No More Learning

By withdrawing from foreign territory she has not
found herself again, but abandoned her old historic
character. Ever since its existence, the aims of
the Austrian Empire were exclusively directed to
European politics. An internal reign taken as a
whole did not exist at all. Once the creed of unity
was established, the Crown allowed everything to
go as it did, and was satisfied when its people
silently obeyed. Hardly ever has the House of
Hapsburg-Lothring bestowed a thought upon
improving her administrative machinery, the
furtherance of the people's welfare, popular educa-
tion, and upon all the seemingly insignificant
tasks of internal politics which to other countries
are of cardinal importance; only Maria Theresa
and Joseph II realized the seriousness of their
duties. To-day, however, humbled and weakened,
hardly able to maintain the position of a big
Power, Austria finds herself compelled to recon-
sider her ways. External politics which formerly
meant to her everything have now lost import-
ance; the whole country's powers are invoked to
repair the internal damage, and whilst the "Hof-
burg" (the Imperial Palace), although unwillingly,
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? Austria and the German Empire 261
is compelled to expiate the sins of neglect of many
centuries, the question is asked, with steadily
growing insistence, whether this age of national
State formations still has room left for an Empire
which lacks national stamina.
Undoubtedly the natural form of government
for such a conglomerate Empire is absolutism.
An independent monarch may maintain a neutral
attitude over his quarrelling people; he may in
happy days lull his country into comfortable
slumber in order to play one nation against the
other in time of need; but these old tricks have
long ceased to be effective. In every conceivable
form absolutism has been tried by the "Hofburg,"
only to finally prove its complete all-round ineffi-
cacy. Cisleithania's population owes its consti-
tution to the failure of absolutism, and not to its
own strength. To us Germans of the Empire
it was clear beforehand that liberty bestowed in
this way could thrive but slowly, and only after
severe relapses. True, some democratic dunces
in Berlin formerly applauded the juggling tricks
of the "People's cabinet," and have claimed for
Prussia "liberty as in Austria. " But all sensible
people in Germany find it natural that the consti-
tution in Austria so far has caused only venomous,
complicated, and barren party quarrels. More
serious than the infantine diseases of constitu-
tionalism seems the terrible growth of race-hatred.
Here, as elsewhere, parliamentarism has accen-
tuated national contrasts. As Schleswig-Holstein
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? 262 Treitschke
experienced it with the Danes, so Austria experi-
ences it now, that free people learn far more slowly
than legitimate Courts the virtue of political toler-
ance and self-restraint. As was to be expected
of the Hapsburg-Lothrings, the constitutional Im-
perial Crown has remained thoroughly despotic
in sentiment. As yet none of the innumerable
ministers of the present Emperor have in reality
guided the country. Count Beust could be par-
doned everything except popular favour, which
was his main support. The just plaint of the
Germans who are true to the constitution is that
"mysterious forces" a deeply veiled Camarilla
of subaltern bureaucrats and ultramontane noble-
men dominate the Court, and, in spite of the
abolition of the Concordat, the relations between
the "Hofburg" and the Roman Curia have not
come to an end. Since Austria's withdrawal
from the German alliance the house of the Loth-
rings, now fatherless, has no further inducement
to favour the Germans, and the Court already
displays marked coolness towards German ideals.
The spokesmen of the Germans are men of the
Liberal Party, who in their dealings with the
Crown have unfortunately displayed clumsy
ignorance about constitutional doctrine. The
Magyars show chivalrous respect for the wearer
of the Crown of St. Stephen, and the Court com-
mences to feel comfortable in Budapest. The
feudal leaders of the Slavs conscientiously display
their dynastic tendencies; the German Ministers,
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? Austria and the German Empire 263
however, behave as if the Emperor were really
the only fifth wheel of the cart after Rotteck and
Welcker, and in the lower Austrian Diet Liberal
passion recently descended to most unseemly
remarks against the Imperial family. Does Vienna
not remember that the Hapsburgs never forget?
Thus the ties between the Crown and the Germans
are loosening.
The Army is no longer an absolutely reliable
support of the State, because it has undoubtedly
lost in quality since the day of Koniggratz. A
State which resembles the "Wallenstein Camp"
can gain great victories only by means of homeless
mercenary troops. Any improvement of modern
warfare impairs the fighting capacity of Austria.
The more the moral element commences to enter
into the calculations of war the more the cruelty
of the private soldier and the deep-laid mistrust
which separates Slav troops from their German
officers will give rise to apprehension. The custom-
ary foolery about clothing, which has finally
led to concocting for the Imperial and Royal Ar-
mies the ugliest uniform in the universe, makes
just as little for the fitness of the forces as the
improvement of weapons. The introduction of
compulsory military service, which can serve a
useful purpose only in a national State, was in
Austria a thoughtless precipitation ; for the moment
it has disorganized discipline, and it is question-
able whether the future will show better results.
German students, Polish noblemen, fanatical
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? 264 Treitschke
Czechs, join the ranks of the volunteers and are
promoted to officers' rank in the militia; but this
new corps of officers does not invariably, as of
yore, seek its home under the black and yellow
standard. The militiaman acquires at home all
the prejudices of race-hatred; the Hungarian
" honveds " are certainly brave soldiers, but equally
surely cannot be led against an enemy. The
young noblemen who formerly gladly gathered
round the Imperial Standard now stay away, and
race-hatred impairs comradeship. The officers
of the German Army at times glance critically at
the history of Austria's military forces, who, with
rare exceptions, have for 130 years always fought
bravely and unsuccessfully; and they compare
the days of Metz and Sedan with the hopeless
campaign against the Bochese. The old remedy
of hard-pressed Hapsburgs a state of siege
promises but scant success for an army thus
constituted.
In addition thereto, are public functionaries of
generally very inferior education, whose corruption
does not admit of doubt, servile and yet always
argumentative ; we refer to the Czech bureaucracy,
indescribably hated and despised by Germans and
Hungarians alike. In the Church there is a
strictly Roman party with very well meaning but
also very vague Old-Catholic aspirations, and there
exists widely diffused a shallow frivolity which
derides as Prussian hypocrisy all agitations for
moral seriousness. In the same way the quondam
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? Austria and the German Empire 265
much-talked-of inexhaustible resources of the
Danube Empire prove to-day a pleasant fairy
tale. An Exchequer, which has twice within
ninety years covered yearly expenditure by regular
receipts, and has now again just weathered veiled
bankruptcy such incredible financial mismanage-
ment has not only destroyed the private fortunes
of thousands; it has also largely stimulated the
habit of gambling and of prodigality. In nearly
all the Crown lands of Cisleithania agriculture
lacks a body of educated middle-class farmers;
it is the link between farms and the vast estates
of noblemen which is missing. The development
of industry is similarly handicapped. Whilst in
most provinces trade and commerce are in their
infancy, Vienna is agitated by feverishly-excited
speculation. For ever so long the Vienna Stock
Exchange has drawn the " smart set " into its circle.
Pools and syndicates carry on the organized
swindle, and the small man is also dragged into
the turmoil by innumerable commission houses.
The magnificent capital is of course a grand cen-
tre for every kind of intercourse, but its corrup-
tion reacts detrimentally upon the commonwealth.
The bulk of the citizens are still healthy and capa-
ble, but amongst the always immoral masses of
the metropolisan impudent socialism is to-day at
work, which derides the spirit of the Fatherland as
reactionary, and amongst all the races of Austria
most vehemently attacks the Germans as ' 'bour-
geois. " Of the moral conditions of the upper
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? 266 Treitschke
classes, and particularly of Stock Exchange circles,
the Vienna newspapers, which are closely allied
with the latter, give ample testimony. Vienna
journalism, although highly developed, is, on the
whole, the most immoral press of Europe Paris
by no means excluded. The German party in
Vienna is about to initiate the Deutsche Zeitung,
because an honest party cannot rely upon the
existing big German newspapers. All these power-
ful journals are nothing else, and do not pretend
to be anything else, than industrial undertakings,
and a smile of compassion would greet those who
were to speak to those literary speculators about
political tendencies. By the side of the big organs
of the Stock Exchange jobbers, there is a huge
crowd of dirty halfpenny rags, which live on
extortion and journalistic piracy, for in this frivo-
lous town there are many with a bad conscience,
and liberal payments are made to stop the slander-
ous tongue of the blackmailer. Since the first
happy days of Emperor Francis Joseph, when
court-martials condemned to death, New Austria
has attempted nearly every imaginable political
system ; such a sudden change is bound to unsettle
the sense of justice and the people's opinions re-
specting their country. The views of the Ger-
man-Austrian pessimists are very unpalatable to
Germans in the Empire, as they cross our political
calculations. But let us also be just, and let us try
to place ourselves in the position of a warm-hearted,
scientifically-educated young German- Austrian.
