History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter III. - The Salzburgers.
by Thomas Carlyle
For three years past there has been much rumor over Germany, of a
strange affair going on in the remote Austrian quarter, down in
Salzburg and its fabulous Tyrolese valleys. Salzburg, city and
territory, has an Archbishop, not theoretically Austrian, but
sovereign Prince so styled; it is from him and his orthodoxies,
and pranks with his sovereign crosier, that the noise originates.
Strange rumor of a body of the population discovered to be
Protestant among the remote Mountains, and getting miserably
ill-used, by the Right Reverend Father in those parts.
Which rumor, of a singular, romantic, religious interest for the
general Protestant world, proves to be but too well founded.
It has come forth in the form of practical complaint to the CORPUS
EVANGELICORUM at the Diet, without result from the CORPUS;
complaint to various persons;--in fine, to his Majesty Friedrich
Wilhelm, WITH result.
With result at last; actual "Emigration of the Salzburgers:"
and Germany--in these very days while the Crown-Prince is at
Berlin betrothing himself, and Franz of Lorraine witnessing the
EXERCITIA and wonders there--sees a singular phenomenon of a
touching idyllic nature going on; and has not yet quite forgotten
it in our days. Salzburg Emigration was all in motion, flowing
steadily onwards, by various routes, towards Berlin, at the time
the Betrothal took place; and seven weeks after that event, when
the Crown-Prince had gone to Ruppin, and again could only hear of
it, the First Instalment of Emigrants arrived bodily at the Gates
of Berlin, "30th April, at four in the afternoon;" Majesty
himself, and all the world going out to witness it, with something
of a poetic: almost of a psalmist feeling, as well as with a
practical on the part of his Majesty. First Instalment this;
copiously followed by others, all that year; and flowing on, in
smaller rills and drippings, for several years more, till it got
completed. A notable phenomenon, full of lively picturesque and
other interest to Brandenburg and Germany;--which was not
forgotten by the Crown-Prince in coming years, as we shall
transiently find; nay which all Germany still remembers, and even
occasionally sings. Of which this is in brief the history.
The Salzburg Country, northeastern slope of the Tyrol (Donau
draining that side of it, Etsch or Adige the Italian side), is
celebrated by the Tourist for its airy beauty, rocky mountains,
smooth green valleys, and swift-rushing streams; perhaps some
readers have wandered to Bad-Gastein, or Ischl, in these nomadic
summers; have looked into Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the
Bavarian-Austrian boundary-lands; seen the wooden-clock makings,
salt-works, toy-manufactures, of those simple people in their
slouch-hats; and can bear some testimony to the phenomena of
Nature there. Salzburg is the Archbishop's City, metropolis of his
bit of sovereignty that then was. [Tolerable description of it in
the Baron Riesbeck's Travels through Germany
(London, 1787, Translation by Maty, 3 vols. 8vo), i. 124-222;--
whose details otherwise, on this Emigration business, are of no
authenticity or value. A kind of Play-actor and miscellaneous
Newspaper-man in that time (not so opulent to his class as ours
is); who takes the title of "Baron" on this occasion of coming,
out with a Book of Imaginary "Travels."
Had personally lived, practising the miscellaneous arts, about
Lintz and Salzburg,--and may be heard on the look of the Country,
if on little else.] A romantic City, far off among its beautiful
Mountains, shadowing (itself in the Salza River, which rushes down
into the Inn, into the Donau, now becoming great with the tribute
of so many valleys. Salzburg we have not known hitherto except as
the fabulous resting-place of Kaiser Barbarossa: but we are now
slightly to see it in a practical light; and mark how the memory
of Friedrich Wilhelm makes an incidental lodgment for
itself there.
It is well known there was extensive Protestantism once in those
countries. Prior to the Thirty-Years War, the fair chance was,
Austria too would all become Protestant; an extensive minority
among all ranks of men in Austria too, definable as the serious
intelligence of mankind in those countries, having clearly adopted
it, whom the others were sure to follow. In all ranks of men;
only not in the highest rank, which was pleased rather to continue
Official and Papal. Highest rank had its Thirty-Years War, "its
sleek Fathers Lummerlein and Hyacinth in Jesuit serge, its
terrible Fathers Wallenstein in chain-armor;" and, by working late
and early then and afterwards, did manage at length to trample out
Protestantism,--they know with what advantage by this time.
