Article contents
Prussia (Berlin)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Extract
The Prussian Government, after having made stupendous Efforts in the successful cause of the great Alliance formed to suppress the Effects of the Revolutionary Spirit in France, is now diligently occupied in repressing a similar Spirit amongst its own Subjects, and in obviating the Dangers, it is calculated to produce; and this Conduct, acting in different Manners upon the Courts, and the Nations of Germany, is more calculated than any Measure I can imagine to be adopted within its Boundaries, to found and to maintain its internal Tranquillity and to render its Union real, and effective. I have the honor to transmit a Translation of an Edict of His Prussian Majesty, in date of the sixth, but published on the eleventh Ins., which republishes the Law of October 1798 against secret Societies, and forbids any further Controversy in print respecting their Existence and Objects.
- Type
- Reports
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2000
References
1 In this edict concerning alleged secret societies of 6 January 1816, Frederick William III referred to the law concerning the prevention and punishment of secret societies which could pose a threat to the general security of 20 October 1798, and republished it as an annex to his edict. This law expressly prohibited political societies and associations.
2 Leopold Friedrich von Anhalt-Dessau.
3 Friederike.
4 Friedrich I.
5 In pencil corrected to 1814; under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 30 May 1814, France was to remain a great power within the borders of 1792. The treaty, concluded after the defeat of Napoleon and the capture of Paris in March 1814, was a peace of reconciliation and subscribed to the principle of rational balance.
6 The Congress of Vienna, which met 1814–15, was intended to create a new order in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. The four main victorious powers plus France negotiated borders with the aim of creating a stable, permanent order in Europe based on balance and the legitimacy of states and dynasties, rather than on the principles of freedom and self-determination.
7 The Great Quadruple Alliance was concluded on 20 November 1815 between England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia with the aim of countering any renewed aggression on the part of France. The allies committed themselves to supporting each other should revolutionary movements flare up in France. They also undertook to meet regularly in order to cultivate mutual relations and common interests, and to discuss measures for maintaining peace in Europe. The first of these meetings was the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818.
8 In 1815 the British Parliament had passed an act allowing foreign corn to be imported, or taken out of bond, free of duty when the price of wheat was 80s. The future of the British corn trade had been discussed in Parliament as early as 1813. It became a matter of urgency when the good harvest of 1813 sent prices tumbling, and peace in 1814 brought foreign grain imports and the promise of more to come.
9 Like British agriculture, the branches of industry affected by the Industrial Revolution were going through a crisis. While British exports had initially conquered the Continent, benefiting from the demand which had built up there, they were now suffering from the protective tariffs policy of the European states whose industries were just emerging. In the metal industry, in particular, the wartime boom had been followed by a period of decline, during which many factories had closed down, or even been demolished.
10 Victor Hans Graf von Bülow.
11 Under the terms of the Second Paris Peace of 20 November 1815, concluded after Napoleon's final defeat, France had to cede the district of Saarbrücken, with the fort of Saarlouis, to Prussia. The fort of Landau, on the border between the Palatinate and The Netherlands, plus the area immediately in front of it, initially went to Austria. The borders between France and The Netherlands, between France and Luxemburg, between France and Switzerland, and between France and Sardinia, were also changed. All these changes were summed up in the slogan ‘restoration of the borders of 1790’, just as the First Paris Peace had referred to ‘restoring the borders of 1792’.
12 Theodor Schmalz.
13 Members of the most important French Revolutionary political club were called ‘Jacobins’ after the Dominican friary of Saint Jacques in Paris, where they met. When the moderate patriots left, it developed into a gathering place for Republicans from the summer of 1791. Under Robespierre's leadership, the Jacobins organized the reign of terror of 1793–4. After the fall of this regime, the jacobin Club was closed on 11 November 1794. Outside France, ardent supporters of the French Revolution and radical democrats were called ‘Jacobins’.
14 This refers to the supporters of the Tugendbund (league of virtue), which had been founded in 1808 by young professionals, officials, officers, nobles, and men of letters with the purpose of reviving morality, religiosity, and a sense of community (the last of which concealed a claim for citizens to have a share in shaping their state). The Tugendbund spread rapidly through Prussia and the Kingdom of Westphalia, and was dissolved in 1809 by an order-in-council. Thereafter, however, it continued to exist as a movement among like-minded people. A network linked many small local groups whose aim was to overthrow Napoleonic rule in Germany, but whose demands for unity and freedom also put them into opposition to the German governments.
15 Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand von Ingersleben.
