Although Germany's young crown prince has until now been more or less
of a stranger to court functions and gaieties at Berlin, his time
being absorbed by his studies at the military academy of Plön, and his
holidays spent in travel and Alpine expeditions, yet, as he is about
to celebrate his majority, and has passed from the stages of boyhood
to those of manhood, he will be from henceforth a personage of the
utmost importance--second only in rank to the emperor.
Destined, in course of time, to succeed to the throne and to the
immense responsibilities of his father, and to become virtually the
autocratic ruler of a nation of fifty million people, as well as the
absolute master of the greatest military power on the face of the
globe, every scrap of information concerning this youth must naturally
be of vast interest, not only to his future subjects, but also to
the entire civilized world. Under the circumstances, therefore, it is
satisfactory to be able to say truthfully that Germany's future kaiser
is a fine, healthy-minded, healthy-bodied lad, disposed to take an
extremely serious view of his duties and his obligations, and who,
thanks to the excellent education which he has received both from his
parents and his teachers, seems destined to prove a wise as well as a
popular monarch.
It seems but the other day that the young crown prince, as a chubby
ten-year-old lad, was being introduced by his father to the officers
and men of the first regiment of Foot Guards at Potsdam, to which,
in accordance with traditional usage, he was appointed on his tenth
birthday as lieutenant. There may be some of my readers who were
present on that occasion, and who may remember the spectacle presented
by the little fellow, vainly endeavoring to keep step with the giant
strides of these huge grenadiers, the tallest men in the German army,
during the march-past that followed the ceremony. Since then there
have been so many portraits of the crown prince published, as he
appeared at that time, that this taken in conjunction with the rapid
flight of years, renders it difficult to realize that he is now no
longer a little boy, but a youth considerably taller and almost as
broad and stalwart as his father, whose best friend he has become.
William and his eldest boy are fondly devoted to each other. To the
crown prince, his father is in every sense of the word "William second
to none;" while the kaiser himself is entirely wrapped up in his heir.
For the last few years the emperor has given every spare moment that
he could snatch away from his multifarious occupations to the task of
instilling his ideas and views into the crown prince. In talking
and reasoning with him, he has treated the lad as far older than his
years, has discussed with him, in fact, as if he were a man; and it
is due to this that Germany's future emperor is at the present moment
remarkably mature for his age, and really in a position to view
matters with a degree of experience and knowledge that are unrivalled
in so young a man. As a general rule, young people are unwilling to
accept the advice of their elders, or to benefit by their experience,
convinced that their seniors are behind the spirit of the age, and in
no sense of the word up to date. But with the German crown prince this
is different: he is so imbued with the idea that his father is wiser
and better than anyone else in the world, that he is willing and glad
to accept the paternal recommendations and to benefit by paternal
advice.
Yet with all this the lad is not a prig, nor is he forward or
presumptuous. True, he has a keen sense of his own dignity, but it
takes the form of an extreme simplicity, and of an absolute lack of
affectation, since he is intelligent enough to realize that his rank
and position are sufficiently assured to render it unnecessary that he
should call attention thereto either by his manner or by his speech.
He is modest too, very frank, particularly courteous to old people,
boyishly chivalrous to women, and firmly convinced that there is no
member of the fair sex in the entire world who is so ideally perfect
in appearance, as well as in character, as his mother.
I would not for all the world that this description of the crown
prince should in any way convey the impression to my readers that he
is a milksop or an overgrown child! Devoted to every form of sport, a
splendid gymnast, a clever oarsman, a skilful driver and a bold rider,
an excellent shot, he is in every sense of the word a manly young
fellow, who, however, has been kept free from all contact with the
darker sides of life, and who still retains, therefore, mingled with
the experience of a grown man, much of the innocence and freshness of
mind of a mere boy. Indeed, he is a son of whom any father and mother
might well be proud!
Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with the down of a blond moustache upon his
upper lip, the young prince is a typical Hohenzollern, and resembles
his grandfather, Emperor Frederick, more than he does his father. He
is passionately devoted to everything military, and keenly relishes
the idea that the six months following the attainment of his majority
are to be devoted to military duties at Potsdam, for although he has
held a commission of lieutenant of the first regiment of Foot Guards
since his tenth year, he is only now about to be called upon to fulfil
the duties of his rank with the regiment.
It will be in every sense of the word an arduous training, for the
first regiment of Guards being considered all the world over as the
crack corps of the German army, and as the embodiment of military
perfection in every sense of the word, its officers, realizing that
it is, so to speak, the star phalanx of Germany, are engaged, morning,
noon and night, in maintaining it at its proper standard, and there
are no officers anywhere in Europe who are so hard worked as those
of the first regiment of Prussian Guards;--that regiment which in the
days of Frederick the Great's father was composed entirely of giants,
recruited, or rather purchased often, at a cost of several thousand
dollars apiece, from all parts of the world!
