There was
Alsatian
local
tradition galore in the book, as if he at all times had
lived with these people.
tradition galore in the book, as if he at all times had
lived with these people.
Treitschke - 1914 - His Doctrine of German Destiny
net/2027/uiuo.
ark:/13960/t5j962q2q Public Domain in the United States / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-us
? 48 Treitschke
In 1867 Baden was for him merely das Landle (the
little country), but all the same he apparently did
not like to hear from us that our Grand Duchy
comprised more square miles than his Kingdom of
Saxony. He strictly adhered to his dogma of the
Rhine Convention, tendencies to Napoleonic
kingdoms nay, he even attributed to them aims
of aggrandizement. "What people thought of
1866" so he relates in his essay on the Constitu-
tional Kingdom "becomes apparent from the
painful exclamation of a well-meaning Prince to the
effect: 'What a pity we were at that time not on
Prussia's side, as we also should then have en-
larged our territory. " 1 But as formerly in Frei-
burg, so here, he misunderstood the population.
The fact that the developments in the summer of
1870 appeared to him like outpourings of the Holy
Ghost only proves that the deaf man never under-
stood the ways of our Palatines. Favourable
disposition towards the Rhine Convention, which
he suspected everywhere, was only to be found in
the elegant Ultramontane circles in which he
moved, and in the democratic journals which he
for his own journalistic purposes read more than
other people. It proved perhaps more correct
when he wrote, "The South Germans quietly
aspire to the Main with the reservation, however,
to revile it in their journals. "
Bismarck did not as yet enjoy general confidence,
but had he wanted Baden the Chamber would not
have refused. The factions in the town caused him
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? His Life and Work 49
amusement; Heidelberg had the advantage of two
political journals: the Heidelberg Journal and the
Heidelberg Zeitung, which were both Liberal and
had accomplished all that in a small town could
be reasonably expected of them. On this subject
he sketched, in his essay entitled Parties and
Factions (1871), the following pleasant picture:
"Who is not aware of how in towns of Central
Germany two journals side by side eke out a bare
and miserable existence, both belonging to the
same party, yet, for the sake of their valued
clientele, constantly fighting like cats? Who does
not know these journals of librarians outside whose
door the editor stands on duty, a polite host,
deferentially asking what the honourable public
desires to partake of? Tre fratelli tre castelli still
applies to our average press. "
Filled by the desire to continue the worthy
labours of the year 1866 he enthusiastically adopt-
ed Mathy's idea to include Baden in the North
German Convention, and thought it unkind that
Bismarck failed to honour Mathy's memorandum
on the subject with a reply. If Prussia should not
carry out her plans he was afraid the Pan-Germans
in Baden would again become masters of the situa-
tion, and he added: "If Bavaria, Wurtemberg,
and Baden should go with Austria, even the
European situation will assume a different physiog-
nomy. " All the same, he was at that time too
closely in touch with Bismarck to advocate too
strongly the Mathy plan in the A nnuals. Treitsch-
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? 50 Treitschke
ke stigmatized as obtrusive the Lasker Parlia-
mentary Bill of February, 1871, Lasker acting
as attorney for the Badenese Government, which
he was not, and surprising Bismarck with his
proposal without having first consulted him.
Mathy's death on February 4, 1868, affected
Treitschke all the more as Mathy had influenced
him considerably in his decision to gain for a second
time a footing in Baden. Besides, Treitschke
warmly remembered Mathy's beautiful trait in
assisting younger men whom he considered promis-
ing. "You belong to the few," Freytag admitted
to him, "who have fully grasped Mathy's love and
faith. " It was, however, not only Mathy's sweet-
ness of character which he had detected beneath
the caustic ways of the old Ulysses, but also his
political reliability. "I still cannot get over it,"
he mournfully wrote to Freytag; "among all the
old gentlemen of my acquaintance he was to me
the dearest and the one deserving of greatest
respect. " "The real Badenese," he said in
another letter, "never really cared for their first
politician, and your book again shows clearly the
sin for which Mathy never will be pardoned
character. " Another letter to the same friend
in August, 1868, runs as follows: "Here in the
South the disintegration of order continues. The
recent Constitutional Festival has vividly re-
minded me of our never-to-be-forgotten Mathy.
How the world has changed in twenty-five years
since Mathy organized the last Badenese Con-
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? His Life and Work 51
stitutional Festival ! Thank goodness, the belief
in this particularist magnificence has to-day com-
pletely disappeared. The festival was an osten-
sible failure, a forced and feigned demonstration.
The Ultramontanes kept aloof because they hated
Jolly and Beyer, and the Nationalists who partici-
pated for that reason openly admitted that they
had longed for the happy end of the old man. "
His depreciative opinion of the conditions in Baden
finally developed into slight when a few weeks
after the Constitutional Festival the ministerial
candidates Bluntschli, Lamey, and Keifer, who
had gone over on the formation of the new Minis-
try, attempted to overthrow the Ministry favour-
ably disposed towards Prussia by convoking the
Liberal deputies at Offenburg. In the Prussian
Annuals he now called upon his North German
friends in disdainful terms to study the pamphlet
of these gentlemen against Jolly, in order to gain a
somewhat more correct idea of the political state
of affairs in Baden. In his opinion it was a sort of
"Zuriputsch" arranged by the Swiss gentlemen,
Bluntschli, Schenkel, and Renaud. It might have
applied as far as Heidelberg was concerned, but
the country was really attached to Lamey, whose
name was tied up with the fall of the Concordat,
and whose canon laws of 1860, making a Catholic
country of Baden, were at that time praised by all
of us as the corner-stone of liberty and political
wisdom. Treitschke's only answer to Bluntschli 's
agitation for energetic revision of the Constitution
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? 52 Treitschke
was to leave the Paragon State in its present form
until Prussia would absorb the whole. The at-
tempt to overthrow the Ministry failed as the
Regent had been left out of account. In Heidel-
berg, Treitschke, at an assembly of citizens, took
up the cudgels for Jolly, and was principally
opposed by Schenkel, who declared that he would
not allow himself to be threatened by the sword of
Herr von Beyer. Surprised, Bluntschli, however,
wrote in his diary that the citizens applauded
Treitschke, who spoke for Jolly, no less than
Schenkel, who spoke against him. When the
whole question was brought before a second and
very largely-frequented assembly of the Liberal
Party in Offenburg, Bluntschli made Goldschmidt
and Treitschke's other friends promise that
Treitschke should abstain from speaking as he
would upset all peace proposals. The latter, how-
ever, immediately declared he could not be forced to
maintain silence. At least a thousand men con-
gregated from all parts of the country, more than
the big hall " Zum Salmen " was capable of holding.
