THE CHALLENGER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue LXXXVIII, 10 September 1914, Page 4

THE CHALLENGER

GERMANY'S EVOLUTION THROUGH CENTURIES OF WAR ■ A SUMMARY OF HISTORY. Germany, now ,in couflict with the Allied Powers of .Europe, furnishes in her history a remarkable example of vitality (writes a reviewer in the Sydney Daily Telegraph). Many times, from the days when the barbarians threatened it, that territory now known as the German Empiro has been ■ devastated by war, its population decimated, and its treasury exhausted; and yet from the ashes the nation has risen afresh, reinyigoralied, and , restored by the enterprise of its people. The difference now is that the odds are immensely greater than at any other period of history, so that Germany finds herself at the most critical phase of her existence. The story of this growth of a great Power is interestingly told in " Germany," by A. W. Holland, in the most recent contribution to "The Making of the Nations"' series. It was following the disintegration of the Cailovingian Empire — a natural result when the supreme power camo into the hands of a long procession of rois faineants (puppet kings) — that the feudal system aroso to save civilised Europe from its external enemies. In due course this led the way to the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans under the rule of Otto the Great and his successors. Then came the famous era of the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, beginning towards the end of the tenth century. With the Oluniac revival, and its liigh ideals, of religious life and monastic fervour, there arose the enforcement of a policy which brought spiritual into sharp conflict with temporal authority. It was the time of the great Hildebrand (the Pope who, as Gregory VII., received the submission of Henry IV. at Canossa). From the synod at Rome came a rigorous decree against the practice of lay investiture. The higher clergy in Germany and Northern Italy held a position akin to that of feudal proprietors, the Crown claiming the right of investiture with tho temporalities of benefices. The consequent dependence of the clergy upon the Sovereign appeared to Gregory entirely wrong, but when he prohibited the system Henry refused to agree, and so began the famous investiture contest, and the long struggle between the Papacy and the Empire which convulsed Europe for about two centuiies. y THE GREAT BARJBAROSSA. This was a stormy period in history, when Italy, as well as Germany, was torn by the feud of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines^ — Imperial authority ranged on the ono side, and on the other the Church asserting its spiritual independence, ahd with it in common cau6e tho minor principalities and free cities, fighting for their provincial and municipal rights and liberties. Meanwhile, the Teuton relentlessly waged war against the Slav. Frederick Barbarossa. one of tho ablest of European monarchs, brought peaco to Germany against tho outsider, but drained the nation of men ajid money in order that he might carry on in Italy his quaTrel with the Papacy. And peace did not last long in those days, when Uier face of Europe bristled with armed men, just as it does t6 r day. Even after the death of Frederick, the rivalry between Welf and Hohenstaufen broken out anew, and lasted until the murder of Philip of Swabia, in 1208. In this period of constant struggle internal dissension arid foreign wars reduced Germany to misery and destitution, in the same way as it is being reducM at the present time through the dominance of the military party in the councils of the Empire. . POWER OF THE HAPSBURGS, With the acceeeion of Rndolph 1., the first of the Hapsburge (the present reigning family of Austria) began the era of hereditary monarchy in Germany, and coincidently the beginnings of that ■ vast system of trade and industry which has been fostered with varying success until the present day. Until Rudolph, the kings had been chosen by election; but with his descendants the German Throne became in practice a hereditary one, and for four ■centuri&j the Hapsburgs were the litst family in Europe, in an age Of great families, since substantial power came to them through the possession' of Austria and the neighbouring duchies. It is .not in the .prosperity of princely houses, however,' that th« student of history wIII find his chief source of interest of these days. Comparative quiet came to tho Empire for two hundred years; and from the developments of that time one may trace the steady growth of a unique system of trade and ihe arts of peace. Originally, the monka fostered the handicrafts ; then these communities grew into guilds of workmen who had escaped from the servitude of the castles to the freedom of the town ; next trade spread along tho Rhine, the great highway of German commerce; and as mercantile enterprise broadened, and commerce developed with England and other countries, it becamo essential that the trade routes should be protected from pirates, and that, the interests of German merchants should be watched abroad. THE H.ANSEATIC LEAGUE, J3g we come to the .ejtablteliniwit , gf

the" famous Hanseatic League. It is really a fascinating story, this of German commerce — vastly more fascinating, some will think, than that of the achievements of battlefields. In our own I day, we have seen what all this has led to — a magnificent .system of Commerce, where highly-trained* workmen, equipped in the best technical schools, have sent their merchandise to the four quarters of the world. All honour to Germany jfpr what she did to build np her vast industrial system ! And now- she has madly tin own all this, with her other interebts, into the melting-pot on the battlefields of Europe, at the bidding of j the Kaiser and the Prussian military caste. The Hanseatic League was primarily a co-operative combine of free cities, to safeguard their trade and finance. LUTHER'S INFLUENCE. Though Maximilian, who ascended the throne of a United Germany in 1493, has been given the credit of many improvements in the internal organisation of the State, Mr. Holland's researches have led him to the conclusion that this monarch, though he promised a great deal, was indifferent, if not' actually hostile, to the cause of reform. At all events, whether this be so or not, his reign derives chief interest from the fact that it was then that Luther appeared, nailing his famous document to the door of the church in the Saxon town of Wittenberg about two years before Maximilian died. Thus began the protracted religious dissensions which rent Germany in twain, and led eventually to the Thirty Years War, begun under Matthias, and ended under Ferdinand 111. by the Treaty of . Westphalia. Coincidently with the spread of Luther's doctrines, also, the German peasants began to resent the crushing grievances under which they had suffered so long through excessive taxation, plunder, and extortion. In this way the Peasants' War broke out in 1522. This rising was finally crushed; and after the Thirty Years' War, the condition of the poor, like that of every other class, was immeasurably worse than 'before. DEVASTATING WARS. The effect of this war was to reduce Germany to a pitiable condition. Her rural districts were depopulated, her commerce and industry shattered, and the Empire split up once again into a number of petty States. Nevertheless, her people bravely prepared to face the future, and to resist aggression from other Powers. But though Frederick tho Great reconstructed -the Empire, he had to face the Seven Years' Wau. which exhausted the resources of Prussia, and cost the lives ol many of her soldiers. Then came the disasters of the Napoleonic ware, and the subsequent establishment of the German Confederation. BISMARCK'S CONSOLIDATION. Germany promptly set to work afresh to rehabilitate her shattered resources. Mr. Holland shows concisely and well how. in our own times, Bismarck, when tho country emerged from the war with France, consolidated its destinies with masterful power until his dismissal by the preseat Emperoi in • March, 1890— a step which astonished the world. Bismarck left William 11. in possession of a new Empire ; and one wonders what the Iron Chancellor, were he alive to-day, would have thought of the diplomacy which has led that Empire into the present reckless war, in which it is confronted by the rest of Europe.