However much the other ‘racial groups’ might refer to Kakania as a prison, which indeed they did, and however they might give public expression to their love for France, Italy, or Russia, as the case might be, these were, so to speak, more remote enthusiasms, and no serious politician could make the mistake of putting them on one level with the enthusiasm certain Germans had for the German Empire, which held Kakania in a geographic stranglehold and until only one generation ago had formed a unity with it.