The great central European plain inhabited by the German race stretches over a vast tract of territory in which emperors, kings, princes and dukes have risen and fallen since ancient times, and the marriage alliances they have forged with other rulers have spread their connections throughout the continent to make Germany an important part of Europe. Even now this region is divided among a number of aristocratic houses into several dozen principalities and duchies. To the south is the Austrian Empire, while across the centre to the French borders lie the lands of the former Confederation of the Rhine, known as southern Germany, and in the north are the territories called northern Germany, among which the largest is the kingdom of Prussia. Its power has grown prodigiously in recent years, and both north and south have been united under Prussian rule since 1871, when the king was elevated to the title of ‘Kaiser’ [emperor] of Germany and a federal assembly of the states was established in his capital at Berlin. While the country thus passes under the name of Germany in its relations with foreign powers, political authority is still divided internally among a number of states, just as before.

The land of Prussia resembles a silk patchwork. The separate fragments have been stitched together in the course of political manoeuvring by successive generations of lords and vassals, and the formation of this large country over the last two hundred years is inextricably bound up with the history of the Prussian royal family.