Part 1215

"With the Italian campaign of 1796 began the second epoch of the revolutionary era, the more fruitful one for the world at large. The propaganda of the revolution now first began to take actual effect and in Central Europe a new order of things superseded the old division of lands, the traditional forma of state and society. It was through Bonaparte's victories that the weapons of France first acquired an indisputable ascendancy. … As was the case with her manner of making war, so did France's European policy take on a new character in the hands of the victor of Montenotte and Rivoli. … In the head of the great man without a home, to whom the soul-life of nations, the ideal world, ever remained an unknown quantity, the horrible conception of a new world-monarchy had already found a place. The images of the Cæsars and the Carolingians stood in dazzling splendor before his mind. The rich history of a thousand years was to be annihilated by a single grand adventure; the multiform culture of the West was to yield to the sway of one gigantic man. This new and altogether un-French policy of conquest rushed to its goals with a wonderful assurance and want of conscience. Bonaparte's perspicuity recognized at once by what means Austria, victorious in Germany but worsted in Italy, could be forced into a temporary peace: … he offered the imperial court the possession of Venice in return for Milan, Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine. … Under such conditions the Peace of Campo Formio was entered into on October 17th 1797. Once more the Holy Empire was to pay the penalty for Austria's defeats, and once more, with greater hypocrisy than ever before, there rang out in the diet those unctuous, imperially-paternal phrases with which the un-German imperial power was wont to bemantle its dynastic policy. Whereas among the conditions of the secret articles of Campo Formio were the mutilation of the German western boundary, the secularization of ecclesiastical territory, the compensation of foreign princes at the cost of the empire: the published version of the treaty spoke only of the unviolated integrity of the empire. … At last, however, the unhallowed secret had to come out. At Christmas-tide 1797 Mainz was vacated by the imperial troops. There came to light the whole hopelessly confused relationships of the two similarly-fortuned nations of central Europe when, at the same time, the French occupied the unconquered bulwark of the Rhine provinces and the conquered Austrians marched into the city of St. Mark. Soon afterwards the envoys of France at Rastadt openly came forward with the demand for the left bank of the Rhine. It was the first official forewarning of the annihilation of the Holy Empire. … So deep was the empire sunken when the dreaded 'Italicus,' on the occasion of a flying visit to Rastadt first cast a glance into German life. On the shallow intrigues of this fruitless congress did Bonaparte base his judgment of our fatherland. He saw through the absolute nullity of the imperial constitution and complacently came to the opinion that if such a constitution had not existed it would have been necessary to invent it in the interests of France. … It seemed to him high time to win the petty dynasts entirely for France by gratifying their greed of land, and thus to rob sundered Germany of its nationality (dépayser l'Allemagne). … On February 9th, 1801, the Peace of Luneville proclaimed openly and unequivocally that which the treaty of Campo Formio had only secretly and obscurely provided: that the Rhine was henceforward to be Germany's boundary. A district of nearly 1,150 square miles and containing nearly four million inhabitants was thus lost to Germany. … With uncanny cold-bloodedness the German nation accepted the fearful blow. Scarcely a sound of patriotic wrath was heard when Mainz and Cologne, Aachen and Treves, the broad, beautiful lands that had been the scene of our earliest history, passed into the hands of the stranger. How many bitter tears had the decrepit generation of the Thirty Years War once poured forth for the sake of Strassburg alone! … The first consul resumed the plan which Sièyes as ambassador in Berlin had sketched already ill 1798. He prepared a threefold division of Germany and, in order to bring the defenceless minor states wholly in his power, sought first to thrust back the two chief German powers as far as possible towards the east. … The great man-scorner now invented an infallible means of gaining sway over these south and west German provinces. {3774} Not in vain had he probed the German higher nobility at Rastadt into the inmost recesses of their hearts. He created our new intermediate states for the purpose, through them, of securing forever Germany's disintegration. The host of petty princes, counts and imperial knights, were burdensome to him because they belonged mostly to the Austrian party and were of no use in war. Among the electors and dukes, on the contrary, there was useful material enough for the formation of a crowd of French vassals; … they had almost all, during the recent wars, made separate treaties with the enemies of the empire. As rebels against that empire and its emperor they had abandoned the ground of legality and broken their bridges behind them. If the man who was omnipotent now took under his protection these political hermaphrodites who were fit neither to live nor die; if he satisfied their greed by throwing them some crumbs from the belongings of their lesser co-estates and tickled their vanity by means of pretentious titles and a show of independence; if he rolled together the hundreds of tiny territories into some dozens of new accidental states with a history of yesterday and entirely without a legal title, living solely from the favor of France; if he then led his satraps to audacious wars against their fatherland and hurried them on from one felony to another, rewarding new lackey-services by new booty—where was the wonder? They had sold their souls to him and he was able to reckon on it that they would rather kiss the boots of the stranger than ever submit to subordinate themselves to a German commonwealth. … Bonaparte, meanwhile, had long made up his mind to resume the war with his unassailable enemy [England]. Already in March 1803, long before the breach occurred between the two western