NIHILISM AND PESSIMISM IN GERMANY. 



249 



pale thoughts. In his leisure hours he generally 

 reads, or, as he feels too old to play about the 

 streets, he will take a quiet stroll about the An- 

 lagen, the Stadt-, Hof-, or Schlossgarten. This 

 may be good exercise for an old gentleman, but 

 not for a boy whose energy has been accumulated 

 for hours while sitting on the hard school-bench. 

 England can hardly overrate the value of its out- 

 door sports. The German schoolboy is wanting, 

 too, in that peculiar institution which must exer- 

 cise a great influence upon the character, namely, 

 the fight. The Germans have certainly a some- 

 what similar institution — the duel. But the duel 

 has, in the existing state of society, lost its in- 

 tensity of meaning: our age has grown too old 

 for it ; only boys are young enough to need it. 

 The student, however, has remained a boy up to 

 an age at which he ought to be a man. For him 

 the duel, though dead, is not yet buried ; perhaps 

 it would be stricter to say that it has lost its liv- 

 ing manly earnestness, and reached its second 

 childhood. Dueling is one of the chief occupa- 

 tions of the " corps-student." The institution of 

 " corps " has lost the aim and end by which it 

 was called forth : its mission is fulfilled, and so 

 there ensues, as is always the case in history 

 when the true motives and ends of institutions 

 have been realized and have played their part, a 

 time when some mere outward concomitant, a 

 formal matter, is clung to ; an attribute is made 

 the essence. Drawing an analogy from chivalry, 

 we call this " Quixotism." The sensible German 

 " corps student" feels the sham in moments when 

 he is not beerfully enthusiastic, in moments of 

 reflective relaxation ; but the English fifth-form 

 boy has learned it thoroughly, and even in his 

 cups despises those who play at fighting. 



In German schools great attention is given to 

 the education of the intellect, but the forming of 

 the character is sorely neglected. Nay, it is not 

 only neglected, but much is done positively to 

 spoil the character. How frequent are the of- 

 fenses against the pupils' self-respect! Words 

 like " Du Esel," " Du liigst," are not at all infre- 

 quent. Nor, again, is there the " wholesome 

 equality" between master and pupil. Entire 

 submission, as well in thought as in action, is 

 exacted. Hence springs a habit of dissimulation, 

 trickery, or tale-telling, while in the master's 

 presence, ridicule and bravado behind his back. 

 The idea of " gentleman," which has worked so 

 well with the little boys in American public 

 schools, is totally unknown. Much has been 

 said as to German schools, and they have con- 

 stantly been held up to the eyes of the world as 



models ; but though this high opinion is no doubt 

 justified in the department of learning, yet we 

 cannot hold it as regards the formation of char- 

 acter. In this respect the system of American 

 public schools is certainly better. Look at the 

 pale young "Primaner" who has outgrown his 

 strength, and compare him with the German 

 youth of Tacitus who bathed in snow ! His life, 

 which ought at that age to be essentially of the 

 present, is of the future. He eagerly looks for- 

 ward to the time when he will be a student at the 

 university. On this goal of happiness all his 

 night and day dreams concentrate. He sees him- 

 self with his colored cap and his high boots, his 

 rapier in one hand, his glass in the other, jeering 

 at all the laws and restrictions before which he 

 has had so long to cringe. That will be happi- 

 ness ! And what does he find ? At first his 

 fancy is captivated by the charm of novelty: he 

 is enchanted so long as his illusion can make 

 flowery what would otherwise be most barren. 

 But it is not many months before he is tired of 

 the business-like idleness generally adopted by 

 students during the first semesters, tired of the 

 sham dueling and of muddling his faculties with 

 beer. Then, too, the body, overworked before, 

 cannot long endure these gross debauches, and 

 the so-called " moralische Katzenjammer," a com- 

 pound of physical debility with remorse for 

 squandered time and money, is already a taste of 

 the pessimism that is to come. There is the 

 contest of his assiduous habits, of the onward 

 striving element in him, with his nothing-achiev- 

 ing, miserable, so-called " splendid time." He 

 tries to play the romantic student of former days, 

 but in vain : involuntarily he must laugh at him- 

 self. Thus a spoiled stomach and a thorough 

 disenchantment are a good opening for his future 

 pessimism. At all events, his gymnasium educa- 

 tion is not very favorable to a contented and 

 happy frame of mind. 



2. Before we proceed to the strictly social 

 causes, we must impress upon ourselves a fact 

 never to be lost sight of throughout our examina- 

 tion of this subject — namely, that the German has 

 an intensely feeling nature. True, deep feeling 

 is an element of his life, and any forced absence 

 is painful to him. Now, one of the most tangible 

 of the strictly social causes we hold to be the Ger- 

 man's lack of a home, in the English sense of the 

 word. However much we may still meet with the 

 " Deutsche Heim " and "Heimwesen" in books, 

 in real life it can hardly be said to have any such 

 existence at the present day. It is a chimera. In 

 towns the institution of flats — i. e. a large house, 



