For three years past there has been much rumor over Germany, of a
strange affair going on in the remote Austrian quarter, down in Salzburg
and its fabulous Tyrolese valleys. Salzburg, city and territory, has an
Archbishop, not theoretically Austrian, but sovereign Prince so styled;
it is from him and his orthodoxies, and pranks with his sovereign
crosier, that the noise originates. Strange rumor of a body of the
population discovered to be Protestant among the remote Mountains, and
getting miserably ill-used, by the Right Reverend Father in those parts.
Which rumor, of a singular, romantic, religious interest for the general
Protestant world, proves to be but too well founded. It has come forth
in the form of practical complaint to the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM at the
Diet, without result from the CORPUS; complaint to various persons;--in
fine, to his Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm, WITH result.
With result at last; actual "Emigration of the Salzburgers:" and
Germany--in these very days while the Crown-Prince is at Berlin
betrothing himself, and Franz of Lorraine witnessing the EXERCITIA and
wonders there--sees a singular phenomenon of a touching idyllic nature
going on; and has not yet quite forgotten it in our days. Salzburg
Emigration was all in motion, flowing steadily onwards, by various
routes, towards Berlin, at the time the Betrothal took place; and seven
weeks after that event, when the Crown-Prince had gone to Ruppin, and
again could only hear of it, the First Instalment of Emigrants arrived
bodily at the Gates of Berlin, "30th April, at four in the afternoon;"
Majesty himself, and all the world going out to witness it, with
something of a poetic: almost of a psalmist feeling, as well as with a
practical on the part of his Majesty. First Instalment this; copiously
followed by others, all that year; and flowing on, in smaller rills
and drippings, for several years more, till it got completed. A notable
phenomenon, full of lively picturesque and other interest to Brandenburg
and Germany;--which was not forgotten by the Crown-Prince in coming
years, as we shall transiently find; nay which all Germany still
remembers, and even occasionally sings. Of which this is in brief the
history.
The Salzburg Country, northeastern slope of the Tyrol (Donau draining
that side of it, Etsch or Adige the Italian side), is celebrated by the
Tourist for its airy beauty, rocky mountains, smooth green valleys,
and swift-rushing streams; perhaps some readers have wandered to
Bad-Gastein, or Ischl, in these nomadic summers; have looked into
Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Bavarian-Austrian boundary-lands; seen
the wooden-clock makings, salt-works, toy-manufactures, of those
simple people in their slouch-hats; and can bear some testimony to the
phenomena of Nature there. Salzburg is the Archbishop's City, metropolis
of his bit of sovereignty that then was. [Tolerable description of it
in the Baron Riesbeck's _Travels through Germany_ (London, 1787,
Translation by Maty, 3 vols. 8vo), i. 124-222;--whose details otherwise,
on this Emigration business, are of no authenticity or value. A kind of
Play-actor and miscellaneous Newspaper-man in that time (not so opulent
to his class as ours is); who takes the title of "Baron" on this
occasion of coming, out with a Book of Imaginary _"Travels."_ Had
personally lived, practising the miscellaneous arts, about Lintz and
Salzburg,--and may be heard on the look of the Country, if on little
else.] A romantic City, far off among its beautiful Mountains, shadowing
(itself in the Salza River, which rushes down into the Inn, into the
Donau, now becoming great with the tribute of so many valleys. Salzburg
we have not known hitherto except as the fabulous resting-place of
Kaiser Barbarossa: but we are now slightly to see it in a practical
light; and mark how the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm makes an incidental
lodgment for itself there.
