Chapter V (2)

“Albedyll has been to see me and talked over the whole Battenberg affair (die ganze Battenbergerei) once more. On this occasion a letter was also mentioned, which the Empress is understood to have received yesterday, in which the Battenberger informs her that he would only marry with my consent--a point deserving mention. In this connection Albedyll was of opinion that a positive acknowledgment, repeating this phrase, should be demanded from the Battenberger in order to have a more certain hold over him. Would your Serene Highness approve of my sending a cipher telegram ordering Henry to go to him and demand from him for me a note containing the above declaration? If that were in my hands, and the Battenberger were nevertheless to take any steps or to enter into any intrigues, we could prove by documentary evidence that he had been guilty of a direct breach of his word.

“Awaiting your Serene Highness’s kind decision, and hoping that you enjoyed your birthday celebration, I remain always,

“Your faithful and devoted,

“William,

“Crown Prince.”

No. 33.--The Grand Duke of Baden to the Imperial Chancellor:--

“Serene Highness,--I hasten to let you know in this inadequate form that I had occasion to-day to speak to the Emperor Frederick _alone_. In the manner arranged yesterday I explained to him how I came to know your sentiments and state of health. My explanation greatly impressed the Emperor, and I took advantage of this to proceed to the general situation of political affairs in Europe, and--referring to the firmly established position of Germany during the reign of the Emperor William, as compared to the troubles and confusion in the rest of the world--emphasised the necessity for us and for Europe of perseverance in the course adopted.

“The Emperor manifested a friendly disposition, and warmly approved of my statement. He is anxiously expecting your visit. His features wore an expression of deep seriousness when I said to him: ‘You cannot possibly govern without Prince Bismarck.’

“This, in bare outline, is the result of my weak endeavours.

“Your cordially devoted,

“Friedrich Gr. v. Baden.

“Charlottenburg, _March 31st, 1888_.”

A few days after our last interview, the Chief left for Friedrichsruh. On the 11th of April I wrote him (respecting my proposed stay there). I received no answer for a week. The newspapers, however, published a report that the Prince had selected as his private secretary a Dr. Chrysander, who had hitherto been Professor Schweninger’s assistant, and who would help him in preparing his memoirs. According to a second press notice, he was also to be assisted by a member of the editorial staff of the _Hamburger Nachrichten_. Bucher ultimately wrote me that he was going to Friedrichsruh, and hoped we “should be harnessed together.” (...)

I called upon him the same day to congratulate him, and mentioned to him my fear that nothing would now come of my proposed visit to Friedrichsruh. Perhaps my letter of the 11th had not reached the Chief’s hands; or perhaps he had been turned against me by an article on his retirement, published in the _Grenzboten_, which was, however, written by Kayser, and reached Grunow just before mine. Bucher reassured me as to this supposition, but said that Kayser, like Lindau and Holstein, had actually gone over into the other camp. (...) Although he considered it quite impossible that the Prince could now give up the idea of employing me in connection with the papers, I did not feel sure of this, and so a few days afterwards I wrote again to the Prince, and registered my letter. Count Herbert replied that “the Prince intends to invite you here in order to sort some papers. In the meantime, however, he is too much occupied by visits and the arrangements rendered necessary by his removal to take these papers in hand immediately.”

A fortnight later, after I had received a post card from Bucher informing me that he had started for Friedrichsruh, I wrote to him there (as to the proposed visit, and giving him an account of my future movements). This crossed the following letter, which Bucher sent to me under cover to Frau Hedwig Hämmerling:--

“Friedrichsruh, _May 15, 1890_.

“I have two reasons for sending you this letter under cover to another person; first, because you have not informed me of your whereabouts, and secondly, because there is some reason to suspect the existence of a Dark Cabinet. Therefore be prudent when you write to me here. I have had a large bundle to sort and register, and in doing so have satisfied myself that you have exhausted the materials. What came into my hands was very unimportant,--congratulations, letters of thanks, telegrams, reports from aides-de-camp and such like. (...) I am expected to remain until H. returns from England, probably towards the end of this month. He (the Chief) is physically well, and is gradually quieting down.”

