The Student Life of Germany Part 4

The afternoon and evening were dedicated by them to joyous entertainment at the Feurstenkeller, and with testimonies of love and respect towards their teachers, that remarkable and distinguished day terminated. The sacred celebration of the peace-festival on the part of the university, was held on Sunday, the 21st February. The church service itself was very simple, but highly solemn, and worthy of the high thoughts which the celebration of such a day could not fail to call forth. There remained nothing to desire, but that the n.o.ble spirit and sterling sentiments which had every where displayed themselves so luminously on that day, should continue to be the universal ruling ones.

So details a newspaper of the time, the celebration of this beautiful festival. But the concluding wish found not its fulfilment in the following year--for in the year 1817 was held the festival on the Wartburg; in the next year the congress of the Burschenschaft at Jena; and in 1819 transpired the b.l.o.o.d.y deed of Sand, a warning sign of the progress of political fanaticism from its innocent commencement, to that act which found its just reward on the scaffold.

In the year 1817 the celebration of the reformation anniversary falling in conjunction with the anniversary of the Leipsic Folksbattle, it was too exciting an occasion for the young state reformers not to seize on it for the demonstration of their views and aims. The festival was therefore celebrated on the 18th of October, by the students of most of the German universities on the Wartburg, in a manner which quickly excited the attention of the governments. The Prussian government, in particular, ordered the trial of all those who had taken part in the festival; and several professors who had been present, particularly Fries, came under judicial examination. From these trials it was made obvious that the few only were in the secret of the proposed auto-da-fe to be held in Eisenach, but that the majority regarded it as a desirable opportunity for drawing the Burschenschaft into a more intimate and close union, so that it might the more powerfully operate against the landsmanschafts.

The festival was, like the prior one of October, celebrated with much enthusiasm, with sacred service, with singing of Fatherland hymns, and other solemnities: but speeches were delivered, on this occasion, which had not a thoroughly correct tendency, and must appear the more unfitting from the mouth of a teacher of youth. On the evening of the 18th of October, as formerly on that night, fires blazed up on every hill top; but those of the Burschenschaft who had stationed themselves around the fire on the Wartburg, cast into the flames the German History of Kotzebue, as well as some other detested writings. None of the professors, however, were present at this transaction, and none of the speeches connected therewith were delivered by them. That the acts of the Congress of Vienna had been also burnt there, was proved by the inquiry to be false.

The Wartburg festival was concluded on the 19th of October by the a.s.sembled partic.i.p.ants, to the number of about 600, taking the sacrament in the church. The consequence of this festival was the promotion of the idea here conceived, of one universal German Burschenschaft; that the union of the whole body of student youth must pervade, and be the means of working out, the union of the whole Fatherland.

On the 21st of October, 1818, at Jena, a congress of students, from fourteen universities, was held; then and there the union of the Burschenschafts was discussed, and its const.i.tution established. "One Empire, one Religion, Freedom and Equality!" This was the watchword of the combination, which, since the Wartburg festival, had exchanged its former colours, namely, green, blue, and white, for the union badge, black, red, and a metallic or embroidered oak leaf in the cap. To this circ.u.mstance alludes the following celebrated song--

ARE GERMAN HEARTS.

Are German hearts with strength and courage beating?

There to the clang of beakers gleams the sword, And true and steadfast in our place of meeting, We peal aloud in song the fiery word!

Though rocks and oak trees shiver, We, we will tremble never!

Strong like the tempest see the youths go by, For Fatherland to combat and to die!

Red, red as true-love, be the brother token, And pure like gold the soul within imprest, And that in death our spirits be not broken, Black be the ribbon bound about the breast Though rocks, etc.

We know the strength in honest swords residing, Bold is the brow, and strong the arm to smite; We fail not, faint not, in the right confiding, When calls the Fatherland his sons to fight.

Though rocks, etc.

So, on the German sword, to this alliance, In life and death let solemn faith he vow'd!

Up, Brothers, up! the Fatherland's reliance, And to the blood-red morning cry aloud.

Though rocks, etc.

And thou, Beloved, who in hours the dearest, Hast nerved thy friend with many a look and tone, For thee my heart will beat when death comes nearest, For unto true love change is never known.

Though rocks, etc.

And now, since fate may tear us from each other, Let each man grasp of each the brother-hand, And swear once more, O every German Brother, Truth to the bond, truth to the Fatherland!

Though rocks and oak-trees shiver, We, we will tremble never!

Strong like the tempest see the youths go by, For Fatherland to combat and to die!

The laws of the Burschenschaft, or its const.i.tution, bore the name--"Custom of the Burschenschaft." Amongst other things stand the following:

"In the German Fatherland we will live and move. We will perish with it, or die free in it, if G.o.d's great call ordain. Live the German speech for ever! Flourish the true chivalry! Let Germany be free!

"He who avows these ideas, and is willing to contend for their advancement, is our beloved brother. To accomplish these high endeavours, there must be a universal free Burschenschaft throughout all Germany.

"There can no salvation come to our beloved Germany unless through such a free and universal Burschenschaft, in which Germany's n.o.blest youth continues intimately fraternized, in which every one learns to know his duty--and which Burschenschaft shall always find the Gymnastic schools its defence and alarm-post.

"We will never apply the word Fatherland to that state in which we were born: Germany is our Fatherland; the state in which we are born is our Home.

"We will hold these principles firmly and honourably; spread them by every possible means; and with all our power, now as youths, and hereafter as men, labour to bring them into exercise.

"When we quit the High School, and are invested with any office, be it high or low, we will fulfil the same honourably, true to Prince and Fatherland, and in such a manner administer it as shall be in accordance with the spirit of these principles.

"The law of the people shall be the will of the Prince. Liberty and Equality are the highest good; after which we have to strive, and from which strift no pious and honest German can ever desist.

"Every student who maintains honour and virtue, shall be a free German Bursche: subject to no one; inferior to no one; all shall be equal, obeying only the laws."

From this time forward the union laboured actively at throwing out and determining the principles of a future civil and ecclesiastical const.i.tution for Germany, and in the dissemination of revolutionary writings. But unfortunately, as in all times of high excitement, spirits of a reckless and darker character mingled themselves with the n.o.bler ones of liberty: for the realization of their intrinsically criminal wishes, criminal means also were necessary, and the spirit of youth was thus unconsciously conducted by fanaticism into unhallowed and bloodthirsty principles, and in the bosom of the Burschenschaft union, formed itself a closer union of _The Unrestricted_, whose name revealed sufficiently, that they would hesitate at no means by which they might arrive at their object. The misguided and blamable tendency of this spirit, to the horror of many who unconsciously implicated themselves in its criminal proceedings, was brought to light by some striking circ.u.mstances. On the 23d of March, 1810, the student Sand murdered the Russian Counsellor of State, Von Kotzebue, on no other ground than that he held him to be a spy of the Russian government, and an enemy of German liberty. He undertook the action with the full persuasion that it was a just and n.o.ble deed, and his trial revealed the horrible gulf of political immorality, unto the very brink of which was brought the youth of Germany. A somewhat particular account of this transaction, and of the circ.u.mstances of Sand's life, may fittingly here find a place: and which may be relied on, being derived from the relation published by the President of the Commission for the trial of Sand, the State Counsellor, Von Hohenhorst himself.

CHAPTER V.

KARL LUDWIG SAND.

Karl Ludwig Sand was born at Wunsiedel, a little town in the district of Baireuth, lying in the Fichtel Mountains, on the 5th of October, 1795. His father was pensionary officer of justice; and the family, which consisted of three sons and two daughters, lived in the most delightful domestic harmony. Sand grew up in his paternal city, under the most careful guidance of his parents, whose good and thorough education, and moral training, such are his own words, in comparison with that of many, he never was able sufficiently to praise. There lay in him the strongest and most delightful recollection of his birthplace. Its very situation, he a.s.serted, in the bosom of n.o.ble mountains, in the midst of the great Fatherland, had wrought powerfully upon his disposition of mind, which, especially since much sickness in his early youth, had always been very still. In truth, Sand pa.s.sed his years of childhood in great weakness and many bodily ailments. In his seventh year he took naturally the small-pox, and of a very bad kind, which left behind them serious effects, especially a dangerous ulcer in the head, of which the grisly scars always continued visible. On that account the physicians forbade all mental exercise, and his proper instruction could only be commenced at home in his tenth year. His father explained, that a dejection of mind which long clung to him was a consequence of the weakness which these complaints had left upon; and therefore, where parents in general would put restraint on young people of lively temperament, he, on the contrary, had always been anxious that his son's disposition should not be further depressed. After Sand had received his first instruction from the tutor, he was sent to the Lyceum, in Wunsiedel. He afterwards followed his teacher to the Gymnasium in Hof, there acquired the first elements of general education, and proceeded in the study of ancient languages. Even at this early period he entertained a vehement hatred to the French. As in the spring of 1812 a great military train pa.s.sed through Hof, he would neither see the march of the French nor especially Napoleon, since he believed that he could not endure to be in the presence of the arch enemy of his native land, without an attempt to rush upon him and destroy him.

