No More Learning

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? 250 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
We in Germany are willing to remain on good terms
with Austria as long as Count Andrassy does not depart
from his peaceful programme. The old feud is honestly
fought out, and in to-day's conditions of Austria there
are at present only two questions which might possibly
compel us to terminate friendly relations with the Empire.
If the Magyars misuse their power and upset the German
tendencies of the Suabians in Hungary, or even those
of the Transylvanian Saxons, the best German race in
the South-east, the friendly tendency in Germany will
rapidly disappear. Our national pride has, God be
praised, become more sensitive to-day, and we all feel
that our Empire cannot silently put up with acts of
violence against our own flesh and blood. The alliance
which for centuries has united the Hapsburgs with the
Polish Republic is still operative. During the last ten
years Austria has given free rein to Polish "Junker-
dom," and for the Poles Galicia is the stronghold of their
nationality. If Galicians obtain the desired autonomy
Polish liberty will quickly show its true colours, and will
reveal itself in overbearing tyranny against all non-
Poles. The principle of nationality which represents to-
day the forlorn hope of the Poles has not been so
shamelessly trampled upon by any nation in Europe as
by the Poles in the days of their good fortune. In
Cracow the last German professors of the University
have already been sent away, and the old German college
is in the hands of the Poles. Soon perhaps the Jews of
Kasimierz will be the sole representatives of Germany
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 251
in the old town, which owes its existence to the Germans.
Soon enough, also, the Ruthenian eastern half of the
country will have tales to tell of the atrocities of Polish
Junkers and of the clergy. All this does not touch us
immediately. West Prussia is preparing to gratefully
celebrate next summer the centenary of the first division
of Poland; in Posen, likewise, German culture and
German development is making progress; the Posen
peasant knows that his position under Polish nobility
was incomparably harder than under the present-day
Prussian sceptre. In this district we are immune from
any rising, provided no artificial agitation is introduced
from without. But moderation is not to be expected
from the hereditary political incapacity of the Polish
Junkers. Once masters of Galicia this province will be
the heart of busy Polish propaganda, and the frantic
cry, "Ancient Poland down to the green bridge of
Konigsberg," may soon be heard again. Thus Austria's
Polish policy cements the friendship between Prussia
and Russia, the old faithful allies, and prevents us
following unsuspiciously the Danube Empire's measures.
As long, however, as our Polish possessions are not
endangered, Germany is willing to extend benevolent
sentiments to her neighbour, an honest intention whch
does not lose its value because it is expressed without
sentimental tenderness. A State like Austria cannot
exact affection from independent people. Our interests
induce us to desire the continuance of the Empire of the
Lothrings, and these interests form the closest tie between
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? 252 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
the States. But are our devout wishes a power strong
enough to face fate? Who amongst us desired the
recent war? Nobody; and yet inexorable fate dragged
us into it. The mutual interests of neighbouring
Powers may afford a small State an unjustified exist-
ence for centuries; a big Power, however, cannot
exist if it lacks vitality, and if it does not appear as a
blessing, or at any rate as a necessity, to its own people.
Were we to ask such questions regarding Austria, innumer-
able apprehensions and considerations present themselves.
The most confident can to-day only say it is possible that
Austria may keep together; but all the foundations of
that State belong to a period of the past.
When Austria lost her unnatural power over Germany
and Italy many hopeful prophecies were expressed
that the Empire on the Danube would rejuvenate and
breathe freely again, like the Prussian State after having
renounced Warsaw. Exactly the contrary has happened.
Austria's worries have incessantly increased since 1866.
By withdrawing from foreign territory she has not found
herself again, but abandoned her old historic character.
Ever since its existence the aims of the Austrian Empire
were exclusively directed to European politics. An
internal reign taken as a whole did not exist at all.
