ABSTRACT
The Germany in which Kant was born was a ‘crazy quilt’ of more than three hundred independent States, each with its own particular system of government, its own tariffs, and its own army. The idea of a united Germany, even if entertained, was regarded as altogether outside the scope of practical politics. The German Confederation formed after the Napoleonic wars, with Austria as its president, was little more than a group of absolute monarchies. One by one the liberties gained in the struggle against Napoleon were extinguished. While the study of history was being pursued upon the academic plane by such men as Ranke, and later Mommsen and Treitschke, a more practical attitude was being adopted by a group of Left-Wing Hegelians whose interests had brought them in contact with the common people to a degree not usually permitted to men of their origin.
