PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE

IN THE

EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

SECOND SERIES.

VOL. II.

PICTURES

OF

GERMAN LIFE

In the XVIII^th and XIX^th Centuries.

Second Series.

BY

GUSTAV FREYTAG

Translated from the Original by

MRS. MALCOLM.

COPYRIGHT EDITION.—IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1863.

LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTENTS.

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

CHAPTER VII.

Away from the Garrison (1700).—The army, and the constitution of the State—The country militia and their history—The soldiery of the Sovereign—Change of organisation after the war—The beginning of compulsory levies about 1700—Gradual introduction of conscription—Recruiting and its illegalities—Desertions—Trafficking with armies—The Prussian army under Frederic William I.—The regiment of guards at Potsdam—Prussian officers—Ulrich Bräcker—Narrative of a Prussian deserter

CHAPTER VIII.

The State of Frederic the Great (1700).—The kingdom of the Hohenzollerns, its small size; character of the people and princes—Childhood of Frederic—Opposition to his father—Catastrophe—Training and its influence on his character—His marriage and relations with women—Residence in Rheinsberg—His character when he became King—Striking contrast between his poetic warmth and his inexorable severity—Inward change in the course of the first Silesian war—Loss of the friends of his youth—The literary period till 1766—His poetry, historical writings, and literary versatility—Seven years of iron labour—His method of carrying on war, and heroic struggle—Admiration of Germans and foreigners—His sufferings and endurance—Extracts from Frederic's Letters from 1767-1762—Principles of his government—Improvement of Silesia—Difference betwixt the Prussian and Austrian government—Feeling of duty in the Prussian officials—Acquisition of West Prussia—Miserable condition in 1772—Agriculture of Frederic—His last years

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Year of Tuition of the German Citizen (1790).—Influence of Frederic on German art, philosophy, and historical writing—Poetry flourishes—The aspect of a city in 1790—The coffee gardens and the theatres—Travelling and love of the picturesque—Different sources of morals and activity amongst the nobles, citizens, and peasants—Characteristics of the life of the country nobles—The piety of the country people—Education of the citizens—Advantages of the Latin schools and of the university education—The sentimentality and change in the literary classes from 1750-1790—The Childhood of Ernst Frederic Haupt

CHAPTER X.

The Period of Ruin (1800).—The condition of Germany—Courts and cities of the Empire—People and armies of the Empire—The emigrants—Effect of the revolution on the Germans—The Prussian State—Its rapid increase—Von Held—Bureaucracy—The army—The Generals—The downfall—Narrative of the Years 1806-1807, by Christoph Wilhelm Heinrich Sethe—His life

CHAPTER XI.

Rise of the Nation (1807-1815).—Sorrowful condition of the people in the year 1807—The first signs of rising strength—Hatred of the French Emperor—Arming of Prussia—Character and importance of the movement of 1813—Napoleon's flight—Expedition of the French to Russia in 1812, and return in 1813—The Cossacks—The people rise—General enthusiasm—The volunteer Jägers and patriotic gifts—The Landwehr and the Landsturm—The first combat—Impression of the war on the citizens—The enemy in the city—The course of the war—The celebration of victory

CHAPTER XII.

Illness and Recovery (1815-1848).—The time of reaction—Hopelessness of the German question—Discontent and exhaustion of the Prussians—Weakness of the educated classes in the north of Germany—The development of practical activity—The South Germans and their village tales—Description of a Village School by Karl Mathy

CONCLUSION.—The Hohenzollerns and the German citizens

PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.

Second Series.

CHAPTER VII.

AWAY FROM THE GARRISON.

(1700.)

A shot from the alarm-gun! Timidly does the citizen examine the dark corners of his house to discover whether any strange man be hid there. The peasant in the field stops his horses to consider whether he would wish to meet with any fugitive, and earn capture-money, or whether he should save some desperate man, in spite of the severe punishment with which every one was threatened who enabled a deserter to escape. Probably he will let the fugitive run away, though in his power, for in his secret soul he has a fellow feeling for him, nay, even admires his daring.

There is scarcely any sphere of earthly interest which stamps so sharply the peculiarities of the culture of the time, as the army and the method of carrying on war. In every century the army corresponds exactly with the constitution and character of the state. The Franconian landwehr of Charles the Great, who advanced on foot from their Maifeld to Saxony, the army of the noble cuirassiers who rode under the Emperor Barbarossa into the plains of Lombardy, the Swiss and Landsknechte of the time of the Reformation, and the mercenary armies of the Thirty Years' War, were all highly characteristic of the culture of their time; they sprang from the social condition of the people, and changed with it. Thus did the oldest infantry of the proprietors take root in the old provincial constitution, the mounted chivalry in the old feudalism, the troops of Landsknechte in the rise of civic power, and the companies of roving mercenaries in the increase of royal territorial dominion; these were succeeded in despotic states, in the eighteenth century, by the standing army with uniform and pay.

But none of the older forms of military service were entirely displaced by those of later times, at least some reminiscences of them are everywhere kept. The ancient landfolge (attendants on military expeditions) of the