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THE

STUDENT-LIFE OF GERMANY.

THE

STUDENT-LIFE OF GERMANY:

BY WILLIAM HOWITT.

AUTHOR OF "THE RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND," "BOOK OF THE SEASONS," ETC.

FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MS. OF DR. CORNELIUS.

CONTAINING NEARLY FORTY OF THE

MOST FAMOUS STUDENT SONGS.

THINK OFT, YE BRETHREN;
THINK OF THE GLADNESS OF OUR YOUTHFUL PRIME,--
IT COMETH NOT AGAIN,--THAT GOLDEN TIME!

The Commers Book.

PHILADELPHIA:

CAREY AND HART.

MDCCCXLII.

C. Sherman &, Co. Printers, 19 St. James Street

"How shall I call thee, thou high, thou rough, thou noble, thou barbaric, thou loveable, unharmonious, song-full, repelling, yet refreshing life of the Burschen years? How shall I describe you, ye golden hours, ye choral-songs of brotherly love? What tone shall I give to you to make myself understood? What colours to thee, thou never-comprehended chaos? I shall describe thee? Never! Thy ludicrous outside lies open; the layman sees that; one can describe that to him; but thy inner and lovely ore, the miner only knows who goes singing with his brethren into the deep shaft. He brings up gold; pure, solid gold; be it much or little, it is still of high value. But this is not his whole booty. What he sees there, he may not describe to the layman: it were all too strange, and too precious for his ear. There are spirits in the deep that no other ear can comprehend; no other eye perceive. Music floats through those halls, which to every uninitiated ear sounds empty and unmeaning. But to him who has felt with it and sung with it, it gives a peculiar consecration; when he, moreover, smiles over the hole in his cap which he has brought back with him as a symbol.

"Old Grandfather! now know I what thou undertook when thou held thy annual, solitary, intercalary day! Thou too hadst thy companions in the days of thy youth, and the water stood in thy gray eyelashes when thou marked one in thy stambook as entombed."

Hauff's Rathskeller in Bremen.

PREFACE.

We have had various peeps and snatches of the Student-life of Germany, from time to time, in our periodicals, but we have nothing like a complete, and faithful account of it. Some of those accounts too, are by English writers, who had at best but a partial and passing view of this singular state of existence, and could not, however much they might have seen of it, enter into it and comprehend it with the fulness of apprehension and feeling which a native possesses. When I, therefore, was thrown, on my first visit to Germany, into the midst of its students, I began to inquire for a volume written by a German, which should lay open the whole interior of that, whose surface was so strange and so picturesque. I was told that no such thing, of any value or completeness existed, and that, indeed, the students themselves were jealous of the laws and customs of their ancient Burschendom being laid open to the public. Yet, finding myself amongst those whose knowledge and talents most entirely qualified them for making this exposition, I did not cease till I had prevailed on one of the most gifted to undertake the task, assisted by the experience of friends, who, like himself, had passed through the mysteries of this singular life. The present volume is the result; and I present it to the public with the confident assurance, that whatever they may think of the portraiture, they may depend upon its faithfulness. Spite of what that young and popular writer, Hauff, has left on record in the extract which immediately precedes these remarks, we have now penetrated the depths of the Burschen-life; we have traversed its chaos, which he terms a never-comprehended one; and have made the music of its most hidden halls, audible and intelligible to all ears. I do not hesitate for a moment to assert, that, taken as a whole, this volume will be found to contain more that is entirely new and curious, than any one which has issued from the press for years. The institutions and customs which it describes, form the most singular state of social existence to be found in the bosom of civilized Europe; and what renders them the more curious and worthy of investigation is, that they are no recent and evanescent frolic of eccentricity, but are as fast rooted into the antiquity of German mind and manners as the universities themselves. They have been modified and softened by time and advancing refinement, but are not a whit nearer being rooted out, apparently, than they were three hundred years ago. This state of things is here depicted by a German himself, who has passed through it; and with that peculiar feeling and appreciation which a German only can possess. It is in this light that they are to be regarded. I do not here present myself as an advocate or a caviller at this scheme of things, but merely as a spectator, who, beholding something strange and curious, brings it to the observation of his countrymen, in all truthfulness and simplicity of representation, that they may judge of it for themselves. It has been translated under the author's own eye, as it was written, and as he is also acquainted with the English language, it may be reasonably presumed to give a faithful transcript of his thoughts.

The two features of this Student-life which will meet with the most repugnance in the English mind, are the Beer-duel, and the Sword-duel. I have no desire to defend, far less to recommend either. I am, though no advocate of a watery suction, miscalled Temperance, neither a violent wine-bibber, nor "a fighting character." I do not even, like our worthy friend Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, while planning Niger expeditions of civilization, brew XXX in London; nor, like many of my countrymen, while attending church, or chapel in England, insist on bombarding the Chinese because they wont be poisoned with my opium. I merely let the worthy and learned author tell his own tale; and he, in telling it as a German and fellow-countryman of those concerned, assures us that these features are daily becoming more diminished by the progress of refinement.

It is to be hoped that the publication of this volume may even hasten this desirable end, for no people are so much alive to the opinion of other nations as the Germans. One thing, however, as an Englishman, I may say, which the author could not say--and that is, that when reading of the beer and sword duels of these students, we must take into account what are the weapons and the perils in both cases. We are not to suppose then, that their beer is any thing like the XXX just spoken of, or their wine like sherry or port, three-fourths brandy. No; they who know German wine, know that it is a very gentle and innocent, rather acidulous, and rather cooling fluid, and that their beer is far more mighty of the hop than of the malt. It is a well-bittered and amiable table-beer, which even Father Mathew might take as a healthy stomachic, and which one might rather expect, in Sam Welter's phrase, to make its swallowers "swell wisibly before our wery eyes," than grow riotous under its influence. When to this we add, that the sword-duel is rather a trial of skill in fencing than any thing dangerous, and that a scratch across the cheek, or prick into a stuffed jerkin, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the worst of its accidents, fears on the subject diminish at a rapid rate. If, however, any one thinks these youths had better be at their books than crossing swords or swallowing choppins, I assure him I am quite of the same opinion; and I here exhort the students, as soon as they get this volume, which they speedily will, to forsake the Hirschgasse and the Kneip, and follow the advice, but not the example of the English. Shall I advise them to imitate the students of Cambridge? Let any one read "The Student-Life of Cambridge" in a late number of the Westminster Review, and say whether that would be reasonable. Shall I advise them to practise the vice and the mockeries which are practised there, by those who give the most public and prominent character to the social student-life of England--for it is not meant to assert that the generality of the Oxford and Cambridge students are of such a class? Why, Kneips and the Hirschgasse are heaven and innocence to them. Shall I advise them to quit their songs for the grossnesses sung by the wild portion of the students at Cambridge and Oxford? No! the songs of the German students, even when on no higher a theme than wine, and with the bold free-spokenness which is startling to our modes of thinking, are the effusions of the first spirits of their nation, and are sung to some of the finest melodies which ever emanated from that most musical of people. It is here that the tables must be turned, and that we must call on the English to imitate the Germans, and not the Germans the English. If the English will drink, let them drink wine as cooling, and beer as thin and bitter, as the Germans; if they will fight duels, let them abandon bullets that fly through a man and let the soul out after them, and be content with a scratched nose or punctured padding. If they will sing over their wine, let them not sing the vile trash that is heard in the haunts of our students, but the spiritual effusions of such writers as Schiller, Goethe, Körner, Arndt, Claudius, Hauff, Follen, Uhland, etc. No, one cannot read of English students--of their guzzlings and their songs--without feeling a sense of commonplaceness, a something low, gross, unimaginative and vulgar.[^[1]] On the contrary, amid all the follies and mad frolics and nonsense of German student-life--of which God knows there is plenty--he must be destitute of poetry himself who does not feel it there. If there be a man who can read through this volume and not feel its poetry, and not perceive the high and beautiful sentiment which pervades it; the profound love of nature, and the glorious love of country,--let that man march off to Cambridge or Oxford; let him give his suppers or his breakfasts; let him hurry in his nightgown to morning prayers; let him become a first-rower, or a senior-wrangler if he will; but that man is no more fit to take his stand by the student revellers of Germany, than Caliban is by Hyperion. No, in the student-life, which is entered into as a brief season of youthful hilarity, which in this world can come but once; a season in which knowledge is not only to be gathered, but life to be enjoyed--friendships for life to be knit up--love, perhaps for life, to be kindled--and the spirit of patriotism to be cherished to a degree which no after-chills and oppressions of ordinary life shall ever be able utterly to extinguish; in this life there is a feeling and a sentiment to which our student-life is a stranger. It is from the bosom of this life that some of the noblest poets, the profoundest philosophers, and the most devoted patriots which the world ever saw, have gone forth. It was from the heart of this life that Theodore Körner sprung, for the cause of his country and mankind, and sung and fought and died; it was from this that Goethe and Schiller, Hauff and Tieck, and a thousand others, have issued to glorify valour, or consecrate patriotism, or beautify the regions of the human soul by their songs and their imaginative prose. It was from this that the whole body of ardent youth arose, and quitting their Kneips and their Chores, called all their country to reassert its liberty, to drive out its foes, and at the people's head, fought with the spirit of the ancient heroes, and chased from their soil for ever, the tyrant and overrunner of humbled Europe.

And yet there are those who are continually forgetting these things; asserting that all the student songs, and student clanship, and student freedom, end in smoke and vapour, and without any permanent result, and that they depart at the termination of their academical career their several ways, and sink into obscurity and insignificance. What! would they not have them become good citizens, sober judges, domestic men? But they who say that no high effects remain, know nothing of the youth of Germany. They cannot have seen how the new Rhine-song went through the whole country like an electric flash when France threatened to march to the banks of that noble river, and how every German student vowed if such a deed were perpetrated, they would go forth and fight to a man. They cannot know, as I do, that the loves and friendships formed by these youths are more permanent and indissoluble than any class of men with whom I have yet become acquainted; nor that in private society, where, and in my own house, I have seen much of them, they are amongst the most accomplished, gentlemanly, temperate, correctly-mannered, cordial-hearted, and intellectual men that European society possesses. But all such persons I willingly turn over to the perusal of this volume, the work of a young but learned author, who has recently passed, by a splendid examination, out of this student-life itself without having ever fought a single duel, or very probably got half or even quarter seas over. If the perusal of this volume should have the good effect of lessening amongst the German youth the tendency to the beer or the sword duel, and of inspiring our English youth with a more intellectual and poetical taste in their pleasures, certainly we may say, in the style of all good old prefaces, "that it will not have been written in vain."

Heidelberg, April 6th, 1841.

CONTENTS.

[CHAPTER I.]

General Plan, Officers, and Courts, of a German University--Charm of this life to those who have passed through it--Explanation of the term Bursché, or Student--Right to found or dissolve Universities, retained by the Sovereign Princes--Offices and mode of government--The Curatorium--Rector, Prorector--Senate, greater and less--Different orders of Professors and Teachers--mode of their remuneration--University Board of Finance--its Court of Justice--Academical freedom, and mode of matriculation--Inferior officers, and penalties for offences against the Academical laws--College terms--mode of Lecturing, and duties of Lecturers-- necessary Examinations of the Students, and consequent Certificates--Sciences taught--Privileges and endowments to enable young men without property to enjoy all the advantages of the Universities--the great extent to which this is made available, and great advantages to the State derived from it--Opinion of Goethe on this head--Great Men that this has produced--no German, however exalted in rank, can hold a high position in society, without making himself master of the knowledge thus opened to the people

[CHAPTER II.]

General View of Student-Life.--Student-life an admirable field for bringing a young man speedily to a knowledge of life, and to a sense of self-government and self-dependence--Prejudice, especially amongst foreigners, that Students must become exposed to many unpleasantnesses--these groundless--every individual Student independent, and at liberty to associate just as little, or as mach as he pleases with the rest--Equality the law of the German Students--their opinion that the English are the slaves of the Aristocracy--their surprise at the Aristocratic prejudices of the English--Academic freedom dear to every German Student--its value acknowledged by all the greatest men--Influence of the associate life of the Students on their minds and manners-- including, as it does, the natives of so many Countries--Chores, or Unions--Landsmannschafts--the Burschenschaft--Wearing of Union Badges forbidden--Public Processions, and Costumes of the Professors

[CHAPTER III.]

The Chores, or Unions.--Their nature, constitution, and distinguishing colours--each Chore formed of the natives of a particular State--what is requisite for the formation of a New Chore--is acknowledged and recorded at the Allgemeine, or General Social Meeting of the Chores--Constitution of a Chore--its Officers, Code of Laws--its Beer-court, and Court of Honour--its Boon-companions, and various ranks of members--its Chore-Convent, or Board of Administration--the Proscription, or Bann, as exercised both against Members and offending Tradesmen, or even the University itself--Classes of Students termed Camels, etc. etc.

[CHAPTER IV.]

The Burschenschaft.--The origin of this celebrated Society to be found in the patriotic desire to free Germany from the domination of Buonaparte--this feeling at first high and holy--quickened by the union of Learned and Literary men in the Poet-League of Göttengen, to advance the Language and Literature of the Country--the triumphs of Literature at their height under Schiller and Goethe, when the French Invasion took place--the indignant enthusiasm excited by this on the minds of the Students--the formation of Burschenschafts--these in different Universities united by one general bond--their effect in rousing Germany to the expulsion of the French--these feelings immortalized in the songs of Theodore Körner--the People's Battle at Leipsic--the expulsion of the French followed by a demand for the restoration of the Germanic Empire--Act of Confederation of the German States signed--Formation of the Holy Alliance of Sovereigns-- Disappointment of the People--Agitations of the Burschenschaft-- Beautiful ceremonies at the celebration of the Peace Anniversary at Jena, etc. 1816--farther proceedings of the Borschenschaft--the celebrated Festival in the Wartburg in 1817, at which the Writings of Kotzebue ware burnt--Congress of Universities at Jena in 1818, and Publication of the Constitution of the Burschenschaft--the influence of these events on the mind of George Sand, and its consequences

[CHAPTER V.]

The Narrative of Sand.--His origin and education--his early enmity to the French--his conscientious but excitable disposition--the effect on his mind of the burning of Kotzebue's Writings--his personal appearance--Kotzebue in the pay of Russia, to give information of the popular movements and opinions in Germany-- Seizure and publication of one of his bulletins to that Government, and consequent popular excitement--Sand conceives the idea of putting Kotzebue to death, as a traitor to German freedom--his long mental struggles against this idea--the final surrender to it, and preparation for carrying it into effect--his paper called "Death-blow to August Von Kotzebue"--his letter to his parents, and brother and sisters, on setting out on this project--his perpetration of the deed, his trial, and execution at Mannheim--Consequence of this and similar attempts--The prohibition of the Burschenschaft, and persecution of its members--The Song "We Builded," etc, as sung at the breaking up of the Burschenschaft in June in 1819

[CHAPTER VI.]

Ceremonial Introduction to University and Burschen Life--The Student youth of Germany, driven from the Burschenschaft, have fallen back on their Chore-life--Complaints of late years that youths coming to the University become involved in the dissipations of Chore-life, to the prevention of their studies and detriment of health and morals--these views combated by the Author--the existence of a temporary excitement on entering University-life accounted for--the Author, as one who passed through this life, testifies to its advantages--Every University its own particular tone and character--Peep at the past Life of the Universities, as revealed in Zacchariæ's "Renommist," and in a Drawing of 1730-- Singular and rude Customs formerly practised on the admission of Students to the Universities--Freshmen or Branen, then subjected also to many humiliations--the present condition of the Freshman, now termed a Fox--Curious Anecdotes connected with the condition of a Fox--Different ranks which a Student passes through who joins a Chore, or Verbindung--in the Gymnasium, or school preparatory to the University, he is a Frog--then successively a Mule, a Camel, a Fox, a Fat-Fox, a Burnt-Fox, a Young Bursch, Old Bursch, and Mossy Head--Satirical explanation of Student terms, by Herr Schluck-- Initiatory ceremonies at a Union of the Chores on creating the different degrees of Foxes--Singing of "The Landsfather"--The Fox-Ride, and its accompanying song--Burning of the Burnt-Foxes, with the accompanying song, etc.

[CHAPTER VII.]

The Duel.--This is a practice of the Middle Ages, that has firmly maintained itself amongst the Students--the Author's opinion of it--its actual good or evil in the system--to be regarded principally as a trial of skill in fence--mode in which these Duels are contracted, settled, conducted, and fought out--At Heidelberg these take place in a well-known house in the Hirschgasse--Duel Costume, and different species of Duel--Anecdote of a little Jew who fought one--the Duel prohibited by the laws-- the Academical enactments against it--Attempts of the Beadles to seize the Combatants--their watchers--the Red Fisherman, their great champion--Students' dogs sometimes join in the contest-- Penalties, and University Prison

[CHAPTER VIII.]

Characters connecting themselves with Student Life.--The Hofrath Diehl--his History--the Flower-Boy, and Frau Gotlieben the Fruitwoman

[CHAPTER IX.]

Private Life of the Student.--Visit of Mr. Traveller, the Englishman, to the room of the Student Freisleben--his surprise at what he saw--his friendly welcome--Description of the Room and its various Decorations--Student word for comfortable--the Boot-Fox-- Origin of the word School Foxery, or pedantry--Wages of a Boot-Fox--Expense of Living at the University--Pendulums and Knoten--origin of the latter term--the House Philistine and his duties--the Philose, the Besom, the House-Bursch, and Room-Bursch--What it means to "Tail a Lecture"-- Dissertation-on-Dogs--A visit to the annual Dog-Muster---Students' Dogs--their characteristics--one at a duel swallows up a Student's nose--the little Dog Tambourli--the Student's love for his Pipe-- Pipes of various kinds, and in all their parts, described--Origin of the word Fidibus--the philosophy of Smoking

[CHAPTER X.]

Rural and Summer Amusements of the Student.--Beauties of the neighbourhood of Heidelberg--The Wolfebrunnen--the surrounding Woods and Mountains of the Odenwald and Black Forest--Historical associations--the Student sometimes takes longer excursions than into these scenes--Excursions in a one-engine--Water excursions-- Field sports--The Students' Shooting ground--Kirchweihs, or Wakes, described--the Students there--Scenes which arise with the Handwerksburschen

[CHAPTER XI.]

Winter Amusements of the Student.--He joins gladly Social Parties at the houses of the Inhabitants and of the English--finds much amusement at the Reading-rooms, Billiard-table, and Balls and Concerts at the Museum--Serenades--Song, "The Departure"--Skating --pushing Ladies on the Ice in Sledges--gaiety of these scenes-- sledging parties by Torch-light--Whims of the Students on such occasions--Instances of their schemes to satirize the attempts of the Senate to check their expense in such things--in the evening joins his Kneip

[CHAPTER XII.]

The Student's Evening Party, with its Conversations, Discussions, Songs, and Customs.--The Student Hoffman entertains his Friends-- Description of his Rooms--his Friends Freisleben, Von Kronen, Eckhard, Enderlin, Pittschaft, Mr. Traveller--their opinion of Englishmen and English Ladies--Melancholy story of Krusenstern and Avensleben--The Radonen Cake--Sketch of the history of Universities, given by Von Kronen--Discussion on Phrenology-- English and German Literature compared--German Romance ludicrously described by Lichtenberg--the Students sing Schiller's song of "The Four Elements," also "There Twinkle Three Stars" from Körner--they sing a Roundelay--Anecdotes of Stambooks--Drink to their Ladies--Drink and sing as a Roundelay the humorous song of "The Krähwinkle Landsturm"--sing a Lumpitus of the first verse of various celebrated songs in rotation--sing "The Binschgauer"-- Merriments before parting--The songs of "Ye Brothers, when no more I'm drinking," "The Pope," "Brothers, in this Place of Festive Meeting," "So crown with leaves the love-o'erbrimming Beakers"

[CHAPTER XIII.]

General System of German Education.--Glance at the progress of popular Education, from the ancient Nations and Times down to the present--Popular Folks'-schools of the Middle Ages--Gerbardus Magnus--his Institution at Deventer---his ideas followed out by Montaigne, Bacon, etc.--the Burger class erect Schools--the Reformation--School of Conrad Celtes, for the restoration of Classical antiquity--Services of Erasmus, Reuchlin, Dalberg, Agricola, Pirkheimer, etc.--the origin of the plans of Pestalozzi to be found in the writings of Ratich and Comenius--Services of Fenelon, Spencer, and Franke--Improvements by Ziedler, Hein, and Sulzer--Influence of Locke, Rousseau, Crousatz, in developing the modern School-systems--Description of the German School-system, and what is taught in each class of Schools, viz. the Elementary, or Proper Folks'-Schools; the Real Schools, called also Middle Schools, Higher Burger Schools, etc; the Gymnasia; the Universities

[CHAPTER XIV.]

Song, an indispensable requisite to the Student, as to all Germans.--Song and Poetry a necessity to the German--the Germans rich in Popular Songs--Universal singing of the Common People--A popular Song at any crisis passes like an electric flash through the whole People--"Prince Eugene," a specimen of a class of Songs very common amongst the People--All classes, in town or country, have their peculiar Songs--the Student is affluent in Songs--the Commers-Book a collection of them--Sing in their Kneips--their Songs often heard on summer evenings in the open air with fine effect--one of the finest "From High Olympus," etc.--the Roundelay--the Student has his Songs of Love, Wine, Fatherland, and Friendship--Student-life regarded as a joyous season that comes but once, therefore they sing and rejoice in it--Accompany their Deceased Brethren to the tomb also with Song--"Gaudeamus igitur"

[CHAPTER XV.]

Drinking Customs of Student-life, ancient and modern.--The Author's opinions on festive drinking--Song of Old Noah--Master Schluck's persiflage on the Burschen-Comment, or Student Code of Drinking Laws--Notice of some of the chief of the different classes of Student Songs--"The Maiden Song" as formerly sung--account of it in Zacchariæ's Renommist--Drinking Customs of a past age in the Universities--anecdotes of these--Phrases collected by Lichtenberg descriptive of a Drunkard--the General Beer-Code of Heidelberg

[CHAPTER XVI.]

The Commers.--The Commerses, general and special--their social Festive Meetings, held on various occasions--Description of the General Commers--certain Songs sung, as "Heidelberg live thou," etc.--the Singing of "The Consecration Song, or Landsfather," and singular ceremonies attending it--the Ceremony of the Smollis-- Smollering constitutes a Brotherhood to last for life--Drinking Laws of the Commers--Herr Schluck's Comments on a Commers--the Excesses of the Ancient Commerses abandoned

[CHAPTER XVII.]

The Special Commers.--Description of a train of Students going out to a Special Commers in the country--their arrival there-- description of the Room and mode of holding the Commers--Ceremony, and Song of "The Prince of Fooling"--Frolics and Gambols of the Students the next day in the village--An old ballad describing these in 1650--the Commers over, they return often by water, with music and fireworks--close it with drinking Crambambuli--the Song of Crambambuli--The Lumpin Bell

[CHAPTER XVIII.]

New Year's Eve.--Spent by the Friends at the rooms of Freisleben-- Conversation sallies--Glee-wine made, and the English song, "Down with the Sorrows," etc., by Mrs. Howitt, sung by Hoffmann to the guitar--"The Song of Wine"--"The Table-Song," by Goethe

[CHAPTER XIX.]

New Year's Eve, continued.--Sketch of the History of Heidelberg University--A Salamander rubbed to the honour of the Professors

[CHAPTER XX.]

New Year's Eve, continued.--University Stories--Singular Story of the feats of activity, strength, and eccentric humour of Von Plauen--his Banishment from the University--his Imprisonment and Escape--Story of the Student Schwartzkopf, who became the celebrated robber, "The Black Peter;" with his deeds, capture, and strange final escape--Story of the Student Stark--Fire-arms announce the entrance of the New Year, and the friends rush forth to witness the Procession of the Students to give a "Vivat" to their chief Professors--this described--Breaking up of the ice on the river--the exploit of the Red Fisherman

[CHAPTER XXI.]

The Marching-Forth.--Modes in which the Student generally quits the University--The Marching-Forth when the Bann is laid by the Students on the University itself, and march forth in a body-- various instances of this--the one which arose out of the building of the Museum in Heidelberg in 1827--the cry of "Bursch, come forth!" raised, and all the Students, in procession, quitted the city--the progress of negotiation and return of the Students-- Marching-Forth from Heidelberg on account of dispute with the Military--Marching-Forth from Göttingen in 1818--progress and event of it--Anecdote of a Student and an Actor at Darmstadt-- Noble instance of the cry of "Bursch, come forth!" being raised for the defence of the Jews--used in case of fires--in defence of the Prussian Students--Debts of the Students--their vengeance on an offending Tailor--the Manichæans or creditors--Mr. Traveller quits Heidelberg--Scene at his Rooms--Accompanied by his Friends to Weinheim--Meeting with a pedestrian party of Students from Wurtzburg--As Mr. Traveller departs they sing, "A Mossy Bursch now forth I wend"

[CHAPTER XXII.]

