Bismarck’s Health Suffers

If he had learned nothing else, he said, he had learned modesty. Certainly a more unaffected mortal never breathed.

Continuing Consolidation of Germany,
our selection from Prince Bismarck by Charles Lowe. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Consolidation of Germany.

Time: 1881-1890
Place: Germany

It had been very much easier to dispose of the five milliards, which quickly found their level, like a flood of gold, throughout Germany. Among other objects to which they were devoted were generous provision for the victims of the war, the construction of new fortresses and strategic lines of railway, the building of an Imperial fleet, the allotment of six hundred thousand pounds among the leading commanders and statesmen of the war, and the assignment of forty million thalers as a Kriegschatz, or War Emergency Fund, without which the German Army, said Bismarck, would never be able to mobilize so swiftly as it already had. Some objections were raised to this scheme for letting such an enormous amount of money lie dead and unproductive; but to those who wished to saddle the employment of the war-treasure with parliamentary conditions Bismarck replied that the Reichstag in such matters could not possibly claim more power than the Federal Council, which might, indeed, prevent the Emperor from declaring war, but not from mobilizing the army, and ready cash must always therefore be at hand. For this simple and preliminary purpose, he said, the Kriegschatz no more than sufficed; and so the sum of six million pounds sterling in gold was forth with consigned to the Julius tower, in the fortress of Spandau, there to lie like the talent of the wicked and slothful servant.

Here, I think, I cannot do better than quote the following domestic picture of the Major-Domo of the Reich as it was drawn about this time by John Lothrop Motley, who went to Varzin on the occasion of the Chancellor’s silver wedding :

which surprises me. He is somewhat stouter, and his face more weather-beaten, but as expressive and powerful as ever. . . . Their manner of living is most unsophisticated, as you will think when I tell you that we were marched straight from the carriage into the dining-room (after a dusty, hot journey of ten hours by rail and carriage), and made to sit down and go on with the dinner, which was about half through. . . . After dinner Bismarck and I had a long walk in the woods, he talking all the time in the simplest and funniest and most interesting manner about all sorts of things that had happened in these tremendous years, but talking of them exactly as every-day people talk of every-day matters, without any affectation. The truth is, he is so entirely simple, so full of laissez-aller, that one is obliged to be saying to one’s self all the time: This is the great Bismarck, the greatest living man, and one of the greatest historical characters that ever lived.

If he had learned nothing else, he said, he had learned modesty. Certainly a more unaffected mortal never breathed, nor a more genial one. He looks like a colossus, but his health is somewhat shattered. He never can sleep till four or five in the morning. Of course work follows him here, but as far as I have yet seen it seems to trouble him little. He looks like a country gentleman entirely at leisure. . . . The woods and park about the house are fine, but unkept and rough, unlike an English country-place. . . . We breakfast at any hour, dine generally about half-past three, he not being allowed to dine late, and after dinner we make these sylvan excursions, and go to bed, after a scram bling, promiscuous supper, about twelve. . . . His breakfast is very light, an egg and a cup of coffee, and then he has a meer schaum pipe. He smokes very little now, only light tobacco in a pipe. When I last knew him he never stopped smoking the strongest cigars. Now, he tells me, he couldn’t to save his life smoke a single cigar. He has a disgust for them. . . . While he is sitting there and talking to all of us, his secretary hands him the piles of letters with which he is goaded in his retirement, and with a pencil about a foot long makes memoranda as to the answers and other dispositions to be made. Meanwhile the boys are playing billiards, in another part of the same room, and a big black dog, called Sultan, is rampaging generally through the apartment and joining in everybody’s conversation. No dinner dressing nor evening costume. Dinner always good and simple; wine excellent. . . . The intense affection which he has for his wife and children is delightful to contemplate, and, as you may imagine, he is absolutely worshipped by them.”

It was the growing sense of physical infirmity referred to in the foregoing extract that had caused Bismarck, toward the end of the same year (1872), to ask the Emperor- King to relieve him of half his official burden, the post of Minister-President of the Prussian Cabinet. This too, though much against his will, his Majesty at last did, with an assurance of his ” undying gratitude” and the order of the Black Eagle in brilliants; but before the year (1873) was out, Bismarck had resumed his old office, which had meanwhile been exercised by the War Minister. This was the first of several attempts to vest the functions of Imperial Chancellor and Prussian Premier in separate persons, but in the long run they were all found to be impracticable. The threads of Prussian and Imperial policy were so closely intertwined that to entrust them to separate hands was like placing two drivers, each with a rein, on the box of a coach and pair. The Prussian Constitution laid down the direct responsibility of the Minister to the Crown, and not to the Premier as in England. But in the course of time Bismarck had gradually converted the Prussian theory into the English practice, and made himself virtual dicta tor over his Ministerial colleagues. This was, indeed, one of the things which ultimately helped to bring about his fall. But at the time of which I am now writing his will was supreme in the Prussian Cabinet, and he found it utterly impossible to conduct the domestic affairs of the empire in particular without resuming his old post as Premier of the monarchy.

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