Home Life in Germany

Preface

There are very many things we want to know about foreign countries, which we never do know from hooks. What people eat and what they drink, how they amuse themselves, what their habits are at home, what furniture they have, how their houses look, and ahove all, what the usual talk and tone of thought is, among the great middle classes of a country — these things are interesting, and are very hard to learn, except from travellers themselves. Webster, in almost his last great speech,' said with reference to England, "there is still wanting, a his tory which shall trace the progress of social life, in the intercourse of man with man ; the advance of arts, the various changes in the habits and occupations of indi viduals, and improvements in domestic life. We still have not the means of learning how our ancestors in their houses, were fed, and lodged, and clothed, and what were their daily employments.

We want a history of Presides. We wish to see more, and to know more, of the • hanges which took place from age to age in the homes of England." Of course, what I have given in this Volume of the " Social Life of Germany/' can only be a suggestion for VI

PREFACE.

. such a History of the Germans. My observations are merely the glimpses of a traveller, welcomed intimately in the homes of North and Middle Germany, during parts of two years. To the German, they will seem often superficial; still they may be valuable hereafter, as the impressions of a stranger upon a subject of which so little is usually written or known — the internal social habits and thought of a leading civilized Nation. It will be seen that my facts and experiences are mostly gained from associations with the middle classes. These — the men of business, the farmers, the merchants, the lawyers and scholars — are the influential portion of a People who stamp especially its social character. It is their habits and manners we mean, when we speak of the social life of the Germans. In view of this plan, I shall be pardoned if I have " cut" guide-books entirely, and the usual objects of interest to the tourist.

No one can understand even the modern domestic life of Germany, without knowing something of its Past. With intelligent men of foreign countries, there is usually the utmost vagueness of idea as to what Germany is, or what it has been ; or what changes have brought it to its present form. I have accordingly devoted several chapters to Political and Theological History, as indispensable to a right understanding of my subject. I have tried to give a true picture of German Social Life, and all will, of course, draw their own conclusions. But I do not hesitate to confess that a definite purpose has been before me. It has seemed to me that in this universal greed for money, in this clangour and whirl of

PREFACE.

. VII American life, in the extravagant habits everywhere growing up, and in the little heed given to quiet home enjoyment, or to the pleasures from Art and Beauty, a voice from those calm, genial old German homes, might be of good to us ; — telling of a more simple, economical habit, of sunny and friendly hospitalities, of quiet cultured tastes, and of a Social Life, whose affection and cheer fulness make the outside world as nothing in the comparison. On one subject only do I hesitate much at my conclusions. I earnestly wish that they prove incorrect — I mean my remarks upon the German religious character. On those solemn and mysterious relations which bind man with his Maker, I would be the last to speak dogmatically. The expression of the religious Principle is not to be limited by any local or partial measure.

Still, the observations, sad as they are, which I have stated, seemed to me true of the masses of the people. Our hope is, however, for Germany, that the darkest time of Unbelief has past, and that a day of purer Faith and Eeason is dawning. Charles Loring Brace. MAY, 1853. CONTENTS.

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Chapter I. From Leith To Hamburg

I was leaning on the bulwarks cf the steamer, watching the bold hills behind Edinburgh gradually sink away, and the long line of blue mountains, opposite to Leith, become more and more mellow in the distance, when I was inter rupted by a pleasant voice, with " The Nature is very fine on this coast I" I assented warmly, turned and found a man leaning on the forecastle house, engaged like myself in w-atching the receding shore. From his language, though not his accent, a German, I judge — a gentleman evidently — tones refined and full — dress very simple, shaggy outside coat, rough vest, coarse grey pantaloons, but with a neat travelling cap, a fine shirt, and, as accidentally appeared, a handsome watch and chain — face closely shaven, like the English, and with well-cut features, still a German face.

He has a pamphlet in his hand which he has been reading — very likely, some North German gentleman, who has been on his travels in England, and is returning home by way of Hamburg. We fall into conversation ; and I ask him soon whether he has been long in Scotland ? B "Oh no," he says, "only since three months in Scotland, but a year in England." He is not very com municative, until at length, I let fall incidentally, that I am an American. " I am very glad," he says, " I thought you were an Englishman from your appearance, and I always am a little — eh ? — genirt — how call you it ? — embarrassed with an English traveller. You know how they are to strangers ?" I tell him that I like the Germans very much, that I have been on my travels for about a year, mostly on foot, and last year that I was on the Rhine, and was so much interested in South Germany, that I determined to see something of the other parts, " and now I am going to Hamburg for that purpose."

