FACTA DUCIS VIVENT OPEROGAQUE
GLORIA RERUM.--OVID, IN LIVIAM 185
THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON
FAME SHALL LIVE.
[Illustration: BISMARCK. FROM A PAINTING BY F. VON LENBACH.]
BISMARCK
AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
BY JAMES WYCLIFFE HEADLAM
COPYRIGHT, 1899
PREFACE.
The greater portion of the following pages were completed before the
death of Prince Bismarck; I take this opportunity of apologising to the
publishers and the editor of the series, for the unavoidable delay which
has caused publication to be postponed for a year.
During this period, two works have appeared to which some reference is
necessary. The value of Busch's _Memoirs_ has been much exaggerated;
except for quite the last years of Bismarck's life they contain little
new information which is of any importance. Not only had a large portion
of the book already been published in Busch's two earlier books, but
many of the anecdotes and documents in those parts which were new had
also been published elsewhere.
Bismarck's own _Memoirs_ have a very different value: not so much
because of the new facts which they record, but because of the light
they throw on Bismarck's character and on the attitude he adopted
towards men and political problems. With his letters and speeches, they
will always remain the chief source for our knowledge of his inner life.
The other authorities are so numerous that it is impossible here to
enumerate even the more important. I must, however, express the
gratitude which all students of Bismarck's career owe to Horst Kohl; in
his _Bismarck-Regesten_ he has collected and arranged the material so as
infinitely to lighten the labours of all others who work in the same
field. His _Bismarck-Jahrbuch_ is equally indispensable; without this it
would be impossible for anyone living in England to use the innumerable
letters, documents, and anecdotes which each year appear in German
periodicals. Of collections of documents and letters, the most important
are those by Herr v. Poschinger, especially the volumes containing the
despatches written from Frankfort and those dealing with Bismarck's
economic and financial policy. A full collection of Bismarck's
correspondence is much wanted; there is now a good edition of the
private letters, edited by Kohl, but no satisfactory collection of the
political letters.
For diplomatic history between 1860 and 1870, I have, of course, chiefly
depended on Sybel; but those who are acquainted with the recent course
of criticism in Germany will not be surprised if, while accepting his
facts, I have sometimes ventured to differ from his conclusions.
September, 1899. J.W.H.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE..................................... 1
CHAPTER II.
EARLY LIFE, 1821-1847.................................. 14
CHAPTER III.
THE REVOLUTION, 1847-1852.............................. 34
CHAPTER IV.
THE GERMAN PROBLEM, 1849-1852.......................... 70
CHAPTER V.
FRANKFORT, 1851-1857................................... 86
CHAPTER VI.
ST. PETERSBURG AND PARIS, 1858-1862................... 127
CHAPTER VII.
THE CONFLICT, 1862-1863............................... 162
CHAPTER VIII.
SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, 1863-1864......................... 192
CHAPTER IX.
THE TREATY OF GASTEIN, 1864-1865................... ...226
CHAPTER X.
OUTBREAK OF WAR WITH AUSTRIA, 1865-1866................240
CHAPTER XI.
THE CONQUEST OF GERMANY, 1866..........................259
CHAPTER XII.
THE FORMATION OF THE NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION,
1866-1867..............................................291
CHAPTER XIII.
THE OUTBREAK OF WAR WITH FRANCE, 1867-1870.............315
CHAPTER XIV.
THE WAR WITH FRANCE AND FOUNDATION OF
THE EMPIRE, 1870-1871..................................346
CHAPTER XV.
THE NEW EMPIRE, 1871-1878..............................377
CHAPTER XVI.
THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE AND ECONOMIC REFORM, 1878-1887 ....405
CHAPTER XVII.
RETIREMENT AND DEATH, 1887-1898........................440
INDEX..................................................465
ILLUSTRATIONS.
BISMARCK _Frontispiece_
[From a painting by F. Von Lenbach.]
BISMARCK'S COAT OF ARMS..................................2
SCHÖNHAUSEN CHURCH--INTERIOR.............................6
LUISE WILHELMINE VON BISMARCK...........................10
Bismarck's Mother.
KARL WILHELM FERD. VON BISMARCK.........................12
Bismarck's Father.
