East Prussia

The Province of East Prussia (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia, within the German Empire, as of 1871.

Map of East Prussia in 1881.

East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen [ˈɔstˌpʁɔʏ̯sən]; Lithuanian: Rytų Prūsija or Rytprūsiai; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия or Vostochnaya Prussiya) refers to the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to 1945.^[1] From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was a province of the German state of Prussia. The capital of East Prussia was Königsberg.

East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights. The indigenous Balts who survived the conquest were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles and Prussian Lithuanians formed minorities. From the 13th century on, East Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, which became the Duchy of Prussia in 1525.^[2] The Old Prussian language became extinct by the 17th century^[3] or early 18th century.

Upon the death of Hohenzollern Albert of Brandenburg Prussia, Duke of Prussia (1525-1568) the prince-elector Kurfürst of Brandenburg Joachim II Hector became co-inheritor of Ducal Prussia. Since 1577 House of Hohenzollern co-regents took over administration from Albert's only son Albert Friedrich. In 1618 the Duchy of Prussia was again inherited and in personal union with the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg and the territory was called Brandenburg-Prussia. The territories of the House of Hohenzollern were scattered in Franconia, Brandenburg, eastern Prussia and elsewhere.

Because the duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire (yet Prussia was under HRE adminitration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters) the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves kings in Prussia beginning in 1701. After the annexation of most of western Royal Prussia in the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, East Prussia was connected with the rest of the Prussian state and reorganized into the Province of East Prussia the following year. Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia.

The Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. The Treaty of Versailles following World War I made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany, while the Memel Territory was added to Lithuania. Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was partitioned between Soviet Union (the Kaliningrad Oblast), the People's Republic of Poland (the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship), and the Lithuanian SSR (the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region).^[4] The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province largely evacuated during the war, during the years 1944–46, but an estimated 300,000 (around one fifth of the population) died due to war circumstances and the remainder were subsequently expelled.

History

From Catholic monastic state to Protestant duchy

The fortress Ordensburg Marienburg, founded in 1274, the world’s largest brick castle and the Teutonic Order's headquarters on the River Nogat.

Upon the invitation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century and created a monastic state to administer the conquered Old Prussians. The Knights' expansionist policies brought them into conflict with the newly-reunited Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania, bolstered by Bohemian mercenaries, defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410. Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War, leaving western Prussia under Polish control as the province of Royal Prussia and eastern Prussia remaining under the Knights, but as a fief of Poland. 1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire.

Ethnic settlement in East Prussia by the 14th century.

Monument of Grand Master Albert, the first Duke of Prussia; Malbork, Poland

The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525. Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage. Walther or Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. In 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick.

The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, son of emperor Maximilian II died in 1618. Albert's line died out in 1618, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia. Through the treaties of Wehlau, Labiau, and Oliva, Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660. The absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia.

Kingdom of Prussia

Although Brandenburg was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian lands were not within the core Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor. In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I in the War of the Spanish Succession, Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "King in Prussia" in 1701. The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as the Kingdom of Prussia. The designation "Kingdom of Prussia" was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia. To differentiate from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia".

Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the plague and famine of 1709–1711,^[5] including the last speakers of Old Prussian.^[6] The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the Great Northern War, killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions. Crown Prince Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns. Thousands of Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia. The province was overrun by Imperial Russian troops during the Seven Years' War.

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia, part of western Royal Prussia, was merged with the former Duchy of Prussia. On January 31, 1773, King Frederick II announced that the newly annexed lands were to be known as the Province of West Prussia, while the former Duchy of Prussia and Warmia became the Province of East Prussia.

From 1824–1878, East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, after which they were reestablished as separate provinces.

German Empire

Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871.

In 1875 the ethnic make-up of East Prussia was 73.48% German-speaking, 18.39% Polish-speaking, and 8.11% Lithuanian-speaking (according to Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego). 2,189 people of 1,958,663 living in East Prussia in 1890 were not German citizens. From 1885 to 1890 Berlin's population grew by 20%, Brandenburg and the Rhineland gained 8.5%, Westphalia 10%, while East Prussia lost 0.07% and West Prussia 0.86%. This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward seeking work in the expanding industrial centres of the Ruhr Area and Berlin (see Ostflucht).

