Fort Winiary was part of Festung Posen ("Fortress Poznań"), a system of defensive fortifications around the Polish city of Poznań .
159-539: Fort Winiary was first constructed under Prussian rule in the 19th century. It was the main fort in that system, and was among the first elements to be constructed. Detailed plans were approved on 21 February 1829, and the name "Fort Winiary" soon came to be applied, as the fort was situated on a hill where there were two villages called Winiary (the name alluding to the vine cultivation which had once taken place there). The fort would later become popularly known as Poznań's citadel ( cytadela ). On 10 October 1829 an order
318-452: A war criminal sentenced after the war by a Polish court to death, albeit with his penalty later commuted to life imprisonment . Following the example of earlier German policies, there was a short-lived initiative in the Polish post-World War II government to rename the newly acquired original Prussia to an invented name of Masovian Pomerania ; it was, however, quickly abandoned. In 1995,
477-554: A Nazi political stronghold whose existence as an exclave resulted in German irredentist demands towards Poland, blamed as one of the primary causes of the calamity of World War II and the ensuing German atrocities. An important factor was also West Germany 's rejection of the validity of the postwar Polish Western border on the Oder–Neisse line (until 1972 total, 1972-1991 de iure ) rendering any attempts of Poles to remind or maintain
636-574: A bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany . In line with this assessment and the ideological justification of Recoverred Territories , the use of Prussia as a geographic designation was discouraged by the postwar authorities of Poland and the Soviet Union. The Polish region of Pomerelia (Gdansk Pomerania and the Chełmno Land) reverted to its original name already prior to World War II, as
795-529: A centre of learning and printing through the establishment of the Albertina University in 1544 for not only the dominant German culture, but also the thriving Polish and Lithuanian communities as well. It was in Königsberg that the first Lutheran books in Polish, Lithuanian, and Prussian languages were published. Rulership of Ducal Prussia passed to the senior Hohenzollern branch,
954-652: A considerably more moderate policy. Upon Frederick William IV's death in 1861 he succeeded to the Prussian throne as William I . However, shortly after becoming king, he faced a dispute with his parliament over the size of the army. The parliament, dominated by the liberals, balked at William's desire to increase the number of regiments and withheld approval of the budget to pay for its cost. A deadlock ensued, and William seriously considered abdicating in favour of his son, Crown Prince Frederick . Ultimately, he decided to appoint as prime minister Otto von Bismarck , at that time
1113-673: A constituent part of the German Weimar Republic , following the 1920 East Prussian plebiscite . The democratic government of the Free State was removed as a result the 1932 Prussian coup d'état which also facilitated the Nazi takeover of government . In the March 1933 German federal election , the last pre-war German elections, the local population of East Prussia voted overwhelmingly for Adolf Hitler 's Nazi Party . After
1272-733: A further German attempt to expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia was undertaken, when the westernmost portion of Soviet Belarus (which, until 1939, belonged to the Polish state ), was placed under the German Civilian Administration ( Zivilverwaltungsgebiet ) as the Bialystok District , an entity in association with (but not part of) East Prussia, nevertheless it was also denoted on some Nazi maps as South East Prussia , with both territories remaining under common management and leadership of Erich Koch ,
1431-472: A military and Christianizing mission. Adalbert, accompanied by armed guards, attempted to convert the Prussians to Christianity. He was killed by a Prussian pagan priest in 997. In 1015, Bolesław sent soldiers again, with some short-lived success, gaining regular paid tribute from some Prussians in the border regions, but it did not last. Polish rulers sent invasions to the territory in 1147, 1161–1166, and
1590-587: A missionary bishop appointed for Prussia in 1216. In the beginning of the 13th century, Konrad of Mazovia had called for Crusades and tried unsuccessfully to conquer Prussia for years. Bishop Christian of Oliva established the Order of Dobrzyń in order to defend Masovia against the raids of Old Prussians. However, the rather innumerous order (initially 15 knights, with 35 knights at its highest) did not prove effective in countering Prussians in battle. Christian achieved subjugation and conversion of Prussians only in
1749-716: A much more peaceable ruler. Other additions to Prussia in the 18th century were the County of East Frisia (1744), the Principality of Bayreuth (1791) and Principality of Ansbach (1791), the latter two being acquired through purchase from branches of the Hohenzollern dynasty. 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
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#17327942207721908-686: A number of administrative reforms, among others reorganising the government by way of ministries, which remained formative for the following hundred years. As to religion, reformed Calvinist Frederick William III—as Supreme Governor of the Protestant Churches —asserted his long-cherished project (started in 1798) to unite the Lutheran and the Reformed Church in 1817, (see Prussian Union ). The Calvinist minority, strongly supported by its co-religionist Frederick William III, and
2067-514: A number of times in the early 13th century. While these were repelled by the Prussians, the Chełmno Land became exposed to their frequent raids. At that time, Pomerelia belonged to the diocese of Włocławek . Chełmno Land (including Michałów Land and later Lubawa Land) belonged in turn to the diocese of Płock , since 1223 governed in the name of the Bishop of Płock by Christian of Oliva ,
2226-766: A part of the Province of Pomerania , as well as the Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen which was made part of East Prussia ), while its bulk was awarded to the recreated Polish state . On the other hand, only minor part of East Prussia around Działdowo was transferred to Poland, the Klaipėda Region formed a free city supervised by the League of Nations , annexed following the Klaipėda Revolt by Lithuania but reclaimed by Germany in 1939, while
