The 'Kingdom of Prussia' () was a
German kingdom from 1701 to 1918 and, from 1871, was the leading state of the
German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire. It took its name from the territory of
Prussia, although its power base was
Brandenburg.
History
1701: The growth of Brandenburg
Frederick William, the "Great Elector" of
Brandenburg-Prussia, died in 1688. His possessions passed to his son Frederick III (1688-1701) who became King
Frederick I of Prussia (1701-1713). With the exception of the
Duchy of Prussia, all of Brandenburg's lands were a part of the
Holy Roman Empire, by this time under the all but hereditary nominal rule of the House of
Habsburg. Since there was only one
King of the Germans within the Empire, Frederick gained the assent of Emperor
Leopold I (in return for alliance against France in the
War of the Spanish Succession) to his adoption (January 1701) of the title of "
King in Prussia" based on his non-Imperial territories. The title came into general acceptance with the
Treaty of Utrecht (1713).
1701-1740: The young Kingdom
The new Kingdom of Prussia was very poor – still having not fully recovered from the devastation of the
Thirty Years’ War – and its territory was scattered across over 1200 km: from the lands of the Duchy of Prussia on the south-east coast of the
Baltic Sea, to the
Hohenzollern heartland of
Brandenburg, to the exclaves of
Cleves,
Mark and
Ravensberg in the
Rhineland. In 1708, approximately one third of the population of the Duchy of Prussia fell victim of the
bubonic plague. The plague reached
Prenzlau in August 1710, but eventually receded before it could reach the capital
Berlin, which was only 80 km away.
Sweden's defeat by
Russia,
Saxony,
Poland,
Denmark-
Norway,
Hanover, and Prussia in the
Great Northern War (1700-1721) marked the end of significant Swedish power on the southern shores of the
Baltic Sea. In the Prusso-Swedish
Treaty of Stockholm (January 1720), Prussia regained
Stettin (Szczecin) and other parts of Sweden's holding in
Pomerania. The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg had held the reversion to the Duchy of Pomerania since 1472. (Further Pomerania had already been annexed to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648 at the
Peace of Westphalia).
During this time, the trends set in motion by the Great Elector reached their culmination, as the
Junkers, the landed aristocracy, were welded to the
Prussian Army.
1740-1760: The Silesian Wars
In 1740, King
Frederick II (Frederick the Great) came to the throne. Using the pretext of a 1537 treaty (vetoed by Emperor
Ferdinand I) by which parts of
Silesia were to pass to
Brandenburg after the extinction of its ruling
Piast dynasty, Frederick invaded Silesia, thereby beginning the
War of the Austrian Succession. After rapidly occupying Silesia, Frederick offered to protect Archduchess
Maria Theresa of Austria if the province were turned over to him. The offer was rejected, but Austria faced several other opponents, and Frederick was eventually able to gain formal cession with the
Treaty of Berlin in 1742.
To the surprise of many, Austria managed to renew the war successfully. In 1744 Frederick invaded again to forestall reprisals and to claim, this time, the province of
Bohemia. He failed, but
French pressure on Austria's ally
Great Britain led to a series of treaties and compromises, culminating in the 1748
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that restored peace and left Prussia in possession of most of Silesia.
Humiliated by the cession of Silesia, Austria worked to secure an alliance with France and Russia (the "
Diplomatic Revolution"), while Prussia drifted into Great Britain's camp. When Frederick preemptively invaded Saxony and Bohemia over the course of a few months in 1756-1757, he initiated the
Seven Years' War.
This war was a desperate struggle for the
Prussian Army, and the fact that it managed to fight much of Europe to a draw bears witness to Frederick's military skills. Facing Austria, Russia, France, and Sweden simultaneously, and with only Hanover (and the non-continental British) as notable allies, Frederick managed to prevent serious invasion until October 1760, when the Russian army briefly occupied
Berlin and
Königsberg. The situation became progressively grimmer, however, until the death of Empress
Elizabeth of Russia (
the miracle of the House of Brandenburg). The accession of the Prussophile
Peter III relieved the pressure on the eastern front. Sweden also exited the war at about the same time.
Defeating the Austrian army at the
Battle of Burkersdorf and relying on continuing British success against France in the war's colonial theatres, Prussia was finally able to force a ''
status quo ante bellum'' on the continent. This result confirmed Prussia's major role within the German states and established the country as a European
great power. Frederick, appalled by the near-defeat of Prussia, lived out his days as a much more peaceable ruler.
