As he underwent the
Heidelberg
ophthalmologist's treat-
ment he spent a longer period during the holidays in
Heidelberg than hitherto.
ment he spent a longer period during the holidays in
Heidelberg than hitherto.
Treitschke - 1914 - Life and Works
"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. "Who is to finish my book? " he
asked.
Bailleu, in his beautiful necrologue, relates of these
last days: "I found him turning over his excerpts with
difficulty and reading with visible effort. He began
to speak of his sixth volume, whose progress I had dis-
cussed with him in the Archives, bringing him one part
after another. His suffering features became animated
when, speaking of the unassuming greatness of the
Prince of Prussia, whose campaign in Baden he had
studied, and by which he, with the Prussian Army, in
the general dissolution of 1848 wished to represent the
healthy basis for the future of Germany. 'Our dear old
gentleman! Since his death every possible misfortune
has befallen me. ' I tried to console him by referring
to the growing success of his German History. 'Oh! I
have had but little luck in life, and if now--but it can't
be. God cannot take me away before I have finished
my sixth volume, and then '; as if soliloquising, he
added, 'I have yet the other work to write. '" I believe
few of Treitschke's friends could have read these details
without being moved to tears. For some days there
seemed to be an improvement. The day before his
death he had joked with his daughters in his old
style.
On the morning of April 28th, 1896, he was gently and
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 137
quickly relieved of his sufferings. At his funeral, ad-
mirers and friends from near and far assembled. Soon
after, his children sent me a dear memento from their
father. There had been three pictures in his room. The
first, Kamphausen's "Battle of Freiburg "; in the fore-
ground a Saxon colonel is to be seen as prisoner, and
captured flags and drums emblazoned with the Saxon
arms. "When will these blessed days come back? " he
once wrote to his friend, Gutschmid. The second
picture was Mentzel's "Great Elector," whom Erdmans-
doerffer kept in good memory. The third picture, by
Schrader, sent to me by the daughters, I liked best.
It represented Cromwell listening to his blind friend,
Milton, when he played the organ. I knew that this
picture of the poet, who was also lacking a sense, and
who, nevertheless, had thrown his weight into the scale
of human culture, had often been a consolation to him.
At the same time the widow sent me the photo
of my friend lying on his death-bed. Asleep, he seems
on it, rocked in happy dreams. The dearest recollections
are, however, to me the many volumes of his works,
which he had sent me regularly. I can never read even
one of these pages without a re-awakening of the sound
with which he would have spoken that passage, and
without my seeing the spirited smile which accompanied
his words; this sheet-lightning of his mind had some-
thing irresistible in his big features, and even those had
to smile who were not at all in sympathy with his utter-
ances.
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? 138 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Much he has had to suffer, and more he escaped
through timely death, and yet he has been one of the
happiest mortals--a favourite of the gods; as the poet
justly says:
"Alles geben die Gotter unendlichen ihren Lieblingen ganz
Allc Frcuden die unendlichen alle Scbmerzen die unendlichen
ganz. "
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? THE ARMY.
I.
The possession of a powerful and well-disciplined Army
is a sign of great excellence in a nation, not only because
the Army is a necessary stand-by in our relations with
other countries, but also because a noble people with a
glorious past will be able to use its Army as a bloodless
weapon for long periods together. The Army will also
be a popular school for manly virtue in an age when
business and pleasure often cause higher things to be
forgotten. Of course, it must be admitted that there
are certain highly-strung and artistic natures which
cannot endure the burden of military discipline. People
of this kind often cause others to hold quite erroneous
views on universal service. But in dealing with these
great questions one must not take abnormal persons as
a standard, but rather bear in mind the old adage, Mens
sana in corpore sano. This physical strength has par-
ticular significance in periods such as ours. One of the
shortcomings of English culture lies in the fact that the
English have no universal military service. This fault
is in some measure atoned for on the one hand by the
<<39
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? 140 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
extraordinary development of the Fleet, and on the other
by the never-ending little wars in countless colonies
which occupy and keep alive the virile forces of the
nation. The fact that great physical activity is still to
be observed in England is partly due to the constant
wars with the colonies. But a closer view will reveal a
very serious want. The lack of chivalry in the English
character, which presents so striking a contrast with
the naive loyalty of the Germans, has some connection
with the English practice of seeking physical exercise
in boxing, swimming, and rowing, rather than in the use
of noble arms. Such exercises are no doubt useful; but
no one can fail to observe that this whole system of
athletics tends to further brutalise the mind of the
athlete, and to set before men the superficial ideal of
being always able to carry off the first prize.