2385-557: A part of the kingdom remaining outside of Germany until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 during the unification of Germany . The merged territory was, however, again split into East and West Prussia in 1878. East Prussia , West Prussia , the Province of Posen and the Starostwo of Draheim were annexed by Germany upon the formation of North German Confederation in 1866 and became
2544-523: A possible expansion of the Russian Empire , Frederick was instrumental in initiating 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 , allowing Frederick to finally adopt the title King of Prussia; the annexed Royal Prussian land
2703-694: A replacement for the dissolved Holy Roman Empire from 1815 to 1866, only those of the territories of the kingdom which were previously included in the HRE as well as the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the former Starostwo of Draheim (both integrated into the Province of Pomerania) became part of the Confederation, while the Grand Duchy of Posen (later demoted to an ordinary Province of Posen following
2862-494: A result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers , remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces. The constitution nevertheless contained a number of liberal elements such as the introduction of jury courts and a catalog of fundamental rights that included freedom of religion, speech and the press. Frederick William suffered a stroke in 1857, and his younger brother, Prince William, became regent . William pursued
3021-515: 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 forming the Anglo-Prussian Alliance . When Frederick preemptively invaded Saxony and Bohemia over
3180-585: A serious invasion until October 1760, when the Russian army briefly occupied Berlin and Königsberg . The situation became progressively grimmer, however, until the death in 1762 of Empress Elizabeth of Russia ( 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
3339-740: A small part of Hither Pomerania were also transferred to Poland as part of the territories recovered from Germany, following World War II . As agreed upon in the Treaty of Versailles , most of the Pomerelian part of the Province of West Prussia that had belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire since the Partitions of Poland was retroceded to the Second Polish Republic , becoming its Pomeranian Voivodeship ,
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#17327942207723498-423: A target of aggressive Germanization, German settlement, anti-Catholic campaigns ( Kulturkampf ), as well as disfranchisement and expropriations of Poles. After the Treaty of Versailles , only the predominantly German-speaking western and eastern rim of the former West Prussia remained a part of Germany, forming part of the rump province of Posen-West Prussia (except for the Lauenburg and Bütow Land remaining
3657-611: A unified Kleindeutschland nation, and on 18 January 1871 (the 170th anniversary of the coronation of the first Prussian king, Frederick I), the German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles outside of Paris , while the French capital was still under siege . King William became the first emperor ( Kaiser ) of a unified Germany. However, the titles of German Emperor and King of Prussia were to be borne by
3816-478: A unified Germany more than they wanted to break the grip of the traditional forces over society. He thus embarked on a drive to form a united Germany under Prussian leadership, 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, and in which it gained the assistance of Austria. Denmark
3975-662: Is a historical region in Central Europe on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea , that ranges from the Vistula delta in the west to the end of the Curonian Spit in the east and extends inland as far as Masuria , divided between Poland , Russia and Lithuania . This region is often also referred to as Old Prussia . Tacitus 's Germania (98 AD) is the oldest known record of an eyewitness account on
4134-1020: The 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania , the Klaipėda region was integrated again into East Prussia. During World War II , the Polish ethnic minorities of Catholic Warmians and Powiślans , as well as Lutheran Masurians were persecuted by the Nazi German government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in Warmia , Masuria and Powiśle The Jews who remained in East Prussia in 1942 were shipped to concentration camps, including Theresienstadt in occupied Czechoslovakia , Kaiserwald in occupied Latvia , and camps in Minsk in occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic . The Soldau concentration camp and Hohenbruch concentration camp [ de ] were operated in
4293-559: The Balts as the speakers of the Baltic languages . The Balts would have become differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late 1st millennium BC. The region was inhabited by ancestors of Western Balts – Old Prussians , Sudovians / Jotvingians , Scalvians , Nadruvians , and Curonians while the eastern Balts settled in what is now Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. The Greek explorer Pytheas (4th century BC) may have referred to
4452-587: The Battle of Stresow on the island of Rügen , as the war had already been practically decided in the 1709 Battle of Poltava . In the Treaty of Stockholm Prussia gained all of Swedish Pomerania east of the River Oder . Sweden would however keep a portion of Pomerania until 1815. The Great Northern War not only marked the end of the Swedish Empire but also elevated Prussia and Russia at the expense of
4611-713: The Chełmno and the Michałów Lands, as well as sometimes the Lubawa Land), resulting in its increasing usage in this context in the Polish scientific historical publications. Powiśle , Warmia and Masuria are now in Poland (most of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , and the four counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship east of Vistula ), the former Memelland or Klaipėda region is now divided between
4770-694: The Chełmno Land formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw following the Treaties of Tilsit , and Danzig was granted a status of a Free City . However, after the Congress of Vienna , the Polish duchy was again partitioned between Russia and Prussia, with Prussia annexing the Free City and the Chełmno Land into the reconstituted West Prussia . The annexation was associated with another attempt to artificially expand
4929-601: The Congress of Vienna . It regained most of its pre-1806 territory. Notable exceptions included part of the territory annexed in the Second and Third Partitions of Poland, which became Congress Poland under Russian rule (though it did retain Danzig, acquired in the Second Partition). It also did not regain several of its former towns in the south. However, as compensation it picked up some new territory, including 40% of
