Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine | Page 3

with the universal accord of a
united people? To those who have heard it sung by multitudinous
voices to the accompaniment of golden harps and silver trumpets it is a
thing which can never be forgotten, this world-song that is at once a
hymn of union, a song of the deepest love of country, a defiance and an
intimation of resistance to the death.
The Song of the ‘Iron Chancellor’
How potent Die Wacht am Rhein is to stir the hearts of the children of
the Fatherland is proven abundantly by an apposite story regarding the
great Bismarck, the ‘man of blood and iron.’ The scene is the German
Reichstag, and the time is that curious juncture in history when the
Germans, having realized that union is strength, were beginning to
weld together the petty kingdoms and duchies of which their mighty
empire was once composed. Gradually this task was becoming
accomplished, and meanwhile Germany grew eager to assert her power
in Europe, wherefore her rulers commenced to create a vast army. But
Bismarck was not satisfied, and in his eyes Germany’s safety was still
unassured; so he appealed to the Reichstag to augment largely their
armaments. The deputies looked at him askance, for a vast army meant
ruinous taxation; even von Moltke and von Roon shook their heads,
well aware though they were that a great European conflict might break
out at any time; and, in short, Bismarck’s proposal was met by a
determined negative from the whole House. “Ach, mein Gott!” he cried,
holding out his hands in a superb gesture of despair. “Ach, mein Gott!
but these soldiers we must have.” His hearers still demurred, reminding
him that the people far and near were groaning under the weight of
taxation, and assuring him that this could not possibly be increased,
when he suddenly changed his despairing gesture for a martial attitude,
and with sublime eloquence recited the lines:
“Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall, Wie Schwertgeklirr und
Wogenprall; Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein, Wer will

die Strömes Hüter sein? Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein, Fest steht
und treu die Wacht am Rhein.”
The effect was magical; the entire House resounded with cheers, and
the most unbounded enthusiasm prevailed. And ere the members
dispersed they had told Bismarck he might have, not ten thousand, but
a hundred thousand soldiers, such was the power of association
awakened by this famous hymn, such the spell it is capable of
exercising on German hearers.
Topography of the Rhine
Ere we set sail upon the dark sea of legend before us it is necessary that,
like prudent mariners, we should know whence and whither we are
faring. To this end it will be well that we should glance briefly at the
topography of the great river we are about to explore, and that we
should sketch rapidly the most salient occurrences in the strange and
varied pageant of its history, in order that we may the better appreciate
the wondrous tales of worldwide renown which have found birth on its
banks.
Although the most German of rivers, the Rhine does not run its entire
course through German territory, but takes its rise in Switzerland and
finds the sea in Holland. For no less than 233 miles it flows through
Swiss country, rising in the mountains of the canton of Grisons, and
irrigates every canton of the Alpine republic save that of Geneva.
Indeed, it waters over 14,000 square miles of Swiss territory in the flow
of its two main branches, the Nearer Rhine and the Farther Rhine,
which unite at Reichenau, near Coire. The Nearer Rhine issues at the
height of over 7000 feet from the glaciers of the Rheinwaldhorn group,
and flows for some thirty-five miles, first in a north-easterly direction
through the Rheinwald Valley, then northward through the Schams
Valley, by way of the Via Mala gorge, and Tomleschg Valley, and so
to Reichenau, where it is joined by its sister stream, the Farther Rhine.
The latter, rising in the little Alpine lake of Toma near the Pass of St.
Gotthard, flows in a north-easterly direction to Reichenau. The Nearer
Rhine is generally considered to be the more important branch, though
the Farther Rhine is the longer by some seven miles. From Reichenau

the Rhine flows north-eastward to Coire, and thence northward to the
Lake of Constance, receiving on its way two tributaries, the Landquart
and the Ill, both on the right bank. Indeed, from source to sea the Rhine
receives a vast number of tributaries, amounting, with their branches, to
over 12,000. Leaving the Lake of Constance at the town of that name,
the river flows westward to Basel, having as the principal towns on its
banks Constance, Schaffhausen, Waldshut, Laufenburg, Säckingen,
Rheinfelden, and Basel.
Not far from the