There are three conditions in national life of which all nations more
or less partake. One is where the elements combine with a tendency
toward organic development; another, where these elements fall apart
with a tendency toward disintegration; and still another, where all
processes, constructive and destructive, are arrested as in a crystal.
The United States, the Ottoman Empire, and China illustrate these three
conditions to-day.
The Teuton, who had been such a powerful element in renovating other
European nations, had thus far seemed incapable of consolidating his
own national life when left to himself. The tendency was steadily
toward disintegration rather than growth.
This was not alone because the strength of the Teutonic kingdom was
wasted in pursuit of that glittering toy bestowed by the Pope; but on
account of internal strifes and rivalries which employed the hostile
schemes of the Roman Pontiff for their own ends and purposes.
The rivalry with the Pope, in itself a destructive element, was made
still more destructive when it was thus used by disaffected dukes as a
means of annoying and circumventing Emperors whom they disliked.
A Frederick Barbarossa might arrest these processes for a time. But
one century later the ruin was complete.
Frederick II., the last of the Hohenstaufens, died, leaving an empty
throne and a broken and shattered empire. It was destined to rise
again and to wear the name and trappings of its former greatness, but,
crippled and degraded, to be in reality a mere shadow and semblance of
what it had once aspired to be--the head of the world.
A period of twenty years then followed, known as the "Great
Interregnum." A time when there was no King nor Emperor; when robbery
and brigandage became the employment of needy knights, and when great
barons made war upon and waylaid each other on the highways.
It was a time of strange chaos and darkness. And yet this period,
apparently so unfavorable to growth, brought forth two of the most
pregnant events in the history of Germany. These were the creation of
the Hanseatic League and the birth of German literature. The one laid
the foundation of a real national life in which the people should
participate; while the other gave expression to the romantic ideals of
a hitherto silent race.
The great German epic, which is the Iliad of the Middle Ages, was
produced at this darkest hour in the history of Germany. The
Nibelungen Lied deals with the colossal crimes, loves, and sorrows of
Burgundian kings and princesses at the time of the Hunnish invasion.
And it has been the good fortune of Germany, six hundred years later,
to have a son (Richard Wagner) who has clothed that great epic in music
which matches it in heroic dignity and splendor.
The other event was of deeper import than this. The burgs, or cities,
which were created as a defense against the Hungarians, had become busy
centers of manufacture and trade, and to some extent of learning. Many
of them had been made free cities. That is, they were under the direct
control of the Emperors instead of the hereditary nobles as at first.
These cities enjoyed especial privileges and immunities which drew to
them population and prosperity. The true policy for German Emperors,
harassed by Italian intrigues and at war with their own archbishops and
disaffected nobles, would have been to form close alliance with these
free cities, and make friends of their burghers and guilds.
When there was no king, no ruler in the land, when robbery ran riot so
that traveling was impossible, two cities, Hamburg and Lubeck, agreed
together to keep order in their neighborhood. Then Brunswick and
Bremen joined; and at last over a hundred towns had combined together
in what was called the "Hanseatic League."
This Confederacy became the mightiest power in the North of Europe; and
at one time even threatened the overthrow of feudalism, and to convert
West Germany into a federation of free municipalities.
When trades increased in the cities, each trade managed its own affairs
by an organization called a _guild_. The guilds in the course of time
obtained a share in the government of the towns; and it was the
regenerating power of these guilds which brought about this great
movement. With their simple ideals of truth, sincerity, and justice,
they were the storehouses of that power which is the real life of a
nation. As well expect a tree to flourish when its sap is not
permitted to rise, or a man to be well when the blood is obstructed in
his veins, as to look for healthful growth and expansion in a nation
from which the life of its common people is excluded!
Among these early guilds, that of the Meistersingers, which was
chartered in 1340, was of vast importance in the development of the
German people.
It was composed of artisans and governed by the strict, pedantic rules
then existing in the arts of musical and literary composition.
The prizes did not confer as great an honor as those bestowed at
Olympia two thousand years before, but they were sought with an intense
enthusiasm.
The soul of the Teuton was by nature set to music. For him that art
was not a luxury reserved for the rich and cultured, but the daily food
which nourished the life of the most untutored. Within this musical
and literary guild the two arts of music and poetry for centuries
existed in their most elementary form, and were the soil out of which
later came such marvelous blossom and fruit.