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5088-764: The Early Middle Ages , was forcibly occupied by the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, following an invasion of Poland under the pretext of aiding the King Władysław I Łokietek to quell a rebellion against him, incited by a conspiracy of the Margraviate of Brandenburg with the local Swienca family . Teutonic atrocities against the Polish population followed, such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk . The Teutonic Knights took control of
5247-608: The First French Empire , was defeated in the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt (14 October 1806), Frederick William III was forced to temporarily flee to remote 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. France recaptured Prussian-occupied Hanover, including Bremen-Verden. The remainder of
5406-726: The First Partition of Poland , the King in Prussia gained majority of the territory of Royal Prussia including the Lauenburg and Bütow Land (but excluding Danzig and Toruń which were captured along with the region of Greater Poland in the Second Partition of Poland ), as well as the Starostwo of Draheim . The former Royal Prussia was divided in 1773. Its bulk which included the historically Prussian Malbork Land (northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania ) but also
5565-677: The German Confederation , the issue of unifying the German states caused the German revolutions of 1848–1849 , with representatives from all states attempting to unify under their own constitution. Attempts to create a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when the Austro-Prussian War ensued between its two most powerful member states. Prussia was subsequently
5724-671: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , the Kingdom of Prussia was transformed into the Free State of Prussia . Prussia as a whole was abolished in 1947 . The Hohenzollerns were made rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1518. In 1529, the Hohenzollerns secured the reversion of the Duchy of Pomerania after a series of conflicts , and acquired its eastern part following the Peace of Westphalia . In 1618,
5883-434: The Greater Poland Province ) of the Kingdom of Poland , while the eastern part of the monastic state became a fief and protectorate of Poland, also considered an integral part of the "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland, initially called Monastic Prussia or Teutonic Prussia , secularised in 1525 to become Ducal Prussia. At the same time, the Polish monarchs assumed the title of the King of Prussia. After Pomerelia
6042-410: The Hanseatic League in 1340, thus connecting Prussia to the European trade network spanning via the North Sea and the Baltic Sea . In 1492, a life of Saint Dorothea of Montau , published in Marienburg (Malbork), became the first printed publication in Prussia. "Prussian land was my father's land and I will claim its territory till Osa river [ pl ] i.e. all the Prussian lands until
6201-435: The Hanseatic League in 1361. These events resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the Teutonic rule, an influx of western, mainly German-speaking farmers, traders and craftsmen was encouraged. Subsequent rebellions organized by the local population against the Teutonic state, initially by the Lizard Union and later by the Prussian Confederation , both pledging allegiance to
6360-403: The Kingdom of Saxony and much of Westphalia and the Rhineland. Prussia now stretched uninterrupted from the Niemen in the east to the Elbe in the west, and possessed a chain of disconnected territories west of the Elbe. This left Prussia as the only great power with a predominantly German-speaking population. With these gains in territory, the kingdom was reorganized into 10 provinces. Most of
6519-403: The Lubawa Land. Therefore, the pope set up further crusades. The Duke finally invited the Teutonic Knights in 1226, expelled by force of arms by King Andrew II of Hungary in the previous year following their attempts to build their own state within Transylvania. The Knights were expected to fight the inhabitants of Prussia in exchange for a fief of Chełmno Land . Prussia was conquered by
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6678-414: The Malbork Land comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania ) forming (along with the northern part of Greater Poland detached from the Grand Duchy of Posen ) the Province of West Prussia , while Warmia was assigned to East Prussia , with both West and East Prussia remaining outside the German Confederation . In contrast, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land was annexed in 1777 immediately into
6837-488: The Malbork Land comprising northern parts of Pomesania and Pogesania . These were the only actual Prussian territories of Royal Prussia. Initially enjoying broad autonomy including an own local legislature, the Prussian Estates , and maintaining its own laws, customs and rights, Royal Prussia was ultimately re-absorbed directly into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , following the Union of Lublin in 1569 . The locally spoken language differed among social classes, with
6996-416: The Nazi Germany during the invasion of Poland in 1939, as well as renamed Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen , with numerous German atrocities against the local population . Nazi Germany also undertook another attempt to artificially expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia, this time by enlarging the territory of the province of East Prussia through annexation into it of parts of Northern Masovia under
7155-471: The Orangist stadtholderate against the increasingly rebellious Patriots , who sought to overthrow the House of Orange-Nassau and establish a democratic republic . The direct cause of the invasion was the arrest at Goejanverwellesluis , where Frederick William II's sister Wilhelmina of Prussia , also stadtholder William V of Orange 's wife, was stopped by a band of Patriots who denied her passage to The Hague to reclaim her husband's position. In 1795,
7314-535: The Province of Hohenzollern . During the half-century that followed the Congress of Vienna, a conflict of ideals took place 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 main debate centered around whether Prussia or the Austrian Empire should be the leading member of any unified Germany. Those advocating for Prussian leadership contended that Austria had far too many non-German interests to work for
