“I am the law! I am the state! I am the emperor!” With these words, he silenced the whole of Germany. Maximus Petrus, then a member of parliament for the Social Democrats, said these three sentences in a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
Everyone was shocked, nobody knew why the otherwise so convinced Social Democrat had uttered such words. But after a long pause, he continued: “This is how my state will be. I will found an empire! I have seen that democracy, not just in Germany, but in the whole world, is on the brink of collapse. That is why I am offering you, my fellow citizens, and everyone else, a new state with me, far removed from European democracy. It will be a free country, laws will be reinvented, a new education system will be designed and much more. Let me lead you by the hand into a new future. I hereby proclaim the first modern empire!”
And even though no one had expected it, many people gathered around Maximus Petrus and allowed themselves to be led into the new promised land.