REINHOLD SOLGER PROF. A. E. ZUCKER

Reinhold Ernst Friedrich Karl Solger So doch in Namen reich an "Witz" und was born July 17, 1817, in Stettin, Pom- "Blitz," erania, Prussia, the son of Regierungs- Die alle jährlich frische Fähndrich's bringen, Umkränzend ihres Königs Herrschersitz rat (later Oberregierungsrat) Friedrich Wie—um mich hier homerisch auszu- Ludwig Wilhelm Solger and his wife drücken— Auguste Amalie, née Jungnickel. Rein- Die Borste ziert des Erimanthiers Rücken. hold was the first of five children in his Hanns hatte mit der Muttermilch daher father's second marriage. At his bap- Schon eingesogen krieg'rische Talente: Er zählte bald euch an den Fingern her tism his godfather was a Hofrat Jung- Den Kommandör von jedem Regimente. nickel from Schwedt a/O., the native "Mit Leib und Seele wird er Militär, town of both of his parents. "Der Junge! Sternkreuzhagelsappermente, "Verfluchter Schockschwernothmillionen- A long tradition of civil service and hund!" of culture prevailed in the family. Sol- Rief oft sein Vater zärtlich schmunzelnd, und ger's father was a member of the Prus- Hob ihn empor, und küsst' ihn, tief gerührt. sian Diet and afterward his two Zwar, Mutter wünschte mehr, er möcht' brothers, Carl and Allernitz, likewise studiren: represented in this body their respective "Was, so ein Federfuchser? He! Marschirt "Mich mit das Zeug!—Das sollt' mich districts of Danzig and Posen. The konveniren!" member of the family who has made the Schrie dann der biedre Mann. "Dekorrampirt name most widely known was Rein- "Mich nicht den Hanns; er soll mich Kommandiren; hold's uncle, the Berlin professor, Karl "Hanns, willst was lernen?" '"Näh!'" Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger (1768-1819), "Na, sieh en Mal, writer on metaphysics and aesthetics, "Frau: sagt' ich's nicht? Da steckt ein and a close personal friend of Ludwig General!" Tieck. Als Hanns demnach das zwölfte Jahr erreicht, Erschien der Tag, den er ersehnt so lange; When Solger was but nine years old Die Mutter, hang, von Thränen ganz erweicht, his father died, leaving Solger's mother Mehr als ihr Stand erlaubt, küsst' ihm die in straitened circumstances and depend- Wange: ent on her relatives. Perhaps it was Doch unserm Hannsen war's im Herzen due to this fact that Reinhold was sent leicht, Ihn rief mit ahnungsvollem Zauberklange to the military academy of Züllichau, a Das mächtige Gefühl, das uns von Haus small town east of Berlin. In a Byronic Ins ungewisse Weite treibt hinaus. epic which Reinhold Solger wrote many Du armer Hanns! von einem Käfig 'raus years afterward called Hanns von Katz- Flogst du in ein Gefängnisz ein mit Mauern; enfingen und seine Tante, geb. F. v. K., Du armer Hanns! in ein Kadettenhaus: Decorum est pro patria—versauern. he tells how the hero at the age of twelve Die Arme streckt der bunte Moloch aus was sent to a military school, referring Und macht das Land um seine Kinder trauern, to the institution as a "jail." While this Tränirt, noch eh' sie von sich selber wissen, work is by no means entirely autobio- Ein Götzenbild für's Vaterland zu küssen. graphical there are enough references in Indessen, Hanns war Philosoph genug, Nicht Krieg mit der Nothwendigkeit zu it to experiences similar to Solger's so führen, that we may justifiably consider it as a Und, wenn sein Muth ihn 'mal ins Weite trug, source for the flavor, at least, of his S'giebt Mittel, solch ein Bürschchen zu life as a boy. In addition to this it kuriren Von allem Geist, und hätt' er dess genug, presents Solger's wit and satire, char- Um selbst—'nen Deutschen hinter's Licht zu acteristic traits of the man, to such a führen, degree that I shall quote a number of Was, wie man weiss, so äusserst Schwierig stanzas. ist, Dass es sogar—Sr. Maiestät dem Hochseligen Es sind bekanntlich die von Katzenfingen, König, der doch aufrichtig gestanden, das Gutkernaltpreussisch seit dem alten Fritz, Pulver nicht erfunden hatte. Wenn nicht besonders licht in andern Dingen,