It is well known there was extensive Protestantism once in those
countries. Prior to the Thirty-Years War, the fair chance was, Austria
too would all become Protestant; an extensive minority among all ranks
of men in Austria too, definable as the serious intelligence of mankind
in those countries, having clearly adopted it, whom the others were sure
to follow. In all ranks of men; only not in the highest rank, which
was pleased rather to continue Official and Papal. Highest rank had its
Thirty-Years War, "its sleek Fathers Lummerlein and Hyacinth in Jesuit
serge, its terrible Fathers Wallenstein in chain-armor;" and, by working
late and early then and afterwards, did manage at length to trample out
Protestantism,--they know with what advantage by this time. Trample out
Protestantism; or drive it into remote nooks, where under sad conditions
it might protract an unnoticed existence. In the Imperial Free-Towns,
Ulm, Augsburg, and the like, Protestantism continued, and under hard
conditions contrives to continue: but in the country parts, except in
unnoticed nooks, it is extinct. Salzburg Country is one of those nooks;
an extensive Crypto-Protestantism lodging, under the simple slouch-hats,
in the remote valleys there. Protestantism peaceably kept concealed,
hurting nobody; wholesomely forwarding the wooden-clock manufacture, and
arable or grazier husbandries, of those poor people. More harmless sons
of Adam, probably, did not breathe the vital air, than those dissentient
Salzburgers; generation after generation of them giving offence to no
creature.
Successive Archbishops had known of this Crypto-Protestantism, and in
remote periods had made occasional slight attempts upon it; but none at
all for a long time past. All attempts that way, as ineffectual for
any purpose but stirring up strife, had been discontinued for many
generations; [Buchholz, i. 148-151.] and the Crypto-Protestantism was
again become a mythical romantic object, ignored by Official persons.
However, in 1727, there came a new Archbishop, one "Firmian", Count
Firmian by secular quality, of a strict lean character, zealous rather
than wise; who had brought his orthodoxies with him in a rigid and very
lean form.
Right Reverend Firmian had not been long in Salzburg till he smelt
out the Crypto-Protestantism, and determined to haul it forth from
the mythical condition into the practical; and in fact, to see his
law-beagles there worry it to death as they ought. Hence the rumors that
had risen over Germany, in 1729: Law-terriers penetrating into human
cottages in those remote Salzburg valleys, smelling out some German
Bible or devout Book, making lists of Bible-reading cottagers; haling
them to the Right Reverend Father-in-God; thence to prison, since they
would not undertake to cease reading. With fine, with confiscation,
tribulation: for the peaceable Salzburgers, respectful creatures,
doffing their slouch-hats almost to mankind in general, were entirely
obstinate in that matter of the Bible. "Cannot, your Reverence; must
not, dare not!" and went to prison or whithersoever rather; a wide cry
rising, Let us sell our possessions and leave Salzburg then, according
to Treaty of Westphalia, Article so-and-so. "Treaty of Westphalia? Leave
Salzburg?" shrieked the Right Reverend Father: "Are we getting into open
mutiny, then? Open extensive mutiny!" shrieked he. Borrowed a couple of
Austrian regiments,--Kaiser and we always on the pleasantest terms,--and
marched the most refractory of his Salzburgers over the frontiers
(retaining their properties and families); whereupon noise rose louder
and louder.
Refractory Salzburgers sent Deputies to the Diet; appealed, complained
to the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM, Treaty of Westphalia in hand,--without
result. CORPUS, having verified matters, complained to the Kaiser, to
the Right Reverend Father. The Kaiser, intent on getting his Pragmatic
Sanction through the Diet, and anxious to offend nobody at present, gave
good words; but did nothing: the Right Reverend Father answered a
Letter or two from the CORPUS; then said at last, He wished to close
the Correspondence, had the honor to be,--and answered no farther, when
written to. CORPUS was without result. So it lasted through 1730; rumor,
which rose in 1729, waxing ever louder into practicable or impracticable
shape, through that next year; tribulation increasing in Salzburg;
and noise among mankind. In the end of 1730, the Salzburgers sent Two
Deputies to Friedrich Wilhelm at Berlin; solid-hearted, thick-soled men,
able to answer for themselves, and give real account of Salzburg and the
phenomena; this brought matters into a practicable state.
"Are you actual Protestants, the Treaty of Westphalia applicable to you?
Not mere fanatic mystics, as Right Reverend Firmian asserts; protectible
by no Treaty?" That was Friedrich Wilhelm's first question; and he set
his two chief Berlin Clergymen, learned Roloff one of them, a divine of
much fame, to catechise the two Salzburg Deputies, and report upon the
point. Their Report, dated Berlin, 30th November, 1730, with specimens
of the main questions, I have read; [Fassmann, pp. 446-448.] and can
fully certify, along with Roloff and friend, That here are orthodox
Protestants, apparently of very pious peaceable nature, suffering hard
wrong;--orthodox beyond doubt, and covered by the Treaty of Westphalia.
