Strictly speaking, there is no Imperial Court in Germany, since the King of Prussia, in accordance with the Imperial Constitution, always succeeds to the imperial throne, and therefore officially the Court is that of the King of Prussia only.  The distinction is emphasized by the fact that the Court is independent of the Empire as regards its administration and finance.  It is a state within a state, an imperium in imperio.  In all that pertains to it the Emperor is absolute ruler and his executive is a special Ministry.  At the same time it is almost needless to add that the Court of Berlin is practically that of the Empire.  It is this character, apart from Prussia’s size and importance, that distinguishes it from other courts in Germany and reduces them to comparative insignificance in foreign, though by no means in German, consideration.

The Court of the Empire and Prussia—­and the same thing may be said of the various other courts in Germany—­engages popular interest and attention to a much larger extent than is the case in England.  The fact is almost wholly due to the nature of the monarchy and of its relations to the people.  In England a great portion of the popular attention is concentrated on Parliament and the fortunes of its two great political parties.  The attention given to the Court and its doings is not of the same general and permanent character, but is intermittent according to the occasion.  The Englishman feels deep and abiding popular interest at all times in Parliament, whether in session or not, because it represents the people and is, in fact, and for hundreds of years has been, the Government.

The reverse may fairly be said to be the case in Germany.  In Germany popular attention has been from early times concentrated on the monarch, his personality, sayings and doings, since in his hands lay government power and patronage.  Monarchy of a more or less absolute character was accepted by the people, not only in Germany but all over the Continent, as the normal and desirable, perhaps the inevitable, state of things; and it is only since the French Revolution that parliaments after the English pattern, that is by two chambers elected by popular vote, yet in many important respects widely differing from it, were demanded by the people or finally established.  Up to comparatively recent times the monarch in Prussia was an absolute ruler.  Frederick William IV, after the events of 1848, was compelled to grant Prussia a Constitution which explicitly defined the respective rights of the Crown and the people in the sphere of politics; and the Imperial Constitution, drawn up on the formation of the modern Empire, did the same thing as regards the Emperor and the people of the Empire; but neither Constitution altered the nature of the monarchy in the direction of giving governing power to the people.  Both secured the people legislative, but not governing power.  Government in the Empire and Prussia remains, as of old, an appanage, so to speak, of the Court, and the fact of course tends to concentrate attention on the Court.