The Student Life of Germany Part 6

Kotzebue, however, was not at home, and he was requested to call again at five in the evening. He therefore took a walk to the Rhine, and inquired where lay the wood of Neckerau, and its distance, and at one o'clock returned to the inn. He conducted himself during dinner with great equanimity, ate moderately, and drank a choppin[7] of wine. His companions at table were two clergymen from the Upper Rhine country, with whom he conversed partly on topics of general history, and partly on the Reformation and Luther. He stayed with the company till towards five o'clock, and then said that he must yet pay a visit to Kotzebue.

This time he met his victim. He announced himself, and was shown into a room on the right hand of which lay Kotzebue's study, separated only from it by a small cabinet, while the nursery and the sitting-room of the family lay on its left side. On the proceedings in this room Sand himself observed,--"The servant spent some minutes in going about in the room or speaking; he then called me in, but still continued standing in the doorway, and spoke in a low voice towards the interior of the room. I was finally admitted, and Kotzebue stepped into the room from the door on the left hand. I saw him appear at the half-open door, and then enter as the door was quite open. I went about six steps forward into the room and greeted him. He stepped somewhat nearer to the door, and I then turned myself towards him on the side of the entrance.[8] The most fearful thing to me was that I must dissemble. I said that I had a desire to call on him as I travelled through the place, and, after some pro and con, I added,--'I pride myself'--which Kotzebue probably interpreted otherwise than as I meant,--then drew I the dagger, and continued--'not in thee! Here, thou traitor to the Fatherland!' and with the last word I struck him down.

"I named myself Henry from Mietau, since I believed that Kotzebue would not admit me if I announced myself a native German. It was much more probable under the name of a Courlander; and Kotzebue actually said--'You are from Mietau?'

"How many blows I gave him I cannot say: as little, which was the first. It was quickly done. I drew the dagger out of the left sleeve, where I had secured it in a sheath, and gave him several stabs in the left side. Kotzebue spoke not a word during the attack, only uttered a cry of alarm, the instant that he saw me rush upon him with uplifted arm. He stretched out his hands, and fell immediately at the entrance of the room on the left hand, about three steps from the same. How I should have wounded him in the face I know not. Probably it may have happened through his holding his hands and arms before him, and moving them about. I held the dagger so that the edge was above the thumb and the fist, and struck directly out, neither from above nor from below.

Kotzebue fell together in a sitting posture. I then looked him in the face to see how it was with him. I wished to ascertain the effect of the attack, and a second time looked him in the face. He continually winked with his eyelids, so that one could now see the whites of his eyes, and now nothing. I therefore concluded that he was not dead; but I interfered no further with him, because I was persuaded that enough had been done."

Sand having completed his act, turned towards the window in order to regain his old standing place, but that turn produced a deciding influence on his fate. "I saw," said he, "in turning round, a little child, which during the deed had sprung into the room from the left-hand door. Its cry produced in me such a mingled feeling that I was instantly determined to recompense it for the injury I had done it by stabbing myself with the small sword. The blow struck on the left breast, and went several inches deep. I drew forth the steel, and the effect was an instant gush of blood, which I perceived as I descended the stairs became, with the pain, more perceptible."

The cry of anguish of the victim under the hands of his murderer, brought in a few seconds thither the family and inmates of the house; but the horrible spectacle must naturally so violently have affected them, that they scarcely retained a clear remembrance of the first moments which followed the discovery. According to Sand's own account, as they bore Kotzebue into the next room, the wild outcry and deep alarm sunk by degrees; the whole room as well as the open-standing door was left vacant, and he had time to descend the steps and reach the outer door. When, however, he came there, he found already many other persons collected by the outcry, and must then have despaired of his escape, and therefore sought to secure the publication of his "Death-Blow." His original intention, that of sticking it up somewhere with the small dagger, was prevented by his having let it fall during the action, and he therefore took the paper from his pocket, and delivered it to the servant, who was then rus.h.i.+ng out of the house to call the watch, saying, "There, take that!" Then cried Sand with a loud voice, to the people who had run together,--"Live for ever, my German Fatherland, and we amongst the German people, who strive to advance the condition of a pure humanity!"

He then kneeled down, and said in a low voice,--"I thank Thee, G.o.d, for thy victory;" prayed, placed with both hands the small sword against his breast, and drove it directly and deliberately into it till it stood fast; then withdrew his hands and fell forward on his right side.

The people who hurried to the spot, found him lying in his blood, drew forth the dagger, and washed the wound with vinegar. In the mean time the watch and the police had arrived, and the murderer under the usual guard was carried on a handbarrow to the hospital.

Kotzebue died in the arms of his daughter. It was probably the first blow, which, piercing the pericardium and the artery of the lungs, caused his speedy death.

Sand, on the day following the murder was in a greatly excited state.

His features changed rapidly, his eyes now gloomy and wildly rolling, now soft and swimming with tears. His wounds were cicatrized in about a fortnight, but an internal extravasation of blood ensuing, made the opening of the cavity of the chest necessary, which the then Professor Chelius from Heidelberg performed. Sand submitted himself quietly to the operation, and afterwards begged the surgeon to excuse him for some exclamations of pain during the operation. His behaviour during his whole imprisonment was praiseworthy. His frame of mind appeared calm and quiet, and he seemed to wait his fate with resignation. Only twice, in particular, was he seen to break out into pa.s.sionate weeping; once, as he was conveyed from the hospital to the House of Correction, and the second time, as a letter from his parents was read to him, in which they gave him their blessing; but he sought anxiously to hide these tears, as evidences of weakness. He repented his attempt at self murder, as a cowardly act, and followed the prescriptions of his physician with regularity. He was thus soon so far restored that the trial could take place.

This was entered into with all possible gentleness; and he experienced generally throughout it a mild treatment. A visit which his mother and brother offered to make him he declined, on the ground of sparing to all parties the pain of such a parting.

The trial for the murder went on quickly at first, but afterwards became more complicated, on account of the doc.u.ments which were found amongst Sand's papers, concerning the Burschenschaft and such matters.

These occasioned an especial commission to be named, which put itself in communication with commissions afterwards named at Weimar, Darmstadt, and Giessen, and subsequently with the Ministry of Police at Berlin, so far as their inquiries might have an influence or throw any light on Sand's act. From the report of these inquiries we have drawn the preceding notices of his life, and it may yet be permitted us to say a few words on the force of some actuating causes which could lead so excellent a character, as Sand otherwise was, to such a deed.

Sand's early youth fell in a time when all Germany breathed hatred to its oppressors. From this source he drew the most glowing antipathy to the French, and enthusiasm for his native country. Traits of fanaticism, and a certain touch of religious enthusiasm, all must have remarked in him who have read the foregoing pages, and a degree of vanity which drove him to distinguish himself from the common herd by something peculiar. Thus he subscribed himself, as a genuine German, instead of Karl Ludwig, "Kerl Chlodowig," in the ancient style, and afterwards he used the signature, "German Brother of Fichtelberge."

Then he made himself conspicuous in Tubingen by a very singular dress.

His desire, however, to serve his country remained ungratified, and he returned from his campaign as so many others, casting his glance forward, to see whether Germany, which had purchased its external peace through so much bloodshed, possessed internal peace and deserved happiness. At the same time, his p.r.o.neness to mysticism was undeniable.

