So may we also create for ourselves from this simple monument a symbol and an example. A block of granite from the mark bears the features of the general inlaid in bronze; so may we hedge and protect that piece of granite of our army which we call the cavalry and allow it to harden, so that he who bites upon it may lose his teeth![37]
[37] A phrase of Frederick the Great which Count Bülow had used in the Reichstag January 8, 1902, in speaking of the English Colonial Secretary Chamberlain’s attack on the German army.
With this wish I raise my glass and drink to the memory of the general, to the German cavalry, and to its most conspicuous representative, the General Field-Marshal, Count von Waldersee. Hurrah!
[THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH]
Aix, June 19, 1902
The Emperor, accepting an invitation from the city, came to Aix with the Empress and the Crown Prince. It was here that Charlemagne was probably born and here that he died. The present Rathaus was built upon the ruins of his palace, and it was in the so-called Coronation Room that the Emperor delivered his address.
In the name of her Majesty, the Empress, and in my name I thank you particularly for the indescribably patriotic and enthusiastic reception which has been prepared for us by all classes of the city of Aix. I earnestly desired to visit the city of Aix, and I thank you for the opportunity which you have given me through your invitation.
Who would not be deeply moved on such historic ground as that of Aix by the breath and murmur of the past and of the present? Who would not think of the providential guidance of Heaven as he looks back over the history of the centuries which our Fatherland has lived through in its connection with Aix?
Aix is the cradle of German imperialism, for it was here that Charlemagne erected his throne, and the city of Aix shone in his reflected glory. So important, so imposing was the figure of this great German prince that from Rome the dignity of the Roman Cæsars was bestowed upon him, and he was chosen to enter into the inheritance of the Imperium Romanum—certainly a splendid recognition of the capability of our German stock as it appeared for the first time in history. For the Roman sceptre had fallen from the hands of the Cæsars and their successors. Crumbling and decayed, the Roman edifice was tottering to its fall, and only the appearance of the victorious Germans with their virtuous dispositions made it possible to point a new and as yet untrodden road for the history of the world. It goes without saying that the mighty Charles, the great King of the Franks, drew upon himself the gaze of Rome which looked to him as to its bulwark and protector.