Trample out Protestantism; or drive it into remote nooks, where
under sad conditions it might protract an unnoticed existence.
In the Imperial Free-Towns, Ulm, Augsburg, and the like,
Protestantism continued, and under hard conditions contrives to
continue: but in the country parts, except in unnoticed nooks, it
is extinct. Salzburg Country is one of those nooks; an extensive
Crypto-Protestantism lodging, under the simple slouch-hats, in the
remote valleys there. Protestantism peaceably kept concealed,
hurting nobody; wholesomely forwarding the wooden-clock
manufacture, and arable or grazier husbandries, of those poor
people. More harmless sons of Adam, probably, did not breathe the
vital air, than those dissentient Salzburgers; generation after
generation of them giving offence to no creature.
Successive Archbishops had known of this Crypto-Protestantism, and
in remote periods had made occasional slight attempts upon it;
but none at all for a long time past. All attempts that way, as
ineffectual for any purpose but stirring up strife, had been
discontinued for many generations; [Buchholz, i. 148-151.] and the
Crypto-Protestantism was again become a mythical romantic object,
ignored by Official persons. However, in 1727, there came a new
Archbishop, one "Firmian", Count Firmian by secular quality, of a
strict lean character, zealous rather than wise; who had brought
his orthodoxies with him in a rigid and very lean form.
Right Reverend Firmian had not been long in Salzburg till he smelt
out the Crypto-Protestantism, and determined to haul it forth from
the mythical condition into the practical; and in fact, to see his
law-beagles there worry it to death as they ought. Hence the
rumors that had risen over Germany, in 1729: Law-terriers
penetrating into human cottages in those remote Salzburg valleys,
smelling out some German Bible or devout Book, making lists of
Bible-reading cottagers; haling them to the Right Reverend Father-
in-God; thence to prison, since they would not undertake to cease
reading. With fine, with confiscation, tribulation: for the
peaceable Salzburgers, respectful creatures, doffing their slouch-
hats almost to mankind in general, were entirely obstinate in that
matter of the Bible. "Cannot, your Reverence; must not, dare not!"
and went to prison or whithersoever rather; a wide cry rising, Let
us sell our possessions and leave Salzburg then, according to
Treaty of Westphalia, Article so-and-so. "Treaty of Westphalia?
Leave Salzburg?" shrieked the Right Reverend Father: "Are we
getting into open mutiny, then? Open extensive mutiny!" shrieked
he. Borrowed a couple of Austrian regiments,--Kaiser and we always
on the pleasantest terms,--and marched the most refractory of his
Salzburgers over the frontiers (retaining their properties and
families); whereupon noise rose louder and louder.
Refractory Salzburgers sent Deputies to the Diet; appealed,
complained to the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM, Treaty of Westphalia in
hand,--without result. CORPUS, having verified matters, complained
to the Kaiser, to the Right Reverend Father. The Kaiser, intent on
getting his Pragmatic Sanction through the Diet, and anxious to
offend nobody at present, gave good words; but did nothing:
the Right Reverend Father answered a Letter or two from the
CORPUS; then said at last, He wished to close the Correspondence,
had the honor to be,--and answered no farther, when written to.
CORPUS was without result. So it lasted through 1730; rumor, which
rose in 1729, waxing ever louder into practicable or impracticable
shape, through that next year; tribulation increasing in Salzburg;
and noise among mankind. In the end of 1730, the Salzburgers sent
Two Deputies to Friedrich Wilhelm at Berlin; solid-hearted, thick-
soled men, able to answer for themselves, and give real account of
Salzburg and the phenomena; this brought matters into a
practicable state.
"Are you actual Protestants, the Treaty of Westphalia applicable
to you? Not mere fanatic mystics, as Right Reverend Firmian
asserts; protectible by no Treaty?" That was Friedrich Wilhelm's
first question; and he set his two chief Berlin Clergymen, learned
Roloff one of them, a divine of much fame, to catechise the two
Salzburg Deputies, and report upon the point. Their Report, dated
Berlin, 30th November, 1730, with specimens of the main questions,
I have read; [Fassmann, pp. 446-448.] and can fully certify, along
with Roloff and friend, That here are orthodox Protestants,
apparently of very pious peaceable nature, suffering hard wrong;--
orthodox beyond doubt, and covered by the Treaty of Westphalia.
