, with a topical and historical
introduction
by Douglas Sladen, with a foreword by Geo.
Treitschke - 1915 - Confessions of Frederick the Great
The Confessions of Frederick the Great, and the Life of Frederick the Great, by Heinrich von Treitschke, now for the first time tr.
into English; ed.
, with a topical and historical introduction by Douglas Sladen, with a foreword by Geo.
Haven Putnam.
New York, Putnam, 1915.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g
Public Domain in the United States
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
This work is deemed to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
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. /"V.
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? ^? * A?
^ ? (C)? <<" j^
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? ? ft'
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? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? The Confessions
of
Frederick the Great
and
The Life of
Frederick the Great
By
Heinrich von Treitschke
Now for the First Time Translated into English
Edited, with a Topical and Historical Introduction
by
Douglas Sladen
With a Foreword by
Geo. Haven Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Cbe Ikntcfterbocfter ipress
1915
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Copyright, igis
BY
G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS
FEB 2 1915
Vbe ftnfclietboclset press, t^ew ]|? ocfc
(C)CI. Aan3585
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? PREFACE
THE origin of the gospel of inhumanity preached
by von Bemhardi in his Germany and the
Next War is to be found in the Confessions of
Frederick the Great, which came into my hands
accidentally a short time ago. The Rev. Graham
McEhoy, whom I met at a friend's house, who
had noticed the resemblance, lent me an eight-
eenth century duodecimo containing an EngHsh
translation of the first five " Mornings" of the Con-
fessions, which up till then were unknown to me.
And about the same time the editor of The Globe
showed me the proof of an article which he had
commissioned upon this book. It was a learned
and intuitive paper, and a perusal of it and the
book made me explore the subject at the British
Museum. There I found the other two "Morn-
ings," in another little eighteenth -century volume
in their original French, and one of them, the
highly important "Morning" which deals with
Finance, had apparently never been translated
into English on account of its banality.
Banal it is, but it contributes not a little to prov-
ing that the Confessions really were written by
Frederick, for it sets forth, so naturally that one
can almost hear Frederick saying the words,
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? iv Preface
his nostrums for improving the administration and
the yield of the Prussian taxes.
But intrinsic evidence is not necessary, for the
manuscript of the Confessions in French has been
preserved in Frederick's own handwriting, and if it
were necessary, I have the opinion of the accom-
plished French scholar to whom I sent, to be typed,
my translation of "Mornings" VI. and VII.
When I met her, I asked if she knew what she
had been typing. "No," she replied, "and what
is more, I cannot be certain whether the transla-
tion is from the French or from the German" -- the
fact being that Frederick, writing in French, was
unable to divest himself of Germanisms.
Even had von Bemhardi not openly confessed,
by allusion, his obligations to Frederick, no one who
had read the two books could fail to perceive that
the seed of Germany and the Next War is to be
found in the extremely amusing and shameless
Confessions of Frederick the Great. It is obvious
in all its nakedness.
And since von Bernhardi constantly admits his
indebtedness to Treitschke, the historian of the
Prussification of Germany, it seemed to me that
I could offer no more interesting commentary on
Frederick's Confessions than a translation of
what Treitschke wrote about the great Frederick.
This, like most of Treitschke's works, had never
been translated into English. It proved very
difficult to translate, and as my knowledge of Ger-
man is slight, Miss Louise Scheerer made a literal
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Preface v
translation of it, which I transposed, as far as I was
able, into current phraseology. Mr. Sidney Whit-
man, the learned author of our chief books about
Bismarck, who is second to no EngHsh writer on
contemporary Germany and Austria, had almost
completed explaining the phrases which baffled us,
when he introduced Dr. Oscar Levy, the editor of
the great eighteen- volume translation of Nietzsche,
and the chief authority on Nietzsche in Great
Britain. Dr. Lev^^ has most generously gone
through our entire translation to see that no
mistranslations have crept in.