He returned thence to his parents, with whom he continued till they resolved to send him to Regensburg, where he proceeded towards the end of the year 1812, with his tutor Saalfranc, and always called to mind with extreme pleasure his abode there. The testimonies of his life and habits during his sojourn in Hof and Regensburg, are greatly to his credit His good capacity, his restless diligence, his deep study, and not less his highly moral conduct, were greatly applauded. In his 18th year awoke in Sand the resolve to co-operate in doing battle with the common foe of his country. He may speak for himself.

"As in the spring of 1813 the French fled homewards, and Germany began to rouse itself to take vengeance for the shame inflicted on it, there awoke in me a new-born joy, a fresh mind, a new life; and from that hour I doubted no more of a complete liberation from the old slavery, although the heavens became so unpropitious to the Germans. With eager heart and yet with all possible circ.u.mspection, I lived in the newspapers of the time; and in the autumn of 1813, which I spent at home, I obtained the permission to join myself to the host of Germany, when in the meantime, came the intelligence of the battle of Leipsic, which rendered my going forth unnecessary."

Sand returned once more to Regensburg, and proceeded thence to the university of Tubingen. Here he pa.s.sed quietly the winter half-year of 1814-15, and had begun the second half-year when Napoleon returned from Elba, and Sand felt himself called to stand forth with his countrymen in defence of Germany. His testimonies from Tubingen were highly creditable, yet they expressed suspicions that during his abode there he had been a member of a political union called Teutonia. Sand then first, on the day before his departure, announced to his parents his determination to enter into the army, and took farewell of them by letter. The style and tendency of his letter differ essentially from his subsequent compositions. We see in it only the youth full of zeal and fervour for his country,--who, pure, and without mixture of his subsequent political religious exaltation, avows his intimation to fight to the death for his country and kindred. "With an inward struggle," wrote he amongst other things, "held I myself back the last time when the liberation of Germany was at stake, and it was only the conviction that many thousands then stood in the field, eager for battle and victory for the welfare of Germany, that could detain me."

In another place--"The spirit at home and in Bavaria may be as it will, I hold it for the highest duty to fight for the liberty of my German Fatherland; of my dear parents, brothers, and sisters; and of all the good people who love me; and, should numbers gain the advantage over us, to contend to the very last gasp, and triumph over a tyrant in death. Ever shall your beloved images hover round me; ever will I have G.o.d before my eyes and in my heart, that I may be strengthened to bear with serenity all the fatigues and dangers of this holy war. Yet wherefore make the hearts of each other so heavy? We alone have the right, the sacred cause. There is a righteous G.o.d, and how then shall we not have the victory?"

The letter concludes with the words of Theodore Korner, which Sand had often in his mouth--

Though rages h.e.l.l itself, G.o.d, thy mighty hand, Hurls down the tower of lies.

Perchance high o'er the slaughtered foes The Star of Peace shall rise.

Sand set out with two friends on the way through Stuttgard to Heidelberg, where he stayed some days, and then went on to Mannheim, where he announced himself to the general staff of Graf Rechberg, and was received as cadet in the volunteer Jagers of the Rezat Circle.

Before his departure from Tubingen, a friend presented him with a small riband which he continually wore during the campaign, and afterwards, at his arrest, it was still found round his neck. It was green and white. The troops, which Sand's brother also had now joined, already in Homberg, met the news of the victory of Waterloo; they marched forward, however, to Meaux, and into the neighbourhood of Fontainbleau, but soon after drew into cantonments in Auxurre, and from thence marched directly back, and entered Ans.p.a.ch the 2d of December, 1815. Sand remembered his military career with the highest dissatisfaction, since, as he expressed himself, he had never had the good fortune to kill a Frenchman. He had written upon his riband these words:--"With this dedicated I myself in 1815 to death. Was it not in earnest? Would I have recrossed the Rhine again except as a conqueror!"

