No More Learning

*T Treitschke's prestige amongst the students and in
Society was, at that time, even more firmly established
than among the professors. The circle of scholars
affected mostly a disparaging compassion towards the
feuilletonist, who perhaps could write an essay but no
book, and just as the doors of the Berlin Academy
opened to him, only shortly before his death--as he had
not been a scientist, but merely a clever publicist--there
sat in Heidelberg, in judgment over him, not only
students of law and of the Talmud, but green, private
University teachers, so that even now one feels reminded
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 43
of Karl Hildebrand's words: "If to-day Thucydides
were to appear before the public, no doubt a Waitz
Seminarist would forthwith explain to him his lack of
method. " He also realised that a new volume of essays
would not further his scientific reputation; but, he
writes to Freytag, "I am a thousand times more of a
patriot than a professor, and with the real league of
scientists I shall never be on good terms. " As a matter
of fact, Treitschke's chief merit did not lie in the know-
ledge he disseminated, but in the incomparable effect
which his personality and his spirited words produced
on susceptible young students. His motto was: "Ger-
man every fibre. " In reality, however, the fire of his
speech was not due to German but to the Czech blood
which still flowed in his veins. One felt reminded of
what other nations had related regarding the impression
a Bernhard von Clairvaux, an Arnold von Brescia, or a
Johannes Hus had produced upon them. Also the
temperament of our German Chauvinist was not German
but Slav. With all his sunny cheerfulness, he was at
times for hours prone to deep melancholy. Quick to
flare up and as easily appeased, bearing no malice,
inconsiderate in his expressions yet kind in actions,
reserved in his attitude but a good comrade, ready to
assist--there was nothing in him of the German heavy
and mistrustful temperament. He might just as well
have been an Italian or Frenchman, although he had
only bad words for the Latin race. An unfavourable
circumstance was that students crowded to his lectures,
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? 44 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
but instead of subscribing to them merely attended.
"Taking measures in this direction one spoils one's
relations with the young people," he said; "but Hausser
should not have brought them up this way. " It even
turned out that in the absence of the college subscrip-
tions he had relied upon he could not cover his house
expenses; but Jolly stepped in and procured him a
considerable additional salary. In Heidelberg he quickly
felt at home, thanks particularly to his keen love of
nature. After a short stay in another part of the town
he moved into a pleasant flat on the Frlllig Stift, but
although deaf the noise of the main street affected his
nerves. With childish joy he looked at the blooming
lilac-trees in the court, behind which stood a pavilion
bearing an inscription in Greek: "Look for the contents
above," and which Treitschke interpreted as meaning that
liqueurs were kept in the loft by the clergyman who
had constructed it. Later on we moved, almost at the
same time, to the other side of the Neckar River, and
as the inhabitants belonged to a party the nick-
name "The Superfluous-ones" was originated for us.
Treitschke settled on a fairly steep slope of a hill, which
only permitted of an unimportant structure being built.
Furthermore, as the contractor had erected the house
by way of speculation, economy was exercised every-
where, and on one occasion the terrace had to be propped
to prevent its dropping into the valley. But there were
beautiful roses at both sides of the building, and, looking
over old chestnut-trees, which screened the highway,
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 45
one caught a glimpse of the river. It was touching to
see how happy the young husband felt in his new, tiny
home, in which he was most hospitable. He had an
inexhaustible desire to be among human beings, although
he did not hear them.
Conversation with him was most peculiar, as, afraid
to unlearn reading the movements of lips, he did not
like people writing what they wished to convey to him.
He completely abstained from using the hearing-trumpet,
having suffered most terrible pains when everybody
pressed forward to speak into it. Besides, an un-
successful cure in Heidelberg had brought about his
complete deafness. It was soon said that he understood
me best, and consequently I was everywhere placed by
his side. The secret consisted, however, only in my
taking the trouble to place in front the catchword of
what I intended to convey, repeating it by lip-move-
ments until he understood what the conversation was
about, whereupon he easily guessed the rest, my
nodding or shaking the head assisting the suppositions.