The normal and most reasonable course for a great nation
to pursue is, therefore, to embody the very nature of the
State, that is to say, its strength, in an ordered Army
drawn from its people and perpetually being improved.
The ultra-sensitive and philosophical mode of regarding
these questions has gone out of fashion among us who
live in a warlike age, so that we are able to come back
to the view of Clausewitz, who looked upon war as a
mighty continuation of politics. All the peace-advocates
in the world put together will never persuade the political
powers to be of one mind, and as long as they differ the
sword is and must be the only arbiter. We have learnt
to recognise the moral majesty of war just in those
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? THE ARMY 141
aspects of it which superficial observers describe as brutal
and inhuman. Men are called upon to overcome all
natural feeling for the sake of their country, to murder
people who have never before done them any harm, and
whom they perhaps respect as chivalrous enemies. It
is things such as these that seem at the first glance
horrible and repulsive. Look at them again and you
will see in them the greatness of war. Not only the life
of man, but also the right and natural emotions of his
inmost soul, his whole ego, are to be sacrificed to a great
patriotic ideal; and herein lies the moral magnificence
of war. If we pursue this idea still further we shall
see that, in spite of its hardness and roughness, war links'
men together in brotherly love, for it levels all differences
of rank, and draws men together by a common sense
of the imminence of death. Every student of history'
knows that to do away with war would be to cripple
human nature. No liberty can exist without an armed
force ready to sacrifice itself for the sake of freedom.
One cannot insist too often on the fact that scholars
never touch upon these questions without presupposing
that the State only exists as a sort of academy of arts
and sciences. This is of course also part of its duty, but
not its most immediate duty. A State which cultivates
its mental powers at the expense of its physical ones
cannot fail to go to ruin.
Generally speaking, we must admit that the greatness
of historical life lies in character rather than in educa-
tion; the driving forces of history are to be found in
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? 142 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
spheres where character is developing. Only brave
nations have any real history. In the hour of trial in
national life it becomes evident that warlike virtues have
the casting vote. There is great truth in the old phrase
which describes war as the exatnen rigorosum of the
States. In war, the States are called upon to show, not
only the extent of their physical, but also of their moral
power, and in a certain measure of their intellectual
capacity. . . . War brings to light all that a nation has
collected in secret. It is not an essential part of the
nature of armies to be always fighting; the noiseless
labour of armament goes on equally in time of peace.
The entire value of the work done for Prussia by Frederick
William I, did not appear until the days of Frederick the
Great, when the tremendous force which had been slowly
collecting suddenly revealed itself to the world at large.
The same is true of the year 1866.
And just because war is nothing more than a powerful
embodiment of politics, its issues are decided, not by
technical factors alone, but chiefly by the policy which
directs it. It is very significant that when Wrangel and
Prittwitz might have been able to get the better of the
Danes in 1848 and 1849, the King, who seems to have
felt horror at the thought of taking such a step, and who,
moreover, feared Russia, did not himself know what he
wanted. An Army can never be expected to fight when
its leaders are in doubt as to the advisibility of a particular
military action. Every war is by nature a radical one,
and in many cases the efficiency of the troops will prove
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? THE ARMY 143
useless in face of the hesitation and aimlessness of the
policy which it serves. Remember the campaign in
Champagne in 1792. The superiority in training of the
Prussian and Austrian troops over the sans culottes was
at that date still very considerable, and in the neigh-
bourhood of Mannheim a single battalion of the Wedell
Regiment prevented two French Divisions from crossing
the Rhine during the whole of one day. But still the
political result of the war was the complete downfall of
the coalition. The Allies were not of one mind; their
policy lacked all definite aim, and the campaign was
being conducted at haphazard. Political considerations
of this kind, which interfere with the strategy of the
leaders, are particularly disastrous in wars conducted
by coalitions, and history has often proved the truth
of the line, "the strong man is strongest when alone. "
In the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 the incompetent
Russian generals, in concert with the talented Prussian
commanders, carried on war to the knife, whereas the
more competent Austrians, who were hindered by the
aimless policy of their country, showed themselves
lukewarm and indifferent. A policy such as that of the
Austrians could not hope to find a better commander
than Schwarzenberg. Many wars have been lost before
they were begun because they were the result of a policy
which did not know its own mind.