16 Leopold Hermann Ludwig von Boyen.
17 Ludwig Gustav von Thile.
18 The representative constitution under discussion here was a transitional form between the traditional Estates and a modern parliamentary system. According to the decree of 22 May 1815, representation of the provinces was to be based on the provincial Estates, which had an impact on the form of the new state constitution which was to be drawn up. In it, the old Estate-based division into aristocracy, clergy, and urban patriciate was to be replaced by a new division into aristocracy, bourgeoisie, and peasantry. There was no intention to introduce direct elections, or a general and equal franchise. In each of the three social orders, the only people with the right to vote and to stand for election were those who qualified in terms of property-ownership or level of taxation.
19 Friedrich II. der Grosse.
20 An important Jewish bank with branches in Frankfurt, Vienna, London, Paris, and Naples. Like other big banks, Rothschild & Co. had used the period of the coalition wars and French hegemony to embark upon a risky new form of public financing by trading in state loans. This report refers above to the trade with advances for French reparations which the Rothschilds had attempted to enter into with Prussia, but also Austria and Russia. In 1817 a loan of one million Thaler was made to Prussia.
21 Pius VII.
22 Ercole Marchese Consalvi.
23 In 1801 Napoleon as Consul and Pope Pius VII concluded the French Concordat, in which the Pope ceded to Napoleon the right, for example, to appoint bishops. To compensate the Church for the confiscation of its property during the French Revolution, the state undertook to pay the clergy, and recognized the Church as a public institution, and Catholicism as the dominant state religion. After Napoleon's fall, no concordat was signed with the German Confederation. The Church was therefore forced to undertake bilateral negotiations to conclude concordats regulating its relations with individual member states. Traditionally Prussia and its élites had been Protestant, but two-fifths of its population was now Catholic. It was therefore very concerned to have good relations with the Catholic Church, if only to integrate the Catholic population in the Rhineland and Westphalia. Arrangements with Prussia were therefore appropriately generous. Frederick William III agreed a substantial contribution to Prussia's cathedral churches, which encouraged the Pope to be accommodating. The result of the negotiations, skilfully conducted by Niebuhr and limited to the borders and equipment of the Prussian bishoprics, were laid down in a Papal Bull in 1821 and simultaneously published as a state law in Berlin.
24 The city of Münster.
25 Under the terms of the Act of the Vienna Congress, Prussia had received the Duchy of Westphalia and a large number of mediatized territories in Westphalia, including those of the Princes Salm-Salm and Salm-Kirchburg, of Counts Wild and Rhein, of the Dukes of Croy and of Looz-Corswaren, the principalities of Steinfurt, Recklinghausen, and Rittberg, the domains of Rheda, Gütersloh, Gronau, Neustadt, Gimborn, and Homburg, and the property of the unmediatized aristocracy whose lands formed enclaves within Prussian territory.
26 Prussia had the problem of integrating new territories which were highly diverse in terms of legal, political, social, and confessional conditions. Its response in this situation was to create new provinces, or to redefine their boundaries (with the exception of Silesia and East Prussia). Each was administered by an Oberpräsident, and headed by representatives of the province. This new regulation was enacted in the general law concerning instructions for the Provincial Estates of 1823.
27 The Staatsrat was established in Prussia in 1817. Its members were princes, ministers, and high officials, responsible for advising on important legislation. It was neither a governmental, nor an administrative, nor a crucial legislative organ. However, because its task was to advise the monarch, the Staatsrat had a significant role, in particular, in drafting the Prussian legislation of 1817.
28 The chancellor, Hardenberg, had persuaded the king to insert a royal promise of a constitution in the finance edict of 27 October 1817. Hardenberg's intention to take the king at his word and soon to introduce popular representation for the whole of the Prussian state mobilized the conservative opposition. They demanded the re-establishment of the pre-absolutist Estate-based constitution, and regarded their privileges as under threat. However, in the decree about the representation of the people of 22 May 1815, the king solemnly repeated his promise of a constitution. In fact, this promise was repeated a third time in the law on the national debt of 17 January 1820.
29 Russia had already granted Poland a constitution, which provided for a dual-chamber parliament and wide-ranging self-administration.
30 In 1817 the Theresian Estate-based constitution of 1775 was revived with expanded powers. Large Polish landowners received the right to have a say, and the order of knights had three representatives on the national committee, but lost the traditional aristocratic right of self-administration.
31 Wilhelm Freiherr von Humboldt.
32 Johann Gottfried Hoffmann.
33 Jacques Necker.
34 The Prussian fortress Grandeuz.
35 Cf. note 14 in this section.
36 Battle of the wars of liberation. On 18 June 1815, Napoleon was finally defeated by forces under Wellington, Blücher, and Gneisenau.
37 Napoleon was soundly defeated by the allied powers of Prussia, Austria, and Russia at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig on 16–19 October 1813. While he was able to withdraw, he had to retreat behind the Rhine after losing one third of his army.
