No More Learning

At Göttingen he was rarely seen at lectures, but was a
prominent figure in the social life of the student body: the old uni-
versity town is full of traditions of his prowess in duels and drink-
ing bouts, and of his difficulties with the authorities. In 1835 he
passed the State examination in law, and was occupied for three
years, first in the judicial and then in the administrative service of
the State, at Berlin, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Potsdam. In 1838 he left
the governmental service and studied agriculture at the Eldena
Academy. From his twenty-fourth to his thirty-sixth year (1839-51)
his life was that of a country squire. He took charge at first of
property held by his father in Pomerania; upon his father's death
in 1845 he assumed the management of the family estate of Schön-
hausen. Here he held the local offices of captain of dikes and of
deputy in the provincial Diet. The latter position proved a stepping-
stone into Prussian and German politics; for when Frederick William
IV. summoned the "United Diet" of the kingdom (1847), Bismarck
was sent to Berlin as an alternate delegate from his province.
The next three years were full of events. The revolution of 1848
forced all the German sovereigns who had thus far retained absolute
power, among them the King of Prussia, to grant representative con-
stitutions to their people. The same year witnessed the initiation
of a great popular movement for the unification of Germany. A na-
tional Parliament was assembled at Frankfort, and in 1849 it offered
to the King of Prussia the German imperial crown; but the constitu-
tion it had drafted was so democratic, and the opposition of the
German princes so great, that Frederick William felt obliged to re-
fuse the offer. An attempt was then made, at a Parliament held in
Erfurt, to establish a << narrower Germany » under Prussian leadership;


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
but this movement also came to nothing. The Austrian govern-
ment, paralyzed for a time by revolts in its own territories, had
re-established its power and threatened Prussia with war. Russia
supported Austria, and Prussia submitted at Olmütz (1850). In these
stirring years, Bismarck - first as a member of the United Diet and
then as a representative in the new Prussian Chamber of Deputies—
made himself prominent by hostility to the constitutional movement
and championship of royal prerogative. He defended the King's
refusal of the imperial crown, because "all the real gold in it would
be gotten by melting up the Prussian crown"; and he compared the
pact which the King, by accepting the Frankfort constitution, would
make with the democracy, to the pact between the huntsman and
the devil in the 'Freischütz': sooner or later, he declared, the people
would come to the Emperor, and pointing to the Imperial arms,
would say, "Do you fancy this eagle was given you for nothing? "
He sat in the Erfurt Parliament, but had no faith in its success. He
opposed the constitution which it adopted, although this was far
more conservative than that drafted at Frankfort, because he deemed
it still too revolutionary. During the Austro-Prussian disputes of
1850 he expressed himself, like the rest of the Prussian Conserva-
tives, in favor of reconciliation with Austria, and he even defended
the convention of Olmütz.
After Olmütz, the German Federal Diet, which had disappeared
in 1848, was reconstituted at Frankfort, and to Frankfort Bismarck
was sent, in 1857, as representative of Prussia. This position, which
he held for more than seven years, was essentially diplomatic, since
the Federal Diet was merely a permanent congress of German
ambassadors; and Bismarck, who had enjoyed no diplomatic training,
owed his appointment partly to the fact that his record made him
persona grata to the "presidential power," Austria. He soon forfeited
the favor of that State by the steadfastness with which he resisted
its pretensions to superior authority, and the energy with which he
defended the constitutional parity of Prussia and the smaller States;
but he won the confidence of the home government, and was con-
sulted by the King and his ministers with increasing frequency on
the most important questions of European diplomacy. He strove to
inspire them with greater jealousy of Austria. He favored closer
relations with Napoleon III. , as a make-weight against the Austrian
influence, and was charged by some of his opponents with an undue
leaning toward France; but as he explained in a letter to a friend,
if he had sold himself, it was "to a Teutonic and not to a Gallic
devil. "
In the winter of 1858-9, as the Franco-Austrian war drew nearer,
Bismarck's anti-Austrian attitude became so pronounced that his


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1931
government, by no means ready to break with Austria, but rather
disposed to support that power against France, felt it necessary to
put him, as he himself expressed it, "on ice on the Neva. " From
1859 to 1862 he held the position of Prussian ambassador at St.
Petersburg. In 1862 he was appointed ambassador at Paris. In the
autumn of the same year he became Minister-President of Prussia.
The new Prussian King, William I. , had become involved in a
controversy with the Prussian Chamber of Deputies over the reor-
ganization of the army; his previous ministers were unwilling to
press the reform against a hostile majority; and Bismarck, who was
ready to assume the responsibility, was charged with the premiership
of the new cabinet. "Under some circumstances," he said later,
"death upon the scaffold is as glorious as upon the battlefield. "
From 1862 to 1866 he governed Prussia without the support of the
lower chamber and without a regular budget. He informed a com-
mittee of the Deputies that the questions of the time were not to be
settled by debates, but by "blood and iron. "
In the diplomatic field it was his effort to secure a position of
advantage for the struggle with Austria for the control of Germany,
- a struggle which, six years before, he had declared to be inevitable.
During his stay in St. Petersburg he had strengthened the friendly
feeling already subsisting between Prussia and Russia; and in 1863
he gave the Russian government useful support in crushing a Polish
insurrection. To a remonstrance from the English ambassador, some-
what arrogantly delivered in the name of Europe, Bismarck responded,
"Who is Europe? " While in Paris he had convinced himself that no
serious interference was to be apprehended from Napoleon. That
monarch overrated Austria; regarded Bismarck's plans, which appear
to have been explained with extraordinary frankness, as chimerical;
and pronounced Bismarck "not a serious person. " Bismarck, on the
other hand, privately expressed the opinion that Napoleon was "a
great unrecognized incapacity. " When, in 1863, the death of Fred-
erick VII. of Denmark without direct heirs raised again the ancient
Schleswig-Holstein problem, Bismarck saw that the opportunity had
come for the solution of the German question.
The events of the next seven years are familiar history. In 1864
Prussia and Austria made war on Denmark, and obtained a joint
sovereignty over the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. In 1866,
with Italy as her ally, Prussia drove Austria out of the German Con-
federation; annexed Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Electoral Hesse,
and Frankfort; and brought all the German States north of the Main,
except Luxemburg, into the North German Confederation, of which
the King of Prussia was President and Bismarck Chancellor. When
war was declared by France in 1870, the South German States also