Once the creed of unity was established the Crown allowed
everything to go as it did, and was satisfied when its
people silently obeyed. Hardly ever has the House of
Hapsburg-Lothring bestowed a thought upon improving
her administrative machinery, the furtherance of the
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 253
people's welfare, popular education, and upon all the
seemingly insignificant tasks of internal politics which
to other countries are of cardinal importance; only
Maria Theresa and Jos< ph II realised the seriousness of
their duties. To-day, however, humbled and weakened,
hardly able to maintain the position of a big Power,
Austria finds herself compelled to reconsider her ways.
External politics which formerly meant to her every-
thing have now lost importance; the whole country's
powers are invoked to repair the internal damage, and
whilst the "Hofburg" (the Imperial Palace), although
unwillingly, is compelled to expiate the sins of neglect
of many centuries, the question is asked, with steadily
growing insistence, whether this age of national State
formations still has room left for an Empire which lacks
national stamina.
Undoubtedly the natural form of government for such
a conglomerate Empire is absolutism. An independent
monarch may maintain a neutral attitude over his
quarrelling people; he may in happy days lull his country
into comfortable slumber in order to play one nation
against the other in time of need; but these old tricks
have long ceased to be effective. In every conceivable
form absolutism has been tried by the " Hofburg," only
to finally prove its complete all-round inefficacy. Cis-
leithania's population owes its Constitution to the failure
of absolutism, and not to its own strength. To us Ger-
mans of the Empire it was clear beforehand that liberty
bestowed in this way could thrive but slowly, and only
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? 254 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
after severe relapses. True, some democratic dunces in
Berlin formerly applauded the juggling tricks of the
"People's Cabinet," and have claimed for Prussia
"liberty as in Austria. " But all sensible people in Germany
find it natural that the Constitution in Austria so far hj>>"
caused only venomous, complicated, and barren party
quarrels. More serious than the infantine diseases of
constitutionalism seems the terrible growth of race-
hatred. Here, as elsewhere, parliamentarism has accen-
tuated national contrasts. As Schleswig-Holstein experi-
enced it with the Danes, so Austria experiences it now,
that free people learn far more slowly than legitimate
Courts the virtue of political tolerance and self-restraint.
As was to be expected of the Hapsburg-Lothrings, the
constitutional Imperial Crown has remained thoroughly
despotic in sentiment. As yet none of the innumerable
ministers of the present Emperor have in reality guided
the country. Count Beust could be pardoned everything
except popular favour, which was his main support. The
just plaint of the Germans who are true to the Constitution
is that "mysterious forces"--a deeply veiled camarilla
of subaltern bureaucrats and ultramontane noblemen--
dominate the Court, and, in spite of the abolition of the
Concordat, the relations between the Hofburg and the
Roman Curia have not come to an end. Since Austria's
withdrawal from the German alliance the house of the
Lothrings, now fatherless, has no further inducement to
favour the Germans, and the Court already displays
marked coolness towards German ideals. The spokes-
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 255
men of the Germans are men of the Liberal party, who
in their dealings with the Crown have unfortunately
displayed clumsy ignorance about constitutional doctrine.
The Magyars show chivalrous respect for the wearer of
the Crown of St. Stephen, and the Court commences to
feel comfortable in Budapest. The feudal leaders of
the Slavs conscientiously display their dynastic tenden-
cies; the German ministers, however, behave as if the
Emperor were really the only fifth wheel of the cart
after Rotteck and Welcker, and in the lower Austrian Diet
Liberal passion recently descended to most unseemly
remarks against the imperial family. Does Vienna not
remember that the Hapsburgs never forget? Thus
the ties between the Crown and the Germans are
loosening.
