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Württemberg Democrat Ludwig Pfau on German Federalism (1864/1895)

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In every state there is a dual tendency from the periphery toward the center and from the center toward the periphery. At the same time that individual groups pursue independence, the collective force pursues unified effectiveness, and the normal result of this process is the equilibrium of nationalities vis-à-vis the outside and the equilibrium of various groups, or Federation, on the inside. Thus, in Germany, too, a new center began taking shape after the nation had given up treasonous imperial rule; and the appropriate punishment that history imposed on Austria for its crime of the Thirty Years’ War was the growth of Prussia and the Seven Years’ War, which created a sort of anti-Habsburg emperorship. The military glory and autocratic liberalism of Frederick the Great, as well as the patriotism and bravery of the Prussian people in the Wars of Liberation, contributed their share to advancing the young great state to the leadership of Germany and to binding the wishes of all patriots striving for national unity to Prussia. It was natural that patriotic sentiment would awaken first in the larger and more powerful state; for the smaller states that lack the awareness of strength also lack the initiative for action. Therefore, in the struggle against foreign countries, in the promotion of national spirit, Prussia has made undisputable contributions to Germany. But just as unity is only one aspect of the political task, status vis-à-vis foreign countries is only one aspect of state existence; and if in war the question of external power precedes all others, then in peacetime the internal questions of national organization and development become all the more important, as the strength and health of the nation and ultimately, its position of power, depend on them. If Prussia is the largest German state, this does not prove by any means that it is also the most competent to accomplish – not only externally but also internally – an assignment whose fortunate solution is much more a question of progressive education than of brute force. If Prussia protected the smaller states, then one must not forget, first and foremost, that the small states created Prussia by defending the German Reformation and fighting the Roman imperium; that Prussia has no internal raison d’être but is only a stopgap measure temporarily taking the place of the shattered central authority; and that this new Kaiserdom has an even more anti-German (i.e. centralist) attitude toward any German (i.e. federalist) elements in the small states than the old Holy Roman Empire. Without the dissolution of Prussia into its constituent tribes, the formation of a united, integral, and free Germany will be an impossibility.

Caeterum censeo Borrussiam esse delendam – Besides, I believe Prussia must be destroyed.*

The pursuit of equilibrium, which is the soul of historical development, manifests itself in dual form in the external struggles to demarcate territory between one empire and the other, and in the internal struggles to demarcate rights between the individual and the community, between the community and the tribe, and between the tribe and the nation. The external struggle is based on force, the internal one on justice. Both unfold side by side, they take turns coming to the fore, they blend and separate in the course of history; but neither of the two can reach final completion without the other, for this completion is precisely the balancing of the one by the other, i.e., the agreement of domestic and foreign policy, or the reconciliation of force and rights in the complex of justice: Force must protect rights, and rights must sanction force.

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* This is a variation on the comment made by the ancient Roman politician Cato regarding Carthage. Cato concluded each of his Senate speeches with these words – trans.

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