His Life and Work 107
of the press to worm information out of him:
this does not imply that he recognized the correct-
ness of the published information.
of the press to worm information out of him:
this does not imply that he recognized the correct-
ness of the published information.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
ark:/13960/t5j962q2q Public Domain in the United States / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-us
? His Life and Work 95
now so unfavourable that we often had the impres-
sion that he considered himself destined to replace
Falk. In unctuous fashion he invariably reverted
to the statement that as long as the population
fail to realize that ecclesiastical decrees speak the
language of profound respect for religion, every
reform will prove abortive on account of the
people's want of confidence. The aristocratic and
military circles, with whom Treitschke now asso-
ciated more frequently, too, had only one watch-
word: The struggle for civilization must cease.
He expected nothing of the Old Catholic agitation,
and disapproved of the loud applause of the Jewish
Press, which would have better served the cause
by greater reticence. It so came about that we
had gradually to rely less upon his co-operation
in the struggle. But we gathered this opinion
more from his verbal scruples than from his written
expressions, which in principle were in agreement
with ours, although he now considered the legisla-
tion as laws of necessity, i. e. , as a temporary evil.
Then took place the great defection of Lasker and
the Progressive Party, which the Catholic faction
attempted to engineer for the elections, and which
willingly left the odium of civilization a name
invented by Virchow for the glory of Falk to the
National Liberals. After one wing of the Army
had gone over to the enemy, the great Bismarck
retreat commenced, which Treitschke had to
cover with heavy artillery. Even in course of
these rear-guard actions, he had both written and
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? 96 Treitschke
spoken many clever things in the Annuals, as well
as in the Reichstag, but it oppressed his mind that
henceforth he would have to recommend the
abolition of the " ineffective or mistaken May
Laws," after having greeted their formation with
words of joy. To retract words, suited him, who
was used to employing such strong language
particularly badly. Times out of number he had
proclaimed that the old feud could not be adjusted
by concessions, but by perseverance. If, in a
country whose population to the extent of two-
thirds are Protestants, the Bishops reign to-day,
and an Ultramontane President is President of the
Reichstag, the old saying characterizing this state
of affairs, viz. , "Every nation has the government
it deserves," is decidedly appropriate. For the
rest, it must be recognized that Treitschke never
expressed his pleasure at this result as did the
Kreuz Zeitung, but always contemplated it with
deep regret as a proof that, contrary to the opinion
of Aristotle, the German being is by no means a
political animal.
While still in Heidelberg, Treitschke's rupture
with the University Socialists became imminent,
among whom he counted his intimate friends
Knies and Schmoller. Contrary to Knies, he
asserted that Socialism could not be convinced by
reason, but had to be suppressed by forcible laws.
He also defended the view that it is in the interest
of the public to compel labour to work cheaply,
and that the State should possess authority to
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? His Life and Work 97
enforce the fulfilment of this duty. In his first
Berlin article, of July, 1874, he took this sharp
attitude against the Social Democrats, whom he
called Socialists, and whom he did not wish to
distinguish from the Radical Socialist politicians.
The article had been begun in Heidelberg, and we
were diverted to see how here again he gave expres-
sion to his most recent experience, when he wrote :
" After packing books for two or three days, and
filling up freight forms finally looking stupidly
at the completed work the question will suddenly
occur what the brave packers might think, who,
during these removal performances only, were my
servants? The calling of the furniture shifter is,
after all, a very respectable one, because it is
cleaner, and more refined, than many equally
necessary occupations. " The essay itself, Social-
ism, and its Supporters, met at the round table
of the Museum with no more approval than the
speeches which were its prelude prior to his
departure. Knies thought that the inability to
distribute wealth in accordance with actual deeds
it not being a creation of the present and the
fact that virtue is not fully rewarded in this world,
would not produce a greater feeling of contentment
amongst the working classes, who demand their
share of the realized profit, and in the terms of their
favourite author, Heine, leave Heaven to the
angels and sparrows.
Colleagues otherwise friendly disposed towards
him found the point of view that the working
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? 98 Treitschke
classes should continue to toil for the sake of
religion, and his cruel reference to that true friend
of the people, Fritz Reuter, particularly hard-
hearted when a question of hungry people who
have no time to read novels was being discussed.
Treitschke's assertion that the introduction of
slavery had been a redeeming achievement of
culture, which, during thousands of years had
exercised at least as powerful a moral influence as
Christianity during a later epoch, appeared to us
a comparison of things which could not be tolerated ;
and if nature formed all its higher beings unequally
there can be no question of the introduction of
slavery as a redeeming historical achievement.
From a prehistoric point of view, it can be com-
pared with the relationship existing between
master and dog, or the shepherd and his flock.
An innovation of his was the stronger touch of
religious chords which, with this essay, begins to
obliterate the formerly habitual attacks upon the
wicked class of theologians. The full meaning of
Social Democracy became clear to him with the
classic expression of the Volk Staat: " Either there
is a God, and then we admit we are in a mess, or
there is none, in which case we can alter the existing
state of affairs as much as we like. " It was only
right that against such speeches he should have
emphasized more strongly his positively religious
sentiments, but now and then his old habit of
chaffing the theologians came to the fore. Whilst
Schmoller traces the economic formation of classes
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? His Life and Work 99
to an original injustice, viz. , violence of the
stronger, which as a tragic fault is hereditary,
Treitschke sneers at the doctrine of "social apple
tasting," and the sin which is no more ingenious
than the theological doctrine of hereditary sin.
But the doctrine of hereditary sin is the preamble
to Christianity, and to be one of its champions in
Berlin was his aim.
It was quite natural that Schmoller, in his reply,
complained at having had his standpoint quite
wrongly represented. Both Ribbeck and I asked,
after perusal, what now really was Schmoller 's
view, as Treitschke's controversy had been con-
ducted in such a general way as to make it impos-
sible to know what referred to Schmoller and what
to the school in general. All the same, nobody
who knew his warm and philanthropic disposition
harboured the suspicion that Treitschke intended
to become a champion of class interests. He only
protested against such erroneous expressions as
"The Disinherited,'* or "the excess measure of
economic injustice, which needs must bring about
a crevasse," phrases which were to the liking of
National Socialists, but which necessarily played
into the hands of the demagogues, exciting the
working classes as they did, and arousing hopes in
them, the realization of which was, in the nature of
things, out of the question. Although he expressly
pointed out that only false prophets and instiga-
tors could lead the labouring classes to believe that
any social regulation could neutralize the inequal-
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? ioo Treitschke
ity of the human lot, he nevertheless in a letter to
Sybel expressed the hope: "We also will get our
ten hours' bill, our factory inspectors, and many
other things, which are in opposition to the Man-
chester doctrine," and in this sense the warm-
hearted friend of the people acted in the Reichstag.
Equal rights for all, and due care for the economic-
ally weaker and those incapable of working, was
his motto ; the contest between him and Schmoller
was, therefore, by no means as great as the strong
words exchanged at that time might have led one
to believe. Like so many big cannonades, this
one finally proved merely to be noisy reconnoitring
and not a decisive battle. Anyhow, the discus-
sions on social questions between him and Knies
were the most interesting experienced by the
round table, and we regretted that they were
the last.
VII.
Immediately after the war the Prussian House of
Commons had granted considerable sums to raise
the University of Berlin to its destined height again,
and Helmholtz was the first to receive such an offer
in 1871, Zeller following in 1872, and Treitschke in
1874. No efforts were spared on the part of the
Baden Government to retain Treitschke. His
friends entreated him to remain. If only he had
listened to our supplications the German History
would have been completed long ago, he himself
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? His Life and Work 101
would presumably still be in the land of the living,
and all the hardships which the trying city atmos-
phere caused him and his family would never have
found their way to the small house hidden behind
trees at the other side of the Neckar. We urged
him not to abandon so light-heartedly a sphere of
activity such as he had found.