The prince must be on the drill grounds and the manoeuvre fields as
early as four o'clock in the morning, returning for a sort of luncheon
towards ten or eleven; he must devote his afternoon to military
studies of one kind or another; while from four o'clock till seven his
time will be taken up by barrack-room inspections, company reports,
and the other thousand and one duties incidental to regimental life
in Germany. In the case of the crown prince the work will be
exceptionally heavy, as he is expected to acquire in the course of six
months an experience which other subalterns take years to obtain. At
the end of the term in question he is to go to Bonn, there to take
his seat, like his father before him, on the benches of the celebrated
university as an ordinary student.
From his eighteenth birthday the crown prince will have an
establishment and a civil list of his own. He will have his court
marshal, who will be at the same time the treasurer, governor, and
chief officer of his household. He will have his aids-de-camp, who
will, as far as possible, be young men of his own age and alive to the
responsibilities of their office; he will also have a palace of his
own, stables of his own, and his own shooting. Indeed the forest of
Spandau has already been for some time past strictly preserved in view
of his coming of age.
This particular forest has from time immemorial been assigned as the
particular game-park of the heir to the crown. The crown prince is
to make his home in the so-called "Stadtschloss" at Potsdam, where
he will occupy the same suite of apartments that was tenanted by his
parents during the alterations that recently took place at the "Neues
Palais." This palace was erected at the close of the seventeenth
century, and contains, among other objects of interest, the furniture
used by Frederick the Great, the coverings of which were nearly all
torn to shreds by the claws of his dog; his writing-table covered with
ink-stains, his library filled with Trench books, music composed by
himself, etc. The various halls and rooms are kept nearly in the same
manner, indeed, as when he used them. Adjoining his bedroom there is
a small cabinet, where he used to dine alone or with Voltaire, without
attendants, everything coming through the floor on a dumbwaiter, the
king himself placing the dishes on the table.
It is in this palace, haunted, one might almost say, at every point
by memories and by the spirit of the most famous of Prussian kings,
a monarch distinguished as a general, as an administrator and as a
philosopher, that Germany's future emperor will from henceforth make
his home until he in turn, on the death of his father, will migrate,
as did the latter, from the so-called Stadtschloss to the "Neues
Palais," two miles and a half distant. The crown prince is also to
have a residence of his own at Berlin, where he is to occupy the
Bellevue Palace during the court season.
Among other characteristics of the young crown prince is his fondness
for animals, and the extraordinary influence which, even as a child,
he has always seemed to exercise over them. He succeeded in training
his ponies, his dogs and other domestic pets to perform such clever
tricks that on several occasions he managed, with the assistance of
his brothers, to organize very creditable circus performances, usually
in honor of the birthday of his father or his mother. There was one
instance especially that I may recall, which took place some years
ago. This particular performance began in the afternoon at three, with
a prologue spoken by Prince August William, in which he mentioned the
different items of the programme. Then each of the royal lads led his
pony in front of the box in which the imperial couple sat with their
guests, and the crown prince put his horse "Daretz," through all kinds
of tricks, of a high school character, winding up by making the horse
kneel in token of salute before the emperor and empress. More trick
riding on another horse named "Puck," belonging to the crown prince,
followed, and thereupon there was a comical _intermezzo_, in which
Prince Adalbert and Prince Eitel took the part of two clowns. Later
on, the crown prince's dogs were brought on the scene, and his
favorite "Tom" went through some extraordinary antics, walking about
all over the ring on his hind legs, tolling bells, driving other of
the prince's dogs with reins, and jumping through hoops covered
with tissue paper. The whole affair lasted over two hours, was very
entertaining, even to grown-up people who did not happen to be related
to the organizers of the entertainment, and did great credit to
the cleverness of the crown prince, and above all to the marvellous
influence which he exercises over animals of every description.
Military tastes in the royal lad have been developed by the games
and pastimes in which he and his brothers were encouraged to indulge;
hence, in the grounds of the Bellevue Palace at Berlin, as well as in
a corner of the great park of the Neues Palais at Potsdam, the boys
constructed full-fledged forts with water-filled moats, and cleverly
constructed bastions, which were stormed from time to time in due
form, and being defended with the utmost tenacity, hard knocks were
ofttimes given and received. The playmates of the crown prince and his
brothers have been not merely the sons of nobles forming part of the
imperial household and court, but likewise the children of employés of
much less exalted rank, such as the sons of lodge-keepers, gardeners,
game-keepers, etc., who all played and tumbled with the young princes
on a footing of the most perfect equality, drubbing one another
totally irrespective of rank. It is a pleasant thing to know that
friendships thus formed subsist in after life; as an instance, when
the kaiser's sister, now crown princess of Greece, sent to Germany
some time ago for a nursery governess for her young children, she
was able to acquire the services of her old girlhood playmate, the
daughter of one of the gardeners employed at the "Neues Palais."
