From the death of Luther, 1546, to the end of the century the struggle
continued. Now and then there came a brief pause to the general strife,
such as followed the Treaty of Passau, or the Religious Peace of
Augsburg, but it was soon renewed by the tyranny or treachery of the
Catholic powers, whose hatred of the followers of Luther and of the
spirit of protestantism did not abate till Europe had passed through
the most terrible and disastrous war of history. This was the thirty
years’ war, dating from 1618 to 1648, and involving not only the whole
German Empire, but also the principal states of Europe. Seldom, if ever,
has there been known such depletion of population and resources. It was
finally brought to an end by the peace of Westphalia, when the worn-out
and impoverished states subscribed to a treaty which gave comparative
toleration in Germany. Under its conditions, in all religious questions
Protestants were to have an equal weight with Catholics in the high
courts and diet of the empire. The Calvinists were also included with the
Lutheran and Reformed creeds in this religious peace. By its termination
of the religious wars in Europe the peace of Westphalia forms a great
landmark in history.
The seventeenth century, from the thirty years’ war on to its close,
might not inappropriately be called the period of pusillanimity in
Germany. Public buildings, schools and churches were allowed to stand as
ruins while the courts of petty princes were aping the stiff, formal,
artificial manners of that of the French monarch, Louis XIV. The latter
seeing the weakened state of the empire seized the opportunity to enlarge
his own kingdom at the expense of Germany. He laid claim to Brabant and
many of the fortresses of the frontier fell into the hands of the French.
His ambition was only checked by the intervention of Holland, England and
Sweden, and the war terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Meanwhile
the Turks in alliance with the Hungarians marched with an army of 200,000
up the Danube and encamped around the walls of Vienna. There is good
evidence that they were aided and abetted in this invasion by Louis XIV.
The Emperor Leopold fled, leaving his capital to its fate. But the little
guard of 13,000 men under Count Stahremberg held the fortifications
against the invader’s overwhelming force till Duke Charles of Lorraine
and the Elector of Saxony with their armies, and still another army of
20,000 Poles under their king John Sobieski came to their relief. The
Turkish army was routed and driven into Hungary. All this time Louis,
like an eager bird of prey, was watching Germany. Finally, in 1688, two
powerful French armies appeared upon the Rhine. The allied states at last
saw their imminent danger and rallied to resist and drive back the common
foe. Louis resolved to ruin if he could not possess the country; so he
adopted a course than which a more wanton and barbarous was never known,
even in the annals of savagism. Vines were pulled up, fruit-trees cut
down, and villages burned to the ground. Multitudes of defenseless people
were slain in cold blood, and 400,000 persons beggared. Germany, aroused
at last, now entered with vigor into the war with France, and carried
it on till both sides were weary and exhausted. It was concluded by the
Treaty of Ryswick.
The eighteenth century dawned, still to witness Germany the arena of war.
Indeed from earliest history her soil, especially along the Rhine, had
been the battle-ground of Europe. This time it was the war of the Spanish
succession, whose tangled episodes and details we can not undertake to
follow. It will be remembered by the student of history for its great
battle of Blenheim, where the allied armies under the Duke of Marlborough
and Prince Eugene defeated and routed the French. Louis XIV. was now old,
infirm, and tired of war, and hence consented to a treaty of peace, which
was concluded March 7, 1714.
The century now begun witnessed the rise of Prussia out of the German
chaos and the wonderful and brilliant career of Frederick the Great. It
also saw the stronger and more enlightened reigns of Maria Theresa and
Joseph II. in Austria.
Though the wars never ceased, breaking out again in one quarter while
peace was being concluded in another, yet the century as a whole gave
prophesy of a coming better state of affairs.
The grandfather of Frederick the Great had founded the university of
Halle in 1694, and in 1711 an academy of science was established in
Berlin upon a plan drawn up by the philosopher Leibnitz. Frederick
William I., father of Frederick the Great, though coarse and brutal in
his nature, had the wisdom to see the importance of German education and
of breaking off from the established custom of imitating French manners
and life. He accordingly established four hundred schools among the
people, and by the vigor and economy of his reign contributed to the
development of the character and individuality of his people. Frederick
the Great and his rival, Maria Theresa, possessed greater elements of
personal character and intelligence than their predecessors, and hence
gave to their subjects, if not a more liberal form, at least a higher
order of government. Contemporary with these was the beginning of that
literary bloom which, by the genius of Lessing, Herder, Klopstock,
Goethe and Schiller, gave to Germany a glory surpassing all she has ever
achieved, either by war or statesmanship.
We have now reached, just before the beginning of the nineteenth century,
the time of the French Revolution. It was a time that required great
political prudence on the part of the rulers in Germany. Unhappily the
successors of Frederick the Great and Joseph II. were incompetent to
their responsibilities. That great military genius that rose out of the
turmoil and chaos of the revolution in France is soon marching through
Germany, and on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II., the last of the
line, laid down his title of “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the
German nation” at the feet of Napoleon. Thus, just a thousand years after
Charlemagne the empire of his founding passed away. It had culminated
under the Hohenstauffens, and for a long time before its formal burial
had existed in tradition rather than in fact. Truly may it be said that
Germany was as far as ever from being a nation at the beginning of our
century.
From 1806 to 1814 Germany underwent the humiliation of subjection to
the power of Napoleon. By a succession of victories, such as Jena and
Auerstädt, he cowed the spirit of the German princes and proceeded
to construct the famous “Rhine-Bund” which made him protector over a
territory embracing fourteen millions of German inhabitants, and imposed
upon the states and principalities included conditions the most exacting
and disgraceful. Prussia and Austria, which held out at first, were
also compelled by force of his victorious armies to yield, and Napoleon
dictated terms to all Germany. He marched in triumph into Berlin and
Vienna; he changed boundaries, levied troops, prescribed the size of
their standing armies at will, and when he set out on his campaign
against Alexander of Prussia 200,000 previously conquered Germans marched
at his command. Such was the abject state of Germany during those years
when it seemed that all Europe must bend before the insatiate conqueror.
But in the year 1813 the spirit of liberty began to live again. The
revival began, however, not with the princes, but in the breasts of the
people. The works of the great German authors were becoming familiar to
them and were producing their effect. Klopstock was awakening a pride in
the German name and race; Schiller was thrilling the popular heart with
his doctrine of resistance to oppression, whilst the songs of Körner
and Arndt were inspiring courage and hope. All classes of the people
participated in the uprising, and within a few months Prussia had an army
of 270,000 soldiers in the field ready to resist the power of France.
This was the beginning of the turn in the tide of affairs which led in
1815 to the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, and gave liberation to
Germany.
The remaining history of the present century is that of the Confederation
formed in 1815 and lasting till 1866; of the North German Confederation
which succeeded the above, and continued to the establishing of the
present empire in 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian war; and of
the new empire to the present time. The confederation of 1815, known as
the “Deutscher Bund,” embraced a part of Austria, most of Prussia, the
kingdoms of Bavaria, Würtemberg, Saxony and Hanover, the electorate of
Hesse-Cassel, a number of duchies, principalities and free cities; in all
thirty-nine states.
When in 1866 the “Bund” was dissolved and the North German Confederation
formed, Austria was excluded, and Prussia assumed the headship of
the new compact which embraced the states north of the Main. The term
Germany, from 1866 to 1871, designated the new Confederation, and the
four South German States, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden and Hesse Darmstadt.
The four latter had been made independent states, but were united with
the North German Confederation by the Zollverein, and by alliances
offensive and defensive.
The late war between France and Germany belongs to the history of
the present generation. Its great events and changes to Germany are
within the memory of many of our readers. It will be longest remembered
because of its association with the formation of the present empire.
While the siege of Paris was yet in progress (January 1871) the spirit
of enthusiasm became so great, and the desire for national unity so
strong, that the various sovereign states, as well as the members of
the Confederation determined on a revival of the empire. At their joint
instance, in the great hall of Louis XIV., at Versailles, King William
of Prussia received the imperial crown with the title of German Emperor.
Under this new empire the whole German nation, Austria alone excepted,
is united more closely than it has been for more than six hundred years,
or since the Great Interregnum. It is not too much to say that the last
decade has been the brightest and most prosperous in German history.
The new empire has made possible and developed a feeling of patriotism
which could not exist while the race was divided into fifty or more
separate states. It was the complaint of her greatest poet, Goethe,
that there was no united Germany to awaken pride and patriotism in the
German heart. That condition of things is now done away by the present
national government, which, though retaining many of the imperial
features of the past, has, at the same time, embodied some of the more
liberal governmental ideas of the present age. Such, for instance, is the
election by direct universal suffrage and by ballot, of the Reichstag,
one of the two legislative councils of the empire. The German name was
never more respected and honored throughout the world than it is to-day;
not alone for her eminent position among the powers of Europe, but for
her high rank in the empires of art, philosophy and science. Her great
universities are admired wherever in the world there is appreciation
for scholarship, industry and genius. If the present has any right to
prophesy it must be that the coming years contain for Germany less of
wars and dissension, more of peace, coöperation and unity.