The greatness of
Christian
faith
lies in its inconceivable and manifold plasticity;
after thousands of years it will, in eternally new,
yet ever identical, forms, elevate humanity when
not even scientists will have anything to say of
Liberalism.
lies in its inconceivable and manifold plasticity;
after thousands of years it will, in eternally new,
yet ever identical, forms, elevate humanity when
not even scientists will have anything to say of
Liberalism.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
All the more ap-
proved was his speech of November 2, 1871, in
which he demanded the intervention of the Empire
to procure for Mecklenburg the privileges of the
Estates of the Realm. A great impression was
produced when he pointed out that, of half a
million inhabitants, no less than 60,000 people had
emigrated within the last fifteen years from this
little country richly blessed by nature. In his
indignation he ever adopted a tone which, hitherto,
one was wont to hear only at democratic meetings.
He pointed out that conditions in Mecklenburg
had become the butt of humour. " It is dangerous
when the patient German people begin to sneer.
That scornful laughter over the old German Diet
and the King of the Guelfs carried on for many
years has led to very serious consequences; it has
brought about the well-known end of all things.
The star of unity is in the ascendant. Woe betide
the State which wilfully secludes itself from this
mighty and irresistible impulse ; sooner or later the
catastrophe will overtake it. " In the same way as
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? 76 Treitschke
these threatening words had created a great im-
pression in Parliament, so they found an enthusi-
astic echo in our circle; and equally great was his
success when he supported the supplementing of
the Penal Code by the so-called Pulpit Paragraph,
by which he again told the bitter truth to the
Ultramontanes. For the last time before proroga-
tion of Parliament he spoke on November 29, 1871,
when the progressive party renewed the old
controversy on parliamentary co-operation regard-
ing Army Estimates. Treitschke was strongly in
favour of the War Minister's views; he availed
himself, however, of this occasion to attack
strongly von Muhler, the Minister of Public In-
struction, and when called to order by the Con-
servatives he replied: "See that a capable man is
appointed at the head of the Ministry of Public
Instruction who bestows only the tenth part of
that energy which the Minister for War is in the
habit of bestowing upon his department; you will
then have practical experience that one thing can
be done, and that another cannot be left undone. "
On the whole, the Baden Deputies returned from
Berlin in a very dejected mood. Of Bluntschli,
the Berlin newspapers had written that his delivery
gave the impression he was dictating his speeches.
He had remained obscure that he knew; but
consoled himself with the thought that it took
time to find the tone for such a big assembly. Of
Roggenbach, who, with all his brilliant conver-
sational gifts, completely lacked oratorical powers,
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? His Life and Work 77
a gay Palatine country judge, who was also a
member of the Reichstag, said: "If this is your
most brilliant statesman I should like to come
across your most stupid one. " In the same way
the others returned like a beaten army, for not the
remotest comparison existed between the part
played by them in Berlin and the one played by
them in Karlsruhe at the Municipal Hall. Only
one appeared with laurels, and this one was
Treitschke, who had saved our reputation. He
was also welcomed home as heartily as possible;
although Baumgarten said at the time, in a morose
tone, that Treitschke never considered a law pro-
posal favourably unless he had delivered a speech
on it. The Ul tramontanes, however, considered
the game unevenly matched. While he over-
whelmed them with the strongest expressions, they
could not hit back because he did not hear them.
In an identical fashion the second session, 1873-
1874, passed, which Treitschke still attended from
Heidelberg, and the "round table" applauded his
brilliant passages of arms. Many of his winged
words have survived to the present day, as, for
instance, his explanation of the request of German
issuing banks for paper (money) "based on a
deeply founded desire in human nature"; or
"making debts without getting interest on them";
or his sneering remarks about the predilection of
South Germans for Bavarian military helmets and
dirty florin notes. His patriotism again rose to its
full height when discussions on the septennate took
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? 78 Treitschke
place, when the same party, whose chaplains in
the Black Forest had falsely told the constituents
that "septennate" meant serving for seven
successive years, complained in Parliament that
they were called the enemies of the Empire, he
referred to their behaviour, and for simplicity's
sake began with the Pope.
"Who was it who expressed the devout Chris-
tian wish that a little stone might fall from heaven
to shatter the feet of the German Colossus? Those
who consider the author of this ingenious pro-
nouncement infallible would only have confessed
publicly to this wish after Germany had lost a
battle, and which God forbid. Meanwhile, Prussia
was the little stone which had opened the doors
of the Eternal City to united and free Italy, and at
the same time had annihilated the most sinful
Small State of that part of the globe. In similar
strain he spoke on December 17, 1874, to Deputy
Winterer, who demanded the abolition of the
School Law granted the preceding year to Alsace
Lothing. In opposition to Winterer's hymns on
the achievements of the school brethren he read
extracts from their rules which prescribed in which
case the brother has to rise before the superior,
in which case to kneel down, and in which case he
only had to kiss the floor. " Gentlemen, " he asked
the Ultramontanes, "I am indeed curious to know
whether there is anything worse than the naked
floor the devout school brother is to kiss. " When
the gentlemen of the clerical party expressed the
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? His Life and Work 79
wish to save the ecclesiastical and French spirit
of their public schools he replied in unmistakable
fashion: "We have the intention to Germanize
this newly acquired German province ; we have the
intention and will carry it out. " Strong applause,
and hissing in the centre, was the usual result of his
speeches during this session. The return took
place under conditions similar to those of last year,
only the depression at the modest part played by
the Baden Deputies in their Reichstag was still
greater, and Jolly, at any rate, did not refrain
from remarking that the quarrelsome disposition
of the Liberal leaders, which immediately made
itself felt at the opening debate of the Baden
Chamber in November, 1873, arose from the desire
of the gentlemen to gain in the Karlsruhe Rondel
Hall the laurels which had been denied to them in
the Reichstag. But Treitschke's appreciation of
the Reichstag likewise waned from session to
session. Already, in 1879, he wrote the following
words in the Reichstag album: "Let us not be
deceived, gentlemen; the pleasure our population
experienced by participating in parliamentary life
has considerably decreased in comparison with the
days when the mere existence of Parliament was
held to be the beginning of the era of liberty. But
how should it be otherwise? I believe we are
blessed with 4000 deputies in the German Empire.
