No More Learning

The few years which Treitschke spent in Heidel-
berg after the war were, as he himself admitted,
the happiest of his life. His tiny house, overlook-
ing the Neckar and Rhine Valley, was for him a
constant source of joy, and proudly he would take
his visitors to the top of the vineyard, from which
the Speyer Dom and Donner Mountain, near
Worms, were visible. Immediately adjacent to
his property excavations had been made in times
gone by, and even now bricks and fragments of
pottery, bearing the stamp of the Roman Legation
were to be found. Thus he had historical ground
even under his feet. When, occasionally, on my
return from a visit about midnight, I still saw
lights in his study, I could not refrain from think-
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? His Life and Work 63
ing of Schiller, who, likewise, found the late hours
of night most propitious for his creations. It
would be a mistaken idea to think that Treitschke,
vivaciously as he lectured, wrote his works with-
out exhaustive preparations. He just served as a
proof that genius and industry go hand-in-hand.
Thanks to his iron constitution, he could work
until two o'clock in the morning, yet be gay and
full of life the following day. Surrounded by his
small crowd of children two girls and a boy and
with his elegant and slim-looking wife by his side,
he felt truly happy. It was a thoroughly aristo-
cratic and harmonious home, which in every detail
betrayed the gentle and tasteful hand of his spouse.
There was something distinctly humorous in his
peculiar ways, which made the visitor feel at home.
Above all, he was completely unaware of the noise
he made. Baumgarten, who was nervous, and
worked with him in the Archives, declared that
not only was the throwing of books and constant
moving of his chair unbearable, but also his un-
controllable temper. On one occasion, Treitschke
took up the register he had been studying, and
jumping about the room on one leg, shouted,
"Aegidi, Aegidi! " It appeared that in the Am-
bassador's Report of the Prussian Diet of 1847
he had found a memorial of his friend Aegidi stud,
juris in Heidelberg, which the Ambassador had
communicated to Berlin with a view to showing
the present spirit of German students, and which
started with the following declaration: "Like the
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? 64 Treitschke
Maid of Orleans before the King of her country, so
I, a German youth, come before the noble Diet
in order to give proof of the patriotic wishes
agitating youth. " Similar humorous outbursts
of his temperament occurred, of course, at home
as well. He at times experienced difficulties with
his toilette. The ladies, then, had to manipulate
him into a corner to adjust his tie or collar. In
Scheveningen, where he occupied a room next his
family, he once rushed out on the general balcony
when unable to manipulate a button, shouting,
''Help! help! " so that the phlegmatic Dutch
neighbours looked out of the windows, thinking a
great misfortune had happened. The importunity
with which some people asked for autographs, and
others for copies of his books, his photograph, or a
memento of some kind, provided his keen sense of
propriety with excellent material for displaying
originality. All this, however, was done in such a
humorous fashion that his company proved most
amusing. He behaved towards his students with
strictness, although he was gay enough when
addressing them from the chair. They idolized
him, but at all times he kept them at a distance.
When the University filled again for the winter
term, 1871-1872, Treitschke had gained among the
students a position second to none. His lectures
on modern history, politics, and the Reformation,
were crowded, and his descriptive powers always
thrilled his audience. Hausser's force had been
in his irony; with Treitschke, humour and pathos
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? His Life and Work 65
alternated like thunder and lightning. Even
listeners of more matured age admitted that they
had never heard anything that could be compared
with his natural elementary eloquence. Unable to
hear the clock strike, he had arranged with those
sitting in front to make a sign at a given hour;
but, as nobody wished him to discontinue, he often
unduly prolonged his lectures. Now and then
ladies turned up. At first he informed them by
letter that he could not permit their presence,
but when they persisted in coming he told the
porter to refuse them entrance, and angrily added
his intention of putting up a notice similar to
those in front of anatomical theatres: "For
gentlemen only! " When meeting his colleagues
he never even hinted at the striking success he
scored with his audience. His disposition was
anything but over-confident, and he associated
just as cordially with those whose academic
failures were notorious provided he appreciated
them otherwise as with the past-masters, whose
level was as high as his own. He never referred
at all to the demonstrations which students made
in his favour. In the choice of his friends, as well
as in the choice of his enemies, he was aristocratic,
but vain he was not. Enthusiastic patriotism was
the keynote of his life, and this explains its aesthet-
ics. A sensitive admirer of nature, appreciating as
keenly as anybody the lovely scenery of the ruins
of Heidelberg Castle, he nevertheless favoured
the re-building of the same, obsessed by the idea
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? 66 Treitschke
that it must become the palace of the German
King. His literary opinions could easily be gauged
as his compass always pointed towards Prussia.
When he invited us to an evening, we knew before-
hand we should read the Prince of Hamburg, or
some similar work. This explains also his pre-
dilection for Kleist, and for Uhland, the patriot.
Of Hebbel's works he was about to prepare an
analysis of them in a new form for publication in
the essays the Nibelungs were his favourite.
Did he not himself bear resemblance to Siegfried,
who plans to chain up the perfidious Danish Kings
outside the gate, where, as they had behaved like
dogs, they were to bark on his arrival and de-
parture? This was quite his style of thinking,
just as at the Theatre Francais my travelling
companion, when listening to the patriotic ravings
of Ernani, the highwayman, whispered to me:
" Exactly like Treitschke! " Not only The Trou-
sers of Hen von Bredow, of which he knew con-
siderable parts by heart, but Brandenburg poetry
in general, gave him great pleasure. He even
shielded Hesekiel and Scherenberg against attacks ;
and the scruples of learned men respecting Prey-
tag's Ingo and Ingraban were suppressed by him.
Turbulent men were to his liking; the criticisms
of German Law History and of the Spruner Atlas
regarding these descriptions had, to his mind,
nothing to do with poetry. Whatever met with
the approval of his patriotism could be sure of his
appreciation. My first two novels met with a very
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? His Life and Work 67
friendly reception in the Press, as, thanks to my
pseudonym, "George Taylor," quite different
authors had been suspected. No sooner, how-
ever, had the wise men from the East discovered
that a theologian had been the author than, on
the appearance of the third novel, entitled Jetta,
they vented their rage at having been deceived.
Treitschke, however declared Jetta to be the best
of the three books. He liked the Alemans for the
thrashing they had given the Romans, and that
settled the matter as far as he was concerned.
The way the learned fraternity censured Hermann
Grimm appeared stupid to him, like school pedan-
try. He. realized as well as anybody else the de-
fects and mistakes, but he called it childish spite
to take to task such an ingenious author for all
sorts of blunders and amateurish trivialities when
he had original views, and had created a picture of
culture such as the life of Michelangelo. In the
same way he stood up for living and not for dead
writers, in spite of the opposition of the learned
fraternity; but he did not, however, defend their
superficiality or phrase-making.
The great literary post-bellum events were The
Old and the New Faith, by Strauss, and the revival
of Schopenhauer pessimism by Hartmann and
Nietzsche, books which albeit different in form,
yet related in their fundamental views of the
world appeared to Treitschke, in view of the
melancholy tone adopted, like an inexplicable
phenomenon. How could anybody be a pessimist
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? 68 Treitschke
in times like the present, when it was a pleasure
to be alive? Of Hartmann he said: "This is the
philosophy of the Berliner when suffering from
phthisis. " With Olympic roars of laughter he
derided, over a glass of beer, Hartmann's senti-
mentality and his many discussions whether the
feelings of pleasure or displeasure predominate
in human nature. After all, Hartmann had left
us the consolation of Nirvana; but Nietzsche, by
his revival theory, deprived us of the consoling
thought of peacefulness after death. Nietzsche's
first essay on the origin of tragedy had met with
Treitschke's approval. Was he not himself to
adopt the Nietzschean phrase of "a dithyrambic
disposition"? and, to him, Socratic natures were
likewise unsympathetic. In his criticism on
Strauss he gave proof of his aversion to Socratic
dispositions, an aversion which he shared with
Nietzsche. He was the only one of our circle who
defended Nietzsche's essay and criticized Strauss's
Old and New Faith. He would not admit the
merits of a book which represents the materialistic
theory in transparent clearness, and thereby
brings defects to light which cannot be overlooked.
He simply went by results. A book, which as far
as we, the enlightened ones, were concerned,
sought a last consolation in music, had to be some-
what disagreeable to him, deaf as he was. But he
would not even admit Strauss's beauty of style.
"Beautiful style by itself does not exist, " he said.
