Prussia ( ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; ; ; ;
Old Prussian: Prūsa)
was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of
Prussia
and the Margraviate of
Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial
influence on German
and European
history. The last capital of the state of Prussia was
Berlin
.
The name
Prussia derives from the
Old Prussians, a
Baltic
people related to the
Lithuanians and
Latvians. In the 13th century, "
Old Prussia" was conquered by the
Teutonic Knights.
In 1308 Teutonic Knights conquered the formerly Polish
region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk
(Danzig). Their monastic
state
was mostly Germanized
through immigration from central and western
Germany and in the south it was Polonized by settlers from Masovia. After the Second Peace of Thorn Prussia
was split into the western Royal
Prussia, a province of Poland, and the eastern part, since 1525
called Duchy of
Prussia, a 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 attained its greatest importance in the 18th and 19th
centuries. During the 18th century, it became a great European
power under the reign of
Frederick the Great (1740–86).
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, in population, and was the core of the unified
North German
Confederation
formed in 1867, which became part of 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
as a free state
in 1919. It effectively lost this status in
1932 following the
Preußenschlag
decree of Reich Chancellor
Franz von
Papen; Prussia as a state was abolished
de facto by the
Nazis in
1934 and
de jure by the
Allies of World War II in 1947.
Since then, the term's relevance has been limited to historical,
geographical, or cultural usages.
Symbols
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.
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 widely associated with the country.
Geography and population
Prussia
began as a territory, in what was later called East Prussia, which
is now divided into the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
of Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast
exclave of Russia, and the
Klaipėda Region of
Lithuania. Originally the area was much larger, but was
greatly reduced by newcomer countries Masovia and Poland
.
Much of
Prussian Sudovia and Yotvingians territory was conquered and came to
Poland, Lithuania
, and Belarus
.
The region, originally populated by
Baltic
Old Prussians who were
Christianised, became a preferred location for immigration by
(later mainly Protestant)
Germans (
see
Ostsiedlung) as well as
Poles and
Lithuanians along
border regions.
Before
its abolition, the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia included "Prussia proper" (West and East
Prussia), Brandenburg,
the Province of
Saxony
(including most of the present-day state of
Saxony-Anhalt
and parts of the state of Thuringia
in Germany), Pomerania
, Rhineland
, Westphalia
, Silesia
(without Austrian
Silesia), Lusatia, Schleswig-Holstein
, Hanover
, Hesse-Nassau, and a small detached
area in the south Hohenzollern
, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling
family.
In 1871,
Prussia's population numbered 24.69 million, accounting for 60% of
the German
Empire's population. In 1910, the population had
increased to a number of 40.17 million (62% of the Empire's
population). 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.
The Principality of Neuenburg, now the
Canton of
Neuchâtel
in Switzerland
, was a part of the Prussian kingdom from 1707 to
1848.
Although Prussia was dominated by
Protestant Germans it contained millions of
Catholics, and millions of minorities, particularly Poles. East
Prussia's southern region of
Masuria was
largely made up of Germanised Protestant
Masur. There were substantial
Roman Catholic populations in the
Rhineland and parts of Westphalia.
Also West Prussia, Warmia, Silesia, and the
Province of
Posen
had predominantly Catholic populations. The
Kingdom of Prussia acquired these areas from countries with a
Catholic majority: the
Kingdom of Poland and the
Austrian Empire.
In 1871, approximately 2.4 million Poles lived in Prussia,
constituting the largest minority. Other minorities were
Jews,
Danes,
Frisians,
Kashubians
(72,500 in 1905),
Masurians (248,000 in
1905),
Lithuanians (101,500 in 1905),
Walloones,
Czechs and
Sorbs.
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 majority percentage of
Polish population. But Catholics, ethnic Poles and other Slavs, and
Jews didn't have equal status with Protestants.
As a
result of the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919 the Second Polish Republic
was granted 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 part of Brandenburg were taken over by
either the Soviet Union or Poland.
Early history
In 1211
Andrew II of Hungary
granted the Burzenland (
fiefdom) to the
Teutonic Knights. In 1225, Andrew II expelled the Teutonic Knights
from Transylvania, and they had to transfer to the Baltic
Sea.
In
1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre
, to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders.
During 60
years of struggles against the Old Prussians, the order created an
independent state which came to control the Old Prussian region.
After the
Livonian Brothers of the
Sword joined the Teutonic Order in 1237 they also controlled
Livonia (now Latvia
and
Estonia
) and western Lithuania.
In the course of the
Ostsiedlung
process, settlers were called in, a majority of which were
Germans. This brought about changes in the ethnic
composition as well as in language, culture and law.
Low German became the dominant language.
The Knights were subordinate only to the
pope
and the
emperor.
Their initially close
relationship with the Polish Crown deteriorated completely after
they conquered Polish controlled Pomerelia
and Danzig
. The Knights were eventually defeated in the
Battle of
Grunwald
in 1410 by Poland and Lithuania, allied through the
Union of Krewo.
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. The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the
sovereignty and pay tribute to King
Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland in the
Second Peace of Thorn ,
losing western Prussia (
Royal Prussia)
to Poland in the process.
In 1525,
Grand Master Albert of
Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, became a
Lutheran Protestant and secularised the
Order's remaining Prussian territories into the Duchy of
Prussia. This was the area east of the mouth of the
Vistula River, later sometimes called
"Prussia proper".
For the first time, these lands were in the
hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, rulers of the
Margraviate of
Brandenburg to the west, a German state centered on Berlin and ruled
since the 15th century by the Hohenzollern dynasty.
Furthermore, with his renunciation of the Order, Albert could now
marry and produce offspring.
Brandenburg and Prussia were unified two generations later. Anna,
granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Duke
Albert Frederick (reigned
1568–1618), married her cousin
Elector John Sigismund of
Brandenburg. Upon the
death of Albert Frederick in 1618, who died without male heirs,
John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of
Prussia, which was 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 Rhenish lands of Cleves
and
Mark.
Rise to power
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, the
historic capital of the Duchy of Prussia, in 1637. His successor,
Frederick
William (1640–1688), reformed the
army to defend the lands.
Frederick
William 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. Later, he managed to
obtain a discharge from his obligations as a vassal to the Polish king by taking advantage of the
difficult position of Poland vis-à-vis Sweden in the Northern Wars and his friendly relations with
Russia
during a
series of Russo-Polish wars. He was finally given full
sovereignty over Prussia in the
Treaty
of Wehlau in 1657.
Frederick William became known as the "Great Elector" for his
introduction of
absolutism into
Brandenburg-Prussia. Above all, he emphasized the importance of a
powerful military to protect the
state's disconnected territories.
Kingdom of Prussia
On 18 January 1701, Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III,
upgraded Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom and crowned himself King
Frederick I.
To avoid offending
Poland, where a
part of the old Prussia lay, Leopold I, emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire where most of the lands of Prussia lay, 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 of
Prussia proper. The Prussian state grew in splendour during the
reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the
treasury.
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. 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: "
Where
some states have an army, the Prussian
Army has a state!"
Also, Frederick William settled more than
20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg
in thinly populated eastern Prussia, which was
eventually extended to the west bank of the Memel river, and other regions. From Sweden he
acquired
Western Pomerania as far as the
Peene in 1720.
In 1740, Frederick William was succeeded by his son,
Frederick II, later nicknamed
"Frederick the Great". As crown prince he focused on philosophy and
the arts; yet, in the first year of his reign he ordered the
Prussian army to march into
Silesia, a
possession of Habsburg Austria to which the Hohenzollerns laid
claim based on an old and disputed treaty of succession. In the
three
Silesian Wars (1740–1763)
Frederick succeeded in conquering Silesia from Austria and holding
his new possession. In the last, the
Seven Years' War, he held it against a
coalition of Austria, France, and Russia.
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." From these wars onwards the
German dualism dominated German politics
until 1866.
Silesia, a region of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns,
greatly increased the area, population, and wealth of Prussia.
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,
ironically, both had extensive territory outside the empire). 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 (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.
Frederick the Great, the first "King
of Prussia",
practised
enlightened
absolutism. He introduced a general civil code, abolished
torture, and established the principle that the crown would not
interfere in matters of justice. He also promoted an advanced
secondary education, the forerunner of today's German
gymnasium (grammar school) system, which
prepares the brightest students for university studies. The
Prussian education system
became emulated in various countries.
Napoleonic Wars
During the reign of King
Frederick William II
(1786–1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through
further
Partitions of Poland.
His successor,
Frederick William III
(1797–1840), announced the union of the Prussian
Lutheran and
Reformed churches into
one
church.
Prussia took a leading part in the
French Revolutionary Wars, but
remained quiet for more than a decade due to 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 half 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 make
an alliance with France and join the
Continental System.
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, and the institution of self-administration
in
municipalities. 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.
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 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.
In
1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation
.
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 signaled 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.
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.
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.
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. Certainly his memoirs paint a
rosy picture of an idealist, but these were written with the
benefit of hindsight. What is clear is that Bismarck curried
support from large sections of the people by promising to lead the
fight for greater German unification. He eventually guided Prussia
through three wars which together brought William the position of
German Emperor.
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 authorized 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.
Austro-Prussian War
Expansion of Prussia 1807–1871
Bismarck realized that the dual administration of Schleswig and
Holstein was only a temporary solution, and tensions escalated
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.
On the
side of Austria stood the southern 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
northern 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
dominance of Germany was now over.
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 cajoled 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 cemented 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 defense treaties were
concluded. (See also "
Das Lied
der Deutschen".) 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
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. 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 "Kleindeutsche
Lösung" or a "Lesser German Solution" to the problem of German
unity, because it excluded Austria, which remained connected to
Hungary
and further non-German population.
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
1871–1918
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 slightly amended
version of the North German Confederation's constitution.
Officially, the German Empire was a federal state. In practice,
Prussia's dominance over the empire was almost absolute. The
Hohenzollern kingdom included three-fifths of its 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 armies. 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. 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 completely 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 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 out of all proportion to the rest of
the continent. With this in mind, he declared Germany a satisfied
power, using his talents to preserve peace, for example at the
Congress of Berlin. Bismarck had
mixed success in his domestic policies, such as the anti-Catholic
Kulturkampf and
Germanization or
expulsion of Poles of
foreign nationality (Russian or Austro-Hungarian).
Frederick III may have
had the potential to be a leader in Bismarck's mold, but he was
already terminally ill when he became emperor for 99 days in 1888
upon the death of his father.
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 age 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 judgment, and occasional bad temper, which alienated
former friends and allies. William, who was a close relative of the
British and
Russian royal families, became their rival and
ultimately their enemy.
After forcing Bismarck out in 1890, William embarked on a program
of militarisation and adventurism in foreign policy that eventually
placed Germany in isolation.
A misjudgment of the conflict with Serbia
by the
emperor, who left for holidays, and the 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 lasted only for a few months, however, because of the
defeat of German military forces by the western
Allies and the
German Revolution. The post-war
Treaty of Versailles, which held
Germany and her allies solely responsible for the war, was signed
in Versailles' Hall of Mirrors, where the German Empire had been
created.
Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic
Because of the
German Revolution
of 1918, William 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.
All of
Germany's territorial losses, specified in the Treaty of Versailles, were areas that
had been part of Prussia: Alsace-Lorraine
to France; Eupen
and
Malmedy
to Belgium
; North
Schleswig to Denmark; the Memel
Territory to Lithuania; the Hultschin area to Czechoslovakia
. Many 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. Also, the
Saargebiet was created mainly from
formerly Prussian territories.
East
Prussia became an exclave, only reachable by ship ("shipping
service East Prussia") or by a railway through the
Polish corridor.
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.
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 industrial areas, the
National
Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party) of
Adolf Hitler gained more and more influence and
popular support, especially from the lower
middle class. Except for
Roman Catholic Prussian
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.
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.
In contrast to its prewar 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 unseated 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). Papen appointed himself Reich commissioner for
Prussia and took control of the government. The
Preußenschlag made it easier, only half a year later, for
Adolf Hitler to take power decisively
in Germany, since he had the whole apparatus of the Prussian
government, including the police, at his disposal.
End of Prussia
After the appointment of Hitler as the new chancellor, the
Nazis used the opportunity of the absence of Franz
von Papen to appoint
Hermann
Göring federal commissioner for the Prussian ministry 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 Nazi Party, 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 of 1933.
In the centralised 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 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.
In Prussia, this anti-federalistic policy went even further. From
1934 almost all ministries were merged 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 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.
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. During the
Soviet Army's
takeover of eastern Germany an estimated ten million Germans fled,
were
expelled from (or
were not able to return) to these territories as part of the
Potsdam Agreement and the
sanctioned
German
exodus from Eastern Europe.
As part of their war aims the Western allies sought the abolition
of Prussia. Stalin was initially content to retain the name, Russia
having a different historical view of its neighbour and sometime
former ally. In Law #46 of 20 May 1947 the
Allied Control Council formally
proclaimed the dissolution of Prussia.
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-Vorpommern
. These states were abolished in 1952 in
favour of districts, but were recreated after the fall of communism
in 1990.
In the
Western Zones of occupation, which became West 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
.
Since the
dissolution of the Soviet
Union, a small number of ethnic
Germans from Kazakhstan
have begun to settle in the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia, 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
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", no final name was proposed, and the combined state would
probably have been called either "Brandenburg" or
"Berlin-Brandenburg". However this proposed merger was rejected in
1996 by popular vote, achieving a majority of votes only in former
West Berlin.
See also
Further reading
Notes
- Clark, Christopher (2006): Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall
of Prussia, 1600-1947. ISBN 10 0713994665 ISBN 13 978
0713994667
- Genealogy & Poland - a guide PolishRoots
- On March 11, cf. Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte der Juden von
den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart: 11 vols., Leipzig:
Leiner, 1900, vol. 11: 'Geschichte der Juden vom Beginn der
Mendelssohnschen Zeit (1750) bis in die neueste Zeit (1848)', pp.
297seq. Reprint of the edition of last hand: Berlin: arani, 1998,
ISBN 3-7605-8673-2.
External links
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