[8] The last line, comical especially be- Doch anders dachte Hannsens liebe Tante, cause its length breaks the meter, was G'heimräthin Ruf (Neid hiess sie: Selberlieb), the tribute of a Forty-Eighter laid at the Die völlig überlebt den Adel nannte, door of Frederic William IV who in Doch stets "geborne F. v. K." sich schrieb. 1849 had declined the crown of the Ihr Herz, das ganz allein für Jesum brannte German Empire, and who in 1857 was Und dieses Brennen con amore trieb, War zu beschäftigt mit der Menschheit declared insane. Solger's droll choice Sünden, of rhymes can be illustrated by the fol- Um seine kleinen Makel aufzufinden. lowing stanza, at the end of which the In ihrer Jugend las sie viel von Göthe, implied rhyme is omitted with humorous Und nach der Zeit noch immer manch' Journal: restraint. Ihr Bruder blies als Kind die Pickelflöte, Virtus negata tentat her via— Ihr Urgroszvater war ein General; "Ein braver Kerl geht auf verbot'nen Und ihres Mannes Vetter schrieb Pamphlete Wegen" Im Fach der philosophischen Moral: Und giebt zuweilen Poesie, wie die da, Sie war mit zweien Dichtern selbst bekannt Frei, wie die Preuss'sche Presse! und (Den einz'gen ihrer Zeit, wie sie gestand). verwegen Traktirend, wie das Bayrische Genie da, Unfortunately only two cantos of this Wenn nicht Priscian, doch Adelung mit work, originally planned on the model Schlägen; of Byron's Don Juan, were finished. Its Brav ist der Kerl, ich sag's, aus diesem purpose was to picture the development Grund, of a young officer who had grown up Wenn auch im Uebrigen------under the influence of blasé pseudo-cul- The innocent young recruit falls in ture, military training, and Pietism into love with an equally innocent young an independent personality, true to it- Ladenmädchen and shyly makes a con- self, taking his part in the advancement fidant of one of the older cadets. The of humanity toward freedom. Friedrich comments of this more experienced fu- Kapp, in his essay on Solger, quotes the ture officer are deliciously expressed— latter as saying that a jovial lieutenant just before the bell calls them to chapel with whom he had during his stay in exercises. Even Schnitzler's Leutnant Potsdam watched daily from the window Gustl is not worthy of unloosing the of their room the parade of the first latchet of the shoes of this man of the regiment of the royal guard served as world: the model for the hero. When this poem "Sie ist nicht übel—nein—sie macht sich so—: appeared anonymously in 1845 and 1846 "Die Augen und die Haare—sind brilliant; in Deutsches Taschenbuch aus der "Ihr Busen—wird gewiss 'mal nicht von Schweiz it aroused considerable discus- Stroh—; sion, and was attributed by some to Rob- "Die Füsschen und die Waden—ganz scharmant— ert Prutz; the latter replied that he "Figüre—mannifik! Süperb—Popo! would be only too proud if he could "Ensemble—tout parfait!—S'ist anerkannt. have written it. "Zwar wird sie stark pussirt: doch allgemein "Behauptet man, sie soll noch Jungfer sein. By quoting from Solger's later works "Auf diesen letzten Punkt—du weisst, I have anticipated a bit. In the fall of Kamrad, "Geb'ich aus Grundsatz niemals die Parole. 1837, at the age of twenty he matricu- "Wenn du der Erste wärst—: s'wär delikat! lated at the University of Halle. In the "Es wäre gross! dass mich der Deibel hole! epic quoted above the hero comes under "Parblö! Hanns, reüssirst du in der That—: "Auf Ehre, Hanns, ponir' ich eine Bowle!" the influence of his pietistic aunt—per- —Hier kommandirte sie der Glocke klingen, haps this is a biographical touch that Dem Herrn ein Herz voll Rührung accounts for the fact that during his first darzubringen. semester Solger enrolled as a student of As a final quotation I cannot resist theology. But already in his second the description of the hero's aunt, a semester Solger turned to the study of vignette done so maliciously that one is the two branches that remained his chief tempted to suspect the author of settling interests during the rest of his life, a score with one of his own female rel- atives: namely, history and philosophy. He joined the circle of Arnold Ruge who

[9] was editing the Hallischen Jahrbücher, wrote likewise another poem, the prod- a politically radical publication that uct of the conditions of his life and the advocated political freedom and a pessimistic spirit of the times, called Der united Germany. Ruge, later also an Untergang. He might have called it with exile after the revolution, published in Spengler Der Untergang des Abend- 1840 some lyrics by Solger in his Mu- landes, for the gist of the whole is con- senalmanach. While Solger took part in tained in the last lines: political agitation and also in the gay, Hier gehst du unter, Licht, auf steigst du da: carefree social life of the German stu- Europa stirbt—Heil dir, Amerika. dents, yet his chief interest centered in his studies by means of which he laid Aside from the "europamüde" mood the foundation for his thorough, almost of the whole, engendered by the political encyclopaedic education. In 1840 he reaction of the period of Metternich, this transferred to the University of Greifs- poem also contains a number of pas- wald where he took his doctorate in 1842 sages that