Kaiser: 'Never will I permit a written sheet of paper to come between our God in heaven and this land ... to rule us with its paragraphs and supplant the old, sacred loyalty'
Corporations: 'The union is a third-party or outsider interfering with the company’s family.'
I read the first quote and couldn't help thinking I'd heard that logic before. Then it clicked. I can't help but wonder if people who oppose unions would also oppose the constitution for the same reason.
>If the Belgian State, for quite ordinary political and financial reasons, itself constructed its chief railway lines; if Bismarck, not under any economic compulsion, took over for the State the chief Prussian lines, simply to be the better able to have them in hand in case of war, to bring up the railway employees as voting cattle for the Government, and especially to create for himself a new source of income independent of parliamentary votes — this was, in no sense, a socialistic measure, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously. Otherwise, the Royal Maritime Company, the Royal porcelain manufacture, and even the regimental tailor of the army would also be socialistic institutions, or even, as was seriously proposed by a sly dog in Frederick William III's reign, the taking over by the State of the brothels.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/ch03.htm
Frederick William IV famously refused the Frankfurt Parliament’s offer to reign as German emperor, despite the fact that he was pro-unification. Wilhelm I, the man who would later become the first German emperor, likewise opposed Bismarck’s plans to orchestrate wars with Austria and France to achieve unification—for example, he acceded to French demands and withdrew a Hohenzollern prince from the Spanish throne.
Why were the Prussian monarchs against a German pan-nationalist movement that would bring more land and glory to Prussia?
If some revolutionaries came up to me and said, "We're making a new, very big state that's very existence is gonna change the balance of power on the continent*, do you want to lead it," I'd say yes in a heart beat. But Frederick William IV rejected the offer. Why?
*The creation of the German Empire in 1871 upset the balance of power of the Concert of Europe, as one would expect from a couple dozen countries coming together to make one big one, so I foresee that this would upset it even more, seeing as it was larger. Then again, this one would be created after a revolution, not after defeating one of the great powers of Europe hot off the heels of a victory against another four years prior, so maybe it'd be different.
A message from His Majesty, the King of Swedes, Wends, and Goths, Gustav III of the House of Holstein-Gottorp.
My Dearest, Frederick William II,
I write to you, not from a dire time, but in a time of celebration. Our mutual enemy has been pushed back from Gothenburg and our other mutual enemy has been stalled at the Eastern Border. It is at this time that I can confidently write to you, from the fortress in Gothenburg.
My Dearest King Frederick William II, I wish you a most fantastic 1789 and may this be the year that both of our nations reach majesty. In the past, you and I have never had conflicts and, indeed, it was past monarchs of both our fine kingdoms that had ever gone to arms. Yet in this day and age, in the year of our Lord, 1789, we find ourselves on the same side of a malicious foe.
Russia is a monster and a threat to both of our sovereignties. I know that you are no stranger to the Russians and that I myself share kinship with the deposed Russian monarch. At present, it is Catherine who rules the Tsardom and she is waging an aggressive war against my ally, the Ottoman Turks. I too am engaged with war with her. However, her territorial ambitions see no limit and I fear that she may turn her sights on you next, perhaps to aid her ally, the foul Joseph II in Austria.
Denmark-Norway too, of the House of the ever so insignificant Oldenburg wish to see my sovereign reign cut short. I know that the Danes are oppressing fine Prussian stock in Holstein, the origin of my family, and that they will answer to Russia’s beck and call like a castrated pup.
The Danish control the way to the Western Seas for both of our nations O Dearest King Frederick William II, and at any moment they could blockade both of our fine states by closing the Sound Tolls. It is thus that I come to you in a time of majesty for I have won a resounding victory against our mutual foes at Gothenburg, not without the diplomatic assistance of His Majesty George III and yourself. I wish to propose a formal alliance between our two Kingdoms, so that we may stand against the Russian encroachment from the East. We do not obligate you to come to war against Russia with us under the terms of this alliance, lest you felt the desire to.
*In the future, however, we will gladly defend Prussia as we would defend Sveriges, and any Swede will give his life before the Prussian crown just as he would before my crown. To solidify this alliance, I propose a formal betrothal between m
... keep reading on reddit ➡To clarify, the territory of Bradenburg was part of the HRE, but Prussia was not. Frederick William (Grandfather of Frederick William I), the Great Elector, helped to unify these territories. How did this situation play out politically and economically?
For example, did Brandenburg have to take certain orders from the Holy Roman Emperor, when Prussia did not? Furthermore, if so, how could Brandenburg-Prussia be unified when the territories are under the authority of different people?
