Heidegger And No End

Heidegger, in 1934,
with a Nazi badge

Following the expert conference on Martin Heidegger last December, another symposium took place at Freiburg's university the previous week. Unfortunately, this conference was not open to the public, so Red Baron could only report what was written in the press.

Apparently, this time, the oral presentations had more depth of focus. The retired holder of the Heidegger Chair, Professor Günter Figal, referred to the Black Notebooks as Heidegger's "ecce homo," where the philosopher appears as a person. This makes the Notebooks an incompatible amalgamation of resentments and philosophy. As the most infamous example, Figal cited Heidegger's remark about his teacher Edmund Husserl: He was of Jewish origin, with his empty rationality and calculating behavior (leere Rationalität und Rechenhaftigkeit) incapable of substantial decisions. 

Again, for Heidegger, the universal spiritual enemy of the occidental attitude (abendländische Haltung) is not the Jewish race but the world's Jewry. His assumption of the Weltjudentum being active in Christianity, Americanism, liberalism, and any type of cultural activity is unbearable. This worldview continued after 1945 when he criticized the allied victors' strange being (das fremde Wesen), accusing Americans, Englishmen, and Russians of planetary terror on the world public. Heidegger concluded that against this attitude, the massive brutality of the "ahistorical" National Socialism had been pure harmlessness.

At the end of the symposium, Professor Markus Gabriel criticized the unchecked wish for scandalization and distortion of Heidegger's philosophy. Gabriel asked, as Jürgen Habermas had demanded 50 years ago, to think Heidegger against Heidegger, for his philosophy is, like in the case of other intellectual giants, a conglomerate of insight and nonsense. However, nobody should disrespectfully use Heidegger's work as a quarry.

At that point, I would have liked to have asked the question: How many of the broken stones are scree, and how many may still be used as building blocks?

*

On the Freedom of a Christian

The announcement of Professor Dieter Hochgeschwender's talk: Die Freiheit des Christenmenschen: Zur Vielfalt religiöser Gruppierungen in den USA was alluding to the title of Martin Luther's reformist paper: Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen although the speaker - belonging to the Catholic theological faculty of Munich's university - did not even mention the reformer.

What follows is possibly common knowledge of my American friends, but Red Baron learned quite a lot listening to the talk. According to Hochgeschwender, 90% of US citizens believe in a supreme being, 80% are Christians, and 65% read the Bible. Therefore, I was greatly astonished to hear that Americans' knowledge about religion is limited compared to Europeans despite Sunday schools and Bible stories on television.

Heavily criticized by atheists: the imprint In God we trust on the one-dollar bill (©dpa)

Professor Hochgeschwender told his audience that religious freedom in the States had led to a highly varied landscape of spiritual practices. However, most of the denominations go back to European immigrants. In the beginning, the New England States had state religions along with British and Scandinavian models, with members paying the tithe. 

This changed only slowly when in 1791, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. 

According to founding father Thomas Jefferson's correspondence, this Amendment explicitly meant that any religion could be exercised in any State and implicitly meant "a wall of separation between church and state." The precise boundary of this separation, however, still remains in dispute.

It is evident that Thomas Jefferson was the driving force behind the separation of Church and State. In Phillip Blom's book: A Wicked Company, you will find the following paragraph: Count von Holbach's salon members' writings became integral to how the founding fathers thought about the nascent United States. Jefferson's handwritten catalog of books lists not only works by British empiricists such as Hume but also titles by Voltaire and a whole list of crucial books of the radical Enlightenment: the famous De l'esprit by Helvétius (the cause of the 1757 crisis of the Encyclopédie), Holbach's Système de la nature his Théologie portative (here interestingly attributed to Diderot), a set of Oeuvres philosophiques by Diderot, several anonymous or pseudonymous works such as Holbach's Christianity Unveiled ("by Boulanger," in Italian) as well as Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes and Beccaria's Of Crimes and Punishments, and a wide selection of precursors, such as Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, and Pierre Bayle. 

Holbach's Paris library had the same books on its shelves—as philosophers, he and Jefferson spoke the same language. A notion straight from Holbach's table and the sum of the philosophical ideas defended is the "pursuit of happiness."