Whereupon his Majesty dismisses them with assurance, "Return, and say
there shall be help!"--and straightway lays hand on the business, strong
swift steady hand as usual, with a view that way.
Salzburg being now a clear case, Friedrich Wilhelm writes to the Kaiser;
to the King of England, King of Denmark;--orders preparations to be
made in Preussen, vacant messuages to be surveyed, moneys to be laid
up;--bids his man at the Regensburg Diet signify, That unless this thing
is rectified, his Prussian Majesty will see himself necessitated to take
effectual steps: "reprisals" the first step, according to the old method
of his Prussian Majesty. Rumor of the Salzburg Protestants rises higher
and higher. Kaiser intent on conciliating every CORPUS, Evangelical
and other, for his Pragmatic Sanction's sake, admonishes Right Reverend
Firmian; intimates at last to him, That he will actually have to let
those poor people emigrate if they demand it; Treaty of Westphalia being
express. In the end of 1731 it has come thus far.
"Emigrate, says your Imperial Majesty? Well, they shall emigrate,"
answers Firmian; "the sooner the better!" And straightway, in the dead
of winter, marches, in convenient divisions, some nine hundred of them
over the frontiers: "Go about your business, then; emigrate--to the Old
One, if you like!"--"And our properties, our goods and chattels?" ask
they.--"Be thankful you have kept your skins. Emigrate, I say.!" And the
poor nine hundred had to go out, in the rigor of winter, "hoary old men
among them, and women coming near their time;" and seek quarters in the
wide world mostly unknown to them. Truly Firmian is an orthodox Herr;
acquainted with the laws of fair usage and the time of day. The sleeping
Barbarossa does not awaken upon him within the Hill here:--but in the
Roncalic Fields, long ago, I should not have liked to stand in his
shoes!
Friedrich Wilhelm, on this procedure at Salzburg, intimates to his
Halberstadt and Minden Catholic gentlemen, That their Establishments
must be locked up, and incomings suspended; that they can apply to the
Right Reverend Firmian upon it;--and bids his man at Regensburg signify
to the Diet that such is the course adopted here. Right Reverend Firmian
has to hold his hand; finds both that there shall be Emigration, and
that it must go forward on human terms, not inhuman; and that in fact
the Treaty of Westphalia will have to guide it, not he henceforth. Those
poor ousted Salzburgers cower into the Bavarian cities, till the weather
mend, and his Prussian Majesty's arrangements be complete for their
brethren and them.
His Prussian Majesty has been maturing his plans, all this
while;--gathering moneys, getting lands ready. We saw him hanging
Schlubhut in the autumn of 1731, who had peculated from said moneys; and
surveying Preussen, under storms of thunder and rain on one occasion.
Preussen is to be the place for these people; Tilsit and Memel region,
same where the big Fight of Tannenberg and ruin of the Teutsch Ritters
took place: in that fine fertile Country there are homes got ready for
this Emigration out of Salzburg.
Long ago, at the beginning of this History, did not the reader hear of
a pestilence in Prussian Lithuania? Pestilence in old King Friedrich's
time; for which the then Crown-Prince, now Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm,
vainly solicited help from the Treasury, and only brought about partial
change of Ministry and no help. "Fifty-two Towns" were more or less
entirely depopulated; hundreds of thousands of fertile acres fell to
waste again, the hands that had ploughed them being swept away. The
new Majesty, so soon as ever the Swedish War was got rid of, took this
matter diligently in hand; built up the fifty-two ruined Towns; issued
Proclamations once and again (Years 1719, 1721) to the Wetterau, to
Switzerland, Saxony, Schwaben; [Buchholz, i. 148.] inviting Colonists
to come, and, on favorable terms, till and reap there. His terms are
favorable, well-considered; and are honestly kept. He has a fixed set of
terms for Colonists: their road-expenses thither, so much a day allowed
each travelling soul; homesteads, ploughing implements, cattle, land,
await them at their journey's end; their rent and services, accurately
specified, are light not heavy; and "immunities" from this and that are
granted them, for certain years, till they get well nestled. Excellent
arrangements: and his Majesty has, in fact, got about 20,000 families
in that way. And still there is room for thousands more. So that if the
tyrannous Firmian took to tribulating Salzburg in that manner, Heaven
had provided remedies and a Prussian Majesty. Heaven is very opulent;
has alchemy to change the ugliest substances into beautifulest.
Privately to his Majesty, for months back, this Salzburg Emigration is
a most manageable matter. Manage well, it will be a god-send to his
Majesty, and fit, as by pre-established harmony, into the ancient
Prussian sorrow; and "two afflictions well put together shall become
a consolation," as the proverb promises! Go along then, Right Reverend
Firmian, with your Emigration there: only no foul-play in it,--or
Halberstadt and Minden get locked:--for the rest of the matter we will
undertake.
And so, February 2d, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm's Proclamation [Copy of
it in Mauvillon, February, 1732, ii. 311.] flew abroad over the world;
brief and business-like, cheering to all but Firmian;--to this purport:
"Come, ye poor Salzburgers, there are homes provided for you. Apply at
Regensburg, at Halle: Commissaries are appointed; will take charge of
your long march and you. Be kind, all Christian German Princes: do not
hinder them and me." And in a few days farther, still early in February
(for the matter is all ready before proclaiming), an actual Prussian
Commissary hangs out his announcements and officialities at Donauworth,
old City known to us, within reach of the Salzburg Boundaries; collects,
in a week or two, his first lot of Emigrants, near a thousand strong;
and fairly takes the road with them.
A long road and a strange: I think, above five hundred miles before we
get to Halle, within Prussian land; and then seven hundred more to
our place there, in the utmost East. Men, women, infants and hoary
grandfathers are here;--most of their property sold,--still on ruinous
conditions, think of it, your Majesty. Their poor bits of preciosities
and heirlooms they have with them; made up in succinct bundles, stowed
on ticketed baggage-wains; "some have their own poor cart and horse,
to carry the too old and the too young, those that cannot walk." A
pilgrimage like that of the Children of Israel: such a pilgrim caravan
as was seldom heard of in our Western Countries. Those poor succinct
bundles, the making of them up and stowing of them; the pangs of simple
hearts, in those remote native valleys; the tears that were not seen,
the cries that were addressed to God only: and then at last the actual
turning out of the poor caravan, in silently practical condition, staff
in hand, no audible complaint heard from it; ready to march; practically
marching here:--which of us can think of it without emotion, sad, and
yet in a sort blessed!
Every Emigrant man has four GROSCHEN a day (fourpence odd) allowed him
for road expenses, every woman three groschen, every child two: and
regularity itself, in the shape of Prussian Commissaries, presides
over it. Such marching of the Salzburgers: host after host of them, by
various routes, from February onwards; above seven thousand of them this
year, and ten thousand more that gradually followed,--was heard of
at all German firesides, and in all European lands. A phenomenon
much filling the general ear and imagination; especially at the first
emergence of it. We will give from poor old authentic Fassmann, as if
caught up by some sudden photograph apparatus, a rude but undeniable
glimpse or two into the actuality of this business: the reader will in
that way sufficiently conceive it for himself.
Glimpse FIRST is of an Emigrant Party arriving, in the cold February
days of 1732, at Nordlingen, Protestant Free-Town in Bavaria: three
hundred of them; first section, I think, of those nine hundred who
were packed away unceremoniously by Firmian last winter, and have been
wandering about Bavaria, lodging "in Kaufbeuern" and various preliminary
Towns, till the Prussian arrangements became definite. Prussian
Commissaries are, by this time, got to Donauworth; but these poor
Salzburgers are ahead of them, wandering under the voluntary principle
as yet. Nordlingen, in Bavaria, is an old Imperial Free-Town;
Protestantism not suppressed there, as it has been all round; scene of
some memorable fighting in the Thirty-Years War, especially of a bad
defeat to the Swedes and Bernhard of Weimar, the worst they had in the
course of that bad business. The Salzburgers are in number three hundred
and thirty-one; time, "first days of February, 1732, weather very cold
and raw." The charitable Protestant Town has been expecting such an
advent:--
"Two chief Clergymen, and the Schoolmaster and Scholars, with some
hundreds of citizens and many young people" went out to meet them;
there, in the open field, stood the Salzburgers, with their wives
and their little ones, with their bullock-carts and baggage-wains,"
pilgriming towards unknown parts of the Earth. "'Come in, ye blessed
of the Lord! Why stand ye without?' said the Parson solemnly, by way of
welcome; and addressed a Discourse to them," devout and yet human,
true every word of it, enough to draw tears from any Fassmann that were
there;--Fassmann and we not far from weeping without words. "Thereupon
they ranked themselves two and two, and marched into the Town," straight
to the Church, I conjecture, Town all out to participate; "and there
the two reverend gentlemen successively addressed them again, from
appropriate texts: Text of the first reverend gentleman was, _And every
one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall
receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life._ [Matthew
xix. 29.] Text of the second was, _Now the Lord had said unto Abraham,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee."_ [Genesis xii. 1.] Excellent
texts; well handled, let us hope,--especially with brevity. After which
the strangers were distributed, some into public-houses, others taken
home by the citizens to lodge.
"Out of the Spital there was distributed to each person, for the first
three days, a half-pound of flesh-meat, bread, and a measure of beer.
The remaining days they got in money six CREUTZERS (twopence) each, and
bread. On Sunday, at the Church-doors there was a collection; no less
than eight hundred GULDEN [80 pounds; population, say, three thousand]
for this object. At Sermon they were put into the central part of the
Church," all Nordlingen lovingly encompassing them; "and were taught in
two sermons," texts not given, _What the true Church is built of, and
ought to have;_ Nordlingen copiously shedding tears the while (VIELE
THRANEN VERGOSSEN), as it well might. "Going to Church, and coming from
it, each Landlord walked ahead of his party; party followed two and two.
On other days, there was much catechising of them at different parts
of the Town;"--orthodox enough, you see, nothing of superstition or
fanaticism in the poor people;--"they made a good testimony of their
Evangelical truth.
"The Baggage-wagons which they had with them, ten in number, upon which
some of their old people sat, were brought into the Town. The Baggage
was unloaded, and the packages, two hundred and eighty-one of them in
all [for Fassmann is Photography itself], were locked in the Zoll-Haus.
Over and above what they got from the Spital, the Church-collection and
the Town-chest, Citizens were liberal; daily sent them food, or daily
had them by fours and fives to their own houses to meat." And so let
them wait for the Prussian Commissary, who is just at hand: "they would
not part from one another, these three hundred and thirty-one," says
Fassmann, "though their reunion was but of that accidental nature."
[Fassmann, pp. 439, 440.]
Glimpse SECOND: not dated; perhaps some ten days later; and a Prussian
Commissary with this party:--
"On their getting to the Anspach Territory, there was so incredible
a joy at the arrival of these exiled Brothers in the Faith
(GLAUBENS-BRUDER) that in all places, almost in the smallest hamlets,
the bells were set a-tolling; and nothing was heard but a peal of
welcome from far and near." Prussian Commissary, when about quitting
Anspach, asked leave to pass through Bamberg; Bishop of Bamberg, too
orthodox a gentleman, declined; so the Commissary had to go by Nurnberg
and Baireuth. Ask not if his welcome was good, in those Protestant
places. "At Erlangen, fifteen miles from Nurnberg, where are
French Protestants and a Dowager Margravine of Baireuth,"--Widow of
Wilhelmina's Father-in-law's predecessor (if the reader can count
that); DAUGHTER of Weissenfels who was for marrying Wilhelmina not long
since!--"at Erlangen, the Serene Dowager snatched up fifty of them into
her own House for Christian refection; and Burghers of means had twelve,
fifteen and even eighteen of them, following such example set. Nay
certain French Citizens, prosperous and childless, besieged the
Prussian Commissary to allow them a few Salzburg children for adoption;
especially one Frenchman was extremely urgent and specific: but the
Commissary, not having any order, was obliged to refuse." [Fassmann,
p. 441.] These must have been interesting days for the two young
Margravines; forwarding Papa's poor pilgrims in that manner.
