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Treitschke: National Prophet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Hans Kohn
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Extract

Machiavelli was a man of the Italian Renaissance; yet Mazzini shows no trace of Machiavellian thought, and Mussolini's attempt to revive Machiavelli in his homeland failed lamentably and ignominiously. Italy lacked the power and the hardness of character which Machiavellianism presupposes. Piedmont was an imitation Prussia, but only an imitation Prussia. Machiavelli's ideas bore real fruit in nineteenth century Germany. The German inclination to force ideas in the “free realm of the mind” to their logical and absurd conclusions without regard for the limitations of reality and common sense, combined with Prussia's power and hardness of character to implant Machiavellianism firmly in Germany. While German statesmen like Frederick II and Bismarck were its ablest disciples, its noblest teacher and prophet was Heinrich von Treitschke.

Type
Articles
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , October 1945 , pp. 418 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1945

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References

1 The best appreciations of Treitschke by leading German historians can be found in Marcks, Erich, Heinrich von Treitschke, ein Gedenkblalt zu seinem zehnjährigen Todestag (Heidelberg, 1906)Google Scholar and his “Heinrich von Treitschke, eine Erinnerung,” Preussische Jahrbücher, vol. 237, 09 1934, pp. 193ffGoogle Scholar. and in Meinecke, Friedrich, Die Idee der Staatsrason in der Neueren Geschichte, 3rd. ed. (Munich, 1929), pp. 488–510Google Scholar. Of the most recent German literature on Treitschke the book by Leipprand, Ernst, Heinrich von Treitschke im Deutschen Ceistesleben des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1935) deserves attentionGoogle Scholar.

2 In the preface to the fifth volume of the Deutsche Geschichie im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert (1894).

3 Meinecke, Friedrich, “Kultur, Machtpolitik und Militarisms” in Hintze, Otto, Meinecke, Friedrich, Schumacher, Hermann Oncken und Hermann, Deutschland und der Weltkrieg (Leipzig, 1915), p. 628Google Scholar, wrote: “Wir müssen also feststellen, dass die Lehre von den Two Germanies nicht ganz richtig ist. Es ist falch, dass “zahme” Deutschland von 1800 von dem “wilden” Deutschland Bismarcks verschlungen worden sei, sondern das “zahme” Deutschland hat schon sehr früh bedenkliche Neigungen zum “wilden” Deutschland verspürt und mit ihm eine freiwillige und herzliche Ehe geschlossen. Es ist andererseits richtig, dass gewisse Reste und Überlebsel des kosmopolitischen Idealismus des 18ten Jahrhunderts in der Kultur und politischen Denkweise der gebildeten Schichten Deutschsiands sich noch Iange erhalten haben, aber weggefegt worden sind durch die Taten und Lehren Bismarcks.” Wittke, Carl, Against the Current. The Life of Karl Heinzen (Chicago, 1945), pp. 273–281Google Scholar, shows how even in America the famous German liberals of 1848, Carl Schurz and others, vied in emotional servility to the new Reich and Bismarck. Only Heinzen remained faithful to the liberal ideal.

4 Schiemann, Theodor, Heinrich von Treitschke's Lehr- und Wanderjahre 1834–1866 (Munich. 1896), p. 50Google Scholar. “Der Geist des Alldeulschen Verbandes (of the beginning of the twentieth century) war hundert Jahre früher schon unter uns, nur im Gewand einer älteren Zeit; wen ennnert diese neue Bewegung für deutsche Macht und deutsche Art nicht an Ernst Moritz Arndt und sonst an Patriolen von 1813? Die Alldeutschen hatten em Recht. sich auf sie zu berufen.” Rapp, Adolph, Der Deutsche Gedanke, seine hntwicklung im politischcn und geistigen Leben seit dem 18. Jahrhunderl (Bonn, 1920), p. 334Google Scholar. See also Pundt, Alfred G., Arndt and the Nationalist Awakening in Germany (New York. 1935)Google Scholar.

5 “Denoch wirrl von einer baldigen Heilung Deutschlands die Entscheidung über die Flage abhängen, ob unser Weltteil semen hohen Stand Amerika gegenüber welches pnz andere Wege geht. länger wild verteidigen können.” Schiemann, , op. cit.. p. 55 fGoogle Scholar.

6 Letter from Göttingen, March 4, 1856. Heinrich von Treitschke's Briefe, ed. by Cornicelius, Max, vol. I (Leipzig, 1913), p. 252Google Scholar.

7 Letter to his father from Bonn, Jan. 18, 1854. Briefe, op. cit., p. 209 f.

8 Historische und Poliiische Aufsälze, Folge, Neue (Leipzig. 1870), vol. I. p. 648Google Scholar.

9 ibid., p. 152. Fichte assumed, though temporarily, in an article published in 1807 the same positive attitude towards Machiavelli as Treitschke did.

10 ibid., vol. II, p. 693.

11 In 1853 von Rochau, A. L. whom Treitschke calls “one of the best German publicists” (Deutsche Geschichte, vol. IV, p. 301)Google Scholar published his “Grundsätze der Realpolitik, angewendet auf die staatlichen Zustände Deutschlands” in which he wrote: “The immediate connection of power and dominion (Macht und Herrschaft) forms the fundamental truth of all political life and the key of all history.”

