No More Learning

The desire of robbing the neutral neighbouring
States, which imaginative persons in Bale and
Brussels are fond of attributing to us, is expressed
only by some isolated German Chauvinists. We
notice with anxiety, like all the thoughtful Swiss,
that those two decades of fresh prosperity which
Switzerland enjoyed since the Civil War are to-day
at an end. We ask, gravely, what shall eventually
be the outcome of a development which is tending
ever more and more to loosen every community
and every individual from the State? But we
honestly wish that the Confederation may succeed
in overcoming the disintegrating power of an
unbridled Radicalism; the role which this asylum
for all parties has long played, to the good of Eu-
rope, is not yet played out by any means. No in-
telligent German wants to increase the excessively
strong centrifugal powers, which are embraced
in our new Empire, by the inclusion of purely
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? Germany and Neutral States 239
Republican elements, and all free men are horror-
struck at the thought that Geneva and Lausanne,
which are to-day the centres of an independent
intellectual movement, would, by the dissolution
of the Swiss Confederation, be involved in the
horrible fall of France. We are also quite without
arriere-pensee in regard to the Netherland States,
which did so little to win Germany's friendship;
we certainly trust that the strengthening of the
German Empire will of itself bring it about, that
the foolish inclination at The Hague to France may
be moderated, and that the Flemish majority in
Belgium may find the courage to assert their race
beside the Walloon minority. Still, because we
do not want to shake the national constitutions
of these buffer-States, because we demand a
lasting arrangement on our Western boundary,
for that reason a question has now to be settled
once for all, which threatens to be continually
disturbing our good relations with our small
neighbours, although it has in very truth nothing
whatever to do with the independence of the Nether-
lands. The conclusion of peace with France may
and shall afford the opportunity of incorporating
Luxemburg in the German Empire.
It is repugnant to us to revive to-day the
memory of the odious transaction which deprived
us of that territory the single bitter memory in
the glorious history of the North German Confede-
ration. Suffice it that that German territory
which by the decision of Europe was once allotted
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? 240 Treitschke
to the House of Orange and the Crown of Prussia,
in order to protect it against France's lust of
piracy, was suddenly sold and betrayed to France
by its own rulers. When the Prussian Govern-
ment entered a protest, it was confronted by the
unconcealed partisan disfavour of all the European
Powers. The fear of France lay heavily on the
world; it reads to us to-day like a farce, when we
read in the documents of those days how Lord
Stanley and Count Beust outri vailed each other
in depicting to our Government the fearful superi-
ority of French power; the French fleet would
occupy the attention of the greater portion of
our forces, would make it impossible for us to
protect South Germany, etc. Prussia, which
was honestly trying to display its love of peace in
an affair not altogether free from doubt, and was,
moreover, fully busied with the founding of the
new Confederation, gave up its right of garrison-
ing, and contented itself with the inadequate
result, that France had to abandon her welcome
purchase. In place of the military protection
which Prussia had afforded the country up till then,
was substituted a moral protection, by which the
great Powers undertook a common responsibility
for the neutrality of the Grand Duchy. But
scarcely had the agreement been concluded, when
it at once lost all its value owing to the perfidious
interpretation put upon it by England. Amid
the exultant cheers of Parliament, Lord Stanley
declared that Great Britain would only take up
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? Germany and Neutral States 241
arms for Luxemburg's neutrality if the other
Great Powers did the same ; the press, drunk with
peace, rejoiced that England's obligations were
not extended, but limited, by the May Conven-
tion and the politics of the Sinking Island-
Kingdom had taken a fresh step downwards.
After such words no description is requisite of the
deeds that might be expected from British states-
men ; nobody doubts that England would not have
let itself be disturbed in its neutral complacency,
even if a victorious French army had penetrated
into Luxemburg last August.
The joint European guarantee was from the
start an empty form, and the position of the little
neutral country has been rendered completely
untenable by the mighty revolutionary events of
recent weeks. If the German boundary advances
as far as Metz and Diedenhof, Luxemburg be-
comes surrounded in the south, as in the north and
east, by German-Prussian territory, the country
no longer forms a buffer-State between France
and Prussia, and the object of the May^Convention,
the idea of preventing friction between the two
great military Powers, vanishes of itself. Con-
sidering the deadly enmity which will threaten
us yet a long time from Paris, the Prussian
Government could hardly tolerate seeing the
communications between Treves and Metz in-
terrupted by neutral territory; serious military
considerations compel Prussia's desire to plant
its standard again on those Luxemburg fortifica-
16
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? 242 Treitschke
tions on which it stood for fifty years, a screen
for Germany.