Every healthy-minded Army is conscious of a strong
sense of chivalry and personal honour. But under certain
circumstances this military sense of honour becomes
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? 144 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
over-sensitive. Abuses are, of course, to be deplored, but
this touchiness is in itself a wholesome symptom. The duel
is not a thing which can be ignored, even among civilians.
In a democratic community the duel is the last protest
which can be made against a complete subversion of social
manners and customs. A certain restraint is put upon
a man by the thought that he will risk his life by offending
against social usage; and it is better that now and then
a promising young life should be laid down than that
the social morality of a whole people should be brutalised.
A sense of class-honour also fosters 'the great moral
strength which resides in the Army, and which is the
cause of a large part of its effectiveness. The officers
would lose the respect of their subordinates if they did
not show a more ticklish sense of honour and a finer
breeding. Since duelling was abolished in England,
moral coarseness in the Army has been on the increase,
and officers have been known to come to blows in railway
carriages in the very presence of their wives. It is
obvious how greatly such conduct must impair the
respect due from the men to their superiors. The state-
ment of the democrat that a man of the lower classes will
more readily obey his equal than a gentleman is entirely
false. The respect of a soldier for a man of really dis-
tinguished character will always be greater than his
respect for an old corporal. This truth was plainly
demonstrated in the last war, when it was found that
the French officers did not possess enough authority
over their men.
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. "Who is to finish my book? " he
asked.
Bailleu, in his beautiful necrologue, relates of these
last days: "I found him turning over his excerpts with
difficulty and reading with visible effort. He began
to speak of his sixth volume, whose progress I had dis-
cussed with him in the Archives, bringing him one part
after another. His suffering features became animated
when, speaking of the unassuming greatness of the
Prince of Prussia, whose campaign in Baden he had
studied, and by which he, with the Prussian Army, in
the general dissolution of 1848 wished to represent the
healthy basis for the future of Germany. 'Our dear old
gentleman! Since his death every possible misfortune
has befallen me. ' I tried to console him by referring
to the growing success of his German History. 'Oh! I
have had but little luck in life, and if now--but it can't
be. God cannot take me away before I have finished
my sixth volume, and then '; as if soliloquising, he
added, 'I have yet the other work to write. '" I believe
few of Treitschke's friends could have read these details
without being moved to tears. For some days there
seemed to be an improvement. The day before his
death he had joked with his daughters in his old
style.
On the morning of April 28th, 1896, he was gently and
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 137
quickly relieved of his sufferings. At his funeral, ad-
mirers and friends from near and far assembled. Soon
after, his children sent me a dear memento from their
father. There had been three pictures in his room. The
first, Kamphausen's "Battle of Freiburg "; in the fore-
ground a Saxon colonel is to be seen as prisoner, and
captured flags and drums emblazoned with the Saxon
arms. "When will these blessed days come back? " he
once wrote to his friend, Gutschmid. The second
picture was Mentzel's "Great Elector," whom Erdmans-
doerffer kept in good memory. The third picture, by
Schrader, sent to me by the daughters, I liked best.
It represented Cromwell listening to his blind friend,
Milton, when he played the organ. I knew that this
picture of the poet, who was also lacking a sense, and
who, nevertheless, had thrown his weight into the scale
of human culture, had often been a consolation to him.
