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DE. HERMANN KIEFEE 
 
THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 
 
 DR. HERMANN KIEFER 
 
 Chairman of the Freiburg Meeting 
 BY 
 
 Wabeen Washburn ^lorer, Ph.D. 
 
 Author of "Liberty Writings of Dr. Eermann Kiefer," 
 
 "German Liberty Authors," etc. 
 
 Historian of the Michigan Society of the Sons of the American Revolution 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 THE GOBHAM PRESS 
 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1918, BT RiCHABD G. BaDGEB ^ 
 
 >.X ■ 
 
 X>^ ^ 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 
 K-%iio^i 
 
 
 Made in the United States of America 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A 
 
TO THE MEMORY 
 V OF MY mother's BROTHER 
 MAJOR GENERAL HENRY DANA WASHBURN 
 
DR. HERMANN KIEFER 
 
 Bom November 19, 1825, Sulzburg, Baden, Germany. 
 
 Attended gymnasia of Freiburg, Mannheim and Carlsruhe; 
 attended universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Prague 
 and Vienna 1844-49. 
 
 Member of Suevia, Heidelberg; founder of Alberta, Frei- 
 burg. 
 
 Delegate to the Offenburg Meetings of September 12, 1847, 
 and March 19, 1848. 
 
 Elected Chairman of the Upper Rhine District of the vater- 
 landischer Verein. 
 
 Chairman of the Freiburg Mass Meeting, March 26, 1848. 
 
 Delegate to the Landeskongress of Baden, OfFenburg, May 
 12, 1849. 
 
 Appointed alternate member of the State Committee and 
 elected member of the State Committee. 
 
 Passed State Examinations May 29, 1849 ("vorziigHch"). 
 Volunteered as Regimental Surgeon and accepted May 
 29. 
 
 Attended meeting at Carlsruhe, June 10, 1849. 
 
 Present at Battle of PhilUpsburg (June 20) and Ubstadt 
 (June 23). 
 
 Elected to the Trkumvirat to fill Brentano's position, June 29. 
 
 Became fugitive July 10, 1849. 
 
 Arrived Detroit in October, 1849, and established the prac- 
 tice of medicine. 
 
 Married July 21, 1850, to Franciska Kehle of Bonndorf, 
 
 S 
 
4 Dr. Herrrumm Kiefer ' 
 
 Baden, Germany ; Children : Emilia Anna* ; Alfred Kos- 
 suth* ; Richard Faust* ; Arthur E.f ; Oscar Hutten* ; 
 Edwin H. ; Edgar Siegfried ; Hermina Cora (Bonning) ; 
 Guy Lincoln. 
 
 Joined the Republican Party upon its organization, 1858. 
 
 Fremont Speech, 1856; Schiller Address, 1859; Arbeiter 
 Address, 1867 ; Humboldt Address, 1869 ; Peace Ora- 
 tion, 1871. 
 
 Presidential Elector of Michigan, 1872, and delegate to 1876 
 convention. 
 
 U. S. Consul to Stettin, 1883-1885. 
 
 Regent of the University of Michigan, 1889-1901. 
 
 Orator of the fiftieth Anniversary of the Revolution of 1848, 
 March 18, 1898. 
 
 Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Medicine of the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan, June, 1902. 
 
 Attended the one hundredth anniversary of the Corps Suevia, 
 Heidelberg, July, 1910. 
 
 Died October 11, 1911. 
 
 * Deceased. 
 
 t The writings which form the material for this volume were carefully 
 preserved by Arthur E. Kiefer. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 TO SOURCE EDITION * 
 
 This volume contains the most essential Liberty writings 
 of the late Dr. Hermann Kiefer, the Chairman of the Frei- 
 burg meeting of March 26, 1848. The Offenburg resolu- 
 tions, the Struve motion, the program of the May resolution 
 and the Common Laws of the German People are reprinted 
 from the original resolutions and pamphlets preserved by 
 Dr. Kiefer in order to give a proper perspective to the writ- 
 ings of the Idealist of 1848. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer's translations from the Greek, Latin and Ital- 
 ian, likewise letters containing observations on the social and 
 political conditions in America, diaries kept on travels in 
 Germany and addresses and papers on the natural sciences 
 and the profession of the practice of medicine, have not been 
 included in this work. 
 
 The printing of this volume has been made possible by the 
 surviving members of the family of Dr. Hermann Kiefer. An 
 English translation will follow, if sufficient interest should be 
 manifested. 
 
 I wish to express my appreciation of the assistance gen- 
 erously given me in the preparation of the book by Mr. 
 Arthur E. Kiefer, Professor Alexander Ziwet of the Univer- 
 sity of Michigan, Mr. William Thiemt, Dr. M. Markus and 
 Mr. Max Cohen. 
 
 * Liberty Writings of Dr. Hermann Kiefer. G. E. Stechert Co., New 
 York City. Sm. 8vo. pp. X, 513. Price, $3.00. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FAOa 
 
 BlOOBAFHICAL SKETCH 3 
 
 FoHEWOED TO SoTTRCE EDITION 6 
 
 Dedication 6 
 
 The Eably Life and Poems of Heemann Kieeer .... 11 
 
 The FmsT Opfeneubg Meeting 33 
 
 The Second Offenbiteg Meeting 33 
 
 The Freibueg Meeting 35 
 
 The Mat Revolution (1849) 37 
 
 Francisca Kehle (Mrs. Herman Kiefer) . . . . . 40 
 
 Kinkel's Visit to Detroit 43 
 
 Earlt Life in Detroit 47 
 
 LiBERTT Oration S3 
 
 Schiller Anniversaet (18S9) 56 
 
 Educational and Labor Ideals 60 
 
 Peace Oration Mat 1, 1871 73 
 
 Political Activitt 81 
 
 U. S. Consul to Stettin, Germant 82 
 
 "How Germany Is Governed'' (The Election of 1884) ... 84 
 
 "Labor in Germant" (Causes of Emigration) .... 87 
 
 Activitt in Civic Apfaihs 99 
 
 Regent of the Univeesitt of Michigan 100 
 
 The Fiftieth Anniversart of 1848 106 
 
 Schiller Anniversaet (1905) 117 
 
 Ideas on Social Conditions 117 
 
 Anniversary of the Corps "Suevia'' 119 
 
 Last Poem 121 
 
 "How Germant Is Governed" (A Foeecast of the Geowth of 
 
 THE Socialist Paett) 123 
 
 Index 135 
 
THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 
 DR. HERMANN KIEFER 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 
 
 THE writings of the late Dr. Hermann Kiefer almost 
 cover the time allotted to mortal man. In 1839 the 
 first poem entitled The Death of Socrates was written, and 
 in 1905 we find a contribution to the celebration of the 100th 
 anniversary of Schiller's death, which was held in Chicago in 
 May, 1905. One is a hymn to the noblest of teachers, Soc- 
 rates ; the other is an expression of appreciation of Ger- 
 many's greatest singer of the rights of man, Schiller. One 
 motive is common to both: the Black Forest youth of four- 
 teen sang of freedom and the venerable American of eighty 
 reiterated the same fundamental tone. 
 
 Dr. Hermann Kiefer remained an idealist to the very last, 
 notwithstanding the decades which had intervened between 
 the time when the young pupil of Freiburg first began to 
 record his thoughts and when the Emeritus Professor of 
 Medicine became enraged when he contemplated the signs of 
 a restoration in the first decade of the twentieth century. 
 
 The writings found in an old package upon which was 
 written the short but significant word Eigenes (my own) 
 reveal in the year 1917 the thoughts and contemplations of 
 a man who was to devote his powerful energies to the realiza- 
 tion of a freer and higher conception of human life. 
 
 The lad grew up in Emmendingen, and as a boy went out 
 under nature's skies and on the tops of the hiUs of the Black 
 Forest listened to her teachings. He observed the moods and 
 storms of nature so strangely attuned to the moods and 
 storms of youth. From the first this, his foster-mother, 
 
 11 
 
12 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 made a deep impression upon the soul and mind of her im- 
 patient and rebellious child of nature. He was even then 
 being prepared to understand Humboldt's Cosmos. The 
 eager lad listened to the legends of the Black Forest and 
 heard with feeling the songs of these Highlajid people. He 
 observed "the short and simple annals" of the children of the 
 Upper Rhine Lands and beheld with compassion the needs 
 and sufferings of the villagers. Their ominous mutterings, 
 their inarticulate expressions of revolt, the very words 
 "oppressors" and "oppressed" left no feeble imprint on the 
 mind of the growing boy. He, caught as a mere youth the 
 powerful chords reverberating — freedom, education and 
 common weal. He heard the expressed desire for a nation, 
 and, as a real boy, his heart throbbed with pride at the con- 
 ception of a German Nation. From childhood he had heard 
 that the boys across the narrow, swiftly running river Rhine 
 were boys of German descent. At home, on the streets, at 
 school, he had heard of the time when Strassburg, the proud 
 seat of culture, learning and trade, was a German city. The 
 stories of the castles of German knighthood, whose homes had 
 been amidst the Vosges Mountains toward the West, aroused 
 his imagination. Even before the boy grew into manhood, 
 the history of the great German Nation had fired his youthful 
 soul. 
 
 As the only son of a physician he had been taught that he 
 should take up the traditional career of his ancestors, and 
 the idea of being able to prepare himself to alleviate the suf- 
 ferings of the people appealed to him. His father, Conrad 
 Kiefer, M.D., while a student in 1817-1820, had not been 
 carried away by the revolutionary movement which aroused 
 the Burschenschafter of 1817. Quite naturally he brought 
 up the boy, or at least tried to bring him up, in a very con- 
 
Dr. Hermamm Kiefer 13 
 
 servative atmosphere. His mother was a daughter of the 
 Grand Ducal Gardener of Carlsruhe. Thus he was trained 
 to respect the estabhshed order of things. 
 
 The lad on entering the Lyceum of Freiburg reaUy applied 
 his exceptional talents, and like Carl Schurz and other men 
 of 1848, acquired the mastery of his native and of foreign 
 languages. He enjoyed especially those works which treated 
 of nature and human nature. He was not unlike Wilhelm 
 Meister. Jerusalem Delivered, which he translated into Ger- 
 man from the Italian, may have finally given to his wander- 
 ing thoughts a definite direction. He also translated Latin 
 and Greek poems. 
 
 In the dull routine of school life, however, this lonesome 
 child of nature found but scant opportunity to give expres- 
 sion to his innermost feelings and longings. And still he 
 recorded his feelings and thoughts and carefully preserved 
 his youthful writings to the very last. This collection gives 
 the only direct material preserved which tells of the per- 
 sonal development of one of the great intellectual leaders of 
 the Baden Revolution of 1848-1849 from the youth of four- 
 teen to the Surgeon of the Army of the Republic of Baden, 
 and explains why he still could pour his very life blood into 
 an address delivered on the fiftieth anniversary of March 18, 
 1848. It is fair to assume that the life of this youth was not 
 unlike the lives of the young scholars of Freiburg, Mann- 
 heim, and Carlsruhe and of the gymnasia in all parts of the 
 German countries — like causes, like results. As mere boys, 
 they were being prepared to sacrifice their freedom and their 
 education for the common weal. 
 
 Freedom, education and common weal have obtained a 
 meaning in the year 1917 which has justified the endeavors 
 of the youth of Baden, who were the German forerunners of 
 
14 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 184.8. The world to-day has taken up their motto. The 
 emaciated hand of a suflFering humanity is ringing the sunken 
 bell of liberty. Historians, with the usual self-complacency 
 of men whose knowledge of life is obtained from time-worn 
 parchments, or documents issued by the established classes, 
 record that the revolution of 1848 was a failure. Hundreds 
 fell in the conflict ; thousands were compelled to flee and seek 
 freedom in the unknown land of America. Many became 
 absorbed in the struggles for existence in a strange country, 
 and for various reasons were doomed to keen disappointment. 
 The change from the land of culture to that of unbridled 
 nature was too sudden and they were poorly prepared for 
 the new conflicts which they were compelled to confront. 
 Almost within a decade, hundreds of the Republicans of 1848 
 had an opportunity to give expression to their ideals of Lib- 
 erty and Union. They aroused thousands of Citizens of 
 the American Republic to take up arms for the preserva- 
 tion of the Republic and the extension of liberty to all classes 
 of men. Many taught their children and grandchildren the 
 principles which had fired their early youth. Among these 
 Dr. Hermann Kiefer endeavored to keep alive the ideals of 
 the Republic of 1848 among his fellow citizens of Detroit. 
 His activities aroused the attention of the people of the State 
 and he was finally selected to represent the interests of the 
 Republic of America in the Imperial Country. 
 
 Inasmuch as the story of the struggles of the German peo- 
 ples for liberty is of special interest to-day, it may be well 
 to sketch the development of the lad who to the very end of 
 his eventful life remained the child of nature and liberty. 
 We shaJI use his own writings as the primary source even 
 although at times they may not measure up to the rules of 
 the technique of literature and of rhetoric and t 
 
Dr. Hermwrm Kiefer 15 
 
 always be historically letter perfect. But whatever may be 
 these literary shortcomings they reveal the story of the de- 
 velopment of a true Republican and an ardent admirer of the 
 natural sciences. We shall reserve for a future treatment the 
 discussion of the historical and literary sources of the student 
 of the Baden High Schools. 
 
 It is a significant fact that the boy of fourteen sang of 
 Socrates the teacher and selected as his hero Friedrich II., 
 whom he beheld as the model of German manhood and cour- 
 age. The lad who undoubtedly had witnessed a boat sailing 
 quietly upon the waters to be caught soon by the powerful 
 furies of a storm was able to portray such a picture in a 
 realistic manner. In early youth he experienced the happy 
 hours which were to him but the awakening of spring. A 
 deep religious trait is noticeable in the pathetic ode The 
 Last Day of the Year, a poem which discloses the sad 
 thoughts of an introspective youth who beheld God in the 
 storms of Hfe. He raised his praises to God who was re- 
 vealed to him in nature. 
 
 When but sixteen years of age he sang of the noble pro- 
 fession of his family. He looked upon a physician as the 
 saviour of men, who searched for the secret saps of herbs and 
 plants in order to heal wounds and to prolong the life of 
 young and old. 
 
 The lad who knew the hope of his people and had observed 
 the influence of death was prepared to write Lament Over 
 Hermarm's Death. From childhood he had heard the story 
 of Herman, for whom he was named. This poem, which 
 sings of Germany's greatest loss, the loss of freedom, reflects 
 the nationalist craving of the scholar of Freiburg, who, as a 
 Primaner in Carlsruhe, selected the same theme he submitted 
 for the Carlsruhe prize. His deep love for home is shown 
 in the poem of that name. His conception of home was not 
 
16 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 a narrow one. It was not limited to any particular country, 
 but was the home where the frail mind is no longer deceived ; 
 where nothing weighs heavily upon the free spirit, and where 
 tears are no longer shed. Seventy years rolled away. The 
 boy who sang of home visited the old scenes, but he could 
 find neither home nor peace in the country which had not 
 recognized his youthful dream. The sad tone of his young 
 Hfe was strengthened by an experience in a cemetery. He 
 beheld the grave as the great leveller of mankind, removing 
 all contentions and all splendors of life. He never forgot the 
 gruesome idea of a grave. Decades passed by and the lad 
 who recorded these thoughts served continuously as the head 
 of the Michigan Cremation Association from 1888-1896. 
 
 In Germomy s Apostle he gave expression of thanks to 
 those Christian Heroes who had implanted the teachings of 
 light in the souls of the sons of Germany who were not giving 
 heed to the development of the mind. He beheld Winfrid as 
 the greatest of all of those apostles who directed the Ger- 
 mans toward higher ideals. He summoned all to praise the 
 sons of Ireland who had brought the Christian God to the 
 German people. 
 
 One evening the young gymnasiast ascended the mighty 
 Belchen, the sentinel of the Black Forest, in time to observe 
 the setting of the sun. His eyes involuntarily followed the 
 light as it wandered through hill and dale. Under the influ- 
 ence of such a sign the youth saw his Teutschlcmd which 
 towered above all, and in the distance he viewed the Vosges 
 mountains, then in French territory. From this lofty height 
 he looked below upon the peaceful labors of the tiller of the 
 soil. His eyes wandered to Helvetia's solid sentinels, protec- 
 tors and lovers of freedom. A storm approached and its 
 effects appealed to the imagination of the youth, who before 
 had described nature's storms. He stood there alone amidst 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 17 
 
 the battle of the elements. The rising sun, however, dis- 
 pelled the gloom of night without and night within. The 
 happy song of the shepherd, praising the creator of the 
 world, filled the heart of the lad with awe before the Divine, 
 which no man can comprehend. 
 
 The introspective lad also responded to the moods of a 
 dark November day. His farewell to Freiburg contains the 
 keynote to his subjective character. 
 
 The young lad then went to Mannheim where he assidu- 
 ously devoted himself to his school work. Here in the beauti- 
 ful city of Mannheim his attention was diverted from the 
 lonesome experiences of Freiburg. We have little material 
 which gives an insight into his life at Mannheim, the home of 
 several of the leaders of the Revolution. It is fair to assume, 
 however, that the school life of the boys in Mannheim was 
 not unhke that described by Carl Schurz at Cologne and 
 Bonn. Young Kiefer, however, did not know the struggles 
 of a student without money. And still Schurz's statement 
 "for need is a wonderful teacher, and I felt as if I had sud- 
 denly grown many years older" may be applied to Kiefer 
 with a slightly different meaning of the word need. Only 
 three poems seem to be the productions of the Mannheim 
 period yet the writings of the following year show that the 
 stay at Mannheim had a far-reaching influence upon his 
 young life and prepared him for the Carlsruhe influences. 
 He came under the influence of Karl Blind, who was five years 
 his senior, and through Blind he was introduced to the circle 
 of Gustav Struve, who published the Mannhevmer Journal, 
 and who afterwards published the Deutscher Zuschawer, 
 1847, and played a leading part in the Revolution of 1848. 
 Henceforth Kiefer was no longer a child of the Upper Rhine 
 District, and he had attained a higher conception of the 
 fatherland. He began to behold the men of Germany rather 
 
18 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 than Germany's rivers and mountains. 
 
 A small note book, which Kiefer carefully preserved, is an 
 interesting document of his Mannheim literary associations. 
 The frontispiece of the notebook, which he drew, gives infor- 
 mation about the little club of young poets who were inti- 
 mately associated with him. The note book contains the 
 criticisms of the winders of the Fichtenkranz. The names 
 written in the wreath on the anniversary of the club, the 12th 
 of August, 1843, are of interest — GoU, Blind, Eichrodt and 
 Eisen. The young men of this group selected the name of 
 their club evidently in honor of Fichte, the leader of the stu- 
 dents at the Wartburg (1817). 
 
 The story of the Burgundian Heroes who had resisted 
 Etzel's hordes at the junction of the Neckar and the Rhine, 
 appealed to the young student of Germany's heroic past. 
 He compared Grunlacher with Leonidas who fell centuries 
 before at Thermopylffi. 
 
 The study of the classics left a lasting impression upon 
 the trained minds of the young nationalists of Southern 
 Germany. The Republican theories of Plato and the works 
 of Cicero especially were eagerly absorbed by them. Their 
 teachers, the direct heirs of 1817, took advantage of the op- 
 portunity of interpreting the struggles for freedom, con- 
 tained in the writings of the Classics. 
 
 The new spring awakened in him new currents of life that 
 were to thereby increase his longing to leave the fertile 
 plains and return to the mountains of his beloved homeland. 
 This desire was soon realized. He returned home for the 
 summer vacation but was soon compelled to leave home for 
 the last year in the gymnasium. He was sent to the former 
 home of his mother, who, as stated, was the daughter of 
 the Grand Ducal Gardener of Carlsruhe. The capital of the 
 Grand Duchy of Baden had been the scene of Baden's consti- 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 19 
 
 tutional struggles for decades. The young gjnnnasiast's 
 connection with the gardener's family gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of becoming directly acquainted with the inside stories 
 connected with the reigning family of Baden. But far more 
 important were his associations with the exceptional group 
 of young men at the Carlsruhe Lyceum. Naturally his 
 family knew but little of the thoughts of these young men 
 of eighteen, who were enjoying in their way the freedom 
 of the life of a Primaner. The reciprocal influence upon 
 each other of these advocates of a freer national life was 
 far more intense and far more lasting than could have been 
 divined. The year in Carlsruhe of '43-'44 was a direct prep- 
 aration for the Revolution of 1848. The expository chapter 
 of the first OfFenburg Meeting, September 12, 1847, was be- 
 ing developed. Perhaps the lads were unconscious of the 
 direction of their life's currents, but it is easy now to see 
 the tendency of their thoughts. 
 
 The great problem for them was the German Nation, 
 the priceless inheritance of the academic youth of middle 
 Germany of 1817. The devise — ^Freedom, Honor and Fa- 
 therland — ^was their own possession. The youth of the 
 Rhine provinces naturally longed for the restoration of the 
 lost provinces across the German Rhine. 
 
 Just before going to Carlsruhe, or immediately after his 
 arrival there, young Kiefer wrote a poem entitled The 
 Fatherland's Treasure. The essential motive is freedom: 
 Who is the fatherland's sword .f* The free man, the citizen. 
 
 For years afterwards the men of 1848 addressed them- 
 selves as Citizen. This is especially noticeable in the cor- 
 respondence of Professor Kinkel relative to the attempt to 
 finance the German Republic (p. 43). 
 
 In September young Kiefer had finished his largest con- 
 tribution entitled Komg Enzio. The poem, Eonig Enzia, is 
 
20 The Revohbtiom of 18^.8 
 
 written in a series of pictures. The first group calls up 
 the form of Friedrich's son, Enzio, who had lost his life 
 in Italy fighting for his rights. The second picture describes 
 the scene of Enzio's capture. The third picture shows us 
 Enzio alone with his zither sitting in the dark chamber. 
 His only consolation is his ability to sing songs about the 
 past life. One night Rothbart steps in like unto a picture 
 of the past. Quietly he enters the cell, picks up the zither 
 and begins to sing the dreaded Spirit song. He sings of 
 his eventful reign of forty years and of his habit of de- 
 scending every year in order to behold the grandeur of his 
 house. He curses the olden enemies and implores Enzio to 
 strike and become the victorious German Kaiser. In the 
 next picture Enzio is seen reflecting on the fateful words 
 just heard, but he cannot comprehend the meaning of the 
 speech. Slowly the hour of rescue approaches the dark 
 cell, where the Noble one dreams happily of battles and 
 of human valor. 
 
 The faithful old Kiiper swings the cask in which the Ho- 
 henstaufen scion has hid and carries it through the guards. 
 Rescue is about to beckon, but the star of the Hohenstau- 
 fen disappears on the horizon. The sun beholds a lock of 
 Enzio's golden hair and tells of its evil power. Exclama- 
 tions of woe are heard because the noble house of the Ho- 
 henstaufen was buried for eternity. In the final picture 
 among the forms is seen the last scion of the noble race 
 fighting yearly the terrific battles which lead him into the 
 hands of his enemies. He will continue to fight until a 
 Kaiser will lead, the Germans. 
 
 Kiefer's interest in the history of Germany's past is best 
 indicated by his essay History of the German West-Bound- 
 ary; the prize theme of the Carlsruhe Lyceum in the year 
 184<4. The prize was awarded to his comrade Karl Blind. 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 21 
 
 Perhaps the faculty of the Lyceum little realized that they 
 were directly preparing these fiery young men to become 
 the leaders in the attempt to establish a Republican United 
 State. But the more the youths studied the past of Ger- 
 many, the more they were inclined to attribute its losses to 
 the policies of the leaders of the Einherrschaft (inherited 
 monarchy). Their conceptions of German power, German 
 courage, and German honor were strengthened by the study 
 of the successful periods of Germany's past, and this in- 
 creased their dissatisfaction with the present order of things 
 and the know-nothing policies of the various Courts. The 
 humiliation of the peoples of Germany reached its culmina- 
 tion in the total loss of the German Western boundaries. 
 The youth of Germany blushed with shame when they read 
 of the sorry role played by royal leeiders of the German 
 states. They would all have agreed with the Primaner of 
 Carlsruhe when he wrote: 
 
 "The first period of this chapter closed in disgrace and 
 ignominy, the second begins in disgrace. Nothing was won, 
 all was lost; in vain the blood of the ancestors had been 
 shed ; in vain the hard battles of the Genuan Emperors had 
 been fought. The splendor and glory were no more; the 
 Holy Roman Empire a leafless trunk, but without the cre- 
 ative power which begets worlds. That is the curse of dis- 
 union among the people, of the selfishness of the princes." 
 
 The essay is more than a mere record copied from the 
 various histories at the disposal of the writer. He added 
 his conception of country and his knowledge of it learned 
 at home and school. He added more, namely: his love of 
 fatherland acquired by his daily wanderings in the hills of 
 the Black Forest and in the streets of the cities situated on 
 the very border line, as it was at that time. His innermost 
 nature revolted at the idea that the border line of Germany 
 
22 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 had been forcefully thrown back during centuries of strug^ 
 gles. He craved for a united Empire in order to preserve 
 and regain its lost provinces and also to extend its world 
 power, and become a Nation worthy of its peoples, of the 
 intelligence of its citizens and of its progress in the arts 
 and sciences. 
 
 The final paragraph of the essay contains the ideals 
 which fired the Old Revolutionist of 1848. It was written 
 in the spirit of a prophecy which has in great part been 
 realized. 
 
 "Germany is no longer a united Empire, it is a federa- 
 tion of states, a federation of princes which has not ex- 
 perienced war. Only the future can tell how it will fight its 
 first battle. We may fall in the battle for freedom and 
 right; peace oppresses us. Russia proceeds slowly but sure- 
 ly in the East. France is educating experienced troops in 
 Africa. England trains her troops on the seas. Germany 
 is sleeping in the arm chair. Disunited it will suddenly 
 rouse in the coming struggle, disunited it will succumb to 
 the powerful enemy. Union alone can save us, but the 
 united Germany, which is on the tongues of all, is in reality 
 not united. All too different are the different purposes; 
 even the language does not bind us close together, the North 
 German can hardly understand the South German ; only one 
 thing will rescue us and bring about Union, — a German, 
 free Constitution ! When once we have such, then we shall 
 be able to strengthen ourselves and to throw off the dis- 
 grace which is weighing heavily upon us : then the time will 
 come when a powerful, united Germany will again stand 
 in the ranks of the peoples. And if we do not attain such, 
 then the next century will become in a horrible manner the 
 grave of the German peoples." 
 
 The Primaner of 1844! demanded a German, free Consti- 
 
Dr. Herma/rm Kiefer 23 
 
 tution. This was the great preparation for his demand in 
 18417 for a German ParHament. The news of the 18th of 
 March told him that this demand could not be realized. 
 The Chairman of the Freiburg Meeting insisted upon a 
 new constitution of Germany resting upon the foundations 
 of a federative Republic ( on a republican United State) . 
 
 Several poems bear the date of the month of spring. The 
 Mmstrel, poor indeed, having witnessed the fundamental 
 passions of human nature, tunes his instrument in order to 
 begin the song of love and freedom. He sings of the hap- 
 piness which freedom begot and of the power of love which 
 was the handmaiden of freedom. He sings of man's worth 
 and value before the chains of slavery dishonor him ; he sings 
 also the battle and the death-cry which demands the dawn- 
 ing of freedom. But the poor singer must depart, despised 
 and forsaken, for past is the time when the German Kaiser 
 takes pleasure in song. 
 
 The Wormemond, the month of love and friendship, 
 awakened these feelings in the breast of the young apostle 
 of German unity and gave him new hope. On the eigh- 
 teenth of the month he wrote German^/ and Its Rhine. It is 
 a summons to the German people to avenge the ignominy 
 which has been forced upon them before it is too late. 
 
 On the fourth day of July he expressed his three wishes, 
 his beloved, money and the doctorate. On the same day he 
 wrote the poem My Destmy, which divulges his great desire 
 to give up his life for love and his fatherland. 
 
 Another poem written for a remembrance album for Emi- 
 lie Bougine, contains the motif fidelity unto death. Already 
 in the year 184<3 he had written a contribution for the al- 
 bum of his first cousin, Emilie. Her happy and free na- 
 ture had exerted a deep influence upon the earnest believer 
 in preparedness, who was willing to lay down his life for 
 
24 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 love and fatherland. It may be noted here that Emilie was 
 very much interested in his literary work and that they ex- 
 changed selections from different writers and original poems. 
 
 In the poem written about the occasion of his leaving 
 the Carlsruhe Lyceum he gave a toast to love, profession 
 and fatherland. It is in this poem that the first mention is 
 made of the black-red-gold ribbon. 
 
 A few days later he wrote of the power of a free song 
 which peals out freedom to the people, arousing them from 
 their lethargic sleep, and with the dynamic power of great 
 spirits forces them upon the field of battle and victory. 
 
 On the 11th of August he created his most significant 
 poem, most significant in that it best discloses the thoughts 
 and the contemplations which prepared him to become the 
 Chairman of the Freiburg meeting of the 26th of March, 
 1848. In Lament Over Germany, he shows almost prophetic 
 vision. The young student had observed, as already indi- 
 cated, the sad role played by the thirty-nine different states, 
 not only in the defense of their historical rights, but also in 
 the extension of their world power. This was due primarily 
 to the fact that unity and life were lacking in the en- 
 deavors of the German people. The people endowed with 
 free and natural talents had elected to serve the Devil, 
 servility. They were accepting money and land instead of 
 the priceless possession. Freedom. Having become oblivious 
 to the derision of the world, they were living on the glory 
 of their illustrious ancestors. 
 
 Everywhere a world wide activity is noticeable; but the 
 German, fast asleep, heard not the loud sounds of the strug- 
 gling worlds. France is sending her ships out upon the 
 ocean's currents. Even on Lybia's rocky cliffs they recog- 
 nize the courage of the Franks. The proud Lion is lurking 
 in the background defiantly relying upon his secure lair and 
 
Dr. Hermatm Kiefer 85 
 
 upon his forests of masts. Germany is dreaming, reflect- 
 ing, yawning and rejoicing in its customs union, proud of 
 the free Rhine. In the meantime the world is being bartered 
 for, but the German takes no part in the transaction. He 
 looks quietly upon the changing world and speaks with 
 a tone of helpless regret: 
 
 "Everything is changed. 
 Other times, other orders." 
 
 On the same day the scene between the Frenchman, the 
 Englishman and the German was written. In the out- 
 line Kiefer depicted a scene in which a Frenchman and an 
 Englishman were discussing their plans for exploiting Al- 
 geria and Morocco on the strength of German finances. 
 A German is shown asleep during most of the conversation 
 and does not comprehend their purpose, but wakes up in 
 time to rush out and find the money. It is interesting to 
 note that the young man of nineteen, seventy-three years 
 ago, was far-sighted enough to reahze that the time would 
 come when foreign possessions would be of importance to 
 Teuton aims. Or was the handwriting even then so plainly 
 upon the wall that any student of Germany's history could 
 easily read its ominous message.'' 
 
 The German finally woke up, but only after decades 
 had passed. The voice of the youth of the Rheinland was 
 not heard. In another sense of the word there were "other 
 times, other orders." It is difficult to tell how the history 
 of Europe might have developed, had Germany become a 
 Republic in arms, but internally Germany paid the terrific 
 price of not heeding to freedom, education and the common 
 weal until near the end of the century. Internally the uni- 
 fication of Germany was brought about by the Bismarckian 
 
26 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 policy of "blood and iron," a policy which had been previ- 
 ously used to crush out the nationalistic spirit of the Ger- 
 man peoples. The glorious German Empire united with 
 the Spirit of 1813 in 1913, a compact of the people sealed 
 with the blood and sacrifices of the war of 1914, has not 
 listened as yet to all the demands of the demanders of jus- 
 tice of 1848. The Emherrschaft (inherited Monarchy) 
 with aU its complicated machinery of a State organization 
 still reigns supreme. 
 
 A Romance, True Love, and a Ballad, Resignation, writ- 
 ten shortly before Christmas suggest the loss of the asso- 
 ciation with his beloved friend of Carlsruhe. Under the in- 
 fluence of these remembrances he read with sincere apprecia- 
 tion the poems of Goethe. He adapted Goethe's Secretly 
 Must I Ever Weep in a pretty little poem entitled To Ap- 
 pear and to Be, which gives us an insight into his soul 
 struggles, striking at the same time, however, the note of 
 the dawning of hope. On the very next day he wrote under 
 the influence of Goethe's words: 
 
 Then leave me to my woe! 
 If only for once 
 I can be lonesome indeed, 
 Then I shall not be alone — 
 
 the poem Need for Solitude. This intense need for solitude 
 motivated his life over sixty years later when he sat alone 
 in the old chair in his home in Detroit. 
 
 A few minor poems and a collection of remembrance-books' 
 sayings, riddles, charades, etc., complete the collection he 
 had made in his book of poems. A collection of verses and 
 sayings taken from remembrance-books indicates the range 
 of interests of the young poet. In addition to the poems 
 
Dr. Herrrumn Kiefer 27 
 
 written during the time spent at the different gymnasia, 
 there are several preserved on separate leaflets, some of 
 which are dated and others have no indication of the time 
 when written. 
 
 Kiefer studied at Freiburg 1844-45, Heidelberg 1845-46, 
 Freiburg 1846-47. Then he went to Prague in the winter 
 semester of 1848 and to Vienna the next semester, attracted 
 by the great renown of the new Austrian medical schools. 
 In the faU of 1848 he returned to Freiburg where he com- 
 pleted his studies. He joined the Corps Sv^via in Heidel- 
 berg and evidently participated in the internal disruption 
 of this conservative society. In a pamphlet issued on the 
 occasion of the 100th anniversary of this Corps reference 
 is made to this trouble: "As the result of internal dissen- 
 sion the Corps withdrew in the year 1848 from the national 
 society. After the uneasy years had passed and the differ- 
 ences had been settled, the Corps reentered the national so- 
 ciety in order to remain in the same in continuous close re- 
 lationship." This discord had its beginning in the year 
 1844-45 for the reason that the ideas of the young students 
 were, as indicated in the poems of Kiefer, very radical. A 
 list of members, preserved by Dr. Kiefer, contains the names 
 of several men who were active in the Revolution. 
 
 In the meantime, Kiefer had joined the Turnerverein of 
 Freiburg, December 30, 1846, and had become an inactive 
 member of the Liedertafel, July 10, 1846. He also founded 
 the society Alberta, for which he wrote the society's song for 
 the Commers held on the 6th of March, 1847. The meetings 
 of the Alberta just after this Commers were evidently filled 
 with a bitter controversy judging from Kiefer's words ad- 
 dressed to the members of the Alberta on the occasion of 
 his withdrawal from the society. Young Kiefer had founded 
 this society some semesters before. He had endeavored to in- 
 
28 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 fuse his ideas into the society, as may be seen from the 
 spirit of the society's song : "A New Spirit is evident Every- 
 where, Breaking With Powerful Strokes a New Course." 
 The spirit of the society, however, was inclined to the 
 Corps, as is evident from the founder's words : "You have 
 decided for a Corps. Very well, so be it, but with all your 
 heart, not half or modified." Kiefer decided to withdraw 
 since he could not fully approve of the principles of a 
 Corps even in a modified form. 
 
 Only student love songs with the setting of a free nature 
 bear the dates of the years 1845 and 1846. Either the 
 poems of these years have been lost to us or they were years 
 of confusion or of social activities for the young student, 
 typical Fuchs and Burschen years. One poem. At the Umr 
 versity, reveals the state of mind of the young student, 
 but it is without date. He realized his position very keenly 
 as the poem indicates. Another poem, entitled The Sentry, 
 gives us an insight into his wandering life. The lad who 
 divined so clearly nature's moods, and those of man, di- 
 vined too his own moods. . This poem tells the story which 
 the old Emeritus Professor hinted at during his conversa- 
 tion with the writer (p. 116). He seemed discouraged, since 
 the hope of his youth was crushed. Yet rich in experience, 
 bent with sorrow, melancholy and grief, he was "in spirit 
 still the same." He continued to remain in spirit still the 
 same. 
 
 The young student wrote a note dated the 10th of April, 
 which exactly explains his mental struggles : 
 
 "It is a sad time, the period of this vacation. As the 
 clouds chase each other in the skies and the wild storm rages, 
 so it is in my soul. In nature the approaching spring 
 is struggling with the obstinate winter which has outlived it- 
 self. She will conquer — but in my soul an approaching 
 
( Dr. Hermami Kiefer 29 
 
 autumn is struggling with a spring which has not fully 
 blossomed as yet. 
 
 "Will he conquer? It is cold round about me, the world 
 appears to me deserted and empty ; people do not warm me ; 
 my heart is consuming itself in its own fire, which dares not 
 break out into flames. 
 
 "Within is heavenly fire, but without coldness of the 
 earth. So I take refuge occasionally in the halls of sacred 
 poetry and endeavor to find therein and at the urn of a lost 
 love the warmth which will inspire me." 
 
 On the very same day he wrote about the approach of 
 the storm, which was gathering with pent-up fury in the 
 breasts of the German peoples. He seemed to understand 
 the inner feelings of the oppressed German peoples who were 
 almost ready for the OfFenburg meeting in September. 
 
 On the 20th he wrote of the coming revolution but in a 
 different melody. He made use of the clear song of the 
 lark in order to express his hope that the spring of new life 
 of freedom was about to burst forth, proclaiming the future 
 course of humanity. 
 
 The new life at Freiburg and especially the student life 
 of the Alberta, the Liedertafel and the Turner society 
 aroused his interest in the questions which had filled his mind 
 in the gymnasia of Freiburg and Carlsruhe. The experi- 
 ences in the foreign world, however, were not without good 
 results. They prepared him directly to understand better 
 the principles cherished by the academic youth of the past 
 three decades and steeled him to meet the great emergency 
 which was about to confront him. They had aroused all the 
 latent forces of his nature and had filled his soul with "sor- 
 row, melancholy and grief." This experience had ripened 
 him and prepared him to understand the sorrow, melan- 
 choly and grief of the oppressed sons of Baden. It had 
 
30 The Revolution of 184,8 
 
 prepared ,him to become the chairman of the Freiburg dis- 
 trict. 
 
 Just when he composed The German Chase is hard to 
 determine, but the ideas contained in the poem correspond 
 to the ideas of the young student at Freiburg in the spring 
 of 1847. In this poem he compared the people to the noble 
 stag hunted down and held by the statesmen grown grey 
 in sin. 
 
 The poem Princ<es and Peoples treats of the oppression of 
 the people under the great French tyrant, Napoleon, and 
 of the "Battle of Leipzig," October 16-18, 1813. This 
 poem no doubt was written with a touch of bitter regret, be- 
 cause the people after all their sufferings and sacrifices were 
 compelled to endure the loss of freedom and were deprived 
 of the fruits of their own victory by the princes who reserved 
 unto themselves freedom and the crown. The war of libera- 
 tion had been fought in vain by the German peoples. 
 
 In the little poem Too Late he enters a note which borders 
 upon the spirit of the demands of the people, demands which 
 found expression in the Resolutions of the first Oifenburg 
 meeting (p. 33). 
 
 In a song entitled Black-Red-Gold!, he interpreted the 
 meaning of the flag he loved so well. Unfortunately the 
 last part, the interpretation of Gold is lost, but it certainly 
 had the keynote from night to light. 
 
 No further poems of Hermann Kiefer, if he wrote any in 
 the year 1847, have been preserved. The developments lead- 
 ing toward the OfFenburg meeting in September evidently 
 absorbed his entire outside attention. Action was substi- 
 tuted for poetry. To all appearances he devoted his spare 
 time either to a study of the German common laws, and of 
 the constitutional questions involved, or to propaganda 
 work. The only poem written during the period from Sep- 
 
( Dr. Hermamm Kiefer 31 
 
 tember to the 26th of March, 1848, bears the date of the 
 20th of March and was composed just after the news from 
 Berlin and Vienna had been received. The poem was con- 
 ceived in a quiet but determined mood when the man, as well 
 as the entire Nation, was almost stunned by the unexpected 
 turn of events. Up to this time he had cherished some con- 
 fidence in the rulers of Austria and especially in the King 
 of Prussia. The Chairman of the Freiburg (Upper Rhine) 
 district gave expression to his sadness of soul. He sang 
 of the power of spring which brought the warm rain forc- 
 ing the buds to life. The rain it was of blood. The heaven 
 from which it poured was the heart of man, which, pierced 
 by the brazen cannon, lays broken in the throes of death. 
 But out of the open wound poured the warm blood swelling 
 the seed and breaking the very last tie, thereby hastening the 
 day of fulfillment. 
 
 After the Frankfort V or-P arlament the student of Medi- 
 cine went to Vienna to continue his work. On the 17th of 
 July he summed up his thoughts in a poem entitled The 
 Formation of the Imperial Ministry. This poem reflects all 
 the elemental powers of the leader of the Baden Revolution, 
 who beheld the great outbreak in the light of the develop- 
 ment of the last three months. The ominous silence which 
 followed the Frankfort meeting weighed heavily upon the ar- 
 dent young disciple of a Republican constitution, yet he 
 caught the inner spirit of rebellion which was to break out 
 again in 1849. 
 
 These poems reveal the calibre of the candidate of Medi- 
 cine who willingly responded to the summons to the "people" 
 to meet at OfFenburg on the 12th of September, 1847. The 
 young men of Baden, who had been observing the tendencies 
 of the last three years in the light of their study of the more 
 recent past and of their observations of the conditions in 
 
32 The Revohution of 184,8 
 
 village and city, were not disposed to accept any further 
 procrastination on the part of the party in power. 
 
 The experience of these eventful years became to be the 
 spiritual property of these advocates of a democracy which 
 would be safe for the world. And fifty years later Kiefer 
 was able to describe the events, as if they were but of yes- 
 terday. His speech, delivered on the occasion of the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the 18th of March in 1898, before the meet- 
 ing held in the hall of the Socialer Turrvoerein of Detroit, 
 is a remarkable human document. In tracing the develop- 
 ment Dr. Kiefer said of' the period just before the Ofi'enburg 
 meeting : 
 
 "After the Bundestag by means of its reactionary meas- 
 ures, the changed economical conditions caused by the rise 
 of capitalism and of the proletariat, and, in addition, the 
 unworthy condition of the farmer class had broken and 
 plowed the ground, so likewise the intellectual forces of 
 the people were at work by means of poHtical pamphlets, 
 philosophical and religious investigation, by poetry, in 
 rhyme and in song, in sowing in the ground the seed which 
 needed only the fructifying storm in order to spring up 
 with vigor and strength. Discontent was seething in all 
 classes of the population, by the day laborer with pick 
 and shovel, by the farmer behind the plow, by the working- 
 man at the machine, by the small man of industry at the 
 bench and anvil, and even in the circles of the bourgeoisie 
 and of the professional men; likewise hatred of and disdain 
 toward the miserable Bundestag and the faithless princes. 
 A sultriness lay heavily upon the land. The people had 
 found themselves for decades in a double struggle for politi- 
 cal independence and national development, for freedom and 
 unity. Among the governing and governed existed a com- 
 mon doubt and lack of faith in the stability of the existing 
 
' Dr. Hermaam Kiefer S3 
 
 state of affairs. 
 
 "In the southwest comer, the weather comer of Germany, 
 especially in Baden, where a constitutional life had devel- 
 oped itself most fully, appeared the first harbingers of a 
 storm. Already on the 12th of September, 1847, a pow- 
 erful assembly of the people had met, which for the first time 
 formulated the demands of the people, and in less than six 
 weeks made its triumphal procession throughout entire Ger- 
 many." 
 
 The memory of this powerful meeting still kindled the 
 enthusiasm of the splendid soldier of the common good even 
 though removed from the scene of the conflict by thousands 
 of miles and by five decades of time. 
 
 The main demands of the first Ofi'enburg meeting, re- 
 stated in the second great meeting of the people held at 
 OfFenburg, are: 
 
 Freedom of the press ; freedom of conscience and of edu- 
 cation; the allegiance of the army to the constitution; the 
 protection of personal liberty against the police; national 
 representation in the German Biund; a popular military sys- 
 tem ; universal accessibility to the schools ; improvement of 
 the relations between capital and labor; the abolishment of 
 all privileges, including classes ; the separation of the State 
 and Church, and a progressive income and property tax. 
 In short the demands form the essential planks of a modem 
 economic and industrial state. 
 
 It is interesting to note the points underscored by Dr. 
 Kiefer: personal liberty, equitable taxation and improve- 
 ment of the relations between capital and labor. 
 
 It is true that practically all of the reforms advocated 
 have been adopted by the New German State within the last 
 two decades. This is due largely to the accomplishments 
 of individuals, to the exposes of modern German writers, to 
 
34 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 the community spirit of the Centrists (party of Catholics), 
 and to the organized endeavors of the Social-Democrats. 
 
 The general impression is that the 1848 Revolution is 
 either an aftermath of the French revolution or the direct 
 result of the Proclamation of the Republic on the 24th of 
 February, 1848. In Baden, at least, the people had been 
 prepared to receive with enthusiasm the news of the great 
 proclamation. We have seen in Kiefer the gradual develop- 
 ment of one of the Revolutionists, and he was not unhke 
 his companions of Mannheim, Carlsruhe and Freiburg in 
 spirit and in mind. 
 
 In reality the movement had become so strong that Rado- 
 witz, the Prussian ambassador at Carlsruhe, wrote on No- 
 vember 20th, 1847, in a memorial to his King: "The most 
 powerful force of the present time, that of Nationality, 
 has become the most dangerous weapon in the hands of the 
 enemy of rightful order." As Dr. Kiefer stated, the formu- 
 lated demands of the people aroused great interest in all 
 parts of Germany within the next few months. Accordingly 
 the news contained in the extra edition of the Kolnische Zei- 
 twng which appeared at 7 o'clock in the evening of Febru- 
 ary 26th shook Germany to its very foundations. Every- 
 where was repeated "Revolution in Paris ! The. RepubUc 
 proclaimed!" Within a fortnight preparations had been 
 completed for the second meeting of Offenburg. 
 
 The fact that Kiefer played an important part in this 
 meeting also is estabhshed by his election to the chairman- 
 ship of the Upper Rhine Circuit. The large enthusiastic 
 meeting adopted resolutions of far more significant import 
 than those of September 12th, for the seed had already been 
 sown on fertile soil. The most important feature of the 
 March meeting was the decision to demand a German Par- 
 liament and the adoption of plans leading to a definite or- 
 
^ Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 35 
 
 ganization. The "Citizens" returned to their respective 
 homes filled with the spirit of this great event. The news 
 of the Berlin "slaughter" and of the Vienna happenings were 
 brought to the demanders of rights of Baden. These events 
 had taken place too late to be considered at the OiFenburg 
 meeting. Almost stunned by the blow, Kiefer wrote the 
 significant poem, Spring '4-8, forecasting the revolution. 
 
 The most important act of Kiefer, the courageous chair- 
 man of the Freiburg circuit, was to summon his committee 
 and prepare resolutions for a public meeting called in Frei- 
 burg for the 26th of March. The Freiburg meeting has not 
 received due consideration at the hands of the historians. 
 In fact it has been completely overlooked in the general 
 histories. Kiefer called this meeting to protest against 
 the dire deeds of the 18th and 19th which had transpired in 
 Berlin and Vienna, and to guarantee that such ruthless 
 scenes should not be re-enacted. The meeting at Off'enburg 
 had called for a German Parliament; the word republic, 
 however, had not been inserted in the resolutions as adopted, 
 therefore the credit or discredit of introducing the word 
 repubUc belongs to the Committee of the Upper Rhine Cir- 
 cuit, of which Kiefer was the chairman. They demanded 
 "that the German Parliament should establish a new consti- 
 tution based on the foundations of a federated Republic 
 (a Republican United State)." The resolutions as adopted 
 stand as the great witness of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence forced by the occurrences of the unhappy 18th of 
 March. The young chairman of the Freiburg circuit had 
 been prepared by a decade of development, already revealed 
 to us in his writings, to control the excited session at Frei- 
 burg sufficiently well in order to have the resolutions adopted 
 by an overwhelming majority in spite of a spirited opposi- 
 tion. 
 
36 The Revolwtion of 18^8 
 
 The Baden Republicans were enraged on receiving the 
 reports of the sad events at Vienna and Berlin. With re- 
 newed determination they appealed in powerful words to the 
 German people to assert their rights: 
 
 The people demand assurances that such massacres 
 as the one at Vienna and the still more frightful one 
 at Berlin shall not be repeated. The people can only 
 possess such assurances when the long-looked for Ger- 
 man Parliament improves the conditions from the 
 ground up. 
 
 The German people will not be contented with a piece 
 of new cloth on the old garment of German hereditary 
 monarchy. It will not permit the new wine of the Ger- 
 man people to remain in the old bottles, thereby break- 
 ing them, running out and perishing ; rather it demands 
 an improvement from head to foot, a thorough cleans- 
 ing of the German Augean stables. 
 
 The German people, therefore, demand above all 
 things that the German Parliament create a new Con- 
 stitution of Germany to be drawn up by it on the foun- 
 dations of the federative Republic (the Republican 
 United State). . . . 
 
 The people demand from the long-looked for Ger- 
 man Parliament that it arrange, guard aver and di- 
 rect among the many questions, which are assuming 
 new form, above all : the fusion of the militia and of the 
 standing army for the purpose of forming a true na- 
 tional army, including all men capable of bearing arms ; 
 the freedom of the press ; trial by jury, and absolute 
 religious tolerance. 
 
 To the many demands of the German people of all 
 parts of the country they naturally add — the people 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 37 
 
 demand: complete separation of church and state; per- 
 sonal liberty (habeas corpus) ; home rule in the elec- 
 tion of the clergy and mayors; immediate alleviation 
 of the poverty of the working classes and of the middle 
 classes and the improvement of commerce, of the indus- 
 trial class and of the farming industry. 
 
 The hitherto existing enormous civil lists, appanages, 
 the excessive salaries and pensions, the idle possessions 
 of many incorporations, as well as the public domains, 
 offer adequate means for this purpose. 
 
 One of the most interesting clauses of this remarkable 
 resolution was the demand for the establishment of a 
 permanent condition of liberty. 
 
 How important the par£ played by Kiefer was in the 
 furthering of the Republican State idea is shown conclu- 
 sively by a comparison of the Freiburg resolutions with the 
 program adopted in May, 1849, by the advocates of a fed- 
 erated RepubKc. 
 
 It, however, is not our pui-pose to rehearse the subse- 
 quent developments which took place in the deliberations of 
 the committees nor to record the story of the propaganda 
 made by the leaders of the Republican movement among the 
 people at Baden. Hermann Kiefer, gifted with exceptional 
 oratorical powers and endowed with an almost imperial per- 
 sonahty, spoke along the lines of the resolutions in various 
 places in the vicinity of Freiburg, Emmendingen and Sulz- 
 burg. 
 
 The undaunted youth of Baden did not give up the fight 
 for the establishment of a Republic in Germany, but con- 
 tinued their endeavors. The climax of the movement was 
 reached in May, 1849. The State Congress was opened in 
 Offenburg on the 12th of May and the State People's As- 
 
38 The RevoUtiom of 18^8 
 
 semhly took place on the following day. Kiefer was se- 
 lected to be an alternate of the standing State Committee. 
 A definite program was adopted. Kiefer was selected as a 
 member of the State Committee when the number of the 
 committee was increased. 
 
 The proclamation contained in the May Program gives 
 to us an insight into the insistent and persevering character 
 of the men who still hoped for a Republican form of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The State meeting of Offenburg proclaims : — 
 
 Germany is in a continuous condition of complete revolu- 
 tion, called forth anew by the attacks of the larger German 
 princes on the constitution of the Empire, finally to be 
 adopted by the German National Assembly and on freedom 
 generally. German princes have conspired and united to 
 suppress freedom; the high treason committed against the 
 people and the fatherland is as clear as day ; it is clear that 
 they are even calHng upon Russia's armies for the oppres- 
 sion of freedom — The Germans, therefore, are in a state of 
 self-defense; they must meet the attack of the German reb- 
 els by armed resistance. 
 
 It is incumbent on the German races to preserve freedom 
 by mutual endeavor in order to carry out the fundamental 
 principles of the sovereignty of the people; they, therefore, 
 must support each other wherever attacked. 
 
 Kiefer remained true to his convictions and was one of 
 the thirty-six men who responded to the call of the meeting 
 at Carlsruhe, which took place on the 19th of June. At this 
 meeting a provisionary Government of three was established. 
 These members were given full power to act. The members 
 of the Triumvirate elected were: Brentano, Goegg and Wer- 
 ner. On the 29th of June Kiefer was elected to take Bren- 
 tano's place, but he declined the honor of the election. 
 
I Dr. Hermann Kiefer 39 
 
 At the same time he continued the study of medicine and 
 in May, 1849, he went to Carlsruhe for the State examina- 
 tion which he passed "vorziiglich." He received his Ucense 
 to practice on May 29, 1849. He immediately volunteered 
 as a surgeon in one of the regiments of the army of the Re- 
 public. Until the very last he carefully preserved the no- 
 tification of the acceptance of his offer. He was present 
 at the Battle of PhiUipsburg (June 20) and Ubstadt (June 
 23). Dr. Kiefer's own words about the end of the revolution 
 are very impressive: "Already in July Freiligrath's poem, 
 The Dead to the Living, a poem glowing with anger and 
 shame, resounded like the trumpet call of the final judgment 
 in the ears of the German people, calling them to a new 
 battle— in vain! He sang the requiem of the revolution." 
 
 One evening a high official of the government, a friend of 
 the family, called upon Dr. Conrad Kiefer, the father of the 
 Surgeon of the Freis charier, and informed him that he was 
 compelled to arrest his son on the following morning and 
 advised him to induce his son to flee. Dr. Hermann Kiefer, 
 equipped with a pass, issued by the provisory government, 
 went to Strassburg, then in French territory, and fled the 
 fatherland he had loved with all the strength of his boy- 
 hood and young manhood life. He, Hke hundreds of others 
 of the flower of Germany's educated youth of that period, 
 who had fought the good fight against the ruthless estab- 
 lished classes, decided to seek his fortune in the Republic of 
 the United States. He arrived in Detroit in October and 
 opened his ofiice for the practice of medicine on the 19th of 
 that month. 
 
 The young surgeon had lost the fight for the free home 
 of the Black Forest, but for him the word home had a deeper 
 meaning, the place where nothing more weighs heavily upon 
 the free spirit. America meant much in the way of promise 
 
40 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 to the yoiing man, who, although defeated by the sword, re- 
 mained unconquered in spirit. 
 
 A beautiful picture continued to inspire him in the New 
 World. He never forgot the intense scene of departure, 
 which he recalled in his peace oration of 1871. The fair 
 image of a young noble-minded woman helped to cheer the 
 long hours of the first bitter winter in America. Months 
 before the young men of his regiment had marched away 
 to fight for freedom, proudly carrying the beautiful ban- 
 ner of liberty created by the loving hands of their betrothed, 
 bearing the inscription: "This banner you must not forsake; 
 it leads you to victory and to honor; and even if the part- 
 ing is such sweet sorrow, yet we could only hate the coward." 
 
 The young sons of liberty were enriched by the experi- 
 ences of the May days of 1849, which exerted a purifying 
 influence upon their future lives. When they came to be 
 fugitives, they were fugitives only in a political sense, for 
 they took with them the personal assurance of the young 
 girls, who had developed into courageous womanhood amidst 
 the- struggles of shot and shell, that they also would become 
 voluntary fugitives in order that their lives should be conse- 
 crated to the lives of the men who had off^ered to make the 
 supreme sacrifice for freedom and for love. 
 
 One of the Black Forest maidens, richly endowed with 
 natural gifts, in the fulness of young life, plighted her word 
 to Hermann Kiefer. In the following spring Francisca Kehle 
 sailed for the Republic of America. She left her parents, 
 sisters, brothers and friends. She bade farewell to a lovely 
 and comfortable home to give her all to the man she loved. 
 In many respects she was a fugitive indeed, for she knew 
 nothing of the language and customs of the strange new 
 land. 
 
 The life of the young bride was destined to become a life 
 
Dr. Hermarm Kiefer 41 
 
 of devoted sacrifice. And when she was married to Hermann 
 Kiefer on July 21, 1850, just one year after he was forced 
 to flee, a home was estabhshed, which proved to be a haven of 
 rest and security for the young man, who for half a cen- 
 tury labored for the upbuilding of the community and the 
 Commonwealth of Michigem. 
 
 The difficult task of Francisca Kehle Kiefer in the con- 
 struction and re-construction period of America can never 
 be thoroughly appreciated. The burden of all political, so- 
 cial and commercial wars falls heavily upon the shoulders 
 of the wife and mother. Her only reward here on earth 
 seems to be the consciousness of hard duties well performed. 
 The struggles of a young woman in a strange country, with 
 strange social customs, is doubly hard, due in part to isola- 
 tion, but mostly to a cruel attitude, assumed, unconsciously 
 indeed, by her more fortunate neighbors. 
 
 Francisca Kehle Kiefer fulfilled her creative task of wife 
 and mother with devoted love, with unlimited patience and 
 with sincere consideration. Fortunately she lived long 
 enough to reap the harvest sown by her untiring hands. Her 
 children have recognized the work of their "Mother" in in- 
 spiring them to whatever success they may have attained in 
 various fields of productive labor. Her first bom fell as a 
 victim to a ravaging disease which so rudely cut down so 
 many young lives in the new country. Later on two young 
 boys were also tenderly laid to rest. She, however, lived 
 to rejoice in the associations with five sons and one daughter. 
 
 Decade after decade the mother labored for her children. 
 The wife sacrificed for her husband. She took great pleas- 
 ure in furthering his ambition to play a creative part in the 
 upbuilding of society. Had she been idle, indifferent and ex- 
 travagant, it would have utterly killed the ambition of her 
 husband. In this respect he was absolutely free to work. 
 
42 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 One of her sons wrote "Father, with her help and support, 
 became even a greater, grander man than he was." Without 
 the untiring devotion of the young woman, who came to 
 America in the spring of 1850, the great State University 
 of Michigan would never have conferred upon Regent Kiefer 
 the title of "Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Medi- 
 cine." Her work in the family and in the commimity, laid 
 to a greater extent than the City of Detroit knows, the 
 real foundation of the Hermann Kiefer Hospital. 
 
 The chapter which would reveal the most human char- 
 acteristics of Hermann Kiefer is that of the home life last- 
 ing over one-half of a century. After a successful mar- 
 ried life of nearly sixty years, Francisca Kiefer passed 
 away on August 6, 1909. Her ashes were kept during the 
 remainder of Hermann Kiefer's life in a bronze urn which 
 stood on his desk and upon which he had engraved: "A 
 noble woman, a good wife, and a loving mother !" Goethe's 
 words may be applied to the student of Germany's poet of 
 humanity : 
 
 "For by the bride whom a man selects, we may easily gather 
 What kind of a spirit his is, and whether he knows his own 
 value." 
 
THE FIRST AMERICAN PERIOD 1849-1871 
 
 TO Detroit came many a comrade In thought and they 
 soon formed a group of two score and more who had 
 fled from the fatherland in that time of restoration. These 
 educated young men were often compelled to take up the 
 trades ; in other words they were workers. They, however, 
 looked upon all productive men as workers. The real mean- 
 ing of the word, as they interpreted it, was unfortunately 
 lost, owing largely to the reconstruction of social life which 
 followed the great civil war. The societies they founded 
 still keep alive many of the principles they advocated. The 
 most prosperous of these societies are the Arheiter societies, 
 the Socialer Turner Verei/n and the Harmonie. One of the 
 most attractive features of these societies were the lectures 
 and the little libraries. 
 
 The greatest event in the young lives of the thousands 
 of the immigrants of the late forties was the trip made 
 by Professor Gottfried Kinkel to the United States in 1851- 
 1852, undertaken with the purpose of raising a loan for the 
 financing of a Republic in Germany. The reception given 
 to Professor Kinkel in Detroit was a very notable one. 
 
 These exiled German Republicans listened attentively to 
 the words of Professor Kinkel, for to them they were glad 
 tidings full of hope and satisfaction. They were carried 
 away by his prophecy : 
 
 "And now, Gei-mans in America, consider the situation. 
 The Revolution in Europe will come, for in all political, so- 
 cial and industrial relations we have retrograded back to 
 
 43 
 
44 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 the year 1847. And conditions, which broke out in the Revo- 
 lution of 1848, cannot be endured much longer. The entire 
 world sees clearer the immediate goal of this revolution 
 to be the creation of independent republics throughout cen- 
 tral Europe, and there is but slight danger that the move- 
 ment will stop before the goal is attained. 
 
 "Everj'thing depends on the fact that now all nations 
 must prepare themselves for the blow. It cannot be denied 
 that our two neighbors (Italy and Hungary) are better 
 prepared than Germany. It is indeed certain, if these people 
 be victorious, that they wiU endeavor to free Germany; but 
 it is not fitting for the greatest nation of Europe to allow 
 freedom to be presented to her. Every freedom, which is a 
 gift, would later place us in a new state of dependency, for 
 it would hinder us in establishing our national rights on our 
 boundaries. 
 
 "One says of the German that he is a cosmopolitan ; cos- 
 mopolitism, however, is disgusting. One worships foreign 
 nations and places his confidence in them, because he is 
 either too cowardly to fight himself or too jealous to help 
 his own countryman in fighting. Germany, if supported 
 by its revolutionary party in America in a vigorous manner 
 full of sacrifice, can organize itself for a revolutionary be- 
 ginning just as weU as Hungary or Italy; at least, it can 
 prepare itself to answer the first blow in the south and east 
 with a similar powerful blow in the north and west, thus 
 bringing the enemy between two fires. On this rests the se- 
 curity of victory, even for the other nations. If Germany 
 does not revolutionize ; if the princes succeed again in bring- 
 ing against these nations the irresistible German military 
 forces, then they also must succumb again. 
 
 "The great task is — independent initiative of the revohr 
 tion in our fatherland resting upon a firm, carefully plarmed 
 
Dr. Hermmrn Kiefer 45 
 
 organization of all movable forces — and for the realization 
 of this task the power of money is necessary. May history 
 not be compelled to record in its annals that Germany was 
 for a great act of self-emancipation too poor in revolution- 
 ary characters, or that its people were too selfish and too 
 suspicious to grant to these characters the power to act." 
 
 Neither Professor Kinkel, however, who had been away 
 from Germany for some time, nor the men of 1848 discerned 
 that the fears mentioned had already been realized. The 
 reaction had already gained the control and the Princes had 
 dug themselves in behind their strong ramparts. Therefore 
 the words of the messenger of a Republic made a deep im- 
 pression upon Dr. Hermann Kiefer and his associates. 
 
 The entire city extended a hearty welcome to the advocate 
 of a Republic in Germany. Detroit had long been a real 
 center of Republican principles. In 1848 the Democracy 
 of the country had selected General Lewis Cass to be candi- 
 date for President of the United States. Senator Cass, in a 
 powerful speech, supported a resolution instructing the com- 
 mittee on foreign aiFairs to consider the suspending of diplo- 
 matic relations with Austria on the occurrence of the revolt 
 of Hungary. 
 
 This speech expresses at once the spirit not only of De- 
 troit, but of the entire middle West which prepared for the 
 coming of the sturdy youth of the Fatherland, who in turn 
 helped to build up and eventually save the New Republic 
 in the time of the great Crisis. It explains why it was pos- 
 sible for these young men, in spite of their lack of knowl- 
 edge of the English language, to establish a home within a 
 comparatively short time in the New Republic: 
 
 "Here is an empire of freemen, separated by the broad 
 Atlantic from the contests of force and oppression, which 
 seem to succeed each other like the waves of the ocean in 
 
46 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 the mighty changes going on in Europe — twenty millions of 
 people enjoying a measure of prosperity which God, in His 
 providence, has granted to no other nation of the earth. 
 . . . Think you not, sir, that their voice, sent from these 
 distant shores, would cheer the unfortunate onward in their 
 work — would encourage them while bearing their evils to 
 bear them bravely as men who' hope — and when driven to 
 resist by a pressure no longer to be borne, to exert them- 
 selves as men who peril all upon the effort? 
 
 "But where no demonstration of interest on the part of the 
 government is called for by circumstances, a sound public 
 opinion is ready to proclaim its sentiments, and no reserve 
 is imposed upon their expression. It is common to this coun- 
 try, and to every country where liberal institutions prevail ; 
 and it is as powerful, and as powerfully exerted, in France 
 and in England as in the United States. Its effects may 
 not be immediate or immediately visible; but they are sure 
 to come, and to come in power. . . . Our Declaration of 
 Independence has laid the foundation of mightier changes 
 in the world than any event since the spirit of the Cru- 
 sades was precipitated from Europe upon Asia with zealous 
 but mistaken views of religious duty." 
 
 The minds of liberty loving men had been prepared by 
 the interest aroused in the establishment of new Republics, 
 or at least in republican constitutions, for Professor Kinkel 
 to make his tour of triumph, from the point of view of en- 
 thusiasm, through the Northern States. The German Rev- 
 olutionists of 1848 received him as a messenger bringing 
 glad tidings from across the waters. Professor Kinkel, how- 
 ever, although an inspiring orator and propagandist, was 
 an unsuccessful and unbusinesslike organizer from the finan- 
 cial point of view. The attempt was bound to fail, but the 
 interest aroused in the thirty or more centers where Kinkel 
 
Dr. Hermaim Kiefer 47 
 
 spoke did not subside on his return to England. His words 
 made a deep impression upon the young men in a strange 
 country. And hundreds of them, interpreting the revived 
 principles in the light of the new Heimat, told the story even 
 unto the second generation. Dr. Kiefer, first vice-president 
 of the Detroit Local, carefully preserved the correspondence 
 etc., bearing on the Liberty Loan.^ 
 
 The former chairman of the Freiburg meeting which had 
 adopted the resolutions insisting on Republican institutions, 
 came to be the natural and intellectual leader of this group. 
 Unfortunately, in some respects, his endeavors during the 
 first years were confined to the narrow circle of those who 
 could understand the German language. The product of 
 the gymnasia and the Universities of Germany, the zealous 
 advocate of the teachings of nature, found but a limited 
 group of hearers. It was, however, an extraordinary group 
 of men. They loved nature, music and art. 
 
 One of the most interesting institutions they founded was 
 the German Theater Society which flourished, with some in- 
 terruptions, until after the war. They themselves produced, 
 with the assistance of traveling actors, even the works of 
 their beloved Schiller. They lived again the songs of the 
 fatherland which they were applying to America. They 
 fmmded (1850) the Workmen's Aid Society with the object 
 of having an organization which would be of social as well as 
 of mutual protection to themselves and families. They met 
 in some quiet inn and exchanged their views. A typical ex- 
 ample of the intellectual interest of these early settlers 
 may be found in a series of lectures given by Dr. Kiefer on 
 the natural sciences before the Workmen's Society and in 
 Bloynck's ^Hall. These lectures were given every fortnight, 
 as for example, January 15, January 28, February 12, 
 'These valuable writings will be publLshed separately. 
 
48 The RevoUtion of 1848 
 
 1854. Evidently other lectures were ^ven by different 
 members. 
 
 The ideals of the different societies founded by this group 
 of men are summed up in various addresses held by Dr. 
 Kiefer on the occasions of the dedications of their new 
 halls (Arbeiter Verein, 1867; Socialer Turner Verein, 1858; 
 Harmonie, 1869). 
 
 In the meantime Dr. Kiefer had built up quite a large 
 practice of medicine. His reputation soon attracted not 
 only the citizens of German descent, but those of various 
 nationalities. This association carried him out into the 
 other groups of social life in Detroit, at least to a cer- 
 tain extent. 
 
 The Repubbcans of 1848 who had fled from a settled 
 State with aU the burdens of a selfish and oppressive mon- 
 archy were doomed, as stated, to dire disappointment. They 
 could not feel at home in the booming cities in the frontier 
 lines of the westward march of civilization. The growth 
 of Detroit in the forties and early fifties had attracted young 
 men and women of all types to the city of the straits. The 
 young man educated in the classical schools of Baden and 
 in German Universities was a stranger in a strange land. 
 Yet he who had observed the social conditions in Europe, 
 continued to observe the conditions in Detroit. He saw De- 
 troit from a certain historical perspective. He saw the con- 
 ditions and beheld with the eyes of a scientist. He saw the 
 effects and understood to a great degree the causes. 
 
 The men who had offered all for their principles were not 
 inclined to be satisfied with a "little money." In fact. Dr. 
 Kiefer had always enjoyed the opportunities which money 
 could furnish, and he did not seem to grasp the fact that 
 most of the people of Detroit were enjoying in their way 
 the pleasures which money could purchase. 
 
Dr. Herrruvrm Kiefer 49 
 
 Each group lived its own life and heeded not the life 
 of the others, at least, not until conditions had become un- 
 bearable; and typical of the life of a new country, they made 
 up their minds to remove that which they did not like or 
 which interfered with their ideals of life. They had come 
 West or had emigrated from Europe on purpose to embrace 
 the opportunity of acquiring land or capital and to live ac- 
 cording to their own ideals. They had acquired land and 
 capital and proceeded to carry out their ideals of personal 
 liberty or of social welfare and made no attempt to under- 
 stand the other man. The men who had come over to Amer- 
 ica to make laws, proceeded to make laws as the easiest way 
 to eliminate conditions which seemed to them to be the 
 sources of all evils. The others resented this autocratic 
 and sumptuary method with the inherited hatred toward 
 the ruhng classes. The result was the typical life of a new 
 city with all its strict morality and unrestrained immorality. 
 
 The men of 1848 had not dreamed of this outgrowth of 
 society within the form of government they had admired. 
 The men who had hoped to develop the conditions by educa- 
 tion and thereby bring about a real prosperity for all and 
 at the same time preserve personal liberty, could not com- 
 prehend the men who also held a similar idea as to the power 
 of the community, the city, to regulate the conduct of the 
 citizens according to their notions of right and wrong. The 
 trained men of 1848 desired to bring about a better state 
 of affairs by education and regulation. The more strict 
 men of New England, or of the Community Christian type, 
 were not prone to delay and insisted on a law to take an 
 immediate effect. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer, an advocate of temperance, expressed his 
 opinions on this subject in no uncertain terms in a com- 
 munication to a Monroe County paper relative tg^ the 
 
60 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 "Michigan Liquor Law," June 6, 1853: 
 
 "When I read the grand bills which our honorable legis- 
 lators hammer out for the money of the people in order 
 to consign them, as still-born children, to oblivion, I must 
 consider where I am; whether under the Russian knout or 
 under royal, imperial Austrian police supervision. 
 
 "The bad social conditions are due partly to the crude- 
 ness of the masses and partly to the bad liquors. It is a 
 sad phenomenon which characterizes the life of the people 
 here. No idea of a higher purpose of life, no conception of 
 political conditions, no feeling for art or science — only 
 money — money is the mainspring of everything, money is 
 purpose and aim, cause and effect. The loafer — and rowdy- 
 ism of this Union is to be found in the lack of education of 
 the masses and in the indifference of the authorities towards 
 education. We see no other means to check the drunken- 
 ness, crudeness and crime than to further the education of 
 the people by all possible means at our disposal ; to enforce 
 compulsory education, but at the same time to make the 
 schools real schools of life. 
 
 "Only the cultivated and educated man is in a position 
 to be free, he alone understands how to appreciate republican 
 conditions ; the uneducated, however, the vulgar, craves for 
 a strait jacket, in order that he may live a more decent 
 life, because he is unable to conduct himself as a man with- 
 out the cudgel of the police. Therefore educate and en- 
 noble the masses, and your liquor laws will be unnecessary, 
 just as unnecessary as unreasonable." 
 
 Unfortunately Dr. Kiefer's letters to his father relative to 
 these conditions, have not been preserved. These letters 
 would have been of unusual interest since the visit of Dr. 
 Conrad Kiefer to Detroit had prepared him to understand 
 the conditions to a certain extent. One letter evidently ap- 
 
' Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 51 
 
 pealed tO' Dr. Conrad Kiefer for he sent it to the Mannr 
 heimier Journal and it was printed in the magazine section 
 on the 10th of October, 1855. This letter gives us an in- 
 sight into the thoughts and contemplations of the liberty 
 loving republican who had seen in America the great op- 
 portunity of creating an ideal State. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer wrote of the extremes which are found in the 
 "great and free country"; excessive drinking and exagger- 
 ated prohibition ; almost unbounded liberty and the most 
 vicious slavery; the so-called will of the people and the 
 abject submission to political machines ; freedom of religion 
 and the strictest blue Sunday oppression, etc. He caught 
 the meaning of "Time is money" ; "for 'money' is the pivot 
 about which all thinking, reflecting and considering here 
 turns, and 'time' the means to acquire it." 
 
 The advocate of a federated United State observed that 
 the Constitution was not of vital interest to the people of 
 the United States. In fact, he was surprised to see how 
 little the people knew about it. The student of politics 
 looked with disgust upon the cheap methods of petty poli- 
 ticians. He felt the need of a new party which would con- 
 tain planks suitable to a free man. The apostle of free 
 labor viewed with alarm the tendencies of the Democratic 
 party to further the growth of slavery. The Free Soil party 
 was the only party which presented principles along the 
 lines of the Republican movement in Europe in its endeavor 
 to further free men, free labor and free soil. Yet this same 
 party was inclined to limit personal liberty having adopted 
 principles which grew out of the Puritanism of the East and 
 the North. 
 
 At the same time Dr. Kiefer was keen enough to observe 
 that the native Americans were driven to advocate such 
 principles, chiefly owing to the conduct of the foreign set- 
 
52 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 tiers. Years before the country had been settled by advo- 
 cates of reKgious freedom and they did not welcome the 
 endeavors of the Irish and German Catholics to encroach, 
 as they interpreted the growth of the Catholic Church, upon 
 the principles of religious liberty. On the other side the 
 freethinkers of Europe were attempting to eradicate all 
 religious tenets, which aroused a natural opposition. The 
 political conduct of the German settlers who had come over " 
 in the early thirties did not contribute much to their general 
 influence. The tendency of these people, who were enjoying 
 prosperity, perhaps for the first time, to overstep the line of 
 temperance did much to increase the activities of the pro- 
 hibitionists. The fact that "saloons and groceries" sprang 
 up in the German section beyond all reason, had its dire 
 effects upon this element of the population. The resultant 
 brawls aroused the opposition of the nativists to these for- 
 eigners, who were in many cases making license out of 
 liberty. 
 
 And although all these phenomena were easily to be ex- 
 plained by the conditions in the rapidly growing new coun- 
 try, yet Dr. Kiefer, a true friend of freedom and humanity, 
 and an educated man, found it almost impossible to live in 
 such a state of affairs. He expressed the wish to turn his 
 back on the entire mess, but at the same time he did not con- 
 template with enthusiasm the idea of establishing the prac- 
 tice of medicine in Germany. He also dreaded the ravages 
 of the climate and the evil effects of diseases peculiar to 
 the new country, since medicine had not discovered the 
 methods of preventing the spread of contagious diseases. 
 His own first born fell prey to the ravages of disease which 
 swept away so many of the children of the New America. 
 
 Great political events were transpiring in America. The 
 entire country was aroused by the discussions which had 
 
Dr. Hermwrm Kiefer 63 
 
 been taking place for nearly a decade. The fundamental 
 principles of 1776 were being weighed in the balance. The 
 very Union was at stake. Naturally the Republican Na- 
 tionalist of Baden advocated the maintenance of the United 
 States which had served as a model for them at the meeting 
 of the Vor-Parlament at Frankfort. By 1854 Dr. Kiefer 
 had gained so much influence in Detroit that he was ap- 
 pointed Chairman of the German Republican executive com.- 
 mittee of Michigan. In order to understand the importance 
 of this committee it is necessary to look at the map of 
 Michigan in 1830 and again in 1854. Nineteen years be- 
 fore Dr. Hermann Kiefer fled to escape punishment for high 
 treason, the story of the natural wealth of Michigan had 
 appeared in the MerJcur published in Stuttgart in 1830. 
 Thousands of the children of the eastern side of the Black 
 Forest had come to Washtenaw County. Gradually the 
 German settlers worked toward the west in the southern tier 
 of counties, extending almost to Kalamazoo. The Bavarian 
 group had settled near Saginaw and gradually the entire 
 "Thumb" district was being redeemed by these sturdy pio- 
 neers. From Ann Arbor and Detroit they had pushed for- 
 ward to the North and West, and by 1854 the importance 
 of the German vote compelled recognition. What was true 
 of Michigan was true of the Northern States. In fact the 
 word Republican was adopted partly to attract to the ban- 
 ners of the new party the Republicans of Germany. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer, now thirty years of age, became a vigorous 
 leader of the new organization. The principles he advo- 
 cated are laid down in an appeal to the Germans of Michigan 
 on the occasion of the Fremont election. Unfortunately the 
 introduction has been lost. The same spirit which moved 
 the Republican of Baden aroused the old love for liberty in 
 the Republican of Michigan. He poured his very life blood 
 
64 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 into this oration, an oration which betrays the careful study 
 of Cicero's masterpieces. 
 
 "You all stand, fellow-citizens, on the side of the Repub- 
 lican party. No German ccm be a defender of slavery, no 
 one mill be. But you still cling, to a certain extent, to the 
 old name. The beautiful name, democracy, resounds so en- 
 chanting in your ears and its magic tone rocks you into a 
 carefree slumber. — Fellow-citizens ! If you vote for Buchan- 
 an, for the Democratic party, you will vote for the legal- 
 ization of slavery, for its results and consequences — they 
 are the natural results of an unnatural system, a system 
 which is the disgrace of the century. Do you wish to vote 
 for its perpetuation.'' Did you escape the yoke in Europe 
 in order to support the oppressors here, and thereby to 
 extend their power.'' You hesitate. You say: 'If the Re- 
 publicans win, the Union will be divided and the Union must 
 be preserved.' Yes, she must be preserved. But who is con- 
 tinually sounding the cry of division? Are they the men 
 of liberty or of slavery? Does not the South openly threaten 
 with disunion, hoping thereby to terrify the North and make 
 the North her obedient tool? 
 
 "It is the same game which the reaction in Europe played ; 
 they deceived the good people with unity; they terrified its 
 desire for freedom with the feared words — 'discord and dis- 
 union.' They unified and unified until freedom was lost, and 
 union came to be but an empty name. Citizens, if you 
 stand for freedom, then you stand by the Union, for this is 
 built on the principles of freedom, and it is impossible to 
 harm it without destroying the entire structure. Do not let 
 yourselves be deceived ; stand fast by the Constitution, by the 
 Declaration of Independence, and yours will be the reward 
 of having saved freedom and the Union." 
 
 In no manuscript left by Dr. Kiefer can be found his 
 
Dr. Hermann Kiefer 55 
 
 terrific irony more direct than in the review of the speech 
 delivered by Hon. F. E. Grund, of Philadelphia. The much- 
 heralded Democratic speaker was sent to the wild West to 
 hold the Germans of Michigan in line. The meeting was at- 
 tended by the "impertinent" men of 1848 and their asso- 
 ciates, the Turner and the Black-Republicans. Grund's 
 pastoral attitude towards the educated group of Freemen 
 was enjoyed by them to the fullest extent. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer's speech and his review of Grund's attempt give 
 us an insight into the creative and active mind of the Re- 
 publican, who fully understood that the rise of the price of 
 a slave even to the sum of $5,000 would not, in the long run, 
 bring about better wages to the white man. Fortunately 
 the Germans of the Northern States had a high opinion of 
 their own value or rather perhaps of the possibilities of their 
 value. At least they dreamed of the higher values of pro- 
 ductive labor. It was fortunate for the United States that 
 these "impertinent '4<8ters" were there to help point out the 
 dangers of slavery to the advancement of the white men. 
 Practically every progressive plank in all the parties has 
 the Spirit of 1848, as interpreted by the educated fugitives 
 from the Rhine Lands and other parts of the German coun- 
 tries. 
 
 The great protest of Dr. Kiefer against slavery in 1856 
 was in accord with the trend of events which made the men 
 of Germantown draw up the first formal protest against 
 slavery drafted in the colonies. They had in mind the same 
 identical attitude toward labor; — ^labor must be free. 
 
 Kiefer's appeal to the German population of Michigan 
 had a far-reaching effect. The Spirit of 1848 revived by 
 Professor Kinkel not only in Detroit and Ann Arbor, but in 
 nearly all the Northern States helped to pave the way for the 
 great war of Liberty and Union. The leaders of the Revo- 
 
66 The RevoUtion of 184.8 
 
 lution of the Rhine Lands were prepared to accept the prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution of the United States. The influ- 
 ence of South Western Germany upon America has not been 
 fully appreciated. The great singer of liberty was a child 
 of this district — Friedrich Schiller. 
 
 The pupils of the Baden gymnasia were inspired by Schil- 
 ler's songs of the fatherland. They thought and spoke the 
 language of the poet of liberty. The students of Medicine 
 particularly had a peculiar preparation to understand the 
 thoughts of the son of an army surgeon, who in turn pre- 
 pared himself to practic& as a doctor. The influence of 
 Schiller upon the young army surgeon of Emmendingen, who 
 like Schiller was compelled to flee his fatherland, became 
 especially strong in the New Country. As stated before, 
 these lovers of art and literature found their most sincere 
 recreation in the production of the plays of Schiller. 
 