Eckard, subsequently Manheim bank manager,
sat in the chair; on the part of the Fronde, Kieper,
instructed by Jolly, spoke, and for Jolly, Kusel
from Karlsruhe addressed the meeting. Treitschke
as a Prussian allowed the Badenese to speak first,
and only towards the finish did he ascend the plat-
form. A contributor of the Taglische Rundschau
gave the following account: "The meeting had
lasted for a considerable time, and the audience,
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? His Life and Work 53
after standing for hours closely packed in the
heavy, hot air, was tired, when a person unknown
to us started speaking. His delivery was slow and
hesitating, with a peculiar guttural sound, and his
intonation was monotonous. Citizens and peas-
ants amongst whom I stood looked at each other
astonished and indignant. Who was this appar-
ently not very happy speaker who dared to claim
the patience of the assembly? We were told it
was Professor Treitschke of Heidelberg. At first
ill-humoured, but soon with growing interest, we
followed his speech, which gradually became more
animated. The power and depth of thoughts the
compelling logic proofs adduced, the clearness and
force of language, and above all the fire of patriot-
ism, all this captivated the listeners and carried
them irresistibly away. The outward deficiencies
of the lecturer were now unobserved; attentively
with breathless excitement, these simple people
listened to the orator, who spoke with the force of
the holiest conviction; and when finishing with
the exhortation to set aside all separating barriers
for the sake of the country, a real hurricane of
enthusiasm broke forth. The audience crowded
round the speaker and cheered him; he was lifted
by strong arms amid ceaseless enthusiasm. It was
the climax of the day. Never since have I wit-
nessed a similar triumph of eloquence. "
He had appealed particularly to the peasants
present by his outspoken and simple words.
Schenkel likewise was disarmed. Heidelberg
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? 54 Treitschke
friends related how Schenkel, who in Heidelberg
had contested Treitschke's speech in favour of
Jolly, immediately afterwards advanced towards
the platform in order to speak, but Treitschke's
utterances had rendered unnecessary a rejoinder.
When, on the other hand, I asked Treitschke after
his return whether in his opinion peace would be a
lasting one, he replied: "Oh, Lord, no! the lack
of character is much too great. " In a still more
disdainful manner and full of passionate exaspera-
tion against Bluntschli he wrote to Prey tag:
"Jolly understands very well how to assert himself
here; daily he cuts a piece off the big Liberal list
of wishes, but immediately a new one grows be-
neath. Where is this to lead? Moreover, there
are blackguards like this miserable Bluntschli at
the head of the patriots! Nokk, my brother-in-
law, who is well able to judge the situation, has
long ago despaired of a peaceful solution. "
In January, 1870, whilst staying at Heidelberg,
and shortly before the outbreak of war, the second
collection of historic political essays was published.
The editor's intention was to publish them before
Christmas, but Treitschke delayed matters. "I
hate everything suggestive of business," he told
me, "and I don't want to belong to the Christmas
authors. " He was also averse to editions in parts.
The essay on Cavour, which shortly afterwards
appeared translated in Italian, brought him the
Italian Commander Cross a necklace, as his wife
said. When one of his friends had fallen in dis-
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? His Life and Work 55
grace on account of a biting article in the Weser
Zeitung attributed to him, Treitschke said: "If
the man wants to carry a chamberlain's key and
six decorations, he might as well have the muzzle
belonging to it"; and when asking him whether
this also applied to him, he replied: "No, but I
have not been asking for it. " This volume of
historic essays contained the treatise on the Repub-
lic of the Netherlands full of sparkling descrip-
tions of Holland and her national life, which
proved that not in vain had he brought his Brief je
van de uuren van hat vertrekk, i. e. his railway book-
let for the land of the frogs and the ducats. Par-
ticularly weighty, however, was his essay on
French Constitution and Bonapartism, in which
he proved that Bonapartism had revived, thanks
to the Napoleonic fundaments of State having
remained, a circumstance which even after the
fall of Napoleon III, and in spite of all their de-
feats, made him believe in -the return of the Bona-
partes. His essay On the Constitutional Kingdom,
forming part of this collection, and containing
views on the wretchedness of Small State Court
life; on the poverty of thought and the rudeness
of the South German Press; on the South Ger-
man's respectful awe of the deeds of Napoleon, the
national arch-enemy; and on the bustling vanity
of Church authorities, could not create a great
impression after his previous and much stronger
dissertations. He himself was dejected owing to
the scantiness of enthusiasm aroused by his per-
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? 56 Treitschke
sistent appeals "to discard decayed political
power," to upset the Napoleonic crowns and to
continue the laudable efforts of 1866. Some friends
likened his situation to that of Borne, who is the
object of criticism in one of the essays, and who,
in his Paris letters, always predicted anew the
revolution which always failed to materialize. By
Napoleon's declaration of war "this sturdy cen-
tury" took the last stride towards its goal.
Being a border power, Baden naturally feared
the war which Treitschke was pining for. At that
time already his mind was clear as to the weakness
of the Empire, and the profligate stupidity of the
French people. Being constantly in touch with
Berlin he was better informed regarding certain
developments than we were. When speaking to
him for the first time after the declaration of war
he solemnly said: "I think of the humiliation we
escaped! If Bismarck had not drawn up so
cleverly the telegram on the Benedetti affair the
King would have yielded again. " At the general
drinking bout improvised by the students prior
to going to the front or to barracks, Treitschke
was received as if he had been the commander-in-
chief , and he certainly was on that evening. The
speech of Pro-Rector Bluntschli, opening the ball,
had a decidedly sobering effect. He pointed out
how many a young life would come to an early end,
how many a handsome fortune would be lost, how
many a house and village would be burned to ashes,
etc. The speech was written down, and when
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? His Life and Work 57
shown to Treitschke he merely said, "S'isch halt a
Schwizer" ("He is, after all, only a Swiss")-
Capital words by Zeller followed: "We have
heard the crowing of the Gallic cock, and the
roaring of Mars ; but there is only one to tame wild
Ares, and that is Pallas Athene, the Goddess of
Clever Strategy, and upon her we rely. " When,
subsequently, Treitschke rose, applause and ac-
clamations prevented him for some time from
making himself heard. His speech expressed joy
at the events happening in our lifetime, and ex-
hortations to prove as worthy as the fighters of
1813. Ideas and colour of speech were as count-
less as the bubbles in a glass of champagne, but
they intoxicated. His magnificent peroration
terminated approximately in the following manner:
"Fichte dismissed German youth to the Holy
War with the motto, 'Win or die'; but we say,
1 Win at any price ! ' ' Already he had received a
more cordial reception than anyone, but now
hundreds rushed forward with raised glasses eager
to drink his health. The shouts of enthusiasm
threatened the safety of floor and ceiling. As one
crowd receded, so another surged round him, just
as waves beget waves. I have seen many teachers
honoured under similar circumstances, all with a
smile of flattered vanity on their lips, but never
had homage assumed such proportions. Treitsch-
ke's face showed outspoken joy at these warm-
hearted young people, who surely would not fail
to give a good account of themselves, and it was
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? 58 Treitschke
distinctly annoying to him that the following
winter he had to give lectures to those who had
not joined the ranks. He was, however, deeply
moved at the nation having risen as one man, and
he apologized for all the unkind words he had
uttered previously. Later on, he wrote: "During
those days in Germany it seemed as if humanity
had improved. " The song on the Prussian eagle,
which from Hohenzollern flew towards the north
and now returns southwards a subject inspired
by Baumgarten is a beautiful memento of his
elated feelings at that time.
During the ensuing period he led a surprisingly
retired life, and we heard only that he was writing.
When meeting him shortly before the days of
Saarbruck, he looked pale and excited. "What a
long time it takes, " he said, "for such great armies
to be brought together! The tension is almost un-
bearable. " He was visibly ill with excitement.
