Georg von Bunsen

“ Between the Crown Prince of Prussia and Bunsen a very close intimacy had sprung up ever since they met at Berlin in 1828. They were attracted to each other by similarity of literary tastes, of poetic temperament, and of religious aspiration. In their enthusiasm for each other, the prince as well as the public servant fondly hoped, year after year, that diversity of character and of self-grown conviction, however marked, would tend rather to compensate defects than to disturb harmonious action. ”

“ When Bunsen left the Eternal City a politically disappointed man, he was able, nevertheless, to look back upon a term of years filled with everything that could adorn life—intense domestic contentment, intimacy with distinguished men of every nation who had sojourned in Rome during his twenty-one years' residence there, success in establishing institutions which, like the Archæological Institute, the German Hospital, and the Protestant chapel, have outlived his stay, experience in public affairs, and a deepening of his religious convictions. ”

“ He thanked God daily for teaching him how to support pain at the close of a life so eminently exempt from bodily suffering. And whenever, in the closing weeks of his existence on earth, a relaxation of asthma ensued, fervent prayer flowed from his lips, powerful attestation of his religious belief, loving exhortation to those from whom he was soon to be removed. Baron Bunsen died on November 28, 1860, and lies buried in the churchyard of Bonn, not far from the grave of his early friend and benefactor Niebuhr. ”

“ With small hopes, and with no other wish but to serve as long as possible a sovereign whose friendship and confidence had outlived their former agreement on matters of religion and policy, Bunsen continued in the thankless task of representing Prussia after the downfall of those proud hopes that had pictured forth a revival of the German nationality under Prussian leadership. ”

“ Enlightened Germans, on the contrary, had then already arrived at the conviction that the leadership must be in Prussian hands. Austria, hampered as she is by the numerical preponderance of non-German populations, and the divergence of her interests from those of Germany, should, they thought, take her place within a wider federation. Gradually and almost imperceptibly did this truth work its way through time-honoured tradition. Bunsen was one of its most eloquent apostles, in his official correspondence as well as in pamphlets published in 1848. ”

“ This romantic king established his policy towards the Vatican on the principle of granting liberty of action to the Papal power,—a liberty so well employed both before and since the revolution of 1848, that at this moment (1876) all the energies of a powerful chancellor and a united Germany are taxed to the utmost to find a basis for harmonious coexistence between modern states and the hierarchy of Rome. ”

“ Whilst this “Bible-work” was in preparation, and to pave the way for its reception, he printed a book considered by many to contain his most matured thoughts, under the title of God in History. The progress of mankind, he contends, marches parallel to the conception of God formed within each nation by the highest exponents of its thought. ”

“ When Niebuhr obtained the consent of his Government for the appointment of Bunsen as secretary of the Roman embassy, negotiations were being actively carried on between Berlin and Rome for a new establishment of the Papal Church in the Prussian dominions. This had become necessary, since 1815, by the addition of several millions of Catholics to the population of that mainly Protestant country, of which they now formed no less than two-fifths. ”