When the Kingdom of Italy, in May 1924, celebrated the seven-hundredth anniversary of the University of Naples, a foundation of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, a wreath might have been seen on the Emperor’s sarcophagus in the Cathedral of Palermo with this inscription:
SEINEN KAISERN UND HELDEN
DAS GEHEIME DEUTSCHLAND
This is not to imply that the present Life of Frederick II was begotten of that episode… but that wreath may fairly be taken as a symbol that—not alone in learned circles—enthusiasm is astir for the great German Rulers of the past: in a day when Kaisers are no more.