This confidential account of my plans was enough, and he at once spoke as frankly with me. He had been a tutor in German to two young Scotch noblemen on the lakes, and teacher of this language in one of the English Universities ; had graduated a short time before at Bonn, and his father was a distinguished scientific man, whose name I had often heard. His object in going to England was to perfect himself in English, and to earn money enough to continue his studies. He was now proceeding to Berlin, to spend the winter there. Such a companion was an especial windfall for me, but I was in somewhat of a perplexity. I had sent my luggage — carpet-bag and knapsack — down to the steamer in Leith, and had booked myself for the second cabin, for Hamburg, but on getting on to the boat, the second cabin proved to be filled up with casks and spare canvas, as they were not in the habit of taking second-cabin passengers on this line !

So that the choice was left me, either of taking a first-cabin passage at £2, with one or two dull, stiff looking gentlemen, or of " roughing it" indiscriminately for three days with the sailors and engine hands, at £1. A part of my plan, through my whole journey, had been to see the undercrust of Europe, as much as possible. So I chose the latter. But this appearance of my new German friend made a difference, and I told him the case and my perplexity. " So ! Vortrefflich ! excellent I" said he, " I came on board exactly in the same way. Now we will be comrades \" and we shook hands heartily over it, and at once sat down on a pile of canvas for a long chat. "You see," said he, "a pound goes a great way in Germany — as far as three or four in England — and I thought I might as well save it here.

It would carry me to all the concerts and theatres of the winter in Berlin. Besides, I should like to get acquainted with these fellows here !" and he pointed to the crew at work around us. This led on to various questionings and answerings about Germany and German habits. " Would you like to have your wealthy friends know you travelled in this way 1" I asked. " Certainly," he answered, " I always travelled so, when I was a student, and half the professors do it now. The truth is, there are not many circles in Germany, where poverty is a disgrace. It is not as it is in England; our higher classes are not ashamed of econo — what is your word ? — money-saving. Ach ! how glad I shall be to be back in the old Fatherland again, where one must not be always looking out, for — that for which we have no German word — the Respectability !"

He did not say it distinctly, but he had been much annoyed, I should gather, while a teacher in England, by the weight of caste above him ; and he longed to be in a land again, where a man is taken for what he is worth, and not for what his grandfather was. He was intending to spend the winter in Berlin, and I meant to be there in a few weeks. We engaged to meet, if possible. I then told him my more especial plan. I had seen enough of the usual sights of travel, and I wanted particularly now to see German society, to become b acquainted with the ' home-life.' I thought an American could learn more from that, than from all other things in Europe. "As for your governments and your insti tutions, we have little to gain from studying those. Your art, I hope to examine." " Ach ! and what beautiful !

You know not our modern German art. If you only could see Kaulbach and Cornelius ! — but pardon ! go on !" " I want especially to see how you Germans live and talk at home, and I am going mostly with that object. Still my prospects do not seem very good, as I have only three letters to Hamburg !" " Es thut nichts ! It makes no difference ! You need not the recommendation-letters. If you like the Ger mans, they will like you, and will pass you on from one to the other. Only, mein Heber Herr, is your mind fully made up for the sauerkraut, and to renounce your English port ?" I laughed, and made him the earnest assurance that it was. "Ach! how you will our Germany enjoy! You are right. It is the 'home' which is the best thing with us. We know how to enjoy. Ah ! when shall I see mine again, dear L n ! way off ou the Rhine ! the sunny Rhine land !"

He was looking off to the South, where the waves were gilded under the setting sun. I said nothing. After a pause we were soon again in pleasant conversation. " What do you think it would cost a man by the year," said I, " in Berlin, living as we should want to live ?" "It is very different in different quarters of the city," he replied, " and the cost will so vary, as one shall under stand the modes of the place. I shall take a room in one of the best streets, dress like other gentlemen, and have all our best pleasures — music, the art and the pleasantest society — all for about three hundred thalers (£45) a year. _ It would cost you or a stranger more. Berlin is more expensive, as — than the university towns, or the cities in Southern Germany — Munich, for instance — I have lived there for two hundred thalers, — and such music and theatres !

