A chit-chat with a German last week has enlightened me quite a bit of the German history pre-World War II. Before, I knew only about the division of Germany into West Germany and East Germany post the war, but barely anything about the preceding kingdoms era.
Apparently, according to this German ‘informant’ of mine (I prefer not to mention his name here because I haven‘t asked permission to quote him), until somewhere between the 18th and 19th Centuries, Germany had been divided into more than 40 small kingdoms. Not very much different from Indonesia, it apparently was.
And Prussia, which I formerly thought was somewhere in Russia (okay, I admit I hadn‘t really checked on the name before talking with the German, whom I will refer to as ’Mr. X’ from here on), was apparently one of Germany’s largest kingdoms. In fact, he said it was the largest nearing the end of the kingdoms era. It had managed to conquer plenty of other smaller kingdoms, and is basically a foundation of the modern, united Germany.
I’ve just checked on Wikipedia, and it says that Prussia stood from 1701 to 1918 and covered almost two-thirds of the German Empire’s area. The establishment of the empire, whose first king was a Prussian king, marked the unification of Germany, after southern German kingdoms such as Bavaria pledged their allegiances to the new empire (post defeats in wars and all with the Prussians, according to Mr. X).
Anyway, the empire had dragged the Germans into the World War I, and it was after its defeat in the war and subsequently the abdication of its last king William II in 1918 that Germany’s kingdoms era ended, as the empire became a federal republic.
Now, really, the reason why we started the chit-chat on the German history was because I remembered reading information regarding Sanssouci Palace (or Schloss Sanssouci in German) I visited last summer in Potsdam, an outskirt of Berlin, saying it was the summer residence of Prussian kings, and only after that have I’ve become aware that Prussia was a German kingdom.
Schloss Sanssouci, a summer residence of Prussian kings, is located in Potsdam, an outskirt of Berlin.
Anyway, according to Mr. X, it’s not wrong for me to assume it is somewhere in Russia, because in fact, he said, Prussia once covered Poland and nearby regions of Russia aside of northern Germany. And, why Berlin has become Germany’s capital is because it was the capital of Prussia.
The kingdom’s main palace in Brandenburg, though, has been destroyed. Mr. X said the wide green field before the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) was the location of the palace before it was destroyed. Berlin’s main icon, the famous Brandenburg Gate (or Brandenburger Tor in German), was the entrance for the kings whenever they wanted to come into or out of the kingdom’s capital. Common citizens were not allowed to pass through the gate, they should use other entrances.
That is me with the famous Brandenburger Tor at the background. Nice pic, don't you think? 😀
Now, other questions popping out in my head were, where are the remaining royal families of Germany’s monarchs there? Are they still there? Do they still live in the castles? Many German castles like Schloss Sanssouci or Schloss Neuchswanstein seem to be in too good conditions to be considered abandoned. Do they receive any different treatments from the common citizens like maybe their counterparts in Britain, Japan, or Indonesia’s Yogyakarta and Solo aka Surakarta?
Well, Mr. X had all the answers for me, which is why I deem the Saturday evening’s gathering in his place quite productive (although I had to sort of dragging my feet to get there -I’m not quite a fan of socializing, remember?). He said, yes, the royal families were still there, and yes, many of them still lived in the castles, though most, due to financial issues, were forced to open most of the rooms for tourists. Many others, however, are seemingly in quite good financial situation from the way they manage to keep their castles in private, not letting them traceable in maps for visitors to look around. The rest are forced to sell their castles to the state.
And, no, unlike their counterparts in the UK, Japan, or Indonesia’s Yogyakarta and Surakarta, members of German royal families were not treated any differently from common citizens. In fact, Mr. X said, they are not very much liked by most Germans and the use of ’von’ in their names, as in Otto von Bismarck, which signifies their royal bloods, more often than not raise people’s eyebrows (“Who still use ’von’ these days?” Mr. X commented). I didn’t quite pay attention, though, when Mr. X explained why it became so. If I’m not wrong it has something to do with the royal families’ dragging the Germans into the world wars, which then led into their defeats.
It is also good information from Mr. X that people in southern Germany (such as Bavaria) are basically more conservative than those in the North (such as Berlin and Hamburg), mostly because the latter has been home to immigrants from many foreign countries, which makes them more used to foreigners. To people in South, however, even visiting northern Germans often raise their suspicions. Don’t forget they also use quite different German words from people in the North, and while most southern Germans are Catholics, most northern Germans are Protestants.
What remains unclear for me, though, where was actually southern Germany’s position during the division of the country into West and East? Mr. X unfortunately left before giving me sufficient explanation on the issue. First, he said my guess that Germany had been perhaps actually divided into three: South, Northwest and Northeast (with the last two presumably forming the West and the East), was correct. But, then, he added that southern Germany was always part of the West, so he had probably heard me wrongly before confirming my guess.
Any of you could perhaps answer the question? It’ll be very much appreciated.
Auf wiedersehen! 🙂
There & (Never) Back Again 