Hohenzollern

ho-en-tsol'lern, the present ruling family of Prussia. The family sprang from a tiny province of that name. The curious may find it on the map of Germany sandwiched in between Wurtemberg and Baden, about fifty miles north of Lake Constance. The old family castle was formerly a fortification of great strength. In 1415 a young member of the family was made elector of Brandenburg, not, at that time, a particularly enviable position on the Baltic. He and his successors created the kingdom of Prussia. Finally the younger branch became the head of the house, and the old home became an outlying province of Prussia. Frederick the Great was a Hohenzollern.