Revolution’s Legacy
摘要
On 21 March 1848, the King of Prussia Frederick William IVFrederick William IV, King of Prussia told his astonished courtiers that he would mount his horse, exit the palace, and ride alone through the streets of Berlin. A revolution was in progress. Days before, barricades had arisen all over the city, leading to deadly clashes from which the soldiers had been forced to retreat. The king would be preceded by a civil guardsman letting flap in the wind the German tricolour. Not only would the ride show that the king was at peace with his people’s democratic demands, it would signal that he supported that other revolutionary goal that was the unification of a fragmented Germany.