German Foreign Policy and the Recent Events in Prague

Cologne, 11 July. Despite the patriotic howling and drum-beating of almost the entire German press, the *Neue Rheinische Zeitung* has from the very first moment taken sides in Posen for the Poles, in Italy for the Italians, in Bohemia for the Czechs. From the very first moment we saw through the Machiavellian policy which, reeling in its foundations at home within Germany, sought to paralyse democratic energy, to divert attention from itself, to dig a drainage channel for the glowing lava of the revolution, to forge the weapon of internal oppression, by conjuring up a narrow-minded tribal hatred, repugnant to the cosmopolitan character of the German, and by training a soldateska in tribal wars of unheard-of atrocity, of nameless barbarism, the like of which even the Thirty Years’ War can hardly show. At the very same moment when the Germans are wrestling with their governments for internal freedom, they are being made, under the command of those same governments, to embark upon a crusade against the freedom of Poland, Bohemia, and Italy. What profundity of combination! What a historical paradox! Germany, in a state of revolutionary ferment, vents itself outwardly in a war of restoration, in a campaign for the consolidation of the old power against which it is precisely in the process of revolutionising. Only the war with Russia is a war of revolutionary Germany, a war in which it can wash away the sins of the past, in which it can take heart, in which it can defeat its own autocrats, in which, as befits a people shaking off the chains of a long, sluggish slavery, it purchases the propaganda of civilisation with the sacrifice of its sons and makes itself free at home by liberating itself outwardly. The more the light of publicity allows the most recent events to emerge in sharp outlines, the more facts confirm our conception of the tribal wars with which Germany has disgraced its new era. As a contribution to such enlightenment we give below the following, albeit belated, report from a German in Prague:

Prague, June 24, 1848. (Delayed.)

The *Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung* of the 18th inst. contains an article on the assembly of Germans held at Aussig on the 18th inst., in which speeches were delivered that display such ignorance of our latest occurrences and in part, to put it mildly, such readiness to heap disgraceful reproaches upon our independent press, that the correspondent deems it his duty to throw light upon these errors as far as is now possible and to confront the thoughtless and the malevolent with the firmness of the truth. It is astonishing when men such as “the founder of the Association for the Defence of German Interests in the East” pronounce before a whole assembly: “As long as the struggle in Prague lasts, there can be no talk of forgiveness, and if victory is ours, it must be exploited in the future.” What victory, then, have the Germans won, what conspiracy has been crushed? Those who, like the correspondent of the *Deutsche Allgemeine*, who appears to have always informed himself only very superficially, put their trust in the pathetic phrases of a “little Poland- and French-devourer” or in the articles of the perfidious *Frankfurter Journal*, which, as in the occurrences in Baden sought to incite Germans against Germans, now seeks to incite Germans against Bohemians, will never gain a clear insight into the conditions here. The opinion seems to prevail everywhere in Germany that the struggle in the streets of Prague was aimed solely at the suppression of the German element and at the founding of a Slav republic. Of the latter we will not speak, for the idea is too naïve; as regards the former, however, not the slightest trace of a rivalry of the nationalities was noticeable in the fighting at the barricades. Germans and Czechs stood together ready for defence, and I myself often urged a speaker who spoke in Czech to repeat what he had said in German, which was done each time without the slightest remark. People interject that the outbreak of the revolution came two days too early, but even then a certain organisation should already have been in place, and at least ammunition should have been provided; yet of this, likewise, not a trace. The barricades grew up at random wherever ten or twelve people came together; besides, more could not possibly have been thrown up, for the smallest side-streets were barricaded 3–4 times. Ammunition was exchanged mutually in the streets and was extremely scarce. Of supreme command, of any sort of leadership, there was no talk at all; the defenders held their ground where they were attacked and fired from the houses and barricades without direction, without command. Where, therefore, in the face of such an undirected, unorganised resistance, could the idea of a conspiracy find any ground, unless through an official declaration and publication of the investigation? Yet the government does not appear to find this appropriate, for nothing transpires from the Castle that could enlighten Prague about its bloody June days. The imprisoned members of the Swornost have been released again down to a few; other prisoners will be released too; only Count Buquoy, Villáni and some others are still in custody, and one fine morning we may perhaps read a placard on Prague’s walls according to which everything was based on a misunderstanding. The operations of the commanding general just as little suggest any protection of the Germans against the Czechs. For instead of attracting the German population to his side by clarifying the matter, taking the barricades, and protecting the lives and property of the “loyal” inhabitants of the city, he evacuates the Old Town, moves to the left bank of the Moldau, and shoots Czechs and Germans down together; for the bombs and cannonballs that flew into the Old Town could not possibly pick out only Czechs, but tore down without looking at the cockade. Where, then, is one reasonably to infer a Slav conspiracy, when the government until now can or will provide no clarification?