When the days of Worth and Spichern had happily
passed, we met at the Museum to study the tele-
grams which arrived hourly. He, however, failed
to turn up, and it was said he was writing. There
was a good deal of simulated activity about, but
for him there was nothing in particular to do. At
last his excellent essay, What We Demand of France,
saw the light of day, and at the same time it
appeared in the Prussian Annuals. Now it was
evident what he had been doing in seclusion.
Everybody was amazed at the mass of detail
collected during the short interval, in order to
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? His Life and Work 59
impress the reader with the thoroughly German
character of Alsace. Of almost every little town
he knew a story by which it became intertwined
with the German past.
There was Alsatian local
tradition galore in the book, as if he at all times had
lived with these people. To his mind the fact that
the Alsatians at the time would not hear of Ger-
many did not make them French. "The mind of
a nation is not formed by contemporary genera-
tions only, but by those following. " Erwin von
Steinbach and Sebastian Brandt, also, were of
some account, and, after reviewing the German
past of the country, he asks: "Is this millennium,
rich in German history, to be wiped out by two
centuries of French supremacy? " In regard to
the future of Alsace he was from the first convinced
it would have to become a Prussian province, as
Prussian administration alone possessed the power
to rapidly assimilate it. Only when convinced of
the realization of Unitarian ideas a Prussian, as he
now always called himself, could desire to see a
frontier of Prussia extending from Aachen to Mul-
house. To make out of Alsace an independent
State, enjoying European guarantee of neutrality,
as proposed by Roggenbach in the Reichsrath,
would have meant creating a new Belgium on our
south-west coast, in which the Catholic Church
would have been the only reality, and Treitschke,
in his essay of 1870, replied thereto by referring to
the "disgusting aspect of the nation Luxemburg-
oise, " although in the Annuals he ostensibly spared
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? 60 Treitschke
the quaint statesman, who was his friend. "Let
us attach Alsace to the Rhine Province, " he said;
"we shall then have a dozen more opposition votes
in Parliament, and what does that matter? The
rest you leave to Prussian administration. "
Neither we nor he could foresee that in thirty
years it would not achieve more; but he did not
fail to point out that the only cause of the failure
was the creation of the " Reichsland, " a hybrid
which was neither fish nor flesh. He, however,
shared Freytag's aversion for the title of Emperor,
which, in his opinion, bore too much of black, red,
gold, and Bonapartist reminiscences. Both wished
for a German King; but finally Bluntschli's com-
mon-sense prevailed, he having suggested, "The
peasant knows that an Emperor is more than a
King, and for that reason the Chief of an Empire
must be called Emperor; besides, it will be better
for the three Kings; they will then know it, too,"
saying which the stout Swiss laughed heartily.
On the other hand, Treitschke never became
reconciled to Bavaria's reserved rights. He spoke
of a new treaty of Ried, similar to that which, in
1813, guaranteed sovereignty to Bavaria, and
expressed anger at the weakly Constitution which
reverted again to federalism. With malicious joy
he reported that the former Pan-Austrian fogy,
when examining students for the degree of Doctor
of Law, now always questioned on Bavarian re-
served rights. The whole arrangement with
Bavaria and Wurtemberg appeared to him "like
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? His Life and Work 61
a Life Insurance Policy of the Napoleonic crowns
with his magnanimous Prussia, which compelled
him to adjourn his Unitarian plans ad Grcecas
calendas. "
It is also peculiar to what a small extent he
shared in the triumphant tone displayed every-
where after the war. Sybel's essay, What We might
Learn of France, had his full approval. He was
disgusted with the way the journalists in the news-
papers, the teacher in the chair, and the clergyman
in the pulpit gave vent to their patriotic effusions.
In his letters he likewise spoke slightingly of
the modern customary orations regarding German
virtue and French vice. The more he disliked
the remnants of particularism in the new Consti-
tution, the less he was disposed to admire the
Germans, who, in his opinion, had forfeited the
greatest reward of great times by their own in-
dividualism. This it was which distinguished him
from the ordinary Chauvinist, and only too well he
realized in how many things the nation, in spite of
all successes, had remained behind his ideals.
Nobody, however, has given more beautiful
expression to the deep and serious thoughts with
which we celebrated peace in 1871. Like a prayer-
book we read the essay in the Annuals, in which he
opened his heart. He himself had lost his only
brother at Gravelotte, my wife hers at La Chart re.
The Prussian nobility was in mourning; he, how-
ever, consoled us: "May common grief still more
than great successes unite our people formerly at
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? 62 Treitschke
variance with each other. Rapidly die away the
shouts of victory, long remain the deep lines of
grief. Who will count the tears which have been
shed around the Christmas-tree? Who has seen
the hundred thousand grieved hearts from the
Alps to the sea, who, like a big, devout community,
have pinned their faith again to the splendour of
the Fatherland? " Actuated by the same senti-
ments, I had preached, shortly before, in the
Church of the Holy Spirit, on "Blessed are ye who
have suffered, " and therefore could doubly appre-
ciate his efforts to touch the people's innermost
feelings. His words have never been forgotten.
V.
The few years which Treitschke spent in Heidel-
berg after the war were, as he himself admitted,
the happiest of his life. His tiny house, overlook-
ing the Neckar and Rhine Valley, was for him a
constant source of joy, and proudly he would take
his visitors to the top of the vineyard, from which
the Speyer Dom and Donner Mountain, near
Worms, were visible. Immediately adjacent to
his property excavations had been made in times
gone by, and even now bricks and fragments of
pottery, bearing the stamp of the Roman Legation
were to be found. Thus he had historical ground
even under his feet. When, occasionally, on my
return from a visit about midnight, I still saw
lights in his study, I could not refrain from think-
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? His Life and Work 63
ing of Schiller, who, likewise, found the late hours
of night most propitious for his creations. It
would be a mistaken idea to think that Treitschke,
vivaciously as he lectured, wrote his works with-
out exhaustive preparations. He just served as a
proof that genius and industry go hand-in-hand.
Thanks to his iron constitution, he could work
until two o'clock in the morning, yet be gay and
full of life the following day. Surrounded by his
small crowd of children two girls and a boy and
with his elegant and slim-looking wife by his side,
he felt truly happy. It was a thoroughly aristo-
cratic and harmonious home, which in every detail
betrayed the gentle and tasteful hand of his spouse.
There was something distinctly humorous in his
peculiar ways, which made the visitor feel at home.
Above all, he was completely unaware of the noise
he made. Baumgarten, who was nervous, and
worked with him in the Archives, declared that
not only was the throwing of books and constant
moving of his chair unbearable, but also his un-
controllable temper. On one occasion, Treitschke
took up the register he had been studying, and
jumping about the room on one leg, shouted,
"Aegidi, Aegidi! " It appeared that in the Am-
bassador's Report of the Prussian Diet of 1847
he had found a memorial of his friend Aegidi stud,
juris in Heidelberg, which the Ambassador had
communicated to Berlin with a view to showing
the present spirit of German students, and which
started with the following declaration: "Like the
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? 64 Treitschke
Maid of Orleans before the King of her country, so
I, a German youth, come before the noble Diet
in order to give proof of the patriotic wishes
agitating youth. " Similar humorous outbursts
of his temperament occurred, of course, at home
as well. He at times experienced difficulties with
his toilette. The ladies, then, had to manipulate
him into a corner to adjust his tie or collar. In
Scheveningen, where he occupied a room next his
family, he once rushed out on the general balcony
when unable to manipulate a button, shouting,
''Help! help! " so that the phlegmatic Dutch
neighbours looked out of the windows, thinking a
great misfortune had happened. The importunity
with which some people asked for autographs, and
others for copies of his books, his photograph, or a
memento of some kind, provided his keen sense of
propriety with excellent material for displaying
originality. All this, however, was done in such a
humorous fashion that his company proved most
amusing. He behaved towards his students with
strictness, although he was gay enough when
addressing them from the chair. They idolized
him, but at all times he kept them at a distance.
