IX
The great drama of the democratic emigration of 1849 to 1852 had been preceded by a prelude eighteen years previously: the emigration of demagogues in 1830 and 1831.[190] Even though with the passage of time most of the emigrants of this first wave had been ousted from the stage, there still remained a few worthy remnants who, stoically indifferent to the course of history and the effect of their action, continued to work as agitators, devised global plans, formed provisional governments and hurled proclamations into the world in every direction. It is obvious that the business experience of these seasoned swindlers greatly surpassed that of the younger generation. It was this very acumen acquired through eighteen years practice in conspiring, scheming, intrigu-ing, proclaiming, duping, showing off and pushing oneself to the fore that gave Mr. Mazzini—supported by three straw men of much smaller experience in such matters—the audacity and the assurance to install himself as the Central Committee of European Democracy.
No one was more favoured by circumstances to become the very type of the émigré agitator than our friend Harro Harring. And indeed he did become the prototype whom all our great men of the exile, all the Arnolds, Gustavs and Gottfrieds, have striven more or less consciously and with varying success to emulate. They may even equal him if circumstances are not unfavourable, but they will hardly surpass him.
Harro, who like Caesar has himself described his great deeds (London, 1852),a was born on the "Cimbrian Peninsula"b and belongs to that visionary North-Frisian race which has already been shown by Dr. Clement to have produced all the great nations of the world.
"Already in early youth" he attempted to "set the seal of action upon his enthusiasm for the cause of the peoples" by going to Greece in 1821.[191] We see how friend Harro had an early premonition of his mission to be everywhere where confusion reigned. Later on
"a strange fate led him to the source of absolutism, to the vicinity of the Tsar and he had seen through the Jesuitism of constitutional monarchy in Poland
Thus in Poland as well Harro fought for freedom. But "the crisis in the history of Europe following the fall of Warsaw led him to deep reflection", and his reflection led him to the idea of "national democracy", which he at once "documented in the work: Die Völker, Strasbourg, March 1832". It is worth remarking that this work was almost quoted at the Hambach Festival.[193] At the same time he published his "republican poems: 'Blutstropfen'; 'Die Monarchie, oder die Geschichte vom König Saul'; 'Männer-Stimmen, zu Deutschlands Einheit'" and edited the journal Deutschland in Strasbourg. All these and even his future writings had the unexpected good fortune to be banned by the Federal Diet on November 4, 1831. This was the only thing the worthy fighter still lacked; only now did he achieve the reputation he deserved and also the martyr's crown. So that he could exclaim:
"My writings were widely known and evoked a warm response in the hearts of the people. They were mostly distributed gratis. In the case of some of them I did not even recover the costs of printing."
But new honours still awaited him. Already in November 1831 Herr Welcker had vainly attempted in a long letter "to convert him to the vertical horizon of constitutionalism". And now, in January 1832, there came a visit from Herr Malten, a well-known Prussian agent abroad, who proposed that he should enter Prussian service. What double recognition this was—and from the enemy too! Enough, Malten's offer triggered off
"the idea that in the face of this dynastic treachery he should advance the concept of Scandinavian nationality", and "from that time on at least the word Scandinavia was reborn after having been forgotten for centuries".
In this manner our North Frisian from Söderjylland[d] who did not know himself whether he was a German or a Dane acquired at least an imaginary nationality whose first consequence was that the men of Hambach would have nothing to do with him.
With all these events behind him Harro's fortune was made. Veteran of freedom in Greece and Poland, the inventor of the "democracy of nationality",re-discoverer of the word "Scandinavia", acknowledged by the ban of the Federal Diet to be a poet, thinker and journalist, a martyr, a great man esteemed even by his enemies, a man whose allegiance constitutionalists, absolutists and republicans vied with each other to possess and, with all that, empty-headed and confused enough to believe in his own greatness — what then was needed to make his happiness complete? But Harro was a conscientious man and as his fame grew so did the demands which he made upon himself. What was missing was a great work that would present in an artistic, entertaining and popular form the great doctrines of freedom, the idea of the democracy of nationality and all the sublime struggles for freedom on the part of the youthful Europe arising before his very eyes. None but a poet and thinker of the first rank could produce such a work and none but Harro could be this man. Thus arose the first three plays of the "dramatic cycle
Das Volk, comprising twelve plays in all, one of them in Danish", a labour to which the author devoted ten years of his life. Unfortunately eleven of these twelve plays have "hitherto remained in manuscript".