And is not the neutrality of the little country,
the artificial creation of a "nation luxembour-
geoise," in very truth a disgrace to Germany?
Polyglot countries, like Belgium and Switzerland,
may justly be declared neutral, because their
mixed populations prevent them from taking par-
tisan parts in the national struggles of this century.
But to cut off two hundred thousand German
persons from their Fatherland in order to place
them under European guardianship, that was a
crime against common-sense and history, an insult
which could be offered only to this our hard-
struggling Germany. The little State is German
to the last hamlet, belongs to us by speech and
customs, by the memories of a thousand-years-
old history, as well as by the community of ma-
terial interests. And this country, which presented
us with three Emperors, which once revolted
against Philip of Burgundy in order to preserve
its German language, which, further, in the days
of the French Revolution, twice joined in the
national war against the hated French, this root-
and-branch German country is to-day under
French rule! The official language is French, the
laws of the country are derived from France and
Belgium. Since the injurious nine-years' treaty
with Belgium, people in Luxemburg have grown
accustomed, as in Brussels and Ghent, to admire
French methods as a mark of distinction. The
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? Germany and Neutral States 243
officials, who are moulded in French and Belgian
schools, introduce French arrogance from their
alien environment, radically oppose the German
spirit, change the honest old German place-names
of Klerf and Liebenbrunn into Clerveaux and
Septfontaines. The people are alienated from
the German system of government by the sins
of the Diet; they cannot forget that the German
Confederation once abandoned a half of the coun-
try in undignified fashion to Belgium, and then
obligingly all the governmental pranks of reaction-
ary ministers. A fanatical clergy, a lying press
conducted by French and Belgians, no doubt
also maintained by French gold, foster their hatred
for the great Fatherland, and the Netherland
States gaze with indifference at the decline of the
German civilization.
Under such unhealthy conditions every kind of
political corruption of which the German nature
is capable has spread over this small people.
Whilst the German youth are shedding their
blood for the Eternal, for the Infinite, the Luxem-
burgers are wallowing in the mire of materialism;
a superstitious belief in the life of this world has
emasculated their minds, they know nothing,
they want to know nothing except business and
pleasure. Whilst in Germany, amid hard strug-
glings, a new, a more moral conception of liberty
is arising, which is rooted in the idea of duty,
there an existence without duties is praised as the
highest aim of life. They want to derive advan-
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? 244 Treitschke
tage from the Customs Union, to which the country
owes the essence of its prosperity, without doing
the least service for Germany. They let the
Germans bleed for the freedom of the left bank of
the Rhine including Luxemburg they loudly
boast they have no fatherland, and reserve it to
themselves to heap abuse on Germans as slaves,
to shout to the German tide-waiters a scornful
"mer de pour la Prusse! "
Ought Germany any longer to endure this
European scandal, this parasitic plant without a
fatherland, which is battening on the trunk of
our Empire? The national State has the right
and duty of protecting its nationals all over the
world; it cannot endure that a German race should
be gradually transformed into a German-French
mongrel without any reason except the perversity
of a degenerate bureaucracy. There is only one
way of preventing it, as things are, namely, the
inclusion of the country in the German Empire.
The Reichstag, however, can allow this inclu-
sion only under two conditions: it must require
that the German tongue be used again as the
official language, and that the agreement binding
the Grand Duchy to the Kingdom of the Nether-
lands shall be broken off. The bond of union
between the two States is certainly very loose;
still, in our Diet we got to know only too thor-
oughly the unhallowed consequences of the blend-
ing of German and foreign politics; although the
constitution of the Confederation says nothing
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? Germany and Neutral States 245
about it, we must set up for our new Empire the
infrangible principle: no foreign sovereign can
be a member of the German Confederation.
We do not mean that Germany should right-
away declare the May Convention to be nullified
in consequence of the present war. Much rather
do we desire the free unanimity of all the parties
concerned. The support hitherto afforded by
France to Luxemburg independence is to-day
disappearing of itself. The infatuated resistance
of the French will presumably oblige the Confeder-
ate general to increase his demands ; it would then
be all the easier for the French Government,
upon the conclusion of peace, to make a binding
declaration, in return for some fair concession,
that it recognizes in advance the entry of Luxem-
burg into the German Confederation. For the
conversion of the Luxemburgers themselves would
suffice a definite assurance, that henceforth Ger-
many's customs-boundary coincides with its po-
litical boundary, and the customs-convention can-
not be renewed unless the Grand Duchy again
undertakes the duties of a Confederate territory.
Such will scarcely fail of its effect in that country,
where ideal reasons find no response, despite the
fiery enthusiasm for independence which is to-day
again turning the heads of the little people. Their
industries cannot flourish without the blessings
of German commercial freedom; they would be
bound to be ruined if the Small State tried to
form an independent market-region, and the same
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? 246 Treitschke
would happen if it entered the Belgian customs
area.
Serious opposition can hardly be expected from
the Dutch Government, which has long been
weary of its troublesome neighbour. But the
head of the House of Orange has long been con-
verted to the commercial neutrality of those
patricians of Amsterdam, whom his great an-
cestors formerly fought against; his heart, however
warmly it may beat for France, will find to-day
the clink of Prussian dollars quite as pleasant as
that of golden napoleons four years ago. An
understanding must also be possible with the
magnates of the joint House of Nassau, whose
rights were expressly reserved in the May Con-
vention. The simplest solution of the question
would certainly be arrived at if Prussia were to
acquire the country by purchase. Already the
Prussian State numbers fifty thousand Luxem-
burgers among its citizens in the districts around
Bittburg and St. Vith; if the Grand Duchy and
French- Luxemburg, together with Diedenhof , were
to be taken over in addition, that misgoverned
and mutilated country would at last be united
again under one Crown up to the Belgian portion.
But this solution, which is in every respect most
desirable, is not absolutely a necessity; German
interests primarily extend only so far that the
Principality be again adopted into our line of
defence, into the life of our State and culture.
Should, therefore, the joint House prefer to raise
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? Germany and Neutral States 247
up a Nassau Prince as a Prince of the Confedera-
tion to the throne of Luxemburg, Germany cannot
refuse; such an arrangement would at any rate
be far preferable to the unreal conditions of to-
day. Lastly, we are yet in need of the agreement
of the European Powers. That also is obtainable ;
for right and fairness are obviously on our side,
if we intend to impose similar charges on all
members of the Customs Union; moreover, Eng-
land has long felt the guarantee undertaken for
the neutrality of Luxemburg to be a wearisome
burden. However, everything depends entirely
on not commencing negotiations prematurely,
so that the neutral Powers may not find welcome
occasion to interfere in the Franco- German
negotiations.
Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg! What wounds
have been inflicted on German life in those
Marches of the Empire through the crimes of
long centuries, and how perseveringly will all the
healthy forces of the German State be obliged
to bestir themselves in order to keep in peace
what the sword has won ! The task seems almost
too heavy for this generation, which has only just
rescued our Northern March from alien rulers.
Still, what is being accomplished to-day is but the
ripe fruit of the work of many generations. All
the industry, all the honesty and active power, all
the moral wealth, which our fathers awoke anew
in the deteriorated Fatherland, will work on our
side if we now dare to adapt the degenerate sons
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? 248 Treitschke
of our West to German life; and the best that
we can achieve in peace can yet never ap-
proach the deeds and sufferings of the heroes
who paid with their blood for the dawn of the
new times.
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
HEIDELBERG,
i$th Dec. , 1871.
ONCE more Austria has emerged from a severe
ordeal. The Hohenwarte Cabinet has re-
signed ; the plans of the Slavs to upset the rights and
the policy of the Germans have been frustrated, and
under the auspices of the Magyars a Ministry has
been formed which, to say the least, may be cred-
ited with just intentions towards the Germans and
an honest desire for the preservation of the State.