On a slip, I wrote to him that in Berlin nobody
believed Prussia to be such a great country as he
preached. "I would not say such a thing," he
replied, in angry fashion, but then he explained
that, owing to his having to spend six months in
the Berlin Archives for writing his History it was
preferable that he should permanently remain in
Berlin. But just because empty-headed Liberal-
ism was gradually gaining ground in Berlin, he
wished to go there to take up the battle. He also
wrote to Jolly in this sense: "Our capital is not
to become a second New York; those who can do
something to prevent this misfortune must not
abstain without good reason. Anyone as firmly
attached to Prussia as I am must not refuse, with-
out good cause, if my services are thought to be of
use. '* In similar fashion he expressed himself to
Ranke, who, by sending Treitschke his Genesis
of the Prussian State, at once greeted him as his
colleague a matter for great pride. He wrote to
the old master as follows: "Here in Heidelberg
my object was simply to teach youth, on the whole
ignorant but naive; over there my task will be to
uphold the positive powers of the historical world
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? 102 Treitschke
against the petulance of Radical criticism. I fully
realise the difficult position in which I shall find
myself in consequence of the predominant Radical
opinions in the capital. He admitted that he
could not expect to exercise such lasting influence
upon the students in Berlin as in Heidelberg, for
theatres, concerts, and life in the capital generally
prejudiced the interest in lectures ; but he thought
he would surmount the difficulty in Berlin, as well
as he had done in Leipzig. Only one question
oppressed him, soft-hearted as he was: "Children
are deprived of the best part of their youth when
they are dragged to a capital to be brought up
there as Berlin Wall-Rats. " "It is true," he
subsequently wrote to Freytag, "my son prefers
the Zoological Garden to the Black Forest ; a forest
is all very fine and large, but the Emperor and the
old 'Wrangel' are only to be seen in Berlin. " At
first, negotiations were carried on regarding limit-
ing his activity, and that of Droysen, he, as he told
me, not wishing ' ' to raise shabby competition ' ' with
the old gentleman. By the death of Droysen this
question settled itself. I felt Treitschke 's impend-
ing departure very much, and when the matter
had become an accomplished fact the following
verses occurred to me during a sleepless night :
"Du gehst wir Konnten Dich nicht halten
Du gehst weil Du gehen musst
Wir lassen Deine Sterne walten
Und bieten Schweigen unserer Brust. "
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? His Life and Work 103
The other part I have forgotten, and perhaps it is
better so. Not wishing to be counted amongst the
poets of the Tageblatt, I merely signed the poem
"N. N. , " but at our final meeting at the Museum
he looked at me frankly, and amiably said: "I go,
because go I must," and then I knew that my
anonymity had been unavailing. In spite of the
academic encounters in the past the colleagues
assembled in great, although by no means full,
numbers. All the same, everybody recognized
his honesty and unselfishness, just because he had
been open and very rough. Windscheid, as Pro-
Rector, also referred to the fact that Treitschke
liked to be where sharp thrusts were exchanged,
and likened him to a noble steed on the battle-
ground, which cannot be kept back when it hears
the flourish of trumpets. No doubt we would hear
in future of his deeds. The great student of law
was much too refined and clever a personality to
undervalue Treitschke as the " majority" did,
but for the mature and calm scientist the young
colleague was still like new wine, and jokingly he
compared him to Percy Heissporn, who regularly
was asked by his wife, when washing the ink from
off his fingers before dinner: "Well, Heinrich,
darling, and how many have you killed to-day? "
At our last meeting Treitschke told me in his
usual kind-hearted manner that there were too
many important men in this small town, and
collisions were therefore unavoidable. In Weimar
the same conditions existed as is proved by the
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? 104 Treitschke
letters of Karoline Herder, and Karoline Schlegel.
When he gaily described in the German History
subsequently the battles of Voss, with Creuzer
on the hot field of Heidelberg, we gratefully
recognized that the memory of the Economic
Commission, and Majority and Minority, still
continued to cling faithfully to his heart. There
might have been at that time too many academic
stars, but he was never too much for us, and we
felt that the importance of such men was fully
recognized only by the void they left. It was as
if a spell had been broken, the parlour seemed
empty, the round table at the Museum only half
occupied, and as Gustav Freytag said at his parting
speech in the Kitzing, so we could say: "A good
deal of poetry has disappeared from our circle,
which had warmed and elated us. " Our circle
undeservedly now resembled the defiant prince of
olden times, who was deserted by his generals one
by one. The one who now goes from us is Max
Piccolomini. Fortunately, although missed, he
was not completely lost to us. He annually
accompanied his family to the house of his parents-
in-law in Freiburg, and we generally had him in the
autumn for days or hours with us either at the
usual round table or at our house. Subsequently
we saw him more frequently, as, on account of his
eyes, which were being treated by the Heidelberg
ophthalmologist, Dr. Leber, he came to us also in
the spring, and was easily to be found close to my
house at the "Prinz Karl" or the "Weinberg,"
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? His Life and Work 105
and was grateful when people made him forget his
sorrows for an hour or so. We therefore continued
to keep in touch with him. Merely to read his
writings was insufficient; one had to hear him to
understand his meaning thoroughly. When in
the autumn of 1874 he turned up for the first time,
he was full of praise for the systematic and quick
way with which University matters were settled in
Berlin. As it was not customary to visit the wives
of colleagues in Berlin, the education of such forti-
fied Society camps, as used to be the case in
Heidelberg, was conspicuous by its absence.
With his former Heidelberg opponents, Zeller and
Wattenbach, he was on best terms there; besides
it was, as he said, very healthy to be reminded daily
in this town of millions that the few people whose
company one cultivated did not constitute the
world. Every one of them might fall from a bridge
across the River Spree, and onwards would rush
the stream of life as if nothing had happened.
When daily hurrying past thousands of people to
one's occupation, one only begins to realize the
true proportion of one's dispensability. Some-
what less politely he had expressed similar views
in an essay on Socialism, in which, willy-nilly,
we had to apply to ourselves the remark that a
strong man always felt steeled and elated when
fleeing from the restraint, tittle-tattle, and the
persistent interference of a small town. He also
wrote to Freytag: "The liberty in the capital
pleases me, and I should not care about returning
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? io6 Treitschke
to Heidelberg's quarrels and gossip. " Anyhow,
he spoke of us as "of his beautiful Heidelberg,"
whereas Leipzig remained for him "the empty-
headed University," meaning thereby, of course,
not the professors, but the disparity between the
great University and the small country. Thus
he had grown a proud Berlin citizen ; but later on
he felt how life in a big city affected his nerves.
He complained of the ' ' everlasting haste which was
called life in Berlin, " and which, above all, under-
mined his wife's health. Even the correspondence
with Freytag stopped, as Berlin made it impossible
to maintain relations as he wished and as they
should have been maintained. This complaint
is intelligible, as lectures, parliamentary sittings,
and the editorship of the Prussian Annuals com-
pletely occupied his time. Now and then the
Berlin papers, and especially the Tageblatt, brought
out "details respecting the lectures of Herr v.
Treitschke," which proved a totally new experi-
ence to him and to us. Treitschke finally saw
himself compelled to declare that this information
by no means originated in student circles. As
the big banking firms closed at 6 p. m. he had the
doubtful pleasure of seeing at his evening lectures
all sorts of young business men, of Christian and
Hebraic confession, who, in their spare time,
apparently, were newspaper reporters. He de-
clared he was responsible to the hearers and to
the authorities for his lectures ; he would continue
to maintain strict silence in regard to the attempts
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?
His Life and Work 107
of the press to worm information out of him:
this does not imply that he recognized the correct-
ness of the published information. But details
showing him in a favourable light likewise made
their appearance, and, particularly after his death,
many of his former hearers gave invaluable infor-
mation in regard to Treitschke's lectures. Felix
Kriiger, for instance, informed the Allgemeine
Zeitung how greatly Treitschke laid stress on the
point that men make history in opposition to
Lamprecht's view, who held that the history of a
nation is not the history of great men, but that
circumstances are developed by circumstances.
According to Kruger, the principal thing in the
reformation was, for Treitschke, the peculiarity
of the reformers: Ulrich von Hutten, the people's
favourite Junker, whose Muse was Wrath, or the
Rationalist Republican Zwingli, or the aristocratic-
ally-inclined Calvin with his hard and cheerless
fanaticism; and on the other hand Emperor
Charles, the reserved Spaniard of indomitable
ambition, pitiless, and in his innermost heart ir-
religious; next to him his pedantic brother, Fer-
dinand or Maurice of Saxony, this quick Mussen
cat, yet the only one amongst the German Princes
of that time who had political talent. Naturally
these vividly drawn sketches made an impression
upon youth. When causing thereby an amusing
effect which gave rise to loud and lasting hilarity
in true student's fashion, the dark eye of the
speaker would unwillingly glance over the audience
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? io8 Treitschke
an intimation that he was in deadly earnest even
when dealing out satirical lashes. In his lectures
on politics he also surprised the hearers with
views which none of them had heard from him at
the College. He pointed out that not logical facts
make history, but passions; feelings are more
powerful than reason. He safeguarded the right
of the development of personalities. "Only a
shallow mind can always say the same. " He
sneered at the moralizing contemplation of history,
"the Sunday afternoon preachers on Politics. "
Life is too hard for philanthropic phrases, but
those are not genuine realists who misjudge the
reality of moral forces. All his hearers realized that
these lectures acted like iron baths. We owe to
another hearer the description of the impression
which the first attempt on the life of the Kaiser
made upon Treitschke. It confirms what was
generally known, that Treitschke never posed,
and on the contrary hated everything theatrical.
The information of the deed of miserable Hodel
had come to hand immediately before the com-
mencement of Treitschke's lecture. The audience
was silent as in a church ; depressed, they gazed in
front of them as if a load oppressed their souls.
At last Treitschke entered, but the usual cheering
which greeted his arrival was absent to-day. A
long time he stood there ; motionless he looked at
us as if he meant to say: "I realize you feel the
mortification, the disgrace, the horrible disgrace,
inflicted upon us. " Then he tried to speak; we
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? His Life and Work 109
noticed how agitated and disturbed he was. But
the impressions seemed to burst forth so vehement-
ly that he bit his lips, and deeply sighed as if
trying to suppress his feelings. Then he hastily
grasped his handkerchief, and overwhelmed by
emotion he pressed it to his eyes. I believe there
was not a single one amongst the hearers whose
heart was not thrilled to its innermost depth at
this silent process. Subsequently he found words,
and said he was unable to discuss the wicked deed ;
it choked him to do so, and he would continue the
history of the Wars of Liberation. Once more he
reviewed the previous history, and said that there
is nothing to purify and strengthen the souls of
young, idealistically inclined human beings than
the fire test of deep patriotic sorrow. He spoke of
the Battle of Leipzig, and described the tremen-
dous fight with such vividness, richness of colour,
and fire that everybody, carried away, hung on his
lips. And when in his enthusiastic manner he
described the episode of how the East Prussian
Militia, at the head of all others, stormed the
Grimma Gate at Leipzig and drove the French
from the old German town, all anguish had sud-
denly departed. A feeling of relief and exaltation
again seized all our hearts, and the audience gave
vent to a loud ovation for the man who, in spite of
his last bitter disappointment, did not tire of
keeping alive in us enthusiasm for our people and
our history. The Berlin papers occupied them-
selves so extensively with Treitschke that we,
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? no Treitschke
likewise, in Heidelberg were always informed
regarding his activity. Especially so long as he
frequently spoke in the Reichstag, and regularly
discussed pending questions in the Prussian An-
nuals, our mental intercourse did not slacken.
But by reason of the distance we sometimes viewed
his standpoint wrongly. Judging by his writings
in the Annuals, I thought he would be very pleased
with our African acquisitions, but when verbally
discussing it with him he said: "Cameroons?
What are we to do with this sand-box? Let us
take Holland; then we shall have colonies. "
Fortunately he failed to promulgate this view in
the Press.
Amongst the most unpleasant duties which the
editorship of the Annuals entailed, perhaps the
most disagreeable one was to review those ques-
tions of the day on which to maintain silence
would have been much more agreeable. Above
all, it was the Jewish question which had become
of such pressing nature that, however painful, in
view of the esteem he entertained for his colleagues,
Goldschmidt, Bresslau, and Frenzdorf, and the
recollections of his early friend, Oppenheim, he was
obliged to touch on it. Considering the enormous
agitation organized against him after publication
of his first article in November, 1879, and which
only poured fat into the fire, it must be remem-
bered that he deliberately placed the following
sentence in front: "There can be, among sensible
people, no question of a withdrawal, or even of only
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? His Life and Work in
an infringement, of the completed emancipation
of the Jews; this would be an apparent injustice. "
His final appeal to the Jews not to relinquish their
religion, but their ambition to occupy a particular
national position, and to become unreservedly
Germans, might be called futile and vague; but
it does not imply a mortification. The complaints
which Treitschke brought before the general notice
might have been discussed more calmly if the
Press had not raised such an outcry against him.
Even those who consider that Treitschke 's attitude
in this matter did more harm than good had to
admit extenuating circumstances quite apart from
the fact that, after the many frictions with the
Jewish reporters, a final electric discharge had
become inevitable in view of his temperament.
His publicist activity brought him less in contact
with the good qualities of the Israelites than with
the Jews of the Press, amongst whom those of
Berlin are not exactly the most modest, and who,
with their system of Press activity, were in direct
opposition to his ideals of life. He observed,
what could escape no attentive reader of our
Press, that all literary publications were praised or
torn to pieces according to whether the author was
reputed to be Philo-Semite or Anti-Semite. ' 'And,"
he says, "how closely this crowd of writers keeps
together, how reliably works this Immortality
Assurance Society, based on the approved commer-
cial principle of reciprocity, so that each Jewish
poetical star receives on the spot, and without
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? ii2 Treitschke
rebate of interest for delay, the ephemeral praise
administered by the newspapers. " In the pres-
ence of the objectionable agitation of these years,
George Eliot, in her last novel, Daniel Deronda,
reproached Germany with Jewish persecution, as
it was Jewish brains which for the last thirty
years had procured for Germany her position in the
literary world. Treitschke, however, reproached
the Jewish Press for having tried to introduce "the
charlatanry of the commercial world into literature
and the jargon of the stock exchange into the
sanctuary of our language. ' ' He put the question :
What had the Jewish brain made of the German
language in the sphere of journalism and literature,
in which it reigns supreme? Of the poets, who at
the time contributed to Germany's literary position
and whose names live, George Eliot suitably
recollected Gutzkow, Freiligrath, Freytag, Geibel,
Monke, Bodenstedt, Claus Groot, Fritz Reuter,
Storm, Fontane, Roguette, Scheffel, Baumbach,
Rosegger, Anzengruber, Ganghoffer, Jenssen,
Lingg, Raabe, Putlitz, Strachwitz, Steiler, Wolff,
and many others. There is not one Jewish brain
among them, and most of the names which the
Jewish Press noisily proclaimed upon their appear-
ance are to-day submerged in the flood of journal-
ism and completely forgotten. Another considera-
tion of Treitschke referred to the development of
our school system under the completely changed
denominational conditions of colleges. Nothing
had given him so much food for reflection as the
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? His Life and Work 113
sentence of his first essay: "From the East fron-
tier there pours year by year from the inexhaust-
ible Polish cradle a huge number of ambitious
trouser-selling youths, whose children and child-
ren's children, in time to come, will dominate
Germany's stock exchanges and newspapers; the
immigration grows visibly, and more and more
seriously the question imposes itself how we are
to amalgamate this strange population with ours.
