Doctor Michaelis was eventually selected as Food Controller as the result of an agreement between von Bethmann-Hollweg and the military authorities as a fearless, determined official, who would execute his mission without fear or favor and produce results if such were possible. The selection was justified.
The conditions in Germany which marked the ascendancy of the Crown Prince in the deliberations of the Imperial Government and brought about the upheaval in the Ministry are the logical result of the system under which the country is ruled.
There is, in the mind of the public generally, a theory that Germany with its Bundesrath and Reichstag has a government akin to that of England and even the United States, but the impression is an erroneous one. It is true that Germany has a dual system of government and independent state sovereignties. There is, however, nothing democratic about the system.
To begin with, the Kaiser is a constitutional monarch in his capacity as German Emperor, but as King of Prussia he is a self-appointed and arrogant ruler—all that he advertises himself to be in the way of a God-chosen ruler.
STATUS OF GERMAN SOVEREIGNTY.
To understand the difference in relationship between the King of Prussia and the German Emperor it is necessary to realize that the German constitution describes the Emperor thus: "The presidency of the Union belongs to the King of Prussia, who bears the title of German Emperor." On the other hand the King of Prussia, who happens to be the Kaiser, has his right to rule by birth. When the first king was crowned, about 1701, he placed the crown upon his own head, and that right has descended to King William. But as German Emperor the duties of the Kaiser are as clearly defined as those of the ruler of a modern democracy.
The difference between the Kingdom and the Empire is that the German Empire is a creation of sovereign states, ruled over by German Grand Dukes, Princes, and whatnot, who trace their lineage back to the days when might was right, and who won their power to rule by defeating their fellow men. At one time there were several hundred of these ruling princes. When Napoleon got through in Germany there were about twenty-two left. The German Empire today consists of these twenty-two states, and three free cities, comprising in all a group of twenty-five communities. It is a bond or association. It consists, in fact, of the twenty-five communities, of which it is composed, and represented by twenty-five kings, dukes, princes, etc., and not by the 65,000,000 population of the communities themselves. The sovereignty rests with the princes of the several states, who have bestowed a fixed power upon the Kaiser. As Emperor his office dates back to 1871.
The legislative machinery which has been devised for the use of these German sovereigns consists of the Bundesrath and the Reichstag. Sometimes the Bundesrath is likened to our Senate, or to the hereditary English House of Lords, while the Reichstag is compared to the House of Representatives or the House of Commons. But comparisons are odious.
THE BUNDESRATH.
The Bundesrath is an assembly in which the German kings, grand dukes, dukes, princes, etc., come together (by proxy) to direct the affairs of the Empire. Each of these sovereigns sends a specified number of delegates, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. Thus the Kaiser, as the King of Prussia, sends seventeen delegates, while the King of Bavaria sends six. The total number of delegates is fifty-eight, so right in the beginning the Kaiser has a pretty good representation.