Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4

by Wolfgang Menzel

In 1833, five hundred Polish refugees, suspected of supporting the Frankfort attempt in Germany, quitted France for Switzerland, and soon afterward unsuccessfully invaded Savoy in conjunction with some Italian refugees. Crowds of refugees from every quarter joined them and formed a central association, Young Europe, whence branched others, Young France, Young Poland, Young Germany, and Young Italy. The principal object of this association was to draw the German journeymen apprentices (Handwerks-bursche) into its interests, and for this purpose a banquet was given by it to these apprentices in the Steinbrölzle near Berne. These intrigues produced serious threats on the side of the great powers, and Switzerland yielded. The greater part of the refugees were compelled to emigrate through France to England and America. Napoleon's nephew was, at a later period, also expelled Switzerland. His mother, Queen Hortense, consort to Louis, ex-king of Holland, daughter to Josephine Beauharnais, consequently both stepdaughter and sister-in-law to Napoleon, possessed the beautiful estate of Arenenberg on the Lake of Constance. On her death it was inherited by her son, Louis, who, during his residence there, occupied himself with intrigues directed against the throne of Louis Philippe. In concert with a couple of military madmen, he introduced himself into Strasburg, where, with a little hat, in imitation of that worn by Napoleon, on his head, he proclaimed himself emperor in the open streets. He was easily arrested. This act was generously viewed by Louis Philippe as that of a senseless boy, and he was restored to liberty upon condition of emigrating to America. No sooner, however, was he once more free, than, returning to Switzerland, he set fresh intrigues on foot. Louis Philippe, upon this, demanded his expulsion. Constance would willingly have extended to him the protection due to one of her citizens, but how were the claims of a Swiss citizen to be rendered compatible with those of a pretender to the throne of France? French troops already threatened the frontiers of Switzerland, where, as in 1793, the people, instead of making preparations for defence, were at strife among themselves. Louis at length voluntarily abandoned the country in 1838.

In the beginning of 1839, Dr. Strauss, who, in 1835, had, in his work entitled "The Life of Jesus," declared the Gospels a cleverly devised fable, and had, at great pains, sought to refute the historical proofs of the truth of Christianity, was, on that account, appointed, by the council of education and of government at Zurich, professor of divinity to the new Zurich academy. Burgomaster Hirzel (nicknamed "the tree of liberty" on account of his uncommon height) stood at the head of the enthusiastic government party by which this extraordinary appointment had been effected; the people, however, rose en masse, the great council was compelled to meet, and the anti-Christian party suffered a most disgraceful defeat. Strauss, who had not ventured to appear in person on the scene of action, was offered and accepted a pension. The Christian party, concentrated into a committee of faith, under the presidency of Hurliman, behaved with extreme moderation, although greatly superior in number to their opponents. The radical government, ashamed and perplexed, committed blunder after blunder, and at length threatened violence. Upon this, Hirzel, the youthful priest of Pfäffikon, rang the alarm from his parish church, and, on the 6th of September, 1839, led his parishioners into the city of Zurich. This example was imitated by another crowd of peasantry, headed by a physician named Rahn. The government troops attacked the people and killed nine men. On the fall of the tenth, Hegetschwiler, the councillor of state, a distinguished savant and physician, while attempting to restore harmony between the contending parties, the civic guard turned against the troops and dispersed them. The radical government and the Strauss faction also fled. Immense masses of peasantry from around the lake entered the city. A provisional government, headed by Hiesz and Muralt, and a fresh election, insured tranquillity.

In the canton of Schwyz, a lengthy dispute, similar to that between the Vettkoper and Schieringer in Friesland, was carried on between the Horn and Hoof-men (the wealthy in possession of cattle and the poor who only possessed a cow or two) concerning their privileges. In 1839, a violent opposition, similar in nature, was made by the people of Vaud against the oligarchical power assumed by a few families.

The closing of the monasteries in the Aargau in 1840 gave rise to a dispute of such importance as to disturb the whole of the confederation. In the Aargau the church and state had long and strenuously battled, when the monastery of Muri was suddenly invested as the seat of a conspiracy, and, on symptoms of uneasiness becoming perceptible among the Catholic population, the whole country was flooded with twenty thousand militia raised on the spur of the moment, and the closing of the monastery of Muri and of all the monasteries in the Aargau was proclaimed and carried into execution. The rest of the Catholic cantons and Rome vehemently protested against this measure, and even some of the Reformed cantons, for the sake of peace, voted at the diet for the maintenance of the monasteries: the Aargau, nevertheless, steadily refused compliance.

[Footnote 1: In Lucerne, the disorderly trial of a numerous band of robbers, which had been headed by an extremely beautiful and talented girl, named Clara Wendel, made the more noise on account of its bringing the bandit-like murder of Keller, the aged mayor, and intrigues, in which the name of the nuncio was mixed up, before the public. 1825.]

CCLXIX. The Revolution in Brunswick, Saxony, Hesse, Etc.

The Belgian revolution spread into Germany. Liege infected her neighbor, Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on the 30th of August, 1830, the workmen belonging to the manufactories raised a senseless tumult which was a few days afterward repeated by their fellow-workmen at Elberfeld, Wetzlar, and even by the populace of Berlin and Breslau, but which solely took a serious character in Brunswick, Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse.

Charles, duke of Brunswick, was at Paris, squandering the revenue derived from his territories, on the outburst of the July revolution, which drove him back to his native country, where he behaved with increased insolence. His obstinate refusal to abolish the heavy taxes, to refrain from disgraceful sales, to recommence the erection of public buildings, and to recognize the provincial Estates, added to his threat to fire upon the people and his boast that he knew how to defend his throne better than Charles X. of France, so maddened the excitable blood of his subjects that, after throwing stones at the duke's carriage and at an actress on whom he publicly bestowed his favors, they stormed his palace and set fire to it over his head, September 7, 1830. Charles escaped through the garden. His brother, William, supported by Hanover and Prussia, replaced him, recognized the provincial Estates, granted a new constitution, built a new palace, and re-established tranquillity. The conduct of the expelled duke, who, from his asylum in the Harzgebirge, made a futile attempt to regain possession of Brunswick by means of popular agitation and by the proclamation of democratical opinions, added to the contempt with which he treated the admonitions of his superiors, induced the federal diet to recognize his brother's authority. The ex-duke has, since this period, wandered over England, France, and Spain, sometimes engaged in intrigues with Carlists, at others with republicans. In 1836, he accompanied a celebrated female aeronaut in one of her excursions from London. The balloon accidentally upset and the duke and his companion fell to the ground. He was, however, as in his other adventures, more frightened than hurt.

In Saxony, the progress of enlightenment had long rendered the people sensible of the errors committed by the old and etiquettish aristocracy of the court and diet. As early as 1829, all the grievances had been recapitulated in an anonymous printed address, and, in the beginning of 1830, on the venerable king, Antony (brother to Frederick Augustus, deceased 1827), declaring invalid the settlement of his affairs by the Estates, which evinced a more liberal spirit than they had hitherto done, and on the prohibition of the festivities on the 25th of June, the anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, by the town council of Dresden and by the government commissioner of the university of Leipzig from devotion to the Catholic court, a popular tumult ensued in both cities, which was quelled but to be, a few weeks later, after the revolution of July, more disastrously renewed. The tumult commenced at Leipzig on the 2d of September and lasted several days, and, during the night of the 9th, Dresden was stormed from without by two immense crowds of populace, by whom the police buildings and the town-house were ransacked and set on fire. Disturbances of a similar nature broke out at Chemnitz and Bautzen. The king, upon this, nominated his nephew, Prince Frederick, who was greatly beloved by the people, co-regent; the civic guard restored tranquillity, the most crying abuses, particularly those in the city administration, were abolished, and the constitution was revised. The popular minister, Lindenan, replaced Einsiedel, who had excited universal detestation.

In the electorate of Hesse, the period of terror occasioned by the threatening letters addressed to the elector was succeeded by the agitation characteristic of the times. On the 6th of September, 1830, a tumultuous rising took place at Cassel; on the 24th, the people of Hanau destroyed every custom-house stationed on the frontier. The public was so unanimous and decided in opinion that the elector not only agreed to abolish the abuses, to convoke the Estates, and to grant a new constitution, but even placed the reins of government provisionally in the hands of his son, Prince William, in order to follow the Countess Reichenbach, who had been driven from Cassel by the insults of the populace. Prince William was, however, as little as his father inclined to make concessions; and violent collisions speedily ensued. He wedded Madame Lehmann, the wife of a Prussian officer, under the name of the Countess von Schaumburg, and closed the theatre against his mother, the electress, for refusing to place herself at her side in public. The citizens sided with the electress, and when, after some time had elapsed, she again ventured to visit the theatre, the doors were no longer closed against her, and, on her entrance, she found the house completely filled. On the close of the evening's entertainment, however, while the audience were peaceably dispersing, they were charged by a troop of cavalry, who cut down the defenceless multitude without distinction of age or sex, December 7, 1830. The Estates, headed by Professor Jordan, vainly demanded redress; Giesler, the head of the police, was alone designated as the criminal; the scrutiny was drawn to an interminable length and produced no other result than Giesler's decoration with an order by the prince.