Excerpt from Modern Germany: Its Rise, Growth, Downfall and FutureThe Hohenzollern rulers, considering the country their property, administered it in accordance with ancient custom as if it were a huge estate. They directed absolutely, and as a rule in person, the army, the civil administration, the foreign and domestic policy of the State, industry, trade, and commerce, the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Churches, the schools, the universities, and the press. They not only controlled and directed all the activities of the State, but they moulded the character of the people and controlled the speech, thought, and action of the citizens from the cradle to the grave.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.