The Dream of Empire
45
Bismarck tricks them all--and by under-play matches King
against King.
¶ Von Roon had the soldiers up at 4 o'clock in the morning,
incessantly drilling for the oncoming War of the Brothers. The deadly
needle-guns--von Roon's secret--were relied on to do superior work in
the impending great crisis.
¶ Blood and iron--yes, that is the thing!
¶ About this time, Bismarck executes another master-stroke. He decides
to intervene in Poland, in favor of Russia; and certainly he has now
to face a "word of wrath."
England sets up a cry, "Stop thief!" Exeter Hall statesmen,
"brotherhood of man" type, begin tearful whinings.
¶ Louis Napoleon tries to form an alliance between England and
Austria, and England offers gold for a copy of the Russo-Prussian
agreement, affecting Poland. Spies were everywhere.
¶ Well, 10,000 Poles perish in the sacred cause of liberty, but mark:
That in helping Russia Bismarck is laying the foundation for Russia's
neutrality in the coming master-stroke against Austria. What do the
lives of 10,000 Poles weigh in the balance beside the great strategic
necessities to encompass Bismarck's idea of a United Germany? We do
believe that Bismarck has the only practical solution, let nominal
Christians say what they will.
¶ The next step, to bribe France, is brought about craftily, through a
customs' arrangement; and when some of the German states object,
Bismarck replies: "You go my way or go your own way, alone!"
Also, Italy has to be quieted by soothing promises!
¶ Austria now sets up more wind-baggery and gold lace, in the form of
a new parliament, but Bismarck counters with a "proposed German
parliament"--a spurious affair to be sure, but the scare has its
weight.
¶ Dark and intricate diplomacy here passes before the eyes. Austria
fails in her Congress of Sovereigns, and is anxious likewise to
retrieve her losses in the Italian war. Bismarck at least knows that
Austria henceforth is powerless to inflame German states against
Prussia, also that the growth of Liberalism, within Austria's own
domains, is again keeping her very busy.
¶ Cast your eyes toward Paris. Louis the Little is secretly plotting
with both sides--Bismarck's spies tell all to the old man up in
Berlin! Secretly, Louis feels that Prussia will be defeated; the
French Emperor aims at what he calls the balance of power--by which he
means that while the two big dogs are fighting, he will slip in and
steal the bone? Exactly that!
¶ Many years later, Bismarck writing of this period, makes this
confession:
¶ "Napoleon secretly thought that if Austria and Prussia clashed,
Austria would win and then France would step in and 'protect' Prussia;
later on, in return for the price of her French favor, Napoleon III
believed he could make such terms as he wished with our Prussia."
¶ Thus, up to the decisive battle of Sadowa, or Koeniggraetz, France
remains politely bowing and scraping to both sides--while having her
understanding with each side.
Napoleon feels that he will in time be asked to intervene, and for his
help he will take a slice of the Rhineland.
Bismarck did not undeceive France--mark that well! Later in life, the
Man of Blood and Iron, taunted with the charge of attempting to give
away German territory, made a strong "diplomatic" defense. He
fearlessly produced the draft of a proposed treaty showing that France
was conniving to acquire Belgium, through the under-play of politics,
aided by Bismarck.
The amusing part was Bismarck's solemn reply, "The treaty was drawn up
by Napoleon himself, and was offered to me for signature!"
Also, to show that he is disinterested, Napoleon now proposes that the
"differences" between Prussia and Austria be settled by a European
congress. Austria hangs back, although England and Russia join to ask
for the Congress of Settlement.
46
1864-1866--Prussian domination essential in all Bismarck's
plans--Consistent in his inconsistencies.
¶ The difficulties of Bismarck's position are not to be ascribed to
the fact that, first and foremost, he desired to re-establish
confidence in the Feudal theory of Divine-right of kings. His
life-long plans had to do with increasing the power of Prussia and he
preached the legitimacy of his loyal master's house as an American
politician is wont to eulogize the services of the "grand old
Republican party," or "the great principles of Jefferson," or boasts
that he is "progressive and independent," whatever that may mean.
In each case, the appeal is to a given audience, with the hope of
adding to the following.
¶ The logic of hereditary influences placed Bismarck squarely in line
as King's Man; and to his credit be it said that he consistently
preached one gospel throughout his long political life.