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? Austria and the German Empire 267
Why in the world should this man love his country
in its entirety? Ancient faith, force of habit, fear
of the uncertain future and of radical changes, all
these considerations retain him within Austrian
boundaries; but to rejoice his heart, he casts his
eyes northwards, where he beholds his country-
men in a respected, mighty Empire, in a well-
secured national commonwealth, with orderly
economic conditions, and he perceives them in
every respect happier than he is himself. He hates
the "rugged Caryatid-heads of the servile classes, "
as Hebbel, amid great cheers, once said of the
German-Austrians, and above all he hates the
Czechs. To keep this slavedom in subordination
and to shield the best he calls his own, i. e. , German
thought and German sentiment, from the aggres-
sive waves of barbarism he looks to the Empire
for protection. We seriously point out to him
the much-praised "colonizing vocation" of Ger-
manism in Austria. He, however, borrows from
the rich treasure of the Imperial and Royal bureau-
cratic language a beautiful phrase, and bitterly
suggests that this calling has now gradually become
obsolete (' ' in Verstoss gekommen ") . In Hungary,
in Bohemia, in Cracow, in the Tyrol, everywhere
Germanism is retrograding, and everywhere it is
proved that the atmosphere of the Hapsburg rule
is detrimental to German nationalism. He com-
plains that, "Centuries ago the liberty of German
faith was wrested from us, clerical pressure weighs
upon the soul of the people, and we have not
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? 268 Treitschke
sufficient iron left in our blood to protect ourselves
against the numerical majority of foreigners. "
He tells us of the political leaders of his race, how
they are nearly all done for and worn out, many
of them ill-famed for being deserters, sellers of
titles, or promoters. Then he asks whether it
behooves Germans to be governed by Hungarians
after the dicta of Magyar policy, and confidently
finishes up thus : ''Certainly Austria is a European
necessity, but the Austria of the future borders in
the west on the Leitha, and we Germans belong
to you. " We give him to reflect that after all it
is an honour to belong to Austria, that ancient
mighty Power, whereupon he shrugs his shoulders.
"Times of the past," he says. "When recently
Count Hohenwarte spoke to us of the real Austrian
nationality he was greeted by peals of derisive
laughter on the part of the Germans. We remind
him of the Oriental mission once entrusted by
Prince Eugene to the realm on the Danube.
Drily he replies : ' A State which can hardly stand
on its own legs will still less be able to subdue
foreign people, especially when violently hated by
them/'*
After the first great defeat of New Austria at the
battle of Solferino, Austrian Germanism began
to awake from its deep slumber. Notably in the
universities a more active national sentiment
developed, and we subsequently witnessed the
realization of what we German patriots always
anticipated, i. e. t that Austria's exodus from the
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? Austria and the German Empire 269
German Alliance would greatly enliven and
strengthen the mental intercourse between us and
the Germans on the Danube. Never before has
our political work met with such friendly reception
amongst the Austrians as amongst the German
nationalists of Graz and Vienna to-day. We
heartily apologize for the severe injustice done
years ago to the German "Gothaern"; nothing is
more touching than the youthful and amiable
enthusiasm which these circles harbour for our
new Empire ; nowhere has Prussia warmer friends.
From the bottom of our heart we wish that the
noble German national pride, the healthy political
intellect of this party, may display all its energy
in the perfecting of the Cisleithanian constitution.
The German-Austrian who greets every short-
coming of his country with a jubilant "Always
livelier and livelier" does not assist Germany in
her great object; she has only use for the active
man who works physically and mentally in order
to procure for the Germans the leadership in
Cisleithania. The German national pride in
Austria is a child of woe; it has invariably been
aroused by the defeats of the monarchy, and at
each fresh awakening it has given proof of greater
power. Up till now only a small portion of the
German-Austrians evinces strong German national
sentiment ; the history of the recent war shows to
what extent. The thinking middle classes fol-
lowed our battles with a hearty and active interest
never to be forgotten, and the brave German peas-
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? 270 Treitschke
ants in the Alps likewise recollected their heroic
wars against the Wallachs. The high nobility, how-
ever, and the masses in the towns persevered in the
old hatred against Prussia. The small gentry of
Imperial and Royal licensed coffee-house keepers
and tobacconists doted on the French Republic.
As always in Austria, the big financial interests
gave proof of their unprincipled meanness, and
insufficient attention has been paid in Germany to
the great dispatch of arms which went from Vienna
via Trieste to France. German national sentiment ,
however, is visibly in the ascendant, and it grows
daily on beholding the new German Empire.
National pride and hatred permeate, so to say,
the atmosphere of this unlucky State, whose future
entirely depends upon the reconciliation of national
interests. The growing hatred against the Slavs
may by and by press the broad masses of German
population into the ranks of the German nation-
alists, and unless fairly well-regulated constitu-
tional life can be established in the near future in
Cisleithania the Germans might finally also realize
that their nationality is dearer to them than their
Government.
Closer ties attach the greater part of the Slavs
to the Austrian Monarchy. When from the
distance we hear only the uncouth blustering of
Czech fanaticism, when we listen to the assurances
of German scientists in Prague, that a Czech
university by the side of a German one is at any
rate more endurable than a university with mixed
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? Austria and the German Empire 271
languages, which must infallibly lead to the de-
struction of Germanism in Bohemia; when we
thus behold the battle of the elements in the
territories of the Crown of Wenceslaus, we are apt
to think that such blind national hatred would
not shrink from the destruction of Austria. On
closer examination, however, secret fear and a
singular cowardice are easily detected, which hide
behind the uproar of the Czechs. They are noisy,
they bluster and twist the law, but they do not
dare to start war. In the midst of their roarings
they feel that they cannot dispense with the
Monarchy because, unlike the Germans, no home
is open to them outside Austria. Not even the
hotheads dare count with certainty upon the
fulfilment of Pan-slavist dreams, and that is why
for the time being the autonomous crown of
Wenceslaus or the division of Cisleithania into
five groups united by federalism suffices for them.
The tameness of the Czechs is, however, not due
to honest intentions, but to the consciousness of
weakness, which can and will change as soon as
Czechdom finds support in a great Slav power,
and it is already patent that the Poles regard
Galician autonomy only as the first step towards
the re-establishment of the Empire of the Sarmats.
Amongst all the nations of Austria the Magyars
must to-day display the greatest energy for the
maintenance of the Monarchy. The newly-estab-
lished Crown needs Cisleithanian support; those
people, with their lively ancestral recollections,
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? 272 Treitschke
know only too well how often Austria and Hungary
have mutually saved each other. The convention
was in every respect vastly in favour of the Mag-
yars. Hungary contributes thirty per cent, to-
wards the general expenditure of the Monarch
and to the payment of interest on the debt of the
country ; if closely calculated it will be found to be
even less. And in spite of all, the Magyars cannot
overcome the old mistrust of the "Hofburg";
the tribunals of Eperies and Arad can no more sink
into oblivion than the impudence of the "Bach"
Hussars. In Parliament a strong and growing
Opposition has aims beyond the convention, and
it appears full of danger that this Opposition
consists almost exclusively of pure Magyar blood.
The delegate "Nemeth" recently offered his
solemn congratulations in Parliament to the
German-Austrians on the impending union with
their German brothers. Should disorder continue
to reign in Cisleithania less hot-blooded Magyars
will also soon raise the question whether a union
with " Chaos" be really an advantage for Hungary.
