A GREAT GERMAN JOURNALIST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 330, 17 June 1911, Page 9

A GREAT GERMAN JOURNALIST

THE POWER WIELDED BY HERR HAItDEX. I "The face of an actor, clean-shaven, | subtle, almost feminine in feature, a ; matinee idol in appearance—this," says Current Literature, "is .Maximilian Harden, the most potent force in German journalism, perhaps the most powerful journalist in the world. Prince Bulow has remarked that he never misses one of the ingenious articles in Harden's weekly, Die Zukunft. "There is," remarks Edward Goldbeek in the New York Evening Post, "scarcely a politician in Germany who does not eagerly grasp at the latest number of Harden's periodical. Harden has never called on a minister or chancellor, but high functionaries frequently come to see him in his villa at the Grunowald for the purpose of obtaining his judgment on important political problems. Harden's logical place would bo in Parliament, but for the fact that he cannot persuade himself to join any party. With Ibsen he believes that the strong is most strong—alone. "Single-handed he overthrew the allpowerful favorite of the Emperor, Prince zu Eulenburg, when the latter discarded his warning. Long before his final denunication of the Prince and his clique, there appeared from time to time mysterious paragraphs in the Zukunft intelligible only to the initiated. If Eulenburg had heeded these admonitions, if he had withdrawn from polities, Germany would not have been disgraced by the scandal in which so many brilliant reputations were irretrievably lost. But since that time every line in the Zukunft is scanned with infinite care. HARDEN'S WEEKLY. "In appearance Harden's magazine is insignificant. It never numbers more than thirty pages of reading matter. The paper is none too good in quality; the cover is a dull brown. There are no illustrations. Two days after it is for sale in Berlin, one may buy it in Paris, London, St. Petersburg, it shows its ugly cover in Rome and Bucharest, in Madrid and Constantinople, and the fastest steamships carry it to America and South Africa. Tn short, one can find it all over the globe. Downingstreet carefully peruses each number; its opinions are quoted at ihe Quai d'Orsay and on the Newski Prospect. Many a diplomat has read his official obituary on the pages under the brown cover before he knew he had ceased to exist. "The front page coiuains in red letters two words: "Die Zukunft'— The Future. And underneath in modest print: 'Publisher, Maximilian Harden.' Oracle-like it seems to lift a warning finger as if to say: "Beware! In lifting the cover you remove the veil which merciful gods have placed between your mortal eyes and the future.' THE EDITOR AND IHSMARCK. "The Zukunft owes no little of its importance to Bismarck. When William IT. had dismissed his Chancellor, the latter, far from retiring from politics, ruthlessly criticised every action of the Government which seemed to mm dangerous or inopportune. William If. resented this attitude, unprecedented in German political life, but was forced, by the pressure of public opinion, to make liis peace with the old man. In 11)04 he sent one of his adjutants to Friedrichsrub and presented the Prince with a bottle of the most precious wine from his cellar. Some days later the Prince had a guest from Berlin. The conversation turned on the Emperor, and the Prince invited the young man to empty the Imperial bottle with him, 'because,' ho said, 'you mean as well as I toward him.' The guest whom liismarck thus honored was Maximilian Harden, then thirty-throe years old. Harden made himself the mouthpiece of the Iron Chancellor, and thus doubtless acquired many connections which still help him to gather from mysterious sources advance information of the highest value on matters of grave political issue.

"To-day the Zukuni't. is said to net Harden nn income of over forty thousand dollars 11 year. The first ten pages —never more than ten—Harden reserves for himself. The rest he leaves to his contributors, men of letters, scientists, poets, ministers, thus making the journal a free forum for all who have something important to say. He never pays one cent to any of them. They are glad to link their word to that of the great master journalist of Europe, whose weekly editorials are as ninny essays on politics, sociology, law, literature and art. His versatility is as astonishing as bis accumulation of facts and his startling knowledge of personalities, which he exhibits in these articles again and again. While many of them are of interest to Germany only, his clear vision 0! the political situation has made him one of the most interesting figures in European politics. "In reading his articles on Germany's foreign policy one cannot help but admire the boldness of his conjecture, the alertness of his judgment, and the neverfailing correctness of his observation. Neither pessimist nor optimist, he looks upon facts with unbiased eyes and an unclouded mind. The exultation of patriotic celebrations and the popular illhumor over internal difficulties leave him equally untouched. Thx> brilliancy of his style, which often in a despotic frenzy does not hesitate to coin new words and to mould the language into new patterns, stands in strange contrast with the sobriety of his judgment. "When he began to write he almost immediately made a hit. 'His style,' remarks Mr. fioldbeck, 'was so strong, so exciting, that, as a woman once said to me, it told on the reader, as it were, physically.' HARDEN'S PRIVATE LIFE. "Harden's success, Mr. Goldbeokpoints out, is the more astonishing, as he never spares anybody and possesses the gentle art of inn king enemies in the highest degree. He gives way to his subjectivity without any worldly consideration, without fear and without forbearance. So everybody reads his articles, but few like the author. "Of Harden's private life little .is known. His sensitiveness, his desire to appear mysterious which amounts almost to passion, is another distinctly feminine trait. Born of Jewish parents, but without, known religious affiliations, he lives an exceedingly retired life. He had made it a rule to receive anybody who conies to see him. Tie answers all letters in his own handwriting. The amount of his daily work is tremendous, and he could not have persevered through eighteen years if bis physique were not so extremely able to offer resistance. During all these years be has staved in Berlin, even in summer lime, waiving -ome days spent in Paris and Milan. A politician, he asserts, must not slacken his watchfulness even for twenty-four hours." ~