Since its publication in 1983, Theodor Schieder's study has been recognised as the most distinguished modern study of Prussia's most famous King and a leading figure of the eighteenth century. This abbreviated translation provides the first comprehensive scholarly treatment in English published since 1975.

Since its publication in 1983, Theodor Schieder's study has been recognised as the most distinguished modern study of Prussia's most famous King and a leading figure of the eighteenth century. This abbreviated translation provides the first comprehensive scholarly treatment in English published since 1975.

Bermann Rauschning's book "Gesprache mit Bitler," published first in French at the end of 1939, in German in 1940, and then translated into many other languages, was a world-bestseller. The conversations contained in this book between Bitler and Rauschning, then President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig, took place in the years 1933 and 1934. The ques tions arises whether these conversations are authentie and whether or not they can be regarded as primary historical sourees. There can be not doubt of the book's deep and wide-reaching impact: Bitler's war policy seemed to confirm its statements in many points. It still furnished evidence for the Nuremberg trial before the International Military Tribunal. After the Se cond World War, however, the scholarly evaluation of the book was not unanimous: while a number of historians (e. g. B. Trevor-Roper, A. Bul lock), who were interested in the person and the political system of Bitler, attributed a high source value to the "Gesprache," others (e. g. A. Jacobsen, E. Jaeckel), proceeding from particular aspects, expressed strong criticism. An exact analysis of Rauschning's book, in which the author's earlier work "Die Revolution des Nihilismus" must also be included, demonstrates that, for the period of the conversations with Rauschning, there is at present no other primary source available which provides original statements of Bit ler. That is also true of the establishing of contacts with Poland at the end of 1933 in which Rauschning's services were of considerable importance."

The lecture makes initial references to the European nation-state as an historie phenomenon. An attempt must be made today to examine from comparative aspects the general wealth of ideas and thoughts of the nation states in Europe, their common ways and means, their special symbols, but also the different phases of their common history. The nationalization of modern Europe, which replaced all other forms of government with the nationally sovereign state, passed through three major stages, and these three stages constituted not only a temporal sequence, but they also gave birth to nation-states of varying types. In the first stage, the modern nation was formed in England and France as a citizens' community within an existing state by means of an internal state revolution, based on specific political values and the will of the people. The second phase gave rise to nation-states formed from divided parts of nations; this was the hour of the movements for national unity in Germany and Italy. In the third phase, in which history has pushed forward from Western Europe across Central Europe into Eastern Europe, anational consciousness has developed in the large supra national monarchies against the state and the national state in the process of formation is based on secession. Thus, in this area, all nation-states came into being by breaking away from large empires. All of Europe is affected by each of these stages, thus the three-stage process of the nation-state movement retains its universal character."

Die Zahlen vor der Anmerkungsziffer bezeichnen die Seite, auf der die Anmer kung im Text zu Hnden ist. Kapitel I 7 1 Das Wort Nationalstaat selbst ist in der deutschen Sprache relativ jung und erscheint nicht vor der Zeit der nationalen Einigungsbewegung. Schulz Basler, Deutsches Fremdworterbuch gibt als frtihestes Zeugnis die Rede von Du Bois-Reymond "Das Kaiserreich und der Friede" vom 26. Januar 1871 an. (Du Bois-Reymond, Reden, 1886, I. Bd., S. 970.) Altere Belegstellen dtirften sich aber unschwer Hnden lassen. 8 2 Zitiert bei H. Raschhofer, Der politische Volksbegriff im modernen Italien, 1936, S. 140f., nach Romagnosi, "Scienza della costituzione" von 1815. Kapitel II 10 3 Sten. Ber. der Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, VII, S. 4821. 11 ' Dazu neben der alteren Arbeit von O. Westphal, Welt- und Staatsauffassung des dt. Liberalismus, 1919 die Untersuchungen von W. Bussmann, Zur Geschichte des dt. Liberalismus im 19. Jahrhundert, HZ 186, 1958 und H. Seier, Sybels Vorlesung tiber Politik und die Kontinuitat des staatsbil denden Liberalismus, HZ 187, 1959. 12 6 Der Anteil der linksliberalen Abgeordneten aus den Wahlkreisen PreuBens (in seinem Umfang bis 1866) blieb relativ gleich. Er betrug bei den Reichstags wahlen 1881: 43,5%; 1884: 47,3%; 1887: 50%; 1890: 46%; 1893: 36,4%; 1898: 45,9%; 1903: 41,7%; 1907: 45,8%; 1912: 42,8%. Alle diese Berechnungen beruhen auf Unterlagen, die Alfred Milatz im Auf trage der Kommission fur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien zur Vorbereitung eines deutschen Wahlatlas gesammelt, und die er mir dankenswerterweise zur Verftigung gestellt hat."