BISMARCK IN 1834........................................18
SCHÖNHAUSEN CASTLE......................................26
BISMARCK IN 1848........................................66
PRINCESS BISMARCK.......................................88
BISMARCK IN 1860.......................................130
GENERAL VON ROON.......................................140
EMPEROR WILLIAM I......................................162
EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH.................................194
BISMARCK...............................................214
[From a painting by F. Von Lenbach.]
GENERAL VON MOLTKE.....................................248
THE CAPITULATION OF SEDAN..............................250
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]
BISMARCK AND HIS DOGS..................................288
NAPOLEON III. AND BISMARCK ON THE MORNING
AFTER THE BATTLE OF SEDAN..............................352
[From a painting by Wilhelm Camphausen.]
KING WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA PROCLAIMED EMPEROR
OF GERMANY, VERSAILLES, JANUARY 18, 1871...............370
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]
LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS...................................372
OFFICIAL RESIDENCE OF BISMARCK IN BERLIN...............388
THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN, 1878...........................406
[From a painting by Anton Von Werner.]
FRIEDRICHSRUHE.........................................430
[From a photograph by Strumper & Co., Hamburg.]
EMPEROR FREDERICK......................................446
SARCOPHAGUS OF EMPEROR WILLIAM I., CHARLOTTENBURG......454
SCHUECKENBERGE.........................................462
[Where Bismarck's Mausoleum will be erected.]
MAP OF GERMANY SHOWING CHANGES MADE IN 1860............464
BISMARCK.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
Otto Eduard Leopold Von Bismarck was born at the manor-house of
Schoenhausen, in the Mark of Brandenburg, on April 1, 1815. Just a month
before, Napoleon had escaped from Elba; and, as the child lay in his
cradle, the peasants of the village, who but half a year ago had
returned from the great campaign in France, were once more called to
arms. A few months passed by; again the King of Prussia returned at the
head of his army; in the village churches the medals won at Waterloo
were hung up by those of Grossbehren and Leipzig. One more victory had
been added to the Prussian flags, and then a profound peace fell upon
Europe; fifty years were to go by before a Prussian army again marched
out to meet a foreign foe.
The name and family of Bismarck were among the oldest in the land. Many
of the great Prussian statesmen have come from other countries: Stein
was from Nassau, and Hardenberg was a subject of the Elector of Hanover;
even Blücher and Schwerin were Mecklenburgers, and the Moltkes belong to
Holstein. The Bismarcks are pure Brandenburgers; they belong to the old
Mark, the district ruled over by the first Margraves who were sent by
the Emperor to keep order on the northern frontier; they were there two
hundred years before the first Hohenzollern came to the north.
The first of the name of whom we hear was Herbort von Bismarck, who, in
1270, was Master of the Guild of the Clothiers in the city of Stendal.
The town had been founded about one hundred years before by Albert the
Bear, and men had come in from the country around to enjoy the
privileges and security of city life. Doubtless Herbort or his father
had come from Bismarck, a village about twenty miles to the west, which
takes its name either from the little stream, the Biese, which runs near
it, or from the bishop in whose domain it lay. He was probably the first
to bear the name, which would have no meaning so long as he remained in
his native place, for the _von_ was still a mark of origin and had not
yet become the sign of nobility. Other emigrants from Bismarck seem also
to have assumed it; in the neighbouring town of Prenzlau the name
occurs, and it is still found among the peasants of the Mark; as the
Wends were driven back and the German invasion spread, more adventurous
colonists migrated beyond the Oder and founded a new Bismarck in
Pomerania.
Of the lineage of Herbort we know nothing[1]; his ancestors must have
been among the colonists who had been planted by the Emperors on the
northern frontier to occupy the land conquered from the heathen. He
seems himself to have been a man of substance and position; he already
used the arms, the double trefoil, which are still borne by all the
branches of his family. His descendants are often mentioned in the
records of the Guild; his son or grandson, Rudolph or Rule, represented
the town in a conflict with the neighbouring Dukes of Brunswick. It was
his son Nicolas, or Claus as he is generally called, who founded the
fortunes of the family; he attached himself closely to the cause of the
Margrave, whom he supported in his troubles with the Duke of Brunswick,
and whose interests he represented in the Town Council. He was amply
rewarded for his fidelity. After a quarrel between the city and the
Prince, Bismarck left his native home and permanently entered the
service of the Margrave. Though probably hitherto only a simple citizen,
he was enfiefed with the castle of Burgstall, an important post, for it
was situated on the borders of the Mark and the bishopric of Magdeburg;
he was thereby admitted into the privileged class of the
_Schlossgesessenen_, under the Margrave, the highest order in the feudal
hierarchy. From that day the Bismarcks have held their own among the
nobility of Brandenburg. Claus eventually became Hofmeister of
Brandenburg, the chief officer at the Court; he had his quarrels with
the Church, or rather with the spiritual lords, the bishops of Havelburg
and Magdeburg, and was once excommunicated, as his father had been
before him, and as two of his sons were after him.