The crown prince may be said to have traveled over all Germany, and
that, too, in the most democratic and sensible fashion. In Germany,
and, in fact, all over the continent of Europe, a pedestrian tour,
domestic and foreign, constitutes part and parcel of the education
of every youth, especially those of the industrial classes. No
apprenticeship is considered complete without the accomplishment of a
trip of this kind, which is usually performed with a knapsack on the
back, and in the most economical manner imaginable. This portion of
the youth's life is known as his "_wanderjahr_" and the traveler is
known by the name of "_wanderbürsche_" The trip serves to broaden the
mind of the "_bürsche,_" to render him self-reliant, and to give him
a knowledge and experience of the world--aye, and of his craft as
well--that he could never obtain if he remained at home. Emperor
William, who in many things is so exceedingly reactionary, and
so apparently assured that royalty is constructed of an entirely
different clay than that used for ordinary folks, gave a manifestation
of those democratic notions which constitute such a paradox to the
remainder of his character by sending forth his three eldest boys each
year during their holidays on a pedestrian tour through the length and
breadth of his dominions, just as if they were the sons of artisans,
and were compelled to learn a trade for a living. The crown prince and
his brothers traveled, not in a palace-car, nor in carriages, but on
foot, with knapsacks on their backs, and spending the nights at mere
roadside inns. They had no servant with them, only their military
governor, Colonel von Falkenheyn, and his assistant, the latter a
lieutenant of the guards, and the name tinder which they journeyed was
an incognito one; indeed, so cleverly did they manage to conceal their
identity that it was hardly ever revealed.
It is difficult to imagine anything that appealed more to the masses
in Germany than this manner adopted by the kaiser for making his sons
acquainted with the world. It was felt that the royal lads, with their
knapsacks on their backs, afoot, and with no indication of their rank,
would obtain by actual experience a contact with the people and a
knowledge which they could never hope to acquire if they had
toured through the land in special trains, on horseback, or in
splendidly-appointed carriages. Moreover, it makes every German youth,
trudging along the dusty roads, and ignorant for the most part of
where and how he is to sup and sleep that night, feel that after
all his lot is not such a very unenviable one, since even his future
monarch has been a "_wanderbürsche_," like himself.
It is probable that before the education of the crown prince is
considered complete, he will be sent on a trip around the world,
mainly with the object of endowing him with that breadth of mind
which foreign travel alone can give, and partly also with the idea of
reviving the dormant loyalty of Germans who have settled in foreign
lands. Emperor William has frequently expressed the opinion that
among the hitherto unused factors in German politics, are the Germans
established in the United States, in Australia, and in other equally
distant climes. While he does not in any way expect or imagine that
Germans who have thus emigrated from the Fatherland, will render
themselves guilty of any disloyalty to the land of their adoption, yet
he believes that by keeping alive their memories of the old country,
and their affection for its reigning house they may help Germany by
using their political influence in their new home for the benefit
of Germany. Thus William, in spite of all that has been said to the
contrary, has in contemplation an eventual understanding if not an
actual alliance with the United States; this result to be brought
about largely through the influence of the immense and prosperous
German population in America, and he believes that the project is
likely to be promoted and fostered by a visit of his eldest son, the
crown prince, to the United States for the purpose of making himself
acquainted, not only with the country, but above all with its German
inhabitants.
In making the grand tour of the world, the crown prince will be but
following in the footsteps of the heirs to the thrones of Austria and
Belgium, who have both visited the United States for the purpose of
improving their minds, and of fitting themselves more thoroughly
for their duties as twentieth century rulers. The present Emperor of
Russia, and his younger brother, the late Czarevitch George, likewise
started on a tour round the world, which in the case of George was cut
short at Bombay by that sickness to which he subsequently succumbed,
while the globe-trotting tour of Nicholas was brought to a sudden
close through his attempted assassination in Japan.
No pen-sketch of the young Crown Prince of Germany would be complete
without a reference to his remarkable skill as a violinist, an
instrument which he has been studying steadily ever since his eighth
year, under the direction of the Berlin court violinist Von Exner. He
seems to have inherited all the musical talent for which the reigning
house of Prussia is so celebrated, and to which I propose to devote at
least a part of the following chapter.