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Materials for the History of Polish Territories under Prussian Administration

Materials for the History of Polish Territories under Prussian Administration.

From authentic sources and accounts by Prussian officials and German historians.

First Part.

The earlier period down to the Peace of Tilsit 1807.

LEIPZIG. LIBRAIRIE ÉTRANGÈRE. 1861.

Translator’s Note

This is a complete English translation of Materialien zur Geschichte polnischer Landestheile unter preussischer Verwaltung (“Materials for the History of Polish Territories under Prussian Administration”), First Part, published anonymously at Leipzig in 1861. The translation follows a page-faithful transcription of the original printing; the numbers set between dashes (— 1 —, — 2 — …) mark the page breaks of the 1861 edition, and all internal cross-references (“see p. 128”) refer to those original page numbers. The footnotes, which in the original restart on every page, are here numbered consecutively [1]–[161] and gathered at the end.

A few standing conventions, stated once here so that the text itself can remain free of translator’s interventions:

  • Fidelity. This is a polemical historical document of 1861, quoting official papers of the eighteenth century. Its judgments, its rhetoric — including harsh invective against Poles, Jews, Germans, and individual officials — and its errors of fact are all reproduced faithfully. Nothing has been softened, omitted, or corrected.
  • French and Latin. The book quotes French diplomatic correspondence and treaties at length; all such passages (kept in italics) have been translated into English. Short Latin tags current in scholarly usage are left in Latin.
  • Royal autographs. Frederick II’s autograph memoranda and marginalia are quoted in the original in his idiosyncratic phonetic German; this cannot be reproduced in translation, and they are rendered in plain English.
  • Names. Provinces and major towns are given in the forms customary in English historiography of Prussian Poland (South Prussia, New East Prussia, the Netze District, Warsaw, Posen, Breslau, Cracow). The village and estate names in the donation lists are copied exactly as printed in 1861, with all their inconsistencies of spelling.
  • Money and measures are left in the original units: thalers (Thlr.), groschen (Gr.), silver groschen (sgr.), pfennigs (Pf.), ducats, friedrichs d’or; morgen, Hufen, Scheffel (bushels), German miles.
  • Emphasis. Italics reproduce the letter-spaced or italic emphasis of the original printing; the author’s parenthetical interjections — (!), (?), (!—) — are his own.

Glossary of terms left untranslated

  • Starosty / starosta — a Polish crown estate held for life (occasionally longer) by its holder, the starosta, in return for a quarter of its revenue.
  • Hauländer, Hauländereien — forest-clearing colonists (from aushauen, to hew out) settled on Polish estates from the seventeenth century, and their settlements; erroneously connected with “Holländer” (Hollanders).
  • Tenuten, Vibranzen, Lahnen — minor categories of Polish crown-land tenure (leaseholds, elective tenures, fief-like holdings), listed in the Prussian patents and left, as there, without closer definition.
  • Scholtisei — the hereditary village-mayor’s farm attached to the office of village mayor (Schulze); a Freischulzerei is such a holding free of dues.
  • Vorwerk (abbreviated Vorw.) — an outlying manor farm.
  • Amtmann — the lessee-administrator of a state domain.
  • Landrat — the royal administrative officer of a rural district (Kreis).
  • Regierung — where it denotes a court, this is the provincial college of justice of old Prussia, not the “government” in the modern sense; it is left as Regierung in the court tables.
  • The Seehandlung — the Prussian state overseas-trading corporation.
  • Kompetenz — rendered “allowance”: the fixed annual payment assigned to the former holders of confiscated church and crown estates.
  • The fisc (Fiskus) — the treasury as a party at law.

Preface

The foregoing title makes any longer preface to the following pages unnecessary. They offer no connected history, but merely materials — single historical facts, for the most part outwardly unconnected — for later treatment. Yet even as such, as disjecta membra, they have their value even in this form; — facta loquuntur.

A second part is prepared for the press.

Contents

  Page
The German Colonizations in the Grand Duchy of Posen from the Earliest Times to the First Partition of Poland 1772 1
Events down to the First Partition of Poland 1772 16
Frederick the Great’s Paternal Sentiments toward the Poles 43
Frederick William II’s Assurances of Peace and Friendship 56
The German Colonizations in the Grand Duchy of Posen from 1772—1806 103
— Colonizations of the Nobility and the Great Landowners, or the Black Register 105
— Colonizations of the Peasants and Artisans 178
— Colonizations of the Officials and Notaries 201
Addenda 232

Erratum: p. 14, l. 7 from the top, read: into the French Empire, instead of: into the French Republic.

— 1 —

The German Colonizations in the Grand Duchy of Posen from the earliest times to the first partition of Poland 1772

The admonition “stay in the land and support yourself honestly” seems not to have been devised by Germans. Our emigrations show that at all times we have sought to support ourselves in foreign lands. Whoever takes into consideration the German settlements in Holland and Hungary, in European and Asiatic Russia, in America and at the Cape, in New Holland and on the Mosquito Coast — in short, in the most diverse regions of the globe — must concede that the German bears within himself a particular desire, an urge, nay that he regards it as his calling, as his mission, to make himself at home everywhere, under the most alien circumstances. It is the German above all who sings ubi bene, ibi patria!

Old Sebastian Frank derives the name Germania from germino and says: “There is nothing but child upon child in Germany, especially in Swabia. Swabian women are brought to bed twice in one year; hence the proverb: Swabians and bad money the Devil carries into all the world.”

No wonder, then, that we find German settlements even in the oldest times in the formerly Polish territories as well. Germany has ever been the breeding-nest of population for all the world. It reared, as in the most recent times, so already in earlier centuries, even princes and princesses for foreign thrones. Thus German princesses married Polish dukes of the house of the Piasts, and German colonists went early to Lower Silesia, German Cistercians to Paradies, Blesen, Obra etc.; German families moved into Polish towns and received Saxon or Magdeburg law. This was the time of the first German settlements in Poland.

— 2 —

These Germans, however, like those who also immigrated during the following period of the Jagiellons, merged so effortlessly and unnoticed into the Polish nationality that the German families of that time, e.g. Schepel, Wilde, Struth, Raschke, Winkler, Unger, Pestel, Bedermann, Hape, Treter, Halt, Spor and very many others, became Poles through and through.

The third period of German immigrations into Great Poland, or into the present Grand Duchy of Posen, fell in the time of the Reformation. In troops the Germans, persecuted for their religious views, immigrated from Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia into Great Poland and found hospitable reception here. Poland had then, and even earlier, far outstripped the most civilized states of Europe in religious toleration. While in France Molai and Joan of Arc died at the stake, while St Bartholomew’s Night and the wars of religion consigned hundreds of thousands to death, — while in Spain the religious terrorism of Philip, — in the Netherlands the fanatical hangman’s-men of Alba, — in England the bloody reign of the Catholic Mary slaughtered countless human victims, — while Germany burned its Huss, and even, a hundred years afterward, the bones of Wiclef, who had died in 1384, — while centuries later still it tore itself to pieces in the bloodiest wars of religion, — in Poland Casimir the Great had already in 1356 given the Statute of Toleration for every faith, and had opened Poland as an asylum to which everything fled that in all the then civilized world was given over to persecution and death.

— 3 —

“The Pole of rank,” says even the German biographer of Frederick the Great,[1] “is no intolerant Catholic; nay, it must here be emphasized with honourable distinction that in the century of the Reformation, when in other Catholic countries the Inquisition was murdering, when at Calvin’s instigation the Spanish physician Michael Servede was burned at Geneva in 1553, when at Berne in 1556 the Neapolitan Valentin Gentilis fell under the headsman’s axe, when Melanchton, Beza and other Protestants voted for the death penalty for heretics, and everywhere the liberty of the Spanish, Italian, and other freethinkers was imperilled, — in Poland alone was the place of refuge to be found for Socinians and Protestants. Nay, this unforgettable nobility of mind went so far that in 1573, at the Diet in Wilna, the Dissidents, i.e. the non-Roman-Catholics, were granted equal rights with the other inhabitants. No people in the world could boast, then or long afterward, of such Christian magnanimity.” Only from the Swedish wars onward did the Jesuits make the ecclesiastical Dissidents into a political party, and fanned the sparks into blazing flames.

Thus arose and multiplied the German population in the towns of Schmiegel, Posen, Meseritz, Fraustadt and at many other places.

True, Herr Naval Councillor Jordan rose, in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt, “to the necessary world-historical standpoint from which the Posen affair is to be examined” — and perorated “with the desired historical criticism”:

— 4 —

“the western districts of Birnbaum, Meseritz, Bomst, Fraustadt have since time immemorial, as you may gather from the very names of these towns, been German in the preponderant majority of their inhabitants; [2] —

But precisely because of the “desired historical criticism,” amid the applauding whoops of imbecility, he overlooks that the old districts of Międzychód, Międzyrzecz, Babimost, Wschowa were, after all, also since time immemorial — “as you may gather from the very names of these towns,” — Polish in the preponderant majority of their inhabitants. Herr Jordan and his confederates overlook that the old Polish town of Międzychód is no other than that which was later named in German Birnbaum, that the Polish town of Międzyrzecz is no other than the later German Meseritz, Babimost no other than the later German Bomst, Wschowa no other than the later German Fraustadt! —

And yet Herr Wilhelm Jordan, from his “necessary standpoint,” and “with the desired criticism,” — has “the courage to charge with ignorance or with falsification of history those who behold the partition of Poland in so frightfully black a light!” —

What an argument, by analogy, must he and the Frankfurt Chamber of Reunion have had against Copenhagen in the mere wording, the very sound of the name, had they risen, before the glorious armistice of Malmö, to that “necessary” standpoint and to that “desired” criticism, since this city, “as

— 5 —

may be gathered from the name alone,” has been German since time immemorial. —

But woe to the Frankfurt historical criticism if one day French and Russians should take their stand on Herr Jordan’s world-historical standpoint; if one day the French should reclaim Aix la Chapelle, Mayence, French Buchholz, and the Imperial Commissioners of the Central Power in Tobolsk should reclaim Nowawes, Alexandrowka,[3] nay all of Potsdam, since these places, “as you may gather from the very names,” have since time immemorial been French, or Russian respectively, in the preponderant majority of their inhabitants.

The third period of German immigration was that of the Thirty Years’ War. In thousands the German Protestants sought protection and refuge in Great Poland from Tilly’s, Wallenstein’s devastating sword, and peopled either entirely new towns, such e.g. as Zaborowo near Lissa, and Rawicz, founded expressly for them by Prszyjemski, or settled in old Polish towns, as in Lissa, Reisen, Bojanowo, Jutroschin, Zduny, Kobylin, Schocken, Wollstein, Birnbaum, Karge. The nobility of Great Poland, such as the Leszcynski’s, Bojanowski’s, Sieniuts, Rey’s, Pawadowski’s, Prszyjemski’s, received the fugitives hospitably and magnanimously, not only in the towns, but they also gave them, against small consideration, great stretches of land, and encouraged their industry by the grant of liberties which even their own countrymen did not possess.

How magnanimously the Germans were received by the Poles even in later times is attested, among other things, by the following Imperial-Royal Court Decree to Count Andreas Zamoyski:[4]

— 6 —

“Whereas the Herr Ordynat von Zamoyski of Zamosc, holder of the entail, has, by the endowment of 80 German settler families, undertaken entirely voluntarily upon his entailed estate (ordynacja), displayed his patriotic zeal in compliance with the Most High sentiments, to His Majesty’s most complete satisfaction, it is, by His Majesty’s command, ordered that this patriotic conduct of Count Zamoyski be made known and commended by a printed circular.”

In particular the owners of far-extended lordships, as well as the usufructuary holders of starosty and ecclesiastical estates, such e.g. as the Szoldrski’s, Opalinski’s, Potulicki’s, Kozminski’s etc., willingly received German colonists, and made over to them their immeasurable forests for clearing, for hewing out. Thus arose the so-called Hauländer on the estates around Kurnik, Grätz. The first settlements of this kind took place more than two centuries ago. The greatest influx was under the rule of the Saxon royal house, of baleful memory, and these colonizations were continued far into the second half of the last century.

These Hauländer were, from the similarity of the sound of the name, erroneously also called Holländer. But they were neither Hollanders, nor did they found Holländereien in the proper sense. Even later, Frederick the Great’s fancy of this kind could not be fulfilled — to supply Berlin and Warsaw with butter from the so-called Holländereien here [5]. On the cleared forest soil they founded chiefly arable farms. Their condition belonged among the better of the rural inhabitants. They had small farmsteads, mostly in considerable numbers side by side; buildings and stock were their own, in part also the ground and soil; in part they sat on lease and belonged to the category of the emphyteutic tenants. Their husbandry, however, was not always the most exemplary; in particular the devastation of the forests by fire, and the so-called girdling of the trees, is laid to their charge — a devastation against which all the travellers and writers of that day unanimously declared themselves [6]

— 7 —

It is, however, erroneous and spiteful to compare the German colonists with the Negroes, who preserve their black skin even in the tenth generation. On the contrary, the skin of the Germans is politically and nationally more elastic, and almost always and everywhere readily takes on any colour. Most of the colonists of this period too had therefore become true Poles, though Poles of German origin. The immigrant Germans Morsztyn, Bonar, Kromer, Hosius, Plater, Unrug (Unruh), Kalkstein, Biberstein, Wolszlegier, Götzendorf, (Grabowski), Waldorf (Wolicki), Pac, Szauman, Szuman, Wierusz, Szulz and very many others stand on equal footing beside those of the Polish autochthons, with memories of all patriotic virtues and national-Polish popular traditions.

How thoroughly the Germans Polonized themselves, and how actively they also took part in the insurrectionary war of 1792, is proved, among many other things, by the fact that a German magnate, at his own cost, voluntarily fitted out 12 cannon for the insurrectionary army. This was the German magnate — v. Manteuffel.[7]

— 8 —

Among the insurgents executed in Warsaw in the year 1831, the majority were such Poles of German descent.

All the German colonists who thus came to Poland down to 1772 — whether they came as fugitives or were called into the land — came at a time when the land still stood under a Polish government, in order to live under a Polish government, among Poles. That German ordinances, German law, were also guaranteed them by the Poles, whether as an express condition or of the Poles’ own accord, testifies only to the spirit of Polish humanity and loyalty.

If, therefore, a German and otherwise recognized historian[8] reports, in the Frankfurt debate on the Polish question in the year 1848:

“Whether all these Germans have been settled here for centuries, or have established themselves more or fewer years ago, is essentially the same. They are no less Germans than others, and have come here in the confident assurance of living as Germans under a German government,”

then so brazen a falsification of manifest history, which asserts “a German government” in Poland even before 1772, can only serve as proof of the passions with which the Polish question was debated in Frankfurt by a certain party, and of what was to be expected from such political tricksters, such learned escamoteurs of historical facts and counterfeiters of truth.

Let us, however, consider more closely the conditions in

— 9 —

which the German immigrants have hitherto lived among the Poles, under Polish government.

The Germans had left their fatherland out of need, in the hope of preparing for themselves a better lot amid bloody persecution, and had voluntarily made themselves Polish subjects, in like manner as the Dutch and French colonists under the Great Elector and King Frederick II, as the Zillerthalers under Frederick William III, had made themselves Prussian subjects. The Germans voluntarily and irrevocably bound their destiny to that of the Poles when they sought and accepted protection and shelter among them. They became Poles of German descent, as those colonists have become Prussians of Dutch, French, Austrian descent.

But it had not occurred to the Poles to restrict the German inhabitants in their nationality, language, religion. The Poles, rather, in full recognition of their national qualities, their skill and their industry in agriculture and the trades, granted the Germans privileges and prerogatives. The preservation of the Low German tongue in many districts proves that the Poles held it a disgrace to take from German subjects their German language, to compel them to learn Polish, to Polonize them. German schools, German churches, German divine service were not merely tolerated, but were furthered by special privileges besides. The building site for the German Protestant Church of the Cross in Posen was presented to the German congregation by the Polish state. German law prevailed in many Polish towns.

In the town of Posen, burgomasters of German descent are mentioned in the year 1284. In Rawicz a Saxon

— 10 —

and a Magdeburg law-code were procured, so that the various inhabitants might have the laws of their origin. In Barczyn the council consisted half of Poles, half of Germans. In the town archive at Posen there are still criminal records from the 16th century which were kept in the German language.

If more be needed to characterize the spirit of tolerance and humanity with which the Poles received foreign immigrants into their land, let one remember the Jews. — In view of the role which the Posen Jews played, and still play, as German brothers-in-league with the German officials in the Grand Duchy of Posen, a retrospect of the earlier condition of the Jews in Germany, and a comparison with that of those who found an asylum in Poland, is here in its fitting place.

The history of the Jews in Germany is, like that in Spain, France, England, full of lamentable pages. The pen grows weary and the heart overflows with painful emotion at the remembrance of the countless atrocities that have been perpetrated upon thousands of innocents in all places, at all times, under every possible pretext. To speak here of Germany only: how over-abundant are the examples here, where greed, or some whim of the first bully at hand, or of the local authorities, already sufficed to set on foot the most appalling bloodbaths among them. Germans it was who in the year of grace 1096 murdered 14000 innocent Jews at Mainz; — Germans it was who in the year 1285 burned 180 Jews at the stake in the pious city of Munich — Germans it was who in the year 1331 martyred to death, in the most agonizing manner, the whole Jewish population of Ueberlingen, — Germans it was who in 1340 in Frankfurt tortured to death 1156 Jewish families, — Germans, who in 1349 burned 2000 Jews in Strassburg.

To whom, knowing even in some measure the history of the sufferings

— 11 —

of the Jews, could the horrors have remained unknown that were repeatedly perpetrated upon them in Prague! When Peter of Amiens, Walter the Penniless, and later the holy Bernard were seized by the fanatical notion of exterminating the enemies of Christ first of all at home, was it not all Germany, Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Saxony, Bohemia, Austria, that in pious bestiality flooded the lands from the Rhine to the Oder with a sea of blood of slain Jews? — Where more than in Germany did allegedly desecrated Hosts, child-stealing, epidemics give pretext for the cruellest persecutions of the Jews? Where more than in Germany were there those rotten Jews’ lanes? — And not content with oppressing the living, men oppressed the corpses of the Jews as well. If a Jew’s corpse in the Mark Brandenburg passed a toll-station on its way to the grave, toll had to be paid upon it, and “the toll on a Jew’s corpse was high.”[9] — Germany it was where, still within our own years, the “Hep! Hep!” cry was the blood-watchword against the Jews. Nay, in one German territory, in the county of Wittgenstein, in the Prussian government district of Arnsberg, the Jews were, down to the memorable March days of the year 1848, still by law — — outlaws! —[10]

Such was the position of the Jews in Germany. Otherwise in Poland.[11] While in Germany no complaint of a Jew was accepted if it did not concern him

— 12 —

personally, in Poland, on the contrary, a Jew could not be brought before a court otherwise than upon the express demand of a plaintiff. And only the King or the voivode could pronounce judgment over him; no other judge needed he to acknowledge, whereas in Germany he was brought before the town judge. In Poland he could clear himself of an accusation raised against him by an oath; in Germany the Christian indeed could do this, but not the Jew. The murder of a Jew was judged in Poland by the King alone; in Germany the bailiff judged it. If a Jew was accused of a crime, it had to be proved by the testimony of three Christians and three Jews; in Germany the Christian needed for this only one Christian and one Jew. The toll-collectors were not permitted to search a Jew travelling across the frontier if he carried with him the corpse of a deceased fellow-believer in order to bury it; in Germany the corpses had to pay duty. The desecration of a Jewish churchyard or of a synagogue was punished as church-robbery. — The law forbade slandering the Jews, or spreading the suspicion that they use Christian blood for superstitious ceremonies. In Germany the Jews had much to suffer precisely on account of this delusion, and it does honour to the Polish princes that on this point they saw much more clearly than the German.[12]

— 13 —

Thus did the Poles, even in the darkest times of brute force, in the most ill-famed years of the Republic, think and act toward the strangers whom they had received, although they would have had the right to demand that these conform themselves to the customs and laws, to the language of the land. The Germans were equal before the law among the Poles, had unrestricted right of possession, free use of their language in school and church, and protection of their nationality. The right of the conqueror they neither had nor wanted; least of all had they, or wanted they, the right to displace the natives. So much the less, therefore, may their descendants in the third, fourth, and still later generations claim such a right for themselves, without displaying the most ungrateful, most groundless presumption, without relying upon the brute force of bayonets, upon the compliant assistance of an officialdom

— 14 —

which, guided by national partisanship, looks only to its very own party interest. The Germans whose fathers came to Poland before 1772 are Poles of German descent.

What should we say if the French colony in Berlin, to whose fathers Frederick granted an asylum, were today to demand to be received into the French Republic? — what, if the Zillerthalers today wished to belong to Austria? And the Zillerthalers at least dwell unmixed side by side, in one village, while the Germans in the Grand Duchy of Posen dwell scattered among the Poles.

Concerning the numerical proportion of the Germans who immigrated into Poland before 1772, nothing definite can be stated. No particular data on this are to be found, and this may serve as proof that in Poland at that time there was no occasion whatever to sort the inhabitants of the land according to their Polish or German nationality.

Quite different, however, in number and in legal claim, becomes the position of those Germans in the formerly Polish territories who came here since 1772. With the first partition of Poland begins the more recent period of the German colonizations — that of Germanization.

Let it be permitted, however, to adduce already here, from this later, more recent period, some data on the statistics of the nationalities, because precisely at this place they seem best suited to prompt the reader to sterner reflection.

In Leonhardi’s “Erdbeschreibung der preussischen Monarchie,” pt. 1, Halle 1791, one finds here and there the number of the population in individual towns stated according to nationality. We here bring together in one view the most important of the scattered statements. There were

— 15 —

The columns “Germans” and “Jews” stand under the common heading “of which”.

In the total population Germans Jews
Barczyn 397 S. 136 S. 71 S.
Bromberg (in 1772) 2562 S. 2 Fam. [13] 27 S.
Budzyn 766 S. 158 S.  
Chodziesen 1816 S. 651 - 365 S.
Exin 703 S. 31 S. 174 S.
Flatow 1597 S. 600 S. 714 S.
Gembic 315 S. a few Fam. 57 S.
Gollancz 639 S. 124 S. 153 S.
Jastrow 2009 S. 99 S. 169 S.
Inowraclaw 1700 S. [14]   543 S.
Kamin (Polish Crown) 521 S. 44 S. 60 S.
Koronowo 756 S. 8 Fam.  
Krojanke 848 S. 400 S. 205 S.
Labiszyn 712 S.   211 S.
Meseritz 2502 S. 1177 S. 700 S.
Miasteczko 327 S. 199 S.  
Mroczyn 526 S. 160 S. 45 S.
Nakel 683 S. 236 S. 149 S.
Schneidemühl 1509 S. 510 S. 241 S.
Schönlanke 2016 S. 1362 S. 289 S.
Szubin 1170 S. 154 S. 8 S.
Strzelno 735 S. 30 Fam.  
Uscz 580 S. 65 S. 19 S.
Wirsitz 207 S. 96 S. 58 S.
Wissek 266 S. 87 S.  
Zamoczyn 652 S. 433 S. 18 S.
Zempelburg 1628 S. 651 S. 581 S.

— 16 —

Events down to the First Partition of Poland 1772.

Frederick as Protector of Republican Liberty and of the Liberum Veto.

Poland was just about to enter upon the path by which the neglected general development was to be made good, and the mischief of the elective kingdom transformed into the order of a hereditary monarchy. But such a rising out of impotence seemed to the Muscovite Catherine and to the King of Prussia contrary to law and right; to the Empress, because here, with a true instinct for her rapacity, she saw the richest satisfaction, — to the King, because he recognized the necessity of possessing the lower Vistula region as the connecting link of his provinces.

Hence the alliance concluded between Frederick and Catherine immediately after the end of the Seven Years’ War, of 11 April / 31 March 1764, already contained the secret articles:[15]

“In consideration that it is in the common interest of Their Majesties the King of Prussia and the Autocrat of All the Russias that the election to the Polish crown remain free, and that no family possess itself of the hereditary throne of this country, the said Majesties mutually bind themselves, in the most solemn manner, by this secret article, never to permit that the Republic be robbed of its free right of election. They likewise bind themselves to combat, by all the means at their command, the design of establishing a hereditary throne in this country, to repel by force every undertaking of this kind, and to act in concert in order to preserve the constitution and the fundamental laws of the Polish Republic.”

— 17 —

In this sense Frederick also informed his envoy at a foreign court on 22 November 1766:[16]

“As concerns Polish affairs, I must hereby make known to you, for your information and direction, that the present Diet at Warsaw is drawing to its close, and that little has as yet been accomplished at it; but that it has therein come to light that the Polish court had the design of profiting by the opportunity of this Confederation Diet — at which kind the resolutions are framed according to the majority of votes — and would surprise the Republic, in order wholly to abolish the so-called Liberum veto at the Diets, and to introduce, in place of the unanimity of the votes, the plurality of them, and thus to alter the hitherto existing form of government of the Republic, and to change that which at all times has constituted the foundation of Polish liberty. Both the Russian Empress and I have therefore, by virtue of the guarantee of the Polish constitution incumbent upon us, had to see to it that so injurious a design be interrupted; wherefore we have caused the requisite declarations to be made through our ministers at Warsaw to the assembled Diet

— 18 —

solemnly, to the end that the Republic must be left in possession of its constitutions and the Liberum veto. But in order to give such declarations the greater emphasis, Her Majesty the Russian Empress has found it good and needful to let some of her troops (30,000 men) march yet into Poland, solely with the intent thereby to keep in order those Poles who are ill-disposed toward the liberty of the Republic, but if need be to second the well-intentioned, and not to let them be oppressed.” etc. etc.

The So-called Lynar Project for the Partition of Poland.

Meanwhile Catherine’s influence in Turkey and Poland had set the scales of the European balance swaying alarmingly, and Frederick now remembered the words which his envoy, v. Solms, had heard from Panin in Petersburg in a conversation on 29 December 1763.

“He added further, reported Solms at the time, that Your Majesty would have no cause to regret having entered into engagements with his court, because, if against all expectation things should come to a great extremity, he vouched to me that Y. M. would have Your pains repaid as well as Russia, and that one would not have laboured for nothing. It is an affair, said he, which I have arranged in advance, but

— 19 —

which I cannot explain until things are further advanced.” [17]

These ideas Frederick had at that time rejected with all emphasis. Now, however, at the beginning of the year 1769, circumstances had arisen which made the matter appear otherwise. An extension of Prussia’s territory eastward now appeared not merely desirable, but even necessary. Only on this condition did he believe he could look on calmly at the threatening territorial expansion of Russia.

To this was added what five years before had not been taken into consideration. — For it was beyond doubt that an increase of Prussia’s power, as well as an enlargement of Russia’s territory, would rouse all the jealousy of the court of Vienna; the King had even learned with certainty that Austria intended to send a strong army corps to the Dniester, in order jointly with the Turks to oppose the advance of Russia. A means therefore had to be found to keep Austria far from any hostility against Prussia or Russia. But this could be attained only by opening to the cabinet of Vienna likewise the prospect of the possession of a part of Poland; and, gathering these various points of view together, the King on 2 February 1769 addressed the following letter to von Solms, his envoy in Petersburg:

“Count Lynar has come to Berlin to marry his daughter to the son of Count Kameke. He is the same who concluded the peace of Kloster-Zeven. He is a great politician and still governs Europe from the depths of the village to which he has retired. Count Lynar has had a rather singular idea

— 20 —

for uniting all the interests of the princes in favour of Russia, and for giving at one stroke a different face to the affairs of Europe. He would have Russia offer to the court of Vienna, for its assistance against the Turks, the city of Léopold and its environs; that she give us Polish Prussia with Warmia and the right of protection over Danzig; and that Russia, to indemnify herself for the costs of the war, should hook to herself whatever part of Poland might suit her; and that then, there being no jealousy between Austria and Prussia, they would succour Russia, vying with one another, against the Turks. This plan has a certain brilliance; it appears seductive. I have thought it my duty to communicate it to you. You, who know Count Panin’s way of thinking, will either suppress all this, or make of it such use as you judge fitting, though it seems to me that there is in it more of the brilliant than of the solid.”

When the King, at the opening of this letter, represents the whole plan as a work of Count Lynar’s, that is only a pretext of which he availed himself in order not to stand before the Russian cabinet as himself the author of a project which might possibly be rejected in Petersburg. In his memoirs of this period Frederick is more candid: there he calls the project outright “the so-called memoir of Count Lynar” and intimates at the same time that he had merely put the latter’s name forward.

The societas leonina (“a lion’s partnership”) seemed concluded. But when Solms raised the question how Russia herself intended to hold herself harmless in this division of lands, Panin was naive enough to answer: “that Russia ought not to claim any share in the partition, seeing that she already possessed far more country than she was in a condition to govern; thus, excepting a few fortified places on the distant frontiers, she ought no longer to think of acquiring provinces.” [18]

— 21 —

With this answer nothing, or more than everything, was said. At a moment when almost all Poland was occupied by Russian troops, and when the Empress wished even to gain a firm footing on the Bosphorus, — at such a moment to disavow every policy of conquest means as much as to refuse to declare one’s intentions, because one will be able to attain one’s ends even without foreign counsel and assistance.

Prince Henry in Petersburg.

Frederick grew doubtful and reserved, Russia ever mightier and bolder, when, during the stay of Prince Henry at the Petersburg court (October 1770 — January 1771), the news arrived here that Austria had occupied the Zips starosties.

“But why should not everyone take too?” — “In Poland, it seems, one has only to stoop and take,” — were the well-known passing utterances of the Empress to the Prince, which the latter reported to the King with the remark: “Though this was but talk in jest, it is certain that it was not for nothing, and I do not doubt that it will be very possible for Y. M. to profit by this occasion.“[19]

— 22 —

Solms too rendered a detailed report, and in quick succession the King answered as early as January 1771: “What is shown us in prospect, the Ermland, is not worth the pains of spending ten sous to acquire it.” — Further: As to the article of the taking possession of the duchy of Warmia, I have abstained from it, because the game is not worth the candle. This portion is so slender that it would not repay the clamours it would excite; but Polish Prussia would be worth the pains, even if Danzig were not included in it, for we should have the Vistula and free communication with the kingdom, which would make an important article. If it were a question of spending money, it would be worth the pains, and even of giving it largely. But when one seizes trifles with eagerness, that gives a character of greed and of insatiability which I should not wish to have attributed to me more than is already done in Europe.”

— 23 —

It belongs therefore assuredly among the patriotic, agreed-upon fables (fables convenues), which Raumer[20] too has repeated, “that Frederick was greatly startled when his brother Henry first brought him that thought of a partition of Poland, for he rightly felt how much of law, faith, and honour was at stake,” — among the same fables which also put touchingly sentimental utterances into the mouth of Maria Theresa when the proposal for the partition of Poland was made to her.

That Frederick thought of a partition of Poland very early and very much in earnest emerges still more clearly from what follows.

Frederick’s Secret Preparations for Taking Possession of West Prussia and the Netze District.

Cabinet order to the well-versed Chamber President v. Domhardt[21], dated Potsdam, 22 October 1769.[22]

“Especially trusty and well-beloved. I have received the intelligence on the Bishopric of Ermland and the Marienburg territory that you sent Me with your report of the 16th of this month, and although I can make no use of it at present

— 24 —

I nonetheless wished hereby to thank you for the attention you have thereby shown Me.” etc. etc.

Potsdam, 19 February 1771.[23]

“Especially trusty and well-beloved. Under the strictest injunction of secrecy I have wished hereby to inquire of you how high the entire revenue of Ermland may amount to. Although you will, as I well realize, not be in a position to tell Me this with full certainty, this Ermland will nonetheless be sufficiently known to you to enable you to give Me an approximate account of it. I remind you, moreover, that you are answerable to Me, on your duty and honour, for the secrecy of this account, and remain” etc. etc.

After the revenue and population of the Marienburg and Culm territories, of Pomerelia, and of Danzig had likewise been ascertained, the King issued to the Chamber President v. Domhardt on 6 October 1771 the following, written in his own hand:

“Principles according to which the new arrangement in the Kingdom of Prussia shall be made.[24]

The noble estates will be put on the same footing as the contribution in the part I presently possess. Likewise, as regards the starosties and the bishopric, I shall take the estates and shall lease them on the footing of domains, and one must then agree upon a certain sum to be paid to the bishop and the canons monthly or quarterly

— 25 —

thereon. As regards the starosties, it shall be so managed that one comes to an agreement with the starostas on a certain sum, which is given to them until they receive other starosties; they must, however, consume it within the country, on pain of forfeiture. As to the main arrangements, Ermland must be joined to the Königsberg Chamber, and there a couple of War Councillors must be added; then a deputation must be established in Marienwerder or Dirschau or Culm, consisting of a director and several councillors, to oversee the new territory; but all these chambers must be combined with the Königsberg one. Landrats must nevertheless be appointed. As for justice, a judicial college must be established in Marienwerder or in Marienburg. As for the towns, the excise must be introduced, but with all caution so as not to hinder commerce, yet with all care to promote the sale of manufactures.

As for the military, large cantons must be divided for the 4 infantry regiments, each of 24,000 cantonists; for besides the 4 regiments there come another 4 garrison battalion recruits, which makes, in rank and file, 4 infantry regiments of 3200 men and 4 garrison battalions of 1500 men as thus enrolled. Beyond this, a further canton for artillery must be established at 30000 cantonists, of which 1000 men are enrolled, and in wartime it must furnish 6000 artillery men. Moreover, the cantons of Pomeiske and Apenburg must be so reinforced from the acquired provinces that they can furnish yet another hussar regiment.

Thus in all there would be raised from the province:

4 infantry regiments 3200 men
4 garrison battalions 1600 men
hussar regiment 800 men
for the artillery 1000 men
= 6600 men |

— 26 —

and when there is war, 6000 artillery men. Now I reckon the piece of Prussia, with Danzig, at 500,000; there should thus be 250,000 able-bodied men. This makes what becomes soldiers 3 per cent in peacetime, which is not too much.

Domhardt will gather from these, My general ideas, and it will then be a matter of drawing up valuations for the domain offices and leasing them promptly, with advance payment.

The costs of the regiments will amount to

4 infantry regiments 304000 Thlr.
4 garrison battalions 92000 Thlr.
4 hussar regiments, pro rata 100000 Thlr.
the artillery 84000 Thlr.
= 580000 Thlr.

and when the country is well administered it must yield fully 1200000 reichsthalers.

This is to be concealed with all caution until we are in possession, which will happen soon; but then to work briskly, especially to appoint officials soon, for we must have money.

Frederick.”

The King, in his own hand, beneath a cabinet order of 7 October 1771.[25]

“if all this is worked out in advance, as well as one can, it will afterwards ease the execution in many respects, since one already has a scheme to go by.”

Potsdam, 3 February 1772.[26]

“Trusty and well-beloved. I can now tell you in confidence that the acquisition, already known to you, of what has hitherto been Polish Prussia (excluding the city of Danzig and its territory, and also Thorn) and of the tract on the Netze, has already reached such complete certainty that I can count on it with confidence. In order to be reasonably assured, upon taking possession, of the revenue and how high it may amount to, you are — however avoiding all éclat — to take the greatest pains to inform yourself as fully as possible, au fait, of the revenues of this acquisition, if it is administered on the footing customary in My provinces” etc. etc.

— 27 —

Potsdam, 20 February 1772.[27]

“Trusty and well-beloved. . . . . . . . . . whereby I can now tell you, for your guidance, with regard to the starosties and the considerable possessions of the clergy, that My intention is to treat them on the same footing as was done with the clergy in Russia[28]: to give the starostas and priests their modest livelihood in money, but to administer their possessions for the first year, in order to learn what they can really yield, and thereafter to have them leased on the Prussian footing, whereby they may be turned to far greater profit than is certainly now the case.” etc. etc.

— 28 —

Potsdam, 2 March 1772.[29]

. . . . . . I am having the ecclesiastical estates taken at once into administration, and the present holders paid in money, so that they need not meddle at all in worldly affairs.

All the starosties are being administered, in order to ascertain their actual revenue, and to have them properly leased out from Trinity 1773. The subjects are being declared free, and serfdom abolished.[30]

— 29 —

Potsdam, 19 April 1772.[31]

……. “The whole revenue of the country, once the complete organization of this province on the Prussian footing has been accomplished, I reckon at 1,600,000 Thlr. at the least, and you will see that in the end I shall not have been mistaken.”

Meanwhile the diplomatic negotiations too had steadily progressed. As early as 20 February 1771 the King wrote to Solms:[32]

“I have thought it proper to communicate to you the particulars that have reached me concerning the taking of possession that the Austrians have carried out along the frontiers of Hungary, and which appear to me interesting enough to merit the attention of the neighbouring powers. I have indeed just learned that, besides the starosty of Zips, those of Novitak, of Szotin, and another no less considerable district have been enclosed within the Austrian cordon; that this territory thus occupied must have an extent of about twenty (German) miles in length, from the comitat of Sarosch in Hungary to the frontier of Austrian Silesia; that the whole together comprises several towns and as many as ninety-seven villages; that the Court of Vienna has already exercised several acts of sovereignty there; that upon the complaints which the Republic of Poland has had lodged concerning it, Prince Kaunitz is said to have replied in a vague manner, which nevertheless clearly indicates the design of asserting ancient rights, and that a deduction is already being drawn up at Vienna to justify and support these several possessions. I do not doubt that most of these circumstances are already known at St. Petersburg.

— 30 —

I even recall that the first news received of this taking of possession gave rise, in the minds of several persons at the Russian Court, to the idea of an equal aggrandizement for all the neighbours of Poland; and although I have seen from one of your reports that this idea has not generally taken hold, and although I am well aware of the reasons that may be alleged against it, I have nevertheless thought it my duty to write to you about it, since these reasons always presuppose that the Court of Vienna must desist from its undertaking, whereas it appears clearly from everything I have just related to you that it is firmly resolved to maintain it.

In thus stating the true state of the question, it is no longer a matter of preserving Poland whole, since the Austrians intend to dismember a part of it, but rather a matter of preventing this dismemberment from impairing that balance between the power of the House of Austria and my own, the maintenance of which is so important to me and of such interest to the Court of Russia itself.

I see no other means of assuring its preservation than to imitate the example the Court of Vienna sets me: to assert, as it does, ancient rights that my archives moreover furnish me, and to put myself in possession of some small province of Poland, in order to restore it, should the Austrians desist from their undertaking, or to keep it, should they persist in asserting the pretended titles they allege.”

Still more definitely, on 25 March: “I must tell you, for your particular information, that of all the acquisitions I might obtain, those bordering on my states of Prussia, of the Neumark, of Silesia, or of Pomerania would be the most suitable for me. They would contribute further to rounding out my states and would consequently be the most to my convenience.” At the same time he enclosed

— 31 —

a memorandum drawn up by Herzberg,[33] concerning his claims of right to Pomerelia, Ermland, to the part of Great Poland lying between the Vistula and the Netze, as well as to the palatinates of Culm and Marienburg, with the qualification:

“Supposing Russia were to find too many difficulties in cooperating in this, I would then content myself with the Palatinate of Culm, or, failing that, with that of Marienburg and the bishopric of Varmia.”