It would be against the nature of things if such an
excessive number did not, in the end, become
boring and tedious to the population. " When his
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? 8o Treitschke
calculation was contested, he wrote a few years
later: "Quousque tandem is on everybody's lips
when in good Society mention is made of those
parliamentary speech floods which now, for months
past, have rushed forth again in Berlin, Munich,
and Karlsruhe, as if from wide opened sluices;
3000 Members of Parliament, that is to say, one
representative of the people for every 3000 citizens.
Too much of a good thing even for German
patience. More and more frequently the question
is raised whether by such sinful waste of money
and time anything else can be effected beyond a
noise as useless as the clattering of a wheel whose
axle is broken. "
On July n, 1879, he announced his retirement
from the National Liberal faction on the rejection
of the well-known Frankenstein Clause, which
allotted part of the customs receipts to the Small
States. One would have supposed that he, a
staunch Unitarian, would be antagonistic to this
proposal, and in his innermost heart he really was;
but, owing to Bismarck's declaration that finance
reform was urgent, and that the consent of the
centre was unobtainable by any other means, he
voted for the Government. The consequences
apprehended by him, as the result of the attitude
of his friends, fully materialized. They consisted
in Bismarck's rupture with the National Liberals,
the resignation of ministers Hobrecht, Falck,
and Friedenthal the reconciliation of Bismarck
with the Roman Curia, and the passage of the
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? His Life and Work 81
customs reform with a Conservative clerical
majority, which to the present day prevails in the
Reichstag. All this Bismarck sacrificed for the
benefit of a highly contest able finance reform.
Treitschke attributed the responsibility for it to
the Reichstag, and in 1883 he wrote: " Of all the
institutions of our young Empire, none has stood
the test as badly as the Reichstag. " He was sick
of Parliament, and characterized the headache and
feeling of tiredness with which he usually returned
from sittings as "parliamentary seediness. " His
participation in debates slackened, and after 1888
he refrained from seeking re-election, an additional
reason being the lines taken by Government, and
legislation which he could not follow without
coming too much into conflict with his old ideas.
Neither did he harmonize with public opinion in
regard to external politics. He had no faith in the
durability of the French Republic, but believed
in the return of Bonapartism. At the death of
Napoleon III, on January 9, 1873, consequent
upon an operation for stone, he remarked: "Right
to the last this man has remained unassthetic. "
I thought the game between Chambord and the
Orleans would now be continued, but he pooh-
poohed the idea, and adhered to his belief that the
Bonapartists alone are the people destined to
reign over that nation. With feelings of bitterness
he watched the great number of Germans who, in
spite of experiences in the past, returned to France
to again take up positions, and even obtain their
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? 82 Treitschke
naturalization. He considered this a lack of sense
of honour which he could not understand. The
Pole who on all battlefields fought against Russia
was to his mind more respectable, in spite of his
vodka smell.
VI.
From 1871 to 1874 tne Reichstag was by no
means the only arena in which the warrior, pre-
pared at all times, practised his strength, and his
academic opponents occasionally reproached him
with dragging the bad tone of the Reichstag into
the University debates. As a matter of fact, in
those days there was little difference, thanks to the
urbanity of Richter and Liebnecht. Peculiarly
enough, the chief interest of Academicians since
March, 1871 during the time, therefore, when the
most important questions agitated the German
Fatherland hinged upon a quarrel which must be
styled almost childish. Knies and Schenkel were
at daggers drawn, because the former, as Pro-
Rector, occupied the chair in the Economic Com-
mission conducted by Schenkel. The University
statutes clearly conceded this right to the Pro-
Rector, but Schenkel declared that Knies, in that
case, might also undertake the agenda of the
Commission. The reason for Treitschke's pas-
sionate participation in this question was partly
aversion for Schenkel, and partly gratitude for
Knies, who, in Freiburg, as well as in Heidelberg,
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? His Life and Work 83
had urged his appointment. Besides, he highly
appreciated Knies as a scientist, and managed to
intersperse his Reichstag speeches with exhaustive
extracts from Knies's latest book, Money. In the
terms of the statute Knies was absolutely in his
right. When the quarrel came to no end, Jolly
suspended the Commission and entrusted the
Senate with its duties, but the Senate protested.
As negotiations assumed a very unparliamentary
character, the philologist Kochly declared it
beneath his dignity to participate further in the
meetings. A motion was now brought in com-
pelling every "Ordinarius" to take part in the
meetings, and in this way the stupid discussion
continued. The principal seat of terror was the
Philosophic Faculty, and by his drastic speeches
Treitschke more than once drove the Dean to
despair. "He is a firebrand," said Ribbeck. "I
am always trembling when he asks to speak. "
It was, of course, picturesque when the tall, hand-
some man with thundering voice shouted at the
tiny, bespectacled gentlemen in the Senate, "Who-
ever is of a different opinion will have me to deal
with. " But as he had no conception as to how
loudly he spoke, even when intending to whisper a
confidential information into his neighbour's ear,
he often placed his friends in a most awkward
position. One of his confidential cannon-shots
particularly caused lasting damage. When the
natural history scientists, on a certain occasion,
interfered, he shouted to his neighbour, meaning
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? 84 Treitschke
of course to whisper, "What has this to do with
these chemists and dung-drivers? " and the fat
was naturally in the fire. Nobody was more
annoyed at these sallies than his own party, and,
after a similar occurrence, Knies, taking advantage
of his deafness, called after him, " Good-night, old
baby! " He, however, gaily departed, totally
unaware of the feelings which he had aroused even
amongst his friends. It was impossible to exercise
a restraining influence over him. With his tem-
perament, he could not understand why he should
say something different from what he thought. A
friend who, in his opinion, although right, was
unjustly ill-treated and ill-used, would be helped
out by him, whatever the cost.
