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254 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE DIVINE RIGHT OF HOHENZOLLERN 255 instance in the history of Austria. In the case of the latter we see one and the same prince as chosen head of the empire, and as feudal lord of a province of the same empire, by descent, intriguing against the empire in the interest of the province. His intrigues are successful, for his successes towards the south seem to revive the inherited conflict between Germany and Italy, whereas his expansion to the east leads to a continuation of the bitter fight between the German and Slavic race, and the resistance of Christian Europe against the Mohammedan Orient. Finally, by shrewd family alliances his personal power attains such an eminence that for a time it not only threatens to engulf the whole empire, which he managed to surround with an artificial glamor, but to bury the whole world under the domination of a universal monarchy.
had not been entirely incorporated in the kingdom of Prussia in the year 1815, and by the time the electors of Brandenburg tried to appropriate it piecemeal, it had long since ceased to be a slavic state. Even the credit for having transformed the southern and southeastern seaboard of the Baltic sea was due partly to the mercantile enterprise of the German trader, and partly to the sword of the German knight, and belongs to the history of Germany and Poland, not to that of Brandenburg, which came only to reap where it had not sown.
In the annals of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (now a province of Prussia and originally the home and possession of the Hohenzollern family) we do not meet with such gigantic characteristics. Whereas the history of her rival appeals to us as a mephistophelian epic, that of Brandenburg creates the impression of a dirty family squabble in comparison. Even where, in view of the identity of interests, we would be led to expect similar tendencies, there is a tremendous difference. The original importance of the two border states Brandenburg and Austria (Eastern Margraviate) is traceable to the fact that they were the advance guard of Germany against the neighboring Slavs, whether for defensive br offensive purposes. But even from this point of view the history of Brandenburg lacks color, life and dramatic action, for it comprises only actions on a small scale with unknown Slavic races scattered over a comparatively small strip of territory between the Elbe and the Oder, none of which ever attained historical importance. The Margraviate of Brandenburg never subdued or Germanized a single Slavic race of historical importance, and in fact succeeded only once in reaching out as far as the confines of Brandenburg. Even Pomerania, whose feudal lords were the margraves of Brandenburg from the time of the 12th century, We may be so bold as to claim that among the numerous readers who are interested in the importance of the classic names Achilles, Cicero, Nestor, and Hector, very few will have come across the fact that the sandy soil of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which today produces only sheep and potatoes, gave birth to four electors who enjoyed the proud titles Albrecht Achilles, John Cicero, Joachim Nestor, and Joachim II. Hector. The same glorious mediocrity which is responsible for the fact that the Electorate of Brandenburg matured so slowly to what we will politely call a European power, shielded its internal history from any indiscreet curiosity on the part of the outside world. Based on this, Prussian statesmen and historians have tried their utmost to get the world to accept and understand that Prussia is the military state par excellence, from which it follows that the Divine Right of the Hohenzollern is the right of the sword, the right of conquest.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It is possible to assert, on the contrary, with perfect accuracy, that of all the provinces which the Hohenzollern possess today, only one was conquered Silesia. This fact is so isolated in the annals of the history of the house that it earned for Frederick II, the surname of Peerless. The Prussian monarchy comprises 107, 578 square miles; the Province of Brandenburg at present contains 15, 514, and Silesia 15, 748 square miles. How, then, did she manage to acquire Prussia with 25, 035, Posen with 11, 391, Pomerania with 12, 050, Saxony with 9, 776, Westphalia with 7, 778, Rhenish Prussia with 10, 180 square miles? By the