The Student's Funeral, etc.--Hazards supposed to attend Student-life considered--Termination of the Student career by death--No class of persons so poetically testify their respect and affection for their deceased friends as the Students--Description of the whole Pageant and Procession of a Student's Funeral--with the final burning of the torches before the University, and singing of the "Gaudeamus igitur"--Funeral honours paid to a Professor

[CHAPTER XXIII.]

The Comitat, or accompaniment of a Student in procession on his quitting the University--Hard study of the Student as the day of Examination approaches--Degrees obtained--Description of the Comitat precession of his Friends, as formerly practised and as at present--they sing the song of "The Mossy Bursch" at parting-- Ballad of "The Old Bursch"

[CHAPTER XXIV.]

Summary of the actual merits and demerits of German Student-life-- Arguments of Professor Ringseis against Duelling

[CHAPTER XXV.]

A Review of the Political Aspect of Student-life

[CHAPTER XXVI.]

A parting glance at other Universities German and Foreign

[The General Beer-Comment of Heidelberg]

LIST OF GERMAN SONGS.

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH.

1. [The Sword Song]
2. [The German Fatherland]
3. [The Union Song]
4. [Are German Hearts]
5. [We Builded Ourselves]
6. [The Fox-Ride]
7. [Free is the Bursch]
8. [The Wirthin's Daughter]
9. [God greet Thee, Brother Straubinger]
10. [True Love]
11. [The Departure]
12. [The Gallant Ship is going]
13. [The Four Elements]
14. [There Twinkle Three Stars]
15. [Roundelay]
16. [The Krähwinkler Landsturm]
17. [The Binschgauer's Pilgrimage]
18. [Drinking Song]
19. [The Pope]
20. [Drinking Song]
21. [Rhine-Wine]
22. [Prince Eugene]
23. [Commers Song]
24. [An Unbounded Jollity]
25. [Gaudeamus Igitur]
26. [Old Noah]
27. [Old-fashioned Bursch]
28. [The Travel Song]
29. [The Landsfather]
30. [Prince of Fools]
31. [Ways of the Students]
32. [Crambambuli]
33. [Song of Wine]
34. [The Departing Bursch]
35. [The Old Bursch]

THE

STUDENT LIFE OF GERMANY.

[CHAPTER I.]

GENERAL PLAN, OFFICERS, AND COURTS, OF A GERMAN UNIVERSITY

Jerusalem beautifully observes, that the barbarism which often springs up behind the loveliest and most richly-coloured flower of knowledge, may be a kind of strengthening mud-bath, to prevent the over-delicacy which threatens the flower; and I fancy that one who reflects how far knowledge usually climbs in a student, will allow the so-called Burschen life to the Sons of the Muses, as a kind of barbarous Middle-age, which may so far fortify them as to prevent this delicacy of refinement exceeding its due bounds.--Jean Paul Richter's Quintus Fichslein.

Student Life! Burschen Life! What a magic sound have these words for him who has learnt for himself their real meaning! What a swarm of recollections come over him who has once visited that land, however long it may be since he returned homeward to a safer haven! Youth flies on wings of impatience towards this happy time; age, though indeed it may smile over the recollection of many a folly, recalls its memory with delight.

We hear two old men, who in later life recognise each other in civil office, and loaded with honourable duties. They speak of those beautiful dreams of youth with enthusiasm, like two old veterans rejoicing themselves in the recollections of the campaigns in which they have served, and the battles which they have fought together. "To the old times!" cry they, touching their glasses together, filled with noble Rhein wine, and with their joy sorrowfully mingles itself the memory of the many companions of those times, who have already quitted this life; for it is a fine characteristic of the heart of man, that while enjoying the highest happiness of the present, or when joyfully calling to remembrance that once enjoyed, in such moments it feels most painfully the absence of distant friends.

The stranger who should hear the conversation of these old gentlemen; as he saw how they became young again in spirit, and how their forms, bent with years, they raised again erect as they conversed, would gladly linger near them, and would certainly say, "Those must indeed have been delightful times!"

Yes, they were--and they are, for those who know how to enjoy them. Stranger, thou who hast never known this beautiful life; and thou who wouldst willingly experience more of it,--to you hope we to be able to reveal many an attractive feature, and you shall behold many a scene, as we venture to predict, snatched fresh and living from the heart of this existence. Follow us into the City of the Muses--to the strife-place of this passion-driven life; there will we teach thee more nearly to observe the peculiar constitution of this student state, and the habits of its citizens, which thou hast perhaps observed many a time with amazement. Many a foreigner has even probably been for a short period a citizen of this state, without having penetrated deeply into its constitution and all its peculiarities. To him also will these pages afford information and entertainment,

Plunge boldly into actual human life,--
Every man lives it; few men know it well;
And where you seize it, there you make it tell.

Prologue to Goethe's Faust.

We have here in the very outset used the expressions "student" and "bursché," and shall find ourselves necessitated still oftener to use them; we will, therefore, at once give a few sentences in explanation of their meaning. By student, we understand one who has by matriculation acquired the rights of academical citizenship; but, by bursché, we understand one who has already spent a certain time at the university--and who, to a certain degree, has taken part in the social practices of the students. How and when he acquires a real claim to this title, we shall hereafter have occasion to show. We will here only make one observation regarding the origin of this term.

In order to render a university education available to men of little or no property, in the twelfth century colleges were founded, where poor youths received free lodging, maintenance, and money, and lived under the strict superintendence of one or more teachers. This became extensively the case in the thirteenth century, and still more general in the fourteenth. Private persons of wealth were mostly the benefactors, when such institutions were founded and endowed. In Germany such colleges were called bursen, whence comes the term bursché. This name, given at that time to such as dwelt together in such a burse, was, at a later period, restricted to those only who had for a longer time taken a more immediate part in the associate life of the students. The signification of the terms--student life, burschen life--thence derived, is plain enough of perception. Before, however, we conduct the reader into this burschen life, in order to give him a clearer understanding of it, we will say a few words on the constitution of universities; on the surveillance which the state exercises over them, and on the relation of teachers and university officers to the students.

The right to found universities--to dissolve them again--to unite them with others, and so on--belongs at the present time only to the respective sovereign princes, who have held these prerogatives from the dissolution of the German empire. Prior to this, they centred in the Emperor, and before the Reformation, in the Pope. The universities stand under the particular protection of the state, which superintends and conducts them by jurisdiction thereunto especially organized. The interests of the universities are protected by a representative in the Landtag, the second chamber of the state. Should a university have causes of complaint against the prince, it must appeal to the Bundestag, that is, the court established between the different German states, to decide all questions between those states, or between the prince and people of any one of them.

At the head of a German university stands the rector, or more commonly, the prorector, since the rectorate is generally retained by the sovereign princes in their own hands, as is the case in Baden. With the rector or prorector is associated the Academical Senate, as a permanent court of administration. The prorector is annually chosen at Easter, by the Great Senate, out of the body of professors. He is then proposed to the curator, formerly termed throughout Germany, the chancellor, and still so styled in Wirtemberg. On the motion of this officer, he is confirmed by the prince. His duty is to promote, as far as in him lies, the prosperity and object of the High School generally, and especially the moral and literary education of the students; the enforcement of the academical laws and statutes; and to watch over the official proceedings of the curatorship, and the resolutions of the Senate. He thus presides over the Great, and Select or Lesser Senate, where he also exercises the right of proposition; opens all propositions or memorials; collects the votes; and, according to the majority, decides. He is entitled to be present at the assembly of the Ephorats. At the expiration of his prorectorate, he continues in the senate a year, where, in the absence of the prorector, he occupies his place.

The Senate is divided into the Select and Great Senate. The first consists of the prorector, the ex-prorector, and four ordinary professors, each section furnishing one. At the end of every half-year three members go out. Their successors are appointed from the curatorium--the office of the curator. The period of office is for a year. The Select Senate corresponds with the curatorium, and it is the business of the prorector to lay before this body all current communications from the curatorium: in ordinary cases, at its ordinary sittings; or in emergencies, at extraordinary ones. The Select Senate lays before the Great Senate all such concerns as have been brought under its own consideration, or such as at least two-thirds of its members shall deem of sufficient importance to require reference to this larger body. The Select Senate assembles regularly every fortnight. Extraordinary meetings are called by the prorector. In cases of an equality of votes, the prorector gives the casting voice.

The Great Senate consists of all the ordinary professors. To this senate belongs the election of prorector, and other officers of the university, so for as the university right extends, and the management of the affairs consigned to their care by the Select Senate. The Great Senate has, therefore, no fixed days of assembly. The four faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, which last includes in itself all that is not comprehended under the other three, as mathematics, political and states' economy, history, language, etc. etc., constitute the main learned and scientific fabric of the university.

The teachers are divided into ordinary professors; such teachers as occupy the established professorships, with the emoluments and duties thereunto belonging; and the extraordinary professors, such teachers as possess only such salary as the prince bestows. These do not always hold an actual professorship--and in this respect, resemble a third class, the so-called Privat Docenten; that is to say, gentlemen who devote themselves to an academical career, who have taken the degree of doctor, and through a public disputation have acquired the right to deliver lectures on subjects connected with their particular department of science. The last receive no salary, but depend upon the remuneration derived from their classes.

This institution of private teachers forms a nursery, out of which the High School can advantageously recruit itself with able professors; and we shall have occasion presently to show the great benefit derived from this regulation, especially when compared with the arrangements of the French universities.

All the ordinary professors are members of the faculty by virtue of their office. Their rank in the faculty determines itself by the number of years during which they have occupied regular professorships, whether in that in which they reside, or in some other university of Germany. The oldest member of each faculty becomes, according to established rule, its head, with the title of Dean. To him it belongs to bring forward all affairs of the faculty; to superintend the examination of the students, as well as to issue the diplomas conferred on them.

The same honorarium which the docenten or tutors receive, receive also all the teachers of a university, from those students who attend their classes. There are regular receivers, quæstors, appointed for the reception of the honorarium, or charge for the attendance of lectures, to whom especially belongs the reception of all money belonging to the administration of the university, and attention to every thing connected with the financial department.

The universities possess funds of their own, which are derived from ancient grants from the princes, and from private legacies. To this fund the government adds an annual determinate contribution; and from this united income are defrayed the total expenses of the High School; as the salaries of teachers and officers, and the management of its subordinate institutions. Besides this financial administration of the university, it has also a building and economy commission. The building-commission has the superintendence of the new building and necessary repairs in the university, and under its direction is placed the building inspector with a yearly salary. In the economy department of the university, the commission, in all that falls under its management, has to maintain a correspondence with, and receive the approval of the curatorial office. It assembles once a month under a director, who is selected from the members in routine. The cashier of the university has a seat in the commissions, and he is at the same time secretary, and draws up and signs the decrees of the senate.

As the university has its own Board of Finance, so has it also its Court of Justice. The peculiar life of the universities--their peculiar relation to the state--the members of such societies--flowing together, as they did and do, from such different countries, to combine themselves, so to say, into an imperium in imperio; into a small state, in fact, which must enjoy a certain, and, indeed, ample degree of freedom, and yet must be made subordinate to the great state,--all this made the princes in the times immediately succeeding the founding of the universities, feel it necessary to grant to them their own courts of justice. So received these institutions peculiar privileges. Individual laws were given, till their number became so great that it was requisite to collect them into a code. These laws, as they at present exist, have been revised by the government, in conjunction with the senates of the universities, and confirmed. They bear especially upon the following points. First, upon the acquisition and forfeiture of the rights of academical citizenship. Candidates for matriculation must, upon an appointed day, and at an appointed hour, appear before the board of matriculation, and lay before it their certificates of learning and morals. If these are found satisfactory, the board delivers to the candidate the printed academical regulations. Hereupon must he sign what is called the reverse; that is, an attached form of declaration, binding himself to take no part in any prohibited verbindung, or union, or in any designs of a demagogue burschenschaft, but to conform himself to the academical laws. The new candidate thereupon gives to the prorector what is called the hand-gelübde, or literally, hand-oath; that is, he gives him his hand, pronounces what is above stated, and then receives the matriculation certificate, or diploma, which confers upon him the enjoyment of all the rights of academical burgership. Through this he acquires a claim on the academical court of justice, on the protection of the academical laws, as well as the right to enjoy the benefit of the library and the learned institutions.