38 On 18 and 19 October 1817 the Burschenschaften celebrated a big festival at the Wartburg, attended by 500 students from eleven universities, and a few professors as well. It was intended to mark both the tercentenary of the Reformation and the fourth anniversary of the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. The festival developed into a new form of political action, a public demonstration at which national hopes and disappointments were invoked in passionate speeches. On the evening of the first day of the festival, ‘un-German’ and reactionary books were burnt, as were symbols of a standing army (a corporal's cane and a corset), and on 18 October the Allgemeine Deutsche Burschenschaft was founded as a union of the associations of all German students. Its aims, proclaimed at the Wartburg, were national unity and constitutional freedom, a constitution, and national representation, and it was against particularism, the police state, and feudal society. This provoked opposition. While the Grand Duke of Weimar, ruler of the territory in which Wartburg and the University of Jena were located, took a benevolent wait-and-see attitude, Metternich and the conservatives regarded this event as dangerous and revolutionary.
39 Karl August.
40 Cf. note 14 in this section.
41 Hardenberg's mansion near Potsdam.
42 Friedrich August I.
43 Lorenz Oken.
44 ‘Oppositions-Blatt oder Weimarische Zeitung’, published from 1 January 1817 until 27 November 1820.
45 Carl Friedrich Müller or Friedrich von Müller.
46 Not traceable.
47 The Bavarian Constitution was introduced on 26 May 1818.
48 David Ferdinand Koreff.
49 The first congress of the Quadruple Alliance, held at Aix-la-Chapelle in the autumn of 1818, resolved to quit France, whose contributions to the war were reduced. France was re-admitted to the ranks of the European great powers.
50 Karl Wilhelm Georg von Grolmann.
51 Johann Albrecht Friedrich Eichhorn.
52 J.J. von Cruickshank-Banehorn.
53 Enclosure: ‘His Majesty has been pleased to issue to the undersigned Minister [Altenstein] the following Cabinet Order, in date of the 6th of this Month [April 1918].’ Text refers to the recall of students from Jena.
54 Karl Freiherr Stockhorner von Starein.
55 Theodor Schmalz.
56 Heinrich Ludwig August von Thümen.
57 Since 1815, a reformed Jewish community had held services in Berlin as well the Orthodox community centred on the synagogue. These modernized services featured sermons in German, organs, and choirs, and attendance at them grew steadily. The Prussian government opposed these services because it was in its interests to maintain the Jewish community as a unified body, and it feared a split. It therefore ordered that these services be supended, and when the Orthodox community expressed its concern, it banned them altogether.
58 This refers to the ideas of the Socinians, an anti-trinitarian movement named after the Italian humanists L. and F. Sozzini. Its origins lay in sixteenth-century Poland. The separate church set up there was proscribed in the seventeenth century during the Polish Counter-Reformation, and thereafter this religious movement spread to western Europe.
59 Ludwig I.
60 Cf. note 7 in this section.
61 Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Graf zu Sayn-Wittgcnstein-Hohenstein.
62 Karl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
63 David Ferdinand Koreff.
64 Prussia had introduced a new customs tariffin 1818. Under the terms of the new customs and excise tariff, wool attracted an export duty of 3 Reichsthaler, 8 Groschen per hundredweight.
65 ‘The Blacks’ (Bund der Schwarzen) was a radical wing within the Burschenschaft that had been established at the University of Gieβen. Led by Karl Follen, it called tor democracy and national unity, popular elections, strict centralization, and the merging of all chuches into one national church.
66 Karl Friedrich Justus Emil von Ibell.
67 Ludwig Rödiger.
68 The abolition of exemptions to military service in 1813 meant that universal compulsory conscription was introduced in Prussia for the first time. Temporarily rescinded in 1814, it was finally re-introduced in the form of a Military Service Act in September of that year. From the age of twenty, all able-bodied men liable for military service had to serve for three years in the army (on the Lines) and two years in the reserves, after which they became members of the Landwehr, a militia. Men of education or wealth had the option of serving as volunteers for one year, whereupon they could become Landwehr officers. What was new about this system was that the armed services no longer consisted of a majority of professional soldiers. Military service was only a transitional period in the lives of individuals.
69 Karl Heinrich von Wangenheim.
70 The man sought by the police was undoubtedly Karl Ulrich, one of the leading figures in the Berlin Burschenschaft, and a participant in the festival at the Wartburg. The police may have confused him with David Ulrich (1797–1844), later public prosecutor and lawyer in Zurich, who had started his studies in Göttingen in 1817. In 1818 he sustained a serious injury to his left arm, inflicted by a Hussar, during the student revolts in Göttingen, whereupon he transferred to Berlin, where he studied with Savigny.
71 Karl Freiherr Stockhorner von Starein.
72 August Adolph Ludwig Follen.
73 Ludwig von Mühlenfels.
74 Enclosure: A Short Statement of the result of Sand's Examination up to the present time, Carlsruhe 23 June 1819 (15 pages): Article in the Berlin Newspapers of the 15th July 1819 (translation).
