Fürstenhecke
Germany was referred to as the princely hedge of Europe, whereby hedge in this case is meant by hecken in the sense of bringing forth , because after the Peace of Westphalia there were many sovereign rulers here with whom the ruling ruling houses could marry in accordance with their status. In the genealogical tables of most of the European rulers of the 19th century there is some German ancestor.
An example of the rise of a German statelet to the top of absolutist Russia presents Catherine II. Russia is, whose father served as a Prussian general and as Sophie Friederike Auguste of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg was born.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Moritz Arndt wrote in his essay "A few German Notabene" in 1844: "Germany is the great European princely hedge, the many German rulers give up princes and princesses all over Europe; from this eagle nest are rulers for the English Russian Scandinavian thrones flew out and fetched empresses and queens, and that's how it will be in the future. How many unfortunate claims, rights of inheritance and what possible tears and weakenings of the great German fatherland, we are always facing the saddest prospect. " in: Writings for and to his dear Germans Third Part , Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung 1845, p. 443/44