I read the so-called world-press diligently {Neue Freie Presse, Wiener Tageblatt, etc.). I was constantly repelled by the unworthy way in which these papers curried favour with the Court. Scarcely any event at the Hofburg failed to be reported in tones of enchanted enthusiasm or blatant publicity, a foolish practice, which, even if it had to do with the “wisest Monarch” of all times, was almost equal to the behaviour of an Auerhahn (capercailzie) when mating.
I considered it a blemish on Liberal Democracy.
In Vienna I continued, as before, to follow all events in Germany with fiery enthusiasm, whether they con¬ cerned political or cultural questions. With proud admiration I compared the rise of the Empire with the decadence of the Austrian State. But if the events of foreign policy caused me solid pleasure, on the whole, I was often distressed by the political life at home, which was not so satisfactory. The campaign against William II did not meet with my approval. I regarded him not only as the German Emperor, but above all, as the creator of a German Navy. The fact that the Reichstag forbade the Emperor to make speeches therefore infuriated me, because the prohibition came from a quarter which, in my eyes, really had no com¬ petence to do so, and yet during a single sitting those parliamentary ganders put together more nonsensical chatter than a whole dynasty of emperors, even the weakest of them, could do during centuries.
It enraged me that in a State in which any fool could claim the right to criticize and was actually let loose on the nation as a “lawgiver” in the Reichstag, the wearer of the Imperial Crown could be repri¬ manded by the most insipid and absurd institution of all time.
I was even more disgusted that the Vienna Press, which bowed respectfully before the lowest of the low, if he belonged to the Court, now, with a pretence of anxiety, but, as I saw it, with hardly disguised hostility, gave expression to its objection to the German Emperor.