Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 17

"Having therefore executed my orders, I sent my sergeant to Lieutenant Griesheim, who was stationed with forty or fifty dragoons in the said village, to inform him that I had brought the Privy Councillor hither, and that he should come and release me from my charge. A short time after, the Lieutenant made his appearance, and was much amazed that I, being adjutant, should have come hither with a detachment, and could not help remarking on it.

"I said, it appeared to me more serious. However, this was now nothing to the purpose. I begged of him to set to work, and send for his soldiers, that I might march back to Wasungen with my detachment; whereupon he took the trouble of going himself for them. When he had collected about fifteen men, I told him he must take charge of the posts, as I wished at once to resume my march; the which he did, and so released me. Now it was right to pay my respects to the Privy Councillor, and ask him whether he had any commands for Wasungen?

whereupon the man addressed me as if I were a thrasher, and asked me whether I had no orders to remain here? but I was prepared and answered him with the most perfect indifference, 'No, the devil has given me no orders to remain here; and it was no part of my duty to bring you here.' That he said I might settle with Major von S----. Whereunto I replied, 'I will most certainly do so.' After that he inquired of me more kindly what I wished to do at Wasungen, as the whole division were on the march, and would speedily be here. Then I said, 'Is that the way the cards are shuffled? that is good, truly.' Now whilst I was still standing in the room with the Privy Councillor, I heard the tramping of horses; I rushed down stairs and asked who it was. I received for answer, 'We are all here.' Then I was so horrified that I almost lost my senses; there were the two majors, who forthwith dismounted, hastened up stairs into the councillor's room, and I after them.

"Now they were beginning to relate to each other how fortunately they had escaped from the besieged Wasungen, but I would not let Major von S---- say a word, but asked him: 'Herr Major, what manner of conduct is this, to send me so cunningly away from Wasungen, without telling me that you were going to march out, and I have left there my wife and child, and all my property? Is this the custom of war? I know not whether you have received money for acting thus, or what I am to think of it. Are these your secret projects which are brought to light to-day? In the devil's name, I am not so young, nor have only become a soldier to-day; perhaps I know as well or better than you, what is the way to do things.' I was in such a rage, I would have staked my life against him.

"Now my dear reader, you must observe, that up to this moment I had neither seen nor heard a single man of the whole division, and did not know how matters stood. Major von S---- tried to comfort me, saying I need not be unhappy about my things; he would be surety for them; but I answered him quickly: 'Herr Major, how can you answer for my things?

Why did you not tell me the truth instead of sending me out of Wasungen by such deceit? that is not allowable.' Then the Privy Councillor would have his say, and truly to this effect, that the Major was right in sending me away; that was his opinion. But I replied: 'By ---- I require no clerks to give me orders; if I were a commander, I would tell those who were under me, what was going to take place, and what they were to do; but to act in such a way as this, is not honourable.'

"Thereupon I left the room, and when I came to the guard in the court, one Pleissner, a citizen of Gotha, a tinman, who had been at that time on a visit at Wasungen, entered the court, and said to me of his own accord; 'G.o.d help us, Herr Lieutenant, what a sight that was at Wasungen! it filled me with sorrow and vexation when our people marched out in that way, for I am a citizen of Gotha. When our soldiers marched out through the lower gate, the militia of the country entered in through the upper gate, and visited every house; and sent off to Meiningen, Christian, Ensign of Captain Brandis's company, who had been forgotten on guard, and was going to his quarters to fetch his baggage.

The devil is in the militia; they visited every house, and said they would carry off all to Meiningen.'

"I will ask anyone to think what kind of temper I was in then; Captain Ruprecht and many soldiers had been left ill at Wasungen; my wife and child and my small chattels were also there; and now I heard that the musketeer Huthmann had already been carried off to Meiningen, so everything wore a black aspect. I asked the citizen where our soldiers were? 'Ah,' said he, 'they lie without, all in troops under the trees, and Captain Brandis is still at Wasungen; the field-pieces lie all on the road upside down; they cannot get on, as they have no chains to couple them together, but they have made use of the tow for that purpose, which breaks every minute. I remained near them some time, but the Wasungers began to fire at us from behind; it was the devil to pay, and as it also rained heavily, I thought I would get under cover. Our people are lying so dispersed about the roads, that it would take two hours to collect them, and I saw no officer but Captain Brandis: the soldiers were swearing enough to bring down heaven upon them; I was frightened out of my wits and hastened away.'

