DR. STRAUSS ON THE WAR.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Lindau, Lake of Constance, August 20, 1.870. Sin,—Just opposite to this smiling Bavarian town—which has been called a German Venice—on the Swiss shore of the Lake of Constance, lies the insignificant town of Rorschach, at this season frequented by Germans seeking Swiss air, and yet desirous of not going far for it. Amongst the visitors at this secluded spot I now learn, from a publication which in many senses has the character of a political manifesto, that there has been and perhaps still is, a, man of European reputation, though not as a politician, Dr. Strauss, the author of "The Life of Jesus." And yet, though the- publication in question comes from the pen of one who has no acknowledged position as a party leader, of one whose life is passed in the unconspicuous world of solitary study, I venture to invite the attention of those who, from outer regions, may be occupied in, gauging the moral forces at work in Germany, to this remarkable composition, as a singularly significant expression of the sentiments which are actuating the German people, and which will have to. be taken account of by those on whom must devolve the duty of reducing the outcome of this war into results satisfactory to the- public mind of the country. The reason why I am disposed to- attach such peculiar significance as a public symptom to Dr. Strauss's present utterance, is because he happens to be a man. who, quite apart from his individual literary qualities, unites in an- exceptional manner clearly distinct elements, as a rule typical of two fibres of the German community that are generally assumed to be widely separated from each other in instincts and sympathies. Dr. Strauss is a Southerner born and bred, and, moreover, of that Suabian stock which of all the South-German stocks is the one endowed with the most powerful qualities ; and above all, is notoriously animated with an exuberant elasticity of intellec- tual self-assertion, that has always shown itself stubbornly re- calcitrant against the rigid discipline proper to the Prussian system. Dr. Strauss's mind is richly gifted with all the charac- teristic faculties of his especial countrymen ; their metaphysical imaginativeness, their faculty for abstract enthusiasm, their buoyant receptiveness for speculative conceptions ; while he is so much a Southerner in his personal tastes that in spite of literary affinities drawing in other directions, he has continued to reside in the laud lying south of the Main. But while retaining in unim- paired freshness the eager faculties distinctive of his race, the author of "The Life of Jesus" combines with them an intel- lect clarified from local prejudice by immersion in the fluid. of Northern thought. Thus, the result was brought about that this singularly independent spirit, removed in its hermit- like existence above any suspicion of self-seeking motive, and so little an official Prussian as to have written a power- fully caustic satire on the late king, nevertheless felt so keenly the political value of Prussia, that notwithstanding his marked Southern tendencies, he long ago declared his belief that through her alone Germany could acquire effective political re- organization. The sympathy developed in Dr. Strauss by hard. thought, under the action of a tremendous political crisis, is now shared in by the masses, after having been impetuously repudiated by them. The antagonism between Prussia and the South, so strong in the latter but a few weeks ago, is suddenly effaced in the flush of common action in defence of German in- dependence against French arrogance. At the first moment of coalition, no doubt, the Southern element, uncomfortably overcome with some misgiving as to its military efficiency, was affected with an unusual humbleness of mind, and felt disposed to look up with thankful satisfaction to the presence of approved Prussian prowess. The brilliant incidents that have marked the beginning of the campaign—incidents in which the Southerners have played a prominent part—have, however, already gone a good way towards reviving the abashed self-confidence of their minds and rekindling the quenched fire of their peculiar temper. There are possible embarrassments which might spring from an inflation of this particular temper, and I would invite attention to the sentiments that run through the de- liberate composition of one so superior for severity of thought and collected criticism as Dr. Strauss. No man can be less disposed to let his reason be run away with by excited senti- ment. From him, schooled as he is in the sternest school of close thought, and nurtured in the closest maxims of realistic principles, we may expect to see, at all events, the least possible exag- gerated sentiment ; and whatever such a man does lay down as coining within the range of indispensables that must not be lost sight of in the pending issue, we may well be justified in assuming must also enter absolutely into the fundamental articles of the political belief that has laid hold of the far more impassioned masses. It is on this ground that Dr. Strauss's deliberate views on the issues at stake in the present desperate conflict between France and Germany appear to me of intrinsic value for ascertaining what undoubtedly floats before the mind of a most important section of Germany as entering among the objects which must be com- prised in a peace, if that peace is to satisfy the mind of that section, and to be regarded as a really national achievement by the German people as a whole.
The form given to the declaration of opinion is characteristic of the man. It comes before us in the shape of a letter (and it is well to note the date, as of August 12, that is, subsequent to the defeat of MacMahon which so greatly elated the spirit of South Germany), addressed to M. Renan in acknowledgment of a com- plimentary one on Dr. Strauss's recent book ou Voltaire. Accosting his French colleague in letters as a man who, by his intelligence, is necessarily above the vulgar prejudices of the many, Dr. §trauss treats him to the full confidence of his innermost estimates of France and French matters and their relative position to Germany and German matters—politically and ethically considered—in lan- guage as distinct and calmly incisive as it is free from pedantic involutions—for no mind is more undimmed by pedantry than Strauss's. In truth, a spade is called simply a spade throughout this letter, which, while couched in a style of lucid courtesy quite freezing, must be to most Frenchmen a very dagger piercing to the quick their vanity. I cannot here summarize the consummate touches which Dr. Strauss deals with his scalping-knife to the marked fea- ture of a history which Frenchmen have been wont to consider pages of glory. What I wish to draw attention to are the peculiar views which in this unbosoming of his heart to a Frenchman, as- sumed to be able to apprehend them, Dr. Strauss drops in regard to existing circumstances. He confides to his Gallic confidant that since 1866 there had been in Germauy a general conviction of an inevitable war with France, "not because we wished it, but as we knew the French well enough to be aware that they would be bent thereon " ; a theorem he proceeds to make good by quiet demon- stration from the action of France towards Germany on various occasions. He then dwells with telling force on the incidents in and subsequent to 1866, and the attitude of the Imperial Govern- ment. "It was the sour looks of France at Prussia and the Northern Confederation that taught us how salvation lay in these, as her ogling with Southern Separation made us aware how in it .lay our greatest defect." It was the manner in which France demeaned herself in these respects that opened the eyes of "even the blindest" to the fact that the France ruled by Napoleon III, could not restrain herself from wilfully striving to thwart the consolidation of Germany, even within those geographical limits that had been accepted as the legacy of historical facts. For the political incidents which furnished the real grievances on which quarrel has been picked by French jealousy were strictly domestic, involving no pretensions that aimed at a claim to aught outside the recognized circumscription of Germany, though now, indeed, Dr. Strauss intimates significantly, things have become modified. "There had been no intention of claiming in the course of our re- construction those parts of our edifice in former times usurped by a violent neighbour ; but now that the sword has been appealed to, these old questions RAVE AGAIN REVIVED," and he goes on to say that what it will be indispensable for Germany to achieve is the securing of solid "guarantees that will put it out of the power of a restless neighbour at will to disturb us in the labours of peace, and deprive us of the fruits of our industry." In what such guarantees must consist, according to Dr. Strauss, is sufficiently indicated in the previous quotation, and his clearly expressed hope that the "present must prove The last Napoleon."
It is my firm conviction that these views, uttered by Dr. Strauss, are the expression of a sentiment which is powerfully on
the rise throughout Germany, and notably so throughout Southern Germany. I can note the sensible, even daily growth of the feeling that Alsace and Lorraine must be wrested back, and that the war must be now pushed through to a point where for good and all a curb can be put on the restive nature of French ambition. I do not write with an intention of advocating such sentiments, their policy or impolicy I leave to you to pronounce upon ; but I wish to bring prominently under notice the rapidly increasing force of a moral element, which, whether reasonable or unreasonable, desirable or undesirable, is becoming seriously for- midable. Alsace and Lorraine, and the complete straitwaist- coating for an indefinite period of the Napoleonic element, these are the ideas now present to the mind of every German. At the same time, I must note that, though such sentiments are apparent on all sides, in my opinion there is to be found a solid counter,- weight to the danger of exaggerated impulses getting the upper hand, in the great confidence now generally felt in the vigour and firmness of those who direct the public affairs of Germany,
and in her immense strength. The brilliant victories in the field, in the first place, have disagreeably disconcerted that arch intriguer Baron Beust, who has rapidly drawn in his horns, and in doing so has deprived the Separatist faction in Bavaria of that non-French military support without which it never could hope to have a chance of effecting anything. Equally disastrous for this party has been the quite unexpected abandonment of Rome by the Emperor Napoleon, for this has at once knocked out of the hearts of the Ultramontanes the special motive for sympathy with Imperial France. The Catholic party, pure and simple, which has no patriotism, but only an ecclesiastical fanaticism, has thus found itself of a sudden adrift without a compass, and conse- quently is quite out of its reckoning, without cohesion, and with- out concert. Finally, there comes into play the natural sympathy of a brave population for brave men like the Prussian princes, who have so gallantly borne themselves on the battle-field, and the equally natural annoyance inspired in the breast of the same at the contrast to such manly worth presented by the Sovereigns of Bavaria and Wtirtemberg,—the former shutting himself up in his country seat with musicians, while his soldiers are bearing them- selves like heroes ; the latter indifferent to all but individual plea- sure, and vegetating in his place without even the shadow of an occupation. In all this, destiny is certainly playing wondrously into the hand of Prussia, which is now gaining that moral adhesion of the Southern populations which has hitherto been her great want for the cementing of her ascendancy. But precisely in proportion to this growth in popular recognition will also grow her obligations at the moment of making peace, for if that peace is to prove an instrument for the consolidation of Germany under Prussian headship, that peace must be a national one, responding to the sentiments of the country at large, embodying guarantees for the fulfilment of demands not merely Prussian in that specific sense which made to so many Germans an eyesore of the provisions of the treaty of Nikolsburg. Undeniably, the problem awaiting solution is calculated to task in no small degree the statesman- ship of the Minister who is called upon to deal with it. It is to be devoutly hoped that the ready skill so often tested will, on this occasion, again prove equal to the need, and furnish the instrument not of a merely patched-up armistice, but of a solid and permanent peace.—I am, Sir, &c., AN ANGLO-GERMAN.
Previous page
