4. Essays from "Deutsche Wochenschrift"

The Week of January 18-24, 1888

Although the general situation has not changed in any essential respect and no state has yet retracted any of its armaments, the calmer and more hopeful mood that has prevailed for some time seems to be consolidating. Various private and official statements by high-ranking personalities are helping to dispel at least the worst fears. Prince Bismarck is said to have remarked at a dinner to a co-owner of the "Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung", Mr. v. Ohlendorff, that in his innermost conviction Germany would not have a war in the next three years. And at the reception of the Presidents of the Prussian Parliament, Kaiser Wilhelm touched on external politics with the words that he hoped that peace would be maintained. Such remarks always have a calming effect for the moment; one can observe this most clearly on the stock markets. Unfortunately, they are often only valid for a short time, and facts can destroy the most profound convictions. It must be regarded as a gain if the outlook does not deteriorate, and this is not the case, if the silence in foreign policy is to be trusted. The relationship between Russia and Austria has remained the same, and it will take some time before there is a more lasting clarification in this area. Franco-German relations, on the other hand, are no longer suffering as much from the nervousness of public opinion as was evident during the Schnaebele incident. This is demonstrated by the indifference with which a new unpleasant incident on the Franco-German border is treated by both sides. A Frenchman was hunting in the border area and, according to the French account, was attacked by a German customs guard, thrown to the ground and robbed of his rifle. The fact that Paris did not immediately become indignant about this is a welcome sign that even there, at times, such events are no longer viewed solely from the perspective of national passion, but have enough prudence not to hold the German imperial government responsible for every action of a subordinate official.

In most states the week has passed fairly quietly. The parliaments are devoting their activities to dealing with current affairs. Now the Austrian Imperial Council is meeting again, which may soon have to deal with the confessional school, and which also has to discuss the state budget. It is not under the best political and national auspices that the Austrian parliament resumes its work; the reconciliation negotiations between Germans and Czechs in Bohemia have failed, and the fact that the important Bohemian question is now further away from a solution than ever before leaves its mark on the state of affairs in Austria in general. On January 22, the Executive Committee of the German-Bohemian parliamentary deputies in Prague discussed Prince Lobkowitz's last proposals and decided not to proceed with the election of delegates for further negotiations. Dr. Schmeykal was instructed to inform the Colonel-Land Marshal of this decision. The "reconciliation" thus collapsed. An exchange of letters between Lobkowitz and Dr. Schmeykal provides more detailed information about the content of the negotiations conducted by Prince Lobkowitz with the Germans. The letters have just been published, and it is clear from them that the Czech parties had no intention of meeting the Germans' demands. The concessions offered by the Czechs did not contain half of what the Germans demanded, and in particular they refused to accept the German parliamentary motions concerning the abolition of the language ordinances and the complete national division of the country. So the Germans had no choice but to resign. Dr. Schmeykal's last letter to Prince Lobkowitz concludes with the following sentences: "In the letter we received on January 5 of this year, we are informed that the representatives of the two other parliamentary clubs are unable to express the agreement in principle to our parliamentary motions that we desire, and that the counter-proposals contained in our letter of December 9, 1887, do not all appear to them to be of such a nature that they could be expected to accept them at the planned conference in accordance with our wishes. As much as our wish to reach an agreement on the conditions of our re-entry into the Landtag, which promise a peaceful organization of conditions in the country, is vivid, so sincere is our regret at the statement of the representatives of the Landtag majority, in connection with our previously communicated resolutions and the statements sent here before, to have to make the open declaration that we will not enter into the conference proposed by the Colonel-Land Marshal and therefore will not be able to accept the invitation sent to us to elect our representatives for that conference. May we be permitted to add to this statement the assurance that, in view of the willingness so often emphasized by the other side to enter into an understanding with us, we did not expect to have to do without any fundamental concession on the part of the majority of the Diet and to see their concession limited to a formal admission, which certainly allows our proposals to be discussed, but does not grant us the slightest objective satisfaction. If we consider all the difficulties that stand in the way of a fundamental acceptance of our proposals, we can only find the reason for them in constitutional views, which we are unable to follow. In repeating the declaration of our willingness to enter into negotiations on the conditions of our re-entry into the Diet under the preconditions we have developed in the course of our previous introductory communication, we conclude with a sincere expression of gratitude for the best-intentioned intentions of Your Serene Highness Colonel-Lt. Your Serene Highness the Colonel-Land Marshal."