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Prussia

Prussia[b] was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.

Prussia
Preußen (German)
Prūsa (Prussian)
1525–1947[a]
State flag (1803–1892)
Coat of Arms
(1701–1871)
Motto: Gott mit uns
Nobiscum deus
("God with us")
Anthem: 
(1830–1840)
Preußenlied
("Song of Prussia")
Royal anthem: 
(1795–1918)
Heil dir im Siegerkranz
("Hail to thee in the Victor's Crown")[1]
The Kingdom of Prussia (dark green) at its greatest extent in 1870 within the North German Confederation (light green)
The Kingdom of Prussia (blue) within the German Empire in 1914
CapitalKönigsberg (1525–1701; 1806)
Berlin (1701–1806; 1806–1947)
Common languagesOfficial:
German
Minorities:
Religion
Religious confessions in
the Kingdom of Prussia 1880

Majority:
64.64% United Protestant
(Lutheran, Calvinist)
Minorities:
33.75% Catholic
1.33% Jewish
0.19% Other Christian
0.09% Other
Demonym(s)Prussian
GovernmentFeudal monarchy (1525–1701)
Absolute monarchy (1701–1848)
Federal parliamentary
semi-constitutional monarchy (1848–1918)
Federal semi-presidential
constitutional republic (1918–1932)
Authoritarian presidential republic (1932–1933)
Nazi single-party dictatorship (1933–1945)
Allied-occupied Germany (1945–1947)
Duke1 
• 1525–1568
Albert I (first)
• 1688–1701
Frederick I (last)
King1 
• 1701–1713
Frederick I (first)
• 1888–1918
Wilhelm II (last)
Minister-President1, 2 
• 1918
Friedrich Ebert (first)
• 1933–1945
Hermann Göring (last)
Historical eraEarly modern Europe to Contemporary
10 April 1525
27 August 1618
18 January 1701
9 November 1918
• Abolition (de facto, loss of independence)
30 January 1934
25 February 1947[a]
Population
• 1816[2]
10,349,000
• 1871[2]
24,689,000
• 1939[2]
41,915,040
CurrencyReichsthaler (until 1750)
Prussian thaler (1750–1857)
Vereinsthaler (1857–1873)
German gold mark (1873–1914)
German Papiermark (1914–1923)
Reichsmark (1924–1947)
Today part of
  • 1 The heads of state listed here are the first and last to hold each title over time. For more information, see individual Prussian state articles (links in above History section).
  • 2 The position of Ministerpräsident was introduced in 1792 when Prussia was a Kingdom; the Minister-Presidents shown here are the heads of the Prussian republic.

In 1871, Prussian Minister-President Otto von Bismarck united most German principalities into the German Empire under his leadership, although this was considered to be a "Lesser Germany" because Austria and Switzerland were not included. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, a state of Germany from 1918 until 1933. From 1932, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup and the Nazi Gleichschaltung laws, which established a unitary state. Its legal status finally ended in 1947.[3]

The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians; in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk). Their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany, and, in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The imposed Second Peace of Thorn (1466) split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, becoming a province of Poland, and the eastern part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia, a feudal fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom.[4][5] It became increasingly large and powerful in the 18th and 19th centuries. It had a major voice in European affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great (1740–1786). At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleon's defeat, Prussia acquired rich new territories, including the coal-rich Ruhr. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians.

The Kingdom ended in 1918 along with other German monarchies that were terminated by the German Revolution. In the Weimar Republic, the Free State of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. Subsequently, it was effectively dismantled into Nazi German Gaue in 1935. Nevertheless, some Prussian ministries were kept and Hermann Göring remained in his role as Minister President of Prussia until the end of World War II. Former eastern territories of Germany that made up a significant part of Prussia lost the majority of their German population after 1945 as the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet Union both absorbed these territories and had most of its German inhabitants expelled by 1950. Prussia, deemed "a bearer of militarism and reaction" by the Allies, was officially abolished by an Allied declaration in 1947. The international status of the former eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia was disputed until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990, but its return to Germany remains a cause among far right politicians, the Federation of Expellees and various political revanchists and irredentists.

The terms "Prussian" and "Prussianism" have often been used, especially outside Germany, to denote the militarism, military professionalism, aggressiveness, and conservatism of the Junker class of landed aristocrats in the East who dominated first Prussia and then the German Empire.

Symbols

 
 

History of Brandenburg and Prussia
Northern March
965 – 983
Old Prussians
pre – 13th century
Lutician federation
983 – 12th century
Margraviate of Brandenburg
1157 – 1618 (1806) (HRE)
(Bohemia 1373 – 1415)
Teutonic Order
1224 – 1525
(Polish fief 1466 – 1525)
Duchy of Prussia
1525 – 1618 (1701)
(Polish fief 1525 – 1657)
Malbork Voivodeship and Prince-Bishopric of Warmia within Royal (Polish) Prussia, Poland 1454/1466 – 1772)
Brandenburg-Prussia
1618 – 1701
Kingdom in Prussia
1701 – 1772
Kingdom of Prussia
1772 – 1918
Free State of Prussia (Germany)
1918 – 1947
Klaipėda Region
(Lithuania)
1920 – 1939 / 1945 – present
Działdowo area
(Poland 1918-present)
Warmia, Masuria, Powiśle within Recovered Territories
(Poland 1945 – present)
Berlin and Brandenburg
(Germany)
1947 – 1952 / 1990 – present
Kaliningrad Oblast
(Russia)
1945 – present

The main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background.

The black and white national colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights and by the Hohenzollern dynasty. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a black cross with gold insert and black imperial eagle. The combination of the black and white colours with the white and red Hanseatic colours of the free cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, as well as of Brandenburg, resulted in the black-white-red commercial flag of the North German Confederation, which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871.[citation needed]

Suum cuique ("to each, his own"), the motto of the Order of the Black Eagle created by King Frederick I in 1701, was often associated with the whole of Prussia. The Iron Cross, a military decoration created by King Frederick William III in 1813, was also commonly associated with the country.[citation needed] The region, originally populated by Baltic Old Prussians who were Christianised, became a favoured location for immigration by (later mainly Protestant) Germans (see Ostsiedlung), as well as Poles and Lithuanians along the border regions.

Territory

Before its abolition, the territory of the Free State of Prussia included the provinces of East Prussia; Brandenburg; Saxony (including much of the present-day state of Saxony-Anhalt and parts of the state of Thuringia in Germany); Pomerania; Rhineland; Westphalia; Silesia (without Austrian Silesia); Schleswig-Holstein; Hanover; Hesse-Nassau; and a small detached area in the south called Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family. The land that the Teutonic Knights occupied was flat and covered with fertile soil. The area was perfectly suited to the large-scale raising of wheat.[6] The rise of early Prussia was based on the raising and selling of wheat. Teutonic Prussia became known as the "bread basket of Western Europe" (in German, Kornkammer, or granary). The port cities which rose on the back of this wheat production included: Stettin in Pomerania (now Szczecin, Poland); Danzig in Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland); Riga in Livonia (now Riga, Latvia); Königsberg in Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia); and Memel in Prussia (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). Wheat production and trade brought Prussia into a close relationship with the Hanseatic League during the period of time from 1356 (official founding of the Hanseatic League) until the decline of the League in about 1500.

The expansion of Prussia based on its connection with the Hanseatic League cut both Poland and Lithuania off from the coast of the Baltic Sea and trade abroad.[7] This meant that Poland and Lithuania would be traditional enemies of Prussia, which was still called the Teutonic Knights.[8]

History

Teutonic Order

 
Situation after the conquest in the late 13th century. Areas in purple under control of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights.
 
The Teutonic Order (orange) following the Second Peace of Thorn (1466)

In 1211 King Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in Transylvania as a fiefdom to the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre. In 1225 he expelled them, and they transferred their operations to the Baltic Sea area. Konrad I, the Polish duke of Masovia, had unsuccessfully attempted to conquer pagan Prussia in crusades in 1219 and 1222.[9] In 1226 Duke Konrad invited the Teutonic Knights to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders.

During 60 years of struggles against the Old Prussians, the Order established an independent state that came to control Prūsa. After the Livonian Brothers of the Sword joined the Teutonic Order in 1237, the Order also controlled Livonia (now Latvia and Estonia). Around 1252 they finished the conquest of the northernmost Prussian tribe of the Skalvians as well as of the western Baltic Curonians, and erected Memel Castle, which developed into the major port city of Memel (Klaipėda). The Treaty of Melno defined the final border between Prussia and the adjoining Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1422.

The Hanseatic League officially formed in northern Europe in 1356 as a group of trading cities. This League came to hold a monopoly on all trade leaving the interior of Europe and Scandinavia and on all sailing trade in the Baltic Sea for foreign countries.[10]

In the course of the Ostsiedlung (German eastward expansion) process, settlers were invited[by whom?], bringing changes in the ethnic composition as well as in language, culture, and law of the eastern borders of the German lands. As a majority of these settlers were Germans, Low German became the dominant language.

The Knights of the Teutonic Order were subordinate to the papacy and to the emperor. Their initially close relationship with the Polish Crown deteriorated after they conquered Polish-controlled Pomerelia and Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1308. Eventually, Poland and Lithuania, allied through the Union of Krewo (1385), defeated the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410.

The Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) began when the Prussian Confederation, a coalition of Hanseatic cities of western Prussia, rebelled against the Order and requested help from the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon. The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of, and to pay tribute to Casimir IV in the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), losing western Prussia (Royal Prussia) to Poland in the process. Pursuant to the Second Peace of Thorn, two Prussian states were established.[11][need quotation to verify]

During the period of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire were granted lands by the Order and gradually formed a new landed Prussian nobility, from which the Junkers would evolve to take a major role in the militarization of Prussia and, later, Germany.[12]

Duchy of Prussia

 
Prussian Homage by Jan Matejko. After admitting the dependence of Prussia to the Polish Crown, Albert of Prussia receives Ducal Prussia as a fief from King Sigismund I the Old of Poland in 1525.

On 10 April 1525, after signing of the Treaty of Kraków, which officially ended the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–21), in the main square of the Polish capital Kraków, Albert I resigned his position as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and received the title "Duke of Prussia" from King Zygmunt I the Old of Poland. As a symbol of vassalage, Albert received a standard with the Prussian coat of arms from the Polish king. The black Prussian eagle on the flag was augmented with a letter "S" (for Sigismundus) and had a crown placed around its neck as a symbol of submission to Poland. Albert I, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order's Prussian territories.[13] This was the area east of the mouth of the Vistula River, later sometimes called "Prussia proper". For the first time, these lands came into the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, who already ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg, since the 15th century. Furthermore, with his renunciation of the Order, Albert could now marry and produce legitimate heirs.

Brandenburg-Prussia

Brandenburg and Prussia united two generations later. In 1594 Anna, granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Duke Albert Frederick (reigned 1568–1618), married her cousin Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg. When Albert Frederick died in 1618 without male heirs, John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia, then still a Polish fief. From this time the Duchy of Prussia was in personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The resulting state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia, consisted of geographically disconnected territories in Prussia, Brandenburg, and the Rhineland lands of Cleves and Mark.

During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), various armies repeatedly marched across the disconnected Hohenzollern lands, especially the occupying Swedes. The ineffective and militarily weak Margrave George William (1619–1640) fled from Berlin to Königsberg, the historic capital of the Duchy of Prussia, in 1637. His successor, Frederick William I (1640–1688), reformed the army to defend the lands.

Frederick William I went to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland for the Duchy of Prussia, which was still held in fief from the Polish crown. In January 1656, during the first phase of the Second Northern War (1654–1660), he received the duchy as a fief from the Swedish king who later granted him full sovereignty in the Treaty of Labiau (November 1656). In 1657 the Polish king renewed this grant in the treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg. With Prussia, the Brandenburg Hohenzollern dynasty now held a territory free of any feudal obligations, which constituted the basis for their later elevation to kings.

 

Frederick William I succeeded in organizing the electorate by establishing an absolute monarchy in Brandenburg-Prussia, an achievement for which he became known as the "Great Elector". Above all, he emphasised the importance of a powerful military to protect the state's disconnected territories, while the Edict of Potsdam (1685) opened Brandenburg-Prussia for the immigration of Protestant refugees (especially Huguenots), and he established a bureaucracy to carry out state administration efficiently.[14]

Kingdom of Prussia

On 18 January 1701, Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III, elevated Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom and crowned himself King Frederick I. In the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700, Leopold I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, allowed Frederick only to title himself "King in Prussia", not "King of Prussia". The state of Brandenburg-Prussia became commonly known as "Prussia", although most of its territory, in Brandenburg, Pomerania, and western Germany, lay outside Prussia proper. The Prussian state grew in splendour during the reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury.[15]

Frederick I was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713–1740), the austere "Soldier King", who did not care for the arts but was thrifty and practical.[16] He was the main creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the professionalised standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe. His troops only briefly saw action during the Great Northern War. In view of the size of the army in relation to the total population, Mirabeau said later: "Prussia, is not a state with an army, but an army with a state."[citation needed] Frederick William also settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated eastern Prussia, which was eventually extended to the west bank of the River Memel, and other regions. In the treaty of Stockholm (1720), he acquired half of Swedish Pomerania.[17]

 
King Frederick William I, "the Soldier-King"

The king died in 1740 and was succeeded by his son, Frederick II, whose accomplishments led to his reputation as "Frederick the Great".[18] As crown prince, Frederick had focused, primarily, on philosophy and the arts.[19] He was an accomplished flute player. In 1740, Prussian troops crossed over the undefended border of Silesia and occupied Schweidnitz. Silesia was the richest province of Habsburg Austria.[20] It signalled the beginning of three Silesian Wars (1740–1763).[21] The First Silesian War (1740–1742) and the Second Silesian War (1744–1745) have, historically, been grouped together with the general European war called the War of Austrian Succession (1740–1748). Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI had died on 20 October 1740. He was succeeded to the throne by his daughter, Maria Theresa.

By defeating the Austrian Army at the Battle of Mollwitz on 10 April 1741, Frederick succeeded in conquering Lower Silesia (the northwestern half of Silesia).[22] In the next year, 1742, he conquered Upper Silesia (the southeastern half). Furthermore, in the third Silesian War (usually grouped with the Seven Years' War) Frederick won a victory over Austria at the Battle of Lobositz on 1 October 1756. In spite of some impressive victories afterward, his situation became far less comfortable the following years, as he failed in his attempts to knock Austria out of the war and was gradually reduced to a desperate defensive war. However, he never gave up and on 3 November 1760 the Prussian king won another battle, the hard-fought Battle of Torgau. Despite being several times on the verge of defeat Frederick, allied with Great Britain, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel, was finally able to hold the whole of Silesia against a coalition of Saxony, the Habsburg monarchy, France and Russia.[23] Voltaire, a close friend of the king, once described Frederick the Great's Prussia by saying "...it was Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon."

 
King Frederick II, "the Great"

Silesia, full of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns, became a vital region to Prussia, greatly increasing the nation's area, population, and wealth.[24] Success on the battleground against Austria and other powers proved Prussia's status as one of the great powers of Europe. The Silesian Wars began more than a century of rivalry and conflict between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states operating within the Holy Roman Empire (although both had extensive territory outside the empire).[25] In 1744, the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following the extinction of its ruling Cirksena dynasty.

In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786, Frederick II, who understood himself as the "first servant of the state", promoted the development of Prussian areas such as the Oderbruch. At the same time he built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia in 1772, an act that geographically connected the Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper. During this period, he also opened Prussia's borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe, such as the Huguenots. Prussia became a safe haven in much the same way that the United States welcomed immigrants seeking freedom in the 19th century.[26]

Frederick the Great (reigned 1740–1786) practised enlightened absolutism. He built the world's best army, and usually won his many wars. He introduced a general civil code, abolished torture and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere in matters of justice.[27] He also promoted an advanced secondary education, the forerunner of today's German gymnasium (grammar school) system, which prepares the brightest pupils for university studies. The Prussian education system was emulated in various countries, including the United States.[26]

Napoleonic Wars

 
Growth of Brandenburg-Prussia, 1600–1795

During the reign of King Frederick William II (1786–1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. His successor, Frederick William III (1797–1840), announced the union of the Prussian Lutheran and Reformed churches into one church.[28]

Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars, but remained quiet for more than a decade because of the Peace of Basel of 1795, only to go once more to war with France in 1806 as negotiations with that country over the allocation of the spheres of influence in Germany failed. Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon Bonaparte's troops in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, leading Frederick William III and his family to flee temporarily to Memel. Under the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, the state lost about one-third of its area, including the areas gained from the second and third Partitions of Poland, which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw. Beyond that, the king was obliged to pay a large indemnity, to cap his army at 42,000 men, and to let the French garrison troops throughout Prussia, effectively making the Kingdom a French satellite.[29]

In response to this defeat, reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernising the Prussian state. Among their reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the Emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them. The school system was rearranged, and in 1818 free trade was introduced. The process of army reform ended in 1813 with the introduction of compulsory military service for men.[30] By 1813, Prussia could mobilize almost 300,000 soldiers, more than half of which were conscripts of the Landwehr of variable quality. The rest consisted of regular soldiers that were deemed excellent by most observers, and very determined to repair the humiliation of 1806.

After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, Prussia quit its alliance with France and took part in the Sixth Coalition during the "Wars of Liberation" (Befreiungskriege) against the French occupation. Prussian troops under Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher contributed crucially (alongside the British and Dutch) to the final victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo of June 1815. Prussia's reward in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland, Westphalia, 40% of Saxony and some other territories. These western lands were of vital importance because they included the Ruhr Area, the centre of Germany's fledgling industrialisation, especially in the arms industry. These territorial gains also meant the doubling of Prussia's population. In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty.[29] In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation.

Wars of liberation

The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and conservatives, who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence. One small movement that signalled a desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement, by students who encouraged the use of the black-red-gold flag, discussions of a unified German nation, and a progressive, liberal political system. Because of Prussia's size and economic importance, smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s. Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union (Zollverein), which included most German states but excluded Austria.[28]

In 1848 the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe. Alarmed, King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution. When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, he refused on the grounds that he would not accept a crown from a revolutionary assembly without the sanction of Germany's other monarchs.[31]

The Frankfurt Parliament was forced to dissolve in 1849, and Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1850. This conservative document provided for a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Landtag was elected by all taxpayers, who were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid. Women and those who paid no taxes had no vote. This allowed just over one-third of the voters to choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population. The upper house, which was later renamed the Herrenhaus ("House of Lords"), was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to him. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces.[32]

Wars of unification

In 1862 King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck was determined to defeat both the liberals and conservatives and increase Prussian supremacy and influence among the German states. There has been much debate as to whether Bismarck actually planned to create a united Germany when he set out on this journey, or whether he simply took advantage of the circumstances that fell into place. Bismarck curried support from large sections of the people by promising to lead the fight for greater German unification. He successfully guided Prussia through three wars, which unified Germany and brought William the position of German Emperor.[33]

Schleswig Wars

The Kingdom of Denmark was at the time in personal union with the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, both of which had close ties with each other, although only Holstein was part of the German Confederation. When the Danish government tried to integrate Schleswig, but not Holstein, into the Danish state, Prussia led the German Confederation against Denmark in the First War of Schleswig (1848–1851). Because Russia supported Austria, Prussia also conceded predominance in the German Confederation to Austria in the Punctation of Olmütz in 1850.

In 1863, Denmark introduced a shared constitution for Denmark and Schleswig. This led to conflict with the German Confederation, which authorised the occupation of Holstein by the Confederation, from which Danish forces withdrew. In 1864, Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border between Holstein and Schleswig initiating the Second War of Schleswig. The Austro-Prussian forces defeated the Danes, who surrendered both territories. In the resulting Gastein Convention of 1865 Prussia took over the administration of Schleswig while Austria assumed that of Holstein.[34]

Austro-Prussian War
 
Expansion of Prussia, 1807–1871

Bismarck realised that the dual administration of Schleswig and Holstein was only a temporary solution, and tensions rose between Prussia and Austria. The struggle for supremacy in Germany then led to the Austro-Prussian War (1866), triggered by the dispute over Schleswig and Holstein, with Bismarck using proposed injustices as the reason for war.

On the Austrian side stood the south German states (including Bavaria and Württemberg), some central German states (including Saxony), and Hanover in the north. On the side of Prussia were Italy, most north German states, and some smaller central German states. Eventually, the better-armed Prussian troops won the crucial victory at the Battle of Königgrätz under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder. The century-long struggle between Berlin and Vienna for the dominance of Germany was now over. As a sideshow in this war, Prussia defeated Hanover in the Battle of Langensalza (1866). While Hanover hoped in vain for help from Britain (as they had previously been in personal union), Britain stayed out of a confrontation with a continental great power and Prussia satisfied its desire for merging the once separate territories and gaining strong economic and strategic power, particularly from the full access to the resources of the Ruhr.[35]

Bismarck desired Austria as an ally in the future, and so he declined to annex any Austrian territory. But in the Peace of Prague in 1866, Prussia annexed four of Austria's allies in northern and central Germany—Hanover, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Nassau and Frankfurt. Prussia also won full control of Schleswig-Holstein. As a result of these territorial gains, Prussia now stretched uninterrupted across the northern two-thirds of Germany and contained two-thirds of Germany's population. The German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia impelled the 21 states north of the Main River into forming the North German Confederation.

Prussia was the dominant state in the new confederation, as the kingdom comprised almost four-fifths of the new state's territory and population. Prussia's near-total control over the confederation was secured in the constitution drafted for it by Bismarck in 1867. Executive power was held by a president, assisted by a chancellor responsible only to him. The presidency was a hereditary office of the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia. There was also a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Reichstag (Diet), was elected by universal male suffrage. The upper house, or Bundesrat (Federal Council) was appointed by the state governments. The Bundesrat was, in practice, the stronger chamber. Prussia had 17 of 43 votes, and could easily control proceedings through alliances with the other states.

As a result of the peace negotiations, the states south of the Main remained theoretically independent, but received the (compulsory) protection of Prussia. Additionally, mutual defence treaties were concluded. However, the existence of these treaties was kept secret until Bismarck made them public in 1867 when France tried to acquire Luxembourg.

Franco-Prussian War
 
Emperor Wilhelm I

The controversy with the Second French Empire over the candidacy of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne was escalated both by France and Bismarck. With his Ems Dispatch, Bismarck took advantage of an incident in which the French ambassador had approached William. The government of Napoleon III, expecting another civil war among the German states, declared war against Prussia, continuing Franco-German enmity. However, honouring their treaties, the German states joined forces and quickly defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Following victory under Bismarck's and Prussia's leadership, Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria, which had remained outside the North German Confederation, accepted incorporation into a united German Empire.

The empire was a "Lesser German" solution (in German, "kleindeutsche Lösung") to the question of uniting all German-speaking peoples into one state, because it excluded Austria, which remained connected to Hungary and whose territories included non-German populations. On 18 January 1871 (the 170th anniversary of the coronation of King Frederick I), William was proclaimed "German Emperor" (not "Emperor of Germany") in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles outside Paris, while the French capital was still under siege.

German Empire

 
Prussia in the German Empire from 1871 to 1918

The two decades after the unification of Germany were the peak of Prussia's fortunes, but the seeds for potential strife were built into the Prusso-German political system.

The constitution of the German Empire was a version of the North German Confederation's constitution. Officially, the German Empire was a federal state. In practice, Prussia overshadowed the rest of the empire. Prussia included three-fifths of the German territory and two-thirds of its population. The Imperial German Army was, in practice, an enlarged Prussian army, although the other kingdoms (Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg) retained their own small armies. There was at first no navy. The imperial crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern, the royal house of Prussia. The prime minister of Prussia was, except for two brief periods (January–November 1873 and 1892–94), also imperial chancellor. But the empire itself had no right to collect taxes directly from its subjects; the only incomes fully under federal control were the customs duties, common excise duties, and the revenue from postal and telegraph services. While all men above age 25 were eligible to vote in imperial elections, Prussia retained its restrictive three-class voting system. This effectively required the king/emperor and prime minister/chancellor to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two different franchises. In both the kingdom and the empire, the original constituencies were never redrawn to reflect changes in population, meaning that rural areas were grossly overrepresented by the turn of the 20th century.

As a result, Prussia and the German Empire were something of a paradox. Bismarck knew that his new German Reich was now a colossus and economically and militarily dominant in Europe; Britain was still dominant in finance and trade. He declared Germany a "satisfied" power, using his talents to preserve peace, for example at the Congress of Berlin. Bismarck did not set up his own party. He had mixed success in some of his domestic policies. His anti-Catholic Kulturkampf inside Prussia (and not the wider German state) was a failure. He ended his support for the anticlerical Liberals and worked instead with the Catholic Centre Party. He tried to destroy the socialist movement, with limited success. The large Polish population resisted Germanisation.[36]

Frederick III became emperor in March 1888, after the death of his father, but he died of cancer only 99 days later.

At age 29, Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm II after a difficult youth and conflicts with his British mother Victoria, Princess Royal. He turned out to be a man of limited experience, narrow and reactionary views, poor judgment, and occasional bad temper, which alienated former friends and allies.

Railways

Prussia nationalised its railways in the 1880s in an effort both to lower rates on freight service and to equalise those rates among shippers. Instead of lowering rates as far as possible, the government ran the railways as a profit-making endeavour, and the railway profits became a major source of revenue for the state. The nationalisation of the railways slowed the economic development of Prussia because the state favoured the relatively backward agricultural areas in its railway building. Moreover, the railway surpluses substituted for the development of an adequate tax system.[37]

The Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic

Because of the German Revolution of 1918, Wilhelm II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. Prussia was proclaimed a "Free State" (i.e. a republic, German: Freistaat) within the new Weimar Republic and in 1920 received a democratic constitution.

Almost all of Germany's territorial losses, specified in the Treaty of Versailles, were areas that had been part of Prussia: Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium; North Schleswig to Denmark; the Memel Territory to Lithuania; the Hultschin area to Czechoslovakia. Many of the areas Prussia annexed in the partitions of Poland, such as the Provinces of Posen and West Prussia, as well as eastern Upper Silesia, went to the Second Polish Republic. Danzig became the Free City of Danzig under the administration of the League of Nations. Also, the Saargebiet was created mainly from formerly Prussian territories except present Saarpfalz district was part of Kingdom of Bavaria. East Prussia became an exclave, only reachable by ship (the Sea Service East Prussia) or by a railway through the Polish corridor.

 
Federal states of the Weimar Republic, with Prussia in light gray. After World War I the Provinces of Posen and West Prussia came largely to the 2nd Polish Republic; Posen-West Prussia and the West Prussia district were formed from the remaining parts.