The demand, however, met with full approval; the first partition was accomplished, and in the summer of 1772 the taking of possession took place.

In the instruction to Lieutenant-General von Stutterheim and the Chamber President von Domhardt for the taking of possession of Polish Prussia, dated 6 June 1772 and signed Frederick, it says verbatim:[34]

“On the day of homage fixed in the aforesaid patent, on which the Estates are summoned to Marienburg for this purpose, Lieutenant-General v. Stutterheim shall have homage rendered to him in my name, and I shall

— 32 —

“at the same time direct the Minister of State v. Rhod to be present there, who will deliver the address customary to the Estates on such occasions.

“The Chamber President v. Domhardt shall beforehand have the voivodes and starostas talked into it (!), that they should, under the pretext that the Republic has not consented to the cession of the land, either absent themselves at once of their own accord, or else make difficulties about submitting and taking the oath of homage; whereupon their voivodeships and starosties shall be immediately seized and manned with administrators. In this Count von Keyserlingk[35] will be able to render the best service, if he is the first to refuse to submit and to take the oath of homage. I shall nonetheless come to an understanding with him, so that he shall lose nothing by it.”

Connected with this are the following cabinet orders, in a context that needs no further explanation.

Cabinet order, dated Potsdam, 7 October 1772:[36]

“The starosties are indisputably domain estates belonging to the Crown, in respect of which — quite apart from the fact that many starostas failed to present themselves for the homage and have thereby already of themselves forfeited their starosties — I am as little bound as I am inclined to confirm the present possessors.”

Cabinet order, dated Potsdam, 11 November 1772[37]

in a postscript in the King’s own most exalted hand:

“I hereby likewise inform you that you are to

— 33 —

“have paid out to Count von Keyserlingk, from the Marienwerder revenues, 500 Thlr. monthly, provisionally and until I can dispose otherwise in this matter.”

Cabinet order, dated Potsdam, 12 November 1772:[38]

“The monthly pension of 500 Thlr. provisionally assigned, by virtue of My order of yesterday, to Count v. Keyserlingk, shall commence from 1 November of this year.”

Frederick remembered the father’s “best services” toward the son as well. When in 1784 Frederick took the young Count v. Keyserling out of a cavalry regiment and appointed him chamberlain, he wrote to him:[39]

“Although in my states a Lieutenant is worth more than a Chamberlain, I wish to invest you with this title in order to open the way toward the position I intend for you, and to assign you a pension of 1200 écus until the time of your appointment.” —

To his thanks the King replied:

“You set too much store by the rank of Chamberlain. I believe you too wise to value a chimerical title. You must see in it nothing but a rung toward the position that My benevolence intends for you, belonging as you do to a family whose zeal is known to me.”

The Chamberlain later became Court Marshal and was also favoured with a gift of several estates in South Prussia. (See “the Black Register”.)

— 34 —

The Distribution of the Contribution.

As early as 11 May 1772 the King had Rode, President of the Minden Chamber, come to Sanssouci and secretly gave him the commission to organize the contribution in Polish Prussia and in certain tracts on the Netze, which he was shortly to take possession of, on the East Prussian footing, and to fix it by means of a classification.

“From all the Chambers I have had the most select and best War Councillors noted down; these I give you, along with a good number of engineers, who are to carry out the survey. 40 have already been noted; more are still to come. You must draw up an instruction for the Classification Commission and the engineers, which you may lay before Me for execution at Marienwerder, where you must arrive by 1 June.” The King next dictated to him the following points, to be likewise incorporated into the instruction:[40]

  1. A beginning shall be made with the Bishopric of Ermland, and it shall be taken in hand first; next the Marienburg and Culm territories; then the tracts on the Netze, and lastly Pomerelia.
  2. The Commission shall each time assemble in the middle of the province.
  3. As soon as a province is finished, the contribution shall at once be introduced there.
  4. The survey maps may be demanded from the nobles and, where necessary, corrected.
  5. The agricultural towns shall be drawn into the contribution together with the villages and shall pay no excise.
  6. The monasteries shall pay 50 p. C., as in Silesia.
  7. The craftsmen in the open country shall move into the towns.”

— 35 —

“Everything else there may be, he must add to the instruction. He is not to say in Berlin where he is going.”

The Commission completed the classification and the cadastre after 7 months, in April 1773. The possessors had to submit their original documents to the commissioner and leave certified copies with the files. Rode had, moreover, made known to all possessors by a printed notice that whatever they concealed would be confiscated, and this warning was repeated at the examination.

After the survey had taken place and the economic official had given his opinion on sowing and land yield, an economic valuation was laid before the commissioner, showing what the estate could yield. The charges resting upon it, such as rents, services, sword-money, etc., were deducted from the yield, and from the remaining amount the contribution was fixed at 33 1/3 p. C. for the peasants, 25 p. C. for the nobles, and 50 p. C. for the ecclesiastical estates.[41]

On this it should be noted that Rode himself says:

“His Royal Majesty remitted 5 p. C. of the contribution to the Protestant nobles, so that they are assessed at only 20 p. C.”

Preuss, who cites this passage in the 4th part of the life history, pp. 68 and 421, adds to it in the note on p. 68, evidently with the intention of an excuse:

“on the other hand, the cabinet order of 7 June 1772 commanded the Chamber at Marienwerder to treat the common man, whether of the Catholic or Protestant faith, without distinction.”

— 36 —

In the resolution issued to v. Domhardt on 1 November 1772[42], the King did indeed declare that he wished the 50 p. C. contribution from the ecclesiastical possessions and landed estates to be understood in the sense that the manorial lordships should be paid 50 p. C. of the net yield, after deduction of all building, compensation, and other incidental costs. Against this, however, a “most exalted own-hand” postscript ordered:

“I have thought the matter over further. We will regulate the cadastre on the ecclesiastical estates according to the present yield, and whatever comes out more through the leasing shall flow into my coffers.”

Further, dated Potsdam, 2 November 1772, to the same:

“The postscript in my own hand, which I appended to an answer given to you yesterday, I wish to be understood as meaning that, in determining the 50 p. C. granted to the clergy from their possessions, the yield ascertained by the present Classification Commission shall always be taken as the basis; from this the building and other costs are first to be deducted, and the net surplus only then divided; the surplus arising from improvements made ex post, however, shall always accrue to My half. The clergy are to be given, as the reason for the taking away of their estates and landed properties, that this is done with the intention that they may not be distracted by managing them, and may thereby be the less hindered in their spiritual duties.”

— 37 —

From the Patent of Possession of 13 September 1772 to the Estates, Inhabitants, etc. etc. of the New Province.[43]

We Frederick, by the Grace of God King of Prussia, etc. etc. etc., hereby extend to all the Estates, Bishops, Abbots . . . . . . . . and all others, both ecclesiastical and secular residents and inhabitants of the lands of Prussia and Pomerania hitherto possessed by the Crown of Poland, as well as of the districts hitherto reckoned to Great Poland this side of the Netze, Our gracious will, Royal favour, and all good things, and hereby give them most graciously to understand the following. It is sufficiently known to every student of history, . . . . . . . [44]

We have therefore found it good to take into Our possession, and to have occupied by Our troops, both the districts of Great Poland this side of the Netze, and also the entire lands of Prussia and Pomerania on this and the other side of the Vistula, which the Crown of Poland has hitherto possessed under the name of Polish Prussia (excepting the cities of Thorn and Danzig). . . . . .

We have wished, by this open letter, to make known solemnly this Our firm and maturely formed resolve to all the aforesaid Estates and inhabitants of the lands hitherto possessed by the Crown of Poland, to require it of them, to exhort them, and to command them, as graciously as earnestly, that they shall not oppose this Our taking of possession, etc., but rather willingly submit to Our government, etc. etc.

“In return, We are also inclined and firmly resolved, and hereby likewise assure, that We will, as regards them (the Estates and inhabitants of the lands of Prussia and Pomerania hitherto possessed by the Crown of Poland, as well as of the districts reckoned to Great Poland this side of the Netze), one and all, in their possessions and rights, both ecclesiastical and secular, — especially those adhering to the Roman Catholic religion — in the free exercise of their religion leave, protect, and maintain, [45] and in general to govern the whole land in such wise that the reasonable and right-thinking inhabitants may be happy and content, and shall have no cause to regret the change.”

— 38 —

We hope that everyone will conduct himself obediently accordingly; but should any of the residents of the aforesaid lands, contrary to better expectation, fail to obey the contents of this Our open letter, refuse to render Us the oath of fidelity, or even refuse to submit to Our rule, or fail to acknowledge Us as their sovereign, or should venture to offer resistance to Our commanders and troops, or should render themselves guilty or suspected of any disloyalty or disobedience, that person or those persons must inevitably expect that We shall have proceeded against them, without respect of person, with the punishments customary in such cases[46] etc. etc. etc.

Berlin, 13 September 1772.

Frederick.

Finkenstein. C. F. von Herzberg.

— 39 —

From the Treaty of Warsaw of 18 September 1773 between the King of Prussia and the Republic of Poland.[47]

Art. 1.

Henceforth, and for all time, there shall reign an inviolable peace, a sincere alliance, and a perfect friendship between His Majesty the King of Prussia, his heirs, successors, and all his lands, on the one side, and His Majesty the King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his successors, as well as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on the other side; in such wise that in future the two High Contracting Parties shall neither directly nor indirectly undertake the least hostility, the one against the other, nor permit such to be committed by their subjects; that they shall likewise neither themselves take, nor allow to be taken, any steps that might be contrary to this agreement, but shall rather observe it most sacredly in every particular, maintain between themselves at all times a perfect good understanding, and endeavour to preserve their honour, their advantage, and their common security, as well as to avert all harm and prejudice that might accrue to the one or the other party.

Art. VI.

In return, His Majesty the King of Prussia likewise renounces, by this Treaty, both for himself and for his heirs and successors of both sexes, in the most binding and most formal manner, all claims, under whatever pretext they might be, that he has had or might still have to the

— 40 —

Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His Majesty also undertakes the assurance and guarantee of those provinces which remain to the Republic of Poland after the conclusion of this Treaty, and he will at all times avert everything possible in order to preserve them to it; excepting, however, the wars that may arise between the Republic of Poland and the Ottoman Porte.

Art. VIII.

The Roman Catholics shall, in the provinces ceded by this Treaty, as well as in the Kingdom of Prussia and the districts of Lauenburg, Bütow, and Draheim, retain and enjoy all their possessions and property, both in civil and religious matters; they shall be maintained wholly in statu quo, that is to say, in the same free exercise of their worship and their church usages, with all the church and ecclesiastical estates which they possessed at the time when, in the month of September 1772, they came under the supreme authority of His Royal Majesty of Prussia, and His Majesty and his successors shall not make use of their sovereign right to the prejudice of the status quo as regards the Catholic religion in the aforesaid lands.

Threefold Extension of the Borders.

[48]

In September 1772 the taking of possession of the Netze District took place through Brenkenhof. He was to bound the Netze, with both banks, as far as Rynarzewo, but went a further 2 (German) miles beyond, as far as Szulic, and also took the Luboczyn and Baroczyn estates of Countess Skórzewska, with almost

— 41 —

2000 families,[49] “and received the King’s approval.” —

The acquisition comprised 28 towns, 520 villages, with 89,105 souls. In bread- and poll-money there were levied, from October 1772 to Trinity 1773, 71,166 Thlr. 17 Grosch. 4 Pf. The domain and contribution dues, excluding the salt, customs, stamp, and forest revenues, 105,817 Thlr. 21 Grosch. 3 Pf.

“In February 1773 His Royal Majesty commanded Brenkenhof, in writing and by word of mouth, to have the borders extended somewhat further, quite imperceptibly, so that, should great disputes arise from it, no one could rightly be charged with the blame. — — And there were again enclosed 15 towns, 516 villages, with 46,812 souls. The revenues of this stretch of land amount annually, without the salt, customs, stamp, and forest dues, to 53,316 Thlr. 3 Gr. 7³/4 Pf.”

“In 1774 it was found that the Netze rises above Sompolno, and thereupon it was said that the border must likewise begin from the source of the Netze; and Brenkenhof received, for the third time, an order to extend the border according to this measure, whereby a further 13 towns, 350 villages, and 18,179 souls were enclosed, which yielded annually, exclusive of the aforementioned dues, 26,569 Thlr. Through this the Powicert Heath also came to Prussia, which, of all the newly acquired forests, is the most notable for its merchantable timber.”

Frederick himself declared that through these additions he merely wished to restore the equality in the relationship disturbed by Austria,[50] — and his envoy argued at Warsaw: the Netze belongs to the King, therefore also when it overflows, consequently also the land that had been

— 42 —

flooded by it, once it recedes again into its bed; wherein, to be sure, he assumed that the Netze, in flooding, could overflow at one point to a width of 12 (German) miles!

The patent of possession to the Estates in this part of the Netze District is dated Berlin, 22 April 1775[51], and promises, in the usual most gracious forms, “paternal grace, provision, and protection.” Brenkenhof received the homage at Inowraclaw on 22 May 1775.

— 43 —

Frederick the Great’s Paternal Sentiments toward the Poles.

A Royal Act of Grace at the Homage.

In the instruction for the homage of 6 June 1772, already cited above,[52] it says:

“Lieutenant-General von Stutterheim shall be sent a medal struck for this solemn act of homage, and a couple of thousand thalers in Prussian coin; the former he shall have distributed among the Estates who have taken the oath of homage, but the coins are to be thrown among the people.”

By contrast, the cabinet order to the Chamber President von Domhardt in Marienwerder, dated Potsdam, 14 September 1772[53], reads:

“Lt.-Gen. v. Stutterheim has been instructed, apart from the medal sent to him, to be distributed to the estates after the homage, to have a further 2000 thalers in various Prussian coin denominations thrown out among the people. You may accordingly only for so long advance these 2000 thalers out of My discretionary fund of the Kammer-Extraordinarium and have them paid out to the said Lt.-Gen. v. Stutterheim, until you shall be in a position to reimburse the same out of the revenues of the new province and to recover them again.” And yet hyperpatriotic historians[54] believe they may particularly extol this farce of princely grace.

— 44 —

Frederick as Solon and Lycurgus among the Polish Barbarians and Iroquois.

In a letter to D’Alembert of 19 June 1775 the King writes[55]:

…… “they (namely Messrs. Montmorency and Gallerande) have been with me in this country which I call our Canada, in Pomerelia. …… I am now establishing 180 schools, both Protestant and Catholic, and I regard myself as the Lycurgus or Solon of these barbarians. …… It will only be with a great deal of time and a better education of the youth that one will succeed in civilizing this Iroquois people.”

According to the above, then, 180 schools would already have been founded by June 1775 for the civilizing of these barbarians, Canadians, and Iroquois. Yet a cabinet order of as late as 20 January 1776[56] reads:

“His Royal Majesty of Prussia etc. hereby causes His West Prussian Chamber, upon their report of the 14th inst., to be informed that, since the 200,000 thalers appointed for the improvement of the school institutions, for the time being, and so that the matter may only make a beginning until a suitable opportunity is found for the purchase of estates,

— 45 —

are to be placed with the East Frisian Estates at 5 per cent interest, the Chamber must, regarding this matter and the remittance of the interest accruing from it, also apply to His Minister of State Baron von der Schulenburg and settle what is necessary. His Royal Majesty’s most gracious intention, however, is at the same time that for these 10,000 thalers of interest as many schoolmasters, both Evangelical and Catholic, as can be salaried from it — which will be about 170 — shall be appointed at once at the most necessary places. The Chamber is accordingly to prepare, and thereafter forward, a nominal list of these, naming the language and the religion of each. His Royal Majesty will then see to obtaining the Evangelical-German ones from the Berlin Realschule and other schools, but the Catholic-German ones from Silesia, concerning which the Chamber is shortly to correspond further with His Ministers of State Baron v. Zedlitz and von Hoym. — But as regards the Catholic-Polish schoolmasters, the Chamber must in that case apply to the Bishop of Ermland, who will know well how to procure such men, and may if need be seek and obtain them from among the Jesuits.”

The cabinet order of 24 January 1776[57]:

“His Royal Majesty of Prussia etc. hereby causes His West Prussian etc. Chamber to be informed that, as regards the interest-bearing placement with the East Frisian Estates of the capital of 200,000 thalers appointed for the salarying of the schoolmasters in that province, the necessary arrangements have now already been made in such a way that the interest, reckoned from 1 June of this year, will accrue thereon at 5 per cent. Whereupon the Chamber

— 46 —

is accordingly to govern itself, and, with regard to the schoolmasters to be appointed, to attend to everything necessary throughout, in accordance with the order of the 20th inst.”

The cabinet order of 7 February 1776[58] disposed of the distribution of these 170 schoolmasters for the national need; and from another passage in Preuss[59] it emerges that among them there were only 83 Catholic-Polish, but 104 Evangelical- and Catholic-German schoolmasters; — 60 Evangelical-German schoolmasters were procured by Professors Semler and Schultze in Halle, 43 Catholic-German ones by Minister Hoym from Silesia.

Later, on Brenkenhoff’s proposal, disabled soldiers and non-commissioned officers were also appointed as schoolmasters.

The preponderant number of German schoolteachers might well strike one as remarkable, especially as the King himself said[60]: “For the rest I believe that the inhabitants, particularly in Pomerelia, are for the most part of the Polish nation” — were it not that the King had already repeatedly expressed his intention regarding the Germanization of the country at an earlier date.

Thus in the cabinet order dated Potsdam, 1 April 1772[61]:

”. . . . The surest means of instilling better notions and manners into these little Slavic folk will always be to intermix them with Germans over time, even if this can only be done at first with 2 or 3 in each village.”

Further, in the instruction dated Marienwerder, 6 June 1772[62]:

— 47 —

”. . . . . Incidentally, I also charge the Chamber President v. Domhardt that . . . . he shall henceforth see to it and take care that, as was formerly done in the Cottbus district and in Upper Silesia, German schoolmasters be likewise appointed in the small towns and in the villages, and that the inhabitants be more and more intermixed with Germans.”

How little suited the soldiers and non-commissioned officers of that time were to be schoolmasters and teachers of the people in this new province may be gathered even from a passage in Preuss’s Life of Frederick the Great[63]. It reads:

“According to the spirit of the age at that time, military service was no matter of honour for the common man. Foreigners, the dregs of the native population, and the poorer classes especially were drawn into the profession of arms under the leadership of noble officers. The popular saying, characteristic of the moral esteem accorded to the soldier’s estate, ‘He who will not follow father and mother must follow the drum,’ had its good grounds. As early as 1693, when in Brandenburg the recruits needed by the regiments were apportioned among the provinces, and it was left to these to levy the men themselves, the authorities were permitted to assign ‘the useless rabble’[64] chiefly to the militia, and so it remained under Frederick and down to the last canton exemptions before 1806, by which the amber-turners’ guild was freed from military service, ‘with the exception of the dissolute of this trade,’ who were given up to complete the ranks of the defenders of the fatherland.”

— 48 —

In a cabinet order dated Breslau, 6 November 1778, to General v. Tauentzien, it states[65]:

“It is furthermore My idea that such prisoners as are held for having passed themselves off as executioner’s assistants and knackers, and have declared themselves infamous, may always be given over to the Free Battalion still to be established at Brieg.” etc. etc.

Nevertheless, the greatest effort was expended on the Germanization of the Poles, by whomsoever and however it might come about, even through such physically, intellectually, and morally disabled subjects. In the bonus schedule published by the Breslau War and Domains Chamber on 8 August 1795, it states[66]:

§. 21. “To that schoolmaster in Upper Silesia, in a wholly Polish locality, who can show 12 children yearly who can speak and read German fluently, the 1st year 10 Thlr. the 2nd year 20 Thlr. the 3rd year 30 Thlr.

Where all the children can speak German, the clergyman who insists upon this and brings it about shall receive 50 Thlr.,

and, given otherwise suitable ability, shall also be promoted to a better position.”

In the cabinet order of 8 June 1773 to President v. Domhardt[67]:

”. . . . Before 1774/75, however, you shall not fail to give advance consideration to the following points, namely that you: . . . . give thought to the establishment of village schools in both the Protestant and Catholic villages

— 49 —

and to their staffing with German schoolmasters, and shall report to Me what the appointment of such may be expected to cost.” ….

This is not the place to discuss in greater detail the use of the school fund — made exceedingly rich by old endowments and more recent confiscations — nor the school system of the Province of Posen in general, nor even merely its Germanizing tendencies. Yet it seems justified to communicate here at least a single fragment from the more recent pedagogical statistics of this province.

In the year 1832 there were still 278 schools in the Regierungsbezirk of Posen whose teaching posts had no more than 30 thalers in cash income. For the sake of the curiosity, a few salaries of elementary teachers from this year may be cited here. The teacher had

Place Thl. Sgr. Pf. bu. rye
in Uciechów, Kr. Adelnau, an annual income of 10 — — 19
„ Bukowce, Kr. Birnbaum 12 — — 10
„ Eichberg, Kr. Birnbaum 7 25 — 6
„ Raszkow, Stadt 12 — — —
„ Hammer, Kr. Meseritz 7 — — —
„ Goldgräberhauland, Kreis Obornik 4 15 — 4
„ Schwarzhauland, Kr. Obornik 3 15 — 3
„ Perkowo, Kr. Samter 5 — — —
„ Dąmbrowo, Kr. Szroda 4 20 — 2
„ Bunscherhauland, Kr. Samter 1 25 — 22
„ Neula, Kr. Szroda 4 — — 15 Mg.Ld.

Provinz.-Bl. f. d. Grossh. Posen 1846. Heft III. p. 140.

— 50 —

In the cabinet order dated Potsdam, 31 January 1773[68], it states:

“The propositions of Prince Jablonowsky meet with no approval of mine at all, least of all that touching the starosty of Schwetz, and you will do well, as I shall always be more inclined to keep such men at a distance than to draw them near, merely, to reject all such applications from Polish princes, voivodes, starostas, etc. flatly out of hand.”

In the instruction to the Director of the Bromberg Chamber, v. Domhardt, dated Berlin, 4 January 1782[69], it states:

“Next he must also keep an eye on the leaseholders of the noble estates, such owners as reside in Poland, so that they do not advance the revenues to the nobles, for these are accustomed to take their leases at once for several years in advance and to consume them in Poland, whereby the country grows ever poorer; this must accordingly on no account be permitted, wherefore the West Prussian Regierung already has orders to prevent it, and such noble leaseholders must pay the revenues in no other way than quarterly. This is one reason among others why His Royal Majesty would be glad to see good people of burgher standing sought out to buy these Polish nobles’ estates from them. For although it runs counter to the laws in other provinces for people of burgher standing to acquire noble estates, His Royal Majesty is nevertheless willing to grant this in West Prussia, merely in order to be rid of the Poles, since to him one good burgher there is dearer than the whole Polish people.”

— 51 —

In the same spirit reads also the cabinet order dated Potsdam, 16 June 1786, to Minister v. Gaudi[70]

…… with the express motive that the Polish nobles, “who have their residence in Poland, do not concern themselves with the improvement of their estates and readily drag out of the country revenues amounting in all to 80,000 thalers, which, especially for so ill-conditioned a province, has more injurious consequences than if 500,000 thalers went abroad annually out of a well-ordered country like Saxony.”

It should be noted here that, since the estates of the Polish nobles came, as a result of the Partition, into the territories of different rulers, arrangements of this kind by the territorial lords amounted to a kind of half-confiscation. By the later Convention of St Petersburg it was indeed established that no one should possess estates in the territories of more than one ruler, and that within 5 years he must declare in which of the Imperial-Roman, Russian-Imperial, or Royal Prussian states he wished to reside, and of which he wished to be a subject. These Sujets Mixtes were, on pain of confiscation, to divest themselves of their possessions within 5 years, to be exempt during this time from the emigration dues, but to leave behind — 10 per cent of their ready money and effects.[71]

It may further be asked what benefit the “so ill-conditioned province” derived from the fact that Prince Henry received 12,000 thalers in gold annually from its revenues? — and that solely because he recognized in the notorious

— 52 —

words of the Muscovite Catherine, In Poland, it seems, one has only to stoop and take, Frederick’s favourite wish for peace and for the rounding-off of Prussia.[72] — What benefit did the “so ill-conditioned province” derive from the fact that Brenkenhof at Driesen was allowed “to lay out the new market and to have a great number of houses built, for the most part out of the Netze Administration treasury”?[73] — — What benefit did the “so ill-conditioned province” derive from the fact that Count v. Keyserlingk drew from its revenues the wages of sin of 6000 thalers annually for mutinous and seductive services? —

In consequence of a duel that was to take place between Major-General von Lossow and Prince Sulkowski, Frederick wrote, dated Potsdam, 19 November 1773:[74]

“My generals would have far too much to do, if they wished to concern themselves with every such Polish fool and windbag, and go about shooting.”

Further, on 2 December 1773, to the same, in his own hand:

“It would grieve me, for the sake of such Polish rabble, to risk a gallant general.”

In the instruction to Director Domhardt, dated Berlin, 4 January 1782, it states:[75]

— 53 —

“So too he must pay the Poles no compliments, for by this they are only further spoiled; rather, he must keep a strict watch that they duly comply with the orders, render their praestanda correctly and promptly at the legally appointed time, and allow them not the slightest indulgence, for otherwise, if he is not immediately behind them with execution, nothing at all will help.”

Frederick in Letters to D’Alembert.

3 November 1771.[76]

“Scarcely was I rid of my great pains than I set about making fun of the Polish confederates. I sought to portray them from life, and I am sending you here a couple of cantos from this poem.”

26 January 1772.[77]

“I see from your reply that there are many things that gain by distance. Among them, I daresay, the Polish confederation may well belong. We, the neighbours of this uncouth nation, know the individuals and the heads of the party, and hold them at best worthy of ridicule. This confederation owes its origin to fanaticism. Of its leaders, each has his own designs and plans; reckless in action, cowardly in battle, they are capable only of common crimes.”

“I pity the philosophers who take an interest in this people contemptible in every respect. Poland

— 54 —

has no laws; it does not enjoy what is called liberty, but its government has degenerated into a kind of insolent anarchy. The nobility exercises the most frightful tyranny over its slaves; in short, of all the governments of Europe (the Turkish alone perhaps excepted), the Polish is the worst.” [78]

“I enclose with this letter two more cantos of the poem. They will not be altogether without merit, if they contribute something toward driving away the readers’ megrims.[79]

“The Poles, says King Frederick,[80] are vain, proud in fortune, cringing in misfortune, capable of anything for the sake of money, which they afterwards throw away, frivolous, without judgment, always ready to take up or abandon a party without reason, and to plunge themselves, through the inconsistency of their conduct, into the worst situations. The women conduct the intrigues and rule over everything, while the men drink themselves senseless.”

One of the volumes from which the foregoing documents are

— 55 —

taken bears on its title page the verses from Ramler’s famous ode:

“Hasten to raise Him in bronze for our grandchildren,
Hasten to dedicate a temple to Him!”

But in truth the entire German people, together with its princes, would have to bow down as a pedestal to the monument before Frederick’s princely greatness; one cannot hold it against the Poles if they do not hasten too eagerly to render this homage. A people to whom this is done remains deeply wounded, whether it avenges or endures the treatment.

— 56 —

Frederick William II’s Assurances of Peace and Friendship.[81]

From the Declaration of the Prussian Envoy Extraordinary v. Buchholz of 12 October 1788. [82]

“If the alliance projected between Russia and Poland is to have as its first object the preservation of the integrity of Poland, the King sees in it neither utility nor necessity, this integrity being already sufficiently guaranteed by the recent treaties.

One cannot suppose that Her Majesty the Empress of Russia, nor her Ally the Emperor of the Romans, would wish to infringe their own.

— 57 —

It would therefore be necessary to suppose in the King a similar design, and to direct this alliance against Him accordingly.

His Majesty is not unaware that for some time past it has been made a business to impress an opinion of His views with regard to the integrity of the states of the Republic, as little befitting His uprightness as the dignity of his policy.

The King may rather appeal to the testimony of the sound and enlightened part of the Polish nation, whether he has not taken every possible care, during the course of his reign, to maintain good friendship and the best neighbourly relations with it, and whether the slightest thing has occurred that could lead one to judge or suspect the contrary.

The King cannot therefore be indifferent to the project of so extraordinary an alliance, which would threaten not only the Republic of Poland but also His own States, likewise neighbouring on Poland, with the greatest danger, and would not fail to spread the fire of war and to cause a more general conflagration.

The King finds nothing to object to in the Republic of Poland’s increasing its army and putting its military forces into a more respectable state; but he submits for the consideration of the good citizens of Poland whether, under present circumstances, any increase whatsoever of the Polish army might not be abused, so as to draw the Republic, against its will, into a war entirely foreign to it, and consequently bring about unpleasant consequences.

The King flatters himself that His Majesty the King of Poland, and the Estates of the Most Serene Republic assembled in the present Diet, will be pleased to take into mature consideration all that His Majesty has just represented to them, with the views and upon the principles of the most sincere friendship, and for the true good and common interest of the two States

— 58 —

so closely bound together by the indissoluble ties of a permanent and eternal alliance.

His Majesty believes He can guarantee its integrity as well as any other Power, and He will do everything that lies within His power to preserve the Illustrious Polish Nation from all foreign oppression, and particularly from a hostile attack by the Ottoman Porte, if it will follow His counsel.

In this unhoped-for case, His Majesty invites the true Patriots and good citizens of Poland to join with Him in averting, by wise and joint measures, the great calamities with which their Fatherland is threatened.

They may firmly expect that His Majesty will grant them all necessary support and the most effective assistance, to maintain the independence, the liberty, and the security of Poland.

Done at Warsaw, 12 October 1788.

Signed, Louis de Buchholtz, Envoy Extraordinary of His Prussian Majesty.”

From the Note of v. Buchholtz, etc., of 19 November 1788.[83]

“The undersigned finds himself expressly charged to testify to the illustrious Estates of the Diet of Poland the lively satisfaction with which His Majesty was filled on learning, from the Reply (of the 20th of October, to the declaration of the 12th of this month), that they have done justice to His sentiments of friendship for the Republic, and that they have been pleased to assure that the project of alliance between Russia and Poland, which His Majesty the King of Poland and His Ministers proposed to the Court of Russia, does not, according to the assurance of that Court, form the object of the Act of Union of the present Diet, which was concerned only with the increase of the taxes and of the military forces of the Republic.

— 59 —

The King, finding in this Reply a proof as agreeable as it is convincing of the wisdom that guides the deliberations of the Estates of the present Diet, has learned with equal pleasure that the illustrious Estates, faithful to their just principles, have regulated, in the session of the third of November, by a public sanction clothed with all constitutional formalities, the command of their military forces in a manner which, while assuring the independence of the Republic, removes the possibility of despotic abuses and foreign influence, to which any other arrangement would have been liable.

His Majesty believes He may expect from the prudence and the tried firmness of the Estates of the Diet that they will not allow themselves to be turned aside from an arrangement that does such honour to their wise foresight, by the allegation or representation of some particular guarantee of the earlier constitutions, which cannot prevent the Republic from ever again improving the form of its Government, especially after the abuses so recently experienced, and which is not even in conformity with the original stipulations of the Treaties of 1773 on which the guarantees are founded, these having been signed in the Diet of 1775 only by the single Power that now claims it.

The King is nonetheless ready and disposed to fulfil toward the Most Serene Republic His engagements of alliance and general guarantee, above all to assure it its independence, without otherwise wishing to interfere in its internal affairs, nor to hamper the freedom of its deliberations

— 60 —

and of its resolutions, which He will rather guarantee to the best of His ability.

His Majesty flatters himself that the illustrious Estates of the present Diet will remain firmly persuaded of the sincerity and purity of His assurances and of His friendly intentions for the Republic, without allowing themselves to be prejudiced by sinister insinuations dictated by a spirit of partiality, though cloaked under the veil of patriotism, nor by the odious declamations of certain individuals who respect neither the truth nor the regard due to the dead and the living, and whose sole aim is to detach the Republic from the Court of Prussia, its oldest ally, which has sometimes been useful to it, and which is at least no burden to it.”[84].

From the Reply of Minister v. Herzberg to a Note Presented by Prince Czartoryski on 28 February 1789.[85]

“His Majesty has charged us to make known to Monsieur the Envoy Extraordinary, in reply to his aforesaid Memorandum,

— 61 —

that He is as much touched as flattered by the sentiments of gratitude which the Most Serene Republic has been pleased to express to Him. The King, setting the highest value on the friendship of the illustrious Polish nation, and knowing the full importance of the ties that have subsisted for several centuries between His predecessors and the Most Serene Republic of Poland, will always make it one of the foremost cares of his reign to perpetuate and increasingly to strengthen ties as useful as they are mutually necessary to the two States, and founded on the most essential common interests. In this disposition, and from this point of view, His Majesty will take the most eager pleasure in renewing with the Most Serene Republic of Poland the treaties of alliance and guarantee that already subsist between the two States, as soon as circumstances and occasions render such a renewal convenient; and He will also willingly employ Himself to engage His co-allies to accede to the aforesaid guarantees. As the treaties already subsisting between the two Powers oblige them to assist one another mutually against every hostile and unjust attack, His Majesty will not fail, for His part, on occasion, to do also what shall be in His power, so that the Most Serene Republic of Poland may be able to send to the future congress of peace, should one take place, its representative, and there have its independence recognized and established.”

From the Treaty of Alliance of 29 March 1790.[86]

Article I.

“There shall be a sincere and constant friendship and union between His Majesty the King of Prussia, his Heirs and Successors, and His Majesty the King of Poland and his Successors, as well as the Most Serene Republic of Poland, such that the High Contracting Parties shall pay the greatest attention to maintaining between Themselves and Their States and subjects the most perfect friendship and mutual correspondence, and engage to contribute, as far as shall be in their power, to defend and mutually preserve one another in peace and tranquility.

— 62 —

Article II.

In consequence of the engagement contracted by the preceding article, the two High Contracting Parties shall do everything in their power to guarantee and mutually preserve to one another the peaceful possession of the States, Provinces, and Towns, and of all the territory that They possess at the time of the conclusion of the present Treaty of alliance. This guarantee of present possessions shall not, however, prevent the amicable settlement of certain controversies which existed before the conclusion of this treaty, relating to particular boundaries, and which have not yet been smoothed over.

Article III.

Should the case arise that one of the High Contracting Parties be threatened with a hostile attack by whomsoever it may be, the other shall employ without delay its most effective good offices to prevent hostilities, to procure satisfaction for the injured party, and to bring matters back onto the path of conciliation; but if these good offices should not have the desired effect within the space of two months, and one of the two High Contracting Parties should meanwhile be hostilely attacked, molested, or disturbed in any of its States, rights, possessions, or interests, or in any manner whatsoever, the other Contracting Party engages to succour its Ally without delay, in order mutually to maintain possession of all the States,

— 63 —

Territories, Towns and Places, which belonged to them before the commencement of such hostilities; to which effect, should the Kingdom of Poland come to be attacked, His Majesty the King of Prussia shall furnish to His Majesty the King and the Most Serene Republic of Poland a relief force of Fourteen Thousand men of Infantry and Four Thousand men of Cavalry, accompanied by a train of Artillery proportioned to the number of Troops, and should His Prussian Majesty come to be attacked, His Majesty the King and the Republic of Poland shall furnish him a relief force of Eight Thousand men of Cavalry and Four Thousand men of Infantry, accompanied by a train of Artillery proportioned to the number of Troops, which respective relief shall be furnished within the space of two months, reckoned from the day on which the requisition shall be delivered on the part of the requesting party, and shall remain at its disposal for the entire duration of the war in which it shall find itself engaged. &c. &c.

Article IV.

In the case where this stipulated relief should not be sufficient for the defence of the requesting Power, the requested Power shall increase it according to the necessity of the case. &c. &c.

Article VI.

Should any foreign Power whatsoever wish, by virtue of any previous Acts and stipulations whatsoever, or of their interpretation, to arrogate to itself the right to meddle in the internal affairs of the Republic of Poland or of its dependencies, at any time or in any manner whatsoever, His Majesty the King of Prussia shall first employ his most effective good offices to prevent hostilities arising from such a pretension. But if these good offices should not have their effect, and hostilities should result on this occasion against Poland, His Majesty the King of Prussia, recognizing this case as one of alliance, shall then assist the Republic according to the tenor of Article IV of the present Treaty.

— 64 —

From the Letter of the King to the Deputy Envoy Count von der Goltz, of 23 March 1791.[87]

“I cannot sufficiently express to you my astonishment that such a rumor could have found its way to Poland, and still more, that it could have found even the slightest credence there, since it ascribes to me intentions of that kind. My will is that you vouch without delay, in my name, for the falsity and deceitfulness of these reports, and declare everywhere, and at every fitting opportunity, in the most solemn and emphatic manner, that this rumor was maliciously invented in order to set me at odds with the Diet and to arouse the nation’s distrust of me. I boldly maintain that no one will be able to produce even the slightest proof that anything has passed between me and the Vienna court that could justify such a suspicion, etc. . . . . . . . . His Majesty the King of Poland and the Republic may rest assured, and my conduct must convince them, that it was never my intention to demand of them the slightest sacrifice. I hope this declaration will calm minds and suppress the rumor, which injures my personal character and runs counter equally to my principles and to my affection for the Polish nation.”

— 65 —

From the Letter of Frederick William II to the King of Poland, of 11 April 1790.[88]

I am flattered by the confidence with which Your Majesty honors me, and I shall assuredly omit nothing on my part to justify it . . . . . . . I have ordered my Minister the Marquis de Lucchesini to refrain from that matter and to confine himself to the conclusion of a simple treaty of alliance. I am indebted to Your Majesty for having recommended to Your Nation the conclusion of this alliance. I set very great store by it, and I hold it an honor to be the principal ally of a Nation as noble and as brave. I have no doubt that it will likewise know how to appreciate my alliance, and that it will recognize what I have done and what I shall yet do to render it useful and fitting to both parties.

Frederick William Congratulates on the Constitution of 3 May 1791.[89]

On 16 May 1791, v. d. Goltz, the acting representative of the Prussian envoy in Warsaw, declared to the Deputation for Foreign Affairs:

— 66 —

that he had received from His Majesty the King of Prussia the order to assure the Deputation that His Majesty had learned with the greatest satisfaction the news of the fortunate change which had at last given Poland a wise and orderly Constitution, and he read out the following

Dispatch of Frederick William:

“I have received your dispatch of 3 May, together with its enclosure, from which I learn the important news that the Polish Diet has elected and declared the Elector of Saxony to be the eventual successor to the Polish throne, and secures this succession likewise to his male descendants, and, failing these, to his daughter the Princess and to her future consort, to be chosen jointly by the Estates together with the Elector of Saxony.”

“In accordance with the heartfelt affection with which I have ever been devoted to the welfare of the Republic and to the founding of its new Constitution — the affection, I say, of which I have never failed to give proof on every occasion that depended on me alone — I approve and commend the momentous step which the nation has resolved to take, and which I regard as essential to the founding of its happiness. The news thus conveyed to me could only be the more welcome to me, since I am bound by ties of friendship to the virtuous Prince now chosen to bring happiness to Poland, and since between his House and mine there subsist bonds of neighborly relation and the happiest concord. I am therefore convinced that the choice made by the Republic will establish harmony and the closest understanding between it and myself.”