All the same, the pencil had to come to the rescue from
time to time. If then, in the hurry, I wrote a word
incorrectly and tried to alter it, he good-naturedly
consoled me by saying that he burned all the bits of
paper; and upon somebody telling him he had been able
to study a complete conversation from the slips of paper
which Treitschke had left on the table, he replied: " This
was still more indecent than if you had been eaves-
dropping. " At times I complained of his supplementing
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? 46 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
my notes a little too freely, whereupon he answered:
"Such stories can only gain by my embellishments. "
The duty of acting as his secretary in the Senate was a
fairly unpleasant one. When a passionate explosion
followed observations which were not to his liking,
everybody looked furiously at me as if I had pushed
burning tinder into the nostrils of the noble steed, and
yet I had only written verbatim what had been said.
For a time, therefore, I allowed many a bone of conten-
tion to drop underneath the table, but soon he found it
out, and after several unpleasant discussions with both
parties, I requested one of the younger men of the opposi-
tion to relieve me of my duties. Only when the gentle-
men had convinced themselves that the result remained
the same was I re-appointed. At that time his finding
fault annoyed me, as my sole object was to avoid a quar-
rel; but later on I realised how justified he was in closely
watching his writers. When for the last time he came
to us, and when, drinking his health, I thanked him from
the bottom of my heart for the happy moments his
presence in my house had given, his neighbour noted
down nothing of my speech beyond attacks against the
capital and the Berlin student, whereupon he most
indignantly reproved my South German prejudice.
Fortunately, his wife, sitting opposite, immediately
reported to him by finger signs, whereupon he at once
cordially raised his glass. To take undue advantage
of his affliction was, however, one of the sins he could
not condone, and one had every reason to be careful
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 47
in this respect. At times curious misunderstandings
happened. When once in the summer the Princess
Wied with her daughter, subsequently Queen of Rou-
mania, passed through Heidelberg, Treitschke was
commanded to be present as guest at dinner "Carmen
Sylva," who already at that time took an active interest
in literature, selected him as table-companion; he,
however, not having understood the seneschal, and think-
ing his fair neighbour a maid-of-honour, entertained
her politely, but persistently addressed her as "Mein
gnadiges Fraulein" (" My dear Miss "). His clever and
sacrificing wife never carried on conversation without
at the same time listening whether he made himself
understood with his neighbours, and, if necessary, rapidly
helped by finger-signs, which she managed like an Italian,
while continuing conversation with her own neighbour
in most charming manner. Her friends knew only too
well how trying this was for her. Fortunately, however,
it usually happened that he remained the centre of
interest, and everybody eagerly listened to his flow of
conversation. When the neighbours forgot their duties
he, visibly depressed, would look at the surrounding chat-
tering crowd, whose words he did not hear, and when,
after a great outburst of laughter, he asked the cause
of the hilarity, we often were at a loss to explain to him
the trivial motive. He himself has poetically described
how since the loss of his sense of hearing nature, like
a snow-clad country, had become wrapped in silence,
and how the happy youth, with aspiring temperament
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? 48 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
perceives a wall between himself and his brothers which
will remain there for ever. To me the most touching of
all his poems is the one in which he relates how he first
became conscious of his deafness after a neglected, but
in itself by no means dangerous, infantine disease (chicken-
pox).
Without this ailment Treitschke would surely have
joined the Army. Some of his relatives highly disap-
proved of his desire to become a private University
teacher, and when inquiring what else there was for
him to do in view of his affliction, a gentleman from Court,
related to him, replied: "Well, why not the stable
career"--a conception regarding the value of teaching
which he never pardoned. Deafness remained the
great sorrow of his life, and through it every enjoyment
was driven away. In a touching moment he complained
on a certain occasion to my wife that he would never hear
the voice of his children. "They must be so sweet
these children's voices. " And he loved children so!
He played and romped about with his grandchildren;
both sides understood each other capitally, and it sounded
strangely when he who heard no note sang to them whilst
they rode on his knee; but they liked it, applauded with
their little hands, and often they came running and
asking: "Grandpa, please sing to us. " His deafness,
however, did not prevent him from travelling. Since
Rudolf Grimm, who had accompanied him to Italy,
openly declared that these duties were too arduous,
the deaf man traversed Europe quite alone. Whilst
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 49
we were often afraid that he, when walking of an evening
in the highway and disappearing in the dark, might be
run over by a carriage coming from behind, as had
happened to him in Berlin, from his inability to hear
it, he calmly travelled about in foreign parts where all
means of communication were exceedingly difficult for
him. With the inauguration of the new shipping service
he travelled to England, "in order to look at this English
crew a little closer. " When returning from Spain, which
his friends had considered particularly risky, he, loudly
laughing, entered their wine-bar, and before having taken
off his coat he started to relate: "Well, now, these
Spaniards! " In the same way he had traversed Holland
and France in order to impress historical localities upon
his memory. Considering the dangers and embarrass-
ments he was exposed to through his lack of hearing,
it will be admitted that unusual courage was necessary
for these journeys, but he undertook them solely in order
to supplement what had escaped him through his deaf-
ness in the tales of others.
The whole historical past of the country being ever pre-
sent before his eyes, he, although deaf, derived more benefit
from his travels than people in full possession of all senses.
Just as when passing the Ehrenberg narrow pass he
regretfully reflected that " Our Maurice " had not caught
Spanish Charles, so he sees, in Bruegge, Charles V in Spanish
attire coming round the corner; in Geneva the oil paint-
ings of Calvin and of his fellow-artists relate to him old
stories; and in Holland the Mynheers and high and mighties
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? 50 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
on every occasion entered into conversation with him.
His clear eyes were of such use to him that they amply
compensated his loss of hearing. But, however strenu-
ously he resisted, his affliction in many ways reacted
upon his general disposition. There was something
touching in the need for help of this clever and handsome
man, and it cannot be denied that his amiability was
partly its cause. We also told him that the world bene-
fited by his retiring disposition, and that he was spared
listening to the many stupidities and coarsenesses which
so often spoilt our good humour. I firmly believe that
being deaf he was able better to concentrate his thoughts,
but the lack of control in hearing himself and hearing
others speak and express themselves had a detrimental
effect upon him. Sound having become practically a
closed chapter to him whilst he was still a student, he
spoke during the whole of his life in the manner of students
and used the language of his student days. When once
suggesting he should come an hour sooner to our daily
meeting-place he greatly shocked the wives of counsellors
present by replying: "Da ist ja kein Schwein da"
(approximately meaning, "There won't be a blooming
soul there. ") When in the presence of several officers
at Leipzig he expressed the opinion that the new Saxon
Hussar uniform was the nearest approach to a monkey's
jacket, he came very near to having to fight a duel.
Quite good-naturedly, without wishing to offend anybody,
he compared the looks of a lady-student to a squashed
bug. In Parliament likewise he was on a certain occasion
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 51
unexpectedly called to order because he found it quite
natural to speak of the haughtiness of Deputy Richter
as if it were impossible to offend him. It had to be
considered that not hearing himself he did not hear others
speak, and Messrs Caprivi, Hahnke, Hinzpeter, and
Giissfeld, who during the last years were his favourite
targets for criticism, deserve great praise for putting up
with his epigrams--his bon-mots certainly did not remain
unknown in Berlin. His pulpit expressions also at times
savoured of student slang, so that the worthy fathers of
the University disapprovingly shook their wise heads.
His friends, however, thought he was ex lege because
of his deafness; and he was unique in that on the one
hand he was the best educated, refined gentleman, with
exquisite manners, yet when aroused he discharged a
volley of invective hardly to be expected from such
aristocratic lips; on the other hand, his sociable nature
found the seclusion due to his deafness very oppressive.
