The Estates, or Provincial Assemblies, of East and West Prussia were summoned, and they heartily voted supplies for forming a Landwehr or militia, as well as a last line of defence called the Landsturm.

This step, unique in the history of Prussia, was taken apart from, almost in defiance of, the royal sanction: it was, in fact, due to the masterful will of Stein, who saw that a great popular impulse, and it alone, could overcome the inertia of King and officials.

That impulse he himself originated, and by virtue of powers conferred on him by the Emperor Alexander.

And the ball thus set rolling at Koenigsberg was to gather mass and momentum until, thanks to the powerful aid of Wellington in the South, it overthrew Napoleon at Paris.
The action of the exile was furthered by the word of a thinker and seer.

A worthy professor at the University of Breslau, named Steffens, had long been meditating on some means of helping his country.