But his alignment with kings was more than mere opportunism, as too
often is the case in America, among the "people's" leaders.
Bismarck honestly believed that the logic of events precluded any
change in rulership over the Prussian people; and in his larger view
Prussian domination must eventually spread over the German states,
uniting them in one country--as they were already united by blood and
by languages.
¶ That he battled with Austria, the rival for the good will of the
German states, is easily explained. It is not human nature for any
man to yield what to him promises to turn out an advantage.
That the sovereigns of Prussia held their crown upon the principle of
Divine-right, was construed also to impose obligations; and it was
part of the theory that the King and his advisers must see to it that
the land is used for the common good. The King of Prussia swore to
"Divine-right to the soil; swore to defend it; swore to improve it,
for the benefit of all."
¶ Furthermore, the old-time German political idealism in which brother
was supposed to shake hands with brother, sung by the poet Arndt, in
his romantic semi-religious lyrics of liberty, was through the recent
German revolution (1848) replaced by a new type of positivist German,
intent on money-success, business affairs, economic achievements.
The century-long dreams of National unity based on idealistic
speeches, poetry, romantic phrase-mongering, was now slowly to yield
to a new spirit; and believers in German Unity came to see that
Prussian supremacy held all there was, in a practical way, of possible
German centralization. Bismarck certainly saw it very clearly and
acted accordingly in his future political appeals and alignments.
¶ Prussia had early led in the practical business of clearing the
Chinese-walls that had bound many of the petty states; the Zollverein
or customs' union, begun in 1818, as heretofore explained, grew in
power with the extension of Prussian railroads and telegraphs; the
Prussian capitalistic middle-classes, intent on building up the family
fortunes, had prospered in proportion as the customs' union had been
extended, under Prussian domination; and accordingly in 1849 Bismarck,
as soon as Prussia had been placed herself at the head of this
Business Union, began scheming as never before to win German Unity
through economic as well as patriotic arguments.
For one thing, Bismarck henceforth studied to put himself on even
terms with the commercial interests in the 39 jealous states. The
leaders of Liberalism were, as a rule, men of theoretical rather than
practical ideas; essentially a cultured élite, as it were, engaged in
babbling about German Constitutions, German fraternal alignments and
impossible German peace-parliaments.
¶ True, the good faith of patriots opposed to Bismarck is undisputed;
but the King's Man was a man with an exceedingly strong will and with
immense practical common sense to support his own ideas; a man who to
bring about his beneficent plan of German Unity followed his flag even
through three great wars.
This will of iron was exercised for the National good; and on the
whole exercised wisely. He went on with his schemings for many years,
from day to day making the best use of the material at hand; with
well-nigh infallible instinct seizing on the very forces that were
essential in years to come to the realization of his ultimate dream.
¶ Little by little he set aside the professorial class, and the
cultured élite politicians, and the theoretical constitution-makers;
in their places he brought forward hard-headed middle-class
capitalists, on one side, and the supreme military and landed Prussian
aristocracy, on the other side; and after overcoming gigantic
obstacles made clear to the average German peasant that both wealth
and authority were to be properly sustained in the old thorough-going
German fashion only by having no more to do with semi-spiritual,
politico-idealistic aims and purposes; also, that through Bismarck's
proposed new type of Unity the peasant on one side and the King on the
other could rise to even higher worldly positions without setting
aside safe old lines of respect for authority through a Divine-right
king, at the same time sharing the royal power with a great and
essentially democratic public opinion. Thus, Bismarck's German
National enterprise, although not thoroughly understood for many
years, was found at last to support in every particular the ancient
German tradition of a strong fighting man, as leader of a free people.
* * * * *
¶ That Bismarck was proud and old-fashioned he made his boast, his
joy, his strength.
Opponents held him up to obloquy, picturing his ideas as prehistoric,
even antediluvian; but Bismarck stood the prick of honor; as King's
Man he insisted in numberless arguments, far and wide, that behind the
Divine-right idea was not only a sentimental but a practical side. At
any rate, the King's Man was everlastingly against any movement that
looked like French mob-rule.
¶ As time passed, Bismarck learned gradually that he need not hesitate
to throw himself fearlessly forward, with this Divine-right as a
leverage, to express the legitimacy of the royal house for which he
battled.