1772, 1793, 1795: Partitions of Poland
To the east and south of Prussia, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had gradually weakened during the 18th century. Alarmed by increasing Russian influences in Polish affairs and by a possible expansion of the
Russian Empire, Frederick took part in the first of the
Partitions of Poland between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772 to maintain a
balance of power. The Kingdom of Prussia annexed most of the Polish province of
Royal Prussia, including
Warmia; the annexed land was organized the following year into the Province of
West Prussia. The new territory connected
East Prussia (the territory previously known as the
Duchy of Prussia) with
Pomerania, uniting the kingdom's eastern territories.
After Frederick died in 1786, his nephew
Fredrick William II continued the partitions, gaining a large part of western Poland in 1793.
In 1795, the Kingdom of Poland ceased to exist and a large area (including
Warsaw) to the south of East Prussia became part of Prussia. These new territories were organized into the Provinces of
New Silesia,
South Prussia, and
New East Prussia.
1806-1815: Napoleonic Wars
In 1806 the
Holy Roman Empire was abolished as a result of
Napoleon's victories over Austria. The title of ''Kurfürst'' (
Prince-elector) of Brandenburg became meaningless, and was dropped. Before this time, the Hohenzollern sovereign had held many titles and hats, from Head of the Evangelical Church to King, Elector, Grand Duke, Duke for the various regions and realms under his rule. After 1806, he simply was King of Prussia.
As a result of Prussia's defeat in the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, King
Frederick William III was forced to temporarily flee to
Memel. After the
Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, Prussia lost about half of its territory, including the land gained from the Second and Third
Partitions of Poland (which now fell to the
Duchy of Warsaw) and all land west of the
Elbe River. The remainder of the kingdom was occupied by French troops (at Prussia’s expense) and the king was obliged to make an alliance with France and join the
Continental System.
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.
1815: Prussia after Napoleon
Expansion of Prussia 1807-1871
Prussia’s reward for its part in Napoleon's defeat came at the
Congress of Vienna, where Prussia was granted most of its lost territories and considerably more, including 40% of the
Kingdom of Saxony and much of the
Rhineland. Much of the territory annexed in the Third Partition of Poland was granted to
Congress Poland under Russian rule.
With these Prussian gains in territory, the kingdom was reorganised into ten provinces. Most of the kingdom, aside from the Provinces of
East Prussia,
West Prussia, and
Posen, became part of the new
German Confederation, which replaced the defunct
Holy Roman Empire.
As a consequence of the
Revolutions of 1848, the Principalities of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and
Hohenzollern-Hechingen (ruled by a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern) were annexed by Prussia in 1850.
1848–1871: The German wars of unification
For the following half-century after the Congress of Vienna, there was a conflict of ideals within the
German Confederation between the formation of a single German nation and the conservation of the current collection of smaller German states and kingdoms. The creation of the German Customs Union (
Zollverein) in 1834, which excluded the
Austrian Empire, increased Prussian influence over the member states. As a consequence of the
Revolutions of 1848, King
Frederick William IV was offered the crown of a united Germany by the
Frankfurt Parliament. Frederick William refused the offer on the grounds that revolutionary assemblies could not grant royal titles. But there were two other reasons why he refused: to do so would have done little to end the internal power struggle between Austria and Prussia, and all Prussian kings (up to and including
William I) feared that the formation of a
German Empire would mean the end of Prussia’s independence within the German states.
In 1848, actions taken by
Denmark towards the Duchies of
Schleswig and
Holstein led to the
First War of Schleswig (1848–51) between Denmark and the
German Confederation. Denmark was defeated, but Prussia was embarrassingly forced to allow Denmark to keep both duchies.
In 1862,
Otto von Bismarck was appointed by King
William I as
Prime Minister of Prussia. He was determined to unite the German states under Prussian domination, and guided Prussia through three wars which ultimately achieved this goal.
The first of these wars was the
Second War of Schleswig (1864), which Prussia initiated and succeeded in gaining the assistance of Austria. Denmark was soundly defeated and surrendered both Schleswig and Holstein, to Prussia and Austria respectively.
The divided administration of Schleswig and Holstein then became the trigger for the
Austro-Prussian War (1866 – also known as the Seven Weeks’ War), where Prussia, allied with the
Kingdom of Italy and various northern German states, declared war on the Austrian Empire. The Austrian-led coalition was crushed and some German states (the
Kingdom of Hanover, the
Grand Duchy of Hesse, the
Duchy of Nassau and the
Free City of Frankfurt) were annexed by Prussia. The disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein were now under total Prussian rule. With these gains in territory it became possible to connect the Prussian possessions in the Rhineland and Westphalia with the remainder of the Kingdom. It was at this point that Prussia reached its fullest extent (in terms of area), and it remained at this size until the Kingdom's end in 1918.