Claus died about the year 1385. For two hundred years the Bismarcks
continued to live at Burgstall, to which they added many other estates.
When Conrad of Hohenzollern was appointed Margrave and Elector, he found
sturdy supporters in the lords of Burgstall; he and his successors often
came there to hunt the deer and wild boars, perhaps also the wolves
and bears, with which the forests around the castle abounded; for the
Hohenzollerns were keen sportsmen then as now, as their vassals found
to their cost. In 1555, Hans George, son of the reigning Elector,
Albert Achilles, bought the neighbouring estate of Letzlingen from
the Alvenslebens; there he built a house which is still the chief
hunting-lodge of the Kings of Prussia. Soon he cast envious eyes on the
great woods and preserves which belong to Burgstall, and intimated that
he wished to possess them. The Bismarcks resisted long. First they were
compelled to surrender their hunting rights; this was not sufficient;
the appetite of the Prince grew; in his own words he wished "to be rid
of the Bismarcks from the moor and the Tanger altogether." He offered in
exchange some of the monasteries which had lately been suppressed; the
Bismarcks (the family was represented by two pairs of brothers, who all
lived together in the great castle) long refused; they represented that
their ancestors had been faithful vassals; they had served the Electors
with blood and treasure; they wished "to remain in the pleasant place to
which they had been assigned by God Almighty." It was all of no use; the
Prince insisted, and his wrath was dangerous. The Bismarcks gave in;
they surrendered Burgstall and received in exchange Schoenhausen and
Crevisse, a confiscated nunnery, on condition that as long as the
ejected nuns lived the new lords should support them; for which purpose
the Bismarcks had annually to supply a certain quantity of food and
eighteen barrels of beer.
Of the four co-proprietors, all died without issue, except Friedrich,
called the Permutator, in whose hands the whole of the family property
was again collected; he went to live at Schoenhausen, which since then
has been the home of the family. No remains of the old castle exist, but
the church, built in the thirteenth century, is one of the oldest and
most beautiful in the land between the Havel and the Elbe. House and
church stand side by side on a small rising overlooking the Elbe. Here
they took up their abode; the family to some extent had come down in the
world. The change had been a disadvantageous one; they had lost in wealth
and importance. For two hundred years they played no very prominent part;
they married with the neighbouring country gentry and fought in all the
wars. Rudolph, Friedrich's son, fought in France in behalf of the
Huguenots, and then under the Emperor against the Turks. His grandson,
August, enlisted under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar; afterwards he fought in
the religious wars in France and Germany, always on the Protestant
side; lastly, he took service under the Elector of Brandenburg.
It was in his lifetime that a great change began to take place which was
to alter the whole life of his descendants. In 1640, Frederick William,
known as the great Elector, succeeded his father. He it was who laid the
foundations for that system of government by which a small German
principality has grown to be the most powerful military monarchy in
modern Europe. He held his own against the Emperor; he fought with the
Poles and compelled their King to grant him East Prussia; he drove the
Swedes out of the land. More than this, he enforced order in his own
dominions; he laid the foundation for the prosperity of Berlin; he
organised the administration and got together a small but efficient
military force. The growing power of the Elector was gained to a great
extent at the expense of the nobles; he took from them many of the
privileges they had before enjoyed. The work he began was continued by
his son, who took the title of King; and by his grandson, who invented
the Prussian system of administration, and created the army with which
Frederick the Great fought his battles.