The Army is no longer an absolutely reliable support
of the State, because it has undoubtedly lost in quality
since the day of Koniggratz. A State which resembles
the "Wallenstein Camp" can gain great victories only
by means of homeless mercenary troops. Any improve-
ment of modern warfare impairs the fighting capacity
of Austria. The more the moral element commences
to enter into the calculations of war the more the cruelty
of the private soldier and the deep-laid mistrust which
separates Slav troops from their German officers will give
rise to apprehension. The customary foolery about
clothing, which has finally led to concocting for the
Imperial and Royal Armies the ugliest uniform in the
universe, makes just as little for the fitness of the forces
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? 256 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
as the improvement of weapons. The introduction of
compulsory military service, which can serve a useful pur-
pose only in a National State, was in Austria a thought-
less precipitation; for the moment it has disorganized
discipline, and it is questionable whether the future will
show better results. German students, Polish noblemen,
fanatical Czechs join the ranks of the volunteers and
are promoted to officer's rank in the militia; but this
new corps of officers does not invariably, as of yore, seek
its home under the black and yellow standard. The
militiaman acquires at home all the prejudices of race-
hatred; the Hungarian "honveds" are certainly brave
soldiers, but equally surely cannot be led against an
enemy. The young noblemen who formerly gladly
gathered round the imperial standard now stay away,
and race-hatred impairs comradeship. The officers of the
German Army at times glance critically at the history
of Austria's military forces, who, with rare exceptions,
have for 130 years always fought bravely and--unsuccess-
fully; and they compare the days of Metz and Sedan
with the hopeless campaign against the Bochese. The
old remedy of hard-pressed Hapsburgs--a state of siege
--promises but scant success for an Army thus con-
stituted.
In addition thereto are public fuctionaries of generally
very inferior education, whose corruption does not admit
of doubt, servile and yet always argumentative; we refer
to the Czech bureaucracy, indescribably hated and
despised by Germans and Hungarians alike. In the
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 257
Church there is a strictly Roman party with very well-
meaning but also very vague Old Catholic aspirations,
and there exists widely diffused a shallow frivolity
which derides as Prussian hypocrisy all agitations for
moral seriousness. In the same way the quondam much-
talked-of inexhaustible resources of the Danube Empire
prove to-day a pleasant fairy tale. An Exchequer
which has twice within ninety years covered yearly ex-
penditure by regular receipts, and has now again just
weathered veiled bankruptcy--such incredible financial
mismanagement has not only destroyed the private
fortunes of thousands, it has also largely stimulated the
habit of gambling and of prodigality. In nearly all the
Crown lands of Cisleithania agriculture lacks a body of
educated middle-class farmers; it is the link between
farms and the vast estates of noblemen which is missing.
The development of industry is similarly handicapped.
Whilst in most provinces trade and commerce is in its
infancy, Vienna is agitated by feverishly excited specu-
lation. For ever so long the Vienna Stock Exchange has
drawn the "smart set " into its circle. Pools and syndi-
cates carry on the organized swindle, and the small man
is also dragged into the turmoil by innumerable com-
mission houses. The magnificent capital is of course a
grand centre for every kind of intercourse, but its corrup-
tion reacts detrimentally upon the commonwealth. The
bulk of the citizens is still healthy and capable, but
amongst the always immoral masses of the metropolis
an impudent socialism is to-day at work, which derides
R
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? 258 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
the spirit of the Fatherland as reactionary, and amongst
all the races of Austria most vehemently attacks the
Germans as "bourgeois. " Of the moral conditions of
the upper classes, and particularly of Stock Exchange
circles, the Vienna newspapers, which are closely allied
with the latter, give ample testimony. Vienna journalism,
although highly developed, is, on the whole, the most
immoral press of Europe--Paris by no means excluded.
The German party in Vienna is about to initiate the
Deutsche Zeitung, because an honest party cannot rely
upon the existing big German newspapers. All these
powerful journals are nothing else, and do not pretend
to be anything else, than industrial undertakings, and a
smile of compassion would greet those who were to speak
to those literary speculators about political tendencies. By
the side of the big organs of the Stock Exchange jobbers
there is a huge crowd of dirty halfpenny rags, which
live on extortion and journalistic piracy, for in this
frivolous town there are many with a bad conscience,
and liberal payments are made to stop the slanderous
tongue of the blackmailer. Since the first happy days of
Emperor Francis Joseph, when courts-martial condemned
to death, New Austria has attempted nearly every
imaginable political system; such a sudden change is
bound to unsettle the sense of justice and the people's
opinions respecting their country. The views of the
German-Austrian pessimists are very unpalatable to
Germans in the Empire, as they cross our political
calculations. But let us also be just, and let us try to
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 259
place ourselves in the position of a warmhearted, scien-
fically educated young German-Austrian. Why in the
world should this man love his country in its entirety?
