The Versailles Masterpiece
61
The Kaiser's crown at last, and how and why; herein, we sum up
the very flower of our great man's genius; and mark it well!
¶ The very name "Kaiser" brings up memories of the Middle Ages, thence
backward to the days of imperial Cæsar. Kaiser, at best, is but Cæsar,
rewritten.
Yet Bismarck was at great pains to make clear that the substitution of
Kaiser for King of Prussia involved no restoration of ancient imperial
institutions.
¶ The use of Kaiser, as the title for the new monarch, had behind it a
deep, almost religious purpose, in conformity with the sense of
nationality and brotherhood to which through long and painful
development the German states had at last attained. Bismarck calls the
return of the title "a political necessity, making for unity and
centralization."
¶ "I was convinced," he says, "that the pressure solidifying our
imperial institutions would be more permanent the more the Prussian
wearer of the imperial title should himself avoid that dangerous
striving on the part of our dynasty to flaunt its own pre-eminence in
the face of other dynasties. King William I was not free from this
inclination ... to call forth a recognition of the superior prestige
of Prussia's crown, over the Kaiser's title."
¶ The Kaiser idea is simple: He is the sworn servant "of" the people,
but his terms are his own, viz., all is "for" the people, but not
"through" the people.
Such in a few words is the Bismarckian conception of a strong ruler.
* * * * *
¶ It was not, then, to be "an expanded Prussia," but a German Empire.
And the Kaiser's powers are hence the legal functions of an imperial
organ, attached by the organic law of the Empire to the Prussian
crown.
Thus Germany is a true state, but not a monarchy; sovereignty does not
rest with the Kaiser, but with the totality of the allied governments.
And in turn the old states became provinces of the Empire; and the
Kaiser exercises his powers in the name of the Empire.
* * * * *
¶ However, it must be recalled that Bismarck always detested political
and social conformity, trampled conformity under foot, and with wild
voice ridiculed conformity--especially when conformity meant to yield
to the peasants a constructive share in the governments of the
thirty-nine clashing German states. That is to say, his idea of
freedom was to make the State paramount, guiding, directing and if
need be disciplining the people.
¶ Memories fasten themselves on us, at this moment, memories of the
old days of struggle for nationality.
It was on Bismarck's advice that, although Frederick William IV was
bitten by the ambition to become ruler of United Germany, yet when the
democratic Frankfort Diet offered him the crown, he did indignantly
refuse; and many years later, his successor--that old man with the
wonderful history!--William I, after the victories of Sedan and
Gravelotte, was mightily afraid that the Berlin Parliament,
representing democratic conformity, would offer him the honor of
Emperor before that gift could be bestowed by the princes themselves.
¶ Ludwig of Bavaria in his letter to William, urging the imperial
title, Kaiser, or German Emperor, uses these words: "I have proposed
to the German princes to join me in urging Your Majesty to assume the
title, German Emperor, in connection with the exercise of the prædial
rights of the Federation." But it was Bismarck's masterpiece of
politics, equal to his stroke of Holstein, that sent to the King of
Bavaria the proper diplomatic advices, to be acted upon by the South
German princes and returned to the supposedly surprised William,
urging on him to become German Emperor.
* * * * *
¶ In spite of Bismarck's fine hand, Bavaria at first refused to accept
the Iron Chancellor's advices. There is light on this topic in Herr
Ottokar Lorenz's "Foundation of the German Empire," making clear among
other facts that "the German eagle had a narrow escape from dying in
the egg." Twice negotiations were broken off; finally, when the King
of Bavaria tried to get his countrymen behind him in the plan to
proclaim William of Prussia, German Emperor, at Versailles, "it was
only after some hesitation and much regret."
It took the Bavarian Landtag a month to make up its mind! To read the
heated discussions is to destroy the legend that the proclamation of
the Kaiser was by spontaneous demand.
¶ But we must not press these things too far. The fact that King
William had to fight for the magnificent honor he had won for himself
and his country, is merely to say that men are men; nor should we ever
forget that nothing creates so much jealousy as prosperity.
¶ Herr Bismarck had the cleverness to win, at last, and after that
there is little to be added.
For that matter, the much-lauded revolt of the American colonists
against Britain was originally not endorsed by over one-third of the
inhabitants. Yet, with the final victory, like a pack the colonists
went over to the winning side, saying, "We told you so."
¶ We have nothing but praise for the way in which Bismarck created his
Versailles masterpiece. That there was a political squabble behind the
curtain, in Bavaria, was to be expected.
