"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 Philistines are prejudiced when entering
the Aula, and are firmly determined to consider
as untrue every word I say about Prussia.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
?
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? CONTENTS
PAGE
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 3 2
XI
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? Treitschke: A Study of His
Life and Work.
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
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? 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
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? 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 Wiirzburg
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
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? 4 Treitschke
of Baden. From his room he overlooked green
gardens stretching towards the River Miinster.
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 iri future, since he could well employ
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? 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-
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? 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 r 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 ol4~Senator Maier
to produce the books of his pupils. J Furthermore,
the students of Theology are locked in a convent,
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? 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 callfe^par-
ticularist liberalism" the most contemptible of all
parties which, however, unfortunateljTrwould play
an important part in the near future^J "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
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? 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 August enburg, 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
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? 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 h'as 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.
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? 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-
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? 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
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? 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,
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? 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
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? 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 Protest ant 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
Blunt schli 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
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? 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
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? 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
Wiirtemberg. 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
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? 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. "
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? 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
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? 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
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? 20 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
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? 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
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? 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
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? His Life and Work 23
encounters with soldiers in the railway stations,
he travelled via Strasburg and Lothring. Upon
his arrival at Munster 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.
II.
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.
? CONTENTS
PAGE
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 3 2
XI
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? Treitschke: A Study of His
Life and Work.
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
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? 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
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? 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 Wiirzburg
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
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? 4 Treitschke
of Baden. From his room he overlooked green
gardens stretching towards the River Miinster.
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 iri future, since he could well employ
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? 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-
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? 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 r 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 ol4~Senator Maier
to produce the books of his pupils. J Furthermore,
the students of Theology are locked in a convent,
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? 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 callfe^par-
ticularist liberalism" the most contemptible of all
parties which, however, unfortunateljTrwould play
an important part in the near future^J "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
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? 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 August enburg, 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
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? 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 h'as 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.
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? 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-
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? 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
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? 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,
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? 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
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? 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 Protest ant 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
Blunt schli 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
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? 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
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? 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
Wiirtemberg. 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
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? 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. "
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? 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
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? 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
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? 20 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
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? 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
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? 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
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? His Life and Work 23
encounters with soldiers in the railway stations,
he travelled via Strasburg and Lothring. Upon
his arrival at Munster 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.
II.
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.
