These two fundamental objectives were self-explanatory and mutually compulsory. For, given the disproportion in power that existed between Prussia and the other states, the more one increased the power of the Reich to the detriment of the states the more one strengthened the domination of Prussia, for thereby Prussia was made all powerful within the Reich. If, therefore, the centralizing character of the Constitution was to be accentuated, the following dilemma would have to be confronted. Either Prussia as it was would have to be accepted by the Reich, in which case the German Republic would in reality become a unitary Prussian Republic in which non-Prussian parties would be subjected to the will of Prussia. Or, if this state of affairs was to be avoided and a unitary state with central will was desired, Prussia would have to be suppressed, either by a partition of her own accord or one imposed upon it by the Reich.[11] It was this latter alternative that Under-Secretary of State Preuss chose when he was put in charge of the drafting of the Constitution. The individual states, he pointed out, were the products of purely dynastic politics which almost everywhere ran counter to the natural relations of populations and races, separating what should have been united and uniting elements that had nothing in common. Only the republic has the possibility--it is also its duty--to reunite what belonged together. The fundamental question of the internal organization of Germany is, can a centralized Prussian State be maintained within the future German Republic? This question Preuss, after philosophical, historical considerations, answered in the negative. He demanded the territorial redistribution of the states on the basis of the right of populations to self-determination, according to their needs and their political and economic inclinations, with the intervention, by the sanction and under the direction of the Reich. Preuss insisted throughout on the fact that Prussia is not a nation, but that she constitutes an artificial formation, due to the political hazards of a reigning house, purchases, marriages, conquests, etc. The Prussian state does not form an organic whole and is bound together neither by economic nor cultural relations. It is an incomplete German state, “an edifice of fortune.” Even admitting that it had been for a time indispensable, in that it constituted to a certain measure an internal bond, it has now outlived its usefulness as a state. The national unity of Germany as a whole is a vital question for the German people and therefore for the German Republic. It is imperative that the diverse races who lived in forced unity in Prussia should be at once placed under the sovereignty of the Reich instead of being “mediatized” by a state that interposes itself between them and the Reich. It is only by the suppression of Prussia that these populations can secure that equality which is their right by the side of the other German states.