— 67 —

“I now charge you to convey to the King, to the Marshals of the Diet, and to all who have taken part in this so great a work, my most sincere congratulations in the most emphatic manner.”

Frederick William to Stanislaus August 23 May 1791.[90]

“Monsieur my Brother, I have received almost at the same time the two letters by which Your Majesty was pleased to inform me of the important resolution which the confederated Diet has just taken, in fixing the hereditary succession to its throne in favor of the House of Saxony. The eagerness with which I have made known my way of thinking in this regard must have convinced Your Majesty, as well as the whole Polish nation, of the interest I take in it. I congratulate myself on having been able to contribute to the maintenance of its liberty and its independence, and one of my most agreeable cares will be to maintain and strengthen the bonds that unite us. I could but applaud, in particular, the choice it has made of a prince whom his virtues render worthy of the throne that awaits him. I wish, however, that this moment may still be distant, and that Your Majesty may, for a long succession of years, make the happiness of his peoples.”

— 68 —

From the Prussian Note of 21 June 1791.[91]

…… “Meanwhile the King of Prussia holds it an agreeable duty to assure once again that he, faithful to his obligations, will constantly take care to fulfill those which he entered into last year with His Majesty the King of Poland, seeking nothing so much as to give sufficient proof of his unalterable attachment to that kind of sentiment which could strengthen the ties between the two Courts and promote their eternal duration.”

From the Declarations of the Prussian Envoy Lucchesini.

On 14 April 1792.[92]

“It is not credible that the Russians should invade the lands of the Republic; perhaps they will, as friends and protectors of the discontented, merely draw nearer to the frontiers. For the rest, it is incumbent upon the Poles themselves to think of their own fate, and thereby effectively to win the other Powers to their side. For the means which Poland shall employ will also guide the foreign support given to her.”

On 4 May 1792.[93]

“His Majesty the King of Prussia can take no notice of

— 69 —

the measures with which the Diet is occupied, since the matters negotiated therein are wholly foreign to him.”

From the Reply of the Prussian Envoy to a Note of 25 May 1792.[94]

On 28 May 1792.

“I still await, with regard to the points contained in the last Note, the orders of my Court; I nevertheless hold it my duty to remind the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the content of my Note presented on 4 May, and of the verbal declarations which I renewed on the same day to the Chancellor, the Marshal of the Diet, the members of the Council of State, and the Diet now sitting. These declarations, which agree with all my official statements heard from me since my return to Warsaw and since the occurrence of the Revolution of 3 May 1791, are a fresh proof of the well-known integrity of the King of Prussia; for he did not wish the Polish nation to remain in ignorance of his measures and concerns in the present critical situation.”

From the Reply of the King of Prussia to the King of Poland.

On 8 June 1792.[95]

“Your Majesty will readily perceive that, since the state of affairs has been entirely altered since the Alliance which I concluded with the Republic, and since the present circumstances occasioned by the Constitution of 3 May 1791 cannot be applied to the obligations stipulated in the previously concluded Alliance, it does not depend on me to meet Your Majesty’s expectations, if the patriotic Party continues to hold the same intentions and wishes to maintain its work.”[96]

— 70 —

From the Declaration of the King Concerning the Entry of His Troops into Poland, of 6 January 1793.[97]

“It is known throughout Europe that the change of government which took place in Poland on 3 May 1791, without the foreknowledge or participation of the friendly and neighboring Powers, soon aroused the displeasure and opposition of a great part of the nation, and that those who remained attached to the old form of government invoked the assistance of the exalted Sovereign who had undertaken the guarantee thereof. Her Imperial Russian Majesty gave ear to the request and hastened to their aid with a considerable body of troops, in order to abolish the introduced

— 71 —

innovations and restore the old fundamental constitution.

Prussia was obliged to take part in these events. The King, however, still hoped that the disturbances would soon come to an amicable end. His hope was disappointed. In particular the spread of French democratism [98] demands his attention. Great Poland is especially infected by this dangerous poison. — — His Majesty has therefore caused a sufficient body of troops to march into the territory of the Republic, in order to cover the Prussian border lands, to suppress the agitators and disturbers of the peace, to restore order and tranquility, and to protect the well-disposed inhabitants.

“The King gladly entertains the hope that, with sentiments so peaceable, he may reckon upon the good will of a nation whose welfare cannot be a matter of indifference to Him, and to whom He desires to give active proofs of His affection and His goodwill.

From the Patent of Possession of 25 March 1793 to All the Estates and Inhabitants of South Prussia and the Cities of Danzig and Thorn.[99]

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, etc., hereby extend to all the Estates, Bishops,

— 72 —

Abbots, etc. etc. of the voivodeships of Posen, Gnesen, Kalisch, etc. etc., according to the line of the frontier, likewise of the cities of Danzig and Thorn, which the Crown of Poland has hitherto possessed, Our gracious Will, Royal favour and all good things, and hereby give them most graciously to understand as follows:

It is generally known that the Polish nation has never ceased to give the neighboring Powers, and in particular the Prussian State, frequent occasion for just displeasure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We have therefore resolved, in agreement with Her Imperial Russian Majesty, to take possession of the districts of Poland named at the outset, together with the cities of Danzig and Thorn, and to incorporate them into Our State. We hereby publicly announce this Our firm and unshakable resolve, and expect of the Polish nation that it will assemble on the Diet as soon as possible and adopt suitable measures, so that everything requisite in this matter may be amicably settled, and thereby the salutary end attained of procuring for the Republic of Poland an undisturbed peace, and preserving its inhabitants from the dreadful consequences of anarchy. At the same time we exhort the Estates and inhabitants of those districts and cities which We have caused to be taken into possession as aforesaid, as graciously as earnestly, not to oppose Our said taking of possession, nor the commanders and troops appointed by Us for that purpose, but rather willingly to submit to Our government, henceforth to regard and acknowledge Us as their lawful King and Sovereign, to show themselves Our faithful and obedient

— 73 —

subjects, and to withdraw themselves from all connection with the Crown of Poland.

We are, on the other hand, firmly resolved, and hereby solemnly assure: to leave, protect, and maintain the aforesaid Estates and inhabitants, one and all, in their possessions and rights both ecclesiastical and secular, and in particular to leave the Roman Catholic co-religionists in the free exercise of their religion, and in general to govern the whole land in such a manner that the reasonable and well-disposed part of the inhabitants may be happy and content, and shall have no cause to regret the change in the sovereignty of the land [100] etc. etc.

Berlin, 25 March 1793.

Frederick William.

Finkenstein. Alvensleben.

From the Treaty of Peace at Grodno of 25 September 1793 between His Majesty the King of Prussia and the Polish Republic.[101]

Art. I.

There shall be a sincere and constant friendship and union between His Majesty the King of Prussia, His heirs and Successors, and all His States, on the one part, and His Majesty the

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King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, etc., and His Successors, as well as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on the other part; in such manner that the two High Contracting Parties shall give the greatest attention to maintaining between Them a good understanding and mutual correspondence, avoiding everything that might disturb the tranquility and prosperity of Their States.

Art. III.

. . . . His Majesty the King of Prussia renounces most expressly, for Himself and for His heirs and Successors of either sex, all pretensions which He may now, or may hereafter, form, whether directly or indirectly, and under whatever titles, denominations, pretext, or stipulations arising from circumstances or events these may be, upon any province, or the smallest part of the territory, which Poland at present comprises. His Majesty the King of Prussia likewise renounces the possession of, and the rights to, the lands of Serreie and Tauroggi and their dependencies, situated in Lithuania, engaging moreover to maintain Poland in her present state of possession and to guarantee to her, as He does in fact guarantee to her by the present article, in the most express and most binding manner, the integrity and sovereignty of the said present possessions, together with all rights deriving therefrom.

Art. V.

The Roman Catholics, following the example of those of their religion who have previously passed under Prussian dominion, shall enjoy, in the provinces ceded by the present Treaty, all their rights and property as regards civil matters; and as regards religion, they shall retain the same free exercise of worship and discipline in their present state, together with all the churches and all the ecclesiastical property of which they were formerly in possession. His Prussian Majesty

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declaring, for Himself and for His Successors, that He will never wish to exercise the rights of sovereignty to the prejudice of the present state of the Catholic religion in the countries passing under His dominion by the present Treaty.

As for churches and pious foundations which, situated in one State, might have part of their landed property enclaved within the other, the High Contracting Parties, in mutually ceding these to each other, together with all rights, whether spiritual or temporal, reserve to themselves the free disposition thereof; it being understood that the said landed properties shall retain their nature, and may be employed only for the mutual indemnification of the churches and communities that might lose thereby through these arrangements, etc. etc. …..

From the Patent Concerning the Administration of the Starosties in South Prussia, dated Berlin, 26 February 1794.[102]

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God King of Prussia, etc. etc.

Already at the taking of possession of South Prussia We assured the lawful possessors of Our Crown or so-called starosty estates situated in South Prussia the undisturbed usufruct thereof, according as it has been granted to them on emphyteutic tenure, whether for life or for a certain term of years not exceeding that period.

We hereby repeat this Our Royal assurance, and will, for the security of his possession, that such a possessor, on the strength of his right received from the Crown and the Republic of Poland and of this Our most high Patent, shall be newly enfeoffed by Our General Directory as usufructuary holder of such starosty or Crown and feudal estates, Tenuten, Vibranzen and Lahnen, Freischulzereien, or by whatever other names they may be called, rights and revenues, as belong to Us.

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We repeat (?), but expressly determine, that We recognize as possessors of starosty and similar estates only those who were in lawful possession thereof at the time of Our Occupation of South Prussia: that We shall let their possession continue only for their own person, and only for their lifetime, or for the term of the grant, insofar as this should expire before their death, but that thereafter, upon their decease, or upon any earlier vacancy, the estates shall revert to Our Domains.

In order to determine more precisely the mutual relations, rights, and obligations between the starosty-holders, the possessors of starosty and similar estates and appurtenances, We have found it necessary to ordain the following.

§. 1—8.

All possessors of starosty etc. etc. estates, rights, and revenues with which they were enfeoffed under Polish administration are called upon to report the same to the War and Domains Chamber of their Department, and to declare the original inventories pertaining thereto of livestock, cattle, and agricultural and husbandry implements — under penalty of immediate forfeiture for wilful concealment — to prove their right of possession, and to have it examined, in order to be newly enfeoffed with the same.

§. 9—12.

Obligation to preserve the estates and the subjects, and to discharge the burdens.

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§. 12—15.

Sub-enfeoffments are not permissible without the approval of the government; — likewise new leases, or the renewal of old lease contracts, and the advance payment of rent for half a year or more. The lease contracts must be submitted to the Chamber in copy, and their expiry announced one year in advance. — The lessees are also liable with their property for the fulfillment of all the provisions of this Patent.

§. 15.

In the case of self-administration, the managers must be presented to the Chamber for approbation, and must assume the duties of the starosty-holders.

§. 16.

Contains the requirement of proper account-books, which must be produced and sworn to upon demand.

§. 17—22.

Special duties for the preservation of the buildings.

§. 22—24.

No starosty-holder may hinder improvements and new uses which have been found good by experts and resolved upon by the General Directory.

§. 24—26.

Dues must be paid from the usufruct; the starosty-holders are therefore obliged to discharge all dues and burdens resting upon the starosty estates, until the introduction of the new tax system, as they have hitherto stood, but from the publication of the new system according to its provisions, as well as all other public imposts, and duly to observe the terms of payment; otherwise proceedings shall first be taken against defaulters by execution, and, should this prove fruitless, immediately by sequestration.

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§. 27—44.

§. 27—31 determines the relations to the subjects; §. 31—34 relates to the police; §. 34—39 to the administration of justice; §. 40—43 to the superiors of the Chamber. The Chamber Councillors are the permanent commissioners in all economic and police matters, even without special commission. At their request, all information and news pertaining to their business must at all times be furnished to them, and every disclosure given.

§. 44—57.

Obligations upon reversion of the estates: with the death of the life-tenant enfeoffee, the usufruct ceases at once, and the heirs must give prompt notice to the Chamber, under fiscal penalty. Nothing may be removed before the liquidation. “We shall not, however, thereby enter into any purchase money or other moneys paid at the enfeoffment and acquisition, nor into any onerous conditions entered upon.” — “We are not bound to retain existing lessees, or to give them any warranty on account of any agreement made with the previous possessor.” — “For wilful deteriorations (on the part of the starosty-holder) and for the misuse of the estates granted to him, We are entitled to hold him, his heirs, etc., liable,” etc. etc.

Berlin, 26 February 1794.

Frederick William.

v. Voss.

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From the Patent Concerning the Administration of the Starosty Forests in South Prussia, dated Berlin, 25 March 1794.[103]

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, etc. etc., ordain and command ……

§. 2.

To take into self-administration, immediately upon the publication of this Patent, all starosty and other forests in South Prussia belonging to Our Royal estates.

§. 3.

The South Prussian Chambers shall therefore forthwith no longer permit any felling of timber by the starosties or other Royal estate possessors. The timber already felled by them, however, shall be seized and placed under sequestration.

§. 4.

Of this timber already felled, they shall first be furnished with the husbandry requirement for one year, but the remainder shall be sold by Our forest officials with higher approval, and insofar as the starosties and Royal estate possessors justify their felling of timber by valid concessions, half of the net proceeds of the sale shall be paid out to them. But if they are not entitled to the felling of timber itself under the previous constitution, they shall have no claim to any share of the proceeds of sale; rather We reserve to Ourselves the right to have them prosecuted fiscally on that account.

§. 7.

With this self-administration, all participation of the starosty and other Royal estate possessors and their forest officials, and their influence and authority in the forests, lapses.

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§. 8—10.

To the starosty and other Royal estate possessors, insofar as forests are connected therewith (according to a schedule renewed every six years), their husbandry requirement of timber shall be assigned annually therein and freely furnished thereupon, so that they need only pay the assignment fee and the woodcutter’s wage for it. The place of delivery is the forest itself, and the recipients must have it fetched at once.

§. 11.

The requirement of building timber for the maintenance of starosty and other Royal buildings shall be furnished only according to estimates drawn up on each occasion by a Royal building official, and with the restriction that they must prove the actual consumption immediately, or annually, upon completion of the buildings and repairs.

Berlin, 24 March 1794.

Frederick William. Arnim. v. Voss.

From the Patent of Notification Concerning the Establishment of the Ecclesiastical and Secular Judicial System in South Prussia, dated 8 May 1793.[104]

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, etc. etc., do make known and hereby give every one to understand:

After We have, by Our Patent of 25 March of this year,

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and by the hereditary homage rendered, already assured Ourselves of the fidelity and obedience of Our now subjects; it is therefore now fitting that Our first and chief care be directed to promoting and securing the tranquility and happiness of these Our newly acquired Provinces and subjects. . . . . .

To this end We hereby entirely abolish the whole previous organization of the various courts, by whatever names they may have been called. We rather will that these lands now acquired by Us (to which We hereby give the name South Prussia) shall be treated wholly according to the legal and governmental form introduced in Our Kingdom of Prussia and Our other States.

With regard to Our now subjects of the Roman Catholic religion, We will indeed leave them their hitherto possessed ecclesiastical jurisdiction still further, but in such manner that they shall be competent to take cognizance solely and only of causas mere ecclesiasticas: but from all causis civilibus, even where these concern ecclesiastical persons, even where the dispute is over patronage right, tithes, and the like, no less than from all exercise of criminal jurisdiction, they must absolutely abstain. As for matrimonial matters, these shall remain reserved to the ecclesiastical courts of their confession only in the case where both spouses are of the Roman Catholic religion. But as soon as one party is of the Protestant religion, such matters belong before the Regierung (provincial court of justice).

We further will that, both at Our Regierung and at all subordinate courts, in all business generally, everything shall henceforth be transacted in the German language, and whoever is not conversant with this language must, both for everything he has to submit to the courts, and in order to understand the orders and

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decrees which he receives, make use of an interpreter, etc. etc.

Given at Our headquarters.

Günthersblum, 8 May 1793.

Frederick William. Baron von Dankelmann.

From the Patent of Possession of 26 December 1795 to the Estates and Inhabitants of the former Polish Voivodeships, etc.[105]

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God King of Prussia, etc. etc.

Tender Our gracious will and Royal favour to all Estates and Inhabitants in the Polish voivodeships, provinces, districts, towns, and localities within the boundary line, which begins . . . . .

After We have incorporated the lands lying within the aforesaid boundary line into Our Realm in such a manner that they shall belong to the Prussian sceptre for all time, and to that end shall be solemnly taken into possession in Our name; We hereby exhort the inhabitants of these lands, as graciously as earnestly, not to oppose this taking of possession, nor the commanders, troops, and commissioners deputed by Us to that end, but rather willingly to submit to Our government; henceforth to regard and acknowledge Us as their lawful King and Sovereign; to render Us the oath of fidelity and submission; to show themselves Our faithful and obedient vassals and subjects, and thereby to render themselves worthy and partaking of Our Royal protection, favour, and goodwill, which We hereby assure to them equally with Our other vassals and subjects, etc. etc.

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Declaration

concerning the confiscation and future administration of the ecclesiastical estates, likewise of the starosties and other royal estates in South Prussia and in the provinces recently acquired from the former Republic of Poland.[106]

It is well known that the estates and landed properties which the Roman Catholic clergy have hitherto held

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constitute a very considerable part of the entire landed property in those districts which fell to His Royal Majesty of Prussia, Our most gracious Lord, both in the year 1793 and at the most recent boundary regulation, from the former Republic of Poland.

His said Majesty was indeed at first minded to leave the possession and the administration of these estates in the hands of the said clergy, in the certain and expressly declared (?) hope that they would endeavour to put these important properties into such a condition, and to use them in such a manner, that thereby the general welfare, and the improvement — so important thereto — of agriculture and husbandry, but above all the condition of their numerous subjects, might be promoted.

However, in South Prussia the outcome did not answer to this expectation; rather, experience has throughout confirmed that persons who from youth up are trained and guided only in scholarly knowledge and religious pursuits, and who, if they wish duly to discharge their duties, must devote almost their entire time to the cure of souls, the conduct of divine service, and other spiritual exercises, have neither the capacity nor the leisure to apply themselves with any success to the conduct of husbandry on a large scale; and that even the desire and inclination for sound improvements — which commonly require the sacrifice of considerable present advantage for a greater but more distant gain — are not to be expected from those whose enjoyment of it ends with their life or with their further advancement, and who must then leave the fruits of their industry and their sacrifices to strangers with whom they are connected by neither kinship nor any other close tie.

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Since His Royal Majesty cannot permit so considerable a part of the land to remain any longer in its former neglected condition, nor allow the important advantages arising from an improved cultivation thereof to be lost unused to the State and the public at large; His Majesty has resolved:

The said estates and landed properties hitherto held by the Roman Catholic clergy, both in what is now South Prussia and in the newly acquired districts — whether belonging to bishoprics, chapters, foundations, monasteries, provostries, or other ecclesiastical corporations and endowments — are, on a right understanding, indisputably to be regarded as true property of the State, and are to be confiscated and taken into possession, and to be treated and administered in every particular in the same manner as is done with His Majesty’s Domains in the other provinces.

Since, however, His Royal Majesty is by no means minded, by this measure taken for the common good, to abolish the purpose of the former endowment of these estates — whereby they were designated for the costs of divine service and for the maintenance of the persons assigned thereto, in proportion to their rank and office — or to deprive the clergy of the enjoyment of such endowments, to which this purpose entitles them; His Majesty therefore establishes:

that of all these estates, according to their present condition, proper valuations shall, insofar as this has not already been done, be taken up with all speed, and that that portion of the former net revenue which remains after deduction of the administration costs, of the taxes fixed at certain percentages, and of the other public and common charges, shall be paid out to the clergy as a fixed allowance (Kompetenz) for their maintenance, for the conduct of divine service, and for the fulfilment of other useful purposes to which such estates may have been assigned by their former possessors to the clergy.

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For entirely the same reasons, and since a general, orderly organisation of the province becomes daily more urgent, but cannot possibly be introduced so long as so great a part of the Royal Domains remains in the hands of private possessors who administer them at their own discretion, His Royal Majesty has further resolved:

that indeed the present possessors of the starosties and other royal estates in the newly acquired districts, who duly prove their right thereto, shall — as has been done in South Prussia — be left in the enjoyment thereof for their lifetime, insofar as the term fixed in the grant and privileges does not expire earlier; but that the possession and administration of these Domain properties, both in South Prussia and in the new acquisition, shall be taken over forthwith by the Chambers, and that the former net amount of use enjoyed by the possessors, as it shall be ascertained by valuations to be taken up in the same manner as with the ecclesiastical estates, shall be paid to them in cash as a fixed sum out of the Domains treasury.

His Royal Majesty may confidently expect that everyone, and even those most directly concerned, will not fail to recognise His Majesty’s paternal intentions and sentiments in a measure whereby, on the one hand, the common good is promoted through the improvement of the cultivation of the land, and the

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strengthening of the internal powers of the State so greatly dependent thereon, while, on the other hand, the former possessors of these ecclesiastical and royal estates also remain in undiminished enjoyment of the actual advantages which they have heretofore in fact drawn from the use thereof, and have been entitled to draw.

His Majesty accordingly hereby commands everyone, but especially the holders of the aforesaid royal and ecclesiastical estates, as well as His Majesty’s Provincial Colleges and other provincial authorities, to conform most exactly to the contents of the present Declaration, and further reserves to Himself the right to furnish the competent Finance Departments with the requisite further instruction as to its execution.

So done and given:

Berlin, 28 July 1796.

Frederick William.

Instruction for the War and Domains Chambers and for the constituted Domains Organisation Commissions concerning the Confiscation and Administration of the Royal and Ecclesiastical Estates.

Of 10 September 1796.[107]

Now that the necessary steps for the publication of the Most High Declaration of 28 July of this year, respecting the Royal and Ecclesiastical estates to be confiscated both in South Prussia and in the new Acquisition, have been initiated and set in motion, His Royal Majesty of Prussia, etc., Our Most Gracious Lord, has found it necessary to furnish His South Prussian War and Domains Chambers, and the Domains Organisation Commissions constituted from their number, to whom the execution of this business in their respective Departments has been entrusted, with the following more detailed Instruction, in pursuance of the negotiations conducted between our General Commissary, the Privy Finance Councillor Schultz, and the South Prussian Chamber Presidiums, and approved by our South Prussian General Finance Department by means of the rescript of 24 August 1796 and the specially executed operations plan.

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1. Object of the Confiscation.

The confiscation is general, and extends to all kinds of Royal and Ecclesiastical estates which, according to the latest lustrations and tax tariffs of the former Polish Treasury Commission, can be regarded as such, and whose character is thereby placed beyond doubt.

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Neither the name nor any other characteristic of such an estate, nor the title under which it is held by its present possessor, makes any difference in this respect. Even those estates which, under the Constitution of the last Warsaw Diet, have been taken over by certain persons or families in emphyteutic possession for a fixed number of years, are not on that account exempt from confiscation.

Only in the individual case where someone asserts that he possesses an originally Royal estate as his true, full property, and where he at once substantiates this statement by unimpeachable documents, is confiscation not to proceed; rather, the matter must be more closely examined according to the principles of common and Polish law governing the alienation of Domain and State estates, and the possessor, if need be, given a legal hearing on the matter, further particulars of which will follow below.

2. Manner of Administering and Using the Confiscated Estates.

From the fact that the confiscation itself is general, it does not, however, follow that the manner of administering and using the confiscated estates must throughout be the same; rather, in every individual case that mode must be chosen which is most conducive to the true interest of the State. In this regard, in order on the one hand to be able to observe the forbearance intended by His Royal Majesty toward the parties concerned, and on the other hand to forestall all confusion and all the consequences inevitably arising therefrom, both for the administrative arrangement and for the Most High Treasury’s interest, the distinction must not be lost sight of between the general confiscation, or the actual taking of possession, which is accomplished directly through the publication of the Royal Most High Declaration of 28 July of this year, and the taking-over of management, or the administration, which takes place on His Royal Majesty’s account.

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Through the declared confiscation, the Fisc acquires the indisputable right to put itself into full possession of the estates, and to dispose forthwith of their management according to its own interest. Since, however, His Royal Majesty wishes to spare, as far as possible, the former possessors — who otherwise have no resources, and who are faithful and devoted to His Majesty — and not to dispossess them on the spot, but rather to fix them ample terms for that purpose, and to leave them in possession of the estates until then, as leaseholders, under the requisite supervision and on condition that they pay the dues thereon, according to the new valuations to be prepared, which will serve to determine the future allowance, and otherwise manage properly and duly, and also keep the buildings in good repair; the actual take-over is accordingly to be undertaken for the present only in respect of such estates where the above consideration does not apply. It must therefore

a. immediately, as soon as the necessary preparations for it have been made, and in any case still within the current year, a beginning shall be made with the take-over of those estates whose dominia and usufructuaries reside outside the country, while for the rest it shall be continued according to time and circumstances; and it is self-evident that all those from whom the estates cannot or should not yet be taken in the current fiscal year must be cited in writing on the above conditions,

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for which purpose the Chambers may make use of the Land and Tax Councillors, and likewise of the district justice councillors. On the other hand, in accordance with His Majesty’s Most High intention, there remain

b. small landed properties on which industrious and diligent families have been settled as colonists, Hauländer, etc., entirely excluded from the confiscation, and these must be left to them on the previous controls and conditions.

c. Individual parish and church fields which serve merely for the maintenance of the parson or for defraying the necessary expenses of the church treasury and which cannot bear a separate Domains administration, likewise remain, as a rule, in their previous condition; and

d. such insignificant Royal and Ecclesiastical estates as lie singly and scattered, in such a manner that they cannot suitably and advantageously be combined into a domain office, shall be let out in hereditary quit-rent or hereditary lease. In this, preference is as a rule to be given to the former possessors, especially where they belong to the peasant class or the lesser nobility and are orderly, quiet people and good husbandmen; but the handling of hereditary leasing must for the present, and until then, remain suspended, until a general standard has been established in this regard and prescribed to the Chambers.

f. As regards the administration of the confiscated estates in and of itself, as a rule no general leasing shall for the present take place, partly because it is not yet possible at this time to ascertain the true yield of the estates and their appurtenances, and partly because the interest of the general lessee only too often comes into collision here with the interest of the subjects entrusted to his care, and

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the welfare and advancement of the latter would thereby easily be lost from view; but above all with a view to giving the impoverished nobility, and other landless economists who have hitherto subsisted on leaseholds and administrations, an opportunity to seek their subsistence in the confiscated estates. Every intendant, therefore, insofar as he qualifies for a lease, shall receive for himself only one Vorwerk on lease for his sustenance; all the other estates, however, shall as far as possible be leased singly, together with the dues and services belonging thereto, or, where applicable, as they have hitherto been divided into so-called keys (Schlüssel, Polish klucz), leased key by key, or else administered entirely on Royal account by the intendants.

The leasing shall take place per Modum licitationis from the coming Trinity onward, for the present for three years, unless something else is ordered in this regard; but until then the present lessees remain on their previous contracts, or, where a separate administration exists, it shall be continued on Royal account until then.

The leases of beer- and brandy-distilleries shall likewise remain undisturbed, where they now exist, until Trinity of the coming year. From Trinity onward, however, they shall throughout be placed under administration by the intendants on Royal account, and no exception to this rule shall be permitted without special approval.

As to what is to be observed generally in the leasings, and to what conditions those desirous of leasing must in general submit, further provision on this will be made in a special Regulation, which will shortly be issued concerning the respective temporary-emphyteutic and hereditary leasing of the

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Royal Domains.

Now, as it follows from all this that the office and duties of an intendant become important, if only in view of Our Most High Treasury interest, it likewise follows of itself that

g. In selecting the subjects for this post, the utmost caution must be exercised, especially since the intendant affects most directly and immediately the weal and woe of the office’s subjects, since the improvement of husbandry depends chiefly on his dispositions, and since the purpose of the confiscation rests, above all, on the diligence, integrity, and general conduct and bearing of the intendant. The Chambers will therefore, by all that is sacred to them, take care that no persons be proposed for this office other than such as are fully qualified, both by their knowledge and their morality; and, so that they may be held responsible for such qualification, none shall be appointed and accepted other than those whom they have examined and declared competent, and to that end all those who apply at the Department shall likewise be referred to them. No recommendation shall serve them as an evasion in this matter; it is, however, self-evident that those candidates who have already earned a claim to provision in the Royal service must retain preference over others. And in order that the Chambers may gain greater opportunity to satisfy themselves of the candidates’ qualification, it is generally established that these shall be employed as commissioners in the first organisation of the intendancies, and shall, under the supervision and direction of the Chamber councillors, besides the ordinary administration of the police and what belongs to it, be charged with taking up complete inventories and descriptions of each and every landed property, appurtenance, building, and use, etc., belonging to the intendancy entrusted to them ad interim; with the assessment of a complete yield according to the accepted principles; and with a terrier of each and every deed and privilege of the subjects — but no one (not even the Chamber councillors excepted) shall, until the whole Domains system has been brought into complete order, be given any claim either to this post or, still less, to that particular intendancy in which the candidate was first placed.

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Only after the entire organisation of the Domains system has been fully completed shall the intendants receive their commissions to a particular intendancy, and in the proposals made for this purpose regard shall be had solely and exclusively to the greater or lesser qualification of the candidates. And since, naturally, the intendancies must become more or less important according as many or few, significant or insignificant, estates are situated in a district, the salaries and emoluments of the intendants must likewise be arranged accordingly, just as the auxiliary personnel of the intendancy must be regulated accordingly; especially as, as a rule, every intendant is to have at his side only one actuary, who is at the same time to be treasury controller and minute-keeper for the justice officials, and one mounted rural constable with a fixed Royal salary; and special instructions will, moreover, be issued in due course both for the intendants and for the other intendancy officials.

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3. Recovery of Lost Landed Properties.

Since, during the former weak and irregular administration of the State, many important appurtenances, realities, and rights have become detached from the estates and been obscured, such rights must be carefully listed and recovered. This, however, requires closer investigation, and is therefore not to be confounded with the present operation, but must be deferred until the Domain offices have been regulated and put in order. In the meantime, however, the intendants must, already during the organisation of the intendancies, carefully collect all information that comes to their ears in this respect, and forward it to the War and Domains Chamber, which shall in due course take the further necessary steps in the prescribed manner.

4. Ascertainment of the Yield of the Confiscated Estates.

The yield of the confiscated estates must be ascertained according to their present condition. This is done, as a rule, especially with the ecclesiastical estates, by economic valuations at moderate, fair, and truly reliable rates, that is, according to the principles of the Detaxation Commission; accordingly those valuations which the said Commission has prepared, and which are founded on the sworn statement of use made by the ecclesiastical dominia, and which must consequently be recognised by it as correct, can and shall be taken as the basis for fixing the allowance for the clergy, and shall to that end be handed to the Chambers in due course. For starosties and purchased estates, where the allowance is not perpetual but ceases with the life of the present possessor, economic use-valuations must likewise be prepared and made the basis for determining the allowance, insofar as these do not differ too greatly from the economic valuations; accordingly the valuation amount must in every instance be balanced against the previous use-contracts, and this balance must be accompanied by a reasoning of plus and minus.

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In order, however, that those entitled to an allowance may not, in the meantime, be left destitute with respect to the allowance due to them from the confiscated estates, the lustrations and tariffs of the former Treasury Commission may provisionally serve to ascertain the revenues; and it is self-evident that the additional income which will be ascertained by the subsequent use-valuations must eventually accrue pro rata to those entitled to the allowance; wherefore, once the valuation has been completed and the true allowance determined, a proper reckoning shall be added for every dominium which is for the present merely settled according to the lustration contracts.

This same reckoning shall and must likewise take place, according to the above provisions, reciprocally for the benefit of the Royal treasury, namely where the present possessors are left further in possession of the estates and have, in accordance with §2 above, declared themselves willing to meet the new valuation during their possession, but until then merely to pay the present dues.

5. Deductions and Determination of the Allowance.

From the ascertained yield the following are deducted.

a. The contribution and other public dues. In the case of ecclesiastical estates these are assessed according to the ecclesiastical, but in the case of Royal estates according to the noble divisor, of which the Publicandum for South Prussia of 24 April 1795, and the respective Patent issued for the new Acquisition of 12 June 1796, determine the particulars.

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b. The general administration costs, for which, including the costs of maintaining the estates, for remissions, deficits, the carrying-over of losses, etc., 10% of the gross income is for the present fixed.

c. The interest, calculated at 5%, on the advances which must be used for the re-establishment of the buildings and for the procurement of the inventory, and finally

d. A further 5% of the net yield on account of the extraordinary dues and burdens which fall upon the dominia without distinction as to their character, such as forage deliveries, billeting, the furnishing of relay-teams, etc. In this connection it is self-evident that, as to c., the costs for the re-establishment of the buildings must be separately ascertained for each estate by formal building estimates on fair principles, and the costs required for completing the missing inventory by economic estimates, and that, similarly,

as to a., the contribution shall flow into the tax treasuries, and the administration and maintenance costs into the Domains treasuries, forming a special administration fund and being reckoned separately; so, too, as to c., the re-establishment and inventory funds must likewise be administered and accounted for separately at the Domains treasuries.

6. How the Allowance is to be Paid.

This allowance is as a rule given in ready money; however, in the case of such ecclesiastical and foundation estates whose incomes are devoted directly to the daily necessities of life of certain persons, or to the care of the poor and sick, or to other such charitable institutions, a part of the allowance may also be assigned in kind, for example in grain at the assessed price, insofar as the subjects or lessees of their estates are obliged to deliveries in kind, or can be so obliged without detriment to their husbandry; this delivery in kind may, however, be entirely dispensed with in the case of those ecclesiastical dominia which wish to retain a Vorwerk for their own use against a fixed valuation amount, and to whom this is granted, with Most High Royal approval, against a 25% contribution.

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7. Immutability of the Allowance.

The allowance is immutable. Only if, owing to the rising price of goods, the mark-up prices in the Chamber tariff should at some future time be raised, shall a proportionate increase of the allowance likewise take place.

As to the principles to be applied to this increase, however, more detailed provision will be made in due course. From the fact that the allowance is in itself immutable, it already follows of itself with what great caution the valuations, according to which it is to be determined, must be prepared; wherefore it also remains necessary to reserve to the fisc the right to be able to take special recourse against those dominia which, in the valuation, fraudulently stated exaggerated uses, or otherwise induced the valuation commission to the detriment of the Royal interest. The Chambers must therefore not fail, when announcing the future allowance, to publish this clause along with it.

— 99 —

8. Who is to Receive the Allowance.

The allowance is assigned to whoever is now actually in possession and enjoyment of the estates, without distinction as to whether he obtained them directly from the State or by cession or sub-enfeoffment from a third party. Should it be found, however, that the present holder has come into possession and enjoyment unlawfully, either to the prejudice of the fisc or to the prejudice of a third party, then in the first case the allowance shall be confiscated again, and in the latter case awarded to whoever can legally prove his better right against the present possessor. The aforesaid Chambers will therefore proceed most safely if, in all such contested cases, they place the allowance ad Depositum until the matter is settled.

9. Duration of the Allowance.

The duration of the allowance is, in the case of the clergy, perpetual; this, however, is to be understood only with respect to monasteries and other corporations and foundations, but not in the case of ecclesiastical individuals, and on their decease report must be made thereof, and inquiry made concerning the further payment of the allowance. In the case of Royal estates it likewise ceases with the death of the present possessor, and his heirs receive only the quarter’s allowance due at death, unless

an estate has been granted to several persons jointly under the so-called jure communicativo, in which case the payment of the allowance ceases only when the last of them dies; and

if a starosty-holder, on the strength of the Warsaw Diet Constitution, has taken over such a royal estate in emphyteutic possession for a fixed number of years and has paid a certain entry or purchase money, and dies before the expiry of these years, then his heirs must

— 100 —

either be left the allowance for the remainder of the time, or be repaid the purchase money pro rata for the years still outstanding.

Of all these estates, granted respectively under jure communicativo or issued under emphyteutic rights, the Chambers must, as speedily as possible and without fail before the end of November of this year, send to the General Finance Department wholly complete and reliable statements, justified by certified copies of the possession and entitlement documents, so that, especially with regard to the emphyteutic estates, it may be quite precisely determined how the allowance is to be handled after the death of the present possessor.

10. Procedure in Carrying Out the Operation.

As regards the procedure in the confiscation, the Chambers and the Domains Organisation Commissions have already been sufficiently instructed by the negotiations conducted in this regard with the Chamber Presidium. Everything here depends on a careful selection of those means which, according to the variety of local circumstances, most surely answer the purpose. The most important point in this is that

a. at the publication of the Declaration of 28 July of this year, care be taken, in accordance with His Majesty’s Most High intention, that minds be calmed against all fears of sudden and detrimental revolutions in the fortunes and property circumstances of private persons and families, since His Royal Majesty is by no means minded to allow quiet and industrious inhabitants and families of the land — who may have been established as colonists, or in some other manner, on starosty or ecclesiastical lands against hereditary quit-rent or hereditary lease — to be disturbed or prejudiced in their possessions and rights; likewise, the allowance to be measured out to the clergy and other pious bodies will be determined on such principles that, in the future also, as needs progress, it may as far as possible remain in a fair proportion; but above all, at all times the fullest possible regard will be paid to the preservation of the lower clergy, of the churches and schools, and even to the improvement of their condition; wherefore, in cases where it might be found that the further independent administration of such estates is actually more advantageous to those concerned, as well as to the State itself, than the take-over into Domains administration, such independent administration shall likewise continue to be maintained.

— 101 —

b. The take-over of the estates takes place as of 1 July of this year. This is properly to be understood of the general confiscation and of the movement which runs from Trinity to Trinity, wherefore the allowance calculations are also to be dated from this point.

c. As take-over commissioners, solid, sensible men must be chosen who are already familiar with such business. Their instructions must be directed to ensuring that, on the one hand, nothing be conceded to the detriment of the Most High Royal interest, but that, on the other hand, everything also be carefully avoided that might arouse unpleasant feeling or even be regarded as chicanery. In this respect, moreover,

d. regard shall as far as possible be had to the preservation of the present temporary lessees. Yet, where they claim to have paid in advance, this assertion must be carefully examined, and not at once accepted as established on the mere receipts of the lessors, which could easily be backdated.

— 102 —

And since it may be foreseen with certainty that, under §§1, 3, and 8, various contested claims may arise, the General Finance Department has already entered into correspondence with the Department of Justice as to how and in what manner the legal cases that arise are to be initiated and carried through, wherefore more detailed instruction is also to be expected in this regard.

Breslau, 10 September 1796.

By His Majesty’s most gracious special command

v. Hoym.

— 103 —

The German Colonisations in the Grand Duchy of Posen

from the first Partition of Poland to the Napoleonic era, 1772—1806.

Since the “shameful wrong of the Partition of Poland,“[108] since 1772, the Germans no longer came into the country as fugitives, no longer beseeching protection and admission. They pressed in as conquerors, had the right of conquest on their side, and exercised it in the fullest sense of the word. Without precedent in the history of civilised state administration, the land was abandoned to lying and deceit, to breach of faith, to deliberate, official seduction and depravation.

Without precedent, in particular, was the province of South Prussia abandoned to a bureaucracy which soon transformed it into a cesspool, into which the most worthless subjects flowed together, and who ruined, root and branch, all the material and spiritual goods of the Poles. Without precedent was South Prussia, of all provinces, abandoned to a ministerial administration which, within the short space of a few years, squandered the most valuable estates of this, then the largest province of the Prussian state, and inoculated its Polish inhabitants

— 104 —

with a canker, incurable for all time. — Not a cornucopia of blessed seed, but a Pandora’s box of every corruption was poured out over the hapless land. And worse than the plunder of material goods, more destructive than raw violence, was the moral and spiritual corruption with which a people — despite certain lamentable traits, nevertheless acknowledged to be highly gifted in mind — was poisoned to the very core of its emotional and intellectual life.

It is not the task here to unravel the threads of the diplomatic web of deceit with which the plunder of lands and the destruction of nations ensnared Poland. Nor shall a complete account of any part of the Prussian administration be given here; rather, only individual contributions, individual documents and pointers shall be gathered. Only the mask of lies and hypocrisy shall be lifted from those who pride themselves on German honesty, on German blessings, on German culture and intelligence, on German energy and German capital, which the Germans are supposed to have brought to the now-Prussian, formerly Polish territories. Only from the wanton sanctimoniousness of a certain party claiming to represent supposedly German interests shall the paint of virtue be wiped from its shameless face.

The German colonisations since 1772 are most appropriately grouped into the following three categories:

  1. Colonisations of the nobility and the great landowners, or: “The Black Register”.
  2. Colonisation of peasants and craftsmen.
  3. Colonisation of officials and notaries.

— 105 —

Colonisations of the Nobility and the Great Landowners.

The Black Register

or

GENERAL-TABLEAU

of the former Polish crown and ecclesiastical estates given away as grace-and-favour estates in South Prussia during the years 1794 to 1798, while Minister von Hoym administered this province,

prepared

in Cell No. 6 of the Hausvogtei, the Berlin state prison, in June 1801.

by

v. Held.

Editor’s Introduction.

“The Black Register” is a bureaucratic mystery from the era of the absolute kingship of Frederick William II. The less this document became known, the more fabulous were, and for the most part still are, the rumours and judgments concerning it. For the history of the Grand Duchy of Posen, and of the German colonisations in this formerly Polish territory, it is, however, of the highest importance in every respect.

It therefore appears justified that the vicissitudes of the “Black Register” — which is frequently confused with the so-called “Black Book” by the same author — should be communicated here in full detail.

— 106 —

“The Prussians,” says Varnhagen,[109] “found, at the time of the new acquisitions in Poland in the year 1793, a neglected country, dissolved conditions, abuses of every kind, boundless material for improvement, but unfortunately also for exploitation. Countless officials, often chosen only by favour and chance, among them the worst men whom one dared not appoint elsewhere, poured into the new province, and instead of the order which they were supposed to bring, they brought only their selfishness and dishonesty.” —

The noble and honest among these officials therefore faced the twofold effort of remedying the evils already found in place and of combating the new ones that were forcing their way in. Hans von Held, Senior Excise and Customs Councillor in Posen since 1794, and Joseph Zerboni, at first War Councillor in Glogau, and War and Domains Councillor with the South Prussian Chamber Department in Petrikau since 1793, are the most prominent characters among the small number of those noble and honest men who were most intimately united by an equal enthusiasm for right, freedom, and the welfare of mankind, and an equal hatred of falsehood and lies.

About this time, in September 1794, Minister Hoym, who since 1769 had governed Silesia independently of the General Directory according to the most capricious arbitrariness and favouritism, also took over the independent administration of South Prussia. “Hoym, so characterizes him Varnhagen loc. cit., was a handsome man who, in his distinction — a mixture of amiability and pride — combined with an open, unconstrained manner and refined, ingratiating conversation, won regard and affection at first sight. He truly possessed goodness of heart and great amiability. Yet lacking moral strength, these qualities were devoid of all serious substance, and served only vanity and self-interest. His personal favour disposed of appointments and honours, and dispensed money and property at will. Surrounded by flatterers and petitioners, secure in his support at court, he soon gave himself over to all the weaknesses of a vain and powerful man who believes the world exists in order to bear and to venerate his like; for birth and rank counted with him above all else, and the sorry delusion that distinguished command and polished worldliness sufficed to make a statesman had settled deep within him.”

— 107 —

Meanwhile discontent in Silesia had risen ever higher, and hatred of Hoym showed itself ever more openly and threateningly. The new province of South Prussia was now to become the arsenal for suppressing that hatred and that discontent, the treasury for satisfying his passions, for bribing persons dangerous to him, for rewarding his accomplices.

Hoym therefore surreptitiously obtained royal approval to donate a portion of the formerly Polish crown and ecclesiastical estates to so-called “deserving men.” By this means he succeeded in winning over the most wretched accomplices and in obligating the most influential persons at court, so as to be safe from every accusation. He now conducted in South Prussia the same regime of arbitrariness and satrapy as in Silesia. It was therefore all the more vexing and inconvenient to him when Zerboni confronted him with the dutiful report of his discovery — namely, that the state had been defrauded of a million thalers by certain officials. The honest Zerboni was for the time being, for his “uncalled-for officiousness,”

— 108 —

told to keep quiet, and shortly afterward burdened with two investigations that removed him to the casemates of Spandau and Magdeburg.

However hated Hoym’s administration in Silesia and South Prussia might be, however openly it was censured that the most reprehensible subjects were being presented with the richest estates in South Prussia, and however zealously Held might stand by his friend Zerboni, the minister remained all-powerful, and Held too was soon transferred from Posen to Brandenburg and thereby, as was believed, disposed of.

This transfer, announced to him on 21 November 1797, was a punishment already confirmed by Frederick William III for a poem which Held had had printed for 25 September 1797, the birthday of Frederick William II, who had meanwhile died. To be sure, the stanza:

“To all knaves their due reward,
Who defraud the state,
And from rapacity round the throne
Coil themselves like serpents.
A later day of avenging spirits
Threatens from distant storms,
To dash them with one great blow
Into the dust!”

had only hinted at the hope placed in the future king Frederick William III, who as Crown Prince, in silent displeasure, appeared to the ruling favourites as a threatening spectre. But the verses

“Let the throne, gold-encircled,
be surrounded only by servants
who strive after inward virtue’s reward,
not after estates.”

“Merit alone gives true worth,
not birth, not estates;
a slave is he who honours the whim
of an insolent ruler of the people.”

— 109 —

left no doubt as to which word evoked the most biting allusion, and to whom it applied. —

“But avenging fate” — says Held in the self-defence of his later, greater trial, which lies before us in manuscript — “seems, without our at first suspecting it, to have laid upon Zerboni and me the calling of being Hoym’s scourges. We did not feel ourselves burdened with this role, I especially, until our sense of rectitude forbade us to step down from the stage onto which Hoym himself had pushed us forward.” —

Held therefore continued to maintain his and his friend’s cause as an honest and laudable one. And in the same unbending spirit Zerboni wrote to him on 16 August 1798 from the prison of the Citadel at Magdeburg:

“The question is, my honest Held: whether the light-shunning cabal will truly carry off a decisive victory over right, law, and honour; whether a conspiracy of swindlers, in the sight of an educated public, is to abuse in the most unheard-of, shameless manner a government distinguished by wisdom, justice, and moderation, to the ruin of honest men who had the resolve to work against its pernicious machinations. What you do here, you do not for individuals; you do it for the whole. The conspiracy is great, imagines itself fighting for its existence, and has taken care of its purses.”

“If the thieving rabble triumphs, and we do not see each other again, then do not fail to hear my plea: so far as you are able, remain the friend of my pitiable wife, save my honest name before the public, and think now and then of a man who, in an unprecedented, shameless manner, before the visible eyes of justice and of an entire educated nation, became together with his friends the victim of a villain who would generally

— 110 —

be called a scoundrel, did he not wear the star and ribbon, and had he not always followed the maxim of sharing his plunder with rare generosity.”

While Zerboni’s case was pending in the second instance, Held had undertaken to bring the frauds of the Field War Commissariat in South Prussia once more publicly to notice.[110] Before long an entire work, furnished with accounting vouchers, was complete, and in December 1798 it was on its way to the printer at Zerbst. The postal director Pauli in Magdeburg, however, possessed so keen an official scent that he sniffed out the manuscript, confiscated it, and forwarded it, through the exalted comital hands of Minister von Schulenburg, to the King’s cabinet, where, however, one had no wish to stir up the misdeeds committed under the previous government.

Zerboni’s manuscripts fared better, although they came out of prison. At the beginning of the year 1800 there appeared with Fromann in Jena “Einige Gedanken

— 111 —

über das Bildungsgeschäft in Südpreussen” [Some Thoughts on the Work of Improvement in South Prussia], a work in which, in the noblest spirit, he examined with clear intelligence the state’s task with regard to this province, and the means of aiding the land and its people. If this already vexed his opponents, their vexation increased still further when, in the same year, without indication of place of printing, a volume appeared: “Aktenstücke zur Beurtheilung der Staatsverbrechen des südpreussischen Kriegs- und Domainenraths Zerboni und seiner Freunde” [Documents for Assessing the State Crimes of the South Prussian War and Domains Councillor Zerboni and His Friends], with Zerboni’s name as editor beneath the preface.

These “Aktenstücke,” because published without higher permission, soon became the corpus delicti of a new investigation. Then Held resolved to hurl back upon his friend’s enemies the ruin that threatened him. He travelled to Posen, obtained there the files of the case of the Amtmann Früson against the Seehandlung at Berlin, concerning his eviction — brought about by Triebenfeld and Hoym — from the lease of the Krotoszyn estates, and compiled the principal documents of this scandalous infamy of Ministers Hoym and Goldbeck into a work under the title:

“Die wahren Jakobiner im preussischen Staate, [The True Jacobins in the Prussian State] or a documented account of the wicked intrigues and fraudulent conduct of office of two Prussian ministers of state — Everywhere and Nowhere. 1801.”

The bookseller Fröhlich in Berlin printed this work under the seal of secrecy; and because of the peculiar binding of the copies sent out by Held (the cover and edges were black, and on the spine, in silver lettering, stood “Hoym und Goldbeck”), it was only under the mysterious name:

— 112 —

“The Black Book”

that it became famous, notorious, and sought after. This name became current, and the work was sought in vain under this title — naturally, because a book under this title did not exist at all. Even Varnhagen, in his masterly character-sketch Hans v. Held (p. 107), says: “We confess that, however much and however often we have heard, for more than forty years, talk of the black book, its weighty contents, and its unexampled candour, we have never set eyes upon it, nor found anyone who had seen it with his own eyes!” —

Chance or misfortune, however, soon betrayed the author of the black book, and Held found himself, with all speed, a state prisoner in the Hausvogtei. In vain he raised the plea of truth. He was dismissed from office and sentenced to 1½ years’ confinement in a fortress. Held availed himself of the remedy of a further defence and conducted his case alone, without the assistance of any legal counsel.

He had completed his written defence on 2 July 1801. It has nowhere yet been published in full, but lies before us in an authentic copy, in 57 full folio sheets. To this document there belonged, besides, a “General-Tableau of the Estates Donated by Hoym in South Prussia,” or

the Black Register

as a documented record of the truth of his incriminated assertions. — We cannot, however, deny ourselves the communication of some general reasonings from the written defence as well, since they illuminate the integrity of our source and the persons and conditions of that time.

The defence begins with the following introduction:

“As I resolve, before the second and

— 113 —

last instance, which in the proper sense will decide the fate and turn of the rest of my life, to defend myself concerning the act itself — whose consequences now make me outwardly unhappy — I am in doubt whether I do better simply to justify my book, or simply to refute the sentence of the first instance — to take refuge in the sophistry of legal forms or in the essence of the matter — to build once more upon the goodness of human nature, or to abandon that hope entirely, and with it almost everything that gives this existence any value?”

“The mere jurist, I feel, can no longer represent me. What the laws contain with regard to the present case, pro et contra, has been sufficiently argued in the first instance. I can convey the sources, the warmth, the overwhelming force of my convictions vividly enough to no one whose cold assent weighs words, and who, anxiously wavering between too much and too little, torments himself with the — to him foreign — worry of seeing the kernel discarded along with the shell. What still remains to be said, I must say myself. I have been overcome by a sovereign, shuddering disgust at reliance upon forms, ever since I learned by palpable experience that under their protection every infamy is easily accomplished, and the best impulse, the simplest truth, is cast out if it neglects to clothe itself in that trapping. No helper suffices me. All those whom I have called upon wish only to manoeuvre me artificially out of my distress; I, on the other hand, wish to save the cause; I who have sacrificed fortune, peace, and freedom for it — and that no one understands. The cause lies close to my heart and means everything to me; my own self is worth less to me. For the cause I have undertaken this heated struggle, not for myself; to it I will remain faithful, and to myself consistent,

— 114 —

remain, whatever may come of it! — — Virtue is its own reward, as it is its own law, and differs from the disjointed tumult of the wicked man’s life chiefly in this: that the principle governing every one of its actions is the constant, quite vivid thought of a closely bound consequence linking the present world and the future one. The virtuous man computes his existence astronomically; the scoundrel, by the four rules of arithmetic. In the midst of the flood of ideas streaming in upon me, weakened by a constant inability to order them, by the anxiety of failure, by every conceivable pain, I know nothing better to do than to summon up the last remnants of my courage, and to take the straightest and shortest path across, to contest what stands against me, to appropriate what supports me — without rule, according as either draws near me.”

Having adjured his new judges to judge not by the dry letter, the wooden yardstick of the laws, but by a conscientious examination of the facts, according to their inner moral conviction and their conscience, he continues thus:

“It truly does not occur to me to wish to bribe practised, wise, and upright men with pathetic arts of rhetoric, or even with tearful sentimentality. I know not only that so trivial an artifice would not succeed with me, but I myself, however bowed down I may be, am too proud for such a resort, and hold my cause too good to wish to disfigure it with such feeble paint. Unbounded sincerity, the most open-hearted declaration, the purest love of truth, will here speak out of me. As the most unaffected son of Nature I wish to give myself over, without any affectation, exactly as I feel, think, and judge. I know, romantic as it may sound, next to the gathering of insights for the mind, next to friendship for the heart, no further interest in life than to be good and true, and to be ardently effective for both. It is quite possible that what I have to say will turn out badly ordered, and in the legal sense confused. But I am not able to say it otherwise. My stoicism is not strong enough to keep from succumbing to the great suffering that now almost crushes me. Nature vindicates her rights. In prison only pain dwells, and this knows nothing of artificial, least of all of legal, logic. My intention is to supply my new judges with new data and views for a new judgment on the matter, and, through the matter, also on myself. It is their duty to unite, under the focal point of their acumen, what I put forward in scattered fashion.” —

— 115 —

In the first part of his written self-defence Held sheds light on the proceedings hitherto conducted against him, and says among other things: “Had the cabinet wished, in the name of the state, to defend the official honour and morality of the two ministers Hoym and Goldbeck which I attacked, then it would have had, given the high importance of the attack and given the notoriety, already very great before the appearance of my book, of the facts I set forth, not only to grant me every means by which I could carry my attack through cleanly, but would even have had to seek out itself every such means and hand it over to me, in order to show quite plainly that the public was in error and that I was a calumniator or a mad Don Quixote. If a cabinet protects the bad reputation and the equivocal deeds of eminent servants of the state, when that reputation is already widely spread and the greater part of the nation believes it and those deeds, then it must, especially in the case of

— 116 —

a public attack, also justify such servants of the state. If it takes notice of accusations impugning the honour of such persons, it must refute them thoroughly and with dignity. In short, if I was called to account, the justifications of Hoym and Goldbeck too ought to have been demanded, and my assertions ought to have been investigated. That did not happen. But strokes of violence cannot make what is true untrue, and do not defeat public opinion, but rather heat and strengthen it all the more.”

“If, on the other hand, the cabinet did not wish to compel the two ministers to any justification, then it ought also to have left me out of the game, and left it to those attacked to decide for themselves, privately, whether they would take the ordinary, legal paths against the alleged lampoon or not. My book, however, is no lampoon, because it contains throughout serious truths, in the bluntest style, without wit or mockery, and I am no calumniator, but at most an injuriant, who would have proved the correctness of the insults uttered, had I ever succeeded in bringing regular actions for defamation against each individual of those attacked on account of these misdeeds. As it is, the matter has been grasped only from one side, and a real injustice has thereby been committed.”

In another passage he complains: “I hear here in the Hausvogtei daily the words scoundrel, knave, rabble, etc. hurled at all sorts of criminals, and no one has anything to object to it. But shame decreases with the magnitude of the crime, and even turns into security, courage, and defiance. The thieves who surround me evidently sit in the Hausvogtei for no other reason than that they stole far too little, and did not steal it in the properly protecting form. — Never would I have published my book had I not believed I was thereby rendering a great service to the King, to the state, and to the venerable areopagus of the Council of State. The principles of state administration and of upholding it are, after all, higher than persons. Never did I dream that personal relations and considerations could operate so overpoweringly as I now, alas, see.” ……

— 117 —

“Every wise monarch of our day, looking to the future, must ally himself with public opinion — not for his family’s sake, for that would be far too petty, but in order to spare several millions of people a great circle of disorder, dissolution, and misery. As a friend she is his most beneficent genius for willing and accomplishing; as an opponent, a fury who spoils everything for him. The time is visibly at hand when, everywhere more than before, these two powers — the active authorities and public opinion — will measure themselves against one another until both attain that mutual equilibrium which alone is right, and which will transform the hitherto largely hostile relation between those who command and those who obey into a trusting, happy connection. Although tomorrow or the day after no revolt is yet to be feared among us, that truth still seems not to have sufficiently dawned upon the King of our country, and upon those among whom his power is immediately distributed.”

“Since I may hope for no mercy, I can practise none either. Inexorable necessity drives me to seize the shield of truth and to attempt whether, covered by it, I am able to work my way through. I will cite new particulars. The first that come, the best. Of many, only a few, as my memory offers them to me, since here in prison I lack all helpful documentary materials and evidence. But even the little will suffice to present a picture of

— 118 —

Hoym that outrages sound reason, prudence, rectitude, statecraft, and every feeling for virtue. It is meritorious when, occasionally, among the present countless and for the most part bad civil servants, a single one is an enthusiast, and has the resignation to make the beginning and, at every risk, to go ahead in the path of good, if the internal administration of the state is to improve and be cleansed of the many personal and formal defects that are ever more gaining the upper hand within it. My courage cannot do otherwise; it must grow with the magnitude of the danger.” ……

“But for me the main thing now is to supply new contributions besides the Krotoszyn affair, in order to explain why I railed so harshly in my book, and why my assault was so bold. What I adduce here does not, indeed, belong directly to the content of the black book, but it belongs to the characterization of Hoym. It suffices completely to prove that Hoym is a detestable minister who deserves to be treated as I have treated him. And I am of the opinion that, if I prove the abomination and depravity of Hoym, I deserve no punishment for my black book.”

“The confused nature of Hoym’s affairs makes it impossible for me, however, to observe any fixed connection in my examples; moreover, in my present situation I can produce nothing but isolated fragments.”

The 23rd fragment now contains the particulars concerning the donations of estates in South Prussia. It is of the highest importance for the purpose of our work, and runs:

“But nothing surpasses in infamy the — to this hour still far from adequately known and exposed — donation of a great many ecclesiastical, starosty, confiscated estates in South Prussia, brought about by v. Hoym. Instead of turning them into domains, and settling upon these choice estates, at first for a light rent, enterprising lessees and farmers from the Magdeburg and Halberstadt regions, from the Mark and from Silesia — men who within a few years would have given a highly advantageous impetus to the agriculture of this far-flung province, full of dormant powers — Hoym induced the late King to donate them, for the most part, to entirely undeserving private persons, who either did not live there, but leased out the estates and consumed the rental proceeds far from South Prussia, thereby draining this land, already poor in money, even further; or who sold them to venturesome speculators and bunglers, who, with little capital of their own and large sums of capital left owing, were unable to set in motion the dormant natural resources of their enormous undertakings.”

— 119 —

“Thus the state administration has lost not only a great income to the domain fund, but the state as a whole and in general has lost still more, in that, through these donations, the development and improvement of South Prussia has been infinitely retarded.”

“The trick by whose aid Hoym carried out the manoeuvre consisted in this: that whenever he submitted such a donation proposal to the late King, he always deceptively undervalued the estates at only a fourth or a sixth of their true worth, and sometimes far lower still; so that the late King really did not know what he was actually giving away — since it is otherwise highly probable that he, who had to rely on his minister and on the correctness of the latter’s statements, would nevertheless, in the case of many proposals of this kind, have thought

— 120 —

better of it, had he learned the truth. The reason, however, why Hoym fell upon this otherwise incomprehensible system of donations was that he wished to acquire, around the heir to the throne — the present King — grateful friends who would one day protect him; for from that prince’s then ever more clouded brow and ever more silent mouth, the minister, long since entangled in misdeeds, foresaw nothing good for himself. He felt deeply that he would need intercessors, should he one day — as he feared, toward the end of the previous reign — be called to account by the present King for his administration of South Prussia and Silesia during the previous King’s reign. This purpose he achieved. With a happily divining eye, he singled out at that time the persons who counted with the present monarch, and thus it was gratitude (but what a gratitude!) that maintained him in his high office.”

“What is spoken of here is actual South Prussia, which was acquired in the year 1793, stood for a year under the administration of Minister v. Voss at the General Directory in Berlin, was in 1794, after the suppressed insurrection, subordinated additionally to Minister v. Hoym in Breslau — although he was already administering Silesia proper — and remained under him for four years, until the present King, soon after his accession to the throne, by cabinet order of 26 April 1798, once more took it away from v. Hoym and placed at its head once more Minister v. Voss, thus putting South Prussia again under the General Directory.”

“The donations themselves fall within the period of that four years’ administration by Hoym, and began about the year 1795, after the last complete partition of Poland, in which New East Prussia was additionally acquired and placed under Minister v. Schrötter.”

— 121 —

“Donated were in the Posen Chamber district, in 22
in that of the Kalisch, formerly Petrikau, Chamber, in 19
in the Warsaw Chamber, in 11
together in 52

partly larger, partly smaller portions, 241 estates at a valuation of about 3½ million thalers; their true capital value, however, amounted to at least 20 million thalers.”

“In the Kalisch Chamber district alone, the donated estates amount, by area, to over a third of all the royal and ecclesiastical possessions, and the revenues of these estates donated in the Department of Kalisch, as ascertained in February 1799 from the most wretched donation valuations, amount annually to 247,000 thalers.”

“One seeks in vain, even in the choice of the persons donated to, for any guiding principle; one is rather compelled to believe in the highest degree of confusion and the most shameless system of lying under the previous government, because no other means remains of explaining so unexampled and everywhere useless a squandering of the powers of the state!”

“Far too late has one looked from the old provinces toward these highly important dilapidations in that terra incognita, and roused oneself out of the long indifference toward them. Time, however, which reveals all things, is beginning to pass judgment on this too. When Frederick the Great gave the domain office of Quilitz[111] to General Prittwitz, Prittwitz had, after all, at some time done something worth mentioning, and had in particular actually saved his

— 122 —

king’s life at Kunersdorf, for which every thinking man and admirer of the great and good King thanked him heartily and was glad to see him thanked. Likewise Frederick the Great made General Fouquet provost of the cathedral chapter of Brandenburg, and everyone at the time considered the latter amply rewarded.”

“But what useful thing, then, have all those people done who in South Prussia received, in part, quite excessive donations? There is not a single one among them who is worth even as much as Prittwitz and Fouquet.”

“Struensee in Denmark — the truly noble, and only too impetuous, Struensee — was found guilty and executed, among other reasons, chiefly also because he was said to have acquired, in a short time, a fortune of 60,000 thalers. Were Danish criminal law to hold among us, at least half of the South Prussian donataries would have to be flayed alive, boiled in seething oil, or torn apart by four horses.”

“The great Republic of France gave the widow Roberjot, whose husband was murdered in the service of the Republic, a national estate yielding 3000 francs of income, and gave Sieyes a national estate yielding 6000 francs of income. What, then, have the South Prussian donataries accomplished? What contrasts!”

“Of all the ecclesiastical, starosty, and confiscated estates seized in South Prussia, precisely the best and most profitable were selected and given away; the worst, on the other hand, which no one wanted as a gift, remained behind as domains. Every traveller becomes aware of this, and can bear witness to it.”

“The fancy-goods dealer v. Treskow got Owinsk[112] with its splendid forests, and close beside it lies the former starosty, now the domain, of Szrim, which has not a single tree and is so poor that no one would want it. The official at Szrim must now buy all the timber he needs for building, firing, and brewing out of the Treskow forests, and the state must reimburse this official at Szrim in cash for what could be supplied from its own natural growth, if Owinsk too had been added to the domain fund and not given away.”

— 123 —

“Had these 241 estates not been given away, but made into domains instead, how much might have been accomplished and provided, with more systematic vigour, for the cultivation of agriculture, animal husbandry, and horticulture — still so poorly organized in South Prussia in so many respects — and likewise for road policing and the improvement of roads!”

“This scattering donation has thus far done nothing to help the cultivation of South Prussia, and only the fewest of the 52 donataries have seriously set to work on real improvements. Most of them are merely lying in wait for a turn of the times, and credit is lacking for South Prussia.”

“Had the state remained the owner of these extensive possessions, South Prussia would have gained by this alone: that the income in question would not have been drawn off in cash, but reinvested in the province — for instance, for the building of one or two frontier fortresses. The 160 German miles long eastern frontier of the Prussian state, from Memel to Czenstochau, lies wholly open; the Austrians and Russians can come in unhindered by every forest track, and can also march about within the interior, without finding a single defensible position, an entrenchment, or even a blockhouse opposed to them. The Silesian Oder fortresses and Graudenz on the Vistula now lie in the middle of the continental mass of the Prussian state, and no place of arms covers the great and long tract of land lying to their right.”

— 124 —

“South Prussia now languishes under a lack of money that paralyzes all activity, and the sparse garrisons do not suffice to promote any appreciable circulation.”

“Considered from every side and with regard to every influence and consequence, South Prussia and the state as a whole have thus lost, through this system of donation, and lose for all time an annual revenue of at least 500,000 thalers — which could be applied to some purpose of public utility in the province — through this: that the donataries of these estates, which under Minister v. Voss’s system had previously borne dues of 50, 60, and 75 per cent, and could very comfortably bear them, now pay, under noble rights, only 24 per cent in taxes. For the granting of this benefaction under noble rights, Hoym took paternal care in all the deeds of donation. The domain treasury thereby lost not only the funds themselves, but also 26 and more per cent of the tax assessment already organized at first by Voss. In the deed of donation for Privy Councillor v. Goldbeck[113], son of the Grand Chancellor, the taxes are even fixed forever at far below 25 per cent, so that the few dues finally remaining, from Russow, Dykallow, and Klokinie, shall never, under any circumstances, be increased by future Prussian kings.”

“Only New East Prussia has, ever since it was acquired in the year 1795, stood uninterruptedly under Minister v. Schrötter in Berlin, and thus always under the General Directory; and both he and the presently truly meritorious Privy Finance Councillor v. Knoblauch in Berlin, former President of the Chamber of Bjalystock, have, with untiring effort and rare zeal, without the slightest self-interest, accomplished an extraordinary amount of good in a short time in this so raw a province, torn from the former Lithuania and Masovia. There the organization has also turned out far more solid and is proceeding well, whereas, on the contrary, Voss in South Prussia must even now still patch up and remedy the corruptions left by Hoym. Schrötter hardly involved himself at all in the donation of estates, and when unavoidable circumstances forced him to it, he gave away only a few of the worst plots, and had them correctly surveyed and valued beforehand. The few villages that, for instance, Colonel v. Hund received are not worth naming here!”

— 125 —

“Why, then, did Hoym not act just as honourably as Schrötter? To understand this account, a geographical view of the map, and an exact distinction between South Prussia and New East Prussia, are absolutely necessary; for I speak solely of South Prussia, because only this, with its three Chambers at Posen, Kalisch, and Warsaw, was entrusted to Hoym’s charge, and because only South Prussia was the scene of those scandalous donations.”

“In verification I append a

“GENERAL-TABLEAU”

of the estates donated in South Prussia

by Hoym

This may show my judges the motley mixture of these donataries, consisting of cabinet councillors, ministers, princes, princesses, fancy-goods dealers, generals, staff officers, privy councillors, war and legation councillors, court marshals, chamberlains, equerries, princes, counts, city presidents, and lieutenants.”

“Of the worthy there are everywhere only very few, of the unworthy so much the more. Some are quite unknown people; the few worthy ones got precisely the worst portions, and, besides, a few wretched scraps have been thrown to some native-born Polacks, merely to affect impartiality.”

— 126 —

“On the whole, though, it is not fine to take the bread from the children and throw it to the dogs!”

“More information than that which the last column[114] contains, as proof of the deep infamy committed, I was unable to procure here in my prison. Where I knew nothing certain, I preferred to leave this column open, because I did not wish to lie, but to tell the strictest truth.”

“Let others, who do not sit imprisoned as I do, someday fill in and calculate this table. What I nevertheless provide already suffices completely for a general overview and for analogous conclusions.”

“It is highly probable that a cabal under the previous King, striving after the South Prussian estates, which did not find Minister v. Voss compliant to its purposes, was to blame for South Prussia being played into Hoym’s hands in the year 1794. He, who kept his word to no one else, did after all, for his own sake, finally keep his word to it. Hoym foresaw that the health of the King of that time was gradually tottering toward the grave, and therefore devised in good time the plan of making friends for the future with the unrighteous mammon, and of averting the threatening storm from himself, by placing grateful defenders of his conduct of office around the future monarch, and by making use of circumstances

— 127 —

and means that bad men offered him, while also striving to obligate the better sort to himself.”

“He bestowed gifts in Potsdam on all those of whom it was to be supposed that they would one day carry weight; and where it concerned small creatures and hangers-on, a certain Count Lüttichau[115] had to lend his name to it, and then one or another village would be, as arranged in advance, made over by a sham sale to Hoym’s favourites and accomplices. This was the case, for instance, with the Posen Government Councillor v. Grevenitz, in respect of the village of Tarnowo, lying two miles from Posen — see Number 14 of my Tableau, the note.”

“My Tableau explains sufficiently how it has become possible that Hoym, even under this King, in spite of countless accusations lodged against him in the new cabinet, and against all the public’s expectation, was able to maintain himself in his ministerial post in Silesia — a post continually abused since the death of Frederick the Great, wholly independent, and only remotely connected with the General Directory in Berlin. I doubt that the present King has ever seen so complete a Tableau as mine. The soldiers about him do not wish to be ungrateful; their notions of civil honour are in any case not very delicate, and they think it their duty not to let the man who made them rich go under, although they otherwise despise him deeply too, and he is, to them as to the whole monarchy, an object of disgust, abhorrence, and derision, as they have often enough let him know in coarse private letters. They were afraid of acting ignobly if they demanded Hoym’s dismissal, and this considerate but misguided magnanimity alone has saved him.”

— 128 —

“What hideous disorder and arbitrariness reigned at that time in those dilapidations is shown incontrovertibly by the fact that Hoym, as then head of the South Prussian department, gave away several estates entirely without the approval of the reigning King, and that these estates, given away without highest sanction, are now, under Voss’s administration of South Prussia, being de facto taken back by the fisc — as, at the very time I am writing this, is namely the case with various Lüttichau estates. My Tableau is, moreover, documented[116], and reliably exact in so far as some donations are still missing from it[117], concerning which, in my haste, I have not been able to obtain solid information. It still needs, therefore, indeed

— 129 —

some additions, which, however, speak not against my assertions, but even more strongly for them[118].”

“Naturally I cannot adduce the great mass of files that would be necessary to prove and document my Tableau to the last detail; but that seems to me, for my part, quite superfluous besides. Since the matter is of such high importance, the higher authorities must, ex officio, inquire more closely into its true nature and institute inquiries. No registry will send me files; on my account no witnesses will travel here. Meanwhile, however, I could hardly invent so great a number of materials, nor conjure a table of donations like mine out of thin air. That would be not only a wholly absurd, but also a wholly impossible undertaking.”

“I maintain that I am speaking the truth, so long as no one convicts me of lying. Confirmation of this truth can be learned, in part, very easily by the higher authorities right here at the local Feudal Department, if only one truly wishes to inquire after it and does not shrink from the answer. Meanwhile I simply demand that I be believed. Who among my judges can prove a lie against me? But if I speak the truth, why does one not believe me and act accordingly? If I am believed, then I demand to be told whether such infamies and absurdities as I have here brought forward concerning Hoym do not sufficiently document and justify all the abusive terms I hurled against him, on account of the Früson affair, in the black book. If the abusive terms are appropriate to their object,

— 130 —

then I ask finally why I should be punished, and whether I am, at one and the same time, to be both right and wrong regarding the very same man. Common human understanding decides that for so confused and immoral a minister as Hoym is, there exists, in all languages, no friendly name and no honest epithet. If a right exists to commit infamies unpunished, then a right must also exist to relate them unpunished in books and to name them according to their deserts. The whole state in which such things occur is dishonoured, and it is proof that in the entire nation all love of fatherland and fidelity to duty, all feeling for order and shame, must be extinguished, since up to now not a single man has come forward who has brought them to public notice.” — —

In order not to draw upon ourselves the appearance of a one-sided, partisan presentation, we shall break off Held’s communications here, and also hear the views of his embittered opponent, War Councillor v. Cölln, on the donation of estates in South Prussia.

“Notwithstanding all the promises of the homage commissioners in 1793,” writes Cölln[119], “that the ecclesiastical estates and starosties should remain with their possessors, provided they paid, respectively, 50, 75, and 81 per cent in dues, according to the standard fixed by the lustration, all these estates have now been seized entirely, a meagre allowance has been assigned to their possessors, and the finest portion of them has been given away to the King’s favourites. That was Bischofswerder’s plan at the occupation of South Prussia. — With the ecclesiastical estates it might pass; but that one takes from the starostas their possessions

— 131 —

which they had purchased seems to me to be unjust, especially when one must see that this seizure occurs not to the advantage of the state, but of private persons who besiege the throne.”

“You will surely already have heard that the King is ailing with dropsy of the chest, that his days are numbered, and that his dissolution is awaited; people therefore wish to use this good-natured man’s last span of life to enrich themselves at the expense of the state.”

“The King does nothing at all any more in political matters or in the internal affairs of the state without outside influence. He has grown, in the previous year and in this one, so weak that it is scarcely credible. He lives in the Marble Palace, where the dancer Schultzky seeks to make his last days bearable for him.”

“Count Hoym, from whom the cabinet first demanded an opinion as to under what conditions the ecclesiastical and starosty estates might be seized, set himself forcefully against it, and represented that the King had, at the homage, guaranteed the possessors their rights; that these estates had accordingly been assessed, the ecclesiastical ones at 50, the starosty ones even higher, in the contribution; that the King would not profit very much from the seizure, especially at first, since a great deal of money had to be deducted from the proceeds for the maintenance of divine worship, for charitable foundations, and for the support of the clergy; that the buildings and the livestock on these estates were in poor condition, and that the royal interest would be better served if the dues were raised gradually instead. The bad impression that this stroke of violence would make on the nation, and on the common people, who were attached to the clergy, was, finally, in its consequences quite incalculable. But none of this helped at all; Bischofswerder,

— 132 —

or rather his wife, wished to enrich herself; and for that reason Frederick William II had to break his word.”[120]

“As soon as the ecclesiastical estates had been seized, Bischofswerder drew Herr v. Triebenfeld to Berlin, who took lodging at the Golden Eagle, and made use of him to draw up the proposals concerning the estates to be given away, since he possessed a great deal of local knowledge. In the cabinet, the draft of the deed of donation was prepared each time, and sent to Herr v. Triebenfeld, who inserted the names of whoever was to receive the donation. The fair copy was laid before the King, who was already nearly moribund; he was told that they were insignificant Vorwerks, and he thanked God once he had signed the deed[121].”

— 133 —

“Bischofswerder cared nothing for possessing estates in South Prussia; scarcely had they been transferred to him than he wished to sell them again. For this purpose a simpleton from Copenhagen was found as well — a freshly made Imperial Count v. Lüttichau, created during the imperial interregnum (Vicariate), etc.” Further particulars about him are found below, on pages 147 and 148.

“In the most peculiar manner two persons received estates as gifts who had not the remotest claim to them. The first was the postal director Goldbeck in Warsaw[122], the other Herr von Hünerbein[123], former adjutant of Prince Louis.”

The particulars are given further below, as a note. Furthermore it states:

“I could cite many more cases of similar donations. But let those already given suffice to show what the court was like under the previous government, and what effect such favouring of undeserving creatures among the courtiers must have had upon the Poles, instead of the King having had the opportunity to reconcile the Polish nation with himself again, had he made a gift of Vorwerke to the Polish officers and officials who had become unfortunate.”

So much may suffice for an appraisal of this little-known and little-regarded document, the Black Register, as well as of the procedure favoured by the government in South Prussia.

As for Held personally, he maintained, on the strength of the facts he had cited, that he must not only be acquitted, but that his opponents must be removed from their offices and punished. “Hoym deserves far more to sit here in the so-called Ochsenkopf than I deserve to sit in the Hausvoigtei.” — That ministers too

— 134 —

could be scoundrels was proved by examples: Frederick had sent the minister v. Görne[124] to the fortress as a convicted swindler; the reigning King had dismissed the minister v. Wöllner from service as a bad man.

The defence, however, led to no happy outcome. The original judgment was confirmed, and the punishment was even sharpened, insofar as Held had to serve it in Kolberg instead of Spandau, and was thus cut off from all literary intercourse.

How Held himself later thought about the Black Register we see from his own letter to the War Councillor v. Cölln,[125] when he communicated to him the Black Book and the Black Register that had been requested with confidential importunity.

“The matter” — Held wrote to Cölln — “is over, it lies far behind me, forgotten like an abominable dream. I do not wish, at least as long as I live, to be its further disseminator. I therefore make it an express condition with you that you lend out neither piece, and show them to no one at all whatsoever. — Pain and disgust and vexation have worked so strangely upon my brain that I have in earnest quite forgotten the entire content of the Black Book, exactly as if I had never composed it, and for four years I have

— 135 —

not been able to bring myself to read a single line of it. Only through our recent conversation has it become somewhat interesting to me again. If you would therefore indicate to me the pages where you find errors, I will study the thing through once more. A thorough critique matters to me no less than your actual opinion” etc.

Cölln, however, was not the man who deserved this trust. — Too late did Held recognize the intrigues of this South Prussian War Councillor, who soon became so notorious, and out of concern about the misuse of the writings he had communicated to him, Held published his correspondence with him.

