enter upon
; a maturer stage of life. In spite of the deep conflicts
: which agitate it, the national personality — if so I may
i translate the German Volkstum, a coinage of Friedrich
! Ludwig Jahn — seems to be remarkably uniform.
The higher and lower nobility had almost given up the
, international culture of chivalry, which for a time had
[threatened to form an exclusive caste of a military
[aristocracy. The clergy had given up its aspiration
to a Latin erudition and a loftier plan of life apart from
the lay world ; the new education, of a more secular
character, had not taken deep enough root to separate
the world of thought of the learned from that of the
plain people. The character of the time is decidedly
democratic, and for once there is a certain social equi-
librium which of course could not last long. Not that
all the people were of the same opinion nor that there
was an absence of wretched poverty, but on the whole
the contrasts were not strong enough to disturb the
general uniformity. Rich and poor, high and low,
prince, commoner, and peasant, understood one an-
other ; at the very period when the individual began to
assert himself v/ith greater decision and the old confed-
erations showed the first signs of dissolution, the ele-
ments that composed the inner side of life were the same.
The theory of life of the mediaeval times had been
centred in the universal Church, not in the individual,
iiis convictions and conscience ; life worked more from
A^ithout than from within ; unconditional submission
md adoring devotion were demanded ; the soul was the

216 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

scene of the combat of good and evil spirits ; man had no
power, no Uberty. This view now became too narrow,
man had outgrown all the narrowing conditions without
being conscious of it ; the zwivel, the inner conflict, of
which we hear so much in mediaeval poetry, was a
symptom of the awakening reason. In more shallow
characters this unrest encouraged a greater enjoyment
of the material side of life.

This was the time of the Volkslied, the songs of the peo-
ple, not merely of the lower classes, but of the whole na-
tion; and therefore the Volkslied is the best and most
faithful witness of German character and national life in
the fifteenth century. It is a coixonon practice in these
Volkslieder for the author to tell us something about
himself — indeed, the whole song may be a narrative
of his own heart-breaking or enjoyable experiences.
Very often he describes his station in life, and we see
that all classes take part in the production of the songs ;
one author makes himself known as a nobleman, an-
other as a beggar ; we find students, soldiers, hunters,
a ''rich peasant's son," a young cleric, and many other
callmgs, sometimes even a girl confesses to having com-
posed the song. Good living, Schlemmen, good eating
and drinking, and love are the ideals portrayed in these
songs. The joy of living, die Lehensfreude, is the key-
note of all of them ; even when an unhappy love breaks
the young heart, the appreciation of happiness is shown
by the very longing for it. But it is essential that nature
have a share in this joy. The German feels himself at
one with nature and in sympathy with it in pleasures
and sorrows. One short love song which shows a girl,
herself unfortunate, feeling doubly wretched when
she hears of the happiness of her companion, may serve
as an illustration :

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 217

"I heard a sickle rustling,

'Twas rustling through the corn,
I heard a fair maid wailing,
Her love she had forlorn.

Let rustle, dear, let rustle,
\\Tiat comes I do not mind ;
In violets and sweet clover
A sweetheart I did find.'

"If in \'iolets and sweet clover
A sweetheart thou didst find.
Then I must stand here lonely
And sadness fills my mind.' "

Thus the happiness of the Germans, to whom Luther,
himself one of them, was about to preach, was not
very ideaUstic. A merry drinking bout, a fine brown
maiden or a beautiful lady, May, the ''pleasure month"
as the Germans call it, sunshine, the forest with its
green trees and its animals, or the fields with their
flowers, the song of the ''dear" nightingale, or his own
"Lied" and music on the lute, — these were the objects
of his desires as expressed in the Volkslied. But beneath
this uniformly gay surface, strong personalities were dis-
engaging themselves from the mass, the fermentation
was at work which was to change the current of Western
civilization.

Both the feeling of personality and the joy in mere
living for life's sake, as well as for material prosperity,
found expression in all the different spheres of human
interest, being, of course, most apparent in external
conditions.

The old Germanic mode of dress experienced few
changes as long as the standard of life remained the
same for all classes. The Meroving kings still rode
through their country in an ox-cart. The apparel

218 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of Charles the Great was the same as that of his
Frankish courtiers, a Uttle more magnificent, per-
haps, on state occasions; for all classes of the peo-
ple the description of Tacitus still held good, save
that the dress of women was closed about the neck and
lengthened in the sleeve and skirt. Only once or twice
Charles the Great donned the splendor of Roman dress
to please the Pope. The imperial robes in which we so
often see him represented, as in the well-known ideal
portrait by Albrecht Diirer, belong to a later period.
But increasing wealth, contact with foreign fashions dur-
ing the Crusades, and especially the influence of French
Chivalry wrought a great change. Many-colored cos-
tumes follow each other in continual variety, both
among men and women. Headgear, unknown in
Roman times, appeared first in the shape of straw hats,
but changed with the dress ; shoes became pointed
{Schnabelschuhe) , the points becoming finally so long
that they hindered walking unless tied by a ribbon to
the knees. The budding self-consciousness tries to
attract attention by every means. The detachable
sleeves of the upper garment are widened to that they
drag on the ground. Party-colored garments become
the fashion ; the coats are jagged ; as if the loud colors
did not attract attention enough, bells are attached,
first on belts, then on all possible and impossible places.
Later this motley becomes the costume of fools, who
still strut about in it in the modern Carnival.

Personality becomes more and more conscious of
itself, and after art had learned to reproduce the human
body in a naturalistic way the so-called Burgundian
fashion is adopted, in which the garments are tightly
fitting and show the outlines of the body, even emphasiz-
ing them ; men's and women's garments are both cut

xxm THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 219

lower about the neck and shortened. The morahsts
preach against this ; and, indeed, even our modern sen-
sibiUties are rather shocked by some features. The
tightness became at last so excessive that it prevented
free movements, and the sleeves were first slit open at the
elbows, showing the silk hning ; more slits were made and
used for decorative purposes in other parts of the dress.
Up to that time the coat had been slipped over the head,
but the inconvenience of putting on such tight garments
in that way led to the use of buttons and buttonholes,
which at the same time made even fitting garments pos-
sible. Our modern coats had their origin in these.
The material was sometimes of the richest quality ; fur,
feathers, precious metals, and gems were used for orna-
mentation.

There were manj^ opportunities to display these fin-
eries in public. Holidays were frequent. Private life
in the famil}", as well as pubhc and Church fife, offered
a continuous round of festivities in which the old Ger-
manic traits of hospitality and con^d^dalit5" found la\'ish
expression. Here the mipoverished nobilit}^ could not
rival the rich merchants of the cities, who regarded
them as peasants and contemptuously nicknamed them
''pepperbags." The luxuriously^ furnished houses of
the merchant patricians were decorated with wood-
carvings and tapestries, stained-glass windows, and
metal-"^Tought dishes, to which towards the end of the
fifteenth century porcelain from China was added as a
newly imported luxury. At their feasts a great variety
of food and drink from all parts of the world was served.
Baking had been greatly improved ; cakes, tarts, and
pretzels were still prepared at home, but fine confection-
ery could be bought at the apothecary's. Spices, such
as pepper, saffron, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cubebs, cin-

220 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

namon, and others, were extensively used, especially in
preparing meats and gravies. These spices would
probably be too sharp for present taste — a fact which is
often given to explain the heavy drinking of the times,
as if a healthy thirst had been a foreign thing to Ger-
mans before sharp spices were known to them ! All
these delicate dishes were eaten without forks, although
the first ones had been brought to Germany in the four-
teenth century. As late as the sixteenth century we
hear of preachers condemning their use as being against
the will of the Lord, who would not have given us fingers,
if he wanted us to use forks. 9|

All articles of consumption were keenly supervised
by the city authorities as to purity and correct weight.
Adulteration of wine is frequently mentioned and even
caused legislation by the Reichstag, the Diet of the Em-
pire. Of all festive occasions in family life weddings
held first place. The luxury displayed in presents,
hospitality, and dress, even by plainer people, was ex-
cessive. The celebration lasted from three days to a
fortnight. The blessing in church often took place
long after the wedding, the betrothal being really the
binding act. f|

In the great number of holidays we miss the greatest
of German family days of present times, to wit, Christ-
mas. The Christmas tree is not, as has been generally
believed, a relic of old German heathenism, but is rather
a modern institution, the first references to it dating
from the seventeenth century. It finds an analogy in
Roman rather than in German antiquity. New Year
and Twelfth Night were more observed than Christmas,
but above all festivals stood the Carnival.

The arrangement of public festivals was one of the
duties of the city council, who attended to them very

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 221

conscientiously. A city cook was one of the officials in
many cities. Of course, the councillors saw that their
own wine, beer, and food were of the best quality and
gave the citizens an opportunity to partake of good things
of guaranteed excellence by establishing in the base-
ment of the city hall the Ratskeller, the council's cellar,
of which some, especially the one in Bremen, have ac-
quired literary fame. Large banqueting rooms and
dancing halls were provided by the city governments ;
the Giirzenich in Koln, perhaps the most splendid, has
preserved its character to the present day.

Intemperance in eating and drinking was the ruling
vice of the time ; foreign travellers refer to it with dis-
gusted horror, feelings the reader would share, if I
should mention some particulars. Everything we see
and hear of intemperance to-day is almost teetotalism
as compared with the excesses of that period in Ger-
many. Only once again was there a similar state of
affairs, caused, curiously enough, by exactly opposite con-
ditions ; whereas in the period we are speaking of the
excesses were caused by overgreat prosperity ; it appears
that at the time of deep misery following the Thirty
Years' War despair caused equal recklessness in de-
bauchery.

In the country the jollification was closer to nature.
Dancing in the open was frequently indulged in. As
to-day, or rather much more so, the hohday of the
patron saint, das Kirchweihfest or die Kirmes, was the
greatest feasting time; it lasted for a week. Some-
times several neighboring villages united in a common
celebration.

With all its disgusting features the rudeness of the
times was mitigated by an all-pervading humor of a
Phihstine, and sometimes coarse and obscene, kind;

222 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the teasing of one's neighbors was a favorite pastime
with Germans from the oldest times, nicknames were
given to rival tribes, to the different classes of the popu-
lation, and anecdotes told which have survived down to
our own day. It happened as another consequence of
the growing individualism that family names came
into use at this time, and in these the people gave full
sway to their humorous disposition; any German city
directory will furnish plenty of examples which date
back to this period.

This humor can be observed likewise in the names of
streets, places, pieces of apparel, dishes, drinks, arms,
especially cannons, animals, plants, and all kinds of
implements, including the gallows. It entered religious
life and art, and is preserved in the sculptures of cathe-
drals and city halls. Even the solemn practice of the
law was not safe from this trait, and many ridiculous
punishments bear witness to it. A great many of the
rather drastic proverbs with which the German people
like to adorn their speech come from those days. Any
one familiar with German life will know that this not
exactly refined, but generally kind-hearted and broad-
minded, humor is still alive. Anger over some real or
imagined injury will often find expression in coarse
humor. This gives an outlet to all feelings of revenge
and prevents that mean feeling of lasting spite which
may nurse itself for a long time to take advantage of
an unguarded moment to stab the enemy. Nowhere
outside of Germany is there such a variety of names,
taken from zoology or other realms, which can be applied
to friend or enemy. However coarse they may sound
translated into another language, they must be taken
in a humorous sense, and are used almost invariably
only where real animosity is excluded by personal

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 223

relations. Hateful swearing and cursing is not a
common habit in Germany, although it would be
ridiculous to deny its occurrence altogether; perhaps
Germans make up by greater variety for their lack in
intensity in this respect.

As to the total impression made by German cities of
the times, foreign travellers are unanimous in praising
their imposing appearance. ''If we wander through
the most remarkable of these cities," says ^neas
Sylvius, the humanist, later Pope Pius II, "the mag-
nificence of the people and the beauty of the country
will shine out brightly before our eyes. Where in
Europe could be found a more splendid city than
Koln?" In a similar way he expresses himself as to
other cities. The burghers' homes appear to him "fit
for princes." "To speak sincerely," he confesses, "no
country in Europe has better and more friendly cities
than Germany." It may be safe to assume that this
account is somewhat exaggerated, in order to show that
the complaints of the country's becoming impoverished
by the money sent to the Pope were unfounded ; but
similar statements are made by many contemporary
! writers of all nations. Still we must not forget that in
: spite of the magnificence of many public and some
' private buildings and the generally romantic impres-
sion we get of mediaeval cities with their many towers
and fortifications, the majority of houses were of wood,
the streets almost all unpaved, the better ones having
a road-bed of gravel ; pigs and cows were allowed to
roam at large, as most cities still preserved their agrarian
character ; street illumination at night was unknown ;
glass windows were not at all common. Large fires
that destroyed whole cities were frequent, though
we find fire regulations at a comparatively early day.

224 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

A small squirt — one could not very well call it an
engine — began to be used at fires in the fifteenth
century. Of paved streets we hear first at Llibeck,
1310, and Niirnberg, 1368.

The physical vigor of the times shows itself most
plainly in the increase of the population. This had been
hindered in previous centuries by the numerous epi-
demics which raged with a violence hardly to be con-
ceived by modern imaginations. But in the fifteenth
century hygienic conditions had begun to improve,
material conditions were favorable, and thus we find
that famihes with twelve, fifteen, or even more children
were not uncommon ; for the city of Erfurt a chronicle
gives an average of eight to ten children per family.
Children born out of wedlock were frequent ; they grew
up in their father's house vvdth their half-brothers and
sisters, and for a long time no disgrace was attached
to their state. According to many writers the state
of morals as regards relations between the sexes cannot
have been high. In so far as this conclusion is drawn
principally from the laws passed at the time, it is a ques-
tion whether we have a right to say that certain abuses
were frequent merely because severe punishments were
set on them. This severity may just as well indicate
that such were exceptional cases. From legislation
proposed recently in Washington, a future historian
might conclude with equal justification that the modern
Americans were a nation of wife beaters. People were
not so easily shocked in those days, and many things
appeared to them but natural which we should find
disgusting. After all, Albrecht von Eyb, in his treatise
"Whether a Man Ought to Take a Wife or Not,"
printed in 1472, seems to express the common view of the
Germans of his time when he says: "Marriage is a

xxin THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 225

useful, wholesome thing : by it many a conflict and
war is quieted, relationship and good friendship formed,
and the whole human race perpetuated. ^Matrimony
is also a merry, pleasurable and sweet thing. AMiat is
merrier and sweeter than the names of father and
mother and the children hanging on their parents'
necks ? If married people have the right love and the
right Villi for one another, their joy and sorrow are
common to them and they enjoy the good things the
more merrily and bear the adverse things the more
easily."

The position of women was not a very high one;
her sphere was the home, and she is not often men-
tioned ; still we learn of some women of a rather
exceptionally high education.

In spite of all the joy in the material side of hfe,
intellectual interests were not neglected. It is true
the period is sterile in hterature of a higher class,
didactic poetry, satire, and some plays furnishing the
only works worth mentioning. The beginnings of the
drama go far back, and passion plays and moralities form
an important part in the public entertamments. But
if production was not very high, still there must have
been a taste for reading in all classes of the population ;
Dther^A-ise the rapidity ^^ith which a few decades later
the pamphlets of Luther and other wTiters of the
Reformation period spread all over Germany cannot
oe explained.

The rise of the cities and their commerce could not
'ail to break the monopoly of the clergy in education.
•Reading, writing, and, very soon, arithmetic became a
lecessity. And very early we find German schools of
I secular character, but under the supervision of the
Thurch. The first schools of this kind were called

226 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

writing schools {Schriefschoolen) . Many cities had also
Latin schools. In the fifteenth century we find the
first mention of girls' schools in Liibeck and Nurnberg.
These schools were run in the manner of the craft-
guilds. The principal or rector was appointed by the
council for one year and he hired his own assistants.
The rector's salary was forty florins a year at the most.
His assistants were not of a very high standard ; former
monks, clerics, students, and adventurers supphed the
greatest part of them. Sometimes there arose a quarrel
between the city council and the Church authorities
as to the control of the school. The methods were, of
course, purely mechanical. Books were still expensive,
and therefore the subject-matter of instruction was
usually copied. The rod and the switch were not
spared. Teachers and scholars often left a city and
took up their residence elsewhere; about the vagrant
scholars there will be occasion to speak farther on.

The first improvement in school management was
brought about by The Brethren of Common Life, an
organization which originated in the Netherlands.
They were the first to open schools for the common
people, real Volksschulen; they emphasized the neces-
sity of an active Christian life. The best-known mem-
ber of the community is the famous Thomas a Kempis,
the author of the "Imitation of Christ." By them the
first picture book for children was published; Der
Seek Trost, ''Consolation of the Soul," containing
illustrations of the Ten Commandments.

The most important advance in the educational world
was the founding of the universities. The University
of Prag was the first German university ; of its seven
professors, six were Germans, the seventh, the professor
of Roman Law, was an Italian ; it was founded in 1348.

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 227

Before the close of the fourteenth century five more
universities had been opened, while the fifteenth century
brought ten more. At first the universities were under
control of the Church, with a charter from the Pope.
But in time the universities gave rise to an independent
class of scholars. However much we may honor these
institutions as the cradle of free German science, they
also were one of the sources of that fatal separation
of the German nation into the two classes of the learned
and unlearned, die Gebildeten und Ungebildeten, which

I is the cause of much national unhappiness, as will be

I seen later.

The universities owed their rapid growth perhaps

^principally to the need of learned jurists. The more
complicated conditions of the new economical system,
based on money instead of agricultural products, and
the general progress of life had favored the introduction
of Roman law into Germany. The lack of unity and the
encroachment of the many different authorities on
each other's competencies had made the old German
laws wholly inefficient ; there had been great difficulty
in developing them and adapting them to new condi-
tions. The Roman law seemed best fitted to meet
these. The Italian policy of the emperors had already
led to its adoption for certain interpretations of imperial
authority, in fact it was called simply the Emperor's
law, das Kaiserrecht. The forms of law were found
ready for use in the Code of Justinian. Beginning
with the twelfth century, a continuous current of
German youths find their way to the new Italian uni-
versities, especially Bologna and Padua. The German
municipalities soon found it convenient to have the
advice of a learned jurist, and it became the rule to have
a secretary to the council who was a Doctor of Roman

228 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Law. This was the starting point for a steadily grow-
ing increase of professionally trained officials ; and the
jurists gained control of all administrative work,
which they have kept to this day, in spite of increasingly
emphatic demands to break with this old custom.

The introduction of Roman law into Germany seems,
on the whole, to have been accomplished without much
friction; its character was recognized only when it was too
late. Most strange perhaps to the German mind was the
conception of property as an object of personal and arbi-
trary power, to the German it always carried rights and
duties. There is a strong contrast between the famous
non olet of the Roman Emperor and the conception of the
Sachsenspieg el, which says: ''Property without honor
is no property, and a body without honor is dead ; but
all honor proceeds from faithfulness." The ruUng
social powers, the capitalists in the cities and the great
and small territorial lords, found the Roman law favor-
able to their interests. To the former it furnished the
necessary foundation for their capitalistic tendencies,
for which there was little support either in the German
law or the canonical law of the Church, which found
its social ideal in communism. The territorial lords
found the Roman law to their advantage because it was
free from the traditions of the German Markgenos-
senschaft, which could thus lawfully be ignored. The
people, however, were little aware at first of the deep
contrasts in the new law, although they smarted under
the legal disabihty of the poor in favor of the rich and
powerful, a fact which helped to feed the dissatisfaction
which had begun to take hold of the peasants and the
proletariate of the cities.

The demand for legally trained officials increased
continually, and as it was a time when the desire for

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 229

improvement, for rising in social position, was remark-
ably common to all classes, the new profession was not
by any means confined to the sons of the wealthy.
The students of the universities were recruited from all
classes of the population; the academic degree of
Doctor juris placed its holder in the first social rank and
was as valuable as a patent of nobihty. This condi-
tion of affairs especially benefited the territorial lords,
as the abundance of trained jurists made them inde-
pendent of the nobihty in the appointments to official
positions, — a great help towards the centrahzation of
power against the rise of the Estates.

The general rudeness showed itself also in the legal
punishments. Under the influence of the canonical
and Itahan law, torture and evidence by witness as well
as documentary proof had been introduced. The
death penalty in different forms was frequent, and
some of its most savage abominations were German
inventions. The persecution of witches and heretics
will be treated in another chapter.

Perhaps the most incisive change of the new law was
the prosecution of crime by the authorities instead of
through the individual complaint of the injured party.
The courts, however, still remained, as of old, to a large
extent people's courts with a representation of the lay
element. The reason why the Roman law was so much
more readily accepted in Germany than in England
and France must be found in part in the lack of a strong
national central power which was able to bring about
a natural adaptation of the old Germanic traditions.
While the new law found no entrance whatever in many
parts of Germany, its influence on the whole has been
very great, although the vitality of the native law was
persistent enough to find expression in the legislation

230 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of the present German Empire. The laws of Switzer-
land and England have kept themselves almost entirely
free from any Roman influence.

The power of the great vassals, the territorial lords,
had greatly increased since the decay of Chivalry,
which had steadily continued since the times of Rudolph
von Habsburg, and the battle on the March Field, the
last victory in history to be won by the knightly mode
of warfare. They had learned very much from their
enemies, the cities, and slowly began to take their
place as the leading elements of national life. The
great drawback, however, was that the new condition
required money, not only for the running expenses of
administration, but especially for the payment of mer-
cenaries for the conduct of their frequent wars. Public
loans were one expedient introduced at this time ; but
they had to be paid back and demanded annual interest.
Thus taxation remained the principal means of income.
The Estates exercised some constitutional control over
the finances. Their origin as a power in territorial
government is not very clear. The Estates were : the
Nobility, the Cities, and, though not everywhere, the
Clergy ; they formed a territorial Diet and their politi-
cal power rose and fell in proportion to the financial
needs of the princes. A beginning of these "Estates
of the Realm" was also noticeable in England, but the
early existence of Parliament and the emancipation of
the peasants prevented the development of this insti-
tution there. In German states the Stdndeverfas-
sungen, the Estates, lasted into the nineteenth century,
and in the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg are still in
existence, although their abolition is now under dis-
cussion. The endeavors of the territorial princes,
large or small, to increase their power^ to make them-

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 231

selves independent of the Estates, and to bring under
their control the cities and the smaller noblemen within
their territories, are, besides the religious issue, the
principal feature of German internal politics for cen-
turies to come.

The imperial government had in the meantime not
increased in power, although the uncertainty of condi-
tions had shown the desirabiUty of a strong central
authority, and repeated efforts had been made to
strengthen it, yet nobody wanted to sacrifice any of his
prerogatives in favor of the national welfare. The
greatest power was possessed by the Prince-Electors,
four secular and three ecclesiastical, who had the right
to elect the emperors and wrenched all kinds of privileges
from them by means of promises exacted in return for
their electoral votes (Wahlcapitulation) .

There was a bitter hostility between the different
classes. The territorial lords in their endeavors to
increase their power were in a state of constant quarrel-
ling with the small nobility and the cities, which in turn
were hostile to each other; the peasants resented the
contempt and oppression of all the other classes. Fre-
quent outbreaks gave evidence of these inimical
feelings.

The most hated class of all, always named together
with the Jews in the accounts of the time, was the
clergy, whose worldly habits and general unfitness for
their calhng aroused anger and contempt. The greatest
oppression was found in the ecclesiastical territories.
The Mendicant orders, however, the Franciscans and
the Dominicans, had taken a strong hold of the people,
whose language they talked and whose life they shared.
There were, nevertheless, smaller divisions within the
great classes. Each guild was in reality a separate and

232 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

most exclusive class of society. Every German in
reality had a double personality, his own and that as a
member of a class, and accordingly he had a double
honor. The ties which formerly were those of blood
were now replaced by the common interests of his
class. This exclusive class feeling is one of the worst
sides of the German character to-day.

Even from olden times there were the outclassed,
die Unehrlichen. It will not seem so strange to modern
eyes, unjust as it may be, to see under this ban all
stage-players, vagrants, and keepers of bathhouses,
who also were barbers; but it is hard to understand
why in man}' places shepherds, millers, and linen
weavers should not have been deemed respectable.
Was it a reminiscence of the Kelts and Slavs, the old
slaves, captured in war? Or was the shepherd sus-
pected of being the confederate of the sinister demons
of nature, just as superstition makes him the master of
secret arts to-day? Or was it because the miller and
the weaver were easily tempted to appropriate some of
the raw material intrusted to them to be worked up and
returned ? WTien the decay of the guilds set in, their
selfishness affords an easy explanation. In order to
diminish competition they found an ever greater
number of callings which would bar the children of
parents belonging to them from learning a trade. It
was not until much later that the government began
to intercede for the victims of this injustice.

In the scientific life of the earlier ^Middle Ages the
Germans had not taken a large part, Albrecht, Count of
Bollstadt, called Albertus ^Magnus, being almost the
only German scholar mentioned. Nevertheless, the
Germans had an important share both in the develop-
ment of the canonic law and of scholasticism. It was

XXIII THE HEIGHT OF NATIONAL LIFE 233

Albertus Magnus who first clearly distinguished between
theology and philosophy, a distinction taken up by his
disciple Thomas Aquinas. And in the fifteenth cen-
tury Germany contributed largely to many sciences,
especially to mathematics. Many inventions of their
genius have already been mentioned. As a curiosity, I
may add that we have reports of wagons driven with-
out horses from at least two German cities during the
fifteenth centurj^

In addition to the artistic products of the crafts
mentioned in the last chapter, German culture of the
time shows to the greatest advantage in pure art. The
masterpieces of Holbein, who later went to England,
and Diirer, unexcelled in drawing, are at the end of a
long line of steady national development which did
not attain its height, as is often erroneously believed,
as an outgrowth of the Italian renaissance. Here
art rises above mere imitation to ideal reproduction.
The sense for color and light found only slow develop-
ment, though in the Netherlands it was greatly en-
hanced by the perfection of oil painting by the brothers
ten Eyck. If any proof was needed for the originality
of the German genius, we need but look at its achieve-
ments in architecture, in which it far excels anything
produced at so early a time on the classic soil of Italy.
Germany is thus ready to enter upon the modern
period as the equal in civilization of the other Western

; nations — although not showing to advantage in exter-
nal grace and beauty in which her Romance neighbors
are still superior. The greatest achievement of the

i Romans, their law, has been introduced, to the dissatis-
faction of the great mass of the people. There still
exists a feeling that the foreign civilization, represented
principally by the Roman Church, is not adapted to

234 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xxiii

Germanic character, and the eternal war of the German
against the Roman is about to stir the Western world in
a new explosion and to free the human mind from
bondage.

It may not be improper to conclude this chapter with
the words of Luther, written in 1521, showing how the
time of which he is the greatest personage impresses
him :

''If any one should read all the chronicles he will not
find since the birth of Christ anything like these hun-
dred years in every respect. Such building and plant-
ing has never been so common in this world ; neither
has such delicious food and drink been so common as
it is now. Thus clothing has become so precious that
it may not come higher. Who, furthermore, has read
of such merchants as are sailing now around the world
and devouring all the world ? Thus all arts are rising
and have risen : painting, engraving, embroidering,
that there was not the like of it since the birth of
Christ. Besides there are now such sharp, intelligent
people as to leave nothing hidden, to such degree, it
must be added, that a boy of twenty at present knows
more than formerly twenty doctors have known."

CHAPTER XXIV

RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT

The Age of Luther

For the first time in our survey of the evolution of
German civiHzation we meet with a great man who has
risen out of the heart of his people and who seems to be
the incarnation of the national spirit, although many
traits may have become national because they were his.
It is not only because Charles the Great and Otto the
Great, in short, the whole number of excellent rulers
from the rise of the German Empire to the death of the
Hohenstaufers, are so far removed in time that the effect
of their life work seems less incisive, but also because
they were not so essentially of the people, and their
work was not so directly for and with the people as that
of Martin Luther. He is the first great German whose
greatness his modern countrymen feel directly and
whom they know, not from the study of books alone,
but by live traditions, one might almost say from
personal experience.

For us, to whom persons as well as conditions and
events are of interest only in so far as they have left
their imprint on the German soul, the question as to
whether great men are the only historical agents, the
true bearers of progress, is not essential ; yet as it will
be necessary for any one discussing historical develop-
ment to take a definite stand on this problem, I may
state that in my opinion a great man is like a keystone

235

236 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap. ;

in human history, a product of his times, who by a
fortunate disposition of nature is enabled to receive
and give forth again the leading tendencies of the age,
but as such is only one of the factors which decide the
trend of human evolution.

r In so far as a great man has an idealizing influence on
his nation it may not always be his true character as
revealed by exact scientific research which is important
for our consideration, but rather, perhaps, the ideal
man as he appears in popular tradition, receiving credit
for great deeds he never performed, and exercising an
immense influence by virtues he may never have pos-
sessed. The former, the real man, may explain many
of the immediate consequences of his life in his time ;
the latter, the ideal, however, exercises a lasting influ-
ence on all posterity. Perhaps the Luther as described
here may have more of the latter than of the former
character.

The sixteenth century is justly called the first century
of modern times, the distinctive character of which is the
deliverance of personality from the bondage of author-
ity. In continuous evolution the Germanic mind had
built up its own culture, which for the first time has
made the individual the centre of interest ; it is there-
fore not far out of the way to designate our modern
civilization as essentially Germanic.

After the art of printing had furnished the means for
every one to participate in the progress of the human
intellect, after Columbus had succeeded in the greatest
scientific experiment ever witnessed, two Germans
drew the consequences of this evolution of fifteen cen-
turies and gave us — the world : Luther and Coper-
nicus, two men representing the greatest contrasts
imaginable and revealing thus the depth of the German

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 237

soul. And curiously enough, the passionate man of
action, ever impelled to outward manifestation, the
man who seems to be at his best in the heat of combat,
who cannot be kept in his safe retreat at the risk of his
life, — he is the one who reveals to us the innermost
life, the tender world of emotions, who makes us rulers
in our own hearts, while the quiet scholar, centred in
himself, who rather shrinks from the contact of the
world, and only with great pains can be persuaded to
deUver his precious message, — he it is who opens for
us a prospect over the infinite universe. Yet it is not
so curious, after all, if we will only remember that it is a
trait of the German character to try to make the out-
side world a part of the inner self, to look for the union
of the power that lives in man and the power that rules
and regulates the whole universe, that union on which,
for the German, all science and research, all ideal
endeavor and all moral action, are based, ''since all
: truth can be a reflex only of the eternal, original truth."
li It is the German's way to listen to the voice of one's
II heart, to rely on oneself in religious and moral matters,
' not to abandon one's personality with resignation,
but to assert it with all strength. Thus these two men
stand on the threshold of modern times as venerable
representatives of German ideals, and foreshadow, so
to speak, the words of that greatest of German thinkers,
Immanuel Kant, which may be read on his tomb in
Konigsberg: "Two things fill my heart with ever
new and increasing admiration and reverence, the more
I think about them : the starry heavens above me and
the moral law within me."

But what the age needed was the man of action, a
man who had a strong fist to strike and destroy, to
make room in order that a new world might grow, and

238 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap

such a man was not the refined and elegant humanist
Copernicus, but the straightforward, energetic peas-
ant's son, Martin Luther.

A rupture of the Germanic world and the Roman
Church was from the start foreshadowed in the char-
acter of the former. Efforts like the "Heliand" to
adapt the new faith to the nature of the people had
not achieved lasting success. There are elements in
Christianity absolutely antagonistic to the Germanic
nature, to which the surrender of one's personality
seems abhorrent. Of the German antagonism to Rome
we find ever repeated proofs ; we need mention only the
writings of Walther von der Vogelweide and Thomasin
von Zirklaere. Hence the statement already quoted
of a German village pastor that ''the German peasant
has really never been converted to Christianity." Of
course, such statements must not be taken too literally
and may be made with just as much — or just as
little — justification in regard to broad classes of other
countries, but this much is certain that from the mo-
ment the Germans began to apply their own thought
to the Christian doctrine the conflict with the Roman
clergy has never ceased. '

The reason for this is to be found in these three
fundamental contrasts : Germanic individualism
against Roman universalism ; the inner religious feel-
ing which seeks to conceive the ruling power of the uni-
verse directly, against the external mediation offered
by the mediaeval Church ; and the claiming of the right
of personal judgment as against a constituted authority.
It is not necessary to point out that these contrasts are
only different outgrowths of one and the same funda-
mental character. The Roman Church, we must not
forget, has been a political power from the start, the

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 239

successor of the universal empire of Rome, and, as
Goethe says, ''To break up the Roman Empire and
to give a new order to the world is the first and princi-
pal historical task of the Germans." The repeated
refusal of the Germans to accept Roman civilization
may have been unconscious, but it indicated that they
knew what they did 7iot want, which, as H. S. Chamber-
lain justly says, is "the beginning of all practical wis-
dom." I do not hesitate to characterize the Refor-
mation, with the same author, as a pohtical event,
"the deliverance of the Germanic people from Rome —
it has restored the Germanic man to himself."

iVfter Christianity had become the official rehgion
of the state every independent tendency in the inter-
pretation of Christian doctrine was suppressed by the
pubhc authorities, and, eventually, what was the right
faith yesterday might become the false faith of to-day ;
when the Roman Emperor belonged to the Arian sect,
the orthodox Roman Cathohcs were treated as here-
tics. It was the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great, who
first exercised tolerance. As long as the newly con-
verted Germans did not try to get a deeper insight into
the teachings of Christianity, and as long as the state
authority possessed sufficient power to assert its views,
everything ran smoothly. As early as the sixth cen-
tury the Visigoths began to find fault with the peni-
tential doctrine that one might sin at will and always
find forgiveness. Charles the Great, in the Iconoclast
controversy, had put through against the Pope his
views on the subject. But under a weak ruler like
Charles the Bald, who opposed the doctrine, just begin-
ning to spread, of the transubstantiation of bread and
wine into the real flesh and blood of Christ, a certain
Count Gottschalk was whipped almost to death ; the

240 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATIOX chap.

Anglo-Saxon Scotus Erigena was most cruelly perse-
cuted and, when he had reached a refuge in his native
country, assassinated.

It is significant that with the beginning of a deeper,
more spiritual conception of Christianity the perse-
cution of heretics began. For deeper reUgious feeling
Rome had very Httle appreciation. In order to faciU-
tate the discovery of heresies, auricular confession was
introduced in 1215, and in view of the endeavors
to spirituahze rehgion, the doctrine was put forth that
for the expiation of sins a true repentance of the heart
was not necessary, but that repentance from fear of
hell would be sufficient. Gregory IX took the perse-
cution of the heretics out of the hands of the bishops
and introduced the Inquisition, which he intrusted to
the Dominican monks. The Church, of course, might
not shed blood, therefore the execution of its judgments
was left to the secular powers. In Germany these
attempts met with great opposition. The Hohen-
staufers, it is true, consented, certainly not from reli-
gious motives, to destroy the Frisian peasant sect of
the Stedingers, but the first Grand Inquisitor for Ger-
many, Konrad of ]\Iarburg, was slain after a very short
duration of his atrocities. It was very gradually and
almost unnoticeably that the Inquisition was brought
back to Germany to play its gruesome part in the trials
of the witches. In England its influence is even less
marked ; it found full admission only much later for
a short period under I\Iary the CathoHc, also called
the Bloody.

In anticipation it may be stated that intolerance and
persecution were not abohshed by Protestantism; in
Protestant countries the trials of heretics lasted until
the period of Rationahsm in the eighteenth century.

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 241

"^Tiile deep true religion was thus persecuted, there
was the more need to bind the people to the Church by
external means, and Satan, Hell, and Purgatory were
used to frighten the masses and drive them to the
Church with its means of grace. The belief in the
devil was deeply implanted in the people's souls, as we
see from Luther and his famous ink spot. The latter
has long been shown in the room in the Wartburg,
where Luther threw his ink-well at the devil, and the
spot was carefully renewed from time to time to preserve
its interest for the visitors. Superstition increased at a
terrible rate, and besides heretics we see witches on the
flaming pile. Pope Innocent III, who ruled about the
jecLT 1200, still ridiculed the behef in witches as childish.
The first account of witches who had turned themselves
into toads comes from Trier (Treves) in the fourth
decade of the thirteenth century, a time in which
there was no more need of combating paganism. From
Toulouse in France the first cremation of a witch is
reported in 1275. It was that of a sixty-year-old
woman, accused of intimacy with the devil, an accusa-
tion which runs like a red thread tlirough this human
aberration. Only in 1484 do trials of witches receive
'jthe sanction of the Pope Innocent VIII. Thus we
can hardly call them an institution of the ''dark ages."
Nowhere did this superstition find more adherents and
work more ijiischief than in Germany, where it was a
curious development of that ancient belief of which
Tacitus speaks, that there was something mysterious
•and divine in woman. Here, in 1489, by order of the
Pope, Heinrich Institoris and Jacob Sprenger pubhshed
that horrible book, that greatest monument of human
cruelty and folly, the \^dckedest work of the world's
.literature, the Malleus Maleficarum, the " Witches'

■i B

242 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Hammer," which has also been considered an authority
by the Protestants. It is true, however, that it was also
in Germany that the first protest was raised against
this abomination in the sixteenth century by Weier,
a physician, and later, in the seventeenth century, by
the Jesuit Friedrich von Spee, while the most vigorous
fight against it was waged by Thomasius. Unfortu-
nately, however, the belief in witches has not disap-
peared even yet, although its recognition by public
law ceased at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Thus curiously enough the first steps leading to the
emancipation of human reason are accompanied by the
most horrible excesses of superstition, and the enormous
number of human beings burnt at the stake makes us ap-
preciate what debt of gratitude we owe to those two men
who furnished us with weapons in the battle for reason.
In spite of all persecutions of heretics and in spite
of the superficial interpretation of Christianity on the
part of its leaders, a purer conception of its doctrine had
spread more and more extensively, at first under the
influence of mysticism. Germanic heathenism, Ht-
tle as we know about it, had already shown a certain
tendency to mysticism, e.g., the belief just mentioned
that there were some secret forces operative in women.
The stronger emotional life of the woman's soul would
make more probable the conception of certain things
incomprehensible to reason. It was therefore not
mere chance that it was precisely among women that
the mystic side of religion found its strongest support.
In the twelfth century the fame of St. Hildegard
filled the whole Western world. She is surrounded
by a numerous group of authoresses who describe the
mystic experiences of their hearts. Of these Mech-
thildis of Magdeburg deserves special mention, as she

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 243

exercised a strong influence on Dante. How much
this mystic conception of the relations between God
and man and the world was looked upon as peculiar
to the German character, although it did not fail
of strong representatives in other countries, we may
infer from the fact that it was called directly the "Ger-
man philosophy," philosophia teutonica. Indeed, in
the works of its greatest representatives, Eckart, Suso,
and Tauler, not only the leading ideas of the Refor-
mation are to be found, but also a presentiment of
those of more recent German tliinkers. Here we find
that inner conception of the divinity, the Ger-
manic conception of religion, and that morahty which
is not influenced in its actions by fear of eternal
punishment or hope of eternal reward, for which sal-
vation does not mean salvation from the tortures of
hell, but solely the transformation of the inner man.
The mystics turned not only towards man's own inner
life, but also towards God's work or self-manifestation
in nature. Thus for the development of science mysti-
cism is of great importance. One of its disciples was
the great Cardinal Nikolaus Krebs of Kues, who lived
in the fifteenth century. He has been justly called
the first German philosopher and was a scholar and
follower of Plato, a great opponent of scholasticism,
and of Aristotle. He invented an instrument to meas-
ure the depth of the sea, and he revealed the forgery of
the so-called Isidorian decretals, on which the papal
supremacy is based. He also showed the authority
of the councils of the Church over the Pope and the
equality and independence of the state. Another mystic
was Paracelsus, the contemporary of Luther and Co-
pernicus, who for the first time placed medicine on the
; basis of physiology and who in spite of all his bombast

244 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

has given many valuable hints to science ; Bacon made
free use of his writings ; and last but not least, he was
one of the first to use the German language in teaching
in a German university.

The influence of mysticism and of the Mendicant
orders had brought the clergy nearer to the people.
At last some parts of the Holy Service had been turned
into German; soon this was followed by German ser-
mons, and as early as the thirteenth century we meet
Berthold of Regensburg, one of the best popular preach-
ers of all times. Under these impulses personality
had found recognition in religious life also and was
waiting for the magic word of deliverance.

These religious movements in the lay world and
among the lower clergy were accompanied by continu-
ous attempts to reform the Church. But in spite of
all these efforts, in spite of all apparent strengthening
of democratic principles in Church life, which mani-
fested itself in the so-called conciliar movement aiming
to assert the authority of the councils over the popes,
in spite of all schisms, in spite of whole dynasties of
evident scelerates who held the office of representatives
of Christ, the polity of the popes was successful in
maintaining their power. The money which every
year found its way, from the pockets of the German
clergy and laymen, to Rome, where it was squandered
in luxury, reached an amount which was directly detri-
mental to national wealth and caused people to think,
who as a rule were not given to religious meditation.
And the Pope was imitated in this money-making
propensity by the bishops. A councilman of Niirnberg,
one of the most educated men of his time, Willibald
Pirkheimer, gives us the following description of epis-
copal cities shortly before the Reformation.

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 245

''The Imperial cities used to be considerable in num-
ber and power, but most of them have fallen by the force
of the tjTants and bad government. Especially they
have suffered by the pride and avarice of the bishops, this
all-devouring flame. For after the former Emperors,
according to the pernicious advice of the Princes, had
entrusted to the Bishops their prerogatives in the Im-
perial cities, they did not hesitate to exploit these privi-
leges with all their might. They instigated the people
against the better classes and drove the latter out of
the city; the foolish people were soon suppressed and
the bishops were the masters ; in this way had fallen
old Trier, powerful IMainz, and rich Koln. Among
the great number of Imperial cities hardly one could
escape the cruel storm. Now the bishops hold these
cities, but fleeced and oppressed to such a degree as to
make the Turkish yoke light in comparison. Just so
the tjTants proceed in the cities which they have either
suppressed by force or received as a pledge by the
Emperor or on their prayers."

To appreciate this statement one must remember
that in the beginning of the sixteenth century one-third
part of Germany was under ecclesiastical rule.

But another point must not be forgotten. The in-
fluence of the CathoHc Church was not confined to the
rehgious life of its members, but comprised all and every-
thing. Hell and Satan as well as the confessional had
been the means by which the minds of men had been
completely subdued. If according to Church doctrine
the Emperor possessed his authority by the grace of
God, i.e., of the Church, the same held good logically
for all his subjects; every one held his social position,
' his calling, so to speak, as an office from God, and thus
Rome claimed to be the actual and immediate master of

246 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

everybody. Therefore it is not alone the victorious
battle against some articles of creed which gives such
importance to the Reformation, but it was also the de-
liverance of the non-rehgious life from ecclesiastical rule.
Thus the Reformation was above all also a political
movement, in a national sense, the hberation of Ger-
many from Roman rule, a point which is incessantly
emphasized b}^ Luther.

As he won national independence from Rome for
Germany, so he did for every other nation, and in this
same sense Luther has become the hberator of the
CathoUc nations also ; no matter how small this Uberty
may appear as compared with progressive Protestant
countries, every citizen even of the most backward
nation of our Western civilization is, in view of mediaeval
conditions, a free man to-day.

For himself and as a German, IMartin Luther defended
personal right and gained his victory not alone by his
powerful character, but because he came at a time
when, as I have tried to show, the fact that the German
had risen to a consciousness of personality became
manifest in all fields of human interest. The Reforma-
tion does not mean, as is often claimed, the \'ictory of
reason over ignorance, it means only the beginning
of the conflict, the declaration of war, so to speak.
It is a movement m the field of will ; it does not give
truth, but the right to search for truth, the right to
exercise our faculties of thinking, feeling, willing, as
self-ruling men. Even before Copernicus had sho^n
that in the vast expanse of the universe there was no
room for Heaven and Hell, Luther had pointed out the
spot where they were to be found in reaUty, that is,
within our own selves ; there they are as real to-day as
they ever have appeared in the visions of saints, and real

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 247

not for the Protestant only, but for the piously faithful
Catholic as well, for the Jew, the infidel, and the mate-
rialist, though many may protest against this statement.
''Within your breast, the stai's are of your fate,"
says Schiller, and this is the fundamental idea of the
religion which the German genius has given to the world
and which unites all men of noble thought, whatever
creed, nation, or race may be theirs. And if the Ger-
man poet says, ''All men are free, though they were
born in chains," he speaks of that inner, that personal
Uberty, of which, since the days of Luther, the German
has held as his most sacred possession, of which he is
proud, and which he guards most jealously whenever it
appears endangered in the smallest degree. While the
Germans, therefore, may claun the credit of having
given to' the world the conception of the moral man of
modern times, it appears they have given expression
to some common Germanic tendency ; for it is a remark-
able coincidence that it is only with the Germanic
nations that the Reformation has been of lasting influ-
ence, that the boundaries of Catholic Germany in
general do not deviate very much from the Roman
limes, which in heathen times separated free Germany
from the Roman Empire and those provinces in which
the German and Latin elements freely intermingled.
In the present conscious endeavors to strengthen
national feeling in Germany — a movement w^hich is
distinguished by an eager study of the German char-
acter, perhaps not always entirely free from chauvin-
ism, but not by any means blind to its weak points —
amongst many a good word from the German poets
we are met again and again by the Shakespearean line
of poetry

" This above all, to thine own self be true ! "

248 HISTORY OF GER^IAX CIVILIZATION chap.

If the Germans cherish Shakespeare as one of their
own classics, and if the German translators have been
so successful in expressing his thought, it is because the
great poet is so truly Germanic.

Powerful as is Luther's personality, with his faults
and his virtues, the raciest and most German figure in
history, still it may be said of him, perhaps more than
of many others, that the greatest men are after all only
the products of their surroundings. He of all men
demonstrates the fact that he did not so much influence
his time as he most emphatically embodied the influ-
ences which were stirring up the soul of his nation.
This is the only explanation that can be found for the
powerful and rapid eflect of his first public step, an
effect surely not intended or even dreamt of by him.
Just read those ninety-five theses about the indul-
gences ! These demands were neither revolutionary
nor were they new. Wy cliff e, Huss, and others have
been much more radical. Still the German people
felt instinctively and immediately : This is the man we
have waited for.

That his opponents took his procedure very seriously
is less wonderful since he struck their most sensitive
spot — their purse. If we put aside religious considera-
tions for a moment, we should see that his blow struck,
not only at the income of the hierarchy, but also directly
at capitalism, for the proceeds from the sale of indul-
gences which the Dominican monk, Tetzel, pushed on
behalf of Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, had long before
been pledged in pa\Mi to the great mercantile house of
Fugger, which financed the enterprise for a good com-
mission. A representative of the Fuggers accompanied
the preacher of the indulgences on his rounds and
took charge of all the money paid in. Thus in the

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 249

i progress of the movement we see the great capitaHsts,
especially the Fuggers, arrayed on the side of Rome.
The money owed them by the clergy and the imperial
family amounted to many millions. To the House of
Habsburg alone they had loaned seven million thalers,
a sum equivalent to about fifty milUon dollars in modern
money. It was simply a question of business interest
for the creditor to prevent a weakening of the power
and the solvency of his debtors. As the power of
capital was concentrated in the south of Germany, we
laave here another reason for the actual geographical
jiistribution of denominations.

^ Not so very long ago, when the firm of the Roth-
^schilds was at its height, it was often said, in a rather
oking way, that no war could be waged against their
yill: but this control over the political fate of Ger-
nany by the Fuggers was a bitter fact ; there seems to
De no doubt that without the help of the great capitalists
:he Catholic Church would not have been reestablished
n southern Germany.

For the entire German nation was on the side of
..uther. As early as the Diet of Worms, not four years
ifter the posting of those theses on the church door at
Wittenberg, the papal legate reported to his master that
line-tenths of the Germans were against Rome; and
vhen, in the second half of the sixteenth century, the
'esuit Order began the reconquest of Germany in the
o-called Counter-Reformation, almost all the inhabit-
ants were Protestants. Even in the Habsburg domin-
ons the Estates had succeeded in obtaining the recog-
lition of the evangelic faith.

In its very first beginnings the movement was ex-
raordinarily strong. The theses on the indulgences
vere spread all over Germany within two weeks. All

250 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

classes of the population were stirred ; the papal legate,
Aleander, could not show himself on the street without
being jeered at; he even wrote the Pope that at the
imperial court itself an excessively Lutheran door-
keeper treated him to occasional pokes in the ribs.
The Archduke Ferdinand announced to Charles V,
in 1522, ''The cause of Luther is rooted so deeply in
the whole Empire that not one in a thousand is free
from it."

The rulers were not deaf to public opinion ; great
regard was paid to the excitement of the people in the
resolutions of the Reichstag in Niirnberg, in 1522;
and the Reichstag, in session at the same place two
years later, said expressly that in case of any effort to
restrain the rehgious movement ''much riot, diso-
bedience, manslaughter, bloodshed, yea, a general ruin
was to be feared." This was probably the reason why
in spite of ban and proscription Luther escaped the fate
of Hubs, whose Czech movement had been, if possible,
even more dangerous from a national point of view, than
the German idea of Luther. Thus in the face of all,
disharmony and selfishness of the Protestant Princes,
in spite of the victories of the armies of the Habsburgers,
Protestantism kept its hold on the people.

Notwithstanding the numerous important problems,
which in this time of transition to modem times were
urgently demanding consideration, religious questions
formed the chief interest of all classes of population
during the entire century. Peasants and craftsmen,
conmaoners and noblemen, discussed questions regarding
which not so very long ago no theologian would have
risked an argument ; lay preachers rose everywhere.
The different schools of Protestantism fought with each
other as violently, or even more so, as they did against

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 251

Romanism, and with the same dogmatic rigidity, the
same intolerance that was shown by the latter.

Luther could not endiu-e any opinion different from
his own ; without detrmient to his importance as an
intellectual hberator, it cannot be denied that he tried
to put the mind into new chains, as soon as his faith
left the realm of emotion and entered upon that of
reason. It is sometimes said that instead of the
Roman Pope he set up a paper Pope in the Bible. It is
quite true that he apparently made the Bible a new
infallible authority, instead of leaving man entirely to
his own inner com-iction ; he had given every one,
however, the right to interpret the word of God as it
was revealed in the Bible after his own fashion, so that
the Bible appeared to him not so much a dead authority,
in which dogma had been laid down once and forever,
as the Uving voice of God which spoke directl}- to every-
body. And though Luther overlooked in this the fact
that he really put a new infalhble authority in place
of the old one, still he did not, in contrast to Rome,
demand a merely external submission, but a whole-
hearted attempt to conceive the truth, of which he —
likewise in contrast to the Rome of his time — was
himself firmly conduced. His intolerance was the
outgrowth of this con\'iction of the absolute truth of
his faith. Besides, we must emphasize again that
Luther was a German, and, as such, shared the German
faults, among which obstinacy of opinion and a certain
pedantry are prominent. "\Miile these shadows are
often overlooked in the bright hght which shines from
the master, they seem to be the principal features of
many of his followers as well as his opponents ; and thus A
we can easily understand how theological quibbling
became the ruling passion of the time in Germany. In

252 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

fact, as far as a greater freedom of thought or an ad-
vance towards a scientific view of the world were con^
cerned, the appearance of Luther and the intellectual
achievement of Copernicus did not prove at first to
be of great benefit to their own nation. Luther liber-
ated German feeling and will, while free reasoning found
a home and development first with the French, the
Dutch, and the English, and was not to attain its great
triumphs in Germany until two centuries later. Luther
could not fairly have been expected to draw the same
conclusions from the theory of Copernicus which we
do to-day. He saw very plainly that it could not be
made to agree with the teachings of the Bible, and there-
fore quite logically, from his point of view, he declared
it to be wrong. He said of his great contemporary:
"The fool wants to turn around the whole art of
astronomy, but the Holy Scriptures tell us that Joshua
made the sun stand still, and not the earth." Towards
the end of the century the reformed Protestants began
to persecute the followers of Copernicus. Rome,
however, was so indifferent to the foundations of the
Christian doctrine, that it did not recognize at all the
dangerous character of the new theory. The monk of
Wittenberg was giving the Pope so much trouble that
the Canon of Frauenberg did not appear threatening.
The Pope even accepted with thanks the dedication of
the book which destroyed the foundation of the view
of the world upheld by the Church. Only in the next
century did the Jesuits recognize the true meaning
of the book, and on the 5th of March, 1616, Pope
Paul V declared the doctrine that the sun is the centre
of the universe and does not move from east to west,
but that the earth moves and is not the centre of the
universe, to be wrong and heretical. This anathema has

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 253

never been retracted to the knowledge of the author,
although in 1828 permission was given to read Coper-
nicus' book.

The influence Luther has had on German culture
cannot be overvalued. In all fields of life he became the
teacher and guide of his nation ; surrounded by thor-
oughly educated and capable men, he began to decide
the currents of the social, pohtical, and ethical move-
ments and tried to give them the right direction every-
where for the best of the German people. His influ-
ence, which was used, on the whole, without fear and
regard for persons, gained for him a willing ear from
princes and noblemen, from burghers and peasants.
To show this in all details would lead us too far. "While
he was a professor in a university he was far from feeling
himself above the common people as was the rule with
the humanists of the time; on the contrary, he never
could come to an understanding with the greatest leaders
of humanism, like JMelanchthon. By his marriage
he simply did himself what he had preached to others
for a long time. He maintained that the family was
the foundation of social life, and by marrying himself
he removed the stain put on woman and the family
by the law of celibacy, giving again this recognition to
woman's position which the Germanic peoples claim
with such pride and affection as pecuhar to themselves
from the beginning, and which their Romance neigh-
bors do not seem to be able to appreciate. But no
matter how much they may privately sneer at it, or
publicly ridicule it, the Germans know that this
private life, which spreads its light within the four
walls of the home, is one of the deep roots of their
national strength. As far as the Protestant countries
are concerned, and especially Protestant Germany, this

154 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xv

''which find expression during the great time of med-
iaeval lyrics with the scantiness of Provengal and French
poetry, which is almost exclusively erotic, we shall
from the start avoid the mistake of assuming that the
German l}Tics of this time, as far as their contents are
concerned, are derived from a foreign model or are even
throughout dependent. With the exception of the
conventional ideal of love, which in the development of
its social forms was partly influenced by France, the
derivations are essentially confined to the form and
to the conventional expression of the poems. And
likewise here the foreign influence has really only a
purifying effect on a native development, as, perhaps,
classical art led to the simphfication of many forms of
German ornament in the era of the Karlings."

Similar is the relation of Wolfram von Eschenbach to
his foreign models. In him we find the first great
individuality of the world's literature since the days of
classical antiquity.

With the decay of Chivalry, of the minnesongs, and
the higher epic, the stream of poetry is again lost in the
broad mass of the people from among whom it had risen.
Hence, in time, it comes to light again as the Volkslied,
the people's song, an evidence that whatever is accom-
plished on the heights of culture will gradually impart
its life to all parts of the nation, and that the apparent
infecundity and shallowness which often follow a time
of rich culture development mean simply that the
culture is permeating through all strata of the people
to become part of the intellectual composition of the
whole nation.

As to the arts and music, which owe their highest
development to other influences, it seems preferable to
treat them in connection with a later period.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CONQUEST OF THE GERMAN SOIL BY GERMAN LABOR

155

256 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

people and manifesting his thoroughly German nature ;
this gift is the modern German language. Luther, of
course, did not invent the language defined by phi-
lology as ''New High German," but he did, so to speak,
discover it. To say that ''in translating the Bible
Luther used the language of the Electoral Saxon
Chancellery and in consequence of the great popularity
of this translation its diction became the foundation
of the modern German written language," is far too
narrow a statement, although it passes from one text-
book to another. It is true Luther made use of this
language because it had been widely adopted in his
time, but how much of it did he reject ! how much did
he add from other sources ! We know from his own
words that he used to look at the common people's
mouths in order to study the truly national language.
On the other hand he writes to Spalatin, his protector
and a highly educated humanist : "Help me to set the
words right, but so as not to supply expressions of court-
iers and soldiers." Just because he was German to the
core, the genius of the language was revealed to him;
or may we not rather say, the genius of the language
was his own — and only thus was he able to preserve
all its advantages, not in a rigid form, but with a power
of rejuvenation, ever strong and active. No wonder
that praise for his contributions to the mother tongue
has not been sparing. Out of many I quote two his-
torians. Lamprecht calls Luther, " A man who, gifted
with a natural interest in language, had control of the
word as almost no German before or after him, who at
the same time had a strong musical sense, and gave his
ear not less to the rhythm of the language, than to its
sounds." Of the Bible translation he says : "It has had
an influence on the German mind almost unequalled.

XXIV RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 257

It did not extend merely to its phonetics and etymol-
ogy, but also to its rhythm and syntax; it also took
hold of its wealth of words ; words like ' Eifer ' (zeal)
and 'Eker (disgust), 'Halle' (hall) and 'Hugel' (hiU),
'fiihlen' (to feel) and 'freien' (to woo), ' aberglaubisch '
(superstitious) and 'albern' (stupid), bear the stamp
of Luther ; and wherever two or three of the Hnguistic
community of educated Germans meet to-day in the
wTitten or oral exchange of thought, there Luther is
speaking as one of them, and the learned perceive in
word and construction the ever present influence of
his mind."

The words of Ranke are not less emphatic in their
praise : '' X more powerful wTiter never has appeared in
any nation of the world. Nor might another be named
who would unite the most perfect perspicuity and
popularity, and sound, true-hearted common sense with
so much of genuine intelligence, enthusiasm, and
genius. He has given to German hterature the char-
acter it has since preserved : that of research and deep
meaning."

No wonder that a man whose influence is felt so
directly by the great men of his nation after centuries
have passed, has impressed his personality so strongly
upon his time that we may truly call it : the Age of
Luther.

