Prussia

Prussia (Preußen) was a feudal state, later a kingdom and finally a republic in central Europe, existing from early modern times to 1945. Its centre was in the northeast of present-day Germany, but at the height of its power it also controlled most of Germany's northern half, vast parts of today's Poland, and—at least temporarily—bits of what now is Denmark, Russia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Belgium.

Initially just one of the many states of the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia rose to become one of Europe's great powers during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Prussian troops' drill and discipline was almost proverbial and its army won a series of sensational victories against sometimes far superior enemy troops. Prussian art of war therefore arouses the interest of amateurs of military history up to the present day.

It should not be forgotten, however, that Prussia was also a cultural centre, of which beautiful palaces and gardens stand witness as well as many artworks created by Prussian subjects who enjoyed the patronage of their rulers.

Understand
Prussia, or more accurately Brandenburg-Prussia, emerged from the union of two formerly unrelated territories: the Margraviate of Brandenburg (roughly equivalent to today's German states of Brandenburg and Berlin) and Prussia proper that was more than further northeast on the Baltic Sea (later known as East Prussia, today the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast and northeastern Poland). They were united in 1618 under the crown of the Hohenzollern dynasty.

Origins
The Margraviate of Brandenburg, centered around the cathedral city Brandenburg an der Havel was created in the 10th century when the area was conquered from pagan Slavs and successively colonised by Christian, German-speaking settlers. The House of Hohenzollern whose ancestral seat was actually hundreds of miles further southwest in the Swabian Mountains and who also possessed territories in Franconia (Burgraviate of Nuremberg), were enfeoffed with the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1415. They moved the capital from Brandenburg-City to Berlin. Due to its infertile soils and lack of natural resources, the land was ridiculed as "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire". Despite its relatively small population and economic insignificance, the Margraves of Brandenburg were, for dynastic reasons, among the seven lords who had the right to elect the Roman-German kings.

Prussia proper was ruled by the Order of Teutonic Knights from the 13th century. They created a Christian, German-dominated state, centered on Malbork and later Königsberg. While Western Prussia got under Polish rule in 1454, Eastern Prussia was secularised in the course of the Protestant Reformation 1525, henceforth ruled by a different line of the Hohenzollern dynasty.

Both lines were united by marriage in 1594. Having multiplied its territories, Brandenburg-Prussia was awarded further dominions in Westphalia, Pomerania and today's Saxony-Anhalt at the end of the Thirty Years' War (1648), Elector Frederick William modernised the state in the mid-17th century. He invited Protestant refugees from France (Huguenots) and Dutch settlers who introduced modern trades and technologies, contributing to an economic boom. Frederick William therefore went down in history as the "Great Elector" (Großer Kurfürst).

Golden Era
Frederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself King Frederick I in Prussia in 1701 (avoiding the title "King of Prussia" in order not to provoke the king of Poland or the Emperor). His son, Frederick William I, reformed military training, tactics and conscription. His frugal, disciplined, military lifestyle earned him the nickname of "Soldier-King". However, he never started a war and his rule was one of the most peaceful in the Prussian history.

His son Frederick II (r. 1740–1786) was the most famous and admired Prussian ruler, usually called Frederick the Great. Unlike his father, he was more interested in music and philosophy and hated military training. He became one of the most exemplary rulers of "enlightened absolutism", corresponding with important philosophers and writers of his time, reforming school and judicial systems. Despite his earlier aversion to the military, Frederick came to lead Prussia into a series of wars, sometimes against enemies whose population and troops outnumbered the Prussians by far, taking existential risks for his state. However, thanks to its troops' superior drill, discipline and armament (and in some cases luck), the Prussian army came to be known as the most formidable in Europe. Prussia won the Silesian Wars against Austria (1740–45) and the Seven Years' War (1756–63, known as the French and Indian War in North America) against France, Austria and Russia. Since that time, Prussia played in the concert of European great powers.

Merging into the German nation-state
During the decades following the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, Prussia and Austria competed for the leading role within the German Confederation. During the Revolutions of 1848, the National Assembly offered the imperial German crown to Prussian King Frederick William IV which he rejected as a "crown from the gutter". Afterwards, Prussian troops were instrumental in subduing the revolution, not only in Prussia but also in other German states. Prussia was a center of industrialisation during the mid-19th century. Most parts of the kingdom were connected with the rail network during the 1850s and 1860s.