"After hearing this I stood there, not knowing what to do; there was not a man of the whole detachment to be heard or seen, and it rained terribly. At last the old grenadier corporal came into the village with about ten grenadiers, wading through the mud; I knew his voice from afar, and his soldiers were swearing astoundingly; so I called out to them, 'What is the use of swearing? it cannot be helped now.' 'Aye, zounds,' said the corporal, 'I have gone through two campaigns, but never had such a business as this. Is this to be allowed? There is our captain lying ill at Wasungen, and our major, who ought to take charge of us, is gone with Major S---- to the devil; we are poor forsaken soldiers, but, the devil take me, I will march to Gotha with the few men I have here.' I asked him where the other grenadiers were; but he did not know whether they were in advance or behind. 'We have not an officer,' he said, 'and no one took charge of us,' so each one went where he chose. He did not know that the two majors were at the inn; but if the old corporal was foul-mouthed, his grenadiers were still worse.

"I had enough to do to mollify the grenadiers, and thus things went on; every quarter or half-hour a small troop came in, and if the first had made a clamour, the others were still worse; finally, the artillery came, though it is usual, under whatever circ.u.mstances one may march, to place the artillery either in front or in the middle, and guard them as one would guard one's soul. It might plainly be seen that this commander had never seen a corps or army marching with artillery, which must, according to the usages of war, always be protected.

"The soldiery became more and more disorderly, and I had to admonish them to be on their good behaviour before the peasants, who were looking at and listening to us from their windows, and making their jests upon us.

"At last, thank G.o.d, the rain ceased; a dragoon had led us to a meadow which lay hard by the road, along which I stationed the right wing, and taking command, told the force off into divisions and half-divisions.

Whilst I was doing this I heard some horses in the distance coming at a great pace, so I thought, here comes the enemy; I forthwith called out to the right wing to send out some men and challenge the new-comers; at the same time I ran up to one of the grenadiers, and taking his musket from his hand, as during the process of dividing the men I had given up mine, I placed myself with some grenadiers in the middle of the road, and called out, 'Who goes there?' I was answered by a well-known voice, which I immediately recognized as that of Major von Benkendorf, as he did mine likewise. When I challenged him, he called to me, 'Do you not know me?' 'Yes, thank G.o.d!' I knew him by his voice, but could not do so before he spoke, on account of the darkness. Thus did G.o.d send to the children of Israel in the wilderness; here was the word fulfilled: G.o.d forsakes none who trust in him always.

"The first words of the major were: 'Children, what are you doing here?' I answered, Herr Major, G.o.d only knows, not I; we have been brought away in such a fashion, that we hardly know how we have come here.' He asked further: 'Did you all march?' 'Yes, there is no longer any one there except the sick, and those they have taken prisoners.'

'_Oh, mon Dieu!_' exclaimed he, 'we must return thither, even were we to sit down before the gates; where are your majors?' 'At the Schwallungen inn.' Then he called out, 'Allons, children! march away;'

and galloped in all haste to the inn, where he may have found them at a good bottle of wine, but what kind of greeting he gave them, or compliments, I have not heard."

Thus far we have the valiant Rauch. In the farther part of his diary he relates how the Gotha troops regained courage, returned to Wasungen and there drove out the Meiningens, who were equally eager to run away, as they had done, and again established themselves there.

Immediately after the first capture of Wasungen, the government at Meiningen, in great consternation, had sent Frau von Gleichen with her husband there in a carriage, attended by Gotha troops. But it was no great pleasure to them to see that the cause of the quarrel was done away with; so the poor court dignitaries met with a cold reception; the health of both was broken by sorrow, vexation, and long imprisonment.

In 1748, Herr von Gleichen died, and his wife soon after. Meanwhile, flying-sheets and memorials, mandates of the Imperial chamber, and ministerial missives concerning this affair, flew all over Germany; the Gotha troops kept possession of Wasungen. Anthony Ulrich obstinately refused to acknowledge the claims of Gotha to indemnification, and the voices of numerous princes were loud in condemning the sentence of the Imperial chamber, and the execution of it by Gotha, as a violation of the sovereign rights of a German ruler. Frederick the Great did so likewise.

Just then, when the Duke of Saxe-Gotha was in a desperate position, a new prospect and a new subject of quarrel presented themselves to him.

