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The secret discontent of the man who believed himself sole founder of the German Empire.

When the Kaiser, on that eventful day in March, 1890, turned and told the old man to go, Bismarck received the heart-breaking sentence without a sign of protest.

To a friend who called he told the news in a calm voice, a smile on his lips, congratulating himself on being able to resume his country life, of which he was so fond, of visiting again the forests on his estates, and “belonging to himself” in the few years that were yet left.

“I’ll soon be gone,” he said, “and it is time I should take a rest.”

The story is long and complex, but we will give you the large details, only. The day comes when Bismarck’s old friend, Emperor William I, passes from this earthly scene; his son, Frederick III, reigns three months and is carried off by cancer of the throat. The doom of Bismarck is now sealed! Emperor William I was the firm foundation of Bismarck’s strength, but the son did not like the Iron Chancellor, and within the three brief months of power before death called, Frederick III let it be known that Bismarck was marked for retirement. Frederick’s one act leveled against the Bismarck family-dynasty was to dismiss von Puttkammer, Minister of the Interior.

Now enters William II, aged 29, a mighty man in the making, a sleepless man, one who in his time was to become the standard by which henceforth all German institutions are to[236] be measured. His first address to the army; his second, to the navy; his third, three days later, to the citizens.

Did he not ask old von Moltke to resignYes, and others. It was not, as many historians set up, that Emperor William II was jealous of Bismarck, nor was it a case of “crabbed age and youth cannot live together.”

The Emperor, with firm feeling in his will to Imperial power, wishes to develop Germany along lines of world-wide importance. Bismarck was of the past; William of the future. The blow fell March 28th, 1890.

The world gave a gasp of astonishment; it seemed impossible that Bismarck, the master-mind of United Germany, should be unceremoniously shuffled out of sight.

Political writers the world around become involved in spirited controversies, on the whole supporting the old man and denouncing what seemed like ingratitude on the part of the new Emperor. It was pointed out that Bismarck himself, speaking to the Czar, had only a short time before declared, “I hope to die in office, always a good friend of Russia.” Also that William II had on New Year’s telegraphed to Bismarck, “That I may long be permitted to work with you, for the welfare and greatness of the Fatherland!”

If Bismarck was not made by a King’s breath, at least a breath destroyed Bismarck’s control of the situation.

Bismarck had long ruled the lives of millions; but when Wm. II snapped his fingers and said “Finis!” the old Chancellor had to go. The loss of Bismarck’s influence was as complete as though instead of being the foremost man of his time in the diplomatic world, he was instead only a clerk discharged by his superior.

In listing the elements on which Bismarck builded there is always one often overlooked, yet at the very foundation, the bottom stone in the wall. That one was the favorable attitude of King William I. Without the King’s consent, Bismarck’s career would have been impossible! Herein, we find[237] a classic illustration of how interdependent are men’s lives; what small causes sustain or defeat great careers.

But first we wish to tell you something of his honors during the past few years, also of the munificent patronage of the Kaiser, going far to refute the libel that the Kaiser was ungrateful. The patient Kaiser in truth dealt nobly with the moody old man.

On the old man’s 70th birthday (1885), the people of Germany offered a gift of $1,350,000, one-half of which Bismarck used to repurchase the ancestral estate, Schoenhausen, which he had sold in his impecunious years; and now, thanks to the gratitude of the German nation, the old place, mightily enlarged and improved, passed again into Bismarck’s hands.

The other half of the $1,350,000 Bismarck set aside as an endowment fund for school teachers.

Even Victor Hugo added his hero-worship, in this curious letter: “The giant salutes the giant! The enemy salutes the enemy! The friend sends the greeting of a friend!

“I hate you, cruelly, for you have humiliated France; I love you because I am greater than you.

“You kept silence when my eighty years sounded from the belfry of my glory; but I speak now because the stolen clock which stands upon your desk, refuses to announce to you that your 70th birthday has come.

“If you and I were united in one person, the history of the world would have been ended.... But you are great because you know not what fear is. Therefore, I, the poet, offer my hand to you, the great man.”