Ancient faith, force of habit, fear of the uncertain future
and of radical changes, all these considerations retain
him within Austrian boundaries; but to rejoice his
heart he casts his eyes northwards, where he beholds
his countrymen in a respected, mighty Empire, in a well-
secured national commonwealth, with orderly economic
conditions, and he perceives them in every respect
happier than he is himself. He hates the "rugged
caryatid-heads of the servile classes," as Hebbel, amid
great cheers, once said of the German-Austrians, and
above all he hates the Czechs. To keep this slavedom
in subordination and to shield the best he calls his own,
i. e. , German thought and German sentiment, from the
aggressive waves of barbarism he looks to the Empire
for protection. We seriously point out to him the much-
praised "colonising vocation" of Germanism in Austria.
He, however, borrows from the rich treasure of the
imperial and royal bureaucratic language a beautiful
phrase, and bitterly suggests that this calling has
now gradually become obsolete (in Vcrstoss gekommen).
In Hungary, in Bohemia, in Cracow, in the Tyrol,
everywhere, Germanism is retrograding, and everywhere
it is proved that the atmosphere of the Hapsburg rule
is detrimental to German nationalism. He complains that
"centuries ago the liberty of German faith was wrested
from us, clerical pressure weighs upon the soul of the
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? 260 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
people, and we have not sufficient iron left in our
blood to protect ourselves against the numerical majority
of foreigners. " He tells us of the political leaders
of his race: how they are nearly all done for and worn
out, many of them ill-famed for being deserters, sellers
of titles, or promoters. Then he asks whether it behoves
Germans to be governed by Hungarians after the dicta
of Magyar policy, and confidently finishes up thus:
"Certainly Austria is a European necessity, but the
Austria of the future borders in the West on the Leitha,
and we Germans belong to you. " We give him to reflect
that after all it is an honour to belong to Austria, that
ancient mighty Power, whereupon he shrugs shoulders.
"Times of the past," he says. "When recently Count
Hohenwarte spoke to us of the real Austrian nationality
he was greeted by peals of derisive laughter on the part
of the Germans. We remind him of the Oriental mission
once entrusted by Prince Eugene to the realm on the
Danube. Dryly he replies: 'A State which can hardly
stand on its own legs will still less be able to subdue
foreign people, especially when violently hated by
them. '"
After the first great defeat of New Austria at the battle
of Solferino, Austrian-Germanism began to awake from
its deep slumber. Notably in the Universities a more
active national sentiment developed, and we subse-
quently witnessed the realisation of what we German
patriots always anticipated, i. e. , that Austria's exodus
from the German Alliance would greatly enliven and
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 261
strengthen the mental intercourse between us and the
Germans on the Danube. Never before has our political
work met with such friendly reception amongst the
Austrians as amongst the German Nationalists of Graz
and Vienna to-day.
We heartily apologise for the severe
injustice done years ago to the German "Gothaern";
nothing is more touching than the youthful and amiable
enthusiasm which these circles harbour for our new
Empire; nowhere has Prussia warmer friends. From
the bottom of our hearts we wish that the noble German
national pride, the healthy political intellect of this
party, may display all its energy in the perfecting of the
Cisleithanian Constitution. The German-Austrian who
greets every shortcoming of his country with a jubilant
"Always livelier and livelier " does not assist Germany
in her great object; she has only use for the active man
who works physically and mentally in order to procure
for the Germans the leadership in Cisleithania. The
German national pride in Austria is a child of woe; it has
invariably been aroused by the defeats of the Monarchy,
and at each fresh awakening it has given proof of greater
power. Up till now only a small portion of the German-
Austrians evinces strong German national sentiment;
the history of the recent war shows to what extent.
