The Congress of Vienna was followed by an event of quite an original character. Alexander I. of Russia persuaded Francis II. and Frederick William III. to unite with him in a "Holy Alliance," which all the other monarchs of Europe were invited to join. It was simply a declaration, not a political act. The document set forth that its signers pledged themselves to treat each other with brotherly love, to consider all nations as members of one Christian family, to rule their lands with justice and kindness, and to be tender fathers to their subjects. No forms were prescribed, and each monarch was left free to choose his own manner of Christian rule. A great noise was made about the Holy Alliance at the time, because it seemed to guarantee peace to Europe, and peace was most welcome after such terrible wars. All other reigning Kings and Princes, except George IV. of England, Louis XVIII. of France, and the Pope, added their signatures, but not one of them manifested any more brotherly or fatherly love after the act than before.
The new German Confederation having given the separate States a fresh lease of life, after all their convulsions, the rulers set about establishing themselves firmly on their repaired thrones. Only the most intelligent among them felt that the days of despotism, however "enlightened," were over; others avoided the liberal provisions of the Act of Union, abolished many political reforms which had been introduced by Napoleon, and oppressed the common people even more than his satellites had done. The Elector of Hesse-Cassel made his soldiers wear powdered queues, as in the last century; the King of Würtemberg court-martialled and cashiered the general who had gone over with his troops to the German side at the battle of Leipzig; and in Mecklenburg the liberated people were declared serfs. The introduction of a legislative assembly was delayed, in some States even wholly disregarded. Baden and Bavaria adopted a Constitution in 1818, Würtemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt in 1819, but in Prussia an imperfect form of representative government for the provinces was not arranged until 1823. Austria, meanwhile, had restored some ancient privileges of the same kind, of little practical value, because not adapted to the conditions of the age; the people were obliged to be content with them, for they received no more.
1817.
No class of Germans were so bitterly disappointed in the results of their victory and deliverance as the young men, especially the thousands who had fought in the ranks in 1813 and 1815. At all the Universities the students formed societies which were inspired by two ideas—Union and Freedom: fiery speeches were made, songs were sung, and free expression was given to their distrust of the governments under which they lived. On the 18th of October, 1817, they held a grand Convention at the Wartburg—the castle near Eisenach, where Luther lay concealed,—and this event occasioned great alarm among the reactionary class. The students were very hostile to the influence of Russia, and many persons who were suspected of being her secret agents became specially obnoxious to them. One of the latter was the dramatic author, Kotzebue, who was assassinated in March, 1819, by a young student named Sand. There is not the least evidence that this deed was the result of a widespread conspiracy; but almost every reigning prince thereupon imagined that his life was in danger.
A Congress of Ministers was held at Carlsbad the same summer, and the most despotic measures against the so-called "Revolution" were adopted. Freedom of the Press was abolished; a severe censorship enforced; the formation of societies among the students and turners was prohibited, the Universities were placed under the immediate supervision of government, and even Commissioners were appointed to hear what the Professors said in their lectures! Many of the best men in Germany, among them the old teacher, Jahn, and the poet Arndt, were deprived of their situations, and placed under a form of espionage. Hundreds of young men, who had perpetrated no single act of resistance, were thrown into prison for years, others forced to fly from the country, and every manifestation of interest in political subjects became an offence. The effort of the German States, now, was to counteract the popular rights, guaranteed by the Confederation, by establishing an arbitrary and savage police system; and there were few parts of the country where the people retained as much genuine liberty as they had enjoyed a hundred years before.
1830. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS.
The History of Germany, during the thirty years of peace which followed, is marked by very few events of importance. It was a season of gradual reaction on the part of the rulers, and of increasing impatience and enmity on the part of the people. Instead of becoming loving families, as the Holy Alliance designed, the States (except some of the little principalities) were divided into two hostile classes. There was material growth everywhere: the wounds left by war and foreign occupation were gradually healed; there was order, security for all who abstained from politics, and a comfortable repose for such as were indifferent to the future. But it was a sad and disheartening period for the men who were able to see clearly how Germany, with all the elements of a freer and stronger life existing in her people, was falling behind the political development of other countries.
The three Days' Revolution of 1830, which placed Louis Philippe on the throne of France, was followed by popular uprisings in some parts of Germany. Prussia and Austria were too strong, and their people too well held in check, to be affected; but in Brunswick the despotic Duke, Karl, was deposed, Saxony and Hesse-Cassel were obliged to accept co-rulers (out of their reigning families), and the English Duke, Ernest Augustus, was made Viceroy of Hannover. These four States also adopted a constitutional form of government. The German Diet, as a matter of course, used what power it possessed to counteract these movements, but its influence was limited by its own laws of action. The hopes and aspirations of the people were kept alive, in spite of the system of repression, and some of the smaller States took advantage of their independence to introduce various measures of reform.
1840.
As industry, commerce and travel increased, the existence of so many boundaries, with their custom-houses, taxes and other hindrances, became an unendurable burden. Bavaria and Würtemberg formed a customs union in 1828, Prussia followed, and by 1836 all of Germany except Austria was united in the Zollverein (Tariff Union), which was not only a great material advantage, but helped to inculcate the idea of a closer political union. On the other hand, however, the monarchical reaction against liberal government was stronger than ever. Ernest Augustus of Hannover arbitrarily overthrew the constitution he had accepted, and Ludwig I. of Bavaria, renouncing all his former professions, made his land a very nest of absolutism and Jesuitism. In Prussia, such men as Stein, Gneisenau and Wilhelm von Humboldt had long lost their influence, while others of less personal renown, but of similar political sentiments, were subjected to contemptible forms of persecution.