Two neighbours of Austria, i. e. , Russia and Italy,
believe with the greatest positiveness in the col-
lapse of the Monarchy, and truly everything seems
possible in the vicinity of the Orient. The Oriental
question extends, moves westwards, and resembles
a stone which, when thrown into water, draws
ever-widening circles. It already enters into the
domain of the far horizon which has to be consid-
ered in the politics of the German Empire. Very
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? Austria and the German Empire 273
probably the fate of Austria and the still not
definitely solved Polish question will in time to
come be mixed up with the enigmatical future of
the Balkan population. In Russia's leading circles
fierce hatred, only too easily understood, rages
against Austria, a hatred which the prudence of
clever statesmen may temporarily suppress but
cannot stifle altogether, the highest interests of the
two neighbours in the East as well as in Poland
being in closest vicinity. Certainly one needs the
happy levity of Count Beust in order to look with
steadfast confidence into the future of Austria.
What follows? The struggle of German-Austria
against the Slavs is at the same time a struggle of
the modern States against feudal and ultramontane
Powers. The constitution of Cisleithania honestly
kept and intelligently developed offers room for all
nations of German- Austria. Whoever has the
freedom and peaceful development of Middle
Europe at heart must earnestly wish that the oft-
proved vitality of the old State may once more
assert itself, and that the Germans this side of the
Leitha may hold their own. The perfecting of this
constitution can, however, even under the most
favourable auspices, only take place very slowly;
there is an immeasurable distance between the
wretched indifference which was prevalent in
German- Austria after the battle of Koniggratz and
the present national sentiment. The German
tongue and German morals must not anticipate
great results from the Lothrings; it must suffice
18
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? 274 Treitschke
to us if Germans maintain their possessions against
Slavs and Magyars. The complete solution of a
great European task is no more to be expected
of this infirm country. Only after ten years of
internal peace will Austria, if ever, gain power to
pursue serious plans in the East. An unreservedly
sincere friendship we must not expect of the
"Hofburg. " The policy of silently preserving
all rights is understood in Vienna as well as in
Rome. And however honestly well-wishing we
might be, the Lothrings know from Italy the
mighty attraction of national States, and know
that their Germans cannot turn their eyes from
our Empire. Because of its existence alone the
German Empire is viewed by them with suspicion,
and prudent circumspection is appropriate. Every
uncalled-for attempt at intervention in Austria's
internal struggle accentuates the mistrust of the
" Hofburg" against our countrymen and prejudices
the German cause. This Prince Bismarck mag-
nificently understood when he abstained at Gastein
from all observations against the Hohenwarte
Cabinet. It was very badly understood by the
honest citizens of Breslau, Dresden, and Munich,
when they decided on their heartily well-meant
and heartily stupid declarations of sympathy
for German-Austria. Lucky for German-Austria
that, thanks to our sober-mindedness, such madcap
ideas did not find sympathy; but all our interest
in Austria does not justify us in shutting our eyes
to the possibility of her collapse. The perfection
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? Austria and the German Empire 275
of the Cisleithanian constitution presupposes the
good intentions of all parties; at present such
intention is, however, found to exist only among
part ot the German-Austrians. The Italians are
in the habit of saying, Austria is not a State but a
family. When the foundation of Hapsburg power
was laid, the expression tu felix Austria nube met
with admiration in the whole world and Emperor
Frederick III, regretfully looking at his amputated
foot, said: "Itzt ist dem Reich der ein Fuss
abgeschniedten " ("Now one leg has been cut off
the Empire ") . The times of imperial self -worship
and State-forming marriages of princes are no
more. Will a country which owes its origin to the
senseless family policy of past centuries, which in
character belongs to ancient Europe, be able to
satisfy the demands of a new era? We dare not
answer negatively, yet as brave and vigilant men
we must also contemplate that in years to come
Fate may reply to the question in the negative.