It may be taken, therefore, that whatever the
literary faults, due entirely to me, may be, the
translation is accurate, a matter of immense
importance where Treitschke, who is almost as
difficult to translate as Carlyle would be, is
concerned. Treitschke, Hke Carlyle, is a great
word-coiner and word-joiner, and pours forth
torrents of ideas. But he is not more reliable
than Macaulay, for he generally applied a simi-
larly encyclopaedic knowledge with the partisan-
ship of an advocate rather than the justice of a
judge.
What sort of man Frederick was I shall endeav-
our to show in an introduction more within the
comprehension of a plain man than he would
be Hkely to find Treitschke's pregnant analysis of
Frederick's share in Prussification.
I shall not detain the reader by specifying
the actual passages in the Confessions which are
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? vi Preface
paralleled by von Bemhardi, but shall prefer to
point out how Frederick's unblushing disciple has
put into practice their Royal Larkinism, their
gospel of Tuum est meum.
D. S.
London, December, 1914.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? FOREWORD
THERE is a sharp conflict of opinion in regard
to the causation of, or the responsibility
for, the great struggle that is now desolating
Europe and that has even extended to the further-
most coast of Asia. It is my own opinion, an
opinion which is I believe held by the great
majority of Americans, that this conflict will go
down to history as the war of German aggression.
The war has been described as the natural ex-
pression of what has come to be known as the
HohenzoUem spirit and as the necessary result of
the HohenzoUern poHcy. Berlin and London are
at this time in accord on very few matters, but it
is possible that this definition in regard to the
inevitability of the European war imder the
conditions existing would be accepted in both
capitals.
Those who are studying the war with reference
to its causes and its probable results, and particu-
larly those who are in the position of Americans
and can investigate the war conditions without
reference to the safety, or at least to the immediate
safety, of their own homes, may naturally be
interested, therefore, in tracing the history of
what is called the HohenzoUem spirit and the
vii
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? viii Foreword
development of this all-important HohenzoUern
policy.
The Hohenzollem family has shown a full
measure of vitality and on the whole of persistence
of purpose; but, like all historic families the record
of which extends over centuries, its successive
personalities have varied very greatly in individual
force and in effectiveness, and also in the nature
and extent of their contributions to the success of
the family in the development of the realms over
which they came to rule and in extending its
influence upon the world outside of those realms.
When, in the thirteenth century, Conrad of
HohenzoUern, at that time Burggrave of Nurem-
berg, directed his political ambitions toward
North Germany, he doubtless indulged in the
usual visions of personal glory for himself and
for his family. He could hardly, however, have
looked forward to the position that was to be
secured, at the close of centuries of effort, by
his HohenzoUern descendants. The first historic
reference that we find to the HohenzoUerns is
connected with the name of Tasselin, who was
active in the time of Charlemagne, but the family
of the ZoUern Castle comes into actual history
only with the wanderjahr and the promotion of
Burggrave Conrad. The beginning of the political
power of the family may be said to date from
1 568 when the duchy of Prussia was made heredi-
tary in the House of HohenzoUern. It is the
state developed from the duchy of Prussia that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Foreword ix
to-day dominates the Empire of Germany and
that is fighting for the domination of Europe.
The real founder of the kingdom of Prussia and of
the Empire that has developed from that kingdom
was not the first King, Frederick I, to whom the
crown came in 1701, but his father the great
Elector of Brandenburg. It was the Elector
whose force of will and organizing capacity in-
stituted what might be called the Prussian system,
under which the resources of Brandenburg and
Prussia were later made so wonderfully effective.
The son of the Elector, the first King, did not
impress himself upon the history of the time ; while
the service of the grandson, Frederick William I,
was rendered in the form of saving up the re-
sources in men and in money which were to be
utilized so effectively by his son Frederick II,
known as Frederick the Great.
The Confessions of Frederick were brought into
t print in an English edition in the latter part of the
^ eighteenth century, shortly after the death of the
King. In the frank obliviousness of any moral
responsibility for human, or at least for royal,
action, they recall the famous letters written by
* Lord Chesterfield for the guidance of his godson.
There is, of course, a wide difference between
the subjects considered by the two writers. The
Englishman is giving counsel, based upon his own
\ experience, for the success of his godson in social
and political life, while the Prussian is impressing
upon the young man who is to succeed him in the
?
, with a topical and historical introduction by Douglas Sladen, with a foreword by Geo. Haven Putnam.
New York, Putnam, 1915.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g
Public Domain in the United States
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
This work is deemed to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? *? 4. ^
. /V^^V V-^-*%^^ V^'^^v^
& ? ft
^^n
^^^**
. /"V.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ^? * A?
^ ? (C)? <<" j^
^? ^ V>^
V^^V^ ""V^^^V'^^ ^J'^^V^"^ ^
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ft'
ir^*\4
i* <<
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? The Confessions
of
Frederick the Great
and
The Life of
Frederick the Great
By
Heinrich von Treitschke
Now for the First Time Translated into English
Edited, with a Topical and Historical Introduction
by
Douglas Sladen
With a Foreword by
Geo. Haven Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Cbe Ikntcfterbocfter ipress
1915
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Copyright, igis
BY
G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS
FEB 2 1915
Vbe ftnfclietboclset press, t^ew ]|? ocfc
(C)CI. Aan3585
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? PREFACE
THE origin of the gospel of inhumanity preached
by von Bemhardi in his Germany and the
Next War is to be found in the Confessions of
Frederick the Great, which came into my hands
accidentally a short time ago. The Rev. Graham
McEhoy, whom I met at a friend's house, who
had noticed the resemblance, lent me an eight-
eenth century duodecimo containing an EngHsh
translation of the first five " Mornings" of the Con-
fessions, which up till then were unknown to me.
And about the same time the editor of The Globe
showed me the proof of an article which he had
commissioned upon this book. It was a learned
and intuitive paper, and a perusal of it and the
book made me explore the subject at the British
Museum. There I found the other two "Morn-
ings," in another little eighteenth -century volume
in their original French, and one of them, the
highly important "Morning" which deals with
Finance, had apparently never been translated
into English on account of its banality.
Banal it is, but it contributes not a little to prov-
ing that the Confessions really were written by
Frederick, for it sets forth, so naturally that one
can almost hear Frederick saying the words,
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? iv Preface
his nostrums for improving the administration and
the yield of the Prussian taxes.
But intrinsic evidence is not necessary, for the
manuscript of the Confessions in French has been
preserved in Frederick's own handwriting, and if it
were necessary, I have the opinion of the accom-
plished French scholar to whom I sent, to be typed,
my translation of "Mornings" VI. and VII.
When I met her, I asked if she knew what she
had been typing. "No," she replied, "and what
is more, I cannot be certain whether the transla-
tion is from the French or from the German" -- the
fact being that Frederick, writing in French, was
unable to divest himself of Germanisms.
Even had von Bemhardi not openly confessed,
by allusion, his obligations to Frederick, no one who
had read the two books could fail to perceive that
the seed of Germany and the Next War is to be
found in the extremely amusing and shameless
Confessions of Frederick the Great. It is obvious
in all its nakedness.
And since von Bernhardi constantly admits his
indebtedness to Treitschke, the historian of the
Prussification of Germany, it seemed to me that
I could offer no more interesting commentary on
Frederick's Confessions than a translation of
what Treitschke wrote about the great Frederick.
This, like most of Treitschke's works, had never
been translated into English. It proved very
difficult to translate, and as my knowledge of Ger-
man is slight, Miss Louise Scheerer made a literal
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Preface v
translation of it, which I transposed, as far as I was
able, into current phraseology. Mr. Sidney Whit-
man, the learned author of our chief books about
Bismarck, who is second to no EngHsh writer on
contemporary Germany and Austria, had almost
completed explaining the phrases which baffled us,
when he introduced Dr. Oscar Levy, the editor of
the great eighteen- volume translation of Nietzsche,
and the chief authority on Nietzsche in Great
Britain. Dr. Lev^^ has most generously gone
through our entire translation to see that no
mistranslations have crept in.
It may be taken, therefore, that whatever the
literary faults, due entirely to me, may be, the
translation is accurate, a matter of immense
importance where Treitschke, who is almost as
difficult to translate as Carlyle would be, is
concerned. Treitschke, Hke Carlyle, is a great
word-coiner and word-joiner, and pours forth
torrents of ideas. But he is not more reliable
than Macaulay, for he generally applied a simi-
larly encyclopaedic knowledge with the partisan-
ship of an advocate rather than the justice of a
judge.
What sort of man Frederick was I shall endeav-
our to show in an introduction more within the
comprehension of a plain man than he would
be Hkely to find Treitschke's pregnant analysis of
Frederick's share in Prussification.
I shall not detain the reader by specifying
the actual passages in the Confessions which are
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? vi Preface
paralleled by von Bemhardi, but shall prefer to
point out how Frederick's unblushing disciple has
put into practice their Royal Larkinism, their
gospel of Tuum est meum.
D. S.
London, December, 1914.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? FOREWORD
THERE is a sharp conflict of opinion in regard
to the causation of, or the responsibility
for, the great struggle that is now desolating
Europe and that has even extended to the further-
most coast of Asia. It is my own opinion, an
opinion which is I believe held by the great
majority of Americans, that this conflict will go
down to history as the war of German aggression.
The war has been described as the natural ex-
pression of what has come to be known as the
HohenzoUem spirit and as the necessary result of
the HohenzoUern poHcy. Berlin and London are
at this time in accord on very few matters, but it
is possible that this definition in regard to the
inevitability of the European war imder the
conditions existing would be accepted in both
capitals.
Those who are studying the war with reference
to its causes and its probable results, and particu-
larly those who are in the position of Americans
and can investigate the war conditions without
reference to the safety, or at least to the immediate
safety, of their own homes, may naturally be
interested, therefore, in tracing the history of
what is called the HohenzoUem spirit and the
vii
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? viii Foreword
development of this all-important HohenzoUern
policy.
The Hohenzollem family has shown a full
measure of vitality and on the whole of persistence
of purpose; but, like all historic families the record
of which extends over centuries, its successive
personalities have varied very greatly in individual
force and in effectiveness, and also in the nature
and extent of their contributions to the success of
the family in the development of the realms over
which they came to rule and in extending its
influence upon the world outside of those realms.
When, in the thirteenth century, Conrad of
HohenzoUern, at that time Burggrave of Nurem-
berg, directed his political ambitions toward
North Germany, he doubtless indulged in the
usual visions of personal glory for himself and
for his family. He could hardly, however, have
looked forward to the position that was to be
secured, at the close of centuries of effort, by
his HohenzoUern descendants. The first historic
reference that we find to the HohenzoUerns is
connected with the name of Tasselin, who was
active in the time of Charlemagne, but the family
of the ZoUern Castle comes into actual history
only with the wanderjahr and the promotion of
Burggrave Conrad. The beginning of the political
power of the family may be said to date from
1 568 when the duchy of Prussia was made heredi-
tary in the House of HohenzoUern. It is the
state developed from the duchy of Prussia that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Foreword ix
to-day dominates the Empire of Germany and
that is fighting for the domination of Europe.
The real founder of the kingdom of Prussia and of
the Empire that has developed from that kingdom
was not the first King, Frederick I, to whom the
crown came in 1701, but his father the great
Elector of Brandenburg. It was the Elector
whose force of will and organizing capacity in-
stituted what might be called the Prussian system,
under which the resources of Brandenburg and
Prussia were later made so wonderfully effective.
The son of the Elector, the first King, did not
impress himself upon the history of the time ; while
the service of the grandson, Frederick William I,
was rendered in the form of saving up the re-
sources in men and in money which were to be
utilized so effectively by his son Frederick II,
known as Frederick the Great.
The Confessions of Frederick were brought into
t print in an English edition in the latter part of the
^ eighteenth century, shortly after the death of the
King. In the frank obliviousness of any moral
responsibility for human, or at least for royal,
action, they recall the famous letters written by
* Lord Chesterfield for the guidance of his godson.
There is, of course, a wide difference between
the subjects considered by the two writers. The
Englishman is giving counsel, based upon his own
\ experience, for the success of his godson in social
and political life, while the Prussian is impressing
upon the young man who is to succeed him in the
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle.
New York, Putnam, 1915.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g
Public Domain in the United States
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
This work is deemed to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
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. /V^^V V-^-*%^^ V^'^^v^
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^^n
^^^**
. /"V.
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? ^? * A?
^ ? (C)? <<" j^
^? ^ V>^
V^^V^ ""V^^^V'^^ ^J'^^V^"^ ^
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ft'
ir^*\4
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? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? The Confessions
of
Frederick the Great
and
The Life of
Frederick the Great
By
Heinrich von Treitschke
Now for the First Time Translated into English
Edited, with a Topical and Historical Introduction
by
Douglas Sladen
With a Foreword by
Geo. Haven Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Cbe Ikntcfterbocfter ipress
1915
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Copyright, igis
BY
G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS
FEB 2 1915
Vbe ftnfclietboclset press, t^ew ]|? ocfc
(C)CI. Aan3585
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? PREFACE
THE origin of the gospel of inhumanity preached
by von Bemhardi in his Germany and the
Next War is to be found in the Confessions of
Frederick the Great, which came into my hands
accidentally a short time ago. The Rev. Graham
McEhoy, whom I met at a friend's house, who
had noticed the resemblance, lent me an eight-
eenth century duodecimo containing an EngHsh
translation of the first five " Mornings" of the Con-
fessions, which up till then were unknown to me.
And about the same time the editor of The Globe
showed me the proof of an article which he had
commissioned upon this book. It was a learned
and intuitive paper, and a perusal of it and the
book made me explore the subject at the British
Museum. There I found the other two "Morn-
ings," in another little eighteenth -century volume
in their original French, and one of them, the
highly important "Morning" which deals with
Finance, had apparently never been translated
into English on account of its banality.
Banal it is, but it contributes not a little to prov-
ing that the Confessions really were written by
Frederick, for it sets forth, so naturally that one
can almost hear Frederick saying the words,
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? iv Preface
his nostrums for improving the administration and
the yield of the Prussian taxes.
But intrinsic evidence is not necessary, for the
manuscript of the Confessions in French has been
preserved in Frederick's own handwriting, and if it
were necessary, I have the opinion of the accom-
plished French scholar to whom I sent, to be typed,
my translation of "Mornings" VI. and VII.
When I met her, I asked if she knew what she
had been typing. "No," she replied, "and what
is more, I cannot be certain whether the transla-
tion is from the French or from the German" -- the
fact being that Frederick, writing in French, was
unable to divest himself of Germanisms.
Even had von Bemhardi not openly confessed,
by allusion, his obligations to Frederick, no one who
had read the two books could fail to perceive that
the seed of Germany and the Next War is to be
found in the extremely amusing and shameless
Confessions of Frederick the Great. It is obvious
in all its nakedness.
And since von Bernhardi constantly admits his
indebtedness to Treitschke, the historian of the
Prussification of Germany, it seemed to me that
I could offer no more interesting commentary on
Frederick's Confessions than a translation of
what Treitschke wrote about the great Frederick.
This, like most of Treitschke's works, had never
been translated into English. It proved very
difficult to translate, and as my knowledge of Ger-
man is slight, Miss Louise Scheerer made a literal
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Preface v
translation of it, which I transposed, as far as I was
able, into current phraseology. Mr. Sidney Whit-
man, the learned author of our chief books about
Bismarck, who is second to no EngHsh writer on
contemporary Germany and Austria, had almost
completed explaining the phrases which baffled us,
when he introduced Dr. Oscar Levy, the editor of
the great eighteen- volume translation of Nietzsche,
and the chief authority on Nietzsche in Great
Britain. Dr. Lev^^ has most generously gone
through our entire translation to see that no
mistranslations have crept in.
It may be taken, therefore, that whatever the
literary faults, due entirely to me, may be, the
translation is accurate, a matter of immense
importance where Treitschke, who is almost as
difficult to translate as Carlyle would be, is
concerned. Treitschke, Hke Carlyle, is a great
word-coiner and word-joiner, and pours forth
torrents of ideas. But he is not more reliable
than Macaulay, for he generally applied a simi-
larly encyclopaedic knowledge with the partisan-
ship of an advocate rather than the justice of a
judge.
What sort of man Frederick was I shall endeav-
our to show in an introduction more within the
comprehension of a plain man than he would
be Hkely to find Treitschke's pregnant analysis of
Frederick's share in Prussification.
I shall not detain the reader by specifying
the actual passages in the Confessions which are
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? vi Preface
paralleled by von Bemhardi, but shall prefer to
point out how Frederick's unblushing disciple has
put into practice their Royal Larkinism, their
gospel of Tuum est meum.
D. S.
London, December, 1914.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? FOREWORD
THERE is a sharp conflict of opinion in regard
to the causation of, or the responsibility
for, the great struggle that is now desolating
Europe and that has even extended to the further-
most coast of Asia. It is my own opinion, an
opinion which is I believe held by the great
majority of Americans, that this conflict will go
down to history as the war of German aggression.
The war has been described as the natural ex-
pression of what has come to be known as the
HohenzoUem spirit and as the necessary result of
the HohenzoUern poHcy. Berlin and London are
at this time in accord on very few matters, but it
is possible that this definition in regard to the
inevitability of the European war imder the
conditions existing would be accepted in both
capitals.
Those who are studying the war with reference
to its causes and its probable results, and particu-
larly those who are in the position of Americans
and can investigate the war conditions without
reference to the safety, or at least to the immediate
safety, of their own homes, may naturally be
interested, therefore, in tracing the history of
what is called the HohenzoUem spirit and the
vii
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? viii Foreword
development of this all-important HohenzoUern
policy.
The Hohenzollem family has shown a full
measure of vitality and on the whole of persistence
of purpose; but, like all historic families the record
of which extends over centuries, its successive
personalities have varied very greatly in individual
force and in effectiveness, and also in the nature
and extent of their contributions to the success of
the family in the development of the realms over
which they came to rule and in extending its
influence upon the world outside of those realms.
When, in the thirteenth century, Conrad of
HohenzoUern, at that time Burggrave of Nurem-
berg, directed his political ambitions toward
North Germany, he doubtless indulged in the
usual visions of personal glory for himself and
for his family. He could hardly, however, have
looked forward to the position that was to be
secured, at the close of centuries of effort, by
his HohenzoUern descendants. The first historic
reference that we find to the HohenzoUerns is
connected with the name of Tasselin, who was
active in the time of Charlemagne, but the family
of the ZoUern Castle comes into actual history
only with the wanderjahr and the promotion of
Burggrave Conrad. The beginning of the political
power of the family may be said to date from
1 568 when the duchy of Prussia was made heredi-
tary in the House of HohenzoUern. It is the
state developed from the duchy of Prussia that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Foreword ix
to-day dominates the Empire of Germany and
that is fighting for the domination of Europe.
The real founder of the kingdom of Prussia and of
the Empire that has developed from that kingdom
was not the first King, Frederick I, to whom the
crown came in 1701, but his father the great
Elector of Brandenburg. It was the Elector
whose force of will and organizing capacity in-
stituted what might be called the Prussian system,
under which the resources of Brandenburg and
Prussia were later made so wonderfully effective.
The son of the Elector, the first King, did not
impress himself upon the history of the time ; while
the service of the grandson, Frederick William I,
was rendered in the form of saving up the re-
sources in men and in money which were to be
utilized so effectively by his son Frederick II,
known as Frederick the Great.
The Confessions of Frederick were brought into
t print in an English edition in the latter part of the
^ eighteenth century, shortly after the death of the
King. In the frank obliviousness of any moral
responsibility for human, or at least for royal,
action, they recall the famous letters written by
* Lord Chesterfield for the guidance of his godson.
There is, of course, a wide difference between
the subjects considered by the two writers. The
Englishman is giving counsel, based upon his own
\ experience, for the success of his godson in social
and political life, while the Prussian is impressing
upon the young man who is to succeed him in the
?
, with a topical and historical introduction by Douglas Sladen, with a foreword by Geo. Haven Putnam.