The result of the growth of the strong, organised monarchy was indeed
completely to alter the position of the nobles. The German barons in the
south had succeeded in throwing off the control of their territorial
lords; they owned no authority but the vague control of the distant
Emperor, and ruled their little estates with an almost royal
independence; they had their own laws, their own coinage, their own
army. In the north, the nobles of Mecklenburg Holstein, and Hanover
formed a dominant class, and the whole government of the State was in
their hands; but those barons whose homes fell within the dominion of
the Kings of Prussia found themselves face to face with a will and a
power stronger than their own; they lost in independence, but they
gained far more than they lost. They were the basis on which the State
was built up; they no longer wasted their military prowess in
purposeless feuds or in mercenary service; in the Prussian army and
administration they found full scope for their ambition, and when the
victories of Frederick the Great had raised Prussia to the rank of a
European Power, the nobles of Brandenburg were the most loyal of his
subjects. They formed an exclusive caste; they seldom left their homes;
they were little known in the south of Germany or in foreign countries;
they seldom married outside their own ranks. Their chief amusement was
the chase, and their chief occupation was war. And no king has ever had
under his orders so fine a race of soldiers; they commanded the armies
of Frederick and won his battles. Dearly did they pay for the greatness
of Prussia; of one family alone, the Kleists, sixty-four fell on the
field of battle during the Seven Years' War.
They might well consider that the State which they had helped to make,
and which they had saved by their blood, belonged to them. But if they
had become Prussians, they did not cease to be Brandenburgers; their
loyalty to their king never swerved, for they knew that he belonged to
them as he did to no other of his subjects. He might go to distant
Königsberg to assume the crown, but his home was amongst them; other
provinces might be gained or lost with the chances of war, but while a
single Hohenzollern lived he could not desert his subjects of the Mark.
They had the intense local patriotism so characteristic of the German
nation, which is the surest foundation for political greatness; but
while in other parts the Particularists, as the Germans called them,
aimed only at independence, the Brandenburger who had become a Prussian
desired domination.
Among them the Bismarcks lived. The family again divided into two
branches: one, which became extinct about 1780, dwelling at Crevisse,
gave several high officials to the Prussian Civil Service; the other
branch, which continued at Schoenhausen, generally chose a military
career. August's son, who had the same name as his father, rebuilt the
house, which had been entirely destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty
Years' War; he held the position of Landrath, that is, he was the head
of the administration of the district in which he lived. He married a
Fräulein von Katte, of a well-known family whose estates adjoined those
of the Bismarcks. Frau von Bismarck was the aunt of the unfortunate
young man who was put to death for helping Frederick the Great in his
attempt to escape. His tomb is still to be seen at Wust, which lies
across the river a few miles from Schoenhausen; and at the new house,
which arose at Schoenhausen and still stands, the arms of the Kattes
are joined to the Bismarck trefoil. The successor to the estates, August
Friedrich, was a thorough soldier; he married a Fräulein von Diebwitz
and acquired fresh estates in Pomerania, where he generally lived.
He rose to the rank of colonel, and fell fighting against the Austrians
at Chotusitz in 1742. "Ein ganzer Kerl" (a fine fellow), said the King,
as he stood by the dying officer. His son, Carl Alexander, succeeded to
Schoenhausen; the next generation kept up the military traditions of the
family; of four brothers, all but one became professional officers and
fought against France in the wars of liberation. One fell at Möckern in
1813; another rose to the rank of lieutenant-general; the third also
fought in the war; his son, the later Count Bismarck-Bohlen, was wounded
at Grossbehren, and the father at once came to take his place during his
convalescence, in order that the Prussian army might not have fewer
Bismarcks. When the young Otto was born two years later, he would often
hear of the adventures of his three uncles and his cousin in the great
war. The latter, Bismarck-Bohlen, rose to very high honours and was to
die when over eighty years of age, after he had witnessed the next great
war with France. It is a curious instance of the divisions of Germany in
those days that there were Bismarcks fighting on the French side
throughout the war. One branch of the family had settled in South
Germany; the head of it, Friedrich Wilhelm, had taken service in the
Wurtemburg army; he had become a celebrated leader of cavalry and was
passionately devoted to Napoleon. He served with distinction in the
Russian campaign and was eventually taken prisoner by the Germans in the
battle of Leipzig.
The youngest of the four brothers, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich v. Bismarck,
had retired from the army at an early age: he was a quiet, kindly man of
domestic tastes; on the division of the estates, Schoenhausen fell to
his lot, and he settled down there to a quiet country life. He took a
step which must have caused much discussion among all his friends and
relations, for he chose as wife not one of his own rank, not a Kleist,
or a Katte, or a Bredow, or an Arnim, or an Alvensleben, or any other of
the neighbouring nobility; he married a simple Fräulein Mencken. She
was, however, of no undistinguished origin. Her father, the son of a
professor at the University of Leipzig, had entered the Prussian Civil
Service; there he had risen to the highest rank and had been Cabinet
Secretary to both Frederick William II. and Frederick III. He was a man
of high character and of considerable ability; as was not uncommon among
the officials of those days, he was strongly affected by the liberal and
even revolutionary doctrines of France.
