English Translation

The Reichskleinodien confession of a Dutchman in the first place something "supernatural". Our kingdom is not a supernatural matter, but natural reality and above all future. But nevertheless a future that also has an old past behind it, "sanctified tradition", and inseparable is this transition connected with the gems. These gems have worked strongly on the imagination of thousands and can still do so, even on ours. So it could happen in a time when Christianity reinterpreted everything in miraculous stories that the imperial lance became a relic. Once this lance was the most venerated sign of the empire. We know today that it was forged by Siegener Stahl in the 8th century. But the belief in miracles did not leave this lance untouched. A strangely shaped iron rod was attached in the middle, and this rod was revered like a nail from the cross of Christ. This lance represented the royal power, and with the lance this power was transferred according to ancient Germanic custom. Thus the Burgunderking received Rudolf II. In 922 the lance, which was then the symbol of the Lombards. However, in 926 Rudolf had to give it to Worm's Henry I, that is to say to the first empire. Before this lance became Reich's lance it was already used by the German princes as a sign of its dignity. When Otto the Great conquered Hungary on the Lechfeld (near Augsburg) in 955, he did so under the banner of the Siegbanner of this Reichslanze. Thus it was once much more than a precious museum piece. Under its sign Emperor of the Reich defeated her battles until one of her bearers fell under Henry IV (1086 to 1ö88) and the lance itself was lost. The shaft had been lost for a long time, and probably it has now been broken, but then it loses its significance over other imperial miniodies. Legends are spun around the old weapon; it becomes the sacred spear of the Grail Temple, the lance of the martyr, of St. Sebastian. Once it was princely custom that every emperor had his own crown. But a hundred years after the lance came out of the same Germanic Burgundy a crown which was to become the imperial crown when Burgundy was incorporated into the kingdom. This crown now became a symbol of the power and greatness of the empire. At the front, in the middle of the cross, there was once a gemstone, which bore the name "aisen". This stone has been lost; after 1423 it is no longer called, and now a little too small stone is inserted in its place. Orphans means: the only one standing alone. The name of the stone became the name of a crown.