When, however, in an article in the Prussian
Annuals, he declared that Court Theatres and
University Senates would remain for ever the
classic field for jealous intrigues and childish
quarrels, the contest reverberated in the Chambers
and the Press. The so-called majority broke off
all relations with him, and, in consequence, we
became more intimate than ever. "The outlaws"
was the name he preferably applied to us, and the
round table at Konig's Weinbeer, in Leipzig, was
christened by him as "The Conspirators. " In
reply to my remark that we cared by no means to
be considered outlaws, he said: "I have my
students. " Anyhow, the close relations thus
established among a number of influential col-
leagues was also a gain. We met every evening,
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? His Life and Work 85
one hour after his lectures, at the Museum, where
we drank cheap beer. "It merely costs a little
effort, " he said. The circle consisted of historian
Weber, the three theologians, Gass, Holtzmann,
and myself; further, the botanist, Hofmeister,
with whom Treitschke was on friendly terms while
in Leipzig; Herrmann, the teacher of Canon Law,
where Treitschke was received when still a student
in Gottingen, and who, for his benefit, had learned
the deaf-and-dumb language; and Knies, who, after
occupying the position of Director of the High
School Board and University Inspector, was
degraded to that of Professor at Heidelberg, so that
Hitzig greeted him with the following toast:
"Behold Adam, who now has become one of us! "
The spokesmen were Knies and Bluntschli, who
both defended their one political point of view,
Treitschke keeping as much as possible apart from
the latter. His opinion of Bluntschli, as now con-
firmed in print through his letters to Freytag, was
unjust. Bluntschli's intentions were for the com-
mon weal, but in his opinion it could best be done
through him. The Otez vous gue je mif mette (real
Swiss-German) applied to him in his Faculty as
well as in the Chamber. In vain I tried to prove
to Treitschke that Bluntschli's propensity to
mediation proposals, and his desire to vote always
with the majority, were founded on his peaceable
disposition and his benevolent concern for the
public good. When, however, on a certain occa-
sion, prior to leaving for Edingen by rail, I spoke
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? 86 Treitschke
to him in this strain, he raved to such an extent
that the attention of the people in the waiting-
room was aroused, and I preferred to discontinue
the argument. On such occasions, the misfortune
of his deafness became very marked, for how was
it possible to make complicated circumstances
clear to him by lip-movements and scribbling on
block slips? For good reasons he disliked letters
by post. Although he belonged at that time,
academically, to the Bluntschli party, he attacked,
in his essay of 1871, on Parties and Factions, the
Bluntschli-Rohmer State Law, establishing a
parallel between the State functions and the human
organism. "State science demands thought, not
comparisons," he wrote. "What is the use of
speaking figuratively, which is just as arbitrary
as the old bad habit so favoured by natural philo-
sophers of comparing the State with the human
body? Argument ceases with such fantastic
parables. Analogies are easily found, and with
beautiful words one might describe the King as
the head or the heart, or also as the index, of a
State. " This was not polite language, and must
have annoyed Bluntschli, all the more as Treitsch-
ke, in the language of Goethe, "only tugged at
the discarded serpent's skin," Bluntschli himself
having left that part of the Rohmer philosophy
behind him; and that is why, as far as I know,
he never replied to the attack. Treitschke also
reproached Bluntschli with attempting to count
Luther amongst the Liberals: "He, whose emi-
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? His Life and Work 87
nent mind admirably combines the traits of the
revolutionary stormer of heaven with those of the
devout monk, he who was anything but a Liberal !
Or will our opponents think more of us if we are so
bold as to declare that the true spirit of Chris-
tianity is liberal ?
The greatness of Christian faith
lies in its inconceivable and manifold plasticity;
after thousands of years it will, in eternally new,
yet ever identical, forms, elevate humanity when
not even scientists will have anything to say of
Liberalism. " Although sitting at the same round
table there was, speaking philosophically, a cen-
tury between Bluntschli and Treitschke. Treitsch-
ke was a true representative of the historical
school, and not Dahlmann; but Ranke was his
real master. Bluntschli liked to refer to Savigny;
but, in reality, his views of the world, in spite of
Rohmer's symbolism, were culled from the age of
enlightenment .
When, in 1873, Wehrenpfennig remodelled the
Spenersche Zeitung into the semi-official Preussische
Zeitung, Treitschke was offered the salary of ten
thousand thalers for undertaking the editorship of
the journal. This salary was unheard of at that
time. Some friends of his advised him to accept,
saying that his deafness would, in years to come,
impair his functions as teacher, but he told me : "I
am not a journalist; I like to see things developed
so that I can form an opinion. To write a leading
article on the latest telegram, on the spur of the
moment, and to have to contradict it eight days
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? 88 Treitschke
later, I leave to other people. " Wehrenpfennig
tried to make the proposal more acceptable by
informing him that the minister would appoint
him as professor at a fixed salary, consequently
there would be no need to sacrifice his function as
teacher, whilst others would look after the ordin-
ary journalistic work ; only the handling of political
matters and the daily leading article would be his
department. A big salary as professor, and a big
income as editor, would have tempted a good
many; there even were people who declared that it
was Treitschke's duty, impecunious as he was, to
provide thus for his family; but he maintained
that it was contrary to his honour to change his
profession for monetary gain, and we were, natur-
ally, glad that he remained in our midst.
In spite of his refusal to take part in journalism
he played a prominent part in contemporary
politics, and the journals repaid him with interest
for his bold observations in the Prussian Annuals.
Ludwig Ekkard, an Austrian, resident since 1866
at Mannheim, and editor there of a weekly publica-
tion a man of whom the Karlsruhe people
whispered he had, in 1848, in Vienna, hung Latour,
the Minister of War wrote a leading article on
"Treitschke von Cassagnac. " After he had
fallen out with the Jews, a Berlin paper reported
that Treitschke was the descendant of a certain
Isaac Treitschel, who, at the beginning of the
century, had come as a youth from Bohemia to
Saxony selling trousers. A social democratic
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? His Life and Work 89
journal thought Herr von Treitschke was a living
proof of the injustice of present-day Society in-
stitutions, as he was only appointed professor
because his father had been a general. "If we
lived in a State which practises justice, such a
weak-headed creature would never have been
allowed to be a student. " Similar flattering
expressions were showered upon him by the Ultra-
montane journals, which, on account of his mono-
mania, would have liked to have him bundled off
to a lunatic asylum. When shown such a master-
piece, he laughed heartily saying: "One has to put
up with that sort of thing when one is in the public
eye. " He was only angered at the small-minded-
ness of some of his colleagues, who threw stones
at him behind his back merely because he had
stolen a march on them.
It is notorious that Treitschke, after lacking
sympathy with Badenese Liberalism, became its
supporter whilst in Heidelberg; but in Berlin he
again reverted to feelings of contempt for it.
During the years 1867 to 1874, which he spent
amongst us, I could not discern an appreciable
difference in his views. As his parliamentary
speeches and essays in the Annuals amply testify,
he greeted with joy Bismarck's first steps towards
the re-establishment of the Authority of the State
versus the Catholic Church; the abolition of the
Catholic department in the Ministry of Public
Instruction; the penal code against abuse of the
pulpit, and Bismarck's refusal to give way to the
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? 90 Treitschke
new-founded centre. We also thoroughly agreed in
regard to the Muhler administration of ecclesi-
astical affairs. He wrote: "The Universities in
Prussia are going backwards, since fashionable
orthodoxy, with its mistrust, is supreme at Court
against liberty of thought. Here, if anywhere, our
State is in need of a radical reform, i. e. , the con-
version of the conversion of science. " In the last
essay written in Heidelberg he said: "Since the
unhappy days of Friederick Wilhelm IV the school
system in Prussia has been fundamentally mis-
cultivated by a spirit of confessional narrow-
mindedness which exasperates the most patient. "
Consequently nothing astonished us more than
the attitude which he adopted subsequently in
Berlin, towards Stocker and his town mission, even
going so far as to lament Stocker's dismissal from
his position as preacher at the Royal Chapel.
Those who contend that the misunderstanding had
been on our side, are invited to read Treitschke's
publications up to the last week of his stay at
Heidelberg. The views with which he came to us,
and which he defended in Heidelberg in the circle
of friends as well as in the chair, find expression in
the beautiful essay on Liberty, the opening sentence
of which runs as follows : "Everything new created
by the nineteenth century is the work of liberalism.
Particularly in the clerical sphere, this is destined
to continue its labours in order to create at last
true conditions. Does it redound to the honour of
the land of Lessing, " he asks, "that there is no
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? His Life and Work 91
German University which possesses sufficient
courage to admit a David Strauss to its halls?
Those who have any conception of the enormous
extent to which faith in the dogmas of Christian
revelations has disappeared among the younger
generation, must observe with great anxiety how
thoughtlessly, how lazily, nay, how lyingly,
thousands do homage to a lip service which has
become strange to their heart. The lack of vera-
city in the field of religion grows in an alarming
fashion. The philosophers of the eighteenth
century thought that real virtue does not exist
without belief in God and immortality. The
present generation contests this, and declares
point-blank, 'Morality is independent of dogma. * "
He recognizes the immortality in the never-ending
effect of our good as well as of our bad deeds.
"For weak or low characters, the belief in an after
life can equally be a source of immortality, like the
denial of same, for in their anxiety for the hereafter
they often neglect their duties on earth. The
Church has taken no interest whatever in the
great work of the last centuries, and in the deliver-
ance of humanity from one thousand terrors of
unchristian arbitrariness. The defenders of the
Church claim the prerogative to spoil even the
best measure by the incomparable meanness of
their methods. And, according to human estimate,
this symptom will continue. More and more the
moral value of Christianity will be investigated
and developed by laymen, and more and more it
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? 92 Treitschke
will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual demands of matured people. "
That this last sentence coincides with the specula-
tions of Richard Rothe, the aesthetic scientist, and
the teaching of the Tubingen School is apparent
from a letter to his Catholic fiancee, written in
1866, in which he says, "Christianity loses nothing
of its greatness if the stupid priest tales of Pagan-
ism are dropped. "
"The New Testament embodies more ideas of
Plato than our clergy is ready to admit. " Under
these circumstances we could count him merely
from a theological point of view amongst the
Liberals, and only in the attitude adopted by
Treitschke towards the contested reforms of
Evangelical and Catholic Church matters we
regained our own convictions. He likewise greeted
Miihler's fall in February, 1872, with joy, al-
though he disapproved of the American Press
tactics, now gaining more and more the upper
hand in the German Press, which heaped with
opprobrium the fallen opponent "he hardly
deserved the title of lion. " Treitschke likewise
demanded the abolition of the Stiehl regulations,
as they acted as a deterrent to many an intelligent
person embracing the career of teacher. Where
Herr von Muhler had ordered that certain colleges
should assume a strictly evangelical character, he
urged Falk to appoint Catholic or Jewish teachers
for those schools, in order to put an end to the
fictitious story that Prussia possessed colleges for
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? His Life and Work 93
specific confessions. During his last term at
Heidelberg he, in a short and decisive fashion, on
December 10, 1873, still approved of the Falk
legislation enacted in May, respecting the re-
strictions of the Catholic Church. " Not a word is
to be found in these laws which is not beneficial
to the Church. " He declares it the most un-
pardonable error of the Conservative party in
Prussia to have entered into an alliance with the
Ultramontanes. The suppression of the Jesuit
Order, which he formerly opposed, now had his
approval. The struggle for civilization was like-
wise, for him, a struggle of liberty against fanati-
cism, and he was convinced that a firm attitude
maintained by the State would lead to victory.
"For two years the Ultramontanes have wasted
their powder; they have so often conjured up the
names of Nero and Diocletianus that one fails to
see what can still be done after this fanatical clam-
our, beyond a street battle, and this they cannot
risk. " Treitschke's practical demands were like-
wise those of the Liberals. "A law for compulsory
civil marriage has become a necessity; after years
of deliberation, it must at last be evident that
facultative civil marriage is based on a miscon-
ception, and does not mitigate, but rather accen-
tuates, the conflict between State and Church.
Furthermore, a special law will have to be enacted
by the State enabling the communities themselves
to look after the Church Funds, should no legally
recognized parson be available ; the State will have
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? 94 Treitschke
to concede to Old Catholics the right to reclaim
their share of the Church property when quitting
the church. After all that has happened, there is
no need to shun the reproach of animosity; we
require a law empowering the arrest of persistently
refractory priests. It will not do to leave religious
orders in their present condition, so uncertain from
a legal point of view, and to allow processions and
pilgrimages to be exposed to molestation and insult
on the part of citizens of different creeds. The
May laws are only the beginning of an energetic
Church policy. " The Baden Liberalism has
never transgressed these demands, and it may
safely be said that Treitschke, while in Heidelberg,
shared in this respect fully the views of his Liberal
friends.