Whereupon his Majesty dismisses them with assurance, "Return, and
say there shall be help!"--and straightway lays hand on the
business, strong swift steady hand as usual, with a view that way.
Salzburg being now a clear case, Friedrich Wilhelm writes to the
Kaiser; to the King of England, King of Denmark;--orders
preparations to be made in Preussen, vacant messuages to be
surveyed, moneys to be laid up;--bids his man at the Regensburg
Diet signify, That unless this thing is rectified, his Prussian
Majesty will see himself necessitated to take effectual steps:
"reprisals" the first step, according to the old method of his
Prussian Majesty. Rumor of the Salzburg Protestants rises higher
and higher. Kaiser intent on conciliating every CORPUS,
Evangelical and other, for his Pragmatic Sanction's sake,
admonishes Right Reverend Firmian; intimates at last to him, That
he will actually have to let those poor people emigrate if they
demand it; Treaty of Westphalia being express. In the end of 1731
it has come thus far.
"Emigrate, says your Imperial Majesty? Well, they shall emigrate,"
answers Firmian; "the sooner the better!" And straightway, in the
dead of winter, marches, in convenient divisions, some nine
hundred of them over the frontiers: "Go about your business, then;
emigrate--to the Old One, if you like!"--"And our properties, our
goods and chattels?" ask they.--"Be thankful you have kept your
skins. Emigrate, I say.!" And the poor nine hundred had to go out,
in the rigor of winter, "hoary old men among them, and women
coming near their time;" and seek quarters in the wide world
mostly unknown to them. Truly Firmian is an orthodox Herr;
acquainted with the laws of fair usage and the time of day.
The sleeping Barbarossa does not awaken upon him within the Hill
here:--but in the Roncalic Fields, long ago, I should not have
liked to stand in his shoes!
Friedrich Wilhelm, on this procedure at Salzburg, intimates to his
Halberstadt and Minden Catholic gentlemen, That their
Establishments must be locked up, and incomings suspended;
that they can apply to the Right Reverend Firmian upon it;--and
bids his man at Regensburg signify to the Diet that such is the
course adopted here. Right Reverend Firmian has to hold his hand;
finds both that there shall be Emigration, and that it must go
forward on human terms, not inhuman; and that in fact the Treaty
of Westphalia will have to guide it, not he henceforth. Those poor
ousted Salzburgers cower into the Bavarian cities, till the
weather mend, and his Prussian Majesty's arrangements be complete
for their brethren and them.
His Prussian Majesty has been maturing his plans, all this while;
--gathering moneys, getting lands ready. We saw him hanging
Schlubhut in the autumn of 1731, who had peculated from said
moneys; and surveying Preussen, under storms of thunder and rain
on one occasion. Preussen is to be the place for these people;
Tilsit and Memel region, same where the big Fight of Tannenberg
and ruin of the Teutsch Ritters took place: in that fine fertile
Country there are homes got ready for this Emigration out
of Salzburg.
Long ago, at the beginning of this History, did not the reader
hear of a pestilence in Prussian Lithuania? Pestilence in old King
Friedrich's time; for which the then Crown-Prince, now Majesty
Friedrich Wilhelm, vainly solicited help from the Treasury, and
only brought about partial change of Ministry and no help.
