DOCTORAL DISSERTATION SERIES Tm p minus of m i M meats in s p e m y i m - i m : a m y i n m D M i m / i J if jm l m u m AUTHOR earn m m u m UNIVERSITY /IlCff.S?4f£ CM, DEGREE PL 0. m s DATE /9Stj PUBLICATION NO, I UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS 5 ANN ARBOR • MICHIGAN G o p ^ r i ^ h t by R u t h fciusselman 1952 nlTI'i'UDEu UE n ST J x j'/. m Turi/RLRRu I.. GERiiDiivY 1815-1890; i-Hr, DE\ZULOPIi/.iEnT OR uunE AIuERloAu IDEnS An ABSTRACT ty R u t u A n n i-usselman S u b m i t t e d to the E c n o o l oi G r a d u a t e S t u d i e s ol‘ *-icnigan S t a t e C o l l e g e of a g r i c u l t u r a l and A p p l i e d S c i e n c e in p a r t i a l l u l l i l l m e n t of the r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r t h e d e g r e e of D O C T O R Ur FrilLGSCFdY Department of H i s t o r y 1952 r Approved. {y(jaGtiv nr>. huth liu5s elman AlthoUf-;a the rnnerican t r a v e l e r a r e c o :;ni ^ ed p h e n o m e n o n r e s e a r c h nas in h u r o p e has l o n g oi' .American ci v i l i z a t i o n , boay oi' l i t e r at u re , cl' the c o u n t r i e s recounts the they v i s i t e d . to d e t e r m i n e Germany, wnat nis attitudes culture, an nal.ism in Germany, oi* mil.it arism, ciurcM, ana ^ r e & t trio e v e n t u a l burette. ana tn. p t t e r n a l i sm, economic establishment autocracy, but ne oi* G e r m a n tne e x i s t e n c e the t r a d i t i o n s a state controlled inec.pus.lity p r o m i s e d l i t t l e in ol a d e m o c r a t i c n a t i o n in C e n t r a l i'ufc u l t i m a t e u n i l i c a t i o n oi* G e r m a n y u n a e r r i s m s r e k res ilt in,., n e w G e r m a n nmp.ij.-e a as he a tne A m e r i c a n ' s nopes l o r the c r e a t i o n ol a l i b e r a l pattern Gexm.an anu letters, not e m b r a c e the Foil l LCt.i.i y , ii<-; i ol G e r m a n G e r m a n state a l t e r the ol the U n i t e d States. On t he o t h e r iianu, traveler snowed less the l a t e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y nine r*i can. o p t i m i s m th an the arl'-r t r a v e l e r i n Huth kusselman r e g a r d to t h e f u t u r e himself*. he i n d i c a t e d that, superior political J n i t e a btates, s oc i al l i f e and o w n n a t i o n a n d i n his v i e w ol w h i l e he a p p r e c i a t e d the economic he I'elt a s e n s e in m a t e r i a l i s t i c became somewhat travel anu oi* the manki nd . or his skeptical Fi n ally, destiny he advantages or d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n w i t h the post-Civil ol* the p u r p o s e .Var nm e rica. anu v a l u e oi* b o t h t he U n i t e a d t a t e s s t i l l expex-ienced the t r a d i t i o n anu c u l t u r e of iii'e in t h e oi* E u r o p e a n He oi' and the m a g n e t i s m of civilization. ATTITUDES A 3xUD.i ur' AlviEHlCAi'vi T a ii< VELERS a ID GEiii...xjDY I S I S — 1390J TiixL D E / E l 0 Jr'iitivhiT Oi*' B U I E AinILRICx*n I D E a S By R u t h A n n kusselraan A THESIS S u b m i t t e d to th e S c n o o l of G r a d u a t e S t u d i e s of k i c h i g a n S t a t e C o l l e g e of A g r i c u l t u r a l an d A p p l i e d S c i e n c e i n p a r t i a l f u l f i l l m e n t of t h e r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r t h e d e g r e e of D O C T O R UE P H I L O S O P H Y Department of H i s t o r y 1952 TABLE uF CONTENT8 Chapter P a ge A CK N O A L E O G E L E N T I. II. I IviT R 0 D UG TI O h .................................. TnE M E R I C a N T R A V E L E R ..................... 21 T n e T r a v e l e r ' s linage ol* R i m sell* as a T r a v e l e r ................................. 24 a The T r a v e l e r ' s T he C o n s c i o u s n e s s oi* A m e r i c a American Traveler's III. T R E GEniij^ii'. PEOPLE, Nature oi* the German Customs German Eociai IV. V. 1 CUEi'omO linage of a LB Germany EOCIa L LIFE . 58 • 56 . 70 G e r m a n P e o p l e ........... 75 ................................ L i r e ....................... CULTGnE : EC CCATIoL, THE ART8 J REL1 GI ON 93 109 • E d u c a t i o n ................................. 126 Literature A r t s ................ 144 R e l i g i o n .................................... 156 POLITICAL an a t h e A N D E C O N O M I C L I F E .............. Basis f o r ^jnerican O p t i m i s m : L i t e r a l i s m an u N a t i o n a l i s m ........................ 17 1 178 B a s i s l o r /iraericm S k e p t i c i s m : M i l i t a r i s m , P a t e r n a l i s m , ana E c o n o m i c I n e q u a l i t y . . The revolution ol* 1 8 ^ 8 ................... T h e U n i f i c a t i o n of G e r m a n y .............. 12-1 208 219 196 TaBLa, OF Culv I E L T 5 ( co n ta ) Cnapter VI • Page Ti±jj m..E.iIGAd Tid-.VELE.i militarism Economic VII. and Life A liD Paternalism a n d the ■ 2 33 ................... 245 T n L n EVii G E R i L a L Y German Empire . • . . uU. E GEPHESEi/xAlI VE T R A V E L E R S ............. /III • u Bibliographical Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . Essay . . . . . . . ..................................... 257 266 251 233 A CKN OWLEDGEkENT I w ish to express my his helpful advice and research and writing many members Department interest of t he h i s t o r y to Dr. i n tne t e d i o u s of the th es is. College for their unfailing of a d v i s i n g g r a d u a t e a l s o be m a d e College Library, L'rs. H e n r i e t t a A l u b o w i c z f o r h e r on i n t e r - l i b r a r y loan, Library and the Alice koore kr. kerwin of the D e t r o i t Phelps nelp to t he s t a f f s University the and the E nglish H a r r i s o n f o r his acknowledgement must Lichigan State during t o me d u r i n g m y g r a d u a t e J o h n 1. details Richard Dorson Tor I ain a l s o i n d e b t e d to Department of L i e h i r a n S t a t e especially to Dr, constant encouragement of t h i s ana k i n d n e s s Grateful than ks endless patience students. co th e s t a f f e s p e c i a l l y to in o b t a i n i n g b o o k s of th e L i c h i g a n S t a t e of L i c h i g a n L i b r a r y , P u b l i c Li b r a r y , of the L i b r a r y work, to k i s s a n d to of C o n g r e s s . F i na l l y , i I must express rny d e e p a p p r e c i a t i o n to my f r i e n u s family for their unceasing lo y a l t y , tolerance during and forbearance, encountered in t h e w r i t i n g of t h i s as well the m a n y th e si s . and as t h e i r difficulties INTRODUCTION When the end of World War II provided the world with a chance to engage in peaceful pursuits, American travelers flocked to Europe in i*ecord numbers. They jammed available ships and planes and penetrated the entire continent this side of the Iron Curtain. So common has the American travel­ er become in the twentieth century that some categories of American tourists in Europe have achieved the recognition of stereotypes: the school teacher on summer vacation, the youth hosteling students, the business man who has accumu­ lated a fortune and a culture deficiency. In fact, the American who spends a few months in Europe and returns home to write a book about it has come to be regarded as a rather tiresome joke. Although the numbers of Americans traveling in Europe has elicited a good deal of comment from the press, the American traveler himself is not a social phenomenon peculiar to the twentieth century. Actually, the custom of a "trip to Europe** is deeply embedded in the American heritage. In colonial times, the Virginia gentleman frequently received his formal education in England, as in the case of William Byrd of Westover, and the eighteenth century American of the Enlightenment was attracted by the glow of French thought under the Old Regime* In the nineteenth century, the "grand tour" was suill considered the mark of a cultivated gentleman, and others, scientists like Oliver Wendell Holmes who sought the hospitals of Paris and Vienna, scholars like Edward Everett who sought the libraries of Germany, artists like Washington Allston who sought the insxjiration of Italy, and intellectuals like Henry James who sought the refined society of England, contributed to the flood of Americans in Europe. In the twentieth century, the self-sentenced expatriate of the twenties was, perhaps, only a peculiar expression of a basic impulse in American culture. This does not mean that Americans have been the only people who traveled and wrote about their travels. The United States has been the object of European curiosity, and French, British, and German visitors, distinctly different from the immigrants, have traveled extensively in this country. American sensibilities were severely wounded by the criticism of a Charles Dickens or a Mrs. Trollope who wrote travel narratives of their experiences, while a work like Alexis de Tocqueville *s Democracy in America has achieved an almost classic position for its insight and intelligence. In fact, one nineteenth century American traveler in Europe claimed that Americans should have the same right to use their travels as a basis Tor critical comment upon Europe.^" Even in the area of this particular study, Germany, the British and French were frequent travelers, and the British writers on Germany, William Howitt, John Russell, John Aiton, and others, undoubtedly influenced American travelers in Germany, Yet certain features of the American traveler in Europe have been so distinctive that a studj' of the subject merits attention apart from the other movements of peoples. In the first place, the American traveler of the nineteenth century was distinguishable from his colonial counterpart in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the latter had a dual attachment: 2 Mother Country. to his home in the New World and to the The American traveler in Eux*ope was equally different from the European immigrant who established a permanent residence, who sent down roots, who adopted a new nationality in the New World. For, in most cases, the Amex-ican traveler remained just that to the end. an American traveler-- Even though his trip extended into a residence of several years, his status in his own mind was always ^ Henry Ruggles, "Introduction,H Germany Seen without Spectacles (Eoston, 1883). 2 Philip Rahv, ed., Discovery of Europe: the Story of American Experience in~the Old World (Boston. 1947), p. xi. 4 that or a temporary sojourner* peculiarly detached from the scene he witnessed. And, finally, the American traveler was thrust into a scene much farther removed in space and time from his homeland than the British or French traveler on the continent. The problem of the American traveler in Europe would seem to be worth analysis. number of questions. Like any problem, it raises a Why did (and do) Americans feel the necessity of going to Europe? What were they seeking? How did the different areas and cultures of Europe affect them? And what did they bring back from the continent beyond the souvenirs, the mementos, the books, the paintings, the Parisian fashions? What made Europe a Mecca to Americans? A good many Americans have sx>eculated on the answers to these questions. The novelist has not left untouched such a fertile field for exploitation. Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. Washington Irving in Sketch Book and Twigs of a Ti'aveller. Herman Melville in Redburn. and, of course, Henry James in The American. The Ambassadors and Daisy Miller, to name a few, have presented artistic interpretations of the American in Europe. In the twentieth century, writers like John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, Sinclair Lewis, and Thomas Wolfe have all worked over this theme. 5 But aside from these treatments on a philosophical and psychological plane, there remains a large body of material that represents the historical record of the American travelers. These were the travel narratives, in which ordinary citizens, at least in relation to masters like Hawthorne, Melville, and James, recorded their impressions of Europe. These were the writers who represent the factual basis for the truism about the man going to Europe and writing a book about it. Many of these books were series of letters and were first published in tne local papers of Flint, Nashville, Cincinnati, or St. Louis. Many were by individuals whose sole claim to literary achievement is confined within the covers of one book concerning a trip to Europe. Many closely parallel a guide-book. But, as a whole, they represent the written record of Americans who went to Europe and recorded their impressions. Social and literary historians have utilized this material to some extent to answer the questions raised by the problem of the American in Europe,1 but the area most neglected by all the studies has been Germany. To many 1 See Robert L. Scott, American Travelers in France 1650-1660 (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1940); Robert E. Spiller, The American in England during the First Half-Centurv of Independence (New York7 1926): R. B. Mowat, Americans in England (Boston. 1935); fit - individuals supremely conscious or the nation which has involved the world in two terrible conflicts in the twentieth century, this may appear paradoxical. Telling the story of modern history ana omitting the impact of Germany upon world consciousness is like describing a boxing match with only one contestant for the title. Yet, in the light of nineteenth century history, it is not astonishing that relatively few travelers from America went to Germany until well into the nineteenth century and that the scholars have concerned themselves far more deeply with American travelers in England and France. In spite of the indelible impression made by German culture upon American philosophy and education in the nineteenth century, in 1815 most Americans were only dimly aware of the great stretch of Europe between a familiar France and an enigmatic Russia. They knew it, perhaps, as the remnant of the Holy Roman Empire that Napoleon had declared dead in 1806, as the eternal battlefield of European history, as the home of the Hessian mercenaries who fought for the British in the Revolutionary War, as the little known and little understood dominions of the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns, or as the European origin of hundreds of back country farmers in Pennsylvania, the Ohio Valley, New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Van Wyck Brooks stated that George Ticknor and Edward Everett had 7 real difficulty locating a German grammar and a German dictionary with which to study the language before going to the University of Gb'ttingen.^ John Quincy Adams, who had been to Prussia on a mission in 1797, possessed a copy of Goethe's The Sorrows of Werther, and a few other New England scholars had German books*3 But Germany itself, in cultural New England, was virtually an unknown quantity* Aflame with curiosity and enthusiasm for Germany that Madame de Stall's D 1Allemagne and a pamphlet by Charles de Villers on the University of Gbttingen had aroused,4 the New England literary lights blazed the trail to Germany. Everett and Ticknor were followed by Joseph Green Cogswell, George Bancroft, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Lothrop Motley, James Russell Lowell, Henry Adams, and William James. More significant, perhaps, they were also followed, not necessarily to the universities but to Germany, by dozens of lesser Americans from the middle states and the South and the West who brought back ideas about Germany ^ Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England (Modern Library Edition, New York, 1926), pp. 73-75. o Charles Francis Adams, ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (Hew York, 1913-17), I. 3 Brooks, Flowering of New England, p. 76. 4 Orie William Long, Literary Pioneers: Earlv American Explorers of European Culture (Cambridge. 1935). p. 10. 8 and Germany's culture. The trickle of American travelers to Germany in the early part of the nineteenth century had become a flood by the end of it. A brief sketch of nineteenth century German history in part explains the apparent early neglect of that nation by the American traveler in Europe.'*" In one sense, the course of Germany parallels the course of the United States in the nineteenth century, for both nations emerged at the end of the century as national states of formidable power. But at the beginning of the century, the position of the United States was far more promising than that of Germany, for the latter was at that time, in fact, not a "nation" at all. In spite of a bux’st of nationalism in the German states during the Napoleonic Wars, the peace settlement at the Congress of Vienna successfully thwarted German hopes for a united nation. Instead, the settlement left her a heterogeneous group of thirty-nine sovereign states, loosely organized into a weak confederation and governed on the principle of "legitimacy." The Bund had neither the means nor the power to enforce unity among the ruling ^ The historical material in the following paragraphs is based on Sir Adolphus William Ward, Germany 1815-1890 (Cambridge, 1916) and Veit Valentin, The German People: Their History and Civilization from the Holy Roman Empire to the Third Reich (New York. 1946 ). d hous es of the Kurtiiermore, independent states ana p r i n c i p a l i t i e s . th e r e a c t i o n a r y s e n t i m e n t Vienna buttressed at the Co n gr e ss the p o w e r oi' the r u l i n g 1‘a mi l i e s of and p r e v e n t e d the Diet at F r a n k f o r t f r o m b e i n g a n y t h i n g m or e than a gathering p en d e n t of a m b a s s a d o r s f r o m the s ta t es of i n d e ­ rulers. The t w o c h i e f f o r c e s history were of n i n e t e e n t h century German a d r i v e t o w a r d u n i f i c a t i o n an d a dr i ve t o w a r d l i b e r a l i z a t i o n of t h e a u t o c r a t i c g o v e r n m e n t s . In the ena, at the l a t t e r was s a c r i f i c e d to t he former, the b e g i n n i n g w h e n m os t l i b e r a l s French revolutionary noped t ha t a ch i e v e d principles bo th a n a t i o n a l simultaneously. w e r e u n d e r the sway anu p h i l o s op h y, The were jealous of t h e H a p s b u r g s of G e r m a n y liberals meant a l os s and that any of ea c h o t h e r ’s p o w e r as Quadruple ideas w h i c h t h r e a t e n e d P r u s s i a n or A u s t r i a n c o n c e s s i o n to the P r i n c e Hfetternich of A u s t r i a Alliance kept these two forces l i b e r a l i s m a n d n a t i o n a l i s m fix’m l y u n d e r promised constitutions They were of m o n a r c h i c a l p o w e r a n d pr e st i g e . F o r o v e r t h i r t y years, and the p o w e r f u l states, and H o h e n z o l l e r n s . d e t e r m i n e d t h a t .nationalism m e a n t domination be s i t u a t i o n was f u r t h e r well as f r i g h t e n e d b y t h e d e m o c r a t i c the c o n t r o l of it was and a l i b e r a l s t a t e c o u l d c o m p l i c a t e d by the f a c t t h a t t he t w o m o s t n u s t r i a and Prussia, bu t control. of The of 1 8 1 4 an d 1 8 1 5 w e r e e i t h e r not 10 forthcoming at all in the German states or were mere pretenses of representative government. Any eruptions of liberal sentiment like the Burschenschaft movement of 1617 were quashed by autocratic rulers. Yet the liberal and national forces were by no means spent, and in spite of the reaction, the growing middle class in the Germanies and the Prussian Zollverein or customs union indicated the urgency of the pressure for a unified Germany with a constitutional govern­ ment. South Germany became a stronghold of liberal sentiment, and when the Revolution of 1848 broke out in France, it touched off revolutionary uprisings all over Germany. The center for the "pan-German" revolution was at Frankfort, although most of the states were individually affected and Berlin and Vienna were temporarily under the control of the insurgents. A Parliament of representatives elected from all the German states, primarily composed of liberals, met in Frankfort to write a constitution for a unified Germany. This was the so-called "Professor's Parliament" which began in hope and ended in failure. It could not resolve the basic question of how to reconcile a Catholic Austria and a Lutheran Prussia to a national state without giving either power the lion's share of control. Vftiile the Parliament debated, the traditional bulwarks of the monarchy in Berlin and Vienna, the army, consolidated the forces of reaction against the tide of 11 liberalism. When the Parliament finally proffered the headship of the new Germany to the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV refused to accept and relied upon the forces of reaction to halt abruptly the progress of the revolution. Although the Revolution had forced a written constituion of sorts upon Germany, without the support of either Prussia or Austria and at the mercy of the armies of the two powers, it ended in dismal defeat. The movement for unification was equally ended, for the moment, when Frederick William, who had hoped to establish a united Germany on his own terms, submitted to Austria at Olmtitz in the face of a strong Austrian army. Yet actual unification was not far off. In the course of the next two decades, Prince Otto von Bismarck rose to prominence in Prussian politics and became Minister-President of Prussia. This shrewd Prussian Junker intrigued with and manipulated foreign powers to suit his purposes, bewitched and tricked and ran roughshod over the liberals, scrapped the old Bund, helped create an efficient and modern Prussian army, and succeeded in unifying Germany under Prussian domination and Austrian exclusion. The final goal of Bismarck, the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, was accomplished by a series of three contrived wars; the Danish War of 1864, the Austrian War of 1866, and 12 the Franco-German War of 1870. For the next two decades, he dominated German and European politics. Germany was a power to he reckoned with, and it was a new Germany, based upon the Prussian system of a strong, paternal, autocratic government supported by an invincible military arm and using a sham constitution as a sop to recognized nineteenth century liberalism. On the other hand, America emerged from the conclusion of her second struggle with Great Britain in 1815 on the crest of a great wave of hope. The purchase of Louisiana under the Jefferson administration had opened up immense new lands for settlement, and the beginnings of the industrial revolution promised economic, as well as geographical, expansion. For a good many years, Americans were too busy with this growth and with the new ideas that cropped up in American society to pay too much attention to developments in central Europe. It was not until the middle years of the century that the majority of American travelers in Europe became interested in something more than a trip down the Rhine in Germany on a European tour. By that time, the ideas of American scholars who had gone to Germany had begun to seep into the American mind, the new west had begun to fill up with nineteenth century Germans, and improved travel facilities made a trip to Germany more feasible. Until then, the standard European 13 tour Included England (and perhaps Scotland and Ireland), France, Italy, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. The purpose of this thesis is to trace the attitudes of American travelers in Germany from 1615 to 1890. This involves an investigation of the political ideas of American travelers in Germany, but it also entails an analysis of the American traveler*s ideas of the whole fabric of German culture, Including the nature of the people, the social life and customs, and the intellectual and religious life. chapters are, therefore, The organized on this basis with discussion of the American traveler*s ideas about German social and cultural life forming two separate chapters and discussion of the American traveler's ideas about German political and economic life forming two other chapters. Furthex*more, since this thesis is concerned with American intellectual history, an attempt has been made to determine how the attitudes of the American traveler in Germany illustrated or reflected the development in American thought over the course of the century. This involves analyzing the American traveler's attitudes to determine their relationship to the whole fabric of American thought. It involves examining what the American traveler felt about himself as a traveler and about the significance of his own nation in the destiny of western civilization. The ideas 14 discussed here were determined by the material in the travel narratives themselves when the traveler indicated how he felt about his own nation and his own culture viewed in contrast with German culture. It is this writer’s contention that the political experience of the American traveler in Germany over the course of the century contributed to the growing suspicion of the American intellectual that the future was not nearly so rosy and the world was not nearly so simple and susceptible to improvement as the early nineteenth century American had supposed. A good many of the notions that early nineteenth century Americans held as the surest and straightest roads to the realisation of the American dream for all nations appeared at the end of the century to be only cul-de-sacs, leading right back to tyranny, injustice, oppression, and inhumanity to man. The early nineteenth century enthusiasm for a future German nation, resting upon the democratic system, universal, education, and material progress, turned out to be one of those cul-de-sacs. Like so many other visions of the early nineteenth century, it became, in reality, a bitter disappointment, one with which a wiser and more mature American nation would have to deal. On the other hand, it was equally apparent in the second half of the nineteenth century, in spite of the disappointment Americans experienced in the ultimate 15 unification of Germany, that the picture was no more all black than it had been all white at the beginning of the century. Certain aspects of German life appealed to the travelers with such a force and intensity that they sharply pointed up an unsuspected drabness and shallowness in American life. If some Americans were disillusioned in the new Germany, they were also disappointed in the concrete realization of American culture in the post-Civil 'War years in the United States. According to one writer on the subject, Europe acted as one pole of culture while the frontier operated as the other pull*1 catching Americans in a two-way Most of the travelers in Germany experienced the attraction of that culture, and their reflections upon it seem related in motive and spirit to the social criticism of the late nineteenth century American thought* No investigation so interpretive and inferential in nature should be attempted without some comment about the hazards involved in arriving at any accurate and indisputable Ferner Nuhn, The '.Vina Blew from the East. A Study in the Orientation of American Culture (New York. 1942), p. 18. Nuhn classifies Europe as part of the pull of the ”east" upon American culture as opposed to the west and the frontier. It includes, of course, the settled east as opposed to the unsettled west, or even the easternjpart of the state as opposed to the western part. He says, "West for work and money, back East for ease and grace* West for profanity, East for piety. West for action, East for status. West for function, East fox* ornament. West for democratic color, East for aristocratic form." p. 14* 16 judgments. This writer is well aware of those hazards. In the first place, the travelers were human before they were American. They were different from one another-- in age, disposition, health, occupation, and social position. Even if all these things had been equal, the travelers still would probably not have felt exactly the same way about the same thing. A particularly harsh statement might have been as much the result of immediate circumstances a sleepless night on a cramped, narrow, German bed, a bad cup of coffee for breakfast, a rainy day--as the result of a considered opinion based upon observation and reflection. The travelers frequently recorded their impressions In letters and journals, which reflect the spirit of the moment, and, for this reason, generalization about their feelings, in any permanent or comprehensive sense, must take cognizance of the ever­ present exception. The attitudes of the travelers do not submit easily to a hard and fast classification, and although this thesis attempts to seek out the overall pattern, contxasting opinions, when they have occurred,have been noted. Secondly, this study investigates an attitude, rather than an opinion. The travelers did not always state an opinion in so many words. argue a point. They did not often debate or On the contrary, their feelings toward a particular situation or state of affairs were usually 17 enveloped In descriptions of the scenery, the buildings, or historic points of interest. They were as inconsistent as they were genuine and natural, and as unreasoned as they were serious in intent and purpose. Conclusions based upon an analysis of the travel narratives are necessarily subject to the error of exaggerating the implications of the narx*atives into full-blown convictions. And, finally, the American traveler who wrote about his experiences did not necessarily speak for all American travelers or for all Americans back home. He was usually more literate than many of his countrymen, and his position in the American world was usually higher, intellectually, socially, professionally, or financially. A chart is furnished in the Appendix to indicate as far as possible the background of the travelers whose works have been used in this investigation.^ Although business men are represented, the travelers who wrote narratives tended to be from the professional classes: law, education, the ministry. A good many writers and journalists as well as politicians and Americans traveling in a diplomatic capacity have been included. The majority of the writers were from New England and the Middle Atlantic states, especially in the first half of the century, but the list does include some from the ^ See Appendix. 18 South and West as well. A fairly large proportion of the narratives were by women. In spite of these complications of the problem, this writer believes that valid conclusions and generalizations can be made from the material, which contribute significantly to an understanding of the American attitude toward Germany and to nineteenth century thought as a whole. Although the narratives do reflect the spirit of the moment, many of them were revised for publication in book form with the express purpose of winnowing out such weaknesses. Furthermore, an "attitude," for all its inconsistent, unstable, unreasoned, and elusive qualities, operates as a very real force in life. Locked into an inflexible position, it becomes a prejudice; slipping into mere vagueness, it becomes con­ fusion. It does not simply "arise" nor is it isolated from other ideas. The American attitude toward Germany has a long history, founded on ascertainable historical facts, part of which were the experiences of the American travelers in Germany. Furthermore, this attitude is intimately connected with the American's attitude toward himself and the world. Finally, although the bibliography utilized in this study is selective, both from the standpoint of the travelers who wrote and from the standpoint of the materials available to the writer, it is exhaustive as far as the resources 19 have allowed."** One cannot read nearly two hundred American travel experiences in Germany without drawing some distinct conclusions regarding those experiences. The writers taken as a whole must be assumed to represent Americans in Europe fairly, at least as far as the writers of any limited area of time or space may be said to represent that area. The use of other travel narratives, this writer feels, might duplicate the examples, might call for revision of minor points, but they would not substantially alter the overall picture of American travelers in Germany in the nineteenth century. Because this investigation is aimed primarily at examining American attitudes in Germany, it is necessary, first of all, to find out what the traveler felt about himself, his country, and Germany, to discover his reasons for going to Europe or Germany and his sensitivity to his own nationality. For the most part, the travelers speak for themselves, in the "prefaces" to their books or in their "hints to travelers" which made the trip to Europe such an accepted phenomenon in nineteenth century American civili­ zation. The first chapter is devoted, therefore, to a discussion of the American traveler and the area of his travels with which this study is concerned. ^ See Bibliographical Note, p. 286, The third 20 and fourth chapters cover the .American attitude toward the social life and the culture of Germany, The next two chapters analyze American reaction to German political life and, finally, a chapter is devoted to a discussion of some representative American travelers. CHAPTER I I ThE i-wv.EAIC.ttu. InAVEL ER The year 1315 was a portentous one in the history of the western world. For Europe, it meant a desperate attempt by the ruling houses of Europe to return to a stable, familiar past in the peace settlement of the Congress of Vienna. It signaled the conclusion of two and a half decades of chaos with a momentary termination of both the glory and bloodshed of war and revolution. For England, it opened the threshold of a centuiy of ascendancy; for France, it closed, but did not bar, the door on experiments in social and political organization. For Germany, it marked the beginning of a nation frustrating- ly confederated; for the United States, it represented the successful conclusion of a twenty-five year infancy of the new Republic. Yet the moods of the hew and Old Vvorlas were entirely different in 1815. Vienna. Reaction set in at the Congress of It restored the Bourbons in France, hamstrung the Frankfort Diet of the German B u n d , recognized Austrian domination of Italy, and created the Quadruple Alliance to halt the progress of French Revolutionary thought. other hand, On the America was afflicted with no such reaction. 22 To the successful completion of her struggle for independence from Great Britain, thirty years * history had added a vigorous growth and a marked taste for that new wine of the French Revolution, nationalism. While Europe attempted to restore an old continent, America looked forward with enthusiasm to the development of a new one* The American traveler was conscious of his own nation­ ality in his travel narrative and of the prestige of that nationality in Europe. He carefully recorded all European reaction to America and Americans. Because nationalism conquered not only the United States but the entire western world, American self-consciousness persisted in American travelers in Europe until the end of the century. Even though the traveler's idea of himself and his nation evolved in expression in the course of the century, he did not forget that he was an American and, therefore, different from the German or the Frenchman or the Englishman. He was convinced of the unique position of the United States in western civilization. Yet, herein lies a paradox. Such a chauvinistic nation might have been content to stay at home to bask in the superiority of its advantages. This was not the case, for the travelers, as they themselves admitted, went to Europe in ever-increasing numbers. In the early part of the century, Americans in Germany were primarily scholars studying at the universities, but even as early as 1840, descriptive travel narratives of Europe were beginning to u e a arug on the max'ket. norace Greeley told tne young Eayard Taylor who was about to BLepart Tor Europe: sicK oi* descriptive letters, "I am and will have no more or tnem. nut I should like some sketches of German life and society, after you have been there and know sometning about it."'*' By the second half of the century, the travelers r e p o r t e d t h at A m e r i c a n s wex*e a c o m m o n p l a c e in Eui'ope a n d German;/. One writer called Americans a ''locomotive people"- far more traveled than Europeans whose mobility was limited to the scholars and aristocracy. 2 Another pointed out: "Traveling seems to be the rule of life, especially, for Americans and staying home the exception."'"* another commented similarly: Still "A friend of mine declares ae will not go, it is so vulgar. The distinction, he says, A is now in staying at home." In 1867, George Bancroft reported that there were more American students at Berlin than students from Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, 1 Bayard Taylor, "A Familiar Letter to the Reader," Views A-Foot (New York, 185a ), p. 22. Nicolas Hurray [.Kirwan, pseud.’ I Saw Them in Europe (New York, 1853> 3 Margaret J. Sweat, -highways of Travel or a Summer in Europe (Boston, 1859), p. 1. ^ Erastus C. Benedict, (New York, I860), p. 16. "Preface," A Run through Europe 24 France, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal combined--not only students, but “professors from Ann Arbor and elsewhere*1 and ministers of the Gospel.'1' Another writer made an estimate in 1885 "There are some hundreds of Americans now in Berlin,-- just how many I cannot say; but o 250 sat down at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday." For all their nationalism, Americans felt a magnetic pull from European culture and, as a distinct part of that pull, from German culture. They were consciously American but they were also interested in Europe. Before attempting to resolve this apparent paradox and to determine what limerican travelers felt about their own nation and about Germany, it is necessary to examine what they felt about themselves as travelers, what reasons they gave for going to Europe, what they hoped to gain Cor lose) by the trip, and whether they felt traveling produced satisfactory results. The Traveler*s Image of Himself as a Traveler There is a peculiarly earnest diffidence in the "prefaces” and introductions" to the travel narratives. ^ M. A. DeWolfe Howe, ed., The Life and Letters of George Bancroft (New York, 1908), II, 191. ^ William Leonard Gaze, A Leisurely Journey (Boston, 1666), p. 96. 25 Not only did most of the writers seem to feel obliged to go, but, with American utilitarianism, they felt, apparently, obliged to justify the endeavor on high cultural, intel­ lectual, or educational grounds.^ Not one of the writers, by his own admission, ever went for a good time, pure and simple. He went for any number of reasons which fall loosely within two classifications: a greater enrichment of his own culture by living in the presence of great paintings, operas, concerts, libraries, and coming in contact, if possible, with great literary and philosophic minds; or, enrichment of society by a more widely extended knowledge of men, manners, societies, and nationalities. This seems particularly true of some of the i*merican travelers in Germany. A large proportion of the travelers went to study "peasant life" or "home life" or "education" or "politics." Although the evidence is as yet insufficient to support the point, this writer believes that the highminded purpose of the traveler in Germany was more pronounced than that of the traveler in England, France, or Italy. Compare, for instance, some of the titles of French, Englisn, and Italian narratives with those by travelers in Germany: Old .vine in New Bottles. Tricolored Sketches of Paris. Parisian Sights and French Principles. About Paris. A Walk from London to Lan d ’s End and Back. Old England: "Its Scenery. Art and People. Certain Delightful English Towns cf. Home Life in Germany. Peasant Life in Germany. Life Among the Germans. Germany Seen without Spectacles. It seems that the American took travel in England, France and Italy much more for granted than ti'avel in Germany, and the German narrative is permeated with this earnestness. 26 One of the most eloquent spokesmen for the first group was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He said he regarded Europe as a "kind of Holy Land" and "when its shores first rose upon my sight, looming through the hazy atmosphere of the sea, my heart swelled with the deep emotions of the pilgrim, when he sees afar the spire which rises above the shrine of his devotion. "■*" Bayard Taylor, an almost professional traveler, expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote, "I cannot disconnect my early longings for a knowledge of the Ola World from a still earlier passion for Art and Literap ture." Many Americans shared this longing for an actual experience with cultural masterpieces and, as one writer noted, a "goodly number" of .Americans livea in Dresden for "educational pux*poses in art, literature, and music." 