March 25th.—For about a week past various newspapers have published a statement to the effect that Keudell has tendered his resignation on the ground that the alliance between Germany and Italy which was concluded a short time since was not drawn up through him but through the Italian Ambassador in Berlin. A diplomatic negotiation of the highest importance had therefore been carried on over his head, and he had been merely instructed quite at the end to hand over to Robilant the reward for his good offices in the shape of the Black Eagle. In other words, Bismarck had looked upon him as fit only to fulfil representative functions of a formal order, and had acted accordingly. At last! How often does the pitcher go to the well before it is broken, said I to myself, as I read a démenti in the Kreuzzeitung. So not yet awhile? (...)
At 10 A.M. on the 28th of April one of the Chancery attendants brought me the following note: “The Imperial Chancellor would feel obliged if Dr. Busch would do him the honour to call upon him to-day at 2.30 P.M. Berlin, April 28th, 1887.” (No signature.) I went at the hour appointed and was told by the porter that Rottenburg wished to see me first. The latter said that the Prince had two commissions for me: one a description of the League of Patriots, and the other an article on the Hammerstein motion (respecting the Evangelical Church). At 3 o’clock Theiss showed me into the Prince, with whom I remained until 3.45 P.M. He again complained a great deal about his ailments and insomnia, as well as of being overburdened with work by all the Ministries. “Nevertheless,” I remarked, “on your last birthday you outlived the year in which you prophesied you were to die,” and I reminded him of what he had said at Versailles and at Varzin, adding that I now took the liberty for the first time of congratulating him on his birthday, because the last one marked an important division of his life. He smiled and said: “Yes, a division. I had observed that there were certain divisions in my life, with changes and alterations physical and mental, a certain recurrent cycle of years (I believe he said eleven) and from that and some cabalistic figures I had reckoned that I should reach the age of seventy-one years and die in 1886. As that has not happened I shall now probably live to the age of eighty-three or eighty-four.” He then came to speak of the subject which had led him to send for me. It appeared that he was not thinking so much of Hammerstein and Co., as of the embarrassment of the Ultramontanes in dealing with their “priestocracy,” the demagogues of the middle and lower clergy, whom they had summoned to their assistance against the Government, and who had now cast off discipline and were disinclined to follow the Pope’s instructions. He compared their embarrassment to that of the wizard’s apprentice in Goethe, and spoke of the “Anti-Papal Catholics.” He concluded: “I should not like to have that said in one of our papers. We still want the Centre party for the sugar and spirit taxes.”
I then mentioned the League of Patriots, and afterwards turned the conversation on to Alsace-Lorraine. On my observing that it might, perhaps, be possible to annex it to Prussia, or divide it between Bavaria and Baden, he replied: “To unite it to Prussia would strengthen by thirty votes the Opposition in the Lower House of the Prussian Diet, where things are now very tolerable. The Bavarians will not hear of it either, and still less the people in Baden, who are in absolute terror of such a change. If we were only living in the time of Charlemagne we could remove the Alsacians to Posen, and place the inhabitants of the latter country between the Rhine and the Vosges, or form an uninhabited desert between ourselves and the French. As it is, however, we must try some other method.” We then spoke about the Crown Prince, who, he said, was understood to have a polypus in the throat. It would be no wonder if he did not recover, as “she” never allowed him to have more than eleven degrees (Réaumur) of warmth in his room, and obliged him at Ems to go into the cold and windy mountain districts, and to cross the Rhine in storm and rain, &c.
I said: “It appears that Diest-Daber wishes to proceed with his action once more.”
He: “But how can he do that?” He then gave me an account of the affair, which originated in an action against Diest for libel. This was afterwards transformed by Klotz into a prosecution against him, Bismarck, which resulted in his vindication. He concluded: “Diest is suffering from the mania of persecution, that is to say, in its active form—he must persecute somebody. It would now seem to have turned into megalomania.” On our coming to speak of his fortune, I said: “To show what superstitions prevail on this subject, a tradesman, who is otherwise a sensible man, told me recently that you possess a fortune of at least a hundred millions.” He thereupon gave me a detailed account of his circumstances, and spoke of the value of his various estates, adding that he was not thinking—“as his sons wished him to do”—of increasing his capital, but rather of rounding off and improving his property. He mentioned Chorow and Sedlitz, and the purchases of land in the Sachsenwald, and similar matters. “I cannot help it,” he said. “When a neighbour’s property wedges itself into mine, and I see a fine clump of trees on it that are going to be cut down, I must buy that piece of ground.” In making such purchases he often paid too much, and frequently the estates were not well managed by those to whom they were entrusted. Thus, although in good years, when high prices were to be had for timber, &c., his profits might amount to about 100,000 thalers, he had, on several occasions, had no surplus whatever over his expenses. “Moreover,” he continued, “it costs me more to live in the country than in Berlin; and in Varzin my horses, with their fodder, cost me more than here. If I could sell my estates at what is probably their real value, I might doubtless get four millions for them.” He referred me to Rottenburg for the material for the articles. The latter handed me for use in the article on the League of Patriots the indictment drawn up by Tessendorf of Leipzig, the Imperial Chief Prosecutor (21st April, 1887), against ten inhabitants of the Reichsland (beginning with Köchlin-Claudon of Mülhausen, and winding up with Humbert of Metz), giving the history and description of the association. For the second article on the “Anti-Papal Catholics,” he sent me a few days later, by a Chancery messenger, a report of the Oberpräsident of Westphalia to the Minister of Public Worship, together with about a dozen newspaper extracts. The article on Deroulede’s horde appeared in No. 19 of the Grenzboten under the title of “The League of Patriots,” and the other, “Embarrassments of the Centre Party,” in No. 20 (of the 12th of May). I personally left both at the palace for the Chancellor.