7473-402: The Province of Pomerania , but remained outside the Holy Roman Empire and was incorporated in 1815 only into its successor, the German Confederation , continuing to be a part of the Diocese of Chełmno . The Province of East Prussia (the original Prussia) and the annexed Polish territories turned into the Province of West Prussia were merged in 1829 to form a single Province of Prussia ,
7632-457: The Province of 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; Thorn (Toruń) and Danzig (Gdańsk), which had remained part of Poland after the first partition, were incorporated into West Prussia, while the remainder became the province of South Prussia . In 1787, Prussia invaded Holland to restore
7791-426: The Prussian Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor , a part of the Soviet share of the former East Prussia. The government of the Lithuanian SSR followed Soviet policy and viewed the Prussian Lithuanians as Germans. About 8,000 persons were repatriated from DP camps during 1945–50. However, their homes and farms were not returned as either Russians or Lithuanians had already occupied their property. Prussians who remained in
7950-418: The Russian SFSR . The part assigned to Poland was organized as the provisional Masurian District , later reduced by the annexation of its northern strip with the towns of Gierdawy and Iławka by the Soviet Union, and transferring its westernmost counties to Gdańsk Voivodeship and easternmost counties to Białystok Voivodeship , and finally transformed into Olsztyn Voivodeship in 1946. The Klaipėda Region
8109-450: The Starostwo of Draheim were annexed in 1777 immediately into the Province of Pomerania . The annexation of Royal Prussia allowed the Prussian king to assume the title of King of Prussia thereafter. Further attempts to expand the meaning of the designation of Prussia was undertaken following the Second Partition of Poland , when Greater Poland and Northern Masovia were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and renamed South Prussia , and
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#17327942207728268-421: The Teutonic Knights during the Prussian Crusade and administered within their State of the Teutonic Order , which begins the process of Germanization in the area. Bishop Christian had to deal with the constant cut-back of his autonomy by the Knights and asked the Roman Curia for mediation. In 1243, the Papal legate William of Modena divided the Prussian lands of the Order's State into four dioceses, whereby
8427-407: The Third Partition of Poland , when Prussia annexed parts Masovia , Podlachia , Trakai Voivodeship and Samogitia under the name of New East Prussia . Both invented names were eventually abandoned, following the Napoleonic Wars . All the annexed Polish lands remained outside of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806. During the Napoleonic era the Greater Polish territories and
8586-427: The Vistula River , including Pamede , because this is my inheritance" — Vytautas the Great 's statement in no uncertain terms in 1413, long after the Battle of Grunwald , during the negotiations with the Teutonic Knights . Moreover, in 1421, the Lithuanian representatives emphasized the territorial and cultural links between Lithuanians , Sudovia , and old Yotvingian lands, but the Order continued to enjoy
8745-413: The War of the Spanish Succession , the Great Elector's son, Frederick III, was allowed to elevate Prussia to a kingdom in the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700. Frederick crowned himself " King in Prussia " as Frederick I on 18 January 1701. Legally, no kingdoms could exist in the Holy Roman Empire except for Bohemia and Italy . However, Frederick took the line that since Prussia had never been part of
8904-410: The defeat of Napoleon in Russia in 1812, 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. Prussia's reward for its part in France's defeat came at
9063-427: The unification of Germany . The merged territory was, however, again split into East and West Prussia in 1878. As agreed upon in the Treaty of Versailles , East Prussia, minus the Memelland , expanded by addition of the Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen (the only part of former West Prussia containing originally Prussian territory) remained within the Free State of Prussia , a successor of the Kingdom of Prussia and
9222-423: The (originally Prussian) territory of Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen east of Vistula remained with Germany as a part of East Prussia, while the western rim of Pomerelia became part of the German province of Posen-West Prussia , named so in spite of containing no originally Prussian territory. Danzig became a free city under the protection of the League of Nations . The area was occupied and illegally annexed by
9381-460: 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 and the economic devastation of his kingdom, lived out his days as
9540-408: The Bundesrat, with 17 votes out of 58 (17 out of 61 after 1911); no other state had more than six votes. As before, it could effectively control the proceedings with the support of its allies in the secondary states. As mentioned above, Bismarck served as foreign minister of Prussia for almost his entire career, and in that role instructed the Prussian deputies to the Bundesrat. The Imperial German Army
9699-449: The Duchy of Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia and the Kingdom of Prussia), the former Province of East Prussia , or to the territory of Old Prussians , but almost never when referring to contemporary geographic region. Since 1991, the name Prussia has, however, been re-acknowledged among Polish historians as the proper designation for the historic region, understood as defined by its original borders (excluding Pomerelia with Gdańsk Pomerania ,
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#17327942207729858-426: The Empire, they were still legally only electors under the overlordship of the emperor. However, by this time the emperor's authority was only nominal. The rulers of the empire's various territories acted largely as the rulers of sovereign states , and only acknowledged the emperor's suzerainty in a formal way. In addition, the duchy was only the eastern bulk of the region of Prussia; the westernmost fragment constituted
10017-470: The First French Republic and Prussia had stipulated that the latter would ensure the Holy Roman Empire's neutrality in all the latter's territories north of the demarcation line of the River Main , including the British continental dominions of the Electorate of Hanover and the Duchies of Bremen-Verden . To this end, Hanover (including Bremen-Verden) also had to provide troops for the so-called demarcation army maintaining this state of armed neutrality . In
