No More Learning

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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES.
Heidelberg,
25th October, 1870.
No hatred is so bitter as enmity against the man who
has been unjustly treated; men hate in him what they
have done to him. That is as true of nations as of
individuals. All our neighbours, some time or other,
grew at Germany's expense, and to-day, when we have
at length smashed the last remnants of foreign domina-
tion, and demand a modest reward for righteous vic-
tories, a permanent guarantee of national freedom, angry
blame of German insatiability resounds throughout the
European Press. Especially do those small countries
which owe their very existence to the dismemberment of
the German Empire, e. g. , Belgium, Holland, Switzerland,
complain loudly that an arrogant Pan-Germanism has
destroyed our people's sense of fairness. It is hatred
that vents itself in these charges; no impartial person
can deny that the notion of Pan-Germanism is as foreign
to us Germans as its name, which originated in the
bogy-fears of foreign countries. No doubt owing to
230
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 231
the excitement of the times a foolish boastfulness has
here and there come into being; out-and-out Teutons
are imploring us to banish all foreign words from the
sanctuary of the German language; men of picturesque
talents among the unemployed are drawing on the
patient map of Europe a kingdom of Armorica and
Arelat between France and Germany. However, such
ideas are simply the isolated absurdities of idle heads;
once in a while they may accidentally stray into one of
the bigger newspapers, but even then they only appear in
those insignificant columns devoted to such subjects as
sea-snakes and triplets, children with fowls' heads, and
the mythical Fusilier Kutschke. The great majority of
German politicians exhibit to-day a deliberate modera-
tion, which the Swiss and Belgians would hold in greater
respect if those nations, which enjoy the more comfort-
able peace and quiet of a neutrality protected by other
Powers, were able to put themselves in thought in the
position of a great warrior-nation which has been forced
to fight for its life by an unscrupulous attack.
Public opinion has become more quickly united
regarding the reward of our victory than ever before in
a complicated question. The boundary line of the
Government of Alsace, which has indeed been drawn
with a considerate hand and will presumably constitute
Germany's boundary, meets almost everywhere with
agreement. People only regret, and rightly so, that the
splendid region of the Breusch, which is abundant in
springs, and the district around Schirmack, together with
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? 232 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
the Steinthal, that essentially German tract of country
consecrated by the life-work of the unforgettable Oberlin(
are not included in the new boundary. Blind lust of
conquest is so alien to Germans that they even decide
with much unwillingness to demand the possession of
Metz; but the obvious impossibility of leaving right at
our doors in the hands of revengeful enemies this town,
which is a stronghold by its position, not by its walls,
compels us in this case to enter into occupation of
French territory.
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 Europe, is not yet played out by any
means. No intelligent German wants to increase the
excessively strong centrifugal powers, which are em-
braced in our new Empire, by the inclusion of purely
Republican elements, and all free men are horror-struck
at the thought that Geneva and Lausanne, which are
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 233
to-day the centres of an independent intellectual move-
ment, would, by the dissolution of the Swiss Confedera-
tion, be involved in the horrible fall of France. We are
also quite without arriere pensee in regard to the Nether-
land States, which did so little to win Germany's friend-
ship; 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 Netherlands. 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 terri-
tory--the single bitter memory in the glorious history
of the North German Confederation. Suffice it that that
German territory which by the decision of Europe was
once allotted 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 Government entered
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? 234 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 outrivalled
each other in depicting to our Government the fearful
superiority 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 Ger-
many, 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
garrisoning, and contented itself with the inadequate
result, that France had to abandon her welcome pur-
chase. 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 con-
cluded 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 arms for Luxem-
burg's neutrality if the other Great Powers did the
same ; the Press, drunk with peace, rejoiced that Eng-
land's obligations were not extended, but limited, by
the May Convention--and the politics of the sinking
Island-Kingdom had taken a fresh step downwards.
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 235
After such words no description is requisite of the deeds
that might be expected from British statesmen; nobody
doubts that England would not have let itself be dis-
turbed 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, Luxem-
burg becomes 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 prevent-
ing friction between the two great military Powers--
vanishes of itself. Considering 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 interrupted
by neutral territory; serious military considerations
compel Prussia's desire to plant its standard again on
those Luxemburg fortifications 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 luxembourgeoise, in very
truth a disgrace to Germany? Polyglot countries,
like Belgium and Switzerland, may justly be declared
neutral, because their mixed populations prevent them
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? 236 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
from taking partisan 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 material 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 officials, who are moulded
in French and Belgian schools, introduce French arro-
gance from their alien environment, radically oppose the
German spirit, change the honest old German place-
names of Klerf and Siebenbrunn into Clerveaux and
Septfontaines. The people are alienated from the Ger-
man system of government by the sins of the Diet ; they
cannot forget that the German Confederation once
abandoned half of the country in undignified fashion
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 237
to Belgium, and then obligingly all the governmental
pranks of reactionary 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 German civilisation.
