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Prussia (Template:Audio-de; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Template:Lang-lt; Old Prussian: Prūsa; Template:Lang-pl) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, 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; Prussia was later one of the countries of the Teutonic Order. In the course of its history, "Prussia" has had various meanings, see Prussia (disambiguation):

Prussia attained its greatest importance in the 18th and 19th century. After ascending to the position of fifth European great power under the reign of Frederick II of Prussia the Great (1740-1786), and after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who pursued the policy of creating a German Empire out of the German states minus Austria, made Prussia the leading power in Germany in place of Austria.

The Kingdom of Prussia dominated northern Germany politically, economically and in terms of population size and was the core of the unified North German Confederation formed in 1867, which became the German Empire in 1871.

With the end of the monarchy in Germany, Prussia became a free state in 1918. Prussia as a state was abolished de facto by the Nazis in 1934 and de jure by the Allied Powers in 1947.

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, thriftiness, modesty and diligence. Many Prussians believed that these virtues were part of the reasons for the rise of their country.

The national colors of Prussia, Black and White, stem from the Teutonic knights who wore a white coat embroidered with a black cross. Their combination with the hanseatic colors, White and Red, of the free cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck resulted in the black-white-red commercial flag of the North German Confederation, formed in 1867, which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871. From the Reformation onward, the Prussian coat of arms says "Suum cuique" (to each, his own).

Geography and Population

As of May 1939: Area of 297.007 km² with 41,915,040 Inhabitants

Prussia began as a small territory in what was later called West and East Prussia, which is now northern Poland, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and part of today's Lithuania. The region was populated by Prussians. The area later became subject to German colonization.

Before its abolition, the territory of Prussia, as well as what might be called "Prussia proper" (the regions of West Prussia and East Prussia, which now lie in Poland, Lithuania and Russia), included the regions of Pomerania, Silesia, Brandenburg, Lusatia, Province of Saxony (now the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany), Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, parts of Hesse, the Rhineland, and some small detached areas in the south such as Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family, and Switzerland. However, there were some regions even 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 populations of predominantly Catholic Poles. East Prussia's region of Masuria was largely made up of Germanized Protestant Masurs. This, in part, explains 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.

Early history

In 1226 Conrad of Mazovia invited a German order of crusading Knights, the Order of the Teutonic Knights, whose headquarters were in Venice at that time, to conquer the Prussian tribes on his borders. However, during sixty years of struggles against the Prussians, they created a independent state which came to control Prussia plus most of what are now Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as parts of today's northern Poland. Eventually defeated, the Knights had to acknowledge the sovereignty of the King of Poland and Lithuania from 1466. The State owned by the Teutonic Order was subject to the Pope and the Emperor, who did not sanction the Peace of Toruń from 1466. In 1525 the Grand Master became a Protestant and converted part of the Order's territories into the Duchy of Prussia, the first Protestant state.

The territory of the Duchy was at this time confined to the area east of the mouth of the Vistula, near the present border between Poland and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. In 1618 the Duchy was inherited by the Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg, who was at the same time ruler of Prussia and Brandenburg, (a German state centered on Berlin and ruled since the 15th century by the Hohenzollern dynasty). For the Hohenzollerns, the newly acquired state was very important, since it spread outside the reach of the Holy Roman Empire.

Brandenburg-Prussia was succeeded by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and the state was absorbed by the newly founded German Empire in 1871.

Anna, daughter of Duke Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia (reigned 1568-1618), married Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg, who was granted the right of succession to Ducal Prussia (then a Polish fief) on his father-in-law's death in 1618. From this time the Polish fief of Prussia came under the reign of the Electors of Brandenburg. Ducal Prussia remained a fief under the Polish crown till 1660.

During the reign of Georg Wilhelm (1619-1640), the Hohenzollern lands were repeatedly marched across by various armies in the Thirty Years' War, during much of the war being occupied by Sweden.

His successor Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1640-1688) felt constrained to go to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to Władysław IV Vasa of Poland for the Duchy of Prussia, which he held in fief from the Polish crown. But taking advantage of the difficult position of Poland vis-á-vis Sweden in the Northern War, 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, and after the Tatar invasion of Poland in 1656-57 was finally given independent control of Prussia in 1660.

However, the rights of the Polish crown to Prussia would still legally revert back if the Hohenzollern dynastic line became extinct. In 1701 his son, Friedrich III, proclaimed himself Frederick I of Prussia, and all links to Poland were removed. The first Prussian King was also the last Prussian ruler to speak fluent Polish; his successors spoke fluent French and German.

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

Kingdom of Prussia

In 1701 Brandenburg-Prussia became the Kingdom of Prussia under Frederick I, with the permission of the Holy Roman Emperor and Saxon Elector August the Strong, King of Poland. During this period Prussia expanded its territories to the east during the collapse of the Kingdom of Poland in the so-called Partitions of Poland, between 1772 and 1795, which brought territory as far east as Warsaw under Prussian rule.

The son of Frederick I, Frederick William I of Prussia (1713-1740) the "Soldier King", was less a lover of beauty than his father, but thrifty and practical. He is considered as the creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe.

In view of the size of the army in relation to the total population Voltaire said later: "Prussia is not a country with an Army but an Army with a country!"

In addition, the King settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees, from Salzburg, in the thinly populated East Prussian region and others. From Sweden it acquired 1720 Western Pomerania as far as the Peene.

On May 31th 1740 his son Frederick II of Prussia - later to be named "Frederick the Great" - ascended the throne. As Crown Prince he was rather attached to philosophy and the beautiful arts; nevertheless, in the first year of his reign he allowed the Prussian army to march into Silesia, on which the Hohenzollerns laid claims, though these were disputed. 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 even against a coalition from 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 in the Holy Roman (German) Empire. In 1744 the country 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, for instance the Oderbruch.

At the same time as the Prussian King was building up military power and pursuing the carving up of Poland together with Austria and Russia, he also opened Prussia's borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe, for instance 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 was an enlightened ruler. 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 "high school" education, forerunner of today's German Gymnasium (Grammar School) system, which prepares the brightest students for university studies.

Napoleonic Wars

Under Frederick William II of Prussia (1786-1797), Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars; but she was forced to quit the arena 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 I's troops. 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.

In response to this defeat, reformers such as Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg set about modernizing the Prussian state - liberating the peasants from Serfdom; emancipating Jews and making them full Citizens; and instituting 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 so called "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. Her reward in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland and Westphalia and some other territories. These western lands were to be of vital importance because they included the Ruhr area, centre of Germany's fledgling industrialisation and particularly of the arms industry. These territorial gains also meant the population of Prussia doubled.

Prussia emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the dominant power in Germany, overshadowing her long-time rival Austria, which had given up the German imperial crown in 1806. In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty.

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.

In 1848 the Liberals got their chance when revolutions broke out across Europe. An alarmed Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a Constitution. But 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.

Prussia obtained a semi-democratic "Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia", but the grip of the landowning classes (the Junker) remained unbroken, especially in the eastern parts.

Imperial Prussia

In 1862 Prussian King Wilhelm I of Germany 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 she herself took the lead in the fight for the German unification, Bismarck guided Prussia through three wars which together brought King William the position of German Emperor.

German-Danish Second War of Schleswig 1864:

The Kingdom of Denmark was at the time in personal union with the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, both forming a unit since 1460. Only the Holstein part of the Duchy, however, belonged to the German Confederation. The nationalistic attempt by the government in Copenhagen to integrate Schleswig, but not Holstein, into the Danish state led to a war between the German Confederation, under the guidance of Prussia and Austria, and its northern neighbor. After its defeat, the Danish Crown had to do without either Schleswig or Holstein. Now, both parts of the combined Duchy were administered together by Prussia and Austria.

Austro-Prussian War 1866:

If the deeper cause of this war was the struggle for supremacy in Germany, the actual trigger was the conflicts between Austria and Prussia over the administration and the future of Schleswig-Holstein. On the side of Austria stood the central German states; on the side of Prussia, beside some northern German states there was also Italy. When Prussian troops, equipped with superior arms, achieved the crucial victory at Königgrätz on 3 July 1866 under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Austria lost her fight for supremacy and left the German Confederation. The Peace of Prague (1866) brought to Prussia the Kingdom of Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, the Duchy of Nassau, the free city of Frankfurt and all of Schleswig-Holstein. Thus, now nearly all Prussian areas were connected with one another.

The German Confederation, which had by this time already disintegrated in fact, was now also formally dissolved at the Peace of Prague (1866). Indeed, five days earlier, Prussia as well as the countries north of the River Main had created the North German Confederation. At the beginning only a military alliance, the contracting parties to the Confederation adopted, in 1867, a constitution which made Prussia the dominant state of the federation. The new constitution, drafted by Bismarck, presaged many substantial points of the Constitution of the German Reich. The King and Minister-Präsident (Prime Minister) of Prussia, respectively, were simultaneously President and Chancellor of the North German Confederation.

As a result of the peace negotiations, the states in the South of Germany 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 Luxemburg.

Franco-Prussian War 1870/71:

The controversy with France over the candidacy of a Catholic 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 the Prussian King. The government of Napoleon III, expecting another civil war among the German states, declared war against Prussia, continuing Franco-German enmity once more in hostile manner. As this time, honoring their treaties, the German states joined forces, France was quickly defeated. 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 German Empire under the plan of federation without Austria, was created. On 18 January 1871 (the 170th anniversary of the coronation of of King Frederick I), William I was proclaimed German Emperor (not the Emperor of Germany) in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

German Empire

This, and the following two decades, were the peak of Prussia's fortunes. Had the state continued to be blessed with wise leaders after Bismarck, Prussia's economic power and political status might have made her peacefully the centre of European civilization.

Emperor Friedrich III of Germany (Hohenzollern) may have been such a man, but he was already terminally ill when he became Emperor for 99 days in 1888. He was married to Victoria, the first daughter of Queen Victoria, but their first son suffered physical and maybe mental damage during birth.

At the age of 29, Wilhelm II of Germany became Emperor 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 due to being a close relative of the British and Russian royal families, "Willy" became their rival and ultimately their enemy.

After dismissing Bismarck, the forger of alliances, in 1890, Wilhelm 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 Kaiser, who left for holiday, and hasty mobilisation plans of several nations led to the disaster of World War I. As the price of withdrawal from the war, Russia was forced to concede control of large regions of the western Russian Empire to Germany, some of which bordered Prussia, in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918). However German control of these territories only lasted for a few months.

Free State of Prussia within the Weimar Republic

Due to the defeat in WWI and the November Revolution of 1918, William II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. With that ended the union of Prussia with the German Reich as it had existed since the time of Bismarck. The state was proclaimed an independent "Free State" (German: Freistaat, or Republic) within the Federation of the Reich and in 1920 received a democratic Constitution.

Germany's territorial losses, including the territory of Alsace-Lorraine which had been regained after the French-Prussian war, were specified in the Treaty of Versailles: Eupen Malmedy went to Belgium, Nordschleswig to Denmark, the Memelland to Lithuania, the Hultschiner country to Czechoslovakia. Large parts of the areas which Prussia had received in the context of the Partitions of Poland, as well as east Upper Silesia, went to Poland. Danzig became a Free city under the administration of the League of Nations.

Before the Partitions of Poland, and now again due to 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 formed from formerly Prussian territories.

The idea of breaking up Prussia into smaller states was considered by the German government, but eventually traditionalist sentiment prevailed and Prussia became the "Prussian Free state" (Freistaat Preußen), by far the largest state of the Weimar Republic - comprising 60% of its territory. Since it included the industrial Ruhr and "Red Berlin", it became a stronghold of the left, being governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Catholic Centre for most of the 1920s.

From 1919 to 1932 coalitions of the socialdemocratic SPD, Catholic Centre and German Democrats (DDP) governed in Prussia; from 1921 to 1925 coalition governments included the DVP (Deutsche Volkspartei, German People's Party). Unlike in other States of the German Reich, majority rule by democratic parties in Prussia was never endangered.

The East Prussian Otto Braun, who was Prussian Minister-President almost continuously from 1920 to 1932, is deemed even today to have been 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, he created the "constructive vote of no confidence" which only allows for a sacking of the Prime minister if a new PM is selected at the same time. In this way the Government of the Prussian state could remain as long as no new "positive majority" formed which was powerful enough to challenge the government. Most historians regard the Prussian government during this time as far more successful than that of Germany as a whole.

A pillar of democracy in the Weimar Republic, Prussia was not destroyed by the voters but because of 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). The majority of the state apparatus welcomed von Papen when, as "Commissioner of the Reich", he took power in the Free State of Prussia. Thereby the most important democratic government in the Reich was now without power. The "Preußenschlag" made it easier, only half a year later, for Adolf Hitler to take power decisively in Germany, having now, as he did, the whole apparatus of the Prussian government - the police for instance - at his disposal.

The end of Prussia

After the appointment of Hitler as the new Chancellor of the Reich, Hermann Göring became commissioner of the Reich for the Prussian Minister of the Interior. A few weeks later, on the 21th of March 1933, the "Potsdamtag", the sitting of the Federal Parliament at Potsdam, began.

On 5 March, the newly elected Reichstag was opened in the presence of President Paul von Hindenburg in the Potsdam Garrison Church, the burial place of the Prussian Kings. There, 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 Monarchist Conservatives and Nationalists and induce them to vote for the Enabling Act, which was to be voted on days later in the Reichstag (the lower house of the Federal Parliament of the Weimar Republic).