When the University filled again for the winter
term, 1871-1872, Treitschke had gained among the
students a position second to none. His lectures
on modern history, politics, and the Reformation,
were crowded, and his descriptive powers always
thrilled his audience. Hausser's force had been
in his irony; with Treitschke, humour and pathos
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? His Life and Work 65
alternated like thunder and lightning. Even
listeners of more matured age admitted that they
had never heard anything that could be compared
with his natural elementary eloquence. Unable to
hear the clock strike, he had arranged with those
sitting in front to make a sign at a given hour;
but, as nobody wished him to discontinue, he often
unduly prolonged his lectures. Now and then
ladies turned up. At first he informed them by
letter that he could not permit their presence,
but when they persisted in coming he told the
porter to refuse them entrance, and angrily added
his intention of putting up a notice similar to
those in front of anatomical theatres: "For
gentlemen only! " When meeting his colleagues
he never even hinted at the striking success he
scored with his audience. His disposition was
anything but over-confident, and he associated
just as cordially with those whose academic
failures were notorious provided he appreciated
them otherwise as with the past-masters, whose
level was as high as his own. He never referred
at all to the demonstrations which students made
in his favour. In the choice of his friends, as well
as in the choice of his enemies, he was aristocratic,
but vain he was not. Enthusiastic patriotism was
the keynote of his life, and this explains its aesthet-
ics. A sensitive admirer of nature, appreciating as
keenly as anybody the lovely scenery of the ruins
of Heidelberg Castle, he nevertheless favoured
the re-building of the same, obsessed by the idea
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? 66 Treitschke
that it must become the palace of the German
King. His literary opinions could easily be gauged
as his compass always pointed towards Prussia.
When he invited us to an evening, we knew before-
hand we should read the Prince of Hamburg, or
some similar work. This explains also his pre-
dilection for Kleist, and for Uhland, the patriot.
Of Hebbel's works he was about to prepare an
analysis of them in a new form for publication in
the essays the Nibelungs were his favourite.
Did he not himself bear resemblance to Siegfried,
who plans to chain up the perfidious Danish Kings
outside the gate, where, as they had behaved like
dogs, they were to bark on his arrival and de-
parture? This was quite his style of thinking,
just as at the Theatre Francais my travelling
companion, when listening to the patriotic ravings
of Ernani, the highwayman, whispered to me:
" Exactly like Treitschke! " Not only The Trou-
sers of Hen von Bredow, of which he knew con-
siderable parts by heart, but Brandenburg poetry
in general, gave him great pleasure. He even
shielded Hesekiel and Scherenberg against attacks ;
and the scruples of learned men respecting Prey-
tag's Ingo and Ingraban were suppressed by him.
Turbulent men were to his liking; the criticisms
of German Law History and of the Spruner Atlas
regarding these descriptions had, to his mind,
nothing to do with poetry. Whatever met with
the approval of his patriotism could be sure of his
appreciation. My first two novels met with a very
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? His Life and Work 67
friendly reception in the Press, as, thanks to my
pseudonym, "George Taylor," quite different
authors had been suspected. No sooner, how-
ever, had the wise men from the East discovered
that a theologian had been the author than, on
the appearance of the third novel, entitled Jetta,
they vented their rage at having been deceived.
Treitschke, however declared Jetta to be the best
of the three books. He liked the Alemans for the
thrashing they had given the Romans, and that
settled the matter as far as he was concerned.
The way the learned fraternity censured Hermann
Grimm appeared stupid to him, like school pedan-
try. He. realized as well as anybody else the de-
fects and mistakes, but he called it childish spite
to take to task such an ingenious author for all
sorts of blunders and amateurish trivialities when
he had original views, and had created a picture of
culture such as the life of Michelangelo. In the
same way he stood up for living and not for dead
writers, in spite of the opposition of the learned
fraternity; but he did not, however, defend their
superficiality or phrase-making.
The great literary post-bellum events were The
Old and the New Faith, by Strauss, and the revival
of Schopenhauer pessimism by Hartmann and
Nietzsche, books which albeit different in form,
yet related in their fundamental views of the
world appeared to Treitschke, in view of the
melancholy tone adopted, like an inexplicable
phenomenon. How could anybody be a pessimist
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? 68 Treitschke
in times like the present, when it was a pleasure
to be alive? Of Hartmann he said: "This is the
philosophy of the Berliner when suffering from
phthisis. " With Olympic roars of laughter he
derided, over a glass of beer, Hartmann's senti-
mentality and his many discussions whether the
feelings of pleasure or displeasure predominate
in human nature. After all, Hartmann had left
us the consolation of Nirvana; but Nietzsche, by
his revival theory, deprived us of the consoling
thought of peacefulness after death. Nietzsche's
first essay on the origin of tragedy had met with
Treitschke's approval. Was he not himself to
adopt the Nietzschean phrase of "a dithyrambic
disposition"? and, to him, Socratic natures were
likewise unsympathetic. In his criticism on
Strauss he gave proof of his aversion to Socratic
dispositions, an aversion which he shared with
Nietzsche. He was the only one of our circle who
defended Nietzsche's essay and criticized Strauss's
Old and New Faith. He would not admit the
merits of a book which represents the materialistic
theory in transparent clearness, and thereby
brings defects to light which cannot be overlooked.
He simply went by results. A book, which as far
as we, the enlightened ones, were concerned,
sought a last consolation in music, had to be some-
what disagreeable to him, deaf as he was. But he
would not even admit Strauss's beauty of style.
"Beautiful style by itself does not exist, " he said.
"A style is beautiful when the writer is represented
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? His Life and Work 69
by it. Style should faithfully express the nature
and temperament of the author. With Lessing, I
admire the clear statements, because they are
natural to this clear dialectician ; but with Strauss
they do not belong to the man, as with Lessing,
but to the essay. " Strauss's style just lacked the
personal element. If Strauss, on the other hand,
found Treitschke's style indigestible, the contrast
is thereby quite correctly characteristic. While
patriotic pathos dominated the one, the other one
was, throughout, reflective and logical; that is
to say, the one was a dithyramb and the other
one a Socratic nature. I could not always share
Treitschke's clearly formed opinions, but we were
all grateful to him for the interest with which he
invested conversation, and for his ability to main-
tain it. His own activity was that of an artist as
well as that of a scientist. Impressions of his
travels through all the valleys of Germany, poetry,
newspaper extracts, conversations and humorous
stories of friends, were always at his command, and
these, combined with accurate studies from the
Archives and information verbally received, en-
abled him to shape his work. Considering his
system of gathering information, it was inevitable
that occasionally he was provided with unauthen-
tic news, for, as soon as conversation arose on a
subject useful to him, his pocket-book appeared,
and he asked to have the story put down. When
I once wrote for him that, at the outbreak of the
Army mutiny in Karlsruhe, a picture of Grand
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?