The German government seriously considered breaking up Prussia into smaller states, but eventually traditionalist sentiment prevailed and Prussia became by far the largest state of the Weimar Republic, comprising 60% of its territory. With the abolition of the older Prussian franchise, it became a stronghold of the left. Its incorporation of "Red Berlin" and the industrialised Ruhr Area, both with working-class majorities, ensured left-wing dominance.[38]

From 1919 to 1932, Prussia was governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats, Catholic Centre and German Democrats; from 1921 to 1925, coalition governments included the German People's Party. Unlike in other states of the German Reich, majority rule by democratic parties in Prussia was never endangered. Nevertheless, in East Prussia and some rural areas, the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler gained more and more influence and popular support, especially from the lower middle class starting in 1930. Except for Catholic Upper Silesia, the Nazi Party in 1932 became the largest party in most parts of the Free State of Prussia. However, the democratic parties in coalition remained a majority, while Communists and Nazis were in the opposition.[39]

The East Prussian Otto Braun, who was Prussian minister-president almost continuously from 1920 to 1932, is considered one of the most capable Social Democrats in history. He implemented several trend-setting reforms together with his minister of the interior, Carl Severing, which were also models for the later Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). For instance, a Prussian minister-president could be forced out of office only if there was a "positive majority" for a potential successor. This concept, known as the constructive vote of no confidence, was carried over into the Basic Law of the FRG. Most historians regard the Prussian government during this time as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole.[40]

In contrast to its pre-war authoritarianism, Prussia was a pillar of democracy in the Weimar Republic. This system was destroyed by the Preußenschlag ("Prussian coup") of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. In this coup d'état, the government of the Reich deposed the Prussian government on 20 July 1932, under the pretext that the latter had lost control of public order in Prussia (during the Bloody Sunday of Altona, Hamburg, which was still part of Prussia at that time) and by using fabricated evidence that the Social Democrats and the Communists were planning a joint putsch. The Defence Minister General Kurt von Schleicher, who was the prime mover behind the coup manufactured evidence that the Prussian police under Braun's orders were favouring the Communist Rotfrontkämpferbund in street clashes with the SA as part of an alleged plan to foment a Marxist revolution, which he used to get an emergency decree from President Paul von Hindenburg imposing Reich control on Prussia.[41] Papen appointed himself Reich commissioner for Prussia and took control of the government. The Preußenschlag made it easier, only half a year later, for Hitler to take power decisively in Germany, since he had the whole apparatus of the Prussian government, including the police, at his disposal.[42]

Prussia and the Third Reich

 
  Territory lost after World War I
  Territory lost after World War II
  Present-day Germany

After the appointment of Hitler as the new chancellor, the Nazis used the absence of Franz von Papen as an opportunity to appoint Hermann Göring federal commissioner for the Prussian ministry of the interior. The Reichstag election of 5 March 1933 strengthened the position of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or "Nazi" Party), although they did not achieve an absolute majority.[43]

The Reichstag building having been set on fire a few weeks earlier on 27 February, a new Reichstag was opened in the Garrison Church of Potsdam on 21 March 1933 in the presence of President Paul von Hindenburg. In a propaganda-filled meeting between Hitler and the Nazi Party, the "marriage of old Prussia with young Germany" was celebrated, to win over the Prussian monarchists, conservatives and nationalists and induce them into supporting and subsequently voting in favor of the Enabling Act of 1933.

In the centralised state created by the Nazis in the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" ("Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs", 30 January 1934) and the "Law on Reich Governors" ("Reichsstatthaltergesetz", 30 January 1935) the states were dissolved, in fact if not in law. The federal state governments were now controlled by governors for the Reich who were appointed by the chancellor. Parallel to that, the organisation of the party into districts (Gaue) gained increasing importance, as the official in charge of a Gau (the head of which was called a Gauleiter) was again appointed by the chancellor who was at the same time chief of the Nazi Party.

This centralising policy went even further in Prussia. From 1934 to 1945, almost all ministries were merged and only a few departments were able to maintain their independence. Hitler himself became formally the governor of Prussia. However, his functions were exercised by Hermann Göring as Prussian prime minister.

As provided for in the "Greater Hamburg Act" ("Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz"), certain exchanges of territory took place. Prussia was extended on 1 April 1937, for instance, by the incorporation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

The Prussian lands transferred to Poland after the Treaty of Versailles were re-annexed during World War II. However, most of this territory was not reintegrated back into Prussia but assigned to separate Gaue of Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland during much of the duration of the war.

The end of Prussia

 
Map of the current states of Germany (in dark green) that are completely or mostly situated inside the old borders of Imperial Germany's Kingdom of Prussia

The areas east of the Oder-Neisse line, mainly Eastern Prussia, Western Prussia, and Silesia, were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union in 1945 owing to the Treaty of Potsdam between three of the Allies: the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. This included important Prussian cities like Danzig, Königsberg, Breslau, and Stettin. The population fled, mostly to the Western zones, or was driven out.

As part of their wartime goals, the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia. Stalin was initially content to retain the name, Russians having a different historical view of their neighbour and sometime former ally. Nonetheless, by Law No. 46, which was accepted and implemented by the Allied Control Council on 25 February 1947, Prussia was officially proclaimed to be dissolved.[44]

In the Soviet occupation zone, which became East Germany (officially, the German Democratic Republic) in 1949, the former Prussian territories were reorganised into the states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, with the remaining parts of the Province of Pomerania going to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. These states were de facto abolished in 1952 in favour of Bezirke (districts), but were recreated after German reunification in 1990.

In the Western Zones of occupation, which became West Germany (officially, the Federal Republic of Germany) in 1949, the former Prussian territories were divided up among North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein. Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were later merged with Baden to create the state of Baden-Württemberg. The Saar region, which had been administered by the French as a protectorate separate from the rest of Western Germany, was admitted to the Federal Republic of Germany as a separate state following the 1955 Saar Statute referendum.

One year later, in 1957, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was established and implemented by federal statutes in West Germany in response to a ruling from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. The fundamental goal of this institution is protecting the cultural legacy of Prussia. As of 2021, it continues to operate from its headquarters in Berlin.

Administrative and constitutional frameworks

In the mid-16th century the margraves of Brandenburg had become highly dependent on the Estates (representing counts, lords, knights, and towns, but not prelates, owing to the Protestant Reformation in 1538).[45] The margraviate's liabilities and tax income as well as the margrave's finances were in the hands of the Kreditwerk, an institution not controlled by the elector, and of the Großer Ausschuß ("Great Committee") of the Estates.[46] This was because of concessions made by Elector Joachim II in 1541 in return for financial aid by the estates; however, the Kreditwerk went bankrupt between 1618 and 1625.[46] The margraves further had to yield to the veto of the Estates in all issues concerning the "better or worse of the country", in all legal commitments, and in all issues concerning pawn or sale of the elector's real property.[46]

 
... during the Renaissance period
 
... according to the design of 1702

To reduce the influence of the Estates, in 1604, Joachim Frederick created a council called Geheimer Rat für die Kurmark ("Privy Council for the Electorate", which instead of the Estates would function as the supreme advisory council for the elector.[46] While the council was permanently established in 1613, it failed to gain any influence until 1651, owing to the Thirty Years' War[46] (1618–1648)

Until after the Thirty Years' War, the various territories of Brandenburg-Prussia remained politically independent from each other,[45] connected only by the common feudal superior.[47] Frederick William (ruled 1640–1688), who envisioned the transformation of the personal union into a real union,[47] started to centralise the Brandenburg-Prussian government with an attempt to establish the Geheimer Rat as a central authority for all territories in 1651, but this project proved infeasible.[48] Instead, the elector continued to appoint a governor (Kurfürstlicher Rat) for each territory, who in most cases was a member of the Geheimer Rat.[48] The most powerful institution in the territories remained the governments of the estates (Landständische Regierung, named Oberratsstube in Prussia and Geheime Landesregierung in Mark and Cleves), which were the highest government agencies regarding jurisdiction, finances and administration.[48] The elector attempted to balance the Estates' governments by creating Amtskammer chambers to administer and coordinate the elector's domains, tax income and privileges.[48] Such chambers were introduced in Brandenburg in 1652, in Cleves and Mark in 1653, in Pomerania in 1654, in Prussia in 1661 and in Magdeburg in 1680.[48] Also in 1680, the Kreditwerk came under the aegis of the elector.[49]

Frederick William I's excise tax (Akzise), which from 1667 replaced the property tax raised in Brandenburg for Brandenburg-Prussia's standing army with the Estates' consent, was raised by the elector without consultation with the Estates.[49] The conclusion of the Second Northern War of 1655–1660 had strengthened the elector politically, enabling him to reform the constitution of Cleves and Mark in 1660 and 1661 to introduce officials loyal to him and independent of the local estates.[49] In the Duchy of Prussia he confirmed the traditional privileges of the Estates in 1663,[49] but the latter accepted the caveat that these privileges were not to be used to interfere with the exertion of the elector's sovereignty.[48] As in Brandenburg, Frederick William ignored the privilege of the Prussian Estates to confirm or veto taxes raised by the elector: while in 1656, an Akzise was raised with the Estates' consent, the elector by force collected taxes not approved by the Prussian Estates for the first time in 1674.[48] From 1704 the Prussian estates de facto relinquished their right to approve the elector's taxes while formally still entitled to do so.[48] In 1682 the elector introduced an Akzise to Pomerania and in 1688 to Magdeburg,[48] while in Cleves and Mark an Akzise was introduced only between 1716 and 1720. Owing to Frederick William I's reforms, the state income increased threefold during his reign, and the tax burden per subject reached a level twice as high as in France.[49]

Under the rule of Frederick III (I) (in office: 1688–1713), the Brandenburg Prussian territories were de facto reduced to provinces of the monarchy.[47] Frederick William's testament would have divided Brandenburg-Prussia among his sons, but his firstborn son Frederick III (I), with the emperor's backing, succeeded in becoming the sole ruler based on the Treaty of Gera of 1599, which forbade a division of Hohenzollern territories.[50] In 1689, a new central chamber for all Brandenburg-Prussian territories was established, called Geheime Hofkammer (from 1713: Generalfinanzdirektorium). This chamber functioned as a superior agency of the territories' Amtskammer chambers.[51] The General War Commissariat (Generalkriegskommissariat) emerged as a second central agency, superior to the local Kriegskommissariat agencies initially concerned with the administration of the army, but before 1712 transformed into an agency also concerned with general tax and police tasks.[51]

The Kingdom of Prussia functioned as an absolute monarchy until the German revolutions of 1848–1849, after which Prussia became a constitutional monarchy and Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg was elected[by whom?] as Prussia's first prime minister (Ministerpräsident). Prussia's first constitution dated from 1848. The 1850 Prussian Constitution established a two-chamber parliament. The lower house, or Landtag represented all taxpayers, who were divided into three classes according to the amount of taxes paid. This allowed just over 25% of the voters to choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring dominance by the more well-to-do elements of the population. The upper house (First Chamber or Erste Kammer), later renamed the Prussian House of Lords (Herrenhaus), was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to him. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces. The Prussian Secret Police, formed in response to the German revolutions of 1848–1849, aided the conservative government.

Prussia inside Weimar Republic

Unlike its authoritarian pre-1918 predecessor, Prussia from 1918 to 1932 was a promising democracy within Germany. The abolition of the political power of the aristocracy transformed Prussia into a region strongly dominated by the left wing of the political spectrum, with "Red Berlin" and the industrial centre of the Ruhr Area exerting major influence. During this period a coalition of centre-left parties ruled, predominantly under the leadership (1920–1932) of East Prussian Social Democrat Otto Braun. While in office Braun implemented several reforms (together with his Minister of the Interior, Carl Severing) that became models for the later Federal Republic of Germany. For instance, a Prussian prime minister could only be forced out of office if there was a "positive majority" for a potential successor. This concept, known as the constructive vote of no confidence, became part of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Historians regard the Prussian government during the 1920s as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole.[52]

Similar to other German states both now and at the time, executive power remained vested in a Minister-President of Prussia and in laws established by a Landtag elected by the people.

 
In 1649, Kursenieki settlements along the Baltic coastline of East Prussia spanned from Memel (Klaipėda) to Danzig (Gdańsk).

Social history

Population

In 1871, Prussia's population numbered 24.69 million, accounting for 60% of the German Empire's population.[53] The population grew rapidly from 45 million in 1880 to 56 million in 1900, thanks to declining mortality, even as birth rates declined. About 6 million Germans, primarily young families migrated to the United States, especially the mid-western farming regions. Their place in agriculture was often taken by young Polish farm workers. In addition, large numbers of Polish miners moved to Upper Silesia and many Germans and Poles moved to industrial jobs in the fast-growing cities especially in the Rhineland and Westphalia.[54][55] In 1910, the population had increased to 40.17 million (62% of the Empire's population).[53] In 1914, Prussia had an area of 354,490 km2. In May 1939 Prussia had an area of 297,007 km2 and a population of 41,915,040 inhabitants.

Religion

The Duchy of Prussia was the first state to officially adopt Lutheranism in 1525. In the wake of the Reformation, Prussia was dominated by two major Protestant confessions: Lutheranism and Calvinism. The majority of the Prussian population was Lutheran, although there were dispersed Calvinist minorities in central and western parts of the state especially Brandenburg, Rhineland, Westphalia and Hesse-Nassau. In 1613, John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg and Grand Duke of Prussia declared himself for the Calvinist creed and transferred the Berlin Cathedral from the Lutheran to the Calvinist church. Lutherans and Calvinist congregations all over the kingdom were merged in 1817 by the Prussian Union of churches, which came under tight royal control.[56] In Protestant regions, writes Nipperdey:

Much of religious life was often conventional and superficial by any normal, human standard. The state and the bureaucracy kept their distance, preferring to spoon-feed the churches and treat them like children. They saw the churches as channels for education, as a means of instilling morality and obedience, or for propagating useful things, just like bee-keeping or potato-farming.[57]

Prussia received significant Huguenot population after the issuing of the Edict of Fontainebleau by Louis XIV of France and the following dragonnades. Prussian monarchs, beginning with Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg opened the country to the fleeing French Calvinist refugees. In Berlin, they built and worshipped at their own church called the French Cathedral on Gendarmenmarkt. Time passed by, and the French Reformed assimilated into the wider Protestant community in Prussia. East Prussia's southern region of Masuria was mostly made up of Germanised Lutheran Masurians.

After 1814, Prussia contained millions of Catholics in the west and in the east. There were substantial populations in the Rhineland, parts of Westphalia, eastern parts of Silesia, West Prussia, Ermland and the Province of Posen.[58] Communities in Poland were often ethnically Polish, although this is not the case of eastern Silesia as the majority of Catholics there were German. During the 19th-century Kulturkampf, Prussian Catholics were forbidden from fulfilling any official functions for the state and were largely distrusted.

Prussia contained a relatively large Jewish community, which was mostly concentrated in large urban areas. According to the 1880 census, it was the biggest one in Germany with 363,790 individuals.

In 1925, 64.9% of the Prussian population was Protestant, 31.3% was Catholic, 1.1% was Jewish, 2.7% was placed in other religious categories.[59]

Non-German population

In 1871, approximately 2.4 million Poles lived in Prussia, constituting the largest minority.[53] Other minorities were Jews, Danes, Frisians, Dutchmen, Kashubians (72,500 in 1905), Masurians (248,000 in 1905), Lithuanians (101,500 in 1905), Walloons, Czechs, Kursenieki, and Sorbs.[53]

The area of Greater Poland, where the Polish nation had originated, became the Province of Posen after the Partitions of Poland. Poles in this Polish-majority province (62% Polish, 38% German) resisted German rule. Also, the southeast portion of Silesia (Upper Silesia) had a Polish majority. But Catholics and Jews did not have equal status with Protestants.[60]

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Second Polish Republic was granted not only these two areas, but also areas with a German majority in the Province of West Prussia. After World War II, East Prussia, Silesia, most of Pomerania and the eastern part of Brandenburg were either annexed by the Soviet Union or given to Poland, and the German-speaking populations forcibly expelled.

Education

The German states in the 19th century were world leaders in prestigious education and Prussia set the pace.[61][62] For boys free public education was widely available, and the gymnasium system for elite students was highly professionalized. The modern university system emerged from the 19th century German universities, especially Friedrich Wilhelm University (now named Humboldt University of Berlin). It pioneered the model of the research university with well-defined career tracks for professors.[63] The United States, for example, paid close attention to German models. Families focused on educating their sons. The traditional schooling for girls was generally provided by mothers and governesses. Elite families increasingly favoured Catholic convent boarding schools for their daughters. Prussia's Kulturkampf laws in the 1870s limited Catholic schools thus providing an opening for a large number of new private schools for girls.[64]

See also

 
The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin

References

Informational notes

  1. ^ Monarchy abolished in 1918, abolished as a state of Germany in 1947
  2. ^ /ˈprʌʃə/; German: Preußen, pronounced [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ( listen), Old Prussian: Prūsa or Prūsija

Citations

  1. ^ Fischer, Michael; Senkel, Christian (2010). Klaus Tanner (ed.). Reichsgründung 1871: Ereignis, Beschreibung, Inszenierung. Münster: Waxmann Verlag.
  2. ^ a b c "Population of Germany". tacitus.nu.
  3. ^ Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006) is the standard history.
  4. ^ Vesna Danilovic, When the Stakes Are High—Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers, (University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp 27, 225–228.
  5. ^ H. M. Scott, "Aping the Great Powers: Frederick the Great and the Defence of Prussia's International Position 1763–86," German History 12#3 (1994) pp. 286–307 online
  6. ^ H. W. Koch, A History of Prussia (1978) p. 35.
  7. ^ Robert S. Hoyt & Stanley Chodorow, Europe in Middle Ages (1976) p. 629.
  8. ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland Vol. l (1982) p. 81.
  9. ^ Edward Henry Lewinski Corwin Lewinski-Corwin, Edward Henry (1917). A History of Prussia. New York: The Polish Book Importing Company. pp. 628. lizard union.
  10. ^ Robert S. Hoyt and Stanley Chodorow (1976) Europe in the Middle Ages. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-524712-3 p. 629.
  11. ^ Daniel Stone, A History of East Central Europe, (2001), p. 30.
  12. ^ Rosenberg, H. (1943). The Rise of the Junkers in Brandenburg-Prussia, 1410-1653: Part 1. The American Historical Review, 49(1), 1-22.
  13. ^ H. W. Koch, A History of Prussia p. 33.
  14. ^ Francis L. Carsten, "The Great Elector and the foundation of the Hohenzollern despotism." English Historical Review 65.255 (1950): 175-202 online.
  15. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 4
  16. ^ Reinhold A. Dorwart, The administrative reforms of Frederick William I of Prussia (Harvard University Press, 2013).
  17. ^ Rodney Gothelf, "Frederick William I and the beginnings of Prussian absolutism, 1713–1740." in The Rise of Prussia 1700–1830 (Routledge, 2014) pp. 47-67.
  18. ^ H. W. Koch, A History of Prussia pp. 100–102.
  19. ^ Robert B. Asprey, Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma (1986) pp. 34–35.
  20. ^ Koch, A History of Prussia, p. 105.
  21. ^ Robert A. Kahn, A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918 (1974) p. 96.
  22. ^ Asprey, Frederick the Great: the Magnificent Enigma, pp. 195–208.
  23. ^ Hermann Kinder & Werner Hilgermann, The Anchor Atlas of World History: Volume 1 (1974) pp. 282–283.
  24. ^ James K. Pollock & Homer Thomas, Germany: In Power and Eclipse (1952) pp. 297–302.
  25. ^ Marshall Dill, Jr., Germany: A Modern History (1970) p. 39.
  26. ^ a b Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 7
  27. ^ David Fraser, Frederick the Great: King of Prussia (2001) online
  28. ^ a b Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 12
  29. ^ a b Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 11
  30. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 10
  31. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 13–14
  32. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom ch 14
  33. ^ Henry A. Kissinger, "The white revolutionary: Reflections on Bismarck." Daedalus (1968): 888-924 online .
  34. ^ Michael Embree, Bismarck's first war: the campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864 (2007).
  35. ^ A.J.P. Taylor, Bismarck (1955) pp 70–91.
  36. ^ David Graham Williamson, Bismarck and Germany: 1862-1890 (Routledge, 2013).
  37. ^ Rainer Fremdling, "Freight Rates and State Budget: The Role of the National Prussian Railways 1880–1913," Journal of European Economic History, Spring 1980, Vol. 9#1 pp 21–40
  38. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp 620–624
  39. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp 630–639
  40. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, p 652
  41. ^ Wheeler-Bennett, John The Nemesis of Power, London: Macmillan, 1967 page 253.
  42. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp 647–648
  43. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp. 655–670
  44. ^ Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp. 670–682
  45. ^ a b Kotulla (2008), p. 262
  46. ^ a b c d e Kotulla (2008), p. 263
  47. ^ a b c Kotulla (2008), p. 265
  48. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kotulla (2008), p. 267
  49. ^ a b c d e Kotulla (2008), p. 266
  50. ^ Kotulla (2008), p. 269
  51. ^ a b Kotulla (2008), p. 270
  52. ^ Dietrich Orlow, Weimar Prussia, 1918-1925: The Unlikely Rock of Democracy (1986).
  53. ^ a b c d Büsch, Otto; Ilja Mieck; Wolfgang Neugebauer (1992). Otto Büsch (ed.). Handbuch der preussischen Geschichte (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: de Gruyter. p. 42. ISBN 978-3-11-008322-4.
  54. ^ Patrick R. Galloway, Eugene A. Hammel, and Ronald D. Lee, "Fertility decline in Prussia, 1875–1910: A pooled cross-section time series analysis." Population studies 48.1 (1994): 135-158 online.
  55. ^ Frank B. Tipton, Regional Variations in the Economic Development of Germany During the Nineteenth Century (1976).
  56. ^ Clark, Christopher (1996). "Confessional Policy and the Limits of State Action: Frederick William III and the Prussian Church Union 1817-40". The Historical Journal. 39 (4): 985–1004. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00024730. JSTOR 2639865. S2CID 159976974.
  57. ^ Thomas Nipperdey, Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck: 1800–1866 (Princeton University Press, 2014) p 356
  58. ^ Helmut Walser Smith, ed.. Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Germany, 1800–1914 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2001)
  59. ^ Grundriss der Statistik. II. Gesellschaftsstatistik by Wilhelm Winkler, p. 36
  60. ^ Hajo Holborn, History of Modern Germany: 1648–1840 2:274
  61. ^ Karl A. Schleunes, "Enlightenment, reform, reaction: the schooling revolution in Prussia." Central European History 12.4 (1979): 315-342 online.
  62. ^ Charles E. McClelland, State, society, and university in Germany: 1700-1914 (1980).
  63. ^ Ash, Mitchell G. (2006) "Bachelor of What, Master of Whom? The Humboldt Myth and Historical Transformations of Higher Education in German‐Speaking Europe and the U.S." European Journal of Education 41.2: 245-267
  64. ^ Aneta Niewęgłowska, "Secondary Schools for Girls in Western Prussia, 1807-1911." Acta Poloniae Historica 99 (2009): 137-160.

Further reading

  • Avraham, Doron (October 2008). "The Social and Religious Meaning of Nationalism: The Case of Prussian Conservatism 1815–1871". European History Quarterly. 38 (38#4): 525–550. doi:10.1177/0265691408094531. S2CID 145574435.
  • Barraclough, Geoffrey (1947). The Origins of Modern Germany (2d ed.)., covers medieval period
  • Carroll, E. Malcolm. Germany and the great powers, 1866–1914: A study in public opinion and foreign policy (1938) online; 862pp.
  • Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2009), a standard scholarly history ISBN 978-0-7139-9466-7
  • Craig, Gordon. The politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945 (1955) online
  • Fay, Sidney Bradshaw. The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia To 1786 (1937) online
  • Friedrich, Karin (2000). The Other Prussia. Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58335-0. online review
  • Friedrich, Karin. Brandenburg-Prussia, 1466–1806: The Rise of a Composite State (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); 157pp. Emphasis on historiography.
  • Glees, Anthony. "Albert C. Grzesinski and the politics of Prussia, 1926-1930." English Historical Review 89.353 (1974): 814–834. online
  • Haffner, Sebastian (1998). The Rise and Fall of Prussia.
  • Hamerow, Theodore S. Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and Politics in Germany, 1815–1871 (1958) online
  • Hamerow, Theodore S. The social foundations of German unification, 1858-1871 (1969) online
  • Henderson, William O. The state and the industrial revolution in Prussia, 1740–1870 (1958) online
  • Holborn, Hajo (1982). A History of Modern Germany (3 vol 1959–64); vol 1: The Reformation; vol 2: 1648–1840. Vol. 3.1840–1945. ISBN 0691007969.
  • Horn, David Bayne. Great Britain and Europe in the eighteenth century (1967) covers 1603–1702; pp 144–177 for Prussia; pp 178–200 for other Germany; 111–143 for Austria
  • Hornung, Erik. "Immigration and the diffusion of technology: The Huguenot diaspora in Prussia." American Economic Review 104.1 (2014): 84–122. online
  • Koch, H. W. History of Prussia (1987) online
  • Kotulla, Michael. Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte: vom Alten Reich bis Weimar (1495–1934) (Springer, 2008) ISBN 978-3-540-48705-0
  • Maehl, William Harvey (1979). Germany in Western Civilization.
  • Muncy, Lysbeth W. "The Junkers and the Prussian Administration from 1918 to 1939." Review of Politics 9.4 (1947): 482–501. online
  • Nipperdey, Thomas. Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck: 1800–1866 (1996). excerpt
  • Orlow, Dietrich. Weimar Prussia, 1918-1925: The Unlikely Rock of Democracy (1986) online.
  • Orlow, Dietrich. Weimar Prussia, 1925-1933: The Illusion of Strength (1991). online
  • Reinhardt, Kurt F. (1961). Germany: 2000 Years. Vol. 2 vols., stress on cultural topics
  • Sagarra, Eda. A Social History of Germany, 1648–1914 (1977) online
  • Schulze, Hagen, and Philip G. Dwyer. "Democratic Prussia in Weimar Germany, 1919–33." in Modern Prussian History 1830–1947 (Routledge, 2014) pp. 211–229.
  • Shennan, M. (1997). The Rise of Brandenburg Prussia. ISBN 0415129389.
  • Taylor, A. J. P. The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of German History since 1815 (1945) online
  • Taylor, A. J. P. Bismarck (1955) online
  • Treasure, Geoffrey. The Making of Modern Europe, 1648–1780 (3rd ed. 2003). pp 427–462.
  • Wheeler, Nicholas C. (October 2011). "The Noble Enterprise of State Building Reconsidering the Rise and Fall of the Modem State in Prussia and Poland". Comparative Politics. 44 (44#1): 21–38. doi:10.5129/001041510X13815229366480.

External links

  • population history
  • chronology and summaries
  • Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation website 18 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  • (picture archive).

prussia, redirects, here, other, uses, disambiguation, confused, with, russia, german, state, southeast, coast, baltic, formed, german, empire, under, rule, when, united, german, states, 1871, facto, dissolved, emergency, decree, transferring, powers, governme. Prussian redirects here For other uses see Prussia disambiguation Not to be confused with Russia Prussia b was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871 It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947 For centuries the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia expanding its size with the Prussian Army Prussia with its capital at Konigsberg and then when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 Berlin decisively shaped the history of Germany PrussiaPreussen German Prusa Prussian 1525 1947 a State flag 1803 1892 Coat of Arms 1701 1871 Motto Gott mit unsNobiscum deus God with us Anthem 1830 1840 Preussenlied Song of Prussia Royal anthem 1795 1918 Heil dir im Siegerkranz Hail to thee in the Victor s Crown 1 source source track track track track track The Kingdom of Prussia dark green at its greatest extent in 1870 within the North German Confederation light green The Kingdom of Prussia blue within the German Empire in 1914CapitalKonigsberg 1525 1701 1806 Berlin 1701 1806 1806 1947 Common languagesOfficial German Minorities Baltic Prussian until early 18th century Low GermanPolishDanishFrisianSwedishLithuanianLower SorbianKurseniekiKashubianWymysorysSlovincian until 20th century ReligionReligious confessions inthe Kingdom of Prussia 1880Majority 64 64 United Protestant Lutheran Calvinist Minorities 33 75 Catholic 1 33 Jewish 0 19 Other Christian 0 09 OtherDemonym s PrussianGovernmentFeudal monarchy 1525 1701 Absolute monarchy 1701 1848 Federal parliamentarysemi constitutional monarchy 1848 1918 Federal semi presidentialconstitutional republic 1918 1932 Authoritarian presidential republic 1932 1933 Nazi single party dictatorship 1933 1945 Allied occupied Germany 1945 1947 Duke1 1525 1568Albert I first 1688 1701Frederick I last King1 1701 1713Frederick I first 1888 1918Wilhelm II last Minister President1 2 1918Friedrich Ebert first 1933 1945Hermann Goring last Historical eraEarly modern Europe to Contemporary Duchy of Prussia10 April 1525 Union with Brandenburg27 August 1618 Kingdom of Prussia18 January 1701 Free State of Prussia9 November 1918 Abolition de facto loss of independence 30 January 1934 Abolition de jure 25 February 1947 a Population 1816 2 10 349 000 1871 2 24 689 000 1939 2 41 915 040CurrencyReichsthaler until 1750 Prussian thaler 1750 1857 Vereinsthaler 1857 1873 German gold mark 1873 1914 German Papiermark 1914 1923 Reichsmark 1924 1947 Today part ofGermany Poland Lithuania Russia Denmark Czech Republic Belgium1 The heads of state listed here are the first and last to hold each title over time For more information see individual Prussian state articles links in above History section 2 The position of Ministerprasident was introduced in 1792 when Prussia was a Kingdom the Minister Presidents shown here are the heads of the Prussian republic In 1871 Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck united most German principalities into the German Empire under his leadership although this was considered to be a Lesser Germany because Austria and Switzerland were not included In November 1918 the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918 19 The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic the Free State of Prussia a state of Germany from 1918 until 1933 From 1932 Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup and the Nazi Gleichschaltung laws which established a unitary state Its legal status finally ended in 1947 3 The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians in the 13th century the Teutonic Knights an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders conquered the lands inhabited by them In 1308 the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Danzig modern day Gdansk Their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia The imposed Second Peace of Thorn 1466 split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia becoming a province of Poland and the eastern part from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia a feudal fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657 The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom 4 5 It became increasingly large and powerful in the 18th and 19th centuries It had a major voice in European affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great 1740 1786 At the Congress of Vienna 1814 15 which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleon s defeat Prussia acquired rich new territories including the coal rich Ruhr The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867 and then of the German Empire in 1871 The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian elites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians The Kingdom ended in 1918 along with other German monarchies that were terminated by the German Revolution In the Weimar Republic the Free State of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen Subsequently it was effectively dismantled into Nazi German Gaue in 1935 Nevertheless some Prussian ministries were kept and Hermann Goring remained in his role as Minister President of Prussia until the end of World War II Former eastern territories of Germany that made up a significant part of Prussia lost the majority of their German population after 1945 as the Polish People s Republic and the Soviet Union both absorbed these territories and had most of its German inhabitants expelled by 1950 Prussia deemed a bearer of militarism and reaction by the Allies was officially abolished by an Allied declaration in 1947 The international status of the former eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia was disputed until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990 but its return to Germany remains a cause among far right politicians the Federation of Expellees and various political revanchists and irredentists The terms Prussian and Prussianism have often been used especially outside Germany to denote the militarism military professionalism aggressiveness and conservatism of the Junker class of landed aristocrats in the East who dominated first Prussia and then the German Empire Contents 1 Symbols 2 Territory 3 History 3 1 Teutonic Order 3 2 Duchy of Prussia 3 3 Brandenburg Prussia 3 4 Kingdom of Prussia 3 4 1 Napoleonic Wars 3 4 2 Wars of liberation 3 4 3 Wars of unification 3 4 3 1 Schleswig Wars 3 4 3 2 Austro Prussian War 3 4 3 3 Franco Prussian War 3 4 4 German Empire 3 5 Railways 3 6 The Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic 3 7 Prussia and the Third Reich 3 8 The end of Prussia 4 Administrative and constitutional frameworks 4 1 Prussia inside Weimar Republic 5 Social history 5 1 Population 5 2 Religion 5 3 Non German population 5 4 Education 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksSymbols Edit History of Brandenburg and PrussiaNorthern March 965 983 Old Prussians pre 13th centuryLutician federation 983 12th centuryMargraviate of Brandenburg 1157 1618 1806 HRE Bohemia 1373 1415 Teutonic Order 1224 1525 Polish fief 1466 1525 Duchy of Prussia1525 1618 1701 Polish fief 1525 1657 Malbork Voivodeship and Prince Bishopric of Warmia within Royal Polish Prussia Poland 1454 1466 1772 Brandenburg Prussia1618 1701Kingdom in Prussia 1701 1772Kingdom of Prussia 1772 1918Free State of Prussia Germany 1918 1947 Klaipeda Region Lithuania 1920 1939 1945 present Dzialdowo area Poland 1918 present Warmia Masuria Powisle within Recovered Territories Poland 1945 present Berlin and Brandenburg Germany 1947 1952 1990 present Kaliningrad Oblast Russia 1945 presentThe main coat of arms of Prussia as well as the flag of Prussia depicted a black eagle on a white background The black and white national colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights and by the Hohenzollern dynasty The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a black cross with gold insert and black imperial eagle The combination of the black and white colours with the white and red Hanseatic colours of the free cities Bremen Hamburg and Lubeck as well as of Brandenburg resulted in the black white red commercial flag of the North German Confederation which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871 citation needed Suum cuique to each his own the motto of the Order of the Black Eagle created by King Frederick I in 1701 was often associated with the whole of Prussia The Iron Cross a military decoration created by King Frederick William III in 1813 was also commonly associated with the country citation needed The region originally populated by Baltic Old Prussians who were Christianised became a favoured location for immigration by later mainly Protestant Germans see Ostsiedlung as well as Poles and Lithuanians along the border regions Territory EditBefore its abolition the territory of the Free State of Prussia included the provinces of East Prussia Brandenburg Saxony including much of the present day state of Saxony Anhalt and parts of the state of Thuringia in Germany Pomerania Rhineland Westphalia Silesia without Austrian Silesia Schleswig Holstein Hanover Hesse Nassau and a small detached area in the south called Hohenzollern the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family The land that the Teutonic Knights occupied was flat and covered with fertile soil The area was perfectly suited to the large scale raising of wheat 6 The rise of early Prussia was based on the raising and selling of wheat Teutonic Prussia became known as the bread basket of Western Europe in German Kornkammer or granary The port cities which rose on the back of this wheat production included Stettin in Pomerania now Szczecin Poland Danzig in Prussia now Gdansk Poland Riga in Livonia now Riga Latvia Konigsberg in Prussia now Kaliningrad Russia and Memel in Prussia now Klaipeda Lithuania Wheat production and trade brought Prussia into a close relationship with the Hanseatic League during the period of time from 1356 official founding of the Hanseatic League until the decline of the League in about 1500 The expansion of Prussia based on its connection with the Hanseatic League cut both Poland and Lithuania off from the coast of the Baltic Sea and trade abroad 7 This meant that Poland and Lithuania would be traditional enemies of Prussia which was still called the Teutonic Knights 8 History EditFurther information Duchy of Prussia Kingdom of Prussia and Free State of Prussia Teutonic Order Edit Situation after the conquest in the late 13th century Areas in purple under control of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order orange following the Second Peace of Thorn 1466 Main article Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights In 1211 King Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in Transylvania as a fiefdom to the Teutonic Knights a German military order of crusading knights headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre In 1225 he expelled them and they transferred their operations to the Baltic Sea area Konrad I the Polish duke of Masovia had unsuccessfully attempted to conquer pagan Prussia in crusades in 1219 and 1222 9 In 1226 Duke Konrad invited the Teutonic Knights to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders During 60 years of struggles against the Old Prussians the Order established an independent state that came to control Prusa After the Livonian Brothers of the Sword joined the Teutonic Order in 1237 the Order also controlled Livonia now Latvia and Estonia Around 1252 they finished the conquest of the northernmost Prussian tribe of the Skalvians as well as of the western Baltic Curonians and erected Memel Castle which developed into the major port city of Memel Klaipeda The Treaty of Melno defined the final border between Prussia and the adjoining Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1422 The Hanseatic League officially formed in northern Europe in 1356 as a group of trading cities This League came to hold a monopoly on all trade leaving the interior of Europe and Scandinavia and on all sailing trade in the Baltic Sea for foreign countries 10 In the course of the Ostsiedlung German eastward expansion process settlers were invited by whom bringing changes in the ethnic composition as well as in language culture and law of the eastern borders of the German lands As a majority of these settlers were Germans Low German became the dominant language The Knights of the Teutonic Order were subordinate to the papacy and to the emperor Their initially close relationship with the Polish Crown deteriorated after they conquered Polish controlled Pomerelia and Danzig Gdansk in 1308 Eventually Poland and Lithuania allied through the Union of Krewo 1385 defeated the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald Tannenberg in 1410 The Thirteen Years War 1454 1466 began when the Prussian Confederation a coalition of Hanseatic cities of western Prussia rebelled against the Order and requested help from the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of and to pay tribute to Casimir IV in the Second Peace of Thorn 1466 losing western Prussia Royal Prussia to Poland in the process Pursuant to the Second Peace of Thorn two Prussian states were established 11 need quotation to verify During the period of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire were granted lands by the Order and gradually formed a new landed Prussian nobility from which the Junkers would evolve to take a major role in the militarization of Prussia and later Germany 12 Duchy of Prussia Edit Prussian Homage by Jan Matejko After admitting the dependence of Prussia to the Polish Crown Albert of Prussia receives Ducal Prussia as a fief from King Sigismund I the Old of Poland in 1525 Main articles Prussian Homage Duchy of Prussia and Crown of the Kingdom of Poland On 10 April 1525 after signing of the Treaty of Krakow which officially ended the Polish Teutonic War 1519 21 in the main square of the Polish capital Krakow Albert I resigned his position as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and received the title Duke of Prussia from King Zygmunt I the Old of Poland As a symbol of vassalage Albert received a standard with the Prussian coat of arms from the Polish king The black Prussian eagle on the flag was augmented with a letter S for Sigismundus and had a crown placed around its neck as a symbol of submission to Poland Albert I a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order s Prussian territories 13 This was the area east of the mouth of the Vistula River later sometimes called Prussia proper For the first time these lands came into the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family who already ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg since the 15th century Furthermore with his renunciation of the Order Albert could now marry and produce legitimate heirs Brandenburg Prussia Edit Main articles Brandenburg Prussia and Holy Roman Empire Brandenburg and Prussia united two generations later In 1594 Anna granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Duke Albert Frederick reigned 1568 1618 married her cousin Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg When Albert Frederick died in 1618 without male heirs John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia then still a Polish fief From this time the Duchy of Prussia was in personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg The resulting state known as Brandenburg Prussia consisted of geographically disconnected territories in Prussia Brandenburg and the Rhineland lands of Cleves and Mark During the Thirty Years War 1618 1648 various armies repeatedly marched across the disconnected Hohenzollern lands especially the occupying Swedes The ineffective and militarily weak Margrave George William 1619 1640 fled from Berlin to Konigsberg the historic capital of the Duchy of Prussia in 1637 His successor Frederick William I 1640 1688 reformed the army to defend the lands Frederick William I went to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to King Wladyslaw IV Vasa of Poland for the Duchy of Prussia which was still held in fief from the Polish crown In January 1656 during the first phase of the Second Northern War 1654 1660 he received the duchy as a fief from the Swedish king who later granted him full sovereignty in the Treaty of Labiau November 1656 In 1657 the Polish king renewed this grant in the treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg With Prussia the Brandenburg Hohenzollern dynasty now held a territory free of any feudal obligations which constituted the basis for their later elevation to kings The Great Elector and his wife Frederick William I succeeded in organizing the electorate by establishing an absolute monarchy in Brandenburg Prussia an achievement for which he became known as the Great Elector Above all he emphasised the importance of a powerful military to protect the state s disconnected territories while the Edict of Potsdam 1685 opened Brandenburg Prussia for the immigration of Protestant refugees especially Huguenots and he established a bureaucracy to carry out state administration efficiently 14 Kingdom of Prussia Edit Main article Kingdom of Prussia Frederick I King in Prussia On 18 January 1701 Frederick William s son Elector Frederick III elevated Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom and crowned himself King Frederick I In the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700 Leopold I emperor of the Holy Roman Empire allowed Frederick only to title himself King in Prussia not King of Prussia The state of Brandenburg Prussia became commonly known as Prussia although most of its territory in Brandenburg Pomerania and western Germany lay outside Prussia proper The Prussian state grew in splendour during the reign of Frederick I who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury 15 Frederick I was succeeded by his son Frederick William I 1713 1740 the austere Soldier King who did not care for the arts but was thrifty and practical 16 He was the main creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the professionalised standing army which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe His troops only briefly saw action during the Great Northern War In view of the size of the army in relation to the total population Mirabeau said later Prussia is not a state with an army but an army with a state citation needed Frederick William also settled more than 20 000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated eastern Prussia which was eventually extended to the west bank of the River Memel and other regions In the treaty of Stockholm 1720 he acquired half of Swedish Pomerania 17 King Frederick William I the Soldier King The king died in 1740 and was succeeded by his son Frederick II whose accomplishments led to his reputation as Frederick the Great 18 As crown prince Frederick had focused primarily on philosophy and the arts 19 He was an accomplished flute player In 1740 Prussian troops crossed over the undefended border of Silesia and occupied Schweidnitz Silesia was the richest province of Habsburg Austria 20 It signalled the beginning of three Silesian Wars 1740 1763 21 The First Silesian War 1740 1742 and the Second Silesian War 1744 1745 have historically been grouped together with the general European war called the War of Austrian Succession 1740 1748 Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI had died on 20 October 1740 He was succeeded to the throne by his daughter Maria Theresa By defeating the Austrian Army at the Battle of Mollwitz on 10 April 1741 Frederick succeeded in conquering Lower Silesia the northwestern half of Silesia 22 In the next year 1742 he conquered Upper Silesia the southeastern half Furthermore in the third Silesian War usually grouped with the Seven Years War Frederick won a victory over Austria at the Battle of Lobositz on 1 October 1756 In spite of some impressive victories afterward his situation became far less comfortable the following years as he failed in his attempts to knock Austria out of the war and was gradually reduced to a desperate defensive war However he never gave up and on 3 November 1760 the Prussian king won another battle the hard fought Battle of Torgau Despite being several times on the verge of defeat Frederick allied with Great Britain Hanover and Hesse Kassel was finally able to hold the whole of Silesia against a coalition of Saxony the Habsburg monarchy France and Russia 23 Voltaire a close friend of the king once described Frederick the Great s Prussia by saying it was Sparta in the morning Athens in the afternoon King Frederick II the Great Silesia full of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns became a vital region to Prussia greatly increasing the nation s area population and wealth 24 Success on the battleground against Austria and other powers proved Prussia s status as one of the great powers of Europe The Silesian Wars began more than a century of rivalry and conflict between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states operating within the Holy Roman Empire although both had extensive territory outside the empire 25 In 1744 the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following the extinction of its ruling Cirksena dynasty In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786 Frederick II who understood himself as the first servant of the state promoted the development of Prussian areas such as the Oderbruch At the same time he built up Prussia s military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia in 1772 an act that geographically connected the Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper During this period he also opened Prussia s borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe such as the Huguenots Prussia became a safe haven in much the same way that the United States welcomed immigrants seeking freedom in the 19th century 26 Frederick the Great reigned 1740 1786 practised enlightened absolutism He built the world s best army and usually won his many wars He introduced a general civil code abolished torture and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere in matters of justice 27 He also promoted an advanced secondary education the forerunner of today s German gymnasium grammar school system which prepares the brightest pupils for university studies The Prussian education system was emulated in various countries including the United States 26 Napoleonic Wars Edit Main articles Napoleonic Wars Battle of Jena Auerstedt and War of the Sixth Coalition War in Germany Growth of Brandenburg Prussia 1600 1795 During the reign of King Frederick William II 1786 1797 Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 His successor Frederick William III 1797 1840 announced the union of the Prussian Lutheran and Reformed churches into one church 28 King Frederick William III Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars but remained quiet for more than a decade because of the Peace of Basel of 1795 only to go once more to war with France in 1806 as negotiations with that country over the allocation of the spheres of influence in Germany failed Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon Bonaparte s troops in the Battle of Jena Auerstedt leading Frederick William III and his family to flee temporarily to Memel Under the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 the state lost about one third of its area including the areas gained from the second and third Partitions of Poland which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw Beyond that the king was obliged to pay a large indemnity to cap his army at 42 000 men and to let the French garrison troops throughout Prussia effectively making the Kingdom a French satellite 29 In response to this defeat reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernising the Prussian state Among their reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom the Emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them The school system was rearranged and in 1818 free trade was introduced The process of army reform ended in 1813 with the introduction of compulsory military service for men 30 By 1813 Prussia could mobilize almost 300 000 soldiers more than half of which were conscripts of the Landwehr of variable quality The rest consisted of regular soldiers that were deemed excellent by most observers and very determined to repair the humiliation of 1806 After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia Prussia quit its alliance with France and took part in the Sixth Coalition during the Wars of Liberation Befreiungskriege against the French occupation Prussian troops under Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher contributed crucially alongside the British and Dutch to the final victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo of June 1815 Prussia s reward in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories as well as the whole of the Rhineland Westphalia 40 of Saxony and some other territories These western lands were of vital importance because they included the Ruhr Area the centre of Germany s fledgling industrialisation especially in the arms industry These territorial gains also meant the doubling of Prussia s population In exchange Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty 29 In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation Wars of liberation Edit Main article German revolutions of 1848 49 King Frederick William IV The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals who wanted a united federal Germany under a democratic constitution and conservatives who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence One small movement that signalled a desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement by students who encouraged the use of the black red gold flag discussions of a unified German nation and a progressive liberal political system Because of Prussia s size and economic importance smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union Zollverein which included most German states but excluded Austria 28 In 1848 the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe Alarmed King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany he refused on the grounds that he would not accept a crown from a revolutionary assembly without the sanction of Germany s other monarchs 31 The Frankfurt Parliament was forced to dissolve in 1849 and Frederick William issued Prussia s first constitution by his own authority in 1850 This conservative document provided for a two house parliament The lower house or Landtag was elected by all taxpayers who were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid Women and those who paid no taxes had no vote This allowed just over one third of the voters to choose 85 of the legislature all but assuring dominance by the more well to do men of the population The upper house which was later renamed the Herrenhaus House of Lords was appointed by the king He retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to him As a result the grip of the landowning classes the Junkers remained unbroken especially in the eastern provinces 32 Wars of unification Edit Otto von Bismarck In 1862 King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia Bismarck was determined to defeat both the liberals and conservatives and increase Prussian supremacy and influence among the German states There has been much debate as to whether Bismarck actually planned to create a united Germany when he set out on this journey or whether he simply took advantage of the circumstances that fell into place Bismarck curried support from large sections of the people by promising to lead the fight for greater German unification He successfully guided Prussia through three wars which unified Germany and brought William the position of German Emperor 33 Schleswig Wars Edit The Kingdom of Denmark was at the time in personal union with the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein both of which had close ties with each other although only Holstein was part of the German Confederation When the Danish government tried to integrate Schleswig but not Holstein into the Danish state Prussia led the German Confederation against Denmark in the First War of Schleswig 1848 1851 Because Russia supported Austria Prussia also conceded predominance in the German Confederation to Austria in the Punctation of Olmutz in 1850 In 1863 Denmark introduced a shared constitution for Denmark and Schleswig This led to conflict with the German Confederation which authorised the occupation of Holstein by the Confederation from which Danish forces withdrew In 1864 Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border between Holstein and Schleswig initiating the Second War of Schleswig The Austro Prussian forces defeated the Danes who surrendered both territories In the resulting Gastein Convention of 1865 Prussia took over the administration of Schleswig while Austria assumed that of Holstein 34 Austro Prussian War Edit Main article Austro Prussian War Expansion of Prussia 1807 1871 Bismarck realised that the dual administration of Schleswig and Holstein was only a temporary solution and tensions rose between Prussia and Austria The struggle for supremacy in Germany then led to the Austro Prussian War 1866 triggered by the dispute over Schleswig and Holstein with Bismarck using proposed injustices as the reason for war On the Austrian side stood the south German states including Bavaria and Wurttemberg some central German states including Saxony and Hanover in the north On the side of Prussia were Italy most north German states and some smaller central German states Eventually the better armed Prussian troops won the crucial victory at the Battle of Koniggratz under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder The century long struggle between Berlin and Vienna for the dominance of Germany was now over As a sideshow in this war Prussia defeated Hanover in the Battle of Langensalza 1866 While Hanover hoped in vain for help from Britain as they had previously been in personal union Britain stayed out of a confrontation with a continental great power and Prussia satisfied its desire for merging the once separate territories and gaining strong economic and strategic power particularly from the full access to the resources of the Ruhr 35 Bismarck desired Austria as an ally in the future and so he declined to annex any Austrian territory But in the Peace of Prague in 1866 Prussia annexed four of Austria s allies in northern and central Germany Hanover Hesse Kassel or Hesse Cassel Nassau and Frankfurt Prussia also won full control of Schleswig Holstein As a result of these territorial gains Prussia now stretched uninterrupted across the northern two thirds of Germany and contained two thirds of Germany s population The German Confederation was dissolved and Prussia impelled the 21 states north of the Main River into forming the North German Confederation Prussia was the dominant state in the new confederation as the kingdom comprised almost four fifths of the new state s territory and population Prussia s near total control over the confederation was secured in the constitution drafted for it by Bismarck in 1867 Executive power was held by a president assisted by a chancellor responsible only to him The presidency was a hereditary office of the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia There was also a two house parliament The lower house or Reichstag Diet was elected by universal male suffrage The upper house or Bundesrat Federal Council was appointed by the state governments The Bundesrat was in practice the stronger chamber Prussia had 17 of 43 votes and could easily control proceedings through alliances with the other states As a result of the peace negotiations the states south of the Main remained theoretically independent but received the compulsory protection of Prussia Additionally mutual defence treaties were concluded However the existence of these treaties was kept secret until Bismarck made them public in 1867 when France tried to acquire Luxembourg Franco Prussian War Edit Main article Franco Prussian War Emperor Wilhelm I The controversy with the Second French Empire over the candidacy of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne was escalated both by France and Bismarck With his Ems Dispatch Bismarck took advantage of an incident in which the French ambassador had approached William The government of Napoleon III expecting another civil war among the German states declared war against Prussia continuing Franco German enmity However honouring their treaties the German states joined forces and quickly defeated France in the Franco Prussian War in 1870 Following victory under Bismarck s and Prussia s leadership Baden Wurttemberg and Bavaria which had remained outside the North German Confederation accepted incorporation into a united German Empire The empire was a Lesser German solution in German kleindeutsche Losung to the question of uniting all German speaking peoples into one state because it excluded Austria which remained connected to Hungary and whose territories included non German populations On 18 January 1871 the 170th anniversary of the coronation of King Frederick I William was proclaimed German Emperor not Emperor of Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles outside Paris while the French capital was still under siege German Empire Edit Main article German Empire Prussia in the German Empire from 1871 to 1918 The two decades after the unification of Germany were the peak of Prussia s fortunes but the seeds for potential strife were built into the Prusso German political system The constitution of the German Empire was a version of the North German Confederation s constitution Officially the German Empire was a federal state In practice Prussia overshadowed the rest of the empire Prussia included three fifths of the German territory and two thirds of its population The Imperial German Army was in practice an enlarged Prussian army although the other kingdoms Bavaria Saxony and Wurttemberg retained their own small armies There was at first no navy The imperial crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern the royal house of Prussia The prime minister of Prussia was except for two brief periods January November 1873 and 1892 94 also imperial chancellor But the empire itself had no right to collect taxes directly from its subjects the only incomes fully under federal control were the customs duties common excise duties and the revenue from postal and telegraph services While all men above age 25 were eligible to vote in imperial elections Prussia retained its restrictive three class voting system This effectively required the king emperor and prime minister chancellor to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two different franchises In both the kingdom and the empire the original constituencies were never redrawn to reflect changes in population meaning that rural areas were grossly overrepresented by the turn of the 20th century As a result Prussia and the German Empire were something of a paradox Bismarck knew that his new German Reich was now a colossus and economically and militarily dominant in Europe Britain was still dominant in finance and trade He declared Germany a satisfied power using his talents to preserve peace for example at the Congress of Berlin Bismarck did not set up his own party He had mixed success in some of his domestic policies His anti Catholic Kulturkampf inside Prussia and not the wider German state was a failure He ended his support for the anticlerical Liberals and worked instead with the Catholic Centre Party He tried to destroy the socialist movement with limited success The large Polish population resisted Germanisation 36 Frederick III became emperor in March 1888 after the death of his father but he died of cancer only 99 days later Kaiser Wilhelm IIAt age 29 Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm II after a difficult youth and conflicts with his British mother Victoria Princess Royal He turned out to be a man of limited experience narrow and reactionary views poor judgment and occasional bad temper which alienated former friends and allies Railways Edit Main article Prussian state railways Prussia nationalised its railways in the 1880s in an effort both to lower rates on freight service and to equalise those rates among shippers Instead of lowering rates as far as possible the government ran the railways as a profit making endeavour and the railway profits became a major source of revenue for the state The nationalisation of the railways slowed the economic development of Prussia because the state favoured the relatively backward agricultural areas in its railway building Moreover the railway surpluses substituted for the development of an adequate tax system 37 The Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic Edit Main article Free State of Prussia Because of the German Revolution of 1918 Wilhelm II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia Prussia was proclaimed a Free State i e a republic German Freistaat within the new Weimar Republic and in 1920 received a democratic constitution Almost all of Germany s territorial losses specified in the Treaty of Versailles were areas that had been part of Prussia Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium North Schleswig to Denmark the Memel Territory to Lithuania the Hultschin area to Czechoslovakia Many of the areas Prussia annexed in the partitions of Poland such as the Provinces of Posen and West Prussia as well as eastern Upper Silesia went to the Second Polish Republic Danzig became the Free City of Danzig under the administration of the League of Nations Also the Saargebiet was created mainly from formerly Prussian territories except present Saarpfalz district was part of Kingdom of Bavaria East Prussia became an exclave only reachable by ship the Sea Service East Prussia or by a railway through the Polish corridor Federal states of the Weimar Republic with Prussia in light gray After World War I the Provinces of Posen and West Prussia came largely to the 2nd Polish Republic Posen West Prussia and the West Prussia district were formed from the remaining parts The German government seriously considered breaking up Prussia into smaller states but eventually traditionalist sentiment prevailed and Prussia became by far the largest state of the Weimar Republic comprising 60 of its territory With the abolition of the older Prussian franchise it became a stronghold of the left Its incorporation of Red Berlin and the industrialised Ruhr Area both with working class majorities ensured left wing dominance 38 From 1919 to 1932 Prussia was governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats Catholic Centre and German Democrats from 1921 to 1925 coalition governments included the German People s Party Unlike in other states of the German Reich majority rule by democratic parties in Prussia was never endangered Nevertheless in East Prussia and some rural areas the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler gained more and more influence and popular support especially from the lower middle class starting in 1930 Except for Catholic Upper Silesia the Nazi Party in 1932 became the largest party in most parts of the Free State of Prussia However the democratic parties in coalition remained a majority while Communists and Nazis were in the opposition 39 The East Prussian Otto Braun who was Prussian minister president almost continuously from 1920 to 1932 is considered one of the most capable Social Democrats in history He implemented several trend setting reforms together with his minister of the interior Carl Severing which were also models for the later Federal Republic of Germany FRG For instance a Prussian minister president could be forced out of office only if there was a positive majority for a potential successor This concept known as the constructive vote of no confidence was carried over into the Basic Law of the FRG Most historians regard the Prussian government during this time as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole 40 In contrast to its pre war authoritarianism Prussia was a pillar of democracy in the Weimar Republic This system was destroyed by the Preussenschlag Prussian coup of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen In this coup d etat the government of the Reich deposed the Prussian government on 20 July 1932 under the pretext that the latter had lost control of public order in Prussia during the Bloody Sunday of Altona Hamburg which was still part of Prussia at that time and by using fabricated evidence that the Social Democrats and the Communists were planning a joint putsch The Defence Minister General Kurt von Schleicher who was the prime mover behind the coup manufactured evidence that the Prussian police under Braun s orders were favouring the Communist Rotfrontkampferbund in street clashes with the SA as part of an alleged plan to foment a Marxist revolution which he used to get an emergency decree from President Paul von Hindenburg imposing Reich control on Prussia 41 Papen appointed himself Reich commissioner for Prussia and took control of the government The Preussenschlag made it easier only half a year later for Hitler to take power decisively in Germany since he had the whole apparatus of the Prussian government including the police at his disposal 42 Prussia and the Third Reich Edit Adolf Hitler Territory lost after World War I Territory lost after World War II Present day Germany After the appointment of Hitler as the new chancellor the Nazis used the absence of Franz von Papen as an opportunity to appoint Hermann Goring federal commissioner for the Prussian ministry of the interior The Reichstag election of 5 March 1933 strengthened the position of the National Socialist German Workers Party NSDAP or Nazi Party although they did not achieve an absolute majority 43 The Reichstag building having been set on fire a few weeks earlier on 27 February a new Reichstag was opened in the Garrison Church of Potsdam on 21 March 1933 in the presence of President Paul von Hindenburg In a propaganda filled meeting between Hitler and the Nazi Party the marriage of old Prussia with young Germany was celebrated to win over the Prussian monarchists conservatives and nationalists and induce them into supporting and subsequently voting in favor of the Enabling Act of 1933 Paul von Hindenburg In the centralised state created by the Nazis in the Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich Gesetz uber den Neuaufbau des Reichs 30 January 1934 and the Law on Reich Governors Reichsstatthaltergesetz 30 January 1935 the states were dissolved in fact if not in law The federal state governments were now controlled by governors for the Reich who were appointed by the chancellor Parallel to that the organisation of the party into districts Gaue gained increasing importance as the official in charge of a Gau the head of which was called a Gauleiter was again appointed by the chancellor who was at the same time chief of the Nazi Party This centralising policy went even further in Prussia From 1934 to 1945 almost all ministries were merged and only a few departments were able to maintain their independence Hitler himself became formally the governor of Prussia However his functions were exercised by Hermann Goring as Prussian prime minister As provided for in the Greater Hamburg Act Gross Hamburg Gesetz certain exchanges of territory took place Prussia was extended on 1 April 1937 for instance by the incorporation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lubeck The Prussian lands transferred to Poland after the Treaty of Versailles were re annexed during World War II However most of this territory was not reintegrated back into Prussia but assigned to separate Gaue of Danzig West Prussia and Wartheland during much of the duration of the war The end of Prussia Edit Map of the current states of Germany in dark green that are completely or mostly situated inside the old borders of Imperial Germany s Kingdom of Prussia The areas east of the Oder Neisse line mainly Eastern Prussia Western Prussia and Silesia were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union in 1945 owing to the Treaty of Potsdam between three of the Allies the United States United Kingdom and the Soviet Union This included important Prussian cities like Danzig Konigsberg Breslau and Stettin The population fled mostly to the Western zones or was driven out As part of their wartime goals the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia Stalin was initially content to retain the name Russians having a different historical view of their neighbour and sometime former ally Nonetheless by Law No 46 which was accepted and implemented by the Allied Control Council on 25 February 1947 Prussia was officially proclaimed to be dissolved 44 In the Soviet occupation zone which became East Germany officially the German Democratic Republic in 1949 the former Prussian territories were reorganised into the states of Brandenburg and Saxony Anhalt with the remaining parts of the Province of Pomerania going to Mecklenburg Western Pomerania These states were de facto abolished in 1952 in favour of Bezirke districts but were recreated after German reunification in 1990 In the Western Zones of occupation which became West Germany officially the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 the former Prussian territories were divided up among North Rhine Westphalia Lower Saxony Hesse Rhineland Palatinate and Schleswig Holstein Wurttemberg Baden and Wurttemberg Hohenzollern were later merged with Baden to create the state of Baden Wurttemberg The Saar region which had been administered by the French as a protectorate separate from the rest of Western Germany was admitted to the Federal Republic of Germany as a separate state following the 1955 Saar Statute referendum One year later in 1957 the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was established and implemented by federal statutes in West Germany in response to a ruling from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The fundamental goal of this institution is protecting the cultural legacy of Prussia As of 2021 it continues to operate from its headquarters in Berlin Administrative and constitutional frameworks EditMain articles Brandenburg Prussia and Kingdom of Prussia In the mid 16th century the margraves of Brandenburg had become highly dependent on the Estates representing counts lords knights and towns but not prelates owing to the Protestant Reformation in 1538 45 The margraviate s liabilities and tax income as well as the margrave s finances were in the hands of the Kreditwerk an institution not controlled by the elector and of the Grosser Ausschuss Great Committee of the Estates 46 This was because of concessions made by Elector Joachim II in 1541 in return for financial aid by the estates however the Kreditwerk went bankrupt between 1618 and 1625 46 The margraves further had to yield to the veto of the Estates in all issues concerning the better or worse of the country in all legal commitments and in all issues concerning pawn or sale of the elector s real property 46 Hohenzollern residence in Berlin during the Renaissance period according to the design of 1702 To reduce the influence of the Estates in 1604 Joachim Frederick created a council called Geheimer Rat fur die Kurmark Privy Council for the Electorate which instead of the Estates would function as the supreme advisory council for the elector 46 While the council was permanently established in 1613 it failed to gain any influence until 1651 owing to the Thirty Years War 46 1618 1648 Until after the Thirty Years War the various territories of Brandenburg Prussia remained politically independent from each other 45 connected only by the common feudal superior 47 Frederick William ruled 1640 1688 who envisioned the transformation of the personal union into a real union 47 started to centralise the Brandenburg Prussian government with an attempt to establish the Geheimer Rat as a central authority for all territories in 1651 but this project proved infeasible 48 Instead the elector continued to appoint a governor Kurfurstlicher Rat for each territory who in most cases was a member of the Geheimer Rat 48 The most powerful institution in the territories remained the governments of the estates Landstandische Regierung named Oberratsstube in Prussia and Geheime Landesregierung in Mark and Cleves which were the highest government agencies regarding jurisdiction finances and administration 48 The elector attempted to balance the Estates governments by creating Amtskammer chambers to administer and coordinate the elector s domains tax income and privileges 48 Such chambers were introduced in Brandenburg in 1652 in Cleves and Mark in 1653 in Pomerania in 1654 in Prussia in 1661 and in Magdeburg in 1680 48 Also in 1680 the Kreditwerk came under the aegis of the elector 49 Frederick William I s excise tax Akzise which from 1667 replaced the property tax raised in Brandenburg for Brandenburg Prussia s standing army with the Estates consent was raised by the elector without consultation with the Estates 49 The conclusion of the Second Northern War of 1655 1660 had strengthened the elector politically enabling him to reform the constitution of Cleves and Mark in 1660 and 1661 to introduce officials loyal to him and independent of the local estates 49 In the Duchy of Prussia he confirmed the traditional privileges of the Estates in 1663 49 but the latter accepted the caveat that these privileges were not to be used to interfere with the exertion of the elector s sovereignty 48 As in Brandenburg Frederick William ignored the privilege of the Prussian Estates to confirm or veto taxes raised by the elector while in 1656 an Akzise was raised with the Estates consent the elector by force collected taxes not approved by the Prussian Estates for the first time in 1674 48 From 1704 the Prussian estates de facto relinquished their right to approve the elector s taxes while formally still entitled to do so 48 In 1682 the elector introduced an Akzise to Pomerania and in 1688 to Magdeburg 48 while in Cleves and Mark an Akzise was introduced only between 1716 and 1720 Owing to Frederick William I s reforms the state income increased threefold during his reign and the tax burden per subject reached a level twice as high as in France 49 Prussian King s Crown Hohenzollern Castle Collection Under the rule of Frederick III I in office 1688 1713 the Brandenburg Prussian territories were de facto reduced to provinces of the monarchy 47 Frederick William s testament would have divided Brandenburg Prussia among his sons but his firstborn son Frederick III I with the emperor s backing succeeded in becoming the sole ruler based on the Treaty of Gera of 1599 which forbade a division of Hohenzollern territories 50 In 1689 a new central chamber for all Brandenburg Prussian territories was established called Geheime Hofkammer from 1713 Generalfinanzdirektorium This chamber functioned as a superior agency of the territories Amtskammer chambers 51 The General War Commissariat Generalkriegskommissariat emerged as a second central agency superior to the local Kriegskommissariat agencies initially concerned with the administration of the army but before 1712 transformed into an agency also concerned with general tax and police tasks 51 The Kingdom of Prussia functioned as an absolute monarchy until the German revolutions of 1848 1849 after which Prussia became a constitutional monarchy and Adolf Heinrich von Arnim Boitzenburg was elected by whom as Prussia s first prime minister Ministerprasident Prussia s first constitution dated from 1848 The 1850 Prussian Constitution established a two chamber parliament The lower house or Landtag represented all taxpayers who were divided into three classes according to the amount of taxes paid This allowed just over 25 of the voters to choose 85 of the legislature all but assuring dominance by the more well to do elements of the population The upper house First Chamber or Erste Kammer later renamed the Prussian House of Lords Herrenhaus was appointed by the king He retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to him As a result the grip of the landowning classes the Junkers remained unbroken especially in the eastern provinces The Prussian Secret Police formed in response to the German revolutions of 1848 1849 aided the conservative government Prussia inside Weimar Republic Edit Main article Free State of Prussia Unlike its authoritarian pre 1918 predecessor Prussia from 1918 to 1932 was a promising democracy within Germany The abolition of the political power of the aristocracy transformed Prussia into a region strongly dominated by the left wing of the political spectrum with Red Berlin and the industrial centre of the Ruhr Area exerting major influence During this period a coalition of centre left parties ruled predominantly under the leadership 1920 1932 of East Prussian Social Democrat Otto Braun While in office Braun implemented several reforms together with his Minister of the Interior Carl Severing that became models for the later Federal Republic of Germany For instance a Prussian prime minister could only be forced out of office if there was a positive majority for a potential successor This concept known as the constructive vote of no confidence became part of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany Historians regard the Prussian government during the 1920s as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole 52 Similar to other German states both now and at the time executive power remained vested in a Minister President of Prussia and in laws established by a Landtag elected by the people In 1649 Kursenieki settlements along the Baltic coastline of East Prussia spanned from Memel Klaipeda to Danzig Gdansk Social history EditPopulation Edit In 1871 Prussia s population numbered 24 69 million accounting for 60 of the German Empire s population 53 The population grew rapidly from 45 million in 1880 to 56 million in 1900 thanks to declining mortality even as birth rates declined About 6 million Germans primarily young families migrated to the United States especially the mid western farming regions Their place in agriculture was often taken by young Polish farm workers In addition large numbers of Polish miners moved to Upper Silesia and many Germans and Poles moved to industrial jobs in the fast growing cities especially in the Rhineland and Westphalia 54 55 In 1910 the population had increased to 40 17 million 62 of the Empire s population 53 In 1914 Prussia had an area of 354 490 km2 In May 1939 Prussia had an area of 297 007 km2 and a population of 41 915 040 inhabitants Religion Edit Further information Prussian Union of Churches Old Lutherans and Kulturkampf The Duchy of Prussia was the first state to officially adopt Lutheranism in 1525 In the wake of the Reformation Prussia was dominated by two major Protestant confessions Lutheranism and Calvinism The majority of the Prussian population was Lutheran although there were dispersed Calvinist minorities in central and western parts of the state especially Brandenburg Rhineland Westphalia and Hesse Nassau In 1613 John Sigismund Elector of Brandenburg and Grand Duke of Prussia declared himself for the Calvinist creed and transferred the Berlin Cathedral from the Lutheran to the Calvinist church Lutherans and Calvinist congregations all over the kingdom were merged in 1817 by the Prussian Union of churches which came under tight royal control 56 In Protestant regions writes Nipperdey Much of religious life was often conventional and superficial by any normal human standard The state and the bureaucracy kept their distance preferring to spoon feed the churches and treat them like children They saw the churches as channels for education as a means of instilling morality and obedience or for propagating useful things just like bee keeping or potato farming 57 Prussia received significant Huguenot population after the issuing of the Edict of Fontainebleau by Louis XIV of France and the following dragonnades Prussian monarchs beginning with Frederick William Elector of Brandenburg opened the country to the fleeing French Calvinist refugees In Berlin they built and worshipped at their own church called the French Cathedral on Gendarmenmarkt Time passed by and the French Reformed assimilated into the wider Protestant community in Prussia East Prussia s southern region of Masuria was mostly made up of Germanised Lutheran Masurians After 1814 Prussia contained millions of Catholics in the west and in the east There were substantial populations in the Rhineland parts of Westphalia eastern parts of Silesia West Prussia Ermland and the Province of Posen 58 Communities in Poland were often ethnically Polish although this is not the case of eastern Silesia as the majority of Catholics there were German During the 19th century Kulturkampf Prussian Catholics were forbidden from fulfilling any official functions for the state and were largely distrusted Prussia contained a relatively large Jewish community which was mostly concentrated in large urban areas According to the 1880 census it was the biggest one in Germany with 363 790 individuals In 1925 64 9 of the Prussian population was Protestant 31 3 was Catholic 1 1 was Jewish 2 7 was placed in other religious categories 59 Non German population Edit In 1871 approximately 2 4 million Poles lived in Prussia constituting the largest minority 53 Other minorities were Jews Danes Frisians Dutchmen Kashubians 72 500 in 1905 Masurians 248 000 in 1905 Lithuanians 101 500 in 1905 Walloons Czechs Kursenieki and Sorbs 53 The area of Greater Poland where the Polish nation had originated became the Province of Posen after the Partitions of Poland Poles in this Polish majority province 62 Polish 38 German resisted German rule Also the southeast portion of Silesia Upper Silesia had a Polish majority But Catholics and Jews did not have equal status with Protestants 60 As a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 the Second Polish Republic was granted not only these two areas but also areas with a German majority in the Province of West Prussia After World War II East Prussia Silesia most of Pomerania and the eastern part of Brandenburg were either annexed by the Soviet Union or given to Poland and the German speaking populations forcibly expelled King Frederick William I of Prussia welcoming the expelled Salzburg Protestants The Berlin Cathedral c 1900 Prussian deportations Polenausweisungen were the mass expulsions of ethnic Poles between 1885 and 1890 Education Edit Main article Prussian education system The German states in the 19th century were world leaders in prestigious education and Prussia set the pace 61 62 For boys free public education was widely available and the gymnasium system for elite students was highly professionalized The modern university system emerged from the 19th century German universities especially Friedrich Wilhelm University now named Humboldt University of Berlin It pioneered the model of the research university with well defined career tracks for professors 63 The United States for example paid close attention to German models Families focused on educating their sons The traditional schooling for girls was generally provided by mothers and governesses Elite families increasingly favoured Catholic convent boarding schools for their daughters Prussia s Kulturkampf laws in the 1870s limited Catholic schools thus providing an opening for a large number of new private schools for girls 64 See also Edit The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin Altes Museum Berlin Bode Museum Berlin East Prussian Regional Museum List of museums and galleries in Berlin List of museums in GermanyReferences EditInformational notes Monarchy abolished in 1918 abolished as a state of Germany in 1947 ˈ p r ʌ ʃ e German Preussen pronounced ˈpʁɔʏsn listen Old Prussian Prusa or Prusija Citations Fischer Michael Senkel Christian 2010 Klaus Tanner ed Reichsgrundung 1871 Ereignis Beschreibung Inszenierung Munster Waxmann Verlag a b c Population of Germany tacitus nu Christopher Clark Iron Kingdom The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600 1947 2006 is the standard history Vesna Danilovic When the Stakes Are High Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers University of Michigan Press 2002 pp 27 225 228 H M Scott Aping the Great Powers Frederick the Great and the Defence of Prussia s International Position 1763 86 German History 12 3 1994 pp 286 307 online H W Koch A History of Prussia 1978 p 35 Robert S Hoyt amp Stanley Chodorow Europe in Middle Ages 1976 p 629 Norman Davies God s Playground A History of Poland Vol l 1982 p 81 Edward Henry Lewinski Corwin Lewinski Corwin Edward Henry 1917 A History of Prussia New York The Polish Book Importing Company pp 628 lizard union Robert S Hoyt and Stanley Chodorow 1976 Europe in the Middle Ages Harcourt Brace Jovanovich ISBN 0 15 524712 3 p 629 Daniel Stone A History of East Central Europe 2001 p 30 Rosenberg H 1943 The Rise of the Junkers in Brandenburg Prussia 1410 1653 Part 1 The American Historical Review 49 1 1 22 H W Koch A History of Prussia p 33 Francis L Carsten The Great Elector and the foundation of the Hohenzollern despotism English Historical Review 65 255 1950 175 202 online Clark Iron Kingdom ch 4 Reinhold A Dorwart The administrative reforms of Frederick William I of Prussia Harvard University Press 2013 Rodney Gothelf Frederick William I and the beginnings of Prussian absolutism 1713 1740 in The Rise of Prussia 1700 1830 Routledge 2014 pp 47 67 H W Koch A History of Prussia pp 100 102 Robert B Asprey Frederick the Great The Magnificent Enigma 1986 pp 34 35 Koch A History of Prussia p 105 Robert A Kahn A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526 1918 1974 p 96 Asprey Frederick the Great the Magnificent Enigma pp 195 208 Hermann Kinder amp Werner Hilgermann The Anchor Atlas of World History Volume 1 1974 pp 282 283 James K Pollock amp Homer Thomas Germany In Power and Eclipse 1952 pp 297 302 Marshall Dill Jr Germany A Modern History 1970 p 39 a b Clark Iron Kingdom ch 7 David Fraser Frederick the Great King of Prussia 2001 online a b Clark Iron Kingdom ch 12 a b Clark Iron Kingdom ch 11 Clark Iron Kingdom ch 10 Clark Iron Kingdom ch 13 14 Clark Iron Kingdom ch 14 Henry A Kissinger The white revolutionary Reflections on Bismarck Daedalus 1968 888 924 online Michael Embree Bismarck s first war the campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864 2007 A J P Taylor Bismarck 1955 pp 70 91 David Graham Williamson Bismarck and Germany 1862 1890 Routledge 2013 Rainer Fremdling Freight Rates and State Budget The Role of the National Prussian Railways 1880 1913 Journal of European Economic History Spring 1980 Vol 9 1 pp 21 40 Clark Iron Kingdom pp 620 624 Clark Iron Kingdom pp 630 639 Clark Iron Kingdom p 652 Wheeler Bennett John The Nemesis of Power London Macmillan 1967 page 253 Clark Iron Kingdom pp 647 648 Clark Iron Kingdom pp 655 670 Clark Iron Kingdom pp 670 682 a b Kotulla 2008 p 262 a b c d e Kotulla 2008 p 263 a b c Kotulla 2008 p 265 a b c d e f g h i Kotulla 2008 p 267 a b c d e Kotulla 2008 p 266 Kotulla 2008 p 269 a b Kotulla 2008 p 270 Dietrich Orlow Weimar Prussia 1918 1925 The Unlikely Rock of Democracy 1986 a b c d Busch Otto Ilja Mieck Wolfgang Neugebauer 1992 Otto Busch ed Handbuch der preussischen Geschichte in German Vol 2 Berlin de Gruyter p 42 ISBN 978 3 11 008322 4 Patrick R Galloway Eugene A Hammel and Ronald D Lee Fertility decline in Prussia 1875 1910 A pooled cross section time series analysis Population studies 48 1 1994 135 158 online Frank B Tipton Regional Variations in the Economic Development of Germany During the Nineteenth Century 1976 Clark Christopher 1996 Confessional Policy and the Limits of State Action Frederick William III and the Prussian Church Union 1817 40 The Historical Journal 39 4 985 1004 doi 10 1017 S0018246X00024730 JSTOR 2639865 S2CID 159976974 Thomas Nipperdey Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck 1800 1866 Princeton University Press 2014 p 356 Helmut Walser Smith ed Protestants Catholics and Jews in Germany 1800 1914 Bloomsbury Academic 2001 Grundriss der Statistik II Gesellschaftsstatistik by Wilhelm Winkler p 36 Hajo Holborn History of Modern Germany 1648 1840 2 274 Karl A Schleunes Enlightenment reform reaction the schooling revolution in Prussia Central European History 12 4 1979 315 342 online Charles E McClelland State society and university in Germany 1700 1914 1980 Ash Mitchell G 2006 Bachelor of What Master of Whom The Humboldt Myth and Historical Transformations of Higher Education in German Speaking Europe and the U S European Journal of Education 41 2 245 267 Aneta Nieweglowska Secondary Schools for Girls in Western Prussia 1807 1911 Acta Poloniae Historica 99 2009 137 160 Further reading EditAvraham Doron October 2008 The Social and Religious Meaning of Nationalism The Case of Prussian Conservatism 1815 1871 European History Quarterly 38 38 4 525 550 doi 10 1177 0265691408094531 S2CID 145574435 Barraclough Geoffrey 1947 The Origins of Modern Germany 2d ed covers medieval period Carroll E Malcolm Germany and the great powers 1866 1914 A study in public opinion and foreign policy 1938 online 862pp Clark Christopher Iron Kingdom The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600 1947 2009 a standard scholarly history ISBN 978 0 7139 9466 7 Craig Gordon The politics of the Prussian Army 1640 1945 1955 online Fay Sidney Bradshaw The Rise of Brandenburg Prussia To 1786 1937 online Friedrich Karin 2000 The Other Prussia Royal Prussia Poland and Liberty 1569 1772 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 58335 0 online review Friedrich Karin Brandenburg Prussia 1466 1806 The Rise of a Composite State Palgrave Macmillan 2011 157pp Emphasis on historiography Glees Anthony Albert C Grzesinski and the politics of Prussia 1926 1930 English Historical Review 89 353 1974 814 834 online Haffner Sebastian 1998 The Rise and Fall of Prussia Hamerow Theodore S Restoration Revolution Reaction Economics and Politics in Germany 1815 1871 1958 online Hamerow Theodore S The social foundations of German unification 1858 1871 1969 online Henderson William O The state and the industrial revolution in Prussia 1740 1870 1958 online Holborn Hajo 1982 A History of Modern Germany 3 vol 1959 64 vol 1 The Reformation vol 2 1648 1840 Vol 3 1840 1945 ISBN 0691007969 Horn David Bayne Great Britain and Europe in the eighteenth century 1967 covers 1603 1702 pp 144 177 for Prussia pp 178 200 for other Germany 111 143 for Austria Hornung Erik Immigration and the diffusion of technology The Huguenot diaspora in Prussia American Economic Review 104 1 2014 84 122 online Koch H W History of Prussia 1987 online Kotulla Michael Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte vom Alten Reich bis Weimar 1495 1934 Springer 2008 ISBN 978 3 540 48705 0 Maehl William Harvey 1979 Germany in Western Civilization Muncy Lysbeth W The Junkers and the Prussian Administration from 1918 to 1939 Review of Politics 9 4 1947 482 501 online Nipperdey Thomas Germany from Napoleon to Bismarck 1800 1866 1996 excerpt Orlow Dietrich Weimar Prussia 1918 1925 The Unlikely Rock of Democracy 1986 online Orlow Dietrich Weimar Prussia 1925 1933 The Illusion of Strength 1991 online Reinhardt Kurt F 1961 Germany 2000 Years Vol 2 vols stress on cultural topics Sagarra Eda A Social History of Germany 1648 1914 1977 online Schulze Hagen and Philip G Dwyer Democratic Prussia in Weimar Germany 1919 33 in Modern Prussian History 1830 1947 Routledge 2014 pp 211 229 Shennan M 1997 The Rise of Brandenburg Prussia ISBN 0415129389 Taylor A J P The Course of German History A Survey of the Development of German History since 1815 1945 online Taylor A J P Bismarck 1955 online Treasure Geoffrey The Making of Modern Europe 1648 1780 3rd ed 2003 pp 427 462 Wheeler Nicholas C October 2011 The Noble Enterprise of State Building Reconsidering the Rise and Fall of the Modem State in Prussia and Poland Comparative Politics 44 44 1 21 38 doi 10 5129 001041510X13815229366480 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prussia Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Prussia Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Prussia population history Preussen Chronik de chronology and summaries Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation website Archived 18 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz picture archive Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin Brandenburg Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Prussia amp oldid 1132202733, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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