Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck

John Hubert Greusel

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• Publié par: saet
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English

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Title: Blood and Iron
Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its
Founder, Bismarck
Author: John Hubert Greusel
Release Date: July 21, 2009 [EBook #29473]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLOOD AND IRON ***
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BLOOD and IRON
Origin of German Empire
As Revealed by Character
of Its Founder, Bismarck
BY
JOHN HUBERT GREUSEL
THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS
114-116 E. 28th St.
New York
1915Copyright, 1915, John Hubert Greusel
Dedicated to
Stella
My Wife
CONTENTS
[5]BOOK THE FIRST: BISMARCK’S HUMAN ESSENCE
Chapter I—The Man Himself
1. The Giant’s Ponderous Hammer
2. Grossly Human Is Our Bismarck
3. Despite Political Bogs
4. Genius Combined with Foibles
Chapter II—Blood Will Tell
5. Iron-headed Ancestry
6. Animal Basis of Rise to Power
7. “The Wooden Donkey Dies Today!”
Chapter III—The Gothic Cradle
8. The Child of Destiny
9. Soft Carl, Spartan Louise
Chapter IV—Sunshine and Shadow
10. Amazing Powers of Hereditary Traits
11. The Wolf’s Breed
12. Twenty-eight Duels!
13. Fizzle of First Official Service
BOOK THE SECOND: THE GERMAN NATIONAL PROBLEM
Chapter V—The Great Sorrow
14. The German Crazy Quilt
15. The Diamond Necklace
Chapter VI—Prussia’s De Profundis
16. The Lash and the Kiss
17. The Prussian Downfall
18. Prussia Becomes Germany
19. Kingcraft Comes Upon Evil Days
20. The Star of Hope21. The King Keeps Reading His Bible
22. The Deluge
BOOK THE THIRD: BISMARCK SUPPORTS HIS KING
Chapter VII—Fighting Fire with Fire
23. Voice in the Wilderness
24. The Young Giant
25. Speechless for One Whole Month
[6]26. Bellowing His Defiance
Chapter VIII—Bismarck Suffers a Great Shock
27. Bismarck Scorns French Political Millennium
28. Militarism as National Salvation
29. King Marches with Mob!
Chapter IX—So Much the Worse for Zeitgeist
30. Not Politics—Human Nature
31. Setting Back the Century Clock
32. The Master at Work
33. Bismarck Nudges His King
34. Mystical High-flown Speeches
BOOK THE FOURTH: BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER
Chapter X—Socrates in Politics
35. The Frankfort School of Intrigue
36. Preparing for German Unity
37. Tyrants Are Necessary
38. Bismarck, in Naked Realism
Chapter XI—The Mailed Fist
39. Democracy Stems from Aristocracy
40. Parallel Elements of Power
Chapter XII—By Blood and Iron!
41. The Man of the Hour
42. Rough and Tumble
43. On Comes the Storm
44. Bismarck Decides to Rule Alone
Chapter XIII—The Dream of Empire
45. Bismarck Tricks Them All
46. Prussian Domination Essential
47. By Faith Ye Shall Conquer
48. Was Bismarck a Beast?
BOOK THE FIFTH: THE GERMAN PEOPLE ARE ONE AND
UNITED
Chapter XIV—Windrows of Corpses49. Devil or Saint, Which?
50. Sleeping Beside the Dead
51. The Rejected Stone
52. His Ikon?
53. “The Dying Warrior”
54. Sadowa Summed Up
[7]55. Manure
Chapter XV—The Great Year, 1870
56. “These Poor Times”
57. The Bugle Blast
58. Bismarck’s Ironical Revenge
59. The Weaver’s Hut
60. Zenith!
Chapter XVI—The Versailles Masterpiece
61. The Kaiser’s Crown
62. Divine-right, a Politico-Military Fact
BOOK THE SIXTH: ONCE A MAN AND TWICE A CHILD
Chapter XVII—The Downfall
63. Bismarck’s Secret Discontent
64. “Who Made United Germany?”
65. The Irony of Fate
66. Last Illusion Dispelled
67. Binding Up the Old Man’s Wounds
68. Awaiting the Call
69. Refuses to Pass Under the Yoke
[8]70. Glory Turns to Ashes
Chapter XVIII—Hail and Farewell
71. His Final and Most Glorious Decoration
72. “As One Asleep”
[9]
BOOK THE FIRST
Bismarck’s Human Essence
CHAPTER I
The Man Himself
1
Hark, Hark! The giant’s ponderous hammer rings on theHark, Hark! The giant’s ponderous hammer rings on the
anvil of destiny. Enter, thou massive figure, Bismarck,
and in deadly earnest take thy place before Time’s
forge.
¶ It is, it must be, a large story—big with destiny! The details often bore with
their monotony; they do not at all times march on; they drag, but they do indeed
