The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, February 1884, No. 5.

by Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Chautauqua Institution

From the death of Luther, 1546, to the end of the century the struggle continued. Now and then there came a brief pause to the general strife, such as followed the Treaty of Passau, or the Religious Peace of Augsburg, but it was soon renewed by the tyranny or treachery of the Catholic powers, whose hatred of the followers of Luther and of the spirit of protestantism did not abate till Europe had passed through the most terrible and disastrous war of history. This was the thirty years’ war, dating from 1618 to 1648, and involving not only the whole German Empire, but also the principal states of Europe. Seldom, if ever, has there been known such depletion of population and resources. It was finally brought to an end by the peace of Westphalia, when the worn-out and impoverished states subscribed to a treaty which gave comparative toleration in Germany. Under its conditions, in all religious questions Protestants were to have an equal weight with Catholics in the high courts and diet of the empire. The Calvinists were also included with the Lutheran and Reformed creeds in this religious peace. By its termination of the religious wars in Europe the peace of Westphalia forms a great landmark in history.

The seventeenth century, from the thirty years’ war on to its close, might not inappropriately be called the period of pusillanimity in Germany. Public buildings, schools and churches were allowed to stand as ruins while the courts of petty princes were aping the stiff, formal, artificial manners of that of the French monarch, Louis XIV. The latter seeing the weakened state of the empire seized the opportunity to enlarge his own kingdom at the expense of Germany. He laid claim to Brabant and many of the fortresses of the frontier fell into the hands of the French. His ambition was only checked by the intervention of Holland, England and Sweden, and the war terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Meanwhile the Turks in alliance with the Hungarians marched with an army of 200,000 up the Danube and encamped around the walls of Vienna. There is good evidence that they were aided and abetted in this invasion by Louis XIV. The Emperor Leopold fled, leaving his capital to its fate. But the little guard of 13,000 men under Count Stahremberg held the fortifications against the invader’s overwhelming force till Duke Charles of Lorraine and the Elector of Saxony with their armies, and still another army of 20,000 Poles under their king John Sobieski came to their relief. The Turkish army was routed and driven into Hungary. All this time Louis, like an eager bird of prey, was watching Germany. Finally, in 1688, two powerful French armies appeared upon the Rhine. The allied states at last saw their imminent danger and rallied to resist and drive back the common foe. Louis resolved to ruin if he could not possess the country; so he adopted a course than which a more wanton and barbarous was never known, even in the annals of savagism. Vines were pulled up, fruit-trees cut down, and villages burned to the ground. Multitudes of defenseless people were slain in cold blood, and 400,000 persons beggared. Germany, aroused at last, now entered with vigor into the war with France, and carried it on till both sides were weary and exhausted. It was concluded by the Treaty of Ryswick.

The eighteenth century dawned, still to witness Germany the arena of war. Indeed from earliest history her soil, especially along the Rhine, had been the battle-ground of Europe. This time it was the war of the Spanish succession, whose tangled episodes and details we can not undertake to follow. It will be remembered by the student of history for its great battle of Blenheim, where the allied armies under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated and routed the French. Louis XIV. was now old, infirm, and tired of war, and hence consented to a treaty of peace, which was concluded March 7, 1714.

The century now begun witnessed the rise of Prussia out of the German chaos and the wonderful and brilliant career of Frederick the Great. It also saw the stronger and more enlightened reigns of Maria Theresa and Joseph II. in Austria.

Though the wars never ceased, breaking out again in one quarter while peace was being concluded in another, yet the century as a whole gave prophesy of a coming better state of affairs.

The grandfather of Frederick the Great had founded the university of Halle in 1694, and in 1711 an academy of science was established in Berlin upon a plan drawn up by the philosopher Leibnitz. Frederick William I., father of Frederick the Great, though coarse and brutal in his nature, had the wisdom to see the importance of German education and of breaking off from the established custom of imitating French manners and life. He accordingly established four hundred schools among the people, and by the vigor and economy of his reign contributed to the development of the character and individuality of his people. Frederick the Great and his rival, Maria Theresa, possessed greater elements of personal character and intelligence than their predecessors, and hence gave to their subjects, if not a more liberal form, at least a higher order of government. Contemporary with these was the beginning of that literary bloom which, by the genius of Lessing, Herder, Klopstock, Goethe and Schiller, gave to Germany a glory surpassing all she has ever achieved, either by war or statesmanship.

We have now reached, just before the beginning of the nineteenth century, the time of the French Revolution. It was a time that required great political prudence on the part of the rulers in Germany. Unhappily the successors of Frederick the Great and Joseph II. were incompetent to their responsibilities. That great military genius that rose out of the turmoil and chaos of the revolution in France is soon marching through Germany, and on the 6th of August, 1806, Francis II., the last of the line, laid down his title of “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation” at the feet of Napoleon. Thus, just a thousand years after Charlemagne the empire of his founding passed away. It had culminated under the Hohenstauffens, and for a long time before its formal burial had existed in tradition rather than in fact. Truly may it be said that Germany was as far as ever from being a nation at the beginning of our century.

From 1806 to 1814 Germany underwent the humiliation of subjection to the power of Napoleon. By a succession of victories, such as Jena and Auerstädt, he cowed the spirit of the German princes and proceeded to construct the famous “Rhine-Bund” which made him protector over a territory embracing fourteen millions of German inhabitants, and imposed upon the states and principalities included conditions the most exacting and disgraceful. Prussia and Austria, which held out at first, were also compelled by force of his victorious armies to yield, and Napoleon dictated terms to all Germany. He marched in triumph into Berlin and Vienna; he changed boundaries, levied troops, prescribed the size of their standing armies at will, and when he set out on his campaign against Alexander of Prussia 200,000 previously conquered Germans marched at his command. Such was the abject state of Germany during those years when it seemed that all Europe must bend before the insatiate conqueror. But in the year 1813 the spirit of liberty began to live again. The revival began, however, not with the princes, but in the breasts of the people. The works of the great German authors were becoming familiar to them and were producing their effect. Klopstock was awakening a pride in the German name and race; Schiller was thrilling the popular heart with his doctrine of resistance to oppression, whilst the songs of Körner and Arndt were inspiring courage and hope. All classes of the people participated in the uprising, and within a few months Prussia had an army of 270,000 soldiers in the field ready to resist the power of France. This was the beginning of the turn in the tide of affairs which led in 1815 to the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, and gave liberation to Germany.

The remaining history of the present century is that of the Confederation formed in 1815 and lasting till 1866; of the North German Confederation which succeeded the above, and continued to the establishing of the present empire in 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian war; and of the new empire to the present time. The confederation of 1815, known as the “Deutscher Bund,” embraced a part of Austria, most of Prussia, the kingdoms of Bavaria, Würtemberg, Saxony and Hanover, the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, a number of duchies, principalities and free cities; in all thirty-nine states.

When in 1866 the “Bund” was dissolved and the North German Confederation formed, Austria was excluded, and Prussia assumed the headship of the new compact which embraced the states north of the Main. The term Germany, from 1866 to 1871, designated the new Confederation, and the four South German States, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden and Hesse Darmstadt. The four latter had been made independent states, but were united with the North German Confederation by the Zollverein, and by alliances offensive and defensive.