 The one hundreth anniversary of Schiller's birth ap- 
 proached. Preparations were made for the celebration of 
 this event in all parts of the country. The name Schiller 
 seemed to grasp each German heart with a forceful magic 
 power. The fugitive army surgeon of the army of the Baden 
 Republic relived Schiller's men and Schiller's ideals. He pre- 
 pared the address for the celebration of the great event in 
 Detroit, with full consciousness of the importance of the oc- 
 casion not only for Germany, but for the world. It is clearly 
 evident that he used the books on Schiller which were at his 
 disposal. Modem research has thrown a new light upon the 
 Swabian poet, but at the same time modern research has 
 also proven that these men of 1848 understood much about 
 their countryman, which had escaped the scholars who delved 
 in the archives and in libraries, but who did not possess the 
 life experience to fully grasp the fugitive of Swabia, and 
 who therefore could not fully comprehend his songs of the 
 
Dr. Herma/mn Kiefer 67 
 
 fatherland. There is also evident a tendency to restate 
 Schiller's conception of country in the terms of the modern 
 German Conception of State. Dr. Hermann Kiefer ap- 
 proached the works of Schiller with his special preparation. 
 The fugitive surgeon interpreted the fugitive surgeon to his 
 hearers. The advocate of humanity endeavored to inculcate 
 in his hearers the teachings of humanity of the apostle of 
 humanity. The lover of art recognized the artist Schiller 
 who held that the loftiest mission of the poet was to educate 
 men to freedom by means of art. 
 
 The address of Hermann Kiefer is a remarkable human 
 document in many respects and, with minor corrections, is a 
 real contribution to the Schiller literature of the 19th cen- 
 tury. But above all it reveals the high ideals which mo- 
 tivated the speaker in his endeavors to keep alive the ideals 
 which the Germans had brought over with them into the new 
 country, which although rich in natural resources, offered 
 so little for the intellectual development of its people. These 
 educated men of 1848 felt the loss of cultural influences 
 keenly. The young fathers began to realize that the young 
 children would not be able to enjoy the advantages of a care- 
 fully regulated school system. Dr. Kiefer took advantage of 
 the opportunity tO' emphasize the importance of the study 
 of Schiller. 
 
 The main points of Kiefer's address which are of im- 
 portance for the understanding of his life and his activities 
 in educational lines within the next decade and even later are 
 found in the following paragraphs : 
 
 "Schiller! — Not only the German pays him tribute, but 
 every educated man in the world, and the man whose heart 
 beat most powerfully for entire humanity, is now being cele- 
 brated as the man by the entire humanity. Yes, the en- 
 tire educated world celebrates to-day a birthday festival, 
 
68 The Revolution of 18 4.8 
 
 and each one thinks that he has an especial right to partici- 
 pate therein." 
 
 The fugitive from Baden recalled the tragedy of the fugi- 
 tive from Wiirttemberg, who, as a young man of twenty- 
 three years of age, had jfled from his parents and father- 
 land, home and friends, exclaiming with tear choked voice, 
 on beholding his parental home for the last time: — "0 my 
 mother!" This scene appeared before the eyes of the man 
 who had lived a similar scene a decade before, and he inter- 
 preted it for his hearers, who likewise could understand it: 
 "Only a few attain the goal ; many perish who do not remain 
 sitting on the sandbank of the commonplace — ^but Schiller 
 attained the goal. blessed sleep which leads the expatri- 
 ated into a world of ideals, permitting him to forget the 
 misery of the present and removing him through the realm 
 of dreams from the wretchedness of a distressful reality. 
 Wrath and pain fill our breasts when we think of the noblest 
 poet of Germany as a fugitive, prostrated by exhaustion on 
 the dust of the highway!" 
 
 The lover of art discerned the thought, which as a red 
 thread permeates Schiller's life and works in all forms and 
 under all conditions, namely, to ennoble by art : "the artists 
 impart to men the revelation of the divine, they are the 
 priests who, by means of the beautiful, educate society to the 
 recognition of the truth and to moral dignity." 
 
 Kiefer thought that Schiller had a special message for the 
 Germans in America: "And finally what shall he be for us 
 Germans in America.? Tom away from the motherland, 
 planted in foreign earth, surrounded by a strange element, 
 ofttimes hostile and overpowering — let him be our protective 
 spirit, which will guide and preserve us lest we perish in this 
 Babylon of peoples. No, the language of Schiller is too 
 beautiful that it should not be transmitted from generation 
 
1 Dr. Hermarm Kiefer 59 
 
 to generation; and children and grandchildren in every part 
 of the earth should be proud of their ancestry. Yes, his 
 remembrance should make us proud and plant real manly 
 pride in our breasts, a pride pointing with quietude and dig- 
 nity to the great accomplishments of our people. Let his 
 life's task be also our task — the cult of the beautiful, the edu- 
 cation and the ennobling of humanity through art. Let us 
 not grow weary in grafting by word and deed the noble 
 branch of German humanity upon the wild trunk of American 
 liberty. Let us be united in the cultivation of the good and 
 the beautiful and never desecrate the divine art by a misera- 
 ble servihtude ! And it will so come ! The celebration of the 
 one hundredth anniversary of his birth is the guarantee, the 
 celebration of the most ideal of all men in a time so material. 
 Let us strengthen and ennoble ourselves in his example for 
 the fight for freedom and humanity !" 
 
 This notable expression of appreciation of Schiller's mes- 
 sage to a freer humanity permits us to examine the thoughts 
 of the man who since boyhood had found his greatest conso- 
 lation in perusing the works of the advocates of liberty and 
 humanity. His complicated experiences, from the school life 
 in Freiburg to this anniversary, had given him an exceptional 
 preparation to understand Schiller's essential message to 
 humanity. His address will not always measure up to the 
 technique of modern investigation, but it contains the real 
 human elements which enable one man to understand another 
 man. And this is the primary requisite for the understand- 
 ing of literature, and especially dramatic literature, which 
 has its roots in the soil of home and of fatherland. The new 
 country unfortunately could not offer a field for the lover 
 of art and literature to absorb his attention, as it did to 
 the advocate of a federal union or to the physician. He 
 therefore felt lonesome in the "prairie of American life," He 
 
60 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 therefore naturally cultivated in his leisure hours the old 
 German inheritance. He decided to do his part in providing 
 that his sons should also profit from a thorough humanistic 
 training. 
 
 With this idea in mind he helped to found the German 
 American Seminary in the year 1861. This school was in- 
 corporated by the State for higher instruction in all depart- 
 ments of learning. The language used to be both English 
 and German as far as practical and desirable. The under- 
 lying principles cherished by the founders of this school are 
 almost identical with those of Detroit's educators to-day. 
 For example, Dr. Kiefer's interest in maintaining the Ger- 
 man language was not a national interest in any respect, but 
 a culture interest in the highest meaning of the word. fTo 
 who had profited from the thorough training in the Baden 
 schools, held that the boy in America should also have a 
 thorough humanistic training and that this training should 
 begin as early as possible. Notwithstanding the many dif- 
 ficulties which beset the school in the very beginning, in- 
 creased by the outbreak of the Civil War, the preparation 
 was a thorough one, especially when compared with other 
 schools of equal ranli. The boys trained in this school have 
 lived to become leaders in the various professions, not only 
 in Detroit, but also in the country. It soon gained a repu- 
 tation for good scholarship. It, however, had many op- 
 ponents for various reasons. Finally in 1871 it was com- 
 pelled to close, then largely on account of an unfortunate 
 sale of certain properties, which was deemed necessary to 
 maintain the running expenses of the school. 
 
 In 1866 Dr. Kiefer was elected a member of the School 
 Board of the City of Detroit. He endeavored to bring about 
 the introduction of the teaching of German into the public 
 schools, holding that the pupils should study languages at 
 
Dr. Hermamm Kiefer 61 
 
 an early age in order to prepare them to understand the 
 culture, the science and the progress of the German peoples. 
 He insisted that the citizens of German descent should main- 
 tain the German language as a valuable cultural and prac- 
 tical asset and he desired that the young people of other na- 
 tions should understand the German language in order that 
 they might properly understand the ideals of the citizens 
 of German descent. 
 
 He even attempted to bring about a reorganization of 
 the system of the schools which had been established along 
 the lines of the first plans proposed for the schools of the 
 State of Michigan. This system had been built upon Victor 
 Cousin's report on the state of public instruction in Prussia. 
 The Baden Republican was naturally opposed to the Prus- 
 sian interpretation of the function of the schools. 
 
 He had in mind the ideals which had inspired the edu- 
 cated classes of Europe in 1830 and 1848. Dr. Kiefer was 
 opposed to the system which had been adopted in America, 
 according to which all pupils were sent through the same 
 classes with the false idea of democracy of education. He 
 held that the pupils should be trained for the vocation which 
 they should pursue later on. At the same time he held that 
 all productive work should be recognized as important for 
 the development of the State and Nation and that there 
 should be a recognition of merit. He knew that different 
 youths were endowed with different talents and he insisted 
 that they should be given an opportunity to develop these 
 talents in order to fit them for their work within a State 
 which should recognize the rights and talents of the youths 
 who would come to be the Citizens of to-morrow. 
 
 In 1867 an event occurred which aroused great enthusiasm 
 among the liberal citizens of German descent of Detroit. The 
 
62 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 Arheiter society had flourished owing to the influence of such 
 men as Richter, August Marxhausen, Dr. Hermann Kiefer 
 and many other men of strong calibre. These men looked 
 upon the laboring classes as the real productive classes. The 
 real meaning of the word, as they interpreted it, was un- 
 fortunately lost by the building up of classes even in the 
 new country, owing partly to the aristocratic influences 
 wafted across the ocean from Europe, and partly to the 
 natural forming of classes along the lines of material suc- 
 cess. This explanation is necessary in order to understand 
 the activities of the 1848-ers in the Arheiter and Turner 
 societies. These men prospered and their own children in 
 many cases returned to type, as it were, and became aris- 
 tocratic in the German ofiicialdom sense of the word. They 
 have naturally failed to grasp the scope of the social ac- 
 tivities of their own parents and thereby have helped to post- 
 pone the day when artisans and artists by virtue of their 
 productiveness and skill can socially understand each other. 
 One principle of 1848 had been attained to a great degree 
 by many of these men, prosperity, but not always education, 
 and with prosperity and education, not always liberty. To 
 this complication was added the coming of many from Ger- 
 many of the real laboring classes who had not enjoyed the 
 blessings fought for by the men of 1848. This naturally 
 had a great influence on the membership of the Arheiter 
 society. 
 
 The society which had been formed in 1850, largely for 
 the purpose of the protection of widows and for mutual 
 benefits, had progressed with the growth of Detroit. A site 
 was selected in the very midst of the growing German sec- 
 tion. These men had acquired comfortable homes and en- 
 joyed the real pleasure of family gatherings. The war had 
 exerted a great influence upon the citizens of German descent 
 
Dr. Hermcmn Kiefer 63 
 
 who were proud of the part played by their fellow country- 
 men. This self-consciousness demanded a public expression 
 and it was decided to build a hall which would be fitted to 
 their various needs and which would serve as a social center 
 for the families of the members of the society. 
 
 To such men as Marxhausen and Kiefer the building of 
 the hall had a far larger significance. They thought that it 
 meant the realization of their ideals and the ultimate es- 
 tablishment of a meeting place for the advancement of the 
 social welfare of the society. Dr. Kiefer especially, looked 
 forward to the day when the laborers of all classes woxild 
 unite in common endeavors. This hope had been strength- 
 ened by the examples of the great war. He thought such a 
 wonderful experience, which had made possible republican' 
 development in times of war, would naturally be further de- 
 veloped in times of peace when everything seemed so auspi- 
 cious for a progressive Republic in America along the lines 
 of intellectual as well as material welfare. With this great 
 hope inspiring him, he addressed the large audience which 
 was thoroughly impressed by the importance of the occa- 
 sion. They listened very closely to the words of the man 
 whom they respected so much. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer was always conscious of his power and also 
 of the powers of the German people. He therefore appealed 
 to this consciousness with the words : "And what then is the 
 tie which unites us.'' It is the consciousness that we all be- 
 long to a society : to a society of free labor, that it is labor 
 alone which honors and ennobles the individual and makes 
 nations powerful and great, that in labor is the lever of 
 progress and the fundamental cause for every accomplish- 
 ment of modem times, thai it is the impelling force in the 
 gigantic development of the nineteenth century." He then 
 emphasized his interpretation of the word worker : "a worker 
 
64 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 is every man who does his duty in the service of humanity, 
 who works and creates, who produces and makes himself use- 
 ful . . . you are all workers, workers in the service of a 
 great society of free labor ; you are all working for the per- 
 fection and humanization of mankind." 
 
 He recognized the endeavor of the Arheiter Society to fur- 
 ther the education of the youth in words which sound like 
 those of Wilhelm Rein of Jena: "so it is especially this so- 
 ciety, which, in proper recognition that the guarantee of 
 the future lies in the education of the youth, took active in- 
 terest in the school and gave the first impetus for the estab- 
 lishment of free German-English schools." He also em- 
 phasized the great valu^ of the introduction of the library, 
 the theatre and the singing sections. 
 
 The man who appreciated the values which he had in- 
 herited from the German race desired to preserve them for 
 America. The man who had mastered foreign languages, 
 both classic and modern, thought that it would be a gain to 
 America, if America's children could understand both Ger- 
 man and English. 
 
 Yet in many respects his demands are being fulfilled by the 
 very State he helped to build up. The great war has tem- 
 porarily postponed one prophecy : reconciliation after fifteen 
 centuries of separation. Nevertheless his great hope is still 
 heard abroad in the lands : "And the very last and highest 
 purpose is, the cultivation of humanism, of a free humanity 
 in its purest form." 
 
 Dr. Kiefer, however, did not take one fact intO' considera- 
 tion, namely, that the Germans who had come over to Amer- 
 ica and especially those who had -^joined the Arheiter society 
 did not have the necessary foundation to hasten the day of 
 free labor, yet at the same time it must be recognized that 
 these citizens of German descent were carried away by the 
 
Dr. Hermamai Kiefer 65 
 
 dream of the advocate of an artistically developed laboring 
 class. In their way, by educating their children and their 
 children's children, they have prepared for the advancement 
 of the country. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer regarded the successful outcome of the Civil 
 War as the beginning of a new era, but as a student of Ger- 
 many's history, he feared the reaction and the restoration. 
 His fears proved to be not without foundation. The first 
 result of the war in respect to education was the growth 
 of the typical American Spirit of that time that this coun- 
 try should free itself completely from all European in- 
 fluences. And the very sons of the educated men of the 
 British Isles and of the Rhinelands were the most nativistic. 
 The people disliked the English because of England's friend- 
 ship to the Government of the Confederacy and at the same 
 time looked upon the endeavors to introduce German as an 
 attempt to Germanize the Republic. They could not under- 
 stand the ideals of the idealists of 1848 in their endeavors 
 to further education. For generations the people had en- 
 joyed only a meager schooling and therefore could not ap- 
 preciate the vision of these men trained in the gymnasia of 
 the continent. 
 
 The war which had united the States with the power of 
 the sword left the country more divided in many respects 
 than ever before. Reaction set in and obtained control. The 
 educators with their narrow preparation opposed any at- 
 tempt to reorganize the schools or to introduce any new 
 subject, not to mention the study of a modem language. The 
 attempt of Dr. Hermann Kiefer naturally failed. Fifty 
 years have gone by and now the educators of the State, 
 aroused by the demands of a new industry, are confronted 
 with the most serious problems. The great European war, 
 however, has not as yet awakened the people to realize Dr. 
 
66 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 Kiefer's primary object, namely, to prepare the youth of 
 America to occupy the positions of leadership in all voca- 
 tions. The educators, then as now, kept their hands on the 
 pulse of the people and their ears on the ground. The re- 
 sult was that Europe, especially Germany, continued to send 
 over their trained young men to America. This certainly 
 was not to the advantage of the young American who found 
 himself unprepared. The endeavors to Americanize Detroit 
 in 1916-1917 are not unlike the endeavors of Dr. Hermann 
 Kiefer fifty years ago. In fact, in some respects, the men 
 leading the new Americanization along the lines of educa- 
 tion may well consider the ideals of one of Michigan's fore- 
 runners of a reconstructed school system, a system adapted 
 to the needs of a modern Republican State. Otherwise his- 
 tory may repeat itself and within a decade the trained youth 
 of Germany will again be called to occupy the positions 
 which should rightfully belong to the youth of America. 
 
 In many respects Dr. Kiefer's endeavors to reform the 
 public schools of his city for the benefit of his own sons and 
 the sons of all citizens, will be recognized as his greatest con- 
 tribution to the City of Detroit and therefore to the State 
 of Michigan. He keenly felt the failure of his honest at- 
 tempt to elevate the standard of education. He continued, 
 however, to encourage the German-American Seminary, al- 
 though his contention that the State should control the 
 schools made many enemies to his endeavors. 
 
 The revolutionist of the educated State of Baden began to 
 realize that his boys could not have a thorough preparation. 
 He also thought of the boys of his comrades not only in 
 Detroit, but throughout the entire country. Perhaps his 
 father. Dr. Conrad Kiefer, would have been contented with 
 the education which was to prepare boys to be gentlemen 
 of the old school, but the young surgeon of 184<9 had heard 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 67 
 
 of the new education. The gymnasiasts of Baden had felt 
 the oppressive hand of the old line education. The students 
 of Medicine of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Prague and Vienna had 
 hstened attentively to the teachings about nature and human 
 nature. They had become imbued with the doctrines of 
 power and of the forces of nature. They had listened to the 
 story of creation as interpreted in the spirit of a Cosmos, 
 They naturally felt the need of systematic training which 
 could be adapted to the needs of the growing Republic. They 
 interpreted the Ordinance of 1787 in the light of their own 
 experience. 
 
 In various parts of the country these men cherished the 
 above thoughts. The near approach of the 100th annivers- 
 ary of Humboldt's birth seemed to them to be an opportune 
 moment of realizing a long dreamt-of plan. In 1859, the 
 year of the 100th anniversary of Schiller's birth, the idea of 
 establishing a German University had been suggested, but 
 nothing was accomplished in carrying the idea into effect. 
 Dr. Kiefer, who years before had inaugurated the lecture 
 course on the Natural Sciences already referred to, con- 
 ceived the idea of arranging a Humboldt celebration, for the 
 purpose of arousing interest in the establishment of suitable 
 lecture courses, not unlike the system of Extension Lectures 
 finally adopted by the leading Universities, and the founda- 
 tion of a museum which should be connected with the New 
 University. The word German, however, was to have the 
 meaning of German scientific investigation and not the pan- 
 German or pro-German national meaning. They judged 
 from the standpoint of the accomplishments of the German 
 people in every sphere in the world's work. 
 
 The first meeting was held on the 19th of June, 1869. 
 Tentative plans were made for a fitting public demonstra- 
 tion and celebration to take place on the 13th and 14th of 
 
68 The Revolution of IS^B 
 
 September. Dr. Kiefer had prepared an appeal to the 
 Germans of the United States. This summons was 
 ordered printed with the request to be reprinted in all the 
 German papers of the country. The plan was to establish 
 a great Cosimos Society along the lines of the Society pro- 
 posed at the Offenburger meeting to make the Parliament 
 possible. In other words the organization proposed resem- 
 bles the machinery of organization of the Socialists. The 
 object is clearly stated in the second paragraph of the 
 summons. 
 
 As stated in a second summons sent out on the 19th of 
 August, this plan did not arouse the expected interest. The 
 trained men of the gymmasia and the universities, who had 
 enjoyed the opportunities of being children of educated fami- 
 lies and who found themselves thrown into the very midst of 
 the uneducated, or at the best meagerly educated, and in 
 addition in a new land, could not understand why the people 
 could not see their own best interests. In 1848 they had ob- 
 served similar conditions, but as good revolutionists held the 
 governing class responsible for the conditions. They had 
 advocated a republican government of liberty and union. 
 They had helped to win the fight for liberty and union in the 
 new Republic. They thought that the time was ripe to have 
 an institution of learning equal to the German universities, 
 which had been educating the young men of the world. They 
 thought America should have such an institution. They 
 knew that the average college or University was a Univer- 
 sity in name only. They knew that the average lawyer could 
 not read law and that the average physician could not read 
 medicine. Therefore they had no confidence in the existing 
 schools. The great war had been fought without having 
 much influence on the school system. The people had not 
 heeded the needless waste of human lives in the war and also 
 
Dr. Hermarm Kiefer 69 
 
 in the war with nature. 
 
 They made the attempt to organize the hundreds of thou- 
 sands of Germans in the strange belief that the German 
 people were prepared for such an undertaking. They could 
 not realize the great abyss which existed between the human- 
 ists of Germany and the masses of Germany. They had been 
 compelled to flee before they could understand the conditions 
 in the old country. And in the very same year, 1869, when 
 the followers of the theories of a Karl Marx were organ- 
 izing Germany in the hopes of educating the people to see 
 their own interests, the student of Humboldt's Cosmos 
 dreamed of the organization of the Germans in this coun- 
 try, who, as they thought, would appreciate the great op- 
 portunity of improving their hard lot. He did not even un- 
 derstand the changes which had taken place among the edu- 
 cated fugitives of 1849 within the last two decades. He did 
 not understand his own prophecies about the future of Ger- 
 many written in 1844. He did not realize how much Ger- 
 many had lost in the world struggles of two decades in the 
 endeavors of the houses of Austria and Prussia to crush 
 each other. Either in the hours of lonesomeness, or with a 
 few companions, he had created an ideal Germany which he 
 desired to implant in America, just as he, years before, had 
 created an ideal Republic for which he offered his life. 
 
 Through his own personal endeavors, with the assistance 
 of others equally interested, he aroused enthusiasm among 
 the Germans of the City of Detroit and the celebration in 
 September was a noteworthy one. It found "an interested 
 ear and warm hearts" but, as is usual in the endeavors 
 to educate the people, no "full purses." 
 
 Dr. Kiefer's recognition of Humboldt stands as an in- 
 teresting contribution to the Humboldt literature of the 
 year 1869. 
 
70 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 Naturally the suggestion of Dr. Kiefer to found a German 
 University which should be equal to the Universities of Ger- 
 many could not be realized in America. Even if he had left 
 out the word German, his ideal of a University could not 
 have been , attained. The celebration, however, in Detroit 
 and throughout the country was not without results. The 
 seed sown fell on fertile ground. Naturally the tree grew 
 very slowly, but the growth was sure. It is true that thou- 
 sands of young Americans were compelled to go abroad 
 to study and therefore became acquainted with Germany's 
 great contributions in all fields of sciences and with the 
 German people. And even to-day they recognize the pro- 
 gressive forces of the German people and will welcome the 
 contributions of the Baden Republicans to the preservation 
 of the ideals and common laws of a Republican form of 
 government in all parts of the CosTnos. Many thousands of 
 the trained sons of Germany have come over to find a new 
 field of work in this Republic. And they may well emulate 
 the example of the Chairman of the Freiburg meeting. 
 
 Later on during his term as Regent of the University of 
 Michigan, Dr. Kiefer was able to further the ideals advanced 
 in 1869, however, not in a German University, but in the 
 State University of Michigan. Dr. Kiefer's interest in the 
 advancement of the study of Natural Sciences is fully rec- 
 ognized, even though he was especially interested in the De- 
 partment of Medicine and Surgery. He also had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing the great progress made in the study of 
 natural sciences in the entire country. His interest was 
 always alive in this respect. He was especially interested in 
 the growth of Cornell University. On learning that the 
 writer came from Cornell he said : "So, you have studied in 
 Ithaca? The foundation of Cornell University is indeed 
 very good. I understand that they are liberally inclined 
 
Dr, Kermamm Kiefer 71 
 
 there. Your first president is really a man of consequence." 
 (He had reference naturally to President Andrew Dickson 
 White, who was formerly at the University of Michigan and 
 for some time the American Ambassador at Berlin. Dr. 
 Kiefer had read with great interest President White's book : 
 The Warfare of Science and Theology, etc.) 
 
 The celebration of the 100th anniversary of Humboldt's 
 birth had a quickening influence upon the educated classes 
 in America. The celebration in the German circles was 
 more far-reaching than generally recognized. The hundreds 
 who listened to the speeches in Detroit and other cities and 
 the thousands who read of the great German's contribution 
 to knowledge and thought, did not forget the message sent 
 abroad in the land. For although they could not enjoy the 
 advantages of a higher education, they cherished the idea for 
 decades, and this movement was not without influence even 
 upon the second generation. To Dr. Kiefer belongs the 
 credit of starting the movement among the German speaking 
 citizens of the country. 
 
The second American period 1871-1911 
 
 IN the meantime Bismarck had forged the German Empire. 
 One of the great ideals of the Revolutionists had been at- 
 tained although by blood and iron — a federated German Na- 
 tion. Many of the fundamental common laws of the Ger- 
 man people, as advocated by the men of 1848, were incor- 
 porated in the new constitution, at least in letter if not in 
 spirit. The most essential principles of their conception of 
 a free economic and industrial Republicanism, however, were 
 not accepted by Bismarck. The news of the establishment 
 of the German Empire aroused the self-consciousness of the 
 Germans in America and also the respect of the peoples of 
 the world. Sedan more than superseded Jena. The world 
 gradually became interested in the institutions of learning 
 which had prepared Germany for this signal victory. It is 
 true that the attempt to found a German University in the 
 United States was a vain one, but nevertheless the agitation 
 of the subject was not without immediate influence, and this 
 influence grew when America began to realize the magnitude 
 of the German victory. 
 
 In the light of recent developments the endeavors of Dr. 
 Hermann Kiefer to reorganize the schools of Detroit and to 
 establish a German University for the purpose of preparing 
 the children of German descent to compete with their own 
 cousins in the struggle for the survival of the educated, as- 
 sumes a new aspect. His attempt in 1869 failed, but before 
 the decade had passed the youth of America found it neces- 
 sary to attend a German University in Germany. The 
 
 72 
 
Dr, Hermcmn Kiefer 73 
 
 number, however, who attended was very small indeed, due 
 largely to the fact that school teachers were paid such a 
 miserable pittance that the real ability of the American 
 youth could not be induced to invest the necessary sum. 
 Gradually the demand for a higher education became 
 stronger and stronger in the entire country. The young men 
 of America were not prepared. Many of the Germans, as 
 did Dr. Kiefer, sent their own sons back tO' Germany to get 
 tlie education needed for the new emergency. These men 
 told the story of opportunity to their cousins and friends 
 and before the end of the century nearly all the schools and 
 colleges of the country were filled with young men trained 
 in Germany. 
 
 America did not listen tO' the suggestions of the Revolu- 
 tionist of 1848, who for twenty years insisted on the es- 
 tablishment of a German University. The establishment 
 of Universities in the meaning of the word German inter- 
 preted by the Republican of Baden would have been a great 
 advantage to America. Naturally the word German would 
 have been dropped in course of time. 
 
 The Civil War had acted as a leveler of many prejudices 
 against the sturdy sons of the fatherland. In fact the war 
 made Americans out of hundreds of thousands of these men, 
 even if they were not prepared to consider the question of 
 higher learning. When the prepared and trained men of the 
 different German States began to flock to the flag to fight for 
 Liberty and Union, the fortunes of war smiled on the side of 
 the Republic. The people began to realize that the men and 
 women who remained devoted to the land they had left in 
 order to have greater opportunities and who had preserved 
 the German traits of industry and perseverance, were for 
 that very reason called, as it were, to be the best defenders of 
 their new homes and their new country. They grew strong 
 
74) The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 again. Minor differences had been forgotten in the great 
 struggle for the Republic they loved so well. They loved it 
 because they had been trained to love their home and father- 
 land. 
 