The Duke of Weimar had died, and had settled that his cousin of Gotha was to be guardian to his only son during his minority. The Duke of Gotha speedily entered upon the guardianship, and caused homage to be sworn to him: upon this, a violent altercation again sprang up between him, and the Duke of Coburg and Anthony Ulrich, who both contested the right of the Gotha prince to the guardianship. Then Frederick II. of Prussia offered his services to the Duke of Gotha, who was reduced to great extremities, on condition that he should obligingly offer him the small gift of two hundred picked men from the guards of Weimar. This was done; thus the Duke of Gotha purchased the administration of this country, and the settlement of the Wasunger strife, with two hundred men of the Weimar guards. Two hundred children of the soil of Weimar, to whom the quarrel mattered not in the least, were arbitrarily given away like a herd of sheep. Contrary to all justice, they were chaffered away by a foreign prince.

The two hundred followed King Frederick in the seven Years' war.

CONCLUSION.

This work ends with the name of the great king. The social condition of the country in his time, although very different from the present, is well known to us; and even minute particulars, have become, through its history and literature, the common property of the people. Frederick became the hero of the nation. The Germans have exalted him even more than Gustavus Adolphus. He ruled the minds of men far beyond the boundaries of his limited dominions. In the distant Alpine valleys, among men speaking another tongue, and holding another faith, he was reverenced as a saint both in pictures and writings. He was a powerful ruler, a genial commander, and what was more valued by the Germans, a great man in the highest of earthly positions. It was his personal appearance and manners which made foreigners and even enemies admire him. He inspired the people again with enthusiasm for German greatness, zeal for the highest earthly interests, and sympathy in a German state.

In the course of three centuries, he was the third man round whom the national love and veneration had entwined itself; the second to whom it was granted to elevate and improve the character of the nation. For the Germans became better, richer, and happier, when they were carried beyond the narrow interests of their private life, and beyond their petty literary quarrels, by the appearance of a great character daringly aspiring to the highest objects, struggling, suffering, persevering, and firm. He was of their own blood, and in spite of his pa.s.sion for what was French, he was a thorough child of Germany, reared in a hard time, and belonging to them. Under him, the grandsons of those citizens who had pa.s.sed through the great war, began for the first time after a century to feel their own powers. We delight to see, how the poor poet sings the praises of him, who would so little appreciate the odes of the German Sappho, or the outpouring of elevated poetry; still more do we rejoice in seeing the whole people, even in Austria, contending on his behalf, his image penetrating into every family, and his name exciting everywhere party spirit, new interests, and political pa.s.sions. This has been the greatest blessing of his whole life. He forced the private individual to take part in political life; he created a state for the German, which whether loved or hated, must become a continual object of care and watchfulness.

But though enthusiasm for a hero perhaps gives a capacity for the development of powers, it does not give stability. The Germans had yet to go through severe trials after the death of the great king. He had bequeathed to them the first beginning of a German State, but the ruins of the Empire of the middle ages lay defenceless against the western enemy. The curse which since the time of Charles V. had rested on the German Empire had not yet changed into a blessing. Once more was Germany overrun by a great army, once more did a league of German princes unite with a foreign conqueror, even the state of the great Frederick was shattered, the last hope seemed to have vanished, the German people were crushed.

But in the rooms of the German peasants, the picture of the old king, in his three-cornered hat and small pigtail, did not turn his earnest look in vain on the life he had revived; nor in vain had the mothers of the present generation run to the churches to pray for a blessing on his arms. Now it was that the full blessing of his energetic life truly manifested itself. The spirit of that great man lived again in the German people. Fifty years after the return of the king from the seven years' war, three hundred years after Luther strove earnestly to find his G.o.d, the German nation roused itself for the greatest struggle it had ever yet successfully carried on. The fathers now sent out their sons, and the wives their husbands to the war; the Germans encountered death with a song on their lips, to seek a body for the German soul, a state for the fatherland.

In the year 1813, we find the conclusion of that great struggle which began in 1517. From the time of the contest of the Wittenburger Augustine against indulgences, to the march of the German volunteers against Napoleon, the German spirit carried on a great defensive war against a foreign influence, which issuing from Rome well nigh overwhelmed those who had once been the conquerors of the Roman Empire.

From this life-and-death struggle of three hundred years, Germany pa.s.sed from the bondage of the middle ages into freedom. But though the spirit of the people became free, the reality of a German state was lost to them. The nation was almost annihilated by this unnatural condition. After a deathlike exhaustion it recovered itself slowly; the resuscitated spirit was helpless, its form weak and sickly; it was seeking unity of government. By a powerful development of strength, the foundation of it was laid in the beginning of this century.