Cölln now heaped, in his “Neue Feuerbrände” [New Firebrands], burning coals upon the head of our Held. Purely for the pleasure of giving offence, and without authorization to do so, he printed the Black Register, under the mask of a third contributor unknown to him, in the 2nd part of the “Neue Feuerbrände”, Amsterdam and Cologne, 1807, and in the 3rd part heaped “the black registrar” with abuse and insinuations of the basest kind. In spite of this, only six alleged inaccuracies of the Black Register are censured in all, in the 3rd part of the Feuerbrände. More than that not even a Cölln, the passionate eulogist of Hoym and embittered opponent of Held, was able to demonstrate. The corrections relate to the entries sub No. 7, 10, 14, 18, 20 and 28, and, for the sake of completeness, have been reprinted below in their proper place as notes, despite their conspicuous triviality. The Grevenitz mentioned sub No. 14 also sought, in the 5th part of the Feuerbrände, pp. 59–113, to justify himself at greater length by printing the Gurowski trial records.

Held found himself thereby once again embroiled in disputes. He defended himself repeatedly. Here only a few passages of a letter that he wrote to the South Prussian Government Councillor v. Grevenitz on 28 October 1807.[126]

— 136 —

“Whether I, in sending the King the Black Book, acted rightly or wrongly in a moral sense, and whether as a visionary or as a truer seer, needs no further dispute, since — however insignificant I myself may always be — the fate of the world itself has palpably and manifestly justified me. The whole of my deed at that time may be summed up in a few words. I wished thereby to prove nothing else to the King than the unreliability of bureaucratic forms with regard to the true nature of state administration, and I called out to him: become stricter, show more energy against your subordinate — mostly incapable and demoralized — organs of administration, or through your apathy you will plunge yourself, together with the state, into misfortune![127] — Now precisely the same thing has befallen me that

— 137 —

mutatis mutandis a Sultan does, who has a messenger impaled because he brings him, from a distant region, fatal news.” — —

“Enough — I felt it deeply, and it shone into my mind as clearly as bright sunshine, that given the present movements of the world, the Prussian state would shortly and simply be overrun, unless the government adopted other political and administrative measures more suited to the pressing spirit of the age. But this government was, as I had not duly considered, a juridical one; it viewed itself and Europe through the spectacles of the Landrecht. Meanwhile, as the outcome has unfortunately shown, I have nevertheless been right.” —

“That I am hated, I know, and I understand why. He who foretells misfortune is always hated, and afterward he is hated again when the misfortune arrives, for in both directions he has offended the self-love of those who should have understood the state of things better. At bottom this hatred is absurd. The storm-gull does not make the storm; its cry only announces its approach, because it cannot do otherwise and its instinct drives it to it. Even if the hatred of an unreasoning helmsman shoots it down out of the air, that changes nothing in the matter itself. The storm comes all the same.”

“Surely you yourself believe that I had no part in the publication of the Black Register. Every kind of vexation overcame me when it suddenly appeared in the second part of the Feuerbrände, all the more so since I saw it, and moreover my own person, disgraced in the third part by

— 138 —

Cölln, that disgusting scribbler.[128] At last you too came forward, without considering that when documents originally intended only for the eyes of the King and of the judges are printed, it is solely the instigator of the printing who is the injuriant. In your place I would, instead of marching up with documents, have conducted myself in an entirely opposite manner and served the black registrar quite differently. A candid confession would have done you the greatest honour, even if others sank into shame over it. You could boldly have said: I — have still been one of the best men in South Prussia. If it went thus with me, if my circumstances were of this kind, one may conclude how the doings of those gentlemen were managed after all! I — did nothing more than appropriate to myself, from the general plunder, a bone, where others seized the roasts for themselves pêle-mêle!”

Only from this time on, since 1807, did the Black Register become a much sought-after literary curiosity, all the more so since, as is well known, the Feuerbrände were proscribed by the censorship.

The Black Register is therefore an important document, both for that worthless ministerial regime which once flourished in Prussia, and quite especially for the history of the German colonisations in

— 139 —

the Prussian, formerly Polish, portion of the land of the Grand Duchy of Posen, namely of the nobility and the great landowners.

The value of this document, the purity and reliability of its origin, will now appear the less doubtful when we further recall that, in the recognition which the Prussian government later attained, Zerboni was appointed in the year 1815 Oberpräsident of the newly founded Grand Duchy of Posen; that Held, in most honourable recognition of his sorely tested sense of justice, enjoyed the most general veneration up to his death in the year 1840, and is held up as a model of a truly German character.

And so we close with a few judgments concerning that document:

“Objection has since been raised against insignificant errors in the entries of the Black Register, but never against its correctness as a whole.” Varnhagen loc. cit. p. 131.

“However much untruth the notorious Black Register may contain, there is still too much truth in it for a good government, and the whole is a sad monument to abused good nature and shameless self-interest. Berlin innkeepers, with whom eminent state officials had lodged, wrote small bills for their guests because they hoped to receive an estate in recompense, and sent larger ones afterward because they saw themselves deceived in their expectation.” Manso, Gesch. Preussens v. 1763 bis 1797, vol. I. 371.

— 140 —

The Black Register

or

GENERAL-TABLEAU

of the former Polish crown and ecclesiastical estates donated between 1794 and 1798.

I. In the Department of the Chamber at Posen[129]

1. Privy Cabinet Councillor von Beyer.

Now retired and living in Berlin.

1) Lubin
2) Wymislaw
3) Brzyna
4) Ossowo
5) Stenczyce
6) Wielichowo
7) Zelazno
8) Woyniec
9) Gniewowo
10) Monschin
11) Schwezkau

} (1–6) Kosten district
} (8–11) Fraustadt
} (1–11) 70225 Thlr.

— 141 —

The annual income of these eleven estates now amounts to at the very least 8000 thalers. Their true value may therefore unquestionably be reckoned at 160,000 thalers. The deed of donation is dated Berlin, 14 January 1797, and signed by Hoym and Reck. It reads: In token of Our most gracious satisfaction with the long, loyal, and upright services rendered to Us and Our Royal House, etc. And thus read almost all of them.

2. Lieutenant-General von Bischofswerder.

Now retired and living on his fine estate of Marquard, one mile from Potsdam, which the previous King likewise gave him as a gift.

1) Bieganowo
2) Przewierzyn
3) Byton
4) Struzewo

} (1–2) Radziejewo district
} (3–4) Brzesc
} (1–4) 18000 Thlr.

The infamy of this so understated valuation is notorious; for Bischofswerder sold these four estates to

— 142 —

Count v. Lüttichau for 25,000 friedrichs d’or.

“Although the plan for the donation of the estates — according to Cölln — originated with Bischofswerder and his wife, he himself cared nothing for possessing estates in South Prussia. “Scarcely had they been made over to him than he wished to sell them too. For that purpose a simpleton from Copenhagen was found, a Imperial Count v. Lüttichau, newly created during the imperial interregnum, who possessed a great fortune. Bischofswerder made him envoy to the Lower Saxon Circle and proposed to the King that this millionaire be drawn into the country by giving him estates in South Prussia as a gift. This was done (see No. 14 in the Posen and No. 10 in the Kalisch Department). And in due gratitude he bought Bischofswerder’s donations from him for 50,000 friedrichs d’or.”

Vertraute Briefe [Confidential Letters] I. p. 81.

3. Major-General von Blücher.

  1. Duninow
  2. Tobenczna
  3. Szadow
  4. Nowa Wies
  5. Krzement

} (1–4) Kowal district
} (1–4) 28000 Thlr.

Since the annual income certainly amounts to 6000 thalers, the true value of these five estates may unhesitatingly be reckoned at 120,000 thalers.

4. Colonel vom Böhmcken.

Now in Ruppin with the Regiment Ferdinand; formerly aide-de-camp in Potsdam to the King.

Sokolowo Brzesc 21925 Thlr.

True value between 40,000 and 50,000 thalers. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797.

5. Privy Finance Councillor Boumann.

  1. Lubrzec
  2. Chrustowo
  3. Otrowice

} (1–2) Szroda
} (3) Powidz
} (1–3) 15000 Thlr.

— 143 —

The annual rental income now amounts to 4000 thalers. For Lubrzec alone, which has splendid meadows and woodlands, Count Kwilecki of Dobrojewo recently offered 12,000 thalers to Boumann’s son, who is employed as an assessor at the Posen Chamber.

6. Major von Brodowski.

In the suite at Potsdam.

Lagiewniki Posen 2650 Thlr.

Sold in June 1801 for 25,000 thalers.

7. City President Eisenberg in Berlin.

  1. Pietrzykowo
  2. Jadomirz
  3. Wronbryn
  4. Wronbryner Hauländerei

} Peisern district 23350 Thlr.

Now leased to a certain von Jaworowitz for 2000 thalers annually. True value 40,000 thalers. After the riot in Breslau, in which 72 people perished, Eisenberg had to travel to Breslau and investigate the matter. On that occasion Hoym fell on his knees before Eisenberg and begged him, for God’s sake, not to ruin him. Hence this donation later on. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797.

“The untruth of this calumny is self-evident. Whoever knows Count Hoym understands at once that it was physically and morally impossible for him to fall on his knees. How could the lame[130] man have managed that? Under all circumstances, Hoym’s prudence had resources enough to spare him from such a degrading act toward an Eisenberg. The blame for having caused the riot fell upon Werner, the City President in Breslau, an immediate favourite of Frederick William II, for whom he had negotiated funds while the latter was still Crown Prince.”

— 144 —

Neue Feuerbrände III. p. 131.

8. Major von Grawert.

In the suite at Potsdam, adjutant-general of the cavalry to the King.

  1. Grabowo
  2. Krzywagóra

} Peisern 15450 Thlr.

Leased to Amtmann Nehring for 1500 thalers annually. True value between friends 30,000 thalers. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797.

9. Major von Hünerbein (Georg Heinrich, Baron.)

In the suite at Potsdam.

(Adjutant to Prince Louis.)

  1. Obra
  2. Jaziniec, village
  3. Zodyn
  4. Kielpin
  5. Nieborze
  6. Krulla
  7. Winica
  8. Chorzomin
  9. Jaziniec, Vorwerk
  10. All the German Hauländereien belonging to these estates.

} Bomst district 100000 Thlr.

The annual yield of all these estates is already now close to 10000 Thlr.

“Herr von Hünerbein was the lover of the beautiful Fräulein von Knobelsdorf, lady-in-waiting to Princess Louis; she was staying with the King at Pyrmont. Once the King was at breakfast with the Princess in the morning, when the Knobelsdorf lady passed through the

— 145 —

room. The words escaped him: A pretty girl, Princess! — Oh yes! (she replied) she is already a bride, too! — To whom? asked the King. To Herr von Hünerbein, she replied; but it is a match of true love, for they have nothing, both of them. — Let them marry, give them estates! was the King’s reply.”

“A courier was at once dispatched to Herr v. Hünerbein at Karge, where he was stationed in garrison, with the note that he should send the Princess a petition to the King in which he should propose an estate. Herr v. Hünerbein chose the neighbouring monastery of Obra, worth 200,000 thalers. The petition was sent off, and soon afterward he was in possession of the estate and of his fair bride.”

(Cölln) Vertraute Briefe über die inneren Verhältnisse am preussischen Hofe etc. vol. I. p. 100.

v. Hünerbein married in 1798, and died in 1818 as commanding general in Silesia. His son-in-law was the commander of the Garde du Corps, Count Franz Waldersee.

10. Lieutenant-General Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen.

In Breslau. See No. 8 in the Department of Kalisch.

  1. Stadt Betsche
  2. Swiegoszyn
  3. Stoki
  4. Löwin
  5. Gloszewo
  6. Dormowo
  7. Winiec

} (1–6) Meseritz district
} (7) Brzesc
} (3–7) 77250 Thlr.

These and the estates designated sub No. 8 in the Department of Kalisch are together worth about 800,000 thalers and yield 50,000 thalers in revenue annually; these estates are accordingly better than the indebted Principality of Ingelfingen. A few years ago the Prince wished to exchange these scattered estates for the Royal Domain of Krotoszyn, already coveted by so many speculators, but the Cabinet Councillor Beyme prevented the

— 146 —

execution of this project, and rightly so. On this occasion the Prince himself, in the cabinet of the present King, stated the above-named annual yield at as much as 50,000 thalers. The late King had actually consented only to a donation intended to bring the Prince 6000 thalers annually.

“The exchange which Hohenlohe proposed between the domain office of Krotoszyn and his own domains would not have been unjust, had it taken place according to the valuations made of both objects of exchange. The Minister of State v. Voss thwarted this project, perhaps with good intentions. But the Hohenlohe possessions served the King better than Krotoszyn, for they rounded out so many of the South Prussian domain offices from which they had unwisely been torn.”

Neue Feuerbrände III. p. 132.

11. Court Marshal Count von Keyserlingk.

1) Stadt Priment
2) Alt Kloster
3) Lupice
4) Muchowo
5) Friedendorff

} Fraustadt district, 59000 Thlr.

It is true that Keyserlingk paid 40,000 thalers in purchase money; but for that he now draws 6000 thalers annual income from these estates.

By what merits this Count v. Keyserlingk obtained the donation, we do not know. He appears to be the son of the starosta of Engelsburg, who rendered Frederick the Great “the best of services” at the homage of the Polish starostas and voivodes after the occupation of West Prussia in 1772, and of whom mention was already made on p. 32, to which we refer.

12. The von Krackwitz.

He was travelling equerry to the previous King and was then called Leberenz. He now lives in Berlin.

  1. Koslowo
  2. Siemowo

} Kröben district, 30150 Thlr.

— 147 —

The true value is approximately 100,000 thalers, and the annual yield between 4,000 and 5,000 thalers. Both would be higher if proper management were provided. The favour of the Privy Cabinet Councillor’s lady, Beyer, was probably the main channel from which this gift flowed. Her husband, who is already listed sub No. 1 with eleven estates, was once together with Krackwitz in Posen and related very good-naturedly at the table of the Chamber President v. Harlein that this donation was a reward for Krackwitz having twice saved the life of the late King during the campaign. Other people, however, will have nothing to do with this account. Krackwitz sold these estates to the Landrat von Potworowski in the Kosten district for 60,000 thalers.

13. Major-General von Larisch.

  1. Lekarzewice
  2. Woytostwo Zukowice

} Brzesc, 9000 Thlr.

14. The Danish Count v. Lüttichau, who emigrated from there.

See No. 10 in the Department of Kalisch.

  1. Town of Kowal — Kowal
  2. Town of Szadek
  3. Kruszyn
  4. Swiednik
  5. Popowice
  6. Polszewo — Radziejewo
  7. Tarnowo — Posen
  8. Konojad — Kosten
  9. Town and starosty of Kopnitz
  10. Groitzig
  11. Lagiewnik — Brzesc
  12. Kalinowice
  13. Diabelek

} (2–5) Brzesc
} (9–10) Bomst
} (12–13) Radziejewo
} (1–13) 84000 Thlr.

— 148 —

The estates, together with those under No. 10 in the Department of Kalisch, are worth 800,000 thalers. The circumstances surrounding this Lüttichau are very confused, mysterious, and equivocal. He is in fact an Imperial Count, and as recently as fifteen years ago was chief clerk of the Danish East India Trading Company in Copenhagen, a position in which he enriched himself so greatly that he was able to buy a great many estates in Holstein — which, however, hated by his subjects, he soon afterward exchanged for other estates in Brunswick. In 1795 Hoym wished to lease him the lordships of Krotoszyn and Połajewo for 36 years at 50,000 thalers annually, and this matter introduced him into South Prussia. Here he sometimes lent his name to donations that were actually received by others who were not to be named. This was the case, for example, with the estate of Tarnowo, No. 7, situated two [German] miles from Posen, which the Government Councillor v. Grevenitz in Posen received as a reward for having, in the divorce suit of the simple-minded Count Gurowski against his wife — a Bischofswerder daughter who had been foisted upon him — ruled in favour of this person in such a way that 72,000 thalers had to be paid out to her by her husband. Grevenitz gave Lüttichau 3,000 thalers for Tarnowo and afterward sold it for 65,000 thalers. Likewise Lüttichau had to cede the estate of Konojad, No. 8, to the Justice Councillor Reinhard at Posen, pursuant to a convention secretly concluded with Hoym, as a reward for the fact that Reinhard — who had helped organize the South Prussian mortgage system and was thus very well informed about the estates becoming vacant and their value — selected the estates to be given away. The deed of donation is dated 25 January 1797 and reads: To give him a token of Our Royal favour, grace, and goodwill, We have resolved etc. The cabinet order to the Minister v. Hoym begins: In accordance with your motion etc.

— 149 —

Cölln, in the passage already cited on p. 133, presented Lüttichau as “a simpleton from Copenhagen,” as “a newly-minted count of the Empire from the time of the imperial interregnum (Vicariate).” “This Lüttichau,” the passage continues, consistent with the assertion above, “now received a great many estates, and since one did not wish to name too many different persons to the King, the estates that were intended as gifts for other creatures were entered under the Count’s name, on which he then had immediately to conclude a sham purchase contract with the true donatary.” It further states:

“The Imperial Count v. Lüttichau was also to become a domain lessee. The lordships of Krotoszyn and Polajewo formerly belonged to the Minister Goerne. After his dismissal (cashiering and imprisonment) they were confiscated and administered for the account of the Seehandlung toward payment of Goerne’s defalcations of 90,000 thalers. Herr v. Struensee, however, transferred them in 1795 to the Posen Chamber as domains, though the latter, under the amortization plan approved by the King, had to pay the Seehandlung 50,000 thalers annually for 36 years toward that capital and interest. — The Imperial Count Lüttichau obtained a cabinet order under which the lease of these estates was granted to him for 36 years at the sum of 50,000 thalers annually, with the further stipulation that he should be free to build and make improvements at the King’s expense. The domain offices, however, yield 64,000 thalers, so that the Imperial Count Lüttichau would have profited 14,000 thalers annually — that is, 504,000 thalers over 36 years, without reckoning the advantage of so extended a lease. The Posen Chamber, however, set itself against the execution of so shameful a project, and the King died too soon for it to be carried through.”

A Count Lüttichau residing in Russian Poland, brother-in-law of H. v. Treskow at Grocholin near Exin, distinguished himself in the year 1848, in the flowering season of the national reorganization and pacification of the Grand Duchy of Posen, as chief of a so-called German free corps.

On the situation of the comital Gurowski couple, Cölln reports loc. cit. p. 80.

A fateful mishap befell this royal favourite (Bischofswerder) shortly before the insurrection, in connection with his daughter. The holder of the starosty of Koło, Count Gurowsky, wished to secure possession of his starosty; Bischofswerder received him graciously, drew him into his family circle, and thereby an attachment of love arose between Gurowsky and Fräulein Bischofswerder. The father gave his blessing, and the wedding was celebrated at Fraustadt. Five days later, however, the young couple were afflicted with an

— 150 —

affliction that furnished the most just cause for divorce. Gurowski claimed to have been infected by his wife. As a result of the divorce suit before the Posen Regierung, an interim arrangement was regulated, and one of the Count’s estates, Murowana Goślin, was placed under sequestration in order to provide the wife with maintenance suited to her rank from it. The young Gurowsky, full of despair, joined the insurrection, and later, pressed and intimidated by the mediators Grevenitz and Triebenfeld, gave up the rich Murowana Goślin to the Bischofswerder daughter.

On Grewenitz, Cölln remarks in the Neue Feuerbrände, Part III, p. 132:

“The Government Councillor v. Grevenitz is here done too great an injustice; he is here flatly accused of bribery. Grevenitz was not in fact the judge in the matter at all, but only the official assistant of Countess Gurowska. Nor was the legal dispute of the Gurowski couple quo ad bona adjudicated at all, but settled by agreement. (One sees how poorly informed the author was.) All the sums given here are false.”

In answer to Grewenitz’s own demonstration, in the fifth part of the Feuerbrände, that he had not been judge but only mediator in the matter, Held replied in the letter already cited on p. 136: “My wrong, in that I represented you as judge, I have acknowledged without reservation and have altered the passages concerned. You are no swindler, but when they were looking for someone, you made use of your connection to the sources of estate-donation then current, and only to that extent does an inner wrong lie in your acquisition of the estate. According to the records you yourself published, you bought the estate for 3,000 thalers, and, after possessing it only 1½ years, had it valued in the sale at 65,000 thalers. How is it possible — even had Thaer himself been your steward — to raise an estate’s value so enormously in so short a time, with all due improvements? You surely did not discover silver mines!”

15. Minister Marquis v. Lucchesini at Potsdam.

Now envoy at Paris.

  1. Starosty of Meseritz
  2. A great Vorwerk attached to it
  3. A great mill
  4. A copper-hammer works
  5. A sawmill
  6. Kainscht (Kęszyca)
  7. Nipter (Nietoperek)
  8. Solben (Solwina)
  9. Dürlettel (Suchy Lutolek)
  10. Rogsen (Rogoziniec)
  11. The rents payable from ancient times to the starosty of Meseritz by the villages Sären, Tempel Burschau, Langenpfuhl, and Morke, situated in the Neumark and subject to this rent

} (5–8) Meseritz
} (9–11) Bomst
} (5–11) 151500 Thlr.

— 151 —

This donation, on account of its excellent compact situation and the Obra flowing through it, is one of the most considerable, important, and beautiful. It is now judicially valued at 500,000 thalers, and is fully worth this. The astute Italian, with priest-like sharp-sightedness, correctly spied out the best spot and knew how to appropriate it to himself. His former diplomatic exertions at Warsaw are hereby richly rewarded. It was only fair that he should get a piece of the partition of Poland which he himself helped to bring about. This starosty of Meseritz formerly belonged to Prince Jablonowski. The deed of donation, dated Berlin, 14 January 1797, reads: In token of Our most gracious satisfaction with the loyal, distinguished, and profitable services rendered to Us and Our Royal House, etc.

Girolamo Lucchesini was, up to Frederick’s death, one of his most intimate friends; born in 1752 into a patrician family in Lucca, he became Prussian chamberlain on 9 May 1780, and after Frederick’s death was employed in the diplomatic service, first at Warsaw, then from 1802 to 1806 at the French court. He died on 19 September 1825 in Florence. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr. IV. 211.

On Lucchesini’s character and public activity see the Militärische Geschichte des Prinzen Friedrich August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Oels 1797. p. 313. Manso, Geschichte des preussischen Staats. I. 308.

— 152 —

16. Baron von Schilden.

Formerly chamberlain to Princess Ferdinand, now employed in the same dignity with the Queen. No further merits are known of him.

  1. Gorazdowo
  2. Kurza Góra
  3. Boniszewo

} Kosten 21800 Thlr.

Recently sold for 30,000 thalers.

17. Major von Schwichow.

Of the Life Guards at Potsdam.

  1. Laskow
  2. Miedzichow
  3. Osnow

} Gnesen 11425 Thlr.

Frederick the Great is said once to have done him a wrong, in respect of various claims to a fief in Pomerania, and hence this compensation. The reason can at any rate be entertained. Among the present examples, it is at least one of the better ones. Schwichow has now sold these three estates to the Government Councillor Fromm in Posen for 40,000 thalers. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797.

18. The fancy-goods dealer v. Treskow in Berlin.

He was ennobled under the previous reign and is a son-in-law of the rich brandy-distiller George in Berlin. Since no particular merits toward the state are known of Treskow, one must rightly be alarmed at these enormous donations.

See further No. 10 in the Warsaw Department.

  1. The fine and rich monastery of Owinsk, one [German] mile from Posen.
  2. Miękowo
  3. Dembogóra
  4. Radziawi
  5. Wierzonka
  6. Barcinek
  7. Skorzencin
  8. Radojewo
  9. Truskolowo
  10. Czerwonaniwa
  11. Chludowo
  12. Biedrusko
  13. Bolechowko

} Posen 73325 Thlr.

— 153 —

Owinsk has excellent woodlands, while the neighbouring former starosty of Szrim, which has become a royal domain, has not a single tree, so that the official at Szrim must buy not only his building timber but even his firewood from Treskow, and this purchase must be credited to him on the domain budget of Szrim. Near Owinsk and Szrim lies the lordship of Murowano Goślin; this the Bischofswerder daughter (see No. 14) obtained from her husband, in place of the 72,000 thalers in cash that Grevenitz had awarded her. Hoym thereupon bought this lady’s Murowano Goślin from her for 72,000 thalers, and sold it again to Treskow for 120,000 thalers. What a traffic! Treskow, however, is the most useful of all the donataries, on account of the tireless, sensible, indeed lavish zeal with which he puts his estates in order and makes his peasants industrious. These estates, together with those recorded under No. 10 in the Warsaw Department, have a value of approximately 350,000 thalers.

In the deed of gift, dated Berlin, 24 January 1787, no further reason for the donation is given than: Out of the Royal favour shown to him and most gracious goodwill etc.

“Hoym bought Murowano Goślin for 120,000 thalers and sold it again for exactly the same price. If the purchase had been made by him as a favour to Bischofswerder, how unwise would he have been

— 154 —

to profit immediately by as much as 40 percent (?) on it? One sees how greatly the fury to revile carried the author away, and how inconsistently he proceeded therein.”

Neue Feuerbrände III. 132.

19. Count von Unruh.

Owner of the town of Karge in South Prussia, not far from Züllichow. The same man who, in Warsaw during the time of the revolution, had already been placed under the gallows.

  1. Woynowo
  2. Chwalin
  3. Alt Kramzig
  4. Neu Kramzig

} Bomst 21150 Thlr.

He formerly belonged to the Prussian party in Warsaw and is an insufferable person, devoid of all sense, yet withal an exceedingly arrogant chatterbox. These estates were given to him only to stop his mouth. Their annual lease yield is 4,000 thalers.

20. Councillor of the Nobility von Unruh.

Owner of Heinersdorf near Züllichow in the Neumark. A brother-in-law of Colonel von Köckeritz.

  1. Gross Posemukel
  2. Klein Posemukel
    Or more properly the starosty of Bomst without the town, for these are merely the town’s Vorwerke.

} Bomst
} The valuation at donation has remained unknown. This donation, however, has recently been sold for 80,000 thalers.

These estates were actually given to Colonel v. Köckeritz, adjutant-general to the King, and only because he and his brother-in-law, on the basis of a mutual pact of inheritance existing between them, regard and treat their respective fortunes as one, were they given and made out in the name of this

— 155 —

brother-in-law. To this Köckeritz’s credit, it is noted here that Hoym had to offer him this donation four times, and finally press it upon him, before he could bring himself to accept it. In the end he accepted it only after he had given notice of it to the Crown Prince (the present King). One perceives, moreover, from this move of Hoym’s how urgently he was concerned to ingratiate himself in good time with the closest friends of the heir to the throne, and to win them over to himself as far as possible. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797. It reads: To give Unruh a token of Our Royal favour and grace, We have resolved.

“The Councillor of the Nobility von Unruh is just as upright a man as General von Köckeritz, and it is not true that the estates named were given to the latter; rather, they were granted in hereditary quit-rent to von Unruh against a hereditary-tenure sum and compensation to the previous owner, Count Lukas v. Bninski. This compensation Herr v. Unruh had to pay dearly, and moreover had to make good in money the value of the inventory found upon the estates. He put the buildings, which had been neglected, into good order, and made a number of improvements before he sold them.”

Neue Feuerbrände III. 133.

21. Lieutenant-General von Wendessen in Warsaw.

See No. 11 in the Warsaw Department.

  1. Czermno

} Brzesc
} 19375 Thlr.

Presumably Wendessen, during the period before the acquisition of South Prussia, while he was in garrison at Breslau, entered into very friendly relations with Hoym. Deed of donation dated Berlin, 25 January 1797.

— 156 —

22. Major-General von Zastrow in Posen.

Former adjutant-general to the King.

  1. Gurka
  2. Tworzykowo
  3. Gura
  4. Schimanowo
  5. Wielichowo (Kosten)
  6. Deutsch Presse (Fraustadt)
  7. Widziszewo (Kosten)
  8. Slupia Kröben

} (1-4) Szrim
} 87650 Thlr.

These estates, situated in the most fertile region of the voivodeship of Posen, are in part confiscations and formerly belonged hereditarily to Count Wybycki, well known in the revolutionary history of Poland, who now lives with Kosciuszko in Paris. Zastrow has, very prudently, not yet had these estates valued. They are, however, worth at least 200,000 thalers now. They lie only three to four [German] miles from Posen.

II. In the Department of the Chamber at Kalisch.

1/23. Prince Czetwertinski.

  1. Starosty Tusczyn

} Peterkau
} Unknown

Probably insignificant, and given to a native-born Pole only to affect impartiality.

2/24. General von Favrat in Glatz.

  1. Willamowo

} Szadeck
} 5500 Thlr.

The cabinet order of 20 April 1797 begins, like most similar ones to Hoym, with: In accordance with your proposal etc. The true value is 36,000 thalers, after Favrat had already had 20,000 thalers’ worth of timber felled.

— 157 —

3/25. Privy Councillor von Goldbeck.

Son of the Grand Chancellor, who cleverly had the donation made out in his son’s name.

  1. Russow
  2. Tykallow
  3. Klokinie

} Kalisch, 28600 Thlr.

In the deed of gift, the late King fixed for all time a considerable and singular remission of the dues on these estates, below even the fixed taxes of the nobility. Improved by this privilege, Goldbeck junior sold them to a Baron von Seld for 62,000 thalers — much to his own detriment, however. For, according to the judicial valuation that Seld had drawn up, they are

Russow 64374 Thlr. 8 Sgr. — Pf.
Tykallow 56551 Thlr. 10 Sgr. 10 Pf.
= 120925 Thlr. 18 Sgr. 10 Pf.

valued at; and besides, Klokinie has not even been valued yet. Incidentally, the question arises: how could a just Grand Chancellor accept, or indeed even wish for, the aforementioned remission of dues, being so offensive an exemption from general burdens?

“And why did all this happen? — Because Goldbeck, for his part, was to extricate Hoym from the stinking affair (by the quashing of the suit Früson versus the Seehandlung at Berlin), Hoym saw to it that the son of Goldbeck, a wretched, silly, wholly undeserving lout, was given the splendid estates of Russow, Tykallow, and Klokinie, situated one [German] mile from Kalisch.”

Die wahren Jakobiner, p. 255.

“Goldbeck took the opportunity, from the favours shown to Hoym in the Zerbony-Früson lawsuit,

— 158 —

to acquire South Prussian estates for his son, and at the same time surreptitiously obtained from the late King a dishonouring reduction of the tax on these estates as against that of all other landholders — a thing that no genuine servant of the state, and least of all a Grand Chancellor, ought to demand or accept.”

Held, in the manuscript of his Defence.

4/26. Lieutenant-Colonel von Hagen.

Of the Grevenitz Regiment at Glogau, now commander of the Treuenfels Regiment at Breslau.

  1. Bogumilow

} Siradz
} 15000 Thlr.

He is the only one who has been cheated in this system of donations; for he sold Bogumilow for 12,000 thalers. In return, however, he is also a very upright man. The buyer was Hoym himself, who had after all made the valuation of the donation. A Baron von Stössel had to lend his name to the purchase and give it to Hoym.

5/27. Minister Count von Haugwitz.

Owner of the great lordship of Krappitz in Upper Silesia.

  1. Starosty of Kłobucko
  2. Kroszyce

} (1) Czenstochau
} (2) Cracow portion
} (1–2) 135000 Thlr.

As is said, this man, out of patriotism, is supposed to take no salary as minister, but serves for nothing. It is, however, very certain that he nevertheless took these estates and has already sold them for 200,000 thalers.

6/28. Princess of Hessen-Philipps-Thal.

  1. Scholtisey Sieradz

} Sieradz } 3400 Thlr.

7/29. General von Hirschfeld.

Commander of the Life Guard at Potsdam.

  1. Marianowo Kuźnica

} Czenstochau } 9700 Thlr.

— 159 —

8/30. Lieutenant-General Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen at Breslau.

See No. 10 in the Department of Posen.

  1. Trombczyn
  2. Nowa-Wies
  3. Oswiery
  4. Lazy
  5. Szetlewek

} Konin } 12000 Thlr.

9/31. Count Luba, a Pole by birth.

Sieradz Starosty (without the town)

} Konin
} Unknown.

Not granted hereditarily, but only a confirmation of the grant made in Polish times for 44 years. Luba sold this right of use for 11,000 ducats to the present Frau von Biernacka. This lady is the same Bischofswerder daughter who in 1793 married Count Gurowsky, and of whom mention is made at No. 14.

10/32. The Danish émigré Count von Lüttichau.

See No. 14 in the Department of Posen.

  1. Bliszanowo
  2. Zborrow
  3. Grodziskow
  4. Cekow
  5. Prasuki
  6. Stare
  7. Kuchary
  8. Podlesie

} (1–6) Kalisch
} (7–8) Adelnau
} (1–8) 26000 Thlr.

The shameless fraud in the accompanying valuation is proven; for the estate Kuchary, No. 7, alone has been judicially assessed at 90,000 thalers.

— 160 —

11/33. Legation Councillor Neumann.

  1. Marchracz
  2. Klinek
  3. Michalowo
  4. The Iwanowice priest’s glebe [Priestergrund]

} Kalisch } Unknown.

12/34. Chamberlain Chevalier Saint Patern.

  1. Dobron

} In the intendancy of Fabiance.
} Unknown

Has recently been sold for 17,000 thalers.

13/35. Major von Plötz of the Regiment von Grevenitz.

  1. Wonglzew

} Warta
} 10000 Thlr.

Sold for 20,000 thalers. The cabinet order is dated 20 April 1797.

14/36. Major von Pontanus of the Artillery.

Directed the siege of Warsaw.

  1. Dzigorzew
  2. Jakubice
  3. Baszkow
  4. Sieradz Starosty

} Sieradz } Unknown.

The judicial valuation by the Regierung at Kalisch stands at 200,000 thalers. Pontanus could have obtained this price, but did not wish to sell after all.

15/37. Lieutenant-General von Rüchel at Potsdam.

  1. Lordship or starosty of Ostrzeszow
  2. Boreck
  3. Sidlikow
  4. Zajonczki
  5. Parana
  6. Niedzwic
  7. Bukownice
  8. The ecclesiastical estate of Kaliszkowice

} Ostrzeszow } 30000 Thlr.

— 161 —

Rüchel received the lordship of Ostrzeszów, or the first 7 numbers, according to the deed of donation, under the title of a little grace-and-favour estate and, at a valuation of 20,000 thalers, as a gift. Immediately after the donation, a whirlwind swept through the great woodlands of this little grace-and-favour estate and actually blew down some fir trees. Over this Rüchel raised a mighty outcry and pretended that he did not even wish to keep this supposedly ruined little grace-and-favour estate at all. Hoym thereupon had the windfall timber valued at 40,000 thalers, and arranged that Rüchel, by way of compensation, was given Kaliszkowice as well, at a valuation of 10,000 thalers. It was not long before Rüchel sold all 8 estates, without ever having visited or seen them, to the Government Councillor von Reibnitz at Kalisch for 130,000 thalers. After the purchase, Reibnitz had them judicially valued, and it was found that the lordship of Ostrzeszów, or the first 7 estates, was worth 341,000 thalers, and the ecclesiastical estate of Kaliszkowice 39,000 thalers — altogether, then, 380,000 thalers. Rüchel then wanted to sue Reibnitz on the ground that he had suffered lesion beyond moiety, and to have the sale rescinded, but he did not succeed. Reibnitz already draws 12,000 thalers in income from these estates, but still owes Rüchel 90,000 thalers at 5 per cent.

Euclid teaches that the part is smaller than the whole, and God Himself cannot alter that. Nonetheless Hoym managed it. For how else, a few months after the donation, could he, on a little estate that he had valued at 20,000 thalers and on which Rüchel had not repaired so much as a single fence-post, far less undertaken any other improvements, have put down forest damage of 40,000 thalers

— 162 —

, since the forest, after all, is only a part of an estate? And in general, what a little estate, where such great forest damage can occur and yet the forest still remains standing! One sees plainly that either the valuation of Ostrzeszow at 20,000 thalers or the valuation of the forest damage at 40,000 thalers must have been false.

**16 38. War and Forest Councillor von Triebenfeld at Breslau.**

Favourite of Minister von Hoym.

  1. Piotrow
  2. Koscielna Wies
  3. Glogowa
  4. Krzywo Sondowo
  5. Lasky
  6. Pawlowo
  7. Nowa Wies
  8. Szmardzece

} (1) Kalisch
} (2–4) Adelnau
} (5–8) Ostrzeszow

} (1–4) The first 4 numbers were valued at 31,000 thalers at the time of the donation.
} (5–8) For the last 4 numbers, or the lordship of Lasky, he paid a hereditary-tenure sum of 20,000 thalers.

In the spring of 1797 these exceedingly excellent estates were valued by the Regierung at Kalisch, after deduction of all taxes and allowances charged upon them, at a net worth of over 700,000 thalers. Among others, the following estates, in the following manner:

Piotrow und Pawlowo 19044 Thlr. 1 Gr. 8 Pf.
Koscielna Wies 195415 Thlr. 22 Gr. 6 Pf.
Glogowa 151087 Thlr. 10 Gr. —
Krzywo Sondowa 47888 Thlr. 3 Gr. 4 Pf.
Lasky 271061 Thlr. 4 Gr. 2 Pf.
= 684496 Thlr. 17 Gr. 8 Pf.

Still missing here, however, is the valuation of Nowa Wies and Szmardzice. On these estates considerable sums of capital are entered in favour of Bischofswerder. Triebenfeld has recently sold them all together to Prince George of

— 163 —

Hesse-Darmstadt for 400,000 thalers, and the latter has sold them again to the Saxon Chief Forest Master and Junior Chamberlain v. Schirnding, according to a contract dated Berlin, at the Golden Sun, 9 March 1801, for 750,000 thalers.

“Hidden within the valuation of the Triebenfeld estates and their sale price are estates that belong to him personally.

Neue Feuerbrände III. 133.

And who, then, was the War and Forest Councillor v. Triebenfeld actually, by origin? — To this the so-called “Black Book” answers, page 11 ff.

By origin he is a huntsman’s lad, and altogether without proper culture — rough, coarse, and impudent. He is the chief favourite of Minister v. Hoym and, through the latter’s patronage, was not only ennobled by King Frederick William II but also presented with a great many South Prussian estates. His first appearance dates from after the fall of Minister v. Görne, who in 1782 was arrested by Frederick’s cabinet order and taken to Spandau, while his fortune was confiscated to make good the deficits in the treasury. On this occasion the lordship of Krotoszyn became the property of the Seehandlung in Berlin, which had it administered for 9 years by Triebenfeld through the Chamber at Breslau.

The Breslau Chamber, under Minister Hoym, reckoned the Krotoszyn revenues to the Seehandlung at about 17 to 18,000 thalers annually, until at last, in the year 1791, the Privy Finance Councillor v. Struensee pushed through the leasing of the lordship of Krotoszyn to the Amtmann Früson, who bound himself to pay an annual rent of 30,100 thalers.