But the cries of joy from German breasts to
greet the deliverance from threatening danger
are isolated. Hitherto, it was customary that
our countrymen on the Danube in days of stress
should lose faith in their Government only to
regain confidence as soon as the political clouds
lifted again, and for a long time past we Germans
of the Empire have been accustomed to this
sudden change of feeling in German Austria, just
as we are accustomed to laws of nature. For
the first time, however, the old rule no longer
applies; the news from our Austrian friends reads
gloomier than ever, despite the slight change for
the better which has now taken place, and the
249
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? 250 Treitschke
question is wonderingly asked how in such a
country reckless men are still found ready to
accept a ministerial portfolio. What a weird
spectacle to behold! a great empire whose own
people have lost faith in themselves. Let us
calmly examine these serious matters. It does
not admit of doubt what we for the sake of Ger-
many wish for Austria. We German Unity-
makers were never the enemies of Austria; we
only contested the preponderating power which
Austria exercised on German and Italian soil to
the detriment of all parties. Now, having fought
victoriously, we are more in favour of Austria
than many Austrians themselves. Nowhere dur-
ing the last few weeks have so many warm and
genuine wishes been exchanged for the continu-
ance of Austria as in the lobbies of the German
Parliament. Our Empire's ambition must simply
be directed towards the building up of an inde-
pendent and solid commonwealth within our
boundaries, which will suffice to us all completely.
We have Italy's hasty agitation for unity as a
warning example before us, and must not desire
to embody, in addition to the strong centrifugal
powers fermenting in the interior of Germany and
to the inhabitants of our Polish, Danish, and
French frontiers, yet another eight million Czechs
as our fellow-citizens. In the days of Frederick
the Great, when ideas of a Slav Empire lay dor-
mant, it was perhaps not very difficult to turn
over Bohemia entirely to German ideals. The old
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? Austria and the German Empire 251
race-hatred having, however, now been aroused
again with terrific ferocity, even the united forces
of Germany might have to spend scores of years
on this difficult and perhaps sterile task, should we
ever step into the sad heritage of the Hapsburgs.
We already have more than enough ultramontane
enemies of the Empire, and we will keep them in
check; our Empire is, however, well balanced only
because of the preponderance of Protestants. We
should commit a crime against the future liberty
of thought were we to contemplate absorbing
fourteen million Catholics. Germany longs for
peace ; the vapourings of the democracy regarding
the war-fanaticism of our Government are lying
statements, disbelieved even by their originators.
The collapse of Austria, however, would mean an
upheaval unexampled in history, which would
embroil us in endless wars and threaten to destroy
the development of a peaceful policy for a long
time to come.
We Germans have never understood the prin-
ciple of nationality in the crude and overbearing
sense that all German-speaking Europeans must
belong to our Empire. We consider it a boon for
the peaceful intercourse of the world that the
boundaries of nations are not engraved with a
knife in the shell of the earth, that millions of
French live outside France, and outside the Ger-
man Empire millions of Germans. If the present-
day situation in Middle Europe consolidates, if
in the middle of the Continent there are two great
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?
252 Treitschke
Empires, the one uniform and purely German, the
other Catholic and polyglot, yet permeated by
German ideas who will contend that such a state
of affairs is humiliating to German national pride?
More magnificent and more brilliant than the day
of Koniggratz shines the glory of Sedan; but the
firm basis of our power to-day, the creative
thoughts of a new German policy have been engen-
dered by the blessings of 1866. "Down with
Austria," was then our battle-cry, and Germany
breathed as if freed from a nightmare when we
separated from Austria. Every day of German
history has proved since then that this separation
was a necessity, and that only through it we have
found ourselves again. In order to satisfy un-
bridled greed are we to demolish again the struc-
ture of 1866, the foundations of our Empire?
Are we to discard like old rubbish that rich treasure
of historic-political importance amassed during
half a century by our serious thinkers as common
property of the Germans solely because our
countrymen in Austria do not immediately succeed
in adjusting themselves to the new order of things?
Not an inch of land was taken by the victor of
1866 from the vanquished; such moderation not
only arose from the desire to reconcile the adver-
sary, it was also clearly evident that those Austrian
provinces which were for four centuries estranged
from German life and interdependent through
political ties, as well as through mutual commercial
interests, have a good right to stand side by side
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? Austria and the German Empire 253
independently with Germany. Austrian pessi-
mists might give as an example Moscow and
Warsaw. The opinion that the capital on the
Danube is to become a German provincial town
is ridiculed as ludicrous in sober- thinking Berlin.