? 48 Treitschke
In 1867 Baden was for him merely das Landle (the
little country), but all the same he apparently did
not like to hear from us that our Grand Duchy
comprised more square miles than his Kingdom of
Saxony. He strictly adhered to his dogma of the
Rhine Convention, tendencies to Napoleonic
kingdoms nay, he even attributed to them aims
of aggrandizement. "What people thought of
1866" so he relates in his essay on the Constitu-
tional Kingdom "becomes apparent from the
painful exclamation of a well-meaning Prince to the
effect: 'What a pity we were at that time not on
Prussia's side, as we also should then have en-
larged our territory. " 1 But as formerly in Frei-
burg, so here, he misunderstood the population.
The fact that the developments in the summer of
1870 appeared to him like outpourings of the Holy
Ghost only proves that the deaf man never under-
stood the ways of our Palatines. Favourable
disposition towards the Rhine Convention, which
he suspected everywhere, was only to be found in
the elegant Ultramontane circles in which he
moved, and in the democratic journals which he
for his own journalistic purposes read more than
other people. It proved perhaps more correct
when he wrote, "The South Germans quietly
aspire to the Main with the reservation, however,
to revile it in their journals. "
Bismarck did not as yet enjoy general confidence,
but had he wanted Baden the Chamber would not
have refused. The factions in the town caused him
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? His Life and Work 49
amusement; Heidelberg had the advantage of two
political journals: the Heidelberg Journal and the
Heidelberg Zeitung, which were both Liberal and
had accomplished all that in a small town could
be reasonably expected of them. On this subject
he sketched, in his essay entitled Parties and
Factions (1871), the following pleasant picture:
"Who is not aware of how in towns of Central
Germany two journals side by side eke out a bare
and miserable existence, both belonging to the
same party, yet, for the sake of their valued
clientele, constantly fighting like cats? Who does
not know these journals of librarians outside whose
door the editor stands on duty, a polite host,
deferentially asking what the honourable public
desires to partake of? Tre fratelli tre castelli still
applies to our average press. "
Filled by the desire to continue the worthy
labours of the year 1866 he enthusiastically adopt-
ed Mathy's idea to include Baden in the North
German Convention, and thought it unkind that
Bismarck failed to honour Mathy's memorandum
on the subject with a reply. If Prussia should not
carry out her plans he was afraid the Pan-Germans
in Baden would again become masters of the situa-
tion, and he added: "If Bavaria, Wurtemberg,
and Baden should go with Austria, even the
European situation will assume a different physiog-
nomy. " All the same, he was at that time too
closely in touch with Bismarck to advocate too
strongly the Mathy plan in the A nnuals. Treitsch-
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? 50 Treitschke
ke stigmatized as obtrusive the Lasker Parlia-
mentary Bill of February, 1871, Lasker acting
as attorney for the Badenese Government, which
he was not, and surprising Bismarck with his
proposal without having first consulted him.
Mathy's death on February 4, 1868, affected
Treitschke all the more as Mathy had influenced
him considerably in his decision to gain for a second
time a footing in Baden. Besides, Treitschke
warmly remembered Mathy's beautiful trait in
assisting younger men whom he considered promis-
ing. "You belong to the few," Freytag admitted
to him, "who have fully grasped Mathy's love and
faith. " It was, however, not only Mathy's sweet-
ness of character which he had detected beneath
the caustic ways of the old Ulysses, but also his
political reliability. "I still cannot get over it,"
he mournfully wrote to Freytag; "among all the
old gentlemen of my acquaintance he was to me
the dearest and the one deserving of greatest
respect. " "The real Badenese," he said in
another letter, "never really cared for their first
politician, and your book again shows clearly the
sin for which Mathy never will be pardoned
character. " Another letter to the same friend
in August, 1868, runs as follows: "Here in the
South the disintegration of order continues. The
recent Constitutional Festival has vividly re-
minded me of our never-to-be-forgotten Mathy.
How the world has changed in twenty-five years
since Mathy organized the last Badenese Con-
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? His Life and Work 51
stitutional Festival ! Thank goodness, the belief
in this particularist magnificence has to-day com-
pletely disappeared. The festival was an osten-
sible failure, a forced and feigned demonstration.
The Ultramontanes kept aloof because they hated
Jolly and Beyer, and the Nationalists who partici-
pated for that reason openly admitted that they
had longed for the happy end of the old man. "
His depreciative opinion of the conditions in Baden
finally developed into slight when a few weeks
after the Constitutional Festival the ministerial
candidates Bluntschli, Lamey, and Keifer, who
had gone over on the formation of the new Minis-
try, attempted to overthrow the Ministry favour-
ably disposed towards Prussia by convoking the
Liberal deputies at Offenburg. In the Prussian
Annuals he now called upon his North German
friends in disdainful terms to study the pamphlet
of these gentlemen against Jolly, in order to gain a
somewhat more correct idea of the political state
of affairs in Baden. In his opinion it was a sort of
"Zuriputsch" arranged by the Swiss gentlemen,
Bluntschli, Schenkel, and Renaud. It might have
applied as far as Heidelberg was concerned, but
the country was really attached to Lamey, whose
name was tied up with the fall of the Concordat,
and whose canon laws of 1860, making a Catholic
country of Baden, were at that time praised by all
of us as the corner-stone of liberty and political
wisdom. Treitschke's only answer to Bluntschli 's
agitation for energetic revision of the Constitution
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? 52 Treitschke
was to leave the Paragon State in its present form
until Prussia would absorb the whole. The at-
tempt to overthrow the Ministry failed as the
Regent had been left out of account. In Heidel-
berg, Treitschke, at an assembly of citizens, took
up the cudgels for Jolly, and was principally
opposed by Schenkel, who declared that he would
not allow himself to be threatened by the sword of
Herr von Beyer. Surprised, Bluntschli, however,
wrote in his diary that the citizens applauded
Treitschke, who spoke for Jolly, no less than
Schenkel, who spoke against him. When the
whole question was brought before a second and
very largely-frequented assembly of the Liberal
Party in Offenburg, Bluntschli made Goldschmidt
and Treitschke's other friends promise that
Treitschke should abstain from speaking as he
would upset all peace proposals. The latter, how-
ever, immediately declared he could not be forced to
maintain silence. At least a thousand men con-
gregated from all parts of the country, more than
the big hall " Zum Salmen " was capable of holding.
