better illustrates the practical working of the German mind than the
Royal Post Museum in the Leipziger Strasse. Here is shown everything
of interest connected with the transmission of intelligence, and
poetry as well as prose has entered into the heart of this Government
exhibit. On the walls of the first saloon entered by the visitor are
copies in stone of Assyrian bas-reliefs showing a warrior with chariot
and arrows. This suggests to us a scene in the lives of David and
Jonathan; but communication by means of arrows is probably much older
than the time of David. Earlier than even the Assyrian stone must have
been the model for the Egyptian wicker and wooden post-chariot. In
this room, under a glass case, is an exquisite marble statuette, found
at Tanagra, of a Grecian girl seated, and writing on a tablet; and not
far away is a Roman warrior, carrying his message. Entering the next
hall, we pass a beautiful bronze statue of Philip, the Grecian
soldier, bearing a laurel spray, stretching his athletic limbs in
breathless strides as he goes toward the capital to announce the
battle of Marathon, and to fall dead on his entrance to the city, with
the single word "Victory!" on his lips. Here on the walls are four
emblematic pictures: "The Land-Post," representing a knight with a
sealed missive in his hand, standing beside and curbing his fiery
steeds; "The Sea-Post," showing a mail-carrier on the back of a
dolphin in the midst of stormy waves far out at sea; "The Telegraph,"
with Jove and his lightnings as its central figure: and "The
_Rohrpost_,"--a maiden, blowing into an orifice with "the breath of
all the winds." This last is emblematic of that postal arrangement in
Berlin by which letters and postal cards are sent with great speed
through pneumatic tubes from which the air is exhausted by means of
pumps, and which makes it possible to receive a written message from a
distant part of the city within a few minutes after it is written.
Among the ancient representations are models of the boats in which the
old Norsemen sailed the seas, and of those by which our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors invaded England from Germany. These are strikingly
contrasted, in their simplicity and clumsiness, with a fully equipped
model, from four to six feet long, of a modern North German Lloyd
Atlantic mail steamship, than which no better equipped boat sails the
main. One goes on, past a Gobelin tapestry representing a mail-scene
at Nüremberg in the Middle Ages, through long halls and corridors
where are hundreds of models of post-office buildings of the most
convenient and approved plans, in all parts of the world. These are of
every variety of architecture, from the great general post-office in
London, the handsome Hanover post-office building, those of the
central and district post-offices in Berlin, Dresden, Cologne,
Heidelberg, and many others in South Germany, to the modern edifices
which adorn, and yet seem strangely out of keeping with, the
picturesque old North German towns. These models are miniature copies
of the exteriors of post-office buildings, varying in length from one
and a half to six or eight feet, and of corresponding height. One most
interesting model shows the interior of a modern post-office, each
floor showing an exact copy of its department of the service, with
all appliances and conveniences.
In another room are miniature mail-coaches of different kinds. In the
centre of this apartment stands a life-size figure of a mail-carrier
in Germany of four hundred years ago. He is a wild-looking official,
reminding one by his bronzed features and general appearance of some
trusty Indian scout, as he holds his gun in an attitude of suspicion
and menace, while a bear-cub opens a capacious mouth at his feet.
Model mail and post-office cars occupy the side of another large room;
but this exhibit is so vast and varied that the memory refuses to
retain its classification, and holds side by side Alaskan sledges
drawn by dogs, Russian post-chaises with reindeer teams, mail-boats on
Norwegian fiords, carrier-pigeons and balloons, camels and elephants,
and the model mail-coach of the lightning express of the New York
Central Railroad. The working appliance used in America for catching
off a mail-bag without stopping the train attracts much attention.
There is a complete set of the weights and measures used in British
post-offices, and two glass cases show the forms of horseshoes best
adapted to the speed of horses carrying mails. Tablets, pens, and
pencils have cases to themselves, as well as parchments, ancient rolls
and ink-horns, reeds and papyrus. Here are the primitive postal
arrangements of some of the East Indies; there is the yellow satin
missive with a scarlet seal which carries the royal mandates of Siam.
Pictures and models of mail-carrying elephants come next, their gay
saddle-cloths filled with pockets and parchment rolls. A model of a
Japanese post-office is finished in all its interior with the
perfection of detail and delicacy of execution which characterize the
best Japanese work. A framed engraving of the International Postal
Congress at Berne in 1874 hangs near one of the Congress at Paris in
1878. There is a room devoted to the exhibition of postal stamps,
cards, and envelopes of every kind, and there are several rooms where
models of the most approved kinds of telegraphic apparatus are shown.