12 See in his “Bundesstaat und Einheitsstaat” in Aufsatze, vol. I, pp. 559 ff.

13 Deutche Geschichte, vol. IV, p. 407.

14 Aufsälze, vol. I, p. 590. See also his “Cavour” ibid., vol. II, pp. 349ff.

15 He wrote in the Preussische Jahrbücher on July 10, 1866: “Seit langem sehnen sich die Patrioten der Halbinsel, die anmassende Vormundschaft Frankreichs abzuschütteln. … Die Allianz der beiden Mächte, auf deren Kraft und Blüte die Zukunft Mitteleuropas beruht, ist nicht das Werk vorübergehender diplomatischer Kombinationen; sie soil dauern und dem Weltteile ein wirkliches Gleichgewicht der Macht, einen gesicherten Friedenszustand sehaffeh.”

16 Freytag, Gustav. Politische Aufsätze (Leipzig. 1888). p. 86Google Scholar.

17 Letter to Ferdinand Frensdorff, Leipzig. November 25, 1860. Briefe, vol. II. p. 114.

18 Preussische Jahrbücher, June 1866. See also Goldschmidt, Hans, “Treitschke, Bismarck und Die Deutsche Geschichte im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert,” Preussische Jahrbücher, 09 1934, pp. 227ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Letter of December 10, 1865. Briefe, vol. II, p. 447.

20 Letter to Julius Jolly, Heidelberg, Jan. 26, 1870. In Andreas, Willy “Briefe Treitschkes an Historiker und Politiker des Obenheins,” Preussische Jahrbücher, 09 1934, p. 222Google Scholar.

21 Gervinus, G. G., Hinlerlassene Schriften (Vienna, 1872), pp. 21–23Google Scholar, see also pp. 73, 92, 95, 97. In 1832 Karl Rotteck declared: “Ich will die Einheit nicht anders als mit Freiheit, und will lieber Freiheit ohne Einheit als Einheit ohne Freiheit. (Nachgelas sene Schriften (Pforzheim, 1843), vol. IV, p. 400).

Gervinus addressed to himself the following poem foreseeing clearly the future of Bismarck's Reich under Bismarck's successors:

Im ungeheuren Abfall dieser Tage

Bist du dem echten Glauben treu geblieben,

Dem ew'gen A und O der Weltgeschichte:

Wer nicht an's Mass sich bindet, wird zunichte.

22 Politics (London, 1916), vol. I, p. 31Google Scholar.

23 Hegel's, Philosophy of Right, No. 258, noteGoogle Scholar. Translation by S. W. Dyde (London, 1906), p. 240. See also Christopher Dawson, “The Politics of Hegel,” The Dublin Revierv, 10 1943, pp. 97–107Google Scholar. Treitschke's praise of Hegel, in Deutsche Geschichte, vol. III, pp. 718ffGoogle Scholar.

24 Politik, 5th edition (Leipzig, 1922), vol. I, pp. 89ff, vol. II, p. 544Google Scholar.

25 The Pan-German mission had been expressed long before 1870 by leading German writers. Jakob Grimm, one of the most violent Pan-Germans, expressed his confidence that the peace and salvation of the whole continent will rest upon Germany's strength and freedom. Emanuel Geibel, who wrote tender and delicate poems which enjoyed a tremendous popularity, wrote in 1861 “Deutschlands Beruf,” a poem on Germany's mission which became famous though it was one of the mildest of its kind. It ends with the wish that the world may regain health by the German being: Und es mag am deutschen Wesen einmal noch die Welt genesen.

Karl Simrock, Professor of Old Germanic Literature in Bonn, who translated and popularized all the main works of old German literature, prefaced his Lieder Vom Deutschen Vaterland (1863) with the prophecy that Germans will found an empire embracing all peoples.

One of the most widely read authors of Treitschke's period was Felix Dahn, Professor of German Law and a scholar in the field of earliest German history. His innumerable novels from early German history, especially the four volumes of Ein Kampf um Rom (1876), formed the intellectual food of the German middle classes before the turn of the century. His poems were favored for recitations in the German Reich. One of the best demands German world domination.

26 Dalberg-Acton, John Emerich Edward, Historical Essays and Studies (London, 1919). p. 378Google Scholar.

27 Deutsche Geschichte, vol. IV, p. 350.

28 Deutsche Geschichte, vol. I, p. 25.

29 Weber, Max, Gesammelte Politische Schriften (Munich, 1921). pp. 19ffGoogle Scholar. See Mayer, J. P., Max Weber in Cerman Politics (London, 1944)Google Scholar and De Ruggiero, Guido, The History of European Liberalism (London, 1927), pp. 271 ffGoogle Scholar.

30 “When we examine more closely … society we find that under all its forms it tends naturally toward aristocracy. The Social Democrats imply in their very title the absurdity of their aspirations. … All social life is built upon class organizations.” Politics, vol. I, p. 41ff.

