Bismarck

by Moritz Busch

PREFACE

The work which I now present to the German people contains a complete[1] account of all the events of which I was a witness during my intercourse of over twenty years with Prince Bismarck and his entourage. Part of it is not entirely new, as I have embodied in it portions of the book published by me in 1878, under the title: Prince Bismarck and his People during the Franco-German War. I have, however, restored the numerous passages which it was then deemed expedient to omit, and I have also dispensed with the many modifications by which, at that time, certain asperities of language had to be toned down. The bulk of the present work consists of a detailed narrative of the whole period of my intercourse with the Prince both before and after the French campaign. I collected and noted down all these particulars respecting Prince Bismarck and his immediate supporters and assistants, in the first place for my own use, and secondly as a contribution to the character and history of the Political Regenerator of Germany. The sole object of the diary which forms the basis of this work was to serve as a record of the whole truth so far as I had been able to ascertain it with my own eyes and ears. Any other object was out of the question, as it was impossible that I could desire to deceive myself. Subsequently, when I thought of publishing my notes, I was fully conscious of my responsibility towards history, the interests of which could not be promoted by material that had been coloured or garbled for party purposes. I wished neither to be an eulogist nor a censor. To my mind, panegyric was superfluous, and fault-finding was for me an impossibility. A tendency to the sensational is foreign to my nature, and I leave the pleasure to be derived from grand spectacular shows to lovers of the theatre. I desired to record the mental and other characteristics which our first Chancellor presented to me under such and such circumstances, thus helping to complete, and at times to rectify, the conception of his whole nature that has been formed in the public mind from his political activity. The profound reverence which I feel for the genius of the hero, and my patriotic gratitude for his achievements, have not deterred me from communicating numerous details which will be displeasing to many persons. These particulars, however, are part of the historic character of the personality whom I am describing. The gods alone are free from error, passion, and changes of disposition. They alone have no seamy side and no contradictions. Even the sun and moon show spots and blemishes, but notwithstanding these they remain magnificent celestial orbs. The picture produced out of the materials which I have here brought together may present harsh and rough features, but it has hardly a single ignoble trait. Its crudeness only adds to its truth to nature, its individuality, and its clearness of outline. This figure does not float in an ethereal atmosphere, it is firmly rooted in earth and breathes of real life, yet it conveys a sense of something superhuman. It must furthermore be remembered that many of the bitter remarks, such as those made previous to March, 1890, were the result of temporary irritation, while others were perfectly justified. The strong self-confidence manifested in some of these utterances, and the angry expression of that need for greater power and more liberty of action, common to all men of genius and energetic character, arose from the consciousness that, while he alone knew the true object to be pursued and the fitting means for its achievement, his knowledge could not be applied because the right of final decision on all occasions belonged by hereditary privilege to more or less mediocre and narrow minds.

I will allow the Prince himself to answer the question as to my authority for communicating to others without any reserve all that I ascertained during my intercourse with him. “Once I am dead you can tell everything you like, absolutely everything you know,” said Prince Bismarck to me in the course of a conversation I had with him on the 24th of February, 1879. I saw clearly in the way in which he looked at me that, in addition to the permission I had already received on previous occasions, he wished that I should then consider myself entirely free and expressly released from certain former engagements, some of which had been assumed by myself, while others had been imposed upon me. Since then my knowledge increased owing to his growing confidence in me, while his authorisation and the desire that I should use what I knew to the advantage of his memory remained undiminished. On the 21st of March, 1891, during one of my last visits to Friedrichsruh, the Prince—apparently prompted by a notice which he had read in the newspapers—remarked, “Little Busch (Büschlein) will one day, long after my death, write the secret history of our time from the best sources of information.” I answered “Yes, Prince; but it will not be a history, properly speaking, as I am not capable of that. Nor will it be long after your death—which we naturally pray to be deferred as long as possible—but on the contrary very soon after, without any delay. In these corrupt times, the truth cannot be known too soon.” The Prince made no answer, but I understood his silence to indicate approval. Finally, in the preceding year he had affirmed the absolutely unrestricted character of my authority. On the 15th of March, 1890, when the measures for his dismissal were already in progress, and he himself was engaged in packing up a variety of papers preparatory to his journey (a work in which I was allowed to assist him), he asked me to copy a number of important documents for him and to retain the originals and copies in my possession. On his remarking that I could get these documents copied, I called his attention to the fact that a stranger might betray their contents to third parties. He replied, “Oh, I am not afraid of that! He can if he likes! I have no secrets amongst them—absolutely none.” That statement, “I have no secrets,” gave me liberty, at least for a later time, to publish those State papers the contents of which I had hitherto kept secret, as he must unquestionably have known better than I or the rest of the world who may have held other views on the subject.