"At Baireuth," other side of Nurnberg, "it was towards Good Friday when
the Pilgrims under their Commissarius arrived. They were lodged in the
villages about, but came copiously into the Town; came all in a body to
Church on Good Friday; and at coming out, were one and all carried off
to dinner, a very scramble arising among the Townsfolk to get hold of
Pilgrims and dine them. Vast numbers were carried to the Schloss:" one
figures Wilhelmina among them, figures the Hereditary Prince and old
Margraf: their treatment there was "beyond belief," says Fassmann; "not
only dinner of the amplest quality and quantity, but much money added
and other gifts." From Baireuth the route is towards Gera and Thuringen,
circling the Bamberg Territory: readers remember Gera, where the Gera
Bond was made?--"At Gera, a commercial gentleman dined the whole party
in his own premises, and his wife gave four groschen to each individual
of them; other two persons, brothers in the place, doing the like. One
of the poor pilgrim women had been brought to bed on the journey, a day
or two before: the Commissarius lodged her in his own inn, for greater
safety; Commissarius returning to his inn, finds she is off, nobody
at first can tell him whither: a lady of quality (VORMEHME DAME) has
quietly sent her carriage for the poor pilgrim sister, and has her in
the right softest keeping. No end to people's kindness: many wept aloud,
sobbing out, 'Is this all the help we can give?' Commissarius said,
'There will others come shortly; them also you can help.'"
In this manner march these Pilgrims. "From Donauworth, by Anspach,
Nurnberg, Baireuth, through Gera, Zeitz, Weissenfels, to Halle," where
they are on Prussian ground, and within few days of Berlin. Other Towns,
not upon the first straight route to Berlin, demand to have a share in
these grand things; share is willingly conceded: thus the Pilgrims, what
has its obvious advantages, march by a good variety of routes. Through
Augsburg, Ulm (instead of Donauworth), thence to Frankfurt; from
Frankfurt some direct to Leipzig: some through Cassel, Hanover,
Brunswick, by Halberstadt and Magdeburg instead of Halle. Starting all
at Salzburg, landing all at Berlin; their routes spread over the Map of
Germany in the intermediate space.
"Weissenfels Town and Duke distinguished themselves by liberality:
especially the Duke did;"--poor old drinking Duke; very Protestant
all these Saxon Princes, except the Apostate or Pseudo-Apostate the
Physically Strong, for sad political reasons. "In Weissenfels Town,
while the Pilgrim procession walked, a certain rude foreign fellow,
flax-pedler by trade, ["HECHELTRAGER," Hawker of flax-combs or
HECKLES;--is oftenest a Slavonic Austrian (I am told).] by creed Papist
or worse, said floutingly, 'The Archbishop ought to have flung you
all into the river, you--!' Upon which a menial servant of the Duke's
suddenly broke in upon him in the way of actuality, the whole crowd
blazing into flame; and the pedler would certainly have got irreparable
damage, had not the Town-guard instantly hooked him away."
April 21st, 1732, the first actual body, a good nine hundred strong,
[Buchholz, i. 156.] got to Halle; where they were received with devout
jubilee, psalm-singing, spiritual and corporeal refection, as at
Nordlingen and the other stages; "Archidiaconus Franke" being prominent
in it,--I have no doubt, a connection of that "CHIEN DE FRANKE,"
whom Wilhelmina used to know. They were lodged in the Waisenhaus (old
Franke's ORPHAN-HOUSE); Official List of them was drawn up here, with
the fit specificality; and, after three days, they took the road again
for Berlin. Useful Buchholz, then a very little boy, remembers the
arrival of a Body of these Salzburgers, not this but a later one in
August, which passed through his native Village, Pritzwalk in the
Priegnitz: How village and village authorities were all awake, with
opened stores and hearts; how his Father, the Village Parson, preached
at five in the afternoon. The same Buchholz, coming afterwards
to College at Halle, had the pleasure of discovering two of the
Commissaries, two of the three, who had mainly superintended in this
Salzburg Pilgrimage. Let the reader also take a glance at them, as
specimens worth notice:--
COMMISSARIUS FIRST: "Herr von Reck was a nobleman from the Hanover
Country; of very great piety; who, after his Commission was done,
settled at Halle; and lived there, without servant, in privacy, from the
small means he had;--seeking his sole satisfaction in attendance on
the Theological and Ascetic College-Lectures, where I used to see him
constantly in my student time."
COMMISSARIUS SECOND: "Herr Gobel was a medical man by profession; and
had the regular degree of Doctor; but was in no necessity to apply his
talents to the gaining of bread. His zeal for religion had moved him to
undertake this Commission. Both these gentlemen I have often seen in my
youth," but do not tell you what they were like farther; "and both their
Christian names have escaped me."
A third Commissarius was of Preussen, and had religious-literary
tendencies. I suppose these three served gratis;--volunteers; but no
doubt under oath, and tied by strict enough Prussian law. Physician,
Chaplain, Road-guide, here they are, probably of supreme quality, ready
to our hand. [Buchholz, _Neueste Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte_
(berlin, 1775, 2 vols. 4to), i. 155 n.]
Buchholz, after "his student time," became a poor Country-schoolmaster,
and then a poor Country-Parson, in his native Altmark. His poor Book
is of innocent, clear, faithful nature, with some vein of "unconscious
geniality" in it here and there;--a Book by no means so destitute of
human worth as some that have superseded it. This was posthumous, this
"NEWEST HISTORY," and has a LIFE of the Author prefixed. He has four
previous Volumes on the _"Ancient History of Brandenburg,"_ which
are not known to me.--About the Year 1745, there were four poor
Schoolmasters in that region (two at Havelberg, one at Seehausen, one at
Werben), of extremely studious turn; who, in spite of the Elbe which ran
between, used to meet on stated nights, for colloquy, for interchange
of Books and the like. One of them, the Werben one, was this Buchholz;
another, Seehausen, was the Winckelmann so celebrated in after years.
A third, one of the Havelberg pair, "went into Mecklenburg in a year or
two, as Tutor to Karl Ludwig the Prince of Strelitz's children,"--whom
also mark. For the youngest of these Strelitz children was no other than
the actual "Old Queen Charlotte" (ours and George III.'s), just ready
for him with her Hornbooks about that time: Let the poor man have what
honor he can from that circumstance! "Prince Karl Ludwig," rather a
foolish-looking creature, we may fall in with personally by and by.
It was the 30th April, 1732, seven weeks and a day since Crown-Prince
Friedrich's Betrothal, that this first body of Salzburg Emigrants,
nine hundred strong, arrived at Berlin; "four in the afternoon, at the
Brandenburg Gate;" Official persons, nay Majesty himself, or perhaps
both Majesties, waiting there to receive them. Yes, ye poor footsore
mortals, there is the dread King himself; stoutish short figure in
blue uniform and white wig, straw-colored waistcoat, and white gaiters;
stands uncommonly firm on his feet; reddish, blue-reddish face, with
eyes that pierce through a man: look upon him, and yet live if you are
true men. His Majesty's reception of these poor people could not but be
good; nothing now wanting in the formal kind. But better far, in all the
essentialities of it, there had not been hitherto, nor was henceforth,
the least flaw. This Salzburg Pilgrimage has found for itself, and will
find, regulation, guidance, ever a stepping-stone at the needful place;
a paved road, so far as human regularity and punctuality could pave one.
That is his Majesty's shining merit. "Next Sunday, after sermon, they
[this first lot of Salzburgers] were publicly catechised in church; and
all the world could hear their pertinent answers, given often in the
very Scripture texts, or express words of Luther."
His Majesty more than once took survey of these Pilgrimage Divisions,
when they got to Berlin. A pleasant sight, if there were leisure
otherwise. On various occasions, too, her Majesty had large parties of
them over to Monbijou, to supper there in the fine gardens; and "gave
them Bibles," among other gifts, if in want of Bibles through Firmian's
industry. Her Majesty was Charity itself, Charity and Grace combined,
among these Pilgrims. On one occasion she picked out a handsome young
lass among them, and had Painter Pesne over to take her portrait.
Handsome lass, by Pesne, in her Tyrolese Hat, shone thenceforth on
the walls of Monbijou; and fashion thereupon took up the Tyrolese Hat,
"which has been much worn since by the beautiful part of the Creation,"
says Buchholz; "but how many changes they have introduced in it no pen
can trace."