CHAPTER XXV

HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY

Education after Luther. From the Journal of Thomas

Platter

Together with the Reformation, at which we have
glanced, an important part in the transition from
mediseval to modern times is played by Humanism.
It is wTong, however, to make the Reformation appear
as a consequence of Humanism. '^Miile the Reforma-
tion is an outgrowth of the national life of the German
soul, Humanism was only an educational movement in
Germany, confined in its workings almost entirely to the
scholarly world. ]\Iore than in the joyful atmosphere
of Italy, German Humanism had its immediate source
in the Netherlands. It was brought from Italy by the
jurists, and its influence extended exclusively to the
formal side, but still its great teachers and its greatest
scholar had their home in the Netherlands. It pro-
ceeded from the circles of those Brethren of Common
Life I have mentioned before. Hence its teachers
spread all over Germany, founding famous schools and
moulding what we now call secondary education into
a form from which the modern world is endeavoring
to break away. At that time, however, the study of
classical literature led to the destruction of traditional
authority, which, as we have seen, was the distinguish-
ing feature of the new period brought about by the

258

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 259

Reformation. It may be that Humanism might have
in time brought about the emancipation of reason with-
out the help of Luther. But of what benefit, I ask
again, is it to speculate against the course of history ?
The emancipation due to Luther was not, at first, as we
have seen, so much an emancipation of reason as of the
will and heart. It grew from within, while Humanism
would have effected it from without, by the strength
of classical culture, not of the German mind ; fm'ther-
more, it would not have reached the entire people, but
only those who knew the classical languages. As it is,
humanistic education, where it has gained control, has
separated its possessors from the rest of the nation,
has brought about that disastrous division of the Ger-
man people into the educated and uneducated, into
castes almost as strange to each other as is elsewhere
the case only in countries where a small conquering
caste rules over the great mass of a subdued people.

In certain respects, however, the Humanists help to
prepare the way for Luther and other reformers ;
Zwingli and Calvin may be said to have been directly
under their influence.

The Humanists slowly brought about a change in the
universities and higher schools. They abolished the
old scholastic text-books with their bad Latin, intro-
duced better ones, and made teachers and scholars
familiar with the good Latin and Greek authors. But,
taken up by the dead world of the past, they had lost
touch with the living present of their people, and very
few of them joined Luther and his companions. Of
these Ulrich von Hutten is the most interesting figure.
By the inspiration of Luther's work he was brought
back from a sterile admiration of antiquity to a love
of his own country, and discarded Latin for German.

260 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

After the new spirit had taken a strong hold of all
classes of the people and after an unsuccessful effort had
been made to break away from the scholastic learning,
the people began under the first impulse of the Refor-
mation to turn against classical learning altogether.

In the first years of the Reformation we notice so
decided a revolt against learning that the universities
became empty, as will be shown by figures in a later
chapter ; but this was only temporary. As the Refor-
mation placed Christian faith entirely in the Bible, the
correct interpretation of the text became of the greatest
importance, and therefore could not fail to lead to an
increased study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and to an
application of philological methods as the only safe
guide to the meaning of the Scriptures. A classical
education was deemed indispensable for the clergymen
of the new Church, but also important for the laymen,
to whom the Bible was now given to study. The
separation between clergy and lay world had fallen
away, and higher studies seemed less a prerogative of
the former. The whole tendency of the times had
given a new impulse to scientific research, and we see
special advances in mathematics and astronomy, the
latter still unseparated from astrology, which, with
alchemy, played a great part in those times. For the
future of the German universities it is of importance
that for their maintenance they had to accept the help
of the civil authorities, and therefore were changed
into public institutions under the control of the state.

As the Bible in German was to be in the hands of
every Christian, ability to read became a necessity,
even if the leaders of the Reformation had not plainly
understood the importance of schools for directing the
thoughts of the young. Luther himself puts great

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 261

stress on the erection of higher and lower schools for
boys and gu'Is; he demands distinct!}^ the common
school, with skilful teachers adapted to their work.

In this school work, as well as in other respects,
Luther's assistant was Philip Melanchthon, one of the
greatest Humanists of his time. Reuchhn and Erasmus,
the other two leading German Humanists, did not join
Luther when they saw the democratic as well as dogmatic
character of the movement. In the course of the century
the Protestant schools found a richer development.
Besides the Protestant universities, among which Wit-
tenberg had to give up its leading place to Jena, we find
different classes of secondary schools. There were the old
Latin schools of the cities, many of which greatly in-
creased in scope and even included university instruc-
tion, the so-called Furstenschulen (princes' schools),
new ventures, some of which are famous to-day, and
the academical Gymnasium. In a very short time the
aim of these schools became the preparation for the
university. But when Protestantism itself, after its
; first enthusiasm was spent, became petrified, these
schools soon became nurseries of a dead knowledge,
in spite of sound pedagogical theory and practice,
developed by a number of excellent schoolmen from
whom modern teachers might learn many a valuable
lesson. As a product of the Reformation, however,
the common schools, which appear first as Sunday
schools and catechism schools, stand out most prom-
inently. First founded by the cities and villages, their
growth was fostered in many instances by the princes.
As the century progressed the so-called Schulordnun-
' gen, regulations for the school management, made by
the authorities, became more and more frequent, and
form a very important source of pedagogical history.

262 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap

In education, as in other things, the Reformation was
not confined in its effects to the Protestants. The
Jesuits especially made the founding of schools for the
education of the better classes one of their principal
instruments in the counter-Reformation. "\Miile they
modified the methods considerably, and particularly
placed discipline and character-building influences od
a different foundation, they adopted on the whole the
models of their opponents. The advantages claimed
for the methods are well known, but the German critic
objects to Jesuit schools, as being hostile to all purely
human feelings, the affection for parent, hom^e, and
country^ ; to their unnatural fostering of ambition, theii'
mutual spying system, religious intolerance, and to their
desti-uction of independence of character. Common
schools were promoted by^ several Catholic princes as
well as cities.

In spite of all efforts the Protestants and Humanists
did not succeed in founding a sufficient number of schools,
one of the reasons being a lack of trained teachers. Great
must have been the mass of young people who wanted
to acquire that wonderful knowledge that gave man such
power and placed a poor peasant's son on the same
footing with the son of a noble and made him one of the
ruling class. Those who lived in small cities and vil-
lages, no matter how eager they^ were for knowledge,
were compelled, as they had been in the century
before, to leave their homes, and thus the institution
of the fahrende Schiller (vagrant scholars) lasted
until the Thirty Years' War. The wanderings of
these vagrants may be due in part to a very^ reason-
able idea which has exercised a greater influence on
modern university life in Germany than in any other
country, and even forms one of its essential features

XXV HUMAXIS:M and renaissance in GERMANY 263

at present ; namely, that the teacher is more impor-
tant than the school. This is seen so plainly in the
frequent change of the student from one German
university to another that it does not need special
illustration.

The short tenure of office of principals and rectors and
frequent quarrels with the civil and Church authorities
made frequent changes. Good teachers drew a great
many scholars with them. Thus wandering became
common ; the most studious would easily change their
school in case they thought that the progress in a city
was not satisfactory, or they heard of a famous teacher
in another city. This unsettled condition was of course
not at all beneficial to weak characters, and for many
the jolly vagrant hfe with its adventures was preferred to

' the steady life of the student. The Vagrant Scholars
became a regular nuisance ; they supported themselves
by begging, often b}^ stealing and swindhng. The older

'ones, ''Bacchanten," made the younger, the ABC
''shooters," — ''shoot" meaning in their jargon to
steal, — beg and pilfer for their benefit. It was sup-

' posed, of course, that the older ones would impart ele-

'mentary instruction to the beginners — an obhgation
which was rarel}^ taken seriously. The "Bacchanten"
led a very dissipated life and enjoyed a very bad repu-
tation. They were up to all kinds of tricks to obtain

'money; very often thej^ posed as magicians, treasure
'finders, exorcisers, and the like, exploiting ^-ith great
success the superstition of the peaasnts. In spite of
all this, the people do not seem to have been so very
'hostile to the young men and on the whole seem to
'aave looked upon their tricks, even when they them-
selves were their victims, with a certain indulgent,
hough sometimes rather vexed, humor, just as the

264 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

German student life with its more harmless extrava-
gance is regarded to-day.

No picture of those times would be perfect without
taking account of these vagrants ; they were one of the
factors in arousing the interest of the people in the
educational and cultural tendencies of the period, and
they are themselves witnesses to this interest, as their
whole mode of hving indicates that they came from the
poorest classes. The popularity of famous teachers who
attracted students from all parts of the country and all
classes of the population may be realized from the fact
that as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century,
Sapidus, who kept a school in the small town of Schlet-
stadt, had nine hundred scholars. At the time of
Sturm, whose course of study became the model for
modern classical education and for the Jesuit schools as
well, the Gjmmasium at Strassburg had four thousand
scholars, of whom two hundred were noblemen, twenty-
four coimts and baronets, and three princes.

In order to give an idea of this life, perhaps I cannot
do better than translate a few passages from the de-
scription of Thomas Platter, who WTote his autobiog-
raphy in 1572, when he was himself seventy-two years
old. This book is one of the most important sources for
our knowledge of life in the tunes of the Reformation.

He tells us that when nine years old he was placed
under the care of a cleric who ill-treated him in a most
ci-uel manner. Then he was intrusted to the guardian-
ship of a vagrant student by the name of Paulus. On
their trip from his home in the Swiss canton of WaUis,
he had to beg for himself and his ''Bacchant." "On
account of his simplicity and rustic language," he re-
ceived many alms. For the first time in his life he saw
a stove of the kind called Kachelofeji covered with

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 265

tiles, still to be found in Germany ; at first he saw only
two big tiles, and thought it was a calf. When he saw
some geese, which likewise were new to him, the little
fellow ran away frightened, and screamed as if he
thought it was the devil. In Lucerne he saw
for the first time tiled roofs, and ''was astonished
at the red roofs." At last they came to Zurich, where
Paulus decided to wait untU he found company to wan-
der to Meissen in Saxony. We will let him narrate some
of his experiences in his own words : ''In the meantime I
went begging, so that I supported Paulus almost entirely;
for when I came into a tavern the people liked to hear
me talk in the dialect of Wallis, and gave to me will-
ingly. After we had waited eight or nine weeks, we
started for Meissen ; it was a long trip for me, who was
not used to wandering so far ; besides, to get food on the
road ! Well, we went, eight or nine ; three little
Schiltzen (shooters) and other big Bacchants, as they
are called in those places ; among these I was the small-
est shooter and the youngest. When I could not walk
any longer, my cousin Paulus went behind me with a
rod or switch and hit my bare legs ; for I wore no
stockings and very bad shoes." His first adventure
le narrates as follows : "While we were wandering and
talking about all sorts of things, the Bacchants said to
^ach other, it was custom in Meissen and in Silesia that
he scholars might steal geese and other eatables, and
lothing was done, if one escaped the man to whom
;he things stolen belonged. One day we were not far
rom a village ; there were a great many geese together
md no herdsman with them ; for every village had its
)wn goose-herd — he was rather far away with the cow-
lerd. Then I asked my companions, the shooters :
When shall we be at Meissen, so that I may kill geese ?'

266 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Said they : 'We are there now.' Then I took a stone,
threw at one, and hit its leg. The other ones flew away,
but the hmping one could not get up. Then I took
another stone, hit its head, so that it fell down. Then
I ran near, caught the goose, and with it under my
coat, I went the road to the village. Then the goose-
herd came running after us, and shouted in the village :
' The boy has stolen a goose • from me ! ' I and my
fellow-shooters fled, and the goose's feet hung out from
under my coat. The peasants came out with hatchets
and followed after us. When I saw I could not escape
with the goose, I dropped it. Outside of the village I
jumped off the road into brushwood. But two of my
companions ran along the road — they were overtaken
by the peasants. Then they fell on their knees, asked for
mercy, they had done no harm ; and when the peasants
saw they were not the ones who dropped the goose,
they went back to the village. But when I saw them
hurry after my companions, I was in great distress, and
said to myself : ' Oh God, I think I did not bless myself
to-day,' as I had been taught to bless myself every morn-
ing."

Of such adventures Thomas Platter gives a great
many ; in selecting some there passages, I shall try to
take such as throw an incidental light on general con-
ditions, as public safety, hospitals, and others, besides
such as have a particular bearing on the life of the
scholars and schools.

After relating an experience with murderers near
Niirnberg, he continues : —

"About a mile from Naumburg, our big companions
stayed behind again in a village : they wanted to eat
together, and they sent us ahead. There were five of us ;
then, in the open field, there came eight on horseback

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 2G7

with drawn cross-bows towards us ; rode around us,
asked money from us, and aimed their arrows at us.
One of us — who was rather big — replies : ' We have
no money ! ' Then our companion says again : ' We
have not got any money and will not give you any
money and we do not owe you anything.' Then the
horseman drew his sword and struck so that it hissed
close to his head. They rode off towards the woods, but
we went towards Naumburg.

"In Naumburg we stayed several weeks. We
shooters went to sing in the city, those who could sing ;
but I went begging; we went to no school. This the
others would not allow, and threatened to drag us to
school. The schoolmaster sent word to our bacchants
they should come to school or he would fetch them. . . .
Anthony (the leader of the bacchants) sent word back,
he might come if he cared. . . . Then we little shooters
carried stones on the roof. But Anthony and others
guarded the door. Then the schoolmaster came with a
whole procession of his shooters and bacchants. But
we boys threw stones at them, so that they were com-
pelled to withdraw. When we heard that we had been
reported to the magistrate, we went to Halle in Saxony
and went to the school at St. Ulrich's." They next go to
Dresden, "but there was not one good school, and the
lodgings were full of lice, so that we heard them rustle

I in the straw beneath us at night."

"We started and marched towards Breslau, and had
to suffer much hunger on the road ; so that some days we
ate only raw onions and salt, some days roasted acorns,
crab-apples, and pears ; many a night we had to sleep

i in the open, as we were nowhere admitted to the houses,
no matter how politely we asked for shelter ; sometimes
the dogs were set on us.

268 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

''But when we came towards Breslau in Silesia,
everything was plentiful, and so cheap that many poor
scholars overate themselves and fell into great sickness.
We first went to school in the cathedral of the Holy
Cross. . . . The city of Breslau has seven parishes ;
each has a special school. No scholar was allowed to
go to another one's parish to sing, or they would shout
*Ad idem ! Ad idem ! ' Then the scholars would run
together and beat each other very badly. It is said,
there were at one time in the city several thousand
bacchants and shooters, who all supported themselves
by alms. It is also said that some had been there
twenty and thirty years and longer, who had their
shooters to attend them. I have brought home to my
bacchants five or six loads in one evening to the school
where they stopped at the time. The people gave to me
willingly because I was so small and a Swiss ; for they
liked the Swiss very much. They felt a great pity for
the Swiss because they had suffered greatly in the big
battle at Milan just at that time ; as was generally said :
'Now the Swiss have lost their best pater noster.' For
up to that time they were thought to be invincible."
(The battle referred to is commonly called the Battle
of Marignano, 1515.)

Here follows a little episode, which I should not like
to omit, although it is of a more personal character, as
it shows the loyalty of the boy in spite of all the hardships
he had to suffer, one of the incidents that help to ex-
plain why the Germans think faithfulness, Treue, one
of their national virtues.

"One day I came across two gentlemen or squires
in the market-place ; I learnt later that one was a Ben-
zenauer, the other a Fugger. They were promenading
there. Of these I asked alms, as it was the custom of the

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 269

poor scholars. Said the Fugger to me : ' Whence do
you hail?" And when he hears that I am a Swiss, he
converses with Benzenauer, and says to me afterwards :
' If you surely are a Swiss, I shall take you as a son and
will confirm it before the city council here in Breslau ;
but you must pledge yourself that you will be w^th me
through life; to be present where I am.' Said I: 'I
am commended to one from my own home, I will ask him
about it.' But when I asked my cousin Paulus about
it, he said, 'I have brought you from your home, will
hkewise surrender j^ou again to your people. What
they tell you then, you may do.' Therefore I refused
Fugger. But as often as I came to his house, he did not
let me go empty-handed.

"Thus I stayed there for some time, and was taken
sick three times in one winter, so that I had to be taken
to the hospital. The scholars have a special hospital
and a doctor of their own. Sixteen pennies are paid
in the City Hall for one week ; for this one is well taken

I care of ; has good nursing and good beds, but big lice in
them, as big as ripe hempseed, so that I much preferred
to lie on the floor than in the beds, as others did like-
wise. The scholars and bacchants at times, even the

; common people, are so full of lice that it is not credible.

' I could have, truly, taken out of my bosom three lice
at once as often as required. I also went sometimes,
especially in summer, to the Oder River, the water that
flows by there, washed my shirt, hung it on a bush to
dry, and in the meantime picked my coat of lice, made
a ditch, threw in a pile of lice, covered it with earth,
and placed a cross on it.

"In winter the shooters lie on the floor in the schools ;
the bacchants, how^ever, in the little chambers, of which
there are several hundreds at St. Elizabeth's. But in

270 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the summer, when it was hot, we lay in the churchyard
and collected the grass, which is spread in front of the
houses in the better streets on Saturdays. Some col-
lected a heap of this in the churchyard, and we lay in it
as pigs in the litter. But when it rained, we ran into
school ; and when there was a thunder-storm we sang
all night responsoria and other sacred songs with the
subcantor.

''Sometimes in the summer we went into the beer-
houses after supper to beg for beer. Then the intoxi-
cated Parish peasants gave us a drink, so that I often
got so drunk without knowing it, that I could not come
back to school, though I was not farther away from
school than a stone's throw. Summary : there was
food enough, but not much study. In the school of St.
Elizabeth's, nevertheless, there were at one time nine
bachelors of arts reading in one room. There was
'Graca lingua' (the Greek language) nowhere in the
the country. Nor had anybody printed books ; how-
ever, the praeceptor had a printed Terentius. What
was read was to be dictated first, then distinguished,
then construed, at last explained, so that bacchants had
to carry home big volumes when they went away."

WTiile it might be more interesting to continue this
original, contemporary account than to continue my
own narrative, I am afraid I have given Thomas Platter's
simple story of himself more space than can be excused by
the sidelights he throws on the life of the common people
in general. It ought to be pointed out, however, that in
speaking of the vermin and uncleanliness, he speaks
distinctly of the vagrant class, and only exceptionally of
the poor in general. But although bathhouses were
frequent, general cleanliness was far from the stage to
which we are accustomed. To repeat a modern author's

XXV HUMANISM AND RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 271

observation, in cleanliness four stages of develop-
ment may be distinguished. First hardly any at-
tention whatever is paid to it ; then we find cleanliness
of the body promoted by more or less frequent bathing ;
after this, clothing is changed and washed more fre-
quently, while bathing becomes less customary, until at
last both body and clothes are regularly kept clean,
and alongside of the washtub the bathtub is found even
in the quarters of the masses.

In the second half of the sixteenth century the in-
creasing interest in education brought about by the
Reformation began to be noticeable everywhere. Still
the condition of the common school especially was far
from satisfactory. Schoolhouses were almost unknown,
and the teachers badly trained and poorly paid. In
spite of all declamations of Luther and the reformers,
discipline was cruel ; the switch was still solemnly
handed to the teacher when he was installed in his office.
Methods were utterly mechanical, although some of the
text-books were based on reasonable principles.

As we have seen. Humanism was not one of the direct
causes of the Reformation, but was used by the latter as
a welcome auxiliary to furnish means in the defence of
truth. Only a few rather eccentric younger Human-
ists dreamt of return to classical paganism, as was
common with the learned Italians. As to the sesthetical
side of the Renaissance, the Itahan influences entered
Germany, not only through direct communication with
Southern Germany, but in part by way of the Nether-
lands, where after the change in the economical con-
ditions of the interior, German culture was at its highest.

CHAPTER XXVI

CHANGE IN GENERAL CONDITIONS

Beginning of Decay

After geographical discoveries had changed the routes
of commerce, the importance of the Atlantic coast was
greatly increased ; the great rise of the northern provinces
of the Netherlands had freed Holland from the yoke of the
Spanish Habsburgers, and the spirit of the Reformation,
although introduced in the form of Calvinism, had
taken hold of the leading classes ; humanistic education,
and the training given by commercial enterprises that
reached all parts of the globe, had widened their view
sufficiently to admit of a truly religious movement.
They refused to submit again to a narrow orthodoxy as
German Protestantism, both Lutheran and Reformed,
had done, probably because it had been forced, in order
to resist the emperors with their Romish tendencies, to
find its main support in the princes. In Holland the
French thinkers found a refuge during the Huguenot
persecutions ; and we may well say that at the time the
young republic on the shores of the North Sea was the
intellectual centre of Europe.

Unhappily for both countries, this rise took place
when the condition of the Empire favored separatism.
The very period of material prosperity and highest
intellectual fife that gave us artists like Rubens and
Rembrandt, who represent the highest achievements
of German, in some respects of any, painting, formed

272

CHAP. XXVI CHANGE IN GENERAL CONDITIONS 273

out of a German dialect a literary language which,
though still understood by their German countrymen
at the time, led to a gradual estrangement of culture.
This had already been accomphshed, when a hundred
years later the pohtical separation which had been in
preparation since the times of the Interregnum was
officially acknowledged ; parts, indeed, of Flanders and
Brabant had always been more French than German.

The other repubhc, in southern Germany, though
likewise emancipated politically, did not have the same
favorable conditions for independent intellectual develop-
ment as its sister in the north ; and German Switzerland,
therefore, is still one in culture \^dth the mother country,
united to it through the language of Luther's Bible
translation.

The great influence of the Renaissance was not
sufficient to destroy the national character of German
art, especially where it met with a progressive develop-
ment as in the Low Countries. Its appUcation was
mainly ornamental, and blending with northern
architecture, it has given rise to many splendid build-
ings. As the best known and finest specimen of German
Renaissance we must mention the Heidelberg castle in
its Ott-Heinrichsbau; or rather the beautiful ruins
as they have stood since the days of Melac. The
necessity of protecting them against total decay has
brought forth only lately a controversy in which
the intellectual leaders of Germany were arrayed in
\iolent protest against any effort of restoration that
might take away anything from their original character.

The greatest influence the Renaissance had was on
industrial art, both in metal and woodwork ; in the
Netherlands this style has produced a number of won-
'derful masterpieces in textiles and laces.

274 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The religious enthusiasm of the Reformation, fol-
lowed by reUgious wars, and the rigid intolerance of
the orthodoxy of all creeds, had proved serious draw-
backs in the intellectual world, in spite of the impulses
given by the movement itself and by Humanism. Of
course, there was a decided progress in the sciences, as
will be seen later.

It must be repeated, however, that both the hu-
manistic and natural sciences were not popular in char-
acter. For some time, as we have seen, it had seemed
as if Protestantism and Humanisim would join in a
single movement ; but the dogmatic character assumed
by the new churches did not appeal to the men of
science, who saw no material advance over old condi-
tions. Thus science gradually was removed from pop-
ular life, from which it became estranged more and
more by the use of the Latin language, which as in the
monasteries of times gone by, though in a much more
elegant and correct form, had again taken hold of the
learned world, so much so that seventy per cent of the
books printed in Germany were in Latin. But while
this separated "the learned from their own people, it
connected them with the foreign world. Latin had
become the international language of science ; a small
compensation for the loss to national life of the intelli-
gence of the scholars, who became more and more
cosmopolitan in an unpatriotic sense.

Thus this period rent the German nation asunder in
different ways : there is a vertical division, so to speak,
between Catholic and Protestant Germany, — a division
again made wider in modern times by the organization
of Catholics as a political party, — and a horizontal
division separating the educated from the uneducated.
This breach, although apparently widened by the social

XXVI CHANGE IN GENERAL CONDITIONS 275

problems of to-day, seems to show signs of becoming
bridged over under the influence of political equality
and the general suffrage, as well as bj^ conscious efforts
of far-sighted patriots. There threatens, however, a
new division of rich and poor. To this we must add
the tribal and regional particularism which, together
with the jealousy of the princes and the pohcy of the
great powers, as well as the strong sense of personality
peculiar to the national character, had so long prevented
German pohtical unity. We can thus understand why
the inner hfe of the German Empire does not offer that
harmonious appearance which we are tempted to expect
behind the soUd front offered to the outside world.

We must not forget the cosmopoUtan tendencies of
scholars when we read of the unselfishness of German
science, which found early recognition, indeed. We
read in the preface to a new edition of a work by Bartho-
lomseus Pitiscus, who died in 1613, the following ac-
knowledgment by an Italian: ''The trigonometrical
tables were intended at that time exclusively for astron-
omy and astronomy was not needed by the Germans
for their navigation ; astrology, the only means to make
true or pretended knowledge of the heavens pay, did not
call for such subtle calculations. Love of science alone
incited and maintained in the Germans so much devo-
tion and so much industry." In reading this we in-
voluntarily think of those words of Richard Wagner,
quoted already : "To be German means to do a thing
for its own sake."

On the whole, we may say that, in spite of the social
changes which followed the Peasants' War, and the com-
mercial decay which began to overtake Germany with
the replacing of the IMediterranean Sea by the Atlantic
Ocean as the highway of the world's commerce, the con-

276 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ditions of the fifteenth century, which we found to be
the period of greatest national vigor, lasted to the mid-
dle, almost the end, of the sixteenth. Jean Bodin, the
French historian, who died in 1567, was still able to
write of the Germans : "In humanity they are superior
to the Asiatics ; in the art of warfare to the Romans,
in philosophy to the Greeks, in grammar and arithmetic
to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, in astrology to the
Chaldseans, but in handicraft to all nations." The
great South German mercantile firms, mentioned before,
first of all the Fuggers, managed to keep off their down-
fall more or less until the Thirty Years' War.

Perhaps one of the surest indications of decay is the
evidence of foreign influence in Germany. One of the
effects of the reUgious differences which even led to
wars must have been a weakening of the national
sense, of the feeling of national solidarity, especially
under an emperor who hardl}^ could be called a German.
It is said that Charles V spoke German only to his
horse ; and when Ferdinand I became king, he could
not speak German at all. Charles V placed the centre
and mainstay of his power in Spain ; and the troops
with which he fought against the German princes for
the cause of his dynasty and of Rome were com-
posed principally of Spaniards and other foreigners.
Thus his adversaries naturally found their support in
France. When a candidate for the German crown in
opposition to Charles V, Francis I of France, offered a
pension to the Prince Elector of Brandenburg, there
was only one feature remarkable in its acceptance, — he
took money at the same time from the other side. For
the financial support of German princes by French
kings dates far back, and did not end until the downfall
of Napoleon I.

XXVI CHANGE IN GENERAL CONDITIONS 277

The increase in power of the territorial lords, the
princes, led them to lay greater stress upon the magnifi-
cence of their courts. For this the splendor and
refinement of the Burgundian court became the model,
as it had been for the French kings. Travel had be-
come the fashion for the sons of the princes and
the wealthy noblemen, for whom the galanthomme
was the educational ideal, and this, together with the
attendance at foreign universities, had done its share
towards introducing foreign elements. In short, even
in the sixteenth century we find the weakening of the
German national life so far advanced as to offer no
resistance to Itahan, Spanish, and French influences,
the beginning of that Fremdsucht, that weakness for
the imitation of foreign ways, which, because it is
unnatural, is so clumsj'^ and awkward in the average
German, and has at times menaced even his national
existence.

The separation of the educated from the common
people became, of course, more emphasized by the
acceptance of the foreign styles. For happily the styles
did not penetrate deeply into the masses of the people,
! where a nation always must find the overflowing source
of its regeneration ; and, be it said to their honor,
even in the better classes they took hold a great deal
less of the women than of the men.

CHAPTER XXVII

POPULAR RISINGS. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

The deep agitation of the popular soul which during
the transition from the old times to the new, coinciding
with the greatest vigor of the nation, brought forth the
Reformation, found expression in many movements
and in many changes, some of which cannot be passed
over, although it is impossible here to give a complete ,
account of all the currents as they reach the surface.

One of these was the movement of those who had
suffered under the economical development and made
an effort to improve their social condition b}' force.
Just as to-day the tendency towards great capitaHstic
enterprises, with an elimination of the economical mid-
dle classes, causes great popular unrest, so the transi-
tion from the agrarian to the financial basis produced
dissatisfaction, misery, and popular convTilsions, and
it took centuries for conditions to become settled.
Even then there were a great manj^ complaints about
monopohes and trusts, which went by the name of
the great commercial companies ; corners in produce
were frequent. The great merchants, as the Fuggers,
the Welsers, and the Hochstetters of Augsburg, con-
trolled prices to a great extent, even in the foreign mar-
kets. The immense rise in the cost of the necessities
of Hfe was attributed to the great capitahst houses.

There were three groups of socially dissatisfied people,
who, however, did not unite, in spite of occasional

278

CHAP. XXVII POPULAR RISINGS 279

concerted action. Not one of them was created by
the Reformation, but all three took new encouragement
from Luther's appearance, and looked hopefull}^ to
him as an ally. These three parties were the smaller
nobihty {die Reichsritterschajt) , the peasants, and the
proletariate in the cities. Luther, while not blind to
just complaints, and demanding in very plain language
fair treatment of the poor, was opposed to any diso-
bedience or even sedition against the established civil
authority, and some of his actions lay him open to the
suspicion that he did not feel free to take a stand in
opposition to the princes, who were his support against
the Cathohc Emperor. Thus his alliance with Ulrich
von Hutten was a very frail one ; and the latter was
looked upon with mistrust, since he stood with Franz
von Sickingen at the head of a party who wanted to
break the power of the princes and to place themselves
entuely under the Emperor.

The peasants, whose demands were comprised under
the so-called Twelve Articles, seemed to ask nothing
unreasonable from the point of view of scriptural teach-
ing, and one cannot help concluding from this and other
documents that they had intelhgent leaders who knew
very well what they were about. Their worst mistake
was their behef that Luther was with them. In this
they were not illogical, — Luther was the one who re-
fused to press his doctrines to their conclusion, and it
speaks well for the intellectual standard of the people
that Luther's ideas were independently developed.
The peasants are no doubt justly accused of great
atrocities, but their demands were just, and they were
net by infamous treachery and cruelty challenging
:.heir own. Their defeat meant a serfdom worse than
:heir condition had ever been before.

280 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The movement in the cities found its centre in the
Anabaptist sect, whose principal leader was Thomas
Miinzer. The German movement culminated in the
gruesome orgies of religious insanity of the Kingdom
of Zion in Miinster, too well known to be repeated here ;
by their defeat and in consequence of their excesses,
Roman Catholicism again gained a firm hold of West-
phalia — its greatest province beyond the old Roman
territory. The reasonable part of the Anabaptist doc-
trine did not perish; Menno Simon continued it
through his followers in Holland, England, and North
America.

In spite of the noticeable symptoms of decay and ex-
haustion, to which we return in our next chapter, the
second half of the sixteenth century does not offer the
spectacle of decreasing prosperity; we cannot, on the
whole, even speak of stagnation. Hamburg knew how
to hold her own, and retained a considerable part of her
maritime commerce, a good foundation for future
greatness, although the cities of the Hansa failed to
grasp the changed situation at the right moment.
The German crafts kept their good name all over the
world. German woollens in particular remained very
popular, their fibre preserving its excellent quahty
through the high development of domestic sheep-breed-
ing. The greatest commercial centre was now Frank-
fort-on-the-Main, through which passed the great over-
land trade routes north of the Alps. The great firms
of southern Germany were the principal bankers of
the world.

The relatively long period of peace, which followed
the rehgious convention of Augsburg, 1555, the gradual
disappearance of private warfare due to the growth of
the power of the territorial princes, and the final sue-

XXVII POPULAR RISINGS 281

cess of legal reform had allowed the Reformation to
become effective in the social conditions of the country,
and in spite of a great many drawbacks and great dif-
ferences in the conditions of the single states, which
may account for the difference of opinion between
historians, the people on the whole must, towards the
end of the century, have enjoyed a fairly comfort-
able existence. Even the peasants were benefited by
greater attention and protection on the part of some of
the territorial governments after these had gained con-
trol over the nobilit}^ Even in the places where the
noblemen had not yet learned to submit to the new
state of affau's and made their few serfs work for them,
they understood that it was to their own interest not
to draw the reins too tight.

In some respects and in a few instances princes and
city governments had been influenced by the Reforma-
tion in the most favorable manner. As indi\dduals,
it made them conscious of responsibihty, which showed
itself among other things in a better training of govern-
ment officials and an acquirement of greater knowledge.
IMany improvements are due to the Estates, which made
use of the financial straits of the princes to secure them.

An unexpected increase of power was brought by
the Reformation in the first place to the Protestant
princes, to whom nearly all the privileges of the Papal
and Episcopal authority were transferred by the con-
fiscation of Church property, although 'wdse princes
iapphed the greater part of this to the maintenance of
churches, schools, and other institutions for pubHc
'^welfare. But this increase in material power was not
the only gain in strength which the princes owed to
the Reformation ; their authority was also greatly
strengthened from the moral point of view. Luther

282 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

took a most decided stand, especially in later years, in
favor of the ''divinely appointed government." We
have seen how he sided with the princes against the
rebellious peasants, although he did not fail to appreci-
ate the justice of the grievances. Again and again he
demands strict and unquestioning obedience to the
authorities in power, and the position taken by hmi
has certainly proved a strong factor in firmly estab-
lishing the monarchical principle in Germany to the
present day ; let alone the influence of the fact that
the monarch was made by Luther the highest bishop,
summus episcopus, of the Protestant Church in his state.
The higher level of conscientiousness and training
on the part of princes and their officials brought about
better and more economical administration, and aug-
mented the income from the resources of the state.
Many a prince set out to increase the prosperity and
thereby the taxable property in his territory by means
of improvements which could not fail to benefit the
peasants likewise ; however, these cases were rather
the exception. In this respect, also, Protestant influence
was felt in Cathohc territories. In order to keep some
doubtful princes in the old Church, the Papal See had
to surrender many ecclesiastical possessions and privi-
leges. The Jesuits had now become the councillors
in the government and the teachers of the Cathohcs
in everj^thing. Their order, founded in 1540, soon had
made its special aim to defeat the heretics, that is,
Protestantism, and its stronghold was the Collegium
Germanicum — which ought to have been called anti-
Germanicum — in Rome. The Council of Trent had
finally established the Cathohc dogma in a rigid form ;
but at the same time a moral reform had taken place.
No men hke the Borgias have held the See of St. Peter

XXVII POPULAR RISINGS 283

since the days of Luther, and no such terrible accusa-
tions against the higher priesthood have been heard as
before his day. Thus the counter-Reformation under
the skilful management of the Jesuits made good prog-
ress in the territories of the Cathohc princes, es-
pecially in the hereditary lands of the emperors, so
that nearly one-half of the Germans were again con-
sidered Catholics. Still, the Protestant princes had
not been troubled, and began to think themselves safe
under the guarantees of the Augsburg Convention. As
we have seen, new economic interests began to develop,
and the new art of government became more and more
familiar.

Legal unity had at last been made possible by the
so-called Carolina, Die peinliche Halsordnung, of
Charles V, and the highest imperial court had gained
more influence. Also in the realm of art, which had
suffered under the rehgious excitement, new life was
noticeable, as we have seen before. The Meistersinger,
of whom Hans Sachs, the shoemaker and poet of Augs-
burg, who as the best type of German burgher deserves
more attention than he can find here, and the Carnival
plays, :the great satirists, the beginnings of a national
drama, gave hope of a new literature. Seventeen mill-
ions of Germans were looking towards a happy and
powerful growth under the new conditions, still think-
ing themselves invincible in their unity, when the Em-
peror himself, eager to usurp absolute power for himself
and the Church of Rome, both inseparable by origin and
tradition, '^lighted the torch of war in his own fatherland.

The calamity brought about by this war has been so
great that it cannot be understood unless there had
been forces at work quite contrary to the hopeful aspect
apparent to the superficial observer.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SUMMARY OF THE DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES IN
GERMAN LIFE

After we have just seen the German nation in its
fullest vigor, it is astonishing to observe it sinking al-
most to complete annihilation in a comparatively short
time ; and the question at once arises, how it was pos-
sible for a nation apparently so powerful to offer so lit-
tle resistance to the calamity of the Thirty Years' War.
Although here and there some symptoms of weakness
had become noticeable, as shown in previous parts of
this narrative, yet the appearances described in the
last chapters seemed to warrant the hope of a renewed
healthy growth which might have survived, though
arrested bj'' a war. This war, however, was more than
a cutting off of growth, a simple arresting of progress ;
the downfall was so deep that at the risk of some repe-
tition, and even apparent contradiction, it seems
desirable to give a summary of the causes leading to
the decay of Germany, which was made evident and
complete by the Great War.

It has been said that perhaps the very vigor referred
to led to overexertion, of which a certain exhaustion
in the vital forces of the nation was the consequence;
a similar but less visible decline is declared by some
writers to have taken place after the great work of
eastern expansion. Nevertheless, national physiol-
ogy, as has been justly said, is not a science, but a

284

CHAP. XXVIII DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 285

problem, and will hardly lend itself as yet to historical
explanation. As symptoms of this physical exhaus-
tion, the great increase in the death rate is mentioned ;
it is furthermore pointed out that in the middle
of the sixteenth century there appears to be a retro-
gression of the Germanic type and a visible in-
crease of the dark and round-headed type. On the
psychical side the ready reception of foreign influences
is remarkable, while the beginning of the caste-like
separation of the classes seems to be more of a cause
than of a symptom.

Leaving aside these rather speculative assertions of
the race-theorists, the historians stand on safer ground
when they base their reasons principally on the politi-
cal conditions of the Empire and the unpatriotic self-
ishness of the territorial princes ; on the convulsions
caused by the Reformation, both in national and indi-
vidual life, increased by the reception of the Roman
law ; on the weakening of economic life by the changed
routes of the world's commerce, the strengthening of
the northern nations, and the development of capi-
talism with its unwholesome consequences. We shall
see that the princes took advantage of the very condi-
tions that helped to ruin the nation.

It has been pointed out that in contrast to the French
and English kings the German emperors had not been
able to hold their own against the higher nobility,
either because their ambition for a universal empire
and Italian politics withdrew their attention and energy
from their northern kingdom, or because the Germ.an
sense of independence and individuality and thirst for
power and honor had been too strong. Since the days
of the Interregnum, at all events, the emperors had
been divested of almost all sovereign power, and were

286 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

compelled to make the increase of their family posses-
sions the chief end of their policy. They had not,
however, ceased to be the successors of the Roman
emperors ; with the Pope they still morally represented
the highest power on earth, and stood in the place of
God ; they represented the entire nation ; but, as Bryce
points out, since in the Reformation they took sides
with the Roman Catholics, they became directly hos-
tile to a great part of the nation, and were in reality
degraded to partisan chiefs. The lack of central power,
however, had long been an invitation to the neighboring
monarchs to enrich themselves by taking one slice after
another of the frontier possessions they coveted. Those
fiefs which were not closely connected with Germany
soon became sovereign or became vassals of France.

With the battle of Bouvines had begun the great and
everlasting struggle with France, and this first victory
indicated clearly the side which would ultimately derive
the greatest advantage. It is not our task to enumer-
ate all the acquisitions of German territory by the
French by fair means and foul. While single cases of
corruption in high quarters had occurred before, we
may repeat that from 1333, when Henry of Lower
Bavaria accepted his bribe from the French king, to
1815, the history of the German princes is a continuous
account of disgraceful, treacherous venality. Charles
VII of France declared he did not fear the German
princes ; he would beat them all ; he only feared the
cities and the peasants. Charles VIII could dare openly
to aspire to a universal empire. At the imperial elec-
tions the princes took money from both parties ; the
most infamous dickering, perhaps, was that which has
already been mentioned at the accession of Charles V,
whose rival for the imperial crown was Francis I.

xxviii DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 287

Francis' successor, Henry II, felt that his adherents in
Germany were strong enough for hini to call himself
officially "protector of German liberties " without fear
of resentment.

In the East Poland had defeated the Teutonic Order,
and had taken valuable parts of Prussia ; Russia under
Ivan the Terrible took Livonia ; Sweden took Esthland.

But while Brandenburg-Prussia found in the House
of Hohenzollern strong rulers who put a stop to
further inroads, France was allowed to continue her
depredations in the West. At a later period the jeal-
0US3'' of the Emperor repeatedly deprived the national
polic}" and military prowess of Brandenburg of well-
earned success. No wonder foreign monarchs acquired
the habit of treating German princes and the German
people with contempt, and could not readily rid them-
selves of the habit when both the moral character and
the power of Germany had been restored. In 1570
the Order of the Princes in the Reichstag urged the con-
dition of affairs on the attention of the Prince-Electors,
saj^ing that ''foreigners sneered more and more at Ger-
man discord and impotence which allowed France to
take the bishoprics (Metz, Toul, ^^erdun) and other
imperial property; Poland to take Prussia, and the
Muscovites Livonia." The Electors replied that ''this
affair had to give way to other troubles." Thus Ger-
many's position among the nations was given up by
those who ought to have been the first to defend it.

.Although the literature of the time does not show a
lack of national feeling, yet the Reformation had de-
stroyed the ethical unity of the people ; Protestants and
Catholics formed hostile camps, while Lutherans and
Calvinists were no nearer to one another. A great
sonfusion took hold of the people, who among so many

288 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

different doctrines did not know which to choose.
These controversies were of a dogmatic, that is, more
of a theological than religious, character, and failed to
satisfy the demands of the heart.

One of the consequences of the doctrine of " justifica-
tion through faith alone" and the vanity of good deeds
was a great falhng off in charity, which increased the
dissatisfaction of the poor to a high degree, and also
had its share in the general economic depression. A
number of epidemics increased the misery. We have
spoken already of the disappointment of the poor and
oppressed, especially the peasants, when they found
that the relief they had expected from religious reform
did not come.

The mutual hatred of the religious parties found
expression in continuous reviling; the language of
Luther exhibits only too plainly that Grobianism,
that intentional rudeness, which had been first affected
by the rising burgesses in the cities in the antagonism
to the over-refinement of the knights. It certainly
reached its height at this time. It is curious to read
in the present bitter struggle between the "classes and
the masses" in Germany that certain Socialist agitators
recommend to their followers to display as much rude-
ness in manners and language as possible in their inter-
course with the "bourgeois"; surely a regrettable
reappearance of an old German trait. An illustration
of how great the general intolerance was, and not with
Germans only, is given by the opposition which met the
corrected calendar of Pope Gregory XIII, promulgated
in 1582. Plain and reasonable as it was, because it
was proposed by the Pope, it was met by the Protestants
with the greatest opposition ; in the Protestant parts
of Germany, and in the Netherlands, it was not Intro-

XXVIII DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 2S9

duced until 1700, in Denmark in 1710, in England (and
its American colonies) only in 1752.

If we read of Luther's bodily encounters with the
devil, we cannot wonder that this time of unrest was
wild with superstition; that persecution of witches
gained renewed vigor; beUef in miracles, in magic art,
in demoniacal powers, and the fear of ghosts were
rampant, and increased the general excitement.

It is but natural that in these times the national
German weakness, drunkenness, became more common
than ever. It was during the Peasants' War that
brandy became popular (first reported in Italy in the
beginning of the fourteenth century, and probably of
Arabic origin).

On the other hand, to show one bright spot in the
dreary picture, the accounts leave no doubt that sexual
immorality had greatly decreased and family life
improved.

Beneficial as the Reformation has been to education,
we have already seen that its first result was a general
hostility towards schools, especially universities ; the
clergy and the scholars, in the opinion of the people, had
been the great deceivers who had led them to the
Antichrist ; the new, i.e., the Roman law, which was
taught in the universities, helped to increase this dis-
trust. The number of students in Erfurt dropped from
311 in 1520 to 120 in 1521, and to 34 in 1524; in Ros-
tock from about 300 to 15 in 1525. In the same year
Heidelberg had more professors than students ; Vienna
came down from 7000 to a few dozen, and the rest
fared similarly.

As another reason for the temporary decrease of
university students, we find given the attraction of a
business career for the brightest and most intelligent

290 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

young men — which sounds quite modern. Another
complaint is that the students showed more interest in
theological disputes, outside agitation, and the distri-
bution of pamphlets than in their studies. During the
rest of the century there is no end to complaints of the
wild life of the students. Another symptom of the
general weakening of the interest in education will be
found in the great falling off in the sale of books ; from
the dignified trade of regular and wealthy booksellers
it had fallen mostly into the hands of pedlers.

But of all the signs of the national decay, the weaken-
ing of the cities, with their population of merchants and
craftsmen, who for more than two centuries had been
the bearers of culture, is the most significant. It
happened about the time when the discovery of the i
sea route to India and to America had entirely changed
the routes of the international trade, that other nations
had gained sufficient strength to make themselves
commercially independent of the comparative monop-
oly of the Hansa merchants. Holland was the first
to become a dangerous rival, since the closing of the
outlets of the Rhine, the Maas, and the Scheldt by ever-
increasing tolls almost entirely destroyed the commerce
of the Rhine cities. It is only by completing its great
canal system that Germany can free the commerce of
the Rhine valley from paying tribute to Holland.
England deprived the Hansa of its old privileges, and
soon complaints are heard; Germany is flooded with
EngHsh woollens, causing a useless imperial decree
against the Enghsh merchant-adventurers in 1597.
It was not long before the Scandinavian countries
followed, and soon the Baltic Sea ceased to be German
and Dutch ; English and Danish ships took the place
of those of the Hansa. A strong support by the Em-

XXVIII DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 291

pire, as well as a broader policy of the cities themselves,
might have saved some of their power, but the plan
of Emperor Maximilian II to build a German imperial
navy failed to find the approval of the Reichstag.

We have seen that the great merchants of southern
Germany, as well as the great trading companies, had
amassed considerable capital, and even thus early we
observe the bad consequences of capitalism of which
we complain to-day, such as rings, corners, monopolies,
artificial raising of prices, etc. As early as the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century, we read in a report to the
Reichstag in Niirnberg : "On account of the insuffer-
able oppression which comes from the great companies,
riots of the common people have occurred in some cities,
and greater riots are to be expected unless a remedy be
found." The following resolution was passed by the
Austrian diet in 1518: "The great companies have
brought under their control by themselves or their
agents all goods which are indispensable to man, and
are so powerful by the strength of their money that
they cut off trade from the common merchant who is
worth from one to ten thousand florins ; they set the
prices at their pleasure, and increase them at their will,
by which they visibly grow less in number; but a
few of them grow into a princely fortune to the great
detriment of the country." Might I not have taken
these quotations just as well from a modern news-
paper? MonopoHes were facilitated by the fact that
only the financially strongest could afford to visit the dis-
tant markets ; spice, for example, which formerly could
be bought in Venice by any smaller merchant, could
not be bought this side of Lisbon. Speculation was
common. "Get rich quick" schemes were understood
then, as well as now, and everybody who could afford some

292 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.!

cash invested in business enterprises with the great
companies. The princes took a prominent part in this,
and before long they had learned the advantage of
monopolies, which were much easier for them to estab-
lish by decree than for the merchants by the most
skilful scheming. Great failures were the natural
outcome of the instability of business. The small
people lost all their savings. Famous was the failure
of the Hochstetters in Augsburg in 1529, with liabilities
to the amount of 800,000 florins; according to our
present value of money, this failure amounted to
$6,500,000. It is expressly stated that not only
princes, counts, and other noblemen were losers, but
also peasants, and male and female servants. Other
famous failures were that of the firm of Roth, which
had tried, unsuccessfully, a corner in pepper, and the
two-million bankruptcy of the Loitzes in Stettin. A
scarcity of money set in, and the old tricks of the deteri-
oration of coin were used. Again the ''Kipper" (who
clipped the coins) and "Wipper" (who picked out the
good coins for melting, and circulated the bad) came
into prominence, and in some instances even a return to
barter is reported.

These conditions did not fail to influence industry,
as the people had no means to buy. Indeed, the craft-
guilds had outlived themselves. Their efforts to mo-
nopolize the crafts began to fail more and more ; indi-
viduals refused to submit to strict control as easily as
in former times. The friendly relations between
masters and journeymen had changed into antagonism;
''shorter hours and higher wages" were the demands
then, as now. There was no need of organizing, for
the men were as closely organized in associations as
their masters were in the craft-guilds.

XXVIII DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 293

The peasants, who in many smaller towns were the
principal customers, could afford to buy as little as the
people in the cities. The Peasants' War had nearly
ruined agriculture in some parts of Germany, and the
increasing oppression of the peasants that followed
left them in the greatest poverty.

As if everything had joined to bring about the ruin
of the nation in the sixteenth century, the mines began
to give out ; the output became steadily smaller. The
companies tried to make up their losses by making the
miners pay for it. Company stores were opened, and
the miners were forced to buy their supplies of them at
exorbitant prices. Tout comme chez nous !

Even more than crafts, art, which at that time was
connected with them, had to suffer. Let alone the
ravages of the Protestant iconoclasts, the interest in
theological questions left no room for any other. There
was a general indifference and poverty of imagina-
tion. The latter is seen in the scarcity of the Christian
names of the period ; we find a few names over and over
again, which finally led to the adoption of two Chris-
tian names to make a distinction possible. Besides,
there was an increase of rudeness, referred to already,
which may have been increased by the introduction of
torture into legal procedure. The decrease of chari-
table works in general, the lack of the incentive afforded
by the supposed value of the patronage of the saints,
combined with all the other causes to prevent larger
orders for monumental works of art or buildings. The
spirit of the Reformation had in it more than one
element hostile to art, and economic conditions began
to be unfavorable for it.

So suddenly came this crash that it cut deeply into
the lives of the individual artists, as we see in the

294 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

biographies of Albrecht Dlirer, of Hans Sachs, of
Dill Riemenschneider. The young Holbein tried for
a time to make a scanty living as a house and sign-
painter, and painted coats of arms at two florins apiece.
Finally he emigrated to England to find new glory and
wealth. The only ones that could afford to give larger
orders were the princes and the few great merchants.
But under the foreign influences which began to make
themselves felt at that time, they favored the imported
art of the Renaissance. The development of German
national art, aside from the Netherlands, w^as cut short
with the collapse that set an end to Durer's and Hol-
bein's work, so near the summit of ever-grov/ing great-
ness. The Renaissance in Germany never evoked
that warmth of life which is essential in German art ;
it showed best in the small art of the crafts, but for
German art ''the Renaissance was," as M. Rohse says,
''not a revival, but suicide."

It has been shown recentl}^ that the introduction of
Roman law did not meet with such passionate resistance
as has been generally believed. If this be true, it must
have been because the people did not know what they
were doing, which is quite natural. Those able to
judge were the learned jurists, who were naturally
admirers of this, logically the most perfect law in the
world's history. In order to recognize the evil conse-
quences of the Roman law, all that is necessary is to
compare the development of legal institutions in Eng-
land with those in Germany. However, contempo-
raneous voices which object to the new law, and others
which unconsciously show its pernicious effect, are not
wanting. Says Wimpheling : "WTio would not rejoice
to see knights and burghers and peasants faithfully
devoted to the old law, resisting manfully all who try

XXVIII DESTRUCTIVE TENDENXIES 295

to deprive them of these rights and customs by lying
and fraud and all kinds of sophistical tricks, and who
try to oppress and exploit them? It is a struggle
which seizes the innermost life of the people, but which,
I fear, will be decided in favor of the princel}- rulers
and their tools, the jurists, in view of the powerlessness
of the highest imperial power, which seems to be
unable to exercise any influence to gain order or to
control, and in view of the many quarrels waging in the
Empire. The influence of the jurists is therefore the
more pernicious, as they are themselves eager for money
and gain, and excuse and promote this greed in the great
merchants and other extortioners of the people. They
are studious to make themselves useful to the tjTannical
power of the princes, in giving them advice how to
neglect the rights and liberties of the inhabitants and
how to enrich themselves by ever new taxation. Far
more powerful than in the courts of justice, they are
in the councils of the princes, where they have been
secretly at work for a long time, changing and confus-
ing everything that has been instituted by the wisdom
of our ancestors and existed rightfully. According to
the damnable teaching of the new jurists, the prince
is to be everything in the country, but the people
nothing. The people have nothing to do but obej^ and
pay taxes and perform services, and moreover to obey
not only the prince, but also his officials, who begin to
appear as the real masters of the state, and know how
to shape affairs so that the princes rule as little as
possible."

It is not necessary to add anything to this contem-
poraneous record in order to show the effect of the
adoption of the Roman law, as Wimpheling feared it
would be, on the position of the princes. This power

296 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

was still more increased by the Protestant Church
organization, which made every prince the head of the
Church in his state, and made the people of every state
a church for itself. This religious authority was used
to strengthen the political power, and the "pure unadul-
terated teachings of the Bible" were used to fortify
despotism. It has been justly said that in those times
the child did not belong as closely to the parents as to
the state. How the example of the Protestant princes
influenced then Catholic brethren, wherever they found
it to their advantage, has been shown above.

The nobility was benefited by the new law nearly as
much as the princes. Many noblemen, however, who
had not been directly subdued by the princes found it
to their advantage to enter their service, and soon began
to hold the best offices.

In their decadence the cities in the territories of a
prince lost one Uberty after the other,-a;nd it was only
the advantages derived from commerce and industry
that saved their citizens from the fate of the peasants.

The increased sense of power, as well as foreign
example, caused a great display of luxury in many of
the princely courts, and brought with them increased
expenses, which frequently exceeded the financial
resources. Pubhc loans had become common through
the need, in the first place, of money to pay the mer-
cenaries who had succeeded the chivalric army of
feudalism; they became more so when the ''standing
army" became customary. Taxation, direct and in-
direct, was raised to its utmost limit. The supersti-
tion of the times made the alchemist a regular institu-
tion of the princely household. The participation of
the princes in business enterprises and the creation of
trade monopohes have been mentioned in another

xxviii DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES 297

connection. But all these means could not prevent a
continuous increase of indebtedness, which is, perhaps,
more than any other cause, responsible for the accept-
ance of money from the enemies of the Fatherland.
From the courts the foreign influence spread all over
the country ; wliile at first ItaUan and Spanish influ-
ences prevailed, soon the French began more and more
to gain ground.

The discontent of the poorer classes in the cities had
grown to a dangerous extent under the conditions
described in these pages, but the fate of the peasants
was a great deal worse. The jurist taught that the
peasants held the position of the Roman coloni.
It became a principle that anything was legal that
could be supported by any passage in the Corpus
Juris. "The very fact," taught E. Lothmann, "that
one is a peasant is sufficient to prove his serfdom."
The nobility ever}^-here added large farms to their
estates, and degraded their formerly wealthy owners
to serfs, who in some instances were compelled to take
the place of the horses in drawing ploughs and carts.
The unfortunate ending of the Peasants' War made
their fate more miserable than ever, and, indeed, en-
tirely hopeless. Serfdom was legally recognized for the
whole Empire in 1555. It is easily seen how wTong it is
to call all this feudalism, when it is the outcome, not of
the feudal system, but of the Roman law. The state of
the peasants was, in many parts of Germany at the time,
the same as that of the French peasant before the Great
Revolution, and a description of his sufferings, espe-
cially in regard to hunting and poaching, would be but
a counterpart to this well-known chapter of history.

Thus we find the lower classes of the people in a
state of degradation; far above them we find the

298 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xxviii

educated classes with a pedantic Latinistic learning of
a theological or legal turn ; still higher, greatly raised in
their social position by their increase in power, we find
the nobility and the princes; their education under
foreign influence, imitated by the better middle class,
helped to remove them still farther from the great
masses of the people.

Not all these tendencies of decay may have appeared
on the surface as plainly as this description necessarily
had to represent them; they w^ere at work none the
less, and all hope of recovery, which might not have been
unwarranted, w^as cut off when they found their chmax
in the calamity of the Great War. Within thirty years
the cultural work of fifteen hundred centuries or more
appears to be nearly wiped out. The foreigner might
appropriate German territory without fear of punish-
ment; the Netherlands and Switzerland were irrep-
arably lost, and the former were removed from the
common civiUzation. The natural strength of the
German people was destroyed; instead of seventeen
millions of proud and prosperous citizens, we find four
milUons of servile beggars.

CHAPTER XXIX

OF THE GREAT WAR

1618-1648

Let the reader for a moment imagine the picture of a
man who at the time of the Peace of WestphaHa (1648)
had reached the age of thirty to thirty-five years. Such
a man — and there were many hke him — may per-
haps never have seen a well-cultivated field with the
golden waves of ripening grain ; never a town in the
peaceful activity of its citizens ! When a child, he
may have been torn from his crib or his miserable
bundle of straw out into the unfriendly night, to flee
through the dark and cold to a hiding-place in the wilder-
ness of the forest. Mother and father, brother and
sister, might have been tormented and slain before his
eyes. Two or three times the rough soldiers may have
broken into the house of his parents in order to plunder,
to ravish, to commit infamous, unspeakable, unheard-
of cruelties. It is a sad fact that deeds of terrible,
brutal cruelty are not strange to our own days — but
imagine the most horrible deed of human brutality
to be found in modern books or newspapers added to
plague, conflagration, and famine, and repeated in a
great many places, day after day, for thirty years, as
long as there were any human beings left, — so that
I not even the most remote, apparently peaceful corner
was safe from being suddenly drawn into the midst of

299

300 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the turmoil of war — and you will have an idea of that
most execrable period of German history, called "the
Thirty Years' War." It seems like mockery to talk
of a history of German civilization during the Thirty
Years' War, the Great War ; and he must be destitute of
human feeling, indeed, who, in view of the possibility
of the repetition of these infamous events, will not do
all he can to make the civilized world regard the insti-
gation of war as a crime a hundred times worse than
any common murder.

To-day, after two centuries and a half have passed
away, German children in the north and south of the
Fatherland, listen with eyes wide open and full of
terror, to the stories, told by their grandmothers or
mothers, of the Swedish times, of the Kroats and
Pandures, as they in turn heard them from their
mothers. The Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic
Wars, Turenne and Melac, have left their traces, still
unforgotten, but all this is overshadowed by those
older memories, not delivered through books, but by
word of mouth, from generation to generation ; so deep
was the wound struck in the heart of the German
people. Besides, those later great wars, after all the
hardships, at least ended in a strengthening of national
life, and German blood had not been shed in vain : the
Thirty Years' War had no other result than incon-
ceivable misery.

There is not one modern historian bold enough to
describe in print the whole extent of the wretchedness
which stares at us from contemporary accounts, nor
has it been completely ascertained by documents and
statistics how many really perished at the time, and
what were the material losses, which have not all been
repaired even yet. In order not to be accused of

XXIX OF THE GREAT WAR 301

exaggeration, I shall give a few facts, which, horrible
as they are, do not tell the worst.

While in the beginning of the war greed, avarice,
and brutality were not worse than might have been
expected of the period, we soon find an even wilder lust
for blood and a mad desire to destroy. Those elabo-
rate cruelties by which the people were at first tormented
to force a confession of where money and valuables were
hidden were increased when the soldier had learned to
enjoy the sufferings of his victims, and became worse
when, after food had become scarce, he had begun to be
tormented by his own hunger, when so many men and
cattle had been slain that tilling and sowing were im-
possible in many places. In all probability the war
would have continued longer, had not the feeding of
the armies in the devastated country become an abso-
lute impossibility. During the time when Germans were
still fighting with each other, and Gustavus Adolphus
was keeping his Swedes in the fear of God under strict
discipline, we do still find occasional traces of human
feeling, although the Imperial army from the start let
loose its foreign mercenaries, especially Kroats and
Spaniards, on the Protestant countries, and no mercy
was shown to the "heretics" ; indeed, in the eyes of the
Emperor the whole war was but a persecution of the
heretics on a large scale. During the last ten years of
the war, however, when the Protestant powers of
Germany had withdrawn, and France had openly
taken part in the war instead, there were really none but
foreigners fighting on German soil, ravaging and kill-
ing the defenceless. For the inhabitants there was no
longer any difference between friendly and hostile
armies. While the Swede plundered their hut one day,
the Kroat tried to take their last piece of bread the

302 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

next, and they might be glad if a Spanish mercenary
did not cut off their noses and ears on the third. Fre-
quently the marauding soldiers followed each other on
the same day. Three times a day many a German
had to submit to the so-called Schwedentrunk, the
Swedes' drink, of which the water cure of Philippine
fame was only a weak and tame imitation. But
finally there was nothing left to steal, even the few
crumbs of grain which had been hidden in the graves
within the skulls of the buried had been discovered
and taken away by the soldiers. Cannibalism was
not uncommon and is reported from Frankfort-on-the-
Main and other cities. WTien at the siege of Nord-
lingen the Imperialists had taken a tower, the burghers
themselves set fire to it and burned it with everybody
inside. The women took home the half-charred pieces
from the bodies as food for their famished children.
It is even said that children were slaughtered outright
to supply food for their elders. This is more than
horrible, but how can one approach the shocking truth
without giving at least a few facts ? — this war is a
case in which the most powerful imagination cannot
equal the reality. Thorn-bushes, planted by the peas-
ants during the war, grew into an impenetrable hedge
where many of them could escape the eyes of the pass-
ing bands for weeks. Adult men and women born after
1615 did not know any other conditions at all.

At last the war ended from exhaustion.

What was left?

And what must have become of the character of the
people, after it had gone through such experiences for
a whole generation? The psychologist will find here
the explanation of many a weakness in the German^
character which, present perhaps in the germ, was

XXIX OF THE GREAT WAR 303

fully developed at that time; many a good impulse
had been changed to its opposite vice. The power of
will was broken, the heart deadened, the interest for
everything higher, everything ideal, extinguished. The
generation that had grown up in constant fear for their
lives, dodging behind trees and bushes, had nobody
to teach them the courage and manhness which had
been the glory of their ancestors. Instead, they pos-
sessed the vices of the weak, servility, and a narrow view
of things, qualities unhappily fostered by the next
period and only gradually disappearing since the last
century, a constant source of disgust and despair for
liberty-loving patriots. Just imagine what would be
the effect on our grandchildren if ahnost all people over
thirty years of age should be killed and they be de-
prived of all the influences of education and moral
elevation they now enjoy !

At the end of the war the population of Germany
had fallen off from seventeen to four millions, — an
extreme estimate which may or may not be correct.
Flourishing cities and innumerable villages had disap-
peared so completely from the face of the earth that
at the end of the war the wilderness had already re-
conquered the place whereon they stood. One Swedish
general, Pfuel, alone boasted of having burned eight
hundred villages in Bohemia. When peace came,
Berlin had three hundred citizens left. Augsburg at the
beginning of a siege had eighty thousand inhabitants ;
after eight months the conquerors found ten thousand
people at the point of death from disease and starva-
tion. Similar accounts are given of all parts of Ger-
many. The schools and workshops were empty,
the churches destroyed. In the sixth year of the war
Heidelberg had but two students.

304 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

It has been said already that the fields could not be
cultivated for want of cattle and seed. It has been com-
puted that the number of horses decreased eighty per
cent, that of cattle seventy-five per cent. The statement
has been made that at the end of the war not a single
sheep was found in all Germany, and I have found no
reports which discredit this. This means that the great
production of wool and the textile industry, the most im-
portant in Germany for centuries, had been completely
stamped out. Spanish sheep, which have since been
bred in Germany, produce a wool wholly dissimilar, and
according to experts inferior in quality to the former.

But enough ! It is true that Germany with the ap-
parent inexhaustible vital energy of its people has
recovered from these disasters, as is certified by over
ninety million descendants of those survivors of the war,
sixty-five millions of whom live in the German Empire.
But many a forest is being cleared to-day, many a swamp
drained that had been won for culture once before in
mediaeval times. At every step we meet traces of the
Great War in Germany to-day, and the German char-
acter still bears its imprint. In this regard, also, how-
ever, the Germans may hope for final recovery, since
the new Empire has given them almost their ancient
position among the nations of the world. It is not to
be expected that four decades could restore to full vigor
what has lain torpid for over two centuries. But if we
look back to the Germans who celebrated the Peace
Festival in 1650, — they had waited for two years to
be convinced that the war was really over, — we may
well wonder with Gustav Freytag, ''how, after such
losses and such corruption of the survivors, a German
people has remained in existence, a people which was
able after the conclusion of the peace to till the soil,

XXIX OF THE GREAT WAR 305

to pay taxes, and, after miserably dragging along for

I a hundred years, to bring forth new energy and en-

' thusiasm, and a new life in the arts and sciences." The

deeper reason is, of course, to be found in the people's

own vitality and in their love for their home.

Externally, the connection with the former culture
was accomplished principally by three classes of the
population : the clergy, the princes, and the scholars.

Of that vitality, however, and of the fact that manly
\'irtue and trust in a national future had not entirely
died out even at the close of the war, when in Miinster
and Osnabrtick the foreign ambassadors seemed on the
point of dividing Germany between them, we have evi-
dence in the form of a remarkable pamphlet, published
anonymously in 1647, one year before the conclusion
of the peace. Its title is "Exhortation to the Ger-
mans" ; a few sentences translated from it follow : —

"With a loud voice the French and Swedes boast of
having subdued Germany, and the flags, torn away from
us by our own hands, are shown in Paris and Stockholm.
Thus, foolish servants of foreign fame, we destro}^ our own
glory and virtue by our o"wti blood. Kings who were
used to obey the call of the Emperor, and were obliged
to give an account of themselves before him, sit in court,
more powerful than the Emperor, and have become our
masters by our own discord. They call and we appear ;
they speak and we listen to their words, as if they were
oracles ; they promise and we trust their assurances, as
if they were divine ; they threaten and we tremble like
serfs. ... As with the kisses of Judas those pretended
liberators approach us. . . . From the Rhine, from the
North and the Baltic seas, they look out from their
watch-towers for every opportunity and conflict that
might come up or is brought about by themselves ; and,

306 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xxix

like the Romans in Greece, they are first friendly ad-
visers, than arbiters, finally masters. Oh, Germany,
awake, think what thou art ; arise from this deadly fight.
The Empire can be regenerated by the Empire, Ger-
many by Germany alone, and come forth by the sun of
divine grace like the phenix out of the ashes of her own
life. Not Catholics or non-Catholics, not Romish or
Lutheran, must stand in our way; but as members
of one body, of one state, as brethren, all Germans must
embrace each other in love, and with all faculties and
virtues strive heroically towards the great end. To
protect the fatherland, to defend, to preserve it, this
is the duty of each and all. But to limp on either side,
to look towards Paris now, towards Stockholm now, to
give away territories and to be willing to buy peace —
by God ! this never is nor has been German ! "

We know that this patriotic appeal had no effect,
indeed, could not have any ; the nation was too feeble.

BOOK THE FOURTH
REGENERATION

CHAPTER XXX

SURVIVALS OF CULTURE

Development oj German Music

Of the three elements upon which we have said that
the continuation of national life was dependent, the
clergy, the scholars, and the princes, the first, the parsons
of the village and city parishes, both Protestant and
Catholic, had shared all the sufferings of the people
throughout the whole war; they and their churches
had, as a rule, to stand the first and the most tenacious
attacks. The miserj^ and persecutions which robbed the
people of their self-reliance by rending all social ties and
b}" destroying the very foundations of morality meant
rather a strengthening of spirituality to the clergy, who
had preserved the spark of true religion throughout the
theological quibbles of the past century, and who still
felt the fresh impulses of the Reformation ; they suf-
fered for their faith and thus had an opportunity to
prove to their parishioners that they were true dis-
ciples of the ^Master who had called to Him all the
•^Tetched and oppressed. Hence we must admit that,
truly as the principal blame for that great calamity rests
on the intolerance of the churches, yet it is to the rep-
resentatives of the Christian religion, to the lower clergy,
that we owe the saving of the people from total moral
wreck.

As to the scholars, the exclusive nature of the new
science enabled it quietly to continue its secluded life.

309

310 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

In the meantime, too, the other nations had remained
the guardians of former achievements and the successful
promoters of the sciences.

From Kepler, the astronomer, whose principal works
were published during the war, to Leibnitz, no great
German name can be mentioned among the upholders
of the intellectual life of the seventeenth century.
Theologians and the mystics, such as Jacob Boehm,
were widely read in the times of the war ; and even the
book usually mentioned at the head of modern German
literature, the German poetry of Martin Opitz, was pub-
lished during the war. The first opera was presented in
Germany in 1627 (in Hamburg).

The part taken by the princes in the regeneration of
German national strength, which with most of them,
indeed, meant only the strength to pay taxes, will be
spoken of farther on.

There was one field, however, in which the German
spirit, at the very time it was stirred to its utmost depths
by these terrible events, produced some blossoms of
great beauty; I refer to the German church songs
which, under the influence of the Volkslied, had been
brought to their perfection by Luther. It was during
the Thirty Years' War that Paul Gerhard sang his
finest songs, while at the same time on the banks of the
Mosel the religious soul of Friedrich von Spee, the
Jesuit, was finding expression in the most beautiful
compositions, which were published somewhat later
under the name of Trutznachtigall (Challenge to the
Nightingale). Many a defiant warrior's song and Volks-
lied were heard during the war, but everywhere the
return of peace was celebrated in grateful hymns. It
was in music that the German genius gave renewed evi-
dence of vigor and individuahty.

XXX SURVIVALS OF CULTURE 311

The interest and importance attached to music in
German hfe would make this narrative of German civ-
ilization very incomplete without an account of this art ;
here Germany has won her least contested laurels, and
here her character manifests itself, perhaps, most directly.

Leaving aside the lurer, which indicate the use
of musical instruments by the ancestral Germanic
people as far back as the year 1000 b.c, we get the
first accounts of their musical inchnations from the
Romans. The latter speak of their heroic songs and
their war-songs, but what we gather from refers rather
to the literary than to the musical side. Their battle
songs must have sounded terrible enough; even their
popular songs do not seem to have had a pleasing effect
on the refined hearer. Julian Apostata compares them

T049 Kpoy/Mol^ T(av ^pa)(y ^(oovtcov opviOoov

"to the croaking of the coarsely singing birds." Chlod-
owech the Frank, writes to Theodoric the Great to
send to him a "citharceda," which seems to show that
the Ostrogoths in Italy were farther advanced than
their cousins beyond the Alps. We may also refer
to the report on Theodoric II, translated in a former
chapter. Charles the Great took a personal interest
in the fostering of the Gregorian chant, but Peter the
Langobard, to whom he intrusted this task, complains in
disgust : ''The gigantic bodies of the Germans could not
imitate the sweet tones because the barbarian wildness
of their thirsty throats gives forth sounds that creak
like a loaded truck rolling over a corduroy road." But
in the first half of the ninth century we find as much-
praised composers of hymns the Germans Theodulf and
Hrabanus Maurus. At the same time a demand for
singers came to Bavaria from Rome. Since the efforts

312 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of Charles, the Germanic peoples had developed the
secular song, das Lied, to which the church tunes gave
rules and laws. "The Lied is the simplest form of
melody, of harmonious motions and conception, in con-
trast to the antique Gregorian melody, which gives ex-
pression only to the graceful moving Une of tones as
such, in their upward and downward movement, to the
intervals which it connects in a sliding way, according
to their relation to one another, to their juxtaposition
without regard to the fundamental tone. The German
Lied, by introducing harmonious interpretation into
melody, has given modern music its peculiar character
and form." This makes apparent that fundamental
principle of German art, the emphasizing of the mi-
portant substance, entwining and connecting the parts j
in continuous relation to the principal.

Das Lied is the form of music peculiar to the Ger-
man, it is the original form of German music. "It is,"
says Heinrich Adolph Koestlin, on whose writings the
present discussion is based, "at all times the flower and
the gem of German musical art, its landmark and pro-
tecting genius and the test whether music has remained
German or lost itself."

As with the antique melody, so in the German Volks-
lied, text and melody are congruent ; the rhythmic
structure of the text and that of the tune are mutually
dependent. To the stanza of the poem, the sound of
the tune and the Lied as a piece of music are coordinate ;
the parts of the melody correspond to the lines or the
couplets of the stanza. But the law which controls and
arranges the grouping of the parts of the melody as well
as of the stanza, that is, the rhythmic composition of
the stanza, is not the rhythm of the language, but the '
rhythm of the emotion which accompanies the Volks-

XXX SURVIVALS OF CULTURE 313

lied, of which it is the artistic expression. The pop-
ular melody, therefore, is, from the start, not a word-
melody, a word-song, but a musically imbued motion,
not melodiously differentiated speech, but a purely
musical product. The fundamental form is that of
rhythmically measured motion, of dance and march;
its fundamental law is rhythm. We know already that
the dancing song formed an interesting side of popular
poetry. In this way, musical composition had risen to
highly artistic achievements in the minnesongs.

About the year 1000 a.d. we hear of polj^phonic
music in Scotland and England, and as the polyphonic
music came from the North, it is perhaps not too bold
to connect those ancient lurer, which of necessity must
have led to polyphony, with this progress in the art
of singing, which reached the Netherlands by way of
Paris. After being developed in the Low Countries, it
spread over Germany and Italy, where under its influ-
: ence the masterworks of Palestrina were composed.
I In Germany, however, after earlier attempts to have
i the people participate in the chanting at church had
I met with very scant success, the Reformation made the
' popular song an essential part of the divine service, as
; an act of the personal worship on the part of the con-
gregation, and there it found its further development,
under the form of the liturgical church song, first as
I "motetto.^' After the advent of the Italian music,
" especially of the opera, which had gained control in
i Germany at the same time with the foreign influences
I in all other fields of culture, German music continued
j to exist only in the Protestant church songs and the
Volkslied. The former, however, brought maturity and
strength to the musical life original with the German
mind. Its representatives were those poorly paid

314 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.I

cantors and organists, most of whom were at the*
same time schoolmasters. Its home was the divine
service of the Protestant congregation. Properly speak-
ing, it was not in popular life, but in the sacred world
of the gospel, that this music, under the influence of
Luther, found protection and development. But this
world had become and for a long time continued to be
the only refuge for the poor down-trodden German
people, where it sought and regained its better self and
its strength. i

The new forms from Italy were appropriated in fuUn
recognition of their merits and were combined with the
motetto, the chant in the higher choir, and the melodies
of the congregation. Out of the recitative, the aria,
and the arioso with the polyphonous choir and the
hymn, expressing the emotions of the congregation, is
evolved the cantata, which finds further development
in the music of the Passion.

Grown up in the atmosphere of German church
music, matured under the strict disciplines of Italy
which gave him symmetry and grace and full control of
the language of tones, influenced by the bibhcal drama i
of Italy and the English anthem, Haendel at last found '
the form which allowed full expression to his grand and
broad personality, the oratorio. Thus in Protestant :
church music the German genius for the first time '
powerfully unfolded its wings. Twelve years older
than Opitz, the author of the Deutsche Poeterey, is
Heinrich Schuetz, the great predecessor of greater fol-
lowers. Before Klopstock and Lessing, Schiller and i
Goethe, were possible, Haendel created his Messiah,
Bach his Passion of St. Mathew. The predecessor, by :
the way, of Johami Sebastian Bach was Johann Kiihnau, '
who was the first to compose and write treatises on

XXX SURVIVALS OF CULTURE 315

'^ programme " music. While Bach represents pure Ger-
man art, Haendel had learnt from the Italians ; while the
former is firmly rooted in his native soil, the latter is
cosmopolitan. They afford a beautiful example of that
union between a national and an international per-
sonality, so often met with in the history of German art
and culture ; Luther and Hutten, Spener and Leibnitz,
Klopstock and Lessing, side by side. But none of them
in this parallel of Scherer's are international in the
sense that they were less German. In this as in other
fields German idealism and individualism show their
strength by gladly recognizing anything good and true in
other nations, but assimilating really and permanently
only what is congenial to the German character and can
be combined with it. Thus early German music shows
all its fundamental traits, and in music, as Koestlin
points out, these traits find their purest expression. ''In
the first place we meet with a pronounced individuaUsm,
by the power of which music is for the German above
all an expression of an active inner life, a language of
the mind, a self-communication of the personality. In
consequence he demands principally that music reveal
to him an original personahty of inborn peculiarity, an
artistic character which presents itself in the musical
composition in all truthfulness and faithfulness towards
himself, in short, he demands truth and genuineness.
As closely related to this, we must mention that high,
often severe, idealism which lays principal stress on the
spiritual, the poetical, the prophetic side of musical
art, and, when the choice is given between the beautiful
and the significant, in the end always chooses the latter ;
rather tolerates faults of form than lack of substance and
emptiness of thought ; rather will stand a certain musical
secretiveness, than inane 'garrulity.'

316 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

"These are the great advantages of German music;
for the German it is not only a play of fancy or a mani-
festation of creative genius, but the expression of his
inner experiences in the form of musical-artistic creation
that is, self-representation. For him it is not only a
means of sesthetical enjoyment, but ethical activity
and growth ; ' it must, ' as Beethoven says, ' strike fire
from a man's soul.'

''Therefore, German music is not devoid of humor ; as
the cheerful disposition, superior to fate, has become
a component of the character as the vital manifestation
and exercise of control of a heart at rest with itself,
sure of its eternal source and final aim. Hence the im-
portance of German music as a social, morally active,
popular force, in the service of popular culture and
popular education and in the adjustment of social con-
trasts; a mediator between different classes and in-
terests; the High Priestess of the people, as it were,
who lends an ideal sanction to popular life and inspires
it with ideal strength. Illustrations are the singing
societies and church choirs, etc., from the Meistersinger
or the Cantorey Gesellschaft (musical societies of Refor-
mation times) to the modern Saengerfest.

''Close beside the advantages are found, indeed, evi-
dences of weakness and one-sidedness : individuaUsm
easily produces whimsicalness and pride in geniality,^
eccentricity and megalomania ; idealism easily becomes
excessive spirituality which despises the laws of form ;
the desire to be always significant leads easily to fustian,
clumsy thoroughness- and thorough clumsiness. But one
quality is absolutely foreign to German musical art; that
is frivolousness : wherever it is heard or music is forced
into its service, nobody has a right to talk about Ger-
man music, even though it flows from German source."

XXX SURVIVALS OF CULTURE 317

This description by Koestlin characterizes all German
music, — and, we might as well say, all German art, —
especially in its most important fields, the Lied, sym-
phony and dramatic music. But German music at-
tained its greatest heights in the second half of the
eighteenth century in Catholic Germany, which, other-
wise, had taken so little part in German culture, as
if the enslaved mind which in those parts strove so
powerfully but unsuccessfully for emancipation found
only in this art a chance to express itself. While Prot-
estant Germany boasted of Lessing, Herder, Kant,
Goethe, Schiller, there Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
began their reign in the realms of music.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE

In comparing German life after the Thirty Years'
War with that of the fifteenth century, the principal dif-
ference which attracts our attention is the change in the
leading forces of civilization. All the education, all
the interest in national life, seemed to be confined to the
courts of the princes, the territorial lords, who in the
Peace of Westphalia had at last obtained full sovereign
power, including the right of foreign alliance. That
alliances directed against the Empire or the Emperor
were expressly prohibited did not prevent any one who
found it to his advantage and felt himself strong enough
from antagonizing the Emperor.

It would be TVTong, nevertheless, to attribute the
ascendency of absolutism as such to the disastrous
war. The same tendencj^ was found all over Europe
long before, coming gradually after the decay of feu-
dalism. In Germany the change in the economical
system, the increase of taxation and other burdens,
the strengthening of the territorial princes with their
staff of paid officials and other causes, destroyed the
last elements of autonomy, remnants of which had been
left even to the unfree peasant, who within his manorial
establishment had taken part in the jurisdiction over
his fellow-serfs. The Roman law changed this ; and
also in the cities that were under territorial government,

318

CHAP. XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 319

the burgher no longer had a voice in the different func-
tions of administration.

The code of absolutism, both domestic and foreign,
was the Principe of Machiavelli, the teacher of diplo-
mats to the present day. Absolutism, introduced
to the Occident by Emperor Frederick II, had found
its full development in Spain through Cardinal Xime-
nez, the powerful regent of Isabella the Catholic.
Although Charles V dispensed with the services of this
much-hated minister, he gladly maintained his system,
and it broke his heart to find himself defeated in Ger-
many just when he was ready to enjoy the fruits of
his policy. History generally names as the principal
representative of absolutism Louis XIV of France,
characterized by the famous Uetat c'est moi, a maxim
which, however, he was not the first to proclaim. The
principles of absolutism are set forth in a document
which goes by the name of " Instruction of Louis XIV
for the Dauphin " : " My first step was to make my will
supreme; everything to be found in our wide states,
all the money in public treasuries as well as in circulation
belongs to us. You, the Dauphin, must be convinced
that the kings, as good patriarchs, have the absolute
disposal of all property, whether it belongs to clergymen
or laymen. The life of their subjects belongs to the
princes; they must try to preserve it as their (the
princes') property. . . . We are the representatives
of God. Nobody has a right to criticise our actions.
Whoever is born as a subject must obey without ask-
ing." These principles were sustained by the Sorbonne
in 1709, when a decision was given that all possessions
of the subjects were the property of the king, and in
appropriating them he did nothing but take back what
was his already. The introduction of these principles

320 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

into England was resisted in two successful revolutions
at the cost of a royal life.

The ascendency of absolutism had several causes,
one or the other of which is placed in the foreground
according to the point of view of the historian. The
emphasis of personality, so characteristic of the Ren-
aissance period, is without doubt one of the sources
which must be taken into consideration, especially as
it took hold of the leading classes. We may also point
out that the decay of the imperial as well as papal
power must of necessity have enhanced the position
of the other sovereigns, and given them all the rights
which Roman law conceded to the monarch.

But these and other reasons alone could not have
given the princes such absolute power, if the foundation
of the feudal system had not been destroyed and
thereby its continuation made impossible. Feudalism
was based on the duty of military service ; it had de-
veloped, as we have seen, out of the old conception of
the freeman as the w^arrior. This duty had then been
transferred to the vassals and had led to the institu-
tion of chivalry. The increase in the weight of armor
and the invention of gunpowder had ended the military
value of knighthood ; in the meantime the people had
become used to peaceful pursuits, and the place of the
citizen-soldier had been taken by mercenaries. Soon
the princes saw what obedient instruments of power
these armies of mercenaries — a word etymologically
equivalent to soldier — could be in their hands, and
this led to the adoption of the standing army. This
institution had first been used to great advantage by
the Turks in their wars with the Christians, and later
by the French under Charles VII. For a long time
the Swiss had furnished the bulk of hired soldiers, whose

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 321

place was taken in Germany by the Landsknechte,
bodies of men whose name indicates their national ori-
gin. These troops or bands had their own organiza-
tion and laws, and form an interesting side of the many-
colored life of the transition period. Such bodies of
mercenaries hired out to anybody who was willing to
pay them, and in times of peace were a constant element
of disturbance. Many a time they waged their own
small wars, or became common highwaymen. Later
the forming of regiments and armies became, so to
speak, a financial enterprise ; a colonel received a cer-
tain amount for which he furnished a regiment, and all
the money for the maintenance and equipment of the
soldiers went through his hands, and most of it stayed
there, — a system of financial management the disas-
trous results of which are illustrated by the modern
Russian army. The most famous example of such a
military contractor is Wallenstein. These armies, as
private enterprises, had, of course, great disadvantages,
and contained, as Wallenstein's career showed, possi-
bihties of great abuse of power on the part of ambitious
leaders. After the Great War, the standing army be-
came the rule, and was considered indispensable to
princely splendor, no matter how small the principality
was. Even if the monarch and his court did not in-
dulge in any undue luxury, the maintenance of the
"army" usually overburdened the treasury. It was
the cause of a great increase in public loans, — and so
indirectly of a greater development of banking, — and
it was originally in order to make the army pay for
itself that parts of it were hired out by some princes.
The recruiting office played an important part in Ger-
many for a long time, representing, on the whole, the
same system we have in the United States to-day.

322 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

As the freemen had forgotten the use of arms, and
even the cities had abandoned the mihtia for an army
of mercenaries, these standing armies became the
protection of the princes and the means of securing
their absolute power over an unarmed people. The
kings of Spain and France had succeeded in subduing
their great vassals, and in making them their principal
officials, but the German Emperor, the legal heir to
the absolute monarchy of the Roman Empire, was not
able to benefit by the new conditions. The great vas-
sals in Germany had become sovereigns themselves,
and had their sovereignty acknowledged when Riche-
lieu and Mazarin, two other cardinals worthy of their
Spanish predecessor, finally established absolutism.
As in many other things France furnished the model,
only instead of one Louis XIV Germany had about
four hundred imitators of the roi soleil, and four hun-
dred courts in imitation of that at Versailles. It was
the height of a movement that had begun long before.
The Estates, which might have led to a representative
government, lost their power, and only in a few princi-
palities continued a shadow-like existence. The con-
trol by the Empire was only a nominal one. The
Emperor practically had no power left outside of his '
family possessions, although the title preserved some
of its old dignity which secured to the bearer the
precedence over all other potentates of Europe, while
historical glamour was just strong enough to continue a
Germany as a geographical conception. *

The Reichstag, which the peace treaty had finally
constituted, as composed of the three colleges of
the princes, the nobility, and the city, now became
a permanent body in which the states were represented
by delegates or envoys. They spent their time in

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 323

endless discussions of trifles. Later in Wetzlar there
was an imperial court of justice, the Reichskammer-
gericht, but its procedure was so cumbersome that a
man's life was not long enough to see a suit through ;
at its dissolution in the beginning of the nineteenth
century there were 6000 cases pending. Besides,
the Prince-Electors had secured exemption from appeal
against the decisions. Thus the princes were under
no restraint whatever, and the pettier his principality,
the more the prince was convinced of his divine right
of despotism. The subjects were his personal property,
whom he might sell or give away at will. Americans
do not need to seek an illustration for a later time.
But long before the Revolution days and the Hessians
Frederick William I of Prussia made a present of a
number of cutlers from Solingen to Peter the Great.
If no more money was to be forced out of the subjects,
by taxes of every description, and no more loans could
be raised, there were always French pensions to be had
to pay for the extravagance of the German princes,
who were only too willing to sacrifice national interests
and their own honor to foreign politics. French bribes,
however, were not confined to the princes only, as
statesmen and influential scholars accepted money from
the French government. The fact that some of these
princes really desired the welfare of their people, and
that later generations owe them a great deal, can hardly
reconcile us to the brutal tyranny with thich they
enforced their benevolent measures. No matter what
was done by the monarch or his government, it was
all justified by the "reason of stsite," die Staatsraison,
as the Germans translated the French la raison d'etat,
an expression which was made to cover a multitude of
sins.

324 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, i

How far the slavish imitation of the French court
was pushed can perhaps be seen best from the adoption L
of French immorahty as a necessary court institution; j
even in places where there was no inclination towards :
it, the appearance of frivoUty had to be maintained.
Thus the first King of Prussia, Frederick I, who was
rather vain, felt obliged for the sake of "monarchical
etiquette " to have a mistress. The part was given to
a vulgar person who had been raised to the rank of
a Countess of Wartenberg. Their tender relations
were confined to an hour's walk in the park, or, if the
weather was unfavorable, in the hall of the palace, in
plain sight of the whole court and to the amusement
of the highly intelligent Queen.

The standing army, which had made the power of
the princes more effective against the Estates and the
cities, had everywhere a very easy task in Germany,
as far as internal politics were concerned, after the
Great War had broken what was left of the pride of
the burgher and peasant. A submissive servility hope-
lessly pervaded the masses, and even the best had lost
all social and national feeling, all sense of being a part
of a greater body. Every one stood for himself, and
tried to advance his own interests as far as conditions
would permit. If not compelled by the want of daily
bread to leave the homestead, people made an attempt
to rise in the existing system, which was hardly felt
to be unjust. The luxurious life and the arrogance of
the ruling classes were accepted as a matter of course,
one might say, as a divine institution. The assertion
that they were subjected to the same moral law as any
burgher or peasant would have been received with the
same abhorrence that good people show for anarchism ,,
to-day.

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 325

Thus those traits of character which had come to
Hght under the cruel stress of the Thirty Years' War,
fostered b}" the rule of despotism and the worst vices,
took deeper root. To these belong that greed for
social position, for titles and the smiles of the great ;
servility towards those who hold a higher position as
bearers of official dignity and titles, a fear of publicity,
above all, a rather remarkable inclination to a peevish,
petty, and sceptical attitude as regards the knowledge
and ability of others. This comes to Hght again and
again in the modern German, and is the result of some
very meritorious elements in his character, such as his
sense of duty, his discipline and loyalty. Somehow the
Prussian system, which is based on these very virtues,
fosters the corresponding ^dces, which combine very
well with strenuousness (ScJuieidigkeit) and an exter-
nal correctness of bearing which often lacks a solid
character foundation. To be externally vollstoendig
korrekt and tadellos, that is, to act so that no rule of
law and etiquette be neglected, is the aim of the Stre-
her (career-hunter), a type that seems to develop best
in northern Germany, but it is not popular with
southern Germans nor with the plain people in general,
nor do foreign visitors take kindly to it. One may
be a law-abiding citizen and at the same time a mean
rascal at heart.

The exaltation of the position of the prince extended
to his court and his government officials, as well as
to the nobility, which had long since become a court
nobility. The feudal system had disappeared, with
the exception of a few external forms symbolizing cer-
tain rights, having vanished chiefly through disuse,
although in Prussia it was expressly abolished by an
edict of King Frederick Wilham I in 1717. Feudal-

326 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ism, however, as the abuse of usurped privileges
by persons of higher rank, found its highest develop-
ment after its legal extinction. This became especially
evident in a contemptuous attitude towards commoners
and in the harsher treatment of the unfree peasant.
The latter became more and more wretched and bereft
of rights and legal protection. It was he on whom the
principal burden of supporting the wild, luxurious life
of the rulers eventually fell. At the same time he was
not allowed to protect his fields by fences against
damage done by game. Just as for beasts of prey, a
premium was paid to the foresters for the killing of
poachers — who were often enough peasants trying to
protect their crops. Thence the ineradicable hatred of
the peasant for the nobility, which, after German
fashion, found expression in such proverbs as : "Young
sparrows and young noblemen must have their skulls
crushed in time." The peasants themselves are char-
acterized by even a well-meaning author in these words :
''Peasants almost remind one of a codfish; they are
best when they are beaten pretty soft and thoroughly
walloped."

The nobility stepped in between the monarch and
his people. Every nobleman of old family had free
entry to the court of his sovereign, but the prince was
allowed to find his social intercourse only among the
nobility. The more arrogant the nobles grew towards
the people, the greater was their servility towards the
prince ; they felt honored if permitted to perform the
most despicable services and to lend themselves and their
families to satisfy the most infamous passions of their
masters. And the same abject servility was manifested
by large classes of the population towards the nobility.
Traces of these shameful qualities are to be found

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 327

to-day even outside of the Strebertum, described above,
and are only too often disguised by the names of Ger-
man fideUty, loyalty, and patriotism. It is still in
many states very difficult for common people to gain
admittance to the presence of their rulers, and those sov-
ereigns who show democratic inchnations are frowned
upon by their fellows.

But absolutism was contemporary with important
movements in the world of thought which brought about
a complete change in conception of the art of govern-
ment and the state. As the prince was the absolute
lord of the state, and, as is shown by that notorious
Vetat c'est moi, was in a way the embodiment of the
same, so in theory the state had become all-powerful
both for good and bad. The philosophy of Rational-
ism, or, as the Germans call it. Enlightenment, Aufkld-
rung, had discarded all historical conception of things,
and attributed the ability to shape all social and eco-
nomical conditions to the state, which almost seemed to
have lost its abstract character and to have become a
thing or a force for itself. This means that wherever
princes did not give satisfaction, the blame was placed
on the state, i.e., the government. Thus absolute
monarchy forms the transition to the idea of the abso-
lute state, which is predominant to-day and furnishes
the foundation on which the Socialists want to build
up their system. We shall consider later the practical
results of this theory, which is introduced at this point
simply to show that absolute monarchy is only a phase
in the regular progress of human institutions, in spite
of all its abuses as they appear to the modern observer.
It is, therefore, not so much the institution of absolut-
ism itself, which we must conceive as the product of
foreign, especially of French, influence, as the pecuHar

328 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

form it took after the war ; it may be that without the
weakening of national life, which culminated in the
Thirty Years' War, German development might have
taken a course similar to that of the English.

However, we know that foreign influences had gained
ground in Germany as early as the sixteenth century.
Even before that time Humanism had tried to bring
about a change in the world of study, but at the begin-
ning had no other effect than the substitution of classi-
cal for scholastic authors and a sporadic introduction
of Greek and Hebrew. Real scientific progress had
been made in philological studies and in the mathemati-
cal sciences. But all this new education was limited
to scholars ; its language was Latin. There was a de-
cided attempt to imitate the great scholars of other
countries, but more in a desire to equal them than in
direct dependence. Of much deeper effect was the
wave of Spanish fashion which spread all over Europe
in the sixteenth century, and reached Germany,
both directly through Charles V and his court and by
way of Italy; later by way of Paris. This influence
became evident in the forms of social intercourse, in
costume, especially in literature, and, as we have seen,
in the conception of monarchy. Some parts of the
dress were endowed by the common people with de-
scriptive names, just as we speak of swallow-tail coats
and stove-pipe hats to-day. As formerly the broad-
tipped shoes had been called "duck's bills" or ''bull's
mouths," now the pointed stomachers were called "goose
bellies," while the stiff horizontal collar encircling the
throat was called "millstone" collar. The women re-
ceived from Spain the enormous wire construction
called the farthingale, the French name of which —
cache-bdtard — makes them a witness to the moral

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 329

standing of court life. The costume of Spanish women
is well known from the portraits of Queen Elizabeth
of England. In literature Spain gave birth to the
style called estilo culto, or Gongorism, which ruled in
Italy under the name of Marinism, in France as stile
precieux, in England as euphuism. In Germany it
is known as Schwulst and produced the most grotesque
exaggerations of models which were already stilted
enough. In the time of the Schwulst originated the
doll-like conception of the "lady," which for a long time
ruled the social tone. France was the first to outgrow
this style, and produced the great literature which gave
her the intellectual leadership of Europe at the same
time that her great statesmen, Richelieu, Mazarin,
and Louis XIV, secured her political supremacy. In
Germany that dissolution of all peaceful conditions,
the Thirty Years' War, replaced the Spanish euphuism
by a period of freer naturalism, which showed itself
also in the mode of dress, but soon changed to the so-
called a la mode period, which favored a fashion of
military character, and was especially cultivated by
I the rich youth of the cities. This led to the French
court fashion, the object of which was to give an im-
.pression of majestic and imposing splendor. For this
; purpose the men wore the well-known periwig with
long, flowing curls, the lace necktie and lace cuffs and
the rapier, the last more for decoration than for use.
The women combed their hair over high shapes of wire,
called in Germany the Turmfrisur (tower-coiffure),
sometimes reaching such a height that an opening had
to be provided for them in the tops of the sedan-chairs
and carriages; they used beauty-patches, or mouches,
and powder, and wore long trains. All these tenden-
cies found expression in literature and in the Baroque

330 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

style of art. But while one fashion in dress ceded
place to another, the various currents of art and litera-
ture and of intellectual development continued side by
side, running parallel, combining and developing.
The courts and the cities in connection with them were
the leaders in the imitation of the French, which with
them was mostly of a blind, uncritical character. A
popular protest against the exaggerations of fashion
was not wanting ; a more sober style was favored,
which, with the men at least, was destined to gain con-
trol in more democratic times; under the leadership
of the pietists, an inconspicuous gray color, called
"pepper and salt," was adopted by the men of the mid-
dle classes. Intelhgent patriots, while detesting the
exaggerations, still recognized in the acceptance of the
foreign culture a good discipline for the barbarism
caused by the war and the rudeness of German cus-
toms, the "Grobianismus" of earlier times. As a pro-
test against the unnatural fashion of the periwig, all
the world, especially the military circles, adopted the
pigtail or queue {der Zopf), invented by Frederick
William I of Prussia, the despotic but well-intentioned
father of Frederick the Great. "With this fashion,"
says Scherer, ''he created a German symbol of rigid,
sober discipline which prefers the useful to the beauti-
ful, and he made a step toward nature, for he led back
from the false to the genuine." The reader will see
that even the pigtail may serve as a rope by which a
good German patriot may raise himself to a high pitch
of national enthusiasm. The German people in general
consider this royal invention as a symbol of philistinism,
pedantry, backward bureaucracy, as the expression of
all narrowness which has not yet disappeared from
certain spheres of German life, and which is designated

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 331

as Zopf to-day. This fashion has hkewise found its
counterpart in a certain pedantic style in art which
goes by the name of Zopfstil, and finds its Enghsh
parallel in the Georgian era.

The inventor of the pigtail, a name which we may
classify with the humorous expressions for parts of
apparel given before, has furnished an oft-quoted ex-
ample of the manner in which the French influence had
taken hold of the German language in his famous say-
ing : "Ich stabiliere die souverainite wie einen rocher
de bronce " (I establish sovereignty like a rock of bronze).

I must leave it to the history of literature to enter
into the detail of the purist movement, led by individ-
uals or learned societies. But it may be of interest to
learn the contemporary opinion of an intelligent man
of national feeling about the foreign rule under which
the German mind labored ; the passage to be quoted
rather extensively is written by the first German thinker
to gain the respect of Europe after the lowest ebbing
of national life. The great Leibnitz says in his pam-
phlet entitled "Unpresuming Ideas in regard to the Prac-
tice and Improvement of the German Language" :

"It now appears that a medley has ignominiously
gained ground with us, so that the preacher in his pul-
pit, the attorney in his chancellery, the commoner in
writing and speaking, spoils his German by miserable
French. Whence it would almost seem, if this is con-
tinued and nothing is done to stop it, that the German
language may be lost in Germany, not less than the
Anglo-Saxon in England.

"In the century of the Reformation comparatively
pure German was spoken, with the exception of a few
Italian and, in part, Spanish words which had crept
in by way of the Imperial court and the few foreign ser-

332 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

vants. But such, if done moderately, cannot be helped
nor is it to be blamed very much, at times even it is to
be praised, especially if new and good things come to
us from abroad with their names.

"However, when the Thirty Years' War had started
and gained ground, Germany was swamped by foreign
and domestic peoples as by a flood, and our language
went to wreck and ruin, not less than our possessions ;
and one sees the imperial documents filled with words
of which our ancestors would have been ashamed indeed.

"Since the Peace of Mlinster both French influence
and language have gained too much ground with us.
France has been set up, so to speak, as the model of all
elegance; and our young people, who did not know
their own country, and therefore admired everything
French, have not only brought their fatherland into
contempt with foreigners, but also have despised it
themselves, and out of inexperience they have acquired
a disgust for the German language and customs which
has stuck to them with growing years and sense. And
because most of these young people have later obtained
prominence and distinguished offices, these admirers
of France have ruled many years over Germany, and
have made her subject almost, if not quite, to French
rule, at least to French fashion and language.

"Nevertheless, in order to give justice its due, I will
not deny that with this French influence many a good
thing has come to us. The German seriousness of
character has been tempered by cheerfulness ; manners
have been somewhat modified towards elegance and
politeness, also towards convenience ; and, as far as
language itself is concerned, some good phrases have
been transplanted like strange plants into our own
tongue. Therefore, if we were to become a little more

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 333

German-minded, and take the glory of our nation and
our language somewhat more to heart, than we have
during some thirty years of this comparatively French
period, we might turn bad into good and draw advan-
tage even from our misfortune ; and we might as well
find again our innermost core of the old, honest German,
as adorn it with the new external decoration, won, so
to speak, from the French and others."

This view of improving German language and
literature by imitation of the French is likewise held
by Thomasius and others, also by Gottsched, who was
so unmercifully flayed by Lessing, but who in this
regard, as in some others, undoubtedly has his merits.
Through the example of the French as a nation which
created its own literature in the vernacular, the reign
of Latin was ended; as eaxly as 1700 German prose
books outrank the Latin, which in 1740 had dropped
to twenty-six per cent of all pubhcations, while in poetry
German had gained full control long before. There
never has been a similar number of French books
published in Germany, the highest rate ever reached
being thirteen per cent, while the proportion as a rule
was very small.

Seen across the distance of many generations, the
influence of French culture must, on the whole, be
considered beneficial, in spite of all declamations of
German chauvinists to the contrary. Germany might
conceivably have overcome the consequences of the
period of decay by her own strength, but it would have
taken much longer. The French, besides, had some-
thing to give. German thoroughness could only gain
by adopting some of the French perspicuity and logical
conciseness, while a certain bluntness and roughness
in the German could stand a Uttle French polish with-

334 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

out sacrificing genuineness and honesty. It was un-
doubtedly true that the period of French discipline
has been of great advantage to the progress of German
civilization. To the contemporary, however, it easily
might appear, in view of the exaggeration of the im-
ported mode in Germany, of the great advance of the
French in all fields, and of the weakness of the German
national sense, that there was imminent danger of the
destruction of the German personality under the new
influence. Thus Germany may be thankful both to
the men who saw the advantages Germans could derive
from their more advanced neighbors, who for the time
became the teachers of all Europe, and to those who
by their warnings prevented this influence from perma-
nently impauing the national personality. We know
that another foreign influence, but this time of a related
nation, helped to clear the German mind of all foreign
ingredients, and placed it again on the straight road
of developing its Germanic character. I refer to the
period which made Shakespeare a German classic.
But when we compare the language of court circles and
its imitation by the other classes during the predomi-
nance of French influence with the German of Luther
and again of the German classics, we understand why
modern Germans so jealously guard the purity of their
language, and try to remove the last traces of the style
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from official
documents, where euphuism, Latinism, and GalUcism
still survive with almost eradicable tenacity.

As the monarch was the wielder of all power, and as
the weal and woe of his subjects depended on him to a
degree hardly credible to the modern understanding,
the example of the court necessarily took the lead, not
only in external fashion and in administrative afl'airs,

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 335

but in all spheres of human interest. In Germany,
moreover, court life came much closer to the people than
in France, which could boast only of one royal court
and one sovereign. Almost all the German princes,
with a few exceptions, ruled over miniature countries,
which were so small that the court hved almost con-
tinually under the observation of the whole people.
No matter how small the territory he controlled, every
prince regarded himself as a sublime monarch by the
grace of God, no less than the great king in Versailles.
On the other hand, the court was more easily accessible
to the people, and a man of skilful action might attract
the attention of his sovereign to his merits. We see
in this cuTumstance one of the most effective causes of
the all-pervading ambition to become connected with the
court in some way and manner. At all events, the
cultural ideal set up by the courts necessarily exerted
Qiore influence on the people, the closer they came under
their direct observation. To become a perfect courtier
became the educational ideal of the German middle
2lass.

The number of noblemen who sought their existence
in the service of the princes had, of course, greatly
increased tlirough the secularization of the possessions
Df the Church. No longer were alluring li\angs offered
to the younger scions of noble families, who formerly
lield the positions of bishops and abbots. Court life
was the road to the highest civil and mihtary office.
The splendor of the court itself was a great attraction
:o many who had no other ambition than to live in this
-efined atmosphere ; many travelled from court to
30urt, and noblemen from abroad added their foreign
culture. A number of great adventurers, some of
;\^hom have became famous, such as Caghostro, St.

336 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION

Germain, and others, swelled the ranks of the courtiers
as long as they found willing dupes. The number of
courtiers increased in its turn the splendor of the court.

To be a gallant homme was, indeed, the first con-
dition of admittance to polite society. The perfect
courtier had to have complete control of the French
language ; he must conduct himself according to the
latest manners and fashions of the Court of Versailles
in conversation, fencing, horseback riding, pistol shoot-
ing, meat carving, and he was required to have some
knowledge of dancing and music ; how to fold a napkin
properly was one of the many smaller arts not to be
neglected ; also a knowledge of fashionable games, as
piquet and I'hombre, dice, chess, and checkers.

But in addition to these social accomplishments, the
courtier had to be well prepared for the serious side of
life, and be able to fill creditably any civil or military,
especially any diplomatic, position to which he might
be called. He had to study mathematics, physics,
and technology, with a special view toward the art of
fortification, poUtical history and law, geography,
statistics, genealogy, and heraldry. The two last were |
indispensable, as a breach of etiquette in failing to
address people by their right title, or in questions
of precedence, was one of the greatest crimes a courtier
could commit. The more exclusive coiu't society grew,
the more it became an object of ambition to be admitted
to it. Patents of nobility were the open sesames
their sale began to form a fruitful source of revenue for
the imperial and many smaller courts. i:

The ideal of the court circles exercised a great influ-
ence over the middle and even the lower classes. Atl
times even the trades people tried to shine in the reflex
of the bright sun of the court; the privilege of dis-

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 337

playing the coat of arms of the reigning house on the
business signs, and the titles of court baker, court
cobbler, and so forth, became objects of ambition and
were often dearly paid for.

If we scrutinize this educational ideal a little more
closely, we find at the bottom of it a desire to rise in
rank and power, which is perhaps even more intense
than the modern desire for wealth to-day. The modern
motto, "Nothing succeeds like success," with all it
implies, had not been formulated, but its principles were
at work nevertheless. The art of advancing one's self
in life, the principal quality any young man must
possess, was called Poliiik, policy in its original mean-
ing of ''prudence and sagacity in the conduct of affairs ;
wisdom and shrewdness in management," as a diction-
ary defines it. To manage affairs so as to attract the
attention and gain the favor of those higher in rank,
of those who might be useful in furthering one's own
interests, was the principal object of study, and books
were WTitten and published on this subject, exactly
corresponding to a certain kind of modern literature,
which proposes to teach people "how to be successful."
Let us be careful that our modern worship of success,
which means power and luxury through the possession
of wealth, should not lead to the same consequences as
it did in the Germany of that time, where success meant
power and luxury through the possession of social
rank. All other interests cannot be subordinated to
success without a sacrifice of character ; and the period
of which we treat is thus justly described by one of the
latest historians: "The character of the time was
lack of character." Court life has produced the same
results everywhere, and if these became more con-
spicuous in Germany than anywhere else, it is another

338 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

wretched consequence of the innumerable petty states
which covered the whole country with courts as centres
of corruption, as boils cover a plague-stricken man.

We shall see that there were some noteworthy excep-
tions and that fortunately some rulers used their abso-
lute and despotic powers to lay the foundation on which
a new Germany was built.

The position of women had, of course, entirely
changed, and they had not escaped the demoralizing
influences of the war and of frivolous customs of the
French. As early as the a la mode period they had
come out of their retirement, and their part in society
life increases as times progress. I shall not gossip
about the courts of Germany, nor preach a sermon on
the corruption of German women. Happily, these
influences did not go very deep. A natural sensuality,
which is not ashamed of itself, has always been a quality
of the German of both sexes ; the frivolous, degener-
ate ambiguousness, which under an elegant form hides
all devices of seduction and shameless perversity, has
never taken hold to any extent of German womanhood.
Thus the tendencies of the times did not poison any
but the higher classes of society. On the contrary, the
women were the keepers of national traditions in more
than one respect.

But even in the ruling class of society there were
plenty of exceptions. We meet the type of the schol-
arly woman which had not been entirely foreign to
Germany during the Middle Ages, as the names Hros-
with, Hildegard, Mechthildis, and other nuns tell us.
As early as the eleventh century the daughter of
Mannegold, a German scholar, was teaching in Paris.

In the period of which we are speaking Lutheran
orthodoxy found an inteUigent and powerful opponent

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 339

in Anna Ov/ena Hoyer of Hoist ein. The most cele-
brated of the learned women was Anna JMaria von
Schurmann of Koln, who refused to marry the Dutch
poet Caets, in order to devote herself to her studies.
She knew fourteen languages, was very scholarly, held
her own in defending Protestantism in heated disputa-
tions with Jesuits ; she played beautifully on the lute,
was an eminent artist in embroidery, painted, and
engraved in copper, so that she well deserved her
honorary name of ''the Dutch JMinerva." Copper
engraving was a fashionable pastime of the period, as
burning in wood was with us not so very long ago.

Louise Henriette of Brandenburg, the wife of the first
Prussian king, the friend and protectress of Leibnitz,
was very intelligent and interested in all higher pursuits
of men. She composed, as did many other princesses,
religious hymns, of which one at least, ''Jesus, meine
Zuversicht," is popular to-day. But the kind of
poetry written by the court poet von Besser, which,
we are told, she read with approval and pleasure, shows
how even good and pure women lacked, from our point
of view, the right standard of decency. Sybilla
Schwartz of Greifswald, who died at the age of seven-
teen, left some poems which indicate that Germany
suffered a great loss in the premature ending of her
life. Princess Ehzabeth of Baden-Durlach ^Tites a
plain simple language w^hich stands in agreeable con-
trast to the pompousness of her male contemporaries
in literature. The most interesting figure of all is
Elizabeth Charlotte d'Orleans, a German prmcess, liv-
ing at the frivolous Court of ^'ersailles, but preserving
her virtue and keen observation in the midst of all the
baseness and hypocrisy with which she was surrounded,
and describing her experience in her correspondence in

340 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

a language as straightforward and forcible as that of
Luther,

There are a few examples of princes who were not
so much entangled in the prejudices of their class as to
be kept from marrj^ing the girls they loved, though they
came from the lower classes. Duke Rudolph August
of Brunswick-Lueneburg married Rosine I\Ienthe, whose
father was a barber in Minden, and even tells her ;
"You shall not be my left-hand wife, but my right
one." Prince Leopold von Dessau, der alte Dessauer,
married IMarie Louise Foehse, a druggist's daughter.

Amongst the social pleasures that peculiar Ger-
man institution, das Kaffeekraenzchen, called by dis-
respectful persons Kaffeeklatsch, had taken deep
root at the time. It is said to go back to the sixteenth
century ; the lady whose turn it was to be the hostess
was crowned with a little wreath (Kraenzchen) . The
first coffee-house was opened in Hamburg in 1680, and
besides coffee, tea had found its way to Germany.
These new beverages seem to have tended to diminish
the drinking of stronger liquors. The coffee garden,
which is the end of a family walk in summer, is still
popular.

Tobacco was adopted from the American savages in
the sixteenth century. It soon became popular, and
was smoked — or, as the expression then was, ''drunk"
— also by ladies. Besides smoking, chewing and snuff-
ing were indulged in, the latter especially by the fash-
ionable ladies.

Our present social manners date chiefly from that
time ; on the whole, they indicate an improvement,
especially in table manners. The three-pronged fork
grew common ; its use had become the rule in Ver-
sailles after 1650. The pointed knife, which had been

XXXI ABSOLUTISM AND FRENCH INFLUENCE 341

used to pick up the solid food, soon became rounded.
Numerous other details, now thought indispensable,
had their origin in those days.

One other significant change may be mentioned.
Politeness became so great that people did not dare to
address their interlocutors directly by the second person
of the personal pronoun. The third person took its
place ; and to increase the importance, to show greater
respect, the third person plural was used, the Sie
used in German to-day.

Thus we may find many external traces of the French
influence in the refinement or rather over-refinement of
! manners, but, while with their originators it had a
natural color and kept within measure, it was for the
German, after all, only a varnish, unnatural and con-
sequently misapplied, especially by clumsy exaggera-
tion. However, it was not allowed to hide the under-
lying personality to any considerable extent after the
nation had recovered from the weakness caused by
the times of decay and had grown vigorous enough
to follow its own destiny.

CHAPTER XXXII

BEGINNING OF MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

Discoveries and Inventions

It has already been pointed out in these pages that
the rise of absolutism coincided with the awakening of
conscious reason in the indi^ddual. This had been '
rescued from the bondage of authority, and the first
consequence was, of course, an unlimited confidence in
its own strength. Unconsciously the new power had
been trained by the demands of actual life, of commerce
and industry ; combinations which led to expected
results gave confidence in the power of reasoning also
to those who had not gone through the scholastic
discipline. The new discoveries had considerably
widened the view of the world, and the first great results
of the awakening of reason are connected with the
names of Copernicus and Kepler, after oVIagellan had
given an objective proof of the correctness of the
presumption on which Columbus had undertaken his
great experiment.

The natural interest in the mathematical sciences,
which showed such magnificent and wonderful results,
was increased w^hen the Great War had shown the
apparent uselessness of all humanistic knowledge to
protect and support life, while geography, mathematics,
and sciences, applied to technical arts, seemed to prom-
ise practical results and furnish the means to over-

342 J

CHAP. XXXII MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 343

come the consequences of the great disaster. It was at
first not the philosophy of rationaUsm which guided
these efforts towards improvement, — although the great
thinkers in France, the Netherlands, and England had
not remained unknown, — but the unbounded confidence
in an all-powerful reason, which could accomplish every-
thing, if only correctly apphed, that produced in Ger-
many that utihtarianism, which in morals leads to the
success-worship that destroys character and gives rise
to a shallow, trivial view of life, the philosophy of
Philistinism. Of everything it is asked, WTiat is it
good for? Nothing betrays this sad condition more
than the German's changed attitude towards nature,
which had still been his intimate friend at the time of
Luther and his century. Now the Alps are called
*,'a horrible and boresome mountain chain"; a land-
scape is only beautiful when fertile and cultivated. The
unnatural character of the dress and periwig in vogue
has already been mentioned. Nature itself had to
submit to the artificial taste of the period. This is
shown by the new style of garden with its '^ green archi-
tecture," as Claudius called it, cut in all possible and
impossible shapes ; products of the shears as they are,
we feel tempted to speak of them as tailor-made trees.
But before the seventeenth century was ended, the
first generation which had grown up after the war
brought forth in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz a great
thinker who was not satisfied with the surface of things.
He is the father of German philosophy, which may be
traced from him in continuous development to its most
beautiful product, German Ideahsm. This idealism is
evident already in Leibnitz, and distinguishes him
from Descartes and Spinoza, as well as from the Eng-
lish thinkers, who, for the time, are represented by

344 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Leibnitz is, nevertheless,
a typical representative of his time. He is said to have
been the last man who mastered all human knowledge,
which after him grew to such an extent as to make its
acquisition by one individual impossible. He was an
independent philosopher with practical ends in view.
He wanted to solve the great problem of how the inde-
pendent existence of the universe, in and with God,
might be understood, not from a scholastic interest in
a rational system, but from a desire to harmonize man
and his environment ; he united individualism and
universalism, the two tendencies of the German mind.
"For him the world is a system of spiritual individuals,
comprised by God, the creative principle." From
him dated the universality of German science, destined
to conquer the world. A true son of German culture,
he did not confine to his own nation his efforts to im-
prove human progress. They comprised all the world,
but while his cosmopolitanism due to the character of
his period preponderated, he did not lack in national
interest, as we have seen in a previous chapter. The
reconciliation of philosophy and religion is one of his
aims ; he took likev/ise a prominent part in the efforts
to bring about a reunion both between the Lutherans
and Calvinists and between Protestantism in general
and Catholicism; efforts frequent at the time on the
part of true, honest lovers of humanity as well as of
hypocritical schemers, for whom union meant absorp-
tion by their own party. With him, of course, reason
is the ruling force and its infallibility must have ar-
ranged everything in the most perfect manner, although
we may not have advanced far enough to recognize it.
Thus, it is but natural that he gave the most sweeping
expression of optimism, declaring our world to be tha

XXXII MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 345

best of all worlds possible. Leibnitz, then, is the man
who, more than anybody else, reconquered for the Ger-
mans a place in Western civilization. But in spite of
all his merits his character did not show any more man-
liness than that of the rest of his contemporaries; he was,
after all, in many respects an exalted type of phihstinism.
Leibnitz, with all his universahty and far-reaching
plans for the advancement of human conditions, had
comparatively httle influence on his time, simply
because he was too optimistic and far ahead of his
contemporaries, as is best illustrated by the fact that
many of his propositions are being reahzed or agitated
in our days. In Holland, however, where the ad-
vanced thinkers of France had found a refuge among a
people sufficiently advanced intellectually to appre-
ciate them with minds responsive to their own, where
Descartes and Bayle published their books, so mflu-
ential on modern thinking, where Spinoza was born
and lived, the great Jew, Vv'ho was the first to utter
certain thoughts which form the pride of German
idealism to-day, — m Holland there originated a
current which has influenced the practical state of
human affau's more directly than the great philosophers
whose importance is more on the side of individual
thought development. Here the cool mind of the great
humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam had set free a ration-
alist movement; here the advance of philosophy had
I produced a number of historically trained, critical
minds, well fitted to examine the traditional truth ;
here political development had resisted even the intol-
erant tendencies of Calvinism. And here Hugo Grotius,
I a member of the liberal Arminian church party, applied
i reason to the foundations of the law of his time, and
j thereby became the founder of the so-called Natural

346 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap. I

Law, which was based on the nature of man, and not
on a pretended divine authority. In his book '' De iure
belU et pacis" he became also the founder of Inter-
national Law. That is why during the first Hague
Conference in 1899, the American delegate, Andrew
D. White, placed a wreath on the tomb of Grotius in the
Delft cathedral, in the presence of the authorized
representatives of the civilized world. By his truly
Germanic sense for symbolism he arranged a solemn
and imposing celebration which, in the eyes of future
generations that are to enjoy the fruits of the creation
of the International Tribunal, will form one of the most
dramatic scenes in human history.

