The Dedication of Germanic Museum of Harvard University/Address by Baron von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen

The formal presentation of the Emperor's munificent gift will now take place. I have the honor to introduce to you the representative of His Majesty on this occasion, Baron von dem Bussche, of the German Embassy at Washington.

ADDRESS BY BARON VON DEM BUSSCHE-HADDENHAUSEN.

President Eliot and Members of the Faculty, Ladies and Gentlemen:—The absence of my chief, the German Ambassador, which you all will certainly regret as much as I do, has conferred upon me the great honor to stand here before you to-day and address you as the representative of His Majesty the German Emperor, and as a conveyor of a message from Germany to the United States of America.

It is certainly not an accident that this great country and my fatherland are standing side by side in the front rank in all the important questions of modern civilization and progress; that both are displaying vitality, and the great bulk of the American people are closely linked together by ties of common origin, as the great majority of the inhabitants of this country have Germanic and a very large part even German blood in their veins. This accounts for the well-known fact that Germans coming to the United States at once feel themselves quite at home, and find it so easy to join the ranks of American citizenship, where they form, I am very proud to say, one of the best elements.

But, then, there not only exists the closest kinship of race between the two countries, that gave to his majesty the Emperor the right to say to his guests of the American navy at Kiel that “blood is thicker than water;” there is also another relationship which is intellectual and perhaps even more important and deeply rooted than the one first mentioned. German men of science have had, as you all know, no inconsiderable part in influencing the intellectual development of the United States. Not only have numbers of Americans lived and studied in Germany for many years, but there have been and there are still many Germans teaching in the intellectual centres of the New World, of which Harvard, which has given birth to so many of your great characters of public life and science, is the most ancient and the most important. I need not mention any names; you all know them, and you all know what we owe them, especially on this day of the opening of the Germanic Museum, which will form, I sincerely hope, a new link in the chain that connects the American and German worlds of thought.

I believe that it is just because the Americans have so much in common, in blood and in thought, with the Germans, that the great men who have had a paramount influence on our history and culture are so well known in this country and have so many admirers in the United States. Let me only mention the names of Luther, who was born on this very 10th day of November; of Frederick the Great, the first monarch to establish in his realm the principle of religious toleration, which is now recognized in all progressing countries of the world, not least in the United States; further, of Goethe and Schiller, whose immortal works and poems are familiar to nearly all of you. And how many among us to-day are not admirers of the great chancellor, Bismarck, who so powerfully helped his master to build up the German Empire, an empire, the constitution of which allows to its individual States so large a part in the legislation and administration of the country, and which has many analogies with the constitution which your ancestors gave over one hundred years ago to this republic?

I was reading a few days ago, an article from the pen of your late Ambassador to Germany, Mr. Andrew D. White. He knew the Iron Chancellor personally and he declares him to be the greatest German since the time of Luther; and the way in which he speaks of him shows clearly how much he admires him, and the fact of his being so thoroughly German explains, perhaps, the great liking which he entertained for his kinsmen across the ocean, which Mr. White attributes to him in his article. In Germany, on the other hand, there exists a lively interest in the great men that founded this country, like Washington and Franklin, who laid down the principles of freedom that are still paramount in the United States.

While I pointed out before that German science had greatly influenced the intellectual development of this country, I wish to acknowledge that at the present time Germany is receiving much in return from the United States. In ever-increasing numbers, Germans of every grade of social standing are crossing the Atlantic to study the development of this progressive country, which is working, like Germany, for the benefit of mankind.

But if it is true that there is much for Germany to learn in the United States, it is equally obvious, on the other hand, that the foundations of modern civilization can only be studied from written and other documents, dating from past centuries, in the possession of which Germany, among all countries of Europe, is particularly fortunate. To facilitate the study of these documents as they appear in all such monuments which the industry and the genius of past German generations have created, the idea was conceived to build up on this side of the ocean a museum which would enrich the study of the development of German sculptural art from the very commencement of its existence.

When His Majesty the German Emperor, who takes a great interest in all such questions relating to the advancement and progress of learning, heard of what was being contemplated, he became very much interested in the project and gladly seized the opportunity to contribute to so important a work. He sent to Harvard University a collection of reproductions of typical German sculptural monuments, from the eleventh to the eighteenth century, hoping that they will kindle the interest and encourage in the United States the study of the sculpture of our ancestors, who, to a great extent, are your ancestors as well.

It is my pleasant duty to-day formally to hand over to Harvard University, in the name of His Majesty the German Emperor, this fine collection. And I am happy to couple with this formal presentation of the Emperor's gift the announcement of two other gifts which are about to be made to Harvard University. A year ago last April, after the friendly reception of his Royal Highness Prince Henry of Prussia by the people of the United States, there was formed in Berlin a committee of leading men of science, art, literature and finance, with the view of supplementing the Emperor's donation by a gift from the German people. The committee, which included such names as Virchow, Mommsen—both, alas, now departed—Harnack, Paulsen, Schöne, Lessing and Wildenbruch, decided upon a collection of galvanoplastic reproductions of representative works of German gold and silver work from the 15th to the end of the 18th century. This costly collection, consisting of over thirty large and some twenty smaller pieces, all of them specimens of the best workmanship of three centuries, is now nearly completed, and I have been authorized on this day to state that by the end of the year this gift of the German people will be in the possession of Harvard University.^[1]

It is most gratifying that still another side of German life is to be represented by a gift which comes from your own midst. I refer to the most welcome donation of 10,000 books on the history of Germany and of German civilization which Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge is to make to Harvard College as a memorial to the visit of Prince Henry of Prussia to the University in 1902. His Majesty the Emperor, as well as his Royal Highness Prince Henry, are greatly pleased with this thoughtful recognition of their interest in the same cause which brings us together here to-day, and I have the honor of being the messenger of their appreciation and thanks.

All who enter the Germanic Museum pass through the Golden Gate of the Cathedral of Freiberg, placed at the Museum's entrance. They all come to study the old works of our common forefathers. I venture to express the hope that those who thus enter this gate may by that act symbolize likewise their entrance through that golden gate of true science which leads to progress and humanity.

Vivat, crescat, floreat Museum Germanicum Universitatis Harvardiensis.

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1. Foot note: The address accompanying this collection is printed on another page.