In a corridor are all varieties of submarine cables, with the ore and
the Bessemer steel of which they are spun. In one of the rooms a small
crowd is collected about an operator who speaks through a telephone,
records the sound of his own voice on strips of foil, which he tears
into fragments and distributes to those who eagerly reach for them. In
the centre of this room there is a tiny circular railway, with a
coach, but no locomotive, standing on the track. By turning the wheel
of an electro-magnet the official produces an electric light at the
extremity of a model burner; then, applying the same power to the
little railway, propels the coach at a rapid rate by means of the
invisible agent. One goes forth into the street, past wax figures of
armed and mounted mail-messengers in the Middle Ages, past the model
street mail-boxes and carriages which help to make so wonderful the
Berlin postal arrangements, in a maze at what may here be seen in a
single half-hour of the history of mail-carrying in all lands and
ages. The originator of this "Post Museum" is Dr. Stephan, the
inventor of the postal card and the chief promoter of the
International Postal Union. His is the "power behind the throne" which
has made the German postal system a marvel of efficiency, unsurpassed,
if not unrivalled, in the world.
Less known to travellers than many others far inferior in interest, is
the Hohenzollern Museum, occupying the Monbijou Palace in the heart of
Berlin. This palace, of so much interest to the readers of Carlyle's
"Frederick the Great," has been transformed into a repository for the
personal belongings and memorials of the kings and queens of Prussia.
One or more rooms devoted to each sovereign in historical succession
make up a fascinating picture of the royal customs of the kingdom for
two hundred years. Our attention was called to this museum by an
English resident, but its interest far exceeded our expectations. Here
are the laces, jewels, and often the entire wardrobes of the
Hohenzollern queens, with their writing desks and tablets,
jewel-cases, embroidery, work-baskets, mirrors, beds, and other
furniture; and the kings have each their own apartment likewise,
tenanted by their "counterfeit presentments" in wax, sitting or
standing in the very clothes they wore, and surrounded by visible
mementos of the life they used to live. The glittering eyes and
mundane expression of Frederick William I., father of Frederick the
Great, give one a strange feeling, and the chairs and table of his
"Tobacco College" must have a vivid interest for every reader of
Carlyle's "Frederick." But when we entered the rooms containing the
many mementos of the Great Frederick himself, from his effigy in the
cradle and his baby shoes, and threaded all the vicissitudes of that
strangely fascinating life by the help of its visible surroundings,
and finally stood before the glass case containing a mask of his dead
face and hand surrounded by its laurel wreath, the spell of the past
was at its height. It was a bright sunny afternoon, and the golden
light came in long slanting lines through windows opening on Monbijou
gardens, beautiful even in winter, and lay upon the tessellated floors
of the corridors in patterns of shining glory. The chat and laughter
of young companions floated from adjoining rooms, and the foot of the
guard fell softly in the marble halls. But a kind of awe born of that
wonderful past had taken possession of me. I was alone with the spirit
of the Great Monarch, and it was more than could be borne. We hurried
away from the spot, as when children we fled from fancied ghosts. To
one in search of a genuine sensation, we recommend the reading (with
judicious skipping) of Carlyle's "Frederick the Great," and a visit,
alone or with a single companion, to the Hohenzollern Museum.
Upwards of twenty years ago, German trade was falling behind in the
best markets of the world, because the products of German industry
were largely poor in quality and deficient in artistic value. With the
Duke of Ratisbon, President of the Herrenhaus, as chairman of a
committee appointed to consider the subject, a few leading minds
combined in a movement which issued in the establishment of the
Industrial Art Museum. The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess were
much interested in the subject, and gave the plan their hearty
support. Less than ten years since, the fine new building in Zimmer
Strasse near Königgrätzer was opened on the birthday of the Crown
Princess, to receive the vast treasures accumulated, by gift, loan,
and purchase, for the permanent exhibition. A cursory visit, though
most interesting, is sometimes bewildering from the extent and variety
of the collection. The centre of the edifice consists of a large
court, roofed with glass and surrounded by two galleries. This is the
place reserved for loan exhibitions, and several of importance have
already been held here. One of the earlier was of some of the
treasures of the South Kensington Museum, loaned by Queen Victoria.
Opening upon these arcades are numerous halls on the lower floor,
devoted to the permanent exhibition. The classification of the objects
exhibited, if not loose, is very general, seeming to us inferior to
the method which makes the South Kensington a delight, whether one has
hours or months in which to visit it. On the ground floor of this
Berlin Museum are "objects in the making of which fire is not used."
This includes domestic and ecclesiastical furniture of different
countries and historical periods, musical instruments, tapestries,
carvings in ivory and wood, and many other objects widely separated in
thought. A fine exhibit is made of articles in amber wrought by
workmen of rich old Dantzic, for which Baltic Germany furnishes the
raw material. The ancient Italian carved bridal-chests brought vividly
to mind our childhood's favorite story of Ginevra, by chance
imprisoned in such a chest on the day which was to have witnessed her
marriage.
