NIHILISM AND PESSIMISM IN GERMANY. 



253 



shudder, a certain fear ; but it has done one thing 

 which under another garb it could not have done 

 — it has forced itself upon notice. Then comes 

 the work of mitigation and mediation, and the 

 beneficial truth is ripe for the world at large. So 

 do some of these fiery apostles of feeling threat- 

 en to dissolve necessary social instftutions ; but 

 the intelligent reader and auditor will look at the 

 bold relief from the proper distance and so get 

 the fine perspective effect, and the mass will seize 

 these truths far in time, and it will have the same 

 effect. There is one element in the mental history 

 of the world, which, with all progress and devel- 

 opment, will always reappear. From the nearest 

 point of view it is negative and destructive ; but 

 from a higher or later point it is an essential con- 

 stituent of all reform and advancement. From 

 the one point it seems to draw backward to stages 

 already passed and outlived by humanity ; while 

 from the other it is merely the turning from an 

 unreal and unhealthy state back to the pure, un- 

 prejudiced, "unidolized" state, in order that 

 mind, that has been working in a wrong direction, 

 may regain its natural energy and vigor, and un- 

 sickened may resume its labor, rising higher and 

 higher — it is the cutting off of a sick branch 

 down to the strong stem in order to give rise to 

 new, healthy outgrowths. This fear-awakening 

 harbinger has pleasant followers, it drives on- 

 ward. In ethics it is the Rousseau, and in philoso- 

 phy the Hume ! 



3. There are also political causes for pessi. 

 mism among the Germans. Tlu3 will, no doubt, 

 call forth astonishment. " Have they not," one 

 will say, " their long-desired national unity ? " 

 They have, it is true ; but how different, espe- 

 cially for the romantic nature, is the unity of 

 black, white, and red, from the longed-for unity 

 of black, red, gold ! How different the Germania 

 of 1848, standing oaken-wreathed with sword in 

 hand on the Loreleyfelsen on the banks of the 

 Rhine, from the Germania of 18*76 with the 

 pickelhaube and the zundnadel (or even now the 

 mauser), posted far at the uttermost boundary of 

 Lorraine ! When once the exalting joys of vic- 

 tory had died away, the Frenchman still had his 

 amiable gloire which reflected itself in all the 

 wild and playful amusements of his life ; but the 

 German seeks for something else and finds it not. 

 His loved genialitat — a mixture of inward genius 

 and originality with outward Bohemianism — is 

 dying a slow death, owing to the politically ne- 

 cessary, but unlucky, militarism. This militarism 

 is the greatest enemy of all the German's inner- 

 most longings : it kills individuality, and the 



stripling's fantastic ideas are soon driven out of 

 him by the village corporal, who takes but little 

 heed of his fine sentiments of liberty and dignity. 

 In the smallest events of society we can see this 

 influence at work. The Prussian lieutenant has 

 in South Germany taken the place of the poor 

 man of genius with threadbare coat and flowing 

 locks. Instead of the deep voice and deep 

 thoughts of the latter, we hear everywhere the 

 dry, insipid, nasal words (and that is generally 

 all) of the former. The changed appearance of 

 society since the last war is visible even to the 

 traveler. The manners (e. g., the bow) in South 

 Germany, so short a time ago as in 1867, were 

 more of the French style, light, and with some 

 variation according to personal taste. To-day we 

 see, even among students, the clapping together 

 of heels and the stiff nodding of the head which 

 characterize the officer's bow. Even in these lit- 

 tle matters we cannot help noticing the death of 

 genialitat and the spreading life of superficiality. 



Then come the effects of the social and reli 

 gious contest. We need not dwell long upon this, 

 for it is manifest how depressing and, for some, 

 how demoralizing its influence must be. Things 

 for which formerly even he felt a certain awe who 

 did not " believe " in them, we see drawn down 

 to daily newspaper contest, a kind of warfare 

 which is often not carried on in the most parlia- 

 mentary manner. In many places the civil unity 

 has gone. The burgher can no more meet all his 

 neighbors at the tavern, for fanaticism has blown 

 his hot flame between them, and now they sit in 

 little knots, and the former tone of good-fellow- 

 ship is lost. The priests instigate the mothers, 

 and the mothers the fathers, and the children 

 hear them, and so, down to the children at school, 

 there is dissension. The total result is a loss of 

 reverence. That this state of affairs is not gold- 

 en will readily be seen : add to it the financial and 

 commercial depression, and we have a picture of 

 the happy state of " present political prosperity." 



The financial and commercial whirlpool of 

 our time is the enemy of the former contented, 

 happy fulfillment of duties. Everything is un- 

 certain ; everybody is excited. The fault chiefly 

 lies in the credit system. Business in general is 

 not so dependent on personal exertion and imme- 

 diate ability as it was in former days ; but there 

 are numerous general fluctuations, impossible to 

 foresee, which, environing the simple enterprise, 

 press upon it and influence it. It is not so much 

 a struggle with an individual difficulty, or a sin- 

 gle group of difficulties, as with universal diffi- 

 culty on every side. Hence there springs a state 



