Bismarck

“ Bismarck was no Napoleon; he had determined that war was necessary, but he did not go to the terrible arbitrament with a light heart. He was not a man who from personal ambition would order thousands of men to go to their death or bring his country to ruin. It was his strength that he never forgot that he was working, not for himself, but for others. ”

“ Du pays dont Bismarck est natif.
Beau, sans peur, sans reproche, et sans taches,
Chez lui tout—dents, gants, linge, moustaches,
⁠Et lorgnon, sont parfaits:
⁠Mais il perd tous ses frais,
Parcequ'il—laisse tomber ses aches! ”

“ That had happened to which for five and twenty years all Bismarck's enemies had looked forward. The foundation on which his power rested was taken away; men at once began to speculate on his fall. The noble presence of the Crown Prince, his cheerful and kindly manners, his known attachment to liberal ideas, his strong national feeling, the success with which he had borne himself on the uncongenial field of battle, all had made him the hope of the generation to which he belonged. ”

“ Some call it ambition; others will power; others destiny. Certainly, in his long and adventurous career Bismarck was often close to death.
¶ Now Bismarck himself always had his own peculiar ikon. He called it God. His speeches for many years before Sadowa, his protests in behalf of his King, as against the rising tide of Liberalism, always contained amidst thunders of political consequence, the name God as the one explanation of Bismarck’s history and Bismarck’s ultimate victory. ”

“ In a hundred years the memory of Prince Bismarck will take a place in the minds of our people next to that occupied by the Wittenberg doctor. The liberator of our political life from dependence upon foreigners will stand by the side of the reformer who freed our consciences from the oppression of Rome—the founder of the German State by the side of him who created German Christianity. ”

“ As for Prince Bismarck, with all his faults,--and no man is perfect,--I love and honor this courageous giant, who has, under such vexatious opposition, secured the glory of the Prussian monarchy and the unity of Germany; who has been conscientious in the discharge of his duties as he has understood them, in the fear of God,--a modern Cromwell in another cause, whose fame will increase with the advancing ages. ”

“ The altered appearance which Bismarck at different times has presented, has blinded many eyes; many thought he had grown into another man, as he presented himself ever stronger, mightier, and of greater stature! Of course, he has long since become too great, too strong, and too mighty for his opponents, and some have found, in a manner not so entirely agreeable, the influence of the wide-spreading tree with its potent shadow. ”

“ The four years’ conflict era—Here Bismarck is at last revealed in his true character—King’s Man supreme!
¶ Ten years of rough-and-tumble fighting in the blind alleys of political intrigue have now prepared Otto von Bismarck for great things. In the solemn years to come, all is yet to be dignified by the formation of an Empire, through blood and iron.
¶ The King’s ambition grew on what it fed upon—a desire for Prussian aggrandizement, at all hazards, and the ultimate solution of the German problem through Prussian power of arms. ”

“ Bismarck dwells often on eating and drinking; and in one letter from Paris speaks of a dinner at which he drank St. Julien, Lafitte Branne, Mouton, Pichon, Larose, Latour, Margaux, and Arneillac!
¶ These, and hundreds of other letters comprise charming interludes between black moods of political intrigue, wherein he used his vitriolic pen to lampoon his beribboned, bejeweled farce-comedy fellow-ambassadors.
¶ “Germany is tied together with red tape,” writes Bismarck at this stage of his political apprenticeship, at Frankfort; and he hit the nail on the head. ”

“ On the 4th of August Bismarck returned, in the suite of the King, to Berlin, amidst the nameless rejoicings of the nation. On the next day came the solemn opening of the Diet, and a torrent of work overwhelmed the Minister-President. Then ensued the peace-treaties with individual States, the consolidation of the conquered provinces, the formation of the North German Confederation, cares as to envious malice; and through all this the suffering man held himself up, pale, but firm, sustained by his high sense of duty, by the consciousness of his supreme mission. ”

“ Thus, Bismarck’s German National enterprise, although not thoroughly understood for many years, was found at last to support in every particular the ancient German tradition of a strong fighting man, as leader of a free people. ”

“ To this Bismarck replied on the 3rd of September: “Honoured Count,—Yesterday evening I received your letter of the 1st instant, which is a source of much pleasure and satisfaction to me. I hasten to send you a provisional answer. And, first, I beg you to convey to his Majesty the Emperor my respectful thanks for the gracious manner in which he has referred to my intention to come to Vienna. I am pleased to see from your letter that his Majesty (unser Herr) has one foot in the stirrup, and do not doubt that our united efforts will succeed in placing him firmly in the saddle. ”

“ The enthusiasm was immense as they passed by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Roon rode in one row by themselves. Bismarck looked very imposing in his uniform entirely of white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a brazen helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every variety of uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very handsome in his. He is a splendid-looking man, with a very soldierly bearing, and he rides to perfection. ”

“ Our readers know, from the letters we have given, how passionately Bismarck loves such scenery. There is a great deal more of the romantic poet and sentimental German in the great statesman, than would appear at first sight. He sometimes recognizes this himself with a smile.
The park of Varzin by moonlight has indeed a peculiar old-fashioned appearance; very little imagination is necessary to people it with gentlemen in court uniforms and swords, hats under their arms, and ladies with towering head-dresses, hoops, and high shoes. ”

“ In his historical reference, Bismarck, in this instance, was in error. In no sense was “the people” to be credited with the great Prussian victory of 1813; it came about largely through military tactics, training and general preparedness, in which “the people” had no part except to do their plain duty.
¶ For his remarkable utterance, Bismarck was promptly hissed down by the Liberal side. Undaunted, Bismarck loaded his heaviest guns against this thing called “Liberalism,” with all its mock-heroics of liberty, fraternity and equality. Would it not endanger our King’s sacred throne? ”