At times as a student in Heidelberg he had to endure
periods of most abject melancholy, which, however, his
strong nature always succeeded in conquering.
IV.
South Germany and Baden, even after the campaign
of 1866, were a difficult field for Treitschke. Soon after
the war he wrote to Gutschmid he did not relish return-
ing to Baden as conditions there were "too awful. " Even
now this communicative comrade, who quite impartially
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? 52 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
considered the existence of the Small States a nuisance,
had on every occasion to come into conflict with the
Model State. He hated the system of Small States just
because it diverted patriotism, the noblest human in-
stinct in favour of unworthy trifles. Politics were for him
a part of ethics and the unity of Germany a moral claim.
Particularists were therefore to him beings of morally
inferior value. Only hesitatingly he admitted that the
Badenese since 1866 had begun to mend their ways.
"It is true," he wrote to Freytag, "that the conversion
has made considerable progress, but it is noticeable more
in the minds of the people than in their hearts. " Nobody
in the whole of Baden was, however, in favour of media-
tization of the Small States which he, in his Freiburg
Essay entitled "Confederation and Single State," had
plainly demanded. The aim of the Single State
to render conditions uniform is not our ideal to-day-
We are quite content that the University of Leipzig
should stand by the side of that of Berlin, that the
traditions of Potsdam and Sans Souci should be preserved
in the same way as those of Weimar and Karlsruhe, and
that Dresden and Munich art should be appreciated as
much as that of Berlin. How many professors are there
who would desire to see all German Universities under
the same inspectorate as the Prussian ones? Unity as far
as the outside world is concerned, variety internally, is
our ideal, to which Treitschke likewise became reconciled
after hearing that the Army and external politics
would not be affected by internal polygarchy. Bismarck's
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 53
temperate words to Jolly: "If I include Bavaria in the
Empire I must make such arrangements as to make the
people feel happy in it," contains more political wisdom
than Treitschke's gay prescription: Der Bien muss.
Compared with the errors of our ingenious friend,
Bismarck's " political eye " and his infallible judgment of
values and realities can be appreciated in its true light;
under a weak Regent, Unitarian Germany would have
become a new Poland under a violent one a second
Russia.
It, however, redounds to Treitschke's honour that one
by one he renounced his first ideals, such as destruction
of the Small States, Single State, Parliamentarism,
humiliation of Austria, and free trade, subsequent to his
having found in Bismarck his political superior. When
Bismarck's dismissal taught him that in Prussia political
impossibilities do not exist either, his eyes were opened
to a good many other matters. Henceforth no complaint
could be lodged against him regarding adoration of the
Crown; rather the reverse was the case. In 1867
Baden was for him merely das handle (the little
country), but all the same he apparently did not like to
hear from us that our Grand Duchy comprised more
square miles than his Kingdom of Saxony. He strictly
adhered to his dogma of the Rhine Convention, tendencies
to Napoleonic kingdoms--nay, he even attributed to them
aims of aggrandisement. "What people thought of 1866"
--so he relates in his essay on the constitutional king-
dom--" becomes apparent from the painful exclamation
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? 54 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
of a well-meaning Prince to the effect: 'What a
pity we were at that time not on Prussia's side, as we
also should then have enlarged our territory. '" But as
formerly in Freiburg, so here, he misunderstood the popu-
lation. The fact that the developments in the summer of
1870 appeared to him like outpourings of the Holy
Ghost only proves that the deaf man never understood
the ways of our Palatines. Favourable disposition towards
the Rhine Convention, which he suspected everywhere,
was only to be found in the elegant Ultramontane circles
in which he moved, and in the democratic journals which
he for his own journalistic purposes read more than other
people. It proved perhaps more correct when he wrote,
"The South Germans quietly aspire to the Main with the
reservation, however, to revile it in their journals. "
Bismarck did not as yet enjoy general confidence, but
had he wanted Baden the Chamber would not have
refused. The factions in the town caused him amuse-
ment; Heidelberg had the advantage of two political
journals: the Heidelberg Journal and the Heidelberg
Zcitung, which were both Liberal and had accomplished
all that in a small town could be reasonably expected of
them.