"Fifty-two Towns" were more or less entirely depopulated; hundreds
of thousands of fertile acres fell to waste again, the hands that
had ploughed them being swept away. The new Majesty, so soon as
ever the Swedish War was got rid of, took this matter diligently
in hand; built up the fifty-two ruined Towns; issued Proclamations
once and again (Years 1719, 1721) to the Wetterau, to Switzerland,
Saxony, Schwaben; [Buchholz, i. 148.] inviting Colonists to come,
and, on favorable terms, till and reap there. His terms are
favorable, well-considered; and are honestly kept. He has a fixed
set of terms for Colonists: their road-expenses thither, so much a
day allowed each travelling soul; homesteads, ploughing
implements, cattle, land, await them at their journey's end;
their rent and services, accurately specified, are light not
heavy; and "immunities" from this and that are granted them, for
certain years, till they get well nestled. Excellent arrangements:
and his Majesty has, in fact, got about 20,000 families in that
way. And still there is room for thousands more. So that if the
tyrannous Firmian took to tribulating Salzburg in that manner,
Heaven had provided remedies and a Prussian Majesty. Heaven is
very opulent; has alchemy to change the ugliest substances into
beautifulest. Privately to his Majesty, for months back, this
Salzburg Emigration is a most manageable matter. Manage well, it
will be a god-send to his Majesty, and fit, as by pre-established
harmony, into the ancient Prussian sorrow; and "two afflictions
well put together shall become a consolation," as the proverb
promises! Go along then, Right Reverend Firmian, with your
Emigration there: only no foul-play in it,--or Halberstadt and
Minden get locked:--for the rest of the matter we will undertake.
And so, February 2d, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm's Proclamation [Copy
of it in Mauvillon, February, 1732, ii. 311.] flew abroad over the
world; brief and business-like, cheering to all but Firmian;--
to this purport: "Come, ye poor Salzburgers, there are homes
provided for you. Apply at Regensburg, at Halle: Commissaries are
appointed; will take charge of your long march and you. Be kind,
all Christian German Princes: do not hinder them and me." And in
a few days farther, still early in February (for the matter is all
ready before proclaiming), an actual Prussian Commissary hangs out
his announcements and officialities at Donauworth, old City known
to us, within reach of the Salzburg Boundaries; collects, in a
week or two, his first lot of Emigrants, near a thousand strong;
and fairly takes the road with them.
A long road and a strange: I think, above five hundred miles
before we get to Halle, within Prussian land; and then seven
hundred more to our place there, in the utmost East. Men, women,
infants and hoary grandfathers are here;--most of their property
sold,--still on ruinous conditions, think of it, your Majesty.
Their poor bits of preciosities and heirlooms they have with them;
made up in succinct bundles, stowed on ticketed baggage-wains;
"some have their own poor cart and horse, to carry the too old and
the too young, those that cannot walk." A pilgrimage like that of
the Children of Israel: such a pilgrim caravan as was seldom heard
of in our Western Countries. Those poor succinct bundles, the
making of them up and stowing of them; the pangs of simple hearts,
in those remote native valleys; the tears that were not seen,
the cries that were addressed to God only: and then at last the
actual turning out of the poor caravan, in silently practical
condition, staff in hand, no audible complaint heard from it;
ready to march; practically marching here:--which of us can think
of it without emotion, sad, and yet in a sort blessed!
Every Emigrant man has four GROSCHEN a day (fourpence odd) allowed
him for road expenses, every woman three groschen, every child
two: and regularity itself, in the shape of Prussian Commissaries,
presides over it. Such marching of the Salzburgers: host after
host of them, by various routes, from February onwards;
above seven thousand of them this year, and ten thousand more that
gradually followed,--was heard of at all German firesides, and in
all European lands. A phenomenon much filling the general ear and
imagination; especially at the first emergence of it. We will give
from poor old authentic Fassmann, as if caught up by some sudden
photograph apparatus, a rude but undeniable glimpse or two into
the actuality of this business: the reader will in that way
sufficiently conceive it for himself.
Glimpse FIRST is of an Emigrant Party arriving, in the cold
February days of 1732, at Nordlingen, Protestant Free-Town in
Bavaria: three hundred of them; first section, I think, of those
nine hundred who were packed away unceremoniously by Firmian last
winter, and have been wandering about Bavaria, lodging "in
Kaufbeuern" and various preliminary Towns, till the Prussian
arrangements became definite. Prussian Commissaries are, by this
time, got to Donauworth; but these poor Salzburgers are ahead of
them, wandering under the voluntary principle as yet. Nordlingen,
in Bavaria, is an old Imperial Free-Town; Protestantism not
suppressed there, as it has been all round; scene of some
memorable fighting in the Thirty-Years War, especially of a bad
defeat to the Swedes and Bernhard of Weimar, the worst they had in
the course of that bad business. The Salzburgers are in number
three hundred and thirty-one; time, "first days of February, 1732,
weather very cold and raw." The charitable Protestant Town has
been expecting such an advent:--
"Two chief Clergymen, and the Schoolmaster and Scholars, with some
hundreds of citizens and many young people" went out to meet them;
there, in the open field, stood the Salzburgers, with their wives
and their little ones, with their bullock-carts and baggage-
wains," pilgriming towards unknown parts of the Earth. "'Come in,
ye blessed of the Lord! Why stand ye without?' said the Parson
solemnly, by way of welcome; and addressed a Discourse to them,"
devout and yet human, true every word of it, enough to draw tears
from any Fassmann that were there;--Fassmann and we not far from
weeping without words. "Thereupon they ranked themselves two and
two, and marched into the Town," straight to the Church, I
conjecture, Town all out to participate; "and there the two
reverend gentlemen successively addressed them again, from
appropriate texts: Text of the first reverend gentleman was,
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. [Matthew xix. 29.] Text of the
second was, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee." [Genesis
xii. 1.] Excellent texts; well handled, let us hope,--especially
with brevity. After which the strangers were distributed, some
into public-houses, others taken home by the citizens to lodge.