No one who has not matriculated can attend the public lectures, except the tutors, companions or attendants, appointed by parents or guardians to students--these, of course, also paying the regular fees--and such persons not studying in the universities as are so far advanced in life as to put matriculation out of the question. This right of academical citizenship continues five years, provided it be not voluntarily relinquished or penally forfeited. The laws extend themselves to the relations between the students and the heads, professors, and subordinate officers of the university, as well as towards other officers of the state or city. For instance, the penalties are stated, for offences against these various officers, as also the duties of the students in regard to their studies. A long series of laws defines the penalties for the peculiar offences of students, as for games of hazard, real and verbal injuries to one another, especially for the duel, under its various forms; for breaking the peace, drunkenness, tumults and uproars, interdicted assembling of themselves together, secret combinations of students, etc. It is further declared, that public processions are only permitted under certain conditions, and that the wearing of colours is forbidden. Further declarations regard the debts of the students; and lastly, the regulations under which the advantages of the university library are to be enjoyed are made known.

The oversight and penal jurisdiction over the students are exercised by the academical senate, the prorector, and the amtmann, or magistrate of the university. The ephorat is a peculiar board, consisting of select professors, which only in the sphere of fatherly and friendly admonition exercises its superintendence chiefly over the moral conduct of the students when occasion requires; exhorting them to diligence and good behaviour, and putting itself, if necessary, in correspondence with their parents. The magistrate exercises the jurisdiction in the first instance. In criminal cases, he draws the process, and sends it, not to the court of justice of the university, but to the ordinary tribunal of the state; in affairs of discipline he conducts the inquiry, and pronounces all academical penalties, with the exception of the consilium abeundi. The proceeding in the inquiry is summary, and, in cases where the ordinary oath is administered to people in general, is the ehrenwort, or word of honour of the student demanded. To the condemned it is neither allowed to look into the proceedings against him, nor is the name of his accuser revealed. He must even submit himself to the judgment of the senate, without the power to insist that the ground of its judgment shall be made known. The appeal from the sentence of the amtmann, lies to the senate, which also pronounces the consilium abeundi and the relegation, on the motion of the amtmann. The appeal from the sentence of the senate lies to the minister of the interior.

For the administration of the academical laws and acts of justice, especial police officers, and beadles, upper and inferior, are maintained. The chief beadle in pressing cases, has the right to cite before him, and to arrest without warrant, but must immediately make announcement thereof to the amtmann.

The chief beadle, who lives near the college, has at the same time, the care of the prison, which is in the upper part of his house. Two beadles do duty in the university library. In the scale of academical punishments, first stands reproof, then pecuniary fine, then incarceration. The signing of the consilium abeundi, includes a solemn promise not to suffer himself to become guilty in future of any offence, even of smaller moment. He who, notwithstanding, breaks this promise, and becomes guilty of an offence which would draw upon another at least eight days' imprisonment, can meet with no lighter punishment than the consilium abeundi. This consilium abeundi consists in expulsion out of the district of the court of justice within which the university is situated. This punishment lasts a year; after the expiration of which the banished student can renew his matriculation. The relegation is the punishment next in severity. It has two degrees. First, the simple relegation. This consists in expulsion out of the aforesaid districts, for a period of from two to three years; after which the offender may indeed return, but can no more be received as an academical burger. Secondly, the sharper relegation, which adds to the simple relegation an announcement of the fact to the magistracy of the place of abode of the offender; and according to the discretion of the court, a confinement in an ordinary prison, previous to the banishment is added; and also the sharper relegation can be extended to more than four years, the ordinary term, yes, even to perpetual expulsion. Loss of honour is one of a class of severe penalties which can only be pronounced by a civil court of justice. Previous to any consilium abeundi and relegation, the university amtmann must send intelligence to all the German universities, and to the city magistrates, of the cause of the prosecution, together with the signature of the culprit, and also must affix a copy of the sentence on the black board, that is, a black tablet, or board, in the university, to which all the announcements to its members are attached; and at the same time must advertise the parents, or those standing in their relation, of the same. Causes of complaint, which a student considers himself to have against an academical officer, must be laid before the academical amtmann, if such officer belong to the inferior class of the servants of the High School. When it affects a head or teacher, then before the academical senate; if it affects the prorector, or academical senate, then it must be carried to the curator of the university, who must receive it, and lay it before the minister of the interior.

Through these brief sketches we hope to have given to the reader a clear notion of the constitution of a German university, in reference to its financial and judicial administration. We have so far had Heidelberg in our eye, and may be allowed to do this, since however different the universities of Germany may otherwise be, in spirit and manners, in these respects they resemble each other. Upon the conformity of their present constitution to their purpose, we may leave the reader to make his own reflections. This is a subject upon which recently so much discussion has taken place, and so many proposals have been made; not indeed so jocose as that of Lichtenberg, where he says, "every university should have an ambassador at the other universities for the purpose of keeping up the friendships as well as the enmities;" we shall moot this point as opportunity occurs, we will at present make only a few observations on the constitution of the universities, as regards the course of studies.

The annual courses of instruction are divided into summer and winter half-years; betwixt come Easter and Michaelmas as vacations. The lectures, which in these annual courses are delivered, comprehend in themselves the whole doctrines which belong to the circle of the four faculties. The professors are bound by the state, by which they are paid, to deliver the necessary lectures, but they are allowed a certain freedom in the distribution of these lectures amongst the members of the faculty. Every teacher is bound during three times each week, to deliver a public lecture, gratis, on which occasion he either makes an examination of the students on the subject of his regular course, or lectures on an interesting but generally minor topic of his branch of science or literature, which possibly the students would hesitate to attend were they obliged to pay for it, and which yet may be important to the creditable discharge of their future profession. Every lecturer is in duty bound to devote twelve hours per week to his regular course, that is, to the lectures for which he receives a proportionate honorarium from the students; these twelve hours being divided into two or three lectures, according as the extent of their matter may require. Besides this, it is the duty of each lecturer, so far as his other obligations permit, to be ready to deliver any lecture which lies within the sphere of his department of teaching, when, out of the ordinary course, such is desired of him by a number of the students, so soon as those who seek it assure him of a proportionate remuneration for his trouble. To these Privatissimi, as they are called, or especially private lectures, being once agreed upon, no other auditors can be admitted. Lectures are delivered every day, Sundays and holidays excepted; each delivery continuing only one hour, so that one may not prevent another. The majority of the lectures are delivered in German, partly extempore and partly from the written notes; the latter practice, however, becoming daily more rare. A certain time before the new course begins, a list is sent round, on which each lecturer puts down the lectures be intends to give. The hours of delivery are next added, in order to avoid collision. After its receiving the approval of the curator, it is published under the direction of a commissioner appointed by him. The list is in German. The commencement of each course, as well as other particulars connected with it, is made known on the black board. It is at the option of each student which course or courses of lectures he will attend during the current half-year, and he gives notice accordingly to the professor who has announced that course. Yet is the student in the German states obliged, within the period of his whole university study, to attend a certain number of lectures, if he wishes to be admitted to a state's examination. Those lectures which bear upon the peculiar profession at which he aims, are prescribed to him by the state to which he belongs. He must obtain from the respective lecturers, testimonies that he has diligently studied every lecture of that kind. A copy of these testimonies is contained in the so-called departure-certificate, without which no one can be admitted to the state's examination; and this certificate is sent directly by the prorector to the board of examination. This departure-certificate is, in fact, on the student's quitting the High School, drawn up, and signed by the prorector and amtmann of the university, and contains the date of matriculation, the continuance of his abode at the college--a certain term of abode being prescribed by the government for the student of each particular profession,--the attendance of lectures, a statement of his behaviour, what punishments he has become amenable to. The certificate expressly announces whether the student has taken part in any interdicted combination or not; whether he even were suspected of such participation, and on what grounds.

The university buildings themselves contain the lecture-rooms; and the greater part of those lectures which are likely to draw the largest audiences are there delivered. The warming of the rooms, and their lighting up for the evening lectures, are the care of the nearest dwelling chief-beadle. These buildings contain also a larger hall, in which the public celebrations of university affairs and events are held. In this hall, for example, are annually delivered, publicly and solemnly, the gold medals to those who have best answered the prize-questions propounded by each faculty. The professors also frequently lecture in their own houses. The medical and natural history lectures are mostly in these buildings, where those collections of specimens and subjects belonging to the university, which are necessary to demonstration, are deposited. Amongst these are the apparatus for the physical sciences, the chemical laboratory, the zoological and mineralogical cabinets, the cabinet of models, the buildings in the botanical gardens, and school of anatomy. The lectures also on pathology, surgery, and obstetrics, are delivered in the respective hospitals of these departments. Besides the professors in the university, also other teachers of physical exercises, as the riding-master, fencing-master, dancing and swimming masters, receive small salaries, that students may not lose the opportunity of perfecting themselves in these arts.

In order to make support at the university easy to those without property, many regulations are established. To those who can bring certificates of inability to pay, the lecture-fees are remitted. Besides this, in the different universities exist endowments, derived in part from an ancient period, for such as cannot support the cost of a university life. Many universities are rich in such endowments, or stipends. It is a popular joke, that any student who arrives at Greifswald, well known as the smallest Prussian university, is asked at the gate whether he will accept a stipend; and if he declines, they hesitate to admit him; since, unless students enow will come and take them, the university does not know what to do with its endowments. The candidates to obtain stipends must submit to an examination, and then receive half-yearly a fixed sum, which however, in case of ill conduct, can at the end of any half-year be withdrawn. These endowments are in the management of several professors of the academy. The various seminaries possess the like; in particular, the preacher seminary, where the young theologians are prepared for their future calling. They live in a large building at free cost, and under stricter oversight than the rest of the students. Every student who is in circumstances to pay the college fees, must make half-yearly, a small contribution to the sick union, out of which sum such of the poor students as become ill are furnished with all necessary attendance in particular apartments in the hospital. For this union a commission is named, consisting of several of the professors, and some students.

These slight notices may be sufficient to give us a conception of the internal arrangements of one of the German universities, which proudly may the German say, though they may indeed have their defects, yet stand far above all foreign ones. What country can show an institution so well organized and ordered as our High Schools? Truly does it excite admiration and delight to see so small a state, even as Baden, whose peculiar aim is the diffusion of knowledge. On the one hand, teachers paid by the state, that they may, freed from all the pressure of affairs, be able to dedicate their lives entirely to the office of teaching; and on the other, scholars flocking from every country, to avail themselves of their instructions.

How many great men have already gone forth out of this school! What beneficent influence such an association exerts on the whole life with which it is surrounded, we see strikingly when we turn our eyes elsewhere, when we compare the fresh and living spirit which a university inspires, with the unintellectual existence of a mere mercantile city. Most true are the words of Goethe:--"That academical life, even if we cannot ourselves boast of participation of its peculiar diligence, yet in every species of accomplishment yields incalculable advantages, since we are perpetually surrounded by men who either possess knowledge, or seek it, so that, from such an atmosphere, even while unconscious of it, we draw actual nourishment."--Goethe's Leben Wahrheit und Dichtung.

And this fountain of all high knowledge, we may assert it with joy, flows not only for the wealthy and the lords of broad lands. No! it stands open to the poorest amongst the people, that it may call forth talent and spiritual endowments to their highest accomplishment! Through this becomes it possible to the humblest individual, in the lowest condition of society, on the wings of merit to soar up, and that no heaven-gifted head shall be lost to the service of mankind. However high in Germany the advantages of a university education are rated, and as some may possibly imagine overrated, yet this fact has sprung from it,--that the richest and most independent must pass some years at one of the High Schools. God be praised! the number of those is few who look upon knowledge as a milch-cow, from which they may draw their daily living, and on the university as a stall, in which that useful beast is reared and cherished. Men have learned to perceive that the possession of knowledge is desirable to every one, even if he draw no direct worldly advantage therefrom. A noble rivalry to push discovery farther and higher, through the power of the human mind, and to dig after the truth, has diffused itself far and wide. The times are gone by, against which Rabener directed the fire of his Satires. I recollect where Sancho Panza in the discussion on proverbs says gravely--"Beside the watchman I know no one in our city who has attained his office in a creditable manner, and in passing must I also remember, that he is the only one in our place that had understanding before he had his office."

It is only by merit that a German can now acquire an honourable position in society; nay, the rich and the noble feel a pride in showing the world that in them these merits are not wanting. Here is an example of this honourable sentiment.

"Shall you soon depart to your estate?" inquired a foreigner of the Graf von Sch----, one of the richest nobles of Germany, who studied jurisprudence in Heidelberg.

"No," replied the Graf, "I shall first submit myself to a state's examination."