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
placed their forces at the King of Prussia's disposal; and before the
war was over they joined the newly established German Empire,
which thus included all the territories of the old Confederation except
German Austria and Luxemburg. The old Confederation was a mere
league of sovereign States; the new Empire was a nation. To this
Empire, at the close of the war, the French Republic paid an indem-
nity of five milliards of francs, and ceded Alsace and Lorraine.
-
In giving the German people political unity Bismarck realized their
strongest and deepest desire; and the feeling entertained toward him
underwent a sudden revulsion. From 1862 to 1866 he had been the
best hated man in Germany. The partial union of 1867 — when, as
he expressed it, Germany was "put in the saddle"-made him a
national hero. The reconciliation with the people was the more com-
plete because, at Bismarck's suggestion, a German Parliament was
created, elected by universal suffrage, and because the Prussian min-
isters (to the great indignation of their conservative supporters) asked
the Prussian Deputies to grant them indemnity for their unconstitu-
tional conduct of the government during the preceding four years.
For the next ten years Bismarck had behind him, in Prussian and in
German affairs, a substantial nationalist majority. At times, indeed,
he had to restrain their zeal. In 1867, for instance, when they desired
to take Baden alone into the new union, the rest of South Ger-
many being averse to entrance,- Bismarck was obliged to tell them
that it would be a poor policy "to skim off the cream and let the
rest of the milk turn sour. "
Bismarck remained Chancellor of the Empire as well as Minister-
President of Prussia until 1890, when William II. demanded his
resignation. During these years the military strength of the Empire
was greatly increased; its finances were placed upon an independ-
ent footing; its authority was extended in legislative matters, and
its administrative system was developed and consolidated. Conflicts
with the Roman Catholic hierarchy (1873-87), and with the Social De-
mocracy (1878-90) resulted indecisively; though Bismarck's desire to
alleviate the misery which in his opinion caused the socialistic move-
ment gave rise to a series of remarkable laws for the insurance of
the laboring classes against accident, disease, and old age. With a
return to the protective system, which Bismarck advocated for fiscal
reasons, he combined the attempt to enlarge Germany's foreign mar-
ket by the establishment of imperial colonies in Africa and in the
Pacific Ocean. In other respects his foreign policy, after 1870, was
controlled by the desire to preserve peace. "Germany," he said,
"belongs to the satisfied nations. " When the Russian friendship
cooled, he secured an alliance with Austria (1879), which Italy also
joined (1882); and the "triple alliance" thus formed continued to


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1933
dominate European politics for many years after Bismarck's with-
drawal from office.
Of Bismarck's State papers, the greater portion are still buried in
the Prussian archives. The most important series that has been pub-
lished consists of his dispatches from Frankfort (Poschinger, Preussen
im Bundestag, 1851-8, 4 vols. ). These are marked by clearness of
statement, force of argument, and felicity of illustration.
The style,
although less direct and simple than that of his unofficial writings, is
still excellent. A large part of the interest attaching to these early
papers lies in their acute characterization of the diplomatists with
whom he had to deal. His analysis of their motives reveals from the
outset that thorough insight into human nature which was to count
for so much in his subsequent diplomatic triumphs. Of his later
notes and dispatches, such as have seen the light may be found in
Hahn's documentary biography (Fürst Bismarck,' 5 vols. ). His re-
ports and memorials on economic and fiscal questions have been
collected by Poschinger in 'Bismarck als Volkswirth. '
Of Bismarck's parliamentary speeches there exists a full collection
(reproduced without revision from the stenographic reports) in fifteen
volumes. Bismarck was not an orator in the ordinary acceptation of
the word. His mode of address was conversational; his delivery was
monotonous and halting. He often hesitated, searching for a word;
but when it came, it usually seemed the only word that could have
expressed his meaning, and the hesitation that preceded it gave it a
singular emphasis. It seemed to be his aim to convince his hearers,
not to win them; his appeal was regularly to their intelligence, not
to their emotions. When the energy and warmth of his own feelings
had carried him into something like a flight of oratory, there was apt
to follow, at the next moment, some plain matter-of-fact statement
that brought the discussion back at once to its ordinary level. Such
an anti-climax was often very effective: the obvious effort of the
speaker to keep his emotions under restraint vouched for the sincer-
ity of the preceding outburst. It should be added that he appre-
ciated as few Germans do the rhetorical value of understatement.
He was undoubtedly at his literary best in conversation and in
his letters. We have several volumes of Bismarck anecdotes, Bis-
marck table-talk, etc. The best known are those of Busch, which
have been translated into English — and in spite of the fact that his
sayings come
me to us at second hand and colored by the personality of
the transmitter, we recognize the qualities which, by the universal
testimony of those who knew him, made him one of the most fas-
cinating of talkers. These qualities, however, come out most clearly
in a little volume of letters (Bismarck briefe), chiefly addressed to
his wife. (These letters have been excellently translated into English


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1934
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
by F. Maxse. ) They are characterized throughout by vivid and
graphic descriptions, a subtle sense of humor, and real wit; and they
have in the highest degree-far more than his State papers or
speeches the literary quality, and that indescribable something
which we call style.
-
Bismarck furnishes, once for all, the answer to the old French
question, whether a German can possibly have esprit — witness his
response to the German prince who desired his advice regarding the
offer of the crown of one of the Balkan States: «< Accept, by all
means: it will be a charming recollection for you. " He possessed
also to a high degree the power of summing up a situation or char-
acterizing a movement in a single phrase; and his sayings have
enriched the German language with more quotations than the spoken
words of any German since Luther.
Of the numerous German biographies, Hahn's gives the greatest
amount of documentary material; Hesekiel's (which has been trans-
lated into English) is the most popular. The best French biography
is by Simon; the only important English work is that by Lowe. For
bibliography, see Schulze and Koller, 'Bismarck-Literatur' (1895),
which contains about 600 titles. The Frankfort dispatches and the
speeches have been translated into French, but not into English.
Munroe Smith
житое
TO FRAU VON ARNIM
SCHÖNHAUSEN, August 7th, 1850.
THE
HE fact is, this journey, and I see it more clearly the nearer
it approaches, gives me a right of reversion on the new
lunatic asylum, or at least a seat for life in the Second
Chamber. I can already see myself on the platform of the
Genthiner station; then both of us packed in the carriage, sur-
rounded with all sorts of child's necessaries- an embarrassing
company; Johanna ashamed to suckle the baby, which accord-
ingly roars itself blue; then the passports, the inn; then at Stettin
railway station with both bellowing monkeys; then waiting an
hour at Angermünde for the horses; and how are we to get from
Kröchlendorf to Külz? It would be perfectly awful if we had to
remain for the night at Stettin. I did that last year with Marie


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
་་
and her squallings. I was in such a state of despair yesterday
over all these visions that I was positively determined to give
the whole thing up, and at last went to bed with the resolve at
least to go straight through, without stopping anywhere; but
what will one not commit for the sake of domestic peace? The
young cousins, male and female, must become acquainted, and
who knows when Johanna will see you again? She pounced upon
me last night with the boy in her arms, and with all those
wiles which formerly lost us Paradise; of course she succeeded
in wringing my consent that everything should remain as before.
I feel, however, that I am as one to whom fearful injustice is
done, and I am certain that I shall have to travel next year with
three cradles, wet-nurses, long-clothes, and counterpanes. I am
now awake by six o'clock, and already in a gentle simmer of
anger; I cannot get to sleep, owing to all the visions of traveling
which my imagination paints in the darkest colors, even up to the
picnics" on the sandhills of Stolpmünde. And then if one were
only paid for it! But to travel away the last remnants of a once
handsome fortune with sucking babies! -I am very unhappy!
Well Wednesday, then, in Gerswalde-I should have done.
probably better by driving over Passow, and you would not have
had so far to Prenzlau as to G. However, it is now a fait
accompli, and the pain of selection is succeeded by the quiet of
resignation. Johanna is somewhat nervous about her dresses,
supposing you Boitzenburgers have company.
――
1935
TO HIS WIFE
FRANKFORT, August 7th, 1851.
I
WANTED to write to you yesterday and to-day, but, owing to all
the clatter and bustle of business, could not do so until now,
late in the evening on my return from a walk through the
lovely summer-night breeze, the moonlight, and the murmuring
of poplar leaves, which I took to brush away the dust of the
day's dispatches and papers. Saturday afternoon I drove out
with Rochow and Lynar to Rüdesheim; there I took a boat,
rowed out upon the Rhine, and swam in the moonlight, with
nothing but nose and eyes out of the water, as far as the
Mäusethürm near Bingen, where the bad bishop came to his end.
It gives one a peculiar dreamy sensation to float thus on a quiet


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
warm night in the water, gently carried down by the current,
looking above on the heavens studded with the moon and stars,
and on each side the banks and wooded hill-tops and the battle-
ments of the old castles bathed in the moonlight, whilst nothing
falls on one's ear but the gentle splashing of one's own move-
ments. I should like to swim like this every evening. I drank
some very fair wine afterwards, and then sat a long time with
Lynar smoking on the balcony-the Rhine below us.
My little
New Testament and the star-studded heavens brought us on the
subject of religion, and I argued long against the Rousseau-like
sophism of his ideas, without, however, achieving more than to
reduce him to silence. He was badly treated as a child by
bonnes and tutors, without ever having known his parents. Later
on, in consequence of much the same sort of education as
myself, he picked up the same ideas in his youth; but is more
satisfied and more convinced by them than ever I was.
Next day we took the steamer to Coblenz, stopped there an
hour for breakfast, and came back the same way to Frankfort,
where we arrived in the evening. I undertook this expedition.
with the intention of visiting old Metternich, who had invited
me to do so at Johannisberg; but I was so much pleased with
the Rhine that I preferred to make my way over to Coblenz and
to postpone the visit. When you and I saw it we had just re-
turned from the Alps, and the weather was bad; on this fresh
summer morning, however, and after the dusty monotony of
Frankfort, the Rhine has risen very considerably in my estima-
tion. I promise myself complete enjoyment in spending a couple
of days with you at Rüdesheim; the place is so quiet and rural,
honest people and cheap living. We will hire a small boat and
row at our leisure downwards, climb up the Niederwald and a
castle or two, and return with the steamer. One can leave this
place early in the morning, stay eight hours at Rüdesheim,
Bingen, or Rheinstein, etc. , and be back again in the evening.
My appointment here appears now to be certain.
Moscow, June 6th, 1859.
I
WILL send you at least a sign of life from here, while I am
waiting for the samovar; and a young Russian in a red shirt
is exerting himself behind me with vain attempts to light a
fire he puffs and blows, but it will not burn. After having
-
•


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1937
complained so much about the scorching heat lately, I woke
to-day between Twer and here, and thought I was dreaming
when I saw the country and its fresh verdure covered far and
wide with snow. I shall wonder at nothing again, and having
convinced myself of the fact beyond all doubt, I turned quickly
on the other side to sleep and roll on farther, although the play
of colors - from green to white in the red dawn of day was
not without its charm. I do not know if the snow still lies at
Twer; here it has thawed away, and a cool gray rain is rattling
on the green tin of the roofs. Green has every reason to be the
Russian favorite color. Of the five hundred miles I have passed
in traveling here, I have slept away about two hundred, but each
hand-breadth of the remainder was green in every shade. Towns
and villages, and more particularly houses, with the exception of
the railway stations, I did not observe. Bushy forests with birch-
trees cover swamp and hill, a fine growth of grass beneath, long
tracts of meadow-land between; so it goes on for fifty, one hun-
dred, two hundred miles. Ploughed land I do not remember to
have remarked, nor heather, nor sand. Solitary grazing cows or
horses awoke one at times to the presumption that there might
be human beings in the neighborhood. Moscow, seen from
above, looks like a field of young wheat: the soldiers are green,
the cupolas green, and I do not doubt that the eggs on the table
before me were laid by green hens.
You will want to know how I come to be here. I also have
already asked myself this question, and the answer I received
was that change is the soul of life. The truth of this profound
saying becomes especially obvious after having lived for ten
weeks in a sunny room of a hotel, with the look-out on pave-
ments. The charms of moving become rather blunted if they
occur repeatedly within a short period; I therefore determined to
forego them, handed over all paper to, gave Engel my keys,
declared that I would put up in a week at Stenbock's house, and
drove to the Moscow station. This was yesterday at noon, and
this morning, at eight o'clock, I alighted here at the Hôtel de
France. First of all I shall pay a visit to a charming acquaint-
ance of former times, who lives in the country, about twenty
versts from here; to-morrow evening I shall be here again;
Wednesday and Thursday shall visit the Kremlin and so forth;
and Friday or Saturday sleep in the beds which Engel will
meantime buy. Slow harnessing and fast driving lie in the
-
IV-122


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
character of this people. I ordered the carriage two hours ago:
to every call which I have been uttering for each successive ten
minutes of an hour and a half, the answer is, "Immediately,"
given with imperturbably friendly composure; but there the
matter rests. You know my exemplary patience in waiting, but
everything has its limits; afterwards there will be wild galloping,
so that on these bad roads horse and carriage break down, and
at last we reach the place on foot. I have meanwhile drunk
three glasses of tea and annihilated several eggs; the efforts at
getting warm have also so perfectly succeeded that I feel the
need of fresh air. I should, out of sheer impatience, commence
shaving if I had a glass. This city is very straggling, and very
foreign-looking, with its green-roofed churches and innumerable
cupolas; quite different from Amsterdam, but both the most
original cities I know. No German guard has a conception of
the luggage people drag with them into the railway carriage; not
a Russian goes without two real pillows in white pillow-cases,
children in baskets, and masses of eatables of every kind. Out
of politeness they bowed me into a sleeping car, where I was
worse off than in my seat. Altogether, it is astonishing to me to
see the fuss made here about a journey.
Moscow, June 8th.
TH
HIS city is really, as a city, the handsomest and most original
existing the environs are cheerful, not pretty, not ugly;
but the view from the top of the Kremlin on this pano-
rama of green-roofed houses, gardens, churches, spires of the
strangest possible form and color, mostly green, or red or bright
blue, generally crowned at the top with a gigantic golden onion,
and mostly five or more on one church, there are certainly a
thousand steeples! - anything more strangely beautiful than all
this lit up by the slanting rays of the setting sun it is impos-
sible to see. The weather has cleared up again, and I should
stay here a few days longer if there were not rumors of a great
battle in Italy, which may perhaps bring diplomatic work in its
train, so I will be off there and get back to my post. The
house in which I am writing is, curiously enough, one of the
few that survived 1812; old, thick walls, like those at Schön-
hausen, Oriental architecture, big Moorish rooms.
-


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1939
JUNE 28TH, Evening.
A
FTER a three hours' drive through the gardens in an open
carriage, and a view of all its beauties in detail, I am
drinking tea, with a prospect of the golden evening sky
and green woods. At the Emperor's they want to be en famille
the last evening, as I can perfectly well understand; and I, as a
convalescent, have sought retirement, and have indeed done quite
enough to-day for my first outing. I am smoking my cigar in
peace, and drinking excellent tea, and see, through the smoke of
both, a sunset of really rare beauty. I send you the inclosed
jasmine as a proof that it really grows and blossoms here in the
open air.
On the other hand, I must own that I have been
shown the common chestnut in shrub-form as a rare growth,
which in winter is wrapped up; otherwise, there are very fine.
large oaks, ash-trees, limes, poplars, and birches as thick as oaks.
PETERSBURG, July 26, 1859.
H
ALF an hour ago a cabinet courier woke me with war and
peace. Our policy drifts more and more into the Austrian
wake; and when we have once fired a shot on the Rhine,
it is over with the Italian-Austrian war, and in its place a Prus-
sian-French comes on the scene, in which Austria, after we have
taken the burden from her shoulders, stands by us or fails to
stand by us just so far as her own interests require. She will
certainly not allow us to play a very brilliant victor's part.
As God wills! After all, everything here is only a question
of time: nations and individuals, folly and wisdom, war and peace,
they come and go like the waves, but the sea remains. There is
nothing on this earth but hypocrisy and jugglery; and whether
fever or grape-shot tear off this fleshly mask, fall it must sooner
or later: and then, granted that they are equal in height, a like-
ness will after all turn up between a Prussian and an Austrian
which will make it difficult to distinguish them. The stupid
and the clever, too, look pretty much alike when their bones are
well picked. With such views, a man certainly gets rid of his
specific patriotism; but it would indeed be a subject for despair
if our salvation depended on them.


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1940
TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, OSCAR VON ARNIM
RHEINFELD, August 16th, 1861.
I
HAVE just received the news of the terrible misfortune which
has befallen you and Malwine. My first thought was to
come to you at once, but in wanting to do so I overrated
my powers. My régime has touched me up a good deal, and the
thought of suddenly breaking it off met with such decided oppo-
sition that I have resolved to let Johanna go alone. Such a
blow goes beyond the reach of human consolation. And yet it
is a natural desire to be near those we love in their sorrow, and
to lament with them in common. It is the only thing we can
do. A heavier sorrow could scarcely have befallen you. To lose
such an amiable and a so-happily-thriving child in such a way,
and to bury along with him all the hopes which were to be the
joys of your old days,- sorrow over such a loss will not depart
from you as long as you live on this earth; this I feel with you,
with deep and painful sympathy.
We are powerless and help-
less in God's mighty hand, so far as he will not himself help us,
and can do nothing but bow down in humility under his dispen-
sations. He can take from us all that he gave, and make us
utterly desolate; and our mourning for it will be all the bit-
terer, the more we allow it to run to excess in contention and
rebellion against his almighty ordinance. Do not mingle your
just grief with bitterness and repining, but bring home to your-
self that a son and a daughter are left to you, and that with
them, and even in the feeling of having possessed another be-
loved child for fifteen years, you must consider yourself blessed
in comparison with the many who have never had children nor
known a parent's joy.
I do not want to trouble you with feeble grounds for consola-
tion, but only to tell you in these lines how I, as friend and
brother, feel your suffering like my own, and am moved by it
to the very core. How all small cares and vexations, which
daily accompany our life, vanish at the iron appearance of real
misfortune! and I feel like so many reproaches the reminiscences
of all complaints and covetous wishes, over which I have so
often forgotten how much blessing God gives us, and how much
danger surrounds us without touching us. We are not to attach
ourselves to this world, and not regard it as our home. Another


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1941
twenty, or in happiest case thirty years, and we are both of us
beyond the cares of this life, and our children have reached our
present standpoint, and find with astonishment that the freshly
begun life is already going down hill. It would not be worth
while to dress and undress if it were over with that.
Do you still remember these words of a fellow-traveler from
Stolpemünde? The thought that death is the transition to an-
other life will certainly do little to alleviate your grief; for you.
might think that your beloved son might have been a true and
dear companion to you during the time you are still living in this
world, and would have continued, by God's blessing, the memory
of you here. The circle of those whom we love contracts itself
and receives no increase till we have grandchildren.
At our
time of life we form no fresh bonds which are capable of repla-
cing those that die off. Let us therefore keep the closer together
in love until death separates us from one another, as it now sep-
arates your son from us. Who knows how soon? Won't you
come with Malle to Stolpmünde, and stay quietly with us for a
few weeks or days? At all events I shall come to you at Kröch-
lendorf, or wherever else you are, in three or four weeks. I
greet my dearest Malle with all my heart. May God give her,
as well as you, strength to bear and patiently submit.
TO HIS WIFE
BIARRITZ, August 4th, 1862.
I
AM afraid I have caused some confusion in our correspondence,
as I induced you to write too soon to places where I have
not yet arrived. It will be better for you to address your
letters to Paris, just as though I were there; the embassy then
sends them after me, and I can more quickly send word there if
I alter my route. Yesterday evening I returned from St. Sebas-
tian to Bayonne, where I slept, and am now sitting here in a
corner-room of the Hôtel de l'Europe, with charming view on
the blue sea, which drives its white foam through the curious
cliffs against the lighthouse. I have a bad conscience for seeing
so many beautiful things without you. If one could transport
you here through the air, I would go directly back again to St.
Sebastian, and take you with me. Fancy the Siebengebirge with
the Drachenfels placed by the sea; close by, Ehrenbreitstein, and


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1942
between the two, pushing its way into the land, an arm of the
sea, somewhat broader than the Rhine, and forming a round bay
behind the mountains. In this you bathe in transparently clear
water, so heavy and so salt that you swim on the top of it by
yourself, and look through the broad gate of rocks into the sea,
or landward where the mountain chains top each other, always
higher, always bluer.
The women of the middle and lower classes are strikingly
pretty, occasionally beautiful; the men surly and uncivil; and the
comforts of life to which we are accustomed are missing. The
heat is not worse here than there, and I do not mind it; find
myself, on the contrary, very well, thank God. The day before
yesterday there was a storm, such as I have never seen anything
like. I had to take a run three times before I could succeed in
getting up a flight of three steps on the jetty; pieces of stone
and large fragments of trees were carried through the air. Un-
fortunately, therefore, I countermanded my place in a sailing
vessel to Bayonne, for I could not suppose that after four hours
all would be quiet and cheerful. I lost thus a charming sail
along the coast, remained a day more at St. Sebastian, and left.
yesterday in the diligence, rather uncomfortably packed between
nice little Spanish women, with whom I could not talk a syllable.
So much Italian, however, they understood that I could demon-
strate to them my satisfaction with their exterior. I looked
to-day at a railway guide to see how I could get from here-
that is, from Toulouse-by railway over Marseilles to Nice, then
by boat to Genoa; from there over Venice, Trieste, Vienna,
Breslau, Posen, Stargard to Cöslin! If it were only possible to
go over Berlin! I cannot very well pass through there just now.
TO HIS WIFE
HOHENMAUTH, Monday, July 9th, 1866.
DⓇ
o you still remember, my heart, how nineteen years ago we
passed through here on the way from Prague to Vienna?
No mirror showed the future, neither when, in 1852, I
went along this line with the good Lynar. Matters are going
well with us; if we are not immoderate in our demands, and do
not imagine that we have conquered the world, we shall acquire
a pace which will be worth the trouble.
But we are just as


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1943
quickly intoxicated as discouraged, and I have the ungrateful
task of pouring water in the foaming wine, and making them.
see that we are not living alone in Europe, but with three neigh-
bors still. The Austrians are in Moravia, and we are already so
bold that their positions to-day are fixed for our headquarters to-
morrow. Prisoners are still coming in, and one hundred and
eighty guns since the 3d up to to-day. If they call up their
southern army, with God's good help we shall beat them again.
Confidence is universal. I could hug our fellows, each facing
death so gallantly, so quiet, obedient, well-behaved, with empty
stomachs, wet clothes, wet camp, little sleep, the soles of their
boots falling off, obliging to everybody, no looting, no incendi-
arism, paying where they can, and eating moldy bread. There
must after all abide in our man of the soil a rich store of the
fear of God, or all that would be impossible. News of acquaint-
ances is difficult to obtain; people are miles apart from one
another; no one knows where the other is, and nobody to send;
men enough, but no horses. I have had Philip searched for, for
four days; he is slightly wounded in the head by a lance, as
G
-wrote to me, but I cannot find out where he is, and now
we are already forty miles farther on.
The King exposed himself very much indeed on the 3d, and
it was a very good thing that I was with him; for all warnings
on the part of others were of no avail, and no one would have
ventured to speak as I allowed myself to do the last time, and
with success, after a heap of ten men and fifteen horses of the
Sixth Regiment of cuirassiers were wallowing in their blood near
us, and the shells whizzed round the sovereign in the most un-
pleasant proximity. The worst luckily did not burst. But after
all I like it better than if he should err on the other side. He
was enchanted with his troops, and rightly, so that he did not
seem to remark all the whistling and bursting about him; as
quiet and comfortable as on the Kreuzberg, and kept constantly
finding battalions that he wanted to thank and say good evening
to, until there we were again under fire. But he has had to
hear so much about it, that he will leave it alone for the future,
and you can be at ease; besides, I hardly believe in another real
battle.
If you have no news of a person, you can all implicitly believe
that he lives and is well, as all casualties occurring to one's
acquaintances are known in twenty-four hours at the longest.


## p. 1944 (#134) ###########################################

1944
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
We have not come at all into communication with Herwarth and
Steinmetz, but know that they are both well. G- quietly leads
his squadron with his arm in a sling. Good-bye, I must go on
duty.
YOUR MOST TRUE V. B.
TO HIS WIFE
Note. This letter did not reach its destination, but, together with the
entire post, was captured by franc-tireurs and published by a French news-
paper.
VENDRESSE, 3 September [1870].
My Dear Heart:
I
LEFT my present quarters before early dawn the day before
yesterday, came back to-day, and have in the mean time wit-
nessed the great battle of Sedan, in which we made about
thirty thousand prisoners, and threw the remainder of the French
army, which we have been pursuing since Bar-le-Duc, into the
fortress, where they had to surrender themselves, along with the
Emperor, prisoners of war. Yesterday morning at five o'clock,
after I had been negotiating until one o'clock A. M. with Moltke
and the French generals about the capitulation to be concluded,
I was awakened by General Reille, with whom I am acquainted,
to tell me that Napoleon wished to speak with me. Unwashed
and unbreakfasted, I rode towards Sedan, found the Emperor in
an open carriage, with three aides-de-camp and three in attend-
ance on horseback, halted on the road before Sedan. I dis-
mounted, saluted him just as politely as at the Tuileries, and
asked for his commands. He wished to see the King; I told
him, as the truth was, that his Majesty had his quarters fifteen
miles away, at the spot where I am now writing. In answer
to Napoleon's question where he should go to, I offered him, as I
was not acquainted with the country, my own quarters at Don-
chéry, a small place in the neighborhood, close by Sedan. He
accepted, and drove, accompanied by his six Frenchmen, by me
and by Carl (who in the mean time had ridden after me) through
the lonely morning towards our lines. Before coming to the
spot, he began to hesitate on account of the possible crowd, and
he asked me if he could alight in a lonely cottage by the way-
side; I had it inspected by Carl, who brought word that it was
mean and dirty. "N'importe," said N. , and I ascended with him.


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1945
a rickety, narrow staircase. In an apartment of ten feet square,
with a deal table and two rush-bottomed chairs, we sat for an
hour; the others were below. A powerful contrast with our last
meeting in the Tuileries in 1867. Our conversation was a diffi-
cult thing, if I wanted to avoid touching on topics which could
not but affect painfully the man whom God's mighty hand had
cast down. I had sent Carl to fetch officers from the town and
to beg Moltke to come. We then sent one of the former to
reconnoitre, and discovered two and one-half miles off, in Fres-
nois, a small château situated in a park. Thither I accompanied
him with an escort of the cuirassier regiment of life-guards,
which had meantime been brought up; and there we concluded
with the French general-in-chief, Wimpffen, the capitulation by
virtue of which forty to sixty thousand Frenchmen,—I do not
know it accurately at present,- with all they possess, became
our prisoners. Yesterday and the day before cost France one
hundred thousand men and an Emperor. This morning the
latter, with all his suite and horses and carriages, started for
Wilhelmshöhe, near Cassel.
It is an event of great weight in the world's history, a victory
for which we will humbly thank the Almighty, and which decides
the war, even if we have to carry it on against France shorn of
her Emperor.
I must conclude. With heartfelt joy I learnt from your and
Maria's letters that Herbert has arrived among you. Bill I spoke
to yesterday, as already telegraphed, and embraced him from
horseback in his Majesty's presence, while he stood motionless in
the ranks. He is very healthy and happy. I saw Hans and
Fritz Carl, both Bülows, in the Second dragoon guards, well and
cheerful.
Good-by, my heart; love to the children.
TO HIS WIFE
Your
V. B.
OFEN, June 23d, 1852.
I
HAVE just come from the steamer, and do not know how
better to employ the moment I have at my disposal before
Hildebrand follows with my things, than by sending you a
little sign of life from this very easterly but very beautiful


## p. 1946 (#136) ###########################################

1946
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
world. The Emperor has been graciously pleased to assign me
quarters in his castle; and here I am in a large vaulted hall,
sitting at an open window through which the evening bells of
Pesth are pealing. The outlook is charming. The castle stands
high; beneath me, first, the Danube, spanned by the suspension
bridge; across it, Pesth; and further off the endless plain beyond
Pesth, fading away into the purple haze of evening. To the left
of Pesth I look up the Danube; far, very far away on my left,—
that is, on its right bank,- it is first bordered by the town of
Ofen; back of that are hills, blue and still bluer, and then comes
the brown-red in the evening sky that glows behind them.
Between the two towns lies the broad mirror of water, like that
at Linz, broken by the suspension bridge and a wooded island.
The journey here, too, at least from Gran to Pesth, would have
delighted you. Imagine the Odenwald and the Taunus pushed
near to each other, and the space between filled with the waters
of the Danube. The shady side of the trip was its sunny side;
it was as hot as if Tokay was to be grown on the boat: and the
number of tourists was great, but-only think of it—not an
Englishman! They cannot yet have discovered Hungary. There
were, however, odd customers enough, of all races, oriental and
occidental, greasy and washed. A very amiable general was my
chief traveling companion; I sat and smoked with him nearly the
whole time, up on the paddle-box.
I am growing impatient as to what has become of Hilde-
brand; I lean out of the window, partly mooning and partly
watching for him as if he were a sweetheart, for I crave a clean
shirt if you could only be here for a moment, and if you too
could now see the dull silver of the Danube, the dark hills on a
pale-red background, and the lights that shine up from below in
Pesth, Vienna would go down a good way in your estimation as
compared with "Buda-Pesth," as the Hungarians call it. You
see that I too can go into raptures over nature. Now that
Hildebrand has really turned up, I shall calm my fevered blood
with a cup of tea, and soon after go to bed.