"Out of the Spital there was distributed to each person, for the
first three days, a half-pound of flesh-meat, bread, and a measure
of beer. The remaining days they got in money six CREUTZERS
(twopence) each, and bread. On Sunday, at the Church-doors there
was a collection; no less than eight hundred GULDEN [80 pounds;
population, say, three thousand] for this object. At Sermon they
were put into the central part of the Church," all Nordlingen
lovingly encompassing them; "and were taught in two sermons,"
texts not given, What the true Church is built of,
and then Of true Faith, and what love a Christian
ought to have; Nordlingen copiously shedding tears
the while (VIELE THRANEN VERGOSSEN), as it well might. "Going to
Church, and coming from it, each Landlord walked ahead of his
party; party followed two and two. On other days, there was much
catechising of them at different parts of the Town;"--orthodox
enough, you see, nothing of superstition or fanaticism in the poor
people;--"they made a good testimony of their Evangelical truth.
"The Baggage-wagons which they had with them, ten in number, upon
which some of their old people sat, were brought into the Town.
The Baggage was unloaded, and the packages, two hundred and
eighty-one of them in all [for Fassmann is Photography itself],
were locked in the Zoll-Haus. Over and above what they got from
the Spital, the Church-collection and the Town-chest, Citizens
were liberal; daily sent them food, or daily had them by fours and
fives to their own houses to meat." And so let them wait for the
Prussian Commissary, who is just at hand: "they would not part
from one another, these three hundred and thirty-one," says
Fassmann, "though their reunion was but of that accidental
nature." [Fassmann, pp. 439, 440.]
Glimpse SECOND: not dated; perhaps some ten days later; and a
Prussian Commissary with this party:--
"On their getting to the Anspach Territory, there was so
incredible a joy at the arrival of these exiled Brothers in the
Faith (GLAUBENS-BRUDER) that in all places, almost in the smallest
hamlets, the bells were set a-tolling; and nothing was heard but a
peal of welcome from far and near." Prussian Commissary, when
about quitting Anspach, asked leave to pass through Bamberg;
Bishop of Bamberg, too orthodox a gentleman, declined; so the
Commissary had to go by Nurnberg and Baireuth. Ask not if his
welcome was good, in those Protestant places. "At Erlangen,
fifteen miles from Nurnberg, where are French Protestants and a
Dowager Margravine of Baireuth,"--Widow of Wilhelmina's Father-in-
law's predecessor (if the reader can count that); DAUGHTER of
Weissenfels who was for marrying Wilhelmina not long since!--
"at Erlangen, the Serene Dowager snatched up fifty of them into
her own House for Christian refection; and Burghers of means had
twelve, fifteen and even eighteen of them, following such example
set. Nay certain French Citizens, prosperous and childless,
besieged the Prussian Commissary to allow them a few Salzburg
children for adoption; especially one Frenchman was extremely
urgent and specific: but the Commissary, not having any order, was
obliged to refuse." [Fassmann, p. 441.] These must have been
interesting days for the two young Margravines; forwarding Papa's
poor pilgrims in that manner.
