“You have shown us such a natural, living Phaedra that we were all strongly moved.  How fine a part it is!  As a youngster I used to learn verses from ‘Phaedra’ by heart.  I am told that in France devotion to classical tradition is growing weaker, and that Moliere and Racine are more and more seldom played.  What a pity!  Our people, on the contrary, remain faithful to their great poets and enjoy their works.  After school comes college, and after college—­the theatre.  It should elevate and expand the soul.  The people do not need any representation of reality—­they are well acquainted with that in their daily lives.  One must put something greater and nobler before them, something superior to ‘La Dame aux Camelias.’”

A month later, however, he made one of his extremely rare visits to an ordinary Berlin theatre to see—­“The Hound of the Baskervilles”!

Meanwhile in domestic politics Chancellor von Buelow’s famous “bloc” continued to work satisfactorily, notwithstanding difficulties arising from the conflicting interests of industry and agriculture, Free Trade and Protection and differences of creed and race.  At the end of this year it was near falling asunder in connection with the question of judicial reform, but Prince von Buelow kept it together for a while by an impassioned appeal to the patriotism of both parties.  In the course of the speech he told the House how, when he was standing at Bismarck’s death-bed, he noticed on the wall the portrait of a man, Ludwig Uhland, who had said “no head could rule over Germany that was not well anointed with democratic oil,” and drew the conclusion from the contrast between the dying man of action and the poet that only the union of old Prussian conservative energy and discipline with German broad-hearted, liberal spirit could secure a happy future for the nation.  The “bloc,” as we shall see, broke up in 1909 and Prince von Buelow resigned.  The Chancellor afterwards attributed his fall entirely to the Conservatives, but it is possible, even probable, that it was in at least some measure due to the events of the annus mirabilis, 1908, which now opened.

XIV

THE NOVEMBER STORM

1908

The “November Storm” was a collision between the Emperor and his folk, a result of his so-called “personal regiment.”

In a general way the latter phrase is intended to describe and characterize the method of rule adopted by the Emperor from the very beginning of his reign, especially as exhibited in his semi-official utterances, public and private, in his correspondence, private conversation, and public and private conduct generally.  According to the popular interpretation of the Imperial Constitution—­the nearest thing to a Magna Charta in Germany—­the Emperor should observe, in his words and acts, a reserve which would prevent all chance of creating dissension among the federated