'What a crime,' a Jewess said to me, 'that these
Jews give their children a good education. ' ' The
exaggerations of Treitschke also, in this matter,
are to be regretted ; but the difficulty still remains
that, as the moiety of pupils in the higher classes
of colleges in Berlin were of Jewish persuasion, the
Christian view of the world must disappear.
Furthermore, the fact must not be lost sight of that
the newspaper reader, in view of Jewish hegemony
in the journalistic world, is apprised of the events
of the world only in the form in which they show
to advantage from the Jewish point of view. We
had ample means to convince ourselves of this on
the occasion of colonial policy, financial reform,
and the discussions on the tobacco monopoly.
He also spoke bitingly in regard to the influence
of a commercial world which amasses colossal for-
tunes, not by productive labour, but by the ex-
change of securities and speculative transactions;
and here, at least, the movement initiated by him
has been productive of good results, as it caused
legislation to be enacted. I, personally, was by
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? 1 14 Treitschke
no means pleased at his having become involved in
controversy with such an influential literary power,
and I told him candidly that for me the question
does not exist whether it is an advantage our
having the Jews Mommsen and Stocker might
settle that. The question to be solved, as far as
I was concerned, is: What is our duty since we
have them? He himself, had no wish to adopt the
practical method employed by Russia; what,
therefore, was to be done? He was amused at the
opinion of one of his acquaintances, saying the
Middle Ages had missed their vocation as, accord-
ing to the principles of that period, the question
might have been settled without subsequent
conscience-pricks. According to him, his teacher,
Dahlmann, at the College, likewise had regretted
that the policy of that Egyptian Pharaoh had not
been pursued more effectively. But when seri-
ously asked his opinion what to do, he was just
as helpless as other people. His only prescription
was gentle restraint, and there even he admitted
that in the present state of affairs this had become
impracticable, as even he himself made exceptions
in favour of his friends. But, as he had no
prescription for the solution of this eminently
practical question, not even a tangible proposal,
it was ostensibly an error for a practical politician
to make an enemy for all times of this great power
in Berlin. He lost in life valuable and even Chris-
tian fellow- workers for his own object, and by the
sneering tone of his articles he particularly puzzled
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? His Life and Work 115
the ladies' world. The public declaration of
Mommsen's friends, reproaching him with having
sacrificed tolerance, the great heritage of Lessing,
and inciting youth against the Jews, caused him
deep and lasting pain. The latter reproach was
due to untrue statements having been disseminated
by Christian-Germanic youths.
A Leipzig student called on him to seek his
advice as to whether he and his friends should sign
the Forster anti-Semitic petition. Treitschke de-
clared he disagreed with the contents of this peti-
tion, and also considered it wrong for students to
be mixed up in legislative questions. If they were
determined to make a manifesto they should do so
in a more suitable form and remember to leave
undisturbed the academic peace. " After this
conversation,'* Treitschke himself relates, "I for
weeks heard nothing of the matter, until suddenly,
to my greatest astonishment, through a newspaper
notice, I ascertained the existence of a Leipzig
Students' Petition" (in which a sentence asserted
Treitschke had given his assent to the intended
action of anti-Semitic students). "I at once
wrote to that student, reminded him of the real
meaning of our conversation, and demanded the
immediate expurgation of that passage. He
replied very repentantly, asked my pardon, assured
me that he had been greatly excited during the
conversation, and consequently had quite mis-
understood me; he also promised to have that
passage eliminated, which actually was done.
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? n6 Treitschke
The mendacious reference to Treitschke, however,
caused so much discussion that Treitschke sent
to a member of the Senate a written declaration
for transmission to the Rector, and when Momm-
sen, in a pamphlet, repeated the reproach, calling
Treitschke the moral instigator of the Leipzig
Students' Petition against the Jews, Treitschke
was obliged to give a public declaration to demon-
strate the history of the incident. Thus the
question had produced academic factions of still
greater animosity than the previous ones, as in
this case Jews were in question. In consequence
of this conflict, Treitschke fell out with his nearest
friends, and again he had the impression he was
shunned and tabooed. Nevertheless, he recog-
nized with great respect that Mommsen had
abruptly turned a deaf ear to the attempts of
several younger Jewish colleagues in their en-
deavour to take advantage of his philo-Semitic
disposition for their own benefit . ' ' There the great
scientist came again to the fore. " Mommsen,
however, was not conciliatory. He reproached
Treitschke with animosity against Jews, in con-
sequence of which a true appreciation of Heine in
his literary report was lacking. "Where genius
faces us, we must kneel down and worship," he
said, "and it is Treitschke's doom that he cannot
do that. " It was doubtful to me whether falling
down and worshipping was exactly Mommsen's
force. On the contrary, it seemed to me worthy
of note that Treitschke, in spite of his personal
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? His Life and Work 117
aversion, recognized in Heine the true voice of
romance, contrary to Victor Hehn, who simply
explained the ring of Goethe's lyrics in Heine's
songs, by the talent of imitation akin to the Jew.
In these questions, likewise, Treitschke's judg-
ment, after the long and bitter struggle, was of
lamentable mildness, which I was the last to
expect after the sharp attacks in the Annuals.
Although convinced he had merely done his duty,
he was deeply hurt that the great number of
friends now had shrunk to a few anti-Semites,
whose adoration he had to share with Rector
Ahlwardt. His was a love-thirsty disposition.
"Du nahst der Welt mit einer Welt voll Liebe
Dein Zauber ist das mutig freie Herz
War's moglich dass sie dir verschlossen bliebe? "
he had written in his youth when deafness broke
in upon him. Similar feelings overcame him now
with the estrangement of so many who gave his
words the cold shoulder. The feeling against him
did not last, but the consequences of this conflict
went further than was visible at first. The articles
on the Jews form a turning-point in Treitschke's
political position, and in his occupation as publicist,
and they were not even without influence upon his
personal comfort.
When these consequences promptly arose, Erd-
mansdoerffer reminded me of a saying of Berthold
Auerbach, who had predicted of another anti-
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? n8 Treitschke
Semite: "Like all Hamans, he will have a bad
end. " As the result of the so-called Mommsen
Declaration, bitter dissension arose, not only
between Treitschke and the Jews, but also between
the Liberals of both camps. All the more en-
thusiastically the Conservative party gathered
round him, and soon enough we saw him in the
ranks of the party which he had contested during
the whole of his life. Formerly his opinion was:
"Christian love is more frequently to be found
amongst the much-abused Incredulous than
amongst the Clergy. . . . More and more it
will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual needs of mature people. " Now
his position demanded that he should view his
struggle against Judaism simultaneously with a
struggle for his Church. " Mommsen, " he writes,
"passes over the religious contrast with some in-
different words. I maintain a different standpoint
towards positive Christianity. I believe that
through maturing culture our deeply religious
people will be led back to a purer and more vigor-
ous spiritual life, and therefore cannot silently
pass over the invectives of the Jewish Press against
Christianity, but consider them as attacks on the
fundaments of our morals, as disturbances of the
peace of the country. " The next consequence of
this attitude was that, contrary to his former utter-
ances on undenominational schools, he now de-
clared denominational schools as normal, whereas,
as late as 1872, he had appealed to the new Minis-
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? His Life and Work 119
ter of Public Instruction to send Jewish teachers
to those colleges which Herr von Miihler had
declared as being denominational according to
observance. Soon we were as much amazed at
the literary manifestoes of our friend as the veter-
ans of Napoleon, who, after the Concordat,
wondered how the "Little Corporal" had learned
to preach so beautifully.
