Schlesien, what we call Silesia, lies in elliptic shape, spread on the
top of Europe, partly girt with mountains, like the crown or crest
to that part of the Earth;--highest table-land of Germany or of the
Cisalpine Countries; and sending rivers into all the seas. The summit
or highest level of it is in the southwest; longest diameter is from
northwest to southeast. From Crossen, whither Friedrich is now driving,
to the Jablunka Pass, which issues upon Hungary, is above 250 miles;
the AXIS, therefore, or longest diameter, of our Ellipse we may call 230
English miles;--its shortest or conjugate diameter, from Friedland in
Bohemia (Wallenstein's old Friedland), by Breslau across the Oder to the
Polish Frontier, is about 100. The total area of Schlesien is counted to
be some 20,000 square miles, nearly the third of England Proper.
Schlesien--will the reader learn to call it by that name, on occasion?
for in these sad Manuscripts of ours the names alternate--is a fine,
fertile, useful and beautiful Country. It leans sloping, as we hinted,
to the East and to the North; a long curved buttress of Mountains
("RIESENGEBIRGE, Giant Mountains," is their best-known name in
foreign countries) holding it up on the South and West sides.
This Giant-Mountain Range,--which is a kind of continuation of the
Saxon-Bohemian "Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE)" and of the straggling
Lausitz Mountains, to westward of these,--shapes itself like a bill-hook
(or elliptically, as was said): handle and hook together may be some
200 miles in length. The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned
outwards, towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary,
in our dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down,
towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian side
of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for the West;
Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets into the Donau,
and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after intricate adventures
among the mountains, and then prosperously across the plains, is out,
with its many ships, into the Atlantic. Two rivers, we say, from the
Bohemian or steep side: and again, from the Silesian side, there rise
other two, the Oder and the Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near
one another in the Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into
the Baltic, at a good distance apart.
For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but after
that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or noticeable
only by the way the waters run. From the central part of it, Schlesien
pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever flatter, ever sandier,
as it abuts on the monotonous endless sand-flats of Poland, and the
Brandenburg territories; nothing but Boundary Stones with their brass
inscriptions marking where the transition is; and only some Fortified
Town, not far off, keeping the door of the Country secure in that
quarter.
On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very picturesque;
not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself is under 5,000
feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost nowhere among the
Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by rushing torrents and the
swift young rivers, nestles itself high up; and from wheat
husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to damask-weaving, metallurgy,
charcoal-burning, tar-distillery, Schlesien has many trades, and has
long been expert and busy at them to a high degree. A very
pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval, on the summit of the European
Continent;--"like the palm of a left hand well stretched out, with the
Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a certain Herr to me, stretching out his
arm in that fashion towards the northwest. Palm, well stretched out,
measuring 250 miles; and the crossway 100. There are still beavers in
Schlesien; the Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus
not now worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy
individuals, with kindled mounds of pine-branches and smoke carefully
kept down by sods, are sweating out a substance which they inform you is
to be tar.
HISTORICAL EPOCHS OF SCHLESIEN;--AFTER THE QUADS AND MARCHMEN.
Who first lived in Schlesien, or lived long since in it, there is no use
in asking, nor in telling if one knew. "The QUADI and the Lygii," says
Dryasdust, in a groping manner: Quadi and consorts, in the fifth or
sixth Century, continues he with more confidence, shifted Rome-ward,
following the general track of contemporaneous mankind; weak remnant of
Quadi was thereupon overpowered by Slavic populations, and their Country
became Polish, which the eastern rim of it still essentially is. That
was the end of the Quadi in those parts, says History. But they cannot
speak nor appeal for themselves; History has them much at discretion.
Rude burial urns, with a handful of ashes in them, have been dug up in
different places; these are all the Archives and Histories the Quadi now
have. It appears their name signifies WICKED. They are those poor Quadi
(WICKED PEOPLE) who always go along with the Marcomanni (MARCHMEN), in
the bead-roll Histories one reads; and I almost guess they must have
been of the same stock: "Wickeds and Borderers;" considered, on both
sides of the Border, to belong to the Dangerous Classes in those times.
Two things are certain: First, QUAD and its derivatives have, to
this day, in the speech of rustic Germans, something of that
meaning,--"nefarious," at least "injurious," "hateful, and to be
avoided:" for example, QUADdel, "a nettle-burn;" QUETSchen, "to smash"
(say, your thumb while hammering); &c. &c. And then a second thing:
The Polish equivalent word is ZLE (Busching says ZLEXI); hence ZLEzien,
SCHLEsien, meaning merely BADland, QUADland, what we might called
DAMAGitia, or Country where you get into Trouble. That is the etymology,
or what passes for such. As to the History of Schlesien, hitherwards
of these burial urns dug up in different places, I notice, as not yet
entirely buriable, Three Epochs.
FIRST EPOCH; CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 966. Introduction of Christianity;
to the length of founding a Bishopric that year, so hopeful were the
aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village still
discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of Namslau);
Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got across the
Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and sticks there, as
Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it was in Adalbert, our
Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time. Preaching, by zealous
Polacks, must have been going on, while Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness,
was studying at Magdeburg, and ripening for high things in the general
estimation. This was a new gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity;
an infinitely more important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or
"DAMAGitia," stuck upon the poor Country, had been.
SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159.
Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting benefit
to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent Majesty whom we
could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions shared by punctual
bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest did avail: but the eldest
Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with much else to his share) began
to encroach, to grasp; upon which the others rose upon him, flung him
out into exile; redivided; and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped,
but were disappointed; and could come to no sure bargain for the next
twenty years,--not till "the eldest brother," first author of these
strifes, "died an exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had
agreed to take Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth.