10176-429: The German Empire. The German Empire successfully unified all of the German states aside from Austria and Switzerland under Prussian hegemony due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. The war united all the German states against a common enemy, and with the victory came an overwhelming wave of nationalism which changed the opinions of some of those who had been against unification. With
10335-410: The German alliances put in place after the Austro-Prussian War, the German states, aside from Austria, came together and swiftly defeated France, even managing to take Napoleon III prisoner (2 September 1870). Even before then, Bismarck was able to complete the work of unifying Germany under Prussian leadership. The patriotic fervour aroused by the war against France overwhelmed the remaining opponents of
10494-399: The German army's last point of resistance in the Battle of Poznań (1945) , and was finally taken by the Red Army on 23 February 1945. The main redoubt was seriously damaged in the fighting. After the war, the fort was the site of public executions by hanging. The very last of these was that of the German SS functionary Arthur Greiser . In the period 1963-1970 the Fort was developed into
10653-444: The German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1866 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918 . Although it took its name from the region called Prussia , it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg . Its capital was Berlin . The kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern . Brandenburg-Prussia , predecessor of
10812-407: The German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power through the victories of the powerful Prussian Army . Prussia made attempts to unify all the German states (excluding the German cantons in Switzerland ) under its rule, and whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain became an ongoing question . After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of
10971-405: 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, resulting in a Danish victory. Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1848, modifying it in the Constitution of 1850 . These documents—moderate by the standards of
11130-406: The German terminology to include areas west of the Vistula , including Vistula/Eastern Pomerania, although it was never inhabited by Baltic Prussians but by the Slavic Poles. After the area was reintegrated with Poland in 1466 both names were in use: Pomerania was used when referring to the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Gdańsk Pomerania) and the Chełmno Voivodeship , while Royal Prussia was used as
11289-524: The Germans as forced labour in the region. There was also a camp for Romani people in Königsberg (see Romani Holocaust ). The Polish resistance movement was active in the region, with activities including distribution of Polish underground press , infiltration of the German arms industry, sabotage actions, executions of Nazis, theft of German weapons, ammunition and equipment, smuggling data on German concentration camps and prisons, and organization of transports of POWs who escaped German POW camps via
11448-485: The Great launched several expeditions against the Prussians. They destroyed many areas in Prussia, including Truso and Kaup, but failed to dominate the population totally. A Viking ( Varangian ) presence in the area was "less than dominant and very much less than imperial." According to a legend, recorded by Simon Grunau , the name Prussia is derived from Pruteno (or Bruteno), the chief priest of Prussia and brother of
11607-598: 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 Queen Maria Theresa if the province were turned over to him. The offer
11766-797: The Lutheran Ducal Prussia . Brandenburg Electors obtained the separation of the Duchy of Prussia from Poland in 1660, taking advantage of the Russo-Swedish Deluge , and merged it with the Electorate of Brandenburg to form Brandenburg-Prussia , shortly thereafter becoming the Kingdom of Prussia . Subsequently, it entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories of Royal Prussia, annexing and dividing it, with its bulk (including Pomerelia and
11925-707: The Middle Ages were first called Bruzi in the brief text of the Bavarian Geographer and have since been referred to as Old Prussians , who, beginning in 997 AD, repeatedly defended themselves against conquest attempts by the newly created Duchy of the Polans . The territories of the Old Prussians and the neighboring Curonians and Livonians were politically unified in the 1230s under the State of
12084-591: The Polish king, caused the Thirteen Years' War which ultimately led to the Second Peace of Thorn , when most of the region and was reclaimed by Poland and henceforth formed the bulk of Royal Prussia . With the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) , the territory of the Monastic State was divided into eastern and western parts. The western part became the province of Royal Prussia (later also part of
12243-546: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist and a large area (including Warsaw ) to the south and east of East Prussia became part of Prussia. Most of the new territories (and the part of South Prussia north of the Vistula ) were organised into the province of New East Prussia ; South Prussia gained the area immediately south of the Vistula, Narew and Bug , including Warsaw; a small area to
12402-412: The Prussian ambassador to France. Bismarck took office on 23 September 1862. Although Bismarck had a reputation as an unyielding conservative, he initially inclined to seek a compromise over the budget issue. However, William refused to consider it; he viewed defence issues as the crown's personal province. Forced into a policy of confrontation, Bismarck came up with a novel theory. Under the constitution,
12561-444: The Prussian regional identity an easy target for the Polish authorities, interpreted as undermining future security and territorial integrity of Poland. The policy achieved its goals, and the name Prussia is nowadays used in Polish official documents and colloquial language almost exclusively in historical context, when referring to Royal Prussia , the Free State of Prussia and its preceding entities (the (post-1466) Monastic Prussia ,
12720-666: The Prussian state, ultimately boosting their national self-awareness and eliciting their national resistance against Prussian rule. Following the French Revolution and the Execution of Louis XVI , Prussia declared war on the French First Republic . When Prussian troops attempted to invade France, they were beaten back and the Treaty of Basel (1795) ended the War of the First Coalition . In it,
12879-581: The Slavic Poles. The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Władysław I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Both times, as well as in 1339, the Teutonic Knights were ordered by the Pope to return Pomerelia and other lands back to Poland, but did not comply. The conquered Danzig (Gdańsk) joined
13038-609: The State of Prussia was perceived as a primary driving force for the Partitions of Poland with subsequent persecution and attempted Germanization of Poles , politically dominated by the Prussian Junkers with strong anti-Polish sentiment , and finally, the German Province of East Prussia was regarded as an area of persecutions against Polish-speaking minority (Warmians, Masurians, Powiślans), but most importantly as
13197-399: The Teutonic Order . The former kingdom and later state of Prussia (1701–1947) derived its name from the region. The Teutonic Knights invaded and annexed the region of Pomerelia from Poland into their monastic state , which already included historical Prussia, located east of the region. After the acquisition of Pomerelia in 1308–1310, the meaning of the term Prussia was widened in
13356-421: The aristocracy and urban burghers initially highly Germanised as a result of earlier Teutonic policies, but gradually shifting towards Polish in the later years, while the peasantry continued as predominantly Kashubian- and Polish-speaking West of Vistula ; the part East of Vistula was predominantly German-speaking, with decreasing number of Old Prussian and increasing number of Polish minorities. A small area in
13515-599: The bishops retained the secular rule over about one third of the diocesan territory: all suffragan dioceses under the Archbishopric of Riga . Christian was supposed to choose one of them, but did not agree to the division. He possibly retired to the Cistercians Abbey in Sulejów , where he died before the conflict was solved. The city of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad ) was founded in 1255, and joined
13674-593: The bulk (including entire Warmia and most of Masuria) remained within the Free State of Prussia , a successor of the Kingdom of Prussia and a constituent part of the German Weimar Republic , following the 1920 East Prussian plebiscite . Since its conquest by the Soviet Army with evacuation and expulsion of the German-speaking inhabitants in 1945 in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement ,
13833-602: The capital Berlin , which was only 80 km (50 mi) away. The Great Northern War was the first major conflict in which the Kingdom of Prussia was involved. Starting in 1700, the war involved a coalition led by Tsarist Russia against the dominant North European power at the time, the Swedish Empire . Crown Prince Frederick William tried in 1705 to get Prussia involved in the war, stating "best Prussia has her own army and makes her own decisions." His views, however, were not considered acceptable by his father, and
13992-730: The city's Park Cytadela . Most of the fortifications were demolished, although some structures were preserved. The site is listed as one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments ( Pomnik historii ), as designated November 28, 2008, along with other portions of the city's historic core. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland . 52°25′16″N 16°56′07″E / 52.4211°N 16.9353°E / 52.4211; 16.9353 Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia ( German : Königreich Preußen , pronounced [ˈkøːnɪkʁaɪç ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ) constituted
14151-567: The course of a few months in 1756–1757, he began a Third Silesian War and 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
14310-580: The course of the War of the Second Coalition against France (1799–1802), Napoleon Bonaparte urged Prussia to occupy Hanover. In 1801, 24,000 Prussian soldiers invaded, surprising Hanover, which surrendered without a fight. In April 1801 the Prussian troops arrived in Bremen-Verden's capital Stade and stayed there until October that year. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland first ignored Prussia's hostility, but when it joined
14469-436: The crown of a united Germany. Frederick William refused the offer on the grounds that revolutionary assemblies could not grant royal titles. But he also refused for two other reasons: 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
14628-531: The declining Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as new powers in Europe. The Great Elector had incorporated the Junkers , the landed aristocracy, into the kingdom's bureaucracy and military machine, giving them a vested interest in the Prussian Army and compulsory education . King Frederick William I inaugurated the Prussian compulsory conscription system in 1717. In 1740, King Frederick II (Frederick
14787-459: The dominant state in this new entity, with four-fifths of its territory and population—more than the other members of the confederation combined. Its near-total control was cemented in a constitution written by Bismarck. Executive power was vested in a president —a hereditary office of the rulers of Prussia. He was assisted by a chancellor responsible only to the president. There was also a bicameral parliament. The lower house, or Reichstag (Diet),
14946-472: The driving force behind establishing in 1866 the North German Confederation , transformed in 1871 into the unified German Empire and considered the earliest continual legal predecessor of today's Federal Republic of Germany . The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War but many of its laws were later used in
15105-474: The early medieval period, but these populations would probably have undergone Slavicization before the 10th century. The territory was identified as Brus in the 8th-century map of the Bavarian Geographer and Bruzze/Pruzze/Przze in the Dagome iudex . Adam of Bremen mentions Prussians as Prusos/Pruzzi in 1072., while Gallus Anonymous mentions Prussia in his Gesta principum Polonorum in 1113. In
15264-427: The eastern part of the region, and initiated German colonization to change the region's ethnic composition. The Province of East Prussia (the original Prussia) and the annexed Polish territories turned into the Province of West Prussia were merged in 1829 to form a single Province of Prussia , a part of the kingdom remaining outside of Germany until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 during
15423-472: The electors of Brandenburg also inherited the Duchy of Prussia , since 1511 ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hohenzollern. In 1525, Albrecht of Brandenburg , the last grand master of the Teutonic Order , secularized his territory and converted it into a duchy. It was ruled in a personal union with Brandenburg, known as " Brandenburg-Prussia ". A full union was not possible, since Brandenburg
