Legally and socially all denominations enjoy equal rights, but the German State must never renounce the leadership in the domain of free spiritual development.

To do so would mean loss of prestige.
Duties of the greatest importance for the whole advance of human civilization have thus been transmitted to the German nation, as heir of a great and glorious past.

It is faced with problems of no less significance in the sphere of its international relations.

These problems are of special importance, since they affect most deeply the intellectual development, and on their solution depends the position of Germany in the world.
The German Empire has suffered great losses of territory in the storms and struggles of the past.

The Germany of to-day, considered geographically, is a mutilated torso of the old dominions of the Emperors; it comprises only a fraction of the German peoples.