"At Baireuth," other side of Nurnberg, "it was towards Good Friday
when the Pilgrims under their Commissarius arrived. They were
lodged in the villages about, but came copiously into the Town;
came all in a body to Church on Good Friday; and at coming out,
were one and all carried off to dinner, a very scramble arising
among the Townsfolk to get hold of Pilgrims and dine them.
Vast numbers were carried to the Schloss:" one figures Wilhelmina
among them, figures the Hereditary Prince and old Margraf:
their treatment there was "beyond belief," says Fassmann;
"not only dinner of the amplest quality and quantity, but much
money added and other gifts." From Baireuth the route is towards
Gera and Thuringen, circling the Bamberg Territory: readers
remember Gera, where the Gera Bond was made?--"At Gera, a
commercial gentleman dined the whole party in his own premises,
and his wife gave four groschen to each individual of them;
other two persons, brothers in the place, doing the like. One of
the poor pilgrim women had been brought to bed on the journey, a
day or two before: the Commissarius lodged her in his own inn, for
greater safety; Commissarius returning to his inn, finds she is
off, nobody at first can tell him whither: a lady of quality
(VORMEHME DAME) has quietly sent her carriage for the poor pilgrim
sister, and has her in the right softest keeping. No end to
people's kindness: many wept aloud, sobbing out, 'Is this all the
help we can give?' Commissarius said, 'There will others come
shortly; them also you can help.'"
In this manner march these Pilgrims. "From Donauworth, by Anspach,
Nurnberg, Baireuth, through Gera, Zeitz, Weissenfels, to Halle,"
where they are on Prussian ground, and within few days of Berlin.
Other Towns, not upon the first straight route to Berlin, demand
to have a share in these grand things; share is willingly
conceded: thus the Pilgrims, what has its obvious advantages,
march by a good variety of routes. Through Augsburg, Ulm (instead
of Donauworth), thence to Frankfurt; from Frankfurt some direct to
Leipzig: some through Cassel, Hanover, Brunswick, by Halberstadt
and Magdeburg instead of Halle. Starting all at Salzburg, landing
all at Berlin; their routes spread over the Map of Germany in the
intermediate space.
"Weissenfels Town and Duke distinguished themselves by liberality:
especially the Duke did;"--poor old drinking Duke; very Protestant
all these Saxon Princes, except the Apostate or Pseudo-Apostate
the Physically Strong, for sad political reasons. "In Weissenfels
Town, while the Pilgrim procession walked, a certain rude foreign
fellow, flax-pedler by trade, ["HECHELTRAGER," Hawker of flax-
combs or HECKLES;--is oftenest a Slavonic Austrian (I am told).]
by creed Papist or worse, said floutingly, 'The Archbishop ought
to have flung you all into the river, you--!' Upon which a menial
servant of the Duke's suddenly broke in upon him in the way of
actuality, the whole crowd blazing into flame; and the pedler
would certainly have got irreparable damage, had not the Town-
guard instantly hooked him away."
April 21st, 1732, the first actual body, a good nine hundred
strong, [Buchholz, i. 156.] got to Halle; where they were received
with devout jubilee, psalm-singing, spiritual and corporeal
refection, as at Nordlingen and the other stages; "Archidiaconus
Franke" being prominent in it,--I have no doubt, a connection of
that "CHIEN DE FRANKE," whom Wilhelmina used to know. They were
lodged in the Waisenhaus (old Franke's ORPHAN-HOUSE); Official
List of them was drawn up here, with the fit specificality;
and, after three days, they took the road again for Berlin.
Useful Buchholz, then a very little boy, remembers the arrival of
a Body of these Salzburgers, not this but a later one in August,
which passed through his native Village, Pritzwalk in the
Priegnitz: How village and village authorities were all awake,
with opened stores and hearts; how his Father, the Village Parson,
preached at five in the afternoon. The same Buchholz, coming
afterwards to College at Halle, had the pleasure of discovering
two of the Commissaries, two of the three, who had mainly
superintended in this Salzburg Pilgrimage. Let the reader also
take a glance at them, as specimens worth notice:--
COMMISSARIUS FIRST: "Herr von Reck was a nobleman from the Hanover
Country; of very great piety; who, after his Commission was done,
settled at Halle; and lived there, without servant, in privacy,
from the small means he had;--seeking his sole satisfaction in
attendance on the Theological and Ascetic College-Lectures, where
I used to see him constantly in my student time."
