Treitschke, his doctrine of German destiny and of international relations, together with a study of his life and work

man Destiny and Policies

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LIBRAKY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNiA

SAN DIEGO

1

Xfc

Treitschke

His Doctrine of German Destiny

and of

International Relations

Together with
A Study of His Life and Work by

Adolf Hausrath

For the First Time Translated into English

G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
fmfcfterbocker press
1914

COPYRIGHT, 1914

BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Ub€ ftnfclterbocfcer press, flew IJorh

FOREWORD

national movements and national
passions or enthusiasms since the Middle
Ages have always been connected with the names
of leaders (preachers, writers, or statesmen) , and not
infrequently, with that of one particular leader
whose words have acted upon the people as an
inspiration, and who has given the keynote and
character to the movement. It is probable
(Carlyle to the contrary notwithstanding) that
each of these national movements would have
taken place, even although the particular individ-
ual and leader had not existed. When, however,
a revolution or an outbreak of any kind shapes
itself on the lines of some given teaching, it is
proper to study the character and the doctrines of
the teacher. The history of the French Revolu-
tion could not be considered without analysis of
Rousseau and his writings, and, in like manner,
the present action of Germany, which amounts to
a revolution, in initiating the European War of
1914, will always be connected in history with the
teachings of Treitschke. Americans are called
upon at this time to arrive at an opinion in regard
to the causation of the war, the nature of the
issues that are being fought over, and the factors

iii

iv Foreword

which are influencing the combatants. It is
important, on more grounds than one, to arrive
at an understanding of the influences which are
directing the present policy of Germany, and which
have imbued, not only the Imperial Government,
but the mass of Germans back of the Emperor
and his counsellors, with the craze for world
domination and with the conviction that it is
their duty to enforce German Kultur (a very
different thing from what we understand by
culture) upon all civilized communities.

Treitschke has been called "the Machiavelli of
the Nineteenth Century," but his words were
directed not only to monarchs and to other leaders
of the State, but to the people as a whole. The
greed for domination dates from the time when
Treitschke began to write and to lecture on na-
tional politics and on German ideals. The cry
of DeutsMand uber alles was to him more than an
ideal, it was a religion, and through his forcible
teaching it has become the burning faith of the
nation as a whole. Throughout the whole of
Treitschke's writings his conviction of the neces-
sity for the supremacy of Germans over all other
peoples is enforced with all the vigour and skill at
his command. To England he directs his most
venomous outpouring. "English policy," says
Treitschke, "which aims at the unreasonable goal
of world supremacy, has always, as its foundation
principle, reckoned on the misfortunes of other
nations. "

Foreword v

It seems evident that the instigation to the
curious hate of England and to the conviction that
for the development of Germany the destruction
of the British Empire was essential, is due to
Treitschke. He died, in Berlin, in 1896, and it is
his pupils, the middle-aged men of to-day, Bern-
hardi and others, who have planned the present
fight of Germany for the domination of Europe.
Bismarck was Treitschke's valued friend, and
William II has been nurtured on his teachings.
These teachings give the philosophy for the present
political and military action. The essays con-
tained in this volume present the opinions of
Treitschke on the policy and the destiny of Ger-
many, while the critical biography, written with
the full sympathy of a close friend, gives an insight
into the character of the man himself.

Professor J. H. Morgan says:

"If Treitschke was a casuist at all (and as a
rule he is refreshingly, if brutally, frank), his was
the supreme casuistry of the doctrine that the
end justifies the means. That the means may
corrupt the end or become an end in themselves
he never fairly realized. He honestly believed
that war was the nurse of manly sentiment and
heroic enterprise. He feared the commercialism
of modern times, and despised England because
he judged her wars to have been always under-
taken with a view to the conquest of markets.
He sneers at the Englishman who 'scatters the
blessings of civilization with a Bible in one hand

vi Foreword

and an opium pipe in the other.' He honestly
believed that Germany exhibited a purity of
domestic life, a pastoral simplicity, and a deep
religious faith to which no European country
could approach. He has written passages of
noble and tender sentiment, in which he celebrates
the piety of the peasant, whose religious exercises
were hallowed wherever the German tongue was
spoken, by the massive faith in Luther's great
hymn. Those who would understand the strength
of Treitschke's influence on his generation must not
lose sight of these purer elements in his teachings.
He was the first preacher of the doctrine that
Germany must become a power across the sea.
He became indeed the champion of the Junkers,
and his history is a kind of hagiography of the
Hohenzollerns. He rested his hopes for Germany
on the bureaucracy and the army. By a quite
natural transition he was led on from his champion-
ship of the unity of Germany to a conception of
her role as a world-power. He is the true father of
WeUpolitik"

Like Mommsen, Treitschke insisted that the
people of the conquered provinces must be "forced
to be free, " that Morality and History (which for
him are much the same thing) proclaim they are
German without knowing it. He says:

" We Germans, who know Germany and France,
know better what is good for Alsace than the
unhappy people themselves who through their
French associations have lived in ignorance of the

Foreword vii

new Germany. We have in the enormous changes
of these times too often seen in glad astonishment
the immortal working of the moral forces of
History ('das unsterbliche Fortwirken der sittlichen
Mdchte der Geschichte'} to be able to believe in the
unconditional value on this matter of a Referen-
dum. We invoke the men of the past against the
present."

The ruthless pedantry of this is characteristically
Prussian. It is easy to appeal to the past against
the present, to the dead against the living. Dead
men tell no tales. Treitschke admitted that the
Alsatians did not love the Germans; there was,
he ruefully confessed, something rather unlovely
about the civilizing methods of Prussia.

Lord Acton, writing in 1 886, pronounced
Treitschke to be "the one writer of history who
was more brilliant and more powerful than Droy-
sen." "He writes," says Acton, "with the force
and fire of Mommsen, and he accounts for the
motives that stir a nation as well as for the councils
that govern it."

One of Treitschke's pupils writes of him: "His
style is full of colour and of movement; it is
brilliant and thought-abounding; nervous, ener-
getic feeling swings the reader along, while vast
learning is digested and bent to the purposes of the
author. " Germans quote Treitschke as no histo-
rian has ever been quoted by English or by French;
one may say that, in the interpretation of history,
Treitschke is to the present generation of Germans

viii Foreword

an inspired scripture, a bible. The political
leaders refer to him as final authority. Treitschke,
at his death, looked forward with confidence to
the day when the world would find healing at the
touch of the German character. "God will see
to it that war always recurs as a drastic medicine
for the human race." Says Treitschke's pupil
Bernhardi : "War is essential not merely as a means
to political ambition and territorial aggrandize-
ment, but as a moral discipline, almost in fact as
a spiritual inspiration. "

Treitschke had a keen dislike and distrust for
America. He says, "Germany can learn nothing
from the United States." This is a natural
utterance for a man who was the fiercest opponent
in his generation of democracy and of democratic
institutions.

Treitschke's pupil Clausewitz quotes his master
as saying in substance: "Self-imposed restrictions,
almost imperceptible and hardly worth mention-
ing, termed Usages of International Law, accompany
violence without essentially impairing its value. "

In the introduction to the Politik, Treitschke
says in regard to the sanctity of war: "It is to be
conceived as an ordinance set by God. It is the
most powerful maker of nations; it is politics
par excellence. " " What a perversion of morality, ' '
says Treitschke, "it would be if one struck out of
humanity heroism" (Heldentuni). But Treitsch-
ke's Heldentum is a different thing from what
the civilized world has understood as heroism,

Foreword ix

He forgets the caution of his contemporary Momm-
sen, who says: "Have a care, lest in this State,
which has been at once a power in arms and a
power in intelligence, the intelligence should
vanish, and there should remain nothing but the
pure military condition." The fruits of Helden-
tum are Louvain smoking in ashes to the sky.
The philosophy of Treitschke is to-day the
philosophy of the Prussian Government and of
Germany behind Prussia; it is the philosophy
under which the attempt is being made to crush
France and to break up the British Empire. It
is the teaching that has desolated Belgium and that
has brought war upon the world.

GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM.
November 15, 1914.

CONTENTS

PACK

THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE . i

THE ARMY 137

INTERNATIONAL LAW . . . . .158

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT GERMAN COLONIZATION . 195

Two EMPERORS ...... 217

GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES . . . 236

AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE . . 249

THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA 276

FREEDOM . 302

xi

Treitschke: A Study of His
Life and Work.

i.

THERE are some names which we instinctive-
ly connect with eternal youth. Those of
Achilles and Young Siegfried we cannot conceive
otherwise than as belonging to youth itself. If
amongst the more recent ones we count Hoelty,
Theodore Koerner, and Novalis the divine youth,
this is due to death having overtaken them while
yet young in years. But if involuntarily we also
include Heinrich von Treitschke, the reason for it
lies not in the age attained by him but in his
unfading freshness. Treitschke died at the age
of sixty-two, older or nearly of 'the same age as
his teachers — Hausser, Mathy, and Gervinus, all
of whom we invariably regard as venerable old
men. And yet he seemed to us like Young Sieg-
fried with his never ageing, gay temperament,
his apparently inexhaustible virility. To his
students he seemed new at every half term, and
living amongst young people he remained young
with them. Hopeful of the future and possessed

2 Treitschke

of a fighting spirit, he retained within him the
joy and sunshine of eternal youth. Thus Death,
when he came, appeared not as an inexorable
gleaner gathering the withered blades in the barn
of his Lord, but rather as a negligent servant de-
stroying in senseless fashion a rare plant which
might yet have yielded much delicious fruit.

We cannot, therefore, call it a happy inspiration
which prompted the representation of Treitschke
as a robed figure in the statue about to be erected
in the University in Berlin.

It is, of course, not the figure of a Privy Coun-
cillor, who has assumed some resemblance with
Gambetta, but that of a tall, distinguished-looking
strong youth, with elastic muscles, whose every
movement attests health and virility, a figure such
as students and citizens were wont to see in Leip-
zig and Heidelberg, and which would have served
an artist as the happiest design for monumental
glorification. But to represent the opponent of
all academic red-tapeism in robe is analogous
with Hermann Grimm's proposal to portray the
first Chancellor of the German Empire as Napoleon
in the Court of the Brera — that is to say, in the
full nude. Nevertheless, we greet with joy the
high-spirited decision to honour Treitschke by a
statue. In the same way as the name of Hutten
will be connected with the revolt against the Pope,
and the name of Koerner with that against Na-
poleon, so the name of Treitschke will always be
connected with the redemption of our people

His Life and Work 3

from the disgrace of the times of Confederation
to the magnificence of 1870.

It was in August, 1863, that I heard the name of
Treitschke for the first time, when, before an
innumerable audience, he spoke at the Gymnastic
Tournament in Leipzig, in commemoration of the
Battle of Leipzig. A youth of twenty-nine, a
private University lecturer, and the son of a
highly-placed officer related to Saxon nobility,
he proclaimed with resounding force what in his
family circle was considered demagogical machina-
tion and enmity against illustrious personages,
and as such was generally tabooed. But the
principal idea underlying his argument — that
what a people aspires to it will infallibly attain —
found a respondent chord in many a breast; and
I, like many another who read the verbatim report
of the speech in the South German Journal
Braters, resolved to read in future everything put
into print by this man.

We were overjoyed when, in the autumn of
1 863, the Government of Baden appointed Treitsch-
ke as University Deputy Professor for Political
Science. It was so certain that at the same time
he would give historic lectures that, on hearing
of Treitschke 's appointment, Wegele of Wurzburg
— who had already accepted the position of Pro-
fessor of History at Freiburg — immediately asked
to be released from his engagement, as henceforth
he could no longer rely on securing pupils. The
new arrival was pleased with his first impressions

4 Treitschke

of Baden. From his room he overlooked green
gardens stretching towards the River Munster.
In the University he gave lectures on politics and
on the Encyclopaedia of Political Science ; but before
a much larger audience he spoke in the Auditory
of Anatomy, and later on in the Aula, on German
History, the History of Reformation, and similar
subjects, creating a sensation not only at the
University but also in Society. It was his phe-
nomenal eloquence — not North-German verbosity,
but fertility of thought surging with genius and
flowing like an inexhaustible fountain — which
drew his audience at public lectures and festivities.
His success with students gave him less cause for
gratification. Possibly Science, on which he
lectured for practically the first time, offered in-
adequate facilities for the development of his
best faculties, but the principal fault seems to
have rested with his audience. "The students,"
he wrote to Freytag, "are very childish, and, as
usual in Universities, suffer from drowsy drunk-
enness." It can be imagined how this failure
affected and depressed the eager young professor,
for whose subsistence the Leipzig students had
sent a deputation to Dresden, and whom they had
honoured on his departure with a torchlight pro-
cession. To me he said: "The Freiburg students
are lazy — abominably lazy." More than once
he had been compelled to write to truant-playing
pupils asking whether they intended hearing
lectures at all in future, since he could well employ

His Life and Work 5

his time to better advantage. It was only natural
that these experiences biassed his opinion of the
whole population, and he judged the fathers'
qualities by those of their dissolute sons. Society
also left him discontented, and to his father he
wrote: "I do not find it easy to adjust myself to
the social conditions of this small hole; anybody
with as little talent for gossiping as I possess
suffers from an ignorance of individual peculiari-
ties, and stumbles at every moment." The
Freiburg nobility being not only strictly Catholic,
but also thoroughly Austrian, he, with his out-
spoken Prussian tendencies and attacks against the
priests, stirred up a good deal of unrest. Among
his colleagues, he associated principally with
Mangold, the private lecturer von Weech, the
lawyer Schmidt, and the University steward Frey,
all of whom were of Prussian descent. The letter
in which he informs his godfather, Gutschmid,
that he had again been asked to act as godfather
is, from the point of view of phraseology, truly
" Treitschkean " : "A few weeks ago I again acted
as godfather, to a daughter of M., and on this
occasion silently implored the immortals that the
child might turn out better than her uncommonly
good-for-nothing brothers. For my godchild in
Kiel this prayer was superfluous; in my presence
at least, your Crown Prince always behaved as an
educated child of educated parents." Through
his Bonn relatives, the two Nokk, he became
acquainted with Freiherr von Bodman, the father-

6 Treitschke

in-law of Wilhelm Nokk. Especially welcome
was he at the house of von Woringen, the Doctor
of Law, where he saw a good deal of Emma von
Bodman, who subsequently became his wife, and
at that of von Hillern, the Superior Court Judge,
whose wife, the daughter of Charlotte Birchpfeiffer,
consulted him in regard to her poetical creations.
Already, after the first half term, the deaf young
professor was the most discussed person in local
Society, and he himself boasted to my wife that
for his benefit several Freiburg ladies learned the
deaf-and-dumb language. They waxed enthusi-
astic over the young and handsome scholar, and
in their admiration for him sent for his poems,
only to be subsequently shocked, like Psyche
before Cupid. Yet it is characteristic that he
started his literary career with historic ballads
which he called Patriotic Poems (1856), and
Studies (1857).

The political life of the Badenese, which at that
time principally turned upon the educational
question, was not to his taste. The Ultramon-
tanes he simply found coarse and stupid, and he
writes: "It is empty talk to speak of doctrinal
freedom and freedom to learn in a University
with a Catholic faculty. All Professors of Theo-
logy are clerks in holy orders, and so utterly de-
pendent upon their superiors that only recently
the archbishop asked the brave old Senator Maier
to produce the books of his pupils. Furthermore,
the students of Theology are locked in a convent,

His Life and Work 7

and true to old Jesuitic tradition are watched
step by step by mutual secret control. That is
what is called academic liberty." But here, also,
is his opinion regarding others: "The grand-ducal
Badenese liberalism is nothing but cheap charla-
tanism without real vigour"; nay, he calls "par-
ticularist liberalism" the most contemptible of all
parties which, however, unfortunately, would play
an important part in the near future. "Look for
instance at this National Coalition. Has ever a
great nation seen such a monster?" In his opin-
ion it sides with the Imperial Constitution of
1849, although the leaders themselves are con-
vinced of their inability to carry through the
programme, and at the same time the future
political configuration of Germany is declared to.
be an open question, consequently it has on the
whole no programme at all.

Soon I was destined to make the personal ac-
quaintance of the much-admired and much-
criticized one. It was at an "At Home" at
Mathy's. Scarcely had I entered the vestibule
when I heard a very loud voice in the drawing-
room slowly emphasizing every syllable in the
style of a State Councillor. "This is Treitschke,
of Freiburg," I said immediately, and it was really
he. The Freiburg ladies had by no means exag-
gerated his handsome appearance. A tall, broad-
shouldered figure, dark hair and dark complexion,
dark, pensive eyes, now dreamy, now vividly
glistening — unmistakably Slav. With his black

8 Treitschke

hair, the heavy moustache, which he still wore at
that time, and his vivid gesticulations, he could
not conceal his Slav origin. He looked like a
Polish nobleman, and his knightly frame reminded
one of a Hussite, a Ziska for instance. Later,
he told me of his exiled ancestors — Czech Pro-
testants of the name of Trschky, referred to by
Schiller in Wallenstein, although the editions
mostly spoke of Terzky's Regiments. At about
midnight, when wending our way through the
silent town, a policeman approached us, intending
to warn the loud, strange gentleman to moderate
his voice. The arm of the law, however, quickly
retired when, in company of the disturber of the
peace, he recognized Herr von Roggenbach and
several Ministerial Secretaries. As Treitschke
at that time made use of the Karlsruhe Archives,
he from time to time came to Karlsruhe, where
he sought the society of Mathy, Nokk, von Weech,
and Baumgarten. Under Mathy 's influence a
gradual change took place in him, which trans-
mitted itself to all of us. At first he was an eager
adherent of Augustenburg, and the first money
received for his lectures in Freiburg he invested in
the Ducal Loan. Through Freytag he had like-
wise recommended his friend, von Weech, to the
Duke of Augustenburg with a view to his securing
an appointment in Kiel for publicistic purposes.
After that his attitude totally changed. When
he realized that Bismarck earnestly aspired gain-
ing for Prussia the dominating power in the East

His Life and Work 9

and North Sea, he frankly declared the strengthen-
ing of Prussia to be the supreme national duty.
Hausser intended to pin him down with his former
views by citing Treitschke's first Augustenburg
dissertations in the Review of the Prussian Annuals
of 1864. Treitschke, however, by way of reply,
in an essay on the solution of the Schleswig-Hol-
stein question, proved that the compliance with
the Augustenburg demands was detrimental to
Germany's welfare. Again he had spoken the
decisive word, and all writers of our circle now
advocated annexation. We were nicknamed
"Mamelukes and Renegades" by our Heidelberg
colleague Pickford, then editor of the Konstanzer
Zeitung. Treitschke was now as violently against,
as formerly for, the Duke. Now he sees the latter
as "the miserable pretender, whom he despises
from the bottom of his heart. Not only has he
not come to the noble decision which Germany is
entitled to expect from him, but by his unscrupu-
lous demagogical agitations he has utterly un-
settled his country. ' ' In Karlsruhe, the quiet town
of officials, such a political point of view was perhaps
admissible; not so, however, in the high country
filled with animosity against Prussia. Every child
was convinced that Prussia now, as formerly, in-
tended handing over the dukedoms to the King of
the Danes. Junker Voland, who had persuaded the
King to break with the Constitution, was, of course,
bribed long ago by England and Russia to again
restore the dukedoms to Danish supremacy.

io Treitschke

Everything that had happened after the short,
hopeful glimpse of Prussia's new era was an object
of sarcasm for the South German population.
When a boy talked very stupidly, his comrades
would call out : " Go to Konigsberg and have your-
self crowned"; and at Mass the beggar-women,
pointing with their sticks to the Prince's image,
shrieked out mocking insults.

This coarseness of the street and the tone of the
Freiburg democratic journals against Prussia
filled the politician, so inconsiderate against his
own Saxony, with immense indignation. In a
letter to Freytag he finds the Badenese "quite
steeped in the quagmire of phrases and foul
language. Examining these parties, the moral
value of both sides seems identical; the meaning-
less mendacity of our average liberalism fills me
with deep disgust. How long shall we labour
ere we again are able to speak of German faith?
If I am now to choose between the two parties,
I select that of Bismarck, since he struggles for
Prussian power for our legitimate position on the
North and East Sea." He considered as impos-
sible the peaceful conversion of the Badenese to
Prussia. "Amid this abominable South German
particularism it has become perfectly evident to
me that our fate will clearly be decided by con-
quest. Six years of my life I have spent in the
South, and here I have gained the sad conviction
that even with a Cabinet composed of men of the
type of Stein and Humboldt, the hatred and jeal-

His Life and Work n

ousy of the South Germans against Prussia would
not diminish. I am longing for the North, to
which I belong with all my heart, and where also
our fate will be decided." His public lectures
were very largely frequented. "But," he says,
"the Philistines are prejudiced when entering
the Aula, and are firmly determined to consider
as untrue every word I say about Prussia. The
opinion is prevalent that the South Germans are
the most modest of our people. I say they are
the most arrogant; to a man they consider them-
selves the real Germans, and the North a country
half of which is still steeped in barbarity, this
quite apart from a dissolute braggadocio the mere
thought of which fills me with disgust. Believe
me, only the trusty sword of the conqueror can
weld together these countries with the North."
Later on, when I conversed with him every even-
ing at a round table in the Heidelberg Museum, I
realized the reasons for his lack of understanding
of our people. We seemed to him lukewarm,
because we did not strike the national chord with
the power which he expected of a good German.
But why should we do that? In the Saxony of
Herr von Beust, and in Prussia's time of reaction,
national ideas were tabooed, and that is why the
patriots felt compelled to bear witness in season
and out of season. But we lived in a free country,
under a Prince harbouring German sentiments,
and where it would have been an easy matter to
feign patriotism quite apart from the fact that we

12 Treitschke

South Germans do not care discussing our senti-
ments. I told him that in the same way as I,
despite my warmest feelings for my family, could
not bring myself to proclaim pompously the ex-
cellence of my wife and child, so was I reluctant
to publicly praise my Fatherland; and subse-
quently I reminded him of the Yankee who de-
clared that immediately a man spoke to him of
patriotism he knew him to be a rascal. In regard
to our sympathy for France, which he reviled as
the Rhine Confederation sentimentality, it would
be difficult for him to place himself in our position.
During the last century we had received nothing
but kindness from France, namely, deliverance
from the Palatine Bavarian regime, from Jesuits
and Lazarists, from episcopal and Junker rule,
from guild restrictions and compulsory service:
all this and the very existence of the country which
we enjoyed we owed directly or indirectly to
Napoleon and the Code Napoleon, from which
the hatred of the French arose. This, it is true,
I found quite natural, considering Napoleon
weakened Prussia and abused Saxony. He was
indignant when he noticed in corridors of inns and
even in parlours the small lithographs which,
under the First Empire, were poured out in thou-
sands from Paris even across the States of the Rhine
Convention, representing the Victor of Marengo,
the Sun of Austerlitz, Napoleon's Battle at the
Pyramids, etc., and which, owing to the conserva-
tive spirit of the peasantry, decorated the walls,

His Life and Work 13

until moths, rust, and wood-worms gradually
brought about their destruction. He even took
offence at the attitude displayed by Frenchmen
in the Black Forest watering places, and in Baden-
Baden. When, finally, a Heidelberg lawyer de-
clared in the Reichstag that for him the cultured
Frenchman is still the most amiable of all Euro-
pean beings, Treitschke stigmatized us as in-
corrigible partisans of the Rhine Confederation.
But a glance at the letters of Frau Rat Goethe,
in Frankfort, who prayed God that French and
not Prussian soldiers should be quartered in her
house, might have taught him that the expressions
of a long historical epoch find expression in these
remarks, which could not be effaced by proud
words. Furthermore, when the Prussian Ministry
trampled on the Budget rights of Parliament, and
by a sophistical theory about a defect in the Con-
stitution exasperated the sense of justice of every
honest-thinking German, when the most extra-
ordinary verdicts of the Supreme Court, accom-
panied by the removal from office of the most
capable officials, provoked the population, it was
really not the time to stimulate among South
Germans the desire to become incorporated with
Prussia. The moment was, therefore, most un-
propitious for his propaganda. In those days
even such old admirers of a Union with Prussia
as Brater became converts to the triad-idea, and
Treitschke's friend, Freytag, commented on it in
merely the following manner: "It is always very

14 Treitschke

sad and unpleasant when intelligent people so
easily become asses." Why, therefore, should the
unintelligent masses be judged as harshly as was
done by Treitschke? In regard to our clerical-
political struggles — and this was the second reason
for his lack of understanding of our population —
he found himself in the position of a guest who
enters a room in which a heated discussion has
been going on for hours past and, not having been
present from the beginning, is unable to appreciate
the intensity of the contending parties. Even at
that time I was annoyed at the haughty tone with
which he and his non-Badenese friends — Baum-
garten in particular — discussed the Badenese
struggles. They considered the educational prob-
lem trivial compared with the mighty national
question at stake; and overlooked the fact that to
get rid of the clerical party was to be the primary
condition for joining hands with Protestant Prussia.
They knew less of the situation as far as the popu-
lation was concerned than of events in the Ministry
and at Court. Thus they constantly looked behind
the scenes, and thereby missed the part which
was being played on the stage. That is why none
of the North German politicians achieved a really
cordial understanding with their citizens, while
Bluntschli of the South, in spite of his suspicious
political past, could boast of great respect among
the Liberals.

In the autumn of 1868 Treitschke made a long
stay at Karlsruhe; he spent his days mostly in

His Life and Work 15

the Archives, and the evenings found him either
in the family circle of his friends or hard at work.
He had not become more favourably impressed
with the "townlet of clericals," and expressed the
desire more and more frequently to be nearer a
town where there were controversy and quarrelling,
and where the mind was exercised, and deeds were
done. Nevertheless, few towns in Germany could
have been found at that time where he could
express so freely his political opinions without
interference from headquarters, as is proved by
the publication of his famous dissertation on
"Union of States and Single State." In regard
to this he himself thought it "extraordinary"
that it could have been published in Freiburg.
That the German Confederation is not a Coalition
of States, but a Coalition of Rulers, that Austria
cannot be called a German State, and that the
Minor Powers are no States at all, lacking as they
do power of self-determination: all these axioms
to-day have become commonplace, but at that
time the particularist press raised a fierce outcry
against them. Although an official of a Small
State himself, he nevertheless put into print that
a ship a span in length is no ship at all, and that,
should the Small States of Prussia be annexed,
what would happen to them was only what they
themselves in times gone by had done to smaller
territories; for they owed their existence to an-
nexations. Of the German Princes he said: "The
majority of the illustrious heads show an alarming

1 6 Treitschke

family resemblance; well-meaning mediocrity pre-
dominates almost everywhere. And this genera-
tion, not very lavishly endowed by nature, has
from early youth had its mind imbued with the
doctrines of monarchy, and with the traditions of
particularism. From childhood it is surrounded
by that Court nobility which is Germany's curse,
for it has no fatherland, and if it does not com-
pletely disappear in stupid selfishness, it rises at its
highest to chivalrous attachment of the Prince's
personality and the princely family. Should
that Coalition State, which the princes prefer to
the Centralized State, come about, their fate would
not be an enviable one. If, even at this day, the
pretentious title of King of the Middle States
bears no proportion to its importance, we shall in
a Coalition State be unable to contemplate with-
out a smile the position of a King of Saxony or
Wurtemberg. Monarchs in such position would
be quite superfluous beings, and the nation sooner
or later would ask the question whether it would
not be advisable to discard such costly and useless
organizations." This essay he sent to the Grand
Duke, who graciously thanked him for the valu-
able gift. In few German States would a similar
reception have been given to such a treasonable
publication. "The Karlsruhe official world" —
so he informed Freytag on December 27, 1864 —
"has recovered from the first absurd shock which
my book occasioned"; he himself, therefore, did
not deny its startling character. Nevertheless, he

His Life and Work 17

was often commanded by the Court to give lec-
tures, and in spite of his political heresy he was
still a much sought after and distinguished person-
ality, and already regarded as possible successor
to Hausser.

When the crisis, anticipated by him long before,
really broke out he decided to relinquish his
thankless duties in Freiburg, in spite of the fact
that he was too far away from the theatre of
events to take an active part in the press cam-
paign. Roggenbach's resignation had not en-
deared Baden to him. As regards Stabel, Lamey,
Ludwig, etc., he thought they did not even bestow
a thought upon Germany. " Edelsheim is no good
at all. Mathy, ironically smiling, keeps aloof;
he is above the question of Small States; he was
the first to predict that nowadays a Small State
cannot be governed by Parliament. The downfall
of our friend is only a question of time, and pre-
sumably it will be accelerated by the extraordi-
nary ineptitude of the Chamber. Naturally, at
the next session ministers will be harassed by
flippant interpellations until the Liberals resign
and the strong bureaucrats take office. That will
then be called a triumph of parliamentary prin-
ciples." Still more drastic are his views on June
12, 1866: " Lamey 's views on politics are on a level
with the beer garden; and then this fool of an
Edelsheim! Roggenbach's resignation was a fatal
mistake." Treitschke's friends were infallible,
but not the later " Ministry of Emperor Frederick."

1 8 Treitschke

After the Battle of Koniggratz, even Freytag
spoke in his letter of "Bismaerckchen" (Little
Bismarck), and of the waggish tricks of this
"hare-brain," of which in reality he was afraid.
Comparing the clear, self-confident letters of
Bismarck with the excited correspondence of these
spirited political amateurs, no doubt can be enter-
tained as to where was the superiority of mind and
character. But to know better was then the
order of the day, and the mischievous attempts of
Oscar Becker and Blind Cohen, which aimed at
removing King Wilhelm and Bismarck because
they were not the right people to frame Germany's
Constitution, were only a crude expression of the
self-same desire to know better. At the same time
these gentlemen were no more agreed among
themselves than they were in agreement with the
Government, and when Baumgarten warned the
Prussians to think more of the threatening war
than of the constitutional contest, he received in
the journal Der Grenzbote, from Freytag, a very
impolite answer for his "craziness." The Prus-
sians had no wish to be taught their duties by the
Braunschweigers. Meanwhile Bismarck's atten-
tion had been directed to Treitschke, and through
the medium of Count Fleming, the Prussian
Ambassador at Karlsruhe, he was invited to a
personal interview to Berlin. The Count, a very
musical and easy-going gentleman, gave Treitschke
such scanty information as to the object of the
journey that, on June 7, 1866, the latter himself

His Life and Work 19

wrote to Bismarck. It surely was a great temp-
tation to Treitschke when Bismarck suggested
that he should take part at his side in the great
impending developments, should draw up the
Manifesto to the German population, and write
in the papers for the good cause, while, after the
conclusion of peace, he would be given a position
in Berlin as University Professor of History. How
many of those who at that time called him a
Mameluke and a Renegade would have resisted
such temptation? He replied that, as hitherto,
he would support Bismarck's Prussian external
policy, but he refused to become a Prussian func-
tionary until after the re-establishment of the
Constitution. Until this had come to pass no
power of persuasion in the world, and not even the
whisperings of angels, would make an impression
upon the nation. He even refused to draw up the
War Manifesto. He did not wish to sacrifice his
honest political name for the sake of a great sphere
of activity. When, on a later occasion, Bismarck
invited to dinner "our Braun," in order to win
him over to his protective duty plans, Braun —
adamant, as he told me himself — declared that
he could not renounce his convictions of the past»
not having been educated in protective ideas.
Bismarck, infuriated, threw down the serviette,
rose, and slammed the door behind him; where-
upon, Braun, in spite of the Princess's entreaty
not to argue with her ailing husband, told the
ladies he could not put up with everything, and

2O Treitschke

likewise retired. Treitschke, although in a similar
predicament, must have been held in higher esteem
by Bismarck, for, in spite of his refusal, he was
invited to headquarters for the second time after
the victories. Treitschke had persistently de-
clined any semi-official activity until the re-
establishment of the Constitution, yet Bismarck
granted him unrestricted use of the Archives until
the day on which he himself took over the minis-
terial portfolio; furthermore, Treitschke's wounded
brother was under the personal care of the Prince.
Treitschke's disposition in those days is appa-
rent from a letter to Gustave Freytag of June I2th,
which runs as follows: " During such serious times,
surrounded only by madly fanatic opponents,
I often feel the desire to chat with old friends.
The uncertainty and unclearness of the situation
has also been reflected very vividly in my life.
I have some very trying days behind me. Bis-
marck asked me to his headquarters: I was to
write the War Manifesto, to work for the policy
of the German Government, and was assured a
Professorship in Berlin, the dream of my am-
bitions; I could write with an easy conscience the
proclamations against Austria and for the German
Parliament. Briefly, the temptation was very
great, and all the more enticing as my stay here is
slowly becoming unbearable. Even Roggenbach,
now an out-and-out Prussian, did not dare
dissuade me, but I had to refuse ; I could not pledge
myself to a policy, the final aims of which only

His Life and Work 21

one man knows, when I had no power to mend its
defects. I could not for the sake of a very doubt-
ful success stake my honest name. According to
my political doctrine even one's good name is to
be sacrificed to the Fatherland, but only to the
Fatherland; and consequently, only when in
power, and when hopes exist of really furthering
the State by steps which the masses consider
profligate. I am differently placed." He had
chosen the right way, and his sacrifice was not in
vain. It must have impressed Bismarck that
even such fanatics of Prussianism as Treitschke
did not pardon the way he dealt with the clear
rights of the country. In those days he permitted
negotiations with President von Unruh, in order
to settle the constitutional conflict. Treitschke's
renunciation, tantamount to an adjournment of
his most ardent wishes, is to be praised all the
more as his isolated position in Freiburg would
have determined any other man less brave than
himself to take his departure speedily. The
posters and threats of the Ultramontanes were
quite personally directed against him. Police
had to watch his house; for in the midst of an
excited Catholic population he was more openly
exposed to danger than Bluntschli was in Heidel-
berg, with its national tendencies. He smiled,
however. "Beneath the* screaming insubordina-
tion of the South German rabble" — so he writes —
"there is not sufficient courage left to even smash
a window-pane." When, however, the Edelsheim

22 Treitschke

Parliamentary Division, on June I7th, established
that Baden was determined to stand by Austria,
he sent in his resignation. " I cannot gamble with
my oath," he wrote to Freytag; "that is to say,
I cannot remain official servant in a State of the
Rhine Convention which I, as a patriot, must
endeavour to damage in every way. I cannot
commit political suicide, and in times like these
retire into the interior of the enemy's country.
These are my simple and telling reasons." To
Gustav Freytag alone he, however, confessed how
difficult this step had been for him, and on July
4th he wrote as follows: "What made these weeks
particularly trying, and rendered so difficult my
radical decision, I will confess to you, but to you
alone. On June i8th, immediately before my
resignation, I became engaged." At a moment
when an assured position meant everything to him
he departed from his country without knowing
whether he would be able to gain a footing else-
where. On the day on which Freiburg danced
with joy on account of the Prussian defeat at
Frautenau, he received information that his re-
signation had been accepted. On the following
morning, June 29th, he departed by railway for
Berlin in search of a new post. The Freiburg
rabble had planned honouring him with a Dutch
Concert, but it was found that he had already left.
More with a view to travelling quickly — the
Badenese lines being blocked by military trains —
than on account of apprehensions of unpleasant

His Life and Work 23

encounters with soldiers in the railway stations,
he travelled via Strasburg and Lothring. Upon
his arrival at Miinster of Stein the display of
black and white flags taught him the real meaning
of the Prussian defeats which caused such rejoicing
amongst his Freiburg patrons.

After his exodus to Berlin, our patriot found
temporary employment at the Preussische Jahr-
bucher (Prussian Annuals) , where he was appointed
deputy to Wehrenpfennig, the editor of the journal.
"For the moment of course, " he wrote to Frey-
tag, "the guns talk, and how magnificently they
talk!" He also thought that every Hussar who
knocked down a Croat rendered greater service
to his country than all the journalists. All the
same, his aim was to be as useful as possible with
his pen to the cause of the Prussian eagles. He
approved of Bismarck's constitutional plans, but
the introduction of universal suffrage appealed to
him as little then as later on. "I consider uni-
versal suffrage in Germany a crude and frivolous
experiment," he wrote. "We are yet a cultured
people, and under no obligation to submit to the
predominant lack of sense. If we once stretch
this point it will, in view of the jealous ambition
for equality prevalent in this century, be almost
impossible to regain it. Of all the Bismarckian
actions I am afraid this is the least beneficial one.

24 Treitschke

For the moment it will procure for him a gratifying
Parliamentary majority; there is, however, in-
calculable confusion in store."

Under his editorship the Preussische Jahrbucher
were distinguished by exceptionally cutting
language. After three months Wehrenpfennig,
however, again took up his duties, and at the be-
ginning of October, at the house of his fiancee at
Freiburg, the news reached him of his appointment
as Professor for History and Politics at Kiel.
Immediately after the winter term his wedding
took place in Freiburg, and the honeymoon was
spent in the north of Italy, the couple subse-
quently leaving for their new home to enjoy a
second spring on the eastern sea. It would have
been quite within his power to obtain an appoint-
ment as Professor at Heidelberg. It was even
the wish of the Grand Duke that he should take
the historical subjects in place of Hausser, who
was suffering from an incurable heart disease.
Treitschke's refined sentiment was, however, op-
posed to introducing himself as the joyful heir to
the dying man, who was his old master.

When Hausser, amid the peals of the Easter
bells of 1867, closed his worldly account, Treit-
schke told his young wife that for him Hausser's
death had come a good many years too soon, and
that the departed one had lost a great chance.
To be active during the years of youth in beautiful
Heidelberg, and then, after many struggles and
victories, at the eve of life to march triumphantly

His Life and Work 25

into Berlin must be the finest lot of a University
Professor. Besides, as in consequence of his
recent writings during the war his appointment
in a Small State had become almost impossible,
he prepared for a longer stay in the new home, and
on the beautiful Bay of Kiel enjoyed married
bliss. The great crowd of public functionaries
and cultured citizens who thronged his lectures
proved to him that here also there was useful
work to do. He was very pleased with the Kiel
students, energetic and conscientious as they were.
In Gutschmid and Ribbeck he found true political
adherents, but soon he also began to understand
the disposition of the Holsteins. At the house of
Fraulein Hegewisch, the daughter of the well-
known medical practitioner and patriot, who pre-
eminently belongs to the group of the "Children
of Sorrow," and the "Up ewig Ungedeelten," he
made the personal acquaintance of the leader of
the Augustenburgs. Friendly relations developed,
although he did not fail to sneer at the Holsteins,
who considered themselves Normalmenschen (nor-
mal beings). "On one occasion," Fraulein Hege-
wisch informed me, "on account of the crowd, I
walked in the footpath of the Heidelberg high
street instead of on the pavement, when behind
me some one shouted, ' Normalmensch, Normal-
mensch! Why don't you walk on the pavement
like others?' In.'the letters to Freytag, also, he
mentioned a good deal of Holstein conceit and
self-praise, and in course of conversation he was

26 Treitschke

inclined to explain the local patriotism of the
Schleswig student by the fact that everybody
knew his Hardevogt who was ready to attest that
this or the other patriot was needy and deserved
to be exempt from paying college contribution.
That the rest of the world was nailed with "nor-
mal" planks as far as the Holsteins were con-
cerned was also one of the obliging expressions
with which he favoured the population. In the
same way his lady friend, when praising the beauty
of Holstein, was usually annoyed by his remark
that there were eight months of winter and four
months of rain in Kiel. When, however, asked
by Nokk whether he would care to return to
Baden, he replied: "Not for all the treasures of
India to Freiburg, but willingly to Heidelberg."
His writings since his departure from Freiburg
had not rendered probable his recall. His essay
"On the Future of the North German Middle
States," written in Berlin, 1866, attempting to
prove that the dynasties of Kurhessen, Hanover,
and of his own Saxony, were "ripe — nay, over-
ripe— for merited destruction," could not serve
exactly as a recommendation for appointment in
a Small State. The intention of the Badenese
Government was somewhat paradoxical, as every-
thing he wrote about Small States and the Na-
poleonic crowns applied to Baden as well as to
Saxony and Nassau. And how he had sneered
at the poor small potentates. "Germany," he
wrote, "will not perish even if the Nassau Captain

His Life and Work 27

with his gun, his servant, and his seven bristly
fowls should gaily enter the Marxburg again, the
stronghold of the Nassau Realm. Whether the
Frankfurter will be able to call himself in future
a Republican, whether the Duke Bernhard Erich
Feund and Princess Karoline of the older line
will again ascend the throne of their parents, all
these are third-rate matters which fall to the back-
ground in face of the question of the future of the
three Middle State Courts of the North." He
quite realized, he wrote, that the punctilious
Counsellor of Court, Goething, would lose faith
in his God if Georgia Augusta were to be deprived
of the euphonic title "The Jewel in the Crown of
the Welfs," and as for the Leipzig Professor, the
thought is inconceivable that he should cease to
be "a pearl in the lozenged wreath of Saxony."
The doctrinaire is annoyed and offended when
brutal facts disturb his circle. He cannot approve
of the way Prussia has made use of her needle
guns: "But picture the scene of King Johann's
entry into his capital, how the Town Council of
Dresden, faithful at all times, receives the destruc-
tor of the country with words of thanks and adora-
tion ; how maidens in white and green, with lozenged
wreaths, bow to the stained and desecrated crown;
how another dignitary orders the foolish songs of
particularist poetry to be delivered: 'The Violet
blossoms, verdant is again the Lozenge'; really,
the mere thought fills one with disgust; it would
be a spectacle to be likened to grown-ups playing

28 Treitschke

with toy soldiers and rocking-horses." Even for
Germans with good Prussian sentiments this was
somewhat strong language. In the presence of
the Prussian General, who occupied Dresden, the
essay was confiscated by the Saxon Public Pro-
secutor, but was released again by order of the
military authorities. Treitschke's father expressed
himself in angry words against his son's pamphlet,
and in return received an autograph letter from
the King expressing sympathy. It is evident,
that, under these circumstances, it was no easy
matter for the Badenese Court to call the author
to Heidelberg. In the same way as his former
articles against the Middle States prevented his
being present at the wedding of his favourite
second sister — he wished to avoid meeting the
Karlowitz — so did he through this publication
stand in the following year isolated and shunned
at the grave of his father, in addition to almost
losing his appointment to Heidelberg.

When the question of filling Hausser's chair
arose for discussion it caused the opening of nego-
tiations in the first instance with Sybel, a gentle-
man who, especially in our Karlsruhe circle,
enjoyed great reputation, and on his visits even
charmed our particularists by his extraordinary
amiability. Baumgarten had worked with him
in Munich. Von Weech was his pupil. He was
an intimate friend of Philip Jolly. I was also
pleased at the prospective appointment, for when
I spent a few delightful weeks with him and Her-

His Life and Work 29

mann Grimm on the Rigi-Scheideck, in 1863, he
had rendered me several literary services, and had
so warmly recommended me to his Karlsruhe
friends that I was cordially received by them.
But Sybel, occupying the position which he did,
considered himself, in view of the Parliamentary
quarrel, unjustified in abandoning Prussia.
Meanwhile the agitated waves had somewhat
subsided, and Mathy had never given up the
bringing back of his "Max Piccolomini" to Baden.
Only in Heidelberg his impending appointment
met with opposition. Hitzig — who was, later,
Pro-Rector — on November 22, 1866, after Konig-
gratz, in a festive speech entitled, "What does it
profit a man to conquer the world if thereby he
lose his soul?" and expressing unerring confidence
in the return of Barbarossa, and the black-red
golden Kyffhauser magnificence, declared to me
at the General Synod in Karlsruhe that he and his
friends would do all in their power to prevent
such an unhappy choice. They did not want a
writer of feuilletons who would make the giddy
Palatines still more superficial. Besides, owing
to his deafness, Treitschke was useless for all
academic functions, which in Heidelberg were of
the greatest importance. The actual Pro-Rector,
Dr. Med. Friedreich, a Bavarian by birth, was
likewise opposed to the appointment, and later
on, after the outbreak of the academic disputes,
declared in a letter to the minister that it was a
matter for regretful doubt whether the mental

3O Treitschke

condition of Heir von Treitschke could still be
considered a normal one. After long struggles
Treitschke was at last proposed in third place by
the Faculty. In the first place, Pauly was men-
tioned, in order to teach a lesson to the Wurtem-
berg Government for having transferred him, by
way of punishment, from the University to a
Convent School. In the second place, there was
Duncker, and in the third, Treitschke. In the
Senate, Duncker was placed first, but Jolly did
not trouble about this order, and after Sybel's
refusal the choice fell upon Treitschke. He
however, had now certain points to consider. His
work made him dependent upon the Berlin
Archives, the unrestricted use of which Bismarck
had granted him till the day when he himself
became minister; there he found the greatest
possible assistance for his history on the Custom
Union. "How stupid of the Berliners," he told
me on a later occasion, "to bury all their acts, and
allow Nebenius to enjoy the fame of being the
founder of the Custom Union." It would, how-
ever, have been much more difficult to use the
Archives in Berlin from Heidelberg, and he, of
course, did not know how long this favour would
be granted to him. The difficulties in connection
with his appointment at Heidelberg were not
exactly encouraging either, and it could not be
expected of him to display great sympathies
towards Badenese Liberalism, which he had seen
at work in 1866. In a letter to Jolly, he grate-

His Life and Work 31

fully acknowledged the sorely-tried noble spirit
of the Grand Duke, who had again stretched out
the hand, in spite of his former sudden resignation
from Badenese official service; but he made the
acceptance of the position dependent upon the
consent of the Prussian Government. In those
days his friends, Mathy, Hofmeister, and Nokk,
did their utmost, personally, to persuade Treitschke,
and only after having received the assurance from
Berlin that his views were appreciated there, that
his activity in Baden for the national cause would
be regarded with favour, and that the King would
continue to consider him a Prussian subject, he
accepted the call to Heidelberg. Having simul-
taneously received my appointment as Assistant
Professor for the Theological Faculty, we once
more met. As until the last moment I was uncer-
tain whether the proposal for the creation of this
Faculty would materialize, not even the slightest
preparations for the winter lectures had been
made by me, and, overwhelmed with work as I
now was, I resolved to pay no visits at all. It was
Treitschke who, although older and "Ordinarius,"
called on me, the younger and Assistant Professor.
Thus our relations were renewed, and, as Prusso-
phils and Prussophobes kept more and more apart,
quite naturally we became closer attached to
each other. On November 22d the Pro-Rector,
Dr. Med. Friedreich, at the dinner in honour of the
dies academicus, had, in accordance with custom,
to deliver a speech. The South German Progres-

32 Treitschke

sive intended avoiding political allusions, and
consequently hit upon a medical comparison of the
two newly-appointed gentlemen with the Siamese
Twins, whose nature and history he exhaustively
detailed. The one, the stronger, lifted the weaker
one when disobedient up in the air until he yielded.
The joy and sorrow of the one transmitted itself
to the other one; when one drank wine, the other
felt the effects, etc. Subsequently he spoke of
the relations of the Theological Faculty to medical
science, in view of the fact that it had undeceived
orthodoxy; and finally he drank the health of the
new arrivals. In very touching words Treitschke
recalled the memory of our mutual teacher,
Hausser. Whether I liked it or not, I had to
picture myself as the weaker twin, who often had
been lifted by the stronger one, and had promised
to be obedient at all times. In spite of the peals
of laughter with which Friedreich's speech had
been received by the learned circle, the whole thing
struck me as very insipid. Treitschke, however,
was most highly amused, and for some time after,
when meeting him, his first words used to be, "Well,
Twin, how are we?" Later on he applied the un-
savoury comparison of the doctor to Delbruck and
Kamphausen, which did not please me either.

III.

In Heidelberg, Treitschke did not experience
with the students the difficulties he had com-

His Life and Work 33

plained of in Freiburg — a proof that the recalci-
trant attitude of the Freiburg Student Corps was,
to a great extent, due to the Ultramontanes and
to politicians striving to reform the German
Confederation in union with Austria. It is true
some young students complained to me that on the
first few occasions they were quite unable to hear
what he said, that his delivery was much too rapid,
and that they were irritated by the gurgling noise
with which he from time to time unwittingly
drew in his breath. But when once used to his
mannerisms, they all admitted that his gift of
speech, his accuracy of expression, and elementary
force of enthusiasm appealed to them like a some-
thing never before experienced. An enthusiastic
theologian, who died prematurely, applied to him
the following expression from the Gospel of St.
John: "Never before hath a man spoken as this
man did!" Treitschke brought with him to
lectures merely a scrap of paper with the catch-
words written on it, so that he should not stray
from the subject and forget to allude to certain
matters. On one occasion, having left his notes
at home, he told me he had finished, after all,
five minutes sooner, which proved that we all are
"creatures of habit." What was particularly
fascinating in him was the assurance of his manner.
He stood erect, with an expression of cheerfulness
on his face, the head thrown back, and emphasiz-
ing the salient points by repeatedly nodding.
The contents of his lectures were invariably his-

34 Treitschke

torical and political. While Ranke completely
lost himself in pictures of the past, Treitschke
never for a moment forgot the present. What he
said of Cromwell, Gustavus Adolphus, and Na-
poleon always had its references to present-day
England, Germany, and France. His examples
proved that the taking to pieces of the sources
of information and the looking for originals of
reports, however indispensable this preparatory
work might be, did not complete the functions of
the historian. It was necessary to understand
the people whose fate one intends to relate, and as
Treitschke himself said, one understands only
what one loves. All great historians are at the
same time great patriots, and no one is a real
historian who has not exhausted the depth of
human nature, and knows how thoughts originate
and passions are at work. The historian must
display a certain ingenuity in guessing connections.
He must be able to reply to the great enigmas of
life, and must be a poet who understands how to
shape material vigorously. All this was to be
found in this wonderful man, and that is why he
combined for the young people politics with philo-
sophy and religion. "Whoever wishes to write
history must have the heart of a lion," says Martin
Luther; and so Treitschke writes: "Only a stout
heart, grasping the meaning of the past of a coun-
try like personally experienced good and evil
fortune, can truly write history." It is not per-
fection of form only, but depth of soul which

His Life and Work 35

accounts for the greatness of ancient historians.
Who will deny that thereby he portrayed his own
picture? "The historian must be just, outspoken,
indifferent to the sensitiveness of the Courts
and fearless of the hatred, more powerful now-
adays, of the educated rabble": these were the
principles to which he adhered from his chair.
Already in the first weeks of his Heidelberg years,
when reading a good deal of Tacitus and Suetonius
for my New Testament Chronicle, I had a very
instructive conversation on this subject with him.
I told him that in view of the strong antagonistic
attitude taken up by the Roman aristocrats, I
attached no greater value to their descriptions of
the Cassars than to the descriptions of Frederic
the Great, by Onno Klopp, or to the contributors
of the Frankfurter Zeitung. The pictures of
Julius II and Leo X by Raphael, of Erasmus by
Holbein, of Spinola by Rubens, of Lorenzo Medici
by Giorgio Vasari, of old Charles V and Paul III
by Titian, fully confirmed the descriptions of their
biographers; as illustrations they fitted the text;
on the other hand, the statues and busts of Au-
gustus, Tiberius, and Caligula gave the lie to
Tacitus and Suetonius. These marble heads
always appeared to me like a silent and noble,
yet convincing, protest against the calumny of
hostile authors, just as the Philistine bust of
Trajan taught me why Tacitus and Pliny valued
him so highly, simply because he did not prevent
others from calumniating the past. Treitschke

36 Treitschke

differed; Cesare Borgia's handsome features did
not betray his vice ; Tacitus, however, was a patriot
completely absorbed in the interests of his people,
who knew no higher aim than the greatness of his
country, which could not be said of the Frankfurter
Zeitung. He admitted that Tacitus had not kept
the sine ira et studio which he promised; but this
is not at all the duty of the historian. The his-
torian should be capable of both anger and love —
true passion sees clearer than all the cold-blooded
sophists, and only the historian, writing from a
party standpoint, introduces us to the life of the
parties, and really guides us.