The German Confederation was replaced by the Prussian-dominated
North German Confederation in 1867, with military alliances with the southern German states (except Austria) put in place. Bismarck’s planned ''
Kleindeutschland''
unification of Germany had come considerably closer to realisation. While King William was determined to make territorial gains from Austria itself, Bismarck persuaded him to abandon the idea. While Bismarck wanted Austria to play no future role in German affairs, he still saw that Austria could be a valuable future ally.
The final act was the
Franco-Prussian War (1870), where Bismarck maneuvered Emperor
Napoleon III of France into declaring war on Prussia. Activating the German alliances put in place after the Austro-Prussian War, the German states came together and swiftly defeated
France. This Prussian led victory made possible the creation of the
German Empire with William declared to be Kaiser William I on
18 January 1871 (the 170th anniversary of the coronation of the first Prussian King,
Frederick I) in the
Hall of Mirrors at
Versailles outside of
Paris, while the French capital was still under
siege.
1871-1918: Prussia’s peak and fall
Prussia in the German Empire 1871–1918
With the Prussian-led German Empire now the most powerful entity in continental Europe, Bismarck wished to preserve peace in Europe, with such acts as the
Congress of Berlin. The new German Empire improved the already-strong relations with Britain, (
Kaiser Frederick III was married to the eldest daughter of
Queen Victoria of the
United Kingdom). But all of this changed with the death of
Frederick III in 1888 (after only 99 days on the throne) and the ascension of his 29-year old son,
William II. The new Kaiser rapidly soured relations with the
British and
Russian royal families (despite being closely related to them), becoming their rival and ultimately their enemy.
William II ousted Bismarck from office in 1890 and began a campaign of militarisation and adventurism in foreign policy that eventually led Germany into isolation. A misjudgement of the
Austro-Hungarian conflict with
Serbia by the Kaiser, 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 – which led to the Kaiser’s abdication and exile.
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. With the abdication of Wilhelm II in 1918, the Kingdom of Prussia was dissolved and replaced with the
Free State of Prussia.
Politics
The Kingdom of Prussia was an autocratic monarchy until the
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, after which Prussia became a
constitutional monarchy and
Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg was elected as Prussia's first
prime minister. Following
Prussia's first constitution, a two-house parliament was formed. 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
Prussian 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.
Prussian Secret Police, formed in response to the
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, aided the conservative government.
Subdivisions of Prussia
The original core regions of the Kingdom of Prussia were the
Margraviate of Brandenburg and the
Duchy of Prussia which together formed
Brandenburg-Prussia.
Further Pomerania had been held by Prussia since 1648. Combined with nearby gains from Sweden in 1720, this region would later become the
Province of Pomerania. Prussian gains in the
Silesian Wars led to the formation of the
Province of Silesia in 1740.
After the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, the newly-annexed
Royal Prussia and
Warmia became the Province of
West Prussia, while the Duchy of Prussia (along with part of Warmia) became the Province of
East Prussia. Other annexations along the
Noteć (Netze) River became the
Netze District. Following the second and third partitions (1793-1795), the new Prussian annexations became the Provinces of
New Silesia,
South Prussia, and
New East Prussia, with the Netze District redivided between West and South Prussia. These three provinces were ultimately lost to
Congress Poland after the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, except for the western part of South Prussia, which would form part of the
Province of Posen.
Following the major western gains made by Prussia after the Vienna Congress, a total of ten provinces were established, each one subdivided further into smaller administrative regions known as
Regierungsbezirke. The provinces were:
★
Brandenburg
★
East Prussia
★
Jülich-Cleves-Berg
★
Lower Rhine
★
Pomerania
★
Posen
★
Saxony
★
Silesia
★
West Prussia
★
Westphalia
In 1822, the provinces of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and the Lower Rhine were merged to form the
Rhine Province. In 1829, the Provinces of East and West Prussia merged to form the
Province of Prussia, but the separate provinces were reformed in 1878. The principalities of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and
Hohenzollern-Hechingen were annexed in 1850 to form the
Province of Hohenzollern.
After Prussia's victory in the 1866
Austro-Prussian War, territories annexed by Prussia were reorganised into three new provinces:
Hanover,
Hesse-Nassau and
Schleswig-Holstein.
See also
★
List of Kings of Prussia
★
Prussian Army
★
Free State of Prussia
★
Prussian Crown Jewels
★
History of Germany
★
Kreis in Prussia
References
1.
Königreich Preußen (1701-1918)
2. German Empire: administrative subdivision and municipalities, 1900 to 1910
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