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Prussia (Template:Audio-de; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Template:Lang-lt; Template:Lang-pl; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, an historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had substantial influence on German and European history. The last capital of Prussia was Berlin.

The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, a Baltic people related to the Lithuanians; Prussia was later conquered by the Teutonic Knights and thereafter slowly Germanized.

Prussia attained its greatest importance in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century, Prussia ascended to the position of third European great power under the reign of Frederick II of Prussia (1740–1786). During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck pursued a policy of uniting the German principalities into a "Lesser Germany" which would exclude the Austrian Empire.

The Kingdom of Prussia dominated northern Germany politically, economically, and in terms of population, and was the core of the unified North German Confederation formed in 1867, which became the German Empire or Deutsches Reich in 1871.

With the end of the Hohenzollern monarchy in Germany following World War I, Prussia became part of the Weimar Republic in 1919. Prussia as a state was abolished de facto by the Nazis in 1934 and de jure by the Allied Powers in 1945.

Since then, the term's relevance has been limited to historical, geographical, or cultural usages. Even today, a certain kind of ethic is called "Prussian virtues", for instance: perfect organization, sacrifice, rule of law, obedience to authority and militarism, but also reliability, thriftiness, modesty, and diligence. Many Prussians believed that these virtues were part of the reasons for the rise of their country.

Symbols

The black and white national colours of Prussia stem from the Teutonic Knights, who wore a white coat embroidered with a black cross. The combination of these colours with the white and red Hanseatic colours of the free cities Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck resulted in the black-white-red commercial flag of the North German Confederation, which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871.

Kingdom of Prussia

The later kingdom of Prussia was formed out of the margraviate/palatinate of Brandenburg and the duchy of Prussia when margrave and elector George William inhereted the last in 1618. In 1701 Frederic III asumed the title of King of Prussia. The duchy of Prussia around Königsberg was the remnent of the much larger state the knights of the German Order constituated during the middle ages along the Baltic coast. As a crusading order the 'Deutsche Orden' flew a black cross on a white flag. The emperor granted them also the right to use the black eagle of the empire.

Prince elector Frederic III was crowned king in Königsberg 18th January 1701. On the 27th he changed his arms as prince elector of Brandenburg (see there). Henceforth the Prussian eagle, now royaly crowned and with 'FR' on his breast, was placed in an escut-cheon on the shield with 25 quarters in stead of the electoral scepter. All the helmets made way for one royal crown. The rather hilaric construction in which the supporting wildman bore the outer helmets over their head was ended therewith.

The 'wild men' - a figure from germanic and celtic mythology, the 'Lord of the Beasts' or 'Green Man' - that hold the arms of Prussia are probably taken from the arms of Pomerania or Denmark. They are also to be found as supporters of the arms of Brunswick, the old city of Königsberg and Anloo, Beilen, Bergen op Zoom, Groede, Havelte, 's Hertogenbosch, Oosterhesselen, Sleen, Sneek, Vries and Zuidwolde in the Netherlands (K.L. Sierksma, De gemeentewapens van Nederland, Het Spectrum, Utrecht/Antwerpen, 1960). A wildman and a wild woman hold the shield of the principality of Schwarzburg in Thuringia and the city of Antwerp since the beginning of the sixteenth century (Hubert de Vries, Wapens van de Nederlanden, Uitg. Jan Mets, Amsterdam, 1995). Two wild man and a wild woman though are already to be seen in the seal of Bergen op Zoom of 1365 (W.A. van Ham, Wapens en vlaggen van Noord-Brabant, Walburg Pers, Zutphen, 1986).

A decree from 11th February that same year placed a crown on the Prussion escutcheon and on the 20th of that month the king ordained that that the whole should be placed on a royal pavilion afther the French and Danish example.