COMMISSARIUS SECOND: "Herr Gobel was a medical man by profession;
and had the regular degree of Doctor; but was in no necessity to
apply his talents to the gaining of bread. His zeal for religion
had moved him to undertake this Commission. Both these gentlemen I
have often seen in my youth," but do not tell you what they were
like farther; "and both their Christian names have escaped me."
A third Commissarius was of Preussen, and had religious-literary
tendencies. I suppose these three served gratis;--volunteers;
but no doubt under oath, and tied by strict enough Prussian law.
Physician, Chaplain, Road-guide, here they are, probably of
supreme quality, ready to our hand. [Buchholz, Neueste
Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte (berlin, 1775,
2 vols. 4to), i. 155 n.]
Buchholz, after "his student time," became a poor Country-
schoolmaster, and then a poor Country-Parson, in his native
Altmark. His poor Book is of innocent, clear, faithful nature,
with some vein of "unconscious geniality" in it here and there;--
a Book by no means so destitute of human worth as some that have
superseded it. This was posthumous, this "NEWEST HISTORY," and has
a LIFE of the Author prefixed. He has four previous Volumes on the
"Ancient History of Bran denburg," which are
not known to me.--About the Year 1745, there were four poor
Schoolmasters in that region (two at Havelberg, one at Seehausen,
one at Werben), of extremely studious turn; who, in spite of the
Elbe which ran between, used to meet on stated nights, for
colloquy, for interchange of Books and the like. One of them, the
Werben one, was this Buchholz; another, Seehausen, was the
Winckelmann so celebrated in after years. A third, one of the
Havelberg pair, "went into Mecklenburg in a year or two, as Tutor
to Karl Ludwig the Prince of Strelitz's children,"--whom also
mark. For the youngest of these Strelitz children was no other
than the actual "Old Queen Charlotte" (ours and George III.'s),
just ready for him with her Hornbooks about that time: Let the
poor man have what honor he can from that circumstance!
"Prince Karl Ludwig," rather a foolish-looking creature, we may
fall in with personally by and by.
It was the 30th April, 1732, seven weeks and a day since Crown-
Prince Friedrich's Betrothal, that this first body of Salzburg
Emigrants, nine hundred strong, arrived at Berlin; "four in the
afternoon, at the Brandenburg Gate;" Official persons, nay Majesty
himself, or perhaps both Majesties, waiting there to receive them.
Yes, ye poor footsore mortals, there is the dread King himself;
stoutish short figure in blue uniform and white wig, straw-colored
waistcoat, and white gaiters; stands uncommonly firm on his feet;
reddish, blue-reddish face, with eyes that pierce through a man:
look upon him, and yet live if you are true men. His Majesty's
reception of these poor people could not but be good; nothing now
wanting in the formal kind. But better far, in all the
essentialities of it, there had not been hitherto, nor was
henceforth, the least flaw. This Salzburg Pilgrimage has found for
itself, and will find, regulation, guidance, ever a stepping-stone
at the needful place; a paved road, so far as human regularity
and punctuality could pave one. That is his Majesty's shining
merit. "Next Sunday, after sermon, they [this first lot of
Salzburgers] were publicly catechised in church; and all the world
could hear their pertinent answers, given often in the very
Scripture texts, or express words of Luther."
His Majesty more than once took survey of these Pilgrimage
Divisions, when they got to Berlin. A pleasant sight, if there
were leisure otherwise. On various occasions, too, her Majesty had
large parties of them over to Monbijou, to supper there in the
fine gardens; and "gave them Bibles," among other gifts, if in
want of Bibles through Firmian's industry. Her Majesty was Charity
itself, Charity and Grace combined, among these Pilgrims. On one
occasion she picked out a handsome young lass among them, and had
Painter Pesne over to take her portrait. Handsome lass, by Pesne,
in her Tyrolese Hat, shone thenceforth on the walls of Monbijou;
and fashion thereupon took up the Tyrolese Hat, "which has been
much worn since by the beautiful part of the Creation," says
Buchholz; "but how many changes they have introduced in it no pen
can trace."
