"Et ce fier Saxon que lion _croit nè parmè nous_,"
exactly like a Maitre d'Hôtel, who, whenever he wished to flatter me,
used to say, "Vous savez, Monsieur, je vous regarde _presque_ comme
Français." Voltaire was not ashamed at Berlin, when the Prussian
soldiers did not enact the Roman legions to his mind, to exclaim in the
midst of German princesses, "F----j'ai demandé des hommes, et on me
donne des Allemands!" Marechal Schomberg, to whom the impertinent
steward, on committing a fault, said, "Parbleu, on me prendra pour un
Allemand!" would long ago have set them to rights with his answer, "On a
tort, on devrait vous prendra pour un sot!"
To be, not to seem, is still the fairest feature in the character of
my--I had almost said nation--of my quiet, thrifty, contented, diligent,
honest countrymen. The German, at first glance, appears rarely what he
is, and strikes the stranger as awkward and heavy. Yet, behind this
plain quiet outside, there often dwells a cultivated mind, reflection,
and deep feeling of duty, honour, diligence, and domestic virtue. In our
father-land, honesty is universally at home; and during the night, you
are safer on the highways and in the forests, than in the streets of
Paris or London. "When in foreign countries," says an old author, "I
fall in with a man too helpless for a Frenchman, too ceremonious for an
Englishman, too pliable for a Spaniard, too lively for a Dutchman, too
cordial for an Italian, too modest for a Russian--a man pressing towards
me with oblique bows, and doing homage with ineffable self-denial to all
that seems of rank; then my heart, and the blood in my face, says, 'that
is thy countryman.'" How true! and how often have I lighted on such
countrymen.
North Germany commences as soon as you leave behind you Nurenberg and
Cassel. Cassel, in comparison with Hamburg resembles an Italian town.
The Thuringian Forest separates north and south. The north is a
coast-land, commerce its destination; the south inland: hence
agriculture and industry are more suitable. The spirit of the South
German is more directed to what is domestic: a fruitful soil rewards his
labour, and alleviates it by the juice of the grape. The mouths of his
rivers and his harbours allure the North German into foreign lands; his
father-land is there, where he finds what he seeks, and what his own
country has denied him. The South German must hence be more
self-dependent, for he has a father-land at home full of blessing and
beauty;--the North German has to seek one elsewhere; and this makes him
more pliant, more polished, more active; but also more ostentatious,
less to be confided in, more adventurous. This distinction is primeval.
The North Germans mingled themselves with the Britons, Gauls, Italians,
and Slavonians; the Alemanni and Bavarians remained in their native
country.
The southern sky draws forth a vegetable world more luxuriant, fierier,
spicier; the northern, a much duller, waterier, colder, and the men are
so too, except where government and education have powerfully
encroached. In the north the people have evidently less fancy and
feeling, less genialness and versatility, even flatter, duller
physiognomies, but also evidently greater intelligence, more
consideration, seriousness, and constancy. The wastes, storms, and
floods, the unthankful, sandy, moory country, must of themselves make
the people more serious, more enterprising, more capable of contentment
than in the south, where Nature is not so like a step-mother, nay, has
flattered her favourites, thereby rendering them light-minded, indolent,
and desirous of enjoying. Here the flesh triumphs over the spirit; there
the spirit over the flesh, "_nos besoins sont nos forces_!"
The North German is hence more solid, gloomier, more retired, less
kindly. Here you may still find the athletic forms of Tacitus, with blue
eyes and yellow, or, more properly, red hair, which are rarer in the
south. In the north the men seem to me more handsome, in the south the
women. The South German is softer, and on the other hand his speech
harder. The North German, though without wine, writes many a noble
catch, which we in the south troll over our wine. The inhabitants of the
wine countries have fewer singers of wine than those of the beer
countries; the latter sing of it, the former are fonder of drinking it.
It is as with songs of love; one sings of his mistress, seldom of his
wife.
The North and South German bear the same relation to each other as beer
and schnaps to wine, as bilberries to grapes, as butter and cheese to
roast and dessert, as mountains and levels, as leagues and miles. In the
south or wine land prevails a lighter, sprightlier, tone of intercourse;
in the land of beer and schnaps with its moist air, all seems more
dubious and measured; and thus the moment of enjoyment passes over. The
sex is livelier in the south and more complaisant, without on that
account being more wanton. In the south there is everywhere more nature,
in nature herself as in man, and most of all with the sex. In the north
more culture and art, in the south more natural capability, as well as
more nature and life.
The southern climate is softer, hence the wine; and the loose, light,
fruitful soil compensates for the high, bare mountains. In the south we
are more advanced in gardening, agriculture, tillage, and cattle-breeding.
The south is not only richer in towns, palaces, and gardens, but also in
excellently built villages of stone, and not of wood and earth. In the
north many such villages would be called towns. What a difference
between our cleanly cottages, and the filthy huts and half-stalls of the
north. The very waters in the south are clear, flowing, rustling; in the
north muddy, sneaking, stagnant. There the fountains gush spontaneously
from the rocks; here they must first be dug out of the earth. The south
extracts its treasures from the soil; the north more from commerce and
manufactures. There the national capital is more in the hands of the
nobility (the church) and the peasantry; here more in those of the
merchant and manufacturer. Prussia, Saxony, Hanover, &c. are more free
from debt than Austria, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden, &c., because in the
former there is less feasting and revelry; but the latter countries in
themselves are richer, fuller of enjoyment. North Germany, in regard to
road police, post regulations, inns, meat, drink, and lodging--large
towns excepted--is in a state of semi-barbarism compared with the south.
Among all the North Germans the Saxon is the friendliest, distinguished
by culture, diligence, and high spirit of contentment. But it is strange
what a difference the Elbe makes between him and his neighbour. The
Brandenburger or Prussian is vivacious, talkative, ceremonious, often
dogmatical; the Saxon considerate, reserved, poorer in words; the
former, prepossessed with what is new, feels delight in public places,
loves to shine, and is the man of the world; the Saxon rather hates what
is new, wishes to enjoy in silence in the circle of his own, and loves
rural nature. Frugality is common to both; but it will go hard before
other things become common between Prussians and Saxons. The Hessians
have long distinguished themselves by bravery and military spirit, which
leads to hardiness, patience, and contentment with little. Among the
North Germans, those who live on the sea-coasts seem to me the rudest
and most different from the South Germans; but the Prussians least of
all.
The Swabian and Franconian is lively, loquacious, genial; and the
Rheinlander is so in a still higher degree; but among the former I think
there will be found more true-heartedness, inoffensiveness, and
simplicity of manners, especially with the female sex, where it borders
on _naïveté_. This good-nature which, as it were, surrenders itself,
while others are lying in wait, and is hence easily over-reached, or
leaves others the advantage, very naturally gave rise to the false
proverb:--"The Swabian does not come to the years of discretion till
forty." Swabians, Franconians, and Rheinlanders are our true
sanguineans; and the last altogether our German-French, who dance
through life like their Rhine-gnats.
The Bavarian is straight-forward, frank but dry, blunt, and he has
hitherto been ruder, more ignorant, more fond of quarrel and drinking,
more given up to superstition and old things than others; for his land
was the home of priestcraft and monkery. You may ever distinguish the
national Bavarian by his nervous squat body, small round head, and
beer-belly, immediately beneath which the trousers begin; hence the
braces or belt is indispensible. The showy belt, is, as in the Tyrol,
matter of national pomp, so with the girls the boddice; and both are as
little known in the north as the platted hair of the maidens--perhaps
relics of the knight's girdle, bandalier, and breastplate; for noble
knighthood flourished chiefly in the south.
* * * * *