However, this dallying with the muse was not to last forever.
"In the winter of 1832-1833 a movement was prepared in Germany—which was brought to a tragic end in the riot in Frankfurt. ' I was entrusted with the task of taking the fortress (?) of Kehl on the night of April 6. Men and weapons were at the ready."
Unfortunately it all came to nothing and Harro had to retire to the depths of France, where he wrote his "Worte eines Menschen". From there he was summoned to Switzerland by the Poles arming themselves for their march on Savoy. Here he became "associated with their General Staff", wrote a further two plays of his dramatic cycle Das Volk, and made the acquaintance of Mazzini in Geneva. The whole brimstone gang consisting of Polish, French, German, Italian and Swiss adventurers under the command of the noble Ramorino then made their famous raid into Savoy.[195] In this campaign our Harro felt "the value of his life and strength". But as the other freedom fighters felt "the value of their lives" no less than Harro and no doubt had just as few illusions about their "strength", the exploit ended badly and they returned to Switzerland beaten, dishevelled and in disarray.
This campaign was all that was needed to make the band of emigrant knights fully conscious of the terror they inspired in the tyrants. As long as the after-effects of the July revolution still caused isolated insurrections in France, Germany or Italy, as long as someone or other was still standing behind them, our émigré heroes felt themselves to be but atoms in the seething masses — more or less privileged, prominent atoms, to be sure, but in the last analysis they were still atoms. But as these insurrections gradually grew feebler, as the great mass of "cowards", of the "half-hearted" and the "men of little faith" retired from the Putschist swindles and as our knights felt increasingly lonely, so their self-esteem grew in proportion. If the whole of Europe became craven, stupid and selfish, how could the loyal men fail to grow in their own estimation, for they were the priests who kept the sacred fires of hatred for all tyrants burning in their breasts and who maintained the traditions of the great era of virtue and love of freedom for a more vigorous generation! If they too deserted the flag the tyrants would be safe for ever. So like the democrats of 1848 they saw in every defeat a guarantee of future victory and they gradually transformed themselves more and more into itinerant Don Quixotes with dubious sources of income. Once arrived at this point, they could venture upon their greatest act of heroism, the foundation of " Young Europe" [196] whose Charter of Brotherhood was edited by Mazzini and signed in Berne on April 15, 1834. Harro joined it as an
"initiator of the Central Committee, adoptive member of Young Germany and Young Italy and also as representative of the Scandinavian branch" which he "still represents today".
The date of the Charter of Brotherhood marks for our Harro the great epoch from which calculations are made forwards and backwards, as up to now from the birth of Christ. It is the high point of his life. He was co-dictator of Europe in partibus and although the world knew nothing of him he was one of the most dangerous men alive. No one stood behind him but his many unpublished works, a few German artisans in Switzerland and a dozen political speculators who had seen better days—but for that very reason he could claim that all nations were on his side. For it is the fate of all great men not to be recognised by their own age whereas the future belongs to them for that very reason. And this future—our Harro had it in black and white in his bag in the form of the Charter of Brotherhood.
But now began Harro's decline. His first sorrow was that "Young Germany[197] split off from Young Europe in 1836". But Germany was duly punished for that. For owing to this split " nothing had been prepared for a national movement in Germany in the spring of 1848" and this is why everything ended so miserably.
But a much greater sorrow for our Harro was the emergence of communism. We learn from him that the founder of communism was none other than
"the cynic Johannes Müller from Berlin, the author of a very interesting pamphlet on Prussian policy, Altenburg 1831", who went to England where "he had no option but to tend swine in Smithfield Market at the crack of dawn".
