Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/564

* PEUSSIA. 494 PRUSSIA. city is rested either in a burgomaster or a board elected by the council. The burgomaster is a professional officer, wliile the board is composed of l)oth professional and lay members, the ser- vice of the latter being obligatory and unpaid. Where the board system prevails the burgomaster serves as chairman of the board. He is a high- salaried official with a tenure of at least twelve years, and occupies a position of great influence. In the city we find again the separation of those matters which are of central concern from those of purely local interest, but. as in the circle, the authorities for the administration of both spheres are c-onsolidated. In the large cities, however, the central Government may, if it wishes, vest the control of the police in distinctively cen- tral organs, and this it has done quite generally. The executive board acts both as an organ for local administration and as an organ for cen- tral administration, and in the latter capacity it is subject to the supervision of the central GoAcrument at Berlin. By way of conclusion, it may be remarked that the general characteris- tics of Prussian local government are: first, the local authorities are for the most part organs of general rather tlian enumerated powers, Ijut to counteract possible evil results they are sub- jected to central control; .second, the administra- tion is subject to judicial control as a means of protection to the individual : third, a large part of the administrative service is highly profes- sional in character and can be entered only as a result of special study and training and after passing a State examination : fourth, to counter- act the possible evils of the bureaucracy, a con- siderable lay element, whose services are gener- ally obligatory and unpaid, has been introduced into the system. Ktiin'ologt. The inhabitants of modeni Prus- sia are, for the most part, German-speaking descendants of the old Teutonic tribes, mixed more or less with Celts in the west and south- west and with Slavs in the east. There are two important branches to be recognized which differ in customs and speech, and possibly in descent. The.se are the Low Germans and the High Ger- iflans, occupying, respectively, the low-lying plains to the north and the higher regions to the south. In addition to the German-speaking population there are a large number of Slavs in the eastern part of the kingdom, a considerable body of Danes in Schleswig, a number of Lithuanians in the northeast, of Frisians in the northwest, and of Dutch in the west, and a few representatives of Celtic peoples f French and Walloons) in the west. Of the Slavs the most important are the Czechs, the Wends, and the Poles. The Czechs are found in Silesia, and the Wends in Branden- burg and Silesia. Akin to the Wends, but speak- ing a Polish dialect, are the Kassubs. or Kash- ubs, dwelling in the northwest part of the Prov- ince of West Prussia and in Pomerania. These form a small remnant of the old Slavic Pomer- anians, who formerly occupied this region, but have been largely absorbed in the surrounding Teutonic element. The Poles, some three mil- lions, form the largest body .of Slavs in Prussia. They dwell in Posen, Silesia, and East and West Prussia. Related to the Poles are the ilazurians or Mazurs. who dwell in the southeastern portion of East Prussia, and still preserve their old cus- toms and habits. The old Prussians, the original inhabitants of Prussia east of the Vistula, who preserved their indejiendence until they were sub- dued by the Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century, have died out or been ab-orbed. and their language is no longer spoken. The .Jews number about 400,000, of whom about one-fourth dwell in Berlin. History. The origins of Prussian history up to 1411 are sufficiently treated under Br.vnuex- BlRG (q.v. ). In that year the Emperor Sigi.s- mund placed over the ]Iark of Brandenburg the thrifty Frederick, Burggrave of Nuremberg, who was invested four years later with the hereditary sovereignty of the mark and the accomi)anying dignities of margrave, prince elector, and im- perial arch-treasurer. This Frederick was the head of the House of Hohenzollern (q.v.) and with him b<>gan its steady rise to power. He was a capable administrator and brought order out of the existing clinos. The work was continued by his son. Frederick II. (1440-70). Frederick was succeeded bv his brother. Albert Achilles (1470-80), who fell not at all behind his father and brother in ability. In the Dispositio Achil- lea of 1473 he ordained that the Franconian mar- graviates (Bayreuth and Ansbach) should be separated from Brandenburg. There now began those family arrangements liy which lesser terri- tories, reserved for younger sons or acquired by marriage, were to revert to the elder line in de- fault of other heirs. .John Cicero (1480-09) and Joachim I. Xestor (1400-15.3.5) followed, without especially distinguishing themselves, but main- taining the gains of their house. The son of the latter, .Joachim II. Hector (1.5.3.5-71), adopted the reformed religion in 1.53ft. thus bringing himself into svmpathj' with his people, who in common with all of North Germany were embracing Pro- testantism. He and his successors, .lohn George (1571-08) and .Joachim Frederick ( 1508-1 008), wei'e. however, too cautious to involve Branden- burg in the Reformation struggles. The impor- tant event in the reign of .John Sigismund ( 1608- 19) was the reversion of the Duchy of Prussia (the region about Kiinigsberg) to the electoral branch in 1018. In the early part of the thirteenth century, when hope of further achievements in Svria had declined, the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights (q.v.) turned to the task of conquering and Christianizing by the sword the heathen of the countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic. Remorselessly but with tremen- dous energj- they spread their conquests over Prus- sia. Pomerania, Courland, Livonia, and Es- thonia, establishing towns, colonizing, and en- forcing conversion upon the conquered inhabi- tants. The Prussians (Borussians), a people closely akin to the Lithuanians, who inhabited the Baltic region between the Vistula and the Niemen (!NIemel). oH'ered a fierce resistance, and their subjugation was not completed until after a long struggle in 1283. The Prussian na- tionality was .gradually swallowed up in the tide of German colonization, and b.v the .seventeenth century the Old Prussian language was extinct. Power and wealth brought a decline in the vigor of the Teutonic Order and Poland after its union with Lithuania in the fourteenth century (see Poland) turned its strength against the Knights, against whom war was