Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II.

by Gustav Freytag

But in the rooms of the German peasants, the picture of the old king, in his three-cornered hat and small pigtail, did not turn his earnest look in vain on the life he had revived; nor in vain had the mothers of the present generation run to the churches to pray for a blessing on his arms. Now it was that the full blessing of his energetic life truly manifested itself. The spirit of that great man lived again in the German people. Fifty years after the return of the king from the seven years' war, three hundred years after Luther strove earnestly to find his God, the German nation roused itself for the greatest struggle it had ever yet successfully carried on. The fathers now sent out their sons, and the wives their husbands to the war; the Germans encountered death with a song on their lips, to seek a body for the German soul, a state for the fatherland.

In the year 1813, we find the conclusion of that great struggle which began in 1517. From the time of the contest of the Wittenburger Augustine against indulgences, to the march of the German volunteers against Napoleon, the German spirit carried on a great defensive war against a foreign influence, which issuing from Rome well nigh overwhelmed those who had once been the conquerors of the Roman Empire.

From this life-and-death struggle of three hundred years, Germany passed from the bondage of the middle ages into freedom. But though the spirit of the people became free, the reality of a German state was lost to them. The nation was almost annihilated by this unnatural condition. After a death-like exhaustion it recovered itself slowly; the resuscitated spirit was helpless, its form weak and sickly; it was seeking unity of government. By a powerful development of strength, the foundation of it was laid in the beginning of this century.

Henceforth German Protestantism became a living, sound, and manly acquisition, a great national principle, the expression of the German popular mind, the peculiar German characteristic in every domain of ideal and practical life.

We all still feel how deficient and unfinished is the development of this, the highest principle of life in the German nation. But it is this feeling which gives us courage and leads us to struggle onwards.

What are here given from the old records are narratives of individuals of past generations. They are some of them unimportant passages from the lives of insignificant persons. But, as the outward appearance of any stranger we meet, his mode of greeting, and his first words, give us an impression of his individuality, an imperfect, an unfinished impression, but still a whole; so, if we are not mistaken, does each record, in which the impulses of individuals and their peculiar working are portrayed, give us with rapid distinctness a vivid picture of the life of the people; a very imperfect and unfinished picture, but yet, also a whole, round which a large portion of our knowledge and intuitive perceptions rapidly concentrate, like the radii round the centre of a crystal.

If every such picture gives us an impression, that in the soul of each man a miniature picture may be found of the characteristics of his nation; something will be learnt from a succession of these narratives, arranged according to their periods, however much there may be in them that is incidental and arbitrary. We shall discover the stirring and gradual development of a higher intellectual unity, which likewise meets us here in the shape of a distinct individuality; and therefore, these little sketches will perhaps help us to a more lively comprehension, of what we call the life of a nation.

Everywhere man appears to us, by his customs and laws, by language and the whole genial tendencies of his nature, as a small portion of a greater whole. It is true also that this greater whole, appears to us as an intellectual unity, which like an individual, is earthly and perishable, a thing which accomplishes its earthly existence in a century, as a man does his in a certain number of years. Like an individual, a people developes its intellectual capacities in the course of time, but more powerfully and on a grander scale. And further, a people consists of millions of individuals the tide of human life flows in millions of souls, but the conscious and unconscious working together of these millions, produces an intellectual whole, in which the share of individuals often vanishes from our eyes, so that the soul of a whole people seems to us, a self-creative living unity. Who was the man who created languages? who devised the most ancient law of nations? who first thought of giving poetical expression to an elevated tone of mind? It was not individuals who invented these for practical purposes, but a universal intellectual life, which burst forth among thousands who lived together. All the great productions of national power, law, customs, and the constitution of states, are not the work of individual men, but organic creations of a higher life, which in every period shine forth in individuals, yet in all periods seem to unite the intellectual capacities of individuals, in one mighty whole. Each man bears and cultivates within his soul, part of the intellect of the nation; each one possesses its language, a certain amount of knowledge, and a sense of justice and propriety; but in each, this general nationality is coloured, concentrated, and limited by his individuality. Individuals do not represent the language or the moral feelings of the whole; they only are, as it were, the single notes, which joined together produce a harmonious chord as part of the collective nation. One may therefore fairly, and without mysticism, speak of a national soul.

And if one examines more narrowly, one perceives with astonishment, that this law of development of a higher intellectual unity, differs remarkably from that which binds or makes an individual free. A man chooses freely for himself, between what will injure or be beneficial to him and his interests; judiciously does he shape his life, and prudently does he judge the conceptions which reach his soul from the great world. But less conscious, less full of purpose and judgment than the determination of man's will, is the working of the life of the nation. In history, man represents freedom and judgment, but national energy, works incessantly with the mysterious instinctive impulse of a primitive power, and its intellectual conceptions correspond sometimes in a remarkable way, with the process of formation of the silently productive powers of nature, which bring forth from the seed, the stalk, leaves, and flowers of the plant. From this point of view, the life of a nation passes in unceasing alternations from the whole body to the individual, and from the man to the whole body. The life of each man, even the most insignificant, gives a portion of its substance to the nation, and a portion of the collective powers of the nation lives in each man; he transmits soul and body from one generation to another; he adds to the language, and preserves the consciousness of right; all the results of his labours are beneficial to the nation as well as to himself. The course of life of millions runs smoothly and imperceptibly along with the stream. But important personalities develop themselves from the multitude in all directions, gaining a great influence on the whole body. Sometimes a powerful character arises, which in some wide field of action, long rules the spiritual life of the people, and stamps the impress of its individual mind on the age. Then the life of the whole nation, which also flows through our heads and hearts, becomes as familiar to us as is possible for the soul of any individual man; then the whole powers of the people seem for some years working for the one individual, and obeying him as a master. These are the great periods in the formation of a people. Such was Luther to the Germans.

But no nation develops its life independent of others. As the life of one individual works on that of another, so does it happen with nations. Each nation communicates some of its intellectuality to another. Even the practical forms of national existence, its state and its Church, are either advanced, or checked and destroyed by foreign powers. Close is the union of the minds of the nations of Europe, though manifold the contradiction of their interests. How constantly does one nationality derive strength, or experience trouble and disturbance from another! Sometimes the energetic development of some particular national characteristic, exercises for centuries a preponderating influence on another. Thus once did the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans. The German nation has experienced this foreign influence, both for good and for evil. From the ancient world came the holy faith of the Crucified One, to the wild sons of our forefather Tuisco: at the same time this warlike race received countless traditions from the Roman Empire, transforming their whole life. Through the whole of the middle ages, the nation was earnestly endeavouring to make these new acquisitions their own. Again, at the end of this period, after a thousand years had passed, began a new influence of the ancient world. From it came the ideal of the Humanitarians, the forerunners of Luther, and the ideal of the German poets, the forerunners of the war of freedom. On the other hand, from the Romish world, came upon Germany, with the highest claims, the pressure of the despotism of Gregory VII., and Innocent III., the devotion of the restored Church, and the lust of conquest of France. Then did Germany become depopulated, and the national life was endangered; but the foreigners who had penetrated into it with such overpowering force, aided its recovery. All that Italians, French, and English had attained to in science and arts, was introduced into Germany, and to these foreign acquisitions did German culture cling, from the Thirty years' war up to the time of Lessing.