THE KAISER AND KAISERIN
The key to a man’s actions must always be found in his personal
character. Two men saying exactly the same thing do not mean the same
thing, but through the medium of speech are expressing their own
individualities, prejudices, illusions, their outlook on the world.
The German Emperor, explained, interpreted, misinterpreted, by his own
actions perhaps as much as by the many persons who, after a few hours’
conversation with him, imagine that they, and they only, have had a real
soul-revelation from this frankly-unreserved, many-sided monarch, might
say with Emerson, “To be great is to be misunderstood.” It is not at all
unlikely that he does not particularly want to be understood--that he
hardly understands himself. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of
little minds.”
The Emperor’s conversation at its best has a certain quality of
intoxication--is provocative of thought and wit. Men have been seen,
grave American professors and others of that type not easily thrown off
their mental balance, to retire from talk with His Majesty with the
somewhat dazedly ecstatic look of people who have indulged in champagne;
then they go home, and under the influence of this interview write
eulogistic, apologetic character-sketches of the Emperor.
It may be asked how does he appear in the intimacies of private life, to
the inner circle of his Court, to those who see him in unguarded
moments? Men often change for the better, or sometimes for the worse,
when they retire from the public eye. But the Emperor is much the same
everywhere, he has no special reserves of character for domestic
consumption only.
At home he inspires much the same charm that he does abroad, and
sometimes the same irritation. Unexpected people, whimsical people, are
necessarily alternately irritating and charming just as their moods
happen to please or displease the circle of people whom they affect. He
is a man who is bound to get somewhat on the nerves of those who
surround him, to make his service laborious to his servants, his
secretaries, his courtiers, who live in a state of continual
apprehension, fearing that they may not be ready for some sudden call,
some unanticipated duty. There is no more alert place in the world than
the Prussian Court.
“We are like the Israelites at the Passover,” grumbled one lady: “we
must always have our loins girt, our shoes on our feet--shoes suitable
for any and every occasion, fit for walking on palace floors or down
muddy roads--our staff in our hand; nobody dare relax and settle down to
be comfortable.”
The Emperor disapproves of people who want to settle down and be
comfortable. In a jolly, good-humoured but none the less autocratic kind
of way, he sets everybody doing something. He likes to keep things
moving, has no desire for the humdrum, the usual, the everlasting
sameness of things.
No one who knows the Emperor intimately can fail to see how early
English influences have helped to mould his character, how intensely he
loves and admires English life as apart from English politics, for which
he has a perplexed, irritated wonderment and contempt.
“Not one of your Ministers,” he said to me on one occasion, “can tell
how many ships of the line you have in your navy. I can tell him--he
can’t tell me. And your Minister of War can’t even ride: I offered him a
mount and every opportunity to see the manœuvres--‘Thanks very much
for your Majesty’s gracious offer--Sorry can’t accept it--I’m no
horseman unfortunately.’ A Minister of War!--and can’t ride!
Unthinkable!” He gave his short, sharp laugh.
But life as lived in the English country-side has for him irresistible
charms.
When some years ago he for a few weeks occupied Highcliffe Castle, near
Bournemouth--a proceeding which very much annoyed a section of his
subjects, who considered that Germany possessed just as many “eligible
residences” for the purposes of a “cure” as did England, of whom those
Germans who know least of her are naturally most suspicious--his letters
to Her Majesty, portions of which she occasionally read aloud at supper,
showed how absolutely he enjoyed that peaceful, comfortable,
untrammelled, simple country-house life: how the beautiful
gardens--there are no beautiful gardens in Germany--the product of years
of thought and labour, a growth of the ages, imbued as they are with the
glamour and mystery of the past, appealed to the artistic side of his
soul; how “thoroughly at home"--his own expression--he felt there, how
rested and refreshed in body and soul.
He wanted the Empress, if only for a week, to come and join him, so that
she might share something of his delight and pleasure in the old house,
in its wealth of memories, its many treasures of art and historical
relics; but there was the difficulty of accommodating the suite, the
ladies and gentlemen, the maids and footmen, with which royalty can
never dispense, however simple in its own personal needs it may be.
So the plan fell through--the time was too short to arrange matters; but
the Emperor in his letters described in minutest detail everything that
happened there--his delight in the pretty English children he met, his
pleasure in the tea he gave to the boys and girls on the estate, his
astonishment at their well-dressed appearance, their reserved, composed
manners, at the way in which they sang grace, at the clergyman who
controlled the proceedings and knew how to box and play cricket. It is
quite impossible to imagine a German _Pastor_ who can play cricket, and
as for boxing ...!
“Poor Papa!” said the Princess, “he is quite broken-hearted at leaving
his dear Highcliffe.”
Any one living in the atmosphere of German palaces can understand this
regret. It is conceded that no one in the world can create like the
English that delightful surrounding of freedom and comfort, of cultured,
artistic luxury combined with a certain strenuous out-of-door life. The
palaces inhabited by the Emperor are huge, magnificent buildings,
expensively and uncomfortably constructed; and Germany has too recently
been engaged in the stern business of war, her faculties are still too
absorbed in the great question of defence, to be able to afford the
leisure to accumulate those relics and treasures of past ages which are
the charm of England.
“Ah, you have never had a Napoleon to plunder and burn your country
houses,” sighed the Emperor, almost apologetically, once, when talking
of his English visit: “your Reynoldses and Gainsboroughs, where would
they have been if Napoleon’s Marshals or his soldiers had seen them?
Perhaps burnt or destroyed, or sent to the Louvre. Think what it must
mean to the children of a house to _live_ with one of those pictures, to
absorb it unconsciously into their mentalities; they _must_ grow up with
a love of beautiful things--they cannot help it. We have nothing of the
kind; our houses were stripped and burnt.”
I suggested something about Cromwell and the way his gentle Ironsides in
their zeal smashed up the beautiful sculptures of our cathedrals and
stabled their horses in the naves. “Though the horses did less damage
than the men,” I conceded.
“Ah, Cromwell!” he replied: “Cromwell did nothing in comparison with
Napoleon; besides, that was much further back--long ago--Gainsborough
and Reynolds not yet born. All our art treasures were absolutely
destroyed, burnt, by Napoleon. Art and War cannot live side by side. We
have had too much fighting, and now must recreate, rebuild almost from
the beginning.”
“Yes, it is lucky for us that we live on an island, and that the French
fleet met its Trafalgar,” I said. “Nelson saved our art-treasures for
us, I suppose.”
“I expect he did,” returned His Majesty, nodding his head emphatically.
“So you recognize that, do you?” and he turned away laughing and still
nodding vigorously, thinking, I am sure, a good deal about Nelson and
the fleet.
Nobody has ever accused the Emperor of being a diplomatist. He himself
believes that he is very astute and can see farther than most men. He
is, so to speak, a little blinded by his own brilliancy, by the
versatility of his own powers, which are apt to lead him astray. He has
never acquired the broad, tolerant outlook of a man who tries to view
things from another’s standpoint. He has, in fact, only one point of
view--his own--and a certain superficiality characterizes his thought.
He has a marvellous memory for facts, deduces hasty inferences, is too
prompt in decision, relies perhaps too entirely on his own judgment and
his own personal desires and experiences; he does not, in fact, give
himself time and opportunity to think things out, to weigh consequences,
and he has, unfortunately, few really great minds around him.
Conscientious, hard-working men in plenty, but the man of imagination,
of original conception, of new ideas--and there are many such men in
Germany--does not seem to be admitted to his councils. A great statesman
is not at hand just now--one who can impress his thought on the
Emperor’s receptive mind and guide his activities, the wonderful forces
of his mind, into the best avenues for their development.
In spite of his belief in the special mission of the Hohenzollern family
to carry out Divine purposes, an idea not uncorroborated by the course
of history, he is in every respect more democratic than his Court. The
magic “von” has, under his influence, lost some of its prestige. He has
bestowed the coveted syllable on certain people whom he desired to see
at Court, and invited to his table many men not enjoying the
prepositional advantage. One of them, Herr Ballin, the head and
inspiration of the Hamburg-America Line of Steamships, a self-made man
with Jewish blood in his veins, was even asked to Rominten, where only
the elect expect to meet each other. Not only that--to him was conceded
a rare and much-coveted privilege: he was allowed to go stag-hunting,
and, worse still, bagged three fine specimens, one of them a stag-royal.
What made this still more galling to the blue-blooded _entourage_ was
that a special friend of the Kaiser, a dear, delightful, charming old
gentleman whom everybody liked, had been accorded a similar favour, but
came back time after time without wearing the coveted spray of
oak-leaves in the back of his hat, the leaves whose absence is so
painfully eloquent of failure.
A universal groan used to go up from the lingerers in the courtyard as
the yellow _Jagd-Wagen_ appeared in sight and still no “_Spruch_” was
visible to the anxious watchers.
“There, the General has again had no luck!” they would remark; and it
became quite monotonous to see the General depart, all smiles, in his
green uniform amid a chorus of “_Waidmann’s Heil_,” and watch his
return sadly and slowly in the dusk of evening.
The Emperor likes to be identified with successful people of every
class, to feel that he has contributed something to their success, to
indicate to them further channels of improvement. There are probably few
successful artists, architects, engineers, or shipbuilders who have not
been at some time indebted to the Emperor for many professional
suggestions. It is a matter of common knowledge that all architectural
plans for Government buildings, post offices, railway stations,
barracks, etc., are invariably submitted to His Majesty--a censorship
productive of many terrors and much apprehension in the official mind,
for the question of expense is ignored and the Imperial blue pencil
strikes out perhaps the toil of months, substituting something maybe
less adequate to the intended purpose. Yet, on the whole, this
autocratic method has been productive of much good: it has saved the
nation from the frightful utilitarian atrocities of the inartistic Town
Council, whose hideous square piles of bricks lie like a nightmare on
the public conscience. If the Emperor often misses the best, his taste
is at any rate on a sufficiently high level of excellence, and it
improves with advancing years.
Among the many artists, some good, many of mediocre talents, to whom he
has given his patronage, the famous László has painted the most
successful portraits of the Kaiser and Kaiserin, and their daughter.
Perhaps the most charming of all is that of the young Princess with her
hair falling over her shoulders and her hands full of flowers. She and
Herr László were very great friends, and it was amusing to hear the
Princess attempt to talk about Art--for, to tell the truth, her efforts
at drawing had, at that period, not advanced very far. László wished
very much to see her productions, and she one day brought him a few
rather smudgy charcoal sketches which many people had pronounced “quite
nice.” László, however, left her no illusions on the subject. He looked
at them and smiled, and laid them down and said, “Well, shall we get on
with our picture now?”
The Princess once gave him a doll dressed in Rococo costume, and he
painted its portrait in oils and sent it to her on her birthday. It is
now one of her most cherished possessions. László’s portrait of Her
Majesty was an excellent likeness, and conveyed that air of stately
dignity and placid calm so characteristic of the Empress, one which no
other of her portraits possesses. Besides these three royal sitters the
Crown Prince and Princess too were sketched in oils, and the resulting
likeness of the Crown Prince was extraordinarily clever, conveying the
curious cat-like, rather mesmeric look of his eyes. It was almost too
good a likeness, and many people disliked it extremely--it was so unlike
the rather quiet, absorbed expression that most artists give to His
Imperial Highness.
To see the Emperor with children is always amusing. His own, with the
exception of his little daughter, he has kept as they grew up sternly to
their duties, first as schoolboys, then later on as officers in the
army. Only of his little girl--now a little girl no longer--has he been
heard to relate infantine anecdotes, to tell of her tiny imperious ways
and childish wilfulness. But none of them, though they all adored
“Papa,” were ever familiar with him. They all were brought up to believe
him the most wonderful person in the world, but in that they were not so
very different from a good many other children. To see the Emperor with
his grandsons is perhaps one of the pleasantest sights in the world; to
hear them explain their picture-books to _Gross-Papa_, to watch them
gravely saluting each other when they meet in uniform, or to see the
four small boys in white sailor-suits stooping in turn to kiss His
Majesty’s hand. They are on the very best of terms, for _Gross-Papa_ has
a wonderful knack of finding his way to childish hearts.
The _Kinderheim_ at Rominten is a kind of _crèche_, established by the
Empress for the tiny children, where, when their mothers are working in
the fields, they can be cared for by a trained deaconess, who is also
the depositary of sundry medical stores supplied by Her Majesty for the
use of the villagers.