On this subject he sketched, in his essay entitled
"Parties and Factions" (1871), the following pleasant
picture: "Who is not aware of how in towns of Central
Germany two journals side by side eke out a bare and
miserable existence, both belonging to the same party, yet,
for the sake of their valued clientele, constantly fight-
ing like cats? Who does not know these journals of
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 55
librarians outside whose door the editor stands on duty,
a polite host, deferentially asking what the honourable
public desires to partake of? Tre fratelli tre castelli
still applies to our average press. "
Filled by the desire to continue the worthy labours of
the year 1866 he enthusiastically adopted Mathy's idea
to include Baden in the North German Convention, and
thought it unkind that Bismarck failed to honour Mathy's
memorandum on the subject with a reply. If Prussia
should not carry out her plans he was afraid the Pan-
Germans in Baden would again become masters of the
situation, and he added: "If Bavaria, Wtirtemberg, and
Baden should go with Austria, even the European situa-
tion will assume a different physiognomy. " All the same,
he was at that time too closely in touch with Bismarck to
advocate too strongly the Mathy plan in the "Annuals. "
Treitschke stigmatized as obtrusive the Lasker Par-
liamentary Bill of February, 1871, Lasker acting as
attorney for the Badenese Government, which he was not,
and surprising Bismarck with his proposal without having
first consulted him.
Mathy's death on February 4th, 1868, affected Treitschke
all the more as Mathy had influenced him considerably
in his decision to gain for a second time a footing in Baden.
Besides, Treitschke warmly remembered Mathy's beautiful
trait in assisting younger men whom he considered promis-
ing. "You belong to the few," Freytag admitted to
him, " who have fully grasped Mathy's love and faith. "
It was, however, not only Mathy's sweetness of character
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? 56 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
which he had detected beneath the caustic ways of the
old Ulysses, but also his political reliability. "I still cannot
get over it," he mournfully wrote to Freytag; "among all
the old gentlemen of my acquaintance he was to me
the dearest and the one deserving of greatest respect. "
"The real Badenese," he said in another letter, " never
really cared for their first politician, and your book again
shows clearly the sin for which Mathy never will be
pardoned--character. " Another letter to the same
friend in August, 1868, runs as follows: "Here in the South
the disintegration of order continues. The recent Constitu-
tional Festival has vividly reminded me of our never-
to-be-forgotten Mathy. How the world has changed
in twenty-five years since Mathy organized the last
Badenese Constitutional Festival. Thank goodness, the
belief in this particularist magnificence has to-day com-
pletely disappeared. The festival was an ostensible failure,
a forced and feigned demonstration. The Ultramontanes
kept aloof because they hated Jolly and Beyer, and the
Nationalists who participated for that reason openly
admitted that they had longed for the happy end of the
old man. " His depreciative opinion of the conditions in
Baden finally developed into slight when a few weeks
after the Constitutional Festival the ministerial candidates
Bluntschli, Lamey, and Keifer, who had gone over on
the formation of the new Ministry, attempted to overthrow
the Ministry favourably disposed towards Prussia by
convoking the Liberal deputies at Offenburg. In the
Prussian Annuals he now called upon his North German
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 57
friends in disdainful terms to study the pamphlet of these
gentlemen against Jolly, in order to gain a somewhat more
correct idea of the political state of affairs in Baden.
In his opinion it was a sort of " Ziiriputsch " arranged by
the Swiss gentlemen, Bluntschli, Schenkel, and Renaud.