The successor of Grotius, and the most efficient
exponent and developer of his ideas, was the German
Samuel Pufendorf, who, perhaps, more than anybody
else, was instrumental in freeing German science from
scholastic fetters. In his book " De iure naturae et
gentium," he evolves the theory of Grotius. But he
extends it and claims that not only natural right but
also philosophy must be perfectly independent of
revealed theology. In refuting an attack of Veltheim
he says : "If Velthemius tells me that without scholas-
ticism the Protestant theologians could not dispute with
the Papists, I reply that it is indifferent to me in what
kind of dirty rags they wrap up their knowledge. This
certainly is no reason why natural law should use those
same rags, since this science has not been invented to
dispute with Papists, but to examine and investigate
the actions of men and nations !" Elsewhere he says
that it is better to know nothing than to know only
scholasticism, which does not contribute anything to
culture and treats science only in a barbarian, crafty,
unproductive, and conceited way. Pufendorf is not so

XXXII MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 347

universal a mind as Leibnitz, but perhaps of greater
international influence. On closer examination of the
natural law, which is based on reason instead of on the
authority of divine revelation, as it is propounded by
the German thinker, it is curious to meet with, the
ancient principles of Germanic law at every step. It
is evident that in this case reason has used a German
brain as an instrument. This tendency is of impor-
tance to note at the present stage of our narrative. It
had a powerful influence in establishing the doctrine
that it is the duty of monarchs to provide for the
happiness of then- subjects in any manner possible,
even by force, if necessary, since then- knowledge of the
art of government gives them a greater insight and wis-
dom. This new doctrine soon found adherents among
the German rulers.

Parallel with this there was another movement which,
though rehgious in character, tended towards the
establishment of practical institutions for public welfare.
This was Pietism, which has its source in the very begin-
nings of the Reformation in the early Lutheran period,
when the deeper rehgion of mysticism was revived.
Indeed, it had never entirely subsided, and found its
greatest prophets among the Protestants in Jacob
Boehm, the cobbler and philosopher of Chemnitz.
In direct contrast to Luther it placed good works above
faith. The head of Pietism, of which more later on,
was Philip Jacob Spener. For Americans this move-
ment is of special interest, since out of these circles
have come the pioneers of German immigration in
America. The man who is looked upon as the father
of German immigration, Franz Daniel Pastorius, the
leader of the Germans, who landed in Philadelphia on
the sixth day of October, 1683, had felt the direct influ-

348 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ence of Spener, with whom he had associated in Frank-
fort. His deep reUgious feeling and his practical work
for the welfare of his fellow-immigrants show him as a
typical representative of Pietism at its best. He had
not been in his new home for five years before the
Germans in Pennsylvania raised the first public protest
against slavery in America, in April, 1688, which was
not taken up by the Quakers until thirty-six years
later. Pastorius was the first to open a public evening
school, where English was taught to the immigrants.

All these tendencies promoted a utihtarian tendency
in education, what we should call now a ''practical"
education, which, as has already been pointed out, was
one of the requirements of a perfect courtier. In Ger-
many these studies were called by a Latin name realia.
They found their greatest pedagogical advocate in the
Moravian Comenius, who holds his place of honor in
German civilization, as in that of all the world. No
room is given to philosopliical speculations. Christian
Weise, not a great man, but nevertheless a factor in the
intellectual development of Germany, says, "We do not
learn because we want to appear scholarly, but in
order that we may become of some use in common life."
This side was, of course, especially emphasized in general
education, which, however, did not fail to be influenced
by the schools for the nobility, the Ritterakademien.

These efforts of the utilitarians and the Pietists met
the interests of the more intelligent representatives
of absolutism. Germany, with its old civilization ap-
parently destroyed after the war, seemed to be a most
appropriate field for all these doctrines. Intelligent
attempts at economic development for the alleviation
of the general misery, for the military strength of the
people, for the accumulation of national wealth, were

xxxii MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 349

urgently needed. But even in the absence of all ideal
consideration it could not fail to be evident to sovereigns
of some intelligence and their councillors that no money
could be forced out of an impoverished, totally ex-
hausted population, and that only with a high state of
national prosperity could a prince expect as high an in-
come as he needed for the maintenance of his court, his
army, and the extravagance of his living.

Some examples of good government had been fur-
nished by wise princes, even before the Great War, while
the city governments were very slow in awakening to the
new opportunities. But even before the end of the war
they made some attempt to devise measures towards
recovery, the most remarkable perhaps being a decree
of the territorial Diet (Kreistag) of Nlirnberg, which,
in view of the almost complete depopulation, abol-
ished the celibacy of the Catholic priests and recom-
mended bigamy to laymen.

The princes were the ones who represented progress
for a long period after the war. It was not only the
luxurious, pompous qualities of the French kings which
were imitated by them, but they tried to learn from
their enlightened statesmen, and Colbert became for
many a teacher in administration. Austria and Bavaria
were touched least by the new spirit. We read of plans
and even beginnings of colonization in foreign continents,
as that of the Great Prince Elector of Brandenburg ; Duke
Ernst of Gotha even entered into communication with
Abyssinia. The latter was one of the most noteworthy
exceptions among the princes of his time, and his eco-
nomic measures proceeded really from a sense of duty
towards his subjects. To him belongs the honor of
giving the first effective compulsory education law,
which is important enough to be quoted here: "All

350 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

children, boys and girls, both in villages and in cities,
must be sent to school without delay after they are five
years old, and the parson must keep a correct list of such
children. Any parent who is so rude and careless as wil-
fully and out of avarice to keep his children from school,
and thereby from their best good, shall be fined, after
having first been exhorted and warned by the parson,
one groat {Groschen) for the first offence, two groats
the second time, tliree groats the third time, and so on
to six groats, without respect of persons."

Of all the German states Brandenburg is distinguished
bj^ the wise provisions of its successive rulers, to such an
extent that it must be counted as one of the great forces
in the regeneration of the German people. Its rulers
have since the day of the Great Elector Frederick
William considered themselves as the first serv^.nts
of the people, as the phrase, generally attributed to
Frederick the Great, goes. They have almost without
exception made the welfare of theii' people the principal
aim of their lives. Not satisfied with giving an impulse
to their ministers or taking credit for their work, they
have, though not all men of the greatest brilliancy, set
an example of complete devotion to hard, conscientious
work, thus becoming models of that spirit of duty which
makes the holder of an office surrender every private
interest to the state, and which has had such beneficent
influence on public and private life all over Germany.

The Great Prince Elector himself had taken Holland
as his model of a well-administered state. His efforts
towards improving the conditions of commerce and in-
dustry by better transportation and mail service, by
building canals, by inviting intelligent foreigners to
settle in his state, were very successful. Of the greatest
advantage was the immigration of the exiled French

XXXII MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 351

Huguenots, of whom fifteen thousand followed his call.
These French exiles did especially good service in the
industries. They form a very important element in
the population, and their descendants, thoroughly Ger-
manized for generations, have given to Prussia many of
its best and most patriotic citizens, although it seems
to be just a little bit of exaggeration on the part of
French historians to tell us that all German civilization
dated from this French immigration, and that without
them the Germans would to-day still roam, clad in bear-
skins, through their primeval forests.

Intelligent care in all fields of national life, combined
with a far-sighted provision for the needs of future gen-
erations, peculiar to many rulers of the Hohenzollern
dynast}', distinguished the Great Elector; and the ad-
ministration of his two successors, though they were
inferior to him in mam' respects, must still be called a
government for the people, if not by the people.

As regards science the practical tendencies of the
time gave a special prominence to the mathematical
sciences, as has been shown before. For the princes
scientific occupation was a matter of fashion, which
with some became a hobby. Great collections were
made, mostly from a feeling of curiosit}', but sometimes
for scientific reasons. Botanical gardens, menageries,
and astronomical observatories were established ; many
princes still maintained their laboratories in the hope
of discovering the art of making gold, but science more
and more replaced the belief in magic. The Germans,
however, renewed their old glory, not so much by learned
treatises as by practical discoveries and inventions. In
these Xiirnberg continued to hold the first place, which
it had kept since the fourteenth century. There was,
moreover, a general desire to acquire knowledge, which

352 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

showed all the enthusiasm of a newly acquired taste.
It was the time when the expression, ''Knowledge is
power," with its partial truth, obtained the authority of
an article of faith. To know everything was the ideal,
which, for his age, Leibnitz had reached. As early as
the sixteenth century, and earlier, Germany had made
some valuable contributions to science, and a direct line
leads from Peurbach and Regiomontanus, whose nau-
tical instruments made the voyages of Columbus pos-
sible, to Copernicus and Kepler, while Mercator in-
vented the projection of maps, Buergi, decimal fractions,
and logarithms, as well as the pendulum clock.

In the period after the Thirty Years' War Guericke
leads with his invention of the air-pump, demonstrated
before the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1654, when the
famous experiment was made with two hollow hemi-
spheres, one yard in diameter, which could not be
pulled apart by twenty-four horses. This event was
represented in a picture forming the frontispiece to his
Physics. Guericke was also the inventor of the
electrical machine in 1663. Leibnitz was the first
one to observe an electric spark in 1671 ; and two years ■
later the power of observation had been improved
enough to enable some one to see and report on the
running of lightning along a metal rod. The fire en-
gine had been improved in Niirnberg, last by Johann
Hautsch. The latter had sold an automobile, moved
by a clockwork, to the king of Sweden in 1649. It
ran only 16 Km. an hour. A year later, in the same city,
a tricycle was invented to be run by turning a crank
attached to the front wheel. Some kind of phonograph,
invented by one Gruendler of Niirnberg, is described in
1682. Also the first report of an experiment in pho-
tography is dated before the end of the century. Leu-

xxxii MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 353

wenhoek discovered the blood corpuscles. But in the
middle of the seventeenth century anatomy had so
little advanced that a dispute arose among the doctors of
the jNIargrave at Heidelberg as to where the heart of
their distinguished patient was located, and a common
vulgar pig was killed and dissected in order to decide
where this noble organ of His Highness might be found.
Anatomical dissection had been strongly opposed by
public opinion, even after legal permission had been
assured. Quite a time elapsed before a female body
was placed on the anatomical table in Germany. In
1697 R. J. Camerarius of Tubingen published his dis-
covery of the fructifying function of the pollen and the
sexuality of the plants. The use of gas in street illu-
mination was proposed by Becker in 1686. Berlin blue
was invented by Diesbach, 1704, while in 1710 the
famous porcelain factory at Meissen was opened, the
products of which are known in English-speaking
countries as Dresden china. In the same year the
wholesale production of spoons by stamping them out
of the sheet metal was invented. Thimbles, first in-
vented in Amsterdam in 1684, had been manufactured
wholesale in Niirnberg for some years. In 1720 Bock
in Leipzig produced the first hose for fire engines
woven without seam. Fahrenheit of Danzig invented
his thermometer in 1724. G. E. Stahl of Halle is con-
sidered by many as the father of modern chemistry,
which he established as a science by formulating its
problem ; he distinguished sharply between pure and
applied chemistry. In 1720 he published his famous
■phlogiston theory, which was a wrong hypothesis, in-
deed, but for a long time gave the opportunity for many
important and correct discoveries.

The introduction of coffee, tea, and tobacco has been

354 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

mentioned before. Potatoes were first planted in
Germany in 1648. The first city to introduce street
illumination in Germany was Hamburg in 1672, fol-
lowed by Vienna in 1687 and by other large cities even
more slowly. In 1700 the Protestant parts of Ger-
many, Holland, Switzerland, and Denmark had been so
far influenced by Rationalism as to see that correct time
would not impair their chances for salvation, and they
at last adopted the Gregorian calendar which had
been introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, twenty-
five years after Reinhold of Saalfeld had published
the calculations on which it is founded. England
and her colonies waited till 1752, while Scotland and
Sweden followed in 1753. Its introduction into Russia
has been discussed for some time, but there is reason
to fear that, even if she does advance her dates thirteen
days, she will not be up to the times.

It is in line with these improvements to say a few
words concerning postal service and journalism. It
is hardly necessary to point out that correspondence
of some kind, of a political or other character, had been
going on throughout the Middle Ages ; important
documents had been forwarded by special messengers ;
a lively exchange of letters on ecclesiastical and literary
subjects took place between the monasteries, and the
travelling monks were the carriers of these letters. The
increase of commercial life brought about a regular
messenger service by professional messengers between
the different commercial centres and agents ; such was
also instituted between the different courts and
governments and between the universities. Private
persons took advantage of these official messengers,
who took along letters as a sort of favor. The first
gi'eat advance was made when a regular service of

XXXII MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 355

messengers on horseback with relays was instituted.
This was first done in Italy and Spain. The first
regular service in Germany was begun by Maxi-
milian I, between his court, wherever it happened to
be, and ^Milan. The family of Thurn and Taxis had run
a kind of postal service in the Tyrol as early as 1460.
In 1515 and 1516 contracts were made by which they
received control of lines in Germany, France, and Spain.
The house of Thurn and Taxis in time secured a mo-
nopoly in many states, and rose to the rank of princes
of the Empire ; their hold on the postal service ending
only with the reorganization of Germany, in 1866.

The service was greatly improved when a change
at the relay stations was introduced for the messen-
gers as well as for the horses. With the rise of the
territorial princes many of the latter established their
own lines, so that Germany had a double system, the im-
perial and territorial mail. After about 1500 the public
postal service was at the disposal of private persons and
became a welcome source of revenue to the princes.

Journalism is closely connected with the postal ser-
vice. Occasional news pamphlets were published as
early as about 1500 ; the first known being dated 1505,
from Niirnberg. Princes, merchants, and others who
had an interest in the quick reception of news had regu-
lar correspondents. But the natural centre for the
spreading of news was the postmasters, and they were the
first to provide a news service of greater regularity.
It was not until 1609, however, that the first regular
journal appeared, a weekly, published by Johannes
Carolus in Strassburg, Magazines in our sense of the
word had been published as early as the sixteenth cen-
tury, and soon began to play an important part every-
where, as we know especially from English literature.

CHAPTER XXXIII

ACADEMIC LIBERTY

A Short but Important Chapter

In spite of the parental absolutism in Prussia that
only slowly has made its concessions to the modern
spirit of self-government, it is this very state to which
Germany is indebted, not only for her present unity,
but also for that precious gift of liberty of instruction
by which Germany outshines all other civilized coun-
tries, a principle which had been proclaimed first by
Spinoza, but which Prussia dared first to adopt.

The eleventh day of July, 1711, is one of the great
days in the upward movement of the human race. It
was on this day when, in the University of Halle, founded
not many years before, the Rector in a speech in honor
of the first king of Prussia promulgated this Declaration
of Independence of Science, the most important part of
which I quote from Paulsen's "History of Scholarly In-
struction." It will give us the meaning of the term as it
has been understood ever since.

The subject of the oration of Nicholas Hieronymus
Gundling is the Liberty of the Frederician University
(Halle). He calls it ''the vestibule of liberty" {atrium
libertatis). "What is the purpose of the university?"
he asks, and his reply is : "To lead to wisdom, that is,
to the faculty of distinguishing between true and false.
But this is impossible when any bounds are set to in-

356

CHAP. XXXIII ACADEMIC LIBERTY 357

vestigation." The question is then discussed whether
any man has a right to compel another by threats of
punishment to profess an opinion not his own. He
answers in the negative. Such compulsion is condem-
nable, by reasons of natural law and utility. There
is nothing more useful than liberty of teaching and
writing ; by this the powers of the mind are called
forth, all the sciences will flourish, arts, wealth, and
population will grow, as has been shown by the example
of the Netherlands. But it is said : liberty is good
indeed, but not license. To this Gundling replies :
"Has an attempt at improvement ever been made
without experiencing the reproach of subjectivism, of
anarchy? Have not the founders of the modern
physics been thus accused by the friends of occult
properties? But compulsion in these matters is evil
everywhere. Teach, exhort, pray; if they hear, it is
well ; if not, learn to bear it. Truth rises before us :
let him who can ascend, let him who dares, seize her ;
and we will applaud. {Veritas adhuc: qui potest ad-
scendat, qui audet, rapiat et applaudemus.) "

In spite of all the attacks and occasional flagrant
violations of this principle by reactionary influences,
it has, from the time of its promulgation in Halle,
been the protection and life-giving power of German
science, which, after the dogmatism of Luther and his
successors had deprived the Reformation of one of its
greatest blessings, may really date from that time the
beginning of its modern success. That the words were
true is proved by the testimony of J. H. Heumann, who
writes in 1718, seven years after Gundling's speech,
"The liberty and the wisdom of Halle has spread its
light also to the other German people and everywhere
the professors are already ashamed to believe many a

358 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION ch. xxxiii

thing which appeared a sacred duty in the time of our
fathers."

Even the Prussian constitution, granted by a reac-
tionary government after the failure of the hberal
Revolution of 1 848, contains the famous article 20 :
"Science and its teachings are free." But under the
name of academical liberty, this principle includes
more than mere liberty of science ; besides liberty of
teaching on the part of the professor, it means liberty
of learning and liberty of living within the common law
for the student. The German people consider this
academic liberty as one of their most valuable cultural
attainments, and any attempt to curtail it even in its
minor bearings arouses a protest of the liberal-minded
all over Germany, not confined by any means to the
academic students and graduates.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
I

General State of German Society. Pietism. Rationalism

With Frederick the Great, whose government began
in 1740, we enter upon a period which seems contiguous
to our own time.

People have the same interests and the same ideas
as the modern Germans, the same emotions move their
hearts, the same problems puzzle their brains. Books
written in those days do not necessarily seem strange
to us. The grandparents of those of us who are of
middle age have known people who lived in those times,
and from them our parents and we ourselves may have
heard accounts which seem those of eye-witnesses.
During the childhood of many living Germans coins
of the time of Frederick the Great were common
currency and offered a puzzle to them when they were
accepted only at 80 per cent of their nominal value.

It was, as we have seen, a time of philistinism, die
Zopfzeit, the time of the queue, so familiar in the
pictures of George Washington ; but the original queue,
as invented by the father of Frederick the Great, was
a much stiffer and longer appendage, almost as straight
as a stick.

The spirit of mediaeval times had almost completely
I disappeared from the surface. The country still

359

360 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

suffered from the consequences of the Thirty Years'
War. In social and industrial conditions Germany
was behind France perhaps fifty to seventy-five years,
behind England twenty-five years more.

The greatest difference between these and mediaeval
times was that the people did not think alike any more.
Formerly there was only one view of the world, and
that was contained in the teaching of the Catholic
Church, which was not opposed or questioned by any
one. There were no controversies about the creation
or the existence of God. There were different currents
of thought within the Church, but that contrast of
views which we observe now, that different way of
thinking which prevents people of the same nationality
from understanding one another, were impossible in the
Middle Ages. In spite of changed views and advances
in politics, however, there were plenty of mediaeval
institutions and ideas still left in Germany.

One modern idea had replaced the ideal of a universal
empire, and controlled European politics since the
Peace of Westphalia, and that was the European balance
of power. The largest states of Europe did not want
any of the smaller ones to grow up to become their
rivals, and France, holding the supremacy of Europe
at the time, watched jealously that none of the other
great powers might gain an advantage in their mutual
rivalry. This is very important to keep in mind. It
explains all the political disturbances in the reign of
Frederick, who wanted to raise Prussia to the rank of a
Great Power, which was opposed by all the other
powers. How well Frederick succeeded is a fact of
political history ; his state, which was only the thir-
teenth in Europe as far as its area was concerned, was
left by him the fourth in military strength. This

sxxiv THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 361

European balance, ostensibly intended to preserve
peace, has been a most fruitful source of war ever since
its establishment.

The German Empire, so-called, was still in existence,
principally on paper, and in a few drowsy institutions.
The German Emperor, as such, was absolutely power-
less. The house of Habsburg, which secured the elec-
tion of its scions w^ith such regularity that the imperial
dignity might as well have been hereditary, if it had not
been for the bargaining about the votes, owed its power
to the family possessions which are known to-day as
the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy and which were
of far more interest to them than the Holy Roman
Empire of the German nation. We have seen that the
great vassals, w^ho in France and England had been
subdued and were simply subjects of the highest rank,
had succeeded in Germany in becoming full-fledged
sovereigns. Onlj^ externally did they do homage to the
Emperor. Still theoretically even the kings of France,
England, and Spain called themselves in court lan-
guage the vassals of the "Roman" Emperor; but he
would have been laughed at had he based any claims
on this polite acknowledgment.

^ The great German princes were represented in the
^Reichstag, which had become an assembly of ambas-
sadors without any influence in the affairs of state ;
most of their time was spent in disputes regarding their
respective rank. For example, a long debate was
caused by the question as to whether one particular
delegate should have two feet of his chair on the rug
under the table, or the whole chair.

All together Germany consisted of over seventeen
hundred independent "rulers," since being a direct
vassal of the Emperor was only a nominal dependence.

362 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Over three hundred of these were sovereigns of coun-
tries, Lander as the Germans call them; they
were princes, dukes, grand dukes, or perhaps only
"Counts," as well as the archbishops, bishops, and
abbots, and the cities with their territories. Their
states were of some size and worthy of attention. But
there were fourteen hundred independent noblemen,
knights who had small estates, perhaps a cottage or a
stable ^dth a cow or a pig in it. The Prince of Thurn
and Taxis was a sovereign on the strength of his title
only and the monopoly of the imperial mail service.

One state, Hanover, since 1734 united in personal
union with the crown of England, began to feel a breath
of a freer, more modern air. The king of England in
this way had become a prince of the German Empire,
and English influence at once became very strong in
Hanover. In 1737 the University of Gottingen was
founded and soon became more advanced than that
of Halle.

Almost as much as Germany was behind France
and England, the Cathohc states in southern Germany,
in general, were behind the Protestant North. Bavaria
was called the "German Spain." Worst of all were
the states under ecclesiastical rule. It has been esti-
mated that in these, for each hundred inhabitants,
there was an average of one priest and one beggar.
Koln alone had over one thousand beggars.

Rehgion was not the onh^ dividing element between
the Germans. Language was still far from being
uniform. The Catholics opposed vigorously the lan-
guage of Luther's translation of the Bible. As late
as 1779 the Jesuit party raised a loud clamor against
one Canon Braun, who had published some text-books
in the "Lutheran language," and he was taken to task

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 363

by his superior, the Bishop of Regensburg. Every-
where the dialects kept a strong hold on the people, to
whom even to-day the High German of the educated
often seems affected.

The strongest contrasts and estrangement existed
between the different classes in Germany. There were
the many courts with their courtiers who were all
noblemen. Their class had become of the greatest
influence and formed a fence, so to speak, around the
sovereign and a barrier between the court and the
rest of the people. In some of the smaller states
when it was necessary at a court ball or other affair to
invite some of the people who were not of the nobility,
great care was taken in marking off with a rope the line
which they must not cross, lest they should mingle
with people of blue blood. There are persons alive
to-day who have witnessed this spectacle. This notion
of blue blood was not a mere pretence by any means ;
a great many people really believed that the noblemen
had a different kind of blood than was flowing in the
veins of a commoner or peasant. The idea was that
these Estates were created by God and were a natural
institution. A nobleman of that time would look
dowTi on a peasant as we would look down on an animal.

The time was near, however, when the conditions of
the peasant were to be improved, not out of pity or a
sense of justice ; reasons of state told the rulers that
a starving peasant would not make a good soldier, nor
could a poor commoner pay taxes.

The only people who could lead a '^ complete life,"
as we should call it after Herbert Spencer, — the
German calls it sich auslehen, — were the nobility.
Indeed, the man who led the most complete life of all
the Germans, Goethe, was not a nobleman by birth;

364 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

but he belonged to the ruHng class of the free city of
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and before he was raised to
power and position — as far as power and position went
in the small Duchy of Weimar — he was made a mem-
ber of the nobility. But it was Goethe himself, in
" Wilhelm Meister/' who makes the statement at the
head of this paragraph.

Recognition for intelligence and education was not
entirely lacking. When military service became, about
this time, to a certain extent compulsory, in Prussia at
least, the passing of an examination — the so-called
Genie-Examen — would release a man from military
duty.

A good picture of the German middle class about
the beginning of Frederick's reign and in the second
half of the eighteenth century may be found in the
poems *'Der siebzigste Geburtstag," by Johann Hein-
rich Voss, and ''Hermann und Dorothea," by Goethe.
A few cities held their own as centres of intellectual
life against the absorbing influences of the courts.
Frankfort, which had held first place during the last
century, was outrivalled by Leipzig, and the two were
soon overtaken by Hamburg. The book trade was
transferred from Frankfort to Leipzig, which only
recently has found a rival in Berlin. The influence
of Leipzig shows itself in the curious custom that books
pubhshed in the last quarter of the year are usually
dated from the following year, because the great Leip-
ziger Mease, or annual fair, takes place in October,
when the publishers and booksellers convene to settle
up the business of the year. These fairs were of great
importance before transportation had reached its
present stage of advancement, and have survived espe-
cially where trade with, the Eastern countries is of

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 365

importance. But speaking of Leipzig as a great book
emporium, we must take occasion to point out the im-
mense influence the German pubhshers have had on the
intellectual life of the nation, and to some extent are
exercising in the present time. The German learned
bookseller is very often a university graduate, in fact
the successful ones are mostly so. No one can under-
stand fully the development of German literature who
does not know the influence of firms like the Cottas and
others, and their connection with the best German
writers. All who are familiar with the life of Heine
know of his pleasant relations with his publisher Campe ;
Gustav Freytag openly acknowledged that it was
really his friend and publisher, liirzel, who showed
him the road to success.

As far as the external life is concerned we have an-
ticipated some of its progress in the last chapter.
Street illumination was still exceptional ; the citizen
who went out after dark had to carry his own lantern,
and was arrested when found wandering about the city
without it.

The dress of the period is familiar from the pictures
of Washington and of colonial times. In this respect,
as in others, English influence in fashion began to show
itself instead of French. The round hat and high boots
of the English squire came into vogue. Gardens and
parks were more natural, but still were not like those of
later days. Their style was still artificial, more an
imitation of nature than nature itself ; but bushes and
trees were no longer cut into figures of animals, crosses,
or other geometrical shapes.

But what were the views of life of the people of that
time, what did they think of their position in the world,
what were their ideas of God, how did they answer the

366 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

questions : Where do we come from ? Whither do we
go ? How do things come to be as they are ?

Of course the great mass of the people were faithful,
even superstitious, adlierents of the different churches,
to which the more educated classes, although more
liberal in their religious views, remained likewise
attached. Pietism, in spite of its influence on the
emotional life toward a not always wholesome senti-
mentality, was of the greatest importance in the intel-
lectual development of the people. It is in keeping
with general tendencies that the Pietists made the
schools a special object of care, and what we call "prac-
tical education" was greatly enhanced by them. It
is to Pietism that the German Realgymnasium, for-
merly Realschule, owes its origin. Its best known
pedagogue was Aug. Hermann Francke, whose school
establishments in Halle have been famous ever since
their foundation. They furnish, by the way, the first
instance of a German institution founded by national
subscription. While the fertile germs contained in
Pietism continued, the movement itself became a
victim of ossification and of its own intolerance, the
very vices which had caused its separation from Ortho-
doxy. But is it not a common human experience that
religious, political, or social movements are eager for
liberty and are tolerant and progressive only so long as
they are persecuted, showing the opposite of these
qualities when they have conquered, and trying to use the
power of the state to persecute in their turn those that
hold different views ?

Pietism, however, must not be considered merely as
a protest against orthodox dogmatism, but likewise as
antagonistic to the shallow life of the courts and lead-
ing social circles. It emphasizes the inner life as against

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 367

external pleasures ; a close intimacy of congenial souls,
fostered by small assemblies (conventicles), originating
from Spener's ''Collegia pietatis," took the place of
social entertainments and found expression in the
letters of the time, which became confessions of inner
experiences ; correspondence was entered upon even by
people personally unknown to each other. In those
days of utmost social exclusiveness Pietism was the first
means of bringing together people of different rank,
still with appropriate condescension on the part of the
nobility and corresponding humility on the other side.
This movement is confined neither to the Protestants
nor to Germany; it shows its influence also in other
countries, and the same tendencies are observed in
Catholicism.

Sometimes united in their reformatory tendencies,
both equally hated by the Orthodox, although funda-
mentally different, even contradictory, Pietism and
Rationalism worked for a time side by side. Francke,
Thomasius, and Wolf were teaching at the same time
in Halle, the home of free search for truth, and there-
fore the refuge of all great men persecuted by the old
parties. But while Pietism was in its decline. Ration-
alism was in its ascendency ; instead of the heart,
reason formed the centre of interest, and Rationalism
obtained the leadership in intellectual life for almost a
century.

The philosophical school called Rationalism, which
had been developed in the Netherlands, England, and
France, reached Germany considerably later. It is
another phase of the emancipation of the individual
which reached its first epoch in the Reformation. It is,
as its name indicates, the expression of an unlimited
confidence in reason. In Germany, instead of "Ration-

368 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

alism," an expression used for a certain theological
school, the term ''Enlightenment" (Aufkldrung) is
commonly used. There is, however, a very important
difference between German enlightenment and Enghsh
and French Rationalism : while the latter led to Pan-
theism or Atheism, the former remained faithful to the
fundamental tenets of Christianity; God, free will,
and immortality^ were upheld, not even revelation was
denied. The German criticism was directed against
the intolerance of Orthodoxy, at superstition in all its
forms, and the claims and prerogatives of the clergy.
The Christian doctrines were interpreted in a ration-
alistic spirit ; but since reason was the only arbiter of
truth, and no external authority was recognized, every
independent thinker gave to Christianity his own inter-
pretation. For the first time since the days of the
Greeks human reason had become perfectly self-con-
scious, felt its own power, and in the first joyful pride in
itself overestimated its importance. The mere power
of thought promised sufficient strength to construct the
world out of itself, as well as to bring order and system
into our personal and social life. Nothing was accepted
that would not stand the test of reason. In many re-
spects the workings of the new philosophy met with
the utilitarian tendencies of the previous period which
had also struck a responsive chord in Pietism. But,
although Rationalism forgot that man does not only
think and try to understand, but also has a heart to
feel with, it meant an immense enrichment of life. It
brought not only a greater insight into the nature of
things, both in regard to the forces of nature and to the
human soul itself, but this new knowledge, "udth the
feeling of self-reliance it gave to man, naturally pro-
duced a greater energy of will, a desire to exercise man's

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 369

power over nature, the forces of which he had learned
to know, and to submit one's own passions to the con-
trol of reason. \\Tiereas Luther had shown that the
judge of our actions was in our own souls, now the im-
pulses of our heart were to be tested before the court of
reason. We may justly call Rationalism the principal
source of the exact sciences and of modern technical
progress.

The ''natural law" as developed by Grotius,
Pufendorf, and their school has already been men-
tioned ; modern political and economical ideas owe
their firm establishment to the same movement, so
does the acknowledgment and realization of the right
of independent individual activity in all fields of human
interest. It ought not to be necessary to remind
American readers of Thomas Paine's ''Age of Reason,"
that the Declaration of Independence is an expression
of this philosophy as well as the declaration of Human
Rights; the French Revolution cannot be thought of
without it.

To return to Germany, Rationalism found there an
unusual amount of prejudice, antiquated institutions,
and other obstacles in its way. This may have been
the reason why the German thinkers were compelled to
proceed more slowly than their predecessors in other
countries; they examined point by point, and devel-
oped a careful analytic habit. As they were opposed
to all authority, they naturally felt the weight of his-
tory and tradition as an unbearable burden. It was
not so much pride in their own times which led them to
look down on the experiences of the past, as the aver-
sion of the individual subjectivism to be hampered by
any ties; besides, reason appeared to be perfectly
' sufficient and even better adapted to explain all things

370 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chapj

existing. This view recommended itself the more to the
thoughtful student, as only written tradition, which of
necessity had approached the facts under the preju-
dices of the author, was conceived as history. But the
greatest source of antipathy against history was the
tyranny exercised by existing customs and institutions
based on historical rights. In time, however, under
careful analysis it was seen that it was possible to
separate superstition, prejudice, and error from rea-
sonable, historical development; the conception of
history as a natural organic growth took hold of the
German scholars before Rationalism had drawn its
last radical conclusion, and forms another one of the
reasons why German Enlightenment inclined rather
towards reform than towards revolution. Being of
a less radical character, the movement soon lost the
aristocratic aspect it had in France and England,
where its doctrines, regarded as dangerous for the
masses, were guarded for an esoteric few.

As the first great German representative of the move-
ment, Christian Thomasius must be mentioned, a
disciple of Pufendorf and of the French philosophers.
His influence on German thought was so great that it
has been called by a writer of his own century a second
Reformation. He insists, as Pufendorf had done, on a
complete separation of philosophy and theology. He
founds law and morals on the nature of man, not on
theology. The strong emphasis placed on practical
morality, which distinguishes the whole period of
Enlightenment, is not wanting in Thomasius's writings.
He does not take his stand against the Christian faith,
but against the narrow Orthodoxy of his time. Tolera-
tion and liberty of conscience find in him an energetic
and untiring advocate; he was one of the greatest

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 371

forces toward the abolishment of the persecution of
witches and heretics, as well as of torture and corporal
punishment of criminals. He has a special claim on the
national gratitude of the Germans for his championship
of the German language as the medium of instruction
in the universities. His colleagues in the University
of Leipzig were horrified when he "disgraced the honest
black bulletin board" by his announcement in German
of his lectures. But he stuck to his purpose. The
Leipzig faculty, however, was not progressive enough
to suffer a man of his advanced thought in their ranks.
He had to leave, but was gladly welcomed in Halle.
Thomasius also led in the effort, characteristic of
the German Enlightenment, to popularize the new
scientific achievements. He pubhshed a periodi-
cal, Monthly Chat (Monatsgesprdche), deahng with
the new studies. He expected progress from "the
liberty of all," in distinct contrast to his older contem-
porary, Leibnitz, who addressed himseK to the courts
and learned societies. In spite of his advocacy of
German, Thomasius was broad-minded enough to see
the superiority of the French language and literature of
the time. He recommended the study of French
in the hope of introducing a greater elegance and
perspicuity into German style, which lent itself with
difficulty to the treatment of philosophical and scien-
tific questions.

That the German language in the proper hands, if
not as elegant as French, might even then afford a means
of simple and easy expression of human thought was
shown by the greatest teacher of the Enlightenment,
Christian Wolf, who, a follower of Leibnitz, system-
atized and popularized the new science. His influ-
ence both in Germany and abroad was immense. His

372 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

books were translated into all civilized languages,
while he claimed that his Logics was read even by
peasants. He was one of the greatest intellectual
leaders of Europe and brought all the new knowledge,
all the tendencies of his time, into an encyclopaedic
system. Dry as is the reading he offers to the modern
man, his books were eagerly perused by the public of
his day ; he taught the public at large to think philo-
sophically and therefore did perhaps more to free the
higher intellectual life from the fetters of theological
dogmatism than any one else. There was not a great
German in the world of thought in the second half of
the eighteenth century who would not gratefully ac-
knowledge him as his teacher. He had the gift of
putting the new ideas into plain language, and, shallow
as he may appear to us, he prepared the way for deeper
thought. Reason, virtue, nature, the great ideals of the
Enlightenment, were brought forth more prominently
by him than ever before. Although he deduced the
whole universe from reason, he claimed that philosophy
must not attack the principal doctrines of the Church ;
he evaded such intricate questions as life after death,
and others ; in his works there was nothing unfathom-
able or mystical; everything was clear, simple, and
intelligible to the average public. But it is not aston-
ishing that a man who had the courage to teach that
people might lead an honest, upright, and happy life
without a faith in God met with the bitter hostihty both
of the Orthodox and the Pietists. The latter, who at
the time were of great influence at the Court of Berlin,
caused his dismissal from Halle by telling the king that
the philosopher's books taught the soldiers that theu-
military oath on the flag was not binding. This, of
course, was decisive with a monarch like Frederick

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 373

William I, the father of Frederick the Great. In
justice to the king it must be said that when, later on,
he recognized his error, he tried to make amends and
call Wolf back, but the latter declined.

Most plainly \'isible and beneficent was the influence
of Wolf on the German universities. The old scholastic
methods, still surviving, could not withstand the new
spirit and disappeared forever. Soon the opponents
of the philosopher saw that scholasticism did not
possess the inner strength to fight their enemy, and
even Catholic theologians studied Wolf's philosophy to
take from his own arsenals the weapons with which
to combat him. Though Wolf may appear to the
modern critic as the "genius of mediocrity," mankind
in general, and especially German culture, owes him a
debt of gratitude, as one of the prophets of the coming
German idealism, as the emancipator of the modern
university spirit. We may consider both Wolf and
Thomasius as foreruimers of modern democracy, show-
ing the equality of human nature and the validity of the
moral law both for the highest and the lowest on the
social scale. If we find the last representatives of the
period of Enlightenment conmaonplace and ridiculous,
'we must not forget that when fii'st brought forth by
: Thomasius, Wolf, and their contemporaries their
thoughts were radical and advanced, and it is an indi-
cation of the remarkably rapid progress and strong
influence of these thoughts on the people that in less
than two generations they had become trite.

The English influence was most evident in the moral
•side of the movement. This influence found its way
principally through three different avenues : indirectly
through French hterature, more immediately by the
way of Hamburg, where commercial relations fostered

374 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

a continuous touch with EngUsh life, and by way of
Hanover, which was under the rule of the English king.
The "Spectator" and "Tatler" found a great many
imitations in Germany ; they did not, however, come
up to their English models, and showed a much stronger
tendency towards Philistinism.

The position of women was somewhat improved by
the new philosophy; they were conceded to have "a
good natural understanding," and more attention was
given to their education. We have already seen that
the women had allowed themselves to be influenced by
French court customs considerably less than the men ;
now we find them taking a great interest in the reform
movement. The women of the middle class especially
welcomed the new periodicals whose aim it was to write
for everybody, in wholesome contrast to the lascivious
court novels of the French period. But while the
morality of family life improved greatly under the new
influences, reason gained too much weight where feeling
ought to have had the last word. There were no love
marriages ; there is no more prosaic business imagi-
nable than the engagement and marriage of a couple
of the German middle class in the Age of Enlighten-
ment. This, however, did not prevent an unwhole-
some or artificial exaggeration of the emotional side
which had its source in Pietism and was destined to
gain new strength by the influence of Jean Jacques
Rousseau.

All these tendencies were at work when, at the age of
twenty-eight years, Frederick II, who early in his reign
was surnamed ''the Great," became king of Prussia.
He was undoubtedly the most brilliant personality of
the Enlightenment, great enough to give his name to
the epoch which by no less a person than Immanuel

XXXIV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 375

Kant has been called the Age of Frederick the Great.
For Germany Frederick is much more than one of her
greatest men. He gave his nation a new life. He
made the Germans feel again as one people. For the
first time since the Thirty Years' War the Germans
saw one of their nation successfully resist the foreigners.
Within five years he was acknowledged as the greatest
monarch of Europe. He inspired literature, not only as
a great hero, but filled it with a national pride which
was heretofore unknown, and which alone made the
development of a truly national literature possible.
But it was not only his own nation that rejoiced at the
appearance of the hero ; all Europe hailed his victories
with joy and mourned his defeats. At last a leader
had appeared who did not bend his neck under the over-
bearing supremacy of French absolutism.
• From the beginning he showed his anxiety for the
welfare of his people, his genius made itself felt in all
fields of life, and his own energy seemed to find its way
into his officials and subjects, who under his predecessor
had already gone through a good school of patience,
persistence, discipline, and sense of duty.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
II

The King

We cannot speak about Frederick without first say-
ing a few words regarding his father, Frederick Will-
iam I. Of him we generall}^ hear nothing good ; he is
represented as a tyrant with almost insane ideas. But
this view of him, due chiefly to Macaulay's description,
which was dictated by antipathy, is not justified. He
was a true son of his times, a Philistine of the purest
water. If he tried to quench the genius of liis son, he
did so because he was unable to appreciate such a char-
acter ; he meant to be a good father, trying to do the
best for his family. He had the highest conception of
the responsibilities of his royal position, and honestly
thought that the ideas which his son advanced, the
qualities of character his son displayed, would lead to
his ruin and to that of his people ; to avoid this he was
even wilKng to have his own son executed to save his
people from the fate that would overtake them if such
a king ascended the throne. He was only too happy
when a change of mind became apparent in Frederick.
In his administrative measures he showed that he well
knew what was best for his state and was not wholly
adverse to modern ideas. He abohshed serfdom on
all the royal estates; he put an ofiicial end to the

376

CHAP. XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 377

feudal system in his kingdom ; and if he did not put a
stop to cabinet justice, he at least did not show any
favoritism, but had all his subjects treated alike, so
that we may say he established equality before the law.
He introduced a just system of taxation and avoided
the mistake made in other countries of farming out
the taxes ; he had them collected by public officials in-
stead ; and princes of the royal house were taxed like
the rest of his subjects. This certainty of uniform
justice for all, and the placing of taxation beyond the
reach of private greed, removed from Prussia two of
the greatest causes of dissatisfaction, which in France
led to the Revolution.

It was Frederick William I who established that mih-
tary character which distinguishes the Prussian army
and has made the German army what it is to-day ; he
taught the Prussian soldier that it is a distinction to
wear the uniform of the king, that it is his duty to
give his life for his country. He implanted in the army
and corps of officers that idea of honor which is founded
on self-respect and devotion to duty. This type of
Prussian officer with these qualities, due to Frederick
William I and fostered and broadened by his son, has
been masterfully drawn by Lessing in the character of
Major von Tellheim, in ''Minna von Barnhelm."
In the year 1722 the king donned the uniform of his
army and wore no other apparel thereafter, — a thing
no monarch had ever done before him. Thus he set
an example for his subjects of respect for the army and
its members, and so strengthened their self-respect, —
a master stroke of psychological common sense. The
spirit of honor and duty which had been cultivated in
the military officer has not remained confined to the
army, but has become the spirit which dominates all

378 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

public servants, not in Prussia only, but all over Ger-
many. This could never have been accomplished,
however, if the monarchs themselves had not given
examples of these qualities. The Prussians have be-
come accustomed to see their kings share their hard-
ships in peace and war. No laborer was ever bound
more firmly to his daily task than Frederick WilHam
to the arduous duties of his high office.

This tradition, however, had come dowTi to Frederick
the Great, who called himself the first servant of his
people, not from his father only, but from the Great
Prince Elector of Brandenburg, who laid the first foun-
dation of the greatness of Prussia. These rulers used
their absolute power to do the best they could for their
subjects and to force them in the right path, sometimes
in a way that would not appeal very strongly to our
modern sympathies. Frederick William I led a most
economical life ; indeed, he had only one passion, that
of obtaining enormously tall men for his guards. At
one time he sent two hundred skilled craftsmen, cut-
lers, from Solingen to Peter the Great to get in return
about half that number of tall Russians for his crack
regiment. He even went so far as to begin wars on
smaller states to get such men. But this was the only
extravagance he indulged in. He saved nine million
thalers, which his son found in the treasury when he was
preparing to execute his far-reaching plans.

Thus in his plain, common-sense way the father had
the field well tilled for his genial son. The latter had
learned to appreciate his sterling qualities, to which
he added the broad view of a philosopher and the
brilliancy of a genius ; he brought with him likewise
the analytic, systematizing spirit of his rationalistic
training. His whole reign was a training in discipline,

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 379

not only for the officers and the army, but also for the
civil officials and all his subjects ; and the strictest
discipline of all he applied to himself. It has thus
been ingrained into the Prussian character. Frederick's
extraordinary success caused his example to be imi-
tated by other monarchs and finally helped to abohsh,
at least in western Europe, that type of prince who
sees in his exalted position only a means to satisfy his
whims and passions. With the growth of Prussian
influence this quality imparted itself to the other mem-
bers of the German nationality. Organization and
discipline belong together. In the Germans they are
acquired habits. It was the lack of organization
and discipline that caused the ruin of the old Empire ;
these very qualities have built up and form the strength
of the new. The Germans have been taught by their
very misfortune the necessity of discipline, which does
not mean the cringing obedience of the slave, but the
intelligent sacrifice by a free man of some of his privi-
leges to fit himself into his place in the greater organi-
zation for the purpose of accomplishing greater ends.
Disciphne is therefore the keynote of German educa-
tion ; in fact it is discipline which changes the school
from an opportunity for instruction into an instrument
of education. For this discipline in the service of
organized society is based on self-discipline.

When Frederick was called to the throne, he was
completely under the influence of Wolf. While his
predecessor considered himself the father of his sub-
jects, who had to provide for their welfare as a part of
his Christian duty, Frederick approached the duties
of his office as a philosopher. He has said himself :
"It is the place of philosophers to be the teachers of
the world, and the guides of princes. They must

380 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

think logically and it behooves us to act logically."
It is interesting to compare with this what Emperor
Joseph II, his admirer and less successful imitator,
said of himself : "Since I have come to the throne and
wear the foremost diadem of the world, I have made
philosophy the lawgiver of my Empire."

From the beginning of his reign Frederick's actions
measured up to his convictions. On the third day after
his accession he abolished torture in Prussia. Before
the first year was over he had restored Christian Wolf
to his chair in Halle. In the letter which recalled the
philosopher the king said : "A man vrho loves and seeks
the truth must be held in high esteem in all human
society," a beautiful sentiment which loses all sus-
picion of triviality when it is accompanied by appro-
priate action. Still the king could not long be satis-
fied in following a man like Wolf, who was more of an
interpreter than an original thinker. Soon we find
him as a student of Locke and Newton, Bayle and
Voltaire. The latter especially was for him the prin-
cipal prophet of the English views. It is not within
the scope of this narrative to dwell on the personal re-
lations of the king and the great Frenchman ; but
Voltaire's name demands special mention, since his
liberal views and progressive spirit exercised the
greatest influence, not onl}^ on the king, but on German
culture in general. The king himself was accessible
to all influences of the new Rationalism to such a de-
gree that he even embraced Freemasonry, which,
having originated with English Deism, had found its
way to Hamburg in 1733. In this secret order all the
reformatory ideas of the period were focussed ; educa-
tion, popular culture, toleration, and philanthropy
were its avowed ideal. The order has enjoyed the

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 381

sympathy, if not the actual membership, of the Prus-
sian kings ever since.

In harmony with all these tendencies was the greatest
act of Frederick's reign : the estabhshment in his states
of Liberty of Thought. It had been proclaimed again
and again by the great thinkers, but more as a philo-
sophical theorem than as a practical measure. Here,
at last, was the philosopher who had the pohtical power
to make it a reality. It is not toleration, not a mere
"suffering" of different creeds, as on the part of Joseph
II of Austria later, but a recognition, as his now classi-
cal phrasing runs, that it was the right of every man
to seek eternal happiness after his own fashion (Jeder
kann nach seiner Fagon selig werden). He was the
first, as Immanuel Kant expresses it, to allow every-
body liberty to use his own reason in questions of con-
science. It is a curious fact about rehgious liberty that
very often those who clamor for it most, as long as
they feel oppressed, are the first to call for coercive
measures against those of different opinion as soon as
they are in power themselves. But under Frederick
the Great it was different. In Prussia everybody
might worship according to his own beUef or not wor-
ship at all; he did not object to Mohammedans or
atheists. He certainly cannot have been in sympathy
with the Jesuits ; but when the Jesuit order had been
proscribed in all other European countries, and even
the Pope had dissolved it in 1773, Frederick opened
his states to them and gave them the right to teach
in the schools. Although the attitude of the Prussian
government changed soon after the death of Frederick,
this wonderful lesson has not been lost on the greater
part of German society. The educated and intel-
lectual element, supported by a considerable percentage

382 HISTORY OF GERAIAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of the people, maintain a continuous struggle for free-
dom of thought and for the principle that everybody
has a right "to use his own reason in questions of con-
science," which is so firmly established in the German
mind that no reactionary efforts ever will uproot it,
unless that sacred fort of hberty, the German univer-
sity, should be surrendered to obscurantism. Of all
countries only modern France seems to enjoy legal and
social conditions which guarantee liberty of conscience.
Of more lasting influence and of equal importance
in its own field was the advance Frederick made in the
political constitution of the state. It is common to
characterize the system of the great king as "en-
lightened despotism," but this certainly was not the
conception of the king himself. If despotism means
that there is no law but the will of the monarch, as it
is expressed in the famous L'etat c'est moi, then there
is no difference between a common and an enlightened
despot, but the rather casual fact that the latter finds
pleasure in promoting the welfare of his subjects, fre-
quently for very selfish reasons. Certainly a prince
who calls himself the servant of his people and, what
is much more decisive, acts accordingly throughout
his fife cannot be called a despot. But Frederick went
an important step farther : he instituted, in place of
the absolute will of the king, the reign of law; he es-
tabhshed in Prussia what the Germans call the "Rechts-
staat," the state based on law. Rationalism had not
found it inconsistent with its general principles to jus-
tify absolutism in terms of the absolute power of the
state, whose given representative is the monarch.
Frederick was not deceived by this opinion. He recog-
nized that the state exists for the sake of its citizens.
''One must be insane," he says, "to imagine that men

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 383

should have said to one of their equals, ' We will raise
you so that we may be your slaves ; we will give you
the power to guide our thought according to yours.'
They rather said : ' We need you in order that you
execute our laws, that you show us the way and defend
us. But we understand that you will respect our lib-
erties.' "

Here, then, we have the remarkable phenomenon in
the time of absolutism of a monarch to whom occu-
pation with philosophy and the sciences, instead of
being merely an elegant, intellectual pastime, was a
search for guiding principles of conduct ; who volun-
tarily pressed on to the practical consequences of his
philosophy, and acknowledged the inahenable rights
of his subjects before they had asked for them, even
before they were aware of them. He despised the
unUmited power of the absolute ruler, which at his time
was worshipfully acknowledged all over the continent,
and placed himself under the law of the land like the
humblest of his subjects. No wonder that this man,
who during every day of his long life gave proof of his
indefatigable faithfulness to duty, that is, to the wel-
fare of his people, became the idol of his time, and in
spite of many peculiarities of character and apparent
inconsistencies, implanted his memory so deeply in the
hearts of his own people that four generations after his
death he still is lovingly called ''Old Fritz" {der alte
Fritz), more like an intimate friend than one of the
:3trictest, most exacting rulers that ever lived. It
[gives one a wonderful insight into the psychology of
:he masses — at least in Germany — to see how
Adllingly they forgive their rulers hardship and severity
'vhen they see that they are as exacting toward them-
lelves and willing to carry their share, and more, of

384 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the common burden. It is well to remember this
before one wonders why an intelligent, liberty-loving
people like the Germans are still monarchists; and if
we do not forget that the example of the king, as a rule,
is followed by all the public officials, high and subordi- .
nate, as well as by private employees, we can under- 1
stand somewhat more easily why bm-eaucracy andj
military superiors can take liberties with their subor-
dinates, which, although often merely vexations, some-
times transgress the limits of human dignity.

''The Rechtsstaat,'' the state under the law, easily
finds a parallel in the constitutional state ; the innate
right of the monarch conceded, it protects the indi-
vidual in all his relations to society. The inalienable
rights, the liberty of the individual, are legally guaran-
teed, even against the power of state and the bearer
of sovereignty ; in the light of historical experience
this sovereignty of the abstract state seems to afford
to the individual in the minority more protection than
the sovereignty of the people under the representa-
tive form of government, which only too often de-
generates into a despotism of the majority.

The codification of the laws was undertaken with
great care by competent jurists, but the ''Codex Frie-
dericianus " was published only after the king's death.
The preamble of this code expresses the spirit of its
originator as follows: "The welfare of the state and
its inhabitants is the object of society and the Umit of
legislation ; laws must limit the liberty and the rights
of the citizens only in the interests of general welfare."
With these principles, which had been applied to a
certain degree already by Frederick's father, firmly
settled, the French Revolution found only a slight
echo in the greater part of Germany. It was entirely

V THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 385

consistent with his own legislation that, apart from
the French aUiance, Frederick the Great was the first
monarch to acknowledge the new republic of the
United States of America, and that Prussia was the
first power to conclude a treaty wdth the young nation.
It is likewise not astonishing that less brilliant suc-
cessors of Frederick could not see how a constitution
would add to the legal protection of their subjects.

However, it was not equality of man, as vre see it,
which Frederick guaranteed. It is true the king as
well as the peasant, the nobleman as well as the com-
moner, had to obey the law, and were equally pro-
tected by the law. But the law, in spite of the many
new rights it conceded to all citizens of the state, still
acknowledged the caste-hke separation of the classes.
The nobility retained its pri\41eged position. It was
considered a law of nature that the noblemen should
assist the monarch in the administration of the state
and as leaders of the army; the peasant should culti-
vate the field and provide food ; the commoner should
pro\'ide money through industry and commerce. The
last was a very important function since Frederick,
like most contemporary princes, beheved in the "Mer-
cantile System" of economics, inaugurated by Colbert,
which found a guarantee for national welfare in a well-
filled treasury-, in heaping up as much gold and silver
as possible, and in keeping the money in the country.
His beUef in this natural tripartite division of his sub-
jects explains a great many of the king's actions, ap-
parently inconsistent with his principle of liberty and
justice. Other cases may be due to his desire to follow
his better insight. In his foreign politics his ambition
and longing for glory had at least as much influence
as the welfare of his state. These considerations will

386 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

help to judge his character, a task not within the scope
of this work. For us his inabiUty to rise above these
survivals of a past time has a much more unfortunate
significance. Since the Prussian state to-day, in spite
of all modern changes, is still under the influence for
good and for bad of the powerful personality and
traditions of Frederick the Great, the nobility still
holds a privileged position, both in the army and cer-
tain branches of the civil service, although the law
abohshed all class distinctions long ago. The belief
that noblemen were not born to earn their own living,
but for the knightly craft of handhng arms, has lowered
the dignity of productive work for a long time to come ;
their preference for all leading positions in the army
has made it possible, not only socially but also econo-
mically, to maintain their exclusiveness and has helped
to keep the educated classes in general, who were the
next to share the official positions, away from the rest
of the people. The military officer, however, still
holds the highest social rank (ist der erste Stand) ;
and the youngest lieutenant, with more pretentions
than education and brain, still has precedence over a
famous professor who has performed everlasting ser-
vices to mankind. Frederick himself and his succes-
sors were prevented for some time by this exalted posi-
tion of the nobihty from discontinuing, as they would
have liked to do, the institution of serfdom on the
estates of the nobles, since the liberation of the serfs
would have deprived their masters of the greater part
of their income, which class prejudice would not allow
them to supply by honest work. On the royal es-
tates all serfs had already been liberated by Frederick's
father. Of course, their condition was greatly improved
everywhere, since they were otherwise not debarred

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 387

from the protection of the law, "VMien some Silesian
peasants who wanted to hand the king a petition tried
to kneel down before him, he forbade it as unworthy
of a human being. When, on the other hand, after
some reverses in war patriotic peasants in one of his
provinces formed a volunteer corps, observing that
from a similar bodj^ on the enemy's side the king had
suffered great damage, thej^ were severely reprimanded
and sent home in disgrace, since "they were born for
the plow and not for the sword."

Advanced as Frederick was in some respects, he
still wore some of the fetters of tradition; even his
religious broadness, so justly praised, had apparently
one exception : it did not extend to the Jews. His
objections to their increase, however, were not religious
but economic. In the latter part of the Aliddle Ages,
when the commerce of the cities began to flourish and
the Christian merchants began to feel the business com-
petition of the Jews, the latter had been entirely ex-
pelled from a great many German cities. The cruel
persecutions of the Jews became gradually less frequent ;
one of the last took place in 1614. The Great Elector
had admitted them to his dominions. About 1700 the
condition of the Jews had greatly improved. We find
them in great favor with the princes, with many of
whom the financial Jew (der Geldjude) becomes a
standing institution. The first king of Prussia gave
the Jewish rabbis the privilege of wearing a sword.
However, they were far from free ; they still had to
pay their body tax (Leibzoll) for special protection.
Frederick the Great did not suppress them, but, as has
been said, did not want them to increase in number.
The most illustrious Jew under his reign was Moses
Mendelssohn, well known as one of the popular philos-

388 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ophers of the period of Enlightenment. He was the
clerk of a merchant, and according to the state of things
could not be a citizen in his own right, but was in a
certain sense in bondage to his master. When he tried
to get his freedom, the king refused. Then it was that
the French philosopher, D'Alembert, President of the
Roj^al Academy of Berhn, and a personal friend of
Frederick, wrote that remarkable note which served
its purpose: ''A philosopher who is a bad Catholic
writes to a philosopher who is a bad Protestant, on
behalf of a philosopher who is a bad Jew." D'Alem-
bert surely was a bad Catholic, and Frederick not a
very good Protestant, but in one respect the clever
note was mistaken : ^Mendelssohn was not a bad Jew.
He remained faithful to his creed. WTiile the detail
of his work belongs to the history of literature, one
thing Mendelssohn accomplished of great importance in
the progress of German culture, he taught the Jews
in Germany to become Germans. Up to that time
German had been almost a foreign language to them.
He taught them that they should take part in the life
of the nation. His book, ''Jerusalem," in which he
tried to introduce his people to European culture, was
published in 1782. Already, two years before that
time, the first book leading to the final emancipation
of the Jews had been brought out. This book, which
marks an epoch in the history of human progress, bore
the title, "On the Civil Improvement of the Jews"
{Ueher die burgerliche V erhesserung der Juden). It was
written by Dohm, who had made extensive investiga-
tions at the instance of certain German princes.

Political events, especially wars, find little attention
in this book unless they have a direct bearing on na-
tional development, of which the increase or decrease

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 389

of territory in itself does not form necessarily an im-
portant part. But the Seven Years' War, though its
victories and defeats, marches and countermarches,
conquests and losses, martial glory, bloodshed, and
devastations do not vary materially from the experi-
ences of other wars, was important, not only in its effect
on the Germans and their contemporaries, but also
because it showed what a well-disciplined army can
do under good leadership. Prussia, which in popula-
tion held the thirteenth place in Europe, not only held
its own without an ally against all the great powers of
Europe, but came out conqueror. This lesson has not
been forgotten by the Germans of to-day, who, much
more favorably situated than Frederick was, and hav-
ing his example before them, trust in their strength
to work out their own destiny, not scorning alliances
with their rivals, but feeling confident that their own
unity cannot be rent asunder by any outward foe.

Another political event which is the source of one
of the greatest problems of modern German}^, espe-
cially Prussia, is the Partition of Poland. It is not our
place to examine the justice of the act. Frederick had
his choice : either to see the whole of Poland fall into
the hands of Russia, thus increasing her power, with-
out any equivalent to offset it, and more than that, to
give up forever all hope of uniting its separated eastern
and western provinces ; to place Prussia completely
at the mercy of a powerful neighbor wedged in be-
:tween his possessions ; or, on the other hand, to partake
,in the injustice he could not prevent, by appropriating
a share of the booty. The conditions in Poland cer-
tainly invited interference ; persecutions of Germans
'and Protestants had been of frequent occurrence ; many
cities founded by the German colonists had decayed

390 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

under the Polish rule, and the fields lay waste. Before
the final conclusion of the first treaty Frederick had
commissioned one hundred and eighty-seven teachers
in his new possessions, and had begun to construct a
canal which created a waterway from the Vistula to
the Oder through one of the latter's tributaries, the
Netze. There is no doubt that Prussian Poland has
derived great economical and cultural advantages from
her connection with the state of Frederick the Great.
Still, the Poles have resisted all efforts at amalgamation,
and to-day their sense of nationality seems to be stronger
than ever; their increase in number and prosperity'
makes their presence in the German body pohtic a
serious menace to healthy development.

During the long j^ears of peace Frederick could de-
vote all his energies to heahng the wounds of war, and
to executing his plans for the welfare and elevation of
his subjects. He perfected the organization of the
army and of the civil service, paying attention to the
smallest details ; the whole administration worked Hke
a perfectly constructed machine of which his master
spirit was the motive power. The king himself be-
came more and more lonesome. His occupation with
science and art formed his only recreation and made
him forget the disappointments of his heart ; for he was
not exempt from the emotional current which pervaded
his time, in spite of all restraint of reason, Lessing also
being subject to it. He still found liis aesthetic sense
satisfied with French classicism and had no eye for
the rising culture of his own nation. Nevertheless
he knew his own people well enough to feel assured
that they would in time surpass others in the ideal
pursuits of man, although he was not conscious that he
himself had helped to start the wonderful flight of

XXXV THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 391

German Idealism. While he seemed to have no per-
sonal friend and his high officials felt uncomfortable
in his presence, his people idohzed him. Day after
day when he returned from his round of duties he was
received on the streets of Berhn with the ovations
granted to a triumphant hero. But he who had ears
to listen would discover in the joyful shouting an un-
dertone of pity for his lonehness and of regret that
he would not open his heart to receive their admiring
affections.

The great king had no successor worthy of him.
The irony of fate placed on the throne after the greatest
of the Hohenzollerns the weakest and meanest. Dur-
ing the later years of Frederick's reign Berlin had al-
ready acquired an unenviable reputation for immorality.
The new king, Frederick Wilham II, certainly fitted
in such surroundings. As to the wonderful organiza-
tion of the administrative body, it continued to function
mechanically, but where the genius of the great king
once had been the ruhng spirit, now schematism and
bureaucratism gained control.

Absolute hberty of thought came to an end with
the life of Frederick. The new king, like many liber-
tines, opened his ear to bigoted councillors. But the
spirit of pubHc opinion had gained sufficient strength
by that time to make the new minister, Wollner, with-
draw the intolerant Religionsedikt after trying in vain
to enforce it.

Bureaucratism and schematism, the natural com-
plements of the virtues of Frederick's statecraft, have,
together with all the great creations of the unforgotten
king, come down to our days only too eager to assume
control when the genial spirit is lacking, as Prussia
has experienced to her sorrow more than once ; while

392 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xxxv

the glory of his victorious army hides in its inheritance
another sinister complement in the shape of militarism,
— all three useful servants when properly subdued,
but enemies of progress, liberty, and highest culture
whenever they gain supremacy.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
III

Strengthening of National Feeling. Improvements.
Imitators

The personality of Frederick the Great must have
contributed not a httle to make RationaHsm the popu-
lar philosophy with the progressive part of the nation ;
, and probably because, as I have pointed out, this Ger-
man Enlightenment was distinguished from the same
movement in England and France by its greater reli-
giosity, it spread more than in the other countries among
" the people in general. The natural result was a gen-
eral rise in the intellectual activities through the fre-
quent discussion of the problems involved, so that
Rationalism must be considered an important factor,
in a certain sense, in raising popular education.

We have seen that with the rise of Frederick the
Great the Germans began once more to feel themselves
a nation; the first germs appear of that longing for
unity, that craving which has been at the bottom of all
:great political movements in Germany from this time
fto 1870 ; and Frederick strengthened his small state of
[Prussia so that it was able, or rather he laid the founda-
tion on which it was to become able later on, to be the
instrument of bringing about this unity. This does not
Qiean, however, that Frederick himself had any further

393

394 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

thought than his own glory and the welfare of his own
state. ^ It is during his reign, then, that we first find the
beginning of poHtical interest in the German people
and that the first political writings appear in Germany
written by German scholars. I mention only Justus
Moeser and Schloezer, whose books may still be read
with interest.

The political ideal, the object of the state as it
appeared to the German Rationalists, was the assurance
of the greatest possible measure of happiness to every
individual, protection against foreign enemies, quiet
in the interior. Liberty meant for them freedom of
property, freedom to choose one's own avocation and
means of livelihood. The state whose power was as
absolute as that of any despot might even use compul-
sion to make its subject accept its own, i.e., the govern-
ment's, conception of happiness. As the existing condi-
tions were thought to be the result of reason and there
was a total lack of historical sense, nobody thought of
making a radical change. The idea of a representa-
tive government was not dreamed of, the less so as the
ruling dynasties with few exceptions were willing to do
their duty and the Rechtsstaat was gradually replac-
ing absolutism.

On the whole, the ideal of the German middle class
was a quiet fife, so beautifully pictured in Goethe's
"Hermann und Dorothea." But one thing is clear,
everywhere the stagnation brought about by the
Thirty Years' War, which lasted nearly one hundred
years, had passed. Streets were improved and canals
built. Out of the shop of the craftsmen industry was
slowly developing. At first we see the development of
the home industries, where many families are employed
by one contractor. A famous example of this class is

XXXVI THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 395

the great textile factory in Kalwe, which employed over
six thousand people, not in one establishment, but in
their own homes. There was progress on all sides, and
great inventions and discoveries were made. Perhaps
the greatest of them was the discovery by Markgraf
that beets contained sugar which could be crystallized,
although it was fifty years before the discovery bore
practical results and the erection of the first beet sugar
factory in Berlin started a new and important industry.
In 1743 the first fire department in Germany was estab-
lished in the city of Barmen. The first industrial
school was opened in Braunschweig in 1745. Twenty
years later the first commercial school was established
in Hamburg.

German science prepared to take the position it holds
to-da}', still following the lead of France and England.
The field of chemistry was greatly enlarged. In medi-
cine we hear of the first electric treatment of a paralytic
stroke by Kratzenstein. The treatment of the insane
was more humane. Zimmermann was the first to
remove the secrecy and mystery surrounding the
medical profession which had been such an encourage-
ment to quacks. Albrecht von Haller laid the founda-
tions of experimental physiology. The establishment
of geology by Werner has already been mentioned in
another connection. To continue this enumeration
would take too much space. The rise of German
science already began to find recognition abroad, for
science is international. The English Parliament made
a donation to the heirs of Tobias Meyer, who had
discovered that the stars moved and published the first
correct tables of the movements of the moon. The
natural sciences began to take a systematic interest
in technological questions. Scientific periodicals were

396 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

published, and found support in the educated middle
classes, so that before the end of the century they
numbered not less than twenty.

The example of Frederick the Great influenced all
other monarchs of Europe. They all commenced to
take their duties more seriously and tried to imitate the
great king with more or less success. The best known
of his imitators and admirers was Joseph II, the son of
Maria Theresa, Frederick's greatest enemy. Several
reasons combined to prevent his efforts to introduce
Frederician reforms into his Austrian crown-lands.
While with Frederick the liberty of thought was merely
a matter of conviction, a question of justice, Joseph II
was not quite unselfish in giving out his "Toleration
Edict" {Tolerationspatent) ; he had poUtical ends in
view.

The great aim of his reign was the Germanization of
the twelve different nationalities united under the
Austrian crown ; he foresaw conditions as we observe
them to-day, when at times there seems to be danger
of a dissolution of the Habsburg Empire. But he was
not a man of sufficient energy and persistency to accom-
plish such a difficult task. Difficulties discouraged
him. Thus he tried to break the power of the Roman
Church in his territories. He closed about seven thou-
sand monasteries and convents, and gave liberty to
thirty thousand monks and nuns; but twenty-seven
thousand remained in thirteen hundred convents.
Thus, while he had offended the faithful Cathohcs, and
especially the clergy, he did not push matters to such a
point as to derive the advantages he wanted to secure
by this policy. He stopped halfway; so it was with
almost everything.

The tendencies of the times as they found expression

XXXVI THE AGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 397

in Pietism and Rationalism made themselves very
distinctly felt, not only in the Protestant, but also in the
CathoUc Church. The Pope's position had already
greatly lost in importance under the influence of French
politics; it was the consequence of Rationahsm that
the Jesuits, the strongest support of the papal power,
were expelled from every country except Prussia, and
that their order was dissolved by the Pope himself.
A new impetus was given to endeavors to reunite the
Protestant and Catholic churches, a favorite idea of
Leibnitz. The increased longing for liberty of thought
matured another attempt to give a national character
to the German Catholic Church. Indeed, that was all
Luther had aimed at in the beginning of his career.
The German archbishops were encouraged in this
movement by the policy of Joseph II and came at last
to an agreement, the so-called "Emser Punktation"
in 1786. The principal points {Punkte) settled in this
instrument were the following :

The Pope was still to remain the highest supervisor
of the Catholic Church, but his prerogatives, based on
the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, were to be abolished :
there should be no appeal to Rome over the head of the
bishops ; the religious orders were not to accept any
rulings from foreign superiors ; a national council was
to regulate the affairs of the German Church. But
the dissent of the bishops and the wavering policy of
Joseph II again caused these efforts to come to naught.

CHAPTER XXXVII

GERMAN IDEALISM
I

Reaction against Rationalism. Gellert. Klopstock.
Storm and Stress. Lessing. Winckelmann. Herder

No matter how brilliantly the success of Rationalism
at the time of Frederick the Great shone forth, it
could not prevent a feeling of dissatisfaction. People
could not forget that reason was not all, that there was
a heart. We know how the culture of the heart had
been fostered by Pietism; how the reaction against
Rationalism brought renewed vigor to sentimentalism,
which grew to such proportions as to take almost the
character of an epidemic, at least to modern eyes.
Tears were shed freely by everybody, for everything,
on every occasion. If people took leave of each other
for a couple of hours, they wept ; if they met again,
they wept ; if they saw a beautiful sunset, they wept ;
when a young man saw his sweetheart, he wept, and,
of course, she wept too ; in short, certain parts of the
social world were swimming in tears, and this flood
lasted into the second and third decades of the last
century. In literature the books that brought tears
to the eyes of the readers were those most in demand.
The exchange of sentimental letters flourished more
than ever — in reading letters of that period one can-
not avoid a suspicion of insincerity ; in spite of all

398

CHAP. XXXVII GERMAN IDEALISM 399

emotional affectation the simplest private letter often
looks as if written for publication.

On the other hand, a greater approach to nature
continued to be noticeable, along with an increase of
English influence both on the mode of life and on literary
taste. The number of German periodicals composed
after English models amounted to about two hundred
and fifty in the middle of the eighteenth century. The
books of Young and Richardson were very popular.
"The Vicar of Wakefield" was widely read, and the
writings of Lawrence Sterne were in great demand.

For the development of German thought the most
important books were, perhaps, as we shall see later,
Percy's "Relics of Ancient English Poetry," and
Macpherson's "Ossian," at that time believed to be
wholly genuine.

The change to the English fashion in dress and the
subdued colors favored by Pietism seem to have been
the last great change in men's apparel. WTiile formerly
all great movements found their external expression in
the fashion of dressing, it seems now that the whims of
tailors and social leaders or the needs of manufacturers
are the only arbiters in question of fashion in dress.

The reaction against the absolute and undivided rule
of reason did not, of course, make an end of Rational-
ism all at once. It produced a combination of ration-
alistic and sentimentalistic elements which has been
characterized as "reasonable piety," connecting senti-
nentality and a sympathetic heart with a practical
way of thinking, having profit and happiness for its
3nds, advocating education without dogmatic influ-
mces. It is a type we have seen most perfectly repre-
;ented in America by Benjamin Franklin. In Germany
he great example of this new life was given by Gellert,

400 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

a man of the most amiable qualities. His writings, with
the exception of a few fables and other selections in
school readers, are not read to-day. To us he certainly
does not appear inspiring, yet he was the ideal of his
countrymen during his hfetime. They preferred him
to the cold, intellectual greatness that has nothing to
offer to the heart.

Although Gellert does not hold a very high place in
literary history, he is, on account of his personal
popularity, of the greatest importance in the develop-
ment of the German people. He represents more than
a certain tendency in Uterature, he stands for a phi-
losophy, a theory of hfe which, shallow as it was in its
utilitarian optimism, still meant a step forward towards
German Idealism. His piety was not that of the ortho-
dox, but he felt God in his own heart and saw Him in
the surrounding life of man and nature. This concep-
tion of religion as an inner experience was welcomed
by a generation that had turned away from the dogma-
tism of the churches, but did not find its religious crav-
ings satisfied by a philosophy which created everything
out of reason. Gellert was sought by high and low;
he was the only German writer whose merits were
recognized by Frederick the Great. His extensive
correspondence with representatives of all classes, with
old and young, with men and women, give an idea of
how far his serene, virtuous theory of life had pene-
trated the whole nation, and it shows at the same time
how deep-rooted and general was the desire for educa-
tion and improvement.

Gellert was, in his way, as much adored as Frederick
of Prussia. The saying was that 'Ho believe in Gellert,
religion, and virtue, is one and the same thing for our:
public." Although this plain, unpretentious commoner

XXXVII GERMAN IDEALISM 401

commanded a remarkably respectful hearing on the
part of the exclusive classes of nobility, and the aged
were also eager to learn from his words, still his greatest
admirers were found among the poor and the young.
He was idolized especially by the women, in whose
natural, original, incorrupted emotions he saw the
strongest support for improvements.

If these movements were really popular, not in the
sense of a passing fashion, but of actually taking hold of
the national soul, they had of necessity to manifest their
force likewise in art, which in Germany took that partic-
ular form which seems most adapted to express the
innermost feeling of the soul, that is, music. Thus while
Gluck and Haydn were putting an end to Italian influ-
ences, and by their noble simplicity were preparing for
1 the great classics, we find a new German Lied, akin
to the Volkslied, sung within the house, in the family
circle, to the accompaniment of the spinet or the piano.
Love and friendship are its favorite objects. But the
sentimental trend of the times found here immediate
land untrammelled expression. ''Adagios, soft as
butter," says a German writer, "make the soul melt
in emotion."

There was another kind of protest against the suprem-
acy of reason which is found in Germany not less than
in the more advanced countries. It is that love for
and belief in everything mysterious to which Free-
masonry owes a part of its success, and which makes
the period of flourishing Rationalism, in curious contra-
diction, the harvest time of the representatives of all
kinds of occult knowledge and of those great interna-
tional swindlers of whom Count Cagliostro is the most
famous type.

With Gellert began that new conception which

402 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

teaches the individual that it does not exist alone, that
it needs response from other souls for its own healthy
growth, when the personality feels the desire to express,
to manifest itself in subjective action on other things or
persons. It is from this period that the line of great
German thinkers and authors took its start.

In this series we first meet Klopstock, who is in close
touch with all the different currents of his time, as
already described ; he helps to lay the foundations of
the modern theory of life, at the basis of which is a new
viewpoint, or rather sentiment, which has been called
the ''German Religion." For it may be said, with the
proper limitations governing all general statements,
that all German thinkers, or even all educated Germans,
no matter what their religious adherence, whether they
are Catholics, Protestants, or Jews, or even Free-thinkers
or Atheists, have something common in their point of
view, something which has grown out of the current
just setting in, which in Germany is comprised under the
name of "German Idealism." Klopstock is the first
greater writer who again feels his nationality, the first
to express real patriotism in German poems. His
poems show his religious culture, his heart, his love of
nature. He is the first in modern literature to show
historical sense, a sense for the fact that things have
grown, that present conditions are the outcome of former
development.

He was followed by Wieland, who gave the German
language to some extent that ease of motion and ele-
gance which seem to be a monopoly of the French
writers. He introduces his countrymen to the greatness
of Shakespeare.

At last appears Lessing, the emancipator of art from
the rule of French Classicism. He shows that the

XXXVII GERMAN IDEALISM 403

French have misunderstood the Greeks, whom they
claim to follow, and tries to learn from the Greeks them-
selves instead of their imitators. But he does not
simpl}^ give up the dependence on the French to exchange
it for a dependence on the Greeks ; he does not follow
Aristotle to the letter, but he studies his theories with
a critical mind. He points out the limits of the differ-
ent arts, and destroys that prejudice of the rationalistic
theory that it is possible for anybody to learn how to
make a poem, a picture, or a statue, by following closely
the rules laid down in books, that these arts are simply
the result of a rational technology', the same as the work
of any craftsman. In short, he opens the eyes of his
countrymen to a new conception of art, shows them
true art. It was the same idea which had revealed
itself to his contemporary, Winckelmann, in his study
of the original works of Greek sculpture. Not less
important is Lessing's leadership in other fields. He
discovers and follows up the idea of a critical study of
the development of history. He proclaimed the theory
of true toleration, as Frederick had established it in his
state. His "Nathan the Wise" is one of the great
educational works of the world. In much more con-
scious and definite manner than Luther he places
morality on man's own judgment ; he teaches that our
heart must tell us whether we do right or not. He
draws, indeed, the ultimate conclusions of Rationahsm,
but in doing so, grows beyond it. For him, language,
reUgion, morality, and state are inventions, not of
reason, but of creative genius. With Lessing and his
new \iews we have the beginning of the movement
against the theological theory of life, which claims that
every being and every one is made for a certain rational
purpose outside of itself or himself. By all these dif-

404 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

ferent ideas Lessing foreshadows the greatest Germans,
the greatest represeDtatives of German Idealism, and
Scherer, in his "History of German Literature," calls
him ''the first truly free man, artist, and thinker in Ger-
many, full of spontaneous breadth and patriotic warmth,
republican fearlessness and monarchical discipline."

Of those who developed Lessing's idea Herder must
be mentioned in first place. Lessing and Winckelmann
have taught that art was not the product of technical
regulations, but the spontaneous expressions of inner-
most feelings. This common foundation of all art is em-
phasized by Herder. He develops already the idea of
the universal art we are used to connect with the name
of Richard Wagner, who wanted to give us in the work
of art of the future a union of all the different arts in
one production. Herder, under the influence of Percy,
calls attention to the popular songs, the Volkslieder.
In his work Stimmen der Voelker (Voices of the
Nations) he called them the outflow of the Volks-
seele, a word coined by him, meaning ''national
soul." He dwells on the unity of the universe, on the
conception that nature is one unit of which man forms
only a part, ideas coming down from Spinoza and
Lessing ; but the idea which stands forth most promi-
nently in his theory of life is this, that the individual
man is one with all humanity. Here is the source of
his conception of history which was to lead to the idea
of evolution. Much more than Lessing, or, before him,
the Italian Vico, he succeeds in establishing the idea
that history is an organic development ; and Immanuel
Kant, the great German philosopher, makes the same
idea the foundation of his theory of the universe.
This idea of organic growth is one of the most fruitful
ideas of modern times; it has been called "the" Ger-

XXXVII GERMAN IDEALISM 405

man idea. The end of all historical development is the
creation and manifestation of the complete man, the
ideal towards which we all must strive, pure humanity,
reine Menschlichkeit.

The influence of Herder, not only in Germany, but
also in Europe, was great and lasting. His disciples
were not only the great scientists in Germany, as her
great philologists led by F. A. Wolf, her great historians
as Niebuhr and Eichhorn, the two Humboldts, the two
Grimms, and numerous others ; but in England Burke,
who in his turn influenced a later generation of Germans,
Carlisle, Darwin, Coleridge, and others may be counted
famong his followers, while in France men like Benjamin
Constant, Thierry, Guizot, De Tocqueville, Renan,
and Taine belong to his school. His influence reaches
down directly to our own days.

In the meantime the heart claimed its rights more
and more urgently, both against tradition and cold
reason ; the will of the sovereign individual found itself
hampered on all sides ; nature appeared to be fettered
by human institutions ; the narrowness of the reality
left no room for the expansion of the ideal. The result-
ing unrest of this rebellious spirit found its expression in
what is known as the "Storm and Stress Period"
XSturm und Drang). It is here that the change from
individualism to subjectivism, as Lamprecht calls it,
inds its first powerful expression, and its representatives
iv'cre the young authors in Germany who found their
:eacher in the French Swiss, J. J. Rousseau. Rousseau
was still strongly under the influence of Rationalism.
"For him the nation was only a conglomeration of
ndividuals bound together by a silent contract for the
:)iirpose of protection and justice. He was the first to
)elieve in the mass of the people.

406 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

In his opinion society was, to use his own expression,
the added sum of the individuals who compose it ; for
him the will of the majority was the rule of absolute
reason, a theory still held by a great many people,
especially in the United States. No freedom and
equality can be found outside of the state absolutism,
philosophically founded, which is the outcome of the
monarchial absolutism of the preceding century.

In regard to our subject, however, it is more impor-
tant that Rousseau was most eloquent in preaching a
return to nature. ''He opened up the deep life of the
soul and showed its value, advocating the rights of
individual life. Thus he meets the tendencies just
gaining strength in Germany." He condemns and
ridicules the influence of human civilization. He claims
that religion is nothing but the product of geography;
that no truth decides the religion of a man, but the
fact whether he is born in Rome or in Mecca ; that one
does not believe in God at all, but in the man who tells
him about God. Culture, he says, makes man untrue
and false, estranged to one's own self. This produces
and promotes outside appearances, hypocrisy and a
deformation of the inner soul. It does not allow any
strong will or feeling at all ; all good feelings of nature
are toned down to the same social level. Man asks
not how much an action pleases himself, but what other
men will say about it. No man dares be himself ; he
must act like the others. That seems the rule of
wisdom. ''This is the custom, that is not the custom,"
is the final decision.

The theory of Rousseau has come to renewed life in
the present time, having found a new prophet in Tolstoi.

But even if we are not willing to place the beast-like
savage of reality above the civilized man, we must

XXXVII GERMAN IDEALISM 407

concede that Rousseau's gospel of nature has had
most beneficent consequences. He opened our eyes
to the beauties of natnre, especially to the beauties of a
landscape. Before his time it did not occur to people
that a high mountain range, with its grotesque shapes,
its snowy peaks, its varying and fine outlines, might be
a thing of beauty. We have a descriptive poem of the
same period by Haller, entitled "The Alps," which
says not a word of the grandeur and beauty of the Swiss
mountains, but praises the innocence and idyllic life of
the inhabitants of the quiet valley. Humanity had no
eyes for the grandeur of nature before Rousseau.

To the young people of the Storm and Stress period
the doctrines of Rousseau came as a revelation. They
gave clearness and system to their own obscure notions.
All youths with an idealist turn in mind, all young
talents, were inspired by him. He was the great prophet
who gave the philosophical foundation to their claims of
an excessive sovereignty of the individual. Men like
Goethe and Schiller could not help being drawn into
this movement. Goethe's ''Goetz von Berlichingen "
and ''Werthers Leiden," Schiller's ''Riiuber," are
genuine products of the Storm and Stress. Their
great difference from most of the rest is that they are
the works of genius, while those of others were not,
and that for Goethe and Schiller they mark only a
period of transition.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

GERMAN IDEALISM

Kant

The man who counteracted the influences of Rousseau
was Immanuel Kant. It was he who quieted the
rebeUious spirit and, as Lessing had conquered Ration-
aUsm, he conquered Rousseau — by going farther. He
also advocated a return to nature, but not to the nature
of the savage; his view of nature was more Uke the
artistic view of the Greeks ; he conceived at the same
time the external vastness of the worlds and the emo-
tional depths of the heart. While Rousseau saw in
humanity only a conglomeration of individuals, it was
with Kant, as with Herder, an organic unity, a com-
munity in which all individuals were held together by
'Hhe mind and the law of Duty." Kant denies with
Rousseau that the value of man depends on his perfec-
tion in a rationalistic sense, on his culture; but the
element by which he must be measured is his good-will.
This good-will is based on practical liberty. There is
no virtue by compulsion. With Herder he sees in
pure humanity, in der reinen Menschlichkeit, the aim
of all history and culture. But what content does
he give to the idea ? In trying to find the true nature
of the human mind he brings forth those theories which
mark a turning point in human progress, to which we

408

CHAP. XXXVIII GERMAN IDEALISM 409

always must return when we find that the way by which
we have searched for the highest and deepest truths
leads in a wrong direction. He does not examine the
ways by which we achieve knowledge, as the phi-
losophers, lastly the great French and English thinkers,
had done ; but he examines the possibilities of knowledge
itself. He finds that no knowledge of the substance of
things is possible. The categories, the grooves, so to
speak, along which our thoughts run, which our own
mind has created, and which have no existence out-
side of our minds, place all human experience in its
systematic order; such categories are time, space,
cause, and so forth.

Thus we ourselves create, so to speak, our world.
Truth is in fact the conception, the only conception, of
the creative mind. We do not know whether the things
we perceive are really as we perceive them. This may
perhaps be made plainer to those who are not used to
philosophizing by using an illustration. The science
of physics tells us that w^hat we call colors are simply
the products of the vibrations of our nerves, that
whether we see red, blue, or yellow depends on the
number of vibrations which the Ught waves, sent out
by any object, cause in our visual nerves. By making
these vibrations slow or quick the impression on the
eye will be changed ; we can cause color sensations by
a more or less strong touch or pressure on the visual
nerves ; so, what we see as red, cannot be really red,
but merely causes the sensation of red; we do not
^eally know what color, if any, the object has from
w^hich the stimulating waves originate ; we cannot go
behind oiu- sensations; they are in us and not in the
object. What I have exemplified here in regard to a
visible object Kant applied to the whole world. He

410 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

begins his criticism of all human knowledge by the
statement that all scientific research must begin with-
out a preconceived opinion. In rigid application of
this principle he examines all contents of the human
mind, lays bare innumerable errors, so that we really
may say that he completely changed the world of human
thought. His statement of the limits of knowledge
opens the way for a reconciliation of science and creed.
He refutes Rationalism by conceding that there is some-
thing we cannot conquer by our human reason, some-
thing we cannot know, that there are things we cannot
investigate or penetrate. This includes, of course, also
a refutation of Materialism. After having shown the
limit of rational knowledge, he acknowledges the exist-
ence of ideas transcending human reason. "Here are
three ideas," he says, ''of which we know directly that
we cannot prove them, yet which we know by intuitive
conviction : the soul, the world, and God." It is not our
place to inquire whether those of his opponents are right
who claim that in this manner he advocates the very
knowledge the impossibility of which he had showed
himself ; for us it is of importance that this conviction
has more or less become a part of the German soul. It
agrees with German Theism before and after him.

"The French Deists by the application of the law of
causality to the outside world {i.e., by reasoning and
mechanical explanation) arrived at the last cause or
Deity. The German Theists started from conscience
or tried to prove the Deity out of the inner revelation
of the moral law as it speaks in the bosom of men, and
they invoked Cartesianism, as developed by Leibnitz,
and continued and amplified by Wolf, which appealed
to the innate idea of a Deity as the strongest proof of
its existence." To this we may add Goethe's words:

xxxviii GERMAN IDEALISM 411

''They do not understand that there can be anything
in the mind which has not come into it from without."
In Une with all German thinkers since Luther, Kant
places morality in man's own law. Self-determina-
tion is the key to modern personality. The feeling of
personal responsibility which creates the character
is neither "a general disposition, born in us," nor
"a bundle of habits," but it is the absolute unity of
inner principles in the outer conduct of life. "Habit
produces the mere appearance of what in truth is a man's
free decision and his own mind. No outside authority
can tell us what is right or wrong; we must find the
moral law in ourselves." Our actions must be based on
truth and justice. Kant does not tell us, "your actions
must be good," but "you must be good." He rejects
as unsafe the principle of Christian morality, as well as
that of humanity, based on the brotherhood and
equality of man, the utilitarian principle of Bacon and
that of self-perfection advocated by Leibnitz ; he places
instead the "Categorical Imperative," that stern,
never-wavering law of duty, telling us to act so that the
principle of our action may become the foundation of a
universal law. He broadens the Golden Rule from a
principle of mutual relation of man to man to a general
law of the world; not, "Do unto others as you want
others to do unto you, " but, "Act so, that if everybody
"else did the same it would be for the general good." It
takes a decided stand against the worshippers of success :
"The outside world goes its own course and contradicts
morality, the more reason not to make success the
highest aim of the moral personality. Human conduct
is not the measure of morality; truth remains truth,
right remains right, whatever position men take towards
them : if, for instance, everybody told lies, would

412 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

telling the truth therefore be a mere whim ? If justice
perish, it is of no value any more that men should live
on earth."

Thus Kant, the modern man, recognizes the limits of
his knowledge in the realm of science. But he ac-
knowledges, on the other hand, no other limitations of
his work than that found in the nature of its means.
Morally, he rests on the self-imposed laws of his moral-
ity ; in respect to religion he takes strength in the
universal law, in God, as he recognizes Him, by means
of space and time, in the world which man has created
over again in himself; as to art, all things appeal to
him in aesthetic conception. While we make these di-
visions for purposes of thought and expression, and
speak of an intellectual, a moral, a religious, and an
artistic or aesthetic side, they are all only one in man's
consciousness.

These theories of Kant as to the individual nature
of man are those that have been and are of the greatest
influence; imperceptibly they have penetrated all
scientific and literary work and influence — and this
is of the most far-reaching importance — all public and
private life ; they found a responsive reception in a people
who have a natural disposition to look for the substance
of things, to do their work well for its own sake, who still
have before their eyes or at least fresh in their memory
the life of stern duty of a national hero and a great ruler ;
and it is a fitting coincidence that the great philosopher
of duty should have been living in the state where
for two generations the sense of duty had become the
foundation of public and private service from the king
down to the common soldier and the farm hand. Not
only through his scholar von Clause witz, the authority
on military science, is Kant to be credited with a share

xxxviii GERMAN IDEALISM 413

in the successes of modern Germany ; not only through
his influence on all scientific thought, — it is his cate-
gorical imperative which has made possible that won-
derful discipline which distinguishes the German soldiers
and the German laborer above all others, and which,
in this respect, has completely changed the character
of a nation which, as all writers of former times agree,
was once the most undisciplined in Europe. This
discipline, the voluntary submission of one's own in-
dividual will to the promotion of a common purpose,
is the secret of organization. Organization and edu-
cation are the great resources of the German nation, by
which alone they can offset the advantages possessed
by their sister nations in the shape of a wider expanse
of land, a more favorable location, and a greater wealth
in natural products, in the great contest for a sufficient
share in the world's goods, or, as the German's favorite
phrase is," for a place in the sunshine."

That a universal and fearless thinker like Kant would
not stop at the existing political conditions is self-
evident. He is thoroughly democratic, and the excited
joy he felt at the news of the outbreak of the French
Revolution is the only instance known when he lost his
equanimity. (How regular his life was may be in-
ferred from the fact that some of his fellow-citizens
in Konigsberg actually used to set their watches by
the time he passed their houses going to the universitj'-
every day.)

He did not believe in state absolutism nor in the ab-
solute right of the majority. For him the state was sim-
ply an institution for the administration of j ustice. ' ' No
man must be the means for the ends of^another, but
must be an end in himself all the time." He foretells
the victory of democracy and representative govern-

414 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xxxviii

ment, and prophesies the time when all wars will be
ended by a federation of the civilized nations. While
his influence in the political field was of no direct avail,
although considered dangerous enough by the govern-
ment of Frederick William II to warrant his perse-
cution, it is worth mentioning that his essay on ''Per-
manent Peace" is one of the standard authorities of
the modern Peace Movement, and that a World Fed-
eration as he conceives it is one of its principal de-
mands. Recent state treaties seem to indicate a kind
of political development in the spirit of his prophecy.

CHAPTER XXXIX

GERMAN IDEALISM
III

Its Culmination. Schiller and Goethe. The German

Religion

The teachings of the great man mentioned in the
last chapters have brought us to the centre of
German IdeaUsm, sometimes called the German Re-
naissance, in its latter phases New Humanism or
Classicism, which wants to replace mere syllogizing by
a desire for a thorough and spontaneous energizing of
the whole human being. Instead of its mere useful-
ness, the ideal of the Rationalists, we find a demand
for the intrinsic value of the action itself ; in place of a
practical, moralizing conduct of life, there is a longing
for a universal, artistic formation of life. The world
is considered not as a realm beyond us, but as the
deepest truth within us; by mastering this truth
man conquers the discordant tendencies of his own life,
and solves in the completeness of his whole being, in
"pure humanity," the greatest of all problems. One
and the same great life, one and the same fundamental
law, comprises man and nature ; the uniting of the inner
forces and impulses, the conscious, clear-sighted up-
building of life, make life a work of art. ''Man is the
first freeman of creation, he stands upright, the balance
of good and bad, of false and true, hangs within him,
he can investigate, he must choose ! " But man is

415

416 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

bound, oppressed, torn asunder, so to speak, by his
load of matter. Only the realm of beauty can give
him free development and connect all manifold parts
into one living unity. Only here is man able to be
completely himself and to give meaning and value
to his existence. Such an interpretation of an artistic
culture, comprising all fields of the inner life, must
sharply distinguish between the external necessities of
life, with their usefulness, and the empire of beauty
and noble refinement, world-wide understanding and
creative reasoning; it must distinguish between mere
civilization, which is simply ''the order and restfulness
of the external life," and the genuine culture of the
mind. This distinction between civilization and culture,
brought out first by the German Idealists, has not been
without strong influences on the higher life of the nation.
We may truthfull}^ say that the views of the German
Idealists, as they have here been outlined in their
fundamental traits, are common to all the great leaders
of Germany to the present day. The forming of a com-
plete personality is the German ideal in all fields of life ;
we find it preached in the religion of Schleiermacher, as
well as in the pedagogy of Pestalozzi and F. A. Wolff ;
for both the purpose of education is not the good of
society, but the development and completion of the inner g
personality or equal or harmonious development of all ^
the faculties of the individual. The organization of «
the external life, that is, government, is looked upon ]
in a certain sense as an educational institution ; as ;i
Goethe expresses it, 'Ho make government superfluous/^
is the principal purpose of government." Indeed, legal o
compulsion destroys, according to Schiller, the moral -
beauty of an action. "The first condition for the moral -
beauty of action," he says, "is the freedom of the will.

XXXIX GERMAN IDEALISM 417

and this primary liberty is gone as soon as an attempt
is made to enforce moral virtue by legal punishment.
It is the most noble privilege of human nature to direct
itself and to do the good for its own sake. No civil
law must command by compulsion fidelity to a friend,
magnanimity towards an enemy, gratitude towards
father and mother ; for as soon as this is done free moral
sentiment becomes a result of fear, the sentiment of a
slave." ''Everybody has his own ideal of manhood in
himself; after we have learnt by zealous effort what
this ideal is, by self-examination and in self-knowledge,
we must trust in our own genius, not submit to and
adapt ourselves to the shallow surroundings," in short,
not become what the Germans call a Schahlonenmensch,
meaning "a, man made by stencil" — a warning very
necessary for his countrymen, and not always heeded.
The cultured society of Germany has been formed
by following these ideals ; perhaps it has not always
been productive or inspiring, but by reception and dis-
tribution the whole class has helped toward the con-
struction of a new society ; we find the same valuation
of things, the same plane of judgment, the same tastes,
common to all its members. But we must not forget
that after all we have here only the ethical evolution of
a fundamental trait of national character, the German
emphasis on personality, which they have manifested
"^ since their first appearance in the fight of history.
Thus this conception of liberty, not as license, but as
the spontaneous responsibility of the free man, has not
been confined to the educated classes, but has become
a part of the national conscience. This is why Germans
oppose all legislation which tries to enforce morality,
instead of allowing it to grow out of the free resolution of
the people. To give one instance, I may mention the

418 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

unflinching protest of the German Americans against
the so-called temperance legislation and Sunday law in
the United States, and, on the other hand, the strong and
successful movement in Germany against the abuse of
alcohol, which within a few years has reduced its con-
sumption per capita by one-third to one-half, and in
which restrictive legislation has not even been proposed.

To return to the main subject, it is clear that a theory
which places the individual so strongly in the centre
of interest must cause a relative indifference to all ex-
ternal life, an inclination to aristocratic exclusiveness
resulting in danger to national development. It fos-
ters a neglect of the difficulties and problems offered
by society, and thereby a certain lack of firmness and
cordiality towards outside influences, as, indeed, has
become evident in some of the leaders of German
thought. But the lasting good of German Idealism is
that it has given its followers a wonderful inner strength
and tenderness, a deepening of the life of the soul
within itself ; their whole circle of existence is enlivened
and ennobled. The innermost relations of man to him-
self, to his associates, to nature and the world, are,
in a certain sense, moulded like a work of plastic art.
The refinement of its fundamental structure, its simplic-
ity, and its grandeur makes German Idealism one of the
best and most indestructible possessions of humanity.

For the Germans themselves its value was soon put to
an actual test. The greatest downfall Germany has
experienced since the Thirty Years' War was marked
by the battle of Jena, when Prussia was defeated
and almost destroyed by Napoleon I. Indeed, its com-
plete ruin seemed only a question of time. It was then
that by the strength of those ideals, not only Prussia,
but all Germany, was regenerated in an incredibly short

XXXIX GERMAN IDEALISM 419

time, which would have been impossible but for the
inexhaustible treasure of culture and strength stored up
by the German poets and thinkers in the invisible world.
In showing the common tendency of Lessing, Herder,
and Kant we have given the substance of German
Idealism, which implies also the great contributions of
Goethe and Schiller to the culture of their nation and
the world in general. It is the purpose of this book to
follow, as far as external circumstances and the abilities
of the author permit, the different threads in the de-
velopment of German civilization ; the effects of different
forces, one of which — but only one — are the great
men, on the character and life of the nation are what inter-
est us, and therefore we cannot pay attention to critical
distinctions which are of importance to the biographer
and literary historian. We cannot dwell on the closer
relationship of Goethe and Herder on the one hand,
and of Schiller and Kant on the other; it is not our
place here to point out the difference between Kant
and the two great poets, nor to solve the old problem
as to who is greater — Goethe or Schiller. For the
German people German Idealism is one force, and Goethe
and Schiller are its greatest exponents ; they are the
High Priests who have given to their countrymen access
to the sacred depths of their own souls, who have called
to life what is best in them. For both Reine Mensch-
lichkeit — Pure Humanity — is the great ideal.
Both agree that everything man undertakes must have
its source in the union of all powers; everj^'thing
isolated is bad. To live one's life as an organic, harmo-
nious whole, and to help others towards the same end, is
the highest purpose of life. To acquire an insight
into the unit and the reason of all phenomena of life and
ij nature is the duty of every civilized man.

420 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The enormous influence of the two great Germans
on their nation could not have been accomphshed by
the excellence of their literary art alone, but for the
fact that their own lives were works of art by themselves,
in which they, consciously and deliberately, worked
out their ideal of ''a great and free personality which
rises above small conventionalities and breathes the free
open air of what is human in the broadest sense. ' ' For both
the struggle was a hard one, though with Goethe it be-
came evident only after the battle was ended, the victory
gained, and the contending forces were reconciled in a
finished work of art. His fortunate external circum-
stances allowed his interest to concentrate in an un-
usual degree in the individual. He saw the greatest
happiness in quiet resignation. ''The highest blessing
for the thinker," he says, "is to have investigated the
investigable, to revere quietly the non-investigable."
Schiller was less fortunate in the external circumstances
of his life ; the constant pressure of troubles brought
him into closer sympathy with the struggling masses of
his people. Resignation was not his choice ; he found
satisfaction only in the heat of actual conflict. It is
to him that the great mass of the people, as far as they
are accessible for deeper thought at all, look as their
prophet ; he has given expression to their own feelings.
His ''Jungfrau von Orleans," his ''Maria Stuart," his
''Wilhelm Tell," his ''Lied von der Glocke," his ballads,
mean as much to the people, if not more, than Goethe's
"Faust" or "Wilhelm Meister" mean to the chosen
few ; and it does not look like a waning of Schiller's in-
fluence when a prominent Protestant clergyman can
take the text for his sermons through a whole year from
Schiller, as J. Burggraf did in Bremen in 1904. The
pastor assures us that he has high esteem for the Bible ;

XXXIX GERMAN IDEALISM 421

"but," he continues, ''why should the life revelations
of God speak to us only through the singer of Israel,
and not just as deeply and truly through Germany's
great poet? Why is only the religious thinker of the
Epistle to the Romans to be a witness of Christ, and not
one just as great and with like power over souls, the
great disciple of Kant, who speaks to our nation out of
'Ideal and Life'?" (" Das Ideal und das Leben" — one
of Schiller's great philosophical poems.)

However, though German Idealism has the greatest
hold on the German people through Schiller, it is the
same ideal that fills the soul of all great Germans, be
it Schiller or Goethe, Lessing or Herder, Mozart or
Beethoven, Wagner or Bismarck, "the typical man, in
conflict between the sensual and the spiritual world,
but driven by an inner impulse to overcome this con-
flict ; ever erring, ever sinning, still master of his fate ;
endowed by nature with the faculty of working out his
individuality, but forced by this very instinct into
organic relations with the social and national hfe; in
short, man rising to his own greatness, striving for the
harmonious consolidation of all his faculties."

This, then, is w^hat has been called "the German re-
igion," the evolution of eighteen centuries from the
reverence of the secretum illud, the mysterious
something" of Tacitus, best expressed perhaps by
Goethe in its simple beauty: "There lives a longing
in the purity of our soul to give ourselves out of our
Dwn free will, in gratitude, to something Higher, Pure,
Unknown. We call it Piety."

"In unseres Busens Reine wohnt ein Streben,
Sich einem Hohern, Reinen, Unbekannten
Aus Dankbarkeit freiwillig hiuzugeben.
Wir heissen's : Fromm sein."

BOOK THE FIFTH

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
THE NEW EMPIRE

CHAPTER XL

GERMANY ABOUT 1800

The time about the year 1800 represents, perhaps, as
far as true greatness is concerned, the greatest time in
German history. Men hke Goethe, Schiller, Herder,
Kant, Klopstock, Wieland, Beethoven, the Hum-
boldts, Johann Maria von Weber, were living ; Lessing,
Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, and the great Frederick had
not departed very long, and were still alive in the mem-
ory of the living, — certainly a wonderful galaxy.

Externally fashions approach the appearance of the
present day. Gentlemen still wear knee-breeches
and queues and powder; but under the influences
mentioned in former chapters colors have now
iisappeared entirely from their dress. At home that
peculiar German garment, the Schlafrock (dressing-
50wn), had begun to rule. Long trousers, of width
jhanging with the fashions, wide coats, neckties, short
rests, were worn. The modern dress-coat — the swal-
owtail — made its appearance. The dress of the ladies
Ivas still somewhat under the influence of the Rococo
|)eriod ; but the classical style, with its tunic, effected
y the French Revolution, began to predominate, and
he "Greek knot," so dear to many feminine hearts.

Love began to assume its modern character, prin-
ipally under the influence of fiction; people, even
mong the higher classes, began to follow the dictates
f their own hearts. In earlier centuries we saw men

425

426 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

in high positions marrying far below their rank, but
they were exceptions; now such marriages become
comparatively frequent.

Women were greatly adored. It is the time of
woman's reign, in a measure not attained since, and
not to be found to-day, even in places where woman
has all the woman's rights she wants.

As for the aesthetic side, the German mind did not
solve the problem of art it set for itself. We must
remember that the essence of this problem throughout
history is the struggle of giving adequate expression
to contents and thought, of linking the idea with beauti-
ful form in painting and sculpture, as Germans have
so successfully done in music and poetry. While most
nations place external beauty in the foreground, and
are often satisfied with the simple representation of
beauty for beauty's sake, the German demands more
of a work of art ; he wants thought ; he wants an idea
represented.

Under the influence of the Renaissance the Baroque
and the Rococo art of a national type had almost been
destroyed, and what was left gave way to the classicism
of Lessing and Winckelmann. Where there is no
national spirit there can be no national art. The fact
that the Greek models as they were found had lost all
trace of color caused color to be neglected; and not
in sculpture only ; outline became the principal tech-
nical interest, even in painting. As representative of
this tendency, Carstens is the best known master.
Graff and Chlodowiecky painted portraits of merit.
The latter is better known by his numerous and excel-
lent copper engravings, which for themselves tell a
great part of the history of his times. Graff marks
a decided advance in the art of painting, neglecting

XL GERMANY ABOUT 1800 427

detail, and concentrating his energy on a faithful ren-
dering of the head, making the eye the central expres-
sion of soul life. .Imongst the landscape painters Otto
Runge anticipated what is considered a modern
development; he makes light an artistic object for
itself, not simply an attribute of illuminated objects;
he brought color into the shades which were, up to
his time, painted in gray or black only. He showed
originahty in ornamentation after a long period of
imitation.

In architecture Germany had one great master,
Schinkel, to whose genius Berlin owes its most beauti-
ful buildings.

Amongst the sculptors Danneker holds first place,
whose beautiful bust of Schiller is widely known,
since from it are reproduced most of the popular pic-
tures of the great poet. Although a Dane, the
great sculptor Thorwaldsen owes his best inspiration
to German Idealism and Classicism.

In trying to reach the foundation of the new ideas,
the new religious views, or the new theory of life which
has come to abide with the leading representatives of
German thought, we found it to consist in the convic-
tion that there is something in man and the world out-
side of him that cannot be fathomed ; it is the very
unity between man and natm-e which we feel, but
which we cannot penetrate with our reason. In this
view thej^ felt related to the Greeks, whom they did
not so much imitate as sympathize with, because they
likewise strove after a close relation to nature. But
there is this difference between the Greek and Germanic
contemplation of nature, that the Greeks are satisfied
with the things as they find them, while the Germanic
mind goes further, and does not take things simply

428 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

as they are, but sees in them the result of past, the germ
of future, developments.

The ideal of life as established by the new leaders, to
wit, pure humanity, necessarily causes great emphasis
to be laid upon culture, in the German, i.e., in the high
sense of the word. The artistic, poetic, and religious
or spiritual side of life monopolized the interest to the
exclusion of economic, social, or political questions.
Having the harmonious development of all the mental
faculties in view as an educational ideal, the experi-
ment was made of continuing in the individual what
was observed in history, to wit, organic development,
but under the conscious guidance of harmonious beauty.
That is what is meant when we sa}^ Goethe and Schiller
made works of art out of their lives. This is not a
mere phrase, but it is an expression used by them in
the full sense of the words ; their lives as well as their
works introduce us to the ideal man ; they try to
represent the human being in its perfection.

It was German Idealism which finished the founda-
tion on which German science was to rest. Every-
thing had united to give rise to a great scientific life.
Ss^It would, of course, be more than ridi<;ulous to claim
"love of truth" as a characteristic trait of German
science ; there can be no science without it, for science
means love of, search after, truth ; but it is easier for
the German scholar to live up to this standard than per-
haps to the scientist of any other nationality. There is
nothing, no truth, or supposed truth, that cannot be
openly proclaimed in the lecture-room of a German uni-
versity, if it is only brought forth in an honest, scien-
tific spirit. The scholar is not only free from govern-
mental interference, ''academic liberty" being protected
by the constitution, but public opinion will respect

XL GERMANY ABOUT 1800 429

and uphold him. Whenever reactionary governments
tried to force pohce rule upon the German universities,
the whole German nation stood up against them ; and
there are very few exceptions where a German govern-
ment succeeded in making a German professor suffer
for his convictions. He is as independent and secure
in his position as a judge of the United States Supreme
Court. Thus there is no excuse whatever for a Ger-
man professor to follow any other than the highest
idealistic motives.

To this indispensable idealism German science adds
an extraordinarily methodical spirit, caused by a desire
for thoroughness and a talent for organization. This
organizing facult}^ has not been confined to academic
circles ; the reader who has followed the different in-
fluences -^dll not be astonished to hear that it pervades
all pubhc and economic life. There is hardly a more
perfect voluntary organization in the world to-day than
the socialist labor party, or the Ultramontane party
in Germany. Of course, science benefits also by that
disciphne and sense of duty which were strengthened by
the practical administration of Frederick and by the
philosophy of Immanuel Kant. We must likewise
remember in this connection that old racial quality
which lets the German find sufficient reward in the
perfection of the work he does; ''the work praises its
master," and with modest pride everj^body feels worthy
of his praise because he has done his duty in his place,
no matter how small a place it may be. A certain self-
denial of the German investigator is another secret of the
success of his science as a whole. As a student he learns
from his teachers that a certain kind of research work
may, indeed, look small and of no importance. But one
day may bring forth the great man, the genius to de-

430 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

velop out of this material some great idea, some uni-
versal law, and he would lose his time and energy over
these small problems while his strength should be used
to solve the greatest. But there is no problem so small
as to be unworthy of investigation, so that, if left un-
solved, it may not stand in the way of truth. The aver-
age scholar, to whom nature has granted less of the divine
spark, can still further the great work and perform tasks
that must be done if the more favored ones shall make
their great discoveries. But with the systematic, well-
organized labors of so many well-trained workers the
field of science is searched inch by inch, and not much
that is worth finding can be overlooked. Only self-
denying patience and persistence will secure full suc-
cess for method and organization.

The greatest results in the first rise of German science
were obtained in philosophic and historical studies,
and in the related subject of philology. They formed
the foundation for the great respect the Germans have
commanded in these fields, and which they are enjoy-
ing to-day, with the exception perhaps of philosophy.
From being a disciple of the other nations Germany
now became a teacher of the whole civilized world.
"WolfT, Niebuhr, Schleiermacher, and Wilhelm von
Humboldt — and allied with them Savigny — created
the science of the mind of the nineteenth century,"
says Harnack. ''Historic-philosophical, at the same
time critical-genial, this science has for its premises
the harmonious development of all faculties dormant
in man ; thus they wanted to discover the complete
man in history and to understand it as a reciprocity
between institution and individual. . . . The uni-
versality of the scholar whose mind comprised all
objective knowledge was not to be reached any more

XL GERMANY ABOUT 1800 431

— whoever tried it failed. But a new universality
of the most intensive kind shone forth as a grand
ideal ; in each worthy material, if conceived with all
the faculties and received and considered as a part
of the whole, a whole can originate subjectively;
not knowledge, but culture, is the final aim of the
scholar."

The drawback of this movement was, as has been
indicated, the lack of interest in the external relations
of life. It was almost with contempt that some peo-
ple looked down on political and social questions. In
respect to some of the great Germans of this time it
has been said with some appearance of justice that they
completely lost their own nationality.

This was the time, too, not in Germany alone, of cos-
mopolitan ideas ; but it was not everywhere the same
cosmopolitanism- The greatest Germans were not
cosmopolitans in the sense of Thomas Paine, but in
the sense of Kant, who says that patriotism does not
mean hatred of all other nations, but that it means love
of one's own country above all others. He does not say
that because we love all men all distinctions of national-
ity are to cease. But, in spite of their assumed patriot-
ism, the leaders of thought did not take any active
interest in political life. Things were discussed in a
general way ; questions of good government were talked
about in an academic manner; the question of uni-
versal suffrage and of a republican form of government
were rarely touched. A constitution did not appear
to be especially desirable. They saw that under the
English constitution there had developed a government
by a limited circle of aristocratic families, which did
not seem to the Germans the ideal to strive for.
Neither did the free cities of Germany, which were

432 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

and are republics, encourage a love of the republican
form of government.

Of course "pure humanity" could not sustain any-
national prej udice, or even conventionality. The theory
was proclaimed that race distinctions were no true
distinctions to the intellect, and that one must sacrifice,
as much as necessary, individual hfe to the interests
of humanity.

Here is another reason why the French Revolution
exerted so little influence upon the Germans. Indeed,
in the beginning, before the Reign of Terror began, edu-
cated Germans followed events with interest and sym-
pathy ; not a few went to Paris to fight for the cause
of liberty; and some of them lost their heads, sadly
enough, in the true sense of the word, by the machine
of the good Doctor Guillotin. The Rhenish Germans
were so enthusiastic about it that they even invited
their French neighbors to cross the boundary and to
show them what a real repubHc was hke. They be-
lieved, in their German simpHcity, that the French peo-
ple who had proclaimed justice and liberty for all
would also respect the hberty of other nations. They
soon became aware of their mistake.

But there were other reasons to prevent the spread
of revolutionary activity in Germany. One of these,
already referred to, was the fact that some of the states
had had a series of good rulers, who strove, after Fred-
erick the Great's example, for the welfare of their peo-
ple. The Rechtsstaat had been estabhshed. Though
the state in many instances might be compared to a
prison, still the same regulations were valid for all,
and the general welfare was the end in view. Besides,
Germany was not centralized, as France was; there
were about fourteen hundred independent rulers in

XL GERMANY ABOUT 1800 433

Germany, three hundred of them sovereigns of states
of some extent, in many cases ridiculously small. The
beheading of only one monarch, as in France, would
have availed little.

But there are two reasons of a somewhat deeper
character which prevented, with the exception of a
few uprisings, the spread of the French Revolution
through Germany. The Reformation had introduced
in Germany a great many of the ideas which led to the
Revolution in France, and the German Protestants
felt themselves to possess the freedom of thought for
which their neighbors were fighting. The other rea-
son is the spread of a wonderful optimism, the con-
sequence of the rationaUst movement, as represented
especially by Frederick the Great. For this we have
a testimonial from the time shortly before the outbreak
in France, which is as expressive as it could be. In
1856 St. Margaret's Church, in the city of Gotha,
needed repairs ; in the steeple the laborers found a
document WTitten in 1784 and placed there at the com-
pletion of the church. It reads as follows : —

''Our days fiU the happiest period of the Eighteenth
Century. Emperors, Kings, Princes, descend from
their proud height, despise splendor and magnificence,
become fathers, friends, confidants of their people.
Religion wears the priestly robe and steps forth in
her godliness. Enlightenment proceeds with gigantic
strides. Thousands of our brothers and sisters who
were li\dng in sacred inactivity are given back to the
state. Religious hatred "and compulsion of conscience
are vanishing. Love of man and liberty of thought
gain in power. Arts and sciences are flourishing, and
our eyes penetrate deeply into the workshop of nature.
Craftsmen approach perfection as well as artists. Use-
2f

434 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

fill knowledge spreads in all classes. Here you have
a faithful description of our times." It is easily seen
that people who look at their surroundings with such
satisfaction will not favor a revolution.

But the real influence of the IdeaUst movement is
sho\sTi by the part it plays in the life of the nation.
This truly national culture has united at least the mid-
dle classes in Germany, the poorest members of which
are hardly more than paupers according to American
standards of income. Still, the large mass of the
uneducated (the lower classes) remains separated from
the rest. The great nucleus of this culture and society
is formed by university men, who to the end of the
nineteenth century decided its character. But besides
the professors, the doctors, the judges, la^^yers, and
officials, all with juristic training, the preachers and
teachers, it comprises the great merchants and manu-
facturers, and their employees, if their education is up
to the standard. Money alone would not open the
gates of this society to them. A good education will
admit the son of a lower social stratum ; and many a
mechanic, even if he had to eat dry bread for a few days
every week, would try to send at least one of his children
to the higher schools to become "a studied man."
With education, not money, the standard, the percen-
tage belonging to the better classes has enlarged, and
the gap between the classes and the masses has to a very
slight degree been bridged. It has shown itself much
more as a unifying force in another respect. Through
the influence of the writers of German Idealism and the
common classical ideal of education, long before 1870
German culture and science formed strong ties that
bound all Germans together in times of political sepa-
ration ; and to-day these ties make of the Germans of

XL GERMANY ABOUT 1800 435

Austria and of Switzerland and the Baltic provinces of
Russia, even of those who have become citizens of foreign
countries, one nation with their brethren of the German
Empire.

Since the great times at the end of the eighteenth
century German literature, especially the great German
poets, has become essential to German life ; they form
an integral part of German education ; the works of the
poets and artists are not looked upon as incidental or as
mere decorations. We have only one other example
in history where the sesthetic genius of a nation has
played such an important part in national life; in
ancient Greece art, particularly the songs of Homer,
took the same place in education and culture. For the
educated German art does not belong to an unreal,
fantastic world ; it is a means of discerning the ideal in
the material world, "a manifestation of the Eternal in
the accidental of matter."

CHAPTER XLI

ROMANTICISM. DOMINANT THEORIES OF LIFE

Within the ideological movement people were not
all of the same mind ; and opposition made itself felt
against the great admiration of the Greeks. At first
the different currents were not actually hostile, but
rather supplementary to each other. Only in a later
time political and religious party feeling became so
violent as to cause direct antagonism ; dissension and
hatred took the place of that broad hberality of view
which saw in the presence of adverse opinion only an-
other aspect of its own principle, and not an irrecon-
cilable difference.

The pubhc did not at all take to Schiller and Goethe
with the enthusiasm we should assume from their later
influence. The poet of the time was Jean Paul Richter,
an author of some merit, but not of very great depth,
not to mention Iffland and Kotzebue, whose shallow
plays were popular. Richter's descriptions went into
the minutest details ; he fancied a certain symbolism
which expressed itself through the sound of the words,
and he was modern in so far as he was extremely sub-
jective. He is one of the leading humorists in German
literature, and he was the first to introduce into htera-
ture the social milieu of the lower classes, of what the
Germans call die kleinen Leute. He was the fore-
runner of the political and social lyrics of a later period.
But what appealed most to his public was his sugges-

436

CHAP. XLi ROMANTICISM. DOMINANT THEORIES 437

tiveness ; he did not exhaust his ideas, but always left
something to think about.

