The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-12-13
GERMAN STUDENTS.
London S.aadard.I

1 oWltlCftAnQ, @n0 NQSSt6s uC uot&AuGA Oi students at the German universities is al present about twenty-five thousand, and at the others there are probably some ten or twelve thousand German-speaking students This is an enormous total, and when it is recollected that almosS without exception the professions " in Germany are recruited from the universities, that no one can be a clergyman, doctor, or a lawyer without passing through one of these institutions, whose traditions are closely associated with all that Is striking and heroic in modern German history k IS not d fficul, to understand their intiu ence. Next to the soldier the student is the figure that most strikes the visitor to German towns. In great city like Der lin he is, of course, sw wsmped by his sur. roundings, but in smaller towns, like Jena, Gouingen, or Heidelberg, the stu. 1 dent IS supreme. Ia former times, when particulaIism was everywhere tfi- umphant, each university was for all prac- tical purposes separate state, with its laws, its officers, and its prison for unruly spirits. The student was a /" Burger or citizen of the university, liable to arrest only by its officers and trial by its court. Thts exemption from ordinary law is now practically thing of the past, most of the universities having lost even the nominal power, and all having los, the reality. The student, however, still re- tains something of the peculiar position which he had under this old state of things, and looks upon himself, and is looked upon by the Pa,lister," as all the res: 6! the inhabitants of the town are called, as endowed with exceptional priv ileses- With the perpetuatlon of this feeling the existence of the corps and Burcschenschatten have not a little to do, for although all or even the maj nrity of the students by no means belong to any of these associations, still the most prominent and energetic of their body do
 The corps, or Landsmann schaft, is of uncertain origin. In the old days, when hundreds of young men from distant, countries crowded round the chair of some famous and daring teacher like Abelard, 1t was natural in the rough give and d-take-existence of the Pays Latin !" that these students who came from the same country and spoke the same lap guage or dialect should combine together for pr rotection and assistance and we hnd traces of some such "na,ions," as they were called, in every ancient university. fThere can be little doubt the Lands mannschaften of Germany are survivae of these nations" whose existence was naturally perpetuated by the discord and wan, of sympathy which, up till very re-
 cent times. prevailed between the natives of the different German states. In mod ern times the Corps has become purely social having no higher aims than the organiz ltion of the " Kneipen," and the settlement of disputes arising there from. or more modern and not less TO- mantle origin are the Burschepsch 4ften
 once the pride of the patriotic German and the terror of the Ooscuran,ist," but now differing ia no essentia al respect from the corps. When Germany united to overthrow French domination, early in the century, the students were foremost in the work. The younger genetA;ion had been deeply imbued with the ideas of nationality and liberty, and after the disgrace of Jena had been wiped out at Lelpzig, number Of students In the former town formed the frs, Bdrschen- schah, or students union, all of whose members were to be devoted, life and soul, to the freedom and unity of Ger many. Tubingen, Heidelberg and other universities followed suit, ar in October
 1918, the different societies found them selves strong enough 10 amalgamate into a Universal German Burschenschaft, which had its branche in every German university. By this time, however, the German princes, having made use of the patriotic feeling of the students for the purpose of throwing of the French yoke, found that the movement in favor of liberty" was becoming dangerous to themselves, and they set to work to break down this too powerful organization. which was eventually suppressed by the famous Karlsbad Decrees, in ISI6 h fact, the whole of the German unIversi- ties seem to have been in danger a; this time, the governing party describing them as Gothic remains of the Middle Ages" which "confuse our youth and mislead public opinion" The German student was likened to " a bottle thrown over board by shipwrecked sailors" carried about from rock to rock, beset by the dangers of the Burschensch aften :; q and, to make matters still worse, ignor- ant professors tell him that it is his duty to reform his country" Although the Burschensohaften were suppress sed, they contrived in the form of secret organizA- tions, to maintain their hold on the stu dents, and for the last thirty years they have been allowed to exist and flourish without interference.
 Nothing could be less revolutionary than the Bursch ofthe present day He walks through the streets wearing the colors of his section on his cap and on a ribbon across his chest He affects the compa any of brother members, almost to the ex. clusion of all others and he spends rather more time than is profitable in the Local" where the meetings of the Bur schenschaft are held, but otherwise he is an ordinary mortal enough, and except for the choice of the regiment with which he is to serve, public matters trouble him little, or not at all Deutschland is safe in the hands of Bismarck the French have, of course, to be fought and thYashed