Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  For half a century after Napoleon the little German States continued. There were many attempts at federation, but they did not succeed because both the Austrian and Prussian rulers and governments wanted to be leaders of it. Meanwhile there was a great deal of repression of all liberal elements, and there were revolts in 1830 and 1848, which were suppressed. Some petty reforms were also introduced to soothe the people.

  In parts of Germany there were coal-fields and iron ore, as in England, and thus conditions were favourable for industrial development. Germany also was famous for her philosophers and scientists and soldiers. Factories were built and an industrial working class grew up.

  At this stage, about the middle of the century, there rose a man in Prussia who was to dominate for many years not only Germany, but European politics. This man was Otto von Bismarck, a junker—that is, a landowner in Prussia. Born in the year of Waterloo, he served for many years as a diplomatic envoy in various Courts. In 1862 he became Prime Minister of Prussia and immediately he began to make his influence felt. Within a week of his becoming Prime Minister he said in the course of a speech: “The great questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions of majorities, but by iron and blood.”

  Blood and iron! Those words, which became famous, truly represented the policy he pursued with foresight and relentlessness. He hated democracy, and treated parliaments and popular assemblies with scant courtesy. He seemed to be a relic from the past, but his ability and determination were such that he made the present bend to his will. He made modern Germany and moulded European history in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Germany of philosophers and scientists retired into the background and the new Germany of blood and iron, of military efficiency, began to dominate the continent of Europe. A prominent German of his day said, “Bismarck makes Germany great and the Germans small.” His policy of making Germany a great Power in Europe and in international affairs pleased the Germans, and the glamour of a growing national prestige made them put up with all manner of repression from him.

  Bismarck came to power with clear ideas as to what he was to do and a carefully worked-out plan. He adhered to this resolutely and met with amazing success. He wanted to make Germany and, through Germany, Prussia, dominant in Europe. At that time France, under Napoleon III, was considered the most powerful nation on the Continent. Austria was also a great rival. It is fascinating, as a lesson in the old style of international politics and diplomacy, to see how Bismarck played with the other Powers and then disposed of each of them by turn. The first thing he set out to do was to settle once and for all the question of the leadership of the Germans. The old rivalry between Prussia and Austria could not be allowed to continue. The question must be finally decided in favour of Prussia, and Austria must realize that she would have to play second fiddle. After that would come the turn of France. (Please remember that when I talk of Prussia, Austria, and France I mean their governments. All these governments were more or less autocratic and the parliaments there had little power.)

  So Bismarck quietly perfected his military machine. Meanwhile, Napoleon III attacked and defeated Austria. This defeat led to Garibaldi’s campaign in South Italy, which finally resulted in the freedom of Italy. All this suited Bismarck, as it weakened Austria. A national revolt having occurred in Russian Poland, Bismarck actually offered his help to the Tsar to shoot down the Poles if necessary. This was a disgraceful offer to make, but it served its purpose, which was to gain the goodwill of the Tsar in any future complication in Europe. Then, in alliance with Austria, he defeated Denmark, and soon after turned on Austria, having taken care to obtain the support of France and Italy. Austria was overwhelmed by Prussia in a very short time in 1866. Having settled the question of German leadership and made it clear that Prussia was the leader, very wisely he treated Austria with generosity, so as to leave no bitterness. The way was now clear for the creation of a North German Federation under Prussia’s leadership (Austria was not in it.) Bismarck became the Federal Chancellor. In these days, when some of our political and legal pandits talk and argue for months and years about federations and constitutions, it is interesting to note that Bismarck dictated the new constitution for the North German Federation in five hours. And this, with a few alterations, continued to be the German constitution for fifty years, till after the World War, when the Republic was established in 1918.

  Bismarck had attained his first great objective. The next step was to establish a dominant European position by humbling France. Quietly and without fuss he prepared for this, trying to bring about German unity, and disarming the suspicions of the other European Powers, Even defeated Austria was treated so gently that there was not much ill-will left. England was the historical rival of France, and looked with great suspicion on Napoleon III’s ambitious schemes. So it was not difficult for Bismarck to have the goodwill of England in any struggle against France. When he was fully prepared for war, he played his game so cleverly that it was Napoleon III who actually declared war on Prussia in 1870. The Prussian Government seemed to Europe the innocent victim of aggressive France. “A Berlin! A Berlin!” people shouted in Paris, and Napoleon III complacently imagined that he would actually be in Berlin soon at the head of a victorious army. But something very different happened. Bismarck’s trained military machine hurled itself on the northeastern frontier of France, and the French army crumpled up before it. Within a few weeks, at Sedan, the Emperor Napoleon III himself and his army were made prisoners by the Germans.

  So ended the second Napoleonic Empire of France. A republican government was immediately established in Paris. Napoleon III fell for many reasons, but chiefly because he had become thoroughly unpopular with his people on account of his repressive policy. He tried to divert people’s attention by foreign wars, a favourite method of kings and governments in trouble. He did not succeed, and war itself put a final seal to his ambition.

