“Of course, you must accept.”
“Must I?”
“Why, of course you must. A chance comes once to every man; let him accept it gladly when it does come.”
Accordingly he accepted the post of Chief of the Chancellery, and began his ten years’ service directly under the Iron Chancellor.
This post is by appointment for three years, and, as a rule, men are not reappointed, but von Rottenburg was enjoying his fourth term when Bismarck went out of office. During all those ten years von Rottenburg rarely left the side of his Chief—the greatest man of his day.
Speaking of the storm and stress of those years, he once said:
“No one can realise the strain of that time. Bismarck was the most remarkable man in the world. His physical health was as wonderful as his mental capacity. He had so much to do, so much to bear, so much to arrange, that I naturally saved him in every way I could, therefore nearly everything of importance went through me. That alone was a great responsibility. I settled all I could, arranged what interviews I thought necessary, and played buffer between him and the great world outside. But I often felt he reposed too much confidence in me.”
Bismarck objected to German being written or printed in Latin characters, and never read a book not printed in German letters. Von Rottenburg told me Bismarck had the greatest mathematical head he ever knew and a colossal brain. A man of huge bulk, vast appetite, and unending thirst, he was once at a supper-party in Berlin where six hundred oysters were ordered for ten people. He ate the greater share.
“Thank Heaven!” once exclaimed von Rottenburg; “during all those ten years of constant attendance and companionship with Bismarck we hardly ever had a disagreeable word, and instead of taking power from me, year by year he placed more upon my shoulders.”
“Practically nothing went to the Chancellor that did not pass through my hands. I shiver to think of the times I was disturbed at night with messages of importance, telegrams, special messengers, or letters marked Private; all these things seemed to have a particularly unhappy knack of arriving during the hours one should have had repose. It was very seldom, however, that I went to Bismarck, as I never disturbed him at night unless on a matter of urgent business, feeling that his sleep was as important to him as his health was to the German nation.”