The New York herald., 1875-08-18
THE HERMANNSCHLACHT.
The Drama of Heinrich
Won Kleist.
AN APOTHEosIs OF HATRED
A Sketch or the Fragment
OF Grabbe.
BERLIN. July %. 1875.

BERLIN, July 20, 1875
The defeat OF the Roman General Publus ounctilus
Varus with the total destruction Of his three lepions
by the Teutonc tribes under the command of the
popular hero Armnius, Armn or Hermann, the chief
of the Cherusk the year of the Christian era has
ever been favorite theme for German poetry German
art and German scholarship. The main facts of this
astounding check TO the onward stride OF the great
Southern colossus are of course known TO all readers
of Roman history to whatever country they may belong
But for Of other nations the interest attaching to
the story is Roman rather than German. We take our
stand in imperial Rome and, following the progress of
the narrowing it spreads like wildre through
the dsmayed CITY, we carried along by the excited
crowd through the Forum to the Palace Of the Caesars
We look upon Caesar himself weeping for his dead vet
Grams Of Syria and Spain, as Queen Mary of England
wept the fall Of Calais and hear him cry in the in
coherent anguish Of his heart "Give me back my le-
gionsl my egons"
For Germans it is a very different matter. That
memorable three days. slaughter in the Cheruskan
marshes is for them the dawning of and brighter
day in the worlds history, the first link in the long
chain which has been upon the anvil ever since and
which knocked into something like shape at
Sadowa and afterward at Sedan although, perhaps,
few strokes of the hammer will have yet to be
given before the work is complete. For German art
and song Arminius, or Hermann, has become the
typical and somewhat legendary
FOUNDER UNITED GERMAN FATHERLAND
Volumes upon volumes have been written with the
view of settling the endless doubts and difficulties aris-
ing from the fragmentary treatment which the sub
jec has received at the hands Of the Roman historians
fpecng their conflicting narratives together as to
form consistent whole, and Of establishing the ex
act spot where the took place The shelves
OfI
literature connected with this mighty argument.
Hermann and his wife Thusnelda with her massive
naxen resses have been portrayed and again
upon the glowing canvas; they have been goriHed by
the chsel ideazed in epic and lyric strains and pre-
sented upon the stage with all the enhancemens of
qusite scenic decoration and of minute hstorcal
accuracy in matters of costume and of everything else
comprised under the general term OF accessories Many
dramatic writers have tried their hand at ''Hermann-
schacht," but the word at suggests the of
Heinrich Klest and OF Christian Dietrich Grabbe
both men of mark who have dramatzed the subject,
each from his point Of view and under this denti
cal title Grabbes work, much later in point of time,
is fragment totally unified for the stage quaint
and crude to excess but like everything proceeding
from his pen, full OF originality. More of him, how
ever anon. For the present will connnc atten-
ton to the better known 'Hermannschacht" of the
gifted but wild and erratic Heinrich Keis whose
sad career 1tly closed by romantic suicide.
HEINRICH KLEIsT.
Klest born in the year 1776 at Frankfort the
Oder, and he wrote his "Hermannschlacht" during a
period Of deep national detection Never had the for
tunes Of his native Prussia been reduced TO low
ebb By the peace of Tlst she had been robbed of her
fres provinces All her territory lying west of the
Elbe, and much besides, had been wrested from
her by tho overbearng might Of France and her King
Frederick William Ill, in reply to certain claims ad-
vanced by him had been disdanfuly admonshed by the
naughty conqueror to stand upon his good behavior
"arec CO qui l, reste de ses eats" that now barely
covered Of $500 square miles with
o00 900 OF inhabitants Keists drama has called
the apotheoss of hatred, and hatred uncompromsing
undying, shrinking from whereby its end may
be compassed is the key which sounds throughout
this strange medley OF past and present. Klest
knowingly and deliberately reads the his
tory OF the first century OF through
pair Of spectacles manufactured in the
nineteenth His Cherusc and Bructeri and Nervii
and Ub, the old Teutons of Tacitus, the wurtem
bergers the Bavarians, the Rhneanders the Lippe-
Detmolders, taking various sides in the of inde-
pendence against France, some basely leagued with
the invader others preparing the of resistance
and already allowing their vengefu thoughts carry
them on to the glorious dawning of that day which
captive ''mstress Of the world" Mach Rom sslbst
nutAig aufsubrechen, cries "Kingr Hermann at the
close of the play and Rome, of course meant Paris
for Klest's contemporaries and for Klest himself
whose Romans are, consistently with his general
scheme the Frenchmen who had laid his country
waste mounted guard before the gates OF his dear
Berlin,
THE BERLIN OF THE GREAT FREDERICK,
and be not forgotten, arrested the poet himself and
sent him away be kept for twelvemonh in durance
vile at Chalons the Marne His Germans live in the
rudest Of wigwams; they groesquely clothed in
deerskns and untanned hides, the horns projecting
by way OF ornament from their foreheads and yet
they all read and write, and their conversation is
that of who deeply read in the Conversatons-
Lezicon They talk familiarly OF whales, of sucked
oranges, of the Colossus Of Rhodes and of Parthan
darts showing at all events that they have made the
most of the Latin polish which they supposed to
have received at the hands of Senus Saturnnus the
predecessor of Quntlius varus and history tells u.s.
unhinching Romanizer
Hermann himself has received Roman education;
he is the friend and ally of the Romans and as SUCH
an object of suspicion TO the neighboring cheftans
He is however, merely bding his tme and his pro-
tended love for the foreign intruder is simply mask
which he throws or when the right moment has ar
rived, and his enemy ured into false confidence, s
completely in his power Poor varus, when he dis
covers-too late-by what treacherous wiles he has
been betrayed learns TO his 'that man may have
fair hair and blue eyes and Yeti as
PALsE AS A CARTHAGINIASl"
Klest means this OF course,to bo taken a compli-
ment to his hero for in the temper which the Her
mannschlacht written the doctrine that the end jus
tines the stated in all its crudy and sanctioned
without qualification. For the furtherance of the good
the chivalrous German Prince does not scrupe
TO play with the creduty OF his simple little wife, who
has rather liking for tho volubc plausible Romans
as to Kelss disgust too many Of the German ladies of
his day had for the gallant, snowy Frcnchmcn Her.
tells the pretty smpoton who great store by
her thick naxcn locks that the Roman ladies' have no
hair; 'that Is, not dry, COLDER hair like yours my
Thuschen," but only black greasy bristes with black
teeth boot and that their husbands and lovers have