THE HOHENZOLLERNS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 87, 24 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE HOHENZOLLERNS.

DERIVATION OF THE NAME

You will need no very back study of history to trace the origin of royal upstarts who have plunged all Europe into blood. The Habeburg dynasty in Austria lias its roots a long way back in time, but the Prussian King can claim no very considerable roya». antestry. It is a story of continuous selfassertion, of war and picked quarrels, of far-teeing cunning, moving towards consolidation of gains, and still greater aggrandisement, of the Prussian bully in short, to use the expression so happily coined by our foremost humorous journal. Search your hardest through Hal!::m':s masterly pages dealing with the development of Europe, and you will not find a mention of the race which now has some royal representative at oi- to with nearly every one of the fUia t: r Courts of Europe, and you will not succeed in finding a mention of its name; and yet to-day it aspires to rule all Europe, has brought into horrid being a Pan-Germanic "ideal" of blood and iron masquerading in the .sheep's clothing of a false ultra-civilisation.

Tli? name is said to have been derived from the estate of some legendary mediaeval person, ''hohen" being the equivalent of our "High' : so after prefixed to English place names. This estate of Zoliern was near Lake. Constance. and if this, be the true derivation of the name it shows that the present Kaiser by origin at least came from South Germany, the land of romance and the old Germanism which appealed to the world. However that may be, they were a pushing family, and by the thirteenth century one of the family by the practice of usury is said to have been nominated by the Emperor as Elector of Brandenburg, which included Berlin. The state of confusion in matters political in Germany m these times is difficult to unravel, and whether the Saxon Electors who everted their usually powerless overlord c r Emperor were hereditary personages a' any particular time it is difficult to say. Let it suffice that in the sixteenth century, Anne, the daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg, married the man son of the conqueror of the race of savage-; called Pruezi. inhabiting a territory now comprised in Prussia. Not before that time can the present Pruss'an family be snid to have been founded. The Duchy of Prussia was, however, merely an appanage of the kingdom of Poland, so that r.o one could a.s yet claim to be of royal blood. To find the true founder of anything approaching a royal house we must wait for the appearance on the scene of the s.on of Frederick William, sometimes c alled the Great Elector, since he threw off the Polish yoke, and lie did not succeed to the Dukedom until the year of our revolution. 1688. This son Frederick was the first King of Prussia, which title lie assumed in 1701. The present loval German house, therefore, is a mere pinchbeck affair of 200 odd years, and like mot nouveau riche families makes up for what it lacks in history and tradition by an upstart aggressiveness. FAMILY AGGRANDISEMENT. it was a small enough territory, and r till subject to the nominal control of the Holy Roman Empire, but the Holienze'leriis were soon at work to set that right. The second of the Prussian Kings wa« Frederick William 1., who died in 17-10. His contribution tj the family aggrandisement took the form of building up ;<:i army. A contemptible little army compared with his descendants' efforts, but r.s a standing army for the time he lived in, large enough. He starved his family of clothes, of food, of accommodaron, in order to •support it body of troofw, ; Ti l in ievenly, seven years had a fighting machine of 83,000. He improved the condition of the country, no doubt, in many ways, but was subject to ungovernable fit sot rage and treated his children with unprincely brutality oftentimes in public. Historical accounts of this king lead us to the conclusion that he was not always responsible for his actions. Madre-? and genius are said to be allied. His ill-treated son Frederick (the Great) succeeded him. The Hohenzollern fondness for war is well exemplified in him. He found a weapon ready to his hand in the army which Ins father had so laborious'} - and penuriously built up. and with it and others raised afterwards he fought a series of successful wars, backed by an alliance, during the Seven Years' War, with ourselves. LOVE OF WAR. The rich district of Silesia was fo: ced from Austria and eventually held after backward and forward struggles ranging ever near 20 years. The policy ot a iiiggei Prussia was his, and, thanks to his marvellous military genius, he achieved it. Finally he compelled Catherine of Russia, after her conquest of Poland, to divide up the spoils, and in the hateful partition of Poland in 1773 secured a further slice of territory. Wars have paid the Prussians. Is it any wonder that they love war and make it their golden image? Frederick, however, loved the French, although he ihrashed their armies. He loved their literature, and was the close friend, patron, and eventually the enemy of Voltaire, but he was a man without a heart, forgetful of all that his soldiers /■nd generals and subjects did for him. A great soldier, but from the point of the happiness of his people nothing like in great a King. He had no children. Frederick William 11. followed, and after him Frederick William HI., chased from his throne l>v that arch tlironetoppler Napoleon. The Corsican avenged the defeats inflicted by Frederick the Great. Once again the Prussians called for our aid. Napoleon found the Prussian King more- of a tailor than a man: his weakness was clothes. However, in the end he out-lasted the Cor. sean and kept his restored throne until his death in IS4O. PRUSSIAN BULLIES. Frederick William IV. was the brother of the "'old Emperor," and his story oin he simply told for present purposes. William I. pursued the same policy of Prussian bullying, aided by his Chancellor Bismarck, Denmark was forced to yield up Schleswig: a brief successful campaign against. Austria; and the war against France, founded upon the forged telegram ot Ems, resulting in an actual money profit of sixty odd millions besides moro territory. Prussia meantime had become the chief State of a Confederation of North German States. After Sedan a Federation of All Germany, with Prussia in the saddle. Is it snia'l wonder that the descendants of the Duke of Smal'er Prussia should achieve swollen head and braggadocio? William 11. copied li s ancestor Frederick the Great in his contempt and ingratitude towards those who had served him by discharging Bismarck, the engineer of the events of 1870, the founder of united Germany. Ruthless luw he proved to nil small principalities and rulers within the bounds of the Empire. The ruler of Lippe claimed his own; Wiiliani do sired the state for some member of his family. The Bundesrat.. or Assembly f: c the crowned heads of Germany de cided against the Kaiser. A sportsman and a gentleman would accept the ver-

| diet. The Kaisei sunt Lippe and its ! ju.er .to Coventry, and decreased by Imperial rescript the guard of honour! Court circles, which in Germanv are also synoynmous with monev circles had to give the little State* a widofcberth, and 60 it was nearlv ruined. % marriage, by Joan, by alliance, in every way by increasing endeavour the Kaiser has sought still further to extend his influence, losing at the same time no opportunity of furthering the fortunes of members of the Hohenzollern family. Many a better man has made the same mistake of forgetting tho> human element, whilst devoting his energies exclusively to the machine of government. Germany is, however, a wonderful monument to fixity of purpose. Prussia took the chair as" it were at the conference of Germanic principalities and kingdoms in 1871. In *iie result the others have handed over their souls to the Emperor just a.s the common people have surrendered every shred of liberty to the military idea of discipline. It is all a wonderful example of efficiency in business organisation. Hardly, therefore, should we wonder at treaties broken, neutralities violated, a civilian population battered, murdered, outraged, piracy on land and at sea. The wonder is that tiiose who have brought into being this monster from Frederick William I. down to the lesser beings of to-day should have been able to control it so long.