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Ein Missbrauch von Verfassungsrechten könne von allen Seiten getrieben werden; das führe dann zur Gegenwirkung von der anderen Seite. Die Krone z. B. könne zwölfmal hintereinander auflösen, das sei gewiss nach dem Buchstaben der Verfassung erlaubt, würde aber doch Missbrauch sein. Ebenso könne sie Streichungen des Budgets zurückweisen, ohne Mass; da sei die Grenze schwer zu ziehen; sei sie schon bei 6 Millionen? bei 16? oder bei 60? – Es gebe Mitglieder des Nationalvereins, eines wegen der Gerechtigkeit seiner Forderungen zu Ansehen gelangten Vereins – hochachtbare Mitglieder, die alle stehenden Heere für überflüssig erklärten. Ja, wenn nun eine Volksvertretung diese Ansicht hätte! Müsse nicht eine Regierung das zurückweisen?! – Von der „Nüchternheit" des preussischen Volkes sei die Rede gewesen.

Ja, die grosse Selbständigkeit des einzelnen mache es schwierig in Preussen, mit der Verfassung zu regieren (oder die Verfassung zu konsolidieren); in Frankreich sei das anders, da fehle diese individuelle Selbständigkeit. Eine Verfassungskrisis sei keine Schande, sondern eine Ehre. – Wir sind ferner vielleicht zu „gebildet", um eine Verfassung zu tragen; wir sind zu kritisch; die Befähigung, Regierungsmassregeln, Akte der Volksvertretung zu beurteilen, ist zu allgemein; im Lande gibt es eine Menge „catilinarischer Existenzen", die ein grosses Interesse an Umwälzungen haben. Das mag paradox klingen, beweist aber doch alles, wie schwer in Preussen verfassungsmässiges Leben ist. –

Man ist ferner zu empfindlich gegen Fehler der Regierung; als wenn es genug wäre zu sagen, der und der Minister hat Fehler gemacht, als wenn man nicht selbst mitlitte?! – Die öffentliche Meinung wechsle, die Presse sei nicht die öffentliche Meinung; man wisse, wie die Presse entstände; die Abgeordneten hätten die höhere Aufgabe, die Stimmung zu leiten, über ihr zu stehen. – Nochmals unser Volk angehend: Wir haben zu heisses Blut, wir haben die Vorliebe, eine zu grosse Rüstung für unsern schmalen Leib zu tragen; nur sollen wir sie auch utilisieren. Nicht auf Preussens Liberalismus sieht Deutschland, sondern auf seine Macht; Bayern, Württemberg, Baden mögen dem Liberalismus indulgieren, darum wird ihnen doch keiner Preussens Rolle anweisen; Preussen muss seine Kraft zusammenfassen und zusammenhalten auf den günstigen Augenblick, der schon einige Male verpasst ist; Preussens Grenzen nach den Wiener Verträgen sind zu einem gesunden Staatsleben nicht günstig; nicht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die grossen Fragen der Zeit entschieden – das ist der grosse Fehler von 1848 und 1849 gewesen –, sondern durch Eisen und Blut.

An abuse of constitutional laws can be committed by all sides; that leads then to the reaction from the other side. The crown for example, can dissolve twelve times one after the other, and is certainly within the letter of the what is permitted, nevertheless, however, this would be an abuse. Likewise it can reject cancellations of the budget, without measure; there is a difficult border to manage; is it already with 6 million? with 16 million? or with 60 million? Does it give members of the National Assembly, just cause for its demands because of its standing as the Assembly? Highly respectable members who have repeatedly explained their position to the Standing Army? Yes, if a representative government had this opinion! The sober speech of the Prussian People, A government does not have to reject that?!

Yes, the independence of the individual makes it difficult in Prussia to consolidate with the policy to govern, or any policy; in France it is different, there is missing this individual independence. A constitutional crisis is not dishonor, but an honour. Furthermore we are perhaps too intellectual , in order to carry a policy; we are too critical; the capability, through governmental measures, to judge document of the representative government is too general; in the country there is a too much contending factions, which have a large interest in digressions. That may sound paradoxical, but it proves the rule: does the Prussian Constitution weigh to heavily on life?

Furthermore we are too detached from errors of the government; as if it would be enough to say, that the Minister has made errors, as if one would not share in the suffering. The public opinion changes, the press is not the public opinion; one knows, how the press would develop it; wouldn’t the delegates would have the higher task to lead the mood rather than stand over it? Again our people’s origin is clear, we have to hot blood, we have the preference to carry a too long armament for a small narrow body; only we are to also utilize it. Not one Germany Prussia liberalism sees, but each on its own power; Bavaria, Wuerttemberg, Baden may indulge in liberalism, therefore them none will listen to Prussia role’s roll to instruct them; nevertheless Prussia must compress and hold its strength together for the favorable instant, which has been missed already several times; The Prussian borders after the Viennese Treaties are not favorable to a healthy state. By speeches and majority resolutions the large questions of the time are not decided separately, that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849, but by Iron and Blood.

Otto von Bismarck, to the Prussian National Assembly on the issue of the military appropriation, September 24th, 1862

10th April 1865

Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur Auwers, with a name weightier than his bank balance, stood looking at the vast arc of the train station above him. He even leaned his head backward, a position familiar to him, since he was an astronomer, and surveyed its intricate network of girders, beams and roofing. He had under his arm the beginning notes for what he hoped would be an important work: reductions of old astronomical measurements, put in new format. But for the moment, he was puzzled, around him there was frantic activity, he saw men in uniforms and a bustle that was beyond usual. He turned to the man next to him, and asked.

“Excuse, I must beg your pardon, but what is occurring?”

The other man, with a full beard and wearing a dark suit, looked back. “You are?”

“Herr Professor Auwers, Secretary to the Berlin Academy.” He bowed. “At your service.”

“Well Herr Professor, it is only you who have been looking at the stars that do not know what is going on. There is to be war as of tomorrow.”

The professor should not be thought of as either old or absent minded. He was only 28, and a man of intense concentration. In this case, so intense that the build up to a conflict which everyone said would change the course of history, had escaped him.

“Forgive me, I have been absorbed in my work. We are at war again? Surely not with little Denmark.”

“No, not at all, with the other German states that oppose our lawful rights, most especially, Austria. The preparations are beginning, because they have opposed the plan for suffrage in the Diet, the German parliament, and are going to mobilize. So we will to.”

Auwers did not like the sound of a war within and between Germans, but decided that he should enquire the details elsewhere.

“Yes, yes. Thank you very much. Of course.”

“Nothing of it, you are welcome.”

With this the young Arthur Auwers went speedily to his appointment, he was not, quite yet, officially, the secretary. He needed to accept the appointment formally at the offices of his superior, and then he could take over the work begun so admirably by Encke. And then some, for he knew that the state of the heavens was in a complete disarray. Not the heavens themselves, but the state of the charts used to find anything in them. Observations were scattered, there were dozens of standards, and many of the most basic facts were suspect. Why even the distance between the Earth and the Sun was not well known, and there was only a decade to prepare for the momentous event of Venus transiting the sun. It was this event that could be used to calculate the distance more accurately – the way the moons of Jupiter were used to calculate the longitude on the terrestrial sphere more accurately.

He sped to the cabs, and hired one to take him, and his luggage, to his lodgings, and thence to the offices where he would accept the position, and be secure. He thought it was fortunate that he had hurried, because, who knows what could befall an offer when war was started. He also had plans to go to England, in order to look for certain old and rare manuscripts, and this too might well be delayed by hostilities. He would have to find the details.

Arthur Auwers’ dream was to set the mapping of the heavens right, and he knew that it was in England, specifically London, where the most voluminous and accurate measurements that had yet to be brought under his eye were located. The observations dated back to 1740, and included detailed data on the transits of Venus, including, probably, the transits of 1631 and 1639. At Konigsberg he had found information that indicated that there had been some sightings of the 1639 transit, predicted by Kepler, and perhaps the one of 1631. He longed to acquire whatever was in England on the subject, since another exact observation would help. He was due to accept an honour in London, in May, and fully intended to use the opportunity to gather more evidence and information, for example, the rest of Bradley’s observations, and any that were before that might be reduced from morass of unreliable data, to a concise repository of useful information. But only recently had there been the methods and the theories to do this.

Of course, farther in his mind was to travel to the locations of the two upcoming transits of Venus – in 1874 and 1882. 8 years might seem like a very long time to someone in regular life, but he knew, with the difficulties of apparatus and travel, that it was just barely enough time to do what he needed to do.

These thoughts occupied him as he walked into the office, a high ceiling room in an old and lovely classical style building, of which Berlin was filled, and looked across the desk at the man who could either make his reputation, or create in his life a living hell of barriers and problems.

“Herr Director, it is I, GF Arthur Auwers, I have come at your request.”

The director nodded sternly, and looked carefully at the young man, dressed in a somewhat ill fitting and old fashioned suit with a string tie. The young man already had fairly heavy whiskers, and was going slightly bald on his forehead, he also had a slightly ungainly stance, clearly from having worked under heliograph and telescope. These appearances, elsewhere in Berlin, would have lead to instantaneous dismissal, particularly in the social regions dominated by the old Junker nobility, and there attention to uniforms and detail. Behind the director hung a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm I, dressed in his pomp and circumstance uniform, and sporting a meticulously groomed mustache and handle bar beard.

It was the dress of the director, and the portrait, and his knowledge of the capital’s obsession with dress that made the young Auwers feel ill at ease. But this ended in a moment, as he could see the director break a broad grin.