## p. 1947 (#137) ###########################################

OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1947
JUNE 24TH: Evening.
Α
S YET I have had no opportunity to send this off. Again the
lights are gleaming up from Pesth; on the horizon, in the
direction of the Theiss, there are flashes of lightning; above
us the sky is clear and the stars are shining. I have been a
good deal in uniform to-day; presented my credentials, in formal
audience, to the young ruler of this country, and received a very
agreeable impression. After dinner the whole court made an
excursion into the hills, to the "Fair Shepherdess "-who, how-
ever, has long been dead; King Matthias Corvinus loved her
several hundred years ago.
There is a view from there (over
wooded hills, something like those by the Neckar) of Ofen, its
hills, and the plain. A country festival had brought together
thousands of people; they pressed about the Emperor, who had
mingled with the throng, with ringing shouts of "eljen" [vive];
they danced the csardas, waltzed, sang, played music, climbed
into the trees, and crowded the court. On a grassy slope there
was a supper table for some twenty persons, with seats on one
side only, while the other was left free for the view of forest,
castle, city, and country. Above us were tall beeches, with
climbing Hungarians on the branches; behind and quite near
us, a closely crowded and crowding mass of people; further off,
music from wind instruments, alternating with song-wild gipsy
melodies. Illumination-moonlight and sunset-red, with torches
scattered through the forest. It might all be produced without
a change as grand scenic effect in a romantic opera. Next to
me sat the white-haired Archbishop of Gran, in a black silk
gown with a red hood; on the other side a very amiable, trig
cavalry general. You see the picture was rich in contrasts.
Then we drove home in the moonlight with an escort of
torches.
It is very quiet and comfortable up here now; I hear nothing
but the ticking of a clock on the wall, and the distant rumble of
carriages below. May angels watch over you; over me, a gren-
adier in a bearskin does it, six inches of whose bayonet I see
projecting above the window-sill, a couple of arm's-lengths from
me, and reflecting a ray of light. He is standing above the
terrace on the Danube, and thinking perhaps of his Nancy.


## p. 1948 (#138) ###########################################

1948
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE
FRANKFORT DIET
Confidential Dispatch to Minister Von Manteuffel, May 30th, 1853
IN
IN CONNECTION with my report of to-day regarding the attitude
of certain envoys in the Kettenburg affair, I take the liberty
of making some confidential remarks regarding the personal
traits of my colleagues in general, in case it should interest your
Excellency to have the information.
Herr von Prokesch is probably well enough known in Ber-
lin to make further indications of his personal characteristics un-
necessary; at the same time, I cannot refrain from remarking that
the calmness and ease with which he advances false statements
of fact, or contests true statements, surpass my expectations, al-
though I have been led to expect a good deal in this direction.
These qualities are supplemented by a surprising degree of cool-
ness in dropping a subject or making a change of front, as soon
as the untruth which he has taken as his point of departure is
identified beyond the possibility of evasion. In case of necessity
he covers a retreat of this sort by an ebullition of moral indig-
nation, or by an attack, often of a very personal character, which
transfers the discussion to a new and quite different field. His
chief weapons in the petty war which I am obliged to wage
with him, as often as the interests which we represent diverge,
are: (1) Passive resistance, i. e. , a dilatory treatment of the
affair, by which he forces upon me the rôle of a tiresome dun,
and not infrequently, by reason of the nature of the affair, that
of a paltry dun. (2) In case of attack, the fait accompli, in the
shape of apparently insignificant usurpations on the part of the
Chair. These are commonly so calculated that any protest on
my part cannot but seem like a deliberate search for points of
controversy or like captious verbal criticism. It is therefore
scarcely possible for me to avoid, in my dealings with him, the
appearance of quarrelsomeness, unless I am willing to sacrifice
the interests of Prussia to a degree which every concession would
increase.
The Bavarian envoy, Herr von Schrenk, I place among the
best elements in the assembly, as regards both his capacity and
his character. He is a thorough and industrious worker, and
practical in his views and opinions; although his predominantly


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1949
juristic training and mode of thinking make him at times dispu-
tatious, and tend to impede the progress of affairs. In official
intercourse he is frank and obliging, so long as his [Bavarian]
patriotism, which is high-strung and extremely irritable, is treated
with consideration; a foible for which I take particular pains to
make allowance.
I
Our Saxon colleague, Herr von Nostitz, inspires in me less
confidence. It seems to me that he has at bottom a traditional
inclination toward Prussia and its political system, which is
nourished in part by a Protestantism that is more rationalistic
than orthodox, and by his fear of Ultramontane tendencies.
believe, however, and I should be glad to find that I do him an
injustice,— that on the whole, personal interests take precedence
with him over political interests, and that the suppleness of his
character permits him to view the latter in whatever light best
suits the former. His economic position is dependent upon his
place, aside from the salary, by reason of the fact that he owns a
house here in which he lives, which he bought before 1848 at a
high price, and which he has vainly attempted to rent for the
last five years.
His political course is therefore controlled by his
desire of remaining in his official position under every contin-
gency; and with the present tendency of the Saxon government,
Austria has certainly more opportunity to help him in keeping
his place than has Prussia. This circumstance indeed does not
prevent Herr von Nostitz from avoiding, as far as his instruc-
tions will allow, any patent injury to Prussia; but with his great
capacity for labor, his intelligence, and his long experience, he
constitutes the most effective support of all Austria's efforts in
the federal assembly. He is particularly adroit in formulating
reports and propositions in awkward controversial questions; he
knows how to give his draught a color of compromise without
the least sacrifice of any Austrian interest, as soon as the correct
interpretation comes to the aid of the apparently indeterminate
expression. When his draughts become the basis of subsequent
discussion, it is then usually discovered for the first time that the
real purpose for which they were drawn is contained in what
seemed to be casual and incidental words. If the current in
Dresden should shift in the Prussian direction, the valuable per-
sonal assistance which Herr von Nostitz is able to render by
means of his sense, his experience, and the credit both have
won him, would be thrown on the Prussian side with the same
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1950
certainty as now on the Austrian, unless too strong a tie were
found in the fact that one of his sons is being educated in the
Austrian Naval School, while another is already an officer in the
imperial service.
Herr von Bothmer returned to this place a few days ago as
representative of Hanover; I learn from him, however, with
regret, that his further stay here is in no wise assured. Not
only is his a straightforward character that awakens confidence,
but he is also the only one of my colleagues who has sufficient
independence to give me anything more than passive assistance
when I am obliged to protest against the conduct of the Chair.
His opposite is found in Herr von Reinhard. While Herr
von Bothmer is thorough, clear, and objective in his produc-
tions, those of the Würtemberg envoy bear the stamp of super-
ficiality and confused thinking. His removal from the federal
assembly might justly be regarded as a great gain for us. I do
not know whether his departure from Berlin was connected with
circumstances which have left in him a lasting dislike of Prus-
sia, or whether confused political theories (regarding which he
expresses himself with more ease and with greater interest than
regarding practical affairs) have brought him to believe that the
Prussian influence in Germany is deleterious: but at all events
his antipathy to us exceeds the degree which, in view of the
political situation of Würtemberg, can be supposed to exist in
the mind of his sovereign; and I have reason to assume that his
influence upon the instructions which are sent him, and his activ-
ity, so far as this is independent of instructions, are exerted, as a
matter of principle, to the disadvantage of Prussia.
In
his bearing towards me personally there is nothing which would.
justify the conclusion that his feelings are of the sort I have
indicated; and it is only rarely that a point is reached in our
debates at which, moderated by a certain timidity, his suppressed
bitterness against Prussia breaks out. I may remark incident-
ally that it is he who invariably appears at our sessions last,
and too late; and who, through want of attention and through
subsequent participation in the discussion on the basis of misap-
prehensions, occasions further repetitions and waste of time.
The envoy from Baden, Herr von Marschall, is not without
sense and fitness for affairs, but is scrupulously careful to avoid
the responsibility of an independent opinion, and to discover in
the least dubitable matter an intermediate point of view from


