Prussia

Prussia possesses 12 of the 23 German universities (not includ ing the lyceum at Braunsberg ; the medical academy at Diisseldorf, and the Roman Catholic seminary at Munster). The largest Prussian university is that of Berlin, while Breslau, Bonn, Got tingen and Halle are the next in size. The oldest is the university of Greifswald, founded in 1456. Like the schools, the universities are State institutions, and the professors are appointed and paid by Government, which also makes annual grants for apparatus and equipment.

Ranking with the universities are numerous technical high schools. Music is taught at several conservatoria, the best known of which are at Berlin and Frankfurt-am-Main.

The science and art of Prussia find their most conspicuous ex ternal expression in the academies of science and art at Berlin, both founded by Frederick I. ; and each town of any size through out the kingdom has its antiquarian, artistic and scientific soci eties. Recognized schools of painting exist at Berlin and Dussel dorf, and both these towns, as well as Cassel, contain excellent picture galleries. The scientific and archaeological collections of Berlin are also of great importance. Besides the university collec tions, there are numerous large public libraries, the chief of which is the Reichsbibliothek at Berlin. (N. D.) The State of Prussia, which has played so great a part in the history of Germany, came into being gradually, being formed out of wholly dissimilar components. The chief of these were the Mark of Brandenburg and the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. The history of each of these, up to their union, must be treated separately.

The Mark of Brandenburg.

The territory between the Elbe and the Oder, which had been abandoned by the Germans in the time of the great migrations, and occupied by Slavonic tribes in the succeeding centuries, was gradually reconquered by the Germans after the loth century. To secure the safety of the new frontier districts, Marks were set up, the overlords of which—the markgrafs—enjoyed wider powers than the counts in the interior of the empire. The northernmost of these marks was the Nordmark, founded by Henry I. and enlarged by Otto I. Those parts of this Mark which lay east of the Elbe were, how ever, lost to German rule after the great rising of the Slays in 983 ; only the present Altmark remained in German hands.

The Markgraf Albert the Bear, of the Ascanian dynasty 70), was the true founder of the State of Brandenburg. He con

quered Priegnitz and the Havelland and at first took the title of markgraf of Brandenburg. His descendants, who remained masters of these districts until 1320, conquered the Ukermark, the districts of Stargard and Lebus, and the so-called Neumark, beyond the Oder. They were already aiming at possession of Pomerania, in order to obtain direct access to the sea. The Ascanian markgrafs invited a large number of German settlers into the country and founded a number of German towns, which soon attained considerable prosperity.

On the extinction of the Ascanians, Louis the Bavarian, the then German king, bestowed their lands on his younger sons (1324). The Wittelsbachs were unable, however, to retain for long their hold on these territories, which lay far distant from their family possessions. Finally they ceded them to the Em peror Charles IV. (1373), who attempted to combine them with Bohemia and Silesia in one great East German State. After his death, however (1378), his extensive dominions were divided up. The Mark fell first to his youngest son Sigmund, who gave it in pledge to his cousin, Jobst of Moravia. On the death of the latter (1411), the Mark reverted to Sigmund, who had in the meantime become German king. In 1415 he conferred it on one of his most faithful adherents, the Burgrave Frederick of Nurem berg, of the house of Hohenzollern.

The two first electors of the house of Hohenzollern, Frederick I. (1415-4o) and Frederick II. (1440-70) had a hard struggle against the nobles and towns of the Mark to restore the authority of the overlord and recover the frontier districts, some of which had been occupied by neighbours. Under the next electors, Albert Achilles (147o-86) and John (1486-99) the overlord's power was further consolidated. Joachim I. 1535) founded a university in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, and was one of the keenest partisans of the old Church in the struggles provoked by Luther's movement. His son, Joachim II. (i 535– 71), however, was converted to Protestantism and introduced the Reformation into the Mark. The next electors, John George (1571-98) and Joachim Frederick (1598-1608) are of little im portance for the further development of the State. John Sig mund (1608-19), by his marriage with the heiress of Prussia and paved the way for the great change which the acqui sition of those territories brought about.