“ Flesh and blood needs some explanation for its ways—and it may be that one interpretation is on the whole as good as another. With Bismarck the ikon was God.
¶ On his part, as a human being, for many years Bismarck nursed his seemingly impossible dream of expelling Austria [243] from the German states and binding up thirty-nine principalities in one grand Empire. This ambition he pursued incessantly, and ultimately succeeded in reaching by his genius in manipulating the human nature side of the men around him. He worked for himself, for his King and for his ideal of a United Germany. ”

“ Like Frederick the Severe, this Bismarck is very human indeed, and has his crying weaknesses, and his enemies, God knows, tried for forty years to get rid of him by intrigue, often by assassination; yet until his great duty is done he must hold firmly to his place, must do the work which brings him no peace, or rest, only trouble year after year.
¶ Throughout the amazing story, no matter which way we travel, we always return to a profound sense of this giant’s will and his massive knowledge of human life, expressed in his ability to force the shrewdest men in Europe to do his bidding. ”

“ A careful reading of Bismarck’s speeches, letters, dispatches, will show that whatever political expediency he may at various times have followed, and however often he may have changed front, there is still in his great labor a tireless repetition of ideas commanding respect for vested authority, for ancestry, for a ruling class as against the ruled, and always for absolute dog-like obedience to some central commanding power. ”

“ The ultimate foundation of Bismarck’s political action consists in his personal position as an Alt Mark vassal and nobleman to his liege lord, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of Prussia. It will be understood that this position is the ultimate, but not precisely the only one; it is only the least, but also the inmost circle, whence the other principles around him have evolved themselves, according to his consciousness. ”

“ It is well to keep these facts in mind, in contemplating the extraordinary career of the great Otto von Bismarck, king-maker and unifier of Germany.
¶ Modern timid-hearted folk, reading of the desperate makeshifts of the old Bismarcks to get on in the world, would say off-hand, “There must be a strain of madness in the Bismarck brain?” ”

“ Bismarck did not mind that, because what was pleasant to France was convenient to him. He knew also that the proposal to annex the conquered territories would be very agreeable to Napoleon; the dethronement of old-established dynasties might be regarded as a delicate compliment to the principles he had always maintained and to the traditional policy of his house. If, however, we wish to find Bismarck's own motives, we must remember that before the war broke out he had in his mind some such division of Germany; he knew that it would be impossible at once to unite the whole in a firm union. ”

“ Years before, Bismarck had taken precautions to prevent the heir presumptive to the throne from imbibing the liberal principles of both his parents, and had caused him to spend the impressionable years of early manhood entirely under the influence of his grandfather, the old Emperor, and the military glories of the new Empire. ”

“ Time has triumphantly cleared up much that seemed vaguely ominous in Bismarck’s policy, and the progress of events will doubtless throw clear light on that which still remains dark and unintelligible to those who care little for light. ”

“ Bismarck’s Policy.—Its Gradual Growth and Political Character.—Contrast with Lucchesini.—Bismarck’s Open Honesty.—Vassal and Liege.—Liberalism a Danger.—Democracy a Danger.—The Relative Positions of Prussia and Austria in the Federation.—Gerlach’s Ideal Conservatism.
Bismarck has now to be politically tested, and amidst all the strange eventualities in the remarkable history of Prussia, we perceive, first as a counsellor, then as an actor, and finally as a guide, that the one man emerges, a man ever the same, yet ever appearing to change. ”

“ Now we have seen that Bismarck had tried the Civil Service and deliberately retired from it. The hatred of bureaucracy he never overcame, even when he was at the head of the Prussian State. It arose partly from the natural opposition between the nobleman and the clerk. Bismarck felt in this like Stein, the greatest of his predecessors, who though he had taken service under the Prussian Crown never overcame his hatred of "the animal with a pen," as he called Prussian Civil Servants, and shed tears of indignation when he was first offered a salary. ”

“ Of course Bismarck did not attempt to evade the full moral responsibility for the policy which he advocated, but he knew that so long as he had the confidence of the King of Prussia and the majority of the Allied States, all the power of Parliament could not injure him. ”

“ Bismarck after the few wild years away from home was to go back to the life which all his ancestors had lived for five hundred years, to become steeped in the traditions of his country and his caste. Cavour always points the way to what is new, Bismarck again brings into honour what men had hastily thought was antiquated. ”

“ CHAPTER XI—A YEAR WITHOUT BISMARCK The first and most obvious thing to be said of the twelvemonth during which the Ship of State has sailed with no Bismarck at the helm, is that the course has been one of novel smoothness. Since the foundation of the Empire Germany has not known such another tranquil and comfortable period. Nothing has arisen calculated to make men regret the ex-Chancellor’s retirement. ”

“ In 1873 Bismarck, who was in thorough sympathy with his views, persuaded him to enter the service of Prussia as secretary of state for foreign affairs, and from this time till his death he was the chancellor’s most faithful henchman. ”

“ Thither Bismarck, now in full uniform (for he had hurried back to his own quarters) , accompanied him, and in the same house the negotiations of the previous evening were continued; Bismarck did not wish to be present at them, for, as he said, the military men could be harsher; and so gave orders that after a few minutes he should be summoned out of the room by a message that the King wished to see him. ”

“ Germany, however, shall and will hear us. If the particulars given by the newspapers should be confirmed, I authorise you to send this little note, in the original, to Bismarck, and to consult details with him.” The following letters are chiefly from Gerlach, Minister Manteuffel, and the Prince of Prussia, and include a further communication from King Frederick William to Bismarck, dated the 12th of September: “My dearest Bismarck, a misunderstanding prevails in my brother William’s circles, a solution of which is necessary to the satisfaction of everybody concerned. ”