“Herr Secretary, I am truly honoured to have you hear, and I am sure your coming is the beginning of a long and illustrious association with our society. I have heard of your work, your concern for it above all else. Now I am sure, you are the only man in Berlin today who is not focused south, but up. And I have absolute need for men of precision about their work.”

There was a pause.

“But I would like, if it would be possible, to advance you some small sum on your salary, so that you might be made slightly more presentable. The post needs politics as well as astronomy. It would be most unfortunate for you to be set back in the slightest by such a trivial thing.”

Auwers, exhaled slowly, and then began.

“Very good, herr director. I have also taken the liberty to propose some plans for my work here, which I sent in advance.”

The director took out a folio and opened it.

“Yes indeed, I have read them, and will approve all of them, most particularly the journey to England. Your plans, I might say, are of the meticulous kind that shall win our army its victory, and win Germany the first rank at the front of the scientific conflict.”

“The scientific conflict, Herr Director?”

The older man nodded. “Superiority in navigation will be essential when German fleets steam out to take their rightful place in the sun.”

“Ah, yes, yes.” Though the younger man’s attention was not on war, but still on the stars. “When can I begin work in my office?”

“Oh immediately.

That was precisely the answer he had been hoping for. He went there, and sat down, dashing off the letters he would need to secure introduction, and then set to reading two curious letters that had arrived for him.

My esteemed Professor CF Arthur Auwers,

I have read with interest your papers on the motion of stars and observations, I have also heard of your coming to our fair land to accept the honour of being made a member of the Royal Society, and thought to bring these two points together in aid of a problem that one of my subordinates has in a project very similar to your own on the Reduction of Bradley’s observations. She has been assigned the task of searching through previous medical records of London, so that we may compile an exact statistical rendering of the causes of mortality as far back as that which we have information for.

Much of the data, however, is in a terrible shape, and there are references which, we believe, you could easily set us on the right path towards understanding. God has writ the order of the world, and it is for us to use observation and statistics to understand that order over the very large scales, small for him, but greater than we, mere fleas that we are, can oomprehend easily.

So it is in this spirit that I ask if could possible set aside some of your very valuable time in order to look over these entries – of an astronomical quality – so that she might extract proper dates and information. The least amount of your attention would allow her to secure the truth contained in these documents, and allow us to apply this to our work in healing the sick and preventing the worsening of outbreaks of disease.

At your service

Florence Nightengale

Post Script,

There is a Doctor Joseph Lister who desires to make your acquaintence, being very much an admirer of your methods, and who hopes to discuss general scientific reforms that they imply for the keeping of medical records. He will be in attendence at one of the meetings of a society we have formed here for the application of scientific methods to medical arts, and has suggested that we invite you to speak to our group on your important work in relation to the celebrated English Astronomer Bradley, and the importance of observation in discovering the true causes of phenomena. His suggestion was taken very favorably by the society, and so we would like to extend a formal invitation for you to speak.

He composed a short reply, in his best language, and speculated on what the data could be like, but he had other matters which were catching his attention.

Like many young men in a hurry, with a greater mission, GF Arthur Auwers did not waste his time on considering marriage. He was married to his work, and a monastic devotion to it. He read a letter from Neinrich Ludwig d’Arrest in Copenhaggen, who he had written to on the state of the Berlin Obeservatory. The reply was short, crisp and precise, as one would be expected from a man as important as one of the discoverers of Uranus, but it was also filled with despair. As second assistant, d’Arrest had labored mightily to upgrade the facilities in Berlin, but had come to nothing. He had gone to Leipzig, and then in 1857 to his present position, simply because he felt he could make more aggressive changes and engage in a larger program of improving equipment. He reminded Arthur that the 23 cm Berlin observatory telescope that they had used was far smaller than what Herschel had had many years before, and it was only luck, and better star charts, that had allowed them to beat the French to the discovery. He noted approving noted on Auwers’ project saying that he felt sure that if he had Herschel’s observations in good form, that he could easily save a great deal of observing and duplication.

Auwers resolved to build a sun station for a heliograph, an instrument with which he was the established master, and also resolved that it should be done in time so that they could start observing transits of Mercury as soon as was practical. He noted that he had to check the calculations of their occurance so he could argue for accelerated construction. After having made notes and written a complete report on the findings and the recommendations he had for the observatory, he dash off a quick letter to Wilhelm Foerster, the newly appointed director there, expressing hope that while he had no formal position at the Observatory, surely it was to the great advantage of the Observatory to accept some of his voluntary services in its program to make Berlin an astronomical center to rival London.

After lunch he wrote back to d’Arrest, expressing gratitude for his labors on Siderum Nebulosorum Observationes Havnienses due out the next year. He was not a man to give effusive praise, but he managed to find some for the eminent astronomer, and then, decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on calculations.

An outside observer from above would wonder whether such a person was destined for a life of anything but obscure productivity.