Читать книгу The Student-Life of Germany - William Howitt - Страница 17

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Are German hearts with strength and courage beating?

There to the clang of beakers gleams the sword,

And true and steadfast in our place of meeting,

We peal aloud in song the fiery word!

Though rocks and oak trees shiver,

We, we will tremble never!

Strong like the tempest see the youths go by,

For Fatherland to combat and to die!

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

And pure like gold the soul within imprest,

And that in death our spirits be not broken,

Black be the ribbon bound about the breast

Though rocks, etc.

We know the strength in honest swords residing,

Bold is the brow, and strong the arm to smite;

We fail not, faint not, in the right confiding,

When calls the Fatherland his sons to fight.

Though rocks, etc.

So, on the German sword, to this alliance,

In life and death let solemn faith he vow'd!

Up, Brothers, up! the Fatherland's reliance,

And to the blood-red morning cry aloud.

Though rocks, etc.

And thou, Beloved, who in hours the dearest,

Hast nerved thy friend with many a look and tone,

For thee my heart will beat when death comes nearest,

For unto true love change is never known.

Though rocks, etc.

And now, since fate may tear us from each other,

Let each man grasp of each the brother-hand,

And swear once more, O every German Brother,

Truth to the bond, truth to the Fatherland!

Though rocks and oak-trees shiver,

We, we will tremble never!

Strong like the tempest see the youths go by,

For Fatherland to combat and to die!

The laws of the Burschenschaft, or its constitution, bore the name--"Custom of the Burschenschaft." Amongst other things stand the following:

"In the German Fatherland we will live and move. We will perish with it, or die free in it, if God's great call ordain. Live the German speech for ever! Flourish the true chivalry! Let Germany be free!

"He who avows these ideas, and is willing to contend for their advancement, is our beloved brother. To accomplish these high endeavours, there must be a universal free Burschenschaft throughout all Germany.

"There can no salvation come to our beloved Germany unless through such a free and universal Burschenschaft, in which Germany's noblest youth continues intimately fraternized, in which every one learns to know his duty--and which Burschenschaft shall always find the Gymnastic schools its defence and alarm-post.

"We will never apply the word Fatherland to that state in which we were born: Germany is our Fatherland; the state in which we are born is our Home.

"We will hold these principles firmly and honourably; spread them by every possible means; and with all our power, now as youths, and hereafter as men, labour to bring them into exercise.

"When we quit the High School, and are invested with any office, be it high or low, we will fulfil the same honourably, true to Prince and Fatherland, and in such a manner administer it as shall be in accordance with the spirit of these principles.

"The law of the people shall be the will of the Prince. Liberty and Equality are the highest good; after which we have to strive, and from which strift no pious and honest German can ever desist.

"Every student who maintains honour and virtue, shall be a free German Bursche: subject to no one; inferior to no one; all shall be equal, obeying only the laws."

From this time forward the union laboured actively at throwing out and determining the principles of a future civil and ecclesiastical constitution for Germany, and in the dissemination of revolutionary writings. But unfortunately, as in all times of high excitement, spirits of a reckless and darker character mingled themselves with the nobler ones of liberty: for the realization of their intrinsically criminal wishes, criminal means also were necessary, and the spirit of youth was thus unconsciously conducted by fanaticism into unhallowed and bloodthirsty principles, and in the bosom of the Burschenschaft union, formed itself a closer union of The Unrestricted, whose name revealed sufficiently, that they would hesitate at no means by which they might arrive at their object. The misguided and blamable tendency of this spirit, to the horror of many who unconsciously implicated themselves in its criminal proceedings, was brought to light by some striking circumstances. On the 23d of March, 1810, the student Sand murdered the Russian Counsellor of State, Von Kotzebue, on no other ground than that he held him to be a spy of the Russian government, and an enemy of German liberty. He undertook the action with the full persuasion that it was a just and noble deed, and his trial revealed the horrible gulf of political immorality, unto the very brink of which was brought the youth of Germany. A somewhat particular account of this transaction, and of the circumstances of Sand's life, may fittingly here find a place: and which may be relied on, being derived from the relation published by the President of the Commission for the trial of Sand, the State Counsellor, Von Hohenhorst himself.