Treitschke's prestige amongst the students and
in Society was, at that time, even more firmly
established than among the professors. The circle
of scholars affected mostly a disparaging compas-
sion towards the feuilletonist, who perhaps could
write an essay but no book, and just as the doors
of the Berlin Academy opened to him, only shortly
before his death — as he had not been a scientist,
but merely a clever publicist — there sat in Heidel-
berg, in judgment over him, not only students
of law and of the Talmud, but green, private
University teachers, so that even now one feels
reminded of Karl Hildebrand's words: "If to-day
Thucydides were to appear before the public, no
doubt a Waitz Seminarist would forthwith explain
to him his lack of method." He also realized that
a new volume of essays would not further his
scientific reputation; but, he writes to Freytag:

His Life and Work 37

"I am a thousand times more of a patriot than a
professor, and with the real league of scientists I
shall never be on good terms." As a matter of
fact, Treitschke's chief merit did not lie in the
knowledge he disseminated, but in the incompar-
able effect which his personality and his spirited
words produced on susceptible young students.
His motto was; "German every fibre." In
reality, however, the fire of his speech was not due
to German but to the Czech blood which still
flowed in his veins. One felt reminded of what
other nations had related regarding the impression
a Bernard von Clairvaux, an Arnold von Brescia,
or a Johannes Hus had produced upon them. Also
the temperament of our German Chauvinist was
not German but Slav. With all his sunny cheer-
fulness, he was at times for hours prone to deep
melancholy. Quick to flare up and as easily
appeased, bearing no malice, inconsiderate in his
expressions yet kind in actions, reserved in his
attitude but a good comrade, ready to assist —
there was nothing in him of the German heavy
and mistrustful temperament. He might just
as well have been an Italian or Frenchman, al-
though he had only bad words for the Latin race.
An unfavourable circumstance was that students
crowded to his lectures, but instead of subscribing
to them merely attended. "Taking measures
in this direction one spoils one's relations with
the young people," he said; "but Hausser should
not have brought them up this way." It even

38 Treitschke

turned out that in the absence of the college sub-
scriptions he had relied upon he could not cover
his house expenses; but Jolly stepped in and pro-
cured him a considerable additional salary. In
Heidelberg he quickly felt at home, thanks par-
ticularly to his keen love of nature. After a short
stay in another part of the town he moved into a
pleasant flat on the Frillig Stift, but although deaf
the noise of the main street affected his nerves.
With childish joy he looked at the blooming lilac-
trees in the court, behind which stood a pavilion
bearing an inscription in Greek: "Look for the
contents above," and which Treitschke inter-
preted as meaning that liqueurs were kept in the
loft by the clergyman who had constructed it.
Later on we moved, almost at the same time, to
the other side of the Neckar River, and as the
inhabitants belonged to a party the nickname
"The Superfluous-ones" was originated for us.
Treitschke settled on a fairly steep slope of a hill,
which only permitted of an unimportant structure
being built. Furthermore, as the contractor had
erected the house by way of speculation, economy
was exercised everywhere, and on one occasion
the terrace had to be propped to prevent its drop-
ping into the valley. But there were beautiful
roses at both sides of the building, and, looking
over old chestnut- trees, which screened the high-
way, one caught a glimpse of the river. It was
touching to see how happy the young husband
felt in his new, tiny home, in which he was most

His Life and Work 39

hospitable. He had an inexhaustible desire to
be among human beings, although he did not hear
them.

Conversation with him was most peculiar, as,
afraid to unlearn reading the movements of lips,
he did not like people writing what they wished to
convey to him. He completely abstained from
using the hearing- trumpet, having suffered most
terrible pains when everybody pressed forward
to speak into it. Besides, an unsuccessful cure
in Heidelberg had brought about his complete
deafness. It was soon said that he understood
me best, and consequently I was everywhere
placed by his side. The secret consisted, however,
only in my taking the trouble to place in front the
catchword of what I intended to convey, repeating
it by lip-movements until he understood what the
conversation was about, whereupon he easily
guessed the rest, my nodding or shaking the head
assisting the suppositions. All the same, the
pencil had to come to the rescue from time to time.
If then, in the hurry, I wrote a word incorrectly
and tried to alter it, he good-naturedly consoled
me by saying that he burned all the bits of paper;
and upon somebody telling him he had been able
to study a complete conversation from the slips
of paper which Treitschke had left on the table,
he replied: "This was still more indecent than if
you had been eavesdropping." At times I com-
plained of his supplementing my notes a little too
freely, whereupon he answered: "Such stories can

40 Treitschke

gain only by my embellishments." The duty of
acting as his secretary in the Senate was a fairly
unpleasant one. When a passionate explosion
followed observations which were not to his liking,
everybody looked furiously at me as if I had pushed
burning tinder into the nostrils of the noble steed,
and yet I had only written verbatim what had
been said. For a time, therefore, I allowed many
a bone of contention to drop underneath the table,
but soon he found it out, and after several un-
pleasant discussions with both parties, I requested
one of the younger men of the opposition to relieve
me of my duties. Only when the gentlemen had
convinced themselves that the result remained
the same was I re-appointed. At that time his
finding fault annoyed me, as my sole object was
to avoid a quarrel ; but later on I realized how justi-
fied he was in closely watching his writers. When
for the last time he came to us, and when, drinking
his health, I thanked him from the bottom of my
heart for the happy moments his presence in my
house had given, his neighbour noted down nothing
of my speech beyond attacks against the capital
and the Berlin student, whereupon he most in-
dignantly reproved my South German prejudice.
Fortunately, his wife, sitting opposite, immediately
reported to him by finger signs, whereupon he at
once cordially raised his glass. To take undue
advantage of his affliction was, however, one of
the sins he could not condone, and one had
every reason to be careful in this respect. At

His Life and Work 41

times curious misunderstandings happened. When
once in the summer the Princess Wied with her
daughter, subsequently Queen of Roumania,
passed through Heidelberg, Treitschke was com-
manded to be present as guest at dinner. "Car-
men Sylva," who already at that time took an
active interest in literature, selected him as table-
companion; he, however, not having understood
the seneschal, and thinking his fair neighbour
a maid-of-honour, entertained her politely, but
persistently addressed her as "Mein gnadiges
Fraulein" ("My dear Miss"). His clever and
sacrificing wife never carried on conversation
without at the same time listening whether he
made himself understood with his neighbours, and,
if necessary, rapidly helped by finger-signs, which
she managed like an Italian, while continuing
conversation with her own neighbour in most
charming manner. Her friends knew only too well
how trying this was for her. Fortunately, how-
ever, it usually happened that he remained the
centre of interest, and everybody eagerly listened
to his flow of conversation. When the neighbours
forgot their duties he, visibly depressed, would
look at the surrounding chattering crowd, whose
words he did not hear, and when, after a great
outburst of laughter, he asked the cause of the
hilarity, we often were at a loss to explain to him
the trivial motive. He himself has poetically
described how since the loss of his sense of hearing
nature, like a snow-clad country, had become

42 Treitschke

wrapped in silence, and how the happy youth,
with aspiring temperament perceives a wall
between himself and his brothers which will
remain there for ever. To me the most touching
of all his poems is the one in which he relates how
he first became conscious of his deafness after a
neglected, but in itself by no means dangerous,
infantine disease (chicken-pox).

Without this ailment Treitschke would surely
have joined the Army. Some of his relatives
highly disapproved of his desire to become a
private University teacher, and when inquiring
what else there was for him to do in view of his
affliction, a gentleman from Court, related to him,
replied: "Well, why not the stable career" — a
conception regarding the value of teaching which
he never pardoned. Deafness remained the great
sorrow of his life, and through it every enjoyment
was driven away. In a touching moment he
complained on a certain occasion to my wife that
he would never hear the voice of his children.
"They must be so sweet these children's voices!"
And he loved children so ! He played and romped
about with his grandchildren; both sides under-
stood each other capitally, and it sounded strangely
when he who heard no note sang to them whilst
they rode on his knee; but they liked it, applauded
with their little hands, and often they came run-
ning and asking: "Grandpa, please sing to us."
His deafness, however, did not prevent him from
travelling. Since Rudolf Grimm, who had accom-

His Life and Work 43

panied him to Italy, openly declared that these
duties were too arduous, the deaf man traversed
Europe quite alone. Whilst we were often afraid
that he, when walking of an evening in the high-
way and disappearing in the dark, might be run
over by a carriage coming from behind, as had
happened to him in Berlin, from his inability to
hear it, he calmly travelled about in foreign parts
where all means of communication were exceeding-
ly difficult for him. With the inauguration of the
new shipping service he travelled to England, "in
order to look at this English crew a little closer."
When returning from Spain, which his friends had
considered particularly risky, he, loudly laughing,
entered their wine-bar, and before having taken
off his coat he started to relate: "Well, now, these
Spaniards!" In the same way he had traversed
Holland and France in order to impress historical
localities upon his memory. Considering the
dangers and embarrassments he was exposed to
through his lack of hearing, it will be admitted
that unusual courage was necessary for these
journeys, but he undertook them solely in order
to supplement what had escaped him, through
his deafness, in the tales of others.

The whole historical past of the country being
ever present before his eyes, he, although deaf,
derived more benefit from his travels than people
in full possession of all senses. Just as when pass-
ing the Ehrenberg narrow pass he regretfully
reflected that "Our Maurice" had not caught

44 Treitschke

Spanish Charles, so he sees, in Bruegge, Charles V
in Spanish attire coming round the corner; in
Geneva the oil paintings of Calvin and of his
fellow-artists relate to him old stories; and in
Holland the Mynheers and high and mighties
on every occasion entered into conversation with
him. His clear eyes were of such use to him that
they amply compensated his loss of hearing. But,
however strenuously he resisted, his affliction in
many ways reacted upon his general disposition.
There was something touching in the need for
help of this clever and handsome man, and it
cannot be denied that his amiability was partly
its cause. We also told him that the world bene-
fited by his retiring disposition, and that he was
spared listening to the many stupidities and
coarsenesses which so often spoilt our good hu-
mour. I firmly believe that being deaf he was able
better to concentrate his thoughts, but the lack
of control in hearing himself and hearing others
speak and express themselves had a detrimental
effect upon him. Sound having become practi-
cally a closed chapter to him whilst he was still a
student, he spoke during the whole of his life in
the manner of students and used the language of
his student days. When once suggesting he should
come an hour sooner to our daily meeting-place
he greatly shocked the wives of counsellors present
by replying: "Da ist ja kein Schwein da" (ap-
proximately meaning, "There won't be a blooming
soul there"). When in the presence of several

His Life and Work 45

officers at Leipzig he expressed the opinion that
the new Saxon Hussar uniform was the nearest
approach to a monkey's jacket, he came very near
to having to fight a duel. Quite good-naturedly,
without wishing to offend anybody, he compared
the looks of a lady-student to a squashed bug.
In Parliament likewise he was on a certain occasion
unexpectedly called to order because he found it
quite natural to speak of the haughtiness of Deputy
Richter as if it were impossible to offend him. It
had to be considered that not hearing himself he
did not hear others speak, and Messrs Caprivi,
Hahnke, Hinzpeter, and Gussfeld, who during the
last years were his favourite targets for criticism,
deserve great praise for putting up with his epi-
grams— his bon-mots certainly did not remain
unknown in Berlin. His pulpit expressions also at
times savoured of student slang, so that the worthy
fathers of the University disapprovingly shook
their wise heads. His friends, however, thought he
was ex lege because of his deafness; and he was
unique in that on the one hand he was the best
educated, refined gentleman, with exquisite
manners, yet when aroused he discharged a volley
of invective hardly to be expected from such
aristocratic lips; on the other hand, his sociable
nature found the seclusion due to his deafness very
oppressive. At times as a student in Heidelberg
he had to endure periods of most abject melan-
choly, which, however, his strong nature always
succeeded in conquering.

46 Treitschke

IV.

South Germany and Baden, even after the
campaign of 1866, were a difficult field for Treitsch-
ke. Soon after the war he wrote to Gutschmid
he did not relish returning to Baden as conditions
there were "too awful." Even now this com-
municative comrade, who quite impartially con-
sidered the existence of the Small States a nuisance,
had on every occasion to come into conflict with
the Model State. He hated the system of Small
States just because it diverted patriotism, the
noblest human instinct, in favour of unworthy
trifles. Politics were for him a part of ethics and
the unity of Germany a moral claim. Particular-
ists were therefore to him beings of morally inferior
value. Only hesitatingly he admitted that the
Badenese since 1866 had begun to mend their
ways. "It is true," he wrote to Freytag, "that
the conversion has made considerable progress,
but it is noticeable more in the minds of the people
than in their hearts." Nobody in the whole of
Baden was, however, in favour of mediatization
of the Small States, which he, in his Freiburg Essay
entitled Confederation and Single State, had
plainly demanded. The aim of the Single State
to render conditions uniform is not our ideal to-day.
We are quite content that the University of Leip-
zig should stand by the side of that of Berlin, that
the traditions of Potsdam and Sans Souci should
be preserved in the same way as those of Weimar

His Life and Work 47

and Karlsruhe, and tnat Dresden and Munich art
should be appreciated as much as that of Berlin.
How many professors are there who would desire
to see all German Universities under the same
inspectorate as the Prussian ones? Unity as far
as the outside world is concerned, variety inter-
nally, is our ideal, to which Treitschke likewise
became reconciled after hearing that the Army and
external politics would not be affected by internal
polyarchy. Bismarck's temperate words to
Jolly, "If I include Bavaria in the Empire I must
make such arrangements as to make the people
feel happy in it," contain more political wisdom
than Treitschke's gay prescription : Der Bien muss.
Compared with the errors of our ingenious friend,
Bismarck's "political eye" and his infallible judg-
ment of values and realities can be appreciated in
its true light; under a weak Regent, Unitarian
Germany would have become a new Poland, under
a violent one a second Russia.

It, however, redounds to Treitschke's honour
that one by one he renounced his first ideals, such
as destruction of the Small States, Single State,
Parliamentarism, humiliation of Austria, and free
trade, subsequent to his having found in Bismarck
his political superior. When Bismarck's dismissal
taught him that in Prussia political impossibilities
do not exist either, his eyes were opened to a good
many other matters. Henceforth no complaint
could be lodged against him regarding adoration
of the Crown; rather the reverse was the case.

48 Treitschke

In 1867 Baden was for him merely das Landle (the
little country), but all the same he apparently did
not like to hear from us that our Grand Duchy
comprised more square miles than his Kingdom of
Saxony. He strictly adhered to his dogma of the
Rhine Convention, tendencies to Napoleonic
kingdoms — nay, he even attributed to them aims
of aggrandizement. "What people thought of
1866" — so he relates in his essay on the Constitu-
tional Kingdom — "becomes apparent from the
painful exclamation of a well-meaning Prince to the
effect: 'What a pity we were at that time not on
Prussia's side, as we also should then have en-
larged our territory."1 But as formerly in Frei-
burg, so here, he misunderstood the population.
The fact that the developments in the summer of
1870 appeared to him like outpourings of the Holy
Ghost only proves that the deaf man never under-
stood the ways of our Palatines. Favourable
disposition towards the Rhine Convention, which
he suspected everywhere, was only to be found in
the elegant Ultramontane circles in which he
moved, and in the democratic journals which he
for his own journalistic purposes read more than
other people. It proved perhaps more correct
when he wrote, "The South Germans quietly
aspire to the Main with the reservation, however,
to revile it in their journals. "

Bismarck did not as yet enjoy general confidence,
but had he wanted Baden the Chamber would not
have refused. The factions in the town caused him

His Life and Work 49

amusement ; Heidelberg had the advantage of two
political journals: the Heidelberg Journal and the
Heidelberg Zeitung, which were both Liberal and
had accomplished all that in a small town could
be reasonably expected of them. On this subject
he sketched, in his essay entitled Parties and
Factions (1871), the following pleasant picture:
"Who is not aware of how in towns of Central
Germany two journals side by side eke out a bare
and miserable existence, both belonging to the
same party, yet, for the sake of their valued
clientele, constantly fighting like cats? Who does
not know these journals of librarians outside whose
door the editor stands on duty, a polite host,
deferentially asking what the honourable public
desires to partake of? Tre fratelli ire castelli still
applies to our average press. "

Filled by the desire to continue the worthy
labours of the year 1866 he enthusiastically adopt-
ed Mathy's idea to include Baden in the North
German Convention, and thought it unkind that
Bismarck failed to honour Mathy's memorandum
on the subject with a reply. If Prussia should not
carry out her plans he was afraid the Pan- Germans
in Baden would again become masters of the situa-
tion, and he added: "If Bavaria, Wurtemberg,
and Baden should go with Austria, even the
European situation will assume a different physiog-
nomy. " All the same, he was at that time too
closely in touch with Bismarck to advocate too
strongly the Mathy plan in the A nnuals. Treitsch-

50 Treitschke

ke stigmatized as obtrusive the Lasker Parlia-
mentary Bill of February, 1871, Lasker acting
as attorney for the Badenese Government, which
he was not, and surprising Bismarck with his
proposal without having first consulted him.

Mathy's death on February 4, 1868, affected
Treitschke all the more as Mathy had influenced
him considerably in his decision to gain for a second
time a footing in Baden. Besides, Treitschke
warmly remembered Mathy's beautiful trait in
assisting younger men whom he considered promis-
ing. "You belong to the few," Freytag admitted
to him, "who have fully grasped Mathy's love and
faith. " It was, however, not only Mathy's sweet-
ness of character which he had detected beneath
the caustic ways of the old Ulysses, but also his
political reliability. "I still cannot get over it,"
he mournfully wrote to Freytag; "among all the
old gentlemen of my acquaintance he was to me
the dearest and the one deserving of greatest
respect." "The real Badenese," he said in
another letter, "never really cared for their first
politician, and your book again shows clearly the
sin for which Mathy never will be pardoned —
character." Another letter to the same friend
in August, 1868, runs as follows: "Here in the
South the disintegration of order continues. The
recent Constitutional Festival has vividly re-
minded me of our never-to-be-forgotten Mathy.
How the world has changed in twenty-five years
since Mathy organized the last Badenese Con-

His Life and Work 51

stitutional Festival ! Thank goodness, the belief
in this particularist magnificence has to-day com-
pletely disappeared. The festival was an osten-
sible failure, a forced and feigned demonstration.
The Ultramontanes kept aloof because they hated
Jolly and Beyer, and the Nationalists who partici-
pated for that reason openly admitted that they
had longed for the happy end of the old man."
His depreciative opinion of the conditions in Baden
finally developed into slight when a few weeks
after the Constitutional Festival the ministerial
candidates Bluntschli, Lamey, and Keifer, who
had gone over on the formation of the new Minis-
try, attempted to overthrow the Ministry favour-
ably disposed towards Prussia by convoking the
Liberal deputies at Offenburg. In the Prussian
Annuals he now called upon his North German
friends in disdainful terms to study the pamphlet
of these gentlemen against Jolly, in order to gain a
somewhat more correct idea of the political state
of affairs in Baden. In his opinion it was a sort of
"Zuriputsch" arranged by the Swiss gentlemen,
Bluntschli, Schenkel, and Renaud. It might have
applied as far as Heidelberg was concerned, but
the country was really attached to Lamey, whose
name was tied up with the fall of the Concordat,
and whose canon laws of 1860, making a Catholic
country of Baden, were at that time praised by all
of us as the corner-stone of liberty and political
wisdom. Treitschke's only answer to Bluntschli 's
agitation for energetic revision of the Constitution

52 Treitschke

was to leave the Paragon State in its present form
until Prussia would absorb the whole. The at-
tempt to overthrow the Ministry failed as the
Regent had been left out of account. In Heidel-
berg, Treitschke, at an assembly of citizens, took
up the cudgels for Jolly, and was principally
opposed by Schenkel, who declared that he would
not allow himself to be threatened by the sword of
Herr von Beyer. Surprised, Bluntschli, however,
wrote in his diary that the citizens applauded
Treitschke, who spoke for Jolly, no less than
Schenkel, who spoke against him. When the
whole question was brought before a second and
very largely-frequented assembly of the Liberal
Party in Offenburg, Bluntschli made Goldschmidt
and Treitschke's other friends promise that
Treitschke should abstain from speaking as he
would upset all peace proposals. The latter, how-
ever, immediately declared he could not be forced to
maintain silence. At least a thousand men con-
gregated from all parts of the country, more than
the big hall " Zum Salmen " was capable of holding.
Eckard, subsequently Manheim bank manager,
sat in the chair; on the part of the Fronde, Kieper,
instructed by Jolly, spoke, and for Jolly, Kusel
from Karlsruhe addressed the meeting. Treitschke
as a Prussian allowed the Badenese to speak first,
and only towards the finish did he ascend the plat-
form. A contributor of the Taglische Rundschau
gave the following account: "The meeting had
lasted for a considerable time, and the audience,

His Life and Work 53

after standing for hours closely packed in the
heavy, hot air, was tired, when a person unknown
to us started speaking. His delivery was slow and
hesitating, with a peculiar guttural sound, and his
intonation was monotonous. Citizens and peas-
ants amongst whom I stood looked at each other
astonished and indignant. Who was this appar-
ently not very happy speaker who dared to claim
the patience of the assembly? We were told it
was Professor Treitschke of Heidelberg. At first
ill-humoured, but soon with growing interest, we
followed his speech, which gradually became more
animated. The power and depth of thoughts the
compelling logic proofs adduced, the clearness and
force of language, and above all the fire of patriot-
ism, all this captivated the listeners and carried
them irresistibly away. The outward deficiencies
of the lecturer were now unobserved; attentively
with breathless excitement, these simple people
listened to the orator, who spoke with the force of
the holiest conviction; and when finishing with
the exhortation to set aside all separating barriers
for the sake of the country, a real hurricane of
enthusiasm broke forth. The audience crowded
round the speaker and cheered him; he was lifted
by strong arms amid ceaseless enthusiasm. It was
the climax of the day. Never since have I wit-
nessed a similar triumph of eloquence. "

He had appealed particularly to the peasants
present by his outspoken and simple words.
Schenkel likewise was disarmed. Heidelberg

54 Treitschke

friends related how Schenkel, who in Heidelberg
had contested Treitschke's speech in favour of
Jolly, immediately afterwards advanced towards
the platform in order to speak, but Treitschke's
utterances had rendered unnecessary a rejoinder.
When, on the other hand, I asked Treitschke after
his return whether in his opinion peace would be a
lasting one, he replied: "Oh, Lord, no! the lack
of character is much too great." In a still more
disdainful manner and full of passionate exaspera-
tion against Bluntschli he wrote to Freytag:
"Jolly understands very well how to assert himself
here; daily he cuts a piece off the big Liberal list
of wishes, but immediately a new one grows be-
neath. Where is this to lead? Moreover, there
are blackguards like this miserable Bluntschli at
the head of the patriots! Nokk, my brother-in-
law, who is well able to judge the situation, has
long ago despaired of a peaceful solution. "

In January, 1870, whilst staying at Heidelberg,
and shortly before the outbreak of war, the second
collection of historic political essays was published.
The editor's intention was to publish them before
Christmas, but Treitschke delayed matters. "I
hate everything suggestive of business," he told
me, "and I don't want to belong to the Christmas
authors. " He was also averse to editions in parts.
The essay on Cavour, which shortly afterwards
appeared translated in Italian, brought him the
Italian Commander Cross — a necklace, as his wife
said. When one of his friends had fallen in dis-

His Life and Work 55

grace on account of a biting article in the Weser
Zeitung attributed to him, Treitschke said: "If
the man wants to carry a chamberlain's key and
six decorations, he might as well have the muzzle
belonging to it"; and when asking him whether
this also applied to him, he replied: "No, but I
have not been asking for it." This volume of
historic essays contained the treatise on the Repub-
lic of the Netherlands — full of sparkling descrip-
tions of Holland and her national life, which
proved that not in vain had he brought his Brief je
van de uuren van hat vertrekk, i. e. his railway book-
let for the land of the frogs and the ducats. Par-
ticularly weighty, however, was his essay on
French Constitution and Bonapartism, in which
he proved that Bonapartism had revived, thanks
to the Napoleonic fundaments of State having
remained, a circumstance which even after the
fall of Napoleon III, and in spite of all their de-
feats, made him believe in the return of the Bona-
partes. His essay On the Constitutional Kingdom,
forming part of this collection, and containing
views on the wretchedness of Small State Court
life; on the poverty of thought and the rudeness
of the South German Press; on the South Ger-
man's respectful awe of the deeds of Napoleon, the
national arch-enemy; and on the bustling vanity
of Church authorities, could not create a great
impression after his previous and much stronger
dissertations. He himself was dejected owing to
the scantiness of enthusiasm aroused by his per-

56 Treitschke

sistent appeals "to discard decayed political
power," to upset the Napoleonic crowns and to
continue the laudable efforts of 1866. Some friends
likened his situation to that of Borne, who is the
object of criticism in one of the essays, and who,
in his Paris letters, always predicted anew the
revolution which always failed to materialize. By
Napoleon's declaration of war "this sturdy cen-
tury" took the last stride towards its goal.

Being a border power, Baden naturally feared
the war which Treitschke was pining for. At that
time already his mind was clear as to the weakness
of the Empire, and the profligate stupidity of the
French people. Being constantly in touch with
Berlin he was better informed regarding certain
developments than we were. When speaking to
him for the first time after the declaration of war
he solemnly said: "I think of the humiliation we
escaped! If Bismarck had not drawn up so
cleverly the telegram on the Benedetti affair the
King would have yielded again. " At the general
drinking bout improvised by the students prior
to going to the front or to barracks, Treitschke
was received as if he had been the commander-in-
chief , and he certainly was on that evening. The
speech of Pro-Rector Bluntschli, opening the ball,
had a decidedly sobering effect. He pointed out
how many a young life would come to an early end,
how many a handsome fortune would be lost, how
many a house and village would be burned to ashes,
etc. The speech was written down, and when

His Life and Work 57

shown to Treitschke he merely said, "S'isch halt a
Schwizer" ("He is, after all, only a Swiss").
Capital words by Zeller followed: "We have
heard the crowing of the Gallic cock, and the
roaring of Mars ; but there is only one to tame wild
Ares, and that is Pallas Athene, the Goddess of
Clever Strategy, and upon her we rely." When,
subsequently, Treitschke rose, applause and ac-
clamations prevented him for some time from
making himself heard. His speech expressed joy
at the events happening in our lifetime, and ex-
hortations to prove as worthy as the fighters of
1813. Ideas and colour of speech were as count-
less as the bubbles in a glass of champagne, but
they intoxicated. His magnificent peroration
terminated approximately in the following manner:
"Fichte dismissed German youth to the Holy
War with the motto, 'Win or die'; but we say,
' Win at any price ! ' ' Already he had received a
more cordial reception than anyone, but now
hundreds rushed forward with raised glasses eager
to drink his health. The shouts of enthusiasm
threatened the safety of floor and ceiling. As one
crowd receded, so another surged round him, just
as waves beget waves. I have seen many teachers
honoured under similar circumstances, all with a
smile of flattered vanity on their lips, but never
had homage assumed such proportions. Treitsch-
ke's face showed outspoken joy at these warm-
hearted young people, who surely would not fail
to give a good account of themselves, and it was

58 Treitschke

distinctly annoying to him that the following
winter he had to give lectures to those who had
not joined the ranks. He was, however, deeply
moved at the nation having risen as one man, and
he apologized for all the unkind words he had
uttered previously. Later on, he wrote: "During
those days in Germany it seemed as if humanity
had improved. " The song on the Prussian eagle,
which from Hohenzollern flew towards the north
and now returns southwards — a subject inspired
by Baumgarten — is a beautiful memento of his
elated feelings at that time.

During the ensuing period he led a surprisingly
retired life, and we heard only that he was writing.
When meeting him shortly before the days of
Saarbruck, he looked pale and excited. "What a
long time it takes, " he said, "for such great armies
to be brought together! The tension is almost un-
bearable." He was visibly ill with excitement.
When the days of Worth and Spichern had happily
passed, we met at the Museum to study the tele-
grams which arrived hourly. He, however, failed
to turn up, and it was said he was writing. There
was a good deal of simulated activity about, but
for him there was nothing in particular to do. At
last his excellent essay, What We Demand of France,
saw the light of day, and at the same time it
appeared in the Prussian Annuals. Now it was
evident what he had been doing in seclusion.
Everybody was amazed at the mass of detail
collected during the short interval, in order to

His Life and Work 59

impress the reader with the thoroughly German
character of Alsace. Of almost every little town
he knew a story by which it became intertwined
with the German past. There was Alsatian local
tradition galore in the book, as if he at all times had
lived with these people. To his mind the fact that
the Alsatians at the time would not hear of Ger-
many did not make them French. "The mind of
a nation is not formed by contemporary genera-
tions only, but by those following." Erwin von
Steinbach and Sebastian Brandt, also, were of
some account, and, after reviewing the German
past of the country, he asks: "Is this millennium,
rich in German history, to be wiped out by two
centuries of French supremacy?" In regard to
the future of Alsace he was from the first convinced
it would have to become a Prussian province, as
Prussian administration alone possessed the power
to rapidly assimilate it. Only when convinced of
the realization of Unitarian ideas a Prussian, as he
now always called himself, could desire to see a
frontier of Prussia extending from Aachen to Mul-
house. To make out of Alsace an independent
State, enjoying European guarantee of neutrality,
as proposed by Roggenbach in the Reichsrath,
would have meant creating a new Belgium on our
south-west coast, in which the Catholic Church
would have been the only reality, and Treitschke,
in his essay of 1870, replied thereto by referring to
the "disgusting aspect of the nation Luxemburg-
oise, " although in the Annuals he ostensibly spared

60 Treitschke

the quaint statesman, who was his friend. "Let
us attach Alsace to the Rhine Province," he said;
"we shall then have a dozen more opposition votes
in Parliament, and what does that matter? The
rest you leave to Prussian administration."
Neither we nor he could foresee that in thirty
years it would not achieve more; but he did not
fail to point out that the only cause of the failure
was the creation of the " Reichsland, " a hybrid
which was neither fish nor flesh. He, however,
shared Freytag's aversion for the title of Emperor,
which, in his opinion, bore too much of black, red,
gold, and Bonapartist reminiscences. Both wished
for a German King; but finally Bluntschli's com-
mon-sense prevailed, he having suggested, "The
peasant knows that an Emperor is more than a
King, and for that reason the Chief of an Empire
must be called Emperor; besides, it will be better
for the three Kings; they will then know it, too, "
saying which the stout Swiss laughed heartily.

On the other hand, Treitschke never became
reconciled to Bavaria's reserved rights. He spoke
of a new treaty of Ried, similar to that which, in
1813, guaranteed sovereignty to Bavaria, and
expressed anger at the weakly Constitution which
reverted again to federalism. With malicious joy
he reported that the former Pan-Austrian fogy,
when examining students for the degree of Doctor
of Law, now always questioned on Bavarian re-
served rights. The whole arrangement with
Bavaria and Wurtemberg appeared to him "like

His Life and Work 61

a Life Insurance Policy of the Napoleonic crowns
with his magnanimous Prussia, which compelled
him to adjourn his Unitarian plans ad Gracas
calendas."

It is also peculiar to what a small extent he
shared in the triumphant tone displayed every-
where after the war. Sybel's essay, What We might
Learn of France, had his full approval. He was
disgusted with the way the journalists in the news-
papers, the teacher in the chair, and the clergyman
in the pulpit gave vent to their patriotic effusions.
In his letters he likewise spoke slightingly of
the modern customary orations regarding German
virtue and French vice. The more he disliked
the remnants of particularism in the new Consti-
tution, the less he was disposed to admire the
Germans, who, in his opinion, had forfeited the
greatest reward of great times by their own in-
dividualism. This it was which distinguished him
from the ordinary Chauvinist, and only too well he
realized in how many things the nation, in spite of
all successes, had remained behind his ideals.

Nobody, however, has given more beautiful
expression to the deep and serious thoughts with
which we celebrated peace in 1871. Like a prayer-
book we read the essay in the Annuals, in which he
opened his heart. He himself had lost his only
brother at Gravelotte, my wife hers at La Chartre.
The Prussian nobility was in mourning; he, how-
ever, consoled us: "May common grief still more
than great successes unite our people formerly at

62 Treitschke

variance with each other. Rapidly die away the
shouts of victory, long remain the deep lines of
grief. Who will count the tears which have been
shed around the Christmas-tree? Who has seen
the hundred thousand grieved hearts from the
Alps to the sea, who, like a big, devout community,
have pinned their faith again to the splendour of
the Fatherland?" Actuated by the same senti-
ments, I had preached, shortly before, in the
Church of the Holy Spirit, on "Blessed are ye who
have suffered, " and therefore could doubly appre-
ciate his efforts to touch the people's innermost
feelings. His words have never been forgotten.

V.

The few years which Treitschke spent in Heidel-
berg after the war were, as he himself admitted,
the happiest of his life. His tiny house, overlook-
ing the Neckar and Rhine Valley, was for him a
constant source of joy, and proudly he would take
his visitors to the top of the vineyard, from which
the Speyer Dom and Donner Mountain, near
Worms, were visible. Immediately adjacent to
his property excavations had been made in times
gone by, and even now bricks and fragments of
pottery, bearing the stamp of the Roman Legation
were to be found. Thus he had historical ground
even under his feet. When, occasionally, on my
return from a visit about midnight, I still saw
lights in his study, I could not refrain from think-

His Life and Work 63

ing of Schiller, who, likewise, found the late hours
of night most propitious for his creations. It
would be a mistaken idea to think that Treitschke,
vivaciously as he lectured, wrote his works with-
out exhaustive preparations. He just served as a
proof that genius and industry go hand-in-hand.
Thanks to his iron constitution, he could work
until two o'clock in the morning, yet be gay and
full of life the following day. Surrounded by his
small crowd of children — two girls and a boy — and
with his elegant and slim-looking wife by his side,
he felt truly happy. It was a thoroughly aristo-
cratic and harmonious home, which in every detail
betrayed the gentle and tasteful hand of his spouse.
There was something distinctly humorous in his
peculiar ways, which made the visitor feel at home.
Above all, he was completely unaware of the noise
he made. Baumgarten, who was nervous, and
worked with him in the Archives, declared that
not only was the throwing of books and constant
moving of his chair unbearable, but also his un-
controllable temper. On one occasion, Treitschke
took up the register he had been studying, and
jumping about the room on one leg, shouted,
"Aegidi, Aegidi!" It appeared that in the Am-
bassador's Report of the Prussian Diet of 1847
he had found a memorial of his friend Aegidi stud,
juris in Heidelberg, which the Ambassador had
communicated to Berlin with a view to showing
the present spirit of German students, and which
started with the following declaration: "Like the

64 Treitschke

Maid of Orleans before the King of her country, so
I, a German youth, come before the noble Diet
in order to give proof of the patriotic wishes
agitating youth." Similar humorous outbursts
of his temperament occurred, of course, at home
as well. He at times experienced difficulties with
his toilette. The ladies, then, had to manipulate
him into a corner to adjust his tie or collar. In
Scheveningen, where he occupied a room next his
family, he once rushed out on the general balcony
when unable to manipulate a button, shouting,
"Help! help!" so that the phlegmatic Dutch
neighbours looked out of the windows, thinking a
great misfortune had happened. The importunity
with which some people asked for autographs, and
others for copies of his books, his photograph, or a
memento of some kind, provided his keen sense of
propriety with excellent material for displaying
originality. All this, however, was done in such a
humorous fashion that his company proved most
amusing. He behaved towards his students with
strictness, although he was gay enough when
addressing them from the chair. They idolized
him, but at all times he kept them at a distance.
When the University filled again for the winter
term, 1871-1872, Treitschke had gained among the
students a position second to none. His lectures
on modern history, politics, and the Reformation,
were crowded, and his descriptive powers always
thrilled his audience. Hausser's force had been
in his irony; with Treitschke, humour and pathos

His Life and Work 65

alternated like thunder and lightning. Even
listeners of more matured age admitted that they
had never heard anything that could be compared
with his natural elementary eloquence. Unable to
hear the clock strike, he had arranged with those
sitting in front to make a sign at a given hour;
but, as nobody wished him to discontinue, he often
unduly prolonged his lectures. Now and then
ladies turned up. At first he informed them by
letter that he could not permit their presence,
but when they persisted in coming he told the
porter to refuse them entrance, and angrily added
his intention of putting up a notice similar to
those in front of anatomical theatres: "For
gentlemen only!" When meeting his colleagues
he never even hinted at the striking success he
scored with his audience. His disposition was
anything but over-confident, and he associated
just as cordially with those whose academic
failures were notorious — provided he appreciated
them otherwise — as with the past-masters, whose
level was as high as his own. He never referred
at all to the demonstrations which students made
in his favour. In the choice of his friends, as well
as in the choice of his enemies, he was aristocratic,
but vain he was not. Enthusiastic patriotism was
the keynote of his life, and this explains its aesthet-
ics. A sensitive admirer of nature, appreciating as
keenly as anybody the lovely scenery of the ruins
of Heidelberg Castle, he nevertheless favoured
the re-building of the same, obsessed by the idea

66 Treitschke

that it must become the palace of the German
King. His literary opinions could easily be gauged
as his compass always pointed towards Prussia.
When he invited us to an evening, we knew before-
hand we should read the Prince of Hamburg, or
some similar work. This explains also his pre-
dilection for Kleist, and for Uhland, the patriot.
Of Hebbel's works — he was about to prepare an
analysis of them in a new form for publication in
the essays — the Nibelungs were his favourite.
Did he not himself bear resemblance to Siegfried,
who plans to chain up the perfidious Danish Kings
outside the gate, where, as they had behaved like
dogs, they were to bark on his arrival and de-
parture? This was quite his style of thinking,
just as at the Theatre Francais my travelling
companion, when listening to the patriotic ravings
of Ernani, the highwayman, whispered to me:
"Exactly like Treitschke!" Not only The Trou-
sers of Herr von Bredow, of which he knew con-
siderable parts by heart, but Brandenburg poetry
in general, gave him great pleasure. He even
shielded Hesekiel and Scherenberg against attacks ;
and the scruples of learned men respecting Frey-
tag's Ingo and Ingraban were suppressed by him.
Turbulent men were to his liking; the criticisms
of German Law History and of the Spruner Atlas
regarding these descriptions had, to his mind,
nothing to do with poetry. Whatever met with
the approval of his patriotism could be sure of his
appreciation. My first two novels met with a very

His Life and Work 67

friendly reception in the Press, as, thanks to my
pseudonym, "George Taylor," quite different
authors had been suspected. No sooner, how-
ever, had the wise men from the East discovered
that a theologian had been the author than, on
the appearance of the third novel, entitled Jetta,
they vented their rage at having been deceived.
Treitschke, however declared Jetta to be the best
of the three books. He liked the Alemans for the
thrashing they had given the Romans, and that
settled the matter as far as he was concerned.
The way the learned fraternity censured Hermann
Grimm appeared stupid to him, like school pedan-
try. He realized as well as anybody else the de-
fects and mistakes, but he called it childish spite
to take to task such an ingenious author for all
sorts of blunders and amateurish trivialities when
he had original views, and had created a picture of
culture such as the life of Michelangelo. In the
same way he stood up for living and not for dead
writers, in spite of the opposition of the learned
fraternity; but he did not, however, defend their
superficiality or phrase-making.

The great literary post-bellum events were The
Old and the New Faith, by Strauss, and the revival
of Schopenhauer pessimism by Hartmann and
Nietzsche, books which — albeit different in form,
yet related in their fundamental views of the
world — appeared to Treitschke, in view of the
melancholy tone adopted, like an inexplicable
phenomenon. How could anybody be a pessimist

68 Treitschke

in times like the present, when it was a pleasure
to be alive? Of Hartmann he said: "This is the
philosophy of the Berliner when suffering from
phthisis." With Olympic roars of laughter he
derided, over a glass of beer, Hartmann's senti-
mentality and his many discussions whether the
feelings of pleasure or displeasure predominate
in human nature. After all, Hartmann had left
us the consolation of Nirvana; but Nietzsche, by
his revival theory, deprived us of the consoling
thought of peacefulness after death. Nietzsche's
first essay on the origin of tragedy had met with
Treitschke's approval. Was he not himself to
adopt the Nietzschean phrase of "a dithyrambic
disposition"? and, to him, Socratic natures were
likewise unsympathetic. In his criticism on
Strauss he gave proof of his aversion to Socratic
dispositions, an aversion which he shared with
Nietzsche. He was the only one of our circle who
defended Nietzsche's essay and criticized Strauss's
Old and New Faith. He would not admit the
merits of a book which represents the materialistic
theory in transparent clearness, and thereby
brings defects to light which cannot be overlooked.
He simply went by results. A book, which as far
as we, the enlightened ones, were concerned,
sought a last consolation in music, had to be some-
what disagreeable to him, deaf as he was. But he
would not even admit Strauss's beauty of style.
" Beautiful style by itself does not exist, " he said.
"A style is beautiful when the writer is represented

His Life and Work 69

by it. Style should faithfully express the nature
and temperament of the author. With Lessing, I
admire the clear statements, because they are
natural to this clear dialectician; but with Strauss
they do not belong to the man, as with Lessing,
but to the essay. " Strauss's style just lacked the
personal element. If Strauss, on the other hand,
found Treitschke's style indigestible, the contrast
is thereby quite correctly characteristic. While
patriotic pathos dominated the one, the other one
was, throughout, reflective and logical; that is
to say, the one was a dithyramb and the other
one a Socratic nature. I could not always share
Treitschke's clearly formed opinions, but we were
all grateful to him for the interest with which he
invested conversation, and for his ability to main-
tain it. His own activity was that of an artist as
well as that of a scientist. Impressions of his
travels through all the valleys of Germany, poetry,
newspaper extracts, conversations and humorous
stories of friends, were always at his command, and
these, combined with accurate studies from the
Archives and information verbally received, en-
abled him to shape his work. Considering his
system of gathering information, it was inevitable
that occasionally he was provided with unauthen-
tic news, for, as soon as conversation arose on a
subject useful to him, his pocket-book appeared,
and he asked to have the story put down. When
I once wrote for him that, at the outbreak of the
Army mutiny in Karlsruhe, a picture of Grand

70 Treitschke

Duke Leopold was exhibited in all the libraries,
with the verse:

Zittert ein Tyrann von Revolutionen,
Du Leopold kannst ruhig thronen.
Dein Volk verlasst Dich nicht

(Though a tyrant may dread revolution,
Thou, O Leopold, mayest safely reign.
Thy people will not forsake thee),

he immediately placed the piece of paper separately
and said, "This will appear in the sixth volume";
but it never saw the light of day. I personally
could vouch for the correctness of my story, but
how easy it was to obtain wrong information under
these circumstances, and, as a matter of fact, all
sorts of protests against his anecdotes were raised
after each publication. It is notorious how cir-
cumstantially he subsequently had to explain or
contradict the story of the silver spoon of Prince
Wrede, the Red Order of the Eagle of Privy Coun-
cillor Schmalz, and many other things, and much
more frequently still he promised correction in the
subsequent edition to those who had lodged com-
plaints. We were very much annoyed at the injus-
tice with which he, in the fifth volume, character-
ized the Grand Duke Leopold, who was exceedingly
conscientious and benevolent. When attacking
him for it in our domestic circle, he declared that
every petty State had its idol, and that we ought
to break ourselves of it as others had done.

His Life and Work 71

Treitschke's tales from the Reichstag provided
a rich source of amusement. When entering
Parliament, in 1871, all friends were of opinion
the deaf man would not stand it long, and his
enemies mockingly remarked: "It is right he
should be there." But the canvassing tour in
itself proved a great recreation for him, and if he
had achieved nothing beyond the strengthening,
by his fiery speeches, of the German sentiment of
people on the Hunsruck and in the Nahe Valley,
this gain alone was worth the trouble. His effi-
ciency in Berlin exceeded all expectations. He
sat next to the shorthand writers, and after having
grasped their system of abbreviations, he followed
the speeches, and thus was often better informed
than those who sneered at the deaf deputy. It
was more difficult for him to attend at Committee
sittings, but his friend Wehrenpfennig kept him
informed as far as possible. As all parties decided
in committee how to vote, Treitschke's speeches
in plenum really were of value for the public only,
but the reputation of the Reichsrath certainly was
considerably enhanced by the fact that people who
liked reading the parliamentary proceedings were
able to find the speeches reproduced in the news-
papers. The orations of "the deaf man who had
no business in Parliament" are, with the exception
of Bismarck's, after all, the only ones which, after
his death, have been edited in book form from the
protocols, and even to-day they are a source of
political information and patriotic elevation. It

72 Treitschke

was a great event when the circle of friends in
Heidelberg heard that Treitschke had delivered
his maiden speech in the Reichstag, and great was
our joy when we read that in this first speech he
had vehemently attacked the Ultramontanes.

Deputy Reichensperger moved that, with a
view to safeguarding the liberty of the Press,
Unions and the Church Articles III-Vof the Frank-
fort fundamental laws should be incorporated
in the Constitution of the Empire. Treitschke
started by declaring that the nation's hope of a
temporary continuance, at any rate in Parliament,
of the noble spirit of unanimity which, during the
war, had raised Germany above other nations,
had been defeated by the Ultramontanes. At the
beginning of the German Reichstag, we have
heard the Empire of the Papal King, the Republic
of Poland, and the Empire of the Guelfs discussed,
while I had hoped we should now have firmly es-
tablished progress in our territory, and would look
hopefully towards the future. It is impossible to
believe that the great question of State and Church
could be solved by a four-line sentence. In order
to bring about the Constitution every party was
obliged to make sacrifices. The disturbers of the
peace are now exactly those gentlemen who always
assert that they are the oppressed minority. Now,
gentlemen, if this were true, I must say that they
endured their oppression with a very small
measure of Christian patience. If fundamental
laws should become incorporated with the New

His Life and Work 73

Constitution, he continued, why have Mr. Reichen-
sperger and his associates forgotten the principal
ones? The article is lacking ; "science and its dog-
ma are free," a principle the adoption of which
would be highly beneficial to the Catholic Theo-
logic Faculties. Why is the definition lacking
respecting civil marriage law? In this way he
ruthlessly tore off the opponents' masks, as if they
had aimed at liberty. When Bishop Kettler had
uttered a warning to speak a little more modestly,
and with less confidence of the future of an Empire
which had as yet to be founded, Treitschke ironi-
cally pointed to the great progress made consider-
ing that Kettler no longer sat in Parliament as
Bishop of Mayence, but owed his seat to the
poll of -an electoral district. If the movers of
the bill were to point out they demanded nothing
beyond what the Prussian Constitution had taken
over long before from the Frankfort Constitution,
they betrayed thereby their intention to give the
Bishops in this article the possibility of scoffing
at the laws of the country by appealing to the law
of the Empire. In Baden they had undergone too
many experiences in this respect to be deceived
any longer. But the German nation is sensible and
honest enough to understand that these poor
articles are not fundamental laws, but aim at
procuring, by a side-issue, an independent position
for the Catholic Church as regards the State. He
therefore thought he did no injustice to the
movers of the bill when he expressed the belief that

74 Treitschke

the Press and Unions were only a momentary
addition to their proposal, but that their real in-
tention was directed to the independence of the
Catholic Church. The defeat of the Ultramon-
tanes was as complete as possible, and there ex-
isted no other more pressing matter for which
Treitschke could have acted as champion on behalf
of Baden. In parliamentary matters he was now,
likewise, recognized as the worthy successor of
Hausser. The general belief that Treitschke owed
his great success to mannerism was dispelled by
his speeches in the Reichstag. It was not rhetoric
or pathos which scored, but the force of conviction.
He spoke better than others because he had
grasped the thought of liberty, and of nationality,
with more ardour than they had. To him more
than to any other speaker the words of Cato
senior applied: "Keep firmly in mind the subject
and the words will follow. "

In a further speech on the law on July 9, 1871,
he woefully surrendered his ideal to see Alsace
Lothing a province of Germany, but all the more
energetically he opposed the desire of a party,
supported by Roggenbach, to form Alsace into a
State. If it was not to become part of the Prussian
State it should, at least, be a province of the Ger-
man Empire, reigned over by the Emperor, and
not become a new Small State. The Alsatian
public servants should frequently be transferred,
even to Schwelm, and to Stalluponen, so that they
should get to know Germany. Neither was he in

His Life and Work 75

favour of having a Lord Lieutenant appointed.
"Such a prince makes the worst public servant,
because he is obliged to act as if his house [were a
Court. The elements of Society which could be
attracted by these countless gewgaws are such
that I, at any rate, would with pleasure dispense
with their support." Neither in Strasburg nor
in Heidelberg or Berlin did this particular speech
meet with great approbation, but who will assert
to-day that he was wrong? All the more ap-
proved was his speech of November 2, 1871, in
which he demanded the intervention of the Empire
to procure for Mecklenburg the privileges of the
Estates of the Realm. A great impression was
produced when he pointed out that, of half a
million inhabitants, no less than 60,000 people had
emigrated within the last fifteen years from this
little country richly blessed by nature. In his
indignation he ever adopted a tone which, hitherto,
one was wont to hear only at democratic meetings.
He pointed out that conditions in Mecklenburg
had become the butt of humour. " It is dangerous
when the patient German people begin to sneer.
That scornful laughter over the old German Diet
and the King of the Guelfs carried on for many
years has led to very serious consequences; it has
brought about the well-known end of all things.
The star of unity is in the ascendant. Woe betide
the State which wilfully secludes itself from this
mighty and irresistible impulse ; sooner or later the
catastrophe will overtake it. " In the same way as

76 Treitschke

these threatening words had created a great im-
pression in Parliament, so they found an enthusi-
astic echo in our circle; and equally great was his
success when he supported the supplementing of
the Penal Code by the so-called Pulpit Paragraph,
by which he again told the bitter truth to the
Ultramontanes. For the last time before proroga-
tion of Parliament he spoke on November 29, 1871,
when the progressive party renewed the old
controversy on parliamentary co-operation regard-
ing Army Estimates. Treitschke was strongly in
favour of the War Minister's views; he availed
himself, however, of this occasion to attack
strongly von Muhler, the Minister of Public In-
struction, and when called to order by the Con-
servatives he replied: "See that a capable man is
appointed at the head of the Ministry of Public
Instruction who bestows only the tenth part of
that energy which the Minister for War is in the
habit of bestowing upon his department; you will
then have practical experience that one thing can
be done, and that another cannot be left undone. "
On the whole, the Baden Deputies returned from
Berlin in a very dejected mood. Of Bluntschli,
the Berlin newspapers had written that his delivery
gave the impression he was dictating his speeches.
He had remained obscure — that he knew; but
consoled himself with the thought that it took
time to find the tone for such a big assembly. Of
Roggenbach, who, with all his brilliant conver-
sational gifts, completely lacked oratorical powers,

His Life and Work 77

a gay Palatine country judge, who was also a
member of the Reichstag, said: "If this is your
most brilliant statesman I should like to come
across your most stupid one." In the same way
the others returned like a beaten army, for not the
remotest comparison existed between the part
played by them in Berlin and the one played by
them in Karlsruhe at the Municipal Hall. Only
one appeared with laurels, and this one was
Treitschke, who had saved our reputation. He
was also welcomed home as heartily as possible;
although Baumgarten said at the time, in a morose
tone, that Treitschke never considered a law pro-
posal favourably unless he had delivered a speech
on it. The Ultramontanes, however, considered
the game unevenly matched. While he over-
whelmed them with the strongest expressions, they
could not hit back because he did not hear them.
In an identical fashion the second session, 1873-
1874, passed, which Treitschke still attended from
Heidelberg, and the "round table" applauded his
brilliant passages of arms. Many of his winged
words have survived to the present day, as, for
instance, his explanation of the request of German
issuing banks for paper (money) "based on a
deeply founded desire in human nature"; or
"making debts without getting interest on them";
or his sneering remarks about the predilection of
South Germans for Bavarian military helmets and
dirty florin notes. His patriotism again rose to its
full height when discussions on the septennate took

78 Treitschke

place, when the same party, whose chaplains in
the Black Forest had falsely told the constituents
that "septennate" meant serving for seven
successive years, complained in Parliament that
they were called the enemies of the Empire, he
referred to their behaviour, and for simplicity's
sake began with the Pope.

