Bonn—An Anecdote of Beethoven—The King’s Hussars—The Howard
Vyses—A German Professor on England—Domesticated Habits of
German Girls—Professor Delbrück
On my arrival at Bonn, I stayed at the Hôtel Rheineck, which commanded
a splendid view of the distant mountains. Here I made the acquaintance
of the late Mr. Ranyard, the celebrated astronomer, who told me that
the well-known author “A. L. O. E.” was his aunt. Mr. Ranyard was also
stopping at the “Rheineck,” and at the midday _table d’hôte_ sat next
to a Frau Phillip, a German lady from Frankfurt, who was rather stout,
but good-looking. He made love to her, and, though he spoke German very
badly, she appeared to understand him. At four o’clock we used to sit out
on the verandah of the hôtel, which overlooked the Rhine, and take our
coffee there, with an excellent _Kuchen_, for which Germany is famous.
Some days after my arrival at Bonn, Ranyard, who was flirting with Frau
Phillip, quite forgot that he had to catch the boat to Cologne, and
missed it. He was quite in despair at this, as he had not enough money
with him to stay any longer at Bonn. However, the proprietor of the hotel
said he would lend him some, which he could repay him when he arrived
in England. Ranyard accordingly arranged to stay on a day or two longer
at Bonn, as the hotel-keeper was confiding enough to advance him £5. I
mention this incident to show how kind Germans are at times, though, of
course, there are exceptions everywhere.
I called on Professor Dr. Binz and his wife, who lived in a pretty villa
with a delightful garden attached to it. The latter’s sister, Miss
Salis-Schwabe, and her brother, who was an officer in the 7th Dragoon
Guards, were staying with her on a visit, and I went for several
rides with them. Miss Salis-Schwabe was a nice-looking girl, with a
considerable fortune of her own, and lived chiefly in England. She
afterwards married the late Sir Frank Lockwood, the well-known Q.C.; and
I was told by the Hon. Mrs. Henry Orde-Powlett, who knew her, that she
was always very disappointed if her husband did not come home every day
with fifty guineas as “refreshers” in his pocket.
Frau Professor Binz told me that she knew of a Professor Dr. Andrä, who
had a pretty daughter, so that his house would be just the very one for
me to live at; and I accordingly made arrangements to take rooms there,
with board.
Fräulein Margarethe Andrä was a rather pretty girl, a blonde, with blue
eyes, but she was, I thought, somewhat insipid, and very strait-laced.
She was well read and a free-thinker, like her father, who never went
to any church. Professor Dr. Andrä was very clever, and, indeed, some
people said he was the cleverest of the professors at Bonn University. I
remember him telling me about his wife, whom he had recently lost. She
knew, according to him, exactly what he was going to say before he opened
his mouth, and had also foretold many events before there was a chance of
their happening, in a marvellous manner. I asked Andrä if he would not
like to see his wife again.
“No,” he replied. “I loved her very much, but I have no desire to live
again, and, what is more, I am sure that after this existence there is no
other. And it is much better so.”
He lectured on Anthropology and Mineralogy, two sciences in which I took
no interest. I attended the lectures of Geheimrath von Sybel, the famous
historian, who, Dr. Andrä said, was a Republican at heart, but pretended
not to be, in order to keep in with Bismarck, who since 1870 had been all
powerful in Germany. Von Sybel was one of the finest lecturers I ever
heard. He contrived to make his subject most interesting, however dry it
might otherwise have appeared; and his lectures were always crowded with
students, whereas those of some of the other professors were attended by
very few, as it was entirely optional which lectures the students at the
University attended.
Bonn is the birthplace of Beethoven, a fine statue of whom was erected
in 1845 on the Poppelsdorfer Allee. Grillparzer writes in his diary for
1843:—
“The windows of my grandmother’s house faced the courtyard of the
dwelling of a peasant called Flehberger, who bore a bad name. This
Flehberger had a very pretty daughter, called Lisa, whose reputation was
also not of the best. Beethoven appeared to be much interested in the
girl, and I can see him as he came up the little street, dragging his
white handkerchief after him, until he came to a stop at Flehberger’s
house, where the frivolous beauty was standing on a wagon filled with
hay, working with a pitchfork, and laughing the while. Beethoven stood
silent and looked at her, until the girl, whose taste lay more in the
direction of peasant boys, made him angry by rude words or by obstinately
ignoring his presence. Then he walked away, but did not fail, the next
time he passed that way, to stop and look into the courtyard. Indeed,
his interest in the girl went so far that, when her father was arrested
and put in prison for being concerned in a drunken brawl in the village,
Beethoven endeavoured to rescue him, and narrowly escaped having to share
the captivity of the man whom he had so unwisely protected.”
