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Hardly, however, had the discussion ended before a second attempt was made on the life of the aged sovereign. This time it was Dr. Karl Nobiling who, on June 2, 1878, fired at the Emperor from an upper window in the main street of Berlin. In this case, the Emperor was severely wounded, and, in the panic that ensued, even the moderate elements agreed that social democracy must be suppressed.
Some days before the meeting of the Congress the old Emperor had been wounded in the arm by a nihilist, Nobiling, who Fired from a window when the Emperor was passing in an open carriage. Le Prince de Bismarck a l'honneur de prevenir Son Excellence, Monsieur Waddington, que la premiere reunion du Congres aura lieu le 13 juin a deux heures, au Palais du Chancelier de l'Empire, 77, Wilhelmstrasse.
Moreover, no special act in the world could hinder people of unsound mind from committing insane deeds the crimes of a Hodel or a Nobiling could not be predicted, but neither could they be prevented by any kind of precautionary measure. The sole result of a special act would be to make the Socialists practically outlaws in their own country.
The fact was noticed by the Emperor himself, for one day he said jestingly to Bismarck: "Nobiling knew better than the doctors what I really needed a good blood-letting."
Nobiling, on June 2, 1878, and during the whole time of the Congress the Crown Prince Frederick acted as regent of the Empire. Limited as his powers were by law, etiquette, and Bismarck, he is said to have used them on behalf of Austria and England.
The Iron Chancellor, by the way, mentions a curious fact in connexion with the attempt on Emperor William's life by Nobiling. The Chancellor says he had noticed that in the seventies the Emperor's powers had begun to fail, and that he often lost the thread of a conversation, both in hearing and speaking. After the Nobiling attempt this disability, strangely enough, completely disappeared.
In that year an attempt was made upon the life of King Humbert of Italy; and, while driving in Berlin with his daughter, the Grand Duchess of Baden, Emperor William was shot at by a half-witted youth named Hödel. Three weeks later Dr. Karl Nobiling fired at the Emperor from an upper window overlooking the Unter den Linden.
Then we hear of nothing as between Bismarck and the socialists for some years the years I have described above as years of peace and concord in Germany till suddenly, on the occasion of two attempts made in 1878, by Hödel and by Nobiling against the emperor's life, he came down upon that sect as with a sledge-hammer. His famous anti-socialist bill was at first rejected.
In Germany Socialistic ideas kept growing with the increase of industrialism, and came to a head with the attempts by Hödel and Nobiling on the life of the Emperor William.
An attempt to get the Lassalle society to join the Eisenacher society on an international basis failed for the time, but the two associations finally coalesced at the Gotha Congress of 1875. The attempt on the life of William I in 1878 by the anarchist Nobiling had an important effect on the fortunes of the party and the character of its programme.
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