The upper floor, with an arrangement similar to that of the lower,
shows "objects in the manufacture of which fire is necessary." The
very extensive collection of pottery and porcelain was surpassed, in
our observation, only by that at Sèvres; and there are many rare and
valuable specimens of work in glass and metals. The ancient municipal
silver service of the city of Lüneberg, bought at a cost of $165,000,
deserves the attention it attracts; and the work of German mediæval
goldsmiths--particularly of the famous Augsburg artisans--is a
revelation of the possibilities of human handiwork. Stained glass, of
much historic and artistic value, fills the windows of the entire
building. The specimens of textile fabrics, in completeness and
extent, are matchless, and are so arranged as to afford the utmost
facility to students of the history of this important subject, as well
as great pleasure to the favored visitor who has the opportunity to
inspect them.
This "Künstgewerbe Museum" is open to the public without charge on
three days of the week, and for a small fee on the remaining days;
while its valuable industrial library may be freely consulted on four
week-day evenings. Its influence is already strongly felt along the
lines of trade and industry throughout the Empire.
The great Ethnographical Museum adjoining, on the corner of
Königgrätzer Strasse, has the kind and variety of objects usually
found in such exhibitions, including those connected with several
races of American Indians. The other departments were, to us, eclipsed
in interest by the Schliemann exhibition of Trojan remains on the
ground floor. Here we found, on the walls, framed pencil or India ink
sketches of the localities where the earlier excavations were made,
plans of the work, sections of the unearthed portions, and the
precious old Trojan antiquities themselves, deposited here for
inspection and safe keeping.
The Märkische Museum, in the Fisch Markt, a centre of Old Berlin,
illustrates the history and the prehistoric times of the Mark of
Brandenburg, including an interesting department of curiosities from
the lake-dwellings and tumuli. There are also ancient coins and other
objects picked up at different times within the province. One of the
later treasures of this unique museum is the box from which the monk
Tetzel sold the indulgences which fanned into a flame the rising fires
of the Reformation.
VI.
THE GERMAN REICHSTAG AND THE PRUSSIAN PARLIAMENT.
The Reichstag, or Imperial Diet of the German Empire, was, during our
stay in Berlin, a focus for the eyes of all Europe and America. The
Government, professedly actuated by a fear of war, asked for an
appropriation, largely to increase the army annually for a term of
seven years. This House of Deputies, elected by the people and
numbering nearly four hundred members, contained a considerable
element of opposition to the Government. The debate over the Army Bill
brought Chancellor Bismarck up from his distant country-seat, where he
had spent several previous months, to a participation in the contest
which was anticipated on both sides with eagerness and solicitude.
The building on Leipziger Strasse, as severe in inner details as in
the sombre gray of its outer walls, was hastily constructed in 1871
for the accommodation of the newly consolidated German Empire, and has
long been inadequate to the need. A single gallery surrounds three
sides of the hall, and is occupied on the right by boxes for the
Imperial household, the diplomatic corps, and high officials. The left
is appropriated to English and American visitors; and the centre,
immediately above the desk of the presiding officer and the elevated
seats of the Chancellor and members of the Bundesrath, is alone left
for the general public. When the new building near the Thiergarten
shall be occupied, it is hoped that greatly improved acoustics and
ventilation may be secured, and the accommodations for visitors such
that it may not be said that there are Germans in Berlin who have for
years desired visitors' tickets of admission without having been able
to secure them.