At Berlin the Commissarius ceased; and there was usually given the
Pilgrims a Candidatus Theologiae, who was to conduct them the rest of
the way, and be their Clergyman when once settled. Five hundred long
miles still. Some were shipped at Stettin; mostly they marched, stage
after stage,--four groschen a day. At the farther end they found all
ready; tight cottages, tillable fields, all implements furnished, and
stock,--even to "FEDERVIEH," or Chanticleer with a modicum of Hens. Old
neighbors, and such as liked each other, were put together: fields grew
green again, desolate scrubs and scrags yielding to grass and corn.
Wooden clocks even came to view,--for Berchtesgaden neighbors also
emigrated; and Swiss came, and Bavarians and French:--and old trades
were revived in those new localities.
Something beautifully real-idyllic in all this, surely:--Yet do not
fancy that it all went on like clock-work; that there were not jarrings
at every step, as is the way in things real. Of the Prussian Minister
chiefly concerned in settling this new Colony I have heard one saying,
forced out of him in some pressure: "There must be somebody for a
scolding-stock and scape-goat; I will be it, then!" And then the
Salzburg Officials, what a humor they were in! No Letters allowed from
those poor Emigrants; the wickedest rumors circulated about them: "All
cut to pieces by inroad of the Poles;" "Pressed for soldiers by the
Prussian drill-sergeant;" "All flung into the Lakes and stagnant waters
there; drowned to the last individual;" and so on. Truth nevertheless
did slowly pierce through. And the "GROSSE WIRTH," our idyllic-real
Friedrich Wilhelm, was wanting in nothing. Lists of their unjust losses
in Salzburg were, on his Majesty's order, made out and authenticated, by
the many who had suffered in that way there,--forced to sell at a
day's notice, and the like:--with these his Majesty was diligent in the
Imperial Court; and did get what human industry could of compensation,
a part but not the whole. Contradictory noises had to abate. In the end,
sound purpose, built on fact and the Laws of Nature, carried it; lies,
vituperations, rumors and delusion sank to zero; and the true result
remained. In 1738, the Salzburg Emigrant Community in Preussen held,
in all their Churches, a Day of Thanksgiving; and admitted piously that
Heaven's blessing, of a truth, had been upon this King and them. There
we leave them, a useful solid population ever since in those parts;
increased by this time we know not how many fold.
It cost Friedrich Wilhelm enormous sums, say the Old Histories; probably
"ten TONS OF GOLD,"--that is to say, ten hundred thousand thalers;
almost 150,000 pounds, no less! But he lived to see it amply repaid,
even in his own time; how much more amply since;--being a man skilful
in investments to a high degree indeed. Fancy 150,000 pounds invested
there, in the Bank of Nature herself; and a hundred millions invested,
say at Balaclava, in the Bank of Newspaper rumor: and the respective
rates of interest they will yield, a million years hence! This was
the most idyllic of Friedrich Wilhelm's feats, and a very real one the
while.
We have only to add or repeat, that Salzburgers to the number of about
7,000 souls arrived at their place this first year; and in the year or
two following, less noted by the public, but faring steadily forward
upon their four groschen a day, 10,000 more. Friedrioh Wilhelm would
have gladly taken the whole; "but George II. took a certain number," say
the Prussian Books (George II., or pious Trustees instead of him), "and
settled them at Ebenezer in Virginia,"--read, Ebenezer IN GEORGIA, where
General Oglethorpe was busy founding a Colony. [Petition to Parliament,
10th (21st) May, 1733, by Oglethorpe and his Trustees, for 10,000 pounds
to carry over these Salzburgers; which was granted; Tindal's RAPIN
(London, 1769), xx. 184.] There at Ebenezer I calculate they might go
ahead, too, after the questionable fashion of that country, and increase
and swell;--but have never heard of them since.
Salzburg Emigration was a very real transaction on Friedrich Wilhelm's
part; but it proved idyllic too, and made a great impression on the
German mind. Readers know of a Book called _Hermann and Dorothea?_ It is
written by the great Goethe, and still worth reading. The great Goethe
had heard, when still very little, much talk among the elders about this
Salzburg Pilgrimage; and how strange a thing it was, twenty years ago
and more. [1749 was Goethe's birth-year.] In middle life he threw it
into Hexameters, into the region of the air; and did that unreal Shadow
of it; a pleasant work in its way, since he was not inclined for more.