Every year, on the Sunday before the departure of Their Majesties from
Rominten, a small festivity taking the form of a children’s tea is given
here by the Emperor and Empress, and His Majesty may be seen in his
green uniform, distributing hunks of cake to each sunburnt child; and
when their wants are temporarily satisfied, nothing pleases him better
than to thrust huge slabs of sticky currant buns into the unwilling
hands of the attendant ladies and gentlemen, who, receiving the
unwelcome gift with a forced smile, take an early opportunity of
surreptitiously slipping it back into the tray whence it was taken.
On the occasion of one of these teas a small boy of six, thirsting for
notoriety, barred the Emperor’s path at the moment when he was on the
point of leaving the feast to step into the hunting-cart waiting outside
with keeper and guns to take him to a part of the forest some miles
away, where a lordly “eighteen-ender” was wont to browse at sunset.
This child, who possessed a phenomenal memory, burst into the recital of
a poem, to which the Emperor, expecting every line to be the last, lent
at first a sufficiently attentive ear; but as time went on, the poetic
effusion, which described with unnecessary wealth of detail the events
of the recently celebrated Silver Wedding of Their Majesties, seemed to
expand its scope and gather strength and volume with each succeeding
verse, while the Empress, aware of the portentous length of this rhyming
masterpiece, tried to stem the flood of poetry by suggesting that the
rest might be said another time.
But the sturdy young peasant, completely absorbed in his task, continued
relentlessly, in his broad East-Prussian accent, his eyes faithfully
fixed on the toes of the Emperor’s boots. His Majesty, like the
Wedding-Guest, “could not choose but hear,” and if he did not listen
like a three-years child, at any rate bore manfully with the ceaseless
monotone. At last it suddenly descended two tones, stopped, and with a
wooden bow the young reciter concluded his stupendous effort, and his
Imperial auditor, throwing thanks and praise over his shoulder, went off
to deal with the stag, while the small boy retired shamefacedly into the
crowd covered with glory and stuffed with cake.
The indefatigable deaconess had trained ten small boys to form a guard
of honour and to present arms and go through certain military exercises
whenever Royalty appeared, one tiny fellow performing laboriously on a
very inadequate drum the while. When the Emperor came in sight they
always went through all these evolutions, _Präsentirt das Gewehr_,
_Gewehr ab_, and so on, the small _Unter-Offizier_, aged seven, giving
his orders with the greatest coolness and precision.
The German Empress has always played a somewhat subordinate rôle, but it
is unnecessary to deduce from this obvious fact the idea that she is a
nonentity or a mere _Haus-frau_, because Her Majesty is nothing of the
kind, but a woman with wide interests, who from morning till night is
occupied with social schemes for the betterment of the people.
Of her it may be said, as Thackeray wrote of Lady Castlewood, “It is
this lady’s disposition to think kindnesses, and devise silent bounties,
and to scheme benevolence for those about her.... To be doing good for
some one else is the life of most good women. They are exuberant of
kindness, as it were, and must impart it to some one else.”
And if kindness is the most conspicuous trait in the Empress’s
character, it is a kindness directed into many useful public channels,
finding an outlet in worthy objects, in social service, and much arduous
work for the help and uplifting of mankind.
It is safe to say that perhaps no other woman in the world would have
been so admirably suited to the Emperor’s varying moods, to his
suddenness, his volcanic outbursts of energy. In the presence of her
husband she is self-sacrificing, self-effacing, but when apart from him
shows plenty of initiative and self-confidence.
For the first twenty years of her married life she was occupied in the
care of her children, but by no means entirely absorbed by them, for she
has always been deeply interested in problems of poverty and disease,
and in the nurture of children, and has thrown all her influence in the
scale against that excessive exploitation of the childish brain against
which modern scientists are now upraising their voices. She is not at
all pleased when poor little nervous children are thrust forward to
recite poetry to her; she much prefers a bunch of flowers and something
frankly childish, like the greeting of the small maiden who, having
totally forgotten the speech she was to make, and finding the Empress so
different from what she expected, just said shortly, employing to the
horror of her parents the familiar _Du_:
“You’re the Empress, aren’t you? I’m Anna Kruger. Here, these flowers
are for you.” And the unabashed infant thrust her flowers into the hand
of the Empress, turned her back and toddled off.
