His descendants
had used every chance and every opportunity to improve their
power and after several centuries of watchful grabbing, they
had been appointed to the dignity of Elector, the name given to
those sovereign princes who were supposed to elect the Emperors
of the old German Empire. During the Reformation,
they had taken the side of the Protestants and the early
seventeenth century found them among the most powerful of the
north German princes.
During the Thirty Years War, both Protestants and
Catholics had plundered Brandenburg and Prussia with equal
zeal. But under Frederick William, the Great Elector, the
damage was quickly repaired and by a wise and careful use of
all the economic and intellectual forces of the country, a state
was founded in which there was practically no waste.
Modern Prussia, a state in which the individual and his
wishes and aspirations have been entirely absorbed by the
interests of the community as a whole this Prussia dates back
to the father of Frederick the Great. Frederick William I was
a hard working, parsimonious Prussian sergeant, with a great
love for bar-room stories and strong Dutch tobacco, an intense
dislike of all frills and feathers, (especially if they were of
French origin,) and possessed of but one idea. That idea was
Duty. Severe with himself, he tolerated no weakness in his
subjects, whether they be generals or common soldiers.
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