Bismarck: some secret pages of his history (Vol. 3 of 3). Being a diary kept by Dr. Moritz Busch during twenty-five years' official and private intercourse with the great ChancellorBusch, Moritz
History
Bismarck: some secret pages of his history (Vol. 3 of 3). Being a diary kept by Dr. Moritz Busch during twenty-five years' official and private intercourse with the great Chancellor
Busch, Moritz
Bismarck, Otto, Fürst von, 1815-1898
I took my leave and immediately wrote down what I had heard. The
first part respecting the results of the elections was worked up
into an article entitled “The Chancellor Crisis,” which appeared in
No. 48 of the _Grenzboten_; the criticism of the Unruh Memoirs being
utilised for an article in No. 49.
After I had received copies of these and of a third article, “The
Imperial Chancellor and the Reichstag,” I handed over all three at
the palace at noon on the 2nd of December for delivery to the Prince.
An hour later I received the following letter from the Imperial
Chancellerie, signed by Sachse:--
“Under instructions from the Imperial Chancellor I have the honour
to request you to call upon his Serene Highness to-day at any time
up to 5 o’clock. The Imperial Chancellor mentioned at the same time
that the articles which you have submitted to him cannot possibly be
published in their present form.”
I presented myself at the palace at 3 o’clock, but could not see
the Chancellor, as Prince William was with him, and Mittnacht,
the Minister, was announced to follow. On my returning again at 4
o’clock Mittnacht was with the Chief, but left in about ten minutes.
Immediately afterwards the Chancellor sent me word that he was
waiting for me in the garden. On my passing through the door of
the large antechamber, I found him standing outside with his dog.
He shook hands in a friendly way, saying immediately afterwards,
however: “But what have you been doing, Doctor? Why, that is all
wrong, the very opposite of what I wanted. Surely the article is
not yet printed?” I regretted that it was already published. “That
is most unfortunate,” he rejoined. I asked which of the articles
he meant. “Why, that about Unruh,” he answered. “You have said
exactly what Bennigsen asserted. It might have been written by one
of my worst enemies. And the other is also not correct--often pure
nonsense. I remember it was just the same three years ago with the
things you sent on to me to Kissingen and Gastein--in many places the
direct contrary was the truth.” I replied that that was only the case
in one instance, in the story about Rechberg, which was then left
out. He would not agree to that, however, and continued: “You must
submit these articles to me before they are printed. You now trust
too much to your memory, which is not so good as it was formerly,
or you have not listened attentively. I related it all to you quite
differently.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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