The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious make up of 1,698,465 Protestants, 269,196 Roman Catholics, and 13,877 Jews. The Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia, although High Prussian was spoken in Warmia. The numbers of Masurians and Prussian Lithuanians decreased over time due to the process of Germanization. The Polish-speaking population concentrated in the south of the province (Masuria and Warmia), while Lithuanian-speaking Prussians concentrated in the northeast (Lithuania Minor). The Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I, East Prussia became a theatre of war when the Russian Empire invaded the country. The Russian Army encountered little resistance at first because the bulk of the German Army had been directed towards the Western Front according to the Schlieffen Plan. In the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, however, the Russians were decisively defeated and had to retreat, followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory. The majority of the civilian population fled from the invading Russian Army and some thousand remaining civilians were deported to Russia. Treatment of civilians by the armies was mostly disciplined, although 74 civilians were killed by Russian troops in the Abschwangen massacre. The region had to be rebuilt owing to damage caused by the war.

Weimar Republic

East Prussia from 1923 to 1939 between the wars

With the abdication of Emperor William II in 1918, Germany became a republic. Most of West Prussia and the former Prussian Province of Posen, territories annexed by Prussia in the 18th century Partitions of Poland, were ceded to the Second Polish Republic according to the Treaty of Versailles. East Prussia became an exclave, being separated from mainland Germany. The Seedienst Ostpreußen was established to provide an independent transport to East Prussia.

On 11 July 1920, amidst the backdrop of the Polish-Soviet War, the East Prussian plebiscite in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia was held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join the Second Polish Republic or remain in Weimar Germany Province of East Prussia. 96.7% of the people voted for remaining within Germany (97.89% in the East Prussian plebiscite district).

The Memel Territory, a League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by Lithuania in 1923 without giving the inhabitants a choice on the ballot.

Nazi Germany

In 1938 the Nazis altered about one-third of the toponyms of the area, eliminating, Germanizing, or simplifying a number of linguistically Baltic, Old Prussian names, as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from refugees to Prussia during and after the Protestant Reformation. All persons who did not co-operate with the rulers of Nazi Germany, including activist members of minorities with Polish roots (see Masurians), were sent to concentration camps and kept there until their liberation (unless they died in captivity before liberation).

World War II

Partitions of Eastern Europe before, during, and after World War II

In 1939 East Prussia had 2.49 million inhabitants, 85% of them ethnic Germans, the others being Masurians speaking Masurian (Polish) in the south, or Lietuvininkai speaking Lithuanian (Baltic) in the northeast. Most German East Prussians, Masurians, and Lietuvininkai were Lutheran, while the population of Ermland was mostly Roman Catholic due to the history of the bishopric.

During World War II, the province was extended (see Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany). Despite Nazi propaganda presenting all the regions annexed as possessing significant German populations that wanted reunification with Germany, the Reich's statistics of late 1939 show that only 31,000 out of 994,092 people in the annexed Polish western territories were German.

Many inhabitants of East Prussia were killed in the war, many of whom were young Germans conscripted into the Wehrmacht and killed in action.

Evacuation of East Prussia

Main article: Evacuation of East Prussia

In 1944 the medieval city of Königsberg, which had never been severely damaged by warfare in its 700 years, was almost entirely destroyed by two Allied air raids on the night of 26/27 August 1944 and three nights later on the 29/30 August 1944. Winston Churchill (The Second World War, Book XII) erroneously considered the city "a modernised heavily defended fortress".

Gauleiter Erich Koch protracted the evacuation of the German civilian population until the Eastern Front approached the East Prussian border in 1944. The population of the province had been systematically disinformed by Endsieg Nazi propaganda about the real military state of affairs. As a result many civilians fleeing westward were overtaken by retreating Wehrmacht units and the rapidly advancing Red Army.

Reports of Soviet atrocities in the Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organised rape spread fear and desperation among the civilian populace. Thousands lost their lives during the sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the Goya, and the General von Steuben. The capital Königsberg surrendered on April 9, 1945, following the desperate four-day Battle of Königsberg. The exact number of civilian victims of the fight has never been determined but is estimated to be at least 300 000 with most of them dying under miserable conditions.

