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.
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.
Treitschke - 1914 - Life and Works
net/2027/mdp.
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 113
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 editor-
ship of the Annuals entailed, perhaps the most dis-
agreeable one was to review those questions 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 organised against him after publication of his
first article in November, 1879, and which only poured
fat into the fire, it must be remembered that he deliber-
ately placed the following sentence in front: "There
can be, among sensible people, no question of a with-
drawal, or even of only an infringement, of the com-
pleted 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
H
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? H4 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 to-
gether, how reliably works this Immortality Assurance
Society, based on the approved commercial principal
of reciprocity, so that each Jewish poetical star receives
on the spot, and without rebate of interest for
delay, the ephemeral praise administered by the news-
papers. " In the presence of the objectionable agitation
of these years, George Eliot, in her last novel, " Daniel
Deronda," reproached Germany with Jewish persecu-
tion, 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 char-
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 115
latanry 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, Put-
litz, 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 appearance are to-day submerged in the flood
of journalism and completely forgotten. Another con-
sideration of Treitschke referred to the development of
our school system under the completely changed denomi-
national conditions of colleges. Nothing had given him
so much food for reflection as the sentence of his first
essay: "From the East frontier there pours year by
year from the inexhaustible Polish cradle a huge number
of ambitious trouser-selling youths, whose children and
children's children, in time to come, will dominate Ger-
many's stock exchanges and newspapers; the immigra-
tion 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
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? n6 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 per-
suasion, 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
fortunes, not by productive labour, but by the exchange
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 ne 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 con-
cerned, is: What is our duty since we have them? He
himself had no wish to adopt the practical method em-
ployed 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,
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 117
according 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 seriously 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 poli-
tician to make an enemy for all times of this great power
in Berlin. He lost in life valuable and even Christian
fellow-workers for his own object, and by the sneering tone
of his articles he particularly puzzled 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 FSrster
anti-Semitic petition. Treitschke declared he disagreed
with the contents of this petition, and also considered
it wrong for students to be mixed up in legislative ques-
tions. If they were determined to make a manifesto
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? 118 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 im-
mediate expurgation of that passage. He replied very
repentantly, asked my pardon, assured me that he had
been greatly excited during the conversation, and conse-
quently had quite misunderstood me; he also promised
to have that passage eliminated, which actually was
done. The mendacious reference to Treitschke, how-
ever, caused so much discussion that Treitschke sent to
a member of the Senate a written declaration for trans-
mission to the Rector, and when Mommsen, in a pam-
phlet, 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 demonstrate 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. Never,
theless, he recognised with great respect that Mommsen
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 119
had abruptly turned a deaf ear to the attempts of several
younger Jewish colleagues in their endeavour 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
consequence 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 forte. On the contrary, it seemed to me
worthy of note that Treitschke, in spite of his personal
aversion, recognised 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 imita-
tion akin to the Jew. In these questions, likewise,
Treitschke's judgment, 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 con-
vinced 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
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? 120 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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, Erdmans-
doerffer reminded me of a saying of Berthold Auerbach,
who had predicted of another anti-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
him and the Liberals of both camps. All the more enthu-
siastically 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 be-
come 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 indifferent 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 121
vigorous spiritual life, and therefore cannot silently
pass over the invectives of the Jewish Press against
Christianity, but consider them as attacks on the funda-
ments of our morals, as disturbances of the peace of the
country. " The next consequence of this attitude was
that, contrary to his former utterances on undenomina-
tional schools, he now declared denominational schools
as normal, whereas, as late as 1872, he had appealed to
the new Minister of Public Instruction to send Jewish
teachers to those colleges which Herr von Miihler had
declared as being denominational according to observ-
ance. Soon we were as much amazed at the literary
manifestos of our friend as the veterans of Napoleon, who,
after the Concordate, wondered how the "LittleCorporal"
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 ever-
lasting attacks upon the theologians. At the christening
of his second daughter, he drank the health of Grand-
mama 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
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? 122 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 very subordinate class of men, and being what he
was, his disdain seemed more natural than the subse-
quent 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 Germany 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
characterises the turning-point in his life--nay, it pre-
pared 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 in-
duced 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 123
suitability for defending apostolicity and reprimanding
the Rationalist clergy was, to say the least, very doubtful.
