History of the German Struggle for Liberty - Forgotten Books

HISTORY OF THE

GERMANSTRUGGLE FORLIBERTY

BY POULTNEY BIGELOVVA

M. A . (HON. CAUSA ) UNIV . YALE HON. MEMBER ROYAL UNITED SERV ICEINST.

,LONDON LIFE MEMBER AMERICAN HISTORICAL A SSOCIATION

‘

HDN. MEMBER ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION,WOOLWICH

ILLUSTKATED WI TH DRAWINGS

BY R. CATON WOODV ILLE

AND WITH PORTRA I TS AND MAPS

V OLUMES

V OL . I .

1 806—1 8 1 2

YORK AND LONDONHA RPER B ROTHERS PUB LISHERS

1 903

C A R IB EE

M Y C RU I S ING C AN OE

In her I have slept by n ight a nd sailed by day for weeks and months at atime

,exploring the beautiful wa terways of the German Fatherland. She

has made me friends wi th eve ry k ind of m an— the bargee,the raftsman

,the

peasant,the wood-choppe r, the weaver, the genda rme, the parish parson ,

the m il ler,the tax-collector— and many more of the types that make life

inte resting to the contemplative travel ler. By the a id of Caribe e I learned tofeel how Germans feel . W ithout her this book would not have been written .

‘

C ONTENT S OF V OL. I

I . EXECUTION OF JOHN PALM,BOOKSELLER

II . QUEEN LU ISE OF PRUSSIA BEFORE JENAWHAT SORT OF A BR ING ING -UP HAD QUEEN LU ISE .

QUEEN LUISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TR IUM PHTHE TWO PH ILOSOPHERS OF JENA—HEGEL AND NAPO

THE EV E OF JENA, OCTOBER 13, 1806

THE GREAT PRUSSIAN STAMPEDE FROM JENA AND

V III . WH AT SORT OF ARMY FOUGHT THE FRENCH AT JENA ‘

I

A PRUSSIAN CHRON ICLE OF NOBLE CR IM INALSX . A FUG ITIVE QUEEN OF PRUSSIAX I . PEACE WITH DISHONORXII . COLBERG- GNE ISENAU , NETTELBECK , SCH ILLXIII. SOMETHING ABOUT GNE ISENAU ’

S EARLY STRUGGLESXIV . SCHARNHORST MAKES A NEW ARMY

SOMETHING ABOUT SC IIARNHORSTTHE PR INCES OF GERM ANY PAY COURT To NAPOLEONAT ERFURT

THE FIRST BREATH OF LIBERTY IN PRUSSIA— 1 8O7 .

XV III. PRUSSIANS BECOM E REBELS To THE IR KING ,AND DIE

F OR THEIR COUNTRYX IX . GERMAN LIBERTY TAKES REFUGE IN THE AUSTRI AN

ALPS

XX . THE LAST DAYS OF QUEEN LU ISE

V i CONTENTS OF V OL. I

A NURSERY V IEW OF K ING , QUEEN, AND POLITICS .

THE FIRST NATIONAL PRUSSIAN PAR LIAMENT MEETS IN

BERLIN,18 11

XXIII. JAHN , THE PATR IOT WHO FOUNDED GYMNASTIC SOCIET IES AND TAUGHT THE SCHOOL CH ILDREN To PRAYFOR GERMAN LIBERTY .

XXIV . HOW THE IRON CROSS CAME To BE FOUNDED

ILLU STRAT I ONS IN V OL. I

QUEEN LU ISE . (See foot-note on page 82TH E EXECUT ION OF JOHN PALBI .

QUEEN LUISE . (From th e orig ina l bust'

by Ra nch in the Berl inMuse um)

RECEIVING NEWS OF THE DECLARATION OF WAR IN

FIELD-MARSHAL GEBHARD LEBRECHT V ON BLUCHEREMPEROR NAPOLEON

TWO PHILOSOPHERS MEET AT JENAMAP—JENA AND ITS SURROUNDINGSFRENCH TROOPS ENTER A GERMAN VILLAGEM AP SHOWING THE RELATION OF JENA To PAR IS AND

BERLIN , AND THE POLITICAL DIVISION OF 1 8 06

FLIGHT OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY AFTER JENA .

ME TTERN ICH , PR IME M IN ISTER OF AUSTR IANAPOLEON AT THE DESK OF FREDERICK THE GREAT AT

SANS SOUC IFLIGHT OF QUEEN LUISEMAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF QUEEN LUISE ’

S FLIGHT AND

THE TERR ITORY OVERRUN BY NAPOLEON IN T HE WIN

TER OF 1 806

EAST S IDE OF THE CASTLE OF KONIGSBERGFREDER ICK W ILLIAM I II . WAITING FOR THE END OF TH E

CONFERENCE ON THE RAFTNAPOLEON’

S HEADQUARTERS AT TILSIT

v i i i ILLUSTRA TIONS IN V OL I

HOUSE AT TILSIT IN WHICH QUEEN LUISE RECE IVEDNAPOLEON

M AP—PRUSS IA BEFORE AND AFTER THE TREATY OF

LUISE AND NAPOLEON AT TILSIT .

TH E DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF COLBERGNETTELBECK THREATENS THE GOVERNORNETTELBECK AND GNE ISENAU ON THE RAMPARTSSCHILL .

GNEISENAU ’

S MONEYNETTELBECK .

GNE ISENAU . (From the orig ina l p las ter cast by Ranch )ALEXANDER I . OF RUSSIAFREDERICK WILLIAM I II .

GENERAL SCHARNHOSTFREDER ICK LUDWIG JAHNONE OF SCH ILL

’

S FOLLOWERS .

DEATH OF SCHI LL IN THE M ARKET-PLACE AT STRALSUNDHOFER CONFERR ING WITH TH E AUSTRIAN STADTHOLDERANDREAS HOFER A PR ISONER .

THE MARQUIS DE TALLEYRANDTHE GREAT BARON STE INTHE PATR IOT FICHTETHE IRON CROSS

PREF A C E

THESE pages go to the printer at a moment when

Germany i s celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of

the great war wh ich culm inated in a Ge rman empire,

manhood suff rage,and a free Parliament . The se were

the ideals Of the patriots Who roused the German nation

against the tyranny Of Napoleon,and for these their de

sce nda nts cheerfully became rebels in the stormy days

of 1 848 . It has been my purpose to tell i n simple lan

guage the story Of th is struggle— a story addressed to

people Of English speech and tradition,who believe that

the strength of government i s in the V igor and vi rtue of

the ind iv idual ci tizen . In Europe to - day some rulers

a ct as though soldiers alone knew how to be patriotic

as though great armies made great nations . Yet i n

Germany we have seen a constant increase of the so

cia l istic vote keeping pace wi th the growth and perfe c

tion of a monster mili tary organism . When Bismarck

in 1 8 71 became Chancel lor of the ne w German Empi re,the social i st vote was so small tha t i t could be ignored .

When he left office,after twenty years of rule, he left

to h i s people a legacy of popular d isafiection that may

PREFACE

be e stima te d on ly by reference to one a nd a qua rter

mi ll i on votes cast fo r sociali st cand idates .

The parall e l p rogress Of mil itarism and sociali sm in

the ne w Ge rman Empi re off e rs p roblems for the mode rn

philosophe r a nd law-make r . The re a re many causes a t

the bottom Of i t . But the cause most clear i s that Ge r

m a nv to-da y does not move in the spi r it of h e r great

m e n,who ra i sed h e r up when all the wo rld thought her

de st royed . The German volun tee rs Of 1 8 13 were Ofll

cered by pat r iot ci tizen s who p retended to no more

social rank and privilege than wa s absolutely necessary

for the enfo rcement Of mil ita ry discipline. They e h

te red the army for the sake Of defe nding their country,a nd retu rned to the i r citizen wo rk when the ' war was

done . Tod ay the Ge rman office r i s wholly a profe s

sioua l sold ier,and of th e nonc ommissioned Ofli cer th i s

i s a lmost equally true . The sold ier and the ci tizen have

cea sed to feel that the ir t itles a re inte rchangeable . A

spirit Of ca ste has come to pe rmeate the grea t soldier

cla ss— the same spiri t that led the Prussian a rmy to its

disgrace s a fter Jena .

In these pages we may see tha t great mili tary results

ha ve been ach ieved by pat r iotic ci tizens who volun

te e red for acti ve se rvice when thei r count ry was in da n

ge r. Th eir example should teach us the importance of

i ns i sting that each a ble -bodied ci tizen must know ‘

the

dutie s of a soldie r . It i s su re ly not too much to asktha t each membe r Of a f ree count ry should su r render at

le a st one month in e ve ry yea r to e xe rci ses wh ich will

qualify h im to defend that count ry in the e vent of in

PREFACE X i

V a s ion . Our h istor ical t raditions make us d isl ike large

sta nding a rmies, and for that reason ought we the more

read ily to adopt measures that shall i n the moment Of

danger make us a nation in arms . NO coun t ry can

m aintain . i ts libe rt y unless i t i s ready to fight for i t ;nor can that fight end well unless the fighting i s done

by the Whole body Of the people . The nation that has

to employ mercena r ies may purchase temporary secu

ri ty ; but the price becomes h igher as the years go by,and in t ime that people will surely sell i ts l iberty as the

price Of mere ex i stence.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all,I have to thank His Majesty the German

Emperor for permission to use the precious manuscript

material stored in th e Prussian arch i ves . This mate

rial i s excellently arranged . I recei ved much assist

ance from Colonel Le szczy nszk i at the War A rch ives

(Gen era lstabsa rch iv) , and from Dr . Bailleu at the Ge

heime Staatsarch iv (State Secret Arch i ves) . There is

much valuable material i n the House Arch ives Of th e

Hohenzol lern family,which

,for pol it ical reasons

,i s not

yet available to the h istorian .

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland and

Her Majesty the Queen of Hanover have placed me

under deep obligations in the making Of these pages .

8 0 has the present Count Voss , a di rect descenda nt of

the lady who was p r incipal companion to Queen Lu ise .

x i i PREFACE

Dr. Pe sehe l , the director of the Korner Museum i n

D resden,gave me several days of h i s precious t ime

am idst hi s treasu res . P rofessor Siemering, the director

Of the Ranch Museum in Berlin , was equally kind in

assisting m e to get the best possible port raits from

Rauch’s or iginals. Professo r Sch iemann , Of the Berli n

Un iversi ty,has given me gene rous advice a nd aid . The

late Countess Chorinsky , who had in her possession a

large co rrespondence w ith Queen Luise, also aided my

work . Pa stor Decke rt, Of Sch ilda, did everyth ing in

h is power to clea r up for me th e mystery of Gneisenau ’ s

b irth . Finally, let me heartily acknowledge my Obli

gat ion toMr. Hube rt Hall, of the London Reco rd Office,who took as much i nterest in my wo rk as though he

were writing it himself.

SO many kind acts are there fo r me to recall at thi s

moment that to note them ind ividually would be im

possible . I have had occasion to a sk very many favors

from German s i n eve ry corn er Of the empi re,and have

inva r iably received generous t reatmen t ; the one or two

exceptions a re not wo rth noting. The lines of the M01

dau,the Elbe

,a nd th e Danube

,the Sp ree and the Have]

,

I have slowly paddled in my canoe,stopping at every

point f rom which inte resting excursions m ight be mad e

as , for instance, from To rgau to Schi lda and Leipzig ;from D resden to Bautzen . Nearly every battle-fie ld I

have t ramped ove r on foot,verify ing previous authori

ties a nd not i ng the changes made by modern p rogress .The se e xcursions

,m ade du r ing the last eight ye a rs

,

have b rought me into contact with many diffe rent ki nds

PREFA CE x iii

Of Germans in a manner most agreeable to me . I wish

I could thank again,personally

,each Of the many who

have helpe d me wh ile tramping and paddling up and

down the fathe rland .

The books to which I owe a debt Of gratitude are

many indeed,nearly all i n the German language

,and

almost w ithout exception devoid of index . The student

interested i n learning more Of th i s period can be most

readily guided by taking in turn each of the great

names of that time and reading either h i s memoirs, h is

l ife,or possibly a collect i on Of hi s letters . Thus Pertz

has left us a monumental l ife Of Stein ; Ranke an equally

serious l ife of Hardenberg ; Boyen’ s autobiography i s

already a classic ; and when the head Of the Hoh e nzol

l e rns decides to open h is most secret arch ives we Shall

have at least materi al for a complete l ife of Queen

Luise .

It i s deeply to be regretted that so much Of the polit

i cal and social correspondence of notable Germans has

been destroyed for fear of the pol ice . Arndt congra tu

lated h imself that al l h i s preci ous manuscript had been

lost at sea . The years following the battle of Water

loo brought wi th them m uch polit ical persecution,and

nearly every German who had been conspicuous as a

patriot i n l iberating the country from Napoleon became

afterwards a traitor— a t least i n the eyes of the govern

ment .

Thi s fact alone renders the task of writ ing a h istory

of th is period d ifficult .

PREFACE

In regard to illustrations,I have to thank Mr. Ca tOI

Woodville for the interest he has Shown in making h is

pictures conform to historic t ruth . I have had to re je ci

a great many well-known pictu res by other names Sim

ply because they were calculated to gi ve the reade r a

wrong impression . The directo rs of German museums

have been uniformly helpful to me .

In conclusion,I must thank the editor of H arp er

’s

M aga z in e for fi rst encouraging me towa rds th i s publi

cation,when other ed i tors and publi shers had given m e

on ly di scouragement . Should th is sto ry p rove in terest

i ng i n book form,I shall hope to con tinue it at some

futu re date .

POULTNEY B IGELOW.

H IGHLAND FALLS,N . Y March 30

,1896 .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

REFERENCE TABLE OF CONTEMPORARIES

RULERS

Wil liam III

STATESMEN

SOLDIERS

ARTISTS, POETS,

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o ooo o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

PHILOSOPHERS, WRITERS, PATRIOTS

1759 1805

1749 1832

1791 18 13

1 769 1 860

1762 1 8 14

1724 1804

1 778 1852

1 759 18 14

1 746 1827

177 1857

x vi REFERENCE TABLE

A FEW DATES WORTH REFERRING TO

Holy Roman Empire of Germany dissol ved by Napoleon .

Execut ion of John PalmBattl e o f Jena a ndTrea ty of T i l si tPeriod of Stein ’s importan t mi n i strySch il l

'

s deathExecut ion of Andrea s Hofer 1 8 10

Dea th of Queen Lu iseHardenberg cal ls together a Parl iamentKing F rederick Wil l iam III . en tertains the idea Of theIron Cross .

Napoleon enters MoscowNapoleon forsakes h is army in Russia and hurries toParisYorck decla res aga i nst Napol eon Chri stmas

,

Rebel l ious Coongre ss of KOn igsbergCal l for V ol un te e i s”Ward e cl are d a gainstNapoleon March 17,The Lutzon F l ee Corps organ izedF irst battle o f th e w ar of l ibera t ionBattle of Lei pz ig October 16—19, 18 13Bl ii eh er crosses the Rh ine January 1

,

Prussian s en ter Paris . .Mareh,

Peace signed .

August 25 , 1806

October 14 , 18061 807

1807—8

HISTORY OF THE

GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

EXECUTION OF JOHN PALM . BOOKSELLER

Aber n ich tsdestowen iger steh t d ie Wahrhei t fest Dass d ie geistigeEn tw i ckel ung des Volkes und seine ihm gesetzl ich gegebeneThe il nahme an den Ofi

’

entl ich e n Angelegenhei ten in unserer gegenwartigen Zei t , d ie Haup tstutze n des Staates —Memoi rsof General Boyen , a Prussian M in i s ter of War, vol . i . , p . 307 .

IN the summer of 1 806,the memorable year of Jena

,

there l ived in the picturesque old town of Nuremberg amuch-respected bookseller named John Palm . Underord inary circumstances he would have l ived and d iedl ike many another respectable German bookseller hadnot Nappl eon , by a stroke of h i s pen , sent hi s name echoing around the world with the significance attaching tothose Of patriots like John Hampden and Nathan Hale.John Palm received

,one day

,i n th e usual course of

h is business,a package of books consigned through

h im to other booksellers of h i s neighborhood ; these

Transl at ion : Bu t , in spite of it al l , this tru th remain s firm , thatthe principal support s of the state nowadays are : the grow ing inte lligence of the peop l e , and the share in pub l ic affairs accorded themby law.

”

L—l

52 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FoR L I BERTY

books were done up in separate packages, addressed tothe respect i ve consignees, and John Palm had no otherconnection with them than arra nging for their safe del ivery

.He did not know the contents of any of these

books .Amongst them

,h owever, happened to be one entitled

Germany in he r Day Of Shame (D eu tschland m sew er

iigfsten Ern i edrigung) ; i t wa s a sho rt anonymous wo rk

commenting severely upon the manner in which th e

F rench mil itary admin ist ration pressed upon the peopleof Bavaria

,and it evidently echoed the feel ing of Ger

man pat r i ots,who resented the arbit rary manner in

which Napoleon quarte red h is troops upon them .

One copy of th i s pamphlet was consigned to a booksell er ih Augsbu rg

,who allowed hi s ch ild ren to read it ;

through them,however

,i t fell in to the hands of some

French Ofiice rs who were quartered upon the pastor ofa neighbo r ing V i llage

,and thus became known to the

h igher French autho r i ti es . On the 7th of July ,1 806

,

Napoleon ordered John Palm to be tried by court-martial and Shot .Thi s respectable bookseller was SO convi nced of h i s

own i nnocence,and had such complete p roof that he

was not the author nor the publisher Of the book,and

did not even know what the book was about,that he

refused the abundan t Opportunities he had Of avoidingar re st by escaping into Austria or Prussia .

On the 22d Of August he was locked up in the fortressof B raunau

,a n Aust r ian town gar r i soned by French

t roops, about two hund red miles from Nu remberg.

'

H e

had taken leave Of h i s w ife and chi ld ren,p romising a

speedy return,a nd felt confiden t that h is trial would be

me rely a matter Of fo rm ; a nd so i t was .He was given two short hearings . NO one was al

THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

ground with a cry of pain . He struggled to h is fee t toreceive another volley

,which again brought him to the

ground,crippled and helpless

,but not yet dead . Two

soldiers now ran qu ickly forward, placed the muzzles oftheir muskets against h is head

,and finished the task with

disgusting thoroughness.It i s significant that John Pa lm , although a Protestant,was cared for by the Roman Catholic community ofBraunau

,was buried in their church-yard

,and in 1 8 66

was honored there by a national monument to h is m em

or

The body Of John Palm died i n the summer of 1 806,but

,like John Brown of Ossawa tom ie ,

“ h is soul goesmarch ing on .

”The kill ing of John Palm of Nurembe rg may be char

acterized as was the ki ll ing Of the Duke Of Enghien twoyears before— it was more than a crime, i t was a blunde r.The shots wh ich brought sharp sorrow to the widow andch ildren of th is Bavarian bookseller brought mortifica

tion and anger into the heart of every German,to what

ever petty state he might belong. NO one could be blindto the fact that Napoleon by thi s act asserte d h is right

,

or at least his power,to reach out beyond h is frontiers

i nto a neighboring German state i n a time Of profoundpeace

,seize a respectable German cit izen , try h im by

court-martial far from his home,execute h im against the

clearest evidence of innocence,and after i t was done he

On the occasion of my pi lgrimage down th e beautifu l va l ley ofthe Inn — wh ich , of course, must be made in a canoe— I foundplenty to repay the travel l er who i s in terested in th i s period of h is tory .

And no poin t awakens more gratefu l memories than Braunau,where

the Protestan t Palm was tenderly cared for by h is Roman Ca thol icfel low -Germans in the Sp i ri t of chari ty and common indignation at h ismurder.—P. B.

THE EXECUT ION OF JOHN PALM

EXECUT ION OF JOHN PALM,BOOKSELLER 5

called to account by nobody, not even the state whoseterritory he had outraged .

The story of John Palm ’s execution went from m outhto mouth all over Germany

,kindling into patriotic fire

the smouldering embers of German nationali ty . Eventhe court Of Prussia was made to feel that there was i nGermany such a thing as publ ic sentiment . There werevery many patriotic Germans who had looked on withdeep distrust a s Napoleon encroached more and morebeyond the boundaries of France and d ictated termsmore and more humiliat ing to German states ; but suchaffai rs were, after all, the business of a small number Ofpeople

,and but vaguely understood outside of diplomati c

c ircles . Napoleon had upset m any kings and rai sed upmany more ; h e had overthrown const itutions and putup new ones i n thei r place ; but not even hi s statecraftcould make good i n the popular mind the kill ing Of theplain l i ttle Germ an bookseller John Palm .

QUEEN LUISE OF PRUSSIA BEFORE JENA

By the Treaty of Base] (1795) F rederi c Wil l iam III .,in common w i th

most German princes, surrendered a cause that w as more Germanand Of greater importance to the body of the pe ople than any thathas ever been fought out along the Rhine . By a d isgracefu lpeace he su rrendered to F renchmen the honor and independenceof Germany . The Pruss ian s ret i red , hated by many ; shorn oftheir i l lu strious

,honorabl e fame— rendered more od ious sti l l by

the recen t smash ing and carving up of Poland .

"-The PoetA rnd t

,

p . 214,anno 1805 .

THE travelling-carr iage stood ready in th e courtyardof the Palace Of Potsdam one fin e morn ing in June

,

1 806 . It was the year Of Jena,but no one k new tha t .

Queen Luise came down the steps with her husbanda nd ch ild ren

,bade them an affectionate fa rewell

,and

drove away in search Of health— to a l ittle wate r ingplace ca lled Py rmon t, si tuated between Hanove r towna nd that Teu tobu rge r Forest where He rmann (Armini us) re nte d the legions of Rome

,and fo r all time as

serted the power Of Germany as a disti nct nation .

Quee n Luise had buried a l i ttle baby boy i n Ap r i l Ofthis year. It was he r eighth child

,and she loved it

dea r ly . The loss afflicted her so much that her heal thsuffe red, a nd her docto r s o rde red he r away in the hopethat she might fo rget her sorrow in the pleasures of awate r ing-place .

Luise, in th is year of sadness, was not merely the

QUEEN LUISE OF PRUSSIA BEFORE JENA

most beautiful woman on a throne,but a woman of

beauty absolutely . We have the most abundant evidence on thi s point from contempora r ies— not even exce pting Napoleon . But more than beauty had Sh e .

Her character was pure . She had been reared amidsthome influence calculated to develop the best quali ties ofa naturally frank

,Spirited

,affectionate woman . There

may have been prettier queens,and there have been

queens more clever,but i t would

,I th ink

,be difficult to

name one combin ing so much Of beauty and so much Ofsound pol it ical instinct as Luise .

O f the hundreds Of pictures that have pa ssed throughmy hands

,all pretending to be portraits

,only ' one does

her justice,and that on e i s a miniature

,without name

or date,i n the study of the Queen Of Hanover

,at Gmun

den,on the T raun Lake . The best portrait in every

Way i s the one by the great sculptor Ranch,who was

for six years in service about the person Of the Queen ,and therefore knew her every expression . Ranch com

pe ted with Canova and Thorwaldsen for the honor ofmaking the famous sarcophagus at Charlottenburg, representing Luise extended as if i n sleep

,with hands fold

ed across her bosom . He was awarded the prize,and

produced a monument unique i n its way .

The portrai t reproduced here i s from the bust made byRa nch i n 1 8 16 . In photographing thi s I was assisted byP rofessor Siem e ring, the scu l ptor, who has charge of theRa nch Museum i n Berlin . Th is portrait i s to me betterthan the one on the sarcophagus

,because not idealized .

Thi s i s the l i ving and speaking Queen Luise as Ra nchknew he r

,and as Napoleon I . saw her at Tilsi t

,with the

classic diadem upon her head .

* In thi s portrait we see

Ranch entered the serv ice o f Queen Lu ise when he was tw en tythree years old (born a nd remained w ith her s i x years . He left

8 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR L IBERTY

the harmony of her features ; the sensiti ve qual ity ofher month , which i s noticeable i n the present EmperorWilliam

,her great-grandson . Her forehead i s broad ;

her eyes are thoughtful . It i s the face Of a woman

who should have known only kindness from others, forshe l ived only to make others happy .

She was born in the year Of American Independence,1 776, and in 1 806 was therefore ba rely thirty years Old .

Ge rmans loved her wi th an intensity which can be accounted for by reference not merely to her personalgentleness and good sense

,but to the pecul iar position

She occupied . She was the first Queen of Prussia i n thememory of l iv ing man whose relations w ith h er husband

,her court

,Or her people were those which could

please the ave rage respectable mother. Luise at oncebecame not merely the first lady of Prussi a, but shemade the Prussian court a pattern of dome stic li fe toGermans of every degree . Germans have much sentiment

,and above all do they cling to the tradi tions of

purity in fam i ly l ife . Frederick . the Great had not

done much in th i s direction ; h is successor, FrederickWill iam IL

,had done even less— h e had permitted the

court of Berl in and Potsdam to set an example painfully demoralizing to German princes i n gen eral, and,above all

,scandalous to the plain

,honest people .

her on ly to pursue h is art in I taly . His first great work was a studyof h is Queen .

The bust here p ictured was made in 18 16, six years after th eQueen ’s death ; I t was done from the death-mask , and proves conel us ively that Lu ise had in her face not merely beauty ,

but al so otherqual ities that attract us to woman . I have compared about one hundred d ifferen t reproduction s of th is Queen ,

and find none so faithful tothe death -mask and at the same time so satisfactory in every other tespect as th i s one . There i s a bronze of this in Charlottenburg . Th e

marb le was sent, 1816, to “ Lord Gower, in London .

”

QUEEN LUISE OF PRUSSIA BEFORE JENA 9

It had a lso been the fash ion under the two previousKings Of Pruss ia to regard the German language andGerman l ife in general as someth ing good enough forthe common people

,but not at all the thing for people

of rank . At court every one spoke French and wroteletters in French

,even where both parties were German .

Now,so far as th i s was a fad in one class of society it did

l i ttle h arm,but since the French Revolution (1 789) the

armies of France had been cutt ing their way about Europe SO energetically that Prussia

,amongst others

,was

ca lled upon to decide whether she should become aprovince of Napoleon’s empire or fight h im to thedeath .

Writing at the close Of the n i neteenth century,i t i s

very strange to look back upon a period of Prussian history when for a series of years an i nfluential section Of.the King’ s cabinet and court Openly insisted that therewas nothing degrading in becoming a dependent ally Of

the great Napoleon .

* Germans had tasted the dangeroussweets Of a long peace . They had become accustomedto luxury ; to a dream of universal empire with a wiseAugustus at the head . Napoleon seemed to have beensent by Heaven for the purpose of i naugurating a greatEuropean millenn ium

,and why should people of culture

Oppose an end SO manifestly i n the i nterests of art, l iterature

,science

,and human happiness ?

But Luise was German through and through . She knewher Germany by heart . She had travelled i n every partof i t

,and knew the feelings of the people better than the

members of the King’ s cabinet . She did not trust Na

pol eon . She knew that between the German and theFrench was a gulf of differences not to be bridged by

*F rederick Wi l l iam III . , in 1806, “ decl ined the Imperial Crownou t of del icacy for the feel ings o f Austria . —Menzel , p . 725 .

10 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

fair promises,and she had fai th i n the German character

as capable Of developing a nation .

Is it wonder that Luise was beloved and treated a l

most as a nat ional saint ? TO the rugge d peasantry of

Protestant Germany she embodied thei r nat i onal aspi rations ; she m ight have led them to war ; she wa s thei rBrandenbu rg Madonna— a g reate r than Joan Of Arc .

At Pyrmon t,Luise wa s the head Of a pol iti ca l con~

gress made up Of l ittle p r incely families who had cometo thi s wate r i ng-place nominally for thei r health , butreally to compare notes on th e political si tuation andto dist r ibute news and gossip . Here

,too. came Bli

'

Iche r,

breathing fu ry against th e French . Luise loved thi sold soldier

,and many we re the talks they had together

,

making plans for the future Of her coun try .

At six eve ry day Lui se took her mo rning walk,glass

i n hand,l i sten ing to the hymn that was always played

at thi s hou r under the t rees . She passed the shop ofan inval id widower left with two feeble daughters

,and

asked after h is health . It was not good . Luise re commended the d r i nking of asses’ milk for them .

The poo r m a n answe red that such milk was too expensive for h im Well

,then

,I am delighted

,

”sa id theQueen

,

“ to be able to help you in the matter . I drinkasses’ milk every morning w i th my steel

,and there i s a

great deal left Over. I shall see that the rest of the asses’

milk comes to y ou each morning.

”And the Queen kept her wo rd . The milk i tself may

not have been Of much value,but the manner i n which

the gift was made should have brought roses into thepalest cheeks .Prussia in these weeks appeared to be the strongestpower of the Continent n ext to France . Her a rmywas said to be men

,excellently dril led and well

RECEIVING NEWS OF TH E DE CLARATION OF IVAR IN THE

PRUSS IAN CAMP

QUEEN LUISE OF PRUSSIA BEFORE JENA 11

equipped . Her terri tories had been much enlarged bythe seizure of Hanover

,which Frederick Will iam III. had

accepted from Napoleon as a reward for subserv iency .

Austr ia had been defeated at Austerl itz i n 1 805 ; Napoleon had hinted to the Prussian monarch that a No rthGerman Empire would be vi ewed wi th favor i n Paris .In short

,to a superficial Observer i t might have seemed

that no sovereign had mo re reason to be sat isfied with h isprospects than the King Of Prussia i n the summe r Of 1 806 .

Luise left Pyrmon t with hope a nd happiness somewhatrevi ved . She had talked w ith rep resentat ives Of nearlyall the rul ing famil ies Of North Germany

,as well as

with many Germans of note i n other ways,and carried

back to Charlottenburg a budget of impressions thatwere i ntended to make her husband very happy on h isb irthday

,the 3d Of August .

But that birthday brought other news,to be followed

by worse news st i l l . Napoleon had c reated a vast confederation O f South Ge rman states

,all dependent upon

France . Franci s IL ,head Of the German Empi re

,had

formally abdicated that t i tle, and was to be henceforthmerely Empe ror of Austri a . Then came rumors OfF rench int rigue in the l ittle courts of northern Germany

,

the Object of wh ich was to make them all ies Of Napoleonand to i solate Prussia . But the worst blow came i n thenews from Paris that Hanover was

,after all

,to be

handed back to England ; that Napoleon , i n other words,regarded Prussia as no more than a very feeble state tobe treated like the rest of hi s vassal ki ngdoms .All these expressions of Napoleon ’s contempt for h i sPrussian Majesty

,coming p retty well together

,con

v inced even Frederick Will iam III. that he was now ina corner from w hich he must fight h is way out or betrampled to pieces .


The most natural th ing,therefore,wa s to look around

for friends to help him . He tried the l i ttle neighboringstates

,but i t was too late . They had al l concei ved di s

trust of Prussia and immense fear of Napol eon .

* Theyremembe red that S ince 1 792 Prussia had be en constantlypretending to protect Germany against French aggre s

sion,but somehow or other had always found her profit

in letting France have her own way . The year of Jenab rought upon Prussia the natural consequences of poli tical blunders and crimes perpetrated upOn her Germanneighbors.Of course Prussia could not expect h elp from Austria

afte r Auste rl itz . The Russian Czar promised to come,

but he was far away . England wa s energe tically destroying Prussian sh ips whe rever she could surpri sethem . )

L Frederick William III. objected to having shipsof war because Frederick II . had not found them nece s

sary,and at this time

,therefore

,England had rather an

easy t ime of i t i n her war against Prussian commerce .

And th is was the condition of th ings when the Pru ssian King took up arms against Napoleon . In 1 805

,

when backed by Russia,England

,and Austria

,he sh irked

the contest . In 1 806 he gayly marched again st the samecommon enemy, when that enemy had become vas tlystronger

,and when his own government had not a single

friend or ally worth mentioning.

“ The curse of king murder rested upon the people of F ran ce ; bu tupon the three Eastern monarch ies lay the gu i l t o f hav ing murdereda whol e people —Droysen , Lectures , V Ol . i . , p . 338 .

i“ More than 1200 Prussian merchan tmen became the n th e booty

of Bri t ish or Swed ish privateers . Sweden and Norway, in sp ite of

the ir poverty and weakness, found the mean s of bu i lding strong Davies ,wh i le Prussia, famed for her war strength , possessed not a singlearmed sh ip w i th wh ich to protect her subjects against these p irates.”Menzel , p . 693.

1 4 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR L IBERTY

a loud whi sper conveying a coarse wi ttici sm anent th ewo rd s of no particula r bi r th .

”

Thi s was more than Luise could stand . Her pure,motherly instinct iva s roused . She raised her beautifulh ead Of wavy hai r

,over which shone the diadem we

know so well . Without be traving the feelings that boiledw i thi n her

,she allowed h e r eyes to re st npon one and

the othe r Of the ladies about her ; and with a“

pleasan tsmile and the most gentle voice imaginable addres sedthese words to the merchant’ s daugh ter

“To be sure,your answer conta i ns a fine fla vor Of

sati re and truth . I m ust confess that the expressionto be a p erson of birth, i n so far as that has reference toadvantages secured by the act of being born , has alwayssounded to me particularly senseless . The fact i s

,that so

far as bi rth is concerned,all of us

,without except i on

,a re

equal . It is,of course

,pleasant to reflect tha t our parents

and ancestors have been people of virtue and respectabil ity , for who does not respect th is sor t of th ing ? Butsuch good qualities

,thank God

,are found in a l l grades

of l ife ;'

and’

the greatest benefactors Of mankind havef requently sprung from the humblest social condition s .You may inhe r i t outward Show and wo rldly advantage ;but the real pe rsonal character on which all dependsthi s each on e must acqu ire for h imself by selfc ontrol .I thank you

,my dear madame

,for having given me

the opportun i ty of saying freely someth ing which maybe not wholly devoid Of impo rtance for the future . I

wish y ou much happiness i n your married l ife— and thesource Of happiness i s Of course i n Our heart s .”

The smile of scorn died away f rom the lips of th e highborn dames ; the me rchan t

’ s daughter was made thehappiest of wom en

,and wherever thi s i ncident was re

pe a ted the hearts Of the people opened to their Queen

F IELD ’ M ARSIIAL GEBHARD LEBRECHT V ON BLUC IIER

[From the bus t by Ranch in th e Muse um a t Be rl in . Photogra ph e d byth e Author]

WHAT ' SORT OF A BRINGING-UP HAD QUEEN LUISE 15

as to one who came to preach a new gospel Of l ibertythe l iberty to be a man

,a character

,an influence

,i rre

spe ctive of bi rth or ti tles .The anecdote I have related i s true . But were i t not

,

I Should be i ncl ined to reproduce i t here to il lustrateexactly what Lui se would have done under such con

.d itions .

Queen Luise was born i n a narrow,dingy street Of

Hanover i n 1 776 . Her father was an exceedingly impecunious prince of Mecklenburg-Strel i tz

,and She owed

nea rly all her bringing-up to her grandparents on themother’s side

,who l ived near the Rhine at Darmstadt

,

some three hundred miles away to the south . Queen

Luise was not merely born on B r i t i sh soi l —her father’spri ncipal financial support came from his pay as a gene ral i n the Engl ish army . What we know Of h im is l ittle,a nd that l i ttle not compl imentary. He Obviousl y could.not give h i s ch ildren the ed ucation they were entitledto

,or they would not have been sent to Da rmstadt . In

fact,Queen ; Luise may be said to have known no home

unti l she came to Be rl in as Crown-Princess of Prussia .

It was at the age of nine that Luise lost her motherand was sent to her grandmothe r to be brought up . Thejourney lay th rough a most i nteresting portion of Germany

,as a glance a t the m ap will Show,

a nd the childLuise

,on th is her first journey

,d id not fail to note the

d ifference i n speech and dress between one frontier a ndthe other— even from one vi llage to another. She t ra ve l le d f rom the sandy flats Of Hanover through a coun t ry

full Of beauti ful streams,wooded mountains, and meadowswonderful ly ferti le . Here fo r th e first time did she havean Object-lesson in political geog raphy . The people shesaw all spoke one German all were Of common Germanancestry ; all read the same great works of German liter

16 THE GERMAN STRUGG LE FOR LIBERTY

ature— why,then

,did they not unite under one flag, as

did the French ?At a time when the French tongue ruled a l l courts,Lu i se assiduously culti vated German . She could talk thedialect of the peasants as well as the German of grammarians

,and was proud Of her accompl ishment .

Queen Lui se had as governess i n Darmstadt M ademoi

selle de Gél ieu,a Swiss lady whose family h ad fled from

France i n consequence Of the St . Bartholomew massa cre .This lady was about th i rty years old when she undertook the education Of Lui se

,and was i n all respects a per

son Of conspicuous merit— Of strong personal characte r,and Protestant faith . Aside from posit i ve evidence onthis point i s the circumstance that she remai ned withLuise up to the moment Of her marriage .

In the year 1 8 14,when Lui se had alread y bee n dead

four years,her royal husband

,on his retu rn f rom a vic

torious en t ry into Pa r i s, turned aside to V i si t the littlerectory on the Lake Of Neuchatel

,where th is lady was

l iv ing w i th her brothe r,the local parson . The late

EmperorWilli am accompanied his father on thi s journey,

and to both it was a pilgrimage full Ofprofonnd suggestion.In her ch ildhood Europe was crumbling about her

,

and she had occasion to hear Of m any curious things .

She was thi rteen when the Bastille fell,and engaged to

be married about the same t ime that Lou i s X V I . diedunder the guillotine . Her future husband was with theall ied army that ma rched into France for the purpose ofquelling the Spi r i t of re volution . It was duri ng th i scampaign that her engagement was formally announced .

But even at thi s time Lui se must have been struck bythe fact that the Prussian army marched back again fromFrance in 1 795 without having accomplished anythingworth mentioning.

WHAT SORT OF A BR ING ING-UP HAD QUEEN LUISE 17

She had gone to Frankfort in 1 792 to see the coronation of the last Emperor Of the Holy Roman Empire ;a nd i n the year of Jena, when that empire was d issolvedby one word Of Napoleon , she recalled the empty pageautry of those early days . She had heard the guns of thesan s-eu lotte army of the Revolut ion

,and had been forced

to flee like many a pri ncely family of that day.

Th e Old Emperor Will iam used to treasu re w ith particular care a bundle of love-letters signed Luise. Th ev

are unique i n a way , for love-l etters are rarely writtenin dupl icate .This i s how i t happened . Mademoi selle de Gél ieu wa s

charged with superintending the correspondence Of Luise,

and particularly the correspondence w ith her future husband— for was not thi s all matter of et iquette and stateimportance ?“The post leaves to day for Mayence

,your h ighness

,

says mademoiselle,and your h ighness must write a

letter to your exalted future husband .

”

SO Luise seats h erself Obed iently and begins : “Mon

Cher Fri tz 1”“What does that mean ?”exclaims mademoiselle, se

vere ly . What sort of style i s that ?”“Why

,how otherwi se ?”answers Lui se . I call h im

Fritz to h i s face— how can I use anything else on paper ?”“ You are qui te wrong

,says the correct Mademoi

selle de Gél ie u.

“Young ladies of your exalted stat ionmust weigh every word carefully before you use it . Letpeasants romp and shout— not princesses .”“ But romping i s great fun

,retorts Luise .

M i nuet was i nvented for princesses. Your h ighnessmust dance only minuet and— write only minuet .”

Very well,

”sighs Luise ; “ then let us say, My dearFrederick .

’

I.—2


No ; not even that .What

,then ?”

Monseigneur i s the proper t itle for one destined tobecome crown -p r i nce .