All the public hospitals of Berlin are under the direct superintendence
and control of the Empress, who, as the wife of an autocratic monarch,
possesses much more direct authority than most Queen-consorts. Her
interest in them is practical and thorough. She allows no alteration in
construction, no building to be done, without going into the domestic
side of the project. She knows where cupboards are necessary, where
doors will save needless footsteps to and fro; she realizes the needs of
women, too apt to be ignored where men alone arrange their treatment.
She is indefatigable in trying to spread knowledge of the care of
children among poor women, often so deplorably ignorant of what they
most need to know. She detests the German method of placing men almost
entirely in charge of girls’ schools; she has fought with some success
against this masculine assumption of authority, nowhere carried so far
as in the Fatherland, where little girls may be daily seen taking their
walks in Berlin under the charge of a solemn young man in spectacles.
The Empress is tall and well-made, and her hair turned white at a very
early age--chiefly, say those people who have an explanation for
everything, because of her grief that her only daughter was born deaf
and dumb! This popular myth has naturally fitted in nicely with the
white hair, so that it is almost a pity that it has no thread of truth
upon which to hang. In any case, the white hair is very becoming to the
statuesque dignity of the Empress, who grows year by year more
impressive, more stately.
Her Majesty’s chief recreation, the one in which she most delights, is
riding. Every day, if possible, she takes a brisk canter of an hour or
two. She also plays a good deal of lawn-tennis--although during the last
year her health has not permitted her to indulge quite so often in this
game.
Her reading consists largely of historical memoirs, which interest her
deeply; but she has not a mind quickly receptive of new ideas--would
perhaps be a little narrowly intolerant if she were not prevented by her
essential kindness of heart. Her chief talent has always been the
creation of an atmosphere of home for her husband and children, no light
task amid the rigid officialism of a court. She has been heard to relate
how once, when not feeling very well, she sent to the kitchen for some
tea at the unorthodox hour of ten o’clock at night, and was told that to
carry out such an order was impossible; there was no provision for
making tea at ten, only at five or in the morning from eight to nine. So
the Empress went without her tea. The next morning the _Haus-Marshall_
requested Her Majesty in future, whenever she might need tea at ten
o’clock, to give orders for it before five, because all the cooks went
home at that hour. The Empress at once took steps to enable herself or
any one else in the palace to obtain tea at any hour they might need it.
She is an industrious needlewoman, and very much dislikes to sit and
talk without having some work to do, declaring that constant occupation
of the fingers is very restful to the nerves; and when the old Court
doctor remonstrates that she never allows herself to rest, smiles and
shakes her head at him and says quietly, “Oh, you men do not
understand.”
The Emperor of late years always lies down and rests for an hour or two
in the afternoon, but no efforts have ever been successful in making Her
Majesty do the same. Up early in the mornings to ride with her husband,
walking with him before breakfast, standing more or less all day, and
often up to a very late hour of the evening especially in the season, it
is surprising how the Empress has been able always to fulfil without
fail her varied duties, often at the expense of much bodily weariness
and effort.
Once at Königsberg, where the Imperial couple had come for some special
festivities, after a day and a night’s travelling in the train, she
found herself so utterly overcome with fatigue that at three o’clock in
the afternoon she felt that unless she obtained some rest before night
she must inevitably break down, for a large dinner was to take place in
the evening with a reception to follow. But all round the old Königsberg
Schloss was gathered an enthusiastic crowd cheering and calling for the
Empress, who at last went out on to the balcony, and, holding up her
hand for silence, addressed them to the following effect:
“Good people,--I thank you for your kind reception, but for the next two
hours it is necessary for me to have some rest, so I ask you to go away
and leave me in peace until five, when you may come again.” She then
retired, and the people melted away, and for a space there was silence.
When Her Majesty cruises in her yacht, the _Iduna_, off the coast of
Schleswig-Holstein, and lies up in port for the night, every patriotic
soul within a radius of thirty miles is smitten with the selfsame
idea--to come and serenade Her Majesty till the small hours with the
selfsame song, “Schleswig-Holstein sea-engirdled.”
“Mamma and I are perfectly sick of that song,” said the Princess.
“People came and rowed round the _Iduna_ and yelled it into the
port-holes while we were dressing and while we dined, and when we came
on deck there it was again, and when one lot had finished another lot
came and began all over again. It was truly awful.”