By a singular good fortune, our tickets gave us seats for this debate
in full view of the leaders of each of the great parties. On the
first day the Prime Minister made his great speech, and on the second
day thereafter, Richter, the leader of the progressive party, took up
the speech point by point, and with bold and vigorous oratory for two
hours held the attention of all to his own opposing views. A man of
robust physique, still in the prime of life, Richter's dark complexion
and facial expression give the impression of "staying qualities"
formidable as lasting. The session opened at eleven o'clock A.M., and
the veteran General and Field-Marshal Von Moltke was the first
speaker. His rising was the signal for a general hush, and for about a
quarter of an hour all listened in breathless silence. Half the width
of the hall from the observer, his more than eighty years seemed to
sit lightly on "the great taciturnist;" and his fair complexion, fine
brow, thin face, and singular firmness of mouth have the fascination
of genius. Later, during the long and sometimes denunciatory speech of
Richter, he seemed wearied. Rising from his seat in the front rank of
the Conservatives on the extreme right, he moved to the rear, stood in
the aisle, took a vacant seat,--resting by various changes for
fifteen or twenty minutes; but when, between one and two o'clock, the
time for Bismarck's entrance approached, he returned to his own seat
and thenceforth listened attentively. Like the aged Emperor, Von
Moltke's age was most apparent in his movements. Sitting or standing,
he was the graceful, well-bred gentleman, as well as the dignified
chief of the German army. In walking, his movement is slow, and
lacking vigor to a marked degree. The offer of the Opposition to vote
for the bill with a term of one, two, or even three years, while
declaring that they could not vote for seven, was haughtily received
by the Prime Minister, who had already given his reasons, supported by
the Emperor, by Von Moltke, and other eminent military authority, for
adhering to the longer term. "I will not abate a hair's breadth of the
septenate," said he. "If you do not vote it, I prefer to deal with
another Reichstag." This on the second day of the debate. On the third
day Bismarck replied to some of the positions of the Opposition, in a
speech of three quarters of an hour, immediately following his
opponent, Richter. The latter, and the members on the left included in
the three great divisions of the Liberal party, retired from the hall
at the conclusion of Richter's two hours' speech; but the centre, or
Catholic party, among whom were several priests and a number of very
keen and watchful physiognomies, remained in their seats, as well as
the Conservatives of both grades. Soon Richter was back, though
without his supporters. Fumbling a moment at his desk for pencil and
paper, he stepped forward in the aisle, so as not to lose the
sentences of Bismarck (occasionally somewhat indistinct), and refusing
to be diverted for more than an instant by the communications of
friends and officials. Cries of _Ja wohl! Ja wohl!_ and _Bravo!_ were
heard from the right during the speech of Bismarck, with now and again
a general ripple of laughter at some pleasantry accessible to the
German mind; but these were much outdone in heartiness by the applause
which frequently interrupted Richter when speaking. There is a
massiveness about this scene which rises up in memory with a vividness
greater, if possible, than the reality made on our excited and wearied
endurance during the hours we spent there. Later, Windhorst, the
leader of the Roman Catholic party, made a memorable speech. The dozen
great electric lights depending from the ceiling were extinguished
when the early afternoon sun faintly struggled with the clouds for
entrance through the skylight which forms the entire roof of the room,
except those left burning near the seats of Bismarck and Von Moltke,
which brought these foremost figures into strong relief. Prince
William--now Emperor--and the gentlemen of his party were in gay
uniforms in the Imperial box, and the diplomatic box was lighted
mainly by the diamonds of the ladies who sat there; while the crowded
ranks of the other galleries were in dim twilight. It was a picture to
remain in history. The bill was lost. In less than twenty-four hours
after we left the Reichstag, Bismarck had read his summary dissolution
of the Diet, and before another sunset the hall was closed and silent.
The Iron Chancellor had made his appeal to the country. The war-cloud
was heavy over Europe, and great was the excitement in Berlin. Under
fear of a bolt which might strike at any moment, the elections for a
new Chamber were held, and Bismarck had his will.
The Reichstag is the representative body of the whole German Empire,
with its four kingdoms, six grand duchies, and sixteen lesser
principalities and powers united under one emperor. Prussia is a
kingdom which forms but one, though the most important, of these
constituent parts. The Reichstag is a kind of Upper and Lower House in
one; the Bundesrath or Federal Council, with somewhat arbitrary
powers, has its private Council-room; but the Chancellor of the Empire
is its presiding officer, and, with the members of this Council,
occupies the elevated platform at the right of the President of the
Reichstag. The chief function of the latter as a legal Chamber of
Deputies is to check the power of the Bundesrath. It can thus reject
bills and refuse appropriations, but has no power to bring about a
change of administration.
The Prussian Diet is composed of two separate houses. The building of
the Lower House--the Abgeordnetenhaus--is near the eastern extremity
of the Leipziger Strasse, and the House of Lords--Herrenhaus--is
adjacent to the Reichstag-Gebaude. The Prussian Lower House is
somewhat larger in numbers than the Reichstag, and is of course an
elective body. It contained a number of eminent men,--as Herr
Windhorst, also the leader of the Catholic party in the Reichstag,
and Professor Virchow. On the day of our visit no business of special
importance was before the assembly, and visitors' tickets were
obtained with an ease in pleasing contrast to the most difficult feat
of obtaining entrance to the Reichstag on a great occasion.
The House of Lords is reputed a dull place, and is seldom visited. In
a dwelling formerly occupying this site (No. 3 Leipziger Strasse), and
of which some memorials remain, Felix Mendelssohn spent, with his
parents and sister Fanny, several years of his wonderful youth; and
the "Gartenhaus" of this estate witnessed the memorable private
performance of the work which first revealed his greatness to the
world,--the "Overture to the Midsummer Night's Dream."
VII.
PROMINENT PERSONAGES.
"I love my Emperor," said "our little Fräulein," laying her hand on
her heart, one day when we were talking of him.