”

And so Luise wri tes to her monseigneur in the stiltedF rench jargon of the court, assuring h im , i n the style

of Racine and Corneille , that her heart i s p rofoundlytouched by the sentiment which monseigneur is gra

ciously pleased to ente rtain, etc.Luise obeyed so far as that letter was concerned

,but

i nsisted upon closing and seal ing it herself. Before doing so

,however

,she always managed to smuggle i n a

hasty serawl of strictly original composition to Fri tz,

”

her sweetheart .These letters

,coming in pairs— one to m on seigneur,

the other to Fri tz— are quaint testimony to the ceremen ions forms Of the day and the fact that the love ofF r i tz and Luise was as genuine as it proved enduring.

Not only was our Fri tz over head and heels i n lovew ith young Princess Luise ; i t i s Obvious that Fritz

’sfather waived all considerat ions of a worldly nature andblessed the young couple because he saw i n their ma rriage a union promising more happi ness to h is posteri tythan had ever come in to the domestic l ife Of himself orh i s illustrious predecessor.It i s a significant commentary upon the poli ti cal and

financial conditi on of Luise’ s family that h e r own count ry, Mecklenburg Strelitz, refused to m ake h er anygrant on the occasion of this wedding

,although it was

l aw Of ’ the land that twenty thousand thale rs should bevoted when a princess ma rried . The re had been badrelations for many years between the prince Of thecountry and his House Of Representatives

,and here was

QUEEN LUISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TRIUMPH

God save the K ing preserve the House of Hohenzol lern protectour coun try ; strengthen th e German sp i ri t cl eanse our nat ionall i fe from foreign imi tat ion make Pru ss ia a sh in ing example inthe German ic Un ion ; w eld th is Un ion in to the Ne w Empi re , andgrant u s speedi ly th e one thing w e sorely n eed , a W ise Constitut ion .

— Closing words o f the Turnvate r” Jahn , Lectu res on

V ol k sthum , 18 17 .

ON the 22d Of December,1 793, two days be fore her

marriage to the Crown-P r i nce Of Prussia,Luise drove

in state down the great Berl in avenue calle d Under theLindens

,and wa s quartered in the same apartments Of

the Old palace that had been used by Frederick the Great .The Berliners are the Yankees of Germ any — indust r ion s

,inventive

,sobe r

,and witty . They are slow to

prai se, but loyal to those whom they trust . Luise onthat day won the heart Of Berl in

,and her citizens have

since cultivated her memory with singular fidel ity .

A s she entered the ci ty i n state,her coa ch was stop

ped by a group of l i ttle girls dressed i n wh ite,w ith

wreaths of flowers i n thei r hair. One Of them had

some verses Of welcome to recite,and the Official pro

gramme requ ired Luise only to make formal acknow le dgm e nt and then drive on . But she loved l ittle ch ildre n , and SO befo re the whole crowd of citizens she

picked the l ittle gi r l up i n her arms and k issed h eraffectionately.

QUEEN LUISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TR IUM PH 21

This was,however

,qu ite outside of the programme,

and rather shocking to Lu ise’s ch ief lady- in-waiting,who

sat Opposi te to her in the state coach for the pu rpose ofwarn ing her against j ust such breaches Of etiquette .

But thi s one touch Of womanly feel ing,wh ich had not

been put down on th e p rog ramme, pleased the Berl inersm ore than all th e rest of the day ’s festi ve parade . Theyhad had enough of kings and un iforms— thei r eyes wereaching for the sight of a real woman .

Th is stern lady-in-waiting was the Countess Voss, a lready sixty-four years Of age . She outl i ved Luise, how.

ever.* This Old lady had come to the Prussian court asan attendant upon the mother Of Frederick the Great.She had fallen i n love with the Queen ’s th ird son . Theprince would have no other. The court was i n an upre ar and serious consequence was expected— a suicide atleast. The Countess Voss wa s, i n her youth, Of exquisitebeauty and Of graceful proportions . She had also everycharm of mind that makes a love epi sode of th i s naturepossible .But one after the other of the court besi eged her with

prayers and threats,and finally She determined to leave

Berli n and her sweetheart— to sacrifice her first love,to

marry another.She came back i n after-years

,and named her first-born

after the prince she had adored . But she was not embittered . She retained the esteem of success ive courts

,

* Coun tess Voss left beh ind h er a d iary unique in i ts way ,for i t

covers nearly seven ty years of h er l i fe spen t a t the Prussian court .Th i s d iary wa s placed in my hands by the presen t represen tati ve ofthe fami ly . I t is w ri tten in F rench a nd in a hand almost i l legible .A German al leged transl at ion h as been publ i shed , but so fau l ty as tobe almost val ueless . I t is greatly to be hoped that the d iary may someday be given to the worl d exact ly as it l e ft the hands of the famou swoman to whom Be rl iners sti l l re veren tly refer as Di e a l te V088 .


and Frederick Will iam II . made a particular point Ofhaving his new daughter-ih -law under the care of th isol d lady .

In spite Of the difference in thei r ages, Luise and theOld Voss did well together. The Old lady had seen muchof the world ; knew the ins and outs of eve ry intrigue,and was able to save the un suspecting Luise from manya blunde r . But she was a t the same time a stra igh tforward

,pure woman

,loyal and h igh-spi r i ted . Lui se soon

came to have enormous respect for he r lady -in-waiting,

whom she treated as a dea r,good

,stiff g randmamma .

When Luise looked about he r rooms i n the Berli n pala ce she was struck by the fact that the tapest ry on thewalls represented only Scriptural subjects . She knewwell enough that F rederick the Great had not been overpartial to Bibl ical tales . Of cou rse Dame Voss gaveh e r the reasons . Louis XV . of F rance had ordered twohandsome sets Of Gobelin sent as p resents

,one to a

great Papal dignitary, the other to F re derick the Grea t .For the churchman he had selected Bible pictures ; forthe A l te F ri tz he had arranged a set Of battle scenes .These Gobeli n tapest r ies h ad become mixed in the

packing,so that the battle pictures went to the church

,

a nd the scenes from Holy Writ astonished the eyes ofth e least orthodox Of Prussian kings .Princess Luise was mar r ied on Christmas Eve of 1 793,

i n the Weisse Saal of the Berl in palace,where nowadays

the Emperor opens Parliament in person .

In 1 797 he r husband became King Of P russia,and i n

the same year she gave bi rth to William,First German

Emperor, who was destined three times to go with avictorious Germany across the Rh ine to Pa r i s . Her lifeas Queen , down to the yea r Of Jena, furnishes l ittle thati s remarkable . She loved to spend her days i n the coun

EMPEROR NA I’OLEON

QUEEN LU ISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TR IUM PH 23

try about Potsdam,a region full of beauti ful lakes and

forests,whe re Frederick the Great al so spent m uch of

his t ime . Before she had been married ten years she hadpresented her husband with eight chi ldren

,and she found

much of her happiness in thei r society .

One day two English travellers h ired a boat and rowedover to the Pfauen (Peacock) Island, near Potsdam .

They had a natura l curiosity to see the i sland where theroyal family spent much Of their t ime

,and

,with the

enterpri se characteristic of Anglo-Saxons,succeeded i n

effecting a landing i n spite of notices and guards,wh ich

are tod ay as numerous as they were one hundred yearsago. But the Lord Chamberlain esp ied them ,

and theyrecei ved from h im very V iolent expressions of Opinionand orders to leave immed iately, under penalty of arrest .SO they proceeded to regain thei r boat . On the wayhowever

,they met a lady leaning on the arm Of a Prus

sian Officer. They did not know who i t was,but raised

thei r hats pol itely . Th e lady addressed th em in thei rown tongue ; said Sh e presumed them to be English ;were they here for the first t ime

,and

,i f SO

,might she

show them about the park ?The Englishmen we re

,of course

,highly pleased

,but

protested that they dared not stay because the LordChamberlain had threatened them with arrest i n casethey d id not at once leave .

Oh,

”said the lady , with a smile, “ I know that official very well . He and I are good friends . I will intercede for you . He will not be angry .

”

And so she showed them about,chatting meanwhile

about England and Engl ish l ife,for which she showed

keen sympathy .

At last they came upon a group of people who bowedas only courtiers can ; and then the two Engli shmen sus'


pe cted that they had been shown about by no other thanthe King and Queen of Pruss i a . They t r i ed to escape ,but Lu ise made them stay to luncheon . The Lord Cham

be rla in was appeased,we may be su re, and the two Engl ishm e n who rowed away from .the Pfaueninsel on that

day were no doubt the two happiest men in Prussia.The yea rs that passed

,down to the time of Jena,

we re made memo rable to Lui se mainly by th e j ourneysshe made and the inte resting people she met On the way .

She t ravelled,Of course

,in the posting manner Of the

day , over roads l ittle better than a re now found in theUnited States or Russia ; for at that time there wasscarcely a macadamized road i n Prussia, and very few insouth Germany . We read frequently Of a breakdown tothe royal ca r r i age ; and, i n fact , a postman of that dayhad to be as full of resource as the dri ver Of a Cali forn iamail-coach .

Travel i s now so rapid and SO commonplace that weare apt to forget the eno rmous rOle i t played in the education Oi ourancestors . The jou rney f rom Berl in to Pa r i soccupied then mo re time than at present from Berl in toNe w York, and represented contact with m any peoplei n many towns and Vi llages on the way . Tod ay thetraveller sees no one but the Sleepi ng-car porter or thet rain conductor in a journey carrying him perhaps fromPar i s to Constan tinople . What he learns Of the land andpeople i s s imply a fence Of telegraph poles and a railwaystat ion at inte rvals . TO get a n i dea of what t ravel mean tone hundred years ago we must now gO yachting, ormove on a bicycle

,or on foot

,or

,better sti ll

,paddle our

own canoe for only by these means can we secure theeducational benefits of travel .It is notewo rthy that the Germans who have mad edeep impression on their age have been good travell ers .


was as insign ificant as many another he re before thetime of t r ia l .She could not suspect that E rfurt would be surren

dered to Fra nce after Jena wi thout a blow , and thatin 1 808 Napoleon would he l d he re a Congress of Kingsas in a mino r capital Of F rance .

Weimar wa s then the most interesting li terary andartisti c town Of Germany

,not merely on account Of

Goethe a nd Schill er and othe r notable men who i re

que nted it, but from the fact that nearly every one ofdistinction who travelled Germany in these years m an

aged to spend some of his time i n Weimar, where theruling p ri nce did everyth ing to make such a visi t profitable a nd ag reeable to travellers Of note .

TO be su re,Luise travelled as Queen

,and royal pe o

ple are gene rally bad t ravellers ; but she had a rare giftof finding interesting people and lea rn i ng truths thatwere Often concealed f rom her husband .

In the fi rst year after becoming Queen (1 798) sh evi si ted the Baltic and saw P russian sea-going sh ips forthe fi rst t ime

,at Dantz ic and Konigsbe rg. It was a tri

nmpha l procession to celebrate the new sovereign s’ac

cession to the th rone . Luise was del ighted with her rece pt ion ,

and the King in spected troops everywhere andre ceived deputations . He was at the head of an armyOf men

,Of a state w i th i nhabitants ;

he was cou rted as an ally by all the great powers . How

could Luise suspect that i n a very fe w years she wouldbe flying over these same roads w ith F rench troopsp ressing close behind her iIn KOn igsbe rg a deputation of merchants beggedQueen Luise to inte rcede with he r husband in the int

‘

e re sts of Prussian commerce . Thi s should have ope nedthe King’s eyes to the strange fact that Prussia

,with her

GENERAL GNEISENAU , BLUCHER‘

S CH IEF OF STAFF

QUEEN LUISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TRIUMPH 27

m any ports and her va luabl e commerce, had not a s inglema n - oi -war ! But we fail to d iscover that the Kingprofited by this journey ; he looked at sold iers as somany uniform s

,he heard reports and addresses

,and

took everyth ing fo r granted .

From Kon igsberg the journey continued throughPoland to Warsaw

,then a Prussian town

,and back by

way of Breslau and Siles ia— an enormous journey forthat day measured by time and hardsh ip .

In the next year another long tour wa s made , to herbi rthplace

,Hanover

,wh ich was soon (1 803) to be seized

by F rance ; to Cassel , where Napoleon III . was confinedi n 1 8 70; to An spach and Bayreuth , which then belonged to Prussia ; and home agai n through the beautiful Thuringian towns , notably Eisenach , where Luthermade his famous translation of the Bible i n the Wartbu rg Castle overlooking the town .

In 1 800she once more vi s ited Silesia,Prussia’s richest

province,and notably B reslau

,the ci ty which in 1 8 13

became the Mecca of a l l Ge rmans who meant to freethe i r country from French oppression . In 1 802 Luisemade her second jou rney to Konigsberg and beyond

,to

Tilsit . Here the royal pai r met the Russian Emperor,

a nd here five years later sh e was to be d ragged a suppliant i nto the presence of the Fi rst Napoleon . Memeltoo she vi si ted for the fi rst t ime— the last a nd mostnorthern town of Prussia— where she was desti ned toshed m any a bi tter tear while expecting each hou r th eorder to lay down her crown and seek an asylum in aforeign land .

In 1 802,however

,the Prussian King and the Russian

Czar feasted and held mi litary reviews together. The irm inisters meanwh ile were drawing up papers and signing away German lands on the Rhine, i n considerat ion


of other booty elsewhere . Napoleon wanted all theleft bank of the great German river, and FrederickWill iam III . had consented to th i s act of spol iati on oncondi t ion that he be well paid in other ways . Nextyear south Germany was again visited ; Erfurt , Bamberg

,Bayreuth

,Darmstadt

,and in 1 805 the borders of

Bohemia and Bavaria.

The se long journeys to every corner of Germanywere calculated to afford an average monarch the bestpossible means of knowing the strength of hi s ownarmy . Since 1 793Frederi ck William III . had see n fromyear to year France adding to her terri tory mainly byannexing German land . His wa s the only Germangovernment which could uni te the others in resi stanceto French aggression ; he was the big brother of thefamily

,and all Germany looked to him for leadersh ip .

But in all h i s travels he never once recognized thisphase of hi s duty and opportunity . Each time thatNapoleon stole a piece of Germany he shared some ofhi s plunder with Frederick William III . , and thus madePrussia party to h is crimes against the great Fatherland .

The l ittle states were not slow in seeing that the Kingof Prussia was not h onest with them

,that he was little

more than an ally of France . Can we blame them,there

fo re, if i n the year of Jena they all decl i ned to supporthim ?Queen Lui se

,of course

,knew noth ing of the dishonest

diplomatic work that was going on in the cabinet ofher husband . As a good w ife a nd a German who lovedher country she bel ieved in her King and husband ; andif events of the day seemed discouraging

,she bad faith

,

and believed that matte r s were shaping them selves togood purpose. She grew up among people who knew

QUEEN LUISE ENTERS BERLIN IN TRIUMPH 29

and had fought under the Great Frederick ; she had e ntere d Berl in as a bride i n the same year that saw thecomplet ion of the glorious Brandenburg Tri umphalArch

,which was erected to commemorate Prussian tri

umphs . Her ears had caught i n that year for the firstt ime the strains of Germany’s national anthem

,

“Heildir im Siegeskranz , a song written in 1793, and destinedto rank w ith the Wacht am Rhein in power to kindleGerman enthusiasm for a fighting fatherland .

From that year to Jena she heard of Prussia only asa stead ily i ncreasing power in wh ich the traditions ofFrederick the Great were kept al i ve by a greater armythan Frederick ever had . Prussian generals said to her :What if Napoleon has whipped the Austrians

,the Rus

sians,the Ital ians

,and the Dutch— what are those com

pared wi th the battalion s of Frederick 2"

And that is why the Prussians marched so gaylytowards Jena.

THE TWO PHILOSOPHERS OF JENA — HEGEL AND

NAPOLEON

The dawn o f the new German worl d has commenced . Wh ereverthe German tongue is spoken

,there i s the l onging for a new Ge r

m an Empire .

— Words of Jahn w ri tten in the v isitors' al bumon the Wartburg , near E isenach , on Jul y 24 ,

18 14,on h i s way

home from the v ictorious campaign against Napol eon .

IN the night of October 1 4,1 806

,a great German

philosopher named Hegel occupied himself with theclosing lines of a ve ry learned wo rk about posi ti ve conce ptions and histo r ical infinitie s . He called h is bookPhen om enology .

His lamp burned late that night for on the next morni ng the manuscript was to be sent by post to hi s pubhsher.

Another lamp was burning late on that same night,almost next door . Another ph ilosopher

,and a vastly

m ore practical one,was p reparing for the press a manu

sc r i pt quite as perplexing as that of Hegel . Thi s ph ilosophe r , however, could not wait until the mo rning beforeposting his manusc r ipt

,but sen t i t off at once to Pari s .

Both philosophe rs burned thei r lamps at th e samehour in the beautiful little un iversity town of Jena

,and

the m an who sent hi s manuscript first was NapoleonBonaparte .

The Ge rman philosopher rose early on the morning of

m m TWO PH ILOSOPHERS or JENA 31

October'

1 5th,and

,with hi s preciousPhenom enology under

h i s arm,walked to the post-oth ee . Here he learned for

‘

the first time that Napoleon had fought a great battle ;that a Prussian army had been routed ; that Frenchtroops occupied every village of th i s sweet , smiling Saxoncountry

,and no post would leave Jena that day .

So Hegel prepared to trudge back to hi s desk and waitfor better times before giv ing Phenom enology to theworld . As he pressed th e precious bundle under hi s a rma clattering of hoofs caused h im to stand aside i n timeto salute

,w i th unaffected humili ty

,the man who h ad on

the day before manured two battle -fie l ds with Germancarcasses . In later days the author of Phenom enologyreferred to this one peep at the conqueror as a most exal ting moment . Hegel adored i n Napoleon the greatm ind

,the ph ilosoph ic i ntellect . He recognized i n h im a

colleague — a professor i n another faculty — who hadwritten better stuff than even Phen om enology .

There were many men in the Ge rmany of 1 806 whowere fiddling and philosoph izing wh ile French troopsmarched across thei r country . Let us not j udge Hegeltoo harshly

,for he was i n the fash ion . German men of

letters,Germans who pretended to elegance in social

matters,had been brought up to regard patriotism as

savoring of bad taste,i f not posit i ve vulgarity . The

plain people preserved their national feelings,but in 1 806

the plai n people w ere not a sked thei r opin ion on cu rrentevents . Germany had been trained to doci l ity for gene ra tions past, and th is docil ity had turned into pol i ticalimbecil i ty . The country was full of Hegels who neverbothered thei r heads whe the r they were governed byTu rk or Tycoon . Whateve r came from above they a o

ce pted with meekness ; i f the taxes were heavy theypaid them with a groan

,i f they were light they paid


them wi th a smile ; but i n any case they paid them,and

never asked themselves who received the'

money orwh ati t was spe nt for. Napoleon won th e ba ttlePrussia was full of men like Hegel— Hegels in the universitie s

,Hegels in the government offices, Hege ls e ven

at the head of the army .

V I

THE EV E OF JENA, OCTOBER 13,1806

Wahrlich Unfah igk e it i 1nd Kopfiosigk e it an al len Orten —V . Lettow,

p . 274, I .“ L

’armée prussienne Offrait l etrange spectacl e de l ’audace l a p l ustéméraire

,commandée par . l a sén il i té .”—Lanfrey , i i i . , 473.

ON the 20th Of September,1 806

,the royal travell ing

carr iage rolled into the palace court of Charlottenburg,n ear Berl in . Queen Luise and her husband took thei rseats and were dri ven to— Jena . They made their headquarters at Naumburg, which i s about half-way betweenLeipzig and Erfurt

,and there they spent two weeks

,i n

wh ich the King watched his showily dressed troopsma rch ing on to the front to do battle w ith the French .

In th i s neighborhood the Prussian army took a loose,

straggling posi tion,with the general idea of checking

Napoleon should he try to break through into Prussia .

The King was , of course, the head of the army, but theDuke of Brunswick had been appointed commander-inchief.This Old man had served under the great Frederick

,1'

was then seventy Odd years of age,and had solemnly

said to a group of officers shortly before Jena : “ The

Translation Truly, at al l points incapac ity and loss of h eadf Pasquicr (i . , 230) says that even in F rance La Pra sse avai t e ncore (1806) le prestige attaché aux crea tions m il i taires du Grand Prédéric.


[Prussian] army is, i n spi te of all that has happened of

late,a nd e ven w ithout imp rovem en ts

, unquestionably thefirst army of the world .

” This reminds us of the language held by the marshals of Napoleon III . i n thesummer of 1 8 70.

The P russian army was at the centre of Germany,surrounded by people who not only spoke a commontongue

,but who we re act i vely in sympathy w i th its

purpose of defeating the French . Thi s great army downto the morning of the 14th of October never once foundout where Napoleon was, where his troops were, howm any were marching

,or in what direction . Frederick

William III . had eve ry facil ity for learning a ll aboutNapoleon

,for the French army had been i n Germany

during many weeks past,and Prussian Officers could have

travelled about i n disguise without difficul ty .

It does not need a professional soldier to tell us thatwhen going to war i t i s important to know where theenemy is

,and how strong he is . On Septembe r 13

,1 806

,

Napoleon wrote to h is agent at Munich to keep h im informed in regard to the movements of the Prussian armythat war would break out as soon as Prussians c rossedinto Saxony . You will then write to Rapp

,in Stras~

burg,to telegraph me

,and one hour afterwards I shall .

be on the way to Wurzburg.

”Here i s a practical man . He has a telegraphic l ine ofsemaphores reach ing f rom Pari s to every corner of hisempi re, and can communicate w ith Strasburg i n half anhour, whereas the ordinary post required fou r days . TheKing of Prussia had no telegraphs

,and i t took n ine

days for a courier to ge t f rom Pari s to Be rl i n, a journeynow done i n one day and night .Yet telegraphs were no new thing in Europe . The

French had used them i n the army of the Revolution ten

THE EV E OF JENA,OCTOBER 13, 1806 35

years before . Why did not Prussia also have telegraphsfrom Berl in to her frontiers ? Strange as it may seem

,

I am assured by the editor of the famous Brockhaus Eucyclopae dia that not until 1 832 did P russia operate herfi rst optical telegraph between Berl in and the Rhine.The Encyclopaedia i tself i s si lent on th is subject . Eventhe excellent Post Museum i n Berl in could give me noi nformation i n thi s matter.Napol eon knew pretty much all there was to knowabout the Prussian army

,i ts movements

,and that i s

why , on September 1 2th , h e wrote to Talleyrand

The idea that Prussiaw i l l ven ture to attack me single -handed i s soridicu lou s that i t d eserves no notice . My al l iance w i th Prussia i s basedupon her fear Of me . That cab inet is so con temptible, the King sodevoid of character, etc .

S ix days after Queen Lu i se and Frederi ck Willi amhad started from Berlin

,Napoleon left Paris . In two

days (September 28 th) he was on th e Rhine, at Mainz,and had m ade every disposit ion for an off ensive move

,

to begin on October 3d . His troops had been i n garrison all the way from Bonn

,on the Rhine

,to Braunau

,

on the Inn— Braunau,where poor John Palm was mu r

dured . On October 4th h i s army of i nvasion had unitedwith great rapid ity on the line Wurzburg-Ba ireuth

,and

already on the 7th began th e great forward move of thewhole mass straight on Berli n .

He had m en w ith him ,d i vided into six army

corps . These men had for the most part done severemarch ing to reach their places i n time

,as a glance at

the map will show. Two regiments and the Co rps Artillery

,for instance

,had been ordered to be i n Wurzbu rg

on October 3d,march ing all the way from Bonn . It

wa s a twelve days’ march , for wh ich Napol eon had


allowed only n ine days. But these troops made i t ineight days

,ar r i ving on October 2d . A day ’ s march for

troops was 225 kilometres in the F rench army. Thism ade an average of mo re than 334} kilometres for eightconsecutive days .Napoleon had on th is campaign a manusc r ipt m ap

prepared by h is engin eer co rps. The Prussian s hadonly a Saxon m ap publ i shed i n 1 763, and reaching no

further than the ri ver We rra and the Saale,at Hof

m ap-making in gene ral was then i n i ts infancy . There

was no topograph ical m ap of Prussia in existence,a l

though a beginning had been made i n 1 803,covering

only the extreme northe rn co rner on the Baltic .

*

In 1 8 12 there was captu red at the Bere sina,i n Na

pole on’s baggage

,a manusc r ipt map of central Europe

on a scale 1 : The o r iginal i s i n St . Petersburg

,and the on ly copy extant

,so far as I know

,i s in

the Berl in M i l i tary Intelligence Bu reau . Of th is copyI have had the use

,thanks to the kindness of the

The army [Prussian ] was most scan t ily equ ipped even w i th th emost n eedful geograph ical material . We discovered l ater that Ge neral V on Bulow in the Lausitz d id not possess the one use fu l map o fSaxony, that of Petri , although i t wa s at th e t ime on sa le at Schrop p

’

s

(in Berl in ) . Even I had the map in my possess ion,a nd wou ld glad ly

have given i t for th is purpose had I known that i t was wan ted there .When one has been w i tness

,as I have , to the enormous sums paid

by F rench commanders for maps at Schropp’

s establ ishment alone,a nd

how they l aid out cap ital sums for such large maps as that of Russ iain 204 sheets , our pars imony in th is respect i s hard to comprehend .

Kloden,p . 312 .

‘ There al so [at Bautzen] the wan t of good maps wa s ke en ly fe l t,whereas Napoleon had th e most exact know l edge of h is battl e groundby the use of the large topograph ical survey maps of Saxony belong ingto the King of that country

, and w h ich exi sted on ly in dra yvi ngs .

These are said to have been of great service to Napoleon .

”—Klod en ,p

.

313. Thi s refers to the year 18 13, and app l ies, therefore , w i th evengreater force to the year of Jena .


era l ly travelled in the night, when the roads were clear,and he consequently could drive more rapidly. Hewould lie down to sleep about six i n the afte rnoon, andat about midnight would be sending out orders for themorrow. In thi s way he was able to draw in al l possible information regarding the day ’s movem ents beforeh imself proposing another move .

All th is was wear ing work,such work as the Prussian

army could not or would not do .

Napoleon and most of h i s marshals were betweenthi rty -five and th i rty-seven years old . On the Prussian side the King alone was wi th in these years . Hiscommander - in - chief was not fit to be on horseback .

Out of 66 colonels i n the infantry of the line,28 were

ove r sixty yea rs ; of 28 1 majors , 8 6 were over fifty -five

and 1 90mo re than fifty years old .

On October 8 th appeared a Bulletin,of which Napo

leon was edito r-in -ch ief,saying

,amongst other th ings :

‘The Queen of Prussia i s w ith the army,dressed as

an Amazon,and wearing the uniform of her dragoon

regiment. She wri tes twenty letters a day to fan theflames in all directions . One might fancy

'

h e r an Armida, who in her excitement sets fire to her own palace .

”

Now, considering that Armida was a classic heroine

noted chiefly for having seduced several young menfrom the path of vi rtue

,i t will be admitted that the

simile i s not chaste .Thi s bulletin of Napoleon was so publ ic an insultthat in Prussia at least i t was never fo rgotten or forgiven . Luise was destined to receive additional insultsf rom the hands of thi s soldier

,but none more dee ply

resented by the people of Germany .

*

* In the Hohenzol lern Museum of Berl in are prese rved twocartoons

THE EV E OF JENA, OCTOBER 39

The date of th is bulleti n may be taken as the date)

when war was formally declared,for th e Prussian King

had threatened to fight France i n case Napoleon didnot y ield to h is demands by October 8 th .

On the afternoon of October 1 3th Napoleon arrivedin the beautiful li ttle university town of Jena, on theri ver Saale . Had he followed the example of the Prussians he would have gone quietly to bed and waitedunti l m orning before doing anyth ing further. But hed id what any practical commander would do i n such acase— drew i n all possible i nformation regarding thestrength of the enemy .

Jena i s dominated by a h igh plateau,whose sides run

steeply down the ri ver Saale and the town . For our

purposes we may roughly compare thi s plateau to the

of Queen Lu ise, pub l ish ed in Paris for the p urpose of strengthen ingthe popu lar not ion that th is gentl e creature was a species of un sexedAmazon . One o f these cartoon s i s cal led “ La Re ine de Prusse apresl a Bata i l l e de Jéna . I t represen ts rather a pretty woman in a semimil i tary dress seated on a rock w ith a sabre beside her. A horse standsnear by decked ou t in cavalry sty le , w i th Pruss ian eagles worked uponthe hol ste rs . These words are printed beneath the p icture

“ Ignoran t quel s péri l s envi ronnen t l a glo ire,

J’

anima is mes soldats ct gu idais leurs drapeaux ,Je voulus v ivre e n Reine e t mouri r e n hérosEt ne trou vais l a mort n i n ’

obtins l a victoire.

Th is was pub l ished under government l icense, a nd no doubt at gove rnmen t i nstigat ion . The second cartoon represents Queen Luise /asa camp -fol lower of loose hab its . She w ears a shako on her head ; ahussar j acket wh ich is thrown open so as to expose her breasts and a

bi t of chem ise . These are the only two m i l i tary cartoons of Lu ise inthe Hohenzol lern Museum . I t is hard to say wh ich i s the more remarkabl e : that Napoleon shou ld th us have al lowed th i s lady to be lnsul ted ,

or that he should so contemptuously have regarded the Prussian K ing as to regard this Queen as the v i rtual leader of the Prussianarmy . In any case , w e know that Queen Lu ise fel t deeply the d irtymethods by wh ich Napoleon sough t to underm ine her influence .

40 TH E GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

parade ground of Wes t Point, and assume that theenemy wa s expected to march up f rom the sho re ofthe Hudson River. So strong i s th i s Jena plateau bynature that a handful of troops could easi ly hold incheck a very much larger fo rce . On th is particularevening each side had about the advantage of

numbe rs resting with Prussia . Napoleon,Of course

,

expected to find thi s plateau bri stl ing with cannon , andlooked fo rward to a seve re struggle for i ts possession .

To his amazement he was told that the Prussianshad not even taken the trouble to occupy i t. Thiswas so improbable that h e climbed in person to thetop

,a nd sat i sfied h imself that Prussian commanders

could be guilty of such folly as would m ake a militiavolunteer blush . The fact was that the Prussian general found 'the plateau rather ch i lly these Octobern ights

,and had sought mo re agreeable shelte r farther

back in the hollows . He had eviden tly convinced h imself that the approach to this plateau was so difficultthat no artillery could possibly get up to i t .A nd i t was

,of course

,exactly by this most d ifficult

approach that Napoleon d id drag up h is'

arti llery .

When I vi sited the battle - fie ld i n 1 8 93 I found th isroad in p ractically the same state as i t was describe d in1 806— a species of gully washed out of shape by rainstorms . Napoleon set h i s men to w ork w ith pick andshovel . He superintended the wo rk h imself . As anOfli cer of artillery

,i t was a w ork particularly congen ial

to h im,and he soon had the path so widened that be

fore daylight all h is artille ry wa s up i n posit ion— j ustw here th e guns Of F rederick William would have bee nhad his gene rals shown even a very small amount ofpract ical sense or energy .

While Napoleon was feel ing hi s way about on the

FRENCH TROOPS ENTER A GERMAN VILLAGE

THE EV E OF JENA,OCTOBER 41

plateau of Jena,guided by the l ight of torches

,and

preparing for a battle on the morrow,th e Prussian

King was at a l ittle vi llage twelve miles away , calledAuerstadt . Thi s place i s

O

too small to be named on ord inary maps, but can be readily found on a line almostdue north from Jena

,at a point as far from Jena as

Weimar i s from Jena. Auerstad t i s almost equallydistant from Jena and Weimar

,and not four miles

from the river Saale,along whose right bank French

troops had been march ing for three days past,thi s being

the best route towards Berl in .

The King here called a counci l of war,made up of

the Duke of Brunswick,a Field-Marshal Mollendorf

,

who was then eighty years old,four generals

,and two

colonels . This assemblage represented what was thenregarded as the highest mil itary authori ty in Prussia .

They talked and they talked,and they kept on talking

,

w i thout even knowing that Napoleon’s army was withi ncannon range of them .

During the evening of October 13th the FrenchMarshal Davoust occupied the Saale crossing at Kosen ,only a three hours’ march from Auerstadt i n a northeast d irection . While the Prussians

,therefore

,were

holding their senseless powwow at A uerstad t,the

French had . not only approached thei r front,th ey were

al ready i n a posi ti on to cut them off from Berlin .

The Prussian General Schmettau knew that the passat Kosen wa s undefended

,but said that it would be

time enough on the morrow. He went to bed and sleptsoundly .

In the middle of the n ight the commander-in-ch ief atlast thought i t might be prudent to guard the passesover the Saale against surprise

,and therefore ordered

that thi s should be done on the 14th,and

,of course

,


by the time h is order was penned every pass wa s al readyi n F rench hands .At th is famous council of war held by the King i n

Auerstadt, Old Brunswick, the commander, could notkeep awake . He dozed part of the time

,and imme

dia te ly after i t was over went to bed and spent fourhou rs in sleep . Prin ce Hohenlohe

,who commanded

the advance army at Jena, also spent the n ight i n bed .

His t roops we re sound asleep when Napoleon’s art i lleryopened fire at daybreak of October 1 4th . The everale rt and enterpri sing Bl ii ch er came i n the n ight withan important message to the King ; the me ssage couldnot be del i vered . The King al so was asleep

,and had

given orders that he was not to be disturbed .

And so the eve of Jena was slumbered away byof Prussia’ s best troops

,commanded by profess i onal

soldiers,who had b een selected for th i s duty by Fred

erick William III . When Queen Luise in the year fol6

lowing,said to Napoleon that Prussia had fallen asleep

on the laurels of the great Frederick, she no doubt hadi n mind the night before Jena .

But Napoleon did not sleep . His men kept on marchi ng steadi ly throughout the night

,occupy ing one good

posit ion after the othe r,unt i l they h ad at las t reached

so far into the P russian rea r that F rederick Williamwoke up to find h imse lf not me rely invited to battle

,

but fo rced to fight , i f on ly to se cu re his retreat .Whateve r the V i ew of th e reader may be as regardsmilitary gen ius in gene ral , I think w e shall agree that inthe presence of so much igno rance

,stupidity

,and laz i

n ess as characte r ized the Prussian command on the 13thof Octobe r, 1 806 , there are fe w average ci tizen sold ierswho might not have achieved undying fame by com -t

manding the French a rmy of that day .


fought against odds far greater than Napoleon’s andach ieved a victory no less decisive .

Marshal Soult was fortunate i n finding the pastor of

We nigenjena in bed . He made h im get up a nd showh im another road from the Saale up to the Jena plateau,on which Napoleon had spent the night . This road

M AP SHO‘VING THE RELATION OF JENA TO PARIS AND BERLIN ,

THE POLITICAL DIVI SIONS OF 1 806

quite as bad as the one Napoleon used,and i s to day a

mere tangle of forest through which falls the d ry bed of

a torrent cal led the Steinbach,or stone beck .

”Soul t

’s

idea, of course, w a s to wedge h i s men, i f possible, between the Prussians near Jena and the rest near Auerstadt ; and he succeeded, thanks to the fact that the

THE GREAT PRUSSIAN STAMPEDE 45

Prussian commander did not suppose that any troops“

would attempt to come up this very rocky and difli cul tdefile . It was really more d ifficult than th e Ste iger,“ climber

,

”up which Napoleon had brough t h i s guns .

The pastor of We nigenjena has been much abused byGerm an writers for having betrayed hi s country to theenemy

,or

,i n other words

,for having guided Marshal

Soult to the plateau above Jena . But let those cast thefirst stone who a re quite sure that they w ould havesought the death of a martyr under similar circumstances— a French pistol under each ear.At twenty minutes before six Napoleon commenced

the fight by firing away into the fog,and feel ing h i s

way forward among the sleeping P russian s . At aboutseven o’clock the Prussian commander d iscovered thatthe firing was in h is rear

,and that they had gone to

sleep the night before with their encampment facing th ewrong way . Prussia had some very unwilling Saxonall ies at thi s battle . Thei r commander came to headquarters a t Cape l l endorf after six o

’clock in the morningasking for orders. He was told that there would be nobattle that day .

Then the Prussian general who had drawn hi s troopsaway from the Jena plateau on account of the coldnight ai r thought he had better go back there and seewhat the firing was about . He wa s soon put to rout .At about eight o’clock Prince Hohenlohe

,the Prussian

commander at Jena,finally appeared on the righ t w ing

,

where the tents were sti ll up and the men not yet out .

He had a pleasant chat wi th their commander ; said thatthe men had better make themselves comfortable i n campunti l the fog l ifted ; that there would be noth ing of importance that day ; perhaps a bit of a ski rm i sh— thatwas all .

46 THE GERMA N STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

Shortly after th i s l ittle chat news came that th e Prussian left wing was fighting desperately . At some pointthe Prussian s gained a momentary advantage and madea handful of prisoners . Hereupon P r ince Hohenlohesent off a written message to the gene ral commandingthe reserves

,i n which he said

,

“ I am whipping theenemy at eve ry point .” Then up galloped anotherP russian ge nera l to congratulate th e Prince on having

won a glorious victoryThe fa ct wa s tha t the Prussians we re so badly led that

their num e r ical advantage created li ttle more than confusion . At both Jena a nd Auerstad t thei r cavalry anda rtille ry achieved scarcely anything

,whereas the French

used theirs to excellent e fl'

e ct . The infantry fought aswell as could be expected of m e n who had been welld r i lled but had no confidence i n thei r Ofli cers .

*

By one O’clock Napoleon orde red a general attack atall points

,and by two the P russians we re i n full retrea t

upon Weimar. Cape l le ndorf i s on the way , and herethe Prussian reserves d id their best to make a stand . In

the midst of i t came worse news from the King, i n Auerstadt

,ten miles away

,say i ng that h i s battle was as good

as l ost— to hurry and he lp h im . But there was not t imeto choose . In half

,

an hour the m atter wa s effectuallysettled by the French

,who tumbled the reserves along

w i th the rest head over heels,and sent them madly

A Bri t ish agen t, F rancis James Jackson , reported to h is government that the sp i ri t of the German s march ing to Jena was excel len t ;The Prussians fought w i th a courage almost W i thout example

,

”

etc . ; that “ Hohen lohe had completely defeated the F rench and driventhem back beyond Hof . Russia and Austria are su re to helpand so on th i s official scribe , w rit ing as a m an on the spot

,

”sends tothe Bri tish F oreign Offi ce statemen ts wh ich a w ar corresponden t nowadays wou ld bl ush to put upon the w i res . And yet out of such stuffas this are many h istories concocted —MSS. Re cord Office.


c‘

areering toWeimar, seven miles away ; They did fastrunning

,for some of them got there by four o ’clock

,and

there learned that the French had not only routed thePrussian army at Jena

,but at Auerstadt as well that

they w ere nearly surrounded,and would have to run sti ll

harder if they meant to escape .

Towards night the fugiti ves from Auerstadt j oinedthose from Jena . A pan ic had seized them a l l ; Officerswere brushed aside

,knapsacks and muskets were thrown

away, bannon were left stuck i n the potato-fie l ds, and

the men hurried off with only one desire— to escape apursuing enemy .

Prince Hohenlohe,who had been i n bed when the

battle commenced,a nd who had complacently assured

h i s generals that the 1 4th of October was to be a qui etday

,could hardly have chosen a better t im e than th i s

for shorten ing a li fe wh ich had cost h i s country so muchshame and misery . But he thought otherwi se . AtWeimar be abandoned h is troops to their fate

,and

,w i th

eight squadrons for the protection of hi s precious person

,galloped away in the darkness

,and reached Castle

Villach at ten . But h i s rest h e re wa s spoiled by a falsealarm of French cavalry

,which caused h im at midnight

to hurry ofl'

once more i n a weste rly d i recti on throughthe darkness . He reached Tennstedt at seven of thefollowing morning

,forty - four kilometres (about th irty

miles) from Weimar . But not even here could he rest .The French cavalry were on h is track

,and after a rest

Of one and a half hours he started again,and reached

Sondershausen with only sixty horsemen left out of theeight squadrons that had started w ith h im . He had

A t Auerstad t i t requ i red con siderabl e cl everness on the Prussians ide to succeed in losing the b attl e— for w e had there the ad van tage inal l th ings .”—Boyen , vol . i . , p . 197.


made sixty miles i n that fl ight from Jena, which showsthat a general may develop enormous ene rgy under thespur of fear for his personal safety . Would that he hadshown but half so much before the battle commenced !At Auerstadt the 1 4th of October brought the same

fog that enveloped Jena, twelve miles away . So densewas it that th e eagle-eyed Bl ii che rput h is horse at a row

of French bayonets, th inking he was at an easy hedge .

A volley of musketry taught h im h is mistake .

King Frederick Wi l l iam III . woke up to find that theFrench corps of Davoust had forced a fight upon h im .

The Prussians fought here as aimlessly as at Jena . Thesoldiers did as wel l as might have been expected of menwho were kept from deserting by fear of flogging. Butthe commanders showed here

,as at Jena

,complete igno

rance of their trade.It is almost i ncredible that throughout the battle

,

when the King’s troops w e re at times less than five milesdistant from the army fight ing at Jena

,he never once

received a communication to say even that a fight wasi n p rogress . Here was a Prussian army of ove r onehund red thousand men divided into two parts

,neither

pa rt knowing what the other was doing.

Towards noon the King sen t fo r rei nforcementsfrom Cape l lendorf, which i s half-wav betwee n Jena a ndWeimar. He supposed that the troops at Jena werelying idle

,and would soon arr i ve and help dri ve the

French from the field and make h im maste r Of the day .

But the reserves did not come . The Prussians blunderedabout aiml essly

,owing to confl icting orders . The Duke

of Brunswick w a s shot in one eye,the bullet passing out

through the other. He was carried helpless from th efield , and the command devolved upon anybody whochose to give orders . The day had begun w ith no plan ;


on the following morning he ventured to stop for restat the Vi llage of Sommerda, which i s about twenty mileswestward of A ue rstad t as the crow fl ies

,but must have

been twice as far to them travell ing in the dark overan unknown country . Strange to record

,the Prussians

had no detailed map of the region immediately aboutJena .

Sommerda may be found by running th e eye northward from a point half-way between Erfurt and Weimarfor about fifteen miles . It i s not a town that gu idebooks notice not even a German Baedeker. Yet herei t was that a nephew of Frederick the Grea t turned tothe faithful Bl ii cher

,who had stuck to his King through

out thi s horrible day and night,a nd said

,

“ Let us congratulate ourselves upon having got out of the scrapeso well l”

The two armies that desperately struggled for space O11the road leading from the two battle-fie lds to Weimarhoped that the re

,at least

,they would find rest . The

generals expected to find some arrangements alreadymade to defend the place

,give the b roken batta li ons

a chance to catch their breath,and at least pre pare

something to eat . But they were rudely di sturbed i nthese calculation s, and all night long unde r Goe the

’

s

window stormed the great army of un iformed trampsc rowding ; pushed from beh ind ; draggingblindly along anywhe re

,SO long as i t was

gl ish ass i stance a nd the battle of Jena d id the rest.sord er of Prussian affai rs i s reflecte d in a despatch ofLondon Foreign Offi ce , dated Cuxhaven ,

October 26,

at d isastrous day (Jena) rendered i t impossibleroute wh ich h is Prussian Maj esty intended toc inge to wh ich he might be u l timate ly comondou Record Office.

METTE’

RNICII , AUSTRIAN PRIME-MINISTER[Afterth e pa inti ng by S irThomas Lawrence ]


away from the French bayonets . Out i n the Open country beyond

,the rabble plundered what it could not beg

,

and caught such snatches of sleep as even hunted m e n

i ndulge i n .

But on those two battle-fie l ds th e night was sadderst ill . There had been a long day ’ s butche r y— a kill ingmatch between Prussians and Frenchmen .

Cannon-balls and musket-balls had scattered over theground for mi les dead bodies

,and

,worse sti ll

,thousands

of helpless wounded . The French conquerors were noworse than others in the same position ; they had no

t ime to waste over the fallen ; thei r business was to follow and finish the work of destruction . So forwardgalloped th e cavalry ; and after them chased the horseartill ery . Thei r path lay straight towards the flyingenemy

,and bad luck to the helpless bodies that squirmed

and groaned in the furrows as the heavy wheels bumpedand crashed over the ground ! So ends the day of Jena .

Whoever wishes to know more about i t,let h im consult

the massi ve and authoritat ive work by Le ttow-Vorbeck,

a reti red Ge rman colonel .The lesson of th i s day ought to be treasured by us who

bel ieve i n pe rsonal l iberty and self-government . Herewa s an army of over men

,all p rofessional soldiers ;

led by a King whose education was purely mili tary ; comm ande d by ofli ce rs who kn ew noth ing outside of the profe ssion of arms . They fought on their own ground

,in

defence of thei r country they were superior i n cavalry,

artillery,and infan try to the French . Thi s army was

completely defeated by an enemy which employed nonovel method of warfare, wh ich commanded no source ofknowledge inaccessible to the Prussians . Napoleon conducted the F rench campaign

,but he achieved hi s v ictory

by acting upon principles Of warfare common enough in


his time . H e had no Napoleonic tact ics i n fact, hehad no tactics at all . His t roops had none but the olddrill regulat ions of 1 791 , and even these were not un iformly applied . He let each gene ral dri l l h is troops muchas he chose .

In fact,the closer Napoleon i s studied the more do we

see that he was great in h i s day beca use he was simple .

When be determined to a ttack Prussia he gathered thelargest number of troops togethe r a nd marched straightupon Be rl in . He took care tha t h i s men we re well fed,while those of Prussia were sadly in want . He gave h is

m en warm cloaks to sleep in ; the Prussians had none .

*

He kept h imself informed of the whereabouts and strength

of his enemy the Prussians d id not . He kept h is troopsalways in hand , so that when be determine d on battle hecould st r ike one hard blow i nstead of a seri es of wea kones the P russians d id just the reverse . These featuresof Napoleon ’s behavior i n war were not new to any oneof that day who kept h is eyes open . But the Prussiana rmy was full of Old men whose self-conceit made thembl ind . The Ame r ican war (1776—1 783) had demonstratedthat citizen soldiers, led bv ente rprising men of practicalse nse

,were more than a match for the regulars of the

Engl ish King. Thi rty thousand Germans had bee n soldinto the service of the Engl ish in those seven yea rs, ofwhom only about one-thi rd returned f rom America . Butthese few were enough to warn their fellow-countrymen

In October and Nov ember of 1805 the Prussian army had nei therovercoats norwaistcoats ; in stead of wh ich sham w aistcoat pockets w erest itched on to their jackets . Their breeches w ere so t igh t that theyburst when v iol en t movemen t w as made . Their shoes, k amascbe n

schuhen,

’ constan tly remained stick ing in the mud . Their ba ts w ereso smal l as to aff ord no more protect ion against the w eather than the iruseless p igtail s . Th is was the rig in w h ich they moved to war - toJena —Menzel, p . 717 .


against the folly of march ing in sol id battalions againstan enemy that scattered in ski rmish ing line . The Prussian generals w ere

,however

,too much puffed up with

p rofessional p rej udice to learn the lesson taught by thefarme rs of America ; i t took a Jena to bring that lesson

The French learned more readily,because in their rev

olutionary armies n ecess ity forced them to fight as bestthey could

,with li ttle reference to parade-ground tactics.

Napoleon i nherited th is French A rmy of the Revolut ion,

and with i t the fighting methods of men who had beeni n America w ith Lafayette . Napoleon led his men wi thpractical shrewdness and enterprise against obsolete tact ics and muddle -headed generals.On the evening of October 1 4

,1 806

,the Prussian army

,

commanded by all that Prussia classed as aristocratic,

had been converted into a mad mob . The most mi li tarystate of Europe suddenly discovered that i n th e day oftrial soldiers alone

,even when l ed by officers of noble

blood,

”are a poor substitute for l iberty-lov ing citizenscapable of rapid organizat ion .

“ La Prusse enfin oub l ie qu ’el l e n ’est un état que parce qu ’el leé tai t une armée .”—Hauterive to Tal leyrand , November 27, 1805 (Bai lle u,

WHAT SORT OF ARMY FOUGHT THE FRENCH AT JENA ?

Whatever in the fu ture may be attempte d by great or l i t tle ty ran ts ,

they can never again succeed in suppress ing amongst nat ions thesp iri t Of l iberty under the law s , the apprec iation for const i tu ti onalsafeguards and popu lar represen tation .

”—Perth es, i . , 321 .

IT i s difficult to keep i n mind when speaking of Jena thatFrederick the Great had been dead only twenty years ;that the leaders of 1 806 were largely veterans of Frederick ’s campaigns ; that the Prussia of Je ua wa s strongeri n area and populat ion than the P russia which Frederickthe Great controlled and that

,finally

,no m aterial alter

a tion had been made in the admini stration of the army .

Frederick died in 1 78 6, leav ing people and astand ing armv of men . The ablest King Of

Prussi a was succeeded by perhaps the least i ntell igentof Hohenzolle rns

,who loved h is ease and allowed the

gove rnment to d rift a long acco rding to the t radi tion s ofh i s illustrious p redecessor. In spi te of h is faults he increased h is terri tories

,h i s population to n ine mill ions

,

and h i s standing army to a qua rter of a million . When,

the refore, Frede r i ck Will iam III . ascended the th rone in1 797 he had abundan t means for solving the se r i ouspol itical problems which a rose f rom the F rench Re volut ion .

Frede r ick the G reat ruled absolutel y,i n the sen se that

he alone held in h i s hands eve ry department Of govern


the stil l larger number who deserted . So large was thenumber of p r isoners who were made to fight againsttheir own country people that the march of some of h isregiments could almost be compa red to the process ion of

a p r i son gang.

*

In 1 744 be i ncorporated with h is army the troops thathad fought against h im at Prague ; and i n 1 756 he d idthe same with the Saxons whom b e defeated at Pi rna .

The year after he did the same th ing with A ustrians .His recruiting officers pl ied their trade all over Europe

,

with l ittle regard to i nte rnational law,let alone human

i ty . In 1763 no less than 3804 Austrians we re force dinto hi s service . Down to the close of hi s reign wholeregiments were made up of foreigners, although in 1 763he had attempted to check the abuse i n a measure byinsi sting that some pa rt of the army at lea st Should havea majority of native troops for instance

,the m usque te e rs,

grenadiers,cui rassiers

,d ragoons

,and h ussars were par

t icularly designated as being required to have aboutone-fourth more Prussians than fo reigners .Not that Frederick though t the foreign mercenariesfought better than Prussians

,but that in h i s day

,with

a population of on ly four and a half mill ion,he did not

th ink it possible to wi thd raw from indust ry more thanand he had to main tain i n the field

Obviously the re was no othe r way than to send out pressgangs and be not too particular as to whom they broughtin . He was careful

,howeve r

,to prefe r

,where possi ble,

men of German speech a nd Protestant bringing-up .

In 1 806 the term soldi e r might mean thief,d runkar’d

,

bankrupt, tramp— anyth ing you please except a c itizen

They (the soldiers before Jena) deserted en ma sse , wholesale .—Luckow

,p . 61 .

WHAT SORT OF ARMY FOUGHT THE FRENCH AT JENA ? 57

of respectabil i ty ; and the laws that governed h im wereabout what might have been expected .

Any peasant or laborer, no matter how low,was e u

titled to stop any soldie r , ask fo r h is pass, and , i f i t wasnot forthcoming

,take h im to the nearest v i llage and

hand the case over for i nvestigation . Being without apass or refusing to follow was looked upon as tantamount to desert ion . Where a large part of the armywas l iv ing mainly i n the hope of runn ing away

,whe re

a reward for the capture of a d ese rter was paid,and

where no love was lost between the soldiers and thepeople of the count ry

,th i s rule was not allowed to be

come a dead letter.When a soldier actually d id desert

,the whole country

was roused as though an invasion was immin ent . Alarmbells were rung, all roads and passes we re occupied , andevery boat had to be made fast so that the fugiti vecould not use it i n escaping . Whoever harbored a deserter w as hanged

,and whoever captured one was re

warded to the extent of s ix to twel ve thalers,which

would mean the wages which a laborer of that daycould earn i n two months .What I have said refers only to the pleasant t imes ofpeace . In war time Such a th ing as desertion becamemore serious

,and there i s hardly a gene ral o rder of

Fre derick that does not refer to th i s painful subject.H i s generals

,for instance

,are advised not to camp

near woods,lest i t give the m e n an Opportun ity to e s

cape ; that thei r tents must be frequen tly inspected atn ight ; that h ussa rs must patrol about camp ready toride down dese rters

,and that sharpshooters are to be

posted i n the fields of grain in order to discourage suchas might seek to h ide there . Whenever a camp offeredopportunities for running away

,the cavalry pickets were


to be doubled ; men should not fetch wood for th ei r fi resor water for their coffee except i n rank formation andunder proper guard ; straggling must be severely punished ; m e n were to avoid march ing i n the dark ; andwhen i t was necessary to march through the woods

,hus

sar patrols must march along on ei ther side to kee p aneye on would-be deserters . When a defile i s to be trave rse d

,Officers must be posted at either e nd

,and the men

counted as they pass i n and as they pass out, so that adesertion can be immediately traced ; and if i t becomesnecessary to retreat

,all i nformation on the subject must

be suppressed ; or i f that be impossi ble, then the circumstances must be glossed over as well as possi ble .

But Frederick added advice,without wh ich all severity

would be in vain,that the men must be well fed

,must

have plenty of meat,bread

,brandy

,and straw

,and must

not be cheated of their perquisi tes .Slaves w ill work better for a good than a bad master

,

and such troops as Frederick commanded did for h imwhat they never accompl i shed for another.The t reatment which the P russ ian sold ier recei ved i sshocking to the feel ings we affect to day

,but i n that gen

cration,when peasants

,soldiers

,and helpless people were

accustomed to kicks and cufl’s, Frederick’s army was any

th ing but disliked . Soldiers of his t ime would ratherhave severe treatment under a victo r ious flag than peaceful t imes and no booty and while desertion was a common Offence

,i t was perhaps less so i n the army of Fred

erick than i n that of any Of h i s neighbors .Desert ion was most frequent among the f oreigntroops

,but not unknown among the King

’s subjects ;and we may trace th is mainly to the fact that the soldierwas treated as a person without self-respect . He wasabused by h is Officers not merely with scandalous epi


the other hand,were as much amused at the absurd trai ns

which followed the headquarters of F rederick Wi lliamIII . He himself set a bad example by al lowing QueenLuise to accompany h im i nto the field . The Old Duke

of Brunswick brought a French mistress as part of hi sbaggage one lieutenan t included a piano as pa rt of h iscamp fu rn itu re

,and in gene ral the proportion of whee led

veh icles to fighting fo rce i n 1 806 would have scandal izedthe commander Of the German army that march ed toSedan in 1 870. An idea of the prevail ing milita ry spiri t1s afforded us in an anecdote by Boyen

,who was sub

sequen t]y M inister of Wa r . Before Jena,a gen eral ofli

ce r of dist inction said to h im : “ It i s not at a ll a goodthing to have educated (gebt

'

lde te ) generals . The com

m ande r- in-ch ief,a nd another to command the advance

column,i s qu ite enough . The rest should have nothing

to do but to pitch i n otherwise there w i l lalways be disputes .”

If th i s were not repeated by one incapable Of guile itwould be too ridiculous to adduce here by way of i llustra tion ; but unfortunately for Prussia there is more tha nenough evidence to show that th is speech found echoth roughout the army

,and that the same men who flogged

soldiers forhaving a button Off their gaite rs we re as s ince re i n bel ievi ng that ignorance was the mother of goodleadersh ip as that flogging was the parent of soldierlyv irtues .

A PRUSSIAN CHRONICLE OF NOBLE CRIMINALS

Queen Lu ise to her brother George, May 28 , 1807 God knows whatis to become of us . But I can at least promise you that noth ingshal l happen against the honor of Prussia .

”

Germans spoke th e name of F rederick (th e Great) as a name belonging to every German .

”—Arndt. Getst der Zei t, p . 3.

NOBLEs only,

”once said Frederick the Great,

“possessin general the sense of honor

,and on that account i t i s

important that we draw our Officers as much as possiblefrom that class .”

How savagely and how soon th is dictum of the greatKing was to be tested

,few i n Germany imagined ; least

Of all that the blame of Jena should be traced directlyto the cowardice

,self-conceit

,i ndolence

,and ignorance

of Ofli cers trai ned i n th i s school .On October 1 4

,1 806

,the Prussian King left h i s army

,

when,i f ever

,h is p resence might have been of use . He

hurried away without having done anyth ing to provide for the future ; hi s comm ander ~ in ~ ch ie f was nomore

,and no one appeared to know which way to

turn . Napoleon lost no time i n recognizing the Si tuation,

and set off in such hot pursui t that w ithin ten days fromleaving Jena he was comfortably installed in the favorite summer residence of Frederi ck the Great

,at Potsdam

,

about fourteen miles out of Berlin,having traversed about

two hundred miles of the best part Of Germany as agree


ably as i f he had come by special i nvi tat ion of the King.

While enj oy ing the luxuries of Sans Souci , the namewhich Frederick the Great had given to th i s charmingpalace

,he uti l ized the Opportuni ty of V i sit ing the church

where the great Prussian King l ies buried . Strangethoughts must have passed through the Corsican ’s mindas he contemplated the tomb of that man . What i f Frederick the Great had been lead ing Prussia i n 1 806 ? Couldthi s be the same Prussia ? And so easi ly conquered ?

For when Frede r ick died , Napoleon w as already sixteenyea rs ol d . Whatever hi s philosoph ic reflect i ons mayhave been at th i s time

,we know that h e marked hi s ad

m ira tion for Frederick by steal ing a sword belonging tothat monarch and sending it to the Inval ides”i n Pari s .It was popularly supposed that Napoleon sent to Pari sFrederick’s battle-sword

,but th i s i s a mistake . That

sword had been saved i n time . Napoleon secured onlya sword that had been presented to Frederick by theEmperor Paul of Russia .

On the way from Jena,Napoleon passed the battle

field of Rossbach,where i n 1 757 Frederick the Great

and h is Prussians,numbering only had put to

fl ight an army of Frenchmen and thei r all i es numbering The stone commemorating th is battle h eordered removed to Pari s— as though he could alter theh istorica l fact by Sh ifting the historical record !In parenthesis we m ay say that Napoleon , i n hi s Ger

m an campaigns, stole everyth ing that took h i s fancypictures, statues, money, curios, pri vate papers— in short,was held back by no conventional notions Of honesty orsocial decency .

*

* Lanfrey pu ts the con tribution de guerre (1807) atfrancs. p lus a l arge amount of art works stolen, which Visconti enu~

A PRUSSIAN CHRONICLE OF NOBLE CRIMINALS 63

From Jena onward through Pruss ia the French armyhad a march almost as pleasant as that of their greatcommander. While Napoleon journeyed on a straightl ine towards Potsdam and Berl in

,a strong force went i n

pursuit of the King’ s remnants .* The Prussians fromJena attempted to reach Stettin

,at the mouth of the

Oder. But the French had the shortest road , straight

mere tes as fol lows : Peintu res, 350 ; manuscri ts , 282 ; statues, 50;bronzes, 192 etc . —Lanfre y , iv. , p . 152 .

“Wh en the “ regu lars had run away they left Berl in in charge ofth e c it i ze n m i l i ti a , the Burgerga rde ; and here is a n i l l u stration of thesort of stuff that composed it :

Our capta in d id not know what to do . I t seemed he feared lestthe F rench migh t take us for Prussian regulars and treat u s as enem ies ; and we w ere not in a position to de fend oursel ves . We triedto al lay h is fear

,and succeeded ; for it w as too rid icu lou s to th ink

th a t a Bdry ercomp agm’

e, a company of m i l i t ia , common ly n icknamed

‘scrubby sha nks ’ (Ra uhbei m

‘

gen) should be m istaken for regu lars .

More l ikely th ey woul e be taken for n i ght-watchmen .

But our ca p ta in insi ste d that i t w as necessary to show the Frenchm e n mi li ta ry honors when th ey rel ieved ou r sentry post , and we mus tpresen t arms to them when they appeared .

“ On inqu iry , it turned out that on ly one man knew how to prese n t a rms—an Old cobb ler ’s appren tice, who had served in the army .

On the approach of th e F rench guard-moun t ing troops, ou r cobhler ’s appren ti ce shouted in a very strong vo ice , to turn ou t the guard ,w hereupon ou r ca p ta in t remu lously ordered us to seize our muskets .The Frenchmen,

two companies strong , marched through the palacegate from the Sch l oss fre ihe i t (west gate) , making a tremendous noisew i th the ir drums . Our captain commanded

,

‘ Prese n t arms. ’—We

w en t th rough our m ovemen t ; bu t be fore w e cou ld complete i t wewere unceremon ious ly shoved out Of the way from the left flank .

Our whole company flew in to every d i re ct ion , l ike a flock of sca redp igeons . The F rench took our places , but took no noti ce whate ver ofus . They se ized al l our sen try posts , accord ing to the ir Own fancy,wi thou t so much as By you r leave . ’ Not one of us was properly rel levad . Ea ch one scam pered home as he fe l t l ike it. Our capta inshook h is he ad and sa id , Ve ry impos ing , but not po l ite l' —KlOden,p. 224 .


through Halle,Wittenberg

,and Berlin . The poor worn

out P russians had to describe an arc running through

Magde burg, Ta ngerm iinde , Prenzlau, pass ing Berli n fiftymiles to the westward , and wea r ing themselves out uselessly in a desperate race dest ined to end only in further

d isgrace .

The even ing of Jena,October 14th

,the French occu

pied Weima r— Goethe’ s house amongst others . Nextday they went on to Erfurt

,about fourteen miles west

ward . Thi s town was a strong fortress, w i th a garri sonof Prussian soldiers . A prince was in commandhere

,though not Prince Hohenlohe . The French ap

pe ared before the gates w ith a small detachment of cava lry and demanded surrender. The prince p romptly aoceded

,and on October l 6th the soldiers were

handed over as prisoners of w ar,along with an immense

amount of mi l itary stores — for Erfurt had been originally designated as the ch ief base of supplies for th ePrussian army .

Thi s was the first fortress to fal l,and it fell w ithout

a single blow . The Prussi ans were rounded upl ike cattle

,and marched off i nto captivity by an escort

of only 500Frenchmen . In fact,the French had so

'

fe w

men at Erfurt that they could not even furnish the necessary gua rd-mounting.

The fact that Prussians could be tamelymarched out of Erfurt by th i s small number of conquerors argues of itself a very scant desire for l iberty on thepart of the But a plucky young hussar l ieute nant named Hel lw ig

,a German

,who fancied that a l l

Germans - d readed shame more than death,determined

to f ree h i s fellow-sold iers . He ambushed himself nearEi se nach , whe re l ittle Ma rti n Luther had been atschool

,and there

,under the shadow of the Wartburg

,

66 was GERMAN STRUGGLE Pe a Li anarr

m i les westward of Stettin . Here he became frightenedby a handful of Frenchmen

,and surrendered the town

and his whole command w i thout even attempting tom ake a fight . This sen t into French captivi ty the fa a

mous Foot-guards of Potsdam and Be rl i n— the King’spet troops . The surrender lost to Prussia a valuablea rmy co rps ; but that was not all . O ther generals arga ed to themselves

,

“Why should I fight,when P r ince

Hohenlohe su rrenders ?” It was a cowardly bit of sold i er-work wh ich placed a stai n upon h is country . Ye t

th is p r incely poltroon was never call ed before a courtmartial . His soldiers he surrendered into captivi ty

,

but h imself sought ease at h is country - seat i n S ilesia .

Stett i n i n 1 806 was commanded by a rickety old

granny of a general eighty-on e years of age . He hadunder h im a st rong fortress

,well suppl ied wi th stores

of all kinds and 5000 m e n,who were rapidly be ing

added to by fugit i ves from the south . Thi s town i s a

most important strategic point, command ing the e n

trance of the Oder and the l i ne of commun ication between the capi tal and eastern Prussia . As we haveseen , the remnants of the Jena army had expected tomake th is their common place of refuge .

On October 29th a French hussar youngster rodei nto the town

,and w i thout wasting words demanded its

surrender. The old governor was so much taken abackthat he refused . The F renchman rode away .

But no sooner had he disappeared than t he old gove rnor called a counci l and hu rriedly drew up papers ofcapitula tion . While they were still at th i s work theF rench l ieutenant retu rned wi th a flag of truce

,and

was immediately given a paper i n Ge rman,which he

was begged to translate into French . Thi s papersur

A PRUSSIAN CHRONICLE OF NOBLE CRIM INALS 67

rendered Stetti n,with all i t contained

,and sent more

than 5000Prussian sold iers into captiv ity .

On October 30th the shame ful act was concluded,i n

the presence of a fe w squadron s of French cavalry andtwo pieces of cannon .

It i s hard to say whether the surrender of Stetti n wa smore or less shameful than any of the others . In 1 809the governor

,who by that time had reached hi s eighty

fourth year, was t r ied by court-martial and sentencedto death . But the King

,no doubt concluding that he

wa s too old to do much more misch ief,pardoned h im

Stetti n had no sooner thrown i tself away than,on

the day following, a single French regiment of infantrypresen ted i tself before Kiistrin

,anothe r great fortress

on the Oder,about sixty miles east of the capi tal . The

Frenchman coolly demanded the surrender of th i s fortress, with i ts garri son of men and ninety guns .The demand was rid iculous on the face of i t

,but rea

sonable to such creatures as commanded Prussian fortre sses a t that time . In fa ct

,th i s very same commander

,

st range as i t may seem,had a lready been once d ismissed

from the service for coward ice,but

,st range r still

,had

be e n reinstated through family influence . We seem tobe moving through a w icked ( lre am la nd when forced tonote such mili tary events as these in a count ry whicha few years before was the en vy of a l l sold iers .With in a short distance to the nor theast of thi s towni s the l i ttle v illage of Zorndorf

,where the great Fred

erick,wi th only m e n

,ga i ned a splend id victory

over Russ ians ; and now i n 1806 the town i tself,w ell wa l led , we ll manned , well a rme d , su rrendered to ahand ful of Frenchmen

,and a l l be cause the King o f

Prussia had chosen to make commande r of th is place


one who had already been convi cted of gross unfitne ss

for a post of any kind .

The Prussian King and Queen had been here shortlybefore

,had inspe cted the place i n pe rson , and enjoined

upon the commande r h is duty to hold it to the verylast extreme ; for the longer the French could be delayed i n their eastward march

,the more time was

gained for the Russian all ies to arrive,and new regi

ments to be raised in those parts of th e kingdom thathad not yet suffe red by the war.The commandant

,however

,no sooner heard the

French summons to surrender than‘

he quickly calledthe inev itable council

,and urged upon them the meces

sity of i mmediate surrender. The i ndignant garrisonthrew down their arms in the marketp lace— 2400Prussian soldiers surrendered themselves prisoners of war tothree companies of French infantry with i n the walls oftheir own fortress

,on November 1

,1 806 . Not a shot

had be en fired,not a gun pointed .

Thi s commandant,a count

,was also tried by court

martial after the war. He was condemned to death,

but the King commuted h i s sentence also .

Five fortresses surrendered w ith in two weeks of Jena,

and so rapidly as to look as though their commanderswere in F rench pay . This i s sure l v enough for one season . But no ; all these together are trifl ing compared tow hat followed . The day that saw the handing over ofKii strin was the one on which th e commander of Magde

burg swaggered about saying that he,at least

,would

never surrender unti l the firing got so hot as to burn thehandkerch ief i n h i s pocket . This man

,l ike h i s colleague

at Kus trin , had be en once cash iered for cowardice, andlike h im reinstated in a command that represented oneof the strongest places i n the k i ngdom,

seventy-five miles


plenty of war material, and could make a long fightof i t .The commandant promptly called h im to order inthese words : You a re the youngest one here . You

w ill give you r opin i on when i t i s asked !” And thenthey proceeded to sign the contract of shame

,and filed

away i n silence .

Napoleon had a spl endid bulleti n to publ i sh on the1 2th of November : We have made p r i soner 20gene rals,800officers

,soldiers

,of whom 2000are a rtille r i sts .

Besides,54 fiags, 5 standa rds, 802 cannon ,

pounds of powder,a great pontoon train

,and an enor

mous amoun t of a rtillery material .”

Kulmbach,about eight miles from Ba ireuth

,i s no

longe r a fortified place,and is remembered only from

the name on th e label of beer-bottles . In 1 806,how

eve r , it surrendered to the French wi thout firi ng a shot,on Novembe r 25th .

Ham el in,the same that behaved so badly to the Pipe r

,

d id wo rse th ings sti l l on Novembe r 2 1,1 806 ; fo r on

that day it su rrende red a fo rtress,i ts ga r r i son of

m e n,and a splendid supply of wa r material to a F rench

man who had unde r h im but 6000all told . Only a fe wdays before

,the commandan t had proclaimed that who

eve r talked of capitulation should be shot . Amongth e younger office rs

,who felt keen ly the da stardly cha r

a cte rof h is commander’ s act,was one of the few F rench

men who have succeeded in becoming good Germa nsthe b r i lliant poet Chamisso . He wrote to a frie nd A n

othe r stai n rests upon the name of Germany this day ;it i s consumm ated the cowardly deed is done ; the townhas su r rendered Thi s was the poet whose tale of them a n w i thout a shadow was to make him famous . It i sneedless to say that the commandant of Hameli n was

A PRUSSIAN CHRONICLE or NOBLE CRIMINALS 71

of noble name,a weak-headed old man of seventy-five .

His crime was partly atoned for by the fact that nearlyall the garrison deserted before the French entered the

Breslau,the capital of Si lesia

,one of the richest towns

in the country,and soon to become the centre of a new

German patriot ism,wa s surre nde red under d isgraceful

circumstances on the 5th of January,1 807. Near here

,

in 1 757, the great Frederick, wi th men ,engaged

and completely routed an a rmy of Austrians,

captured over pri sone rs, 134 cannon , 4000 fieldwagons

,and 59 standards — by th i s blow once more

bringing all of S ilesia wi th in h i s power. And men werestill i n the army who had fough t under this commander.

Not far from Breslau,th i rty miles i n a southwesterly

d irecti on,li es the fo rt ress of Schweidnitz , that sustained

four sieges in the Seven Years’ War

,and wa s eager to

stand another when Napoleon ’s men demanded its surrender. Its commandant

,another rotten branch of the

King’ s tree , was, by h is officers , suspected of treachery,

and to quiet thei r suspicions he bombastically procla imedthat so long as I am in command a capitulation i s notto be thought of l” On the next day he surrendered thefortress . There were other d i sgraceful surrenders duri ng these weeks — le t us skip the rest . It i s a d i rtychronicle of treachery

,coward ice

,and incapacity . The

America n war of i ndependence developed one BenedictArnold i n seven years

,but this short campaign deve loped

a dozen in as many weeks . If I have dwelt to monotonous length upon these shameful surrenders

,it i s that

they de se rve to be remembered a t a t ime when some ofthe great mili ta ry powers of Europe a re d ri fting towardsa revival of ari stocratic pre tensions ba sed upon the profe ss ion of arms a lone . It is well to recall that i n 1 806


the d isgrace of Prussia was brought about by an armyofficered a lmost exclusively by nobles . The most flagrant cases of i ncapaci ty and cowardice were those ofh ighly placed ari stocrats leading the l ife of the profe ss ional sold ier. This does not prove that men of nobleblood may not be worthy sold iers

,but i t does warn us

that pedigree and t itle are not of themselves sufficientto save men from the consequences of vanity

,idleness

,

self - indulgence,ignorance

,or any other of the many

faili ngs that undermine character.


i n the morn ing,I was ca lled by the Queen to the palace .

She had arri ved during the night . I found he r w itheyes i nflamed from tea rs

,hair down her back— a picture

of despai r. She came towa rds me, saying, Everyth ingis lost ; I must fly with my ch ildren

,and you must go

w i th us.

’ That was at six O ’clock in the morning. Atten o ’clock he was off w i th the Queen , hav ing had justtime to leave final di rection s of the greatest impo rtance .

But Luise had been allowed no t ime either to packup or even to collect her most private pape rs . She hadbeen stopped when dri ving from Weimar to Aue rstadton the eve of the battle, and orde red to get out of theway to a safe place . So back she drove to Berl in .

On October 1 4th,an hour before Napoleon ’s arti l

lery began to play upon her husband’s sleepy tents,

Lui se started agai n from Weimar,escorted by sixty

cavalrymen . The roads were bad ; the Queen’s carriage

broke down,and she abandoned it for an open trap .

On the 1 5th she heard that he r husband had gained aglorious victory

,and on October 1 7th she reached Berl in

to learn that her crown was i n danger,that sh e must

not stop,but fly on to the Baltic— to Stettin .

So off hurri ed thi s h unted Queen on the 1 8 th,not

being allowed even one n ight’s rest after being thumpedand bumped over very bad roads fo r th e last four days .She left he r lady-in-wait ing

,the p r im ol d Countess Voss,

to hurry up the packing and follow on the 1 9th ; but theold lady wa s evidently too much fiustere d by the gene ralpan ic to do much

,for when Napoleon took possession

,

five days later,he amused h imself by reading the p r ivate

correspondence of the Queen,and rummaging like a

sneak her most private possessions .*

* Napoleon ’ s 19th Bul letin sa id of Queen Lu i se that she had a

A FUGITIVE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA 75

During th is fl igh t from Jena,Lui se had no news

whate ver of her husband unti l she reached Stettin,two

hund red and fifty mile s away . She had absolutely noidea of the gen e ral s tate of the country

,and no one to

whom she could turn for advice .

The Governor of Be rlin,

* when he heard tha t hi sKing had lost a battle

,took no steps towards placing

the capital i n a state of defence . He discouraged thepeople who a ttempted to organize ; he d id not evensee k to remove the mili tary stores to a place of safety .

The patriots who felt that ci tizens should fight forthei r home and country were met by thi s placard uponall the walls “ The citizen ’ s first duty is to be quiet .”

This wa s the governor who met Queen Luise i n Berl i non the nigh t of October 1 7th and ord ered her to moveaway ea rly next morning to Stettin . He too

,l ike th e

cowardly commanders of the fo rt resses,bore a h igh

sound ing name of patricia n origin . Had a plain,honest

sold ier commanded Berl in then,he m ight have saved

h is country . He would have greeted h i s Queen withword s somewhat i n thi s sense :

“ The King has lost a battle . What of that ? The

grea t Fred erick also lost battles now and then . Napo

pretty e nough fac e , bu t lacked intel l igence— “assez jol i e de figu re ,

m ais de peu d ’espri t . Tou t le monde avoue que l a Re ine estl'a ute ur dcs maux que sou iIrc l a nation prussienne . On en l e nd d i reparlo ut : Com h icn el le a changé depu is cette fatal e en tre vue avec l

’

Em

percu r A le xandre l On a trou vé dans l 'a p parteme n t qu'

ha bi tnit

la Re ine a Potsd am le portrai t de l ’Em pcre urd e Russ ia dont cc princelui ava i t fa i t presen t. Few great generals have e ver stooped so lowas this in the art of making wa r.

Be rl in in 1806 wa s relati vely q u i te as handsome a ca p i ta l as it isto day . Its to tal popu lat ion ,

includ ing the ga rrison of troops ,was nearly of whom 488 2 we re F rench a nd 8036 Jews—theJews be ing then class ed as fore igners .


leon has only men . Let us make a stand here,and hold our ground unti l the King can gather a newarmy . Berl in i s Splend idly s i tuated for defence . TheBerl iners are plucky and patriot i c . They love thei rQueen

,and will d ie rather than hand her a prisoner to

the French . The King has more than menwho were not engaged at Jena ; Napoleon i s farfromh is base ; the Russians are marching to our assistance ;the winter i s coming on ; the advantage will be all onour side .”Had

,

the Governor of Berl i n spoken i n th i s spirit to'

the hunted Queen,she would have responded with e u

thusiasm . The cit izens would have thrown up earthworks as they did i n 1 8 13

,and the French would have

received a check .

But all over Prussia i t was “ l ike master,like man”

the King was weak,his generals cowards . Luise reached

Stetti n on the 2oth , and the re first learned that theKing was at Kii strin . So off she hurried to that fortress

,almost back over the same road towards Berli n .

Thence th e news of pu rsui t drove the pai r togetherto Danzng,

and thence to KOn igsbe rg— that grand oldPrussian ci ty

,where they had spent days of proud hap

p ine ss so ve ry recently .

What the King did i n these days,when energy was

most needed,we cannot discover

,beyond that he brooded

ove r hi s fate,and let everything drift . At K iis trin he

m ight have talked with Hardenberg, who also passedthrough the place

,but no meeting took place .*

“ The confusion is past al l conception both in the mi l i tary and

every other department—there real ly i s a total d isorgan ization of thestate . To th i s moment we are unacquain ted who conducts theaff airs of the Foreign Departmen t [of —MS. report of Consu l Drusina to the Bri t ish Foreign Office .

A FUGITIVE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA 77

For many days Lu ise was separated from her ch i ldren

,but at last they were united

,on December 9th

,at

KOnigsbe rg. Two of them had fal len i ll,and the mother

nursed them unti l sh e too fel l il l .“At last

,

”wrote Doctor Hufeland,

“ the savage typhoid fever seized our noble Queen . She was in a crit icalcondition , and never shall I forget the night of December22

,1 806

,when she lay wi th her l ife i n danger. I was

watching at her bedside,and so terrible a storm was

raging that one of the gables Of the old castle she inhabi te d blew down

,and the ship which contained all

there was left of the royal treasure had not yet come to

“ Suddenly came the news that th e French were approaching . She immediately declared , positi vely , Iwould rather fa l l by the hand of God than i nto thehands of these men .

’

“And so on the 5th of January in the coldestwea ther, i n the midst of storm and snow,

was she borne100miles along the strip of sand [Curische Nehrung] toMeme] . We spe nt three n igh ts and three days on th isj ourney

,driving at times through the surf of the Baltic

,

sometimes over ice .

Our n ights were spent i n the most miserable quarters . The first night Queen Luise lay in a room withbroken wi ndows . The snow was blown i n over her bed .

She had no nouri sh ing food .

Never did a queen know such want .Th is journey under the most favorable conditions of

summer wea ther i s bad ; for the narrow sand stri p i s asblea k and inhospi ta ble as the de se rt— no road

,no vi llage,

only a flshe rma n’

s cabin now a nd then .

Arrived i n Memel,

‘ they found that the King hadmade no suitable arrangements for her rece ption , and


she wa s ca r r i ed up-stairs on the a rms of a servant . Shewa s very weak

,but rather better than otherwi se for the

fresh a ir.

Meme l i s the northernmost town of Germany,a short

walk from the Russian border. H ere i n 1 802 she hadfirst m e t the young Cza r Al e xander, and here had thatgallant young Russian vowed eternal fideli ty to Prussiaand F rede r ick William III . That '

a s a t r i umphal journey indeed

,full of every i ncident calculated to inspi re a

mona rch with confidence in h imself and h is future .