In the final analysis he was secretly fortified by his instinctive
knowledge of the peculiar political idiosyncrasies of Prussians; how
dog-like in the final analysis is their submission to the political
conception of the Over-man who rules by Divine-right.
* * * * *
¶ It was to this National faith that Bismarck was constantly
addressing himself--this loyalty to a paternalistic idea--and his
attitude was much the same as that of the Chinese in their worship of
ancestors, or of an American who preserves his family record.
Bismarck was urging family unity among quarreling German sons and
daughters; and as is the case in all family feuds, the intrinsic
merits of the controversy were often overlooked and the time taken in
an endeavor to inflict personal humiliations.
¶ Bismarck was essentially appealing to National honor, which he
placed higher than absolutism or republicanism, tyranny or democracy.
By National honor, he meant the German conception of an over-lord for
a ruler, preferably one with a strong military record.
Herein, we touch the core of Bismarck's strength, the measure of his
greatness.
When a man fights, on honor, for institutions which his forefathers
slowly fostered and sustained through six hundred years of strife, the
question of his rights or his wrongs is merged into the larger
question of chivalry.
¶ If there were no other gift which might be set up to justify for
Bismarck a commanding position among the world's great figures, his
conception of National honor, based on powerful personal convictions,
his inheritance, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh--utterly apart
from the French mob-rule idea of liberty expressed in license--Bismarck's
plea for the National honor of Prussia, as the custodian of ancient
German traditions, suffices to stamp Bismarck as the true custodian of
German political tradition of his age.
¶ To this might reasonably be added another claim which in our broad
view of Bismarck's character we here demand for him as one of the
world's great men--courage of the bull-dog type, not altogether
unselfish, but courage and remarkable consistency; standing the acid
test of self-sacrifice during thirty-odd years' vexatious delays in
attaining his goal; a period of probation certainly long enough to try
the stoutest heart.
¶ With qualities of this supreme order, far outside average human
nature, Bismarck at last prepared himself to win his surprising fight
for a United Germany; incidentally stamping himself, his power and his
purpose high among the great Germans of all time, from Charlemagne
down.
* * * * *
¶ To understand these ideas, let us for the moment look forward as
well as backward. Let us speak in general terms, along the lines of
the realistic politics, that Bismarck was maturing, as against the
old-time German sentimental idealism, once the political hope of
Unity.
47
Bismarck's whole message turns on the urgency of faith among
the German people; his idea, that United Germany must be
achieved by faith, alone!
¶ Bismarck had the well-nigh impossible task of organizing and
inspiring a common political faith in 25,000,000 people, divided by
religious, climatic and personal differences. That at times he utterly
failed to meet the situation except by political hypocrisy, is merely
to say that in addition to being a warrior and ultimately the
conqueror of a continent, he always kept within hailing distance of
human nature; for when he could not win his way with a kiss, he gained
it with a curse.
¶ In the final analysis he won, largely because of stirring faith in
the German states.
With faith, what can a nation not do: If the United States, today, had
deathless belief in the destiny of the Republic that Americans
emphasize in their worship of the Golden Calf, a bloodless revolution
for a higher standard of political thought would take place over
night.
The difficulty is that with the average American National faith is
dead.
He has come to the conclusion that he has no stake in the Government,
that in short he is a victim to the machinations of plutocrats.
To read the American point of view, (1915) we, today, no less than the
Prussians and the Austrians, in Bismarck's time, are also about to
spring at each other's throats! There is little sentiment for National
unity; it is the East against the West, in Congress, and in the
newspapers it is the people against the plutocrats.
* * * * *
¶ Bismarck's career affords a classical instance, in these poor times,
of what a strong man, with faith in himself and his cause, can do
against all manner of obstacles.
Faith in himself was the essence of his power. Over and over, he made
clear that he regarded himself in God's hands, doing God's work, but
on what specific evidence he based this profound conclusion no human
being knows beyond Bismarck's own assertion. However, that power urged
him on. Naturally, in turn, the fire kindled by faith in himself at
last stimulated faith in a people, numbering some twenty-five
millions; a people who in the main had up to this time been political
atheists to Bismarck's dogma of a United Germany. This idea of faith
is a fact of such vast import that we dare not pass it lightly by.
* * * * *
¶ By an almighty wave of faith in themselves the German people ceased
playing the political craven; came out boldly for what they hold to be
their too long deferred birthright!
Here, the mental attitude of the German people passes beyond the
dogmas of politics or social intercourse whatsoever; it merges into a
mysterious world of reality, close and near yet baffling to describe;
expressing itself in an invincible National faith, now about to burst
forth, at last, and sweep all before it!
¶ This mental phenomenon exists in various forms, but the animating
impulse is ever the same.
The hymn-singing of Charles and John Wesley, whose appeals to
religious emotionalism filled the fields of England with tens of
thousands of weeping, shouting men and women, vastly excited as to the
state of their souls, is a type of faith beginning in a small way and
attaining National proportions. No historian could write adequately
the history of England without crediting great changes to the work of
the Wesley psalm-singers; women tearing off their jewels; men rising
in the multitude and calling on God to witness that henceforth their
lives would be pure and unsullied by sin; while under the excitement
murderers came forward and confessed crimes known only to themselves.
¶ Oh, this German National faith that Frederick the Great so
gloriously began; that Louise fostered and sustained; that the poet
Arndt set to hymns; that the great von Humboldt in his own peculiar
way saw from afar; that the German students apostrophied; that William
III figured to himself in his church-building; that von Stein
discerned vaguely; that William I emphasized in his cold-blooded,
clear-eyed manner of the soldier; that von Sybel fought for; that
scores, nay, hundreds and thousands of noble men and women, utterly
apart from political chicanery, did indeed long for with all the
fervor of their earnest God-fearing German nature; Bismarck stands in
the centre, here and now!
¶ It is true that he is not as yet accepted, but he is biding his
time; he is looked on with suspicion, but he fronts the scorn of the
rabble, in the end to beat the doubters into submission, against their
own will.
¶ This newly awakened German National faith was really a very old
German faith that had never died, although for years forgotten; the
longing for the Fatherland was always there.
¶ Through love of home, through worship of ancestry and through
respect for constituted authority in church and state, that is by
"German national faith," Bismarck touched the chord that made his
life-work possible. The stimulus of three great wars, presented by
Bismarck as sanctified by God, finally did the business.
¶ He knew that in all Germans is a certain generosity of character
which when appealed to in the right way made them eager to take the
chance of death on the battlefield.
¶ Bismarck played the positive as well as the negative side of this
psychological fact. On the negative side, he stirred men with the idea
that social ostracism rests on the man who in times of National danger
tries to avoid the draft.
¶ Bismarck's work thus shows him to be the great constructive poet of
his time. He placed war before his fellow man in such a way that it
was held a sweet privilege to die for one's land, which interpreted
means Bismarck's idea of a new territorial arrangement of the map of
Europe.
¶ There was race prejudice behind his deeper plans. He made much of
the fact that within a given area the German language was spoken,
whereas while there were millions of German-speaking people in Austria
there were also Slavs, Czechs, Bohemians and mongrel races.
¶ The idea of brotherhood based on blood and language finally
prevailed over the idea of the confraternity of races. Make as much
out of this as you will, but the basic fact is incontestible.
¶ Some 80,000 men perished to sustain Bismarck's peculiar conception
of United Germany. Through the turmoil and misery of these three wars
he had his way, and being at last successful, he suddenly became the
most popular man in Europe, idolized by the millions who a little
while before had reviled his name as the enemy of the Democrats.
¶ Such is human nature.
* * * * *
¶ Perhaps, after all, German National faith is only another name for
the tremendous earnestness that set the whole land ablaze with
singleness of purpose, consecrated to a high cause.
Bismarck in a very real sense because of faith in himself and in his
ultimate cause, directed this National faith in the Fatherland and won
thereby a magnificent United Germany. If we do not grasp the
significance of this unseen but gigantic National German faith, as
expressed in the increasing unity of will of the whole people, harked
on by Prussia, we might as well close the book on Bismarck--and know
him not.
* * * * *
¶ To comprehend, somewhat, the firm roots of racial strength, as
expressed by German National faith, let us for the moment pass from
the 1840's, '50's and '60's, which we are now endeavoring to present
with their psychological message of faith, and turn our eyes to the
year 1914, when Germany and Austria, no longer enemies, now battle
side by side, against armed forces of the world--British, Russian,
Italian, Servian, French, Australian, East Indian, African, Belgian,
Canadian, and Japanese!
The sustaining spirit in this life-and-death struggle, as in the wars
that made Germany an empire, is bulwarked on German National faith.
¶ For Germans are no longer soft-hearted heroes of lyrical poetry, as
depicted by Arndt! They are men of blood and iron.
¶ Bismarck's mother threw her wedding ring into the public melting pot
for the benefit of the War Fund of 1813 and received in exchange a
ring of iron; and thousands of German women did the same; and
Bismarck's wife exchanged her gold ring for one of iron, for the War
Fund of '66. Tens of thousands of German women did likewise, not only
in Germany, but in foreign lands, wherever hearts beat for the
Fatherland.
They did it in 1813, and in 1864, and in 1866, and in 1870;--and again
in 1914!
¶ For example, in the great war of 1914, Baroness von Ropp,
granddaughter of Geo. Ebers, Germany's most foremost woman novelist,
cries out for her country in the accents of true German nationality,
the self-same spirit which Arndt stimulated in days of French and
Austrian domination. And since it is this elusive spirit that we are
endeavoring to bring home to you, in grasping the higher significance
of Bismarck's work, and its true inner meaning, we quote freely from a
private letter penned by the Baroness, from Magdeburg, August, 1914.
Ilse Hahn-Ropp did not write for publication, and therefore her words
have the more weight.
¶ "On the first day of mobilization I traveled to Magdeburg to say
farewell to my husband, who was leaving for France. I had three hours;
then I had to take the last train out of town. From that time only
military trains were running. Shall I ever forget that ride? It was as
though we were living in another world. People were standing in the
cars closely packed together; but not a word of complaint. Each one
felt he was no longer an individual--but a German! Rich and poor,
nobles and peasants, talked together as brothers. Each had the deep
conviction that this war had been forced upon us, and that every one
must throw his whole strength into the scales, for victory.
¶ "Ceaselessly, military trains roll by, crowded with soldiers in gala
uniforms, burning to reach the enemy. I hear them all night long from
my parents' home--those wheels rolling, rolling westward; no hurry, no
confusion; the mighty machine moves majestically on its way. Show us
another nation which could duplicate that spectacle!
¶ "And then, from a thousand throats, rose 'Die Wacht am Rhein.' It
was overpowering--irresistible. This mighty anthem, from the lips of
soldiers going out to battle!
¶ "It was thus that both my brothers left us. I shall never, never
forget. Every one gives his all gladly. I could not keep my husband
with me, although exempt through his profession from military duty. He
went as a volunteer, and I would not have held him if I could, though
you can guess the cost of that parting!
¶ "One hears not a single complaint from the women of the Fatherland.
We are all too thoroughly roused over the insults offered our loved
country. Working each waiting moment for our wounded--for our
soldiers--we have no time for tears.
¶ "We will not give in until all are defeated, even though we women
should have to take up the sword to defend the Fatherland. Were it not
for my baby daughter I should be with my husband, as a nurse.
¶ "You cannot picture how great, how noble, how grave this time is.
Human nature is transfigured. Individual fate is lost, in the fate of
the Nation.
¶ "I am at home with my parents. Scarcely a year has passed since my
happy, peaceful wedding day. And now my home is bare and desolate, and
I am again the daughter of my father--I can write no more. My feelings
are stifling me. The bells are ringing a new victory. Unfurl the
black-white-red banner. Always lovingly yours,
ILSE."
A postscript reads:
"Oct. 6.--For six weeks I have been trying to send this letter--in
vain. In the meantime both my brothers have died fighting for the
Fatherland. My husband still lives, but--we must, we shall and must
win!"
48
Bismarck balances between tempestuous outbursts and inscrutable
silence; biding his time in the great game of German Unity.
¶ In the gigantic project of creating an Empire for a king who
solemnly protested that he was directly accountable to God for the
throne, "and would never consent to have so much as a sheet of paper
(constitution) between my people and my Maker." Bismarck was under
tremendous nervous pressure for years; and he meant that his political
secrets for United Germany should not become too early known. Not only
were the people as yet unwilling to help, but Austria was watching
with jealous eyes the possibility of plunder for herself;--for where
the carrion is there will the vultures wheel.