Eckard, subsequently Manheim bank manager,
sat in the chair; on the part of the Fronde, Kieper,
instructed by Jolly, spoke, and for Jolly, Kusel
from Karlsruhe addressed the meeting. Treitschke
as a Prussian allowed the Badenese to speak first,
and only towards the finish did he ascend the plat-
form. A contributor of the Taglische Rundschau
gave the following account: "The meeting had
lasted for a considerable time, and the audience,
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? His Life and Work 53
after standing for hours closely packed in the
heavy, hot air, was tired, when a person unknown
to us started speaking. His delivery was slow and
hesitating, with a peculiar guttural sound, and his
intonation was monotonous. Citizens and peas-
ants amongst whom I stood looked at each other
astonished and indignant. Who was this appar-
ently not very happy speaker who dared to claim
the patience of the assembly? We were told it
was Professor Treitschke of Heidelberg. At first
ill-humoured, but soon with growing interest, we
followed his speech, which gradually became more
animated. The power and depth of thoughts the
compelling logic proofs adduced, the clearness and
force of language, and above all the fire of patriot-
ism, all this captivated the listeners and carried
them irresistibly away. The outward deficiencies
of the lecturer were now unobserved; attentively
with breathless excitement, these simple people
listened to the orator, who spoke with the force of
the holiest conviction; and when finishing with
the exhortation to set aside all separating barriers
for the sake of the country, a real hurricane of
enthusiasm broke forth. The audience crowded
round the speaker and cheered him; he was lifted
by strong arms amid ceaseless enthusiasm. It was
the climax of the day. Never since have I wit-
nessed a similar triumph of eloquence. "
He had appealed particularly to the peasants
present by his outspoken and simple words.
Schenkel likewise was disarmed. Heidelberg
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? 54 Treitschke
friends related how Schenkel, who in Heidelberg
had contested Treitschke's speech in favour of
Jolly, immediately afterwards advanced towards
the platform in order to speak, but Treitschke's
utterances had rendered unnecessary a rejoinder.
When, on the other hand, I asked Treitschke after
his return whether in his opinion peace would be a
lasting one, he replied: "Oh, Lord, no! the lack
of character is much too great. " In a still more
disdainful manner and full of passionate exaspera-
tion against Bluntschli he wrote to Prey tag:
"Jolly understands very well how to assert himself
here; daily he cuts a piece off the big Liberal list
of wishes, but immediately a new one grows be-
neath. Where is this to lead? Moreover, there
are blackguards like this miserable Bluntschli at
the head of the patriots! Nokk, my brother-in-
law, who is well able to judge the situation, has
long ago despaired of a peaceful solution. "
In January, 1870, whilst staying at Heidelberg,
and shortly before the outbreak of war, the second
collection of historic political essays was published.
The editor's intention was to publish them before
Christmas, but Treitschke delayed matters. "I
hate everything suggestive of business," he told
me, "and I don't want to belong to the Christmas
authors. " He was also averse to editions in parts.
The essay on Cavour, which shortly afterwards
appeared translated in Italian, brought him the
Italian Commander Cross a necklace, as his wife
said. When one of his friends had fallen in dis-
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? His Life and Work 55
grace on account of a biting article in the Weser
Zeitung attributed to him, Treitschke said: "If
the man wants to carry a chamberlain's key and
six decorations, he might as well have the muzzle
belonging to it"; and when asking him whether
this also applied to him, he replied: "No, but I
have not been asking for it. " This volume of
historic essays contained the treatise on the Repub-
lic of the Netherlands full of sparkling descrip-
tions of Holland and her national life, which
proved that not in vain had he brought his Brief je
van de uuren van hat vertrekk, i. e. his railway book-
let for the land of the frogs and the ducats. Par-
ticularly weighty, however, was his essay on
French Constitution and Bonapartism, in which
he proved that Bonapartism had revived, thanks
to the Napoleonic fundaments of State having
remained, a circumstance which even after the
fall of Napoleon III, and in spite of all their de-
feats, made him believe in -the return of the Bona-
partes. His essay On the Constitutional Kingdom,
forming part of this collection, and containing
views on the wretchedness of Small State Court
life; on the poverty of thought and the rudeness
of the South German Press; on the South Ger-
man's respectful awe of the deeds of Napoleon, the
national arch-enemy; and on the bustling vanity
of Church authorities, could not create a great
impression after his previous and much stronger
dissertations. He himself was dejected owing to
the scantiness of enthusiasm aroused by his per-
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? 56 Treitschke
sistent appeals "to discard decayed political
power," to upset the Napoleonic crowns and to
continue the laudable efforts of 1866. Some friends
likened his situation to that of Borne, who is the
object of criticism in one of the essays, and who,
in his Paris letters, always predicted anew the
revolution which always failed to materialize. By
Napoleon's declaration of war "this sturdy cen-
tury" took the last stride towards its goal.
Being a border power, Baden naturally feared
the war which Treitschke was pining for. At that
time already his mind was clear as to the weakness
of the Empire, and the profligate stupidity of the
French people. Being constantly in touch with
Berlin he was better informed regarding certain
developments than we were. When speaking to
him for the first time after the declaration of war
he solemnly said: "I think of the humiliation we
escaped! If Bismarck had not drawn up so
cleverly the telegram on the Benedetti affair the
King would have yielded again. " At the general
drinking bout improvised by the students prior
to going to the front or to barracks, Treitschke
was received as if he had been the commander-in-
chief , and he certainly was on that evening. The
speech of Pro-Rector Bluntschli, opening the ball,
had a decidedly sobering effect. He pointed out
how many a young life would come to an early end,
how many a handsome fortune would be lost, how
many a house and village would be burned to ashes,
etc. The speech was written down, and when
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? His Life and Work 57
shown to Treitschke he merely said, "S'isch halt a
Schwizer" ("He is, after all, only a Swiss")-
Capital words by Zeller followed: "We have
heard the crowing of the Gallic cock, and the
roaring of Mars ; but there is only one to tame wild
Ares, and that is Pallas Athene, the Goddess of
Clever Strategy, and upon her we rely. " When,
subsequently, Treitschke rose, applause and ac-
clamations prevented him for some time from
making himself heard. His speech expressed joy
at the events happening in our lifetime, and ex-
hortations to prove as worthy as the fighters of
1813. Ideas and colour of speech were as count-
less as the bubbles in a glass of champagne, but
they intoxicated. His magnificent peroration
terminated approximately in the following manner:
"Fichte dismissed German youth to the Holy
War with the motto, 'Win or die'; but we say,
1 Win at any price ! ' ' Already he had received a
more cordial reception than anyone, but now
hundreds rushed forward with raised glasses eager
to drink his health. The shouts of enthusiasm
threatened the safety of floor and ceiling. As one
crowd receded, so another surged round him, just
as waves beget waves. I have seen many teachers
honoured under similar circumstances, all with a
smile of flattered vanity on their lips, but never
had homage assumed such proportions. Treitsch-
ke's face showed outspoken joy at these warm-
hearted young people, who surely would not fail
to give a good account of themselves, and it was
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? 58 Treitschke
distinctly annoying to him that the following
winter he had to give lectures to those who had
not joined the ranks. He was, however, deeply
moved at the nation having risen as one man, and
he apologized for all the unkind words he had
uttered previously. Later on, he wrote: "During
those days in Germany it seemed as if humanity
had improved. " The song on the Prussian eagle,
which from Hohenzollern flew towards the north
and now returns southwards a subject inspired
by Baumgarten is a beautiful memento of his
elated feelings at that time.
During the ensuing period he led a surprisingly
retired life, and we heard only that he was writing.
When meeting him shortly before the days of
Saarbruck, he looked pale and excited. "What a
long time it takes, " he said, "for such great armies
to be brought together! The tension is almost un-
bearable. " He was visibly ill with excitement.
When the days of Worth and Spichern had happily
passed, we met at the Museum to study the tele-
grams which arrived hourly. He, however, failed
to turn up, and it was said he was writing. There
was a good deal of simulated activity about, but
for him there was nothing in particular to do. At
last his excellent essay, What We Demand of France,
saw the light of day, and at the same time it
appeared in the Prussian Annuals. Now it was
evident what he had been doing in seclusion.