75 Hardenberg and Metternich met on 1 August 1819 in Teplitz. The draft treaty of Teplitz which was negotiated there outlined their agreement on a common Austrian-Prussian alliance policy. Among other things, Prussia undertook not to introduce a general parliament, but to grant its provinces constitutions, and to draw a body representing the provinces from the provincial Estates. Measures directed against the revolutionary spirit at the universities were also drafted.
76 Enclosure: Article in the Berlin Papers, Tuesday 20 July 1819.
77 Cf. also note 81 in this section; the new customs tariffs of 1818 imposed an import duty of 1 Groschen 6 Pfennig per Scheffel on grain and an export duty of 2 Pfennig. Import duty per tonne was 3 Groschen 6 Pfennig, and export duty was 2 Pfennig.
78 In 1816 Beyme had been instructed, with Justice Minister von Kircheisen, to implement the reorganized justice system in the Rhine Provinces. In the same year he was appointed to the Staatsrat as the member with responsibility for legal matters, and shortly thereafter he became head of the commission to examine the administration of justice in the Rhine Provinces.
79 In addition to Arndt's papers, those of both professors Welcker were seized. These were (1) Karl Theodor Welcker (1790–1869), a liberal politician and constitutional lawyer. He was professor of law at Giessen, Kiel (1814), and Bonn (1819), where he was involved in protracted political investigations, which lasted until 1822, because of his liberal attitude after the Carlsbad decrees. In 1822 the liberal government of Baden appointed him professor of constitutional law and Pandektistik at the University of Freiburg. In 1831 he sat in Baden's second chamber; in 1848–49 he was one of the most influential deputies at the Frankfurt National Assembly. (2) his brother Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784–1868), classicial philologist, tutor of Wilhelm von Humboldt, professor at Giessen (1809), Göttingen (1816), and Bonn (1819).
80 David Ferdinand Koreff.
81 Prussia's customs law of 26 May 1818 imposed full economic unity on the Prussian state. Internal tariffs were abolished, and freedom of imports, exports, and transit was secured. Thus Prussia adopted a system of modified free trade. High duties on the transit trade, however, which made up a considerable proportion of the goods crossing Prussia's borders, were retained. This was intended to encourage neighbouring German states to join the Prussian customs system.
82 On 2 August 1819 Würzburg witnessed the beginning of excesses against the Jews. The immediate cause sparking off a wave of pogroms that preceded modern anti-Semitism and began in Würzburg was a dispute, carried out in the local newspaper, between the author of an anti-Jewish book and his reviewer, who stood up for the principle that the Jews were equal in law. Jewish shops were demolished, and Jews mistreated.
83 Equality before the law extended to the Jews under French rule, and opened up more avenues for them to make money. Skill in making use of these combined with the general trend towards freedom of trade and freedom of movement improved the position of the Jews as compared with the conditions under which they had had to live in a corporate society. But as the statement made in the report shows, anti-jewish prejudice took a few cases in which Jewish as well as non-Jewish entrepreneurs became exceedingly rich as an excuse for wild exaggerations.
84 From 6 to 31 August 1819, ministers of ten German states met at Carlsbad: Austria (Prince Metternich), Prussia (Foreign Minister Count Bernstorff), Bavaria (Foreign Minister Count Rechberg), Saxony (Count Schulenberg), Hanover (Count Münster), Württemberg (Count Wintzingerode), Baden (Baron von Berstett), Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Baron von Plessen), and Nassau (Baron Marshall von Bieberstein). Metternich invited representatives of the German governments that were considered highly conservative to these ministerial conferences in Carlsbad after the assassination of the writer Kotzebue in order to suppress, in co-operation with Prussia, movements that allegedly posed a threat to the existence of the confederation. The conferences meant that the Bundestag was confronted with faits accomplis on pending constitutional issues, in particular, the rights of the universities and the press. The Carlsbad decrees contained drafts for four federal laws: one for the universities, one for the press, a law concerning the investigation of subversive activities which endangered the confederation, and an execution order. In order to become law, the Carlsbad decrees had to be sanctioned by the Bundestag. They were presented to the Diet by Count Buol-Schauenstein on 16 September 1819. He called for them to be accepted as federal law within four days, and this is what happened, although the procedure was incorrect, as the plenipotentiaries to the Bundestag were meant to vote in accordance with the instructions issued by their home governments. In order to conceal the fact that correct procedures had not been followed in the voting, two sets of minutes were prepared. The official minutes recorded the unanimity of the vote, and the secret minutes noted the objections of the plenipotentiaries.