During May and June Bucher met Hehn and myself regularly every Wednesday evening, sometimes at Huth’s and sometimes at Trarbach’s. He wrote for me the Grenzboten article on “Maharajah Dhuleep Singh,” which appeared in No. 26. He also promised a further article for that paper, drawing a comparison between the reigns of Queen Victoria and Queen Bess, of course not to the advantage or credit of the former, as, according to him, the Chief, with whom he had recently dined, and who had invited him to pay him shortly a visit at Friedrichsruh, wished to see something of the kind done in connection with the Queen’s jubilee. On the 28th of June Bucher started for the dragon’s lair in the Sachsenwald, having sent me a card on the previous day to let me know. He was back in Berlin in about ten days. Five of these were spent at Friedrichsruh, and the remainder of the time with Kusseroff in Hamburg. He told me that the Chief was not disposed to let him fire off the articles on the two English Queens. He would think over the matter, but in any case it should not appear in the Grenzboten, as that paper’s connection with him was suspected.
On the 1st of March, 1888, I received a letter from Rottenburg requesting me to call upon him, as the Imperial Chancellor had instructed him to discuss a certain matter with me. I went to him on the morning of the 2nd of March, and he told me that the Prince wished to have a portion of Beust’s book, Aus drei Viertel-Jahrhunderten, beginning on page 346 of the second volume, dealt with in the press, and for that purpose he would give me verbal instructions. I should first, however, read up the book in order to inform myself on the subject. When I had done so I was to send him, Rottenburg, a few lines, and he would then report to the Chancellor and let me know the day and hour on which the latter would receive me. I borrowed Beust’s book from Hehn on the same day, and carefully read over the part in question several times. This referred to the attitude of Austria before and during our last war with France, together with the differences it produced between Beust and Grammont. On the 5th I wrote to Rottenburg that I now believed myself to be sufficiently acquainted with the subject to understand and turn to good account any further information which the Imperial Chancellor might give me. I received no answer, however, inviting me to see the Chief. He was occupied with more important matters than Beust’s former policy, the illness and death of the Emperor William, and the accession of his son to the throne.
On the evening of the 28th of March at Knoop’s Bucher related the following particulars to myself and Hehn. (Casually foreseeing what was generally known a few days later, or informed of and prepared for it.)
“Princess Victoria, the daughter of our new Emperor and Empress, now about twenty-two years of age, was to have been married some time since to the Battenberger, who at that time was still Prince of Bulgaria, but already a tool of English policy. He made the acquaintance of the Queen of England’s granddaughter during his European tour. The thought of a marriage was probably suggested by the grandmother in London, who wished to see the position of her servant secured against Russia by an alliance with our Court. The scheme leaked out, and came to the ears of the Chief. Of course he was anything but pleased, and did not conceal his objections from the Emperor, but on the contrary expressed them both verbally and in a statement which I had to prepare. It would show us in a bad light at St. Petersburg, and it was not right to subject a Prussian Princess to the eventuality of a compulsory departure from Sofia. The Emperor recognised this and issued his veto, which must have been very unpleasant for the Crown Princess.” (...)
April 6th.—On the Chief’s birthday Prince William, now the Crown Prince, while offering his congratulations in person, invited himself to dine with the Chancellor. During dinner, according to the newspapers, he proposed a toast to the following effect: “The Empire is like an army corps that has lost its commander-in-chief in the field, while the officer who stands next to him in rank lies severely wounded. At this critical moment forty-six million loyal German hearts turn with solicitude and hope towards the standard and the standard bearer in whom all their expectations are centred. The standard bearer is our illustrious Prince, our great Chancellor. Let him lead us. We will follow him. Long may he live!” Coming from a member of the reigning house such language should mean a great deal. “Our great Chancellor”—words already used a short time ago by his Imperial and Royal Highness—“let him lead us; we will follow him!” What high appreciation and what modest self-suppression and honourable subordination on the part of the future Emperor! May God reward him for it, and grant him victory under that standard! But what does his mother think of it? Yesterday a Vienna telegram in the Kölnische Zeitung, which was greeted with scarcely concealed satisfaction by the Progressist newspapers, reported that Bismarck intended to retire. This leads one to think of the “Englishwoman” on the throne of the Hohenzollerns, and of “Friedrich der Britte” (Frederick the Briton) who is to govern according to her views. Has the toast of the 1st instant given offence to Guelphish self-conceit? Or has the Chief again advised against the suitor with the Bulgarian kalpak, who may have pressed his suit again and with a better prospect of success after the death of the Emperor William? At 10.45 A.M. this morning I handed the following letter to the porter at the palace to be immediately forwarded to the Chief: “In presence of the extraordinary report of the Kölnische Zeitung, which is now being circulated in the newspapers, I would beg your Serene Highness kindly to remember that in the future as in the past I hold myself absolutely and unconditionally at your disposal, and shall always continue to do so.”