The historians of the 19th century were interested in a strong monarchical central power and therefore looked for the reasons for the late emergence of the German nation state. The "sources of strength of the German nation" were located in the Middle Ages. The kings and emperors were seen as early representatives of a strong monarchical power that is also longed for today. The decisive factor for the historians' judgment was whether the medieval rulers increased the royal development of power over the nobility and the church or whether they were responsible for the loss of power. The image of history shaped by this aspect emerged after the dissolution of the Old Kingdom and the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon. From this point of view, the German kings and emperors under the Ottonian, Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties appeared to be extremely powerful, since they had a predominant position in Europe. In the course of the Middle Ages, however, the emperors lost this position of power. The papacy and the princes were held responsible for this. They were considered to be the "gravedigger of the German royal power" for Protestant, nationalist German historiography. Two turning points were considered to be decisive for the central authority's loss of power: the first one, was the Road to Canossa by Henry IV in 1077 (where he lost royal influence over the church) and the second one was the double election of 1198. The nobility used their right to vote for kings to obtain privileges from the monarchy and thus expand their own rule. This view of a loss of power for the German kingship through the double election of 1198 has long remained the predominant one. In Karl Bosl's work “"Die Reichsministerialität"” from 1950, Philip and Otto IV's government signified “a huge, if not perhaps the decisive, setback that the German monarchy suffered in its last attempt to build a state”.