  In Paris a government of National Defence was formed. They offered peace to Prussia, but Bismarck’s terms were so humiliating that they decided to fight on, although they had practically no army left. There was a long siege of Paris with the German armies at Versailles and all round the city. At last Paris yielded, and the new Republic accepted defeat and the hard terms of Bismarck. A huge war indemnity was agreed to be paid and, what hurt most, the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine had to be given up to Germany after they had been a part of France for over 200 years.

  The Growth of Germany

  But even before the siege of Paris had ended, Versailles saw the birth of a new empire. In September 1870 Napoleon III’s French Empire had ended; in January 1871 a united Germany, with the Prussian King as Kaiser or Emperor, was proclaimed in the splendid hall of Louis XIV in the palace at Versailles. All the princes and representatives of Germany assembled there to pay homage to their new Emperor—the Kaiser. The Prussian royal house of Hohenzollern had now become an imperial house and united Germany was one of the great Powers of the world.

  In Versailles there was rejoicing and celebration, but in Paris near by there was sorrow and distress and utter humiliation. The people were staggered by their many disasters and there was no stable or well-established government. A large number of monarchists had been elected to a National Assembly and these people intrigued to restore monarchy. To remove an obstacle from their path they tried to disarm the National Guard, which was believed to be republican. All the democrats and revolutionary elements in the city felt that this meant reaction and repression again. There was a rising, and the “Commune” of Paris was proclaimed in March 1871. This was a kind of municipality, and it looked back to the great French Revolution for inspiration. But there was something much more in it, and it embodied, though rather vaguely, the new socialistic ideas that had since arisen. In a sense it was the predecessor of the Soviets in Russia.

  But this Paris Commune of 1871 had a brief life. The monarchists and the bourgeoisie, frightened by this rising of the common people, laid siege
to that part of Paris which was under the Commune. Close by, at Versailles and elsewhere, the German army looked silently on. As the French soldiers, who had been made prisoners by the Germans and were now released returned to Paris, they took the side of their old officers and fought against the Commune. They marched against the Communards, and on a summer day towards the end of May 1871 they defeated them, and shot down 30,000 men and women in the streets of Paris. Large numbers of captured Communards were shot down later in cold blood. So ended the Paris Commune, and at the time it stirred Europe greatly. This stir was caused not only by the bloody suppression of it, but also because it was the first socialistic revolt against the existing system. The poor had often risen against the rich, but they had not thought of changing the system under which they were poor. The Commune was both a democratic and an economic revolt, and is thus a landmark in the development of socialistic thought in Europe. In France the violent suppression of the Commune drove socialistic ideas underground and the recovery was slow.

  Although the Commune was put down, France escaped more experiments in monarchy. After a while she settled down definitely to republicanism, and in January 1875 the Third Republic was proclaimed under a new constitution. This republic has continued since then and still exists. There are some people in France who talk even now of having kings; but they are very few, and France seems to be definitely committed to republicanism. The French Republic is a bourgeois republic, and is controlled by the well-to-do middle classes.

  France recovered from the German war of 1870-71 and paid the huge indemnity, but in the heart of her people was anger at the humiliation they had been made to suffer. They are a proud people and have long memories and the idea of revenge—la revanche—obsessed them. Especially they felt the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. Bismarck had been wise in his generosity to Austria after her defeat, but there was no generosity or wisdom in his harsh treatment of France. At the cost of humbling a proud enemy he bought the terrible and ever-remembered enmity of those people. Just after the Battle of Sedan, even before the war had ended, Karl Marx, the famous socialist, issued a manifesto in which he prophesied that the annexation of Alsace would lead to “mortal enmity between the two countries, to a truce instead of a peace”. In this, as in many other matters, he was a true prophet.

  In Germany Bismarck was now the all-powerful Imperial Chancellor. The policy of “blood and iron” had succeeded for the time being, and Germany accepted it and liberal ideas were at a discount. Bismarck tried to keep power in the hands of the king, for he was no believer in democracy. The growth of German industry and the working class brought new problems as this class gained in strength and made radical demands. Bismarck dealt with it in two ways—by bettering the workers’ conditions and suppressing socialism. He tried to win the workers over, or at any rate to prevent them from becoming extreme, by promoting social legislation. Germany thus took the lead in this kind of legislation, and laws for old-age pensions, insurance and medical aid for workers, and other improvements in workers’ conditions, were passed before even England, with her older industry and workers’ movement, had done much in this line. This policy had some success, but still the workers’ organizations grew. They had able leaders: Ferdinand Lassalle, a very brilliant person, and said to be the greatest orator of the nineteenth century. He died quite young as the result of a duel. Wilhelm Liebknecht, a brave old fighter and rebel, who was almost shot, but escaped and lived to a good age; his son, Karl, still carrying on the fight for liberty, was murdered a few years ago at the founding of the German Republic in 1918. And Karl Marx, about whom I shall have to tell you in another letter. But Marx was an exile from Germany for the greater part of his life.

  The workers’ organizations grew, and in 1875 they joined together to form the Socialist Democratic Party. Bismarck could not tolerate this growth of socialism. There was an attempt on the Emperor’s life, and he made this the excuse for a fierce attack on socialists. In 1878 anti-socialist laws were passed suppressing every kind of socialist activity. There was a kind of martial law so far as socialists were concerned and thousands of persons were expelled from the country or sentenced to imprisonment. Many of those expelled went to America and were the pioneers of socialism there. The Socialist Democratic Party was hard hit, but it survived and later grew in strength again. Bismarck’s terrorism could not kill it; success proved much more harmful. As it grew in power it became a vast organization owning a great deal of property and with thousands of paid workers. When a person or organization gets wealthy he or it ceases to be revolutionary. And this was the fate which befell this Socialist Democratic Party in Germany.

  Bismarck’s skill in diplomacy did not leave him to the end, and he played a great game in the international politics of his day. These politics then were, and even now are, a curious and intricate web of intrigue and counter-intrigue and deception and bluff, all in secret and behind the veil. They would not last long if they saw the light of day. Bismarck made an alliance with Austria and Italy, called the Triple Alliance, for now he was beginning to fear the revenge of the French. And so each side went on arming and intriguing and glaring at each other.

  In 1888 a young man became the German Kaiser as Emperor Wilhelm II. He fancied himself greatly as a strong man and soon he fell out with Bismarck. In his old age, and much to his wrath, the Iron Chancellor was dismissed from his office. As a sop he was given the title of prince, but he retired to his estate in disgust and disillusioned about kings. To a friend he said: “I took up office equipped with a great fund of royalist sentiments and veneration for the king; to my sorrow, I find that this fund is ever more and more depleted! . . . I have seen three kings naked, and the sight was not always a pleasant one!”

  The grumpy old man lived for several years more, and died in 1898 at the age of eighty-three. Even after his dismissal by the Kaiser and his death, his shadow lay over Germany and his spirit moved his successors. But they were lesser men who came after him.

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  Some Famous Writers

  February 1, 1933

  As I was writing to you yesterday about the rise of Germany, it struck me that I had not told you anything about the greatest German of the early nineteenth century. This man was Goethe, a famous writer, the centenary of whose death was celebrated all over Germany a few months ago. And then I thought that I might tell you something about the famous writers of this period in Europe. But this was a dangerous subject for me, dangerous because I would only show my own ignorance. Just to give a list of well-known names would be rather silly, and to say something more would be difficult. I know little enough about English literature, and of the other European literatures my knowledge is confined to a few translations. What, then, was I to do?

  The idea to say something on the subject had taken possession of my mind, and I could not rid myself of it. I felt that I should at least point out this direction to you, even though I cannot accompany you far along the way to this enchanted land. For art and literature often give greater insight into a nation’s soul than the superficial activities of the multitude. They take us to a region of calm and serene thought which is not affected by the passions and prejudices of the moment. But today the poet and the artist are seldom looked upon as the prophets of tomorrow and they meet with little honour. If some honour comes to them at all, it usually comes after they are dead.

  So I shall mention just a few names to you, some of which must be already familiar to you, and I shall only touch upon the early part of the century. This is just to whet your appetite. Remember that the nineteenth century has rich stores of fine writing in many of the European countries.

  Goethe really belonged to the eighteenth century, for he was born in 1749, but he lived to the ripe old age of eighty-three, and thus saw a good third of the next century. He lived through one of the stormiest periods of European history, and saw his own country overrun by Napoleon’s armies. In his own life he experienced much sorrow, but gradually he gained an inner command over
life’s difficulties and attained a detachment and calm which brought peace to him. Napoleon first saw him when he was over sixty. As he stood in the doorway, there was something in his face and figure, an untroubled look and a bearing so full of dignity, that Napoleon exclaimed: “Voilà un homme!” He dabbled in many things, and whatever he did, he did with distinction. He was a philosopher, a poet, a dramatist, and a scientist interested in many different sciences; and, besides all this, his practical job was that of a minister in the Court of a petty German prince! He is best known to us as a writer, and his most famous book is Faust. His fame spread far during his long life, and in his own sphere of literature he came to be regarded by his countrymen almost as a demi-god.

  Goethe had a contemporary, somewhat younger than he was, named Schiller, who was also a great poet. Much younger was Heinrich Heine, yet another great and delightful poet in German, who has written very beautiful lyrics. All these three—Goethe, Schiller and Heine—were steeped in the classical culture of ancient Greece.

  Germany has long been known as the land of philosophers, and I might as well mention one or two names to you, although perhaps they will not interest you greatly. Only those people who have a passion for the subject need try to read their books, for they are very abstruse and difficult. Nonetheless these and other philosophers are interesting and instructive, for they kept alight the torch of thought, and through them one can follow the development of ideas. Immanuel Kant was the great German philosopher of the eighteenth century, and he lived on to the turn of the century, when he was eighty. Hegel is another great name in philosophy. He followed Kant, and is supposed to have greatly influenced Karl Marx, the father of communism. So much for the philosophers.