Communism soon began to spread among the German artisans in France and Switzerland and it became a very dangerous enemy for our Harro as it cut off the only market for his writings. This was due to the "indirect communist censorship" from which poor Harro has suffered to this very day and indeed is now suffering more than ever, as he sadly confesses and "as the fate of his drama Die Dynastie proves".
This indirect communist censorship even succeeded in driving our Harro from Europe and so he went to Rio de Janeiro (in 1840) where he lived for a time as a painter. "Using his time conscientiously here as everywhere", he published a new work:
"Poesie eines Scandinaven (2,000 copies) which has been distributed so widely among sea-faring people that it has, as it were, become the favourite oceanic reading matter".
However, his "scrupulous sense of obligation towards Young Europe" unfortunately caused him soon to return to Europe. He
"hastened to Mazzini in London and soon perceived the danger that threatened the cause of the European peoples from communism".
New deeds awaited him. The Bandiera brothers were preparing for their expedition to Italy.[198] To support them and to embroil the forces of despotism in a diversion, Harro
"returned to South America to do everything possible with Garibaldi to further the idea of the future of the nations by establishing a United States of South America".
But the despots had got wind of his mission and Harro took to his heels. He sailed to New York.
"Out on the ocean I was very active intellectually and wrote among other things a drama, Die Macht der Idee, which belonged to the dramatic cycle Das
Volk—this too has remained in manuscript up to now!"
From South America he brought with him to New York a mandate alleging a connection with Humanidad.
The news of the February revolution inspired him to produce a pamphlet in French, La France réveillée, and while embarking for Europe,
"I documented my love for my country once again in some poems, Scandinavia".
He arrived in Schleswig-Holstein. Here,
"after an absence of twenty-seven years", he discovered "an unheard-of confusion in the concepts of international law, democracy, republic, socialism and communism, which lay like rotting hay and straw in the Augean stables of party strife and national hatred".
No wonder, for his
"political writings and" his "whole striving and activities since 1831 had remained alien and unknown in those frontier provinces of my home country".
The Augustenburg party ' " had suppressed him for eighteen years by means of a conspiracy of silence. To deal with this he girt on a sabre, a rifle, four pistols and six daggers and called for the formation of a volunteer corps, but in vain. After various adventures he finally landed in Hull. Here he hastened to issue two circulars—to the people of Schleswig-Holstein, and to the Scandinavians and Germans[d] and even sent a note, as has been reported, to two Communists in London with this message:
"Fifteen thousand workers in Norway asked me to tell you that they extend the hand of brotherhood to you."
Despite this curious appeal he soon became a sleeping partner of the European Central Committee again, thanks to the Charter of Brotherhood, and he also became
"night watchman and employee of a young firm of brokers in Gravesend on the Thames where my task was to drum up trade among ships' captains in nine different languages until I was required to practise deceit, a thing which the philosopher Johannes Müller was at least spared in his capacity as swineherd".
Harro summarised his action-packed life as follows:
"It can easily be calculated that apart from my poems I have given away more than 18,000 copies of my writings in German (their price in Hamburg varies from 10 shillings to 3 marks, and accordingly their value amounts to around 25,000 marks in toto) to the democratic movement. I have never been reimbursed for the printing costs, let alone received any profit for myself."
With this we bring the adventures of our demagogic Hidalgo from the South Jutland Mancha to a close. In Greece and in Brazil, on the Weichsela and on La Plata, in Schleswig-Holstein and in New York, in London and in Switzerland: at different times the representative of Young Europe and of the South-American Hurnanidad, painter, night watchman and employee, peddler of his own writings; among Wasserpolacken one day and gauchos the next, and ships' captains the day after that; unacknowledged, abandoned, ignored but everywhere an itinerant knight of freedom thoroughly despising ordinary bourgeois work—our hero at all times in all countries and in all circumstances remains himself: with the same confusion, the same pretentious obtrusiveness, the same faith in himself, and in spite of all the world he will never cease to say, write and print that since 1831 he has been the mainspring of world history.
Endnotes
[197] On the demagogues see Note 118.
[198] [Editorial note 198: text not recovered from the source scan.]