1909 celebrates the 300-year association of the County of Mark to Brandenburg-Prussia. The most important event is reconstruction of the family castle on the maternal side of the Hohenzollern dynasty initiated by the regional elitist powers a few years previously. 
Representatives of the still-young discipline of the preservation of historical monuments resist these plans. A dispute then occurs across Germany that subsequently escalates. The main representatives of both sides, the County Commissioner Fritz Thomée (1862-1944) and Professor Hermann Ehrenberg (1858-1920), challenge each other to a dual. This is in the end not fought out and a word of command by Emperor Wilhelm II leads to reconstruction of the castle. The pistols for the dual are still to be found in Burg Altena, bearing testimony to the escalating dispute.