Poor Luise felt now what misfo rtune meant . In the

MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF QUEEN LUISE ’

S F LIGH T AND THE

TERRITORY OVERRUN BY NAPOLEON IN T HE W INTER OF 1806

(From th e author‘

s MS. map, by spe cia l pe rm iss ion from the one Wh lch wa s ca ptured from Napol eon On hisre tre a t from Moscow


a t Graudenz, for Luise set them an example of cheerfuldevot ion which no sold ier could resi st . Her chi ld wasi l l i n KOn igsberg, but she stayed with her husband , hel ieving that her p resence was necessary a t th is cri sis .While she was travel ling the lonely road betweenStetti n and Kustrin

,whi le rumors of F rench skirmishes

were heard on all sides,and at a moment when the inn

keepers knew that th e Prussian army had ceased toexist

,and that Napoleon reigned in Berli n

,she arri ved

at a small relay station called Barwalde . Fresh horsesfor her carriage were demanded and promised . Shewaited

,but no horses came . Ten minutes became half

an hour,and stil l no sign of horses . She must have re

ca lled a simi lar episode that befell Louis XVI . shortlybefo re he was handed over to m ob justice . H e r a tte ndant went to make inqu iries

,a nd di scovered

,to thei r

alarm,that th e innkeeper had not on ly h im self my ste ri

ously disappeared , but had taken the horses with h im .

To the honor of Germans be i t recorded that in allthese dark days th is i s the only treache ry chargeable toa man of th e people . The traitors of those times werealmost exclusively cavaliers

,courtiers

,professional sol

d iers— the pick of P russian a r i stocracy. As we shallsee later

,Germany found her st rength and safety in ap

pealing to the plai n people of the country,who did not

brag about thei r blood,but spi lled i t freely on the battle

field .

The King,too

,had an opportunity

,j ust before leav

ingKOnigsberg, of pondering on the condition of crownless monarchs . That old palace was grand to look at

Golden Eagle on top of the p i l lar at th is poin t m igh t look in at h isw indow . I often saw h im from below , as he paced u p a nd down theroom wh i le he dictated , h is hands beh ind h is back .

—Kl6den,p . 231,

1806.

A FUGITIVE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA 8 1

from the outside, but had not been properly furn ishedwithin . In order to make Quee n Luise comfortable

,there

fore,the richest ci tizens of the town had cont r ibuted

their fu rn i ture . But when they heard that the royalfamily were leaving

,flying from the French advance

,

and pre sumably hurry ing away into a Russian exile,

t hese good citi zens hastily backed thei r carts up to thepalace doors

,a nd commenced each to carry away hi s

chairs and pillows . The King was sti ll i n the palace,and wa s unwill ingly a wi tness to this moving of furn iture from under h im . It seemed a presage of helplessness . He never forgot that scene i n KOn igsbe rg.

*

While Quee n Luise lay between l i fe and death in theold Konigsberg Castle, on the l at of January, 1 807, thel ate Emperor Will i am entered upon the year i n whichhe was to celebrate h i s tenth birt hday . According toPrussian custom , he wa s at the age entered as an Officerin the crack regiment Of Footg uards , th e most magn ificent troops of the Prussian army . That custom is rigorously observed to-day

,and many i s th e time that I

have seen Will iam II . i n h i s ch ildhood vainly trying tokeep step on the parade-ground with the giants whomhe was commanding . And now the ch ildren of th i sWi ll iam II . are also enrolled , a nd these al so may beseen on the Potsdam parade-ground vainly stretchingtheir l i ttle legs to keep i n time wi th the long strides be

side them .

It was the grandfather of Will iam II . to whom ,on Jan

uary 1,1 807, wa s given the un iform of the Fi rst Prussian

Konigsberg was evacua ted w i th the grea test degree of prec ip itation . I t is imposs ible to descri be the fe e ble ncss, degradat ion , a nd

w ant of energy w h ich pervad e the w hole of th i s country .

"— F romthe repo rt o f Hu tch inson to the Bri t is h government , January 9,1807 . MSS . in the London Reco rd Offi ce .

l .—6


Guards . The uniform was duly forthcoming, but notso the guards . These glo r i ous four battal ion s had beenat A uerstad t ; had been carr ied away i n the gene ralrou t ; some had been surrendered by Prince Hohenlohe

°

some had be en ki lled ; the bulk had deserted . AtGraudenz on the 2d of November, 1 806, all that remained of the famous guards reported twenty-n ine men .

They had done much forced marching,and were in a

so rry plight as regards uniforms ; many were as badly.

off as Wa shington ’s men at Valley Forge .

When the King and Queen * moved to Memel th eRoyal Foot-guards also moved to what wa s called bycourtesy the seat of government

,the li ttle frontier town

,

whose total population was then 8000,and i s even now.

less than It i s i ndicati ve of Frede r i ck William ’scharacter that at such a time even he felt th e need ofreviewing his guards

,who arri ved in Memel on the 1 4th

of January,hav ing inc reased their number to 210men ,

40 non -commissioned and 5 officers . Little William,

wore the old-fash ioned pigtai l wi th h i s un iform,as d id ,

the m e n,though orders had been i ssued that th i s absu rd

custom should cease in the army . But i t d ied hard :The Prussian guards clung to their pigtails w i th th e‘

The original of the portra it of Queen Lu i se given as the fron t isp iece to th is volume hangs in the Queen of l Innover’

s s tudy at Gm il nd e n , in the Austrian Tyrol . It i s the on ly portrai t in existence w h ichrepresents Lu ise a t th is time of l i fe in a ma nner correspond ing to thedescri ptions we have of her. There are two min ia tures similar to th ison e in the Hohenzol le rn Museum o f Be rl in

,but both are feeble copies ;

Th is portrai t i s con s idered by the Queen of Hanover as the best one ofher aun t, and sh e vouches for i ts au l he n l ici ly . Subsequently Her Majesty presented

-

the author w i th a rep l ica of th is m in i at ure, and i t i s

from thi s that the fron ti sp iece i s ma de . I t i s probabl e that th is min iature w a s pain ted in 1 793

,the year of Lu ise ’ s engagemen t to the Prus

sian K ing,a h en she was on ly seventeen years of age —P. B .


was brushed aside by the Russian commander, whowished a l l th e glory for h imself, and expected to con

quer Napoleon by fighting a great fight w ith overpowering force on his side .

So Bl ii ch e r was once more relegated to inacti vi ty, ashe had been at Auerstadt .

At Friedland , about th irty miles southeast of Konigsberg

, on the 14th of June, j ust e ight months after Jena,Napoleon gave the fini shing blow to what there was leftof Prussia . He knew that Russian s and Prussians weredaily increasing their armies ; that every moment wasprecious ; that h is long line of communication, whichwas about four hundred miles to Dresden , in vi ted operations i n h i s rear ; that h i s troops were beginning togrumble . He therefore determined to collect all themen he could

,to abandon h is line of retreat

,to march

straight upon Konigsberg, and to force a battle at anycost .The Russian commander, Ben igsen , blundered intoNapoleon ’ s t rap

,and before the day was over Napoleon

had come to believe that h i s star led to success,no mat

ter how great ri sk be i ncurred .

Again Lu ise had to pack up hastily,and fly for her

l i fe back to Memel .* On June 1 6th Kiin igsberg surrendered

,and the small remnants of the Prussian army

retired to the other side of the Memel River,wonde r ing

where they should retire to next i n case of another bat

On Jun e 19,1 807, the British Con su l , Lew i s de Drusina , reports to

Cann ing that he fled from Kon igsberg to Memel on the 14th ,the

F rench en tering on the 15 111 .

“On my arri val here I found the whol e

place in the greatest alarm , al l preparing for a fl ight. to Russia, and th e

younger branches o f the royal family going forward to L ibau,etc

.

Lo ndon Record Office MSS .

Strange that in none of the reports of Bri tish offic ial s are any deta i lsof Lu ise ’ s horrible journey from Konigsberg to Memel . —P. B .


Another terrible blow has struck us w e are on the

point of leaving the country— perhaps foreve r . Justthi nk what I am feel ing at th i s moment ! The ch ildren and I must fly as soon as we get news of approaching danger. When the moment of danger comes Ishall go to Riga”(a Russian town on the Balt ic) .

“ God

will give me strength when the black m oment arri vesfor me to cross the frontier of my country . It will takestrength

,but I look up to Heaven

,whence come all good

and i ll ; and I firmly believe that God places upon us

burdens no greate r than we can bea r .“ Once more

,my best of fathe r s

,be assured we are

going down without di shonor,esteemed by a l l th e world

and we shall always have friends,because we have de

served them . I cannot tell y ou how much comfort thi sthought gi ves me . I he ar eve ryth ing with pe rfect tranqu ill ity of mind

,which can only come from a quiet con

science and pure hopes . You may be su re,then

,dear

est father, that we can n ever,never be a l toge the r un

happy,and that many a one weighed down w ith crown s

and good fortune i s not so l ight-hearted,so really happy

,

as we ourselves .” (No doubt a h it at Napoleon’ s m any

c rowns .)A postscript to th i s letter

,dated June 24th

,after th e

Russians had signed a t ruce w i th Napoleon,con tain s

these prophetic words : “My fai th i s not shaken— but Ican no longer hope . My letter to you explain s it— the rei s my very heart and soul . When you read that, y ouhave me enti rely

,dearest father. To do my duty i n l ife

,

to d ie,to l i ve on dry bread and salt— none of these

things can make me unhappy . But do not ask me to behopeful . One who has been th rown down from a heave n— as I have been— cannot again feel hOpe . If any thinggood again happens to m e

,ah

,how eagerly shall I seize

A FUG ITIV E QUEEN OF PRUSSIA 87

i t,feel i t

,enjoy i t ! but I can never hope again . Le t

misfortune come ; for a moment it may cause me sur

prise,but it can no longer break me down

,so long as I

have not deserved i t . Noth ing can drag me into mygrave but i njustice and dishonesty amongst my own people— that I could not standPoor Luise ! She poured out her bleed ing heart i nthose sad days as queens seldom do . She had sufferedmuch— had been chased from one end of her count ry tothe other ; had endured a terrible i llness ; had beensepa rated from her beloved ch ildren while i llness wasamongst them ; had been the cheering help to her low”sp irited husband ; had united the patriotic m e n of Germany about ber— and all because she bel ieved thatAlexander w ith his Russians would take the field inthe spring

,and would not make peace until Prussia

was free .

Luise h ad suffered much between Jena and Friedla nd, but there was more sufferi ng in store for her atT i ls i t.

PEACE WITH D ISHONOR

O Deu tschland , holy fatherl and lThy fai th and lo ve how true !Thou nobl e lan d ! Thou lovely land !We swear to thee anew .

Our coun try ’ s ban for knave and sl ave !Be they the raven ’s food !To E '

eedom’

s battl e march the brave !’T i s fel l revenge w e brood .

”

Ernst Moritz Arndt, from the V aterlandsl ied .

ONE date of peculiarly American sign ificance is July 4,

1776 . Queen Luise was born i n the same year as theUn ited States

,and i t was on the day of “ i ndependence

,

”

1 807, that sh e d rove from Memel to Tilsi t for the purpose of plead ing wi th Napoleon on behalf of herwretched country .

Luise* hated the Corsican conqueror with the insti notive impulse of a high b red

,pure

,and truthful nature .

Sh e knew h im to be both false a nd bruti sh . He hadshown no generosi ty in the moment of victory

,but had

stooped to the publi sh ing of l ies about her pri vate character. He pictured her i n h is bulletins as not merelya n Amazon firebrand

,but as unfaithful to h er marriage

vows— a woman of unchaste character. H e

'

sugge sted

Pasqu ier , in his Mémoires , speak s o f her as La Reine autourde laquel l e v inren t se ranger presque tou s l es hommes d istingués e timportan ts d a pays —a compl imen t never paid to her husband . I . 211 .

90 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR‘

LIBERTY

poe nen , where a room had been made ready‘

for her inthe parsonage . Her carriage had been d rawn by relaysof black horses from the famous stud farm of Trakehnen ,where even to day all the horses for the German Em

pe ror are rai sed . That an y Trakehnen horses escaped

the raids of the enemy during thi s campaign is in i tselfremarkable

,for the estate i s only about forty miles

southeast of Tilsi t .When I visi ted the vil lage of Pik tupoen en I could findno trace of the h isto r i cal events that had happened there .

The parsonage had been burned down,and a newone

e rected i n i ts place . A great windmill dominated thecluster of houses

,from the roofs of which one could look

over into Russian territory .

Lui se travelled through a pretty country, but overroads of primi ti ve construction

,for she requ i red all day

for these few fifty miles . She had time to'

th ink overthe pa rt she was called upon to play

,and to recal l the

part played by the professed]y dear friend and ally Alexander. Luise had been kept well informed of the doingsof th is showy and sentimental young Russian , and shegrew to d istrust h im as much as she disliked Napoleon.

96

Pasqu ier ( i 304 and 333) refers to th e Russian Czar’s -behav ior

towards F rederick Wil l iam in 1807 and 1 808 as that of a trai tor andth ief ; interested

'

In the dépou i l le de 1’al l ié” th e p l undering of h isal ly ’

F rom the Le tters of La dy Burghersh ,London

, 1 893

FBANKFT . ,De cember3, 1 813.

I never was so d isappoin ted as in the Emperor A l exander, He isthe image of on ly fair in stead of red

, and al so very l ik eW. ,the

dentist. He has certain ly fine shoulders, bu t beyond that he is borr ib ly i l l -made . He holds h imsel f ben t qu i te forward

,for wh ich reason

al l h is court imitate h im and bend too , and gird in their w aists l ikewomen . His coun tenance i s not bad , and that Is al l I ca n say .

A few days later she writes : I can ’ t think h im handsome, and his

voice i s rough and d isagreeab l e .

F REDERICK WILLIAM I II. WA IT ING Fu l l THE END OI“ TIIE

F lfi l l liNCE ON THE RAFT


was first formally stated that Prussia was fighting thecommon enemy of all Germany ; that the v ictory of

Prussia meant the independence of Germany,the foun t

dat ion of a great German Con sti tutional Federation .

”

That all seemed very shadowy to Lui se as she droveby the flower-studded fields of East Prussia . There wasno though t of such possibil i t ies i n her weary spirit .She knew that Napoleon had taken the half of Prussiafor h i s share of th e war spoils . She did not expect thathe would give back much of i t ; but, as she said , pathetica l ly ,

“ If he w i ll give m e back a village or two myerrand will not have been i n vai n .

”

But then she reviewed what had happened at T i ls its ince the truce . Her husband had not been consulted .

On June 25th Napoleon entered a skiff on the southside of the Memel River

,and Alexander at the same

moment pushed off from the north shore . They meton a raft that had been anchored i n the stream at apoint close above the present bridge. On this rafttwo huts had been erected

,decked out w ith boughs

and flowers .*

The Prussian King was not asked to this meeting on

the raf t . He was treated as qui te an outsider to thein terests at stake . The two emperors were on h is landthey had made a truce

,and apparently set about making

a peace wholly at Prussian expe nse j'

I made a sketch of the r iver at th is poin t one beau t i fu l summer ’ safternoon , a nd have seen many p ictures purporting to represen t themeeting of these two emperors . But not on ly do no two pictu resagree one wi th the oth er, but none g ives th e local scenery as i t i stod ay .

f“ Vo ic i l a l imi te en tre l es deux empires

,said Napol eon

,poin t

ing to the Weichsel . “ Votre maitre do i t dominer d ’

un coté , moi

de l ’autre ! —Words spoken be fore T i l si t treaty to Lobanofi ; pre ~served by Banty sch -Kamensky

, and publ ished by h im in 1 839.

PEACE WITH DISHONOR 93

It was raining while th i s interesting raft meetingtook place . During the ra i n Frederick Will iam rodeup and down the north shore of the river

,impati ently

waiti ng for i ts conclusion . But the minutes dragged,

and full three hours pa ssed before the King saw hisnoble ally again .

Two days before th i s raft meeti ng news had comefrom London that England had al ready shipped troopsto Prussi a’ s assistance that plenty of arms

,ammunition

,

and money were also on the way .

* From Austria camealso good news

,that thence

,too

,help would soon arrive .

Natura l ly Luise looked to Alexander as in a posi ti on tomake good some of the promises he had so sentimentallyexpressed over and over again i n the past few weeks .H i s first words on seeing the French Emperor were

,

I hate the English as hearti ly as y ou do, and am readyto help y ou i n everyth ing you undertake against them .

This i s stra nge language to use i n regard to one ’ s all ies .However, for the moment i t seemed to serve the Russ ian ’ s purpose .

Napoleon and Alexander from th is moment becamebosom friends . They dined and supped together. Theywere inseparable . They talked about the past war as a

“A lready , on May 16 . 1807 . Lord Castl ereagh w ri tes to L i eu tenan tGen eral Lo rd Hutch inson , the spec ial Brit i sh agen t in Pruss ia , thatEngland has sh i pped mu skets to Colberg , al so bal lca rtridge s , flints , and some art i l lery . Th is i s soo n to be followed by flints , 5000barrels o f powder, 5000sabres , and manyother th ings . On June 9th . Lord Hu tch i nson reported that he hadpa id to Russ i a a nd to Pruss ia by way of subsidy .

On December 28, 1806 ,

Hu tch inson made a report wh ich only reache dLondon on January 8 1

,1807 . In i t h e quote s a. Pruss ian min iste r as

say ing that Pruss i a d isl iked the idea o f Austrian a ss istance aga ins tNapoleon ,

u pon wh ich the Eng l ishman makes the reflection that Pruss ia had sunk to the cond i t ion of a petty state , st il l propped u p in ameasure by Russ ia a nd England —London Publ ic Record Offi ce MSS.


blunder,and for the future made plans wh ich knew no

l imit sa ve that enforced by l imited imag ination . Russiawa s to conque r all the East ; Napoleon was to remaincontent with all th e rest of the wo rld . Exactly wherethe East was to commence and th e rest of the world tocea se was not qui te defin i tely stated

,and th i s caused

m uch t rouble in the year s that followed, because Russiathe n as now rega rde d Tu rkey as he r legitimate prey .

A t a ny rate, one point was very sati sfactori ly arranged— that Russia should take possession of British India assoon as she found i t conven ient .

Th ree hours a re a long time for two men to talk undero rdinary ci rcumstances

,but when the whole world i s

being mapped out anew i t i s very short i ndeed . And soAlexander thought

,for be quite forgot all about Pruss1a

w h ile a r ranging for th e incorporation of Ind ia as asouthern province of Siberia .

*

At last,and a s a Species of after-thought

,he begged

as a favor that he migh t present to Napoleon hi s dear

L’

Em p ere urA l exandre crut avo ir rempl i tou s l es devoirs dcl’

a tn i tié envers l e Roi de Prusse , e n l u i conservan t nom inalemen t l amoi tié de son royaume ; apres quoi i l parti t , sans meme prendre lap reca ut ion de s

'

a ssurer s i la moi t ié que l e ro i devai t conserver l uisera i t promptemen t rend ue , s i el l e l e serai t p le inemen t , e t s

’

i l n e

sera i t pas obl ige de la racheter encore par de nouveaux sacrifices .On pou va i t le craindre apres l a quest ion brutal e que Nap oleon fi t

un jou r a la Rein e de Prusse :

Commen t ave z vous osé me faire l a guerre,madame

,avec d ’

aussi

fa i bles moyens que ccux que vous av i ez‘ S i i s , j e do is is d i re a votre Majesté

,l a glo ire de F rédéric II .

nous avai t égarés sur notre propre pu issan ce . ’

Ce mot de gloire , s i heureusemen t p l ace, e t a T i l s i t dan s l e salonde l ’EmpcreurNa poleon ,

me parut superbe .

J ’

etai s ind igné de tout ce que j e voyai s , de tou t cc que ] en tendais ,m a i s j ’eta is obl igé de cacher mon ind ignation .

—Mémoz’

res dc Ta l leyra nd , i . , p . 316.

PEACE WITH DISHONOR 95

friend Frederick Will iam . This interview took place onthe day following, a nd on th e same raft . Napoleon treat

ed the hum il iated King w i th m ost conspicuous rude

ness ; acted towards h im as to one asking charity gaveh im less than an hour of h i s time

,during wh ich be ad

d ressed h is remarks almost wholly to Alexander . PoorFrede r i ck William was permitted to be present at someof the impe r ial interviews , but always i n the characterof an interloper . Alexander wa s never at h i s ease un t i lh i s Prussia n ally had le ft them .

The Russian so far forge t h is relation s to both parti estha t h e li stened contentedly wh ile Napoleon joked aboutthe Brandenburg Don Quixote .

” The King remindedAlexander now and then of the famous BartensteinCont ract

,but the Muscovi te answe red always wi th

pla usible evasions . He wa s j ust as false as Napoleon,

but masked h is Oriental quali t ies by a pretension tosentimental ch ival ry which deceived many for a shorttime .

Luise was met on the road to Tilsi t by Hardenberg, ofwhom we shal l hear mo re in coming years . Napoleonknew noth ing of th i s statesman save that he was antiFrench . Consequently he ordered Hardenberg to bed ismissed from the King’ s service

,and exiled to a d is

ta nce of two hundred m iles from the capi tal,whatever

place that migh t be . That Napoleon should give suchan order i s strange enough

,but that a m onarch should

fai l to resent i t i s stranger still .* The ch ival rous Alex

The Bri tish agent in Meme l reported,under date Sep tember 25 ,

1807 , that after the F rench had evacuated Kon i gsberg some we e k s ,“a n ac tor in a m i l ita ry charac ter of a German play transla ted from the

F re nch "wore th e F rench Legion of Honor. Some Pruss ian offi cers

in the aud ience h i ssed the a cto r o il' the s tage . The un i form was

changed and the p lay wen t on . The affa ir was chron icled to Paris .


ander d id not protest, and Hardenberg sought refuge inRussia . But before he went he had a good long talkw i th Luise, and gave her such a picture of the truestate of th ings that she was able to meet Napoleon onless unequal terms than might otherwise have been thecase.It was at th i s time that Lui se wrote of NapoleonHis talents I can admire

,but I do not l ike h i s char

acter,which is obviously false and tricky . It will be

hard for me to behave well i n h is presence . And yetthat i s what they ask of me— and I have grown used tomaking a sacrifice of myself.Napoleon did not pay Luise the compl im ent of takingthe short half-hour’ s drive to Piktupoe ne n , but waiteduntil she came i nto Tilsi t. Then

,after sh e had been an

hour in her rooms,he rode up in state

,surrounded by

a staff of h igh officers,and climbed the narrow stai rs

lead ing to her room .

The house i n which she received Napoleon sti ll stands

Champ igny sen t for the Pruss ian minister,told h im Napol eon fel t

i nsu l ted ; that al l d iplomatic re lation s wou ld be stopped , a nd Prussianot be evacuated un ti l sati sfact ion given . Two Prussian ofli cers ha d

been ment ioned— these must be shot .Cou n t Golt z told th is story to the British agent, and said that noth ingless than a fusil lade , and that in peremptory fash ion ,

was demandedby Bonaparte .

" Thus in a town fore ign to F rance, not occupied

by F rench troops, in a theatre of Prussian players and a Prusfi ana ud ience , a crit ic ism on a matter of fict ion is tran smuted to a stateoff ence against the F rench governmen t, for wh ich the death of twooffi cers i s demanded as the on ly atonement .”

More strange st i l l th i s w as recei ved by the Prussian governmen tnot w i th a bow l of ri d icu le

,but by a solemn conference of the heads

o f the Prussian governmen t— abou t twenty persons . And th i s insp i te of the fact that the h ighest p un i shmen t for such an offenceu nder Pruss ian l aw i s one mon th ’s arrest . So low had Prussia sunk l

-MSS. of London Record Office .


Then,qu ick as a flash

,fall ing back into the role of

soldier-diplomat,he said to her

,

“How could you conce ive the idea of making war against me i” But Luisepretended not to note the insult i ntended

,and answered

w ithout hesitat ion,

“We m ay be pardoned for havingbuilt too much upon the fame of Frederick the Great .Even Napoleon could not fail to feel the superiority of

her repartee— for Rossbach happened not many yearsbefore Jena

,and there Frederick the Great thrashed the

French more gloriously than Napoleon ever thrashed aPrussian army . So the Emperor tried to change theconversation— to pay h ercompliments . But she alwayscame back to the subject near her heart ; she had cometo beg h im for an honorable peace . She begged for herhusband and her prostrate k ingdom ; she admitted hi spower in war ; he had secured all the glory that warcould give h im— now let h im put the culminating crownto his head by showing the world that he was generousto the fallen ; she spoke of j ustice, of mercy, of God, ofconscience . Her voice choked ; tears came to her eyes .She forgot all that Hardenberg had told her ; she wasno longer the Queen ; she was a mother pleading for herch ildren . It seemed as though he felt for a momenttouched by the sight of th i s pure and beautiful woman

11 me confirma dans cette résol ut ion par l a barbaric avec laquel le ,a T i ls i t

,i i tra ita l a Prusse , quoiqu

’

i l ne m’

e n fi t pas l ’ instrument .

‘ Cette fois, i ] n e s’ e n rapporta pas a moi pour traiter des contribut ions de guerre e t de l ’évacuation des terri toires par ses troupes . 11 en

charge s ls Maréchal Berth ier.“Il trouvait qu

’

a Pre sbourg j e m’

e n étais acqu itté d ’ une manieretrop peu con form s a ce qu ’ i l croya i t é tre ses v ér itab l es intérets.

”

Mémoires de Ta l ley ra nd ,i .

,308 .

I t w a s th i s same Tal leyrand who claimed cred i t for having savedthe Dresden gal ler ies from p l under at the hands of Napol eon .

—Ibid.

i . , 310.


Prussia as Dover to an Englishman,as West Poin t to

a n American,as Quebec to a Canad ian . Magdeburg

was to Luise the key to Prussia, and she begged for i tw i th a fervor that would have gained a kingdom frommy other man . Napoleon

,whether honestly or not

,

seemed moved,and said , with some show of am iabil i ty

,

You are asking a great deal -but we shall see.”

The words “ we shall see made Lu ise ve ry happy .

She though t that Napoleon had human feel ings,after

all,and she fo rgave a ll those who had i nduced h e r to

make the degrading journey to Tilsi t .She did not know that on th e way home that even ing

Napoleon laughed the matter over w ith Talleyrand,

saying “ that Magdebu rg was worth to h im a dozenQueens of Prussia .

That night,after d inner

,Napoleon sough t to play the

gallant,and offered her a rose . She looked at i t

,and

was about to decline it . But,recall ing the obje ct of h er

mission,sh e forced a smile to her li ps

,and sa id

,

“ Leti t be at least w ith Magdeburg ,

” To th i s Napoleonanswered by a stare

,and words wh ich showed that h is

politeness lay only on the surface “ Permit me to

remind you , madame, that i t i s my place to offer, andvoa rs to accept .”

The Til sit d inners,balls

,and so called festivi ti es were

melancholy functions to poor Luise,who l earned i n the

fol lowing day s that Napoleon had insisted upon everyi tem of hi s demands exactly as he had originally dictatedthem

,and that he treated his talks w i th the Prussian

Queen as idle chaff . Furthermore, he sent words to thePrussian King that he was tired of Tils it

,

* and wi shed

I have seen i l l ustrat ion s in pre tentious h istories wh ich leadthe casual reader to th ink that the en tertainmen t in T i l s i t took p lacein a magn ificen t palace . Th is i s a mi stake

, and i t shows that such

LUISE AND NAPOLEON AT'I‘

l LSIT


The Czar Alexander* paid h is dear ally Frederick Willi am some compliments

,acquiesced i n all that Napoleon

did,and assisted i n the work of spoliation by steal ing

St. James governmen t shal l not have given a categorical and sat i sfac tory answer by the l st of next December, the Russian ambassadorshal l h ave in struction s in such an event to demand h is passports onth at same day

,and to leave England immediately .

Art. V . When the even t j ust an t ic ipated shal l have occurred , theh igh con tract ing parties shal l in con cert a nd at the same time summonthe three courts of Copenhagen , Stockholm ,

and Li sbon to cl ose the ir .

ports to the Engl i sh , to recal l the i r ambassadors from London ,a nd to

declare war against England .

Art . VI . The two h igh con tract ing parties shal l act w i th the sameconcert and i ns ist energet ical ly (a rea f orce) at th e court of Vienna tocompel i t to ad e p t the princ ip les en unciated in Art . IV. above : that sheclose her ports to the Engl ish , recal l her ambassador from London, and

declare w ar against England .

Art . VII . If , on the con trary , England makes peace on the condi tions above ment ioned in the spec ified in terval of time

,and His

Majesty the Emperor of al l th e Russias shal l use h is whol e influence to accompl i sh th is resu l t , Hanover shal l b e restored to the Engl i sh King as a compensat ion for the F ren ch , Span i sh , and Dutchcolon i es .Art . VIII . refers to the plundering of Turkey .

Art . IX . The present treaty shal l remain a secret, and cannot bem ade publ ic or commun i cated to any cabinet by e i ther party w i thoutthe con sen t of the other. It shal l be ratified , and the ra tifications exchanged a t T i l s i t w i th i n four days.Done at T i l si t

,July 7, 1 807 .

Signed by Kourak ine,Rostof

,a nd Tall eyrand .

En outre fut signé l e meme jour u n trai té secret d ’al l iance . LaRussie prometta i t de déclarer l a guerre a l

’

Angle terre l e 1 " De

cembre su ivan t . En revanche,l a F rance promettai t as med ia tion ,

e t a n besoin son al l iance,contre l a Turqu ie e t un p lan de partage

de 1’ Empire O ttoman fut arrete. Il fu t égalemen t parlé d ’ une e Xp é

d i t ion vers 1’Inde .

”—Tal leyrand, 1 315 .

A lexander 1 .

“ appeared effeminate and sensi t i ve, had thatpecu l iar friend l iness wh ich expects reciprocal feeling—ia short , thatsometh i ng wh ich in woman ’ s face we look upon as coquettish vani ty .

"—Arndt, 18 12, p . 84.

PEACE DISHONOR 103

from Pruss ia a sl ice of easterncluding the c ity of Warsaw .

On July 10,1 807, Luise went back to Memel . She

was i ncapable of more sacrifice— her heart was broken.

COLBERG—GNEISENAU, NETTELBECK,

The God wh o made Earth ’ s iron hoardScorn ed to create a slave ;Hence un to m an the spear and swordIn h is right hand he gave .Hence h im w i th Courage h e imbued,Len t w rath to F reedom ’s voice ;That death or v ictory in th e feudMight be h i s on ly cho ice .”

—Arndt, V a terl andsl ied .

THE fortresses which should have sh ielded us

set bounds to our misfortune passed over to the enemythrough cowardice and treachery .

” So wrote QueenLu ise in a confidential letter to her father, dated May

1 5,1 807 . She appl ied the terms coward and traitor to

Prussian officers who represented exclu sively titles ofnobili ty and high mil itary rank . I should not ventureto use such language had I not for so doing the authori ty of competent judges .In th is campaign between Jena and T i ls it

,i n wh ich

traitors and cowards occupy so much h istorica l space,there is one precious e xcept ion . It shows us again howmuch Prussia migh t have accompl ished had the honestpla in c itizens been allowed a voice in the defence of

their country.

On the lonesome shores of the Prussian Baltic, aboutseventy miles from the mouth of the Oder at Stettin ,


time when most men th ink only of spending thei r decl in ing years i n peace . His fellow-ci tizens had quicklyrecognized h is loyal qual ities

,however

,and in the hour

of danger elected h im their leader.When the French menaced Colberg

,h e promptly

repo rted h imself to the “ noble”commandant for thepu rpose of placing at h i s se rvices the ci tizen force ofe ight hundred . Before the commandant eould formu

late an answer,h is adjutant

,anothe r nobleman

,turned

rudely to ol d Nettelbeck and said,But what business

i s that of yours,pray 2”The average nobleman of that

t ime did not th ink that a plai n ci tizen might also havea country to preserve . The commandant contemptuously dismissed old Nettelbeck with the words, Well,i f y ou care so much about parad ing, do so i

” Thevolunteers were therefore drawn up i n the market place

,

ready for i nspection ; and Nettelbeck, pocket ing h is

pride,once more went to th e concei ted commandant to

report that h is force was assembled and awaited furtherorders .The noble commandant wore a most i ll-pleased look .

Ne tte lbe ck,for a l l recogn ition , received th is m essage

“ Stop th i s nonsense,you silly people . For goodness

sake,go back to your homes ! What i s the use of my

looking at you 2” Th is was discouraging. Nettelbeckheld a council with h is officers

,and i t was decided to

sacrifice everyth ing to the welfare of Colberg. So Ne tte lbe ck once more called upon the pretentious commandant

,offering to assi st i n putting the fortifications i n

better orde r. The answer given was :Oh

,bother your everlast ing ci tiz en s ! I want no

citizens,and shall have nothing whatever to do with

them .

”

A less tame population would have treated th is com

THE DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF COLBERG


hi s throne was in such danger that abdicat ion and exilewere discussed

,be permitted m easures wh ich from h i s

point of view were despe rate . The letter of old Nettelbeck

,in stead of call ing forth a seve re injunct ion to

mind h is own business , was at th i s time well recei ved ,and steps were taken to send to Colberg a comma n

dant of energy . Meanwh ile Nettelbeck and h is ci tizengua rd devoted thei r l i ves and thei r fortunes to fightingthe F rench and thwarting the unpatrioti c attempts ofthe supercil iou s commandant .It was on April 5th

,while th e bombardment was go

ing on,that thi s nobleman happened upon the market

place just as a few bombs explode d ha rmlessly near by .

He looked bewildered at the sold ie rs,and stammered

out to the officers near h im,If this goes on

,gentlemen ,

we shall have to give in .

”

A fine way thi s for a fortress commander to encourage h is men ! O ld Nettelbeck stepped fo rward

,and

checked further talk of th is kind by shouting out to thecommander

,so that all could hear him : The first man

that dares to repeat that damned suggestion of surrender dies— and I shall kill h im Then pointi ng hi ssword straight at the cowardly commander’ s breast

,he

said to the citizens : Now is the t ime to show the stuffthat i s in us ; let us do our duty— or we deserve to diel ike dogs !”

The commandant screamed out helplessly : “Arresth im ! Put h im in chains !” But no one would carryout the order. The citizen s crowded a round old Nettelbeck and saw h im safely home . The commandantthen made out an order that Ne tte lbe ck should be shotearly on the following morning ; but this created suchan uproar in Colberg that i t was promptly rescinded

,

with m any threats of future i ndefinite vengeance .

NETTELBECK THREATENS TH E GOVERNOR

1 10 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

My l imbs were seized with a sudden pleasurablepan i c

,my heart be at violently i n my breast

,and tears

streamed un interruptedly from my eyes ; my kneestrembled beneath me . Overpowered by my feelings

,I

sank to the ground before him,our new protecting spiri t

,

held fast hold of h im,and c ri ed out : ‘ In God ’ s name

,do

not leave us ! We will stand by y ou as long as a dropof warm blood remains i n our bodies, even though wehave to see every house i n town reduced to cinders !Nor am I alone in th i s ; we all breathe the same thoughtthe cit y m ust not he , shall not be, surrendered .

’

Gnei senau raised the old man up w i th th e words,

N0,ch i ldren . I ’l l stand by you . God wil l help us !”

Next morning,the balance of th is day being spent in

an incognito inspect i on of the place,Gnei senau mustered

th e troops a nd gave them a talking to,

“ as impressi veand affecting

,

”says Nettelbeck,

“ as though a good fatherhad been address ing dea rly beloved ch i ld ren .

”

All fel t his words so deeply that the ol d beardedveterans wept l ike ch ildren

,and with choking voices

shouted that with h im as leader they were ready to diefor King and country .

”

On th e next day h is meeting wi th the munici pal leaders was no less touch ing

,they with enthusiasm de clar

ing,as they grasped h is hand

,that they i ntrusted h im

chee rfully w ith their l ives and fortunes .And to speak t ruth

,a new spi r i t and new life came

from th i s time on upon all w e did— as though straightfrom heaven .

”

As to the wretched man whom Gneisenau superseded ,h e was subsequently reti red on a good pension

,w ith the

ran k of major-gen eral— a man who richly deserved thegal lows .We shall hear more of Gneisenau i n years to come .


previous commandant of Colberg as a busybody,but

h ighly prized by Gneisenau and Ne tte l be ck .

It was a ha rd siege,and it grew i n ha rdness as the

French c rept nearer and nearer w ith their big guns .The garri son

,however

,increased from 1000 to 6000

m e n,mostly loyal fugiti ves from Jena and A uerstadt .

Thi s was a force considerably more than the normalpopulation of the town i tself . But of these b rave 6000more than 2000 were killed or wounded during thesiege

,and scarce a house had a window-pane left when

a truce was announced on July 3,1 807. The French

knew * that on June 25th Napoleon and FrederickWilliam III . had signed a cessat ion of hosti l i ti es

,but

they did not let Gneisenau know of th i s . On the contrary , they made most desperate efforts to conquer thatplace before news of peace should penetrate the walls .And so the needless kill ing went on

,simply because the

King had made no arrangements for rapid commun ica

t ion between his headquarters and h is pri ncipal fortresses .

The isolat ion of Prussia as regards news during these years wasstrik ing, as can read ily be noted by any one turn ing over despatchesin the London Record O ffice . F rom on e to two month s w as re

qu ired for a letter to reach London from points in Eastern Prussia.The Kon igsberg newspaper of January 1 , 1 807 , for instance , has i tsl atest fore ign n ews despatches dated as fol lows : U lm , December 4 ih ;V ienna

,December 7th Hamburg , December 1 1 th Venice, November

3oth Constan tinop le , November 9th . Tod ay th e travel l er can crossthe A tlan t ic and return in l ess t ime than i t took in 1807 for a Prussianto post from one e nd of Germany to the other.The F rench d id th ings better then Ai nsi , l es commun icat ionsen tre son quart ier général [Warsaw] e t ses m in i stres é ta ien t assurée spar nu service d ’

e sta fe ttes, comme e l les aura ient pu l’

etre de Pari sat Fon tainebl eau .

Le g igan tesque entra it dans l es hab i tudes . —Pasqu ier , vol . i . ,p . 298 . Referring to the ease w i t h wh ich Napoleon governed Europein the w inter of 1 806—7 .

SCH ILL


th e European merchants i n the Chinese and Japaneset reaty ports . For small sums the plan rworks well i na community wh ich has full confidence i n the solvency

of the party making the i ssue . In Colberg all bel ievedi n Gne i senau , and , as events p roved , thei r trust waswell placed

,for the Prussian treasury subsequently re

deemed all the Colbe rg paper money i ssued during thesiege . I have seen many specimens of th i s cu rious curre ncy i n German museums . The paper certificates, or“ checks

,

”are about two inches long by one and a halfw ide

,made of th e poorest paper. On one side is th e

coarse official seal of Colberg stamped in black ink . On

the other side i s the value, expressed in children’s hand

writing— two,four

,a nd eight groschen . There are th ree

official seals on each piece of paper money , a nd th i sfact alone suggests that the P russian officials i n Colbe rgmust have had m uch time to spare

,i f they found it

worth thei r while to sign every five - cent piece i n circulat ion .

Of course,had the Prussian King been deposed by

Napoleon after Tilsit,th i s paper money would have been

worth no more than Con fede rate “ sh inplasters”afterthe close of the civil war i n America .

