Gustav Freytag Describes a Liberal Election Campaign in Erfurt (January 21 and 30, 1867) Gustav Freytag (1816-1895) was one of the most popular German novelists of the second half of the 19th century; he was also a journalist, historian, and politician, and the long-time editor of the liberal journal Die Grenzboten. In February 1867, he was elected to the North German Reichstag as a representative of the National Liberal Party. He served until 1870. In this exchange with Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1818-1893) – a patron of the German National Association [Nationalverein] and brother to Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria – Freytag describes the election campaign that sent him to the Reichstag, the first one fought under universal male suffrage. As this correspondence suggests, Freytag was clearly uncomfortable with many aspects of mass politics, even though his account has an ironic, humorous touch.
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page 1 of 3 I. Freytag to Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Leipzig, January 21, 1867. My dear gracious Lord! On a piece of paper, I have listed the names of the persons who will probably be the main representatives of the national party in the new parliament.* As is always the case, they are the old names of the National Association and the Prussian opposition. Your Highness will be in the best position to determine the right time for them to convene. If the matter is postponed, more and more of them will commit themselves to voting a certain way by taking up positions too early. Anyone who has already declared his view publicly will feel bound to his promises. On the other hand, there is hardly any possibility that the invited persons will make a decision on the policies to be adopted as long as they are unfamiliar with the new imperial constitution. Moreover, the draft [of the constitution] in Your Highness’s hands is, apart from the risk involved in conveying it to the invited Prussian representatives, not entirely authoritative, because Count Bismarck may deem further concessions – e.g., concerning budgetary rights – appropriate at any moment, and if such is the case, then he will incorporate them without hesitation. Therefore, it would be of great importance to learn whether Count Bismarck is willing to publish the draft before the opening of the Reichstag, or, respectively, before February 12, the designated election day. If this were the case, then it would seem to me that the period immediately following the announcement of the constitutional draft would offer an appropriate date for an invitation [to convene]. If Count Bismarck intends to keep the draft shrouded in mystery, then the next possible date for the invitation would be the best. It would have to be a Sunday so that the Berliners occupied with sessions of the Chamber could come as well. Things are getting serious now with the elections. And yet this universal suffrage is the most frivolous of all experiments ever dared by Count Bismarck. No one knows whether he’ll be elected or not. And in the years ahead things will become even worse. For in the cities, the election is in the hands of the workers, and in the countryside, it is in the hands of the little people, day laborers, and farmhands. [ . . . ] Your Highness’s Most obedient Freytag. * The Reichstag of the North German Confederation – trans.
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