I immediately acknowledged the receipt of Bucher’s note, and reminded him of the concluding request in my former letter. He replied on the 17th of May, 1890, again under cover to Hedwig Hämmerling: “To enable me to answer your questions I should be obliged to ask him, and up to the present I have had no opportunity of doing so. (...) After your registered letter and the reply thereto, it seems to me not to be in your interest that I should also press the matter. Besides, he talks of presently starting on a lengthy tour to countries[20] which he has not yet visited--certainly a very happy idea. I take it that he will not begin work before his return in the autumn; and then he will doubtless remember his arrangement with you. I will write you as soon as the departure is approximately settled.”

On the 20th of May I had an attack of apoplexy combined with paralysis, from which it took me six months to make an almost complete recovery; that is to say, with the exception that my handwriting had changed and my voice remained hoarse.

On the 10th of July, Frau Hämmerling received a note from Friedrichsruh (from Bucher, inquiring as to my illness). On Frau Hämmerling informing him of the truth he wrote me as follows:--

“Dear Busch,--I need not tell you how heartily I sympathise with you. I now write to put your mind at rest on one point, to tell you that you have missed nothing here, and will not miss anything during the next few weeks. I have had five or six thousand letters, extending from the fifties to the present day, to arrange in chronological order. They were all mixed up anyhow, both as regards dates and matter. They contain little on politics, and of that little again but a small portion refers to foreign affairs. He was not prepared to accept my suggestion that it would be well to put the begging letters, medical counsels, schemes for the improvement of the world at large, thundering hurrahs and fiery ‘salamanders’ into the fire. Therefore, when the preliminary work begins you will have to wander through a desert from which I have only removed tradesmen’s bills, &c. It is as yet impossible to say when that will be. He complains, with that humorous self-mocking air of desperation which you know, that he has now no time to set about anything. His excuse for the present is that of course the whole material must first be chronologically arranged, which will doubtless take a fortnight longer, although I am keeping hard at it. And then he will certainly be obliged to make some change in his way of living and in the apportionment of his time. The projected journeys will hardly come to anything; but even if he remains here he will not begin work before you are recovered--according to what F. H. (Frau Hämmerling) writes me. There is no idea of calling in Poschinger. He knows that the man is incapable of giving shape or form to anything of the kind.

“He himself and Herbert desire me to express their sympathy to you. With good wishes for your improvement,

“Truly yours (in English),

“Bucher.”

In the days immediately preceding and following this letter, the newspapers published many things from Friedrichsruh which were anything but pleasant reading to me, or were at least at variance with my conception of the greatness and distinguished character of the Prince, and also to some extent with the opinions which he had himself formerly expressed. He allowed it to be seen too often and too plainly, for the benefit of the Court and to the delight of the Radical Thersites, how mortified he felt at his base dismissal; he expressed himself, as I thought, too confidentially, and indeed it would appear sometimes with conscious untruth, in speaking to importunate Jew press spies and other eavesdroppers and talebearers from the newspaper factories. The most inexplicable of all to me was what he was represented as having said to Kingston, of the _Daily Telegraph_, concerning the excellence of the late Emperor Frederick--which was diametrically the opposite of what he had said to me in Berlin and at Friedrichsruh. The principal passage in the Englishman’s report runs as follows: “Finally, the conversation turned on the Emperor Frederick, of whom Prince Bismarck spoke with the profoundest admiration. He was in truth a man of rare and most estimable character, thoroughly amiable, exceptionally good-hearted, and at the same time intelligent, clear-sighted and determined. He knew exactly what he wanted, and when once he had come to a decision he held to it immutably. If he had only lived he would, as German Emperor, have amazed the world.” (Retranslation--translator’s note.) Really! That would then be a case of a farthing candle developing into a first-class lighthouse! Was it Bismarck or Kingston who said that? If the former he must have had some particular object in view. But what could it be? To elevate Frederick III. at the expense of William II.? (...)