*

Gneisenau did not rega rd himself as either a hero or agenius . He set to work i n Colberg as a plain man of

business . Instead of i nsulting the pa triotic ci ti zens,h e

made them h is friends ; and when he le ft the place forgood he was followed by the blessings and prayers of allwhom he had defended . He believed i n P russia and theGe rman people ; he knew they had suffered a heavyblow

,but he bel ieved that thi s blow would rouse them

We have been assured on good au thor ity that more than one

town in Prussia is st i l l (1896 ) pay ing in terest on money s ra ised undercompulsion during the Napoleonic occupation.

COLBERG— GNEISENAU, NETTELBECK, SCH ILL 1 15

from their state of sel f-concei t and weakness . Even asthe s iege wore on into the months of summer

,when

Napoleon had won the battle of Friedland,Gnei senau

did not lose heart . He kept the port of Colberg open,

and recei ved suppl ies from English and Swedi sh men-ofwar. The Prussian army had been so thrashed that atthe battle of Eylau

,i n early February

,only 6000m e n

were there to represent the cause of Germany . But thepeopl e were sti ll th ere ; the King had but to give thesignal

,and a n ew army would be in the fie ld .

* Not anarmy of mercenaries w ith weak-kneed old nobles in command

,but a people i n arms commanded by men of thei r

own choosing,l ike Bl ii ch e r and Schill and Gneisenau .

England controlled the sea,and was land ing arms and

ammunition as rapidly as they could be used ?Gneisenau looked upon Colberg as a base from which

to sally forth and harass the long weak line of commu

n ication between Napoleon and his sources of supply .

To be sure,a k ing must trust h i s people when he puts

rifles into thei r hands and lets them organ ize indepe ndent compan ies

,and

,unfortunately for Prussia

,Frederick

Will iam could not do th i s . He did permi t pri vates torise from the ranks and become officers, but only for the

Hutch inson reports on Apri l 30, 1 807 , that a w hole battal ion ofPrussian regulars deserted to the F rench at We ichse lm ll nde , to sayno th ing of a l l t he Pruss ian Poles .f Germans are apt to forge t the great serv ices done them by England

in these trying days . A l ready on November 20, 1806, L i eu tenan tGeneral Lord Hutch inson w as appointed spec ia l en voy , authorized toadvance to Prussia merely on cond i tion of having Hanoverrestored to her. And from th i s time on through to the battle o fWaterloo England l oyal ly served the cause of th e German people

,

even when she h ad reason to fear that the money w h ich she sen t toF rederick Wil l iam I II. m ight be spen t, not agains t Napoleon ,

bu t forh im , as , for instance , i n the cam paign against Russia —Reports ofGarl icke and Hutch inson, Pub l ic Record Office, London .


duration of the war. Ye t, small as thi s concession was,i t had a n excellent effect , and Gneisenau noted on allsides a popular d i sposi t ion to volunteer and carry on thefight . Far down below the su rface the people were beginning to say to themselves : “We have had enough ofthe pretentious

,swaggering

,professional soldier. He

makes a fine show i n peace-time,and runs away when

the bullets fiy . He sneers at citi zens,yet our ci tizens

fight better,and make less fuss about i t .

Gneisenau had learned in Ame r i ca th e importance ofpubli c sentiment i n a free community . He made soldiersout of the most unpromising material . At Colberg hefound free c itizens and mercenary garri son troops

,and

to these were added several thousand who had escapedfrom Jena . Under other commanders these men aecom

pl ished nothing. They became heroes under the influence of a Gnei senau .

Colberg to-day has a costly monument to FrederickWilliam III .

,but none to Gneisenau

,Sch ill , or Nettel

beck . In 1 892 I made a pilgrimage to thi s place,sacred

i n the annals of German li berty. Many were the in

quirie s I made before discovering where was the graveof Nettelbeck— a neglected stone in an obscure part ofthe graveyard . I searched in vain for traces of the greatmen who have made Colbe rg a household word whereverGerman l iberty i s prized . The old walls still stand fromwh ich Gneisenau directed his gallant defence . Theearthworks at the mouth of the l ittle river can still betraced

,and the ragged sand dunes from beh ind which

Sch ill sta rted on h is daring raids,after th e manner of

Marion i n the war of the American Revolution .

‘ Theharbor mouth

,whe re English men-of-war un loaded stores

for the hard-pressed ga rrison i n 1 807,is now the resort

of pleasure-seeke rs,who flock here i n summer for the

COLBERG— GNEISENAU'

,NETTELBECK

,SCH ILL 1 17

excellent sea-bath ing. The ground that then was soakedi n the blood of besieged and besiegers i s now laid out

i n pleasant path s fo r th e touri st,and the music of the

Casino band plays whe re forme rly only cannons had thesay . In truth

,looked at from the surface

,Colbe rg has

forgotten her heroes and her days of suffering. But theheart beats below the surface

,and to-day i n Germany

no words awaken li vel ier grat itude and patrioti sm thanthese four : Colberg, Gnei senau, Nettelbeck, Schill .

SOMETHING ABOUT GNEISENAU ’S EARLY STRUGGLES

Good Sword Yes I am freeAnd fondly I l ove thee

,

As w ert thou , at my side,My sweet a ifi anced bride .

Hurrah

—Korner, Schw ertl ied .— Composed a few hours before the

author ’ s death on the bat tle-fie ld .

ONE day, i n the course of a canoe crui se down thebeautiful E lbe I arrived under the walls of agrand old castle belonging to the fortress of Torgau .

The majesti c walls of thi s beautiful place recalled tome not me rely Frederick the Great’s famous v icto ryove r the Austrians

,but the cu r i ous fact that when

young Gneisenau matriculated at the Erfurt Un ivers i tyhe was en rolled as f rom To rgau

,rather than from h is

native p lace'

Sch il da (now gene rally spelled Sch ildau) .So off I started for Schildau, which l ies about ten

miles south of Torgau and six miles away from theElbe . I was d r i ven in an open peasant ’ s wagon by acitizen of Sch ildau

,who proved h ighly en tertaining. In

the fi rst place,he taught me that no ci tizen of Seh il

dau cares to have i t known whe re he belongs,because

th roughout Germany the te rm Schi ldbiirger (Sch ildabu rgess) carries with i t the idea of municipal stupid ity .

In fact,every story in which acts of peculiar s ill iness


The present owner of the Goldene Kanne showed m ea room on the ground floor where the future hero wasborn . Two smal l w i ndows faced the street . The furn iture was modern . In fact, Schi ldau has noth ing to remind the passing stranger of Gneisenau .

The poor mother was forced to fly with her first-bornalmost immediately

,for the Prussian Frederick occupied

thi s v illage within five days of Gneisenau ’ s birth . Thechristen ing took place at the Goldene Kanne on thevery same day . The fath er was not present . Therewas every circumstance to depress a young mother atsuch a time .

The Protestant pastor at Sch ildau placed h i s churchbook at my disposal

,on the occasion of my v is it

,and a l

lowed me to make a photograph of the entry— whichshows that most of the transcript ions I have seen contain errors .*

In a l i fe ofGneisenau,pub l i shed in 1856 by the ch ief m i l i tary peri

od ica l of German y , I found no less than one m istake for every line inthe transcription of th is memorable documen t, wh ich is here for thefi rst t ime accurately rendered

“ August Wilhelm An ton i u s, e in Schnl e in Herrn August Wi lhelmvon Ne idhart, bey der zu r Re i chsarmee ge horige n Art i l leri e bestel l teL ieutenan ts , und se iner Gemahl in F r. [space left for the mother ’ s name] , ward den 27 . October, Vorm i ttags , ge bohren und gegenAbend sogleich im Hause getau ft .TESTES : Herr An ton i u s von Krumbach ; Maior dessen

Stel le der Pastor M . Dan ie l Christian T ittman vertreten F r. Johanna Regina Ros ina, Herrn Johann Christovs Wolfl

’

s , Uhrmachers inTorgau , Ehel iebste ; Herr Johann von Best ich , L ie utenan t un ter demk ay serl . Regimen t Al tcoloredo Jgfr. Hcde w ig Erdmuth ,

Herrn CarlHeinri ch H e unens, Stadtschre ibers und Rechts-Consule nte s in Sch i ldau , j ii ngste Tochter , und Herr E l ias Thomas, General Axels Einnehmer in Sch i ldau .

”

Translation Augustu s W i l l i am An thony,a l i tt l e son ,

was born inth e forenoon of October 27th to Mr . Augustus Will i am von

Ne idhart , a l ieu tenan t of arti l lery belonging to the Imper ial army ;

SOMETH ING ABOUT GNEISENAU’s EARLY STRUGGLES 121

As th i s pari sh register i s all that speaks for Gne isenau i n h i s tenderest years

,it i s most precious . The

entry states that a son is born to Neidhart the l ieutenant

,

“ and to h i s wife ”leav ing a l ine blankfor the i nsert ion of her name . This blank shows thatthe clerk did not know her nam e

,and that the mother

did not choose to publi sh her shame i n the house ofGod .

Another notable feature of the entry is the absence,

not merely of the father’s name,but of the name of h is

regimental ch ief . Four w i tnesses are recorded,i n addi

t ion to the pastor. Of these,however

,only one i s a

brother officer,and h is rank that of l i eutenant . The

rest are probably such as were called in from the streeti n order to give a species of solemnity to the entry .

Two women and a tax-collector make up the list . Thuswas l ittle Gneisenau born in an inn ; he was christenedby people who - knew neither the name of h is mothernor the regiment to wh ich h is father belonged ; eventhi s entry appears never to have been seen by h im

,

for to the day of h is death he invariably celebrated ash i s b irthday the wrong day of the month .

His mother had to fly before the v i ctori ous march ofFrederick the Great

,as d id later Queen Luise before

Napoleon — and both were wi nter marches i n bittersorrow . The wagon i n w hich li ttle Gneisenau startedfrom Sch ildau broke down during the night, and the

and to h is wife, Mrs [In recen t y ears some meddl esome person has in terpolated the words “

née Mul l er. of Thech i ld was christened towards evening in the house where i t was born .

Witnesses, etc . , etc . , etc.The son before Ne idhart was inserted obviously ou t of courtesy ,

for elsewhere it appears that Mr. Ne idhart d id not use any ti t le o fnobi li ty un ti l h is son became an officer in 1780.


worn-out m other wa s helped upon a peasant cart . Hereshe lay between l ife and death , holding to her breastthe l ittle baby boy — conceived i n shame

,born i n sor

row,and ded icated to a pauper’s career.

But i n that dreadful night of jolting over bad roadsher little strength gave way . The baby slipped fromher exhausted arms

,and was picked up by a warm

hearted grenadier j ust as an art ille ry piece was aboutgrinding it into the mud .

The mother died i n a few days from the bi rth of th isch ild . We do not know who closed he r eyes ; whethereven her parents were i nformed of the fact that theyhad a little grandson .

At any rate,the baby was handed over by h is fa

ther to some people i n a village through which the defeated Austrian army happened to pass. A small sumof money was given w ith the ch ild

,along with the prom

i se that th e father would soon return . The money wassoon used up

,but no father returned .

Little Gneisenau knew nei ther m other nor father,nor

even where h is early days were spent . He ran aboutragged and barefoot

,was fed upon black bread

,and his

foster parents tolerated h im because he was a healthy,

useful lad,who could watch their flock of geese .

One day a beggar passed the li ttle goose-herd and askedh im for a piece of bread . Gneisenau had none— had

,i n

fact, noth ing to give save a prayer-book,wh ich by somest range accident had been left with th e ch i ld along withthe rest of the mother’s scant wardrobe . The ch i ld of

course did not then know the difference between theprayer-book and any other

,and so offered it to the beg

gar, who took it i nto the village and tri ed to exchangei t for bread . But the first tradesman to whom he off eredthe book suspected h im of having stolen it

,seized i t

,and


We are seeking for some trace of sunsh ine i n the earlyyears of this child, and find noth ing but sorrow. Hiseducation seems to have been i n the hands of heartlessand narrow -minded priests

,and what he learned was

from such books as fell i n hi s way by happy accident .Next to the chri stening

,the first authent ic entry re

garding our hero i s on October 1,1 777, in the books of

Erfurt Uni versity,where h is name reads : A n ton iu s

Ne i thardt, Torgam’

ensz’

s . T h i s entry, l ike that other ofSchildau

,i s full of suggest ion . In the christening the

name is Ne idhart,showing that he could not h ave known

of this register,or he would have been more particular

on so serious an occasion as that of becoming a studen tof philosophy . At Erfurt he i s called simply Antonius ;at Schildau he was christened August Wil helm Antonius .The re i s no suggestion in th is entry that the young student orh is father affected noble rank or had ever dreamedof the name Gnei senau . The lad was not qui te seventeen years old when he entered

,and did not remai n more

than a year. His father had married and settled h e rewith Gneisenau’s step -mother. He had some occupationas civi l engineer. But we have no evidence that eitherbe

,his w ife

,or their ch ildren ever contributed anyth ing

but discomfort to the young student . It i s significan tthat i n Erfurt Gneisenau d id not l i ve w ith hi s father.In 1 778 he became a soldi er in the Austrian army,whichwas then preparing for war with Prussia . But the warcloud passed, the troops were d isbanded, and Gnei senaufound h imself again without money or employment .His university course had been cut short probably forwant of money ; but short as i t wa s, i t could not havefailed i n st rengthening for good a character so singularly frank and receptive as young Gneisenau

’s. It wasthen, as i n early times, when Luther lived there as a

GNE ISENAU

[From th e orig i na l p laste rcast in the Ranch Museum m Berl in ]


Tu rkey,China

,or South America . The soldier can only

perfect h imself at h is trade by constant practice,and

must take employment when he can find it . From thesold ier’s standpoint there i s not much diff erence betweenSteuben

,who enl isted under Wash ington, and Gneisenau ,

who went out i n the pay of George III . Both went toget practice in thei r handicraft and as much salary aspossible . Gneisenau was on the losing side, and was notheard of ; Steuben had bette r luck, and i s now quoted i nAmerican school-books as a sh in ing example of disintere sted patrioti sm .

After the surrender of Yo rktown Gneisenau returned,

much wiser for hi s Am erican trip . He prepared anexhaust ive paper

,setting fo rth the modifications he

deemed necessary i n order to profit by th e lessonstaught i n the American war. Th is paper earned h imthe reputation of being a dangerous character, and theauthorities of this l i ttle German principal ity lookedaskance at h im .

But Frederick the Great had h is eye on thi s youngfirebrand

,and called him to Potsdam . He was well

received,and in 1 785 he entered the Prussian servi ce

,

and began to drill th e light i nfantry i n skirmish ingtactics .And so Gneisenau became definitely a Prussian . He

commenced l ife as a Saxon by birth,for Sch ildau had

not then passed in to P russian hands . His school yearshe spent in Wurzburg

,a centre of Catholici sm in south

Ge rmany ; as a stude n t he matriculated i n the p r inci

pa l ity of Mainz,to which Erfurt then belonged ; he then

becam e Aust r ian soldier ; at the Peace he entered theArmy of Ansbach-Ba ire uth

,a nd i n 1 78 5 he for th e first

time, and at th e age of twenty-five,became subject to

the monarchy i n whose army he became fie ld-marshal

SOMETH ING ABOUT GNEISENAU’S EARLY STRUGGLES 1 27

and count . Few men at twenty-five can say that theyhave shifted their cit izenship half a dozen times.Frederick the Great died the year after Gnei senau

entered hi s service ; and with h im died, for Prussia, allhope of a military reorganization in the sense of Gne isenau .

Ten years of inacti ve garrison service,marriage at th e

age of th irty-six,then te n more years of routi ne military

l ife,and at last we reach the year of Jena

,1 806 . Of

these twenty - six years as a soldier,Gneisenau spent

many in bitter want ; h i s resources were at times so lowthat i n cold weather he lay in bed because he could notafford a fire . He had apparently very bad luck throughout

,as though Providence meant to thwart h i s military

ambition . H i s enl istment at Erfurt was followed by profound peace he sailed to America just i n time for anotherpeace ; he entered the Prussian army j ust before thegreat King’ s death ; the Prussian wars from 1 792 to1 796 did not call h is company out, and even the battleof Jena gave h im no chance for anything but a trifl ingskirmi sh four days before the great event .Gneisenau in all these forty-seven years that preceded

h i s appointment as mil itary governor of Colberg hadnot only never been in battle

,he had never enjoyed

any regular mil itary educat ion,i n the modern sense of

the term . What he knew he had absorbed from obser

vation and from such books as fell i n h is way . As toprofessional knowledge

,i t i s safe to say that he knew

less at th e age of forty-seven than the West Pointcadet i n hi s second year

,a nd was as unp repared for

war a s the average volunteer officer who answered thecall of Abraham Lincoln in the American civi l war.Le t citizens who love thei r country ponder the li fe ofGneisenau. He earned the gratitude of Germany by


leading her armies to v ictory after they had been led todefeat and shame . No man is the worse for good bloodand thorough education ; but d isaster i s sure to overtakea state which holds that the great body of the people Isi nsensible to patrioti sm

,courage

,and ci vi c virtue. Th e

years of servi le torment which Germany endured atthe hands of Napoleon after the battle of Jena shouldmake th is lesson precious to her

,as to a l l free pee ples .

THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

felt that hi s destin ies were guided by a star of goodfortune !Alexander left T i lsi t for St . Petersburg quite as happyas Napoleon

,for he had secured an all iance w ith France

wh ich promised h im the conquest of India and anyth ingelse he might covet to the eastward . The official papersof Russia made the people rejoice by announcing thattheir Czar had added largely to the empire by annexingland wh ich was formerly Prussian .

Queen Luise left Ti lsi t for Memel w ith a brokenheart . She had

,i ndeed

,suffered as only a h ighly b red

woman can sufl'

er. From our point of view she deservesour sympathy vastly more than her royal husband ; forshe had endured not merely all that he h ad endured

,but

she had endured h im into the bargain .

The treaty of Tils it left Frederick William on thethrone

,but left h im hardly means enough to keep i t in

repai r.* He was called upon to pay a war indemnityamounting ultimately to one mil l iard of francs

,and was

told that so long as i t remained unpaid Napoleon wouldkeep his troops quartered in the country . Now to paysuch an amount of money was wholly out of the question , and Napoleon knew i t . He did not w ish the moneypaid at all . He much preferred to have h is troops quar

In the London Record Office i s a despatch from Garl ick e , th e Bri ti sh agen t at Memel

,dated August 26, 1 807, in wh ich he states that the

K ing of Prussia desired of England the loan of one mil l ion sterl ingth i s , too , at a momen t when Prussia w as in close al l iance w i th F ranceagainst England . On the day fol low ing the same agen t reported thatF rederick Wi ll iam III . en tertained the not ion of j oin ing Napoleon ’ sRh ine Con federat ion ,

in wh ich case England ’ s m il l ion wou ld hav ebeen a gift to Napoleon rather than a loan to Pruss ia . Instancesm ight be mu l t ipl ied to Show that in these dark days Prussia lost muchsupport because of the d ishonesty of her profession s towards friendsas wel l as enemies.

ALEXANDER I . OF RUSSIA

132 THE GERM AN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY

In these dark days succeeding the Peace of T il sit thed istracted and humil iated King gave h i s sancti on tomeasures wh ich six months before he would have treatedas revolutionary . There i s no ev idence that he h imselfwas the author of any of the good laws passed at thi st ime

,and there i s abundant evidence that he did all that

was possible to nullify their wholesome object . ThatPrussia was saved from complete absorption after T i lsiti s owing :1 . To Napoleon

,who completely exposed the rotten

state of the mil itary and civi l administration .

2 . To Queen Luise,who braced her husband in h i s

moments of weakness,and who un ited about her the

honest and capable men of Germany .

The public sent iment of Prussia judged better thanthe King’s courtly advisers

,and this publ ic sentiment

wa s best represented by two men,neither of whom was

Prussian by bi rth or education— Stein and Scharnhorst .Stein abolished serfdom i n Prussia ; Scharnhorst created

Th i s demand has been accompanied by an estimate of the expen se ,amou n ting to annual ly.

“ The whole Prussian army— I am supposing the former establ ishment of m e n— was main tained forE go, F rance demands for these abou t two-th irds of whatPrussia requ ired for “

and someth ing more than hal f of th eactual revenue of Pruss ia

,wh ich i s computed

,the coun try be ing in

her own hands,at

“ But th is i s th e m i l itary demand on ly . To these areto be added abou t for the annual d ischarge o f the con tribu t ion s , a nd for other debts— total

, $17,000,000h and leaving or sterl ing , for the revenues of the Prussianmonarchy .

“ The insolent mockery of th e proposi tion is equal to i ts cruel ty,for if Prussia accepted the terms she must renounce even th e formsof governmen t . The Prussian m in i sters therefore say that they (theterms) w i l l not be accepted .

-Record Office MSS. , Garl icks to Cann ing .

SCHARNHORST MAKES A NEw ARMY 133

an army of citizens . Germans cannot feel too gratefulthat in such a crisis appeared two men who loyally supported one another ; who sacrificed all they had to thecountry of thei r adoption ; who ignored the calumnywhich thei r enemies prepared for them ; who dared totel l the truth to the King

,and consequently never l i ved

i n courtly favor .Stein and Scharnhorst

,the statesman and the soldier

,

both bel ieved that Prussi a could be regenerated only bycalling i n the people to a la rger share i n the government .Both held the bel ief that the monarch i s strong onlywhen he i s supported by the whole peopl e instead of bya privi leged class . The King was ready to acknowledgethat someth ing wa s radically wrong when h is officersbecame bywords for cowardice and incapacity .

*

Here i s a picture drawn by Scharnhorst . It i s that ofa Prussian general who held a conspicuously high command in the war : He n ever inspected a regiment

,never

made a reconnoissance,knew noth ing of the outposts

excepting upon the map his memory and mental powers were so feeble that he was unable to form a picture of geographical features and the relative position oftroops . In campaigning, of even the mildest kind, hewas totally incapable of taking command and conducting the operat ions . He was satisfied to take the opin ionof any one .

”

Thi s was th e seventy-year-old man who commanded

The ex ten t to wh ich the Prussian King tremb l ed at the sound ofNapoleon is reflected in the despatches of Garl ick e ,

the Engl i sh consu l in Memel . On November 25 , 1807 , he wrote to George CanningHi s Prussian Majesty has personal ly requested me to leave the country .

At th is moment , sa i d Count Gol tz (the King’s minister) , “ Prussia

can assert no opin i on of her own . She must adop t those of F rance l”—London Record Offi ce MSS .


the Prussian contingent at Eylau , and there were plentymore j ust l ike h im . Such were the officers who

,before

Jena,l istened complacently on the Potsdam parade

ground wh ile the commanding general uttered thesewords : “Gentlemen

,the a rmy of His Majesty [Frederick

William III .] can show many officersf ul ly equa l toM on

si eur B on ap a rte

A week after Tilsit (July 1 7, 1 807) Scharnhorst wasplaced at th e head of a mil itary commission cha rgedwith inquiring into the state of the army . He was fi ftythree yea rs old

,had just been made major-general

,and

wa s t rusted by the King because he had helped Bl iicheri n rescuing some remnants of the army from Jena

,and

bringing them in safety over some two hundred andfi fty miles of dangerous country .

The King trusted Scharnhorst,but d id not like h im .

He had,however

,no choice . So Scharnho rst

,th e son of

a Hanoverian peasant,found h imself

,i n 1 807, sitt ing in

j udgment over hundreds of Prussian nobles,who had

given strange proof of thei r ch ivalrous pretensions .Gneisenau was added to th i s commission

,but so afraid

was the King lest such men should be too thorough thathe always managed to hamper them by adding membe rswho represented the ol d army trad iti ons and a di sliketo change . The matter dragged on i n thi s way unti lScharnhorst and Gnei senau both became thoroughly disgusted with thei r King’s behavior

,and resigned .

Thi s f r ightened Frederick William,however

,a nd h e

promised solemnly that thenceforward he would dealhonestly w ith them . So at last (January 31 , aftersix months of wasted time

,the commission secured a

majo r ity in favor of refo rm .

Of course I om i t the tedious details which filled thesesix months— the i ntrigues of the court

,the vaci llation


closely studying the ups and downs of Prussia un‘

derFrederick Will iam III .*

Scharnhorst now undertook to collect evidencethroughout the army regard ing the behavior of theprincipal officers du r ing the late war. Seven generalswere condemned to death for cowardice or treacherybut the King pardoned them all . The commission

,i n

so far as the King was concerned,failed to punish the

men whom i t found guilty . But,nevertheless

,i t d id a

great good . It purged the army of much bad stuff,

and when the war broke out agai n,i n 1 8 13

,only two

generals received commands out of the hundred andforty-three who figured i n 1 806— and one

'

of these genera ls was

,of course

,old Blucher.

Nothing but lack of money could have made thesereforms possible . Napoleon cut down the Prussian armyto men

,and the officers who had found places i n

the old army of were now forced to look aboutelsewhere for work . Here was a capital excuse forgetting ri d of a large number of i ncapable men , andScharnhorst was quick to discover merit in those whoremained .

Prussian ofli cers i n general had treated their defeatsw i th some philosophy so long as their pay continuedand the hope of revenge wa s al ive ; but when the ma

jority of them were turned adrift, and many of them

The German General von V erdy , whowas on Mol tke ’s staff duringthe F ranco - German w ar, noted the d iffi cu l ty of mak ing headwayafter the fal l of Napol eon III . and when the armies of the F renchRepub l ic w ere commanded by Gambetta . I t took on ly abou t fou rw eeks of fighting to capture Sedan w i th regulars

,

”bu t i trequ ired more than four mon ths to subdue the raw l evies o f the t epubl ic , even after the whole of the imperi al army had been shippedin to Germany as prisoners of war.

—V erdy d a Verno is, Im grossen

Ha up tqua rtier. Berl in : M i t tler und Sohn ,1896.

SCHARNHORST MAKES A NEW ARMY 137

had to ea rn the i r l iving by hiring themselves out bythe day

,the matter assumed a more serious aspect . So

great was the poverty among the peasants that in 1 808the government publi shed a list of roots and herbs thatwould sustai n l ife . The price of food was high

,but the

wages of labor low . The government had flooded thecountry with a vast amount of paper currency

,which

,

before Jena,was accepted at par ; but after the war so

l ittle confidence did Prussia induce that her currency hadlittle more value than that of Jefferson Davi s . GeneralBoyen

,i n hi s memoirs

,says that he could get only twenty

eight per cent . of the face value of a Prussian government bond in 1 807, and that under the most favorablecircumstances . Officials of every class had to be d ismissed on the score of economy

,and those that were

retained had to accept reduced salaries . So poor wasthe country

,and so black the prospect

,that timeservers

left the King,and thus made an opening for men who

loved thei r country.

The King over and over agai n refused his sanction toa national mil itia wi th universal service. As we shallsee

,he dreaded it as a revolut ionary measure. But

Scharnhorst and Gnei senau never let the matter rest,

and prepared the ground for i t so thoroughly that whenthe King fina lly d id gi ve way, a nation i n arms sprangup at hi s call as though by magic .

What Scharnhorst did accomplish with the commission was

,however

,most important . The principle was

adopted that army promotion should be strictly the reward of merit— that nobles and commoners should beequally entitled to become officers . Thi s seems a veryeasy law to pass

,but in 1 807 the bulk of the Prussian

army regarded thi s measure as calculated to destroy e v

e ry vestige of good i n her corps of officers .


Another law was signed more wi l lingly, namely, that‘

the soldier should not be flogged for every offence,but

should be treated humanely . This measure called forthuni versal condemnation amongst the old-school office rs .They foresaw calamity . They would not understandhow men could be kept in order w ithout floggingthem . Soldiers were flogged for every ofl

’e nce imagina

ble,and we have but too many witnesses to prove that

office rs of that day could treat their soldiers wi th crueltyequal to that wh i ch i s chronicled i n Un cle Tom ’

s 0abin .

'

Scharnhorst wished to make the army popular,a nd to

do thi s he had to make i t a career open to every citizen !

of good character. How could a lad be expected to e ul i st as a volunteer i n an army where the pri vates wereregarded as beasts and the officers as taskmasters ?These two li ttle measures we re signed about one year

from the Treaty of Tilsit . They were ve ry simplemeasures indeed

,but f rom them have come all the sub

sequent army reform s wh ich placed Germany ia a position to fight Napoleon in 1 8 13

,and to maintai n herself

as the first mil itary nation down to our day . The German army i s strong in so far as it i s democratic anddraws its support from the whole nat ion . In so far asi t seeks to form an aristocracy of i ts own , it reve rts tothe dangerous positi on i t occupied before J’ena.

Since the King would hear noth ing of universal serv ice

,and the army was not allowed to exceed

Scharnhorst set to work quietly discharging men as soonas they had learned thei r duties

,and fill ing thei r places

immediately by others . In th is way he managed,every

month,to turn five men out of every company . These

were not,however

,lost sight of . They were secretly

looked after i n their homes by officers who had beennominally retired

,but actually drew small salaries

,on

SCHARNHORST MAKES A NEW ARMY 139

the understanding that they should reside nea r theplaces whe re they were needed

,and should drill these

rese rve soldiers from time to time .

Here was the simple method by which Prussia,under

the very noses of Napoleon’s sp ies,deve loped the reserve

forces into a national mil i tia capable of taking the fieldat a moment’s notice

,fully equipped and commanded .

This could never have been accomplished save under the

p ressure of the Napoleonic occupation,which roused

amongst the people so much hatred against Francethat patriotism was kindled where i t had scarcely beenknown before . Scharnhorst had won the people’s confide nce . The soldier was no longer a despised creature he had become a citizen representi ng German libe rty . He was now . as popular as he had before beenshunned .

*

Prussia soon had all the wel l-drilled soldiers sheneeded

,but had no money to pay for muskets

,cannon

,

horses,ammunition

,clothing

,and the many costly th ings

needed for an armv. But Scharnhorst set to work method ica l ly and pe rsistently, and soon, l ittle by l ittle, thelosses of th e war began to be made good . Pikes wereseriously treated

,and an infantry was dri lled in their use

The accompanying cut i s from a photograph made under my superv ision from the orig inal by Bunch . A bronze cast of th is stands onthe Opera Place

,Berl in . Rauch wa s a personal friend to Gneisenau ,

and had abundan t opportun i ty of studying h im in Berl in in the years1 8 19—25 , w hen Gne i senau w a s governor of the cap ital . Ranch madeth i s statue in 1853,

and th e bronze w as erected in 1855 . Be fore thePrussian King

,F rederick Wil l iam IV .

,wa s sat isfied , Rauch had to

make seven d iff e ren t sketch model s in plaster , six of wh ich abou ttwenty inches h igh ,

are now in th e Rauch museum . I t was In 18 19

that Rauch retu rned from Rome to take u p h i s res idence defi nitelyin Berl in

,and i t may be assumed th at h e wa s a frequen t v isitor o f

G ne isenau,w ho cou n ted amongst h is friends Sch inkel and Hegel a nd

the leaders of sc ience and l iterature .—P. B .


so long as no muskets could be got . We naturally recall Benjamin F rankli n’s suggest ion that the Americantroops of his day be armed with bows and arrows ratherthan not go to war. Both m easures emanated frommen who believed that a people fighting -for its inde

pe ndence cannot be conquered , whether i ts weapons bepikes

,muskets

,or bows and arrows . And

,strange to

say,the spiri t of l iberty i n Germany was aroused first

amongst the people who joined the national army cre

ated by Scharnhorst .


The only ancestor of whom Scharnhorst had anyknowledge was his peasan t grandfather . His own fatherbehaved somewhat after the manner of Gnei senau’ s .He courted the daughte r of a vi llage magnate

,who gave

him a flat LV O when he offered h imself as son -in -law .

The daughter,however

,helped matters considerably

by present ing the would-be son-in -law w i th a child . Inconsequence

,the marriage was solem nized

,and the

first bo rn i n lawful wedlock was our hero . From t h estandpoint of social conventions, there i s l ittle choicebetween the mothers of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau

,

although th e Hanoverian peasant had the advantage ofknowing that h e was born l egit imately— as the l it tlechurch of Bordenau testifies to this day .

Like Gneisenau,Scharnhorst had a rough t ime of i t

in ch ildhood . He had no schooling to speak of,and

spent h i s time chiefly i n dri ving the cows to and frompastu re .

When Scharnhorst was seventeen years old,hi s father

,

who had by a lucky stroke of fortune come in to someproperty

,made up h is mind that one of h is ch ild ren at

least should become an officer and thus raise the wholefamily in the social scal e .

Now,the education of Scharnhorst had been as f rag

m enta ry a s that of Gneisen au,and nei the r could pos

s ibly have passed serious examinations . But it so h appen ed that the reigning grandee n ear by bad i ndulgedin the luxu ry of founding a German West Point on atiny island i n the midst of a great lake not six milesf rom Bo rdenau .

*

I t was w i th great d ifficul ty that I managed to get upon th i s l i ttl ei sl and , cal led F ort Wil l iam (Wi lhe lmsfest ) , for th e nearest v i l lage isfive m iles from the presen t ra i lway there is no regular ferry to thei sland , and the good peasant who final ly did row me over had much

SOMETHING ABOUT SCHARNHORST 143

Thi s strange l ittle West Point was founded i n 1 770,and ceased to exist i n 1 777 . The whole i sland i s scarcely as big as a modern man-of-war, and near ly the wholesu rface i s occupied by a miniature fortress . There i sle ss room for pa rade -g round and gymnasti c exerci sethan on an Atlantic steamer

,and l ife there must have

been singular ly dull,even to a peasant . The school

d ied wi th i ts patron ; but it must have done so in anyevent

,for few lads could have su rvived the bad sanitary

conditions of th i s h ighly eccent r i c place .This i sland school had difficulty in securi ng twelve

pupils,and no doubt to th i s eage rness of its patron

must we att r ibute the fact that so i ll-equipped a youngster as Scharnhorst was admitted at all .This place i s inte resting to us because i t was i n i ts

day not merely the first, but fo r many years the only,artillery school in Germany . The patron was a dist inguish ed soldier, and th e course of study excellentand very practical . Scha rnhorst

,at any rate

,held h i s

mil itary Alma Mater i n g rateful memo ry,and w ith in

i ts wall s on e i s shown drawings wh ich he had made inh is cadet days .The formal oath of allegiance

,which he signed on

entering h is l ittl e West Point,says

“ I,Ge rhard Johann David Scharnhorst

,about to

enter the artillery and engineer corps i n the serviceof the Serene Master Lord William

,rul ing Count of

Schaumburg,noble Maste r and Count of Lippe and

Sternburg, Knight of th e Royal Prussian Grand Orderof the Black Eagle

,Commander-in -Ch ief of the Armies

of His Most Fa ithful Ma jesty the King of Portugal andA lgarbia , as well as the A rm i es of His Royal Majesty of

trouble forcing h is big fia t-bottomed he a t through the weeds,wh ich

grew l uxuriant]y up to the surface .


Great Bri tai n ; General Field Marshal of H i s PrincelySereni ty of Brunswick-Luneburg“Promise

,in l ieu of oath, that I w ill not resign

from thi s serv ice w ith in ten years from the date ofundertaking its obligations . And should I at any futuretime resign from the servi ce of the Serene Master LordWill iam

,rul ing Count of Schaumburg

,etc .

,I promise

never,directly nor indirectly

,i n any way to serve again st

His Sereni ty and h is territories,or against such powers

as the said master may have as allies,or who may be

i n the servi ce of h i s most h igh person .

”

It i s curious that the name of Scharnhorst appearsthree times on the same page, but in no two cases i sthe spell ing identical . It will be al so noted that wh ileyoung Scharnhorst bound himself in the m ost se ve rem anner

,the noble patron unde rtook noth ing

,and i n

1 777 turned Scha rnhorst out upon the world withouteven a commission .

However,his reputation in theWilh e lmsfe st had been

so excellent that he almost immediately secured a commission in the Hanoverian service

,under a general who

greatly admired Count Will iam,and who zealously

sought to raise the standard of education among theyounger officers . Scha rnho rst was selected to teach inn early every b ranch of mil itary knowledge

,i ncluding

mathematics,drawing

,artillery

,fortification

,history

,

and geography .

The American war was then going on,and hi s gar

rison was in the way of the German regiment thatm arched to

_fight under the flag of England . He was

i n a good position to hear the tales b rought home byfellow-office rs

,a nd wa s quick to see th at there must be

someth ing wrong in Old -WV orld tact ics when veterantroops failed to hold the ir own against farme r lads


i ons . The French were “ raw levies,

”the All ies were“ regulars”; yet the ragged republicans held their own ,and secured an honorable peace after three years offighting.

Thi s war broke out only ten years after the Peace ofYorktown

,and men who had fought at Saratoga and

Trenton were again in the ranks during the battles ofthi s war. Scharnhorst remarked that these Hessiantroops who had learned their fighting i n the Americanwar were vastly superior to the rest .But unfortunately for Germany

,her kings

,princes

,

and ruling men generally regarded republ ics as so thoroughly wicked that no reformer dared quote republ icanexample in preach ing the new art of war. It i s strangethat while Scharnhorst and Gnei senau both thoroughly appreciated the lessons taught by the war i n Am eri ca

,there i s no evidence i n their communica tions to

the King that such a war ever took place . FrederickWilliam III . regarded the American campaigns as of

importance equalling but not exceeding a jungle squabble between two handfuls of blacks i n some remote partof the East Indies .Nor must i t be lost sight of that Napoleon was sparedthe necessity of creating an army when he returnedfrom Egypt . He placed himself at the head of troopswho had learned the art of war i n the best of schoolsthree years of fighting.

In 1 801 Scharnhorst received f rom Lo ndon the permission he sought— to leave the service of George III .a nd enter that of Frederick William III . This step showsus conclusively that he at least had no suspicion of thereal state of Prussia

,or that

,i f he had

,he p referred i t

to that of Hanover. After Jena the re were very manyw ise soldiers to explain how it all happened ; but it i s

SOMETH ING ABOUT SCHARNHORST 147

odd that up to the eve of the catastrophe not evenGneisenau or Scharnhorst saw what was coming. Theydisapproved of many things i n detail

,but of course no

one but the King was i n a position to inspect the wholemachi nery of the army and say what was or was notwant ing.

Scharnhorst was rel ieved of h i s Hanoverian allegiancewithout a single mark of regret from above . Two yearsafterwards the French took charge of the place

,and thu s

fixed their troops i n th e heart'

of North Germany,w i th

i n two days’ march ing from Magdeburg,five from Ber

l in,seven from Stettin , next door to Denmark, and sepa

rated from Sweden only by the duchy of Mecklenburg .

This was a menace, not to any one German state i npart i cular

,but to all of them . Germans

,at th i s stage

of Napoleonic development,began to forget their local

j ealousies and quarrels,for they were face to face with

an enemy who menaced them all al ike . Prussia,as the

big brother of the North-German family, was looked tofor assistance and leadersh ip

,but Frederick Willi am III .

had not the courage or political sense to do h is duty .

Can we be surpri sed that even Germans were dissa tisfied with a definition of monarchy that required themto surrender the proud pos ition they had held underFrederick the Great ?So long as the French fought for their country and for

l ibe rty they had the sympathy of Germany . But whenNapoleon showed that h i s object was to subjugate thenations h e conquered

,and to w in mere mi litary glory

,

Eu rope took alarm . Patriots i n every corner of Germany ceased to be Saxon

,Mecklenburg, or even Prussian

— they began to use the word Germ an as belongingto a common fatherland . They d reamed of a Germanfederation— a German empire . Scharnhorst ceased to be


Hanoverian ; Gneisenau ceased to be Austrian or Saxon ; both became not merely Prussian, but i ntenselyGerman .