The German idealists of the Danube speak lightly
of the disruption of Austria as if a Great Power
could easily be annihilated ; we but ask what is to
become of the territories of the Crown of St.
Stephen after the collapse of the monarchy, and,
unable to find a satisfactory reply, we desire the
continuance of Austria as a Power.
The dualism which so often is depicted as the
beginning of the end appears to us in a different
light. The agreement of 1867 has not exactly
created a new state of affairs, but merely recon-
nected the thoughts of the only Austrian sovereign
who intelligently and successfully understood the
handling of internal reforms. To leave the lands
of the Hungarian Crown under their former con-
stitution, and to form the Crown lands of the west
into one political unit, were the plans formerly of
Maria Theresa. It is due to Deak that this long-
forgotten policy has been renewed in modern form.
Our political pride may revolt, yet we cannot think
it unnatural that Hungarians have finally assumed
political direction in the dual Empire. Those
six million Magyars, together with the two million
Hungarian-Germans who obey the former almost
blindly, form the biggest political entity of the
Empire. They have the firm legal basis of an old
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? 254 Treitschke
historic constitution an immense advantage in
comparison with the chaotic conditions of public
law in Cisleithania. They alone amongst the
people of Austria have conquered freedom by
dint of hard work; they surpass all others in
political training and experience. Thus historic
necessity has finally brought it about that for the
present only a Hungarian Prime Minister is
possible. We shall not be expected to throw a
stone at the deposed Count Beust. The most
spiteful remarks which could be made about him
are at the outset silenced by his charmingly
ingenious eulogies, which, in the style of the Duke
of Coburg, he himself has made regarding his own
importance. Credit is due to him for having
recognized the moment when it was in the interest
of the Crown to submit to the conditions of the
Hungarians. In all other matters he displayed
as Imperial and Royal Chancellor of the Exchequer
exactly the same lack of tact and foresight which
in times gone by we admired in the diplomatic
faiseur of "Pure Germany. " Everything in poli-
tics turned out with regularity differently to
what he anticipated. The neutrality of Austria
during the last war was not due to him but to our
quick successes, to the bad condition of the Austrian
army, to the threats of Russia, the bravery of the
German-Austrians, and the clearheadedness of
Count Andrassy. It was an admission of weak-
ness on the part of Austria that a State ailing
from severe moral troubles should have for its
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? Austria and the German Empire 255
salvation called upon such a frivolous man, who
never claimed to possess the moral seriousness
of a reformer; and it is perhaps still more regret-
table that many an honest citizen to-day waxes
bitter in his outcry against the fallen dignitary
after having for five years been an eye-witness of
his debaucheries. Count Andrassy has at any
rate this advantage over his predecessor, that he
believes in himself and in his cause. He is an
honest Hungarian patriot, and therefore must try
to maintain the State in its entirety, as Hungary
is not yet powerful enough to exist without German
Austria. He must also defend the Constitution
of Cisleithania, as it is only with constitutional
Cisleithania that constitutional Hungary has
come to a settlement. He never recognized the
Concordat for Hungary although it existed in
Cisleithania, and for that reason alone he is the
enemy of the Ultramontanes and the Feudalists.
He cannot favour federalism, because Hungary
prefers discussing mutual Imperial affairs with
the delegates of Parliament instead of with
seventeen Diets. Besides, federalism in Bohemia,
Moravia, and Krain would inevitably throw the
Germans under the yoke of the Slavs; Hungary,
however, can make herself easier understood by
the Germans than by the Czechs. Count Andrassy
solemnly assures us of his love for peace, and we
have no reason to mistrust him. The weakness of
Hungarian politics lies in the fact that the mental
and economical development of the leading half
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? 256 Treitschke
of the Monarchy is vastly inferior to that of
Cisleithania. Only by continued and peaceful
efforts may Hungary expect to somewhat adjust
this proportion. A Magyar at the head of Austrian
affairs should therefore wish for peace if he honestly
desires that his country shall retain the leadership
within the Monarchy.
It is true that Austrian public authority assumes
peculiar and complex forms. In Transleithania
a Parliament of two Houses and the Croatian Diet;
in Cisleithania a Parliament of two houses and
seventeen Diets; for both halves of the Monarchy
delegations with two divisions altogether twenty-
one Parliaments with twenty-four Houses. But
these complicated forms are only the true reflection
of the variegated ethnographical and historic
conditions of the whole State, and does not our
own Imperial State teach us that even amongst
complicated institutions a healthy political life
may prosper? Still, it does not appear quite
impossible that an intelligent plan may be adopted
which the best heads of German-Austria have
conceived unfortunately only very late in the day.
If the Germans in Cisleithania are desirous of
obtaining predominance, which by rights is due
to them, this overloaded body must be freed of
some heterogeneous members. Dalmatia, by vir-
tue of her geographical position as well as by
virtue of her interests, belongs to the eastern half
of the Monarchy; the "triune Illyrian Kingdom"
longed for by the Slavs of the South in 1848 may
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? Austria and the German Empire 257
materialize and gain vitality if that South Slav
State decides to recognize the supremacy of the
Crown of St. Stephen; Galicia, on the other hand,
justly claims independence by the side of Cislei-
thania, in the same way as Croatia by the side of
Hungaria. If this separation were successful,
and at the same time direct parliamentary elec-
tions were introduced, German Austria, as a
country with fourteen million inhabitants and an
adjoining country of about six millions, would
face sixteen millions of the Crown of St. Stephen,
and the German element could retain the upper
hand in Parliament.
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
17
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? 258 Treitschke
last ten years Austria has given free rein to the
Polish "Junkerdom," 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 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 pre-
paring to gratefully celebrate next summer the
centenary of the first division of Poland ; in Posen,
likewise, German culture and German develop-
ment is making progress ; the Posen peasant knows
that his position under Polish nobility was in-
comparably 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
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? Austria and the German Empire 259
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 follow-
ing 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 which 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 Loth-
rings, and these interests form the closest tie
between 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 existence 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,
innumerable 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.
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? 260 Treitschke
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 people's welfare, popular educa-
tion, and upon all the seemingly insignificant
tasks of internal politics which to other countries
are of cardinal importance; only Maria Theresa
and Joseph II realized 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 recon-
sider her ways. External politics which formerly
meant to her everything have now lost import-
ance; the whole country's powers are invoked to
repair the internal damage, and whilst the "Hof-
burg" (the Imperial Palace), although unwillingly,
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? Austria and the German Empire 261
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 ineffi-
cacy. Cisleithania's population owes its consti-
tution to the failure of absolutism, and not to its
own strength. To us Germans of the Empire
it was clear beforehand that liberty bestowed in
this way could thrive but slowly, and only 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 consti-
tution in Austria so far has caused only venomous,
complicated, and barren party quarrels. More
serious than the infantine diseases of constitu-
tionalism seems the terrible growth of race-hatred.
Here, as elsewhere, parliamentarism has accen-
tuated national contrasts. As Schleswig-Holstein
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? 262 Treitschke
experienced it with the Danes, so Austria experi-
ences it now, that free people learn far more slowly
than legitimate Courts the virtue of political toler-
ance and self-restraint. As was to be expected
of the Hapsburg-Lothrings, the constitutional Im-
perial 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 par-
doned 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 noble-
men 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 Loth-
rings, now fatherless, has no further inducement
to favour the Germans, and the Court already
displays marked coolness towards German ideals.
The spokesmen 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 com-
mences to feel comfortable in Budapest. The
feudal leaders of the Slavs conscientiously display
their dynastic tendencies; the German Ministers,
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? Austria and the German Empire 263
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 improvement 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 custom-
ary foolery about clothing, which has finally
led to concocting for the Imperial and Royal Ar-
mies the ugliest uniform in the universe, makes
just as little for the fitness of the forces as the
improvement of weapons. The introduction of
compulsory military service, which can serve a
useful purpose only in a national State, was in
Austria a thoughtless precipitation ; for the moment
it has disorganized discipline, and it is question-
able whether the future will show better results.
German students, Polish noblemen, fanatical
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