Everybody was amazed at the mass of detail
collected during the short interval, in order to
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? His Life and Work 59
impress the reader with the thoroughly German
character of Alsace. Of almost every little town
he knew a story by which it became intertwined
with the German past.
There was Alsatian local
tradition galore in the book, as if he at all times had
lived with these people. To his mind the fact that
the Alsatians at the time would not hear of Ger-
many did not make them French. "The mind of
a nation is not formed by contemporary genera-
tions only, but by those following. " Erwin von
Steinbach and Sebastian Brandt, also, were of
some account, and, after reviewing the German
past of the country, he asks: "Is this millennium,
rich in German history, to be wiped out by two
centuries of French supremacy? " In regard to
the future of Alsace he was from the first convinced
it would have to become a Prussian province, as
Prussian administration alone possessed the power
to rapidly assimilate it. Only when convinced of
the realization of Unitarian ideas a Prussian, as he
now always called himself, could desire to see a
frontier of Prussia extending from Aachen to Mul-
house. To make out of Alsace an independent
State, enjoying European guarantee of neutrality,
as proposed by Roggenbach in the Reichsrath,
would have meant creating a new Belgium on our
south-west coast, in which the Catholic Church
would have been the only reality, and Treitschke,
in his essay of 1870, replied thereto by referring to
the "disgusting aspect of the nation Luxemburg-
oise, " although in the Annuals he ostensibly spared
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? 60 Treitschke
the quaint statesman, who was his friend. "Let
us attach Alsace to the Rhine Province, " he said;
"we shall then have a dozen more opposition votes
in Parliament, and what does that matter? The
rest you leave to Prussian administration. "
Neither we nor he could foresee that in thirty
years it would not achieve more; but he did not
fail to point out that the only cause of the failure
was the creation of the " Reichsland, " a hybrid
which was neither fish nor flesh. He, however,
shared Freytag's aversion for the title of Emperor,
which, in his opinion, bore too much of black, red,
gold, and Bonapartist reminiscences. Both wished
for a German King; but finally Bluntschli's com-
mon-sense prevailed, he having suggested, "The
peasant knows that an Emperor is more than a
King, and for that reason the Chief of an Empire
must be called Emperor; besides, it will be better
for the three Kings; they will then know it, too,"
saying which the stout Swiss laughed heartily.
On the other hand, Treitschke never became
reconciled to Bavaria's reserved rights. He spoke
of a new treaty of Ried, similar to that which, in
1813, guaranteed sovereignty to Bavaria, and
expressed anger at the weakly Constitution which
reverted again to federalism. With malicious joy
he reported that the former Pan-Austrian fogy,
when examining students for the degree of Doctor
of Law, now always questioned on Bavarian re-
served rights. The whole arrangement with
Bavaria and Wurtemberg appeared to him "like
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? His Life and Work 61
a Life Insurance Policy of the Napoleonic crowns
with his magnanimous Prussia, which compelled
him to adjourn his Unitarian plans ad Grcecas
calendas. "
It is also peculiar to what a small extent he
shared in the triumphant tone displayed every-
where after the war. Sybel's essay, What We might
Learn of France, had his full approval. He was
disgusted with the way the journalists in the news-
papers, the teacher in the chair, and the clergyman
in the pulpit gave vent to their patriotic effusions.
In his letters he likewise spoke slightingly of
the modern customary orations regarding German
virtue and French vice. The more he disliked
the remnants of particularism in the new Consti-
tution, the less he was disposed to admire the
Germans, who, in his opinion, had forfeited the
greatest reward of great times by their own in-
dividualism. This it was which distinguished him
from the ordinary Chauvinist, and only too well he
realized in how many things the nation, in spite of
all successes, had remained behind his ideals.
Nobody, however, has given more beautiful
expression to the deep and serious thoughts with
which we celebrated peace in 1871. Like a prayer-
book we read the essay in the Annuals, in which he
opened his heart. He himself had lost his only
brother at Gravelotte, my wife hers at La Chart re.
The Prussian nobility was in mourning; he, how-
ever, consoled us: "May common grief still more
than great successes unite our people formerly at
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? 62 Treitschke
variance with each other. Rapidly die away the
shouts of victory, long remain the deep lines of
grief. Who will count the tears which have been
shed around the Christmas-tree? Who has seen
the hundred thousand grieved hearts from the
Alps to the sea, who, like a big, devout community,
have pinned their faith again to the splendour of
the Fatherland? " Actuated by the same senti-
ments, I had preached, shortly before, in the
Church of the Holy Spirit, on "Blessed are ye who
have suffered, " and therefore could doubly appre-
ciate his efforts to touch the people's innermost
feelings. His words have never been forgotten.
V.
The few years which Treitschke spent in Heidel-
berg after the war were, as he himself admitted,
the happiest of his life. His tiny house, overlook-
ing the Neckar and Rhine Valley, was for him a
constant source of joy, and proudly he would take
his visitors to the top of the vineyard, from which
the Speyer Dom and Donner Mountain, near
Worms, were visible. Immediately adjacent to
his property excavations had been made in times
gone by, and even now bricks and fragments of
pottery, bearing the stamp of the Roman Legation
were to be found. Thus he had historical ground
even under his feet. When, occasionally, on my
return from a visit about midnight, I still saw
lights in his study, I could not refrain from think-
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? His Life and Work 63
ing of Schiller, who, likewise, found the late hours
of night most propitious for his creations. It
would be a mistaken idea to think that Treitschke,
vivaciously as he lectured, wrote his works with-
out exhaustive preparations. He just served as a
proof that genius and industry go hand-in-hand.
Thanks to his iron constitution, he could work
until two o'clock in the morning, yet be gay and
full of life the following day. Surrounded by his
small crowd of children two girls and a boy and
with his elegant and slim-looking wife by his side,
he felt truly happy. It was a thoroughly aristo-
cratic and harmonious home, which in every detail
betrayed the gentle and tasteful hand of his spouse.
There was something distinctly humorous in his
peculiar ways, which made the visitor feel at home.
Above all, he was completely unaware of the noise
he made. Baumgarten, who was nervous, and
worked with him in the Archives, declared that
not only was the throwing of books and constant
moving of his chair unbearable, but also his un-
controllable temper. On one occasion, Treitschke
took up the register he had been studying, and
jumping about the room on one leg, shouted,
"Aegidi, Aegidi! " It appeared that in the Am-
bassador's Report of the Prussian Diet of 1847
he had found a memorial of his friend Aegidi stud,
juris in Heidelberg, which the Ambassador had
communicated to Berlin with a view to showing
the present spirit of German students, and which
started with the following declaration: "Like the
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? 64 Treitschke
Maid of Orleans before the King of her country, so
I, a German youth, come before the noble Diet
in order to give proof of the patriotic wishes
agitating youth. " Similar humorous outbursts
of his temperament occurred, of course, at home
as well. He at times experienced difficulties with
his toilette. The ladies, then, had to manipulate
him into a corner to adjust his tie or collar. In
Scheveningen, where he occupied a room next his
family, he once rushed out on the general balcony
when unable to manipulate a button, shouting,
''Help! help! " so that the phlegmatic Dutch
neighbours looked out of the windows, thinking a
great misfortune had happened. The importunity
with which some people asked for autographs, and
others for copies of his books, his photograph, or a
memento of some kind, provided his keen sense of
propriety with excellent material for displaying
originality. All this, however, was done in such a
humorous fashion that his company proved most
amusing. He behaved towards his students with
strictness, although he was gay enough when
addressing them from the chair. They idolized
him, but at all times he kept them at a distance.
