[Footnote 1:  The word “Middle” is used here as a geographical term.  German philologists arrange the dialects into two main groups—­High (South) and Low (North), and prefix to each the terms Old, Middle and New to distinguish epochs in the growth of each.  According to this nomenclature, Old = Early, Middle = Late-Mediaeval, New = Modern.  The word Middle is unfortunate, as it may designate either age or locality.  It designates both locality and age in the text above—­i.e., the late-mediaeval form of Middle Germany.  In full, it should be “Middle-Middle.”  The Meissen dialect, it may be added, was the one adopted by Luther, and is the basis of all modern book-German. (See Rueckert’s Gesch. der neuhochd.  Sprache, pp. 168-178.)]

The most important event in the history of the twin municipalities, Coeln-Berlin, was a change of dynasty.  In 1415-18, Frederick of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, was invested with the margravate of Brandenburg and the electoral dignity.  The Hohenzollerns, a few exceptions aside, have been a thrifty, energetic and successful family.  Slowly, but with the precision of destiny, their motto, “From rock to sea”—­once apparently an idle boast—­has realized itself to the full, until they now stand foremost in Europe.  It would pertain rather to a history of the Prussian monarchy than to a sketch like the present to trace, even in outline, the steps by which Brandenburg annexed one after another the Prussian duchies of the Teutonic order, Pomerania, Silesia, the province of Saxony, Westphalia, and in our own days Hanover and Hesse-Cassel.  So far as Berlin is concerned, it will suffice to state that its history is not rich in episode or in marked characters.  It long remained the obscure capital of a dynasty which the Guelfs and Habsburgs were pleased to look down upon as parvenu.  During the Thirty Years’ war, in which Brandenburg played such a pitiable part, Berlin was on the verge of extinction.  By 1640 its population had been reduced to 6000.  Even the great elector, passing his life in warfare, could do but little for his capital.  His successor, Frederick I., the first king of the Prussians, was more fortunate.  To him the city is indebted for most of its present features.  He was the originator of the Friederichsstadt, the Friederichsstrasse, the Dorotheenstadt,[2] the continuation of the Linden to the Thiergarten, the arsenal, and the final shaping of the old castle.  In 1712 the population was 61,000.  The wars of Frederick the Great, brought to a triumphal issue, made Berlin more and more a centre of trade and industry.  To all who could look beyond the clouds of political controversy and prejudice it was evident that Berlin was destined to become the leading city of North Germany and the worthy rival of Vienna.  Even the humiliation of Jena and the subsequent occupation by Napoleon were only transitory.  Berlin, not being a fortified city, was spared at least the misery of a siege.  After the downfall of Napoleon, Prussia and its capital resumed their mission of absorption and expansion.  The “Customs Union” accelerated the pace.  In 1862 the population was 480,000; in 1867, 702,437; in 1871, 826,341.  At present it is in excess of Vienna.  The Austrian and French wars have given to its growth an almost feverish impulse.