It might have applied as far as Heidelberg was concerned,
but the country was really attached to Lamey, whose
name was tied up with the fall of the Concordate, and
whose canon laws of 1860, making a Catholic country
of Baden, were at that time praised by all of us as the
corner-stone of liberty and political wisdom. Treitschke's
only answer to Bluntschli's agitation for energetic revision
of the Constitution was to leave the Paragon State in its
present form until Prussia would absorb the whole. The
attempt to overthrow the Ministry failed as the Regent
had been left out of account. In Heidelberg, Treitschke,
at an assembly of citizens, took up the cudgels for Jolly,
and was principally opposed by Schenkel, who declared
that he would not allow himself to be threatened by the
sword of Herr von Beyer. Surprised, Bluntschli, however,
wrote in his diary that the citizens applauded Treitschke,
who spoke for Jolly, no less than Schenkel, who spoke
against him. When the whole question was brought
before a second and very largely-frequented assembly
of the Liberal Party in Offenburg, Bluntschli made
Goldschmidt and Treitschke's other friends promise
that Treitschke should abstain from speaking as he would
upset all peace proposals. The latter, however, immediately
declared he could not be forced to maintain silence. At
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? 58 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
least a thousand men congregated from all parts of the
country, more than the big hall "Zum Salmen " was
capable of holding. Eckard, subsequently Manheim bank
manager, sat in the chair; on the part of the Fronde,
Kieper, instructed by Jolly, spoke, and for Jolly, Kusel
from Karlsruhe addressed the meeting. Treitschke as a
Prussian allowed the Badenese to speak first, and only
towards the finish did he ascend the platform. A con-
tributor of the Taglische Rundschau gave the following
account: "The meeting had lasted for a considerable
time, and the audience, after standing for hours closely
packed in the heavy, hot air, was tired, when a person
unknown to us started speaking. His delivery was slow
and hesitating, with a peculiar guttural sound, and his
intonation was monotonous. Citizens and peasants
amongst whom I stood looked at each other astonished
and indignant. Who was this apparently not very happy
speaker who dared to claim the patience of the assembly?
We were told it was Professor Treitschke of Heidelberg.
At first ill-humoured, but soon with growing interest,
we followed his speech, which gradually became more
animated. The power and depth of thoughts the com-
pelling logic proofs adduced, the clearness and force of
language, and above all the fire of patriotism, all this
captivated the listeners and carried them irresistibly away.
The outward deficiencies of the lecturer were now unob-
served; attentively, with breathless excitement, these
simple people listened to the orator, who spoke with the
force of the holiest conviction; and when finishing with
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 59
the exhortation to set aside all separating barriers for
the sake of the country, a real hurricane of enthusiasm
broke forth. The audience crowded round the speaker
and cheered him; he was lifted by strong arms amid
ceaseless enthusiasm. It was the climax of the day.
Never since have I witnessed a similar triumph of
eloquence. "
He had appealed particularly to the peasants present
by his outspoken and simple words. Schenkel likewise
was disarmed. Heidelberg friends related how Schenkel,
who in Heidelberg had contested Treitschke's speech
in favour of Jolly, immediately afterwards advanced
towards the platform in order to speak, but Treitschke's
utterances had rendered unnecessary a rejoinder. When,
on the other hand, I asked Treitschke after his return
whether in his opinion peace would be a lasting one, he
replied: "Oh, Lord, no! the lack of character is much
too great. " In a still more disdainful manner and full of
passionate exasperation against Bluntschli he wrote to
Freytag: "Jolly understands very well how to assert
himself here; daily he cuts a piece off the big Liberal list
of wishes, but immediately a new one grows beneath.
Where is this to lead? Moreover, there are blackguards
like this miserable Bluntschli at the head of the patriots!
