So mind you! The principle of progress and of morality does not rest with the ruler and the external position of power for which he strives, but with the citizen and the internal development of rights that he effects; the higher, decisive, and redemptive idea is represented not by a unity whose ultimate object is power and domination, but rather by freedom, whose ultimate goal is the rule of right and virtue; and as a logical consequence, it is not the state with the most bayonets that stands at the head of the nation, but rather the one with the highest political development, i.e., the greatest degree of internal freedom. In moral affairs, the important thing is quality, not quantity; and the thought of Prussian hegemony is a reversal of all logic and of all history. Prussia was not the starting point for the political and intellectual development of Germany; Prussia was not the one that protected and cultivated it; on the contrary, the entire Prussian hegemony consists much more in leading the reaction. History reveals this to us, while logic tells us that this new large state, precisely because it took the external mission of military power as its major task, had to become incapable of the internal mission of political progress and lawful state planning by force of necessity. One has seen the rule of sabers break up parliaments and constitutions often enough; but when has one ever seen it create such things in a liberal sense or handle them in honest implementation? O sancta simplicitas! – What stunning naïveté! The internal illiberality and unlawfulness of Prussian rule is not capable of leading Germany towards its true national destination.
[ . . . ]
The narrow-heartedness of small states [Kleinstaaterei] has indeed caused our national standing to wither relative to [non-German lands]; on the other hand, it is to particularism alone that we owe the modest degree of rights and freedoms that we possess; to it alone that we owe our liberation from the Roman intellectual yoke and the rich blossoming of our literature and the sciences. This intellectual property is what makes us a nation, not the marvelous military forces of the Prussian king. Despite all of this Enlightenment fuss in Berlin, Prussia has never truly fostered intellectual development because this can only happen through freedom; Prussia has impeded, if possible, the progress of the smaller states and suppressed their demands for liberty by dragging the rest of Germany behind it on the path of reaction, following Russia’s tow rope. That Prussia existed on a low cultural plane, even in the middle of the nineteenth century, was demonstrated by the atrocities it committed in Baden, atrocities of which no other German state except Austria would be capable. If the Gothaers* in all their innate servility rejoiced at the accession of the prince of Prussia to the throne, then we have forgotten neither the cannon salvoes of Berlin nor the bullets of the fusillade** at Rastatt.
Thus, the medium-sized and small states are the starting points and bases of German culture, and only with their help can a successful reorganization of Germany come about. Therefore, the first condition for a healthy popular policy is the abandonment of Prussian hegemony, which is a true national calamity and was entirely condemned by the history of the years 1848 and 1849. After all these experiences, it is incomprehensible that there are still non-Prussians who are able to defend such a ruinous policy. The Prussians themselves have to renounce it; they themselves have to relinquish their hegemony if they ever wish to reach freedom. For this hegemony means exhausting the people’s strength to produce a stepped-up military force that is capable of swallowing everything; it means the rule of sabers, the arbitrariness of police, and the breach of law at home; in a word, it means centralization. As long as the Prussians do not renounce their Prussianness and declare their support for federation, they are not ready for freedom.
[ . . . ]
* Supporters of the hereditary emperorship in Germany, forerunners of the National Liberals – trans.
** Reference to the revolutionaries summarily executed by Prussian troops under then Crown Prince Wilhelm in 1849 – trans.
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