In truly a parallel world, the first truly effective submarine
communication cable between London and New York was
completed in July 1866 ; The Battle of Konniggratz raged.
Trader slang in the Pound sterling-US Dollar exchange fix
termed cable, the first 'undersea' rate lay published in The
Times, London on August the 10th, pre The Prague Peace.
Afterwards, the Imperial Cable Network, the Roman roads
of The Empire, edged frantically on, to reach New Zealand
soil in 1876 from Sydney. What, or gained motion of note ?
In October 1851, Reuters opened his Submarine Telegraph
Office. A month on he obtained a contract with the London
Stock Exchange, to table key European share prices, daily.
Of more military import, in 1865 he promoted The Reuters
Telegram Company Ltd, to become reputed in stern Europa
for being ever the first with a news flash ; vital for Prussia...
and to what extent were the events more than coincidental ?
At The Battle of Konniggratz, mostly Commanders roared,
or rode a form of High German, Hochdeutsch, or Standard
High German ; the infantry by repute, rang dialect variants.
This was a battle of the German-speaking world : the torch
of power passed from Vienna to Berlin is a quotation, and,
then to The Junker. Did Konniggratz make Hitler feasible ?
and given events turn to The Battle of Britain, and to 1940.
We are, here, though, getting ahead of events, and of Otto..
sadly, the vision of Otto von Bismarck did not extend unto
The United States of Germany, nor can that configure now.
On January 18th 1871, The German Reich, as a unification
was proclaimed at The Palace of Versailles, by no less than
King Wilhelm I, a Hohenzollern, and the above named, for
The Kingdom Of Prussia. They : a painting of Konniggratz
The Battle thereof. There were twenty five member States,
led by Prussia. A truthful name might have been Die Reich
Preussen. The 'German Reich' is thought to mean 'Empire'
but, apparently, can translate as 'realm' or 'reach' ; and for
a continuing, unitary German volk. This, untrue in Bavaria
where the busty, dirndl-wearing young women are comely
compared to the chaste, severe women of drearing Prussia.
Bismarck, the terror of London, wanted a unitary concept.
The joke ran : Prussia was an army, looking for a country ;
which became jealous of the mighty, great British Empire.
There are several terrifying paintings of The Proclamation
Of The German Empire by one Anton von Werner, seeing
The Triumph of The Junkers, for a period with significant,
hidden power over the Ostelbien, in The Hall of Mirrors ;
I need not add to the history. Anton was from Ostpreussen.
With many a beard and much ferocity, do they look tribal ?
Their demise was in 1945. Otto von Bismarck, the famous
Junker, was Chancellor of the Reich Preussen 1871-1890.
I now quote from my source book Prussia Art Architecture
(Konemann, Cologne 1999), an Anglo-German production.
'King Wilhelm 1 of Prussia becomes Emperor of Germany
on January 18th, 1871 in The Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles.
The imperial German Reich is a confederation of states sub
(under) Prussian hegemony, with the Emperor as supreme
military commander. The Hohenzollerns rule Brandenburg-
Prussia from 1415-1918.' In the paintings by Anton Werner,
the warlords are in full uniform regalia, ebullient, powered
by major victory in The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
Many a sword is raised, or clashed, saluting ; there, uproar.
Great, boring speeches were made to much clapping. Heirs
of the depicted led, by 1916 to the Empire being effectively
a military dictatorship sub the control of Field Marshal Paul
von Hindenburg (he who, later, propelled Hitler into power)
and General Erich Ludendorf. By August, of meat-grinding
at Verdun, a siege meant to bleed France to death, had to go
on, failing ; Albion arrived to bleed to death on The Somme.
Has Lord Van run out of brandy yet, from agony in Denham
and has Joan fallen asleep, in The Drawing Room, who told
me, in the last month of her life, she adored Prussia ; but, so
after Joan hit what The Red Army had done, in Pomerania,
first-hand. ( A quarter of the civilian population murdered ).
What is our timeline ? Long after Londinium was ordered,
and Albion nurtured a Roman Villa civilization, and Bath,
but just before we lived again in the Romanesque Norman
Conquest, of 1066, the narrative for Brandenburg-Prussia
begins, publicly, from 928 A.D. 'Marcher' territories were
arranged, and The Slav packed off east by Saxon warriors,
ironically, as The Norman rescued Albion from the Saxon.
From 1226, The Teutonic Knights do govern East Prussia ;
in 1299, the oldest recorded school, teaching Latin, in The
March of Brandenburg-Prussia is, indeed, "Marienschule"
in Spandau. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) would chortle.
He knew of that world. I quote from The Prologue (1380s)
to The Canterbury Tales, in The Knight's Tale. There was...
At Alisaundre he was, whan it was wonne ;
Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
Aboven alle naciouns in Pruce.
In Lettow hadde he reysed, and in Ruce.
No Cristen man so ofte of his degree.
To gloss, he would sit at the head of the table, in Pruce ..
even in Lithuania, and in Russia. Chaucer was trilingual.
How might Chaucer have known ? From 1374 -1389, he
was Controller of Customs in the Port of London. There
lay the Steelyard, or Stalhof, a Kontor of The Hanseatic
League. 400 of their merchants lived in a self-governing
enclave ; the first London Survey reference, dated 1382.
The main trading points, c.1400, were Hamburg, Lubeck,
Danzig, Riga ; Novgorod. Stralsund, notable ; The Brick
Gothic Road, on The Baltic remains poignant, forbidding.
In 1525, The Teutonic Knight's rule in which later is East
Prussia, is reconstituted, as The Duchy of Prussia, under
the suzerainty of Poland, for a while, one can say, wryly.
The configuring, and the re-configuring can be a puzzle,
on the road to Sedan. Our time-picturing can be startling.
1237 is considered to be the foundation date for Berlin ;
for Konigsberg, of the Knights' on The Baltic Crusades,
1255, more than one thousand, two hundred years after
Londinium grew. They were never in The Holy Roman
Empire, like Teutonia. To more a jigsaw: Hohenzollern
Castle, far in the west is even now in excellent condition.
The House of devolved into two : the Catholic, Swabian
branch, and the Protestant Franconian branch. After 1618
The Margravate of Brandenburg, ruled in personal union,
and The Duchy of Prussia, became Brandenburg-Prussia.
During The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) The Court of
Hohenzollern fled to Konigsberg, a Lutheran publisher
stronghold ; Berlin had gone officially Lutheran in 1539.
Prussia, a deceptive name, battled with Catholic Bavaria.
De facto the Pruce were a pagan Baltic tribe, conquered.
Prussia became a code name for the Hohenzollern Lands.
In 1701, The Kingdom of Prussia was declared, of King
Wilhelm 1. The Coronation City had to be Konigsberg,
and thus unto 1871. The Palaces, in Berlin and Potsdam
from 1433. No longer, a need for Brandenburg Electors
of The Hohenzollerns, a start point on the way to power.
The Hohenzollern Court kept further out east until 1783.
Why ? Proper conquest had to begin, concluded in 1871.
It all began in conquering Silesia in the First Silesian War
in 1742, the first of three such Wars, taking territory from
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Or, the Hohenzollens
beat The Habsburgs and The Holy Roman Empire.....
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