It was thi s patriotic bel ief i n the regeneration of Germany that kept Scharnhorst and others hard at workdeveloping the mil i tary resources of Prussia at a t imewhen Prussians themselves had almost ceased to hope .

In 1 808 the finances were so bad that Scha rnhorst andStein seri ously entertained an offer to send three or fourthousand mercenary troops to Spain

,and they would

have gone had not the Spaniards concluded they couldget on without further help .

The war i n Spain strengthened sti ll further Scharnhorst’s confidence i n popular arm ies . From beyond thePyrenees came news that Napoleon was harassed bythe peasantry to such an extent as made h i s posi tioni n the pen insula problematical . Had Prussians foughtafter Jena as did the gue r i llas of Spain

,i t i s safe to think

that Napoleon would never have succeeded in dictatingpeace at Tilsi t .In 1 809 Napoleon was once more engaged i n a warwith Austria

,and the Prussian people clamored to join

thei r kinsmen fight ing on the Danube . But FrederickWilliam would not hear of i t

,though his own subjects

could not be kept from the figh t . Even th e Ty rol e an

peasants showed that men fighting for l iberty and thei rhomes are almost i n vincible .

Scha rnhorst was tempted in 1 809,by an offer of £800

a year, to come to England as Inspector-General of Instruction at the Royal M il i tary College

,but dark as the

outlook seemed in Prussia,b e determined to stand and

fall by the King he had sworn to sustain .

This King, i n 1 8 10,was ordered by Napoleon to dismissScharnhorst, and be obeyed . He had already dismissed


usually managed to find a level lower still . In 1 8 1 1 beobeyed Napoleon as though he were in French pay. On

September 26th he ordered all work stopped on thefor ts of Colberg and Spandau . On October 7th heobeyed again

,and ordered the di sarmament i n Prussia

to be more strictly observed . On October l 0th Napoleon o rdered h im to d i smi ss Bl ii ch er from the Prussianservice

,and it was done . On October 22d the King

autho r ized French officers to make a formal inspect ionof his garrison and forts

,i n order to satisfy Napoleon

that his orders had been obeyed .

Each of these events would justify'

a nation in celebra ting i ts ann iversary with fasting and mourning— butthey were too many .

*

In January of 1 8 1 2 French troops marched into Pomcrania ; in March mo re ma rched from M agde

burg to Brandenburg ; on the 5th of March FrederickWill iam joined h is P russians to the columns ofNapoleon

,and the French army swallowed up what there

wa s left of the army of the Great Frederi ck . Gneisenaucould not stand th is

,and he too left the Prussian ser

Hutch inson reported to h is governmen t from Memel , under dateof January 9,

1807 “ Coun t (8750) Stein,the only m an of real talen ts

in the admin i stration,resigned or was d ismissed two days ago . I t

seems that the expenses of Bonaparte ’s tabl e and household at Berl inw ere defrayed , before and after the negotiat ions for an arm ist ice , by theKing of' Pruss ia . Since that period , I bel ie ve , not many days ago , oneof the m in i sters St i l l res ident at Berl in cal led upon Ste in ,

who w a s

Ch ief of the F inances, to pay crown s on the same accoun t .Ste in refused

,wi th strong express ions of indignat ion. The King

spoke to h im on the subj ect . He remonstrated w i th H is Maj esty inthe most forcibl e terms , descan ted on the wretch ed h umil iation of suchmean conduct , and sa id that he n ever could pay money on such an ao

coun t un less h e had the order in writ ing from His Maj esty—wh ichw a s given a few days after thi s conversat ion took place .”—MSS . Lon

don Record Office .

SOMETH ING ABOUT SCHARNHORST 151

vi ce . Many Prussians sought employment against theFrench by entering the army ofWellington ; but in July,1 8 1 2

,Frederick Will iam sent out a sharp edict against

such of h i s officers who should dare to engage againstFrance— th reatening even death i n some cases .Throughout 1 8 1 1 Prussia i n word and deed acted

as a conquered province of France . No Prussian wasallowed i n Office whom Napoleon did not desire ; nomeasure was adopted by the King without first consul ting the F rench . In June of that year Napoleon had

men and 3000officers quartered in Prussia,and

i n every respect used her exactly as suited h is momentary purpose.But on October 1 9th Napoleon began hi s retreat

from Moscow . The news reached Berl i n on November1 2th

,and on December 14th

,with the thermometer fif

teen degrees below zero, news reached Breslau thatNapoleon had passed Glogau i n h i s fl ight from Russi ato Paris .And now Scharnhorst threw aside h i s mask .

THE PRINCES OF GERMANY PAY COURT TO NAPOLEONAT ERFURT

Let al l that glow s,l et al l ye can ,

In flames surge h igh and bright !Ye Germans al l , come, man for m an,

And for your coun try fightNe w raise your heart to Heaven ’s span

,

Stretch forth your hands on h ighAnd cry w i th shouting , man for man,

Now slavery sha l l d ie !”

— Arndt, “V a terlandsl i ed .

ALREADY,on January 14, 1 808 , s ix months after

barking on the raft in th e ri ver Memel , Napoleon sentwo rd to Alexander that h e wanted to dismember Prussia still further— that Silesi a i s the only compen sationhe can entertai n”(Champagny toOn February 2oth the Czar sent back word that h i s

Tolstoy , the Russian ambassador, had an in terv iew w i th Napoleonon November 7 , 1 807 . He pleaded that the Czar desired the aecomp l ishm e n t of th e Treaty of T i ls i t , and compla ined that Napoleon d id notkeep h is word— d id not evacuate the country . He pai nted the p it i fu ld istress of F rederickWi l l i am III . Napol eon became angry

,a nd said

You do wrong in bothering abou t h im . You w i l l see h im play youa sharp trick yet .” He promised to evacuate the coun try

,bu t added

“ Such th ings cannot be don e in a hurry. You cannot remove an armyas you ‘take a p inch o f snuff .

” Napoleon off ered Russia the Danubianprinci pal i t ies , a nd when asked by Tolstoy at what price Eh bien lC ’est e n Prusse —that h e wou ld find compensat ion . That meant thatRussia shou ld take st i l l more land from Pruss ia l


wish . Roumania has since ach ieved i ndependence undera Hohenzolle rn

,and Silesia has don e the same .

Napoleon continued his tale of flattery by saying :“ I

am not fa r from contemplating an expedition to the EastIndies and the partit ion of the Ottoman Empire . Andfor th i s pu rpose there should be an army of to

Russians, 8000 to Austrian s,and to

French marched into Asia,and thence into India .

Nothing could be easier than thi s exped ition . It i s qu iteclear that before thi s army reached the Euphrates

,Eng

land would be seized with terror.”

But Napoleon said he must have an interviewwith the Czar before decid ing further . That i s

,Napo

leon used the Indian scheme as a bait to draw theCzar to him

,believing that when once togethe r w i th

h im he could succeed i n h is plans for d ismemberingP russia .

“ If the Czar Alexander can come to Pari s he will makem e very happy ; i t wi ll be the happiest day of my life .

If he can come but half-way , place the di viders on th emap

,and take the half-way point between Petersburg

and Pari s . With energy and firmness,therefore

,we will

bri ng our two empires up to the highest level of grandeur. What matters the rest 2”This is one of the most remarkable documents i n h i s

to ry— th e words of a man mad with success,who airily

talks of di vid ing the world as th ieves Share thei r booty .

Not one word in the letter breathes of j ustice,or any

h igher law than physical force. He encourages Alexander to conquer all Sweden

,and not rest content w ith

Fi nland alone.Alexander was delighted with Napoleon’s programme .Instead of i ndignantly protesting against the Frenchman ’s constant quartering of troops in Prussia

,he wrote

GENERAL SCHARNHORST[Afte r a photograph by th e Author from th e bust by Ranch ]


So these two imperial highwaymen started from thei rrespective capi tals to meet a second time . Erfurt hasfigured before i n this story by reason of i ts nearness toJena

,and as the university town where Gnei senau

studied,before entering the Austrian army as a lad of

seventeen .

Napoleon went to Erfurt because he fel t confidentthat he could gain control of Alexander through personalcontact . He regarded the Russian as an impetuous andchivalrous nature

,whom he could readily dazzle by

dreams of Eastern conquest . And Alexander pretendedto be dazzled . But unde r thi s pretence lurked a largeamount of Oriental cunning quite equal to that of theCorsican .

Four full-fle dged kings and several dozen princes, whowere dependent upon Napoleon

,also came to Erfurt

,

and made a very brill iant picture to look at . Napoleonordered h is theatre from Paris

,and promised h i s actors

a “parterre of kings .” Those were wonderful daysi n E rfu rt— a vast display of power for the purposeof dazzling Europe in general

,and Alexander in par

ticular.

A Prussian general who was officially present (Muf

fl ing, page 25) records that one day Napoleon took Al exander to a grand rev iew near Erfurt

,the troops parad

ing being such as were returning to France from thebattle-fie l ds of East Prussia

“Arr i ved on the field,Napoleon put spurs to h i s gray

and galloped down the front, leaving the Czar to followon a Napoleonic horse

,with much the appearance of an

adjutant .“When the regiment was massed

,Napoleon called

out,

‘ Les braves e n avant ! ’ (The brave men step forward at wh ich a number of officers

,non-commissioned

PRINCES OF GERMANY PAY COURT TO NAPOLEON 1 57

ofl‘icers

,and privates came out of the l ine and formed a

semicircle .

Napoleon dismounted,and i nvited the Czar to stand

at h i s right . On hi s left stood the Prince of Neuchatelw ith a note-book . The remainder of the semicircle wasclosed by the pri nces and thei r sui tes .

“The regimental commander calle d each one by name,and presented h im separately to Napoleon

,who the re

upon asked h im where and in what manner he had di stinguish ed h imself.

”

Now,the particular regiment selected had distin

guished i tsel f mainly by ki ll ing a great many of Alexander’s subjects at Friedland . This one had killedthree Russian s with h i s own swo rd

,that one had

captured a Russian flag,the other had driven a Russian

battalion i nto the river and seen them drown,and so

on through a li st of glorious deeds at the expense of

Russians . The Czar had to l isten to all th is w ith the airof one who rather en joyed i t ; but he remembered thi sin 1 8 12

,wh ile h i s Cossacks were pursuing ha l f ~ frozen

Frenchmen f rom the Bere sina to the Memel .“To the honor of Frenchmen ,

”wrote the Prussiangeneral who was present

,

“many of them showed thatthey did not approve of thei r m aster’s behavior.”

It i s i ndeed strange that Napoleon,with all h is clever

ness i n diplomacy,should have been guilty of several

conspicuous acts of tactless brutal i ty such as the one

above recorded— brutal ity by wh ich he lost very m uch,

and gained noth ing .

For instance,during these Erfurt days h e i nv ited h is

royal guests to shoot hares w ith h im over the battlefield of Jena .

* H is guests were mainly German princes,

Tall eyrand, Mémoz’

ree , i . , 441 :“ La j ournée comme nca par une


a nd not men of much cha racter, to be sure. But yetmany of them we re bound w ith ties of kinship to suchas had suffe re d on that battle-fie ld two years beforea nd

,after all

,h e was in Germany

,and that field had

been strewn with Ge rman co rpses . And yet,which wa s

m ost strange,that Napoleon should have i ndulged in

such sport,or that Ge rman pri nces should have shared

i t w i th such a man in such a place ?It was on the 7th of October that Napoleon drove toJena i n 1 808 . The battle had been fought October 14

,

1 806 . On the hare - hunting occasion h i s host was theDuke of Weimar, who had been a general i n the Prussian army on the day of battle . On th i s occasion h ebegged the French Emperor’ s permission to change thename of Landgra fenbe rg i nto Napol e onberg

— NapoleonHill— for on tha t hi ll Napoleon had killed most of th ePrussians who fell on th e dreadful October 14th .

In driving to thi s field,Napoleon took w i th h im

i n the same carriage a brother of the Prussian King,

P r ince William . This was a refinement of cruel ty su

pe r ior to that he had practi sed on the Czar. Oddlyenough

,i t was th i s that saved Napoleon ’s l ife in 1 808 .

Two Prussian students were awaiting th e carr iageof the F rench oppressor i n the road leading from Weim ar to Jena . They had armed themselves with shortblunderbusses

,were well mounted

,and had arranged to

ride close up to Napoleon and kill h im . But whenthe ca r r iage came in v iew

,and they saw the brother of

cha sse sur l e terrain d ’

Iéna ; ensu i te i l y eut un grand diner, etc .Talleyrand makes no further commen t on th i s bru tal aff a ir.Pasqu ier, i . , 341 , n otes w i th con tempt the “ incred ible obsequ ious

n e ss”of the German princes who paid court to Napoleon at Erfurt—ch ief among them the one who pre posed a day of sport on th efield of Jena.


He called to h im from neighboring Weimar Germany’s g reat poet Goethe

,and accorded h im an audi

ence longer and more intimate than he had vouchsa fedto many a royal suppl iant . He invi ted h im to Paris

,

and mapped out for h im n ew fields for l i terary effort .For i nstance, he told Goethe that the character of Cae sarhad not yet been properly done for the stage ; that thepoet should show the world how happy it might havebeen bad Caesar l ived to carry out hi s vast plans. Inother words

,Monsieur de Guente

,as Napoleon pro

nounced hi s name, was invited to assure h i s Ge rmanreaders that Napoleon was doing the very best th ing forEurope by rul ing i t after h i s own fash ion

,and that for

any nation to take up arms against France was morethan folly— it was rebell ion and treason .

Goethe sneered at German patriot ism from an honestbel ief that Napoleon was right and i nvincible . He mayhave commenced h i s tragedy of Caesar on the Napoleonic plan ; but i f he did, he probably felt ashamed of

himse lf when its great prototype melted away with h isarmy and h i s imperial pretensions .Napoleon knew that Weimar was called the German

Athens,and out of compl iment to th i s sentiment allowed

hi s Parisian players to give there a performance of V ol

ta ire’

s Caesar.” Th is play was forbidden in Pari s,but

could do no harm in Germany,thought Napoleon

,who

wa s fond of saying that Germans were always conte ntedi f they had a cellar full of potatoes . At the end of thefi rst act these words are put i n the mouth of Cae sar

,

and were pointedly spoken by the great Talma :

Al lon s,n e coutons poin t n i soupcon s n i vengeance,

Sur l ’un ive rs soumis régnons sans v iolence .”

These words,spoken to German princes at th e centre

PRINCES OF GERMANY PAY COURT To NAPOLEON 161

of Germany i n 1 808,might be expected to recall the

murder of John Palm,of Nuremberg

,and the dai ly

acts Of v iolence towards Prussia. But no . The aud ience rose as one m a n

,and these German princes gave

thei r maste r a round of applause .

The h i story of these days i s crowded w i th the dramatic doings of monarchs of all degrees

,and we are i n

danger of forgetting that there l ived at that time inGermany many milli ons of educated and patrioti c ci tizens who did not rise to applaud the conqueror wi thhi s i ron heel on the neck of theircountry. They h eardabout the doings at Erfurt as honest people hear of vastfortunes acqu ired by rogues — a s someth ing permittedby an i nscrutable Providence

,but i n no way to be re

ga rded as pa rt of the d i vine scheme .

In every hamlet of Germany children were tra ining toprepare for the coming struggle

,which was to determine

not merely whether Germans are one people,but also

whether they were to be led l ike sheep by p r i nces whoh ad made patrioti sm a term too vulgar for courtly ears.Nor did the people of Germany know a ti the of their

shame . In th is year thei r kinsmen in Austri a werearming in defence Of thei r independence

,and Prussian s

clamored for the right to help them against the commonen emy . One Prussian nobleman went so far as to publ ish hi s opinion that a nat ion has a right to fight fori ndependenc e even without the consent of the monarch .

He was p romptly sent to jail .Ge rmans did not then know

,and could not imagine it

poss ible,that their king ha d pledged Napoleon not only

that Prussians should henceforward be obedient to h i swill

,but that i n the coming war aga inst their own flesh

and blood on the Danube they should furnish an armyof mercenari es .

I. - 1 1


The first t ime that I vi sited Erfurt i t was crowdedw i th the wreck of the French army of the Second Empire . That was i n 1 8 70. Twenty years later I wasagain there . A German emperor was entertaining German princes

,and a German army was under inspection .

But the German princes had become servants to a German constitution

,and the German army was the Ger

man people .


In January of 1 807, after Jena, but before Ti lsi t, theKing dismissed Stein from the Prussian service i n thesewo rds :

I was not m i staken in you at the beginn ing .

You are to be regarded as a refractory,insolent

,

obstinate,and disobedient official , who, p roud of h i s

geni us and talent, far f rom regarding the good of th estate

,gu ided pu rely by caprice

,acts from passion

,and

from personal hatred and rancor .”

These words were as unjust to Stei n as they wouldhave been from the Continental Congress to Washington or Frankl in .

Stein did not recei ve even a formal letter of dismissal .He m e t th is v iolent explosion of temper by a reply of

cold defiance,packed up h is trunk

,and went back to h is

estate on the Rhine .

The King was a Hohenzollern through and through,

painstaking and proud , believing in th e patriarchal formof government , a nd d reading nothing so much as ano rganized public sentiment . He wi shed Stei n to helph im

,for he had need of help . But Stei n would not ao

cept the post of Prime M in i ster unless the King di smissed many cou rtiers whom the rugged statesman j ustl y regarded as harmful to the public se rvice . And soStein left the Prussian servi ce, presumably forever.But in less than six months

,immediately after sign

ing the sham eful Treaty of Tilsi t , th i s same King wasso besieged by the importun i ties of Queen Lui se and thebest of h is court that he begged Stein to return and takecharge of Prussia according to h is own terms .We of to-day readily see the reasons why the Kingshould recall h i s excellent min i ster

,but none the less it

m ust be reckoned as the noblest m oment i n the l ife OfFreder ick Will iam III . when he took the step which

FR IEDRICH LUDW1G JA l l N


i n so desperate a strai n ? Had not Napoleon madepeace ? Was not Prussia once more a sovereign state ?Stein found matters much worse than he had feared .

Nominally he had merely to rai se a large war indemni ty .

But practically he found that th is sum was vastly largerthan Prussia could possibly pay. While Stei n was hurry ing from Nassau to Memel , a letter from Napoleonwas on i ts way to Daru , h i s agent in Berli n , saying

“My sin e qu a n on i s,first

,1 50 mill ion f rancs ; sec

ondly , payment i n valuable commercial goods ; and i fthat i s impossible

,and I m ust content myself w i th the

King’s promissory notes,i t i s my intention to hold the

places Stettin,Glogau

,and Kii strin ,

with 6000men asa garri son i n each of them

,unti l these bills are fully

met . And as these would occasi on me additiona l expense, i t i s my i ntention that the expenses of

pay,provi sion

,dress, and board of these men be

charged to the King. The King of Prussia has noneed to keep up an army ; he i s not at war wi th anyone .

Napol eon then went on to say that i n ca se thesecond ition s were not compl ied w ith he would not w ithdraw his troops from Prussia.

Now,King Frederick Will iam bel ieved at that t ime

that if he could but rai se francs,say th irty

m i lli on dollars,hi s troubles would be a t an end , the

French would ret ire quietly,and he might then have

no more serious task than paying interest on h is na

t iona l debt .But we know now what he d id not know then .

Napoleon did not mean that this i ndemnity should becompletely paid ; but he d id mean to keep Prussia i n astate verging upon bankruptcy until such time as hecould arrange to reorganize it as a vassal of France .

THE FIRST BREATH OF LIBERTY IN PRUSSIA - 1 807 167

At that t ime he had troops i n Prussia ; add tothese the for the three fortresses

,and we have

French soldiers as a permanent cha rge upon astate whose total populat ion was barely five millions .One naturally asks

,why d id not Napoleon make an

end of Prussia at once,since he treated her as a con

quered province ? He certainly would have done so hadh e not feared to lose thereby the friendsh ip of the Russ ian Czar. Th at Czar cared little for Frederi ck William

,

but he had a keen di strust of Napoleon,and ins isted

that Prussia should remai n between them as a bufi'

e r.

*

Stein now had one of those grand opportunit ie s wh ichcome so seldom in the l ives of great men . The King adm itted that he was unequal to the task of sav ing hiscountry— the country must save itself. Stei n enjoyedi n these days such powers as no Prussian min ister before

The F rench ambassador in St . Petersburg had been persistent lyseek ing to W in th e Czar over to Napoleon ’s w i shes for th e di smembermen t of Prussia. The Czar as persi sten tly rej ected the advance s onth i s subj ect . He feared the prox imi ty of F rench troops apparent ly asmuch as th e d ishonor of break ing h i s word to Prussia. In the courseof a long conversation , repeated by Caul aincourt, the Czar said

“ The armies of F rederick ( the Great) wh ich came to at tack usstarted always from the l ine of the Oder . These recol lections are toorecen t , Silesia too near, and that l ine too off ensive to permit of such anarrangement , even i f there were no quest ion abou t that poor K ing ofPrussia

,in Whom nobody takes a ny furth er in terest . For my part,

I keep saying to al l about me that you do not evacuate that country(Prussia) becau se he ( th e King) does not pay u p . Is that al l thatkeeps you there ?

“Amba ssador: That is the principal reason (l augh ing) . YourMaj esty

w i l l perm it me to say that you have no better ones for remainingin Wallach ia . But th is remark is personal to me , for the Emperorwould not al low of a doubt concern ing the inten t ions of your Maj esty.

The Czar (also laugh ing) We are chatting now . I l ike to be ad

dressed frank ly . Your Ianguage was not so bad .

”— Let ter of Caula in~

cou rt to Napoleon .


or since has ever had . His King was i n desperate straits,and was prepared for heroic remedies .Stei n turned his attention first to the milli ons of acres

of publ ic land belonging to the crown . Here wa s asou rce of g reat wealth . The land must be sold, he said,and the p roceeds appl ied to paying Napoleon .

On October 9,1 807, Stei n made the King of Prussia

sign a law which prima r i ly was framed for the purpose

of facil i ta t ing the transfer of land , but which ult imatelyabol ished

,once and forever

,the feudal system of serf

dom .

Before th i s date the Prussian peasant was almost aslave . He was forbidden to move about from place toplace

,or to change h is occupation . He belonged to th e

soil,and was forced to perform services for the lord

of the manor, who had magisterial powers almost unl imited .

Stein abol ished slavery in Prussia . His next step wasto make hi s f reemen fit for cit izenship . He made theKing sign other h il ls wh ich recognized the principle oflocal self-government as applied to the counties or province s of Prussia ; and, above all, he made the towns ofPrussia centres of constitut i onal l iberty .

It i s ve ry hard fo r us to picture to oursel ves a state ofsociety such as Germany presented before Stei n set h iscount ry free . The King governed through a host ofpaid officials who had no fu rther i nterest than to keeporde r and earn thei r pensions . The German of that dayknew noth ing of what h i s government p roposed unti l heread of i t ma n offi cial proclamation . He could take noin terest i n publ ic affairs

,and was consequently indiff er

ent to pol it ical changes .King F rederick Will iam III . made h i s people free because he needed money

,and because free people can pro


ve ntions,no party politicians

,none of the modern ma

chinery a ssociated with a reform bi ll . He was not

even sustained by the knowledge that any considerablenumber of h i s fellow-countrymen cared about what hewas doing .

The great German revolut ion of 1 807 was preparedand completed in a thoroughly business-l ike way . Prac

tical men of affairs were consulted ; experts were summoued to give evidence ; and when Stein finally calledupon his King for the royal signature he had i n h i shands a bill prepared on strictly business-l ike lines

,and

not mutilated by the confl icting demands of politi calpar ty leaders . Thi s bill

,which gave Germans their first

taste of constitutional government,was adopted much

as though i t had been a change of t ime-table submittedto the directors of a modern rai lway company .

Those who can recall the many years of popularagi tation wh ich p receded the Engl ish reform bills

,the

adoption of free trade,the emancipation of our negroes

,

or any other measure affecting the pecun iary interestsof a la rge class

,can readil y imagine the strong Opposi

t l on S tein had to encounter i n 1 807, when he cameto fight agai nst the whole of the P russian landed aristocra cy . These besieged the King w ith petit ions theyi nt r igued at court ; they accused Stei n of being re volu

t ionary ; they pred icted the ru in of the Prussian monarchy . And

,moreover

,they used the very arguments

which carried weight w ith a King who detested d emocracy and innovation .

But , fortunately for Germany, the pressure of Na

pol e on was an argument stronger than any whichStein ’s enemies could b r ing forward . And the Germanswho glory i n their constitutional l iberty should begrateful, not merely to the great Stein, but also to the

THE FIRST BREATH OF LIBERTY IN PRUSSIA— 1 807 171

greedy Corsican,who forced the King of Prussi a into

such straits that he could choose only between ruin and

We shal l see more of Stei n i n coming y ears . Hepassed for the m oment into exile . But

,though twice

in two consecutive years dismi ssed from the Prussianservice

,he remained the cen tre of all German hope of

l iberty . He kept i n touch wi th the patriots,and fanned

the hatred of Napoleon i nto a flame that was soon toburst out with unexpected power . He was one withScharnhorst and Gneisenau i n preach ing that everyschool trai n up German children in th e feel ing that noeducation was worth anyth ing that did not lead di rectlyto l iberating the fatherland from the dominat ion ofFrance .

XVIII

PRUSSIANS BECOME REBELS TO THEIR K ING,AND DIE

FOR THEIR COUNTRY

Oh,wel come death for F atherland !

Whene ’er our s ink ing headWith blood be decked

,then w i l l w e d ie

With fame for F atherland .

”

—Klopstock (born ,1724 ; d ied , Heinrich der Vogler .

ON the 28 th of Ap r il,1 809

,th e commander of a Prus

sian hussar regiment ma rched hi s men out of Berl in as

though for a day ’s sham-fight ing. Whe n they reachedthe open country near the vi llage of Stegl itz

,wh ich

,by

“

the -way,i s now swallowed up by G reater Be r l in

,he

called h is men about h im,and proposed to them to go

off and fight Napoleon on thei r own account .This cavalry ofli cerwas named Sch ill— the same Sch ill

w ho had conducted the gue r i lla warfare against theF rench from under the walls of Colbe rg only two yea rsbefore . He was a popular hero . Peasan ts bought p r intsof h im to hang up i n their cottages ; hi s head was paintedon big porcelain pipes and on beer-mugs . To the peopleof Germany Sch i ll appeared to be a m a n of action

,who

bv daring ente rpri se would once more sti r up a nationalSpirit of resi stance to the great French t y ran t

,and make

their count ry free . In December of 1 808 the Frenchhad evacuated Be rl in

,a nd Prussian troops had once

more taken possession . The day had been a national

PRUSSIANS BECOME REBELS TO THE IR KING 1 73

festival . All crowded to see their hero,and if possible

to kiss h is hand or some portion of h is garment . Berli nwas then full of French spies

,and the authoriti e s wagged

their heads ominously at thi s man ifestat ion of patrioti cunrest ; for they asked themselves,

“What will Napoleonsay to all thi s ?”

But Schill was not a politician . His trade was fighti ng

,and he fel t that the present condition of hi s country

was unbearable to a German of spi ri t . During the winter months he had been besieged by patriotic emi ssariesfrom many parts of Germany

,praying h im to head a

rebelli on against the French — a popular war. Someproposed to depose the King of Prussia in case he didnot go with them . But Sch ill was , above all, loyal toh is King

,and could not dream of h i s country as i n

other hands than those of Frederick William III . However

,he was given to unde rstand by many people of

i nfluence about the court that the King,i n spite of hi s

nominal alliance w ith Napoleon,was not wholly averse

to a movement for del iverance from th is h umi l iatingposition .

SO Schill called his gallant troopers about h im on th i seventful day

,and made them a speech that sent the

blood tingling th rough their vein s . He told.

them thatNapoleon was preparing to dri ve thei r beloved Kingfrom the throne

,to treat Prussia as he was then treat

ing Spain “ But never,

”said be,with impressive force

a nd flash ing eyes never shall the faithless ty rant succe ed i n such a damnable plan . Austria and Germany

,

every honest heart,rebels at the thought . And shall

we Prussians lag beh ind ?“We are acting forourcountry, our beloved King, for

the Q ueen,whom each one of us adores

,f rom whom I

hold here i n my hand a precious gift . For her we are


prepared to fight to the death at any moment she may

call .”His words were greeted with enthusiast ic approval .

He had not said that he moved under orders from theKing

,but h i s language left the impression that h i s

m ovements were not whol ly unconnected with somesecret plan approved i n h igh quarters .Then he showed h is troops a pocket-book given toh im by Queen Lu ise. On i t sh e had written thesewo rds : “ To til e bra/y e M r. Schi l l . Thi s confirmed h i speople in the honest bel ief that the cause of Schi ll wasnot m erely the cause of thei r country, but also that oftheir King. They drew their swords

,gave a mighty

hurrah,and swo re that they would fight and die for

German liberty wherever Schi ll chose to lead them .

In these days Austria was fight ing Napoleon On th eDanube

,and Sch il l ’s idea was to assist her by making a

raid i n Ge rmany in the neighborhood of Cassel,where

Je rome held h is cou rt as King of Westpha l i a.

* Jeromehad been bull ied by hi s brother into divorce from abeautiful and accompli shed young lady of Baltimore

,

w hose c r ime i n the eyes of Napoleon wa s that she wasa republ ican lass, and therefore not fit to sit on a thronebeside the

"

brother of th e French Emperor. That th i sF rench Emperor was the son of a Corsican attorneymade no d ifference .

Sch ill expected all Germany to ri se at h is call,but

,as

So cri t ical was the si t uation of Napoleon on the Danube,and so

eager the desire of th e German peopl e to assi st Austria in h er fightaga i nst h im , that the F rench ambassador i n Berl in kept h is travel l ingcarriage in constan t read iness , so that h e migh t fly at a momen t

’ snotice . Not that the d iplomat feared the offi cial s or sold iers of th eK ing— h e w a s in dread of the people

,who threatened to fol low the

example of Sch i l l .—Geh e i in -Staats -Arch iv,Berlin .


but the people prayed for h i s safety,and a week after

h i s d isappearance another body of Prussia n troops,

numbering 1 56 men and four ofli cers,left the capital i n

secret and joined the patriot rebels .Two days after Schill left Berl in

,one of h i s hussars

who had been left beh ind tried to follow h im ,but was

stopped at the Bra ndenburg Gate and tu rned back .

Hereupon the gal lant trooper dashed at full gallop

(m i t oerha ngten Zi lgel ) towards the next gate i n thetown wall

,fired off h i s pistol as h e sprang past the

guard-house,and disappeared over the fields beyond be

fore the sentry quite realized what it was all about .Th is i ncident was deemed worthy of special mention i na report made by the Chief of Police

,for i t made great

sensation in Berl in at the tim e .The Chief of Pol ice deemed it good policy to e ncourage the popular notion that Sch il l ’s enterprise was

secretly encouraged by the h igher authorities . In caseof success they would gain ; i f h e was unsuccessful theymight then disavow h im . Dr. Jam e son

’s raid i nto the

T ransvaal i n the winter of 1 895—6 furnishes a roughanalogy .

King Jerome,on May 5th, pronounced Sch ill a brig

and and outlaw,and offered francs for h i s head .

Schill made light of the matter,and returned the com

pl im en t by putting a price on the head of Jeromefive thalers

,about three dollars .

But Schill d id some good fighting before h i s countrysaw the last of h im . On the 4th of May he reached the

overrun in order to learn more part iculars . The people were ecstat icw i th del ight , a nd there wa s momen tary danger of an attack uponthe F rench embassy . I ordered pol i ce su pervi sion ,

secret as w el l aspubl ic , and a l l passed qu ietly) .—F rom the confiden t ial report of theBerl in Ch ief o f Pol ice

,May

PRUSSIANS BECOME REBELS TO THEIR KING 177

outski rts of Magdeburg w ith about 500men,of w hom

50 were infantry . The French came out to meet h imwith three t imes that number. They had no cavalry ,

but to make up for that they had two p ieces of art i llery .

Magdeburg became F rench after th e Treaty of Tilsi t,

and it was for thi s hi sto r i c Prussian fortress that QueenLuise had pleaded wi th Napoleon

,her eyes wet wi th

tears,her voice choking with emotion . The thought of

Magdeburg once more Ge rman inflamed the minds ofSchi ll and hi s followers

,and he determined to do h is

best i n the cause of a p r ize so dear to h i s Queen .

But first he sent one of his Offi cers,Lieutenant Stock

,

to see i f h e could not win over the VV e stpha l ia n troopsby speaking to them of the common fatherland . Thelieutenant went w i th a flag of t ruce

,but was promptly

ordered back by the commanding officer. Young Stockobeyed

,and wh ile riding back was ki lled by a bullet

from the French lines .Schil l now sounded the battle-call , and away sprang

h is men with hu r rah a nd swinging sabres, th irst ing toavenge the death of the brave young Stock . They cutthe enemy to pieces

,Sch ill h imsel f cutt ing down the

gunners . They took 1 60 p r i soners and a quanti ty of

flags and arms . They left the dead piled h igh in

squares where they had fought,and themselves h urried

westward toescape the expected French reinforcementfrom Magdebu rg.

Schill saw now that i t requ ired more than a regimentof hussars to make a successful i nsurrection . Il e fel tthat h is only hope lay in reach ing the Balt i c and seeking shelter on board Bri tish m e n-of-war. So he led hi smen towards Stra lsund

,a famous old town no rth of

Berl in,opposi te the i sland of R tige n . Danes

,Dutch

,

I.—12


and French were marching against h im,and even the

Prussian frontier was i n arms again st h im .

It was a fo rlo rn hope that Schill was leading, for theB r i tish fleet had sailed away to the eastward , and hehad no means of getting wo rd to its admi ral . How

ever,there was just the bare possibility that he m ight

sustain h imself i n Stralsund long enough to effect atleast an honorable capi tulation .

The fort ifications of the place were so feeble that theFrench commander marched out to meet h im

,and took

up a strong positi on on the sluggish Recknitz Rive r,

wh ich en ters the Balti c close to the west of St ra lsund,

at a l ittle place nam ed Dammgarten . Here the F renchmen

,supported by Poli sh Uhla ns and Mecklenbu rg

riflemen,waited for Sch ill

,who a rrived on May 24th ,

and p romptly sought to cross the stream . He engagedthe enemy in f ront with a small po rt ion Of h i s fo rce

,

w hile the rest swam their horses across the ri ver at apoint lower down

,and

,sweeping round in a b road ci r

cle,fell upon them in flank and rear. The battle lasted

four hou rs,and ended in a total rout of the French

,who

left 600 of th ei r force as prisoners,together with 34

ofli cers.

Thus Sch ill,with in th irty days from leaving Berl in

,

had twice met largely supe r ior French forces upon theirown ground and gained b r illiant victo r ies . The Kingmight call h im a rebel

,and officials try to check him

,

but the plain people eve rywhe re felt hope revive whenthey heard what Sch ill and h is plucky men had done .

‘

r

When Napol eon took Berl in after Jena,Prince Isenburg raised a

regiment of Prussian volun teers,to whom Joseph ine presented colors

i nscribed ‘ Le Premier Regimen t de —Droysen, Frei hez

‘

ts

krz‘

ege , 2d ed ., p . 209.

1 As late as August 22, 1809, the Berl in peop l e bel ieved that Sch i ll


put a stop to the Frenchmen’s cele b ration by capturing

the commande r of the artillery in the publi c square .Had Sch ill at once embarked h i s men he might havesaved h is whol e command by land ing them on theshores of Sweden . But to h im such a course savoredof coward ice . So wi th barely 1 500 men he put thewalls of Stralsund into fighting shape

,and awaited the

enemy,w ho we re 5000 strong, made up of Dutch and

Danes,a lli es of Napoleon .

They stormed h is walls on the 31 st of May,and the

end came as might have been fo reseen . It was a ga llant fight against tremendous odds

,and Sch ill sold hi s

li fe for a good price . When the enemy had battered inthe town gates

,and all hope of effectual resistance was

gone,Sch ill gathered a troop of hi s men together

,and

poin ted to a g roup of officers who were d irecting theoperations agai nst h im .

“ Com e,

”shouted he,

“ let u scarry our h ides to a good market and with that heput spurs to h is horse

,dashed into the midst of them

,

and cut down a li eutenant-general commanding,while

his men sabred right and left about him . As though bymiracle he h imself was unharmed

,and wheeled h is ho rse

back to another part of th e town where h i s men we restill making a stand . On the way ,

however,he passed

a fountain whe re a good - hearted Dutch rifleman wa s

bind ing the wound of a fallen Prussian hussar of Sch il l ’sco rps . Seeing hi s gallant commander

,the Prussian

t rooper gath e red all h i s st rength together and shouted

,Hurrah ! Sch ill Thi s cry of encouragement be

tray e d Sch ill , and drew upon him th e vengeance of hi senemies . They did not fire at h im

,for they believed

him invulnerable . But they rushed w i th fury upon h imfrom all sides

,attacked him w i th sabre a nd bayonet

,

dragged h im f rom the saddle,mut ila ted him as he lay

DEATH OF SCHILL IN TH E MARKET -PLACE AT STRALSUND


many years neglected . His head was preserved at theUniversity of Leyden

,and people cam e to stare at it

along wi th the other monstrosi ti es of the Natural History Museum . He re it lay un t i l 1 837, when a band off riends in Germany finally succeeded i n hav ing i t broughtto Brunswi ck

,where i t i s now suitably buried in the soi l

of the country for which he nobly d i ed .

*

To—day a ll Germany honors the name of Schill, andh is grave at Stralsund i s the object of many patrioticpilgrimages from all corners of th e fatherland . A monum ent was erected to him here fi fty years after h i s death

,

and German singing societies vie with one another i nhe re recall ing the courage of h im who revi ved hope i nGe rmany when courage had come to be regarded asmadness and patriots were branded as highwaymen .

Som e of Sch il l ’s companions managed to make thei rway i nto Prussia

,where the y underwent court-martial

Of a very light ki nd . But Napoleon’ s men captured 1 1Officers and 557 privates . These were for the most partwounded i n the hard fight

,but

,notwi thstanding

,they

were marched ofl’ to Cassel and locked up in the common jai l as though they had been highwaymen . KingJerome sent to Napoleon for i nstructions

,and of course

* Near Stral sund wa s erected a p il lar,and on i t w ere in scribed

verses in memory of Sch i l l . The governmen t subsequen t ly regardedthese l ines as revol u tionary , and the p i l lar wa s removed . I quote thelast verse , as the only one t hat cou ld poss ibly have d isturbed thepol i t ical mind of a German offic ial

These step s are steps of German m en ,

That , when the tyran t keep s h is d e n ,

Come crowding round w i th midn ight tread,

To vow the ir vengean ce o ’ er the dead .

Dead No,that Spiri t brightens st i ll .

Sold ier, thou seest the grave of Schi l l !—After a transl ation in the North Ameri ca n Review.

PRUSSIANS BECOME REBELS TO THEIR KING 83

no one doubted what these would be . The privates andnon-commissioned officers were to be set to hard labori n the pri sons of Cherbourg and Brest ; th e eleven officers were to be brought before a m il itarv court and shotw ithi n twenty -four hours .Napoleon made no prov ision for a trial ; h e ordered

them shot w ith in a given number of hours,and gave

the tribunal no powers beyond the purely perfuncto ryone of passing formal sentence .* Thus had the Dukeof Engh ien been shot i n 1 800; thus was John Palm ofNuremberg disposed of : thus would the grand old Stei nhave d ied had the police caught h im after h i s di smissal ;thus wa s murdered the noble Andreas Hofer ; and sod ied eleven brave young ofli cers who had obeyed thei rcommander

,bel ieving that he spoke for a Queen whom

they adored and a King whom they had sworn to defend .