In the following decades, the Puritans in the States continued to have the say, although, in the 19th century, religions became quite diversified with Baptists, Quakers, and Revivalist Movements. With their slogan: The Holy Scriptures interpret themselves, they stood against the established Anglican Church. Their liberal hermeneutics was also directed against the Catholic Church and its ex-cathedra interpretation of the Bible.

Professor Hochgeschwender continued by saying that what made America strong were those Evangelicals and Liberals working together, believing in the Nation, the Constitution, and liberal capitalism. In the beginning, Catholics were regarded as adversaries to freedom in a liberal nation. However, in the 1950s, all denominations, including Calvinists, Jews, and Catholics, stood united against Communism. This made the Papists socially acceptable, with a Catholic president elected in 1960.

Today, despite setbacks due to child abuse, the Catholic Church in the States is booming, running kindergartens, schools, and hospitals along with its motto: The poor belong to us. So, on the one hand, the Church gets back to its roots when in the Middle Ages, it was the only charitable organization; on the other hand, it meets the American idea of a local church practicing solidarity and charity. 

This is, in a way, contrary to countries where anonymous governmental social security programs are well established, as in the case of Scandinavia with its decreasing church attendance. For Americans, the practical application of their religion in their community is more important than theological knowledge.

*

Wurst Grievances

On several occasions, Red Baron had reported on Freiburg's bratwurst scene on Freiburg's Münsterplatz. In 2010 wurst lovers had to bear a wurst war that ended in 2012 with the opening of a veggie wurst stand. 

Now I must tell you that last year the bratwurst scene suffered considerably, so three stands of eight are presently missing. Well, the veggie dog vendors simply pause during the winter, but in October, butcher Dirr was stricken by an explosion because of a leaking gas bottle that injured one saleswoman severely and destroyed his stand.

Firefighters in action at Dirr's stand on the north side of the Münster church (©BZ)

Following the sudden death of Freiburg's original among the wurst sellers, Paul Karle-Hämmerle, end of November, his immediate family announced to discontinue Paul's Imbiss* on Münsterplatz.
*Here, you may read about the Deppenapostroph

Mobile shop of Paul's Imbiss
on the south side of the Münster church in the early morning hours (©Fudder)

Memorial cobblestone for Wurst Paul on Münsterplatz (©Ralf Fees/BZ)

This apparently gave Dirr the idea to throw his towel too. The investment into a new stand seemed too big.

Since a new public tender procedure for all vendors is due this year, we may soon see new faces selling wurst on Münsterplatz. Will there eventually be price competition? I doubt it.

*

Nazareth

When our group left the bus to discover Nazareth, two Suwar from the Holy Quraan on two panels set the tone. You will undoubtedly know that Muslims regard Jesus as one of their prophets, starting with Abraham and his descendants, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses and Jesus are also mentioned in Sura 2:136, cited on the large panel.

Muslim attempt of a conversion

The second smaller panel insists on the fact that Islam is the only straight, unaltered religion: Say, O people of the scriptures (Jews and Christians), come to a word that is just between you and us, that we just worship God alone, and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall worship others as Lords besides Allah. But if they (Jews and Christians) turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims (Sura 3:6)

However, our more permanent looks went up to the dome of the Basilica of the Annunciation, barely visible in the upper left corner of the above photo.

A look into the spectacular dome of the Basilica of the Annunciation

This impressive new church from 1969 replaces earlier buildings of Byzantine and later Crusader times. The church is run by the Franciscans and enjoys, according to Catholic canon law, the status of a basilica minor.

Entering from the front

A side view

The building complex is surrounded by a wall covered on the inner side by devotional pictures donated by many nations.

St. Mary in the Court

Most of these images present St. Mary with the Child, although the sanctuary was erected above her home where the Angel had announced that she would be pregnant with Jesus.

Germany's ceramic attempt: Patronia Germaniae

Greek icon style

Only the Philippines represented this decisive event for Christendom as it should.

Hail Mary, full of grace ...

While waiting in front of the church, the pilgrim is entertained by the Christian salvation history on the door. Starting in the upper left corner and running anti-clockwise, he will see Jesus's birth, the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, Jesus helping his father in Nazareth doing carpentry, Jean baptizing Jesus in the Jordan River, Jesus preaching in Capharnaum, Jesus's crucifixion, and resurrection.