Citizen Dr. Göschen of Leipzig has drafted an address of thanks to Prince Windischgrätz, to which the general should by no means attach too much importance as an expression of the voice of the people. Citizen Göschen is one of those cautious liberals who suddenly became liberal after the February days; he is the mover of an address of confidence to the Saxon ministry concerning the electoral law, while all Saxony uttered a cry of disapproval, for one-sixth of its inhabitants, and precisely a part of the more capable heads, lost their first civil right, their right to vote; he is one of those who, in the “German Association,” pronounced decisively against the admission of Germans who are not Saxons to elections in Saxony, and – listen to this double-tonguedness! – a short time later, promised the Association of Non-Saxon German Citizens Residing in Saxony his full cooperation in the name of his club for the election of their own deputy to Frankfurt; in short, to characterise him in one word, he is the founder of the “German Association.” This man addresses an address of thanks to the Austrian general and thanks him for the protection he has afforded the entire German fatherland. I believe to have shown that from what has occurred it has by no means been proved to what extent Prince Windischgrätz has rendered services to the German fatherland up to now; the outcome of the investigation will first show it. We shall therefore leave “the high courage, the bold energy, the firm perseverance” of the general to the judgement of history, and with regard to the expression “base assassination” concerning the death of the Princess, only mention that it has by no means been proved that the bullet that struck the Princess was intended for her – she who possessed the most undivided respect of all Prague; if that is the case, the murderer shall not escape his punishment, and the Prince’s grief was certainly no greater than that of the mother who saw her nineteen-year-old daughter, also an innocent victim, carried away with her head shattered. As regards the expression in the address, “brave hosts who fought so courageously under your leadership,” I entirely agree with Citizen Göschen, for if he, like me, had seen with what warlike fury those “brave hosts” stormed into the defenceless crowd in Zeltnergasse on Monday at noon, he would have found his expressions far too weak. I myself must confess, much to the chagrin of my military vanity, that as a peaceful stroller, standing among a group of women and children near the Temple, I allowed myself to be put to flight together with them by 30–40 Imperial-Royal grenadiers, and so completely that I had to leave my entire baggage, i.e., my hat, in the hands of the victors, for I deemed it superfluous to wait until the blows that were raining down into the crowd behind me reached me too. I did, however, have the opportunity to observe that six hours later at the barricade in Zeltnergasse, the same Imperial-Royal grenadiers saw fit to fire grape-shot and six-pounder cannon at the barricade, which was manned by twenty men at most, for half an hour, and then – not to take it, until it was abandoned by its defenders around midnight. Hand-to-hand fighting did not occur, except in a few isolated cases where the superior numbers were on the side of the grenadiers. Graben and Neue Allee, judging by the devastation of the houses, were for the most part cleared by artillery, and I leave it an open question whether great contempt of death is required to clear a wide street of a hundred barely armed defenders with grape-shot.

As for the last speech of Dr. Stradal of Teplitz, according to which “the Prague papers worked in favour of foreign purposes,” presumably Russian, I declare in the name of the independent press of Prague that this statement is either an excess of ignorance or an infamous calumny, the absurdity of which has been sufficiently demonstrated and will be demonstrated by the attitude of our papers. Prague’s free press has never defended any tendency other than the maintenance of the independence of Bohemia and equal rights for both nationalities. But it knows very well that the German reaction, as in Posen, as in Italy, seeks to conjure up a narrow-minded nationalism, partly in order to suppress the revolution within Germany, partly in order to train the soldateska for civil war.