are biographical. From the with a dissertation on the Sicambri, an following lines one can readily recon- ancient German division of the Teutons struct the life in his widowed mother's mentioned by Tacitus. Solger had the home where an uncle evidently came to intention of entering upon an academic the aid of the impoverished family: career for which, it seems, he was best Wo ist das Haus mit seinen Lindenbäumen, fitted by temperament and training. Mit jenem dunklen, traulichen Gemach, Wo in die Dämmerung von Kinderträumen, But at this point a benefactor entered Ein liebeglänzend Mutterauge brach?" his life, a friend of his father's, Eich- Wo ist der Herd, an dem in Abendstunden horn by name, who at that time was Ein heimisch Feuer die Geschwister fand Kultusminister of Prussia. He secured Wenn oft das Leiden früher Lebenswunden Sich thränenvoll aus ihrem Busen wand, for the gifted young man a post in the Und doch, wo Gram und Sorg' und Noth government at Potsdam where Solger verbunden, worked for one year as Referendar. Verlassenheit, der Armuth Druckerhand, However, finding little to interest him Am warmen Thau'n aus eines Bruders Blicken in the life of a bureaucrat, he devoted Zusammenschmolz in inniges Entzücken?" most of his time to gay social activity in Potsdam and in Berlin, contracted Other lines recall his ardent, hopeful considerable debts, and decided after student days in Halle, likewise in very one year that it would be best for him pessimistic vein, in the spirit of the im- to emigrate to America. This Potsdam mortal student song, "Wir hatten gebauet interlude gave Solger his profound ein stattliches Haus": scorn for Junker and bureaucrats which Wo bist du, Jüngling, mit den Purpurwangen, one finds in all his writings. But he Aus dessen Auge brennend Leben fuhr, got only as far as Liverpool, for a fraud- Wenn wir uns ernst und fest und wild umschlangen ulent ticket broker had sold him a Und Tag und Nacht, und Gott und die forged worthless ticket and thus, with- Natur out any further funds, he was obliged In unsern Bund ihr himmlisch Zeugniss to slay in England. But here, in 1843, klangen, luck came to his assistance, for he was Wenn du mir, ich dir ew'ge Freundschaft schwur? offered the post of tutor in the family Freundschaft,—o heil'ger Wahnsinn!—über'm of a country gentleman, a sinecure which Grabe! he held for four years. In this comfort- Weiss noch der Mann, was er gelobt als able, quite congenial position he had Knabe? Seht, wie sie sinkt! und diese Welt wird sufficient leisure not only to master the Nacht, English language completely, but also Dort über'm Meer beginnt der Tag zu to take up once more his historical and scheinen, philosophical studies. In calm retro- Und was ich einst geträumt, gehofft, spect and in the free atmosphere of gedacht,— Sei's drum—auf immer sei's, und ohne England he wrote his Hanns von Katz- Weinen-— enfingen, the satire on Prussianism. He

[10] Wer weint, wenn eine Welt in Trümmer Dich sätt'gen nicht Minister, nicht die Skalen, kracht, Nicht freies Korn, noch andre freie Vor seines Glücks, geborst'nem Haus, dem Sachen. kleinen? Schling! schling Dich fort bis zu der Grenze Hier gehst du unter, Licht, auf steigst du da: Malen, Europa stirbt ------Heil dir, Amerika! Wo des Barbaren Doppeladler wachen. In addition to his studies and his Und da?—da heisst's die Schwerter aus der Scheide; poetry Solger also gave some public lec- "Die Welt hat keinen Raum mehr für uns tures, an activity that was to form his beide." chief means of gaining a livelihood dur- From Heidelberg Solger went briefly ing his American years. Through the to Bruckberg to pay his respects to Lud- lectures he made the acquaintance of wig Feuerbach. An attempt on Solger's Dickens, Carlyle, and Lord Lytton, who part to establish himself as a literary became his friends and sponsors during man in Berlin during the same year his first as well as his later stay in Eng- failed, and he returned once more to land. But despite the prestige of their Paris. One day as he was walking along patronage Solger's lectures in England the street he saw a young French girl do not seem to have been very successful with whom he fell in love at first sight. financially. He followed her at a discreet distance In the spring of 1847 Solger left and noticed that she entered a certain England for the continent and at first convent school. He secured an introduc- spent some months in Paris where he tion to the young lady and soon won her moved in the circle of political refugees heart. On February 19, 1848, Reinhold —Bakunin, Herzen, Herwegh, Bernays, Solger, aged 