Blood and Iron Part 38

-- "The long siege was over!"

-- On the third day after signing the hard conditions, 30,000 German troops made their triumphal entry into Paris, after being reviewed on the plain of Longchamps.

With the victorious Prussians, Bismarck rode as far as the Arc de Triomphe.

-- It was one of the greatest incidents of his eventful life.

We have transposed to the last an episode that took place January 18th, 1871, the anniversary of the day on which the first King of Prussia had himself crowned at Koenigsberg, 1701.

In the Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles, King William I of Prussia was crowned German Emperor, amidst a clash of arms, martial music, hymns of praise, and the felicitations of a brilliant throng.

In the semi-circle stood princes, grand dukes, dukes, crown princes, hereditary princes, generals, ministers, military and political figures, against a background of Prussian hussars.

-- The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles had seen many astonis.h.i.+ng sights in the centuries gone by; and doubtless that night the shades of Richelieu, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Marie Theresa, Madam Pompadour, looked down on one of the strangest incidents in all history, a German Emperor receiving his crown in the very palace of the old French kings, who in their turn, had waged some twenty hard wars upon Germany, and more than once had placed some part of German soil in p.a.w.n. Who read the proclamation to the a.s.sembled company expressing the new dignity of the sovereign over United Germany?

-- The Man of Blood and Iron, Otto von Bismarck, at last had demonstrated the dream of his life, that is to say, he had in truth not only long been King's Man, but also long had upheld the King his master; had unified Germany;--and now had made his master more than king, as William I, German Emperor.

-- Bismarck's life work was now practically over; however, he was a busy man for twenty years to come, trying to settle Germany's perplexing internal problems; but in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles he reached the zenith of his stupendous career as unifier of his country.

-- In this magnificent state apartment of Louis XIV are seventeen arcades of looking-gla.s.s, corresponding to the seventeen large windows; the ceiling by Lebrun shows thirty incidents in the life of Louis the Magnificent, each painting bordered by rich gilded sculptures.

The entire gallery is decorated with marbles and grand trophies of gilded copper, by Coysevox.

In Louis's time, the gallery was hung in white damask brocaded with gold; there were orange trees in rare boxes; the great central chandelier of gilded silver was by famous smiths; priceless Savonnerie carpets m.u.f.fled the lightest foot-fall; round about were silver stools, with green velvet coverings surrounded by bands of gold brocade. Later, the silver was melted down, on Louis's order, and the money squandered.

-- These great artists worked in the Hall of Mirrors and neighboring apartments: Berain, Monsart, Lebrun, Lenotre, Grissey, Vigarani, Audran, Baptiste, Coustau, Coypel, Van Cleve, Taffieri, Taupin, Tempore, Temporiti, numbering among them painters, sculptors, designers, architects, wood carvers, silversmiths and lockmakers extraordinary.

-- Here, Louis, surrounded by some 1,500 flatterers of all degree, high and low, kept his court of pleasure bestowing ribbons, favors, dinners, golden swords for the men, diamond necklaces for the women.

-- However, 1789 ended all that; the mob stormed into imperial chambers and through the apartments of the old aristocratic French courtesans; and with clubs, axes and fires laid in ruin art treasures that stood unmatched through centuries.

-- To this Versailles come now the Prussian soldiers to proclaim their German Emperor; in this palace, where the Bourbons had expended some 200,000,000 francs, as money is reckoned today; to say nothing of the free labor of thousands of convicts.

No record tells what Louis spent on the place, but in August, 1684, 8,000 horses and 20,000 convicts were working there, and in 1685 at one time as many as 36,000 convicts, in charge of soldiers, added their vast free labor to heighten the peculiar glory of the great French monarchs, as the sublime representatives of kingcraft--in its splendor and in its downfall.

-- All hail, William I, German Emperor! All hail, Bismarck! All hail, United Germany!

CHAPTER XVI

The Versailles Masterpiece

61

The Kaiser's crown at last, and how and why; herein, we sum up the very flower of our great man's genius; and mark it well!

-- The very name "Kaiser" brings up memories of the Middle Ages, thence backward to the days of imperial Caesar. Kaiser, at best, is but Caesar, rewritten.

Yet Bismarck was at great pains to make clear that the subst.i.tution of Kaiser for King of Prussia involved no restoration of ancient imperial inst.i.tutions.

-- The use of Kaiser, as the t.i.tle for the new monarch, had behind it a deep, almost religious purpose, in conformity with the sense of nationality and brotherhood to which through long and painful development the German states had at last attained. Bismarck calls the return of the t.i.tle "a political necessity, making for unity and centralization."

-- "I was convinced," he says, "that the pressure solidifying our imperial inst.i.tutions would be more permanent the more the Prussian wearer of the imperial t.i.tle should himself avoid that dangerous striving on the part of our dynasty to flaunt its own pre-eminence in the face of other dynasties. King William I was not free from this inclination ... to call forth a recognition of the superior prestige of Prussia's crown, over the Kaiser's t.i.tle."

-- The Kaiser idea is simple: He is the sworn servant "of" the people, but his terms are his own, viz., all is "for" the people, but not "through" the people.

Such in a few words is the Bismarckian conception of a strong ruler.

-- It was not, then, to be "an expanded Prussia," but a German Empire.

And the Kaiser's powers are hence the legal functions of an imperial organ, attached by the organic law of the Empire to the Prussian crown.

Thus Germany is a true state, but not a monarchy; sovereignty does not rest with the Kaiser, but with the totality of the allied governments.

And in turn the old states became provinces of the Empire; and the Kaiser exercises his powers in the name of the Empire.

-- However, it must be recalled that Bismarck always detested political and social conformity, trampled conformity under foot, and with wild voice ridiculed conformity--especially when conformity meant to yield to the peasants a constructive share in the governments of the thirty-nine clas.h.i.+ng German states. That is to say, his idea of freedom was to make the State paramount, guiding, directing and if need be disciplining the people.

-- Memories fasten themselves on us, at this moment, memories of the old days of struggle for nationality.

It was on Bismarck's advice that, although Frederick William IV was bitten by the ambition to become ruler of United Germany, yet when the democratic Frankfort Diet offered him the crown, he did indignantly refuse; and many years later, his successor--that old man with the wonderful history!--William I, after the victories of Sedan and Gravelotte, was mightily afraid that the Berlin Parliament, representing democratic conformity, would offer him the honor of Emperor before that gift could be bestowed by the princes themselves.

-- Ludwig of Bavaria in his letter to William, urging the imperial t.i.tle, Kaiser, or German Emperor, uses these words: "I have proposed to the German princes to join me in urging Your Majesty to a.s.sume the t.i.tle, German Emperor, in connection with the exercise of the praedial rights of the Federation." But it was Bismarck's masterpiece of politics, equal to his stroke of Holstein, that sent to the King of Bavaria the proper diplomatic advices, to be acted upon by the South German princes and returned to the supposedly surprised William, urging on him to become German Emperor.

-- In spite of Bismarck's fine hand, Bavaria at first refused to accept the Iron Chancellor's advices. There is light on this topic in Herr Ottokar Lorenz's "Foundation of the German Empire," making clear among other facts that "the German eagle had a narrow escape from dying in the egg." Twice negotiations were broken off; finally, when the King of Bavaria tried to get his countrymen behind him in the plan to proclaim William of Prussia, German Emperor, at Versailles, "it was only after some hesitation and much regret."

It took the Bavarian Landtag a month to make up its mind! To read the heated discussions is to destroy the legend that the proclamation of the Kaiser was by spontaneous demand.

-- But we must not press these things too far. The fact that King William had to fight for the magnificent honor he had won for himself and his country, is merely to say that men are men; nor should we ever forget that nothing creates so much jealousy as prosperity.

-- Herr Bismarck had the cleverness to win, at last, and after that there is little to be added.

For that matter, the much-lauded revolt of the American colonists against Britain was originally not endorsed by over one-third of the inhabitants. Yet, with the final victory, like a pack the colonists went over to the winning side, saying, "We told you so."

-- We have nothing but praise for the way in which Bismarck created his Versailles masterpiece. That there was a political squabble behind the curtain, in Bavaria, was to be expected.

-- Tell me, did you ever achieve any success that you did not have to go out and fight for?