"Who was it who expressed the devout Chris-
tian wish that a little stone might fall from heaven
to shatter the feet of the German Colossus? Those
who consider the author of this ingenious pro-
nouncement infallible would only have confessed
publicly to this wish after Germany had lost a
battle, and which God forbid. Meanwhile, Prussia
was the little stone which had opened the doors
of the Eternal City to united and free Italy, and at
the same time had annihilated the most sinful
Small State of that part of the globe. In similar
strain he spoke on December 17, 1874, to Deputy
Winterer, who demanded the abolition of the
School Law granted the preceding year to Alsace
Lothing. In opposition to Winterer's hymns on
the achievements of the school brethren he read
extracts from their rules which prescribed in which
case the brother has to rise before the superior,
in which case to kneel down, and in which case he
only had to kiss the floor. "Gentlemen, " he asked
the Ultramontanes, "I am indeed curious to know
whether there is anything worse than the naked
floor the devout school brother is to kiss. " When
the gentlemen of the clerical party expressed the

His Life and Work 79

wish to save the ecclesiastical and French spirit
of their public schools he replied in unmistakable
fashion: "We have the intention to Germanize
this newly acquired German province ; we have the
intention and will carry it out. " Strong applause,
and hissing in the centre, was the usual result of his
speeches during this session. The return took
place under conditions similar to those of last year,
only the depression at the modest part played by
the Baden Deputies in their Reichstag was still
greater, and Jolly, at any rate, did not refrain
from remarking that the quarrelsome disposition
of the Liberal leaders, which immediately made
itself felt at the opening debate of the Baden
Chamber in November, 1873, arose from the desire
of the gentlemen to gain in the Karlsruhe Rondel
Hall the laurels which had been denied to them in
the Reichstag. But Treitschke's appreciation of
the Reichstag likewise waned from session to
session. Already, in 1879, ^e wrote the following
words in the Reichstag album: "Let us not be
deceived, gentlemen; the pleasure our population
experienced by participating in parliamentary life
has considerably decreased in comparison with the
days when the mere existence of Parliament was
held to be the beginning of the era of liberty. But
how should it be otherwise? I believe we are
blessed with 4000 deputies in the German Empire.
It would be against the nature of things if such an
excessive number did not, in the end, become
boring and tedious to the population. " When his

8o Treitschke

calculation was contested, he wrote a few years
later: "Quousque tandem is on everybody's lips
when in good Society mention is made of those
parliamentary speech floods which now, for months
past, have rushed forth again in Berlin, Munich,
and Karlsruhe, as if from wide opened sluices;
3000 Members of Parliament, that is to say, one
representative of the people for every 3000 citizens.
Too much of a good thing even for German
patience. More and more frequently the question
is raised whether by such sinful waste of money
and time anything else can be effected beyond a
noise as useless as the clattering of a wheel whose
axle is broken. "

On July n, 1879, he announced his retirement
from the National Liberal faction on the rejection
of the well-known Frankenstein Clause, which
allotted part of the customs receipts to the Small
States. One would have supposed that he, a
staunch Unitarian, would be antagonistic to this
proposal, and in his innermost heart he really was;
but, owing to Bismarck's declaration that finance
reform was urgent, and that the consent of the
centre was unobtainable by any other means, he
voted for the Government. The consequences
apprehended by him, as the result of the attitude
of his friends, fully materialized. They consisted
in Bismarck's rupture with the National Liberals,
the resignation of ministers — Hobrecht, Falck,
and Friedenthal — the reconciliation of Bismarck
with the Roman Curia, and the passage of the

His Life and Work 81

customs reform with a Conservative clerical
majority, which to the present day prevails in the
Reichstag. All this Bismarck sacrificed for the
benefit of a highly contestable finance reform.
Treitschke attributed the responsibility for it to
the Reichstag, and in 1883 he wrote: "Of all the
institutions of our young Empire, none has stood
the test as badly as the Reichstag. " He was sick
of Parliament, and characterized the headache and
feeling of tiredness with which he usually returned
from sittings as "parliamentary seediness. " His
participation in debates slackened, and after 1888
he refrained from seeking re-election, an additional
reason being the lines taken by Government, and
legislation which he could not follow without
coming too much into conflict with his old ideas.

Neither did he harmonize with public opinion in
regard to external politics. He had no faith in the
durability of the French Republic, but believed
in the return of Bonapartism. At the death of
Napoleon III, on January 9, 1873, consequent
upon an operation for stone, he remarked: "Right
to the last this man has remained unaesthetic. "
I thought the game between Chambord and the
Orleans would now be continued, but he pooh-
poohed the idea, and adhered to his belief that the
Bonapartists alone are the people destined to
reign over that nation. With feelings of bitterness
he watched the great number of Germans who, in
spite of experiences in the past, returned to France
to again take up positions, and even obtain their

6

82 Treitschke

naturalization. He considered this a lack of sense
of honour which he could not understand. The
Pole who on all battlefields fought against Russia
was to his mind more respectable, in spite of his
vodka smell.

VI.

Prom 1871 to 1874 tne Reichstag was by no
means the only arena in which the warrior, pre-
pared at all times, practised his strength, and his
academic opponents occasionally reproached him
with dragging the bad tone of the Reichstag into
the University debates. As a matter of fact, in
those days there was little difference, thanks to the
urbanity of Richter and Liebnecht. Peculiarly
enough, the chief interest of Academicians since
March, 1871 — during the time, therefore, when the
most important questions agitated the German
Fatherland — hinged upon a quarrel which must be
styled almost childish. Knies and Schenkel were
at daggers drawn, because the former, as Pro-
Rector, occupied the chair in the Economic Com-
mission conducted by Schenkel. The University
statutes clearly conceded this right to the Pro-
Rector, but Schenkel declared that Knies, in that
case, might also undertake the agenda of the
Commission. The reason for Treitschke's pas-
sionate participation in this question was partly
aversion for Schenkel, and partly gratitude for
Knies, who, in Freiburg, as well as in Heidelberg,

His Life and Work 83

had urged his appointment. Besides, he highly
appreciated Knies as a scientist, and managed to
intersperse his Reichstag speeches with exhaustive
extracts from Knies's latest book, Money. In the
terms of the statute Knies was absolutely in his
right. When the quarrel came to no end, Jolly
suspended the Commission and entrusted the
Senate with its duties, but the Senate protested.
As negotiations assumed a very unparliamentary
character, the philologist Kochly declared it
beneath his dignity to participate further in the
meetings. A motion was now brought in com-
pelling every "Ordinarius" to take part in the
meetings, and in this way the stupid discussion
continued. The principal seat of terror was the
Philosophic Faculty, and by his drastic speeches
Treitschke more than once drove the Dean to
despair. "He is a firebrand," said Ribbeck. "I
am always trembling when he asks to speak."
It was, of course, picturesque when the tall, hand-
some man with thundering voice shouted at the
tiny, bespectacled gentlemen in the Senate, "Who-
ever is of a different opinion will have me to deal
with." But as he had no conception as to how
loudly he spoke, even when intending to whisper a
confidential information into his neighbour's ear,
he often placed his friends in a most awkward
position. One of his confidential cannon-shots
particularly caused lasting damage. When the
natural history scientists, on a certain occasion,
interfered, he shouted to his neighbour, meaning

84 Treitschke

of course to whisper, "What has this to do with
these chemists and dung-drivers?" — and the fat
was naturally in the fire. Nobody was more
annoyed at these sallies than his own party, and,
after a similar occurrence, Knies, taking advantage
of his deafness, called after him, "Good-night, old
baby!" He, however, gaily departed, totally
unaware of the feelings which he had aroused even
amongst his friends. It was impossible to exercise
a restraining influence over him. With his tem-
perament, he could not understand why he should
say something different from what he thought. A
friend who, in his opinion, although right, was
unjustly ill-treated and ill-used, would be helped
out by him, whatever the cost.

When, however, in an article in the Prussian
Annuals, he declared that Court Theatres and
University Senates would remain for ever the
classic field for jealous intrigues and childish
quarrels, the contest reverberated in the Chambers
and the Press. The so-called majority broke off
all relations with him, and, in consequence, we
became more intimate than ever. "The outlaws"
was the name he preferably applied to us, and the
round table at Konig's Weinbeer, in Leipzig, was
christened by him as "The Conspirators." In
reply to my remark that we cared by no means to
be considered outlaws, he said: "I have my
students." Anyhow, the close relations thus
established among a number of influential col-
leagues was also a gain. We met every evening,

His Life and Work 85

one hour after his lectures, at the Museum, where
we drank cheap beer. "It merely costs a little
effort, " he said. The circle consisted of historian
Weber, the three theologians, Gass, Holtzmann,
and myself; further, the botanist, Hofmeister,
with whom Treitschke was on friendly terms while
in Leipzig; Herrmann, the teacher of Canon Law,
where Treitschke was received when still a student
in Gottingen, and who, for his benefit, had learned
the deaf-and-dumb language; and Knies, who, after
occupying the position of Director of the High
School Board and University Inspector, was
degraded to that of Professor at Heidelberg, so that
Hitzig greeted him with the following toast:
"Behold Adam, who now has become one of us!"
The spokesmen were Knies and Bluntschli, who
both defended their one political point of view,
Treitschke keeping as much as possible apart from
the latter. His opinion of Bluntschli, as now con-
firmed in print through his letters to Freytag, was
unjust. Bluntschli's intentions were for the com-
mon weal, but in his opinion it could best be done
through him. The Otez vous gue je mif mette (real
Swiss-German) applied to him in his Faculty as
well as in the Chamber. In vain I tried to prove
to Treitschke that Bluntschli's propensity to
mediation proposals, and his desire to vote always
with the majority, were founded on his peaceable
disposition and his benevolent concern for the
public good. When, however, on a certain occa-
sion, prior to leaving for Edingen by rail, I spoke

86 Treitschke

to him in this strain, he raved to such an extent
that the attention of the people in the waiting-
room was aroused, and I preferred to discontinue
the argument. On such occasions, the misfortune
of his deafness became very marked, for how was
it possible to make complicated circumstances
clear to him by lip-movements and scribbling on
block slips? For good reasons he disliked letters
by post. Although he belonged at that time,
academically, to the Bluntschli party, he attacked,
in his essay of 1871, on Parties and Factions, the
Bluntschli-Rohmer State Law, establishing a
parallel between the State functions and the human
organism. "State science demands thought, not
comparisons," he wrote. "What is the use of
speaking figuratively, which is just as arbitrary
as the old bad habit so favoured by natural philo-
sophers of comparing the State with the human
body? Argument ceases with such fantastic
parables. Analogies are easily found, and with
beautiful words one might describe the King as
the head or the heart, or also as the index, of a
State." This was not polite language, and must
have annoyed Bluntschli, all the more as Treitsch-
ke, in the language of Goethe, "only tugged at
the discarded serpent's skin," Bluntschli himself
having left that part of the Rohmer philosophy
behind him; and that is why, as far as I know,
he never replied to the attack. Treitschke also
reproached Bluntschli with attempting to count
Luther amongst the Liberals: "He, whose emi-

His Life and Work 87

nent mind admirably combines the traits of the
revolutionary stormer of heaven with those of the
devout monk, he who was anything but a Liberal !
Or will our opponents think more of us if we are so
bold as to declare that the true spirit of Chris-
tianity is liberal? The greatness of Christian faith
lies in its inconceivable and manifold plasticity;
after thousands of years it will, in eternally new,
yet ever identical, forms, elevate humanity when
not even scientists will have anything to say of
Liberalism." Although sitting at the same round
table there was, speaking philosophically, a cen-
tury between Bluntschli and Treitschke. Treitsch-
ke was a true representative of the historical
school, and not Dahlmann; but Ranke was his
real master. Bluntschli liked to refer to Savigny;
but, in reality, his views of the world, in spite of
Rohmer's symbolism, were culled from the age of
enlightenment.

When, in 1873, Wehrenpfennig remodelled the
Spenersche Zeitung into the semi-official Preussische
Zeitung, Treitschke was offered the salary of ten
thousand thalers for undertaking the editorship of
the journal. This salary was unheard of at that
time. Some friends of his advised him to accept,
saying that his deafness would, in years to come,
impair his functions as teacher, but he told me : " I
am not a journalist ; I like to see things developed
so that I can form an opinion. To write a leading
article on the latest telegram, on the spur of the
moment, and to have to contradict it eight days

88 Treitschke

later, I leave to other people." Wehrenpfennig
tried to make the proposal more acceptable by
informing him that the minister would appoint
him as professor at a fixed salary, consequently
there would be no need to sacrifice his function as
teacher, whilst others would look after the ordin-
ary journalistic work; only the handling of political
matters and the daily leading article would be his
department. A big salary as professor, and a big
income as editor, would have tempted a good
many ; there even were people who declared that it
was Treitschke's duty, impecunious as he was, to
provide thus for his family; but he maintained
that it was contrary to his honour to change his
profession for monetary gain, and we were, natur-
ally, glad that he remained in our midst.

In spite of his refusal to take part in journalism
he played a prominent part in contemporary
politics, and the journals repaid him with interest
for his bold observations in the Prussian Annuals.
Ludwig Ekkard, an Austrian, resident since 1866
at Mannheim, and editor there of a weekly publica-
tion— a man of whom the Karlsruhe people
whispered he had, in 1848, in Vienna, hung Latour,
the Minister of War — wrote a leading article on
"Treitschke von Cassagnac." After he had
fallen out with the Jews, a Berlin paper reported
that Treitschke was the descendant of a certain
Isaac Treitschel, who, at the beginning of the
century, had come as a youth from Bohemia to
Saxony selling trousers. A social democratic

His Life and Work 89

journal thought Heir von Treitschke was a living
proof of the injustice of present-day Society in-
stitutions, as he was only appointed professor
because his father had been a general. "If we
lived in a State which practises justice, such a
weak-headed creature would never have been
allowed to be a student." Similar flattering
expressions were showered upon him by the Ultra-
montane journals, which, on account of his mono-
mania, would have liked to have him bundled off
to a lunatic asylum. When shown such a master-
piece, he laughed heartily saying: "One has to put
up with that sort of thing when one is in the public
eye. " He was only angered at the small-minded-
ness of some of his colleagues, who threw stones
at him behind his back merely because he had
stolen a march on them.

It is notorious that Treitschke, after lacking
sympathy with Badenese Liberalism, became its
supporter whilst in Heidelberg; but in Berlin he
again reverted to feelings of contempt for it.

During the years 1867 to 1874, which he spent
amongst us, I could not discern an appreciable
difference in his views. As his parliamentary
speeches and essays in the Annuals amply testify,
he greeted with joy Bismarck's first steps towards
the re-establishment of the Authority of the State
versus the Catholic Church; the abolition of the
Catholic department in the Ministry of Public
Instruction; the penal code against abuse of the
pulpit, and Bismarck's refusal to give way to the

90 Treitschke

new-founded centre. We also thoroughly agreed in
regard to the Muhler administration of ecclesi-
astical affairs. He wrote: "The Universities in
Prussia are going backwards, since fashionable
orthodoxy, with its mistrust, is supreme at Court
against liberty of thought. Here, if anywhere, our
State is in need of a radical reform, i. e., the con-
version of the conversion of science." In the last
essay written in Heidelberg he said: "Since the
unhappy days of Friederick Wilhelm IV the school
system in Prussia has been fundamentally mis-
cultivated by a spirit of confessional narrow-
mindedness which exasperates the most patient."
Consequently nothing astonished us more than
the attitude which he adopted subsequently in
Berlin, towards Stocker and his town mission, even
going so far as to lament Stocker's dismissal from
his position as preacher at the Royal Chapel.
Those who contend that the misunderstanding had
been on our side, are invited to read Treitschke's
publications up to the last week of his stay at
Heidelberg. The views with which he came to us,
and which he defended in Heidelberg in the circle
of friends as well as in the chair, find expression in
the beautiful essay on Liberty, the opening sentence
of which runs as follows : "Everything new created
by the nineteenth century is the work of liberalism.
Particularly in the clerical sphere, this is destined
to continue its labours in order to create at last
true conditions. Does it redound to the honour of
the land of Lessing, " he asks, "that there is no

His Life and Work 91

German University which possesses sufficient
courage to admit a David Strauss to its halls?
Those who have any conception of the enormous
extent to which faith in the dogmas of Christian
revelations has disappeared among the younger
generation, must observe with great anxiety how
thoughtlessly, how lazily, nay, how lyingly,
thousands do homage to a lip service which has
become strange to their heart. The lack of vera-
city in the field of religion grows in an alarming
fashion. The philosophers of the eighteenth
century thought that real virtue does not exist
without belief in God and immortality. The
present generation contests this, and declares
point-blank, 'Morality is independent of dogma.'"
He recognizes the immortality in the never-ending
effect of our good as well as of our bad deeds.
"For weak or low characters, the belief in an after
life can equally be a source of immortality, like the
denial of same, for in their anxiety for the hereafter
they often neglect their duties on earth. The
Church has taken no interest whatever in the
great work of the last centuries, and in the deliver-
ance of humanity from one thousand terrors of
unchristian arbitrariness. The defenders of the
Church claim the prerogative to spoil even the
best measure by the incomparable meanness of
their methods. And, according to human estimate,
this symptom will continue. More and more the
moral value of Christianity will be investigated
and developed by laymen, and more and more it

92 Treitschke

will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual demands of matured people."
That this last sentence coincides with the specula-
tions of Richard Rothe, the aesthetic scientist, and
the teaching of the Tubingen School is apparent
from a letter to his Catholic fiancee, written in
1866, in which he says, "Christianity loses nothing
of its greatness if the stupid priest tales of Pagan-
ism are dropped."

"The New Testament embodies more ideas of
Plato than our clergy is ready to admit. " Under
these circumstances we could count him merely
from a theological point of view amongst the
Liberals, and only in the attitude adopted by
Treitschke towards the contested reforms of
Evangelical and Catholic Church matters we
regained our own convictions. He likewise greeted
Muhler's fall in February, 1872, with joy, al-
though he disapproved of the American Press
tactics, now gaining more and more the upper
hand in the German Press, which heaped with
opprobrium the fallen opponent — "he hardly
deserved the title of lion." Treitschke likewise
demanded the abolition of the Stiehl regulations,
as they acted as a deterrent to many an intelligent
person embracing the career of teacher. Where
Herr von Muhler had ordered that certain colleges
should assume a strictly evangelical character, he
urged Falk to appoint Catholic or Jewish teachers
for those schools, in order to put an end to the
fictitious story that Prussia possessed colleges for

His Life and Work 93

specific confessions. During his last term at
Heidelberg he, in a short and decisive fashion, on
December 10, 1873, still approved of the Falk
legislation enacted in May, respecting the re-
strictions of the Catholic Church. "Not a word is
to be found in these laws which is not beneficial
to the Church." He declares it the most un-
pardonable error of the Conservative party in
Prussia to have entered into an alliance with the
Ultramontanes. The suppression of the Jesuit
Order, which he formerly opposed, now had his
approval. The struggle for civilization was like-
wise, for him, a struggle of liberty against fanati-
cism, and he was convinced that a firm attitude
maintained by the State would lead to victory.

"For two years the Ultramontanes have wasted
their powder; they have so often conjured up the
names of Nero and Diocletianus that one fails to
see what can still be done after this fanatical clam-
our, beyond a street battle, and this they cannot
risk." Treitschke's practical demands were like-
wise those of the Liberals. "A law for compulsory
civil marriage has become a necessity; after years
of deliberation, it must at last be evident that
facultative civil marriage is based on a miscon-
ception, and does not mitigate, but rather accen-
tuates, the conflict between State and Church.
Furthermore, a special law will have to be enacted
by the State enabling the communities themselves
to look after the Church Funds, should no legally
recognized parson be available ; the State will have

94 Treitschke

to concede to Old Catholics the right to reclaim
their share of the Church property when quitting
the church. After all that has happened, there is
no need to shun the reproach of animosity; we
require a law empowering the arrest of persistently
refractory priests. It will not do to leave religious
orders in their present condition, so uncertain from
a legal point of view, and to allow processions and
pilgrimages to be exposed to molestation and insult
on the part of citizens of different creeds. The
May laws are only the beginning of an energetic
Church policy." The Baden Liberalism has
never transgressed these demands, and it may
safely be said that Treitschke, while in Heidelberg,
shared in this respect fully the views of his Liberal
friends.

Slowly the change came about while living in
Berlin. Owing to his affliction, social intercourse
was restricted to a few people, and amongst those
it was the new President of the Supreme Ecclesi-
astic Council, Herrmann by name, with whom he
formed a close friendship — Herrmann having been
able, better than anybody, to make himself under-
stood by deaf-and-dumb language, and also corre-
sponding with Treitschke. In Heidelberg, before,
Herrmann had raised all sorts of objections to the
Falk Laws, and heated discussions took place
between him and the Minister of Ecclesiastical
Affairs on the endowment of evangelical clergymen,
the abolition of incidental fees, and similar ques-
tions. His opinions on the Falk Church Laws were

His Life and Work 95

now so unfavourable that we often had the impres-
sion that he considered himself destined to replace
Falk. In unctuous fashion he invariably reverted
to the statement that as long as the population
fail to realize that ecclesiastical decrees speak the
language of profound respect for religion, every
reform will prove abortive on account of the
people's want of confidence. The aristocratic and
military circles, with whom Treitschke now asso-
ciated more frequently, too, had only one watch-
word: The struggle for civilization must cease.
He expected nothing of the Old Catholic agitation,
and disapproved of the loud applause of the Jewish
Press, which would have better served the cause
by greater reticence. It so came about that we
had gradually to rely less upon his co-operation
in the struggle. But we gathered this opinion
more from his verbal scruples than from his written
expressions, which in principle were in agreement
with ours, although he now considered the legisla-
tion as laws of necessity, i. e., as a temporary evil.
Then took place the great defection of Lasker and
the Progressive Party, which the Catholic faction
attempted to engineer for the elections, and which
willingly left the odium of civilization — a name
invented by Virchow for the glory of Falk — to the
National Liberals. After one wing of the Army
had gone over to the enemy, the great Bismarck
retreat commenced, which Treitschke had to
cover with heavy artillery. Even in course of
these rear-guard actions, he had both written and

96 Treitschke

spoken many clever things in the Annuals, as well
as in the Reichstag, but it oppressed his mind that
henceforth he would have to recommend the
abolition of the "ineffective or mistaken May
Laws," after having greeted their formation with
words of joy. To retract words, suited him, who
was used to employing such strong language
particularly badly. Times out of number he had
proclaimed that the old feud could not be adjusted
by concessions, but by perseverance. If, in a
country whose population to the extent of two-
thirds are Protestants, the Bishops reign to-day,
and an Ultramontane President is President of the
Reichstag, the old saying characterizing this state
of affairs, viz., "Every nation has the government
it deserves," is decidedly appropriate. For the
rest, it must be recognized that Treitschke never
expressed his pleasure at this result as did the
Kreuz Zeitung, but always contemplated it with
deep regret as a proof that, contrary to the opinion
of Aristotle, the German being is by no means a
political animal.

While still in Heidelberg, Treitschke's rupture
with the University Socialists became imminent,
among whom he counted his intimate friends
Knies and Schmoller. Contrary to Knies, he
asserted that Socialism could not be convinced by
reason, but had to be suppressed by forcible laws.
He also defended the view that it is in the interest
of the public to compel labour to work cheaply,
and that the State should possess authority to

His Life and Work 97

enforce the fulfilment of this duty. In his first
Berlin article, of July, 1874, he took this sharp
attitude against the Social Democrats, whom he
called Socialists, and whom he did not wish to
distinguish from the Radical Socialist politicians.
The article had been begun in Heidelberg, and we
were diverted to see how here again he gave expres-
sion to his most recent experience, when he wrote:
"After packing books for two or three days, and
filling up freight forms — finally looking stupidly
at the completed work — the question will suddenly
occur what the brave packers might think, who,
during these removal performances only, were my
servants? The calling of the furniture shifter is,
after all, a very respectable one, because it is
cleaner, and more refined, than many equally
necessary occupations." The essay itself, Social-
ism, and its Supporters, met at the round table
of the Museum with no more approval than the
speeches which were its prelude prior to his
departure. Knies thought that the inability to
distribute wealth in accordance with actual deeds
• — it not being a creation of the present — and the
fact that virtue is not fully rewarded in this world,
would not produce a greater feeling of contentment
amongst the working classes, who demand their
share of the realized profit, and in the terms of their
favourite author, Heine, leave Heaven to the
angels and sparrows.

Colleagues otherwise friendly disposed towards
him found the point of view that the working

98 Treitschke

classes should continue to toil for the sake of
religion, and his cruel reference to that true friend
of the people, Fritz Reuter, particularly hard-
hearted when a question of hungry people who
have no time to read novels was being discussed.
Treitschke's assertion that the introduction of
slavery had been a redeeming achievement of
culture, which, during thousands of years had
exercised at least as powerful a moral influence as
Christianity during a later epoch, appeared to us
a comparison of things which could not be tolerated ;
and if nature formed all its higher beings unequally
there can be no question of the introduction of
slavery as a redeeming historical achievement.
From a prehistoric point of view, it can be com-
pared with the relationship existing between
master and dog, or the shepherd and his flock.
An innovation of his was the stronger touch of
religious chords which, with this essay, begins to
obliterate the formerly habitual attacks upon the
wicked class of theologians. The full meaning of
Social Democracy became clear to him with the
classic expression of the Volk Staat: "Either there
is a God, and then we admit we are in a mess, or
there is none, in which case we can alter the existing
state of affairs as much as we like." It was only
right that against such speeches he should have
emphasized more strongly his positively religious
sentiments, but now and then his old habit of
chaffing the theologians came to the fore. Whilst
Schmoller traces the economic formation of classes

His Life and Work 99

to an original injustice, viz., violence of the
stronger, which as a tragic fault is hereditary,
Treitschke sneers at the doctrine of "social apple
tasting," and the sin which is no more ingenious
than the theological doctrine of hereditary sin.
But the doctrine of hereditary sin is the preamble
to Christianity, and to be one of its champions in
Berlin was his aim.

It was quite natural that Schmoller, in his reply,
complained at having had his standpoint quite
wrongly represented. Both Ribbeck and I asked,
after perusal, what now really was Schmoller's
view, as Treitschke's controversy had been con-
ducted in such a general way as to make it impos-
sible to know what referred to Schmoller and what
to the school in general. All the same, nobody
who knew his warm and philanthropic disposition
harboured the suspicion that Treitschke intended
to become a champion of class interests. He only
protested against such erroneous expressions as
"The Disinherited," or "the excess measure of
economic injustice, which needs must bring about
a crevasse," phrases which were to the liking of
National Socialists, but which necessarily played
into the hands of the demagogues, exciting the
working classes as they did, and arousing hopes in
them, the realization of which was, in the nature of
things, out of the question. Although he expressly
pointed out that only false prophets and instiga-
tors could lead the labouring classes to believe that
any social regulation could neutralize the inequal-

ioo Treitschke

ity of the human lot, he nevertheless in a letter to
Sybel expressed the hope: "We also will get our
ten hours' bill, our factory inspectors, and many
other things, which are in opposition to the Man-
chester doctrine," and in this sense the warm-
hearted friend of the people acted in the Reichstag.
Equal rights for all, and due care for the economic-
ally weaker and those incapable of working, was
his motto ; the contest between him and Schmoller
was, therefore, by no means as great as the strong
words exchanged at that time might have led one
to believe. Like so many big cannonades, this
one finally proved merely to be noisy reconnoitring
and not a decisive battle. Anyhow, the discus-
sions on social questions between him and Knies
were the most interesting experienced by the
round table, and we regretted that they were
the last.

VII.

Immediately after the war the Prussian House of
Commons had granted considerable sums to raise
the University of Berlin to its destined height again,
and Helmholtz was the first to receive such an offer
in 1871, Zeller following in 1872, and Treitschke in
1874. No efforts were spared on the part of the
Baden Government to retain Treitschke. His
friends entreated him to remain. If only he had
listened to our supplications the German History
would have been completed long ago, he himself

His Life and Work 101

would presumably still be in the land of the living,
and all the hardships which the trying city atmos-
phere caused him and his family would never have
found their way to the small house hidden behind
trees at the other side of the Neckar. We urged
him not to abandon so light-heartedly a sphere of
activity such as he had found.

On a slip, I wrote to him that in Berlin nobody
believed Prussia to be such a great country as he
preached. "I would not say such a thing," he
replied, in angry fashion, but then he explained
that, owing to his having to spend six months in
the Berlin Archives for writing his History it was
preferable that he should permanently remain in
Berlin. But just because empty-headed Liberal-
ism was gradually gaining ground in Berlin, he
wished to go there to take up the battle. He also
wrote to Jolly in this sense: "Our capital is not
to become a second New York; those who can do
something to prevent this misfortune must not
abstain without good reason. Anyone as firmly
attached to Prussia as I am must not refuse, with-
out good cause, if my services are thought to be of
use." In similar fashion he expressed himself to
Ranke, who, by sending Treitschke his Genesis
of the Prussian State, at once greeted him as his
colleague — a matter for great pride. He wrote to
the old master as follows: "Here in Heidelberg
my object was simply to teach youth, on the whole
ignorant but naive; over there my task will be to
uphold the positive powers of the historical world

102 Treitschke

against the petulance of Radical criticism. I fully
realise the difficult position in which I shall find
myself in consequence of the predominant Radical
opinions in the capital. He admitted that he
could not expect to exercise such lasting influence
upon the students in Berlin as in Heidelberg, for
theatres, concerts, and life in the capital generally
prejudiced the interest in lectures ; but he thought
he would surmount the difficulty in Berlin, as well
as he had done in Leipzig. Only one question
oppressed him, soft-hearted as he was: "Children
are deprived of the best part of their youth when
they are dragged to a capital to be brought up
there as Berlin Wall-Rats." "It is true," he
subsequently wrote to Freytag, "my son prefers
the Zoological Garden to the Black Forest ; a forest
is all very fine and large, but the Emperor and the
old 'Wrangel' are only to be seen in Berlin." At
first, negotiations were carried on regarding limit-
ing his activity, and that of Droysen, he, as he told
me, not wishing "to raise shabby competition " with
the old gentleman. By the death of Droysen this
question settled itself. I felt Treitschke 's impend-
ing departure very much, and when the matter
had become an accomplished fact the following
verses occurred to me during a sleepless night :

"Du gehst wir Konnten Dich nicht halten

Du gehst weil Du gehen musst
Wir lassen Deine Sterne walten

Und bieten Schweigen unserer Brust. "

His Life and Work 103

The other part I have forgotten, and perhaps it is
better so. Not wishing to be counted amongst the
poets of the Tageblatt, I merely signed the poem
"N. N., " but at our final meeting at the Museum
he looked at me frankly, and amiably said: " I go,
because go I must," and then I knew that my
anonymity had been unavailing. In spite of the
academic encounters in the past the colleagues
assembled in great, although by no means full,
numbers. All the same, everybody recognized
his honesty and unselfishness, just because he had
been open and very rough. Windscheid, as Pro-
Rector, also referred to the fact that Treitschke
liked to be where sharp thrusts were exchanged,
and likened him to a noble steed on the battle-
ground, which cannot be kept back when it hears
the flourish of trumpets. No doubt we would hear
in future of his deeds. The great student of law
was much too refined and clever a personality to
undervalue Treitschke as the "majority" did,
but for the mature and calm scientist the young
colleague was still like new wine, and jokingly he
compared him to Percy Heissporn, who regularly
was asked by his wife, when washing the ink from
off his fingers before dinner: "Well, Heinrich,
darling, and how many have you killed to-day?"
At our last meeting Treitschke told me in his
usual kind-hearted manner that there were too
many important men in this small town, and
collisions were therefore unavoidable. In Weimar
the same conditions existed as is proved by the

104 Treitschke

letters of Karoline Herder, and Karoline Schlegel.
When he gaily described in the German History
subsequently the battles of Voss, with Creuzer
on the hot field of Heidelberg, we gratefully
recognized that the memory of the Economic
Commission, and Majority and Minority, still
continued to cling faithfully to his heart. There
might have been at that time too many academic
stars, but he was never too much for us, and we
felt that the importance of such men was fully
recognized only by the void they left. It was as
if a spell had been broken, the parlour seemed
empty, the round table at the Museum only half
occupied, and as Gustav Freytag said at his parting
speech in the Kitzing, so we could say: "A good
deal of poetry has disappeared from our circle,
which had warmed and elated us." Our circle
undeservedly now resembled the defiant prince of
olden times, who was deserted by his generals one
by one. The one who now goes from us is Max
Piccolomini. Fortunately, although missed, he
was not completely lost to us. He annually
accompanied his family to the house of his parents-
in-law in Freiburg, and we generally had him in the
autumn for days or hours with us either at the
usual round table or at our house. Subsequently
we saw him more frequently, as, on account of his
eyes, which were being treated by the Heidelberg
ophthalmologist, Dr. Leber, he came to us also in
the spring, and was easily to be found close to my
house at the "Prinz Karl" or the "Weinberg,"

His Life and Work 105

and was grateful when people made him forget his
sorrows for an hour or so. We therefore continued
to keep in touch with him. Merely to read his
writings was insufficient; one had to hear him to
understand his meaning thoroughly. When in
the autumn of 1874 ne turned up for the first time,
he was full of praise for the systematic and quick
way with which University matters were settled in
Berlin. As it was not customary to visit the wives
of colleagues in Berlin, the education of such forti-
fied Society camps, as used to be the case in
Heidelberg, was conspicuous by its absence.
With his former Heidelberg opponents, Zeller and
Wattenbach, he was on best terms there; besides
it was, as he said, very healthy to be reminded daily
in this town of millions that the few people whose
company one cultivated did not constitute the
world. Every one of them might fall from a bridge
across the River Spree, and onwards would rush
the stream of life as if nothing had happened.
When daily hurrying past thousands of people to
one's occupation, one only begins to realize the
true proportion of one's dispensability. Some-
what less politely he had expressed similar views
in an essay on Socialism, in which, willy-nilly,
we had to apply to ourselves the remark that a
strong man always felt steeled and elated when
fleeing from the restraint, tittle-tattle, and the
persistent interference of a small town. He also
wrote to Freytag: "The liberty in the capital
pleases me, and I should not care about returning

106 Treitschke

to Heidelberg's quarrels and gossip." Anyhow,
he spoke of us as "of his beautiful Heidelberg,"
whereas Leipzig remained for him "the empty-
headed University," meaning thereby, of course,
not the professors, but the disparity between the
great University and the small country. Thus
he had grown a proud Berlin citizen ; but later on
he felt how life in a big city affected his nerves.
He complained of the "everlasting haste which was
called life in Berlin, " and which, above all, under-
mined his wife's health. Even the correspondence
with Freytag stopped, as Berlin made it impossible
to maintain relations as he wished and as they
should have been maintained. This complaint
is intelligible, as lectures, parliamentary sittings,
and the editorship of the Prussian Annuals com-
pletely occupied his time. Now and then the
Berlin papers, and especially the Tageblatt, brought
out "details respecting the lectures of Herr v.
Treitschke," which proved a totally new experi-
ence to him and to us. Treitschke finally saw
himself compelled to declare that this information
by no means originated in student circles. As
the big banking firms closed at 6 p.m. he had the
doubtful pleasure of seeing at his evening lectures
all sorts of young business men, of Christian and
Hebraic confession, who, in their spare time,
apparently, were newspaper reporters. He de-
clared he was responsible to the hearers and to
the authorities for his lectures ; he would continue
to maintain strict silence in regard to the attempts

His Life and Work 107

of the press to worm information out of him:
this does not imply that he recognized the correct-
ness of the published information. But details
showing him in a favourable light likewise made
their appearance, and, particularly after his death,
many of his former hearers gave invaluable infor-
mation in regard to Treitschke's lectures. Felix
Kruger, for instance, informed the Allgemeine
Zeitung how greatly Treitschke laid stress on the
point that men make history in opposition to
Lamprecht's view, who held that the history of a
nation is not the history of great men, but that
circumstances are developed by circumstances.
According to Kruger, the principal thing in the
reformation was, for Treitschke, the peculiarity
of the reformers: Ulrich von Hutten, the people's
favourite Junker, whose Muse was Wrath, or the
Rationalist Republican Zwingli, or the aristocratic-
ally-inclined Calvin with his hard and cheerless
fanaticism; and on the other hand Emperor
Charles, the reserved Spaniard of indomitable
ambition, pitiless, and in his innermost heart ir-
religious; next to him his pedantic brother, Fer-
dinand or Maurice of Saxony, this quick Mussen
cat, yet the only one amongst the German Princes
of that time who had political talent. Naturally
these vividly drawn sketches made an impression
upon youth. When causing thereby an amusing
effect which gave rise to loud and lasting hilarity
in true student's fashion, the dark eye of the
speaker would unwillingly glance over the audience

io8 Treitschke

an intimation that he was in deadly earnest even
when dealing out satirical lashes. In his lectures
on politics he also surprised the hearers with
views which none of them had heard from him at
the College. He pointed out that not logical facts
make history, but passions; feelings are more
powerful than reason. He safeguarded the right
of the development of personalities. "Only a
shallow mind can always say the same." He
sneered at the moralizing contemplation of history,
"the Sunday afternoon preachers on Politics."
Life is too hard for philanthropic phrases, but
those are not genuine realists who misjudge the
reality of moral forces. All his hearers realized that
these lectures acted like iron baths. We owe to
another hearer the description of the impression
which the first attempt on the life of the Kaiser
made upon Treitschke. It confirms what was
generally known, that Treitschke never posed,
and on the contrary hated everything theatrical.
The information of the deed of miserable Hodel
had come to hand immediately before the com-
mencement of Treitschke's lecture. The audience
was silent as in a church; depressed, they gazed in
front of them as if a load oppressed their souls.
At last Treitschke entered, but the usual cheering
which greeted his arrival was absent to-day. A
long time he stood there ; motionless he looked at
us as if he meant to say: "I realize you feel the
mortification, the disgrace, the horrible disgrace,
inflicted upon us." Then he tried to speak; we

His Life and Work 109

noticed how agitated and disturbed he was. But
the impressions seemed to burst forth so vehement-
ly that he bit his lips, and deeply sighed as if
trying to suppress his feelings. Then he hastily
grasped his handkerchief, and overwhelmed by
emotion he pressed it to his eyes. I believe there
was not a single one amongst the hearers whose
heart was not thrilled to its innermost depth at
this silent process. Subsequently he found words,
and said he was unable to discuss the wicked deed ;
it choked him to do so, and he would continue the
history of the Wars of Liberation. Once more he
reviewed the previous history, and said that there
is nothing to purify and strengthen the souls of
young, idealistically inclined human beings than
the fire test of deep patriotic sorrow. He spoke of
the Battle of Leipzig, and described the tremen-
dous fight with such vividness, richness of colour,
and fire that everybody, carried away, hung on his
lips. And when in his enthusiastic manner he
described the episode of how the East Prussian
Militia, at the head of all others, stormed the
Grimma Gate at Leipzig and drove the French
from the old German town, all anguish had sud-
denly departed. A feeling of relief and exaltation
again seized all our hearts, and the audience gave
vent to a loud ovation for the man who, in spite of
his last bitter disappointment, did not tire of
keeping alive in us enthusiasm for our people and
our history. The Berlin papers occupied them-
selves so extensively with Treitschke that we,

no Treitschke

likewise, in Heidelberg were always informed
regarding his activity. Especially so long as he
frequently spoke in the Reichstag, and regularly
discussed pending questions in the Prussian An-
nuals, our mental intercourse did not slacken.
But by reason of the distance we sometimes viewed
his standpoint wrongly. Judging by his writings
in the Annuals, I thought he would be very pleased
with our African acquisitions, but when verbally
discussing it with him he said: "Cameroons?
What are we to do with this sand-box? Let us
take Holland; then we shall have colonies."
Fortunately he failed to promulgate this view in
the Press.

Amongst the most unpleasant duties which the
editorship of the Annuals entailed, perhaps the
most disagreeable one was to review those ques-
tions of the day on which to maintain silence
would have been much more agreeable. Above
all, it was the Jewish question which had become
of such pressing nature that, however painful, in
view of the esteem he entertained for his colleagues,
Goldschmidt, Bresslau, and Frenzdorf, and the
recollections of his early friend, Oppenheim, he was
obliged to touch on it. Considering the enormous
agitation organized against him after publication
of his first article in November, 1879, and which
only poured fat into the fire, it must be remem-
bered that he deliberately placed the following
sentence in front: "There can be, among sensible
people, no question of a withdrawal, or even of only

His Life and Work HI

an infringement, of the completed emancipation
of the Jews; this would be an apparent injustice. "
His final appeal to the Jews not to relinquish their
religion, but their ambition to occupy a particular
national position, and to become unreservedly
Germans, might be called futile and vague; but
it does not imply a mortification. The complaints
which Treitschke brought before the general notice
might have been discussed more calmly if the
Press had not raised such an outcry against him.
Even those who consider that Treitschke's attitude
in this matter did more harm than good had to
admit extenuating circumstances quite apart from
the fact that, after the many frictions with the
Jewish reporters, a final electric discharge had
become inevitable in view of his temperament.
His publicist activity brought him less in contact
with the good qualities of the Israelites than with
the Jews of the Press, amongst whom those of
Berlin are not exactly the most modest, and who,
with their system of Press activity, were in direct
opposition to his ideals of life. He observed,
what could escape no attentive reader of our
Press, that all literary publications were praised or
torn to pieces according to whether the author was
reputed to be Philo-Semite or Anti-Semite. "And,"
he says, "how closely this crowd of writers keeps
together, how reliably works this Immortality
Assurance Society, based on the approved commer-
cial principle of reciprocity, so that each Jewish
poetical star receives on the spot, and without

ii2 Treitschke

rebate of interest for delay, the ephemeral praise
administered by the newspapers." In the pres-
ence of the objectionable agitation of these years,
George Eliot, in her last novel, Daniel Deronda,
reproached Germany with Jewish persecution, as
it was Jewish brains which for the last thirty
years had procured for Germany her position in the
literary world. Treitschke, however, reproached
the Jewish Press for having tried to introduce "the
charlatanry of the commercial world into literature
and the jargon of the stock exchange into the
sanctuary of our language. " He put the question :
What had the Jewish brain made of the German
language in the sphere of journalism and literature,
in which it reigns supreme? Of the poets, who at
the time contributed to Germany's literary position
and whose names live, George Eliot suitably
recollected Gutzkow, Freiligrath, Freytag, Geibel,
Monke, Bodenstedt, Claus Groot, Fritz Reuter,
Storm, Fontane, Roguette, Scheffel, Baumbach,
Rosegger, Anzengruber, Ganghoffer, Jenssen,
Lingg, Raabe, Putlitz, Strachwitz, Steiler, Wolff,
and many others. There is not one Jewish brain
among them, and most of the names which the
Jewish Press noisily proclaimed upon their appear-
ance are to-day submerged in the flood of journal-
ism and completely forgotten. Another considera-
tion of Treitschke referred to the development of
our school system under the completely changed
denominational conditions of colleges. Nothing
had given him so much food for reflection as the

His Life and Work 113

sentence of his first essay: "From the East fron-
tier there pours year by year from the inexhaust-
ible Polish cradle a huge number of ambitious
trouser-selling youths, whose children and child-
ren's children, in time to come, will dominate
Germany's stock exchanges and newspapers; the
immigration grows visibly, and more and more
seriously the question imposes itself how we are
to amalgamate this strange population with ours.
'What a crime,' a Jewess said to me, 'that these
Jews give their children a good education. ' ' The
exaggerations of Treitschke also, in this matter,
are to be regretted ; but the difficulty still remains
that, as the moiety of pupils in the higher classes
of colleges in Berlin were of Jewish persuasion, the
Christian view of the world must disappear.
Furthermore, the fact must not be lost sight of that
the newspaper reader, in view of Jewish hegemony
in the journalistic world, is apprised of the events
of the world only in the form in which they show
to advantage from the Jewish point of view. We
had ample means to convince ourselves of this on
the occasion of colonial policy, financial reform,
and the discussions on the tobacco monopoly.
He also spoke bitingly in regard to the influence
of a commercial world which amasses colossal for-
tunes, not by productive labour, but by the ex-
change of securities and speculative transactions;
and here, at least, the movement initiated by him
has been productive of good results, as it caused
legislation to be enacted. I, personally, was by

1 14 Treitschke

no means pleased at his having become involved in
controversy with such an influential literary power,
and I told him candidly that for me the question
does not exist whether it is an advantage our
having the Jews — Mommsen and Stocker might
settle that. The question to be solved, as far as
I was concerned, is: What is our duty since we
have them? He himself, had no wish to adopt the
practical method employed by Russia; what,
therefore, was to be done? He was amused at the
opinion of one of his acquaintances, saying the
Middle Ages had missed their vocation as, accord-
ing to the principles of that period, the question
might have been settled without subsequent
conscience-pricks. According to him, his teacher,
Dahlmann, at the College, likewise had regretted
that the policy of that Egyptian Pharaoh had not
been pursued more effectively. But when seri-
ously asked his opinion what to do, he was just
as helpless as other people. His only prescription
was gentle restraint, and there even he admitted
that in the present state of affairs this had become
impracticable, as even he himself made exceptions
in favour of his friends. But, as he had no
prescription for the solution of this eminently
practical question, not even a tangible proposal,
it was ostensibly an error for a practical politician
to make an enemy for all times of this great power
in Berlin. He lost in life valuable and even Chris-
tian fellow-workers for his own object, and by the
sneering tone of his articles he particularly puzzled

His Life and Work 115

the ladies' world. The public declaration of
Mommsen's friends, reproaching him with having
sacrificed tolerance, the great heritage of Lessing,
and inciting youth against the Jews, caused him
deep and lasting pain. The latter reproach was
due to untrue statements having been disseminated
by Christian-Germanic youths.

A Leipzig student called on him to seek his
advice as to whether he and his friends should sign
the Forster anti-Semitic petition. Treitschke de-
clared he disagreed with the contents of this peti-
tion, and also considered it wrong for students to
be mixed up in legislative questions. If they were
determined to make a manifesto they should do so
in a more suitable form and remember to leave
undisturbed the academic peace. "After this
conversation," Treitschke himself relates, "I for
weeks heard nothing of the matter, until suddenly,
to my greatest astonishment, through a newspaper
notice, I ascertained the existence of a Leipzig
Students' Petition" (in which a sentence asserted
Treitschke had given his assent to the intended
action of anti-Semitic students). "I at once
wrote to that student, reminded him of the real
meaning of our conversation, and demanded the
immediate expurgation of that passage. He
replied very repentantly, asked my pardon, assured
me that he had been greatly excited during the
conversation, and consequently had quite mis-
understood me; he also promised to have that
passage eliminated, which actually was done.

n6 Treitschke

The mendacious reference to Treitschke, however,
caused so much discussion that Treitschke sent
to a member of the Senate a written declaration
for transmission to the Rector, and when Momm-
sen, in a pamphlet, repeated the reproach, calling
Treitschke the moral instigator of the Leipzig
Students' Petition against the Jews, Treitschke
was obliged to give a public declaration to demon-
strate the history of the incident. Thus the
question had produced academic factions of still
greater animosity than the previous ones, as in
this case Jews were in question. In consequence
of this conflict, Treitschke fell out with his nearest
friends, and again he had the impression he was
shunned and tabooed. Nevertheless, he recog-
nized with great respect that Mommsen had
abruptly turned a deaf ear to the attempts of
several younger Jewish colleagues in their en-
deavour to take advantage of his philo-Semitic
disposition for their own benefit. ' ' There the great
scientist came again to the fore." Mommsen,
however, was not conciliatory. He reproached
Treitschke with animosity against Jews, in con-
sequence of which a true appreciation of Heine in
his literary report was lacking. "Where genius
faces us, we must kneel down and worship," he
said, "and it is Treitschke's doom that he cannot
do that. " It was doubtful to me whether falling
down and worshipping was exactly Mommsen's
force. On the contrary, it seemed to me worthy
of note that Treitschke, in spite of his personal

His Life and Work 117

aversion, recognized in Heine the true voice of
romance, contrary to Victor Hehn, who simply
explained the ring of Goethe's lyrics in Heine's
songs, by the talent of imitation akin to the Jew.
In these questions, likewise, Treitschke's judg-
ment, after the long and bitter struggle, was of
lamentable mildness, which I was the last to
expect after the sharp attacks in the Annuals.
Although convinced he had merely done his duty,
he was deeply hurt that the great number of
friends now had shrunk to a few anti-Semites,
whose adoration he had to share with Rector
Ahlwardt. His was a love-thirsty disposition.