30, married Adèle Marie and others. When during the summer Bémère, aged 18. It was an exceedingly he came to Heidelberg he met a kindred happy marriage; throughout his later spirit in Friedrich Kapp, another Forty- numerous changes of residence she was Eighter and later, in New York, one of his constant companion and she became the most successful German-American the mother of his four children. A few politicians and journalists. The enthu- days after his wedding he became an siastic description which Kapp wrote in eyewitness of the February Revolution, 1866, after Solger's death, of their idyl- concerning which he wrote a vivid ac- lic stay in Heidelberg is a fine testimo- count for Wigands Konversations-Lex- nial to both men. They lived together ikon. in common lodgings, enjoyed the beau- tiful scenery of the Neckar valley, read In April, 1848, he returned to Berlin poetry together, and argued at length on where he became an enthusiastic mem- political systems. Solger felt great ad- ber of a democratic club; in August he miration for the freedom of the Brit- moved to Frankfurt am Main where he ishers, as well as for their energy and worked and wrote for the extreme Left courage, but he was far from consider- until the outbreak of the revolution in ing England ideal. Kapp's article cites Baden. Kapp regrets that his friend two stanzas from Solger's Untergang as was not appointed to the ministry of giving the reverse side of the shield: foreign affairs in Carlsruhe where he might have done valuable work; instead, England! Du hast gehammert und geschmiedet, because of his knowledge of languages, Gestrickt, gewalkt, gewirkt, geappretir't, Solger served as translator and inter- Gebohrt, geschärft, gekocht, gedampft, preter of General Mieroslawski. After gesiedet, the disastrous conclusion of the revolu- Geschachert, prachert, wuchert, spekulirt, tion Solger took refuge with the rest of Gelogen und betrogen unermüdet, Geknechtet, blutgesogen, massakrirt, the army in Switzerland where he lec- Verrathen, wo sich nur Profit dabei fand, tured on English literature in Zürich and Der Völker frommstes unter Gottes Beistand. wrote for radical journals. During this Schling! schling!—Du stachelst nur des Hungers Qualen, time he wrote a farce in one act, Der Und reizest nur zu heissrer Gier den Reichstagsprofessor; the setting is in Rachen, Berlin and the satire is directed against [11] the servility before constituted authority intersperses it between descriptions of of the opponents of the revolution. It was daily happenings and of the political read with great glee by the exiles in personages of this very exciting period Switzerland, but of all the works of in American history. Solger this piece of exaggerated persi- A letter preserved in the Library of flage is least enjoyable for the present- Congress among the papers of John day reader.* Sherman, then senator from Ohio, writ- During the summer of 1852 Solger ten by John A. Andrew, Governor of left Zürich for London where his old Massachusetts, ranks Solger with Carl literary friends received him very cor- Schurz in his influence in bringing about dially. Yet his course of lectures, the election of Abraham Lincoln. though sponsored by Dickens and other "No public man need be reminded of the prominent authors, proved a failure. invaluable services rendered by Dr. Solger Therefore he decided to emigrate to the to the Republican cause, both in the cam- United States, landing in Philadelphia paigns of 1856 and 1860. in the spring of 1853, and then settling in "It is enough to say that, through his public addresses to large assemblages of Roxbury, a suburb of Boston. As he had Germans and Americans, in several states, done in Switzerland and in England, he and especially in the principal towns in the supported himself by his pen and by interior of New York in the fall of 1860, he may be considered as having done as much public lectures on history and modern to secure the support of the Eastern Ger- German philosophy; both in 1857 and mans to the Administration, as his friend 1859 he delivered a series of twelve lec- and fellow patriot General Carl Schurz did tures at the Lowell Institute of Harvard for the Western." University, where James Russell Lowell Lincoln appointed Solger Assistant and Louis Agassiz were among his ap- Register of the Treasury and on Jan- preciative hearers. uary 22, 1863, this was confirmed by As quickly as possible Solger became the Senate. Friedrich Kapp, who vis- an American citizen and interested him- ited Solger repeatedly in his office, self in the political questions of the