Cf. Abbé E. Wetterlé (Representative for Alsace-Lorraine): few men exercised over Parliament an action so powerful as his. When the President granted him leave to speak, all the members gathered around him, for he never left his seat to mount the tribune. ... Bismarck, who could not stand contradiction, used to leave the assembly as soon as Richter began to speak. ... Few debaters had the courage to try their strength with the terrible polemicist. Kardorff and Kanitz, like Bebel and Singer, only reluctantly accepted the struggle with the man who always succeeded in having the laugh on his side. In: Behind the Scenes in the Reichstag, New York, 1918, p.47-48. (online)