The thinking middle classes follow our battles with a
hearty and active interest never to be forgotten, and
the brave German peasants in the Alps likewise recol-
lected their heroic wars against the Wallachs. The
high nobility, however, and the masses in the towns
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? 262 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
persevered in the old hatred against Prussia. The small
gentry of imperial and royal licensed coffee-house
keepers and tobacconists doted on the French Republic.
As always in Austria, the big financial interests gave
proof of their unprincipled meanness, and insufficient
attention has been paid in Germany to the great dispatch
of arms which went from Vienna via Trieste to France.
German national sentiment, however, is visibly in the
ascendant, and it grows daily on beholding the new
German Empire. National pride and hatred permeate,
so to say, the atmosphere of this unlucky State, whose
future entirely depends upon the reconciliation of national
interests. The growing hatred against the Slavs may
by-and-by press the broad masses of German population
into the ranks of the German Nationalists, and unless
fairly well-regulated constitutional life can be estab-
lished in the near future in Cisleithania the Germans
might finally also realise that their nationality is dearer
to them than their Government.
Closer ties attach the greater part of the Slavs to the
Austrian Monarchy. When from the distance we hear
only the uncouth blustering of Czech fanaticism, when
we listen to the assurances of German scientists in Prague,
that a Czech University by the side of a German one is
at any rate more endurable than a University with mixed
languages, which must infallibly lead to the destruction
of Germanism in Bohemia; when we thus behold the
battle of the elements in the territories of the Crown of
Wenceslaus, we are apt to think that such blind national
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 263
hatred would not shrink from the destruction of Austria.
On closer examination, however, secret fear and a singular
cowardice is easily detected, which hides behind the uproar
of the Czechs. They are noisy, they bluster and twist
the law, but they do not dare to start war. In the midst
of their roarings they feel that they cannot dispense
with the Monarchy because, unlike the Germans, no home
is open to them outside Austria. Not even the hot-
heads dare count with certainty upon the fulfilment of
Panslavist dreams, and that is why for the time being
the autonomous Crown of Wenceslaus or the division of
Cisleithania into five groups united by Federalism suffices
for them. The tameness of the Czechs is, however,
not due to honest intentions, but to the consciousness
of weakness, which can and will change as soon as Czech-
dom finds support in a great Slav power, and it is
already patent that the Poles regard Galician autonomy
only as the first step towards the re-establishment of
the Empire of the Sarmats.
Amongst all the nations of Austria the Magyars must
to-day display the greatest energy for the maintenance
of the Monarchy. The newly established Crown needs
Cisleithanian support; those people, with their lively an-
cestral recollections, know only too well how often Austria
and Hungary have mutually saved each other. The
convention was in every respect vastly in favour of the
Magyars. Hungary contributes thirty per cent, towards
the general expenditure of the Monarchy and to the
payment of interest on the debt of the country; if closely
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? 264 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
calculated it will be found to be even less. And in spite
of all the Magyars cannot overcome the old mistrust
of the Hofburg; the tribunals of Eperies and Arad
can no more sink into oblivion than the impudence
of the "Bach" Hussars. In Parliament a strong and
growing opposition has aims beyond the convention,
and it appears full of danger that this opposition consists
almost exclusively of pure Magyar blood. The delegate
"Nemeth" recently offered his solemn congratulations
in Parliament to the German-Austrians on the impend-
ing union with their German brothers. Should disorder
continue to reign in Cisleithania less hot-blooded Magyars
will also soon raise the question whether a union with
"Chaos " be really an advantage for Hungary.