day. speaks of the irony of the situation in Like most of the Forty-Eighters he be- which Solger, who all his life had had came an enthusiastic member of the new to struggle to keep the wolf away from Republican Party. He "stumped" for the door was signing day in and day Fremont in 1856 and for Lincoln in out government obligations totalling 100 1860 in New York State, as well as in million dollars. During this purely the Middle West. Some letters written mechanical labor he recited to his vis- to his wife (in French) which Mr. Fred- itor from Homer, Sophocles, Shake- eric R. Solger of Washington, D. C., our speare, Goethe, and Schiller, or told author's grandson, graciously allowed droll happenings about the treasury de- me to read, give a vivid picture of what partment where he seems to have been hardships in hotels, in travelling and in regarded as an authority on all subjects. the association with the "natives" he had It had been Lincoln's intention to ad- to surfer. Several of the letters give vance Solger shortly from assistant reg- itineraries—one night each at 24 little ister to register of the treasury, but in Ohio towns, for example. "You have April, 1864, the latter suffered a par- no idea how utterly stupid the people alytic stroke which turned his last days here are—my only amusement is fur- into suffering. He died January 11, nished me by bed-bugs with whom I 1866, at the age of 49, and was buried carry on great hunts." This good humor in the Congressional Cemetery in Wash- is characteristic of Solger's letters; he ington. It is an interesting, but of

*In a famous critical work, Hermann Hettner, Das moderne Drama (1851). republished 1924 by Behrs Verlag, Berlin, I note on page 161 praise of this work, not necessarily in disagreement with what I have said. Hettner holds that the form of Aristophanes' plays is impractical for modern comedies, but his spirit should animate them: "Und in diesem Sinne stehe ich nicht an, die in Kolatscheks deutscher Monatschrift 1850 (Oktoberheft) mitgeteilte Posse, der 'Reichstagsprofessor,' von Reinhold Solger, als einen überaus glücklichen und erfreulichen Anfang unserer politischen Komödie zu bezeichnen. Die anderen Parteien mögen es ihrerseits ebensowenig fehlen lassen an Geisselung der Demokratie. Immer zu, immer zu! Je toller, desto besser.

[12] course idle speculation, what Solger At the same time, November 10, 1859, might have accomplished in public life Solger delivered the chief address at the in his adopted country had he reached Boston commemoration of Schiller's the proverbial three score and ten. birth. This was a ringing speech in which the speaker pointed out how ap- Of much greater interest to us natu- plicable was Marquis Posa's, "Geben Sie rally is his life as an author, in the Gedankenfreiheit!" to his contemporary course of which he was twice awarded America where the free thoughts of a prize. In 1859 the committee in charge great leaders were so very likely to be of the New York celebration of the stifled by bigoted puritanism on the one Schiller centennial awarded to Solger's hand or by the levelling influence of the Erinnerung the gold medal. The gen- democratic mob on the other. In this eral tone in this work is far different respect, one might say parenthetically, from his Untergang; quite evidently —Schiller even today can teach us some- Solger had found in the new world thing. ideals worth fighting for. Though he The second time a prize was awarded does not allude to them directly the to Solger occurred in 1862 when the great questions of American public life Belletristische Journal of New York, in of the day have their answer in these a competition conducted by this weekly ringing stanzas. Solger eulogizes Schil- for the best German-American novel, ler as a fighter for freedom from every selected his Anton in Amerika over kind of slavery, an author whose works more than twenty competitors. The still are full of meaning for the contem- Anton of Solger's novel is the son of porary generation. I shall quote the last Anton and Sabine, hero and heroine re- three stanzas; in the first two of these spectively, of Gustav Freytag's very fa- the spirit of Schiller is addressing pos- mous and popular novel Soll und Ha- terity and in the concluding one Solger ben, which had just been published a answers for his generation: few years previously, in 1854. From "Als ich des neuen Bundes Tafelstein what has already been told of Reinhold Errichtet an des Saekulums Portalen, Solger one can readily guess how he Da, meint' ich, solltet Ihr Apostel sein would react to Freytag's moralizing In