Slowly the change came about while living in
Berlin. Owing to his affliction, social intercourse
was restricted to a few people, and amongst those
it was the new President of the Supreme Ecclesi-
astic Council, Herrmann by name, with whom he
formed a close friendship Herrmann having been
able, better than anybody, to make himself under-
stood by deaf-and-dumb language, and also corre-
sponding with Treitschke. In Heidelberg, before,
Herrmann had raised all sorts of objections to the
Falk Laws, and heated discussions took place
between him and the Minister of Ecclesiastical
Affairs on the endowment of evangelical clergymen,
the abolition of incidental fees, and similar ques-
tions. His opinions on the Falk Church Laws were
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? 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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proved was his speech of November 2, 1871, in
which he demanded the intervention of the Empire
to procure for Mecklenburg the privileges of the
Estates of the Realm. A great impression was
produced when he pointed out that, of half a
million inhabitants, no less than 60,000 people had
emigrated within the last fifteen years from this
little country richly blessed by nature. In his
indignation he ever adopted a tone which, hitherto,
one was wont to hear only at democratic meetings.
He pointed out that conditions in Mecklenburg
had become the butt of humour. " It is dangerous
when the patient German people begin to sneer.
That scornful laughter over the old German Diet
and the King of the Guelfs carried on for many
years has led to very serious consequences; it has
brought about the well-known end of all things.
The star of unity is in the ascendant. Woe betide
the State which wilfully secludes itself from this
mighty and irresistible impulse ; sooner or later the
catastrophe will overtake it. " In the same way as
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? 76 Treitschke
these threatening words had created a great im-
pression in Parliament, so they found an enthusi-
astic echo in our circle; and equally great was his
success when he supported the supplementing of
the Penal Code by the so-called Pulpit Paragraph,
by which he again told the bitter truth to the
Ultramontanes. For the last time before proroga-
tion of Parliament he spoke on November 29, 1871,
when the progressive party renewed the old
controversy on parliamentary co-operation regard-
ing Army Estimates. Treitschke was strongly in
favour of the War Minister's views; he availed
himself, however, of this occasion to attack
strongly von Muhler, the Minister of Public In-
struction, and when called to order by the Con-
servatives he replied: "See that a capable man is
appointed at the head of the Ministry of Public
Instruction who bestows only the tenth part of
that energy which the Minister for War is in the
habit of bestowing upon his department; you will
then have practical experience that one thing can
be done, and that another cannot be left undone. "
On the whole, the Baden Deputies returned from
Berlin in a very dejected mood. Of Bluntschli,
the Berlin newspapers had written that his delivery
gave the impression he was dictating his speeches.
He had remained obscure that he knew; but
consoled himself with the thought that it took
time to find the tone for such a big assembly. Of
Roggenbach, who, with all his brilliant conver-
sational gifts, completely lacked oratorical powers,
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? His Life and Work 77
a gay Palatine country judge, who was also a
member of the Reichstag, said: "If this is your
most brilliant statesman I should like to come
across your most stupid one. " In the same way
the others returned like a beaten army, for not the
remotest comparison existed between the part
played by them in Berlin and the one played by
them in Karlsruhe at the Municipal Hall. Only
one appeared with laurels, and this one was
Treitschke, who had saved our reputation. He
was also welcomed home as heartily as possible;
although Baumgarten said at the time, in a morose
tone, that Treitschke never considered a law pro-
posal favourably unless he had delivered a speech
on it. The Ul tramontanes, however, considered
the game unevenly matched. While he over-
whelmed them with the strongest expressions, they
could not hit back because he did not hear them.
In an identical fashion the second session, 1873-
1874, passed, which Treitschke still attended from
Heidelberg, and the "round table" applauded his
brilliant passages of arms. Many of his winged
words have survived to the present day, as, for
instance, his explanation of the request of German
issuing banks for paper (money) "based on a
deeply founded desire in human nature"; or
"making debts without getting interest on them";
or his sneering remarks about the predilection of
South Germans for Bavarian military helmets and
dirty florin notes. His patriotism again rose to its
full height when discussions on the septennate took
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? 78 Treitschke
place, when the same party, whose chaplains in
the Black Forest had falsely told the constituents
that "septennate" meant serving for seven
successive years, complained in Parliament that
they were called the enemies of the Empire, he
referred to their behaviour, and for simplicity's
sake began with the Pope.
"Who was it who expressed the devout Chris-
tian wish that a little stone might fall from heaven
to shatter the feet of the German Colossus? Those
who consider the author of this ingenious pro-
nouncement infallible would only have confessed
publicly to this wish after Germany had lost a
battle, and which God forbid. Meanwhile, Prussia
was the little stone which had opened the doors
of the Eternal City to united and free Italy, and at
the same time had annihilated the most sinful
Small State of that part of the globe. In similar
strain he spoke on December 17, 1874, to Deputy
Winterer, who demanded the abolition of the
School Law granted the preceding year to Alsace
Lothing. In opposition to Winterer's hymns on
the achievements of the school brethren he read
extracts from their rules which prescribed in which
case the brother has to rise before the superior,
in which case to kneel down, and in which case he
only had to kiss the floor. " Gentlemen, " he asked
the Ultramontanes, "I am indeed curious to know
whether there is anything worse than the naked
floor the devout school brother is to kiss. " When
the gentlemen of the clerical party expressed the
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? His Life and Work 79
wish to save the ecclesiastical and French spirit
of their public schools he replied in unmistakable
fashion: "We have the intention to Germanize
this newly acquired German province ; we have the
intention and will carry it out. " Strong applause,
and hissing in the centre, was the usual result of his
speeches during this session. The return took
place under conditions similar to those of last year,
only the depression at the modest part played by
the Baden Deputies in their Reichstag was still
greater, and Jolly, at any rate, did not refrain
from remarking that the quarrelsome disposition
of the Liberal leaders, which immediately made
itself felt at the opening debate of the Baden
Chamber in November, 1873, arose from the desire
of the gentlemen to gain in the Karlsruhe Rondel
Hall the laurels which had been denied to them in
the Reichstag. But Treitschke's appreciation of
the Reichstag likewise waned from session to
session. Already, in 1879, he wrote the following
words in the Reichstag album: "Let us not be
deceived, gentlemen; the pleasure our population
experienced by participating in parliamentary life
has considerably decreased in comparison with the
days when the mere existence of Parliament was
held to be the beginning of the era of liberty. But
how should it be otherwise? I believe we are
blessed with 4000 deputies in the German Empire.
It would be against the nature of things if such an
excessive number did not, in the end, become
boring and tedious to the population. " When his
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? 8o Treitschke
calculation was contested, he wrote a few years
later: "Quousque tandem is on everybody's lips
when in good Society mention is made of those
parliamentary speech floods which now, for months
past, have rushed forth again in Berlin, Munich,
and Karlsruhe, as if from wide opened sluices;
3000 Members of Parliament, that is to say, one
representative of the people for every 3000 citizens.
Too much of a good thing even for German
patience. More and more frequently the question
is raised whether by such sinful waste of money
and time anything else can be effected beyond a
noise as useless as the clattering of a wheel whose
axle is broken. "
On July n, 1879, he announced his retirement
from the National Liberal faction on the rejection
of the well-known Frankenstein Clause, which
allotted part of the customs receipts to the Small
States. One would have supposed that he, a
staunch Unitarian, would be antagonistic to this
proposal, and in his innermost heart he really was;
but, owing to Bismarck's declaration that finance
reform was urgent, and that the consent of the
centre was unobtainable by any other means, he
voted for the Government. The consequences
apprehended by him, as the result of the attitude
of his friends, fully materialized. They consisted
in Bismarck's rupture with the National Liberals,
the resignation of ministers Hobrecht, Falck,
and Friedenthal the reconciliation of Bismarck
with the Roman Curia, and the passage of the
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? His Life and Work 81
customs reform with a Conservative clerical
majority, which to the present day prevails in the
Reichstag. All this Bismarck sacrificed for the
benefit of a highly contest able finance reform.
Treitschke attributed the responsibility for it to
the Reichstag, and in 1883 he wrote: " Of all the
institutions of our young Empire, none has stood
the test as badly as the Reichstag. " He was sick
of Parliament, and characterized the headache and
feeling of tiredness with which he usually returned
from sittings as "parliamentary seediness. " His
participation in debates slackened, and after 1888
he refrained from seeking re-election, an additional
reason being the lines taken by Government, and
legislation which he could not follow without
coming too much into conflict with his old ideas.
Neither did he harmonize with public opinion in
regard to external politics. He had no faith in the
durability of the French Republic, but believed
in the return of Bonapartism. At the death of
Napoleon III, on January 9, 1873, consequent
upon an operation for stone, he remarked: "Right
to the last this man has remained unassthetic. "
I thought the game between Chambord and the
Orleans would now be continued, but he pooh-
poohed the idea, and adhered to his belief that the
Bonapartists alone are the people destined to
reign over that nation. With feelings of bitterness
he watched the great number of Germans who, in
spite of experiences in the past, returned to France
to again take up positions, and even obtain their
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? 82 Treitschke
naturalization. He considered this a lack of sense
of honour which he could not understand. The
Pole who on all battlefields fought against Russia
was to his mind more respectable, in spite of his
vodka smell.
VI.
From 1871 to 1874 tne Reichstag was by no
means the only arena in which the warrior, pre-
pared at all times, practised his strength, and his
academic opponents occasionally reproached him
with dragging the bad tone of the Reichstag into
the University debates. As a matter of fact, in
those days there was little difference, thanks to the
urbanity of Richter and Liebnecht. Peculiarly
enough, the chief interest of Academicians since
March, 1871 during the time, therefore, when the
most important questions agitated the German
Fatherland hinged upon a quarrel which must be
styled almost childish. Knies and Schenkel were
at daggers drawn, because the former, as Pro-
Rector, occupied the chair in the Economic Com-
mission conducted by Schenkel. The University
statutes clearly conceded this right to the Pro-
Rector, but Schenkel declared that Knies, in that
case, might also undertake the agenda of the
Commission. The reason for Treitschke's pas-
sionate participation in this question was partly
aversion for Schenkel, and partly gratitude for
Knies, who, in Freiburg, as well as in Heidelberg,
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? His Life and Work 83
had urged his appointment. Besides, he highly
appreciated Knies as a scientist, and managed to
intersperse his Reichstag speeches with exhaustive
extracts from Knies's latest book, Money. In the
terms of the statute Knies was absolutely in his
right. When the quarrel came to no end, Jolly
suspended the Commission and entrusted the
Senate with its duties, but the Senate protested.
As negotiations assumed a very unparliamentary
character, the philologist Kochly declared it
beneath his dignity to participate further in the
meetings. A motion was now brought in com-
pelling every "Ordinarius" to take part in the
meetings, and in this way the stupid discussion
continued. The principal seat of terror was the
Philosophic Faculty, and by his drastic speeches
Treitschke more than once drove the Dean to
despair. "He is a firebrand," said Ribbeck. "I
am always trembling when he asks to speak. "
It was, of course, picturesque when the tall, hand-
some man with thundering voice shouted at the
tiny, bespectacled gentlemen in the Senate, "Who-
ever is of a different opinion will have me to deal
with. " But as he had no conception as to how
loudly he spoke, even when intending to whisper a
confidential information into his neighbour's ear,
he often placed his friends in a most awkward
position. One of his confidential cannon-shots
particularly caused lasting damage. When the
natural history scientists, on a certain occasion,
interfered, he shouted to his neighbour, meaning
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? 84 Treitschke
of course to whisper, "What has this to do with
these chemists and dung-drivers? " and the fat
was naturally in the fire. Nobody was more
annoyed at these sallies than his own party, and,
after a similar occurrence, Knies, taking advantage
of his deafness, called after him, " Good-night, old
baby! " He, however, gaily departed, totally
unaware of the feelings which he had aroused even
amongst his friends. It was impossible to exercise
a restraining influence over him. With his tem-
perament, he could not understand why he should
say something different from what he thought. A
friend who, in his opinion, although right, was
unjustly ill-treated and ill-used, would be helped
out by him, whatever the cost.