But the greatest opposition to Classicism came from
that school which we know by the name of Roman-
ticism.. - Romanticism is not merely a school of poets,
but i^ a theory of life, a philosophy that has held sway
for a time not only over Germany, but throughout our
entire Western civilization. Like many new move-
ments in which the younger elements take a leading
part, it begins with another ''Storm and Stress" period,
though that name remained confined to the preclas-
sical period mentioned before. There was present a
strong under-current of rebellion on the part of the
rising generation of authors against the crushing weight
of the authority of Schiller, and considerably more
against that of Goethe. The preponderance of the
latter in the world of letters was so great that nobody
else seemed to have a chance beside him. The inner
reason for the new movement was again the strong
?ontrast between the ideals that were upheld and the
actual conditions of life. But while Schiller gave a
oositive solution, the Romanticists tried to free them-
selves of the contradiction by irony.

The teachings of the Romanticists did not lead to
'avorable results. They caused a certain frivolity and
in inclination toward hypocrisy and untruth. They
nixed up fiction and life. They constructed some
^:ind of a fairy world, and were forever in pursuit of the
'blue flower" — die blaue Blume — of Romanticism,
;o that they seemed to lose all sense and measure for
•eality and truth. But the most harmful influence on
he actual life of the nation was the fostering of reac-
ionary tendencies. The Romanticists, not finding
vhat they wanted, were more and more dissatisfied with

438 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION ci

their own times, especially disappointed by the Frenc
revolution. Many of them let their predilections fo:
mediaevalism influence them to such an extent that the
joined the Catholic Church — more from aesthetic than
religious motives — and made the world, themselves
included, believe that the Middle Ages had truly been
the time of ideal life. In trying to bring back mediaeval
times they furnished a sort of philosophical foundation
for the anti-liberal spirit which ruled Germany for so
long, and which is in evidence to the present day. It
was one of their leaders, Novalis, who promulgated that
baneful doctrine of the natural alliance between throne
and altar, the federation between monarchy and Church,
which teaches that kings receive their power directly
from divinity, whose instruments they are. This belief
does not come down to us directly as a relic of the
Middle Ages. It has no actual force in the times of the
Enlightenment. But since Novalis and his followers
the principles of Frederick the Great were forgotten;
the Church and the monarchy again became allies, and
a rebellion against the throne was regarded as a sin
against God.

This will explain the attitude of political liberals
in Germany towards the Church, both Protestant and
Catholic ; they learned to see in the clergy the natural
allies — and justly so — of reactionary powers, while
in America, the home of emigrants persecuted for their
religion, we are rather inclined to connect the origin of i
our liberties with Church influences.

The theory of organic historic development, fruitful
as it has been, induced the Romanticists to place an
emphasis on the past and the sacredness of historic
institutions which has helped to prevent healthy devel-
opment in a great many directions, and has made of

XLi ROMANTICISM. DOMINANT THEORIES 439

historism an impediment in the path of progress of the
nineteenth century.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the
movement has had its merits for Germany. It called
attention to the greatness of German antiquity. The
glory of mediaeval Germany was almost forgotten;
the fact that there had been a wonderful German litera-
ture centuries ago was as good as unknown. It is
due to the Romantic school that it was rediscovered.
Likewise in art, especially in music, its influence has
some merits.

In looking for the imaginary romantic flower the
Romanticists did not overlook actual nature; prin-
cipaUy as disciples of Rousseau, they enhanced greatly
the love for natural beauty, they made poetry more
natural, and helped to make the study of nature more
popular. As their third great merit, we must regard
their successful efforts in arousing active patriotism, in
giving expression to the latent patriotism of the people.
The patriotic poems and songs of the wars of liberation
from the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte were mostly
"written under Romantic influence ; Koernerand Uhland,
whose ballads are part of the German canon as well as
those of Schiller, were Romanticists, as well as the
whole so-called Suabian school of poets, though they
are more healthy in their general tone. The whole
science of Germanistic philology is due to this influ-
ence, and out of this again proceeded, besides the study
bf Indian philosophy and Sanscrit, comparative phi-
lology, the modern science which revealed to us the
culture treasures deposited in language.

Romanticism, however, did not turn the mind
toward the actual problems of hfe, any more than clas-
sicism had done. The Ideal ruled supreme. The poor

440 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

economic conditions subsequent to the French period
favored more than ever the tui'ning away from life.
The bel esprit, the man of hterary spirit, — we might
call him the "literary snob," — began to appear. The
greatest recreation of the quiet citizen was the reading
of periodicals, while a real passion was developed for
the theatre. It was then that the cult of woman took
its loftiest flight. Some of them gained considerable
influence over German literary life, and even dabbled
in politics, — a few were quite worthy of their fame,
although not always to the advantage of the object of
their interest.

We have, then, in the beginning of the nineteenth
century, not only the great number of faithful Protes-
tants and Catholics ; in the educated part of the nation,
and radiating beyond, the nationalist as well as the
classic-idealistic theories have their adherents, and
they are joined by the Romanticists. All of these
currents go down to the present time without having
found a new and convincing solution for their problems.
They have held the foremost place in the minds of all
thinking people, sharing it only spasmodically with the
political conditions of the nation, until the social ques-
tion arose and laid claim to the interests and energy of
the greatest intellects of the times.

As manifold as those tendencies are the moral ideals
of the people. The faithful Christians believe in the
good, and try to lead a virtuous life because such is the
command of God; the rationalist ideal is a twofold
one, it may be either purely utilitarian, teaching us to
do what is useful to us, as Bacon proposes, or it may
be the philanthropical ideal, of which Thomas Paine is
the English representative ; while with Leibnitz it had
taken the form of self-perfection. We find further-

XLi ROMANTICISM. DOMINANT THEORIES 441

more, as essentially German, the ideal of self-determi-
nation, which leaves the decision of what is good or bad
to ourselves, which finds its highest formulation in
Kant's categorical imperative.

All these different currents, though not always on
the surface in equal strength, run through the century,
and are at work to-day. The fight is still going on
between liberty and authority, between the ideal and
the real. It is therefore not astonishing that people
of different convictions looking for a safe guide join
in the cry: "Return to Kant! Let us make a new
start from the solid ground which he created for pure
Reason."

CHAPTER XLII

DOWNFALL AND RISE. LIBERALISM. POLITICAL
REACTION WITHIN. WEAKNESS WITHOUT

We have seen that with the death of Frederick
the Great the first reactionary tendencies set in.
Of all the Prussian kings his successor was the weak-
est and meanest. In an incredibly short time he
squandered the forty million thalers that Frederick
saved during the years of peace, and thus set a de-
moralizing example to the whole people. Morally
much better was his successor, Frederick William III,
but he lacked the energy and the power of mind to
continue and vitalize the traditions of Frederick.
Lacking the spirit of its creator, the Prussian state and
military system became petrified ; it became a system
of heavy iron chains which, by its schematism, bound
and suppressed the free initiative of the people as well
as the officials. Besides, the great successes of Fred-
erick the Great in war had given the army the opinion
that it was invincible without the need of combined
effort for improvement — the greatest mistake an army
can make. The result was the great crash when the
Prussian army was defeated by Napoleon and the
Prussian state crushed to ruins ; now the eyes of the
people were opened to the true condition of things.

It is true that the period following the battle of Jena
in 1806 is justly called the time of Prussia's greatest
downfall; but looking at its consequences, we may

442

CHAP. xLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 443

call it just as well the time of Prussia's rejuvenation.
In spite of disastrous appearances there must have
remained alive in this German people something that
could not be destroj^ed, some life force that needed only
to be rediscovered and aroused. Otherwise it would
have been impossible that things changed for the better
as fast as they did. It is not so astonishing that the
power and greatness created by Frederick the Great
should have "v^ithered within twenty years as it is that
within six or seven years after the battle of Jena the na-
tion should have completely recovered from the terrible
misfortune that had befallen it.

"\Mien the disaster had happened, people asked them-
selves : '^TMiy has this ruin come on us ?" They were
not satisfied to blame their officers and statesmen,
but they felt that there was some disease of the national
body. The people took no pride in their nation because
they had no voice in deciding their fate ; besides, the
mass of the people lacked personal independence.
For a remedy German Idealism, just then at its height,
offered itself ; the national leaders went to the teachings
of Classicism for help. No less a person than Napo-
leon himself confesses to the wisdom of this step; he
himself expressed his conviction that he owed his defeat
to the ''German Ideologists." The principle of Kant,
who emphasized so strongly that every one was respon-
sible for his own deeds, was one of the most effective
means to raise the moral character of the people.
Moreover, the Prussian statesmen were broad-minded
enough to learn from the French Revolution ; and it has
been said that they attempted to reahze its principles
from above, as the French people had tried to introduce
them from below. The first step in this direction was
the abolishment of hereditary serfdom ; the second was

444 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

the emancipation of the Jews, who have become full
citizens in most German states since 1812.

But as the German is not inclined towards centraliza-
tion, self-government was not immediately introduced
into national affairs ; it was started in a smaller circle.
It began with home rule ; the people were left to settle
their own affairs in cities and towns. In the exercise
of municipal self-government they received a good
education for democracy, which resulted in the intro-
duction of general suffrage, with the foundation of the
North German Federation and the German Empire.

Nearly as important as the establishment of home
rule in the political field, and, at first, working just as
unobtrusively, was another measure of the greatest
consequence for economic development : compulsory
membership in the guilds was abolished, giving every
man the free choice of his calling and the right of
competition ; though this Gewerhefreiheit was to mani-
fest its greatest influence in a later period. Following
the teachings of scholars who saw in history an organic
development that will not proceed by bounds and
leaps, the Germans tried to introduce democratic insti-
tutions by degrees.

Another step was the improvement of the education
of the middle classes. Seeing that they must have
leaders, if they wanted to raise an efficient people, they
turned for a brighter ideal in education to Greek
antiquity, to classical education, consisting not in the
teaching of grammar or in a cool admiration of the
works of literature and art, but in a resuscitation of the
entire Greek life. Like the Greeks, the Germans were
to live as a free people, harmoniously developing all
their faculties, following the paths of nature.

The separate education of the nobility, which existed

xLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 445

up to that time, was abolished. Before the beginning
of the century the children of noblemen were not, as a
rule, trained together with the children of the other
people in the secondary schools, but there were special
schools for the aristocracy, so-called Ritter-Akade-
mien. These were now opened to the sons of all classes,
and thus the gap between the nobility and the middle
classes became less wide ; their sons were taught to
think alike, and consequently learned to understand
each other better. In our daj^s the sons of the Imperial
family are not thought to degrade themselves by attend-
ing the same school as the sons of their subjects ; the
present Emperor was the first Prussian prince to study
at the g^'mnasium and to pass his examination like
any other student. Thus the upper classes became
more compact ; but the greater gulf between the higher
and lower social strata remained, and exists to-day ;
it has become even more distinct by a new movement,
aided by the organization of which I shall speak pres-
ently.

One of the most incisive measures dictated by the
necessities of the time, which has become a permanent
institution among nearlj' all European nations, was the
introduction of compulsory general military service,
which called every Prussian under arms for three years,
a system which no doubt has its great disadvantages,
but which in all these times has been a wonderful means
of knitting the people together, and of training them in
the feeling of being a part of a greater organization, in
short, a training in discipline and patriotism.

Thus an institution, intended for national defence, has
become a means of national education. In spite of the
warlike spirit inherited from their ancestors only the
force of an absolute national necessity, taught by long

446 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

periods of humiliation and misery, can have made the
self-annihilation, as demanded by military discipline,
palatable to the German ; and when the enthusiasm
of the war against Napoleon was past, and when it
became evident that the people had been robbed of the
results of their sacrifices, of their bravery, and of their
victory, the discontent with the burden, which seemed
principally a means by which the government held down
the masses, became great, at times almost unbearable.
This sentiment has now, however, almost entirely
disappeared, since the wars that led to German unity
have shown the advantage of the institution, and the
Germans of to-day are inclined to attribute not only the
unity and the greatness of the Empire, but also a great
part of their political progress and increasing economic
prosperity directly or indirectly to their army and to its
training. There is no doubt, however, that militarism
penetrates German life to an alarming degree, and the
spirit of external subordination, transferred from the
barracks into civil life, tends to be an impediment to
true progress and independence of character. Besides,
there are a great many other abuses concomitant to
militarism. One of its great disadvantages for German
national life is the strengthening of the class spirit,
since the accentuation of the superiority of the officer
to the private or the non-commissioned officer has
entered social life as a new dividing line. A certain
degree of education grants the privilege of doing active
service for one year only. Those privileged in this
manner return to civil life as officers of the reserve, a
qualification which has become a new claim for social
distinction, rendering the reconcihation of the classes
more and more difficult. These officers of the reserve
retard, too, the development of free political institutions,

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 447

since any political affiliations at variance with the rul-
ing powers appear to many of them almost a breach of
military discipline.

But no matter how just the criticisms against the un-
democratic features of militarism as developed in Ger-
many, the army composed of the youth of the nation has
become such an integral part of the new fatherland, of
which it has formed a constitutional element from its
birth, that the present generation will not listen to any
plans of abolishing or even curtailing it. General
and compulsory military service is looked upon as a
duty as much as the paying of taxes, even more so ; the
cases of shirking this duty are not frequent; for the
few who want to do so we find at least as many who
complain when some physical defect debars them from
the honor of serving their country. Even the socialists
are proud, at bottom, of having served their time, and
their leaders know very well that in case of a national
war they would lose all control over them if they tried
to persuade them to leave their country in time of need.
These are stubborn facts with which the advocates of
disarmament will have to deal.

In order to understand this attitude of the Germans
towards their army it must be remembered that from the
time of the national downfall in the Thirty Years' War,
Germany was treated without any respect whatever
by the foreign governments ; in fact, for a time it was
not without justice called a French province. Twenty
military invasions by the French in times of peace can
be counted in a little over one century. But the
people were perfectly indifferent ; their national spirit
was weakened to such an extent that not even the most
flagrant injustice could arouse their resentment. Fred-
erick, however, and again the successes of the Wars of

448 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Liberation taught them that this condition of things
was not an unavoidable one. They knew their strength
and smarted under the contempt, the insults that had
been inflicted upon their nation again and again by the
great powers as long as the jealousy of the German
princes prevented German unity and assertion of
strength. Their study of history showed them not
only the possibilities of better times, as Germany
had known them in the past, but also brought home to
them the continuous chain of foreign inroads on their
national rights, of foreign violation of International
Law, and even of solemn treaties. It will take a long
time before the Germans will forget this experience of
three hundred years ; a long period will be necessary in
which the actual policy of the great powers will have to
prove that they are sincere in their assertion of peaceful-
ness and the admission of the equal rights of Germany
in the concert of the nations and in the markets of the
world. The lesson, that they will be sure of justice and
respect only as long as they are strong enough to exact
them, has been too long forced upon them by cruel
realities to be forgotten for a promise of mutual trust
held out to them, but not corroborated by any facts.
On the other hand, the critics of the great standing
army must not forget the difference between the army
of mercenaries and a ''nation in arms," as represented
by the German army. Bismarck himself pointed out
that with an army built up on the principle of general
and compulsory service, a government must be exceed-
ingly careful before entangling the country in any war.
When every family in the land will be compelled to
send a father, husband, son, or brother to the field of
battle, people want to know whether the safety of the
country is really at stake. And, indeed, the average

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 449

German looks at the army only as a means of defence,
as a guarantee of national safety and peace. The
century since the establishment of this institution in
Prussia does certainly not uphold the claim that a
standing army is a temptation to wanton war, while it
may have led, now and then, to an undue pressure of
certain demands without sufficiently ascertaining their
fairness. This, however, is made possible only by the
fact that diplomacy still feels itself more representative
of the government than of the people. It is a risky
game they play. For there is no doubt that the great
mass of the people is decidedly set against any war
whatever, and if they find that mihtarism, maintained
at such tremendous sacrifice as the safeguard of peace,
does not accomplish its purpose, the present system of
government will be seriously endangered. The con-
viction is widely spread among the common people in
Germany that the next war, even if righteous and
victorious, will be the end of monarchy. Not only the
social democrats, but also the middle-class parties,
begin to protest against the ever-increasing burden of
armaments, and views which a few years ago were
ridiculed as Utopian dreams find now respectful atten-
tion in the Reichstag and are discussed by the govern-
ment. There are three millions and a half, if not more,
socialist voters in Germany to-day ; it will certainly be
a severe test for the monarchical system when it has to
confess its inability to avoid a war in spite of the heavy
insurance premium paid by the people in the shape of
the greatest military establishment the world has ever
seen.

But the greatest achievement at this time of rejuve-
nation was the final and successful establishment of
compulsory education in Prussia. Efforts in this direc-

450 HISTORYjOF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

tion had been made by many German princes, but they
had no general and lasting success. One of the influ-
ences at work against a general popular education —
strange enough at first sight, but noticeable wherever
the question first becomes of public interest — was the
opposition on the part of the clergy. They claimed that
it was against the divine order of things that the sons
and daughters of the people should receive any educa-
tion. But after the lesson taught by the great national
disaster of 1806 all opposition became silent.

With the establishment of the people's schools,
Volksschulen, begins the work of that group of men
whom I do not hesitate to place as high as any single
class of men in the world ; to wit, of the German school-
masters who, with wages hardly large enough to keep
off starvation, have for generations upheld in the schools
the spirit of progress and liberty, the ideals of German
unity and patriotism, often persecuted by their superiors
for what they did for their pupils. When we con-
sider that only a few years ago it was officially stated
that there were in Prussia one thousand teachers who
had a salary of less than fifty dollars a year, and three
thousand with less than one hundred and fifty dollars
a year, we will not be sparing in our admiration for
the unselfish greatness of these men. There has
been a time when in German Normal Schools it was
forbidden to read the works of Schiller and Goethe,
because they were a danger to the Christian faith;
the same reactionary spirit in the Prussian Depart-
ment of Education makes it possible that in the same
schools to-day the reading of Hauptmann, Sudermann,
and other modern writers is forbidden. But in spite
of official censure the teachers never ceased teaching
their pupils, the sons and daughters of the common

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 451

people, the beauties of the great poets, the high ideals of
liberty and progress ; in short, the message of German
Idealism. (A student in a CathoUc normal school in
Bavaria was disciplined for reading "Faust" while this
book was in preparation.)

But when the great reform was first introduced
after Jena, the authorities were less narrow-minded
and saw in the very things their successors persecuted
the salvation of their country. The man to whom they
turned for assistance was Pestalozzi, the great educator,
who based his pedagogy not on text-books, but on the
hving child itself. The great aim of German Idealism,
the harmonious development of the whole personahty,
was his ideal in education. The Prussian government
engaged teachers who had learned methods from Pesta-
lozzi himself and who had imbibed his ideas ; at the same
time promising young men were sent to his mstitution
to be trained by him. Prussia, by the way, was not the
only country which in times of need sought help from
the pedagogy of Pestalozzi, who probably would not
be able to pass examination to secure a teacher's position
in an American city school to-day, and surely would re-
ceive the poorest marking by his superintendent ; but
nevertheless Smtzerland in 1837, Austria after 1866,
France after 1871, have rejuvenated their national Ufe
by adopting the " Pestalozzian " school.

In these serious efforts of self-improvement the
spu-it of resentment agamst foreign oppression was still
more inflamed by the patriotic songs, and a whole group
of young poets gave greater vigor to their words by
taking up arms for their country. These measures of
the Prussian government, of which Stein, Hardenberg,
Scharnhorst, and Wilhelm von Humboldt were the
leading spirits, were supplemented by the patriotic en-

452 HISTORY OF GERiMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

deavors of a great many others of the educated class.
Three names deserve special mention in this connection :
Friedrich Ludwdg Jahn developed a special system
of gymnastics, which he called by a new German word
Turnen, to strengthen the German youths for the
defence of their country and Uberty, while at the same
time he aroused their patriotism in his writings, and
preached to the Germans the gospel of their nationality.
Ernst Moritz Arndt inspired his countrymen in poetry
and prose to enthusiasm and self-sacrifice for liberty
and fatherland. And the philosopher Fichte in the
city of Berlin, directly under the eyes of the French con-
querors, dehvered his famous ''Addresses to the Ger-
man Nation." Now German Idealism, that seemed so
far removed from the arena of actual politics, showed
its power in arousing true patriotic enthusiasm. Es-
pecially Schiller's ''Jungfrau von Orleans" and "Wil-
helm Tell" awakened and strengthened the feeling of
national honor and love of country.

Before the administrative reforms were enforced or
had apparently time to become efficient, a wonderful
change came over the people. In a few years the new
spirit was strong enough to become an active force in the
national development. In 1812, after Napoleon had
been defeated in Russia, the people took up arms
against the will of their king, who felt himself bound
by his treaties. But the king was compelled to adopt
the views of his subjects, and placed himself at the
head of the army. An enthusiasm arose which is not al-
together unheard of in history, I am glad to say, but
nevertheless very rare. All classes rivalled in showing
their patriotic spirit and their readiness to sacrifice
everything for their country. Even the women gave
up not only their jewels, receiving iron rings in place of

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 453

the silver and gold wedding rings, but also their golden
hair ; some in man's apparel enlisted in the army and
died on the battlefield. For years after the war no
silver was to be seen in the better households, and if
by an oversight some piece of silver was left, its owner
was ashamed to let it be known. How unjust it is to
say that the German scholars kept aloof from the popu-
lar movement, in spite of some famous instances like
Hegel the philosopher, may be inferred from the little
story which shows us three famous men, the philologist
Buttmann, the philosopher Fichte, and the theologian
Schleiermacher, on the training grounds, drilling as
plain private soldiers, and it is said that it was
not easy for their great minds to grasp the intri-
cacies of elementary tactics, and that frequently they
insisted upon placing their guns on the left shoulder
when the command called for the right, and vice versa.

This patriotic movement, however, at first took hold
only of the north of Germany. The princes of the
Rhenish Alliance, Rheinhund, found it to their ad-
vantage to remain loyal to Napoleon, to whom they
were considerably indebted, while many of their sub-
jects left their homes to join the armies of the North.
Only when the success of the allied armies against Napo-
leon made the latter's downfall certain they remembered
that they, too, were Germans.

As to the people, they looked upon this war as a
holy war; the army with its Christian spirit reminds
one very much of the armies of Cromwell. There is a
strong element of the so-called ''Christian-Germanic"
spirit in this movement w^hich, especially in modern
times, does not always escape a certain fanaticism.
The clergj^ principally the Protestant clergy, formed
a vanguard of the people.

454 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The influence of public education was so great, and
the popular spirit displayed so wonderful, that the
princes had seen fit to promise their people constitu-
tions, but soon their promises were forgotten.

A great disappointment filled all the patriots when the
princes were unable to guard German interests in the
Vienna Congress. Germany, which had done the hard-
est and the decisive work in the defeat of Napoleon, was
here robbed of the results of her victories. The moving
spirit of that Congress was Talleyrand, the famous
French statesman, who represented the very nation that
had been defeated, but who, supported by the other
great powers, prevented Germany from attaining that
which all her patriots desired and expected. A united
Germany with a prospect of national vigor was not
what her neighbors wanted. They prevented the
return of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, the greater
part of which had been taken by France in times of
peace; they prevented the rounding out of Prussian
territory so that it would consist of one continuous
stretch of land, and in spite of all military success Ger-
many came out of this conflict, the burden of which
had been hers, weaker than she had been before. The
German Empire was given up by name in 1806, as it
had perished in fact centuries ago.

Of course there was a great and widespread feeling
of dissatisfaction with the princes, but when the ex-
citement of patriotic enthusiasm subsided with the
war, the political energy aroused by it had not
taken root firmly enough, and, on the other hand, the
spirit of loyalty and discipline was too strong to allow
the people to rise in rebellion as they ought to have
done. Besides, it took some time before they realized
that the delays actually meant a complete denial of the

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 455

former promises. Though the Napoleonic policy had
somewhat benefited inland commerce by the exclusion
of British merchandise, the gains had been spent in the
War of Liberation, and English competition brought
an economical weakening of the continent in the first
years after the Vienna Congress, and the resulting
poverty helped to break the spirit of the people.

But the conviction was settled that the time for pater-
nal government was over. The ideas of Liberalism took
hold of the people, especially of the middle classes. Up
to this time there had been no poHtical parties whatever
in Germany; interest in politics had been almost en-
tirely lacking. Now a liberal and a conservative party
began to form. The liberal party recruited itself prin-
cipally from the middle class with its ideals rooting in
Rationalism and Classicism, believing in a constitutional
but not a republican government. The great conflict
between liberalism and absolutism began. Absolutism,
burdened with the broken pledges of the princes, at
first was victorious by the strength of military and
police power. This treachery of the princes has been
called by Richard Wagner the blackest ingratitude
found in human history. The monarchs of Russia,
Austria, Prussia, and France united in the Holy Alliance
to protect their people against the tendencies of the
French Revolution. The Czar and the Austrian Prime
Minister, Count Metternich, were the champions of
the reactionary spirit, and their influence ruled all
over Europe, but especially in Germany. The national
ideals which led to the liberation of the fatherland now
appeared dangerous. The greatest patriots of Ger-
many, men like Ernst Moritz Arndt, Friedrich Ludwig
Jahn, and others, were persecuted. The period begins
when many of the best minds of Germany were com-

456 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

pelled to seek abroad the liberty their fatherland with-
held from them. Some of them returned under more
favorable circumstances ; as, for instance, List, the
national economist, who, having lived in the United
States for some time, was destined to render the most
valuable services to his people after his return under an
amnesty. Others were lost forever to the land of
their birth and devoted their talents to the country that
offered them a hospitable welcome. Amongst the po-
litical refugees of this long reactionary period Francis
Lieber, an authority on International Law, was one of
the first to make his home in America. He became pro-
fessor in Columbia College and the University of Vir-
ginia, and was called by Lincoln to frame the rules of
military law during the Civil War. To mention more
names would take too much of our space.

The Vienna Congress left Germany as a very loose
federation of states, whose organ was the Bundes-
tag, the Council of the Federated Governments,
which had represented, by permanent delegates or
ministers, a permanent body which was virtually a
continuation of the old Reichstag, with its seat in
Frankfort-on-the-Main. Most of its time was spent
in considering the best means of suppressing the liberal
tendencies in Germany.

Rome, i.e., the Pope, emerged from the Vienna Con-
gress greatly strengthened. It was the time when
Romanticism was in the ascendency. The Church
gained a great deal of its influence, lost since the days
of Louis XIV, partly because the monarchs saw in the
Church one of their strongest supports against modern
ideas. It was the so-called last Rationalist, dry, old
Nicolai, whose sharp eyes had, years ago, recognized
the danger of Jesuitism, as an outcome of Romanticism.

XLii DOWNFALL AND RISE 457

The Jesuit order was reinstalled in 1 814. In Germany
the rule of the French had brought about a consolidation
into a smaller number of states, so that there were only
thirty-six instead of three hundred sovereigns ; the secu-
lar rule of the Church was at an end everywhere, and the
Bishops and other dignitaries who had been German
princes were only priests of the Church of Rome, so
that their interest was centred outside their own
country.

However, in the religious field likewise strong liberal
currents asserted themselves, and meeting with the
tendencies of Romanticism towards Christian Unity, a
union of the two great sects of the Protestant Church,
the Lutheran and Reformed, was accomplished in
Prussia in 1817. A liberal movement in the Catholic
Church, under the leadership of Bishop Wessenberg,
came, as usual, to nothing.

The average citizen lost all desire to take part in
public life at all. Any open word was persecuted;
any liberal who showed the ambition or the ability to
be a leader was thrown into prison and treated
in such a way that he forgot to raise his voice again
for the rights of the people. Once more the common
citizen withdrew within his four walls, and the greatest
Philistinism became prevalent. In dressing-gown
(Schlafrock) and night-cap the German citizen of the
time was most appropriately represented in the comic
papers. Of course, the participation in serious public
business being denied, sociability gained in importance ;
that German quahty of easy and cheerful intercourse
without too much restraint by etiquette, the untrans-
latable Gemiitlichkeit, was strongly developed, or, ac-
cording to some, even had its origin in those days.

At the same time when there was so little chance to

458 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xlii

display any heroism a strong hero cult took hold of this
people. Now Goethe and Schiller were most enthusias-
tically admired ; but more than both they admired the
man who had trodden their fatherland under his feet,
Napoleon I, who showed that energy which they them-
selves were so sadly lacking. There was hardly a
house in some parts of Germany in which a picture of
Napoleon could not be found. The principal means
of entertainment are, as before, the periodicals, some
of which were of great literary value. In the litera-
ture of the time the Tragedy of Fate makes its
appearance with Z. Werner's drama, ''The Twenty-
fourth of February." In the meantime the men who
were destined to awaken Germany from her sleep were
growing up. Ludwig Boerne and Heinrich Heine pub-
lished their first writings. Taken all together, this was
a time of transition.

The reasons of this German patience, with existing
conditions unbearable, as they appear, are not hard to
find. In the first place, German Philistinism, of which
a great share enters into the national character, did not
like to be disturbed in its peaceful daily routine;
and in the second place, it was the respect for every-
thing that has historically grown which did not
favor any violent, sudden changes, but expected all
progress to come in the course of natural development ;
this, of course, strengthened the position of estab-
lished authority. But if we look deeper, we
shall see, as a third cause, behind all this a firm convic-
tion peculiar to the German that right, truth,
and virtue are sure to be victorious in the end,
and combined with this conviction a feeling of latent
strength, which told him that he might as well abide
his time.

CHAPTER XLIII

THE GROWTH OF LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL

1847

During the time of apparent political stagnation in
Germany, of the supremacy of the reactionary tendencies
to which the great majority of the citizens bowed their
heads without open resistance, the only home for truly
liberal and truly national ideas was to be found in the
universities, which, in spite of all the efforts on the part
of the government, succeeded on the whole in guarding
that liberty of teaching that made them great. Here
especially the idealistic youth could not forget the hopes
with which they had left their studies to drive the for-
eign tyrant out of their country and in which they were
so cruelly disappointed on their return. It was an
organization of students, Die deutsche Burschenschaft,
founded after the Wars of the Liberation, which for
many years was to form the centre of German Ideal-
ism, as far as it was directed towards German Hberty
and unity. The founders of this society, young as
they were, had matured to manhood, and won on the
battlefield their right to have a voice in the council of
their nation. With a solemn seriousness they con-
ceived their patriotic duties and imparted their idealis-
tic spirit to their younger followers. Throughout the
conflict between absolutism and liberalism the uni-
versities were the stronghold of the opposition and
furnished the leaders of the people in the combat

459

460 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

for their rights. Against the members of this student
organization the persecutions of the government were
principally directed, and many a good German had to
spend his youth and best manhood behind the prison
bars of a German fortress or in exile for no other reason
than that he wore the colors of the Burschenschaft,
black, red, gold, — supposed to be the colors of the
old German Empire. In the eyes of the rulers the
longing for national unity, spontaneous patriotism,
was identical with democratic convictions, — and
in fact they were found mostly united, — so that
in suppressing all national feeling they thought to
protect their own position. They wanted their sub-
jects to love their fatherland according to their former
conception, when every small state was considered to
be the "fatherland" of its inhabitants, while the Napo-
leonic Wars and German Idealism had matured the
greater conception of all Germany as the fatherland
of every German, no matter what his political allegiance
might be; in short, the rulers wished their subjects
to be good Prussians, Hessians, Austrians, or whatever
they were in the narrower sense, but they did not want
them to be Germans. We have seen that outside of
the universities this policy of suppression of the popu-
lar will had been facilitated by the economic weakness,
the actual poverty of the people. Again they with-
drew from the public interests, and turned towards
the ideal life, towards their own self, and apphed the
teachings of German Idealism to their own personali-
ties. They underwent in this manner a sort of self-
discipline, which gave them their inner, moral liberty,
before they acquired the external liberties which a free
constitution might give them. Of course, this quiet
resignation could not last forever; a younger, more

xLiii LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL 1847 461

energetic generation grew up, which was not satisfied
to be treated as pohtically immature, and demanded
the rights that were withheld from them.

When this feehng of opposition had gained sufficiently
in strength to become an important factor, about 1830,
there entered a new current, or rather a new force,
into the number of elements that compose the life of
a nation, a force which, with the more advanced na-
tions, had already outgro^Ti its first stages of develop-
ment, but which in Germany made itself felt for the
first time at this period when the first signs of renewed
vitahty of the people were forthcoming. This new
force was labor, — labor in the modern sense of the
word. This labor is very different from the work per-
formed by man in former periods. Formerly every
man was working for himself; he controlled his own
work and the future of his work. The completion of
the piece of work he had in hand was the aim of the
worker. But about 1830 the industrial change, which,
as has been said, had been completed in England long
ago, became a fact in Germany, and labor began to be
a force in itself ; it grew in power with increasing ve-
locity; it concentrated its power more and more until
to-day man does not control labor, but labor controls
man. It is the same result of industrial development
everywhere. Now the great majority of the people
are not able to choose their o\\ti work, the individual
becomes a mere instrument of the general progress of
industry ; he is simply one particle of the vast machinery
of national labor, and, if appearances do not deceive,
will in time be a particle, not of national labor, but of
the world's labor.

This new force came at the same time when the peo-
ple seemed to be exhausted in their longing for an ideal,

462 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

and their investigations seemed to have reached the
boundaries of the soul, as if they felt they could not go
beyond Kant and Schiller and Goethe. The pendulum
swung to the other side, and once more interest turned
to the outside world. The relation of man to his sur-
roundings became the centre of thought ; the increasing
importance of industry made demands upon science,
on which its technical progress was to depend; man
demanded greater control over nature. Thus the
rhythm of the soul and the throb of external life led alike
to a rise of the natural sciences ; on the one hand they
take the place of speculative philosophy, while on the
other that wonderful alliance of science and industry
which is the pride of modern Germany takes its start.

And just at this moment there came the impulses
set to work by the July Revolution in Paris which sent
its waves of excitement all over Europe and found also
in Germany a great number of people ready to welcome
the ideals of democracy. But it was too short a time
since they had turned from excessive introspection to
be prepared for the vigorous tasks of practical life,
and the Germans with their thirty-six states accustomed
to the guardianship of their rulers and officials, dis-
heartened and weakened by national misfortunes as
well as by poverty, were not yet ripe for a revolution.

Since political institutions gave no room for an open
exchange of ideas, since there was no freedom of speech,
and every journal or other publication was subject to
a strict censorship, the spreading of the liberal ideas
was not easy. In this way it came about that one of
the most important means of expression for the German
political aspirations towards liberty and unity was
developed in time in the great national festivals ; in
later years ostensibly held as reunions for Singing,

XLin LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL 1847 463

Turning (Gymnastic), or Shooting Associations. Thus
if we see the Germans all over the world making so
much of their Turnfest, Sdngerfest, or Schutzenfest,
it is not simply a matter of social enjoyment ; these
festivals take on a higher significance from the mem-
ories of the times when they were one of the means of
knitting the Germans into one nation. They were the
only occasion when they were united ; when, though
coming from various small states, they felt as Germans,
as brethren of one nationality. And this significance
has not entirely disappeared to-day, as is seen by the
enthusiasm aroused at these festivals when the people
greet the strong delegations of Germans not belonging
to the Empire, especially the Austrians and the German
Americans.

Under the influence of the newly awakened political
interests an important festival of this sort was held at
a place called Hambach in 1832 and has gone down in
history under the name of Hambacher Volksfest.
Here the friends of liberty and progress came together.
There were processions and a great number of speeches,
not only by Germans but also by others, especially by
Frenchmen and Poles. The Germans showed that
they well deserved their name of unpractical dreamers.
In spite of their own wretched political situation they
showed more interest in the liberty of Poland and in
the progress of the repubhcan cause in France than in
their own country. In spite of the experience of the
Rhenish enthusiasts of Revolution times, who had in-
vited the French as friends of liberty and were treated
by them as conquered enemies, and notwithstanding
the avowed enmity, the insulting contempt even of the
Poles for Germany, they welcomed them and flattered
their vanity by treating them as beings of a superior

464 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

order. In the course of events not a few have shed
their blood for them, as a great many ideahsts had
gone to fight for the better causes of Greek hberty and
the emancipation of the Spanish repubhcs in America.

Only one orator was heard at this German national
festival protesting against the arrogance of the French,
telling them that the German people were very much
in sympathy with a French republic and with French
liberal ideas in general, but that they would not agree
to any annexation of German territory by their French
friends.

The consequence of this festival was a renewed ef-
fort on the part of the reactionary governments to
suppress the progressive tendencies which suddenly
had given such signs of growing strength. New perse-
cutions began; and even such Princes as were of a
more liberal mind were compelled to join the others.
Once more some of the greatest and best names of
Germany are found on the lists of the inmates of prisons,
of whom I mention only Fritz Renter, the great Low
German romancer, and some of the best left their
fatherland forever.

But at the same time when all ideal tendencies
towards German unity were suppressed, the first prac-
tical steps in the development which was to end in a
united Germany were taken. They were united with
the name of Friedrich List, who, as a political exile,
had lived for some time in the United States. Together
with others he succeeded in founding the German Cus-
toms Union (Zollverein) of Prussia with several of
the smaller states, accomphshed in 1834. Here the
national idea enters into practical union with the rise
of industrialism. While it was the foremost purpose
of the Customs Union to serve the industrial and com-

XLiii LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL 1847 465

mercial progress of its members by abolishing the in-
terstate duties imposed upon commerce, it formed,
secondarily, the nucleus of a Germany without the
dangerous dualism between Prussia and Austria, which,
as is well known, has been one of the principal obstacles
in the way of forming a united German nation. List
likewise proposed the construction of a net of railroads
for Germany, recognizing its value not only for the
economic development of the country, but also as a
unifying force, bringing the different parts of the coun-
try into closer contact. For such far-sighted plans,
however, his time was not ripe. The first railroad in
Germany was the short line between Niirnberg and
Fiirth, opened in 1835.

The new interest in the practical problems of the
time extended also to hterature ; indeed, Boerne and
Heine had been at work for some time to arouse by
fearless criticism and satire the German Philistine from
his inactivity. They were followed by that school of
writers, called Dasjunge Deutschland (Young Germany),
partly under Romantic influence, who placed themselves
in the service of the national idea and spread the ideals
of unity and liberty among the people. This, of course,
made them an object of official persecution, the best
means not only to confirm them in their reformatory
zeal, but also to increase their popularity.

In the universities the liberal spirit, as we have seen,
kept ahve, and Germany owes to her university men
in the first half and the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury much more than a wonderful advancement of
science. The greater part of the physicians, the jurists,
the teachers, that graduated every year were apostles
of nationalism, of liberty, of progress ; they went among
the people and spread by word of mouth the ideas they

466 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

were not allowed to print. The young science of Ger-
manic philology became, so to speak, a political force
pointing to the old Germanic laws as witnesses of old
liberties and political rights. Pohtical speeches were
heard at scientific congresses, where they were least to
be expected. Similar observations might be made at
present in Russia where the universities have likewise
become the strongholds of progressive ideas. The crit-
ics of German political life of our days will frequently
compare the sturdy manliness of the German professor
of those older days with the attitude towards the gov-
ernment held by some of their modern successors, who,
in their smooth pliability, seem to be afraid of nothing
more than to displease the powers that have the pre-
ponderance in social life. And of the older generation
none have shown more backbone and are more fre-
quently referred to than the famous "Seven of Got-
tingen," who in 1839 refused to swear allegiance to the
king of Hanover under a new constitution which he had
given, abolishing the older more liberal one, without
consulting the representatives of the people. Their
consequent dismissal and exile caused excitement all
over Europe, especially since their names had a
good sound in the world of science, counting among
their number men like the brothers Grimm, Dahlmann,
and Gervinus.

A short time after this event a new king ascended the
throne of Prussia in the person of Frederick William IV.
His father, whose rule fell in the time of Napoleon and
of the Wars of Liberation, had been unable to keep
his promises because of pressure brought to bear upon
him by Austria and Russia ; on the whole he was far
from brilliant, though endowed with some common
sense which prompted him to be fair. The new king

XLiii LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL 1847 467

was of an impulsive, somewhat erratic character, vacil-
lating between old and modern ideals, easily losing
contact with actual life ; in short, he was a Romanticist.
He saw in mediaeval conditions the salvation of human-
ity; he was enthusiastic over Gothic art and all his-
torical relics, and of course a strong adherent of the
alliance of "Throne and Altar." He firmly believed
that the monarchy and the Church were bound to sup-
port each other; that if the people were not held in
submission by the clergy, his reign would be in danger.
He opened his ears willingly to the influences of the
most backward representatives of the Church party.
He gave the Catholic Church greater recognition and
a stronger position than it had ever held before in
Protestant Prussia, and conceded to it many points
less of a religious than political character. He is held
largely responsible for that intermixture of religion and
politics which has assumed such great dimensions and
has proved one of the worst drawbacks in German
development. "What we are suffering in the German
Empire to-day," says a modern German publicist, "the
denominational separation of our people and the Ultra-
montane immersion is, all things considered, principally
the fault of this German king; because he proved to
be weak, the Church and the sense of power of the
Church have become so strong, and thus we are reaping
to-day what he has sown."

In the political field it seemed at first as if certain
hopes of a more liberal policy, which he had aroused as
crown prince, would be realized, but soon all friends of
progress saw their mistake. But the current of liberal
ideas had become too strong to be suppressed any
longer. Certain events in external politics helped to
give a new stimulus to national sentiment. In conse-

468 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

quence of European complications there arose the
danger of a war with France in 1840. It became
rumored, and not without reason, that Thiers, the Prime
Minister of Louis PhiUppe, was planning an attack on
German, especially Prussian, territory. This aroused
all patriotic Germans, North and South. A popular
song, Becker's "Rheinlied," was the response to the
threatening rumor, and became a rallying cry of such
unmistakable success that the French politicians, who
had counted on the antagonism of the more liberal
southern states against Prussia, and the dissatisfaction
of the Catholic subject of Rhenish Prussia, — an error
which was made again in 1870, — gave up their plans of
conquest. Another incentive to a renewed outbreak
of national feeling was given a few years later when
Denmark, in violation of treaties, tried to make the
duchy of Schleswig together with Holstein, ruled in
personal union by the Danish king, a part of its polit-
ical body, an annexation to which the inhabitants of
Schleswig-Holstein offered armed resistance. Once
more the patriotic protests of all Germany found ex-
pression in a song, heard from the Alps to the North
Sea, the "Schleswig-Holstein Lied." During the excite-
ments of this movement the king of Prussia again
seemed to be on the point of justifying the expectations
of liberalism by calling together in Berlin the repre-
sentatives of the eight provinces (the provincial estates) .
But although this assembly for the first time united
the representatives of the whole state in one body, the
king was not willing to concede to them such rights as
to make them a truly parliamentary body. Still it
was not without effect; the possibilities of popular
representation were demonstrated, the necessity of
modern reforms was made more evident than ever

XLiii LIBERALISM AND NATIONALISM TILL 1847 469

before, political parties of a more decided character
began to form, and their leaders showed qualities which
might prove of the greatest advantage to the state and
the universal welfare of the people. In poetry political
lyrics now stood in the foreground ; Herwegh, Prutz,
Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Freiligrath, Meissner,
Hartmann, did not fear the reproach of desecrating
their Muse by placing her in the service of party poli-
tics, in the consciousness that they were striving for
the highest ideals.

The time since 1830 had been a time of political edu-
cation, but, in spite of the greater influence of practical
life, one of greater unity between thought and reality.
Idealism was still the ruling power ; the Germans still
deserved the name of a nation of ''thinkers and poets,"
certainly a title of honor, but not a testimonial of
ability to solve the problems of real life.

CHAPTER XLIV

1848 TO 1870

In the beginning of 1848 the spirit of liberalism, which
under the short sighted policy of the reactionary govern-
ments had also become the spirit of patriotism, had
gained considerable strength and was ready to press
openly its just demands for liberty and unity. Thus,
when the February Revolution broke out in Paris, it
found in Germany, not only inactive sympathizers,
but very active imitators who thought that at last the
time had come for popular government in Germany.
In spite of liberal concessions numerous revolutions
broke out, which were successful in some important
cities. But the German Idealists did not know how to
follow up the advantage and were satisfied when they
had gained the election of a constitutional parliament,
which met in St. Paul's Church, in Frankfort. While
the movement had decidedly a democratic character,
it was not a revolution to destroy the monarchical form
of government and replace it by a republic. There were
a great many republicans among the leaders, and the
revolutionists in Baden under Hecker and Struve were
for the establishment of a republic, but it was, on the
whole, more a violent outburst of dissatisfaction than
a movement with a well-defined end in view. After
all, the national element outweighed the political;
to form again one German nation was the aim of
almost all, but how to accomplish it was a ground of

470

CHAP. XLiv 1848 TO 1870 471

dissension. The question had to be settled whether
the united Germany should include both Austria and
Prussia, or Prussia alone ; it was clear that neither of
these great powers would submit to the supremacy of
the other. A great many of the Idealists and Roman-
ticists wanted the new German^'- to be as nearly as pos-
sible the same as the old ; the Austrian rulers had borne
the crown of the Empu-e, and a Germany without
Austria seemed only a mutilated trunk. But others
saw the impossibility of uniting the two great powers.
And if there was a question of one or the other, the fact
spoke against Austria that only the smaller part of
her interests lay in Germany, and that her German
policy had often had to suffer from the greater weight
of the non-German majority of her subjects. Besides,
Prussia was wholly German ; it had been the backbone
of German life since Frederick the Great ; it had taken
the lead in the liberation from the yoke of Napoleon,
and its splendid work after the battle of Jena had led
to the regeneration of all German}^ Already in 1804
one German author at least had advocated that Prussia
should break up the Roman Empire of the German
nation and take the leadership of the German states
without Austria. Thus there was the greatest dif-
ference of opinion between the Lesser and the Greater
Germans {Kleindeutsche und Grossdeutsche), and this
formed one of the reasons why the movement so
auspiciously begun was to fail.

The parliament of Frankfort has been called a par-

Jiament of professors ; they passed most excellent laws,

but had no power to execute and enforce them. They

adopted a constitution which provided for general

suffrage and embodied most liberal and democratic

4 demands. After long deliberation the Lesser Germans

472 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

carried the day, and it was decided to offer the crown of
the German Empire to Frederick Wilham IV. But
this Prince, by the grace of God, refused to accept it ;
he did not want the Imperial Crown from the hands of
the people, he did not want it as the result of a revolu-
tion. His refusal put an end to the dream of German
unity for the time being. A great disappointment took
hold of all friends of liberty and all patriots. But
men of keen political insight, of indomitable energy, of
broad views, did not come forth to lead the popular
forces to the desired goal. In despair one of the writers
of the time exclaims: ''If we had only one man in
millions, one fist, one hard fist of iron!" He was
unaware then that the fist of iron that was destined to
weld Germany together was already feeling for its tools.
Nor had men entirely disappeared from German life.
Not only had the greatest of German statesmen entered
upon the first stage of his career, but the creators of the
new idealism, also, did not discontinue their work.

We can imagine, however, that after the failure of the
revolutionary forces the governments tried once more to
return to the old regime. The courts had all the work
they could do, the prisons were filled, and executions,
only too often in defiance even' of the semblance of
law and justice and of common loyalty to given
promises, were frequent. A great many escaped and
formed part of that great current of German intelli-
gence and idealism which turned towards America, of
which the most brilliant representative was Carl
Schurz. They have left their indelible traces on Ameri-
can civilization. Almost immediately, for example,
their broadening influence was felt on the development
of the slave question. There is no doubt that without
the strengthening of the abolitionist cause, brought

xLiv 1848 TO 1870 473

about by these German Idealists, the problem would not
have found its solution as soon as it did, and many of the
old revolutionists made use of their experiences in 1848
in the defence of the Union during the Civil War. The
hopelessness left in the hearts of a great many progres-
sive patriots after the failure of the revolutionary
movement was made plain to the present writer by the
words of a noble-minded woman who had herself taken
an active part on the democratic side and closed a
narrative of her experiences by saying: "In 1850, I
was over twenty years of age and I said to myself :
Any man who has been deserving of respect, who has
been worth anything in Germany is either in prison,
or shot, or in America, so if I ever want to find a suit-
able husband I must go to America !" She had acted
on this conidction and really married a " Forty-Eighter "
who had fought on the barricades at Dresden.

The quiet time that followed was a period of renewal
rather than of resignation. It had become clear that
the ideal must depend for realization not merely on
logic, but on a strong will and practical means to con-
quer the realities behind it. It was found that the
German character was wanting principally on the side
of will. The intellectual classes turned to the phi-
losopher of will, to Arthur Schopenhauer, whose books,
published a generation ago, had been neglected. Now
they suddenly gained an extraordinary popularity, to
the great satisfaction of their aged author. Their
pessimism met the dissatisfaction of the defeated
Idealists ; the influence of his philosophy became deep
and lasting and is still active. But it did not take long
this time before the national spirit had sufhciently
recovered to rise to new aspirations, to new and repeated
efforts of self-assertion, which at last were destined to

474 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

end in victory. In spite of the failure of the '48 move-
ment and the consequent reaction, enough has been
wrought to make it possible to characterize distinctly
certain views, persons, or measures as "vonfidrzlich,"
i.e., of the time before ]March, 1848, when the Revolution
broke out in Germany. Even the king of Prussia had
condescended to give to his people a constitution with
representative government, although the latter was
and is based on a very illiberal suffrage. In 1859 an
immense reawakening of German Idealism and of
national spirit took place on the occasion of the Cen-
tennial Celebration of the birth of Friedrich Schiller,
which was observed with the greatest enthusiasm wher-
ever in the world German was spoken. It was far more
impressive and significant than the similar celebration
held in 1905, and forms most decidedl}^ one of the
component elements of the new spirit which led to
ultimate success.

Of more definite character and immediate practical
importance was the foundation of the German National
Society which became the centre of liberal and national
tendencies. ^ '

At the same time the Romanticist king of Prussia
had been compelled by a disease of the brain to hand
over the reins of government to his brother William,
who, after a short regency, followed him as king and
was destined to become the first German emperor.
He introduced liberal measures, appointed a liberal
cabinet, and tried to conduct his administration in
agreement with popular feeling. The general rejoicing,
however, came to a sudden end at the breaking out of
the important conflict which was to decide the future
of Germany, and has weakened the cause of democracy
for many years to come. Since the political judgment

XLiv 1848 TO 1870 475

of a great part of the German people is standing to-day
under the influence of this incident, it has lost its inci-
dental character as an episode in the constitutional
development, but has become of psychological moment.
Having witnessed in his early youth the disastrous
period of Jena, King William had not forgotten its
lessons, and recognizing the necessity of reform, he
proposed a reorganization of the Prussian army. " It
would be a punishable offence of the worst order if we
should parade with a cheap military establishment,
which would not meet with expectations at the deci-
sive moment," declared the governmental program.
" Prussia's army must be powerful and respected in order
to be able, when the time comes, to put a heavy political
weight in the scales."

But the plan met with the most violent opposition in
the Diet. The majority not only objected to the heavy
expenses, but was also displeased with certain features
of the measure itself, and furthermore hesitated to tax
the people in order to place at the disposal of the govern-
ment an increased military power without any guarantee
against its abuse. The Diet repeatedly refused to pass
the bill. Several liberal cabinets resigned. At last
the king himself, who felt the reorganization of the army
to be indispensable to the interests of the state, thought
of resigning, when he was persuaded to call Bismarck
to the head of the cabinet. The latter was Prussian
Minister in Paris when the call reached him. The
king told him that he did not want to rule if he could
not take the responsibility for his acts before God, be-
fore his conscience, and before his people, but that this
was impossible for him with the present majority of
the Diet, and he could not find any ministers willing
to take hold of the government against this majority ;

476 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

therefore he wanted to resign. Bismarck said he would
undertake the risk of conducting the affairs of state
without the consent of the majority of the Diet, and suc-
ceeded in persuading the king to remain. Not with-
out thinking of the fate of Charles I and Stafford, the
two persisted in doing what in their judgment was best
for their people against the will of the representatives
of this people and in defiance of the Constitution. There
is no doubt that if Bismarck had not undertaken this
risk, King William would have resigned, and the reor-
ganization of the army would not have been effected.
Without this reorganization the successes of 1864,
1866, and 1870 would not have been possible, and the
new Empire, the German nation, would not have come
to life. These are the facts of history. No German
will say to-day that it had been better if the king and
his minister had respected the Constitution and let
their country continue in its miserable and wretched
condition. The comparatively little confidence which
a great many Germans, especially of the ruling class,
have in parliamentary rule is readily understood,
when we remember that the German nation would not
be in existence to-day if the Constitution had been
adhered to. Few people will think further and recog-
nize that this inadequacy of representative government
in the face of a great national problem was due, and is
due where it occurs to-day, to the fact that it is not
really what it is pretended to be ; that the executive
department of the government does not think it neces-
sary to furnish the popular branch with the informa-
tion indispensable to form a correct judgment of the
needs of the state ; that from the facts in their pos-
session the administrative officers can easily foresee
events of which the representatives of the people can

XLiv 1848 TO 1870 477

have no possible prescience and which, therefore, they
cannot take into account in forming their decisions.
For the mass of the people it was sufficient that events
placed the king and Bismarck in the right, and the
Uberal Diet, who, through no fault of their own, could
not judge the political situation, in the wrong. The
Schleswig-Holstein question was decided by force of
arms in favor of Germany in 1864. Two years later
the reorganized Prussian army, in a short and decisive
war, defeated Austria. The problem of the Greater or
Lesser Germany was solved thereby, and it is hardly to
be believed that this could have been accomplished
without a war, since Austria never would have con-
sented to German unity ^dthout herself being one of
its most important factors. Thus German fought
against German in this war, which apparently was
unavoidable, but which was fought with more gallantry
and strategic skill than enthusiasm.

After the war was successfully ended, Bismarck and
the king surprised the Liberals by a failure to reenforce
absolutist tendencies, as had been feared, with some
justification after the experiences since 1813. But
triumphant victor as he was, Bismarck did not think it
humiliating to admit before the Diet that he had been
in the wrong and to ask for legal indemnification for his
steps. He was indemnified by a large majority, but
there was a small number of Liberals who still stuck to
their principles and refused to pardon the violation of
the Constitution. It was then that the fraction which
took the part of the government adopted the name
''National Liberal Party," which was to be of great
importance in the constructive work of the new German
Empire.

But, as we now know, another enemy was to be

478 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

guarded against, besides Austria, if Prussia was to fulfil
its mission of unifying Germany. Already after the
successful ending of the Austrian War, the French
Emperor, Napoleon III, had the impudence to ask the
victor to agree to what he pleased to call an arrange-
ment of boundaries ; in other words, he requested that
Prussia should cede to him, on the old theory of Euro-
pean equipoise, parts of the German territory on the
left bank of the Rhine. This demand was ignored.
Napoleon felt unsafe on his throne ; he thought to
strengthen his position by a brilliant foreign policy,
even by a successful war ; he was supported, or rather
instigated, in his plans by the Empress Eugenie. In vain
he tried to pick a quarrel over the disposal of the Duchy
of Luxemburg. Bismarck, who saw that war was
unavoidable, had not been satisfied with founding the
North German Federation in 1867, but had concluded
secret alliances with the Southern German States, so
that when at last the war broke out. Napoleon saw
arrayed against him, under the leadership of Prussia,
not only the smaller North German States, but a
united Germany. The differences of 1866 were for-
gotten ; North and South arose with the same enthu-
siasm against the common enemy. The day of national
unity had come ; the people knew that this time their
longing would at last be set at rest. Like their ancestors
they offered themselves in this war as a sacrifice ; the
old poetic treasures of the German soul were stirred up ;
in the old Prussian king, once the most hated prince in
Germany, they saw Barbarossa, who had been aroused
from his deep slumber in the Kyffhauser ; the inflam-
ing verses from Schiller's ''Tell" and from his ''Jung-
frau von Orleans" were heard everywhere and were
echoed in every heart. There was no boastful certainty

XLiv 1848 TO 1870 479

of victorj^, but a serious purpose to do one's duty and
not to shrink from anj^ sacrifice in defending the father-
land, and to bring, through victory, unity and integrity ;
to satisfy the long and bitter craving to become a
nation that might take its proper place amongst the
peoples of the world and hold the position due to it by
its untiring work in the service of the highest human
ideals. We know that this time their expectations were
not deceived ; that the alliance of the successful war
became the permanent confederation known as the
German Empire and that in the palace of Louis XIV,
Germany's greatest and most cruel enemy, the king of
Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor. With hesi-
tancy he had accepted the crown which seemed to
overshadow the glorj^ of his Prussian traditions; but
he accepted it not in the spirit of the conqueror who
might consider himself at that time the most powerful
monarch of the Continent. He showed the ypung
nation her line of development and gave expression to
the conception of the Germans of this successful war
and of their new Empire in his Proclamation of Accep-
tance, January 18, 1871 :

''We accept the Imperial dignity, hoping that the
German people will be allowed the reward of its enthu-
siastic and unselfish fight in a lasting peace and within
the boundaries annihilated for centuries, against re-
newed attacks of France. But God may grant to us
and our successors to be always the increasers of the
German Empire, not by conquest of war, but by the
blessings and gifts of peace, in the field of national
welfare, peace and morality."

This is the policy set before and adhered to by the
new German Empire in defiance of those who from
ignorance or malicious purpose try to represent it as a

480 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

source of continuous danger for its neighbors and all
the world, only waiting for an opportune moment to
begin the most cruel war history has known.

Already the North German Federation, founded by
Bismarck immediately after the war of 1866, began the
work of political construction which was to be con-
tinued with the new Empire.