After winning a war against Austria and another against France, the German Empire was founded—without Austria—in 1871. The Prussian King William was crowned German Emperor and the Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck became chancellor of the German Empire. Thanks to French war reparations as well as a booming industry and trade, Prussia (and Germany in general) prospered during the following decades that are called the Gründerzeit ("era of founders") or Wilhelmine era. Its cities grew rapidly; official and private buildings as well as whole quarters were built in an eclectic and historicist style that often took inspiration from medieval architecture (Romanesque and Gothic revival). Housing from this era is now among the most sought after real estate in Germany and often found in gentrifying neighborhoods. The German Empire would grow into the world's third largest colonial empire after the British and French colonial empires, remaining so until its defeat in World War I.

After the German revolution of 1918, Prussia continued to exist as a republic (or "Free State") within the Weimar Republic. It was steadily ruled by a coalition of social democrats and liberals until 1932 when the Reich government imposed direct rule, thereby breaking the constitution, a few months before the Nazis took power. Hitler's regime superficially glorified Prussian traditions (mainly the military ones), but did nothing to restore or maintain Prussia's autonomous institutions. The Allies of World War II viewed Prussia as the origin of German militarism and aggression and dissolved Prussia once and for all after their victory in 1945. Each of the 16 states of today's Germany has at least a bit of former Prussian possessions.

Culture
Three of the most famous German philosophers came from Prussia. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804; "Critique of Pure Reason") was born in East Prussian Königsberg and spent most of his life there. Karl Marx was born and raised in Trier, studied at the Prussian universities of Bonn and Berlin and worked in Cologne during the 1848/49 revolution, but was expatriated and deported from Prussia after the revolution failed. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was born near Lützen, raised in Naumburg and studied in Bonn, but later moved to Switzerland and renounced his Prussian citizenship. Max Weber (1864–1920), one of the fathers of sociology, came from Erfurt and studied in Berlin, his works (e.g. "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism") have a well-known bias towards Prussian-Protestant rationalism.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859)—polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer—was a Prussian aristocrat from Berlin. His brother Wilhelm (1767–1835) who was more interested in linguistics, philosophy and arts, reformed the Prussian education system, founded the University of Berlin and shaped the "Humboldtian education ideal".

The classical German poets (around 1800) like Goethe, Schiller and Hölderlin lived in the small and medium-sized states of central and southern Germany, with the notable exception of playwright Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) who was a Prussian to the core, coming from Frankfurt an der Oder and serving as a lieutenant in the Prussian army. During the following decades however Prussia was the heartland of German romantic literature. Circles of poets and intellectuals convened in Berlin's literary salons. Among the most notable authors are E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822; "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"), Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857; who earned his bread-and-butter as a Prussian administrator) and Heinrich Heine (1797–1856; emigrated to France, his works being banned in Prussia). The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, collectors of world-famous fairytales ("Cinderella", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Snow White") came from Hesse, but spent the two last decades of their lives in Berlin at invitation of the "romanticist on the throne", King Frederick William IV. Realist writer Theodor Fontane (1819–1898; "Effi Briest") may be the most Prussian of authors, his five-volume travelogue Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg ("Rambles in Brandenburg") is a literary monument to his homeland's countryside.

Composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was born in Halle which then belonged to Brandenburg-Prussia, but spent most of his adult life in London, eventually becoming a British subject. Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated his Brandenburg Concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt who belonged to a branch line of the Prussian dynasty. King Frederick the Great is known for having played the flute and composed a number of pieces himself. Apart from that, Prussia did not play a great role in music until the 19th century. Among the Romantic composers with strong biographic links to Prussia are Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), Robert Schumann (1810–1856) and Richard Strauss (1864–1949). The Berlin Philharmonic was founded in 1882 and has become one of the world's leading symphony orchestras.

When it comes to architecture, the typical style of the era of Frederick the Great is called "Frederician Rococo", his most notable architect being Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (1699–1735). A century later, Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) is associated with the Neoclassical style representing the height of Prussia's power like no other. He put his lasting mark on Berlin's cityscape by designing Altes Museum (Old Museum), Neue Wache (New Guardhouse), Konzerthaus (Concert Hall) and Bauakademie (Building Academy), Charlottenhof and Babelsberg Palaces in Potsdam, as well as numerous churches, palaces and official buildings in the kingdom's provinces. The great Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) came from Greifswald in the Prussian province of Pomerania.