"A style is beautiful when the writer is represented
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? His Life and Work 69
by it. Style should faithfully express the nature
and temperament of the author. With Lessing, I
admire the clear statements, because they are
natural to this clear dialectician ; but with Strauss
they do not belong to the man, as with Lessing,
but to the essay. " Strauss's style just lacked the
personal element. If Strauss, on the other hand,
found Treitschke's style indigestible, the contrast
is thereby quite correctly characteristic. While
patriotic pathos dominated the one, the other one
was, throughout, reflective and logical; that is
to say, the one was a dithyramb and the other
one a Socratic nature. I could not always share
Treitschke's clearly formed opinions, but we were
all grateful to him for the interest with which he
invested conversation, and for his ability to main-
tain it. His own activity was that of an artist as
well as that of a scientist. Impressions of his
travels through all the valleys of Germany, poetry,
newspaper extracts, conversations and humorous
stories of friends, were always at his command, and
these, combined with accurate studies from the
Archives and information verbally received, en-
abled him to shape his work. Considering his
system of gathering information, it was inevitable
that occasionally he was provided with unauthen-
tic news, for, as soon as conversation arose on a
subject useful to him, his pocket-book appeared,
and he asked to have the story put down. When
I once wrote for him that, at the outbreak of the
Army mutiny in Karlsruhe, a picture of Grand
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? 70 Treitschke
Duke Leopold was exhibited in all the libraries,
with the verse:
Zittert ein Tyrann von Revolutionen,
Du Leopold kannst ruhig thronen.
Dein Volk verlasst Dich nicht
(Though a tyrant may dread revolution,
Thou, O Leopold, mayest safely reign.
Thy people will not forsake thee),
he immediately placed the piece of paper separately
and said, "This will appear in the sixth volume";
but it never saw the light of day. I personally
could vouch for the correctness of my story, but
how easy it was to obtain wrong information under
these circumstances, and, as a matter of fact, all
sorts of protests against his anecdotes were raised
after each publication. It is notorious how cir-
cumstantially he subsequently had to explain or
contradict the story of the silver spoon of Prince
Wrede, the Red Order of the Eagle of Privy Coun-
cillor Schmalz, and many other things, and much
more frequently still he promised correction in the
subsequent edition to those who had lodged com-
plaints. We were very much annoyed at the injus-
tice with which he, in the fifth volume, character-
ized the Grand Duke Leopold, who was exceedingly
conscientious and benevolent. When attacking
him for it in our domestic circle, he declared that
every petty State had its idol, and that we ought
to break ourselves of it as others had done.
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? His Life and Work 71
Treitschke's tales from the Reichstag provided
a rich source of amusement. When entering
Parliament, in 1871, all friends were of opinion
the deaf man would not stand it long, and his
enemies mockingly remarked: "It is right he
should be there. " But the canvassing tour in
itself proved a great recreation for him, and if he
had achieved nothing beyond the strengthening,
by his fiery speeches, of the German sentiment of
people on the Hunsruck and in the Nahe Valley,
this gain alone was worth the trouble. His effi-
ciency in Berlin exceeded all expectations. He
sat next to the shorthand writers, and after having
grasped their system of abbreviations, he followed
the speeches, and thus was often better informed
than those who sneered at the deaf deputy. It
was more difficult for him to attend at Committee
sittings, but his friend Wehrenpfennig kept him
informed as far as possible. As all parties decided
in committee how to vote, Treitschke's speeches
in plenum really were of value for the public only,
but the reputation of the Reichsrath certainly was
considerably enhanced by the fact that people who
liked reading the parliamentary proceedings were
able to find the speeches reproduced in the news-
papers. The orations of "the deaf man who had
no business in Parliament" are, with the exception
of Bismarck's, after all, the only ones which, after
his death, have been edited in book form from the
protocols, and even to-day they are a source of
political information and patriotic elevation. It
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? 72 Treitschke
was a great event when the circle of friends in
Heidelberg heard that Treitschke had delivered
his maiden speech in the Reichstag, and great was
our joy when we read that in this first speech he
had vehemently attacked the Ultramontanes.
Deputy Reichensperger moved that, with a
view to safeguarding the liberty of the Press,
Unions and the Church Articles III-V of the Frank-
fort fundamental laws should be incorporated
in the Constitution of the Empire. Treitschke
started by declaring that the nation's hope of a
temporary continuance, at any rate in Parliament,
of the noble spirit of unanimity which, during the
war, had raised Germany above other nations,
had been defeated by the Ultramontanes. At the
beginning of the German Reichstag, we have
heard the Empire of the Papal King, the Republic
of Poland, and the Empire of the Guelfs discussed,
while I had hoped we should now have firmly es-
tablished progress in our territory, and would look
hopefully towards the future. It is impossible to
believe that the great question of State and Church
could be solved by a four-line sentence. In order
to bring about the Constitution every party was
obliged to make sacrifices. The disturbers of the
peace are now exactly those gentlemen who always
assert that they are the oppressed minority. Now,
gentlemen, if this were true, I must say that they
endured their oppression with a very small
measure of Christian patience. If fundamental
laws should become incorporated with the New
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? His Life and Work 73
Constitution, he continued, why have Mr. Reichen-
sperger and his associates forgotten the principal
ones? The article is lacking ; "science and its dog-
ma are free," a principle the adoption of which
would be highly beneficial to the Catholic Theo-
logic Faculties. Why is the definition lacking
respecting civil marriage law? In this way he
ruthlessly tore off the opponents' masks, as if they
had aimed at liberty. When Bishop Kettler had
uttered a warning to speak a little more modestly,
and with less confidence of the future of an Empire
which had as yet to be founded, Treitschke ironi-
cally pointed to the great progress made consider-
ing that Kettler no longer sat in Parliament as
Bishop of Mayence, but owed his seat to the
poll of an electoral district. If the movers of
the bill were to point out they demanded nothing
beyond what the Prussian Constitution had taken
over long before from the Frankfort Constitution,
they betrayed thereby their intention to give the
Bishops in this article the possibility of scoffing
at the laws of the country by appealing to the law
of the Empire. In Baden they had undergone too
many experiences in this respect to be deceived
any longer.
But the German nation is sensible and
honest enough to understand that these poor
articles are not fundamental laws, but aim at
procuring, by a side-issue, an independent position
for the Catholic Church as regards the State. He
therefore thought he did no injustice to the
movers of the bill when he expressed the belief that
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? 74 Treitschke
the Press and Unions were only a momentary
addition to their proposal, but that their real in-
tention was directed to the independence of the
Catholic Church. The defeat of the Ultramon-
tanes was as complete as possible, and there ex-
isted no other more pressing matter for which
Treitschke could have acted as champion on behalf
of Baden. In parliamentary matters he was now,
likewise, recognized as the worthy successor of
Hausser. The general belief that Treitschke owed
his great success to mannerism was dispelled by
his speeches in the Reichstag. It was not rhetoric
or pathos which scored, but the force of conviction.
He spoke better than others because he had
grasped the thought of liberty, and of nationality,
with more ardour than they had. To him more
than to any other speaker the words of Cato
senior applied: "Keep firmly in mind the subject
and the words will follow. "
In a further speech on the law on July 9, 1871,
he woefully surrendered his ideal to see Alsace
Lothing a province of Germany, but all the more
energetically he opposed the desire of a party,
supported by Roggenbach, to form Alsace into a
State. If it was not to become part of the Prussian
State it should, at least, be a province of the Ger-
man Empire, reigned over by the Emperor, and
not become a new Small State. The Alsatian
public servants should frequently be transferred,
even to Schwelm, and to Stalluponen, so that they
should get to know Germany. Neither was he in
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? His Life and Work 75
favour of having a Lord Lieutenant appointed.
"Such a prince makes the worst public servant,
because he is obliged to act as if his house '/were a
Court. The elements of Society which could be
attracted by these countless gewgaws are such
that I, at any rate, would with pleasure dispense
with their support. " Neither in Strasburg nor
in Heidelberg or Berlin did this particular speech
meet with great approbation, but who will assert
to-day that he was wrong? All the more ap-
proved was his speech of November 2, 1871, in
which he demanded the intervention of the Empire
to procure for Mecklenburg the privileges of the
Estates of the Realm. A great impression was
produced when he pointed out that, of half a
million inhabitants, no less than 60,000 people had
emigrated within the last fifteen years from this
little country richly blessed by nature. In his
indignation he ever adopted a tone which, hitherto,
one was wont to hear only at democratic meetings.
He pointed out that conditions in Mecklenburg
had become the butt of humour. " It is dangerous
when the patient German people begin to sneer.
That scornful laughter over the old German Diet
and the King of the Guelfs carried on for many
years has led to very serious consequences; it has
brought about the well-known end of all things.
The star of unity is in the ascendant. Woe betide
the State which wilfully secludes itself from this
mighty and irresistible impulse ; sooner or later the
catastrophe will overtake it. " In the same way as
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? 76 Treitschke
these threatening words had created a great im-
pression in Parliament, so they found an enthusi-
astic echo in our circle; and equally great was his
success when he supported the supplementing of
the Penal Code by the so-called Pulpit Paragraph,
by which he again told the bitter truth to the
Ultramontanes. For the last time before proroga-
tion of Parliament he spoke on November 29, 1871,
when the progressive party renewed the old
controversy on parliamentary co-operation regard-
ing Army Estimates. Treitschke was strongly in
favour of the War Minister's views; he availed
himself, however, of this occasion to attack
strongly von Muhler, the Minister of Public In-
struction, and when called to order by the Con-
servatives he replied: "See that a capable man is
appointed at the head of the Ministry of Public
Instruction who bestows only the tenth part of
that energy which the Minister for War is in the
habit of bestowing upon his department; you will
then have practical experience that one thing can
be done, and that another cannot be left undone. "
On the whole, the Baden Deputies returned from
Berlin in a very dejected mood. Of Bluntschli,
the Berlin newspapers had written that his delivery
gave the impression he was dictating his speeches.
He had remained obscure that he knew; but
consoled himself with the thought that it took
time to find the tone for such a big assembly. Of
Roggenbach, who, with all his brilliant conver-
sational gifts, completely lacked oratorical powers,
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? His Life and Work 77
a gay Palatine country judge, who was also a
member of the Reichstag, said: "If this is your
most brilliant statesman I should like to come
across your most stupid one. " In the same way
the others returned like a beaten army, for not the
remotest comparison existed between the part
played by them in Berlin and the one played by
them in Karlsruhe at the Municipal Hall. Only
one appeared with laurels, and this one was
Treitschke, who had saved our reputation. He
was also welcomed home as heartily as possible;
although Baumgarten said at the time, in a morose
tone, that Treitschke never considered a law pro-
posal favourably unless he had delivered a speech
on it. The Ul tramontanes, however, considered
the game unevenly matched. While he over-
whelmed them with the strongest expressions, they
could not hit back because he did not hear them.
In an identical fashion the second session, 1873-
1874, passed, which Treitschke still attended from
Heidelberg, and the "round table" applauded his
brilliant passages of arms. Many of his winged
words have survived to the present day, as, for
instance, his explanation of the request of German
issuing banks for paper (money) "based on a
deeply founded desire in human nature"; or
"making debts without getting interest on them";
or his sneering remarks about the predilection of
South Germans for Bavarian military helmets and
dirty florin notes. His patriotism again rose to its
full height when discussions on the septennate took
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? 78 Treitschke
place, when the same party, whose chaplains in
the Black Forest had falsely told the constituents
that "septennate" meant serving for seven
successive years, complained in Parliament that
they were called the enemies of the Empire, he
referred to their behaviour, and for simplicity's
sake began with the Pope.
"Who was it who expressed the devout Chris-
tian wish that a little stone might fall from heaven
to shatter the feet of the German Colossus? Those
who consider the author of this ingenious pro-
nouncement infallible would only have confessed
publicly to this wish after Germany had lost a
battle, and which God forbid. Meanwhile, Prussia
was the little stone which had opened the doors
of the Eternal City to united and free Italy, and at
the same time had annihilated the most sinful
Small State of that part of the globe. In similar
strain he spoke on December 17, 1874, to Deputy
Winterer, who demanded the abolition of the
School Law granted the preceding year to Alsace
Lothing. In opposition to Winterer's hymns on
the achievements of the school brethren he read
extracts from their rules which prescribed in which
case the brother has to rise before the superior,
in which case to kneel down, and in which case he
only had to kiss the floor. " Gentlemen, " he asked
the Ultramontanes, "I am indeed curious to know
whether there is anything worse than the naked
floor the devout school brother is to kiss. " When
the gentlemen of the clerical party expressed the
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? His Life and Work 79
wish to save the ecclesiastical and French spirit
of their public schools he replied in unmistakable
fashion: "We have the intention to Germanize
this newly acquired German province ; we have the
intention and will carry it out. " Strong applause,
and hissing in the centre, was the usual result of his
speeches during this session. The return took
place under conditions similar to those of last year,
only the depression at the modest part played by
the Baden Deputies in their Reichstag was still
greater, and Jolly, at any rate, did not refrain
from remarking that the quarrelsome disposition
of the Liberal leaders, which immediately made
itself felt at the opening debate of the Baden
Chamber in November, 1873, arose from the desire
of the gentlemen to gain in the Karlsruhe Rondel
Hall the laurels which had been denied to them in
the Reichstag. But Treitschke's appreciation of
the Reichstag likewise waned from session to
session. Already, in 1879, he wrote the following
words in the Reichstag album: "Let us not be
deceived, gentlemen; the pleasure our population
experienced by participating in parliamentary life
has considerably decreased in comparison with the
days when the mere existence of Parliament was
held to be the beginning of the era of liberty. But
how should it be otherwise? I believe we are
blessed with 4000 deputies in the German Empire.
It would be against the nature of things if such an
excessive number did not, in the end, become
boring and tedious to the population. " When his
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? 8o Treitschke
calculation was contested, he wrote a few years
later: "Quousque tandem is on everybody's lips
when in good Society mention is made of those
parliamentary speech floods which now, for months
past, have rushed forth again in Berlin, Munich,
and Karlsruhe, as if from wide opened sluices;
3000 Members of Parliament, that is to say, one
representative of the people for every 3000 citizens.
Too much of a good thing even for German
patience. More and more frequently the question
is raised whether by such sinful waste of money
and time anything else can be effected beyond a
noise as useless as the clattering of a wheel whose
axle is broken. "
On July n, 1879, he announced his retirement
from the National Liberal faction on the rejection
of the well-known Frankenstein Clause, which
allotted part of the customs receipts to the Small
States. One would have supposed that he, a
staunch Unitarian, would be antagonistic to this
proposal, and in his innermost heart he really was;
but, owing to Bismarck's declaration that finance
reform was urgent, and that the consent of the
centre was unobtainable by any other means, he
voted for the Government. The consequences
apprehended by him, as the result of the attitude
of his friends, fully materialized. They consisted
in Bismarck's rupture with the National Liberals,
the resignation of ministers Hobrecht, Falck,
and Friedenthal the reconciliation of Bismarck
with the Roman Curia, and the passage of the
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? His Life and Work 81
customs reform with a Conservative clerical
majority, which to the present day prevails in the
Reichstag. All this Bismarck sacrificed for the
benefit of a highly contest able finance reform.
Treitschke attributed the responsibility for it to
the Reichstag, and in 1883 he wrote: " Of all the
institutions of our young Empire, none has stood
the test as badly as the Reichstag. " He was sick
of Parliament, and characterized the headache and
feeling of tiredness with which he usually returned
from sittings as "parliamentary seediness. " His
participation in debates slackened, and after 1888
he refrained from seeking re-election, an additional
reason being the lines taken by Government, and
legislation which he could not follow without
coming too much into conflict with his old ideas.
Neither did he harmonize with public opinion in
regard to external politics. He had no faith in the
durability of the French Republic, but believed
in the return of Bonapartism. At the death of
Napoleon III, on January 9, 1873, consequent
upon an operation for stone, he remarked: "Right
to the last this man has remained unassthetic. "
I thought the game between Chambord and the
Orleans would now be continued, but he pooh-
poohed the idea, and adhered to his belief that the
Bonapartists alone are the people destined to
reign over that nation. With feelings of bitterness
he watched the great number of Germans who, in
spite of experiences in the past, returned to France
to again take up positions, and even obtain their
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? 82 Treitschke
naturalization. He considered this a lack of sense
of honour which he could not understand. The
Pole who on all battlefields fought against Russia
was to his mind more respectable, in spite of his
vodka smell.
VI.