The Prince, thunderstruck, wrote in reply two words, “Otto—Adieu!”

Nor was this all. The Pope bestowed upon Bismarck the Order of Christ, for ameliorating the last of certain hard conditions against the Church, dating from the culture-struggle of years gone by.

In 1871, Emperor William I had invested Bismarck with the hereditary dignity of Prince, and William II conferred[238] on Bismarck, at the time of dismissal (1890), the title Duke of Lauenburg, together with a larger share of the Duchy of Lauenburg, an estate on which the Emperor expended $1,000,000.

The old man’s income was now said to be in excess of $100,000 a year; in addition he received unnumbered gifts of a princely nature, as well as priceless tokens of sentimental esteem, from patriotic Germans the world around.

It was a relief to Bismarck, in his old age, to know that his family would be rich and famous. He had been deeply engrossed in politics for years, and all his ambitions had been exhausted on his beloved Germany; he not only had no time to make money, but was heavily in debt; his interest account, for loans, was said to have been, for many years, $30,000 per annum.

How he managed to keep his head above water (with all the distractions of statesmanship, to say nothing of the burdens of three great wars, and the embarrassments of his private finances) shows the man’s iron constitution as well as his sagacity in practical affairs.

In all, Bismarck received forty-eight orders of distinction, at the hands of monarchs; also a long list of university degrees, medals and golden keys bestowing the freedom of German cities.

The immediate cause of Bismarck’s dismissal had to do with an old “Order in Council,” 1852, to the effect that the Prime Minister, as head of the Prussian Cabinet, had autocratic powers.

This order the Kaiser now abruptly countermanded. The decision was made following an interview between Bismarck and Dr. Windhorst, at Bismarck’s house.

William II did not much like this political jockeying on the part of Bismarck; Windhorst was an enemy of the established order; therefore, that the Prussian Chancellor should hold a secret caucus with a politician objectionable to the Emperor created a crisis.

The Kaiser, who lived in a wire-hung whispering gallery,[239] knew at once that Bismarck and Windhorst had been in conference; and early on the day following, William abruptly appeared at Bismarck’s and asked to see the Chancellor.

Bismarck came down in morning gown and slippers, for he had been summoned from his bed!

“What is the meaning of this Windhorst interview?” inquired the Kaiser sharply.

Bismarck replied with spirit. The breach widened. Bismarck took the ground that it was none of the Kaiser’s business who called at the Bismarck house.

The Kaiser then insisted that in the future he should be notified in advance of prospective political interviews, that, if he so desired, he might send a personal representative, to report the drift of the talk.

This made Bismarck furious; the old man rebelled, flatly!

It was a sharp, short, painful scene; by no means a ceremonious discussion of constitutional prerogatives, or the amicable rearrangement of methods of transacting state business. Instead, it was the parting of the ways, the breaking of old ties;—and after all these long years!

“Then I understand, Your Majesty, that I am in your way?”

“Yes!”

“Enough!”

“Haste!” rejoined the Kaiser; and thus, in few words, the celebrated interview came to an end.

In parting with the Chancellor, the Kaiser made Bismarck Prince of Lauenburg and gave him a very valuable country estate, and added also the rank of Field Marshal. The princes of Germany joined in good wishes for the old man’s peace and happiness, for his declining days.

Peace and happiness—what a satire!
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And Bismarck was intensely human! “Who made United Germany?” is his question.

The women of his household did not take the news quietly.

The imperial messenger arrived with the Kaiser’s portrait,[240] as a farewell souvenir to Prince Bismarck. His wife exclaimed: “Take it to Friedrichsruh and let it be placed in the stable!”

At the depot, a great crowd came to see the old man depart for the country, but the Kaiser was not there.

Bismarck’s hoary age, his great dignity, his known services to Germany, were now dear to the heart of Germans; thousands gathered, in spontaneous farewell, crowding around the old man and kissing his hand.

Now let us face the facts.

