41
William I writes his abdication, and is about to quit in disgust; Bismarck says, “Tear that letter up!”
Along about 1857, our poor William IV lost his mind; for four years he continued a nervous wreck; his brother, William I, was the sick man’s representative as Prussian king; and in ’61, when William IV died, William I became sovereign ruler of pugnacious Prussia.
The common people welcomed William I with open arms, that is to say, adoring a fighting man, and long disappointed[154] by the timidity and vacillation of kind-hearted William IV, with his church-building plans and his Jerusalem bishoprics, it seemed as though the reactionary character of Prussian political life might now come to an end.
Frederick’s many-sidedness was in sharp contrast to William’s one-sidedness; Frederick’s unfixed decision is now expressed by William’s unvarying will. Where Frederick had been brilliant and imaginative, William was cold and solid.
William was now over sixty, at which age men’s lives, as a rule, are in eclipse.
Yet this man of destiny had still in store the making of a modern C?sar. He was to become king of kings, ruler of an empire whose individual units were commanded not by democrats trying new ambitions; but instead, many monarchs were to proclaim, “William, Emperor of United Germany!”
This son of Queen Louise, mother of Prussia, was now to justify the sacrifices of the great German foster-mother; for as she had labored with Scharnhorst to perfect the Prussian military, and in the hour of Prussia’s extremity dared to confront even the great Napoleon himself, likewise her son William was now to complete, years later, the mother’s ideals.
Where she scattered seed on fallow ground, the son was to reap his abundant harvest of Prussian glory.
“Whoever wishes to rule Germany must conquer it; and that cannot be done with phrases,” wrote William, 22 years before he was crowned at Versailles.
We have seen all manner of Hohenzollerns—robber-knight Hohenzollerns—landscape-gardening Hohenzollerns—church-building Hohenzollerns—and Hohenzollerns tied to a woman’s apron string.
A brave, practical, common-sense Hohenzollern is now head of the distinguished Prussian house.
William I is flatly opposed to Liberalism, but is shrewd enough to have a moderate Liberal among his kingly advisers; for William realizes the political weakness of further constitution-tinkering.[155]
Finally, we have before us a man as obstinate as Bismarck, but without Bismarck’s creative imagination; a Prussian King reared in the army, who loved the army, who understood the army;—even as Bismarck understood political intrigue. The combination was unique!
Also, we have here a William of enormous ambition, little suspected under his rather conventional innocent-appearing German mask.
We come now to a place where furious political torrents begin beating down the ancestral forests of Germany; torn by flashes of lightning and the ominous roll of thunders, the air is filled with broken boughs, flying leaves and clouds of dust.
Bismarck, god of thunder, rides upon the furious storm.
Let us closely follow the general track of the hurricane now raging in Prussia, more especially in the Prussian Chamber.
In ’59, William had appointed von Roon Minister of War; the people objected, declaring it another evidence of William’s reactionary principles. The plan was to increase the army from 130,000 in peace and 215,000 in war to 190,000 in peace and 450,000 in war.
It really meant universal military service for Prussia, with 63,000 recruits each year, practically doubling the service, making it possible within a decade to call possibly 1,200,000 soldiers!
The Chamber of Deputies opposed the plan, vigorously. However, the Chamber in a patriotic moment had voted army money on condition that the increase was only incidental, but William while saying little of his plans acted as though his army appropriations were to be permanent, henceforth.
Over this question, a bitter controversy! The King took the ground that it was the duty of the Deputies to raise the cash in such sums as were required for state purposes—whatever these might be, in the opinion of the King.
It was conceded that, in military matters, William’s judgment was good, but the Liberals did not much like these great military expenses.[156]
William even thought of breaking the deadlock by abolishing parliament and ruling alone, or abdicating his throne!
He had already written out his abdication, so the story goes, and it was lying on his desk, all signed, awaiting the moment of proclamation.
At the eleventh hour, William bethought himself of an invincible fighting man, Otto von Bismarck, widely known for boldness and independence.
“I am willing to carry out your policy, whether Parliament is agreed or not! I will rather perish with my King than forsake Your Majesty in the contest with Parliamentary government!”
And William tore up the abdication paper and replied, “Let’s get down to business!”
42
The four years’ conflict era—Here Bismarck is at last revealed in his true character—King’s Man supreme!
Ten years of rough-and-tumble fighting in the blind alleys of political intrigue have now prepared Otto von Bismarck for great things. In the solemn years to come, all is yet to be dignified by the formation of an Empire, through blood and iron.
The King’s ambition grew on what it fed upon—a desire for Prussian aggrandizement, at all hazards, and the ultimate solution of the German problem through Prussian power of arms. He made up his mind, accordingly, that he ought to reorganize the army; for this purpose he had asked the Chamber for 12,000,000 thalers.
The cat slipped out of the bag, in spite of precautions. This 12,000,000 thalers was to be used to buy needle-guns and powder, in the oncoming War of the Brothers.
Our William I, whatever he might be, was at least no namby-pamby sentimentalist. That honest German face, those kindly blue eyes, his high complexion, made him look as guileless as a happy school boy; but he had his deep desire for place and power, side by side with Bismarck.[157]
It was a most fortunate day for this hard-headed unimaginative William that Otto von Bismarck, in the Autumn of 1862, accepted the Portfolio of Prussian Minister. William wanted a strong man to fight the hostile radical deputies for that 12,000,000 thalers, for the war-chest.