Two neighbours of Austria, i. e. , Russia and Italy,
believe with the greatest positiveness in the collapse of
the Monarchy, and truly everything seems possible in
the vicinity of the Orient. The Oriental question extends,
moves westwards, and resembles a stone which, when
thrown into water, draws ever-widening circles. It
already enters into the domain of the far horizon which
has to be considered in the politics of the German
Empire. Very probably the fate of Austria and the
still not definitely solved Polish question will in time to
come be mixed up with the enigmatical future of the
Balkan population. In Russia's leading circles fierce
hatred, only too easily understood, rages against Austria
--a hatred which the prudence of clever statesmen may
temporarily suppress but cannot stifle altogether, the
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 265
highest interests of the two neighbours in the East as
well as in Poland being in closest vicinity. Certainly
one needs the happy levity of Count Beust in order
to look with steadfast confidence into the future of
Austria. What follows? The struggle of German-
Austria against the Slavs is at the same time a
struggle of the modern States against feudal and
ultramontane powers. The Constitution of Cisleith-
ania honestly kept and intelligently developed offers
room for all nations of German-Austria. Whoever has
the freedom and peaceful development of Middle Europe
at heart must earnestly wish that the oft-proved vitality
of the old State may once more assert itself, and that
the Germans this side of the Leitha may hold their own.
The perfecting of this Constitution can, however, even
under the most favourable auspices, only take place very
slowly; there is an immeasurable distance between the
wretched indifference which was prevalent in German-
Austria after the battle of Koniggratz and the present
national sentiment. The German tongue and German
morals must not anticipate great results from the
Lothrings; it must suffice to us if Germans maintain
their possessions against Slavs and Magyars. The
complete solution of a great European task is no
more to be expected of this infirm country. Only after
ten years of internal peace will Austria, if ever, gain
power to pursue serious plans in the East. An un-
reservedly sincere friendship we must not expect
of the Hofburg. The policy of silently preserving
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? 266 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
all rights is understood in Vienna as well as in Rome.
And however honestly well-wishing we might be, the
Lothrings know from Italy the mighty attraction of
National States, and know that their Germans cannot
turn their eyes from our Empire. Because of its existence
alone the German Empire is viewed by them with sus-
picion, and prudent circumspection is appropriate.
Every uncalled-for attempt at intervention in Austria's
internal struggle accentuates the mistrust of the Hof-
burg against our countrymen and prejudices the
German cause. This Prince Bismarck magnificently
understood when he abstained at Gastein from all obser-
vations against the Hohenwarte Cabinet. It was very
badly understood by the honest citizens of Breslau,
Dresden, and Munich, when they decided on their heartily
well-meant and heartily stupid declarations of sympathy
for German-Austria. Lucky for German-Austria that,
thanks to our sober-mindedness, such madcap ideas did
not find sympathy; but all our interest in Austria
does not justify us in shutting our eyes to the possibility
of her collapse. The perfection of the Cisleithanian
Constitution presupposes the good intentions of all
parties; at present such intention is, however, found to
exist only amongst part of the German-Austrians. The
Italians are in the habit of saying Austria is not a State
but a family. When the foundation of Hapsburg power
was laid the expression "Tu felix Austria nube" met with
admiration in the whole world, and Emperor Frederick III,
regretfully looking at his amputated foot, said: "Ytzt
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 267
ist dem Reich der ain Fuss abgeschniedten" (" Now one
leg has been cut off the Empire "). The times of imperial
self-worship and State-forming marriages of princes are
no more. Will a country which owes its origin to the
senseless family policy of past centuries, which in character
belongs to ancient Europe, be able to satisfy the demands
of a new era? We dare not answer negatively; yet as
brave and vigilant men we must also contemplate that
in years to come Fate may reply to the question in the
negative. If the calamity of the destruction of Austria
were to occur, and it would also be a calamity to Germany,
then our Empire must be ready and prepared to brave
the forces of Fate to save Germanism on the Danube
from the d6bris, "To be prepared is everything," saith
the Poet.
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? THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND
RUSSIA.
