George Cross · 11 of 40

A. A Sketch of Schleiermacher’s Life. · PATRIOTIC SERVICES

But the progress of events was now opening for him a sphere of wider influence. Prussia was entering on her life-and-death struggle with Napoleon Bona parte, and in the storm and stress of those bitter days the preacher and lecturer became the Christian patriot. Prussia, led by her king and oligarchy, had played of late a rather unworthy part in the affairs of Europe. Her government had fawned on Napoleon, hoping to enjoy his favor and in alliance with him to hold her territory intact or make fresh accessions without cost to herself. That shrewd man, great in diplomacy as in the battlefield, had utilized her friendship temporarily for his own ends, but the time had now come to despoil her. His heavy exactions and the clamors of the people forced the Prussian government at length to declare war. But Napoleon crushed her like a snuffbox. At Auerstadt and Jena her power was broken, and from her surrendered capital the conqueror issued to the world his famous “Berlin decrees” against England.

Schleiermacher had been by no means unobservant of European affairs or unconscious of the mean spirit of the Prussian government. He clearly foresaw the approaching troubles of -his country and a strong patriotic spirit rose within him. He felt that Prussian sentiments, mental culture, and religion were at stake. In the early stages of the French Revolution he had sympathized with the Democratic party in France, and when Louis XVI was beheaded he did not share in the common feeling of horror. But the infant French democracy had soon given place to a virtual autocracy; his own deep love of liberty and his intense national sentiment aroused in him a determination to fight for the salvation of his fatherland. At the same time he perceived that Prussia was ill-prepared to defend herself, principally on account of the chasm between her government and her people. With the eye of a true statesman he saw that a war for freedom must be carried on by king and nation together, “not by kings and their hired armies.” Aware that the struggle on which the government was at length about to enter with Napoleon must ultimately promote the cause of freedom, he exclaims, “I exult in the war against the tyrant, which I think is now unavoidable.”

When disaster fell upon the Prussian arms and Halle was taken, his house was plundered by French soldiers. He and his half-sister Nanni, who had come to live with him, and the Steffens family were reduced to destitution. Only by the kindness of a French officer were they able to secure enough firewood to keep from freezing in the winter of 1806-7. The times were serious enough for him, but he writes jocosely of his experiences and his “potatoes and salt” diet. Napoleon closed for the time being the University of Halle, lest it should nourish patriotic feeling, and threatened to remove it. Its future was uncertain. If Halle should be turned over to Saxony, Schleiermacher would not remain in it, for the Saxons were such stiff Lutherans that he knew a member of the Reformed church could not be happy in the university. “If the town fall to the share of a French prince,” he said, “I, for my part, will not abandon it, so long as there is anywhere a Prussian hole to which I can retire.” He declined a second invitation to Bremen until he should be sure that the university was definitely closed. The upshot was that he severed his connection with the University of Halle, because it came under the authority of Jerome Bonaparte, the new king of Westphalia, and because he could not conscientiously obey the order to offer public prayer for the new king and queen or put himself in opposition to the German spirit. In the end of 1807 we find him delivering lectures in Berlin, whither he had removed in consequence of the Prussian government’s declaration of its intention to found a university to take the place of Halle. His name was being talked of in connection with a professorship there. What his purpose was we may gather from a letter written to a friend about that time:

One determination only I hold fast and that is, to follow the fortunes of my immediate fatherland, Prussia, as long as it continues to exist and does not prove itself quite unworthy of this resolve. Should it entirely succumb, then I will, as long as it is possible, seek the German fatherland wherever a Protestant can live and a German governs.

It was this spirit animating the breasts of patriots like himself, which saved Prussia and ultimately raised her to the headship of modern Germany.