On the Christian salvation history

Approaching the grotto of annunciation, standing inline

Verbum caro hic factum est

Next, we visited the nearby St. Joseph Church. According to recent discoveries, Jesus of Nazareth was not a carpenter's son, but his "father," Joseph, should have been a stonemason. This, however, is not yet reflected in the presentation of the Holy Family outside of the church.

The Holy Family

This big rubber tree disguises the look of St Joseph Church

Inside the church, a small glass window shows a rare presentation of Mary and Jesus on Joseph's deathbed.

Joseph's death

Archaeologists keep digging out Jesus's house.

More and deeper digging

They later discovered a beautiful mug. Jesus's mug?

*

Organic Wedding?

There are moments when Red Baron's breakfast gets stuck in his throat. This morning in the Badische Zeitung (BZ), I read the headline: Der Trend geht klar zur "Organic Wedding." The article described the latest developments in weddings as presented at Freiburg's Wedding Fair "Trau" (wed) last weekend.

I love good anglicisms in my language as there is a smartphone, a computer in your pocket, even capable of placing phone calls. In Germany, the new word Smartphone slowly takes over from Handy, the well-known "false English friend."

Returning to the article, I learned about farm and barn weddings that should replace those traditional German Bauernhof- and Scheunenhochzeiten. The demand for these outdoor events is so significant that, according to the article, only a few Locations (in the German text) are still available. What, however, is meant here are reservations of those locations that have become difficult due to high demands.

Organic in English means Bio in German, and the words are used in Germany and the States primarily for food. So Organic Wedding should correctly be translated into Biohochzeit, which sounds quite silly. If young couples insist, let them marry on farms and in barns, but if they are hot on a Biohochzeit, it should take place only on a Biobauernhof, or will they call instead the location an organic farm?

An organic wedding set-up (©BZ/Michael Bamberger)

More than organic: on transport pallets (©BZ/Michael Bamberger)

Not organic at all: Brussels lace (©BZ/Michael Bamberger)

Stop the blog: I just learned on the Internet that Freiburg's Mayor Dieter Salomon married Helga Mayer, his longtime assistant, down under in Melbourne's Botanical Garden. Melbourne is Salomon's town of birth.

Is this sufficiently organic? (©BZ/private)

*

Laptop or Tablet?

In 2012, I asked: "Are We Entering the Post-PC Age?" Then in 2013, I wrote about my experience with my iPad3 and iPad mini. In 2014 I outed my apparent iMania, and in 2015 I kept quiet. Let us start a yearly tradition when at the beginning of 2016, I write about a laptop or a tablet.

This question has perturbed the Community since Apple's CEO Tim Cook presented the iPad pro as the replacement for the laptop. For me, the continuing debate is just a tempest in a teacup: Computing is a field where everybody has his/her preferences according to her/his needs. So it is with Red Baron.

From small to big, my iPad mini, coupled with a Logitech keyboard, is my device to take notes in libraries or when traveling. Although some people call the iPhone 6S Plus a phablet due to its huge display, I never thought of it as a replacement for the small iPad. What made me change my phone was not the larger real estate but the excellent camera of the iPhone plus. Consequently, I did not take a separate camera on my last year's trips to the Holy Land and Berlin.

For working on my texts at home, I now use the iPad pro connected to the Logitech keyboard instead of the iPad air. The larger iPad pro display is just gorgeous for surfing the Internet. The split-screen arrangement lets me work on my English texts, with the Linguee dictionary readily available on the side.

The home screens on my two iPads reveal some significant changes between 2014 and 2016. Starting in the first row:

I continue using Pocket Informant to manage my appointments, tasks, and contacts. All iOS calendars and tasks stay perfectly synchronized in iCloud on all my devices: Desktop PC, iPad pro, iPad mini, and iPhone 6S plus.

Having tried out many other Mail clients, I eventually switched back to Apple's seamlessly integrated application. However, sending group emails is still not possible. Here I depend on Microsoft's Outlook on my desktop PC.