I afterwards received from Bucher the following letter from Berlin:--

“I must send you another short contribution to your Memorabilia. When Count Herbert gave a farewell dinner to the officials, four of them--Holstein, Lindau, Kayser and Raschdau--declined the invitation. All four owed everything to the Prince. Not a word has been heard from Keudell since the 20th of March. Lehndorff, Stirum, Krupp, Stumm and Kardorff have defied the royal displeasure by visiting Friedrichsruh. After Bötticher, who owes his promotion to the Prince, had told the Emperor that Bismarck was a slave to morphia, his Majesty sent for Schweninger, and questioned him on the subject. Schweninger answered: ‘Your Majesty, that is a wretched calumny, and I know the curs with whom it originated.’ (...)

“As a contrast to this pretty set! Shortly before my departure from Friedrichsruh, Bismarck, while out driving, dropped into conversation with an old peasant on the bad weather. ‘Yes,’ the latter remarked, in Low German, ‘the good God has forgotten us altogether. He gives us no summer, and takes away our Chancellor.’”

On the 5th of September I had a visit from Bucher, who had returned from Laubbach on the 3rd or 4th, and on the 6th I called upon him. Of his communications the most noteworthy is that at Friedrichsruh he found a letter from Hermann Wagener to the Prince, from which it appeared that, as far back as 1876, W. was instructed to draw up a memorandum on working class insurance. At that time, when Bismarck doubtless first seriously took up the labour question and thought of positive measures for opposing the Social Democracy, it was the old _Kreuzzeitung_ man who was his assistant and counsellor, and not Bucher, who belonged to the school of Lassalle and Rodbertus, as alleged by Poschinger. Bucher expressly denied that the Chancellor had ever discussed this question with him. On the 20th of September Bucher wrote to me that he had received an invitation to visit Bismarck at Varzin.

Shortly afterwards I received the following letter:--

“Varzin, _October 3rd_.

“Dear Busch,--I have delivered your message. He is glad you are better, and wishes you permanent recovery. Here the condition of affairs is the same as at Friedrichsruh. Nothing is being done and much time is spent over the newspapers. Owing to the articles in Nos. 431 and 433 of the _Boersenzeitung_, referred to in No. 459, a desire has been expressed to see the numbers of the _Grenzboten_ which started the controversy--reproaching the bourgeoisie with opposing the paternal intentions of the Sovereign. Can you lend us the numbers in question from your file, or, if you have not got them, procure copies from Grunow? Lord Rosebery, who ran across from Scotland, was here for a few days, and is now visiting Danzig and Marienburg. With lots of good wishes,

“Bucher.”

... In another letter from Bucher of October 14th, the following passage occurs: “The Chief still occupies himself far too much with the press. In the meantime he has begun to dictate during the past few days, but without any real coherence, alternately from various years. It is, therefore, for the present, only raw material. Now and again news reaches here from the Foreign Office. Holstein, who for ten years was taken seriously by nobody, now does everything. He not only slanders the Prince, which he did twelve months since, but also abuses Herbert, who, with inconceivable blindness, had supported him up to the last. Paul Hatzfeldt too, Sardanapalus as his cousin Landsberg christened him, has proclaimed his apostacy in London. But I will also mention a decent man, Count Arco, Minister at Washington, who is here on a visit for a few days. _Rara avis!_”

I sent him a long jocular epistle congratulating him on his birthday on the 25th of October. But I received no answer for over seven weeks, and was already worrying myself with all sorts of fancies, when on the morning of the 22nd of December he himself called upon me. He told me that physically the Prince was in excellent health, and, as it appeared, took exercise, had a good appetite, and at table drank rather too much than too little, and besides he no longer complained of insomnia. Mentally, however, and in particular so far as his memory is concerned, “he is falling to pieces.” By this Bucher meant that he could no longer concentrate his thoughts sufficiently, had no longer a firm hold of the details in a narrative, and was easily turned aside from his subject. He also tells a story one way to-day, and quite differently to-morrow. “He wished me to go to Friedrichsruh for Christmas, but they gave me to understand--and indeed very plainly--that that would not be agreeable to them; and so I am my own master for a couple of weeks.” “Urged by Schweninger he has at length decided to dictate his reminiscences to me for an hour daily, when I take them down in shorthand. But they are merely disconnected fragments, and contain many errors, particularly in the matter of dates. For instance, there were some very interesting particulars respecting 1848, but they must first be compared with Wolf’s ‘Chronik’ and corrected. Chrysander is making himself very useful, also in his capacity of doctor, and has, for instance, done me good service with my gout. The Prince has ascertained on good authority that Lindau has been to the _Korrespondenten_ (or the _Nachrichten_) in Hamburg, and the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ in Munich, setting them against his old Chief and patron, and ‘threatening’ the latter paper with disciplinary measures if it continued to take the Chancellor’s part. The Princess’s ‘dear Rudchen,’ who for other people is a shameless Judas! Kayser, his countryman from the East, who is indeed less of a stock jobber and less worthless for official purposes, was recommended to the Foreign Office by Herbert, while Raschdau, also one of the children of Israel, who has married a millionairess of his tribe, was--if I understood Bucher rightly--introduced by Bill. (...) I asked what the Prince thought of Caprivi. He only knew that the Chief had had an interview with his successor (doubtless while he was still in Berlin--at lunch), when Caprivi said that if the Emperor sent him with an army corps into a position where its destruction might be anticipated, he would remonstrate; if the order were then repeated, he would remain at his post and await events. Bucher feared that nothing would come of the projected autobiography. ‘He has indeed dictated quite a pile of notes, which of course include a great deal of new and valuable matter; but his account is not always reliable, and in particular he often believes that he said or did something which he ought to have said or done but omitted to do, or at least could not have said or done in the manner alleged by him. And in the most important matters he sometimes stops, like a well that runs dry, and does not return to the subject. In that way he recently began to speak of his relations with Napoleon previous to 1870, but then let the subject drop, and since then I have never been able to bring him to give a coherent account of it. There is yet another drawback. In these notes he might think of history, of a legacy for the future, and that would certainly be most praiseworthy and useful, as there are many things of which he alone has a complete and accurate knowledge. But he seems to be thinking rather of something else. His thoughts are still with the present, which he desires to influence. He wishes to warn and to teach, and for that reason he often selects a subject that has nothing whatever to do with his own life, and sometimes one of which he has not a thorough knowledge, but which seems to him to offer a suitable opportunity for introducing his own reflections. For instance, he is afraid that the Emperor will not be careful and thoughtful enough in tacking between Vienna and St. Petersburg, and may, perhaps, on some occasion forget himself and draw too near to the Austrians; all the more, as of course he is aware that the gentleman in Berlin cannot endure the other in St. Petersburg, because the latter had treated him somewhat _de haut en bas_. Now Bismarck does not want to say that straight out and give a plain warning, but tries to work it into a survey of the treaty of Reichenbach, as the relations were then somewhat similar, the people in Berlin not rightly knowing what they wanted or with whom they really had to deal. The idea was merely to show that one was also a power--(in English) a mere show of power! I have now read it up in Ranke, however, and according to him the situation was not all as the Chief represented it. At that time, Herzberg still had charge of the conduct of affairs, and he knew exactly what he wanted, namely, Danzig and other towns on the Vistula, in order to round off West Prussia.’”

Bucher continued: “What I have done up to the present could be done equally well by any shorthand writer, the only difference being that yet another stranger would have to be taken into his confidence. But I have no taste for criticising and editing, however much Schweninger may beg and urge me to do so. That would be too much trouble and responsibility. Besides, there are not the necessary books for reference and comparison. It is true that for twenty-five years hardly a historical or political book has been published of which a copy has not been sent to him, but she has acted as librarian and has divided them between the different rooms, putting some of them in the cellar, where they rot and fall to pieces, and others in the visitors’ apartments, so that nothing can be found when it is wanted.”

Bucher agreed with me that the Chief was not prudent in his dealings with the eavesdroppers of the press; that his attitude towards the Court was not sufficiently dignified, and that he let his anger be too easily seen. At the same time, Bucher, speaking of those who came to question the Prince, observed, not inaptly: “Whoever wants to know much learns a great deal, even though it be not always unadulterated truth, and that applies with particular force to the commercial travellers for newspaper firms, who, of course, do not deal in truth.” As to the Prince’s state of feeling, Bucher said: “He diligently reads the newspapers, but on the whole he is indifferent to politics. ‘I am no longer so very much interested even in the management of my own estate.’ There is no longer the old devil-may-care spirit arising from that high sense of easy superiority and ready power of mastery--no longer the unconcerned glance cast down as from a great height, but only apathetic indifference, weary satiety.”

_January 2nd, 1891._--Called on Bucher this morning. Schweninger is trying to provide the Prince with occupation on hygienic grounds. He fears that otherwise he would become still more sulky, cross-grained, and peevish, and, indeed, might in the end become mentally affected. (...)

In the course of conversation on the Prince’s notes, Bucher, in speaking of their didactic aim, referred to Nicoll’s “Recollections and Reflections” as a model for that kind of writing. He believes he must soon return to Friedrichsruh, “although it will probably lead to nothing.” “God grant that there may be an improvement!” he sighed on our parting at the door. I heartily joined in that prayer.

It was not until the 21st of February that I again received a sign of life from Bucher, and then in the form of an unsigned note enclosed in an envelope to Hedwig. It ran: “You will probably soon receive an invitation to the place from which I write. The enclosure is for publication, with an introduction or note to the effect that the letter was read to the guests on the 28/7/72, and that several of them took copies of it. Do not forget to write to G. to impress upon the sub-editorial ass and on the proof-readers that not a single letter is to be omitted, and that the abbreviations, &c., and the Latin characters in ‘Borussia’ and ‘Material’ are to be retained. The Chief will have it so. If you happen to write to me, remember the Dark Cabinet.”

The “enclosure,” a letter from the Emperor William I., ran as follows:--

“Coblenz, _July 26, 1872_.

“On the 28th instant you will celebrate a beautiful family festival which God in His mercy has granted to you. I may not, and cannot, withhold my sympathy on this occasion, and therefore you and the Princess, your consort, will accept my heartiest and warmest congratulations on this elevating festival. That your domestic happiness should always have held the first place among the numerous blessings which Providence has elected to bestow upon you both--it is for this that your prayers of thanksgiving should rise to Heaven! But our and my prayers of thanksgiving go further, inasmuch as they include thanks to God for having placed you at my side at a decisive moment, and thereby opened up a path for my Government far beyond imagination and understanding. But you will return thanks to Heaven for this also--that God granted you to achieve such great things. And in and after all your labours you have constantly found recreation and peace in your home. It is that which sustains you in your difficult vocation. My constant anxiety for you is that you should preserve and strengthen yourself for this vocation, and I am pleased to learn from your letter, through Count Lehndorff, and personally from the Count, that you now think more of _yourself_ than of the documents.

“As a souvenir of your silver wedding you will receive a vase representing a grateful Borussia, of which--however fragile its material may be--every fragment will nevertheless express what Prussia owes to you for her elevation to the pinnacle on which she now stands.

“Your faithful, devoted and grateful King,

“William.”