 On the 1st of May, 1871, the Germans of Detroit cele- 
 brated the coming Peace. They naturally selected Dr. Her- 
 mann Kiefer to deliver the oration of the occasion. If 
 the assembled men and women expected to hear a speech of 
 exultation in the usual sense of the word, they were doomed 
 to disappointment. The terrific Civil War had saddened the 
 former Army surgeon. He saw in war not the procession 
 of triumph, not the maddened frenzy of the mass, so easily 
 carried away by a superficial interpretation of freedom 
 and humanity, but the powerful struggles of great peoples 
 and the intense suffering of individuals who had sacrificed 
 their lives for their opinions of freedom and right. He re- 
 called the suffering of the brave young men of Baden. He, 
 who had sung the songs of freedom, knew full well the melo- 
 dies cherished by the lovers of freedom, the melodies of hope- 
 ful youth. He knew that the youth had a right to live a 
 life of free creative work. 
 
 Dr. Hermann Kiefer was not a supine pacifist. He believed 
 in preparedness, yes, in military preparedness. In 1848 he 
 had advocated preparedness for the establishment of a sov- 
 ereignty of the people in order to' overthrow the inherited 
 monarchy, the arch enemy of political freedom. He still 
 retained the idea of preparedness as stated in the Offenburg 
 Resolutions : 
 
 "The people has no guarantees for the realization of its 
 demands and for the estabhshment of a lasting condition of 
 liberty. It must create its own guarantees. For this pur- 
 pose a fatherland society shall be formed in every district of 
 the country of Baden, the task of which shall be to care for 
 
Dr. Hermamb Kiefer 76 
 
 the arming, and for the political and social education of the 
 people, as well as for the realization of all its rights." 
 
 The Republican of 184!8 could accept Washington's idea 
 of a peace establishment, for he knew full well the dangers 
 of an armed peace. 
 
 The physician beheld the destmctive forces of war and 
 considered the sad destiny of the single man and especially 
 the tragical lot of the one doomed to suiFer the pains and 
 pangs of a slow death. His ideas along this line find their 
 best expression in a short funeral oration held in memory 
 of Erhard Kirchberg, who suffered a lingering death for 
 freedom and union. As a beautiful contribution to his 
 belief that nothing can perish stands his Address at the Grave 
 of a Child. And although bearing no date it sings similar 
 melodies. The war of 1861-65 had filled his great life with 
 feelings not unlike those expressed as he beheld the individual 
 losses of the war. The war of the two great civilized na- 
 tions had awakened and strengthened these powerful feelings. 
 The fact that he was compelled to reflect upon the develop- 
 ment of the war in a distant clime added to the intensity of 
 the experience. Therefore a peace celebration to him was 
 a conception having its serious aspects, for he beheld the 
 entire war as a Kriegs^ wnd Staatsaction, as a chapter in the 
 development of the Imperial nation. He looked upon the 
 victory as a victory of the German nation. Throughout the 
 entire long speech he does not mention the name of any single 
 individual, of a Konig, of a Bismarck, of an ofiicer. He was 
 not in a joyous frame of mind when he worked on this con- 
 tribution to the peace celebration of the German nation : "Let 
 it be far from us to exult over the conquered opponent, far 
 from us vae metis. The victory makes us happy indeed, fills 
 us with pride and gratitude toward the German nation which 
 has rescued the honor of its name in such a glorious and 
 
76 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 brilliant manner. . . ." He used the occasion to give public 
 expression to the ideas which he had cherished so long. There- 
 fore the speech is a real contribution to the understanding 
 of the development of the German nation, written, as he 
 frankly confessed, not by an historian, who could grasp the 
 political conditions in their historical perspective, but by 
 a dilettante who hardly had time even to retouch his work. 
 
 A Spielhagen would say that this powerful peace oration 
 was created by a man of the people, who had stood at the 
 very forge of the currents of the 19th century and who 
 understood the feelings and thoughts of the men who drew 
 up the resolutions of 1847 and 1848 and thereby definitely 
 directed the immediate history of constitutional Germany. 
 This oration could have been written only by a man who 
 had helped to evolve the development of the German nation. 
 And even though he may still be looked upon as a dilettante 
 by men who understand merely the cold recorded letter, this 
 sigTiificant peace oration indicates that he had reached the 
 height from which he could behold the way he had travelled 
 and therefore had an outlook. Only the occurrences of 
 1914-1917 could have given a proper perspective to a 
 reader of this admonition to his beloved fellow citizens. He 
 spoke as one who had continued to participate in the main- 
 tenance of the common laws of the 19th century, which he 
 himself had helped to preserve. He remained stiU the chair- 
 man of that meeting which adopted the demand for a re- 
 publican state, and therefore had followed the entire trend 
 of events with the consistency of the man of the people who 
 had helped to make possible the unification of the German 
 peoples. 
 
 Conscious of the importance of the occasion and con- 
 scious of his own message Dr. Kiefer delivered his oration, 
 which certainly did not correspond to the joyful expecta- 
 
Dr. Hermatm Kiefer 77 
 
 tions of the people who heard him. They, however, were im- 
 pressed with the power of his conviction and by the power 
 of his delivery. The very first paragraph treated of the dire 
 results of war between civilized nations : 
 
 "To-day we are celebrating a festival as will occur in 
 such grandeur only once in the life of a man, yes, we may 
 say in the life of a nation ; a festival, grand, noble, and beau- 
 tiful; a festival in which every humane heart must rejoice — 
 a peace festival. Yes, a peace celebration after the bloody 
 war between twO' of the most civilized nations of the world, 
 which after a terrific struggle, after heroic deeds, such as 
 history hardly ever records, have put out the flaming torches 
 of war and have returned to a nobler occupation more wor- 
 thy of men." 
 
 Hermann Kiefer saw more than a mere peace celebration, 
 he saw the festival of the resurrection of the German Nation, 
 which for centuries had been compelled to endure ignominy 
 and oppression. He traced the development of the growth of 
 the national hate between these two nations which had made 
 war unavoidable. He understood the dire effects of the 
 armed peace which had consumed the productive energies 
 and the material sources of these two peoples, crippling 
 their commerce, industry and agricultural development. 
 
 On the other side he recalled the old feelings of the South 
 Germans who felt that safety consisted in a complete defeat 
 of the French. This had come to be almost a patriotic 
 confession of faith on their part. He referred with bitter- 
 ness to the miserable deutscher Bwnd, which had not been 
 equal to the occasion, and therefore largely responsible for 
 the trend of events. He sketched the development within 
 Germany after the removal of the unhappy dualism of Aus- 
 tria and Prussia and the growth of the power of Germany 
 until, without wishing war, no one was afraid of it, as for 
 
78 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 example in 1848, when all trembled at the word : "Die Fran- 
 zosen kommen." After tracing the development of the po- 
 litical relations and showing the growth of the attitude of 
 the peoples, he described in detail the insignificant event 
 which precipitated the war, "which must become decisive 
 for the power and the existence of both nations." 
 
 His description of the drama which took place among 
 the German people written in his lonesome hours so far 
 away from the homeland, demonstrates the truth that people 
 remain about the same. The lad who had sung of the river 
 Rhine and the young surgeon who had witnessed the upris- 
 ing of the people for the establishment of their idea of the 
 German nation, understood full well the Spirit abroad in 
 the land. 
 
 With an artist's touch he wove into his speech the words 
 of the old Amdt. He seemed to divine the significance of 
 this rejuvenated "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland" for the 
 German people. At the same time he could see the beloved 
 ones at home, who, with anxious timidity, with hope and fear, 
 waited for the first news, since they knew the stories told 
 about the ancient enemy from childhood. 
 
 In his speech the old German Republican recorded the 
 hope he had cherished when he read that the RepubHc in 
 France had been proclaimed. He interpreted this procla- 
 mation in the light of the proclamation of 184<8: 
 
 "The world breathed freely for it was believed that the 
 republican government of France would hasten to atone for 
 the crime of Napoleon and would extend a brother's hand to 
 Germany, which had freed her from the shackles of Na- 
 poleon, and would say — 'civilized nations do not wage war 
 with one another, let us live in peace; we rejoice that we 
 have gotten rid of him and his miUtarism which has clubbed, 
 imprisoned, banished and murdered us for years.' " 
 
Dr. Hermamm Kiefer, 79 
 
 Dr. Kiefer believed that this war was a defensive war with 
 the national independence and honor of the German Nation 
 at stake. He was disappointed that the man of the hour 
 did not stand up in France and tell the French people the 
 naked truth, but he could not know that even if the man had 
 arisen, that Bismarck, whom he does not mention in the 
 speech, would not have listened to a Republican, for even 
 if he had not willed this war, he was going to carry it out 
 to the finish in order to complete his great ambition, the es- 
 tablishment of a Modem German Nation, not in the sense of 
 the men of 1848, but in the sense of the Prussian interpre- 
 tation of the words "inherited monarchy." Dr. Kiefer's con- 
 ception must be interpreted with this fact in mind, as he 
 spoke of the war: 
 
 "The war is over ; the thunder of the cannons is silenced ; 
 the noise of the battles dies down ; the smoke of conflict has 
 disappeared; friend and foe, who hated each other in life 
 and could not endure one another, lie peacefully side by side 
 in death. Spring decorates with its flowers the graves of 
 those resting in foreign soil, who, far from their loved ones, 
 have found the death of heroes. The storms of winter are 
 past, the entire nature breathes peace ; may this peace also 
 enter into the hearts of men and blot out the hatred which 
 lead them to mutual destruction. The warriors will return 
 home, but many a seat remains empty in the beloved family 
 circle; here the father is missing, there the son. Tears of 
 pain for those who have fallen intermingle with the tears of 
 joy. Let us place the laurel branch and the wreath of im- 
 mortelles upon the graves of the heroes." And then he 
 added, according to his conception of Cosmos: "charitable 
 time will cure even this pain." 
 
 The apostle of peace, who had joined the army of the 
 Republic of Baden for the purpose of establishing a lasting 
 
80 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 condition of freedom for the German Nation and who had 
 volunteered to serve in the army of the Republic in America, 
 expressed in experienced words his confession of faith: 
 
 "May this peace hasten the time when the people them- 
 selves will conduct their own destinies and nO' longer destroy 
 each other as the mere playthings of dynastic purposes. 
 Wars among civilized nations are a crime against humanity. 
 Only among savage people, where no arguments founded 
 on reason may be applied, is the appellation to arms jus- 
 tifiable; only where the voice of reason dies away unheard, 
 shall the brazen mouth of the cannon decide. May it be the 
 problem of the newly arisen power in the heart of Europe; 
 may it be the problem of Germany, to make wars impossible 
 forever. Long it was the Cinderella among the nations, 
 modestly it contented itself with the last place at the table 
 of nations. May it use its power for the welfare of hu- 
 manity. Higher rights bring forth higher duties. If Ger- 
 many fulfills these duties in the meaning of progress, of 
 freedom and of humanity, then and only then can it assume 
 its position in a worthy manner in the great council of na- 
 tions, acquire the respect of the entire world, be unassailable 
 and unconquerable. And all the German races, who still 
 stand outside of the common fatherland, will unite themselves 
 under Germania's protecting banner." 
 
 For a moment under the powerful influence of the peace 
 celebration the hearers accepted this conception of faith. 
 The writer himself was carried away by it and he continued } 
 
 "If, however, the present German Empire should be a 
 copy of the old Holy Roman Empire of the German Na- 
 tion, if expeditions to Rome and crusades shall be its task 
 then Kaiser William may well lay himself down to sleep 
 alongside the old Barbarossa in Kyff^hauser — and we will say 
 with Stein : 'If I consider the afi^air exactly, we really do not 
 
Dr. Hermawn Kiefer 81 
 
 need a Kaiser' ! Not by means of the sword, by battle and 
 by war, by blood and death has Germany to make its con- 
 quest, but by the power of science, by the recognition of free 
 thought, of free investigation and of free self-determination. 
 And it will fulfill its task. The spirit and the character of 
 the Germanic race vouchsafes this for us!" 
 
 Thus spoke the Republican Kiefer to an audience of Ger- 
 mans, who had made the land of the free their home, and who 
 with him beheld the victory as the victory of the German 
 people. So thought the "still in the land" even in all the 
 states of Germany until 1913, when they sang the word of 
 the old Amdt with the new State-National interpretation. 
 Even this celebration aroused in the peoples of Germany a 
 different feeling from what was anticipated by the leaders 
 of the inherited monarchy. It aroused the old Germanic 
 folk-consciousness. We hear again the warning of the Re- 
 publican of 1848, who on the occasion celebrated, spoke in 
 the terms of a real peace celebration. 
 
 The advocate of democracy reinterpreted the ideas of 
 1848 on the beautiful May mom of 1871 for the children of 
 1948. Not by means of the sword, by battle and by war has 
 Germany to make her conquests, but by the power of sci- 
 ence, by the recognition of free thought, of free investigation 
 and of free self-determination. He certainly did not fore- 
 see the extent of the growth of autocratic imperialism in the 
 land which had produced so many disciples of liberty. 
 
 The wars of 1861-65 and 1870-71 proved to be great 
 teachers. The leaders of the New Republic had learned 
 to know these men in the great struggle, and in 1872 Dr. 
 Kiefer was selected as one of the presidential electors of 
 Michigan. In 1876 he was a delegate to the Cincinnati Re- 
 publican Convention. From that time on until 1880 he 
 was a Republican speaker among the Germans of Michigan. 
 
82 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 In the meantime he had visited Germany where he spent 
 several months in the year 1873. He has left no record in 
 his handwriting of these speeches; A research in the press 
 of that time would undoubtedly indicate that his message 
 in the Freemont speech and the ideas already developed in 
 his written works still inspired the Republican orator. It 
 must always be kept in mind that the Revolutionist of Baden 
 idealized the word Republican. But so intense was his ideal- 
 izing, so vigorous his attacks on the established order, and 
 so untiring his blows for the new freedom, that it was only ' 
 Dr. Kiefer's lack of free command of the English language 
 which kept him from becoming in this country a national 
 leader. 
 
 His work was recognized and in 1883 he was appointed 
 U. S. consul to Stettin, Germany, where he remained until 
 January, 1885. He looked upon this position as one of 
 honor and also of responsibility. The location of Stettin' 
 gave him the opportunity of studying the conditions in 
 Northern Germany. The American Consul Kiefer looked 
 upon the development in this country, largely from the point 
 of view of what he could bring of advantage to America. 
 He immediately became interested in the growth of the sugar 
 beet industry. The establishment of a beet-root factory 
 in Stettin was the direct result of the growth of this indus- 
 try during the last decade. The investment was an excel- 
 lent one. In his report (ConsvZar Reports, Vol. XII, pp. 
 95-98) he made a recommendation, which indicated far-sight- 
 edness on the part of the man who had studied the develop- 
 ment of America. Even in this respect he may be consid- 
 ered a forerunner of modem development, since he empha- 
 sized the importance of this growing industry to the United 
 States : 
 
 "When I look at these astonishing results I cannot help 
 
Dr. Hermmrn Kiefer 83 
 
 thinking that in the cultivation of this root a new and large 
 field of enterprise and prosperity would be given to our 
 American people, and the object of this dispatch is to call 
 the attention of those whom it may concern to this very 
 important matter. 
 
 "Climate and soil in many States, as for instance, in 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, are particularly fit- 
 ted for the culture of sugar-beet, and one hundred thousand 
 acres lying idle now, if planted with it would yield a rich 
 harvest; thousands of men would get work in the factories 
 needed for gaining the sweet juice, and for manufacturing 
 the sugar ; the genius of the American people would contrive 
 without doubt in a short time new machines and processes to 
 make this wonderful industry even more profitable than it 
 is in Germany; the time will come when the beet root will 
 be for the North what the sugar-cane is for the South, 
 and sugar factories will replace within the Northern States 
 the sorghum mills now springing up in the South, and the 
 wealth of the nation will be increased materially, not only by 
 adding a new industry to the country, but also by saving 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars now annually sent abroad." 
 
 Consul Kiefer carefully observed the European methods 
 of introducing new articles intO' foreign countries and sent 
 several dispatches bearing on this important question. The 
 Neue Stettmer Zeitimg ran an article which corroborated 
 the opinions already expressed by Dr. Kiefer. The main 
 points of the article are: 
 
 "It is nothing new at all that manufacturers get to- 
 gether and send experts as their representatives, bjit the fact 
 is not appreciated by German merchants as it ought to be. 
 . . . The travelling expenses and those of first fitting such 
 an expedition, if divided among a number of partners, are 
 according to experience not heavy at all, and will soon be 
 
84 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 refunded. Besides, it might be shown in this way that many 
 articles of the German industries, if exported, will find a 
 market more readily than is usually expected. 
 
 "The imperial consuls in foreign countries, as is generally 
 agreed, are very willing to give any information about the 
 countries and the people, to show the best ways and means 
 to be taken, to obtain through their personal influence the in- 
 troductions needed, and to place at the disposal of those 
 interested aU the knowledge of local conditions they have. 
 . . . This is the reason why we want to' recommend very 
 earnestly the measure recently adopted by the Austrian man- 
 ufacturers." 
 
 This article, reprinted in the semi-official Norddeutsche 
 Allgemeine Zeitwrvg, appealed to Dr. Kiefer who recognized 
 the importance of studying first of all the local conditions 
 and the peoples as the main secret of success in any attempt 
 to extend trade. He therefore added in his characteristic 
 manner: "I can only say 'amen,' and think, in my humble 
 opinion, the same principle, if carried out in Europe, and 
 especially in Germany, might prove equally successful here, 
 and the words — ^mutatis mutandis- — ought to be told again 
 and again to our American manufacturers !" This recom- 
 mendation was written May 19, 1884. (Consular Reports, 
 Vol. XIII, p. 14.) 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting report made by Dr. Kiefer 
 was his report: "How Germany is Governed." {Consrdar Re- 
 ports, Vol. XV, pp. 394-400. See also p. 122.) The Revo- 
 lutionist of 1848, who had contributed his energies to making 
 the constitution of the proposed Republican form of Gov- 
 ernment and who had advocated the preservation of these 
 principles for over three decades, naturally became inter- 
 ested in how Germany is governed. He also knew that the 
 educated people of America did not understand the govern- 
 
Dr. Hermami Kiefer 85 
 
 ment of the German Empire. The election of October 28 
 had aroused considerable interest in Germany and also' in the 
 rest of Europe. Dr. Kiefer felt that America should un- 
 derstand the causes which had brought about the changing 
 of German opinion. He gives a very concise statement of 
 the principles of the parties and of the methods of elec- 
 tion. He also traces the trend of events leading up to the 
 October election. The mos t significant result of the election 
 was the selection of 24 members of the socialist party. The 
 advocate of freedom, education and common weal of 1848 
 had become intensely interested in the social conditions of 
 Northern Germany in 1884. He had followed the campaign 
 very closely and his diagnosis of the causes which led to 
 the victory of the Socialists is significant in that it explains 
 to us the orator of the fiftieth anniversary of 1848. The 
 most important paragraphs are: 
 
 "It is only natural that the public, seeing socialistic ideas 
 indorsed by the Government itself thinks them all right. But 
 the most important reason is the lamentable social condi- 
 tion of the people, the scanty food, the miserable lodgings, 
 the low wages, the increasing poverty of the working classes, 
 the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, the usury 
 practiced by a certain class of money-lenders, the riches 
 gained by unscrupulous speculation, often based upon the 
 ruin of thousands ; the pride and haughtiness of the nobility 
 looking down from their ancient castles upon those toiling 
 and working along in the sweat of their brows, as inferior be- 
 ings ; the contrast between comparatively few carrying on a 
 life of idleness and luxury, and the thousands striving for 
 their daily bread and the poorest shelter against storm, 
 rain and cold; all this combined with the conviction that 
 they are treated wrongly, and in consequence of a more gen- 
 eral education, a greater intelligence, and the desire for bet- 
 
86 The Revohition of 184.8 
 
 tering their conditions, the claim for a fair share of the 
 profits yielded by their work, a claim so far denied, has 
 caused a widespread dissatisfaction, which swells the social- 
 istic ranks daily and hourly. 
 
 "They have resolved to stand upon their feet, to rely 
 upon their own strength, they believe in the justice of their 
 cause, and are usually convinced that the future is theirs. 
 They don't trust to any promises ; they don't compromise 
 with any party, and they are ready to sacrifice for their 
 principles." 
 
 Thus Dr. Hermann Kiefer explained in 1884 the inevita- 
 ble rise of the Socialistic party. The lamentable conditions 
 gradually grew worse and worse until they seemed to reach 
 their climax in 1891, the year in which the Erfurt Pro- 
 gram was adopted. Dr. Kiefer also observed the importance 
 of the election of 24! members to the Reichstag: 
 
 "It should be known that, according to the rules existing, 
 no one can bring in a motion if not subscribed to and in- 
 dorsed by fifteen members, at least. Hence, the Socialists 
 will teach their principles in the legislative halls of the Ger- 
 man Empire; they will advocate the measures proposed by 
 them for years, not that they expect to carry them, but they 
 can make, without incurring punishment, a formidable prop- 
 aganda; the words spoken in the Reichstag will go, in the 
 stenographic reports, all over the country ; the anti-socialist 
 law has no effect upon them, for the members of the Reich- 
 stag, the representatives of the people, are, by the constitu- 
 tion, unimpeachable for what they are saying in exercising 
 their mandates." 
 
 The final sentence of the keen observer of the conditions 
 of Baden in 1848 and the similar conditions of Northern 
 Germany of 1884 shows that he understood the trend of 
 events : 
 
Dr. Heririmm Kiefer 87 
 
 "Having shown the current of the tendencies and senti- 
 ments of the German people and the differences of opinion 
 separating them, we must not overlook the fact that two 
 powerful elements are uniting them, viz., patriotism and 
 national pride; the fatherland and a strict military organi- 
 zation bind them together; the former is the moral, the 
 latter the physical element of their strength and prestige." 
 
 The remarkable report written in 1884 seems to almost 
 foretell the Germany of the 20th century. It remained for 
 the Government to recognize the situation and to bring 
 about the necessary legislation and the application of busi- 
 ness and scientific methods in order to remedy the historical 
 evils. It remained for the silent revolution of 1885 to 
 awaken the people and finally the government to realize the 
 dangerous position of the German Empire. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer had already treated the conditions of the la- 
 boring classes in a report to the Department of State. ( See 
 Department of State, Document 2299, Labor in Germany, 
 pp. 485-529.) The introductory remarks are characteristic 
 of the man who understood that this entire investigation 
 would amount to little : 
 
 "First, the magnitude and the importance of the subject 
 is so great and its field so extensive that it would well be 
 worth the pen of the most renowned national economist, and 
 a John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Lassalle, Marx or 
 Henry George ought not to have been ashamed to try their 
 genius on it after a lifelong study of the questions involved. 
 
 "Second, as the Department wants 'these reports com- 
 pleted as speedily as possible,' no time is given to coUect 
 facts as it ought to be done; besides the people here who 
 only could give the needed information are in many cases 
 not wiUing to do so, and either refuse it at once, or, what 
 is even worse, promise it, delay it from one week to another, 
 
88 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 and at last excuse themselves with want of time, or hand in 
 two or three meagre items at the most. Government em- 
 ployees, who could give all information wanted, are forbid- 
 den to do so. . . . Many of the most important questions 
 asked are just now under discussion in the German Diet; 
 also statistics are being prepared about wages, cost of living, 
 rent, etc., by the Imperial statistical bureau; but as the 
 Germans are doing all that they do completely and thor- 
 oughly, they cannot do it quickly and speedily as we Ameri- 
 cans are used to. Within a few years it wiU be an easy mat- 
 ter to make such a report, as everything needed then will be 
 found in the works edited by the German authorities, and 
 will only have to be translated." 
 
 From the above it is evident that Consul Kiefer recognized 
 the importance of such investigation for both Germany and 
 America, but that he did not have much confidence in Ameri- 
 can thoroughness and scholarship. He also evidently did not 
 discern that the German Government was carefully conceal- 
 ing the true state of affairs both on account of the effect 
 of the investigation upon the German people and also upon 
 the world at large. Even the Republican of 1848 was be- 
 ing deceived by a promised investigation of the labor situa- 
 tion and of the cost of living. Bismarck did not dare to rec- 
 ognize the claims of the Socialists. It would have hastened 
 the day of the repealing of the anti-socialistic law and cer- 
 tainly would have increased the number of members of the 
 Socialistic party. 
 
 And although Dr. Kiefer did not fully grasp the impor- 
 tance of the question from the point of view of the Imperial 
 Government, yet his observations of the local conditions in 
 Stettin and neighborhood, show that he was a close ob- 
 server of conditions and could compare them with the condi- 
 tions he had observed in Detroit and America. In writing 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 89 
 
 of the cost of living, he said in part: 
 
 "With all the differences, the following facts are indis- 
 putable: (1) The incomes are so small, that considered 
 from an American standpoint they will be looked upon as 
 starving wages; (2) in consequence of this smallness, the 
 laborer has to save on clothing, rent, etc., and mce versa, 
 and this is the way he has to make both ends meet. An 
 American laborer spends nearly as much money for food 
 alone, although the prices are lower, than his German fellow- 
 worker earns during the year. That they can live on such 
 a trifling sum depends on the minor waste of tissue and vital 
 forces, first in consequence of climate and then because of 
 work being done more slowly and things generally taken 
 easier. Out of all Americans only American consuls are 
 paid in the same ratio." 
 
 The situation, as far as the feelings between employees 
 and employers were concerned, appeared to be fair and pass- 
 able, yet it seemed to Consul Kiefer that the "satisfaction" 
 was only on one side, while the other was calmly suffering 
 what it could not change. He wrote: 
 
 "The effect of this state of things on the general and par- 
 ticular prosperity of the community is so far a beneficial 
 one, when a feeling of general security exists, everything go- 
 ing smoothly, and no outbreaks and social disturbances oc- 
 cur. But the careful observer cannot fail to notice that the 
 idea of common interests of employer and employee is losing 
 strength every day and is fading away in the same propor- 
 tion as when the works of private j>ersons are turned over 
 to associatiops of capitalists, i. e., stock companies taking 
 the place of private enterprise." 
 
 Dr. Kiefer, who thought that mutual esteem and friend- 
 ship were the essential bonds which united employer and 
 employees, could not quite discern the unqualified blessings 
 
90 The Revolution of 184,8 
 
 of trade regulations and social legislation. He wrote: 
 
 "This change of sentiment is aided besides by the trade 
 regulations (Gewerbeordmung) and social legislation, which 
 define and settle all the relations between both parties and 
 cause an alienation of the employed from the employer, be- 
 cause the former does not feel himself any more either obli- 
 gated to or dependent upon the latter, since the rights and 
 duties of both have been determined by law. So, in spite of 
 the many true and noble principles embodied in these regu- 
 lations, they seem to have in many instances the contrary 
 effect of what the framers and authors expected ; instead of 
 binding together and uniting in one body both parties, they 
 are loosening the ties of friendship and love hitherto existing. 
 The patriarchal relations of former times are growing 
 weaker, the remembrances of the past are sinking into obli- 
 vion and blindfolded justice in its supremacy is enthroned 
 on the deserted chair of mutual esteem and friendship. 
 Whether this is a gain — who can say?" 
 