Nokk, my brother-in-law, who is well able to judge the
situation, has long ago despaired of a peaceful solution. "
In January, 1870, whilst staying at Heidelberg, and
shortly before the outbreak of war, the second collection
of historic political essays was published. The editor's
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? 60 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
intention was to publish them before Christmas, but
Treitschke delayed matters. "I hate everything sug-
gestive of business," he told me, "and I don't want to
belong to the Christmas authors. " He was also averse
to editions in parts. The essay on Cavour, which shortly
afterwards appeared translated in Italian, brought him
the Italian Commander Cross--a necklace, as his wife
said. When one of his friends had fallen in disgrace
on account of a biting article in the Weser Zeilung
attributed to him, Treitschke said: "If the man wants
to carry a chamberlain's key and six decorations, he
might as well have the muzzle belonging to it " ; and
when asking him whether this also applied to him, he
replied: "No, but I have not been asking for it. " This
volume of historic essays contained the treatise on the
Republic of the Netherlands--full of sparkling descriptions
of Holland and her national life, which proved that not
in vain had he brought his Brief je van de uuren van hat
vertrekk, i. e. his railway booklet for the [land of the frogs
and the ducats. Particularly weighty, however, was his
essay on French Constitution and Bonapartism, in which
he proved that Bonapartism had revived, thanks to the
Napoleonic fundaments of State having remained, a
circumstance which even after the fall of Napoleon III,
and in spite of all their defeats, made him believe in the
return of the Bonapartes. His essay "On the Consti-
tutional Kingdom" forming part of this collection, and
containing views on the wretchedness of Small State
Court Life; on the poverty of thought and the rudeness
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 61
of the South German Press; on the South German's
respectful awe of the deeds of Napoleon, the national
arch-enemy; and on the bustling vanity of Church autho-
rities, could not create a great impression after his
previous and much stronger dissertations. He himself
was dejected owing to the scantiness of enthusiasm aroused
by his persistent appeals "to discard decayed political
power," to upset the Napoleonic crowns and to continue
the laudable efforts of 1866. Some friends likened his
situation to that of Borne, who is the object of criticism
in one of the essays, and who, in his Paris letters,
always predicted anew the revolution which always
failed to materialise. By Napoleon's declaration of
war "this sturdy century " took the last stride towards
its goal.
Being a border power, Baden naturally feared the
war which Treitschke was pining for. At that time
already his mind was clear as to the weakness of the
Empire, and the profligate stupidity of the French people.
Being constantly in touch with Berlin he was better
informed regarding certain developments than we were.
When speaking to him for the first time after the declara-
tion of war he solemnly said: "I think of the humilia-
tion we escaped! If Bismarck had not drawn up so
cleverly the telegram on the Benedetti affair the King
would have yielded again. " At the general drinking
bout improvised by the students prior to going to the
front or to barracks, Treitschke was received as if he
had been the commander-in-chief, and he certainly
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? 62 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
was on that evening. The speech of Pro-Rector
Bluntschli, opening the ball, had a decidedly sobering effect.
He pointed out how many a young life would come to
an early end, how many a handsome fortune would be
lost, how many a house and village would be burned to
ashes, etc. The speech was written down, and when
shown to Treitschke he merely said, "S'isch halt a
Schwizer" ("He is, after all, only a Swiss"). Capital
words by Zeller followed: "We have heard the crowing
of the Gallic cock, and the roaring of Mars; but there is
only one to tame wild Ares, and that is Pallas Athene,
the Goddess of Clever Strategy, and upon her we rely. "
When, subsequently, Treitschke rose, applause and
acclamations prevented him for some time from making
himself heard. His speech expressed joy at the events
happening in our lifetime, and exhortations to prove
as worthy as the fighters of 1813. Ideas and colour of
speech were as countless as the bubbles in a glass of
champagne, but they intoxicated. His magnificent
peroration terminated approximately in the following
manner: "Fichte dismissed German youth to the Holy
War with the motto, 'Win or die' ; but we say, 'Win
at any price I'" Already he had received a more
cordial reception than anyone, but now hundreds rushed
forward with raised glasses eager to drink his health.