Of all those many weather apps for the iPad, I chose Weather Pro HD, the most comprehensive one. I still keep Meteogram, although its local weather prediction has shrunk to two days only.

Wikipedia's icon was produced with iHomeIcon, an app allowing users to program specific actions. My late son took a photo of Frederick the Great's monument on Unter den Linden on one of his trips to Berlin. Touching the icon will directly open my Wikipedia watchlist.


The second row starts with a special icon calling up Red Baron's Blogs.

Built-in Safari has matured considerably over the last two years. This browser is a must because most apps address it by default. A few apps, however, allow me to switch to my favorite Chrome browser.

Badische Zeitung allows me to read the latest local news about Freiburg. On the next page, another app will download the complete digital edition of the BZ. Since Elisabeth and I read the paper edition every morning, I could add the digital subscription for a modest fee allowing me to stay abreast of Freiburg news when away from home.

Flipboard is one of the more sophisticated newsreaders.

Third row: Remember PhatNotes? PhatWare Corporation never extended the iPhone app to the iPad platform. In fact, Phatware has now stopped all support for this innovative database application. In searching for an ersatz, I looked for an app with encryption to protect my stored passwords. This is why Microsoft's OneNote has left its shadowy existence on my computers, fulfilling my need to synchronize my stored data on all iOS devices and my PC perfectly.

There is nothing to add for Nebulous; my one and only text-typing app displays one row of programmable touch keys at the bottom of the screen, including fast cut, copy, and paste, as shown in the screenshot above.

Apple's new Notes app has become my favorite for taking quick notes synchronized with all my iOS devices. The only b-moll is that the information is not readily available on my PC.

Linguee has replaced all my other dictionaries in iOS. It comes in handy working on the iPad pro in split-screen mode (see above) and has the most extensive English-German database. In addition, German-English and French-English dictionaries can be downloaded locally and be used offline. A French-German online dictionary is presently in beta testing.

Facebook remains fascinating to me since I adhered to a couple of German-American Internet portals such as there are: German Community in Madison, The German Club at UV-Madison, The German Madison Freiburg Sister City Committee, German Wisconsin, The German School of Madison, Max-Kade-Institute for German-American Studies, German Culture, The German Way, German Heritage USA, and I like Germany. Facebook also serves the Academic Year in Freiburg (AYF) program to spread information to its students.

Fourth row: Utilities groups speed testers (at home with Deutsche Telekom, I now frequently clock up to 49 Mb/s paying for 50), unit converters, and other helpful stuff.

Sport1 allows me to look at the scores of all major sports events and even follow the US baseball season.

PCalc remains my favorite and frequently used RPN calculator.

Office contains the matured Microsoft Office Suite, the pre-installed Apple Office Suite that I never use, and a couple of other text processors, as well as PDF converters.

I tried a few fancy alarm clock apps but eventually returned to the built-in Clock.

The last row of icons starts with Photos. I carry around a couple of picture galleries on all my iDevices and photos of my most memorable events year by year from 2000 - the advent of digital photography - to 2015.

Evernote contains all my collected snippets of odd and sometimes helpful information I ordered into categories.

Status Board is a programmable app displaying your recent emails, upcoming events from your personal calendar, local weather, time, date, and information on selected news channels. This is an ideal app for a quick look at what is up.

Google gives me direct access to queries on the Internet.

No comments for App Store and Settings.

My answer is clear in returning to the original question, Laptop or Tablet. Some tasks are either not possible or difficult to perform on iOS devices. On my desktop PC, I use Microsoft Expression Web to edit my websites, I "photo-shop" my photos with Paintshop Pro, and I use Microsoft Outlook for group emails. Printing is still a pain in the neck with iOS, and I do not like to leave my printer powered continuously. Ultimately, I need my PC and two iPads to be efficient.

*

Memories of a Nation

Red Baron likes to read books about German history written by foreigners. The author of the most recent one: Germany, Memories of a Nation, is Neil Robert MacGregor, Director of London's British Museum. The German translation of his book became so successful that MacGregor was nominated founding artistic director of Berlin's new Humboldt Forum in the year of his retirement. This Forum will be housed in the Berliner Stadtschloss, presently under reconstruction, and will later form the southern part of Berlin's Museumsinsel.