 Under the caption "General condition of the working peo- 
 ple," Dr. Kiefer treats material which has been freely used 
 by the modem German writers. He describes the miserable 
 lodgings in cellars and in the upper stories of the old build- 
 ings. He comments on the natural social degradation which 
 follows the crowding of the people of all ages and sexes in 
 such miserable Hmits. He quotes from the reports of the 
 official communications as follows : "The fare of working- 
 men is on the whole a sufficient one, the prices of provisions 
 being in accordance with wages paid, although the former 
 differ about 20 per cent in various places of the province" 
 and then adds : "Now let us hear the parties interested 
 themselves." He then describes the meager meals in detail. 
 He did not follow the official communication or hearsay, but 
 went to the workingmen who described their daily "bread!" 
 
Dr. Hermmrn Kiefer 91 
 
 The answer of one of his informants is a typical one in- 
 asmuch as it gives us an insight into the keen powers of 
 observation of Consul Kiefer. It tells us the story of a 
 modern drama, and explains the impulse to go to America. 
 "He smiled gloomily (I never shall forget this smile) and 
 said: 'I must get along with it (the food) or steal — this is 
 the choice left to all who are neither noblemen, nor rich men, 
 nor salaried officers ; when in the house of correction, or 
 state prison, we are cared for; but for the poor wives and 
 children — I am going to America when my brother sends me 
 the money.' " 
 
 Consul Kiefer's comments on these poor fellows were made 
 before the rise of modern German commerce and industry. 
 In fact the primary object of modern German expansion 
 was to further the development of these men and women. 
 To Dr. Kiefer the ownersliip of the land seemed to be the 
 essential question. He writes : 
 
 "Their chances for bettering their condition are none, 
 everything in this country being fixed and settled for cen- 
 turies ; the land in possession of private owners, principali- 
 ties of 100 square miles often in one hand, and, on the other 
 side, again, lands are divided into such small parcels that the 
 owners cannot live off their produce ; an over-population by 
 which wages are kept down to a minimum; the poor people 
 carrying on a life of incessant toil and privation, a continu- 
 ous struggle for existence, working day by day, from morn- 
 ing to evening, for the barest necessities of life, knowing that 
 when old and invalid and unable to work any longer, they 
 have to depend upon charity ; after forty years of hard work 
 to be at the same point whence they started as young men, 
 and yet content and at times even happy ! On Sundays 
 and holidays they go out with their families, hear some mu- 
 sic, have a dance, breathe fresh air, enjoy themselves under 
 
92 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 the green trees, delight in nature's beauty and spend a few 
 pfennigs, saved by assistance of wife and children. And 
 then the morahst steps in and says, 'they are improvident 
 and regardless of the future and spend in drinking and danc- 
 ing all they earn.' Oh, the Pharisee! That they gO' some- 
 times into excesses, I admit; but I only am astonished how 
 seldom it happens. They drink bad whiskey because they 
 have no money for beer or something better. They would 
 certainly prefer wine or champagne as well as our moraUst 
 does, if they could afford it. I might ask, have they really 
 no claims to pleasures and joys of life, and, besides, what 
 inducements have they to save anything, even if they could? 
 They never could get a home for themselves ; nothing they 
 can call their own in the world, except their poverty and 
 their misery. Thousands and thousands more would come 
 to the United States every year if they only could save the 
 marks to pay the passage." 
 
 Dr Kiefer, the advocate of a regenerated humanity, con- 
 tinues his description, a description equal in power to one 
 of the realistic school of writers. Unfortunately the original 
 was not preserved: 
 
 "One of this class (the better class) told me that he saved 
 50 marks within four years, and bought furniture for two 
 rooms worth 100 marks — altogether $35.70 — but only with 
 the strictest economy. Thirty-five dollars and seventy cents 
 within four years, — think of it, American fellow-laborer 
 (note the old meaning of the word used by the Republican 
 of 1848) ! The savings of man and wife after four years' 
 constant hard work! On the other end of the line, we find 
 good-for-nothing fellows, the scamps, the idlers and tramps ; 
 they pass away their time in idleness, and spend what they 
 earn (if ever they do earn) in drinking and dancing; but 
 they also are exceptions, fortunately not many; they may 
 
Dr. Hermairm Kiefer 93 
 
 once have been good, honest workingmen, but they don't be- 
 long any more to this noble and respectable class. Bad com- 
 pany and bad whiskey have ruined them; misfortune, pov- 
 erty, and misery may have helped to do the work; these 
 are the causes which surround them and influence them 
 for evil. As soon as the workingman is getting to be a regu- 
 lar whiskey drinker, he goes down ; whiskey was in Northern 
 Germany the common beverage, and it is yet in a smaller de- 
 gree, but good, wholesome lager beer, is now taking its place 
 more and more, and shows already a very beneficial influ- 
 ence; religion and the consideration given by employers 
 and the government to the welfare of the laborers do not 
 fail to exert also an influence for their good. The physical 
 and moral condition is the result of all the conditions writ- 
 ten upon in the foregoing pages. With potatoes and chicory 
 water as main food, a little bad whiskey, and, above all, mis- 
 erable water to drink, with small, dark, ill-ventilated rooms, 
 crowded to their utmost to live in ; no sunshine ever sending 
 in its golden beam ; the atmosphere contaminated with foul 
 air arising from cellars and yards ; the original race badly 
 mixed with foreign elements ; want, scantiness, poverty, and 
 misery around them, we cannot expect to find among these 
 classes the powerful athletes of olden times as Tacitus de- 
 scribes them, with their fair, golden-reddish hair, the blue 
 eyes, the glance even which the unconquered Romans could 
 not stand; we miss that well-known 'furor teutonicus' which 
 made old Rome tremble and succumb to those barbarians." 
 
 The skilled physician trained by long experience to know 
 that conditions beget to a great extent the manifold ailments 
 of humanity, wrote with the conviction of a modem disciple 
 of eugenics about his observations: 
 
 "Scrophulosis with all its consequences, sore eyes, sore 
 heads, swoUen limbs and abdomens, rhachitis, with its curva- 
 
94 The Revolution of 184,8 
 
 tures of the spine, and so on, and the whole legion of diseases 
 resulting from poor food and bad air, insnifficient nutrition 
 in general, are only too frequent and fill the hospitals and 
 asylums with their victims, crippks, idiots, epileptics, etc. 
 Also these conditions will produce in moral respects no 
 saints ; the purity of morals is stained with dark spots, but 
 according to all information obtained, no worse than in 
 countries better situated. Prostitution, illegitimate births, 
 syphilis not more spread, than elsewhere, the crime of abor- 
 tion nearly unknown. Man is the product of the conditions 
 surrounding him, — food and drink, air and light, society 
 and education make him what he is. I tried to get official 
 figures about all these points to show in tabular form the 
 percentage of suffering in physical or moral respects, but in 
 vain. Those who have evaded all the perils surrounding their 
 childhood and youth grow up still as comparatively strong 
 and healthy if not tall men; and the three years' military 
 service, with repeated exercises through nine years further, 
 make them tough, enduring, steady, and adroit. They have 
 inherited a marvelous tenacity, everlasting energy and the 
 powerful vigor of their ancestors which carry them through 
 the most unfortunate conditions." 
 
 Dr. Hermann Kief er, the Socialist for the time being ( So- 
 cialists, however, may properly object), held that the im- 
 provement of these conditions would bring about a renas- 
 cence of the most important class of the nation: 
 
 "And this energy, this tenacity, this vigor is only asleep 
 within these poor classes ; it exists among them and awakens 
 under more propitious circumstances ! Give them fresh air 
 and sunlight; wholesome food; give them free speech, free 
 soil, and free labor; let them have freedom of thought and 
 liberty of action, and they will recuperate, regain their phys^ 
 ical strength, recover their moral health, and justify the 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 95 
 
 truth of the words of the honorable Secretary of State in his 
 letter to Congress dated May 17, 1879: 'Such are the 
 characteristics of the German working classes, characteris- 
 tics which, under more favorable circumstances in the United 
 States, have helped so materially in the development of our 
 vast resources, which have made the name German-American 
 synonymous with industry and good citizenship, and which 
 have given to the agricultural and manufacturing mind of 
 our country much of its solidity and perseverance.' " 
 
 Consul Kiefer's remarks on the safety and comfort of 
 factory operatives also shows a careful study of the situa- 
 tion and a close observance of the laws passed to improve 
 the conditions of the laborers and to strike at the root of 
 direct misery, viz., sickness and accidents. It is interest- 
 ing to note how keenly Consul Kiefer noticed the trend of 
 events leading up to the ultimate regulation of the condi- 
 tions which has made Germany the strongest national or^ 
 ganization in the world. When he visited Germany in 1910 
 and noticed the remarkable advance made along the lines 
 of education and conomon weal he became reconciled to a 
 great extent with the efficient German government which had 
 recognized the results of modem scientific research, at least 
 as far as the natural sciences and the science of medicine 
 were concerned. He even thought that personal liberty was 
 more appreciated than in America. But he always main- 
 tained that the government had been forced to recognize 
 the principles advocated in 1848 and also later by the So- 
 cialists. 
 
 Under the caption "Causes of Emgration" Consul Kiefer 
 adds powerful sentences which come right out of his long 
 life's observation of the dire annals of the poor working 
 classes. The question of emigration seemed to awaken his 
 thoughts and feelings as a fugitive from "justice." He re- 
 
96 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 lived the very destinies of the poor people who were com- 
 pelled to leave the Heimat they really loved. His obser- 
 vations may well be studied to-day by the average American 
 who fails to grasp the thoughts of these people and of their 
 children who have helped to build up the Republic, and who, 
 by the way, will listen more attentively to Kiefer's appeal to 
 support federal policies as time goes on. 
 
 CoMses of Emigration as Stated by Consul Kiefer 
 
 A number of causes combine to swell the flood of emigra- 
 tion. Among them I will enumerate: 
 
 1. The overpopulation of most parts of Germany. 
 
 2. Large estates. 
 
 3. The smallness of wages, with all its consequences which 
 drive the laborers to "the last ditch," the Atlantic 
 ocean and across, with the common device "it cannot 
 get worse." 
 
 4. The relatives and friends living in "America" ; scarcely 
 a family is here without such. Each of the former 
 acts involuntarily as an immigration agent ; news from 
 America is waited for with eagerness. If a letter ar- 
 rives the people congregate in groups ; the letter is 
 read to all by the lucky fellow who receives it ; the dull 
 faces lighten up, the eyes glisten, and one wish is com- 
 mon to all : "Oh, that we could go to America !" 
 
 5. The money advanced by their American friends, either 
 in cash or in form of passage tickets. Without this 
 help hundreds and thousands never would have seen 
 the hospitable shores of the "free land" ; hundreds and 
 thousands more would leave every year if they only 
 had the means. 
 
 6. The words "ora et labora," once comprising the sub- 
 
Dr. Hermamn Kiefer ' 97 
 
 stance of all their rights, is not believed in any more 
 in this sense of the word ; and a hundred Stockers and 
 Winthorsts cannot restore the lost faith; the poor fel- 
 lows begin to understand that they also have some 
 claims besides, and some more rights in this beautiful 
 world. 
 7. As other causes might be mentioned, among many 
 the game law, the law against the Socialists, the ob- 
 ligation to do military duty, and some more. But all 
 these are of minor importance — the main, principal 
 cause, the leading idea, is to better their condition, 
 to get independent, to become free citizens of a free 
 country, with equal rights to all; a country which af- 
 fords the opportunity to rise higher in material, physi- 
 cal, and moral welfare, and the wish to see their chil- 
 dren happy, free and contented before they themselves 
 pass away. The great bulk of emigrants are labor- 
 ers, agriculturists (farm hands), and mechanics of 
 every sort and ability. The other classes here are 
 mostly well-to-do, and, as a class, do not emigrate; a 
 few dozens perhaps, of educated and professional men 
 who, either led by the idea of finding a better field for 
 their work, or driven by the desire to see foreign coun- 
 tries and increase their knowledge; some young mer- 
 chants who want to enrich themselves by establishing 
 branch houses, agencies, and so on, to import Euro- 
 pep,n goods, and a few "lost existences," who have 
 nothing to lose and everything to gain, make up the 
 rest. 
 Dr. Kiefer, the true American citizen, added in closing 
 this section of his report : "And it is to be hoped that all 
 these men and women, who have given up home, friends, and 
 'fatherland,' knowing that they will never see them again. 
 
98 The Revolution of 184-8 
 
 will find their wishes fulfilled, their expectations realized, and 
 become good, industrious, honest and true citizens of our 
 great Republic." 
 
 Dr. Kiefer, the firm believer in the essential forces of na- 
 ture and human nature, had a strong confidence in the re- 
 generation of humanity within a State which would remove 
 the conditions undermining the constitutions of the children 
 of men. At the same time the son of the Black Forest had 
 great faith in the most important class, the productive labor- 
 ing class of Germany. 
 
 "The German laborer is poor but honest, suffering and 
 struggling for his daily existence, but contented, fond of 
 pleasure, but industrious and economical, loving the place of 
 his birth, the play-grounds of his childhood, the fields which 
 have witnessed the labor and the bravery of his youth and 
 manhood ; but despairing to ever better the conditions he 
 lives in, he gives up everything to find a new home, a brighter 
 future for himself and his beloved children in a far-away 
 land, that land which is the hope of all the unfortunate, of 
 all the oppressed and downtrodden of the world. May his 
 hope forever remain." 
 
 The important report of Consul Kiefer, finished in July, 
 1884, notwithstanding the fact that he was unable to ob- 
 tain exact statistics, and was compelled to complete it as 
 speedily as possible, contains observations which are of great 
 import even for the reconstruction period which inevitably 
 must follow the great European war, whether the United 
 States becomes actually involved in the war or not. In fact 
 in many respects the threatening unrest among the laboring 
 classes of America, shows that the reunited Republic did 
 not sufficiently hearken to the repeated warnings of the Re- 
 publican of Germany. The reports of Consul Kiefer contain 
 all the essential problems which will confront the Republic 
 
Dr. Hermann Kiefer 99 
 
 for the next three decades. 
 
 It was unfortunate for America that Consul Kiefer re- 
 signed his office upon the election of a Democratic president, 
 because he was not willing "to be," as he stated, "a victim 
 of the political guillotine or to see civil service reforms man- 
 aged by the Democrats." He would have observed the trend 
 of the development of the social conditions of Germany and 
 his reports and dispatches would have contained valuable in- 
 formation for his beloved America. He remained in Europe 
 for several months and continued to observe the changing 
 social conditions of the laboring classes. These years in 
 Germany awakened his memories of the old struggles in Ba- 
 den, but he viewed the conditions in the light of the study of 
 the works of Karl Marx and Henry George. He came to be 
 more a Socialist than a Republican. This was due partly 
 because the Socialists had adopted practical measures for 
 the improvement of the social conditions and because the 
 tendency of the leaders of the Republican party was towards 
 the barons of organized finance. He held that the State, 
 that is the federal government, should regulate the growth 
 of all industries, both city and country. 
 
 In the meantime Dr. Kiefer devoted his attention in public 
 matters to the work of the Detroit library commission and 
 to the extending of his ideas of the development of the City 
 and of the State. He was a charter member and vice-presi- 
 dent of the Wayne County Savings Bank, which position he 
 resigned when he received the appointment as U. S. Consul at 
 Stettin, Germany. He was a director of the Michigan Mu- 
 tual Life Insurance Company from 1883 to 1892. He was 
 active in the Michigan State Medical Society, as well as in 
 the American Medical Association. His interest in history 
 and social and political sciences is indicated by the fact that 
 he joined the Am^riccm Historical Association and the 
 
100 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 American Academy of Political and Social Science. Dr. 
 Kiefer preserved nothing which would bear on this period. 
 His ideas, however, are preserved in an extended correspond- 
 ence with his close and intimate friend, Dr. Ziegel of Stettin. 
 But it is impossible to obtain the correspondence for this 
 volume. 
 
 In 1889 Dr. Kiefer was appointed by Governor John T. 
 Rich to fill a vacancy on the Board of Regents of the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan ajid he was elected in 1893. His name 
 was again brought up before the convention in 1901, but he 
 refused to enter into any political combination. He main- 
 tained that he had never compromised himself in political 
 matters and did not intend to begin the new century by any 
 action which would reflect upon his character. He looked 
 upon the Regency of the University of Michigan as a posi- 
 tion of honor and trust and resented any attempt of prac- 
 tical politicians to use this position as a means of furthering 
 their power or political interests. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer's untiring work for the University of Michigan 
 was recognized by the Board of Regents of the University 
 of Michigan. On June 19, 1902, he was honored by the 
 Board of Regents with the honorary degree of M.D., and 
 with the title of Professor Em.eritus of the Practice of Medi- 
 cine, in consideration of his merits for the advancement of 
 the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University 
 of Michigan. The faculty of the Department of Medicine 
 and Surgery had his life size portrait painted in oil for the 
 faculty room in the new medical building by his son Edwin 
 H. Kiefer (this note is taken from a little slip which Dr. 
 Kiefer added to the statement found in The National Ency- 
 clopcedia of American Biography, Vol. XI, p. 415). 
 
 Dr. Hermann Kiefer took his seat as a member of the 
 Board of Regents of the University of Michigan in the April 
 
Dr. Hermamn Kiefer 101 
 
 meeting, 1889. At the very next meeting in June Regent 
 Draper moved, on the recommendation of the Department 
 of Medicine and Surgery, that all students who enter the 
 Department after July 1, 1890, be required to pass four 
 years of professional study before graduation. The mo- 
 tion was carried. Dr. Kiefer therefore became Regent at a 
 most important time for the development of the Department 
 of Medicine and Surgery, since the extension of the course 
 made the realization of the academic spirit possible. He 
 took considerable pride in the fact that he was able to 
 bring about the settlement of the long debated question. Al- 
 ready in October, 1887, a resolution of the Medical Faculty 
 to the eflFect that the "Department be improved by its ex- 
 tension to four years of nine months, instead of three years, 
 thus bringing it nearer to the standard of the most advanced 
 medical schools of Europe" had been presented, but the reso- 
 lution was laid on the table. 
 
 The spirit of the resolution appealed to Dr. Kiefer who, 
 as already indicated, had been trained in the universities 
 of Baden and had studied in Prague and Vienna. He knew 
 personally the results of the most advanced medical schools 
 of Europe. In order to make the results of the Newer 
 Medical Science more effective the Founders of the Republic 
 of Baden had established departments of medicine within 
 their state organization. Dr. Kiefer was to be appointed 
 Chairman of the departments of Medicine and Obstetrics. 
 It was his ambition then to bring to the people the direct 
 benefits of proper regulation and state prevention of dis- 
 eases, as well as the results of research. He had noticed 
 the price paid by the sturdy people who had come over to 
 America, because of the lack of medical preparedness. As 
 an Army surgeon he deplored the ruthless toU of uneducated 
 surgeons in the great Civil War. In the year 1869 he ad- 
 
102 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 vocated the establishment of a German University in Amer- 
 ica, having in mind Detroit as the logical center. He de- 
 sired to make this University German in the sense of Ger- 
 man scientific investigation, a university approaching the 
 standard of the most advanced medical schools of Europe. 
 He had observed very closely the gradual adoption of re- 
 search by the German government during the time of his 
 work as Consul, forced largely by the demands of the people 
 on one side and the appeal of the men of research on the 
 other. Dr. Kiefer was especially well prepared to under- 
 stand the point of view of the young scientific men of the 
 Medical Department. It is a significant fact that the resolu- 
 tion was carried immediately after he became a member of 
 the Board of Regents. 
 
 In June, 1890, the Faculty of the Department of Medi- 
 cine and Surgery presented a scheme for a four-years' 
 graded course in the Department of Medicine and Surgery, 
 which was, on the motion of Regent Kiefer, adopted, and 
 the schedule was referred back to the Faculty for a more 
 complete arrangement of the matter for the printer. Dr. 
 Kiefer had given this question very careful consideration and 
 was able to scrutinize the scheme as presented by the Fac- 
 ulty. From the very first meeting until the laying of the 
 corner stone of the new medical building on the fifteenth 
 of October, 1901, Dr. Kiefer co-operated in all the en- 
 deavors to advance the study of medicine in every way. He 
 assisted in the bringing about of the appointment of young 
 men of promise and encouraged them in their scientific work 
 as much as possible. The inside preparedness of the Medi- 
 cal College is due in large part to the fact that the Revolu- 
 tionist of 1848 still advocated the recognition of new knowl- 
 edge. He assisted in the establishment of new departments 
 and in a proper arrangement of the work in order to make 
 
Dr. Hermimn Kiefer ] 103 
 
 this possible. He often deplored the fact that the State 
 had not awakened to the dire need of supporting advanced 
 education for its own sake. And although he appreciated 
 the merits of the men of the Old School of Gentlemen schol- 
 ars, he also discerned that their spirit of harmony and 
 culture was not in accord with the demands of the new age. 
 
 He especially encouraged the providing of laboratories 
 and clinical work both for instructor and student, thereby 
 replacing the didactic lectures. In his address delivered 
 at the ceremonies of October he practically restated the 
 principles he had advocated for over a half of a century: 
 
 "Modern laboratories are the most pressing need ; labora- 
 tories, the imitations of nature's secret workshops, are in- 
 dispensable to modern medical education. The didactic lec- 
 tures of fifty years ago have given place to laboratory and 
 clinical work, to be done by the students themselves ; the 
 time has passed when Mephisto's sarcasm could be only too 
 well justified: — 
 
 "Prepare beforehand for your part 
 With paragraphs all got by heart; 
 So you can better watch and look 
 That naught is said, but what is in the book." 
 
 "I said this building, besides being the home of the Depart- 
 ment of Medicine and Surgery, will also be the nucleus of 
 the University of the future, a university different from the 
 University of the past. Professor Huxley, the eminent sci- 
 entist, comparing the two, says in a letter of April 11, 
 1892: 'The Medical University looked backwards: it pro- 
 fessed to be a storehouse of old knowledge, and except in the 
 way of dialectic cobweb spinning, its professors had nothing 
 to do with novelties. The modem university looks forward, 
 
104 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 and is a factory of new knowledge ; its professors have to be 
 at the top of the wave of progress. Research and criticism 
 must be the breath of their nostrils; laboratory work, the 
 main business of the scientific student; books, his main help- 
 ers. The lecture, however, in the hands of an able man, 
 will stiU have the utmost importance in stimulating and giv- 
 ing facts and principles their proper relative prominence.' 
 
 "The Department of Medicine and Surgery of this Uni- 
 versity is to be congratulated on having a corps of able men, 
 imbued with these principles, full of scientific tastes, full of 
 zeal and energy to advance science, enthusiastic in their 
 endeavors to reach the highest goal, and, notwithstanding 
 aU the adverse circumstances, successful in keeping up the 
 highest standard of medical education in this great country. 
 Thanks to the men, thanks, who with all the difficulties here 
 to be overcome and with all the inducements offered else- 
 where, stood true and loyal to their posts, hoping against 
 hope. 
 
 "Great strides have been made by science within the last 
 half of the nineteenth century, but great as they are, a 
 scientific Alexander of the twentieth century needs not to 
 despair that no work has been left for him. The knowledge 
 of natural sciences, of which medicine is one and a principal 
 part, is only in its beginning, is yet in its infancy ; the high- 
 est problems are yet to be solved ; the eternal questions, 
 wherefrom, whereto, why, and wherefore are not yet an- 
 swered. Shall DuBois Reymond's famous word 'Ignora- 
 bimus' stand forever.-' or has Haeckel by his Riddles of 
 the Universe shown the way for solution and answer? Who 
 knows.? Science is a mountainous region, full of abysses, 
 gorges, canons, precipices, and peaks ; if you have climbed 
 one of the latter, imagining you could look around to the 
 farthest horizon, you find your view obstructed by others, 
 
Dr. Hermcmri Kiefer 106 
 
 you have to go down and climb up again. The great prob- 
 lems of mankind will not be solved by rough riders on the 
 heights of San Juan in the glaring light of a tropical sun, 
 not by the roar of cannons under fire and smoke, but by the 
 quiet, persevering, never-tiring scientist in the solitude of 
 the secluded laboratory, with the aid of artificial light in the 
 sacred silence of the night. 
 
 "May then this building become a 'factory of new knowl- 
 edge' ; may there here be not only a teaching of what we 
 know, but also a training in the methods of learning what we 
 do not know; always aware that 'the ascertainable is in- 
 finitely greater than the ascertained' ; may it become a pilot 
 to guide the ship of science on the stormy sea of contending 
 doctrines, and be a beacon to the sincere seeker of truth!" 
 
 Although primarily interested in the upbuilding of the 
 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Kiefer did not 
 confine his attention entirely to this department. He was 
 also interested in the extension of the course of the Law 
 School and in the demands of the advocates of natural and 
 social sciences, philosophy and modem languages. He was 
 absolutely opposed to any autocratic attempt to prevent the 
 rise of young men of merit and to a tendency to frustrate 
 the introduction of newer methods of instruction in the 
 name of harmony and unity. He encouraged the spirit of 
 academic freedom in every respect and believed that the 
 state universities should be models of an educated Repub- 
 lican government and could not quite comprehend the bu- 
 reaucratic tendency under the name of service and of effi- 
 ciency. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great demand upon his time and at- 
 tention. Dr. Kiefer, now seventy years of age, still followed 
 with intense interest the development of the German Em- 
 pire. The panic of 1893 and the resultant social conditions, 
 
106 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 both in Germany and in America, aroused his heartfelt sym- 
 pathy for the suiFering laboring classes, for he well knew 
 that meant the postponement of the time when the hope of 
 the workingmen of the world could be realized. He was 
 inclined to hold those in power responsible for the trend of 
 events. He had always advocated that a government which 
 recognized freedom, education and common weal, could con- 
 trol the great economic questions, adjust the diiFerences be- 
 tween capital and labor, and could safeguard the interests 
 of all productive classes, and especially the agricultural 
 class, which he considered to be the most important class. 
 He insisted that the government should be run by properly 
 prepared officials and not by politicians. He thought it 
 was necessary to have political parties in order to keep up 
 the interest of the people in the principles of government. 
 But at the same time he deplored the fact that the men were 
 using the political parties necessary for the maintenance of 
 these principles, in order to obtain positions in the gov- 
 ernment of the city, state and country, regardless of the 
 utter lack of ability or of the slightest semblance of prep- 
 aration. 
 
 In the midst of these conflicting feelings of the years 
 1896-1898, the report came over from Germany that Prus- 
 sia had refused permission to permit the erection of a sim- 
 ple monument to the men who had fallen for their convic- 
 tions on the 18th of March, 1848. This fact aroused the 
 old fighting blood of the advocate of a real preparedness. 
 He had a meeting called at the Socialer Turner Society in 
 order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of these fallen he- 
 roes. He prepared with great care the oration of the oc- 
 casion. This oration is the last important document we 
 have of Dr. Hermann Kiefer, who was then seventy-three 
 years of age. It furnishes a fitting closing chapter of the 
 eventful struggles of the idealist of 1848. Nearly aU of 
 
Dr. Hermcmn Kiefer 107 
 
 these men had fought the good fight of life. Only a few 
 remained to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their great 
 endeavor. 
 
