r/GermanEmpire

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This fascinating German postcard depicts Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906–1940), the eldest grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, surrounded by an impressive collection of military toys. The caption reads "Die eroberte Festung" ("The Captured Fortress"), showing the young prince with a toy fortress, cannon, wooden horse, drummer's drum and miniature soldiers. Published by Gustav Liersch & Co. of Berlin, a well-known German publisher of illustrated postcards, this card captures more than just a royal portrait. It offers a wonderful glimpse into the kinds of military-themed toys that fascinated children in Imperial Germany during the years before the First World War.

https://www.soldatini.eu/2026/07/a-young-prince-and-his-toy-fortress.html

https://preview.redd.it/twf5hluhi0ah1.jpg?width=538&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ffdadfd50be0d268fd2400a25943e48ff14185ea

A sepia Ansichtskarte of a young boy in a sailor suit, seated in a wicker chair with one hand reached out to a tableful of little figures, captioned simply Prinz Wilhelm Karl von Preußen(1922–2007), grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II.Bottom right, the photographer's blind-stamp: Atelier Ursula Blau, Potsdam. And pencilled in the corner, the year — 1930.

The card carries the mark of Ursula Blau, a Potsdam photographer active through the 1920s and '30s who made something of a speciality of the local aristocracy. The actual postcard publishing was done by Verlag Piek, Potsdam (printed up the spine on the reverse) — a smaller local Ansichtskarten-Verlag.

https://www.soldatini.eu/2026/06/little-prince-at-war-table-wilhelm-karl.html

This is an underrated story in the history of Germany: His name was José Rizal. He was 25, studying medicine in Heidelberg, and carrying a half-finished manuscript.

A Protestant pastor named Karl Ullmer invited him to stay in Wilhelmsfeld, a village near Heidelberg. Rizal spent 3 months in 1886 there, hiking during the day, writing at night. The pastor treated him like a son.

The manuscript he finished in that house was Noli Me Tangere. Published in 1887 in Berlin, it exposed the brutality of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines so precisely that the Spanish authorities banned it immediately. Owning a copy became a criminal offense. It became one of the main catalysts for the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

Rizal was arrested, tried, and executed by firing squad. He was 35.

I made a Video about his life in Germany: https://youtu.be/3fvyg-RnDJw

Special thanks to the Philippine Consulate General in Frankfurt and Dr. Fritz Hack Ullmer.

total dominance of german politics

present in all states with a majority rule only dnvp government

https://preview.redd.it/syz80905ib9h1.png?width=192&format=png&auto=webp&s=6aa33e9bf0f06d337932e5d714106d66717e0270

integrated all possible territories

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westarp is on its 4th cabinet

hitler has been tamed

https://preview.redd.it/31oeb09dib9h1.png?width=187&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b1582ef9e67481ffc14c36e2356d9e2aff44688

the dnvp is actually the volkspartei

the reichswehr is great again and the national christian conservative state has been achieved

a new era of golden years has descended upon germany, keeping a surplus budget

the welfare state has been dismantled

taxes are at its lowest, germans earn their bread through hard work, not government benefits

Germany is now a free trade country

germany is now the paradise of foreign investors

the reichsbank was reformed and it keeps a low inflation of 4 percent

state finances are better than ever

all important sectors are prospering

laissez-faire economics have brought germany upon its greater future!

cartels have been broken up and competition thrives across germany

we have many economic treaties with everyone!

westarp concentrates all of the state's generous power as both reichskanzler and reichsprasident, as well as dnvp leader

but best of all, His Imperial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm III, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke of Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Crossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelderland and of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kashubians, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of Münster, of Minden, of Osnabrück, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of Nassau and of Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Count of Mansfeld, of Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt. is back with us again in a new Germany!

And finally, this has been my run with the new natural governing party of germany, a new golden era of prosperity, hard work, christianity, conservatism and happiness has desccended upon Germany! The great bismarck would be happy to see his state return to, and improve from, its former greatness. New times come upon a new germany, and everyone is thrilled to see what is happening next.

Hi there!

The Grand Duchy of Hesse (and by Rhine, also known as Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt) existed from 1806 to 1918 and became the People's State of Hesse in 1918. It originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 and assumed the name Hesse and by Rhine in 1816.

In 1806, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt had been promoted to the status of grand duchy and had received considerable new territories, principally in Westphalia. After the French defeat in 1815, Westphalia was taken by Prussia, but Hesse received Rhenish Hesse in return (1816).

Rhine Hesse had been occupied by the First French Republic, had been a client state of France as the Cisrhenan Republic between 1797 and 1801, and had eventually been a part of France until 1814. If I understand correctly (?), it had then been under Austrian and/or Bavarian rule until 1816.

The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine passed a constitution in December 1820 – available at https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Verfassungsurkunde_(Gro%C3%9Fh_Hess)(1820) – and regarding the nationals (Inländer) of the grand duchy, its article 13 reads that "Das Recht eines Inländers (Indigenat) wird erworben • durch die Geburt für denjenigen, dessen Vater oder Mutter damals Inländer waren", i.e. those whose parent was at the time of the birth a national of the grand duchy are nationals.

Before that, the first Hessian citizenship law – available at https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/B%C3%BCrgerrecht_(Gro%C3%9Fh_Hessen)(1820) — had been passed in March 1820. It similarly read that "Das Recht eines Inländers oder das Indigenat wird erworben: 1.) durch die Geburt für denjenigen, dessen Vater oder Mutter, zur Zeit seiner Geburt, Inländer war."

For the nationals born after 1820, it is crystal clear.

How was it for those born before 1816 in Rhine Hesse to parents from there?

I mean, the locals there were French nationals between 1801 and the fall of the First French Empire.

And before the French domination, they had been (in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) subjects of Kurpfalz, or of Kurmainz or of the Hochstift Worms...

So, for instance, was after 1820 a national of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine someone born in Rhenish Hesse in 1785 to local parents (also born there to locals) and/or someone born there in 1810 also to local parents (themselves having born there to locals)?

What basically I just underline here is that there were in 1820 in the grand duchy in question locals (of Rhine Hesse born there before 1816) whose parents had not been nationals of that grand duchy at the time of the birth (they had been French by then, or nationals of the Cisrhenan Republic, or subjects of Kurmainz in the HRE, etc...). I am therefore trying to figure out if these locals became nationals of the said grand duchy nonetheless?

Thanks!