? His Life and Work 95
now so unfavourable that we often had the impres-
sion that he considered himself destined to replace
Falk. In unctuous fashion he invariably reverted
to the statement that as long as the population
fail to realize that ecclesiastical decrees speak the
language of profound respect for religion, every
reform will prove abortive on account of the
people's want of confidence. The aristocratic and
military circles, with whom Treitschke now asso-
ciated more frequently, too, had only one watch-
word: The struggle for civilization must cease.
He expected nothing of the Old Catholic agitation,
and disapproved of the loud applause of the Jewish
Press, which would have better served the cause
by greater reticence. It so came about that we
had gradually to rely less upon his co-operation
in the struggle. But we gathered this opinion
more from his verbal scruples than from his written
expressions, which in principle were in agreement
with ours, although he now considered the legisla-
tion as laws of necessity, i. e. , as a temporary evil.
Then took place the great defection of Lasker and
the Progressive Party, which the Catholic faction
attempted to engineer for the elections, and which
willingly left the odium of civilization a name
invented by Virchow for the glory of Falk to the
National Liberals. After one wing of the Army
had gone over to the enemy, the great Bismarck
retreat commenced, which Treitschke had to
cover with heavy artillery. Even in course of
these rear-guard actions, he had both written and
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? 96 Treitschke
spoken many clever things in the Annuals, as well
as in the Reichstag, but it oppressed his mind that
henceforth he would have to recommend the
abolition of the " ineffective or mistaken May
Laws," after having greeted their formation with
words of joy. To retract words, suited him, who
was used to employing such strong language
particularly badly. Times out of number he had
proclaimed that the old feud could not be adjusted
by concessions, but by perseverance. If, in a
country whose population to the extent of two-
thirds are Protestants, the Bishops reign to-day,
and an Ultramontane President is President of the
Reichstag, the old saying characterizing this state
of affairs, viz. , "Every nation has the government
it deserves," is decidedly appropriate. For the
rest, it must be recognized that Treitschke never
expressed his pleasure at this result as did the
Kreuz Zeitung, but always contemplated it with
deep regret as a proof that, contrary to the opinion
of Aristotle, the German being is by no means a
political animal.
While still in Heidelberg, Treitschke's rupture
with the University Socialists became imminent,
among whom he counted his intimate friends
Knies and Schmoller. Contrary to Knies, he
asserted that Socialism could not be convinced by
reason, but had to be suppressed by forcible laws.
He also defended the view that it is in the interest
of the public to compel labour to work cheaply,
and that the State should possess authority to
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? His Life and Work 97
enforce the fulfilment of this duty. In his first
Berlin article, of July, 1874, he took this sharp
attitude against the Social Democrats, whom he
called Socialists, and whom he did not wish to
distinguish from the Radical Socialist politicians.
The article had been begun in Heidelberg, and we
were diverted to see how here again he gave expres-
sion to his most recent experience, when he wrote :
" After packing books for two or three days, and
filling up freight forms finally looking stupidly
at the completed work the question will suddenly
occur what the brave packers might think, who,
during these removal performances only, were my
servants? The calling of the furniture shifter is,
after all, a very respectable one, because it is
cleaner, and more refined, than many equally
necessary occupations. " The essay itself, Social-
ism, and its Supporters, met at the round table
of the Museum with no more approval than the
speeches which were its prelude prior to his
departure. Knies thought that the inability to
distribute wealth in accordance with actual deeds
it not being a creation of the present and the
fact that virtue is not fully rewarded in this world,
would not produce a greater feeling of contentment
amongst the working classes, who demand their
share of the realized profit, and in the terms of their
favourite author, Heine, leave Heaven to the
angels and sparrows.
Colleagues otherwise friendly disposed towards
him found the point of view that the working
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? 98 Treitschke
classes should continue to toil for the sake of
religion, and his cruel reference to that true friend
of the people, Fritz Reuter, particularly hard-
hearted when a question of hungry people who
have no time to read novels was being discussed.
Treitschke's assertion that the introduction of
slavery had been a redeeming achievement of
culture, which, during thousands of years had
exercised at least as powerful a moral influence as
Christianity during a later epoch, appeared to us
a comparison of things which could not be tolerated ;
and if nature formed all its higher beings unequally
there can be no question of the introduction of
slavery as a redeeming historical achievement.
From a prehistoric point of view, it can be com-
pared with the relationship existing between
master and dog, or the shepherd and his flock.
An innovation of his was the stronger touch of
religious chords which, with this essay, begins to
obliterate the formerly habitual attacks upon the
wicked class of theologians. The full meaning of
Social Democracy became clear to him with the
classic expression of the Volk Staat: " Either there
is a God, and then we admit we are in a mess, or
there is none, in which case we can alter the existing
state of affairs as much as we like. " It was only
right that against such speeches he should have
emphasized more strongly his positively religious
sentiments, but now and then his old habit of
chaffing the theologians came to the fore. Whilst
Schmoller traces the economic formation of classes
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? His Life and Work 99
to an original injustice, viz. , violence of the
stronger, which as a tragic fault is hereditary,
Treitschke sneers at the doctrine of "social apple
tasting," and the sin which is no more ingenious
than the theological doctrine of hereditary sin.
But the doctrine of hereditary sin is the preamble
to Christianity, and to be one of its champions in
Berlin was his aim.
It was quite natural that Schmoller, in his reply,
complained at having had his standpoint quite
wrongly represented. Both Ribbeck and I asked,
after perusal, what now really was Schmoller 's
view, as Treitschke's controversy had been con-
ducted in such a general way as to make it impos-
sible to know what referred to Schmoller and what
to the school in general. All the same, nobody
who knew his warm and philanthropic disposition
harboured the suspicion that Treitschke intended
to become a champion of class interests. He only
protested against such erroneous expressions as
"The Disinherited,'* or "the excess measure of
economic injustice, which needs must bring about
a crevasse," phrases which were to the liking of
National Socialists, but which necessarily played
into the hands of the demagogues, exciting the
working classes as they did, and arousing hopes in
them, the realization of which was, in the nature of
things, out of the question. Although he expressly
pointed out that only false prophets and instiga-
tors could lead the labouring classes to believe that
any social regulation could neutralize the inequal-
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? ioo Treitschke
ity of the human lot, he nevertheless in a letter to
Sybel expressed the hope: "We also will get our
ten hours' bill, our factory inspectors, and many
other things, which are in opposition to the Man-
chester doctrine," and in this sense the warm-
hearted friend of the people acted in the Reichstag.
Equal rights for all, and due care for the economic-
ally weaker and those incapable of working, was
his motto ; the contest between him and Schmoller
was, therefore, by no means as great as the strong
words exchanged at that time might have led one
to believe. Like so many big cannonades, this
one finally proved merely to be noisy reconnoitring
and not a decisive battle. Anyhow, the discus-
sions on social questions between him and Knies
were the most interesting experienced by the
round table, and we regretted that they were
the last.
VII.
Immediately after the war the Prussian House of
Commons had granted considerable sums to raise
the University of Berlin to its destined height again,
and Helmholtz was the first to receive such an offer
in 1871, Zeller following in 1872, and Treitschke in
1874. No efforts were spared on the part of the
Baden Government to retain Treitschke. His
friends entreated him to remain. If only he had
listened to our supplications the German History
would have been completed long ago, he himself
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? His Life and Work 101
would presumably still be in the land of the living,
and all the hardships which the trying city atmos-
phere caused him and his family would never have
found their way to the small house hidden behind
trees at the other side of the Neckar. We urged
him not to abandon so light-heartedly a sphere of
activity such as he had found.
