Chapter V: CHLODWIG KARL VICTOR, prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst (1)

(1819-1901), statesman, was born on the 31st of March 1819 at Schillingsfurst in Bavaria. His father, Prince Franz Joseph (1787-1841), was a Catholic, his mother, Princess Konstanze of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a Protestant. In accordance with the compromise customary at the time, Prince Chlodwig and his brothers were brought up in the religion of their father, while his sisters followed that of their mother. In spite of the difference of creed the family was very united, and it was to the spirit that rendered this possible that the prince owed his liberal and tolerant point of view, which was to exercise an important influence on his political activity. As the younger son of a cadet line of his house it was necessary for Prince Chlodwig to follow a profession. For a while he thought of obtaining a commission in the British army through the influence of his aunt, Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (_nee_ princess of Leiningen), Queen Victoria's half-sister. He decided, however, to enter the Prussian diplomatic service. His application to be excused the preliminary steps, which involved several years' work in subordinate positions in the Prussian civil service, was refused by Frederick William IV., and the prince, with great good sense, decided to sacrifice his pride of rank and to accept the king's conditions. As auscultator in the courts at Coblenz he acquired a taste for jurisprudence, became a _Referendar_ in September 1843, and after some months of travel in France, Switzerland and Italy went to Potsdam as a civil servant (May 13, 1844). These early years were invaluable, not only as giving him experience of practical affairs but as affording him an insight into the strength and weakness of the Prussian system. The immediate result was to confirm his Liberalism. The Prussian principle of "propagating enlightenment with a stick" did not appeal to him; he "recognized the confusion and want of clear ideas in the highest circles," the tendency to make agreement with the views of the government the test of loyalty to the state; and he noted in his journal (June 25, 1844) four years before the revolution of '48, "a slight cause and we shall have a rising." "The free press," he notes on another occasion, "is a necessity, progress the condition of the existence of a state." If he was an ardent advocate of German unity, and saw in Prussia the instrument for its attainment, he was throughout opposed to the "Prussification" of Germany, and ultimately it was he who made the unification of Germany possible by insisting at once on the principle of union with the North German states and at the same time on the preservation of the individuality of the states of the South.

On the 12th of November 1834 the landgrave Viktor Amadeus of Hesse-Rotenburg died, leaving to his nephews, the princes Viktor and Chlodwig Hohenlohe, his allodial estates: the duchy of Ratibor in Silesia, the principality of Corvey in Westphalia, and the lordship of Treffurt in the Prussian governmental district of Erfurt. On the death of Prince Franz Joseph on the 14th of January 1841 it was decided that the principality of Schillingsfurst should pass to the third brother, Philipp Ernst, as the two elder sons, Viktor and Chlodwig, were provided for already under their uncle's will, the one with the duchy of Ratibor, the other with Corvey and Treffurt. The youngest son, Gustav (b. February 28, 1823), the future cardinal, was destined for the Church. On the death of Prince Philipp Ernst (May 3, 1845) a new arrangement was made: Prince Chlodwig became prince of Schillingsfurst, while Corvey was assigned to the duke of Ratibor; Treffurt was subsequently sold by Prince Chlodwig, who purchased with the price large estates in Posen. This involved a complete change in Prince Chlodwig's career. His new position as a "reigning" prince and hereditary member of the Bavarian Upper House was incompatible with that of a Prussian official. On the 18th of April 1846 he took his seat as a member of the Bavarian _Reichsrath_, and on the 26th of June received his formal discharge from the Prussian service.

Save for the interlude of 1848 the political life of Prince Hohenlohe was for the next eighteen years not eventful. During the revolutionary years his sympathies were with the Liberal idea of a united Germany, and he compromised his chances of favour from the king of Bavaria by accepting the task (November 1, 1848) of announcing to the courts of Rome, Florence and Athens the accession to office of the Archduke John of Austria as regent of Germany. But he was too shrewd an observer to hope much from a national parliament which "wasted time in idle babble," or from a democratic victory which had stunned but not destroyed the German military powers. On the 16th of February 1847 he had married the Princess Marie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, the heiress to vast estates in Russia.[1] This led to a prolonged visit to Werki in Lithuania (1851-1853) in connexion with the management of the property, a visit repeated in 1860. In general this period of Hohenlohe's life was occupied in the management of his estates, in the sessions of the Bavarian _Reichsrath_ and in travels. In 1856 he visited Rome, during which he noted the baneful influence of the Jesuits. In 1859 he was studying the political situation at Berlin, and in the same year he paid a visit to England. The marriage of his brother Konstantin in 1859 to another princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg led also to frequent visits to Vienna. Thus Prince Hohenlohe was brought into close touch with all the most notable people in Europe. At the same time, during this period (1850-1866) he was endeavouring to get into relations with the Bavarian government, with a view to taking a more active part in affairs. Towards the German question his attitude at this time was tentative. He had little hope of a practical realization of a united Germany, and inclined towards the tripartite divisions under Austria, Prussia and Bavaria--the so-called "Trias." He attended the _Furstentag_ at Frankfort in 1863, and in the Schleswig-Holstein question was a supporter of the prince of Augustenburg. It was at this time that, at the request of Queen Victoria, he began to send her regular reports on the political condition of Germany.

Prince Hohenlohe's importance in history, however, begins with the year 1866. In his opinion the war was a blessing. It had demonstrated the insignificance of the small and middle states, "a misfortune for the dynasties"--with whose feelings a mediatized prince could scarcely be expected to be over-sympathetic--but the best possible good fortune for the German nation. In the Bavarian _Reichsrath_ Hohenlohe now began to make his voice heard in favour of a closer union with Prussia; clearly, if such a union were desirable, he was the man in every way best fitted to prepare the way for it. One of the main obstacles in the way was the temperament of Louis II. of Bavaria, whose ideas of kingship were very remote from those of the Hohenzollerns, whose pride revolted from any concession to Prussian superiority, and who--even during the crisis of 1866--was more absorbed in operas than in affairs of state. Fortunately Richard Wagner was a politician as well as a composer, and equally fortunately Hohenlohe was a man of culture capable of appreciating "the master's" genius. It was Wagner, apparently, who persuaded the king to place Hohenlohe at the head of his government (_Denkwurdigkeiten_, i. 178, 211), and on the 31st of December 1866 the prince was duly appointed minister of the royal house and of foreign affairs and president of the council of ministers.

As head of the Bavarian government Hohenlohe's principal task was to discover some basis for an effective union of the South German states with the North German Confederation, and during the three critical years of his tenure of office he was, next to Bismarck, the most important statesman in Germany. He carried out the reorganization of the Bavarian army on the Prussian model, brought about the military union of the southern states, and took a leading share in the creation of the customs parliament (_Zollparlament_), of which on the 28th of April 1868 he was elected a vice-president. During the agitation that arose in connexion with the summoning of the Vatican council Hohenlohe took up an attitude of strong opposition to the ultramontane position. In common with his brothers, the duke of Ratibor and the cardinal, he believed that the policy of Pius IX.--inspired by the Jesuits (that "devil's society," as he once called it)--of setting the Church in opposition to the modern State would prove ruinous to both, and that the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility, by raising the pronouncements of the Syllabus of 1864 into articles of faith, would commit the Church to this policy irrevocably. This view he embodied into a circular note to the Catholic powers (April 9, 1869), drawn up by Dollinger, inviting them to exercise the right of sending ambassadors to the council and to combine to prevent the definition of the dogma. The greater powers, however, were for one reason or another unwilling to intervene, and the only practical outcome of Hohenlohe's action was that in Bavaria the powerful ultramontane party combined against him with the Bavarian "patriots" who accused him of bartering away Bavarian independence to Prussia. The combination was too strong for him; a bill which he brought in for curbing the influence of the Church over education was defeated, the elections of 1869 went against him, and in spite of the continued support of the king he was forced to resign (March 7, 1870).

Though out of office, his personal influence continued very great both at Munich and Berlin and had not a little to do with favourable terms of the treaty of the North German Confederation with Bavaria, which embodied his views, and with its acceptance by the Bavarian parliament.[2] Elected a member of the German Reichstag, he was on the 23rd of March 1871 chosen one of its vice-presidents, and was instrumental in founding the new groups which took the name of the Liberal Imperial party (_Liberale Reichspartei_), the objects of which were to support the new empire, to secure its internal development on Liberal lines, and to oppose clerical aggression as represented by the Catholic Centre. Like the duke of Ratibor, Hohenlohe was from the first a strenuous supporter of Bismarck's anti-papal policy, the main lines of which (prohibition of the Society of Jesus, &c.) he himself suggested. Though sympathizing with the motives of the Old Catholics, however, he realized that they were doomed to sink into a powerless sect, and did not join them, believing that the only hope for a reform of the Church lay in those who desired it remaining in her communion.[3] In 1872 Bismarck proposed to appoint Cardinal Hohenlohe Prussian envoy at the Vatican, but his views were too much in harmony with those of his family, and the pope refused to receive him in this capacity.[4]

In 1873 Bismarck chose Prince Hohenlohe to succeed Count Harry Arnim as ambassador in Paris, where he remained for seven years. In 1878 he attended the congress of Berlin as third German representative, and in 1880, on the death of Bernhardt Ernst von Bulow (October 20), secretary of state for foreign affairs, he was called to Berlin as temporary head of the Foreign Office and representative of Bismarck during his absence through illness. In 1885 he was chosen to succeed Manteuffel as governor of Alsace-Lorraine. In this capacity he had to carry out the coercive measures introduced by the chancellor in 1887-1888, though he largely disapproved of them;[5] his conciliatory disposition, however, did much to reconcile the Alsace-Lorrainers to German rule. He remained at Strassburg till October 1894, when, at the urgent request of the emperor, he consented, in spite of his advanced years, to accept the chancellorship in succession to Caprivi. The events of his chancellorship belong to the general history of Germany (q.v.); as regards the inner history of this time the editor of his memoirs has very properly suppressed the greater part of the detailed comments which the prince left behind him. In general, during his term of office, the personality of the chancellor was less conspicuous in public affairs than in the ease of either of his predecessors. His appearances in the Prussian and German parliaments were rare, and great independence was left to the secretaries of state. What influence the tact and experience of Hohenlohe exercised behind the scenes on the masterful will and impulsive character of the emperor cannot as yet be generally known.

Prince Hohenlohe resigned the chancellorship on the 17th of October 1900, and died at Ragaz on the 6th of July 1901. On the 16th of February 1897 he had celebrated his golden wedding; on the 21st of December of the same year the princess died. There were six children of the marriage: Elizabeth (b. 1847); Stephanie (b. 1851); Philipp Ernst, reigning prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst (b. 1853), who married Princess Charielee Ypsilanti; Albert (1857-1866); Moritz and Alexander, twins (b. 1862).

All other authorities for the life of Prince Hohenlohe have been
superseded by the _Denkwurdigkeiten_ (2 vols., Stuttgart and Leipzig,
1906). With the exception noted above these are singularly full and
outspoken, the latter quality causing no little scandal in Germany and
bringing down on Prince Alexander, who was responsible for their
publication, the disfavour of the emperor. They form not only the
record of a singularly full and varied life, but are invaluable to the
historian for the wealth of material they contain and for
appreciations of men and events by an observer who had the best
opportunities for forming a judgment. The prince himself they reveal
not only as a capable man of affairs, though falling short of
greatness, but as a personality of singular charm, tenacious of his
principles, tolerant, broad-minded, and possessed of a large measure
of the saving grace of humour.

See generally A. F. Fischer, _Geschichte des Hauses Hohenlohe_
(1866-1871); K. Weller, _Hohenlohisches Urkundenbuch_, 1153-1350
(Stuttgart, 1899-1901), and _Geschichte des Hauses Hohenlohe_
(Stuttgart, 1904). (W. A. P.; C. F. A.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Through her mother, _nee_ Princess Stephanie Radziwill (d. 1832).
Before Prince Wittgenstein's death (1887) a new law had forbidden
foreigners to hold land in Russia. Prince Hohenlohe appears, however,
to have sold one of his wife's estates and to have secured certain
privileges from the Russian court for the rest.

[2] Speech of December 30, 1870, in the _Reichsrath_.
_Denkwurdigkeiten_, ii. 36.

[3] "If I wished to leave the Church because of all the scandalous
occurrences in the Catholic Church, I should have had to secede while
studying Church history," _op. cit._ ii. 92.

[4] Dr Johann Friedrich (q.v.), afterwards one of the Old Catholic
leaders, was his secretary at the time of the Vatican council, and
supplied historical and theological material to the opposition
bishops.

[5] He protested against the passport system as likely to lead to a
war with France, for which he preferred not to be responsible (Letter
to Wilmowski, _Denkw._ ii. 433), but on the chancellor taking full
responsibility consented to retain office.

HOHENSTAUFEN, the name of a village and ruined castle near Lorsch in Swabia, now in the kingdom of Wurttemberg, which gave its name to a celebrated Swabian family, members of which were emperors or German kings from 1138 to 1208, and again from 1214 to 1254. The earliest known ancestor was Frederick, count of Buren (d. 1094), whose son Frederick built a castle at Staufen, or Hohenstaufen, and called himself by this name. He was a firm supporter of the emperor Henry IV., who rewarded his fidelity by granting him the dukedom of Swabia in 1079, and giving him his daughter Agnes in marriage. In 1081 he remained in Germany as Henry's representative, but only secured possession of Swabia after a struggle lasting twenty years. In 1105 Frederick was succeeded by his son Frederick II., called the One-eyed, who, together with his brother Conrad, afterwards the German king Conrad III., held south-west Germany for their uncle the emperor Henry V. Frederick inherited the estates of Henry V. in 1125, but failed to secure the throne, and took up an attitude of hostility towards the new emperor, Lothair the Saxon, who claimed some of the estates of the late emperor as crown property. A war broke out and ended in the complete submission of Frederick at Bamberg. He retained, however, his dukedom and estates. In 1138 Conrad of Hohenstaufen was elected German king, and was succeeded in 1152, not by his son but by his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, son of his brother Frederick (d. 1147). Conrad's son Frederick inherited the duchy of Franconia which his father had received in 1115, and this was retained by the Hohenstaufen until the death of Duke Conrad II. in 1196. In 1152 Frederick received the duchy of Swabia from his cousin the German king Frederick I., and on his death in 1167 it passed successively to Frederick's three sons Frederick, Conrad and Philip. The second Hohenstaufen emperor was Frederick Barbarossa's son, Henry VI., after whose death a struggle for the throne took place between Henry's brother Philip, duke of Swabia, and Otto of Brunswick, afterwards the emperor Otto IV. Regained for the Hohenstaufen by Henry's son, Frederick II., in 1214, the German kingdom passed to his son, Conrad IV., and when Conrad's son Conradin was beheaded in Italy in 1268, the male line of the Hohenstaufen became extinct. Daughters of Philip of Swabia married Ferdinand III., king of Castile and Leon, and Henry II., duke of Brabant, and a daughter of Conrad, brother of the emperor Frederick I., married into the family of Guelph. The castle of Hohenstaufen was destroyed in the 16th century during the Peasants' War, and only a few fragments now remain.

See F. von Raumer, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit_
(Leipzig, 1878); B. F. W. Zimmermann, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen_
(Stuttgart, 1st ed., 1838; 2nd ed., 1865); F. W. Schirrmacher, _Die
letzten Hohenstaufen_ (Gottingen, 1871).

HOHENSTEIN (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the slopes of the Erzgebirge, and on the railway Reichenbach-Chemnitz, 12 m. N.E. of Zwickau. Pop. (1905) 13,903. Hohenstein possesses two fine Evangelical churches, a town hall, restored in 1876, and several monuments to famous men. The principal industries are the spinning and weaving of cotton, the manufacture of machines, stockings, gloves and woollen and silk fabrics, cotton printing and dyeing. Many of the inhabitants are also employed in the neighbouring copper and arsenic mines. Not far from Hohenstein there is a mineral spring, connected with which there are various kinds of baths. Hohenstein is the birthplace of the physicist G. H. von Schubert and of C. G. Schroter (1699-1782), one of the inventors of the pianoforte. Hohenstein consists of two towns, Hohenstein and Ernstthal, which were united in 1898.

Another place of the same name is a town in East Prussia. Pop. (1900) 2467. This Hohenstein, which was founded by the Teutonic Order in 1359, has a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, a synagogue and several educational establishments.

HOHENZOLLERN, the name of a castle which stood on the hill of Zollern about 1(1/2) m. south of Hechingen, and gave its name to the family to which the present German emperor belongs. A vague tradition connects the house with the Colonna family of Rome, or the Colalto family of Lombardy; but one more definite unites the Hohenzollerns with the Burkhardingers, who were counts in Raetia during the early part of the 10th century, and two of whom became dukes of Swabia. Tassilo, a member of this family, is said to have built a castle at Zollern early in the 9th century; but the first historical mention of the name is in the _Chronicon_ of a certain Berthold (d. 1088), who refers to Burkhard and Wezil, or Werner, of Zollern, or Zolorin. These men appear to have been counts of Zollern, and to have met their death in 1061. The family of Wezil died out in 1194, and the existing branches of the Hohenzollerns are descended from Burkhard and his son Frederick, whose eldest son, Frederick II., was in great favour with the German kings, Lothair the Saxon and Conrad III. Frederick II. died about 1145, and his son and successor, Frederick III., was a constant supporter of the Hohenstaufen. This count married Sophia, daughter and heiress of Conrad, burgrave of Nuremberg, and about 1192 he succeeded his father-in-law as burgrave, obtaining also some lands in Austria and Franconia. He died about 1200, and his sons, Conrad and Frederick, ruled their lands in common until 1227, when an important division took place. Conrad became burgrave of Nuremberg, and, receiving the lands which had come into the family through his mother, founded the Franconian branch of the family, which became the more important of the two; while Frederick, receiving the county of Zollern and the older possessions of the family, was the ancestor of the Swabian branch.

Early in the 12th century Burkhard, a younger son of Frederick I., secured the county of Hohenberg, and this district remained in the possession of the Hohenzollerns until the death of Count Sigismund in 1486. Its rulers, however, with the exception of Count Albert II. (d. 1298), played an unimportant part in German history. Albert, who was a Minnesinger, was loyal to the declining fortunes of the Hohenstaufen, and afterwards supported his brother-in-law, Rudolph of Habsburg, in his efforts to obtain the German throne. He shared in the campaigns of Rudolph and fell in battle in 1298, during the struggle between Adolph of Nassau and Albert of Habsburg (afterwards King Albert I.). When this family became extinct in 1486 Hohenberg passed to the Habsburgs.

The Franconian branch of the Hohenzollerns was represented in 1227 by Conrad, burgrave of Nuremberg, whom the emperor Frederick II. appointed guardian of his son Henry, and administrator of Austria. After a short apostasy, during which he supported Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, Conrad returned to the side of the Hohenstaufen and aided Conrad IV. He died in 1261, when his son and successor, the burgrave Frederick III., had already obtained Bayreuth through his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Otto of Meran (d. 1234). Frederick took a leading part in German affairs, and it is interesting to note that he had a considerable share in securing the election of his uncle, Rudolph of Habsburg, as German king in 1273. He died in 1297 and was succeeded by his son, Frederick IV. This burgrave fought for King Albert I. in Thuringia, and supported Henry VII. in his efforts to secure Bohemia for his son John; but in 1314, forsaking his father's policy, he favoured Louis, afterwards the emperor Louis IV., in his struggle with Frederick, duke of Austria, and by his conduct at the battle of Muhldorf in 1322 and elsewhere earned the designation of "saviour of the empire." Frederick, however, did not neglect his hereditary lands. He did something for the maintenance of peace and the security of traders, gave corporate privileges to villages, and took the Jews under his protection. His services to Louis were rewarded in various ways, and, using part of his wealth to increase the area of his possessions, he bought the town and district of Ansbach in 1331. Dying in 1332, Frederick was succeeded by his son, John II., who, after one of his brothers had died and two others had entered the church, ruled his lands in common with his brother Albert. About 1338 John bought Culmbach and Plassenburg, and on the strength of a privilege granted to him in 1347 he seized many robber-fortresses and held the surrounding lands as imperial fiefs. In general he continued his father's policy, and when he died in 1357 was succeeded by his son, Frederick V., who, after the death of his uncle Albert in 1361, became sole ruler of Nuremberg, Ansbach and Bayreuth. Frederick lived in close friendship with the emperor Charles IV., who formally invested him with Ansbach and Bayreuth and made him a prince of the empire in 1363. In spite of the troubled times in which he lived, Frederick was a successful ruler, and introduced a regular system of public finance into his lands. In 1397 he divided his territories between his sons John and Frederick, and died in the following year. His elder son, John III., who had married Margaret, a daughter of the emperor Charles IV., was frequently in the company of his brothers-in-law, the German kings Wenceslaus and Sigismund. He died without sons in 1420.

Since 1397 the office of burgrave of Nuremberg had been held by John's brother, Frederick, who in 1415 received Brandenburg from King Sigismund, and became margrave of Brandenburg as Frederick I. (q.v.). On his brother's death in 1420 he reunited the lands of his branch of the family, but in 1427 he sold his rights as burgrave to the town of Nuremberg. The subsequent history of this branch of the Hohenzollerns is identified with that of Brandenburg from 1415 to 1701, and with that of Prussia since the latter date, as in this year the elector Frederick III. became king of Prussia. In 1871 William, the seventh king, took the title of German emperor. While the electorate of Brandenburg passed according to the rule of primogeniture, the Franconian possessions of the Hohenzollerns, Ansbach and Bayreuth, were given as appanages to younger sons, an arrangement which was confirmed by the _dispositio Achillea_ of 1473. These principalities were ruled by the sons and descendants of the elector Albert Achilles from 1486 to 1603; and, after reverting to the elector of Brandenburg, by the descendants of the elector John George from 1603 to 1791. In 1791 Prince Charles Alexander (d. 1806), who had inherited both districts, sold his lands to Prussia.

The influence of the Swabian branch of the Hohenzollerns was weakened by several partitions of its lands; but early in the 16th century it rose to some eminence through Count Eitel Frederick II. (d. 1512), a friend and adviser of the emperor Maximilian I. Eitel received from this emperor the district of Haigerloch, and in 1534 his grandson Charles (d. 1576) was granted the counties of Sigmaringen and Vohringen by the emperor Charles V. In 1576 the sons of Charles divided their lands, and founded three branches of the family, one of which is still flourishing. Eitel Frederick IV. took Hohenzollern with the title of Hohenzollern-Hechingen; Charles II. Sigmaringen and Vohringen and the title of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; and Christopher took Haigerloch. Christopher's family died out in 1634, but the remaining lines are of some importance. Count John George of Hohenzollern-Hechingen was made a prince in 1623, and John of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen soon received the same honour. In 1695 these two branches of the family entered conjointly into an agreement with Brandenburg, which provided that, in case of the extinction of either of the Swabian branches, the remaining branch should inherit its lands; and if both branches became extinct the principalities should revert to Brandenburg. During the 17th and 18th centuries and during the period of the Napoleonic wars the history of these lands was very similar to that of the other small estates of Germany. In consequence of the political troubles of 1848 Princes Frederick William of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Charles Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen resigned their principalities, and accordingly these fell to the king of Prussia, who took possession on the 12th of March 1850. By a royal decree of the 20th of May following the title of "highness," with the prerogatives of younger sons of the royal house, was conferred on the two princes. The proposal to raise Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1835-1905) to the Spanish throne in 1870 was the immediate cause of the war between France and Germany. In 1908 the head of this branch of the Hohenzollerns, the only one existing besides the imperial house, was Leopold's son William (b. 1864), who, owing to the extinction of the family of Hohenzollern-Hechingen in 1869, was called simply prince of Hohenzollern. In 1866 Prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was chosen prince of Rumania, becoming king in 1881.

The modern Prussian province of Hohenzollern is a long, narrow strip of territory bounded on the S.W. by Baden and in other directions by Wurttemberg. It was divided into two principalities, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen, until 1850, when these were united. They now form the government of Sigmaringen (q.v.).

The castle of Hohenzollern was destroyed in 1423, but it has been restored several times. Some remains of the old building may still be seen adjoining the present castle, which was built by King Frederick William IV.

See _Monumenta Zollerana_, edited by R. von Stillfried and T. Marker
(Berlin, 1852-1890); _Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des
Hauses Hohenzollern_, edited by E. Berner (Berlin, 1901 fol.); R. von
Stillfried, _Altertumer und Kunstdenkmale des erlauchten Hauses von
Hohenzollern_ (Berlin, 1852-1867) and _Stammtafeln des Gesamthauses
Hohenzollern_ (Berlin, 1869); L. Schmid, _Die alteste Geschichte des
erlauchten Gesamthauses der koniglichen und furstlichen Hohenzollern_
(Tubingen, 1884-1888); E. Schwartz, _Stammtafel des preussischen
Konigshauses_ (Breslau 1898); _Hohenzollernsche Forschungen, Jahrbuch
fur die Geschichte der Hohenzollern_, edited by C. Meyer (Berlin,
1891-1902); _Hohenzollern Jahrbuch, Forschungen und Abbildungen zur
Geschichte der Hohenzollern in Brandenburg-Freussen_, edited by Seidel
(Leipzig, 1897-1903), and T. Carlyle, _History of Frederick the Great_
(London, 1872-1873). (A. W. H.*)

HOKKAIDO, the Japanese name for the northern division of the empire (_Hoku_ = north, _kai_ = sea, and _do_ = road), including Yezo, the Kuriles and their adjacent islets.

HOKUSAI (1760-1849), the greatest of all the Japanese painters of the Popular School (_Ukiyo-ye_), was born at Yedo (Tokyo) in the 9th month of the 10th year of the period Horeki, i.e. October-November 1760. He came of an artisan family, his father having been a mirror-maker, Nakajima Issai. After some practice as a wood-engraver he, at the age of eighteen, entered the studio of Katsugawa Shunsho, a painter and designer of colour-prints of considerable importance. His disregard for the artistic principles of his master caused his expulsion in 1785; and thereafter--although from time to time Hokusai studied various styles, including especially that of Shiba Gokan, from whom he gained some fragmentary knowledge of European methods--he kept his personal independence. For a time he lived in extreme poverty, and, although he must have gained sums for his work which might have secured him comfort, he remained poor, and to the end of his life proudly described himself as a peasant. He illustrated large numbers of books, of which the world-famous _Mangwa_, a pictorial encyclopaedia of Japanese life, appeared in fifteen volumes from 1812 to 1875. Of his colour-prints the "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" (the whole set consisting of forty-six prints) were made between 1823 and 1829; "Views of Famous Bridges" (11), "Waterfalls" (8), and "Views of the Lu-chu Islands" (8), are the best known of those issued in series; but Hokusai also designed some superb broadsheets published separately, and his _surimono_ (small prints made for special occasions and ceremonies) are unequalled for delicacy and beauty. The "Hundred Views of Mount Fuji" (1834-1835), 3 vols., in monochrome, are of extraordinary originality and variety. As a painter and draughtsman Hokusai is not held by Japanese critics to be of the first rank, but this verdict has never been accepted by Europeans, who place him among the greatest artists of the world. He possessed great powers of observation and characterization, a singular technical skill, an unfailing gift of good humour, and untiring industry. He was an eager student to the end of his long life, and on his death-bed said, "If Heaven had lent me but five years more, I should have become a great painter." He died on the 10th of May 1849.

See E. de Goncourt, _Hokousai_ (1896); M. Revon, _Etude sur Hokusai_
(1896); E. F. Fenollosa, _Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings by
Hokusai at Tokyo_ (1901); E. F. Strange, Hokusai (1906). (E. F. S.)

HOLBACH, PAUL HEINRICH DIETRICH, BARON D' (1723-1789), French philosopher and man of letters, of German origin, was born at Heidelsheim in the palatinate in 1723. Of his family little is known; according to J. J. Rousseau his father was a rich parvenu, who brought his son at an early age to Paris, where the latter spent most of his life. Much of Holbach's fame is due to his intimate connexion with the brilliant coterie of bold thinkers and polished wits whose creed, the new philosophy, is concentrated in the famous _Encyclopedie_. Possessed of easy means and being of hospitable disposition, he kept open house for Helvetius, D'Alembert, Diderot, Condillac, Turgot, Buffon, Grimm, Hume, Garrick, Wilkes, Sterne, and for a time J. J. Rousseau, guests who, while enjoying the intellectual pleasure of their host's conversation, were not insensible to his excellent cuisine and costly wines. For the _Encyclopedie_ he compiled and translated a large number of articles on chemistry and mineralogy, chiefly from German sources. He attracted more attention, however, in the department of philosophy. In 1767 _Christianisme devoile_ appeared, in which he attacked Christianity and religion as the source of all human evils. This was followed up by other works, and in 1770 by a still more open attack in his most famous book, _Le Systeme de la nature_, in which it is probable he was assisted by Diderot. Denying the existence of a deity, and refusing to admit as evidence all a priori arguments, Holbach saw in the universe nothing save matter in spontaneous movement. What men call their souls become extinct when the body dies. Happiness is the end of mankind. "It would be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man's being virtuous if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice renders him happy, he should love vice." The restraints of religion were to be replaced by an education developing an enlightened self-interest. The study of science was to bring human desires into line with their natural surroundings. Not less direct and trenchant are his attacks on political government, which, interpreted by the light of after events, sound like the first distant mutterings of revolution. Holbach exposed the logical consequences of the theories of the Encyclopaedists. Voltaire hastily seized his pen to refute the philosophy of the Systeme in the article "Dieu" in his _Dictionnaire philosophique_, while Frederick the Great also drew up an answer to it. Though vigorous in thought and in some passages clear and eloquent, the style of the Systeme is diffuse and declamatory, and asserts rather than proves its statements. Its principles are summed up in a more popular form in _Bon Sens, ou idees naturelles opposees aux idees surnaturelles_ (Amsterdam, 1772). In the Systeme social (1773), the _Politique naturelle_ (1773-1774) and the _Morale universelle_ (1776) Holbach attempts to rear a system of morality in place of the one he had so fiercely attacked, but these later writings had not a tithe of the popularity and influence of his earlier work. He published his books either anonymously or under borrowed names, and was forced to have them printed out of France. The uprightness and sincerity of his character won the friendship of many to whom his philosophy was repugnant. J. J. Rousseau is supposed to have drawn his portrait in the virtuous atheist Wolmar of the _Nouvelle Heloise_. He died on the 21st of January 1789.

Holbach is also the author of the following and other works: _Esprit
du clerge_ (1767); _De l'imposture sacerdotale_ (1767); _Pretres
demasques_ (1768); _Examen critique de la vie et des ouvrages de St
Paul_ (1770); _Histoire critique de Jesus-Christ_ (1770), and
_Ethocratie_ (1776). For further particulars as to his life and
doctrines see Grimm's _Correspondance litteraire_, &c. (1813);
Rousseau's _Confessions_; Morellet's _Memoires_ (1821); Madame de
Genlis, _Les Diners du Baron Holbach_; Madame d'Epinay's _Memoires_;
Avezac-Lavigne, _Diderot et la societe du Baron d'Holbach_ (1875), and
Morley's _Diderot_ (1878).

HOLBEACH, a market town in the Holland or Spalding parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England, on the Midland and Great Northern joint railway, 23(1/2) m. N.E. of Peterborough. Pop. of urban district (1901), 4755. All Saints' Church, with a lofty spire, is a fine specimen of late Decorated work. The grammar school, founded in 1669, occupies a building erected in 1877. Other public buildings are the assembly rooms and a market house. Roman and Saxon remains have been found, and the market dates from the 13th century.

HOLBEIN, HANS, the elder (c. 1460-1524), belonged to a celebrated family of painters in practice at Augsburg and Basel from the close of the 15th to the middle of the 16th century. Though closely connected with Venice by her commercial relations, and geographically nearer to Italy than to Flanders, Augsburg at the time of Maximilian cultivated art after the fashion of the Flemings, and felt the influence of the schools of Bruges and Brussels, which had branches at Cologne and in many cities about the headwaters of the Rhine. It was not till after the opening of the 16th century, and between that and the era of the Reformation, that Italian example mitigated to some extent the asperity of South German painting. Flemish and German art was first tempered with Italian elements at Augsburg by Hans Holbein the elder. Hans first appears at Augsburg as partner to his brother Sigismund, who survived him and died in 1540 at Berne. Sigismund is described as a painter, but his works have not come down to us. Hans had the lead of the partnership at Augsburg, and signed all the pictures which it produced. In common with Herlen, Schongauer, and other masters of South Germany, he first cultivated a style akin to that of Memlinc and other followers of the schools of Brussels and Bruges, but he probably modified the systems of those schools by studying the works of the masters of Cologne. As these early impressions waned, they were replaced by others less favourable to the expansion of the master's fame; and as his custom increased between 1499 and 1506, we find him relying less upon the teaching of the schools than upon a mere observation and reproduction of the quaintnesses of local passion plays. Most of his early works indeed are taken from the Passion, and in these he obviously marshalled his figures with the shallow stage effect of the plays, copying their artificial system of grouping, careless to some extent of proportion in the human shape, heedless of any but the coarser forms of expression, and technically satisfied with the simplest methods of execution. If in any branch of his art he can be said to have had a conscience at this period, we should say that he showed it in his portrait drawings. It is seldom that we find a painted likeness worthy of the name. The drawings of which numbers are still preserved in the galleries of Basel, Berlin and Copenhagen show extraordinary quickness and delicacy of hand, and a wonderful facility for seizing character; and this happily is one of the features which Holbein bequeathed to his more famous son, Hans the younger. It is between 1512 and 1522 that Holbein tempered the German quality of his style with some North Italian elements. A purer taste and more pleasing realism mark his work, which in drapery, dress and tone is as much more agreeable to the eye as in respect of modelling and finish it is smoother and more carefully rounded. Costume, architecture, ornament and colour are applied with some knowledge of the higher canons of art. Here, too, advantage accrued to Hans the younger, whose independent career about this time began.

The date of the elder Holbein's birth is unknown. But his name appears in the books of the tax-gatherers of Augsburg in 1494, superseding that of Michael Holbein, who is supposed to have been his father. Previous to that date, and as early as 1493, he was a painter of name, and he executed in that year, it is said, for the abbey at Weingarten, the wings of an altarpiece representing Joachim's Offering, the Nativity of the Virgin, Mary's Presentation in the Temple, and the Presentation of Christ, which now hang in separate panels in the cathedral of Augsburg. In these pieces and others of the same period, for instance in two Madonnas in the Moritz chapel and castle of Nuremberg, we mark the clear impress of the schools of Van der Weyden and Memlinc; whilst in later works, such as the Basilica of St Paul (1504) in the gallery of Augsburg, the wane of Flemish influence is apparent. But this altarpiece, with its quaint illustrations of St Paul's life and martyrdom, is not alone of interest because its execution is characteristic of old Holbein. It is equally so because it contains portraits of the master himself, accompanied by his two sons, the painters Ambrose (c. 1494-c. 1519) and Hans the younger. Later pictures, such as the Passion series in the Furstenberg gallery at Donaueschingen, or the Martyrdom of St Sebastian in the Munich Pinakothek, contain similar portraits, the original drawings of which are found in old Holbein's sketch-book at Berlin, or in stray leaves like those possessed by the duke of Aumale in Paris. Not one of these fails to give us an insight into the character, or a reflex of the features, of the members of this celebrated family. Old Holbein seems to ape Leonardo, allowing his hair and beard to grow wildly, except on the upper lip. Hans the younger is a plain-looking boy. But his father points to him with his finger, and hints that though but a child he is clearly a prodigy.

After 1516 Hans Holbein the elder appears as a defaulter in the registers of the tax-gatherers at Augsburg; but he willingly accepts commissions abroad. At Issenheim in Alsace, where Grunewald was employed in 1516, old Holbein also finds patrons, and contracts to complete an altarpiece. But misfortune or a bailiff pursues him, and he leaves Issenheim, abandoning his work and tools. According to Sandrart, he wanders to Basel and takes the freedom of its gild. His brother Sigismund and others are found suing him for debt before the courts of Augsburg. Where he lived when he executed the altarpiece, of which two wings with the date of 1522 are in the gallery of Carlsruhe, is uncertain; where he died two years later is unknown. He slinks from ken at the close of a long life, and disappears at last heeded by none but his own son, who claims his brushes and paints from the monks of Issenheim without much chance of obtaining them. His name is struck off the books of the Augsburg gild in 1524.

The elder Holbein was a prolific artist, who left many pictures behind
him. Earlier than the Basilica of St Paul, already mentioned, is the
Basilica of St Mary Maggiore, and a Passion in eleven pieces, in the
Augsburg gallery, both executed in 1499. Another Passion, with the
root of Jesse and a tree of the Dominicans, is that preserved in the
Staedel, Saalhof, and church of St Leonard at Frankfort. It was
executed in 1501. The Passion of Donaueschingen was finished after
1502, in which year was completed the Passion of Kaisheim, a
conglomerate of twenty-seven panels, now divided amongst the galleries
of Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Schleissheim. An altarpiece of the
same class, commissioned for the monastery of St Moritz at Augsburg in
1504-1508, has been dispersed and lost. 1512 is the date of a
Conception in the Augsburg gallery, long assigned, in consequence of a
forged inscription, to Hans Holbein the younger. A diptych, with a
Virgin and Child, and a portrait of an old man, dated 1513, came in
separate parts into the collections of Mr Posonyi and Count
Lanckoronski at Vienna. The sketch-books of Berlin, Copenhagen and
Augsburg give a lively picture of the forms and dress of Augsburg
residents at the beginning of the 16th century. They comprise
portraits of the emperor Maximilian, the future Charles V., Kunz von
der Rosen, the fool of Maximilian, the Fuggers, friars, merchants, and
at rare intervals ladies.

See also the biography by Stodtner (Berlin, 1896).

HOLBEIN, HANS, the younger (1497-1543), German painter, favourite son of Hans Holbein the elder, was probably born at Augsburg about the year 1497. Though Sandrart and Van Mander declare that they do not know who gave him the first lessons, he doubtless received an artist's education from his father. About 1515 he left Augsburg with Ambrose, his elder brother, to seek employment as an illustrator of books at Basel. His first patron is said to have been Erasmus, for whom, shortly after his arrival, he illustrated with pen-and-ink sketches an edition of the _Encomium Moriae_, now in the museum of Basel. But his chief occupation was that of drawing titlepage-blocks and initials for new editions of the Bible and classics issued from the presses of Froben and other publishers. His leisure hours, it is supposed, were devoted to the production of rough painter's work, a schoolmaster's sign in the Basel collection, a table with pictures of St Nobody in the library of the university at Zurich. In contrast with these coarse productions, the portraits of Jacob Meyer and his wife in the Basel museum, one of which purports to have been finished in 1516, are miracles of workmanship. It has always seemed difficult indeed to ascribe such excellent creations to Holbein's nineteenth year; and it is hardly credible that he should have been asked to do things of this kind so early, especially when it is remembered that neither he nor his brother Ambrose were then allowed to matriculate in the guild of Basel. Not till 1517 did Ambrose, whose life otherwise remains obscure, join that corporation; Hans, not overburdened with practice, wandered into Switzerland, where (1517) he was employed to paint in the house of Jacob Hertenstein at Lucerne. In 1519 Holbein reappeared at Basel, where he matriculated and, there is every reason to think, married. Whether, previous to this time, he took advantage of his vicinity to the Italian border to cross the Alps is uncertain. Van Mander says that he never was in Italy; yet the large wall-paintings which he executed after 1519 at Basel, and the series of his sketches and pictures which is still extant, might lead to the belief that Van Mander was misinformed. The spirit of Holbein's compositions for the Basel town hall, the scenery and architecture of his numerous drawings, and the cast of form in some of his imaginative portraits, make it more likely that he should have felt the direct influence of North Italian painting than that he should have taken Italian elements from imported works or prints. The Swiss at this period wandered in thousands to swell the ranks of the French or imperial armies fighting on Italian soil, and the road they took may have been followed by Hans on a more peaceful mission. He shows himself at all events familiar with Italian examples at various periods of his career; and if we accept as early works the "Flagellation," and the "Last Supper" at Basel, coarse as they are, they show some acquaintance with Lombard methods of painting, whilst in other pieces, such as the series of the Passion in oil in the same collection, the modes of Hans Holbein the elder are agreeably commingled with a more modern, it may be said Italian, polish. Again, looking at the "Virgin" and "Man of Sorrows" in the Basel museum, we shall be struck by a searching metallic style akin to that of the Ferrarese; and the "Lais" or the "Venus and Amor" of the same collection reminds us of the Leonardesques of the school of Milan. When Holbein settled down to an extensive practice at Basel in 1519, he decorated the walls of the house "Zum Tanz" with simulated architectural features of a florid character after the fashion of the Veronese; and his wall paintings in the town-hall, if we can truly judge of them by copies, reveal an artist not unfamiliar with North Italian composition, distribution, action, gesture and expression. In his drawings too, particularly in a set representing the Passion at Basel, the arrangement, and also the perspective, form and decorative ornament, are in the spirit of the school of Mantegna. Contemporary with these, however, and almost inexplicably in contrast with them as regards handling, are portrait-drawings such as the likenesses of Jacob Meyer, and his wife, which are finished with German delicacy, and with a power and subtlety of hand seldom rivalled in any school. Curiously enough, the same contrast may be observed between painted compositions and painted portraits. The "Bonifacius Amerbach" of 1519 at Basel is acknowledged to be one of the most complete examples of smooth and transparent handling that Holbein ever executed. His versatility at this period is shown by a dead Christ (1521), a corpse in profile on a dissecting table, and a set of figures in couples; the "Madonna and St Pantalus," and "Kaiser Henry with the Empress Kunigunde" (1522), originally composed for the organ loft of the Basel cathedral, now in the Basel museum. Equally remarkable, but more attractive, though injured, is the "Virgin and Child between St Ursus and St Nicholas" (not St Martin) giving alms to a beggar, in the gallery of Solothurn. This remarkable picture is dated 1522, and seems to have been ordered for an altar in the minster of St Ursus of Solothurn by Nicholas Conrad, a captain and statesman of the 16th century, whose family allowed the precious heirloom to fall into decay in a chapel of the neighbouring village of Grenchen. Numerous drawings in the spirit of this picture, and probably of the same period in his career, might have led Holbein's contemporaries to believe that he would make his mark in the annals of Basel as a model for painters of altarpieces as well as a model for pictorial composition and portrait. The promise which he gave at this time was immense. He was gaining a freedom in draughtsmanship that gave him facility to deal with any subject. Though a realist, he was sensible of the dignity and severity of religious painting. His colour had almost all the richness and sweetness of the Venetians. But he had fallen on evil times, as the next few years undoubtedly showed. Amongst the portraits which he executed in these years are those of Froben, the publisher, known only by copies at Basel and Hampton Court, and Erasmus, who sat in 1523, as he likewise did in 1530, in various positions, showing his face threequarters as at Longford, Basel, Turin, Parma, the Hague and Vienna, and in profile as in the Louvre or at Hampton Court. Besides these, Holbein made designs for glass windows, and for woodcuts, including subjects of every sort, from the Virgin and Child with saints of the old time to the Dance of Death, from gospel incidents extracted from Luther's Bible to satirical pieces illustrating the sale of indulgences and other abuses denounced by Reformers. Holbein, in this way, was carried irresistibly with the stream of the Reformation, in which, it must now be admitted, the old traditions of religious painting were wrecked, leaving nothing behind but unpictorial elements which Cranach and his school vainly used for pictorial purposes.