ABSTRACT
Among all the German territorial states formed by the chance accretion of inheritance and conquests, Brandenburg-Prussia is perhaps the most freakish growth. The only effective way to the Pomeranian ports lay through victory in Alsace or the Netherlands; it was of no use to fight for them in Pomerania itself, to say nothing of East Prussia or Courland, where Brandenburg’s triumphant soldiery had actually penetrated in pursuit of the enemy. Frederick III, who succeeded to the consolidated territories in 1688, added lustre to the state by acquiring the title of King of Prussia, but in other respects his rule marked a retrogression. Only in Prussia, under the Great King, could a poet assert, as Hippel did, that “to be a Prussian is to be a patriot.” Thus from the outset this state of Prussia received the stamp which differentiated it from the rest and gave it a firm basis and a definite orientation.