I took their part in the Allgcmeine 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 paper in which
only the scum of German professors deposit their spawn. "
But soon enough he himself had to be glad to be able
to deposit his declarations 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; some-
thing like the Kreuz Zeitung. " Later on he shielded
the Court Preacher against the Berlin Press. The wit-
ness affair could have happened to anybody. When
holding on one and the same day two or three meetings
it was impossible to recognise 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,
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? 124 TREITSCHKE': HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 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 magni-
ficent 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 scriptural 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 destruc-
tion filled him with growing respect for the forces we are
dependent upon, but his philosophical convictions had
remained the same; his judgment of Radicals alone had
accentuated. Almost comical was his indignation against
the Berlin Press. He wondered whether the future
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 125
would realise the stupidity of a legislation which per-
mitted every Jew to drag into publicity whatever pains
and grieves other human beings, and yet remain in the
dark, singing: "Oh wie gut dass niemand weiss dass ich
Rumpelstilchen heiss! " ("I take good care to let none
know that my name is Ikey Mo "). In addition, the privi-
lege 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 frequently 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 Con-
servatives. 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 conditions. He experienced, partially, how
they now developed into the Polish Danish Annuals,
which did not increase his pleasure at their latest era.
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? 126 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Treitschke's attitude against the Puttkamer ortho-
graphy, had the approval of his Heidelberg friends,
especially that of Herrmann, who, meanwhile, had
returned to us. Treitschke was assured that Puttkamer
himself realised subsequently his mistaken procedure.
We were less in sympathy with his declaration against
Gossler's proscription of foreign words, Treitschke him-
self having formerly complained 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
demonstrated in the History of Literature, where he
discussed D. Fr. Strauss in such a slighting manner.
At the time he had read Strauss' 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 in two volumes of Strauss, from
which, almost verbally, is culled the final passage of his
paragraph; 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 127
work, and whereas I showed how embitterment, likewise,
had impaired Strauss' 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 retrogression--works which
are more read to-day than the Life of Jesus. He ex-
aggerated the parable of the founder, and the Suabian
Master of Arts, to such an extent, as to describe Strauss'
Theology as the outpourings of a bookworm, and repeat-
ing Dubois Reumont's well-known reference to a ward
of women suffering from cancer, who could not be com-
forted by Strauss' 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 expressed 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 unsympathetic to him. To fight side by side with
my old companion afforded me particular pleasure, for
he warned the Government to pass a bill, with the
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? 128 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
assistance of the Conservatives and Ultramontanes,
which was repugnant to the majority of the Protestants,
and which abandoned the principle that the School
belongs to the State. He also admitted so many excep-
tions 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 com-
ing 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, although forced
upon him, was less pleasing to me. Like all strong,
subjective dispositions, Baumgarten 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. " While Treitschke, in
Berlin, had gradually identified himself more and more
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 129
with the views of Prussian Conservatives, Baumgarten,
in Strasburg, had conceived a passionate aversion for
Prussian bureaucracy. Thanks to his friend, Roggen-
bach, entrusted with the Chair for Modern History at
the time of the foundation of the Strasburg University,
he had closely attached himself to the Protestant Alsa-
tians, 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 abandon-
ment of this proposal, which would for ever have alienated
the Protestants from Prussia. He endorsed the com-
plaints 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
Manteuffel's patronage of notables, who were the hated
opponents of his Pro-German Alsatian friends, and
referred to the testimony of Count Tiirckheim and others,
who had had the intention of becoming Prussian, but
now met their Alsatian sworn enemies in the drawing-
room of the Governor as family friends. All these ex-
periences had produced in Baumgarten a feeling which,
although he did not wish it to be called Prussophobia,
nevertheless resembled it as one egg resembles another.