aller Welt, im Dienst des Idealen: novel in which all of the hero's middle- Und wo Ihr immer falsche Götter fändet, Da sollten Eure Scheiterhaufen prasseln, class virtues are not only praised but Und wo Ihr hörtet Sklavenketten rasseln, also rewarded in the final chapter by Da solltet rächen Ihr die Menschheit, die great wealth in the coffee and sugar busi- geschändet. ness and a rich, if slightly dull, wife "Und wo sich Pöbelwahn all mächtig fühlt, into the bargain. This book could not Euch hüllen in den Ernst der Ueberzeugung; but incite him to write a witty satire. Und wo der Mensch im Schlamm der Erde wühlt, If we bear in mind Solger's keen men- Aufrichten ihn von schnöder Nackenbeugung; tality, his lifelong industry, his contin- Und wo die Wechsler schachern in dem ued devotion to high ideals, his re- Tempel, Der Schoenheit keusches Götterbild peated sacrifices for the sake of prin- errichten, ciple—and on the other hand the annoy- Und all in Eurem Trachten, Eurem Dichten, ing poverty that dogged him up to with- Dasteh'n des freien Geists lebendiges in a few years before his death, then Exempel." we can understand fully the introduc- "Wer fühlt sich rein? Wer von uns darf tion which is, so to speak, a review of sich sagen: Freytag's book. Solger states that this Ich liess mir nicht das hohe Ziel verrücken? O! zürne dennoch nicht, wenn wir es biography of the merchant Anton Wohl- wagen, fahrt of Breslau very properly has Den hundertjährigen Kranz Dir aufzudrücken: earned its author a lot of money. The Der Zukunft Pfand, nicht der Vergangenheit: reader is shown at the hand of this man Für was wir hofften, nicht, was wir verloren, Für den Geburstag, der uns mitgeboren of honor, who started out without a Zum neuen Geisteskampf, in einer neuen shirt on his back, very clearly that if Zeit." anyone is decent and industrious, at all

[13] times shows proper respect for his su- häusel, escaped the bloody claws of the perior, gets on a good footing with the military courts by adventurous flight to latter's family, and in general conducts Switzerland, spent some years in Paris himself politely and kindly toward and London, and finally landed in New everyone, as it is fitting for a young man York—europamüde. to do, then he need not worry; he will All of this reminds of Solger's life get on in the world. The hero followed and indeed we shall find numerous auto- his motto, "Honesty is the best policy" biographical touches in Anton's further or "The straight road is always the career in these United States; the ma- best," turned a deaf ear to all tempta- jority of our hero's adventures are of tion, refused to have anything to do with course lively fiction, as they ought to the nobility, much less with the Jews, be in a novel. But before I pass on to and in all things followed the golden a brief summary and discussion of the mean and became a rich man. book I must quote one delicious and This hero of Freytag's novel is about untranslatable sentence giving the atti- to be married in the last chapter to the tude of Anton's father toward the revo- sister of his boss. In Solger's first lution of '48 which had brought about chapter we read of the birth of a son, the break between father and son. The who, alas, had none of his father's good metaphors are chosen so neatly from the bourgeois qualities except that occa- bourgeois ideology, the tragedy of the sionally he enjoyed a good glass of Revolution of '48 is so succinctly satir- punch. Perhaps he took more after his ized, and the reason why the Germans at mother, from whom he had inherited his all times enjoy the kind of government beautiful eyes and his liking for fine they have is so clearly set forth, that table linen, especially if fine dishes were this one sentence by Solger is well worth served on it. We need not pity the pondering: parents on this account, for at first at "Sein Vater ging als Politiker eben least, they seemed to like it; they did nicht weiter vor, denn wie er es als Com- not start him out as an apprentice in mis mit so grossem Erfolg und zu so the business but sent him to Berlin to the grossem Lobe getan: Man sollte sich best preparatory schools and later to the beim Könige lieb Kind machen, ihn university where he passed brilliant ex- durch ein exemplarishes Benehmen rüh- aminations. The poetry of coffee and ren und ihn durch fromme Miene dahin syrup which had meant so much to his zu bewegen suchen, dass er Einen als father left Anton, Junior, rather cold; Compagnon in die Regierung nehme." the only time he showed any interest in the business was when one day during It is impossible to