In the summer of 1813, August Wilhelm Schlegel wrote
to Schleiermacher: "Is it to be wondered at that this
nation, on whose shoulders the weight of the balance of
power in Europe has been laid for one and a half centuries,
should go with a bent back? " In these words he indi-
cated both the cause of the long-continued feebleness of
our country and also the ground of the constant mistrust
with which all the Great Powers saw Germany recovering
strength. Even a cautious and unprejudiced German
historian will find it hard to keep from bitterness, and will
easily appear to foreigners as a Chauvinist, when he por-
trays in detail in how much more just and friendly a way
the public opinion of Europe regarded the national move-
ments of the Italians, the Greeks, and the Southern Slavs
than the Germans' struggle for unity. It needs even a
certain degree of self-denial in order to recognise that the
whole formation of the old system of States, the way of
looking at things of the old diplomacy, depended on the
divided state of Germany, and, consequently, in our
revolution we could expect nothing better from the
neighbouring Powers than, at most, neutrality and
silent non-interference.
268
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? RUSSIAN AND PRUSSIAN ALLIANCE 269
A proud German will be glad of the fact that we owe
all that we are really to ourselves; he will willingly for-
get past unfairness in practical politics, and simply
ask what is the attitude of the neighbouring Powers to
the present interests of our Empire. But he who only
sees in history an arsenal from which to draw weapons to
pursue the varying aims of the politics of the day will,
with a moderate amount of learning and some sophistry,
be able to prove, just as it happens to suit him, that
France or Austria, Russia or England, is our hereditary
foe. A book of such a sort, thoroughly partisan in spirit
and unhistorical, is the work "Berlin and Petersburg;
Prussian Contributions to the History of the Relations
between Russia and Germany," which an anonymous
author has lately published with the unconcealed purpose
of arousing attention and of preparing the minds of
credulous readers for a reckoning with Russia. The
book is entitled " Prussian Contributions," and the preface
is dated from Berlin. I am quite willing to believe that
the author, when he wrote his preface, may have happened
to be passing a few days in Berlin. But everyone who
knows our political literature must at once discern that
the author of the work is the same publicist who has issued
the little book, "Russia, Before and After the War,"
"Pictures of Petersburg Society," and a number of other
instructive works dealing with Russo-German relations.
And this publicist is, as is well known, no Prussian, but
an inhabitant of the Baltic provinces; he has hitherto
never claimed to concern himself with Prussian politics,
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? 270 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
but has always, with great talent and restless energy,
represented the interests of his Baltic home as he under-
stood them. Among the political authors of Germany he
takes a position similar to that which Louis Schneider
once occupied on the other side. Just as the latter,
assuredly in his way an honest Prussian patriot, regarded
the alliance with Holy Russia as a dogma, so does our
author view hostility to the Czar's Empire; only, he is
incomparably abler and quite free from that deprecatory
manner which makes Schneider's writings so unpleasant.
The restoration of Poland and the conquest of the Baltic
provinces, these are the visions which, more or less dis-
guised, hover in the background of all his books. In
his view the Prussian Monarchy has really no other raison
d'etre than the suppression of the Slavs; it misses its
vocation till it has engaged in hostilities against the
Muscovites. All the problems of German politics are
gauged by this one measure; no inference is so startling
as to alarm our author. In 1871 he opposed the conquest
of Alsace and Lorraine, for the liberation of our western
territories threatened to postpone the longed-for war with
Russia; nor could a patriot of the Baltic provinces allow
that Alsace with its Gallicised higher classes was a German
province, while on the other hand the German nationality
of Livland and Kurland was rooted exclusively in the
nobility and well-to-do citizen class. Such a steady direc-
tion of sentiment towards one object compels the respect
even of an opponent. So long as our author fought with
an open visor one could pardon his warm local patriotism
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? RUSSIAN AND PRUSSIAN ALLIANCE 271
when he at times spoke somewhat contemptuously of
Prussia, and held up the wonderful political instinct of the
Baltic nobility as a shining example to our native narrow-
mindedness. But when, as at present, he assumes the
mask of a deeply-initiated Prussian statesman, when he
pares and trims our glorious history to suit the aims of
the Baltic malcontents, and wishes to make us believe
that Prussia has been for fifty years the plaything of a
foreign Power, then it is quite permissible to examine
more closely whether the cargo of this little Baltic ship
is worth more than the false flag which it flies at its
mast-head.
