Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-13
UNTIMELY CALL OF DEATH
Widespread Regret Felt Over the Demise
Of Germany's Historian.
LIFE WORK or PROF. Won sYLltL
Called Hence just ms He Had Reached
the Momentous Events of the
Frnnco-Prussinn wnr-His Esti-
mate of Empress Eugenie.

Germany has brought to a close its ma
tional jubilees and commemorations Of vic
tory. They followed each other with the
SAM rapidlty ard on the same scale of grow
ing intensity as twenty-five years ago that
tremendous procession Of skirmishes, battles
and surrenders unrolled by which on her own
soil imperial France was vanquished and the
German empire was born anew.
1t takes, perhaps, a German himself to I'M
derstand all this and to understand 1t thor
oughly, writes lido Brachvogel in the New
York World. But there is one fact every
one, even Germany's most relentless fault
finder, should be aware of; and that is the
fact that 1t Is not the crushing of a nelghbor
nation, performed a quarter Of a century
ago, that the sons of Germany are
Grating just now in such an exuberant way,
but their own resurrection to the united
splendors of the old Reich" and their po-
litical new birth as the living heart of
Europe. And as the entire campaign by
which this has been achieved, lasting but
tho one month from August 2 to September
2, 1870, had something of a great bloody
carousal, at which Mars himself presided
and Bellona welded the festive torch, we
have not to wonder now, when the present
living-over-again of that marvellous time by
united Germany looks more like a real cam
paign of succeeding feasts and celebrations
than anything else.
GERMANY AWAITS A BARD.
AS 1t is, Germany is essentially a military
power. But, wonderful as this may be, 1t
forces at the same time on the unbiased
mind another reflection not exactly Of won
derment and admiration. OF yore the post
used to walk over in the footprints of the
departed heroes and immortalize their deeds
and achievements. Germany while produc-
ing In 1870 and 1871 victors and victories
on a truly unheard-of scale, has waited so
far in vain for the bard giving her the new
'Nibelungen Lied" of the empires regenera-
tion. or a Shakesperean history treating of
Sedan in the way Henry the Fifth" treats
of Agincourt, or some other heroic song com
memorating with adequate art the great
feats Of warfare and statecraft of those years.
But her new poet has so far not risen.
Happily enough the historian, the man Of
science, was there to stand in the untitled
place Of the man of inspiration. And as in
this province Of pens realm different ac-
complished writers have come to the front
whose work in more than one instance has
proved mastery in itself and fully equal to
its external instigation, Germany may be
praised, and is also in this respect quite
fortunate.
Fortunate and most unfortunate at the same
time, for the foremost of these historians
and the acknowledged leader among them,
Heinrich Won Sybel, had to lay down the pen
amid Germany's OF the
period the complete account of which should
have been the browning effort of his.career.
Won SYBEL WRITING HISTORY.
The 1st of August called way this deep
scholar and brilliant writer from his life
work, 1.-The Foundation of the German En-
pire," after having published only a few
months ago its seventh volume. Born In
1917, Germany nevertheless has to lament his
death as a premature one, as he seemed not
apl,, yriIIinn h,t also cpfHniapt1v pnuinnnI
to equal in work as well as in age his two
great colleagues and friends. Leopold Won
Ranke and George Bancroft, who both wrote
history up to their ~nineties.
The most remarkable coincidence with re-
gard to the great historians recent demise,
and the moment at which he had to drop the
pen, is to be found in the fact of his having
Just reached the account OF the events the
twenty-ffth anniversary of which his coun-
trymen were then beginning to celebrate so
effusively. His last volume describes nearly
from hour to hour and in a most minute
and drastic way all the actions and proceed
ings which led to the outbreak of the
Franco-German war, set forth by him cpl
dramatically in the words: And now
they want ~war-France for an old preponder-
ance, Germany for her young existence
AS the author had unrestrained access to
the archives of state, his statements were
long ago recognized as the most anthem
tic, and, were 1t not for the absolute inde-
psndence of the dead writer, even official
ones. And for this reason alone his readers
and students will enjoy so much more the
one special feature Of his last volume, on
which we shall dwell here somewhat more
and more in detail; namely, the
way in which the great German scholar and
patriot, in this very legacy of his professional
activity, has exercised that most sublime of
all privileges, lifting the mere chronicler and
~annalist to the historians high ofice-justice
and Lmpartiality toward an enemy.
ATTITUDE TOWARD EUGENE.
According to tradition, never doubted, and
to assumption, never earnestly denied, 1t has
been taken so far for granted by both
French and German historiography, that no
one single person had done so much to stir
and to bring forth the great war Of 1917
as the Empress Eugene. In the newspapers
Of that time, and in nearly all historical
about the Franco-German war, the
cry of French public opinion, "Revanche
pour sadowa!' goes side by side with the
French empress fatal exclamation, ma
petite guerra moi!' And especially in
the German Imagination the then still beau
tiful wife of Napoleon ILL.,, the idol of
society and fashion, does not live
than with fsndish instigations on
her classic lips and the frebrand Of warfare
In her white hands.
This version now has been contradicted
by Herr Won Sybel in his account Of the his |
preceding the outbreak of the war when
ever an opportunity was offered to do it.
And with such an earnestness and so much
vigor 1t was done that, in spite Of the high
respect enjoyed by him as a scholarly and
patriotic authority, not only doubts and mild
exceptions concerning this one point were
heard. but even open contradictions and
strong refutations were raised by many
relative to the last volume of the
Foundations of the German Empire
The consequence was that the venerable !
historian saw himself compelled to explain
,nce more in a special essay printed in the
July issue Of Germany's foremost historical
the Historische Zeitschrift. And
Is this was the very last thing published
so much more consideration from
afflicted woman will be benefited by it in
ler lonesome old age.
But as there was a time. very well remem-
still, when this self-same dethroned
md distressed aged woman was a blooming,
,ewitchlng and mighty empress, even our
after the lapse Of twenty-five years
md more, deems 1t necessary to enter at
he very beginning of his essay a protest
Igainst the assumption that any kind of per-
ional "reminiscences or personal Influence
whatever might have dictated his vindication
II Eugene of France.
81 have been blamed, +" Herr Won Sybel says,
for having dealt too leniently with tNe
in my book. l could not name any
eason for doing so, as | never had the
ionor OF any personal relation to that high
ady, having seen her only once. have
in my mind but the duty of the
historian not to utter a sentence Of condsm-