New York, Putnam, 1915.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g
Public Domain in the United States
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
This work is deemed to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address.
? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? *? 4. ^
. /V^^V V-^-*%^^ V^'^^v^
& ? ft
^^n
^^^**
. /"V.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ^? * A?
^ ? (C)? <<" j^
^? ^ V>^
V^^V^ ""V^^^V'^^ ^J'^^V^"^ ^
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ft'
ir^*\4
i* <<
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? ? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? The Confessions
of
Frederick the Great
and
The Life of
Frederick the Great
By
Heinrich von Treitschke
Now for the First Time Translated into English
Edited, with a Topical and Historical Introduction
by
Douglas Sladen
With a Foreword by
Geo. Haven Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Cbe Ikntcfterbocfter ipress
1915
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Copyright, igis
BY
G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS
FEB 2 1915
Vbe ftnfclietboclset press, t^ew ]|? ocfc
(C)CI. Aan3585
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? PREFACE
THE origin of the gospel of inhumanity preached
by von Bemhardi in his Germany and the
Next War is to be found in the Confessions of
Frederick the Great, which came into my hands
accidentally a short time ago. The Rev. Graham
McEhoy, whom I met at a friend's house, who
had noticed the resemblance, lent me an eight-
eenth century duodecimo containing an EngHsh
translation of the first five " Mornings" of the Con-
fessions, which up till then were unknown to me.
And about the same time the editor of The Globe
showed me the proof of an article which he had
commissioned upon this book. It was a learned
and intuitive paper, and a perusal of it and the
book made me explore the subject at the British
Museum. There I found the other two "Morn-
ings," in another little eighteenth -century volume
in their original French, and one of them, the
highly important "Morning" which deals with
Finance, had apparently never been translated
into English on account of its banality.
Banal it is, but it contributes not a little to prov-
ing that the Confessions really were written by
Frederick, for it sets forth, so naturally that one
can almost hear Frederick saying the words,
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? iv Preface
his nostrums for improving the administration and
the yield of the Prussian taxes.
But intrinsic evidence is not necessary, for the
manuscript of the Confessions in French has been
preserved in Frederick's own handwriting, and if it
were necessary, I have the opinion of the accom-
plished French scholar to whom I sent, to be typed,
my translation of "Mornings" VI. and VII.
When I met her, I asked if she knew what she
had been typing. "No," she replied, "and what
is more, I cannot be certain whether the transla-
tion is from the French or from the German" -- the
fact being that Frederick, writing in French, was
unable to divest himself of Germanisms.
Even had von Bemhardi not openly confessed,
by allusion, his obligations to Frederick, no one who
had read the two books could fail to perceive that
the seed of Germany and the Next War is to be
found in the extremely amusing and shameless
Confessions of Frederick the Great. It is obvious
in all its nakedness.
And since von Bernhardi constantly admits his
indebtedness to Treitschke, the historian of the
Prussification of Germany, it seemed to me that
I could offer no more interesting commentary on
Frederick's Confessions than a translation of
what Treitschke wrote about the great Frederick.
This, like most of Treitschke's works, had never
been translated into English. It proved very
difficult to translate, and as my knowledge of Ger-
man is slight, Miss Louise Scheerer made a literal
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Preface v
translation of it, which I transposed, as far as I was
able, into current phraseology. Mr. Sidney Whit-
man, the learned author of our chief books about
Bismarck, who is second to no EngHsh writer on
contemporary Germany and Austria, had almost
completed explaining the phrases which baffled us,
when he introduced Dr. Oscar Levy, the editor of
the great eighteen- volume translation of Nietzsche,
and the chief authority on Nietzsche in Great
Britain. Dr. Lev^^ has most generously gone
through our entire translation to see that no
mistranslations have crept in.
It may be taken, therefore, that whatever the
literary faults, due entirely to me, may be, the
translation is accurate, a matter of immense
importance where Treitschke, who is almost as
difficult to translate as Carlyle would be, is
concerned. Treitschke, Hke Carlyle, is a great
word-coiner and word-joiner, and pours forth
torrents of ideas. But he is not more reliable
than Macaulay, for he generally applied a simi-
larly encyclopaedic knowledge with the partisan-
ship of an advocate rather than the justice of a
judge.