"Indeed!" replied the foreigner, "will you then really become a legal practitioner?"[^[2]]

"No; but I will show to the world, that without my possessions I could have made my way by my acquirements."

And to this diffusion and recognition of the claims of knowledge, to the scattering abroad of science amongst the people, what has more contributed than the foundation of our universities? Out of them go forth the distinguished men who guide the helm of the state with circumspection; out of them the teachers of the pulpit and the folks-schools,--to diffuse light and improvement throughout society.

[CHAPTER II.]

GENERAL VIEW OF STUDENT-LIFE.

The word freedom sounds so sweetly that we could not be without it, even did it indicate errors--Goethe's Leben Wahrheit und Dichtung.

"Free is the Bursch!" exclaims a beautiful student-song--a song beaten so threadbare with continual singing, that now we seldom bear it sung by the student himself. And true is the cry; or tell me who is freer than he? Where see we the idea of freedom so beautifully realized as in the German student-life? He who has learnt to know this life, may even doubt the truth of that otherwise so true expression of Schiller's--

Freedom is only in the realm of dreams.

The life of the university is an admirable school, which brings the young man quickly to a sense of self-dependence, which in a few years brings him to manly knowledge, and builds him up to a fitness for intercourse with other men. The freedom which the student enjoys in a high degree, is truly a strong touchstone,--a dangerous rock, on which many a one splits,--but it is the only ground on which genuine knowledge can attain its noblest bloom. Suddenly liberated from the fetters of school, from the strict oversight of parents, steps the young man into this life. He is distant from the friends who, as it were, shaped his early being,--from his nearest relatives. His whole life's plan must be now fashioned after his own judgment; he may enjoy his pleasures with a freer, choice, and pursue his studies in a great measure according to his own discretion. He stands free to choose his friends from his numerous fellows; and it is only by his own qualities and endowments, that he can convert them into friends. When entering on this new scene of life, may he never forget the words of Goethe--

No single thing can suit itself to all.

Let each look to his ways,

Where he goes, and where he stays;

And he that stands, take heed he do not fall.

There is a prejudice which yet prevails abroad, that the student, especially the foreigner, is exposed to many unpleasantnesses through the necessary intercourse with his companions; the obligation to take part in their customs and amusements, which are often denounced as sufficiently rough and barbarous. This prejudice is totally groundless, at least in the present times. The necessity of intercourse, the compulsion, have no existence whatever. On the contrary, every one lets another act as he likes, and troubles himself no further about him, than as his society may be desirable to the individual himself. It is perfectly at the option of the new comer whether he will isolate himself, or in what society he will live; whether he will participate to a certain degree in the student life, or even enter into one of their Chores. If he seeks not the society of the students, he is perfectly secure not to be sought after himself. Nor let any one, especially the foreigner, imagine that he may claim distinction on account of his wealth, or his high birth; or that he may expect from his university acquaintance particular homage on that account; thereby would he certainly expose himself to ridicule and annoyances. Nobility holds in Germany no longer such absurd estimation; few Germans seek a man's acquaintance exclusively on account of its possession, and those few are despised. This is a necessary consequence of the constitutional structure of our German states; and hence are the Germans freer than the English, who pride themselves so much on their political liberty, and yet are such slaves to the nobility. This singularity of the English often becomes very ludicrously conspicuous in constitutional Baden, to whose cities they so numerously resort; and the students of Heidelberg have often made themselves merry over it, especially when the English families in a neighbouring city have, each term, picked out the address calendar of the university--a list of the students published each half year--those names which had any mark of nobility about them, and invited these elite to their entertainments. If this is a prominent feeling throughout Germany, it is in the universities, at least in the majority of them, the ruling one; and to make clear what I have here said, I may quote the following words of Lichtenberg. "An equality like that of the French people, exists amongst the students of the universities. The poorest thinks himself as good as the Graf, and stoops not to him, though he freely leaves him to enjoy any advantages that he may possess. Should he set up haughty pretensions, that were the way effectually to ensure a denial of any claim. They are only proud assumptions, that are intolerable to the free man; for the rest, he is thoroughly disposed to allow to him every distinction that he deserves, and what these distinctions are, he has generally correct means of determining."

The academical freedom is a possession dear to the student. He has defended it with zeal from the ancient times; and a conceived encroachment upon his privileges has often occasioned general risings of the whole student body against the infringing power, which though they may not be wholly commendable as excesses, were always highly remarkable, and indicate vividly the spirit of student life. We allude to the marching forth from the university cities, and the denunciations which the students have sometimes pronounced, as a severe bann upon them. But of this more anon. This freedom has the most beneficial influence on the prosecution of the study, and the manifold accomplishments of the students. This has become perceived and acknowledged by the greatest men; and it has made itself conspicuous that exactly in those colleges which enjoy the highest degree of freedom, amongst which Heidelberg is numbered, there also prevails the most active pursuit of every academical advantage. This free associate-life of the students has, moreover, the most decided influence on the general cultivation of mind and manners. Flowing from different countries, these diverse elements meet in the most varied points of contact, and mutually impart their experience and their customs. The author of the article on Heidelberg in the Halle Year-Book, speaks of Heidelberg in this respect, thus:--

The variety of nationalities which meet in Heidelberg give an intellectual activity to the associate-life of that student-world; and preserve it, at least, from the eternal monotony of fixed conventional forms, stale jests, fade word-wit, and bookworm pedantry. The happy-spirited, practical, intelligent Palatine; the simple, honest Swabian, who has seen only the world which lies between his own mountains, but with his sound, clear intellect, penetrates through every thing; the open Rhinelander; the pithy Hessian; the polite, socially-accomplished, well-bred, reserved North-German; and the grave, self-confident Hanseat;--each brings a different style of accomplishments, a different view of life, different experience;--each race maintains its own natural character, without withdrawing itself, however, from the impressions of the other nationalities, and the equipoising influence of the common elements of their confluent existence. Add to these, the numerous foreigners--Swiss, French, Belgian, English, Spanish, who soon find themselves disposed to attach themselves in preference to one of the German races, and ready, through the common medium of social life, to receive somewhat from all, and give to all somewhat, as it may happen. And herewith is connected this important consideration, that these foreign frequenters of the university of Heidelberg are almost wholly connected by birth with the higher classes of society, and are impelled by their professional views towards the interests and the movements of social life. They all bring thither cultivated mind, and a broad grasp of observation of life and manners; for the increase of which, neither internal impulse nor external means are wanting. It is indispensable to good ton amongst the students of Heidelberg, more or less to have travelled. The vicinity of the Rhine, of France, of Switzerland, excite to still further excursions, for which the vacation affords a favourable opportunity; and those thus returning from distant regions, from Paris, from the Alps, or from the sea, bring with them new and very varied impressions,--whose communication, exchange, and turning to account, again for a long time fill up and refresh the intellectual life, not only of the individual, but of the meetings of the national Chores, the associations formed from the general body of the students.

He who would dispute the great advantages derived directly from the social life of the students--to which belong not only different nations, but different faculties, especially in rapidly developing the intellect--would deny the advantages of social life altogether; but wo to the man who is disposed to act upon such a notion, and lead an eremitical life in accordance with it; such one-sidedness of judgment must inflict upon him the severest penalty. The necessity for social union has always been the more sensibly felt, since countrymen and friends who pursue different studies, are thereby much separated from each other. The division into such unions, according to nations and landsmanships, was the dictate of nature herself. Their existence was acknowledged by the state, and honoured by it as a very ancient arrangement. Out of these combinations sprung, about the end of the sixteenth, and beginning of the seventeenth century, the so-called Orders. When at length their aim began to appear not wholly pure, they met with government opposition; and in their place again stood forth the landsmanschafts, similar to the early national divisions, but so far different, that to the landsmanschafts belonged not only the students who were actually natives of the country whose name the union bore, but all who chose to enter the same, and submit themselves to its regulations, were received by it. All these landsmanschafts from 1815, amalgamated themselves into one common Burschenschaft; till the bloody act of Sand, in 1819, drew the attention of government upon that union, and became the occasion that the greater number of persons withdrew from the burschenschaft, and again resolved themselves into particular landsmanschafts; or, declining to belong to extensive unions, lived politically isolated. Those societies which had in the course of time assumed so many different forms, now began to frame their own laws, and to choose their own leaders. The members of each association had their peculiar badge of distinction, others wore their colours; and in the very nature of things, the constitution of such unions became more elaborate; their regulations increased in number; and ceremonies, in order to give to the whole exterior pomp and circumstance, could not be long wanting. The rulers of an earlier age saw with approval that the studentships showed themselves in the greatest possible splendour on public and solemn occasions; and the services which in times of war the student youth rendered to the state, increased their consideration. In those days, the carrying of weapons was conditionally permitted. So is it declared in an early ordinance published at Heidelberg:--"But it is expressly forbidden at evening, and after the tolling of the bell which calls the night-watch to their duty, to go about the city with arms." To which is added the menace, "that if any one dares to transgress this regulation, neither the rector nor the high school shall be allowed to liberate or to defend him."

The people, on all occasions, have delighted especially in investing public acts with pageantry; as for instance, in the conferring of the doctoral degree. This was attended with great ceremony, and without sparing of cost. The costume of professors and directors was a peculiar one; and the latter even in recent years, in many of the High Schools, were expected to appear in black silk stockings, short breeches, a two-pointed hat, and a sword by the side. We see a remains of this ceremonial yet in the public solemnities of the universities, as in Heidelberg, on the birthday of the Grand Duke. On this occasion a procession, composed of the academical professors and of a deputation from the students, proceeds from the hall of the universities to a public solemn service in the church, and afterwards concludes the festival by a dinner.

But to return to the unions. Thus were these sanctioned by the state, and their rules acknowledged by it. This relation betwixt them and the state yet continues in Bavaria, where the Chores are bound to join themselves to the public processions in foil costume, in order to enhance their splendour. We have alluded to the original division of these into natural landsmanschafts; to their combination into one burschenschaft, or burschenship; but in all these, recent times have produced a great change. The greater part of the German governments have strictly prohibited the existence of any unions whatever, bear what name they may. The ground of this prohibition we will inquire more nearly into in another place. We will not here inquire whether the teachers of the universities were at all secretly concerned or concurrent in this measure; whether it be possible, at once, to extirpate, trunk and stalk, these unions, which are as fast rooted as the duel itself. We will not ask whether these unions do not yet continue to exist in secret; and whether in Heidelberg, with whose students we are seeking in these pages more particularly to make ourselves acquainted, this possibly be still the case. But, as in other universities, they actually do yet exist, and as it is so recently that they have been generally forbidden, we will, for once, regard them as existing, and notice more particularly their constitution.

This constitution is become by degrees very elaborate, and that necessarily so, in order to uphold the tottering fabric, since Chore life no longer retains the freshness of its early days. In the olden time, when every academician belonged to these unions, they stretched the authority of their laws over every student. But this is no longer the case. Now, the smaller proportion of the students only enter into these unions, which nevertheless represent, to a certain degree, the studentship; and wherever it becomes necessary to defend the interests of Studentdom, the whole body is ready to join them. Certain of their laws, whether descending from the early times, and which are, therefore, faithfully maintained by the Chore members, or those which have been enacted in modern times by the Chores, yet equally extend to the whole body, and possess an influence which can be denied by none, since it is equally exerted by the Chores over all.

It is only through these greater organized masses that it is possible for studentship to proceed in its oneness. The internal arrangements of a Chore possess, on this one account, an interest, and deserve our attention the more, inasmuch as we have already said these Chores exert an influence over the rest of the students; and this renders it incumbent that before we speak of the students at large, we should acquaint ourselves more intimately with the present Chore life.

[CHAPTER III.]

THE CHORE.

Now first of all, to drive scholastic folly,
I'll bring thee to a jovial set, and jolly.

Goethe's Faust.

The different Chores have adopted their names, exactly like the early landsmanschafts, from the different German nations. Yet are these, as we have already hinted, no longer so scrupulous in the reception of the new members as those were, to which none could belong but the actual natives of that country whose appellation the union bore. If any man would still persuade himself that the ancient practice is yet continued, he must construct in his own head a very peculiar geography. As these unions bear the names of the different nations, so the members of each wore publicly their respective colours, which, since the interdict against them, of course, is no longer the case. These colours were not only displayed on the cap, but also on a broad band which was worn over the breast. The prohibition of the Chore colours was a severe blow to the unions, and the students sought in various ways waggishly to surmount it. Instead, therefore, of one student, as before, wearing the three united colours, as it might be green, white, and black,--each Chore having, for the most part, like its nation, three,--now went three students arm in arm, each of them wearing one of the three colours, so that the whole three colours were combined in three friends. This attempt, however, led its authors no further than into the student-prison.

The principal of the regular Chores are--

Besides this, each Chore has its sign, or token; that is, certain letters curiously interwoven, with which it signs its documents, and which is known to all the other Chores. The number of these Chores is not always the same in the universities. Now one dissolves itself on account of the fewness of its members; and now a new one shows itself. When a number of students find themselves together, who regard themselves numerous enough to constitute a Chore, and are desirous to become such, the first thing which they proceed to do is to elect their leaders. These, as the representatives of the new union, appear before the S. C.--that is, the senior convent, or assembly of seniors--which is the highest tribunal of the students for the settlement of all affairs occurring amongst them. This tribunal inquires into the sufficiency of the aspirants, and if the result is satisfactory, gives its consent. The Chore appears as such at the next Allgemeine. By the Allgemeine is understood the meeting of the whole united Chores, which takes place from time to time in an Allgemeine Kneipe, or general drinking company, in the same manner as each particular Chore holds, every evening, its meeting, where the members drink, sing, and entertain each other. In this Allgemeine, or general meeting, the members of the different Chores have a fine opportunity to pick quarrels with one another,--in student phrase, to touchiren each other; that is, to give offence, so that the swords may not rust. The newly established Chore now takes the customary course. It strikes up a friendly alliance with one of the already existing Chores, in which its members find the greatest number of their acquaintances, at the same time that it assumes a hostile attitude to another. It falls into dispute with the hostile Chore, and what is called the Chore-hatze, a regular Chore-baiting, breaks out; that is, there ensues a general challenging between the members of the two Chores.

The duels thus originated are fought in succession, and the Chore is said to pawk itself out; that is, to drum or fight itself forward. Hereby it testifies its mastership with its weapons, and intense is the interest which hangs on the result of the Paw-kereien, or fights, between the leaders of each Chore. The conquerors have their victory celebrated by their companions the same evening in the Kneipe, where they triumph over their antagonists. When a Chore has thus proved itself, it holds its Antritt-Commers--entrance, or opening commerce, or festivity, of which more hereafter; and to which the new Chore invites the leaders of the other Chores. The qualifications by which a member of a Chore can raise himself in it, are practice in the exercise of arms, bodily and intellectual dexterity in general; a good stomach, that he may be able to carry plenty of beer; and, besides these, a powerful voice is a grand requisite. As observed, the members of the Chore elect their leaders. The first of these is the Senior. He must possess the qualifications we have mentioned in a preeminent degree, and must have already passed through the other offices of the Chore, as here following. He possesses a great and scarcely limited power, and his duty in return is to advance every where the interests of the Chore, to exert himself for its credit in connexion with and in reference to the other Chores, and thus to maintain its respect, so as much as possible to raise its splendour and reputation; in short, he must, on every occasion, defend the honour of the Chore. He who possesses the next place of honour is called the Consenior, or Zweiter Chargirte, that is, holder of the second charge; and next to him stands the Dritte Chargirte, or third officer. The Consenior is, as it were, war-minister and general in the same person. All that relates to weapons and their use belongs to his department; he has therefore the care of the Fecht-boden, or fencing-school, and the weapons of the duel. He must be a good swordsman, as he is bound to act as second in every occurring case, when any one fights with the weapons of the Chore, and no other able swordsman is ready to do the duty of his office; he must be careful to have the weapons of the Chore, that is, an armoury of all things which belong to the different species of duel, always in the best condition. The Dritte Chargirte represents the finance-minister. He has to manage all the money affairs of the Chore, and the Chore treasury is under his superintendence. This is, in fact, a treasury, into which every member of the Chore pays a determinate sum, out of which all expenses of the union are defrayed. The remainder of the members of the Chore are styled Chore-Burschen, and Renoncen; and to these, lastly, add themselves the Mit-kneipanten, or boon-companions, who belong not properly to the Chore itself. These are such students as join themselves to the Chore, frequent the meetings at the Kneipe, and take part in their other pleasures, without involving themselves with the affairs of the Chore. They maintain a friendly intercourse with the students of the Chore, augment the appearance of the Chore by their numbers, and in return enjoy from the union a certain degree of protection, with whose weapons they also fight. They pay less for the loan of the weapons than the other students and are allowed to use them for a fixed sum for a whole course, that is, for the half-year.

On the very lowest step of the Chore stands the Renoncen, who has neither seat nor voice in the Chore-Convent, or official meeting of the Chore. The Renoncen are for the most part harassed with menial services. They must convey the weapons--which are usually kept in the place of contest, locked up, those of each Chore in its own chest--in case of danger from the authorities, or of any necessity, to a place of safety; when there is singing in the Kneipe, they must hand round the Commers-Books, the song-books; and besides this, on occasion of every duel that is to be fought with the weapons of the Chore, they must go at night, after the Kneipe is over, to the house of the Pawk-doctor, the surgeon of the students, who is always in attendance at the duels--and announce to him the fact, with the time at which it is to take place. In all the Chores they are bound to appear at the Kneipe, on certain days, and failing in this respect, are mulct in a pecuniary fine. In different Chores this attendance of the Renonce is different: in some, it must be daily; in others, three or four times a week; and is not to be omitted without substantial reason.

Between the Renoncen and the Chore-Burschen, stands the Fuchs-major--the greater Fox--who is always the oldest Renonce, and has the right to go into the Chore-Convent, but is not entitled there to speak. If the Renonce will advance to the rank of Chore-Bursch, it is indispensable that he shall have fought three duels.

The Chore-Bursch has this peculiar duty; he must settle and determine with the strange Kneipe; that is, when a duel is to be fought with the weapons of his Chore, he must seek out him who has challenged, in his Kneipe, and announce to him the spot and hour at which the duel is to take place. One of the Chore-Burschen must always be present at every duel which is fought with the weapons of their Chore. When the Dritte-Chargirte, that is, the treasurer, is unable, from any cause, to fulfil the duties of his office, the oldest Chore-Bursch must officiate for him; so also in cases of similar emergency, the Dritte-Chargirte steps into the place of the second, and he into that of the Senior. Besides the obligation to appear on the appointed Kneipe days, the Chore members must also, at the fixed hours, attend the fencing-school, or pay a pecuniary penalty. The reception of a Renonce into the Chore, as well as his advancement to the rank of Bursch, is accompanied by certain solemnities, and by the reading of the constitution of the union. This constitution is held profoundly secret, and cannot pass out of the hands of the three Chargirten, who received it at the opening of the Chore, from the Senioren-Convent, or official meeting of the Seniors of the different Chores--the so-called S. C. Every Chore has its weekly Chore-Convent, wherein the Senior presides, and the Chore-Burschen are present. Here the affairs of the Chore are discussed, and resolutions passed. The Consenior opens these resolutions to the Renouncen, in the likewise weekly held Renoncen-Convent, or official meeting of the Renoncen, which has to carry them into effect, without power to alter them.

As the Chore-Convent in each Chore is, so to say, its first board of Administration, so there is a supreme board over all the Chores, and thus, to a certain degree, over the whole body of students. It constitutes the highest court of honour of the students. It is composed of the whole Chargirten of the whole Chores. Each Chore possesses, in alphabetical rotation, the presidency; and the Convents, or meetings, held at the Kneipe-room of that Chore which at that time is in power. The presidency changes monthly, so that, as the court is held four times in each month, it falls four times in each Chore, which has to defray the cost of the beer that is therein drunk. The Senior of this Chore is president, the Consenior vice-president, and the Dritte-Chargirte secretary. Under the jurisdiction of this court fall general affairs, those which affect the interests of all students; and it passes all the resolutions, to which the whole student-body of the university must submit itself. It keeps what students call Allgemeine Comment, that is, the student code of laws. It addresses itself, to protect their rights from all encroachments. It hurls the terrors of its Bannstrahl, that is, of its power of excommunication, upon students or citizens, upon individuals or large bodies. When a burger of the university city, or of the vicinity, whose trade derives benefit from the students--for example, an innkeeper, or a shopkeeper--treats a student harshly or unjustly, the complaint must lay his charge before this court. His memorial to the S. C. must be drawn up in due form, according to the nature of its contents, and established custom, and must bear the signature of one of the Seniors. The S. C. now makes inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the accused. If he be found guilty, it decrees the punishment, which consists in proscription, for a longer or shorter period. This state of proscription, or being under the bann, is very exactly determined in years, months, weeks, and days; and during this period no student, be he in Chore or not in Chore, dare to purchase any thing from the condemned, or enter his house, otherwise he exposes himself to the certain danger of being also laid under the bann, and the Chores regularly send their people to see whether any violation of their edict take place. For instance, should a proscribed innkeeper have a ball or dance in his house, the Chore emissaries will be there to see whether any student shows himself at it. The student falls under similar punishment who is accused and found guilty of refusing to give satisfaction by duel to another that he has insulted. Yet is no one compelled to the duel by this regulation. If a student will not fight, whether from a principle against it, or any other cause, he must, once for all, announce this fact to the S. C, and he stands exempt, only, he cannot be allowed to make any exception to the rule which he has himself thus laid down. If he commits assault or aggression against any student or students, having thus sheltered himself from the necessity of the duel, though he be no longer amenable to this particular law of the student world, he is still amenable to the laws of his country, and may be summoned before the amtmann to answer for his offence. Should he meanly avail himself of such a declaration against fighting, and yet permit himself to insult or annoy his fellow-students, so cunningly as not to come within the operation of any civil statute, and yet to be offensive and obnoxious to the rules and maxims of social life, he will be shunned and despised by the students, and will find himself pretty much in the same situation as he who is actually under the bann. The bann is chiefly launched against students for such offences as are considered to amount to loss of honour--such as one student giving another a box on the ear, or a student committing a theft; and therefore to him who lies under the Verruf, or proscription, on such account, there remains scarcely an alternative but to quit the university, where every channel of intercourse would be closed against him, and where he would be shunned by all. Whole university cities have at times been laid under the bann, examples of which we shall give as we proceed.

The Chargirten watch over the institutions of the Chores and of the students in general,--or, in other words, over the so-called Allgemeine Comment. They settle also the time, place, and manner of all the public festivities and celebrations. They determine whether, and in what style, a torch-train, or a "Vivat," shall be got up; in what manner a deceased member of the Chore shall be interred; and how the studentship shall be represented in the public solemnities of the High School. They direct the choice of the ball directors, who take part in the direction of the public balls, as, for instance, in those at the Museum at Heidelberg. The presiding Chore fixes the Allgemeine, or general assembly, and announces it to the other Chores.

Besides this court of honour, there also exists a Beer court, which has to settle all contentions that arise in the drinking companies on points of drinking etiquette, which, as we shall hereafter find, are no few in number. To the constitution of this beer court, one man is chosen out of each Chore, and the oldest Chore-Bursch is generally elected for this purpose. It is held in regular routine at every Kneipe-room of the Chores in succession. Of the beer court generally we shall, anon, speak more particularly, and here need say no more than that before the principal Beer court, the accuser must have two witnesses, who must give their statements on their word of honour,[^[3]] and the accused must in his defence be supported by two witnesses also. Thus constitute, as may be seen from what is already stated, these unions, an aristocracy amongst the students, which exercises a certain influence over the general academical class; which contributes to establish a principle of unity amongst them; and whose members are ready to give up some portion of their personal freedom, for the consideration and authority which they acquire in the social system; and so alluring is the feeling of the members of Chores in public processions, Commerses,--parties which they make to some place in the country for a day's jollification, and whither they go in a long train of carriages with outriders; and in Comitaten,--processions formed to accompany a departing fellow-student with public honour out of the city,--being enabled to play the gentleman, and to renommiren, or in English popular phrase, "to cut a swell," that members are never wanting to these societies.

There yet remains to be mentioned the numerous class of students termed, in student phrase, Camels--amongst whom are again contemptuously distinguished those who live totally isolated and retired, and never on any occasion, or on any account, visit the Chores, their Kneips, or take any part in their festivities and processions, and are therefore ignominiously dubbed Kettles, Bookworms, etc. In conclusion, we must employ a few sentences on the early Burschenschaft and the modern fragments of its wreck.

[CHAPTER IV.]

THE BURSCHENSCHAFT.

But nothing comes up to our pleasant self-satisfaction, when we erect ourselves into judges of the high and the distinguished, of Princes and Statesmen; find public institutions clumsy and absurd; observe only possible and actual impediments; and acknowledge neither the greatness of the intention, nor the co-operation, which in every undertaking are to be expected from time and circumstances.