never halt permanently; ahead always is the great German glory.
¶ Forward march, under Prince Bismarck. He is our grim blacksmith, looming
through the encircling dark, massive figure before Time’s forge.
The sparks fly, the air rings with the rain of blows: he is in deadly earnest, this
half-naked, brawny Prussian giant; magnificent in his Olympian mien; his
bellows cracking, his shop aglow with cheery-colored sparks as the heavy
hammer falls on the unshapen ores on the big black anvil.
¶ Thus, toiling hour after hour in the heat and sweat, our Pomeranian smith with
ponderous hammer beats and batters the stubborn German iron into a noble
plan—for a great Nation!
¶ From a human point, we do not always see the ultimate glory.
For that is obscured by dark clouds of party strife, extending over years, the
caprices of men and the interplay of ambitions both within and without the
distracted German lands. Russia, Austria, Italy, Great Britain, France, Spain,
[10]have their spies engaged in all the under-play of political intrigue; there are a
thousand enemies at home and abroad, in camp, court and peasant’s cottage.
¶ And at times, weary of it all, we throw down the book convinced that, in a
welter of sordid ends, the cause is lost in shame.
But, somehow, some way, Germany does in truth ultimately emerge triumphant,
in spite of her amazing errors and the endless plots of enemies.
She does indeed justify her manhood—and thus the Bismarck story is of
imperishable glory.
¶ We say that Bismarck had to re-inspire the Germans to be a fighting nation.
What we mean is that the spirit of the ancient Teutons had to be aroused; for
though it slumbered for centuries, it never died.
Rome found that out when she was still in her infancy; the Germans burnt the
town by the Tiber; and the fearsome struggle between the Romans and the
Germanic tribesmen lasted almost unbroken for nearly five centuries.
¶ The Romans regarded the Germans as the bravest people in the world.
The migrations of the Cimbri and Teutones, and the frightful struggles in which
after superhuman endeavors the Roman Marius destroyed his German
enemies is one of the heroic pages of all history. It was a hand-to-hand contest,
and torrents of human blood ran that day. Menzel tells us, (Germany, p. 85), that
the place of battle enriched by a deluge of blood and ultimately fertilized by
heaps of the slain, became in after years the site of vineyards whose wines
were eagerly sought by connoisseurs.
¶ The Cimbri were drawn up in a solid square, each side of which measured
7,000 paces. The foremost ranks were fastened together with chains, that the
enemy might not readily break through. Even the German dogs that guardedthe baggage train fought with animal ferocity. The battle went against the
Germans and the slaughter was frightful. When all was lost, the Germans killed
their women and children, rather than see them fall into the hands of the
[11]Romans. German courage inspired terror and created foreboding throughout
the Roman world. It is a heroic story and sustains the German tradition that
Germans born free under their ancient oaks never will be slaves, though the
whole world is against them.
The success varied, but the Germans conquered, even in death, becoming
lineal descendants of the Empire. And on the ruins were builded the German
nation, as the successor of the old Holy Roman Empire.
¶ We picture to you these shadowy glimpses of remote battle-scenes to show
you that Germans were ever fighting men, who preferred death to loss of liberty.
On the ruins of Roman imperial glory, Teutonic conquerors founded an Empire
that defied time and chance for upwards of 1,000 years; then there crept in a
peculiar dry rot. The ancient German oak died at the top. Along came
Napoleon, hacking away the limbs and scarring the gnarled trunk with fire and
sword. The ruin seemed complete. Dead at the top, dead at the root, men said.
And what men say is true. There is no longer a Germany, except as a mere
geographical designation; when you speak of the German Empire you recall
merely the echo of a once mighty name.
It now becomes Bismarck’s solemn duty, fortified by a noble appreciation of the
ancient legend, to make the German oak green again in it