powers, he sent his confidant Duroc to Berlin with the notice that he saw himself compelled to seize Hanover. … Therewith the last and sole pride of the Prussian policy, the neutrality of North Germany, was threatened with its death-blow. … And meanwhile the Holy Empire was made to drink the cup of shame to the very dregs. When Bonaparte caused the Duke of Enghien, seized within the limits of Baden, to be led to execution, only foreign powers like Russia, Sweden and England dared in Regensburg to demand satisfaction for the scandalous breach of the peace of the empire. Baden on the contrary, by Napoleon's command, begged most earnestly that the painful matter might not be followed up any further; while the rest of the plenipotentiaries took their holiday before the time and thus by their flight cut off all further negotiations. In May 1804 the Napoleonic empire was founded. … A hard, distrustful foreign rule weighed upon Germany even before its princes had formally made their submission to the emperor. … Thus prepared, Napoleon proceeded to realize in his own way the idea of a German triad with which Hardenberg had just been amusing himself. Not in bond with Austria and Prussia but independently and in opposition to them was France's old protegée, 'la troisième Allemagne,' to take political form and shape. … In the spring of 1806 the rumor spread at the German courts that a new and extensive mediatization was to take place. Once more, as had happened four years previously, the envoys of our high nobility hastened to Paris on behalf of their lords, to secure by flattery and bribery their share of the booty. … The Rhine confederation of Louis XIV was resuscitated in an incomparably more pronounced form. Sixteen German princes renounced the empire, declared that they themselves were sovereigns and that every law of the venerable old national commonwealth was null and void. They recognized Napoleon as their protector and placed at his disposal an army of 63,000 men to be used in any continental war in which France should engage. … German particularism entered into the bloom-time of its sins. … The anarchy of a new interregnum broke in upon Germany. Faustrecht held sway, exercised no longer by bandit nobles but by princely courts. Napoleon regarded with mistrust any and every expression of national feeling in the enslaved land. The interest of France, he wrote to his Talleyrand, demands that opinion in Germany remain divided. A certain Yelin of Ansbach published an anonymous pamphlet, 'Germany at its lowest Depth,' a well-meant writing, full of feeling, and one which, in an age of iron, had only the peaceful advice to give: 'Weep aloud, oh noble, honest German!' But even this pious ejaculation of a harmless petty citizen seemed to the emperor a matter for alarm and he caused the book-seller Palm, who is said to have aided in spreading the book, to be court-marshalled and shot. It was the first judicial murder of Napoleonism on German ground, and the clever people in Bavaria began to doubt whether the Rhine Confederation had, after all, really brought about the victory of freedom and enlightenment. … A new act of treason on the part of Napoleon led at last to the out-break of the inevitable war. Often and solemnly had Napoleon assured to his Prussian ally the possession of Hanover. It was now suddenly reported in Berlin that the emperor, who all through the summer had been carrying on peace-negotiations with England and Russia, had not scrupled to offer to deliver back to the Guelphs their hereditary lands. When this news reached him Frederick William at once (August 9) wrote to the Czar: 'If Napoleon treats with England concerning Hanover he will ruin me.' The king foresaw that in a short time the miserable condition in which things had been in February would recur again and that Prussia had only the choice left of once more in silence suffering herself to be shamefully plundered or of opposing by arms the ingress of the grand army. That was why the Prussian army was placed on a war-footing and made to assemble in Magdeburg's territory. With this step of justifiable self-defence the war was decided. … Nothing could have been more honest than the unsparingly upright defiance of the king to Napoleon; nothing more righteous than the three demands of the Prussian ultimatum of October: withdrawal of the French from Germany, recognition of the North German Confederation, a peaceful agreement as to the remaining questions at issue between the two powers. Even from the verbose, clumsy war-manifesto there breaks forth occasionally a tone of dignified national pride: the king takes up arms 'to free unhappy Germany from the yoke under which it is being crushed. Nations have certain rights independent of an treaties!' … Already on the 15th of October (1806) Napoleon laid a contribution on all the Prussian provinces this side the Weichsel of 159 million francs, declaring that the result of the battle of the former day (Jena) had been the conquest of all these lands. {3775} Never had the man of fortune boasted so outrageously, and yet, through a strange turn of fortune, the most unhallowed of his lies was to become literally true. Immediately after the defeat the court of Saxony carried out its long-planned desertion and went over to Napoleon. A week after the battle the Prussian territory to the left of the Elbe, and the possessions of the House of Orange and of the electors of Hesse, were provisionally incorporated in the French empire. … On July 7-9, 1807, the Peace of Tilsit was signed, the most cruel of all French treaties of peace, unprecedented in form as well as in contents. It ran, not that the lawful king of Prussia ceded certain lands to the victor, but that the conqueror, out of regard for the emperor of all the Russias, granted back to its sovereign the smaller half of the Prussian state. And this scandalous phrase, which contemporaries only looked upon as a freak of Napoleonic arrogance, expressed simply the naked truth. … Alexander did not wish the last narrow dam which separated the Russian empire from the lands of the vassals of France, to be torn away. … Prussia retained, outside of the 5,700 square miles which the state, exclusive of Hanover, had owned before the war, only about 2,800, … of 9¾ million inhabitants only 4½ million. The work of Frederick the Great seemed undone."

