Otto von Bismarck and Rudolf Virchow proposed duel with sausages (ref 1867)

[Baker, John M.]

        Such an early reference to the story of the sausages makes me
wonder if there indeed might be some truth to it.  Bismarck challenged
Virchow in 1865, so the newspaper account is only a couple of years
later.  There is also an 1868 account in Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours
(Google Books), which says its source is a "Berlin journal."  More
reliable sources tend not to mention the sausages.  For example, William
Jacks, The Life of Prince Bismarck 195 (1899) (Google Books) says simply
that the duel "was prevented by the House" (i.e., the House of Deputies,
of which Virchow was a member).

        There are frequent references to Bismarck's love of sausages, so
the incident, if it occurred, does not seem to have marred Bismarck's
view of sausages permanently.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Garson O'Toole
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 9:30 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Otto von Bismarck and Rudolf Virchow proposed duel with
sausages (ref 1867)

Otto von Bismarck has been credited with the quotation "Laws are like
sausages. It's better not to see them being made." (Fred Shapiro and
Ralph Keyes identified John Godfrey Saxe as a superior candidate for
coiner of the saying.) John Baker found a remarkable anecdote about a
proposed duel using sausages as weapons between Otto von Bismarck and
the scientist Rudolf Virchow.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0801B&L=ADS-L&P=R8160

John Baker noted that the story "goes back at least to A.H. Miles, One
Thousand and One Anecdotes (1895)." There is an earlier cite in a
South Carolina newspaper in 1867 [DBV]:

(In this account Vichow is misspelled as Vircow.)

A Berlin journal relates that the famous Bismarck once challenged Dr.
Vircow for offensive language used in parliamentary debate. The
learned doctor was at that time engaged in investigations relating to
trichinosis. He is said to have thus replied to the messenger who bore
Bismarck's challenge: "My arms; there they are-those two sausages. One
of them is full of trichinae; the other is pure. Let his Excellency
breakfast with me. We will eat the sausages; and he shall take his
choice of them."

[DBV] 1867 July 18, The Mountaineer, Page NA, Column 1, Issue 17,
Greenville, South Carolina. (Gale InfoTrac 19th Century U.S.
Newspapers)

I discuss the law and sausage quote at my blog Quotation Investigator:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/07/08/laws-sausages/

Garson

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