Franconia

They had held their annual party rallies there every September until the outbreak of World War II.

And Hitler regarded it as one of his favorite cities in Upper Bavaria and Franconia.

And it was also in the center of Germany.

It wasn't in the east, which was occupied by the Soviets, or in the far west, which was largely occupied.

Each had its own distinctive customs, and at the head of each was a duke who was its hereditary sovereign.

Franconia and Saxony were the most powerful duchies.

The last of the German Carolingians died in 911, and the Duke of Franconia, Conrad I, who reigned from 911 to 918, was chosen king by the nobles.

But in his reign of seven years, he was unable to make the other dukes obey him, or to check the invasions of the Hungarians.

On his deathbed, realizing the need of a strong ruler, he designated his most powerful rival and enemy as his successor.

When Henry V died in 1125, leaving no son, The two most prominent candidates for the crown were Frederick of the Hohenstaufen family, Duke of Swabia, and Lothar, Duke of Saxony.

The first was the nephew of Henry and had been designated by him as his successor.

His election seemed assured as his brother Conrad was Duke of Franconia and his father-in-law, a member of the Guelph family, was Duke of Bavaria.

And the

Franconian town of

Spanien.

But the drought has affected so many crops.

One of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, joining in 1921, he took part in the Munich Putsch.

From 1925 to 1940, he was Gauleiter of Franconia.

Elected to the Reichstag in 1933, he was Honorary General of the SA.

His persecution of the Jews was notorious.

Both armies were again to engage in the doubtful struggle, and the prize of victory, already almost secured in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus, was to be the object of another and a severer trial.

the storm of war gathered around nuremberg before its walls the hostile armies encamped gazing on each other with dread and respect longing for and yet shrinking from the moment that was to close them together in the shock of battle the eyes of europe turned to the scene in curiosity and alarm while nuremberg in dismay expected soon to lend its name to a more decisive battle than that of leipzig Suddenly the clouds broke and the storm rolled away from Franconia to burst upon the plains of Saxony.

Near Lutzen fell the thunder that had menaced Nuremberg.

The victory, half lost, was purchased by the death of the king.

It may be doubted whether, had he lived longer, he would still have deserved the tears which Germany shed over his grave, or maintained his title to the admiration with which posterity regards him, as the first and only just conqueror that the world has produced.

the untimely fall of their great leader seemed to threaten the ruin of his party but to the power which rules the world no loss of a single man is irreparable as the helm of war dropped from the hand of the falling hero it was seized by two great statesmen oxenstern and richelieu destiny still pursued its relentless course and for full sixteen years longer the flames of war blazed over the ashes of the long-forgotten king and soldier i may now be permitted to take a cursory retrospect of gustavus adolphus in his victorious career glance at the scene in which he alone was the great actor and then when austria becomes reduced to extremity by the successes of the swedes and by a series of disasters is driven to the most humiliating and desperate expedients to return to the history of the emperor as soon as the plan of operations had been concerted at hall between the king of sweden and the elector of saxony as soon as the alliance had been concluded with the neighbouring princes of weimar and anhalt and preparations made for the recovery of the bishopric of magdeburg the king began his march into the empire he had here no despicable foe to contend with Within the empire, the emperor was still powerful.

Throughout Franconia, Swabia, and the Palatinate, imperial garrisons were posted, with whom the possession of every place of importance must be disputed sword in hand.

On the Rhine, he was opposed by the Spaniards, who had overrun the territory of the banished Elector Palatine, seized all its strong places, and would everywhere dispute with him the passage over that river.

Four, Gaul.

Of these Germany fell into a kind of loose federation of four nations, Franconia, Saxony, Swabia, Bavaria, with their separate laws and their own dukes, each of which in turn gave a king to Germany.

On the death of Arnulf, who ruled from eight ninety-six to nine twelve, an illegitimate descendant of Charles the Great, who had been chosen king, Conrad of Franconia, acknowledged by all the nations except Lotharingia, obtained the crown, nine twelve to nine eighteen.

And the same year which saw Rollo established in Normandy, saw Germany transferred to her national kings.

He was succeeded by Henry I of the house of Saxony, who ruled from nine eighteen to nine thirty-six.

Its primate was the prince-bishop of France, and its possession was a continual bone of contention between the rival princes.

Gaul, in fact, was a loose collection of powerful princes owing a purely nominal allegiance to their suzerain, which they discarded whenever their interests clashed.

Perhaps it may be said that Charles was more really master of German Lotharingia, which, refusing to acknowledge the upstart Conrad of Franconia, paid a temporary but personal allegiance to him as the representative of the Caroling line.

And eighteen years after the death of the king said of him, If after the battle of Leipzig he had penetrated into the hereditary states of the empire, instead of marching on the Rhine, and had left the states of Germany to arrange among themselves, the emperor would have found it impossible to continue the war.

Following his decision, Gustavus advanced into Franconia and down the Rhine, clearing its fortresses.

Then across the Rhine at Mainz, pushing down as far as Mannheim.

After this he went into winter quarters, establishing his court at Frankfurt on the Rhine.

What a change from the previous winter! Then his troops eked out a bare existence on the scanty resources of a desolate Pomerania, whereas now they lived an unwonted luxury on the rich lands of Franconia.

Then neither prince nor city dared avow their alliance with the man who had risked all to come to their aid.

Now Gustavus's court was a brilliant spectacle, where the ambassadors from every European country came to pay their respects to the victorious monarch, the most flattered and courted sovereign in Europe, whose very name struck awe and fear into Catholic hearts.