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 Luxemburgers 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 strugglings, 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
advantage 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
"merde 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
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? 238 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
State has the right and duty of protecting its nationals
all over the world; it cannot endure that a German race
should be gradually transforme 1 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 only allow this inclusion under two
conditions: it must require that the German tongue be
used again as the official language, and that the agree-
ment binding the Grand Duchy to the Kingdom of the
Netherlands 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 thoroughly the un-
hallowed consequences of the blending of German and
foreign politics; although the Constitution of the Con-
federation says nothing 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 resist-
ance of the French will presumably oblige the Con-
federate 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
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 239
return for some fair concession, that it recognises in
advance the entry of Luxemburg into the German Con-
federation. For the conversion of the Luxemburgers
themselves would suffice a definite assurance that
henceforth Germany's customs-boundary coincides with
its political boundary, and the customs-convention
cannot be renewed unless the Grand Duchy again under-
takes 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 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 converted to the commercial
neutrality of those patricians of Amsterdam, whom his
great ancestors formerly fought against; his heart, how-
ever 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 Convention. The simplest solution of the
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? 240 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
question would certainly be arrived at if Prussia were
to acquire the country by purchase. Already the Prus-
sian State numbers fifty thousand Luxemburgers 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 por-
tion. 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 up a Nassau Prince as a Prince of
the Confederation 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 Euro-
pean 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, England has long felt the guarantee under-
taken 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 inter-
fere in the Franco-German negotiations.
Alsace, Lorraine, Luxemburg! What wounds have
been inflicted on German life in those Marches of the
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? GERMANY AND NEUTRAL STATES 241
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 Father-
land, will work on our side if we now dare to adapt the
degenerate sons of our West to German life; and the
best that we can achieve in peace can yet never approach
the deeds and sufferings of the heroes who paid with
their blood for the dawn of the new times.
Q
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
Heidelberg,
15th December, 1871.
Once more Austria has emerged from a severe ordeal.
The Hohenwarte Cabinet has resigned, 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 credited 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 country-
men 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
242
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 243
place, and the 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 Germany 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 them-
selves.
Nowhere during the last few weeks have so
many warm and genuine wishes been exchanged for the
continuance of Austria as in the lobbies of the German
Parliament. Our Empire's ambition must simply be
directed towards the building up of an independent 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 fron-
tiers, yet another eight million Czechs as our fellow-
citizens. In the days of Frederick the Great, when ideas
of a Slav Empire lay dormant, it was perhaps not very
difficult to turn over Bohemia entirely to German ideals.
The old race-hatred having, however, now been aroused
again with terrific ferocity, even the united forces of
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? 244 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 preponder-
ance 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 principle 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 German
Empire millions of Germans. If the present-day situation
in Middle Europe consolidates, if in the middle of the
Continent there are two great 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?
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 245
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 engendered 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 unbridled greed are
we to demolish again the structure of 1866, the founda-
tions 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 them-
selves 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 recon-
cile the adversary, 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
independently with Germany. Austrian pessimists 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
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? 246 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 begin-
ning 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 re-connected 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 cannpt 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 historic
Constitution--an immense advantage in comparison
with the chaotic conditions of public law in Cisleithania.
They alone amongst the people of Austria have con-
quered 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
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 247
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 he 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 import-
ance. Credit is due to him for having recognised 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 Chan-
cellor 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
politics 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 clear-headedness of Count Andrassy. It was an
admission of weakness on the part of Austria that a
State ailing from severe moral troubles should have for
its salvation called upon such a frivolous man, who never
claimed to possess the moral seriousness of a reformer; and
it is perhaps still more regrettable 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
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? 248 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
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 constitu-
tional Cisleithania that constitutional Hungary has come
to a settlement. He never recognised 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 of the Monarchy is vastly inferior to that
of Cisleithania. Only by continued and peaceful efforts
may Hungary expect to somewhat adjust this propor-
tion. 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 Parlia-
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? AUSTRIA AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 249
ment of two houses and seventeen Diets; for both halves
of the Monarchy delegations with two divisions--alto-
gether 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 pre-
dominance, which by rights is due to them, this over-
loaded body must be freed of some heterogeneous members.
Dalmatia, by virtue 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 materialise
and gain vitality if that South Slav State decides to
recognise the supremacy of the Crown of St. Stephen;
Galicia, on the other hand, justly claims independence
by the side of Cisleithania, in the same way as Croatia
by the side of Hungaria. If this separation were suc-
cessful, 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.
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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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