At Berlin the Commissarius ceased; and there was usually given the
Pilgrims a Candidatus Theologiae, who was to conduct them the rest
of the way, and be their Clergyman when once settled. Five hundred
long miles still. Some were shipped at Stettin; mostly they
marched, stage after stage,--four groschen a day. At the farther
end they found all ready; tight cottages, tillable fields, all
implements furnished, and stock,--even to "FEDERVIEH," or
Chanticleer with a modicum of Hens. Old neighbors, and such as
liked each other, were put together: fields grew green again,
desolate scrubs and scrags yielding to grass and corn.
Wooden clocks even came to view,--for Berchtesgaden neighbors also
emigrated; and Swiss came, and Bavarians and French:--and old
trades were revived in those new localities.
Something beautifully real-idyllic in all this, surely:--Yet do
not fancy that it all went on like clock-work; that there were not
jarrings at every step, as is the way in things real. Of the
Prussian Minister chiefly concerned in settling this new Colony I
have heard one saying, forced out of him in some pressure:
"There must be somebody for a scolding-stock and scape-goat;
I will be it, then!" And then the Salzburg Officials, what a humor
they were in! No Letters allowed from those poor Emigrants;
the wickedest rumors circulated about them: "All cut to pieces by
inroad of the Poles;" "Pressed for soldiers by the Prussian drill-
sergeant;" "All flung into the Lakes and stagnant waters there;
drowned to the last individual;" and so on. Truth nevertheless did
slowly pierce through. And the "GROSSE WIRTH," our idyllic-real
Friedrich Wilhelm, was wanting in nothing. Lists of their unjust
losses in Salzburg were, on his Majesty's order, made out and
authenticated, by the many who had suffered in that way there,
--forced to sell at a day's notice, and the like:--with these his
Majesty was diligent in the Imperial Court; and did get what human
industry could of compensation, a part but not the whole.
Contradictory noises had to abate. In the end, sound purpose,
built on fact and the Laws of Nature, carried it; lies,
vituperations, rumors and delusion sank to zero; and the true
result remained. In 1738, the Salzburg Emigrant Community in
Preussen held, in all their Churches, a Day of Thanksgiving;
and admitted piously that Heaven's blessing, of a truth, had been
upon this King and them. There we leave them, a useful solid
population ever since in those parts; increased by this time we
know not how many fold.
It cost Friedrich Wilhelm enormous sums, say the Old Histories;
probably "ten TONS OF GOLD,"--that is to say, ten hundred thousand
thalers; almost 150,000 pounds, no less! But he lived to see it
amply repaid, even in his own time; how much more amply since;--
being a man skilful in investments to a high degree indeed.
Fancy 150,000 pounds invested there, in the Bank of Nature
herself; and a hundred millions invested, say at Balaclava, in the
Bank of Newspaper rumor: and the respective rates of interest they
will yield, a million years hence! This was the most idyllic of
Friedrich Wilhelm's feats, and a very real one the while.
We have only to add or repeat, that Salzburgers to the number of
about 7,000 souls arrived at their place this first year; and in
the year or two following, less noted by the public, but faring
steadily forward upon their four groschen a day, 10,000 more.
Friedrioh Wilhelm would have gladly taken the whole; "but George
II. took a certain number," say the Prussian Books (George II., or
pious Trustees instead of him), "and settled them at Ebenezer in
Virginia,"--read, Ebenezer IN GEORGIA, where General Oglethorpe
was busy founding a Colony. [Petition to Parliament, 10th (21st)
May, 1733, by Oglethorpe and his Trustees, for 10,000 pounds to
carry over these Salzburgers; which was granted; Tindal's RAPIN
(London, 1769), xx. 184.] There at Ebenezer I calculate they might
go ahead, too, after the questionable fashion of that country, and
increase and swell;--but have never heard of them since.
Salzburg Emigration was a very real transaction on Friedrich
Wilhelm's part; but it proved idyllic too, and made a great
impression on the German mind. Readers know of a Book called
Hermann and Dorothea? It is written by the
great Goethe, and still worth reading. The great Goethe had heard,
when still very little, much talk among the elders about this
Salzburg Pilgrimage; and how strange a thing it was, twenty years
ago and more. [1749 was Goethe's birth-year.] In middle life he
threw it into Hexameters, into the region of the air; and did that
unreal Shadow of it; a pleasant work in its way, since he was not
inclined for more.