Henceforth German Protestantism became a living, sound, and manly acquisition, a great national principle, the expression of the German popular mind, the peculiar German characteristic in every domain of ideal and practical life.

We all still feel how deficient and unfinished is the development of this, the highest principle of life in the German nation. But it is this feeling which gives us courage and leads us to struggle onwards.

What are here given from the old records are narratives of individuals of past generations. They are some of them unimportant pa.s.sages from the lives of insignificant persons. But, as the outward appearance of any stranger we meet, his mode of greeting, and his first words, give us an impression of his individuality, an imperfect, an unfinished impression, but still a whole; so, if we are not mistaken, does each record, in which the impulses of individuals and their peculiar working are portrayed, give us with rapid distinctness a vivid picture of the life of the people; a very imperfect and unfinished picture, but yet, also a whole, round which a large portion of our knowledge and intuitive perceptions rapidly concentrate, like the radii round the centre of a crystal.

If every such picture gives us an impression, that in the soul of each man a miniature picture may be found of the characteristics of his nation; something will be learnt from a succession of these narratives, arranged according to their periods, however much there may be in them that is incidental and arbitrary. We shall discover the stirring and gradual development of a higher intellectual unity, which likewise meets us here in the shape of a distinct individuality; and therefore, these little sketches will perhaps help us to a more lively comprehension, of what we call the life of a nation.

Everywhere man appears to us, by his customs and laws, by language and the whole genial tendencies of his nature, as a small portion of a greater whole. It is true also that this greater whole, appears to us as an intellectual unity, which like an individual, is earthly and perishable, a thing which accomplishes its earthly existence in a century, as a man does his in a certain number of years. Like an individual, a people developes its intellectual capacities in the course of time, but more powerfully and on a grander scale. And further, a people consists of millions of individuals the tide of human life flows in millions of souls, but the conscious and unconscious working together of these millions, produces an intellectual whole, in which the share of individuals often vanishes from our eyes, so that the soul of a whole people seems to us, a self-creative living unity.

Who was the man who created languages? who devised the most ancient law of nations? who first thought of giving poetical expression to an elevated tone of mind? It was not individuals who invented these for practical purposes, but a universal intellectual life, which burst forth among thousands who lived together. All the great productions of national power, law, customs, and the const.i.tution of states, are not the work of individual men, but organic creations of a higher life, which in every period shine forth in individuals, yet in all periods seem to unite the intellectual capacities of individuals, in one mighty whole. Each man bears and cultivates within his soul, part of the intellect of the nation; each one possesses its language, a certain amount of knowledge, and a sense of justice and propriety; but in each, this general nationality is coloured, concentrated, and limited by his individuality. Individuals do not represent the language or the moral feelings of the whole; they only are, as it were, the single notes, which joined together produce a harmonious chord as part of the collective nation. One may therefore fairly, and without mysticism, speak of a national soul.

And if one examines more narrowly, one perceives with astonishment, that this law of development of a higher intellectual unity, differs remarkably from that which binds or makes an individual free. A man chooses freely for himself, between what will injure or be beneficial to him and his interests; judiciously does he shape his life, and prudently does he judge the conceptions which reach his soul from the great world. But less conscious, less full of purpose and judgment than the determination of man's will, is the working of the life of the nation. In history, man represents freedom and judgment, but national energy, works incessantly with the mysterious instinctive impulse of a primitive power, and its intellectual conceptions correspond sometimes in a remarkable way, with the process of formation of the silently productive powers of nature, which bring forth from the seed, the stalk, leaves, and flowers of the plant. From this point of view, the life of a nation pa.s.ses in unceasing alternations from the whole body to the individual, and from the man to the whole body. The life of each man, even the most insignificant, gives a portion of its substance to the nation, and a portion of the collective powers of the nation lives in each man; he transmits soul and body from one generation to another; he adds to the language, and preserves the consciousness of right; all the results of his labours are beneficial to the nation as well as to himself. The course of life of millions runs smoothly and imperceptibly along with the stream. But important personalities develop themselves from the mult.i.tude in all directions, gaining a great influence on the whole body. Sometimes a powerful character arises, which in some wide field of action, long rules the spiritual life of the people, and stamps the impress of its individual mind on the age. Then the life of the whole nation, which also flows through our heads and hearts, becomes as familiar to us as is possible for the soul of any individual man; then the whole powers of the people seem for some years working for the one individual, and obeying him as a master. These are the great periods in the formation of a people. Such was Luther to the Germans.

