Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 106, Vol. III, January 9, 1886

No. 106.—Vol. III.
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1886.
The surprises that await the deputies and representatives of the North German League, when, after a hard day’s work and a late supper, they return, wearied in body and mind, to their Berlin penates, are not, as a rule, of a very cheering description. They generally consist of large unwieldy packets of printed matter, which contain the orders for the next day’s imperial Diet, and a mass of amendments on the coming motions, &c. Letters also, especially home ones, form no small portion of the evening’s recreation. One may judge, therefore, of the general surprise, when, amongst the pile of evening correspondence, a short note appears from Prince Bismarck to the effect that he would be ‘greatly obliged if Deputy or Privy-councillor So-and-so will give him the pleasure of his company every Saturday evening at nine o’clock, commencing from the 24th April, as long as the session of the imperial Diet lasts.’
What more natural than that the Chancellor should wish to assemble at his own familiar hearth, all those representatives of the nation who for the most part gladly accompany and support him on the rough and stony paths of German politics that he is treading, and to want to spend a few hours with them in pleasant social intercourse, after the many weary hours of heavy parliamentary work?
This same need was equally felt by most of the deputies and councillors and other members of the imperial Diet, who all equally looked forward to the coming evening.
As everything connected with the Diet is carried out with military precision, so here, also, the hour of nine had hardly finished striking, ere the guests began to arrive at the well-known modest two-storied building in the Wilhelmstrasse, which the Prussian government assigns to its Minister for Foreign Affairs as his official residence, and which Prince Bismarck inhabited in his threefold capacity of Minister for Lauenburg, Prussian President Minister, and Chancellor of the North German League. Here, on the ground-floor of the long unadorned building, are the workrooms of the Prussian ministerial officials. On the first floor are the work and reception rooms of Bismarck, as well as his private family apartments. At the back of the house, where the noise and turmoil of the great busy city never penetrate, lies one of those beautiful shady old timbered parks, such as the royal crown of Prussia possesses, between the Wilhelmstrasse and the Königstrasse, and also between the latter and the Leipzigerstrasse—in all about a hundred acres.