Hoym and Triebenfeld, however, soon agreed to turn the lease back into the earlier administration, and to make life in Krotoszyn as sour as possible for Früson in every way they could. Hoym promised to keep his back covered; Triebenfeld undertook the execution. The latter was all the easier, since Triebenfeld, as chief overseer of the extensive forests, which had not been leased along with the rest to Früson, continued to reside in the castle at Krotoszyn.

And so it indeed succeeded in driving the Amtmann Früson out of Krotoszyn, and it was in these and similar services that the sole merit of Triebenfeld was to be found — merit which was rewarded with the aforementioned donation of estates.

— 164 —

“One sees,” says the author of the Black Book, “with horror, how easily an unscrupulous minister decrees harm to a private person, when it is a matter of obliging another minister, or of extricating him from embarrassment; how little effort and cunning a broad-daylight fraud costs men of this stamp and rank, and how they, sans façon, not only play fast and loose with state revenues and private welfare, but even lie to their sovereign’s face, when fear and impending shame drive them to cover their old base deeds with new ones.”

In a more recent work[131] Triebenfeld himself gives the following account from his life.

“I was a huntsman in the service of a starosta who belonged to the commission set up for the suppression of the Jesuits. The commissioners had received as gifts from the Jesuits chalices and other gold and silver vessels set with precious stones, which, however, were thrown together to be divided up afterward. One day the whole worthy commission was assembled at the starosta’s; I stood behind my master’s chair. The conversation turned to the division of the gifts, and everyone was at a loss how it was to be managed. They could not agree; the gentlemen’s eyes flashed, and a fearful quarrel, murder and manslaughter, seemed in the offing. Then I spoke up and assured them I knew a remedy. I was ordered to speak, whereupon I made the following proposal: to break the precious stones out of the vessels and then have the metal melted down, into bars of 12 loth each. The proposal was found excellent, and I was appointed to carry out this melting. As a reward, I was always to receive the 21st bar. I arranged everything, and took as my assistant a cunning Jew well versed in chemistry. On the first day of our joint work, the Jew said to me: ‘The gentleman could make his fortune now and become a rich man, if I am given 4,000 thalers, I will tell my advice.’ — I promised the money, if the business should really bring in as much as was assured. — ‘Sir!’ — the Jew then began — ‘I understand the chemical process of separation; let us separate the gold from the silver, and then let the gentleman cast the 21st bar for himself out of pure gold with a thin coating of silver.’ The advice was excellent, and was followed. — Toward the end of the business the Jew brought along a little bag of Bohemian stones, which I was to deliver in place of the genuine ones

— 165 —

to the stupid Poles. — The Jew received his 4,000 thalers, and I moved to Silesia with a fortune of 30 to 35,000 thalers and began my career as a forestry candidate.”

And to a man who himself recounts such deeds of his own, Prince Hardenberg could still, in the year 1813, entrust the task — as the representative of Prussian, German sentiment in the Duchy of Warsaw — of receiving, in association with Dorow, money, horses, and the like, voluntary contributions as patriotic love-offerings which “well-disposed persons” in Poland were supposedly willing to give for the Prussian army![132] — The commission naturally also remained without success.

**17 39. General Count von Wartensleben at Liegnitz.**
  1. Tyczyn

} Sieradz
} 3500 Thlr.

**18 40. Captain von Stromberg.**
  1. Kamsko

} Konin
} The valuation at donation has remained unknown.

True value 50,000 thalers. Stromberg now sells, year in year out, a few thousand thalers’ worth of alder-wood. His brother, formerly a Russian major, then a South Prussian Landrat, and now an official at Dolzig, was the one who was to marry Madame Schreiber at Breslau, formerly Minister Hoym’s mistress, once the latter had had his fill of her. This would indeed have taken place, had not Schreiber died suddenly.

**19 41. Prince Louis of Würtemberg.**

Prussian General of Cavalry. Now in Russia.

  1. Zarembice
  2. Przyrow
  3. Kobukowice
  4. Kuchary
  5. Gross Makusche
  6. Bruszice
  7. Zawade
  8. Konin
  9. Wanskow
  10. Jaszkow
  11. Luslawice
  12. Rudniky
  13. Baby
  14. Okolowice
  15. Wielgomlin
  16. Przegoszyce
  17. Laborszyce
  18. Lubnik
  19. Dzierskowice
  20. Jesiersko

} (6–12) Czenstochau
} (13–18) Radomsk
} (19–20) Otrzeszow
} (6–20) These 20 estates were granted to the Prince against a purchase money of 20,000 thalers, and against payment of a canon, fixed at the time of the donation, of 13,398 thalers.

— 166 —

In the Berlin Intelligenzblätter of June 1801, the first two estates alone, Zarembice and Przyrow, are advertised for sale at a judicial valuation of 82,300 thalers 14 Sgr. 6 Pf.

III. In the Department of the Chamber at Warsaw.

**1 42. Lieutenant-General Count von Brühl.**
  1. Kaski
  2. Buszyce
  3. Baranow
  4. Gocin
  5. Grzybek
  6. Jaktorow
  7. Ogidel Mill
  8. Ogidel Colony
  9. Michalow
  10. Grody
  11. Gogolinow
  12. Wizutki
  13. Strumiary
  14. Stare
  15. Osiarow

} (7–14) Sochaczew } 32500 Thaler

— 167 —

The deed of donation, dated Berlin, 14 Jan. 1797, reads: In token of Our most gracious satisfaction with the loyal, distinguished (?), and profitable (?) services rendered to Us and Our Royal House, etc.

**2 43. General von Chlebowsky at Warsaw.**

Formerly in the suite at Potsdam. He drew up the deployment plan for the garrisons of South Prussia in the years 1794 and 1795.

  1. Nowidwór
  2. Alt-Rawa
  3. Alt-Regno
  4. Podskarbice
  5. Komorow

} Rawa } 33000 Thaler.

The deed of donation is dated Berlin, 17 June 1796. The annual rent amounts to 6,000 thalers. Komorow alone brings in 1,500 thalers annually. This village he gave to his present wife — previously divorced already from two husbands, and lastly from the War Councillor Buchholz at Posen — while she was still his mistress, because he feared that she might use against him the secrets of his that she knew. At the homage ceremony in Warsaw, which Hoym received, Chlebowsky is said to have addressed this Hoym as nothing other than: Your Royal Majesty.

— 168 —

**3 44. Michael von Dzierbicky.**

A native nobleman.

  1. Blonie Starosty

} Blonie
} Insignificant.

It has been left to him for 12 years in emphyteutic possession, so that, properly speaking, it has not been given away.

**4 45. Lieutenant-General von Dolffs of the Cavalry at Breslau.**
  1. Strzelice
  2. Luwin
  3. Mislownia
  4. Lychota
  5. Wyrobky

} Gostinin
} 20000 Thlr.

The deed of donation is dated Berlin, 9 August 1796.

**5 46. Senior Post Director Goldbeck in Warsaw.**
  1. Xiondzewic

} Blonie } 11000 Thlr.

He received this estate merely through an oversight. The Grand Chancellor von Goldbeck actually wanted it for his son. But an error — perhaps committed wilfully in the Cabinet Chancery — was to blame for its becoming the property of this Post Director. Once he had it, it could not properly be taken from him again. Other, and indeed better, estates were thereupon sought out for the Grand Chancellor’s son, which he accordingly received later than his namesake. See No. 3 in the Department of Kalisch. The deed of donation is dated Berlin, 9 August 1796.

Cölln likewise confirms this circumstance: “The estates which Mr v. Goldbeck received were meant to go to a namesake of his; but in the deed of gift the chancery had made a mix-up. No one dared report this error to the King, and so the former remained in possession.”

Vertraute Briefe etc. Vol. I, p. 82.

— 169 —

**6 47. Artillery Lieutenant von Holtzendorff.**
  1. Gluskow
  2. Grocholle
  3. Malawies

} Blonie
} 8400 thalers.

The true value is at least 24000 Thlr. The deed of donation is dated Berlin, 9 August 1796.

**7 48. Minister Count von Hoym in Breslau.**

Chief of the entire Finance, Domains, and Chamber Administration of the Duchy of Silesia.

  1. Gurka
  2. Czerwonka Nowa
  3. Stara Wiskitti
  4. Town Wiskitti
  5. Koslowice
  6. Skule
  7. Wola Wieniewska
  8. Mill Zyska
  9. Czidy Cziegonowska
  10. Bednarky
  11. Grody
  12. Ruda
  13. Sredzgory

} Sochaczew
} 69500 Thlr.

He essentially made himself a gift of these estates, and afterward exchanged them with the Lubinski family. In return they gave him, besides an unknown sum of money, the lordship of Szydnik, situated two (German) miles from Kalisch, which yielded 10000 Thlr. annually. This he finally sold to Justice Councillor Rönneberg of Mecklenburg for 198000 Thlr.

At the Chargenkasse he declared the value of the adjoining donation at only 60000 Thlr. He thus defrauded the Monarch not only as to the value itself, but also as to the Chargenkasse.

— 170 —

An ill omen in a Minister who is himself supposed to watch over truth and order and over the revenues of the state coffers. In the deed of gift — in this instance countersigned only by the Grand Chancellor Goldbeck — dated Berlin, 14 September 1796, the ground of the donation is stated as: To give Our etc. Hoym a particular token of Our most gracious satisfaction and most exalted goodwill, as well as Our gratitude for the loyal and profitable services rendered by him to Us and to Our Royal House for a considerable number of years with the most praiseworthy zeal, etc.!!

8/49. Lieutenant-General von Köhler.

Of the Cavalry.

  1. The lordship and town of Osmolin

} Gostinin } 14000 Thlr.

This deed of gift is dated Berlin, 3 May 1797.

9/50. Prince Radziwill.

Son-in-law of Prince Ferdinand, Great-Uncle of the King

  1. Town Bomilow
  2. Village Bomilow
  3. Wola Bomislowska
  4. Chamin
  5. Wola Chydlowiecka
  6. Budy Bolinowska

} Sochaczew } 32500 Thlr.

— 171 —

10/51. Fancy-goods dealer von Treskow.

See No. 18 in the Department of Posen.

  1. Dlugolenka
  2. Niedrzakow
  3. Budy
  4. Zabinka
  5. Skowroda
  6. Scholtisei Dlugolenka
  7. Muchnowo
  8. Colony Muchnowo
  9. Skarzew

} Gostinin
} 12500 Thlr.

11/52. Lt.-Gen. von Wendessen in Warsaw.

See No. 21 in the Department of Posen.

  1. Osermno

} Gostinin
} 14200 Thlr.

— 172 —

Some Rescripts and Decrees concerning the sale and leasing of these donated estates to native-born Poles.

Rescript

to the War and Domains Chamber at Warsaw, whereby the estates donated in South Prussia are not to be sold to any native of former Poland.[133]

We have most graciously been pleased to command Ourself that the estates donated in South Prussia, should he to whom We have given them be minded to sell them, shall be sold to no native of former Poland, but exclusively to a person qualified to possess from Our old provinces, or to a foreigner qualifying himself for this, since We consider this necessary for hastening a better cultivation of the land. You are accordingly to make this known to all possessors of the estates donated by Us, and also to inform the local government thereof.

By His Royal Majesty’s most gracious special command

v. Hoym.

Breslau, 19 December 1796.

— 173 —

Circular Rescript

to all South Prussian Regierungen, whereby the ordinance concerning the prohibited alienation to natives of the estates donated by the late King is declared[134]

It is known to you that His late Majesty (of most blessed memory) was pleased already in the year 1796 to determine that the estates situated in South Prussia and donated by His Most August Self should not be sold to natives. More recent occurrences make it necessary to declare this most exalted determination as follows:

that such a sale to a native shall likewise not be permitted to the second or subsequent possessors;

unless the first or one of the subsequent possessors should have obtained consent for alienation to natives, in which case an unconditional power of alienation to persons qualified to possess takes effect for the future. You are accordingly to attend to this most exactly, and in every case here arising to note this restriction on the property duly upon its entry in the mortgage books.

Berlin, 24 February 1800.

Voss. Goldbeck. Alvensleben.

— 174 —

Decree

of the War and Domains Chamber at Posen to the Regierung there, concerning the inadmissibility of hereditary leasing to natives of the estates donated in South Prussia by the late King. [135]

The question has been raised:

whether the donated South Prussian estates, the alienation of which to natives of South Prussia is inadmissible, may be given to them in hereditary lease?

Since it is, as to effect, wholly immaterial whether estates of this kind pass into the hands of a native of former Poland under the title of a sale or of a hereditary lease, it has accordingly been determined:

that such a hereditary leasing shall likewise be impermissible;

etc. etc.

Posen, 27 January 1801.

Royal South Prussian War and Domains Chamber.

Pieverling.

The cabinet order of 13 March 1833 belongs, of course, to the later period of Oberpräsident Flottwell.

— 175 —

Held’s Judgment on the Poles.

Held has been reproached with having written “the Black Book” and “the Black Register” out of affection for the Poles, solely in their interest. But this is not so. He was, rather, one of their most unsparing opponents. As proof of this we cite only a few passages from his posthumous, hitherto unprinted manuscript, in which he defends himself against just such a reproach.

…. “It is,” he says, “an idea purely invented by my opponent himself and foisted upon me: as though I had written the Black Book solely in favour of the South Prussian Polacks and against Hoym’s administration of South Prussia. I never thought of any such thing. Moreover, since this book appeared (1801), Hoym had already, since the accession of Frederick William III — that is, for three years — again ceded South Prussia to Minister Voss. That the leased state domain and lordship of Krotoszyn, whose fortunes the book chiefly treats, lies in former South Prussia is here purely accidental, and I have never cared for the approval of the South Prussian Polacks — I have never courted it.” ….

…. “Can anything more foolish be conceived than setting up a Polack as judge when the national faults of the Polacks are under discussion? Naturally

— 176 —

he must needs be blind to it and greatly displeased with such censures. A Huron or a Kamchadal would do the very same in the same case. If, in passing, in the Black Book, I called the Polacks on average: foolish, drunken, selfish, and venal for wine, brandy, and a little money — if I declared a scarecrow like the former Prussian Minister Görne good enough to be king for them, then I have said nothing but the plain truth, which I hereby repeat, full of confidence that it will be clear to anyone who does not believe he must defend a compatriot’s interest and who does not himself belong to the Polacks, but who has come to know them sufficiently in their own country. In the long run, association with them is extremely tedious, and no sustained conversation on subjects worthy of the mind or heart is possible with them.” …

…. “They drink far worse than the Germans. Their sense of honour is far less delicate than the German, as is already proved by their language, full of servile turns of phrase, their submissive gestures, and their occasionally most insolent pride, which passes in an instant into the lowest submissiveness the moment it is trumped.” ….

…. “Their friendship, their love, their opinion, their heart, their honour, so long as there was still a Poland under Polish kings, were going dirt cheap for petty physical pleasures, feastings, and presents, and whenever the professed patriotism of their so-called magnates then collided with a hundred ducats, the latter surely and invariably gained the upper hand. Stanislaus Poniatowsky was in no way better or stronger than Görne.” ….

…. “In my eyes, the Lapps perhaps excepted, the Polacks are the worst people in all Europe, not even a nation but a mere disorderly rabble of humanity; they were never a state, but only a

— 177 —

Tartar horde turned sedentary, which through this very sedentariness became servile and far worse than the free nomadic Asiatic Tartar, to whom all nobility of mind cannot be denied. To call the Polacks a noble nation is an outrage against nature, history, truth, and correctness of language. Never were they able to raise themselves by their own strength to culture, civilization, and humanity (humanity here taken in the sense of progressive cultivation and refinement); never was there sufficient intelligence in their government to organize a state with well-ordered social relations, finances, industry, army, fortresses, and justice; foreigners always had to come and tell them: this is how you must do it! They always served foreign nations as the plaything of politics, as the theatre of discord; they were always treated like fools, upon whom anything could be imposed with impunity; foreign armies always marched through their land and prescribed to them how they should govern themselves, and so it has continued to this day. Their long, eight-hundred-year, and tedious history is, of all histories, the emptiest of deeds, and offers in its princes only a series of nodding pagods, in whom nothing remarkable is to be discovered. Only a very few of them, e.g. Jagiello, Casimir the Great, and Sobieski, stand out to some degree — but even these, what essential and lasting thing did they accomplish? And does not the very smallness of the number of these personages itself prove the poverty and rarity of national genius?” ….

— 178 —

II. Colonizations of Peasants and Craftsmen.

Since Frederick the Great, since 1772, the colonization of German peasants and craftsmen in the formerly Polish parts of the country became a matter of eager concern to the government. The great King’s fondness for “mixing” the new province with South German colonists has already been mentioned earlier in some of his own statements. A veritable system of recruitment for South German colonists likewise soon became current, in the course of which, according to later official admissions, the most pernicious fundamental errors and precipitancies were committed.

On closer examination of this category of German colonization, however, the drawback presents itself at the outset that the German administration in the formerly Polish parts of the country was, indeed, not overly well-ordered and exemplary. Even the official writers of that time[136] all complain of the lack of reliable and complete sources.

— 179 —

Our task may accordingly confine itself only to a part of West Prussia, the old Bromberg Chamber Department, or the Netze District, and the old Posen Chamber Department of the Province of South Prussia.

In general the colonists were divided into two classes.

  1. Those who were induced by conditions at home to leave their fatherland and who settled abroad in order to better their lot. These people came into the country with the honest intention of becoming loyal and good inhabitants of it; they took to their new homeland all the more readily because they were not lured here by promises and false pretences, but because the reputation of a good and mild territorial government, and the hope of enjoying here the rights and privileges which their fatherland had denied them, moved them to choose their new home. Such were the French colonists whom the Great Elector admitted into his country; such were the Palatines, Bohemians, and Salzburgers to whom his successors granted settlement in their realm. The reception of the French colonists in particular was especially important and advantageous, since the country owes to them a strong increase in population, many useful trades, and a true refinement of the manners of its inhabitants. They were virtuous, skilled workers, and some of them by no means poor people, who, immediately upon their arrival in the country, sought to carry out their sincere intention of supporting themselves honestly and diligently in it, and who, through their conduct and industry, became an exemplary model to the native-born inhabitants. Every state gains by such colonists, and they are the most fruitful means of increasing and improving the population.

— 180 —

Very different, on the other hand, from this useful class of colonists are:

  1. Those who leave their fatherland and immigrate into the new homeland solely for the sake of the advantages and benefits by whose offer a state lures foreigners. Such publicly announced promises have little effect upon the good and orderly inhabitants of a country, but all the more upon poor, dissolute, idle, and restless people, and this is then usually also the sort of person who is more harmful than useful to the country.

The beggars hasten, whenever their trade is laid low in their homeland, to the country which seeks colonists and offers them land, houses, support in money, and manifold exemption from the ordinary taxes and civic burdens of its old inhabitants. — Idle people present themselves just as readily, for they hope for a comfortable life; they believe, at least, that in the first period of their settlement they need not work much, and they hope, finally, that the territorial government, which takes the recruitment of colonists very much to heart, will grant them, in the absence of their own industry, the support necessary for their maintenance. — Dissolute people are greatly served by it if they are given the prospect of passing from the sorry condition into which they have fallen through their own fault into a better one. They therefore all gladly avail themselves of the colonist-recruitment, and thereby obtain fresh occasion to squander money and goods, the acquisition of which cost them no effort. — Restless people are their exact equals in the haste with which they crowd toward the offered colonist benefices. Ever discontented with their lot and with the country in which they dwell, they strive after another situation and place of residence, and try for a

— 181 —

while whether some new homeland might perhaps be more comfortable and more profitable to them than the one they had.

“Through such colonists a country obtains bad and untrustworthy subjects, who through their ill dispositions and opinions corrupt the good morals of the old native subjects, and who, when they do not find the mountains of gold they seek, when they are supposed to devote themselves to the work they shrink from, when they have squandered the grace-gifts they received, when through shameless demands they can obtain no further advantages, when by their importunity they have wearied the authorities and have made themselves hateful to everyone who has had dealings with them, abandon their establishments, drag off everything they can carry away from them, and run out of the country again, or seek elsewhere in another province of the same to wheedle further grace-gifts. — So it is with many colonists who were settled in the Kurmark during the reign of Frederick the Great, after they had managed their affairs dissolutely, squandered the royal grace-gifts, and absconded under cover of night with all the movable goods that were in any way transportable. It is also a matter of record that, when their benefices ceased, they moved to another province, and under the pretence of just now arriving as foreigners, wheedled the benefices there afresh as well.”

“The number of beggars who were thereby drawn into the country was large. They brought nothing with them but many children, and the sovereign’s support could not protect them from hunger, on account of the size of their families, and because only a few of them were industrious, while most were lazy, unskilled, and incapable of the occupations they were supposed to pursue. The fault, that some colonists could not fulfil their purpose, could for the most part, despite their mendacious statements, have been forestalled through

— 182 —

a careful selection of them; then no wig-makers would have been settled as farmers, no pastry-cooks as workers in limestone quarries, no gunsmiths, locksmiths, butchers, or other craftsmen not applicable to the open country, in the colonies belonging to them.”

“But by far more disadvantageous consequences resulted from the indolence and clumsiness of the colonists, which formed, as it were, their peculiar nature, especially where they were headstrong people who simply wished to remain idle and not work. Colonists who were refused by the Kurmark Chamber in respect of their inadmissible demands, and admonished to diligence and industry, answered with the most shameless impudence:

“we have no need to work; it was not for that that the Most Gracious King let us come into his country, but only that we should beget children in it.”[137]

The colonists believed, as they themselves admitted, that they had been called not to work but merely to increase the number of the population, and were not a little astonished when the demand was made upon them to cultivate the fields and meadows allotted to them and to keep them in the required condition. “Those colonists to whom the village of Neu-Ulm was assigned, and who arrived rather late in the year, found not only their houses built, their stables stocked with the most necessary livestock, and their farm implements procured, but even their fields tended and sown. Yet even all this seemed to them still insufficient, for a few weeks later almost the entire village appeared before the War and

— 183 —

Domains Councillor Schartow, reported to him that the grain was ripening, and asked him who was now to cut it — and were not a little astonished that this was left to themselves.”[138]

“To promote the peopling” was the chief endeavour of the wisdom of government in that age. Frederick the Great accordingly also ordained:

that one must not be too difficult about the dissolution of marriage, for otherwise that hinders the population. For as soon as two spouses are so thoroughly enraged and embittered against one another that no reconciliation is any longer to be hoped for, and their tempers remain in a constant bitterness toward one another, they will also beget no children together, and that is to the detriment of the population. Whereas if the pair is divorced, and the wife then marries another fellow, children are more likely to come of it after all. You must therefore always have regard to the circumstances, etc.[139]

Colonists such as those just characterized are not fitted to promote the prosperity of the country. They impart to the natives only the inclination to idleness, which is the source of all vices, and their restless nature propagates itself as a natural inclination from father to son. When they had received and consumed the promised benefices, they wanted new ones, and besieged the Chamber with petitions. If they could wheedle nothing, they caused mischief or ran out of the country. In many colonies long established in the open country, they have been, from their settlement onward,

— 184 —

constantly restless, and will probably remain so as long as the bad blood still runs in their veins.

No one but he who has had much to do with such restless people could know how difficult it was to keep them in order and bring them to rest, indeed how nearly impossible it was to make them see reason. The reluctant demands occasioned many taunts, quarrels, and lawsuits, and from this there arose in many places a deep-rooted hatred between the old subjects and the colonists.

The settlement of Kurmark domains with colonists, War and Domains Councillor von Lamotte reported to the Kurmark Chamber under date of 13 December 1777, belongs to the most disadvantageous Chamber operations for the state, and he draws from this the lesson:

“that the method of peopling a country with colonists who are lured only by the benefices promised to foreigners, or who allow themselves to be recruited merely in consideration of the promises made to them and relating thereto, belongs among those which are to be chosen only when suitable means of population are lacking.”

The same principles are likewise expressed in the report which the Kurmark Chamber Presidium submitted to the General Directory under date of 13 July 1771 and 4 November 1772.

Relying on documented proofs of this kind of the slight value of increasing a country’s population through strangers who are lured to resettle merely by promised rewards and support, von Lamotte repeated the assertion that we must, above all, promote in our country the increase of native-born children of the land,

— 185 —

since these are better, quieter, and far more reliable subjects than colonists immigrating with self-interested or other impure intentions. — “Often, very often, a piece of timber was worth more than the colonist for whom it was felled, and the forests felt to their cost that the number of wood-thieves had also increased.” —

Thus judged German officials, men expert through many years of official experience, concerning colonization from South German lands into kindred North German provinces. How much worse, then, had to be the consequences where South German colonists were transplanted, with reckless zeal, into Slavic, Polish parts of the country.

The founding of German colonist establishments in the conquered Polish parts of the country was regarded as the most effective means of introducing and promoting prosperity, German culture, and civilization there. The founding of such colonies belonged, as already noted, among the earliest and most unremitting measures of Frederick the Great, which was also most zealously continued by his successors. — In what follows we confine ourselves, to begin with, to the communication of numerical details in individual parts of the country.

In the Netze District

says Holsche,[140] the government has directed its attention to this above all. There have been settled here, since the Prussian taking of possession, in the Royal domain offices:

— 186 —

506 burgher families in the towns with 1478 souls
151 peasant families and cottagers with 563 souls
561 families of Reich colonists with 2588 souls
further 91 families with 368 souls

The first 1218 families, with 4629 souls, are said (and this is the only time such a figure is to be found) to have brought into the country 67,285 Thlr., 432 horses, 964 head of cattle, 3311 sheep, and 610 swine. But he adds: — “Whether it is entirely accurate as to what was brought in, the author leaves an open question. What is certain, however, is that the settlement of these colonists cost the King[141] over 180,000 Thlr.” — These colonists, brought in from every part of Germany, received travel money; houses were built for them, stock and implements were given to them as gifts, years of exemption were granted, and their dues were fixed lower. “But since they came from distant regions, for the most part from the Rhine and Upper Germany, where a different climate and a different agricultural practice prevail, many of them ran away again.”

We cannot, then, count these colonists among the exemplary promoters of cultivation.

In a later work the same author[142], who certainly had the best sources at hand, reports:

In the Bromberg Department

the number of the former already amounted, in 1798, to 4378 souls, and the costs of maintenance came to 183,975 thalers; each person, the children being included among them, thus cost 42 thalers.” — Since this figure derives from a later time than the one cited before[143], and speaks more definitely than that one of a fixed time, expressly up to the year 1798, it follows from the comparison of these figures that in the five years from 1793—1798, despite the new influxes, the number of colonists nevertheless decreased by 251, which is explicable by their unreliability and inclination to vagabondage. — “King Frederick II,” says Holsche further, “had a decided preference for foreign colonists, especially from southern Germany, Switzerland, and France, and expended enormous sums on this in all the Prussian provinces. The first colonists, who came from distant southern provinces of Germany, from Württemberg, the Palatinate, and the Rhine regions, were for the most part poor and impoverished farmers, who had turned their small means into money and consumed it along the way. They knew neither the northern climate nor the cultivation of the land, shunned heavy labour, and took up gardening, from which they could not support themselves and their families; they became beggars and fell partly as a burden upon the public, partly ran off again.”

— 187 —

In South Prussia, namely in the Posen Department

says the same author [144], “there had come into being, by the end of the year 1800, 13 colonist establishments in all, subsisting independently, and in them 109 large farmers with 1½ to 2 Hufen of Magdeburg land, and 32 day-labourer families had been settled, which, reckoning 5 persons to a family, amounts to over 700 individuals.

— 188 —

These 13 colonist establishments are the following:

Nr. Colony Families
1. Hellefeld 30
2. Rosenfeld 38
3. Hennrichsfeld 9
4. Hungfeld 7
5. Ludwigsburg 14
6. Rotenfelde 9
7. Brunefeld 8
8. Oborka 8
9. Moschardsberg 2
10. Ulrichsdal 2
11. Lautersbrun bei Powidz 2
12. Lautersbrun bei Dasznik 2
13. Sturmhof 3

The greatest part of these colonists too consists of Württembergers, “who, however, cannot have been among the best inhabitants of this fortunate land, since they are by no means good farmers, and resemble those who settled in the year 1780 and the following years in West Prussia.”” — Nevertheless, the following assistance had been granted to them:

  1. The mile-money at 2 groschen per person and mile.”
  2. The clearing-money according to the cost estimates at 2 — 6 Thlr. per morgen.”
  3. Free housing and farm buildings.”
  4. A 3 — 6 year exemption from all public burdens and from the canon on their lands, which will later amount to 8 — 12 groschen per morgen.”
  5. Exemption from canton obligation, for themselves and the sons they brought into the country.”
  6. Half of the necessary field, livestock, and farm inventory.”
  7. Hereditary possession of their plots of land.”
  8. Daily 2 groschen subsistence money per head, when they are without occupation.”

— 189 —

The establishment costs for these 41 families amount to:

a) for subsistence- and mile-money 18,311 Thlr. 22 Gr. 6 Pf.
b) for clearing-money etc. 37,406 Thlr. 17 Gr. 2 Pf.
c) for building costs according to the estimates 86,549 Thlr. 6 Gr. 11 Pf.
in all 142,267 Thlr. 22 Gr. 7 Pf.

Not counting the annual canon of 2177 thalers for the appurtenant 5241 morgen of land.

“Accordingly, in the Posen Chamber Department, a single German colonist family cost more than 1000 thalers (1136 thalers), and the family reckoned at 5 persons, children of course included, each person cost more than 200 thalers (227 thalers)!” —

If one further considers that even later, under Frederick William III, 16,500 thalers were expended annually as a matter of budget from the revenues of the province for colonists of this kind, and that beyond this, in the mere nine-year span from 1798 to 1807, 2,040,083 thalers were expended extraordinarily, then one must confess that the Prussian government paid the forebears of the clamorous champions of German interests in the Grand Duchy of Posen over and over again — and that with Polish money, with the revenues from Polish territories. [145]

— 190 —

It must, however, expressly be noted here that the above sum does not include the expenditures for making rivers navigable and clearing watercourses 98286 Thlr. for drainage and land reclamation 97396 “ which were likewise defrayed solely from the revenues of the province.

Unfortunately even this high-ranking statesman had to confine his account to the first years of the reign of Frederick William III, “because from the earlier period no such complete surveys were available”[146], and even here the figures on the number of families and souls of the new German settlers are missing.

In the Province of West Prussia

14,000 such new families were indeed supposed, according to Frederick’s instruction dated Berlin, 4 January 1782, to Director v. Domhardt[147], to be settled there. A lack of the necessary funds, however, prevented this, and Holsche expressly notes that he was unable to ascertain anything regarding the number of colonists and the costs expended on them in the Marienwerder Department.

In the Province of New East Prussia

even less can, on the whole, be ascertained.

As to the number and category of craftsmen among these colonists, nothing reliable can be established for any part of the territory.

We close these figures with a few reflections on the results of these German colonizations

— 191 —

in the Polish territories — reflections of these very same writers, who, as expert officials, have pronounced their judgments on the basis of official experience.

“It always remains a very costly and unreliable manner, says Holsche, [148] to populate a province, and especially the open countryside, with foreigners, who find no support among the natives, but rather are hated by them, are themselves in want, and accustom themselves very slowly to the climate and the cultivation of the land.

“Wholly different is it with craftsmen, manufacturers, and factory-owners, who come from foreign countries and settle in the towns; with them the assistance is far better applied, as experience with the French colonies has taught us. In the Polish towns, where as yet little industry prevails, colonists of this kind would be of great benefit.

“The increase of the rural population, on the other hand, could be achieved far more readily through the settlement of natives and people from the neighbouring countries, if one were willing to support them and promote their marriages… If this class of people were given precisely the support that is granted to foreign colonists, many families would establish themselves who are now lost to the state, and none of them would cost it half as much as a foreign colonist family, among whom not even a selection can be made. In the manner hitherto followed, however, each family costs the state several hundred thalers, and yet the fewest of them remain where they have been assigned.”

— 192 —

And in another passage, [149] where he speaks of the administration of the South Prussian domains: “In my opinion the great costs which the re-establishment of the domain offices requires could be entirely saved, if all the offices — and at least for the time being the small, outlying pieces of domain — and those offices whose development requires too great an expenditure of costs, were let out in hereditary lease. In the old provinces, where such considerable sums are expended on the development of the offices, it may seem risky to adopt at once a different system, because those large sums would have been laid out for nothing. In the newly acquired Polish provinces all such misgivings fall away. One may choose whatever system one likes, and the best is unquestionably that by which costs are saved and nothing is lost to the state revenues, while the cultivation of the land is nevertheless promoted, and many families are set to work who would otherwise fall into poverty or have to leave the country, because they have devoted themselves solely to agriculture and have not learned to live by industry and trade, and moreover find this unbefitting their station.”

“Granted that this is a prejudice, it would nevertheless be not merely difficult but even impossible for the provincial administration to assign a decent livelihood to the many families that have become bread-less. Emigration into Russian territory is unavoidable, and every emigrating family is a great loss to the Prussian state, since a wretched colonist family — of which one is not even certain whether it will remain and propagate itself — costs it over 1000 thalers.”

And how rightly does he judge the lamentable neglect of the natives, which appears justified neither before policy nor before the conscience of the powerful, and which was fit only to spread endless, ever self-propagating misfortune over many thousands of families.

— 193 —

“The natives can take no part in the provincial administration, because they know neither the business nor the language. They can undertake no military service, because they are too old. The clerical estate is more and more restricted from time to time, and very few are qualified for it. Of trade, in a country where it is little practised, only a few can live, and moreover it requires capital. These people have not learned trades and are now too old for it, even if they wanted to. Agriculture alone is their trade, and in this they cannot get ahead! What, then, are they to do? They must emigrate.

“And this mass of inhabitants is not small. The great, wealthy nobles usually held starosties and lived either on these or on their hereditary estates. They leased them out, placed them in antichretic pledge-possession, or had them administered. From one great nobleman many lesser men found their living, as tenants, governors, commissioners, stewards, etc. Now they have lost the starosties; these have become royal offices and are for the most part given to Germans. The nobles draw allowances from the royal treasuries, live on their hereditary estates, retrench themselves, and thus for the most part dismiss their tenants, governors, commissioners, etc., and make shift as best they can. But those people become bread-less. — It is the same case with the ecclesiastical estates. The number of managers, stewards, etc. on them was considerable; many thousands found work and bread there. Now, however, the ecclesiastical estates have been confiscated, the clergy

— 194 —

themselves draw their allowances from the royal treasuries. The confiscated estates have been converted into domains and are in the hands of German officials and German tenants. But the numerous former officials of the clergy are without bread.”

“It is evident that through this a considerable number of people have become unfortunate. That discontent must arise from this is easy to conceive. This, however, could soon be remedied, and these people would be content and would bless the government, if opportunity were given them to acquire small state estates with their earned money (for most of them have laid something by) and to take them in hereditary lease. They have enough money to pay a proportionate hereditary-tenure sum and to set themselves up. They understand agriculture, know the customs of the country, and would find support far more readily than the foreign colonists.

“The general tenants and officials seek only to enrich themselves in the royal estates, and once they have acquired enough to buy estates of their own, it is all one to them where they invest their money, and they leave the country. Nothing binds them to the province in which they have acquired their fortune. The hereditary leaseholder, on the other hand, especially the native-born one, if he still has some means, needs no support. He is bound to the soil in the good, noble sense of the word; he will be loyal to the province and thus to the state, and will not leave the country.”

In vain does the same man also complain, in another work[150], of the neglect of the natives, the Poles. “A few morgen of fields and meadows,” says he,

— 195 —

“a hut, a bed, and a cow found the happiness of an entire family. The whole outlay amounts to 80 to 100 thalers, for in a country as sparsely populated as the Netze District, a few morgen of field are an insignificant matter, and given the goodness of the soil they nevertheless afford an entire family its sustenance. Let a certain number of morgen of waste ground be allotted yearly to such young native-born Poles, let a house or hut be built for them, let them be given a bed, a cow, a pig, some poultry, and the necessary implements, and let about 100 thalers be expended thus for each family — then it is established and will certainly maintain itself. This must be of far better effect than to draw colonists into the province at heavy cost from distant regions, colonists who are wholly foreign and can accustom themselves neither to the climate nor to the local agriculture. The man from the Reich and the Rhineland speaks constantly of viticulture, which cannot be practised here. An annual fund of 10000 thalers would suffice to settle 100 families every year.”

It would carry us too far were we to follow the perceptive man further in his account of the advantages which the state may expect from the parcelling-out and hereditary leasing of the domains, as compared with those from the great term-leases. We wished only to point out the ill, as an honest German had already recognized it at that time — namely, that the German colonists were by no means the best model farmers, and that in these strangers only a starving, beggarly people was purchased with Polish money, to the ruin of many thousands of the natives.

And so let a few judgments of Prussian German officials of our own day find a place here:

— 196 —

“However unfavourably the picture of a Polish peasant holding may present itself,” says Mr. v. Lengerke, “it must nevertheless be noted, reassuringly, that this picture, with respect to that property which has now emerged from the Regulation under, moreover, not too unfavourable conditions, is gradually shaping itself more favourably.

“The peasants who have become free devote more care to the buildings, to livestock and implements, to the better and more careful tillage of the fields, and to the cultivation of the meadows, than they and their forefathers were formerly accustomed and able to do.

“Already from earlier times, the manner of husbandry of the Polish free peasants has distinguished itself advantageously from the kind just described. Their buildings, and their livestock, field, and farm inventory, are better kept than those of the servile peasants. In tillage itself, too, they have always applied more diligence, because they had more time for it. In other respects the detail of it is much the same. Their manner of life is more sober and more orderly, though still less so than that of the German free peasants. In their houses, in their farmyards, in their stables, in all their tools and gear, order prevails. Yet they are still not very receptive to the advantages which the cultivation of fodder-herbs and better livestock-keeping would bring to the yield of their holdings. Living in closed villages, under the closer supervision of their communal overseers, they are, in their nature, less rough and less inaccessible to the advance of intelligence than the Hauländer.

v. Lengerke, Royal Prussian Land-Economy Councillor, ordinary member and Secretary-General of the Royal Land-Economy College. Entwurf einer Agrikultur-Statistik des Preuss. Staats nach den Zuständen in den Jahren 1842 u. 1843. p. 51.

— 197 —

“To begin with, it was already unfortunate that the colonists were procured not from the neighbouring German provinces, but from very distant regions (from the so-called Reich), whose climate, soil, and manner of husbandry and life differed too greatly from those here. Not only were the costs considerably increased by the great distance, but this also had the twofold ill effect that one was compelled to entice the settlers by granting them excessive advantages, and that they did not know how to accustom themselves to conditions so very different, and felt themselves foreign and ill at ease.”

“A kind of recruitment system was established, and the recruited settlers received, besides their travel costs, not only fully equipped farms with inventory and buildings — which cost the state a very great deal, since they were mostly carried out on contract by the domain tenants — but also cash advances and a few years’ exemption. Nor was the necessary knowledge and caution applied in the selection of settlers, and the prescribed proof of a certain fortune was frequently taken too lightly. Most of them therefore came with overstrained expectations into a land wholly foreign to them, in which they hoped to grow prosperous without particular exertion, and soon found themselves disappointed and thereby made discontented.”

“To this was added that the colonist plots — which, incidentally, were mostly let out without purchase money, on hereditary quit-rent or hereditary-lease rights, merely against an annual rent — were as a rule left to the domain tenants, who naturally were not inclined to give up the best soil. The colonies were therefore not infrequently established on sterile sandy soil without the indispensable addition of meadows, or on cleared woodland whose overestimated fertility, for want of lasting manure, gave out after a few years.”

— 198 —

“So it came about that of the colonist families who had come into the province up to the year 1806 — whose number, in the Posen Chamber Department alone, amounted to 381 with about 1700 souls — a great part perished or left the country again, and only a few of these colonies, established with disproportionate sacrifices on the part of the state, attained to any prosperity. Most of them lead, to this very day, only a wretched existence.”

Klebs: Die Landeskultur-Gesetzgebung, deren Ausführung u. Erfolge im Grossherzogthum Posen. Berlin 1860. p. 65.

Thus even today judges the President of the General Commission for the Province of Posen.

To the German colonists belong also a great number of millers and shepherds.

“Most of the mills,” says Holsche, [151] “are let out in hereditary lease in a manner burdensome to the lordship; all the advantage is on the side of the millers, and all the loss on the side of the lordship. They pay a certain mill-rent, usually in grain, and grind the lordship’s grain free of charge. This due cannot be raised, even though the customers, with the generally increasing population, increase from time to time. The lordship must usually supply them the wood for the upkeep of the mill free of charge; this has now risen enormously in value, and because of the heavier use the mills now cost far more to maintain than formerly, while the canon remains unchanged. Besides this, the millers usually have other handsome privileges which are burdensome to the lordship, and their prosperity has made it envious, so that many costly lawsuits also arise with the millers. The millers have a special guild, form a caste, and usually marry among themselves; they are also for the most part of German origin.”

— 199 —

“With the shepherds it is almost the same case. They have among themselves special laws and customs from which they do not depart, and which are often extremely detrimental to the lordships. The shepherd-ordinances have not entirely abolished the abuses that have crept in; they keep their own flocks, and pay the lordship a certain fixed sum for each sheep — apart from this the lordship has the dung and the shepherd the entire profit of the flock. The lordship must give the shepherd free housing, allowance in kind, firewood, and the winter feeding, and when everything is reckoned in money, the lordships get almost nothing at all from the sheep-farms. Should a lord wish to keep a flock of his own at his own risk and hire a shepherd for wages and allowance, he would not succeed in it, for no shepherd will serve for wages and allowance; the lordship runs the risk of losing the whole flock, so close is the combination that prevails among the shepherds. If one does wish to keep sheep of his own, he must try to unite his interest with that of the shepherd, and allow him to keep his own flock along with it. But here the usual shepherd-fraud comes into play, that the shepherds always have the best sheep, and when anything dies, it is usually the lordship that suffers the loss. The best means of putting a stop to this fraud is this: that the shepherd should have no specific sheep of his own, but rather a certain notional share of the flock should belong to him, so that the lordship and the shepherd bear the loss in proportion to their respective shares, and divide the profit

— 200 —

of the wool and of the sheep to be sold, proportionately. But to this the shepherds will not agree, and it is hard to introduce any other order. The sheep-farms here are considerable, and the wool now and then comes almost up to the Silesian, but is very variable. The shepherds are in part prosperous, and also for the most part of German origin.”

— 201 —

III. Colonizations of the German Officials and Notaries.

The Officialdom.

When Prussia tore the individual parts of Poland to itself, its provincial government was divided into separate departments, which, despite the General Directory in Berlin, administered the individual provinces according to the most varied principles. Only the administration of justice, the higher direction of the state treasuries, the Post Department, and the lottery administration were, in general, uniform in all the provinces. The individual parts of this conglomerate of lands, brought together by inheritances, treaties, and conquests, were as much separated from one another by their own customs barriers as from foreign countries. In most [sic — clause defective in the original] diversity of coinage, measure, weight, taxes, trades, and police, in the administration of the finances and of the state estates.

Under the names of West, South, New East Prussia, and New Silesia, the shares of Poland were now added, one after another, to this variegated territorial and administrative state mosaic, and were organized by the individual departments and their Chambers according to wholly different systems, and administered according to wholly different principles. To the errors of the administration in general were added, moreover, the blunders in

— 202 —

the individual departments, which lacked any general higher direction and therefore never understood one another, never united. That the new province, which indeed bore the common name of South Prussia, was at the same time administered by the East Prussian, the Mark, and the Silesian Provincial Departments, under Ministers v. Schroetter, v. Voss, and v. Hoym, so different in character and principles of administration, increased the confusion still further.

Only on one principle, in one endeavour, did all the heads of departments and provinces agree — in the belief in the impossibility of conducting business, of decreeing, reporting, and liquidating in any other language than German. This sole agreement was the primal source of the administrative deluge that flooded the country with insatiably greedy, corrupted, and corruptible officials of German nationality. “The erroneous opinion that the extirpation of the Polish language was possible and useful to the Prussian state, the inclination of many state servants to convenience, and the mania for governing the state entirely in detail, for regulating every trifle, worked upon the decision to declare the German language the language of business for the new province.

The error lay at hand. The Poles did not understand German, the Germans did not understand Polish. Where, then, were the language-skilled, the so-called Utraquists, bilinguists, to be found, who could serve as officials, or even merely as capable interpreters, to bring the people to an understanding with them?

It is true that in some departments the laws were printed in split columns, in German and Polish. Some had the decrees drawn up under official supervision in both languages, while others kept private interpreters for this purpose. The judicial rulings, however, as well as

— 203 —

very many other important decrees of the various authorities were issued only in the German language.

The further principle, that whoever submitted his petition in German was also answered only in German, compelled those who had turned to German attorneys and, upon their German submissions, received German resolutions, to have these often translated by people ignorant of both languages, whereby the most damaging misunderstandings arose. West Prussia, East Prussia with Lithuania, and Upper Silesia still supplied the most officials capable in the language. But the Polish dialect they spoke differed from the Polish business language and the dialect of the educated as much as any of the many patois of France differs from the language of the Parisians.

Those who chose these candidates did not understand the language of the country, and, because of their so slight knowledge of it, very often overlooked that these officials lacked the most indispensable qualification.

The difficulty and inconvenience, at an advanced age, of learning a difficult language, and the forbidding sight of so many consonants in Polish words, made the older officials of the old provinces almost universally averse to accepting an office in the new province. The general ill repute, according to which Poland passed for a second Siberia, where no ray of enlightenment penetrated into the impenetrable forests and the steppes along the Vistula, the not unfounded fear of the revolutionary and avenging spirit of the people, and the anxiety of a bad conscience before the insecurity of possession, aroused among the most proven, most capable older officials in the old provinces an almost universal aversion to accepting offices in the new province. Even a cabinet order, that all the old servants of the state of the

— 204 —

old provinces should accept any office in the new one, on pain of losing their present position, had little effect.

In vain did all the departments seek to entice by promotions, titles, and cash compensations. Gratuities of 1/6 of the regular salary were given as an aid toward setting up house, travel and transport costs were given, but all these means bore little fruit in recruiting the necessary capable officials.

But still more pernicious than this lack of capable men was the beyond-all-measure great number of absolutely worthless officials.

— 205 —

Poland under Frederick II and Frederick William II

Sketch, how Poland is being used by Prussia, and how Prussia can at least safeguard its interests for the twenty-seven million thalers (?) lent thereto,

by

War Councillor v. T. [152]

“Would not a people rather be governed after its own manner by its own people, than by foreign officials, who seek to acquire possessions in the country anew at the expense of all, who bring a foreign standard with them, and rule unfriendly and without sympathy?”
Goethe.

“The class of persons most dangerous to the freedom of a people are neither the tyrants, nor the propertyless rabble, but rather those propertyless subjects begging for offices and positions, who do not wish to work but would rather seek a post. They are the willing executors of every lawlessness; indeed, they are not at all wrong when they believe, and let it be felt, that a share in power is also due to them.”
Vollgräff, Moderne Politik, p. 652.

Poland was, as is well known, through centuries never connected with the House of Brandenburg. — Rather, a perpetual national hatred prevailed between these countries or subjects. In earlier times, therefore, a kind of trade was carried on with this rough nation, as with half-nomadic peoples, whereby, however, the German found his account in it. (—)

— 206 —

Only Frederick the Great began to take this rough nation into consideration, and drew the most considerable advantages from this country; through the repeated partitions a considerable part of this realm finally fell to the House of Prussia. Frederick the Great and Wise at once devoted great sums to the districts that had fallen to him, and, through the tireless activity of the persons sent there, formed a happy little land. But an equal lot did not fall to the Poles who came under Prussian rule in the second and third partitions of Poland under Frederick William II. This good-hearted monarch indeed wished to bring about the best for his new and old subjects, but through the excessive confidence which this most upright of monarchs placed in his ministers, his well-meaning will remained unfulfilled. Through the pettifogging proceedings of the justice officials everything was thrown into confusion, and the Poles themselves were led astray into mutiny and folly.

The saddest event that befell the province was that the minister v. Voss became its administrator. — He at once ordered, under the supervision of the Privy Finance Councillor Schulz, the classification of the estates, or of all lands. This was expedient, and must necessarily precede any true organization. But when, as was the case here, self-interested superiors held the helm and chose the scum of humanity as their assistants, not only was the good purpose lost, but the foundation-stone was thereby laid for the insurrection that soon followed. Formerly the Pole had the highest idea of all Prussian institutions, and never believed that a Prussian official could be bought; but when the classification commissioners not only let themselves be bribed, but moreover gave themselves over to the vice of drink and all manner of gluttony, then the

— 207 —

Pole regarded not only these, but the whole new government, with the utmost disdain, and swore vengeance against it in his heart. But the conduct of these people was also too conspicuous; for formerly the Poles gave 10 per cent of their possessions; after the Voss or Schulz classification commission, the dues of many estates — where, for example, such men as War Councillor v. Reisewitz and others of his kind had classified — would scarcely have amounted to 5 per cent against the old rate. (?—) Meanwhile, in order to throw dust in the eyes of the good monarch, a beginning was made, on the secret proposal of War Councillor Noldichen, with the beautification of the towns. The good King gave building- and other aid-moneys for this purpose, but these were appropriated only by the justice and finance servants; the Pole received little or nothing of it, and looked on with a bleeding heart as splendid buildings were erected for his antagonists — who now clung to him like vampires — on the very spots where he and his forefathers had dwelt.

If, meanwhile, the self-interest of the classification commissioners and the cameralists was already great, the conduct of the justice officials went far beyond all bounds. These were not judges or defenders of justice, whose office it was to counsel the innocent, to preserve the property of widows and orphans, and to protect them against grasping and litigious creatures — no, it was an army of shameless creatures and knaves, who set people against one another, dreadfully entangled their affairs, and afterwards divided among themselves the remainder of their substance, even that of poor widows and orphans. —[153]

— 208 —

Poor, naked, and bare, those whom Mr. v. Goldbeck appointed to Poland, or rather to the Province of Warsaw, made their entry here. An army of justice commissioners, ragged and threadbare, followed them; officials with hollow eyes and parched bodies crept along behind — the heralds of justice, which was now supposed to fall to everyone’s share, were properly speaking these ragged advocates; languishing with hunger, they borrowed from the Jew, who is accustomed to venture his money in every direction — the Jew, who formerly in Poland was but a half-human and, like the peasant and the subject, was never allowed to bring a complaint against a nobleman, pricked up his ears when these ragamuffins, in a huckster’s tone, promised them wonders, above all that they, the Jews, should be exactly what the nobleman had been. At once the Jews and the German peasants raised hundreds of lawsuits against

In the year 1790 were pending were decided remained
at the Kammergericht . . . . . . . . 2032 1254 778
before the Altmark Hofgericht . . . . 350 255 95
before the Neumark Regierung . . . . 477 328 149
before the Pomeranian Reg. . . . . . . 566 345 221
before the Farther Pomeranian Hofgericht . . 234 173 61
before the Bromberg Hofger. . . . . . 1343 886 517
before the West Prussian Reg. . . . . 1479 912 567
before the East Prussian Reg. . . . . . 878 574 304
before the East Prussian Hofger. at Insterburg 631 371 260
before the Magdeburg Reg. . . . . . 725 490 235
before the Halberstadt Reg. . . . . 444 362 82
before the Minden-Ravensberg Reg. . . . 339 237 102
before the Tecklenburg-Lingen Reg. . . 368 283 85
before the Reg. at Moers . . . . . . . 179 136 43
before the Justice College at Geldern . . . 119 83 36
before the East Frisian Reg. . . . . . 347 190 157
before the Cleves Reg. . . . . . . 1074 613 461
before the Breslau Oberamtsreg. . . . . 838 534 304
before the Glogau Oberamtsreg. . . . 332 241 91
before the Upper Silesian Oberamtsreg. at Brieg 544 329 215.

— 209 —

their lordships; the advocates filled their pockets, hastened to the noblemen, betrayed to them the opinion of the Jews and peasants, and conspired together to preserve the nobleman in his rights. The nobleman, outraged by this cruelty, implored heaven and hell for vengeance, but in the end gave the pettifogger his gold, his carriages, and whatever was dearest to him — the advocate shared with his friends and finally wrote the verdict in favour of whoever had sacrificed the most. The result was that the advocates and their following had, within the first quarter-year, the furniture and the carriages, dined off the finest porcelain or silver, and lived in perpetual revelry. Meanwhile, in order to make sure that the plunder could not be wrested from them again, they also procured themselves a following in the Tribunal at Berlin. A certain Kütz had, in Berlin, the Tribunal Councillor v. L. and v. J.; and so each had his party, so that, to the horror of mankind, sentences and judgments issued from there at which men were seized with dread and horror. Only he to whom money belonged succeeded in everything; the advocate travelled with his client to Berlin, recommended him, his ducats and jewellery, and his lawsuit was decided and won forever. Now the path was cleared for this pack, and only too soon did one and all pass from petty swindling to downright roguery; the money of the seduced noblemen, Jews, and subjects flowed continually into the pockets of these villains.

Not content with this any longer, they strove after the fortunes of the estate-owners; this too succeeded for them, for all too soon there was, from the first to the last, no one in the court offices who did not possess great estates, or at least houses, gardens, or similar considerable properties — the mortgage-books still extant today are the most eloquent proof of this.

— 210 —

These themselves speak of those who, instead of estates, had ready cash and traded with it; there was, for instance, a certain Regierungs-, now Kammergericht-Councillor Sch —, who had amassed some 36,000 thalers, which he lent to a certain B — i on Sulislawice, from whom, however, he will presumably never recover anything. It was more than outrageous to the honour-loving patriot and upright man to see, at the so-called St John’s-tide settlements (the traditional Polish contract days), even councillors trading in money in the marketplace in their dress uniforms. On one side an official clung vampire-like to such a Polish nobleman — already marked out by these people and half-plundered — and on the other side a Jew, to hold fast the prey, and these vultures never missed their mark.

Meanwhile — as should be remarked here too — after scarcely a year and a half of Prussian rule, once the Poles had discovered and felt the weakness of the Prussian officials and their greed, the insurrection broke out. Prussia and Russia hastily armed a corps against these insurgents and reduced them to silence, in return for which, however, the whole of Poland was partitioned.

The Poles now loudly complained of the harshest oppressions that Minister v. Voss was said to have inflicted upon them; the result was that Voss was relieved of the department, which was given to Minister Count Hoym. The Poles were fined some hundred thousand thalers and granted a general amnesty.

The fine was, to be sure, hardly calculated to convert the Poles to more loyal sentiments, and Hoym was troubled as to how he might raise money, organize the province, and yet keep the Poles in good humor.

Through the classification carried out by Herr Schulz and all the self-seeking classification commissioners, not even the

— 211 —

half was brought in of what the Poles had formerly willingly paid as the fourth groschen.

An honest man (War Councillor v. Triebenfeld) helped Hoym out of this difficulty. He called upon the Poles, a great part of whom were still in Breslau, to forestall a new classification and to declare quickly how much they wished to add to the 10 per cent. The patriot impressed upon them that the Silesians paid 28 per cent and were content to do so. The Poles therefore voluntarily declared that they would give 14 per cent more, and thus 24 per cent, and would moreover maintain iron magazines from which all the troops could be provisioned, without asking a single groschen for it.

Count Hoym had wished for only 5 per cent more and was greatly surprised when the faithful man brought him the Poles’ resolution; indeed, he was so moved that for the time being he wished nothing said of the payment in kind. The gain for the monarch was considerable; for not only were all the costs of the new classification, which would have amounted to several hundred thousand thalers, saved, and the 24 per cent proportionally much higher than the 28 in Silesia — for Silesia was classified in 1742 and Poland in 1794 — but the inhabitants were content, and were already approaching the throne with confidence. Hoym received for this the highest commendatory decrees; the faithful patriot (War Councillor v. Triebenfeld), however, received for his effort and expense nothing further (see p. 128) than permission to rejoice quietly and worship in the dust.

Meanwhile, in the course of time, all starosties and ecclesiastical estates had been resumed, indeed even a few estates of rebels who absolutely refused to return had been confiscated. The monarch, wholly made only to make men happy, bestowed a part of these estates upon many worthy men, and often also upon undeserving ones.

— 212 —

(See the Black Register.) This subsequently gave the enemies of Hoym — at whose head stood Ministers Schulenburg, Voss, and Struensee — material with which to place Hoym in an ill light before the world, and especially with the future ruler, and to trip him up. Meanwhile Hoym was entirely blameless in this; the best of good kings had only the inclination to do good, and he commanded — who might contradict here? Nevertheless, through the departmental councillor who at the time handled this matter (War Councillor v. Triebenfeld), several cabinet orders were, in recent times, set aside. Thus, for example, General Count Wartensleben was to have the great domain office of Krewe, Count Schmettau the Klunero starosty, Privy Councillor Count Carmer the Moschin starosty, and others besides. This alone was a bold stroke, and all these men who received nothing afterward breathed fire and flame.

The good-hearted king died in 1797. Hoym did not wish to go to Berlin uncalled; Schulenburg thereby gained time — he pressed himself into the favor of His present Majesty the King; his first aim was to bring down Hoym. Together with Struensee, he had Held compose lampoons on Hoym, Goldbeck, and Triebenfeld. This was the most vulgar nonsense and nothing but crude slander. Nevertheless the lampoon was read on every side. The monarch, however, animated by the same exalted goodness of heart as his late King Father, of most blessed memory, did not lend envy his full ear, and Hoym remained minister nonetheless; Schulenburg therefore took refuge in cunning — he wrote to Hoym that the King was dissatisfied with his South Prussian administration, and that the monarch would be glad to see him give up the South Prussian department of his own accord. Hoym, who was also burdened by more than one weakness, fell into the trap and asked the King to relieve him of the department in question. Now Schulenburg was victorious, and he pursued this victory harshly,

— 213 —

Hoym’s mortal enemy, Minister v. Voss, at once received the South Prussian department back again, accompanied by the Order of the Red Eagle and by a cabinet letter which was made known publicly in the newspapers, whereby Voss was exalted to the skies and Hoym cast down to the antipodes. Too late did Hoym recognize his error, and was vexed that Schulenburg had proved his master in cunning. Hoym, however, soon took heart again and, through a certain Gentz, so managed matters that he was recalled to Berlin. He sacrificed considerable sums and at last received the commission to draft a thorough organization for all the ministers, and indeed for all the departments. Had Hoym made use of this trust of the King’s, he could have had the greatest sphere of activity and made the country happy. But intoxicated by this fortunate turn, Hoym grew idle and turned everything over to his supposed bosom friend, the said Gentz, together with Privy Finance Councillor v. Prittwitz. Schulenburg, who quickly discovered this, at once sought to win over these two heroes: the one — namely Gentz — he supplied with money in plenty, while assuring the other most solemnly that, once Hoym had fallen, he would certainly make him the directing Silesian minister. Gentz now drafted, together with Prittwitz, this and that; they laid it before Schulenburg, and whatever did not please him was struck out and nonsense put in its place, aimed only at harming the country — the result was that the whole matter, despite the many admonitions Hoym received, came to a complete standstill. Schulenburg and Voss rejoiced, and did only what was useful and seemed good to themselves alone.

Not only did the inhabitants of South Prussia grumble loudly, but the whole country felt the oppression of these two men. Hoym had, in that period when they had so

— 214 —

readily agreed to the higher taxes, most solemnly assured the Poles that he would bring about a credit system; the Poles now urgently entreated Voss for it. But it was never the minister’s intention to let the Poles organize a landed credit association (Landschaft) among themselves, because he feared that his private timber trade, and especially his grain trade, would henceforth turn out less profitably for him — all the more since he wished, with the great surpluses that the timber trade afforded him, to buy estates in South Prussia. The outcry of the Poles over the continuing stepmotherly treatment nevertheless increased, so that one felt compelled at last to grant the Poles some credit.

In the bank, and in the widows’, invalids’, Seehandlung, and wards’ funds, there lay some monies, and in particular many bonds, which yielded 2 to 3, and at most 4, per cent interest. The King was now advised that these monies could be invested more advantageously and at higher interest in South Prussia, to the general benefit. The monarch, believing that he was helping his South Prussians, gladly consented and approved the minister’s proposal. No sooner was this known to the Poles than they came in droves and asked for loans. Every seeker of credit was now informed of the conditions on which he could obtain money. It was required that the mortgage certificates and valuations of the estates on which money was to be lent be submitted for examination. The Poles, soon instructed by Jews and lawyers, quickly produced valuations that exceeded the value of the estates by four to four times [sic — figure defective in the original]. So it was, for example, with the estates that Prince Karl George von Hessen (was he a Pole too? —) had purchased in South Prussia. He bought for about 230,000 thalers, and the valuation, which a certain Wildeganns conducted, and which cost the prince about 3,500 thalers, came out at 800,000 thalers. The valuers were a certain

— 215 —

Chamber Councillor Korn and Justice Councillor Schröter. The prince hastened with this valuation to the Widows’ Fund and to the Wards’ College. A certain Michaelis was the legal officer (Justiziarius) of the Widows’ Fund. He examined the valuations for 100 ducats, and they were found fair and very good. The prince already believed he had some hundred thousand thalers in his pocket, when it was said that the court agent Heymann Ephraim had seized all the funds available at the Widows’ Fund and was paying 5 per cent on them; he was advised to apply to this man alone. The prince did so without delay, having Heymann Ephraim summoned to him. But this Jew had the noble effrontery to refuse the prince (who was, at bottom, related to the Royal House) the money, on the ground that the money cost him a great deal. The prince had his heart set on obtaining the money. He therefore condescended to entreat the Jew. The Jew was moved by the prince’s humanity and at last agreed to the money for 6 years (it was 200,000 thalers), on condition that His Serene Highness would deign to have 30,000 thalers deducted once and for all as brokerage (proxeneticum) from the 200,000 thalers, immediately upon payment of the sum, since he had to give a share both to Minister Count von der Schulenburg and to all the other gentlemen. If His Serene Highness agreed to this, the capital stood at his service at 5 per cent annually — the prince, who found the interest low, agreed. Meanwhile Minister Schulenburg called the Jew a stupid devil and forbade the payment of the money to the prince, because one must not let a man so closely related to the Royal House see into his cards.

— 216 —

When Dorow communicated this document to Prince v. Hardenberg in November 1816, the latter remarked:

“Despite many harshnesses, hostile and untrue statements, the essay of War Councillor v. T. is nevertheless a glorious example of our present administration, and of the principles by which the government now acts, and it therefore deserved not to be lost, as a corrective example for the ever-discontented complainers about everything that happens among us.”

Various voices concerning the South Prussian officials.

Let us first hear the cabinet order of the mild, justice-loving Prince, King Frederick William III:

“My dear Ministers of State von Voss and Baron v. Schrötter.”

“On the journey just completed [154] through the provinces of New, East, and South Prussia, I have found by experience that the lowest classes of My subjects there stand at a far lower level of cultivation than the same classes occupy in the older provinces. They distinguish themselves very disadvantageously, in particular, by uncleanliness in dress and dwelling, and by an excessively servile character.”

“The first cause of this lies unquestionably in the former lawlessness and in the arbitrary oppression thereby fostered, which especially the inhabitants of the open country and of the small towns had to endure from their landlords. This lawlessness and this arbitrariness have been abolished, and in their place has come the equality before the law peculiar to the Prussian constitution; the lowliest subject has, before Me and before the law, the worth of a human being; he has the duty of fidelity and obedience toward his sovereign and toward his authorities, and if he observes these, he has, equally with the most eminent, a sacred right to the protection and security of his person and his property.”

— 217 —

“But My new subjects do not yet know this worth of theirs, which they owe to the Prussian sceptre; not because a great part of the appointed subordinate officials[155] mistake their calling and, instead of exercising their office for the protection of the oppressed, misuse it for acts of violence. It has become almost a proverb among them that the former Pole can be handled only with the whip, and I have heard manifold complaints of physical maltreatment of subjects, especially in connection with the furnishing of relay horses, notwithstanding that I have Myself convinced Myself that the South and New East Prussians form a good-natured and pliable people, who do not deserve such treatment. Equally, complaints have been made in general in these provinces of unmannerly, indecent, and repellent conduct on the part of the subordinate officials toward those with whom they come into contact in the exercise of their office. All these manifold complaints are the more highly displeasing to Me, since only through an opposite, dutiful conduct on the part of the officials can the uncultivated part of the nation be civilized, made receptive to what is good in the Prussian constitution, and attached to the state with love, devotion, and fidelity — a state whose head calculates all his steps solely for the welfare of the whole, and strives to attain this through the happiness of all and of every subject.”

— 218 —

“In consideration of all this I am led to charge you, as My favor is dear to you, to make it your earnest concern to put a stop to this abuse which the subordinate officials make of the power entrusted to them; to keep close watch upon the conduct of the subordinate officials; to propose for further promotion, according to the measure of their abilities, those who distinguish themselves by good treatment of the subjects; to proceed with legal severity, without respect of persons, against others who in this regard mistake their calling; and finally to report to Me for dismissal from service those who are altogether beyond improvement; but above all, in all your arrangements, never to lose sight of the fact that these can prosper only together with the civilization of the nation and its conviction of the goodness of the intentions underlying them.”

— 219 —

“The sooner and the more completely you attain My intention in this, the more will your claims upon My favor be justified, wherewith I am your well-affectioned King.”

Charlottenburg, 10 July 1798.

(signed) Frederick William.

To the Ministers of State von Voss
and Baron v. Schrötter.[156]

“As the Möllendorf army, without a sword-stroke, occupied a country to which Prussia had shortly before pledged its protection, I betook myself to Posen, in order to observe matters at close hand . . . . .”

“Soon thereafter I heard the lamentation of all the Polish officials whose places had been taken from them and filled with Germans. I saw the eagerness of so many hungry Prussians who believed they had found in their appointments the means of filling their pockets. I could find neither the whole of this occupation just, nor suited to the interests of the Prussian state; still less did the method of organization which Minister v. Voss saw fit to adopt seem to me in accordance with prudence. Imagine a country in which the Catholic religion still held its sway over the great mass, where a distinct language was spoken, a national dress was worn, and where a general character showed itself that was wholly at variance with the German. In this country Minister Voss dared to attempt to introduce the police and financial order customary in strictly-run military Prussia. He was so bold as to set up forthwith a commission for the devaluation of the whole of the landed property, without first determining the total amount to be apportioned in the lump, he forced upon the Poles the German language, which they did not understand, and did not take the trouble to have his new laws translated (at least intelligibly) into Polish, but instead had ignoramuses engaged as translators for a paltry wage. Besides the tax quota, which was not to be fixed until after the devaluation had taken place, the stamp duties were also raised, the playing of bagpipes was farmed out, the tolls and consumption duties were raised, and collected with the utmost severity.”

— 220 —

“The officials whom they found, they drove out, and in their place installed, as a rule, the refuse of that class that was to be found in the old provinces.”

“It seemed as though they wished to make a Botany Bay out of South Prussia for all such officials as ought long since to have been cashiered or hanged.”

“In doing so, Herr von Voss was toward the Poles, accustomed as they were to splendor, not merely cold and repellent, but also quite literally economical; his table was very frugally served, his outward appearance as simple as possible, his speech dictatorial; he brooked no contradiction; his creatures were, one and all, financiers bred amid the dust of files, who would only too gladly have made hard thalers out of Polish muck straightaway. Privy Councillor Schultz, a former actuary raised in the East Prussian domain offices, next a calculator, then War Councillor, and at last Privy Finance Councillor, possessed entirely the closed, self-absorbed provincial character peculiar to this people. He directed the classification and domain business, had mountains of files and figures upon figures piled up, in which there was not a true word; for his economy commissioners knew well how to line their own pockets unlawfully (per nefas), but not how to assess the fields. He himself had only

— 221 —

mechanically estimated the East and West Prussian domains, and carried in his head classification principles which he then applied to South Prussia. There was not the slightest genius in him, but all the more obstinacy, in wishing to proceed in Poland according to this worn-out last, from which only perverse results could arise.”

“Herr von Göcking, the poet and Privy Councillor, has indeed something pleasing in his manners, but is very long-winded in his narratives, and for sheer business can never — get down to work.”

“I need not first describe to you the collegial boards; they were composed entirely of grandfathers, who made up the presidency, and unruly boys, who made up the councillors.”[157]

Cölln, Vertraute Briefe, I. p. 71.

— 222 —

“In Poland things go merrily; it is a wonder that the nation is quiet.”

“The refuse of officials that has been provided for here, and which gave many a grand whore a husband, is beginning to show itself in its full nakedness. A Landrat, Baron von Narath, in the Peyssern district, is guilty of arson and highway robbery; — the Landrat Wargarsky, of the Kalisch district, is accused of manslaughter, since the Abbot Lizsky was found murdered at his house. — The President von Appeln at Peterkau has shot himself, because his frauds were discovered. — War Councillor Denso has been cashiered, for having collected unlawful fees. Chamber Fiscal Schnakenburg and Game Fiscal Hayne have likewise been cashiered for similar crimes.”

The one and only anecdote of its kind is the following:

“A certain Gottwald from Glogau became Inquisitor publicus in Posen. He was as skilful as he was unscrupulous and dissolute; he let all criminal proceedings lie, and drew up the lists concerning them falsely. Many a criminal prisoner waited for years for his first examination. One of his defendants, Herr Kiez, deliberately drowned himself, and left behind a will which was a lampoon on the Grand Chancellor. Herr Gottwald thought it fit to send him a copy of it. He thereby drew attention to himself, and the authenticity of his case-lists was investigated. Here they discovered his falsifications, locked him up together with the prisoners in the gaol, and assured him that he should not be free until he had processed all the files. He discharged himself of this task quickly enough, and, since he foresaw his fate (cashiering), carried out, together with a like-minded friend, the following knavish trick: . . . . (fraud and theft).”

— 223 —

“All the fortresses in the country are overloaded with South Prussian officials, and it has become a disgrace to serve as a civilian in this province.”

Cölln, vertraute Briefe I. p. 167.

“The officials, it is said in a certain document, were at the time amply salaried, in view of the future rise in the cost of living that was to come with cultivation, and were also for the most part married. They received, for the first three years, settling-in gratuities, which amounted, for the first year, to half, and for the following two years, to a third, of the annual salary. No wonder that they believed themselves immeasurably rich, and that the delicious taste of the then-cheap and still-good Hungarian wine seduced them into frequent, loud bacchanals.

“Equally dangerous to the female sex were the vaults of the Jews. Here were found English and French, and also Indian, Turkish, and Chinese wares, which in the older provinces one might only view furtively, here openly on display and at comparatively cheap prices.

“Yet at first the satisfaction of the love of splendor still proceeded at a measured pace; most of the first officials were transplants from Silesia, where not so much is done for dazzling the eye, and where the nobleman especially finds the greatness of his person in his benevolent “Von” and in the address, “Gracious Sir.” Luxury made bolder strides already in Posen, where more men from the Mark, from Magdeburg, and from West Prussia were appointed. But soon the simple folk of Petrikau too were to be drawn into the whirlpool of folly, when Hoym, instead of Voss, was appointed head of the department, and Kalisz, instead of Petrikau, was named the seat of the provincial college.

— 224 —

“In Kalisz there had already for some years been an excise directorate. In the first years they had not wished to frighten the natives with the Hydra of the excise. The import of otherwise forbidden goods remained free for the first period in South Prussia. Meanwhile, the trade of the Jews was nonetheless restricted by several harsh laws. The excise officials, however, untied these knots with gilded hands; and so the families of the directorate came into a prosperity which, in people mostly risen out of nothing, was bound to degenerate into insolent splendor. They did not fail to assert their superiority before the simpler descendants, with their silk and lawn dresses, their shawls, their pier-glasses, their chandeliers, and finally their carriages and their well-stocked cellars, and to make them feel that superiority.

“Now the axles of the carters groaned under the weight of the splendors that Berlin and Breslau had to supply. But the most fearful blow to hospitality and prudent housekeeping was dealt by the Justice Commissioners, who now felt themselves in prosperity. Most of them were unfortunately from West Prussia, where unbounded luxury had already taken root since 1772. These people, who earned six, seven, up to eight thousand thalers a year with ease, knew no bounds in their expenditure.

“The litigiousness of the Poles, and the channel finally opened by Jews in Berlin for obtaining money on estate mortgages; the maneuvers that had to be made in this connection; the resulting ease of becoming the landed lord of a lordship with nothing — all this had a lucrative effect on the rest of the legal officials as well, and thus here too resulted in headlong extravagance.

“To the aforementioned plagues of Pharaoh was added the further misfortune that the officials appointed in South Prussia, mostly young and unmarried, as if driven to fury by a tarantula’s sting, contracted marriage upon marriage. Old school sweethearts, maidservants, and whores were chosen as wives with equally hasty resolve. Here, in this foreign land, far from relatives, former connections, and friends, it was believed that the unseemly would easily accommodate itself to the seemly, and that many a youthful folly would be effaced. Here, where the poor nobleman served the rich, the kitchen-maid could easily have herself stamped a Gracious Lady.

— 225 —

“This gave rise, too, to a loose and merry life. Divorces followed weddings, and this man to a new engagement, that man to a marriage that had already been discussed during an earlier one. The unhappy fruits of such unbridled lust often could not come to the light of the world soon enough to determine decisively whom they were entitled to call father.

“That such a partly ragtag rabble did not lack immoderate pretensions and unmannerly presumption of every kind, that the pride of the civilized Poles was thereby offended, that they were loath to see their husbands, sons, and daughters in such seductive surroundings, requires, surely, no proof. That the tone of such mixed society could be worth nothing leaps to the eye. That the most insipid immorality was at home there, wholly stripped of the veil of French wit, of the semblance of decorum found in people of good breeding, and even of the exuberance of Berlin high society — which after all still assumes at least the mask of innocence and virtue — will readily be believed. This mindless picture-gallery could please only in the dumb show of the dance; and here these mostly well-formed figures, with faces mostly youthful and some even handsome, could make an impression on the stranger.

— 226 —

“Whether, in the course of such a life, calculated solely for enjoyment for as long as the salary held out, and for as long as the Jews were still willing to lend, the principle of honesty was not bound, in many, to be brought into difficulty, surely requires no investigation.”

Contribution to a closer knowledge of the fate of the Prussian officials removed from office in Poland. Voss, Die Zeiten. Halle 1808. Vol. XIV. p. 117—137, 333—366.

“However undeserved the bitterness against Prussia may often have been in many respects, it was certainly just in others. Rarely have conquerors dealt more highhandedly with vanquished peoples than Frederick William did with the Poles, whom he had not actually defeated. Generations would have been needed to give a better direction to the extravagance of the great, and to instill a more active spirit in the indolent people, and both were to be forced through within decades. The sense of the deepest faithlessness that states can commit against states still lived vividly in every breast, and no one even took the trouble to calm it. The peculiarity of the subjugated people called for consideration, and the effort that was pursued aimed solely at the swift assimilation of the newly acquired lands to the old. For language, the inalienable jewel of peoples, respect should have been shown, and the crudeness of enslaved half-savages should have been tamed; instead they began to force back Polish by German, and let most of the causes of moral corruption persist.

“Equally significant was another occasion of discontent, though more excusable, because it was fear

— 227 —

that produced it. Princes have never concealed from themselves that dominion over a foreign people, whether won by force or obtained by cunning, remains uncertain to them until time, and the mass of benefits received (and often neither avails), reconciles the vanquished. The consequence of this was always that they were reluctant to let the natives take part in administration, and preferred to bestow offices and dignities upon their long-known and tested servants. So acted Frederick II after the acquisition of Silesia and West Prussia, so his successor. Swarms of Germans moved continually from the old lands into the new, to lucrative posts, and everywhere the Poles gave way before them, unless the indispensability of the language advised or compelled their retention. Soon important and unimportant matters alike fell into the hands of foreigners, and with the thought of their own superior usefulness grew the arrogance that gave offense. At the same time, alongside this, went, in many of those appointed, an unworthiness without equal: for since neither did the old lands have an abundance of excellent men of business, nor did the excellent care to dwell among people whom they despised or feared as uncultivated, there remained for the most part only such men as, being poor and worthless, sought to make their own fortune, not that of others. It was they who debased themselves through venal corruptibility, gave offense through conspicuous ostentation, and, as base upstarts, were hated by the Poles, just as their vain wives were hated by the rival Polish women.”

Manso, Geschichte d. preuss. Staates. I. 367. f.

Besides the actual state officials, however, a host of so-called men of business also soon appeared

— 228 —

in the province, whom people generally took for state officials, although in the legal sense they were not. These are the justice commissioners, notaries, and legal consultants under the most varied names. They were among the most insatiable vampires, who, amid the manifold confusions brought about by the recent events, sucked out the strength of the people.

The defective demarcation of territorial property, the boundary disputes, multiplied and perpetuated a host of lawsuits without end. The deficiencies of a proper organization of the mortgage system had greatly endangered the security of capital lent on landed property; the Polish laws knew no prescription (limitation of actions), and so, with the introduction of the new courts, the new laws, and a new judicial order, a host of so-called “dormant” lawsuits awoke. The Polish- and German-speaking advocates therefore soon found, in the multitude of lawsuits and in the eagerness to multiply them still further, the richest nourishment for their business; they gathered riches, and gained reputation and estates. The report of this quickly-made fortune resounded in the old provinces. The report of the rich success of this hybrid, half-official and half-private business activity lured a great number of young, immature jurists into choosing this calling, in order to become quickly rich and respected in the new province. These men of business, furnished with titles borrowed from actual state offices, soon acquired, in the eyes of the nation — for as long as it was unacquainted with the constitution — precisely the standing and respect that the actual state officials enjoyed. People saw them not only in daily intercourse with the officials, but ceaselessly occupied within the inner business-chamber; the fortunate outcome of their representations was taken to be the result of a secret influence

— 229 —

upon the authorities; they were showered with gold, with incense, and with tokens of honor; women and men alike, driven by self-interest, united to corrupt the morality and manners of these men of business.