It is said that Beethoven wept when his “Overture to Leonora” was first
played at Vienna, where it met with no success. He only passed his youth
at Bonn, and then went to Vienna, where the Archduke Rudolf, Prince
Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz gave him an annuity of 4,000 florins (nearly
£350) for life, in order that he might devote his time entirely to music,
free from all financial cares. The fact that the same provision was never
made for Mozart, who was an Austrian by birth, makes one think of the
proverb: “_Nemo propheta in patria_.” Grillparzer, Austria’s greatest
poet, wrote the funeral speech read at Beethoven’s tomb in Vienna on
March 27th, 1827, and on May 1st, 1880, a statue to his memory was
erected there, near the garden of the Hof Burg, on the Ringstrasse.
Captain Horrocks, whom my father knew very well, was then living at Bonn
with his family. His brother held an appointment at the Court of the
Grand Duke of Hesse. Captain Horrocks once wrote a three-volume novel,
which my mother tried to read, but said that she never could get beyond
the first volume. She lent the first volume of the book to several of her
friends, but not one of them ever asked for the second and third. When I
mentioned Captain Horrocks’s name to my mother, she said:—
“When I think of him, I cannot imagine how he could have written such a
dull book. I have never yet come across any one who has had the courage
to read the whole of his novel.”
Horrocks was, nevertheless, an amusing man, who had a great deal of
dry wit. He had several very pretty daughters, the eldest one being
considered the belle of Bonn at that time. I remember his remarking to me
once that a poor man could never dress well, as he always bought cheap
clothes, and they never lasted any time. “Depend upon it, whatever is
cheap is bad,” he always used to say.
The regiment stationed at Bonn was the King’s Hussars. It was commanded
by Prince Reuss, and there were seven princes amongst its officers. I
knew the two Princes Bentheim, and Counts von der Goltz, Metternich,
Moltke and Bernstorff. The last-named was a gay young officer, who spoke
English like an Englishman. I saw a good deal of him. His father had
been Prussian Ambassador in England, and he had a brother serving in
the Garde Kürassier Regiment in Berlin. Prince Reuss was very severe
with his officers, and insisted that, when they attended a ball, they
should wear their swords the whole time, except when actually dancing.
On one occasion, an officer, who had omitted to replace his sword after
a dance, was put under arrest for a week and confined to his quarters.
Bernstorff, so he told me, once entered a tavern of bad reputation in
Cologne in plain clothes, as he did not like to go to such a place in
uniform, and on his return to Bonn was placed under arrest for a week.
Notwithstanding the severity of the punishment meted out for minor
offences against discipline, very little, if any, notice was taken when
officers in uniform became intoxicated at balls. I can remember attending
a ball at the Royal Hôtel at Bonn, at which several officers of the
King’s Hussars were present wearing their dark blue uniform with gold
lace, as they were never allowed to attend dances in plain clothes. One
of them insisted on dancing, though he was so intoxicated that he could
scarcely stand, and the others were highly amused at his efforts to dance
with a lady, who must have been in entire ignorance of the state her
partner was in.
When the King’s Hussars gave a ball at Bonn, which they did once every
winter, they only invited the officers of the 7th Kürassiers from
Cologne, and not a single infantry officer from the Line regiments at
either place. Some of the English at Bonn were invited to this ball,
but I cannot say that it came up to one’s expectations. In the first
place, it was a terribly stiff affair. The officers stood in one part of
the ball-room; the ladies, mostly seated, occupied the other part, and
at the end of a dance, an officer generally conducted his partner back
to her seat and left her with her lady friends. The supper was not at
all a bad one, and there was plenty of champagne, but the guests had to
pay for what they ate and drank. However, it was considered so great an
honour to be invited to this ball that no one grumbled; in fact, they
appeared to think it quite natural that they should have to pay for their
refreshments.
The King’s Hussars was regarded as one of the crack Prussian regiments,
and undoubtedly some of its officers were of very high social standing.
But by no means all of these officers were wealthy, and I was told that
the Princes Bentheim had only £150 a year each, besides their pay. The
officers generally rode in the Poppelsdorfer Allee of a morning, making
their horses perform _la haute école_, as though they were at a circus.
Only one corps of students mixed at all with the officers. This was the
well-known Borussia Corps, the members of which—the _Borussen_—wore a
white cap somewhat similar in shape to that worn by French officers. This
corps was composed entirely of members of the Prussian nobility, most
of them being counts and barons, and they did not associate at all with
any of the other student corps. They fought duels with the _Schläger_,
and got cut about the face, but the more they were disfigured, the more
pleased they appeared to be. Some of the _Borussen_ joined the King’s
Hussars afterwards, but what became of their scars I do not know, for,
strange to say, I have never seen any officers with these ugly marks on
their faces. Perhaps, after a time, the scars disappear; I can think of
no other explanation, for all the corps students are forced to fight
duels.
I can remember Dr. Andrä once showing me a tiny shop at Bonn, above which
the royal arms of a certain country were displayed, and when I inquired
the reason of this, he told me the following story, which I give in his
own words:—
“When the heir to a certain principality was a student at Bonn, he
happened to enter this shop, in which there was a very pretty girl
serving. The latter, who pretended ignorance of his identity, invited
the Prince to come and see her one evening. The Prince went, and a
violent flirtation was in progress, when the door opened, and the owner
of the shop entered. This person affected the utmost astonishment and
indignation, and, informing the Prince that the girl was his wife,
threatened that, unless the would-be destroyer of his domestic happiness
were prepared to write him out there and then a cheque for several
thousand thalers, he would make the affair public. The Prince, anxious
to avoid a scandal, complied with his demand, and, moreover, gave him
permission to display the arms of his country over his shop-front as
supplying His Highness with goods. After the Prince had left Bonn, the
cunning rascal sent the girl, who was not his wife at all, back to
Cologne, from which she had come, it was said, for the express purpose of
assisting the shopkeeper to entrap the Prince.”
I used to go to the “Kneipe,” where the corps students assembled, with
a young American named Howard Vyse and his younger brother.[20] We
always went of an evening, when songs, principally “Studenten Lieder,”
were sung, and there was heavy drinking. On one occasion, the younger
Vyse, on coming out into the night air, after attending one of these
entertainments, told me that he felt so queer that he could not find his
way home, and asked if I could put him up for the night. I took him to
Dr. Andrä’s house, and he slept in my sitting-room. Next morning, the
professor inquired why I had brought Vyse home with me, and I told him
the reason, quoting, at the same time, the words of Nietzsche:—
“_Alles ist erlaubt, nichts ist verboten._”
To which he replied that such were not his views; that he considered
that everyone ought to lead a very moral life; that it was wrong to get
intoxicated, and that, although he never entered a church, he lived as
moral a life as many religious people, who often professed to be better
than they really were.
Professor Andrä was an intimate friend of the famous author, Berthold
Auerbach, and once, when he was staying with Auerbach, the latter was
engaged in writing his celebrated novel, _Das Landhaus am Rhein_. One
day, Andrä asked him to walk to Poppelsdorf, where the professor was
going to lecture. But he declined, saying that to do so would put some
of his ideas for his novel out of his head, as it was essential for him
to keep constantly in mind what he intended to write about. Andrä showed
me the house on the Rhine which Auerbach had described in his novel, and
one day took me there to visit a retired merchant, who, after making a
fortune in America, had bought this beautiful villa in the Koblentzer
Strasse, which had a very fine garden leading down to the Rhine. Andrä
told me that he detested novels; nevertheless, one day, when I happened
to be reading _Auf der Höhe_, by Auerbach, he asked me to lend it him,
and, after reading it, said
“After all, it is very well written, and I am pleased with it; some of
the ideas are uncommonly good, and the plot is ingenious.”
Excellenz von Dechen, Minister of the Rhine Provinces, told me that
Andrä might have occupied Bismarck’s position,[21] but that he was too
honest a man to change his opinions. Andrä told me that Germany was far
more fitted than France for a republican form of government, and that,
if the War of 1870 had had a different issue, Germany would have been a
republic, as France is now. He entertained a poor opinion of England and
the English, whom he considered the most selfish and self-opinionated
nation in Europe, and years behind Germany in intelligence. He held that
Darwin, whose works he had read, had merely been the first to publish the
ideas of a well-known German professor; and he himself had lectured upon
Darwin’s theory,[22] in which he was a firm believer, long before he had
ever heard of him.
Andrä told me that at all the dinners which he attended, as a professor
of the University, he took precedence of all the officers of the
King’s Hussars and of any titled person who had not some higher State
appointment than he held. When I told him that this would not have been
the case in England, he smiled and said:—
“In your country, with your antiquated laws, how can you expect so much
civilization as in Germany? The English have a great deal to learn, and
it will be a very long while before their barbarous customs are knocked
on the head. So far as civilization is concerned, England is in a worse
condition than France, and, Heaven knows, France has yet a good deal to
learn.”
In his opinion, Bismarck was a man of great intellect, but without any
conscience whatever. Moltke, he told me, was quite positive that Germany
would defeat France before the war had begun, and he was a man “_welcher
schweigt in sieben Sprachen_,” as he rarely ever spoke. Moltke’s son,
afterwards Field-Marshal Count von Moltke, was then in the King’s Hussars
at Bonn, and I knew him very well, but, save for indulging in some
amorous escapades and getting very much into debt, he did not distinguish
himself, though I have no doubt he deserved the Iron Cross which he
obtained in the War of 1870, with most of the officers of the King’s
Hussars. Of Field-Marshal Freiherr von der Goltz it was said:—
“Freiherr von der Goltz,
Von seiner Dummheit ist er stoltz.”[23]
I often would ask Andrä what books I ought to read, and one of the first
he recommended was Hauff’s _Lichtenstein_, a charming romance in the
style of Sir Walter Scott. Heine was a great favourite with Andrä, and he
could repeat his _Lieder_ off by heart.[24] Goethe he ranked far above
Schiller, and considered the first part of _Faust_ vastly superior to
the second. He had a very high opinion of Lessing’s works in general.
Of modern authors, he recommended Karl von Holtei’s _Die Vagabunden_,
which was, he told me, quite a classic, and I have read it again and
again with pleasure. It is somewhat in the style of _la Vie de Bohème_,
by Mürger, but I prefer it to the French work. In comparing Lesage with
Scott, Victor Hugo seems to think more highly of the latter; but Andrä
considered that _Gil Blas_ would outlive all Scott’s novels, which was
also the opinion of Grillparzer. It was through Andrä that I became a
supporting member of the “Verein zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher
Kenntnisse in Wien,” which I have been for many years. The ill-fated
Crown Prince Rudolf was formerly the Protector of this society, a
position which was held recently by the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
the heir to the Austrian throne.
Andrä had held a post in Siebenbürgen, in Hungary, under the Archduke
Johann, for some years before his appointment to be a professor at Bonn.
He was very fond of the Hungarians and told me that he and some friends
were one evening at a restaurant in a village in Hungary, where three or
four musicians played so delightfully that his party kept giving them
money to continue, and that he was sure that they went on playing until
about five o’clock the following morning. He was passionately fond of
music, and I would often ask him to play me some Austrian marches and
waltzes on the piano, which he did with the true Austrian spirit. His
daughter never played the piano, telling me that unless you can play
exceptionally well, it is better to leave it alone. I wish all English
girls were of her opinion.
German girls are as a rule very clever, and have a good deal to say
for themselves. They are highly sentimental, far more so than English
girls, and can generally read French and English books easily enough,
though I found that they could speak very little of these languages, as
they had very little practice and few occasions to do so. Every girl in
Germany can do the most difficult needlework, embroidery and knitting
wonderfully well, in addition to which she thoroughly understands how to
cook a good dinner. Fräulein Andrä generally cooked the dinner herself,
though she had servants, one of whom was a sort of cook. I remember that,
in more recent years, at the Hôtel Neckar at Heidelberg, I caught sight
of a pretty, graceful young girl wearing an apron going into the hôtel
kitchen, and, on my asking who she was, I was told that she was the
daughter of a count, and engaged to be married to a young count of high
family, but before her marriage she was required to learn cooking for six
months at this hôtel.
