Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 1 of 2) by Bertha von Suttner - HTML preview

XXXIX
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GERMAN PEACE SOCIETY IN BERLIN

When we came home from Bern much work was waiting for us. The editing of the review, the duties of the presidency in our two Unions, and at the same time uninterrupted literary activity,—all this gave us much to do. My correspondence had greatly increased. It was my ardent wish that a peace society should be established also in Berlin. During my visit there the matter had indeed been broached, but had not come to anything. Now once more I began correspondence with prominent persons in Berlin in order to take further steps in this matter. Even at the beginning of the year I had written letters with this object in view, and now I resumed these connections with redoubled zeal.

Passages from my own letters give some precise basal facts about the course of events connected with the founding of that society. I will put down these passages. The material lying before me consists of the letters that I wrote in those years to my publisher, A. H. Fried, who zealously coöperated with me in this matter—who indeed had really given the first impulse to it. He preserved all my letters, and has, at my request, put at my service the package containing those of 1892, from which there clearly appear, authentically and in chronological sequence, certain data which I should otherwise have forgotten long since, relating to that enterprise which lay so close to my heart.

January 2, 1892

There is really as yet no German peace society. Virchow was persuaded originally, but has since then relapsed into silence. Max Hirsch, member of the Reichstag, now wants to found one. Dr. Barth, the editor of the Nation, is also on our side. In Frankfurt there is also a Union, I believe.

January 14, 1892

Your question about Dalberg is justified too, for such a party politician as Hirsch would not be the right man at the head of the movement. I am just at work getting into communication with others in Berlin.

January 29, 1892

It is almost certain that there is now going to be a peace society in Germany. Hirsch wrote me to-day that the sixty deputies of the peace bureau of the Reichsrat[42] will doubtless effect the formation of a society, and that I shall find it already in existence when I reach Berlin. That would doubtless mean a growth for our paper.

March 1, 1892

Laying of the corner stone during my visit—that would be splendid! I would see to communicating a great declaration of sympathy from the French Parliament on that occasion. If only a revolution does not break out in your beautiful Berlin between now and then, and the Lord God of Dannewitz throw in a bomb[43]....

March 9, 1892

Gustav Freytag would doubtless be the right man as to his standing, but, I believe, not as to his opinions.

April 4, 1892

Dr. Hirsch has written me that the question [as to the establishment of a society] cannot come to discussion in the assembly mentioned; but that I must not be troubled. Well, for a time I will not be troubled, and then I shall go to writing letters and articles until a German peace society is formed. We must have it. Karpeles ought to talk with Hirsch. To get signatures, a provisory committee must first be made up, which then signs under the reservation that they will not have to be active afterwards. That is the way I did in Vienna. Then the big fish remain only as honorary presidents. That suffices perfectly.

April 9, 1892

To-day I wrote a long letter to Karpeles to push the Berlin peace society; if you have the opportunity, look up Karpeles and talk with him about the matter. If only Du Bois-Reymond would lend us his name! A German society must be called into existence before Bern.

Bern, August 31, 1892

Because of the society forming here you need not discontinue your labors there. Just go ahead gathering names, please. It will ultimately centralize itself in Berlin all the same.

September 5, 1892

Yes, the Berlin movement will halt—that I understand [because of the worthless partisan reports about the Bern Congress]; but between now and the next Congress societies must be formed and they will be.

September 10, 1892

The Grelling news is very good. I can now see that the society in Berlin will be formed. I will write to Grelling.

Karpeles is quite right in his unwillingness to serve; the thing to do is for him to coöperate, to get people into the committee, but not to sign. As things stand, the initiative must not have too many Jews back of it, else it will be immediately classified; no more than it could afford to be, say, too strongly Social Democrat. The Austrian comic papers are caricaturing me as the leader of a troop of Polish Jews as it is.

I will name several other people who will be helpful to the German society. The time for founding the society is the most propitious conceivable on account of the impending military bills. In order that the mammoth petition which our Bureau has drafted may get signatures in Germany as well as elsewhere, societies must also exist there. The manifestation may become just as imposing as that against the school laws,—even more imposing! since it is to spring up simultaneously all over Europe.

September 1, 1892

Here are two more letters of adhesion to the Berlin peace society. Hirsch’s is indeed good news.

October 24, 1892

—No, nothing can be done with the party men who will not do anything but go with Rickert and the opponents of the Peace Union there; especially if they take the view that the military bill—that splendid occasion for a mammoth protest—is a hindrance. Nor do we need the Radicals; they constitute the Peace-Conference group anyhow—others will surely join. Only there must be one to appear as chairman.

October 27, 1892

I will try to induce Hoyos, Starhemberg, or the Duke of Oldenburg to come to the Berlin assembly, or at least to write. Wrede will write—he cannot take the journey. Am looking forward to a bulletin with keen anticipation. Südekum must write me fully and frequently.

October 28, 1892

Dr. Förster will not be willing, I think. Also too much worried. Bothmer, perhaps—I am writing to him and others. I do not know whether his means will permit. So you need titles, you Democrats?—Don’t see the need of it. He who was born in Bethlehem had no title either, and his Union is still flourishing.

November 1, 1892

It seems things have got into a scrape. Well, it will go through; it cannot get wholly to sleep again now.... The notice of an incipient society—how am I to do that? Without names, without details.... I have often announced that one was going to be formed,—before my Berlin trip and before Bern,—and nothing ever came of it. People will not believe my word any longer. Possibly the inclosed? If you agree, send it to the printer. Anyhow, such a notice can be made at the last moment, and you who are on the spot will know best what there is that can be said.

November 1, 1892

What our Südekum—he is one of us—writes me causes me to doubt whether the peace society that we need is going to be formed. In the inclosed I have set down a few thoughts relating to that. Herewith I send also a letter to Hetzel. Please see that it reaches him. I wrote to Oldenburg yesterday, also to Hoyos. But of course all these suppose that it is to be a Union after the pattern of the Austrian one. If, however, it is the forming of a new political party, so be it; but outside of the great Union which women and teachers may join. Our head center is at present the Bern Bureau. That is the rendezvous of nonpolitical Unions. The politicians meet in the Interparliamentary Conference; and even they must have the tact not to trot out the status quo, else the French members instantly leave the hall, and what is the good? In the same way the French must keep quiet about their hopes of recovering their lost provinces through the future arbitration tribunal or future congresses of governments, else the Germans would have to leave. There will be time to get an agreement on these matters when, through the power of public opinion, the governments shall be compelled—with a view to the assurance of peace—to adjust such questions. Adieu! it is to be hoped that the majority of the preliminary committee will vote for the formation of a nonpolitical Union. And it is to be hoped that then Dr. Schlief will not deprive us of his energies.

November 4, 1892

Received your two letters to-day simultaneously. Am highly delighted about Förster, Spielhagen, etc. Well, I will not exult until I know definitely how the session of Thursday resulted, since it is still possible that an agreement was not reached. But then I shall scream with delight. Oldenburg has been predisposed through me. A request to join the committee will then have more of a chance to succeed if coming from Förster and Spielhagen. Especially Spielhagen, because Oldenburg is literary too and must therefore be taken hold of on the fellow-craftsman side. The incendiary letter desired I will write to the Excellency mentioned.[44] Next thing you will be putting me into correspondence with Death.... Am eager for the next news; but should not be surprised, and not discouraged, if the thing did not get into running order at once.

November 5, 1892

My dear Friend:

I have not in a long time experienced a greater joy than that which your dispatch afforded me! That is splendid. What we owe to you in this matter is incalculable; if you had not kept tirelessly at work, nothing would have been effected,—at least not for a long time.

Fifteen founders! Of these Förster and Spielhagen alone would be sufficiently influential. If Levysohn is also of the number, then the Berliner Tageblatt will do much for its reception among publicists, and Mosse, we may hope, for the pecuniary side. Wrede’s dispatch went off without my having anything to do with it, else I should not have permitted my name to be put in the foreground. Well, of course the main thing will be the greetings for the first great public meeting; and I will be trying to induce Krafft-Ebing, Starhemberg, Oldenburg, etc., to be on hand. Then will the Germans and Austrians be working “shoulder to shoulder,” but not in the old teeth-showing style.

You must now endeavor to have our review the “official organ” of the German society. The secretary would then have to send a short report each month. If in the other cities of Germany still other societies should arise, so much the better for the movement.

November 7, 1892

Through a blunder my letter to Roggenbach only went off to-day, so that it will not be in his hands before Wednesday. Passy wrote me to-day a delighted card about the bonne nouvelle from Berlin,—as if I were not aware of it! Your letter came too late, because it was addressed to the Chamber of Deputies. His address is Frédéric Passy, de l’Institut, Neuilly, near Paris.

It is too bad that Schlief stays out; but the Union could not be political. If on the outside there is formed a political party devoted wholly to the interests of peace, that would be fine, of course. It is good that the A.-L.[45] question is passed over in silence; but it must be real silence, not saying in the appeal that we say nothing of it because we do not recognize it; that would render the international relations of the new society more difficult. The solution must be, “We do not say where the right lies in the pending conflicts; we only desire that a system of law and a tribunal should be created in which those who are competent and in authority (as we are not) should settle the conflicts without violence.”

November 9, 1892

Grelling’s words in the first meeting give me great pleasure. Let Schlief just form his political party outside; all the better.

November 13, 1892

Virchow’s sympathy is valuable. I would propose to make use of this sympathy in this way,—to add to the appeal something like the following:

“Prevented by professional obligations in other departments from taking an active part in the management of our society, but penetrated with perfect sympathy for our aims, the following persons have permitted us to use their names in this appeal and so to make known their agreement with what is here said:

“Virchow. Schönaich-Carolath. Etc.”

The page proofs of this appeal must be sent to such of the persons concerned as we wish to draw in further. To-morrow I will let you have a sketch; to-day no time.

If so be that the appeal is already made, I hope it is as brief as possible. That avoids contradiction. It does not need to make converts before it can do its work. Only sympathizers come in, anyhow; and they are—God be praised—numerous.

November 14, 1892

Here is that sketch. Perhaps the gentlemen will find in it something to start from. I think perhaps what is good in it may be the fact that it contains a programme which marks out the line for further activity and eliminates that which a peace union cannot do; that is to say, itself founding peace, removing the political causes of war.

Here is also a second sketch for notices in the papers—will be easier to find room for than the big appeal. Oh, this overloading with work! One is caught in the wheels of so many machines that one scarcely knows where one is. You are in it too now. It is lucky, anyhow, that Südekum can help. The unpleasantnesses and difficulties in the birth and infancy of the Union—oh, I know them too; the only thing that helps one over them is a look toward the loftiness of the goal. With hearty hand-clasp to the brave comrade in arms, etc.

November 16, 1892

From Roggenbach I received the inclosed letter, which I beg that I may have back after a few days. I send it because it contains so much that is important, and what it contains is so useful for the formation and the programme of the new society, that it is well for you and the comrades to read it. The point is—this grows clearer and clearer—neither to deny nor to affirm the status quo; simply to leave it unmentioned. Only in this way can Frenchmen and Germans work in common for our end.

November 21, 1892

In your letter received to-day I am startled by “Förster is not willing.” Had he not already given his adhesion? Have we not published the news a little too soon? To-day I have written twelve pages again to Roggenbach.

November 29, 1892

I am very much delighted at the organization of the Committee. If a session took place, please get this intelligence into No. 12.... Unfortunately, Oldenburg will not come forward. He declares he has never wanted to go before the public politically, and as a colonel still less can he do so in the peace movement. But perhaps I may accomplish something yet. On the seventh of December he is coming to the General Assembly; on the eighth we dine with him and his wife at Castle Erlaa; perhaps at dessert he can be brought to something.

December 3, 1892

The remissness of Förster and G[isitzky] I can very easily explain to myself; they are with their whole soul “Ethics,”[46] and in that case one cannot take charge of any second undertaking. The position of president might well remain temporarily vacant. The main thing is the secretary. Besides him, all the great names as “Honorary Presidents.”

December 5, 1892

Here is the letter desired. Write address and name on it. Perhaps in the meantime K. [Professor Kohler] has already declined or you have another in mind.

December 5, 1892

That was right unfriendly of Spielhagen. In the very lines in which he declined [the presidency] he might have included a manifesto. The heart must be in it. Well,—and thank God,—ours is!

December 16, 1892

As to the election of a president, I think once more that if worst comes to worst the position can remain vacant and two vice presidents can be chosen. The main thing would be an energetic secretary. To drop the matter is no longer admissible. They are rejoicing over it too warmly in Bern; besides, it has already been announced everywhere by the autograph correspondence of the Bureau. Hodgson Pratt is in raptures. So stick tight and hold out. If they do not at once get a clear idea of what they are about, no matter; the important thing is, to be; the rest takes care of itself.

December 21, 1892

How my heart throbs at it! [That is, at the meeting of the German Peace Society set for the twenty-first of December.] How I rejoiced over your Habemus Papam! Yes, that is a Christmas deed!

Thus the long-desired formation of the Society had become an accomplished fact!

1. Sitten, like French mœurs and Latin mores, has the double meaning of “morals” and of “customs,” “manners.”—TRANSLATOR.

2. La Dame blanche, opera by Adrien François Boïeldieu, composed in 1825. Theodor Formes died in 1874, at the age of forty-eight.—TRANSLATOR.

3. From the word “Past!” on, these inscriptions are in English. Of course the fifteen-year-old German girl’s English is literally reproduced here; it is much better than most of our schoolgirls could do in German.—TRANSLATOR.

4. Pseudonym of Anton Alexander Graf von Auersperg, a distinguished liberal Austrian epic and lyric poet, born 1806, died 1876.—TRANSLATOR.

5. Born 1791, died 1872; published his last drama 1840; began to be very famous as a dramatist about 1850.—TRANSLATOR.

6. Pseudonym of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau, born 1802, became insane 1844, died (in an asylum at Oberdöbling near Vienna) 1850.—TRANSLATOR.

7. Count Friedrich Heinrich Ernst von Wrangel, Prussian general, was born 1784, was made Field Marshal 1856, died 1877; commanded the troops of the Germanic Confederation against Denmark in 1848, and the allied troops of Prussia and Austria against Denmark in 1864, but withdrew from the command in May of the latter year. But Lieutenant Field Marshall Felix Ludwig Johann Friedrich von Schwarzenberg, Austrian statesman and general, died in 1852, before Wrangel received the title of Field Marshal. I infer from this, and from the following sentence, that these signatures did not constitute a single inscription.—TRANSLATOR.

8. The joke is the same as in the story of the Englishman who mistook the American ambassador in his plain evening dress for a waiter, and gave him the order, “Call me a cab,” to which Ambassador Choate replied, “You’re a cab,” and afterwards defended himself by saying, “He asked me to call him a cab, and I did; and I would have called him a han’som’ cab if he hadn’t been so ugly.” But in English the troublesome words are a mere ambiguity; in German it is a case of erroneously using for the one sense the forms that properly convey the other sense, so that the interpretation which the father-in-law puts upon the suitor’s words, strained as it looks in the translation, is really the only interpretation which the words as spoken will bear.—TRANSLATOR.

9. Observe that previous to 1870 it was patriotic, not unpatriotic, for a Bavarian to speak of an Austrian as a fellow-countryman. It is quite likely, however, that the land of Parnassus is here meant.—TRANSLATOR.

10. The centennial anniversary of Schiller’s birth.—TRANSLATOR.

11. Schiller’s birthday.—TRANSLATOR.

12. If the illegible word is a proper name, it should be a masculine name of four syllables with accent on the third. If not a proper name, it should be preceded by “the” in the translation.—TRANSLATOR.

13. Too great a reward for my poor labors is the sympathy of so courteous and lofty a soul as is manifested in the letter which you have done me the honor to write to me. In such a soul it is a matter of course that indulgence also must find a place; and if in this case it is excessive, this is one reason the more why it should arouse in me a lively sense of gratitude. For the rest, excess in kindly feelings is one of the least dangerous disorders in this world. May God preserve and reward the noble inclinations which he has bestowed upon you.

Pray accept the respectful expression of my gratitude, and the assurance of the high esteem with which I have the honor of signing myself

Your most humble and devoted servant

Alessandro Manzoni

14. Compare the dates of the autographs in the preceding chapter.—TRANSLATOR.

15. Both titles are “countess” in English; but in German Gräfin is the count’s wife or widow, Komtesse his unmarried daughter.—TRANSLATOR.

16. Manoel Garcia del Popolo Vicente, a native of Seville, born 1775, died 1832, was successful as singer and composer, and supreme as music teacher. The reputation of his book Metodo di canto is high and permanent. He had two daughters, Maria born in 1808 and Pauline born in 1821. The elder, named Malibran by marriage, was one of the most renowned singers of the nineteenth century; she died in 1836. Pauline made her first appearance on the stage in 1837; married Louis Viardot, at that time director of the grand opera at Paris, in 1840; remained on the stage, with much success, till 1863; and settled in Paris as a teacher of singing in 1871.—TRANSLATOR.

17. To wit, Heine’s verses:

Du hast Diamanten und Perlen,

Hast alles, was Menschenbegehr,

Und hast die schönsten Augen—

Mein Liebchen, was willst du mehr?

—TRANSLATOR

18. Later, and as a result of this visit, married to Prince Louis Murat, Prince Achille’s youngest brother.

19. The stream mentioned above, the Tzkhenitz-Atzkhali—the Hippus of the classic writers—forms the dividing line between Mingrelia and Imeretia.

20. Or “Throw Down your Arms.” One translation bears the title “Ground Arms,” but that does not convey the idea.

21. .fs .9em

Chère Baronne et amie!

Je viens d’achever la lecture de votre admirable chef-d’œuvre. On dit qu’il y a deux mille langues—ce serait 1999 de trop—mais certes il n’y en a pas une dans laquelle votre délicieux ouvrage ne devrait être traduit, lu et médité.

Combien de temps vous a-t-il pris de composer cette merveille? Vous me le direz lorsque j’aurai l’honneur et le bonheur de vous serrer la main—cette main d’amazone qui fait si vaillamment la guerre à la guerre.

Vous avez tort pourtant de crier “à bas les armes” puisque vous-même vous en faites usage, et puisque les vôtres—le charme de votre style, et la grandeur de vos idées—portent et porteront bien autrement loin que les Lébel, les Nordenfelt, les de Bange et tous les autres outils de l’enfer.

Yours for ever and more than ever

A. Nobel

Paris, le 1 / 4 1890

22. .sp 1

All hail to weapons! They are man’s by right!

Let woman hold her tongue when men must fight.

And yet, ’tis true, in these days men are found

Who rather should in petticoats be gowned.

23. Corresponding (see top of page 353) nearly to our “Puss in the Corner.”

24. “We must make him speak, however we do it.”

“But he notified me himself, yesterday, that he has not prepared a speech.”

“Call on him all the same; then he will have to say something!”

25. “Monsieur Friedrich Bodenstedt of Berlin has the floor!”

26. —“but even if I had prepared a speech I would not deliver it here to-day—”

“Why not? Why not?”

“I will tell you why