From 1871 to 1874 tne Reichstag was by no
means the only arena in which the warrior, pre-
pared at all times, practised his strength, and his
academic opponents occasionally reproached him
with dragging the bad tone of the Reichstag into
the University debates. As a matter of fact, in
those days there was little difference, thanks to the
urbanity of Richter and Liebnecht. Peculiarly
enough, the chief interest of Academicians since
March, 1871 during the time, therefore, when the
most important questions agitated the German
Fatherland hinged upon a quarrel which must be
styled almost childish. Knies and Schenkel were
at daggers drawn, because the former, as Pro-
Rector, occupied the chair in the Economic Com-
mission conducted by Schenkel. The University
statutes clearly conceded this right to the Pro-
Rector, but Schenkel declared that Knies, in that
case, might also undertake the agenda of the
Commission. The reason for Treitschke's pas-
sionate participation in this question was partly
aversion for Schenkel, and partly gratitude for
Knies, who, in Freiburg, as well as in Heidelberg,
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? His Life and Work 83
had urged his appointment. Besides, he highly
appreciated Knies as a scientist, and managed to
intersperse his Reichstag speeches with exhaustive
extracts from Knies's latest book, Money. In the
terms of the statute Knies was absolutely in his
right. When the quarrel came to no end, Jolly
suspended the Commission and entrusted the
Senate with its duties, but the Senate protested.
As negotiations assumed a very unparliamentary
character, the philologist Kochly declared it
beneath his dignity to participate further in the
meetings. A motion was now brought in com-
pelling every "Ordinarius" to take part in the
meetings, and in this way the stupid discussion
continued. The principal seat of terror was the
Philosophic Faculty, and by his drastic speeches
Treitschke more than once drove the Dean to
despair. "He is a firebrand," said Ribbeck. "I
am always trembling when he asks to speak. "
It was, of course, picturesque when the tall, hand-
some man with thundering voice shouted at the
tiny, bespectacled gentlemen in the Senate, "Who-
ever is of a different opinion will have me to deal
with. " But as he had no conception as to how
loudly he spoke, even when intending to whisper a
confidential information into his neighbour's ear,
he often placed his friends in a most awkward
position. One of his confidential cannon-shots
particularly caused lasting damage. When the
natural history scientists, on a certain occasion,
interfered, he shouted to his neighbour, meaning
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? 84 Treitschke
of course to whisper, "What has this to do with
these chemists and dung-drivers? " and the fat
was naturally in the fire. Nobody was more
annoyed at these sallies than his own party, and,
after a similar occurrence, Knies, taking advantage
of his deafness, called after him, " Good-night, old
baby! " He, however, gaily departed, totally
unaware of the feelings which he had aroused even
amongst his friends. It was impossible to exercise
a restraining influence over him. With his tem-
perament, he could not understand why he should
say something different from what he thought. A
friend who, in his opinion, although right, was
unjustly ill-treated and ill-used, would be helped
out by him, whatever the cost.
When, however, in an article in the Prussian
Annuals, he declared that Court Theatres and
University Senates would remain for ever the
classic field for jealous intrigues and childish
quarrels, the contest reverberated in the Chambers
and the Press. The so-called majority broke off
all relations with him, and, in consequence, we
became more intimate than ever. "The outlaws"
was the name he preferably applied to us, and the
round table at Konig's Weinbeer, in Leipzig, was
christened by him as "The Conspirators. " In
reply to my remark that we cared by no means to
be considered outlaws, he said: "I have my
students. " Anyhow, the close relations thus
established among a number of influential col-
leagues was also a gain. We met every evening,
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? His Life and Work 85
one hour after his lectures, at the Museum, where
we drank cheap beer. "It merely costs a little
effort, " he said. The circle consisted of historian
Weber, the three theologians, Gass, Holtzmann,
and myself; further, the botanist, Hofmeister,
with whom Treitschke was on friendly terms while
in Leipzig; Herrmann, the teacher of Canon Law,
where Treitschke was received when still a student
in Gottingen, and who, for his benefit, had learned
the deaf-and-dumb language; and Knies, who, after
occupying the position of Director of the High
School Board and University Inspector, was
degraded to that of Professor at Heidelberg, so that
Hitzig greeted him with the following toast:
"Behold Adam, who now has become one of us! "
The spokesmen were Knies and Bluntschli, who
both defended their one political point of view,
Treitschke keeping as much as possible apart from
the latter. His opinion of Bluntschli, as now con-
firmed in print through his letters to Freytag, was
unjust.