When William, prince of Orange and King of Great Britain died on 19th of march 1702, the king ordered the arms of the prin-cipality placed on his shield too (see picture), so as to underline his claim as sole heir (by his mother; the Frisian branche of the house of Nassau though claimed it too). In 1708 Frederic announced that he would place the quarters of the dukes of Mecklenburg in the Brandenburg-Prussian arms also to stress his rights in case the ducal lines of both duchies would die out. Mecklenburg-Strelitz protested but the Holy Roman Empire gave its permission October 1712. Siebmachers Grosses Wappenbuch gives the royal arms after a woodcut of 1709 (see picture). This design was twice officially altered but was never fundamentally changed since. The electoral scepter has its own shield now under the electo-ral cap. Around the shield, with 36 quarters now (among who Veere-Vlissingen and Breda), appears the Order of the Black Eagle and on it rests a crowned helmet. The wild men hold banners of Prussia and Brandenburg and behind the pavillion rises a Prussian banner after the example of the French 'Orif-lamme'. The motto 'Gott mit uns' appears on the postement.

Already during the reign of Frederick I there is a notable difference between the 'gothic' representation of the Prussian eagle in the arms and the more naturally depicted and often flying eagle on most coins (Gerhard Schön, Deutscher Münzkahr-hundert, Battenberg VerlagMünchen, 1984) and military stand-ards (Terence Wise, Military Flags of the World, Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset, 1977).

Frederic William I followed his father on the throne 25th Febru-ary 1713. According to Ströhl he gave the eagle scepter and orb. He made an arrangement with the Frisian Nassaus over the (anyhow French occupied) principality of Orange. Besides the arms of Orange he could now officially add Veere and Vlissin-gen 29 July 1732. Furthermore the King added East Frisia to his arms, claiming it in case the prince would die without heir. A fourth escutcheon appeared therewith among still 36 quarters.

Frederic II became king 31t May 1740. He laid claim to the duchy of Silesia after the death of emperor Charles VI 20th October 1740 and made war over it with his daughter and heir, Maria Theresia of Habsburg. Frederic II was followed by his nephew Frederic William II 17th August 1786. 1791 he inherited the principalities of the other Hohenzollern branch in Franken (Bayreuth and Ansbach, see there). For reasons of economy the official seals were however unchan-ged. Frederic William III who followed 16. November 1797 changed the arms third of July 1804. The reorganisation of Germany by Napoleon made alterations necessary. A new escutcheon was created for Silesia. The shield held 42 quarters by now. Around the shield now appears also the Order of the Red Eagle of the Frankish line.

After the fall of Napoleon Prussia gained extensive territo-ries on the Rhine and in Saxony. New arms (see picture) were therefore decreed 9th January 1817. The number of quarters rose to 48, among whom we find the Westphalian/Saxon horse, the 'Rautenkranz' of Upper Saxony. The number of escutcheons was however reduced again to four (Prussia, the Brandenburg margravate eagle now instead of the scepter, burgravate of Nurenberg, though ceased to Bavaria, and Hohenzollern proper.)

So called 'middle arms' (see picture) were now issued too: a shield with the same four escutcheons and ten quarters for Silesia, Rhineland, Posen, Saxony, Pomerania, Magdeburg, Cleves, Gulik, Berg and Westphalia. This was also encircled by the Black Eagle Order and held by two wild men, with clubs however. The small arms already in use on coins of the 1790's were now legitimized also (see picture).

The seventh of December 1849 both Swabian lines of Hohenzol-lern (see there) ceased their principalities to Frederic William IV who had followed his father 7th July 1840. Frederic William IV was folowed by his brother William I second January 1861. He changed the arms 11th January 1864 by combining the escutcheons of Nurenberg and Hohenzollern. That year Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein. In 1866 following war with Austria its allies, Hannover and Hessen-Kassel were annexed to Prussia. Prussia then took the lead in the unification of Germany and the king became German Emperor 18th January 1871. Only 16th August 1873 new arms were decreed. The number of quarters was again 48 with three escutcheons, so a number of old quarters was ceaded. Added were the collars of the Hohenzollern House Order and the Crown Order. The motto is now placed on the dome of the pavilion.

The middle arms of 1873 (see picture) show more clearly the changes by adding Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel in stead of Magdeburg, Kleves, Gulik and Berg.

(Source: Siebmacher Grosses Wwappenbuch, Band 1 1.Abt. 1. teil, Nurenberg 1856 and 4.Teil, Nurenberg 1921).