But in general, living is very cheap in Germany." Engaged in pleasant talk, we hardly noticed that the evening was coming on, until we remembered that there were sleeping-places to get for the night. Our first attempt was in the engine-room, where we found some sociably-inclined firemen, who took us into theh little cabin. * We were all soon on the best terms. The firemen brought out pipes, and N (my German) sent for whisky for them. I took a pipe, and we sat long chatting over our adventures. At length I left my companion, stowed away in one of the dirty berths, and went forward and hired a bunk of one of the hands, in the little forecastle, and was soon sound asleep. The next day there came on a hard storm — one of those tremendous gales which sweep often across the German Ocean. The waves poured over our bows in a constant stream, so that I was compelled to keep quietly in my berth all day.

I am never sea-sick, and was well used to all possible rough quarters, but I thought my German friend would find his first experience in cheap travelling in English steamers, rather too much for him. He did come forth the next day, a most woe-begone, soiled, draggled-looking man. But he only laughed at his own miseries, and insisted that he had had "a grand time" with the boys below. The contrast was most pleasant, when after the in cessant tossing and rolling for three days, we entered the quiet river of the Elbe ; and a few hours later, came to anchor before the long, handsome quay of the city of Hamburg. I said a hearty farewell to N , who was going up to Kiel to visit friends ; we engaged where to meet in Berlin. My luggage was pitched into a boat, and in a few moments, I was being rowed quietly along through the still canals, overhung with trees, and under the fantastic warehouses of this quaint old city.

A polite bow from the custom-house officer as we landed; my bags passed without examination ; and behold me following the porter through the narrow streets of old Hamburg. CHAPTEE II. HAMBURG, AND A GERMAN HOUSE. October 9, 1850. — Hamburg is a much more interesting city, in appearance, than I had any reason to suppose from the accounts of travels and guide books. The contrast between "the old city" and the new, is very striking. The quiet antique alleys, like those of the Dutch cities, with canals and shade trees, and fantastic gables and rather anomalous statuary in the niches of the walls in one quarter, and in the other, the grand, new, bustling streets, built in the finest style of modern archi tecture, and opening out imposingly around the wide Basin of the Alster. In May, of the year 1842, a great fire occurred here, which raged for four days, and reduced the finest part of the city to ashes.

More than seventeen hundred houses were destroyed, and the flames were only checked by the skilful exertions of an English engineer, Mr. Lindley, of whom I shall have more to say hereafter. After the fire, the town was rebuilt under the direction of this gentleman, and in a very complete and splendid manner. The narrow, unhealthy alleys were widened ; new streets laid out ; the old stagnant ditches filled up, and some of the most imposing lines of buildings erected, which are to be seen in Europe. In fact, I know no city on the continent, whose business-streets make so fine an impression at first sight. Stone is very scarce here, so that nearly all the houses are built of brick, with a hard cement or stucco over it. Either the climate is more favourable, or it is a much better cement than with us — certainly the stuccoed houses look far better than in our cities ; and it has afforded an opportunity for something which is extremely needed in our country, that is, giving to each house its own peculiar ornament.

One becomes so heartily tired of long rows of monotonous houses, exactly corresponding to each other, without an attempt at variety or character. Here I passed through streets of high, handsome houses, where they had all the advantage which ours have — and un doubtedly it is an advantage — of a succession of similar parallel lines of structure on the front, one above the other; but, besides, peculiar independent ornaments to each building. Every house had a character. Every man could show his own peculiar taste on the front of his home. And this cement gives a beautiful opportunity for all kinds of graceful moulding and ornament, and even for small statuary. The Hamburgers have improved it well. I found the public walks, also, and gardens of the city, very pleasing. The old bastions are laid out into agreeable promenades, which were gay on this day with merry parties.

At length, in the evening after my arrival, after much pleasant rambling about the city, I resolved to deliver one of my letters of introduction, and while away an hour or two. With some delay, I found the house ; the servant carried up my card with the letter ; a friendly, hearty voice bade me welcome in English, and I found myself in company with a genial old gentleman and two younger ones, engaged over a decanter of Teneriffe and a round of cold beef. A place was made for me at once, and we were all soon in animated conversation. They spoke English well, and were very much interested to hear any thing of America, and especially of our recent extrava gances about Jenny Lind. " Punch" seemed the great authority about us, and they asked if " Barnum would really smoke at her concerts, as he is there pictured !"

After the supper was thoroughly disposed of, cigars were lighted without ceremony, and we spent a long evening in very pleasant talk. They entered into my objects of seeing German life, rather than the usual sights, with much interest ; and at the close, I had engaged to spend the next day with the old gentleman, and to submit myself entirely to his guidance. It was late in the evening when I arrived at my hotel, very happy at the friendly welcome I had found so soon in a German home. October — ,1850. — "There is certainly a kind of simplicity about these Germans, which one does not see in America," I thought to myself, as I sat in my friend's parlour, the next morning, in a comfortable house, looking out over the Alster. It was the house of a man of fortune, a retired merchant ; yet the whole, though bearing tokens of a cultivated taste, showed a remarkable plainness.

The parlour in which I sat — a high, handsome room, with prettily-painted ceiling and tasteful papering — had no carpet. The furniture was simple ; there was no grand display of gilt and crimson anywhere; and it was evident very little had been laid out on mere splendour. Yet one could not but notice how carefully even very common implements had been chosen with reference to grace of form. The candle-stands, the shade-lamps, and even the pitcher, or the common vase, had something exceedingly graceful and almost classical in their shape. The designs of the music-holders, and of the table ornaments, caught the eye at once — every article seemed to have a meaning. The pictures on the walls or the table were not expensive — often mere sketches ; yet they were very pleasant to look at, aud had not been placed there, evidently, merely because "pictures must be hung b in every respectable parlour."

The figures of the daguer reotypes showed the same traits ; not formidable ranks of stiff forms, but easy groups around some animal, or in some natural position. There were flowers, too, every where; and especially that most graceful of all flower vessels, which I have seeD alone in Germany, though I believe it came from Italy, called tbe " Ampel." It is simply a half vase, very much like the old Grecian lamp, hung with cords from the ceiling, with some flowering vine in it, which twines and wreaths around it; yet the beauty of it all can hardly be imagined. The only exception in this house to the general good taste, was the high white Berlin stove, looking like a porcelain tower with gilt battlements ; but possibly one who is accustomed to our quiet, sombre machines, must need a little discipline to get used to these gay articles.

While noticing all this, my friend came in and welcomed me cordially, as he had hardly expected I would be up early enough to accept his invitation to breakfast. " We keep much earlier hours," said he, "than you English. Business begins here at eight, where it would not in England till ten ; and breakfast is even earlier than ours — usually at seven." The breakfast was simply coffee and Brodchen — little bread-rolls — for which Hamburg is famous. The coffee was made at the table by the ladies, as it is in France, and sometimes with us, by pouring boiling water over the coffee and letting it drain for a few minutes in a machine for the purpose; the principal care being that it should drain slowly, through both a sieve and some tissue paper. After breakfast, we went out to look at the garden.

The house below — and I shall not fear to offend my friend by particularising, as the description would apply to two thirds of the houses in Germany — resembles the upper part in its plainness of appearance. There are no carpets or matting on the stairway. On one side of the hall is a long dining-room, lined with portraits, with gilt mouldings and tasteful papering, but the floor again, bare, though scrupulously neat. There are handsome curtains at the windows, and a few substantial articles of furniture, but, altogether, it has a rather naked appearance, and probably serves as a dancing-room. The other side of the hall opens into a small room, looking out on the garden, and connected with a pleasant grapery, which is warmed from within, as grapes cannot be raised here without artificial heat.

This room is used, perhaps, as a smoking or coffee room — a cool, shaded room for the summer. Like most of the buildings here, the house stands directly upon the street. The outer door is left unlocked, but the opening it stirs a bell, and the inner door is unfastened by a servant. The garden was tasteful and pleasant, with the fruits and flowers of a northern climate. It is singular that the apples here, as almost everywhere in Europe, are small and poor in flavour, compared to ours. My friend, like the English, considers our American pippins one of the rarest and most beautiful additions to a dessert-table. The other parts of the house, so far as I saw them, had the same general air of simplicity and good taste. The bed-rooms are without carpets, too, at least in the summer. Not having tried my friend's beds, I may claim without discourtesy, a traveller's privilege, in saying something here of German beds.

