Prussia - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

History

Origin

Prussia is in the beginning a territory with the borders of current the Poland and Russia. Its colonization is due to the Chevaliers Teutoniques which disputed it with the Poles. The deformation of the name of the indigenous Baltic people, the Borusse S, gave its name to Prussia. Finally, in 1410, the Polono-Lithuanians ordered by Ladislas II Jagellon, crushed the Chevaliers Teutoniques with the battles of Tannenberg (or of Grunwald).

Charts of the territorial development of Prussia (1415-1803)

In parallel, in 1415, the Voter of Brandebourg, the family of the Luxembourg, dies and, as it is involved in debt with respect to a representative of the family of the Hohenzollern, small burgraves of the south of Germany, it gives to Frederic de Hohenzollern the electorate and the walk of Brandebourg. Frederic VI is thus named governor of the walk of Brandebourg and is invested voter of Brandebourg by the Concile of Constancy. In 1525, the large Master of the Teutonique Order, Albert de Brandebourg - Ansbach, of the souabe family of Hohenzollern, adopts the Luthéranisme and transforms Prussia, possession of the Order, in hereditary and vassal duchy of the kingdom of Poland (Traité of Cracow of April 8th, 1525). This State was to remain in Hohenzollern during four centuries, until 1918. In 1539, Joachim II converts with Protestantism.

From 1576 to 1611, more than 9000 people die of the plague.

In 1614, Brandebourg acquires the Duché of Clèves, the Comté of Mark and the Comté of Ravensberg then, in 1618, two determining events for the history of Hohenzollern take place, on the one hand, the last duke of Prussia dies without heir, and this duchy returns to Jean Sigismond de Hohenzollern, and on the other hand the Guerre Thirty Year old starts in Germany until 1648. One year later, Jean Sigismond dies and Georges-Guillaume inherits the electorate. Under its reign, Brandebourg is decimated by the war, it serves as principal battle field. But also a beginning of revolt appears among the provincial Parliaments.

In 1640, his/her son, Frederic-Guillaume become voter. He will be called, rare privilege, the Great Elector . Of Protestant education, he studied in the United Provinces, he is anxious to consolidate his State after his rebuilding and especially to attenuate particularisms between the lords of his State. He seems a posteriori the founder of modern Prussia.

In 1648, the Guerre Thirty Year old ends, but Brandebourg is devastated: Berlin lost 9.000 inhabitants out of the 13.000 of before the war, the total population decreased by half, in certain areas of two thirds, and in compensation, at the time of the Traités of Westphalia (1648), Frederic-Guillaume obtains the archbishop's palace of Magdeburg, that of Halle, évêchés of Minden and Kamien, but also the Eastern Poméranie, it conquers also the Swedish Poméranie Eastern but must restore it. Lastly, thanks to its alliance with the king of Poland Jean Casimir, it obtains this one, in 1657, the stamping from Polish suzerainty on Prussia by the Traité of Welhau.

In the field of the interior policy, the Great Elector unifies all his territories by subjecting them to the permanent tax and by founding a standing army of 30.000 men, third of Europe by his quality. Skilfully, by the Edict of Potsdam in 1686, Frederic-Guillaume concedes grounds and financial advantages with the immigrants, including 20.000 French Protestants (X) who leave the France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685. The Large-Voter accommodates this new blood which its State needs well, and Berlin must much with these men. At the end of the XVIIIe century, one the third of the inhabitants of Berlin east of French origin.

The kingdom in Prussia

Charts of the territorial development of Prussia (1415-1803)

In 1688, Frederic III becomes prince-voter of Brandebourg. It has a principal idea: to be made crown king de Prusse. Initially reticent, the emperor Léopold I {{er}} is constrained to accept, in order to profit from the military aid of Brandebourg which it cruelly needs for the War of succession for Spain; by the “Treated Crown”, the Emperor grants finally the right coveted so a long time: January 18th, 1701, Frederic III, voter of the Germanic Holy roman Empire Romain, becomes Frederic Ier, king in Prussia (Prussia does not form part of the Empire, but Hohenzollern well quickly sweep this nuance to be made call kings in Prussia), it crowns itself in the vault of the castle of Königsberg. From now on, all the possessions of Hohenzollern are joined together in the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1698, Frederic had requested from Andreas Schlüter the transformation of the castle of Berlin, in preparation for his rise with imperial dignity, then, in 1700, on the initiative of Leibniz, Berlin accommodates the third Academy of Science in Europe. It also makes build for his wife Sophie Charlotte the sumptuous Château of Charlottenburg to Berlin. But all this policy of pageantry, due partly to the appetites of prestige of the new king, is expensive: the court spends half of the annual incomes. Lastly, in 1711, Antoine Pesne, of French origin, becomes painter of the Court.

In 1713, Frederic-Guillaume I {{er}} becomes king in Prussia. It remained like the Soldatenkönig , the King-Sergeant. It is a king who likes the warlike drinking bouts, smoke dens and songs. He surrounds himself by a guard of giants, famous in all Europe, for which he makes recruit liking or of force of the giants everywhere on the continent. But Frederic-Guillaume is characterized by an acute sense of the duty towards the State. He consolidates the kingdom, reinflates the cases by an economy austere, and made Prussian army one of strongest of the continent with 76.000 men (at that time, the France counts of it hardly the double and it is populated much than Prussia). In spite of his implication in the War of North, and the Western acquisition of Stettin and Poméranie, Frederic-Guillaume especially occupies himself to improve his army, in particular by organizing recruitments and a new cutting in cantons: from now on (1711), each regiment is seen allotted a canton in which it can carry out its recruitments. By doing this, it bequeaths to his son a powerful machine of war of which itself was not useful.

Prussia of Frederic the Large one

Frederic becomes king in 1740 under the name of Frederic II, the Large Frederic. It is a twenty-eight year old young man, education and French culture, admiring Voltaire. His/her father often treated it of young girl and it seems badly prepared for the throne of his father, but it appeared a frightening strategist and a true enlightened despot.

Thanks to the army of his father, it can attack the Austria Marie-Therese: in 1742, it conquers the Silesia, very rich area which increases considerably the territory of Prussia and its population, as well as the county of Glatz. It is the release of the War of succession of Austria, or First War of Silesia which finds its origin in the Pragmatic Sanction. Charles VI of Austria had become emperor of the Holy roman Empire after the death of his/her brother, not having a male heir, he succeeds in 1713 making accept by the European chancelleries the Sanction which made it possible his/her Marie-Therese daughter to inherit her possessions in Central Europe. With her death in 1740, Marie-Therese thus became archduchess of Austria, but the European countries did not hear it this ear, Frederic the first. After a eight year old war, the acquisition of the duchy of Silesia is confirmed in Frederic II.

But, anxious to reconquer Silesia, Marie-Therese is combined with the Tsarina Elisabeth, on her side George II, king de Grande-Bretagne and voter of Hanover is combined with Prussia. Feeling surrounding to threaten it, Frederic takes the initiative and invades the Bohemia and the Saxony in 1756. The War Seven Year old, or Second War of Silesia, starts. The war opposes Austria, France, the Sweden, the Russia, the Spain and the Saxony on the one hand and Prussia as well as the Great Britain on the other hand. Very quickly, the situation becomes dramatic, practically only against all, Brandebourg is invaded, Berlin besieged. But, the Christmas Day 1761, the tsarina Elisabeth dies, and its nephew, Pierre III, is crowned Tsar in January 1762. Admiror of Prussia and initially of Frederic, Pierre concludes peace with Hohenzollern and, a little later the war finishes; Prussia is saved and the treaty of Hubertsburg in 1763 definitively officializes the possession of Silesia in Prussia.

However, the kingdom remains, considering its extent of Aachen with Königsberg, divided into three parts: in the East, Prussia, in the center Brandebourg and the West Western possessions, included in the Kleinstaaterei, untranslatable term describing the mosaic of principalities of Germany at that time, and one of the factors preventing the realization of the unit.

During his reign of lit despot, Frederic, also called the Fritz old man, entrusts to Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff construction with Potsdam, in the south-west of Berlin, of the Palais of Sanssouci where it makes come Voltaire and other philosophers constituting a disparate and picturesque court. In 1744, it names the mathematician inhabitant of Saint Malo Maupertuis with the head of the Academy of Science of Berlin, which account also Leonhard Euler. Voltaire formed part of it and, with his death, after Louis XVI refuses with the French Academy the right to celebrate a mass for the rest of his heart, it solemnly made some celebrate one with the Catholic church of Berlin, to which all the catholic members of its Academy assisted.

The same year, Frederic obtains the county of Eastern Frise, but especially, in 1772, by mutual agreement Russia, Austria and Prussia share part of the Poland: Frederic obtains Polish Prussia, except Thorn and Danzig. From now on, Prussia is joined together in Brandebourg. At the end of the reign of Frederic, the territory of Prussia almost doubled, and the royal treasure was multiplied by eight.

The advent of a power

In 1786, Frederic-Guillaume II, nephew of the Fritz old man, is crowned king de Prusse. It is a poor king who leaves the reality of the capacity to his ministers (in particular Wöllner), but under its reign, Poland is divided a second and third once. Prussia obtains there the Posnanie and the area of Warsaw. Under its reign, Langhans builds the door of Brandebourg to Berlin (1791), Kant publishes Critique reason practices (1788).

In 1797, Frederic-Guillaume III becomes king de Prusse. He is confronted with the last Wars of Revolution then to the Napoleonean Guerres. Combined initially to France, it is gone back soon against it. In 1806, Prussia declares the war in France: the Prussian army, in spite of its reputation, is quickly demolished, in particular with Iéna and Auerstaedt. Napoleon enters to Berlin; the king folds up himself with Königsberg. In 1807, Prussia must sign the Traité of Tilsit: the Prussian army is reduced to 47.000 men and Prussia is forced to proceed to interior reforms (abolition of serfdom in 1807; autonomy granted to the cities in 1808).

In front of the French occupation, a deep national feeling wakes up then in all Germany and the Prussians, under the ministries for the baron vom Stein and the count von Hardenberg, preserve and involve in secrecy a powerful army. But more than king Frederic-Guillaume, it is especially his wife Louise who incarnates resistance vis-a-vis Napoleon and to the French.

After the defection of the general Yorck at the time of the Countryside of Russia (1812), and its political exploitation by von Hardenberg, the Prussian army melts on the remainders of the Large army and, by the battles decisive of Leipzig, obliges it to fold up itself in the Rhineland (1813). The Prussian army, carried out by the general Blücher, plays a leading role in the Campagne of France (1814). It still supports in a decisive way the army of Wellington during the Hundred Days.

Finally the winners of 1815 reorganize Europe with the Congrès of Vienna. But the interests of Prussia are insufficiently defended by a von hesitant Hardenberg vis-a-vis Metternich, and Frederic-Guillaume must yield the territories acquired at the time of the third division of Poland (1795) and part of the territories acquired at the time of the second division (1793). On the other hand, Prussia obtains practically all the the Rhineland and all the Westphalia like all the northern part of the former electorate of Saxony.

Thus, the enormous coal basins of the the Ruhr and the the Saar allow him a considerable economic advancement and especially to set up the Zollverein, a structure of appearance economic, but which actually will gradually relegate to the second plan the authority of the Habsbourg in Germany in a few decades. The German unit, suggested amongst other things by the baron vom Stein, could have been made besides at the time of the Congrès of Vienna but, because of the reserves of the kings and the princes, it was delayed one half-century.

In 1840, Frederic-Guillaume IV is crowned King de Prusse. The major event of its reign is the Révolte of 1848 in Berlin. The Parliaments are dissolved and the new assemblies propose to the King the imperial crown of Germany. This last refuses because the assembly is not legitimate and the Revolution is repressed. At the end of his reign, the king is declared inapt to reign because of deterioration of his mental faculties; it is his/her Guillaume brother who ensures regency until the death of the king.

Prussia in the German Empire

In 1861, Guillaume de Hohenzollern is crowned king under the name of Guillaume Ier. One year later it chooses the count Bismarck, pure a Junker, as chancellor. By his quarrelsome and pragmatic policy, this minister carries out in the one decade space the German Unité by militarily évinçant the Habsbourg of Germany of North. The War of the Duchies, a common war with the Austria against the Denmark, gives in 1864 jointly to Prussia and Austria the management of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Then, fascinating pretext of the bad Austrian management in Hesse, Bismarck declares the war in Austria in 1866. Those which provided that the Guerre austro-Prussian would be long and would show the victory of Austria see their completely upset forecasts: in less than three weeks, by the battles of Langensalza, Sadowa and Königgrätz, the Prussian army, profiting from a modern armament (guns Krupp), makes only one mouthful of the Austrian, heteroclite, badly trained and badly ordered army. Prussia annexes thus, in addition to the duchies of Schleswig and of Holstein, the Hanover, Frankfurt, the Hesse and the Duché of Nassau. From now on Prussia is a territory of only one holding of the the Rhine with the Niemen. It does not remain any more in Bismarck but to make recognize the German Unité thanks to the Franco-German Guerre of 1870. Skilfully misled by the “Dispatch of Ems”, the France declares the war in Prussia, taking the responsability for the hostilities. There too the Prussian, but also Bavarian army and wurtembergeoise, under the command of Von Moltke, crush the French Army in two weeks. The Prussians besiege Paris and by the Traité of Frankfurt (1871) annex the Alsace-Lorraine. They oblige France to pay an allowance of five billion gold franc.

January 18th, 1871, 170 years after Frederic Ier was crowned king de Prusse, Guillaume Ier receives the crown of the German Empire of the hands of the German princes, brought together in the Galerie of the Ices of the Château of Versailles. Bismarck achieved its goal: the German Unit is completed. But the Empire is a federation of 25 States joined together under the aegis of Prussia, and certain States preserve a very strong particularism, like the Bavaria. This Bavaria of Louis II, which was made grant by Bismarck of the important rights for price of its adhesion to the Unit.

In 1888, Frederic III is crowned king de Prusse and emperor of Germany, but he dies of a cancer three months later, and his/her Guillaume son succeeds to him under the name of Guillaume II.

In 1890 it returns Bismarck and names chancellors who are devoted to him, such Bethmann-Hollweg.

Last years of Prussia

The First World War, partly related to the desperate search for new outlets for the German Empire, in an worldwide economy dominated by large the unit colonial, opens on a series of success, as well the face is as in Belgium. But after the failure of the Battle of the Marne and the difficulties of the Austrian allies (in Serbia) and Othomans (in Greece), the economy of the country rocks quickly in the recession. The lack of raw materials brings the industrialists and the researchers to develop the recycling of materials and to develop various substitute (like the Buna), but the famine touches the urban population as from 1917 seriously.

The loss of the Dardanelles, the collapse of the western face to the autumn 1918 and the revolutionary explosion in the great urban centres sweep the German Empire and the Hohenzollern; Guillaume abdicates in November 1918; in a context of political crisis and economic, the Germany is constituted in a République (the Weimar Republic) whose Prussia is nothing any more but one simple Land: the free State of Prussia ( Freistaat Preußen ). In spite of the territorial amputations that it underwent (return of the cantons of Eupen and Malmedy to the Kingdom of Belgium, of the Schleswig to Denmark, loss of Dantzig and the Posnanie allotted to the Republic of Poland) it remains largest of the seventeen länder German of the time. Its Landtag remains a long time socialist, which delays the arrival of the Nazis to the capacity, but to the elections of 1932 Prussia falls directly under the cut from the Nazis. With the arrival of Hitler to the capacity, it loses its last autonomous institutions and is integrated in the Third Reich.

At the end of the Second world war, the occupying powers decided disappearance symbolic system of what they regarded as the cradle of German militarism: February 25th, 1947 their representatives proclaimed the dissolution of the Prussian State.

Administration of Prussia in 1914

La Prussia in 1905

Prussia was divided into 12 (14) provinces:

Eastern, capital Prussia Königsberg
Western, capital Prussia Dantzig
Town of Berlin
Brandebourg, capital Potsdam
Poméranie, capital Stettin
Posnanie, capital Posen
Silesia, capital: Breslau
Prussian Saxony, capital: Magdeburg
the Schleswig-Holstein, capital: Kiel - conquered in 1864
Hanover, capital: Hanover - conquered in 1866
Westphalia, capital Münster
Hesse-Nassau, capital: Kassel - conquered in 1866
the Prussian Rhineland, capital: Coblentz
Hohenzollern, capital: Sigmaringen but which belongs to the Rhineland

The 12 provinces include/understand Regencies or Presidencies ( Bezirke ) and those of the Circles ( Kreise ). Each province has a Parliament elected by that of the circles.

See too

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