Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. II.

by Gustav Freytag

"The performance began about three o'clock, and lasted four hours. The success exceeded all expectation; the house was filled, and the applause loud. I experienced painful moments behind the scenes, as for instance when the fighting heroes, in spite of all admonitions, would strike at each other with their long sharp swords, so that the sparks flew, and I was obliged to be contented that only a few drops of blood flowed from a slight wound in the hand. The play was followed by a supper to all who had cooperated, and the gentry of the village, and lastly a dance. The knights danced in their armour till midnight, having put it on about mid-day. I concluded, therefore, that this race had not degenerated in bodily strength from their forefathers, who fought at Murten and Granson.

"The two following representations went off as fortunately as the first. The population streamed in from far and near, also travellers from Basle, Zürich, and other cities. Since that one-and-twenty years have passed; in the new school buildings there is a theatre, in which the scholars perform small pieces; but the worthy men still look back with pride to the great performances of their youth.

"One consequence of this play was, that the master became a part of the joyous recollections of the Swiss villages. The house which the community had hired for the institution, and the dwelling of the master, a provisional locality, stood with its front to the old high road; behind lay the little garden, at the back of which was a meadow belonging to the house which pastured two goats, and on which fruit-trees were planted. My abode was on the ground-floor; on the first storey, to which there was a narrow steep staircase, was the school-room and a reception-room. In summer acquaintances from the neighbourhood came frequently, and relations from home visited us, delighting in the country and in the well-disposed people. The holiday-time was gladly made use of for expeditions among the mountains. The close intercourse with the men of the village was also beneficial to the school, of which the wants were amply supplied. Without any application, the common councillor let me know, that the allowed quantity of wood appeared to him too small; but I need not mind that, as I had only to state how much I wanted, and I should have enough given me. The scholars were eager to show attentions to my little ones, and to render voluntary services for our little household and farm. They took care of the garden, mowed the grass, and made the hay; I received from them the earliest strawberries and cherries, and when the rivulet was fished, the most beautiful trout. Since the examination, their zeal for learning had increased. The German and French compositions of the clever ones were very creditable; they solved equations of the second degree with facility, could explain the workmanship of a watch, a mill, and a steam-engine, and also the laws of their working; besides this, they could read Cornelius Nepos and Cæsar. Instruction in the history of their Fatherland was throughout Switzerland carefully attended to, but only the brilliant parts of it. Every child knew about the battles of Morgarten, Sempach, and Murten; but the submissiveness of their rulers, the French pensions and decorations were generally passed over in silence. It appeared to me more judicious not to give the light without the shadows.

"I did not consider my duty towards those scholars whose inclination to learn was just aroused as ending with the certificate of dismissal. I wished to carry them on farther, up to the Canton school at Solothurn, which, besides a literary, had a technical class. With this object, it was necessary to provide for their maintenance, for they were, generally speaking, the sons of poor parents; those who were conscious that they would one day possess fields, meadows, and cattle, seldom felt the impulse to acquire more than the necessary knowledge. Before the close of the second year's course, two scholars showed themselves fit for the Canton school. I went to Solothurn, and spoke to the Landammann Munzinger and to the Councillor of the Board of Education, Dr. F. Both were worthy men, who provided for the boys in a great measure out of their own income. Soon I brought them a second, then a third couple. For these also, the necessary maintenance was found, especially as all who had entered had shown themselves worthy. But Dr. F. remarked to me, that he did not see the possibility of providing maintenance for any more, and as the parish was wealthy, they could do it themselves. I replied that this, without doubt, would be the case, as soon as the use of the school and of the further education of clever youths was demonstrated to the citizens by examples. Till then the government must provide that such witnesses should be forthcoming. A somewhat cold and dry answer sent the blood to my head: 'If you do not do all that is possible to promote the knowledge and education of the people, you may descend from your seats and let the patricians resume them, for they understand how to govern better than you!' 'Then I must find maintenance for the next scholars that are to be advanced to the higher school;' I advised them to apply to the Capuchins at Solothurn, as these are bound by their rules to give lodging and board to poor students. They had no occasion to repent of it.

"They were a jolly set in the monastery; the civil war in Spain had divided them into two parties, Carlists and Christinos, who mutually wrote satirical verses against each other. The severest satirist, a young Neuer, was the leader among the Christino writers, against whose satirical verses the leader of the Carlists could not make head; he was an old man of family, who long had guarded the holy chair, and only lately exchanged the papal uniform for the cowl. This domestic dispute was, however, kept strictly within the cloister walls, for outside of them the Fathers were good brothers, and everywhere popular. They lived among the people, shared in their pleasures, and comforted the unhappy; they knew every family, and more especially frequented those houses where the women made the best coffee. The favourite saying of the Carlist chief was, 'There is nothing beyond good coffee and making the soul happy.' Every spring two Fathers came to Grenchen, and the young men collected behind them as behind the rat-catcher from Hameln; the first cried out, 'Ho, ho! go and pick up snails!' This call drew all the boys from the houses into the wood. The rich booty gave a delicious dish to the monastery. The young collectors were repaid with holy pictures.

"The news that I had sent two boys to the Capuchins, soon reached the Landammann Munzinger, and at my next visit he asked me, 'Whether I did not know that they instilled principles into the boys, which were different from ours?'—'That I know well,' I answered, 'but I know still more; first, that scholars must live if they would learn; then that boys who have been two years with me, are so perverted, that no Capuchin can do them any good,'—'Then I am content,' said Herr Munzinger.

"I cannot part from this excellent man without consecrating a few words to his memory. He was a tradesman, and had a public shop at Solothurn. He had a philosophical education, was musical, and a man of genuine benevolence. Unselfish, of agreeable appearance and manners, he was inexorable when it was a question of the public weal; he was an opponent of the rule of the old patricians who made use of their power at home and their diplomatic service for their own advantage, and had no feeling for the interests of the people. In the year 1830, Munzinger was at the head of the movement, and the line he took at the popular meeting at Balsthal, on the 5th December, decided the fall of the Patrician government in the Canton of Solothurn. In the construction of the new constitution and laws, in the organisation of the administration, and in his co-operation in their labours for the exemption of the land from burdens, for the establishment of schools, for the formation of roads, for the advancement of agriculture, and the administration of justice, he showed himself wonderfully gifted as a statesman. Though the State only consisted of a few square miles, with some sixty thousand inhabitants, yet the difficulties of constituting it were not less than in a larger State. The old rulers and their adherents, supported by the clergy, made use of the free press, the right of assembly, and their rich ecclesiastical and worldly means, to irritate the people against the new order of things. There was no want of handles to lay hold of, as arrangements for good objects require means, and thus some burdens must be imposed. Thus, for example, the community was bound by a law to erect schools, and further, to endow them with land; where there was no communal property, land had to be bought. Many villages opposed this, but their resistance was forcibly overcome. Later, the chief magistrates thanked the Landammann for having put force upon them for their good. In a different way did the government maintain itself against refractory ecclesiastics. No compulsion was put on them, but care was taken that the peace of families should not be disturbed by their insubordination. The government chose as Chapter-Provost a liberal-thinking ecclesiastic; Rome refused to confirm him; the situation remained unoccupied, and the income went to the school-fund. The clergy refused to solemnise mixed marriages, or to baptise the children; thus such couples had to seek for marriage and baptism elsewhere; but the officials of the district took care that they were entered in the registers. How well Munzinger understood republican freedom may be learnt from an example. The parish of Grenchen possessed extensive woodlands, the property of which was divided between them and the State. The parish had the right to supply themselves with wood, the remainder of the produce went to the State, a condition of things which was evidently not favourable to the cultivation of timber. The government proposed, therefore, that the wood should be divided in proportion to the rights of both sides, and to ascertain this more precisely, sent a commission to Grenchen. The peasants, accustomed from ancient times to be over-reached by the government, were suspicious of being defrauded, and drove the commissioners out of the village. Next morning the landjäger of Solothurn took the most considerable of the country people into custody, and carried them to prison at Solothurn. This had not passed without some heart-breaking scenes; women had been alarmed, the children cried, and the whole village was filled with lamentation and anger.

"From the feeling excited by these circumstances, I went soon after to the Landammann, and lamented the harshness of the proceeding. The men should have been summoned, none of them would have failed to appear, they were not such as would have evaded it. 'Yes,' said Munzinger, 'I, alas, was not here.'—'I thought so,' replied I, 'the affair in that case would have been managed differently.'—'Undoubtedly,' exclaimed the Landammann, colouring, 'I should have sent out the military and occupied the village, the seizure would still have taken place.' I could not conceal my astonishment at this outburst of anger. 'Yes,' continued Munzinger, 'you, with your monarchical notions, can be cautious and indulgent; there are always gendarmes and soldiers enough at hand to step in if necessary. We have not these means; the people have a great degree of freedom, but we cannot allow that in one single case even a hair's-breadth should be over-stepped.' A true and manly word.

"The Landammann had the welfare of the Confederation as much at heart as that of the Canton, and as the people at home submitted to his discipline because they recognised that it was for their good, so also his guidance was followed in the affairs of the Confederation. In the Sonderbund war, Solothurn, although Catholic, was on the side of the Diet; its artillery distinguished itself in action, and left many valiant men on the field of battle. Munzinger joined in forming the new constitution; he was elected to the Diet, and by this into the Executive Council. Switzerland honoured one of their best citizens in choosing him as President of the Bund, and he dedicated to his Fatherland, from which he was too early torn away, all his powers up to the last hours of his life.

"The year 1840 introduced into Switzerland and Germany the alarm of French invasion; General Aymar had marched from Lyons, and the forces of the Confederacy met him on their frontier. The Solothurn Battalion, Disteli, which was marching through Grenchen, was refreshed by the inhabitants with food and drink, and animated by the cry 'Thrash them soundly,' 'Fear nothing!' The storm was allayed, as Louis Napoleon withdrew of his own accord from Switzerland to save them from war with France. The clouds of war over Germany disappeared also, but they left behind a lasting uneasiness in the mind of the people, which was the beginning of a succession of years of political excitement. At this period I was recalled to Germany by the persuasions of friends and feelings of duty, but it cost me a long inward struggle.