_H. von Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im 19 Jahrhundert (translated from the German), volume 1, pages 164-265._

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER), and after (pages 1314-1349.)

GERMANY: A. D. 1815-1848. After the struggle. The Zollverein.

"In Austria, in the decades succeeding the wars of liberation, their reigned the most immovable quiet. The much-praised system of government consisted in unthinking inactivity. The Emperor Francis, a man with the nature of a subaltern official, hated anything that approached to a constitution and a saying of his was often quoted: 'Totus mundus stultizat et vult habere constitutiones novas.' Metternich's power rested on the 'dead motionlessness' of affairs. As far as his German policy was concerned his aim was to hold fast to the preponderating influence of Austria over the German states, but not to undertake any responsibilities towards them. … As for Prussia, in spite of the great sacrifices which she had made, she emerged from the diplomatic negotiations and intrigues of the Vienna Congress with the most unfavorable disposition of territory imaginable. To the five million inhabitants that had remained to her five and a half millions were added in districts that had belonged to more than a hundred different territories and had stood under the most varied laws. There began now for this state a time well filled with quiet work, the aim and object being to create a whole out of the various parts. … The founding of the Burschenschaft [student league] in Jena, the antagonistic attitude of the Weimar press, the Wartburg festival with its extemporized conflagration scene, excited scruples and fears in the ruling circles. The murder of Kotzebue and the attempt on Ibell's life showed the growing fanaticism and called forth stronger measures from the governments. … Metternich recognizes their usefulness for the carrying through of his reactionary measures. … At a meeting in Teplitz he succeeds in winning Frederick William III for his plans. In Carlsbad, over the heads of the members of the federal diet, the most decisive regulations were adopted which culminated in the appointment of the Mainz Central-Investigation-Committee … and confirmed Metternich's unhallowed rule in Germany as well as the reign of that most miserable reaction which called forth a burst of indignation even from the most moderate-minded patriots, and which laid the land open to the scorn of the foreigner."

_Bruno-Gebhardt, Lehrbuch der deutschen Geschichte (translated from the German), volume 2, pages 501-504._

"The Congress of Vienna created in 1815 a form of government for Germany which was very unsatisfactory in character. It was, however, so constituted that a national development at some future time was not rendered an utter impossibility. The German confederation was rather, on the whole, provisional in its character; this fact comes out more and more plainly with each thorough analysis and illustration of its constitution and of its institutions. The main thing was that the German confederation preserved unimpaired the dualism in Germany. Technically the emperor of Austria had the honorary direction of the confederation; practically he possessed as emperor of Germany little r no power. In point of fact the German imperial title was only a decoration for the ruler over a variegated mixture of peoples, in the midst of which German nationality was hard pressed by the national strivings of the other races. In reality the strongest member of the German confederation was the kingdom of Prussia, although according to the federal laws it stood on a like footing with Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and Würtemberg. … This German confederation was only capable of eking out its existence in a long period of freedom from European disasters. … Only gradually, in the various heads, did the opinion begin to form of the historical vocation of Prussia to take her place at the head of the German confederation or, possibly, of a new German empire. Gradually this opinion ripened into a firmer and firmer conviction and gained more and more supporters. The more evidently impossible an actual guidance of Germany by Austria became, the more conscious did men grow of the danger of the whole situation should the dualism be allowed to continue. In consequence of this the idea of the Prussian hegemony began to be viewed with constantly increasing favor. A great step forward in this direction was taken by the Prussian government when it called into being the Zollverein [or customs-union]. The Zollverein laid iron bands around the separate parts of the German nation. It was utterly impossible to think of forming a customs-union with Austria, for all economic interests were as widely different as possible; on purely material grounds the division between Austria and Prussia showed itself to be a necessity. On the other hand the economic bonds between Prussia and the rest of the German lands grew stronger from day to day. This material union was the prelude to the political one: the Zollverein was the best and most effectual preparation for the German federal state or for the German empire of later days."

