It was on this day, May 30, five hundred years before that the Burgrave Frederick VI of Hohenzollern, the later Elector Frederick I, entered the fortified place of Brandenburg, on the Havel. In commemoration of this fact, a fountain and an equestrian statue of the Elector by Professor Manzel were dedicated. The church of St. Catherine had likewise been restored and was rededicated on this day. After the unveiling, the Emperor proceeded to the old town hall, where he inscribed his name in the city's Golden Book, and after he had accepted the drink of honor offered him by the burgomaster, he delivered the following address: I am deeply grateful to the city of Brandenburg for having thought of inviting me to its celebration. It has been a celebration whose importance extends far beyond the walls of Brandenburg, and I rejoice that the Brandenburgers should have wished to have their Elector and Margrave with them, just as it goes without saying that the Elector is pleased when he can tarry among his Brandenburgers. The changes of history which have swept over the German Fatherland have called forth and laid tasks upon many a dynasty, and finally it was the dynasty of my ancestors who first succeeded after many difficulties in laying the corner-stone for the great work and at last in building up the work itself--the establishment of German unity on a Brandenburger basis and under the leadership of Prussia. We must not forget that it must have been a difficult decision for the ruler of the land in those days and the later Elector to undertake the task of coming into this country and of bringing it back again to a flourishing condition. For he came from the sunny south, which had progressed in culture and whose knighthood at that time was also in its fullest flower of cultural development. We have already learned from reliable lips what a frightful situation existed at that time in the unhappy mark. And if he was successful in re-establishing order little by little and in sowing the seeds for new flowers, nevertheless the mark had to pass through many grievous storms and became the arena of foreign powers and foreign lords. But at last the Great Elector and the great King drove away the foreigners once for all and won for the people of the mark and of Prussia the right to live for themselves without having to see the products of their industry and labor fall a prey to the caprices of strangers. And when at last, through the help of God, the Prussian edifice was completed and my grandfather, in the long period of peace, had sharpened the sword which he must needs have in order to achieve German union, then for a second time, on a grander scale, the same work was accomplished which had previously been accomplished for the mark. And he succeeded in finally forbidding the strangers to trample upon our fields and to destroy our labor for the mere sake of following their own interests.