Fräulein Mencken, who was married at the age of sixteen, was a clever
and ambitious woman. From her her son inherited his intellect; from
his father he derived what the Germans call _Gemüth_, geniality,
kindliness, humour. By his two parents he was thus connected with the
double foundation on which Prussia had been built: on his father's side
he had sprung from the fighting nobles; on his mother's, from the
scholars and officials. In later life we shall find that while his
prejudices and affections are all enlisted on the side of the noble,
the keen and critical intellect he had inherited from his mother enabled
him to overcome the prejudices of his order.
The early life of the young pair was not altogether fortunate. Several
children died at a very early age; the defeat of Prussia brought foreign
occupation; Schoenhausen was seized by French troopers; the marks of
their swords are still to be seen in a beam over one of the doors, and
Rittmeister v. Bismarck had to take his wife away into the woods in
order to escape their violence.
Of all the children of the marriage only three lived: Bernhard, who was
born in 1810, Otto, and one sister, Malvina, born in 1827.
Otto did not live at Schoenhausen long; when he was only a year old, his
father moved to Pomerania and settled on the estates Kniephof and Kulz,
which had come into the family on his grandfather's marriage. Pomerania
was at that time a favourite residence among the Prussian nobility; the
country was better wooded than the Mark, and game more plentiful; the
rich meadows, the wide heaths and forests were more attractive than the
heavy corn-lands and the sandy wastes of the older province. Here, in
the deep seclusion of country life, the boy passed his first years; it
was far removed from the bustle and turmoil of civilisation. Naugard,
the nearest town, was five miles distant; communication was bad, for it
was not till after 1815 that the Prussian Government began to construct
highroads. In this distant province, life went on as in the olden days,
little altered by the changes which had transformed the State. The
greater portion of the land belonged to large proprietors; the noble as
in old days was still all-powerful on his own estate; in his hands was
the administration of the law, and it was at his manorial court that men
had to seek for justice, a court where justice was dealt not in the name
of the King but of the Lord of the Manor. He lived among his people and
generally he farmed his own lands. There was little of the luxury of an
English country-house or the refinement of the French noblesse; he would
be up at daybreak to superintend the work in the fields, his wife and
daughters that of the household, talking to the peasants the pleasant
_Platt Deutsch_ of the countryside. Then there would be long rides or
drives to the neighbours' houses; shooting, for there was plenty of deer
and hares; and occasionally in the winter a visit to Berlin; farther
away, few of them went. Most of the country gentlemen had been to Paris,
but only as conquerors at the end of the great war.
They were little disturbed by modern political theories, but were
contented, as in old days, to be governed by the King. It was a
religious society; among the peasants and the nobles, if not among the
clergy, there still lingered something of the simple but profound faith
of German Protestantism; they were scarcely touched by the rationalism
of the eighteenth or by the liberalism of the nineteenth century; there
was little pomp and ceremony of worship in the village church, but the
natural periods of human life--birth, marriage, death--called for the
blessing of the Church, and once or twice a year came the solemn
confession and the sacrament. Religious belief and political faith were
closely joined, for the Church was but a department of the State; the
King was chief bishop, as he was general of the army, and the sanctity
of the Church was transferred to the Crown; to the nobles and peasants,
criticism of, or opposition to, the King had in it something of
sacrilege; the words "by the Grace of God" added to the royal title were
more than an empty phrase. Society was still organised on the old
patriarchal basis: at the bottom was the peasant; above him was the
_gnädiger Herr_; above him, _Unser allergnädigste Herr_, the King, who
lived in Berlin; and above him, the _Herr Gott_ in Heaven.
To the inhabitants of South Germany, and the men of the towns, these
nobles of Further Pomerania, the _Junker_ as they were called, with
their feudal life, their medieval beliefs, their simple monarchism, were
the incarnation of political folly; to them liberalism seemed another
form of atheism, but in this solitude and fresh air of the great plain
was reared a race of men who would always be ready, as their fathers had
been, to draw their sword and go out to conquer new provinces for their
King to govern.