¶ Bismarck's ambition bit him by day and by night, and there was for
him no rest; he required a continent to turn 'round in, and nothing
less would suffice. It was now only a question of waiting for the
psychological moment to electrify the inert mass of the people to
rally to his cause.
¶ Naturally you ask, "Was this Bismarck then a beast?" Not at all. He
was merely a human being who wanted a continent to turn around in.
In the gigantic project, Bismarck was exercising his own peculiar
gifts in his own way--for none stood ready to give him what he wanted,
without fighting for it--even as you or I lay out lesser plans to beg,
or coax, or force the world to give us not what we think we need but
what we are strong enough to obtain.
¶ In this attitude, Bismarck needs neither apology nor defense--for,
after all, he is Bismarck.
Through thirty-odd years of din and roar and battle largely of his own
making Bismarck knew neither rest nor peace; returning again and again
to the attack and wearing down his enemies by the sheer brute force of
courage. His idea was United Germany, through Prussian military power;
at the same time, Prussia must hold her dynastic over-lordship, and
must yield it finally only in a territorial German Empire.
* * * * *
¶ Unquestionably there was, incidentally, a large element of injustice
in his plans and purposes, but what of it? Is there not such in your
own life, and do you know any man whose career is not based on
injustice either in some coarse, obvious or in some subtle way?
The world belongs only to those who do battle, and there is absolutely
no chance for the man who will not fight!
All government is based on some form of injustice, all land tenure is
stained with the sword, all "putting up" of one family, or individual,
is based on "taking" something from some other family or individual.
Nor am I excepting the conquests of love itself, from time immemorial
presented as a token of man's romantic, softer side. For, if the hero
does not "save" the heroine from the villain, to take her for himself,
then for whom does he save her?
¶ The Bismarck struggle and the Bismarck triumph are as old as
history--and as new as the career of the man of today who has achieved
his heart's desire.
The empire-maker Bismarck had his way because he was strong enough to
have his way, and while cruelties in various forms, for the ends of
statecraft, coexisted in him with many fine qualities, after all that
simply means that he was a human being with impulses of various
kinds--good and less good--in one heart. It is also an undeniable fact
that as late as 1862 Bismarck was by the common crowd in Prussia hated
and feared, regarded as Germany's ogre of disaster.
* * * * *
¶ Here then is the whole thing in a nutshell: His strong conservative,
not to say reactionary, sentiments did not blind him to the fact that
he could do nothing without the "people," whom politically he ignored
in so far as their fitness for constructive government was concerned;
but it was the "people," and the "people" only, who could bring United
Germany.
He realized the present impracticability of such a Union as he had in
mind for his master, the King of Prussia; that to urge it too soon
would simply bring a new revolution, and God knows there had been
enough blood-letting for the sake of power in and around Prussia for
lo! these one hundred years gone by.
* * * * *
¶ The only thing for him to do, then, was to keep his ambition to
himself and his own crowd, and to bide his time to strike--for time
makes all things right for him who can wait.
And at waiting and at concealing Bismarck was past master. While
usually figured as a blunt, bold, tyrannical man, there was also a
side of inscrutable reticence.
¶ Thus finally between outbursts of temper in which he attacked his
enemies with the power of a battleship in action, followed by periods
of silence after the storm, Bismarck remained master of the diplomatic
situation, playing his waiting game.
¶ And did his stern face never break into an ironical smile? Did he
never betray himself?
It was impossible to preserve his great political secret from the
intuitions of other and lesser minds.
* * * * *
¶ You see, men have various ways of getting their will. Some fight,
others play, still others threaten suicide if the money is not
forthcoming. It is all a matter of temperament and peculiar style of
doing battle.
With some, a curse will bring what a kiss will not; with others a club
is more useful than a loving word. With Bismarck, the first instinct
was to do battle by fire and sword, and this explains why his career
is filled with broken wine bottles, fist cuffs, sword thrusts, and his
"sic 'em!" to the big dogs that trailed around with him.
¶ Once, during the crisis of which we now write, on going into a
saloon for a glass of beer, some table talk on politics offended him.
He ordered the man to stop, then and there, "or I will smash a beer
glass over your head!"
The man went on talking; Bismarck drank, turned around and said, "That
for you!" smashed the tankard on the offending head, and coolly walked
out!
BOOK THE FIFTH
The German People Are One and United