When, however, in an article in the Prussian
Annuals, he declared that Court Theatres and
University Senates would remain for ever the
classic field for jealous intrigues and childish
quarrels, the contest reverberated in the Chambers
and the Press. The so-called majority broke off
all relations with him, and, in consequence, we
became more intimate than ever. "The outlaws"
was the name he preferably applied to us, and the
round table at Konig's Weinbeer, in Leipzig, was
christened by him as "The Conspirators. " In
reply to my remark that we cared by no means to
be considered outlaws, he said: "I have my
students. " Anyhow, the close relations thus
established among a number of influential col-
leagues was also a gain. We met every evening,
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? His Life and Work 85
one hour after his lectures, at the Museum, where
we drank cheap beer. "It merely costs a little
effort, " he said. The circle consisted of historian
Weber, the three theologians, Gass, Holtzmann,
and myself; further, the botanist, Hofmeister,
with whom Treitschke was on friendly terms while
in Leipzig; Herrmann, the teacher of Canon Law,
where Treitschke was received when still a student
in Gottingen, and who, for his benefit, had learned
the deaf-and-dumb language; and Knies, who, after
occupying the position of Director of the High
School Board and University Inspector, was
degraded to that of Professor at Heidelberg, so that
Hitzig greeted him with the following toast:
"Behold Adam, who now has become one of us! "
The spokesmen were Knies and Bluntschli, who
both defended their one political point of view,
Treitschke keeping as much as possible apart from
the latter. His opinion of Bluntschli, as now con-
firmed in print through his letters to Freytag, was
unjust. Bluntschli's intentions were for the com-
mon weal, but in his opinion it could best be done
through him. The Otez vous gue je mif mette (real
Swiss-German) applied to him in his Faculty as
well as in the Chamber. In vain I tried to prove
to Treitschke that Bluntschli's propensity to
mediation proposals, and his desire to vote always
with the majority, were founded on his peaceable
disposition and his benevolent concern for the
public good. When, however, on a certain occa-
sion, prior to leaving for Edingen by rail, I spoke
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? 86 Treitschke
to him in this strain, he raved to such an extent
that the attention of the people in the waiting-
room was aroused, and I preferred to discontinue
the argument. On such occasions, the misfortune
of his deafness became very marked, for how was
it possible to make complicated circumstances
clear to him by lip-movements and scribbling on
block slips? For good reasons he disliked letters
by post. Although he belonged at that time,
academically, to the Bluntschli party, he attacked,
in his essay of 1871, on Parties and Factions, the
Bluntschli-Rohmer State Law, establishing a
parallel between the State functions and the human
organism. "State science demands thought, not
comparisons," he wrote. "What is the use of
speaking figuratively, which is just as arbitrary
as the old bad habit so favoured by natural philo-
sophers of comparing the State with the human
body? Argument ceases with such fantastic
parables. Analogies are easily found, and with
beautiful words one might describe the King as
the head or the heart, or also as the index, of a
State. " This was not polite language, and must
have annoyed Bluntschli, all the more as Treitsch-
ke, in the language of Goethe, "only tugged at
the discarded serpent's skin," Bluntschli himself
having left that part of the Rohmer philosophy
behind him; and that is why, as far as I know,
he never replied to the attack. Treitschke also
reproached Bluntschli with attempting to count
Luther amongst the Liberals: "He, whose emi-
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? His Life and Work 87
nent mind admirably combines the traits of the
revolutionary stormer of heaven with those of the
devout monk, he who was anything but a Liberal !
Or will our opponents think more of us if we are so
bold as to declare that the true spirit of Chris-
tianity is liberal ?
The greatness of Christian faith
lies in its inconceivable and manifold plasticity;
after thousands of years it will, in eternally new,
yet ever identical, forms, elevate humanity when
not even scientists will have anything to say of
Liberalism. " Although sitting at the same round
table there was, speaking philosophically, a cen-
tury between Bluntschli and Treitschke. Treitsch-
ke was a true representative of the historical
school, and not Dahlmann; but Ranke was his
real master. Bluntschli liked to refer to Savigny;
but, in reality, his views of the world, in spite of
Rohmer's symbolism, were culled from the age of
enlightenment .
When, in 1873, Wehrenpfennig remodelled the
Spenersche Zeitung into the semi-official Preussische
Zeitung, Treitschke was offered the salary of ten
thousand thalers for undertaking the editorship of
the journal. This salary was unheard of at that
time. Some friends of his advised him to accept,
saying that his deafness would, in years to come,
impair his functions as teacher, but he told me : "I
am not a journalist; I like to see things developed
so that I can form an opinion. To write a leading
article on the latest telegram, on the spur of the
moment, and to have to contradict it eight days
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? 88 Treitschke
later, I leave to other people. " Wehrenpfennig
tried to make the proposal more acceptable by
informing him that the minister would appoint
him as professor at a fixed salary, consequently
there would be no need to sacrifice his function as
teacher, whilst others would look after the ordin-
ary journalistic work ; only the handling of political
matters and the daily leading article would be his
department. A big salary as professor, and a big
income as editor, would have tempted a good
many; there even were people who declared that it
was Treitschke's duty, impecunious as he was, to
provide thus for his family; but he maintained
that it was contrary to his honour to change his
profession for monetary gain, and we were, natur-
ally, glad that he remained in our midst.
In spite of his refusal to take part in journalism
he played a prominent part in contemporary
politics, and the journals repaid him with interest
for his bold observations in the Prussian Annuals.
Ludwig Ekkard, an Austrian, resident since 1866
at Mannheim, and editor there of a weekly publica-
tion a man of whom the Karlsruhe people
whispered he had, in 1848, in Vienna, hung Latour,
the Minister of War wrote a leading article on
"Treitschke von Cassagnac. " After he had
fallen out with the Jews, a Berlin paper reported
that Treitschke was the descendant of a certain
Isaac Treitschel, who, at the beginning of the
century, had come as a youth from Bohemia to
Saxony selling trousers. A social democratic
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? His Life and Work 89
journal thought Herr von Treitschke was a living
proof of the injustice of present-day Society in-
stitutions, as he was only appointed professor
because his father had been a general. "If we
lived in a State which practises justice, such a
weak-headed creature would never have been
allowed to be a student. " Similar flattering
expressions were showered upon him by the Ultra-
montane journals, which, on account of his mono-
mania, would have liked to have him bundled off
to a lunatic asylum. When shown such a master-
piece, he laughed heartily saying: "One has to put
up with that sort of thing when one is in the public
eye. " He was only angered at the small-minded-
ness of some of his colleagues, who threw stones
at him behind his back merely because he had
stolen a march on them.
It is notorious that Treitschke, after lacking
sympathy with Badenese Liberalism, became its
supporter whilst in Heidelberg; but in Berlin he
again reverted to feelings of contempt for it.