At the same time the widow sent me the photo
of my friend lying on his death-bed. Asleep, he seems
on it, rocked in happy dreams. The dearest recollections
are, however, to me the many volumes of his works,
which he had sent me regularly. I can never read even
one of these pages without a re-awakening of the sound
with which he would have spoken that passage, and
without my seeing the spirited smile which accompanied
his words; this sheet-lightning of his mind had some-
thing irresistible in his big features, and even those had
to smile who were not at all in sympathy with his utter-
ances.
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? 138 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Much he has had to suffer, and more he escaped
through timely death, and yet he has been one of the
happiest mortals--a favourite of the gods; as the poet
justly says:
"Alles geben die Gotter unendlichen ihren Lieblingen ganz
Allc Frcuden die unendlichen alle Scbmerzen die unendlichen
ganz. "
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? THE ARMY.
I.
The possession of a powerful and well-disciplined Army
is a sign of great excellence in a nation, not only because
the Army is a necessary stand-by in our relations with
other countries, but also because a noble people with a
glorious past will be able to use its Army as a bloodless
weapon for long periods together. The Army will also
be a popular school for manly virtue in an age when
business and pleasure often cause higher things to be
forgotten. Of course, it must be admitted that there
are certain highly-strung and artistic natures which
cannot endure the burden of military discipline. People
of this kind often cause others to hold quite erroneous
views on universal service. But in dealing with these
great questions one must not take abnormal persons as
a standard, but rather bear in mind the old adage, Mens
sana in corpore sano. This physical strength has par-
ticular significance in periods such as ours. One of the
shortcomings of English culture lies in the fact that the
English have no universal military service. This fault
is in some measure atoned for on the one hand by the
<<39
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? 140 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
extraordinary development of the Fleet, and on the other
by the never-ending little wars in countless colonies
which occupy and keep alive the virile forces of the
nation. The fact that great physical activity is still to
be observed in England is partly due to the constant
wars with the colonies. But a closer view will reveal a
very serious want. The lack of chivalry in the English
character, which presents so striking a contrast with
the naive loyalty of the Germans, has some connection
with the English practice of seeking physical exercise
in boxing, swimming, and rowing, rather than in the use
of noble arms. Such exercises are no doubt useful; but
no one can fail to observe that this whole system of
athletics tends to further brutalise the mind of the
athlete, and to set before men the superficial ideal of
being always able to carry off the first prize.
The normal and most reasonable course for a great nation
to pursue is, therefore, to embody the very nature of the
State, that is to say, its strength, in an ordered Army
drawn from its people and perpetually being improved.
The ultra-sensitive and philosophical mode of regarding
these questions has gone out of fashion among us who
live in a warlike age, so that we are able to come back
to the view of Clausewitz, who looked upon war as a
mighty continuation of politics. All the peace-advocates
in the world put together will never persuade the political
powers to be of one mind, and as long as they differ the
sword is and must be the only arbiter. We have learnt
to recognise the moral majesty of war just in those
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? THE ARMY 141
aspects of it which superficial observers describe as brutal
and inhuman. Men are called upon to overcome all
natural feeling for the sake of their country, to murder
people who have never before done them any harm, and
whom they perhaps respect as chivalrous enemies. It
is things such as these that seem at the first glance
horrible and repulsive. Look at them again and you
will see in them the greatness of war. Not only the life
of man, but also the right and natural emotions of his
inmost soul, his whole ego, are to be sacrificed to a great
patriotic ideal; and herein lies the moral magnificence
of war. If we pursue this idea still further we shall
see that, in spite of its hardness and roughness, war links'
men together in brotherly love, for it levels all differences
of rank, and draws men together by a common sense
of the imminence of death. Every student of history'
knows that to do away with war would be to cripple
human nature. No liberty can exist without an armed
force ready to sacrifice itself for the sake of freedom.
One cannot insist too often on the fact that scholars
never touch upon these questions without presupposing
that the State only exists as a sort of academy of arts
and sciences. This is of course also part of its duty, but
not its most immediate duty. A State which cultivates
its mental powers at the expense of its physical ones
cannot fail to go to ruin.
