Bismarck - The Story Of A Fighter (Hardcover, illustrated edition)

BISMARCK- THE STORY OF AFIGHTER By EMIL LUBWXG. Text extracted from opening pages of book: Foreword: A chiaroscuro form, fully equipped, shines forth from the twilight. Bismarck resembles the faces painted by Rembrandt, and must be so depicted. For the last eighty years, partisan hatred has flashed its lightnings round him. In his lifetime he was little loved, because he loved little; after his death he was condemned to figure as a statue, because his inner man remained hard to penetrate. Thus among the Germans he became a Roland carved out of stone. The aim of this book is to limn the portrait of a victorious and errant warrior. Here Bismarck is depicted as a character filled with pride, courage, and hatred the basic elements from which his actions resulted. To-day, when part of our nation ad mires him with partiality while another part condemns him, we must make a profound study of the history of his spirit. Since Bismarck, as a personality, played the part of destiny to the Germans, the German nation must learn to understand the char acter of this man, to understand him as he really was, and not as distorted by worship and by hatred. The historical man is always more organic than his system, and more complicated than his monument. Instead of following the academic method, and burdening the portrayal with notes, we think it proper in our day to make public characters plastic, as an example and a warning to every one. The man and the politician are inseparable; feelings and actions determine one another mutually; private life and public life run concurrently. The task of the artist is to construct a whole out of the data furnished by the investigator. By the beginning of the thirties, Bismarck's inner development was practically finished. During a decade and a half prior to that time he had had to endure the most violent agitations. All that followed, throughout his career, was no more than a deepening viii Foreword of the elementary lines already traced. That is why his youth, which most of the biographers dismiss in a few pages, must be dealt with at considerable length his youth, the time before his political activities began. The only writer who has succeeded in producing a psychography of Bismarck is the misunderstood Klein-Hattingen, who had to work with the documents that were available in his day. In the year 1911 I myself tried, in what I called a psychological attempt, to counteract the legend of the Iron Chancellor by the depiction of an enigmatic nature. Ten years later I wrote a trilogy wherein I hoped to present Bismarck dramatically on the German stage. This new likeness is entirely different from my earlier attempt, which was non-political. Nothing that I wrote in that first book is reproduced here, where the figure is presented in a new light. The only common element in the two works is the fundamental concept of an enigmatic character. Besides, various circum stances have rendered a new and more critical depiction neces sary; the post-war epoch has brought with it a fuller knowledge of what was involved in Bismarck's career; a number of memoirs and other relevant documents have been published; and the per sonal development of the author has contributed to the need for a fresh presentation. By the new lights, the chiaroscuro surroundings of Bismarck's figure have become even more striking. One who is not trying to carve a monument but to trace thecareer of a fighter, stands amazed before this life, which was perpetual struggle, occasional victory, unceasing passion, never satisfaction, for the most part sagacity, at times error, but invariably characterised by genius even when mistaken. Contents include: FOREWORD vii LIST or ILLUSTRATIONS xi CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xiii BOOK ONE: 1815-1851 THE WANDERER 1 BOOK TWO: 1852-1862 THE STRIVER 121 BOOK THREE: 1862-1871 THE BUILDER 201 BOOK FOUR: 1872-1888 THE RULER 399 BOOK FIVE: 1888-18