in his lifetime he had decided to divide it among three sons. His weak successors followed his example and executed three further partitions, one following the other.
Thus the German Reich, as this Ostfranken was first called around the year 1000, was fairly delimited neither by race nor by language. For a thousand-odd years the Teutons left the choice of the king to their own princes, who arranged the succession among themselves. The German king and emperor was henceforth elected by certain princes vested with that right; thus he was at first merely a kind of life-long president of a republic composed of princes. By means of diplomacy and fortunate battles he might be able to establish the actual succession in his own dynasty. The influence of the Reichstag and the assembly of princes, that is, the influence of the individual German princes on the affairs of the Reich, constantly fluctuated for lack of a constitution.
The emperors exhausted their strength in their Roman campaigns. Since all these medieval battles in Italy bore no permanent results, we shall here consider only those personalities and problems that most clearly reflect the German character. For it was the very fact that Rome was so far away from Germany that first aroused the three Ottonians, and then the later German emperors. Even then the German, when in search of greatness, was always looking beyond his own country, for he sought and needed recognition from without. It is this fear of an inferiority that does not actually exist at all that time and again moves the German, even today, to curry the approval of foreigners with loud speeches composed of a mixture of threats and charges. All this is not mere materialism; the German does not conquer primarily to grow rich and live at ease, but to demonstrate his superiority over others and force upon them his own irksome mode of life. Neither the individual nor the people as a whole can bear to live without an audience. Those who are not convinced of their own inner worth are always listening for signs of recognition from without.
It was this very impulse, this restless conscience of the German, that so greatly excited their hearts that the heads forgot their geography. Or did strife-torn Italy really represent a land for settlement, such as it had seemed to the wandering Teutonic tribes during the great migrations? Truly, to rule such a land required huge armed forces. Yet how could these be maintained there, since the very borders of Germany were under constant threat from the French and the Slavs? What process of logic could make a people north of the Alps desire to rule south of the Alps at a time when there were so few passes across?
Statesmen had to recognize even then that the moral protection of the Pope was meaningless unless one controlled Milan and Sicily. The emperors could not possibly have failed to recognize this fact. But they overlooked it, in order that reality might conform to their dream.
And what in the end remained of all these southern aspirations? What did as strong a ruler as Otto the Great bring back from all his battles to Germany after his long reign? When he finally came home at the age of sixty, he had acquired some Italian territory a thousand miles away, for a short time.
Yet there was a second achievement. Down in the South he had married off his son to a Byzantine princess. The consequences were significant.
For after the death of Otto the Great, the Roman–German drama quickly rose to heights of tragedy. Upon both son and grandson Otto’s fantastic heritage weighed heavily, and they were crushed by it. Both of these successors were impelled by the idea of world dominion, particularly since they both had foreign mothers who used them to advance their interests. To this romantic dream they both sacrificed the blood of their nobles, their honor, the natural demands of their country, their own personal talents, indeed their very lives. Both languished and died in the neighborhood of Rome while still young. Otto II is the only German emperor who is entombed in the crypt of St. Peter’s, an everlasting symbol of a great German yearning. A thousand German hearts are buried with him.
The dream of world dominion, blending with the universal German southward urge, endangered the young German nation at home and abroad. The great symbol was in the hands of the Pope; and by making political capital of the romantic yearnings of the Germans, the Pope was able to gain a dominant influence over them as a whole—an influence greater than any he exerted upon other nations, including even the Italians. Thus it was in Germany, which was exposed to the strongest pressure, that the protest and opposition existing throughout Christendom against the increasing secularization of the Church mounted to its highest pitch. Nevertheless it took five centuries before this criticism of the Church grew into the revolutionary popular movement of Luther.
The dualism, created from the blending of faith and ambition, led to a fanciful and paradoxical formulation of German power unmatched in any royal title throughout history. The German kings henceforth for more than eight hundred years called themselves “Roman Emperors of the German Nation.”
What, then, was the Pope in Rome? Obviously he too was the successor of the Roman emperors, but of the Roman rather than the German nation. How could he tolerate another prince’s pre-empting this honor? Why had no Frenchman or Englishman ever conceived the thought of becoming Roman Emperor of his nation? True, the Pope needed a secular patron. That he found him in Germany is explained by the fact that the Germans both threatened and flattered him. The dream of world dominion made them desire the Roman crown, and the Pope exchanged his lifetime investment for immense advantages not offered him by any people less visionary.
This was shown by the struggles of the next German dynasty of emperors, the Franks, who succeeded the Ottonians. They reached their pinnacle in Henry IV (1065–1106).
Here is another German emperor whose achievements failed to endure yet who has a secure place in history, because his power-urge was linked to an idea which now hampered, now ennobled his dramatic life. In the struggle of the German State with the spirit, the figure of this ruler was opposed by that of an able adversary.
Pope Gregory VII, son of a Roman artisan, was really named Hildebrand and regarded as of German origin. He was a man of slight stature, ugly and swarthy, and even his contemporary detractors called him the “Holy Devil.” He was thirty years older than King Henry. Gifted with a radiant mind and a contempt for wealth, though by no means for women, he shrewdly handled men he despised. An ambitious plebeian, he matched his passion against the leading clergy whom he castigated for simony and immorality. Had he been born a king’s son, Gregory would have been a conqueror.
Henry, who was the son of a king, was not himself a conqueror. Wavering between arrogance and fear, never quite sure of his dignity and his worth, now despotic, now moody and sensual, he was a typically German character. It took a destiny of greatness for this tall young man with the handsome features to rouse himself.
The new Pope thought he could easily handle a king of this kind, especially since he knew the mood of the princes, who were growing more and more independent and getting ready to depose Henry. The inborn hate of the upstart against the scion inspired him to passionate terms. Henry grew furious and had a German Church Council enjoin the Pope from the Papal Throne. The Pope replied by pronouncing his anathema against the King. Upon the Pope the injunction had no effect; upon the King the excommunication had great effects.
This situation, unique in the history of kings, ripened the nervous youth Henry into full manhood. How would it be if he were to play the penitent knight, thereby turning the embarrassment on the Pope? “Paris is worth a mass,” said another king, also named Henry IV, five centuries later. In deepest winter King Henry set out for Italy to thwart his opponent by pretending penitence. For safety’s sake he took along his wife and children. Gregory, who had set out for the North, retired to the fortified castle of Canossa, where lived his friend, the Countess Mathilda.
The situation bordered on the comic. Neither of the two men knew precisely whether he was still the pursuer or already the pursued. Henry, the crowned king, the handsome, twenty-six-year-old son of a German emperor, entered the snow-covered castle courtyard, evidently alone. A priest came down to receive him, and Henry begged for admission
