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“in the outcomes of the greatest movements in German history—the Reformation and the Peasant War, the events of the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the Revolution of 1848 and the movement for the national unification of Germany. In all these major events the scales turned, in the long run, in favour of the reactionary classes.”

“the troops were composed of peasant serfs and poor burghers who were forcibly compelled to enlist. Recruiting frequently degenerated into sheer manhunts which led to bloody clashes. The whole system of military training was of a piece with these acts of cruelty and violence. ‘A soldier should fear his officer more than his enemy.’ Such was the principle laid down by Frederick II.”

“Engels’ Conditions in Germany, one of his early works, contains an excellent pen-portrait of this king. ‘The Kingdom of Prussia […] was then governed by Frederick William III, nicknamed The Just, one of the greatest blockheads to ever grace a throne. Born to be a corporal and to inspect the buttons of an army; dissolute, without passion, and a morality-monger”