¶ Tell me, did you ever achieve any success that you did not have to
go out and fight for?
It is an amiable fiction that men "recognize" each other's work, in
politics, and "urge" on them rulership over nations. They, too, have
to get out and fight for it!
* * * * *
¶ This necessity for turbulent striving to carry out political ideas
was especially true of Germany during the period of which we write.
Complex conditions long made National Unity a profound problem, not
only in politics but in human nature.
¶ All manner of blacklegs were at work with here and there an honest
man; national oratory was at once visionary, ludicrous and tragical;
fanatics of the bomb, the knife and the poison-cup for years were
abroad in the land. These situations, growing from times past, compel
you to hold with Bismarck that ultimate appeal to the sword was after
all the only hope for a new Germany.
¶ Bismarck did it grossly, but at least he went through with it--call
it militarism or what you please.
¶ For that matter, neither Britain, France, Belgium, (nor the United
States with her 186-odd variants of Christianity in her 186-odd
religious sects), grew out of political cynicism, least of all out of
some aloof system of esoteric idealism.
¶ The King of Britain owes his crown to the sword; the President of
France his high office to the sword; the Belgian King traces his
legitimacy to revolution; likewise, to revolution the President of the
United States owes his right to rule during his brief hour of official
authority.
¶ But what would you in this imperfect world?
German Unity sprang from the needs of human hearts--fighting bravely
for what they hold important!--even as you fight for your rights, or
consent to remain a slave. And Germans never will be slaves.
¶ Therefore, know it now and be done with it, or make the most of it
if you are inclined to snarl at realities: The Kaiser's crown came by
the sword. Surely, you did not expect that it fell from Heaven? As
long as men are men, they must fight for what they achieve; and the
German Empire is no exception;--nor is there any good reason to expect
that history can possibly be other than the record of human nature, in
action.
¶ Up to his downfall in 1890, Bismarck was an uncompromising Royalist,
scoffed at the common people as a source of political sovereignty.
¶ No man knows what is, ultimately, for the glory of God; but when in
bitter retirement, thrown off by the grandson of William I, Bismarck,
replying to the old dispute about the interior causes of the
Franco-Prussian war, to which William owes his title German Emperor,
it is a fact that Bismarck proceeded to weaken the royalist tradition
by forcing the government to produce the Ems dispatch; and it was then
made clear to the common people that there was behind it all the
under-play of politics, thus dispelling the religious and patriotic
glamour that the war had been entered upon to protect the Fatherland
against the land-lust of Napoleon the Little.
Had now the military right been used not to express the will of God,
but the ends of human expediency?
¶ Bismarck certainly knew all this before the great war, but for
reasons of political expediency suppressed the facts till in a moment
of indignation he dropped the mask and called on all honest men to
know the truth.
Bismarck, twenty years before, had with equal indignation set up
before the Prussians that their King had been grossly insulted, and
that Napoleon wanted the left bank of the Rhine.
¶ But let us forget all this, in a broad acknowledgment of the fact
that human beings at various times, for their own ends, do indeed wear
various masks; and let us not keep up the fight forevermore;--but here
and now let us grant to Bismarck final absolution, not claiming for
him the perfection of the demigod.
¶ After all is said, history is not the record of some far-off
manifest destiny, but instead is merely the sordid story of human
nature in action, reciting at best the littleness that appertains to
men's ways, with now and then the unrealized expression of some
fleeting larger hope.
62
His Versailles masterpiece reduced to its final analysis, in
terms of human nature; wherein it is made clear that Bismarck
knew his German peasant as well as his Prussian King.
¶ The core of human interest around which Bismarck shaped his
stupendous politico-military drama, in order that, in the end, William
might become German Emperor, was neither an appeal to parliaments nor
to armies, but a reply to a peculiar psychological something in the
Teuton character that makes respect for the strong hand.
It is only in the largest way that this fact may be made clear. It
escapes categorical statement;--and can best be glimpsed behind the
history of events, from the psychological rather than the physical
side.
¶ Bismarck manipulated an invisible but very real human force, made it
the breath of life for his plans!
¶ That he warped on the Nineteenth Century the old Holy Roman Empire
conception of Divine-right is an amazing politico-military fact.
It was only after many brilliant achievements that, at the height of
his power, Cæsar linked himself with the gods. Cæsar's earlier life
knew no such pretensions, but as he climbed the dizzy heights of fame,
at last the day came when his kinship with the immortal gods
themselves alone satisfied his inordinate ambitions; and from that
time forth Divine-right became an established fact in the
theological-political code of kings; and thus on, down through the
Middle Ages, until the French Revolution destroyed confidence in the
old-line absolute monarch, as vicegerent of Christ on this earth.