follow in detail the his holidays a barrel of molasses from plot of the novel. Anton arrives with the West Indies refused to run properly $10,000, the last he will ever get from and it was discovered that the impedi- his wealthy father, tries his hand at ment was a dead pickaninny! But this business, at lecturing, and at rescuing interest was too ephemeral to make a women in distress. The last-named oc- business man out of him; the eternal cupation leads to his being falsely ac- drinking bouts (Commentreiterei) of cused of murder and condemned to the Prussian bureaucracy bored him death on very convincing circumstantial just as much. That left him only the evidence. An American girl of Irish desperate choice of Privatdozent or emi- descent with whom the hero has fallen grant. His industrious study of history in love effects his rescue at the very and ethnology had already seemed to moment when the sheriff is placing the lead him to the university career, when noose about his neck. At the end of his enthusiasm for the Revolution of '48 the story Anton, following his true forced him to the other alternative: emi- bent, is setting out on a scientific ex- gration to America. This he did after pedition into the interior of Asia. Mary he had risked his life for a free and elects to join the expedition. united Germany, had fought at Wag- The present-day reader may object

[14] that the story is very melodramatic and course in New York or to go on tour full of happy coincidences, but if one in small towns in one-night stands the considers it with a bit of historic per- author is no doubt describing his own spective, one must admit that in these adventures. The hero gathers a great respects it follows the fashion of its day deal of experience in regard to the flag- and does not differ from the manner of ging interest of his auditors and the un- Freytag, Dickens, or the younger Du- certainty of the emolument. Is Solger mas. The author achieves his purpose describing himself, with satirical exag- in giving a picture of the American geration, when the hero confesses that scene in many classes of society as well the one thing he is fit for is to be a as in many states of the Union. We philosophical vagrant or vagrant philos- meet the typical Yankee, the Irish, the opher who in Ancient Greece might have German-Americans, the negro, rich and been a peripatetic, for strolling (Flan- poor, educated and ignorant, the gilded iren) is his real calling, together with youth and the youth who rises to cap- opposition to traditional authorities? italist from newsboy, the country girl Numerous shrewd and bitter observa- seduced by the city slicker and the in- tions scattered through the two volumes dependent American schoolmarm, the are no doubt Solger's own thoughts, as farmer and the Reverend. The story when he compares the manner in which introduces the reader to New York, Chi- Fate deals with us to a child that has cago, the White Mountains, and Niagara caught a box full of grasshoppers to Falls. The South and the Far West, feed honey to one, to let another fly which Solger never visited, do not oc- attached to a string, to tear off the legs cur in the novel. of a third, or to run a pin through a In this novel the characterization of fourth. At another point he remarks, different types or situations is done very "Criminal trials are the gladiatorial succinctly and wittily, but the chief games of the modern world." One feels characters of the story are not very con- that the whole work comes directly out vincingly drawn, they are flat rather of the author's experience; in fact, many than shown in the round. However, one details are also found in Solger's letters must bear in mind that the novel is to his wife. chiefly satirical, and from that point of Solger's sense of humor, of which we view it must be judged; his style recalls have already met many examples, shows Sinclair Lewis rather than Hawthorne. itself also in his language. In conform- There is splendid satire on American ity with the usage among novel writers business methods of rapid bankruptcy of his day he gives his characters names or get-rich-quick schemes; of the pru- of satirical connotation; thus an ambi- dery that allows the statue of the nude tious young wooer has the name Snobbs, Greek slave girl to be admired if the an ever-insolvent business man that of pastors declare her "pure"; of sensa- Scraper, and a social climber whose tionalism; of the David Harum manner husband started in life as Kloakenfeger of driving bargains; of the wickedness is called Mrs. Sewerage—not too differ- of travelling on