Prussia

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For other uses, see Prussia (disambiguation).

Prussia (German: Preußen (help·info); Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Latvian: Prūsija; Lithuanian: Prūsija; Polish: Prusy; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, a historic state originating in Brandenburg, 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 and Latvians; 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 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 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, tolerance, thriftiness, punctuality, modesty, and diligence. Many Prussians believed that these virtues were part of the reasons for the rise of their country.

Contents 1 Symbols 2 Geography and population 3 Early history 4 Kingdom of Prussia 5 Napoleonic Wars 6 Wars of unification 6.1 The Schleswig Wars 6.2 Austro-Prussian War 6.3 Franco-Prussian War 7 German Empire 8 Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic 9 The end of Prussia 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Symbols

Main article: Coat of arms of Prussia

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.

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

The main arms of Prussia depicted a black eagle on a white background.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 an 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 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 Thorn in 1466, losing western Prussia (Royal Prussia) to Poland in the process. In 1525 Grand Master Albert I Hohenzollern of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a minor branch of the Hohenzollern family, became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories into the Duchy of Prussia. For the first time, these lands, the area east of the mouth of the Vistula river (later sometimes called "Pussia proper") were in the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, rulers of Brandenberg to the West. Furthermore, with the dissolution of the Order, Albert could now marry and produce offspring.

The unification of Brandenberg and Prussia came two generations later. Anna, granddaughter of Albert I Hohenzollern and daughter of Duke Albert Frederick (reigned 1568-1618), married her cousin 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 the Duchy of Prussia. From this time the Duchy of Prussia came under the reign of the Electors of Brandenburg. The resulting state became known as Brandenburg-Prussia, a hodge-podge of domains centered around Berlin in the West and Königsberg in the East, with Pomerania and other foreign territories in between. The acquisition of the duchy was advantageous for the Hohenzollerns, as it lay outside the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. As a result, it was not subject to its constitutional provisions that prevented sovereigns within its borders from taking the title of King. It would be three generations, however, before the Hohenzollerns realized their ambition of achieving this title. During this period, the Hohenzollerns also added the territories of Cleves and Mark in the Rhineland to their domain.

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), 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 was still 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.

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

[edit] Kingdom of Prussia

Main article: Kingdom of Prussia

In 1701 Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III, proclaimed himself King Frederick I of Prussia, and all links of the Duchy of Prussia to the Kingdom of Poland were removed. Because he did not wish to offend Leopold I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire where most of his possessions lay, Frederick was only allowed to title himself "King in Prussia", not "King of Prussia".

The state of Brandenberg-Prussia became commonly referred to as "Prussia", although half its territory, around Berlin and in the Rhineland, was not in the territories of Prussia proper. The Prussian state 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: "Where some states possess an army, the Prussian Army possesses a state!"

In addition, 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.

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, a Habsburg possession 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 operating within the Holy Roman Empire (altough, ironically, both had their heartlands outside the 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), an act which finally 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", 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 secondary education, the forerunner of today's German Gymnasium (Grammar School) system, which prepares the brightest students for university studies.

[edit] Napoleonic Wars

Main article: 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. In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation.

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.

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 according to the amount of taxes paid. 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 elements 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.

[edit] 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 he himself 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.

[edit] 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, although only Holstein belonged to the German Confederation. 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 assurances that the Danes would not try to integrate Schleswig again. Because of Russian support for Austria, Prussia was also embarrassed by conceding predominance in the German Confederation to Austria in the Punctation of Olmütz in 1850.

In 1863 Denmark introduced a joint Danish/Schleswig constitution, leading to conflict with the German Confederation which authorized a Confederate occupation of Holstein, 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 crushed the Danes, who surrendered both territories. In the resulting Gastein Convention of 1865 Prussia took over the administration of Schleswig while Austria administered Holstein.

[edit] Austro-Prussian War

Main article: 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, was Italy. When Prussian troops, equipped with superior arms, achieved the crucial victory at Königgrätz under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Austria was defeated, ending its decades-long struggle with Prussia for dominance of Germany.

Bismarck desired to have Austria as an ally in the future, and therefore declined to annex any territory from the Austrian Empire. However, in the Peace of Prague in 1866, Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, the Duchy of Nassau, the free city of Frankfurt, and all of Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia now stretched virtually uninterrupted across the northern two-thirds of Germany and contained two-thirds of Germany's population. The German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia cajoled 21 of the states north of the Main River into forming the North German Confederation.

Prussia was the dominant state in the new confederation, as the kingdom took up almost four-fifths of the new grouping'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 hereditary with the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia. There was also a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Reichstag (Diet), was elected by universal manhood suffrage. The upper house, or Bundesrat (Federal Council) was appointed by the state governments. The Bundesrat was, in practice, the stronger of the two chambers. Prussia had 17 out 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 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 Luxembourg.

[edit] Franco-Prussian War

Main article: 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.

[edit] German Empire

Main article: German Empire

The two decades following 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 North German Confederation became, with a few amendments, the constitution of the German Empire. The empire, however, was federal in name only, as Prussia's dominance was almost absolute. It took up three-fifths of the empire's territory, as well as two-thirds of its population. The Imperial Germany army was, in practice, an enlarged Prussian army, although the other kingdoms (Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg) retained their own armies. The imperial crown was hereditary in 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 the age of 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 Reich was a colossus out of all proportion to the rest of Europe, and declared Germany a satisfied power, using his talents to preserve peace, such as at the Congress of Berlin.

Frederick III may have been 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 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 because of being a close relative of the British and Russian royal families, William became their rival and ultimately their enemy.

After forcing out Bismarck 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. The post-war Treaty of Versailles, which held Germany solely responsible for the war, was signed in Versailles' Hall of Mirrors, where the German Empire had been created.

[edit] Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic

Main article: Free State of Prussia

Because of the German Revolution of 1918, William II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. Prussia was proclaimed a "Free State" (German: Freistaat) 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 because of 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 created from formerly Prussian territories.

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 old Prussian franchise, it became a stronghold of the left. The presence of "Red Berlin" and the industrialized Ruhr Area 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 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, 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, was carried over into the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Most historians regard the Prussian government during this time as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole.

In marked 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'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). 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.

[edit] 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 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, 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 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 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", no final name was proposed, with it likely that the combined state would be 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.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] 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