His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get Schlesien
instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien thereby
was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to continue loose;
steering a course of its own;--parting farther and farther from Poland
and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons, of the late Polish
Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the "Piast Dukes," much
talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose merits I specify this only,
That they so soon as possible strove to be German. They were Progenitors
of all the "Piast Dukes," Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the
last of them died out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they
had entered into could not take effect at that time. Their merits as
Sovereign Dukes seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom
and nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly
their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to Germany,
and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from Poland, in their
new circumstances. They themselves by degrees became altogether German;
their Countries, by silent immigration, introduction of the arts, the
composures and sobrieties, became essentially so. On the eastern
rim there is still a Polack remnant, its territories very sandy, its
condition very bad; remnant which surely ought to cease its Polack
jargon, and learn some dialect of intelligible Teutsch, as the first
condition of improvement. In all other parts Teutsch reigns;
and Schlesien is a green abundant Country; full of metallurgy,
damask-weaving, grain-husbandry.--instead of gasconade, gilt anarchy,
rags, dirt, and NIE POZWALAM.
A.D. 1327; GET COMPLETELY CUT LOOSE. The Piast Dukes, who soon ceased to
be Polish, and hung rather upon Bohemia, and thereby upon Germany, made
a great step in that direction, when King Johann, old ICH-DIEN whom we
ought to recollect, persuaded most of them, all of them but two, "PRETIO
AC PRECE," to become Feudatories (Quasi-Feudatories, but of a sovereign
sort) to his Crown of Bohemia. The two who stood out, resisting
prayer and price, were the Duke of Jauer and the Duke of
Schweidnitz,--lofty-minded gentlemen, perhaps a thought too lofty.
But these also Johann's son, little Kaiser Karl IV., "marrying their
heiress," contrived to bring in;--one fruitful adventure of little
Karl's, among the many wasteful he made, in the German Reich. Schlesien
is henceforth a bit of the Kingdom of Bohemia; indissolubly hooked to
Germany; and its progress in the arts and composures, under wise
Piasts with immigrating Germans, we guess to have become doubly rapid.
[Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ viii. 725; Hubner, t. 94.]
THIRD EPOCH; ADOPT THE REFORMATION: A.D. 1414-1517. Schlesien, hanging
to Bohemia in this manner, extensively adopted Huss's doctrines; still
more extensively Luther's; and that was a difficult element in its lot,
though, I believe, an unspeakably precious one. It cost above a Century
of sad tumults, Zisca Wars; nay above two Centuries, including the sad
Thirty-Years War;--which miseries, in Bohemia Proper, were sometimes
very sad and even horrible. But Schlesien, the outlying Country, did,
in all this, suffer less than Bohemia Proper; and did NOT lose its
Evangelical Doctrine in result, as unfortunate Bohemia did, and sink
into sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by
the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of Peace,
it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing counter-steps,
in that latter direction:--
A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of Liegnitz,
and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of Brotherhood with
Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as might be, rubbed out and
annihilated by the then King of Bohemia, subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand
I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of Liegnitz had to give up his parchments,
and become zero in that matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do
so; kept his parchments, to see if they would not turn to something.
A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz
(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann George,
Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went warmly
ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the Thirty-Years
War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high quarters, being really
extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart sharply for it;--poor Johann
George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf, with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the
Empire), and total ruin; fighting against which he soon died. Act of Ban
and Forfeiture was done tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted
in equally so, till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit
of the Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws
of the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien
thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to
Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands of
Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear of them.
A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair limits
to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how could it? By
Orthodox Authority, anxious to recover lost souls, or at least to have
loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and tacitly, in
substance, it was violated more and more. Of the "Blossoming of Silesian
Literature," spoken of in Books; of the Poet Opitz, Poets Logan,
Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of Song better or worse at this
Period, we will remember nothing; but request the reader to remember it,
if he is tunefully given, or thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien.
A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt: between Kaiser Joseph I. and Karl XII.
Swedish Karl, marching through those parts,--out of Poland, in chase
of August the Physically Strong, towards Saxony, there to beat him
soft,--was waited upon by Silesian Deputations of a lamentable nature;
was entreated, for the love of Christ and His Evangel, to "Protect
us poor Protestants, and get the Treaty of Westphalia observed on our
behalf, and fair-play shown!" Which Karl did; Kaiser Joseph, with such
weight of French War lying on him, being much struck with the tone of
that dangerous Swede. The Pope rebuked Kaiser Joseph for such compliance
in the Silesian matter: "Holy Father," answered this Kaiser (not of
distinguished orthodoxy in the House), "I am too glad he did not ask me
to become Lutheran; I know not how I should have helped myself!" [Pauli,
_ Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte_ (viii. 298-592); Busching,
_Erdbeschreibung_ (viii. 700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, _Friedrichs
des Grossen Besitzergreifung von Schlesien_ (Seizure of Silesia by
Friedrich, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1843), I mention only lest ingenuous readers
should be tempted by the Title to buy it. Wuttke begins at the Creation
of the World; and having, in two heavy volumes, at last struggled down
close TO the BESITZERGREIFUNG or Seizure in question, calls halt; and
stands (at ease, we will hope) immovably there for the seventeen years
since.]
These are the Three Epochs;--most things, in respect of this Third or
Reformation Epoch, stepping steadily downward hitherto. As to the Fourth
Epoch, dating "13th Dec. 1740," which continues, up to our day and
farther, and is the final and crowning Epoch of Silesian History,--read
in the following Chapters.