So far respecting the essential point. That he whom I honour as the first of men sanctioned my undertaking is entirely sufficient for me. I do not ask whether others give it their blessing. The great majority of those referred to have since departed from this life and taken their places in the domain of history, where the claim for indulgent treatment is no longer valid. Those who are still with us may believe me when I assure them that in now publishing these pages I have no thought of causing them pain or of injuring them in any way. I simply consider that I am not at liberty to preserve silence on those matters which may prove unpleasant to them in view both of my own duty to tell the whole truth, and of the desire expressed by the Chancellor (to whom I still feel myself bound in obedience) that nothing should be concealed. The diplomatic world, in particular, must be represented here as it really is. In that respect this book may be described as a mirror for diplomatists.

I must leave the reader to form his own opinion as to my capacity for observation and the discovery of the truth. I may, however, be allowed to say that several long journeys in America and the East, a lengthy tour in Schleswig-Holstein during the Danish rule, undertaken for the purpose of reconnoitring that country, and a period of rather confidential intercourse with the Augustenburg Court at Kiel were calculated to sharpen my wits. A mission which I filled at Hanover during the year of transition, and, above all, my position in the Foreign Office in Berlin and the intimate relations in which I stood towards its Chief during the war with France, together with the renewal of that intercourse from 1877 onwards, gave me exceptional opportunities of developing both my memory and power of observation. For several years I was acquainted with everything that went on in the Central Bureau of the German Foreign Office, and later, in addition to what I ascertained through the confidence of the Prince, I obtained not a little information from Lothar Bucher which remained a secret, not only for private persons, but often for high officials of the Ministry.

The diary on which my work is based, and which is often reproduced literally, gives the truest possible account of the events and expressions which I have personally seen and heard in the presence and immediate vicinity of the Prince. The latter is everywhere the leading figure around which all the others are grouped. The task I set myself, as a close observer and chronicler who conscientiously sifted his facts, was to give a true account of what I had been commissioned to do as the Prince’s Secretary in connection with press matters, and to describe how he and his entourage conducted themselves during the campaign in France, how he lived and worked, the opinions he expressed at the dinner and tea table, and on other occasions, respecting persons and things of that time, what he related of his past experiences, and finally, after our return from the great war, what I ascertained respecting the progress of diplomatic negotiations from the despatches which were then exchanged and of which I was at liberty to make use either immediately or at a later period. I was assisted in the fulfilment of this task by my faculty of concentration, which my reverence for the Prince and the practice which I had in the course of my official duties rendered gradually more intense, and by a memory which although not naturally above the average was also developed by constant exercise to such a degree that in a short time it enabled me to retain all the main points of long explanations and stories, both serious and humorous, from the Chancellor’s lips almost literally, until such time as I could commit them to paper—that is to say, unless anything special intervened, a mishap which I was usually able to avert. The particulars here given were accordingly, almost without exception, written down within an hour after the conversations therein referred to occurred. For the most part they were jotted down immediately on small slips of paper, only the points and principal catchwords being noted, but which made it easy, however, to complete the whole entry later on.

This sharp ear and faithful memory, joined with a quick eye, stood me in good stead in the years of welcome service which I undertook as a private individual for the Prince. To these and to the habit of putting all that I had experienced, seen, and heard in black on white without delay, I owe the accurate accounts of the memorable conversation of the 11th of April, 1877, of the visit to Varzin and the statements made by the Chancellor on that occasion, as well as the long list of detailed reports of pregnant and characteristic conversations that I had with him from the year 1878 up to 1890 in the palace and garden at Berlin when, at times of crisis or under other circumstances, I was either invited by the Prince or called on him without invitation for the purpose of obtaining news for the Grenzboten or foreign newspapers. I kept up the same habit of committing everything of moment to paper during my various visits of shorter or longer duration between the years 1883 and 1889 to Friedrichsruh, where in the year last mentioned I was engaged for several weeks in arranging the Prince’s private letters and other documents. This custom also served me well in that ever memorable week in March, 1890, when I spent some of the darkest days of that period in the Prince’s immediate vicinity, nor did it fail me when I again greeted him in the Sachsenwald in 1891 and 1893, and was able to convince myself that in the interval his confidence in me had as little diminished as had my loyalty towards him.

Whoever is familiar with the style in which the Prince was accustomed to express his thoughts when in the company of his intimate associates will be at once impressed with the genuineness of the instructions, conversations and anecdotes communicated in the following pages. He will find them almost without exception literally reproduced. In the anecdotes and stories, in particular, he will nearly always observe the characteristic ellipses, the unexpressed pre-suppositions, and the manner in which the Prince was apt to jump from point to point in his narratives, reminding one of the style of the old ballads. He will also at times note a humorous vein running through the Prince’s remarks and frequently become conscious of a thread of semi-naïve self irony. All these features were characteristic of the Chancellor’s manner of speaking. It is therefore hardly necessary for me to add that my reports, with all their roughness and sturdy ruggedness, are photographs that have not been retouched. In other words, I believe that I have not only been quick to observe, but I also feel that I have not intentionally omitted anything that was worth reproducing. I have neither blurred any features nor brought others into too sharp relief. I have put in no high lights, and above all I have added nothing of my own, nor tried to secure a place in history for my own wisdom by palming it off as Bismarck’s. Any omissions that now remain (there can hardly be more than a dozen in all of any importance) are indicated by dots or dashes. In cases where I have not quite understood a speaker, attention is called to the fact. Should any contradiction be discovered between earlier and later statements my memory must not be held responsible for them. If I am blamed for the fragmentary character of my recital then all memoirs must be rejected. If I am reproached with not having produced a work of art, I believe I have already made it sufficiently clear that I never intended anything of the kind. I desired, on the contrary, so far as it was in my power, to serve the truth, and that alone. Nevertheless, my work may not only be utilised by historians, but may also possibly inspire a dramatist or a poet. Such a writer must, however, be no sentimentalist, and no idealist. It would be wise for him and for others to let themselves be guided by some counsels of experience which will be useful as a warning against certain misunderstandings both as to the sources of my information and the degree of my credulity. These counsels have always been present to my mind, although, perhaps, through a sense of politeness towards the public, or even, it may be, a real confidence in their common sense, I have rarely thought it necessary to call attention to the fact. This advice I propose to repeat here in a general form and without any special application. In the first place, then, there are people who sometimes really believe that they have actually said or done that which it was their duty to say or do in certain circumstances. Others, again, frequently leave their hearers to judge whether their remarks are meant to be sarcastic or serious. Furthermore, inter pocula and in foraging for news, the meanings of words must not be taken in altogether too literal a sense, if one does not wish to make a fool of himself. Although truth may be found in the bowl, it usually contains more alcohol than accuracy; and the scribblers of the press very often thoughtlessly accept appearances for realities when they come from “well-informed circles.” Finally, even those who wilfully mislead serve the truth in so far as they enable the experienced to detect their falsehood.