The Prussian national and merchant flag (3:5) is parted black, white and black (1:4:1) shows in the white strife the eagle with a blue orb bound in gold and a scepter ending in another eagle. On its breast are the intertwined initials 'FR' for 'Fredericus Rex'. The axis of the eagle is at 2/5 of the flags total length. This flag came on 12 march 1823 in place of a simpler black, white and black flag issued on 22 may 1818.

The Prussian warflag (3:5) adopted 28 november 1816 is origi-naly swalowtaled for one fifth of the total length. Later the tale was abandoned. At two fifths it shows the Prussian eagle (two thirds of the flags height). In the canton the Iron Cross is placed (one third of the flags height). (Source: H.G. Ströhl, Deutsche Wappenrolle, Stuttgart 1987)

The Iron Cross was established in 1813 during the war against Napoleon I as a decoration for the courageous common soldier. It was renewed in the French-German war of 1870 and in the first worldwar 1914. It appeared also in the canton of the warflag of the German Empire.

The royal standard of Prussia shows the Iron cross charged with the shield and crown of the small state arms surrounded bij the colar of the Order of the Black Eagle. On the blades of the cross is the motto 'Gott mit uns'. Between the arms are four times three Prussian eagles along the edges and a royal crown in carré with them. All on a purple background.

After the unwanted revolution of 1918 the Prussian state was naturally slow to addept its heraldry to republican forms. Only 11th July 1921 new statearms were decreed by the the Prussian prime minister. The 'gothic' eagle made way for the more naturallistic flying one and lost all its garments. On the 12th December that year the Ministery of State decreed that the Prussian flag was to be just black and white. The following year 24th February and 23d April the ministery issued a serviceflag alike the national flag of the nineteenth century - black borders above and below, beeing 1/6 of the total height of the flag, with the new eagle. (Source: Siebma-chers Wappenbuch, Band I, 1 Abt. 5. Teil, Nurenberg, 1929)

From the Protestant Reformation onward, the Prussian motto was Suum cuique ("to each, his own"; Template:Lang-de). Additionally, it was the motto of the Order of the Black Eagle, created by King Frederick I (see also Iron Cross).

Geography and population

Prussia began as a small territory in what was later called West and East Prussia, which is now Warmia-Masuria of northern Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave of Russia, and the Klaipėda Region of Lithuania. The region was largely populated by Old Prussians and was later subject to colonization by Germans, as well as by Poles and Lithuanians along border regions.

Before its abolition, the territory of Prussia included "Prussia proper" (West Prussia and East Prussia), Pomerania, most of Silesia, Brandenburg, Lusatia, the Province of Saxony (now the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany), Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, Hesse-Nassau, the Rhineland, and some small detached areas in the south such as parts of Switzerland and Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family. However, there were some regions in northern Germany that never became a part of Prussia, such as Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and the city-states of the Hanseatic League.

Although Prussia was predominantly a Protestant German state, there were substantial Roman Catholic populations in the Rhineland, while a number of districts in Posen, Silesia, West Prussia, and the Warmia regions of East Prussia had predominantly Catholic populations. Some of these Catholic eastern districts had German populations (such as Warmia and Glatz), while most of them had populations of Polish descent. East Prussia's southern region of Masuria was largely made up of Germanized Protestant Masurs. This explains in part why the Catholic South German states, especially Austria and Bavaria, resisted Prussian hegemony for so long.

Despite its overwhelmingly German character, Prussia's annexations of Polish territory in the Partitions of Poland brought a large Polish population that resisted the German government and in several areas constituted the majority of the population (i.e. Province of Posen: 62% Polish, 38% German). As a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Second Polish Republic received a large portion of the these areas, some of which had significant German minorities.

In May 1939 Prussia had an area of 297,007 km² and a population of 41,915,040 inhabitants.

Early history

In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights headquartered in Acre, to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders. However, during sixty years of struggles against the Old Prussians, they created a independent state which came to control Prussia plus most of what are now Estonia, Latvia, western Lithuania, and northern Poland. The Knights were subordinate only to the Pope and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Knights were eventually defeated by an alliance between Poland and Lithuania, however, and were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon in the Peace of Toruń (Thorn) in 1466, losing western Prussia (Royal Prussia) to Poland in the process. In 1525 Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories into Ducal Prussia, the first formally Protestant state.