What sort of man Frederick was I shall endeav-
our to show in an introduction more within the
comprehension of a plain man than he would
be Hkely to find Treitschke's pregnant analysis of
Frederick's share in Prussification.
I shall not detain the reader by specifying
the actual passages in the Confessions which are
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? vi Preface
paralleled by von Bemhardi, but shall prefer to
point out how Frederick's unblushing disciple has
put into practice their Royal Larkinism, their
gospel of Tuum est meum.
D. S.
London, December, 1914.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? FOREWORD
THERE is a sharp conflict of opinion in regard
to the causation of, or the responsibility
for, the great struggle that is now desolating
Europe and that has even extended to the further-
most coast of Asia. It is my own opinion, an
opinion which is I believe held by the great
majority of Americans, that this conflict will go
down to history as the war of German aggression.
The war has been described as the natural ex-
pression of what has come to be known as the
HohenzoUem spirit and as the necessary result of
the HohenzoUern poHcy. Berlin and London are
at this time in accord on very few matters, but it
is possible that this definition in regard to the
inevitability of the European war imder the
conditions existing would be accepted in both
capitals.
Those who are studying the war with reference
to its causes and its probable results, and particu-
larly those who are in the position of Americans
and can investigate the war conditions without
reference to the safety, or at least to the immediate
safety, of their own homes, may naturally be
interested, therefore, in tracing the history of
what is called the HohenzoUem spirit and the
vii
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? viii Foreword
development of this all-important HohenzoUern
policy.
The Hohenzollem family has shown a full
measure of vitality and on the whole of persistence
of purpose; but, like all historic families the record
of which extends over centuries, its successive
personalities have varied very greatly in individual
force and in effectiveness, and also in the nature
and extent of their contributions to the success of
the family in the development of the realms over
which they came to rule and in extending its
influence upon the world outside of those realms.
When, in the thirteenth century, Conrad of
HohenzoUern, at that time Burggrave of Nurem-
berg, directed his political ambitions toward
North Germany, he doubtless indulged in the
usual visions of personal glory for himself and
for his family. He could hardly, however, have
looked forward to the position that was to be
secured, at the close of centuries of effort, by
his HohenzoUern descendants. The first historic
reference that we find to the HohenzoUerns is
connected with the name of Tasselin, who was
active in the time of Charlemagne, but the family
of the ZoUern Castle comes into actual history
only with the wanderjahr and the promotion of
Burggrave Conrad. The beginning of the political
power of the family may be said to date from
1 568 when the duchy of Prussia was made heredi-
tary in the House of HohenzoUern. It is the
state developed from the duchy of Prussia that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/loc. ark:/13960/t5h99vc8g Public Domain in the United States / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us
? Foreword ix
to-day dominates the Empire of Germany and
that is fighting for the domination of Europe.
The real founder of the kingdom of Prussia and of
the Empire that has developed from that kingdom
was not the first King, Frederick I, to whom the
crown came in 1701, but his father the great
Elector of Brandenburg. It was the Elector
whose force of will and organizing capacity in-
stituted what might be called the Prussian system,
under which the resources of Brandenburg and
Prussia were later made so wonderfully effective.
The son of the Elector, the first King, did not
impress himself upon the history of the time ; while
the service of the grandson, Frederick William I,
was rendered in the form of saving up the re-
sources in men and in money which were to be
utilized so effectively by his son Frederick II,
known as Frederick the Great.
The Confessions of Frederick were brought into
t print in an English edition in the latter part of the
^ eighteenth century, shortly after the death of the
King. In the frank obliviousness of any moral
responsibility for human, or at least for royal,
action, they recall the famous letters written by
* Lord Chesterfield for the guidance of his godson.
There is, of course, a wide difference between
the subjects considered by the two writers. The
Englishman is giving counsel, based upon his own
\ experience, for the success of his godson in social
and political life, while the Prussian is impressing
upon the young man who is to succeed him in the
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-05 01:02 GMT / http://hdl. handle.