15582-557: The empire and the Hohenzollerns were fully sovereign over it, he could elevate Prussia to a kingdom. Emperor Leopold I , keen to secure Frederick's support in the impending War of the Spanish Succession , acquiesced. The style "King in Prussia" was adopted to acknowledge the legal fiction that the Hohenzollerns were legally kings only in their former duchy. In Brandenburg and the portions of their domains that were within
15741-460: The empire, they continued to use the additional title of Elector of Brandenburg until the empire was dissolved. It was not until 1772 that the title "King of Prussia" was adopted, following the acquisition of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland . The Kingdom of Prussia was still recovering from the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and poor in natural resources. Its territory
15900-469: The failed Greater Poland uprising (1848) ), the Provinces of West Prussia and East Prussia (merged in the years 1829 to 1878 to form a single Province of Prussia ) remained outside of the German Confederation (thus of Germany) until the creation of the North German Confederation in 1866 at the start of the unification of Germany . Outside of the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany, Pomerelia
16059-613: The first half of the 13th century, Bishop Christian of Prussia recorded the history of a much earlier era. In Neo-Latin the area is called Borussia and its inhabitants Borussi . After the Christianisations of the West Slavs in the 10th century, the state of the Polans was established and there were first attempts at conquering and baptizing the Baltic peoples. Bolesław I Chrobry sent Adalbert of Prague in 997 on
16218-549: The former East Prussia. The designation of Kaliningrad Oblast was promoted by the Soviet authorities in the case of the Russian part of the territory, instead. The policy was embraced by the Polish population who had hardly any sympathy for the legacy of Prussia, partially due to numerous attempts throughout history to annex various Polish territories with their subsequent artificial renaming as another part of Prussia in order to imply their originally Prussian history (see above), while
16377-527: The former Klaipėda Region were fired from their jobs and otherwise discriminated against. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Prussian Lithuanians and their descendants did not regain lost property in the Klaipėda region. Prussia as a political entity was abolished on 25 February 1947 by decree of the Allied Control Council . The decree declared that Prussia from early days had been
16536-408: The fundamental law of the kingdom. However, Bismarck's real plan was an accommodation with liberalism. Although he had opposed German unification earlier in his career, he had now come to believe it inevitable. To his mind, the conservative forces had to take the lead in the drive toward creating a unified nation in order to keep from being eclipsed. He also believed that the middle-class liberals wanted
16695-438: The governments of Berlin and Brandenburg proposed to merge the states in order to form a new state with the name of "Berlin-Brandenburg", though some suggested calling the proposed new state "Prussia", in spite of the territories being located far away from the region of Prussia. The merger was rejected in a plebiscite in 1996 – while West Berliners voted for a merger, East Berliners and Brandenburgers voted against it. In 1525,
16854-643: The greater good of Germany. They argued that Prussia, as by far the most powerful state with a majority of German-speakers, was best suited to lead the new nation. The establishment of the German Customs Union ( Zollverein ) in 1834, which excluded Austria, increased Prussian influence over the member states. In the wake of the Revolutions of 1848 , the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849 offered King Frederick William IV of Prussia
17013-400: The historically Polish Pomerelia (Vistula Pomerania) formed the newly established province of West Prussia , while the name Pomerania/Pomerelia was avoided by Prussian and later German authorities in relation to this region, aiming to eradicate its usage completely. The historically Prussian Warmia was in turn integrated into East Prussia . In contrast, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land and
17172-459: The idea. While Bismarck wanted Austria to play no future role in German affairs, he foresaw that Austria could be a valuable future ally. With these gains in territory, the Prussian possessions in the Rhineland and Westphalia became geographically connected to the rest of the kingdom for the first time. Counting the de facto annexation of Saxe-Lauenburg, Prussia now stretched uninterrupted across
17331-611: The imperial chancellor was, except for two periods (January–November 1873 and 1892–94) also prime minister of Prussia, this meant that for most of the empire's existence, the king/emperor and prime minister/chancellor had to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two completely different franchises. Prussia (region) Prussia ( Polish : Prusy [ˈprusɨ] ; Lithuanian : Prūsija ; Russian : Пруссия [ˈprusʲ(ː)ɪjə] ; Prussian : Prūsa ; German : Preußen [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ; Latin : Pruthenia / Prussia / Borussia )
17490-526: The king and the parliament were responsible for agreeing on the budget. Bismarck argued that since they had failed to come to an agreement, there was a "hole" in the constitution, and the government had to continue to collect taxes and disburse funds in accordance with the old budget in order to keep functioning. The government thus operated without a new budget from 1862 to 1866, allowing Bismarck to implement William's military reforms. The liberals violently denounced Bismarck for what they saw as his disregard for
17649-732: 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 . The Prussian reforms were a reaction to the Prussian defeat in 1806 and the Treaties of Tilsit. It describes a series of constitutional, administrative, social and economic reforms of the kingdom of Prussia. They are sometimes known as the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms after Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg , their main instigators. After
17808-462: The kingdom, aside from the provinces of East Prussia , West Prussia , and the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen but including the formerly Polish Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Draheim territory , became part of the new German Confederation , a confederacy of 39 sovereign states (including Austria and Bohemia) replacing the defunct Holy Roman Empire. Frederick William III submitted Prussia to