A good deal of what I report and describe will appear to many persons trivial and external. My view of the matter, however, is this. The trifles with which the prætor does not trouble himself often illustrate the character of a man or his temper for the time being more clearly than fine speeches or great exploits. Now and then very unimportant occurrences and situations have been, as it were, the spark which lit up the mind and revealed a whole train of new and fruitful ideas pregnant with great consequences. In this connection I may recall the accidental, and apparently insignificant, origin of many epoch-making inventions and discoveries, such as the fall of an apple from a tree that gave Newton the first impulse towards his theory of gravitation, the greatest discovery of the eighteenth century; the steam from the boiling kettle which raised its lid and ultimately led to the transformation of the world by the locomotive; the brilliant reflection of the sun on a tin vessel which transported Jacob Boehme into a transcendental vision; and the spot of grease upon our table-cloth at Ferrières which formed the starting-point of one of Prince Bismarck’s most remarkable conversations. The morning hours affect nervous constitutions differently to the evening, and changes of weather depress or raise the spirits of persons subject to rheumatism. Indeed it must be remembered that learned theories have been formed which, expressed in a plain and direct way, amount roughly to this—that a man is what he eats. However odd that may sound, we really cannot say how far such ideas are wrong. Finally, it appears to me that everything is of interest and should receive attention which has any relation to the prominent central figure of the great movement which resulted in the political regeneration of our country—to that powerful personality who, like the angel mentioned in the Scriptures, stirred the stagnant pool, and gave health and life after the lethargy and decay of centuries. I followed the Chancellor’s career with the eyes of a future generation. At great epochs trifles appear smaller than they actually are. In later decades and centuries the contrary is the case. The great events of the past bulk still larger in men’s minds, while things which were regarded as unimportant become full of significance. It is then often a matter for regret that it is impossible to form as clear and lifelike a picture of a personality or an event as one could wish for want of valuable material originally cast aside as of no account. There was no eye to see and no hand to collect and preserve those materials while it was yet time. Who would not now be glad to have fuller details respecting Luther in the great days and hours of his life?

In a hundred years the memory of Prince Bismarck will take a place in the minds of our people next to that occupied by the Wittenberg doctor. The liberator of our political life from dependence upon foreigners will stand by the side of the reformer who freed our consciences from the oppression of Rome—the founder of the German State by the side of him who created German Christianity. Our Chancellor already holds this place in the hearts of many of his countrymen; his portrait adorns their walls, and they inspire the growing generation with the reverence which they themselves feel. These will be followed by the masses, and therefore I imagine I may safely take the risk of being told that I have preserved, not only the pearls, but also the shells in which they were found.

Many of the Chancellor’s expressions respecting the French may be regarded as unfair and even occasionally inhuman. It must not be forgotten, however, that ordinary warfare is calculated to harden the feelings, and that Gambetta’s suicidal campaign, conducted with all the passionate ardour of his nature, the treacherous tactics of his franctireurs, and the bestiality of his Turcos, was bound to raise a spirit in our camp in which leniency and consideration could have no part. Of course, in reproducing and in adding other and still more bitter instances of this feeling, now that all these things have long ago passed away, there can be no intention to hurt any one’s feelings. They are merely vivid contributions to the history of the campaign, denoting the momentary temper of the Chancellor, who was at that time sorely tried and deeply wounded by these and other incidents.

I trust my reasons for including a number of newspaper articles will commend themselves to the reader I do so in the first place to show the gradual development and change which certain political ideas underwent, and the forms which they assumed at various times. Furthermore the greater part of them were directly inspired by Prince Bismarck, and some were even dictated by him. By mentioning the latter articles I hope to do the newspapers in question a pleasure in so far as they will now learn that they once had the honour of having the most eminent statesman of the century as a contributor. All these articles furnish material for forming an opinion upon the journalistic activity of the Prince, which hitherto only Wagener of the Kreuzzeitung, Zitelmann, the Prince’s amanuensis during the years he spent as Ambassador at Frankfurt, and Lothar Bucher were in a position to do. On the 22nd of January, 1871, the Chancellor himself remarked, referring to the importance of the press for historians: “One learns more from the newspapers than from official despatches, as, of course, Governments use the press in order frequently to say more clearly what they really mean. One must, however, know all about the connections of the different papers.” This knowledge will in great part be found in the present work.

The reason for reproducing certain portions of my previous writings in this book is that they are essential for the purpose of completing the character portrait given in the diary. Without them it would be deficient in some parts, and unintelligible in others. The reproductions referred to are in almost every instance considerably altered and supplemented with additional matter, and they now occupy a more suitable position in the work than before.

MORITZ BUSCH.

Leipzig, July 30, 1898.