In his speculations upon religion, morals, const.i.tutions of states and laws, one finds many contradictions. Thus, he regarded the Divine laws not so much positive commands as monitory precepts, by which man, according to his conviction, can regulate his conduct. When he, whose favourite reading was the Bible and the writings of Thomas a Kempis, yet felt a certain disbelief in the revealed religion, it was truly a great inconsistency to desire that an immediate revelation from above should be made to himself. Thus, he says amongst other things:--"He prayed to G.o.d daily for knowledge and enlightenment. If he, through divine revelation, could learn that his act was wrong, he would repent it every hour; but hitherto nothing of the kind has happened." "My own conviction," said he, "is my law. I act right whenever I follow it. It guides me better than divine or human precepts." According to these principles he would only acknowledge laws except in so far as they seemed reasonable to him. Above all things displeased him, the division of Germany into separate states,--he would have one Germany and one church; but when he demanded--not for himself alone, but for the whole people--this freedom of thought and will, he was in contradiction to himself again, since he would, to a certain degree, force this reform upon all, in opposition to his conceived freedom; nay, held it as allowable, to take out of the way, with the dagger, whoever placed himself as an enemy in the path of this reform; yes, and called upon the people also to do the same. And this he did, without sufficiently understanding the laws and circ.u.mstances of his Fatherland, as appears by his declaration. It is to be supposed that the spirit which formerly actuated the Burschenschaft, had an influence upon the developement of his ideas; but it is false, when it is a.s.serted that the Burschenschaft was privy to his deed, or approved it. Sand had misunderstood some doctrines of Sch.e.l.ling's philosophy, and had fitted these misconceptions into his system, as well as many others which he had drawn from the lectures of his teachers, especially those of the historian Luden. All his teachers praised his restless diligence, without ascribing to him either particular talent or great strength of judgment. He entangled himself in a system of sophistry which he regarded as the firmest truth. When a man frequently p.r.o.nounces any thing to be true, he comes at last to believe it so, however contrary it be to common sense. Thus Sand over-estimated the evil influence which Kotzebue exercised through his writings, without making himself sufficiently acquainted with these writings. Thus he imagined that the governments were not strong enough to repress this nuisance; and that the writers who contended against Kotzebue were powerless against this, literary tyrant. He therefore believed himself called to take the enemy of truth out of the way. He communicated his resolution to no one, and was so convinced of the meritorious nature of his action--which he, moreover, justified by his maxim, the "end hallows the means"--that to his last moment he never repented of it. For the rest, he endeavoured with all his power, to s.h.i.+eld others from the evil consequences that might have reached them from his action, and therefore, when for their advantage he stated many things that were not true, he is on that account to be judged leniently. All these circ.u.mstances were well weighed by his judges, as ground of excuse so far as they might contribute to the mitigation of his punishment. Sand's counsel on the trial was the Licentiate Ruttger. The final judgment of the court condemned him to death with the sword. This judgment of the 5th of May was confirmed by the Grand Duke on the 12th, and arrived at Mannheim on the 17th of the same month.

At this latter period, the health of the culprit had so much improved that, according to the official medical report, he was in a condition to rise from his bed with help of his attendants, to continue some hours up, and to take his meals sitting in his room.

On the morning of the 17th of May, at half-past ten o'clock, the sentence of death was formally read to Sand, in the presence of two officers of the court, whereupon, permission being allowed, he dictated the following protocol:--"This hour, and the honourable judges with the final decision, were welcome. He would fortify himself in the strength of his G.o.d; since he had often and clearly made known his opinion, that amongst all mortal sorrows, none could so much afflict him as to live on without being able to serve the Fatherland, and the highest aims of humanity. He died willingly, since he could no longer work in love for the Idea--since he could no longer be free. So approached he the portals of eternity, with a glad mind, and with the most thorough internal conviction, which he had always entertained, that the true good upon earth can only come forth from the strife of conflicting pa.s.sions, and that he who will work for the highest and divine, must be a leader and a member of a party. He cherished the hope through his death, to satisfy those whom he hated and who hated him; and again, to content those with whom he agreed in opinion, and in whose love consisted his earthly happiness. Death was welcome to him, since he yet felt the strength in him necessary, by the help of G.o.d, to enable him to die like a man."

The 20th of May was appointed for the execution, and till this period the governor of the House of Correction was instructed to admit all proper persons that the prisoner might desire to see, especially the Protestant ministers, and to comply with all reasonable wishes of the condemned.

Sand displayed the same fort.i.tude as on the publication of the sentence of death. He made the request that day, that it might be ordered that no clergyman should attend him to the place of execution, and gave as his reason, that the attendance of criminals to the place of doom, was a degradation of the clerical order and of religion. That religion must lie in the heart, and could not, especially amid such a tumult, proceed from external things. As all the representatives, even of the clergy present, could not alter his opinions on this point, it was conceded, and his request allowed.

At five o'clock of the morning of the 20th, Sand was placed in a low open chaise, within the court of the Bridewell, the door being still closed. He was attended by the superintendent of the prison, at his own request, that he might help to support him, particularly in mounting the scaffold. Two other masters of the House of Correction were ordered to keep near the carriage. Sand was clad in a dark-green great-coat, linen trousers, and laced boots, without any covering on his head. The carriage in which he sat, as well as the one following with the officers of justice, was surrounded by the officials of the House of Correction, and the squadron of cavalry ordered for the occasion. The train proceeded to a meadow lying a little without the city gate, in which the scaffold was erected, and which was guarded by a detachment of infantry.

The government deemed these precautions necessary in order to frustrate any attempt at liberation of the prisoner on the part of the students.

In fact, it is yet often related, that a great number of the Burschen rode, in the early morning, from Heidelberg, well provided with swords and fire-arms, with the intent to s.n.a.t.c.h Sand out of the hands of justice; that the keeping secret the day fixed for the execution, had made it impossible for them to obtain sufficiently early intelligence; and that in consequence, though riding the whole way at the highest speed, they arrived too late on the spot, where, cursing their evil star, they discharged their pistols into the ground. The whole story, however, is a fable, and it is certain, that by the wiser, and probably the greater part of the Burschenschaft, even as little as by the rest of the public, was Sand's murder-deed approved; and if at the moment he was generally pitied, and it was wished that a better fate had awaited him, yet none but a few political fanatics could p.r.o.nounce the punishment unjust.

Sand was lifted out of the carriage, and mounted the scaffold and mounted the scaffold himself, supported by the arms of the two Bridewell masters. Arrived upon it, he turned himself round towards the crowd, then threw the handkerchief, which he held in his hand, forcibly down, with rolling eyes; lifted his hand on high, as if he swore an oath, turned his eyes towards heaven, and then caused himself to be led to the chair of execution, where at his particular request, he remained standing till the preparations of the execution were completed. The sentence of death was thereupon read with a loud voice by the actuary, and then the hands and body of the delinquent fast bound to the pillar.

As the executioner bound his hands, Sand said to him in a low voice, "Don't bind me too fast, or it will hurt me." After his eyes were bound the sentence was completed, his head being severed from his body at one blow, and hung only by a part of the skin, which was immediately divided by the sword.

The whole pa.s.sed over with the greatest order, and with the deepest silence of the spectators, except that at the moment of the fatal blow, was heard exclamations of pity. Many students and other spectators rushed to the scaffold, in order to dip their handkerchiefs in Sand's blood, or to cut small pieces of wood from the scaffold as mementos.

Sand had addressed through the whole time nothing to the public. A short time before his execution, he was heard alone to speak as to himself,--"G.o.d give me in my death much gladness--it is completed--I die in the mercy of my G.o.d!"

He died with much fort.i.tude and presence of mind, at half-past five o'clock. His corpse with the severed head was soon after laid in the prepared coffin, and this was immediately nailed up. The military then guarded the remains back to the House of Correction; and on the following night at eleven o'clock they were buried in the cemetery of the Lutheran church near the House of Correction.

Kotzebue's dwelling, and the chamber where the murder was committed, are yet shown in Mannheim; and it is said that the spots of blood on the wall have continually reappeared in spite of being many times painted over.

The scaffold, according to custom, became the perquisite of the executioner, who came from Heidelberg. The stranger may observe a small garden-house which was built out of this material, as he goes towards the Bierhalter-hof, by the way of "The Three Troughs," as it is called.

To this house for some years, the Burschenschaft were accustomed to go on the anniversary of Sand's execution, in procession, and there with singing, and probably an oration, paid their respect to his memory.

Even those who did not approve of murder as a mere political reform, yet were glad that Kotzebue was out of the way, and pitied and even honoured Sand as a devoted and high-minded, though misguided martyr to their cause.

If the act of Sand, perpetrated upon a man who neither in public nor in private life enjoyed its respect, excited in the public mind so much just displeasure, how much more must that have been the case on the villanous attack upon the life of one whom so many social virtues adorned. The attempt to murder Ibell, the President of the First Chamber of Na.s.sau, in the following year, by the fanatic Loning, increased the consternation of the rulers and the credibility of the charge that Germany, and especially its rising generation, was seized with a revolutionary dizziness. It appeared clear that the spirit which had formerly arisen from the salvation of the governments, had now taken a decided tendency to their destruction; and instead therefore of attempting to conciliate by liberal concessions, necessity commanded towards it a system of vigorous repression. The congress of sovereigns a.s.sembled at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, had already turned its attention to the critical state of feeling in Germany. Whilst France had become so quiet that the Congress ordered its evacuation by the army of occupation, Germany became a new subject of anxiety. It was Sand's mad murder-deed which first made this manifest, and produced this reaction on the part of the governments. In August, 1819, many German ministers and diplomatists met on this subject at Karlsbad. The excellent Karlsbad resolutions, which were framed at this meeting, were on the 20th of September of the same year, published by the Confederation of States, as the Confederation Resolutions. These, in order to prevent the aberrations of the youth, ordained a strict oversight over both teachers and learners in this respect, and that a government inspector extraordinary should be appointed to every university to observe the teachers, and to restrain the scholars within the bounds of discipline and order.

The Karlsbad resolutions in reference to unions, and especially the Burschenschaft, say:--"The long existing laws against both secret and unauthorized unions in the universities, shall be maintained in their greatest force and stringency, and particularly shall be the more vigorously exercised towards the union inst.i.tuted within these few years, under the name of a universal Burschenschaft: as at the foundation of this union lies the totally inadmissible presupposition of a lasting a.s.sociation and correspondence between the different universities. The government inspectors shall make it a duty to exercise an especial watchfulness in regard to this point. The governments are agreed upon this, that individuals who, after the publication of these resolutions, shall be found to have remained members of such secret or unauthorized unions, or shall have entered into such, shall not be permitted to hold any public office." Thus, the act of Sand, as is uniformly the case with wild and fanatical deeds of violence, had the very contrary effect to that which he purposed, and instead of serving and establis.h.i.+ng the Burschenschaft, hastened its public denouncement and suppression. In all the German states, the freedom of the press was, moreover, abolished, so that in no German state could a ma.n.u.script be submitted to the press without censors.h.i.+p.

Finally, also, a central commission of inquiry was established in Maintz for the finding out of all demagogical schemes. The Prussian government in particular went to work with pre-eminent energy and vigour, and, by its persecution of many distinguished men, forfeited a portion of that public respect which it had acquired through its strenuous exertions for the liberation of Germany from the French, and through other popular endeavours.

The repose of Germany during the political storms which in the following years shook foreign countries, at length put an end to the government alarms from demagogical agitations. The political inquisitions and persecutions ceased by degrees; the punishment suspended over the erring, became so much the milder as fewer aberrations, in consequence of the established regulations, arose to demand the care of the administrations. If therefore the impulse which the German spirit had acquired in the Liberation War had caused it to rush over its appropriate limits, the German nature yet returned speedily to its inherent morality and propriety; and by its unshakable loyalty to its hereditary princes, and relations, verified that old praise,--that in Germany good morals have more power than elsewhere good laws.

At the breaking up of the Burschenschaft at Jena, the 26th of November, 1819, the following song was sung; which we therefore give as one of the most celebrated.

WE BUILDED OURSELVES.

We builded ourselves a house, Stately and fair, And there in G.o.d confided, Spite tempest, storm, and care.

We lived there so trustful, So friendly, so free, 'Twas hateful to the wicked Such honest men to see!

They wronged us, they charged us With treason and shame, They strove our fair young Freedom To curse and to defame.

What G.o.d laid upon us Was misunderstood; Our unity excited Mistrust e'en in the good.

They brand it as sinful-- They cheat themselves sore-- The form it may be broken; The love lives evermore.

The form has been broken, The ruins lie low; Yet what they have discovered Is merely smoke and show.

Our riband is severed, Of black, red, and gold, Yet G.o.d has it permitted; Who can his will unfold!

Then let the house peris.h.!.+

What matters its fall?

The soul lives yet within us, And G.o.d's the strength of all!

CHAPTER VI.

CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTIONS TO UNIVERSITY AND BURSCHEN LIFE.

Great need hath man of brother man To reach his n.o.blest aim; He moves but in the general plan.

Fly then the wolf-bewasted strand, And knit life's strong and social band.