* * * * *
¶ However, that Otto von Bismarck, the blond Pomeranian giant, warped
on the Nineteenth Century the Imperial Cæsarian idea of the
Divine-right of kings is not the final fact of his work. The inner
fact is that he urged the King's authority as a foil against the
mob-idea of the French Revolution. The liberty-crazed masses needed a
strong hand at this time.
¶ What made possible the coming of the Empire was not, after all,
traceable entirely to the political side of Bismarck's hotly contested
struggles.
The innate craving of the German people for a strong ruler has a
subtle inner meaning, too easily overlooked.
¶ In the final analysis, Bismarck's position expresses Prussian sense
of National security in a powerful war lord, rather than supports the
conception of master and man. His was not the position of lord and
servant; rather it means a manly, intelligent admission of the
necessity of a strong central authority in the nation.
¶ By the force of years of tedious repetitions, building on the plain
laws of mental suggestion, Bismarck at last created certain dominating
ideas; but the germ of these ideas already existed in Prussia's
consciousness.
The Prussian character supporting Divine-right represents a singular
compound of cadet, blind confidence in aristocratic leadership,
religious radicalism, worship of ancestors approximating the Chinese
sentiment, and finally, a racial psychology of rulership, based on the
rattan of Frederick the Great. On this total combination, the astute
Bismarck played for thirty long years, warring for his lord and
master, the Hohenzollerns.
A careful reading of Bismarck's speeches, letters, dispatches, will
show that whatever political expediency he may at various times have
followed, and however often he may have changed front, there is still
in his great labor a tireless repetition of ideas commanding respect
for vested authority, for ancestry, for a ruling class as against the
ruled, and always for absolute dog-like obedience to some central
commanding power.
* * * * *
¶ The psychological something on which Bismarck builded his German
Empire is Bismarck's recognition of the peculiarities of his German
peasant, as well as of his Prussian King. We come now to some great
central racial facts.
Bismarck's unending eulogies of military glory, now extolled in the
high language of a victorious commander-in-chief, again as a
drill-sergeant sharply criticising the squad, are not to be dismissed
as the expressions of one in large authority, speaking from the steps
of the throne.
Bismarck's work would have failed had he not linked it to some secret
craving of the Teutonic heart, far deeper than conquering the
jealousies, intrigues and selfishness that compose the long story of
the rise of the German Empire.
¶ Historians may talk as much as they please about Bismarck's
executive and administrative genius, but these, great as they are, are
overshadowed by his power of political spirit-healing, as it were;
through practice of his peculiar psychotherapy he cured sick Germany
of many of her ills; at the same time bringing about German
brotherhood in a way that added to the great glory of Prussia.
¶ Appealing to the solemn religious side of Prussian character that
expresses itself in upholding authority, in church or state, Bismarck
incessantly lauds the descendants of noble families, and sets up that
Prussian military aristocracy alone reared up Prussian political
legitimacy.
He presents likewise the idea that the supreme quality of German
manhood is courage; and to Bismarck's mind the sovereign German virtue
is revealed in strong-willed eager soldiers.
While in these lofty moods, Bismarck displays enormous family pride
for his beloved aristocrats of Brandenburg, is never weary of telling
of their military prowess.
He avows on many occasions his life-long regret that he did not enter
the army as a career, instead of taking up the civil service; he digs
into his family records and proudly numbers each Bismarck who carried
arms, even down to distant cousins, and is never so happy as when
telling of Bismarcks on many blood-drenched fields.
Above all else, he everlastingly insists that behind his demands for
his King is the direct will of God.
¶ There is not the slightest doubt that as time passed and Bismarck
kept telling over and over for years that the King represented God's
will on this earth, true Prussians came at last to believe it more and
more; for the reason that it was in their blood to believe, as it is
the nature of a bull-dog to fight, a glutton to eat, a thief to steal,
the sun to shine.
* * * * *
¶ Bismarck called on heaven to send its avenging lightnings on the
heads of those who deserted their monarch, to their perpetual
dishonor; could think of no crime more monstrous than ingratitude to
his King, especially to a king by the grace of God.
And Bismarck declared again and again, as his deepest conviction, that
the Prussian crown was encircled by a heavenly aureole. In short,
Bismarck revived in its purest and most uncompromising form the
doctrine of Divine-right.
