



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive





Transcriber's Note:
  1. Page scan source:
     http://www.archive.org/details/picturesgermanl03freygoog






                        PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE

                                 IN THE

                  EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

                             SECOND SERIES.

                           *   *   *   *   *

                                VOL. II.






                                PICTURES

                                   OF

                              GERMAN LIFE

                  In the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries.



                             Second Series.


                                   BY
                            GUSTAV FREYTAG.


                    Translated from the Original by
                             MRS. MALCOLM.



                 _COPYRIGHT EDITION.--IN TWO VOLUMES_.


                                VOL. II.



                                LONDON:
                   CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY.
                                 1863.






                                LONDON:
               BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.




                               CONTENTS.


                              CHAPTER VII.

Away from the Garrison (1700).--The army, and the constitution
of the State--The country militia and their history--The soldiery of
the Sovereign--Change of organisation after the war--The beginning
of compulsory levies about 1700--Gradual introduction of
conscription--Recruiting and its illegalities--Desertions--Trafficking
with armies--The Prussian army under Frederic William I.--The regiment
of guards at Potsdam--Prussian officers--Ulrich Braecker--Narrative of a
Prussian deserter


                             CHAPTER VIII.

The State of Frederic the Great (1700).--The kingdom of the
Hohenzollerns, its small size; character of the people and
princes--Childhood of Frederic--Opposition to his
father--Catastrophe--Training and its influence on his character--His
marriage and relations with women--Residence in Rheinsberg--His
character when he became King--Striking contrast between his poetic
warmth and his inexorable severity--Inward change in the course of the
first Silesian war--Loss of the friends of his youth--The literary
period till 1766--His poetry, historical writings, and literary
versatility--Seven years of iron labour--His method of carrying on war,
and heroic struggle--Admiration of Germans and foreigners--His
sufferings and endurance--Extracts from Frederic's Letters from
1767-1762--Principles of his government--Improvement of
Silesia--Difference betwixt the Prussian and Austrian
government--Feeling of duty in the Prussian officials--Acquisition
of West Prussia--Miserable condition in 1772--Agriculture of
Frederic--His last years


                              CHAPTER IX.

Of the Year of Tuition of the German Citizen (1790).--Influence of
Frederic on German art, philosophy, and historical writing--Poetry
flourishes--The aspect of a city in 1790--The coffee gardens and
the theatres--Travelling and love of the picturesque--Different
sources of morals and activity amongst the nobles, citizens, and
peasants--Characteristics of the life of the country nobles--The piety
of the country people--Education of the citizens--Advantages of the
Latin schools and of the university education--The sentimentality and
change in the literary classes from 1750-1790--The Childhood of Ernst
Frederic Haupt


                               CHAPTER X.

The Period of Ruin (1800).--The condition of Germany--Courts and cities
of the Empire--People and armies of the Empire--The emigrants--Effect
of the revolution on the Germans--The Prussian State--Its rapid
increase--Von Held--Bureaucracy--The army--The Generals--The
downfall--Narrative of the Years 1806-1807, by Christoph Wilhelm
Heinrich Sethe--His life


                              CHAPTER XI.

Rise of the Nation (1807-1815).--Sorrowful condition of the people in
the year 1807--The first signs of rising strength--Hatred of the French
Emperor--Arming of Prussia--Character and importance of the movement of
1813--Napoleon's flight--Expedition of the French to Russia in
1812, and return in 1813--The Cossacks--The people rise--General
enthusiasm--The volunteer Jaegers and patriotic gifts--The Landwehr
and the Landsturm--The first combat--Impression of the war on the
citizens--The enemy in the city--The course of the war--The celebration
of victory


                              CHAPTER XII.

Illness and Recovery (1815-1848).--The time of reaction--Hopelessness
of the German question--Discontent and exhaustion of the
Prussians--Weakness of the educated classes in the north of
Germany--The development of practical activity--The South Germans and
their village tales--Description of a Village School by Karl Mathy


CONCLUSION.--The Hohenzollerns and the German citizens





                        PICTURES OF GERMAN LIFE.


                             Second Series.




                              CHAPTER VII.

                        AWAY FROM THE GARRISON.
                                (1700.)


A shot from the alarm-gun! Timidly does the citizen examine the dark
corners of his house to discover whether any strange man be hid there.