Hauff's Memoirs of Satan.

We have already traced the derivation of the word "Bursche," and observed that the first unions of the students were designated "Landsmanschafts" and "Orders." The origin of the first actual Burschenschaft is to be sought in the times when, on the establishment of the Rhenish Prince-league, which placed itself submissively under the sceptre of Napoleon, and the consequent abdication of the imperial throne of Germany by Francis II. in 1806, every heart that beat with a German feeling must have been seized with the deepest sorrow at the fall and dashing to pieces of the Fatherland. An earnest desire to be able to give help to the outraged country--the belief in a God who alone was able to free it from its oppressions--filled the heart of the patriot, and must have roused him to a tone of mind, than which nothing could be farther from that serene enjoyment of life, often bordering on actual frivolity, to which the members of academical unions were not rarely accustomed to resign themselves. A patriotic spirit, a zealous, earnest aspiration, had already proclaimed itself in the latter years of the former century. Already in its seventieth year had the Poet-league at Göttingen organized itself under Klopstock. John Heinrich Voss, the two Grafs Stollberg, Hölty, and others, belonged to it. At the same time tumbled that fabric which the Order of Jesus had artfully raised, and the German language was finally established in those rights, out of which it had so long been expelled. The lachrymose tribe of common tragedies, and the moving comedies with which Kotzebue and Iffland overflowed the stage, were compelled to give place to knightly dramas, and Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen became for the hundredth time imitated. The German Muse attained a higher flight through Lessing, and finally displayed herself to the world in the two noble forms of Schiller and Goethe. The first, far from all lightness, full of deep earnestness and noble sentiment, sought chiefly to effect the moral elevation and intellectual accomplishment of youth; and the youthful freshness of his language gave to his often more philosophical than poetical reflections and sentences, an irresistible charm for young minds. Goethe moved in a contrary direction. With a predominant sentiment for beauty, and an eminent talent for imitation, he sported through every department of literature, and floated perpetually with the current of the intellectual tendency of the age. By such men the German language was speedily advanced to its point of perfection; the French language ceased to be the conversation language of the court and of the polite circles. Joseph II. introduced the German language into the court of Vienna; after the death of Frederick II. it became acknowledged as that of the court of Prussia. For a long time Weimar became pre-eminently the capital city of German accomplishment; and Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, and other distinguished men, found in the court of Weimar, a sphere of action as honourable for themselves as advantageous to the literature of their country. The French ascendency in literature had thus ceased at the very point of time when the French political ascendency came to lie heavy and oppressively on the nation; the literary honour sharpened that bitter feeling of political shame, and the more the German people learned to feel it, the stronger became its impatience to liberate itself from that condition into which it had been reduced by the French. But on whom must this feeling have seized more powerfully than on the student? To whom must the situation of Germany have occasioned more serious apprehensions than to him? On the one hand, sufficiently instructed to perceive the dangers which threatened the political and literary liberty of Germany; on the other, full of youthful spirit, and of desires to help the oppressed Fatherland,--such sentiments must have weaned the students from the trivial pursuit of Landsmanships and Orders, and accordingly those of the same sentiment united themselves into a Burschenschaft. The object of this first union was noble; namely, to rescue the Fatherland; and in order to be able to do this worthily, to raise up men strengthened to the utmost completeness of both moral and physical constitution. Thence came it, that bodily exercises, especially gymnastics, rose into new existence; that the Burschen sought to invigorate themselves by hardships of every kind; thence, that they strove after the greatest possible purity of manners, and displayed a spirit of hostility towards the less pure tendencies of the yet existing orders. Germany's noblest sons belonged then to the Burschenschafts. These unions had their leaders and laws, much in the same manner as the Chores. Their leaders were the so-called Rügemeister, monitors, or judges, and had their speaker, who, in the assembly, made statement to the people of whatever affairs appeared of importance to them. In these companies ruled no aristocratic power, as was the case in those of the Chores, especially towards the younger members. To establish a thorough union amongst the students, was a main object of the Burschenschaft. On this account the duel was not permitted between the members of the union; and duels between the members of the orders were very much circumscribed, and only in cases of real injuries, or gross offences, and then under certain conditions, permitted by the court of honour. The Burschenschafts of different university cities stood in combination with each other, and members from one city were in the habit of making visits to the members of the other university cities. The Burschenschafts, as then constituted, were in most places allowed, or at least, tolerated. They celebrated often, and with the consent of the prorector, their so-called foundation-day, or anniversary, with great banqueting, public processions, music, and torch-trains. The members of these companies conducted themselves so discreetly, that people willingly suffered them, and any little distinctions which might gratify youthful vanity--the wearing of the old German costume, the short coat, the broad out-lying shirt-collar, with the open breast, the cap which but scantily covered the long down-hanging hair, and which, as well as the coat, was mostly of black velvet--such old Germanisms and peculiar attire--were cheerfully conceded to them. Hitherto must the life and movements of the Burschenschaft be styled noble. With enthusiasm its members received the call to the fight of freedom, which resounded from Prussia in the year 1813; and from all the universities streamed forth volunteers, to join themselves to the German host, which was to do battle with the oppressors of the Fatherland. Theodore Körner has immortalized in his songs the feelings and sentiments of the German youth at that glorious crisis. Many Burschen died, like him, the hero's death, inspired with equal zeal for the good cause, though it was alone permitted to the poet to flash radiantly forth, as from a mirror, the inner glow of his spirit in patriotic song.

[THE SWORD SONG.]

Sword on my left side gleaming,
What means thy clear eyes' beaming?
Thou look'st with love on me,
And I have joy in thee.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

A soldier bears me dearly,
Hence beam I forth so cheerly;
I am a free man's choice,
Which makes the Sword rejoice.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Good Sword! yes, free I hold thee,
And in hearths love enfold thee,
As if thou wert allied
To me, a lovely bride.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Already it is tendered,
To thee my life surrendered;
Ah! were we so allied;
When wilt thou fetch thy bride?

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

The bridal night's red morning
Breaks to the trumpet's warning;
When cannon peals begin,
Fetch I the loved-one in.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

O sweet embrace! untiring,
I tarry still desiring;
Then bridegroom fetch thou me,
My garland waits for thee.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Why in thy scabbard ringing,
Thou Iron-joy art springing
In such wild battle-glow?
My Sword, why ring'st thou so?

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Ah! in the scabbard ringing,
I long to be forth springing,
Right wild with battle-glow;
Hence, soldier, clink I so!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Wait in thy chamber narrow,
What wouldst thou here, my marrow?
Wait in thy chamber, wait;
I'll fetch thee, ere 'tis late.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Leave me not long in sadness,
Thou garden of love's gladness,
Where blood-red roses breathe,
And blossom flowers of death.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Unsheathe thee then, thou treasure,
Of soldier's eyes the pleasure;
Come forth, my Sword, come forth,
On! to the father's hearth!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Aha! the glorious wedding,
Here through the free air treading!
How flames in sunshine bright,
The steel so bridal white!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

On, on, ye brave contenders!
Ye German true defenders!
And if your hearts be cold,
The loved-one to them hold!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

While on the left side sitting,
Shy are her looks and flitting;
But on the right, the bride
Trusts God in all her pride.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

To iron mouth love-glowing,
The bridal kiss bestowing,
Be every lip applied;
Curst he who leaves the bride!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Now let the loved-one sing forth!
The dazzling flashes spring forth!
Fast dawns the marriage tide,
Hurrah, thou Iron Bride!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

The battle of the people at Leipsic, in the year 1814, freed Germany from its chains. For the complete liberation of Europe, and for the restoration of state relations on a firm foundation, a Congress was determined upon, which in the same year was held in Vienna. The task which this congress had to discharge was the more difficult, in that the people, inspired with a new spirit, in the consciousness of the mighty exertions that they had made, cherished hopes and desires whose realization did not coincide with the interests of Princes. The settlement of territorial relations, and organization of a new general constitution for all Germany, engrossed its deliberations. The restoration of the German empire, which was demanded by a majority of voices, was rendered impossible by the jealousy on the part of the kings of the Rhine-league of their sovereignties. As those states which had sprung up and become great under the former German empire, were now become independent, there remained no alternative, if they were to submit themselves anew to a paternal authority, but, instead of the old German empire, to substitute a sort of family compact The return of Napoleon hastened the settlement of the fundamental principles of a German international-compact; and after eleven sittings, on the 8th of June, 1815, the Bundes-Acte, or Act of Convention, was signed and published.

With the rising of the people against Napoleon, a greater life and cordiality of religious faith had come back. This expressed itself in the Holy Alliance. For the maintenance of European peace, the three powers--Austria, Russia, and Prussia--not only renewed their alliance, but based it again upon a religious foundation. On the 26th Sept. 1815, the Holy Alliance was concluded by the three monarchs themselves, without assistance or advice of a minister. By this they bound themselves, the contracting parties, both in the management of their kingdoms and in their transactions with other states, to take alone as their guides the precepts of the Christian religion, the commands of justice, of love, and peace. They expressed a firm resolution, in accordance with the Sacred Writings, to continue in the covenant of a true and indissoluble brotherly love; that national divisions and national animosity should thenceforward retreat before the consideration that their people were the common members of one and the same Christian empire; the princes themselves should acknowledge that the great Christian nation to which they and their people belonged, had in reality no other rulers than Him from whom alone power doth proceed, that is God, and the Saviour Jesus Christ. At the same time were all states solicited to give in their concurrence, and were assured that on recognition of these avowed principles of this Alliance, with alacrity and love they would be received into the sacred covenant. The Holy Alliance found numerous participants. Most of the European states sent in their formal adhesion in the course of the year 1816. One might imagine that all parties--princes and people--were about to co-operate in the sentiment so finely expressed in Arndt's famous song--

[THE GERMAN'S FATHERLAND.]

Which is the German's Fatherland;
Is't Prussian-land? Is't Swabian-land?
Is't where on Rhine the red grapes hang?
Where o'er the Baltic sea-mews clang?

Oh no! oh no! oh no! oh no!
His Fatherland must wider go!

Which is the German's Fatherland?
Is't Styrian, or Bavarian land?
Is't where the Marsen's herds do wind?[^[4]]
I'st where the Markers iron find[^[5]]

Oh no! etc.

Which is the German's Fatherland?
Westphalian, or Pomerian land?
Is't where the sand from sea-down blows?
Is't where the Danube foaming flows?

Oh no! etc.

Which is the German's Fatherland?
So name to me the mighty land.
The land of Hofer?--or of Tell?
Both land and people love I well.

Oh no! etc.

Which is the German's Fatherland?
So name to me that mighty land.
The Austrian land it sure must be,
With glory crowned and victory!

Oh no! etc.

Which is the German's Fatherland?
So name to me that mighty land.
Is't what the Princes' hollow theft,
From Emperor and from Empire reft?

Oh no! etc.

Which is the German's Fatherland?
So name me finally that land!
Wide as the German tree tongue springs,
And hymns to God in heaven sings!

That shall it be! that shall it be!
That land brave German's giv'n to thee!

That is the German's Fatherland,
Where oaths are sworn by grasp of hand;
Where in all eyes clear truth doth shine;
Where in warm hearts sits love benign.

That shall it be! etc.

That is the German's Fatherland,
Where foreign folly scorn doth brand;
Where all that's base 'neath hate must bend;
Where all that's noble name we Friend.

That shall it be! that shall it be!
That whole, the German land shall be!

That whole, the German land shall be!
O God of Heaven! hither see!
And give us genuine German soul,
That we may love it high and whole.

That shall it be! etc.

But with the peace which succeeded the second overthrow of Napoleon, the expectations of the German nation began to exhibit themselves more clearly; and out of the disproportion between them and that which was done to satisfy them, sprang the germs of mistrust between the princes and the people. The opening of the Bundesversammlung, or confederated assembly, Nov. 5, 1816, betrayed not only the imperfection of the constitution, which had been thrown together in a hurry, but also the uncertainty of the assembly itself, of the extent of its delegated powers. Its declaration that Germany was not to be considered as a united state, but as a confederation of states--(nicht als ein Bundesstaat, sondern als ein Staaten-bund)--gave the less satisfaction, as it was just contrary to what was desired. The nation desired earnestly a common all-embracing bond of union and communion, and not merely a confederacy of their sovereign princes, which the interests of the moment, as they had originated it, would also dissolve again.

The general excitement in Germany received a palpable point of demand in the thirteenth article of the Act of Confederation. In most of the German states the anxiety for a representative constitution displayed itself in such a manner as rendered in the highest degree difficult an accordance between princes and subjects.