The shouts of enthusiasm threatened the safety of floor
and ceiling. As one crowd receded, so another surged
round him, just as waves beget waves. I have seen
many teachers honoured under similar circumstances,
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 63
all with a smile of flattered vanity on their lips, but
never had homage assumed such proportions. Treitschke's
face showed outspoken joy at these warmhearted young
people, who surely would not fail to give a good account
of themselves, and it was distinctly annoying to him
that the following winter he had to give lectures to those
who had not joined the ranks. He was, however, deeply
moved at the nation having risen as one man, and he
apologized for all the unkind words he had uttered
previously. Later on, he wrote: "During these days
in Germany it seemed as if humanity had improved. "
The song on the Prussian eagle, which from Hohen-
zollern flew towards the North and now returns south-
wards--a subject inspired by Baumgarten--is a beautiful
memento of his elated feelings at that time.
During the ensuing period he led a surprisingly retired
life, and we heard only that he was writing. When meet-
ing him shortly before the days of Saarbruck, he looked
pale and excited. "What a long time it takes," he
said, "for such great armies to be brought together.
The tension is almost unbearable. " He was visibly ill
with excitement. When the days of Worth and Spichern
had happily passed, we met at the Museum to study the
telegrams which arrived hourly. He, however, failed to
turn up, and it was said he was writing. There was a
good deal of simulated activity about, but for him there
was nothing in particular to do. At last his excellent
essay, "What we Demand of France," saw the light of
day, and at the same time it appeared in the Prussian
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? 64 TREITSCHKE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Annuals. Now it was evident what he had been doing
in seclusion. Everybody was amazed at the mass of
detail collected during the short interval, in order to
impress the reader with the thoroughly German character
of Alsace. Of almost every little town he knew a story
by which it became intertwined with the German past.
There was Alsatian local tradition galore in the book,
as if he at all times had lived with these people. To his
mind the fact that the Alsatians at the time would not
hear of Germany did not make them French. "The
mind of a nation is not formed by contemporary genera-
tions only, but by those following. " Erwin von Stein-
bach and Sebastian Brandt, also, were of some account,
and, after reviewing the German past of the country, he
asks: "Is this millennium, rich in German history, to be
wiped out by two centuries of French supremacy? "
In regard to the future of Alsace he was from the first
convinced it would have to become a Prussian province,
as Prussian administration alone possessed the power to
rapidly assimilate it. Only when convinced of the
realisation of Unitarian ideas a Prussian, as he now
always called himself, could desire to see a frontier of
Prussia extending from Aachen to Mulhouse. To make
out of Alsace an independent State, enjoying European
guarantee of neutrality, as proposed by Roggenbach in
the Reichsrath, would have meant creating a new Bel-
gium on our south-west coast, in which the Catholic
Church would have been the only reality, and Treitschke,
in his essay of 1870, replied thereto by referring to the
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? THE LIFE OF TREITSCHKE 65
"disgusting aspect of the nation Luxemburgoise,"
although in the Annuals he ostensibly spared the
quaint statesman, who was his friend. "Let us attach
Alsace to the Rhine Province," he said; "we shall then
have a dozen more opposition votes in Parliament, and
what does that matter? The rest you leave to Prussian
administration. " Neither we nor he could foresee that
in thirty years it would not achieve more; but he did not
fail to point out that the only cause of the failure was
the creation of the "Reichsland," a hybrid which was
neither fish nor flesh. He, however, shared Freytag's
aversion for the title of Emperor, which, in his opinion,
bore too much of black, red, gold, and Bonapartist
reminiscences. Both wished for a German King; but
finally Bluntschli's common-sense prevailed, he having
suggested, " The peasant knows that an Emperor is more
than a King, and for that reason the Chief of an Empire
must be called Emperor; besides, it will be better for
the three Kings; they will then know it, too," saying
which the stout Swiss laughed heartily.
On the other hand, Treitschke never became reconciled
to Bavaria's reserved rights. He spoke of a new treaty
of Ried, similar to that which, in 1813, guaranteed
sovereignty to Bavaria, and expressed anger at the
weakly Constitution which reverted again to federalism.