In Germany everybody yearns to sing before Royalty. In Wilhelmshöhe one
enterprising lady who, as one of the princes remarked, “thought more of
her voice than it deserved,” hid herself behind a bush in the public
part of the park, and when Her Majesty came walking unsuspectingly in
that direction to enjoy the cool evening hour in company with her
children, the lady burst into impassioned song and shook out of herself
torrents of trills and elaborate shakes into the darkness.
The evenings at _Neues Palais_ in the winter-time were usually very
quiet. After supper the Empress and her ladies with their needlework
would sit round the big table of one of the salons, while the Emperor
looked at the English papers spread about, or, as often happened, read
extracts from them aloud. He usually wore glasses when reading, and was
very fond of _Punch_, especially of the political cartoons, in which he
so frequently figured under the guise of a sea-serpent, an
organ-grinder, or his imperial self, with exaggerated moustaches and
portentous frown. I always tried to hide _Punch_ when it was my turn
downstairs. His Majesty liked to thrust these embarrassing pictures
under my nose.
“What d’you think of that?” he would say. “Nice, isn’t it? Good
likeness, eh?” It was often difficult to find a suitable answer on the
spur of the moment.
Somewhere about ten o’clock the Empress would rise and depart, followed
by the ladies, who all turned and made a curtsy to the Emperor as they
went past, he regarding them with a rather mocking, quizzical gaze. When
the Emperor was away, the ladies often dined upstairs in the apartment
of the Empress, and sat afterwards in her private salon, one of the
loveliest rooms in the Palace, all pale yellow satin and silver
mouldings.
Until his marriage the Crown Prince was a very frequent visitor at the
New Palace, usually staying there at Christmas and other times of
festivity. He is the only one of the princes enjoying the title of
Imperial Highness, his brothers and sister being only Royal Highnesses.
At the time of the death of the Emperor Frederick and his father’s
accession to the throne as William II. the young prince was only seven
years old.
So that no invidious distinction could be made between himself and his
brothers, the title of Crown Prince was not used until he was eighteen
years of age, and the little boy was so unconscious of his right to the
title that when he heard that one of the officers had been promoted, and
was asked to guess what he had now become, he said with a delighted
smile, “Perhaps he’s been made Crown Prince.”
He is, as every one knows, a young man who has devoted much time to
sport, and, like his father, has many spheres of activity, having
written a book, visited India, and made some good and a few unwise
speeches. He is an ardent soldier and a typical Hohenzollern, with
supreme confidence in the star of his family, and earnestly desires to
live his life in his own way, to move with the times, to be a child of
his century; and it is probable that with a little more experience of
life, especially perhaps of that discipline of sorrow which initiates
most men into a new sphere of thought, he will develop into the man the
world hopes to see in him--something steadfast and strong, and perhaps a
little more silent. At present he is very good-natured, very kind, very
crude in his ideas, very young for his age, very self-confident and
rather selfish, as the modern type of young man is apt to be. He is
popular in Potsdam, where he picks up little boys for rides on his
charger as he comes home from drill, flings gold pieces abroad to
poverty-stricken people, gives lifts in his motor-car to weary men on
the road. He has all that facile, democratic, easy generosity which wins
popularity, and possesses great charm of manner together with a hatred
of coercion and restraint. Probably some recent outbreaks have been due
to a desire to show his independence of mind, a yearning to cast off
conventional shackles and to say what he thinks.
He still has a good deal of the schoolboy in his composition, although
since his marriage he has given up his favourite pastime of sliding down
staircase banisters.
But it is not so long since, when he and his family were living in the
Stadt-Schloss at Potsdam, one wet day when entertainment was hard to
find, he had the happy idea of amusing his children by taking their tiny
Shetland pony upstairs to the nursery.
The pony had first to be fetched by the Crown Prince and his adjutant
from the stables of the Marmor Palais, and was with difficulty dragged
and pushed into the automobile, where, in a state of abject terror, it
protested all the way against its abduction.
When they arrived at the Stadt-Schloss the pony was led or rather hauled
bodily up the stairs, and was so unnerved by its experiences that its
behaviour on arriving in the nursery scared the little princes into
tears, and they begged for the pony to be taken away again, howling
without intermission until the poor animal was, with difficulty,
removed.