Neil's argumentation is mostly straightforward. He wants to entertain his well-disposed readers with exciting stories and avoid boring them with sophisticated reasoning. Nevertheless, I drew some interesting details from his richly illustrated book worth blogging about. 

The text marked in blue is copied from the book.

The Berlin Stadtschloss (Humboldt Forum) under reconstruction ©dpa

The German Bible

It is common knowledge that Martin Luther forged the German language by translating the Bible using "original" Greek and Hebrew texts. I learned from Neil that Albrecht, the Archbishop of Mainz and Chancellor of the German Empire, had refused a translation of the Latin Bible (vulgata), claiming that the German language was simply too poor, too coarse, to convey the scriptures.

To get the word of God across to the people, Luther schaute dem Volk aufs Maul (used the idiom of the ordinary people on the streets and of the farm people), and while translating, he invented catchy new German words when they did not exist. Nearly all of his neologisms are combinations of two already used words, e.g., Schandfleck (spot of shame) for blemish, Gewissensbiss (biting of the conscience) for remorse, Lockvogel (luring bird) for bait, and Landpfleger (caretaker of the country) for governor. Eventually, Albrecht was twofold mistaken by taking neither Friar Martin's posting of the 95 Theses seriously nor his capability of translating the Word of God for ordinary people.

25 of Luther's 95 Theses

Spreading the Word of the Bible meant printing the German text of what happened in Wittenberg in 1522. 

Interestingly, Gutenberg had initially used movable types to print the Latin Bible, but later, he printed letters of Indulgence instead that the Catholic Church sold. This practice was at the origin of the Reformation. Gutenberg printed thousands and thousands of Indulgence forms. So as well as giving the penitent buyer remission of sins in the next world, it gave Gutenberg a handy cash flow. In fact, these Indulgences were preprinted forms: some gaps were left blank for the name of the person who bought the Indulgence and the date on which they purchased it. This was administratively useful for the Church, as it meant it did not need to employ people to sit around writing them out.

One of Gutenberg's Indulgence forms was printed for Albrecht of Mainz.

Reinheitsgebot

In previous blogs, Red Baron had addressed the German Reinheitsgebot (Beer Purity Law), allowing only barley, hops, and water for beer brewing. 

The Reinheitsgebot

Initially, the Reinheitsgebot had nothing to do with purity but the fear of famine. It was simply to prevent people from brewing with wheat or rye because the latter would be better used for bread.

The issue became highly political in 1871 when Bavaria imposed the Beer Purity Law as a condition for joining the new German Empire. 

 And the issue arose again at the reunification of 1990. Across Germany, the so-called "Brandenburg Beer War," fought out in the courts, lasted for ten years "all over a black beer brewed in the former GDR that contained sugar, something forbidden by the Purity Law.

Magisch Dunkel

Nowadays, the Köstritzer Schwarzbier is so popular all over Germany that even Freiburg's Ganterbrauerei brews a magical dark beer ... during the night of a full moon.

The Hanse

The Hanseatic League, or in Lower German Hanse, was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. It dominated Baltic maritime trade along the coast of Northern Europe from the 13th to the 17th century. 

The city of Lübeck was called the Queen of the Hanseatic League but suffered when the trading routes changed from the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays, Lübeck is no longer autonomous. On the other hand, Hamburg and Bremen, facing the Atlantic, have prospered and are still Free Hanseatic cities and separate Länder within modern Germany ... Both cities saw themselves, and still do, as republican city-states governed after the Roman fashion, by consuls and senators adopting for public buildings the Roman letters SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus. To this day, you can read SPQH, Senatus Populusque Hamburgensis, on the door of Hamburg Town Hall, and, similarly, SPQB in Bremen. 

Germany's airline is called Lufthansa, "the Hansa of the air," with its Senator class for business travel.

The Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a disaster for continental Europe, particularly for German territories. Napoleon's success was undoubtedly due to his unequaled war machine but was considerably facilitated by the missing unity of the German people. When the petit corporal defeated Austria at Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, Prussia's King Frederick William III kept his powder dry.