It was on the banks of the Rhine that thi s bloodybit of Napoleonism was consummated

,at the ancient

fortress of Wesel . The el even Prussian officers represented names famous in their country’s h istory ; theOldest was thi rty-one

,and the youngest only eighteen

they were mere boys,j ust old enough to d ie l ike men .

The charge against them was read ; they were pronounce d guilty of h ighway robbery ; they were to beshot as common th ieves . They were manacled two andtwo

,a nd l ike a gang of criminals led out to a flat mead

ow beyond the fortress walls to the shores of the Lippe,w hich here flows into the Rhine . The place i s markedby a monument to day ; so i s the spot in Braunau whereJohn Palm was shot .

On October 27, 1809, th e pol ice o f Berl in stopped th e performanceof a popular pl ay because there occurred in i t several references toNapoleon

,w h ich th e aud ience natural ly u ti l ized for purposes of

popular demonstrat ion .


A detail of French soldiers were on hand . The gallant young patriots embraced each the other, commendedthei r souls to God

,gave a cheer for the ir King

,tossed

thei r caps i nto the ai r,drew themselves up i n l ine twelve

paces from thei r executioners,and then looking the

Frenchmen square in th e face,called out the word of

command,

“ Fire !”It was a horrible butchery — a bunch of bleed ingbod ies writh ing i n the last breath of l i fe . But one yetstood erect . It was a youngster of twenty

,who had

been wounded only i n the arm . In the midst of h isslaughtered comrades he stood , patient ly awaiting thesecond volley . But soldi ers are men ; and the e x e cu

t ioners glanced at their commanding office r , pointed totheir d ischarged barrels

,and hoped that th i s young

Prussian might be pardoned .

The condemned youngster recogn ized the movementin h i s favor

,but checked it at once .

“No pardon !”hecried .

“Aim better,my men ! Here is my heart ! It’s

h e a ting for my King !”

Three French soldiers now stepped forward . Theyhad loaded the ir guns anew . The v took del iberate aim

,

fired,and— Napoleon ’s w ill was done .

That all happened on the l 6th of September,1 809.

Things did indeed look wel l for the F rench when thei rEmperor could w ith impun i ty reach out h i s hand intoany corner of Europe

,seize

,imp r i son

,and shoot the

subjects of a sove reign state,and be called to account

by nobody on earth —a t least for the present .


was maintained by Alpine peasants fighting for thehouse of Hapsburg .

The first official proclamation i ssued by AndreasHofer was short and characteri stic of the man : “TO

morrow,on th e 9th of Ap r i l, we are to shoulder our

muskets for God,Kaiser

,and native land . Each one i s

called upon to make a plucky fight of i t .”

Two days afterwards, in the mountains about Hofer’s

home,the mountaineers had a fight wi th Napoleon ’ s a l

l ies,the Bavarians . Hofer had never learned the art of

scientific warfare,but he knew how to fight and how to

w in battles . With a sense of the pract ical,natural to

mountaineers,he made a zareba of hay - wagons

,and

from behind th i s simple fortress infl i cted such damageupon the enemy that they we re fo rced to lay downtheir arms . It was a grand day in Ty rol when theremarched i nto Meran Napoleonic “ regulars”who hadsu rrendered to the minute-men”of Andreas Hofer.On fought the devoted Tyrolese . They we re branded

by the F rench as “brigands,

”but their consciences wereclean . They knew that they w ere obeying the ordersof thei r dear Kaiser Franz . That Empe ror had

, on May29

,1 809

,assu red h is faithful Tyroleans that he would

never be party to a peace that did not make Ty rol forever a member of the Austrian Empire . These simplepeasants believed the word of thei r Emperor.Hofer’s great i nfluence with h is people lay largely

herein , that in the year previous he had been called toVienna by the government to consult on the best meansof making a peasant i nsu rrection . The Emperor’ s ownbrother, who was looked upon by the Tyrolese as thei rpa rticular protector at court

,took the l ivel iest inte rest

in Andreas Hofer,and assured h im and his fellows that

Austria would never l ay down her arms unti l Tyrol had

GERMA N LIBERTY TAKES REFUGE IN AUSTRIAN ALPS 18 7

regained her l iberty under the empire of the dear KaiserFranz .One must have l i ved amongst the peasantry of the

Austrian Alps to appreciate the fierce loyalty of thesemountaineers for the ir Kaiser

,thei r saints

,and thei r

nat ive val leys . The men who followed Ferdinand Schil lacross th e sandsof Brandenburg were Lutherans

,who

cared li ttle whether thei r lot was on the banks of theElbe

,the Vistula, or the Spree, so long as they shared

w ith their fellow-Germans a common l iberty in pol iticaldevelopment . WV ith the Tyrolese the feel ing that madethem heroes was purely the personal loyalty to a KaiserFranz

,whom they looked upon as a species of protector

,

i ndi ssolubly associated w ith the Virgin Mary,Nepomuk

,

Florian,and the other images which the traveller sees on

every road and every mountai n-path of that beautifulcountry .

The ch ild ish Tyrolese faith i n Kaiser Franz played soimportant a pol it i cal part of the great war of 1 809 thati t deserves particular notice . Hofer probably knew asl ittle of Prussia as of Bunker Hill

,and had he been told

of Schi l l,he would have crossed h imself and prayed

God to keep away from Tyrol a monster who was notmerely a wicked Lutheran

,but dared to fight without

orders from the Lord ’s anointed .

When Hofer headed the Tyrol insurrection hi s countrywa s a province of Bava r i a

,which was a vassal of France .

Bava r ian rule had been establ ished only three years,

and during these years the Aust r ian Emperor had neverceased encouraging in Tyrol the idea Of an i nsurrectionagainst the Franco-Bavarian usurper. The mountaineershad been enrol led i nto a mil i tia

,after the pattern of

Switzerland , a nd th i s was very ea sy , for in the Alpsnearly every peasant grows up accustomed to the sport


ing-rifle,and is as well prepared to take the field as the

minute-m e n who marched to Boston i n 1 775 .

Andreas Hofer had two excellent staff -office rs . Theone was a fie rce -figh t ing Capuchin ~monk named Haspinger ; the other was a chamois-hunter named Speckbacher. So well d id they fight that by the end of Maythey had dri ven the enemy out of Innsbruck

,and given

the whole country once more back to thei r dear Kai serFranz .But Kaiser Franz on the Danube did not make sogooda fight as Hofer i n the valley of the pale-green rushingand tumbling Inn .

* Had he dismissed h is fie l d-marshals ,and put in thei r places a fe w peasants with courage andcommon -sense

,he might have done better— h e ce rtainly

could not have done worse .

Napoleon left Pari s on April 1 2th,and In thirty days

had taken up h is quarters i n Vienna,having beaten i n

succession all the Aust r ian generals who came out to

meet h im . By the middle of July he had f r ightenedthe good Kaiser Franz into signing a truce w ithdrawm gh is troops from Tyrol .Thus the gallant Tyrolese

,after shedding thei r hon

est blood for the Kaiser whom they loved , were by a

stroke of the pe n handed over naked to the vengeanceof the enemy .

The French now poured into the valleys of the beaut iful country

,and w ith them the Bavarian a ll ies . Thi s

Whoever w i shes to appreciate the in ten se love of home characteri stle of the A l p ine peasan try

,l et h im laun ch h i s canoe at In nsbruck

and paddle leisurely down to the mouth of the Inn ,w i th a map in one

hand and a h istory of Hofer in the other. He w i l l , on such a cru ise ,enjoy not merely beaut i fu l scenery and arch i tecture

,bu t meet w i th a

peopl e fu l l o f admi rabl e v irtues . He w i l l meet w i th more beau ty inw omen and m e n than in a ny trip of equal length in Europe—of coursew i th the except ion of Hungary.

GERMAN LIBERTY TAKES REFUGE IN AUSTRIAN ALPS 189

was more than Hofer and h is followers could bear.They were prepared to Obey the terms of the shamefultruce , but could not understand how such a truce perm itted the enemy to take possess ion of their home .So once more the Tyrolese i ssued from their cabins

and rallied around Hofer for a desperate fight againstwhat they regarded as the “ enemy of heaven and ofearth The French commander put a price upon thehead of Andreas Hofer as upon that of a brigand

,and

thi s price eventually brought to light a Judas Iscariot .But before h is end he made such an impression upona French fie ld-marshal as revi ved respect for populararm ies .By the middle of August Innsbruck had been again

cleared of French,and Hofer took up his quarters i n the

imperial palace . Here he transacted business of statew ith the same simpl icity that he had been accustomedto in hi s l ittle but up the val ley of Pa ssey r. M i n i stersof state found him in hi s sh irt sleeves surrounded bypeasants who were receiving instructions or di scussingw ith h im further defensi ve measures . These peasantsin power d id not at any time lose thei r heads . Theypermi tted no plundering

,but carefully watched over

the admin istration of the country in the spiri t of piousChri stians and practical men .

The proudest moment in the l ife of th i s strange dictator was on the 29th of September

,when a gorgeous ofli

c ia l from Vienna arrived at the palace of Innsbruck beari ng a gold medall ion wi th a long chain . It wa s a presentto Andreas Hofer from the good Kai ser Franz . Tearsfi lled the peasant’ s eyes at this m ark of hi s m aster’ sfavor

,and all good Tyroleans saw in th i s not merely a

reward for Hofer’s past services,but

'

a proof that thei rEmperor meant them to continue the good fight, rely


ing upon h is promise that no peace should be signedseparating Tyrol from the good Kai ser F ranz .

And yet on the 1 4th of October, the th ird anniversa ryof the battle of Jena, th i s same Kaise r Fran z d id makehi s peace with France

,and did exp ressly surrende r Ty rol

to the enemy . But the fai thful mountaineers would not

believe the disgraceful news . They trusted thei r belovedKaiser

,and kept on off e r ing their money, thei r goods,

and thei r li ves for what th ey knew to be thei r duty .

They kept up the unequal fight for another fortnight ,but finally

,on November l st, so severely did the peas

ants suffer in a desperate struggle n ear Inn sbruck thatall hope of resisting the armies i n th e field was abandoned . The F rench had finally “ pacified Tyrol ; and

the hunted rebels dispersed by inaccessible paths,some

to take refuge in Austria,others to places of concealment

i n their native valleys .Andreas Hofer had ample opportuni ty for escape .

But he would not l i sten to those who talked of leavinghis beloved Tyrol . Far up i n the valley where he wasborn he h id h imself i n a cabin that was left untenantedduring the winter. For two months he preserved thesecret of hi s l ife here

,protected by the snow and ice and

by the loyalty of h is comrades in the huts below h im .

His meals were brought to h im by hi s i ntimate friendand adviser

,th e priest Donay . But the French final ly

had thei r suspicions aroused . Partly by th reats and

partly by promises they at length made thi s priest turnt rai tor to the confiding friend who had placed h i s l ifein h i s hands .On the 20th of January

,as Andreas Hofer lay sleep

ing, troops surrounded hi s cabin . He was manacled l ikea felon, and marched down the valley between loadedmuskets . He passed the

-v illage of St . Leonard , where


to her future husband might have saved the li fe ofAndreas Hofer

,but that word was not spoken . The

good Kaiser Franz might have asked h is future son-inlaw to set h is most loyal subject free before recei vingMarie Louise as a bride . But the court of Vienna wastoo much occupied i n preparations for the wedding tothink of Tyrolese patriots, even though these very peasants had done more for the crown of Kaiser Franz

,than

all h is court and all h is pompous generals .Shortly before hi s death Hofe r wrote to a dear friend .

Farewell,ungrateful world . Dying comes so easy to me’

that my eyes do not even moisten . At nine o’clock,by

the help of all the saints,I set out upon my journey to

God .

”

But Andreas Hofer d id not di e i n vain . The story ofh i s l ife and death spread rapidly over all Germany

,and

’

made men feel ashamed when they learned of the much1

that had been done by a handful of brave peasants ;Queen Luise was much affected by his fate, coming so,

soon afterthe death of Sch i ll .*

Austrians now honor thei r great peasant patriot . ~ Tothe V Isitor i n Innsbruck is shown a splendid monumenti n m arble erected over hi s grave in the court church .

He has another he roic monument on th e heights overlooking the town

,whence h e directed h i s most splendid

‘

m i l i tary operat ions fo r the liberati on of h i s country .

The museum of Innsbruck i s full of i nteresting rel icsconnected w ith hi s l ife and times

,and no stranger can

be long in that country without feel ing that he i s i nthe land of Andreas Hofer. His l ife has been dramatizedand played by his fellow-peasants to enormous audiences

The people of Berl in showed their sympathy for th e l iberty -lov ingmountaineers by smoking pipes decorated wi th the face of AndreasHofer.

ANDREAS HOFER BROUGHT A PRISONER FROM TH E MOUNTAINS

THE LAST DAYS OF QUEEN LUISE

Die Einhei t Deutschlands l iegt m ir am Herzen . Sie ist e in Erb

the i l meiner Mutter.”—F rederick Wi l l iam IV . , eldest son ofQueen Lu ise of Prussia .

QUEEN LUISE died in 1 8 10,at the age of th irty-four.

She saw all the shame that came upon her country,and

died of a broken heart i n the midst of . pol itical movements promising complete exti nction to the Hoh enzol

lern dynasty . After death her heart was examined,and upon it was d iscovered a strange growth resembl ingthe initial letter of the great Corsican conqueror.The history of her country was impressed upon her byseveral memorable murders executed by Napoleon . In1 804 the Duke of Enghi en was l iving i n Germany as anexile . Napoleon had h im kidnapped and shot withouta t r i al .In 1 806 the German bookseller John Palm forwardeda book of whose contents he was ignorant . Napoleonordered h im shot without a trial .In 1 808 the greatest statesman Germany has ever

produced , th e P russia n Prime-M i n ister Stein , was pronounced by Napoleon to be an enemy of France . Hehad to fly for

,

h is l i fe . His estates were confiscated .

Transl at ion The un i ty of Germany l ies close to my heart . I t isan inheritance from my mother.

THE LAST DAYS OF QUEEN LUISE 195

Had he been caught he would have been shot like theDuke of Enghien .

In 1 809 Schill marched h i s regiment against Napoleon,

hoping to aid Austria i n her war. He was declared abrigand . His head was cut off and carried in triumphto Jerome Bonaparte

,h is m en were sent as convicts to

the penitentiary,his fellow-officers were shot as h igh

waymen .

In 1 8 10Napoleon ordered the shooting of the noblepeasant Andreas Hofer

,whose crime lay i n fighting for

h i s home and hi s Emperor against overwhelming odds .H i s trial was a mockery .

These acts of v iolence were all of a nature to outragethe German sense of j ustice

,and to k indle in Germans

of every sect ion a feeling that Napoleon had comeupon earth for the

“

express purpose of being theirscourge .So much for the startl ing acts affecting the people .

In the councils of the palace the hand of Napoleon

was felt sti ll more crush ingly . Napoleon had demandedof Prussia a war i ndemn ity representing m ore than sixteen times the gross revenues of the country for any oneyear

,and he backed up thi s demand by threatening to

occupy the country with his troops and tax-collectorsuntil h is demands should have been met . This meantnoth ing less than making P russia a province Of Franceand the Hohenzollerns dependen t pri nces .Queen Lu ise became at once, in these desperate days,

the centre of all national hope . She kept her husband

in the right way, and cheered h im up when her ownheart was sore w ith bad news . She had an instinct iveappreciat ion for strong men . She knew that the Kingdisl iked Stein

,but she brought them together after the

Peace of T i lsit and when Stein lost h is temper


over the King’s vacill ating behavior, wrote to the ruggedstatesman (i n German)

I implore you,by all that i s sacred , do have patience

just th i s one month . The King wi ll surely keep h iswo rd . Do give way for th i s bit of time , that all maynot fall to pieces for the sake of three mon th s’ wai t ing.

In the name of God I implore you, i n the name of Kingand country

,for the sake of my ch ildren

,for my own

sake— patience LUISE .

”

Thi s is a mother pleading with the honest but unbending Stein . These are not sentences poli shed bycourtly officials . Luise would have gone on her kne esto Stei n for the sake of her country

,and we may realize

somewhat the sore plight that country was in when shefinds i t necessary to indorse the promissory notes drawnby her husband .

Lui se i s the best h i storian of her t ime ; for, with allthe passion and enthusiasm that i nspi red her

,she pre

served a balance of mind wh ich made her capable offorming most correct judgments of men and th ings .Her brother George was her dearest fri end

,and to

him she wrote loving letters ful l of her own feel ings .“Ah , George,

”wrote she (Memel, October 7,you can’t imagine how happy we are when one day doesnot bring anything worse than the last . Yes

,we have

come down p retty low . I do not complain of the resultsof the dreadful peace [of Tilsit] . After such a disastrouswar one must be prepa red for sac r ifices

,and we did make

enormous ones. But to endure cap r ice and to be theSport of the whims of French marshals and employésthat wa s too much . We had not the strength to supportthat— no one could stand tha t . I do not despair of


Abandoned out of weakness [a h it at Alexander per

se cuted through insolent pride , weakened by misfortunethus must we go down . Savary [the French agent] hasgiven assurance that Russian intervention would do usno good ; but he off ered us a bit of f r i endly advice : to sellour jewels and valuabl es at auction . Th ink of h is beingallowed to tel l us these th ingsGermans who have grown up under the great modern

empire founded at Versailles i n 1 871 must find food forthought in recall ing a time i n th i s century when employés of Napoleon sat i n Berlin and told the family ofHohenzollern how they should make both ends meet .Luise’s favorite brother George went to Pa r i s

,and had

h is first i ntervi ew with Napoleon on NovemberHe was twenty-eight years of age

,and came to fulfil the

promise he had made to h i s sister— to plead for j ustice .

The court was at Fontainebleau . Napoleon had re

vive d the ceremonial state of the old monarchy,and w i th

it the so - called l ever at eight o’clock in the morning,where all had to appear in pompous court un iforms mode l l ed after those worn before the Revolut ion . At one ofthese levers young Prince George was permitted to a pproach the mighty man and present h i s peti t ion

,the ad

mission of Mecklenburg as member of the Rh ine Confede ration . Be it said

,i n parenthesis

,that Mecklenbu rg

,

the ancestral home of Queen Luise,had no choice be

tween joining the Rhine Confederat ion and being e x tin

guished . It i s to Mecklenburg’s credit that she d e layedher action “to the very last .In the midst of d iscussing th i s question Napoleon sud

de n ly changed his tone, and, with a sneer, asked him if hehad news of h is sister.George : “Yes

,s i re.

Napoleon : Is she well ?


George : No,sire ; she cannot be.

Napoleon : “Why not ?”

George : Because she has been decei ved i n her mostprecious and most j ust hopes . According to the treatysigned with your Majesty

,the King of Prussia should

now be back in Berli n . But as the conditions of thi streaty are not fulfilled, th e Queen must see her dearestw ish not fulfilled of having her approaching confinementi n Berlin ; and that operates unfavorably on her health .

”

Napoleon (angrily)“That i s not my fault . You want

ed the war,and these are the results .”

George : “Peace has been signed and the conditionscompl ied with .

”

Napoleon : “ I cannot place any rel iance upon the King.

He i s neither soldier nor statesman . Therefore I cannottrust h im in the sl ightest degree .

”

The Prince of Mecklenburg naturally resented Napoleon’s rude speech about hi s brother-ia - law

,and pointed

out that Frederick William kept on fighting long afterJena because he was loyal to h is ally Alexander I .

,

who subsequently deserted h im .

Napoleon (violently) No ; I know y ou all betterthan you do yourselves

,and I cannot but be suspicious.

And I shal l crush them to atoms (j e l es e’

era sera i ) at thefirst bi t of fooli shness they may undertake .

”

This i s a sample of the conversation . This prince ofa sovereign state had not harmed France ; had not beenat war ; had come to Pari s to form an all iance wi ththe master of Europe

,and was treated with insult for

the family he represented .

That w inter the royal family of Prussia spent i nKonigsberg

,with scarce enough pocket-money to set a

respectable table . It was regarded as someth i ng quiteexceptional .that a champagne bottle should be opened


to cel ebrate the birthday of l ittle Prince Will iam ,who

was destined to become first German Emperor andenter France three t imes at the head of a v ictoriousGerman army .

Luise sold her j ewels and the King melted down thegold table service. They set an example of th r i ft that canbe compared only w ith Wash ington ’s habi ts at ValleyForge . The house they l i ved in at Konigsberg i s st i l lp reserved— a simple farm -house

,such as a family i n re

duced circumstances might select i n order to concealthemselves economically during the summer holidays .When I visited th is house, Konigsberg wa s i n festaldress to receive a German Emperor

,the great grandson

of Queen Luise. He came to KOnigsberg to revi ewof the best troops i n Europe and to unveil the

monument of hi s grandfather the first German Emperor,

on whose twelfth bi rthday it had been deemed strangeluxury to Open a bottle of champagne ! O ld EmperorWilliam never forgot that birthday of h i s i n Kon igsberg

,

nor d id he ever depart from the habits of simplici tywhich were forced upon h is parents by the hard handof Napoleon .

Luise was devoted to Sch iller’s poetry,notably those

of h i s plays which glorified the love of country . Thegreat poet died in 1 805

,while Queen Luise was arra ng

ing for h is appointment to Berl in,w h ich would have

given h im a competence for l ife . She was a loyal fri endto Bl ii che r

,Gneisenau

,Scharnhorst

,and we have seen

how she encouraged the daring Schi ll by giving h im akeepsake which tacitly meant the royal approval of h i srebell ious expedi tion .

Wh en the Tyroleans fought so gallantly in 1 809 shethrew all her influence on the side of Aust r ia

,and was

the first to see that Germany ’s natural ally was not


made me sad ! My heart was torn— and I danced ! I

m ade a smil ing face, I said pleasant th ings to those whogave th i s feast

,I was agreeable to all the world— and

through i t all despera tely miserable !“To whom will Prussia belong a year from now ?

When shall we all be scattered ? Father Almighty,take pi ty on us !”

That was the spring of 1 809, when Napoleon haddriven Stein f rom German y

,and talked seriously of

taking from Prussia he r richest remaining p rovinceSilesia

,that province which Frederick the Great had

won after seven years of glorious fighting .

Queen Luise i n th is year of despair laid the foundationfor Germany ’s greatness i n many ways, but i n non emore efficiently than i n the encouragement she gave tocommon - school education on the l ines of Pestalozzi .That eccentric genius (born 1 745) l ived i n Sw i tzerland ,and developed in h i s l ittle v illage principles of education which now are applied uni versall y, but i n h i s daycame like a revelation . He originated the now generally accepted axiom that the good citize n i s the out

growth of a system of training commencing at themother’s breast . Education i n h is eyes was pre-emin ently of vital interest to th e state

,on the ground that

a state is secure only i n so far as i t reposes upon theconsent of the great body of educated people . Theseideas in his day had someth ing republ ican about themwhich was formidable to absolute monarchs

,and i t i s

marvellous that the fi rst state to accept hi s gospel andcarry hi s teachings out to their logical e nd was that ofthe most absolute mona rch F rede r i ck William III .Luise gathered i n repo rts from all schools conducted

on Pestalozz i’s plan,and gave her husband no peace

until h e granted her request to have the educati onal ex


p erim ent tried in Konigsberg. Thi s experiment provedsuccessful

,i n spite of the very small money m eans

at her command . But more than money was the constant personal attention which the Queen gave to thi swork .

“ I am read ing Li en l mrd a nd Gertrude,

”writes sh e,

“ a book for the people,written by Pestalozz i . I feel so

at home i n that Swiss hamlet . Were I only my ownmaste r

,I would jump into a carriage and roll away to

Switzerland to see Pestalozzi , to thank that noble manw ith tears i n my eyes and the heart iest pressure of thehands . What a great heart he has for human ity ! Yes

,

I ca n thank h im in the nam e of my fellow-man . Onepart icular passage pleased me

,because it is th e truth

‘ Suffering and want are blessings .of God when theyhave been endured .

’ And so i t i s i n the midst of mym i sery I keep saying

,

‘ It i s the blessing of God !’ How

much nearer am I to God H ow m uch more distinctlyhave my feel ings taken shape regard ing the immortali tyof th e soul !”

Pestalozzi,l ike Lui se

,l ived and died in want and sor

row . They ne ve r saw on e anothe r . Like her,he never

knew what hi s l i fe was to accompli sh for the be n e fi tof generation s yet to be born . One of the last publ icacts of Queen Lui se w a s to go with h er husband

,on

December 7 , 1 809, and carefully inspect th e KOn igsbe rgInsti tute

,where the methods of Pestalozz i were on

trial .A week after th i s she l eft Konigsberg

,and

,after an

absence of three years and three months,the royal fam

i ly of Pruss ia once more took up its home i n Berlin .

She was already suffering from the d isease that was toclose her life

,and yet never did she accompl ish more for

her country than in these last precious months . S ince


the banishment of Stei n by order of Napoleon the gov

e rnme nt business had fallen once again into incompetent hands

,or

,worse stil l

,into the hands of officials

who bel ieved that the only safety for Prussia lay i ncomplete servil i ty before Napoleon . The King wasweak enough to be influenced by this party

,and i t

was di fficult for Luise to make h im see the slavery hewas preparing.

Hardenberg was the successor to Stein i n popularfeeling

,for in Hardenberg the best people of Germ any

saw a statesman able to cope w ith the difficulties of thei rvery painful si tuation . Luise set i n movement everyin fl uence at her command to secure the appointment ofHa rdenberg as Prime-M i nister

,and

,above all

,to over.

come the veto of Napoleon . Hardenberg was knownin France to be of German national sentiment

,and there

fore not likely to assi st i n the pol icy of Frenchifying h i scountry. But by thi s time Napoleon had reached analti tude of glory from which th ings far below h im ap

pe ared strangely insignificant . He sneered at the ideathat Prussia could ever seriously th ink of resisting him

,

and approved of Hardenbe rg because that min i ster gavea guarantee that the Prussian finances would yield theh ighest possible sums for the benefit of Napoleon’s army

,

which just then was having a very expensi ve campaigni n Spain .

It i s notable that in these dark days of Prussia,under

a monarch regarded as absolute,whenever we hear of

a good bit of statesmanship we can almost always tracei t back to the doings of a woman whose character wasessentially feminine, domestic, and dependent . She tookgreat pains to conceal the part she played i n the regenera tion of her country, knowing that her King wa s ajealous King, who resented sharply any apparent in


fringem ent of h i s prerogat i ves .* She persuaded him

now and then for the public good,because she was gifted

w ith singular tact,and never made him feel that he was

influenced . And,besides

,he was fondly attached to her

and loved to give her pleasure .

SO, i n Berl in, i n January of 1 8 10, the last time that

Lui se appeared at a grand court function i n all her regalsplendor

,i t was to do v iolence to the social traditions of

that court— to place a high decoration upon the breastof an actor. Even Napoleon had not done such a th ing i nFrance to a Talma . Luise did i t to Ifli and

,and with every

circumstance calculated to make the ceremony impre ssive .

Iffiand was di rector of the Berlin court theat re duringthe winter after Jena

,when the Queen was flying into

exil e along the shores of the Balti c . The French occu

pied the capital,and had strictly forbidden that there

should be any celebration of Queen Luise’s birthday .

Iffiand had been threatened with prison by the Frenchin 1 807 for attempting to celebrate the bi rthday of h isQueen . In 1 808 he appeared on th e stage with a rose .It was the evening of March l oth , and many hearts werehe a t ing for thei r Queen far away . Iffiand suddenlystopped i n h i s rOl e

,looked furti vely to right and left

,

then hotly pressed the rose to h is lips.

The w idow o f a d irect descendan t of Queen Lu ise ’s sister,who

d ied in Gmunden at th e age of over e ighty, to ld me , in the summer of1 893,

that under th e w i l l o f her mother sh e had been compel led todestroy a m ass o f most interest ing correspondence between QueenLu ise , h e r fami ly , and friends . An idea of the m isch ief done may begath ered from the fact that th is l ady was occupi ed d uring three wholedays burn ing up these prec iou s l e tters . She , of course , regrettedenormously the loss she was caus ing , bu t had no choice in the matter.Th is hel ps to explain why so l i ttl e o f th i s admirabl e Queen has comedown to u s. Nor do the secret arch i ves of the Hohenzol lern fam ilya ssist us yet i


It wa s a sl ight thing i n itself, but every Germ an saw

in that rose the emblem of hi s Quee n , and the uproari n the theatre became so great that the French could

not fai l to understand the mean ing of thi s enthusiasm .

Itfiand wa s then promptly locked up in jai l and keptthere two days .So Napoleon hated Queen Luise

,because he found that

the l i ttle finger of that one pure woman could rai seagainst h im more enemies th an he could convenientlykeep quiet .That winter

,1 809— 10

,was her last on earth . She

suffered more and mo re from pain in the region of

the chest,and longed for the warm weather

,when she

m ight go out into the country and li ve the plain l ife thatdelighted her above all th ings.On the 25th of Jun e

,1 8 10

,at last she wa s able to start

for a vi si t to her beloved father in Mecklenburg,and

during th i s happy visit she died on the 1 9th of July,

1 8 10. She died in the arms of her husband,and her last

words w ere : “Lord,Jesus

,make i t Short .”

As she had predicted so often,her l ife was not to be

*Ra uch ’s famou s monument of Queen Lu i se,wh ich to day makes

Charlottenburg the favori te p i lgrimage of German s , w as completed in1 8 14, a nd at once sh ipped to Hamburg from Leghorn on board an

Engl ish sh i p . I t wa s an odd coincidence that the compl eted statueleft Rome on Ju ly i 9th , the day Of the Queen

’ s death . But Englandi n that year w a s at w ar w i th th e Un i ted States , and so i t happenedthat a Yankee privateer ov erhauled the Bri ti sh merchan tman , tookher prison er , a nd sai led away w i th her a nd her prec ious cargo . Bu tthe captured merchantman was in turn chased and overhau led by theEngl i sh pri vateer E l isa , so that once more the monumen t of QueenLu ise sai led u nder the Bri t ish flag . The preciou s marble wa s tran sferred in the island of Jersey to th e brig - of -w ar Sp y , and by h e r

brought safely to Cuxhaven , at the mouth of the Elbe . At last,on the

22d of May , 18 15 , the famous work reached Berl in ,hav ing taken

almost a year on the way .


To a n iece of hers who was contemplating marr iagew i th a Bavarian prince who insisted upon the Protestantprincess becoming Roman Cathol ic

,Luise wrote

,with

characteristic vigor : “Wh at does a man gain who secures the world but stains h i s soul ?” She strongly urgedher to regard her religion as more impo rtant than temporal success . It i s but religion that gi ves us i nner calmi n the midst of the tempest and carnage that so oftensurround us here below .

”

Such sentiments were ra rely expressed in those days,

and even now w e sometimes see a princess surrende r ingher religion for the sake of a profitable mar r i age .

When Luise died Ge rmany mourned as for the m oth e rof her country . The journ e v of he r dead body f romHohenzieri tz

,in Mecklenburg

,to Berl i n was through a

throng of sad-hea rted people,few of whom could rest rain

thei r tears .* They laid her at rest in her favo r i te g roveat Cha rlottenburg

,and wi th p ious hands the great

sculpto r Rauch reared her a monument in ma rble that i sthe marvel of the thousands who yearly come to standby her tomb . Pure as that marble we re her heart a ndhe r l ife ; and we cannot too h ighly prize the happycoincidence that gave to Rauch the task of do1ng thi slabor of love— Ranch

,the greatest of German sculptors

,

whose early life had been passed about the pe rson of h i sQueen

,whose ca ree r i n art he owed to her Whose tomb

he chi se lled . The body of Queen Lu ise was dead,but

her soul went ma rching on .

Queen Luise at the t ime of her death was engagedin w riting a l ittle volume of moral and rel igious refle ct ions

,d rawn obviously from he r own precious and pain

Even to ou r day the pea san ts of Mecklenburg poin t ou t to thestranger the spot where the coffi n of Queen Lu ise rested during thefuneral journey from Hohenz ieritz to Charlottenburg—P. B .


ful experiences . Thi s li ttle album contained forty pages,

most of which were ornamented by her with flowers i nwater-colors— mostly lil ies . She enti tled the l ittle bookH eaven ly M em ori es (H imm l i se/te Erinn erungen) anddevoted the th ird page exclusively to th is motto

Recht, Gla ube , Li ebe .

(Just ice, F a i th , Love . )

Luise was no hypocrite,and I feel sure that the

reader w i ll not begrudge the space I shal l here occupyi n reproducing a few of the words wh ich thi s matchlessQueen has left a s .

*

Auch in gu ten Tagen k raf tige ich m ich durch d ie Rel igion gegendie BOsen d ie da kommen kOnn en ,

u nd in d iesem Bronzenen (sic)Secu l um n ich t ausble iben w erden .

—Potsdam,1 803.

In happy days,too

,I forti fy mysel f w i th Rel igion against the ev i l

days wh ich may come, and in th is bronze age [a h i t a t Napol eon]

mus t be expected ”)

Der Mensch lebt von Erinn erungen . Wenn man sich nur Gutesvon s ich zu erinnern hat

,so kann man n ie ganz ungl ii ck l ich sein .

Potsdam,

(“ Man l ives upon memories . He who has none but pleasant ones

regard ing h is l i fe ca n n ever be whol ly

E in Trost des moral i schen Menschen ist, dass ihn Gott n ich t ganzverlassen kann . Kommt d ie Hul fe aue h n i ch t schne l l

,s ie komm t doch

gewiss .—Memel ,

(“The m an of uprigh t purpose has one comfort at least , that God

cannot whol ly abandon h im . Help may be long in com ing , but i tw i l l surely come ”)

* The Duke o f Cumberl and whose father was the last K ing of Hanover , k indly placed th is p rec i ous manuscri p t in my hands, w i th perm ission to make the contents publ ic . Un fortunate ly I am not able toexpla in satisfactori ly the part icu lar occasion for many of these strangeexpressi ons —P. B .

10—14


Man kann m it Rech t sagen ,cl ass nurindem w ir thun wasRech t ist,

und w ir unserer Pflich t leben ,w ir uns des G i ll ck e s toiirdig machen .

Ob wir es th e ilh a ftig werden , steh t in Gottes Hand —Memel ,

I t may be said w i th tru th that w e deserve happ iness on ly by doingwhat is right and l iving accord ing to our sense of duty . But whetherw e shal l attain happ iness rests w i th God .

Wer das gesagt hat,dass n ichts schreck l icher se i al s d ie gute M e i

nung d ie m an von e inem Menschen hat,zurii ck nehm en zu m il sse n ,

der hat recht gesagt . Es schmerzt f i'Irch te rl ich Dennoch glaube ichmehr al s j e , dass es e ine Tugend gie bt, und dass si e al l e in uns auchschon h ier auf Erden b egl ii ck en kann .

—K6 n igsberg , Mai ,

Whoever said th i s spoke true : that there i s noth ing on earthmore d readfu l than to be forced to w ithdraw the good op inion onceheld of a fe llow-m an .

* I t is frightfu l pain 1 But in sp ite of i t a l l Ibel ie ve more firmly than ever that there i s such a th ing as v i rtue

, and

that it alone can make us happy , even wh i le yet on earth”)

Al so mache ich d ie Augen zu,und fal te d ie Hande und sage so

oft ich nur kann : Wir al le stehen in deiner Hand , Gott ; verlass unsn ich t (No place gi ven . )

And so I close my eyes and fol d my hands,and keep repeat ing

over a nd over again : We a l l are in thy hands . F orsake us not,

0 God N.)

Ich las heu te e ine Stel l e d i e m ir gefie l , we i l sie wahr ist Leiden11nd Elend sind Got tes Segen , wenn s ie fibe rstand e n s ind .

’ Auch ich ,

m i tten in meinem E lend sage schon Wie naher bin i ch be i Gottw ie deut l ich sind meine Ge f ifthl e von der Unsterbl ichke it der Seele zubegrifi

'

e n geworden -KOnigsbe rg ,Marz

,

(" Th is morn ing I read a pa ssage wh ich plea sed me because i t is the

truth Suffering a nd misery are blessings from God when w e hav eendured them .

’

A nd I , too , in the m idst of my wretchedness al readysay How much nearer am I to God ; how much more dear to mehave become my feel ings regard ing the immortal i ty of the soul l”)

* It i s poss ibl e that Queen Lu ise h ere has reference to the Czar A lexander , who had in pa st years professed comp lete devot ion to herhusband ’s cause .—P. B .

A NURSERY VIEW OF KING , QUEEN , AND POLITICS

So sol l de in Bi ld au f unsern F ahnen schw ebenUnd sol l uns l euch ten durch d ie Nach t zum Sieg lLu ise se i der Schu tzgei st deutscher Sache,Lu ise se i ( l as Losungswort zur Rache

—Theodor Korner , March 19, 18 13, from h is poem en ti tledUnsere V erk larte Kon igin (To our Queen in Heaven).

ONE of the most conspi cuous figures of th e Berl incourt in the days of Napoleon was named Voss (V pronounced F), a punctilious, conscientious court lady whokept a diary

,

* wh ich closed only w ith her death at th eage of nearly eighty-six . When al ready an ol d womanshe became ch ief companion to Queen Lu i se

,but that

yea rs m eant l i ttle wi th her m ay be infe rred from entriesin her d iary

,tell ing of long-sustained dances when she

wa s eighty-one and eighty-two years of age .Her diary

,which deals with royalty and pol iti cs

,i s a

most precious legacy,for i t i s full of odds and ends of

The manuscript d iary of Coun tess Voss h as not yet been publ ished ,though a much garbled version o f i t

,en t i t led “ Sixty-n ine Years at

the Prussian Court,”has appeared in German . The original i s inF rench , a nd in a handwri t ing so had that th e most expert manuscri p treaders at th e Record offi ces of both Berl in a nd London found thetask of deci phering u nusually d iffi cul t . Th i s d iary was k indly placedat my d isposal by th e presen t Coun t Voss

,a d irect descendan t o f th e

famous d iari st. It i s to be hop ed . that th is precious MS . may someday be given to the world exactly as i t was penned —P. B .

A NURSERY VIEW OF KING, QUEEN, AND POLITICS 213

i nformation unconsc iously let fa ll by her courtly qui ll .The names of Germany

’s great men are scarcely heardi n these pages, though th is i s the age of Scharnhorstand Stei n

,of Gneisenau and Bl ii ch er. Still she was a

power i n h i story when the mood of the King meantmo re than that of all the w i se men of h is kingdom .

In 1 798 sh e made the long, sandy journey from Berl into Konigsberg on the Balt i c

,accompanying Frederick

Willi am III . and his beauti ful Queen Luise . It was thecoronation journey

,for the Kings of Prussia were by

custom crowned in the old capital of Prussia . CountessVoss wrote that the King was soon bored and vexed byth e interminable demonstrat ions of loyalty on the way .

She did not,however

,remind h im that Louis XVI .

would have suffered i t most cheerfully i n h i s stead .

The roads were then very bad,and two carriages broke

down i n two days .From Konigsbe rg the royal party proceeded to War

saw,which was then a part

'

of Prussi a,but now belongs to

Russia . The Poles of that day appear to have prefe rredGerman to Russian rule

,for the royal family not only

took no unusual precaution against assass inat ion,but

appear to have been much pleased by the i r stay in thebeaut iful capital of the ol d Polish kings . “Man betets ie h ier formlich an

,says Countess Voss

,speaking of

the feel ing of Poles for Lu ise . Nor i s thi s strange .Poland i s the home of beau t i ful women and ch ival rousmen ; and i n such a country the beautiful young Queensoon made herself popular .Thi s first rova l journey lasted somewhat more than amonth

,and gave practical demonstration to Europe that

whatever force republ icani sm had in France,i n Prussia

there was a pretty general confidence in monarchicalinst i tutions .