Sunday; of the reform- ent from that of a famous statesman in ing zeal of women's clubs, or of the Lincoln's cabinet. He secures local ease with which a man's character can color by using English words in his be assassinated before a jury if it can German text: "Er hat Geld im Safe lie- be shown that he does not go to church. gen." Or he translates American idioms While Solger sees all of these foibles for droll effect: "Alt wie die Berge," of American life the frequent compar- "Er ist süss auf die Lady," "Eine ver- isons with German conditions show that dammte Sicht besser," "Altes Ross," or he is by no means blind to the weakness "Ich will mich einen Spruch setzen." of his native land; he never grows senti- ("I'll set a spell.") mental over "mein Vaterland." Solger's Anton in Amerika was pub- When Anton is urged to give a lecture lished in 1862 both in New York (seri-

[15] ally) and in Germany. In 1928 Erich much better for Reinhold Solger to Ebermayer, a present-day novelist in leave us this novel. Compared with Berlin, republished the novel, "frei bear- Freytag's Soll und Haben, one of the beitet." I shall say of Ebermayer's work standard novels in German literature, merely that it is both good and original, Solger's work has all the advantage only whatever is good is not original when it comes to interest, philosophy of and whatever is original is, alas, not life, or humor. Professor Josef Nadler good! Nevertheless it is a fine testi- in his history of German literature calls monial for the vitality of the story that it the best German-American novel, a reprint of it can be sold in contem- which is of course, not very high praise. porary Berlin. If style is the man himself, Anton in I have spoken at considerable length Amerika from the point of view of style of this novel largely because previous must be conceded vigor and greatness, writers on Solger have condemned or for into it Solger put himself. He was slighted it, whereas I think it the finest, tall in stature, had sandy hair, a full most vital thing Solger has done. When beard, and a high forehead—altogether one views Solger's career in two con- a very distinguished appearance—just tinents, in the Revolution, in his friend- as he was intellectually distinguished, ships with many great men, and in polit- full of goodly human juices, a keen ical activity in this country one wishes observer of life, free from prejudices, that he had left us his memoirs, for prudery, or sentimentality, and a man there are many things we should like who could not but act with honesty and to know. But Carl Schurz, Karl Hein- decency, for these qualities had become zen, and others have done that; it was second nature to him.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. SOLGER'S WRITINGS Solger, Reinhold. Rede zur Saekularfeier Solger, Reinhold. Anton in Amerika. 2 von Schiller's Geburtstag. Boston. Vosz- vols. Bromberg. Roskowski. 1862. nack. 1859. Solger, Reinhold. Anton in Amerika. 2 Solger, Reinhold. War and Its Blessings. vols. New York. Steiger and Company. An address. Boston. April 28, 1861. Pub- 1872. lished in the Daily Alias and Bee. Sat- Solger, Reinhold. "Der Reichstagsprofes- urday, June 15, 1861. sor." Deutschamerikanische Monatshefte. 2. WORKS ON SOLGER September, 1864. pp. 226-250. Dickie, M. Allan, Reinhold Solger, 1930. Solger, Reinhold. "Der Untergang." Doctoral dissertation (typewritten) in Deutsch - amerikanische Monatshefte. the library of the University of Pitts- March, 1866. pp. 242-3. burgh. 69 pp. Good bibliography. (An Solger, Reinhold. "Hanns von Katzenfingen abstract of this work was printed in the und seine Frau Tante, geb. F. v K." University of Pittsburgh Bulletin, Vol. Deutsch - amerikanische Monatshefte. 27, No. 3, November, 1930.) February, 1864. pp. 138-152. Kapp, Friedrich, "Reinhold Solger," Solger, Reinhold. Memorial on the Schles- Deutsch - amerikanische Monatshefte, wig-Holstein Question. Addressed to the February, 1866, pp. 182-188. (This ar- Honorable Bradford R. Wood, Minister ticle in slightly altered form appears as to the Court of Denmark, Copenhagen, one chapter in the same author's Aus und New York. Baker and Godwin, 1862. über Amerika, Thatsachen und Erleb- Solger, Reinhold. Preis-Gedicht zur Feier nisse, Vol. l, Berlin, Springer, 1876. von Schillers hundertjährigem Geburt- Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, Philadel- stage. New York. D. Appleton and Com- phia, 1870. pany. 1859. 13 pages. With an English Zucker, A. E. Article on Solger in Diction- translation by Charles T. Brooks. ary of American Biography.

[16]

REINHOLD SOLGER