If the calamity of the destruction of Austria were
to occur, and it would also be a calamity to Ger-
many, then our Empire must be ready and pre-
pared to brave the forces of Fate to save German-
ism on the Danube from the debris. "To be
prepared is everything," saith the Poet.
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? THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA
AND RUSSIA.
IN the summer of 1813, August Wilhelm Schlegel
wrote to Schleiermacher : " Is it to be wondered
at that this nation, on whose shoulders the weight
of the balance of power in Europe has been laid
for one and a half centuries, should go with a
bent back? " In these words he indicated both
the cause of the long-continued feebleness of our
country and also the ground of the constant mis-
trust with which all the Great Powers saw Germany
recovering strength. Even a cautious and unpreju-
diced German historian will find it hard to keep from
bitterness, and will easily appear to foreigners as a
Chauvinist, when he portrays in detail in how much
more just and friendly a way the public opinion of
Europe regarded the national movements of the
Italians, the Greeks, and the Southern Slavs, than
the Germans' struggle for unity. It needs even a
certain degree of self-denial in order to recognize that
the whole formation of the old system of States,
the way of looking at things of the old diplomacy,
depended on the divided state of Germany, and
consequently in our revolution we could expect
nothing better from the neighbouring Powers than,
at most, neutrality and silent non-interference.
276
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? Russian and Prussian Alliance 277
A proud German will be glad of the fact that we
owe all that we are really to ourselves; he will
willingly forget past unfairness in practical politics
and simply ask what is the attitude of the neigh-
bouring Powers to the present interests of our
Empire? But he who only sees in history an
arsenal from which to draw weapons to pursue the
varying aims of the politics of the day, will, with a
moderate amount of learning and some sophistry,
be able to prove, just as it happens to suit him,
that France or Austria, Russia or England, is our
hereditary foe. A book of such a sort, thoroughly
partisan in spirit and unhistorical, is the work
Berlin and Petersburg; Prussian contributions
to the history of the Relations between Russia and
Germany, which an anonymous author has lately
published with the unconcealed purpose of arous-
ing attention and of preparing the minds of
credulous readers for a reckoning with Russia.
The book is entitled "Prussian Contributions,"
and the preface is dated from Berlin. I am quite
willing to believe that the author, when he wrote
his preface, may have happened to be passing a
few days in Berlin. But everyone who knows our
political literature must at once discern that the
author of the work is the same publicist who has
issued the little book, Russia, Before and After
the War, Pictures of Petersburg Society, and a
number of other instructive works dealing with
Russo-German relations. And this publicist is,
as is well known, no Prussian but an inhabitant
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? 278 Treitschke
of the Baltic provinces; he has, hitherto, never
claimed to concern himself with Prussian politics,
but has always, with great talent and restless
energy, represented the interests of his Baltic
home as he understood them. Among the political
authors of Germany he takes a position similar to
that which Louis Schneider once occupied on the
other side. Just as the latter, assuredly in his
way an honest Prussian patriot, regarded the
alliance with Holy Russia as a dogma, so does our
author view hostility to the Czar's Empire; only,
he is incomparably abler and quite free from that
deprecatory manner which makes Schneider's
writings so unpleasant. The restoration of Poland
and the conquest of the Baltic provinces, these
are the visions which, more or less disguised,
hover in the background of all his books. In his
view the Prussian monarchy has really no other
raison d'etre than the suppression of the Slavs;
it misses its vocation till it has engaged in hostili-
ties against the Muscovites. All the problems of
German politics are gauged by this one measure;
no inference is so startling as to alarm our author.
In 1871 he opposed the conquest of Alsace and
Lorraine, for the liberation of our western terri-
tories threatened to postpone the longed-for war
with Russia; nor could a patriot of the Baltic
provinces allow that Alsace with its Gallicized
higher classes was a German province, while on
the other hand, the German nationality of Livland
and Kurland was rooted exclusively in the nobility
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? Russian and Prussian Alliance 279
and well-to-do citizen class. Such a steady di-
rection of sentiment towards one object compels
the respect, even of an opponent. So long as our
author fought with an open visor, one could pardon
his warm local patriotism when he at times spoke
somewhat contemptuously of Prussia, and held
up the wonderful political instinct of the Baltic
nobility as a shining example to our native narrow-
mindedness. But when, as at present, he assumes
the mask of a deeply-initiated Prussian statesman,
when he pares and trims our glorious history to
suit the aims of the Baltic malcontents, and wishes
to make us believe that Prussia has been for fifty
years the plaything of a foreign power, then it is
quite permissible to examine more closely whether
the cargo of this little Baltic ship is worth more
than the false flag which it flies at its masthead.
