4. In contrast to the other federated states whose Constitutions were based on the principle of equality of the component states, Germany was based on the notion of the inequality of the states federated in it. _Prussia exercised a true hegemony in Germany._ In the Bundesrat it was represented by 17 votes whereas the other most favoured state, Bavaria, had but 6; two others, Saxony and Wurtemberg, had only 4 each; two, Baden and Hesse, 3 each; Mecklenburg and Brunswick, 2 each; and all the others but 1 apiece. In addition the Rhineland was also represented by 3 votes in the Bundesrat but these votes were instructed by Prussia. The latter, therefore, had 17 votes, 20 with those of Alsace-Lorraine, 21 with that of Waldeck, since the latter by its treaty of entry into the Confederation had abandoned its governmental rights to Prussia. It had therefore numerically a third of the total strength of the Bundesrat, while in actual influence it counted much more. Only Prussia could feel assured that its representation made it mistress of the situation in the Bundesrat; fourteen votes were sufficient to head off a constitutional change. Consequently Prussia possessed absolute veto power. It must not be forgotten that the representatives of the Princes in the Bundesrat received imperative mandates from them and that the representatives of the state had to cast their votes as a bloc--that is, as a unit. It mattered little, therefore, that such and such was the numerical representation in the Bundesrat of the particular states, that Prussia had 17 votes, Bavaria 6, etc. As to legislative changes relating to the army or the navy, and to taxes feeding the treasury of the Empire, nothing of this kind could be enacted if it was opposed by the “presidency.” And the “presidency” belonged by undisputed right to Prussia. In the Reichstag Prussia exercised the same preponderance. The Reichstag was composed of deputies, one for each 100,000 inhabitants. There Prussia counted much more than half, for its population was nearly two-thirds that of the whole Empire--40,165,217 out of 64,925,933. She also elected 236 deputies out of the 397 that made up the Reichstag. To the same degree she was in control of executive action. While sovereignty nominally resided in the assemblage of Princes in the Bundesrath, it resided no less in the hands of the King of Prussia who had full rights as the German Emperor; and it was he who nominated the Chancellor, the sole responsible minister of the Empire. The Chancellor was almost always a subject of the King of Prussia and, following a rule to which there were few exceptions, at the same time the Prime Minister of Prussia.