¶ In an age seemingly out of touch with this iron-bound mold of the
Feudal past, Bismarck would have failed miserably were it not that he
touched a responsive side of Prussian character--dog-like loyalty to
authority, compounded of military glory and a pale shimmering ghost of
religious aspiration.
The governing fact of the whole situation was psychological rather
than physical; and all this stupendous cannonading at Gravelotte,
Sedan, Koeniggraetz, and the magnificent drama in the Hall of Mirrors,
were after all merely so many evidences that Bismarck better than all
the tribe of his objectors knew the psychological core of Prussian
character.
¶ Bismarck brought down the wrath of God on those rival leaders who
dared to be disloyal to his Divine-right King, and flew into frenzy at
the very thought that a genuine Prussian should expect wisdom from the
common people. Behind all this, was always the solid appeal to
Prussian military-cadet idea of loyalty and strong politico-religious
instincts.
¶ Manipulating this psychological side, invisible yet very real,
Bismarck shows his genius as a constructive statesman. Without this
intuitive touch of Prussian consciousness, all the lustre that
Bismarck ultimately shed on the Imperial crown would have been
impossible.
¶ Thus, we behold Otto von Bismarck, the rude, blond, Pomeranian
giant--in spite of his coarse speeches, his brawls, his political
card-stacking, his enormous egotism, his passionate seeking after
power--play with Shakespearian subtlety on the strings of human
passion.
There is no larger character-side to our Bismarck; so study it well
and reflect on its wide meaning.
* * * * *
¶ We are not here to say what Bismarck should or should not have done,
but we make up our mind about him by what he did do.
¶ He had peculiar ideas of religion, pleasure, duty, and certainly he
had his own idea of what was best for Prussia, and finally for
Germany.
¶ He bartered his immortal time for a King's crown and an Emperor's
glory, guns, swords, forts, marchings up and down the land.
¶ He bartered his time in angry disputes with his fellow-man, for
prisons, broken homes, murders, tears for 80,000 widows and orphans.
¶ He bartered his time for magnificent spectacles such as the
coronation of William I in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a palace
outrivaling any creation of man since the days of Nebuchadnezzar.
¶ He bartered his time for grand balls for aristocrats in silk coats
and ladies in diamonds and satin gowns.
¶ He bartered his time that a certain space in Europe be made over to
his own liking. Other kings and emperors with equal logic wished to
have this space made over in a way that seemed as good as the one
Bismarck had in mind, but Bismarck regarding it as a calamity that
other plans should come to pass, fought bitterly with sword and cannon
to back his individual opinion against all who disputed with him.
¶ He bartered his time that a certain part of the map be marked with
one name instead of thirty-nine names, as had been the case when he
came to power as a young man in the politics of Prussia.
¶ And finally he bartered his immortal time in a thirty-years'
gladiatorial fight that in the end millions of Germans might feel the
tingle of blood-brotherhood. How he faced the long, heart-breaking
battle, therein we find the true measure of our great Bismarck! Thus
his work, as an individual, is absorbed in the larger life of the
German Empire. These National services make Bismarck one of the
immortals; and his name will be remembered affectionately by Germans
for thousands of years.
* * * * *
¶ The present review of German origins, through Bismarckian genius, is
concerned largely with the form of government established.
The collective efficiency of the Bismarckian idea, as worked out in
the German Constitution, promptly ascertains the will of the people,
and carries out that will.
¶ The Kaiser, through the Chancellor, has the selection of all
important public officials, and as King of Prussia appoints Prussian
administrative officials; and in turn, the various kings choose the
various public servants in their respective kingdoms. All hold office
during good behavior, or for life; instantly responsive to the will of
the Kaiser, or to the Bundesrath. The state officials are thus "the
fingers of the Kaiser," working the duties of the Empire, free from
the petty molestations that assail even the most trustworthy and
patriotic American office-holders.
¶ In simple terms of parallel, the much-lauded American Commission
System, for the government of cities, was borrowed from the Kaiser.
The Commission System delegates the power to a committee of five, who
pass and execute the laws.
This is precisely the principle laid down by the Bundesrath, in which
body is united executive, legislative and judicial functions. It is a
fact that the cities most efficiently managed, in the United States
(1915), are under the Commission System, that is to say, the German
conception of responsible politico-civic authority.
¶ German thoroughness, as well as German discipline, unite to make the
German system a brilliant success; but in America the German
collective idea is politically offensive because of our superstition
that the way of Liberty lies through incessant political changes. The
American has confidence in the wisdom of large numbers, believes that
by dividing the functions of government the people may be saved from
themselves. One-man power is (theoretically) greatly feared, in
America. Despite the fact that in all great industrial undertakings
Americans appreciate the part played by personal responsibility, they
are loath to admit that the principle makes for National political
efficiency.
