CHAPTER I. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. Bismarck's Parents.-Brothers and Sisters.-Bismarck Born.-Kniephof, Jarchelin, and Külz.-The Plamann Institute.-The Frederick William Institute.-Residence in Berlin.-Bismarck's Father and Mother.-Letter of Count Bismarck to his Sister.-Confirmation.-Dr. Bonnell.-Severity of the Plamanns.-Holiday Time.Colonel August Frederick von Bismarck and the Wooden Donkey at Ihna Bridge. -School-life with Dr. Bonnell.-The Cholera of 1831.-The Youthful Character and Appearance of Bismarck.-Early Friends.-Proverbs.-"Far from Sufficient!" quoth Bismarck. orphan daughter of the well-known Privy Councillor, Anastatius Ludwig Menken, who had served with distinction under three sovereigns of Prussia and possessed great influence during the first years of the reign of Frederick William III. He was born at Helmstadt on the 2d of August, 1752, and was a member of a family distinguished for its literary attainments. To a certain 102 ANASTATIUS LUDWIG MENKEN. extent he was a pupil of the Minister Count Herzberg,* by whose means he was appointed to a post in the Privy Chancery. Frederick the Great held him in great esteem, he having rendered an important service to his sister, the Queen Louise Ulrike, in Stockholm; and he employed him from the year 1782 in the capacity of Secretary to the Cabinet for Foreign Affairs. From 1786 he became Privy Councillor to Frederick William II., and in that office was again intrusted with the administration of foreign affairs, but after the war with France was supplanted by General von Bischofswerder,† and retired into private life. Menken was the only adviser of King Frederick William II., who was recalled and reappointed at the accession of Frederick William III. He was the author of the well-known Cabinet Order issued by Frederick William III., which insured the young King the confidence of his subjects. Menken was no revolutionist, as Bischofswerder and his partisans asserted, but to a certain extent he agreed with the principles of the first French National Convention. He is portrayed as a gentle, liberal, prudent, and experienced man, but of delicate health; and he died on the 5th August, 1801, in consequence of illness brought on by a life of unintermitting labor. According to the opinion of Stein, Menken was a person of generous sentiments, well educated, of fine feeling and benevolent disposition, with noble aims and principles. He desired the good of his native land, which he sought to promote by the diffusion of knowledge, the improvement of the condition of all classes, and the application of philanthropic ideas but his indisposition for war at an important juncture was adverse to his fame; his too eloquent and humane edict, and his singular gentleness of mind, invested the Government with an appearance of weakness. * Herzberg, Ewald Fred. (Count von), a distinguished Prussian diplomatist, born at Lotten, near New Stettin, in 1725. He published many most valuable diplomatic, historical, and juridical works, and died on the 27th May, 1795, after having been somewhat harshly treated by those in power.-K. R. H. M. + Bischofswerder (John Rud. von), General and Minister of Frederick William II., born at Dresden, 1737, of an old Saxon family. He entered the Prussian service, 1760, and was a Major in 1779. The confidence the King, first as Crown Prince, had in him, was unlimited; and he was employed in important diplomatic matters at Szistowe and at Pilnitz. He was ambassador to Paris in 1793. He died in October, 1803.-K. R. H. M. |