In Prussia especially, the constitution of the monarchy opposed so many difficulties to the establishment of a national representation, that its postponement was inevitable; and passionate discontent saw in the impracticability nothing but an evil disposition. In the other German states, the steps made towards the passing of a constitution conducted to as little result; the princes and popular representatives could not agree, since the first were as sparing in their concessions as the latter were unbounded in their demands. But the spirit which was in Germany striving after the constitutional organization of states, had not every where confined itself within due bounds. The secret unions which were formed during the ascendency of Napoleon still continued. The excitement of the public mind, which at an earlier period had been favoured even by the government itself, so far from having subsided, had rather received a new impulse, and as it had now necessarily lost its outward tendency, it sought to take effect in the heart of Germany. The government saw with suspicion the drift of the secret unions, and their influence on the Gymnastic schools and universities; they heard with astonishment, the bold language of the rising generation approximating itself to political fanaticism. The German Confederation satisfied not these heads on fire with ideas of one and a free Germany. The restoration of the empire, in connexion with one of the prevailing theories of conformable national representation, was the master desire of a numerous party, which was spread wide through Germany, and rendered the universities the seminaries of their doctrines. The youth entered with pride into the idea, that they were called to work out their salvation, from the circumstances to which their fathers had reduced them. Political notions of the Middle Ages mingled themselves in the heads of the student youth, with the revolutionary doctrines of modern times, and received, moreover, from religious enthusiasm, a dark addition. Thus degenerated the Burschenschaft, in a manner most deeply to be deplored, and demonstrated in a melancholy degree how near to each other lie the boundaries of truth and falsehood. Noble patriotism metamorphosed itself into a gloomy fanaticism,--zeal for religion and morals, into a hollow hypocrisy, and into a still more dangerous pseudo-philosophy. The landsmannschafts became continually weaker in the German universities, and the young men every day added themselves to the burschenschaft in greater numbers. Truly the greater number of them never dreamed to what lengths such a political fanaticism could lead them; and only by degrees and unobserved mounted the arrogance of an inconsiderate youth, till at length it persuaded itself that it alone had fought out the liberation war, and therefore was now called to give to Fatherland a new constitution.

These perilous imaginations grew continually faster and faster into that horrible avalanche which threatened to overwhelm every thing. What a difference between the years 1816 and 1817, when one compares the celebration of the peace anniversary of 1816, with that of the celebration of the October days of 1817!

On the 18th, 19th, and 20th of January, 1816, Jena, amongst other universities, celebrated the peace-festival in a style and manner, which, say the newspapers of the time, deserve to be published and handed down to posterity.

The report of this festival stands thus:--On the 16th day of January was issued from the grand-ducal police commission, and the city council of Jena, a public programme in regard to this festival. In pursuance of its ordinations, on the 17th, all the bells were rung at noon. Before and after the ringing, mortars and cannon were fired at the outer gate. At eight o'clock in the evening the Landsturm beat tattoo with music.

On the 18th, in the morning, solemn music sounded from the towers, with drum and trumpet, and firing of cannon. At nine o'clock assembled at the council-house, the clergy, the city authorities, and the elder burgers not belonging to the Landsturm, whither also an hour later proceeded the whole body of school youth with their teachers. At ten o'clock, the assembled company moved thence in procession to the city church. A division of the Landsturm, as the procession arrived before the church, made way for it Behind this division walked, as leader of the whole procession, the depositor, or master of the ceremonies, in a black dress, and next to him went the academical officials. Behind these came two beadles, with silver sceptres, and cloaks of red cloth, preceding the then prorector regens, Herr Hofrath Dr. Seidenstecker, the prorector being, however, as well as the prorector designatus, Herr Hofrath Dr. Voigt, who followed him, supported by two students. To the prorectors succeeded the deacons of the four faculties, two and two, and then followed the senate, the professors, the docenten, and the students, whose banner was borne before them. As the train came in front of the council-house, that of the city authorities joined it and proceeded with it to the church, in which each party took their respective seats. A second division of the Landsturm brought up the rear of the train. All conducted themselves with the decorum and dignity befitting this day, and the appearance of the whole congregation excited a lively feeling of something high and important.

When the service was concluded, the train quitted the church in the same order in which it had entered it. At the council-house, the procession of the city authorities, and those who had joined them, separated from that of the academicians, who directed their course again to the university, where they broke off.

The students now betook themselves to the market-place, and after the public appointed religious service which they had just attended, performed a private act of devotion, which in its simplicity and unostentatiousness was extremely striking and affecting. Ranged in a circle, the banner and the leaders of the procession in its centre with uncovered heads, they sung a hymn, written for the occasion by Herr Ullmann of Liefland, with such truth and depth of feeling, that Herr Hofrath Gabler, who with other professors, was present at this solemnity, seized with enthusiastic emotion by its power, thanked the students with heart-enkindled words for the elevation of soul that they had occasioned. A beautiful conclusion of all the religious and public solemnities of this day! for that many houses in the evening, especially in the market-place, were found illuminated, was rather a testimony of individual joy, which took this way to display itself.

The following day, the 19th of January, only was left to the students to make their arrangements for their peace anniversary. And now once more, in how German, how brave, how noble a style was every festive preparation completed!

In the Rau-Thal, through which the haughty enemy of the German name had formerly led his robber-horde to victory, an Oak was selected, that, the witness of former overthrow, it might now, as a memorial of the achieved liberty of Germany--of new flourishing man's strength, be planted on that spot which, ten years before, on the most unfortunate of all days, covered with rubbish and ashes, had been consecrated to a dreadful remembrance. On the morning of the 19th, the oak was taken from its old location, and towards noon brought to the city, where it was received by the students with joyful hearts, and in procession of two and two, conducted with music to the square, the scene of former desolation. On the platz, a division of the Landsturm had stationed itself, and assisted to form the circle; a division of the mounted Landsturm had ridden in advance of the tree, A vast body of spectators stood round the platz! many of the professors, and those who took interest in the scene, stationed themselves near the oak.

When all was ready for the planting of the oak, a hymn composed for the occasion by Herr Goering, from Weimar, to a tune furnished by Herr Cotta, of Eisenach, was sung by the students, fervently and solemnly, with uncovered heads as on the day before; then stepped Herr Horn of Mechlenberg forth from the inner circle, and delivered a pregnant and powerful speech with equal animation and grace. The attention and silence of the vast throng of spectators during the delivery of this speech, testified the impression it produced, to say nothing of its subsequent influence. The speech ended; the planting of the oak was performed, accompanied by the singing of a hymn, also composed by Herr Goering, to a tune by Herr Cotta. The professors present testified their interest and delight in the transaction, by each of them scattering three handfuls of earth on the roots of the planted oak. But numbers of the maidens and young ladies bound ribands on the significant tree, eloquent with so many significations, thereby proclaiming the strength, the desires, the sentiments, and hopes of their hearts.

As now the oak, to which we will all wish a joyful and prosperous growth, especially in its national indications, was planted, Herr Horn pronounced the iambics written for the occasion by Herr Ullmann, with the tone and feeling appropriate to their office and contents. The whole transaction was concluded by the singing of hymns, composed by Herr Neidhart, the elder of Ebersdorf in Voigtland, and breathing a noble, powerful spirit, for right and freedom, which animated the whole nation, and in its own language awarded to festival its high and significant value. The occasion thus brought to its close--a solemnity which our grandchildren may well hold sacred--the students marched in procession of two to the market-place, where they excited one another in brotherly union, with Arndt's thrilling hymn, to unity of spirit and faithful confidence in the sentiments then and there implanted.

[THE UNION SONG.]

In happy hour have we united,

A mighty and a German choir!

And hence from every soul excited,

Burst hymns of praise to God once more;

Since we stand here o'er high things musing,

With feelings holy and profound,

So the full heart its joy diffusing,

Must swell with all its chords the sound.

To whom shall first our thanks be pealed?

To God's most high and wondrous name,

Who in our shame's long night revealed,

Arose before us all in flame.

Who blasted all our foes' disdaining;

Our strength and beauty all restored;

Who on the stars for ever reigning,

Sits there from age to age adored.

Our second wish--to whom then flies it?

To Fatherland's high glory whole.

Perdition seize all who despise it,

Hail! he who yields it life and soul!

Through virtues pass it still be-wondered;

Beloved for honesty and right,

Proud from year-hundred to year-hundred,

In strength and honour ever bright.

To joys of German men,--a measure!

One third--in clearer joy and thanks;

For freedom is the German pleasure;

For freedom leads our German ranks.

For it to live, for it to perish,--

Each German bosom burns for this;

For this the hero-death to cherish,

Is German honour, German bliss.

The fourth--in solemn consecration,--

Hands, hearts aloft together go!

Thou ancient truth--and of our nation,

Thou faith, united--"live ye hoch!"

With these all doubts and fears we banish,

These of our bond are rock and shield;

The world indeed itself must vanish,

When men their plighted word shall yield.

Close in,--the sacred circle throng now,

And raise the clash of triumph strong;

From heart to heart, from tongue to tongue now,

Like lightning send this joyful song:--

The Word that knits our bond for ever;

The Good no fiend can from us rend,--

Nor tyrant villany can sever,--

Believe!--maintain it to the end!

The afternoon and evening were dedicated by them to joyous entertainment at the Feurstenkeller, and with testimonies of love and respect towards their teachers, that remarkable and distinguished day terminated. The sacred celebration of the peace-festival on the part of the university, was held on Sunday, the 21st February. The church service itself was very simple, but highly solemn, and worthy of the high thoughts which the celebration of such a day could not fail to call forth. There remained nothing to desire, but that the noble spirit and sterling sentiments which had every where displayed themselves so luminously on that day, should continue to be the universal ruling ones.

So details a newspaper of the time, the celebration of this beautiful festival. But the concluding wish found not its fulfilment in the following year--for in the year 1817 was held the festival on the Wartburg; in the next year the congress of the Burschenschaft at Jena; and in 1819 transpired the bloody deed of Sand, a warning sign of the progress of political fanaticism from its innocent commencement, to that act which found its just reward on the scaffold.

In the year 1817 the celebration of the reformation anniversary falling in conjunction with the anniversary of the Leipsic Folksbattle, it was too exciting an occasion for the young state reformers not to seize on it for the demonstration of their views and aims. The festival was therefore celebrated on the 18th of October, by the students of most of the German universities on the Wartburg, in a manner which quickly excited the attention of the governments. The Prussian government, in particular, ordered the trial of all those who had taken part in the festival; and several professors who had been present, particularly Fries, came under judicial examination. From these trials it was made obvious that the few only were in the secret of the proposed auto-da-fé to be held in Eisenach, but that the majority regarded it as a desirable opportunity for drawing the Burschenschaft into a more intimate and close union, so that it might the more powerfully operate against the landsmanschafts.

The festival was, like the prior one of October, celebrated with much enthusiasm, with sacred service, with singing of Fatherland hymns, and other solemnities: but speeches were delivered, on this occasion, which had not a thoroughly correct tendency, and must appear the more unfitting from the mouth of a teacher of youth. On the evening of the 18th of October, as formerly on that night, fires blazed up on every hill top; but those of the Burschenschaft who had stationed themselves around the fire on the Wartburg, cast into the flames the German History of Kotzebue, as well as some other detested writings. None of the professors, however, were present at this transaction, and none of the speeches connected therewith were delivered by them. That the acts of the Congress of Vienna had been also burnt there, was proved by the inquiry to be false.

The Wartburg festival was concluded on the 19th of October by the assembled participants, to the number of about 600, taking the sacrament in the church. The consequence of this festival was the promotion of the idea here conceived, of one universal German Burschenschaft; that the union of the whole body of student youth must pervade, and be the means of working out, the union of the whole Fatherland.

On the 21st of October, 1818, at Jena, a congress of students, from fourteen universities, was held; then and there the union of the Burschenschafts was discussed, and its constitution established. "One Empire, one Religion, Freedom and Equality!" This was the watchword of the combination, which, since the Wartburg festival, had exchanged its former colours, namely, green, blue, and white, for the union badge, black, red, and a metallic or embroidered oak leaf in the cap. To this circumstance alludes the following celebrated song--

[ARE GERMAN HEARTS.]

Are German hearts with strength and courage beating?

There to the clang of beakers gleams the sword,

And true and steadfast in our place of meeting,

We peal aloud in song the fiery word!

Though rocks and oak trees shiver,

We, we will tremble never!

Strong like the tempest see the youths go by,

For Fatherland to combat and to die!

Red, red as true-love, be the brother token,

And pure like gold the soul within imprest,

And that in death our spirits be not broken,