 The oration of Dr. Kiefer is of particular interest since 
 it fills out so completely his record of this struggle. The 
 poems of the gymnasiast and of the student, the resolu- 
 tions of the different meetings and especially of the Freiburg 
 meeting, where he controlled that wonderful gathering of 
 men whose very souls were on fire, his various writings on the 
 same fundamental question, including the inspired Schiller 
 oration and the consular reports, containing so many ob- 
 servations of the social conditions of the laboring classes, 
 and finally his review of the great events of 1848 give us 
 the most complete statement on the Revolution of 1848 writ- 
 ten by one of the most active leaders of the Republican 
 movement. Dr. Kiefer remained consistent in this respect 
 until the very last. He felt at the time of preparing this 
 memorial to the fallen heroes of 1848 that it would be his 
 last contribution. He could not dream at that time that 
 he would live to see the new century or contribute to the 
 100th anniversary of Schiller's death. He certainly never 
 anticipated the fact that he would personally celebrate 
 the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Corps 
 Stievia (Heidelberg) in 1910. 
 
 He therefore poured into this oration his very life's blood, 
 and although it is easy to discern that he studied again the 
 original reports, resolutions and documents which he had 
 brought over with him to America, and also later works 
 on this period, nevertheless he remoulded this work accord- 
 ing to the realization of the days which he seemed to re-live 
 for the time being. The same spirit, which fired him on the 
 26th of March, 1848, rekindled his powerful personality in 
 1898. The audience followed the speaker in absolute si- 
 
108 The Revolution of 184.8 
 
 lence for they seemed to realize that they were listening 
 to a message written in 1848. 
 
 The man who had lived the Revolution from boyhood, and 
 who had re-lived the demands of the people in his lonesome 
 hours in America, and who had had the opportunity of vis- 
 iting the old scenes and of observing the rise of the New 
 German Empire was prepared to unfold the story of the 
 events and of the spread of the spirit of 1848 throughout 
 Germany. He was still proud of the part played by Baden 
 in this revolution. The events of the OfFenburg, Freiburg 
 and Frankfort meetings seemed to him as if they were but 
 yesterday. His realistic description of the economic, in- 
 dustrial and social conditions, which called forth the meet- 
 ings, made a profound impression upon his liberal hearers. 
 
 The development within the last decade had aroused in 
 him new interest in the fundamental questions of personal 
 liberty, just taxation and better relations between capital 
 and labor. He could not resist to call the attention of the 
 citizens before him to the conditions in America : 
 
 "Fellow citizens : He who has attentively followed this 
 description of the time before the March days, can not fail 
 to notice the striking similarity in many particulars — mvr 
 tatis mutandis — with the conditions of our own times. Who 
 can not find the demands of the people formulated at the 
 Offenburg meeting just as justifiable and necessary in the 
 'Land of the Free and the Brave' as they were then in the 
 old fatherland fifty years ago under the control of the 
 Bundestag! It is an old law: like causes, like results." 
 
 These little excursions into the by-ways where his 
 thoughts wandered, reveal to us the inner contemplation of 
 his problematic nature, and it is unfortunate that he did 
 not give expression to his feelings later on in life as he did 
 in the years leading up to the Freiburg meeting. 
 
Dr. Hermann Kiefer 109 
 
 He spoke of the appearance of that fateful "extra" which 
 shook the very foundations of Germany and therefore of 
 Europe, as if he held the "extra" in his very hands. At 
 seven o'clock on the evening of the 26th of February an 
 extra edition of the Kolnische Zeitung appeared and 
 brought the following news, which shook Germany like an 
 earthquake : 
 
 "Revolution in Paris ! 
 The Republic proclaimed!" 
 
 He described with the faithfulness of an eye-witness, who 
 stiU saw the very looks of the German people, the effects 
 of this sudden announcement upon the people of Baden, 
 who had been preparing themselves, perhaps unconsciously 
 for this hour. Yet the very accomplishment of the deed 
 seemed to stun them. The simple sentence, "Orators of 
 the people arose of their own accord, explained the contents 
 and summoned the people to similar action and to deeds ; 
 improvised meetings of the people were formed in the cities, 
 in the villages, and even in the open country, which ve- 
 hemently demanded the final granting of the promises made 
 long ago by the princes and the fulfilment of the demands 
 of the people," came out of his own experience, for he was 
 then, as in 1898, an orator of the people, who had appeared 
 from time to time to awaken the people to realize the posi- 
 tion in which they had kept themselves. 
 
 At-the same time the speaker described the inner feelings 
 of those in power, who, terrified at the very demands of the 
 people, realized the sad and hypocritical role which they 
 had played in the development of events. Conscious of their 
 own guilt, as is always the case with petty men in power, 
 they hastened to crush the people before they could arise 
 
110 The Revolution of 184,8 
 
 any further. He poured his old hatred of the men, whom 
 he, as a youth, held responsible for Germany's sad position, 
 into words spoken with the fire of life: "The bad con- 
 science, due to having defrauded their people of their most 
 sacred rights, the consciousness of having repeatedly broken 
 their promises made in the time of dire need crippled their 
 energy; before their very eyes appeared the forms of Carl 
 I., Louis XVI., and Marie Antoinette and wrote their 
 'mene, tekel, upharsin' on the wall. Even the Bundestag 
 in Frankfort, which had held out the cold hand of the devil 
 against all warm life, did not dare any longer to meet this 
 movement breaking with elemental force. ... In this proc- 
 lamation the hated administration, laden with the curse of 
 the German people, declared: 'Germany must and will be 
 elevated tO' the rank which is due it among the nations of 
 Europe, but only the way of harmony, of lawful progress 
 and of united development can lead there.' " 
 
 The speaker recast for us in the same old mould the ef- 
 fects of this proclamation upon the people, for he had helped 
 to prepare the people for their actions. He told the story 
 of the meeting of the 5th of March held in Heidelberg, where 
 51 men gathered from various parts of Baden in order to 
 make preparations for a public meeting. This meeting was 
 set for the 19th of March at Offenburg. He described 
 these preparations as only one could who had participated 
 in them. 
 
 He then reviewed in the light of his explanations the oc- 
 currences in Vienna and Berlin. It is evident that Dr. 
 Kiefer had reread the descriptions found in the histories 
 at his disposal, but his adaptation of the accounts show 
 how powerfully the news of the Berlin massacre, which had 
 caused him to call the Freiburg meeting, had affected his 
 entire life. He relived the March days, as he wrote the 
 
Dr. Hermamn Kiefer 111 
 
 words he delivered with such magnetic effect. The old flag 
 — black-red-gold, — to him the symbol "of the united and 
 freed Germany," seemed to unfurl before his very eyes as 
 he recreated the unfortunate scene which had taken place 
 in Berlin and he heard again the words : "We have been be- 
 trayed — to arms — revenge, revenge!" 
 
 With dramatic power Dr. Kiefer described the proces- 
 sion of death which had assumed the aspect of a procession 
 of victory. He then interpreted with words of derision 
 the motives of the King forced to accept the colors of 
 the old German Nation. 
 
 With all the pride of a young victor the old revolutionist 
 recalled the days "of the birth of a nation for the German 
 people." He became, as it were, the author of the poems 
 dedicated years ago to the beloved black-red-gold flag, one 
 of which was brought, over to America to him, but which 
 he had returned to his native city, where he thought it 
 belonged to remind the youth of Baden of the deeds of their 
 Republican ancestors. 
 
 The man who had witnessed the death struggles of men 
 falling for their idea of fatherland and who had so often 
 watched human beings in their last hour, seemed to partici- 
 pate in the burial procession on the 23d of March, 1848. 
 He relived the hours of the feeling of revenge which domi- 
 nated the student of medicine when he wrote the verses on 
 the 20th of March, entitled Spring '4.8. 
 
 The influences of the conditions which he had observed in 
 Germany in the fateful year 1884! had reawakened the ex- 
 periences of the March days of 1848 and had rekindled the 
 old fires of his elemental nature. His entire body burned 
 with anger and shame as he reflected on the refusal of the 
 permission to erect a simple monument as a memorial of rec- 
 ognition that these men had not fallen in vain. Dr. Kiefer, 
 
112 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 however, had not noticed the tendency in Germany during 
 the years 1890-1898 to glorify the part played by the in- 
 herited monarchy in the development of the Modem Ger- 
 man Empire. Prussia, which conquered the Republican 
 heroes in 1848 and 1849, was driving forward in the great 
 intellectual winning of the German States. 
 
 Dr. Kiefer poured his wrath into the closing paragraphs 
 of this remarkable address. 
 
 "Already in July Freiligrath's poem, The Dead to the 
 Living, a poem glowing with anger and shame, resounded 
 like the triumphal call of the final judgment in the ears 
 of the German people, calling them to a new battle— in vain ! 
 He sang the requiem of the revolution. To-day in the glori- 
 ous German Empire, which has the ideas of '48 and '49 as 
 the foundation of its structure, it has gone so far, that 
 narrow-mindedness, cowardice and meanness have refused 
 the dead 'heroes of the revolution' a simple monument, 
 and this in the very same Berlin in which, fifty years ago, 
 King and ministers bowed and reverently bared their heads 
 before these dead. They desire to blot out every remem- 
 brance of that time from the memory of the people, but it 
 still lives in the heart of the people, not only in Germany, 
 but wherever Germans live. To-day we bring in this city 
 our tribute of recognition and of admiration to those sol- 
 diers of freedom and of the rights of man. Let us and 
 with us, the Germans of the United States, carry out that 
 which the old fatherland refuses — a lasting monument in a 
 fitting place to those who fell in the years 1848 and 1849 for 
 the freedom and unification of Germany — as a remembrance 
 of the dead and as an admonition to the living." 
 
 The speaker then described the period of the reaction 
 which was victorious everywhere with the resultant humilia- 
 tion, persecution, punishment and banishment. The day 
 
Dr. Hermann Kiefer 113 
 
 when he was compelled to flee the beloved fatherland was as 
 if but yesterday. The man who had rejoiced in the victory 
 of the German peoples in 1871 and had noticed the tendency 
 of the improvement abroad in the land even in 1884, was 
 not inclined to acknowledge that this development was due 
 to the wise administration of the representatives of the 
 monarchy. He knew full well that the development was due 
 more perhaps to the individual man in the various fields of 
 the State's work than to one man, a Kaiser or a Bismarck. 
 He had lived long enough and had been away far enough 
 to see the development in a better historical perspective 
 than if he had been permitted to remain in Germany. He 
 had not been influenced by the various attempts to divert 
 his attention from the principles he had advocated. He 
 remained loyal to his Republican principles, and for that 
 matter to the Republican party, notwithstanding various 
 attempts by men who desired to form new parties in order 
 to further progressive principles, which can be found in the 
 common laws of the proposed Republic of Germany. He 
 had studied carefully in the light of the Baden history the 
 constitution and the government of the New Empire, and 
 although he welcomed the phenomenal growth of the Social- 
 istic party, yet he was inclined to believe that even the So- 
 ciahstic party was not responsible for the great economic 
 development of the German people. He thought that such 
 a development should not be ascribed to a single man or a 
 single party, or for that matter to a State, which being the 
 servant of the people, had merely recognized the demands 
 of the people. He insisted to the very last, although he rec- 
 ognized the pre-Revolutionary contributions to the growth 
 of the people, that the ideas advanced in 1848 formed the 
 real foundation of the German State. He would not desig- 
 nate the recent tendency in Germany to accept certain de- 
 
114 The Revolution of 184,8 
 
 mands of the people as State Socialism, but rather as State 
 Republicanism, the natural evolution of such a state lead- 
 ing to a Republican state. He therefore finished his sig- 
 nificant address with words giving expression to his convic- 
 tion: 
 
 "But in spite of aU exertion the year 18418 was not to be 
 stricken from the book of history, and the conditions pre- 
 vailing before the March days were no longer to be reintro- 
 duced. Another time had dawned. The idea of unity and 
 freedom had become greatly strengthened, aaid was no 
 longer to be eradicated, and even if it became realized in a 
 different manner than we had expected and aspired to, yet 
 much has become better in the old fatherland. The years 
 of '48 and '49 have not been in vain. No Bundestag places 
 its mailed fist on every free thought. Germany is no longer 
 a geographical conception, but a State, which takes the 
 place in the council of nations which is due its population, 
 the intelligence of its inhabitants, its progress in art and 
 science ; and the foundations of this State are the ideas of 
 the year 1848." 
 
 Nevertheless the old Baden Republican did not behold 
 the situation as one without unmixed evils. The news of the 
 refusal to permit the simple monument to be erected to the 
 fallen heroes of 1848 had opened the old wound so deeply 
 inflicted. Alone he reviewed the entire development of the 
 history of the unification of Germany, naturally not with the 
 eyes of a Modern Prussian Historian, nor even with the eyes 
 of a Modern German State Historian. The dilettante, as 
 he called himself, could not quite accept the history as 
 taught to the youth of Germany. It pained him to be com- 
 pelled to accept the fact that the flag for which he had 
 fought had not been recognized by the New State. With 
 keen regret he stated: 
 
Dr. Hermcmn Kiefer 116 
 
 "Verily the black-red-gold flag does not wave over the 
 land. They have eradicated the gold of freedom, and as a 
 sign that Germany is being absorbed in Prussia, they have 
 taken for the foundation the black-white Prussian flag." 
 
 Yet he consoled himself with the thought that the black- 
 red-gold flag had served its good purposes, as he beheld 
 the approach of the new century in the light of the great 
 advance which had taken place within the last decade. 
 The times of 1893 had passed and he took new hope when 
 he observed the iniprovement of economic conditions and 
 the building up of the new industries. The news which 
 wafted across the waters from Germany seemed more hope- 
 ful. Yet at the same time he did not fail to see that this 
 forward movement was not all it should be. He beheld 
 the growth of the trusts at the expense of the productive 
 classes, who were not receiving their due share, as danger- 
 ous to the real prosperity of the State. He deplored the 
 growth of the power of politicians. He observed the tend- 
 ency not to recognize merit and education as the cause of 
 promotion, but political and social influence. He noticed 
 the tendency to eliminate the personal freedom of the indi- 
 vidual in all classes. He looked with mistrust upon the 
 attempts of organizations, especially churches, to control 
 the problems which belonged to the city or to the State. He 
 observed the sad lot of the oppressed and the disinherited 
 which stood out in greater relief on account of the apparent 
 prosperity. He thought that Barbarossa had been awak- 
 ened and that it was necessary only "to free the oppressed 
 and disinherited of all lands from their miserable existence." 
 In the light of 1848 he beheld a new Revolution under a new 
 flag which would restore the color Gold (Freedom) which 
 had been eradicated from the flags of the Nations. Other- 
 wise it would be diflicult to interpret his final admonition: 
 
116 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 "As the days pass by they will demand with greater violence 
 the rights which have been withheld from them so long, 
 hourly their demands grow more urgent and louder and 
 more sure of victory resounds the call: 
 
 "One more fight we must endure, 
 A last great victory; 
 The last fight on earth, 
 The last holy war." 
 
 In the last years of his life he brooded about the Revolu- 
 tion which was to come. One evening in a conversation with 
 the writer he said, in speaking of the period of reaction 
 which had set in during the first decade of the twentieth 
 century, a reaction which seemed about to obtain control 
 of the schools and of the state, using the diagnosis of the 
 social reformers as a pretext tO' obtain control of men: 
 "Be careful, young man. The powers of hypocrisy and of 
 the stupid reaction are too strong for you." 
 
 The venerable Revolutionist sat for a few moments in 
 silence in his arm chair and then added: "There will be a 
 revolution here, perhaps not so soon. But if it should go 
 so far, do not forget what I have told you. Have you a 
 son.''" To the answer "yes" he added after a few mo- 
 ments of silence: "Poor boy, perhaps he may be compelled 
 to sacrifice all for the dream of his youth ! Would you like 
 to hear my story?" Naturally I answered "yesl" He 
 paused and became very tender. His entire body seemed 
 to thaw up under the influence of the pictures which evi- 
 dently passed before his mind's eye. I shall never forget 
 that look as he sat there and told the story of his life which 
 was so powerful that I cannot repeat the words. Then he 
 closed with the words : "My entire life has been a failure." 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 117 
 
 The 100th anniversary of the death of Schiller ap- 
 proached. As in 1859 preparations had been made in all 
 parts of the world wherever two or three Germans could 
 meet together, in 1905 similar preparations, only on a 
 more extensive scale, were made to recognize the contribu- 
 tions of the Swabian poet to art and liberty. Only a scat- 
 tered few who had contributed to the Schiller celebration 
 in 1859 had been spared toi witness the revival of Schiller- 
 cult in the first decade of the twentieth century. The com- 
 mittee in charge of the Schiller commemoration in Chicago 
 arranged not only for the production of Wilhelm Tell on 
 the 14th of April and for the programs of the 6th, 7th, 8th 
 and 9th of May, but they also decided to publish a volume 
 to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of Schiller's 
 death. 
 
 An invitation was extended to Dr. Hermann Kiefer to 
 contribute to this volvune, and, as stated at the very be- 
 ginning of the introduction, the venerable American of 
 eighty reiterated the same fundamental tone he had touched 
 in his very first poem — ^Liberty. He closed his letter with 
 the hope he had cherished his entire life in America, "that 
 the related Germanic races, which had met again on Ameri- 
 can soil, that the Anglo-Saxon and German would join 
 hands in common labor for the extension of the empire of 
 freedom and humanity." 
 
 We have no material written during the last few years of 
 the life of the demander of justice. He kept abreast of 
 the social and political development of the times and came 
 to be especially interested in the economic development of 
 modem Germany. In his lonesome hours he reviewed the 
 events of the last half century, and the people whom he 
 had met in the years gone by lived again for him. His 
 bitter conflicts in the endeavors tO' further his conception 
 
118 The Revolution of I84.8 
 
 of the kingdom of Liberty and Humanity became real once 
 more. 
 
 He who had given his best life to the establishment of 
 societies for the preservation of human ideals and for the 
 furthering of the welfare of the productive members of so- 
 ciety, beheld with intense regret the destructive social ac- 
 tivities of the city which had become too prosperous. He, 
 who had given up aU for Liberty, yes, for personal Liberty, 
 beheld the tendency to rule the people with an iron spirit, if 
 not an iron hand, with feelings mixed with amusement and 
 pity. He looked upon the growth of capital at the exploi- 
 tation of the productive classes as a real menace to liberty, 
 education and the common weal. He could not comprehend 
 why men in the beginning of the new century had not taken 
 up the banners of the new century, but had returned to the 
 old colors. He could not understand why people refused 
 to apply the results of the research of the past century to 
 their own private life. It made him sorrowful to be com- 
 pelled to observe the mad struggles for external pleasures 
 at the cost of the cultivation of the gifts of nature. 
 
 He looked upon the development of America with strange 
 feelings. Everywhere commercial progress, economic devel- 
 opment, the application of science to world's work, but intel- 
 lectual stagnation. He could not understand what he might 
 call the "strange blindness" of American society. If he 
 could have lived another decade, he would have had the in- 
 ner pleasure of seeing his diagnosis finally realized. The 
 year 1917 finds America awakening to the realization of the 
 conditions, even if she has not as yet seen the woman clad 
 in gray — -Dame Prejudice — stalking about in the land, 
 spreading the menacing doctrine of hate and distrust, bless- 
 ing the youth with a hand whose very touch blights the 
 spirit of Liberty. 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 119 
 
 One day an invitation came which brought forth a revo- 
 lution in his lonesome spirit. The invitation came from 
 the Corps Suevia from Heidelberg to the old alumnus to 
 attend the hundredth anniversary of the Corps. The stu- 
 dent days assumed a new life. The student days of 1845-46 
 were revived by this invitation of 1910. Sixty-five years 
 had exerted a healing effect upon the wounds of student 
 days. The eternal vigorous life of academic freedom beck- 
 oned him to return to the scenes of his early student days, 
 already described in his own poems. He beheld these days 
 in the light of a hope which nature has so kindly planted 
 in the soul of one who has experienced the struggles of the 
 world for almost a century. 
 
 The "old alumnus," 85 years of age, decided to participate 
 in the one hundredth celebration of the academic youth of 
 the University he loved so well. In other words he was a 
 furtive again. This time he fled the autocracy of his 
 experienced life in the Republic of America, into the free- 
 dom of the Republic of University days. The fugitive was 
 welcomed back to the land he had fled. The University 
 boys were proud of the man who had presided at Freiburg 
 and treated him with the respect due to his academic cour- 
 age, and to his career in helping to build the Commonwealth 
 of Michigan. 
 
 The spirit of the meeting seemed to be best expressed in 
 the presentation of the Schwabenstiftung, the income of 
 which w£is to be used for historical research, and especially 
 in the times of the war of liberation. This act of recalling 
 the war of liberation made an especial impression upon 
 the honored guest from America, who had observed the influ- 
 ences of a war of liberation in America and who had fought 
 for the liberation of men in times of peace, • as well as in 
 times of war, but he still beheld the liberation of the Ger- 
 
120 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 man peoples in the light of the interpretation of 1848. He 
 could not fail to notice the great step forward taken by 
 Germany along the lines of his ideaJs. Everywhere he no- 
 ticed education and common weal. And in comparison with 
 the social situation of America he observed that the men 
 and women in Germany were apparently enjoying the bless- 
 ings of liberty in many respects even more so than in 
 the Republic of America. And to a certain extent, 
 with the indulgence of age, he became reconciled with the 
 modern German Empire, even with the Prussian inherited 
 monarchy, for he thought that his opinion expressed on 
 the 2nd of May, 1871, had been realized to a far greater 
 degree than he had anticipated: "Germany has to make 
 its conquest by the power of science, by the recognition of 
 free thought and of self-determination!" 
 
 The "old alumnus" had also the satisfaction of observing 
 that the youth of Baden of 1910 were able to celebrate this 
 anniversary owing to the cultivation of the soil by the 
 students of 1845-1848, and that the years of 1848 and 
 1849 "had not been in vain." He felt that the "oppressed 
 and disinherited" had been freed from their misery to a 
 great extent and he beheld Germany as a "land of free la- 
 bor." In the midst of the happy hours of the significant 
 celebration, carried away by the- powerful forces of young 
 manhood about him who were being carefully trained for a 
 career under Germania's protecting banner, rejuvenated by 
 the wonderful nature of his country, Baden, in the golden 
 harvest month, the old man, who years before had been 
 compelled to flee for the great crime of defending his con- 
 ception of home, rejoiced that he had been given the 
 golden opportunity of weaving liberty into the life of mod- 
 ern Germany. With this beautiful picture to cheer his 
 lonesome hours he could return to America with feelings 
 
Dr. Hermwrm Kiefer 121 
 
 of joy and sorrow. 
 
 The feeling of sorrow, however, was increased by a visit 
 to the scenes of boyhood and youth he loved so well. A 
 long illness at Munich caused him to brood about his entire 
 career. He recorded these feeUngs in a friendship album 
 on a page opposite to a dedication written by his son, Ar- 
 thur E. Kiefer, many years before. He felt strange in a 
 strange land, as he had felt sixty years before in America. 
 He could not find peace nor could he find home. In the 
 very last poem he wrote, a poem pregnant with sorrow, he 
 gave expression in simple words to the sadness of his lone- 
 some soul: 
 
 I am going home, 
 
 Only a stranger here. 
 
 My native country is no more, 
 
 Peace likewise is gone. 
 
 The world rejoices, ne'er my heart, 
 
 I am going home. 
 
 Dr. Hermann Kiefer returned to nature on the eleventh of 
 October, nineteen hundred and eleven. The Kiefer Memorial 
 Gate at the Detroit Crematorium and the bronze tablet in 
 the Kiefer niche in the columbarium indicate that he remained 
 true to his conception of the forces of nature. The Her- 
 mann Kiefer Hospital of Detroit is a fitting living memorial 
 to the man, who, as a mere boy, wrote of the ennobling proi- 
 fession, which has as its object the prolonging of life, the 
 alleviation of affliction and the prevention of suffering. 
 
 Wabren Washburn Florer. 
 
 Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 24!, 1917. Revised, Feb- 
 ruary, 1918. 
 
HOW GERMANY IS GOVERNED 
 
 Report by Consul Kiefer, of Stettin 
 
 THE new German Empire, proclaimed as such on Janu- 
 ary 18, 1871, in Versailles, is a union of twenty-six 
 sovereign states, including the three free cities, Liibeck, 
 Hamburg, and Bremen, and the territory of Alsace-Lor- 
 raine. Its fundamental law is the constitution of the Ger- 
 man Empire with an hereditary emperor at its head as ex- 
 ecutive, a power vested with the King of Prussia, and a diet 
 composed of the Bundesrath and Reichstag as a legislative 
 body. 
 
 All legislation is done by the Federal Council (Bundes- 
 rath) and the House of Representatives (Reichstag). All 
 laws have to receive a majority of the members of each 
 house. They are then published, by order of the Emperor, 
 in the name of the Empire, after having been signed by the 
 chancellor, and take eifect fourteen days after having been 
 published in the official paper in Berlin (Reichsgesetzblatt), 
 if not ordered otherwise. 
 
 The laws of the Empire are supreme, those of the dif- 
 ferent states being subject and subordinate to them. 
 
 The Emperor appoints and, if necessary, dismisses the 
 officials of the Empire; he calls in the Diet, opens it ses- 
 sions, adjourns them, can, with the consent of the Bundes- 
 rath, dissolve the Reichstag, and closes the sessions of the 
 Diet. The Diet has to convene yearly. In case of a dis- 
 solution of the Reichstag new elections have to take place 
 within sixty days, and the members elected have to assemble 
 
 122 
 
, Dr. Hernuwm Kiefer 123 
 
 within ninety days from the date of dissolving. 
 
 The chancellor, who is also appointed by the Emperor, is 
 secretary of state ; the heads of the different Government 
 oflScers are subject to him; he sees that the laws passed by 
 the Diet are executed and carried out, and regulates all 
 constitutional matters. 
 
 The Federal Council is composed of the delegates of the 
 sovereigns of the different states, with fifty-eight votes. 
 
 Each state of the union may send as many delegates as 
 it has votes, but the votes of each state must be given as a 
 unit, and count as follows: Prussia, including Hanover, 
 the Electorate of Hessia, Holstein, and Nassau, 17 votes ; 
 Bavaria, 6; Saxony and Wiirttemberg, 4 each; Baden and 
 Hessia (Grand Dukedom), 3 each; Schwerin and Bruns- 
 wick, 2 each; the remainder, 1 each. Alsace-Lorraine sends 
 4 commissioners. 
 
 The Federal Council is presided over by the chancellor. 
 Its legal powers involve, among others, the originating of 
 laws and bills, which are submitted in the name of the Em- 
 peror to the Reichstag and advocated by members of the 
 Federal Council before this body. 
 
 The Reichstag is. composed of 397 members, who are 
 elected by direct, universal, secret ballot for three years, 
 100,000 inhabitants are entitled to one member. The mem- 
 bers draw no salary. 
 
 Every citizen of the Empire of good moral character is a 
 voter, if twenty-five years of age, not under guardianship, 
 not in bankruptcy, not supported at the time or during the 
 last year by public means, if living in the district he votes 
 in, if enrolled in the list of voters. 
 
 These lists are compiled by the city or county authorities, 
 posted eight days for inspection, in a public place, about 
 three weeks before the election. The citizens are invited 
 
124 The Revolution of li54.8 
 
 by public advertisements in the newspapers to see for them- 
 selves that their names are entered on these lists. 
 
 The place of residence at a certain date is taken, as a 
 rule, and entitles a man to vote in the district where he then 
 lived. Here, in Stettin, for instance, the 1st of September 
 was adopted this year. 
 