85 Victor Louis Charles de Riquet, Duc de Caraman.
86 Friedrich Christoph Trützschler von Falkenstein.
87 Görres's book Teutschland und die Revolution was published in 1819, causing a great stir. Three editions were quickly sold out, and two English translations, a French version, and a Swedish one were published. In this book Görres mercilessly critized the reaction. When the police undertook measures against him because of this in autumn 1819, he fled from the threat of arrest and went to Strasburg.
88 Karl Wolfart.
89 Cf. note 23 in this section.
90 Hardenberg succeeded in persuading the king to repeat his promise of a constitution in the law on the state deficit of 17 January 1820. According to this, new debts could be made only if the Imperial Diet was involved and guaranteed them.
91 As Boyen, the War Minister saw it, the Landwehr or militia functioned as a popular army. Reactionary critics, however, saw it a democratic institution which could pose a political threat, and since the festival at the Wartburg in 1817, it had been included, along with the Burschenschaft and Turnerschaft (gymnastics club), among the national revolutionary ‘demagogic’ movements. Influenced by this view and the argument that the militia's training left much to be desired, the king issued an order-in-council on 22 December concerning the reorganization of the militia. Boyen, who disagreed with the restructuring of the militia, thereupon resigned. A close connection was now established between the Line and the militia. The militia was organized into sixteen brigades. A militia brigade, an infantry brigade of the Line, and a cavalry brigade together formed a division. The militia regulations of 1819 were intended to integrate the militia into the standing army, and thus to liquidate it as an independent military formation.
92 Friedrich Heinrich Ferdinand Emil Graf Kleist von Nollendorf.
93 This refers to the Immediat-Untersuchungs-Kommission gegen demagogische Umtriebe, which was set up in 1819 under the chairmanship of Hardenberg.
94 Not traceable.
95 Georg Friedrich Freiherr von Zehnter.
96 Cf. note 20 in this section.
97 Johann Adolf Freiherr von Thielmann.
98 During those years of social and economic tensions the British government had on several occasions restricted civil liberties in order to suppress the threat of unrest. In 1817 the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended and a number of restrictive measures were passed, including one to allow stricter control of public gatherings. In 1819 further legal measures followed, including strengthening the army, empowering local authorities to search for and confiscate weapons, a further restriction on freedom of assembly, and a clear reduction in the freedom of the press.
99 Enclosure: Liste der von Seiner Majestaet dem Koenige verliehenen Orden und Ehrenzeichen am 18. Januar 1820.
‘His Prussian Majesty conferred a pension of six thousand Crowns on Baron Humboldt, which he declined in a letter conceived in suitable, and respectful terms, and stating that the pecuniary advantages, he has derived from His Majesty's service (his dotation especially), are so considerable, that he cannot fitly, or conscientiously allow himself to press in any degree on the income of the State; & His Majesty has acquiesced in this determination. Baron Humboldt will remain at Berlin.’
100 Marginal: ‘D’.
101 Enclosure: Allgemeine Preussische Staats Zeitung, Berlin, 19 02 1820Google Scholar, ‘Aktenmaesige Nachrichten ueber die revolutionaren Umtriebe in Teutschland’.
102 Marginal: ‘B and C’.
103 Enclosure: Allgemeine Preussische Staats Zeitung, Berlin, 26 02 1820.Google Scholar
104 Enclosure: Beilage zum 23sten Stücke der Allgemeinen Preuβischen Staats = Zeitung, 18 March 1820 ‘Aktenmäβige Nachrichten über die revolutionären Umtriebe in Teutschland’.
105 Enclosure: Allgemeine Preuβische Staats = Zeitung. 25stes Stück. Berlin, 25 March 1820, ‘Aktenmäβige Nachrichten über die revolutionären Umtriebe in Teutschland’.
106 Hans Ferdinand Massmann.
107 Ludwig Rödiger.
108 Enclosure: Public Expenditure for the whole of The Royal Family, and for the administration of The Royal House &&&.
109 Enclosure: Gesetz = Sammlung für die Königlichen Preußischen Staaten, No. 14, das Abgabewesen betreffend et al.
110 Not traceable.
111 Enclosure: Durchschnittspreise des Getraides in einer Auswahl von Städten des Reiches, Monat September 1820; extract from the Staats Zeitung.
112 Later Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
113 Not traceable.
114 Not traceable.
115 Town on the Löcknitz river, near Wittenberge, in Brandenburg.
116 Cf. note 34 in Frankfurt section.
117 Friedrich Ferdinand von Anhalt-Köthen.
118 The Electorate of Hesse, situated between the two main areas of Prussian territory, soon abandoned its customs war against Prussia because of lack of success.
119 This refers to attempts to form a regional customs union. On 19 May 1820 Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and the Duchy of Nassau joined the small Thuringian states to agree on the Draft Contract of Vienna. This committed them to start negotiations on a common customs union within the year. These negotiations began in September in Darmstadt, but soon ground to a halt.