The whole nation, with all their intellectual progress, have not made the first step in the philosophy of beds. And to one coming from England, Germany presents a most deplorable contrast. In England, the bed is considered almost a sacred spot. It is carefully and nicely made ; it is curtained off from the world : and there are very few inns so poor, as not to have many orna ments and comforts about their beds. But in Germany, is does not seem to be considered a place where an im portant part of life is to be spent. It is only a narrow, open lounge — always too short for a long man, and too narrow for a restless one. The mattress is a most light, flimsy affair, which is attempted to be counterbalanced by an immense hard pillow, reaching half way down the bed, so that one is obliged to lie at a half-sitting posture.

And to crown all, for a coverlid, is a large, light feather-bed or pillow, which makes one intolerably warm under it, and leaves one very cold without it. These beds have been the subject of malediction with travellers, since Coleridge's feeling remarks on the subject, but they do not appear to have changed much, except in a few places on the Rhine, where the English have fairly grumbled them away. The remainder of the morning my friend kindly devoted to showing me the principal sights of the town ; and in the afternoon, I presented my other letters. One was to Mr. Lindley, the English engineer. Mr. L is the last one to wish his name brought out in this conspicuous way, but I cannot forbear expressing my thanks for his many attentions to me, and my admiration for what he is accomplishing in Hamburg.

A free-minded, untiring, hopeful man — one who believes that God's world is not quite a stagnant pool of wretchedness, but that something can be done to clear it and make it flow on again — and who is doing his part for this in a very thorough way. I had the pleasure of meeting him frequently, and the account of all his efforts in the city, his attempts to stop the progress of " the great fire" by the general blowing up of buildings ; his struggles with the lower classes, who at first believed him almost a demoniac man, plotting the destruction of the city ; his gigantic plans for rebuild ing, and endeavours to inspire the Germans with something of the English practical spirit, would form an interesting history in itself. He has just offered, I was told in private, ten thousand dollars to the city corporation, if they would subscribe the rest, for building several large bath-houses for the poor after the manner of the London houses.

At his sug gestion, and by his plan, some grand water-works have been erected, which supply the whole city with pure water, and the pipes from which can be used for the engines in every block, in case of another fire. He has constructed, too, an immense building and machinery, with a very high tower, for the gas-works — much of it contrived on new principles. He was superintending, while I was there, some new extensive docks, laid out by himself. One of the best quarters of the city, on the right bank of the Elbe, has been gained by him from the marsh, by thorough drainage and by pumping out the water with a steam-engine, and filling in the space with the rubbish from the fire. Mr. Lindley has been the rebuilder of Hamburg ; and all agree, that to his improvements a great change in the health of the poorest quarters is due.

The first feelings, as I said, towards him during the fire, by the lower classes, were of intense suspicion and hatred. Under his direction, some of the finest buildings in the city had been blown into the air. The crowd cried out that "the foreigner was trying to ruin Hamburg," and he hardly escaped with his life. But afterwards, as they saw the fire subsiding through these measures, and when later, they beheld his unceasing exertions to rebuild and improve the city, they began almost to idolize him. And now, by workmen and Biirschen, no man is better beloved than Mr. Lindley, the English engineer. October .13, 1850. — I went out to-day in company with one of my friends, to visit a wealthy gentleman, living in the outskirts of Hamburg. I preferred to walk, and was well repaid by the opportunity it gave me for examining the pleasant villas which surround the city.

For some time, I wondered to myself what it was that gave so different an air to them all, from that of our country-seats. They were built not unlike them, of wood or stuccoed brick, in rectangular forms, or with slightly varied outline. The grounds in general did not seem especially "foreign" in their designs. I concluded, finally, the difference was in the universal tendency to make the most of the open air. The houses were all sur rounded with pleasant balconies, opening into the sitting rooms ; there were porticos, leafy boudoirs connecting with the inside; the gardens were full of arbours, and summer-houses and seats, where people were eating and drinking, as if it were as habitual there as within doors. We found the family we would visit just sitting down to lunch, aud were at once invited to take our places at the table.

There was a little company assembled; and the lunch, though it was only eleven o'clock, presented itself as a rather formidable meal — steaks, bread-cakes, fish and claret, with a close of some beautiful grapes and pears from the gentleman's conservatories, and decanters of choice pale sherry. There was little form, though several servants were in waiting. The great topic of con versation was the war then going on in Schleswig-Hol stein, against Denmark. All seemed to sympathise most deeply with the insurgents. I was somewhat surprised to notice, too, considerable conversation on religious sub jects. My German is rather limited yet, and a very rapid conversation, where there is a confusion of voices, I find it difficult to follow ; but I was struck with the earnest, practical tone of what was said.