There is no use casting about for fair words to butter parsnips. The long-deferred irrepressible War of the Brothers was determined upon; and the Prussian dynasty was to wade through seas of blood to the heights of glory; and the purpose was ever to end this age-old German family strife.
William I is deservedly a great German national hero. He is the true father of his country.
We see nothing to criticise. The situation is very human; and the leading actors play their difficult parts with discrimination. In your own life’s conquests, do you do any more, and often do you not do lessIs it not true in your own life that you have to fight for what you achieveTruly, the world belongs to him who seizes it. William knew this; Bismarck certainly knew it; and in this respect the two great men were agreed. So far, good. In broad outline the plan was to make the Prussian dynastic government rule over territorial United Germany; but it must come with the consent of the rulers of the independent German states and not through decrees of people’s parliaments or the howlings of mobs.
As for Bismarck, he was the one man of the hour for black situations. His schooling in human nature had progressed amazingly. For the past ten years, at Frankfort, at St. Petersburg, at Paris, at Vienna, Bismarck had fallen afoul of all leading political strategists of Europe, men gloating over the problem of annexing to their private estates the divided German thirty-nine states: Bismarck had studied the individual line of battle of Frenchman, Russian, Italian, Dane, Briton, to say nothing of the ambitions of princelings, counts, deputies, margraves, prelates, poets, and political hen-coop makers;—knew too, how at the critical moment to block their individual games and just when to give his own deadly knockout—either above or below the belt![158]
During his period of preparation, as we have seen, for twenty years Bismarck had consistently preached “Divine-right,” stood for what he called “Christian monarchy.”
For years, also, it appeared that the thing was for Prussia to enter into a close political union with Austria, but now Bismarck was convinced that he must fight Austria. Fight or shake hands were the same to the giant Otto; the thing was to win, if not in one way then in another! Otto, after his Frankfort experiences saw clearly Austria’s under-play to dominate the political situation; and in turn felt himself called upon to check Austrian ambition in favor of his liege lord, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of Prussia.
Finally, Bismarck’s great chance came. William asked Bismarck to force the army bill.
Now indeed will the giant rage, snapping his teeth in the face of the hurricane,—yes, four long years he is to rule without color of law.
43
On comes the storm—Not by speechmaking but by blood and iron are the great questions to be decided, says Bismarck!
At least, we admit that William I was a thoroughbred Hohenzollern in innate admiration of the iron fist!
Now this was the situation: The secret war-chest against Austria had to be filled in one way or another; but the difficulty was found in the fact that the common people, acting under a mysterious instinct not to be explained but very real withal, had already begun to show unrest about an approaching War of the Brothers, as the sentimentalists called the irrepressible conflict between Austria and Prussia. The upshot was that Bismarck’s political secrets while not definitely understood in detail, were quite generally divined by close students of the German problem. The Liberals were intent on their own interests, in Prussia, and believed that their political solution depended on hampering the King, regardless of his cause. Hence the Liberal deputies of the[159] Chamber spunkily stood out against William’s heavy demands for cannon and gunpowder.
Bismarck, as King’s Minister, had to face the political storm. He did not dare to say that he wanted the money for war; he wanted the money—was not that enough?
Thereupon, Bismarck proceeded to domineer over the delegates.
The Chamber was willing to do something, but how about the rumor that these huge appropriations are to be hereafter a permanent item in the budgetBismarck would not make the delegates’ minds easy; he wanted money, much money, 12,000,000 thalers in fact, for the army—and the least the delegates could do was to vote the funds. If they did not give the cash gracefully, why he would coerce the deputies—that was all!
“It is not by speechifying and majorities,” he thundered, “that the great questions of the time will be decided—that was the great mistake in ’48 and in ’49,—BUT BY BLOOD AND IRON.”
Members of the Chamber shrank in horror.
There were extremely powerful and learned men there, to combat Bismarck’s point of view, and our political conspirator on his emperor-hunt had to listen to some of the most merciless rebukes he was ever to hear, during his long and highly exciting career. But he took them all, without a whimper.
“We have too many Catalines existing among us that have an interest in social uprisings,” Bismarck thundered. “Germany considers not the Liberalists of Prussia, but her own power. Bavaria, Wuertemberg and Baden may flirt with liberalism, but no German would think on that account of asking them to assume the r?le of Prussia. Prussia must brace herself, for the fitter moment. Prussia’s borders are not favorable to the development of a healthy state.”
The giant Pomeranian King’s Man with his turbulent support of his monarch, now advanced reasons to show his side, and concluded by mocking his hearers to do their worst.[160]
“What matter if they hang me, provided the rope binds this new Germany more firmly to the throne?”
A few days after this sensational defiance of Democratic leaders, Bismarck announced his decision: “We shall carry on the finances of the state without the conditions provided for in the Constitution.”
Bismarck was not surprised at the storms of protest. “Some progressive journals hope to see me picking oakum for the benefit of the state.” The comic newspapers pictured Bismarck as a ballet dancer, pirouetting over eggs marked Right, Law, Order, Reform, Constitution.
The King became alarmed.
“I see how this will end,” said the King. “Over there, near the opera house, in front of my windows, they will cut off your head, and mine a little afterwards.”
“And after that, sire?” asked Bismarck spunkily.
“After that, why we shall be dead!”
“Oh, well, all must die,” cut in Bismarck indifferentl............