120 This refers to the congress of European powers held 26 January to 15 May 1821 in Laibach (today Ljubljana), at which Austria was instructed to intervene militarily in Naples and Piedmont in order to put down the revolts which had broken out here.
121 Charlotte Maria Sophia von Hardenberg, third wife of Prince Hardenberg.
122 Friederike von Kimsky (née Hähnel), died 1871. Hardenberg had encountered her as ‘Somnambule’ in Wohlfahrt's ‘magnetic salon’ (cf. note 123 in this section). She was initially taken into the Chancellor's house as a companion for the princess. Although contemporaries undoubtedly demonized her excessively, she is believed to have been responsible for the failure of his marriage, and to have used his property to enrich herself. She was the Chancellor's last partner, and, under the terms of his will, received a lifetime pension from him.
123 The theory of the healing power of animal magnetism was established by the Viennese doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815). During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Berlin became the third central showcase of mesmerism, after Vienna and Paris, when it had seemingly been proven that toothache, eye diseases, and stomach cramps could all be cured by the use of steel magnets. Suggestive and hypnotic effects were attributed to steel magnets, but the same effects could be achieved by the use of other materials, or by one person working on another. It was recognized that not everyone could absorb the same amount of magnetism. Despite failures and opposition, belief in the effectiveness of magnetic cures, somnambulism, and clairvoyance persisted and spread in the nineteenth century, even reaching a new peak.
124 Ernst Gottfried Georg von Bülow-Cummerow.
125 The law of 30 May 1820 about setting up a taxation system (the customs law of 26 May 1818 and the law of 8 February 1819 concerning the taxation of domestically produced spirits, brewing malt, must, and tobacco leaves were to remain in force), specified that in addition to customs duty, consumption tax, stamp duty, and trade tax, a ‘class tax’ was to be paid. Where this was not imposed, a slaughter tax and a meal tax were levied instead. The class tax was a graduated personal tax, which did, indeed, resemble the old poll tax. For the poorer members of the population, this was an extremely harsh measure.
126 Princess Therese Mathilde Amalie von Thurn und Taxis.
127 Princess Marie Sophie Dorothee von Thurn und Taxis.
128 Prince Georg von Anhalt-Dessau and Prince Friedrich von Anhalt-Dessau.
129 Günther Friedrich Karl von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.
130 Amalie Auguste von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
131 Marginal: ‘end’ added in pencil.
132 This refers to the unrest in Piedmont which broke out in connection with demands for the introduction of a constitution resembling the Spanish one.
133 Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Christian von Hedemann.
134 Enclosure: Itineray of His Majesty The King (Potsdam, Erfurth, Mentz etc.).
135 Ludwig Theodor Pfitzner.
136 y Zembrano.
137 Not traceable.
138 In 1707 Prussia acquired the principality of Neufchatel and the county of Valangin from the House of Orange through testamentary contract. Confirmed in the Peace of Utrecht of 1713, they remained in Prussia's possession until 1806, and again from 1814 to 1857.
139 At the demand of the Landtag, the judge Mr Woit was to direct the court investigation.
140 From 1820 Wilhelm von Humboldt had increasingly devoted himself to the study of linguistics. In 1821 his work Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittels der Vaskischen Sprache was published. It was the only work in which he used linguistics solely in the service of ethnology and prehistory.
141 Enclosure: Statistics on Prussia.
142 Enclosure: Extract of an anonymous letter ‘Philosophy has too much subtilized with us the minds, and the German Proverb suits those philosophers precisely: ‘Sie sehen den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht.’ [marginal: ‘The Trees prevent their seeing the wood.’] Pantheism, and its various forms Idealism, Identitism, and all these 
have blinded the eyes and shut the heart. Oh! How truly has a German author Lichtenberg 30 years ago prophecied. ‘Philosophy will in Germany advance so far and soar so high, that it will appear even as ridiculous to believe in God, as it is now to believe in hobgoblins.’ And another philosopher, lately deceased, Jacobi, a sober minded wise man, added to this prophecy: ‘And then men will soar still higher, so far as to find it ridiculous to believe in their own existence, they believe in nothing but hobgoblin.’- And exactly these prophecies have been fulfilled. The belief in a thinking personal Deity is long since exploded, and whosoever utters this belief is sneered at amongst learned men. Now Schelling and M.r Hegel at Berlin prove that, ‘man is not, and that he is not not.’ Homo non est, et non non est; they prove further: esse et non esse est idem & &.’
143 Original in FO 244/13.
144 Marginal: ‘dispatch 80, 15. Sept.’
145 Marginal: ‘A’.
146 On 6 September 1813 allied, chiefly Prussian, troops led by General Blücher and Count von Tauentzien defeated the French army commanded by Marshall M. Ney. The battle took place in the vicinity of this community in the district of Potsdam.
147 Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel.
148 Cf. note 125 in this section.
149 Marginal: ‘B’.
150 Enclosure: (Broschüre) Gesetzsammlung für die Königlichen Preußischen Staaten, No. 12 (No. 666.) Allerhöchste Kabinets = Order vom 23sten August 1821, betreffend die königliche Sanction der päpstlichen Bulle, d.d. Rom den 16ten Juli c.a., ausgegeben zu Berlin den Isten September 1821; Bestimmungen über die Herbstübungen im Jahre 1821, Lagepläne, Aufstellungen etc.
151 This refers to the List of Tariff's Valid for the Years 1822–1824 dated October 1821, which contained information about the ‘duties which are to be imposed on goods which are imported from abroad for use, or which are in transit, or which are exported from the country, for the years 1822 to 1824’.
152 Marginal: ‘A’.
153 This refers to the union of the Lutherans and Calvinists, both Protestant churches. Such unions took place in Baden, the Palatine, Nassau, and the two Hesses. In Prussia, too, the king proclaimed a voluntary union of this sort, in which both sides grew together, to great popular acclaim in 1817, the tercentenary of the Reformation. However, he encountered opposition when he wanted to introduce an archaic, High Church liturgy which emphasized ritual over the sermon. The king responded by filling certain offices and introducing disciplinary measures, and thus imposed the union.
154 The Dresden Navigation Conference, which had been in session since 1819, attempted legally to secure freedom of navigation on the river Elbe. It was attended by representatives of the ten German states through whose territory the river flowed (Austria, Saxony, Prussia, three states of Anhalt, Hanover, Mecklenburgh-Schwerin, Hamburg, and Holstein). Its conclusion was made more difficult by the customs conflict between Prussia and Anhalt [cf. 34 in Frankfurt section]. Ratification documents were exchanged on 12 December 1821, and the Elbe Act came into force on 1 March 1822. In order to accommodate Hanover, the Stade duty, which was imposed as a sea tax on the Lower Elbe, was retained. All other shipping dues were reduced to such an extent that navigation on the Elbe became practically free.
155 Enclosure: Nachweisung der von Seiner Majestät dem Könige verliehenen Orden und Ehrenzeichen vom 19. Januar 1821. Bis 16. Januar 1822; Liste der von Seiner Majestaet dem Könige verliehenen Orden und Ehrenzeichen am 20sten Januar 1822.
156 Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel.
157 Georg Philipp Ludolf von Beckedorff.
158 Karl Niklas von Rehdiger.
159 Georg Andreas Reimer.
160 Late in 1821 the Prince Elector of Hesse-Kassel had arranged for his sister, Friedericke (1768–1839), divorced Duchess of Anhalt-Bernburg, to be abducted while she was staying in Bonn. In Berlin this was regarded as a violation of Prussian sovereignty, and led to a temporary suspension of diplomatic relations with Hesse-Kassel.
161 Reinhard Freiherr von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels.
162 Marginal: ‘End’ added in pencil.
163 Secret societies were set up in Russia from 1816. From the early 1820s it was possible to distinguish between a northern and a southern society among the conspirators. The northern branch was more moderate, whereas the southern advocated not peaceful constitutional reform, but a military revolt, the murder of the Tsar's family, and the declaration of a republic. It was therefore prepared to come to an understanding with the Polish revolutionaries who were fighting for the independence of their homeland.
164 Rumours about a Jewish army which was ready for action and waiting in Palestine also came up in other contexts, such as at the time of Napoleon's campaign in the Middle East. In fact, given the conditions in which they had to live under Tsar Alexander and his successor Nicholas, the Jews supported the Polish liberation struggle.
165 Enclosure: Translation of an article in the Berlin State Gazette of 4 April 1822.
166 Hugh Rose.
167 Probably FO 64 / 127: No. 37, 9 June 1821; and No 38, 12 June 1821.
168 In the Treaty of Vienna and subsequent treaties of 1818–19, Russia, Prussia, and Austria had agreed that there should be free trade in all parts of former Poland. This agreement initially led to a lowering of Russian tariffs in response to an increase in imports of goods from abroad, which had a devastating impact on Russian manufacturing. The new customs tariff of 1822 instigated a change. It was intended largely to eliminate foreign competition, and this tendency was strengthened by the tariff of 1826. As the old regulations continued to apply in Poland, the border between Poland and Russia proper had to be strictly controlled.
169 Not traceable.
170 Not traceable.
171 Enclosures: A-G.
172 List Route from Berlin to Rotterdam; description of the routes/miles needed.
173 Enclosures: A. Tableau de l'expédition des Postes de Londres par Rotterdam à Berlin et St Petersbourg et de retour; B. Tableau de l'expédition des Postes de Londres par Hambourg à Berlin et St Petersbourg, et de retour.