On a slip, I wrote to him that in Berlin nobody
believed Prussia to be such a great country as he
preached. "I would not say such a thing," he
replied, in angry fashion, but then he explained
that, owing to his having to spend six months in
the Berlin Archives for writing his History it was
preferable that he should permanently remain in
Berlin. But just because empty-headed Liberal-
ism was gradually gaining ground in Berlin, he
wished to go there to take up the battle. He also
wrote to Jolly in this sense: "Our capital is not
to become a second New York; those who can do
something to prevent this misfortune must not
abstain without good reason. Anyone as firmly
attached to Prussia as I am must not refuse, with-
out good cause, if my services are thought to be of
use. '* In similar fashion he expressed himself to
Ranke, who, by sending Treitschke his Genesis
of the Prussian State, at once greeted him as his
colleague a matter for great pride. He wrote to
the old master as follows: "Here in Heidelberg
my object was simply to teach youth, on the whole
ignorant but naive; over there my task will be to
uphold the positive powers of the historical world
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? 102 Treitschke
against the petulance of Radical criticism. I fully
realise the difficult position in which I shall find
myself in consequence of the predominant Radical
opinions in the capital. He admitted that he
could not expect to exercise such lasting influence
upon the students in Berlin as in Heidelberg, for
theatres, concerts, and life in the capital generally
prejudiced the interest in lectures ; but he thought
he would surmount the difficulty in Berlin, as well
as he had done in Leipzig. Only one question
oppressed him, soft-hearted as he was: "Children
are deprived of the best part of their youth when
they are dragged to a capital to be brought up
there as Berlin Wall-Rats. " "It is true," he
subsequently wrote to Freytag, "my son prefers
the Zoological Garden to the Black Forest ; a forest
is all very fine and large, but the Emperor and the
old 'Wrangel' are only to be seen in Berlin. " At
first, negotiations were carried on regarding limit-
ing his activity, and that of Droysen, he, as he told
me, not wishing ' ' to raise shabby competition ' ' with
the old gentleman. By the death of Droysen this
question settled itself. I felt Treitschke 's impend-
ing departure very much, and when the matter
had become an accomplished fact the following
verses occurred to me during a sleepless night :
"Du gehst wir Konnten Dich nicht halten
Du gehst weil Du gehen musst
Wir lassen Deine Sterne walten
Und bieten Schweigen unserer Brust. "
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? His Life and Work 103
The other part I have forgotten, and perhaps it is
better so. Not wishing to be counted amongst the
poets of the Tageblatt, I merely signed the poem
"N. N. , " but at our final meeting at the Museum
he looked at me frankly, and amiably said: "I go,
because go I must," and then I knew that my
anonymity had been unavailing. In spite of the
academic encounters in the past the colleagues
assembled in great, although by no means full,
numbers. All the same, everybody recognized
his honesty and unselfishness, just because he had
been open and very rough. Windscheid, as Pro-
Rector, also referred to the fact that Treitschke
liked to be where sharp thrusts were exchanged,
and likened him to a noble steed on the battle-
ground, which cannot be kept back when it hears
the flourish of trumpets. No doubt we would hear
in future of his deeds. The great student of law
was much too refined and clever a personality to
undervalue Treitschke as the " majority" did,
but for the mature and calm scientist the young
colleague was still like new wine, and jokingly he
compared him to Percy Heissporn, who regularly
was asked by his wife, when washing the ink from
off his fingers before dinner: "Well, Heinrich,
darling, and how many have you killed to-day? "
At our last meeting Treitschke told me in his
usual kind-hearted manner that there were too
many important men in this small town, and
collisions were therefore unavoidable. In Weimar
the same conditions existed as is proved by the
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? 104 Treitschke
letters of Karoline Herder, and Karoline Schlegel.
When he gaily described in the German History
subsequently the battles of Voss, with Creuzer
on the hot field of Heidelberg, we gratefully
recognized that the memory of the Economic
Commission, and Majority and Minority, still
continued to cling faithfully to his heart. There
might have been at that time too many academic
stars, but he was never too much for us, and we
felt that the importance of such men was fully
recognized only by the void they left. It was as
if a spell had been broken, the parlour seemed
empty, the round table at the Museum only half
occupied, and as Gustav Freytag said at his parting
speech in the Kitzing, so we could say: "A good
deal of poetry has disappeared from our circle,
which had warmed and elated us. " Our circle
undeservedly now resembled the defiant prince of
olden times, who was deserted by his generals one
by one. The one who now goes from us is Max
Piccolomini. Fortunately, although missed, he
was not completely lost to us. He annually
accompanied his family to the house of his parents-
in-law in Freiburg, and we generally had him in the
autumn for days or hours with us either at the
usual round table or at our house. Subsequently
we saw him more frequently, as, on account of his
eyes, which were being treated by the Heidelberg
ophthalmologist, Dr. Leber, he came to us also in
the spring, and was easily to be found close to my
house at the "Prinz Karl" or the "Weinberg,"
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? His Life and Work 105
and was grateful when people made him forget his
sorrows for an hour or so. We therefore continued
to keep in touch with him. Merely to read his
writings was insufficient; one had to hear him to
understand his meaning thoroughly. When in
the autumn of 1874 he turned up for the first time,
he was full of praise for the systematic and quick
way with which University matters were settled in
Berlin. As it was not customary to visit the wives
of colleagues in Berlin, the education of such forti-
fied Society camps, as used to be the case in
Heidelberg, was conspicuous by its absence.
With his former Heidelberg opponents, Zeller and
Wattenbach, he was on best terms there; besides
it was, as he said, very healthy to be reminded daily
in this town of millions that the few people whose
company one cultivated did not constitute the
world. Every one of them might fall from a bridge
across the River Spree, and onwards would rush
the stream of life as if nothing had happened.
When daily hurrying past thousands of people to
one's occupation, one only begins to realize the
true proportion of one's dispensability. Some-
what less politely he had expressed similar views
in an essay on Socialism, in which, willy-nilly,
we had to apply to ourselves the remark that a
strong man always felt steeled and elated when
fleeing from the restraint, tittle-tattle, and the
persistent interference of a small town. He also
wrote to Freytag: "The liberty in the capital
pleases me, and I should not care about returning
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? io6 Treitschke
to Heidelberg's quarrels and gossip. " Anyhow,
he spoke of us as "of his beautiful Heidelberg,"
whereas Leipzig remained for him "the empty-
headed University," meaning thereby, of course,
not the professors, but the disparity between the
great University and the small country. Thus
he had grown a proud Berlin citizen ; but later on
he felt how life in a big city affected his nerves.
He complained of the ' ' everlasting haste which was
called life in Berlin, " and which, above all, under-
mined his wife's health. Even the correspondence
with Freytag stopped, as Berlin made it impossible
to maintain relations as he wished and as they
should have been maintained. This complaint
is intelligible, as lectures, parliamentary sittings,
and the editorship of the Prussian Annuals com-
pletely occupied his time. Now and then the
Berlin papers, and especially the Tageblatt, brought
out "details respecting the lectures of Herr v.
Treitschke," which proved a totally new experi-
ence to him and to us. Treitschke finally saw
himself compelled to declare that this information
by no means originated in student circles. As
the big banking firms closed at 6 p. m. he had the
doubtful pleasure of seeing at his evening lectures
all sorts of young business men, of Christian and
Hebraic confession, who, in their spare time,
apparently, were newspaper reporters. He de-
clared he was responsible to the hearers and to
the authorities for his lectures ; he would continue
to maintain strict silence in regard to the attempts
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?
