Victorino Matus, assistant managing editor

FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, there's been talk in Germany about merging the state of Brandenburg with the city-state of Berlin (imagine a merging of Maryland and the District of Columbia, but not as bad). Most estimates expect the "fusion" of the two entities to take place by 2006. It's a reasonable proposition, since Berlin could benefit from a somewhat more fiscally responsible Brandenburg, while the latter could benefit from all that the nation's capital has to offer. Sure, there's the argument that Berlin, with its economic woes (including a staggering budget deficit), would just be a drag on the surrounding region. But that debate pales in comparison to the one brought up by Alwin Ziel, Brandenburg's Social Affairs minister. Since "Berlin-Brandenburg" is a cumbersome name, Ziel had a better idea: Why don't we call it Prussia?

For those involved in the fusion debate, it was as if someone threw up a grenade. And soon, everyone in the country had an opinion on the matter, sparking a political firestorm over the pros and cons of reviving a name that was abolished in 1947 by the Allies, who called it a "militaristic, reactionary power." Winston Churchill went a bit further, declaring it "the root of all evil." (Yes, evil.) But is it really all that?

Historian Martin Kitchen writes of "the much vaunted Prussian virtues of obedience, frugality, sense of duty, modesty, diligence, and social responsibility." Last year, in an essay for Policy Review, I interviewed then-speaker of the Berlin senate Michael-Andreas

But then there's that darker side of Prussia. The Economist reminds us that after the Second World War, Prussia was "synonymous with everything repellent in German history: militarism, territorial expansion, arrogance, and domination." "And wasn't it Prussia's elite who, by intriguing against the Weimar republic, helped bring Hitler to power in 1933, provoking a descent into tyranny that drew heavily on Prussian traditions of authoritarianism, obedience thereto and deification of the army?" the magazine asks. Why yes, it was. But the Economist forgets to mention that Prussian royalists were largely responsible for the assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944--the failure of which led to the army's subjugation to the SS.

Still, if you look at the old monuments in Berlin erected prior to 1871, what you see is a tribute to battles, wars, victories--from the Siegessaule victory column to the Brandenburg Gate. In the 1700s, Berlin was basically one giant parade ground--a Prussian utopia, really, where one in five residents was a soldier. And then there were the wars, against practically every one of its neighbors. Even today, the discussion of renaming the new state brings out strong reactions in countries such as Poland, Austria, and even Switzerland: Jean Ziegler, a professor at Geneva University, said, "Among us Swiss, the idea of Prussia continues to stand for militarism, arrogance and expansionism." Don't even think of asking the French.