1
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? 130 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Anyhow, the Alsatians were his friends, and the Prussian
officials were continually the objects of his criticism,
whereby he rose, of course, in the favour of the adminis-
tration. 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 pathologically. It
was, perhaps, expressed too strongly when Treitschke
spoke of a mass of abuse and suspicions in the " libellous
pamphlet " ; but nobody 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 fol-
lowing: "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, 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--
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 131
"I harboured the harmless idea it must yet be possible
to please for once the Germans. I am now cured of that
delusion. We are still lacking a natural historical tradition;
in representing 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 Germans. The real seat of acrimonious captious-
ness, 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 civilisation there will be
formed in the political world an element conservative
in the true sense. Continue to be of good courage for your
patriotic struggles, my dear sir; time will come when
Germans 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 recognise, did not lie in isolated blame which
Treitschke successfully refuted, and against which both
Sybel and Erdmansdoerffer, both certainly competent
judges, objected. It was against the general distribution
of light and shade that objection could be raised. In
a work judging so severely nearly all the monarchs of
Europe, the idealisation of Friedrich Wilhelm III was
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? 132 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
most surprising. The King, who had behaved feebly
during the war, and in peace times persecuted patriots
such as Arndt and John, and destroyed 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 refused 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,
Treitschke would never have so strongly emphasized in
the case of a Hapsburg or a Wittelsbach. Treitschke by
no means disguised these events, but his final judgment is
reminiscent of Spittler's characterisation 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 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 133
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 considered the South Germans only as second class
Germans in the following manner: "I am only politic-
ally 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 considered 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 uncomfortable
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 embodiment 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 receiving
reports concurring with my views. " Baumgarten him-
self denied the offensive nature of his expressions, and
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? 134 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
only when Erdmansdoerffer, in a discussion in the
GrenxboU anent Baumgarten's own writings, rendered
certain parts verbatim in parenthesis, he could have
realised how such words would appeal to the attacked
party.
All this unpleasantness, however, seemed insignificant
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 underwent the Heidelberg ophthalmologist's treat-
ment he spent a longer period during the holidays in
Heidelberg than hitherto. It was impossible to imagine
anything more pathetic than the perspective which he,
without lamentation, yet with deadly earnest, was holding
before himself: "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 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 135
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 his
lectures had afforded him consolation more than ever.
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 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 improvement was
a lasting one. The fifth volume appeared in the autumn
of 1894, and in force of style and clearness of matter
fully equalled his 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
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? 136 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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.
? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 113
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 editor-
ship of the Annuals entailed, perhaps the most dis-
agreeable one was to review those questions 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 organised against him after publication of his
first article in November, 1879, and which only poured
fat into the fire, it must be remembered that he deliber-
ately placed the following sentence in front: "There
can be, among sensible people, no question of a with-
drawal, or even of only an infringement, of the com-
pleted 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
H
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? H4 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 to-
gether, how reliably works this Immortality Assurance
Society, based on the approved commercial principal
of reciprocity, so that each Jewish poetical star receives
on the spot, and without rebate of interest for
delay, the ephemeral praise administered by the news-
papers. " In the presence of the objectionable agitation
of these years, George Eliot, in her last novel, " Daniel
Deronda," reproached Germany with Jewish persecu-
tion, 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 char-
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 115
latanry 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, Put-
litz, 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 appearance are to-day submerged in the flood
of journalism and completely forgotten. Another con-
sideration of Treitschke referred to the development of
our school system under the completely changed denomi-
national conditions of colleges. Nothing had given him
so much food for reflection as the sentence of his first
essay: "From the East frontier there pours year by
year from the inexhaustible Polish cradle a huge number
of ambitious trouser-selling youths, whose children and
children's children, in time to come, will dominate Ger-
many's stock exchanges and newspapers; the immigra-
tion 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
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? n6 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 per-
suasion, 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
fortunes, not by productive labour, but by the exchange
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 ne 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 con-
cerned, is: What is our duty since we have them? He
himself had no wish to adopt the practical method em-
ployed 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,
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 117
according 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 seriously 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 poli-
tician to make an enemy for all times of this great power
in Berlin. He lost in life valuable and even Christian
fellow-workers for his own object, and by the sneering tone
of his articles he particularly puzzled 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 FSrster
anti-Semitic petition. Treitschke declared he disagreed
with the contents of this petition, and also considered
it wrong for students to be mixed up in legislative ques-
tions. If they were determined to make a manifesto
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? 118 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 im-
mediate expurgation of that passage. He replied very
repentantly, asked my pardon, assured me that he had
been greatly excited during the conversation, and conse-
quently had quite misunderstood me; he also promised
to have that passage eliminated, which actually was
done. The mendacious reference to Treitschke, how-
ever, caused so much discussion that Treitschke sent to
a member of the Senate a written declaration for trans-
mission to the Rector, and when Mommsen, in a pam-
phlet, 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 demonstrate 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. Never,
theless, he recognised with great respect that Mommsen
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 119
had abruptly turned a deaf ear to the attempts of several
younger Jewish colleagues in their endeavour 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
consequence 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 forte. On the contrary, it seemed to me
worthy of note that Treitschke, in spite of his personal
aversion, recognised 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 imita-
tion akin to the Jew. In these questions, likewise,
Treitschke's judgment, 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 con-
vinced 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
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? 120 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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, Erdmans-
doerffer reminded me of a saying of Berthold Auerbach,
who had predicted of another anti-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
him and the Liberals of both camps. All the more enthu-
siastically 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 be-
come 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 indifferent 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 121
vigorous spiritual life, and therefore cannot silently
pass over the invectives of the Jewish Press against
Christianity, but consider them as attacks on the funda-
ments of our morals, as disturbances of the peace of the
country. " The next consequence of this attitude was
that, contrary to his former utterances on undenomina-
tional schools, he now declared denominational schools
as normal, whereas, as late as 1872, he had appealed to
the new Minister of Public Instruction to send Jewish
teachers to those colleges which Herr von Miihler had
declared as being denominational according to observ-
ance. Soon we were as much amazed at the literary
manifestos of our friend as the veterans of Napoleon, who,
after the Concordate, wondered how the "LittleCorporal"
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 ever-
lasting attacks upon the theologians. At the christening
of his second daughter, he drank the health of Grand-
mama 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
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? 122 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 very subordinate class of men, and being what he
was, his disdain seemed more natural than the subse-
quent 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 Germany 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
characterises the turning-point in his life--nay, it pre-
pared 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 in-
duced 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 123
suitability for defending apostolicity and reprimanding
the Rationalist clergy was, to say the least, very doubtful.
I took their part in the Allgcmeine 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 paper in which
only the scum of German professors deposit their spawn. "
But soon enough he himself had to be glad to be able
to deposit his declarations 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; some-
thing like the Kreuz Zeitung. " Later on he shielded
the Court Preacher against the Berlin Press. The wit-
ness affair could have happened to anybody. When
holding on one and the same day two or three meetings
it was impossible to recognise 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,
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? 124 TREITSCHKE': HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 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 magni-
ficent 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 scriptural 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 destruc-
tion filled him with growing respect for the forces we are
dependent upon, but his philosophical convictions had
remained the same; his judgment of Radicals alone had
accentuated. Almost comical was his indignation against
the Berlin Press. He wondered whether the future
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 125
would realise the stupidity of a legislation which per-
mitted every Jew to drag into publicity whatever pains
and grieves other human beings, and yet remain in the
dark, singing: "Oh wie gut dass niemand weiss dass ich
Rumpelstilchen heiss! " ("I take good care to let none
know that my name is Ikey Mo "). In addition, the privi-
lege 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 frequently 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 Con-
servatives. 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 conditions. He experienced, partially, how
they now developed into the Polish Danish Annuals,
which did not increase his pleasure at their latest era.
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? 126 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Treitschke's attitude against the Puttkamer ortho-
graphy, had the approval of his Heidelberg friends,
especially that of Herrmann, who, meanwhile, had
returned to us. Treitschke was assured that Puttkamer
himself realised subsequently his mistaken procedure.
We were less in sympathy with his declaration against
Gossler's proscription of foreign words, Treitschke him-
self having formerly complained 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
demonstrated in the History of Literature, where he
discussed D. Fr. Strauss in such a slighting manner.
