Durham E-Theses The novelist and Bismarck with special reference to Fontane, Freytag and Ppielhagen Goldsmith, W. M. J. How to cite: Goldsmith, W. M. J. (1976) The novelist and Bismarck with special reference to Fontane, Freytag and Ppielhagen, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8092/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Th.e novelist and Bismarck with special reference to Fontane« Freytag and Spielhagen A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Durham by W.MoJ. GOLDSMIOH Durham 1976 The copj^ight of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Abstract The thesis is an examination of the impact of the personality and policies of Bismarck on three contemporary novelists Fontane, Ireytag and Spielhagen and the presentation of Bismarck in their novels. Of the three writers Spielhagen, a radical democrat, was the most sustained critic of Bismarck. Spielhagen believed passionately in individual liberty and held that this would only be fully realised for all members of society in a democratic republic. The political and social order that Bismarck sought to perpetuate was the antithesis of his ideal. Spielhagen's opposition to Bismarck was, thus, fundamental and highly political. He also objected to the demise of humanism and the consolidation of authoritarian attitudes that resulted from Bismarck's despotic regime. In his novels Spielhagen's political commitment is reflected in the considerable space that is given over to the discussion of Bismarck's political aims, methods and influence. Within the detailed panorama of German society that he paints Spielhagen is concerned to gauge the destructive influence of Bismarck on humanist values. Freytag, a moderate constitutional liberal, v;as also a life-long opponent and critic of Bismarck. He was in the van-guard of the liberal struggle to remove Bismarck and bring down the monarchical system of government in Prussia in the 1860's and he bitterly resented Bismarck's ruthless defence of monarchical and aristocratic power. None of Bismarck's later achievements, not even the unification of Germany, quite reconciled Freytag to the illiberal Bismarck system and he continued to hope that Bismarck and his autocratic regime would in time giv^e way to a truly liberal system of government. Thepe is no discussion of Bismarck in Freytag's novels: on the defensive after 1866 he resorted to the historical novel in order to propagate values and ideals which he saw threatened by Bismarck's influence. Fontane confessed to being an admirer of Bismarck as statesman, orator, humorist and personality. Bismarck's despotism was, in Fontane's view, fully Justified by his achievements for Germany. Only later in life - after Bismarck had resigned - did Fontane's dislike of Bismarck's petty autocratic style and growing megilomania escalate into outright rejection of Bismarck, From the more radical democratic view-point he assumed in the latter years of his life he judged Bismarck to be a petty autocrat. Even his achievements were devoid of moral significance for the progress of mankind. Fontane's concern with a detailed evocation of the political and intellectual atmosphere that prevailed in the Berlin upper class .of his day resulted in a number of memorable portraits of conservative and liberal opponents of Bismarck, but only in the figure of Innstetten in •Sffi Briest' did he begin to explore the implications of Bismarck's despotic regime for human values in German society. Table of Contents (volume one) Introduction pp. i - iii Fontane and Bismarck pp. 1 - 282 (volume two) Freytag and Bismarck pp. 283 - ^56 Spielhagen and Bismarck pp. 457 - 585 Conclusions pp. 584 - 595 a. The writers and Bismarck p. 584 b. The writers' perception of Bismarck's influence on German society p.. 586 (volume three) Abbreviations p. 594 Foot-notes pp. 595 - 821 Fontane and Bismarck p. 595 Freytag and Bismarck p. 699 Spielhagen and Bismarck p. 765 Conclusions p. 819 Bibliography pp. 822 - 832 Introduction The impact of Bismarck on three prominent novelists of the latter half of the nineteenth century Theodor Fontane, Gustav Freytag and Friedrich Spielhagen - all contemporaries of Bismarck and all very much involved in the political and intellectual life of the Bismarck era - is examined with the aim of exploring each writer's picture of Bismarck and assessment of his influence on German society. The topic is, thus, but one aspect of the much more complex question of the consequences of Bismarck's regime for the evolution of Germany. The question of Bismarck's influence on the course of German history is the subject of continuing controversy, particularly with regard to the problem of 'continuity' in German history. Was the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in Germany an unfortunate malfunction of an otherwise healthy political system, the 'Betriebsunfall' theory? Or was it the culmination of developments - especially with regard to the virulence of anti-democratic attitudes in the Weimar period - that had their roots in earlier periods of German history, above all, the Bismarck era? During the years in which Bismarck dominated the German political scene significant changes took place in the political climate: ideas and goals which had been axiomatic in liberal middle class circles in the 1860's were controversial in the 1880's and obsolete in the 1890's. By the late 1880's liberalism as a political and social philisophy had been largely discarded as impractical or irrelevant by the middle classes who now, in the main, supported a nationalist conservative platform. This shift resulted from Bismarck's success in integrating constitutional liberalism into a pseudo-parliamentary system by his pursuit of nationalist policies, above all, by his 11 unification of the north and south German states to create the 'Deutsches Reich', The one-time conflict between the aristocracy and the middle class gave v/ay to. an informal alliance of the two classes united against the fourth estate. As a result of this re-alignment attitudes were drastically revised v/hile new ideas, such as social darwinism, emerged and took hold. The Bismarckian state with its monarchical authoritarian structure seemed to many to represent the political system best suited to the German national character with;: its need of leadership, Bismarck's success in preventing German liberalism from achieving its goal of parliamentary government preserved in Germany a political system that was largely feudal in structure and helped to perpetuate authoritarian political attitudes, as exemplified in Heinrich Mann's novel 'Der Untertan'. The prestige of Bismarck's autocratic regime and the Bismarck cult that was associated with it - accentuated,and consolidated this trend towards authoritarianism. How did writers react to political changes of this magnitude in the political and intellectual culture of their age? Did they perceive the changes as problematical? Did they perceive Bismarck as a problem figure and did they regard his achievements and influence as beneficial or deleterious? Were they as v/riters(as is sometimes suggested) more sensitive than most of their contemporaries to the implications of these changes? Are they, as novelists, able to shed in their picture of contemporary social reality any useful light on the evolution of political values and attitudes in German society in the Bismarck era? Did they regard Bismarck^a significant enough figure to include in their novels? If so, what picture do they present of him and how does it relate to their ovm private views of Bismarck. These are the questions and interrelationships that I have attempted to examine. All three novelists were in middle age when Bismarck stepped onto the political stage and began to exert an influence on the course of events in Germany. All three v/riters were 'liberals' ill of one kind or another and had already established a set of moral values long before Bismarck began to influence the moral and intellectual climate in Germany. The reaction of each writer to Bismarck is, therefore, a reaction to the challenge or threat that Bismarck and the values he, stood for represented to the author's own ideals and values. The extent to which Bismarck was a major preoccupation varies from Spielhagen - who was convinced that Bismarck was exerting a destructive influence on German society and tried to gauge the progress of this influence at every, step by painting vast canvasses of German.society - through Freytag, who although opposed to Bismarck, dealt only very indirectly v;ith the problem of Bismarck's influence, to Fontane who was broadly.in support of Bismarck and his policies and included discussion of Bismarck in his novels as part of his evocation of contemporary.Berlin society. Only in the last decade of his life with the onset of a more critical awareness of Bismarck's influence did Fontane depict a specifically Bismarckian figure, the character of Innstetten in 'Effi Briest'.