The territory of the duchy was at this time confined to the area east of the mouth of the Vistula river, near the present border between Poland and the post-1945 Russian exclave of Kaliningrad (former Königsberg).

Anna, daughter of Duke Albert Frederick (reigned 1568-1618), married Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg, a German state centered on Berlin and ruled since the 15th century by the Hohenzollern dynasty. Upon the death of Albert Frederick in 1618, John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia. From this time Ducal Prussia came under the reign of the Electors of Brandenburg. The acquisition of the duchy was advantageous for the Hohenzollerns, as it lay outside the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. The resulting state became known as Brandenburg-Prussia. The Hohenzollerns also acquired the territories of Cleves and Mark in the Rhineland.

During the Thirty Years' War, the disconnected Hohenzollern lands were repeatedly marched across by various armies, especially the occupying Swedes. The ineffective and militarily weak Margrave George William (1619-1640) fled from Berlin to Königsberg in 1637. His successor, Frederick William (1640-1688), began hiring a mercenary army to provide the defenses which the scattered lands of Brandenburg-Prussia lacked.

Frederick William went to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland for the Duchy of Prussia, which he held in fief from the Polish crown. Taking advantage of the difficult position of Poland vis-á-vis Sweden in the Northern Wars, and his friendly relations with Russia during a series of Russo-Polish wars, Frederick William later managed to obtain a discharge from his obligations as a vassal to the Polish king; he was finally given independent control of Prussia in the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657. However, the rights of the Polish crown to Ducal Prussia would still legally revert back if the Hohenzollern dynastic line died out.

For more on Prussia's early history see Origins of Prussia, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, Ducal Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia, and Royal Prussia.

Kingdom of Prussia

In 1701 Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III, proclaimed himself King Frederick I of Prussia, and all links to the Kingdom of Poland were removed. Because he did not wish to offend Emperor Leopold I, Frederick was only allowed to title himself "King in Prussia", not "King of Prussia". The first Prussian king was also the last Prussian ruler to speak fluent Polish, while his successors spoke fluent French and their native German. However, the Hohenzollern monarchs until Kaiser William II of the German Empire were able to speak some Polish, as many of their Lutheran, partly Germanized subjects in Masuria still spoke Polish.

Prussia grew in splendor during the reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury. He 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. He is considered the creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe, although 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 Voltaire said later: "Prussia is not a country with an Army but an Army with a country!"

In addition, Frederick William settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated eastern Prussia and other regions. From Sweden he acquired Western Pomerania as far as the Peene in 1720.

His son Frederick II, later nicknamed "Frederick the Great", succeeded Frederick William in 1740. As Crown Prince he was attached to philosophy and the arts; nevertheless, in the first year of his reign he ordered the Prussian army to march into Silesia, on which the Hohenzollerns laid disputed claims. In the three Silesian Wars (1740-1763) he succeeded in holding this conquest against Austria. In the last, the Seven Years' War, he held it against a coalition of Austria, France, and Russia.

This was the beginning of Prussia's position as a great power in Europe, and of tension between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states in the Holy Roman Empire. In 1744 the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following the extinction of its ruling Cirksene dynasty.

In the last 23 years of his rule until 1786, Frederick II, who understood himself as the "first servant of the state", promoted the development and further settling of Prussian areas, such as the Oderbruch. At the same time as he built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia (1772) which connected Brandenburg with eastern Prussia, 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.

Frederick the Great, the first "King of Prussia", practiced enlightened absolutism. He introduced a general civil code, abolished torture, and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere with matters of justice. He also furthered an advanced "high school" education, the forerunner of today's German Gymnasium (Grammar School) system, which prepares the brightest students for university studies.

Napoleonic Wars

During the reign of King Frederick William II (1786-1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through further Partitions of Poland. Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars, but remained quiet for more than a decade as a result 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. In the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon Bonaparte's troops and King Frederick William III (1797-1840) and his family were forced to flee temporarily to Memel. In 1807 by the Treaties of Tilsit, the state lost about half of its area, in particular 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 make an alliance with France and join the Continental System.

In response to this defeat, reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernizing the Prussian state, including the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them, and the institution of self-administration in municipalities. The school system was rearranged and in 1810 free trade was introduced. The process of army reform ended in 1813 with the introduction of compulsory military service.

After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, Prussia quit the alliance 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 in the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 to the final victory over Napoleon. 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, and some other territories. These western lands were to be 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. Prussia emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the dominant power in Germany, overshadowing her long-time rival Austria, which had given up the imperial crown in 1806.

The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between the forces of Liberalism, which wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and the forces of Conservatism, which wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork collection of independent, weak monarchical states, with Prussia and Austria competing for influence. Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union (Zollverein) which excluded Austria.

In 1848 the Liberals got their chance when revolutions broke out across Europe. An 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 revolutionary assemblies could not grant royal titles.

Prussia obtained a semi-democratic "Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia", but the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces.

Wars of unification

In 1862 King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck was determined to defeat both the Liberals and the Conservatives by creating a strong united Germany but under the domination of the Prussian ruling class and bureaucracy, not the western German Liberals. As he realized that the Prussian crown could only win the support of the people if she herself took the lead in the fight for the German unification, Bismarck guided Prussia through three wars which together brought William the position of German Emperor.

The 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. Only Holstein belonged to the German Confederation, however. The nationalistic attempt by the Danish government in Copenhagen to integrate Schleswig, but not Holstein, into the Danish state led to the First War of Schleswig (1848-1851), in which Prussia led the German Confederation against Denmark. Although the Danes were defeated militarily, Prussia was pressured by the Great Powers into returning Schleswig and Holstein to Denmark, in return for Denmark's assurances that it would not try to integrate Schleswig. Prussia was also embarrassed by conceding to Austria predominance in the German Confederation in the Punctation of Olmütz in 1850, due to Russian support for Austria.

In 1863 Denmark annexed Schleswig, leading to the Second War of Schleswig in 1864 between Denmark and the German Confederation, led by Prussia and Austria. The confederate German forces crushed the Danes, and in the resulting Gastein Convention of 1865 Prussia took over the administration of Schleswig while Austria administered Holstein.

Austro-Prussian War

Bismarck realized that the dual administration of Schleswig and Holstein was only a temporary solution, and tensions escalated between Prussia and Austria. If the deeper cause of the ensuing Austro-Prussian War (1866) was the struggle for supremacy in Germany, the actual trigger was the dispute over Schleswig and Holstein.

On the side of Austria stood the central and southern German states; on the side of Prussia, beside some northern German states, there was also Italy. When Prussian troops, equipped with superior arms, achieved the crucial victory at Königgrätz under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Austria lost her fight for supremacy and left the German Confederation. Because Bismarck desired to have Austria as an ally in the future, he declined to annex any territory from the Austrian Empire. The Peace of Prague in 1866 brought to Prussia land from Austria's allies, including the Kingdom of Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, the Duchy of Nassau, the free city of Frankfurt, and all of Schleswig-Holstein, thus connecting nearly all Prussian territories. The German Confederation was dissolved after the war in 1866 and replaced the following year with the North German Confederation.

At the beginning only a military alliance, the contracting parties to the North German Confederation adopted a constitution which made Prussia the dominant state of the federation. The new constitution, drafted by Bismarck, presaged many substantial points of the Constitution of the German Reich. The King and Prime Minister of Prussia, respectively, were simultaneously President and Chancellor of the North German Confederation.

As a result of the peace negotiations, the states in the South of Germany remained theoretically independent, but received the (compulsory) protection of Prussia. Additionally, mutual defensive alliances were signed, the "Schutz- und Trutzbündnisse" (see also "Das Lied der Deutschen" in which these terms are also used). However, the existence of these treaties was kept secret until Bismarck made them public in 1867, when France tried to acquire Luxemburg.

Franco-Prussian War

The controversy with the Second French Empire over the candidacy of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne was escalated both by France and Bismarck, who, with his Ems Dispatch, 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 once more in a hostile manner. Honoring 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, Bavaria, Mecklenburg, and Saxony accepted incorporation into a united German Empire.

Austria, which remained connected to Hungary, did not join, thus the Kleindeutsche Lösung, a federated German Empire without Austria, was enacted. 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 of Paris, while the French capital was still under siege.

German Empire

The two decades following the unification of Germany were the peak of Prussia's fortunes. Had the state continued to be blessed with wise leaders after Bismarck, Prussia's economic power and political status might have made her peacefully the centre of European civilization.

Emperor Frederick III may have been such a man, but he was already terminally ill when he became Emperor for 99 days in 1888. He was married to Victoria, the first daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, but their first son William suffered physical and possibly mental damage during birth.

At the age of 29, William became Emperor William II after a difficult youth and conflicts with his British mother. He turned out to be a man of limited experience, narrow and reactionary views, poor judgement, and occasional bad temper which alienated former friends and allies. Despite or perhaps due to being a close relative of the British and Russian royal families, William became their rival and ultimately their enemy.

After dismissing Bismarck, the forger of alliances, in 1890, William embarked on a program of militarisation and adventurism in foreign policy that eventually led Germany into isolation. A misjudgment of the conflict with Serbia by the Emperor, who left for holidays, and hasty mobilisation plans of several nations led to the disaster of World War I (1914–1918). As the price of their withdrawal from the war, the Bolsheviks conceded large regions of the western Russian Empire, some of which bordered Prussia, to German control in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918). German control of these territories only lasted for a few months, however, because of the defeat of German military forces and the German Revolution.

Free State of Prussia within the Weimar Republic

Due to the German Revolution of 1918, William II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. The state was proclaimed an independent "Free State" (German: Freistaat, or Republic) within the new Weimar Republic and in 1920 received a democratic constitution.

Germany's territorial losses were specified in the Treaty of Versailles: Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium; North Schleswig to Denmark; the Memel Territory to Lithuania; the Hultschin area to Czechoslovakia. Large parts of the areas which Prussia had 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.

Before the Partitions of Poland, and now again due to its lost territory, there was no connection by land between East Prussia and the rest of the country; and the former could now only be reached by ship ("shipping service East Prussia") or by a railway through the Polish corridor. Also, the Saargebiet was predominantly formed from formerly Prussian territories.

The idea of breaking up Prussia into smaller states was considered by the German government, but eventually traditionalist sentiment prevailed and Prussia became the "Prussian Free State" (Freistaat Preußen, sometimes also called Free State of Prussia), by far the largest state of the Weimar Republic - comprising 60% of its territory. Since it included the industrial Ruhr Area and "Red Berlin", it became a stronghold of the left, being governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Catholic Centre for most of the 1920s.

From 1919 to 1932 coalitions of the Social Democrats, Catholic Centre, and German Democrats governed in Prussia; 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 industrial areas, the National Socialist German Workers Party of Adolf Hitler gained more and more influence and much popular support, especially from the lower middle class and lower class labourers. Except for Roman Catholic Prussian Upper Silesia, the NSDAP in 1932 became the largest party in most parts of the Free State of Prussia. However, the democratic parties remained a majority coalition together, while communists and fascists were in the opposition.

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. For instance, he created the "constructive vote of no confidence" which only allows for the sacking of the Prime Minister if a successor is selected at the same time. In this way the government of the Prussian state could remain as long as no new "positive majority" formed which was powerful enough to challenge the government. Most historians regard the Prussian government during this time as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole.

A pillar of democracy in the Weimar Republic, Prussia was not destroyed by the voters but because of the Preußenschlag ("Prussian coup") of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. In this coup d'etat, the Government of the Reich unseated the Prussian government on 20 July 1932, under the pretext that the latter had lost control of public order in Prussia (the Bloody Sunday of Altona, Hamburg). The majority of the state apparatus welcomed Papen when, as "Commissioner of the Reich", he took power in the Free State of Prussia. Thereby the most important democratic government in the Reich was now without power. The Preußenschlag made it easier, only half a year later, for Adolf Hitler to take power decisively in Germany, having now, as he did, the whole apparatus of the Prussian government, including the police, at his disposal.

The end of Prussia

After the appointment of Hitler as the new Chancellor, the Nazis used the opportunity of absence of Franz von Papen to appoint Hermann Göring federal commissioner for the Prussian Minister of the Interior. The Reichstag election of March 5 1933 strengthened the position of the National Socialist Party, although they did not achieve an absolute majority.

Because the Reichstag building had been set on fire a few weeks earlier, the new Reichstag was opened in the Garrison Church of Potsdam on March 21 1933 in the presence of President Paul von Hindenburg. In a propaganda-filled meeting between Hitler and the NSDAP, the "marriage of old Prussia with young Germany" was celebrated, to win over the Prussian monarchists, conservatives, and nationalists and induce them to vote for the Enabling Act.

In the centralized state created by the Nazis in the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich ("Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches", 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 organization of the party into districts (Gau) gained increasing importance, as official in charge of a Gau (the infamous Gauleiter) was again appointed by the Chancellor who was at the same time chief of the NSDAP.

In Prussia this anti-federalistic policy continued even further. From 1934 almost all ministries were merged together and only a few departments were able to maintain their independence. Hitler himself became formally the Governor of Prussia. His functions were exercised, however, by Hermann Göring, as Prussian Prime Minister.

As provided for in the "Greater Hamburg Law" ("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 reannexed during World War II. However, most of this territory was not reintegrated back into Prussia but assigned to separate Gaue of the Großdeutsches Reich.

With the end of National Socialist rule in 1945 came the division of Germany into Zones of Occupation, and the transfer of control of everything east of the Oder-Neisse line, (including Silesia, Farther Pomerania, Eastern Brandenburg, and southern East Prussia), to Poland (with the northern third of East Prussia, including Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, going to the Soviet Union). Today the Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. An estimated ten million Germans fled or were expelled from these territories as part of the German exodus from Eastern Europe.

In Law #46 of 25 February 1947 the Allied Control Council formally proclaimed the dissolution of the remains of the Prussian state. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, which became East Germany 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 abolished in 1952 in favor of districts, but were recreated after the fall of communism in 1990.

In the Western Zones of occupation, which became West Germany in 1949, they 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.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a small number of ethnic Germans from Kazakhstan have begun to settle in the Kaliningrad exclave of the Russian Federation, once northern East Prussia, as part of the migration influx into the area, which was previously a restricted area (closed city). As of 2005, about 6,000 (0.6% of population) ethnic Germans, mostly from other parts of Russia, live there.

After the German reunification in 1990 a plan was developed to merge the States of Berlin and Brandenburg. Though some suggested calling the proposed new state "Prussia," the name that was eventually chosen for the state was "Berlin-Brandenburg". However this proposed merger was rejected in 1996 by popular vote, with the poor fiscal situation of Berlin being a large factor.

See also

• Origins of Prussia
• Prussian people
• Old Prussian language
• Brandenburg-Prussia
• Kingdom of Prussia
• Unification of Germany
• German Empire
• Provinces of Prussia
• List of rulers of Brandenburg and Prussia

External links

• Preussen.de
• East and West Prussia Gazetteer
• 1570 map of Germany and Prussia plus details
• Map of Pomerania and Prussia 1598
• 1660 map of Prussia 1660
• map of Prussian Provinces
• Partial Map of Prussia by Gerard Mercator, Atlas sive cosmographica., Amsterdam 1594
• Partial Map of Prussia by Kasper Henneberger, Koenigsberg 1629
• Map of Old Prussia by K. Henneberger, 17th c.
• Map of Prussia by K. Henneberger in: Christoph Hartknoch, Alt- und neues Preussen..., Frankfurt 1684
• Map of Prussia and Freie Stadt Danzig from 18th c.
• Map of East Prussia K. Flemming, F. Handtke, Głogów ca. 1920, after Treaty of Versailles removed Memel area from Germany.
• Prussian Army
• Prussian language discussion forum
• Kingdom of Prussia: Constitutional charter for the "Prussian State" ("Revised Constitution" of 31th January 1850, in full text)
• Constitutional charter for the "Prussian State" ["Imposed Constitution of 5th December 1848, in full text)
• Picture archive Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

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• Prussia
• Former countries in Europe
• States in Weimar Republic
• States of the Holy Roman Empire
• History of Germany