Given the general ill-humor against such an officialdom, it was natural that, after the entry of the French into South Prussia, the majority of them were dismissed from office. Their number amounted to:

From the department of the Chambers . . . . . . . . 3520
From the department of Excise and Customs . . . . . . 1626
From the department of the Salt-Sale Directorate . . . . . . 204
From the department of Mine Administration . . . . . . . 2
From the department of Postal Administration . . . . . . . . . 324
From the department of Provisions Administration . . . . . . . 45
From the department of the Regierung . . . . . . . . . . . 1548

Among them, Protestant clergy and school employees:
in the Cham.-Dept. Posen . . . . . . . . . 2
in the Cham.-Dept. Kalisch . . . . . . . . -
in the Cham.-Dept. Warschau . . . . . . . . -
in the Cham.-Dept. Plock . . . . . . . . . 3
in the Cham.-Dept. Neu-Schlesien . . . . . . 2
in the Cham.-Dept. Bialystock . . . . . . . 36
in the Cham.-Dept. Westpreussen . . . . . . 24
in the Cham.-Dept. Netzdistrict . . . . . . 2
Total 69

Pensioners . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Total 7629

Distributed among the individual Chamber Departments, this number breaks down as follows:

In the Chamber Department of Posen . . . . . . . . 1848
In the Chamber Department of Kalisch . . . . . . 1290
In the Chamber Department of Warschau . . . . . . 1395
In the Chamber Department of Plock . . . . . . . 772
In the Chamber Department of Neu-Schlesien . . . . 64
In the Chamber Department of Bialystok . . . . . . 1381
In the Chamber Department of Westpreussen . . . . 453
In the Chamber Department of Netzdistrikt . . . . 426

— 230 —

7629

Yet, according to another definite statement, this number is said to have risen to 7949. [158]

It must, however, still be noted in this connection:

  1. That the justice commissioners, notaries, legal consultants, commission agents, and the like were not counted among the officials; that their number was very considerable, but is not included here.

  2. That many officials remained in the service of the new Duchy of Warsaw. For “if the Poles have in individual instances shown bitterness and aversion toward the Prussian constitution, if these have passed over into actions that have had an important influence on the outcome of the war, they were never provoked by the spirit and the principles of that constitution, but rather by those persons to whom its application and exercise had been entrusted. Of this they furnished the greatest proof, in that, of the former officials, they retained the most proven among those conversant with the language, and, of the constitution, retained every institution almost down to its most inessential forms. This occurred above all when the so-called Administration Chambers were set up by the Government Commission. Except for the name, there was absolutely no

— 231 —

difference between them and the Chambers; the collegial handling of business was entirely the same, and where the circumstances of the time had not made new regulations necessary, the old ones were still followed in their full extent.” [159]

  1. That the above number denotes only the persons of the officials themselves, not those of their family members. The South Prussian officials, however, out of the official sense of duty “to promote the peopling,” mostly had very numerous families. Thus the Royal Prussian District Tax-Receiver’s lady, Gottliebe, widow Broeker, mourns the death of her husband, who reached the age of 76 years and 6 days, leaving no fewer than 8 still unprovided-for children and 12 grandchildren.[160] —

Finally, consideration of the small number of clergy and school employees dismissed from office (in the Posen Cham.-Dept. and in the Netze District together only 4!) leads to the conclusion either that the number of school employees, that is, of schoolteachers, cannot have been as great as is commonly boasted, or that the Poles cannot have been such barbarians, Iroquois, Canadians, and Kamchadals, since, being receptive to teaching and instruction, they left these people in office.

— 232 —

Supplements.

I.

to p. 9.

From the stenographic proceedings of the House of Deputies, 55th sitting, 23 May 1861.

Deputy v. Bonin (Genthin):[161] “. . . . . . . . The tendency toward Germanization in the Province of Posen does not date from more recent times; it already stood here in fullest bloom as early as the thirteenth century. In this connection, without dwelling on all the other instances, I refer to the privilege granted to the city of Posen by a Polish king — I cannot state the exact year, but it will have been in the year 1200 and some 50. — In this privilege, the ground on which the city of Posen stands is handed over to German colonists together with municipal rights, and at the same time Magdeburg Law is granted to the city. (Hear!) I believe I may assume that this constituted a significant attempt at Germanization. This Germanization was also continued in earlier times, and followed down to the very latest period, under Polish administration and during the existence of the Kingdom of Poland — not only through the founding of new towns, which efforts were made chiefly to people with German craftsmen, but, as even a superficial glance at this country shows, also through the fact that, through the drawing-in of German colonists,

— 233 —

the forests were cleared and entirely new communities were formed, which still exist today under the name of the so-called Hauländereien, and which consist of German colonists who were, for the most part — as I repeatedly emphasize — drawn into the country under Polish rule. . . . . . .”

Deputy Dr. v. Niegolewski: “. . . . If the honorable Deputy for Genthin has gone back as far as the thirteenth century in order to deduce from it a right to the Germanization of the Grand Duchy of Posen, then this ground for our Germanization, drawn from the noble disposition of our forefathers, is incomprehensible to me. I shall not, however, be angry with my forefathers for having acted nobly; I shall not be angry with them for not having forced their language upon foreign nationalities; I do not hold it against them that they left the Germans their laws and their language. At least, however, one might have expected, in the nineteenth century, that one would not derive from the noble-mindedness of the fathers a ground for the persecution of the sons, and formally punish them for the noble deeds of their fathers — in order to cripple them, in order to degrade them. For, gentlemen, every man who gives up his nationality is degraded. How well-founded must our claims and rights be, if you must take refuge in such arguments, and call this your persecution of our nationality a conquest of culture. Far be German culture from us, if you wish to Germanize us even on the ground that our fathers once acted nobly; we, gentlemen, have never forced our nationality upon others — for this speak all our statutes, all the resolutions of our Diets. We have never done harm to any nation, we have never conquered other peoples, we have kept faith and loyalty to all peoples

— 234 —

— and if other peoples have united themselves with our fatherland, they truly did so only in the name of civilization, which we held in honor — the civilization which you now mock in our regard, (Dissent) yes, you mock our culture, which was borne by a nation to whose kings German emperors, through their envoys, have lain at their feet and implored protection.” —

II.

to p. 175.

“It will not be that part of the nobility of the older provinces which, possessing a modest fortune, has found it worth the trouble to acquire agricultural knowledge, to conduct the management of its estates itself, and, from moral motives and the conviction of its own advantage bound up with it, to work for the moral education of its subjects and the awakening of their industry, that will settle in South Prussia. This respectable class of our fellow citizens finds itself, in a civilized region, in the circle of its family, relatives, and grateful dependents, too happy in its prosperity, knows how to appraise the value of life by correct principles, and is too content to sacrifice all these relations to a speculation.

“It will be that part of the nobility which begins to be at a loss for the placement of its capital, and which, with a part of its surplus, will buy up entire lordships, which it will perhaps never see, or see only occasionally, to satisfy curiosity,

— 235 —

while having them administered by other salaried persons.

“How greatly, however, the management of the owner differs from administration by salaried officials, how productive the former, how unfruitful the latter — this the state has already itself acknowledged in respect of its own domains, and experiences daily in every other enterprise conducted on its own account. To this must be added that, with a public official, the motives of honor and of promotion operate to a higher degree than they can with the official of a private person, who, with the latter, is often not even permitted the capacity for oversight, and thus remains almost entirely dependent upon his own good will.

“These persons, living in the capitals and other populous cities amid the higher luxury, or adventurers, will be the ones who, under present circumstances, may be expected to buy in South Prussia. Adventurers from a neighboring province, where, to the no small detriment of agriculture, favored by the established credit system, they have with more or less success carried on their usury business and made landed estates into an article of trade which, without any regard to its substance, needs only finish, gloss, and a colored wrapper to deceive an ignorant buyer. These people do not buy in order to possess, to put new productive forces into their land, to enliven the industry of their dependents, to lend them a hand toward their prosperity, and in this way — while promoting their own fortune in a sound and lawful manner — to make their contribution to the common good. — — They are speculators who have succeeded in solving the problem of how to acquire a fortune, in a manner befitting their rank, at another’s expense. The real cultivation of their possessions does not concern them; entirely

— 236 —

indifferent to them is the welfare of their subjects. An immense stock of livestock, for which they secretly buy up fodder throughout the whole district, a number of storage buildings which three harvests would not fill, a few teams of choice hunting horses, and an avenue of Italian poplars leading in a straight line from the boundary of the estate, through an English garden, to the terrace of an elegant, daintily furnished mansion — will be sufficient to enable them to fix the sum which the next heir to come of age will have to pay them for the establishment.”

Zerboni. Einige Gedanken über das Bildungsgeschäft in Südpreussen. p. 65 ff.

Printed by I. Blumenthal in Berlin, Adlerstr. 9.

Notes

  1. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., vol. IV, p. 7.

  2. Stenographischer Bericht über die Verhandlungen der deutschen constituirenden National - Versammlung in Frankfurt, Sitzung vom 24. Juli, p. 1143. And because the town is said to be German, the whole district — of 17, 19, 22, and 25 square miles respectively — is supposed to be German as well!

  3. Colonies near Potsdam.

  4. Jekel, Polens Staatsveränderungen, III, 136. Pillers, Gesetzsammlung, 1785, p. 9. Koefil, I, 375.

  5. Instruction for the Director of the Bromberg Chamber, v. Domhardt, dated 4 January 1782, in Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., IV, p. 378. — Cabinet order to Minister v. Gaudi, l. c., 383.

  6. Friedr. Herzberg, Süd-Preussen und Neu-Ost-Preussen, Berlin 1798, p. 31. — Mursinna, mediz. chirurg. Beob., Berlin 1796, p. 350. — Reise eines Liefländers von Riga über Warschau durch Süd-Preussen, Berlin 1795, p. 64.

  7. Polit. Journal, year 1792, p. 620.

  8. Privy Councillor Professor Stenzel: Report of the Committee on International Law Concerning the Incorporation of Part of the Grand Duchy of Posen into the German Confederation etc., in the stenographic reports etc., p. 1127.

  9. Kloeden, über die Stellung des Kaufmanns während des Mittelalters (Programm der Gewerbeschule), Berlin 1841, p. 71. Buchholz, Gesch. d. Churm., V, app. 121.

  10. Mr. Simon, die früheren und gegenwärtigen Verhältnisse der Juden in den sämmtlichen Landestheilen des preussischen Staates, Breslau 1843, p. XI, 360. The laws cited here, namely Chapter XIII of the Wittgenstein Police Ordinance of 1 May 1573, remained in full legal force until March 1848.

  11. Jekel, Polens Staatsveränderungen, II, 11–42.

  12. Mr. Heinrich Wuttke, to be sure, derives from all this, in his work “Polen und Deutsche” [Poles and Germans], only the right of the Germans against the Poles and the hatred of the Poles against the Jews. He fills whole pages with the toleration of German custom, German law, and German usage in Poland, and finally asks, on p. 21, with naive impertinence: “Does not all this speak clearly enough?” — namely, for the right of the Germans against the Poles! — Mr. Wuttke further asserts that passionate hatred divides the Jews and the Poles, and writes, with his authority Anton Mauritius: “There prevails, particularly on the part of the Polish population against the Jewish, a deep hatred, and, so far as is known to us, at the last Posen Provincial Diet only one voice was raised for the emancipation of the Jews. The wish seems most general to see the province cleansed (!—) of more of the Jews.” — What touching ignorance! Let him read the most recent proceedings of the Provincial Diet; he will find that it was precisely a Pole, Government Councillor Szuman, who placed the Jews, so far as morality and education are concerned, generally on an equal footing with the Christian population, who held up their characteristic virtues — sobriety, thrift, compassion for the poor and the sick — as worthy of imitation, who ascribed the reproaches made against them to the account of the oppression they had hitherto suffered, and who, in agreement with all his Polish colleagues, spoke for the emancipation of the Jews in the widest sense.

Mr. Wuttke further asserts: “the Jews in Poland, Silesia, East and West Prussia have never (!) spoken or written Polish, but German or else Hebrew. The folk poems, their religious books for domestic devotion on the Sabbath and feast days, the sermons of the rabbis, were in German,” etc. Up to now, however, the German mother tongue has not yet adopted the changeling of that jargon as a daughter dialect. Nor has Firmenich yet admitted that gibberish among the German dialects of his linguistic work Germaniens Völkerstimmen, any more than King Ludwig admitted a Posen rabbi into the German Valhalla.

  1. Prof. Künast, to be sure, says on p. 148 of his “historische Nachrichten über die Stadt Bromberg”: “Since, moreover, German was preached in Bromberg in the year 1699, the population of the town appears to have continued to consist of Germans.”

  2. With the express remark: “among whom only the Royal officials and some colonists are Protestant Germans.”

  3. Martens, Recueil etc., pt. I, p. 89. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., vol. IV, p. 11.

  4. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., eine Lebensgeschichte, vol. IV, p. 364.

  5. Kurd v. Schloezer, Friedrich d. Gr. u. Katharina, Berlin, Wilh. Herz, 1859, p. 160.

  6. Schloezer, loc. cit., pp. 210–214.

  7. The Prince’s further negotiations in Petersburg cannot, however, have been quite so cursory, for in April 1772 he writes to Solms: “In this whole affair (of the settlement in Poland) I have not thought at all of my own advantage, nor of my own establishment. When the happiness of states is at stake, one must not mix private interests into it. I am proud to have served a great Empress, and to have been useful to the King and to my country, and this flatters me more than if I had stipulated some domain for myself, which perhaps might have been possible to obtain, had I undertaken it. It is true that I may say my stay in Petersburg was marked by the beginning of the negotiations for the closer union between the King and Russia. I may also flatter myself, without prejudice — and I have on this point the King’s own admission in more than twenty letters in his hand — with having set on the table the matter that gave rise to the Convention. But I ask no reward for this; I aspire only to glory, and I confess to you that I should count myself happy to hold it from Her Majesty the Empress of Russia. This might come about were She to deign, on the occasion of the taking of possession, to honour me with an open letter expressing her satisfaction, which might serve me as proof of having contributed to this great work. I repeat to you frankly that I should regard such a letter from Her as the greatest monument to my glory.” Frédéric II, Catherine, et le partage de la Pologne, par Fréd. de Smitt, Berlin 1861, p. 114.

  8. Polens Untergang, p. 52.

  9. Joh. Friedr. v. Domhardt, born in Brunswick territory, came to Prussia in 1724, where his father leased a dairy farm and he himself, in 1732, leased the Ragnit domain office; in 1740 he became War Councillor at the Königsberg Chamber, in 1763 Oberpräsident of the Chambers situated in the Province of Prussia, in 1771 he was ennobled, and in 1772 Oberpräsident of the Chamber at Marienwerder.

  10. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, pt. V, p. 183.

  11. loc. cit.

  12. loc. cit., p. 186. Cf. the patent of possession of 13 September 72.

  13. loc. cit., p. 188.

  14. loc. cit., p. 189.

  15. loc. cit. Cf. the patent of possession.

  16. In the cabinet order of 27 March 1772, however, this intention is modified to the effect: “that I wish the same to be placed on exactly the same footing as the clergy in Silesia — who contribute 50 per cent from their possessions and landed estates, and who, moreover, upon the vacancy of abbeys, prelacies, etc., must further agree to establishments useful to the country, the settling of colonists, pension levies, and the like conditions” etc. loc. cit., p. 193.

  17. loc. cit., p. 190. Cf. the patent of possession.

  18. And yet the remarkable flogging mandate of 1738 against “the barbarous practice of driving the subjects, in godless fashion, with cudgels or whips, like cattle,” remained without application in East Prussia, “because the people there are very godless, lazy, and disobedient”; — and yet serfdom remained in Pomerania after the Demmin Nobility Declaration of 29 July 1763; — and yet the petition of Mr. v. Arnim’s Moor, at Friedensfelde, “that he be freed from the yoke of serfdom and that v. Arnim be forbidden his intended sale of him elsewhere,” was rejected by the Grand Chancellor v. Carmer on 12 July 1780; — and yet the King said: “Were one to abolish that abominable institution all at once, one would ruin agriculture and have to compensate the nobility” — the nobility, which, according to his well-known dictum, alone possesses true honour, and which held the privilege of all the higher posts in the civil and military service. —

The Declaration was mere empty phrase-making, for serfdom was still at home throughout all Germany; for a Pomeranian cabbage-junker, only shortly before, had been permitted to exchange an entire peasant family for a leash of hounds; and the Elector of Hesse, of accursed memory, was still selling his subjects by the file on the slaughter-benches of the North American battlefields!

  1. loc. cit., p. 196.

  2. Schloezer, Friedr. d. Gr. und Katharina II, p. 257.

  3. v. Herzberg, Recueil des déductions, manifestes etc. pour la cour de Prusse.

  4. J. D. E. Preuss, Urkundenbuch zur Lebensgeschichte Friedrichs d. Gr., pt. V, p. 201.

  5. Was starosta of Engelsburg.

  6. Preuss, loc. cit., pt. V, p. 212.

  7. Preuss, loc. cit., pt. V, p. 219.

  8. Preuss, loc. cit., pt. V, p. 220.

  9. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, IV, p. 302.

  10. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., pt. IV, 58, 368.

  11. loc. cit., p. 421.

  12. Preuss, loc. cit., p. 373.

  13. Mylius, Novus Corp. Const. etc., year 1772, No. 46, col. 387.

  14. Here follow the well-known so-called historical legal grounds for the occupation.

  15. Compare with these assurances the “principles” cited on p. 27 — the cabinet orders of 20 February and 2 March 1772, p. 23 and 24.

  16. Cf. the instruction of 6 June 1772, p. 31.

  17. Martens, Recueil, and Schoell, hist. abrg. de traites de Paix, T. XIV, p. 64. Holsche, Netzdistrikt, p. 35.

  18. Meissners Leben v. Brenkenhofs, Leipzig 1782, p. 110 ff.

  19. v. Raumer, “Polens Untergang,” p. 68, erroneously gives 2000 inhabitants; see Brenkenhof, loc. cit.

  20. Oeuvr. posth., V, 116—117.

  21. Mylius, N. C. C. M., Tom. V, e. No. 21, col. 129.

  1. Preuss, loc. cit., pt. V, p. 202.

  2. Preuss, loc. cit., pt. V, p. 208.

  3. Roscius, Westpreussen von 1772—1827, p. 4.

  4. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., IV, 65, and Friedrich, Oeuvres posth., V, 159, and XI, 216.

  5. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, pt. VI, p. 173.

  6. loc. cit., p. 176.

  7. loc. cit., p. 175.

  8. Friedrich d. Gr., I, p. 65, 66.

  9. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, pt. IV, p. 4; cabinet order of 4 April 1772.

  10. loc. cit.

  11. loc. cit. and pt. V, p. 202.

  12. pt. IV, p. 321.

  13. Mylius, C. C. M., pt. 3, div. 1, Nr. 70.

  14. Preuss, Urkundenbuch, pt. IV, p. 226.

  15. (Kornsche), Neue Sammlung von Verordnungen, Edikten etc., Tom. V, No. 109, p. 221.

  16. loc. cit., pt. IV, p. 46.

  17. Preuss, Urkundenbuch etc., pt. V, p. 227.

  18. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., pt. IV, p. 380.

  19. Preuss, loc. cit., p. 383.

  20. Holsche, Geographie u. Statistik etc., pt. I, p. 375.

  21. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., vol. IV, p. 33.

  22. Leben Franz Balthasar Schönberg von Brenkenhof etc., Lpzg. 1782, p. 66.

  23. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr., vol. IV, p. 386.

  24. loc. cit., p. 381.

  25. Oeuvr. posth., T. XI, 129. Souppl. aux Oeuvr. posth., I, 185.

  26. Oeuvr. posth., T. XI, 135.

  27. And yet “Their Majesties the King of Prussia and the Autocrat of All the Russias bound themselves, by every means at their disposal, to combat the design of establishing a hereditary throne in this country, to repel by force every undertaking of this kind, and to act in concert in order to preserve the constitution and the fundamental laws of the Polish Republic.” p. 17, 18.

  28. It awakens a bitter sadness that so great a mind as the crowned philosopher of Sanssouci saw, in the tragic death-struggle of a betrayed and maltreated people, nothing higher or more moving than droll material for an unworthy and frivolous poem, meant to drive away his readers’ megrims, and whose verses, by his own most exalted confession, are mere common street ballads (“as for the verses, they rise no higher than the tone of the vaudeville”). —

  29. Hist. de mon temps, I, 70.

  30. Catherine sought to preserve the continuance of the old ills in Poland and Russian influence over them, just as she did in Austria; she likewise wished to draw Poland, by means of an alliance, into the new Turkish war, and, out of self-interest and anxious envy, to arouse suspicion against Prussia’s rapacity. Overabundant in lands, she feigned to intend no new acquisitions and to wish only to strengthen and enlarge Poland. To the note communicated for this purpose in August 1788 by the Russian envoy, Count v. Stackelberg, to the Polish Diet, and to the negotiations concerning Danzig and the commercial treaty, are attached the assurances of peace and friendship of Frederick William II.

  31. Herzberg, Recueil de deductions, memoires etc., II, 476—482.

  32. Herzberg Recueil II. 483—485.

  33. Further, on 8 December 1789 Frederick William had his envoy declare to the Diet: “he wished to bind himself permanently to the Republic, if it would raise its army to 60,000 men and give itself a new constitution. His Majesty perceived more political benefit in the establishment of a complete internal constitution of government for Poland than even in an army of 300,000 men. — — “Should the alliance with Poland nevertheless not come about, the Republic may still count on this, that I will not abandon it. It may rely on my character, on my way of thinking, and finally also on the fact that I know wherein my true and essential interest lies.”

Schoell Hist. abrg. des trait. de Paix XIV. 117. Ferrand Hist. des trois démembrements II. 348. Vom Entstehen und Untergange der poln. Const. I. 51.

  1. Ferrand II. 465.

  2. Herzberg Recueil III. 1—8. Ferrand III. 73—77.

  3. Vom Entstehen und Untergange der polnischen Constitution I. 61. This letter was communicated to the Diet in consequence of the rumor that Prussia and Austria had come to an understanding, in the Convention of Reichenbach, concerning the taking possession of certain parts of Poland.

  4. Herzberg Recueil III. 13—18.

  5. Ferrand III. 121. Oginski I, 138. Vom Entstehen und Untergange der poln. Const. I. 68.

  6. Ferrand III. 123.

  7. Vom Entstehen und Unterg. I. 74.

  8. Vom Entstehen und Untergange I. 75.

  9. When the King of Prussia, in consequence of the dangers threatened by Russia, had been asked for assistance under the treaty of 29 March 1790. Politisches Journal, year 1792, p. 618.

  10. Vom Entstehen u. Unterg. I. 76.

  11. Polit. Journal, year 1792, p. 855. Ferrand III. 198. Oginski I. 177.

  12. On 12 July the Empress of Russia wrote to her minister Baron von Bühler: “The Prussian declaration may convince the party of the futility of their hopes that they would be supported by the Prussian court. Soon one will receive still clearer proofs that this court agrees with me both as to the principles and as to the intentions which it has given to understand in regard to Polish affairs. — The concert between the courts was settled.” Polit. Journ., year 1792, p. 856.

— Their guilt would gain in extent, not in certainty, and their conduct would appear clearer, but not milder.” Manso, Gesch. des preuss. Staats I. 319.

  1. Polit. Journ., year 1793, p. 76.

  2. In France the monarchy was overthrown; in Poland it was raised up. —

  3. Mylius, Nov. Cod. Const. March. 1793. No. 21. col. 1471. (The name “South Prussia” was first applied to the large tract of land in the patent of notification concerning the introduction of ecclesiastical and secular justice of 8 May 1793, in which ecclesiastical justice was restricted to the “causas mere ecclesiasticas” — ibid. No. 35, col. 1565.)

  4. Almost word for word like the assurance given by Frederick the Great on 13 September 1772.

  5. Mylius, Nov. Cod. Const. v. 1793. No. 71. p. 1665.

  6. Mylius, N. C. C. M. de 1794. No. 14. col. 1913.

  7. Mylius, N. C. C. M. de 1794. N. 31. col. 2085.

  8. Mylius, N. C. C. M. de 1793. N. 35. col. 1561.

  9. Mylius, N. C. C. M. de 1796. N. 4. col. 881.

  10. Häberlin, Staatsarchiv vol. II, p. 273. Häberlin remarks on this: “As little as it can in itself be doubted that, through this most exalted decree, the cultivation of the lands belonging to the clergy will, on the whole, gain greatly, and however beneficial it therefore admittedly is in this respect for the common good, there is nonetheless no doubt that the clergy will thereby lose in the future, in that henceforth only the hitherto net proceeds, after deduction of the costs of administration and other costs, are to be drawn in ready money.” —

In consequence of this declaration there was issued: a public notice (Publicandum) concerning the ecclesiastical estates taken over for direct administration, dated Königsberg, 10 September 1796, in Myl. de 1796, No. 94; a circular to the entire clergy and to the holders of the ecclesiastical estates, etc., etc., likewise to all holders of starosty-related grace-and-favour and other royal estates, etc., issued by the South Prussian War and Domains Chamber at Posen, 28 September 1796, in Häberlin, Staatsarchiv II, 280; and the Instruction concerning the procedure to be followed in the taking-over, etc., etc., dated Berlin, 10 September 1796. — Most of these estates were squandered away under Hoym.

  1. We have nowhere found this document printed. It is, however, taken from original records that vouch for its authenticity —

The Woywode, Palatinus, led the nobility of his voivodeship in war; in peacetime he presided over the assemblies of the nobility and the administration of justice, and inspected the police of the country. The Starost had the administrative functions of the Landrat and Rentmeister within the district of his starosty, and in return the usufruct of certain crown estates, against reimbursement of the fourth part, or Quarte — that is, 25 per cent of the proceeds — for life. Abusively, and against the protests of the Diet, individual starostas held such crown estates or starosties also with the right of conjugal transfer, of expectancy for their sons, indeed even with feudal right. — Grace-and-favour estates are those which the kings granted for life without special obligation to any consideration in return. Such existed only in West Prussia and in the Netze District. —

  1. Declaration of the German Pre-Parliament of 31 May 1848.

  2. Hans v. Held, ein preussisches Karakterbild v. K. A. Varnhagen v. Ense. Leipzig 1845. p. 26.

  3. In the Annalen der leidenden Menschheit [Annals of Suffering Humanity], Part 9, pp. 165–172, there is found a fragment of a similar document. It concerns the deliveries in kind undertaken by H . . . B . . . of Berlin during the South Prussian war of insurrection, in which it is shown how 381,105 thalers 12 good groschen 7 pfennigs could have been “saved” for the Royal treasury. — “The remarkable essay, written with a great deal of local and factual knowledge (says the sender of the fragment), was, according to reliable reports, presented in committee by a reporting official directly and most intimately interested in the matter, and, without any report to His Majesty, written purissime ad acta!” “das gepriesene Preussen”, too, without place or year of printing, mentions this case on p. 125. — The possibility of a similar “saving” is demonstrated, in (Cölln’s) “Vertraute Briefe über die inneren Verhältnisse am preussischen Hofe” I. 66, in the case of another forefather of today’s Berlin nobility as well. — The same in Dorow, “Erlebtes” II. 23. — — So common were fraud and embezzlement in those days, even in the higher circles of officialdom.

  4. In the Lebus district, on the edge of the Oderbruch; it later came back to the state by exchange, and in 1816 was given by King Frederick William III to the State Chancellor, Prince Hardenberg. Since then the place has been called Neu-Hardenberg.

  5. See further below No. 18 in the Posen Chamber Department.

  6. See further below No. 3/25 of the Kalisch Chamber Department.

  7. The original is arranged in tabular form, such that the 1st column gives the name and circumstances of the donatary, the 2nd column the names of the estates, the 3rd column those of the district, the 4th column those of the value, and the 5th and last column the relevant personal and material remarks.

  8. See further below No. 14 of the Posen and No. 10 of the Kalisch Chamber Department.

  9. “The very confused materials were sent to him only little by little, under Struensee’s address, and delivered into the prison.” Varnhagen, loc. cit., p. 130.

  10. The notorious War Councillor Triebenfeld says, in his memoir Polen unter Friedrich II. und Friedrich Wilhelm II., communicated further below: “the monarch, wholly made to bring happiness to men alone, bestowed on many deserving, and often also on undeserving men, a portion of these (confiscated) estates. This subsequently gave the enemies of Hoym, at whose head stood the ministers Schulenburg, Voss, and Struensee, occasion to put Hoym in a bad light before the world, and especially with the future ruler, and to trip him up. Meanwhile Hoym was wholly innocent in this matter. The best, good King (Frederick William II) had only the inclination to do good, and He commanded — who was to contradict here? — Nevertheless, several cabinet orders were, in the last period, set aside by the then Departmental Councillor who handled this branch (that is, Triebenfeld himself). Thus, for example, General Count Wartensleben was to have had the great domain office of Krewe, Count Schmettau the Klunewo Starosty, the Privy Councillor Count Cramer the Moschin Starosty, and so forth. This alone was a bold stroke, and all those persons who received nothing afterward breathed fire and flame.”

  11. Thus Held says that Bischofswerder sold the estates given to him, of a value of only 18,000 thalers, for 25,000 friedrichs d’or, whereas Cölln raises this sum even to 50,000 friedrichs d’or. — See further below, sub No. 2, in the Posen Chamber Department.

  12. Vertraute Briefe über die innern Verhältnisse am preussischen Hofe seit dem Tode Friedrichs II. Amsterdam und Cöln. 1807. Pt. I, p. 94 ff.

  13. “Bischofswerder was not wholly base, so that he would have given himself over to bribery; but his wife was, all the more so. The squandering of estates arranged in South Prussia was her doing as well, in that she led her husband into it, telling him again and again: ‘You will die like a beggar if you do not now, in these last days of the King, make use of the time to do something for your family.’ etc.” Vertraute Briefe I. 108.

  14. When the King was most intimately occupied with his pleasure and was called upon to decide some important matter of state, Bischofswerder would be summoned, and the word would then be: settle the matter as you believe best. Bischofswerder would then perhaps excuse himself, but it was of no avail, and once everything had been dispatched, the King signed the fair copy without reading it. Insignificant matters Bischofswerder left to the Cabinet Councillor Beyer, indeed even to Rietz (the valet and nominal husband of the Royal mistress, later Countess Lichtenau), who had cabinet orders fabricated through the cabinet secretary, his brother. — Bischofswerder followed this method to the end of his political career, and even the donations of estates in South Prussia were negotiated in just this way. The donatary would accordingly come in with his petition; the petition was communicated to Count Hoym for his opinion, whereupon the deed of donation followed. But everything beforehand was set in motion through private letters.” Vertraute Briefe I. 107.

  15. See No. 5/46 of the Warsaw Chamber Department.

  16. See No. 9 of the Posen Chamber Department.

  17. Görne was Minister and Head of the Sea- and Salt-Trading Company. He suffered from a mania for buying up large estates in Poland for himself; among other things he had also purchased the extensive Krotoszyn estates, and to this end had embezzled considerable sums from the royal treasuries entrusted to him. In the year 1782 the defalcations were discovered, the estates were confiscated, and His Excellency was taken to Spandau, until Frederick William II gave him his freedom. — Wöllner’s merits have been recalled elsewhere in the last pious years.

  18. In Varnhagen, loc. cit., p. 171.

  19. Varnhagen, loc. cit., p. 181. Grevenitz is here not expressly named by Varnhagen only out of considerate regard, because he was still living in Berlin in 1845.

  20. The reasons Held had for compiling the Black Book emerge sufficiently already from the almost touching, and evidently sincerely meant, plea to the King that stands at the head of the book. “My fate,” he says further in his written defense, “I foresee; yet the thought calms me that, even if only after I have long since been ground down, the King will surely one day come to see how useful such enthusiastic excesses sometimes are, in order that the lesser great men may learn that they are being watched. The King is master of my freedom, of my meager income, and, if he wishes, of my life. I leave all that to him quite willingly, even if he errs in the direction of his wrath, and I wish only that some real benefit for him, the laws, and the state may arise from this resignation of mine.” — Noble, simple words; loyalty to the King and love of fatherland combined could not be more beautifully expressed. But “that is indeed the misfortune of kings, that they will not hear the truth!”

  21. Cölln had had the Black Register printed, without Held’s will or knowledge, in the year 1807 in the Feuerbrände. Hence Held’s indignation. It is striking, however, that in the dispute over this, no mention is ever made of the printing that the Annalen der leidenden Menschheit had already brought out in 1801, Part IX, pp. 154 ff., namely with a closing note that contains several passages from Held’s above-cited written defense verbatim, exactly, and with the same abominable corruption of the names as in the printing in the Feuerbrände. — Our printing has been prepared from a manuscript found among Held’s papers, and the better orthography of the place names has been restored.

  22. South Prussia was, from 1796, divided into three Chamber Departments: the Chamber Department of Posen, Kalisch, and Warsaw.

The former Posen Chamber Department essentially constitutes the present Grand Duchy of Posen. For, apart from the Netze District in the north, only the small south-eastern portion of Schildberg-Adelnau is added to the whole, while in the north only the districts of Radziejewo, Brzesc, Kowal, and part of Powidz, Peysern, and Kalisch fall away from it. The loss which the Posen Chamber Department suffered through the following donations of estates therefore, in its lasting consequences, really quite properly affects the present-day Grand Duchy of Posen. The value of the estates given away in the Posen Chamber Department amounted, even by the low figures, to 1,020,225 thalers, more accurately probably over 5,000,000 thalers. But the canon which (according to Holsche, Geographie und Statistik von West-, Süd- und Neuostpreussen, vol. II, p. 483) was to flow annually from these into the royal treasuries came to only 15,816 thalers. — Small wonder that the Polish provinces did not fill the royal treasuries to the degree that they could have filled them! —

  1. “The lame foot preaches terribly the history of sybaritic lusts and excesses.” Held, in his defense in the second instance, which lies before us in manuscript.

  2. Dorow, Erlebtes aus den Jahren 1813—1820. Pt. I. Leipzig 1843.

  3. Dorow, loc. cit.

  4. Stengel, Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Justizverfassung etc. in den preuss. Staaten. X. 175.

  5. Stengel Beiträge etc. XV. 183.

  6. Stengel, Beiträge XV. 186.

  7. We make use here almost exclusively only of such works, namely those of A. C. v. Holsche, Royal Prussian Privy Justice Councillor and Government Director at Bialystok, — Franz Balthasar v. Brenkenhof, Royal Prussian Privy Senior Finance, War, and Domains Councillor, — W. A. v. Klewitz, Privy State Councillor; — Lamotte, Royal Prussian War and Domains Councillor, and others of like kind.

  8. Lamotte, in the treatise on colonists. Berlin 1793. p. 166.

  9. Leben des Kgl. Preuss. Geh. Ober-Finanz-, Kriegs- und Domainenraths Franz Balthasar Schönberg v. Brenkenhof. p. 93.

  10. Preuss, Friedr. d. Gr., loc. cit.

  11. Holsche, der Netzdistrict, ein Beitrag zur Länder- und Völkerkunde. Königsberg 1793. p. 224.

  12. That is to say, however, specifically of the province in question itself, for it was from its own revenues that these sums were defrayed. —

  13. Holsche, Geographie und Statistik von West-, Süd- und Neuostpreussen. Berlin etc. 1807. Pt. III, p. 179.

  14. “Der Netzdistrikt”, from which the earlier-cited figure was taken, had already appeared in 1793.

  15. Holsche, Geographie und Statistik. Pt. II, p. 499.

  16. Privy State Councillor v. Klewitz. Ueber die preussische Verwaltung in dem ehemaligen Süd- und Neuostpreussen, Berlin, 1812, pp. 39—41.

  17. v. Klewitz, loc. cit., p. 29.

  18. Preuss, Friedrich d. Gr. Vol. IV, p. 380.

  19. Geographie u. Statistik von West-, Süd- und Neu-Ostpreussen. III. p. â80 [?] ff.

  20. loc. cit. II, p. 501.

  21. Holsche, der Netzdistrikt. p. 226.

  22. Der Netzdistrikt. p. 227.

  23. v. Triebenfeld, the War Councillor described on p. 128. He had submitted this memoir in the year 1813 to the Privy Secretary of Prince v. Hardenberg, the Court Councillor Dorow. We reproduce it here, following the latter’s communication in “Erlebtes” II, pp. 13 ff., only in extract, here and there with a pointer in ( ).

  24. The excessive number of lawsuits already conducted in the Polish territories that had come to Prussia solely through the first partition is shown by the following General Table of Civil Suits for the year 1790 (Holsche, der Netzdistrikt etc., p. 267):

  25. It was the King’s first tour of the provinces after his accession to the throne.

  26. “From 1772 to 1806, all the posts of the subordinate officials, and also the greater part of the higher and higher-ranking officials, had — alas! out of excessive kindness! — been filled only with Poles! — “

That is the literal wording of the note to this passage, in a reprint of the cabinet order in the pamphlet that appeared a few weeks ago: “Das Grossherzogthum Posen und die Polen gegenüber dem Nationalitätsprincip und dessen neuesten Regungen, von einem früheren Abgeordneten der Provinz Posen, Berlin 1861, Druck und Verlag v. E. S. Mittler und Sohn”, p. 71. — This note, and the typographically emphasized reprint of the entire cabinet order, may serve as proof of the shamelessness and unscrupulousness with which the words and intentions of the noble and gentle Prince were falsified, and their plain, correct meaning, in the supposed service of German interests, sophistically twisted and knavishly corrupted.

  1. Jahrbücher der preussischen Monarchie. Year 1799. Pt. I. pp. 53—55.

  2. In the work: “Die Polen, ein Beitrag zur Karakteristik dieses Volkes aus den Erinnerungen eines alten Justiz-Beamten (Krim. Dir. Ed. Hitzig), Berlin Vereinsbuchh. 1848”, the thoroughly Prussian-German author relates: “I could have entered the then Hofgericht at Bromberg as a councillor. However, I was as yet only 23 years 4 months old, and therefore declined the honorable offer on account of my youth, and preferred to have myself appointed Assessor at the New East Prussian Regierung in ….. The councillorship could not escape me in any case, and I did receive my councillor’s patent in April 1799. —

It is also now scarcely credible with what a mass of titles and dignities the German governments had blessed their Polish territories. Thus there existed in West Galicia an authority which collected from the Jews the tax on kosher meat and on the candles burned for the celebration of the Sabbath, under the title: “Imperial-Royal West-Galician Most-Highly-Ordained Kosher-Meat-Inspection and Sabbath-Candle-Lighting Commission.” —

Yet another blessing of Imperial-Royal Austro-German culture and civilization, which has enlightened the Poles!

  1. Die ehemaligen Beamten des abgetrennten preuss. Antheils von Polen, ihre Zahl, Geschichte, Lage und Rechte geschildert von einem Unglücksgefährten. 4to. Gleiwitz 1809. p. 2.

  2. Ueber die Verwaltung d. Herzogth. Warschau, in Archenholz’s Minerva. 1808. Vol. I. Jan. p. 145.

  3. Voss. Zeitung 1809. No. 6. 10 Jan.

  4. At that time Oberpräsident in Posen.