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 of the Reich. Parallel to that, the organization of the party into Gaue (singular Gau, district) 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 ministeries were merged together. 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 the 1st of April 1937, for instance, by the incorporation up to then "Free and Hanseatic City" of Lübeck. Those Polish, formerly Prussian areas which during the course of the Second World War the Nazis annexed to Germany were predominantly not integrated into adjacent areas of Prussia, but assigned to separate Gaue of the Reich.

With the end of National Socialist rule, came the division of Germany into Zones of Occupation, and the transfer of everything east of the Oder-Neisse line, (including Silesia, Pomerania, eastern Brandenburg and East Prussia), to Poland (with the northern third of East Prussia, including Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, going to the Soviet Union). Today Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. An estimated ten million Germans fled or were expelled from these territories as a part of the German exodus from Eastern Europe.

In Law #46 of 25 February 1947 the Allied Control Council also formally proclaimed the dissolution of the remains of the Prussian state, since Prussia was seen at this time to be responsible for the First and Second World War and a "stronghold" of "German militarism".

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 Pomerania going to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. These states were abolished in 1952 in favor of districts, but 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, Württemburg-Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern, (which two were later merged, with Baden, into 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 the Russian Federation, 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. Most Germans then living in Kaliningrad preferred to leave for Germany.

Prussia today

Traces of the former dominant position of Prussia in Germany can be seen even today:

• Federation:
  • Berlin became the German capital, since it was before already the capital of Prussia.
  • The Prussian war honor of the Iron Cross is - in modified form as Balkenkreuz - the symbol of the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces of Germany).
  • The separation of Austria from the German nation in the course of the establishment of the German Empire in 1871 is due to the role of Prussia in German politics.

• Federal States
  • After reunification in 1990 a plan was developed to merge the States of Berlin and Brandenburg. Though some suggested calling the proposed new State "Prussia," the name that was eventually chosen for the State was "Berlin-Brandenburg". However the proposed merger was rejected in 1996 by popular vote (the bad fiscal situation of Berlin being a large factor)
  • The State of Saxony-Anhalt is at present the only one whose coat of arms contains the Prussian eagle. The coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg still contains the coat of arms of the Hohenzollern.
  • The Prussian model was the basis of a multiplicity of political institutions which still exist in Germany on the state or regional level, such as Minister-President, governmental district, county council, and district council.

• Churches:
  • The Union of Evangelical Churches developed from the Evangelical Church Union, a Federation of the old Prussian regional Evangelical Churches.

• Culture:
  • The "Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz" covers one of the largest and most universal collection complexes of the world.

• Games:
  • In the famous computer game "Civilization IV" by Sid Meier, the leaders of Germany are represented by two Prussian personalities: Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and King Frederick the Great

• Sports:
  • Preußen Münster, or with the latin version, Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach, are famous german soccer teams named after Prussia
  • The German national soccer teams (and other athletes, even race cars) compete in their traditional Prussian national colors: black and white

• Color:
  • Prussian Blue

• Places:
  • City "Preußisch Oldendorf", in the district of Minden-Lübbecke
  • Station "Preußen" near Dortmund

• Surname:
  • The members of the former ruling Prussian royal house carry the name Prince of Prussia (not Hohenzollern).

Legacy and criticism

• Due to the dominance of Prussia and defeats in wars before 1870, Prussia(n) is regarded with ill feelings in Bavaria and Austria, with Bavarians using Saupreiß as a derisive term (similar to Yankee in the USA), or Austrians calling Germans Piefke
• Prussia is often associated, or limited to, its military tradition
• Prussia is often blamed for causing World War I (and thus, WW II), as the administration and population was not able or willing to counterbalance the effects of the personal traits of Emperor William II on the leadership of the Empire
• Prussia, or Germany as a whole, is not exactly held in high esteem in Poland

See also

• Otto von Bismarck
• Carl von Clausewitz
• Origins of Prussia
• Prussian people
• Prussian Secret Police
• Brandenburg
• Brandenburg-Prussia
• Ducal Prussia
• Royal Prussia
• East Prussia
• Franco-Prussian War
• Hohenzollern
• List of Kings of Prussia
• List of provinces of Prussia
• Masuria
• Nadruvia
• New East Prussia
• Prime Minister of Prussia
• Prussian Minister of War
• Southern Prussia
• Warmia
• West Prussia
• Crusader states
• Drang nach Osten
• Old Prussian language

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

Template:Link FA

• Former monarchies
• Kingdom of Prussia
• Former countries in Europe
• States in Weimar Republic
• States of the Holy Roman Empire
• History of Prussia