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
On Wednesday, the 14th, the Chief set to work on the proofs with me
after breakfast. At Chapter IV. he exclaimed: “Look here, you must
have a thoroughly wicked heart. You are delighted every time you hear
and can jot down a disagreeable remark about somebody.” I rejoined:
“I cannot trust myself to give any opinion upon my own heart. But one
thing I do know, it has always been devoted to you. I only hate your
enemies.” He afterwards reflected for a moment, looked at the clock,
and said: “I must now go out to receive Giers, who is coming from
Berlin to discuss important matters with me. We shall introduce you
and Schweninger to him as doctors of medicine, for if he ascertained
that Dr. Busch belonged to another variety he would be afraid that he
was being watched and that it would get into the newspapers. By the
way, you have included him among the Jews in your diplomatic chapter,
and that must be struck out. (I had referred to his name, Giers, as a
russified form of Hirsch.) He may be a Jew, although he asserts that
he is the son of a Finnish officer. But we must not write that, as he
is well disposed, desires peace, and does what he can to secure it.
He is quite indispensable to us.”
The Russian Minister arrived between 2 and 3 P.M. The Chancellor
received him at the station, drove with him to the house, and then
conferred with him until nearly 6 o’clock, when Giers dined with us,
the company remaining together over their coffee until about 9 P.M.
Giers is a man of medium height, and would seem to be well advanced
in the fifties. He has somewhat of a stoop as he walks. His features
are of a slightly Jewish cast, a characteristic which is also evident
in his gestures and movements, there being something in the hands in
particular which recalled our Semites. On this occasion he spoke only
in French.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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