Sand betook himself to Erlangen, and occupied himself there two years with the study of theology. Here it happened that in the summer of 1817, one of his dearest friends, while bathing, was drowned before his eyes, and he himself was in great danger of his life. This loss operated so strongly on his mind, that as he himself declared, he believed that the spring of life was now over, and that its summer had now shown itself. Consoled by his teachers and friends, he now gave the first proof of his talents for preaching in the High Church at Erlangen, continued there till the end of the half year, and then went to Jena. Sand conducted himself during his residence in Erlangen as exemplarily as before, yet he was at the same time an active member of the Teutonia there; in fact he was twice a leader of this union, and drew up a const.i.tution for the Burschenschaft, under the t.i.tle of the Erlangen Burschenschaft-Custom. From Erlangen and Jena he made several short journeys, and amongst them the one to Eisenach, which proved so influential on his future life. There he joined in the celebration of the festival on the Wartburg, on the 18th of October, 1817, and his part in this transaction he thus describes:--

"On the 17th of October I arrived in Eisenach, and was chosen on the festival-committee. I here helped to keep order; heard the speeches on the Wartburg, but did not speak myself; I went in the evening to the fire, and saw the books burnt. On the following morning I heard speeches for the reconcilement of the disputes of many of the student-quarrels of former years, and listened to the splendid orations on the Fatherland. I accompanied the Burschen to the church, and partook of the sacrament; then was the festival ended, and I returned to Jena." He adds, that it had been a festival simply for the elevation of the sacred cause, and that no determinate object besides had been contemplated.

In Jena, Sand continued to educate himself, in order, as he expressed himself, the better to look about himself, and to ground himself fairly in the different departments of knowledge; till suddenly the inner call for ever summoned him away. His teachers there gave their testimony that he always appeared as a grave, quiet, and discreet man, zealously striving after excellence. That he was accustomed to speak little, since speaking appeared a difficulty to him; but that what he did say, was always prudent, well-considered, and sensible, and that his deportment had nothing displeasing in it, although it was energetic and firm. During his abode in Jena, he was a member of the so-called Burschenschaft, but at the same time also of another company, which he termed a Literary Union. He made from Jena a journey into North Germany, and visited many of the most celebrated battle-fields of both past and modern times. After his return he proceeded again with his studies with unremitting diligence, and had obtained permission from his parents to continue another half-year in Jena, when he suddenly broke off, on the 9th of March, 1819, at four o'clock in the morning, and set out on his last fatally eventful journey towards Mannheim.

We have thus followed the thread of Sand's history to this period with sufficient minuteness, and we have permitted ourselves to sketch it with the more exactness, since it is particularly interesting to trace all the causes which could conduct a character, otherwise so excellent, to such a crime;--as, moreover, conjectures respecting these causes can only be rightly founded on a real knowledge of the circ.u.mstances of the case, and from these only can those conclusions be drawn, which were, though without effect, employed in the defence of this singular man. In his history we behold the fac-simile of the history of the whole Burschenschaft to which he belonged. A description of his person, from that officially drawn up, may precede the relation of his unhappy deed.

In the protocol it stands thus:--

"Sand was in age twenty-three and a half years; stood five feet six inches high; had strong black hair and eyebrows; a high forehead, gray eyes, longish nose, mouth of middle size, dark-brown very weak beard, ordinary chin, broad countenance, tolerably healthy colour, with some pock-marks in the face." His look was open, and for the most part friendly, but not eminently intellectual; his physiognomy good-natured, but not especially interesting; his visage might be termed an involuntary mirror of his mind. So painted themselves wrath and scorn upon it, when the speech turned upon Kotzebue and his connexion with Germany; so might be read in it a painful, or an hostile feeling, when the principles of his system must be attacked; so that, in the end, very little attention became necessary to discern by it, when his answers did not contain the truth. The play of the muscles of his forehead was particularly strikingly acted upon by an internal feeling of resistance, which generally rose in him when he desired by some means to conceal the truth.

Kotzebue's writings had been long disliked by Sand. Many of his early a.s.sertions betray it. Such was his observation to his father:--"Of what use is the man's literary talent, when the German heart is wanting?" On the burning of his History of Germany, on the Wartburg, he became immediately watchful of him; but still more, when shortly afterwards his literary _Wochenblatt_, or weekly paper, appeared. In this publication, Kotzebue promulgated his opinions often and variously on the then state of German affairs, and many of his views must have given great displeasure. Thus, he contended especially against the promotion of a combined and const.i.tutional government in Germany, and a.s.serted that the loud demand for this was by no means the voice of the people, of whom he very much doubted, whether they wanted any const.i.tution at all. For this bold a.s.sertion, Kotzebue was instantly attacked and ridiculed on all sides. A specimen of the missiles launched against him on the occasion, may be given from an article in the "Zeitung fur die elegante Welt,"--News for the Elegant World, in the year 1818:--