31 See Clark, Evalyn A., “Adolf Wagner: from National Economist to National Socialist,” Political Science Quarterly, 09 1940, pp. 378–411Google Scholar. Schmoller, wrote in a collection of essays Handels- uni Machlpolitik (ed. by Schmoller, , Wagner, and Sering, Max, Stuttgart, 1900). vol. I, p. 35f.Google Scholar: “I cannot dwell on the details of the commercial and colonial tasks for which we need the navy. Only some points may be mentioned briefly. We are bound to wish at all costs that in the coming century a German country of twenty or thirty million Germans be established in southern Brazil. … Without communications continually safeguarded by battleships, without Germany's standing ready for vigorous interference in these countries, this evolution would be exposed to peril.”

32 Encyclopaedia Judaica (Berlin, 1928), vol. II, p. 1010Google Scholar.

33 Anti-Semitism became officially represented in 1887 in the German Pailiament. In 1907 the officially anti-Semitic parties which made anti-Semitism their main program had 17 deputies. By that time anti-Semitism in Germany had received a powerful stimulus through the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Richard Wagner's apostle and son-in-law. More direct was Treitschke's influence on anti-Semitism in Austria, especially on Georg Schonerer who like Treitschke was violently pan-German, anti-Habsburg, anti-Catholic and a fervent admirer of Bismarck and the Hohenzollern. See Georg Schönerer, Der Vorkämpfer Grossdeutschlands, ed. by Pichl, Eduard, 2nd. ed. six vols. (Oldenburg, 1938)Google Scholar. and Mayer-Löwenschwerdt, Erwin, Schönerer der Vorkämpfer (Vienna, 1938)Google Scholar. Under Schönerer's influence the German students of Austria declared in 1897 in Waidhofen a.d. Ybbs, not lo give satisfaction to Jewish students because Jews were without honor (“der Ehre bar”). Different was the Catholic anti-Semitic movement organized by Dr. Karl Lueger in Vienna where he was elected Mayor in 1895. It was a pro-Habsburg movement, addressed to the lower middle-class, anti-capitalist and anti-proletarian. Treitschke himself had several Jewish friends, among them Alphons Oppenheim, see Schiemann, Theodor, op. cit., p. 59, 147Google Scholar.

34 See also Davis, H. W. C., The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treltschke (New York, 1915), pp. 227–288Google Scholar.

35 When Bismarck acquired the Cameroons, Treitschke told his friend Hausrath, Adolf: “Cameroons? What are we to do with this sand box? Let us take Holland, then we shall have colonies.” (Treitschke, His Doctrine of German Desliny and of International Relations, New York, 1914, p. 110)Google Scholar. “Our existence as a state of the first rank is vitally affected by the question whether we can become a power beyond the seas.” Politics, vol. I, p. 33, 36, 118f. His racial views see on pp. 275ff. Even for territories inhabited by white races and falling under German control like Latvia he demanded that “the subject race be kept in as uncivilized a condition as possible, and thus prevented from becoming a danger to the handful of conquerors.”, p. 122.

36 Deutsche Geschichte, vol. III, p. 685, vol. IV, p. 409; Politics, vol. I, p. 87, vol. II, p. 68.

37 Politics, vol. II, pp. 390ff.

38 Politics, vol. I, pp. 24, 29, vol. II, pp. 395f, 597ff.

39 Politics, vol. I. p. 34f, vol. II, pp. 593ff.

40 “Zum Gedachtnis des grossen Krieges,” delivered July 19th, 1895, reprinted in Deutsche Kampfe (Leipzig, 1935), pp. 374ff. Even in this last speech he remarked gratefully that among the many millions abroad there was only one person, “our loyal friend Thomas Carlyle who recognised lovingly the nobility of our national soul.”

41 John Morley who had no understanding for the danger of German militarism was reported to have dismissed Treitschke in a lecture on democracy at the University of Manchester on June 28, 1912, by saying, “No professor in this university could keep a class for a month upon Politik of that stamp.” Treitschke's Politics had a great influence on pan-Germanism. Ernst Hasse, professor in Leipzig from 1888 to 1908, a disciple of Treitschke, was president of the Alldeutscher Verband. In his Deutsche Politik, vol. II, part I (1908)Google Scholar he demanded the disappearance of small nations which he considered no longer capable of existence, attacked violently British imperialism but demanded cooperation with Russian imperialism, fought against free trade and open door policy for a closed economy and desired the creation of a federation which would include Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands and its colonies, Belgium and the Congo, Switzerland, the Balkans, Rumania and Turkey. See on other literatu'e of this kind Hertz, Friedrich, Naiionalgeist und Politik (Zurich, 1937), vol. I, pp. 464–479Google Scholar.

42 “Government so understood is the intellectual guide of the nation, the promoter of wealth, the teacher of knowledge, the guardian of morality, the mainspring of the ascending movement of man. That is the tremendous power, supported by millions of bayonets, which grew up in the days of which I have been speaking at Petersburg, and was developed, by much abler minds, chiefly at Berlin; and it is the greatest danger that remains to be encountered by the Anglo-Saxon race.” Acton, Lord, Lectures on Modern History (London, 1906), p. 289Google Scholar.