ABSTRACT
Prussia had been the first state on Germ an soil whose endeavours, at least since the reign of Frederick W illiam I, had been directed tow ards the state rather than the dynasty. The concept of state provided unity and the force of integration over a patchw ork of territories of vastly different traditions, economic social and political development. It was not the product of dynastic marriages or deaths. It could last only as long as in every one of its subjects or citizens the concept of state exercised its dom inant influence. W hy this concept exercised such an integrating force is a question difficult if not impossible to answer. After all, it has nothing to offer other than rigorous dem ands. From its m onarchs downwards it did not reward pious intentions, only efforts and accomplishments. It never pretended to be or tried to become a dem ocratic state. Its pride lay in being an au thoritarian state, m arked by its hierarchic structure. The to talitarian state whose origins are of a dem ocratic character was alien to Prussia, as the Prussian substance was alien to totalitarianism . In its m ethods it had always been revolutionary, but in its nature it was and rem ained conservative.
