A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

The organization of the Prussian army was entrusted to Prince Leopold of Dessau, who distinguished himself at Turin, under Prince Eugene. Although during the greater part of Frederick William's reign peace was preserved, the military force was kept upon a war footing, and gradually increased until it amounted to 84,000 men. The king had a singular mania for giant soldiers: miserly as he was in other respects, he was ready to go to any expense to procure recruits, seven feet high, for his body-guard. He not only purchased such, but allowed his agents to kidnap them, and despotically sent a number of German mechanics to Peter the Great in exchange for an equal number of Russian giants. For forty-three such tall soldiers he paid 43,000 dollars, one of them, who was unusually large, costing 9,000. The expense of keeping these guardsmen was proportionately great, and much of the king's time was spent in inspecting them. Sometimes he tried to paint their portraits, and if the likeness was not successful, an artist was employed to paint the man's face until it resembled the king's picture.

Frederick William's regular evening recreation was his "Tobacco College," as he called it. Some of his ministers and generals, foreign ambassadors, and even ordinary citizens, were invited to smoke and drink beer with him in a plain room, where he sat upon a three-legged stool, and they upon wooden benches. Each was obliged to smoke, or at least to have a clay pipe in his mouth and appear to smoke. The most important affairs of State were discussed at these meetings, which were conducted with so little formality that no one was allowed to rise when the king entered the room. He was not so amiable upon his walks through the streets of Berlin or Potsdam. He always carried a heavy cane, which he would apply without mercy to the shoulders of any who seemed to be idle, no matter what their rank or station. Even his own household was not exempt from blows; and his son Frederick was scarcely treated better than any of his soldiers or workmen.

1725. CONDITION OF GERMANY.

This manner of government was rude, but it was also systematic and vigorous, and the people upon whom it was exercised did not deteriorate in character, as was the case in almost all other parts of Germany. Austria, in spite of the pomp of the Emperor's court, was in a state of moral and intellectual decline. Karl VI. was a man of little capacity, an instrument in the hands of the Jesuits, and the minds of the people whom he ruled gradually became as stolid and dead as the latter order wished to make them. Their connection with Germany was scarcely felt; they spoke of "the Empire outside" almost as a foreign country, and the strength of the house of Hapsburg was gradually transferred to the Bohemian, Hungarian and Slavonic races which occupied the greater part of its territory. The industry of the country was left without encouragement; what little education was permitted was in the hands of the priests, and all real progress came to an end. But, for this very reason, Austria became the ideal of the German nobility, nine-tenths of whom were feudalists and sighed for the return of the Middle Ages: hundreds of them took service under the Emperor, either at court or in the army, and helped to preserve the external forms of his power.

In most of the other German States the condition of affairs was not much better. Bavaria, the Palatinate, and the three Archbishops of Mayence, Treves and Cologne, were abject instruments in the hands of France: Hannover was governed by the interests of England, and Saxony by those of Poland. After George I. went to England, the government of Hannover was exercised by a council of nobles, who kept up the Court ceremonials just as if the Elector were present. His portrait was placed in a chair, and they observed the same etiquette towards it as if his real self were there! In Würtemberg the Duke, Eberhard Ludwig, so oppressed the people that many of them emigrated to America between the years 1717 and 1720, and settled in Pennsylvania. This was the first German emigration to the New World.

1733.

After a peace of nineteen years, counting from the Treaty of Rastatt, or thirteen years from the Treaty of Stockholm, Germany—or rather the Emperor Karl VI.—became again involved in war. The Pragmatic Sanction was at the bottom of it. Karl's endless diplomacy to insure the recognition of this decree led him into an alliance with Russia to place Augustus III. of Saxony on the throne of Poland. Louis XV. of France, who had married the daughter of the Polish king, Stanislas Lesczinsky, took the latter's part. Prussia was induced to join Austria and Russia, but the cautious and economical Frederick William I. withdrew from the alliance as soon as he found that the expense to him would be more than the advantage. The Polish Diet was divided: the majority, influenced by France, elected Stanislas, who reached Warsaw in the disguise of a merchant and was crowned in September, 1733. The minority declared for Augustus III., in whose aid a Russian army was even then entering Poland.

France, in alliance with Spain and Sardinia, had already declared war against Germany. The plan of operations had evidently been prepared in advance, and was everywhere successful. One French army occupied Lorraine, another crossed the Rhine and captured Kehl (opposite Strasburg), and a third, under Marshal Villars, entered Lombardy. Naples and Sicily, powerless to resist, fell into the hands of Spain. Prince Eugene of Savoy, now more than seventy years of age, was sent to the Rhine with such troops as Austria, taken by surprise, was able to furnish: the other German States either sympathized with France, or were indifferent to a quarrel which really did not concern them. Frederick William of Prussia finally sent 10,000 well-disciplined soldiers; but even with this aid Prince Eugene was unable to expel the French from Lorraine. In Poland, however, the plans of France utterly failed: in June, 1734, King Stanislas fled in the disguise of a cattle-dealer. The following year, 10,000 Russians appeared on the Rhine, as allies of Austria, and Louis XV. found it prudent to negotiate for peace.

1740. DEATH OF FREDERICK WILLIAM I.

The Treaty of Vienna, concluded in October, 1735, put an end to the War of the Polish Succession. Francis of Lorraine, who was betrothed to Karl VI.'s daughter, Maria Theresa, was made Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and Lorraine (now only a portion of the original territory, with Nancy as capital) was given to the Ex-King Stanislas of Poland, with the condition that it should revert to France at his death. Spain received Naples and Sicily; Tortona and Novara were added to Sardinia, and Austria was induced to consent to all these losses by the recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction, and the annexation of the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, in Italy. Prussia got nothing; and Frederick William I., who had been expecting to add Jülich and Berg to his possessions on the Lower Rhine, was so exasperated that he entered into secret arrangements with France in order to carry out his end. The enmity of Austria and Prussia was now confirmed, and it has been the chief power in German politics from that day to this.