At the time he had read Strauss' 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 in two volumes of Strauss, from
which, almost verbally, is culled the final passage of his
paragraph; 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 127
work, and whereas I showed how embitterment, likewise,
had impaired Strauss' 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 retrogression--works which
are more read to-day than the Life of Jesus. He ex-
aggerated the parable of the founder, and the Suabian
Master of Arts, to such an extent, as to describe Strauss'
Theology as the outpourings of a bookworm, and repeat-
ing Dubois Reumont's well-known reference to a ward
of women suffering from cancer, who could not be com-
forted by Strauss' 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 expressed 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 unsympathetic to him. To fight side by side with
my old companion afforded me particular pleasure, for
he warned the Government to pass a bill, with the
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? 128 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
assistance of the Conservatives and Ultramontanes,
which was repugnant to the majority of the Protestants,
and which abandoned the principle that the School
belongs to the State. He also admitted so many excep-
tions 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 com-
ing 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, although forced
upon him, was less pleasing to me. Like all strong,
subjective dispositions, Baumgarten 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. " While Treitschke, in
Berlin, had gradually identified himself more and more
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 129
with the views of Prussian Conservatives, Baumgarten,
in Strasburg, had conceived a passionate aversion for
Prussian bureaucracy. Thanks to his friend, Roggen-
bach, entrusted with the Chair for Modern History at
the time of the foundation of the Strasburg University,
he had closely attached himself to the Protestant Alsa-
tians, 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 abandon-
ment of this proposal, which would for ever have alienated
the Protestants from Prussia. He endorsed the com-
plaints 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
Manteuffel's patronage of notables, who were the hated
opponents of his Pro-German Alsatian friends, and
referred to the testimony of Count Tiirckheim and others,
who had had the intention of becoming Prussian, but
now met their Alsatian sworn enemies in the drawing-
room of the Governor as family friends. All these ex-
periences had produced in Baumgarten a feeling which,
although he did not wish it to be called Prussophobia,
nevertheless resembled it as one egg resembles another.
1
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? 130 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Anyhow, the Alsatians were his friends, and the Prussian
officials were continually the objects of his criticism,
whereby he rose, of course, in the favour of the adminis-
tration. 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 pathologically. It
was, perhaps, expressed too strongly when Treitschke
spoke of a mass of abuse and suspicions in the " libellous
pamphlet " ; but nobody 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 fol-
lowing: "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, 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--
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 131
"I harboured the harmless idea it must yet be possible
to please for once the Germans. I am now cured of that
delusion. We are still lacking a natural historical tradition;
in representing 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 Germans. The real seat of acrimonious captious-
ness, 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 civilisation there will be
formed in the political world an element conservative
in the true sense. Continue to be of good courage for your
patriotic struggles, my dear sir; time will come when
Germans 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 recognise, did not lie in isolated blame which
Treitschke successfully refuted, and against which both
Sybel and Erdmansdoerffer, both certainly competent
judges, objected. It was against the general distribution
of light and shade that objection could be raised. In
a work judging so severely nearly all the monarchs of
Europe, the idealisation of Friedrich Wilhelm III was
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? 132 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
most surprising. The King, who had behaved feebly
during the war, and in peace times persecuted patriots
such as Arndt and John, and destroyed 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 refused 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,
Treitschke would never have so strongly emphasized in
the case of a Hapsburg or a Wittelsbach. Treitschke by
no means disguised these events, but his final judgment is
reminiscent of Spittler's characterisation 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 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 133
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 considered the South Germans only as second class
Germans in the following manner: "I am only politic-
ally 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 considered 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 uncomfortable
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 embodiment 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 receiving
reports concurring with my views. " Baumgarten him-
self denied the offensive nature of his expressions, and
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? 134 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
only when Erdmansdoerffer, in a discussion in the
GrenxboU anent Baumgarten's own writings, rendered
certain parts verbatim in parenthesis, he could have
realised how such words would appeal to the attacked
party.
All this unpleasantness, however, seemed insignificant
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 underwent the Heidelberg ophthalmologist's treat-
ment he spent a longer period during the holidays in
Heidelberg than hitherto. It was impossible to imagine
anything more pathetic than the perspective which he,
without lamentation, yet with deadly earnest, was holding
before himself: "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 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
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 135
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 his
lectures had afforded him consolation more than ever.
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 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 improvement was
a lasting one. The fifth volume appeared in the autumn
of 1894, and in force of style and clearness of matter
fully equalled his 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
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? 136 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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.