Generally speaking, we must admit that the greatness
of historical life lies in character rather than in educa-
tion; the driving forces of history are to be found in
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? 142 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
spheres where character is developing. Only brave
nations have any real history. In the hour of trial in
national life it becomes evident that warlike virtues have
the casting vote. There is great truth in the old phrase
which describes war as the exatnen rigorosum of the
States. In war, the States are called upon to show, not
only the extent of their physical, but also of their moral
power, and in a certain measure of their intellectual
capacity. . . . War brings to light all that a nation has
collected in secret. It is not an essential part of the
nature of armies to be always fighting; the noiseless
labour of armament goes on equally in time of peace.
The entire value of the work done for Prussia by Frederick
William I, did not appear until the days of Frederick the
Great, when the tremendous force which had been slowly
collecting suddenly revealed itself to the world at large.
The same is true of the year 1866.
And just because war is nothing more than a powerful
embodiment of politics, its issues are decided, not by
technical factors alone, but chiefly by the policy which
directs it. It is very significant that when Wrangel and
Prittwitz might have been able to get the better of the
Danes in 1848 and 1849, the King, who seems to have
felt horror at the thought of taking such a step, and who,
moreover, feared Russia, did not himself know what he
wanted. An Army can never be expected to fight when
its leaders are in doubt as to the advisibility of a particular
military action. Every war is by nature a radical one,
and in many cases the efficiency of the troops will prove
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? THE ARMY 143
useless in face of the hesitation and aimlessness of the
policy which it serves. Remember the campaign in
Champagne in 1792. The superiority in training of the
Prussian and Austrian troops over the sans culottes was
at that date still very considerable, and in the neigh-
bourhood of Mannheim a single battalion of the Wedell
Regiment prevented two French Divisions from crossing
the Rhine during the whole of one day. But still the
political result of the war was the complete downfall of
the coalition. The Allies were not of one mind; their
policy lacked all definite aim, and the campaign was
being conducted at haphazard. Political considerations
of this kind, which interfere with the strategy of the
leaders, are particularly disastrous in wars conducted
by coalitions, and history has often proved the truth
of the line, "the strong man is strongest when alone. "
In the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 the incompetent
Russian generals, in concert with the talented Prussian
commanders, carried on war to the knife, whereas the
more competent Austrians, who were hindered by the
aimless policy of their country, showed themselves
lukewarm and indifferent. A policy such as that of the
Austrians could not hope to find a better commander
than Schwarzenberg. Many wars have been lost before
they were begun because they were the result of a policy
which did not know its own mind.
Every healthy-minded Army is conscious of a strong
sense of chivalry and personal honour. But under certain
circumstances this military sense of honour becomes
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? 144 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
over-sensitive. Abuses are, of course, to be deplored, but
this touchiness is in itself a wholesome symptom. The duel
is not a thing which can be ignored, even among civilians.
In a democratic community the duel is the last protest
which can be made against a complete subversion of social
manners and customs. A certain restraint is put upon
a man by the thought that he will risk his life by offending
against social usage; and it is better that now and then
a promising young life should be laid down than that
the social morality of a whole people should be brutalised.
A sense of class-honour also fosters 'the great moral
strength which resides in the Army, and which is the
cause of a large part of its effectiveness. The officers
would lose the respect of their subordinates if they did
not show a more ticklish sense of honour and a finer
breeding. Since duelling was abolished in England,
moral coarseness in the Army has been on the increase,
and officers have been known to come to blows in railway
carriages in the very presence of their wives. It is
obvious how greatly such conduct must impair the
respect due from the men to their superiors. The state-
ment of the democrat that a man of the lower classes will
more readily obey his equal than a gentleman is entirely
false. The respect of a soldier for a man of really dis-
tinguished character will always be greater than his
respect for an old corporal. This truth was plainly
demonstrated in the last war, when it was found that
the French officers did not possess enough authority
over their men.