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1951
which it may be possible to agree with both sides, or at least to
disagree with neither. If there is no escape, he inclines, either
for family reasons or because his government is more afraid of
Vienna than of Berlin, to the Austrian side rather than to ours.
Support against the Chair-as, for example, in the matter of the
order of business, upon which he is charged with a report - I
can hardly expect from him.
Our colleague from the Electorate, Herr von Trott, takes as
little part as possible in the affairs of the Diet; especially avoids
reports and committee work; and is frequently absent, making
the representative from Darmstadt his proxy. He prefers country
life and hunting to participation in assemblies, and gives the
impression rather of a jovial and portly squire than of an envoy.
He confines himself to announcing his vote, briefly and in the
exact language of his instructions; and while the latter are
invariably drawn by the Minister, Hassenpflug, in accordance
with the directions received from Austria, it does not appear to
me that either Austria or the States of the Darmstadt coalition
enjoy the personal support of Herr von Trott any more than we
do an impartiality which is rendered easy to the Hessian envoy
as much by his distaste for affairs, and I like to think by the
revolt of his essentially honorable nature against all that savors
of intrigue, as by his formerly indubitable sympathy for Prussia's
interests.
We find a more inimical element in the Grand-Ducal Hes-
sian envoy, Baron von Münch-Bellinghausen. While this gentle-
man is attached from the start to the interests of Austria by his
family connections with the former presidential envoy of the
same name, his antagonism to Prussia is considerably intensified.
by his strong, and I believe sincere, zeal for the Catholic Church.
In private intercourse he is a man of agreeable manners; and as
regards his official attitude, I have to this extent no cause of
complaint that beyond the degree of reserve imposed upon him.
by the anti-Prussian policy of his government, I have observed in
him no tendency towards intrigue or insincerity. For the rest,
he is a natural opponent of the Prussian policy in all cases where
this does not go hand in hand with Austria and the Catholic
Church; and the warmth with which he not infrequently sup-
ports his opinion against me in discussion, I can regard only as
a proof of the sincerity of his political convictions. It is cer-
tainly, however, an anomalous thing that a Protestant sovereign,
―


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1952
who at this moment is in conflict with Catholic bishops, is repre-
sented in the Confederacy by Herr von Münch.
One of our trustiest allies is Herr von Scherff, who person-
ally is altogether devoted to the Prussian interests, and has
moreover a son in our military service; he is experienced in
affairs, and prudent to the point of timidity. This latter trait,
as well as the sort of influence which his Majesty the King of
the Netherlands exercises upon the federal instructions, often
prevents him from giving me, in the sessions of the Diet, that
degree of support which I should otherwise receive from him.
Outside of the sessions I have always been able to count on him
with confidence, whenever I have called upon him for advice,
and whenever it has been a question of his aiding me through
his influence upon some other envoy or through the collection of
information. With his Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia,
Herr von Scherff and his family justly stand in special favor.
Nassau and Brunswick are represented by the Baron von
Dungern, a harmless character, who has neither the personal
capacity nor the political credit requisite to give him influence in
the Federal Assembly. If the difference that exists in most
questions between the attitude of Brunswick and that of Nassau
is settled in most cases in favor of the views held by Nassau,
(i. e. , by Austria,) this is partly due indeed to the connection of
Herr von Dungern and his wife with families that are in the
Austrian interest, and to the fact that the envoy, who has two
sons in the Austrian military service, feels more dread of Austria's
resentment than of Prussia's; but the chief mistake lies in the
circumstance that Brunswick is represented by a servant of the
Duke of Nassau, who lives here in the immediate neighborhood
of his own court,- -a court controlled by Austrian influences,-
but maintains with Brunswick, I imagine, connections so closely
restricted to what is absolutely necessary that they can hardly be
regarded as an equivalent for the five thousand florins which his
Highness Duke William contributes to his salary.
The Mecklenburg envoy, Herr von Oertzen, justifies in all
respects the reputation of an honorable man which I had heard
attributed to him before he assumed his present position. In the
period immediately following the reopening of the Federal Diet,
he, like a large number of his fellow-countrymen, showed an


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OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK
1953
unmistakable leaning to Austria; but it seems to me indubitable
that his observation for two years of the methods which Austrian
policy employs here through the organ of the Chair has aroused
in Herr von Oertzen's loyal nature, in spite of the fact that he
too has a son in the Austrian army, a reaction which permits me
to count fully upon him as far as his personal attitude is con-
cerned, and upon his political support as far as his instructions—
of the character of which, on the whole, I cannot complain — in
any wise permit. In any case I can depend upon his pursuing,
under all circumstances, an open and honorable course.