174 Johann Emmanuel von Küster.
175 Original in FO 244/15.
176 Original in FO 244/15.
177 Marginal: added in pencil ‘by Sea, when they are confident of 1. Lieutenant of Marines & 13 Shippers with (perhaps a Cabin boy) for the tow-boat on the Rhine’
178 Brackets in pencil and the whole sentence crossed through.
179 Enclosure: Gesetz = Sammlung für die Königlichen Preußischen Staaten. No. 13. (No. 810) Allgemeines Gesetz wegen Anordnung der Provinzialstände. Vom 5ten Juni 1823; translation.
180 Not traceable.
181 Marginal: ‘Cabinets = order’
182 Ferdinand Johannes Wit, called von Döring.
183 Enclosure: Memorandum of the Provinces of Brandenburg and Lower Lusatia; Translation Cabinet Order containing further regulations respecting the ‘Censure’.
184 Original in FO 244/17.
185 Original in FO 244/19; Letter with same content sent to Henry Wellesley in Vienna, see: FO 07 / 191: To Henry Wellesley, No 2, Foreign Office, signed by George Canning, 24 January 1826 (Draft).
186 Sir Robert Peel.
187 Criminal statistics for Berlin (1819–1825): Suicide 1819: 59; 1820: 59; 1821: 52; 1822: 45; 1823: 54; 1824: 53; 1825: 47; Total: 369; Average: 52 5/7; Culpable Homicide: 1822: 1; Total: 1; Average: 1/7; Murder: 1820: 2; 1825: 2; Total: 4; Average: 4/7; Robbery & Murder: 1819: 1; Total: 1; Average: 1/7; Murder of Wife or Husband: 0; Murder of Children: 1822: 1; 1823: 1; Total: 2; Average: 2/7; Murder of Parents: 0; Duel: 0; Robbery: 1819: 1716; 1820: 1773; 1821: 1815; 1822: 1721; 1823: 1365; 1824: 1616; 1825: 1670; Total: 11 676; Average: 1668; Burglary: 0; Highway Robbery: 0; Arson: 0.
188 Original in FO 244/19.
189 Original in FO 244/19.
190 The Prussian Foreign Ministry rejected an official note from the British legation written in English on the grounds that it could not accept official correspondence in a language which the king did not understand at all, and of which his ministers had only a poor command. However, as the English Cabinet insisted on using the English language, Bernstorff wrote a detailed address to the British envoy for the Ministry in London, in which he explained Prussia's point of view. Copies were sent to the Prussian envoy in Vienna, Prince Hatzfeld, to be passed on to Metternich, and to the Prussian envoy in St Petersburg, General von Schöler, to be passed on to Nesselrode. Metternich and Nesselrode agreed with Bernstorff. Metternich believed that the English rule by which everyone wrote in their own language had long since become inappropriate for modern governments, signifying ‘retomber dans la confusion des languages’.
191 Cf. FO 64/147: To William Temple, Separate, Foreign Office, No 6, 10 October 1826 (Draft).
192 Between the departure from London of the Prussian envoy von Maltzahn in 1827, when he was recalled, and the arrival of his replacement von Bülow in the same year, Count Lottum aeted as Prussian chargé d'affaires in London.
193 Original in FO 244/20.
194 Cf. note 33 in Frankfurt section.
195 Heinrich Ulrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Billow.
196 England and Russia had come to an agreement on Greek independence over the heads of the other European powers. The Greek uprising against Turkey had led England and Russia to come to an understanding on 4 April 1826, and this was followed by a treaty between the two countries on 6 July 1827.
197 This was the Maison d'Orange, an institution lor the descendants of those expelled from Orange. Its head was always the British envoy at the Prussian court.
198 In 1865 Louis XIV had passed the Revocation Edict of Fontainbleau, which repealed the Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV on 13 April 1598 to put an end to the Huguenot wars. The Edict of Nantes had granted the Huguenots freedom of conscience, the right to practise their religion within a geographically circumscribed area, full civil rights, and the right to set up secure places. Upon its repeal, large numbers of Huguenots had fled to the German territories.
199 Marginal: ‘Baron Cotta’.
200 Friedrich Graf von Luxburg.
201 August Ludwig Heinrich Freiherr von Blomberg.
202 Cf. note 48 in Frankfurt section.
203 Joseph Marie [since 1810] Count Portalis.
204 Marginal: ‘Instructions were already on the road when this dispatch was written’.
205 Joseph Graf von Trautmannsdorf-Weinsberg.
206 Number not filled in, space left in the original.
207 Dispatches referred to not to be found in FO 64/159.
208 Ernst I.
209 Bernhard II.
210 Heinrich XIX.
- 1
- Cited by