* * * * *
¶ One final word: Revolution means change; and in this sense the
French Revolution is important. In some respects, it is still going
forward. However, in 1848 the practical side of the Revolution was not
understood, was therefore decried by conservative thinkers who saw in
the excesses of the Commune little that heralded a better day.
¶ In France, thousands of men misinterpreted emotional zeal for human
brotherhood for fitness to govern. It is the old, old story.
To come at once to the point: You must judge a nation as you do a man,
not by what that man says, but by what he does. Hence, from Bismarck's
point of view, it was time to be done with the bursting of blood
vessels in a frenzy about equality, and to come down to the essential
facts of human nature; or if you like the words better, human ways.
It is not necessarily a mark of wisdom to issue "manifestoes against
special privileges" and to set up that "all" the people are fit to
rule an empire.
The very reverse is the proof of history; few men indeed there are who
have the patience, the discretion and the prudence to rule over other
lives.
Also, the German race asks no upstart rulers; the idea of father and
child, duty, discipline and personal responsibility is deeply grounded
in the German conception of an adequate State.
* * * * *
¶ There is small profit in using precious time denouncing Bismarck's
protest against French Constitutionalism. Let us, instead, try to
understand why the old ways were cherished. And always bear in mind
that the Past holds mankind in a tighter grip than the Radicals are
willing to concede! There is no such thing as wiping off the slate
and starting with a "new" set of ideas. The wisest man in the world
cannot do that. At best, he recognizes the past, with here and there a
slight variation.
Such, in short, was Bismarck's broad and true idea of human necessity.
And he planned his German Empire accordingly.
* * * * *
¶ Bismarck was faced by these facts: the idiomatic ways in which
German people thought and acted; their tastes and ideals, not only in
politics but in society, law, religion;--nay, their very dreams.
Throughout, there is always a profound sense of personal
responsibility to the State. The State is not to be forgotten for some
spurious personal individuality.
And mark this: that for generations "events" in Germany all gave
expression to certain racial habits of thought, against which all
manner of Communistic uprisings were anathema.
German sense of discipline, duty and personal responsibility, in State
affairs, is grounded on a high consciousness that is not satisfied
with half-measures, bungling, waste, cheap politicians, and freakish
legislation. The German takes himself too seriously to permit a
bunko-politician to come on with faking, as a substitute for the
National ideal of government.
¶ Hence, Bismarck's Imperial democracy, with the Kaiser at its head.
* * * * *
¶ As between the inevitable contest between the Crowd and the Crown,
springing from the inflammatory ideas of French Constitutionalism,
Bismarck did not shrink; but fought it out in his own way. Our Man of
Blood and Iron desired the blessings of liberty for Germany with all
the strength of his powerful being; but he could not stultify his
common sense by meekly conceding no essential distinction between men,
in their capacity for leadership. He was, then, intent on bringing out
of the German political chaos a type of democracy that may be termed
Imperial as well as representative, in which the people are accorded
their share, as he saw it, but always under the guidance of a strong
central authority.
¶ And after all said in glorification of any special type of
government, the stubborn fact remains that absolute equality, from a
representative point of view, is a fiction unsupported by fact. The
notorious incapacity and apathy of the masses is always, in the end,
directed by central powers, exercised insidiously or openly as you
please, but exercised nevertheless. In every political party we find a
coterie, men of little wisdom it may be but leaders of the crowd; in
every city commission is always one masterful man to whom the other
members defer; in every banking house, one deciding voice; every
religious organization must have a head, regardless of the number of
counsellors; every ship a captain; every army a general; and, finally,
in every family there should be the guidance and direction of a strong
father.
¶ Is there not a ring of sincerity in Bismarck's manly acknowledgment
of the inevitable equalities in the human stuff of which governments
are composed? He saw only common sense in openly protesting that in
any German government big enough and enduring enough to satisfy the
German conception of responsibility, in a word German thoroughness,
there must be, somewhere, a master-mind.
¶ For many years, and even today, Bismarck is in some quarters
regarded as the arch-enemy of the common people, but his great work
has stood the acid test of time. The German Empire, builded under
Bismarck's broad ideas may be likened unto a wonderful watch, in which
each part does its peculiar work without even a gambler's chance of
going wrong.
BOOK THE SIXTH
Once a Man and Twice a Child