There were at this time several English families whom I knew residing at
Bonn, among them being Captain and Mrs. Bean, who were living there to
educate their children, and to whose house I was often invited to tea. I
recollect once Mrs. Bean telling me and some other friends of hers that
she intended going to a masked ball dressed as a gipsy fortune-teller,
with packs of cards and bells sewn over her costume. On my arrival at the
ball, I had no difficulty in recognizing this dress, but the voice of the
wearer seemed very different from that of Mrs. Bean, and it transpired
that the fortune-teller was Captain Bean, who, as his wife found herself
unable to go to the ball, owing to a severe cold, had assumed her costume
and come instead. He intrigued a great many people who were there,
telling them their fortunes and more about themselves than they cared to
know, and got a good deal of amusement out of his impersonation, no one
but myself having the least idea who he was the whole time.
There were also two sons of Peabody, the millionaire, at Bonn. The name
they were known by was George, and one of them was married and had two
very pretty daughters. The Georges were quite unaware who their father
was until after Peabody’s death, when they were angry at only being left
two thousand pounds a year each, the bulk of Peabody’s enormous fortune
having been bequeathed to charities.
The Carnival was very amusing for young people, as everyone had to be
disguised and masked during the three days it lasted, and this custom
afforded a good deal of fun. Besides, every house was thrown open, and
we entered the houses of different people whom we knew with our masks
on, and partook of tea and cakes without being recognized. The students,
and, indeed, most young men, wore a blue blouse and white kid gloves, and
a mask, over which a blue cap with a red tassel was worn. Some of the
English girls at Bonn asked me to get up a ball, but only the bachelors
would have anything to do with it. I arranged with the proprietor of the
Rheineck Hotel that the ball should be given there, and he prepared his
large dining-room for the dancing and a room adjoining it for the supper.
The supper was to be provided at so much a head, wine being extra, as is
the general custom in Germany. The members of the committee wore red,
white and blue rosettes in their buttonholes. About sixty or seventy
people came to this ball, including the officers of the King’s Hussars,
who, of course, were present in uniform, and it went off very well, as it
was conducted on English lines, and was a much more free and easy affair
than the average German ball. The supper was a very passable one, and
a great deal of wine was consumed, particularly sparkling Moselle and
champagne, so the company was pretty merry. Miss Edith Horrocks was the
belle of the ball. She danced chiefly with a young Baron von Plessen, an
officer in the King’s Hussars, whom she afterwards married, though, as
there was not much money on either side, the young officer’s father, who
was a general of cavalry, at first made some difficulties. It was five
o’clock in the morning before the last guests had taken their departure.
During the winter several small dances were given by different English
families, and these I generally attended. I also went to some German
balls, but, as there were no English present except myself, and they were
conducted in a very stiff and formal manner, I cannot say that I derived
much pleasure from them, apart from the dancing itself, of which I was
then very fond.
At Von Sybel’s lectures I made the acquaintance of a young man named
Hans Delbrück, whom I liked very much indeed. He afterwards became a
university professor, and was imprisoned some years ago for having
expressed certain political views which were not in accordance with those
of the “All Highest.” He is now Professor of History at the University
of Berlin. Some little time before the War he was interviewed by the
correspondent of the _Daily Mail_, when he gave his opinion about the
possibility of a war between Great Britain and Germany.
During the spring and summer there was very little going on at Bonn,
with the exception of steam-boat excursions up and down the Rhine. For
the residents, the winter is the season, but the climate at that time
of year is no better than in England; indeed, it is perhaps even worse
than in some English towns, as in the morning there are often thick fogs
rising from the river. Living at Bonn is cheap—cheaper than at Wiesbaden
or Frankfurt, to say nothing of Homburg, which is far more expensive and
much more pleasant in summer. But there are many worse places than Bonn
in the winter, so far as amusements are concerned.