The old proverb, "Qui a compagnon, a maitre,"
is especially true of political alliances. Hardenberg
made a mistake when he once said regarding Aus-
tria and Prussia, "leurs interets se confondent. "
A community of interests between independent
Powers can only be a conditional one, and limited
by time ; in every alliance which lasts long, some-
times one of the contracting parties and sometimes
the other will consider itself overreached. Thus
our State at the commencement of the eighteenth
century made enormous sacrifices to aid the ob-
jects of the two sea-Powers, but did not finally
gain any further advantage from this long alliance
than the right of her head to use the kingly title,
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? 280 Treitschke
and some barren laurels. The history also of the
seventy-seven year-long friendship between Prus-
sia and Russia the longest alliance which has
ever existed between two great Powers presents
many such phenomena. There were times when
German patriots were fully justified in regarding
the friendship of Russia as oppressive, nay, as
disgraceful, just as on the other hand in recent
years the great majority of educated Russians
firmly believed that their country was injured by
the Prussian alliance. But when one sums up the
results, and compares the relative position in
respect of power of the two States in 1802, when
their alliance was formed, with that in 1879, when
it was dissolved, it cannot be honestly asserted that
Prussia fared badly in this alliance.
The Russo-Prussian alliance was, as is well
known, entirely the personal work of the two
monarchs, and everyone knows how much it was
helped forward by the honest and frank friend-
ship which the King Frederick William III dis-
played towards the versatile Czar. But these
personal feelings of the King never overpowered
his sound political intelligence and his strong sense
of duty. Every new advance of historical investi-
gation only reconfirms the fact that the King was
altogether right when, unseduced by the proposals
of so many cleverer men than himself, he was only
willing to venture on the attempt at rising against
Napoleon in alliance with Russia. Without the
help of the Czar Alexander, the capture of Paris,
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? Russian and Prussian Alliance 281
and the restoration of the old power of Prussia
would have been impossible. Any one who doubts
this should peruse the recently published Memoirs
of Metternich regarding the real objects of the
Vienna Court at the time i. e. , not the Memoirs
themselves with their intolerable self-glorification,
but the appended authentic official documents,
which, for the most part, plainly contradict the
vain self -eulogy of the author. At the Congress of
Vienna the two courts still continued to have a
community of interests: the Czar was obliged to
support Prussia's demands for an indemnity, if
he wished to secure for himself the possession of
Poland.
At the second Peace of Paris, on the other hand,
the interests of the two Powers came into violent
collision. The Czar had indeed favoured the
restoration of the State of Prussia, so that Russia
should be rendered impregnable through this
rampart on its most vulnerable side, but he as little
wished the rise of a completely independent self-
sufficing German power as the courts of Paris,
Vienna, and London did. Therefore, the restor-
ation of our old western frontier, which Prussia
demanded, was defeated by the united opposition
of all the Great Powers. All the courts without
exception observed with anxiety what an unsus-
pected wealth of military power little Prussia had
developed during the War of Liberation ; therefore
they all eagerly vied with one another in burying
Prussia's merits in oblivion. Whether one reads
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? 282 Treitschke
the military dispatches of Wellington and his
officers, the letters of Schwarzenberg, Metternich,
and Gentz, the semi-official writings of the Russian
military authors of that period, it is difficult to
say which of the three allies had most quickly
and completely forgotten the deeds of their Prus-
sian comrades-in-arms. Nevertheless, the alliance
with Russia and Austria was a necessity for Prussia
for it still remained the most important task of our
European policy to prevent another declaration of
war on the part of France, and the Great Alliance
actually achieved this, its first purpose. When
Austria, in 1817, rendered anxious by Alexander's
grandiose schemes, proposed to the King of Prussia
a secret offensive and defensive alliance, which in
case of need might be also directed against Russia,
Hardenberg, who in those days was thoroughly
Austrian in his sympathies, was eager to accept the
proposal. But the King acted as a Prussian, and
absolutely refused, for only the union of all three
Eastern Powers could secure to his State the safety
which he especially needed after the immense
sacrifices of the war. Yet our Baltic anonymous
author is quite wrong in so representing things
as though, in Frederick William Ill's view, the
alliance with Russia had been the only possible
one. The King knew, more thoroughly than his
present-day critic, the incalculable vicissitudes of
international relations and always kept cautiously
in view the possibility of a war against Russia.
