No More Learning

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 unsuccessful 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-movements 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 eavesdropping. " At times I com-
plained of his supplementing my notes a little too
freely, whereupon he answered: "Such stories can
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? 40 Treitschke
gain only 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 contention to drop underneath the table,
but soon he found it out, and after several un-
pleasant discussions with both parties, I requested
one of the younger men of the opposition to relieve
me of my duties. Only when the gentlemen 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 quarrel ; but later on I realized how justi-
fied 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 in-
dignantly 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 in this respect. At
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? His Life and Work 41
times curious misunderstandings happened. When
once in the summer the Princess Wied with her
daughter, subsequently Queen of Roumania,
passed through Heidelberg, Treitschke was com-
manded to be present as guest at dinner. "Car-
men 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 thinking his fair neighbour
a maid-of-honour, entertained her politely, but
persistently addressed her as "Mem 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, how-
ever, 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 chattering 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
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? 42 Treitschke
wrapped in silence, and how the happy youth,
with aspiring temperament 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 disapproved 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 under-
stood 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 run-
ning and asking: "Grandpa, please sing to us. "
His deafness, however, did not prevent him from
travelling. Since Rudolf Grimm, who had accom-
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? His Life and Work 43
panied him to Italy, openly declared that these
duties were too arduous, the deaf man traversed
Europe quite alone. Whilst we were often afraid
that he, when walking of an evening in the high-
way 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 exceeding-
ly 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 embarrassments 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 deafness, in the tales of others.
The whole historical past of the country being
ever present before his eyes, he, although deaf,
derived more benefit from his travels than people
in full possession of all senses. Just as when pass-
ing the Ehrenberg narrow pass he regretfully
reflected that "Our Maurice" had not caught
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? 44 Treitschke
Spanish Charles, so he sees, in Bruegge, Charles V
in Spanish attire coming round the corner; in
Geneva the oil paintings of Calvin and of his
fellow-artists relate to him old stories; and in
Holland the Mynheers and high and mighties
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 strenuously 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 hu-
mour. 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 practi-
cally 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" (ap-
proximately meaning, "There won't be a blooming
soul there"). When in the presence of several
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? His Life and Work 45
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
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 Gtissfeld, who during the
last years were his favourite targets for criticism,
deserve great praise for putting up with his epi-
grams 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 melan-
choly, which, however, his strong nature always
succeeded in conquering.
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? 46 Treitschke
IV.
South Germany and Baden, even after the
campaign of 1866, were a difficult field for Treitsch-
ke. Soon after the war he wrote to Gutschmid
he did not relish returning to Baden as conditions
there were "too awful. " Even now this com-
municative comrade, who quite impartially con-
sidered 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 instinct, in favour of unworthy
trifles. Politics were for him a part of ethics and
the unity of Germany a moral claim. Particular-
ists 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 mediatization
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 Leip-
zig 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
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? His Life and Work 47
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 inter-
nally, is our ideal, to which Treitschke likewise
became reconciled after hearing that the Army and
external politics would not be affected by internal
polyarchy. Bismarck's 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," contain more political wisdom
than Treitschke f s gay prescription : Der Bien muss.
Compared with the errors of our ingenious friend,
Bismarck's "political eye" and his infallible judg-
ment 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.
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? 48 Treitschke
In 1867 Baden was for him merely das Landle (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 aggrandizement. "What people thought of
1866" so he relates in his essay on the Constitu-
tional Kingdom "becomes apparent from the
painful exclamation 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 en-
larged our territory. " 1 But as formerly in Frei-
burg, so here, he misunderstood the population.
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 under-
stood 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
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? His Life and Work 49
amusement; Heidelberg had the advantage of two
political journals: the Heidelberg Journal and the
Heidelberg Zeitung, 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 fighting like cats? Who does
not know these journals of 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 adopt-
ed 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 situa-
tion, and he added: "If Bavaria, Wurtemberg,
and Baden should go with Austria, even the
European situation will assume a different physiog-
nomy. " All the same, he was at that time too
closely in touch with Bismarck to advocate too
strongly the Mathy plan in the A nnuals. Treitsch-
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? 50 Treitschke
ke stigmatized as obtrusive the Lasker Parlia-
mentary 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 4, 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 sweet-
ness of character 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 Constitutional Festival has vividly re-
minded me of our never-to-be-forgotten Mathy.
How the world has changed in twenty-five years
since Mathy organized the last Badenese Con-
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? His Life and Work 51
stitutional Festival ! Thank goodness, the belief
in this particularist magnificence has to-day com-
pletely disappeared. The festival was an osten-
sible failure, a forced and feigned demonstration.
The Ultramontanes kept aloof because they hated
Jolly and Beyer, and the Nationalists who partici-
pated 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 Minis-
try, attempted to overthrow the Ministry favour-
ably disposed towards Prussia by convoking the
Liberal deputies at Offenburg. In the Prussian
Annuals he now called upon his North German
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
"Zuriputsch" 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 Concordat,
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
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? 52 Treitschke
was to leave the Paragon State in its present form
until Prussia would absorb the whole. The at-
tempt to overthrow the Ministry failed as the
Regent had been left out of account. In Heidel-
berg, 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, how-
ever, immediately declared he could not be forced to
maintain silence. At least a thousand men con-
gregated 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 plat-
form. A contributor of the Taglische Rundschau
gave the following account: "The meeting had
lasted for a considerable time, and the audience,
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? His Life and Work 53
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 peas-
ants amongst whom I stood looked at each other
astonished and indignant. Who was this appar-
ently 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
compelling logic proofs adduced, the clearness and
force of language, and above all the fire of patriot-
ism, all this captivated the listeners and carried
them irresistibly away. The outward deficiencies
of the lecturer were now unobserved; attentively
with breathless excitement, these simple people
listened to the orator, who spoke with the force of
the holiest conviction; and when finishing with
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 wit-
nessed a similar triumph of eloquence. "
He had appealed particularly to the peasants
present by his outspoken and simple words.
Schenkel likewise was disarmed. Heidelberg
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? 54 Treitschke
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 exaspera-
tion against Bluntschli he wrote to Prey tag:
"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 be-
neath. 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 intention was to publish them before
Christmas, but Treitschke delayed matters. "I
hate everything suggestive 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 dis-
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? His Life and Work 55
grace on account of a biting article in the Weser
Zeitung 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 Repub-
lic of the Netherlands full of sparkling descrip-
tions 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 book-
let for the land of the frogs and the ducats. Par-
ticularly 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 de-
feats, made him believe in -the return of the Bona-
partes. His essay On the Constitutional 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
of the South German Press; on the South Ger-
man's respectful awe of the deeds of Napoleon, the
national arch-enemy; and on the bustling vanity
of Church authorities, 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 per-
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? 56 Treitschke
sistent 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 materialize. By
Napoleon's declaration of war "this sturdy cen-
tury" 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 declaration of war
he solemnly said: "I think of the humiliation 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 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
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? His Life and Work 57
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 ac-
clamations prevented him for some time from
making himself heard. His speech expressed joy
at the events happening in our lifetime, and ex-
hortations to prove as worthy as the fighters of
1813. Ideas and colour of speech were as count-
less 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,
1 Win at any price ! ' ' 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, all with a
smile of flattered vanity on their lips, but never
had homage assumed such proportions. Treitsch-
ke's face showed outspoken joy at these warm-
hearted young people, who surely would not fail
to give a good account of themselves, and it was
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? 58 Treitschke
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
those days in Germany it seemed as if humanity
had improved. " The song on the Prussian eagle,
which from Hohenzollern flew towards the north
and now returns southwards 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 meeting 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 un-
bearable. " He was visibly ill with excitement.
When the days of Worth and Spichern had happily
passed, we met at the Museum to study the tele-
grams 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 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
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? His Life and Work 59
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 Ger-
many did not make them French. "The mind of
a nation is not formed by contemporary genera-
tions only, but by those following. " Erwin von
Steinbach 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 realization of Unitarian ideas a Prussian, as he
now always called himself, could desire to see a
frontier of Prussia extending from Aachen to Mul-
house. 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 Belgium 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 "disgusting aspect of the nation Luxemburg-
oise, " although in the Annuals he ostensibly spared
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? 60 Treitschke
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 com-
mon-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. With malicious joy
he reported that the former Pan-Austrian fogy,
when examining students for the degree of Doctor
of Law, now always questioned on Bavarian re-
served rights. The whole arrangement with
Bavaria and Wurtemberg appeared to him "like
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? His Life and Work 61
a Life Insurance Policy of the Napoleonic crowns
with his magnanimous Prussia, which compelled
him to adjourn his Unitarian plans ad Grcecas
calendas. "
It is also peculiar to what a small extent he
shared in the triumphant tone displayed every-
where after the war. Sybel's essay, What We might
Learn of France, had his full approval. He was
disgusted with the way the journalists in the news-
papers, the teacher in the chair, and the clergyman
in the pulpit gave vent to their patriotic effusions.
In his letters he likewise spoke slightingly of
the modern customary orations regarding German
virtue and French vice. The more he disliked
the remnants of particularism in the new Consti-
tution, the less he was disposed to admire the
Germans, who, in his opinion, had forfeited the
greatest reward of great times by their own in-
dividualism. This it was which distinguished him
from the ordinary Chauvinist, and only too well he
realized in how many things the nation, in spite of
all successes, had remained behind his ideals.
Nobody, however, has given more beautiful
expression to the deep and serious thoughts with
which we celebrated peace in 1871. Like a prayer-
book we read the essay in the Annuals, in which he
opened his heart. He himself had lost his only
brother at Gravelotte, my wife hers at La Chart re.
The Prussian nobility was in mourning; he, how-
ever, consoled us: "May common grief still more
than great successes unite our people formerly at
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? 62 Treitschke
variance with each other. Rapidly die away the
shouts of victory, long remain the deep lines of
grief. Who will count the tears which have been
shed around the Christmas-tree? Who has seen
the hundred thousand grieved hearts from the
Alps to the sea, who, like a big, devout community,
have pinned their faith again to the splendour of
the Fatherland? " Actuated by the same senti-
ments, I had preached, shortly before, in the
Church of the Holy Spirit, on "Blessed are ye who
have suffered, " and therefore could doubly appre-
ciate his efforts to touch the people's innermost
feelings. His words have never been forgotten.
V.
The few years which Treitschke spent in Heidel-
berg after the war were, as he himself admitted,
the happiest of his life. His tiny house, overlook-
ing the Neckar and Rhine Valley, was for him a
constant source of joy, and proudly he would take
his visitors to the top of the vineyard, from which
the Speyer Dom and Donner Mountain, near
Worms, were visible. Immediately adjacent to
his property excavations had been made in times
gone by, and even now bricks and fragments of
pottery, bearing the stamp of the Roman Legation
were to be found. Thus he had historical ground
even under his feet.