By a constitutional convention a constitution was
adopted which was, in its principal traits, based on that
prepared by the Frankfort parliament in 1848. The
Reichstag, the parliament, is composed of representa-
tives of the people elected by universal suffrage ; any
German over twenty-five years of age, without distinc-
tion of birth or property, has the right to vote. The
reason Bismarck introduced this radical suffrage, al-
though he was by no means a democrat himself, may
be found in his conviction that the safety of German
unity was with the people at large, with the masses;
they formed a reliable counterweight against the private
ambitions and interests of the princes. He has ex-
pressed great confidence in the sound sense of the Ger-
man people : ''Only let them sit in the saddle," he said,
"they will be able to ride." The Germans have
thanked him for his confidence by forgetting many
phases of his internal policy, which seem to contradict
that statement and were decidedly unpopular and
undemocratic. He stands forth as the great man who
unified Germany, and we may say that he has passed
already to a state of legendary, mythical heroism. He
appears to the Germans as the greatest type of their
nationahty since Luther, who represents the best and
strongest features of German character. It will be
hard to find in history a man whose memory has been
honored as Bismarck's is honored by his nation to-day,

XLiv 1848 TO 1870 ; 481

out of a truly popular sentiment, in spite of disapproval
in the highest places and an explainable hatred of old
opponents. And here is a remarkable feature about
the manner in which they do homage to him. There
is a peculiar style of monument devoted to his memory,
unlike the majority of modern monuments; it makes
one think of the ways our Germanic ancestors might
have chosen to honor their heroes. Those Bismarck
towers, of which over three hundred are finished or
in process of erection, seem to be hewn out of the live
rock by Norsemen. At the time of the summer solstice,
more than at the eve of his birthday, huge fires are lit
on the top of the towers, while the Germans assemble
by torchlight in a memorial service to their dead hero.
Like the Germanic character, as the moderns like to
depict it, the rock reflects the flickering flames, unmoved,
defying any storm, despising external finery, represent-
ing only what is really his — strength, solidity, relia-
biUty. Thus the latest artistic statue of the "Iron
Chancellor," the Bismarck monument in Hamburg, is
not only a wonderful expression of this particular idea,
as it had come to life in the great personality of the man,
but may be taken as a typical representative of German
national art, the embodiment of a powerful spirit, a
revival of deepest racial instincts.

The German Constitution was taken over by the new
Empire with only slight changes, required by the cir-
cumstances, from the North German Federation. The
position of the Emperor is not that of sovereign. He
is simply the president of the Confederated Govern-
ments; the very title ''German Emperor" has been
chosen instead of Emperor of Germany, to avoid any
suspicion of unfounded claims. He is Commander-
in-Chief of the army and navy, but cannot declare war
2i

482 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

without the consent of the Confederated Governments,
which are represented in the Bundesrat, " Federation
Council." Here the states have a different number
of votes according to their size; Prussia, by far the
largest state, has seventeen votes out of a total of
fifty-four ; since the admission of Alsace-Lorraine in
1911, of fifty-seven. In exact proportion to its inhabit-
ants it should have more votes, but as it is, it has a
great preponderance and is almost always sure of suffi-
cient support to get a majority for its purposes. The
Supreme Court of the Empire has its seat in Leipzig.

Criminal and Civil Laws, Commercial and Industrial
Laws, are uniform for the whole Empire, as well as the
legal procedure, but the administration of justice, the
judiciary, with the exception of the Supreme Court, is
reserved to the single states. Uniform weights and
measures, — the metric system, — as well as a uniform
monetary system based on the gold standard, were
introduced at an early date. The postal and telegraph
as well as telephone systems are under the control of
the Empire, with certain reservations for Bavaria and
Wiirtemberg. The same states have reserved for
themselves a certain independence in military matters
in times of peace, though they are subject to the control
of the Emperor as Commander-in-Chief.

The financial system of the Empire has so far proven
to be a failure and has been unable to balance revenues
and expenditures.

The Empire has no cabinet, but the whole respon-
sibility of the government rests on the shoulders of the
Chancellor; gradually, however, certain departments
have been intrusted to secretaries of state, such as the
Postal Service and Foreign Affairs, although the latter
remains perhaps the most important sphere of the

XLiv 1848 TO 1870 483

Chancellor's competency ; for in its foreign policy, if
anywhere, the German Empire forms one unit.

While Germany has a constitutional, representative
government, it has not a parliamentary government.
The English constitution has not to any extent been
the model for Germany.

CHAPTER XLV

THE REIGN OF THE FIRST EMPEROR

The first decade of the new Empire was given to the
work of construction, in which the National Liberal
party played a most important part. But new party
influences made themselves felt before long and proved
more dangerous to the National Liberals than their
old Conservative antagonists or the radical elements
which had separated themselves from their own party.
The latter formed for a time, under the name of Pro-
gressive party, an influential part of the opposition, due
perhaps more to the intellectual capacity of its members,
men like Eugen Richter, Virchow, and Hanel, and others
of hardly less importance, than to their number. Later
they were di\dded again into separate groups and lost
their significance to a great extent. In 1910 all radical
liberals united to form one party.

The industrial development of Germany, which had
taken its start in the first third of the centur}^, had ad-
vanced so far that into the constitutional Reichstag of
1867 Labor was able to send at least one representative,
— August Bebel, who is the recognized leader of the
Socialist Labor party in Germany to-day. In the
first Reichstag elected under the new Constitution of
the North German Federation, seven socialist deputies
took their seats. Thus the social question came to
the surface in Germany, and soon gained place in the
foreground of interest when the Liberals, after a long

484

CHAP. XLv THE REIGN OF THE FIRST EMPEROR 485

and bitter fight, had reached their goal of German
unity, under a constitutional government with uni-
versal suffrage. The new problems sadly interfered
with the execution of their program, which had be-
come unsuited to the new conditions at an earlier time
than it could be realized, and thus they never really had
time to enjoy the fruit of their victory or to put their
theories to an unhampered practical test. However,
during the first years the danger which threatened to
arise from this new party to the present state of society
was overlooked, and Bismarck tried to finish his work
of national unification in another direction.

The Socialists were not the only new party that made
its appearance at the time the German Empire was
founded, and the representatives of the people set
about to work out the details of the national organiza-
tion. Of equal importance is the Ultramontane party,
which has tried to unite the German Catholics for po-
litical purposes. One must be careful not to identify
the Ultramontane party, or, as it is shortly called from
the seats its deputies hold in the Chamber, the Centre,
with the Catholic Church. Theoretically one may be
a very good Catholic without being a Centrist, and
on the other hand the Centrists have more than once
denied the Pope or the Higher Clergy the right to in-
terfere with their affairs. But practically it is very
difficult to say where the political influence ends and the
religious influence begins. There is a strong inter-
national Ultramontane current within the Catholic
Church, which popular opinion identifies with the
Jesuits and their followers. It is furthermore an un-
deniable fact that the disciplinary means of the Church
and the authoritative position of the clergy are frequently
used to strengthen the influence of the political party.

486 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

We know that since the days of Luther the denomi-
national Une between CathoUes and Protestants sepa-
rates German from German much more than the bound-
aries between the Empire and Austria or Switzerland.
At times the antagonism is less apparent, and in times of
greatest national vitahty, like 1813 or 1870, it is for-
gotten, but Ultramontanism has greatly emphasized
the gap. How much this religious disparity enters into
secular questions, into politics, can hardly be imagined
by Americans, who owe an undying gratitude to the
founders of the Republic for having kept religious and
state affairs completely separate. The experiences of
European nations should teach them that he is one of the
worst enemies of this country who, no matter under
what high pretext of justice or morals, will allow the
smallest breach of this principle. Both the Common-
wealth and religion suffer from this intermixture.
Historical tradition and the intimate connection of
the Protestant Church constitution with the political
organization of the state make a separation of Church
and state, the only possible solution of the problem,
extremely difficult in Germany, and this can only be
hoped for under democratic rule.

In 1870 the Ecumenical Council at the Vatican pro-
mulgated the infallibility of the Pope as an article of
faith of the Catholic Church. In the same year Italy
took advantage of the German victories over France
and by occupying the City of Rome, heretofore held
for the Pope by a French garrison, accomplished the
unity of the nation, as already in 1866 the Prussian
victories had carried the day for the Italians who had
been defeated in the field and at sea by Austria. The
acceptance of the dogma of infallibility more than
balanced the loss of prestige suffered by the Pope

XLV THE REIGN OF THE FIRST EMPEROR 487

through the loss of his secular possessions. Now in
Germany the Catholic party rallied on two demands :
first, that the state should recognize certain important
claims of a political nature of the Catholic Church ; and
second, that the young Empire should use its newly
acquired power to demand that Italy should relinquish
Rome and restore to the Pope his secular dominions,
and should eventually press this demand by force
of arms. Let alone the peaceful policy laid out for
Germany in the Emperor's Proclamation of Acceptance,
neither the Protestant governments nor the Liberal
party could be won for the support of such program.
This was the beginning of a serious conflict, which by
Rudolf Virchow, the great medical scholar and liberal
politician, was given the name of Kulturkampf, ''strife
for Culture," i.e., the contest between the medi-
aeval Roman and the modern German culture. The
battle was fought both in the Reichstag, where a law
exiling the Jesuits and other religious orders from Ger-
many was passed, and in the several Diets. Prussia
especially adopted certain laws, known as the Maige-
setze, — the Laws of May, — intended to bring the
Church into the organism of the modern state. The
Cathohc priests who would not submit to the new laws
were persecuted, as formerly Democrats and Liberals
were. Bishops and priests were imprisoned or exiled ;
they were not allowed to hold services, and their salaries
were withheld. This illiberal policy could only have
the effect of strengthening the Catholic party, the more
so since, though aiming at the interest of the state, of the
whole people, Protestants of a certain type could not
refrain from displaying their religious party spirit, and
hereby made the new legislation appear more like petty
party tyranny than a broad measure for public wel-

488 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

fare. Only a small part of the liberals withstood the
temptation to neglect their fundamental principles in
order to take advantage of their opponents. The con-
flict lasted for several years.

In the meantime industrialism, and with it socialism,
had become stronger. It became evident that the new
movement could not be neglected any longer. Though
Bismarck had made use of the constructive forces of
Liberahsm in organizing the Empire, he was still a
politician of the old school, who in internal politics
knew only of one way, to which, in the face of serious
opposition, he was rather quick to resort, namely, force.
The Liberals had not awakened to the fact that there
was a social question. As in the conflict with the
Church they showed that their Liberalism had value
only so far as their own rights were concerned, but that
they were not willing to apply their liberal principles
to the treatment of dangerous opponents. Bismarck
and the ruling powers saw that it was necessary to
concentrate all available forces in order to protect the
old historical institutions of society, embodied in the
modern state, and to unite the liberalizing middle
class with the conservative aristocracy and land-
holders, against the rising power of Sociahsm. The
result was a compromise between the Catholic party
and the government ; Bismarck, who at the height
of the conflict had proudly declared, "We shall never
go to Canossa!" yielded to Rome. Since then the
victorious Ultramontane party became an important
factor in German pohtics. The government had its
hands free to begin its fight against Sociahsm. The
plans of Bismarck were matured when, in 1878, old
Emperor William was twice shot at by fanatic socialists,
the second time not without receiving injuries. A

XLV THE REIGN OF THE FIRST EMPEROR 489

special law was passed for the suppression of Socialism,
and later renewed, which had the usual effect of such
legislation, viz., to foster the very movement it aims
to suppress. Still, the government did not confine
itself to persecuting the representatives of labor.
Recognizing the necessity of improvement for the
laboring classes, to which the Socialist's movement,
though it refused its aid in positive legislation,
had called attention, Emperor William, on No-
vember 17, 1880, sent forth his famous proclamation
recommending the passing of laws for the protection of
labor. It was the beginning of that social legislation
which, as far as the provision for the material welfare
of the laboring classes is concerned, has placed Germany
at the head of the civilized world; an important step
forward, which already means the payment of over one
million and a half marks a day to the families of work-
ing men who otherwise would be completely destitute.
Certainly more could be done, and ought to be done ;
but still the critics of the laws, none of whom would
|do without them any more, should remember that they
mean the recognition, for the first time, of a great
principle by making a right what used to be considered
"charity," thereby raising the dignity of manhood.
The labor legislation that followed the proclamation of
Emperor William under Bismarck's administration
3omprises an insurance law, a law for the protection
Df labor in case of accident, and a sick benefit law ;
;he state, the employer, and the employee share in the
expense. A revision of the laws in 1911 has extended
,heir benefits to rural laborers and added provisions for
v^idows and orphans, and a motherhood insurance.
Jnfortunately it has curtailed the working-men's part
•^ n administration.

490 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

By these measures William I and Bismarck, the
makers of the German nation, have increased their
claims to gratitude ; they have become benefactors of
humanity. Already other nations have imitated their
work, or are trying to improve upon it, but they will
always remain the pioneers, the pathfinders, and guides
in this glorious work of peace.

To give an idea of the development of these insti-
tutions, I quote from a United States Consular Report
(for 1910) as follows :

"Of a population of 63,879,000, about 13,385,000 per-
sons, 9,928,000 men and 3,457,000 women, were insured,
in 1909, against sickness under the disability insur-
ance acts, in 23,449 sick funds. The total number of
people insured against accident, after subtracting about
3,500,000 persons who were doubly insured, was about
23,767,000 — 14,854,000 men and 8,913,000 women.
This form of insurance was administered by 66 trade
corporations, 48 agricultural societies, and 545 state,
provincial, and municipal boards. Disability insur-
ance embraced about 15,444,000 persons, 10,707,000
men and 4,737,000 women, and was administered by 31
insurance organizations and 10 disability funds. The
income for all these forms of insurance amounted to
S212,200,000; employers' premiums totaling $98,312,000
and employees' $81,414,000. The state's contribution
was $12,257,000. The regular disbursements amounted
to $142,544,000, exclusive of reimbursements. Com-
pensation paid from the sick funds, including miners'
funds, amounted to $80,675,000, from accident insur-
ance $38,619,000, and from the disability funds
$44,989,000. The figures for 1910 had risen so much
that the sum devoted to these objects may be said to
have reached $250,000;000. To this must also be added

XLv THE REIGN OP THE FIRST EMPEROR 491

$50,000,000 for the insurance of public servants and
S50,000,000 for that of private servants."

But the beneficent results of these institutions are not
confined to direct financial assistance in times of need.
The accumulation of capital in the different insurance
funds, to a great extent under the administration of
the contributing working-men, has proved a wonderful
educational agent in hygiene and economics. Con-
valescent homes, open-air hospitals and schools, the
construction of hygienic working-men's homes by the
help of loans at low interest and cheap ground rent and
other improvements, as well as a more hygienic mode of
living, especially greater moderation in the use of alco-
hol, deserve special mention in this respect. Increased
efficiency of the working force has awakened employers
to the fact that the improved conditions of their la-
borers mean increased gains to themselves. No wonder
that ''social conscience" has become an indispensable
element of human character in Germany and has a
decisive voice in education, in legislation, in short, in
I the general shaping of private and public hfe. The
instruction and training of the future leaders of com-
merce and industry, in their social duties as citizens
and employers, is considered to be as important an end
of the commercial universities as the fitting of the
students for their special calling.

Special industrial courts (Gewerhegerichte) for the
protection of the rights of laborers as employees have
been in existence in Germany for a century.

The rise of industry caused a change in the tariff
policy of the Empire, which in 1879 changed from free
trade to protection. The increase of population, the
annual loss to the fatherland of hundreds of thousands
of emigrants, the desire to provide raw material as well

492 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xlv

as new markets for the ever-growing industry, caused
in 1884 the inauguration of the colonial policy of
Germany, just in the nick of time, before the older
commercial powers had laid their hands on all avail-
able parts of the globe. At first there did not seem to
be overmuch value in the territories acquired by Ger-
many, but the outlook is more favorable since they
have been thoroughly explored and unexpected re-
sources discovered. It remains to be seen, when the
Germans have finished their apprenticeship in colonial
administration, what German systematic thoroughness
and scientific methods of organization and exploitation
will be able to accomplish.

CHAPTER XLVI

NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS DURING THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY

The movement towards national unity and consti-
tutional government was so conspicuously in the fore-
ground of German life until the accomplishments of
its ends that it has seemed best not to interrupt our
narrative to consider the other currents of culture de-
velopment during the century. The longing for and
the realization of the external embodiment of the Ger-
man nation is coincident with the change of the German
man from a man of thought into a man of action. In-
deed, the desire to give physical expression to his inner
life, the application to practical life of the evolution
experienced by the national soul, may be considered
as the ultimate source of the movement in question.
The German Empire is the manifestation of this racial
will; call it ''will for power," if you please, but per-
haps it may be more adequate to call it a will for
active self-realization, the irresistible impulse to put to
practical use forces and accomplishments that have lain
idle.

Of course, there were the sentiments of national
brotherhood, of a desire for political rights. But since
the creation of the Empire the Germans are satisfied to
leave one-fourth of their racial brethren outside of the
blessings of poHtical unity, and in the possession of
universal suffrage the majority are apparently not in

493

494 HISTORY OF GER^IAX CIVILIZATION chap.

a huny to establish what we might call a truly demo-
cratic govermnent. Indeed, they see in their Emperor,
their army and navy, and their bureaucracy so many
representatives or visible parts of that product of self-
reahzation, i.e., the Empire. Up to the present it has
filled its purpose sufficiently well to make them over-
look many shortcomings, just as a manufacturer will
keep a machine which turns out satisfactory work,
in spite of some defects in its parts, and, rushed with
orders, he is even loath to interrupt his work in order
to mend these defects.

The political movement was, therefore, not unnat-
urally accompanied by a development of commerce and
industry, an interest in the sciences of reality and the
practical application of scientific results; instead of
speculative philosophy the natural sciences and history,
based on the investigation and verification of actual
occurrences and conditions of the past, take the lead in
the intellectual world. Even literature and art find gen-
eral recognition only when placed in the service of the
ruling tendencies of the times. Perhaps nothing is more
significant than the fact that the very greatest "UTiters
of Germany during the nineteenth century were almost
overlooked by their contemporaries and find due recog-
nition only with the approach of the twentieth century.

During the first decades of the century speculative
philosophy held high sway. Hegel, vdih. his historical
view of the world, as the realization of supreme reason,
and his dialectic, rules the mind. His philosophy
furnished the philosophical excuse for the reactionary
tendencies in state and Church at Berhn, which found
support likewise in Romanticism, while the Liberals
found their philosophical ammunition in the writings
of Fichte and Schelling, the latter himself a Romanticist.

xLVi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 495

But out of Hegel's school go forth the most radical
enemies of political conservatism and ecclesiastical
orthodoxy. Disciples of HegeUanism are David Fried-
rich Strauss, whose Life of Jesus appeared in 1835, and
Feuerbach, the father of German materialism. The
liberal opposition to the Church as one of the reaction-
ary forces made this view of the world welcome to
many members of the educated class. Strauss himself
adopted the materialist doctrine and preached it
in his later work, ''The Old and the New Creed"
(1872). Hegelians were also the founders of modern
sociaUsm, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the
middle of the century the mechanical view of the
world became more and more popularized, reviving
the French materialism of the eighteenth century. In
the meantime the scientists had broken loose from phi-
losophy altogether. The great discoveries in natural
science led them to believe that observation and ex-
periment were the only means of getting at the truth
underlying the universe. Wh&t could not be measured
and weighed had no existence for them. Karl Vogt
and Moleschott may be considered as the chief German
representatives of this mechano-chemical theory of the
universe. Thus science and philosophy had come to
the same results. Biichner 's rather shallow book, * ' Kraft
und Stoff," — ''Force and Matter," — continued the
work of popularization and was accepted as the essence
of an enhghtened view of the world by the general
reading pubhc. The appearance of Darwin's "De-
scent of Man" was welcomed as another evidence for
the truth of materialism. Darwinism and materialism
were taken as equivalent. "Force and Matter" held
its own as the greatly admired authority of German in-
tellectual youth. It still held the centre of popularity

496 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

when the SociaHst party began to arouse the proletariat
to a higher intellectual life, and has for a great many
of them taken the place of the Bible. We must,
however, be careful not to confound this materialist
view of the world, which took the form of atheism or
pantheism, with the ethical materialism in the relations
of human life. On the contrary, those who were the
most unselfish enthusiasts for the ideals of humanity, to
be obtained on earth, were found among the number
of those who denied the existence of a God and the im-
mortality of the soul ; while those who considered the
good things of this world, the material welfare, a mo-
nopoly of the few for whom the rest of the people were
destined to toil and sweat, were faithful members
of the churches, with the clergy only too willing to help
them. This explains easily why Social Democracy is
hostile to the Church, and why the materialistic view
of the world has remained so closely connected with
the economical doctrine of Socialism. The latter,
holding out before the laborer a comfortable life on
earth, such as he sees realized before his own eyes by
the more fortunate classes, has the advantage of those
who can promise only the happiness of heaven, which
never has been the object of actual experience. Too
late the leaders of Christian thought have discovered
that the demands of the proletariat might be founded
on Christian doctrine, as were those of the peasants in
Reformation times. As it is, continental Socialism and
Atheism go mostly together, and the efforts to separate
them have not been very successful, though the German
Social Democratic party has, for tactical reasons, de-
clared religion to be a private affair.

The new reahstic attitude of the mind made itself
felt within the Church, as we have already seen in D. F.

XLVi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 497

Strauss's book. The principles of historical and phil-
ological criticism were applied to the Bible, most
prominently at the University of Tubingen, strongly
supported by attempts to bring the teachings of
the Scriptures in accord with the result of science.
But the "RationaUst" element in the Protestant
Church made very little progress at first, a fact which
helped to estrange the radical lay element. Since the
beginning of the sixties, a continuous growth of the
liberal forces within the Protestant Church is observable,
more so since the reaction against pure materialism
has set in with the intellectual classes; but still the
orthodox element, supported by the government, is
in control. Within the Catholic Church liberalism
tried to assert itself in the formation of a ''German
CathoHc Church" in 1844 and again of the "Old
CathoHc Church" in 1871, both without vitality
and influence, although the latter during the times
of the Kulturkampf enjoyed the protection and
financial support of the Protestant governments. All
these movements find their parallels in other civilized
countries, of course, but they are of a peculiar impor-
tance in Germany, on account of the intricate con-
nection of the Church and state in that country and
the osmosis of intellect and emotion in the German
character.

Philosophy proper seemed entirely discredited. Dis-
satisfaction with existing conditions turned these in-
dependent thinkers who did not accept materialism to
embrace the pessimism of Schopenhauer and later that
of his most eminent follower, Eduard von Hartmann.
Hartmann (''Philosophy of the Unconscious"), Lotze
("Mikrokosmus"), and F. A. Lange ("History of Ma-
terialism" ) may be mentioned as the most repre-
2k

498 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

sentative philosophers, who tried to set their idealism
against the materialistic tide. However, the philosophi-
cal study turned mostly to the theor}^ of knowledge, to
history of philosophy, and to psychology.

The intellectual and spiritual revolution which began
about the year 1830 was, as we have seen, a funda-
mental one. The struggle was fought along the whole
Une and compelled those who took an active part in the
Ufe of the nation to choose a definite stand, not only
on poUtical and religious questions, but also on social,
ethical, and sesthetical problems. The hottest battle
was fought in the field of hterature, which became
decidedly partisan. Only those wTiters gained public
favor who placed their pen unreservedly in the service
of the popular demands. One feels tempted to say that
German public opinion had lost the feehng for the perma-
nent values m Hterature and was receptive only for those
products that might be used to meet the immediate in-
terests of the day. Even while the readjustment of
political and social conditions did not hold a conspicuous
place on the surface of national Hfe, the need for it was
not less \dvidly felt ; a part of the intellectual public,
disgusted by the excesses of the political IMuse, turned
to a worship of elegant form which passed by the really
powerful representatives of true national poetry. After-
wards, the Bismarckian era, wonderful spectacle of
national vigor as it offers in general, still is not devoid
of certain sjTQptoms of cultural morbidity, which was
not conducive to the appreciation nor the creation of
true art. Thus it came to pass that many of the best
writers of the century, inferior only to Goethe and
Schiller, had to be rediscovered when the crisis in the
national development came to an end and began to give
room to a feeling of greater security and health. Men

XLVi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 499

like EQeist, Grillparzer, Moericke, Ludwig, Hebbel,
Jordan, Raabe, Keller, have only recently found the
appreciation they deserve. So little known were these
great writers to their own nation that, when the re-
action set in against the threatening degeneracy,
shortly before and contemporaneously with the begin-
ning of the reign of Emperor William II, the ''youngest
Germany " turned to French, Scandinavian, and Russian
authors for literary discoveries which they might have
found in the German hterature of a few generations ago.
These products of the national spirit would have been
more congenial to their people than the appropriations
and imitations from foreign writers. But the generation
that went to school before 1880 was brought up in the
opinion that after Schiller and Goethe German literature
had produced a few scattered poems of merit, but no
personalities worth knowing. Their literary diet out-
side of school consisted of writers Hke Marlitt, E.
Werner, and others of that ilk, and, perhaps, Heine,
Freytag, Spielhagen, Heyse, Scheffel, Dahn, and Ebers.
Heine had been the leader of the political storm and
stress period from 1830 to 1848, and has remained a
favorite with those who are not in voluntary or in-
voluntary dependence of ''official Germany." He has
been and is of great influence with a great part of the
German youth, though modern nationalism is strongly
against him. Indeed, there are a few only of the poeti-
cally inclined who do not show in their first poems the
deep impression made upon them by Heine. His
language, both in prose and poetry, is rather
loose, often too much so ; but it has helped much to
open the eyes of the Germans to the usual stiltedness of
German style. With pitiless sarcasm he has scourged
the shortcomings, not only of the German conditions of

500 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap,

the period, especially of the governments, but also of the
character of the German people. On the other hand, he
has found most beautiful expressions for the tenderest
emotions of the German soul. There is, next to Goethe,
no German poet who has found so much appreciation
abroad as he. The antagonism shown to him by offi-
cialdom and race cranks is a proof that his writings
are a living force. There is only Schiller that excels
him in popularity to-day, barring Goethe's preeminent
hold on the intellectuals.

Here the German youth finds expression for the con-
trasting emotions of his soul, when the wide chasm be-
tween the ideal and the realities begins to dawn on
him in melancholy experience. Its keynote is the old
German zwivel, the Weltschmerz, not by any means
so modern a mood as many think. Old Bismarck, who
on his lonely walks in the ''Sachsenwald" carried a
volume of Heine in his coat pocket, may tell us how
wide the circle of his admirers really is. The cultured
world outside of Germany wonder that among the
superabundance of monuments in which Germany in-
dulges, where even the inventor of the card game of Skat
has his statue, Heine had to forego this honor for so long
a time. Still, it is clear that the citizen who is a Skat
enthusiast is much easier governed than an admirer of
Heine.

The opposition to Heine, however, it must be said, is
not confined to the official world, the Clericals and the
Anti-Semites. We must not forget that for the German
a work of art must be the expression of a strong person-
ality, and this they fail to find in Heine. Then, this is a
time of strong national or race feeling, especially strong
in Germany, where it asserts itself after a long period
of humiliation, and there is much in Heine that must

XLVi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 501

strike a German as foreign. The self-debasing irony
with which Heine has seemed to brand his best creations
as insincere, is looked upon by many as a defamation of
man's most sacred feelings. And yet it is decidedly
German to feel ashamed of one's innermost emotions
exposed to the public eye. When, with the passing
of the generation that began life without it, the
feeling of secure national existence has become so
natural to the German that he is not even conscious of
its presence ; when the self-conscious strength of the
nation has so changed the national character that it
will have outgrown the faults to the criticism of which
they are still sensitive, the poet will not lack the public
appreciation at home that is willingly conceded to him
abroad. At present, too many questions of vital im-
portance are before the German people to allow the
erection of a monument to a favorite poet to become
a political issue.

As popular as many of Heine's immediate followers,
centred in the literary group of "Young Germany,"
were in their time, we must leave it to history of litera-
ture to give them their proper rank ; it is the same
tendency that is at work in them all.

After the failure of the Revolution of 1848 and 1849,
part of the educated class turned away from a literature
that in the heat of battle had frequently lost its artistic
character and had sunk to the level of journalism, some-
times not even of an elevated kind . Romanticism was re-
vived in its most unwholesome form, characterized best,
perhaps, by mentioning as its most representative work
Oscar von Redwitz's "Amaranth" with its saccharine
moonshine. Others devoted themselves to a cult of
form that was not at all in keeping with German tradition.
But Geibel and Heyse, the masters of this school, for a

602 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

long time held the centre of the stage, and therefore
became the principal objects of attack and contempt
for the modern literary reformers.

But a few authors of greater depth succeeded in ob-
taining popularity at this time who clothed their mes-
sage in the Low-German dialect, showing the peasant
population and inhabitants of smaller cities of northern
Germany in their daily hfe as a thoroughly healthy
people. The same service was performed by Gustav
Freytag in his novel ''Sollund Haben" — "Debit and
Credit" — for the trading middle class, and in "Die
Verlorene Handschrift" — "The Lost Manuscript" —
for the university world. All this was welcome to the
people preparing to assert itself, and strengthened their
confidence in their own worth. He who wants to see the
"German people at work" in this period of holding
the breath before the last dash of national assertion
must read these books.

There is one other poet of this period whose popu-
larity did not have to wait long for recognition, I mean
Scheffel, who found his stanchest admirers amongst
that class of greatest enthusiasts in Germany, the Ger-
man students. As Heine's songs give to the senti-
mental side of the German youth such an adequate
expression as to make him feel that the poet had simply
anticipated his own feelings, Scheffel's humor seems to
come out of the students' own K7ieipzeitung, the
written periodical made up by contributions of the
members of the student corporations and read at their
weekly social gatherings. A cloudburst of youthful
poetry and humor, frequently not without artistic merit
or even genius, floods the German university world in
this manner every week and disappears in the soil like
a refreshing summer shower. As to Scheffel, he is

xLvi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 503

thoroughly German in all his works, the German view of
life underlies his poems as well as that masterpiece of his-
torical fiction, his "Ekkehard," for a long time the most
widely read German novel. It would be interesting
to follow up the lines of research why Renter, Freytag,
and Scheffel succeeded in entering into the national life,
when greater ones like Ludwig, Hebbel, and Raabe
failed.

The period immediately before the founding of the
Empire, when commerce and industrj^ and new-made
riches began to play their part, when it became the
ambition of Berlin to become the capital of Germany
in the same sense as Paris is the centre of French hfe,
means a falling off in the quahty of German litera-
tm-e and in some other sides of national life, which
lasted until in the second decade of the new order of
things. The result of the Franco-German War, with
the sudden increase of national wealth, the effect of
the popularization of the natural sciences, which, with
the same shallow self-satisfaction as the decadent
Rationalism of the eighteenth century, claimed that
the world held no more problems for deepest thought,
and the occupation of the best minds with political and
social problems promoted, rather than hindered, the
reign of commerciaUsm and ephemeral success in
the world of literature and art. It was the period
' when the solid growth of German industry and com-
' merce was interrupted by most unhealthy speculations ;
money never had been so plentiful in Germany, and,
for a time, the surface of life was bubbling with all the
vulgar luxury of freshly acquired wealth. It was the
prominent part which Jewish financiers as well as Jew-
ish writers played in this debauch of the business and
hterary world which, favored by the strengthened race-

504 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

feeling, has given rise to that disgraceful phenomenon
of anti-Semitism. Though slowly abating in its most ob-
noxious forms, it has done untold harm in preventing for
years the assimilation of the Jews which, especially with
the better classes, had made most promising progress.

A financial crisis soon made evident the hollowness of
this apparent success. The words of the now famous
criticism of German industry by the Imperial Commis-
sioner to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia,
1876, ''Cheap and Bad," may, without great injustice,
be apphed to the products of art, and what has been
said of the German literature of the century, to wit,
that the best authors remained almost unknown to
their contemporaries, is even more true as to painting
and sculpture. We know now that during the first
half of the century German art attained a high stand-
ard. Though Cornelius, Ranch, Schinkel, Semper,
Schwanthaler, and others did not fail of recognition in
their time, the number of artists of excellence, dis-
covered by the retrospective exhibitions of our days,
who have been forgotten or even have never been heard
of outside of the narrowest local circle is astonishing, and
has revealed the fact that, as in literature, so in art, the
pre-imperial Germany had reached all those attainments
which the modern artists went abroad to learn. To
talk of a truly national art in the sense that it had be-
come the property of a considerable part of the people
would, of course, be incorrect, no matter how distinc-
tive a character its works exhibit. The poverty of the
Germans did not allow the buying of pictures by private
persons, outside of one private gallery, and thus of
oil-paintings portraits almost alone found their way
into private houses. Modern travelling facilities were
unknown, and the treasures of public galleries were ac-

xLvi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 505

cessible to a few only. Even good graphic reproduc-
tions were not easily obtainable. Thus of artists who
became truly popular we can mention, perhaps, only
Ludwig Richter and Moritz von Schwind, who, poor
colorists though they are, gave true expression, and
therefore appealed to the soul-hfe as it revealed itself
in work and pleasure, in street and home, in field
and forest, as well as in song, story, and fairy-tale. As
in hterature we may mention some names that have
found their proper place in popular favor only in recent
times, as Rethel, Menzel, Boekhn, Leibl, Thoma, and
others, while 1 mention the name of Hans Makart as
the favorite of the period of vulgarity, contemporane-
ous with the beginning of the Empire.

It is in this period of artistic decay that Richard
Wagner reached the height of his success. There was,
perhaps, no other occasion which brought forth the
full vulgarity of a shoddy public that noisily tried to
set the fashion for the German people, as far as they
made themselves conspicuous, than the scenes before
and during the opening of the Bayreuth theatre. This
observation has nothing to do with the high place the
composer holds in the hall of fame of German music.
He was not the product of that time, and it was not the
best in him that gave rise to the boisterous controversy.
As a personality he towers like a giant above the
pygmies with whom he had to share the popular favor
of his day. No matter what place history will concede
to him, it will be one of highest honor ; but in the evo-
lution of German culture his crowning achievement,
"Parsival," does not express the ideal of the rejuvenated
nation, nor does it revive the spirit of German classi-
cism ; it is at best, artistically spoken, the last word of
the pessimism and romanticism of a dying age.

506 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

It would be wrong to go on with this narrative with-
out mentioning at least a few of the men who, after
Beethoven and the classical period, were instrumental
in making music such an integral part of German na-
tional life. Already during the time of Napoleonic rule
the famous Male Singing Society of Berlin, Zelter's
Liedertafel, had been founded for the expressed pur-
pose "of singing in the service of the King and Father-
land, of the Common Good, of the German Soul and
German Faithfulness," and had attracted the active
interest of Goethe. Carl Maria von Weber composed
some of his best songs for this society. In the South
similar societies were organized under the influence of
the Swiss Naegeli, and on the impulse of the enthusiasm
aroused by Weber's stirring compositions for Koerner's
patriotic songs. Silcher and Kreuzer were their most
popular composers. The German student song must
not be forgotten in this connection. The Romanti-
cists contributed their collection of ''VolksHeder " in
''Des Knaben-Wunderhorn," while especially some of
Eichendorf's poems have inspired some of the most
popular compositions. In 1821 Weber's "Freischiitz,"
that most "German" of operas, found a most enthu-
siastic reception, and appeals more to the tastes of the
German people to-day than Salome or Electra. From
Weber the current of musical development leads directly
to Richard Wagner, who turned to him after discover-
ing the shallowness of the cosmopolitan school of
Meyerbeer, whose music he characterized as "an effect
without cause."

What Weber, Silcher, Erck, and others had become
for the popular mass-song is paralleled in the composi-
tions of Mendelssohn-Bartholdi, Schubert, and Schu-
mann for the social culture of the family.

XLVi NON-POLITICAL CURRENTS 507

As to the period of decadence mentioned before, we
are too close to it, too many of us have experienced
its direct influence to be able to give an objective judg-
ment. How deep the disease which showed all the
symptoms of degeneracy had infected the national
body is hard to tell. However, we must not forget
that while those dangerous symptoms were, and are
still, though in a smaller degree, conspicuous on the
surface, the German schoolmaster has still been teach-
ing, day by day, the great lessons of veracity, duty,
honesty, and industry, and distributing the inheritance
of German idealism, doubly valuable because so much
of it had left the world of dreams and had become
reality. Barbarossa had left the Kyffhauser, and long-
ing had been changed into will and action. Still the
German people sing their beautiful songs.

German science, while not entirely avoiding com-
mercialism and success worship, still continued its
search for truth, preparing to counteract the mischief
of premature popularizers, while it placed its results
in the service of public welfare. Liebig had more than
doubled the productivity of the soil by showing new
ways to agricultural chemistry twelve years after
Woehler had laid the foundation of organic chemistry.
Robert Mayer was the first to discover the Law of the
Conservation of Energy; in 1846, Werner Siemens
invents the gutta-percha insulation for cables; in
1857, the gas regenerator ; in 1866, the electro-dynamo,
and in 1879, he invents and operates the first electric
railway. Kirchhoff and Bunsen discover spectrum-
analysis in 1860; Herz the electric waves in 1888.
Space would not be sufficient to complete this hst,
even if we confined ourselves to a mere enumeration
of names and important contributions to human

508 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap, xlvi

progress, known all over the world, and belonging to
this period.

At the same time the German school systems have
been modernized by increasing the opportunities for
technical education, the expansion of the secondary
schools.

It certainly sounds somewhat exaggerated when we
hear German critics talk of national degeneracy in the
Bismarckian Era, simply because some of the bad con-
sequences of rapidly gained wealth became evident,
and because a superficial and premature popularization
of scientific hypotheses favored for a time a mechanical
view of fife ; this talk of degeneracy is, perhaps, prin-
cipally due to the fact that the change in the condition
of the individual expected from the achievement of
national unity was not at once realized, and the hope
for another Golden Age of Art and Literature, like
that of Greece after the Persian wars, had been dis-
appointed.

CHAPTER XLVII

THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II

A NEW period begins for the German Empire and for
German life in general with the last decade of the nine-
teenth century, which had, indeed, already been prepar-
ing since 1880. As has been pointed out before, the first
decade of the new Empire had been taken up with the
organization of its institutions. An attempt to assert
the authority of the German state against the Roman
Church had been abandoned, the expulsion of the Jesuit
order from the Empire being one of the few lasting
results. The forces just set free were to be used to keep
down the new social element, the working classes, who
were asking for recognition of their rights through the
medium of the social-democratic party. But all re-
pressive laws were of no avail ; the laborer had come to
stay, the importance of the social question made itself
felt, and the first step towards its solution without the
total destruction of the fabric of society had been taken
in the enactment of the laborers' old age, sick benefit,
and accident insurance laws. This, indeed, was only
a first tentative step towards the solution of a new
problem, more difficult, but even more urgent, than the
many others agitating the national soul.

These measures must not be defined as paternalism ;
they mean an expansion of the conception of the state.
They mean the recognition of the furtherance of human
culture in its widest sense as a purpose of the national

509

510 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap. !

state in addition to the protection of its citizens. ■,
Indeed, it was only the natural consequence of the de-
velopment" that set in with the period of enhghtened
despotism, and a development not at all in contrast
with the Germanic conception of organized society, in
which all those tasks were allotted to the state which
could not be adequately performed by the in-
dividual. In other words, the German sees in the
state, as a recent writer expresses it, ''the executive
instrument of the organized will of the people."

The social problem is of an international character,
indeed, but its solution is nowhere so urgent as in Ger-
many, since nowhere are the representatives of labor
so well organized and so radical in their demands ; and
in no other country has democracy had so little time for
development before the great industrial change took
place. This social question has come so prominently
into the foreground that it has caused a complete de-
morahzation of the old political parties, since people
who stand for the same pohtical principles differ widely
on the social-economical side. There is a process of
readjustment going on now. It would seem but nat-
ural that the men whose political ideal is the participa-
tion of the governed in the government under some
form of constitution would come to a point where they
are willing to give the working-man a voice in the shap-
ing of the conditions which control his labor. At the
same time, in the ranks of the Social Democracy, a re-
cession from the doctrinarianism of the first years
appears to be noticeable, and, as is but natural with
German thinkers, the view gains ground that any
change towards their social ideal can be brought about
only by organic development of the historical factors.
The neglect of the historical element is easily under-

XLvii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 511

stood in a party whose existence does not date any
farther back than the present pohtical conditions.
Thus, while the Sociahst party escaped the disadvan-
tage of being too closely bound by historical tradition,
only too common in German life, it made the opposite
mistake of overlooking the law of historical continuity
altogether.

In the meantime German industry, which had caused
this social unrest, has, by diligent application of both
the results and the disciphne of German science, be-
come ready to enter the markets of the world. Thirteen
years after the Philadelphia Exhibition and Professor
Reuleaux's scathing criticism, the Paris Exhibition
revealed an unprecedented advance and showed that
Germany had as good as removed the difference that
for so long had placed England and France ahead of
her in industrial civihzation. At home the change
from an agricultural to an industrial nation had been
completed, and an unparalleled increase of the popu-
lation of the cities had set in.

The solution of numberless questions of practical
poUtics, in which everybody participated under uni-
versal suffrage ; the powerful position of the Empire,
which, under Bismarck's leadership, held the political
supremacy of Europe ; the example of practical energy
given by the Iron Chancellor himself; the strenuous
tension of the new industrial rivalry and the "^ider view,
opened bj^ international commerce ; the control over
nature gained by the great progress of the natural
sciences and the inclination towards a mechanical view
of the world ; again, the industrial application of
science, which, active heretofore only in the search
after truth, now had become the servant of wealth-pro-
ducing activities, — all this had apparently made out

512 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

of the nation of "poets and thinkers " a nation of wealth-
seekers and men of practical life. It seemed as if
German ideahsm had played its part. Such was the
character of German life when the first generations who
had received their education in the schools of a united
Germany entered upon the stage of political and social
life. These young men had grown up as the sons of a
great and respected nation, not merely the subjects of
some petty prince whom and whose nation any under-
ling of a foreign government might insult without fear
of rebuke.

Fate willed that at the same time a man of the same
generation should ascend the throne of the Empire.
Wilhelm II, in contrast to his father and grandfather,
had before him, from boyhood, the prospect of the Im-
perial Crown, and in another sense he belonged to a
new generation of princes inasmuch as he had shared
the school life of at least his educated subjects.

Thus it happens that the reign of Wilhelm II marks
an epoch in German life, not in the sense that he was
the cause of this change, but by a coincidence outside
of human control. Even if he was less of a personality
himself, his reign would go down to history as one of the
most interesting periods of German development. As
it is, he joins in the struggle as an element to be counted
with, now fostering progress, now trying to stem him-
self against the tide of modern development.

The first decade of the young Emperor's rule was a
time of dissatisfaction. The reasons for this have
been in part explained in the last chapter. The faults
of the Germans have never lacked critics among their
own nation; now we find a whole group of '^ culture
critics," of people who take issue with the tendencies
of the time, and the lack of what they call a truly

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 513

national culture. The most important of these was
Friedrich Nietzsche, "the philosopher, poet, and
prophet." But there are other elements entering into
the general feeling of discontent with existing condi-
tions ; they were not confined to Germany, but repre-
sented the attitude of the civilized world for which the
term fin de siecle has become popular. In Germany,
where the universal military service, the strong rule of
bureaucracy under a head like Bismarck, on the one
hand, and the general democratic tendencies of the
century and the spread of socialism, on the other,
apparently strove for the same result of bringing all
people to the same level, individualism felt more than
usually oppressed and joined the forces of the mal-
contents.

The "new course" entered upon by Wilhelm caused
an endless amount of criticism, and even irritation.
The reception which Professor Quidde's "CaUgula," one
of the most clever and sensational political pasquils ever
published, found on all sides shows most clearly the
trend of public opinion. The whole pamphlet con-
sisted of quotations from Roman historians on the
Roman Emperor Caligula. No reference whatever to
Wilhelm II was to be found, so that no case could be
made out against its author, but everybody exchanged
in his mind the name of the ruling German Emperor for
that of the ancient Roman one of unenviable fame. I will
not say that no good reasons might be given why Bis-
marck should have made room for a younger, more
modern Chancellor, but the concomitant circumstances
of his dismissal gave to the world the most disgraceful
spectacle of base ingratitude and cowardly byzantinism
the accredited leaders of any modern nation have ever
displayed; a fact which can be explained but never

514 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

excused. It aroused the indignant protest of the grow-
ing generation, which in the schools of the new Empire
had learned to see in him and the old Emperor the
makers of their nation, and had entered the political life
ready to be stanch supporters of the government and
its conservative policy. The true sentiment of the
people showed itself in a continuous series of pilgrimages
from all parts of the Empire to the old Chancellor's
Buen Retiro in Friedrichsruhe, and in the attention
with which the utterance of his titanic wrath as well
as of his wise, statesman-like counsels were received.
The German academical youth showed once more their
healthy national spirit, and there was no more hopeful
sign for the future of Germany than the pilgrimage of
ten thousand students doing homage to the founder of
their nation at his eightieth birthday.

The vacillating policy of the Emperor, who under-
took to be his own chancellor, added a new element of
insecurity to the restlessness of the nation. It did
not take long to see that the commanding position
occupied by Germany, as long as Bismarck held the
helm of state, had been lost when the pilot left the ship.
The dissatisfaction with the Emperor's ''personal
regime" had come to a climax only twenty years later,
when a rather unimportant incident aroused public
opinion to such an extent that the Reichstag made the
person of the Emperor the object of an open and pro-
longed discussion in which hardly a voice was heard in
his defence, an unheard-of procedure in German his-
tory, but not failing of the desired effect.

Indeed, parliament was the mouthpiece of public
opinion, and public opinion has become powerful
enough to command the attention of the government,
even though it has a majority in parliament to do its

xLvii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 515

bidding. Several unpopular measures of a reactionary
character have been withdrawn in recent years, though
their legislative enactment was assured. In turn, the
government found a popular majority in its favor when-
ever the Reichstag was dissolved. Thus it seems, after
all, from other forms of constitutional government, the
ultimate power rests with the people.

There are many points, however, in the Emperor's
favor, and though the people have found it necessary
to censure him, they recognize his great merits. It is
largely due to him that the German merchant marine
and shipbuilding industry has reached the place it
holds to-day. He refused to renew the unjust laws for
the suppression of Socialism; military service was
reduced from three to two years ; and there are other
measures to his credit. With all his romantic ideas as
to the divine mission of the king, he is a truly modern
ruler and is sensitive to the new forces of the times.

Political party life is taken so much more seriously
in Germany than elsewhere because it is based on fun-
damental difference of the Weltanschauung, of religious
opinion. That is why the question of the secular,
denominational, or interdenominational character of the
public schools is the subject of endless political strife.

What keeps the conservative forces, the old agrarian
aristocracy, the military nobility, and the bureaucratic
hierarchy in power is, outside of the historical tradi-
tions, the necessity for the government to secure the
passage of the military and naval budget. The Liberals
have not always been reliable in this respect ; the
Centrist party has made its consent always an object
of dickering, while the Social Democrats refuse to vote
the budget altogether. The old Conservatives may be
considered, more or less, as the party of Orthodox

516 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

Protestantism, while the so-called Free Conservatives
concentrate their strength in upholding the central
power of the state. The Liberals may be called the
representatives of a more liberal and rationahstic
Christianity, including adherents of the active volun-
tarism of Eucken, of views similar to those of President
Eliot, and of a more radical pantheism or monism ;
while the Centrist party, comprising all shades of
political creeds, represents ultramontane Catholicism.
Of course, allowance must be made for exceptions and
transitions. As the parties are not simply organiza-
tions for political expediency, it is easily understood
that a serious difference of opinion will often cause a
split in the party, so that, instead of four great parties
just described, there are a number of factions or groups.
Under these conditions parliamentary government in
the sense of party government is impossible. But
even though it was possible, it is doubtful whether the
Germans would want it. They expect their adminis-
tration to stand above the parties, and though historical
development and dynastic interest naturally let the
government incline towards certain political maxims
and affiliations, it generally tries to maintain the equi-
librium between all interests, and, in consequence, can
give complete satisfaction to none, for all have to make
sacrifices. Only in order that it may pass legislation
considered to be in the interest of the whole nation, the
government identifies itself with combinations of differ-
ent parties — with the exception of the strongest of all
in popular votes, the Socialists, who, at the election of
1906, had a following of three and a quarter million
voters. They claim that a just division of election
districts would give their party at least one hundred
and forty seats in the Reichstag. The deficiency of

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 517

political rights in many of the state constitutions is
naturally a cause of great dissatisfaction with many.
Ever stronger becomes the demand for a modernization
of the constitutions and a just distribution of election
districts. Some states, especially in the South, have
already reformed their suffrages.

An experiment to form a government majority of the
Conservative and Liberal parties against the Centrists
and Social Democrats, in 1907-1908, proved a failure,
and ended in the resignation of Chancellor von Buelow.
Since then a more natural coalition has been formed by
the Conservative and Centrist parties ; that is, by the
Protestant and Catholic Conservatives. This gave a
renewed ascendency to the so-called Prussian concep-
tion of government with its tendency towards bureau-
cratic and police tutelage, its inclination to rely on the
hereditary nobility and militarism. An awakening of
the liberal element, a renewed clamor for recognition of
the political rights of the people, an inclination towards
a temporary combination of the liberal and social
democratic forces for the purpose of obtaining full
political rights, and a democratization of the adminis-
tration is the result. There are many who believe that
the final struggle against the supremacy of the reaction-
ary powers has begun, and that the new Reichstag, to be
elected 1912, will bear a changed appearance. The
election campaign began in 1910, and had from the
start a very passionate character, with the destruction
of the preponderance of aristocratic, bureaucratic, cleri-
cal, and police influence as a dominant issue. But, not-
withstanding the well-known standpoint of the Social
Democrats, there is nothing to indicate a strengthen-
ing of anti-monarchical feeling.

As a curiosity, the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg

518 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

must be mentioned, which still have no constitution at
all, and live under some form of territorial feudalism,
while, as citizens of the Empire, they enjoy the demo-
cratic rights of universal suffrage.

While there is no party government, as we know it in
England, there is a most efficient check on the arbitrary
use of governmental power in the obligation of the
Chancellor and his secretaries, and the cabinet minis-
ters or their representatives to appear in person before
the popular representatives, answer interpollations,
and give information on all expenditures and occurrences
that fall in their department. The discussion of the
annual budget, especially, furnishes the opportunity to
give an account before the whole country of the conduct
of all departments of administration, to investigate and
set to right irregularities of the minutest order, and to
protect the poorest against administrative arbitrariness.
The newspapers print stenographic reports of all ses-
sions, and every German has an opportunity to inform
himself how his nation and his state is governed, and
to have any grievance attended to. This makes par-
liamentary debates in Germany often appear too long
drawn out and trifling, but this is a cheap price to be
paid for the conduct of government in a manner that
does not need to avoid the most open and frank expla-
nations.

The body of the bureaucracy cannot be said to be
free from modern success worship and byzantinism, but
it still maintains its integrity and enjoys the confidence
of the people. They consider their officials the best in
the world, but do not fail to criticise them freely.
They complain of too much class-spirit, of a certain
favoritism shown to the extreme royalist and militarist
elements in Prussia, and especially find fault with the

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 519

military tone frequently heard in the dealings, not of
subaltern officials only, with the public. Recently,
however, they show a decided tendency to come in
closer touch with the actual life of the people, and
technical experts begin to replace the ubiquitous jurist.

Observing the eminent success of German state,
provincial, and municipal administration, in meeting the
problems of public welfare, the unsparing criticism of
their government by the Germans is somewhat surpris-
ing. However, it would be unjust to attribute the
apparent dissatisfaction wholly to ''German invidious-
ness" ; it may, at the same time, be taken as another
demonstration of the old truth that material prosperity
and external power are not sufficient to give content-
ment to a high-spirited, self-respecting people.

While the struggle for more democratic methods in
politics is going on, a new party alignment on entirely
different principles of division seems to arise out of the
chaos of conflicting economical interests. Heretofore
already certain of the parties, by the nature of their
constituencies, have been more or less closely allied to
special economical interests. As the industrialization
of the country progressed, the extreme Conservative
party, having their stronghold in the landed nobility
of the East, the ancient colonization territory, have
identified themselves more and more with the agrarian
interests. The Farmers Alhance {Bund der Land-
wirte), an association for the protection and promotion
of agriculture, forms the backbone of the party which of
late is most frequently designated as "the Agrarians."
While these represent apparently in the first place the
great landholders, recent movements indicate a ten-
dency of separation on the part of holders of small farms
whose organization. Peasants Alliance (Bauernhund) ,
inclines towards liberal affiliations.

520 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

The Social Democratic party has been, from the
beginning, the party of the industrial laborers. The
labor movement in Germany, as has been pointed out,
is distinguished from that of other countries in that it
started with the organization of a political party. But
of recent years, after the effects of the special legisla-
tion against socialism had passed away, trade-unionism
is in the ascendency and claims ever-increasing atten-
tion in the decisions of the political party. The Socialist
or Free Unions have over 2,000,000 members to-day.
Besides these the non-Socialist laborers have been
organized in the so-called Christian or National Unions,
which claim over 1,000,000 laborers. While their
representatives in the parliaments are affiliated with
the more conservative parties, experience has shown
that in actual labor conflicts they side mostly with their
more radical brethren of the Free Unions. So do like-
wise the so-called Hirsch-Duncker Unions (100,000
members), alhed poUtically to the Liberals. There
have recently been added by special efforts of capitalists
a number of unions that identify themselves with their
employers ; they are considered as scabs by the other
organizations, and called ''Yellow" Unions. In 1910
Germany had all together 2,400,000 Union labor-
ers.

Besides the industrial laborers proper there are strong
organizations of the technical, commercial, admin-
istrative, and other employees of private enterprises
(Privatbeamte) , which, though of recent origin, com-
prised nearly 1,000,000 members in December, 1906.
All organizations propose to take an active part in
political life, — if not trying to exercise an exclusive
control over one distinct party, as the Free Unions
have done, still hoping to influence legislation through

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 521

candidates pledged to champion their interests in return
for their votes.

The latest organization, which, founded in 1908, has
reached an unprecedented growth, is the Hansabund.
It was planned as a counterweight against the pre-
dominant influence of the Farmers Alliance, comprising
the representatives of commerce and industry, not only
of the great capitalist concerns, but also the middle
class, the small tradespeople and independent craftsmen
{Handwerker), emploj^rs as well as employees. If in-
dications are not deceiving, their presence will make
itself distinctl}^ felt in politics and will help to empha-
size social-economical opinions in the distinction of
political parties. It is not at all impossible that in time
we shall have to deal with industrial, agrarian parties,
etc., instead of Conservatives and Liberals.

In spite of all conflicts, employers and employees
have, on the whole, a fair understanding for the com-
munity of their interests — "under existing conditions,"
as the socialists would add. Disastrous strikes are
not frequent, and deeds of violence, though not entirely
absent, are not the rule. What is called the "dry
wage movement," that is, an improvement of the
laborer's conditions by negotiations without resort
to strikes, proves more successful from year to year.
The right of strike and boycott is recognized by the
highest court of the Empire. INIany econoixiists see in
collective bargaining, the wage tariff agreement, in a
kind of constitutional arrangement of the relations
between employer and employed, the approaching solu-
tion of the social question. As the first, practically the
whole printers' trade was united in such an agreement,
which, renewed for three periods of five years each, has
secured an undisturbed peace in that trade for fifteen

522 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

years. The Free Unions especially favor these tariff
agreements, which are increasing at the rate of nearly
two thousand per year, even in such branches as were
formerly declared absolutely unfit for them.

In the world of literature and art and in the concep-
tion of life the apparent exhaustion, the superficialit}^
and materialistic tendency during the Bismarckian
Era, characterized in the last chapter, met "with vigorous
opposition as soon as the first generation, grown up in
the young Empire, began to feel as men, unfortunately
in many cases before they were really entitled to do so,
and the new Storm and Stress period, which set in
between 1880 and 1890, exhibits a decidedly immature
character. Not strong enough to stand by themselves,
too ignorant to recognize the hidden current of healthy
German literature, the young authors turned to for-
eign models. Zola, Dostojewsky, Ibsen, were the
prophets of the new school, and while, though uncon-
sciously^, they were right in their feeling that a reawak-
ening was necessary, they made of themselves at first
a rather disgusting spectacle, affecting a decadence
which in reality was not their own. They were not
able to rid themselves so easily from unhealthy influ-
ences at home and were attracted by the assumption
of artistic form abroad. Their naturalism became
vulgarity; in their antagonism against the hollo"vsTiess
of fashionable sham literatiu-e, they turned against all
ideahstic art as untrue, and the demand for ''truth, not
beauty," became the new slogan. The social question
was justly recognized by them as the leading interest
of the times, but they only saw and reproduced the
dark side of it. It was a period of wild experimenta-
tion with all theories of art, of psychology, and so forth
that had arisen at any place and at any time.

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAIM II 523

The juvenile moderns were looking for a national
prophet when, about 1890, Friedrich Nietzsche was
first introduced to a greater public by the Danish litera-
teur George Brandes. His criticism of the ''culture
PhiUstines," his theory of the "superman," of amoral-
ism, were the very food for which their rebellious
souls had been starving. The artistic and mystical
form in which the philosopher's teachings were clothed
increased their attractiveness, but most of all, Nietz-
sche's personality, his life, which ''consumed itself
in the flame" of his own genius. It is this unity of his
personality with his work which represents his real
and lasting value for the generation of young Germans
that followed him as their master. For a time the
catch phrases, the "superman," who stands "beyond
good and bad," and numerous others, played great
havoc with immature, weak-brained people of brutal,
uncontrolled instincts, but, on the whole, his influence
has been a wholesome one, and the more he retreats
with advancing years, the more the greatness in his
personality and the lasting contributions of his phi-
losophy are recognized and appreciated. His demand
for a "revaluation of all values" certainly expresses
the needs of our times and begins to bear fruit. With
Nietzsche a new interest in ideahstic philosophy sets in.

None of his admirers of the "Youngest Germany" has
reached the goal of a new great literature. After many
promising beginnings their most talented authors have
disappointed us, their growth has ceased before they
succeeded in finding the highest, or even a satisfactory,
expression of the emotions of this age, the poetical
solution of its problems. Still, Germany owes to them,
after they had outgro-v^m their infantile disease of exag-
gerated naturaUsm, the return to honest, truthful

524 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

literary production. In lyric poetry, and especially
prose fiction, Germany brings forth most meritorious
work, firmly planted in the life of the people and out-
ranked by no other nation.

More fortunate than literature were the plastic arts'.
Here we find the same immature beginnings, the same
leaning on foreign models. But the painters really
were benefited by the advanced technique of their
French teachers, although the same achievements had
been reached by their older countrymen, unbeknown
to them. Here we see growth, here we see more of a
successful struggle with the problems of the day. A
few of the old school have lived long enough to secure,
after all, an uninterrupted healthy tradition. Very
creditable work has been done by many of the younger
artists, a most interesting life is stirring the artistic
world, hundreds of brains are busy, hundreds of eyes
and hands, to solve new problems. There is apparently
nothing in the universe of mind and matter that has
not something to tell to some German artist, a message
he tries to express in line and color, in light and shade.
New techniques are tried, old ones resuscitated to new
liie. Not a few find one mode of artistic expression
insufficient ; they paint and etch, engrave in copper and
draw with pen and ink, or form in stone and bronze.
Sculpture and architecture have come nearest to the
creation of a distinct national style of art. Such a
style, however, seems to have been produced by Indus-
trial Art, as was revealed to the world by the Brussels
Exhibition, 1910, reluctantly appreciated even by
French critics.

But modern idealists, who want to see a truly national
culture centred in art, are at work to give an artistic
aspect to the daily life even of the humblest children

xLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 525

of the nation. WTiatever has come down from past
times of artistic products, in house and field, of build-
ings, of fine scenic effects in cities and villages, of
picturesque ruins, of beautiful scenery, even a single
tree, which are of interest by their appearance or some
romantic story, is carefully preserved. The law begins
to recognize the artistic milieu as a public asset, which
no individual may destroy by tasteless structures.
Provincial costumes and dialects are fostered. Beauty
has entered the workshop and the factory, and the
tasteful products of modern machines vie with fine
reproductions at low cost of older masterpieces.

It has been said above that Nietzsche came at a time
when speculative philosophy, so long neglected, began
to attract renewed attention. The mechanical theory
of the world, taught by materialism, failed to give lasting
satisfaction ; the natural sciences had proved themselves
to be unable to answer the last questions of existence.
Ernst Hackel, the successor of Vogt, Moleschott, and
Biichner in popular favor, whom Charles Darwin called
the greatest exponent of his theory, protests against
being called a materialist and claims kinship to the
pantheism of Spinoza and Goethe. Many philosophi-
cal systems have adherents amongst the intellectual
classes, especially such as make the will their funda-
mental principle. Of all modern philosophers Eucken
seems to be in greatest favor with the cultured classes
outside of strict Christianity. Mysticism again has
found its place in German philosophy and has entered
into the theories of some of the most radical thinkers.
Even German Catholicism begins to respond to the
modern spirit. Also here in science and literature,
within the limits set by dogmatism, a healthy activity
is displayed and shows creditable results, too little
noticed, it seem,s, by their non-Catholic countrymen.

526 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

How little Germany is willing to rest contented with
its achievements may be seen by the continuous expan-
sion of its educational facilities. To her large system
of technical and professional schools the Commercial
University was added at the end of the nineteenth
century, an institution coming fully up to its name in
its requirements and accomplishments. Prussia has
lead the way in a modern organization of the higher
education of girls, still in its first period of practical
test. Since 1908 all German universities admit women
on equal terms with men, counting 1911 nearly three
thousand female students. Special sociological and
economical courses are held for people standing in
active life for a long time as government officials,
judges, teachers, etc. The first municipal university
will be opened in the near future in Frankfort-on-the-
Main. Continuation schools provide for the boys and
girls after dismissal from the common school, and their
employers are legally held to give them leave to attend
them in daytime, as night schools for young people
after a day's work do not meet with approval. An
academy for the study of Municipal Administration in
Diisseldorf is the latest addition to the educational
system.

It would be wrong to fail in this connection to call
attention to the beneficent influence of the socialist
movement on the education of the working classes.
Based on the economical conception of history, it must,
of course, be one-sided from the start. But, let alone
that the arousing of the masses out of their indolent
lethargy is in itself a great accomplishment in the
service of progress, the leaders have by no means
confined themselves to expounding economical and
political theories, but have succeeded in awakening the

L xLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 527

interest of the people in higher culture as it manifests
itself in science, literature, and art. Compared to the
shallow pursuits of many of their despisers, the youthful
enthusiasm of numerous laborers for everything beau-
tiful, true, and noble, for any new and great achieve-
ment, gives one a refreshing reassurance for the future.
It is one of the stupidities of the bureaucratic govern-
ment, out of fear of their political theories, to place, by
police regulations, obstacles in the way of the socialist
endeavors to give to the laboring youths, after school
age, a higher standard of life ; the results of their experi-
ments with anti-socialist legislation in Bismarck's
times ought to have taught the authorities the futility
of similar methods.

The end of the nineteenth century seems to open a
very hopeful outlook for Germany. It is true all the
great centrifugal forces that threaten to rend Germany
asunder are still at work. Northern sober pedantry and
cool reasoning against the emotional nature of the easy-
going South; Catholicism against Protestantism; or-
thodoxy against liberalism, rationalism, and disbelief;
the classes against the masses ; reaction and habit
against progress in politics, in art, in social questions ;
capitalistic concentration against the individualist of
the middle class and the laborer who claims his own ;
agriculture against industry and commerce; but, in
spite of all this, the spirit of national unity, the common
interest, is strong enough to hold all the contrasting
elements together. The same spirit, at the bottom,
inspires them all ; the great task of readjusting the inner
man to the new external conditions is felt alike by every
thinking German ; more and more they find themselves
united in positive production, while science begins to
gather the fruit of overlong specialization, and, side

528 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

by side with art, seems to promise an harmonious,
self-centred national culture, based on a unified view of
the world.

A few words in conclusion as to German idealism !
According to some modern writers it is a thing of the
past. It is really touching to read the expressions —
usually in the French or English language — of deepest
sorrow at the sad change of the Germans since they
have ceased to be a ''nation of poets and thinkers,"
and have taken a hand in the world's affairs as men of
purposeful and successful action. But a cool observer
will concede that ideal interests still have a large part
in German life, in the daily work of the German people.
Idealism cannot be wanting in a nation that bases its
whole activity, so to speak, on the results of scientific
research ; it shows its influence even in the most unpre-
tentious trades. Idealism is apparent in the energetic
manifestation of the social conscience, the striving after
social justice. It is effective in that longing for the
inner unification of the nation. It is true, the class
controversies of modern development have emphasized
the bars between the social strata, but earnest efforts
are made to remove these bars, not only by those
attempts at the solution of the social question, the
establishment of social peace, but by a more human
mutual approach of the opponents.

It is in the service of this inner national unity, of a
strengthened national consciousness, that we see those
interests arrayed which German idealism of the old type
considered always as the highest ; to wit, the struggle
for a theory of life and the universe, the struggle for a
new culture. There are increasing signs that this
idealism, which in the pressure of new tasks, set by
new conditions, certainly did not overshadow all

XLVii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 529

national life as it did when it opened almost the only-
outlet to a higher intellectuality, will again take a
prominent part in the development of the German
people. But there is a difference between the idealism
of the nineteenth century and that of the twentieth :
while the former in its postulate of pure humanity had
put up an abstraction which took no account whatever
of the actualities of life, modern German idealism has
learnt that, no matter how lofty your aims are, you can
reach them only if you first fill your position in the sur-
roundings and under the conditions in which nature
has placed you. While it still may be the abstraction
of the perfect man which is the aim of the modern
German idealist, he sees the only way of reaching this
ideal by the perfection of the German man so that he
can fulfil his mission for the best of mankind. To
discover and develop the germs for further evolution
that are born with him and improved by the oppor-
tunities offered to him by his surroundings, is the
immediate task before him.

Most vividly he feels the inadequateness of the
answers given by inherited culture to the most im-
portant questions; he longs for the visible expression
of the modern soul, for a saviour out of its harrow-
ing struggles. To find a national form for this ex-
pression is his most ardent desire; that is what he
means by national culture. From this point of view
the movement in literature and art of the last twenty
years is to be judged ; it is one great struggle for inner
harmony in visible expression.

And is not all the world held by the same expectation
of something great to come? While a new spiritual
world is slowly forming, who is to be its prophet, its
interpreter ? Will he be a great philosopher, dramatist,

530 HISTORY OF GERMAN CIVILIZATION chap.

poet, artist? a man of action? Whenever such
restiveness has agitated the soul of the people in times
past, the great man has been forthcoming. If it be a
German, will not his genius show relationship to Luther,
to Schiller, to Beethoven, rather than to Bach, Kant,
or Goethe ? — or will he unite both sides of the German
character ?

But if it be asked what are the high ideals of the
German people to-day, I should say : those of all noble
men — Truth, Justice, Beauty. The search for Truth
should reveal to him the deepest mysteries of existence ;
his industrious search is rewarded by the mastery of
helpful natural forces. Justice, as social justice, should
secure for him and for his people the rights due to them ;
but it demands at the same time of everybody a con-
sciousness of responsibility towards society, of the duty
to fill one's place in the nation and in the world ; it
demands equal opportunities for all to enjoy the good
things of this life, a share in modern achievements for
everybody. Beauty should give expression in graceful
external appearance to the soul's innermost experience,
representing the unity of all life. To realize all this
in his personality and in his people is the purpose of
political and social organization, inner and outer
freedom are its foundations, conditions of being for
which he strives with his whole being, with his hfe.
This is the meaning of his will for power : safety from
interference with his individual and national develop-
ment. History has taught the Germans to trust in
their invincibility when they are united in the defence
of their rights. By force of arms the progress of Ger-
many in the arts of peace may perhaps be retarded, but
never stopped. Only one thing is left to the nations
that do not want to be left behind in the peaceful rivalry

xLvii THE REIGN OF WILLIAM II 531

of human progress ; that is, to become the equals of
Germany in untiring industry, in scientific thoroughness,
in sense of duty, in patient persistence, in inteUigent,
voluntary submission to organization.

The German himself, however, must take care that
he forever remain conscious of his ideals, and remember
that wherever the pernicious consequences of acquired
riches and power, the ruin of so many noble nations,
become visible, — and we know that they are at work,
— the first symptoms of decadence must be pitilessly
eradicated.

INDEX

Aachen, 194.
Absolutism, 318-326, 347, 348, 382,
^ 455.

Accent, 31, 32.

Adalbert, St., 172.

Adolf of Holstein, 171.

JEneas Sylvius, see PiiLS II.

^lius, 93.

Africa, 82.

Agrarians, see Conservatives.

Agriculture, 28, 42, 126, 157, 158, 159,
161, 162, 293, 511.

Aixla Chapelle, see Aachen Aix les
Bains, 75.

Alamans, Alemans, 86, 91, 103, 325.

Alaric, 82, 93, 107.

Albertus Magnus, 232.

Albrecht of Mainz, 248.

Aleander, 250.

Alembert, d', 388.

Alexandria, 5, 130.

Alliteration, 31.

Alpine type of man, 24, 26.

AZps, 143 ; see also Swiss, Tyrol.

Alsace, 81, 122.

Alsace-Lorraine, 454, 482.

AU-Breisach, 167.

.Amenca, 43, 53, 55, 68, 84, 113, 134,
173, 201, 224, 254, 280, 288,
289, 302, 321, 323, 340, 347,
348, 365, 369, 385, 399, 406,
418, 434, 438, 451, 456, 463, 486,
504, 516.

Anabaptists, 280.

Angles, 92.

Anglo-Saxon, -s, 6, 46, 86, 109, 331.

Anthropology, 13, 14, 15, 21.

Anti-Semitism, see Jews.

Antwerp, 194.

Arab, -ic, -s, 144, 202, 289.

Arausio, 74, 78.

Arbogast, 93.

Archceology, 13, 14, 15, 21.

Architecture, 20, 168, 202-205, 247.

Arianism, 86.

Ariovistus, 79-81, 93.

Aristocracy, see Nobility.

Aristotle, 243, 403.

Arminius, 78, 93.

Arms, 40, 76, 77, 320.

Arndt, E. M., 452, 455.

Arnulfings, see Karlings.

Art, 27, 32, 43, 44, 67. 71, 168, 197,
200-205, 233, 273, 283, 293, 294,
330, 331, 401, 402, 403, 412, 426,
427, 434, 481, 494, 503, 504, 505,
512, 514, 525.
industrial, 67, 200-202, 219, 272,
273, 293, 524.

Aryan, see Indo-European.

Asceticism, 127, 128, 142..

Asm, -tic', 16, 20, 25, 26, 176.

Athens, 82.

Attila, 93, 95.

Augsburg, 194, 278, 280, 303.
Convention, 280, 282.

Ausonius, 38.

Austria, 58, 171, 249, 283, 291, 349,

361, 381, 396, 435. 451, 455, 463,
465, 406, 472, 473, 477, 478, 486.

Avarians, 176.

Babylon, 5, 20.
Babylonians, 16, 17.
Bach, J. S., 314, 315.
Bacon, 244, 380, 440.
Baden, 470.
Baireuth, 505.

Baltic plain, shores, sea, 25, 173, 192,
193, 290.
pro\nnces, 192, 287, 435.
Baits, see Letto-Lithuanians.
Bamberg, 204.

Banking, 182, 209, 210, 280.
Barbarossa, see Frederick I, Emperor.
Barmen, 395.
Basel, 194.
Bastami (-ae), 73.
Bavaria, -ns, 38, 79, 91, 103, 311, 349,

362, 482.
Bayle, 345.
Bebel, 484.
Becker, J., 353.
Becker, N., 468.

533

534

INDEX

Beethoven, 316, 317, 421, 425, 506.

Behaim, Martin, 193.

Belgae, SO.

Benedict, St., Order of, see Monas-
teries.

Beowulf, 6, 40.

Berlin, 170, 303, 391, 395, 427, 468,
503.

Bern, 194.

Bernburg type, 20.

Bernhard of Clairvaux, 146.

Bernward of Hildesheim, 197.

Berthold of Regensburg, 244.

Bismarck, 58, 134, 164, 421, 448, 472,
474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 480, 481,
485, 488, 489, 498, 500, 511, 513,
614, 522, 527.

Bissula, 38.

Black Forest, 180.

Black Sea, 28, 49, 73.

Blackstone, 55.

Blood feud, 63, 64, 65.

Bock, 353.

Bocklin, 505.

Bodin, Jean, 276.

Boehm, Jacob, 310, 347.

Bohemia, 79, 172, 303.

Boii, 79.

Boiorix, 76.

Bologna, 227.

Boniface, St., 86, 125, 134.

Boniface VIII, 139.

Borgia, house of, 282.

Borkum, 165.

Borne, 458, 465.

Boundaries, 35, 173.

Bouvines, battle, 125, 286.

Brabant, 273.

Brandenburg, 276, 286, 350 ; see Prus-
sia.

Brandes, 523.

Braun, Canon, 362.

Braunschweig, 194, 395.

Bremen, 194. 219, 420.

Breslau, 194. 267.

Brethren of Common Life, 226, 258.

Britain, see England.

Bronze Age, 20, 28.

Bruges, see Brugge.

BrUgge, 194.

Brunhild, 101.

5runo of Toul, 138.

Brussels, 524.

Bryce, James, 286.

BiXchner, L., 495.

Buergi, 352.

Building, 41, 168, 219; see ArcAf-

Billow, v., 517.

Bundestag, see Reichstag.

Bundschuh, 39.

Bunsen, 507.

Bureaucracy, see Officials.

Burggraf, J., 420.

Burgundian, -s, 36, 83, 103, 150, 218,

277.
Burke, 405.

Burschenschaft, 459, 460.
Buttmann, 453.
Byrhtnoth, 58.
Byzantium,, see Constantinople.

Cassar, 8, 35, 56, 61, 73, 79-82, 91.

Caete, 339.

Cagliostro, 335, 401.

CaZi'in, 259.

Calvinism, 272, 345.

Cambrai, 100.

Camerarius, 353.

Canossa, 133, 134. 184, 187, 488.

Capital, -ism, 211, 228, 240, 279, 285,
291, 292, 520, 521, 522.

Carlisle, 405.

Carolingians, see Karlings.

Carolus, Johannes, 355.

Carstens, 426.

Cartesianism, see Descartes.

Cassiodorus, 56.

CasiZes, 175, 176.

Caialaunian Fields, 94.

Catholicism, Roman, see Catholics.
Deutsch-Katholiken, 397, 497.
Old, 497.

Catholics, Cath. Church, 37, 86, 105,
113, 118, 120. 125, 134, 145. 158,
210, 231, 232, 233, 238-241, 245,
247, 276, 280, 281, 282, 309, 335,
362, 397, 429, 438, 456, 457, 467,
468, 485-488, 496, 497, 525.

Celt, -ic, see Kelt.

Centre, Centrists, see Catholics, Politi-
cal Parties.

Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 14,
94, 239.

Character, 6, 29, 32, 33, 34, 41,46,
47, 48. 50. 53, 57. 58, 61, 62, 63,
75, 78, 79, 81, 83, 92. 101. 108,
128. 145, 148, 149, 158, 160, 164,
166, 174, 195, 206, 213. 214, 216,
221-223, 232, 237, 247, 253, 288,

INDEX

535

289, 302, 303, 304, 305, 315, 316,
324. 325, 326, 333, 335, 337, 341,
374, 377, 379, 381, 389, 412, 413,
417, 418, 429, 432, 436, 443, 446,
453, 457, 458, 463, 466, 469, 473,
478, 480, 481, 491, 493, 507, 511,
513, 518, 519, 530, 531.

Chararich, 100.

Charity, see Social Welfare.

Charles the Bald, 239.

Charles the Great, 86, 103, 104, 108,
129, 130, 134, 181, 183, 185,
186, 193, 196, 218, 235, 239, 311.

Charles the Hammer, see Karl Marlell.

Charles IV, Emperor, 151.

Charles VII, of France, 286, 320.

Charles VIII, of France, 286.

Charles X, Emperor, 250, 276, 286,
319.

Cherusks, 40.

Childerich, 101.

Chilperich, 88, 101.

Chivalry, 142-154, 185, 230.

Chloderic, 100.

Chlodowech, 100, 101, 114, 181, 311.

Chlodowiecky, 426.

Christianity, 9,43, 02, 63, 85-90, 200,
210,233,238, 239, 240, 241, 309,
368, 496, 497, 525.

Church, see Catholics, Protestants.

Church and State, 103, 104, 105, 123,
126, 133-140, 467, 486-488, 494,
497.

Cimbri, see Kimbers.

Cistercians, 171.

Cities, 93, 175-178, 191-213, 223, 224,
230, 245, 281, 296, 444.

Civilization, 3-7, 84, 103, 106, 145,
161, 164, 236, 246, 271, 406, 416,
419.
history of, 4-7.

Classes, social, 54, 56, 122, 143, 144,

160, 172, 211, 212, 227, 232, 285,

288, 297, 298, 324, 326, 363, 385,

386, 434, 444, 446, 519-522.

organizations by, 519, 520, 521, 522.

Classicism, 130, 390, 415, 437, 443,
455 ; see Humanism.

Claudius, 343.

Clausewitz, von, 412.

Climate, 37.

Clovis, see Chlodowech.

Cluny, 137.

Coin, coinage, see Money.

Colbert, 349, 384.

Coleridge, 405.

Collective Bargaining, see Labor.

Cologne, see Koln.

Columba, 125.

Columbia College, 456.

Columbus, 236.

Comenius, 348.

Comitatus, see Retinue.

Commerce, 48, 49, 191-193, 209-211,

273, 280, 285, 290, 291, 292, 385,

455, 494, 511, 515.
Commercial Routes, 28, 49, 193, 272,

280, 285, 290.
Conservatives, 515, 516, 519 ; see Po-
litical Parties.
Constant, Benj., 405.
Constantine, 85, 92.
Constantinople, 85, 104, 105, 130, 141,

210.
Copenhagen museum, 30.
Copernicus, 237, 238, 243, 246, 252,

253, 342, 352.
Cornelius, 504.
Costutne, 39, 217, 218, 219, 328, 329,

330, 365, 399, 425.
Cotta, 365.

Council, of Macon, 63.
of Trent, 282.

of the Vatican (1870), 486.
Councils, Conciliar Movement, 243,

244.
Counter-Reformation, 249, 262, 282.
Country, 37, 158, 164, 168.
Craft, -s, 27, 32, 43, 44, 160, 196.
Craft-guilds, 198, 211, 212, 292, 444.
Crete, -an, 20, 28.
Crimea, 18, 19.
Cromlech, 20.
Crusades, 130, 131, 141, 142, 144, 146,

147, 185, 209, 210, 218.
Culture, 4-7, 106, 145, 277, 406, 416,

419, 434, 487, 512, 524, 525, 528,

529, 530 ; see also Civilization.
Customs Union, 464.
Czechs, 156, 172, 250.

Dagalaif, 93.

Dahlmann, 466.

Dahn, Felix, 499.

Dance, 30, 153, 221.

Daniel, prophet, 104.

Danneker, 427.

Dante, 243.

Danube, 49, 73, 167, 171, 173.

Danzig, 353 ; see Marienburg.

536

INDEX

Darwin, 494, 525.

Delft, 346.

Denmark (see also Jutland), Danish,

Danes, 21, 92, 289, 290, 427, 468.
Descartes, 343, 345, 410.
Deutsch, 74, 109, 110.
Diesbach, 353.
Discoveries, Inventions, Technical

Progress, 193, 197, 198, 199, 224,

233, 243, 289, 351-354, 394, 395,

507, 508.
Dohm, 388.
Dollart, 164.
Dortrecht, 164.
Dostojewsky, 522.
Drave, 173.
Dresden, 267, 353.
Dnnk, 42, 161, 219, 221, 289, 340.
Duel, 64, 65, 124.
Duke, Duchies, 55.
Diirer, Albrecht, 233, 294.
Dusseldorf, 166.
Dutch, see Holland.

East-Albingian, 168, 171-174; see
also Elbe.

East Mark, 171 ; see Austria, Poland.

Ebers, 499.

Eckart, 243.

Education, 45, 56, 126, 129, 159, 215,
254, 255, 258-271, 277, 289, 328,
336, 337, 349, 350, 366, 393, 395,
416, 435, 444, 445, 449-451, 508,
515, 525, 526.

Eichendorf, 506.

Eichhorn, 405.

£'Z6e,river,20,36,79, 156, 171, 172,173.

Eliot, Charles W., 516.

Elizabeth of Baden-Durlach, 339.

Elizabeth Charlotte d' Orleans, 339.

Emser Punklation, 397.

Engels, Friedr., 494.

England, English, 36, 53, 58, 63, 79,
86, 92, 125, 165, 193, 201, 229,
230, 280, 289, 290, 247, 248, 313,
320, 328, 331, 343, 361, 362, 365,
367, 393, 395, 405, 408, 431, 455,
482.

Enlightenment, see Rationalism.

Erasmus, 261, 345.

Erck, 506.

Erfurt, 194, 289.

Ernst of Gotha, 349.

Eschenbach, Wolfram von, 46, 147,
153, 154.

Estates, 229, 230, 231, 281, 322, 468.
Esthland, 287.
Ethelings, see Nobility.
Eucken, Rud., 516, 525.
Eugene of Noyes, 197.
Eugenie, Empress, 478.
Eugenius, 93.

Exhibitions, see Brussels, Paris, Phila-
delphia.
Eyb, Albrecht von, 224, 225-227.

Fahrenheit, 353.

Fehderecht, see Duel, Law.

Ferdinand I, 250, 276.

Feudal System., 111-124, 136, 139,
320, 325.

Feudalism, 172, 297, 319.

Feuerhach, L., 495.

Fichte, J. G., 452, 453, 494.

FinJis, -ish, 13, 27.

Flanders, 145, 171, 193, 194, 273.

Fle7nings, 36, 172.

Floods of North Baltic Seas, 163-167.

Florence, 182.

Floras, 11.

Foehse, Marie Louise, 340.

Food, 42, 43, 161, 162, 163, 219-221,
354.

France, French, 13, 17, 60, 93, 142,
143, 144, 145, 152, 154, 158, 193,
204, 229, 241, 273, 276, 286, 297,
320, 323, 333, 343, 345, 360, 361,
367, 369, 370, 371, 393, 395, 405,
408, 413, 432, 433, 443, 447, 451,
454, 455, 463, 464, 468, 478, 479,
486.

Francis I of France, 276, 286.

Franciscans, see Monasteries.

Francke, A. H., 366, 367.

Francke, Kuno, 89.

Franco-German War of 1870-1871',
13, 478, 479, 503.

Frankfort on the Main, 280, 302, 364,
456, 470, 471.
Parliament, 471, 480.

Franklin, Benj., 399.

Franks, Prankish, 40, 86, 89, 91, 93,
99-104, 111, 125, 134, 172, 176,
184, 192.

Fredegund, 101.

Frederick I, Emperor, 146, 185, 186,
478, 507.

Frederick II, Emperor, 106, 185, 186,
319.

Frederick I of Prussia, 324, 387.

INDEX

637

Frederick II, the Great, of Prussia,

350, 359, 360, 373, 376, 378-393,

396, 397, 400, 403, 429, 432, 438,

442, 443, 447, 454, 471.
Frederick William of Brandenburg,

349, 350, 351, 378, 387.
Frederick William I, 323, 325, 326,

330, 373, 376-378.
Frederick William II, 391, 414.
Frederick William III, 442.
Frederick William IV, 466, 471, 474.
Freedmen, 54.
Freemen, 54, 55, 57, 113, 114, 122,

197, 248.
Freiligrath, 469.
French, see France.
Freytag, Gustav, 304, 365, 499,

502.
Friede, 51, 63, 65, 208.
Friesland, 122, 166, 171.
Frisians, 66, 91, 122, 166, 240.
Fugger, 182, 248, 249, 268, 276, 278.
Fulda, city, 125, 129.

river, 156.
Fursten, see Princes.
Furth, 465.

Gallen, St., 125, 129.

Gallus, St., 125.

Gaul, 74:, 75, 79, 80, 82, 83, 86, 91,

113, 125.
Gefolgschaft, see Retinue.
Geibel, 501.
Gellert, 399-401.
Genseric, 93.
Gerhard, Paul, 310.
German Americans, 347, 348, 418,

456, 463.
German Idealism, 343, 345, 373, 391,

400, 401, 404, 418, 419, 427, 428,

443-452, 455, 459, 460, 469, 471,

474, 507, 512, 528-531.
German Religion, see German Idealism,

Religion.
Germanic and German, 108, 109, 247,

248.
Germanic Branch of Nations, 27-96.
Subdivisions, 35, 36, 72, 73, 79, 86.
Urheimat, 27, 28.
Gervinus, 466.
Ghent, 194.
Gluck, 401, 425.
Gobineau, 12.
Goethe, 166, 239, 314, 317, 363, 364,

394, 410, 416, 419, 420, 421, 425,

428, 436, 437, 450, 458, 498, 499,

500, 506, 525.
Goldsmith, O., 399.
Goslar, 180, 205.
Goth, -s, -ic, 22, 56, 73, 83, 131.
Gotha, 433.

Gothic style, 204, 205.
Gotland, 20, 194.
Gottfrid of Strassburg, 147.
Gottingen, 362, 466.
Gottschalk, Count, 239.
Gottsched, 332.
Government, 55, 102, 103, 114, 123,

185, 186, 197, 208, 209, 228, 229,

230, 281, 282, 285, 318, 322, 361,

362, 390, 431, 432, 444, 462, 463,

468, 475, 476, 480, 481, 482, 483,

512, 515-517, 518.
See also Bureaucracy, Officials.
Grceco-Roman civilization, 9, 30, 73,

,83, 145.
Graff, 426.

Great Britain, see England.
Great Elector, see Frederick William

of Brandenburg.
Greek, Greeks, Greece, 3, 61, 71, 82, 130,

268, 328, 403, 426, 427, 435,

444.
Gregory of Tours, 99, 101, 134.
Gregory VII, 58, 138.
Gregory IX, 106, 240.
Gregcrry XIII, 288.
Grillparzer, 499.
Grimm, J. and W., 405, 466.
Grobianus, -ism, 149, 288.
Grotius, Hugo, 345, 369.
Grilndler, 352.
Guelphs, 185.
Guericke, 352.
Guilds, 195, 444.
Guizot, 405.

Gundling, N. H., 356, 357.
Gv^tavus Adolphus, 301.
Gutenberg, Job., 199.

Habshurg, house of, 150, 249, 272,

361, 396.
Habsburg, Rudolf von, 230.
HOckel, 525.
Haendel, 314, 315.
Hague Conference, 346.
Halle, 44, 194, 267, 353, 357, 366, 369,

371, 372, 380. MHHm^

Halter, Abrecht von, 395, 407. '^
Hambacher Volkstest, 463.

538

INDEX

Hamburg, 194, 280, 310, 354, 364, 373,

380, 395.
H&nel, 484.

Hanover, 362, 374, 466.
Hansa, 181, 195, 280, 290.
Hans Sachs, 282, 294.
Hardenberg, 451.
Harlem Sea, 165.
Harnack, A., 430.
Hartmann, Ed. v., 497.
Hartmann, M., 469.
Harz Mts., 180.
Hauvt, Albrecht, 202.
Hauptmann, Gerh. and Karl, 450.
Hautsch, 352.
Haydn, 317, 401, 425.
Hebbel, 499, 503.
Hebrew, Hebrews, 3, 328.
Hecker, 470.
//epeZ, 453, 494, 495.
Hehn, v., 19, 37, 44, 161.
Heidelberg, 273, 289, 303, 353.
Heine, 134, 166, 365, 458,465,499-501.
Helgoland, 166.
Hcliand, 88, 238.
fl'enr-y I, 143, 176, 183.
Henry III, 138.
Henry IV, 135, 138, 184.
Henry V, 136.
//enry VI, 183.
Henry II of France, 287.
Henry of Lower Bavaria, 286.
Heiiry the Lion, 185.
Hercynian Forest, 73, 87.
i7erder, 5, 317, 404, 405, 408, 419, 421,

425.
Heretics persecuted, 240, 241.
Herwegh, 469.
Herz, 507.
Hesse, 162.
Hessians, 323.
Heumann, J. H., 357.
Hildebrand, see Gregory VII.
Hildegard, 242, 338.
Htrt, H., 15, 16, 17, 23, 25, 26.
m>2eZ, 365.
History, conception of, 4, 12, 133, 187,

235, 236, 526.
Hochstetter, 182, 278, 292.
Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 469.
Hohenstaufen, house of, 184,235,241;

see also Frederick I, II.
Hohemollern, house of, 287, 351, 378,

391.
Holbein, 232, 294.

Holland, 35, 164, 165, 171, 172, 272,

280, 290, 339, 345, 350.
Hollandsch Diep, 166.
Homer, 28, 71, 435.
Houses, see Architecture, Building.
Hoyer, Anna Owena, 339.
Hrabanus Maurus, 129, 311.
Hrosvith v. Gandersheim, 130, 132,

338.
Huguenots, 272, 350.
Humanism, 253, 258-261, 271, 274,

328.
new, 415, 437, 443.
Humboldt, Al. von, 180, 405, 425.
Humboldt, WUh. von, 405, 425, 430,

451.
Hungarians, Hungary, 172, 173, 176;

see also Mongolians.
Huns, 73, 94.
Huss, 248, 250.

Ibsen, 522.

Iceland, 36.

Idealism, see German Idealism.

Iffland, 436.

Ikonium, 185.

India, 9, 193, 296.

Indo-European, 9, 10-26, 186.

Indo-Germanic, see Indo-European.

Indo-Iranians = Arj'ans, 18.

Industry, 199, 292, 394, 395, 461, 462.

474, 491, 494, 504, 511, 515.
Influence, Foreign, 152, 164, 201, 203,

218, 226, 229, 271, 276, 277, 285,

296, 299, 328, 329, 401, 408, 499.
English, 334, 365, 373, 374, 381,

399, 401, 408.
French, 144, 148, 152, 164, 203, 218,

324, 327-334, 351, 375, 402, 408,

443 499.
Roman, 34, 70, 92, 93, 106, 107, 114,

162, 164, 177, 203, 218, 226, 233.
Innocent III, 241.
Innocent VIII, 241.
Inquisition, 240.
Institoris, 489.
Inventions, see Discoveries.
Iran, 26.

Ireland, Irish, 125, 163.
Isabella the Catholic, 318.
Isidorian, see Pseudo-Isidorian.
Italian, -s, 192, 226, 229, 313, 401.
Italy, 28, 49, 82, 86, 91, 106, 203, 258,

271, 314, 436, 484, 489.
Ivan the Terrible, 290.

INDEX

539

Jahde, river, 165.

Jahn, Ft., L., 215, 452, 455.

Japanese, 156.

Jean Paul (Richter), 436.

Jena, 261, 418, 442, 451.

Jerusalem, 141, 185.

Jesuits, see Monasteries.

Jews, 115, 142, 182, 192, 209, 210,

231, 287, 288, 444, 471, 474, 500,

503, 504.
Jordan, 499.

Joseph II, 380, 381, 396, 397.
Journalism, 355, 371, 374, 395, 396,

399, 440, 518.
Julian, Julianus Apostata, 93.
Justinian, 221 , 311.
Jutes, 92.
Jutland, 16, 25; see Denmark.

^f^lwe, 395.

^Mxnt, 237, 317, 375, 381, 404, 408-

" • 414, 421, 425, 429, 430, 441.

Karl, see Charles the Great.

KarlMartell, 102, 116, 142.

Karlings, 102, 103, 104, 108, 134, 154,
175, 176, 197, 209.

Keller, Gottfried, 499.

Kelt, -s, -ic, 18, 26, 35, 38, 44, 57, 59,
73, 74-76, SO, 180, 232.

Kepler, 310, 342, 352.

Kimbers, 73-79.

Kirchhoff, 507.

Kiwik, monument, 29.

Kleist, H. von, 499.

Klopstock, 314, 315, 402, 425.

Knossos, 20.

Koln, 81, 100, 175, 192, 193, 221, 223,
245, 362.

Konigsherg , 18, 413.

Konrad of Marburg, 240.

Korner, 437.

Kostlin, A. H., 312, 314, 315, 317.

Kossinna, G., 15, 19.

Kotzebue, 436.

Kracow, 194.

Kratzenstein, 395.

Kreuzer, 506.

Kroats, 300, 301.

Kudrun, 7, 153.

Kuhnau, 314.

Kutur, Kulturgeschichte, see Culture.

Kyffhauser, 186, 478, 507.

Labienus, 82.

Labor, Laborer, 90, 113, 122, 127, 157,

158, 292, 293, 413, 462, 484, 489-

491, 509, 510, 520-522.
Lamprecht, Karl, 52, 62, 153, 206,

256, 405.
Landeslierr, see Territorial Prince,

Lord.
Land holding, ownership, 51, 111, 112,

113, 118, 124, 126, 157, 158,

170.
Lange, F. A., 497.
Langobard^, 22, 83, 103, 108; see also

Lombardy.
Language, Germanic, German, 23, 24,

27, 30, 33; 67, 94, 109, 132,

152, 204, 244, 255-257, 273, 330,

331-333, 334, 362, 371, 402, 499,
Latin, 67, 131, 152, 215, 259, 274, 328.

333.
nations, see Romance.
Lautverschiebung, 23, 24.
Law, 56, 60, 63-67, 90, 94, 101, 102,

118, 121, 124, 150, 177, 207, 210,

224, 228, 229, 233, 281, 283, 322.
Roman, 60, 101, 102, 226-229,

294, 295, 297, 318, 322, 384, 482,

489, 491.
International, 346, 347, 448.
natural, 346, 347, 369.
Layamon, 73.
Lehnsmann, 117.

Lehnswesen (Feudal System), 116.
Leibl, 505.
Leibniz, 310, 315, 331, 339, 343-345,

352, 371, 410, 440.
Leipzig, 194, 353, 364, 371.
Lemberg, 194.
Lessing, 314, 315, 317, 333, 377, 390,

401-404, 419, 425, 426.
Leo III, 104, 134.
Leopold of Dessau, 340.
Letto-Lithuanians , 18.
Leuwenhoek, 353.
Liberalism, 438, 455, 457, 467, 468,

475-477, 485, 486, 487, 488, 489,

515, 516, 517; see also Political

Parties.
Lieber, Fr., 456.
Liebig, 507.
Limburg Chronicle, 61.
Lisbon, 194.

List, Friedrich, 456, 464, 465.
Literature, 30, 31, 47, 48, 67, 88, 131,

132, 151-154, 166, 225, 256, 257,

283, 287, 310, 371, 375, 400-^07,

412, 435, 437-440, 451, 458, 465,

540

INDEX

469, 494, 498-503, 522-524, 525;

see also Poetry, Songs.
Lithuanian, -s, 23.
Livonia, 287.
Locke, 344.
Lombards, 192.
Lombardy, 103, 106.
London, 193, 194.
Loss of territory, 286, 287, 304, 305,

347, 448, 454.
Lothmann, E., 297.
Lothringians, 108.
Lotze, 497.

Louis XIV, 319, 322, 329, 456, 479.
Louis Philippe, 468.
Louise Henriette v. Brandenburg, 324,

339.
Lubeck, 194, 224, 226.
Lucerne, 265.
Ludwig, 499, 503.
Luitbrand, 108.
Lurer, 29, 30, 311, 313.
Luther, 135, 217, 225, 234, 235-238,

241, 246-255, 259, 273, 279, 281,

282, 283, 288, 289, 343, 347, 357,

362, 369, 410, 480, 486.
Lutheran, see Protestantism.

Maas, river, 290.

Machiavelli, 319.

Macpherson, 399.

Magdeburg, 194.

Magyars, see Hungarian.

Main, river, 36, 173.

Mainz, 193.

Makart, 504.

Mannegold, 338.

Marc/i Field, 230.

Maria Theresa, 396.

Marienburg, Danzig, 205.

Marignano, battle, 268.

Marius, lh-11 .

Markgenossenschaft, see Village Com-
munity.

Markgraf, 395.

Marlitt, 499.

Marriage, Matrimony, 54, 60, 61, 62,
63, 81, 148, 220, 224, 253, 374, 425.

Marx, Karl, 495.

Mary, the Catholic, 240.

Materialism, 410, 494, 497, 525.

Mayence, see Mainz.

Mayer, Robert, 507.

Maximilian I, 355.

Maximilian II, 291.

Mazarin, 322, 329.

Mechthildis of Magdeburg, 242, 338.

Mecklenburg, 22, 230, 517.

Medardus, St., 88.

Mediterranean, see Grceco-Roman,

Meissen, 265, 353.

Meissner, 469.

3/^toc, 273, 300.

Melanchthon, 253, 261, 264.

Menapians, 80.

Mendelssohn, Moses, 387, 388.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdi, 506.

Mejidicant Orders, see Monasteries.

Menhir, 20.

Menno, Simon, 280.

Mentz, see Mainz.

Menzel, 505.

Merchant-guilds, see Guilds.

Merovings, -ians, 88, 93, 99-102, 104,

144, 193, 194, 200, 217.
Metternich, 454.
A/ete, 287.
Meyer, Tobias, 395.
Meyerbeer, 506.
jl/t7an, 268, 355.
Militarism, see Military Service.
Military Service, 55, 119, 123, 150,

176, 230, 296, 320, 321, 364, 445-

449, 475, 476, 482, 515.
Mining, 44, 160, ISO, 181, 293.
Ministerials, 117,1 19,21 1 ; see Officials.
Mississippi, 173.
Mode of Life, 47, 48, 217, 219, 220,

221, 334, 335, 365, 394, 457.
Moeser, 394.

Mohammedans, 130, 146, 185.
Moleschott, 495, 525.
Monarchy, Monorchism, 55, 56, 58,

102, 103, 104, 105, 117, 228, 230,

282, 319, 322, 334, 335, 347, 350,

376, 379, 382, 383, 384, 386, 472,

495, 515, 517.
Monasteries, 125-132, 159, 160, 171,

231, 240, 241, 242, 244, 249, 252.

262, 282, 283, 339-381, 396, 457,

485.
Money, Coinage, 48, 114, 181, 182.

200, 482.
Mongolians, 143, 171, 176.
Monks, see Monasteries.
Montesquieu, 55, 111.
Moorish, 202.
Moors, 102.
Morals, Morality, 243, 247, 289, 338,

368, 369, 374, 411, 412, 440, 531.

INDEX

541

Moricke, 499.

Mosel, Moselle, 49, 122, 172.

Mozart, 317, 421, 425.

Much, M., 15, 19.

Munchen, 194.

Munich, see Munchen.

Munster, 280.

Mumer, 280.

Music, 28, 29, 32, 33, 96, 152, 153,

217, 310, 311-317, 401, 426, 505,

506.
Mykene, 28.
Mysticism, 32, 62, 68, 69, 226, 242-

244, 310, 401, 525.
Mythology, see Religion.

Nageli, 506.

Names, 108, 223, 293.

Napoleon I, 101, 276, 418, 439, 442,
443, 452, 453, 454, 455, 458, 471.

Napoleon III, 478.

National feeling, life, spirit, 9, 11, 51,
107, 108, 214, 215, 277, 287, 379,
388, 393, 402, 418, 431, 455, 460,
462, 463, 464, 471, 473, 493, 500,
501, 512, 524, 525; see Separa-
tism.

Nature, love for, 69, 174, 217, 343,
406, 418.

Naumhurg, 266, 267.

Neolithic Age, 20, 27, 28.

Netherlands, 258, 271, 272, 273, 288,
294, 298, 313, 343, 357, 366; see
Holland.

Netze, river, 390.

New England, 43, 53.

Newton, 344, 380.

New York, 68.

Nibelungenlied, 7, 58, 152.

Nicolai, 456^

Niebizhr,~405, 420.

Nietzsche, 513, 523, 525.

Nikolaus Cusanus, 243.

Nobility, 56, 102, 103, 151, 279, 285,
296, 326, 335, 364, 385, 386, 444,
445, 515, 519.

Nordemey, 166.

Nordlingen, 302.

Normans, 92, 135, 204.

North German Federation, 478, 480.

Northmark, 171.

North Sea, 14, 25, 165, 173.

Norway, 36.

Novalis, 438.

Novgorod, 194.

Nurnberg, 192, 224, 226, 244, 250,
292, 349, 351, 352, 353, 354, 465.

Oder, river, 20, 36, 49, 73, 269, 390,

Odoacer, see Odowakar.

Odowakar, 82, 93.

Officials, 116, 117, 119, 151, 228, 229,
318, 325, 330, 377, 379, 384, 390,
391, 494, 516, 517, 518, 519.

Opitz, 310, 314.

Orange, see Aransio.

Orders of chivalry, 149.

Ore Mts., 180.

Ornament, 200, 201, 427.

Ornamentation, see Art.

Ostrogoths, 36, 83.

Otfrid, 88.

Otto I, the Great, 108, 109, 130, 135,
184, 235.

Otto III, 106, 171.

Padua, 227.

Paine, Thomas, 369, 431, 440.

Painting, 201, 205, 232, 272, 273, 426,

427, 504.
Palestrina, 314.
Pandures, 300.
Paracelsus, 243, 244.
Paris, 203, 204, 313, 432, 462, 503,

511.
Paschalis II, 136.
Pastorius, Franz Daniel, 247 ; see

also German Americans.
Paternalism, 509.
Paul V, 252.
Paulsen, 356.

Peace = law and order, see Friede.
Peasantry, 52, 53, 88, 121, 178, 221,

279, 281, 282, 297, 318, 326, 363,

385, 386, 387, 519.
Pennsylvania, 348.
Percy, 399, 404.
Periodicals, see Journalism.
Persia, -n, -s, 9.
Pestalozzi, 416, 451.
Peter, St., Dominion of, 134.
Peter the Great, 323.
Petrus Lomhardus, 311.
Peurbach, 352.
Pharsalus, 81, 82.
Philadelphia, 347, 504, 511.
Philology, 13, 18, 20, 21, 430.

Germanistic, 439.
Pietism, 347-349, 366, 367, 368, 372,

397.

542

INDEX

Pippin, 102, 103, 135, 181.
Pirkheimer, W., 244.
Pitiscus, 274.
Pius II, 223.
Plato, 243.
Platter, 264.
Po, river, 49, 75.

Poeir^/, 30, 31, 46, 47, 152-154, 166,
216, 426, 439, 450; see also Lit-
erature.
Poggio, 131.
Poland, Poles, 156, 170, 192, 287, 389,

390, 463.
Political Parties, 172, 394, 418, 429,
438, 449, 462, 471, 475-^76, 484-
488, 509, 515-517.
Politics, Political Life, see Govern-

7nent, Political Parties.
Pompey, 81.

Pope, the, 104, 123, 133-140, 239,
240, 241, 244, 245, 282, 283, 287,
397, 456, 486.
Population, 157, 224, 283, 285, 298,

304, 349, 389.
Postal Service, 354, 355, 482.
Prag, 194, 226.
Premonstratensians, 171.
Prince Electors, 231, 287.
Princes, 56, 57, 122, 245, 250, 287,
388, 453, 455, 457, 464; see Ter-
ritorial Princes.
Property, Conception of, 228.
Protestantism, 240, 250, 252, 272, 282,
287, 309, 338, 367, 372, 457, 467,
486, 496, 497.
Provence, -gal, 154.
Prussia, Province, 287.

State, 350, 351, 356, 358, 377-
393, 443-453, 464, 465, 467,
468, 471, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478,
489; see Brandenburg.
Prussians, Slav tribe, 172.
Prutz, Robert, 469.
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, 136, 243,

397.
Public Loans, 321.
Publishers, 365.
Pufendorf, Samuel, 346, 347, 369,

370.
Punishment, see Law.
Puritans, 68.
Pyrenees, 75, 102, 103.
Pytheas, 28, 35.

Quakers, 348.

Quatrefages, de, 13.
Quidde, Ludw., 513.

Raabe, 499.

Race theories, 12, 13, 14, 204.

Rachnachar, 100.

Ranke, 257.

Rationalism, 327, 354, 367-372, 397,

398, 399, 410, 415, 432, 455, 456,

497, 503.
Ratzel, 17.

Raudian Fields, see Vercellce.
Ravenna, 203.
Ravensburg, 199.
Rechtstaat, see Monarchy, State.
Redwitz, 501.
Reformation, 135, 225, 238, 239, 246-

254, 260, 261, 279, 281, 287, 292,

309, 313, 347, 357, 367, 433, 496.
Reformed Church, see Protestantism.
Regensburg, 182, 194, 363.
Rcgiomontanus, 352.
Reichenau, 129.
Reichstag, 249, 250, 287, 291, 322, 361,

449, 456, 480, 485, 486, 487, 514,

515, 516, 517.
Reinhold of Saalfeld, 354.
Religion, 44, 65, 67-71, 78, 85, 87,

88, 89, 117, 128, 133, 137, 147,

238-246, 309, 381, 391, 400, 402,

406, 412, 421, 496.
Rembrandt, 272.
Renaissances, 5, 108, 130, 185, 200,

271, 273, 294, 426.
Renan, 405.

Repgow, Eicke v., 209, 228.
Rethel, 505.

Retinue, 6, 57-59, 111, 151.
Reuchlin, 261.
Reuleaux, 504, 511.
Reunion of Churches, 344, 457.
Reuter, Fritz, 464, 502, 503.
Revenues, 115, 482; see also Taxation.
Rheinbund, 453.
Rhine, river, 36, 79, 80, 143, 145, 164,

166, 194, 203, 290.
Rhone, river, 28, 49, 73, 78, 83.
Richar, 100.
Richardson, 399.
Richelieu, 322, 329.
Richter, Eugen, 484.
Richter, Ludwig, 505.
Riemenschneider , Dill, 294.
Ripley, 15, 21.
Rivers, 167.

INDEX

543

Rohse, M., 294.

Roland, 103.

Roman, Romans, Rome (ancient),

Roman Empire, 73, 74-83, 108,

163, 187. 238, 239, 247.
Roman Empire of the German nation,

102, 105.
Roman Law, see Law.
Rome, city, 106, 135; see also Pope,

Church, Catholic.
Roman Calholicism, see Catholicism,.
Roman Influence, see Foreign Influ-
ence.
Romance nations, 83, 84, 127, 137, 152,

173, 204, 233, 253.
Romanesque, 203, 204.
Romanticism, 155, 437-440, 456, 457,

465, 466, 471, 494, 501, 505, 506.
Rone, 171.
Rostock, 289.

Rousseau, J. J., 374, 405-407, 408, 439.
Rubens, 273.

Rudolf August of Brunswick, 340.
Rudolf von Schwaben, 58.
Runes, 30.
Runge, Otto, 427.
Russia, -n, 17, 18, 19, 23, 69, 192, 287,

389, 435, 452, 455, 466, 499.

Saale, river, 156.

Sachsenspiegel, see Repgow.

St. Germain, 336.

Saladin, 185.

Saleph, 185.

Salvianus, 82.

Samo, 176.

Sanskrit, 14, 439.

Sapidus, 264.

Saracens, 135, 142, 143.

Saxons, 40, 73, 86, 91, 92, 103, 156,

168, 171, 172.
Scadia = Scandina^•ia, 28.
Scandinavia, -n, 16, 21, 22, 25, 26, 53,

86, 192, 290, 499, 500.
Scharnhorst, 451.
Scheffel, 499, 502, 503.
Scheldt, 164, 173, 290.
Schelling, 494.

Scherer, Wilhelm, 315, 330, 464.
Scherr, Johannes, 67.
Schiller, 73, 94, 168, 314, 317, 407,

416, 419, 420, 421, 427, 428, 436,

437, 439, 450, 452, 458, 474, 478,

498, 499.
Schinckel, 427.

Schleiermacher, 427, 430, 453.

Schleswig, 39, 78. 171, 468.

Schlcswig-Holstein, 468, 476.

Schldtstadt, 264.

Schlozer, 394.

Schmidt, Joh., 10, 16.

Schoolmaster, 450, 451, 507.

Schopenhauer, A., 473, 497.

Schrader, O., 14.

Schubert, 506.

Schumann, 506.

Schumann, Anna Maria von, 339.

Schurz, Cari. 472.

Schiitz, Heinrich, 314.

Schwartz, Sybilla, 339.

Schwertbriider, 193.

Schwind, Moritz von, 505.

Science, 174, 181, 232, 244, 260, 261,

274, 275, 276, 310, 342-347, 395,
412, 428, 429-431, 439, 462, 466,
507, 508, 525, 527.

Scotus Erigena, 240.

Sculpture, 205, 427, 504.

Seegeberg, 171.

Separatism in National Life, 227, 274,

275, 277, 362, 363, 468, 486, 527.
Sequani, 80.

Serfdom, 54, 113, 119, 121, 122, 279,

297, 319, 376, 386, 443.
Shakespeare, 247, 248, 402.
Sicking en, 279.
Siemens, Werner, 507.
Sigibert, 100.
Sigismund, 150.
Silanu^s, 74.
Silcher, 506.

Slavery, 44, 54, 122, 178.
Slavs, 18, 26, 69, 73, 155, 156, 157,

159, 170, 171, 172, 176, 194,

233.
Social Democracy, Social Democrats,

see Socialists.
Social Welfare, 126, 269, 288, 491-498,

509, 510.
Socialism, 327, 429, 447, 449, 485, 488,

489, 496, 509, 510, 516, 517, 520,

527.
Solingen, 323.
Songs, 30, 31, 47, 67, 131, 153, 216,

217, 451, 468, 502, 506; see Lit-
erature.
Sorbonne, 319.
Spain, Spaniard, Spanish, 75, 82, 83,

86, 91, 103, 272, 276, 301, 328,

329, 355, 361.

544

INDEX

Spalatin, 256.

Specialization, 5, 526.

Spencer, Herbert, 363.

Spener, 315, 347, 348, 367.

Speyer, 194, 212.

Spielhagen, 499.

Spinoza, 343, 345, 356, 404, 525.

Spreewald, 170.

Sprenger, 241.

Spyres, see Speyer.

Stahl, G. E., 353.

State, conception of, 50. 213, 327, 382,

386, 394, 406, 413, 510.
Stavorcn, 166.
Stedinger, 240.
Stein, Freiherr von, 451.
Stone Age, see Neolithic Age.
Stonehenge, 20.

Storm and Stress, 405, 407, 437, 522.
Strassburg, 194, 264, 355.
Straics, Richard, 506.
Strauss, D. F., 495, 497.
Struve, 470.
Students, 262, 289, 303, 361, 460, 461,

502, 515.
Sturm, 264.
Sturmi, 156.
Suabia, 122, 439.
Sudermann, 450.
Suevs, -i, = ians, 56, 79, 81, 91.
Suso, 243.
Sweden, -ish, -e, 287, 300, 301, 302,

303, 354.
Swerdiones, 40.
Swiss, 122, 168, 194, 230, 264, 265,

268, 273, 298, 320, 405, 407, 435,

451, 486.
Switzerland, see Swiss.

Tacitus, 8, 37, 57, 61, 68, 74, 111, 158,
168, 195.

Taine, 405.

Talleyrand, 454.

Tauler, 243.

Taxes, 114, 209, 211, 230, 296, 377,
387.

Tencteri, 81.

Ten Eyck, 233.

Territorial Princes, Lord, 151, 208,
228, 230, 231, 277, 280, 281, 285,
292, 295, 296, 318, 322, 335, 349,
355, 361; see also Government,
Monarchy, Princes.

Tetzel, 248.

Teutoburg Forest, battle, 78.

Teuton, -ic (a) = German, Germanic,
74, 109, 110.
(6) Keltic tribe, 74-79.

Teutonic Order, 149, 150, 172, 192,
205, 287.

Theodoric the Great, 93, 203, 239, 311.

TheodoHcll, 95, 311.

Theodosius, bishop, 130.

Theodulf, 311.

Theophano, 130.

Theory of Life, see Weltanschaung.

Thierry, 405.

Thiers, 468.

Thietjnar of Merseburg, 106.

Thoma, Hans, 505.

Thomas Aquinas, 233.

Thomas a Kempis, 226.

Thomasin von Zirklaere, 238.

Thomasius, 242, 333, 367, 370, 373.

Thorwaldsen, 427.

Thurings, Thuringians, 91, 103, 156,
162, 173.

Thurn and Taxis, 355, 362.

ToCqueviUe, de, 405.

Tolstoi, 406.

Toul, 287.

Toulouse, 241.

Tournai, 101.

Transylvania, 172.

Treue, 57, 58, 92.

Treves, see Trier.

Tribes, tribal duchies, 91, 108, 123.

Trier, 241, 245.

Tritheim, 199.

Tubingen, 497.

Turenne, 300.

T«ri-s, 141, 320.

Twentieth Century, statements refer-
ring to, 5, 22, 58, 62, 65, 68, 149,
325.

Type, racial, 15, 16, 21, 27, 36, 37, 285.

Tyrol, 122, 355.

Ubii, 81.

Uhkind, 439.

Llfilas, 131, 177.

Ulm, 194.

Ulrich von Huiten, 279.

Ultramontane, see Catholic, Political
Parties.

Unions, see Classes.

United States, see .America.

Universities, 226, 227, 260, 262, 263,
277, 289, 356-358, 373, 382, 428,
429, 459, 460, 461, 497, 526.

INDEX

545

Urheimat, 14, 25, 155,
Usipii, 81.

Vagrants, see Students.

Valens, 86.

Valentinian, 93.

Vandalism, 82.

Famia/s, 36, 82, 83, 93.

Vassal, -age, 111, 117, 123, 124, 151,

230.
Vedastes, St., 87.
Veltheim, 346.
Venice, 194, 211.
Vercellce, 76.
T'erdun, 287.
T'ersai7?e.s, 339, 340.
Vestal Virgins, 11 .
Vico, 5, 405.
Vienna, 194, 289, 354.
Vienna Congress, 454, 455, 456.
View of theWorld, seeWeltanschauung.
Vikings, 79.
Village community, 42, 51, 52, 53, 195,

207, 228.
Vineta, 166.
Virchow, 484, 487.
Virginia, University of, 456.
Visigoths, 36, 82. 8-3, 86, 93, 239.
Vistula, river, 18, 36, 155, 390.
Vogt, Karl, 495, 525.
VolccE, 35, 73.
Volga, river, 14, 19.
Volkslied, 154, 216, 217, 310, 313,

506.
Voltaire, 380.
Vosges Mts., 180.
Foss, T. H., 363.

Wagner, Richard, 67, 275, 404, 421,

455, 505, 506.
Walafrid Strabo, 129.
Wallhurgen, 20.
Wallis, 264.
Walls of Troy, 20.
Walter von der Vogelweide, 147, 149,

153, 238.
Warsaw, 194.
Wartburg, 241.

Washin-gton, George, 55, 358, 365.
Weber, Cari Maria von, 427, 506.
Weier, 242.

Weise, Christian, 348.
Wellentheorie, 10.

Welser, 278.

Welsh, 35.

TFe/tan^c/iau!/rz{7, 5, 46, 47, 71, 147,

215, 344, 360, 365, 399, 403, 409,

421, 427, 428, 437, 440, 462, 495,

496, 498, 511, 515, 523, 525, 528,

529, 530.
Wends, see Slavs.
Werden, 88.

Werner, A. S., 180, 395.
Werner, E., 499.
Werner, Z., 458.
Wessenberg, 457.
Westphalia, 80, 122, 162.

Peace of, 299, 304, 305, 318,

361.
Weiterau, 122.
Wetzlar, 323.
White, Andrew D., 346.
Wieland, 402.
WUliam I, 186, 474, 476, 477, 478,

479, 484-492.
William II, 499, 512-515.
Wimpheling, see Wympheling.
Winckelmann, 403, 404, 426.
Winfred, see Boniface.
Wisby, 20, 194.
Witchcraft, 241, 242.
Wittenberg, 252, 261.
Woehler, Fr., 507.
Wolf, F. A., 405, 406.
Wolff, Chr., 367, 371-373, 379, 380,

410.
Wollner, 391.
Woltmann, 25.
Women, 39, 61, 62, 63, 69, 148, 225,

241, 338-340, 374, 426, 440, 452,

526.
Worins, city, 192, 193, 212, 249.
Wundt, 24.
Wiiriemberg, 482
Wydiffe, 248.
Wympheling, 199, 294.

Ximenes, 319.

FoMTii?, 399.

Zimmermann, 395.
Zo?a, 522.
Zuider Zee, 165.
Ziinc/i, 194.
Zwingli, 259.

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