In 1818 he surprised the Vienna Court by the
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? Russian and Prussian Alliance 283
declaration that he wished also to include Posen,
East and West Prussia, in the German Confeder-
ation, because in case of a Russian attack, he
wanted to be absolutely sure of the help of Ger-
many. Frederick William held obstinately to this
idea although Hardenberg and Humboldt spoke
against it, and he did not give it up till Austria
opposed it, and thus every prospect of carrying
the proposal through in the Diet of the Confeder-
ation disappeared.
It is equally untrue that the King, as our anony-
mous author condescendingly expresses it, had
modestly renounced all wishes of bringing about
a union of the German States. His policy was
peaceful, as it was obliged to be; it shunned a
decisive contest for which at that time all the
preliminary conditions were lacking, but as soon
as affairs in the new provinces were, to some extent,
settled, he began at once to work for the com-
mercial and political unifying of Germany. In
this difficult task, which in very truth laid the
foundation for the new German Empire, Prussia en-
countered at every step the opposition of Austria,
England, and France. Russia alone among all the
Great Powers preserved a friendly neutrality.
This one fact is sufficient to justify the King in
attaching great importance to Russia's friendship.
This partiality of his, however, was by no means
blind, for nothing is more absurd than the author's
assertion that Prussia, by the mediation which
brought about the Peace of Adrianople, had merely
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? 284 Treitschke
done the Russian Court an unselfish service.
When the war of 1828 broke out, the King had
openly told the Czar that he disapproved of his
declaration of war. The next year, at the com-
mencement of the second campaign, the Euro-
pean situation assumed a very threatening aspect.
The Vienna Cabinet, alarmed in the highest degree
by the progress of the Russian arms, exerted itself
in conjunction with England to bring about a great
alliance against Russia; on the other hand the
King knew from his son-in-law's mouth (the Czar's
autograph note is still preserved in the Berlin state
archives) that there was a secret understanding
between Nicholas and Charles X of France. If
matters were allowed to go their course, there was
danger of a European war, which might oblige
Prussia to fight simultaneously against Russia
and France, and that about a question remote from
our interests. In order to avert- this danger, and
thus acting for the best for his own country, the
King resolved to act as a mediator, and brought
about a peace which, as matters then were, was
acceptable to both contending parties.
Prince Metternich was certainly alarmed at this
success of Prussian policy, and the reactionary
party in Berlin, Duke Karl of Mecklenburg,
Ancillon, Schuckmann, Knesebeck, who were all
staunch adherents of the Vienna diplomat, were
alarmed; but the ablest men at the Court, Bern-
stoff, Witzleven, Eichhorn, and above all the
younger Prince William, approved the King's
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? Russian and Prussian Alliance 285
well-considered proceeding. The resolve of the
King was obviously connected with the brilliant
successes which his finance minister, Motz, had
won at the same time in the struggles of German
commercial policy. To the calm historical judg-
ment the years 1828 and 1829 appear as a fortu-
nate turning point in the history of that uneventful
period; it was the time when Prussia again began
to take up a completely independent position in
relation to the Austrian Court. Among the
liberals, indeed, who had lately been admiring the
Greeks, and now were suddenly enthusiastic for
the Turks, there arose a supplementary party-
legend, that Prussia had only undertaken the office
of mediator in order to save the Russian army from
certain destruction.