_W. Maurenbrecher, Gründung des Deutschen Reichs, pages 4-5._

{3776}

"Paul Pfizer wrote in 1831 his 'Correspondence of Two Germans,' the first writing in the German language in which liberation from Austria and union with Prussia was put down as the solution of the German question and in which faith in Prussia was made a part of such love to the German fatherland as should be no longer a mere dream. … 'So little as the dead shall rise again this side the grave, so little will Austria, which once held the heritage of German fame and German glory, ever again become for Germany what she has once been.'"

_W. Oncken, Das Zeitalter des Kaisers Wilhelm (translated from the German), volume 1, pages 69-70._

The formation of the Zollverein "was the most important occurrence since the wars of liberation: a deed of peace of more far-reaching consequences and productive of more lasting results than many a battle won. The economic blessings of the Zollverein soon began to show themselves in the increasing sum total of the amount of commerce and in the regularly growing customs revenues of the individual states. These revenues for example increased between 1834 and 1842 from 12 to 21 million thalers. Foreign countries began to look with respect and in part also with envy on this commercial unity of Germany and on the results which could not fail to come. … A second event happened in Germany in 1834, less marked in its beginnings and yet scarcely less important in its results than the Zollverein. Between Leipzig and Dresden the first large railroad in Germany was started, the first mesh in that network of roads that was soon to branch out in all directions and spread itself over all Germany. … A direct political occurrence, independent of the Zollverein and the railroads, was, in the course of the thirties, to assist in awakening and strengthening the idea of unity in the German people by making evident and plain the lack of such unity and its disastrous consequences. This was the Hanoverian 'coup d'etat' of the year 1837. … In that year William IV of England died without direct successors. … Hanover came into the hands of the Duke of Cumberland, Ernest Augustus. … The new king, soon after his inauguration, refused to recognize the constitution that had been given to Hanover in 1833, on the ground that his ratification as next heir to the throne had not been asked at that time. … By persistent efforts Ernest Augustus … in 1840 brought about a constitution that suited him. Still more than this constitutional struggle itself did a single incident connected with it occupy and excite public opinion far and wide. Seven professors of the Gottingen university protested against the abrogation of the constitution of 1833. … Without more ado they were dismissed from their positions. … The brave deed of the Gottingen professors and the new act of violence committed against them caused intense excitement throughout all Germany. … A committee composed both of conservatives and liberals was formed in Leipzig and raised collections, in order by honorable gift to replace at least the material losses of the banished professors. … In the course of the forties the idea of nationality penetrated more and more all the pores of German opinion and gave to it more and more, by pressure from all sides, the direction of a great and common goal. At first there were only isolated attempts at reform … but soon the national needs outgrew such single expressions of good will. … A tendency began to show itself in the public opinion of Germany to accept the plan of a Prussian leadership of all un-Austrian Germany."

_K. Biedermann, Dreissig Jahre Deutscher Geschichte. volume 1, pages 9-91._

See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820, to 1819-1847 (pages 1531-1533).

GERMANY: A. D. 1862-1890. The Bismarck policy. "Blood and iron" speech of the Prussian Premier.

On the question of the reorganization of the army, which was brought forward early by Prince William (afterwards King and Emperor) after he assumed the Regency in 1858, the Prussian Diet placed itself in determined opposition to the government. At a session of the Budget Commission of the House of Representatives, September 30, 1862, Deputy Forckenbeck offered the following resolution: "Whereas it is also feared that after the declaration of the royal state government made the 29th inst. the same would continue the expenditures for the organization of the army on its own responsibility which have already been rejected by the House for the year 1862 and the rejection of which is likewise to be expected for 1863, according to the acknowledgment of the government itself, and Whereas a direct insistence of the prerogatives of the people's representatives is urgently required, the House of Representatives declares as follows: