ABSTRACT
The heart of the Prussian State is the March of Brandenburg, that flat country of sand, pine forests and lakes which formed the border between medieval Germany and her Eastern neighbours, the Slavs. It was a district on the very outskirts of civilization. The Hohenzollerns fully accepted the old-established system of their predecessors, to run the country in collaboration with a small and dominant group of local nobles, the squirearchy of the Junkers. This collaboration of Monarch and Junkers became the cornerstone of Prussia. The most powerful of Prussian kings was Frederick the Great. Frederick turned his army into his most successful instrument of policy. The collapse of Prussia which Napoleon brought about in 1806 was the inevitable consequence. The people of Prussia watched with utter indifference, the complete collapse of a society in which only the interests of the State counted; and the State meant the king and his privileged supporters, the Junkers.