But no nation develops its life independent of others. As the life of one individual works on that of another, so does it happen with nations. Each nation communicates some of its intellectuality to another. Even the practical forms of national existence, its state and its Church, are either advanced, or checked and destroyed by foreign powers. Close is the union of the minds of the nations of Europe, though manifold the contradiction of their interests. How constantly does one nationality derive strength, or experience trouble and disturbance from another! Sometimes the energetic development of some particular national characteristic, exercises for centuries a preponderating influence on another. Thus once did the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans. The German nation has experienced this foreign influence, both for good and for evil. From the ancient world came the holy faith of the Crucified One, to the wild sons of our forefather Tuisco: at the same time this warlike race received countless traditions from the Roman Empire, transforming their whole life.

Through the whole of the middle ages, the nation was earnestly endeavouring to make these new acquisitions their own. Again, at the end of this period, after a thousand years had pa.s.sed, began a new influence of the ancient world. From it came the ideal of the Humanitarians, the forerunners of Luther, and the ideal of the German poets, the forerunners of the war of freedom. On the other hand, from the Romish world, came upon Germany, with the highest claims, the pressure of the despotism of Gregory VII., and Innocent III., the devotion of the restored Church, and the l.u.s.t of conquest of France.

Then did Germany become depopulated, and the national life was endangered; but the foreigners who had penetrated into it with such overpowering force, aided its recovery. All that Italians, French, and English had attained to in science and arts, was introduced into Germany, and to these foreign acquisitions did German culture cling, from the Thirty years' war up to the time of Lessing.

It is the task of science to investigate the productive life of nations. To her the souls of nations are the highest fields of investigation that man is capable of knowing. Searching out every individuality, tracing every received impression, observing even the broken splinters, uniting all discernible knowledge, more guessing at truths and pointing out the way, than apprehending them, she seeks, as her highest aim, to prove the intellectual unity of the whole human race upon earth. Whilst pious faith with undoubting certainty places before man the idea of a personal G.o.d, the man of science reverently seeks to discover the Divine, in the great conceptions, which however they may surpa.s.s the understanding of the individual, yet are all attached to the life of the world. But however little he may consider their importance, in comparison with that which is incomprehensible in time and eternity, yet in his limited circle lies all the greatness that we are capable of understanding, all the beautiful which we ever enjoy, and all the good which has enn.o.bled our life. But in those spheres which we do not yet know, and are anxiously investigating, there remains a boundless work. And this work is to seek the development of the Divine power in history.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Even the great Imperial army that a.s.sembled before the battle of Nordlingen, in 1634, was a combination of several armies; that of Wallenstein, an Italian army, Spanish auxiliaries, and troops of Maximilian of Bavaria, altogether perhaps sixty thousand men, they only remained together a short time.]

[Footnote 2: This machine consisted of a number of short barrels, which, bound in parallel rows, formed a nearly cubic ma.s.s, the front of which showed from six to ten rows of as many mouths arranged in a square. This system of barrels rested on a carriage, and was fired in rows. Every single barrel was loaded with three or more b.a.l.l.s, and could be fired separately or together. Fronsperg boasts that after one loading there could be a thousand shots from the hundred barrels of the gun.]

[Footnote 3: Wallhausen, 'Archiley Art of War,' 1617. For the corresponding French system of this time, a good description is to be found in the 'Etude sur le pa.s.se et l'avenir de l'artillerie par le Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte.' T. I.]

[Footnote 4: In the battle of Breitenfeld the metal guns of Sweden were overheated; there the leather cannon did their last great service against the Croats.]

[Footnote 5: Thus generated the ingenious comparison of guns with birds of prey; the thirty-six pounders were called eagles, the twenty-four pounders falcons, twelve pounders vultures, six pounders hawks, three pounders sparrowhawks, and the sixty-pound mortars owls.]

[Footnote 6: Yet he himself had a brigade which was called red.]

[Footnote 7: The lieutenants carried partisans, the non-commissioned officers halberds.]

[Footnote 8: About 1600 one gulden of the coin of the Empire was equal to forty silver groschen of our money; thus sixteen of these was equal to forty-two of our thalers.]

[Footnote 9: Wallhausen 'On the Art of War.']

[Footnote 10: A name given to bands that went about pillaging the fields, orchards, and gardens.]

[Footnote 11: Because they slide and skate.]