When, however, in 1806, Napoleon forced Austria's Francis II to abdicate as German emperor, most of Europe, including Prussia, was shocked. Queen Louise told her husband, "The more compliance we show, the more Napoleon mocks us as fools. The only thing that counts is the force against force." Following his beloved wife, Frederick William demanded Napoleon, on September 25, 1806, to withdraw from all German territories declaring war on France. The inevitable happened on October 14, 1806. The once glorious Prussian army suffered crushing defeats in the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt. Napoleon triumphantly entered Berlin on horseback through the Brandenburg Gate two weeks later.

Prussia's existence hung on a thread. During a meeting between Louise and Napoleon, the new emperor started the conversation, "What a fantastic robe you wear. Where was it made?" Louise snarled, "Shall we talk about insignificant matters at such an important moment?" Convinced that his beautiful counterpart was the warmonger, Napoleon asked, "Why did you start the war?" She answered, "Sire, the glory of Frederick the Great had deceived us about our means."

Napoleon meets his beautiful foe.

But Napoleon had created a formidable foe in the process: Queen Louise spent her remaining years encouraging the Prussian people to hold out until they could recover their dignity and their lands. They loved and revered her as the "soul of national virtue." They called her the Prussian Jeanne d'Arc ... Napoleon, when she died in 1810, remarked that Frederick William had "lost his best minister."

Napoleon returning from Russia

When in 1813, following Napoleon's disastrous Russian expedition, the military tide began to turn in favor of Prussia and its allies, the king suspended all existing military decorations. He ordered a new one to be struck for those who took part in the war against Napoleon. The Iron Cross was awarded to men of all ranks, not just officers, a historic innovation in Prussia and a brilliant PR stroke. Henceforth, all Prussians would be honored on equal terms in their fight to free the nation, irrespective of wealth or social standing. In fact, Fredrick William had just copied Napoleon's system of the Légion d'honneur introduced in 1804.

Frederick William above an oak branch and the year 1813

The victory against Napoleon forged Prussian unity and pride. Following my reading of Memories of a Nation, I visited the commemorating monument in Viktoria Park on Kreuzberg during my last visit to Berlin.

Steep steps for an old man approaching
the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig on October 18, 1813,
the forgotten Battle Battle of Groß Görschen on May 2, 1813, known
to my English-speaking readers as the (second) Battle of Lützen.

The entry of the Great Coalition Army into Paris on March 30, 1814
March 30he provisional end of Napoleon's rule.

Better known to my English-speaking readers
as the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815.

Bismarck's "Mein Kampf"

The following information about Otto von Bismarck was new to me. The Iron Chancellor had forgotten to write it in his literary masterpiece: Gedanken und Erinnerungen. 

In August 1862, on a visit to London, he revealed his plans to his host, Benjamin Disraeli. Jonathan Steinberg describes what Bismarck said, "I shall soon be compelled to undertake the conduct of a Prussian government. My first care will be to reorganize the army with or without the help of the Landtag [the Prussian Assembly]. As soon as the army shall have been brought into such a condition as to inspire respect, I shall seize the first best pretext to declare war against Austria, dissolve the German Confederation, subdue the minor states and give national unity to Germany under Prussian leadership. I have come here to say this to the Queen's ministers." They were stupefied. On the way home, Disraeli accompanied the Austrian ambassador, and when they got to his residence, as they parted, Disraeli said to him, "Take care of that man. He means what he says." Disraeli was right to take him seriously: Bismarck did precisely what he said he would do.

Eventually, the Iron Chancellor's plans demanded another decisive step: Defeating Napoleon's III France. Still, I always had thought that Bismarck's leitmotiv had instead been Prussia's Gloria than German unity. At least old King William was more Prussian than German when he wrote to his wife Augusta, "Dropping back the name Prussia is half of my tomb." He wailed and wept on the eve of his proclamation as German emperor, "Tomorrow I will live the most unhappy moment of my life. We are going to bury the Prussian kingdom." Emperor William always remembered what his chancellor had forced onto him. Once, he famously said: "Prussians need only fear God and Bismarck."

It's all history. In Wikipedia, we read: In Law No. 46 of February 25, 1947, the Control Council formally proclaimed the dissolution of Prussia.

*