When the University filled again for the winter
term, 1871-1872, Treitschke had gained among the
students a position second to none. His lectures
on modern history, politics, and the Reformation,
were crowded, and his descriptive powers always
thrilled his audience. Hausser's force had been
in his irony; with Treitschke, humour and pathos
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? His Life and Work 65
alternated like thunder and lightning. Even
listeners of more matured age admitted that they
had never heard anything that could be compared
with his natural elementary eloquence. Unable to
hear the clock strike, he had arranged with those
sitting in front to make a sign at a given hour;
but, as nobody wished him to discontinue, he often
unduly prolonged his lectures. Now and then
ladies turned up. At first he informed them by
letter that he could not permit their presence,
but when they persisted in coming he told the
porter to refuse them entrance, and angrily added
his intention of putting up a notice similar to
those in front of anatomical theatres: "For
gentlemen only! " When meeting his colleagues
he never even hinted at the striking success he
scored with his audience. His disposition was
anything but over-confident, and he associated
just as cordially with those whose academic
failures were notorious provided he appreciated
them otherwise as with the past-masters, whose
level was as high as his own. He never referred
at all to the demonstrations which students made
in his favour. In the choice of his friends, as well
as in the choice of his enemies, he was aristocratic,
but vain he was not. Enthusiastic patriotism was
the keynote of his life, and this explains its aesthet-
ics. A sensitive admirer of nature, appreciating as
keenly as anybody the lovely scenery of the ruins
of Heidelberg Castle, he nevertheless favoured
the re-building of the same, obsessed by the idea
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? 66 Treitschke
that it must become the palace of the German
King. His literary opinions could easily be gauged
as his compass always pointed towards Prussia.
When he invited us to an evening, we knew before-
hand we should read the Prince of Hamburg, or
some similar work. This explains also his pre-
dilection for Kleist, and for Uhland, the patriot.
Of Hebbel's works he was about to prepare an
analysis of them in a new form for publication in
the essays the Nibelungs were his favourite.
Did he not himself bear resemblance to Siegfried,
who plans to chain up the perfidious Danish Kings
outside the gate, where, as they had behaved like
dogs, they were to bark on his arrival and de-
parture? This was quite his style of thinking,
just as at the Theatre Francais my travelling
companion, when listening to the patriotic ravings
of Ernani, the highwayman, whispered to me:
" Exactly like Treitschke! " Not only The Trou-
sers of Hen von Bredow, of which he knew con-
siderable parts by heart, but Brandenburg poetry
in general, gave him great pleasure. He even
shielded Hesekiel and Scherenberg against attacks ;
and the scruples of learned men respecting Prey-
tag's Ingo and Ingraban were suppressed by him.
Turbulent men were to his liking; the criticisms
of German Law History and of the Spruner Atlas
regarding these descriptions had, to his mind,
nothing to do with poetry. Whatever met with
the approval of his patriotism could be sure of his
appreciation. My first two novels met with a very
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? His Life and Work 67
friendly reception in the Press, as, thanks to my
pseudonym, "George Taylor," quite different
authors had been suspected. No sooner, how-
ever, had the wise men from the East discovered
that a theologian had been the author than, on
the appearance of the third novel, entitled Jetta,
they vented their rage at having been deceived.
Treitschke, however declared Jetta to be the best
of the three books. He liked the Alemans for the
thrashing they had given the Romans, and that
settled the matter as far as he was concerned.
The way the learned fraternity censured Hermann
Grimm appeared stupid to him, like school pedan-
try. He. realized as well as anybody else the de-
fects and mistakes, but he called it childish spite
to take to task such an ingenious author for all
sorts of blunders and amateurish trivialities when
he had original views, and had created a picture of
culture such as the life of Michelangelo. In the
same way he stood up for living and not for dead
writers, in spite of the opposition of the learned
fraternity; but he did not, however, defend their
superficiality or phrase-making.
The great literary post-bellum events were The
Old and the New Faith, by Strauss, and the revival
of Schopenhauer pessimism by Hartmann and
Nietzsche, books which albeit different in form,
yet related in their fundamental views of the
world appeared to Treitschke, in view of the
melancholy tone adopted, like an inexplicable
phenomenon. How could anybody be a pessimist
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? 68 Treitschke
in times like the present, when it was a pleasure
to be alive? Of Hartmann he said: "This is the
philosophy of the Berliner when suffering from
phthisis. " With Olympic roars of laughter he
derided, over a glass of beer, Hartmann's senti-
mentality and his many discussions whether the
feelings of pleasure or displeasure predominate
in human nature. After all, Hartmann had left
us the consolation of Nirvana; but Nietzsche, by
his revival theory, deprived us of the consoling
thought of peacefulness after death. Nietzsche's
first essay on the origin of tragedy had met with
Treitschke's approval. Was he not himself to
adopt the Nietzschean phrase of "a dithyrambic
disposition"? and, to him, Socratic natures were
likewise unsympathetic. In his criticism on
Strauss he gave proof of his aversion to Socratic
dispositions, an aversion which he shared with
Nietzsche. He was the only one of our circle who
defended Nietzsche's essay and criticized Strauss's
Old and New Faith. He would not admit the
merits of a book which represents the materialistic
theory in transparent clearness, and thereby
brings defects to light which cannot be overlooked.
He simply went by results. A book, which as far
as we, the enlightened ones, were concerned,
sought a last consolation in music, had to be some-
what disagreeable to him, deaf as he was. But he
would not even admit Strauss's beauty of style.
"Beautiful style by itself does not exist, " he said.
"A style is beautiful when the writer is represented
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? His Life and Work 69
by it. Style should faithfully express the nature
and temperament of the author. With Lessing, I
admire the clear statements, because they are
natural to this clear dialectician ; but with Strauss
they do not belong to the man, as with Lessing,
but to the essay. " Strauss's style just lacked the
personal element. If Strauss, on the other hand,
found Treitschke's style indigestible, the contrast
is thereby quite correctly characteristic. While
patriotic pathos dominated the one, the other one
was, throughout, reflective and logical; that is
to say, the one was a dithyramb and the other
one a Socratic nature. I could not always share
Treitschke's clearly formed opinions, but we were
all grateful to him for the interest with which he
invested conversation, and for his ability to main-
tain it. His own activity was that of an artist as
well as that of a scientist. Impressions of his
travels through all the valleys of Germany, poetry,
newspaper extracts, conversations and humorous
stories of friends, were always at his command, and
these, combined with accurate studies from the
Archives and information verbally received, en-
abled him to shape his work. Considering his
system of gathering information, it was inevitable
that occasionally he was provided with unauthen-
tic news, for, as soon as conversation arose on a
subject useful to him, his pocket-book appeared,
and he asked to have the story put down. When
I once wrote for him that, at the outbreak of the
Army mutiny in Karlsruhe, a picture of Grand
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