The old proverb "Qui a compagnon, a maitre," is
especially true of political alliances. Hardenberg made a
mistake when he once said regarding Austria and Prussia,
"Leurs interets se confondent. " A community of
interests between independent Powers can only be a
conditional one, and limited by time; in every alliance
which lasts long, sometimes one of the contracting
parties and sometimes the other will consider itself over-
reached. Thus our State at the commencement of the
eighteenth century made enormous sacrifices to aid the
objects of the two sea-Powers, but did not finally gain
any further advantage from this long alliance than the
right of her head to use the kingly title, and some barren
laurels. The history also of the seventy-seven year-long
friendship between Prussia and Russia--the longest
alliance which has ever existed between two Great Powers
--presents many such phenomena. There were times
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? 272 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
when German patriots were fully justified in regarding
the friendship of Russia as oppressive--nay, as disgrace-
ful--just as on the other hand in recent years the great
majority of educated Russians firmly believed that
their country was injured by the Prussian alliance. But
when one sums up the results, and compares the relative
position in respect of power of the two States in 1802, when
their alliance was formed, with that in 1879, when it
was dissolved, it cannot be honestly asserted that Prussia
fared badly in this alliance.
The Russo-Prussian alliance was, as is well known,
entirely the personal work of the two Monarchs, and every-
one knows how much it was helped forward by the honest
and frank friendship which the King, Frederick William
III, displayed towards the versatile Czar. But these
personal feelings of the King never overpowered his
sound political intelligence and his strong sense of duty.
Every new advance of historical investigation only re-
confirms the fact that the King was altogether right,
when unseduced by the proposals of so many cleverer
men than himself; he was only willing to venture on the
attempt at rising against Napoleon in alliance with Russia.
Without the help of the Czar Alexander the capture of
Paris and the restoration of the old power of Prussia
would have been impossible. Anyone who doubts
this should peruse the recently published Memoirs of
Metternich regarding the real objects of the Vienna
Court at the time, i. e. , not the Memoirs themselves
with their intolerable self-glorification, but the appended
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? RUSSIAN AND PRUSSIAN ALLIANCE 273
authentic official documents, which, for the most part,
plainly contradict the vain self-eulogy of the author.
At the Congress of Vienna the two Courts still continued
to have a community of interests: the Czar was obliged
to support Prussia's demands for an indemnity, if he
wished to secure for himself the possession of Poland.
At the second Peace of Paris, on the other hand, the
interests of the two Powers came into violent collision.
The Czar had indeed favoured the restoration of the State
of Prussia, so that Russia should be rendered impregnable
through this rampart on its most vulnerable side, but he
as little wished the rise of a completely independent self-
sufficing German Power, as the Courts of Paris, Vienna, and
London did. Therefore the restoration of our old western
frontier, which Prussia demanded, was defeated by the
united opposition of all the Great Powers. All the Courts
without exception observed with anxiety what an unsus-
pected wealth of military power little Prussia had
developed during the War of Liberation; therefore they
all eagerly vied with each other in burying Prussia's
merits in oblivion. Whether one reads the military
dispatches of Wellington and his officers, the letters of
Schwarzenburg, Metternich, and Gentz, the semi-official
writings of the Russian military authors of that period,
it is difficult to say which of the three allies had most
quickly and completely forgotten the deeds of their
Prussian comrades-in-arms. Nevertheless, the alliance
with Russia and Austria was a necessity for Prussia,
for it still remained the most important task of our
s
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