The review of the Ninth Army Corps took place in the presence of the Empress, Princes Henry and Albert, of Archduke Karl Stephen of Austria, and Count Moltke at Flensburg. It will be remembered that in 1864 Bismarck succeeded in enlisting Austria to aid Prussia in a war upon Denmark, which was at that time deprived of Schleswig-Holstein, the harbor of Kiel, and more than 1,000,000 inhabitants. One of the battles of the war to which the Emperor refers was fought in this district. The address was made at the banquet following the review.
My opinion of to-day’s performance of the Ninth Army Corps under the command of your Excellency [General von Leszczynski] I have already expressed to you and your officers.
Whoever, like myself, has for any length of time stood at the front or partly at the front and partly as spectator has been present at many imperial manœuvres knows what such a parade means to an army corps. I know very well what arduous preliminary labor is involved, the agitation, the attention, the exertion of the troops. I know very well how each individual officer, high or low, every soldier, rejoices in and yet with a certain solicitude looks forward to the moment when he shall parade before his war lord.[5]
[5] Kriegsherr.
I know from my own experience when I was still a captain what satisfaction I felt when my adjutant could call to me that the Emperor had nodded as the company passed by him. This is true to-day, likewise, in the case of every officer.
I repeat to you my hearty thanks and express to you my congratulation for the magnificent parade. This army corps which you have marshalled before me has a bearing and discipline which I must demand unconditionally from every army corps. I do not doubt for a moment that the work done in preparing for a review will prove useful in the preparation for battle.
We stand here upon historic ground, on which our armies, united with those of Austria, jointly won a bloody victory.
I raise my glass and drink to the Ninth Army Corps in the expectation that here and hereafter, in war as in peace, it will maintain its famous traditions. Long live the Ninth Army Corps!
[ACCIDENTS WITH AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY]
Berlin, November 11, 1890