Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
This noble-spirited German was the founder of a secret society, the
_Tugendbund_, by which a general insurrection against Napoleon was
silently prepared throughout Germany. Among its members were numerous
statesmen, officers, and literati. Among the latter, Arndt gained
great note by his popular style, Jahn by his influence over the rising
generation. Jahn reintroduced gymnastics, so long neglected, into
education, as a means of heightening moral courage by the increase of
physical strength.[2] Scharnhorst, meanwhile, although restricted to
the prescribed number of troops, created a new army by continually
exchanging trained soldiers for raw recruits, and secretly purchased
an immense quantity of arms, so that a considerable force could, in
case of necessity, be speedily assembled. He also had all the brass
battery guns secretly converted into field-pieces and replaced by iron
guns. Napoleon's spies, however, came upon the trace of the
_Tugendbund_. Stein, exposed by an intercepted letter, was outlawed[3]
by Napoleon and compelled to quit Prussia. He was succeeded by
Hardenberg, by whom the treaty of Basel had formerly been concluded
and whose nomination was publicly approved of by Napoleon. Scharnhorst
and Julius Gruner, the head of the Berlin police, were also deprived
of their offices. The Berlin university, nevertheless, continued to
give evidence of a better spirit. Enlightenment and learning, on their
decrease at Frankfort on the Oder, here found their headquarters.
Halle had become Westphalian, and the universities of Rinteln and
Helmstädt had, from a similar cause, been closed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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