His Life and Work 107
of the press to worm information out of him:
this does not imply that he recognized the correct-
ness of the published information. But details
showing him in a favourable light likewise made
their appearance, and, particularly after his death,
many of his former hearers gave invaluable infor-
mation in regard to Treitschke's lectures. Felix
Kriiger, for instance, informed the Allgemeine
Zeitung how greatly Treitschke laid stress on the
point that men make history in opposition to
Lamprecht's view, who held that the history of a
nation is not the history of great men, but that
circumstances are developed by circumstances.
According to Kruger, the principal thing in the
reformation was, for Treitschke, the peculiarity
of the reformers: Ulrich von Hutten, the people's
favourite Junker, whose Muse was Wrath, or the
Rationalist Republican Zwingli, or the aristocratic-
ally-inclined Calvin with his hard and cheerless
fanaticism; and on the other hand Emperor
Charles, the reserved Spaniard of indomitable
ambition, pitiless, and in his innermost heart ir-
religious; next to him his pedantic brother, Fer-
dinand or Maurice of Saxony, this quick Mussen
cat, yet the only one amongst the German Princes
of that time who had political talent. Naturally
these vividly drawn sketches made an impression
upon youth. When causing thereby an amusing
effect which gave rise to loud and lasting hilarity
in true student's fashion, the dark eye of the
speaker would unwillingly glance over the audience
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? io8 Treitschke
an intimation that he was in deadly earnest even
when dealing out satirical lashes. In his lectures
on politics he also surprised the hearers with
views which none of them had heard from him at
the College. He pointed out that not logical facts
make history, but passions; feelings are more
powerful than reason. He safeguarded the right
of the development of personalities. "Only a
shallow mind can always say the same. " He
sneered at the moralizing contemplation of history,
"the Sunday afternoon preachers on Politics. "
Life is too hard for philanthropic phrases, but
those are not genuine realists who misjudge the
reality of moral forces. All his hearers realized that
these lectures acted like iron baths. We owe to
another hearer the description of the impression
which the first attempt on the life of the Kaiser
made upon Treitschke. It confirms what was
generally known, that Treitschke never posed,
and on the contrary hated everything theatrical.
The information of the deed of miserable Hodel
had come to hand immediately before the com-
mencement of Treitschke's lecture. The audience
was silent as in a church ; depressed, they gazed in
front of them as if a load oppressed their souls.
At last Treitschke entered, but the usual cheering
which greeted his arrival was absent to-day. A
long time he stood there ; motionless he looked at
us as if he meant to say: "I realize you feel the
mortification, the disgrace, the horrible disgrace,
inflicted upon us. " Then he tried to speak; we
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? His Life and Work 109
noticed how agitated and disturbed he was. But
the impressions seemed to burst forth so vehement-
ly that he bit his lips, and deeply sighed as if
trying to suppress his feelings. Then he hastily
grasped his handkerchief, and overwhelmed by
emotion he pressed it to his eyes. I believe there
was not a single one amongst the hearers whose
heart was not thrilled to its innermost depth at
this silent process. Subsequently he found words,
and said he was unable to discuss the wicked deed ;
it choked him to do so, and he would continue the
history of the Wars of Liberation. Once more he
reviewed the previous history, and said that there
is nothing to purify and strengthen the souls of
young, idealistically inclined human beings than
the fire test of deep patriotic sorrow. He spoke of
the Battle of Leipzig, and described the tremen-
dous fight with such vividness, richness of colour,
and fire that everybody, carried away, hung on his
lips. And when in his enthusiastic manner he
described the episode of how the East Prussian
Militia, at the head of all others, stormed the
Grimma Gate at Leipzig and drove the French
from the old German town, all anguish had sud-
denly departed. A feeling of relief and exaltation
again seized all our hearts, and the audience gave
vent to a loud ovation for the man who, in spite of
his last bitter disappointment, did not tire of
keeping alive in us enthusiasm for our people and
our history. The Berlin papers occupied them-
selves so extensively with Treitschke that we,
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? no Treitschke
likewise, in Heidelberg were always informed
regarding his activity. Especially so long as he
frequently spoke in the Reichstag, and regularly
discussed pending questions in the Prussian An-
nuals, our mental intercourse did not slacken.
But by reason of the distance we sometimes viewed
his standpoint wrongly. Judging by his writings
in the Annuals, I thought he would be very pleased
with our African acquisitions, but when verbally
discussing it with him he said: "Cameroons?
What are we to do with this sand-box? Let us
take Holland; then we shall have colonies. "
Fortunately he failed to promulgate this view in
the Press.
Amongst the most unpleasant duties which the
editorship of the Annuals entailed, perhaps the
most disagreeable one was to review those ques-
tions of the day on which to maintain silence
would have been much more agreeable. Above
all, it was the Jewish question which had become
of such pressing nature that, however painful, in
view of the esteem he entertained for his colleagues,
Goldschmidt, Bresslau, and Frenzdorf, and the
recollections of his early friend, Oppenheim, he was
obliged to touch on it. Considering the enormous
agitation organized against him after publication
of his first article in November, 1879, and which
only poured fat into the fire, it must be remem-
bered that he deliberately placed the following
sentence in front: "There can be, among sensible
people, no question of a withdrawal, or even of only
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? His Life and Work in
an infringement, of the completed emancipation
of the Jews; this would be an apparent injustice. "
His final appeal to the Jews not to relinquish their
religion, but their ambition to occupy a particular
national position, and to become unreservedly
Germans, might be called futile and vague; but
it does not imply a mortification. The complaints
which Treitschke brought before the general notice
might have been discussed more calmly if the
Press had not raised such an outcry against him.
Even those who consider that Treitschke 's attitude
in this matter did more harm than good had to
admit extenuating circumstances quite apart from
the fact that, after the many frictions with the
Jewish reporters, a final electric discharge had
become inevitable in view of his temperament.
His publicist activity brought him less in contact
with the good qualities of the Israelites than with
the Jews of the Press, amongst whom those of
Berlin are not exactly the most modest, and who,
with their system of Press activity, were in direct
opposition to his ideals of life. He observed,
what could escape no attentive reader of our
Press, that all literary publications were praised or
torn to pieces according to whether the author was
reputed to be Philo-Semite or Anti-Semite. ' 'And,"
he says, "how closely this crowd of writers keeps
together, how reliably works this Immortality
Assurance Society, based on the approved commer-
cial principle of reciprocity, so that each Jewish
poetical star receives on the spot, and without
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? ii2 Treitschke
rebate of interest for delay, the ephemeral praise
administered by the newspapers. " In the pres-
ence of the objectionable agitation of these years,
George Eliot, in her last novel, Daniel Deronda,
reproached Germany with Jewish persecution, as
it was Jewish brains which for the last thirty
years had procured for Germany her position in the
literary world. Treitschke, however, reproached
the Jewish Press for having tried to introduce "the
charlatanry of the commercial world into literature
and the jargon of the stock exchange into the
sanctuary of our language. ' ' He put the question :
What had the Jewish brain made of the German
language in the sphere of journalism and literature,
in which it reigns supreme? Of the poets, who at
the time contributed to Germany's literary position
and whose names live, George Eliot suitably
recollected Gutzkow, Freiligrath, Freytag, Geibel,
Monke, Bodenstedt, Claus Groot, Fritz Reuter,
Storm, Fontane, Roguette, Scheffel, Baumbach,
Rosegger, Anzengruber, Ganghoffer, Jenssen,
Lingg, Raabe, Putlitz, Strachwitz, Steiler, Wolff,
and many others. There is not one Jewish brain
among them, and most of the names which the
Jewish Press noisily proclaimed upon their appear-
ance are to-day submerged in the flood of journal-
ism and completely forgotten. Another considera-
tion of Treitschke referred to the development of
our school system under the completely changed
denominational conditions of colleges. Nothing
had given him so much food for reflection as the
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? His Life and Work 113
sentence of his first essay: "From the East fron-
tier there pours year by year from the inexhaust-
ible Polish cradle a huge number of ambitious
trouser-selling youths, whose children and child-
ren's children, in time to come, will dominate
Germany's stock exchanges and newspapers; the
immigration grows visibly, and more and more
seriously the question imposes itself how we are
to amalgamate this strange population with ours.