 The candidates for membership in the Reichstag are se- 
 lected by the party committees ; the name of each candidate 
 is laid before a meeting of his party's voters, and either 
 adopted or rejected by those present. The candidates are 
 often present at these "ratification" meetings and define 
 their positions about all important questions. After having 
 finished their speeches, they have to answer a number of in- 
 terrogatories, which have been sent in by writing to the 
 president of the meeting. Long and animated discussions 
 often follow. The candidates nominated then "stump" 
 their districts, as in the United States. Meetings are held 
 all over, usually well attended, and the interest manifested 
 in these elections is as keen as that exhibited in the United 
 States in an election for a member of Congress in an off 
 year; the excitement even runs nearly as high as in our 
 Presidential elections. 
 
 Only one feature is missing; here there are no parades, 
 no uniformed guards on horseback or on foot, no torchlight 
 processions, no banners, bonfires, or bands playing through 
 the streets. Everything goes on quietly and earnestly. The 
 Germans do not believe in show, and have no money to throw 
 away on these expensive pleasures which the citizens of the 
 great American Republic are so fond of. But a still more 
 important difference is to be noted. The candidate here 
 does not need to live within the district by which he is nomi- 
 nated and which he will represent if elected ; he may live any- 
 where in the Empire. By this means distinguished men, 
 
Dr. Hernumm Kiefer ' 125 
 
 prominent party leaders, are nearly always sure to be re- 
 elected, as they are generally nominated by two or more dif- 
 ferent districts. If they are elected by two or more of 
 those districts they are at liberty to accept the mandate 
 which they themselves choose, and as a rule they take it of 
 the district in which the election of the candidate of their 
 own party is the most doubtful ; the districts which thereby 
 are left without a representative have to hold a second 
 election for a substitute, going through the same prelimi- 
 naries again. 
 
 Another difference is that an absolute majority of all the 
 votes cast is necessary for an election, and as there are 
 three, four, and even more parties and as many candidates 
 in a district, very often the first election does not give an 
 absolute majority, in which case the two candidates who re- 
 ceive the highest nimiber of votes enter into the secondary 
 election. 
 
 In the elections of October 28, out of 397 members, only 
 299 were elected by first vote, in 98 cases the two candi- 
 dates standing highest had to fight it over again. 
 
 As there are very many parties and factions a great va- 
 riety of combinations (fusions) is possible in those cases, 
 and a party, for reasons not necessary to explain, may fight 
 in one place the party which it supports in another. 
 
 For instance, in A National Liberals and Social Demo- 
 crats enter into the test; here the Conservatives of the dis- 
 trict wiU support the National Liberals. In B German 
 Liberals and Social Democrats are engaged in the test, and 
 here the Conservatives will support the Social element, and 
 so on. 
 
 The first German Reichstag was solemnly opened by the 
 Emperor in person March 21, 1871. The Reichstag regu- 
 lates its own order of business, makes its own parliamen- 
 
126 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 tary rules, elects its own president, vice-president, and secre- 
 taries, and decides about the legitimation of its members. 
 Its principal rights are the following: 
 
 No laws can be passed, no appropriations of money made, 
 without its assent ; besides, it has the right to propose laws 
 and forward petitions to the Bundesrath through the chan- 
 cellor of the Empire. 
 
 If we look at the different parties we find that besides the 
 political differences two other elements are coming into con- 
 sideration, viz., religion and nationality. 
 
 The "Centrum," the most powerful and most numerous 
 party of the Reichstag, is the representative of the Catho- 
 lic Church; it goes in for the supremacy of the church; all 
 other questions are of secondary importance. It is constant 
 in its members, immovable in its views, solid in its vote, firm 
 in its purposes, holds the balance of power, and conquers 
 step by step the positions lost by the legislation of May, 
 1872. It numbers now 100 against 106 of last session. Its 
 allies are the different nationalities of non-German origin, 
 and inhabitants of annexed provinces, as the Guelphs of 
 Hanover, the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine, the Poles, and 
 the Danes, numbering nov 40 members altogether, against 
 46 before. 
 
 The other parties may be divided in two great sections, 
 viz., the Conservatives, including the High Conservatives, 
 Free Conservatives, and National Liberals, comprising 157 
 against 121 before, and the Liberals, including the German 
 Liberal Democrats (people's party) and Socialists, com- 
 prising 97 against 124 before. Three seats are vacant yet, 
 waiting for secondary election. There may be small mis- 
 takes in the numbers given, as they are not from official 
 sources, but compiled from different reports of newspapers 
 by the undersigned. 
 
Dr. Hermami) Kiefer 127 
 
 What do all these names mean? What do they repre- 
 sent? This is a difficult task to explain to an American 
 reader, as the political foundations and conditions of the 
 United States and the German Empire are so widely and 
 essentially different. To understand and comprehend the 
 motives of the different parties, it would be necessary to go 
 over the past history of Germany, the result of which they 
 are. 
 
 Besides, issues different from those with us are present- 
 ing themselves; old privileges, feudal rights, etc., are daily 
 and hourly coming into consideration. Also, the parties 
 themselves change their names as well as their principles. 
 
 It is neither my intention, nor is there space for it in this 
 report, to inquire into these complicated and often vexed 
 questions; may it suffice to say that at present the Con- 
 servative parties, including the National Liberals, are go- 
 ing in mostly with the Government, the Liberal parties op- 
 posing the measures proposed and advocated by it. 
 
 The Conservatives hold up the old historical rights sanc- 
 tioned by centuries ; the Liberals are the champions of mod- 
 em views and modem times, but by no means in harmony 
 among themselves; the Conservatives are the advocates of 
 feudal rights, of coercion into guilds, of a protective tariff, 
 of state socialism — the latter expression meaning that the 
 state, i. e., the Government, has to take care of its inhabi- 
 tants and hsis to regulate everything ; the Liberals are fight- 
 ing against aU these issues, and insist that everything be left 
 to free competition of individuals or corporations ; they only 
 admit free guilds, are for free trade, and against state so- 
 cialism; the German Liberals are against the latter on 
 principle, the Socialists, because it does not go far enough. 
 In some points the two extremes. Conservatives and Social- 
 ists, meet ; in others. National Liberals and German Liberals 
 
128 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 vote unitedly. 
 
 After the Austro-Prussian war in the then established 
 Norddeutscher Bund, and after the Franco-German war in 
 the new Empire, from 1876 to 1879, the National Liberals 
 had a majority in the Reichstag. They were then, as their 
 name says, a liberal party. National questions were at issue ; 
 they were the party of the Government at that time, which 
 worked with them against the Conservatives and the then 
 existing Liberals, Progressives, Democrats and Socialists. 
 
 But when with 1879 the era of protection began they di- 
 vided. Part of them left their old comrades and called them- 
 selves Secessionists ; the rest went for the measures of the 
 Government. 
 
 The Secessionists in course of time united with the Lib- 
 erals as the Liberal Union, and, again, in the spring of 
 1884, the Liberal Union associated with the Progressives 
 as German Liberals. This broke up the majority on which 
 the Government could rely, and the latter had to work its 
 way through under difficulties and many embarrassing ob- 
 stacles, the Centrum, as said above, holding the balance of 
 power, the Government had to work with a Conservative- 
 Clerical maJ9rity. If the Government did not yield to the 
 wishes of the Centrum, Mr. Windthorst, the leader, joined 
 the Liberal factions and defeated the measures of the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 To make an end of this unsatisfactory state of things, 
 the Government wanted to secure by the last elections, if 
 possible, a Conservative-National-Liberal majority, in or- 
 der to free itself from the dictation of the Centrum. 
 
 The German Liberals during the session of the last Reichs- 
 tag had been the most bitter and most obstinate opponents 
 of all measures proposed by the Government, no matter if 
 they tended to social reforms, as announced by an imperial 
 
Dr. Hermmm Kiefer 129 
 
 message of November 17, 1881, or to tariff measures as 
 inaugurated in 1879, or to foreign policy as favored by the" 
 chancellor at the end of the last session, which policy cul- 
 minated in the subsidies asked for trans-Atlantic steamboat 
 lines, and in his ideas about colonization. By this opposi- 
 tion the party had become unpopular with many classes of 
 the population ; with the farmers, because they were opposed 
 to the raising of the grain duties ; with manufacturers, be- 
 cause of its opposition to a higher tariff on manufacturers ; 
 with the trade-masters, by its opposition to the coercion 
 into guilds ; with the Socialists, because it was opposed to 
 all social reforms, and unpopular with German national 
 pride, German national feelings, with Germanism generally, 
 by opposing the foreign policy of the chancellor. Under 
 these circumstances the latter hoped, by supporting the Na- 
 tional Liberals with all the influence at the command of the 
 Government, to weaken the German Liberals in such a de- 
 gree that, if not securing an absolute Conservative Nation- 
 al-Liberal majority, a majority of the so-called "middle 
 parties" for the coming Reichstag (the German Liberals) 
 would be at least so much reduced that Mr. Windthorst 
 could not get a Clerical-Liberal majority any more; he 
 further expected to make considerable gains for the policy 
 of the Government also in those districts which were doubt- 
 ful for the Centrum. 
 
 The conventions of the National Liberals, held in Heidel- 
 berg, in Neustadt, and Berlin, declared open war on the 
 German Liberals, and indorsed the policy of the Govern- 
 ment; the fight was a hard and bitter one, and the result 
 an increased Conservative Clerical majority. The increase 
 was in favor of the Conservatives and the Socialists ; the 
 losses on the side of the German Liberals, a few only on that 
 of the Centrum, but not enough that the Centrum cannob 
 
130 The Revolution of 18^8 
 
 play again its double game, the more so as the Socialists 
 gained many of the seats lost by the German Liberals. 
 
 The members of the different parties for the coming 
 Reichstag are as foUows: 100 Centrums, 75 Conservatives, 
 30 Free Conservatives, 52 National Liberals, 66 German 
 Liberals, 7 People's Party, 24 Socialists, 16 Poles, 15 Alsa- 
 tians, 8 Guelphs, 1 Dane, 3 are outstanding (397). 
 
 Taking it altogether, the German Liberals and National 
 Liberals cannot be pleased at all with the result of the elec- 
 tion. The Government can only be satisfied so far as the 
 German Liberals got weakened. The Centrum is as much 
 pleased as before, if not even more, and the Socialists are 
 triumphant and jubilant all over. 
 
 They counted 600,000 votes, increased their seats from 
 13 to 24 ; and this notwithstanding the anti-Socialistic law 
 which was passed first in 1878, and after having been pro- 
 longed in 1880, ought to have expired September 30, 1884, 
 but had been again continued during the last session for two 
 years more. 
 
 Under this law their leaders have been driven out of the 
 country, their newspapers suppressed, their pamphlets 
 seized, their meetings broken up, etc., nevertheless they 
 gained in Berlin 38,732 votes since 1881 ; and in the same 
 proportion throughout the Empire. 
 
 How is this to be explained.? I think there are differ- 
 ent reasons for it. First, because suffering under special 
 legislation, the public sentiment turned in their favor; they 
 were looked at as martyrs. Justice wants equal rights for 
 aU. The same argument accounts for the unbroken strength 
 of the Centrum, the adherents and constituents of which 
 also suffer by a similar state of affairs. 
 
 Then the law had the effect of cautioning the Socialistic 
 leaders to disguise their anarchical tendencies and conceal 
 them by a more moderate program in order that the law 
 
Dr. Hermwrm Kiefer 131 
 
 could not reach them — at the same time to organize secretly 
 in the most perfect manner. 
 
 So it was demonstrated that class legislation, even en- 
 forced by the arm of a powerful Government and with the 
 most rigid means, failed to have the desired effect. Every 
 class legislation drives the real or supposed evil only away 
 from the surface; it hides itself under different names, and 
 under various disguises it works along secretly and gains 
 surreptitiously in strength. 
 
 If it only would be generally understood at last that men 
 will be bettered, their morals raised, their ideas elevated 
 by education rather than by coercive laws, it would save the 
 world much suffering and trouble. Further, the Govern- 
 ment adopted, in some degree, by its reform measures. So- 
 cialist ideas. Conservative papers, such as the Kreuz-Zei- 
 tung, declared a short time ago the conservative, socialistic 
 result of the elections in Berhn for the Prussian Landtag 
 "as a victory of the idea of common rights," an idea com- 
 mon to both conservatism and socialists, the latter only 
 differing from the former by following it up to its last conse- 
 quences. 
 
 This last consequence we find expressed in a socialistic 
 pamphlet, urging the election of the socialistic candidate, 
 Capel, and closing with the words, "All the grounds, fields, 
 and forests must again become the common property of the 
 community as with our ancestors." 
 
 It is only natural that the public, seeing socialistic ideas 
 indorsed by the Government itself thinks them all right. 
 But the most important reason is the lamentable social con- 
 dition of the people, the scanty food, the miserable lodg- 
 ings, the low wages, the increasing poverty of the working 
 classes, the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, 
 the usury practiced by a certain class of money-lenders, the 
 
132 The Rewlutiom of 18^8 
 
 riches gained by unscrupulous speculation, often based upon 
 the ruin of thousands; the pride and haughtiness of the 
 nobility looking down from their ancient castles upon those 
 toiling and working along in the sweat of their brows as in- 
 ferior beings ; the contrast between the comparatively few 
 carrying on a life of idleness and luxury, and the thousands 
 striving for their daily bread and the poorest shelter against 
 storm, rain, and cold; all this combined with the conviction 
 that they are treated wrongly, and in consequence of a 
 more general education, a greater intelligence, and the de- 
 sire for bettering their conditions, they claim for a fair 
 share of the profits yielded by their work, a claim so far de- 
 nied, has caused a widespread dissatisfaction, which swells 
 the socialistic ranks daily and hourly. 
 
 They have resolved to stand upon their own feet, to rely 
 upon their own strength, they believe in the justice of their 
 cause, and are usually convinced that the future is theirs. 
 They don't trust to any promises ; they don't compromise 
 with any party, and they are ready to sacrifice for their 
 principles. 
 
 What and how they are thinking about the other parties, 
 and particularly about the conservative factions, the Ber- 
 liner Volkszeitung tells in vivid words. In an article refer- 
 ring to the results of the last election, it says : 
 
 "What a curious mixture of political and social ele- 
 ments ! 
 
 There are reactionaries of all shades ; court coun- 
 selors who ought to have lived five hundred years ago ; 
 knights with petrified views of feudal rights ; monkish 
 fellows who know less of modem life than of the mon- 
 archism of medieval times ; owners of latifundia and in- 
 heritants of primogeniture rights, bankers and job- 
 
Dr. Hermann Kiefer 133 
 
 bers; in short, all those elements that are living yet 
 within the ideas and prejudices of bygone times, fancy- 
 ing that the dead forms of the past can be revived and 
 transferred into modern existence. 
 
 These men also see that a nation will be ruined by 
 the rude materialism of our industrial life as repre- 
 sented by free competition, by the war of all against 
 all, of every one against every one. 
 
 But while fighting this system they want less to re- 
 lieve the sufferings of the people than to save their own 
 absolute privileges, which they find endangered by the 
 materialistic liberalism of our times, by modem Man- 
 chesterism. 
 
 So they are making small, insignificant concessions 
 to the people, lessened besides by an increased political 
 guardianship. Never has the latter shown such a dole- 
 ful proportion to the intelligence of the century as at 
 present. 
 
 Therefore the spiked helmet and the baton of the 
 pohceraen stands behind even the smallest grant given 
 by conservatist social legislation." 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on the favorable results of 
 the Socialistic party, because of their importance, an im- 
 portance illustrated by the gains achieved, which latter not 
 only shows the increasing popularity of their ideas among 
 the masses of the people, but has also conquered the right 
 to bring its own motives before the Reichstag by getting 
 twenty-four, perhaps twenty-five, seats. 
 
 It should be known that, according to the rules existing, 
 no one can bring in a motion if not subscribed to and in- 
 dorsed by fifteen members at least. Hence, the Socialists 
 wiU teach their principles in the legislative halls of the 
 
134 The Revolution of 1848 
 
 German Empire ; they will speak in the presence of their op- 
 ponents to the people outside; they will advocate the meas- 
 ures proposed by them for years, not that they expect to 
 carry them, but they can make without incurring punish- 
 ment a formidable propaganda; the words spoken in the 
 Reichstag will go, in stenographic reports, all over the coun- 
 try ; the anti-Socialistic law has no effect upon them, for the 
 members of the Reichstag, the representatives of the people, 
 are, by the constitution, unimpeachable for what they are 
 saying in exercising their mandates. 
 
 Having shown the current of the tendencies and senti- 
 ments of the German people and the differences of opin- 
 ion separating them, we must not overlook the fact that two 
 powerful elements are uniting them, viz., patriotism and na- 
 tional pride; the fatherland and a strict military organiza- 
 tion binds them together; the former is the moral, the lat- 
 ter the physical element of their strength and prestige. 
 
 HERMANN KIEFER 
 
 Consul 
 United States Consulate 
 
 Stettin, November 19, 1884 
 
 n 
 
INDEX 
 
 Africa, 22 
 
 Alberta, 27, 29 
 
 America, 40, 42, 44, 49, 52, 56, 64, 
 
 66, 69-73, 88, 89, 95, 96, 111, 118- 
 
 120 
 American Acad. Pol. Soc. Science, 
 
 100 
 American Hist. Ass., 99 
 American Med. Ass., 99 
 Anglo-Saxon, 117 
 Anniversary of 1848, 106-116 
 Ann Arbor, 53, 55 
 Arbeiter Socie^, 43, 48, 62, 64 
 Arndt, E. M., 78, 81 
 Asia, 46 
 
 "At the University," 28 
 Austria, 27, 31, 45, 50, 69, 77 
 
 Banner (1848), 40 
 
 Barbarossa, 80 
 
 Bavarian, 53 
 
 Berlin, 31, 85, 36, 110, 112 
 
 Bismarck, 25, 72, 75, 79, 88 
 
 Black Forest, 12, 16, 21, 39, 40, S3, 
 
 98 
 Black-red-gold, 30, 111, 115 
 BUnd, Karl, 17, 18, 20 
 Black-Rfepublicans, 55 
 Bloynck's Hall, 47 
 Board of Regents, 100 
 Bonn, 17 
 
 Bougin6, Emilie, 23 
 Brentano, L., 38 
 British Isles, 65 
 Buchanan, J., 54 
 Bund, 33, 77 
 
 Bundestag, 33, 108, 110, 114 
 Burgundian, 18 
 Burschenschafter, 13 
 
 Carl I., 110 
 
 Carlsruhe, 13, IS, 18-21, 24, 39, 34, 
 
 38 
 Cass, Lewis, 45, 46 
 
 Catholic, S3 
 
 Causes of Immigration, 95 
 
 Centrists, 34 
 
 Chicago, 11 
 
 Cicero, 18, 58 
 
 CivU War, 60, 67, 73, 74, 101 
 
 Cincinnati, 81 
 
 Cologne, 17 
 
 Confederacy, 65 
 
 Constitution, 22, 54, 56 
 
 Consular Reports, 82-84 
 
 Cornell University, 70 
 
 Corps, 27, 28, 119 
 
 "Cosmos," 12, 27, 67, 70, 79 
 
 Cousin, Victor, 61 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 36, 
 
 46, 54 
 Democrat (ic), 51, 54, 99 
 Department of State, 87 
 Detroit, 14, 26, 39, 43, 45, 48-50, 
 
 53, 55, 60, 62, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74, 
 
 88, 99, 102 
 Detroit Crematorium, 131 
 Detroit Library Commission, 99 
 "Deutscher Zuschauer," 17 
 
 Educational Ideals, 60, 61 
 
 Eichrodt, L., 18 
 
 Eisen, 18 
 
 Einherrschaft, 21, 25 
 
 Election of 1884, 85 
 
 Emmendingen, 37, 56 
 
 England, 32, 47, 65 
 
 Erfurt Program, 86 
 
 Etzel, 18 
 
 Europe, 35, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 51, 
 
 S2, 54, 61, 63, 65, 66, 85, 98, 101, 
 
 109, 110 
 
 Fichte, 18 
 Fichtenkranz, 18 
 France, 33, 24, 78, 79 
 Frankfort, 31, 37, S3, 108, 110 
 
 135 
 
136 
 
 Index 
 
 Franks, ^ 
 
 Freemimt, 53, 54, 82 
 
 Free Soil, SI 
 
 Freiburg, 11, 13, 15, 17, 23, 27, 30, 
 
 31, 34, 36, 37, m, 67, 108, 119 
 Freiburg Meeting, 23, 24, 35, 36, 
 
 47, 70, 108, 110 
 Freiburg Resolutions, 36, 37 
 Freiligrath, F., 39, 112 
 Freischarler, 39 
 French, 16, 39, 77, 79 
 French Revolution, 34 
 Friedrich, 20 
 Friedrich II., 15 
 
 General Conditions Working Peo- 
 ple, 89-94 
 
 George, Henry, 87, 9^ 
 
 German Empire, 25, 72, 80, 87, 105, 
 108, 112, 120 
 
 German Theater Society, 47 
 
 Germania, 80, 81 
 
 Germantown, 55 
 
 "Germany and Its Rhine," 23 
 
 "Germany's Apostle," 16 
 
 Goegg, A., 38 
 
 Goethe, J. W. von, 26, 42 
 
 GoU, 18 
 
 Greek, 13 
 
 Grund, F. E., 55 
 
 Grunlacher, 18 
 
 Haeckel, E., 104 
 
 Harmonic, 43, 48 
 
 Heidelberg, 27, 67, 110, 119 
 
 Helvetia, 16 
 
 Hermann, 15 
 
 Hermann Kiefer Hospital, 42, 121 
 
 History of the German West 
 
 Boundary, 20 
 Hohenstaufen, 20 
 Holy Roman Empire, 2, 21, 80 
 "How Germany Is Governed," 84, 
 
 122, 133 
 Humboldt, 12, 67, 69, 71 
 Hungary, 44, 45 
 Huxley, 103 
 
 1776, 63 
 
 "Ignorabimus," 104 
 Ireland, 16 
 Italian, 13 
 Italy, 44 
 
 Jena, 73 
 
 "Jerusalem Delivered," 13 
 
 Kalamazoo, 53 
 Kaiser William, 80 
 Kiefer, Conrad, 12, 39, SO 
 Kehle, Francisca, 40-42 
 Kinkel, Gottfried, 19, 43-46, 65 
 Kirchberg, Erhard, 75 
 "Kolnische Zeitung," 34, 109 
 Konig Enzio, 19 
 Kyffhauser, 80 
 
 "Labor in Germany," 87 
 "Lament over Germany," 24 
 "Lament over Hermann's Death," 
 
 16 
 Lassalle, 87 
 Latin, 13 
 
 Leipzig (Battle of), 30 
 Leonidas, 18 
 Liberty Loan (1861), 47 
 Liedertafel, 27, 29 
 Louis XVI., 110 
 Lybia, 24 
 
 "Mannheimer Journal," 13, 17, 18, 
 
 29, 34, 61 
 Marie Antoinette, 111 
 Marx, Karl, 69, 87, 99 
 Marxhausen, August, 62, 63 
 May Program (1849), 38 
 "Merkur," 63 
 
 Michigan, 41, 63, 60, 61, 66, 81, 83 
 Michigan Liquor Law, 50 
 Michigan Cremation Association, 
 
 16 
 Michigan Mutual, 99 
 Michigan State Med. Society, 99 
 MiU, John Stuart, 87 
 Morocco, 25 
 Monroe County, 49 
 Munich, 121 
 "My Destiny," 23 
 
 National Assembly, 38 
 Napoleon, 30, 78 
 Neckar, 18 
 
 "Need for Solitude," 26 
 "Neue Stettiner Zeitung," 83 
 New England, 49 
 "Norddeutsche AUgemeine Zei- 
 tung," 84 
 
Index 
 
 137 
 
 Oflfenhnrg, 19, 29-35, 38, 68, 74, 
 
 108, 110 
 Ordinance of 1787, 67 
 
 Parliament, 23, 34-36, 68 
 
 Peace Celebration, 74, 79, 80 
 
 Phillipsburg, 39 
 
 Plato, 18 
 
 Prague, 27, 67 
 
 Princes and Peoples, 30 
 
 Professor Emeritus, 11, 28, 42, 100 
 
 Prussia, 31, 61, 69, 77, 112, 120 
 
 Puritanism, 51 
 
 Radowitz, 34 
 
 Reichstag, 86 S. 
 
 "Resignation," 26 
 
 Rein, Wilhelm, 64 
 
 Republican Executive Committee, 
 
 53 
 Republican Party, 54, 113 
 Revolution in Paris, 34, 109 
 Rich, John T., 100 
 Riehter, L., 62 
 Romans, 93 
 Rome, 93 
 Rothbart, 20 
 Russia, 22, 38, SO 
 
 Saginaw, 53 
 
 SchiUer, J. F. von, 11, 47, 56-59, 
 
 67, 107, 117 
 Schurz, Carl, 13, 17 
 Secretary of State, 95 
 Sedan, 72 
 Seminary, 60, 66 
 
 Socialist (ic), 34, 68, 86, 88, 94, 99 
 Socialer Turnerverein, 32, 43, 48, 
 
 106 
 Socrates, 11, 15 
 Spencer, Herbert, 87 
 "Spring '48," 111 
 Spielhagen, F., 76 
 State Committee, 38 
 State Congress, 37 
 State Examination, 39 
 State People's Assembly, 37 
 Stein, P., 80 
 Stettin, 82, 88, 99 
 Stacker, A., 97 
 Strassburg, 39 
 
 Struve, Gustav, 37 
 Suevia, 27, 107, 119 
 Sulzburg, 37 
 Swabian, 117 
 
 Tacitus, 93 
 
 "The Fatherland's Treasure," 19 
 
 "The Dead to the Living," 39, 112 
 
 "The Formation of the Imperial 
 Ministry," 31 
 
 "The German Chase," 30 
 
 "The Last Day of the Year," 15 
 
 "The Minstrel," 23 
 
 "The Sentry," 28 
 
 "The Warfare of Science and The- 
 ology," 71 
 
 Thermopylae, 18 
 
 "To Appear and To Be," 26 
 
 "Too Late," 30 
 
 Triumvirate, 38 
 
 "True Love," 25 
 
 Turner, 55, 62 
 
 Turnerverein, 27, 29 
 
 Ubstadt, 39 
 
 United State, 21, 23, 35, 51 
 
 United States, 39, 43, 45, 51, 53, 
 
 55, 68, 92, 98, 112 
 U. S. Consul, 72, 82, 99 
 University of Michigan, 42, 70, 
 
 100-105 
 
 Vienna, 27, 31, 35, 36, 67, 110 
 Vor-Parlament, 31, 37, 53 
 Vosges Mountains, 12, 16 
 
 Wartburg, 18 
 
 Washington, George, 75 
 
 Washtenaw County, 53 
 
 Wayne County Savings Bank, 98 
 
 Werner, 38 
 
 White, Andrew Dickson, 71 
 
 "Wilhelm TeU," 117 
 
 "Wilhelm Meister," 13 
 
 Winfrid, 16 
 
 Windthorst, 97 
 
 Wonnemond, 23 
 
 Workmen's Aid Society, 47 
 
 WUrttemberg, 58 
 
 Ziegel, A., 100 
 
;|iH.:,..' . '':m