During the years 1867 to 1874, which he spent
amongst us, I could not discern an appreciable
difference in his views. As his parliamentary
speeches and essays in the Annuals amply testify,
he greeted with joy Bismarck's first steps towards
the re-establishment of the Authority of the State
versus the Catholic Church; the abolition of the
Catholic department in the Ministry of Public
Instruction; the penal code against abuse of the
pulpit, and Bismarck's refusal to give way to the
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? 90 Treitschke
new-founded centre. We also thoroughly agreed in
regard to the Muhler administration of ecclesi-
astical affairs. He wrote: "The Universities in
Prussia are going backwards, since fashionable
orthodoxy, with its mistrust, is supreme at Court
against liberty of thought. Here, if anywhere, our
State is in need of a radical reform, i. e. , the con-
version of the conversion of science. " In the last
essay written in Heidelberg he said: "Since the
unhappy days of Friederick Wilhelm IV the school
system in Prussia has been fundamentally mis-
cultivated by a spirit of confessional narrow-
mindedness which exasperates the most patient. "
Consequently nothing astonished us more than
the attitude which he adopted subsequently in
Berlin, towards Stocker and his town mission, even
going so far as to lament Stocker's dismissal from
his position as preacher at the Royal Chapel.
Those who contend that the misunderstanding had
been on our side, are invited to read Treitschke's
publications up to the last week of his stay at
Heidelberg. The views with which he came to us,
and which he defended in Heidelberg in the circle
of friends as well as in the chair, find expression in
the beautiful essay on Liberty, the opening sentence
of which runs as follows : "Everything new created
by the nineteenth century is the work of liberalism.
Particularly in the clerical sphere, this is destined
to continue its labours in order to create at last
true conditions. Does it redound to the honour of
the land of Lessing, " he asks, "that there is no
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? His Life and Work 91
German University which possesses sufficient
courage to admit a David Strauss to its halls?
Those who have any conception of the enormous
extent to which faith in the dogmas of Christian
revelations has disappeared among the younger
generation, must observe with great anxiety how
thoughtlessly, how lazily, nay, how lyingly,
thousands do homage to a lip service which has
become strange to their heart. The lack of vera-
city in the field of religion grows in an alarming
fashion. The philosophers of the eighteenth
century thought that real virtue does not exist
without belief in God and immortality. The
present generation contests this, and declares
point-blank, 'Morality is independent of dogma. * "
He recognizes the immortality in the never-ending
effect of our good as well as of our bad deeds.
"For weak or low characters, the belief in an after
life can equally be a source of immortality, like the
denial of same, for in their anxiety for the hereafter
they often neglect their duties on earth. The
Church has taken no interest whatever in the
great work of the last centuries, and in the deliver-
ance of humanity from one thousand terrors of
unchristian arbitrariness. The defenders of the
Church claim the prerogative to spoil even the
best measure by the incomparable meanness of
their methods. And, according to human estimate,
this symptom will continue. More and more the
moral value of Christianity will be investigated
and developed by laymen, and more and more it
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? 92 Treitschke
will become apparent that churches do not suffice
for the spiritual demands of matured people. "
That this last sentence coincides with the specula-
tions of Richard Rothe, the aesthetic scientist, and
the teaching of the Tubingen School is apparent
from a letter to his Catholic fiancee, written in
1866, in which he says, "Christianity loses nothing
of its greatness if the stupid priest tales of Pagan-
ism are dropped. "
"The New Testament embodies more ideas of
Plato than our clergy is ready to admit. " Under
these circumstances we could count him merely
from a theological point of view amongst the
Liberals, and only in the attitude adopted by
Treitschke towards the contested reforms of
Evangelical and Catholic Church matters we
regained our own convictions. He likewise greeted
Miihler's fall in February, 1872, with joy, al-
though he disapproved of the American Press
tactics, now gaining more and more the upper
hand in the German Press, which heaped with
opprobrium the fallen opponent "he hardly
deserved the title of lion. " Treitschke likewise
demanded the abolition of the Stiehl regulations,
as they acted as a deterrent to many an intelligent
person embracing the career of teacher. Where
Herr von Muhler had ordered that certain colleges
should assume a strictly evangelical character, he
urged Falk to appoint Catholic or Jewish teachers
for those schools, in order to put an end to the
fictitious story that Prussia possessed colleges for
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? His Life and Work 93
specific confessions. During his last term at
Heidelberg he, in a short and decisive fashion, on
December 10, 1873, still approved of the Falk
legislation enacted in May, respecting the re-
strictions of the Catholic Church. " Not a word is
to be found in these laws which is not beneficial
to the Church. " He declares it the most un-
pardonable error of the Conservative party in
Prussia to have entered into an alliance with the
Ultramontanes. The suppression of the Jesuit
Order, which he formerly opposed, now had his
approval. The struggle for civilization was like-
wise, for him, a struggle of liberty against fanati-
cism, and he was convinced that a firm attitude
maintained by the State would lead to victory.
"For two years the Ultramontanes have wasted
their powder; they have so often conjured up the
names of Nero and Diocletianus that one fails to
see what can still be done after this fanatical clam-
our, beyond a street battle, and this they cannot
risk. " Treitschke's practical demands were like-
wise those of the Liberals. "A law for compulsory
civil marriage has become a necessity; after years
of deliberation, it must at last be evident that
facultative civil marriage is based on a miscon-
ception, and does not mitigate, but rather accen-
tuates, the conflict between State and Church.
Furthermore, a special law will have to be enacted
by the State enabling the communities themselves
to look after the Church Funds, should no legally
recognized parson be available ; the State will have
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? 94 Treitschke
to concede to Old Catholics the right to reclaim
their share of the Church property when quitting
the church. After all that has happened, there is
no need to shun the reproach of animosity; we
require a law empowering the arrest of persistently
refractory priests. It will not do to leave religious
orders in their present condition, so uncertain from
a legal point of view, and to allow processions and
pilgrimages to be exposed to molestation and insult
on the part of citizens of different creeds. The
May laws are only the beginning of an energetic
Church policy. " The Baden Liberalism has
never transgressed these demands, and it may
safely be said that Treitschke, while in Heidelberg,
shared in this respect fully the views of his Liberal
friends.
Slowly the change came about while living in
Berlin. Owing to his affliction, social intercourse
was restricted to a few people, and amongst those
it was the new President of the Supreme Ecclesi-
astic Council, Herrmann by name, with whom he
formed a close friendship Herrmann having been
able, better than anybody, to make himself under-
stood by deaf-and-dumb language, and also corre-
sponding with Treitschke. In Heidelberg, before,
Herrmann had raised all sorts of objections to the
Falk Laws, and heated discussions took place
between him and the Minister of Ecclesiastical
Affairs on the endowment of evangelical clergymen,
the abolition of incidental fees, and similar ques-
tions. His opinions on the Falk Church Laws were
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? 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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