'What a crime,' a Jewess said to me, 'that these
Jews give their children a good education. ' ' The
exaggerations of Treitschke also, in this matter,
are to be regretted ; but the difficulty still remains
that, as the moiety of pupils in the higher classes
of colleges in Berlin were of Jewish persuasion, the
Christian view of the world must disappear.
Furthermore, the fact must not be lost sight of that
the newspaper reader, in view of Jewish hegemony
in the journalistic world, is apprised of the events
of the world only in the form in which they show
to advantage from the Jewish point of view. We
had ample means to convince ourselves of this on
the occasion of colonial policy, financial reform,
and the discussions on the tobacco monopoly.
He also spoke bitingly in regard to the influence
of a commercial world which amasses colossal for-
tunes, not by productive labour, but by the ex-
change of securities and speculative transactions;
and here, at least, the movement initiated by him
has been productive of good results, as it caused
legislation to be enacted. I, personally, was by
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? 1 14 Treitschke
no means pleased at his having become involved in
controversy with such an influential literary power,
and I told him candidly that for me the question
does not exist whether it is an advantage our
having the Jews Mommsen and Stocker might
settle that. The question to be solved, as far as
I was concerned, is: What is our duty since we
have them? He himself, had no wish to adopt the
practical method employed by Russia; what,
therefore, was to be done? He was amused at the
opinion of one of his acquaintances, saying the
Middle Ages had missed their vocation as, accord-
ing to the principles of that period, the question
might have been settled without subsequent
conscience-pricks. According to him, his teacher,
Dahlmann, at the College, likewise had regretted
that the policy of that Egyptian Pharaoh had not
been pursued more effectively. But when seri-
ously asked his opinion what to do, he was just
as helpless as other people. His only prescription
was gentle restraint, and there even he admitted
that in the present state of affairs this had become
impracticable, as even he himself made exceptions
in favour of his friends. But, as he had no
prescription for the solution of this eminently
practical question, not even a tangible proposal,
it was ostensibly an error for a practical politician
to make an enemy for all times of this great power
in Berlin. He lost in life valuable and even Chris-
tian fellow- workers for his own object, and by the
sneering tone of his articles he particularly puzzled
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? His Life and Work 115
the ladies' world. The public declaration of
Mommsen's friends, reproaching him with having
sacrificed tolerance, the great heritage of Lessing,
and inciting youth against the Jews, caused him
deep and lasting pain. The latter reproach was
due to untrue statements having been disseminated
by Christian-Germanic youths.
A Leipzig student called on him to seek his
advice as to whether he and his friends should sign
the Forster anti-Semitic petition. Treitschke de-
clared he disagreed with the contents of this peti-
tion, and also considered it wrong for students to
be mixed up in legislative questions. If they were
determined to make a manifesto they should do so
in a more suitable form and remember to leave
undisturbed the academic peace. " After this
conversation,'* Treitschke himself relates, "I for
weeks heard nothing of the matter, until suddenly,
to my greatest astonishment, through a newspaper
notice, I ascertained the existence of a Leipzig
Students' Petition" (in which a sentence asserted
Treitschke had given his assent to the intended
action of anti-Semitic students). "I at once
wrote to that student, reminded him of the real
meaning of our conversation, and demanded the
immediate expurgation of that passage. He
replied very repentantly, asked my pardon, assured
me that he had been greatly excited during the
conversation, and consequently had quite mis-
understood me; he also promised to have that
passage eliminated, which actually was done.
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? n6 Treitschke
The mendacious reference to Treitschke, however,
caused so much discussion that Treitschke sent
to a member of the Senate a written declaration
for transmission to the Rector, and when Momm-
sen, in a pamphlet, repeated the reproach, calling
Treitschke the moral instigator of the Leipzig
Students' Petition against the Jews, Treitschke
was obliged to give a public declaration to demon-
strate the history of the incident. Thus the
question had produced academic factions of still
greater animosity than the previous ones, as in
this case Jews were in question. In consequence
of this conflict, Treitschke fell out with his nearest
friends, and again he had the impression he was
shunned and tabooed. Nevertheless, he recog-
nized with great respect that Mommsen had
abruptly turned a deaf ear to the attempts of
several younger Jewish colleagues in their en-
deavour to take advantage of his philo-Semitic
disposition for their own benefit . ' ' There the great
scientist came again to the fore. " Mommsen,
however, was not conciliatory. He reproached
Treitschke with animosity against Jews, in con-
sequence of which a true appreciation of Heine in
his literary report was lacking. "Where genius
faces us, we must kneel down and worship," he
said, "and it is Treitschke's doom that he cannot
do that. " It was doubtful to me whether falling
down and worshipping was exactly Mommsen's
force. On the contrary, it seemed to me worthy
of note that Treitschke, in spite of his personal
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? His Life and Work 117
aversion, recognized in Heine the true voice of
romance, contrary to Victor Hehn, who simply
explained the ring of Goethe's lyrics in Heine's
songs, by the talent of imitation akin to the Jew.
In these questions, likewise, Treitschke's judg-
ment, after the long and bitter struggle, was of
lamentable mildness, which I was the last to
expect after the sharp attacks in the Annuals.
Although convinced he had merely done his duty,
he was deeply hurt that the great number of
friends now had shrunk to a few anti-Semites,
whose adoration he had to share with Rector
Ahlwardt. His was a love-thirsty disposition.
"Du nahst der Welt mit einer Welt voll Liebe
Dein Zauber ist das mutig freie Herz
War's moglich dass sie dir verschlossen bliebe? "
he had written in his youth when deafness broke
in upon him. Similar feelings overcame him now
with the estrangement of so many who gave his
words the cold shoulder. The feeling against him
did not last, but the consequences of this conflict
went further than was visible at first. The articles
on the Jews form a turning-point in Treitschke's
political position, and in his occupation as publicist,
and they were not even without influence upon his
personal comfort.
When these consequences promptly arose, Erd-
mansdoerffer reminded me of a saying of Berthold
Auerbach, who had predicted of another anti-
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? n8 Treitschke
Semite: "Like all Hamans, he will have a bad
end. " As the result of the so-called Mommsen
Declaration, bitter dissension arose, not only
between Treitschke and the Jews, but also between
the Liberals of both camps. All the more en-
thusiastically the Conservative party gathered
round him, and soon enough we saw him in the
ranks of the party which he had contested during
the whole of his life. Formerly his opinion was:
"Christian love is more frequently to be found
amongst the much-abused Incredulous than
amongst the Clergy. . . . More and more it
will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual needs of mature people. " Now
his position demanded that he should view his
struggle against Judaism simultaneously with a
struggle for his Church. " Mommsen, " he writes,
"passes over the religious contrast with some in-
different words. I maintain a different standpoint
towards positive Christianity. I believe that
through maturing culture our deeply religious
people will be led back to a purer and more vigor-
ous spiritual life, and therefore cannot silently
pass over the invectives of the Jewish Press against
Christianity, but consider them as attacks on the
fundaments of our morals, as disturbances of the
peace of the country. " The next consequence of
this attitude was that, contrary to his former utter-
ances on undenominational schools, he now de-
clared denominational schools as normal, whereas,
as late as 1872, he had appealed to the new Minis-
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? His Life and Work 119
ter of Public Instruction to send Jewish teachers
to those colleges which Herr von Miihler had
declared as being denominational according to
observance. Soon we were as much amazed at
the literary manifestoes of our friend as the veter-
ans of Napoleon, who, after the Concordat,
wondered how the "Little Corporal" had learned
to preach so beautifully.