In the next yea r (1 799) the royal party made a twomonths’ tour i n the other parts of Prussia

,and there a s

well Queen Luise became a popular favorite, thoughCountess Voss’s d iary maintains discreet silence about

the King.

In 1 801 Luise presented the king with a sixth ch ild,and i n the next summer made

,with her husband

,a long

journey to the extreme northeastern corner of P russia tomeet the new Russian Czar, Alexander I . The personalfriendship of Alexander and Frederick Wi lliam was disastrous to Prussia

,for i t gave one weak man a pretext

for depending upon another sti ll more weak . Voss saysof Alexander He appears to have a soft, benevolentdisposition .

” In 1 807 she cursed hi s softness, for he became wax in th e hands of Napoleon .

Luise i s twice referred to as being more beautiful thanusual

,and Alexander was very attenti ve — who can

blame h im ? Old lady Voss herself i s much m oved,

and writes (under date of June 1 5, 1 802) of AlexanderHe is the most amiable man i t i s possi ble to imagine

,

and withal most honorable i n h i s v iews and objects . Thepoor fellow l s completely fascinated by the Queen .

On the 4th of July,1 807, the old lady h ad to write of

thi s same man of honor that h is behavior was worsethan weak .

”

She might have said so earl ier had she known whatsuggestions th is honorable Czar was ci rculating i n St .Petersburg in regard to a Queen whose pure characterwas never assailed by any other man save a Napoleon .

*

L’

Empereur [Alexander qu i a lors éta z‘

tf ort e’

p n'

s a u tre p art, meraconta qu ’ i l avai t été sérieusemen t alarmé par l ’arrangem e nt des chambres qu i commun iquaient avec la sienne

, e t que , p our la nu i t, t'

l s’

enf erma i t soigne usement a double tour pour que l ’on n e v in t pas l e surpre ndrc e t l

’

induire a des tentations trop dangereuses qu ’ i l voula i t évi ter.

A NURSERY VIEW OF KING,QUEEN

,AND POLITICS 215

Prince Czartoryski,whose memoirs were publ ished

i n 1 8 87, and who wa s one of thi s Czar’ s few intimatefriends

,reports Alexander as complaini ng that Queen

Luise made improper advances to h im during th i s vi si t—as damnable a bi t of self-conceit as ever entered thehead of a twenty-five -year-old autocrat .Memel i s the name of the l ittle place where King and

Czar spent a week of most affectionate i ntercourse— re

v iewing troops,feasti ng

,and dancing. Here wa s laid

the basi s of a fri endship wh ich the Prussian court fondlyhoped was to protect them effectually against Frenchinvasion . Memel saw Queen Lu ise and her husbandagai n after the battle of Jena— when they fled for thei rl i ves towards the Russian frontier.Countess Voss lets us see at many points that Luise

sympathized with the German patriots who preferredwar w ith France rather than peace and Napoleon ’ s all iance. But the King kept h i s Queen i n ignorance of thecou rse he was steeri ng

,and got deeper and deeper in the

slough of political falsehood and treachery At last wecome to the war of 1 806, when the King and Queen drovegayly off to the army headquarters at Erfurt

,ten days

before the battle of Jena . Countess Voss says,na i vely

,

on October 10th ° “ The French seem to be everywhere .”And so they were, but the Prussian generalswere the last to know of thei r whereabouts . The roadswere everywhere abominable

,she says . On the 13th

she i s d ri v ing w i th the Queen to Auerstadt, antic ipatingnoth ing disagreeable

,when the carriage i s ordered back

to make room for a battle . This l ittle i tem suffi cientlyi llustrates the hopeless ignorance and helplessness pre

I l l e déclara meme tout bonnemen t aux deux pr incesses [Lu ise and hers ister] avec p l us de franch ise que de galanterie e t de courtoisie .Mémoires da Prince A dam Cza rtorg/sk i , vol . i . , p . 296 .


vailing i n the Prussian headquarters, for what else canexplain thi s stumbl ing upon a battle-fie l d wh ich was tocontai n the bulk of the enemy ’s a rmy !So back they turn’ from the battle-fie l d of Jena

,and on

October 1 7th , three days after the battle, she hears for

the fi rst time that the Prussian army i s destroyed, andthat she must not stop to pack her valuables, but hurry

a way beyond the reach of Napoleon . The fact that theQueen of Prussia heard the news of Jena first i n Berl i non the 17th tel ls us eloquently how backward Prussiawa s as compared with France, not merely in postingfacil ities

,but in the use of semaphores for telegraph ing

important news .Luise hu rried off to the Baltic coast at Stetti n onthe very next morning

,and old lady Voss followed i n

twenty-four hours ; doing her best m eanwhi le towardsgetting the necessary cloth ing and fu rn i ture packed .

But one day was too l ittle for he r purposes, and Napoleon had a pleasant time ransacking Lu ise

’ s privateeffects and reading lette rs wh ich should have beenburned .

No sooner had poor Lui se re ached Stetti n than shereceived an order to hu r ry off to K ii strin on the Oder,another long journey which she had to make in a smallopen wagon . In fact

,the royal people at that time

we re glad enough to get on i n any shape,so long as

they could keep out of Napoleon ’s reach .

On October 25th Countess Voss had not seen her dearQueen for a week

,and did not know even where the

King was . She was ordered to post on,over very bad

roads , to anothe r Baltic port, Danzig, and there to lookout for the royal children . The re she saw Hardenbergon October 28 th , and he, the great M ini ster of ForeignAffairs, tells Tante Voss t hat i n Kii strin he saw the

2 18 THE GERMAN STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY’

seek an asylum in Russia,for “ the French keep driv ing

us before them,and she [Luise] will soon be i n danger

here .

”On the 5th of January, 1 807, the wretched Queen had

to be l i fted from her bed to start on her dangerousjourney northward

,following the narrow strip of sand

which sepa rates the Baltic from the species of brackishsound ca lled the Curische Hafi

’. O ld Coun tess Voss went

ahead,but stopped at the first station

,for “ sto rm and

sleet we re so w i ld that the ho rses could get no farther .The Queen followed at noon

,but Voss gives no evidence

that she wa s accompanied by her husband .

On the 7th of January the old lady’s diary saysIt was a wild storm

,with th ick wh irling snow, and our

way lay close beside the sea . We had no shelter fromthe gale ; i t was horrible.

”

After four days of th i s wretched work,i n wh ich the

party had to spend the night as best they migh t whereverthey happened to al ight

,they arrived at the l i ttle town

‘

of Memel,i n the most northerly part of the kingdom and

that nearest to Russia. Lu i se was too weak to walk, andthe King does not appear to have sent o rders ahead in

'

regard to he r comfort,for ourold lady enters i n her diary

As no invalid chair had been provided to take he r fromh e rcarriage up the stai rs

,a servant had to carry her upon

his arm ; i t pained me to see th is .”

Th is ve ry severe illness of Luise lasted from Decemberl 0th to January 1 7th , when she took her first outing

In the Prussian Record Office is preserv ed a letter of Hardenberg ,dated August 14 , 1 8 10, in which he forbids th e publ ication of a workabout Queen Lu ise . The author of th i s work w a s one who signedh imsel f Hofra th ( court counci l lor) and tutor to a German pr ince . Thereason s advanced by the Prussian Prime-M in ister are strangely oh

scure .

—P. B .

A NURSERY VIEW OF K ING, QUEEN, AND POLITICS 219

convalescent not,however

,with strength enough

walk up- stai rs . That she survi ved the journey from

Konigsberg to Memel caused uni versal surprise, and is avaluable tribute to the curative property of fresh air

,even

i n pretty rude doses .

XXII

THE F IRST NATIONAL PRUSSIAN PARLIAMENT MEETSIN BERLIN

, 1 811

Wouldst thou have beautyG ive to the peopl e freedom ,

noble thoughts ,Employmen t that begets great deeds .”

—Leopold Sch e fer (born ,1784 ; d ied , “ Laienbrev ier .

THE 23d day of February,1 8 1 1

,should be celebrated

with pa rticular joy in the home of every Ge rman cit izen

,for i t was on that day that there came together i n

Berlin the first semblance of a representati ve nati onalparliament . Stein had wrung th is concession from thePrussian King in 1 807, on Ch r i stmas Eve ; but the greatrefo rmer d id not stay long enough i n office to carry out

more than the provincial features of h i s great schemeof national representation . After the attainder of Steinby Napoleon

,the King once more fell back upon th e

support of ministers and courtie rs as weak as him sel f,

a nd would have remained conten t with h i s surroundingshad not Napoleon rudely called upon h im to pay moremoney or lose more terri tory . In th is di lemma hi scourtiers could give him no help

,and he allowed Queen

Luise to call Hardenberg back from exile .

Hardenberg and Stein are two striking examples of

Ra'

uch o f course saw m uch of H a rdenberg,who sat several t imes

to th e sculptor . Rauch d id five_

o f Hardenberg , al l busts, for d iff eren tnotables—one at the min i s ter ’ s request . The one I have selected is a


So Hardenberg secretly cl imbed up i nto the mountain sseparating Bohemia from S ilesia

,a nd there i n a secluded

hut joined Stein , who had made the journey from theother side .

They had a full and frank talk . Stein then returned,

down the southern slopes, to h i s Austrian exile ; Hardenberg returned to Berl in

,and at once commenced put

ting into effect, with all the power at h is command , th ereform bill both had uni ted in framing . Hardenberg’ sch ief enemies w ere those who had also opposed Steinthe landed ari stocracy . This class had been brought upto think that other people came into the world for thepurpose of being thei r servants . They regarded government as an institution valuable only so far as i t p rotectedthem in their privi leges . The Prussian nobles claimedall the offi ces in the gift of the King— in fact, theyclaimed all the rights

,but none of the duties

,of a good

cit izen .

Now these pretensions had some force i n th e earlydays, when armies were made up of many petty baronsor ranch -owners

,who led their own farm hands into

battle at thei r own expense . In those good old day s,say of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

,a peasa n t

counted for someth ing,because he was constantly called

upon to fight for the owner of the land on which he hadh is l ittle farm . In fact

,stripped of humbug

,the so

ca lled feudal system represented a large number of bigfa rms ; each farm was m anaged by the farmer who coulddo the best fighting

,and that farmer had to treat hi s

farm hands well fo r the sake of the fighting he hoped to

ge t out of them .

Now as t ime wore on and artillery improved,wars

grew more a nd mo re costly,a nd the l i ttle feudal farm

ers found that they could make no head against armies

TH E G REAT BARON STEIN


batter down the castle of the Obstreperous barons . On

th is occasion he s imply sent a piece of paper to the twonoble ringleaders

,and these were promptly taken In

charge by the sheriff and locked up i n Spandau fortress,

i n sight Of Berlin . After five weeks the King was graciously pleased to release them upon receivi ng their ah

je ct apologies .The Prussian nobles had shown that they could run

awav from the e nemv, as at Jena, and Hardenberg verysoon exploded thei r pretensions to privi lege by showingthem up as people who were evading the payment Ofthei r fair share Of taxes .The g reat National Parliament of February 23, 1 8 1 1 ,was a glorious th ing i n name

,for it awakened through

out Ge rmany the bel ief that Prussia had at length a t

ta ined by a stroke Of the pen what France had securedonly after horrible bloodshed . The King had used thewords “ national representation”i n connection w ith thi sgathering . He had given his sanction to the principleOf a popular legislati ve body

,and if the present time

might appear unfavorable for pol itical experiments,still

every German had reason to bel ieve that a representat i ve legislat ive body under su itable constitutional formswould follow as soon as the state of the country perm itted .

In our t ime laws are submitted to the legislative bodyfor discussion . The first Prussian National ParliamentOf 1 8 1 1 was concei ved from another point Of v iew. TheKing fi rst p ubl ished hi s law,

and afterwards called aParliament to indorse i t . Hardenberg addressed thesixty-four representatives of the nation

,and informed

them that he had called them together on thi s occasionin order that they might have an opportuni ty Of askingquestions about the laws that had been passed . He

THE F IRST NATIONAL PRUSSIAN PARLIAMENT 225

wished them to understand the benefits they were intended to confer on Prussia

,and he wished them to go

home after the sess ion prepared to make these reformspopular amongst al l classes .Nothing better i llust rates the degree to which patriarchal government had become natural to Germanst han thi s first experiment i n popular assembl ies. TheKing Of Prussia played the mi le usual ly assigned to theclamorous mob . He

,the m ona rch absolute

,prepared i n

secret a reform measure sweeping away ari stocraticpriv ilege

,and calling to hi s assistance the great body

of the people . Th is reform bill wa s not th e outgrowthOf mass-m eetings or n ewspaper agi tation . It was a socia l and pol itical revolution of most popular character

,

framed and executed under the immediate and exclusivecontrol of an absolute monarch .

The German i s a strange mixture of man— half democra t

,hal f monarchist. Those who know Germany su~

p erficia l ly wonder that monarchy can last under thepresent social cond it ions Of that empire . But the German

,and part i cularly the Prussian

,has i n h i s blood tra

d itions Of kingly rule such as no other nation can pointto. He does not deny that i n other countries great reforms have been accomplished by long and savage ci vi lwars ; he i s qu ite p repa red to admit that in many re

spe cts hi s pol i tical progress falls short of what he mightdesi re ; but, on the whole, he i s proud of a l ong line OfHohenzollerns

,who have governed Prussia wi th con

scie ntious thoroughness, who have always maintainedl iberty Of conscience

,who have encouraged common

schools,who have respected the i ndependence of j udges

,

and who in their own pe rsons have set an example Of

i ndustry .

Frederick Wi ll iam III . was a strangely shy and weakI.—16


man,who nearly ruined h is country by his lack Of j udg

ment and lack of courage . But,as though by a miracle

,

Prussia’s very disasters brought into rel ief a handful ofgreat patriots

,who could not have made room for them

selves in days Of prosperity ; and of them all the mostimportant was a woman

,Queen Luise, who d id not

even l ive to see the beginn ings of parl iamentary gove rnment in Berl in .

The strange Parl iament of s ixty-four members lastedfrom February 23 to June 28

,1 8 1 1 . Its members re

turned to their several homes to tell Of the simplicityof thei r King’s life ; to answer all the questions aboutthe new Prime -M inister ; to descant on Hardenberg

’sfine voice and presence, hi s force and talents, hi s patriotic efforts

,and

,above all

,to spread throughout Ger

many a knowledge of the great popular forces that werethen at work stirring up war against th e French .

Throughout the l ittle army of Prussia,numbering

in all,n ew recruits were called in every thre e

months,and passed rapidly through the most ind ispe nsa

ble drill,to be discharged after n inety days . Th is was

the soldiering Of 1 8 1 1,and i t was thi s sold iering wh ich

made the troops Of 1 8 13,who routed the French at

Gross Beeren and Leipzig,who stormed the intrench

ments ofWartenburg . Bl iich er,Gneisenau

,and Scharn

ho rst worked incessantly during th is 1 8 1 1 preparing thecount ry for a war which they saw was coming. Na

pol e on and Alexander had awaked from their dream ofdearest friend, and in thi s 1 8 1 1 were exchanging diplomatic threats .Prussia was therefore between two fires

,i n that Na

poleon might crush he r on the one side, and Alexanderon the other . She was not strong enough to make herarmed ne utrality respected . She had to choose.


make secret alliances with Russia, Austri a, and England

,look ing to a struggle Of l ife and death w ith the

opp ressor.The King and Hardenberg here played an Obviously

double game . But let those j udge who would havedealt more honestly under the circumstances . Napoleon held a pistol to the head Of his Pruss ian v ictim

,

and made h im sign a pape r under penalty Of e xterm i

nat ion.

But even under these humiliating terms i t was notknown whethe r Napoleon would re spect the Pruss ianflag. French t roops marched across Prussian soil w ithout asking permission

,and i t depended me rely upon the

whim Of Napoleon whethe r he should not once more oc=

cupy Potsdam and Be r l in with h is troops,and take the

King p r i soner by wa y Of hostage .

The King’ s travelling-carriage was packed,and eve ry

th ing was kept ready fo r immediate fl ight,i n case the

Corsican made a move to kidnap h im as he had kidna pped the Duke of Enghien . The garri son Of Berlin,8000men

,were i n readiness for j ust such an emergency

,

and elaborate i nstructions had been issued for th is cont ingency .

At length,on the 3d Of March

,1 8 1 2

,arrived Napo

leon ’s answer,which had left Paris on the 24th Of Feb

ruary . P russia was to be spa red for the present oncondit ion that she made war against Russia withmen as part of the Grand Army Of Napoleon .

And so th i s was the end for which Scharnhorst andBl iiche r, Gneisenau and Stein ,

had been working sofaithfully and wi th so much sec recy . The men whomthey had t rained to l iberate their countryjoin w ith Napoleon i n m aking hi s yoke st i llIt d id indeed seem as though the end

THE FIRST NATIONAL PRUSSIAN PARLIAMENT 229

Hundreds Of Prussi an Offi cers took thei r leave, a nd

sought service in ‘

Russia,in Austria

,orwith the Engl ish .

Once more the French occupied poor starved -

out

Prussia,and levied cont r ibut i ons i n e ve rv village on thei r

way . They did not respect the treaty they had m ade,

but took what they wanted wherever they could layhands on i t . Spandau was occupied

,and Berl i n re

ce ive d a French governor once more . Napoleon sentmost minute instructions to hi s generals to see to i t thatno popular outbreaks should occur

,and that no recrui ts

should be levied for the Prussian army,nor any m il itarv

activi ty indulged in during the Russian campaign .

But the Prussi an of 1 8 12 was not the Prussi an of

1 806 . Queen Luise had l ived and d ied ; the sp irit OfPestalozz i had worked in the common school ; the serfhad become a citizen ; the h i rel ing soldier was now avolunteer ; Stein and Hardenbe rg had awaked publi ccon fi dence in the government Scha rnhorst had breathedthe ne w spiri t into the army ; Jahn had taught h is athl e tic clubs that pat r iotism was not a th ing to beashamed of the boys Of Prussia sang songs Of Ge rmanunity ; the poets a nd p reache r s Of Germany talked of

l i berty ; and the boys who were twelve years Old atJena could shoulder a musket i n the y ear Of grace 1 8 13.

XXIII

JAHN, THE PATRIOT WHO FOUNDED GYMNASTIC SOCI

ETIES AND TAUGHT THE SCHOOL CHILDREN TOPRAY FOR GERMAN LIBERTY

Where i s th e German ’ s fatherl andIs ’ t Swabia ? I s’ t th e Prussian ’ s l and ?Is’ t where the grape glow s on the RhineWhere sea -gul ls sk im the Bal t ic ’ s brine ?Oh no i More w ide , more great , more grand ,Must be the German ’ s fatherland .

”

—From Arndt ’s “ Des Deutschen Vaterland .

”

JAHN i s to - day commonly known as the GermanFather Of Gymnast ics ( Turnva ter ) , and hi s popularity flouri shes in Berl in unabated— a popularity somewhat akin to that of Patrick Henry in America .

* Jahnbel ieved i n Germany ’s ultimate l iberation when themajority despaired ; he set about trai ning the schoolchildren for soldier work ; he h imself was the first tovolunteer for the War Of Liberation i n 1 8 13; he organized the students Of Germany into a patriotic nationalforce ; he wrote and preached incessantly on the dutyof Germans on e to the other ; and, above all, never ceasedto labor for a l iberal constitution and a united empire .

“ His w it was u sual ly as b iting as i t was wel l a imed . He hatedthe F rench furiously ; he roused the young athletes to en thusiasm ,

and

th ey followed h im bl indly ; and i t i s st i l l a mystery to me howhe escaped arrest by the F rench , for h i s words in pub lic were as violent as in private . —KlOden (p . writing of 1811 .


TO Germany i t i s Of great importance that such astrong natu re as Jahn ’s developed at a place where hefelt as a c itizen Of the great German nation rather thana subject me rely Of Prussia . His home tOO

,a v i llage

named Lenz,or Lenzen

,was on the highway Of German

land and water i ntercourse between the ch ief politicaland commercial centres of Germany . By h is doorpassed the traders Of Hamburg on thei r way to Be r l in

,

eithe r on the sandy post-road or by way Of the Elbe,

which then,as now

,was an important channel of com

merce . Travellers from Bavaria, Saxony, Austria, theRh ine

,were apt to pass here on the way northward

to the Baltic or North Sea ports . In those slow-coachdays

,when news was conveyed largely by passengers

who chatted while horses were changed,the li ttle vil

lage of Lenz,small as it was and Obscure

,heard Of

the outside world then pretty nearly as much as theclubs Of the capi tal . Jahn ’ s home wa s si tuated in re

spect to North Germany as favorably as might be considerea Ha rtford or Springfield one hundred years agoas regards New England .

Another element i n the making Of Jahn was that h isneighbors were all free farmers ; and he says, withp r ide

,that in his youth he was never forced to bow h is

head to landlords,or any master save such as represent

e d wholesome authority . He knew l iberty from having lived in a self-governing community

,and preached

l iberty, not as revolution , but as the extension Of a system whose practical benefits he had enjoyed . It i s nottoo much to say that Jahn grew up wi th as much personal l iberty as was enjoyed by the average Ne w England lad Of the same pe r i od .

Jahn ’s parents we re poor

,but able to gi ve their son

what educational advantages the smal l place afforded

TH E PATRIOT F ICHTE


almost equivalent to saying that he d id no studyingat all . In his later years i t was an Obstacle to hi s se curi ng a government appointment that he had not pa ssedthrough the usual academic cou rse Of study

,and the title

of doctor, which the Uni versity of Jena i n later yearsgranted h im

,was more a recognit ion of h is services as

patriot than as scholar.Down to the year 1 806

,the year Of Jena

,when Jahn

was twenty-eight ve ars Of age, we have but fitful glancesat thi s strange, strong man . He appears at several un iversitie s, amongst others Jena, GOttinge n ,

Greifswald,

and Halle ; he i s generally con spicuous for very shabbyclothes, total absence Of money, st rong disposi tion to acqui re knowledge, and equally strong disposit ion to be al aw unto himself. He is commonly reported as being avery rough d iamond , yet wherever he appears be com

mands a follow i ng. As a student h e opposed duell ing,

and p roposed that th e d iffe rent fighting corps,i nstead Of

instigating duels,should march out i n two bodies with

pikes and bludgeon s,have a pitched battle

,and then

decla re peace . For this he incu rred the savage hosti l ityof the corps students

,and many were the attempts

made to haze h im at Jena and elsewhere . He wa s frequently waylaid , but always fought hi s way successfullyth rough w i th the help Of a stout st ick

,which he usually

carried , and wh ich be handled with ski ll . He also tookcare to have clothes so padded as to form a species Ofarmor. At night he carried a stone in a handkerchief— someth ing i n the natu re Of a slung - shot— and thisweapon was the most effective Of all

,i n h i s opin ion .

At Halle he spent a whole summer i n a cave,l i ving

ch iefly from the proceeds of a potato - patch adjoining.

Here he slept and read and studied ; and here he p roduced his fi rst book, in the year Of 1 800— a passionate

JAHN,THE PATRIOT 235

appeal to Germans to be true to themselves,to culti

vate a love Of what was German,and thus work towards

national un ity and power.Our hero led the l ife Of a fighting tramp as far as out

ward signs speak,and we cannot trace anywhere a ref

e rence to h im during h is student years that does not

seem to exclude h im from culti vated society . He wasa man of d i rect

,honest

,and fearless nature

,and cannot

have spent ten years Of hi s early manhood l iving merely by borrowing or steal ing. He undoubtedly receivedsmall remittances from home

,but whatever they were

he was perpetually i n financial di stress .His education he received mainly in long and lonesome

tramps across Germany i n all d irections . His m emorywas excellent, and h i s mind became the storehouse Of avast amount of German folk-lore— popular songs and sayings which have since enriched hi s language . On thesetramps he hardened the muscles Of h i s body

,and g rew

stronger also in the conv iction that Germany was destined to be an empire . He talked and fought wi th Germans of all degrees and all p r i ncipal i ties ; he saw on a l l

sides evidence that Germany was helpless because shewas div ided

,that France was strong because she had

one leader.The passion for travel and tramping was keen i n Jahn

,

a s i t i s w ith those who take i nterest i n th e h istory of apeople and wo rk for i ts welfa re . One may almost saythat the statesman ’s power l ie s principally in the persona l knowledge he is able to acquire Of the people for whomhe proposes legislation . The quiet, popular leader hasusually been a thorough traveller, i n h is own countryat least . Luther knew every foot Of h is Germany beforehe becam e head of the Pro testant Church , and few Amer

icans Of h is day knew the people Of the th irteen colonies


so well as Benjamin Franklin . Jahn ’s tramping tasteswere shared to an a lmost equal degree by the rest Of

Germany’s l iberators .Arndt was a most i nveterate tramp

,and the others had

all a familiarity with the pri ncipal German states, to saynothing of non - German countries . TO thi s thoroughtramping we must credit the accurate knowledge Of t hepublic mind i n Germany which Jahn and his fellow-l i ber

a tors acquired . This knowledge was put to most important account when preparing politi cal addresses andsongs intended not for one sta te but for all— intended toinflame the zeal of the people

,a nd at th e same time not

shock the princely governments and thei r cautious servants .In reading the great plays Of Shakespeare and noting

the marvellous tact wi th which he t reats questions Of race,

religion,nationali ty

,and class d istinction

,may we not

safely conclude that hi s plays could not have been soenduring had their author not been a great tramp ? Jahntramped and read ; wrote and talked ; studied h is people ; d reamed Of a day when Germans would no longerbe ashamed Of talking their mother tongue. He waslaughed at as a m a n ahead of h is time ; for th e peoplew ho pretended to culture i n that day not only corresponded in French and talked to one another i n French

,they

even regarded i t as not unnatural that Europe should beon e vast Napoleon ic empire

,i n wh ich French models

should be exclusively copied and German th ings be studied as th ings Of a ruder age .

In these days came a great nat ional crash . Napoleondefeated the Prussians at Jena

,robbed them of half thei r

country,and t re ated them afterwards as though they had

been a tribe of tu rbulent savages .Between 1 806 and 1 8 10 the Prussian monarch and


free press,her right of free speech , her universal suf

frage,and

,above all

,her un i ty

,l e t us not forget that

these blessings to her national l ife were earnestly prayed

for and fought for by the fathers and grandfathers Ofthe soldiers who fought at Sedan and Metz ; that German unity and empire were prepared by the Germanpeople while Napoleon I . (not Napoleon III .) was Em

pe ror Of the French .

From Christmas Of 1 809 Jahn became the most con

spicuous popular figure in Berl in , and was credited withi ntimate secret relat ions w ith the anti -French patriotsthroughout Germany

,notably i n the uni versities . To

Napoleon’s Officials he was an archrebel,as was Be njar

min Frankli n to those Of George III . , and for very muchthe same reason— that both enjoyed to an emi nent degree the confidence Of the people .In Berli n Jahn secured a teacher’s posit ion and salaryin a great public school

,and soon developed the qualiti es

wh ich earn h im tod ay the proud title of Turnvaterfather Of gymnastic tournament . He used to take h isfavori te pupi ls out i nto the country on holidays andthere i nterest them in rough

,manly games

,leaping

,

wrestling,and running as well . He had a rare gift for

leadersh ip over young minds,and to go out w ith Jahn

soon came to be regarded by the school ch ildren as somuch of a treat that the “Turn”Father conceived thenotion of organiz ing classes for the purpose Of conducting gymnastic exercises w ith system .

Already i n 1 8 1 1 a sandy field near Berli n* was secured,

Th is field lay on the edges Of what i s now the great exerc isingground of th e Berl in garrison . A monumen t to Jahn has since beenhere erected , thanks to th e patriot ic con tr ibut ions of gymnasts inevery part of the world . The stones in the base of th is monumentw ere sen t from far-away coun tries ; some are marked South Africa,


and here commenced those valuable gymnastic exerci seswhich now form part Of the curriculum i n every Germanschool

,and which Germans have carried w ith them to

every corner Of the civ i li zed and uncivi l ized world,along

w i th the love of song. Singing in un ison goes hand inhand w ith outdoor exercise, and Jahn quickly recognizedthe int imate relation between these two great forces .Singing was at once made a part of the gymnastic e x ercises

,particularly on the m arch to and from the field Of

exercise,and Jahn took great pains i n selecting songs

breath ing manhood and love of country .

Gymnastic drill does not suggest,on thi s side Of th e

water,anyth ing politi cal or even warlike . In our col

leges i t i s regarded as a great bore,and usually those who

take part do so in the spiri t of one undergoing medical treatment . We have to l i ve ourselves into the German l ife to real ize that Jahn was doing on h i s gymnasti cfield a revolutionary wo rk— was arousing the Germanspirit i n lads who would be soon shouldering a musket

,

was train ing patriots in the art Of war,was singing w i th

them the songs Of l iberty,was awakening in the nation

at large the consciou sness Of power and the hope thatGermany might some day be f ree . On th i s Berl in gymnastic field Ja hn was drilling the m inute-men Of theGerman revolution ; not w ith muskets, i t i s true, butwith every m eans short of those l ikely to excite thealarm of French Officials . And as the minute-men Of

Worcester,of B r i stol

,of Hartford and New Haven

sprang to the cal l of their country when l iberty was atstake

,so in 1 8 13did the boys from German schools and

universit ies flock to their King i n Breslau— from Jena

some bear the names of p laces beyond the Rocky Moun tains . Butotherw i se the place is to-day sadly neglected—not by the peopl e

,but

by the government .—P. B .


and Gottingen,Berl in and Greifswald ,Halle and Magde

burg.

The King d id not bel ieve that Germany could evercope wi th Napoleon . He did not bel ieve i n h i s people.He d id not bel ieve i n h imself. In 1 8 13 the spiri t OfJahn and B lii ch er

,Of Stein and Arndt and the other

patriots,proved stronger than all government h inder

anoes . Though Prussia was governmenta lly the allyOf Napoleon

,st i ll the Prussian people declared war on

their own account ; at KOn igsberg a congress Of repre

sen ta tive cit izens voted supplies,and men were march

ing to joi n their regiments before the King had madeup hi s mind whether to be French or Prussian .

He was,however

,carried away by the strong national

current prevail ing,backed as i t wa s by the help Of Eng

land,Russia

,Sweden

,and Austria .

Jahn in 1 8 13 tramped to the seat Of war before warwas declared ; at Breslau he joined the guerilla corps OfMajor Lii tzow

,and was its most energetic recruiting

agent in securing for i t men from the whole Of Germany

,and notably men from the most educated classes .

KOrner,the poet

,entered its ranks as a private

,and

wrote h i s most st i rring battle verses while wea r ing theLu tzower uni form . These v erses were at once sungw i th enthusiasm

,and flew f rom camp to camp, ca rry

ing new hope a nd courage to the devoted army . Jahn ’ sfirst task as volunteer sold ier was to prepare a song-bookfor the men Of the Lii tzow co rps

,and to o rgan i ze an

efficient glee club— a work wh ich In war had more thanme re poetic value .

From Jahn ’

s entry into Berl i n with the manuscript Ofh is V olksthum

,or F olkdom

,unde r hi s arm

,on Chri stmas

of 1 809, down to the battle Of Waterloo and the disap~

pe arance Of Napoleon to St . Helena, Jahn was a hero


and defeat . H i s lectures produced immense polit icaleffect

,for in all minds they further heightened the pre

vailing dissatisfaction with the fru its Of Waterloo . Ofcourse h i s language had to be guarded

,so as to avoid

confl ict with the police.Th is was Jahn ’

s last publ ic appearance as th e greatand universally popular German hero . He li ved yetth irty - five years, and was a delegate to the d iet of

1 848 ; but from the year 1 8 1 7 he m ay be said to havebeen lost to h i s country

,snuffed out by order of gov

e rnm e nt in the vigor Of hi s manhood,when h is facul

t ies were brightest and z eal for h is country mostactive.In 1 8 19 he was arrested on charge Of treason and puti nto p r i son at Spandau— the same pri son that has held somany recent German patriots . Two Of h is chi ldren diedwhile he was in confinem ent awaiting h is trial

,and he

was not allowed to follow them to th e grave . After two

y ears of arrest, partly in Spandau and partly in Kii strin ,be cleared himself of the specific charge brought again sth im

,revolut ionary conspiracy ; but, i nstead Of being l ib

era te d,was ordered to remain under pol ice watch— a

species of convict at large on parole— and remained i nthis suspicious category until 1 840— more than twentyyears from the time of h i s arrest .Jahu ’ s patriotism was singularly pure . We have noevidence that hi s human ambi tion ever soared h igherthan a professorsh ip at the Be rl i n Uni versity ; and whilemost German historians affect to ignore the great serviceshe has rendered to Germany

,they all fail to discover

a stain upon h is character. He was too honest for thegovernment Of th e day

,and threw away great pol it ical

prizes because he persi sted in preaching the truth whenthe Prussian official d isl iked to hear it.


Jahn fought wi th the spiri t Of Luther, and shares w ithreformer enormous popularity amongst . th e

whom he cheerfully surrendered h i s persona l l iberty

,and would w i l l ingly

,if necessary

,have laid

XXIV

HOW THE IRON CROSS CAME TO BE FOUNDED

Lu ther was th e m ightiest man of h is cen tury , and assisted in creating i t . What h e appeared to create w as there already but hefi rst gave i t l i fe so that the peopl e cou ld see what i t was .

”—Arn dt,1805, Ge ist der Ze i t, p . 39.

THE Iron Cross i s the most popular war medal i nGermany

,and

,l ike many another popular German in

stitution,was founded i n a t ime Of great national d is

tress . King Frede r ick William III .

i s commonly credi ted with call ing thismedal i nto existence on the outb reakOf war against Napoleon In 1 8 13, butin spi r i t the I ron Cross was createdby Gneisenau in the black days Of

1 8 1 1 .

Napoleon i n that year was threate n ing to i nvade Russia, and had madelarge additions to the French gar r ison s in and about Prussia . Frede r ickWilliam was in pai nful need Of mon

e y ; the French indemnity weighedheavi ly upon h is scanty exchequer

,and he real ized that

in the coming war there would be noth ing to preventPrussia being again tramped over by one or more Of theneighboring states at war. The French were alreadyin possession of seve ral Pruss ian fortresses, and there

THE IRON CROSS


the smuggl ing ; and no doubt Gneisenau would havebee n shot l ike Palm or Sch ill had Napoleon heard whattheir talk was about . The King allowed

.

Gneisenau a

salary Of 2500thalers— say $1 875, or £375— a year,and

he went to l ive quietly in Berli n at a house in Unter de nLinden

,giving the French to understand that he had

given up all i nterest in soldiering, and wa s there for h isprivate amusement .Here he drew up a memorial for the King

,which was

handed i n on the 8 th of August . NO such revolutionaryprogramme had ever been prepared for a Prussian monarch

,and the fact that its author was not sent at once

to prison shows that the Prussia Of 1 8 1 1 was not thesame Prussia that marched gayly to Jena .

Gneisenau commenced by assuming that Prussia wason the verge of being destroyed by Napoleon

,and he

therefore Opened w i th the following propositionSince Prussia i s threatened with i nvas ion that means

annih ilation ( V ern i efitung), the royal family must seekits safety and support in a popular call to arms ( 176s

The King annotated th i s paragraph withh is own hands : “ The proposed struggle for existence

(Kampf der V erzweiflung) i s no doubt better and morehonorable than volun ta r i ly passing under the yoke .

”Gneisenau elaborately worked out a plan Of insur

re ctionary warfare, the details of which must have beenfamil iar to h im i n America . All Prussia was mappedout into d istricts

,each district to be under the control

Of a confidential agent,each such agent to be known at

headquarters,but no correspondence to pass between

the conspirators i n diff erent parts of the country . Thewhole scheme was a vast conspiracy

,and the greatest

precautions had to be Observed lest Napoleon shouldget wind Of i t and hang the ringleaders without trial .

HOW THE IRON CROSS CAME TO BE FOUNDED 247

The whole country was to organize volunteer troops.“They shall organize i n the neighborhood of thei r ownhomes ; they Shall elect thei r own Ofli cers and non-commissioned Officers . TO begin with

,they may be started

by half -pay retired Ofli cers .

” Gneisenau proposed toarm them with pikes * unti l they could get arms fromEnglandHr The example Of Jena was fresh in everymind

,and so Gneisenau proposed the penalty Of de ath

for any one assisting the French by furnish ing suppliesor accepting any admin i strat ive post . His idea was tostarve the French out, i f every other means failed .

Clergymen were to preach the duty Of ci tizenship fromthe pulpit

,to which the King made th i s Observation °

“As soon as the French shoot one parson,the whole

m ovement w ill collapse.”

Gneisenau had difficulty i n preserving h i s temperwhile the King made critici sms upon the plan for savingh is throne . He went on to explain how the militia mustOperate

,hiding by day in the woods

,surpri sing the ene

my at n ight l ike North American Ind ians, worry ingthem all the t ime . He recommended the S implest tact ics

,mainly to load and shoot . The King made a run

ning accompaniment to the efl'

ect that Prussians were

I had a p ike made, and studded it w ith sharp Spikes , that no one

might seiz e i t by the hand . I had , besides a F rench infan try sword ,and I bough t mysel f a pai r o f p istol s , w h i ch at that t ime w ere veryexpens i ve

,ow ing to the great demand . These I wore in my bel t . We

w ere cal led together for d ri l l under the command of former army officers . Many wonderfu l th ings happen ed in these dri l l s , for i t wasthat of the Pruss ian in fantry . And K lOd en ( p . 311 ) goes on to rel ate the absurd ities that occurred from using the p ike as though it hadbeen a musket.1 I t is d iflicul t to bear in m ind that wh il e the Prussian King was ne

gotiating w i th Napoleon th e sale of h is army to F rance, he was at thesame time sol ic iting the a id of England , F rance ’ s ch ief an tagonist.The s ituation was so anomalous as to be almost incred ible —P. B .


too stupid to do such work, and that the whole thingwould fall to pieces as soon as the French showed them

selves .Those were i ron days

,and Gneisenau applied iron

measures . He was advoca t ing the principle that eachcitizen was bound to spi ll h i s blood in defence Of hiscountry

,and therefore urged that no young man should

be al lowed to inherit property unless h e had served i nthe army

,that he should not be allowed to give testi

mony i n cou rt,or even to take the holy communion

w i th h i s neighbors .

On the other hand, Gneisenau proposed that everyman who had served faithfully should wear for the restOf his l i fe an honorable disti nction, either a black-andwhite scarf or a nat ional cockade ; and here was theidea of the I ron Cross .The King thought well of the decoration in general

,

but d id not approve of limit ing i t to the citizen sold ier. He wished i t extended to all h is army, a nd thusrobbed it Of much Of its peculiar value . The original“ Iron Cross was to consist of two pieces of black-andwhite ri bbon sewed on to the breast i n the shape Of across . The colors were those Of Prussia ; the shapesuggested the famous cross Of th e order of GermanKnights— a happy blending Of national w ith imperialaspi rations .Of cou rse in p ractice the King’s idea proved awkward

,

for it involved sewing and resew i ng the sl ips Of r i bboneach time that a coat w as changed . The Cross wa sfinally made Of iron

,less f rom sentimen t than from ex

treme poverty . It becam e,however

,the most precious

Of war medals i n the eyes Of the German soldier . It wasnot given away

,l ike so many medal s

,formerely cou rtly

se rvices, but had to he earned upon the field Of battle ;

History of the German Struggle for Liberty - Forgotten Books

Documents

Transcript of History of the German Struggle for Liberty - Forgotten Books