3 In fact, one young woman cautioned her countrymen against disillusionment: "Unless people have an enthusiasm for art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot appreciate the culture of Europe, they are much better off in America."4 1 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer and Driftwood. The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Riverside Edition, Boston, 1885), VII, 18-19. 2 Taylor, Views A-Foot. pp. S-9. 3 Maturin Murray Ballou, F oot-Prints of Travel or Journevinas in Many Lands (Boston^ 1396), p. 221. 4 Mrs. Fay Pierce, ed., Music Study in Germany from the H ome Correspondence of Amy Fay (New fork, 1900), p. 159. 27 The seekers of culture were prominent among American travelers throughout the century,1 but for some of the travelers the goal was something deeper and more intangible than mere aesthetic enrichment. They sought a sense of alignment with the past that the newness of American society failed to provide. It was, perhaps, that rootlessness, that mobility, that ephemeralness, which a dynamic nation and culture produced which drove some travelers forth to sense, momentarily, that heritage of history. This sense of the past occurred to most of the traveler's when they witnessed a particularly historic sight like the old castles on the Rhine or the Cathedral of Cologne, but for some it constituted a reason fox* making the trip. One writer said he was glad Americans were 11... visiting fox* themselves the classic spots which have for so many ages inspired the soul of the poet, and guided the pencil of the painter." p Another wrote, "I have always held a doctrine that to give an American balance, he should have a trip through the mother-world....The transatlantic world is to us the mother 1 Sometimes the Hculture-seeking** Americans embarrassed their fellow-countrymen. One writer tells the story of the American who offered to purchase a particular picture in Europe provided the artist painted a bottle of his patent medicine on a mantel in the background. Curtis Guild, Over the Ocean or Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands (Boston, 1871)7" pp. 324-325. p Randall MacGavock, "Preface,** A Tennessean Abroad: ox* Letters from Europe. Africa, and Asia (New York, 1854). 28 world in every pnase of human life of art and thought--- except as to our peculiar American freedom....'*1 Aside from the "cultural" motivation, the other signifi­ cant reason stated by the travelers for going to Europe was to gain an increased understanding of men and affairs through observation of different cultures. These travelers did not want to observe the great cultural treasures of the western 7;orld as much as they wished to know the people. In fact, a number of books were written fox* the express purpose of enlightening the reader on the writex*'s discoveries concerning the social life of the people. g "Thex*e is nothing we so much wish to know as the daily life and habits of a people...," 3 wrote one travelex*. Another stated that he intended to avoid the usual guide books and objects of interest to tourists in order to study and obsex*ve the middle class. "These [_the middle c l a s s e d the men of business, the farmers, the merchants, the lawyers and 1 William Hemstreet, The Economical European Tourist: A Journalist's Three Months Abroad for $430 including Ireland. Scotland. England. France. Switzerland. Italy. Austria. Prussia iNew iork. 1878), pi lT 2 For example: Charles Loring Brace, Home Life in Germany (New York, 1856); Anna C. Johnson, Peasant Life in Germany (New York, 1858); Emma Louise Parry, Life among the Germans (Flint, Michigan, 1887); et_ai.. 5 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 25. 29 scholars---are the influential portion of a People, who stamp especially its social character," he wrote.**Many a writer eschewed the guide books and the standard means and routes of travel. popular during the century. ) (The walking tour became very One traveler wrote, "The first class tourist may see the beauties of a country's landscape and scenery from a window of a palace-car, but his vision goes no further does not penetrate below the surface. To know a country one must fraternize with its people, must live with them, sympathize with them, win their confidence." Bayard Taylor concurred in this statement when he said that one could not feel the "pulse of foreign life" by living in a great notel but only by living in a simple home. Another hoped that American travelers in Europe, by an increased consciousness of the life of the ordinary people, 4 "would become travelers and not mere tourists." Most American travelers who studied the social and political life of a nation did so not simply for the "*" Brace, "Preface," Home Life in Germany, p. iv. p ^ Lee Meriwether, "Preface," A Tramp Trip: How to See Europe on Fifty Cents a Day (New York, 1887). ^ Bayard Taylor, At Home and Abroad, a Sketchbook of Life. Scenery, and MenT Second Series (New York, 1864), p. 204. 4 Hezekiah Hartley bright, "Preface," Desultory Reminiscences of a Tour through Germany. Switzerland, and France (Boston. 1S38), p. x. intrinsic merit of such an enterprise but because they felt it contributed significantly to better social relationships on both the domestic and international level. Even as early as 1845, one traveler remarked that American relations with Europe were increasing constantly and demanded of American citizens a real knowledge and understanding of other peoples and nations.*^ Another felt that knowledge of other people made current history real by translating g it into personal experience. Another described the benefit as an increase in American humility: "Nothing, perhaps, within the range of moderate expenditure, can confer* so rich a funa of knowledge to the intelligent observer as the conclusions deduced from personal and faithful study of the governments, manners, customs ana institutions visited. An American needs to learn that his countrymen do not monopolize all the intelligence and enterprise of the world...." A Some travelers limited the scope of their observations of the social structure. A traveler like Horace Mann was ^ John Mitchell, "-Preface, " Notes from over the Sea: Consisting of Observations Made in Europe in the Years 1843 and 1644 (New York. 1845), Ti ix. p Orlando William Wight, "Preface," Peoples and Countrie: Visited in a Winding Journey around the World iMew York. 1888), p"I vl Francis Charles Sessions, "Introduction," On the Wing through Europe (New York, 1881). primarily interested in the schools and in studying the educational systems of Europe.1 One like James E. Scripps limited his investigation to things he thought would be of interest "...to western people of ordinary information-to the intelligent farmers and mechanics of Michigan and 2 neighboring states...." However, it would be a serious mistake to leave the impression that all American travelers journeyed forth with a clear-cut purpose of noble proportions. The majority, it is true, were rather depressingly earnest of heart and spirit, at least from the point of view of the reaaer. But a few wrote introductions to their narratives that must have struck the majority of travelers li^e a dash of cold water. One particularly attractive writer maintained in forthright fashion: I do not make any pretensions to the character of a serious traveler whose business is to enlighten the world. It is my misfortune to possess an innate repugnance to hard labor of all kinds; and as for valuable facts and useful ini'ormation, my proclivities in that line were thoroughly eradicated by long experience in the government service, where both facts and information, as I very soon discovered, were regarded as irrelevant and impertinent in official correspondence.^ 1 Horace Ifiann, Report of an Educational Tour in Germany. and Parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Being oart of the Seventh Annual Report of Horace Mann. Esci. (London, 1846), p. p James E. Scripps, "Preface," Five Months Abroad (Detroit, 1882), p. vi. 3 J. Ross Erowne, "Introduction," An American Family in Germany (new York, 1866), p. xiii. 32 Julian ^awthorne was equally skeptical concerning the proposed aims or the travelers. "The true end of travel is,* he wrote, "to reconcile us to our homes. We study fox-eign countries and customs, not for their intrinsic sake, but in order to compare them disadvantageously with our own...,"N 1 In any case, the travelers returned home, by and lai*ge, happily "reconciled" to their homeland. Overwhelmingly they agreed that America was, after all, the best place to live. They felt that the greater material comforts, wider opportunity and freer movement and expression which America provided for its citizens more than compensated for the glaring newness of American cities, the rough life on the fx-ontier, and the lack of gracious refinement and cultivated manners in much American society. conclusion is hardly astonishing. Such a The immigrants pouring into American ports fx*om Europe acted in accordance with the verdict of American travelers. At least the ordinary man seemed to cast an overwhelming vote of confidence for life in the United States in the nineteenth century* Most writex*s took pains to express their sentiments upon their return to America. David Ross Locke ^ Julian hawthorne, Saxon Studies (Boston, 1876), pp. 10-11. 33 (Petroleum V. Nasby) summed up the balance sheet incisively: An American has no idea now good America is, till he sees Europe. xie does not know how good a government he has, till he lives fox- a time under others. It requires a glimpse of...King-ridden Frussia, to make him properly appreciate a Republic. We have no palaces, but we have no soldiers. Ae have no Cathedrals, but we have no paupers. Y«e have no ruins, and shall never have, for under our system, the ephemeral structures of today will be replaced tomorrow with what will be eternal. Evex*y American should go abroad once at least, that he may, with sufficient fervor, thank the fates that cast his lines in pleasant places.1 Another writer maintained that before her trip she was prejudiced, if at all, in favor of Germany, expecting to find elegance and refinement in the people. But her 2 expectations were not realized. Another one admitted that the traveler was more appreciative of the freedom from tyranny and oppression in the United States when he viewed it from the Eux-opean shore than when he was enfolded within the bosom of his native land.3 Still another stated firmly in defense of the basic criticism of Amex-ican society, 11If any *merican be alarmed at the noisiness and boisterousness of his own country, which must, of necessity, always show ^ David K asbv in Exil, _ _____, _ .,. , _ ___ 2 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 25. ^ S. S. Cox, A Buckeye Abroad: or. Wanderings in Europe, and in the O r i e n t (A»ew York. 1852). pp. 442-443. 34 the worst side to the world, just let him rub off a little in Europe; and he will find no cause for dissatisfaction with R e p u b l i c a n i s m . O n e writer summed up what he felt to be the basis for american superiority after returning from a trip to Europe, he saia Americans were justified in the conceit whicn boasted of a "superior condition in the three cardinal points of a nation's glory the general diffusion of the comforts and conveniences of life, the diffusion of education among the people, and the universal p enjoyment of civil and religious liberty." In spite of this overwhelming "majority vote" in favor of the United States, not all the travelers were convinced that travel accomplished the ordained purposes set for it. Mark Twain took a somewhat skeptical view of the actual value of travel when he wrote, "...I perceive that each of us, by observing and noting and inquiring, diligently and day-by-day, had managed to lay in a most 'X varied and opulent stock of misinformation." Another traveler remarked that travel in Europe did not necessarily 1 W. V*. Wright, "Preface," Dord'. bv a Stroller in Europe (New York, 1856), p. iv. 2 William Furniss, "Preface," The Old .Vorld: or Scenes and Cities in Foreign Lands (New York, 1850), pp. iii-iv. 3 Samuel Langhorne Clemens fllark Twain, pseud3 A Tramp Abroad (New York, 1921), I, 164-165. » 35 make the American a happier man, but it did make him wiser by sloughing off national prejudices and individual vanity.^ Joseph Green Cogswell admitted that Europe had taught him to admire a leisurely enjoyment or life that he did not have in the United States. He said he had developed a taste fox* sitting quietly in a garden enjoying a new sympathy with nature. Henry James, of course, was the classic nineteenth century case of an American who was not easily persuaded to trade the cultux*al tx*adition of Europe, past, a sense of the and the stability of an ordered pattern of society for the obvious advantages of a freer, more active, more demanding Americen life. and When still comparatively young, he felt more at home in Englana than in the United States, and he settled there permanently in 1875, finally adopting it as his native land in 1915. It was not as simple for him as this action indicates, for his Jamesian insight was much too penetrating to let the matter rest quietly. He channeled his international dilemma into a series of “international" novels, and he wx*ote searchingly of the peculiar position of the American in Europe. ^ H. H. bright, Although Desultory -Reminiscences, p. 342. ^ Anna Eliot Ticknox*, ed., The Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters^ (Privately printed, Cambridge^ 1874), p. 99. 36 Eux-opean life suited his taste and temperament, his reason plagued him with self-doubt and self-distrust for the decision to remain abroad. of modern civilization, successful and in harmony with it by every criterion of it. rootless. He saw the American as a product Yet the -wmerican appeared to be He lacked the serenity and sense of belonging that a traditional civilization produced. In one of his travel essays, he described this rootless and ill-at-ease wanderer of Europe and his curiosity in regard to peoples of othex* nationalities : The observations of tfte “cultivated American" bear chiefly, I think, upon the great topic of national idiosyncrasies. He is apt to have a keener sense of them than Europeans; it matters more to his imagination that his neighbor is English, French, ox* German...He often seems to me to be a creature wandering aloof, but half-natui*alized himself. .His neighbors are out­ lined, defined, imprisoned, if you will, by their respective national moulds, pleasing or otherwise; but his own type has not hax*dened yet into the oldworld bronze. Supex*f icially, no people carry more signs and tokens of what they are than Americans... • The signs, however, are all of the negative kind, and seem to assure you, first of all, that the individual belongs to a country in which the social atmosphere, like the material, is extremely thin.x The foregoing brief survey of the American traveler's view of himself as a traveler indicates a number of things about him fundamental to an understanding of his experience in Europe. America, Fox* one thing, the standard traveler from a mythical creature, of course, depai*ted for Eux*ope ^ Henry James, Transatlantic Sketches (Boston, 1900), p. 359. 37 with a definite purpose in mind*1 He was, on the whole, satisfied with American civilization, but a vague suspicion nibbled at his mind tnat perhaps his own nation lacked some ornamental, if not functional, thread in the fabric of its culture which somehow made life richer, cant, more satisfying. more signifi­ He returned home convinced that the advantages of life in America adequately compensated for this lack. This was the standard pattern for the standard traveler, the story that is repeated over and over again in the travel narratives. Occasionally, however, the chilly light of skepticism was focused not only upon the American scene but upon the traveler himself--his purposes, his conclusions, and the value of travel itself. Yet, the dates of publication of the more critical writers reveal a significant fact, uenry James and Mark Twain flourished in the post-Civil »Var period. The latter's work The Innocents Abroad poked a good deal of fun at the American mania for a trip to Europe and the standard travel narrative. J. Ross Browne wrote in the sixties and Julian ^awthorne in the seventies. 1 Usually, the traveler modestly assured the reader that he did not begin the trip with the intention of writing a book. Publication of the book was in most cases, according to the writers, at the insistence of friends or newspaper readers who had enjoyed his letters or his journals and felt others might profit from reading them. o8 On the other hand, the writers who enthusiastically embraced the doctrine of the educatioxial value of travel did their traveling and writing in the pre-Civil War period. Such writers as Hox*ace Mann, Bayard Taylor, William Furniss, Anna Johnson, John Mitchell and others belong to the period before 1860. conclude that traveling, life, It would seem safe to like other phases of American came in for its share of criticism in the growing skepticism of the late nineteenth century. This shift of attitude becomes even more evident in the changing feeling toward Araei'ican civilization. The American Traveler1s Consciousness of America The American traveler in Europe in the nineteenth century exhibited his consciousness of his nationality and its significance in the minds of Europeans. In the early part of the century, he received a flattering adulation from a war-weary European continent. The friendly interest in America that bloomed in Eux*ope after 1615 was gratifying to the American who pointed with pride to the concrete embodiment of px*inciples into an actual and forceful Constitution of 1789. It was gratifying to American travelers because they were prepared to spread the news of the success of the new nation like tx*ue apostles. 39 They agreed with Europeans who found life in America good. They were self-conscious, to be sure, because the experi­ ment in a republican form of government was new, but they were not yet defensive. French Revolutionary liberalism, as we EL as the new Romanticism, century thought. still colored early nineteenth If that liberalism had failed to achieve success in Fx-ance, it nad not failed in America. The early travelers to Germany from America exhibited a noticeable consciousness of the enthusiasm and interest which was felt in Europe toward America. As early as 1797, in fact, John Quincy Adams x*elated a conversation he had with Prince Henry of Prussia on a mission to that state. He wrote: His conversation discovered more knowledge of America, and a mind more turned to speculation, than any of the other Princes whom I have seen. He said that America was a rising, while Europe was a declining part of the world, and that in the course of two or three centuries the seat of the arts and sciences and empire would be with us, and Europe would lose them all....But he asked whether we should have a center of union sufficiently strong to keep us together, and to stand the trials of the inconveniences incident to republican, and especially to federative, governments."1By 1315 the doubts of the ability of the United States to remain united had been dispelled to some extent, and Washington Irving reported a remarkably similar statement ^ J. Q. Adams, Memoirs. I, 210 40 in 1823 from Prince John, of Saxony. The latter said "America was in its increase and Europe in its decline."^" writer, ten years later, commented on the interest in America shown by the Prussian nobility.c wrote from Germany: Another Still another " 'The Future is with you. •- How often have I heard it in Germany..•• Other writers reiterated the friendly interest in the new nation of the western hemisphere, particularly among the scholars and aristocracy, throughout the early years of the century. Joseph Cogswell reported a conversation he had with Goethe in 1816 in which the great German writer "...turned the conversation to America, and spoke of its hopes and promises, in a manner that been the subject of his inquiries, and made showed ithad juster and more rational observations, upon its literary pretensions and character, than I ever head from any man in Europe."4 Cogswell also remarked that the Grand Duke of Weimar "Supposed we were free from moral and political corruption. ..I'5 ■** Pierre M. Irving, ed. , The Life and Letters Washington Irving (New York, 1864), l7 144. 2 Henry Hiestand, Travels in Germany. Switzerland (W ew York, 1837), pp. 100-101. ° Brace, Home Life, p. 422. 4 Cogswell, Life, p. 57. 5 Ibid., p. 107. of Prussia and 41 George Bancroft similarly noted that Professor Eickhorn of Gfvttingen in 1813 said that America "was now making gigantic strides in improvement.... "^ The interest manifested by German leaders in American government seems to have been coupled with the principles of eighteenth century liberalism still forceful in European thought. was, America was associated witn that liberalism and therefore, the object of admiration of the liberals. That this was sometimes surprising to Americans, whose liberal ideas were rooted as much in actual political experience as in theoretical principles, was evidenced by George C alvert's astonishment at the enthusiasm accorded Tom Paine at Gottingen. lie remarked that in 1824, "I, who had never heard or seen the name of Thomas Paine uncoupled with derision and scorn, looked up with sudden surprise into the excited countenance of the professor, as he pronounced C o m m o n Sense the most important pamphlet in history." q The liberals' admiration of the American nation continued through the 1848 revolutions, and America became the great point of reference for the practice of democratic principles. Charles Loring Brace stated in 1851: "People have become so well infox-med on these matters {^American 1 Bancroft, Letters. I, 43. 2 George Henry Calvert, First Years in Europe (Boston, 1866 ), p . 100. republicanism^ , that here in Germany for instance, no discussion is ever carried on in the Parliaments, through Pamphlets, or on any great change in government, without at once the example of the United states being adduceu."1 The European enthusiasm Tor America was expressed in another way that the American travelers recognized and commented upon. This was the emigration to America, and it was an expression of enthusiasm of the lower classes. A young American woman commented: "I have been much amused with the sudden mania for emigrating with which every one seems bitten; the tailor*, the baker, down even to the little boy in the hotel, wish to swell our suite; apparently p thinking us a very great people at home.” Another mentioned that the "vast resources of our Western country” 3 seemed to fascinate the Germans. Henry Philip Tappan mentioned visiting a public beer garden called "Texas**at Ehrenbrietstein. He wrote, "Frequent conversations with Brace, Home L i f e , pp. 355-356. p Martha Babcock Amory, The bedding Journey of Charles and Martha Babcock Amorv. Letters of Mrs. Amory to Her Mother. Mrs. Gardner Greene 1835-34 (Privately printed. Boston, 1922), II, 197. 3 Sweat, Highways of Travel, p. 160. 43 the middling and lower classes in Germany and Switzerland made it clear to me how strong were their aspirations after the boundless and glorious west."’*’ It was not unusual, in the light of the vast migratory movement of the nineteenth century, that xonericans who traveled in Germany found themselves objects of curiosity and were flattered by the admiration of the common people. The ante-bellum travelers commented frequently upon the frienoly hospitality of the German people. "I find, indeed,” wrote one, '‘that Germans take great pleasure in everything connected with America end that they consider 2 it a favored lano.'* Another said that he had found in traveling in the primitive parts of Germany that "however rude their knowledge may be of his country, the simple name cf an American is a better opener of the heart*s hospitality of the people than even the pux-se.” Another maintained that at first he was taken for an Englishman and treated with some disaain. After* his nationality was really established, he gained the good will of the Germans. ^ Henry Fhilip Tappan, A Step from the New World to the Old and Back Again: With Thoughts on the Good and Evil of Both (frew York. 1852). II. 76. 2 Amory, The Wedding Journev» II, 839. ? 3 James Mason Hoppin, Notes of a Theological Student 1854), p. 86. (u evj fork, 44 "America," he said, " the land or freedom, home of so many thousands of their countrymen and the new is a theme of the liveliest interest of the German people."^ Yet, as the Civil *i/ar drew near in America and the Revolution of 1846 ended in dismal failure in Germany, the honeymoon of the American traveler in Germany was over. His nation was no longer regarded with unqualified favor. Even in 1833, after the revolutionary outbreaks in France and Germany of 1830, John Lothrop Eotley noted a divergence in t&ught and sentiment toward the United States between the German aristocracy and the German people. He wrote with mild disgust: Tne opinions in Germeny concerning America are singularly contradictory..•It is as impossible to persuade...the aristocracy that in the United States anything exists but democracy and demogogues as it is to convince the others, particularly those of the lowest and emigrating class, that they will not find the streets paved with dollai's and their pockets stuffed with banknotes as soon as they arrive in Wew York, that El Dorado of their expectations.^ The American controversy over slavery, which reached fever Vieat at mid-century, made many American travelers, especially those from the North, sensitive to criticism in ^ Henry Philip Tappan, A Step from the New World to the Old, and Back Again: With Thoughts on the Good and Evil of Both (New York. 1852). II. 16. & George William Curtis, ed . , The Corresoondenee of John Lotiirop Eotlev (New York, 190oT, I, 42-43. 45 Germany. No longer was the American traveler universally greeted with enthusiasm and acclaim by European liberals. Americans met criticism of their political system Tor its limited liberties. Even in 1836, George Ticknor wrote that •*. .. all the leading papers throughout Germany, who repeat these reproaches against us in perfect good faith cause us to be set down for a good deal of humbug in oui* pretensions of freedom.'^ Criticism was especially forthcoming after 2 the European publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Another traveler wrote in a similar vein in 1851 when he described an a u s train army officer who " ...was very minute in his inquiries relative to slavery in nmerica, end could not understand how we, professing so much sympathy for the nations of Europe who were struggling for their freedom, should yet hold millions in absolute subjection in our own 3 land." The only defense that this American could produce in reply to the criticism was that the existence of slavery 4 was more “a case of necessity than of option.” Another ^ Anna Eliot Ticknor, ed., The Life. Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (London" 1376;, ij 480. 2 Ibid.. II, 190. 3 Henry Maney, Memories of the Water, or Strav Thoughts on a Long Stroll (Nashville, 1854), pp. 141-142. 4 Ibid. 46 writer maintained that when American slavery was discussed in Germany, she felt obliged to "blush and hide..* £ h e r j •. .head. Some American travelers believed that Europeans really had no understanding of the problem. Motley claimed that the Germans seemed to feel that slavery could simply be eradicated by edict. They had no fundamental conception of the federal principle of the Jnited States* Another writer felt that the Germans showed little comprehension of it by assuming that the mere fact of its existence proved a support of the institution on the part of all 3 Americans* As the fifties drew to a close and the Civil Aar seemed imminent, the travelers felt that the criticism had become a real antagonism. In 1859, Henry Adams wrote from Germany, "America is much disliked now in Europe and no one will believe anything good of it.H^ Another writer described 5 Austria as Leing "very touchy" toward Americans* Johnson, p Motley, Peasant Li f e , p. 50. Corres pondence. I, 191* 3 Brace, Home L i f e , p. 272* 4 W. C. Ford, (Boston, 1930-36), 3 Wight, e d . , The Letters of Henrv Adams I, 39* Peoples and Countries, p. 64. 47 Yet ten years later, when the United States had successfully withstood its internal upheaval and cast off slavery, George Bancroft, the American Minister at Berlin, wrote a long reassuring letter to Elihu B. Washburne. he said the victory of the Union in the conflict had re­ established the faith of European liberals in the basic vitality and endurance of the Republic. servatives, he felt, Even the con­ were finally convinced that the United States had entered the world to stay. Politically, Europe regarded America as once again sound. The attempt eight years ago to dissolve the union encouraged once more those who regarded republicanism with skepticism. The suppression of the rebellion went beyond what most of the governments of Europe regarded as possible, and as a result, the confidence in the immense energy and durability of our insti­ tutions was firmly established, and by the abolition of slavery our republic became more and more endeared to the best men of Europe. Since I have been on this continent, I have watched the continual steady rise of this implicit trust in our ultimate success, and while in old times anything that appeared to go in amiss in America was looked upon as ominous of evil, it has now become the rule to take a bright view of seemingly unfox*tunate occurrences in our career and to take every unfavorable appearance with confidence in the ability of our people to surmount every difficulty.1 At least in regard to its fundamental political freedoms, American travelers no longer were sensitive to criticism after the conclusion of the Civil War. Bancroft, Life and Letters« II, 221-822. 48 But slavery was not the only characteristic of American life that became the focal point of European criticism. The persistent claim that American society was vulgar, barbarous, even savage, wounded the pride of American travelers in Germany. It had been endurable in the sanguine, nationalistic optimism of the early nineteenth century, when the nation was small and Americans felt certain a superior culture would eventually be developed. But after the United States had proved her strength and established herself as a significant nation in the world, such criticism was the source of much discomfort for *onericans in Europe. of the intensity of the slavery issue, a temporary object of attack. it was, In spite after all, The criticism that America had a barbai'ous and vulgar civilization was less easily destroyed in that it rested, according to the travelers, upon a profound ignorance of actual conditions in America. "It is simply incredible," wrote a traveler of the eighties, "what profound ignorance exists about us."^ The nineteenth century travelers regarded this ignorance with quiet amusement, mild irritation, right scorn. or out­ The last sentiment became more pronounced in the post-Civil War travelers. It was little more than suprising to John Quincy Adams in 1797 that a German army 1 Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 11. 49 off*icei* did not know the existence or the United States.1 The American nation was actually less than a decade old and an isolated corner or the world by eighteenth century standards or tx*ansportation and communication. But Motle:' expressed exasperation in the rirties when he maintained that no one in Europe really wanted to know the truth about 2 American conditions. Another writer or the seventies said that the erroneous conceptions or the United States in Germany made even an apathetic citizen rairly "bristle with patriotism. Examples or this ignorance about America by Europeans are legion in the travel literature. In the main, the German misconceptions or the United States were geographic, racial, and social. In spite or the German education system, German knowledge was sadly deiicient in regard to the size and location or the United States. Charles Sumner stated that he was asked ir the American nation was in the neighborhood of Odessa.4 Another traveler said that the 1 J. Q. Adams, Memoirs. I, 203. 2 Motley, Corresoondence. II, 189-190. 3 Blanche Willis TeuTTel, One Year Abroad (Boston, 1877), p. 18. 4 E. L. Pierce, ed.^Memoir and Letters or Charles S u m n e r (Boston, 1877-90), II, 124. 50 librarian in Strasburg, when told or the Philadelphia library which Benjamin Franklin helped found, replied, "Ah, yes; at W a s h i n g t o n . A n o t h e r writer said the Germans believed the terms "north" and "south" referred to North America and South America, being slave.2 one being free and the other And in 1867 William James wrote, “The pleasant spinster from Hamburg...drives me frantic by her endless talking about America, in the course of which she continually leaps without any warning from New York to Rio de Janeiro and then to Valparaiso. in each of these localities, She has friends and it is apparently a fixed conviction of hers that they take tea together every evening. Nor were the Germans any clearer about the racial and linguistic characteristics of the United States. The fact that both Negroes and Indians did actually exist in the western hemisphere seemed especially confusing. Although allowance must be maae for exaggeration for narrative effect, many Americans recorded the surprise the Germans ^ John Jay Smith, A S u m m e r ’s Jaunt Across the Water. Including Visits to England. Ireland. Scotland. France. Switzerland. Germany. Belgium, et c . (Philadelphia, 1846), I, 268. 2 J. R. Browne, American Fa m i l y , p. 139. Henry James, e d . , The Letters of William James (Boston, 1920), I, 89. 51 manifested on discovering that Americans were white and could speak English ."1 One writer even maintained that his landlady was amazed to learn that Americans did not eat p human flesh." anecdote. James E. Angell related a rather amusing He was invited to speak in his "native" tongue at a dinner given in Germany. The guests looked so curious and expectant that he was nonplused as to what to do. Then he arose and delivered a brief speech in what was known to schoolboys then as "Hog Latin" (now "Pig Latin"), which completely bewildered, but delighted, his audience.w Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 102; Clemens, A Tramp Abroad. I, 204-205; Mrs. C. F. Barlosius, Recollections of a Visit to England. France, end Germany 1862 and to Germany 1885 (Fredericksburg, V a . , 1 S 8 7 ), p. 55: et a l . It would be unwise to overstress this point. In i:he light of the large number of Americans traveling in Germany, it would seem that people in the most frequented areas should have been familiar enough with the American traveler. The same writer cited aLove (Barlosius ), who x-elated the surprise of Germans at finding Americans white, later in her narrative described meeting a Negro with a traveling show, who said that he had made a great deal of money at first, but Negroes had become such a commonplace that he was no longer a curiosity. (Earlosius, Recollections« p. 104). The traveling shows might have accounted for some German misconceptions about Americans simply for the purpose of attracting patrons by the grotesque and unusual. There is at least one example of a travel narrative by a Negro. (See Bibliographical Note ). And writers did occasionally complain over* the fawning manner of German business men which would indicate that they were familiar enough with Americans. Charles Dudley Warner, Sauntei^ings ^Eoston, 1892), p. 8 6 . 1 ^ Edward Everett Hale and Susan Hale, A Family Flight through France. Germany. Norway and Switzerland (Boston, 1888), p. 161. ^ James Burrill Angell, Reminiscences (New York, 1912), pp. 97-96. 52 Americans Germans had listed about all kinds America. or inaccurate Longfellow said notions that one that of t h e professor's wives at Heidelberg believed A m e r i c a n ladies "sat with their feet out the window."'*' an e m i g r a t i n g bauer who was w o r r i e d Eayard Taylor met because he had heard 2 one h a d to drink beer tx*aveler s t a t e d "were to not come night. he w a s bath that required and go as standing Germans to they obey considered every the their wrote "crazy in America. believed pleased Lincoln Steffens up American parents" any time that Another but children were free of t h e day at L e i p z i g American" because or in 1891 he took a day.^ But it was not these small facts about social customs that annoyed American travelers in Europe as muca as the accepted conclusion based upon them that Americans lacked any sort of refinement or cultural appreciation. "Tney are under the impression in Germany," wrote one traveler, "that there is no politeness or ceremony of any kind in Samuel Longfellow, ed. , Tne Lite of xienrv h ads worth Longfellow with Extracts from his Journals and Correspondence (Boston, 1886), I, 219. o ^ Taylor, at Home and Abroad, first Series, p. 70. 3 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 259. ^ Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (Hew York, 1951), p. 147. 53 1 America." Another said, "It is not so much his want oi correct knowledge that is amusing, i- a German*sj as the entire self-satisfaction with which he compares the civilization p in Germany with the barbarism of America." They maintained again and again that the German picture of American civi­ lization was completely inaccurate. One traveler said that Germans believed Americans were completely materialistic, while Germans were predominantly idealistic. 3 Another complained that her German friends believed that because she was an American, she had a "passionate devotion" A to machinery.^ An American music student stated that one of her teachers in Berlin had a violent prejudice against Americans because he believed that they were utterly without 5 musical talent. Another was irritated because one of his German friends always talked as if America had no theatres g and no opera. Another said that the Americans who were 7 well-known in Prussia were men of science. ^ Johnson, 2 Peasant L i f e , p. 259. J. R. Browne, American -Family, p. 138. ^ Taylor, At Home and Abroad. First Series, 4 Teuffel, 5 Fay, Music-Study, p. 170. g 1890), 7 p. 461. One Y e a r , p. 91. Frank Stockton, p. 229. Person«r1 1 v Conducted (New York, Brace, Home Life, p. 2 62. 54 All of this implied and stated criticism of American civilization probably would not have bothered the American traveler if he nad not been conscious of an element of truth in it* It has already been pointed out earlier in the chapter that one of the primary motives of American travelers in Europe was the enrichment of their individual cultural development* They studied in the universities. They visited the art galleries. ana the theatre. buildings. And, They toured the Cathedrals and the public if possible, they savored the leisurely, settled life in a European city. admission, They attended the opera Such activity was a frank by deed if not by word, that even they considered American culture weaker in the arts than its European neighbors. It was this basic fact that made the American traveler angry at the German exaggerations and ignorance, he was defensive under critical attack in the materialistic post-Civil War era. He might conclude at the end of his trip that America was the best place to live, but he was aware that America did not provide the cultural advantages of Europe. He was as certain of his devotion to nis own nation as the American had been early in the century, but he was sharply aware that political superiority did not constitute the whole of life. The had Germany i'oreseen as iii f e l l o w s h i p instead by nineteenth order tn&t risiny wit-i a nation century to clarify uiscover* t h e the the early out nineteenth of t h e Jnited political Etates had century decay been American of E u r o p e realized that the *unerican t r a v e l e r of t h e l a t e could not understand this irnare of a i s a p p o i n t m e n t , it Germany in nor admire. is n e c e s s a r y trie A m e r i c a n mind. In to 56 The American Traveler's Image of Germany The early interest of nineteenth century Americans in Germany was derived from an intellectual movement with political ramifications. as indicated in the *Introduction," New England literary scholars were stimulated by Madame de Stael's D 1Allemagne and reports of intensive study and activity during the several preceding generations of German thought and literature. The intellectual creativity of tIi€ Germans became the source of many cultux-al forces when imported into the United States. literary movement of romanticisrn through the influence of writers like Goethe, Schiller, Freiligrath. It sparked the new Herder, Lessing, and The transcendentalism of Kant and Fichte and Schleiermacher and of the English trailscendentalists captured American thought, universities upon and the influence of German American scholars transported a thorough and exhaustive scholarsnip into the United States. Although the interest in Germany was intellectually centered, the political developments in Germany during the Napoleonic period were important in opening a channel of communication between the United States and Germany (although Germany was in no sense yet a n a t i o n ) by the fact that both states had shared a similar experience. For nationalism and liberalism, the twin seeds of the 57 French Revolution, had captured Germany, too. After the humiliating defeat of Prussian forces at Jena in 1806 and the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 in which Prussia bowed to the victorious French Emperor, and Germany. a new spirit arose in Prussia Under the leadership of von Stein and Hardenburg and stimulated by the nationalism in German literature, Prussia began a drive toward a united German national state to throw off the control of Napoleon and to liberalize the governments of the small German states.^ Serfdom was abolished, the array was reorganized to enforce the system of national conscription, and attempts were made to provide the ordinary individual with a stake in national existence. The American felt a sense of kinshixj with this experience of a Protestant nation attempting to get out from under the yoke of foreign domination and to work toward unification of independent sovereign states. Had not the United States had her own Revolution and her own period of Confederation? Van VVyck Brooks maintained in discussing the reception of the English version of Madame de Sta£l*s book in Boston that Bostonians were ’*... predisposed to like the book, Napoleon did not like it. Valentin, since everyone knew that He had suppressed the book The German People, pp. 335-350. 58 and tnat d r i v e n kaaaiue de a thing ir t h e must be Bonapartes in Germany Charming who begged sketches of t h e love Tne describe during "...when the War the of of gone that 4 Berlin has Congress patriotic ardor Brooks, .t-unerican continue Charming up Ticknor in wrought like of V i e n n a , by of wrote abject anu in moral Prussian took in P r u s s i a felt e free in s p e a k i n g German and Germany in 1816: the v/hat t h e y the spirit had through of t h e glowingly youth to founaed a ll reaction of the i n the k e w E n g l a n d , pp. 2 war 75 - 7 6 . w i l l i a m deni\y C h a n n i n g , ea. , L e n o i r o f G'iliiam E l l e r y C h & n n i i m w i t h E x t r a c t s f r o m liis C o r r e s p o n d e n c e a n a M a n u s c r i p t s (E o s t o n , 1 8 6 0 ) , III, 307. ^ Ticknor, ^ I b i d . , p. L e t t e r s . I, 103. a subjection, strength a fever wrote pains announced leaders "...from which F l owering or a b oo k , '.Villiam E l l e r y frequently conceived displayed in for whom lay Another* t r a v e l e r , after the early German;/ t o movement Germany id a i r i n g This knew 2 themselves of a university itself in people, Prussia of University uermany." a friend in p h y s i c a l . " forth it.""*- of L i b e r a t i o n . rest of i*r t n c e . . . . E v e r y o n e manifested nationalist determination lost whether and kinship* the ministrv had good, German travelers the out disliked interest genuine Stael 1 C2 . and 59 said that love oi* liberty was prevalent among them . 1 One traveler described the birth of the German spirit in glowing terms in 1840: sleep, "How they rose, like a giant from against trench usurpation and with Leipsic paid kapoleon for- Jena. ...The sceptered weakling, had been a prey to the conqueror, whose capitals became suddenly strong with the strength of wrath-swollen multitudes. is ever reaay to be rekindled. This wrath Its next outburst will not be against foreign oppressors." g This background of American interest in the curiosity about Germany is essential for any real understanding of the attitudes of American travelers in Germany as they took direction early in the century. An ima^e of Germany had been created in the American mind that was not to be easily eradicated. Althougn the political aspects of this image are discussed at greater length in the chapter dealing with political life, the intellectualized focus of the image must be recognized in dealing with the general view of G e r m a n y held by American travelers until after 1870. Throughout the nineteenth century, German intellect and culture, spirit, this focus upon the as well as the national was an important item in the comment of American 1 Henry Edwin Gwignt, Travels in North of Germany in 1885-26. (n. p., n .p .d . ), p. 31. r> * George Henry Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts in Europe. First Series, (Boston, 1840), pp. 69-70. travelers in Germany. It tied in, first, with the enthusiasm of Americans for the future of their own culture and, second, witn their dissatisfaction with that culture later in the century. Ticknor wrote of the Germans in 1816 from Gbttingen, "They are a people who, in forty years, have created to themselves a literature such as no other nation ever created in two centuries; at tnis moment, and they are a people who, have more mental activity than any other people existing."'*' -another traveler wrote, "*Ve are accustomea to regard the Germans as a heavy-moulded race, as peculiax'ly •physical' in their character... But were the German classics to Le found at our public institutions, which I vex*y much doubt, Cambridge libx*ary being excepted, and coula we read the language sufficiently to understand thorn, we should soon discover that the term physical was muca mox-e applicable to ourselves, than to them." A former American Ilinistex* at the Court of Prussia wrote in 1847, "It is the peculiax* chax’actex*istic of German civili­ zation, in every stage of its progress, that the intellectual has ever sux*passed the social development; the cultux*e. of the mind has ever outstx*ipped the social and political ■*■ Ticknox*, Letters. I, IPO c Dwight, Travels, p. 76. 61 conditions oi' the nation . - 1 One traveler exploded enthusiastically when confronted with Germany's cultural heritage and homely charm, "Oh, I am delighted with Germany, the land oi* poetry and sourkrout Schiller and Goethe of superstition, the birthplace of the seat of learning the country p romance and Westphalia hams." This same respect for the intellectualized image of Germany is apparent in the comment of the American travelers on German cities, devotees. and most of the cities had their American Said one American traveler of Berlin, "... Berlin's greatness is intellectual; and in this relation, no city on the globe shines with a more splendid light. 3 It is the northern iiiecca of scholars...." Joseph Green Cogswell agreed that it. held "first plE.ce" for science 4 end literature. another writer emphasized the extensive musical advantages of a residence in Berlin. *" Howells wrote reverently of Weimar: William Dean "Goethe end Schiller 1 Henry Wheaton, "The Progress and Prospects of Germany," A Discourse b efore the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown University (Boston. 1847), 7~. p Matthew Flourney Ward, Letters from Tnree Continents. By M.. The Arkansas Correspondent of the - Lo u is v il l e Journal (Hew fork, 1C51 ), p. 36. Hoppin, H o t e s . p. 12. 4 5 Cogswell, L i f e . p. 2£4. Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, pp. 95-96. lived t here...and literature was glorified as much there as war is e l s e w h e r e . W r i t e r s Munich, art. extoled the beauties of calling it an ’’Earthly Paradise” for lovers of This list of examples citea from the travel narratives could be pressea much fux-ther at t,he x-isk of wearying the reaaer. iienry Adams recounted the world-wide aamix*ation for German thought that flourished in the nineteenth centux*y in nis remarkable Education. agreea,” he wrote, "The literary woidLd then “that truth survived in Germany alone, and Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, Renan, of popular followers, thought, method, Emerson, with scores taught the German faith.... German honesty, and even taste, became the standards of scholarship.” The other aspect of the German image in the American mind, the sense of kinship through a common experience and a similax* natux*e, revealed itself in the similarity American travelers saw in German cities and the Geivnan people to what they knew at home. This was px*obably due in part to the belief that the German struggle against Napoleon was ^ Milarea nowells, e d . , Life in Letters of William Dean Howells (New Yoi\k, 1923*7^ I I , 79. p C. C. Fulton, Europe Viewed through American Spectacles (Philadelphia, 1874), p. 109; Mrs. Louise Chandler Boulton, Random Rftmtal «« (Boston, 1881), p. 282. Henry «uams, The Education of Henrv Adams (Boston, 1918), pp. 61-62. 63 like the American struggle against Great £x*itain and in part to the fact that a large number of Germans had settled in America. One traveler oi* 1825 wrote, "The northern Germans resemble us much more than any other nation on the continent. Like us they are Protestants, and they show i.n their con­ versation tnat deptn of feeling, whicn naturally arises fi*om a religion addressed equally to tne intellect ana the heart...another Germans, writer said, "I like Germany and the and this feeling grows upon me more and more. I do not feel a stranger in a strange land, but am in every respect as perfectly and as happily at home as I ever have r been out of Virginia .nCj William James agreed that Germany resembled the United States when he wrote, find, "Germany is, I as a whole...very nearly related to our country, ana the German nature ana ours so akin in fundamental qualities, that to come here is not much of an experience.... to one of our race all that is peculiar in Germany is mental, and that Germany can be brought to u s . . . . " 3 the travelex-s of an American city, 4 Berlin reminded even to the point where Unter den Linden looked to one traveler like Commonwealth ^ Dwight, Travels. 170. p ^ Edward Southey Joynes, Old Letters of a Student in Germany 1856-57 (Columbia, S.C., 1 31 6 ), pi 57. W. James, Letters. I, 105. ^ Dwight, Travels. p. 114. 64 Avenue in Boston.^" There was nothing "romantic, picturesque, p or even £orei^n'* about living in Dresden, and Stuttgart ana x rankf ox*t, among othex* cities, seemed to have nmeriean 3 characteristics. Even Bonn, according to one traveler, a. was the German counterpart of hew Haven. _ Yet, in placing these comments against others from the travel narratives, a certain inconsistency of opinion is glaringly apparent. They represent statements of a very general nature and were common, this writer believes, because they added substance to the “image" of Germany in the Amei*ican mind. in his narrative, hhen the traveler became more specific discussing the people, the customs, the political institutions, even the culture, he found striking differences between his homeland and Germany. Such general statements do not express in airy comprehensive way the Amex-ican's attitude toward Germany gained through actual contact and experience with the people and the count i*y in travel. Rather, such statements seem to repr*esent the early Ballou, Foot-Prints of Travel, p. £21. o W. James, Letters, I, 86 . 3 Henry Ruggles, Germany Seen without Spectacles. Random Sketches of Various Bub.iects Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire (Boston. 1885), p~. 95: Carrie Butler T h w i n g ; an Appreciation by Friends together with Extracts from her Journal of a Tour in Suijoue (Cleveland, 189 j), p. 106. A Benjamin Silliman, York, 1854), II, 507. A Visit to Eur-ope in 1651 (new directional stimulus ol“ intex'est in and enthusiasm for Germany, mind. of the picture of Germany created in the American Such a picture was by no means a static thing and, as will later appear, the nineteenth centui’y witnessed the gradual breaking down of that picture ana its reconstruction on an entirely different basis than that of the magnificence of German cultural development or a sense of kinship for the German people ana the German nation. American traveler discovered, For, as the actual travel experience revealea a new side of Germany that the image did not encompass and the changes in the nature of the German state in the nineteenth century seemea destined to destroy the image. It is difficult to assess the overall impression of Germany that nmerican travelers received through the experience of travel. Feelings were frequently mixed and the different German states elicited different reactions. But on the whole, in spite of American antagonism toward some German institutions and in spite of some travelers' actual dislike of Germany and the Gex*mans, until appx-oximately 1870, the American traveler liked the country and the people. nowever, It is significant in the travel literature, that American feeling x*ax*ely got beyond merely "liking" Germany. passion, It did not reach any intensity of as the American sentiment fox* Rome ox- Paris or 66 even England frequently aid. ana poignant associat Lonthan a sentiment It was not colorea Dy nostalgic It was more an opinion, too prosaic, too reasoned, in fact, too matter- of-fact to ever boruer on the rhapsoaic. A good many comments on areas in Germany appear on the printed page to be rataer flat statements of appreciation, empty of any spontaneous burst of emotion. This seems to be indicative of tne rather limited affection with which the American travelers actually viewed Germany. Cogswell, Even who had loved the Germany of Goethe and Gbttingen as a student in 1816, wrote in 1887* "...I am very free to say that my second residence in Germany has quite weaned me from that strong attachment to it which my first one gave me."l Charles Cumner went so far as to say that he was "more thai* satisfied" witn the "prevailing intelligence and civilization" of Germany. p Another writer described Dusseldorf as a "model German town, solid, to art and music." dull, devoted Another described Berlin as a "sombre, massive city, lacking tne bright and brilliant aspect of 4 Paris." Another wrote, after seeing Berlin, "I saw it 1 Cogswell, L i f e , p. 102. p Sumner, Memoir and Letters. II, 571. ^ Henry W. Bellows, The Ola Aorld in Its hew Fact: Impression of Europe in 1867-68 (hew York, 1869), l"i75• 4 Fulton, Europe Viewed, p. 15. 67 without I l e f t it w i t h o u t regret."'*' emotion: described as "clean, well-paved, and neatly M u n i c h was laid out.**2 Some writers went mucu farther and revealed an active dislike of Germany. Henx*y Adams wrote of Berlin in 1659, "I tell yo u . ..Boston's a little place, but damn me if it isn't preferable to this cursed hole." And Henry James, never attracted by Germany, wrote: To me this hasty anu most partial glimpse of Germany has been most satisfactory; it has cleared from my mind the last mists of uncertainty and assured me that I can never hope to become an unworthiest adoptive grandchild of the fatherland. It is well to listen to t h e voice of t h e spirit, to cease hair­ splitting and treat one's self to a good square antipathy when It is so very sympathetic! I may "cultivate" mine away, but it has given me a week's wholesome nourishment . 4 5^«The rather weak sentiments^Ainex*ican travelers displayed toward Germany become even more pronounced when they ax-e contrasted with the enthusiasm shown fox* the more romantic spots of Germany like Vienna, Nurembui*g, ana the Rhine* Junius Henry Browne, Sights and Sensations in Europe. Sketches of Travel and Adventure in England. France. Spain, Germany, e t c * , With an Account of Places and Persons Prominent in the Franco-German War (Hartford. 1 8 7 1 ) 7 P« 313* 1 ^ James Samuel Stone, From Fx-ankfort to I/Iunich (Philadelphia, 1895), p. 45. 3 Henry Adams, 4 H. James, Letters. I, 97. Letters. I, 33. Vienna was called “the Paris of Germany, 1,1 a "truly... 2 imperial city," "a beautiful city the most beautiful I have ever seen. in some respects Another writer wrote that Vienna was "truly magnificent, grand, and unique...the connecting link between the civilization of Europe and the barbaris splendors of the Oriental world. Another traveler maintained that she was never in a city 5 "where laughing was so universal" as Vienna. Kuremburg appealed to the travelers for its great age and picturesqueness. 6 And the Rhine likewise received acclaim from Americans even though most of them felt that the Hudson equaled it in beauty. One typical description of the Rhine states: Even the coldest and most unimaginative traveller, as his eye glances from the rapid curi*eat to the varied magnificence of its borders the wide-spread, fertile John n. Corson, Loiterings in Europe: or Sketches of Travel in France. Belgium. Sv/itzeriand. Italy. Austria. Frussi a . Great Britain, ana Ireland C^ew York. 184ci), p . 224. 2 Meriwether, Tramp Trip, p. 160. a ^ Thurlow Weed, Letters from Europe ana tne West Indies 184o-lo52 (Albany, 1866), p. 588. 4 Oct avia »»alton Le Vert, Louvenirs of Travel (mobile, 1857), II, p. 253. ^ Marie J. Pitman ^Margery Deane, pseud.] ^ European Breezes (Boston, 1882), p. 1 2 2 . 6 d, James, Letters, I, 32. 69 plains, the vine years, here gently sloping, there clinging to an almost precipitous rock the ancient towns, with their massive walls and white watchtowers and, chiefly, the ruined castles, at every turn crowning the picturesque mountains between which the glorious river is often compressed, connected, as they are, with the richest romance of history and legend can hardly fail to sympathize with the heart­ felt love, t he almost veneration, with which the Germans regard what they poetically call Father or Kin^: H h i n e .-^ However, such general and detached statements as those quoted above are valueless without a more detailed survey of the American traveler's reaction to specific objects anu institutions of German life. fore, It is necessary, there­ to examine in some detail the American reaction to the German people, social life, and customs, German culture, ana German political life and institutions. ^ VVilliam Combs Dana, A Transatlantic Tour (Philadelphia, 1845), p. 227. CHAPTER I I I THE GERMAN PEOPLE, CUETOHb, AHD o GCIa L LIFE Tae American traveler round the nature or the German people and tne customs that aTTected their relationships with one another a curious bundle or contradictions. round them, lirst oi* all, was, human, He as tne American himselT with qualities to be both applaudea and despised. The kindness shown by the German lor the American and the charming simplicity and civility of manners completely disarmed the traveler. life with aiTection He was prepared to embrace German until he perceived that a strain or brutality accompanied the politeness. The mnerican con- i'ronteu German brutality in the treatment accorded women in Germany and in the custom or dueling in the German universities. Rerinement in tne arts and a px*opensity to intellectual endeavor went hand in hand, the traveler discovered, with a national taste ror coarse physical pleasure like ever-present "beer, ’w hich so orten repelleu hnericans. tobacco, and sauerkraut" calm German nature that at times comforted the restless American, at other times vexed him by its stoic acceptance or conditions tn&t seemed unendurable to an American. A standardized and accepted coue or manners that the American was inclined 71 to admire because it supplied the German with the security ol l o w i n g ,exactly what one should and shouldn't do in social relationships, became, in some -nstances, a cumber­ some and incomprehensible business. Tne American traveler dia not try to reconcile these inconsistencies. Indeed, he probably would have been the first to admit that the German people, by virtue of their humanity, were no more inconsistent and contx*adictory in character* ana behavior than any other people. If he thought about it at all, the American traveler would probably have agreed with Harriet Beecher Stowe in simply recognizing tnat the inconsistencies were there. "These Germans seem an odd race, spirit That traveler wrote: a mixture of clay and what with their beer arinki^g and smoking, their slow, and stolid ways, you would think them perfectly earthly; but axi ethereal fire is all the while working in them, and bursting out in most unexpected little jets of poetry and sentiment, like blossoms on a cactus."^ In any case, the American retained a certain detached objectivity as he drifted from one German experience to another, He was, noting customs and characteristn’cs of the people. by t u r n s , wistful, indignant, perplexed, or Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunny Memories of F oreign Lands (Boston, 1654), II, 37 C. admiring. He could pick and choose as he would, saying, "I like German politeness" or "I don't like Germany brutality." But the j*mericen lost this detachment when he regarded the socitl life cl* the German nation. Tne overwhelming impression that the travel narratives reveal is that the traveler was detached only in relationship to specific customs or parti culax* characteristics of the Germans. Underlying nis comment upon German social life is a complete bewiloerment that the Germans, with a society founded upon inconsistencies in the German nature and customs and injustices and inequalities in social relation­ ships, seemed, nevertheless, to possess an enjoyment of, ano satisfaction with, life that the mnei-ican felt his own society lacked. In no way was the inadequacy of the social fabric in America brought home more forcibly to -Americans theii by their contacts with German social life. It was as if the American askeu himself, when he witnessed their contented conviviality and their ability at savoring the passing moment, "Why do these Germans, who shouldn't, seem to enjoy life more than Americans at home, who should?" Such a devastating question thrust the traveler into a sea of uoubt about his own society and provided the basic theme for much comment of the American travelers recorded in the third section of this chapter. 73 Tne toot trcveler nagged at forgot it i n the United uia him. when he x*eJoined his Ltates. sciiool century American life similarly that nnderscn, and iievertaeiess, social to cases, criticism i n t ne work the whole Sinclair Le w is , no doubt, and fr ienas it seems at he home rela t e d to tne in t h e l a t e n i n e t e e n t h of h e n r y henry Theodore James, George. cnorus in tlie t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y of It social in the work Dreiser, henry nuams, seems protest of Iherv/ood Stephen. Craae, Idvvax'd -riiiigton LoLi.is on. dis coveria:; no tne life of material reaction discussions sociar of tne the are nara also nas ireplica tions is an uisent angle this mnerican in t h e is t he Nature difficult travelers in to the nature of the to f i n d , in Germany, of just the tne n attempts custom people as m u c n of c l a r i t y omission than narratives, nnotner. arbitrarily of ana travel life purposes risk Germany customs, social tneir analysis thee, at The tie f r o m one Nevertheless, for organ:.zation, It people, of a ric-ier s o u r c e f o r of -an or leans t . disentangle expression a custom. provides nation found they a na to ansn.er tjie q u e s t i o n family zxo.we.rd re ,..lamy, a n a although tne of related arose attempt I n a good, m a n y growinr L ark Twain, not as it is and to or r e p e t i t i o n . German People in the travel a genuine, narratives spontaneous, of 74 enthusiastic response toward tne nature of the G e r m a n people. Oxi the wnole, liked them with reservations and modifications, much as they likea Germany as © whole. it iias, again, heart. they But a sentiment of* the head rather than the The German people lacked the romantic charm that captivated the emotions and the imagination of* the American traveler. As Willi am Jaines put it, "The German character is without mountains or valleys; its favorite food is roast veal; and in other lines it prei'ers whatever may be the analogue thereof all which gives life here a certain flatness to the high-tunea nmerican taste."^ Except for a certain heartiness that betokened physical stability, the American traveler did not find the appeai-axice of the German people very appealing. They seemed to the traveler* created much more for* function than for* ornament. Except for criticism of the visible charms of German women, reactions to the physical attributes of the German people were not very pronounced in the narratives. A traveler in 1334-35 remarked that general health and robustxxess of the population were noticeable, and he credited it to their "frugal and regular habits of l i f e . " 2 A traveler in 1887 W. James, L e t t e r s , I, 136. Valentine iiott, Travels in Europe and the East in the Years 1854. *35. *36. *37. *8 8 . '89. »40. and *41: Em bra cing Observations Made du r ing a Tour through Great 2 7b felt this apparent physical heartiness was a good indication of the age-long stamina of the German people.^- Yet anotht-r traveler of 13o6 felt that the common people appeared more down-trodden than robust* He said they were rather "of p unaer stature, their skin shriveled and seared.The height of Prussian men attracted some attention, although one young American woman felt this quality could never reaeern their arrogance and insolence on the streets. William James thought the Saxons were a particularly "short ana ill-favored race." 4 Some of tne travelers felt that the prevalence of beerdrinking in Germany did not enhance tne physical attractive­ ness of the German people. One traveler remarked that the "bloatea faces and bleared eyes of the masses" betrayed their indulgence.' Another disliked the effect of the •Britain. Ireland. France. Belgium. Holland. Prussia. Saxony. Bohemia. Austria. Bavaria. Swlt zexdLana. Lombax»d. Italy, and the Near East (New York. 18427] p. 82. Wight, Peoples and Countries, p. 117. £ Wilbur Fisk, Travels in Europe: viz. in Bn^land. Ireland. Scotland. Italy. Switzerland. Lombard. Italv. and the M a r East (Hew York. 1 842T, p. 57. 3 Dwight, Travels, p. 119; Fay, huslc Studv. p. 57. ^ W. James, Betters. I, 87. ^ Ballou, Foot Prints of Travel, p. 311. 76 "distended paunch'* and ruddiness upon the German personal appearance.^- Yet William James believed that even this quality, tne result of quantities of beer, produced a certain substantial appeax*ance. He wrote 1 "The apothegm, 'a fat man consequently a good man' has much truth in it. The Germans come out strong on their abdomens--even when they are vast in capacity, one feels that they are of mighty powerful construction, and play a much weightier part in the economy of man than with us, affording a p massive immovable background to the consciousness..." In regard to German women, the American traveler was far more explicit and extensive in his comments. Universally, the American traveler discussea the appearance of German women, ana, almost universally, unattractive. He wrote: he found them startlingly "...either our ideas of what constitutes beauty differ from those of Germans, or else their women are ,~enex*ally ill-fox-med, with irregular features and homely." The Americans complained that German women wex-e too coarse of skin and too broad of beam to measure up to the American standax*ds of delicate, Meriwether, Tramp Trip, p. 146. 2 v;. James, Letters. I, 100 . ^ Smith, Summer *s Jaunt, I, 254. feminine grace, "'walking parallelograms in petticoats," one wx-itex- called them. "They looked," he continued, if they had been made by the rule, then cut off in lengths to suit. like Dutch ships, Like theix* vessels, "as and too, tnev ax*e solid and substantial, made x*ather to cax-rv than to g o . Julian xlawthorne described them in equally un- flattei'ing terms: "Massive are their legs as the banyan- x*oot; theix* hips are as the bows of a three-decker. Backs have they like derricks; rough hands like pile-drivers . . . " 2 Other wx-iters termed them variously "plump roly-polies" with "ix*x*egular features and muddy complexions"^ ox* "stx*ong and 6 aunt, sun-dried and coarse."^ One tx-avelex* claimed their faces were destitute of any expression, distinctive feature of Fx-encn women. the Another- said he had seen more plain-looking females in Dx*esden than he believed it was possible to collect in one city. 1 W. W. Wight, 2 Hawthorne, And Henry Adams Dore'C p. 220. Saxon Studies, pp. 23-2 6 . ° F ^y» Music Study, p. 80. 4 Mary Sands Griffin, Impressions of Germany, by an American Lady (Dresden, 1866), p"I 131. ° Dwight, Ti*avels. p. 5. r H. Adams, Letters. I, 39. 76 maintained that German women reminded him, unpleasantly, of their "aiet and want of soap and water . " 1 The fraulein of the German states became even less appealing to the American traveler when iie compared her with her lovelier German cousin, the Austrian, larly the Viennese, girl. and particu­ One traveler wrote that the latter was very attractive. "They are Germans, but handsomer than western Germans with a remarkably clear complexion," he said. slighter, anotrier noted that the Austrian woman was more delicate, and gayei', 3 and another felt she exerted a good aeal more control in society. stroiig-aanded, 11 he said, "They are "and can take care of themselves anu of their husbands also when necessary. In any case, tne structure of the Austrian woman suited American taste far better, and according to one American traveler of 1680, 1 J. H. B. Latrobe, Hints for Six months in Europe: Bein^ the Programme of _a T our through Pax*ts of F rance. Italy. Austria. Saxony. Prussia, the Tyrol. Switzerland. Ho 1 1 an d . Bq l gium. England, and Scotland in 1866 (Philadelphia, 1869 ), p.* 195. ^ Leslie A. White, ed., Extracts from the European Journal of Lewis ii. fcorgan (Publication of the Rochester Historical Society, Part II ), XVI, 31o-319. ^ Charles Eaward Bolton, Travels in Europe and America (w ew Yorb, 1903), p. 843. ^ Fulton, Europe Viewed, pp. 89-90. 79 Prussian women envied the slenderness of the Austrian woman and resented her sense or style and fashion . 1 Yet a few travelers mitigated their criticism of the physical charms of German women. beautiful, No writer called them but Bayard Taylor admired their robustness which liberated them from the numerous afflictions that assailed the nineteenth century American beauty. rie said they were sometimes as "fresh as wild roses," • .hile admitting they were too coarse ana aeavy to be considered g beautiful. Another found the blonde German peasant quite goodlooking, and another felt city belles might well envy 4 tne rosy complexion of the German peasant girl. One traveler admitted that she had found them more refinea5 looking than expected. Even the heavy labor that was woman's lot in Germany did not horrify all tne tx*avelers. One writer of 1883 felt that field laborers in Germany were healthier and had less reason to be pitied than mill girls in dirty industrial centers in the Gnited States. 1 Pitman, 6 European Breezes, pp. 109-110. Taylor, At dome and Abroad, First Series, p. 32 o. 3 4 Maney, Memories over the m'ater, p. 114. Barlosius, Recollections. p. 53. w Amory, Wedding Journey. Helen aunt Jackson, (Boston, 1883), p. 373. II, p. 192. Glimpses of Three Coasts 80 Another argued that too much emphasis had been placeu on the German woman carrying her burdens on her head--that it was a woman's privilege to choose the method of carrying doing a man's work in the fields (dealt with more extensively later in the chapter) excited a rather romantic eloquence in one young American woman traveling in the middle of the century: •••but for my life I cannot find it in my heart to pity you. Full chested, vigorously limbed, strong backed, firm footed, ye defy storm ana hardship, and rejoice in the sternest labor; ye are never troubled by fine stomachic sensibilities; ye know nothing of the toil of the brain, of tne conflicts of the spirit, of the tragic sorrows of tne heart, of the exquisite agonies of tne nerves. You are robust, and plump, and bounteously blooded, bearing yourselves in your brown bloom, with the unconscious insolence of rustic health. You have simple habits, few wants, and believing hearts; so plant and reap, hoe and spade, carry burdens, yoke yourselves with donkeys, if you will, reverence the priest, serve your beer-drinking and meerschaumsmoking master. It is your mission, from which I should think twice ere I would call you to a condition in which every beautiful taste is insatiable longixig, every exquisite refinement but a subtilized pain, every high-wrought passion the exhaustless source of suffer­ ing. 2 Althougn the American's reaction to the German appearance was not favorable on the whole, Teuffel, the German One Year inbroad, p. 15. Sarah Jane Lippincott [Grace Greenwood, pseud.J daas and Mishaps of a Tour in aurooe (Boston, 1854), pp. 416-417. 61 character received more commendation. Americans found the German temperament a comfortable one to be around, and if it lacked the excitement of peoples of more volatile and mercurial emotions, it compensated for this deficiency in a satisfying steadiness. Gne traveler said the German character was the reverse of the French thinking more of "the matter than the manner of things," apt to be tiresome but sure to be substantial.^ another felt the Germans lacked the appeal of the Italians, but their contentment ana passiveness v.ere more comfortable and reassuring. 2 Even the poorer classes impressed the traveler's with their happy natures and their contentment, and one writer described the German peasant as combining "the prudence of «ew England" wita the "generous hospitality of Virginia." Yet sometimes, as in the case of one American girl, this evenness of disposition became montonous and irritating. "Germans cannot understand blueness," she complained. "They are never blue themselves, and they expect you always to preserve your equanimity. . .Moods are utterly incomprehensible to them. 1 They feel just the same every day in the year . " 4 ;V. ,V. Wright, Dord'l p. 276. ^ Lippincott, Haps and itiishaus, p. 414. Orvill ilorwitz, Brushwood Picked U p on the Continent; or Last Summer's Trip to the Old World CPhiladelphia. 1855), p. 278. 4 Fay, Music Etudv. p. 85. 82 To some Americans, this quality or steadfastness in the German character congealed too often into a rather austere sobriety. The German was eternally serious. One traveler remarked that almost no enthusiasm was displayed at the horse races in Germany: "... everytning was sober, matter of fact, as if the people had come out to witness a disagreeable spectacle, interest in . " 1 or one that they could take no Another writer claimed that, the numerous German feasts and celebrations, drink, in spite of "...the people and sing, and dance, the year in and the year out, without so much noise and hurrah as is to be seen on one Fourth of July."^ Other American travelers noticed that Germans took even their pleasure too gravely and did not laugh enough. 3 As one writer put it, "...the German would as soon think of putting aside his gravity as of putting off nis coat in public."^ tney may fly to pleasure, Another commented that "Though as a fancied medicine for the ills of life, they selaom give way to that spontaneous 1 Ruggles, Geimnanv without Spectacles, p. 61. 2 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 286. 3 Pitman, European Breezes, p. 47; Helen Juaria Fiske hunt Jackson, Bits of Travel (Boston, 1895 ), p. 1 0 1 . ^ George Copway, Running Sketches of i»len and Places in England. France, and Germany bv and Indian Chief (A'ew York, 1856), p. 239. 83 gaiete du coeur, which requires no support from adventitious excitement.""^ This quality in the Germans was more evident to the American traveler when he was confronted with the “contented g&yety " 2 and the "lightness of life " 3 of the Austrians. Such restrained spirit was wearing on Americans. Furthermore, Americans writhed under the stolid patience of tne German when his calm disposition accepted conditions that the American felt were unendurable. energy of the American, To the nervous the quiet acceptance that sootned his restless spirit became, frequently, tation rather than a solace. a source of ii*ri- One writer believed that "a German in the Fatherland is constitutionally opposed to doing anything in a hurry . " 4 Another pointed out that an obstacle to travel like the bx*idge of boats across the Rhine would not have been tolerated for a year in the R United States, but the Germans moved slowly. Motley calleu them "the most phlegmatic specimens of mankind tnat exist. H. ii. mright, p Corson, Desultory Reminiscences. p. 74. Loiterings in Europe, p. 225. 3 Brace, Home Life, pp. 392-39u. 4 Fulton, Europe Viewed, pp. 34-35. 5 James Freeman Clarke, Eleven 'weeks in Europe: and Vnhat May Be Seen in That Time~~(Eoston. 1852), 239. 6 Motley, Corre s pondence. I, 22 . 54 Sometimes the American Tell into the leisurely pace of German life anu liveci according to the '‘slow German fates."^ But more fx*equently, the travelers expressed their irritation with the patience of the people. One writer of 1850 said that it was a "daily marvel" to him and the most astonishing feature of German life. wrote: hurry, 2 Another "...everything is done quietly, no one seems in a no one ever seems impatient, and yet I confess it, my Aneriean blood shoots up in wonder sometimes now people can be so slow." Another said that although life was easier at this pace, "it became iiifuriating to the American, born and brea to hurry . " 4 miother agreed when she wrote, "The patience is something beyond tne comprehension of the nraerican mind."'"' In yet another way, the American disapproveu of the German quality of stolidity. deeply-rooted conservatism. They felt it leu to a too It made a population too docile, too respectful of authority, too e a s y to govern. ^ Charles Dudley Warner, Saunterings (Boston, 1892), p. 8 G. o George Henry Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts in Bur one, Secoiid Series (Hew York, 184G), p. 15. a Griffin, Impressions of Germany, pp. 57-38. ^ Pitman, European Breezes, p. 54. ~ Parry, Life. Among the Germans, p. 48. 85 As early as 18£5, this weakness was recognized by one traveler*, ana he felt it was incompatible with a democratic government which demanded an expression of the feelings and ideas of the population. This slowness to move made the Germans,the American traveler felt, prejudiced, p of form." bound by custom, slaves to the past, respecters Another writer noticed their cautious and con­ servative nature. he wrote . 0 congenitally "conservative, "whatever is done is done for generations," One traveler felt that authoritarian control of the government had increased this instinctive reluctance to change. "He is a box*n free thinker, " wrote this traveler, "but his institutioiis and tne watchful eye of the omniscient police forever keep the lid shut a own upon his genuine sentiments; he is slow to anger and unrivaled in his reverence for* authority . " 4 agreed when he said, A much earlier writer (1S47) "German enthusiasm, though deep seated, is patient and enduring, and breaks out in violent acts only at long intervals and on urgent provocation." 1 5 Some Dwight, Travels. p. 133. o ^ Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 313. 3 4 p. J. P.. Browne, American fa m i l y , p. 34. Ray btannard Baker, Seen in Germany (New York, 1909), 46. c; Wheaton, "Frogress ana Prospects," p. 51. 86 writex-s felt tnat the rather inconsistent wild anu rowdy life of German students at the univex*sities was a means of releasing young animal x*ebelliousness so tnat the student would settle down in after life to become a "calm, cautious, apathetic citizen."^ On the other hand, and in spite of the extensive comment by the traveler's on the calm temperament of the Germans, they v:ex-e frequently embarx*assed by the utter lack of s elf-restraint that a German displayed in expressions of sentiment. "Wnere aim how did we get tne idea that the Germans are a stolid phlegmatic race?" "In truth, mark Twain demanded. they ax*e widely removed from that. warm-hearted, emotional, impulsive, tears come at the mildest touch, move them to laughter. They are enthusiastic, their and it is not hard to They are the very children of impulse. -»e are cold and self-contained, compared to the Germans. They hug and kiss and cry and oance anu sing; and where we use one loving, petting expression, pour out a s c o r e . Y e t they the emotionalism he referred to was demonstx-ated principally in intimate social relation­ ships rather than in the larger contact of the German in ^ Dwight, p. 3.59. p Travels. pp. 50-56; Taylox*, Views A-Foot. ' Max*k Twain, A Tramp Abroaa. I, 87. 87 relation to his social environment. Other writers agreed that in personal relationships with family and friends, the Germans exhibited a warm emotionalism. One writer said that although they were not easily agitated, they were people of intense f e e l i n g a n o t h e r said they displayed almost "patriarchal hospitality 11 in the way they discussed px-ivate matters. Lotley called them "the most affectionate and...the most enthusiastic people on earth'* in these 3 circumstances, and Longfellow exlaimed, "The Germans have 4 so much poetry in their natures ana in their lives.1* One writer expressed her reaction tu this German characteristic with less enthusiasm: "For us, born under other habits, we cannot understand tnis public demonstration of feelings whicn the heart everywhere holds so sacred.... But here, 5 all events of life are maae matters of public sympathy.1' iost American travelers were impressed with German politeness. One traveler remarked that they were the most polite people in western Europe. ’ As early as 1822, ^ Dwight, Travels» p. 162. c' Brace, 3 H ome Life, p. 68 . Liotley, C orresponaence. I, 30. Longfellow, 5 Griffin, Life, I, 253. Impressions of Germany, p. 66 . 6 Joel Cook, A nolidav Tour through Europe (Philadelphia, 1 6 S S ), pT 203. 83 YVashington Irving x*ecorded his pleasure at their great kindness to strangers. Throughout the century, this subject elicited mucn appreciative comment from the iiinerican tx*avelers in Germany, with special attention to the Gex*man custom of bov.ing to strangers . 1 In fact, Max-k Twain said this custom fi*equently astonished wnericans. “The bow stai'tles a stx-ariger out of his self-possession the fix*st time it occurs," he wx^ote, a chair or sometning, him nevertheless." Furthermore, “and he is likely to fall over in his embarrassment, but it pleases 2 Americans detected a fundamental humanity in this politeness wnicn pleased them immensely. They felt it grew out of tne genuine friendliness ana innate kindness in the Gerirans. +>s one tx-avelei* expx-essed it: There is a deep-seated humanity in the courtesy of the Germans. They always seem to be feeling a gentle pressure from the cord that interlaces them with their species. They do not wait, as Schiller says, till you "freely invite" to "friendily C=icJ7 stx*etch you a hand," but the hand is instinctively stx*etched out and the kind deed x*eady to follow it. 1 Irving, L i f e . II, 93-96; hotley, Letters. I, 43; Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 120; V; Robert hosea, Glimpses ox" Europe: or Rotes Drawn at Oirht (Cincinnati, 1859), p. £79; lirs. James Anthony Eames, The Budget Closed (Boston, 1860), p. 2 0 1 ; W. James, Letters. I, 1 0 1 ; Alfred E. Lee, European D p v s ana >vavs (Philadelphia. 1890), p. 76; et al. p Mark Twain, a Tramp Aox^oad. I, p. 166. 89 This suavity is not limited to any rank or condition. It extends all the way down 1'rom the prince to the poorest peasant. 1 One traveler ielt that it was mucn more human and kind than p the superficial graciousness of the French. Another hoped that by tnis American contact with German politeness "... in the course of time, those savage traits of character derived from long experience of savage life and want of culture in civilized society will disappear, and the Americans will become as polished a race as the Germans." Anotner traveler agreed that even among the plain people, the degi*ee of refinement and sentiment that expressed itself in German politeness was chax-ming.^ Yet for all the friendliness and politeness mentioned in the narratives, it would not oe accurate to intimate that the American found ail Germans congenial and pleasant. There are a number of decided statements to the contrary effect. The students in the universities found mingling with the Germans difficult and unattractive. Bancroft said the people of Gottingen were "cold and unsocial." he claimed that they were "too fond of writing books and x Catherine li. Sedgwick, Letters from Abx^oad to Kindred at home (New York, loti ), pp. 177-178. c harner, Saunterjugs, p. 115. ^ J. R. Browne, A m e r i c a n Fp.mllv. p. 136. ^ Pitman, European Breezes, p. 95. 90 too incapable c-f conversing, having more than enough of courtesy, and almost nothing of actual hospitality . ” 1 •Villi am James declared that Eerlin was a "bleak and u n ­ friendly place." he claimed that people shifted so "between friendliness and a drill sergeant's formal politeness?' one P never knew where he stood with them." Another American student said that the Germans at tne univex*sities Kept mainly to themselves, fighting auels american. drinking beer, smoking pipes, said activities whica did not attract the Apparently, the code of manners existing for German society could become beta too formal and complicated as well as too rough and rowdy for the casual, restrained American student. The quality that fell most frequently under the critical e2/e of the American traveler, and the one to wnich he applied the most verbal condemnation, was what ne labeled a sort of German conceit. It amounted to refusal to countenance another's opinion and a strenuous enthusiasm for the Fatherland to the exclusion of the possible virtue of all other nationalities. 1 Bancroft, ^ VV. James, ^ George ’ »*. from the Letters p. 62. Of course, the comments became much Letters.I, 85. Letters.I, p. 122. Magee, eu. ,An American Student Abroad: of Magee 1554-1903 (Philadelphia,1932), 91 thicker in the travel narratives during and after the unification of Germany under Prussia. as 1620, But even as early George Bancroft wrote a letter to a friend describing a German with whom he hack been on a walking tour: "he is," wrote Bancroft, "as all young Germans, full of the glories of his country, will talk to you of the feudal times and uays of chivalry, can make you confess, if talking you dumb is making you confess, that the Deutschen are t bove all nations on earth, that the Deutschen heroes, ana men, and ladies, the universe, and armies ax*e the best in and is ready to cnallenge any man who denies that Deutsche literature excels that cf all peoples ana times. Gther writers repeated this criticism later on. In 1859, Bayard Taylor also discussed this characteristic of the German. They were, he granted, remarkably courteous, but they lacked the element of courtesy which enabled them to listen respectfully to another person's ideas. "Being a people of abstract ideas," he wrote, "and much given to that species of theorizing which breeds intellectual egotism, they lack a proper consideration for the ideas and opinions of ethers. Bancroft, Hence, a mixed conversation very Let ters, I, 7o. 92 often assumes the character of an argumentative combat* I have frequently heard facts denied, because they conflicted witn some pet theory. As an American and a Republican, I was constantly liable to be assailea by those who advocated the raonarcnial system but direct attack. schoolboy at Bonn, 1,1 not in the way of courteous inquiry, Poultney Bigelow reported that as a he liked his English schoolmates but regarded Prussian boys as of "another species in the human family. After the German success in the Pranco-Prussian ;ctic govern­ ments of the continent have made the discovery tiiat a man's bx-ain must let off, sooner or latex*, a certain quantity of tne gas of insubox*dination; ana by encouraging the openi.ig of the bluster-valves during college life, tiiey find that the stuff for patx-iotism -works pi*etty well off while the beard is foi-owiug, leaving the gi-aduating scholars with a suxfeit of vaporing, x»eady to shave and become orderly suujects." but one tx*avelex- saw another reason for the existence of the clubs and the duels* he said that the "daily and houx-ly presence of the military" contributed t~< the dueling spix-it and fostex^ed an enthusiasm fox* swoi*d skill . 3 Dwight, Travels. p. 90. ^ Nathaniel P. Willis, Hural betters and Other Records of Thoughts at Leisure (Detx*oit, 1859"), pi 28b. ^ Walter Channing, A Physician's Vacation: ox- a Summer in burone (Boston, 1856), p. 599. 100 What puzzled Americans particularly was the curious line of demarcation between the duel fox* purposes of honoi* and the duel to destroy another life. Student duels were primarily designed to do nothing more than inflict facial wounds on one's opponent, a sort of badge of honor, with­ out doing permanent injury. practical Americans. sport. This seemed quite silly to They could see no value in such a kotley assured his mother that there was no chance of his returning home disfigured. challenged, If an American was he had the right of cnoosing his weapons, ana since an American cnose pistols 01* Germans had an aversion to gun powder, rifles, and the an American rax*ely was c h a l l e n g e d . A n o t h e r writer was impx-essed by the strange code whicn px*ohibited permanent damage but allowed such savagery. And hasty assux*ed his reacers that the duel was not "a remarkably sanguinary affair.rt Yet the tx*avelers felt the custom was an ugly and brutal one. One traveler said that he had gained a nev; respect for champions of the ring; j.n the United States. Bismarck showed the scars of his student duels end had been made ifiotley, Cori*esnondence. I, 29. 2 C. M. Kirkland, Holidays Abroad: or Europe from the 'West (hew York, 1849), pp. 227-228. ^ Locke, hasbv in Exile, p. 627. 101 a prince by the Emperor. By the same token, the United States could make one oi‘ its boxing heroes a member of tne Cabinet.^ To many mnerican travelers imbued with a rising temperance movement of t h e n i n e t e e n t h century, the German consumption of alcoholic beverages was commonly puzzling ana disconcerting. their narratives, good many nrierictns were visibly astonished, at trie German capacity for beer, travelers commented, sometimes with in and a distress, on the insatiable German appetite for wine and beer. 2 George Eancroft confided to his mother that sometimes, even on Sunua}^, the ladies put rum in their tea. Another writer concluded that the only thing that stopped the German in nis drinking was physical limitation. /t And of ,iis first trip to Germany in 1844, Bayard Taylor wrote, " *Ve had all been infected by the temperance revival, which set on foot by the Baltimore Washingtonians had swept over the United States. vVe might have tasted wine as small children, but ^ Ruggles, Germany without Spectacles, p. 24. 2 Charlotte B. Bronson, The Letters of Charlotte Brinckerhoff Bronson written during Her Wedding Uournev in Europe in 183o with Her Husband. Frederick Bronson, and his Miece Caroline Hurray, to Her ivlother. Mrs. James P. Brinckerhoff (Cambridge. Privately printed, 1928 J, II, 297; Ruggles, Germany without Spectacles, p. 111. Bancroft, Letters. I, 53-54. 4 ✓ »v. /». wi'ight, Dox-e, p. 249. 3 102 its flavor had teen wholly i‘ox*gotten, ana we lookea upon the beverage as a milaer sort or poison. we saw every man witn nis bottle 01 * <«hen, taerefore, Rhenish, we were inexpressibly shocked; still more so, when the servant asked us (in English) what wine we should take."^ On the other hand, Americans were bewildered by the 1‘act that drunkenness was uncommon in Germany, aJ.though one traveler in 1814 maintained that society had de■ . generated m the wars ana drunkenness prevailed, 2 and another called it "very frequent" in 1820,^ most travelers were surprised at the slight extent of it in the nineteenth century. "If in -runerica we had the pure wine and sound beer of Germany," concluded on writer, "we snoula have as little drunkenness here as there. ^ Another wx*iter felt that 5 liquor only increased German conviviality. One traveler remarked that tempex-ance societies seemed totally un0 necessary, and another said that the promotion of Taylor, At Home and Abroad. Fii*st Series, 2 pp. 31-82. renjamin Seebohn, eu. , ilemoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Stephen Grellet (Philadelphia, I860), I, 297. 3 Dwight, Travels, p. 27. ^ vV.ignt, Peoples and Countries, p. 103. ^ Bellows, Old .e (Kew York, 1921 ), IV, 572-590. ^ Amex-ican l.iterax*y histox-ical background cased on Samuel Lee holff, "Scholars,” Cambridge nistorv of American Litex'atux-e. IV, 444-491. 124 at Harvard, and Follen became the first instructor in the Herman language at Harvard . 1 By the thirties and forties tne stream of immigrants fleeing from political oppression in Germany increased, and t h e y carried a familiarity with German culture to western United States when they settled in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri . 2 The indirect route of tne spread of German influence was through England. Transcendentalism came from Germany through Coleridge and Carlyle and, modified by indigenous -American characteristics and temperaments, swept through American thought like a . . 3 prairie fire. It is not surprising then that William Ellery Channing wrote enthusiastically of the Germans: "The grandest principle in our man's nature, the sense of the infinite, seems to be more developed in them, and their writings express a deeper consciousness, a keener perception of the unity of the universe. This intellectual eminence of Germany was duly recognized and admired by the American traveler. Student after student bowed in deference to German profundity, to 1 Wolff, "Scholars," Cambridge xiistorv of American Literature. IV, p. 453. ~ Ibia., p. 451. 3 Vernon Louis fax*rington, LCain Currents in American Thought (New York, 1927), II, 382. 4 Channing, Lemoir. Ill, 307. 125 German thoroughness or scholarship, for metaphysics. and to German facility Ticknor marveled at the fifteen hour day of grueling study at G'dtt ingen. ^ Calvert wrote that knowledge was nowhere valued as highly as in G e r m a n y . "Lowhere," he saio, "are there so many men with empty pockets and full heads." Another student stated that "...in every branch of learning, speculation, and intel­ lectual culture, Germany is leaning the march of the 3 mind." William James described a class of scnolars common in Germany, but rare, he felt, in nmerica, "of men to whom learning nas become as natural as breathing."^ As might be expected, the American tx-aveler had a great deal to say about this aspect of German life. No part of the subject provoked more comment than German education, which the traveler saw as a concrete example of the "prestige of the mind" that constituted an important element of the American image of Germany. But the traveler clso gave recognition to the development of the arts and expressed a concern with the state of religion in Germany. ^ Ticknor, Letters. I, 76. 2 Calvert, First Years, p. 176. 3 Joynes, 4 W. James, Letters. I, 110. Old Letters, p. 37. 126 Education Americans nave traditionally placed great faith in the power of universe 1 education to provide a solia basis for democracy by creating an enlightened ana intelligent electorate. This faith, related in pre-Civil War days to tne uelief in progress and the perfectibility of the individual, expi'essed itself concretely in the reform and expansion that characterized educational development in tne United States in the nineteenth century. The first half of the century witnessed a tremendous growth in colleges, particularly in the west. the University of Michigan, The Jniversity of Virginia and as well as other state uni­ versities, were founded in the first hall' of the nineteenth century.-* Experimental schools were established like Bronson Alcott's Temple School of the thirties and the Hound Hill School of Bancroft ana Cogswell. In the three aecades before the Civil War, colleges like Western Reserve, Oberlin, antioch, and nlbicn sprang up in the west, aore.ee Mann became the first Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Massachusetts, and the first teacher- training schools opened their doors. p ^ Elwood P. Cubberly, Public Education in the United States: A Study ana Interpretation of American Educational History (New York. 1934), p. 272. ^ Xbid., p. 269. 127 Americans nailea, naturally, the development of educational institutions in Germany and oeiieved this development would ultimately liberate Germany, following the pattern of the United States, from the despotism of unlimited monarchy. destiny, .»hen Germany failed to achieve this but maintained throughout the century a high level of educational development, American faith in education was severely tested. Thus, the German educational system was one factor that contributed heavily to American disappointment in the nineteenth century unification of Germany. Americans learned the bittex* lesson that a government of force and power could strengthen its control through, the agency of public education just, as efficiently as could a democx*atic government. The eai-ly nineteenth century reform in the German educational system was pait of the aeteiunined reformation of tne states of Germany in the years 1307-1814. Tne advocates of reform hoped to arouse some soi*t of respectable opposition to napoleon. The movement was led by Prussia, but it affecteu all the German states, for it primarily stx-engthened and invigorated the principles of state "1 educatioii already widely accepted in Germany. School Li. E. Sadler, "The history of Education,” Germany in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 108-109. 108 attenuance had been made compulsory in several of tne German states during the seventeenth ana eighteenth centuries, and schools ana universities uad been declarea state institutions in 17^4.^ The impact of scientific tnought nad created a considerable spirit ol' unmolested investigation to a large p extent m the German universities. The statesmen of Prussia who assisted at the rebirth of the German spirit hoped to continue the construction of a state system of education on this foundation. Training schools for teachers were established t;> raise teaching to a professiunal status, tne gymnasia were foundea to prepare capuole students for the universities, and tne University of rerlin was opened in 1810 as a state institution. 3 The American was naturally disposed to look with interest upon this movement. The state's acceptance of the respoxisitility for tiie education of its citizens was in line with the philosophy behind the Land Ordinance of 1785 whicr reserved some public lana for the support of 4 public education. It also concurred with Thomas Jefferson's 1 Sadler, Germany in the Nineteenth Century, p. 107. ^ Ibid., p. 108 ^ Ibid. . pp. 109-110. 4 The Land Ordinance of 1785 reaas, "There shall be reserved tne lot ho. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within saia township..." Samuel Eliot iorison, ed., Sources and Documents Illustrating 129 notions on tne n e c e s s i t y of public education of the '•natural aristocracy" which advocated the rounding of elementary and seconaary schools at public expense , 1 In the light of this fact, it might be anticipated that educators composed a substantial segment of the Americans who traveled to Gei‘many in the nineteenth century. Aside from tne i»'ew England scholars and the more obvious names like hoi‘ace Mann ana Calvin Ellis Stowe, there were travelers like Henry Philip Tappan and James lurrill Angell, presidents of the University of Michigan, •Vhite, president of Cornell University. and Andrew Dickson As one American traveler expressed the American interest in education, "...the cry among us is still for schools, tablished on a firm basis." 2 schools es- This sentiment sent .Americans abroad to study German education. The conviction that the German educational system, particularly in Prussia, would eventually overthrow autocracy was expressed by many American travelers. One felt that though it was not liaelv to come soon, the future liberty of the people was assured if the excellent school the American devolution 1764-1788 and the Formation of the Federal Constitution (Second Edition, Oxford, 19295, p^ 206. 1 Thomas ^efferson, Letter to John Aaams, October 26, 1816, Dillard Thorp, Merle Curti, and Carlos laker, eds., American Issues: the Social Record. I, 195. ^ Griffin, Impressions of Germany, p. 244. 130 system lasted fox- a cexitui'y.^ Another remarkea tnat Prussia aia indeed nave a military despotism. '’But,*' he wrote, "anothex* and itox-e powerful army is arising in Prussia; and its spreading tents are tne school houses of tne land. Px-ussia has established pex*haps the most perfect system of populax- education in the world. Another writer of 1839 was convinced that people so educated would never be content with a share in the economic life of the state that consisted of potatoes and black bread.^ One traveler expressed surprise at the educational progi*ess of Austria. the visitox" from the north," he claimed, to fina a land of despotism and darkness, "Perhaps "who has expected is sui*pi*ised to aiscovex- that the common people are the most cax-efully educated of any country in Eux^ope, except Prussia. . ..The system comprehends px*imax*y and real school, gymnasia, normal establishments fox* teachers, to that of Prussia . . . " 4 and and is very similar Even as late as 1851, one traveler felt that the educated people of Oex’many would eventually liberalize theii- government by a struggle greater than any 1 Dwight, Travels. p. 252. 2 Orville Dewey, The Old dorld and the hew: or a Journal of Reflections and Observations Made on a Tour of Europe (New York. 1836), T~, 176. 3 Sedgwick, Letters from Abroad. I, 171. 4 Corson, Loitex*ings in Eui-oce. p. 229. 131 that preceded it."^ Another believeu that Germany had succeeded in conquering the French in 1871 because their superior euucation enabled them to "act more efficiently and intelligently. Nor did the american traveler flinch at conceding that the German school system and the German university were superior to nis own nation's. He frankly stated that the balance in tnis case swung in favor of Germany. government," maintained Bancroft, "No "knows so well how to create Universities and high schools as the Prussian." Horace kann ranked Prussia, Saxony, and the southwestern German states in the first three places for the superioi*ity 4 of their educational systems. another traveler called the Prussian system the "most perfect in tne world . " 5 Another traveler felt that the United States was "very much behind" Germany in regard to the perfection with which instruction is imparted." 1 Silliman, One writer bemoaned the fact that American a Visit to Europe. II, 359. p ^ Henry k. Field, From the Lakes of Killarnev to the Golden rioini (New York, 1888), pi 141. 3 Eancroft, Letters. I, 90. 4 kann, Reoort. p. 31. Carson, Loiterings in Europe, p. 256. 5 Fisk, Travels in Euroue. p. 487. 132 scnools Tailed to proauce the intellectual enthusiasm that he round in German students ,1 ana another felt, alter talking with German students, that America was "playing with p education." Austria, too, came in Tor her share of the American traveler's admiration Tor her excellent school system. The universities received special tributes. Tappan believeu A m e r i c a could create universities at once if the people had the energy and the will. But he claimed in 1352, "<. 280. e; Joynes, Ola Letters, p. 33. 135 throughout the narratives to support this picture as well. As one traveler put it, "It is foolishly supposed that these young men com.. here to study, tut I am happy to correct such an error-; they are too sensible to lose the heyday time of life over musty books."'1" Ctner writers believeu that the German student was a very rough and wild individual. 2 Yet perhaps Longfellow described the situation accurately and cJ eared up tnis apparent inconsistency when he said that botn the unrestrained, lusty German youth and the nara-working ix^tellectual were typical of the German students. "...Gome are scholars," he wx*ote, "and otnex-s high, wild fellows."^ In audition to his comment upon the regular school system, the Amex‘i can traveler express ed great interest in work being done in Germany in special schools of vax-ious sorts. Tnis interest was part of the philanthropic move­ ment in the reform period in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when Americans became concerned about tne care ana training of the blind, pnsane, the prisoner, and the slave. the deaf ana dumb, the Calvin Ellis Stowe ^ d. Vv. »»right, nore^. pp. 268-269. 2 Griffin, Impressions of Germany, pp. 12-15; hurst, Life ana Literature, p. 113; J. R. Browne, American Family, pg. 154-157; Fitman, European breezes, p. 37. 3 Samuel Longfellow, eh. , The Liie of henry hadswox-tn Longfellow with Extx-acts from his Joux-nals and Correspondence Uoston, 1886), I, pp. 166-167. 136 devoted seme time to comment upon the remarkable worn: aone in reform scnools in Germany, ^ and other writers described. the work of' schools for the deaf* and the blind and homes for delinquent cnildren. ' .another writer was impressed by the time ana care spent in training young girls in ’’domestic education" which the Germans diu not seem to find "incompatible with high refinement and cultivation." 3 But what probably drew the most significant remarks in this brancn of education v/as the emphasis upon practicality and functionalism in many of the German special schools that particularly suited tiie innerently pragmatic outlook of tne American traveler. V/riters described the Vienna Folytecimic Lchool and tne Agricultural College at Hohenheim. 4 Another traveler felt that the training in agriculture given to young men at Dankestadt would eventually have an uplifting effect upon the people.^ regular elementary schools, ■** Stowe, Report. p. 2 Even in the one writer maintained that 67. p Mann, Report. pp. 1 0 , 19; willis, Rural Letters, p. 2cd; Kathaniel P. Lillis, A Summer Cruise in the mediterranean (Detroit, 1653), p. 124. 3 Sedgwick, Letters from Abroaa. p. 149. 4 Teuffel, One Year Abroad, p. 7o; Willis, Summer Cruise. p. 123. ^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 307. 137 great attention was paid to "those studies most likely to be or use to the ^upil in future life, as for example, modern languages, mathematics, drawing, book-keeping, the civil engineering;, geogx*aphy, natural philosophy, geology, etc." He also felt that due regard was paid to the student's health.'*' Although Americans generally felt German education was superior to American, they aia not accept the German educational system witnout reservations. They admired it intensely and candidly pointed out its specific superiority to tne American system, as indicated in the foregoing comments. criticisms. But they were equally free and frank in their A good many things seemed wrong to them i/i German education, which, for a few travelers, added up to a realization that education itself was not enough for the liberation of men from political oppression. Knowledge alone, they realized, did not necessarily impart wisdom, and knowledge coula be used as effectively by the despot as by the democracy. One factor in German education that Americans could not accept was state control. State support they applauded, but state control they could not tolerate. Even in 1847, 1 J. B. Browne, American Family, p. 163. 138 one writer recognized the development oi art, letters end sciences in Germany anaer the education system, but he coula not forget the Tact that the schools and universities were " regarded as an instrument oi government'* and were "moulded to produce uniformity of religious and political opinions according to tne ruling s t a n d a r d . T a p p a n also recognized tnis basic incompatibiility with the .american iaeal of education."" One writer concluded tnat tne excellent educational facilities of Germany were essentially wasted since political freedom and activity were denied to the people. he felt, in addition, that the "treatment of politics in German universities was...more mechanical and formal than vital...." 4 Althougn earlier writers had cautiously admired the nat-Lcnal spirit of patriotism which German schools attempted to arouse in German youth, 5 later writers were concerned over tne fact that Germans were not encouraged, nor in some cases even allowed, to think. Some writers maintained that Germans, for all their profound thoroughness and scholarsnip, -** Wheaton, "Progress and Prospects," p. 48. 2 Tappan, A Step. 12, 64-65. Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts. Second Series, pp. 40-41 4 Calvert, first Years, p. 201. Pp. ^ Stowe, Report. p. 255; Taylor, 135-140. Views A-foot. 139 lacked an inherent quickness or perception that might have made them more sensitive to tne political situation. another claimed that this emphasis upon tnoroughness had not led to any "active intelligence" in them that would Tit them Tor a democratic government.^ The whole concept of specialization in the German universities arew the criticism of the travelers, particu­ larly in the latter part of the nineteenth century. One claimed that a German university was a "rather depressing place...to one who is conscious of knowing nothing in particular, and naving only a general smattering of a lot of things.'*0 Henry Adams believed that the "mental attitude of tne University ^Berlin} was not of the American world. .r*nd, although Americans had admired the teaching in German schools, professor's in German universities received criticism as well as praise. Andrew Dickson <«hite said that the lectures of Leopold von Ranke coula not be followed because the lecturer* became so absorbed in his subject that he simply "mumbled through a rhapsody." Another traveler maintained ^ W. James, Letters. I, 131; Parry, Life Amonr the Germans. pp. 189-205. 2 Brace, Home Life, pp. 59-60. ° Fhillips Brooks, Letters of Travel (hew York, 1894), P . e-1^. 4 n. Adams, Education, p. 75. w .hiite, Autobiography. 1 , 39. 140 that American proi'essors could take no worse models for imitation than proi’essors in German universities.^ In fact, the whole concept of specialization and thoroughness as practiced in the German universities was at odds with the inherent American pragmatic outlook. The quality that Americans praised in the technical and vocation­ al schools of Germany they found wanting in the universities. The vast knowledge the German scholar acquired was value­ less, according to the American, value in the affairs of life. if it had no practical he coulu admire the German’s scholarly eminence anu erudition ano, indeed, ne did; but the emphasis upon distilleu intellectuaiism in German education was not palatable to one nineteenth century American. This traveler anu student in a German university wrote at length on this subject, and his discussion seems pertinent here in that it indicates the waning interest of American thought in German emphasis upon the pure “prestige of the mind” and the rise of pragmatism. lie wrote: There can be little doubt that the German university system is a far broader theoretical plan of education than any our own land as yet possesses, and may ac­ complish a far more perfected educaticnal result; but generally viewed it is the still hive of vast erudition, rather than the school of practical end beneficient learning. A faithful student comes out of the university hail with his doctorate in uis hand, his ^ J o y n e s , Old L e t t e r s , p. 51. 141 h e a d a l m o s t gray, a n d n i s e y e s b l u r r e d w i t h toil; he is m o r e p r o f o u n d l y l e a r n e d t h a n m a n y of o u r c o l l e g e p r o f e s s o r s and pre s i d e n t s ; but he looks about h i m w e a r y a n u v a c a n t , a n d what, s h a l l he do? he c a n n o t t e a c h t h e i g n o r a n t a n d y o u n g , he w h o has b e e n f o r y e a r s w a l k i n g in rapt tr a n c e w ith the s o v e r e i g n minds of the past; he c a n n o t p r e a c h o r s peak, f o r t h e f i r e a n d a m b i t i o n of o u t e r a c t i o n h a s d i e d w i t h i n him; he h a s b e c o m e a s c h o l a r , a n d n o t h i n g but a s c h o l a r , a n d t h e r e f o r e he m u s t g o on, a nd p r e p a r e h i m s e l f f o r s o m e s c h o l a r ' s position, also s t r u g g l e d f o r by a h u n d r e d o t h e r s , or s t a r v e . . . . The German university abhors superficialness and is t h e h i d i n g - p l a c e of p r o f o u n d s c i e n c e ; . . .bu t d o e s it n o t s o m e t i m e s f a i l in p r a c t i c a l n e s s b o t h of a dix*ect ana indirect nature, e v e n b e c o m i n g in that resp e c t s i n g u l a r l y infex*iox* t o t h e A m e r i c a n u n i v e r s i t y s y s t e m ? D o e s it n o t f a i l i n t h e c o m m u n i c a t i o n of its d e e p i n t e l l e c t u a l l i f e w i t h the l i v i n g , t r u e a n a g e n e r o u s u s e s of l e a r n i n g ? Is it n o t t o o n u c n l i f e a r e s e r v o i r , i n s t e a u of a f o u n t a i n ? . . . . . . . h i s £ t h e G e r m a n * s ^ t h o u g h t is f a r c i r c l i n g and c i r c u i t o u s , a n d w h i l e a i m i n g a l w a y s at e x h a u s t i o n of t h e s u b j e c t a n d p r o f u n d i t y , l o s e s i n t h e m o m e n t of s p e a k i n g o r c o n v e r s a t i o n t h e e l e c t r i c power* o v e r o t h e r minds. W a v e r was this m o r e p l a i n l y i l l u s t r a t e d t h a n at t h e u n e v e n t f u l U n i o n D i e t n e l u l a t e l y at F r a n k f o r t on the Rhine, w h e r e l e a r n e d orators c o n s u m e d months o v e r p r a c t i c a l p r o b l e m s of l e g i s l a t i o n , w h i c h a M a s s a c h u s e t t s ox* C o n n e c t i c u t m e m b e r of t h e - m u s e of R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s w o u l d h a v e cleax*ly s o l v e d i n as m a n y d a y s . ... Gex*many m u s t a n d w i l l h a v e a p r o f o u n d i n f l u e n c e o n Ame-i-ica, foxvning a x*esistless i n t e l l e c t u a l g r a v i ­ t a t i o n , f o r Gexnuany is t h e l a n d of t h e f r e e a n d f e a r l e s s u s e of R e a s o n . ... B u t l e t A m e r i c a n o t y i e l d h e r o w n d i v i n e b i r t h - r i g h t t o th ink , r eas on, a n d p h i l o s o p h i z e t o G e r m a n y , ox* a n y o t h e r land. Let not America be a s h a m e u o f h e r s e l f , of h e r o w n i n d e p e n d e n t m e n t a l i t y , of h e r o w n a b i l i t y to ai*i*ive at t h e t r u t h , a n d thus, p o s s e s s i n g t h e h e a l t h i e r e l e m e n t s of p r a c t i c a l i t y , a n d o f a f a i t h b o r n of h u m i l i t y , w h i l e l e a r n i n g f r o m Germany, she may t e a c h h e r teacher, w h o m m u c h lear n i n g h a s s o m e t i m e s m a d e mad, ox* at l e a s t px-oduced a fax* too a b s o l u t e a n d c o n f i d e n t i d e a of p h i l o s o p h y . 1 1 Joynes, Old Letters, pp. 13-29. 142 Disillusionment with German "prestige or the mind" did not come ail at once nor did it ever destroy completely Araextican aumiration Tor the German university and the German system of education. In fact, the late nineteenth centux*y saw the full blossoming of the University system in America, with normal schools and vocational and special schools an accepted part or the American education system. The German system oi* graduate study leading to a Fh. D. degree was inaugurated fix*st at John Hopkins in 1676,1 and America uad yet to import from Germany the kindergax*ten and the Uex-bartian methods of teaching. The conflict between the "practical" education, by the strong pragmatic strain in jdnerican thought, "thorough" education, embraced ana the dictated by a traditional admiration fox* the thought and culture of Europe, has raged, under Various terminology ana over various issues, to this aay. The remarkable fact for the purpose of this thesis is that the travel narratives of American experience in Germany reflect both elements in American thought: the magnetism of European intellectual eminence and the magnetism of American practicality. The American admired the German's prodigious mental labor; he also likeu the functional ^ Cubberly, Public Education, p. 652. ^ Ibia., pp. 449-461. 14o aspect oi German special ta e exhaustive its isolation from Cne nature other educational mentioned before Germany.^ Some discipline of t h e the "old fa s h i o n descx'ibed h i s a Berlin wrote, a m t he affairs in the late to German was encourage nineteenth the school their it a f t e r w as were not The «3 p some time German language. i n his Prussian than stx-uck t h e in the it in he way, other syatemless tx-aining giveii to German government Poultney in henry naams spenning worse arbitrary s t u p e f y i n g . . . .The arts O n e writex* c a l l e d the excellent s y s t e m that horror. reasoxiing." room. studying of t h e be noticed witn disgust ana knocking." of Prussian century must cultivation school of c u f f i n g heau-master American witi of men. American travelers conception it w a s he i r o w n e d u p o n of n m e r i c a n c r i t i c i s m of t h e othex- i n s t r u c t o r s schools; memory tae T h e -timerican f a v o r e d German learning; turning secondary "The oi aspect system schools. the dia not B i g e l o w wx^ote of h i s ^ O n e f r e q u e n t c r i t i c i s m of G e r m a n s c h o o l s i n A m e r i c a n t r a v e l n & r r a t i v e s w a s t h e l a c k of v e n t i l a t i o n i n t h e s c h o o l room. T h e s c h o o l childx*en w e r e r e p o r t e d t o b e p a l e a n d u n h e a l t n y f r o m a h e G e r m a n horx*oi* of a d m i s s i o n of fi*esh a i r into a r o o m d u r i n g the winter. Lil l i s , R u r a l L e t t e r s , p. 2 6 1 ; u. iidams, E d u c a t i o n , p. 79; ilawthorne, S a x o n S t u d i e s . p. 52. £ Johnson, 3 h. Adams, Peasant L i f e , p. E d u c a t i o n , p. 261. 76. 144 experience in the appreciate the cOiiscienuious x accepted well the existing to the comments the cultux*e. German order They represent were equally reactions people to of t h e in l a t e r y e a r s , as being probably over whom this method the views system, explicit, to t h e of ^unerican t r a v e l e r s as one though aspect not cultivation of German nearly of t h e so arts Germany. Literature kVhile t h e education agree its brutalitv oi' tilings particular educational d e t a i l e d > in t h e i r in impersonal "...I learned a p p l i e d . 1,1 These toward wholly system: r r u s s i a n d r i l l —m a s t e r , a n d adapted is m a i n l y Prussian school in that the enthusiasm for to feel. expressing course system, upon development the A r t s American modified the effect and the arts native German to shame, called f or and the a truly German c e a s e d to to be d e s i r e d cultivated Germany. culture he n e v e r something life, Americans Emerson had the in enthusiasm for century, leaving political the put of t h e his in a genuine artistic traveler national individualism seemed literature, of t h e o United States. 1 Bigelow, he innundated the n a t i o n w i t h P r u s s i a n M e m o r i e s , p. ^ Ralph Waldo Eeta K a p p a Address 8 a wave of . E m e r s o n , " T h e nmex*ican S c h o l a r , " d e l i v e r e d at h a r v a r d , 1 8 8 7 . Phi 145 cultural nationalism which that aitist the models. tne ijnerican t r a v e l e r States gave refined and that substance achievement. unformed The in a n y intense united in body must Euroosan t h e n o t i o n of people had a g r e a t e r arts than the United cultural heritage of E u r o p e to nineteenth arts the belief copy efface Crermc.iiy t h a t century long traveler narrative. other century and l e tters grade often German artistic seemed expressed gauche tnat and think of in Germany cultivation Germans art. the possessed In addition, at s o m e l e n g t h in the whole w o r l d , " wrote the u n i v e r s a l i t y culture...." learned of James education, Fenimore i n his 1 Brace, Home 2 Eames, A Budget »Vight, Peoples but L i f e , p. and energy “n o t in the they so that £43. 3 113. only are the in in severity a trip 1 51. a n d C o u n t r i e s , p. than mother " Germans another, concerning C l o s e d , p. now, s h e fel t, arts.^ also has a raucn m o r e Cooper discussed narrative art on«.American. enthusiasm with perseverance became ..otion in to the enthusiasm for tnis "I a m d i s p o s e d c o u n t r y , 1,1 c o n c l u d e d agreed of could, n o t with comparison. actually advance and American that grips a p p r e c i a t i o n of the the a higher traveler to United States American by travel reached they tne h o n e t n e l e s s , tnis ana m o r e his in came of subject to Germany. 146 ne fou.nct trie American people lacking in any sincere undepstanding of artistic cultivation and inclined to "idolize" European art ana artists: We t a l k a g r e a t d e a l of our n a t i o n a l i n t e l l i g e n c e i n A m e r i c a , a n d c e r t a i n l y with, t r u t h , w h e n w e c o m p a r e ourselves with these people in many important particulars; b u t b l o c k s a r e n o t c o l d e r , ox* c a n h a v e l e s s r e a l r e v e r e n c e f o r l e t t e r s , ax*ts, or i n d e e d c u l t i v a t i o n of a n y k i n d , t h a n t h e g r e a t b u l k of t h e A m e r i c a n p e o p l e . Thex*e a r e a f e w a m o n g u s w n o p r e t e n d to w o r n t h e m s e l v e s u p i n t o e n t h u s i a s m as r e s p e c t s t h e f i r s t , m o r e e s p e c i a l l y if t h e y c a n g e t a f o r e i g n n a m e t o i d o l i z e ; b u t it is a p p a r e n t , at a g l a n c e , t h a t it is n o t e n t h u s i a s m of t h e p u r e watex*. F o r t his, G e r m a n y is t h e l a n d of s e n s a t i o n s , wh etl ier m u s i c , p o e t r y , arms, or t h e m o r e m a t e r i a l s ax'ts be t h e i r o b j e c t . 1 more Litex*ature, particularly, universally and in A m e r i c a . One German landlauy, woman, launchea or E r n e s t Germans they Irving that ana many of traveler* to actively cherisheu traveler recorded hex* a m a z e m e n t apparently into Henan. knew to t h e more a low-born an animated and ana familiar* w i t h Germans were not interest America.0 "wonders Gex*many t h a n when of t h e of her only writings air European literature, expressea great Cooper* f r o m in be uncultivated discussion .another r e m a r k e d t h a t seem to be also seemed in the ordinary but worn of A n o t h e r wx*iter repox*ted information" and a James F e n i m o r e Cooper, A R e s i d e n c e in France: with an E x c u r s i o n u j t h e R h i n e a n d a S e c o n d V i s i t t o S w i t z e r l a n d v L o n d o n , 1 S G 7 ), pZ 2 4 9 . ^ Jackson, ° B i ’a c e , Bits Home of T r a v e l , p. L ife , p. 64. 6 . 147 "delight and aj. t a n d of t n e is to l i s t e n to" tne classics*^ governments pleasant to the United reservoirs in 162 6, of t h o u g h t "No would that establish of sucn thaii P r u s s i a b u t same to of and more in t he the f a c t spent of that tne little money A b r o a d , p. 4 Ibid. i n E u r o p e , pp. T r a v e l s . pp. 103-184. not in only classes e nvy on h o w fax- t h e ./rote o n e tne traveler poverty individual United to my What 453-464. as country, especially v;as r i c h e r improvements. Motley* 171. wno Gtates, Otates on such One Y e a r Travels "It comparable United Teuffel, Dwight, with ^asnington*"° John Lothrop 3 a ny look upon the a library al l tnen myself bothered Fisk, but recognized point 2 extended looked accumulate days patronane . ins tru cti on * " 2 and literature. the the government as t h e g r e a t e s t b e n e f a c t o r since disturbed h i m was is travelers I should G'dttingen, who has l i v e d This and this one c a n l ament our libraries. tnat attention every libraries had to g o G e r m a n l.iteratux*e e n c o u r a g e d literatui*e: benefits ximerictn magnificent States of of t h e f a v o r e a few, in the Furthermore, Germany's Germany literature; share talked Another felt with what accommodation are m a d e to of of see Germany fosters to w h e n they He v.ras A 148 impressed by t h e m o n e y picture galleries, coulu not 01 “ see any :ier s u r p l u s trc v e l e r f e l t exist, but did not of t h e it w a s remarkable even more and l i b r a r i e s . similar that ne put some purposes.^" Another such libraries remarkable that on should anyone might p a f ew travelers in spite hand. earlier governments the m. ' much, at German w h y /unerica s h o u l d n o t to wox-k f o r o t h e r hand, read facilities money from On the the statue galleries, reason it w a s draw books s p e n t by This of t h e i r was, statements. claimed that Germans e d u c a t i o n and the i n e ffe ct, a flat con tx- adi cti on One t r a v e l e r m a i n t a i n e d that 3 "n ot one in a h u n d r e d noticed tnat "nobody the people were people That could a sociable really their as ± kotley, Fisk, ^ J. 3. Ibid. to not afford to oi* r e a d i n g , afford books anyway. say he L i f e , p. the said, what was 471. 387. B r o w n e , Amex-ican F a m i l y , p. ISO. on rare tne Germans the traveler Germans 38. and time and beca u s e as o t h e r p l e a s u r e s i n E u r o p e , p. Peasant away that the C o r r e s p o n d e n c e , I, Another buy b o o k s , Perhaps here was seriously Ti’a v e l s ^ Johnson, kind people trying reading 2 could ox' r e a d i n g . " pux*chased a b o o k mei*ely t o p a s s r a i l w a 3Ts . " ^ because was few ever tminks took and did not 149 reau f r i v o l o u s l y and e n c o u r a g e d ana purely for literature, amusement. but they aid not They fostered take their reading lightly. to This conclusion can be s u p p o r t e d by A m e r i c a n r e a c t i o n German newspapers and the traveler usually f o u n d tne a ff a i r , papers quite unrelated on w h i c h that families reau t hem had seldom German press to t n e subscribed there existed periodicals The American a sad vigorous b e e n nurtured. in coffee-houses that while literary he G e r m a n press. and animated news­ One w r i t e r t o nev/spapers or c l u b - r o o m s . ^ "very and u n i n s p i r i n g respectable but stated people /mother remarked scientific f o r t h e l e a r n e d . ..nothixig l i k e and a 2 newsi.acer e x i s t s oven tne press and stifled that meagre size ovex* t h e the contrasting was decided that Brace, in news strongly as no me country." government "the land thus fox* n e w s p a p e r s whole and uninter e s t i n g interest Germany traveler in the the offerings censorship which stories.^" of b o o k s , with our own understood L i f e , pp. Tappan but not German people Americans Travelers Johnson, .Earner, 4 J. R. feasant L i f e , p. S a u n t e r i n ^ s . p. Browne, 263. 143. Amex^i c a n F a m i l y , p. ^ Tappan, A B t e u , II, G Fulton, Europe p* 25. V i e w e d , p. 14. concluded of n e w s p a p e r s , simply g their:. 2 119. of t n e they felt country." £79-281. complained 5 Another did not care 150 Here the a gain, culture oi' G e r m a n y thought from superiority knowledge business were of day, an idea the mind," from the will and Germany. in love for music over again heartedly Germany in the than travel did German's life "It was is n o t m e r e l y not as m u c h One world." example, did after German's admiration And apart superiority expression narratives. as b r e a t h i n g . for of American in th is traveler the the life in the The of txiat is i n mu s i c , delighted seem irritation "but tae of t h e b o d y to the moment, a sentiment of t h e m i n d arts, the abstraction reflect, in music. actually Gex*man p a s s i o n f o r m u s i c Italian. Such h o w to l i v e of c u l t u r a l paltry extensive of t h e p a s s i n g commented u p o n with German culture daily of t h e phase was a life the t h e now, the traveler's in t h e l i f e branches In no and with isolated German's intellectual!zed tolerate c o n t r i b u t i o n seern m o r e experience the here "Germany knows whole and in G e r m a n culture. and u n e x p r e s s e d the A m e r i c a n s But impatience He granted and the tra v e l e r seemed to never In other of individuals. compai*atle t o isolation his over-refined the literature neglected German university. people of revealed German libraries of t h e quite the the lives that of l i t e r a t u r e . expressed with the A m e r i c a n this a part America's an passionate over aspect and of of t n e v/riter s a i d t h e e v e n s u p e r c e d e d by an accomplishment, but the a study;" 151 he claimed, agreed "indeed, that believed they that instrument were almost and a part sing of their* e x i s t e n c e . " ^ the mos t every musical student a thousand people could sonc s .2 play there was commented upo n ana f o n d n e s s of t h e is What and 4 is in f a c t in f a m i l i e s likewise to m u s i c cnaracteristic "iiivery city, is a musical centre; centre, ana every German impressed that on e even a natural it, at l e a s t devotion c o m b i n a t i o n of m u s i c a l themselves student put and Others German's i n it w as a musical training the one w r i t e r particularly such a c c o m p l i s h m e n t .^ that Germany, Americans one As a living th e a r d u o u s to. the fact in German family aimself other for education people. ana v i l l a g e no on e a r t h Another maintained that it w a s a p a r t of o r d i n a r y f a m i l y life, wire re Motley the to commented, in mechanism."0 in G e r m a n y Germany "in every American traveler the m u s i c i a n went town, was submitted to s t u d y m u s i c comparison with the 0 drill I am n o w receiving my B o s t o n t e a c h i n g Dwight, T r a v e l s . pp. Motley, C o r r e s p o n d e n c e . I, v/as m e r e play." 143-144. ry 30. 3 Sedgwick, Letters from ^ MacGavock, r u r a l l e t t e r s « p* E u r o p e a n Davs a n a Benedicts abroad 5 Huggles, 6 Fay, 232. A T e n n e s s e a n A b r o a d , p. 3 7 6 ; Lillis, 265. T a p pan, XI, tj7, Lee, W a v s , p. 22; C l a r e B e n e d i c t , e a . , T h e (.London, 1 9 5 0 , , p. 29. Germany Music A b r o a d . I, without S t u d y , p. 24. S p e c t a c l e s , p. 94. -L].n.-m wiot.^er E t u a e u t f e l t to e n t e r the stuay the by it w a s nifficult in m u s i c rigorous training i n Gexvnany. G e r m a n had before observing him truly great masterpieces traveler's e x p r e s s e d theix* a ppi *eciation of tained was me that of tne status considerable saia that musical the the a i a not of line in come when a rich musical all t he chance to American training One w r i t e r in main­ m u s i c i a n in G e r m a n y helu 4 cultu.ce. " J n i t e a states, "the m i n r l e d poet. as sh e a n a ^ex-formers, tnis Aiiot:nr h o p e d nmexaica w o u l d Gex*man m u s i c , the r i v e n in the Germany scaolax* a na ,iaT’ w o f a *G v a n t a r e s g r a nted to tne composer in c o n t r a s t Nevertheless, performances. higher than that esc.' r:ht.i.Oia of t h e tnnt lacked.^ nmerican furthermore, continually American excellence totally so l a t e whicii t h e tne i op the r a c e I'or e m i n e n c e to tuc. e a r l y claimed that possess Althou.u indicated th e soia in in rk n.:er.ic< ms iwain's 5 1 a.ious genuine comment upon enthusiasm German found hagner, ana they usually tiie i n t e n s e recognized tne s a t i s f a c t i o n that t he in music. ^ Pai*ry, Life ^ Locke, h a s b ^ ^ Wi l l i s , 4 Gaze, **mong; t h e in E x i l e , Rural Letters, Leisurely Gex'mans, pp. pp. p. c-25. 632-634. 263. J o u r n e y , pp. 107-115. ° "Trie b a n g i n g a nd s l a m m i n g a n d b o o m i n g a n d c r a s h i n g were s o m e t h i n g b e y o n d belief. T n e racking: a n u p i t i l e s s p a i n of it r e m a i n s s t o r e d u p i n my :ne:rorr alon.-r s i d e of t he meraor; of the t i m e I nad mv t e e t h f i x e d . " Twain, T j ‘ r, tr ;) Ab_ro_ad., I, 7, . 153 Appreciation regard to t h e narratives, ly or t h e other arts that tiie s t u d e n t had superior stated tha t apparent also and music. of art, to existence emulate this enjoyed of t h e German thea t r e .0 and the aspect .orld. I, 101. 3 Litchell, Notes from Over the T e a . II, 4G. 4 Brace, Home Life, p. 591. 5 Bancroft, Letters, II, 505. 160 using medieval methods to maintain their uold on the people."^ Tappan stated that he was carried to aesthetic ecstasies over the Catnedral of Cologne and repelled by the priests conducting mass in it.^ In addition to the American traveler's antipathy Tor the Homan Catholic clergy, he disliked what he called superstition and tiie worship of relics, statues, and symbols. vine traveler worried about tne heavy emigration to America of people who worshipped "odds anu ends." Another granted tout the cathedrals were glorious in their splendor, but sue felt that die not atone for their "rottenness." wrote, She "From these majestic arches, that triumphant chant, t.mere is but a step down to the vforship of dead men's bones 4 anu all uncleanness •" One writer i.elieved this use of relics frequently descended to tiie cheap and tawdry. Che disliked the use of "cotton lace, cheap gilding, wreaths of bouquets of tawdx*y ai*tificial flowers." In yet another way, Catholicism disturbed the religious comfort of tiie innerican travelers. 1 Warner, o.app an, ne could appreciate tne Saunterinrs, p. 139. uts Oi H » 53—54. ° John O v e r t o n Choule, Young Americans Abroac; or Travels in mnrland. France, Belgium. Prussia, and Switzerland hoston, 1 6 5 E 7 T P - 257. ^ H. r. Stovve, Sunny M e m o r i e s , II, 33C. 5 i r s . f . r u c k h o u t , Aftermath: f r om oity ana Country, Berg and Thai (Hew York, 1 8 c 2), p. 52. 161 CatiiedrEls end the beauty of the ceremony, but he could not forget, nor forgive, Catholic persecution of Protestants. Tne American was inclined to omit the fact that his own forbears in New England nad been guilty of persecution also. So carried away was one tx-aveler by his own nation's righteous ness tnat he proclaimed, cruelty and hatred. "he have no more such theological No gibbet, ana no burning stakes, ana also no new C a t h e d r a l s . A n o t h e r traveler observed that during a Catholic service, he was troubled by a few discrepancies of doctrine, but he concluded that if one reflected at all in a Catholic Church, O comfort our of tne service.*' It would be inaccurate, one would get little however, to give the impression tnat ail of the American travelers were the victims of such anti-Catholic sentiment. Not a few were impressed by the seriousness and devotion with which the German Catholic expressed nis faith. The simplicity of the peasant who come to Church in his humble garb and knelt by the noble in iiis sumptuous array struck a coord of sympathy in the American's heart. One writer noticed that no distinctions were recognized in a Cathedx-al but each was regarded "as ^ E. Eenedict, p. A hun Through Europe, pp. 386-387. ^ Z. Sweeney, Under Ten Flags (Cincinnati, 1388), 4.6. T S'C> 1 a weau and erring mortal coming tc confess his sins and crave the special spiritual consolation n e e d e d . a n o t h e r was deeply impressed by the devotional manner of peasant women who came into the church to pray for an nou r and then went away. 2 Some writers felt tne poetic beauty of the Catholic service and were brought to a greater understanding and appreciation of it.'"' One writer claimed, "...we nave not only seen made differently in the first place, but grown up under influences so dissimilar that to judge one a*.other is impossible, and may possibly be a greater sin tnun even idolatrous woi*ship. An American Protestant minister granted that the faith of the Catholics might be as true, and deep, and lasting as his own. The principle of liberty of conscience was implicit in tne American's whole attitude towax-d German religious life and ne was pleased when he saw that religious groups couia live together in harmony. A missionary bewailed the persecution of Protestants in Eavaria in 1820 and even Emerson, European Glimpses ana Glances, p. 42. 2 .Varner, Saunterinws. p. 114. 3 E. K. V*ashing ton, Echoes of Europe; or Word Pictux*es of Travel (Philadelphia, 1860), p. 160. 4 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 139. ^ 8 tone, rrankl'ort to liunich, p. 43. 163 spoke tc tae Crown Fi*ince on their behalf.^ Eut others remarxed tnat a mixed group oi’ students appeared to live .guile amicably at ^eidelberg.^ Anotner noticed that Catholics and Protestants in Augsburg got along “without figntang." believed, This sort oi unity, the American traveler was superior to the enforced unity of Prussia and ..arts oi* north Germany in the manufactured union of Reformed and Lutheran churches. failure. 11 there One writer called that a is no more real unity than there was in the old days of bitter controversy,rt he wrote . 4 In addition, the persecution of the Jews that re-awoke in i’ury in Germany in the seventies anu eighties aid not settle werl wita Americans. They had looked witn favor upon the progress of liberating tne Jew1 from age-old persecutions that took place in the earlier nineteenth century. One traveler in Berlin in 1326 noted that the Jews seemed better treated there and mingled more with tne Christian society than in most other countries of Grellet, Memoirs. II, 95. p ° Fish, II, 23C. Travels, p. 450; Silliman, ^ Visit to Europe. ^ George Palmer Putnam, A Pocket Memorandum Book during a Ten week's Trio to Italy and Germany in 1847 Ihew York, l o 4 8 ), p. 1 2 0 . 4 Erace, Home Life, p. 320. 164 Europe . 1 Another rejoiced in 1356 when Frankfort bestowed upon then some of the privileges of citizenship.? But a traveler of the eighties shrewdly remarked that the new persecutions were the result of German resentment and jealousy of the economic position of many Jews. Jew," she wrote, "xhe poor "...is not so openly disliked as the rich and prosperous one, and especially if he has cultivation 3 ana refinement of manner." Although one American defenued tne Germans by claiming that the 3r were not fundamentally anti-Semetic, he ana other Americans were inclinea to find the persecution "strange and unsavory. For all his implied faith in liberty of conscience, the American of Puritan ana Evangelical background was shocked at what he ref ex-red to as "tne desecration of the Sabcath." Europe, Sunday was regarded as a holiday in continental and when the American saw even his Protestant brethren in north Germany frolicking on that day, he traced it to the Catholic influence of south Germany. 1 Dwight, One American Travels, p. 131. C '-i ^ Johnson, 3 Peasant Life, p. 013. Fitinan, Eux-opean Breezes, p. 68 . ^ Poultney Bigelow, -Borderland of tne Czar and the kaiser : dotes from Both Siaes of the Busslan Frontier (new Yor--, lo95 ), pp. 124-130; Stone, Frankfox-t to Munic h , p. 14. 165 clergyman traveling in Germany was horrified in 1635 when a aerman minister oi trie Rei oi’med Chui’cii inviteu him to the theatre on Sunday. The American wrote in disgust, told him I might as well cut my own throat, "I as go, and report the same in .America... .Cnristians do not go to the theatre in any country."^ Another writer reported that '•The gooa Lutheran pastor will preach you a sermon Sunday morning that will make you cry, and ash you to a game of earns witn him beiore the organ is done, playing .'*2 Another maintained tnat even ii‘ a minister aanced in the signt ol‘ his waole congregation, "they would have listened to him on the next Sabbatn with no less autii'ul reverence."^ hnile the American or tne nineteenth century in general disapproved oi these laxities granted to tne clergy, he was just as shocked and found it just as unpleasant that the Gorman peasant treated the Sabbath as a day of pleasure ana rejoicing. He danced, went to the beer-gardens, picnicked, went to concerts ana the theatre. Americans were I'amiliax* with the custom in France and Italy, countries, Catholic but they had not expected to rind the custom repeated in Protestant Germany. "If you recollect tnat ^ Heistand, Travels in Germany, pp. 60-61. p Pitman, European Breezes, p. 55. ^ Taylor, xit home and Abroau., First aeries, p. 403. 16G we are now iii Protestant Germany, you will te astonished at the laxity oi‘ the Sabbath,” wrote one traveler.^ called the German observance of Sunday "Aomish. ” Tappan another writer feared that the German emigrant would take his "Sabbath-day habits” with him to America. 3 Although one writer felt that the German Sunday was not as buoyant, voluaole, and social as a Parisian Sunday, stixl it was "ccnsecratea to leisure and family enjoyment more than to religious exercises.” 4 kev‘ r was the earnest American heart more openly and mere candidly revealed than in his genuine denunciation of the continental Sunday. Even though he granteu that a German Sunaav was pleasanter than an American Sunday, yet liueu "to see a real Sunday once a ween.” agreed when he wrote, 5 "There may he hypocrisy, he Another and formality, ana a needless seriousness or manner- on chat day with us; still it will be long before any rational well-wie.ier to humanity would desire to see cur he 7j Engl ana Sabbath Sedgwick, 2 Letters from Abroad. I, 161. Tappan, A Step. II, 28. s Litchell, Notes from Over the Se a . II, 74-75. 4 ;I. B. St owe, Sunny Memories . IX, 575. ^ Hagee, American Student, p. 152. 107 excnaxiged Tor the German holiday."^ ..itn a pleasurable satisfaction, .another said, "It was and a breat longing, too, that one turns on Sunday towara home when in Germany . " 2 The implication of the travel narratives is cniefly that Americans preferred the custom of their own country, although they did not feel that the German was basically less pious or less sincere if he professed religion and still followed the custom of his country. One writer maintained that it was just a different definition of the word " r e s t . A n o t h e r claimed that Germans did not "dis­ regard the day," but they had "no such conception of it as even irreligious people have in A m e r i c a . Another felt that different customs did not meaxi that the Germans were 5 less pious ana devout. To one writer, the German custom of treating ounaay even had merit in contrast to the American observance. One wr o t e : "...when I remember the dozing congregations I have seen," she wrote, "the domestics stretched half the heavy day in bed, the young people sitting by the half-closed blind, ^ Brace, 2 stealing longing looAs home Life, p. 106. European Breezes, p. 05. 3 Twain, A iramp * Abroad, I, 536. 4 Pitman, Joynes, ~ Johnson, Old Letters, p. 21 . Peasant Life , pp. 256-Sa9. 166 out oi tae window, waile the nibie was lying idle on theix* laps; and the merry shouts of the cnilax*en oa the going dowui ol the sun, as if an enemy has disappeared, it aoes not seem to me that we can say to the poor, ignorant, worn peasant of Europe, toil- 'I am holier than thou . ' ” 1 If the American disliked the influence ox’ both Catholicism and the state upon religion, he was also suspicious of the influence of critical scholarship and philoso.-hy• Ine impact of science upon thought leu to a ;■ore critical examination of the Scripture and the life of Jurist taan many Americans were willing to tolerate. Uchcroft assured President Kirkland of narvard iii 1313 that he would have nothing to ao with German theology ana its ”infidel systems.” xvnothei* traveler ox* 1665 deplored the inroads neologism hau. made upon the German universities, another travelex* admix*ed Frederick william's attempts to put down neology, which he celled a sort of "undisguised D e i s m . A n o t h e x * student in a German university felt that the spiritual freedom and spiritual license allowed by the new theological thought would not have been so attractive ^ Sedgwick, Letters from Abroad. I, 161. 4— \ ^ Bancx*oft, Letters, I, 55. ° Dwight, Travels. p. 5. ^ Fisk, Travels in Europe, pp. 465-170. 169 to the Germans if the state had not forced religion on him . 1 A ratner summary statement of an American in 1832 declared German religion to be "eaten up with £ theological^ controversy, and...hampered everywhere by its connection o witn the state. The Amex*ican traveler hailea, therefore, an Evangelical iiiovemeut tiiat had some effect on Germany in the mid-century. One writer called this the "Inner mission1’ whicu was a modified form of Ghristian socialism or of Finney Perfectionism from the United States. the following manner: he described it in "To go around ana influence individually the lower classes; to Introduce religious education in the schools; to bring together more the churenes, ana to re-establisn family worship in tne houses; to form ragged schools ana asylums, and places of reform for prostitutes; to establisn temperance (not abstinence societies) in some communities; and to found sailor's homes in seaboard towns." ana favor . 4 He looked upon it with great hope Another traveler later in the century felt he saw a resurgence of religious faith in Germany which 1 Hop^in, Lotes of a Btuaent. p. 14. 2 Brooks, Letters of Travel, p. 217. ^ Brace, Home Life, pp. 29-30. 4 Ibid., p. 27. 170 pleased him. he noted that chux-enes in Eex*lin were rilled v/here they had formerly been empty, ••. . .and the more evanyelical the minister, the <;reater is sure to be the crowd. *ie reported that the people v/ith ohom he tallied o in Germany were enthusiastic over the worn of the movement.*" The picture that the American traveler draws of himself in nis experience in Germany is one of an earnest, highmindea (though not always broaa-minded) individual. ne disliked Catholicism ana ne disliked state control of relig-Lon. he felt liberty of conscience to be an essential portion of the rood society. Eut whet strikes the reader even more forcibly is the fact that l i b e r t y of conscience the nineteenth century American never interpreted to mean liberty from conscience. he took for granted the necessity of religious expression and moral regeneration as a foundation for a successful and enduring democratic society. A note of cynicism or skepticism or disillusionment never crept into the American traveler’s discussions upon religion. Although the more skeptical writers of the late nineteenth century did not indulge in discussions of religious topics to any great extent, the increasing vogue of skepticism of the late nineteenth century failed to appear in the travel narx*atives. 1 Gaze, Leisurely Journev. p. 151. 2 Ibid.. p. 132. CHAPTER V POLITICAL AND ECONO&IC LIFE In 1837 an American traveler in Germany cast his eyes over the political structure of the German states, found it unfavorable, and wrote witxh confidence: "It is not possible that the millions should go on suffering without an effort, and, sooner or later, a successful effort for relief, and if, before the struggle terminates, Christianity should have nearly wrought her perfect work, and vice and despotism fall together, civil liberty may be universally e s t a b l i s h e d . I n 1884 an American from a later generation similarly examined the political nature of the German Empire and reflected, States, "...Germany was not England or the United and were it proven that one had uttered a word reflecting sharply upon King William or -bismarck, he would be liable to be sent to pi*ison for three years. place fox* liberty-of-speech loving Americans." Not a good In these two comments are reflected the changing hopes of American travelers for political Germany, 1 Cogswell, Life, p. 211 as they were concretely . 2 Leonard A. Ilorrison, Rambles in Europe, in Ireland. Scotland. England. Belgium. Germany. Switzerland and France, with Histox»ical Facts Relating to Scotch American Families Gathered in Scotland and the North of Ireland ( B o s t o n , 1887) P- 302. 172 expressed in connection with civil liberties. Between them lay thirty-seven years oi* tumultuous German history, in which the vision oi* a liberal German was obliterated and the dream of a united Germany realized. The drive toward unification was the great force of nineteenth century Germany. It had achieved expression in German literature of the late eighteenth century, but it had not received political statement until the Confederation of the Rhine tolled the knell of the moribund Holy Roman Empire. Then, in the patriotic enthusiasm generated by Fichte's addresses to the German Mation of 1807-1808, German nation­ alism supplied real force in the War of Liberation against Napoleon. Unification in Germany had, therefore, directions: two one, the hope of the smaller German states of blocking the territorial encroachments of Austria and Prussia, and two, the nope of driving out the French tyrant Napoleon and freeing Central Europe from foreign domination.^ Although German nationalism aimed at the unification of Germany was one powerful nineteenth century force, force, another correlated with it, had also been born of eighteenth century ideas and the French Revolution. liberalism, ^ Ward, This force was the desire of men to participate in a constitutional Germany 1815-1890. I, 23-36. 173 and representative government, and guaranteed* with civil liberties assured This, too, had won the favor of German intellectual leaders oi the late eighteenth century, even tnoug.i Pi ussia and Austria had allied against .French Revolution forces in the Declaration of Pillnitz. Kant and Fichte and Herder, like the young V/ordsworth and Coleridge of England, "welcomed the movement as the final great fulfillment of all the most sacred hopes of the age . " 1 Liberalism had little eflect upon the Germanies of the eighteenth century, but it won converts among the intellectuals and bourgeoisie who had the most to gain from a constitutional government. These two forces were synchronized in the reforms inaugurated in Prussia, and in other parts of Germany, preceding the War of Liberation. Vilhelm von Humboldt, reorganization. Through the work of the educational system had undergone Karl von Stein and Frince Hardenburg renovated the Prussian state by abolishing serfdom, ing municipal self-government, establish­ and liberalizing land tenure. Gerhard von Scharnhorst had undertaken the rehabilitation of tne army on the basis of national conscription in place of armies supporting the arbitrary will of princes . 2 the one hand, German intellectuals and liberal leaaers 1 Valentin, The German People, p. 301. 2 Ward, Germany 1815-1890. I, 35. On 174 hoped, tc liberalize the existing German states in keeping with the humanitarian and individual liberalism that had captux-ed eighteenth century thought. On the other, they wishea to use this revitalized Germany in driving out Napoleon and establishing some sort of German Federation. Yet to the champions of legitimacy at the Congress of Vienna and to the Great Powers assembled to reconstruct tne map of Europe, the prospect of either a united or a liberal Germany was undesirable. The ruling houses of the several German states opposed a Federation that sacrificed the principle of sovereignty, and Prirce Metternich of Austria especially looked upon the principles of nationalism and liberalism as a threat to the Austrian Empire which contained sue i a motley collection of peoples. Neither Fx*ance nor Russia was anxious to see a single unified power entrenched in Central Europe. The Germanies, therefore, emerged from tne Congress of Vienna not unified at all but merely as "an association of states under sovereign lords. the cause of liberalism fare any better. Nor did The delegates to the Diet of the German Confederation after 1815 were in no sense representative of the German people but acted only as envoys of the rulers of the separate states. ^ Valentin, The German People, p. 361. Even the 175 promise of constitutions in the various states was thoroughly smashed in the reaction of 1819 resulting in the Carlsbad Decrees. Thus were set in motion in the early years of the nineteenth century forces that were tc dominate German history for many years: nationalism, liberalism, leaaership, militarism, and defeatism. Prussian After the failux*e to create a unitea Germany at the Congress of Vienna, liberalism and nationalism became inextx-icably tied together. The German liberal could limit the power of the individual rulers of the German states only by creating a super-state, resting upon the authority of the people rather than the authority of dynastic princes. The German nationalist could achieve national unity only by limiting the authority of the individual rulers in their relations with the rest of Germany. In spite of the disappointing results of the Congress of Vienna, many liberals took comfort in the fact that a desire for national unity ana for a more representative government had been planted in the German mind. The mnerican ti-aveler in Germany in the nineteenth century was conscious of the struggle of these forces. le was critical of the results of the Congress of Vienna, ana he referred frequently of the prophesied revolutionary change that would eventually take place in Germany and 176 particularly in Prussia. Ticknor remarked in 1836 that the cestiny of Prussia was paramount in the development of Crermany ana iii the course of events througnout all Europe. ■*" nayarc Taylor discussed the spix*it of the German libex*als and felt tnet eventually it would have the desired effect upon Germany. men, "The free spirit which characterizes these who come from among the people," he wrote, "shows plainly the t e n d e n c y of* the times; ana it is only the great strength with which tyranny here has environed itself, combined with the proverbial apathy of the Germans, nas prevented a change ere this." 2 which Another writer maintained that the spirit of Germany during the War of Liberation was ever ready to be rekindled and prophesied that its next outburst would not be against foreign oppressocs. *" Nor did the failures of revolutionary uprisings of lo30 and 1846 completely destroy the American's belief in the ultimate realization of a united, libex*al Germany. The traveler still had confidence in the educational system which he felt would prepare tht- way inevitably for the desired changes. One traveler claimed in 1854: "...if Revolution in Europe and the cause of Democracy and 1 Ticknor, Letters. I, 502. 2 Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 133. 3 Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts. Pii^st Series, pp. 69-70. 177 Democratic Republics have any connection v/ith the progress of education and general enlightenment, as is commonly supposed, then Prussia, of all the countries in Europe, oUt>ut to be the field where the Revolutionary party might act with the greatest efficiency, successes,'1^ and reap the most certain Another writer in 1855 recognized the tremendous persuasive power of the United States upon the oppressed peoples of Europe. He wrote: ...from what I have heard and seen, I am convinced that the grand struggle between democracy and aristocracy is now commencing in good earnest. The United States of mnerica have grown to a power and importance that is causing the old monarchies of Europe, who have heretofore ignored her existence even, to tremble for the future, not because they fear the exertion on her part of any physical force, but the more powerful influence of her principles, which they know to be as universal as the pulsation of the human heart. The tree of liberty is planted in America, but its roots extend to every soil, and their fibres receive nourishment from every heart . 2 Even as late as 1359, one traveler believed that a "silent, bloodless change for the better" was coming.^ Yet by the 1880's one writer summarized these drives of nineteenth century German history rathex* bitterly by D. D. Barnard, "Political Aspects and Prospects in Europe," A Lecture Delivered before the Young Men's Association in the City of Albany. January 51, 1854 r Alb any, 1854 ), pn 23. 1 2 W. W. bright, Pore, pp. 358-359. 3 Washington, Echoes of Europe, p. 145. 178 claiming that liberalism and nationalism had never been anything more than "mild dreams” and that the German people haa never had the energy or the will to turn those dreams into reality.^ In tracing the development of this change of sentiment of the American traveler in Germany, one must examine the opinion of the traveler on specific aspects of German political and economic life. The Basis of American Optimism: German Liberalism and Nationalis That the American traveler was an early champion of nationalism is evident both in his comments upon Germany in the nineteenth century and in his own historical environment in the United States. He granted the necessity of a united Germany without argument and he mentioned aspects of German life which he felt developed a national spirit. In 1815, Ticknox- pointed hopefully to the pi’opagandistic work of the secret clubs and the "League of Patriotism” dui’ing the War or Liberation as evidence of the growth of national spirit. Cooper recognized the beneficial effect of the Prussian incorporation of independent territories upon the eventual unification of Germany . 3 ^ Wight, Another traveler felt that German Peoples and Countries, p. 104. ^ Ticknor, Letters. I, 83. 3 Coopex*, Residence, p. 375. 2 179 music aid more to instill patriotic sentiments in the German people than American music did lor Americans . 1 Another traveler favored the use of statues and paintings in public gardens and buildings to illustrate German history and to buiia up nationalistic sentiment. ''This mode of spreading the patriotic history of the nation before the people,• he wrote, "cannot fail to have a powerful and excellent effect."^ And after the failure of the Revolution of 1848, Bayard Taylor wrote, be a PEOPLE, "The people at last understand that they must divided by no provincial jealousies, by no narrow aims, animated before Germany can be the one powerful consolidated Empire, whjLch is their political dream. A contemporary historian has traced the historical evolution of the concept of nationalism in modern civili­ zation. according to his analysis the concept of nationalism in the eighteenth century was corx-elated with the concept of universal brotherhood and was part of the whole body of humanitarian thought that characterized the age of enlighten­ ment . 4 The nationalist of that day wish to see the national state represent the people rather than the sovereign and to 1 Vn’iilis, Rural Letters, p. 264. 2 Benedict, A Run through Europe, pp. 595-396. Taylor-, At Home and Abroaa. Second Series, 4 p. 244. Carlton J. H. Hayes, The Historical Evolution of iam (Lew York, 1931), pp. 13-37. N otional 150 act as aii agent In securing the natural rights and liberties belonging to mankind. When the French Revolution had seen the failure of this nationalism to crystallize in national states on humanitarian principles, the concept of nationalism dispersed in three different directions. traditional nationalism, Jacobin nationalism, and liberal nationalism . 1 It was the latter expression of nationalism that dominated two thirds of the nineteenth century ana that the American traveler primarily represented. It was a middle-class nationalism that stressed constitutionalism, civil liberties, economic individualism ana representative government. o The Amex'ican traveler dia not favor a united Germany for the intrinsic merit of tne principle of nationalism alone or for its supposed connection with liberalism. he found substantial reasons for it in the character of modern .political and economic life. Foi* one thing, the customs duties imposed upon goods crossing so many different borders in Germany struck the American as unnatural and inefficient. He had had experience with freedom of commerce within the boundaries of his own nation and he felt that limitations u^on it in the form of internal barriers restricted progress in the development and expansion of trade. "The course 1 Hayes, The historical Evolution, pp. 43-163 2 Ibid., p. 136. 181 pursued by the different monarchs whose territories border this stream £the Rhine] »H wrote one traveler, "seems almost incomprehensible to one living in a country where few commercial restrictions e x i s t . A n o t h e r traveler summed up the effects of division of commerce and trade in Germany: "Resources are divided; public enterprises are obstructed; intercommunications are interrupted; so that a fertile and populous country, which, united under one government, would p be rich and powerful, is comparatively feeble." For this reason, the American traveler recognized without hesitation the benefits of the customs union, 2.oliverein. or established by some of the north German states under the leadership of Prussia in the thirties. The separation of Frussia from her Rhenish provinces gained in the peace settlement of 1815 made some sort of trade agreements with Hesse Darmstadt and intervening states a necessity. Under her leadership, one German state after another joined the Zollverein in the next two decades, 3 while Austria offered neither opposition nor interference. The American traveler x#ecognized the significance of this 1 Dwight, Travels. p. 2 Fisk, Travels in Europe, p. 452. 8 . J. Holland Rose, "The Folitical History," Germany in. the nineteenth Century, p. 10. 5 182 movement ana felt that it indicated the progressiveness or Prussia in contx*ast with Austria.^" One traveler maintained, "The formation of this separate commercial federation within the great political confederation of Germany, may be considered as the most important public event which has occurred in that country since the Congress of Vienna, and at the same time the greatest step towards that national unitv to which every patriotic German aspires as the p consummation of national grandeur."^ Another reason that the American traveler saw for the desirability of unification was Germany's susceptibility to attack by the great powers flanking her. One traveler claimed that if the Germanies were united, they would represent a real barrier to the ambitions of both France and Russia. Furthermore, he argued, this would be conducive to general European peace since these powers could not attack each other by land. 3 It apparently did not occur to this writer of 1326 that Germany herself could become powerful enough to force France and Russia into an alliance. Henry Adams said later that Gei*many at this time was far too weak to try to compete with France or Engl ana or nuerica. ^ Channing, 2 Wheaton, A Physician's Vacation, p. 123. "Progress and Prospects," p. 44. ^ Dwight, Travels. p. 233. 183 Disunity kept her from developing power either industrially ox- militarily . 1 Furthermore, some American travelers succumbed to the tempting vision of* "international prestige" and felt that Germany's humiliating position in the affairs of Europe coula be betterea by a unified ana powerful state. They seemea to give support in some cases to a nationalism that rested upon national pride and power, and they aid not criticize this longing on the part of German nationalists. One traveler believed that Germany natui*ally was designed for power ana influence in Europe ana that she merited "rani: among the nations." p He said that only through unification could the Germans make themselves "respected ana feared throughout Europe." that if G e r m a n y were united, strongest power in Europe. Another traveler agreed she could a n d should b e the 4 In spite of this advocacy of the national state and in spite of the rjnerican traveler's recognition of the centripetal force of the Zollverein. most travelers were not so na5ve as to be unaware of the even stronger 1 H. naams, ^ Dwight, Education, p. 83. Travels. p. 234. 3 Ibid. 4 Washington, Echoes of Europe, pp. 143-144. 184 centrifugal force of the German historical tradition and tne German Confederation. Particularism was more pronounced than nationalism in the Gei*manies and the American recognized tnat fact. To put it another way, nationalism, to its extreme under the German Confederation, loyalty not to a nebulous, an Austria, Saxony. or a Prussia, when pushed demanded imaginary German state, but to or a Bavaria, or a Hanover, or a One traveler pointed to the divisive character of the h e t e ^ e n e o u s population and to religious disunity.^ Another wrote, '•■but for the Prussian to forget he is a Prussian, for the Austrian to sink his memory of a proud history, for the Saxon, the Bavarian, and the Hanoverian to bury their time-embittered jealousies; for one and all, L.cnarchist and Republican, the Jesuit of Vienna and the Rationalist of Berlin, the passionate Southernor and the cool horth German, to unite and form a new compact Federal State, seems as yet like a dream only of the lovers of 2 Freedom . 11 Ticknor believed that Germany was split in yet another way. He felt there was a lack of communication between the man of letters and tne rest of the population. The iiitellectual was the true nationalist, to a longed-for united Germany. But the rest of the ^ Dwight, Travels. pp. 152-155. ^ Brace, Home Life, p. 251. owing allegiance 185 population were nationalists only in respect to the individual German states, and the intellectual could not seem to bridge the -,ap between himself and the ordinary German man.^ Many of the travelers noted the internal differences that existed within the Confeaeration and despaired of ever eradicating such intense feelings. They felt that the centuries of particularism and war between the German states were too great an obstacle to unification. 2 "There can be nothing more intense than the hatred which the Frussian bears to the .Austrian," wrote one every time they meet in the traveler,"which is manifested street, the Eohemian and thatof and Bavarian is scarcely less to the haughty house of dapsburg . " 3 Similar dislikes between the Saxons and Prussians and among other states of the Confederation was recorded by the travelers. 4 The institution set up to gradually erase internal dissension, the Frankfort Diet of the Confeueration created by the Congress of Vienna, did not seem to warrant either the confidence or approbation of the nationalists. The ^ Ticknor, Letters. I, 101. Dwignt, Travels. 3 Johnson, pp. 346-347. Peasant Life, p. 88 . ^ Dwight, Travels.pp» 346-347; William P. Trent and George S. Kellmann, e d s . / The Journals of '.Vashington Irving (noston, 1919), I, pp. 148-149. 186 American had no faith in this body as a unifying force. One traveler remarked that the German liberals and nationalists criticized the Diet freely and with justification . 1 Another noted that the smaller German states complained of the overwhelming power of Frussia and Austria in the actions of the Diet . 2 Another said that the Diet had little more efficacy in controlling German affairs than had the Emperor of the old Holy Homan Empire. Frankfort was "still but the capitol of a vacuum.H In spite of these discouragements, the American traveler in Germany usually looked forward in the first half of the century toward the unification of a great liberal nation. It was evident, however, that his hopes were based primarily upon two notions: the spirit of nationalism aroused in the •Var of Liberation that miscarried in the Congress of Vienna, and a future upheaval in Germany which would realize all that had been lost in the German Confederation of 1815. Tne actual conditions that the American found in Germany until well after the Revolution of 1848 did not really promise much in the way of the realization of the dream of German unification. 1 Ticknor, Letters. I, p. ^ Dwight, 3 Nevertheless, the American's faith was not to 122 . Travels. p. 33. Calvert, First Years, p. 81. 187 be shaken, a faith in the progress of mankind, eventual perfectibility, in his in the visions of glory of the future. The same characteristic is revealed in the American's attitude toward liberal^o-m in Germany until about 1860. The American did not try to reconcile the actual facts with his dreams of Germany. He did not try to solve the problem of how liberalism would achieve real expression in a national group where the traditions and the circumstances were so opposed to it. Even though he felt that the Diet of the Conf eaex-at ion had been a failure in establishing a foothold for liberalism, he believed that it was only a matter of time before the Germans again threw off their bonds this time with success. The only actual guarantee of liberalism in the German Confederation had been a weak and short-lived one. This was the famous "Article XIII" of the Federal Act which provided that in each of the states forming part of the Confederation, a constitution with assemblies of Estates should be established.^" The philosophy behind this article was in keeping with the limited constitutionalism which aimed at re-establishing constitutional government in France in the Restoration. Ward, The article had affirmed that the Germany 1615-1890. p. 51. 188 Confederation Diet was to encourage and roster the develop­ ment of constitutional governments throughout Germany. Yet even this mild guarantee of liberalism was abrogated after the uprising of the Burschenshaft and the assassination of Kotzebue.^" The American traveler was aware of this fierce reaction. He remembered the promises of the Congress of Vienna and felt that Germany had been the victim of fraud. "The allies professed much and promised fair," commented one traveler, "but their pi*actice is quite another thing." 2 Even when constitutions were established in the smaller southwestern German states, the American knew that the monarchial spirit in the old states and the conservatism of the Confederation Diet did not permit any actual libex-alism to prosper. one American traveler, Clax-ke, Eleven .>eeks, p. 136. ^ Bx-ace, Home Life, p. 36; Bullax-d, Bights and Beenes, P . 56. 4 Bryant, Letters of a Traveller, 430. ^ Angell, Reminiscences, p. 42. 215 or Germany melted into the air before the spells of diplomacy. Haa there been a poivei* to back the cause of freedom, as Russia bacKeci the cause oi despotism, we should now be lookiiig upon regenerated nations, instead of listening to the laments and appeals oi exiled patriotism upon our own shores.... Another traveler laid much of the blame at the feet of irederick nVilliam IV of Prussia for his inconsistent role in tne action and for nis eventual capitulation to the army to use force against the revolutionists. wrote this traveler, sovereign, "On his subjects," "being a soft-natured, weak-hearted who can refuse them nothing, he lavishes promises. But, although he loves them well enough to promise everything, ne is so much attached to his royal prerogatives as to grant them nothing; and in reply to their just murmurs, he orders out his two hunared and sixty thousand muskets. with men attached, to quell the x-ebels.’*^ To some extent the wnerican traveler, like nis fellow countrymen at home, lost his patience with the German people when the second attempt to establish a united, liberal German nation miscarried as badly as the earlier one of 1814-1Q15. One traveler concluded that the German was quite willing to dream of liberty rather than procure it because there was 1 Tappan, A Step. II, 37. ^ iVard, Letters from Three Continents, pp. 50-51. 216 ’•lacking some essential element or unity, as a people, or in either in themselves the physical construct ion of the country."^ another seemed to indicate a similar belie! when he pointed out that the Germans seemed to ‘•submit passively to arbitrary power" although he felt their souls were still Tree. Anotner traveler described a peasant he met who indicated to the American some reasons Tor the failure of the revolution. The German peasant was, by nature and by habit, conservative. .Vrote the American, "He was inevitably wedded to old fashions, ana things of the past, had served against the Republicans in 1649, and not a glimmering idea of the present national movement had ever entered his mind." Anothex- traveler concluded tnat the people were still loyal to their rulers ana their armies and were not reaay for a i*epublic or a 4 democracy. However, it took a good deal more than tne failure of the German Revolution of 1646 to shake fundamentally the faitn in progress toward democracy that characterized the nmerican traveler of tne first half of the century. He had ^ Johnson, p Greeley, Peasant Life, p. 60. Glances at Europe, p. 26. 3 Bayard Tavlor, Bv Wavs of Europe (Hew York, 1369), pp. 330-331. ^ Barnard, "Political Aspects," p. 25. 217 a momentary disappointment in the German people, perhaps, but his belief* that everything would ultimately come out the way he foresaw was as sturdy as ever. This idea was expressed by many of* the American travelers in the years following soon after' the revolution. Some travelers took comfort in the fact that this was but a "partial revolution" to prepare the way for a complete one, or a step in the direction of demo­ cratic and liberal government. One remarked that the Frankfort Assembly made a "leap" in German development by releasing the people from an instinctive and traditional respect for royalty and authority.^ Othex*s agreed that the next revolution would free the German from his bondage to the promises and oaths of princes and kings. No statement better illustrates the faith of the -American than the following passage from a letter written by Samuel Gridley howe to Charles Sumner. It bears strong evidence of a faith in man's natux*e and destiny that is almost Emersonian in its tx*anscendental tones: As fox- political matters...my impressions, fi^om all I see, are sti*ongly in favox* of the notion that, malgx*e^ the reaction, there has been an immense gain to the cause of liberty in Germany. I have been sux-px-ised to find how easily some of the ax*dent republicans have become discoux-aged, and now they have lost faith in the people....It is because their faith aid not go deep enough; it was founded not 1 Calvert, 2 Cox, Buckeye Abroad, p. 337; Weed, Letters from Europe, p. 615. Scenes ana Thoughts. Second Series, pp. 36-39. 218 upon the core o±‘ humanity, which is always sound, but upon the supposition or the people having; attained a degree or intelligence and virtue which they proved in tne hour or trial not to have attained. I tell them that to doubt is to be damned; that to doubt the capacities or humanity is to blaspheme God, and be without religion in the world . 1 Furthermore, the ^-merican was convinced, liberalism and nationalism were not dead in Germany. One traveler recorded talking to a German who assured him that ne "would te a p repui-l-can if he dared." Another American who attended a Fan-Germanic restival at Gotha in 1861 was impressed by the force of nationalism among the Germans. 5 ^ite of differences of character, institutions, and creeds, He wrote that "in customs, dialects, ideas, there is an earnest desire to kindle a spirit of patriotism which shall rise above all narrower distinctions, ana lay the foundation of one great and homogeneous Empire." Thus, most mnerican travelers recovered from their early disappointment in the results of the German Revolution of 1848. The era that the American anticipated had not yet come to pass, but he v.as not disillusioned in his dream. Revolution of 184c was but the first experience in the L. E. Richards, ed., Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridlev iiov/e (Eoston, 1906-09), II, 325-326. 1 p 3 Haney, memories over the Water, p. 124. Taylor, At H ome and Abroad. Second Series, p. 227. The 219 movement of thought from the early youthful optimism of the American traveler concerning the fate of democracy and the destiny of man to an awakening pessimism. many others There were to be Lapoleon III of France, the American's own Civil War, the economic maladjustments of the industrial revolution, and the ultimate unification of Germany. The Unification of Germany In spite of the dismal outlook for German nationalism in 1850, within two decades Germany was well on the road to not only her dream of unity but also to her dream of becoming a feared and recognized power of Europe. This was primarily the work of Otto von .Bismarck, soldier, diplomat ana statesman, who came into real prominence in German politics in 1362 when he became Minister-Presiaent of Prussia. William I had succeeded his brother on the throne, first as regent in 1857 and in his own right in 18G1. with the humiliation of Olmutz still rankling in the Prussian bosom, William I proceeded, under the guidance of Albert von Roon and ilelmuth von Loltke, to build up and modernize the Prussian army. he ran into difficulties when the Landtag refused to grant money for these measures. government, Bismarck, called in to direct the shx*ewdly and forcefully circumvented this 220 obstacle and continued the army reforms without the support of the Landtag.^ German political life, while undergoing great economic changes with the advance of the industrial revolution, had not substantially altered in the decade since the end of tne Revolution, affairs, first, Austria had been involved in European in her nervousness over Russian action in tne Crimean War, and second, Italian provinces. 2 in a war with France over her however, the dream of unity had by no means oied among the Germans. In the early sixties, a Pan- Germanic movement, described by Eayard Taylor previously, swept over Gex*many. Franz Joseph aims elf called for a Congress to reform the Confederation, but the King of Prussia 3 refused to participate in a venture sponsored by Austria. On the other hand, there was little on the surface events of Germany to indicate that unification was at hand. Certainly the American traveler in Germany did not suspect that a German nation was closer to reality than it had been for years. Throughout these years and up through the Austro- Gerroen War of 1366, he indicated his belief that the time for unification of Germany had not yet come. One traveler Rose, "The Political History, " Germany, in^the Nineteenth Century, p . 1 2 • 1 2 Ward, Germany 1315-1890, II, 11-36. ^ Ibid., pp. 91-94. 221 looking at the Cologne Cathedral speculated on whether this building, which had been in the process of construction for six hundred years, would be finished before the completion of the German state wiiicn had been in the process of con­ struction for a thousand.*^ “Another traveler indicated her discouragement with the German people in 1866: ”The Vaterland is a fine poetical term, but I fear me, only a term. University students tone their lyres to that key, ana tnere are men who still worship liberty... but the mass of Germans are content to dwell in passiveness forever*..” p another traveler concluded that "most Germans would like 3 unity if they coula be the unit.” beer is cheap, strains, He wrote, ”So long as and songs of the Fatherland are set to lilting will these excellent people 'Ho, Ho, my brothers , and 'Hi, Hi, my brothers,' and wait for fate...to drive them into anything more than the brotherhood of brown mugs 4 of teer and .Vagner's mysterious music of the future.” Furthermore, the lack of industrial and material progress in Germany led some of the travelers to feel that Germans lacked the drive and initiative, which Americans 1 Haven, The Pilgrim's Wallet, p. 394. 2 Griffin, Old Facts, pp. 1 -2 . ^ Warner, Saunterings. p. 134. 4 Ibid. 1 so ac-mired, to establish a really unified state. One traveler bexieved the trermans did not use enough labor— saving machinery or m o d e r n methods to ste^ up production and to keep costs down. another ielt that "Business is a matter of a life­ time” in Germany and that it was not necessary that it should be ’’better one month than another—--one year than the next score ol years. .Another complained that the villages and the peasants were too "unprogressive” and that no change took place ior centuries. The American traveler in the sixties was beginning to show signs of the great material progress his own nation had made. The dream of the future was not nearly as satisfactory when industry and invention promised a world of comfort tomorrow. Yet in the course of two brief wai*s, the Danish War of 166o-64 and the Austrian War of 1866, Bismarck and Prussia had created a North German Confederation that possessed suDstantial unity and autnority. By the first of these wars, Bismarck forced Austria into a situation that would eventually become untenable, the joint control with Prussia of the Duchies of Schleswig and xiolstein.^ Ey the second, after Andrew Preston Peaboay, Reminiscences of European Travel (New York, 1864), pp. 310-311. 2 J. R. Browne, American family, p. 123. 3 •Vashington, Echoes of Europe, p. 141. ^ Valentin, The German People, pp. 460-465. 223 skillful diplomacy to assure tne alliance of Italy and the neutrality of France, he demonstrated the superiority of the new Prussian arny by decisively defeating Austria in little more than a month.^ Also, he finally and definitely settled the question of control of the destiny of a united Germany by the creation of the Worth German Confederation in place of the Confederation of 1815. Tnis gave tne Ki/ig of Prussia complete control of all Germany north of the Plain River, although a two-house legislature with little power and less p. liberalism had also been created. The American traveler could hardly refrain from commenting upon this series of events wnich seemed about to realize the vision of Germany that had enchanted him for half a century. Worth Germany was indeed united under a Protestant power, ihe new Confederation recognized the principle of nationalism ana by the creation of a Bundesrat and a Reichstag even the principle of liberalism. wrote George Bancroft, ,Vas it not a time for jubilation? "This aay has been one of the greatest interest in the history of Germany, being marked by the organization of the first Imperial Diet assembled unaer the 3 new Constitution of North Germany." He was convinced that ^ Valentin, The German People, pp. 465-470. 2 Ibid. ^ Eancroft, Letters, II, 174. South Germany would eventually be included and that peace would ensue.^ William James declared that he was ’•all in favor of Prussia'* and regarded the victory as a "great practical stride towards civilization . " 2 ner resson convinced her that "wealth, Another said that order and religion" would follow in the train of Prussia's conquest."^ motley believed that Prussian success was not due to the "needle guns" or even to Bismai*ck, but to the principle of democracy. 4 Althougn Prussia ’ was not a democracy, he indicated tnat he thought she might now become one. "Prussian military despotism, "is perhaps open­ by the Grace of God," he wrote, ing tne way more rapidly for liberty in Europe than all that tne Kossutiis, a century. Garibaldis, and fazzinis could effect in half If Germany becomes one, less time than any one now deems, as may be the case in she will probably become ultimately free, whether called Empire or Republic." 5 hot all the Americans in Germany were quite so en­ thusiastic or optimistic. 1 Some could not quite forget that Bancroft, Letters, II, 175. p ~ W. James, Letters , I, 95. ^ Griffin, Ola Facts, p. 2. 4 liotley, Corresqonuence, II, 241. ^ Ibid. 225 unity had been achieved by "blood ana iron" and not by the mutual will of the German people* ote one, "Prussia carries matters with a pretty high hanu, and has not been very careful to pi'opitiate the regions she nas annexed. Another believed that in spite of Prussia's free schools anci vital Protestantism, the smaller states regarded her as nothing but a military despotism "whose subjects must be either soldiers or slaves . " 2 Poultney Bigelow maintained that the American boys in school at Bonn at the time had been on the side of Austria during the war. said, They were, he wholly "anti-Prussian . " 3 In a few more year's, Bismarck, as Chancellor of the JNorth German Confederation and allied with the south lerman states, pressed France into declaring war on Germany. During the* chaotic months that followed, France once again became a republic, Paris experienced revolution and siege, and tne Germans frightened all Europe by their crushing defeat of the French. German history, last fulfilled. Most significant in connection with the ambition of the nationalists was at long The King of Prussia became the Emperor of a united Germany which included the south German states of Bellows, Old World. II, 95. ^ Warner, Saunterings. p. 135. 3 Bigelow, Prussian L'emories, p. 18. 226 Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Baden and Hesse. The organization or the North German Confederation was enlarged t o suit the conditions of the new Germany.^ The -American traveler in Germany was frequently swept along in the proud nationalism that followed her conqueri*ig armies. Some Americans were impressed by German victories p aiia found themselves on the side of Germany because of them* ^ Yt/rote one traveler in admiration, HA11 Germany was now living more, thinking more, doing more in one day than usually in two. The mighty energy that pervaded her victorious army 3 passed into all the people it left behind....1* Others, wasting no love upon Louis Napoleon, were pro-German because they were anti-French. "I am entirely on the German side," wrote one after criticizing Napoleon. 4 Another blamed the war on France and claimed that that nation had been "insolent and arrogant beyond herself."*^ ^ Valentin, George Bancroft also felt The German People, pp. 471-479. 2 J. H. Browne, Sights and Sensations, p. 209; B. '.V. King, Our Diary in Europe ~lLondon, 1871), p. 46. ^ Hurst, Life and Literature, pp. 272-277. 4 Fay, Music Study, p. 79. ° Brooks, Letters of Tx^avel, p. 143. n rt tatt the French were responsible for the war and believed that "King William went into the war most reluctantly . ’*1 Furthermore, the American traveler often viewed the struggle as virtually defensive upon Germany's part. The Prussians were not seeking revenge, he claimed, but only their just due from the tyrant Napoleon. "The Prussians don't seem to have any feelings of revenge," wrote one traveler, "but regard the French as a set of lunatics whom o they are going to bring to reason."*" Another stated how favorably impressed he was with the quiet and temperate way in wnicn the Germans celebrated their victories. The rosy optimism that colored the new united Germany was too much for many Americans to withstand. It did, indeed, nave the character of realizing a dream. empire was dying great new Germany was about at its birth, " wrote one traveler. stirring event. "One 4 Others were equally thrilled by thus The resemblance and basic fellowship between Germany and the United States was once more noted 1 Bancroft, Letters. II, 235-237. ^ Fay, Music Study, p. 91. 3 Iiurst, Life and Literature, pp. 289-291. 4 Byers, Twenty Ye a r s, p. 27. 5 Bancroft, Letters. II, 249-250; Morgan, from the European Journal, p. 269. Extracts, 228 by the American traveler . 1 George Bancroft, looking at the matter from a diplomatic angle as American Minister to Prussia, discussed the essential unity of Germany and the United States in some detail: Our foreign political interests almost always run parallel with those of Germany and are often in direct conflict with those of France. Bismarck and the King were true to our Union during our Civil War, when France took sides against us. Germany respected the independence of Mexico; the French supported the Austrian adventures. The United States were the first power to speak for the security of private property at sea in time of war; Germany is the only power which as yet fully adopts the American idea. Germany desires to follow the East nsiatic policy of the United States: F r a n c e , whose commerce with China is but one per cent of the wnole, intrigues for power through the monstrous demands of its Jesuit Missionaries. Germany, like idnerica is adverse to ultramontane usurpation;.... Gex*many adopts from us the federative system....Germany leaves Spain to choose her own government and regulate her own affairs.... The relations of Germany and formerly of Prussia to England are much the same as our own; and they have been so for a hundred years. And Bismarck loves to give the United States prominence in the eyes of Europe as a balance to Great Britain. If we need the solid trusty good will of any government in Europe, we can have it best with Germany; because German institutions and ours most nearly resemble each other; and because so many millions of Germans have become our countrymen. This war will leave Germany the most powerful state in Europe, and the most free; its friendship is, therefore, most important to us; and has its foundations in history and in nature . 2 Even the rulers of Prussia and the new Germany came in for American acclaim during these years. Kaiser .Villiam I hurst, Life and Literature, p. 293; Bellows, .Vorld. I, 72. 1 2 Bancroft, Letters. II, 247-28. Old 229 was admired by American "travelers for his success, although they reserved a few doubts about his militarism . 1 And bismarck won the admiration of some Americans by his ability . 2 One traveler compared him to John Quincy M a m s menxs. He wrote, in his attain- "With unsurpassed courage and competency, ne possesses distinguished prudence and self-control. He does not undertake the impossible nor invent a policy. He merely shapes and articulates a public sentiment which for a hundred years has waited for its crystallizing moment." But what had Happened to liberalism? possessed a parliamentary government, might see it as a "free" government, the new day haa aawned. The new Germany and some Americans as an assurance that Bux other Amex-icans were beginning to be skeptical of a Bundesrat that represented the old princes of the German states, had the controlling voice, of a Reichstag in which Prussia and a Chancelloi* who was not responsible to the parliament at all but only to the Emperor. Even Bancroft, who looked upon the new Germany favorably, was willing to concede that the Germans were as thoroughly 1 Griffin, Old I'acts, p. 278; Bellows, I, 74. 2 Motley, 3 Bellows, Corx-esoondence. I, 224-225. Old World. I, 342-545. Old .unerican ana the German people were beginning to fray. The traveler criticized the German for being aggressive and irritating in manner after his victory over the French . 1 He was dis- appointed in the people for once again failing to achieve what they had striven for in the course of the century, and he now laid much of the responsibility for that failure upon a defect in the nature of the people. "The general feeling among her people seems to be a sort of dull disappointment vvita the results of the last war," wrote one American. "It has not brought the country either the wealth or the freedom tnat they hoped." 2 Yet he felt it was primarily their own fault and he could not sympathize wholeheartedly with the pride of the Germans in their splendid army which represented such a drain on their resources. Henry James maintained that the traveler coula see the success of the Fatherland reflected in all true German faces, but it was not a very 1 Wight, Peoples and 2 Brooks, Letters 3 Ibid. Countries, of Travel, p. p.122. 212. 235 coml'ortable success for the non-German .1 "People have come to Teel strongly within the last four years that they must take tne German tone into account," he wrote in 1873, "and they will find nothing here to lighten the task. If you have not been used to it, if you don't particularly relish it, you doubtless deserve some sympathy . . . . " 2 For the Germany that the American traveler visited after 1871 was indeed a new Germany, and he was very conscious of that fact. It showed more "progress" in many ways than it had daring the entire century, and nowhere had the American more evidence of this than in the development of Berlin. In thirty years, said one traveler in 1387, it had been "transformed from a muddy, unsanitary city of half a million, to a dazzling capital of a million and a quarter. hew streets, new pavements, new hotels, new hospitals, new buildings or every kind, new monuments, new animated faces in place of the old Prussian faces of iron and stone, greeted one everyv/nere. It had been transformed from the repulsive capital of a minor kingdom into the attractive capital of the most powerful empire of Europe." Another traveler, also recording his second visit after a twenty year absence, 1 H. James, Foreign Parts, pp. 282-233. ° Ibid-, Transatlantic Sketches, p. 360. 3 •V igh t, P e o p le s and C o u n tr ie s, p. 102. 236 believed that Berlin even exceeded Chicago in its develop— ment . 1 The German and imperial ambition seemed to be, felt another, to make it the finest city in the world . 2 It compared favorably with Boston in the eyes of one traveler 3 and with Paris in the eyes of another . 4 The 1 act was that Germanjr had achieved nationhood thx*ough nationalism, but in the process she had developed and expressed a new kind of nationalism. Even though the American traveler lacked the historical perspective to recognize this for what it was, he usually expressed his displeasure at the antagonism of the new nationalsim to the standard ideals of the early nineteenth century. The new nationalism concentrated upon militarism and a paternalism that box-dered upon statism. Furthermore, the liberalism and the economic equality of opportunity that the American had assumed would accompany the formation of a united German state had not materialized. These things the American traveler revealed in his travel narrative after 1871. He knew that the new German state was out of line with his traditional conception of it. He knew what aspects of German ^ Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, p. 90. c Hale, Fami.lv F l i g h t , p. £34. ° Bolton, Travels in Europe, p. 163. 4 B a r lo siu s, R e c o lle c tio n s, p. 82. 237 nat.Lon&l liie he did not like. «uat the **niex*ican traveler did not know was that the new German state represented, a new phase of development of modern civilization that would in turn ail ect his own nation and which would, temper the earlv heady optimism in America over the px-ogress of mankind with a growing realism and pessimism* As indicated in the previous chapter, the concept of nationalism that dominated the majox* portion of the nineteenth centui*y and that the .American tx*avelex* embraced was "liberal nationalism." This middle-class pxiilosopny combined the utilitax*ianisin of Jex*emy Benthani with the humanitarian px-inciples of univex*sal democracy and inter­ national enlightenment of eignteenth century nationalism .^ The Amex-ican tiavelex*'s espousal of this philosophy v.as embroidered with a sense of his national mission to persueue monarchies of Europe to cast off the bonds of the past and follow the example of the United States into the futui*e. Yet during the last quax-tex* of the centux^y, with the unification of Gex*many by blood and ix*on, with the fox-rnulation of the Alliance System, with the rise of imperialism in the eighties and nineties and the frequent war scares of these Hayes, The Historical Evolution of Nationalism, p. 135. o Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism: study in Its Origins and Back^i’ound (new York. 1544), pi 323. years, and witn tne total impact oi* the industrial revolution upon society, phrasing. the concept of nationalism received a new Ultimately, it became Mintegral nationalism." for the use of the national state as a means to a better order of humanity, which the humanitarian and liberal nationalists had required, as an end in itself. it substituted the national state It required ever increasing national power ana prestige basea upon military force. Personal liberty and indiviaualism were completely subordinated to tne "national i n t e r e s t . A s stated by one exponent of "integral nationalism," it demanded "exclusive pursuit of national policies, the absolute maintenance of national integrity, and tne steady increase of national power p a nation aeclines when it loses power." for The American traveler in Germany after 1871 did not, of course, know all this. his ideas about nationalism were still steeped in beliefs of the earlier nineteenth century liberal nationalism, and the new concept had not yet achieved doctrinaire articulation. Eut the American did recognize certain aspects of German national life in the new Empire that he knew wex*e far out of line with his ideas of both the national state and the concept of a unified Germany. Hayes, The Historical Evolution of Nationalism, p. 166. c Quotea from Charles Maurras, ibid.. p. 165. 339 For one thing, he noticed., German national pride ana yower dictated that the new Empire make her presence felt in the western world. One traveler remarked upon this in the debates on colonialism in the e i g h t i e s P a t r i o t i s m had become chauvinism and jingoism. A traveler thus recorded a German celebration the day of the victory of Sedan: '•There was a queer fourth-of-July is h procession in the afternoon, ana the boys sang Wacht am Rhein about the streets all evening."*' Another traveler felt that patri­ otism had replaced religion in German life, ana the Germans were developing hatred for every sort of foreigner, both the Jews and Americans. including 3 The most frightening aspect of the new nationalism to tne American was the bad feeling it engendered between the Germans and the French. Some travelers believed that the Germans were justified in their antagonism toward the French, 1871. 4 but others sided with the defeated nation after As one traveler said, it was Bismarck and Kaiser 1 Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, pp. 107-108. 2 Brooks, Letters of Travel, p. 179. 3 Parry, Life Among the Germans, pp. 163-185. ^ korrison, Rambles in Europe, pp. 309-310; Barlosius, Recollections, p. 97. ^ Jackson, G lim p ses of Three C oasts, pp. 362-365. who fostered the hatred in preparation for the war and that there was really no bad blood between the two peoples.^ .n-ote another traveler, "The German youth are being filled wit Li hatred against the french; and the many injuries of the past must yet be avenged, by an even greater humiliation.... The modern German is likely to become a thorn in the flesh of humanity at large, not because he is victorious, but because he is forever blowing the blast of his victories on p the trumpet of fame." In addition to the antagonism between Germany and France the iunerican traveler was aware that parts of the German Empire were ill reconciled to their absorption by a Prussian Germany. One traveler commented that even after consolidatic the Fatherland was "very much divided into little sections." henry James felt a certain sympathy for the sovereigns whose territories Eismarck and Prussia had swallowed "as smoothly as a gentleman following a tonic regime disposes of his 4 homeopathic pellet." Another traveler noticed that even though Frankfort was more prosperous than ever since her incorporation into the 1 Empire, a good many of the Locke, Nasbv in Exile, pp. 594-595. ^ Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 83. ° Teuffel, 4 h. Jam es, One Year Abroad, p. 195. T r a n sa tla n tic S k etch es, p. 368. older 241 inhabitants still bemoaned the loss of her ancient sover­ eignty.^ Another believed that Bavaria experiencea a decay 2 under the domination of ner powerful northern neighbor. Even more disturbing to the American was the German annexation after the France-Gei*man War of the territory of nlsace-Lorraine which had become thoroughly French. The traveler in the late nineteenth century found the discontent of the people of Strasbourg out of Keeping vita the whole concept of self-determination v:hich had been a part of nationalism. The American recognized the fact that the people were very dissatisfied with German rule and "did not take kinaly to their rulers." 'Wrote one traveler, "Strasbourg is a conuuered citv. It has been torn from France ana transferred to Germany, without tne consent of its own people.... The people feel that they nave been conquerea, and the iron has entered into their souls. One can see it in a silent, sullen look, which is not natural 4 to Frenchmen." Another writer believed that it was full of German spies ready to take note of the disaffection of 5 the people towards Germany. ^ Scripps, Five Months Abroad, p. 60. 2 Wight, Peoples and Countries, p. 100. ^ William Stevenson, S ights and Scenes in Europe v.Flint, Michigan, 1832), p. 194. A Field, From the Lakes of Killarnev. p. 122. ~ Leriwether, Tramp Trip, p. 129. 242 Furthermore, some Americans believed that the German rulers were not as popular as they had been formerly, with either Germans or Americans. They noted that the people were not always enthusiastic in their reception of the Empex*ox* in spite of the pressure of the government.^ traveler, One who on the whole approved of Bismarck and his policy, was quick to admit that the German Chancellor did possess a X’uthlessness that was distasteful to an American. p One Amei*ican felt that the German military genius Moltke kindled more enthusiasm than either Bismarck or the K-aisex^,^ while another called Bismarck "the hero of the masses. Still another American stated his frank dislike of the Gex*man rulers. He said that in Germany royalty and nobility meant simply brute force and suffering. 5 It would be inaccurate to assume, however, that the feeling of antagonism toward the new Germany was universal among the American travelers. A few were impressed by Prussian success in achieving what it had set out to do -ii. James, Tx-ansat 1 antic Sketches, p. 369. 2 .i/hite, .autobiography. I, p. 586. ^ Teuffel, One Y e ar Abroad, p. 198. ^ Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, p. 105. ^ Locke, Nasbv in Exile, p. 595. ^ Cook, A Holiday Tour, p. 189. £43 a convincing proof of goodness to the pragmatic American-ana some were even absorbed by the new nationalism. The American nation was not to be untouched by integral nation­ alism and at the end of the century the United States would fixid herself aping the European powers in imperialism, colonialism, and even in limited militarism. At least one writer in his own explanation of the new nationalism snowed himself to be partly persuaded by it. .wrote the American in his attempt to explain the German nation to his fellow men: people, a nation, has an inner life, an organic existence that preserves its identity through all changes of territory, of government, of passing generations. It is an idea, a great generalizing principle, a predominant thought, an organizing sentiment, a vital force, a mode of evolution, call it what you will, that constitutes the soul, the essence of a nation. This principle, this do minant idea, gathers men around it, animates them with a common national life, educates them, gradually forms their speech, directs their efforts in a certain course, co-ordinates their energies, produces through them peculiar laws, shapes literature and art, builds political and civil institutions, determines forms of religion, molds social life, creates manners. Loyalty to this central sentiment, this reigning idea, constitutes the soul of patriotism; disloyalty begets rebellion . 1 ALso, some travelers were impressed by the devotion of many Germans to their rulers and the American admired as well as criticized them. One traveler believed that the German devotioxi to the monarchy was greater than ^ Wight, Peoples and C o u n t r i e s , pp. 109-110. 244 England 's devotion to ^ueen Victoria. Anotner noted the homage whicn Bismarcx received even after retirement . 2 But it was waen the American agreed that Bismarck had shown "foresight and anticipation" as well as great political sagacity in uniting Germany under an empire,^ or when the American "believed that the German Chancellor deserved a high place in history ^7 then the American revealed that while uisillusionment with the new Germany was pronounced among the American travelers in the late nineteenth century, it was not complete nor universal. But taere were other aspects of the nev; Germany and the new nationalism that were far less dim in nmerican consciousness. The new nationalism emphasized tne use of armeu force to increase and maintain the power and position of the state. It placed the existence of the state over the existence of the individual citizen and if liberalism suffered by this, it simply had to suffer. Finally, it did not close the gap between the very rich and the very poor. The American traveler may nave lacked the knowledge to under­ stand what was really happening to the concept of nationalism, ■*" Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, p. 9b. n ^ Eyers, Twenty Y e a r s . p. 315. Field, From the Lakes of Killarnev. p. 141. 4 Hale, Family Flight, p. 247. 245 but he did understand and disapprove of these facts of the new Germany* Militarism and Paternalism Tnroughout the century the American traveler in Germany had been suspicious of the great power granted to the military arm of the government in central Europe. Yet he found excuses for it in geographical necessity aiia in the mainte­ nance of tyranny. He also felt it would be necessary for the people to use force in throwing off the control of tne royalty and nobility and in establishing a liberal, unified state. But the use of an army for purposes of territoi*ial aggression and for px-otecting tne new nationalism after unificat.ion---this had not been pai*t of the American's vision of the future. He nad not fox*eseen the .alliance System or the international tension that would ensue with the unification of Germany. Liberal nationalism was designed for peace and eventually for universal brotherhood of man. But, in fact, once unification had been achieved, the army v/as i*egarded as a bulv/ark of the state in the new nationalism. as one historian has written, "In other words, liberal nationalists themselves unwittingly fashioned a martial monster which helped to transform: liberal into integral nationalism. For once 'oppressed' nationalities had won tneir independence by force of arms and accorded the 246 enthusiastic praise to their generals and soldiers, they came more and more to feel that only force of arms could maintain their independence and insure their r i ghtful place and prestige in the world. After 1871 the travel narratives of Americans in Germany were crowded with innumerable comments on the militarism of the new Germany. Americans spoke of the ’‘military spirit" 2 of the government and called Germany a "vast military 3 camp." "Soldiers have deposed students, and the tayonet 4 has stormed out the book," wrote one traveler. An American was reminded at every turn that Germany was a "military nat.ion" with an eternal atmosphere like that of the United States in lo61 and 1862.^ One American believed it was part of the Frussian nature to be warlike and lances and battle-axes had merely been replaced by rifles and the methods of Moltke. 6 •Villiam James spoke longingly of the "idyllic pre-Sadowan German days" before militarism in its modern meaning existed. Hayes, Historical Evolution, p. 226. o ^ Thwing, An .appreciation, pp. 91-92. 3 Meriwether, A Tramp Trip, p. 189. ^ Hoppiii, notes of a Ssudent. p. 55. ^ Emerson, European Glimpses, pp. 55-56. ^ Poultney .Bigelow, Paddles and Politics down the Danube (Hew York, 1892), pp. 38-59. 7 /V. James, L e t t e r s , II, p. 160. 7 247 Another traveler at the close of the century concluued that tne "spirit of the German government is the military spirit. These comments were not different in spirit or in content from tne American's earlier displeasure at tne universality of the military spirit in Germany. The significance of them lay In the fact that even after unification of G e r m a n y , the longed-for vision of Europe was not achieved. of a constitution, The existence the universality of education, the removal of the sovereignty of the independent princes of Germany, the example of the United States none of these had succeeded in erasing a fundamental condition of German political and social life. The American traveler revealed his instinctive dislike of such a condit.' on. Germany now appeared aggressive and warlike and one traveler exploded after describing the constant presence of troops, "iIow I hate war! are its pomp and circumstance distasteful I" More and more Another said txiat the sight of soldiers "took away all appetite for Cathedrals . " 3 To some extent, the American traveler fell back on his traditional reasons for opposing militarism. Baker, 2 3 Thwing, Seen in Germany, p. 62. An Appreciation, p. 92. Sweeney, Under Ten Flags, p. 460. he objected to tine expense upon the state or maintaining armies, to their unproductiveness, to the drain of manpower- that forced women to worx in the fields. One traveler felt that this was tne inevitable price of splendid battalions , 1 "The waste and expense of supporting such large numbers of p solaiers is enormous," wrote another American. Another believed that as long as the German took pride in his army the American had no right to grumble about it, even though ne coulu not understand why European nations felt the necessity of increasing their national debt in this fashion. The American traveler still saw the use of the army as s support to x-oyalty. lie indicated that the new Germany was still incomplete and again voiced his hope thatthefuture would see the filial change whicn would eradicate both army and royalty. the One traveler maintained that G e r m a n was still ruleu by force and royalty in spite of unification and tne forms of constitutionalism. "Germany will get rid of the whole of it one of these aays," he wrote, "and the millions of men employed to support that one unmitigated curse of the world, x-oyalty, will be added to the productive power of the country instead of living upon it.”^ Stone, Frankfort to Bunich. pp. 50-51. ^ Ballou, Foot.-Prints of Travel, p. 219. 1 S Fulton, Europe Viewed, p. 16. ^ Locke, I*as by in Exile, p. 642. Another 249 American spoke or the people being used by royalty to "rivet their own chains."^" These were traditional American objections to militarism. Yet, in the scientific war machine of Moltke, that haa proved to fce so effective on the battlefield, the American found another basis for opposition. -ihere was the place of the individual in this immense organization of might? The new soldier did not fight because his heart was full of patriotism or even because he found joy in the exaltation of brute force. In the Germany army, said the American, nothing but a part of a machine, the solaier was a good soldier because he v/as drilled and trained and organized. He was even intel­ ligent insofar as the art of war demanded intelligence. American called tne German soldier a "thinking machine." Another wrote, "As for the soldiers, One 2 they are in all respects a forced product.... They are machines, working marvellously while the driver's hand is over them; then coming to a rz rusty standstill forever . 11 The observant Henry James caught the implications of the soldier in the new Germany even more clearly. The army of the German Empire did not represent the people of a "nation in arms" that a liberal Fulton, 2 Europe Viewed, p. 67. Bolton, Travels in Europe, p. 164. ^ Hawthorne, Saxon Studies, p. 53. 250 nationalist coulc have countenanced. It was rather an ai*med nation with more skill and efficiency than spirit and patriotism. he wrote: Compared with the shabby little unripe conscripts of France and Italy, they are indeed a solid, brilliant phalanx. They are generally of excellent stature, and they have faces in which the look of euucation has not spoiled the look of good-natured simplicity* They are all equipped with brand-new uniforms*..•and they all look like perfect soldiers and excellent fellows. It doesn't do, of course, fox* an officer to seem too much like a good fellow, and the young captains and adjutants... seldom err in this direction. But they are business-like warriors to a man,...they seem to suggest that war is somehow a better economy than peace . 1 Some Americans still felt that the position of the German Empire in Europe required the maintenai.ee of an army. The warlike spirit or France in the late eighties during tne ascendancy of General Boulanger led one american to believe that Germany dareu not "relax ner watchfulness . " 2 Tne possession of kLsace-Lorraine by Germany convinced otner Americans that a nuge army was necessary to quiet tne vengeance of France.'" One traveler found a rather chilly comfort in the fact that in spite of Germany's war preparations, he believed that modern times were a little more peaceful than ancient times. 1 4 rl. James, Transatlantic Sketches, pp. 363-564. p Parry, Life Among the Germans, pp. 132-183. 3 Fulton, Europe Viewed, p. 125; Euckout, nftermath. pp. 79-8C. 4 Lex-iwether, A Irunp Trip, p. loo. T-. 251 On the other hand, a Tew American travelers became infected with the new nationalism and thrilled to military demonstrations of power like some of the earlier travelers. £>ome found an exultant joy in witnessing the spectacle of troop maneuvers and in the aggression that indicated a robust national life. in Strasbourg, One American, after watching such a display capitulated completely to the lusty nation­ alism it called forth. tne troops, The bands, the music, the skill of the Spirit they engendered, he said, character to almost lift a man off his feet. "was of a I have seldom heard anything more i n s p i r i n g . O t h e r Americans were impressed by the care and training devoted to the army* p To one American, the German soldier was a marvel for his intelligence, his accomplishments, and his gentlemanly behavior* ^ The other characteristic of life in the new termany that the /imeric&n disliked and had not contemplated in his vision of a united Germany was the paternalism which he also had noted earlier in the century. German government was efficient government, but to the convinced nineteenth 1 Stevenson, Sights and Scenes, p. 198. 2 I&orrison, Hambies in Eux-ope. p. 308; .bigelow, Borderland, pp. 131-192. 3 Blair, foreign Lettei^s. p. 32. 252 century exponent of individualism, the towering centralized power of the imperial government was a statism that he regarded as neither liberal nor beneficial. The iunerican saw this power in the size and importance of the army. He also saw it in the size and importance of officialdom. "Government is majestic;" wrote one American. "All authority, military and civil, is vigorous, dignified, and somewhat overbearing.The traveler objected to the endless red tape of regulations in political and s ocial life. though he granted its efficiency, Even he resented the encumbrance of 3 rules. As one American wrote, "From the moment of landing on German soil, the americtn begins to feel a certain spirit 4 of repression which seems to pervade tne land." Here again, the ma.iox’itv of American travelers in the nev; German Empire were in opposition to the overwhelming power of the national state. This was not the national state as they had conceived it. They agreed with the traveler who was disappointed in a German government that poked "its clammy, rigid fingers into each man's private concerns, till he loses all spirit to be interested in them Hemstreet, Economical Tourist, p. 201. <2 Locke, LIas by in Exile, p. 641. 3 Hale, Family Flight, p. 170. ^ Baker, Seen in Germany, p. 4. 253 himself."'*' They round that they could no longer be "fervent German eulogists" in the new German Empire, in spite of its . . . . . p u m l ication and its constitution. ' This opinion accounted for the bitterness of the American toward the new Germany. But American opinion was not static, and a new minority attitude was arising. It appeared, faintly and infrequently, among the American travelers in Germany after 1671. It found no reason to be disappointed that tne new Germany aid not realize the old ideal of a national state because it hau found a new ideal. This ideal found justification in the use of force and in an aggressive powerful state by applying the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fit to the nations. It embraced the new nationalism, with its cox-ollaries of racism and militarism, as an expression of the struggle for survival on an international level. It even apologized for the paternalism and petty tyranny of the government over the lives of its citizens in this regard also. A good example of the new concept of the state was expressed in the travel nax*rative of one .wmerican who regarded the new Germany with almost undiluted enthusiasm. Orlando Williams Wight was a translator from Detroit who had edited 1 Hawthorne, 2 Ibid. Saxon Studies, p. 35. 254 the work ol* Madame de StaSl and Montaigne. He dad made two previous trips to Europe before he left in 1687 for the pux‘pose, as stated in his narrative, of studying *±ryan peoples and their establishment of civil government. lie said that one looked "in vain elsewhere for progx*ess and liberty."^ His ideas of progress standards of living, of conscience education, better representative government, and freedom were not unus ua l in the American traveler in Europe. What was unusual in his thought was his adoption p of the philosophy of the new nationalism ana his belief tnat the new German:/ represented true progress and liberty. Wight looked upon the success of the unification of Germany as an unmitigated blessing, and he regarded the German leaders with outright admiration. single generation, He wrote, "In a all these minor states have been merged into the new German Empire, by the enlightened policy of the Prussian King, by the genius of von Ivloltke and Bismarck, by the fortunes of war. The work begun by Btein has culminated in consolidated Germany, of modern Europe. in the mightiest empire rnia fair German lands on the left bank of the Rhine, seized and long held by the French, re-annexed to the Fatherland. 2 have been The old German kingdom, not Wight, "Fpeface," Peoples and Countries. p. v. Wight, Peoples and Countries, pp. 109-110. 255 tae old Empire, das been restored, become a conscious, and Germany has again as for centuries she was an unconscious, or semi-conscious, nation.""^ Wight argued that Germany's government was constitutional, r not absolute.^ He did not seem disturbed by the fact that the Reichstag, where universal suffrage operated, had no real power beyond that of approving legislation, that the Chancellor was not responsible to the Reichstag, of removing him. and that it had no means lie ignored the Kulturkampf and Bismarck's persecution of the socialists when he wrote, "The tap-root of the German nat.Lonal life is an all-pervading sentiment of personal liberty. This sentiment, modified in its mani- f©stations.... constitutes toaay the soul of the new German 3 Empire." He justified an army by Germany's precarious geographical position.^ On Comtean grounds of the application of tne principles of science to the organization of society, he could even justify paternalism. "Every observant traveler in Germany is struck with the all-pervading officialism, the omnipresent hand of the government. An enlightened people, It regulates everything. a people better educated than any other people in the world, recognizes the benefits, ^ 'Wight, Peoples and Countries, p. 105. ^ Ibid., pp. 119-121. ^ Ibid. , p. ^ Ibid., pp. 110 . 119-121. and not 256 only acquiesces, but. Teels gratitude Tor a paternalism founded on exact scientific Knowledge and having honestly in view the general good.”**But to the standard nineteenth century American traveler, the new Germany could not be explained and justified so easily. In addition to the militarism and paternalism which he did not like, he felt that true liberty was not a part of tne German Empire. The conventional American in Germany after 1871 was more likely to agree with the traveler who spoke of the ’’dangers” of the German Empire. This writer listed three weaknesses of the new Germany that an American could not favor: the existence of a strong Catholic element in the population, the absence of true liberalism in the government and a large standing army. 2 The traveler criticized the conservatism of the peasant, and he felt that the German cared little for knowledge of the affairs 4 of his government. He probably would have agreed with William Dean Howells who said he liked Holland so much better than Germany "from the sense we have of being in a 1 Wight, Peonies and Countries, p. 115. ~ Henry Day, A Lawyer Abroad: What to See and How to See (New York, 1874), pp. 332-345. 3 Hale, Family Flight, p. 162. ^ Hawthorne, Saxon Studies, p. 16. 257 free land a g a i n . F u r t h e r m o r e , he believed that unification haa not bettered the economic position oi‘ the average German as much as he had hoped that it would. Economic Life in the German Empire In the American travel narrative of the late nineteenth century, economic matters played an increasingly important part in the discussion. Economic troubles born of the industrial revolution and a diminishing frontier had begun to plague the United States so that the Amex*ican was more conscious of economic questions. Labor troubles, industrial expansion, the spread of socialist thought focused the attention of the American upon the national economy. In 1879 Henry George had proposed the single land tax as a solution to the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. Edward Bellamy wrote a novel concerning a socialist Utopia. James Baird weaver helped organize the Populist party and was its candidate for president in 1892. Anu the American Economic Association was founded in 1385. During these years of social and economic unrest in the United States, Germany experienced a tremendous burst of economic activity following unification and the conclusion 1 Howells, Letters. II, 81. 258 of the Franco-German -Var.^ Although Germany also had her economic disturbances during these years, the American traveler was more conscious of German economic expansion. He recognized and approved of this development in the constructron of railroads and industries and in the growth of cities. 2 It followed his notion of material progress. One traveler was particularly impressed with the construction of the railroad through the Black Forest, which he regarded as a great victory of engineering . 3 Yet a good share of the German population still seemed in a rather destitute condition to the nnerican traveler, ile remarked upon the poverty and begging of students , 4 upon the high taxation, and upon the number of emigrants leaving Germany in the seventies and eighties for . iii. 274 In spite of this faith, Brace devoted a great deal of space ia his narrative to criticism of German political life. Like most of the travelers, he disliked the ever-present unifoi*m that reminded him unpleasantly of Germany's militarism and autocracy. He resented the regulation upon the movement and activities of men and the censorsnip of the press.^ He wrote: "But as I go abroad among the people; as I see soldiers stationed at evex-y corner and in every public place; as I find that a man cannot stii* from his city and hardly from his louse without feeling this strong grasp of the central power; as I hear the desires of noble men expx*essed for some­ thing freex* and better fox* their nation; and as I observe how confused and. unsatisfied, and unhappy the condition of these German monarchies is now, I feel howr poor the exchange of tnis, with all its splendor and taste would be for our free, unchecked society." On the other hand, Bx*ace revealed a sensitivity to the stanaard Gex*man cx^itiicism of the Unitea States that .America was uncultux*ed. He believed that the stories circulating about American life were grossly exaggerated even though he granted that because the American nation was young, ^ Brace, Home Life, p. 117 2 Ibid. parts of o *7c-, K/ I the country were "wild and uncultivated and even ungoverned. furthermore, he recognized that wnerican society was not with­ out its delects. turbed nim. The materialism of the United States dis­ he felt that in social intercourse America still haa much to learn from the European. "Preface" to his book, As he stated in the "It has seemed to me that in this universal greed for money, American life, 2 in this clangor and whirl of in the wasteful habits everywhere growing up, and in the little heed given to quiet home enjoyment, pleasures of Art andBeauty, old German homes simple, might be economical habit, of quiet cultured tastes, avoice of good from thesecalm, to us;--telling or the genial of a more of sunny and friendly hospitalities, and of a Home-Life, whose affection and cheerfulness make the outside v.Torld as nothing in comparison. This criticism of American life echoed more loudly in many of tne travelers in Germany after the middle of the century. A good example of the waning optimism and waxing skepticism of idnerican society is to be found in the work of Charles Dudley Warner. Besides being a novelist of some prominence in late nineteenth century American letters, Brace, Home L i f e . p. 421. 2 Ibid . , p . 125. 3 Ibid., p. v. 276 Earner belongs to that group or writers like bayard Taylor and N. P. Willis who almost made a profession out of writing about their travels. In addition to his two narratives on Europe, Saunterings and A Roundabout Journey, Earner published narratives dealing with nis travels on the Nile, in the Near East, in Western United States, and in Italy. These works are considerably more esteemed today than his novels, although he collaborated with biark Twain on The Gilaea A g e . by 1872 when Saunterings was first published, the travel narrative had become so prevalent in American literature that Warner felt compelled to market. apologize for adding another- to tiie he did not state any serious or edifying motives for making the trip or for writing the book. he said, "I snoula not like to ask an indulgent and idle public to saunter about with me under a misapprehension. It would be more agreeacle to invite it to go nowhere than somewhere; for almost everyone has been somewhere, it. and has written about The only compromise I can suggest is, that we shall go somewhere, and not learn anything about it.”^ He did not place as much faith in the value of travel or the travel narrative as had most of Warner's skepticism the earlier writers. was equally apparent in his satirical comments on the glories of the American republic. 1 Warner, Saunterinns. p. vii. he regarded 277 the future of the nation with more doubt than expectant hope. He maintained that Americans ought not to celebrate Columbus discovery of America too jubilantly. to no happy condition for Africans, 1 The discovery had led Indians or Spaniards, it had resulted in such evils as the Tweed King. and He said that Columbus was also responsible for "our whole tremenaous experiment in democracy, in five to win. open to all comers, the best three iVe cannot yet tell how it is coming out, what witn the fox-eigners and the communists and the women. On our great state we are playing a piece of mingled trageay ana comedy, with what d^noflement we cannot yet say."^ ixlthougxd earner's work has a pleasant random quality, his interest in the culture of Europe pervaded his narrative. His tx-avels took him chiefly to Eavaria and he devoted con­ siderable time to comments upon the art galleries of Munich ana upon German music. He noted that music constituted part of the daily life of Munich in the regimental bands, the beer-garden orchestras, the church music, orchestra of the conservatory. and the "We are quite satisfied in this Provincial capital; and, if there is better music anywhere, we don't know it," he wrote. 1 Warner, Saunter.ings. p. ix. 2 Ibid., p . 154. 2 276 But m a r n e r 's reaction to the change taking place in Germany in 1863 was less enthusiastic. He sympathized with t.:s Bavarians .in their hatred for Prussia and recognized that Austria was by contrast the more liberal of the two powers. He looked witn some suspicion upon the Roman Catholic clergy of Bavaria, but even that aid not seem as frightening to him as the aspect of Prussia's Bismarck and needle guns.^ Julian Hawthorne's Saxon Studies reflected this attitude toward the new Germany in a more pronounced fashion. nis work was published in 1875 after a residence in Dresden, .although the work falls into the classification which uses travel as a means to wider observation on men and manners, Hawthorne leveled the sights of his critical irony upon saxony particularly, hundred pages. and Germany generally, for almost five He maintained that he hoped to counteract the tendency "to make Germans, of all people in the world, and Saxons with them, objects of sentimental hero-worship."^ He relentlessly criticized the brutality of German life, the treatment of women, the Empire of Bismarck, the militarism of the government, and the spineless submission to authority in the German nature. ^ Warner, Saunterinas. p. 106. 2 Ibid., p. 137. 3 Hawthorne, Sax o n S t u d i e s , p. iv. £79 But ilawt h orne 's skepticism was far-re aching. pretensions, situation, Be had no he said, to have any ideas about improving the and he found the concept of himself as a ‘'reformer" very diverting. "Providence would never have been at pains to create man the only laughing animal, had it not first made him the most laughable of all," he wrote,'1’ He voiced no hope of a future in which the ideal of democratic and cultivated society would be achieved. He was disappointed in Germany and Saxony and said tnat the sharpest disappointment of all g was the fact that he had so few regrets in leaving. Throughout his work Hawthorne pictured the inconsistencies of German life that had bewildered the american frequently. It was both ugly and beautiful, cultured and vulgar. The German, wrote Hawthorne "is continually doing things false in harmony, and incomprehensible, as all discord is. but he can sit through a symphony of Beethoven's, Who applauding its majestic movements with the hand which has just carried to his lips a mug of beer, slice of sausage? and anon returns thither with a He frowns down the laughter of a child, the whispering of lovers as disturbing the performance; but the clatter of knife and fork, the champing of jaws-- Hawthorne, Saxon S t u d i e s , p. v. 2 T b i d . , p. 4t£. 2 SO offends him not."'*' He concluded that Schiller, Heine were "either not German, Goethe and or else they are the only true Germans ever born."^ Yet he felt some of the charm of German courtesy and German enjoyment of life. lie wrote a charming description of a German ball which was strange and new in his experience. It was a very happy, if exhausting, occasion . 0 And he said that the Saxons showed the standard German cultivation of courtesy unless they were about to emigrate to America and had adopted the ways of tnat nation.^ But these virtues mid not compensate fox* the autocratic government anu tiie brutality of a Bismarck. Hawthorne found little basis for optimism about the future of nmerlca and even less about the future of Germany. In a detailed fashion, he recorded a common American reaction to the new Germany. Thus, the m e r i c a n traveler in Germany during the course of the century reflected the movement of thought from the Optimism and enthusiasm of the early nineteenth century to a growing realism and skepticism in the late nineteenth century. 1 Hawthorne, Saxon Studies, p. 3b. 2 Ibid., p. 17. 3 Ibid.. pp. 281-289. .Ib^AP^. , P • 20. 231 Summary Although tne foregoing study das attempted to determine tne overall pattern of tne attitudes ol‘ the American traveler in Germany, the writer indicated earlier that the nature of the subject and the materials used does not make possible hard ana fast conclusions. Contrasting opinions persisted throughout the century and no traveler fell into the classi­ fication of the standard traveler in all respects. Therefore the necessary reservations and qualifications must precede any final interpretation. nevertheless, iueas examine-u anu presented, in the light of the it would a -pear that certain conclusions might legitimately be drawn without falsifying tne evidence. Tne new Germany that tne American traveler visited in the latter part of the nineteenth century was, indeed, a different Germany than his predecessor had observed earlier in the century. It was different, too, from the f,new Germany that the American had expected. but, on the other hand, the American of the late nineteenth century was different from his forbears. his own views were changing. If ne had suffered disappointment when his ideals of democracy and liberalism were not realized in the German Empire of 1871, if 'ne had lost some of nis robust faith in the future, he had flirted with n--w ideas, he had experienced new conditions ot* human existence that were going to ca.'l even his iaea.Ls into question. By 1810, many Americans had lost their belief' tnat the millennium was in the foreseeable future and that the United States would set the example for a world order based upon the humanitarian ideals. Politically, the American's experience in Germany in the course of the century had indicated to him that liberalism could nave form without substance ana that nationalism in modern civilization would not necessarily be a stepping stone to democracy ana internati nal brotherhood. ne recognizee that, Socially, contrasted with some aspects of German civilization, American social life seemed to lack warmth ana beauty of human relationsnips and simple pleasures that it was designed to achieve. Culturally, he granted tiie superiority of German cultivation of the arts but he suspected European culture of lacking the totality which was necessary to true ana liberal culture. and economically, Politically he was aware of the immense advantages of life in the United States, but he saw a steady multi­ plication of problems that did not promise to have any easy solutions. The German experience of the American traveler reflected the movement of American thought from the transcendental optimism of the early nineteenth century to tne naturalistic pessimism of the early twentieth century. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY The task or unearthing adequate bibliogx-aphical materials constituted a major problem in the preparation or this project Ar*ter a brief* investigation or lists or travel narratives available and a survey of card catalogues in several libraries tne researcner realized that the materials were well nigh inexhaustible, but the difficulties or locating titles and checking books for content were equally extensive. The problem was complicated by two facts. First of all, no comprehensive bibliographical work has been done on the nineteenth century American travel narrative, and it has been made apparent to this researcher that almost any library east of the Mississippi could dredge up its own local example by a local traveler. Secondly, most or the narratives are not devoted to a discussion of one particular country but recount a general tour of Europe. limited in their uses, They are, therefore, and the researcher interested in a specific area has to sift through a tremendous number of narratives before finding pay dirt. Out of approximately three hundred books examined in connection with this thesis, only about half proved to be narratives by Americans that included comment upon Germany. 284 Yet the work or compiling a complete annotated bibli­ ography woala seem to have real merit, for even a brief survey gives some indication of the depth and breadth of tne European trip ana the European travel narrative in /imerican life. The following bibliography makes no pretense at being any sucxi exhaustive survey. The writer of this thesis is humbly certain that the investigatory work of the American in Europe has just begun and that the subject provides a rich and to a large extent unexplored potential for the researcher. The following bibliography does aim to add substantially to the lists of travel narratives already in existence and to bring to light the hitherto virtually unmentioned travel narratives on Germany. For purposes of organization, this bibliographical essay has been divided into three sections, the first dealing with bibliographical aids, the secona with primary materials, and tne third with secondary works whicn have been helpful in this study. The primary sources fall naturally into three subdivisions: travel narratives on Germany, travel narratives on Europe generally and Germany incidentally, and memoirs and collected letters of Americans who traveled in Germany in the nineteenth century. 285 Bibliographical Aids Although bibliographical materials are inadequate on the Anerican traveler in Europe, a number of standard and special works p r o v e d of great value in indicating travel narratives that might be useful in this study. The best single list of titles was found in the remarkable bibli­ ographical Volume Three of Robert E. Spiller et al.. eds., Literary History of the United States (Lew York, 1948), pp. 356-366. This section, "American Writers and Books Abroad," neatly broke down the list of narratives according to the country visited, mailing it a particularly useful bibliography. The travel bibliography of the other standard reference work, 'Lilliam P. Trent et al. . eds., The Cambridge history of American Literature (hew York, 1921 ), IV, 681-728, was more difficult to use in that the listings are less complete ana no attempt has been made to separate travels of tne west, Alaska, and the South Seas from travel narratives of Europe. A number of other works of a more specialized nature must be mentionea for their help in supplying bibliograpaical leans. Robert E. Spiller1s The American in England during the First Half-Century of Independence (Lew York, 1926) was one of the earliest studies made on the subject of the American in Europe. Although this work was mucn too broad 266 in scope and too repoi*torial in purpose to provide a real contribution to American intellectual history, it did bring to light a great many titles or early travel narratives. R. D. Llowat's Americans in England (New York, 1955) was less scholarly in intent and therefore of slight value in terms of bibliography. It is an attractively written series of essays on some of the major literary figures in England during the nineteenth century. Robert C. L. Scott, American Travelers in France. 1850-1860: a Study of Some American Ideas against a European Background (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Yale University, 1940) provided a good bibliography of travel narratives of Americans in Europe, many of which proved of value in this thesis. Like Anna Mary Babey's Americans in Russia 1776-1917: a Study of American Travelers jLn Russia from the American Revolution to the Russian Revolution (Rew York, 1956), Scott's stuay tended to be a mere catalogue of American comments in Europe without any real attempt to synthesize them with American thought, however, both studies provided helpful bibliographical aids. Babey's work relied far more upon diplomatic comments than upon the standard travel narrative. Otto .Vittmann, Jr., "Ihe Italian Experience: American Artists in Italy 1850-1675," American Quarterly. IV (1952), 3-15, was too brief for adequate bibliographical citation, but it did furnish a list of artists in Italy and Europe. Robert G. Le Claire, 287 Three American Travelers in England (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University or Pennsylvania, 1945) was too limited in scope to provide much bibliographical help. Primary Sources Travel Narratives: Germany The most valuable sources Tor the purposes of this thesis have teen the travel narratives that dealt with Germany almost exclusively. The American who went to Germany in the nineteenth century ana wrote a study of his observations naturally suppliea the most extensive discussions revealing American attitudes toward Germany and toward his own nation. Tne earliest American travel narrative on Germany was henry Edwin Dwight's Travels in North Germany in 182a-26 (n.p., n.p.d. ). This book, written by a member of the distinguished New England Dwight family, was a series of letters whicn revealed the author's intense republicanism anu New England background. inclined to sermonize, upon German government, Althoug.i repetitious and it supplied a rich source of comment education, and religion. henry niestand's Travels .in Germany. Prussia, ana Switzerland, etc. (New Yorkj 1387) was another early narrative that proved illuminating in regard to American ideas of Germany, particularly in connection with German religious life and 286 customs. henry /fneaton's "The Progress and Prospects of Germany," A Discourse before the Phi Eeta Kappa Society of Brown University (Eoston, 1847) was of a somewhat different nature than the standard travel narrative in that it repre­ sented the views of a former American Minister to the Court of Prussia. Nevertheless, it presented Wheaton's summary of his three years in Germany and indicated, an .american viewpoint of the German government before the Revolution of 1848. Equally valuable were later studies of German social life and customs by american travelers. Charles Loring Brace's home Life in Germany (New York, 1856) gave an excellent picture of American attitudes toward Germany at mid-century, recounting a walking tour through the still un-unitea nation in 1850-51. John Fletcher hurst's Life anu Literature in the Fatherland (New York, 1875) was based upon the author's two trips to Germany, including a five year residence in 1857-62 and a trip in 1867. It contained a long section on German literary production and activity in the universities wnile hurst was a student in Germany. A more critical estimate of Germany was found in henry Ruggles, Germany Seen Without Spectacles (Eoston, 1885), which related the events of a two-year sojourn in the German Empire. 269 The most informative sources for this thesis were not necessarily the most readable travel narratives. An informal style and a vivid imagination added immensely to the narrator's facility for describing his travels with attractiveness. Samuel Langhorne Clemens O/lark Twain, pseud^j^ A Tramp ADroad (New York, 1921 ) provided an oasis of delight in a desert of rather flat ana aria reaaing. Twain's shrewdly observing eye for incongruities and nis tongue-incheek style hignlighted his narrative with humor. Bven on a "peaestrian" tour, he managea to fina some means of conveyance aimost every step of the way, and ne interspersed his narrative with tales and legends and an account of a trip down tne beckar 011 a raft. "The Awful German Language" printed in the Appendix of his narrative, in which Tv.ain analyzed logically the inconsistencies of the German tongue, might well bear reprinting in a more available form. Another brightly written narrative was J. Ross Browne's An American Family in Germany (Mew York, 1866). This western writer and his family assumed the name of "Buttex-worth" in the narrative and lived in Frankfort for almost a year, traveling about Germany. The authoi- wrote with a frontier breeziness which infused freshness into x-ather hackneyed material. Julian Hawthorne's Saxon Stuaie_s (Boston, 1676) was also remarkable for* its readability, although it belonged to the rising critical type of narrative of Americans in 290 Germany, as opposed to the earnest romantic cast of the earlier works. A number of series of student letters provided a fruitful source of material. George Henry Calvert, First Years in Europe (Boston, 1866) related the lire of a student at Gottingen drawn from his own early letters of 1825. George *V. Magee, Jr., ed. , An American Student Abroad; from Letters of Magee 1854-1905 (Philadelphia, 1932) represented the collected letters of the editor's grandfather who studied in Germany in the fifties. James Hason Hoppin's Notes of a Theological Student (New York, 1854) and Edward Southey Joynes' Old Letters of a Student in Germany (Golumbia, S .C . , 191G) were also useful in this group of narratives. A number of narratives ’written by women proved to be extremely valuable in presenting ideas and attitudes of Americans in Germany. Johnson, Two excellent sources were Anna C. Peasant Life in Germany (New York, 16&3) ana Emma Louise Parry, Life Among the Germans (Flint, Michigan, 1887). These contained extensive comment upon acmestic and social life in Germany with a great deal of frank opinion. A particularJy charming narrstive appeared in Mrs. Fay Pierce, ed., Music Study in Germany, f rom the Home Correspondence. of Amy Fay (New York, 1900). The writer was, apparently, an attractive American girl in Germany in 1870, and her letters home were warn, vivacious, and enthusiastic. another 291 interesting and rich source was Mrs. Mary Sands Griffin, Impressions of Germany. By an American Lady (Dresden, 1866) ana Old Facts and ^.oaern Incidents, Supplementary to Impressions of Germany (Dresaen, 1868). The second volume was written after the Prussian invasion of Saxony in the war with Austria in I860. It acdea a goou ueal of valuable comment upon the political situation in Germany from a temporary American resident's point of view. Mrs. Marie J. Pitman [liargery Dean, p s e u d .European Breezes (Boston, 1882) actually concerned the writer's year's residence in Germany traveling witn an Austrian woman. Blancne Willis Teuffel (also published under Blanche howard Millis ), One Year Abroad (Boston, 1877) concerned tne author's residence in Germany but had little value for the purposes of this thesis and was too gushy to supply very stimulating reading. Several later narratives should be mentioned in indicating the attitudes of Americans at the ena of the century. Poultney Bigelow's Prussian Memories 1864-1914 (hew York, 1915) had a frankly anti-German bias. Although it revealed some interesting information concerning Bigelow's boyhood and schooling in Germany and his friendship with Kaiser Milhelm II in his youth, it bore the imprint of the beginning of World War I. This was apparent when this volume of Bigelow's was contrasted with an earlier publicstion, 4 292 The German Emperor and His Eastern Neighbors (New York, 1892 ). As a personalized account of the Kaiser based upon Bigelow's memories of him as a boy, it represented a more favorable picture of Germany than the former volume. Altxiough falling slightly outside of the period under discussion, Reverend James Samuel Stone's From Frankfox-t to Munich (Philadelphia, 1693) recounted an ixxformative trip in Germany in 1892 and contained a good deal of historical comment. The book was reprinted from a series of letters first published in the American Church Sunday School Magazine. Ray Stannard Baker's Seen in Germany (New 'York, 1909) was based upon a trip in 1900 and snowed a much more decided antagonism toward the German state than any of the earlier works. Bur o n e an Travel Narratives : Germany Incidentally As a form of literary expression, the nineteenth centux*y American travel narrative offers an immense variety both in structure ana content. It can range anywhere from a series of speculative essays in whicn the writer uses his travels as a springboard to his own flights of imagination or quiet inflection to a monotonous daily log of a tourist's movements anu activities reminiscent of a schoolboy's composition entitled "My Summer Vacation." Selected at random, the narrative might very well prove to be informative, provocative, i 29o amusing, entertaining, or simply and unequivocally dull. In spite ol the immense variety in the narrstives, a few examples stand out with the sharp delineation of recognizable types. The iollowing list is far too long to allow for easy classi­ fication or for extenuea comment upon the singular features of every book. Therefore, the most significant features and varieties of the travel narrative have been selected for special comment and illustration. A number of the narratives bear local imprints and inciicate tne extent and importance of the travel narrative in American life in the nineteenth century. Some of tnese were published privately, but the fact that they circulated even locally, in addition tc the larger publications of the better known narratives, proves the interest of a large segment of the American public in European travels of "culture consciousness.• a sort Some examples of these local imprints were krs. G. F. Bax-losius, Recollections of a Visit to England. France and Germany 1862 and to Germany loBb (Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1887); John Insley Blair, Foreign Letters (Blairstown, New J e r s e y , 1888); Anne T. J. Bullard, Sights and Scenes in Europe; a Series of Letters from England. France. Germany. Switzerland, and Italy in 1850 (St. Louis, Missouri, lo52); Robert Clark, Chicago to Naples. Our Twelve konths Tour through the British Isles. France. Switzerlana. Italy. Germany, etc. (Chicago, 1885); George h. neffner, 4 2S4 The Youthful Wanderer: or an Account or a lour through England, France, Belgium. Holland. Switzerland, Germany ana the Rhine. Italy, and Egypt (Orefield, Robert nosea, Pennsylvania, 1876); Glimpses of Europe or Notes Drawn at Sight (Cincinnati, 1859); henry Maney, Memories over the Water or Stray Thoughts on a Long Stroll (Nasnville, Tennessee, 1354); Madame Oct avia Walton Le Vert, Souvenirs oi‘ Travel (Mobile, .Alabama, 1857); Mrs. D. killer, Letters to the Young from the Old World (Mount I’orris, Illinois, 1896); Davici Ireston, Letters Written by Mr. Preston during his Two Visits in Europe 1881 and 1886 (Detroit, 1888); William Stevenson, Sights ana Scenes in Europe (Elint, Michigan, 1882); Carrie E. Butler T hwing: An appreciation by Friends together with Extracts From Journal oi a Tour in Europe (Cleveland, 1899); ana Thurlow Weed, Letters i‘rom Europe and the West Indies (Albany, New York, 1866). Some of the narratives first appeared in serial form in newspapers. Joel Cook's A holiday Tour through Europe (Philadelphia, 1839) was i'irst published as letters in the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Sarah Jane Lippincott's ^Grace Greenwood, pseud .J Haps and Misha us or a Tour in Europe (i‘oston, 1854) appeared originally as a journal in the New York Mirror. Lee Meriwether's A Trams Trip; how to £>ee Europe on Eiftv Cents a Day (New York, 1687) was a revised version of letters published in the New York World,, £95 Philadelphia Press. and. the St. Louis Republican. James E. Scripps 1 Five Months .abroad (Detroit, 1882) was the book puolication of nis letters to the Detroit Evening Lews. Francis Charles Sessions' On the Wing through Europe (hew York, 1889) was first published in the Daily Ohio State Journal at Columbus and Matthew Fourney Ward's Lettei*s from Three Continents by M. . the Arkansas Correspondent of the Louisville Journal (New York, 1851) ran first in the Louisville Journal. Equally indicative oi* the popularity of European travel in nineteenth century America, in addition to local imprints ana newspaper publication of narratives, was the preuecessor of the mooern holiday. Magazine of Travels was publisned in Detroit in 1851-52 and ran for eleven issues. It included narratives of the west as well as George Duffield's "Travels in Two Hemisphei’es or Gleanings of a European Tour," which was later published in book f o r m under this title (Detroit, 1858). The publ.icetion of this magazine in Detroit in the middle of the nineteenth century also supplies evidence of tue interest in travel and in Europe in the less settled areas of the United States. There are several somewhat specialized classifications of narratives that merit attention. Most of the early narratives concentrated upon description and information, but in the latter part of the century traveling had become £96 common enough to warrant the writer giving information about the expenses and conveniences of traveling itself. dooa Such a is //illiam hemstreet's The Economical European Tourist: a J o u r n a l i s t s Three Months Abroad for 3450. including Ireland. Scotland. England. France. Switzerland. Austria, ana Prussia (hew York, 1878). Italy. Other writers treated their travels as subjective experiences and material fox* personal, speculative essays. of Bur ope, Framed in Iueas C. A. Bartol's Pictures (Boston, 1 8 8 o ) was actually more of a transcendentalist's philosophy of travel than a personal narrative of ais journey. the work unique. In some cases, tne author made A travel narrative by an 0jibway Indian was George Cop way's Running: Sketches of men ana Places in England, France, 1681). and Germany, by an Inaian Chief (hew York, another pui’ported to be written by a runaway slave, altnough tne gx*ammatical errors and the comments in it seemed a little contrived! David F. Dori*, A Golorea Man Round the World (n.p., 1888). The narrative of two young girls in Europe, Kary Louis Gamewell Ninde, We Two Alone in Europe (Chicago, 1886), was a nineteenth century version of Emily Kimbrough's ana Cornelia Otis Skinner's Our hearts Were Yount- and Gay. Other specialized travel narratives were those wx*itten by Am e r i c a n educators wno went to Europe to stuay school 297 systems and teaching methods: Calvin Ellis Stowe's Report on Elementary Public Instruction in Europe, in Edgar .Vailace Knight., eu. , Reports on European Education (hew York, 193C) ana norace Kami, Report of an Educational Tour in Germany ana Paints of Great Britain ana Ireland (London, 1846 ). Also falling outsiae the province of the regular travel narrative cut containing material concerning the ^mierican traveler's experience in Germany were ntrle Curti, ed., The_ Learned Blacksmith, the Letters and Journals of Elihu Burritt_ (hew York, 1937), Clare Benedict, ■abroad (London, 1930), ea., The Benedicts ana Leslie A. white, ea. , Extracts from the European Journal of Lewis h. korgan (Pub 1 ications of tne Rochestei’ histox-ical Society, Pax*t II), Vol. XVI. Particularly significant from the point of view of the development of American literature were the literary figures who wrote ana published specific travel narratives in addition tc theix- better known work. a writers fall into this group: good many nineteenth century William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller or hotes of Things Seen in Europe and America (hew York, 1850): horace Greeley, Glances at Europe in a Series of Letters from Great Britain. France. Switzerland, etc. , dux*ing the Summer of 1851. including hot ices of the ilreat Exhibition ox* world's Fair (New York, 1851); Julia Wax*a ho we, From the Oak to the Olive (Boston, 1895); Helen karia Fiske hunt Jackson, Glimpses of Three Coasts (Boston, 1883 298 and Bits of Travel (Boston, 1695); David Ross Locke [Petroleum V. Nasby, pseud.) or Travel in England, , Nasby in Exile or Six tenths Ireland. Scotland. France (Toleao, 1852 ); Donala G. miitchell (jk Marvel, pseudj} , Fresh Gleanings: or a Mew Sheaf from the Ola Fields or Continental Europe (Lew York, 1847); Herman Melville, Journal of a Visit to London and the Continent 1 849-1850 (Cambridge, 1948); ana Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunnv Memories or Foreign Lands ^Boston, 1654). Washington Irving's Tales of a Traveller (Lew York, 1649) ana nenrv .Vadsworth Longi‘ellow' s Outre-Mer and Driftwood. The 'Works or Henry Wadsworth Long!ellow (Riverside Edition, Boston, 13o5), Vol. VII, were more imaginatively written than the usual travel narrative. Henry James' Transatlantic Sketches (Boston, 1876), later published under the title Foreign Paints (Leipzig, 1885), was that writer's contribution to tnis genre or literature. More helpful in revealing his analysis oi‘ tae Mnericfan in Europe were his novels dealing witn the subject: The American ana Daisy Miller in Arthur Zeiger, ea., Selected Novels of Henry James (Caxton Library Edition, Lew York, 1946) and The Ambassadors (Lew York, 1905). James Fenimore Cooper likewise provided both autobiographical ana fictionalized material: A Residence in France: with an Excursion u p the Rhine and a Second Visit to Switzerland i 299 (London, 1857) and The neidenmauer or the -benedlctines, a Ltgena of the Rhine (Lew York, 1852). The latter work contained a valuable introduction concerning Cooper's travels in Eavaria and the novel illustrated his antagonism toward Catholicism. The work of the traveler who almost made a profession of traveling ana publishing the fruits of ais journey is also well known in nineteenth century literature. Four such writer's works have been included in this bibliography for their discussions of Germany: Poultney Bigelow, Paddles and Politics down the Danube (Lew York, 1892 ) and Borderland of the Czar and the Kaiser: Notes from Both Sices of the Russian Frontier (Lew York, 1395 ); Eayard Taylor, Views A-Foot (New York, 185b), (Ivlev* York, 1862), At home and abroad. Second Series and By- Wavs of Europe (New York, 1869); Charles Dudley Warner, Saunterings (Boston, 1892) and ■a n ounaabout Journey (Boston, 1884); and Nathaniel Parker Willis, Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean (Detroit, lo55), Loiterings of Travel (Lonaon, 1840), and Rural Letters, and Other Records of Thoughts at Leisure (Detroit, 1855). Other narratives of a more conventional nature used in the writing of this thesis are given below in list form: Martha Babcock Amory, The Wedding Journey of Charles ana Martha Babcock Amory. Letters of~Mrs. Ainory to Rer Bother. Mrs. Gardner Greene. 1835-54 (Boston, 1922). 300 Maturin Murray Ballou, Foot-Prints oi Travel or Journeyings in Many Lands (Boston, 1696). D. D. Barnard, "Political Aspects and Prospects in Europe," A Lecture Delivered before the Youngman's Association in the City of Baltimore, January 51. 1654 (Albany, 1854). Henry W. Bellows, Tne Old »Vorld in Its Bewr Face: Impressions ol Europe in 1867-68 (New York. 1869). Erastus G. Benedict, A Run through Europe (Kew York, 1860). Claries Edward Bolton, Travels in Europe and -rtinerica (New York, 1903). Robert J. Breckenridge, Memoranda of Foreign Travel: Containing Notices of France. Germany. Switzerland, and Italy (Philadelphia, 1839 ). Phillips Brooks, L etters oi Travel (New York, 1594). Cnarlotte B. Bronson, The Letters of Charlotte Brinckerhoff Bronson Written during Her heading Journey in Europe in 1858 with Her Husband. Frederick Bronson, and nls niece Caroline Murray, to Her Mother jx*rs. James L. Brinckerhoff (Cambridge, 1928). Junius Henri Browne, Bights ana Sensations in Europe; Bketches oi‘ Travel and Adventure in England. France. Spain. Germany, etc.. with an Account of Places and Persons Prominent in the Franco-German War (Hartford. 1871). Edward Gould Buff urn, Bights and Sensations in France. Germany, ana Switzerland or Experiences of an American Journalist in Europe (New York, 1869 ). Mrs. B. Euckhout, Aftermath: from City ana Country. Berg and Thai (New York, 1882). George Henry Calvert, Beenes and Thoughts in Europe. First Series (New York, 1646). Second Series __________ , Scenes ana Thoughts in Europe. (New York, 1863 ). .Valter Cbanning, n Physician^ Vacation: or a Summer in Europe (Boston, 1856 ). 501 John Overton Choufce, Vacation in Europe or Young mnericans Abroad; Travels in England, France, aoilana, -Belgium. Prussia, ana Switzerland CB o s t o n . 1352*71 James Freeman Clarke, Eleven Weeks in Europe; ana <»hat May re been in That Time (Boston, 1852). W. Harlan Cord, A Knight remolar Abroad or Reminiscences beyond the Bea (S t . Loui s , 1865). John 1*1. Corson, Li.D. , Loiterings in Europe; or Sketches oi Travel in France. Belgium, Switzerland. Italy. Austria. Prussia. Great Britain, ana Ireland (kew York. 1848). S. S. Cox, .A Buckeye Abroad; or Zander ings in Europe and in the Orient Tnew York, 1852). ilenry Clay Crockett, The American in Europe: Being Guesses ana Calculations on Men ana Lianners Made during a lour through the Most Important Portions of Europe (London, 1680). William Combs Dana, A Transatlantic Tour; Comprising Travels in Great Britain. France, noiland. Belgium. Germany. Switzerland, ana Italy (Philadelphia. 1845). ana Felix Pencil Octavius (Boston, C a r r Darley, 18 78). Sketches Abroad with ren Henry Day, A L awyer Acroad: What to See ana now to See (new York, 1874). J. n. De Forest, European ^cuuaintance; Being Sketcnes ol‘ People in Europe (new York, 1358). Elias Basket Derby, Two Months Abroad, or a Trip to England. France. Eaaen. Prussia, and Belgium (Boston. 1844). Orville Dewey, The Ola World and the Lev;: or a Journal oi Reflections and Observations Made on a Tour of Europe (hew York, 1856*71 Robert Dodge, Diary. Sketches, and Reviews, during an European Tour, in the Year 1847 (New Zork. 1350). M r s . James xnthony Ernes, The Budget Closed (Boston, 1860;. 302 John E. Edwards, Random Sketches and Notes or European Travel in 1856 (Rev; York, 1857). Jesse Filton Emerson, European Glimpses and Glances (hew York, 1639 ). henry ti. Field, From the Lak es of Killarnev to the jlolclen horn (Kew York, 1833 ). Wilbur Fisk, Travels in Europe, viz.. Irelg-iicu Scotland. France. Italv. in England. Switzerland. Germany. _and the Netherlands (New York, 1838). C. G. Fulton, Eux-ope Viewed through h nerictn Spectacles (Philadelphia, 1874 ). wiliiarn Furniss, The Old World : or Scenes and Cities in Foreign Lands (New York, 1850). .'i/illiam Leonard Gaze, n Leisurely Journey ^Boston, 1636 ). Largaret Gardiner, Leaves from a Young Girl*s Diary; the Journal of Largaret Gardiner 1840-41 (New ilaven, Connecticut, 1927). Edwara Everett hale, N inety Days Worth of Europe (Boston, 1561 ) and A F a m i l y Flight through France. Germany. Noi-way. and Switzerland (Boston, 1831). Gilbert Haven, The Pilgrim's Wallet: or Scraps of Travel Gathered in England. France, ana Germany (New York, 1869). Curtis Guild, Over the Ocean or Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lanus (Boston, 1875 ). Orville Horwitz, Brushwood Picked U p on the Continent: or Last B u m m e r ’s Trip to the Old world (Philadelphia,1855). James Jackson Jarves, Art Thoughts; the Experiences andObservations oi an American Amateur in Europe (New York, 1869 ). 3. NT. King, Our D iary in Europe ^London, 1.871). C. k. Kirkland, xiolidavs nbroaa; or Europe from the west (New York, 1849). 303 J. H. B. Latrobe, Hints for Six Lonths in Burope: Beiiif? the Fro^ramme of a Tour through Parts of France. Italy, Austria, Saxony, Prussia, the Tyrol, Switzerland. Holland, _Belyiuni, Singland and Scotland in 1868 (Philadelphia, 1869 ). Alfred 2. Lee, European Days ana wavs (Philadelphia, 189C). Randall A. LacGavock, A Tennessean Abroad: ox* Letters from Europe. Africa, and Asia (Lew York, 1854). Henry Blake LcLellan, Journal of a Residence in Scotland ana a Tour through England, France. Germany, Switzerland, and Italy (Boston, 1834- ). John Litcbell, Notes from Over the 8 ea: Consisting, of Observations Lade In Europe in the Years 1845 and 1844 T^ew York, 1845). Leonard A. x.orris on, Rambles in Europe in Ix'eland, Scotland. England. Belgium. Germany. Switzerland, ana Prance, with n.istorical Facts Relating to Scotch-.american Families Gathered in Scotland and the North of Ireiana (Boston, 1887). Valentine Lott, Travels in Luroue ana the East in the Years 1854, *55, *56, '57, *38. *39. '40 ana '41, Embracing; Observations Lade during a Tour through Great Britain. Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Saxony. Bohemia. Austria, Bavaria. Switzerland, Lombardy, Tuscany. Italy and the Lear East (^ew Yorkh 1842 ). L r s . Louise Chandler Loulton, Random Rambles (Boston, 1881 )• Kicolas Lurray [K1 rw an, pseucQ j Leri and Things as I Saw Them in Burope (Lew York, 1853). Asenath Licholson, Loose Papers, or Facts Gathered during: £iff:ht-years residence in Ireland. Scotland. England. France and Germany (New York, 1853). Andrew Preston Peabody, Reminiscences of .European Tx-avel (hew York, 1869). Samuel Irsenaeus Prime, The Alhambra and the Kremlin; tne South and the Lorth of Europe (hew York, 1873). 504 George Palmer Putnam, A Pocket •memorandum Book during a 1'en V^eeks 1 Trip to Italy and Germany in 1847 (New Ynrk. 1348). F. de Bourg Richards, Random Sketches or .Vhat I Saw in Europe (Philadelphia, 1857 5. Samuel Green Ricketts, Notes of Travel in Europe. Egypt. and the holy Land including a Visit to the Citv ol‘ Constantinople in 1841 and 1342 (Philadelphia. 1844). Joel Edson Rockwell, Scenes and Impressions Abroad (New York, I860). Catherine k. Sedgwick, Letters froin Abroad to kindred at home (new York, 1355 ). Mrs. Mary E. nil son, Here and Inere ana Everywhere (Chicago, 1596). Benjamin Silliman, a Visit to Europe in 1851 (New York, 1854). Joan Jay Smith, a Summer's Jaunt across the water including Visits to England, Ireland. Scotland. France. Switzerlanu, Germany. Belgium, etc. (Philadelphia, 1346). Frank Stockton, Personally Conductea (new York, 1890). Earl Shinn Oidward Strahan, pseudj , The New Hyperion. From Paris to Early fcy Vvay of the Rhine (Philadelphia, 1875). Margaret J. S.\eat, highways oi Travel or a Summer in Europe (Boston, 1859). Z. Sweeney, Unuer Ten Flags (Cincinnati, 13co). henry Philip Tappan, A Step from the New florid to the 01c. arm rack Again: with Thoughts on the Good ancl Evil or roth (hew~Yorn, 1852;. Samuel TopliPi*, Letters from ^oroaa in the Years 1828-39 (Boston, 1906). Rorace Binney Wallace, Art, Scenery, tiUrooe (Pniladelphia, 1855). and Philosophy in 305 E. K. Washington, Echoes of Europe; or world Pictures of Travel (Philadelphia, 1560). Orlando Williams .*ight, Peoples and Countries Visited in a Winding Journey around the World (Boston, 1888). Hezekian Hartley bright, Desultory Reminiscences of a -ioar tiu-cuK.i Per many, Switzerland, and France (.Boston, 1538). w. <>.. 'Wright, Dord^. bv a Stroller in Europe (hew York, 1836 ). kemoirs and Collected Letters To fill in the gaps in studying the American traveler in Germany, it has been necessary to use collected letters and memoirs of eminent Americans who stuciiea or traveled in Germany in the nineteenth century, but who did not leave any specific travel narratives among their printed works. These have been particularly valuable in the case of the hew England scholars who spent time in tne German universit Useful in this group were some of the well known and brilliantly written autobiographies. Henry Aaams, Tne Education of henry Adams (Boston, 1915) contained a chapter on Eerlin and tide German universities. Lincoln Steffens, Tne Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (Lew York, 1 9 o l ) also aaa sore information on German universities in tne early nineties. James Eurrill iingell, Reminiscences (hew York, 1912) recounted the educator's trip to Europe in 1851. Andrew Dickson nhite, nutobloicrauny (Lew York, 1905) and Samuel Dawkins Lax*shall Byex’S, awentv Ye>fir»s In Europe (Chicago, 1900) helped Till out the picture with discussions of oaro^ti and G-ermany by men who for a time occupied the positions oi‘ diplomats. Tne New England scholars' best comment upon Germany and Europe was founu in their collectea letters or papers ana may properly be listea since tney are familiar works: C. Ford, ea. , Letters of Henry Aaams. 1856-1916 (Boston, 1980-88); m. A. De «Volfe Howe, ed. , Life ana Letters of George Bancroft (New Yor^, 1906); Anna Eliot Ticknor, ed., Lji'e oi‘ Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in nis Lettex-s (Camdi‘iage, 1874); Edward Evei-ett, The mount Vernon Papers (new York, 1860); Henry James, ea. , The Lettex-s of V/ill iam James (Boston, I960); Samuel Longfellow, editor, Tne Life of Henry .v'sdswortn Longfellow (Boston, 1886); Charles Eliot Norton, ed. , Lettex*s of James Russell Lowell (New York, 1894); George william Cartis, ea., The Gorrcsoondence of John Lotnroo motley (New York, 1900); Hex-bert B. Adams, ea. , Tne Life and a x -i t inns of Jared So arks (Boston, 1898); Anna Eliot Ticknoi*, ea. , Life. Lettei*s and Journals of George Ticknor (London, 1 6 7 C ) Other letters that ax-oveu of value in connection witn tais study are Onarles Fx-ancis naams, ea. , memoirs of John ^uincy Aaams. 1795-1848 (Philadelphia, 1674-7); Harold Bean Cacer, compiler, Henry ndams and uis Frieads : a Oollectlon of Jnoublisnea Lettex-s (Boston, 1947); william uenry Cnanuing, 307 ed. , Lemoirs oi' Gillian Ellery Charming with Extracts rrom His Corx-es poAdence and Manuscripts (Boston, I860); J. F. Cooper, ea. , Gorrespondence oi' James Fenimore Cooper (Kew Haven, 1922); nenjamin Seebohn, ea. , Memoirs ana Gospel Lacours or Stephen Grellet (Philadelphia, 1860); Edward Everett iiale, Jr., ed., The Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale (Boston, 1917); L. E. Richards, ea., Letters ana Journals of S amuel Gr idley Howe (Boston, 1906-09); Bilurea Howells, ed., Life in Letters of Ailliajn Dean Howells (Garden City, N. Y . , le26); William P. Trent and George 6. Heilman, eds., Tne Journals of Washington Irving (Boston, 1919); Percy Lubbock, ed. , The Letters of Henry Janies (hew York, 1920); 11, A. De ./olfe Howe, ed. , New Letters of J ames Russell Lowell (New York, 1932); Edward Lind horse, ed. , Samuel F. £. j>.orse; His Letters and Journals (Boston, 1914); E. L. Pierce, ed., Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (Boston, 1677-93). Seconaary materials Since bibliographical materials are inadequate on the American traveler in Europe, it is not remarkaole that no scholar has attempted tne uerculean task of assimilating ana synthesizing the travel narratives in a comprenensive ana aefinitive work on the American in Europe. Nevertheless, in a limited way a number of efforts nave been made in that direction. The most useful guide for a brief general 306 treatment of the subject was the chapter "The Pilgrim's Return" aevoted to the iimeric&ii traveler in Europe in Robert E. Spiller et al., eas., L iterary history of the Unitea States (Lew York, 1046), II, 827-843. The chapter surveyed concisely the movement of the American back to Europe in the nineteenth century and related that movement to the history of American thought and letters, both in its fict Lonal expression and in the standard travel narrative, sucn a survey necessarily omitted all but the major nineteenth century writers, but it did supply some helpful comment upon Lark Twain, henry James, Janes Jacl^son Jarves, Nathaniel P. lillis, ana Bayard Taylor. Frederick S. Bellenbaugh's "Travellers ana Explorers," Cambridge History of American Litex-ature. Ill, 131-170, was almost worthless in connection witn this study in that it concentrated entirely upon western tx*avel ana explorations in Africa, the Arctic, and the Far East. Some helpful suggestions were obtained in the discussions of individual autnors and in Albert Bernhard Faust, "Lon-Englisn Writings: German," Cambridge history of American Literature. IV, 572-590, and in Samuel Lee .Volff, "Scholars," Cambridge History of American Literature, IV, 444-491. Another intellectual history, Vernon Louis Parrington's Lain Currents in American Thought (New York, 1927-50), Volume II, set forth some stimulating and provocative ideas concerning the movement of Araei'ican thought in the P09 nineteenth century, although it supplied almost nothing bearing directly upon this thesis. In audition to these standard reference works, two otaer books should be mentioned for their usefulness in illuminating the problem of the American in Europe. Philip Rahv, ed. , Discovery of Europe: the Story of American E x perience in the Old World (Boston, 1947) had limited value in that the work is an anthology of comments by travelers in Europe from Benjamin Franklin to Walter xiines Page. But the editor's "Introduction" proved to be a thoughtful statement of the phenomenon of the traveler in american culture. Ferner huhn's The Wind clew from the East: a Study in the Orientation of American Cultux-e (he.v York, 1942) presented actually a series of speculative essays on the subject with no attempt at scnolarly docu­ mentation. his thesis that Europe provided a "puli’* on American culture antithetical to the idea of the frontier threw illumination on a great many otherwise unintelligible travel narratives. A debt of gratitude must be paid to the literary scholars who have done much of the groundwork in investi­ gating kmericans in Germany by their studies of literary figures wno studied in German universities. The chapter "George Ticknor's VVand er .ian re" in Van Wyck Brooks' The Flowering of New England (Liodern Library Edition, Lew ioi*k, 510 1956) was valuable for an introduction to the early New England interest in Germany. Orie W. Long, Literary Pioneers: Early American Explorers of European Culture (Cambridge, 1955) presented a lucid survey of the influence of the German experience on the work of six prominent American students in Germany: George Ticknor, Edward Everett, Joseph Green Cogswell, Longfellow, George Bancroft, henry Wadsworth ana Jonn Lotnrop Motley. The difficulty in these works seemed to be an inclination to over emphasize the purely literary and intellectual side of interest in Germany, with inadequate representation of interest in German society, politics, and people. John Gerow Gazley, American Opinion of German Unification 1648-1671 (New York, Columbia University Studies, 1926), CXXI, 267, furnished a helpful guide in connection with German political life from the Revolution of 1846 to the close of the Franco-German War. Gazley's work was based on American newspapers primarily, but the writer did use a fev/ accounts of travelers in Germany. Esther Singleton, ea., Germany as Described by Great Writers (New York, 1907) was an anthology that revealed some interesting comments on Germany by .American, as well as English and French, writers, but was too general and descriptive in nature for real assistance in this paper. 311 Kor historical background oi' Germany in the nineteenth century, this thesis followed the material set forth in the chapters dealing with Germany in A. ,Y. '.Yard et al.. eds., The Cambridge kodern History. Vol. X and Vol. XI, and Sir Aaolphus hard, Germany 1815-1890 (Cambridge, England, 1916), o vols. J. H. Rose, C. H. Hereford, E. C. K. Conner and M. E. Sadler, Germany in the Nineteenth Century (Manchester, 1912) was a series of five lectures on the political, intellectual and economic history of Germany in the nineteenth century and the history of German education. B. Eosanquet and F. Bonaria, a . S. Peake, Germany in the Nineteenth Century (Manchester, 1915 ) was the second volume of the series covering the theological ana philosophical history. roth these works were useful in furnishing a background in German history. nnotner readable and valuable account was Veit V •_1 entin, The German People: Their history and Civilization from the holy Roman Empire to the Third Reich (Mew York, 1946). Particularly valuable in connection with the develop­ ment of nationalism were Carlton J. H. Hayes, The nistorical Evolution of Rationalism (new York, 1951 ) and Haxis Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism; A Study in Its Origins anci Background (new York, 1944). Helpful treatments concerning the nistorical development of Aiitrican thought were also founa in .Villiam *v. Sweet, The. Story of Religion in America (*«ew York, 1939 ) , 4 312 Elwood P. Cucberly, Public Education in the Unitea States: A Ctudv ana Interpretation of American Educational History (xioston, 1934), Herbert Dcuneiaer, A History o! American Philos 0 0 Hy (Liew York, 1946), Ralph Henry Gabriel, The Course oi* American Democrat ic Thought: An Intellectual History Since 1815 (New York, 1940), Frederick Llayer, A History oi‘ -tunerican Thought (Dubuque, Iowa, 19bl ), and noward kumford Jones, Ideas in America (Cambridge, 1944). APPE N D I X Traveler Year of Travels in Germany Home in the United States Occupation John Quincy Adams 1H7 Massachusetts Statesman Stephen Grellet 1807, 1818, 1820, 1831 Hew York, Pennsylvania *uaker minister George Ticknor 1615-19, 1835, 1836 Massachusetts Scholar Edward Everett 1815-19 Scholar, politician Joseph Green Cogswell 1818-19, 1837, 1840,Massachusetts 1848, 1850 Scholar, teacher Washington Irving 1618, 1822, 1623 Hew York ’ Writer George Bancroft 1818-22, 1867-74 Massachusetts Historian, scholar, diplomat George Henry Calvert 1825, 1340, 1850 Baltimore, Maryland Editor, poet, essay­ ist, politician Henry E. Dwight 1825-2.6 Connecticut Scholar, teacher Henry W. Longfellow 1826-29, 1840-41 Massachusetts Poet Jared Sparks 1828-29, 1635 Massachusetts Biographer Samuel Topliff 1828-29 Massachusetts Proprietor of the Merchants' Hews Hoorn, Boston John Lothrop Motley 1831-34, 1841, 1855 Massachusetts Massachusetts nistorian Year oi Travels Traveler_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in Germany Home in the united btates Occupation Samuel Gridley nov/e 1331 Massachusetts abolitionist, reformer James Feniinore Cooper 1833 New York writer Henry llake McLellan 1333 (?) New York Divinity student, minister Martha Babcock Amory 1834 Boston Valentin Lott 1834-41 New York Physician, surgeon /•illiam Cullen Bryant 1834-49 New York Poet Ailliam Fisk 1835-36 Connecticut Methodist minister, College President Henry Hiestana 1835 Ohio, Virginia Unitea brethren minister Calvin Ellis btowe 1836 Ohio Educator Hezekiah Hartley Aright 1836 (?) Robert J. Breckinridge 1836 Kentucky Presbyterian clergyman Orville Dewey 1836 Massachusetts Unitarian minister Nathaniel P. Aillis 1836-45 New England, New York Poet, journalist, writer Charles bumner 1837, '38, '39 1858-59 Massachusetts Congressman Traveler Year oi* Travels in Germany Home in the United States Occupation_____ Hew England Caarlotte E. Irons on 1856 Cat tierine Sedgwick 1859, kargaret Garainer 1840-41 Rev; York Donala Z. kitchell 1641 Connecticut Samuel Green Ricketts 1341, 1842 Pennsylvania William Combs Dana 1843 Elia Haskel Derby 1645 kassachusetts Railroaa director John kitchell 1845-44 Connecticut Clergyman, writer William Furniss 1843 (?) Massachusetts Autnor Thurlow Weed 1843-45, 1851-52 Hew York Journalist Horace Mann 1844 kassachusetts Educator Bayard Taylor 1844-1365 Pennsylvania, Hew York Writer Henry .meaton 1845-47 Rhode Island Lawyer, diplomat John Jay Smith 1845 Philadelphia Minister, librarian Robert Dodge 1847 Hew York Lawyer Mrs. James nnthony Eames 1847, 1850 New England Writer J. H. B. Latrobe 1847, 1857, 1666 Baltimore Lawyer, inventor George Palmer Putnam 1847 Hew York Publisher '40 kassachusetts .vriter Author, J.S. consul Traveler Year of Trave in Germany Home in the United states Occupation_ _ _ _ _ John M. Corson 1646 Iowa Pnysician, poli­ tician Catherine M. Kirkland 1848 Michigan, Hew York Writer Herman Melville lo49 New York 'Writer James Freeman Clark 1849-80 Hew Hampshire Clergyman Henry Clay Crockett 1849 Western Pennsylvania Horace Binney /('allace 1849, 1382 Pennsylvania Artist Mathew Flourney /Vara 1849 Arkansas Journalist Charles Loring Brace 1850 Connecticut Philanthropist Anne T. J. Bullard 1850 8t. Louis, Missouri Wife of Presbyterian minister Elinu Burritt 1650 Connecticut Blacksmith George Copway 1850 Michigan, Minnesota Indian, netnoaist minister D. D. Barnard 1850 New York Politician, aiplomat aesenatn Nicholson 1850 5. S. Cox 1650 Ohio Congressman, editor George Duffield 1850 Detroit writer, editor, Presbyterian minister John Overton Choule 1651 New York Baptist minister, teacher Year of Travels in Germany Traveler home in the United States Occupation .benjamin Lilliman 1851 Connecticut Yale professor of science ana medicine henry Philip Tappan lofal-52 Michigan Presiuent, University of Michigan Horace Greeley 1851 Hew York Editor, journalist Davia P. Dorr 1851 (?) Missouri Runaway slave Tennessee Lawyer Randall MacGavocn 1851 Nicolas Murray 1851 hew England Presbyterian minister Saran Jane Lippincott 1852 New York, Pennsylvania writer James Burrill iuigell 1852, 1886-91 Michigan President, University of Michigan Walter Channing 1852 Rhode Island Physician J. w. De forest 1852 Connecticut Novelist Harriett Beecher Stowe 1853 hew England, Ohio Writer, abolitionist Orlando William wight 1853-56, 1887 Detroit Translator, sociologist Octavia Walton Le Vert 1853-54 Georgia Writer Orville riorwitz 1854 Baltimore James Mason hoppin 1854 hew England Theological student, minister, educator Traveler C. . Bartol Year of Travels in Germany Home in the United States_ _ _ _ _ Occupation____ 1854 Massachusetts Unitarian minister Margaret Sweat 1855 Maine Wife of Congress­ man, writer Andrew Dickson White 1855-56, 1668 Michigan, Hew York Educator, diplomat James Francis Magee 1855 Pennsylvania Chemist, business man Samuel F. B. lorse 1855-86, New England Scientist, inventor James Russell Lcwell 1855 /V. W. 'Aright 1355 John E. Edwards lo56 Anna G. Johnson 1557 F. de Bourg Richards a 1867 Massachusetts Virginia, North Carolina Methodist clergy­ man 1857 Philadelphia Artist Fletcher Hurst 1357-64 New York Scholar, teacher E. K. Washington 1858-59 Lower Mississippi Valley Henry Adams 1858-59 Massachusetts Scholar, historian Robert Hosea 1853 Cincinnati Merchant Edward Gould ruffum 1658-1868 Pacific Coast, New York Journalist, eaitor Joel Edson Rockwell 1858 Vermont Clergyman Year of Travels Traveler_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in Germany Home iii the United States 0 ecu oat ion Erastus C. Benedict 1859 Hew York Lawyer Edward Everett Hale 1859, 1880 Massachusetts Unitarian clergy­ man, writer Mrs. C. F. Barlosius 1862, 1885 Virginia Edward Southey Joynes 1863-69 V irg.in.ia Scholar, teacher Poultney Bigelow 1864-72 Hew York, new England Journalist Gilbert aaven 1864 Massachusetts Methodist bishop J. Ross Browne 1865 California Government employee Phillips Erooks 1865, 1872, 1882 Massachusetts Episcopal bishop Mary Sands Griffin 1865-67 F. 0. C. Darley 1865 Philadelphia in*tist James Jackson Jarves 1865 Massachusetts .Vriter, art collector Samuel I. Prime 1866 New York Presbyterian clergyman undrew Preston Peabody 1866-67 New York Unitarian clergy­ man Julia -Vara Howe 1867 New York Writer, abolitionist «illiam James 1867-68, New York, New England Philosopher Henry 1867-68 Hew England Unitarian clergy­ man 1868. 1831-82 New York, Massachusetts hriter Bellows Charles Dudlev ;»arner 1882 Traveler Year or Travels in Germanv iiome in the United States Occupation _____ Junius Henri rrowne 1869-70 Cincinnati, Hew York Journalist iuny Kay 1869-75 Massachusetts Musician, teacher Helen Hunt Jackson 1869, 1885 California Writer Curtis Guild 1870 Boston Editor Lewis Morgan 1870-71 New York Sociologist, lawyer, author E. W. King 1871 Massachusetts Episcopal clergyman Henry James 1872 New York, New England Writer Earl Shinn 1872 C. C. Fulton 1875 Maryland Editor, journalist Julian Hawthorne 1875 New England Writer william Hemstreet 1874 George Heffner 1874 Pennsylvania Student Henry Day 1874 New York Lawyer Henry Field 1875 New England Presbyterian clergyman Blancne Howard Teuffel 1876-77 Charles Edward Eolton 1878, 1890 Journalist Writer Massachusetts, Ohio Educator, business man, inventor Traveler Year of Tr, in Genua] Home in the United States Occupation_ _ _ _ _ Henry Ruggles 1680-82 Ivew York U. S. consul Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1880 Missouri Writer Louise Chandler Moulton 1880 Mew England Authoress, poet Francis Charles Sessions 1880 Ohio Historian William Stevenson 1881 Flint, Michigan David Ross Locke 1881 Ohio Humorist, writer David Preston 1881, 1886 Detroit, Michigan Methodist minister Mrs. E. Euckhout 1881 Saginaw, Michigan Wife of lumberman Marie J. Pitman 1882 Rhode Island Emma Louise Parry 1883-84 John Insley Blair 1883 New Jersey Robert Clark 1684 Chicago William L, Gaze 1884-85 Hartford, Connecticut Minister Leonard A. Morrison 1884 New Hampshire Amateur geneologist Carrie Butler Thwing 1865 Ohio, Minnesota Nile of minister W. Harlan Core 1885 Chicago Lee Meriwether 1885 Missouri Journalist Z. Seeney 1886 Indiana Minister, Church of Christ Student, teacher Congressman Traveler Year of Travels in Germany Home in the Jnited States Occupation_ _ _ _ _ Alfred E. Lee 1387 United States consul liary Louise Gamewell 1387 Jesse Ll. Emerson 1888-89 Joel Cook 18d8-89 Philadelphia Journalist Maturin Murray hallow 186c Boston Journalist, editor Mary E. .Vilson Sherwood 1890 New England, New York author Frank Stockton 1890 Philadelpnia Writer Lincoln Steffens 1890-91 California Journalist Mrs. D. Miller 1891 Illinois Children's writer Samuel Stone 1892 Philadelphia Episcopal minister Samuel Haskins Marshall Byers 1892 Iowa Solcier, diplomat william Dean Howells 1397 New York writer Hay Stannard Baker 1900 Michigan vVriter, politician Cnicago