¶ And we may understand now certain sarcastic remarks sometimes made about Germany by her historical enemies: “Paper, cheese, sauerkraut, ham, and matches, served to unite German hearts more than political ties!”
¶ This slur is ill-deserved; at best, it simply means that the advantages of the “Zollverein” were economic as well as political; and, in later years, the necessity for a common system of doing business played a deservedly important part in helping along Bismarck’s plans.
¶ The customs league, called the “Zollverein,” is generally held to be the very beginning of practical unity for Germany.
¶ On the poetical side of German character, earliest appeals for the Fatherland—one and united!—were expressed down through the years; long indeed before actual political union was possible, Germany’s bards, in their impassioned, semi-religious songs awakened in German hearts the spirit of intense longing for the common Fatherland, based on blood-brotherhood and language.
¶ One of the famous types of this patriot-poet was Arndt, son of an emancipated slave. Arndt was a noble democrat; his history of slavery in Pomerania inspired Adolphus to abolish that evil, 1806; the Prussian aristocrats held Arndt a life-long grudge.
“Spirit of the Times,” his patriotic trumpet-call aroused Prussians to fight France. Napoleon tracked the lyric poet out; Arndt fled to Sweden; but continued to write for the cause. He returned to Germany, 1809.
¶ “Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?” remains one of the great semi-religious songs of nations. Arndt asks what comprises the Fatherland? Surely not Prussia, not Swabia, nor this nor that, but all side by side comprise the German brotherhood of race and language.
Where is the German Fatherland?
Is’t Swabia? Is’t Prussia’s land?
Is’t where the grape glows on the Rhine,
Where sea-gulls skim the Baltic’s brine?
Oh, no! more great, more grand
Must be the German Fatherland!
¶ Here is a spirited verse from “The God That Lets the Iron Grow”: