The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1130: Chapter 110: Police Running the School

The police are not here to create chaos nor to stop chaos; they’re here to maintain chaos.

– Richard J. Daley

”Write me a letter of recommendation?”

Bismarck was full of suspicion; he didn’t trust this man in front of him at all.

If asked who the best student at the University of Gottingen is, opinions from different colleges and professors would vary and not lead to a consensus.

However, if asked who the most troublesome student at the University of Gottingen is, everyone would unanimously say: Otto von Bismarck.

Moreover, even without considering this fact, Bismarck still didn’t see any reason for this British fellow to have to help him.

On this man’s first day as Academic Director, Bismarck challenged him to a duel in front of Philosophy College’s Dean, Professor Helbart. In the following days, Bismarck also ambushed him from the bushes a few times after he got off work.

Any ordinary person receiving such treatment would already demonstrate considerable equanimity by not getting angry.

But Sir Arthur Hastings not only refrained from getting angry but even proactively offered to help him pass the Prussian state judicial exam.

To Bismarck, this was clearly a manifestation of ulterior motives.

He remained silent, looking down at the half-empty glass of wine in his hand.

He was waiting for Arthur to speak first, wanting to know at what high price he intended to sell this letter of recommendation.

Arthur leaned against the bar with one hand, looking at this eighteen-year-old who acted overly mature and conniving, finding his pretense of deep thought quite amusing.

He wasn’t worried about Bismarck refusing his request, because in the German student community, college recommendation letters were always a seller’s market.

In Germany, unlike in Britain, there were always more positions than there were students. In Germany, there were many universities, but few positions that were attractive to university students.

In recent days, Arthur had been gathering information on the German educational system from various sources.

Due to not having undergone the turmoil of the Great Revolution, nor having experienced Britain’s constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system, the nobility in the German states remained very stable.

Noble titles here were neither like in France, where they could be bought with interests, nor like in Britain, where an individual could frequently move between social classes with wealth alone sufficing as a ticket to the upper echelon.

Thus, the social status and mindset of the intellectual class in Germany were very different from those in Britain and France.

They were called the ”cultured citizen class” by public opinion and their monarchs, yet they never enjoyed corresponding economic status and social respect, which caused a significant disparity in the mindset of German intellectuals.

When people of various classes in Britain moved up and down through various glamorous or inglorious means, the number of newly sealed nobles in France surged, and the civilian middle class increasingly became the main force in English and French politics, the nobility status in Germany instead became increasingly consolidated, and class stagnation became more apparent.

Due to this contrast, Germany encountered a special situation that Britain and France never faced.

On one hand, with Prussia leading the charge, the states extensively expanded education, and the number of intellectuals was growing daily.

On the other hand, those government civil servant positions and officer posts that intellectuals covet remained under the control of traditional nobility loyal to the king for a long time.

Bismarck’s earlier inadvertent revelations to Arthur largely confirmed such facts.

Bismarck’s family background was not particularly poor; though not matching those top-tier Prussian nobility, they could at least mingle within the vast Prussian nobility group.

But even so, if he wanted to become a court juror, he had to take the Prussian state judicial exam, where thousands of troops went over the single-plank bridge.

Those so-called foreign nobles, whom Bismarck resented, could receive a well-paid, dignified, and comfortable diplomatic position simply because they were favored by the king and spoke French.

Perhaps for this reason, the student movement in Germany was the most intense among Britain, France, and Germany, and German writers even sang praises for Napoleon.

The always outspoken Hegel acclaimed Napoleon as ’the soul of the world, the absolute spirit of the world’; Muller praised Napoleon as ’modern hero’; Ranke believed Napoleon’s life was ’full of sacred mission.’

Even Heine, who constantly referred to ’German hemorrhoids,’ would lavish praise on Napoleon, claiming ’Napoleon is undoubtedly one of the greatest figures in human history.’

As the saying goes, nothing is difficult in this world if you have the heart.

The German student movement might sound daunting, making people feel perplexed as if they were fighting for some indescribably noble goal. But when carefully unraveled, the demands of this group of young people were quite simple: they wanted to work in places that matched their expected goals and obtain social status corresponding to their level of knowledge.

Or, to put it more bluntly, in a relatively less developed area like Germany, either let them land university teaching positions or let them enter government institutions to work.