by Arneb » Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:42 pm
150 years ago today. King Wilhelm I. of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor, in theeHall of Mirrors, in Versailles Castle, Paris. The war with France was still ongoing, but the choice of location shows it was pretty much over.
We watch the Second German Empire from a remote and high vantage point, with the experience of two (lost) World Wars and the utter catastrophe of Nazism looming large. But beside being (or, at least, later becoming) an authoritarian, increasingly militaristic, aristorcratic, and imperialistic state, the Second Reich also made Germany a top contender wrt science, technology, engineering and economics. One in three science Nobel Prizes went to Germany until 1914 (plus four in Literature), and the economy produced accepatble living conditions for a sizeable part of the population (which went from 45 to 65 million).
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem