THE CRUSADING SPIRIT IN GERMANY.
THE German nation is respectable, even when it is intoxi- cated and oppressive. No one can read the wild shriek of the national party in Germany for the reclamation of German soil and still more of German souls from the debasement of French occupation and French ideas, without recognizing in it a certain nobility of air that cannot, we fear, be conceded to the corresponding shriekings of the French for the glory of conquest and the natural boundary' of the Rhine. Still, Englishmen should clearly understand that the Germans are unquestionably upset by their great victories, and are daily disposed to agitate more violently for principles as dangerous to Europe as they are intrinsically unsound and unreasonable. Here, for instance, is a pamphlet by Professor Treitschke, of Heidelberg, announcing himself a Professor of History not only on his title-page, but by an ostentatious and almost grotesque profusion of historic allusions in his argument, who, though he also echoes the official excuse for taking Alsace and part of Lorraine, that it is absolutely necessary for German safety, him- self rests with infinitely more satisfaction on the doctrine that it is a duty which Germany owes to the spell-bound descendants of German ancestors in Alsace and Lorraine, to tear them away from the debasing Celtic ties which they have formed for themselves to expel the demon within them, and restore them to their right mind. "These territories are ours," says the enthusiastic Professor, "by the Right of the sword, and we shall dispose of them in virtue of a higher Right, the Right of the German nation, which will not permit its lost .children to remain strangers to the German Empire. We Germans, who know Germany and France, know better than these unfortunates themselves what is good for the people of Elsass, who have remained under the misleading influences of their French connection outside the sympathies of new Germany. Against their will we shall restore them to their true selves." Indeed, Professor Treitschke, throughout the pamphlet, professes to treat the Gallicized Germans of Alsace and Lorraine precisely as benevolent persons in England pro- pose to treat that other class of "unfortunates" whom they try to rescue, by force, gentle if possible, if not, then ungentle, from moral destruction. "At all times," says the Professor, the subjection of a German race to France has been an unhealthy thing ; to-day it is an offence against the reason of History,—avassalship of free men to half-educated barbarians." "The attempt to degrade the language of a nation which is one of the standard-bearers of civilization into the rudeness of the Celtic patois of the Bretons is sheer insanity and a sin against nature." Yet there is no attempt at all in Professor Treitschke's treatment of the subject to depreciate the im- mense difficulty of the task before Germany. He treats it in precisely the same spirit in which the Spanish Inquisition treated the conversion of the Jews,—as a task of immense difficulty, which it behoves the Germans, as they value salva- tion, to accomplish. The stars in their courses will almost fight for Sisera, he thinks, but the stars and destinies must be overcome. "If Alsace is given up to Germany," he says, "and the Great Eastern Railway remains what it is, every pointsman and guard on the line will contribute to the French propaganda." Prussia alone is, he thinks, strong enough to undertake the work of compulsory conversion. "Prussia alone can undertake the remorseless sweeping-away of the French officials in Elsass, which is indispensable, and replace the foreign powers by rigorous home ones. Prussia alone can maintain the state of siege which we may easily imagine may be necessary for a time in some of the districts of the forlorn land." The tone of the pamphlet would almost lead you to believe that the writer would think of marriage between a German and a French man or woman, as the Northern Americans used to think, and in general still think, of marriage between white and coloured races, as a sort of unnatural crime. Indeed, Professor Treitschke evidently pities profoundly the old German soil for having so long borne French names, and feels that it is a work of love and mercy to rebaptize it by the old names. Strasburg Cathedral ought to be German, because Goethe once went up the spire ; and Uhland said it vibrated to Goethe's steps with delight. So, too, " Elsass " ought to be German, because, among other reasons, Goethe wrote on Alsatian soil many of his letters to the Frederika whom he loved and jilted.
Yet, though soil once German and blood once German must be revindicated for Germany at any price,—of course no such privilege is permitted to the lower Celtic race. Metz, admits Professor Treitschke, is " almost entirely French," Belfort is " almost entirely French." But they must be claimed for Germany. "Are we to renounce these two strongholds for the sake of an untenable dogma,"— the dogma, as applied to France, is, we perceive, untenable, though, when applied to Germany, it is self-evident,—" Not right and prudence support our moderate claims when we simply demand the German territory in the possession of France, and so much Welsh territory " [" Welsch" is the contemptuous German word for alien or foreign, especially applied to the various members of the Latin race] "as is necessary for securing its possession, in other words, something like the Departements Haut Rhin and Das Rhin in their entirety, the greater part of Moselle and the lesser part of Meurthe." The writer admits that the loss to France will be far greater than in proportion to the land and population, that it will be the loss of the most vigorous element of the French people, and appears to contemplate with satisfaction the rage which the loss will cause to France in its decay. But that is a fresh reason, added to the great missionary reason, for taking all this away. France will be even more weakened morally than physically ; and strategically as much as morally. "Elsass and Lothringen " will rejoice once more in their old German names. The soft gutturals of Germany will resume their ascendancy. Alsatians and Lorrainers will find once more, if they are docile, the (German) way of salvation ; and France will suffer in every form.
Such are the really popular arguments by which Germany excuses herself for following France into the path of aggres- sion. The military plea, that the line of the Vosges and the fortresses of Metz and Belfort are needed for the protection of Germany, though faintly echoed by the people, does not really go to the popular heart. There is, we suspect, a pretty strong feeling in Germany that Germany would be very safe without them. If Germany really felt this peril, the logical course would be, not only to annex Alsace and Lorraine, but to give, as has been proposed, a good slice of the North of France to Belgium, as well as to restore Nice to Italy, and give Savoy to either Switzerland or Italy, so as to cripple France on all sides, and so render her impotent for the re- venge for which the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine would be sure to make her eager. But there is very little sign as yet of the popularity of this plan in Germany. The truth is, Germany is not afraid of the French attack ; and only tries to think she is, as an excuse for gratifying her passionate desire, first, for the recovery of the old German soil ; and, next, for tangible evidence of having turned the tables on France. It is the sentimental and not the prudential feeling which is at the heart of the popular German cry for annexation. But is the sentimental character of the demand any real guarantee for Europe against Germany's restlessness in the conscious possession of this mighty power? The German statesmen and pamphleteers echo almost as a sort of parrot-cry the formula, "Germany is pacific, there is nothing to fear from Germany, therefore don't be anxious for the result if we enter on the policy of conquest and annex- ation." And, clearly, the active feeling is one of sentimental propagandism,—a Teutonic crusade for the revindication of holy German ground from the heathens who speak a Celtic tongue,—and not one of mere naked ambition. It was the same with Schleswig-Holstein. Holstein was all German. Schleswig was part German. Schleswig and Holstein had always been united in the popnlar imagination, and in the popular song. A crusade for the rescue of Germans from Danish oppression was a holy war. If it happened to result in the necessity of forcing upon the Danes of Schleswig a rule as unwelcome to them as the rule of Denmark had. been to the Germans of Schleswig, why, who could lament that incidental propagation of the great gospel of Teutonism over a few unwilling converts by the sword ? As it was only too good a fate for Saracens to be converted to the true Gospel by the swords of those Crusaders who had originally only intended to deliver the Holy Sepulchre, and not to
save Saracen souls, so it was only too good a fate for the wretched Danes of "Schleswig-Holstein Meer-umschlungen " to be forcibly Germanized as an incident in the great enter- prise of the delivery of the twin States from Danish rule. Germans are, no doubt, the most pacific and domestic of peoples, — till you suggest that there are a few Germans somewhere who are under an alien yoke, whether by their own choice or not. Then the air rings with the cry for their redemption,—by their will, if it be possible, against their will if it is not possible. The holy race must not be allowed to serve the Gentiles, even if they will. The souls of the renegades are at stake. Those who can talk of Lorraine when they might talk of Lothringen ; those who can bear to say" Je suis Francais" when their ancestors said " Ich bin Deutsch," need a severe political penance, a Prussian Belagerungs-Zustand and Prussian Beamten to bring them to their right minds. Germany is equal to the emergency, and will say to Alsace and Lorraine, like the blind abbot in " Marmion," when consigning the pair of unhappy victims to a living grave :—
"Sister, let thy sorrows cease ; Sinful brother, part in peace."
There is, as we have said, a certain nobleness to which we are not insensible about this Teutonic as about the old Christian crusade, but can we seriously say it is any less threatening to the peace of Europe than the French passion for glory ? The feeling that there is a certain sacramental authority about German gutterals and German blood which must completely overrule every popular choice, however unanimous,—which compels Germans to feel to Teutons preferring French alliance as Roman Catholics feel to apostate priests,—is capable of indefinite development. What is to prevent it rising into a holy rage with German Austrians, for preferring, if they should prefer (which is by no means certain), association with Magyars and Croats to association with the great German Empire I Might not the principle of the new crusade compel Gemany to redeem such erring brethren by .wielding the mighty sword of Hermann? What is to prevent Germany from forcing the Teutonic sacrament on the reluctant Germans of Switzerland who tamely endure to unite in common political ties with French-speaking communities of alien blood ? Nay, if once this feeling of the sacramental rights of Germany over all, how- ever unwilling, in whose blood elements of Teutonic ancestry can be discovered, or in whose speech roots of Teutonic origin can be detected, is to be fostered, why should it stop even after Low-Germany (Holland) and Swiss Germany, and Austrian Germany and Russian Germany, have all been revindicated with or against their wills to the common Father- land ? Republican France, when she first discovered her great revolutionary secret, wished to revolutionize all the world against its will as the greatest benefit she could confer on mankind. Why should not the French "principles of 1789" be parallelled in Germany by German "principles of 1870"? Indeed, there is no difference of principle between revindicat- ing by the sword a partially Gallicized people against their will to German speech and institutions, and boldly converting by the sword a wholly Celtic or heathen people to the same speech and institutions ; and as for the German blood, that could be gradually infused by intermarriage with the converts. Why not begin, for instance, with the Czechs of Bohemia, and after converting them to the Fatherland, spread the Fatherland Gospel at the point of the sword into Hungary, Transylvania, and the Principalities (already furnished with a German ruler), and later perhaps into Italy and France itself ? Seemingly, if you once brush aside the principle that the people have a right to judge for themselves, and assert that the Teutonic idea may be propagated by virtue of its sacramental character at the point of the sword, why should it not be as holy a cause to Germanize the "Welsh,"—as Germans contemptuously deno- minate the Latin foreigners,—as to re-Germanize the half- Welsh of half-German blood ? We are quite willing to recognize the noble character of the patriotic enthusiasm at the bottom of the popular German demand, but as for acqui- escing in the absurd assumption that Germany, with this idea in her head, is always to be a quiet, pacific power, resisting aggression, but never coveting any one else's possession,—why it is about as reasonable as the assumption that the Crusaders were a quiet and pacific body of men, because it was their fundamental idea to recover the Holy Spulchre for Christians, and not, in the first instance at least, to convert heathens by the edge of the sword.
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