Helmholtz by David Cahan

Author:David Cahan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Pour le Mérite

In southern Germany, especially Baden, the Helmholtzes had met many royal and aristocratic figures. Such occasions multiplied once they were in Berlin. They were invited to numerous social events by liberal members of the Prussian royalty and nobility. Helmholtz was also a member of Berlin’s Monday Club (Montagsclub), a distinguished social club founded in 1749 consisting of elite government officials, scientists, artists, medical doctors, military officers, and the like. It met in the “Englisches Haus” in the Mohrenstrasse on Monday evenings, where the men dined together and afterward heard a lecture on a learned or scientific topic.49

In Berlin the Helmholtzes became well acquainted with the monarchy. Emperor William I and Empress Augusta invited them to more or less intimate gatherings. The emperor had been the commanding general of the Gardes du Corps, Helmholtz’s old regiment, and that constituted a bond between the two men. The empress, in contrast to her husband, was highly cultured, liberal, an Anglophile, and an opponent of Bismarck’s. Anna’s younger brother, Ottmar, was a career diplomat and civil servant, who served for six months as Empress Augusta’s cabinet secretary. The empress let Anna know that she was very pleased with his work.50

Above all, the Helmholtzes were favorites of Prussian Crown Prince Frederick William and Crown Princess Victoria (the eldest child of Britain’s Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert, and known as Vicky). The crown prince loved study in general as well as the arts but also enjoyed his military duties; the crown princess had studied painting and music, loved the arts in general, and had been instructed in the natural and social sciences. They invited many university professors to their quarters; the Helmholtzes, along with Lepsius, Mommsen, Zeller, and Curtius and their wives were regular guests. So too were the art collector Count Wilhelm von Pourtalès, the von Schleinitzes, the von Radziwills, Prince von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the British ambassador to Germany, Lord and Lady Odo Russell, and the painters Menzel, Richter, Heinrich von Angeli, and Werner, to name but a few who were also friends or acquaintances of the Helmholtzes. In general, Vicky, who considered Bismarck her archenemy, supported artists and scientists. The crown prince and crown princess’s son, the future Emperor William II, recalled that he often saw Helmholtz (and Virchow) at their house and that Anna and his mother were very good friends and spent much time together.51

Helmholtz was also slightly acquainted with another emperor, Dom Pedro II of Brazil. From childhood on, the Brazilian emperor had been greatly interested in science and technology as well as many other aspects of culture. He was a cultivated amateur, a generalist who sought to follow developments in science, technology, and other areas of knowledge. In 1877 he was elected an associé étranger of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. He visited Berlin twice during the 1870s and on at least one occasion called upon Helmholtz before going on to see Bismarck.52

The scientific reputation that Helmholtz had earned, the public service that he had given, the

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