To a man of Bismarck’s iron mold, the exercise of power is the breath of life; this made it a tragedy for the aged Bismarck to withdraw.

It was but natural for him, as time passed and his ambition grew, that he should believe himself the sole founder of the German Empire. His constant utterances after his downfall bear out this idea. The composite victory of scores of minds merged in his imagination and now crystallized in his own soul victory. Such is human nature, and so we say “Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo,” but is this strictly trueTrue or false, such is human habit of thought, and Bismarck was also now shown to be human enough to claim it all for himself.

The story of Wolsey over again; our old counsellor of state thrown off in his declining years; and we can almost hear Bismarck in his great bitterness repeat the tragic words:
Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal I serv’d my King, he would not in my age Have left me naked to mine enemies!

Bismarck’s further official presence was irksome to the new master. With the iron decision characteristic of Hohenzollern, William II ended the situation, with a stroke of his imperial will. In this attitude William not only acted wisely, but showed himself every inch a Kaiser.[241]

Besides, Bismarck was plotting in a very human way to support and advance the rising fortunes of the Bismarck family. Would you not have done as much, or even more?

In his princely office, Bismarck thought to found a diplomatic dynasty of his own, wherein the servant becomes the master; he made his son, young Count Herbert, Minister of Foreign Affairs, a rise in life prodigiously fast for one who used to fill the function of holding his father’s dispatch bag in the Parliament, when the old man made speeches, supported by incessant drinking of brandy.

Bismarck, himself, was Chancellor, Minister-President, Foreign Minister; his cousin, Minister of the Interior; and there were many other Bismarcks in state service, trained to know the old man’s policy. Constructive governmental work was all in Bismarck’s power;—and he meant to keep it there.

These many acts of family favoritism, arousing the indignation of the new Emperor, played an important part in determining the old man’s dismissal. The King was offended by Bismarck’s many acts of nepotism, “the greatest,” he secretly declared, “which politics have ever recorded.”

A high official said to Bismarck after Koeniggraetz: “You should be well satisfied;—it made you a Prince!”

“It made me a Prince,” mused Bismarck, with a sudden and unaccountable show of irony. Then, pointing to the map of United Germany, he replied with deep-rooted conviction that revealed how the fires of ambition were consuming his very soul: “A Prince, did you sayYes, there is my principality!”

From that hour, the suspicious and irrascible side of Bismarck’s mind continued to expand. Some of us quarrel with our family, our partners, or our political party, asking who was responsible for the disaster, but the most deadly disputes are those called forth by ambition to decide not who was responsible for the loss, but who made the success.

Small cause; great effect.

And Bismarck was intensely human!
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The elements of his greatness number three—Here read two, but the third and greatest is yet to come.

Now you ought to begin to understand the man in his naked reality; his elements of greatness compounded with crying frailties—but his very faults endear him to us the more, because they show him brother to the weak.

Threefold a great man, great in ambition and courage; greater in compelling victory through years of patient and moody planning; but greatest of all in his downfall, when turning his back upon the blaze of glory, he retires to the country to view the mighty forests, and to take long walks with his dogs over the fields, communing with himself, the winds of heaven, and the immortal stars.

His time is now very short; the sands have all but run out of the glass. For the first time in many, many years, he now belongs to himself once more—on the very edge of the tomb—before the sun is to go out forever—and the long night settles down.

Does he still believe in his old ikonIn the secret chamber of his heart does he still believe that God was behind it all, on the side of the needle-guns of Sadowa?

The justifications of earth ofttimes betray themselves in strange superstitions, and there always was a large strain of superstition compounded in the great mind of this great man; not unlike the superstitions of a brother conqueror, Julius C?sar, who was wont to crawl on his belly to the Temple, there to return thanks to the immortal gods for success in battle.

To his dying day, Otto von Bismarck held fast that he was the instrument of God, and that God did it all, through him. Flesh and blood needs some explanation for its ways—and it may be that one interpretation is on the whole as good as another. With Bismarck the ikon was God.

On his part, as a human being, for many years Bismarck nursed his seemingly impossible dream of expelling Austria[243] from the German states and binding up thirty-nine principalities in one grand Empire. This ambition he pursued incessantly, and ultimately succeeded in reaching by his genius in manipulating the human nature side of the men around him. He worked for himself, for his King and for his ideal of a United Germany. He gave to the seemingly hopeless cause all his time, strength, nay, his very soul.

His was also now the secret discontent of a man who thought himself the sole founder of the German Empire. It was so understood by Kaiser William. For the time being, then, the patient Kaiser, averse to wounding the pride of a true German servant of the Empire, permitted the overleaping ambition of his great Minister of State to have sway; but William knew that, soon or late, the break must come; and in his own mind had already decided on the man who was to take Bismarck’s place.

Little by little threats came; men in high office secretly inveighed against Bismarck’s new ambitions; it did not escape the attention of the Emperor’s intriguers, who now worked against the old man’s family aspirations; then came more resolute attitudes on Bismarck’s part, egged on by his wife and by his son, who each had grown prodigiously ambitious.

Enter General Caprivi!

Before the will of the Kaiser, Bismarck must bow; and now behold how the mighty has fallen! We must henceforth seek him not in the splendid halls of state, but among simple rural scenes in Schoenhausen, where he was born, where he lived as a child; and to these quiet shades under the oaks and elms he now returns at the last remove of life; a broken, world-weary man, full of honors it is true, but by the irony of fate come back to die stripped of worldly grandeur, and to ponder the vanity of all earthly ambitions.
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Bismarck inveighs against the ingratitude of kings—A fighter to the end.

Did he take kindly to his enforced retirementFar from it. With all the querulous impatience of an octogenarian, full of whims, sick in soul and body, suspicious, irritable, dying inch by inch, a prey to insomnia, his neuralgic pains, his swollen veins, in short, a crabbed old man, awaiting the call—behold now our great Otto von Bismarck, and mark well to what narrow limits his power has shrunk.

On one occasion he moodily replied to a question: “Who are the HohenzollernsMy family is as good as theirs!” And the old man meant it, every word of it.

He began bombarding the newspapers with bitter reviews, criticising the Government, the affairs of the day. The African treaty he dissected, to Caprivi’s disadvantage. “I never would have signed it!” wrote Bismarck, and the press took up the cry. Any utterance from the old political sage was welcomed, the more caustic the criticism the better it read, all to the disadvantage of the Emperor and the new advisers.

Many newspaper reporters called at Bismarck’s country retreat; the old man would tell them strong truths against the Government. Here and there, a newspaper came out as Bismarck’s official spokesman!

It did seem as though nothing Caprivi did ever pleased the old man.

The curious fact was this: that Bismarck in his own time had always held as an inviolable principle, “No criticism of the Government in foreign affairs,” but now he claimed a privilege he had never granted to another.

One of his many startling confessions of state secrets was that the Franco-Prussian war never would have taken place but for the garbled Ems dispatch. Instead of being a “holy war,” to support the very life of the Fatherland, it was now made clear that the old Divine-right idea had been but the stage-play of a political minister, for his imperial sovereign’s march to glory.

The last illusion was now dispelled.[245]

Caprivi was obliged to issue a circular-letter to Germany’s diplomatic corps, everywhere, “Do not mind Bismarck’s utterances; take no stock in them!”

Even when Bismarck’s old friend, von Moltke, died, the Man of Iron refused to go to the funeral; he did not care to take a chance of meeting the Emperor, there!

Querulous, iron-willed—such he is to remain. No giving up, no softening, no forgiveness; but blood and iron to the end. We must present him thus, our sad-hearted, irritable old master, proclaiming against the vanity of earthly glories, and like Wolsey wondering on the frailties and ingratitude of kings, whose memories are indeed no longer than the going down of the sun.

Thus for two long weary years the bitter fight went on.

The old man now went on a trip to Vienna, to see his son Herbert married, but ahead of him the Government had telegraphed, “No official welcome for Bismarck!”

The German ambassador, under instructions from Berlin, did ............