"Du nahst der Welt mit einer Welt voll Liebe
Dein Zauber ist das mutig freie Herz
War's moglich dass sie dir verschlossen bliebe?"

he had written in his youth when deafness broke
in upon him. Similar feelings overcame him now
with the estrangement of so many who gave his
words the cold shoulder. The feeling against him
did not last, but the consequences of this conflict
went further than was visible at first. The articles
on the Jews form a turning-point in Treitschke's
political position, and in his occupation as publicist,
and they were not even without influence upon his
personal comfort.

When these consequences promptly arose, Erd-
mansdoerffer reminded me of a saying of Berthold
Auerbach, who had predicted of another anti-

n8 Treitschke

Semite: "Like all Hamans, he will have a bad
end." As the result of the so-called Mommsen
Declaration, bitter dissension arose, not only
between Treitschke and the Jews, but also between
the Liberals of both camps. All the more en-
thusiastically the Conservative party gathered
round him, and soon enough we saw him in the
ranks of the party which he had contested during
the whole of his life. Formerly his opinion was:
"Christian love is more frequently to be found
amongst the much-abused Incredulous than
amongst the Clergy. . . . More and more it
will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual needs of mature people." Now
his position demanded that he should view his
struggle against Judaism simultaneously with a
struggle for his Church. " Mommsen, " he writes,
"passes over the religious contrast with some in-
different words. I maintain a different standpoint
towards positive Christianity. I believe that
through maturing culture our deeply religious
people will be led back to a purer and more vigor-
ous spiritual life, and therefore cannot silently
pass over the invectives of the Jewish Press against
Christianity, but consider them as attacks on the
fundaments of our morals, as disturbances of the
peace of the country." The next consequence of
this attitude was that, contrary to his former utter-
ances on undenominational schools, he now de-
clared denominational schools as normal, whereas,
as late as 1872, he had appealed to the new Minis-

His Life and Work 119

ter of Public Instruction to send Jewish teachers
to those colleges which Heir von Muhler had
declared as being denominational according to
observance. Soon we were as much amazed at
the literary manifestoes of our friend as the veter-
ans of Napoleon, who, after the Concordat,
wondered how the "Little Corporal" had learned
to preach so beautifully. Trietschke's relations
with the orthodox parsons date from this struggle
and they soon found ways and means to bring it
about that the "great patriot" appeared as
speaker at the meetings arranged by them. It is
well known what struggles Treitschke, in his youth,
had with his father on account of his free-thinking
ideals. Nor did he show at Heidelberg very great
predilection for the clergy; nay, it required
patience to endure his everlasting attacks upon
the theologians. At the christening of his second
daughter, he drank the health of Grandmama in
charming fashion: "People always said a good
deal about mothers-in-law, but he could only say
the best of his." In consequence of my having
been blessed at the same time with a son he had to
propose another toast, which was well meant, but
which ended with, "Do not let the boy become a
parson." Embarrassed as I was, I could only
reply that up till now my baby boy had shown no
other talent than for preaching and the touching
of feminine hearts. I must, therefore, reserve his
calling for him. These "parsons" — he never used
to call the clergy differently — were in his eyes a

I2O Treitschke

very subordinate class of men, and being what he
was, this disdain seemed more natural than the
subsequent alliance. He used to display equal
aversion to the Catholic and the Evangelic Church.
To his Catholic wife he said, mockingly, "Thy
parsons, " and to me, "Your parsons, " considering
it at the same time a very lucky thing that Ger-
many had not become completely Lutheran.
" We should have turned out a nice lot if you alone
had brought us up." After such antecedents it
was a considerable matter for surprise to find
him in Berlin sitting on the same bench with the
parsons of the Municipal Mission. The struggle
against the Jews characterizes the turning-point
in his life, nay — it prepared the end of his publicist
activity. The man who, from the very beginning,
turned to advantage Treitschke's Conservative
tendencies in Berlin was the President of the
Evangelic Superior Church Council, his Gottingen
master and Heidelberg colleague, Herrmann. He
induced him to take side in the Prussian Annuals
against the Berlin Liberal clergy, who had spoiled
Herrmann's game by their attacks upon the
apostolicity. As Treitschke continued calling
himself a free-thinker, his suitability for defending
apostolicity and reprimanding the Rationalist
clergy was, to say the least, very doubtful. I
took their part in the Allgemeine Zeitung, but at the
same time wrote to him that I was the author of
the article against him, hoping he would not take
it ill. His reply was: "Please do not write for a

His Life and Work 121

paper in which only the scum of German professors
deposit their spawn." But soon enough he him-
self had to be glad to be able to deposit his declara-
tions there, as they were just as unsuitable for the
Liberal Press as for the Kreuz Zeitung. At our
next meeting he told me that since his struggle
with the Jews he was considered much more
reactionary. Minister von Puttkamer expressed
great surprise when Treitschke, on being placed
next to Stocker, had asked for an introduction ; in
Berlin it was considered a matter of course that all
anti-Semites should be on friendly, nay, brotherly,
terms.

When asked by me what he thought of Stocker,
he replied evasively, "Well, quite a different
school; something like the Kreuz Zeitung. " Later
on he shielded the Court Preacher against the
Berlin Press. The witness affair could have
happened to anybody. When holding on one and
the same day two or three meetings it was im-
possible to recognize everybody with whom he had
spoken, and if one were to search the editorial
tables of Liberal newspapers, many reprehensible
letters would be found. It happened to have been
a carelessly written washing list. To suspect
morally political opponents was contrary to his
chivalrous nature. I had, on that day, a long and
exhaustive conversation with him on the religious
question ; but I could not gain the impression that
his relationship to religious questions had become
a different one from what it used to be. He always

122 Treitschke

had been of a positive nature, and hated that one
should impair the impression of something great
by criticism. That is why he had no sympathies
for Strauss. He praised the Bible for placing
before us a number of the most magnificent wars
and warriors, and in this way teaching youth
manliness. It was clear to him that the principal
item of instruction in elementary schools was to be
religion. He thought that firmly inculcated scrip-
tural passages, which come to the memory of the
young man in the hour of temptation, form a moral
backbone. Elementary education should also
impart to the people a theory of life ; this, however,
could only be Church doctrine. The choice lies
solely between Christianity and Materialism, all
intermediary systems having proved ineffective
from a pedagogical point of view. For these
reasons, as an author, he took the part of the
Positive party, for nothing could be achieved by
Liberalism amongst the people; but no more now
than previously did he affect to be in accordance
with the Church. I do not doubt that the struggle
against the powers of destruction filled him with
growing respect for the forces we are dependent
upon, but his philosophical convictions had re-
mained the same; his judgment of Radicals alone
had accentuated. Almost comical was his indigna-
tion against the Berlin Press. He wondered
whether the future would realize the stupidity of
a legislation which permitted every Jew to drag
into publicity whatever pains and grieves other

His Life and Work 123

human beings, and yet remain in the dark, singing :
"Oh wie gu dass niemand weiss dass ich Rumpel-
stilchen heiss!" ("I take good care to let none
know that my name is Ikey Mo"). In addition,
the privilege of deputies to slander with impunity
all absentees! His aversion for the Berliners was
very much in the ascendant. He thought that the
most unbearable form of stupidity, which affects
to understand everything, was the one most fre-
quently encountered in Berlin. There was still a
humorous ring in all he said, and yet I missed
the former cheerfulness with which he smiled at
the turns of his own speeches. He was no more
Liberal, and as time wore on his periodical sank
to the level of a small local publication of the few
Independent Conservatives. In the end he had to
experience that the Prussian Annuals, which
owed him everything, got rid of him in 1889, the
publisher not wishing to see that Liberal periodical
steer into reactionary channels. The two editors
did not agree, and he never used to decipher the
initials H. D. of his fellow-writer otherwise but
"Hans Daps" ("Hans, the Duffer"). But soon
Hans Daps threw him overboard, and although
Treitschke was glad to be freed from duties which
delayed his life-work, he never imagined he would
have to part from his Annuals under such condi-
tions. He experienced, partially, how they now
developed into the Polish Danish Annuals, which
did not increase his pleasure at their latest era.
Treitschke's attitude against the Puttkamer ortho-

124 Treitschke

graphy, had the approval of his Heidelberg friends,
especially that of Herrmann, who, meanwhile, had
returned to us. Treitschke was assured that Putt-
kamer himself realized subsequently his mistaken
procedure. We were less in sympathy with his
declaration against Gossler's proscription of foreign
words, Treitschke himself having formerly com-
plained about the jargon of Vienna stock exchange
and cafes which spoil our language.

Particularly in Treitschke's fourth volume of
German History, published in 1889, his position,
altered since the Jewish question in regard to
ecclesiastical policy, made itself felt. But in
the whole work, full of unbounded enthusiasm, the
parts which adulate the pioneers of pietism, the
mission, and Lutheranism, are those which give us
a forced impression. Most strikingly was it de-
monstrated in the History of Literature, where he
discussed D. Fr. Strauss in such a slighting manner.
At the time he had read Strauss's books as he had
read all important novelties. When giving a
characteristic account of this most influential
critic of the present day, in his German History, he
had nothing in front of him, except my biography
of Strauss, in two volumes, from which, almost
verbally, is culled the final passage of his para-
graph; but, as a rule, he simply used to turn my
conclusions upside down. Whereas I had laid
stress upon the deep tragedy of his life, which
makes the whole of his future dependent upon
the first epoch-making work, and whereas I

His Life and Work 125

showed how embitterment, likewise, had impaired
Strauss's creative power, his version was that
Strauss was one of those unhappy geniuses who

[developed in retrograde manner, as if Hutten, the
old and new faith, and the poetical memorandum
book, did not represent the goal of this retrogres-
sion— works which are more read to-day than the
(Life of Jesus. He exaggerated the parable of the
founder, and the Suabian Master of Arts, to such
an extent, as to describe Strauss's Theology as the
outpourings of a bookworm, and repeating Dubois
Reumont's well-known reference to a ward of
women suffering from cancer, who could not be
comforted by Strauss's Theology. He maintained
that it is the duty of the Spiritual Guide to comfort
the weary and the oppressed — as if Strauss had
ever denied it, and had had the intention to write
for women suffering from cancer. He would have
done better to leave such arguments to his new
clerical friends.

After such experiences I was very pleased that,
in regard to the Zedlitz School Law Proposal, he
defended no other standpoint than the one ex-
pressed by me in the Kolnische Zeitung, in which,
at the request of the editor, I compared Baden
School legislation with that of Zedlitz. At a loss
to find admission elsewhere, Treitschke was now
obliged to descend into the arena of the Allgemeine
Zeitung, which formerly used to be so unsympa-
thetic to him. To fight side by side with the old
companion afforded me particular pleasure, for he

126 Treitschke

warned the Government to pass a bill, with the
assistance of the Conservatives and Ultramontanes
which was repugnant to the majority of the Protes-
tants, and which abandoned the principle that the
School belongs to the State. He also admitted so
many exceptions to the recently promulgated rule
that schools are to be denominational, that hardly
any difference remained between his views and
those of the Liberals. His coming forward had to
be appreciated all the more since, during the last
three years, he had completely turned his back on
the writing of political articles and, personally, had
great sympathies for Count Zedlitz; whereas it
visibly afforded him pleasure to attack Caprivi.
He declared Zedlitz to be one of the most amiable
and capable men of the Prussian aristocracy, but
it was the curse of the present day to employ
clever people in the wrong place. Zedlitz would
have been the right man for the Agricultural
Portfolio, but for a hundred and one reasons he
was least fitted to be Minister of Public Instruction.
Treitschke's contest with Baumgarten, al-
though forced upon him, was less pleasing to me.
Like all strong, subjective dispositions, Baum-
garten demanded absolute objectiveness from
everybody else, and while he himself bubbled over
with bright paradoxes, exaggerations and risky
assertions on the part of his friends were totally
unbearable to him. Already, in Karlsruhe, he
used to say of many a symptom of Prussomania of
Treitschke, "Every kind of idolatry is bad."

His Life and Work 127

While Treitschke, in Berlin, had gradually identi-
fied himself more and more with the views of
Prussian Conservatives, Baumgarten, in Strass-
burg, had conceived a passionate aversion for
Prussian bureaucracy. Thanks to his friend,
Roggenbach, entrusted with the Chair for Modern
History, at the time of the foundation of the
Strassburg University, he had closely attached
himself to the Protestant Alsatians, particularly to
those of the Theologian Faculty, and had defended
their cause first for Roggenbach, and later, in the
Senate. In opposition to the Prussian violence of
some ambitious men, who strove to take possession
of the funds of the Thomas Home for the benefit of
the University, he pointed out that, thanks to
these foundations, Protestantism, in Alsace, had
been preserved and, as Rector, he brought about
the abandonment of this proposal which would for
ever have alienated the Protestants from Prussia.
He endorsed the complaints of Alsatian parents
regarding Prussian School Administration, having
himself become involved in a heated discussion
with the Director of the School on account of his
son. He stigmatized as political insanity, Man-
teuffel's patronage of Notables, who were the
hated opponents of his Pro-German Alsatian
friends, and referred to the testimony of Count
Turckheim and others, who had had the intention
of becoming Prussian, but now met their Alsatian
sworn enemies in the drawing-room of the Govern-
or as family friends. All these experiences had

128 Treitschke

produced in Baumgarten a feeling which, although
he did not wish it to be called Prussophobia,
nevertheless resembled it as one egg resembles
another. Anyhow, the Alsatians were his friends,
and the Prussian officials were the continuous ob-
ject of his criticism, whereby he rose, of course, in
the favour of the Administration. But when every
new volume of Treitschke's historical work took
a more one-sided Prussian view than the previous
one, and Treitschke excused in Prussia what he
considered a crime in Austria, and, moreover,
regarded with particular contempt the Small
States and their Liberalism, Baumgarten lost
patience, which never had been his strong point.
This was the cause of the polemical pamphlet,
published in 1885 against Treitschke, of which
Sybel rightly said that Baumgarten's system of
tracing every difference of opinion to a wrong
moral condition, could only be explained patho-
logically. It was, perhaps, expressed too strongly
when Treitschke spoke of a mass of abuse and
suspicions in the "libellous pamphlet"; but no-
body will agree with Baumgarten, who discovers
in one of the most beautiful works of our historic
literature nothing but exaggerations and wrong
conclusions, and contends that this history might
truly be read as truth and fiction. Phrases such as
the following: "Notice how his own achievement
corresponds with his arrogance," were neither in
harmony with the old friendship for Treitschke
nor with the importance of the assailant himself,

His Life and Work 129

whom nobody placed in the same rank with
Treitschke.

Treitschke was deeply hurt at the hostile attack
upon the work which he had written with his life
blood. "When I started this work," so he wrote
to Egelhaaf, "I harboured the harmless idea it
must yet be possible to please for once the Ger-
mans. I am now cured of this delusion. We are
still lacking a natural history tradition; by repre-
senting modern history as it has happened, one
encounters at every step struggles with party
legends; and must put up with abuse from all sides.
I hope, however, my book will live, and when I
shall have occasion to speak of Prussian misdeeds
under Friedrich Wilhelm IV the Press will perhaps
also adopt a different attitude. In the long run,
I am not afraid of the judgment of the South Ger-
mans. The real seat of acrimonious captiousness,
which to-day poisons our public life, is the North.
The Upper Germans have understood better at all
times how to live, and let live. I am confident,
that with the adjustment of the struggle for civili-
zation there will be formed in the political world
an element, conservative in the true sense. Con-
tinue to be of good courage for your patriotic
struggles, my dear Sir; time will come when Ger-
mans again will enjoy life and their country, and
will overcome the political children's complaint of
aimless dissatisfaction."

The partial justice of Baumgarten's polemics,
which we also recognize, did not lie in isolated

9

130 Treitschke

blame which Treitschke successfully refuted, and
against which both Sybel and Erdmansdoerffer,
both certainly competent judges, objected to. It
was against the general distribution of light and
shade, that objection could be raised. In a work
judging so severely nearly all monarchs of Europe,
the idealization of Friedrich Wilhelm III was
most surprising. The King who had behaved
feebly during the war, and in peace times perse-
cuted patriots such as Arndt, and John, and de-
stroyed the life of hundreds of brave young men
because in every member of a Students' Corps he
suspected a Jacobin and with narrow-minded
obstinacy clung to this prejudice, who in the desire
to obtain qualification for liturgies bestowed upon
Prussia the disorganizing ritual quarrel, and re-
fused the clergy who demurred an increase of
salary, who drove the Lutherans into separation,
who with his stupid adoration of Metternich and
the Czar had to be styled the strongest supporter
of the reaction in Germany, he remains for us a
bad monarch, and the personal good qualities and
domestic virtues, which nobody contests, Treitsch-
ke would never have so strongly emphasized
in the case of a Habsburg or a Wittelsbach.
Treitschke by no means disguised these events, but
his final judgment is reminiscent of Spittler's
characterization of the author of the Formula of
Concord of which the caustic Suabian Spittler
said that counting up all his bad qualities, and
questionable actions, one wonders that, on the

His Life and Work 131

whole, such an honourable figure was the outcome
of it. It was natural that the South German
Democracy approved of Baumgarten's attack
upon their most dangerous opponent; the Jewish
Press in Berlin made propaganda for his pamphlet,
and when visiting us in the autumn Treitschke
complained that at every bookseller's window
Baumgarten's booklet glared at him, and that
certain students in order to annoy him placed it
during lectures before them. But not one bitter
word he uttered against Baumgarten, and it was
only sad that an old friendship came to an end in
this way. In a letter to Heigel he replied to the
reproach that in his Prussian arrogance he con-
sidered the South Germans only as Second Class
Germans in the following manner: "I am only
politically a Prussian; as a man I feel more at
home in South and Central Germany than in the
North; nearly all my fondest recollections date
from Upper Germany, my wife is from Bodensee,
and my daughters born in the Palatine are con-
sidered South Germans here. I hope you will not
be one of those who will be biased by Baumgarten's
acrimony. In my opinion historic objectiveness
consists in treating big things in a big way, and
small things in a small way. It was my duty to
show that the old Prussian absolutism has done
great and good deeds after 1815, and that South
German constitutional life had to go through
difficult years of apprenticeship before it was
clarified. If these incontestable facts are uncom-

132 Treitschke

fortable for present-day party politics, I must not
therefore pass them in silence, or screen them.
Whatever you may think about them, you will not,
I hope, find North German prejudices in my book.
To my mind Baumgarten was always the embodi-
ment of the ugliest fault of North Germans, i. e.,
acrimonious fault-finding, and it almost amuses me
that he sets himself up as South Germany's
attorney, when from the South I am constantly re-
ceiving reports concurring with my views." Baum-
garten himself denied the offensive nature of his
expressions, and only when Erdmansdoerffer, in a
discussion in the Grenzbote anent Baumgarten's
own writings, rendered certain parts verbatim in
parenthesis, he could have realized how such words
would appeal to the attacked party.

All this unpleasantness, however, seemed in-
significant in the presence of a fate which, since
1892, threatened the hero already tried sufficiently.
Working night after night he had kept awake by
incessant smoking until he contracted nicotine
poisoning, which affected his eyes. As he under-
went the Heidelberg ophthalmologist's treatment
he spent a longer period during the holidays in
Heidelberg than hitherto. It was impossible to
imagine anything more pathetic than the perspec-
tive which he, without lamentation, yet with
deadly earnest was taking into consideration:
" Life is not worth living when I am both deaf and
blind" he said, but how could we console him?
Reading from lip movements was most difficult

His Life and Work 133

for him considering the increasing weakness of his
eyes ; writing was not to be thought of, so that any
connected conversation was impossible: "Why all
this to me?" he asked bitterly. His excellent wife
was ill in a neurotic establishment, his only son
had died at the age of fourteen, the eldest daughter,
formerly his principal interpreter, married abroad.
"I do not wish for anything else in life," he said,
"but to be able to work. Is that an unreasonable
wish? " Who would have thought that this strong
nature might ever have needed consolation. The
leave-taking in April, 1893, was intensely sad. In
the autumn I was again called from the garden;
Herr Treitschke was waiting on the balcony.
When entering he joyfully stretched forth both
hands. "How glad I am I came to you! When I
was here last time I could not see the Castle, it was
as if a fog were in front of my eyes, and now I see
the outlines clearly. I am getting better!" The
doctor also had expressed himself as being satisfied.
Joyfully he related that more than ever his lec-
tures had afforded him consolation. As he was not
allowed either to read or write he had devoted the
whole of his time to their preparation, and with his
admirable memory he, but rarely referring to a
book, with such assistance as happened to be
available, had delivered his lectures, and caused
enthusiasm amongst the students as in his best
days. In the happy mood in which he was on that
day he consented to my inviting for the evening,
all the old friends from his Heidelberg times, and

134 Treitschke

some other admirers ; and he was so gay and lively,
that nobody would have suspected him to be a man
fated to hear henceforth of the outer world only
by letters pressed into his hands. The improve-
ment was a lasting one. The fifth volume ap-
peared in the autumn of 1894, an(i ^ force of style
and clearness of matter fully equalled the former
books. It was an enigma how, in view of the care
he had to exercise in regard to his eyes, he could
have mastered this literature. But the enemy had
not cleared the field; it simply attacked from
another quarter. In the winter of 1896, the sad
news arrived that Treitschke had been struck
down by an incurable kidney disease. He fought
like a hero, but hope there was none. Soon dropsy
set in, and the heart in its oppressed state caused
the strong man indescribable feelings of anguish.
"Who is to finish my book?" he asked.

Bailleu, in his beautiful necrologue, relates of
these last days: "I found him turning over with
difficulty his excerpts, and reading with visible
effort. He began to speak of his sixth volume,
whose progress I had discussed with him in the
Archives, bringing him one part after another.
His suffering features became animated when,
speaking of the unassuming greatness of the Prince
of Prussia, whose campaign in Baden he had
studied, and by which he, with the Prussian Army,
in the general dissolution of 1848 wished to repre-
sent the healthy basis for the future of Germany.
'Our dear old gentleman! Since his death every

His Life and Work 135

possible misfortune has befallen me.' I tried to
console him by referring to the growing success of
his German History. 'Oh, I have had but little
luck in life, and if now — but it can't be. God
cannot take me away before I have finished my
sixth volume, and then — ' as if soliloquizing, he
added, 'I have yet the other work to write."' I
believe few of Treitschke's friends could have read
these details without being moved to tears. For
some days there seemed to be an improvement.
The day before his death, he had joked with his
daughters in his old style. On the morning of 28
April, 1896, he was gently, and quickly, relieved
of his sufferings. At his funeral, admirers and
friends from near and far assembled. Soon after,
his children sent me a dear memento from their
father. There had been three pictures in his
room. The first, Kamphausen's Battle of Freiberg:
in the foreground a Saxon colonel is to be seen as
prisoner, and also conquered flags, and drums
emblazoned with the Saxon arms. "When will
these blessed days come back?" he once wrote to
his friend, Gutschmid. The second picture was
Mentzel's Great Elector, whom Erdmansdoerffer
kept in good memory. The third picture, by
Schrader, sent to me by the daughters, I liked
best. It represented Cromwell listening to his
blind friend, Milton, when he played the organ.
I knew that this picture of the poet, who was also
lacking a sense, and who, nevertheless, had thrown
his weight into the scale of human culture, had

136 Treitschke

often been a consolation to him. At the same time,
the widow sent me the photo of my friend lying
on his death-bed. Asleep, he seems on it, rocked
in happy dreams. The dearest recollections are,
however, to me, the many volumes of his works,
which he had sent me regularly. I can never read
even one of these pages without a re-awakening of
the sound with which he would have spoken that
passage, and without my seeing the spirited smile
which accompanied his words; this sheet-lightning
of his mind had something irresistible in his big
features, and even those had to smile who were not
at all in sympathy with his utterances. Much he
has had to suffer, and more he escaped through
timely death, and yet he has been one of the hap-
piest mortals, a favourite of the gods ; as the poet
justly says :

" Alles geben die Gotter unendlichen ihren Lieblingen

ganz

Alle Freuden die unendlichen alle Schmerzen die
unendlichen ganz."

But one question was at that time on every-
body's lips, with which he, himself, departed from
the world: "Who will now finish the German
History as he would have done? " And the answer
is : No one.

THE ARMY.
I.

THE possession of a powerful and well-disciplined
Army is a sign of great excellence in a nation,
not only because the Army is a necessary stand-by
in our relations with other countries, but also
because a noble people with a glorious past will
be able to use its Army as a bloodless weapon for
long periods together. The Army will also be a
popular school for manly virtue in an age when
business and pleasure often cause higher things
to be forgotten. Of course, it must be admitted
that there are certain highly-strung and artistic
natures which cannot endure the burden of military
discipline. People of this kind often cause others
to hold quite erroneous views on universal service.
But in dealing with these great questions one
must not take abnormal persons as a standard,
but rather bear in mind the old adage, "Mens
sana in corpore sano." This physical strength
has particular significance in periods such as ours.
One of the shortcomings of English culture lies
in the fact that the English have no universal
military service. This fault is in some measure
atoned for on the one hand by the extraordinary

137

138 Treitschke

development of the Fleet, and on the other by
the never-ending little wars in countless colonies
which occupy and keep alive the virile forces of
the nation. The fact that great physical activity
is still to be observed in England is partly due to
the constant wars with the colonies. But a closer
view will reveal a very serious want. The lack
of chivalry in the English character, which presents
so striking a contrast with the naive loyalty of the
Germans, has some connection with the English
practice of seeking physical exercise in boxing,
swimming, and rowing, rather than in the use of
noble arms. Such exercises are no doubt useful;
but no one can fail to observe that this whole
system of athletics tends to further brutalize the
mind of the athlete, and to set before men the
superficial ideal of being always able to carry off
the first prize.

The normal and most reasonable course for a
great nation to pursue is, therefore, to embody the
very nature of the State ; that is to say, its strength,
in an ordered Army drawn from its people and
perpetually being improved. The ultra-sensitive
and philosophical mode of regarding these ques-
tions has gone out of fashion among us who live
in a warlike age, so that we are able to come back
to the view of Clausewitz, who looked upon war
as a mighty continuation of politics. All the
peace-advocates in the world put together will
never persuade the political powers to be of one
mind, and as long as they differ, the sword is and

The Army 139

must be the only arbiter. We have learned to
recognize the moral majesty of war just in those
aspects of it which superficial observers describe
as brutal and inhuman. Men are called upon to
overcome all natural feeling for the sake of their
country, to murder people who have never before
done them any harm, and whom they perhaps
respect as chivalrous enemies. It is things such
as these that seem at the first glance horrible and
repulsive. Look at them again and you will see
in them the greatness of war. Not only the life
of man, but also the right and natural emotions
of his inmost soul, his whole ego, are to be sacri-
ficed to a great patriotic ideal; and herein lies the
moral magnificence of war. If we pursue this
idea still further, we shall see that in spite of its
hardness and roughness, war links men together
in brotherly love, for it levels all differences of
rank, and draws men together by a common sense
of the imminence of death. Every student of
history knows that to do away with war would
be to cripple human nature. No liberty can exist
without an armed force ready to sacrifice itself
for the sake of freedom. One cannot insist too
often on the fact that scholars never touch upon
these questions without presupposing that the
State only exists as a sort of academy of arts and
sciences. This is of course also part of its duty,
but not its most immediate duty. A State which
cultivates its mental powers at the expense of its
physical ones cannot fail to go to ruin.

140 Treitschke

Generally speaking, we must admit that the
greatness of historical life lies in character rather
than in education; the driving forces of history
are to be found on spheres where character is
developing. Only brave nations have any real
history. In the hour of trial in national life it be-
comes evident that warlike virtues have the cast-
ing vote. There is great truth in the old phrase
which described war as the examen rigorosum
of the States. In war, the States are called upon
to show, not only the extent of their physical,
but also of their moral power, and in a certain
measure of their intellectual capacity. . . . War
brings to light all that a nation has collected in
secret. It is not an essential part of the nature
of armies to be always fighting; the noiseless
labour of armament goes on equally in time of
peace. The entire value of the work done for
Prussia by Frederick William I did not appear until
the days of Frederick the Great, when the tremen-
dous force which had been slowly collecting sud-
denly revealed itself to the world at large. The
same is true of the year 1866.

And just because war is nothing more than a
powerful embodiment of politics, its issues are
decided, not by technical factors alone, but chiefly
by the policy which directs it. It is very signi-
ficant that when Wrangel and Prittwitz might
have been able to get the better of the Danes in
1848, and 1849, the King, who seems to have
felt horror at the thought of taking this step, and

The Army 141

who, moreover, feared Russia, did not himself
know what he wanted. An Army can never be
expected to fight when its leaders are in doubt as
to the advisability of a particular military action.
Every war is by nature a radical one, and in many
cases the efficiency of the troops will prove useless
in face of the hesitation and aimlessness of the
policy which it serves. Remember the campaign
in Champagne in 1792. One technical superiority
of the Prussian and Austrian troops over the sans
culottes was at that date still very considerable,
and in the neighbourhood of Mannheim a single
battalion of the Wedell Regiment prevented two
French divisions from crossing the Rhine during
the whole of one day. But still the political result
of the war was the complete downfall of the coali-
tion. The Allies were not of one mind; their
policy lacked all definite aim, and the campaign
was being conducted at haphazard. Political
considerations of this kind, which interfere with
the strategy of the leaders, are particularly dis-
astrous in wars conducted by coalitions, and
history has often proved the truth of the line,
"the strong man is strongest when alone." In the
campaigns of 1813 and 1814, the incompetent
Prussian generals, in concert with the talented
Prussian commanders, carried on war to the knife,
whereas the more competent Austrians, who were
hindered by the aimless policy of their country,
showed themselves lukewarm and indifferent.
A policy such as that of the Austrians could not

142 Treitschke

hope to find a better commander than Schwarzen-
berg. Many wars have been lost before they
were begun because they were the result of a
policy which did not know its own mind. Every
healthy-minded Army is conscious of a strong
sense of chivalry and personal honour. But under
certain circumstances this military sense of honour
becomes oversensitive. Abuses are, of course,
to 'be deplored, but this touchiness is in itself a
wholesome symptom. The duel is not a thing
which can be disregarded even among civilians.
In a democratic community the duel is the last
protest which can be made against a complete
subversion of social manners and customs. A
certain restraint is put upon a man by the thought
that he will risk his life by offending against social
usage; and it is better that now and then a pro-
mising young life should be laid down than that
the social morality of a whole people should be
brutalized. A sense of class honour also fosters
the great moral strength which resides in the Army
and which is the cause of a large part of its effec-
tiveness. The officers would lose the respect of
their subordinates if they did not show a more
ticklish sense of honour and a finer breeding.
Since duelling was abolished in England, moral
coarseness in the Army has been on the increase,
and officers have been known to come to blows in
railway carriages in the very presence of their
wives. It is obvious how greatly such conduct
must impair the respect due from the men to their

The Army 143

superiors. The statement of the democrat that
a man of the lower classes will more readily obey
his equal than a gentleman is entirely false. The
respect of a soldier for a man of really distinguished
character will always be greater than his respect
for an old corporal. This truth was plainly de-
monstrated in the last war, when it was found that
the French officers did not possess enough authority
over their men.

As warfare is but the tremendous embodiment
of foreign policy, everything relating to military
affairs must have a very intimate connection with
the constitution of the State, and, in its turn,
the particular organization of the Army must
determine which of many types of warfare shall
be followed. Because the Middle Ages were
aristocratic, most of the battles then fought
were between cavalry, which has always been the
pre-eminently aristocratic instrument of war.
The results of this idea may still be observed
to-day. Too great a preponderance of cavalry is
always a sign that the economic condition of a
nation is still defective, and that the power of the
aristocracy in the State is too absolute. . . .
Mechanical weapons have, on the other hand,
always been the especial property of the middle
classes. Engineering has always flourished among
commercial nations, because they possess both
capital and technical skill. Among the ancients,
the Carthaginians were technically the most
important nation in military affairs; but Rome

144 Treitschke

conquered them in the end, not because
her generals were better, but because of
the moral force which held her National Army
together.

For however important technique may be in
war, it never turns the scales unaided. Economic
considerations such as skill in engineering or in
systematic collaboration can never help one to
determine the value of an Army. Still, this is
what the commercial nations seek to do, for they
look upon an Army of purely professional soldiers
as the best. It is not technical but abstract and
moral superiority that tells in the long run in war.
As far as physical capacity goes, the English
soldiers are very efficient; they are trained to box,
and are fed on an incredibly liberal scale. But
even people in England are realizing more and
more strongly that there is something wrong with
their Army, and that it cannot be compared with
a National Army because the moral energies of
the people are excluded from it. The world is not
as materialistic as Wellington supposed. Wel-
lington used to say that enthusiasm in an Army
could only produce confusion and other ill-
effects. The really national weapon of England
is the Fleet. The martial enthusiasm of the
country — and it is far stronger than is usually
supposed on the Continent, because the idea of
a British universal Empire is very general among
the people — must be sought on the men-of-
war.

The Army 145

In considering these questions we must never
lose sight of the purely moral value of the National
Army as opposed to its purely national and poli-
tical value. We must be quite clear as to whether
the perpetual complaints of the great cost of our
military system are justified. It is certain that
the blood-tax imposed by the military burden is
the greatest which a. nation can be called upon to
bear. But we must never forget that there are,
and ought to be, things which are above all price.
Moral possessions have no price, and it is therefore
unreasonable to try to reckon the value of the
honour and power of the State in terms of money.
Money can never represent what we lost when the
flower of our youthful manhood fell on the battle-
fields of France. It is unworthy to judge the
possessions of the soul as if they were material.
A great nation is acting in a right and reasonable
way if it seeks to give expression to the idea of the
State, which stands for power, in the form of a
well-ordered military organization. Without it,
trade and intercourse could not prosper. If one
were to try to imagine the country without the
Army which protects our civil peace, it would be
impossible to say how great would be the decrease
in our national revenues.

Under ordinary circumstances the right to bear
arms must always be looked upon as the privilege
of a free man. It was only during the last period
of the Roman Empire that the system of keeping
mercenaries was adopted. And as mercenary

146 Treitschke

troops consisted, except for their officers, of the
lowest dregs of society, the idea soon became
prevalent that military service was a disgrace;
and the free citizen began to show himself anxious
not to take part in it. This conception of the
mercenary system has gone on perpetuating itself
through the ages, and its after-effects have been
strikingly demonstrated even in our own day.
Our century has been called upon to witness, in
the formation of the National and Civil Guards,
the most immoral and unreasonable developments
of which the military system is capable. The
citizens imagined themselves too good to bear
arms against the enemies of their country, but
they were not averse to playing at soldiers at
home, and even to being able to defend their purse
if it should happen to be in danger. Hence the
truly disgusting invention of the National Guard,
and the inhuman legal provision that in the event
of a popular disturbance the adored rabble might
receive an immediate shaking at the hands of the
guard. The Army was only to interfere if things
became serious. This shows a complete failure
to realize the moral nobility of the duty of defence.
The right to bear arms will ever remain the honor-
ary privilege of the free man. All noble minds
have more or less recognized the truth that
"The God Who created iron did not wish
men to be thralls." And it is the task of all
reasonable political systems to keep this idea
in honour.

The Army 147

II.

The example of the German National Army
has had an irresistible influence on the rest of
Europe. The ridicule heaped on it in previous
decades has now been shown to be unwarranted.
It was the custom abroad to look down on the
Prussian territorial system (Landwehr) and on the
Prussian boy army. Things are very different
now. We know now that moral factors in war-
fare weigh more heavily than technical excellence ;
and it is further evident that the ever-increasing
technical experience of life in barracks brings
with it a corresponding brutalization of the moral
instincts. The old sergeants of France were in
no way superior to the German troops, as the
French had expected. We may say with truth
that the problem of giving a military education
to the strength of the nation and of making full
use of the trained Army was first seriously dealt
with in Germany. Our Army constitutes a pecu-
liar and necessary continuation of the scholastic
system. For many people it would be impossible
to devise a better means of education. For such
persons, living as they do in a period in which
mental restraint is lacking, the drill and enforced
cleanliness, and strict military discipline are in-
dispensable from every point of view. Carlyle
prophesied that the Prussian conception of uni-
versal military service would go the round of the
globe. Since 1866 and 1870, when the organiza-

148 Treitschke

tion of the Prussian Army stood its trial so bril-
liantly, nearly all the other great Powers of the
Continent have sought to imitate its methods.

But imitation abroad is not as easy as was
supposed because the Prussian Army is really a
nation in arms, and the peculiarities and refine-
ments of the national character are naturally
exemplified in it. Above all, a system of this
kind cannot be established unless the nation pos-
sesses a certain degree of political freedom, is
satisfied with the existing regime, and can count
on social freedom in the Government. A natural
respect for superior education is also necessary, for
without it the institution of the One-year Volun-
teers would be unthinkable. This system has
been introduced simply in order to make it econo-
mically and morally possible for young men belong-
ing to the educated classes to serve in the ranks.
In France this voluntary system has proved a
failure because an external equality between
different classes of men has been insisted upon.
In Germany we could hardly do without it. Quite
apart from the fact that our supply of professional
officers is not nearly large enough in the event of
war, the educated young men who in the One-year
Voluntary Service transforms into territorial
reserve officers, and who stand in many ways in
a closer relationship to the people than the pro-
fessional officers, form a natural link between the
latter and the rank and file of the Army.

The heavy burden of universal military service

The Army 149

can be lightened in a certain measure by decentrali-
zation, which usually enables a man to serve in
his native province. Our Provincial Army Corps
have, on the whole, quite justified their existence.
They should remain the rule; and as a wholesome
counterweight we have, in the Guard, a corps
which includes men from all parts of the country,
and forms a crack regiment, one of whose functions
it is to spur on the rest of the Army. The rigid
centralization of France makes the existence of
Provincial Army Corps such as ours an impossibil-
ity. The natives of Normandy and of the Pyre-
nees there stand side by side in the same regiment.
In Germany, on the other hand, common national-
ity is rightly looked upon as a strong cement which
will ensure the solidarity of separate bodies of
troops. This universal military service, if it is
to preserve the existence of the State, must
naturally presuppose unity in the nation as a
whole. One or two isolated little provinces,
peopled by foreign races, do not greatly affect the
question, and a few simple precautions will do
away with any threatened danger from those
quarters. In Austria things are more serious,
because there the officers in the Reserve are the
weak point of the army. They are good Czechs,
good Germans, and good Magyars, but not good
Austrians; and this flaw may some day bring
about disastrous consequences.

In all these matters of military organization
we were until quite lately the leader of the other

150 Treitschke

nations. During the last few years the neighbour-
ing States have made such strenuous efforts to
obtain military power that we have been obliged
to go further — this time in imitation of other
nations. The furthest limits to this onward move-
ment are improved by nature of things, and the
enormous physical strength of the Germanic race
will see to it that we have a perpetual advantage
in this respect over the less faithful nations.
The French have nearly reached the utmost limits
of their capacity; the Germans possess, in this
respect, far wider elbow-room.

I will ask you once more to observe the nature
of the influence exercised on warfare by these new
methods in military affairs. The general tend-
ency of this system is towards peace. A nation
in arms is not as easily drawn away from its social
occupations to take part in a frivolous war as a
Conscript .Army would be. Wars will become
rarer and of shorter duration, although more
bloody. Desire to return home will drive the
Army to advance. The temper of the Prussian
soldiers in the summer of 1866, expressed in the
words, "Let us press on towards the Danube, so
that we may get home again soon," should be
looked upon as the normal temper of a courageous
and, at the same time, peace-loving National Army.
There can be no difficulty, to-day, in understand-
ing the bold spirit in warfare which seeks, above
all, to plunge a dagger into the heart of the enemy.
It may be said that nothing is absolutely impossible

The Army 151

to a National Army of this kind when the nation
can look back over a glorious past. The experi-
ences of our last two wars, especially in the Battles
of Koniggratz and Mars La Tour, have proved
this to be true. We saw, at the Battle of Sadowa,
that fourteen Prussian battalions could stand
against something like forty-two Austrian ones;
and the Franco-Prussian War furnished us with
numerous instances of decisive battles in which we
fought facing our own frontiers, so that if we had
lost we should have been driven back into the
interior of the enemy's country. In the case of
a modern national army, the duty of sparing men
is entirely swallowed up in the higher duty of
annihilating the enemy. The fear of desertion
need not be entertained ; the Army can be billeted
wherever it is.

The famous saying of Montecucoli, cited even
by Frederick the Great, belongs to a period now
entirely past. Montecucoli had said that in order
to wage war a nation must have money, and
money, and yet more money. It is true that a
great deal of money is needed for the preparations
involved by war; but when fighting has once begun,
the conqueror can do without ready money. He
can simply fall back on the resources of the occu-
pied territory, and may even abstain from paying
his troops for the moment. Once, when Blucher
imposed a huge war contribution on the French
in order to feed his hungry soldiers, the King sent
an order forbidding him to embitter the French

152 Treitschke

too much, and promising that the soldiers' pay
should be procured in Prussia. Blucher replied,
"Your Majesty's Army is not' a mercenary army.
Even if I am not permitted to take money from a
hostile country, we will not be an unnecessary
burden to our mother country." It is a well-
known fact that Napoleon began the campaign of
1806 with a war chest of forty thousand francs,
and in 1813 we were, ourselves, in a far worse
plight. We had, at the beginning, only two
thousand thalers (about six thousand marks) in
cash; but the first thing we did was to turn the
pecuniary resources of the Saxons into ready
money, and so we went on.

A certain self-reliance on the part of under-
commanders has become a necessity in the enor-
mous National Army of the present day. General
Manteuff el once told me that on the misty morning
of the Battle of Noisseville, he was only able to
give quite general directions; for the rest, he relied
entirely on the initiative and sense of responsibility
of his generals. The final stages in the develop-
ment of war on the principle of universal service
have not yet been reached, and the world has not,
as yet, beheld a war between two national armies.
During the first half of the last great war, we
witnessed a meeting between a really national
army and a conscript army, and later, an impro-
vised Militia. The spectacle of the encounter
between two perfectly trained national armies,
which we have yet to see, will certainly be a

The Army 153

gigantic one. The world will then witness enor-
mous losses, and enormous results. And, if we
consider the multitude of new technical devices
produced in these modern times, we must realize
that future wars will give rise to far more astound-
ing revelations than any during the Franco-
Prussian War.

The new means of transport are especially
important in modern warfare. A State cannot
have too many railways for military purposes.
An immediate occupation of an enemy's country
is especially important in modern warfare, for it
puts an effective stop to all recruiting. One of
Napoleon Ill's most serious mistakes in 1870
was, that he failed to occupy at least a portion of
the left bank of the Rhine. We could not, at the
outset, have prevented him from doing so, and
this fact is openly stated in the introduction to the
work composed by the general staff, which Moltke
no doubt wrote himself. We should, by that
means, have lost two army corps from our field
army.

It is certain, then, that the more railways lead
to the frontier, the better. But I must here repeat
that everything has its natural limits. It is true
that an extensive railway system facilitates the
collection of an army on the frontier the moment
war is declared; but during the war its use is far
more restricted. It is quite easy for a scouting
party to make a railway impracticable for a long
time. The working capacity of a railway is also

154 Treitschke

limited, and it can only transport a given number
of men and guns in each day. Our general staff
has calculated that an army of 60,000 men can
cover thirty miles as quickly on foot as by train.
It is often more useful for the troops to spend this
time in marching. It thus follows that railway
transport is only an advantage when the distances
to be covered are great, and even then the advant-
age is sometimes doubtful. If a line of advance
is to be kept secret, the troops must march. This
is proved by Bourbaki's unsuccessful expedition
against Southern Alsace. He collected his army
in trains, and tried to bring it up in that way as
far as the Vosges. All officers are of opinion that
if the troops had gone on foot, the German out-
posts of the small detachments, on the western
spurs of the Vosges, would not have observed
them soon enough. As it was, our Uhlan patrols
on the heights were able to report a noticeable
activity on the railway lines in the valley, and
General Werder thus had time to draw in his men,
and cause them to take up a defensive position.
The old truth that very much depends on the
marching capacity of an efficient body of infantry,
still holds good in modern warfare.

Our ideas regarding the importance of the fort-
ress have, on the other hand, undergone a complete
change. The time has long vanished when every
town was a fortress, and a long campaign in a
hostile country usually ended by taking the form
of siege-warfare. To-day, the question is even

The Army 155

being asked, "Are fortresses any longer of practical
use?" The Germans answer this question far
more sensibly than the French. France sur-
rounded herself with a tremendous rampart of
fortresses, reaching from Sedan to Belfort, and
thus believed herself shut off from Germany as
by a Chinese wall. But in so long a line there
must somewhere be a weak spot, which the Ger-
mans will certainly end by finding. There is,
however, an even more important consideration.
Walls cannot defend themselves, and if they are
to be effectually defended, the great fortresses
need a huge garrison, which is thus lost to the
field army. The Germans are of opinion that
small-barrier forts are necessary, and may be useful
even to-day. A little mountain fortress of this
kind, situated on a defile can, under certain cir-
cumstances, cut the enemy off from using a
whole system of roads.

The Saxon fortress of Konigstein, for instance,
is not impregnable, but a siege of the place might
drag on indefinitely. It was from this fortress
that a successful attempt was made in 1866 to
destroy the important railway from Dresden to
Prague, so that the Prussians were unable to use
it for a fortnight. The railway could not be
repaired, because the batteries of the fortress
commanded the line. The advance of the Prus-
sians into Bohemia was thus made very difficult.
The fortress of Bitsch, in the Vosges, plays a very
similar part. Little mountain strongholds will

156 Treitschke

thus continue to be of service for some time to
come.

On the other hand, it is necessary to maintain
the large strongholds known as army fortresses,
in order to have places of refuge for a whole army,
and especially so that one may there shelter and
replenish a beaten army. Strassburg and Metz
exist for this purpose. All our officers agree,
however, that we must not have too many fort-
resses of this type. Many deny that they have
any use at all, for decisive actions in war are
always fought in the open field, and any military
system which lessens our forces in the field presents
very serious drawbacks. A fortress of this kind
needs a large garrison even when no enemy is
in the neighbourhood. We are always brought
back to the fact that national armies, which are
so full of moral energy, must be looked upon as
pre-eminently capable of assuming a vigorous
offensive.

I will conclude by pointing out, very briefly,
that the fleet has begun to assume a far more
important position — not, in the first place, as an
essential factor in a European war, for no one
believes now that a war between great Powers
could be decided by a naval battle — but as a pro-
tection for the merchant navy and the colonies.
The task of ruling countries on the other side of
the Atlantic will, from henceforth, be the chief
duty of European fleets. For, since the object
of human culture must be to assert the supremacy

The Army 157

of the white races on the entire globe, the import-
ance of a people will finally depend on the share
it takes in the rule of the transatlantic world. It
is on this account that the importance of the fleet
has so largely increased during our own day.

INTERNATIONAL LAW

IS there really such a thing as international law?
Certainly there are two common theories of
international relations, each contradictory to the
other, each quite untenable. One, the so-called
naturalistic theory, dates from Machiavelli. It
is based on the notion that the State is merely
might personified, that it has the right to do any-
thing that is profitable to it. On this view the
State cannot fetter itself by international law; its
relations with other States depend simply on the
respective strength which it and they possess.
This theory leads to an absurdity. It is of course
true that the State implies physical might. But if
a State be that and nothing else, if it pay no heed
to reason or to conscience, it will never maintain
itself in a proper condition of safety. Even na-
turalistic thinkers allow that it is a function of
the State to preserve internal order ; that it cannot
do if it refuses to obey any law in its relations with
other States. Its deliberate contempt for good
faith, loyalty, and treaty agreements in external
relations would raise a crowd of enemies, and pre-
vent it from fulfilling its purpose — the embodi-
ment of physical force. Even Machiavelli's ideal,
Caesar Borgia, ultimately fell into the pit which he

158

International Law 159

had digged for others. For the end and object
of the State's existence is not physical might; it
embodies might only in order that it may protect
and develop the nobler aspects of mankind. Thus
the doctrine of pure might is a vain doctrine; it
is immoral because it cannot justify its own
existence.

Directly contrary to this view of the State, is
another — an equally false view. This is the
"moral" conception due to German liberalism.
The State is here regarded as a good little boy,
to be washed, brushed, and sent to school; he must
have his ears pulled, to keep him good, and in
return he is to be thankful, just-minded, and
Heaven knows what else. This German doctri-
naire theory has done as much harm to our political
thinking as to other forms of German life. All
our political sins can be traced back to the notion
— natural enough in a learned nation — that the
pronouncement of some scientific truth is ade-
quate to turn the world's course into a new channel.
That notion underlies the German spirit of sci-
entific research; it also underlies our tendency to
all manner of practical blunders. The doctri-
naire exponent of international law fondly imagines
that he need only emit a few aphorisms and that
the nations of the world will forthwith, as reason-
able men, accept them. We forget that stupidity
and passion matter, and have always mattered
in history. Who, after all, can fail to see the
growth of national passions during the nineteenth

160 Treitschke

century? And whence do individuals — Rotteck,
Bluntschli, Heffter, and others — say to States per-
emptorily, "Thou shalt"? No single man stands
high enough to impose his doctrines on all States ;
he must be ready to see his theories crossed or
crushed by actual life. The delusion that there
can be such a thing as hypothetical law is at the
root of these errors. Positive law is the only law
that has real existence. Until the general public
has grown convinced of the truth and righteous-
ness of various legal principles, the function of
learned men is really limited to preparing the way.
Were we to pursue the abstract conception of the
State to its logical conclusion, we should find
ourselves demanding a supreme authority with
world-wide power. The authority would be such
as that claimed by the Papal See, an authority
not of this world, represented by the Vicegerent
of Christ and ruling in the name of God. That is
the sort of authority which we do not want on
earth; our beautiful world should be a world of
liberty. Nevertheless it is only ultramontane
thinkers who have consistently worked out to its
logical issue the weak and sentimental view of
international law which we at this moment are
considering. That logical issue has been rightly
stated in the great "Codex" of the Jesuits; accord-
ing to it, the world is, as it were, an ethnarchy in
which the nations form an ideal community, while
the Pope, as ethnarch, wields over them a coercive
power, keeping each State within bounds by spiri-

International Law 161

tual warnings and ghostly power. That is the one
practical conclusion deducible from the premise
that the State is a body liable to external coercion.
No system of international law can, merely be-
cause it has a scientific basis, restrain a sovereign
State.

So then these two extreme views are both un-
workable in practice. Let us see if we can, in their
place, set up a theory of international law based
on historical foundations. First and before all,
we must recognize clearly that we must not over-
weight our human nature with demands which
our weakness cannot meet. That mistake is
responsible for the perversion of many an idealist
into a disillusioned fanatic. The man who de-
claims that might and the mailed fist alone decide
the rivalry of nations is often a soured fanatic
who in his youth smoked away at the pipe of
peace, discovered that that was too good, for this
poor world, rushed off to the other extreme, and
now declares that the basis of all things is brutality
and cynicism. No doubt, all great political think-
ers show a touch of cynical contempt for mankind,
and when this contempt is not too deep, it has
its justification. But it is only the man who does
not ask the impossible from human nature who
can really awaken the finer energies which, despite
all frailties and brutish instincts, lie dormant in
man.

With this in mind, we must set to work histori-
cally and consider the State as it actually is. It

1 62 Treitschke

is physical force ; but it is also an institution aiming
at the betterment of mankind. In so far as it is
physical force, it has a natural tendency to grab
as many possessions as may seem to it desirable.
But every State will nevertheless show of its own
accord a real regard for neighbouring States.
Prudent calculation and a mutual recognition of
advantages will gradually foster an ever-growing
sense of justice; there will arise the consciousness
that each State is bound up with the common life
of the States around it and that, willingly or un-
willingly, it must come to terms with them as a
body of States. This consideration is prompted
not by any sort of philanthropy but by a literal
sense of the benefits of reciprocal action. What
I may call the formal part of international law,
such as the rules which assure the inviolability
of ambassadors and which regulate the ceremonial
of embassies, was developed and fixed at an early
date in history. In modern Europe, the laws
about embassies are definite and well determined.
It may even be asserted that the formal side of
international law is more firmly established and
more seldom broken than the laws which govern
the internal life of each single State. Still, the
existence of international law is precarious; it is
a lex imperfecta, because there is no higher power
to control States as a whole. All depends on the
sense of reciprocity between nations, and here,
in default (as already said) of a supreme authority,
learning and public opinion may play a great part.

International Law 163

The jurist Savigny declared that international
law is perpetually in the making. He did not
mean, of course, that it has no real validity. For
this law which is daily growing is obviously of
practical use at every turn. There can be no
doubt that the development of modern interna-
tional law owes a very special debt to Christianity,
which extends beyond the limits of single States
towards cosmopolitanism in the noblest sense of
that term; our ancestors, therefore, were both
reasonable and logical when they for a while
omitted the Porte from among the nations bound
by international law. They could not admit the
Porte so long as it was dominated exclusively by
Mahometan standards of morals. More recently,
Christianity has spread in the Balkans, Mahom-
etanism has somewhat decreased there, and the
Porte has been brought into the circle of nations
subject to international law.

As States grow from small to large and from
weakness to independence they necessarily wish
to preserve peace, simply to ensure their safety
and to guard the treasures of civilization entrusted
to them. Hence grows up a general agreement to
obey international law, yielding an orderly associa-
tion of States, a political system. But this at
once presupposes a more or less approximately
level balance of power among the nations concerned.
The notion of a balance of power in Europe was
at the first accepted in a purely mechanical sense.
But it contains the germ of a perfectly true political

1 64 Treitschke

conception. We must not picture it under the
image of a trutina gentium, a weighing machine
of nations, with both sides of the balance equi-
poised. It is enough to premise that in any
ordered political system no State should be suffi-
ciently strong to be able to act as it pleases with
impunity. In this connexion we may note the
superiority of present-day Europe over the im-
mature system of States in America. There,
the United States can do as they please, and it is
only because the relations of the United States
with the republics of South America are still
rather slight that the latter have as yet suffered
little direct interference from their northern
neighbour.

The Russian diplomat, Gortshakof, once said,
and said with truth, that neither the nations who
fear attack nor those who deem themselves strong
enough to be able to attack whom they will, will
ever hasten the completion of international law.
Actual examples will convince us of the correctness
of this acute remark. In countries like Belgium
and Holland, which have — most unfortunately
for the proper growth of international law — long
been the chief centres of its study, there has sprung
up a sentimental conception of it, begotten no
doubt by unceasing fear of attack from outside.
These countries have fallen into the custom of
addressing to the conqueror demands in the name
of humanity which contradict the power of the
State, and are unnatural and unreasonable. The

International Law 165

treaties of peace signed at Nymwegen and Ryswick
in 1678-9 and 1697 show that then Holland was
looked on as the diplomatic cockpit of Europe,
where all questions of high politics might be fought
out. Later on, this doubtful honour passed to
Switzerland. Nowadays, few people reflect how
ridiculous it is that Belgium should pose as the
home of international law. Just as it is true that
that law rests on a basis of practical fact, so true
is it that a State which is in an abnormal position
will inevitably form an abnormal and perverted
conception of it. Belgium is neutral. And yet
men think that it can give birth to a healthy
system of international law. I will ask you to
remember this when you are confronted with the
voluminous literature which Belgian scholars
have produced on this subject.

Again, there is one country which believes itself
in a position to attack when it will, and which is
therefore a home of barbarism in all matters of
international law. Thanks to England, marine
international law is still, in time of war, nothing
better than a system of privileged piracy. We see,
therefore, that as international law rests wholly
on reciprocity, it is vain to ask nations to listen
to empty commonplaces about humanity. Theory
must here be nailed down to practice; real reci-
procity and a real balance of power are inseparable.

If we would further define the sphere of inter-
national law, we must bear well in mind that it
must never trespass on the existence of the State.

1 66 Treitschke

Demands which drive a State towards suicide are
necessarily unreasonable; each State must retain
its internal sovereignty amid the general commu-
nity of States ; the preservation of that sovereignty
is its highest duty even in its dealings with its
neighbours. The only principles of international
conduct which are seldom broken and may claim
to be fixed are those which do not touch this
sovereignty, those namely which concern the
formal and ceremonial rules mentioned above.
To lay a finger on the honour of a State is to
contest its existence. Even to reproach a State
with a too touchy sense of honour is to misread
the true moral laws of politics. That State which
will not be untrue to itself must possess an acute
sense of honour. It is no violet to flower unseen.
Its strength should be shown signally in the light
of open day, and it dare not allow that strength
to be questioned even indirectly. If its flag be
insulted, it must ask satisfaction; if that satis-
faction be not forthcoming, it must declare war,
however trifling the occasion may seem.

It follows that all the limitations which States
lay on themselves in treaties are merely voluntary ;
all treaties are concluded with a mental reservation
— rebus sic stantibus — so long as circumstances
remain unchanged. No State exists, no State
ever will exist, which is willing to observe the
terms of any peace for ever; no State can pledge
itself to the unlimited observance of treaties, for
that would limit its sovereign power. No treaty

International Law 167

can hold good when the conditions under which it
was signed have wholly changed. This doctrine
has been declared inhuman; in reality it will be
found the height of humanity. Until the State
has realized that its engagements have but limited
duration, it will never exercise due skill in treaty-
making. We cannot treat history as if we were
judges in a civil court of law. If we did that, we
should have to say that Prussia, having signed the
treaty of Tilsit, in 1807, ought not to have attacked
Napoleon in 1813. But that treaty, like all others,
was concluded rebus sic stantibus, and, thank God,
things had completely changed in the six years.
A whole nation found itself in a state to escape
from intolerable thraldom.

Never disregard the free moral life of the nation
as a whole. No State in the wide world can ven-
ture to relinquish the "ego" of its sovereignty.
If conditions have been imposed on it which cripple
it or which it cannot observe, the nation honours
itself in breaking them. It is one of the most
admirable facts in history that a nation can recover
from material loss far sooner than from the slight-
est insult to its honour. The loss of a province
may be accepted as inevitable; the endurance of
what we deem to be servitude is an unending
insult to a noble-hearted nation. Napoleon, by
stationing his troops on Prussian soil, stirred up
fierce hatred in the veins even of the most patient.
When a State has been wounded in its honour the
breach of a treaty is but a matter of time. Eng-

1 68 Treitschke

land and France had to admit this in 1870. In
their arrogant pride at the end of the Crimean
War, they had compelled their exhausted enemy
to agree to remove all her warships from the
Black Sea. Russia seized the opportunity offered
by the Franco-Prussian War to break the agree-
ment, and she was fully within her rights.

If a State finds that any of its existing treaties
have ceased to express the relative strength of
itself and the other treaty State, and if it cannot
induce the latter to a friendly cancelment of the
treaty, then has come the moment for the "legal
proceedings" customary between nations, that
is, for war. And in such circumstances war is de-
clared in the full consciousness that the nation is
doing its duty. Personal greed plays no part in
such an act. Those who declare war then say to
themselves, "Our treaty-obligation has failed to
correspond with our relative strength at this
moment; we cannot come to friendly terms; we
turn to the great assize of the nations." The
justice of a war depends wholly on the conscious-
ness of its moral necessity. And since there
neither can be nor ought to be any external coer-
cive power controlling the great personages of a
State, and since history must ever remain in a
state of change, war is in itself justifiable ; it is an
ordinance of God. No doubt, a State may err
as to the necessity of applying this means of
coercion. Niebuhr spoke truly, when he said
that war can establish no right which did not

International Law .169

previously exist. Just for this reason, we may
look upon certain deeds of violence as expiated
in the very act of being committed — for example,
the completion of German or of Italian unity.
On the other hand, since not every war produces
the results which it ought to produce, the historian
must now and again withhold his judgment and
remember that the life of a State lasts for centu-
ries. The proud saying of the conquered Pied-
montese, "We will begin again," will always have
its place in the history of noble nations.

War will never be swept from the earth by
courts of arbitration. In questions that touch
the very life of a State, the other members of the
community of States cannot possibly be impartial.
They must take sides just because they belong to
the community of States and are drawn together
or forced apart by the most diverse interests.
If Germany were foolish enough to try to settle
the question of Alsace-Lorraine by arbitration,
what European Power could be impartial? You
could not find impartiality even in dreamland.
Hence the fact — well known to us all — that though
international congresses may formulate the results
of a war and set them out in juristic language, they
can never avert a threatened outbreak of hos-
tilities. Other States can be impartial only in
questions of third-rate importance.

We have now agreed that war is just and moral,
and that the ideal of eternal peace is both unjust
and immoral, and impossible. A purely intel-

170 Treitschke

lectual life, with its enervating effect on the thinker,
may make men think otherwise; let us get rid of
the undignified attitude of those who call possible
what never can happen. So long as human nature,
with its passions and its sins, remains what it is,
the sword shall not depart from the earth. It is
curious to see how, in the writings of the pacificists,
unconsciously the sense of national honour cuts
into the talk of cosmopolitanism. In the Old
Testament the prophet Joel demanded that Israel
should win a bloody battle over the heathen in
the valley of Jehosaphat; Victor Hugo clamours
in like manner that the Germans shall first get a
flogging before universal peace sets in. Again
and again it must be repeated that war, the violent
form of the quarrels of the nations, is the direct
outcome of the very nature of the State. The
mere fact that there are many States proves, of
itself, that war is necessary. Frederick the Great
said that the dream of universal peace is a phan-
tom which everyone ignores so soon as it affects
his own freedom of action. A lasting balance of
power, he adds, is inconceivable.

Curiously enough, however, it is just in the
domain of war that the triumph of the human
intellect most clearly asserts itself. All noble
nations have felt that the physical power un-
chained in war must be regulated by laws. The
result has been the gradual establishment, by
common consent, of rules and customs to be ob-
served in time of war. The greatest successes

International Law 171

of the science of international law have been won
in a field which those who are fools look upon as
barbarous — I mean the domain of the laws of war.
Really gross instances of the violation of military
usages are rare in modern times. One of the
finest things about international law is that it is
perpetually progressing in this respect, and that
the universalis consensus alone has so firmly
planted a whole series of principles that they are
now well established. No doubt international
law will always lag a little behind the civil law,
for various principles of justice and culture must
first reach maturity within the State before any one
will feel anxious to find them a corner in inter-
national conduct. Thus it was that no crusade
against slavery could claim the support of inter-
national law till the general belief in the dignity
of man had become common in the nineteenth
century.

Another factor which contributed to strengthen
international law is the growing publicity of public
life. The days of the English Blue Book are now
past; these Blue, Yellow, and Green Books were
only intended to blind the Philistine with fumes
of a flattery through which he could not see. A
clever diplomat can easily hoodwink a parliament
by these means. But the whole life of the State
is lived today so entirely in the glare of the foot-
lights that a gross violation of international law
at once arouses real anger among all civilized
peoples.

172 Treitschke

INTERNATIONAL LAW IN TIME OF PEACE

We may now study some of the principles affect-
ing the intercourse of nations in time of peace
which have developed into law. All nations
should be allowed to enjoy, in security and without
distinction, the unifying influences of commercial
intercourse, science, and art. Ancient peoples
sometimes forbade other nations to practise
certain industries which were looked on as secret
arts. In the later Roman Empire it was forbidden
to imitate barbarians in shipbuilding, and similar
monopolist principles obtained even as late as the
days of the Hansa League. All that would be
impossible today. The State must take the risk
of free competition with other States, and that
has been laid down in a whole series of treaties.

In classical times it was, further, the custom of
almost all nations to claim exclusive access to
some particular sea. Later still, it has been held
that certain7 seas which were not properly called
oceans belonged to particular States. The Adri-
atic was the property of Venice, the Ligurian Sea
of Genoa, the Gulf of Bothnia of Sweden. Today
the sea is said to belong to the States which border
on it only so far as it can be militarily controlled
from the coast, that is, within gunshot. But in
such questions, as in so many others, everything
ultimately depends on the actual power of the
States concerned. If a particular State can
dominate a particular sea, no well-meaning the-

International Law 173

orist can ever make that sea public. The Caspian
Sea belongs in name to two States, Persia and
Russia. But Russia is so strong that the sea is a
Russian lake. So again, if a Power were to arise
at Constantinople strong enough to close the
Bosphorus to all comers, protestations against
such an act would be merely laughed at. Apart
from this, the sea must be regarded as open to
all ships flying a recognized flag. The high seas
are policed by the navies of all nations, and every
man-of-war has the right to stop a merchantman
and examine its papers. This is the result of a
long and intricate development. All nations are
now agreed that occasional inconveniences suffered
by their merchant ships are a far lesser evil than
piracy.

All international rights are safeguarded by
treaties. These treaties differ in many details
from compacts made under the civil law. In the
first place they depend on good faith on both
sides, since there is no tribunal to compel either
side to observe them. The ancient Athenians
were therefore obeying a right instinct when they
decided to limit the time during which their
treaties with other nations held good. Christian
nations have tended rather to regard treaties as
eternally binding, but their real attitude is that
they are willing to observe the treaty so long as
the relative strength of the States involved does
not seriously change. The more clearly this
truth is proclaimed, and the more dispassionately

174 Treitschke

it is regarded, the safer will be the treaties made ;
States will not conclude agreements which the
other party is likely to break.

There are other treaties which are made under
compulsion. Such compacts are not made in
time of peace ; if Switzerland be unwilling in peace
time to enter into a treaty with Germany, she is
free to refuse. But after wars the victor imposes
a compulsory peace on the conquered. Here
again we seek in vain for the external judge who
can say with authority, "This treaty is compul-
sory."

It does not appear that there can be any limit
of time implied in agreements under international
law. Limits are imposed on the duration of
certain legal liabilities under the ordinary law;
for example, thefts might cease to be actionable
after twenty years. But this is really a juristic
makeshift. The framer of the law has author-
ized a legal fiction on practical grounds. It is
not thought worth while to pursue a trifling offence
after the lapse of a long period. But that can-
not be done in international law. The lives of
States last for centuries. One would have to
wait for years for the expiry of the time-limits of
nations. Frederick the Great had a perfect right
to claim Silesia as part of his kingdom, though the
treaties which secured it to his family were over
two hundred years old.

Much progress has been effected of late years
in the way of better drafting, and also of more

International Law 175

distinct ratification, of international treaties, as
well as in lucidity of wording. As a rule, such
treaties ought not to contain secret clauses. They
merely obscure the true state of affairs ; they bring
it about that States which are unaware of them
form false ideas of their mutual obligations, and
thus they may easily prove dangerous to the very
State which made them. Governments used to
imagine that secret clauses would trip up other
governments ; obviously they are actually a double-
edged weapon. There are, of course, exceptions
even to this. In 1866, when Prussia made peace
with the conquered States of Southern Germany,
offensive and defensive alliance between them was
concluded in a series of secret treaties. There was
good reason for this. When France, a year later,
revealed her leanings towards war, it was then
publicly announced that North and South Ger-
many would act together.

The sphere in which the principles of interna-
tional relations can be most definitely laid down
is that of private international law, the law which
governs the behaviour of any State towards indi-
vidual foreigners. It is a great step forward
that, in any cultured State today, a foreign private
person is sure of the protection of the law. It is
a crime against the human race to urge the view
that force alone governs international law today.
That view is wholly untrue. Only — we must not
expect the impossible. The difficulty of the
question becomes apparent as soon as one looks

176 Treitschke

into its details. One then realizes that all obli-
gations of private as of other international law
are entered into and kept with a certain reserva-
tion, that, namely, they cannot be fulfilled when
they entail grave hurt to the State which promised
to carry them out. However many treaties we
may conclude in the domain of private interna-
tional law, it is always implied that we shall not
keep them if a foreigner becomes obnoxious to us.
A State must be able to expel inconvenient for-
eigners, without declaring its reasons, even though
it has signed a treaty permitting foreigners to
reside within its borders. Thus, modern States
habitually expel persons suspected of being spies
or secret agents; if explanations had to be pub-
lished before active steps were taken in such cases,
those explanations would be mostly of an exceed-
ingly unpleasant kind, and would merely imperil
the friendly relations of the States concerned. It
is, therefore, more sensible to take the line that
any alien can be expelled at any moment, with the
simple comment: You are undesirable. And the
right to act thus must be firmly maintained, if
only in the interest of honest men, who might
otherwise be molested; this proceeding, which
appears cruel on the surface, proves in reality to
be the truest humanity. On the other hand,
States must not claim the right to expel their own
subjects. That is to claim something which is
essentially illegitimate. When Germany expelled
the Jesuits, we were at least sure that they would

International Law 177

find a roof elsewhere. But if Germany were to
expel its own common criminals, it would be simply
blowing them into the air, for no other State would
be willing to receive them.

Wherever international law relating to private
individuals has begun to grow up, mutual un-
dertakings are soon given between the various
States to assist one another in the apprehension of
criminals. Here we reach some of the hardest
problems of international law. It is easy enough
to assert generally that mankind as a whole is
bound to pursue criminals. That is recognized
by all noble nations and is easily embodied in
their laws. But how are we to draw the line
between what is criminal and what is not? To
begin with, it is eminently necessary to distinguish
political and common offenders. Every State
must consider its own interests before it takes
action against traitors against some other State.
There may exist between two countries, nominally
at peace, a latent state of war, as is now the case
between France and Germany. In such a case
it may well happen that the man who is a political
offender against the laws of his own country is
also very welcome to the other country; it would
be silly if the latter were to be forced to hand him
over to his own government. Treaties regulating
the extradition of common malefactors are easily
made; but no State will pledge itself to deliver
up all political offenders without the option of
using its own judgment in particular cases. Un-

178 Treitschke

derstandings, again, might be effected as to anar-
chists, pure and simple, who work with dynamite;
but about political offenders, as a class, no general
treaty can be drawn.

With respect to common criminals, the limits
of extradition must, of course, be settled by special
agreements. Such agreements must, of course,
apply only to really grievous offences. The ju-
dicial codes of various lands vary so much that
it is emphatically desirable that as many crimes
as possible should be judged at home. Experi-
ence has here shown that the farther the juris-
diction of a nation is extended, the better the
result.

All this general movement towards securing
justice naturally tends to an ordered union be-
tween the States concerned, that is, to a political
system in which the use of fixed forms of action
is accepted even in international matters. The
quarrels of seventeenth-century Europe on matters
of ceremonial, which now strike us as so absurd,
had a sound basis, despite the ridiculous forms
which they assumed. They showed that the
States of Europe had begun to regard themselves
as members of one family. In a well-ordered
household, everyone must have his fixed place,
and his individual rights must be recognized and
maintained. The difference between empires and
small States, between great Powers and States of
the second or third rank, still exists from a practi-
cal point of view, though no documents specifically

International Law 179

record it. A great Power may be defined as a State
which could not, in the given circumstances, be
destroyed by any one other Power, but only by a
coalition. The preponderance of the great Powers
in Europe has lately become very marked, and it
is to this that we owe a certain security now ob-
servable in our international relations. The law
affecting embassies had been so firmly established
since the Congress of Aachen in 1818, that the
clearest lines have been drawn in all civilized
States between the different classes of diplomatists.
Through the dominance of the leading European
Powers, the practice — indeed the rule — has grown
up that representation at a Congress of great
Powers is granted only to those among the lesser
States which are directly concerned in the subject
to be discussed. But when once a small State
has been invited to the Congress, its voice carries
as much weight as that of any other State, large
or small. These Congresses are governed, not by
a vote of the majority, but by the liberum veto
of natural law. A meeting which is held, not to
conduct a war but to formulate its results, cannot
reasonably be bound by majority votes; it must
obtain unanimity.

It appears impossible to set up any general
principle governing international behaviour. The
doctrine that you may always intervene in the
affairs of another State is as false as the doctrine
that you may never do so. A State may find itself
driven to regard the party struggles in a neigh-

i8o Treitschke

bouring country as harmful to its own peace.
Were a cosmopolitan party to seize the reins in a
State which bordered with Germany, the issue
might look so threatening to us that we should
have no option but to interfere. To interfere,
however, involves considerable risk. The modern
world has come to believe firmly in the doctrine
of national independence, and intervention will
always arouse resentment, and that not only in
the country which suffers the intervention. Hard
experience has taught this generation to be shy
of mixing in the internal affairs of its neighbours.
But when a State's existence seems to itself to be
in peril, it both may and will intervene.

IN TIME OF WAR.

The acceptance by States of common rules for
mutual relations, even in an age when physical
force tears up treaties, shows that a law governs
their conduct, but a defective and immature law.
A state of war is usually preceded by a hostile
peace. Vain efforts at mutual understanding lead,
in the first instance, to one of the States passing
laws detrimental to the other. That is legal
enough, if it is not fair, and the other State will
straightway retaliate by a similar lack of considera-
tion for its neighbour. If one of the States trespass
on an actual treaty right, the sufferer replies by
equally conscious illegalities. Preludes of these
kinds lead finally to real war. As soon as hostili-

International Law 181

ties have actually begun, all treaties between the
two States come, legally, to an end. A formal
declaration of war is no longer needful in these
days of railways and telegraphs. Mobilizations
of troops and discussions in cabinets and parlia-
ments give clear warning that the State intends to
open hostilities ; the declaration is an empty form.
In the war of 1870, France did not send us any
declaration of war till a week after diplomatic re-
lations had been broken off.

After the outbreak of war, the primary object
seems to be to bring about new international
conditions which shall correspond to the real
strength of the warring States, and which they
must recognize. It is then legitimate to carry on
the war in the most drastic manner; the ultimate
aim — peace — will thus be attained as speedily as
possible. First, therefore, pierce the enemy to the
heart. The very sharpest weapons may be used,
provided that they do not inflict on the wounded
needless torments. Philanthropists may declaim
about burning shells which fall into the powder
magazines of wooden warships; that is all beside
the point. The States themselves must settle
what weapons shall not be used; at the request of
Russia it has been agreed not to use explosive
bullets for rifles. A warring nation is wholly
justified in taking every advantage of every weak-
ness in its opponent. If its enemy is disturbed
by internal revolts and conspiracies, it may make
full use of them; in 1866, it was only the swift

1 82 Treitschke

march of events that prevented us Prussians from
entering into agreements with the Hungarians
against their Austrian masters.

A warring nation may call to its fighting line
the whole of its troops — whether barbarian or
civilized. On this point we must keep an open
mind and avoid prejudice against any particular
nation. There were howls in Germany during the
Franco-Prussian war because the French set the
Turcos to fight a highly civilized European people.
The passions of war readily breed such protests,
but science must take a dispassionate view and
declare that action such as that of the French
was not contrary to international law. A bel-
ligerent State both may and ought to bring into
the field all its physical resources, that is, all its
troops of every kind. For where can a line be
drawn? Which of all its charming subject-races
should Russia, for example, rule out of court? The
entire physical resources of the State can, and
must, be used in war. But they must only be used
when they have been embodied in those chivalrous
forms of organization which have been gradually
established during a long series of wars. The use
of the Turcos by the French put a curious com-
plexion on their claim to march at the head of
civilization. Indeed, many of the complaints
made in this respect arise from the fact that
people demand from a nation more than it is able
to fulfil. We all know that in modern national
warfare every gallant subject is a spy. The expul-

International Law 183

sion of the 80,000 Germans from France at the
beginning of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 was,
therefore, in accordance with international law;
the one point to which we can object in the whole
proceeding is, that the French displayed a certain
brutality in dealing with these Germans.

The degree of humanity to be observed in war-
fare is affected by the doctrine that a war can
only be waged between two States, and not be-
tween individual members of those States. This
doctrine regulates all warfare in theory, though in
practice only that on land. It should be possible
to recognize, by a distinguishing mark, all men
whom the State authorizes to wage war for it, and
who must, therefore, be treated as soldiers. We
are not, as yet, all agreed on this point, and this
failure to agree constitutes a grievous gap in
international law. Humanity in war is entirely
dependent on the question as to whether the
soldier feels that his only opponent is the enemy's
soldier, and that he need not fear an attack behind
a bush from every peasant, with whom he has
had peaceful dealings half an hour earlier. If the
soldier, journeying through a hostile country, does
not know whom to regard as soldier, and whom
to look upon as robber and highwayman, he is
driven to show himself cruel and heartless. No
one can be regarded as a soldier unless he has
taken the military oath, unless he is subject to
military law, and unless he wears some distinctive
token, even if it be not (strictly speaking) a com-

1 84 Treitschke

plete uniform. It is a self-evident fact that bands
of unauthorized volunteers must expect to meet
with harsh and ruthless treatment. It is impera-
tive that we should come to some sort of inter-
national agreement as to the tokens whereby one
may know an armed man to be an actual member
of an authorized army. This point was discussed
at Brussels, in 1874, and there the conflicting
interests of the different parties were thrown into
high relief. Little States, like Switzerland, were
in no way anxious to bind themselves on such a
question.

Each State is, at present, its own judge in the
matter, and must itself determine which of its
enemies it proposes to treat as units of an army*
and which as simple robbers. Regarded from a
moral point of view, a real respect is due to the
action of many franc-tireurs in 1870 and 1871,
whom despair drove to try to save their country.
But in the light of international law, they were
mere highwaymen. In the same way, Napoleon
was right in 1809 to treat Schill and his associates
as robbers. Schill, a Prussian staff officer, him-
self deserted, and induced his men to desert, and
then began to wage war against France. He was
then, according to international law, nothing more
than a robber chief. The King's anger at this
proceeding knew no bounds. What was there
left to hold the State together, if every staff officer
chose to form a little army of his own? But, in
spite of these facts, Napoleon's resolve to adhere to

International Law 185

the letter of the law in this affair was an act of
unparalleled cruelty, and also an act of great
imprudence. Everyone with noble instincts will
side with Schill. Schenkendorf felt this when he
represented Schill as saying :

"My King himself will say to me,

' Rest thou in peace, my faithful Schill. ' "

It would, however, be impossible to maintain that
the enemy's action was any infringement of in-
ternational law.

When it has once been determined who belongs
to the army, and who is entitled to the chivalrous
treatment due to a prisoner of war, private prop-
erty belonging to an enemy may be very generally
spared. But in this matter, also, it must be clearly
understood that we must not, in the name of
humanity, outrage the sense of honour of a nation.
At the Congress held at Brussels, the Prussians
proposed an international agreement that in a
conquered province the civil government should
pass ipso jure into the hands of the military au-
thorities of the victorious army. Such an arrange-
ment would, in many ways, prove beneficial to
material well-being. A general who knows that
he is entitled, by international law, to demand
obedience from foreign authorities, will be able to
keep a more decided check on his troops, and to
behave generally in a more humane manner. But
there are possessions which stand on -a higher

186 Treitschke

level than trade and traffic. This German demand
expressed all the confidence of a people accustomed
to victory. But could we seriously wish that
Prussian State authorities should, by law, be
compelled to obey a Russian general? Exces-
sive humanity can lead to dishonour, and thus
become inhuman. We expect our countrymen to
use all lawful means to defeat the enemy. Think
for a moment of our own past experiences. Every
East-Prussian knows about President Dohna, who
during the Russian occupation carried off the
receipts and taxes to the lawful king, and did his
best to work against the enemy. Shall that be
forbidden in the name of philanthropy? Is not
patriotism, in this case, a higher duty? It
matters little whether a Russian, embittered by
this kind of resistance on the part of good and
honest Prussians, burns a few more villages than
he at first purposed. This is a consideration of
far less importance than that a nation should keep
the shield of its honour bright. The moral posses-
sions of a nation ought not to be destroyed, in the
name of humanity, by international law.

Even when the power of an enemy is purely
military, it is still possible to give the utmost
protection to private property, provided that the
members of the hostile army are easily recognizable.
Requisitions are allowed; it is a general practice
to give promissory notes in exchange. The task
of getting them all paid is, of course, left to the
conquered. War against private property as such,

International Law 187

of which the laying waste of the Palatinate at the
end of the seventeenth century, by Melac, fur-
nishes us with a dreadful example, the wanton
burning of villages, is regarded today by all
civilized States as an infringement of the law of
nations. Private property may only be injured
in so far as such injury is absolutely essential to
the success of the war.

But international law becomes mere claptrap
when these principles are applied to barbarian
nations. A negro tribe must be punished by
having its villages burnt ; nothing will be achieved
without an example of this kind. Any failure on
the part of the German Empire to base its conduct
on these principles, today, could not be said to
proceed from humanity or a fine sense of justice,
but merely from scandalous weakness. T

And even where dealing with civilized nations,
it is right to legalize only those practices which are
the real outcome of the general sense of obligation,
common to all the nations concerned. The State
must not be used as an instrument wherewith to
try experiments in humanitarianism. How drastic
an example of such an error is furnished by the
Franco-Prussian War! We declared, in a burst of
false humanity, that we would respect the private
property of the French at sea. The idea was both
noble and humane. We failed, however, to observe
that among the other States there is one — I mean
England — which is fundamentally averse to being

1 Lecture delivered during the winter of 1891-2.

1 88 Treitschke

schooled by noble thoughts; we also failed to
realize that France would not pay us back in our
own coin. This one-sided German humanitarian-
ism simply released France from the necessity of
using her navy to protect her merchant ships
against German men-of-war. Her whole fleet was
thus set free for the immediate purposes of war.
The marine infantry and the really excellent
marine artillery were landed, and during the
winter we very frequently found ourselves right-
ing with these marines. It will thus be seen that
the undertaking entered upon by us merely re-
leased troops to be used against ourselves. Every
advance in humanitarianism, as expressed in inter-
national law should, therefore, be based on the
principle of reciprocity.

But there are many items about which we are
in doubt whether they are the property of the
State or of private persons. The property of the
State is, obviously and naturally, the lawful booty
of the victor. This is primarily true of all kinds
of military supplies, in the widest sense of the
word, and of such things as State railways. But
to which class must we relegate the rolling stock
of the private railway companies, to which the
State has granted an actual monopoly? The
enemy may, of course, use the railway plant be-
longing to these companies during the war; but
may he keep the carriages and trucks? Our de-
cision to do so during the last war was a perfectly
just one, in view of the nature of the French rail-

International Law 189

ways. They were, in actual fact, the property of
the State, and we kept the carriages which we
took, and sold them back to France when terms
of peace were arranged. The question is an even
more difficult one when it relates to banks. There
are certain banks, among them the Bank of Ger-
many, in which a body of bankers outside the
country have a material interest. Such a practice
is very useful from a commercial point of view;
the bank is thus kept in touch with the great
business houses, and in a position to take its part
in the commercial activities of the moment. It
would be, however, a pure illusion to suppose that
the Bank of Germany would thereby be saved
from confiscation by a conqueror. An enemy
would certainly look upon it as a State bank, and
the fact that a few private persons had an interest
in it would in no way affect his decision.

It has also become a principle of international
law that the great treasures of civilization, which
serve the purposes of Art and Science, and are
looked upon as the property of humanity as a
whole, shall be secured against theft and pillage.
In earlier times this principle was trampled under
foot.

Individual members of the standing armies, and
all persons authorized to take part in national
defence, have a right to demand honourable treat-
ment as prisoners of war, and all attempts to force
prisoners into the enemy's army are contrary to
international law. It is, however, doubtful

190 Treitschke

whether this principle obtained during the last
century. In matters such as these, everything
depends on the sense of right and wrong which
animates the age. At the beginning of the last
century, the mercenary idea was still so grossly
prevalent that a French regiment, consisting of
course of Germans, was taken over by the Saxons
at Hochstadt, only to be lost by them at a later
date, when it went over to the Swedes. At Stral-
sund, it went over to the Prussians, with whom it
finally remained, under the name of "Jung An-
halt. " But when Frederick the Great forced the
captured Saxons into the Prussian army, at Piena,
it became evident that a practice which had once
been followed as a matter of course, had now be-
come impossible. On that occasion, the Saxons
deserted from the Prussian army in hordes.
Nowadays, an attempt of this kind would be not
only a palpable infringement of international law,
but also an unparalleled piece of stupidity.

It goes without saying that every State has not
only the right to wage war, but also to declare
itself neutral in the wars of others as far as material
conditions permit. If a State is not in a condition
to maintain its neutrality, all talk about the same
is mere claptrap. Neutrality needs as much de-
fending as the partisanship of belligerent States.
It is the duty of a neutral State to disarm every
soldier who crosses its borders. If it is unable
to do so, the circumstances justify the belliger-
ent States in ceasing to observe its neutrality,

f International Law 191

even if it has allowed an armed enemy to enter
but one village.

It is to be regretted that a sharp distinction is
still drawn in military law between its workings on
land and its workings at sea. All who have eyes to
see must here be struck by the disastrous influence
of English naval power on universal culture and
justice. We have not as yet obtained a "balance
of power" at sea, and Schiller's melancholy dictum,
therefore, still holds good :

"Among the waves is chaos
And nothing can be held upon the sea. "

Such a state of things is deeply humiliating to our
pride as a civilized nation. England is alone to
blame, for England is so immensely pre-eminent at
sea that she can do whatever she likes. All who
desire to be humane, all who thirst to realize in
some degree the ideals of international law on the
high seas, must work for a balance of power in this
direction also. One is constantly surprised by the
infatuation of public opinion at the present day.
Countries marching on the wrong road are always
glorified, and the sentimentality of Belgian ex-
ponents of international law, and England's
barbarous views regarding maritime law, are
perpetually admired. All the other Powers would
be prepared and allow free circulation, under
certain conditions, to merchant ships in time of
war; England, alone, maintains the principle that

192 Treitschke

no distinction is to be made at sea between the
property of the State and that of private persons.
And as long as this one Power insists on carrying
out this principle, all other nations must travel on
the same barbarous road. It is true that the con-
ditions prevalent on land can never prevail in
quite the same way at sea, because there are many
articles of commerce which are used in warfare.
The immunity of private property at sea in time
of war can, therefore, never be quite as great as
that assured to private property on land ; but this
is no reason why naval warfare should for ever
continue to be piracy, or why the belligerent
Powers should be entitled to snatch indiscrimi-
nately the property of each other's merchants.

Maritime law has hitherto only progressed
through the efforts of the navies of second-class
Powers. One is confronted at every moment with
the dictum that the Powers are driven to adopt
humaner methods by their desire to serve their
own purposes. Herein, also, lies the explanation of
the efforts made by the second-class navies to
obtain a humaner maritime law. It is not that
the English are worse people than we are, and if
we were in their position we might, perhaps, imi-
tate their conduct. As early as 1780 the navies
of the second rank united themselves in an alliance
for armed neutrality, and laid down the principle,
firstly, that the flag must protect the merchandise
over which it floats, and that articles of commerce
having no definite connection with war shall be

International Law 193

allowed free passage on a neutral ship; and, second-
ly, that every blockade must be an actual one, and
that no Power has the right to declare an entire
line of coast blockaded unless the approaches to
it are actually closed by the presence of hostile
men-of-war.

Attempts were subsequently made in innumer-
able treaties to express these principles in law.
To-day, England has at last agreed to allow that
the flag covers the merchandise. This concession
is the outcome of the development of North
American naval power. If the question had been
one for Germany to decide, she would long ago
have procured some international agreement on
the immunity of private property at sea. Theory,
alone is, however, powerless in questions of inter-
national law, if the actual power of the States
concerned does not in some measure correspond
with it.

To conclude then, the conviction grows upon us
that it can never be the task of political science to
build up for itself phantastic structure in the air;
for only that is truly human which has its roots
in the historical facts of actual life. The destinies
of nations are worked out by means of a series of
repulsions and attractions, and they follow the
law of a principle of development whose ultimate
end is veiled from mortal eyes. Its very trend is
hidden from us except at rare moments. We must
seek to understand the ways in which divine in-
telligence has gradually revealed itself in the midst
13

194 Treitschke

of all the conflicting movements of life; we must
not seek to dominate history. The noblest quality
of the practical statesman is his ability to point
to the signs of the times, and to realize in some
measure how universal history may develop at a
given moment. Further, nothing becomes a poli-
tician better than modesty. The circumstances
with which he is called upon to deal, are so various
and so complicated, that he must guard against
being carried away on dark and uncertain ways.
He must resign himself to desiring only the really
attainable, and to keeping his aim perpetually and
steadfastly in view. I shall be content if you have
learned during the course of these lectures how
manifold are the component parts which go to
make up a historical fact, and how it becomes us,
therefore, to be most deliberate in giving a verdict
in political matters. I shall, indeed, be satisfied
if these lectures have taught you to cultivate that
modesty which is the essential outcome of true
learning.

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT GERMAN
COLONIZATION.

THE strange confusion of ideas which we owe to
our fluctuating and antiquated party-doings
is nowhere so glaringly obvious as in the widely
spread opinion that the younger generation today
is more conservatively inclined than the older.
Some are glad of this, while others lament it and
attribute it to the seductive arts of reactionary
teachers; but hardly anyone disputes it as a fact.
And yet it is absolutely absurd to think so, for
ever since the beginning of the world the young
have always been more free-thinking than the old,
because they possess the happy privilege of living
more in the future than the present, and nothing
justifies the assumption that this natural law has
ceased to hold good nowadays. For though the
new generation may turn away with indifference
from the catch-words of the older liberalism, this
only shows that a new age with new ideals is
dawning. In these young men, whose childhood
was illuminated by the sun of Sedan, national pride
is not a feeling attained to, as in their fathers'
case, by hard struggles, but it is a strong spontane-
ous passion. They sing their " Germany, Germany
above all!" with a joyful confidence, such as only

195

196 Treitschke

isolated strong characters of the older generation
could cherish. They regard the struggle for par-
liamentary rights, which to their elders was often
an aim in itself, at most as a means to an end.
The object of their ambition is that the young
giant who has just shaken the sleep from his eye-
lids should now use his strong arms to advance the
civilization of mankind and to make the German
name both formidable and precious to the world.
Therefore our German youth were thrilled as by
an electric shock when, in August, 1884, the news
came that our flag waved upon the coast of Angra
Pequena and the Cameroons, and that Germany
had taken the first modest but decided step in the
path of independent colonization.

To the ancient political system of Europe, which
was a result of the weakness of its central States,
a new combination of States has succeeded,
founded on the strength of Central Europe. By
means of a pacific policy on a large scale, our Gov-
ernment has obliged the other continental Powers
to adapt themselves to the new order of things,
while our legislation at the same time labours to
quell the social unrest which threatens the founda-
tions of all civilization. Thus before our eyes is
being fulfilled the prophecy of the Crown Prince
Frederick, that his country would be one day so
strong as to guard peace by righteous dealing, not
by inspiring fear; and it is only one more necessary
step in the path of this pacific policy if Germany
at last sets herself to take her proper share in the

German Colonization 197

great work of expansive civilization. Like so
many other happy forecasts of the sixteenth
century which have been first fulfilled in our days,
the proud expression "il mondo e poco," which in
the days of Columbus sounded like an empty
boast, is now being verified. Now that we can
sail round the world in eleven weeks, it is really
small, and its political future is discernible to the
foreseeing eye.

With full confidence we may say to-day that the
democracies of the European nations and their
descendants will one day govern the whole world.
China and Japan may possibly still for centuries
preserve their old peculiar forms of civilization,
together with a strong blending of European cul-
ture ; in India — though this is by no means certain
— an independent Indian nationality may be
evolved from the intermingling of countless races
and religions; finally — which is still more im-
probable— the old bellicose Islam, when it has
been driven out of Europe, may form a new power-
ful State in Asia Minor; but with the exception of
these countries, in the whole world no other nation
is to be found that can in the long run withstand
the immense superiority of European arms and
commerce. The barrier is broken, and the stream
of European colonization must pour unceasingly
over all the world, far and near, and those who
live in the twentieth century will be able for the
first time in all seriousness to speak of a "world-
history." We must at the same time remember

198 Treitschke

that, " trees are not allowed to grow into the sky."1
Nowhere in nature is mere largeness a decisive
factor. Just as our little earth, so far as we can
guess, is the noblest body in the solar system, so
this ancient multiform Europe, on however great
a scale international intercourse may take place,
and in any conceivable future, will always remain
the heart of the world, the home of all creative
culture, and therefore the place where all the
important questions of political power will be
decided. All colonies are like engrafted shoots;
they lack the youthful vigour which results from
natural growth from a root. There is indeed a
wonderful growth of commercial prosperity when
the rich capital and skilled energy of a civilized
nation come in contact with the untouched re-
sources of a new country; but quiet mental com-
posure, the source of all enduring works of art and
science, does not find a favourable atmosphere in
the restless hurry of colonial life. How much
more richly furnished by nature were the Greek
colonies in South Italy and Sicily than their little
motherland. There lay luxurious Sybaris; there
Syracuse, the metropolis of the Hellenic world;
there Akragas, "fairest city of mortals" as Pindar
calls it, surpassing Athens herself in splendour and
renown. And yet how small appears the share of
this richly favoured land in everything which
lends value and significance to the history of
Greece.

1 German proverb.

German Colonization 199

Similarly the history of North America, the
greatest of all modern colonies, only confirms
former experience. The economic energy of this
growing nation has already performed miracles
upon miracles ; her giant railways, which cast into
the shade all similar works in the old world,
stretch from sea to sea. Still in spite of all auguries
the star of the world's history shows hitherto no
tendency to move westwards. That wealth of
intellectual life which Washington once hoped for
his country, has failed to appear, and many who
weary of Europe, went to America, have come
back, weary of America, because they could not
breathe the exhausted air of the land of the Al-
mighty Dollar.

How often have the newspapers of both hemi-
spheres referred to the future New Zealander, who,
according to Macaulay's famous prophecy, is one
day to look from the broken pillars of London
Bridge on the immeasurable ruins of London ! But
anyone, who soberly tests this majestic vision, will
arrive at the comforting conclusion that the said
New Zealander is hardly likely ever to be in the
position to undertake his archaeological journey to
those ruins. Christian nations cannot perish, and
the earth no longer harbours such countless swarms
of youthful barbarians, such as once destroyed the
Roman .Empire. There is a great probability that
the nations of Europe, when the habitable globe
has been covered with their colonies, will not sink
from their height, but attain new vigour by the

2OO Treitschke

emigration of their superfluous populations, and
the fulfilment of their new tasks of civilization.
When the first Spanish explorers landed in America
they bathed eagerly in every spring, because they
hoped there, in the West, to find the legendary
Fountain of Youth. The time seems approaching
when that longing of the early discoverers will find
its fulfilment, and the New World will prove a
"Fountain of Youth" for Europeans in a deeper
sense than they once thought. Through the
colonization of the distant regions of the earth,
the history of Europe also acquires a newer, richer
significance, and Germany, with full right, demands
that she should not be left behind in this great
rivalry of nations. She feels not only mortified
in her political ambition when she considers her
position in the transatlantic world; but she feels
also a kind of moral shamefacedness when obliged
to confess that we Germans have only contributed
a very little to the great cosmopolitan works of
modern international intercourse. The founding
of the International Postal Union and the part we
took in the building of the St. Gothard Railway —
these are almost our only services in this sphere,
and how they shrink into insignificance when
compared with the achievements of English colo-
nial policy, or even with the works of the French-
man, Ferdinand Lesseps.

This feeling of shame is all the more oppressive
because we can assert that Germany yields to no
nation in its capacity for founding colonies. In

German Colonization 201

the countries on the right of the Elbe, our nation
once carried out the greatest and most fruitful
schemes of colonization which Europe has seen
since the days of the Roman Empire; for here it
succeeded in obliterating the usual distinction
between colony and motherland so completely,
that these colonized lands formed the nucleus of
our new system of States, and since Luther's time
were able to take part in the intellectual progress of
the nation, as equal allies of the older stock. For
more than two hundred years, Germany, solely
by the power of its free citizens, held supremacy
over the northern seas. By means of her commer-
cial colonies, the slumbering capacities of Scan-
dinavia for intercourse with other nations were
awakened, and certainly it was not due to our
fathers' fault, but to an unavoidable tragic fate,
that the glory of the Hanseatic League perished.
This was at the same time that the Italians, our
old companions in misfortune, lost command of the
sea in the south. For to every age and every
nation a limit of power is assigned. It was im-
possible that the two nations which through the
Renaissance and the Reformation had opened up
the way for modern civilization, should, at the
very time, when the discovery of the New World
had ruined all the usual routes of commerce, be
able to rival the Spaniards and Portuguese in their
foreign conquests.

It was not till later that the Germans incurred
the guilt of a grievous sin of omission, in the long,

2O2 Treitschke

dreary time of peace which followed the Schmal-
kaldic War. Then it was that the German Pro-
testants had a safe prospect of recovering the last
command of the sea, if they had united with their
kindred co-religionsists in the Netherlands. But
at this most discreditable period of our modern
history, the two national faults, which still now so
often hamper our economic energy, doctrinaire
idealism and easy-going self-indulgence, were
strongly flourishing. The nation degenerated
through theological controversies and the coarse
sensuality of a sluggish peace. She left it to the
Dutch to break the naval power of the Spaniards,
and afterwards to the English to subdue the Dutch
conquerors. Everyone knows how terribly the sins
of those years of peace were punished by the
dire ruin of our ancient civilization. During the
two centuries of struggle which followed, when we
had painfully to recover the rule in our own
country, every attempt at German colonization
was naturally impossible. The ingenious African
schemes of the Great Elector were far in advance
of their time; they were doomed to failure; a
feudal agricultural country without a sea-board
could not possibly maintain control over a remote
colonial possession for any length of time.

But even during this long period of inland
quietude, our nation has shown that she is, accord-
ing to her capacity and position in the world, the
most cosmopolitan of all peoples; she lost neither
the old impulse to seek the distant, nor the power

German Colonization 203

to assert herself valiantly among foreign nations.
On all the battle-fields of the world German blood
flowed in streams; most of the crowns of Europe
fell into the hands of German royal houses; and
it was really through the power of Germany that
Russia was enrolled among the nations of Europe.
It is true that this vast expenditure of overflowing
national forces only ratified anew the lament of
Goethe that the Germans were respectable as in-
dividuals, but despicable as a whole. Again and
again the voice of Fate called to us "sic vos non
vobis. " And when in recent times the peoples of
the Anglo-Saxon stock began to divide the trans-
atlantic world between them, the Germans were
again their unwearied associates. German traders
rivalled the leading firms of the world from Singa-
pore to Philadelphia. Millions of Germans helped
the North Americans to conquer their part of the
world for civilization.

But the Germans at home, had, so long as the
Federal Diet ruled over them, too heavy domestic
cares to think seriously about the lot of their
emigrants. They made a virtue of necessity, and
in their philosophic way evolved the doctrine that
it was the historic destiny of the German spirit to
blend far out there in the West with the genius of
other nations. It is true that the Americans found
a less obscure description for this mysterious
"blending," though they now vainly seek to dis-
avow it; they said, "The Germans form an ex-
cellent fertilizer for our people!" When, just

204 Treitschke

twenty years ago — though I had then no anticipa-
tion of the near fulfilment of German destinies, I
ventured, in my treatise, Federal State and Uni-
fied State, to make the heretical remark that
only those States which possessed naval power
and ruled territories across the sea could rank in
future as great Powers, I was severely taken to
task by various critics. With the immeasurable
superiority, which, as is well-known, the judge
possesses over the culprit, they told me that these
were old-fashioned ideas, and that since the times
of the American War of Independence and the
founding of the Spanish colonies, the period of
colonization has come to an end. Such was the
general opinion in Germany in the days of the
Federal Diet. Meanwhile, England, not troubling
herself about the wisdom of our philosophical
historians, continued to extend her colonial empire
over half the world.

Since then, how strangely public sentiment has
changed! We now look out into the world with
other claims than formerly. Especially is this the
case with those Germans who live abroad, who
have a far livelier appreciation of the blessings of
the new empire than we at home. The uneasy
ferment of the last five years, although accom-
panied by the disintegration of ancient parties and
an abundance of wild animosity and ungrateful
fault-finding, has also given rise to some wholesome
self-criticism ; we have had our attention drawn to
our weaknesses, and begin to perceive in how many

German Colonization 205

respects we come short of worthily occupying the
position of a great nation. During these last
years, without any pressure from authority, there
has risen from the people themselves a spontaneous
demand for German colonies with as much em-
phasis and confidence in the future as formerly
accompanied the demand for a German fleet.
Since F. Fabri first discussed -the subject, a whole
literature on the colonial question has come into
existence. In the course of these discussions, the
Germans discovered, with joyful surprise, that,
outside official circles, we possessed a considerable
number of practical political writers, which can
console us for the increasing dreariness and im-
poverishment of our parliamentary life. By the
persistent endeavours of our brave travellers,
missionaries, and merchants, the first attempt at
German colonization has had the way prepared for
it, and been rendered possible. Germany's modest
gains on the African coast only aroused attention
in the world at large, because everyone knew that
they were not due, as in the case of the colonizing
experiments of the Electorate of Brandenburg, to
the bold idea of a great mind, but because a whole
nation greeted them with a joyful cry, "At last!
At last!"

For a nation that suffers from continual over-
production, and sends yearly 200,000 of her chil-
dren abroad, the question of colonization is vital.
During the first years which followed the restora-
tion of the German Empire, well-meaning people

206 Treitschke

began to hope that the constant draining away
of German forces into foreign countries would
gradually cease, together with the political persecu-
tions, the discontent, and the petty domestic
coercive laws of the good old times. This hope
was disappointed, and was doomed to be so, for
those political grievances were not the only, nor
even the most important causes of German emigra-
tion. In the short time since the establishment of
the empire, the population has increased by a full
eighth, and this rapid growth, in spite of all the
misery which it involves, is nevertheless the
characteristic of a healthy national life, which, in
its careless consciousness of power, does not trouble
itself with the warnings of the "two-child system."
It is true that Germany is as yet by no means
over-populated, least of all in those north-eastern
districts from which the stream of emigration
flows most strongly. Many of our emigrants, if
they exercised here the same untiring diligence
which inexorable necessity enforces on them in
America, could also prosper in their old fatherland.
But there are periods of domiciliation, and again
periods in which the impulse to wander works like
a dark, elementary power on the national spirit.
Just as the song "Eastwards! Eastwards! "once
rang seductively through the villages of Flanders, so
countless numbers dream now of the land of
marvels across the sea. And just as little as pru-
dential counsel could restrain the crusaders from
their sacred enterprise, so little can considerations

German Colonization 207

of reason prevail against the vague longing for the
West. It is also easy to calculate that our popula-
tion, provided its growth continues as before, must,
in no distant future, rise to a hundred millions and
more; then their fatherland would be too narrow
for the Germans, even if Prussia resumed the
colonization of its eastern borderlands in the old
Frederician style, and found room in the estates
there for thousands of peasants and long-lease
tenants. According to all appearance, German
emigration will still for a long while remain an
unavoidable necessity, and it becomes a new duty
for the motherland to take care that her wandering
children remain true to their nationality, and open
new channels for her commerce. This is in the
first place more important than our political con-
trol of the lands we colonize. A State, whose
frontiers march with those of three great Powers,
and whose seaboard lies open towards a fourth,
will generally only be able to carry on great na-
tional wars and must keep its chief military forces
carefully collected in Europe. The protection of a
remote, easily threatened colonial empire would
involve it in embarrassments and not strengthen
it.

And just now, after our good nature has striven
all too long not to be forced into the humiliating
confession, we are at last obliged to admit that
the German emigrants in North America are
completely lost to our State, and our nationality.
Set in the midst of a certainly less intellectual but

208 Treitschke

commercially more energetic people, the nation-
ality of the German minority must inevitably be
suppressed by that of the majority, just as formerly
the French refugees were absorbed in Germany.
And as the expulsion of the Huguenots was for
France a huge misfortune, the effects of which are
still operative, so the German emigration to North
America is an absolute loss for our nation — a
present given to a foreign country without any
equivalent compensation.

Moreover, for the general cause of civilization,
the Anglicizing of the German-Americans is a
heavy loss. Even the Frenchman, Leroy-Beaulieu,
confesses this with praiseworthy impartiality,
among Germans, there can be no question at all
but that human civilization suffers loss every
time that a German is turned into a Yankee.
All the touching proofs of faithful recollection
which the motherland has received from the
German- Americans since the year 1870, does not
alter the fact that all German emigrants, at latest
in the third generation, become Americans. Al-
though in certain districts of Pennsylvania, a
corrupt German dialect may survive side by side
with English, although some cultured families
may now, when German national consciousness is
everywhere stronger, perhaps be able to postpone
being completely Anglicized till the fourth genera-
tion, yet the political views of the emigrants are
inevitably coloured by the ideas prevalent in their
new home; in commerce, they even become our

German Colonization 209

enemies, and, voluntarily or involuntarily, help
to injure German agriculture by a depressing
rivalry. The overpowering force of their new cir-
cumstances compels them to divest themselves of
their nationality, until perhaps at last nothing is
left them but a platonic regard for German litera-
ture.

Therefore it is quite justifiable on the ground of
national self-preservation that the new German
Colonial Union should seek for ways and means to
divert the stream of German emigrants into lands
where they run no danger of losing their nation-
ality. Such a territory has been already found in
the south of Brazil. There, unassisted and some-
times not even suspected by the motherland, German
nationality remains quite intact for three genera-
tions, and our rapidly increasing export trade with
Porto Allegre shows that the commerce of the old
home profits greatly by the loyalty of her emigrant
children. Other such territories will also be dis-
covered if our nation enters with prudence and
boldness on the new era now opening to the colo-
nizing energy of Europeans.

With the crossing of Africa begins the last epoch
of great discoveries. When once the centre of the
Dark Continent lies open, the whole globe, with
the exception of a few regions which will be always
inaccessible to civilization, is also opened before
European eyes. The common interest of all
nations — with the exception of England — demands
that these new acquisitions of modern times should
14

2io Treitschke

be dealt with in a more liberal, just, and humane
way than the former ones which only profited the
nations of the Iberian peninsula, in order finally
to ruin them. The summoning of the Congo con-
ference and our understanding with France show
that our Government knows how to estimate
properly the importance of this crisis. As a sea-
power of the second rank, Germany is in colonial
politics the natural representative of a humane
law of nations, and since England, now fully
occupied with Egyptian affairs, will hardly oppose
the united will of all the other Powers, there is
ground for hope that the conference will have a
happy issue and open the interior of Africa to the
free rivalry of all nations. Then it will be our
turn to show what we can do; in those remote
regions the power of the State can only follow the
free action of the nation and not precede it. In
this new world it must be seen whether the trivial
pedantry of an unfortunate past, after just now
celebrating its orgies in the struggle of the Hansa
towns against the national Customs Union, has at
last been overcome for ever, and whether the
German trader has enough self-confidence to
venture on rivalry with the predominant financial
strength of England.

The future will show whether the founding of
German agricultural colonies is possible in the
interior of Africa ; there will certainly be an oppor-
tunity for founding mercantile colonies which will
yield a rich return. After destiny has treated us

German Colonization 211

badly for so many centuries, we may well count for
once on the favour of fortune. In South Africa
also circumstances are decidedly favourable for us.
English colonial policy, which has been successful
everywhere else, has not been fortunate at the
Cape. The civilization which flourishes there is
Teutonic and Dutch. The attitude of England
wavering between weakness and violence, has
evoked among the brave Dutch Boers a deadly
ineradicable hatred. Moreover since the Dutch
have in the Indo-Chinese islands abundant scope
for their colonizing energy, it would only be a
natural turn of events, if their German kindred
should hereafter in some form or other, undertake
the protectorate of the Teutonic population of
South Africa, and succeed as heirs of the English
in a neglected colony which since the opening of the
Suez Canal has little more value for England.

If our nation dares decidedly to follow the new
path of an independent colonial policy, it will
inevitably become involved in a conflict of inter-
ests with England. It lies in the nature of things
that the new great Power of central Europe must
come to an understanding with all the other great
Powers. We have already made our reckoning
with Austria, with France, and with Russia; our
last reckoning, that with England, will probably
be the most tedious and the most difficult; for
here we are confronted by a line of policy which
for centuries, almost unhindered by the other
Powers, aims directly at maritime supremacy.

212 Treitschke

How long has Germany in all seriousness believed
this insular race, which among all the nations of
Europe is undoubtedly imbued with the most
marked national selfishness, whose greatness con-
sists precisely in its hard inaccessible one-sided-
ness, to be the magnanimous protector of the
freedom of all nations! Now at last our eyes
begin to be opened, and we recognize, what clear-
headed political thinkers have never doubted,
that England's State policy, since the days of
William III., has never been anything else than a
remarkably shrewd and remarkably conscienceless
commercial policy. The extraordinary successes
of this State-policy have been purchased at a high
price, consisting in the first place of a number of
sins and enormities. The history of the English
East India Company is the most defiled page in
the annals of the modern European nations, for
the shocking vampirism of this merchant-rule
sprang solely from greed; it cannot be excused,
as perhaps the acts of Philip II. or Robespierre
may be, by the fanaticism of a political conviction.
A still more serious factor in the situation is, that
owing to her transatlantic successes England has
lost her position as a European Great Power; in
negotiations on the continent her voice counts no
longer, and all the great changes which have
recently occurred in Central Europe took place
without England's participation, though for the
most part accompanied by impotent cries of rage
from the London press. The worst consequence,

German Colonization 213

however, of British commercial policy is the im-
mense and well-justified hatred which all nations
have gradually been conceiving towards England.
From the point of view of international law Eng-
land is to day the place where barbarism reigns;
it is England's fault alone that naval war is to day
only an organized piracy, and a humane maritime
international law cannot be established in the
world till a balance of power exists at sea as it
long has on land, and no State can dare any longer
to permit itself everything. English politicians
were never at a loss for philanthropic phrases
with which to cloak their commercial calculations ;
at one time they alleged the necessity of maintain-
ing the balance of power in Europe, at another the
abolition of slavery, at another constitutional
freedom; and yet their national policy, like every
policy which aims at the unreasonable goal of
world supremacy always reckoned, as its founda-
tion principle, on the misfortunes of all other
nations.

England's commercial supremacy had its origin
in the discords on the continent, and owing to her
brilliant successes, which were often gained without
a struggle, there has grown up in the English
people a spirit of arrogance, for which "Chau-
vinism" is too mild an expression. Sir Charles
Dilke, the well-known Radical member of Mr.
Gladstone's Cabinet, in his book, Greater Britain,
which is often mentioned, but, alas, too little read
here, claims as necessary acquisitions for "Greater

214 Treitschke

Britain," China, Japan, Chili, Peru, the La Plata
States, the tablelands of Africa — in short, the
whole world. In spite of the outrageous ill-usage
of Ireland, and the bestial coarseness of the London
mob, he calls Great Britain the land which from
the earliest time exhibits the greatest amount of
culture and insight, together with the least inter-
mixture of ignorance and crime. He looks con-
fidently forward to the time when Russia and
France will only be pigmies by the side of England.
In only three passages does he deign to make a
cursory mention of the Germans. One of them
is when he asks indignantly whether we really wish
to be so selfish as to decline to support with Ger-
man money the Euphrates Railway which is
indispensable to Greater Britain? Thus, then,
the manifold glories of the world's history, which
commenced with the empire of the monosyllabic
Chinese, are to conclude their melancholy cycle
with the empire of the monosyllabic British!

In opposition to such claims — and the impetuous
politician only gives incautious utterance to what
all England thinks — all the nations of Europe are
united together by a common interest. Since the
growing industries of the Continent have out-
grown the possibility of being exploited by Eng-
land, and the mutual understanding of the three
Emperors has ensured peace on the Continent,
and even France has begun to accustom herself
to the new and more sustainable balance of power,
the foundations of English maritime supremacy

German Colonization 215

have begun to be shaken. It is neither necessary
nor probable that the further development of these
tendencies should lead to a European war ; Holland,
for example, lost her commercial supremacy not
through war, but through the tender embraces
of her English ally. The Power which is strongest
on land cannot cherish the wish to attain maritime
supremacy also. German policy is national and
cosmopolitan at the same time; it counts, other-
wise than British policy does, on the peaceful
prosperity of her neighbours. We can rejoice
without reserve at each advance of the Russians
in Central Asia, and each French success in Ton-
king. Our ambition only reaches thus far, that in
the still uncolonized quarters of the earth, wind
and sun should be fairly divided between the
civilized nations. If the Congo Conference
succeeds in checking the high-handed arbitrariness
of England in Central Africa, the first united
repulse of English encroachments will not be the
last, since, outside Europe, there is no need for
the interests of the continental Powers to collide.
The great German seaport towns, at present im-
bued with a half-mutinous spirit toward the
Government, have the prospect of a new period
of revival; it is from the Hansa towns that the
bold pioneers of our nation in Africa come. What
Schiller at the commencement of the nineteenth
century wrote about the greedy polyp-like arms
of England is not out of date to day ; but we hope
that when the twentieth century dawns the trans-

216 Treitschke

atlantic world will have already learned that the
Germans to day no longer, as in Schiller's day,
escape from the stress of life into the still and holy
places of the heart.

TWO EMPERORS.

1 5th June, 1888.

FOR the second time within a hundred days the
nation stands at the bier of its Emperor.
After the most fortunate of all her rulers, she la-
ments the most unfortunate. It seems as if in the
course of the history of our Emperors, not only im-
perial splendour was to have a new birth but the
tremendous tragic vicissitudes of fate were also
to be renewed. It was in very truth under the
guidance of God as he so often said in simple
humanity, that the Emperor William I reached
the pinnacle of universal fame, against all human
calculation and reckoning, and far beyond his
own hope. In his steady ascent, however, he
proved fully competent to each new and greater
task, till, arrived at the last limit of life, he ended
his days in a halo of glory. In death also he was
the effective uniter of the Germans, who, to the
accompaniment of the cannon-thunder of his
battles, had, for the first time after centuries,
known the happiness of joy at complete victories,
and now gathered round his funeral vault in the
unanimity of hallowed grief. During the years
when the character of a growing man usually

217

218 Treitschke

takes its decisive bent, Prince Wilhelm could only
cherish the ambition, some day as his father's or
brother's Commander-in-Chief, to lead the armies
of Prussia to new victories. Himself almost the
youngest among the champions of the War of
Liberation, he shared with Gneisenau, with Clause-
witz, and all the political thinkers of the Prussian
Army the conviction that Germany's new western
frontier was as untenable as its loose confederation
of States, and that only a third Punic War could
finally decide the old struggle for power between
Gauls and Germans, and secure the independence
of the German State. All through the quiet
period of peace he held fast' by this hope. As
early as the year 1840 he copied out in his own
handwriting Becker's song, "Our Rhine, free
German river, they ne'er shall take away," and
finished the last words, "Till the last brave Ger-
man warrior beneath its stream is laid," with that
bold flourish of the pen which afterwards in the
Emperor's signature became familiar to the whole
world. Hatred to the French was entirely absent
from his generous disposition, but more sagacious
than all the Prussian statesmen with the possible
exception of Motz, he early grasped the European
situation as it regarded Prussia and recognized
that the latter must grow in order to escape the
intolerable pressure of so many superior military
Powers. Thoroughly imbued with such thoughts,
and being every inch a soldier, he became in a few
years the favourite and the ideal of the Army,

Two Emperors 219

beloved for his friendly courtesy, and feared for
an official severity, which showed even the lowest
camp-follower that a careful and judicial eye was
watching him. He looked upon his people in arms
and their awakened intelligence with the undi-
minished enthusiasm of the War of Liberation,
but also with the more sober resolve to develop
singly the ideas of Scharnhorst and adapt them
to the changed times, so that this Army might
always remain the foremost. Outside, in the
smaller States, what was here undertaken in deep
political seriousness, was regarded as idle parade
display. The leaders of public opinion indulged
in radical dreams, expressed enthusiastic admira-
tion for Poles and Frenchmen and hoped for per-
petual peace. In the conceit of their superfine
culture they could not comprehend what the
Prince's simple martial thoroughness and devo-
tion to duty signified for the future of the Father-
land.

It was not till the reign of his brother, when the
"Prince of Prussia" had already to reckon with
the possibility of his own accession, that he engaged
in affairs of State. Like his father, he wished to
preserve the foundations of the ancient monar-
chical constitution unaltered. "Prussia shall not
cease to be Prussia." Word for word he foretold
to his brother1 what he was hereafter destined to
experience when the controversy regarding the re-
organization of the Army arose. The Diet, he said,

1 Frederick William IV.

22O Treitschke

would misuse its right to control taxes in order to
weaken the power of the Army by shortening the
period of military service, and could, under the
plea of economy, easily deceive even the loyal.
His warning was disregarded, and, just as he had
once for the sake of the State sacrificed his youth-
ful love, so now he ceased to protest, as soon as the
King had made his decision on the subject. He
chivalrously stepped into the breach in the United
Diet, in order to divert towards himself all the
grudges which had collected against the throne
during that time of ferment.

Then came the storms of the Revolution period.
A mad hatred and huge misunderstanding were
discharged upon his head; only the Army which
knew him understood him. Round the bivouac
fires of the Prussian Guard in Schleswig-Holstein
they sang

"Prince of Prussia, bold and true,
Come back to thy troops anew,
Much beloved General!"

And when he returned from the exile which he had
undergone for his brother's sake, he accepted in
obedience to the King the new constitutional
regime. He gladly acknowledged what was right
and vital in the measure, of the Frankfort Parlia-
ment; but he would not sacrifice the privileges
of the German Princes and the strict monarchical
constitution of the Army to doctrinaire attempts
at innovation. The movement which had no

Two Emperors 221

leaders ended in a terrible disappointment. The
Prince found himself compelled to put down the
disturbance in Baden. During the long years of
exhaustion which followed he had plenty of time
to reflect on the causes of the failure, and to ponder
his brother's remark that an Imperial Crown could
be won only on the battle-field.

Then the illness of King Frederick William IV
set him at the head of the State. After a year of
patient waiting, he assumed the regency in virtue
of his own right, firmly tearing asunder the finely-
spun webs of conspiracy, and two years after-
wards, he succeeded to the throne. But once
again after some short days of jubilation and
vague expectancy he had again to experience the
fickleness of popular favour, and commence the
struggle which he had foreseen when heir to
the throne — the struggle which concerned his own
peculiar task — the reconstitution of the Army.
Party hatred increased to an incredible degree,
such as was only possible in the nation which had
waged the Thirty Years' War. Matters came to
such a pitch that the German comic papers cari-
catured the honest, manly soldier's face, which
still reflected the smile of Queen Louisa, under
the likeness of a tiger. The struggle about the
constitution of the Army became so hopelessly
complicated, that only the decisive force of mili-
tary successes could cut the tangled knot, and
establish the King's right.

And these successes came in those seven great

222 Treitschke

years when all at once the results of two hundred
years of Prussian history were summed up, when
one after the other, all the problems at which the
Hohenzollern statesmen had laboured through so
many generations, were solved. The last of the
North German marches was wrested from Scandi-
navian rule, and thereby the work of the Great
Elector was completed; the Battle of Koniggratz
realized the hope which had been shattered on the
field of Kollin, the hope of the liberation of Ger-
many from the dominion of Austria; finally, a
succession of incomparable victories, and the
coronation of the Emperor in the hall of the Bour-
bons, at Versailles, surpassed all that the comba-
tants of 1813 had expected from the third Punic
War to which they looked forward. The Prussians
thankfully recognized that their constitution
was more secure than ever under this strong rule;
for immediately after the Bohemian War, the
King, who had been so completely successful in
the affair, voluntarily made legal reparation for
the infringement of constitutional forms, and
when the strife was over, not a word of bitterness to
recall it, came from his lips. But the German
Confederates had, through the victories of this
war — the first they had really waged in common —
at last attained to a healthy national pride, and in
their joy at the new Empire forgotten the rivalries
of many centuries.

In all these strange courses of events, which
might have turned even a sober brain, King Wil-

Two Emperors 223

liam appeared always and equally firm and sure,
kindly and modest. During the constitutional
struggle he made, according to his own confession,
the severest sacrifice which could have been
demanded from his heart, which always craved
for affection, in bearing the estrangement from
his beloved people. In the same spirit of self-
conquest he formed the difficult resolve to go to
war with Austria, with whom he had been so long
on friendly terms. Yet after his victory he de-
manded without any hesitation the acquisitions
which he would never have taken from the hands
of the revolutionaries as the price of a righteous
war. During the sittings of the first North Ger-
man Reichstag, he said, smilingly, with his sublime
naive frankness, to the deputies for Leipzig,
"Yes, I would gladly have kept Leipzig."

In these difficult years he only wavered when,
with his soldierly directness, he could not at
once bring himself to believe in the Jesuitry of
cunning opponents. It was thus at Baden, in
1863, when the German Diet invited him in so
apparently friendly and frank a way to the Frank-
fort Conference, and again in Ems during the
negotiations with Benedetti. But to regard the
great crisis of history in too petty and minute a
way is to falsify it; it is enough for posterity to
know that after a short hesitation which did honour
to his character, King William made the right
resolve in both cases.

After his return home, the new Emperor said:

224 Treitschke

"This result had been for a long time in our
thoughts as a possibility. Now it has been brought
to the light. Let us take care that it remains
day." It is true that he himself believed, that
in a "short span of time," as he said, he would
be able to witness only the first beginnings of the
new order in Germany. But the event proved
otherwise and better. He was not only destined
to complete the fundamental laws of the kingdom,
but by the force of his personality to give inward
support to its growth. At first many of the con-
federate princes saw in the constitution of the
Empire only a fetter, but they soon all recognized
in it a security for their own rights, because the
indisputable leader of the high German nobility
wore the Imperial crown and his fidelity assured
absolute security to each. So it came to pass,
really through the merit of the Emperor, and
contrary to the frankly uttered expectation of the
Chancellor, that the Federal Council, which at
one time was universally suspected as the repre-
sentative of particularism, became the reliable
support of national unity, while the Reichstag
soon again fell a prey to the incalculable caprices
of party-spirit.

The Emperor William never possessed a con-
fidant who advised him in everything. With a
sure knowledge of men he found out capable
ministers for his Council, and with the magna-
nimity of a great man he allowed those, whom he
had tested, a very free hand; but each, even the

Two Emperors 225

Chancellor, only within his own department.
He always remained the Emperor, and held all
the threads of government together in his own
hand.

He first tasted the greatest happiness of life,
when, after escaping by a miracle an attempt at
assassination, he answered the enemies of Society
with that magnanimous Imperial manifesto, in
which he undertook to eradicate the social evils
of the time. Then it was that the nation first
understood completely what they possessed in
their Emperor; and a stream of affectionate
loyalty, such as only springs from the depths of
the German spirit, carried and supported him
through his last years. Europe became accus-
tomed to revere in the grey-headed victor of so
many battles the preserver of the world's peace;
and it was for the sake of peace that he overcame
his old preference for Russia, and concluded the
Central-European Alliance. In domestic matters
the strong monarchical character of his rule grew
more defined as the years went on ; the individual
will of the Emperor maintained his right in the
Parliaments, and was now supported by the cordial
concurrence of a now thoroughly informed public
opinion. The Germans knew that their Emperor
always did what was necessary, and in his simple,
artless, distinct way, always "said what was to
be said," as Goethe expressed it. Even in pro-
vinces which lay remote from the lines on which
his own mental development had proceeded, he
is

226 Treitschke

soon found himself at home with his inborn gift
of kingly penetration; however much the nation
owed him in the sphere of artistic production, he
never distinguished with his favour anyone who
was unworthy among the artists and the literati.
Some features in his character recall his ancestors
the Great Elector and the Great King, Frederick
William I and Frederick William III ; that which
was peculiar to him was the quiet and happy
harmony of his character. In his simple greatness
there was nothing dazzling or mysterious, except
the almost superhuman vitality of his body and
soul. All could understand him except those
who were blinded by the pride of half -culture ;
the immense strength of his character, and his
unswerving devotion to duty served as an example
to all, the simple and the intellectual alike. Thus
he became the most beloved of all the Hohenzollern
rulers. With splendid unanimity the Reichstag
voted him the amount necessary for strengthening
the Army, and up to the last his honest eyes
looked hopefully from the venerable storm-beaten
countenance on all the vital elements of the new
time. Only shortly before his death he spoke with
confidence of the patriotic spirit of the younger
generation in Germany. When he departed, there
was a universal feeling as though Germany could
not live without him, although for years we had
been obliged to expect the end.

What a contrast between the continually ascend-
ing course of life of the great father and the gloomy

Two Emperors 227

destiny of the noble son! Born as heir to the
throne, and joyfully hailed at his birth on the
propitious anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig
by all Prussian hearts, carefully educated for his
princely position by excellent teachers, Prince
Frederick William, as soon as he attained to man-
hood, appeared to excel all in manly strength and
beauty. When he married the English Princess
Royal, all the circles of Liberalism expected from
his rule a time of prosperity for the nations, for
England was still reckoned to be the model land
of freedom, and the halo of political legend still
encircled the heads of Leopold of Belgium and of
the House of Coburg, who were delighted at the
marriage. It was soon evident that the Crown
Prince could neither reconcile himself to those
infringements of formal rights which were caused
by the struggle about the constitution, nor to the
plan for incorporating Schleswig-Holstein with
Prussia. But he never consented, like most
English heirs to the throne, to place himself at
the head of the Opposition ; and he rejected as un-
Prussian the thought that there could ever be a
party of the Crown Prince. In the Danish War
he accomplished his first great service for the
State; his powerful co-operation helped the still
unexperienced and often hesitating commanders
to decide on a bolder procedure.

Then came the brilliant days of his fame as
Commander-in-Chief, which have secured for
him for ever his place in German history. He

228 Treitschke

helped towards winning the victory of Koniggratz
by the bold attacking skirmishes of his Silesian
Army and made it decisive by his attack on
Chlum. He delivered the first crushing blows
in the war against France ; his fair Germanic giant
figure was the first announcement to the Alsatians
that their old Fatherland was demanding them
back; through his martial deeds and the heart-
moving power of his cheerful popular kindness,
the Bavarian and Swabian warriors were for the
first time quite won over to the cause of German
unity. Never in the German Army will the day
be forgotten when, after fresh and glorious victo-
ries, "Our Fritz," distributed the iron crosses to
his Prussians and Bavarians before the statue of
Louis XIV, in the courtyard of the Palace of
Versailles.

After peace was concluded, the position of the
famous Commander-in-Chief was not an easy one.
As a Field-Marshal he was already too high in
military rank and had too little interest in the
daily duties of a time of peace for it to be easy to
find him a suitable command. Only the most
important of the German military inspections,
the oversight of the South German troops, was
assigned to him, and every year he performed this
duty for some weeks with so much insight, firm-
ness, and friendliness, that he won almost more
affection in the South than in his Northern home.
The South Germans saw him fully occupied and
exerting all his energies; at home he only seldom

Two Emperors 229

appeared in public life. He was the victim of his
father's extraordinary greatness, and it was that
which constituted his tragic destiny. He passed in
a life of retirement long years of manly vigour,
which according to all human computation he
would have had to pass upon the throne. This
long period indeed brought him a fulness of pater-
nal happiness and gave him frequent opportunities
for displaying his fine natural eloquence and for
pursuing benevolent projects that were fraught
with blessing for the common weal, but it did not
provide adequate scope for his virile energy.
Already, when a young Prince, the Emperor
William cherished strict and well-weighed prin-
ciples regarding the unavoidable limits which
the heir to the throne must impose upon himself;
he knew that the first subject in the Kingdom
must not join in discussion, if he is not to be
tempted to join in rule. Like all the great mon-
archs of history, and all the Hohenzollerns with
the solitary exception of King Frederick William
III, he allowed the heir to the throne no partici-
pation in affairs of State.

Only once, after the last attempt on the Em-
peror's life, was the Crown Prince commissioned
to represent his father. It was an eventful time;
the Berlin Congress had just assembled, the nego-
tiations with the Roman Curia had hardly begun,
and the law regarding Socialists was on the point
of being passed. The Crown Prince carried out
all his difficult tasks with masterly discretion,

230 Treitschke

and Germany should never forget how he, con-
trary doubtless to the dictates of his own mild
heart, caused the executioner's axe to fall on the
neck of the Emperor's assailant. By this brave
act he re-enforced the half -obsolete death-punish-
ment and gave it the weight which it should have
in every properly ordered State.

On the Emperor's recovery the Crown Prince
withdrew to the quiet life of his home, and the
spirit of criticism which pervades the Courts of
all heirs-apparent could not fail to find expression
now and then, but it did so always in a modest
and respectful way. His exertions on behalf of
art were many and fruitful; without him the
Hermes of Praxiteles would not have been awak-
ened to new life, and the Berlin Technological
Museum would not have been completed in such
classical purity of form. He was the first in the
succession of the Prussian heirs to the throne who
had received a University education and he was
proud to wear the purple mantle of the Rector
of the old Albertina University. In his long life
of retirement, however, the Crown Prince some-
times lost touch with the powerful progressive
movements of the time and could not fully follow
the new ideas which were in vogue. He thought
to arrest with a few words of angry censure the
anti-semitic movements, the sole cause of which
was the over-weening presumption of the Jews,
and he warned the students of Konigsberg against
the dangers of Chauvinism, a sentiment which

Two Emperors 231

after two hundred years of cosmopolitanism, is
as unfamiliar to the Germans as its foreign
name.

But the course of human things looks different
from a throne than when viewed from below. The
nation, knowing the well-beloved Prince as they
did, hoped that, as in the case of his father, his
character would develop with his life-tasks and
that he would show as much energy as a sovereign
as he had displayed when representing his father.
Then the catastrophe overtook him. Three Ger-
man physicians — Professors Gerhardt, von Berg-
mann, and Tobold — recognized at once the char-
acter of the disease, and spoke the truth fearlessly
as we are accustomed to expect from German men
of science. A cure was still possible and even
probable. But the resolve which would have
saved the patient was lacking, and who can
venture to utter a word of blame, since al-
most every layman in similar circumstances
would have made a similar choice. Then the
patient was handed over to an English physi-
cian, who at once, by the unparalleled false-
hood of his reports, cast a stain on the good
name of our ancient and honourable Prussia.
With growing anxiety the Germans began to
surmise that this precious life was in bad hands.
The result was more tragic than their worst fears.
When the Emperor William closed his eyes, a
dying Emperor came up to succeed to the lofty
inheritance.

232 Treitschke

The greatness of the monarchy, and its superi-
ority to all republican forms of government rests
essentially on the well-assured and long duration
of the princely office. Its power is crippled when
this assurance is lacking. The reign of the dying
Emperor could only be a sad episode in the history
of the Fatherland, sad on account of the inex-
pressible sufferings of the noble patient, sad on
account of the deceitful proceedings of the English
doctor and his dirty journalistic accomplices, and
sad on account of the impudence of the German
Liberal party who obtruded themselves eagerly
on the Emperor as though he belonged to them,
and certainly gained one success, the fall of the
Minister von Puttkamer. The monarchical par-
ties on the other hand both by a feeling of loyalty
and the prospect of the approaching end were
compelled to preserve comparative silence. At
such times of testing, all the heart-secrets of parties
are revealed. Those who did not know it before
were now obliged to recognize what sycophancy
lurks beneath the banner of free thought, and
how everyone who thought for himself would be
tyrannized over if this party ever came into power.
Fortunately for us, in the whole Empire they have
behind them only the majority of Berlin people,
some learned men who have gone astray in politics,
the mercantile communities of some discontented
trading towns, and the certainly considerable
power of international Judaism. But let us banish
these dark pictures which history has long left

Two Emperors 233

behind. Let us hold fast in reverent recollection
that which lends moral consecration to the tragic
reign of the Emperor Frederick. With a religious
patience, whose greatness only a few of the initi-
ated can thoroughly understand, with an heroic
strength which outshines all the glories of his
victories on the battlefield, he bore the tortures
of his disease, and bereft of speech he still pre-
served in the face of death the old fidelity to duty
of the Hohenzollerns and his warm enthusiasm
for all the unchanging ideals of humanity. In a
way worthy of his father he departed to ever-
lasting peace, and so long as German hearts beat,
they will remember the royal sufferer who once
appeared to us the happiest and most joyful of
the Germans and now was doomed to end his life
in so much suffering.

In those happy days when the picture of the
"Four Kings"1 hung in all German shop- windows,
many a one said to himself in sorrowful foreboding
that "it was too great good-fortune." Now the
equalizing justice of Providence has caused the
abundance of joy to be followed by such an excess
of grief as seems too hard for a monarchic people.
Of the four Kings two are no more. But life
belongs to the living. With hopeful confidence
the nation turns her eyes to her young Imperial
lord. All which he has hitherto said to his people,
breathes a spirit of strength and courage, piety
and justice. We know that the good spirit of the

1 William I, Frederick III, William II, Crown Prince William.

234 Treitschke

old Emperor's times still remains unlost to the
Empire, and even in the first days of mourning
we lived through a great hour of German history.
With German fidelity all our Princes gathered
around the Emperor and appeared with him
before the representatives of the nation. The
world learned that the German Emperor does not
die, whoever may wear the crown for the moment.
What a change of affairs since the times when on
each New Year's day the German Courts watched
anxiously for the utterances 'of the mysterious
Cassar on the Seine! To-day the German speech
from the throne makes no mention of these world-
powers which once presumed to be the only repre-
sentatives of civilization, for one can argue as
little with unteachable enemies as with pushing
and doubtful friends. Whether Europe accom-
modates itself peacefully to the alteration of the
old relations between the Powers, or whether the
German sword must again be drawn to secure
what has been won, in either case we hope to be
prepared.

Unless all signs are deceptive, this great century
which seemed to begin as a French one, will end
as a German one; by Germany's thoughts and
Germany's deeds will the problem be solved how
a strong hereditary sovereignty can be compatible
with the just claims of modern society. Some
day the time must come, when the nations will
realize that the battles of the Emperor William
not only created a Fatherland for the Germans

Two Emperors

235

but bestowed upon the community of European
States a juster and more reasonable arrangement.
Then will be fulfilled what Emmanuel Geibel once
said to the grey-haired conqueror.

"Some day through the German nation,
All the world will find salvation."

GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES.1

HEIDELBERG,
25 th October, 1870.

NO hatred is so bitter as enmity against the man
who has been unjustly treated ; men hate in
him what they have done to him. That is as true
of nations as of individuals. All our neighbours,
some time or other, grew at Germany's expense,
and to-day, when we have at length smashed the
last remnants of foreign domination, and demand
a modest reward for righteous victories, a per-
manent guarantee of national freedom, angry
blame of German insatiability resounds throughout
the European press. Especially do those small
countries, which owe their very existence to the
dismemberment of the German Empire, e. g.,
Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, complain loudly
that an arrogant Pan-Germanism has destroyed
our people's sense of fairness. It is hatred that
vents itself in these charges; no impartial person
can deny that the notion of Pan-Germanism is as
foreign to us Germans as its name, which originated
in the bogey -fears of foreign countries. No doubt
owing to the excitement of the times, a foolish

1 Preussisches Jahrbuch, vol. 26, p. 605, et seq.
236

Germany and Neutral States 237

boastfulness has here and there come into being;
out-and-out Teutons are imploring us to banish
all foreign words from the sanctuary of the Ger-
man language; men of picturesque talents among
the unemployed are drawing on the patient map
of Europe a kingdom of Armorica and Arelat
between France and Germany. However, such
ideas are simply the isolated absurdities of idle
heads; once in a while they may accidentally
stray into one of the bigger newspapers, but even
then they appear only in those insignificant col-
umns devoted to such subjects as sea-snakes and
triplets, children with fowls' heads,and the mythi-
cal Fusilier Kutschke. The great majority of
German politicians exhibit to-day a deliberate
moderation, which the Swiss and Belgians would
hold in greater respect if those nations, which
enjoy the more comfortable peace and quiet of a
neutrality protected by other Powers, were able
to put themselves in thought in the position of a
great warrior-nation which has been forced to
fight for its life by an unscrupulous attack.

Public opinion has become more quickly united
regarding the reward of our victory than ever
before in a complicated question. The boundary
line of the Government of Alsace, which has indeed
been drawn with a considerate hand and will pre-
sumably constitute Germany's boundary, meets
almost everywhere with agreement. People only
regret, and rightly so, that the splendid region of
the Breusch, which is abundant in springs, and

238 Treitschke

the district around Schirmack, together with the
Steinthal, that essentially German tract of country
consecrated by the life-work of the unforgettable
Oberlin, are not included in the new boundary.
Blind lust of conquest is so alien to the Germans
that they even decide with much unwillingness
to demand the possession of Metz; but the obvious
impossibility of leaving right at our doors in the
hands of revengeful enemies this town, which is a
stronghold by its position, not by its walls, compels
us in this case to enter into occupation of French
territory.

The desire of robbing the neutral neighbouring
States, which imaginative persons in Bale and
Brussels are fond of attributing to us, is expressed
only by some isolated German Chauvinists. We
notice with anxiety, like all the thoughtful Swiss,
that those two decades of fresh prosperity which
Switzerland enjoyed since the Civil War are to-day
at an end. We ask, gravely, what shall eventually
be the outcome of a development which is tending
ever more and more to loosen every community
and every individual from the State? But we
honestly wish that the Confederation may succeed
in overcoming the disintegrating power of an
unbridled Radicalism; the role which this asylum
for all parties has long played, to the good of Eu-
rope, is not yet played out by any means. No in-
telligent German wants to increase the excessively
strong centrifugal powers, which are embraced
in our new Empire, by the inclusion of purely

Germany and Neutral States 239

Republican elements, and all free men are horror-
struck at the thought that Geneva and Lausanne,
which are to-day the centres of an independent
intellectual movement, would, by the dissolution
of the Swiss Confederation, be involved in the
horrible fall of France. We are also quite without
arriere-pensee in regard to the Netherland States,
which did so little to win Germany's friendship;
we certainly trust that the strengthening of the
German Empire will of itself bring it about, that
the foolish inclination at The Hague to France may
be moderated, and that the Flemish majority in
Belgium may find the courage to assert their race
beside the Walloon minority. Still, because we
do not want to shake the national constitutions
of these buffer-States, because we demand a
lasting arrangement on our Western boundary,
for that reason a question has now to be settled
once for all, which threatens to be continually
disturbing our good relations with our small
neighbours, although it has in very truth nothing
whatever to do with the independence of the Nether-
lands. The conclusion of peace with France may
and shall afford the opportunity of incorporating
Luxemburg in the German Empire.

It is repugnant to us to revive to-day the
memory of the odious transaction which deprived
us of that territory — the single bitter memory in
the glorious history of the North German Confede-
ration. Suffice it that that German territory
which by the decision of Europe was once allotted

240 Treitschke

to the House of Orange and the Crown of Prussia,
in order to protect it against France's lust of
piracy, was suddenly sold and betrayed to France
by its own rulers. When the Prussian Govern-
ment entered a protest, it was confronted by the
unconcealed partisan disfavour of all the European
Powers. The fear of France lay heavily on the
world; it reads to us to-day like a farce, when we
read in the documents of those days how Lord
Stanley and Count Beust outri vailed each other
in depicting to our Government the fearful superi-
ority of French power; the French fleet would
occupy the attention of the greater portion of
our forces, would make it impossible for us to
protect South Germany, etc. Prussia, which
was honestly trying to display its love of peace in
an affair not altogether free from doubt, and was,
moreover, fully busied with the founding of the
new Confederation, gave up its right of garrison-
ing, and contented itself with the inadequate
result, that France had to abandon her welcome
purchase. In place of the military protection
which Prussia had afforded the country up till then,
was substituted a moral protection, by which the
great Powers undertook a common responsibility
for the neutrality of the Grand Duchy. But
scarcely had the agreement been concluded, when
it at once lost all its value owing to the perfidious
interpretation put upon it by England. Amid
the exultant cheers of Parliament, Lord Stanley
declared that Great Britain would only take up

Germany and Neutral States 241

arms for Luxemburg's neutrality if the other
Great Powers did the same; the press, drunk with
peace, rejoiced that England's obligations were
not extended, but limited, by the May Conven-
tion— and the politics of the Sinking Island-
Kingdom had taken a fresh step downwards.
After such words no description is requisite of the
deeds that might be expected from British states-
men ; nobody doubts that England would not have
let itself be disturbed in its neutral complacency,
even if a victorious French army had penetrated
into Luxemburg last August.

The joint European guarantee was from the
start an empty form, and the position of the little
neutral country has been rendered completely
untenable by the mighty revolutionary events of
recent weeks. If the German boundary advances
as far as Metz and Diedenhof, Luxemburg be-
comes surrounded in the south, as in the north and
east, by German-Prussian territory, the country
no longer forms a buffer-State between France
and Prussia, and the object of the May Convention,
the idea of preventing friction between the two
great military Powers, vanishes of itself. Con-
sidering the deadly enmity which will threaten
us yet a long time from Paris, the Prussian
Government could hardly tolerate seeing the
communications between Treves and Metz in-
terrupted by neutral territory; serious military
considerations compel Prussia's desire to plant
its standard again on those Luxemburg fortifica-

16

242 Treitschke

tions on which it stood for fifty years, a screen
for Germany.

And is not the neutrality of the little country,
the artificial creation of a "nation luxembour-
geoise," in very truth a disgrace to Germany?
Polyglot countries, like Belgium and Switzerland,
may justly be declared neutral, because their
mixed populations prevent them from taking par-
tisan parts in the national struggles of this century.
But to cut off two hundred thousand German
persons from their Fatherland in order to place
them under European guardianship, that was a
crime against common-sense and history, an insult
which could be offered only to this our hard-
struggling Germany. The little State is German
to the last hamlet, belongs to us by speech and
customs, by the memories of a thousand-years-
old history, as well as by the community of ma-
terial interests. And this country, which presented
us with three Emperors, which once revolted
against Philip of Burgundy in order to preserve
its German language, which, further, in the days
of the French Revolution, twice joined in the
national war against the hated French, this root-
and-branch German country is to-day under
French rule! The official language is French, the
laws of the country are derived from France and
Belgium. Since the injurious nine-years' treaty
with Belgium, people in Luxemburg have grown
accustomed, as in Brussels and Ghent, to admire
French methods as a mark of distinction. The

Germany and Neutral States 243

officials, who are moulded in French and Belgian
schools, introduce French arrogance from their
alien environment, radically oppose the German
spirit, change the honest old German place-names
of Klerf and Liebenbrunn into Clerveaux and
Septfontaines. The people are alienated from
the German system of government by the sins
of the Diet; they cannot forget that the German
Confederation once abandoned a half of the coun-
try in undignified fashion to Belgium, and then
obligingly all the governmental pranks of reaction-
ary ministers. A fanatical clergy, a lying press
conducted by French and Belgians, no doubt
also maintained by French gold, foster their hatred
for the great Fatherland, and the Netherland
States gaze with indifference at the decline of the
German civilization.

Under such unhealthy conditions every kind of
political corruption of which the German nature
is capable has spread over this small people.
Whilst the German youth are shedding their
blood for the Eternal, for the Infinite, the Luxem-
burgers are wallowing in the mire of materialism;
a superstitious belief in the life of this world has
emasculated their minds, they know nothing,
they want to know nothing except business and
pleasure. Whilst in Germany, amid hard strug-
glings, a new, a more moral conception of liberty
is arising, which is rooted in the idea of duty,
there an existence without duties is praised as the
highest aim of life. They want to derive advan-

244 Treitschke

tage from the Customs Union, to which the country
owes the essence of its prosperity, without doing
the least service for Germany. They let the
Germans bleed for the freedom of the left bank of
the Rhine — including Luxemburg — they loudly
boast they have no fatherland, and reserve it to
themselves to heap abuse on Germans as slaves,
to shout to the German tide-waiters a scornful
"mer de pour la Prusse!"

Ought Germany any longer to endure this
European scandal, this parasitic plant without a
fatherland, which is battening on the trunk of
our Empire? The national State has the right
and duty of protecting its nationals all over the
world ; it cannot endure that a German race should
be gradually transformed into a German-French
mongrel without any reason except the perversity
of a degenerate bureaucracy. There is only one
way of preventing it, as things are, namely, the
inclusion of the country in the German Empire.
The Reichstag, however, can allow this inclu-
sion only under two conditions: it must require
that the German tongue be used again as the
official language, and that the agreement binding
the Grand Duchy to the Kingdom of the Nether-
lands shall be broken off. The bond of union
between the two States is certainly very loose;
still, in our Diet we got to know only too thor-
oughly the unhallowed consequences of the blend-
ing of German and foreign politics; although the
constitution of the Confederation says nothing

Germany and Neutral States 245

about it, we must set up for our new Empire the
infrangible principle: no foreign sovereign can
be a member of the German Confederation.

We do not mean that Germany should right-
away declare the May Convention to be nullified
in consequence of the present war. Much rather
do we desire the free unanimity of all the parties
concerned. The support hitherto afforded by
France to Luxemburg independence is to-day
disappearing of itself. The infatuated resistance
of the French will presumably oblige the Confeder-
ate general to increase his demands ; it would then
be all the easier for the French Government,
upon the conclusion of peace, to make a binding
declaration, in return for some fair concession,
that it recognizes in advance the entry of Luxem-
burg into the German Confederation. For the
conversion of the Luxemburgers themselves would
suffice a definite assurance, that henceforth Ger-
many's customs-boundary coincides with its po-
litical boundary, and the customs-convention can-
not be renewed unless the Grand Duchy again
undertakes the duties of a Confederate territory.
Such will scarcely fail of its effect in that country,
where ideal reasons find no response, despite the
fiery enthusiasm for independence which is to-day
again turning the heads of the little people. Their
industries cannot flourish without the blessings
of German commercial freedom; they would be
bound to be ruined if the Small State tried to
form an independent market-region, and the same

246 Treitschke

would happen if it entered the Belgian customs
area.

Serious opposition can hardly be expected from
the Dutch Government, which has long been
weary of its troublesome neighbour. But the
head of the House of Orange has long been con-
verted to the commercial neutrality of those
patricians of Amsterdam, whom his great an-
cestors formerly fought against; his heart, however
warmly it may beat for France, will find to-day
the clink of Prussian dollars quite as pleasant as
that of golden napoleons four years ago. An
understanding must also be possible with the
magnates of the joint House of Nassau, whose
rights were expressly reserved in the May Con-
vention. The simplest solution of the question
would certainly be arrived at if Prussia were to
acquire the country by purchase. Already the
Prussian State numbers fifty thousand Luxem-
burgers among its citizens in the districts around
Bittburg and St. Vith; if the Grand Duchy and
French-Luxemburg, together with Diedenhof , were
to be taken over in addition, that misgoverned
and mutilated country would at last be united
again under one Crown — up to the Belgian portion.
But this solution, which is in every respect most
desirable, is not absolutely a necessity; German
interests primarily extend only so far that the
Principality be again adopted into our line of
defence, into the life of our State and culture.
Should, therefore, the joint House prefer to raise

Germany and Neutral States 247

up a Nassau Prince as a Prince of the Confedera-
tion to the throne of Luxemburg, Germany cannot
refuse; such an arrangement would at any rate
be far preferable to the unreal conditions of to-
day. Lastly, we are yet in need of the agreement
of the European Powers. That also is obtainable ;
for right and fairness are obviously on our side,
if we intend to impose similar charges on all
members of the Customs Union; moreover, Eng-
land has long felt the guarantee undertaken for
the neutrality of Luxemburg to be a wearisome
burden. However, everything depends entirely
on not commencing negotiations prematurely,
so that the neutral Powers may not find welcome
occasion to interfere in the Franco-German
negotiations.

Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg! What wounds
have been inflicted on German life in those
Marches of the Empire through the crimes of
long centuries, and how perseveringly will all the
healthy forces of the German State be obliged
to bestir themselves in order to keep in peace
what the sword has won ! The task seems almost
too heavy for this generation, which has only just
rescued our Northern March from alien rulers.
Still, what is being accomplished to-day is but the
ripe fruit of the work of many generations. All
the industry, all the honesty and active power, all
the moral wealth, which our fathers awoke anew
in the deteriorated Fatherland, will work on our
side if we now dare to adapt the degenerate sons

248 Treitschke

of our West to German life; and the best that
we can achieve in peace can yet never ap-
proach the deeds and sufferings of the heroes
who paid with their blood for the dawn of the
new times.

AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

HEIDELBERG,
15 th Dec., 1871.

ONCE more Austria has emerged from a severe
ordeal. The Hohenwarte Cabinet has re-
signed ; the plans of the Slavs to upset the rights and
the policy of the Germans have been frustrated, and
under the auspices of the Magyars a Ministry has
been formed which, to say the least, may be cred-
ited with just intentions towards the Germans and
an honest desire for the preservation of the State.
But the cries of joy from German breasts to
greet the deliverance from threatening danger
are isolated. Hitherto, it was customary that
our countrymen on the Danube in days of stress
should lose faith in their Government only to
regain confidence as soon as the political clouds
lifted again, and for a long time past we Germans
of the Empire have been accustomed to this
sudden change of feeling in German Austria, just
as we are accustomed to laws of nature. For
the first time, however, the old rule no longer
applies ; the news from our Austrian friends reads
gloomier than ever, despite the slight change for
the better which has now taken place, and the

249

250 Treitschke

question is wonderingly asked how in such a
country reckless men are still found ready to
accept a ministerial portfolio. What a weird
spectacle to behold! — a great empire whose own
people have lost faith in themselves. Let us
calmly examine these serious matters. It does
not admit of doubt what we for the sake of Ger-
many wish for Austria. We German Unity-
makers were never the enemies of Austria; we
only contested the preponderating power which
Austria exercised on German and Italian soil to
the detriment of all parties. Now, having fought
victoriously, we are more in favour of Austria
than many Austrians themselves. Nowhere dur-
ing the last few weeks have so many warm and
genuine wishes been exchanged for the continu-
ance of Austria as in the lobbies of the German
Parliament. Our Empire's ambition must simply
be directed towards the building up of an inde-
pendent and solid commonwealth within our
boundaries, which will suffice to us all completely.
We have Italy's hasty agitation for unity as a
warning example before us, and must not desire
to embody, in addition to the strong centrifugal
powers fermenting in the interior of Germany and
to the inhabitants of our Polish, Danish, and
French frontiers, yet another eight million Czechs
as our fellow-citizens. In the days of Frederick
the Great, when ideas of a Slav Empire lay dor-
mant, it was perhaps not very difficult to turn
over Bohemia entirely to German ideals. The old

Austria and the German Empire 251

race-hatred having, however, now been aroused
again with terrific ferocity, even the united forces
of Germany might have to spend scores of years
on this difficult and perhaps sterile task, should we
ever step into the sad heritage of the Hapsburgs.
We already have more than enough ultramontane
enemies of the Empire, and we will keep them in
check ; our Empire is, however, well balanced only
because of the preponderance of Protestants. We
should commit a crime against the future liberty
of thought were we to contemplate absorbing
fourteen million Catholics. Germany longs for
peace; the vapourings of the democracy regarding
the war-fanaticism of our Government are lying
statements, disbelieved even by their originators.
The collapse of Austria, however, would mean an
upheaval unexampled in history, which would
embroil us in endless wars and threaten to destroy
the development of a peaceful policy for a long
time to come.

We Germans have never understood the prin-
ciple of nationality in the crude and overbearing
sense that all German-speaking Europeans must
belong to our Empire. We consider it a boon for
the peaceful intercourse of the world that the
boundaries of nations are not engraved with a
knife in the shell of the earth, that millions of
French live outside France, and outside the Ger-
man Empire millions of Germans. If the present-
day situation in Middle Europe consolidates, if
in the middle of the Continent there are two great

252 Treitschke

Empires, the one uniform and purely German, the
other Catholic and polyglot, yet permeated by
German ideas — who will contend that such a state
of affairs is humiliating to German national pride?
More magnificent and more brilliant than the day
of Koniggratz shines the glory of Sedan; but the
firm basis of our power to-day, the creative
thoughts of a new German policy have been engen-
dered by the blessings of 1866. "Down with
Austria," was then our battle-cry, and Germany
breathed as if freed from a nightmare when we
separated from Austria. Every day of German
history has proved since then that this separation
was a necessity, and that only through it we have
found ourselves again. In order to satisfy un-
bridled greed are we to demolish again the struc-
ture of 1866, the foundations of our Empire?
Are we to discard like old rubbish that rich treasure
of historic-political importance amassed during
half a century by our serious thinkers as common
property of the Germans solely because our
countrymen in Austria do not immediately succeed
in adjusting themselves to the new order of things?
Not an inch of land was taken by the victor of
1866 from the vanquished; such moderation not
only arose from the desire to reconcile the adver-
sary, it was also clearly evident that those Austrian
provinces which were for four centuries estranged
from German life and interdependent through
political ties, as well as through mutual commercial
interests, have a good right to stand side by side

Austria and the German Empire 253

independently with Germany. Austrian pessi-
mists might give as an example Moscow and
Warsaw. The opinion that the capital on the
Danube is to become a German provincial town
is ridiculed as ludicrous in sober- thinking Berlin.
The German idealists of the Danube speak lightly
of the disruption of Austria as if a Great Power
could easily be annihilated; we but ask what is to
become of the territories of the Crown of St.
Stephen after the collapse of the monarchy, and,
unable to find a satisfactory reply, we desire the
continuance of Austria as a Power.

The dualism which so often is depicted as the
beginning of the end appears to us in a different
light. The agreement of 1867 has not exactly
created a new state of affairs, but merely recon-
nected the thoughts of the only Austrian sovereign
who intelligently and successfully understood the
handling of internal reforms. To leave the lands
of the Hungarian Crown under their former con-
stitution, and to form the Crown lands of the west
into one political unit, were the plans formerly of
Maria Theresa. It is due to Deak that this long-
forgotten policy has been renewed in modern form.
Our political pride may revolt, yet we cannot think
it unnatural that Hungarians have finally assumed
political direction in the dual Empire. Those
six million Magyars, together with the two million
Hungarian-Germans who obey the former almost
blindly, form the biggest political entity of the
Empire. They have the firm legal basis of an old

254 Treitschke

historic constitution — an immense advantage in
comparison with the chaotic conditions of public
law in Cisleithania. They alone amongst the
people of Austria have conquered freedom by
dint of hard work; they surpass all others in
political training and experience. Thus historic
necessity has finally brought it about that for the
present only a Hungarian Prime Minister is
possible. We shall not be expected to throw a
stone at the deposed Count Beust. The most
spiteful remarks which could be made about him
are at the outset silenced by his charmingly
ingenious eulogies, which, in the style of the Duke
of Coburg, he himself has made regarding his own
importance. Credit is due to him for having
recognized the moment when it was in the interest
of the Crown to submit to the conditions of the
Hungarians. In all other matters he displayed
as Imperial and Royal Chancellor of the Exchequer
exactly the same lack of tact and foresight which
in times gone by we admired in the diplomatic
faiseur of "Pure Germany." Everything in poli-
tics turned out with regularity differently to
what he anticipated. The neutrality of Austria
during the last war was not due to him but to our
quick successes, to the bad condition of the Austrian
army, to the threats of Russia, the bravery of the
German-Austrians, and the clearheadedness of
Count Andrassy. It was an admission of weak-
ness on the part of Austria that a State ailing
from severe moral troubles should have for its

Austria and the German Empire 255

salvation called upon such a frivolous man, who
never claimed to possess the moral seriousness
of a reformer; and it is perhaps still more regret-
table that many an honest citizen to-day waxes
bitter in his outcry against the fallen dignitary
after having for five years been an eye-witness of
his debaucheries. Count Andrassy has at any
rate this advantage over his predecessor, that he
believes in himself and in his cause. He is an
honest Hungarian patriot, and therefore must try
to maintain the State in its entirety, as Hungary
is not yet powerful enough to exist without German
Austria. He must also defend the Constitution
of Cisleithania, as it is only with constitutional
Cisleithania that constitutional Hungary has
come to a settlement. He never recognized the
Concordat for Hungary although it existed in
Cisleithania, and for that reason alone he is the
enemy of the Ultramontanes and the Feudalists.
He cannot favour federalism, because Hungary
prefers discussing mutual Imperial affairs with
the delegates of Parliament instead of with
seventeen Diets. Besides, federalism in Bohemia,
Moravia, and Krain would inevitably throw the
Germans under the yoke of the Slavs; Hungary,
however, can make herself easier understood by
the Germans than by the Czechs. Count Andrassy
solemnly assures us of his love for peace, and we
have no reason to mistrust him. The weakness of
Hungarian politics lies in the fact that the mental
and economical development of the leading half

256 Treitschke

of the Monarchy is vastly inferior to that of
Cisleithania. Only by continued and peaceful
efforts may Hungary expect to somewhat adjust
this proportion. A Magyar at the head of Austrian
affairs should therefore wish for peace if he honestly
desires that his country shall retain the leadership
within the Monarchy.

It is true that Austrian public authority assumes
peculiar and complex forms. In Transleithania
a Parliament of two Houses and the Croatian Diet ;
in Cisleithania a Parliament of two houses and
seventeen Diets; for both halves of the Monarchy
delegations with two divisions — altogether twenty-
one Parliaments with twenty-four Houses. But
these complicated forms are only the true reflection
of the variegated ethnographical and historic
conditions of the whole State, and does not our
own Imperial State teach us that even amongst
complicated institutions a healthy political life
may prosper? Still, it does not appear quite
impossible that an intelligent plan may be adopted
which the best heads of German-Austria have
conceived unfortunately only very late in the day.
If the Germans in Cisleithania are desirous of
obtaining predominance, which by rights is due
to them, this overloaded body must be freed of
some heterogeneous members. Dalmatia, by vir-
tue of her geographical position as well as by
virtue of her interests, belongs to the eastern half
of the Monarchy; the "triune Illyrian Kingdom"
longed for by the Slavs of the South in 1848 may

Austria and the German Empire 257

materialize and gain vitality if that South Slav
State decides to recognize the supremacy of the
Crown of St. Stephen ; Galicia, on the other hand,
justly claims independence by the side of Cislei-
thania, in the same way as Croatia by the side of
Hungaria. If this separation were successful,
and at the same time direct parliamentary elec-
tions were introduced, German Austria, as a
country with fourteen million inhabitants and an
adjoining country of about six millions, would
face sixteen millions of the Crown of St. Stephen,
and the German element could retain the upper
hand in Parliament.

We in Germany are willing to remain on good
terms with Austria as long as Count Andrassy
does not depart from his peaceful programme.
The old feud is honestly fought out, and in to-day's
conditions of Austria there are at present only
two questions which might possibly compel us
to terminate friendly relations with the Empire.
If the Magyars misuse their power and upset the
German tendencies of the Suabians in Hungary,
or even those of the Transylvanian Saxons, the
best German race in the south-east, the friendly
tendency in Germany will rapidly disappear.
Our national pride has, God be praised, become
more sensitive to-day, and we all feel that our
Empire cannot silently put up with acts of violence
against our own flesh and blood. The alliance
which for centuries has united the Hapsburgs with
the Polish Republic is still operative. During the

17

258 Treitschke

last ten years Austria has given free rein to the
Polish "Junkerdom," and for the Poles Galicia
is the stronghold of their nationality. If Galicians
obtain the desired autonomy, Polish liberty will
quickly show its true colours, and will reveal itself
in overbearing tyranny against all non-Poles.
The principle of nationality which represents
to-day the forlorn hope of the Poles, has not been
so shamelessly trampled upon by any nation in
Europe as by the Poles in the days of their good
fortune. In Cracow the last German professors
of the University have already been sent away,
and the old German college is in the hands of the
Poles. Soon perhaps the Jews of Kasimierz will
be the sole representatives of Germany in the old
town, which owes its existence to the Germans.
Soon enough, also, the Ruthenian eastern half of
the country will have tales to tell of the atrocities
of Polish Junkers and of the clergy. All this does
not touch us immediately. West Prussia is pre-
paring to gratefully celebrate next summer the
centenary of the first division of Poland ; in Posen,
likewise, German culture and German develop-
ment is making progress ; the Posen peasant knows
that his position under Polish nobility was in-
comparably harder than under the present-day
Prussian sceptre. In this district we are immune
from any rising, provided no artificial agitation
is introduced from without. But moderation is
not to be expected from the hereditary political
incapacity of the Polish Junkers. Once masters of

Austria and the German Empire 259

Galicia this province will be the heart of busy
Polish propaganda, and the frantic cry, "Ancient
Poland down to the green bridge of Konigsberg"
may soon be heard again. Thus Austria's Polish
policy cements the friendship between Prussia and
Russia, the old faithful allies, and prevents us follow-
ing unsuspiciously the Danube Empire's measures.
As long, however, as our Polish possessions are
not endangered, Germany is willing to extend
benevolent sentiments to her neighbour, an honest
intention which does not lose its value because it
is expressed without sentimental tenderness. A
State like Austria cannot exact affection from
independent people. Our interests induce us to
desire the continuance of the Empire of the Loth-
rings, and these interests form the closest tie
between the States. But are our devout wishes
a power strong enough to face fate ? Who amongst
us desired the recent war? Nobody; and yet
inexorable fate dragged us into it. The mutual
interests of neighbouring Powers may afford a
small State an unjustified existence for centuries;
a big Power, however, cannot exist if it lacks
vitality, and if it does not appear as a blessing,
or at any rate as a necessity to its own people.
Were we to ask such questions regarding Austria,
innumerable apprehensions and considerations
present themselves. The most confident can
to-day only say it is possible that Austria may keep
together; but all the foundations of that State
belong to a period of the past.

26o Treitschke

When Austria lost her unnatural power over
Germany and Italy, many hopeful prophecies were
expressed that the Empire on the Danube would
rejuvenate and breathe freely again, like the
Prussian State after having renounced Warsaw.
Exactly the contrary has happened. Austria's
worries have incessantly increased since 1866.
By withdrawing from foreign territory she has not
found herself again, but abandoned her old historic
character. Ever since its existence, the aims of
the Austrian Empire were exclusively directed to
European politics. An internal reign taken as a
whole did not exist at all. Once the creed of unity
was established, the Crown allowed everything to
go as it did, and was satisfied when its people
silently obeyed. Hardly ever has the House of
Hapsburg-Lothring bestowed a thought upon
improving her administrative machinery, the
furtherance of the people's welfare, popular educa-
tion, and upon all the seemingly insignificant
tasks of internal politics which to other countries
are of cardinal importance; only Maria Theresa
and Joseph II realized the seriousness of their
duties. To-day, however, humbled and weakened,
hardly able to maintain the position of a big
Power, Austria finds herself compelled to recon-
sider her ways. External politics which formerly
meant to her everything have now lost import-
ance; the whole country's powers are invoked to
repair the internal damage, and whilst the "Hof-
burg" (the Imperial Palace), although unwillingly,

Austria and the German Empire 261

is compelled to expiate the sins of neglect of many
centuries, the question is asked, with steadily
growing insistence, whether this age of national
State formations still has room left for an Empire
which lacks national stamina.

Undoubtedly the natural form of government
for such a conglomerate Empire is absolutism.
An independent monarch may maintain a neutral
attitude over his quarrelling people; he may in
happy days lull his country into comfortable
slumber in order to play one nation against the
other in time of need; but these old tricks have
long ceased to be effective. In every conceivable
form absolutism has been tried by the "Hofburg,"
only to finally prove its complete all-round ineffi-
cacy. Cisleithania's population owes its consti-
tution to the failure of absolutism, and not to its
own strength. To us Germans of the Empire
it was clear beforehand that liberty bestowed in
this way could thrive but slowly, and only after
severe relapses. True, some democratic dunces
in Berlin formerly applauded the juggling tricks
of the "People's cabinet," and have claimed for
Prussia "liberty as in Austria." But all sensible
people in Germany find it natural that the consti-
tution in Austria so far has caused only venomous,
complicated, and barren party quarrels. More
serious than the infantine diseases of constitu-
tionalism seems the terrible growth of race-hatred.
Here, as elsewhere, parliamentarism has accen-
tuated national contrasts. As Schleswig-Holstein

262 Treitschke

experienced it with the Danes, so Austria experi-
ences it now, that free people learn far more slowly
than legitimate Courts the virtue of political toler-
ance and self-restraint. As was to be expected
of the Hapsburg-Lothrings, the constitutional Im-
perial Crown has remained thoroughly despotic
in sentiment. As yet none of the innumerable
ministers of the present Emperor have in reality
guided the country. ' Count Beust could be par-
doned everything except popular favour, which
was his main support. The just plaint of the
Germans who are true to the constitution is that
"mysterious forces" — a deeply veiled Camarilla
of subaltern bureaucrats and ultramontane noble-
men— dominate the Court, and, in spite of the
abolition of the Concordat, the relations between
the "Hofburg" and the Roman Curia have not
come to an end. Since Austria's withdrawal
from the German alliance the house of the Loth-
rings, now fatherless, has no further inducement
to favour the Germans, and the Court already
displays marked coolness towards German ideals.
The spokesmen of the Germans are men of the
Liberal Party, who in their dealings with the
Crown have unfortunately displayed clumsy
ignorance about constitutional doctrine. The
Magyars show chivalrous respect for the wearer
of the Crown of St. Stephen, and the Court com-
mences to feel comfortable in Budapest. The
feudal leaders of the Slavs conscientiously display
their dynastic tendencies; the German Ministers,

Austria and the German Empire 263

however, behave as if the Emperor were really
the only fifth wheel of the cart after Rotteck and
Welcker, and in the lower Austrian Diet Liberal
passion recently descended to most unseemly
remarks against the Imperial family. Does Vienna
not remember that the Hapsburgs never forget?
Thus the ties between the Crown and the Germans
are loosening.

The Army is no longer an absolutely reliable
support of the State, because it has undoubtedly
lost in quality since the day of Koniggratz. A
State which resembles the "Wallenstein Camp"
can gain great victories only by means of homeless
mercenary troops. Any improvement of modern
warfare impairs the fighting capacity of Austria.
The more the moral element commences to enter
into the calculations of war the more the cruelty
of the private soldier and the deep-laid mistrust
which separates Slav troops from their German
officers will give rise to apprehension. The custom-
ary foolery about clothing, which has finally
led to concocting for the Imperial and Royal Ar-
mies the ugliest uniform in the universe, makes
just as little for the fitness of the forces as the
improvement of weapons. The introduction of
compulsory military service, which can serve a
useful purpose only in a national State, was in
Austria a thoughtless precipitation ; for the moment
it has disorganized discipline, and it is question-
able whether the future will show better results.
German students, Polish noblemen, fanatical

264 Treitschke

Czechs, join the ranks of the volunteers and are
promoted to officers' rank in the militia; but this
new corps of officers does not invariably, as of
yore, seek its home under the black and yellow
standard. The militiaman acquires at home all
the prejudices of race-hatred; the Hungarian
"honveds" are certainly brave soldiers, but equally
surely cannot be led against an enemy. The
young noblemen who formerly gladly gathered
round the Imperial Standard now stay away, and
race-hatred impairs comradeship. The officers
of the German Army at times glance critically at
the history of Austria's military forces, who, with
rare exceptions, have for 130 years always fought
bravely and — unsuccessfully; and they compare
the days of Metz and Sedan with the hopeless
campaign against the Bochese. The old remedy
of hard-pressed Hapsburgs — a state of siege —
promises but scant success for an army thus
constituted.

In addition thereto, are public functionaries of
generally very inferior education, whose corruption
does not admit of doubt, servile and yet always
argumentative ; we refer to the Czech bureaucracy,
indescribably hated and despised by Germans and
Hungarians alike. In the Church there is a
strictly Roman party with very well meaning but
also very vague Old-Catholic aspirations, and there
exists widely diffused a shallow frivolity which
derides as Prussian hypocrisy all agitations for
moral seriousness. In the same way the quondam

Austria and the German Empire 265

much-talked-of inexhaustible resources of the
Danube Empire prove to-day a pleasant fairy
tale. An Exchequer, which has twice within
ninety years covered yearly expenditure by regular
receipts, and has now again just weathered veiled
bankruptcy — such incredible financial mismanage-
ment has not only destroyed the private fortunes
of thousands; it has also largely stimulated the
habit of gambling and of prodigality. In nearly
all the Crown lands of Cisleithania agriculture
lacks a body of educated middle-class farmers;
it is the link between farms and the vast estates
of noblemen which is missing. The development
of industry is similarly handicapped. Whilst in
most provinces trade and commerce are in their
infancy, Vienna is agitated by feverishly-excited
speculation. For ever so long the Vienna Stock
Exchange has drawn the "smart set " into its circle.
Pools and syndicates carry on the organized
swindle, and the small man is also dragged into
the turmoil by innumerable commission houses.
The magnificent capital is of course a grand cen-
tre for every kind of intercourse, but its corrup-
tion reacts detrimentally upon the commonwealth.
The bulk of the citizens are still healthy and capa-
ble, but amongst the always immoral masses of
the metropolisan impudent socialism is to-day at
work, which derides the spirit of the Fatherland as
reactionary, and amongst all the races of Austria
most vehemently attacks the Germans as "bour-
geois." Of the moral conditions of the upper

266 Treitschke

classes, and particularly of Stock Exchange circles,
the Vienna newspapers, which are closely allied
with the latter, give ample testimony. Vienna
journalism, although highly developed, is, on the
whole, the most immoral press of Europe — Paris
by no means excluded. The German party in
Vienna is about to initiate the Deutsche Zeitung,
because an honest party cannot rely upon the
existing big German newspapers. All these power-
ful journals are nothing else, and do not pretend
to be anything else, than industrial undertakings,
and a smile of compassion would greet those who
were to speak to those literary speculators about
political tendencies. By the side of the big organs
of the Stock Exchange jobbers, there is a huge
crowd of dirty halfpenny rags, which live on
extortion and journalistic piracy, for in this frivo-
lous town there are many with a bad conscience,
and liberal payments are made to stop the slander-
ous tongue of the blackmailer. Since the first
happy days of Emperor Francis Joseph, when
court-martials condemned to death, New Austria
has attempted nearly every imaginable political
system ; such a sudden change is bound to unsettle
the sense of justice and the people's opinions re-
specting their country. The views of the Ger-
man-Austrian pessimists are very unpalatable to
Germans in the Empire, as they cross our political
calculations. But let us also be just, and let us try
to place ourselves in the position of a warm-hearted,
scientifically-educated young German-Austrian.

Austria and the German Empire 267

Why in the world should this man love his country
in its entirety? Ancient faith, force of habit, fear
of the uncertain future and of radical changes, all
these considerations retain him within Austrian
boundaries; but to rejoice his heart, he casts his
eyes northwards, where he beholds his country-
men in a respected, mighty Empire, in a well-
secured national commonwealth, with orderly
economic conditions, and he perceives them in
every respect happier than he is himself. He hates
the "rugged Caryatid-heads of the servile classes, "
as Hebbel, amid great cheers, once said of the
German-Austrians, and above all he hates the
Czechs. To keep this slavedom in subordination
and to shield the best he calls his own, i.e., German
thought and German sentiment, from the aggres-
sive waves of barbarism he looks to the Empire
for protection. We seriously point out to him
the much-praised "colonizing vocation" of Ger-
manism in Austria. He, however, borrows from
the rich treasure of the Imperial and Royal bureau-
cratic language a beautiful phrase, and bitterly
suggests that this calling has now gradually become
obsolete ("in Verstoss gekommen ") . In Hungary,
in Bohemia, in Cracow, in the Tyrol, everywhere
Germanism is retrograding, and everywhere it is
proved that the atmosphere of the Hapsburg rule
is detrimental to German nationalism. He com-
plains that, "Centuries ago the liberty of German
faith was wrested from us, clerical pressure weighs
upon the soul of the people, and we have not

268 Treitschke

sufficient iron left in our blood to protect ourselves
against the numerical majority of foreigners."
He tells us of the political leaders of his race, how
they are nearly all done for and worn out, many
of them ill-famed for being deserters, sellers of
titles, or promoters. Then he asks whether it
behooves Germans to be governed by Hungarians
after the dicta of Magyar policy, and confidently
finishes up thus : "Certainly Austria is a European
necessity, but the Austria of the future borders in
the west on the Leitha, and we Germans belong
to you. " We give him to reflect that after all it
is an honour to belong to Austria, that ancient
mighty Power, whereupon he shrugs his shoulders.
"Times of the past," he says. "When recently
Count Hohenwarte spoke to us of the real Austrian
nationality he was greeted by peals of derisive
laughter on the part of the Germans. We remind
him of the Oriental mission once entrusted by
Prince Eugene to the realm on the Danube.
Drily he replies: 'A State which can hardly stand
on its own legs will still less be able to subdue
foreign people, especially when violently hated by
them."'

After the first great defeat of New Austria at the
battle of Solferino, Austrian Germanism began
to awake from its deep slumber. Notably in the
universities a more active national sentiment
developed, and we subsequently witnessed the
realization of what we German patriots always
anticipated, i.e., that Austria's exodus from the

Austria and the German Empire 269

German Alliance would greatly enliven and
strengthen the mental intercourse between us and
the Germans on the Danube. Never before has
our political work met with such friendly reception
amongst the Austrians as amongst the German
nationalists of Graz and Vienna to-day. We
heartily apologize for the severe injustice done
years ago to the German "Gothasrn"; nothing is
more touching than the youthful and amiable
enthusiasm which these circles harbour for our
new Empire ; nowhere has Prussia warmer friends.
From the bottom of our heart we wish that the
noble German national pride, the healthy political
intellect of this party, may display all its energy
in the perfecting of the Cisleithanian constitution.
The German-Austrian who greets every short-
coming of his country with a jubilant "Always
livelier and livelier" does not assist Germany in
her great object; she has only use for the active
man who works physically and mentally in order
to procure for the Germans the leadership in
Cisleithania. The German national pride in
Austria is a child of woe; it has invariably been
aroused by the defeats of the monarchy, and at
each fresh awakening it has given proof of greater
power. Up till now only a small portion of the
German-Austrians evinces strong German national
sentiment ; the history of the recent war shows to
what extent. The thinking middle classes fol-
lowed our battles with a hearty and active interest
never to be forgotten, and the brave German peas-

270 Treitschke

ants in the Alps likewise recollected their heroic
wars against the Wallachs. The high nobility, how-
ever, and the masses in the towns persevered in the
old hatred against Prussia. The small gentry of
Imperial and Royal licensed coffee-house keepers
and tobacconists doted on the French Republic.
As always in Austria, the big financial interests
gave proof of their unprincipled meanness, and
insufficient attention has been paid in Germany to
the great dispatch of arms which went from Vienna
via Trieste to France. German national sentiment,
however, is visibly in the ascendant, and it grows
daily on beholding the new German Empire.
National pride and hatred permeate, so to say,
the atmosphere of this unlucky State, whose future
entirely depends upon the reconciliation of national
interests. The growing hatred against the Slavs
may by and by press the broad masses of German
population into the ranks of the German nation-
alists, and unless fairly well-regulated constitu-
tional life can be established in the near future in
Cisleithania the Germans might finally also realize
that their nationality is dearer to them than their
Government.

Closer ties attach the greater part of the Slavs
to the Austrian Monarchy. When from the
distance we hear only the uncouth blustering of
Czech fanaticism, when we listen to the assurances
of German scientists in Prague, that a Czech
university by the side of a German one is at any
rate more endurable than a university with mixed

Austria and the German Empire 271

languages, which must infallibly lead to the de-
struction of Germanism in Bohemia; when we
thus behold the battle of the elements in the
territories of the Crown of Wenceslaus, we are apt
to think that such blind national hatred would
not shrink from the destruction of Austria. On
closer examination, however, secret fear and a
singular cowardice are easily detected, which hide
behind the uproar of the Czechs. They are noisy,
they bluster and twist the law, but they do not
dare to start war. In the midst of their roarings
they feel that they cannot dispense with the
Monarchy because, unlike the Germans, no home
is open to them outside Austria. Not even the
hotheads dare count with certainty upon the
fulfilment of Pan-slavist dreams, and that is why
for the time being the autonomous crown of
Wenceslaus or the division of Cisleithania into
five groups united by federalism suffices for them.
The tameness of the Czechs is, however, not due
to honest intentions, but to the consciousness of
weakness, which can and will change as soon as
Czechdom finds support in a great Slav power,
and it is already patent that the Poles regard
Galician autonomy only as the first step towards
the re-establishment of the Empire of the Sarmats.
Amongst all the nations of Austria the Magyars
must to-day display the greatest energy for the
maintenance of the Monarchy. The newly-estab-
lished Crown needs Cisleithanian support; those
people, with their lively ancestral recollections,

272 Treitschke

know only too well how often Austria and Hungary
have mutually saved each other. The convention
was in every respect vastly in favour of the Mag-
yars. Hungary contributes thirty per cent, to-
wards the general expenditure of the Monarch
and to the payment of interest on the debt of the
country ; if closely calculated it will be found to be
even less. And in spite of all, the Magyars cannot
overcome the old mistrust of the "Hofburg";
the tribunals of Eperies and Arad can no more sink
into oblivion than the impudence of the "Bach"
Hussars. In Parliament a strong and growing
Opposition has aims beyond the convention, and
it appears full of danger that this Opposition
consists almost exclusively of pure Magyar blood.
The delegate "Nemeth" recently offered his
solemn congratulations in Parliament to the
German-Austrians on the impending union with
their German brothers. Should disorder continue
to reign in Cisleithania less hot-blooded Magyars
will also soon raise the question whether a union
with " Chaos " be really an advantage for Hungary.
Two neighbours of Austria, i.e., Russia and Italy,
believe with the greatest positiveness in the col-
lapse of the Monarchy, and truly everything seems
possible in the vicinity of the Orient. The Oriental
question extends, moves westwards, and resembles
a stone which, when thrown into water, draws
ever-widening circles. It already enters into the
domain of the far horizon which has to be consid-
ered in the politics of the German Empire. Very

Austria and the German Empire 273

probably the fate of Austria and the still not
definitely solved Polish question will in time to
come be mixed up with the enigmatical future of
the Balkan population. In Russia's leading circles
fierce hatred, only too easily understood, rages
against Austria, a hatred which the prudence of
clever statesmen may temporarily suppress but
cannot stifle altogether, the highest interests of the
two neighbours in the East as well as in Poland
being in closest vicinity. Certainly one needs the
happy levity of Count Beust in order to look with
steadfast confidence into the future of Austria.
What follows? The struggle of German-Austria
against the Slavs is at the same time a struggle of
the modern States against feudal and ultramontane
Powers. The constitution of Cisleithania honestly
kept and intelligently developed offers room for all
nations of German- Austria. Whoever has the
freedom and peaceful development of Middle
Europe at heart must earnestly wish that the oft-
proved vitality of the old State may once more
assert itself, and that the Germans this side of the
Leitha may hold their own. The perfecting of this
constitution can, however, even under the most
favourable auspices, only take place very slowly;
there is an immeasurable distance between the
wretched indifference which was prevalent in
German-Austria after the battle of Koniggratz and
the present national sentiment. The German
tongue and German morals must not anticipate
great results from the Lothrings; it must suffice

18

274 Treitschke

to us if Germans maintain their possessions against
Slavs and Magyars. The complete solution of a
great European task is no more to be expected
of this infirm country. Only after ten years of
internal peace will Austria, if ever, gain power to
pursue serious plans in the East. An unreservedly
sincere friendship we must not expect of the
"Hofburg. " The policy of silently preserving
all rights is understood in Vienna as well as in
Rome. And however honestly well-wishing we
might be, the Lothrings know from Italy the
mighty attraction of national States, and know
that their Germans cannot turn their eyes from
our Empire. Because of its existence alone the
German Empire is viewed by them with suspicion,
and prudent circumspection is appropriate. Every
uncalled-for attempt at intervention in Austria's
internal struggle accentuates the mistrust of the
" Hofburg " against our countrymen and prejudices
the German cause. This Prince Bismarck mag-
nificently understood when he abstained at Gastein
from all observations against the Hohenwarte
Cabinet. It was very badly understood by the
honest citizens of Breslau, Dresden, and Munich,
when they decided on their heartily well-meant
and heartily stupid declarations of sympathy
for German-Austria. Lucky for German-Austria
that, thanks to our sober-mindedness, such madcap
ideas did not find sympathy; but all our interest
in Austria does not justify us in shutting our eyes
to the possibility of her collapse. The perfection

Austria and the German Empire 275

of the Cisleithanian constitution presupposes the
good intentions of all parties; at present such
intention is, however, found to exist only among
part of the German-Austrians. The Italians are
in the habit of saying, Austria is not a State but a
family. When the foundation of Hapsburg power
was laid, the expression tu felix Austria nube met
with admiration in the whole world and Emperor
Frederick III, regretfully looking at his amputated
foot, said: "Itzt ist dem Reich der ein Fuss
abgeschniedten " ("Now one leg has been cut off
the Empire ") . The times of imperial self -worship
and State-forming marriages of princes are no
more. Will a country which owes its origin to the
senseless family policy of past centuries, which in
character belongs to ancient Europe, be able to
satisfy the demands of a new era? We dare not
answer negatively, yet as brave and vigilant men
we must also contemplate that in years to come
Fate may reply to the question in the negative.
If the calamity of the destruction of Austria were
to occur, — and it would also be a calamity to Ger-
many,— then our Empire must be ready and pre-
pared to brave the forces of Fate to save German-
ism on the Danube from the debris. "To be
prepared is everything," saith the Poet.

THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA
AND RUSSIA.

IN the summer of 1813, August Wilhelm Schlegel
wrote to Schleiermacher : " Is it to be wondered
at that this nation, on whose shoulders the weight
of the balance of power in Europe has been laid
for one and a half centuries, should go with a
bent back?" In these words he indicated both
the cause of the long-continued feebleness of our
country and also the ground of the constant mis-
trust with which all the Great Powers saw Germany
recovering strength. Even a cautious and unpreju-
diced German historian will find it hard to keep from
bitterness, and will easily appear to foreigners as a
Chauvinist, when he portrays in detail in how much
more just and friendly a way the public opinion of
Europe regarded the national movements of the
Italians, the Greeks, and the Southern Slavs, than
the Germans' struggle for unity. It needs even a
certain degree of self-denial in order to recognize that
the whole formation of the old system of States,
the way of looking at things of the old diplomacy,
depended on the divided state of Germany, and
consequently in our revolution we could expect
nothing better from the neighbouring Powers than,
at most, neutrality and silent non-interference.

276

Russian and Prussian Alliance 277

A proud German will be glad of the fact that we
owe all that we are really to ourselves; he will
willingly forget past unfairness in practical politics
and simply ask what is the attitude of the neigh-
bouring Powers to the present interests of our
Empire? But he who only sees in history an
arsenal from which to draw weapons to pursue the
varying aims of the politics of the day, will, with a
moderate amount of learning and some sophistry,
be able to prove, just as it happens to suit him,
that France or Austria, Russia or England, is our
hereditary foe. A book of such a sort, thoroughly
partisan in spirit and unhistorical, is the work
Berlin and Petersburg; Prussian contributions
to the history of the Relations between Russia and
Germany, which an anonymous author has lately
published with the unconcealed purpose of arous-
ing attention and of preparing the minds of
credulous readers for a reckoning with Russia.
The book is entitled "Prussian Contributions,"
and the preface is dated from Berlin. I am quite
willing to believe that the author, when he wrote
his preface, may have happened to be passing a
few days in Berlin. But everyone who knows our
political literature must at once discern that the
author of the work is the same publicist who has
issued the little book, Russia, Before and After
the War, Pictures of Petersburg Society, and a
number of other instructive works dealing with
Russo-German relations. And this publicist is,
as is well known, no Prussian but an inhabitant

278 Treitschke

of the Baltic provinces; he has, hitherto, never
claimed to concern himself with Prussian politics,
but has always, with great talent and restless
energy, represented the interests of his Baltic
home as he understood them. Among the political
authors of Germany he takes a position similar to
that which Louis Schneider once occupied on the
other side. Just as the latter, assuredly in his
way an honest Prussian patriot, regarded the
alliance with Holy Russia as a dogma, so does our
author view hostility to the Czar's Empire; only,
he is incomparably abler and quite free from that
deprecatory manner which makes Schneider's
writings so unpleasant. The restoration of Poland
and the conquest of the Baltic provinces, these
are the visions which, more or less disguised,
hover in the background of all his books. In his
view the Prussian monarchy has really no other
raison d'etre than the suppression of the Slavs;
it misses its vocation till it has engaged in hostili-
ties against the Muscovites. All the problems of
German politics are gauged by this one measure;
no inference is so startling as to alarm our author.
In 1871 he opposed the conquest of Alsace and
Lorraine, for the liberation of our western terri-
tories threatened to postpone the longed-for war
with Russia; nor could a patriot of the Baltic
provinces allow that Alsace with its Gallicized
higher classes was a German province, while on
the other hand, the German nationality of Li viand
and Kurland was rooted exclusively in the nobility

Russian and Prussian Alliance 279

and well-to-do citizen class. Such a steady di-
rection of sentiment towards one object compels
the respect, even of an opponent. So long as our
author fought with an open visor, one could pardon
his warm local patriotism when he at times spoke
somewhat contemptuously of Prussia, and held
up the wonderful political instinct of the Baltic
nobility as a shining example to our native narrow-
mindedness. But when, as at present, he assumes
the mask of a deeply-initiated Prussian statesman,
when he pares and trims our glorious history to
suit the aims of the Baltic malcontents, and wishes
to make us believe that Prussia has been for fifty
years the plaything of a foreign power, then it is
quite permissible to examine more closely whether
the cargo of this little Baltic ship is worth more
than the false flag which it flies at its masthead.

The old proverb, "Qui a compagnon, a maitre,"
is especially true of political alliances. Hardenberg
made a mistake when he once said regarding Aus-
tria and Prussia, "leurs interets se confondent."
A community of interests between independent
Powers can only be a conditional one, and limited
by time; in every alliance which lasts long, some-
times one of the contracting parties and sometimes
the other will consider itself overreached. Thus
our State at the commencement of the eighteenth
century made enormous sacrifices to aid the ob-
jects of the two sea-Powers, but did not finally
gain any further advantage from this long alliance
than the right of her head to use the kingly title,

280 Treitschke

and some barren laurels. The history also of the
seventy-seven year-long friendship between Prus-
sia and Russia — the longest alliance which has
ever existed between two great Powers — presents
many such phenomena. There were times when
German patriots were fully justified in regarding
the friendship of Russia as oppressive, nay, as
disgraceful, just as on the other hand in recent
years the great majority of educated Russians
firmly believed that their country was injured by
the Prussian alliance. But when one sums up the
results, and compares the relative position in
respect of power of the two States in 1802, when
their alliance was formed, with that in 1879, when
it was dissolved, it cannot be honestly asserted that
Prussia fared badly in this alliance.

The Russo-Prussian alliance was, as is well
known, entirely the personal work of the two
monarchs, and everyone knows how much it was
helped forward by the honest and frank friend-
ship which the King Frederick William III dis-
played towards the versatile Czar. But these
personal feelings of the King never overpowered
his sound political intelligence and his strong sense
of duty. Every new advance of historical investi-
gation only reconfirms the fact that the King was
altogether right when, unseduced by the proposals
of so many cleverer men than himself, he was only
willing to venture on the attempt at rising against
Napoleon in alliance with Russia. Without the
help of the Czar Alexander, the capture of Paris,

Russian and Prussian Alliance 281

and the restoration of the old power of Prussia
would have been impossible. Any one who doubts
this should peruse the recently published Memoirs
of Metternich regarding the real objects of the
Vienna Court at the time — i.e., not the Memoirs
themselves with their intolerable self-glorification,
but the appended authentic official documents,
which, for the most part, plainly contradict the
vain self-eulogy of the author. At the Congress of
Vienna the two courts still continued to have a
community of interests: the Czar was obliged to
support Prussia's demands for an indemnity, if
he wished to secure for himself the possession of
Poland.

At the second Peace of Paris, on the other hand,
the interests of the two Powers came into violent
collision. The Czar had indeed favoured the
restoration of the State of Prussia, so that Russia
should be rendered impregnable through this
rampart on its most vulnerable side, but he as little
wished the rise of a completely independent self-
sufficing German power as the courts of Paris,
Vienna, and London did. Therefore, the restor-
ation of our old western frontier, which Prussia
demanded, was defeated by the united opposition
of all the Great Powers. All the courts without
exception observed with anxiety what an unsus-
pected wealth of military power little Prussia had
developed during the War of Liberation ; therefore
they all eagerly vied with one another in burying
Prussia's merits in oblivion. Whether one reads

282 Treitschke

the military dispatches of Wellington and his
officers, the letters of Schwarzenberg, Metternich,
and Gentz, the semi-official writings of the Russian
military authors of that period, it is difficult to
say which of the three allies had most quickly
and completely forgotten the deeds of their Prus-
sian comrades-in-arms. Nevertheless, the alliance
with Russia and Austria was a necessity for Prussia
for it still remained the most important task of our
European policy to prevent another declaration of
war on the part of France, and the Great Alliance
actually achieved this, its first purpose. When
Austria, in 1817, rendered anxious by Alexander's
grandiose schemes, proposed to the King of Prussia
a secret offensive and defensive alliance, which in
case of need might be also directed against Russia,
Hardenberg, who in those days was thoroughly
Austrian in his sympathies, was eager to accept the
proposal. But the King acted as a Prussian, and
absolutely refused, for only the union of all three
Eastern Powers could secure to his State the safety
which he especially needed after the immense
sacrifices of the war. Yet our Baltic anonymous
author is quite wrong in so representing things
as though, in Frederick William Ill's view, the
alliance with Russia had been the only possible
one. The King knew, more thoroughly than his
present-day critic, the incalculable vicissitudes of
international relations and always kept cautiously
in view the possibility of a war against Russia.
In 1818 he surprised the Vienna Court by the

Russian and Prussian Alliance 283

declaration that he wished also to include Posen,
East and West Prussia, in the German Confeder-
ation, because in case of a Russian attack, he
wanted to be absolutely sure of the help of Ger-
many. Frederick William held obstinately to this
idea although Hardenberg and Humboldt spoke
against it, and he did not give it up till Austria
opposed it, and thus every prospect of carrying
the proposal through in the Diet of the Confeder-
ation disappeared.

It is equally untrue that the King, as our anony-
mous author condescendingly expresses it, had
modestly renounced all wishes of bringing about
a union of the German States. His policy was
peaceful, as it was obliged to be; it shunned a
decisive contest for which at that time all the
preliminary conditions were lacking, but as soon
as affairs in the new provinces were, to some extent,
settled, he began at once to work for the com-
mercial and political unifying of Germany. In
this difficult task, which in very truth laid the
foundation for the new German Empire, Prussia en-
countered at every step the opposition of Austria,
England, and France. Russia alone among all the
Great Powers preserved a friendly neutrality.
This one fact is sufficient to justify the King in
attaching great importance to Russia's friendship.

This partiality of his, however, was by no means
blind, for nothing is more absurd than the author's
assertion that Prussia, by the mediation which
brought about the Peace of Adrianople, had merely

284 Treitschke

done the Russian Court an unselfish service.
When the war of 1828 broke out, the King had
openly told the Czar that he disapproved of his
declaration of war. The next year, at the com-
mencement of the second campaign, the Euro-
pean situation assumed a very threatening aspect.
The Vienna Cabinet, alarmed in the highest degree
by the progress of the Russian arms, exerted itself
in conjunction with England to bring about a great
alliance against Russia; on the other hand the
King knew from his son-in-law's mouth (the Czar's
autograph note is still preserved in the Berlin state
archives) that there was a secret understanding
between Nicholas and Charles X of France. If
matters were allowed to go their course, there was
danger of a European war, which might oblige
Prussia to fight simultaneously against Russia
and France, and that about a question remote from
our interests. In order to avert this danger, and
thus acting for the best for his own country, the
King resolved to act as a mediator, and brought
about a peace which, as matters then were, was
acceptable to both contending parties.

Prince Metternich was certainly alarmed at this
success of Prussian policy, and the reactionary
party in Berlin, Duke Karl of Mecklenburg,
Ancillon, Schuckmann, Knesebeck, who were all
staunch adherents of the Vienna diplomat, were
alarmed; but the ablest men at the Court, Bern-
stoff, Witzleven, Eichhorn, and above all the
younger Prince William, approved the King's

Russian and Prussian Alliance 285

well-considered proceeding. The resolve of the
King was obviously connected with the brilliant
successes which his finance minister, Motz, had
won at the same time in the struggles of German
commercial policy. To the calm historical judg-
ment the years 1828 and 1829 appear as a fortu-
nate turning point in the history of that uneventful
period; it was the time when Prussia again began
to take up a completely independent position in
relation to the Austrian Court. Among the
liberals, indeed, who had lately been admiring the
Greeks, and now were suddenly enthusiastic for
the Turks, there arose a supplementary party-
legend, that Prussia had only undertaken the office
of mediator in order to save the Russian army from
certain destruction. This discovery, however, is
already contradicted by the calendar. On August
1 9th, Diebitch's army appeared before Adrianople;
and it was here that the victor's embarrassments
first began, and here, first, it was evident how much
his fighting power had been reduced by sickness,
and the wear and tear of the campaign. But
Prussia had commenced acting as mediator as
early as July ; when General Muffling received his
instructions, the Russian army was victorious
everywhere.

Later on, also, the sober-mindedness of King
Frederick William never favoured the Czar's de-
signs against the Porte; he rather did his best
to strengthen the resisting power of the Ottoman
Empire. The only partly effective reform which

286 Treitschke

the decaying Turkish State succeeded in carrying
through — the reconstitution of its army — was,
as is well known, the work of Prussian officers.
All the reports which the embittered scandal-
seeking opposition party of that time circulated,
regarding the influence of Russia in the domestic
concerns of Prussia, are mere inventions. The
King alone deserves blame or praise for the course
of domestic policy ; his son-in-law never refused to
pay him filial reverence. Even the eccentricities
of the Berlin Court at that period, the love for
parades, the bestowing of military decorations,
which were stigmatized by the liberals as " Russian
manners," were simply due to the personal pre-
dilection of the King, and it is difficult to decide
whether Russia has leamt more in this respect
from Germany, or vice versa. During the anxious
days of the July revolution the King exhibited
again, with all his modesty, an independent and
genuinely Prussian attitude. Frederick William
resisted the legitimist outbursts of his son-in-law,
and hindered the crusade against France which
had been planned in St. Petersburg. The next
year he resisted with equal common sense the
foolish enthusiasm of the liberals for the Poles,
and by occupying the eastern frontier, assisted
in the suppression of that Polish insurrection
which was as dangerous for our Posen as for
Russian Poland. The Baltic anonymous author
conceals his vexation at this intelligent policy of
self-assertion, behind the thoughtful remark that

Russian and Prussian Alliance 287

we had, as is well known, "paid for rendering this
assistance with the valuable life of Gneisenau. "
Should we, then, perhaps enter in our ledger on
the Russian debit side, the cholera, which swept
away our heroes?

During the whole period from 1815 to 1840, I
know only of a single fact which can be alleged to
give real occasion to the reproach that the King,
for the sake of Russia's friendship, neglected an
important interest of his State. In contrast to
the ruthless commercial policy of Russia, Prussia
showed a moderation which bordered on weakness.
But this matter, also, is not so simple as our
anonymous author thinks. He reproaches Russia
with the non-fulfilment of the Vienna Treaty of
May 3, 1815, and overlooks the fact that Prussia
herself hardly wished in earnest the carrying out
of this agreement. It was soon enough proved
that Hardenberg had been overreached at Vienna
by Prince Czartoryski. The apparently harmless
agreements regarding free transit, and free trade
with the products of all formerly Polish territories,
imposed upon our State, through which the transit
took place, only duties, without conferring any
corresponding advantages. In order to carry out
the treaty literally, Prussia would have had to
divide its Polish provinces from its other territories
by a line of custom-houses. But the Poles saw
in the treaty a welcome means of carrying their
national propaganda into our Polish territories by
settlements of commercial agents. Thus it hap-

288 Treitschke

pened that Prussia, after futile negotiations,
proceeded on her own account; and by the cus-
toms law of 1818 placed her Polish territories on
precisely the same footing as her other eastern
provinces. After this necessary step, Prussia
was no more in the position to appeal successfully
to the Vienna Treaty. And what means did we,
in fact, possess to compel the neighbouring State
to give up a foolish commercial policy, which was
injurious for our own country? Only the two-
edged weapon of retaliatory duties. The relation
of the two countries assumed quite a different
aspect under Frederick William IV. It will al-
ways be one of the most bitter memories of our
history, how lacking in counsel, and wavering in
purposes the clever new King proved, in contrast
to the strong-willed Czar, — how cruelly he experi-
enced, by countless failures, that in the stern
struggles for power of national life, character is
always superior to talent, and how at last, for
truth will out, he actually feared these narrow
minds. Here our author has good reason for
sharp judgments ; and here also he gives us, along
with some questionable anecdotes, some reliable
matter-of-fact information regarding the history
of the confusions of 1848-50. It is quite true that
the Czar Nicholas in the autumn of 1848 asked
General Count Friedrich Dohna whether he would
not be the Prussian General Monk, and march with
the first army corps on Berlin, to restore order
there; the whole Russian army would act as his

Russian and Prussian Alliance 289

reserve in case of need. The memories of the
Count printed from autograph, confirm the cor-
rectness of this story with the exception of some
trifling details. But even here the author cannot
rise to an unprejudiced historical estimate of the
events in question. He conceals the fact that not
only Russia but all the great Powers were against
the rise of a Prussian-German Empire. The posi-
tion which the Powers had assumed with regard
to the question of German unity had not changed
since 1814. He similarly ignores the fact that all
the great Powers opposed the liberation of Schles-
wig-Holstein ; and it is undeniable that Russia,
according to the traditions of the old diplomacy,
had better grounds to adopt such an attitude than
the other Powers. For all the cabinets believed
then decidedly — although wrongly — that Prussia
wished to use the struggle with Denmark as a
means of possessing herself of the Kiel harbour.
The Russian State, as a Baltic power, could not
welcome this prospect.

Russian policy, in contrast to that of England,
France, and Austria, was also peculiar in this, that
it resisted the Prussian constitutional movement.
The Czar Nicholas did not merely behave as the
head of the cause of royalty in all Europe, but
actually felt himself such; and it was precisely
this which secured him a strong following among
the Prussian conservatives. It is far from my
intention to defend, in any way, the wretched
policy which came to grief at Warsaw and Olmiitz ;

19

290 Treitschke

we, the old Gotha party, have all grown up as
opponents of this tendency. Meanwhile, after the
lapse of a whole generation, it seems, however, to
be time to appreciate the natural motives which
drove so many valiant patriots into the Russian
camp. It is enough to remember only the King's
ride through mutinous Berlin, the retreat of the
victorious guards before the defeated barricade-
fighters, and all the terrible humiliation which the
weakness of Frederick William IV brought on the
throne of the Hohenzollerns. The old Prussian
royalists felt as though the world were coming to
an end; they saw all that they counted most
venerable, desecrated; and amid the universal
chaos, the Czar Nicholas appeared to them to be
the last stay of monarchy. Therefore, in order to
save royalty in Prussia, they adhered to Russia.
They made a grievous error, but only blind hatred,
as with our author, can condemn them abruptly
as betrayers of their country. The head of the
pro-Russian party in Berlin was, at the beginning
of the fifties, the same Field Marshal Dohna who
had instantly rejected with Prussian pride the
above-mentioned contemptible proposal of the
Czar; of him, a diplomat said: "So long as this
old standard remains upright, I feel easy."
Strongly conservative in political and ecclesiastical
matters though he was, this son-in-law of Scharn-
horst had never surrendered the ideal of the War
of Liberation, the hope of German unity. What
brought the noble German into the ranks of the

Russian and Prussian Alliance 291

reactionists was certainly not regard for Russia,
but that hopeless confusion of our affairs which had
brought about such a close connexion between the
great cause of German unity and the follies of
the revolution; the imperial crown of Frankfort
seemed to him as to his King to be a couronne de
pave.

As regards the Crimean War, all unprejudiced
judges believe, nowadays, that Prussia had, as an
exception, and for once in a way undeserved good
fortune. The crushing superiority of Russia was
broken by the western Powers without our inter-
ference, and yet our friendly relations with our
eastern neighbour, which were to be so fruitful in
results for Germany's future, remained unbroken.
Even a less undecided, less inactive government
than Manteuffel's ministry could scarcely have
obtained a more favourable result than this. Our
author himself tepidly acknowledges that it was
not Prussia's duty to side with the western
Powers, and thus help on the schemes of Bona-
partism. A really brilliant statesman perhaps
might, as soon as the military forces of France were
locked up in the east, have suddenly made an
alliance with Russia, and attempted the conquest
of Schleswig-Holstein, and the solution of the
German question, without troubling himself about
mistaken public opinion. But it is obvious how
difficult this was, and how impossible for a person-
ality like the King's. Instead of quietly appreciat-
ing the difficulty of the circumstances, our author

292 Treitschke

only vehemently denounces Russia's pride, and
Prussia's servility. He also again ignores the
fact that Prussia then, unfortunately, had fallen
into a state of being regarded as negligible by the
whole world, and the arrogance of the western
Powers was not less than that of Russia. Every-
one knows the letters of Prince Albert, and Napol-
eon Ill's remark, regarding the deference which
Prussia showed towards Russia ; the cold disparag-
ing contempt displayed in the letters of the Prince
Consort, who was himself a German, and accus-
tomed to weigh his words carefully, is, in my
opinion, more insulting than the coarse words of
abuse which the harsh despotic Nicholas is said
to have blurted out in moments of sudden anger.
Our author also ignores the fact that the Czar
Nicholas, declared himself ready to purchase
Prussia's help in the field by surrendering Warsaw.
In the camp of the English and French allies they
were willing to pay a price also, but only offered
a slight rectification of the frontier on the left
bank of the Rhine. Which of the offers was the
more favourable?

This whole section of the book is a mixture of
truth and falsehood, of ingenious remarks and
tasteless gossip. We will give one specimen of the
author's manner of relating history. He prints
in spaced letters the following : " In February, 1864,
a Prussian State-secret — the just completed plan
of mobilization — was revealed to the Court of St.
Petersburg." Then he relates how one of our

Russian and Prussian Alliance 293

noblest patriots, a well-known writer, conveyed the
news of this betrayal, of course in perfect good faith,
to a Berlin lithographic correspondence agency;
and in consequence a secret order was issued for
the writer's arrest. I happen to be exactly
acquainted with the affair, and can confirm the
statement that the order for arrest was certainly
issued — a characteristic occurrence in that time
of petty panics on the part of the police. But
more important than this secondary matter, is
the question whether that piece of information
was reliable, and whether that betrayal really took
place. The author has here again concealed
something. The report was that a brother of the
King had committed the treachery. This remark-
able disclosure, however, did not originate with any
one who was really conversant with affairs, but
with an honourable, though at the same time very
credulous and hot-headed, Liberal deputy of the
Landtag, J who had nothing to do with the Court.
Is it exaggerated loyalty when we Prussians de-
mand from the Baltic anonymous author, at
least, some attempt at a proof, before we resolve
to regard one of our royal princes as a traitor to his
country. The story simply belongs to the series
of innumerable scandals, which were only too
gladly believed by the malicious liberalism of the
fifties. It was, we must remember, the time when
Varnhagen von Ense was flourishing. In accord-
ance with the general tenor of his book, the author

1 Parliament of a single State.

294 Treitschke

naturally does not relish the indisputable fact,
that the policy of Alexander II atoned for many
of the wrongs which the Czar Nicholas had com-
mitted against Germany. He seeks rather, during
this period of Russian history, to hunt up every
trace of movements hostile to Germany. It is,
for instance, a well-known fact, that after the Peace
of Paris, Russia sought for a rapprochement to
France; and it may also be safely assumed that
Prince Gortschakoff, from the commencement of
his political career, regarded an alliance with
France as the most suitable for Russia. But it
is a long way from such general wishes to the acts
of State-policy. For whole decades the great
majority of French statesmen, without distinction
of party, have given a lip-adherence to the Russian
alliance; even Lamartine, the enthusiast for
freedom, spoke of this alliance as a geographical
necessity and the "cry of nature." And yet the
course of the world's history went another way.

Then came the Polish rising of 1863. The
Court of St. Petersburg learned to know thor-
oughly the secret intrigues of Bonapartism, and
in Prussia's watchful aid found a proof of the
value of German friendship. Since then, for a
whole decade, its attitude has remained favourable
to our interests, whatever fault the Baltic anony-
mous author may find in details. Certainly it
was only the will of one man, which gave this
direction to Russian policy. The Russo-Prussian
alliance has never denied its origin; it has never

Russian and Prussian Alliance 295

evoked a warm friendship between the two nations.
While the great majority of Germans regarded
Russian affairs with complete indifference, there
awoke in the educated circles of Russian society,
as soon as the great decisive days of our history
approached, a bitter hatred against Germany,
which increased from year to year. But that one
will, which was friendly to us, governed the Ger-
man State ;and so long as this condition lasted, the
intelligent German press was bound to treat the
neighbouring Power with forbearance. When the
Baltic author expresses contempt for our press
because of this, and blames it for want of national
pride, he merely shows that he has no comprehen-
sion for the first and most important tasks of
German policy. His thoughts continually re-
volve round Reval, Riga, and Mitau.

That the dislocation of the equilibrium among
the Baltic Powers, and the advance of Prussia in
the Cimbric peninsula must have appeared serious
matters to the St. Petersburg Court, is obvious.
But at last it let the old deeply-rooted tradition
drop, and accommodated itself with as good a
grace as possible to the fait accompli. Similarly
it is evident that the formation of the North
German Confederation could not be agreeable
to it. When the war of 1866 broke out, people at
St. Petersburg and all the other capitals of Europe
expected the probable defeat of Prussia, and at first
were seriously alarmed at the brilliant successes
of our troops. But this time also a sense of fair-

296 Treitschke

ness prevailed. The Czar Alexander accepted the
new order of things in Germany, as soon as he
ascertained what schemes were cherished by the
Court of the Tuileries against the left bank of the
Rhine. In the next year, 1870, this attitude of
our friend and neighbour underwent its severest
test. Austria, Italy, and Denmark, as is well
known, were on the point of concluding an alliance
against Germany, when the strokes of Worth and
Spichern intervened. England did not dare to
forbid the French to make the attack, which a
single word from the Queen of the Seas could have
prevented, and afterwards she prolonged the war
by her sale of arms, and by the one-sided manner
in which she maintained her neutrality. The
Czar Alexander, on the other hand, greeted each
victory of his royal uncle with sincere joy. That
was the important point, and not the ill-humour
of Prince Gortschakoff, which our author depicts
with so much satisfaction. Russia was the only
great Power whose head displayed friendly senti-
ments towards us during that difficult time. And
if we wish to realize how valuable Russian friend-
ship was for us also in the following years, we must
compare the present state of things with the past.
As long as the alliance of the three Emperors lasted,
a European war was quite out of the question, for
the notorious war crisis of 1875 has in reality
never existed. Since Russia has separated from
the other two Imperial Powers, we are at any rate
within sight of the possibility of a European war,

Russian and Prussian Alliance 297

and may perhaps be suddenly compelled to act
on two frontiers simultaneously.

The most welcome task for an author, who
openly preaches war against Russia, was obviously
to show in detail through what circumstances the
old alliance after the peace of San Stefano was
loosened and finally dissolved. I know no more
of these matters than anyone else. I only know
that in Russia there is deep vexation at the course
taken by the Berlin Congress, and that a great
deal of the blame is imputed to the German Em-
pire. I have heard of secret negotiations regard-
ing a Franco-Russian alliance, and am without
further argument convinced that Prince Bismarck
would not have given German policy its latest
direction without very solid reasons. But I have
no more exact knowledge of the matter. There-
fore it was with easily intelligible curiosity that
I began to read the last section of the book. I
hoped to learn something about the transactions
between Russia and France; I hoped to learn
whether the sentiments of the Czar Alexander
have changed, or whether that monarch does not
now more personally direct the foreign policy
of his kingdom, etc. But our author himself
knows nothing about such matters; he deceives
himself or others when he pretends to be initiated.
He only produces lengthy extracts from the Ger-
manophobe articles of the Russian press. Every
publicist who is at all an expert knows just as
many fine and pithy passages in Muscovite papers.

298 Treitschke

In Hansen's Coulisses de la Diplomatic the author,
who loves historical sources of this kind, might
discover similar outpourings of Russian politicians.
But all that proves very little. The question is
much rather whether the Russian press, which, as
is well known, enjoys only a certain degree of
freedom in the two capitals and remains quite
unknown to the mass of the people, is powerful
enough to influence the course of Russia's foreign
policy. To this question the author gives no
answer.

So we lay the book aside without any informa-
tion on the present state of affairs, but not without
a feeling of shame. When two who have been
friends for many years have broken with each
other, it is not only unchivalrous for one to tax
his old companions with sins committed long ago,
but unwise; the reproach always falls back on the
reproacher. The last impression which the reader
carries away from this work is much more un-
favourable for Prussia than for Russia; therefore
even the foreign press greeted it at once with
well-deserved contempt. Anyone who believes
the author, must come to the conclusion that
King Frederick William III and his two successors,
had conducted a Russian and not a Prussian policy.
Happily this view is quite false. But we would
remind the Baltic publicist who, under the dis-
guise of a Prussian patriot, draws such a flattering
picture of our history, of an old Prussian story,
which still has its application. In the Rhine

Russian and Prussian Alliance 299

campaign of 1793, a Prussian grenadier was
inveighing vigorously against King Frederick
William II ; but when an Austrian fellow-soldier
chimed in, the Prussian gave him a box on the
ears and said: "I may talk like that, but not you;
for I am a Prussian."

The author's remarks on the future are based
upon the tacit assumption that the European
Powers fall naturally into two groups: Austria,
England, Germany, on the one side; Italy, Russia,
and France, on the other. In the short time since
the book came out, this assumption has already
been made void; the English elections have re-
minded the world very forcibly of the instability
of grouping in the system of States. If the author
had commenced his work only four weeks later,
it would probably not have appeared in the book
market at all, or have done so in a very different
shape.

But there is one truth, though certainly no new
one, in the train of thought which is apparent in
this book; it is only too correct that hostility to
everything German is constantly on the increase
in influential Russian society. But we do not
at all believe that an intelligent Russian Gov-
ernment, not misled by the dreams of Pan-
Slavism, must necessarily cherish such a feeling
towards us. We regard a war against Russia
as a great calamity, for who, now, when the
period of colonizing absolutism lies far behind
us, can seriously wish to encumber our State

300 Treitschke

with the possession of Warsaw, and with millions
of Poles and Jews? But many signs indicate that
the next great European crisis will find the Rus-
sians in the ranks of our enemies. All the more
important therefore is our newly-confirmed friend-
ship with Austria.

This alliance is, as a matter of course, sure of
the involuntary sympathy of our people; if it
endures, it may have the useful effect of strength-
ening the German element in Austria, and finally
checking the melancholy decay of our civilization
in Bohemia and Hungary, in Krain and the Tyrol.
Our interests in the East coincide, for the present,
with those of the Danube Empire. After the
occupation of Bosnia has once taken place, Austria
cannot again surrender the position she has taken
up, without preparing a triumph for our common
enemy, Pan-Slavism. Nevertheless, we cannot
join our Baltic author in prophesying that the
treaty of friendship with Austria will be as lasting
and immovable as the unity of the German Em-
pire. Germany has plenty of enemies in the
medley of peoples which exist in Austria; all the
Slavs, even the ultramontane Germans hate us;
nay more, the Magyars, our political friends,
suppress German civilization in the Saxon districts
of Transylvania, much more severely than the
Russians ever ventured to do in their Baltic pro-
vinces. It is not in our power to keep these
hostile forces for ever aloof from the guidance of
Russia. The unity of our Empire, on the other

Russian and Prussian Alliance 301

hand, rests on our own power alone, and on the
loyalty which we owe to ourselves; therefore it
will last, whatever changes may take place among
the European alliances.

FREEDOM.

WHEN shall we see the last of those [timid
spirits who find it needful to increase the bur-
den of life by self-created torture, to whom every
advance of the human mind is but one sign more of
the decay of our race — of the approach of the Day of
Judgment? The great majority of our contem-
poraries are again beginning, thank Heaven! to
believe quite sturdily and heartily in themselves,
yet we are weak enough to repeat some, at least,
of the gloomy predictions of those atrabilious
spirits. It has become a commonplace assumption
that all-conquering culture will at last supplant
national morality by a morality of mankind, and
transform the world into a cosmopolitan, primitive
pap. But the same law holds good of nations, as
of individuals, who show less differentiation in
childhood than in mature years. In other words,
if a people has vitality enough to keep itself and
its nationality going in the merciless race-struggle
of history, every advance in civilization will cer-
tainly bring its external life in closer contact with
other peoples, but it will bring into clearer relief
its more refined, its deeper idiosyncrasies. We all
follow the Paris fashions, we are linked with neigh-
bouring nations by a thousand different interests;

302

Freedom 303

yet our feelings and ideas, so far as the French and
British intellectual world is concerned, are un-
doubtedly more independent than they were seven
hundred years ago, when the peasant all over
Europe spent his life fettered by patriarchal
custom, whilst the ecclesiastic in every country
derived his knowledge from the same sources,
and the nobility of Latin Christendom created for
itself a common code of honour and morality
under the walls of Jerusalem. That lively ex-
change of ideas between nations, on which the
present generation rightly plumes itself, has never
been a mere give and take.

We are fortified in this consoling knowledge when
we see how the ideas of a German classic about
the highest object of human thought — about
freedom — have recently been developed in a very
individual way by two distinguished political
thinkers of France and England. When Wilhelm
von Humboldt's essay on the limits of the opera-
tions of the State appeared for the first time in
complete form, a few years ago, some sensation
was caused by that brilliant work in Germany
too. We were rejoiced to get a deeper insight
into the evolution of one of our chief men. The
more refined minds delightedly detected the
inspiring breath of the golden age of German
humanity, for it is indeed only in Schiller's nearly-
related letters on the aesthetic education of the
human race that the bright ideal of a beautiful
humanity, which fascinated Germans during that

304 Treitschke

period, has been depicted with equal eloquence
and distinction. The gifted youth who had just
had his first look into the self-complacent red-
tapeism of Frederick William II's bureaucracy,
and had turned away, chilled by its lifeless for-
malities, in order to live a life of aesthetic leisure
at home — he was certainly to be forgiven for
thinking very poorly of the State. Dalberg had
asked him to write the little book — a prince who
had the intention of lavishing profusely on his
country all the good things of life by means of an
administration that would know everything, and
look after everything. The young thinker em-
phasized all the more keenly the fact that the
State is nothing but an institution for purposes of
security ; that it must never again interfere, directly
or indirectly, with a nation's morals or character;
that a man was freest when the State was least
active. We, of the present generation, know only
too well that the true cause of the ruin of the old
German State was that all free minds set them-
selves in such morbid opposition to the State
that they fled from it like young Humboldt,
instead of serving it like Humboldt when grown to
a man, and elevating it by the nobility of their
free human development. The doctrine which
sees in the State merely a hindrance, a necessary
evil, seems obsolete to the German of to-day.
Curiously enough, though, this youthful work of
Humboldt's is now being glorified by John Stuart
Mill, in his book On Liberty, and by Edward

Freedom 305

Laboulaye in his essay Vetat et ses limites, as a
mine of political wisdom for the troubles of the
present time.

Mill is a faithful son of those genuinely German
middle classes of England, which, since the days
of Richard II have preferentially represented our
country's inner essence, its spiritual work both
in good and bad respects, both by an earnest desire
for truth and by a gloomy, fanatical zeal in re-
ligious belief. He has become a rich man since he
discovered and recognized the most precious jewel
of our people, German idealism. Speaking from
that free watch-tower he utters words of reproach,
bitter words, against his fellow-countrymen's
confused thinking; and unfortunately, also, against
the present generation, bitter words such as only
the honoured national economist would dare to
speak unpunished. But, like a true-born English-
man, as a pupil of Bentham, he tests Kant's ideas
by the standard of the useful, the "well-compre-
hended, permanent" utility of course, and therein
shows, in his own person, the deep abyss which
will always separate the two nations' intellectual
activities. He wavers between the English and
German views of the world — in his book On Liberty,
just as in his latest work, Utilitarianism — and
finally gets out of the difficulty by attributing
an ideal meaning to Bentham's purely material-
istic thoughts, which brings them close to the
German view. With the help of the apostle of
German humanity he contrives to praise the

30

306 Treitschke

North-American State-methods, which owe little,
or nothing, to the beautiful humanity of German-
Hellenic classicism. Laboulaye, on the other
hand, belongs to that small school of keen-sighted
Liberals, which feels the weakness of their country
to reside in French centralization, and endeavours
to re-awaken the germs of German civilization
which are there slumbering under the Keltic-
Roman regime. The talented author deals with
historical facts, rather boldly than thoroughly;
briefly, he is of opinion that Christianity was the
first to recognize the worth and dignity of the
individual. Well, then, our glorious heathen Hum-
boldt must be a downright Christian philosopher,
and with the nineteenth century, the age must be
approaching when the ideas of Christianity shall
be completely realized, and the individual, not
the State, shall rule. The Frenchman will con-
vince only a small group of believers among his
numerous readers. Mill's book, on the other
hand, has been received with the greatest ap-
plause by his fellow-countrymen. They have
called it the gospel of the nineteenth century.
As a fact, both works strike notes which have
a mighty echo in the heart of every modern man ;
it is therefore instructive to investigate whether
they really expound the principles of genuine
freedom.

Although we have learnt to assign a deeper
foundation and a richer meaning to the words of
the Greek philosopher, no thinker has surpassed

Freedom 307

the interpretation of freedom which Aristotle
discovered. He thinks, in his exhaustive, :empiri-
cal way, that freedom embraces two things: the
suitability of the citizens to live as they prefer,
and the sharing of the citizens in the State-
government (ruling, and at the same time, being
ruled). The one-sidedness, which is the lever
of all human progress brought it about that the
nations have hardly ever aspired to the full con-
ception of freedom. It is, on the contrary, well
known that the Greeks preferred political freedom
in a narrower sense, and readily sacrificed the
free activity of the individual to a beautiful and
sound existence as a community. The love of
political liberty, on the part of the ancients, was
certainly by no means so exclusive as is generally
believed. That definition of the Greek thinker
proves that they were by no means lacking in the
comprehension of a life, lived after its own will
and pleasure, of civic, personal freedom. Aristotle
knows very well that a State-administration is
even thinkable which does not include the national
life, taken in sum ; he expressly declares that States
are particularly distinguished from each other,
by the question whether everything, or nothing,
or how much is shared by the citizens. At any
rate, the idea was dominant in the mature State
of antiquity, that the citizen is only a part of the
State, that true virtue is realized only in the State.
Political thinkers among the ancients, therefore,
occupy themselves solely with the questions:

308 Treitschke

Who shall rule in the State? and, How shall the
State be protected? Only occasionally, as a slight
misgiving, is the deeper question stirred : How shall
the citizen be protected from the State? The
ancients were assured that a power which a people
exercises over itself, needs no limitation. How
different are the German conceptions of freedom,
which lay chief emphasis on the unlimited right
of personality! In the Middle Age the State
began everywhere, with an implacable combat of
the State-power against the desire for independence
on the part of individuals, guilds, classes, which
was hostile to the State; and we Germans experi-
enced in our own persons with what loss of power
and genuine freedom the "Libertat" of the minor
princes, the "freedoms of the Honourable classes"
were bought. If, at length, in the course of this
struggle, which in later times was gloriously
settled by an absolute Monarchy, the majesty,
the unity of the State was preserved, a transfor-
mation would take place in the people's ideas of
freedom, and a fresh quarrel would start. No
longer is the attempt made to separate the indi-
vidual from a State-power, whose necessity has
been understood. But there is a demand that
the State-power should not be independent of the
people; it should become an actual popular ad-
ministration, working within established forms, and
bound by the will of the majority of the citizens.

Everybody knows how immeasurably far from
that goal our Fatherland still is. What Vittorio

Freedom 309

Alfieri proposed to himself as his object in life
nearly a hundred years ago :

"Di far con penna ai falsi imperj offesa",

is still a difficult, toilsome task for the Germans.
On the Fulda, on the Leine, and probably also
on the Spree, a pusillanimous German might
even to-day repeat Alfieri's question: Ought a
man who is steeped in the feeling of civism, to take
the responsibility of bringing children into the
world, under the yoke of a tyranny? Ought he
to generate beings who, the more sensitive their
conscience the stronger their sense of justice, are
bound to suffer the more severely beneath that
perversion of all ideas of honour, justice, and
shame, whereby a tyranny poisons a people?
What, however, Alfieri himself experienced, did
not happen in the case of the peoples. When,
having reached grown-up age, he published the
savage pamphlet, On Tyranny, which he had once
written in holy zeal as a youth, he was obliged
himself to confess: To-day I should be wanting
in the courage, or, more correctly speaking, the
fury, which was requisite for the authorship of
such a book. The nations to-day, regard with
similar feelings the abstract hatred of tyrants of
the past century. We no longer ask: "Come si
debbe morire nella tirannide," but we stand with
determined, invincible confidence, in the midst of
the fight for political freedom, the result of which

310 Treitschke

has for a long time not been in question. For
the common lot of everything human has domi-
nated this struggle too, and this time, also, the
thoughts of the nations largely anticipated actual
conditions. How poor in vitality, in fruitfulness,
are the partisans of absolutism when confronted
with the people's demand for freedom ! When two
mighty streams of thought dash roaring at one
another, a new middle-stream quietly separates
at last from the wild confusion. Nay, rather, a
stream rages against a strong breakwater and
makes itself a way through thousands and thou-
sands of fissures. Everything new that this nine-
teenth century has provided, is the work of
Liberalism. The foes of freedom are able to utter
only a cool negative, or to revive the ideas of
long-forgotten days so that they may seem alive
again, or, finally, they borrow the weapons of their
opponents. In the tribunals of our Chambers,
by means of the free press, which they owe to
the Liberals, by means of catchwords which they
overhear from their adversaries, they are cham-
pioning principles which, if put in operation, would
be bound to annihilate all the freedom of the
press, all Parliamentary life.

Everywhere, even in classes which fifty years
ago were still closed to all political ideas, there is
a calm and firm belief in the truth of those great
words, which, with their deliberate definiteness,
mark the boundary of a new period; belief in the
words of the American Declaration of Independ-

Freedom 311

ence: "The just powers of governments are derived
from the consent of the governed." So indisput-
able is this idea to modern men that even Gentz
had, reluctantly, to agree with the detested pro-
tagonists of freedom, when he said that the State-
power could claim sacrifices from the citizen only
so long as the latter could call the State his State.
And these problems of freedom are so old, so
thoroughly examined in all their aspects, so near
a decisive issue, that as regards most of them a
conciliation and purgation of opinions has already
been achieved. It was at last understood that
the fight for political freedom is not a dispute
between Republic and Monarchy, because the
people's "ruling and at the same time being ruled,"
is equally realizable in both forms of the State.
Only one single corollary of political freedom is,
even to-day, the cause of embittered, passionate
discussion. If, namely, the people's moral con-
sciousness is in very truth the final, just founda-
tion of the State, if in very truth the people rules
according to its own will, and for its own happi-
ness, a longing for the national isolation of the
States arises of its own accord. Because it is
only where the vital, unquestioning consciousness
of belonging together permeates all members of
the State, that the State is what ought to be,
according to its nature, an organized people in
unity. Thence the desire to exclude foreign
elements, and, in divided nations, the impulse
to get rid of the smaller of the two "fatherlands."

312 Treitschke

It is not our intention to describe to how many
necessary limitations this political liberty is
subject. Suffice it that there is everywhere a
demand for the government of the peoples in
harmony with their will, it is more general and
uniform than ever before in history, and will at
last be as surely satisfied, as the peoples' existence
is more permanent, more justified, and stronger
than the life of their powerful opponents.

However, let us look things in the face, let us
consider how entirely our ideas of freedom have
changed in this protean fight, in which we, our-
selves, are spectators and actors. We no longer
meet the problems of freedom with the overbear-
ingness, with the vague enthusiasm, of youth.
Political freedom is freedom politically limited —
this phrase, which was blamed as servile even
a few decades ago, is, to-day, admitted by every-
body capable of political judgment. And how
ruthlessly has harsh experience destroyed all
those mad ideas which hid themselves behind the
great name of Liberty! The ideas of freedom,
which prevailed during the French Revolution,
were a vague blend of Montesquieu's ideas and
Rousseau's half-antique conception. The con-
struction of political liberty was believed to be
complete if only the legislative power were sepa-
rated from the executive and the judicial, and
every citizen were, on equal terms, to help in
electing the deputies of the National Convention.
Those demands were fulfilled, most abundantly

Freedom 313

fulfilled, and what was the end of it all? The
most disgusting despotism Europe ever saw. The
idolatry which our Radicals displayed all too long
for the horrors of the Convention, is at last be-
ginning to die out in the presence of the trifling
reflection: If an all-mighty State-power forbids
me to open my mouth, compels me to belie my
faith, and guillotines me as soon as I defy such
insolence, it is a matter of perfect indifference
whether that tyranny is exercised by a hereditary
prince or by a Convention; both the one and the
other is slavery. But the fallacy in Rousseau's
maxim that, where all are equal, each one obeys
himself, seems, really, too obvious. It is much
truer that he obeys the majority, and what is
to prevent that majority from behaving quite as
tyrannously as an unscrupulous monarch?

If we consider the feverish convulsions, which
have shaken for seventy years the nation on the
other side of the Rhine (which is, despite all, a
great nation), we are ashamed to find that the
French, in spite of all their enthusiasm for liberty,
have only known equality, and never freedom.
But equality is a shallow idea, which may as well
signify an equal slavery of all, as an equal freedom
of all. And it certainly means the former, when
it is aspired to by a people as the sole, highest,
political good. The highest conceivable degree
of equality — communism — is the highest conceiv-
able degree of serfdom, because it assumes the
suppression of all natural inclinations. Assuredly,

314 Treitschke

it is not an accident that the passionate impulse
for equality is especially rife in that people, whose
Keltic blood is ever and ever again finding pleasure
in flocking, in blind subjection, round a great
Caesarean figure, whether his name be Vercin-
getorix, Louis XIV, or Napoleon. We Germans
insist too proudly on the limitless right of the
individual, for us to be able to discover freedom
in universal suffrage; we reflect, that even in
several Ecclesiastical Orders, the Heads are
chosen by universal suffrage; but who in the wide
world has ever sought for freedom in a convent?
Truly it is not the spirit of liberty which speaks
in Lamartine's declaration, in the year 1848:
"Every Frenchman is an elector, therefore, a
self -ruler ; no Frenchman can say to another, ' You
are more a ruler than I.' What instinct of
mankind is gratified by such words? None other
than the meanest of all — envy! Even Rousseau's
enthusiasm for the civism of the ancients will not
stand serious examination. The civic glory of
Athens rested on the broad substratum of slavery,
of contempt for all economic activities; whilst
we moderns base our fame on respect for all men,
on our acknowledgment of the nobility of labour.
The most bigoted aristocrat in the modern world
seems like a democrat, by comparison with that
Aristotle, who coolly lays it down with horrible
hardness of heart: "It is not possible for a man
who lives the life of a manual labourer to practise
works of virtue."

Freedom 315

Deeper natures were impelled, long ago, by
such considerations, to examine more carefully
on what principles the much-envied freedom of the
Britons rests. They found that in that country
no all-powerful government determines the desti-
nies of the most remote communities, but every
county, however small, is administered by itself.
This acknowledgment of the blessings of self-
government was an extraordinary advance; for
the enervating influence on the citizens of a State
that looks after everything can hardly be depicted
in sufficiently dark colours; it is, therefore, so
uncanny, because a morbid state of the people is
revealed in its full extent only in a later generation.
So long as the eye of the great Frederick watched
over his Prussians, a simple glance at the hero
raised even small souls above their standard, his
vigilance was a spur to the sluggards. But when
he passed away, he left a generation without a
will, accustomed — as Napoleon III boasts of his
Frenchmen — to expect from the State all incite-
ment to action, disposed to that vanity which is
the opposite of real national pride, capable on
occasion of breaking out in fleeting enthusiasm for
the idea of State-unity, but incapable of command-
ing itself — incapable of the greatest task which is
laid upon modern nations. Only those citizens
who have learnt, by self-government, to act as
statesmen in case of need are able to colonize,
to spread the blessings of Western civilization
among barbarians. The management of the

316 Treitschke

business of the community by paid State officials,
may be technically more perfect and may be
better than the principle of the division of labour;
yet a State which allows its citizens, of their own
free-will, to look after districts and communities
in honorary service, gains moral force by the self-
consciousness, by the living, practical patriotism,
of the citizens — forces which the sole rule of State
officialdom can never evolve. Assuredly, this
admission on our part was a significant deepening
of our ideas of freedom, but it by no means con-
tains the ultimate truth. For, if we inquire where
this self-government of all small local districts
exists, we discover with astonishment that the
numerous small tribes in Turkey enjoy this bless-
ing in a high degree. They pay their taxes; for
the rest they live as they please, look after their
pigs, hunt, kill each other, and find themselves
quite happy with it all — until suddenly a pasha
visits the tribe, and proves to the dullest under-
standing, by means of impalement and drowning
in sacks, that the self-government of the com-
munities is an illusion, if the highest powers of the
State do not operate within fixed limits of the
laws.

Thus, finally, we come to the conclusion, that
political freedom is not, as the Napoleons assert,
an ornament which may be set upon a perfectly
constructed State like a golden cupola; it must
permeate and inspire the whole State. It is a
profound, comprehensive, extremely consistent

Freedom 317

system of political rights, which tolerates no gaps.
There can be no Parliament without free com-
munities, no free communities without Parliament ;
and neither can be permanent if the middle factors
between the top of the State and the communities,
namely, the various districts and departments,
are not also administered by a concentration of
the personal activity of independent citizens. We
Germans have felt these gaps painfully for along
time, and are just now making the first modest
endeavours to fill them.

Nevertheless, a State dominated by a govern-
ment carried on by the majority of its people,
with a Parliament, with an independent judiciary,
with districts and communities which administer
themselves, is, despite all, not yet free. It has to
set limits to its operation ; it has to admit that there
are personal properties of so high and unassailable
a nature that the State must never subject them
to itself. Let no one sneer too presumptuously
at the fundamental principles of the more recent
Constitutions. In the midst of phrases and
silliness, they contain the Magna Charta of per-
sonal freedom, with which the modern world will
not again dispense. Free movement in religious
faith, and in knowledge and in affairs generally,
is the watchword of the times; in this domain it
has had the greatest effect; this social freedom is
developing the essence of all political desires for
the great majority of men. It may be asserted
that wherever the State resolved to let a branch

3i8 Treitschke

of social activity grow unhindered, its self-control
was gloriously rewarded; all the predictions of
timorous pessimists fell to the ground. We have
become a different nation, since we have been
drawn into closer intercourse with the world and
its ways. Even two generations ago, Ludwig
Vincke, like the careful President he was, explained
to his Westphalians how to set about building
a high-road by means of a company, on the English
plan. To-day, a dense net of associations of
every kind is spread over German territory. We
know that through his merchants, the German
will, at the least, share in the noble destiny of
our race, and fructify the wide world. And it is,
even now, no empty dream that an act of govern-
ment will presently result from that intercourse
with the world, compared with whose world-
embracing outlook all the activities of modern
great Powers will seem like sorry provincialism
— so immeasurably rich and many-sided is the
essence of freedom. Therein lies the consoling
certainty that it is never impossible at any time
to work for the victory of freedom. For should a
government temporarily succeed in undermining
the people's participation in legislation, men of
to-day, with their impulse for freedom, would
simply throw their energies with the more viol-
ence into economic or spiritual activities, and the
results in the one sphere influence the other sooner
or later. Let us leave it to boys, and those nations
which ever remain children, to hunt for freedom

Freedom 319

with passionate haste, like some phantom that
dissolves at the touch of its pursuers. A mature
people loves liberty, like its lawful wife; she is part
of us, she enraptures us day by day with fresh
charms.

But new, undreamed-of dangers to freedom,
arise with the growth of civilization. It is not
only the State-power which may be tyrannical,
but also the unorganized majority of a society
may subject the minds of its citizens to odious
compulsion by the slow and imperceptible, yet
irresistible, force of its opinion. And it is beyond
doubt, that the danger of an intolerable limitation
of the independent development of personality,
by means of public opinion, is especially great in
democratic States. For, whilst during the absence
of freedom under the old regime, at least a few
privileged classes were allowed, without hindrance,
to develop, brilliantly, their individual gifts,
whether for good or for evil, the middle classes,
who will determine Europe's future, are not free
from a certain preference for the mediocre. They
are justly proud of the fact that they are trying
to drag down to their own level everything that
rises above them, and to raise up to the level all
those that are beneath them; and they may base
their desire to be determining factors in the lives
of States on a glorious title, on a great deed, which
they, together with the old monarchy, have
achieved, namely, on the emancipation of our
lower classes. But woe to us, if this tendency

32O Treitschke

to equality, which has ripened the most precious
fruit in the domain of common right, goes astray
in the domain of individual evolution! The
middle classes hate all open, violent tyranny, but
they are much inclined to nullify, by the ostracism
of public opinion, everything that rises above a
certain average of culture, of spiritual nobility,
of audacity. The love of liberty which distin-
guishes them, and makes them, as such, the most
capable political order, is liable to degenerate only
too easily into idle complacency, into an unthink-
ing sleepy endeavour to blink and gloss over all
the contradictions of intellectual life, and to tole-
rate alert activity only in the sphere of material
operations (of "improvement!"). We are not
here giving utterance to vain hypotheses. Far
from it. The yoke of public opinion presses
heavier than elsewhere in the freest great States
of modernity, in England and the United States.
The sphere of what the community permits the
citizen to think and to do as an honourable and
decent being is there, incomparably narrower
than with us. If you have knowledge of the
memorable discussions about the Constitution at
the Convention of Massachusetts, in the year 1853 ;
if you know with what spirit and passion the
doctrine was then championed, that "a citizen
may certainly be the subject of a party, or an
actual power (!), but never the subject of the
State," you will not underrate the peril of a lapse
into conditions of harsh morality and weakened

Freedom 321

rights — the danger of the social tyranny of the
majority. Mill has excellently pointed this out,
and therein lies the significance of his book for the
present time. He investigates, quite apart from
the form of government, the nature and limits of
the power which society should suitably exercise
over the individual. Humboldt saw danger for
personal liberty only in the State; he scarcely
thought that the society of beautiful and distin-
guished minds, which associated with him, could
ever hinder the individual in the complete evolu-
tion of his personality. However, we know now,
that they may be not only a "free sociability,"
but also a tyrannical public opinion.

In order to understand to what extent society
should use its power over the individual, it is best,
first of all, to throw gleefully overboard a question,
over which political thinkers have unnecessarily
spent many unhappy hours, namely: Is the State
only a means for furthering the objects in life of
the citizens? Or, is it the sole object of the citi-
zens' well-being to bring into existence a beautiful
and good collective life? Humboldt, Mill, and
Laboulaye, and the collective Liberalism of the
Rotteck-Welcker school, decide for the former;
the ancients, as is well-known, for the latter. We
think the one opinion is worth as little as the other.
For the whole world admits that a relation of
reciprocal rights and duties connects the State
with its citizens. But reciprocity is unthinkable
between entities which are related to one another

322 Treitschke

simply as means and object. The State is, itself,
an object, like everything living ; for who can deny
that the State lives quite as real a life as each of
its citizens? How wonderful, that we Germans,
with our provincialism, have to admonish a
Frenchman and an Englishman to think more
highly of the State! Mill and Laboulaye both
live in mighty respected States; they take that
rich blessing for granted and perceive in the State
only the terrifying power which threatens the
liberty of man. We Germans have had our
esteem for the dignity of the State fortified by
painful experience. When we are asked by
strangers about our "narrower fatherland," and
a scornful smile plays around the lips of the hearers
at the mention of the name of Reuss, of the
younger line, or Schwarzburg-Sondershausen's
principality, we feel, indeed, that the State is
something bigger than a means for lightening the
burdens of our private lives. Its honour is ours,
and he who cannot look upon his State with enthu-
siastic pride, his soul is lacking in one of the highest
feelings of man. If, to-day, our best men are
trying to build up a State for this nation, which
shall deserve respect, they are inspired in their
task, not only by the desire to spend their per-
sonal existence, henceforth, in greater security,
but they, also, know they are fulfilling a moral
duty, which is imposed upon every nation.

The State — which protected our forefathers
with its justice, which they defended with their

Freedom 323

bodies; which the living are called upon to build
further; and higher-developed children and child-
ren's children to inherit which, therefore, is
a sacred bond between many generations — the
State, I say, is an independent order, which lives
according to its own laws. The views of rulers
and ruled can never altogether coincide; they will,
assuredly, reach the same goal in a free and mature
State, but by widely divergent paths. The
citizen demands from the State the highest pos-
sible measure of personal liberty, because he wants
to live himself out, to develop all his powers.
The State grants it, not because it wants to oblige
the individual citizen; but it is considering itself,
the whole. It is bound to support itself by its
citizens; but in the moral world, only that which
is free, which is also able to resist, supports. Thus,
truly, the respect, which the State pays the indi-
vidual and his liberty, gives the surest measure
of its culture; but it pays that respect primarily
because political freedom, which the State itself
acquires, is impossible with citizens who do not,
themselves, look after their most private affairs
without hindrance.

This indissoluble connection between political
and personal liberty, especially the essence of
liberty, as of a closely-cohering system of noble
rights, has not been properly understood by either
Mill or Laboulaye. The former, in full enjoyment
of English civic rights, silently assumes the exist-
ence of political freedom; the latter, under the

324 Treitschke

oppression of Bonapartism, does not dare even
to think about it. And yet personal freedom,
without the political, leads to the dissolution of
the State. He who sees in the State only a means
for obtaining the objects in life of the citizens,
must, consequentially, after the good mediaeval
manner, seek freedom from the State, not freedom
in the State. The modern world has outgrown
that error. Still less, however, may a generation,
which lives predominantly for social aims, and is
able to devote only a small part of its time to the
State, fall into the opposite error of the ancients.
This age is called upon to resume in itself, and to
further develop, the indestructible results of the
labours of culture, and, likewise, of the political
work of antiquity and the Middle Age. Thus it
arrives at the harmonizing and yet independent
conclusion, that there is a physical necessity, and
a moral duty, for the State to further everything
that serves the personal evolution of its citizens.
And, again, there is a physical necessity, and a
moral duty, for the individual to take his part in
a State, and to make even personal sacrifices to
it, which the maintenance of the community
demands, even the sacrifice of his life. And, indeed,
man is subject to this duty, not merely because
it is only as a citizen that he can become a com-
plete man, but also because it is an historical
ordinance that mankind build States, beautiful
and good States. The historical world affords
superabundant evidence of such conditions of

Freedom 325

reciprocal rights, or reciprocal dependence; every-
thing conditioned appears in it at the same time
as a conditioning entity. It is precisely that
fact which often makes the comprehension of
things political difficult to keen, mathematical
minds which, like Mill, are fond of reaching
conclusion by means of a radical law.

Mill now tries to draw the permissible limits
of the operation of society with the sentence:
The interference of society with personal liberty
is only justified, when it is necessary, in order to
protect the community itself, or to hinder injury
by others. We shall not contradict this saying —
if only it were not so entirely futile! How small
is the effect of such abstract maxims of natural
law in an historical science! For is not the "self-
protection of the Community" historically capable
of change? Is it not the duty of a theocratic
State, for the sake of self -protection, to tyran-
nously interfere, even with the thoughts of its
citizens? And do not those common labours,
which are "necessary for the community," which
the citizen must be compelled to discharge, vary
essentially according to time and place? There
is no absolute limit to the State-power, and it is
the greatest merit of modern science, that it has
taught politicians to reckon only with relative
ideas. Every advance of civilization, every widen-
ing of national culture, necessarily makes the
State's activity more varied. North America,
too, is experiencing that truth; the State and

326 Treitschke

society in the big towns there are also being
obliged to develop a manifold activity, which is
not needed in a primeval forest.

The much-vaunted voluntarism, the activity
of free private associations, is not by any means
sufficient in all cases to satisfy the needs of our
society. The net of our intercourse has such small
meshes, that a thousand collisions between rights
and interests necessarily occur; it is the duty of
the State in both instances to intervene conciliat-
ingly as an impartial power. In the same way
there exist in every highly-civilized nation, big
private powers which actually exclude free com-
petition ; the State has to restrain their selfishness,
even if they do not injure any rights of third parties.
The English Parliament some years ago ordered
the railway companies, not only to attend to the
safety of the passengers, but also to allow a certain
number of so-called Parliamentary trains, to run
at the usual rates for all classes of carriages.
Nobody can say that there is an exceeding of the
sensible limits of the State-power in this law, which
makes travelling possible for the lower classes.
But if you see in the State merely an institution
for safety, you can defend the measure only by
means of very artificial and unconvincing argu-
ment. For who has a right to demand that he
should be carried from A to B for three shillings?
The railway company has certainly no monopoly
by law, and it is free to anyone to construct a
parallel line! No, the modern State cannot do

Freedom 327

without an extensive positive activity for the
people's benefit. In every nation there are spirit-
ual and material properties, without which the
State cannot exist. A constitutional State as-
sumes a high average of national culture; it may
never leave it to the pleasure of parents, whether
they want to give their children the most needful
education; it requires compulsory education.
The sphere of these benefits, which are requisite
for the community's existence, is inevitably
widened by the growth of civilization. Who would
seriously propose to shut up the precious art
institutions in our States? We old cultured
nations shall certainly not relapse into the crude
conception which sees a luxury in art; it is like
our daily bread to us. In point of fact, the de-
mand for the extremest limitation of State-activity
is the more loudly urged in theory to-day, the
more it is contradicted by practice, even in free
countries. The school of Tocqueville, Labou-
laye, Charles Dollfus, grew up in combat with an
all-embracing State-power which wanted, not to
guide, but to replace society, under the Second
Empire; a school which goes beyond its mark,
and discerns in the State simply an obstacle, an
oppressing force. Even Mill is dominated by the
opinion that the greater the power of the State,
the smaller the freedom. The State however is
not the citizen's foe. England is free, and yet the
English police have a very great discretionary
power and is bound to have it; it is enough if a

328 Treitschkc

citizen may make any official answerable in a
law-court.

Luckily, another historical law is operating in
opposition to the increasing growth of State-power.
In proportion as the citizens become riper for
self-government, the State is under obligation,
nay, is physically obliged, to operate in a more
varied way so far as comprehensiveness is con-
cerned, but more moderately so far as method is
concerned. If the immature State was a guarantee
for individual branches of national activity, the
guardianship of the highly-developed State em-
braces the sum total of national life, but it operates
as far as possible, only as a force that spurs on,
instructs, clears away impediments. A mature
people must therefore demand these things of the
State for the assurance of its personal liberty:
The most fruitful outcome of the metaphysical
fights for freedom during the past century, namely,
the truth that the citizen must never be utilized
by the State merely as a means, should be recog-
nized as a true fundamental principle. Next:
all activity on the part of the government is
beneficial which brings forth, furthers, purifies,
the individual activity of the citizens; all govern-
ment activity which suppresses the activity of indi-
viduals is evil. For the whole dignity of the State
rests ultimately on the personal worth of its citi-
zens, and that State is the most moral, which
combines the powers of the citizens for the purpose
of accomplishing the greatest number of works

Freedom 329

beneficial to the society, and yet permits each
one, honestly and independently, to pursue his
personal development untouched by compulsion
on the part of the State and public opinion. Thus
we agree with Mill and Laboulaye in the final
result: in the desire for the highest possible degree
of personal liberty, although we do not share
their view of the State as an obstacle to freedom.

And what significance do these reflections on
personal liberty possess for us? The presentiment
of a great and decisive movement is permeating
the world, and imposing on every nation the
question, what value it puts on personal freedom,
on the personal independence of its citizens. We
Germans in particular cannot evade the question;
we, whose whole future rests, not on the established
power of all our States, but on the personal thor-
oughness of our people. The historical facts are
dominant, that only a nation which is imbued with
a strong sense of personal freedom can win and
keep political freedom, and that the well-being
or real personal freedom is only possible under the
protection of political freedom, since despotism,
in whatever shape it may appear, is able to give
rein only to the lower passions, to commerce, and
commonplace ambition.

The most precious and especial possession of
our nation, which will yet constitute the German
State a new phenomenon in political history, is
the Germans' invincible love ot personal freedom.
Many will smile at this, and put the bitter question :

330 Treitschke

Where are the fruits of this love? And indeed
we redden as we confront that stately line of
legislative measures which the Anglo-Saxon race
has passed for its personal freedom. Mill is far
from deifying our nation; as has been said of him
with some justice, he inwardly feels his near kin-
ship with the German genius, but he is afraid of
the weaknesses of our temperament, he deliber-
ately avoids penetrating too deeply into German
literature, and holds to French novels. And the
same man confesses that in no country except Ger-
many alone, are people capable of understanding
and aspiring to the highest and purest personal
liberty, the all-sided evolution of the human
spirit !

Our science is the freest on earth; it tolerates
no compulsion, either from without or within;
it aims at the truth, nothing but the truth, with-
out any prejudice. The opinionativeness of our
learned men became a by-word, yet it goes very
well together with a frank acknowledgment of an
adversary's scientific importance. A free mind,
which goes its own way, and not the well-worn
way of the schools, and reaches important results,
may, with certainty, finally count upon cordial
agreement. The most stupid police tutelage did
not succeed in breaking down the Germans'
ardour for personal idiosyncrasy. It is a convic-
tion, which has taken firm root in the lowest
strata of our nation, that in all questions of con-
science every man must decide for himself alone.

Freedom 331

In the tiniest States, which would entirely distort
the character of any other people, the ideal of free
human development is preached to the youth,
namely, the fearless seeking after truth, the evolu-
tion of character from within outwards, the har-
monious growth of all human gifts. And, as
freedom and toleration necessarily go hand in
hand, nowhere is the tolerance of different opinions
so much at home as with us ; we learned it in the
hard school of those religious wars, which this
nation fought for the salvation of the whole of
humanity. Ours, too, is the noblest blessing of
inward freedom: beautiful moderation. The most
daring thoughts about the highest problems which
trouble mankind are uttered by Germans. Hu-
man respect for everything human became second
nature to the German.

Let nobody believe that the free scientific ac-
tivity of the Germans is a welcome lightning-
conductor to the existing State authorities. All
intellectual gains, of which a nation can be proud,
influence the State-life as one pledge more for its
political greatness. We are slowly proceeding
from intellectual to political work, as Germany's
recent history clearly shows, and we may expect
with certainty that the independent courage of
German learned men in the search for truth will
react on the whole nation. Inclination, and ca-
pacity for self-government are abundant among
us. Towns like Berlin and Leipzig are at least
on level terms with the great English communities

332

Treitschke

in the excellence of their administration, in the
common feeling dominating their inhabitants.
And how much natural talent and inclination for
genuine personal liberty dwell in our Fourth Estate
is revealed more clearly every year in the trade
unions.

The last and supreme requisite of personal
freedom is that the State and public opinion must
allow the individual to develop in his individual
character, both in thought and in act. What
Mill announces to his fellow-countrymen as a
new thing, has long been common property in
Germany, namely Humboldt's doctrine of the
"individuality of capacity and culture," of the
"highest and harmonious evolution of all capaci-
ties," which thrives by means of freedom and
multiplicity of situations, that unique combination
of the Platonic sense of beauty and Kant's severity,
which marks the zenith of German humanity.

J} Selection from the
Catalogue of

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Complete Catalogue Sent
on application

The Real
"Truth About Germany"

From the English Point of View
By Douglas Sladen

Author of " Egypt and the English," etc.
With an Appendix

Great Britain and the War

By A. Maurice Low, M.A.

Author of " The American People," etc.

300 pages, 12°, Cloth, $100

Mr. Sladen has taken as his text a pamphlet which, while not
formally published, has been widely circulated in the United States,
entitled The Truth About Germany, This pamphlet was prepared
in Germany under the supervision of a Committee of Repre-
sentative Germans, and may fairly be described as the "official
justification of the War." Care has been taken to prevent copies
from finding their way into England, which has caused Mr. Sladen
to describe the pamphlet as The Secret White Paper. He has taken
up one by one the statements of the German writers, and has
shown how little foundation most of these statements have and
how misleading are others which contain some element of truth.
In answering the German statements, Mr. Sladen has naturally
taken the opportunity to state clearly the case of England. England
claims that it was impossible to avoid going into this struggle if
it was to keep faith with and fulfill its obligations to Belgium
and Luxemburg. Apart from this duty, it is the conviction of
England, that it is fighting not only in fulfillment of obligations
and to prevent France from being crushed for a second time, but
for self-preservation. The German threat has been made openly
" first Paris, then London."

In order that the case for England may be complete, the pub-
lishers have added an essay by the well-known historian, A. Maurice
Low. As the title, Great Britain and the War, indicates, England's
attitude toward the great conflict is clearly portrayed, and her
reasons for joining therein are ably presented.

New York G. P. Putnam's Sons London

WHO IS
RESPONSIBLE?

Armageddon and After!

Cloudesley Brereton

76/770. Cloth. 50 cents

A monograph by one of the educational
leaders of England, which undertakes to
show how Prussian tradition, starting
with Frederick the Great, has succeeded
hi corrupting the Germany of to-day.
The author takes the ground that the
issue of the present struggle may be a
great spiritual renascence or it may be
the domination of the Huns.

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

France Herself Again

By the Abbe Ernest Dimnet

5°. About 400 pages. $250

This is an authoritative work by an author
who has gained well-earned fame as a historian.
The purpose and general character of the book,
which compares the demoralized France of 1870
with the united France of to-day, may be seen
by the chapter headings.

Introductory : The Object of the Book

Part I. The Deterioration of France

1. Under the Second Empire

2. Under the Third Republic

Part II. Tho Return of the Light

1. Immediate Consequences of the Tan-

gier Incident

2. Intellectual Preparation of the New

Spirit

3. Evidences of the New Spirit

Part III. The Political Problems and the
Future

Part IV. France and the War of 1914

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

The Evidence in
the Case

In the Supreme Court of
Civilization

The Case of The Dual Alliance vs, The Triple Entente

By
James M. Beck

Late Assistant Attorney-General of the U. S.
72°. $1.00

In this volume the scholarly author sums up,
speaking as a judge in a world's court of abso-
lute impartiality, the causation of the present
European War and the relative responsibilities
of the nations that are parties to the War. The
author's verdict is based upon the official docu-
ments in the case, and these documents are
presented in the original text as an appendix to
the argument.

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York London

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

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