However, most of the German inhabitants, which at that point consisted mainly of children, women, and old men, did escape the Red Army as part of the largest exodus of people in human history. "A population which had stood at 2.2 million in 1940 was reduced to 193,000 at the end of May 1945."^[7]

Germany's eastern territories were eroded after each world war, dividing East Prussia among several countries.

Königsberg Castle, 1895

Expulsion of Germans from East Prussia after World War II

Main article: Expulsion of Germans after World War II

Shortly after the end of the war in May 1945, Germans who had fled in early 1945 tried to return to their homes in East Prussia. An estimated number of 800,000 Germans lived in East Prussia in summer 1945 ^[8]. However, many were prevented from doing so, and the remaining German population of East Prussia was almost completely expelled by the Communist regime. During the war and shortly thereafter, many people were also deported as forced labourers to eastern parts of the Soviet Union, including the Gulag camp system.

Northern part to the Soviet Union

Main article: Kaliningrad Oblast

German place names were changed to either Russian or Polish names.

In April 1946, northern East Prussia became an official province of the Russian SFSR as "Kenigsbergskaya Oblast", with the Memel Territory becoming part of the Lithuanian SSR. In June 1946 114,070 German and 41,029 Soviet citizens were registered in the Oblast, with an unknown number of disregarded unregistered persons. In July of that year, the historic city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad to honour Mikhail Kalinin and the area named the Kaliningrad Oblast. Between 24 August and 26 October 1948 21 transports with in total 42,094 Germans left the Oblast to the Soviet Occupation Zone. The last remaining Germans left in November 1949 (1,401 persons) and January 1950 (7 persons)^[9]. After the expulsion of the German population ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians were settled in the northern part.

"House of the Soviets", built on the site of the former Königsberg Castle

In the Soviet part of the region, a policy of eliminating all remnants of German history was pursued. In 1967 this resulted in the demolition of the remains of Königsberg Castle by order of Leonid Brezhnev to make way on the site for the new "House of Soviets".

Southern part to Poland

Polish expatriates from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union as well as Ukrainians from Southern Poland, expelled throughout the Operation Wisla in 1947, were settled in the southern part of East Prussia, now the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. In 1950 the Olsztyn Voivodeship counted 689,000 inhabitants, 22.6% of them coming from areas annexed by the Soviet Union, 10% Ukrainians, and 18.5% of them pre-war inhabitants. Most of the latter immigrated to West Germany from the 1950s to 1970s.^[10]

Polonization and de-Germanisation occurred in Polish Warmia and Masuria after the war. German names were systematically removed, churchyards and gravestones were ploughed under or demolished, and houses were stripped of elements that recalled the German heritage of the area. A policy was made which aimed at reverting the Germanisation of Masurians, many of whom spoke German instead of Polish.

Modern situation

Since the fall of Communism in 1991, some German groups have tried to help settle Volga Germans from eastern parts of Russia in the Kaliningrad Oblast. This initiative was only a small success, however, as most impoverished Volga Germans preferred to emigrate to the richer Federal Republic of Germany, where they could become German citizens through the right of return.

Although the 1945–1949 expulsion of Germans from the northern part of former East Prussia often was conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials seeking revenge for Nazi crimes in the Soviet Union, the present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad Oblast have much less animosity towards Germans. German names have been revived in commercial Russian trade and there is sometimes talk of reverting Kaliningrad's name back to the original name of Königsberg. Because the exclave during Soviet times was a military zone which nobody was allowed to enter without special permission, many old German villages are still intact, though they have become dilapidated over the course of time. The city centre of Kaliningrad, however, was completely rebuilt, as British bombs (1944) and the Soviet siege (1945) had left it in ruins.

Bibliography

Publications in English

• Baedeker, Karl, Northern Germany, 14th revised edition, London, 1904.
• Beevor, Antony (2002). "chapters 1-8". Berlin: The Downfall 1945. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-88695-5. http://www.antonybeevor.com/Berlin/berlinmenu.htm.  (on the years 1944/45)
• Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944-1950, 1994, ISBN 0-312-12159-8
• Dickie, Reverend J.F., with E.Compton, Germany, A & C Black, London, 1912.
• von Treitschke, Heinrich, History of Germany - vol.1: The Wars of Emancipation, (translated by E & C Paul), Allen & Unwin, London, 1915.
• Powell, E. Alexander, Embattled Borders, London, 1928.
• Steed, Henry Wickham, Vital Peace - A Study of Risks, Constable & Co., London, 1936.
• Newman, Bernard, Danger Spots of Europe, London, 1938.
• Wieck, Michael: A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew," University of Wisconsin Press, 2003, ISBN 0-299-18544-3.
• Woodward, E.L., Butler, Rohan; Medlicott, W.N., Dakin, Douglas, & Lambert, M.E., et al (editors), Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, Three Series, Her Majesty's Stationary Office (HMSO), London, numerous volumes published over 25 years. Cover the Versailles Treaty including all secret meetings; plebiscites and all other problems in Europe; includes all diplomatic correspondence from all states.
• Previté-Orton, C.W., Professor, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, Cambridge University Press, 1952 (2 volumes).
• Balfour, Michael, and John Mair, Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946, Oxford University Press, 1956.
• Kopelev, Lev, To Be Preserved Forever, ("Хранить вечно"), 1976.
• Koch, H.W., Professor, A History of Prussia, Longman, London, 1978/1984, (P/B), ISBN 0-582-48190-2
• Koch, H.W., Professor, A Constitutional History of Germany in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Longman, London, 1984, (P/B), ISBN 0-582-49182-7
• MacDonogh, Giles, Prussia, Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1994, ISBN 1-85619-267-9
• Nitsch, Gunter, Weeds Like Us, AuthorHouse, 2006, ISBN 9781425967550

Publications in German

• B. Schumacher: Geschichte Ost- und Westpreussens, Würzburg 1959
• Boockmann, Hartmut: Ostpreußen und Westpreußen (= Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas). Siedler, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-88680-212-4
• Buxa, Werner and Hans-Ulrich Stamm: Bilder aus Ostpreußen
• Dönhoff, Marion Gräfin v. :Namen die keiner mehr nennt - Ostpreußen, Menschen und Geschichte
• Dönhoff, Marion Gräfin v.: Kindheit in Ostpreussen
• Falk, Lucy: Ich Blieb in Königsberg. Tagebuchblätter aus dunklen Nachkriegsjahren
• Suchenwirth, Dr.Richard, Deutsche Geschichte, Dollheimer, Leipzig, 1934.
• Kibelka, Ruth: Ostpreußens Schicksaljahre, 1945-1948
• Bernd, Martin (1998). "Masuren, Mythos und Geschichte". Karlsruhe: Evangelische Akademie Baden. ISBN 8385135936. 
• Wieck, Michael: Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs: Ein "Geltungsjude" berichtet, Heidelberger Verlaganstalt, 1990, 1993, ISBN 3-89426-059-9.

Publications in other languages

• Pierre Benoit, Axelle
• Georges Blond, L'agonie de l'Allemagne
• Michel Tournier, Le roi des aulnes

• K. Piwarski (1946). "Dzieje Prus Wschodnich w czasach nowożytnych". Gdańsk. 
• Gerard Labuda, ed. (1969–2003). "Historia Pomorza", vol. I–IV. Poznań. 
• collective work (1958–61). "Szkice z dziejów Pomorza", vol. 1–3. Warszawa. 

See also

• Lithuania Minor
• List of cities and towns in East Prussia
• Drang nach Osten
• East Colonisation
• Kaliningrad Oblast
• Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen
• Masuria
• Teutonic Knights
• Warmia

Notes and references

External links

• Brandenburg Prince-Electors co-inheritors 1568, co-regent 1577
• East Prussia FAQ
• East and West Prussia Gazetteer
• Provinz Ostpreußen (German)
• Ostpreußen.net (German)
• Ostpreußen Info - East Prussia Information (German)
• East- and West Prussia in Photos
• Spuren der Vergangenheit / Следы Пρошлого (Traces of the past) This site by W.A. Milowskij, a Kaliningrad resident, contains hundreds of interesting photos, often with text explanations, of architectural and infrastructural artifacts of the territory's long German past. (German) (Russian)
• German Empire: Province of East Prussia (German)
• Britannica 2007 article