17967-431: The kingdom, became a military power under Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg , known as "The Great Elector". As a kingdom, Prussia continued its rise to power, especially during the reign of Frederick II "the Great" . Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), holding his own against Austria , Russia , France and Sweden and establishing Prussia's dominant role among
18126-548: The last Grand Master reigning in the State of the Teutonic Order , Albert of Brandenburg , a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern , adopted the Lutheran faith, resigned his position, and assumed the title of " Duke of Prussia ". In a deal partially brokered by Martin Luther , the Duchy of Prussia became the first Protestant state and a vassal of Poland. The ducal capital of Königsberg , now Kaliningrad , became
18285-578: The leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth . In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Elector Frederick William , swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland. Taking advantage of the fact that Ducal Prussia lay outside of the Holy Roman Empire , Frederick I achieved the elevation of the duchy to a kingdom in 1701, styling himself King in Prussia , because his kingdom included only part of historic Prussia, and
18444-530: The legendary king Widewuto , who lived in the 6th century. The regions of Prussia and the corresponding tribes are said to bear the names of Widewuto's sons — for example, Sudovia is named after Widewuto's son Sudo. The Old Prussians spoke a variety of languages, with Old Prussian belonging to the Western branch of the Baltic language group . Old Prussian, or related Western Baltic dialects, may have been spoken as far southeast as Masovia and even Belarus in
18603-458: The main réduit was finished in 1832. In 1834 three infantry battalions were garrisoned there. The third and fourth ravelins were finished in 1838 and 1839, completing the fort. On 15 October 1856 the bastions were renamed Bastion Johann , Bastion Leopold and Bastion Ludwig , these being the forenames of the chief architect of Festung Posen and of the fort itself, Johann Leopold Ludwig Brese (later von Brese–Winiary). Between 1865 and 1873 work
18762-495: The meaning of the designation of Prussia by transferring the northern part of Netze District , a fragment of Greater Poland detached from its bulk (the Grand Duchy of Posen ), to West Prussia , while the district's easternmost fragment was awarded to the Russian-ruled Congress Poland . Though the Kingdom of Prussia was a member of the German Confederation established by the Congress of Vienna as
18921-475: The most in taxes) included 4% of voters and the third class (with those who paid the least) had 82%, yet each group chose the same number of electors. The system all but assured dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population. The upper house, later renamed the Herrenhaus ("House of Lords"), was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority, and ministers were responsible only to him. As
19080-476: The name West Prussia was always regarded in Poland as an artificial German invention. In the case of East Prussia (the original Prussia), Polish authorities promoted using the designations of Powiśle in the case of Pomesania and Pogesania, approximately translated in English: “Vistula Plains” , Warmia in the case of the former Prince-Bishopric of Warmia and Masuria in the case of the remainder of Polish share of
19239-672: The name of Regierungsbezirk Zichenau , as well as of the Suwałki Region , both referred to as South East Prussia , in relation to the New East Prussia of the times of Polish Partitions (see above). At the same time, the Regierungsbezirk Westpreussen was separated from East Prussia and integrated into Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen . In the aftermath of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941,
19398-613: The name of the wider province, which, however, also included the Malbork Voivodeship and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , covering the Prussian historical areas of Pomesania , Pogesania and Warmia , the only actual Prussian territories of the province, while the rump Teutonic state, called the Monastic Prussia thereafter, formed a part of Poland as a fief, finally secularised in 1525 to become
19557-459: The northern two-thirds of Germany. It would remain at this size until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1918. Bismarck used this opportunity to end the budget dispute with parliament. He proposed a bill of indemnity granting him retroactive approval for governing without a legal budget. He guessed, correctly as it turned out, that this would lead to a split between his liberal adversaries. While some of them argued that there could be no compromise with
19716-485: The part of Royal Prussia east of Vistula, held along with the title King of Prussia by the King of Poland . While the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia legally continued until the end of the empire in 1806, from 1701 onward, Brandenburg was de facto treated as an integral part of the kingdom. Since the Hohenzollerns were nominally still subjects of the emperor within the parts of their domains that were part of
19875-584: The partially reluctant Lutheran majority formed the united Protestant Evangelical Church in Prussia . However, ensuing quarrels causing a permanent schism among the Lutherans into united and Old Lutherans by 1830. As a consequence of the Revolutions of 1848 , the Principalities of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen (ruled by a Catholic cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern) were annexed by Prussia in 1850, later united as
20034-593: The ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia to neutral Sweden . Beginning in 1944 with the East Prussian offensive of Soviet troops, the German-speaking population was evacuated . The province of East Prussia ceased to exist in 1945, following the Potsdam Agreement , when it was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union , with the latter dividing its part further between the Lithuanian SSR and
20193-645: The principle of constitutional government, most of the liberals decided to support the bill in hopes of winning more freedom in the future. The German Confederation was dissolved as part of the war. In its place, Prussia cajoled the 21 states north of the Main into forming the North German Confederation in 1866. Prussia entered the Confederation as a whole (including the East Prussian cradle of its statehood, as well as its share of dismembered Poland consisting of Province of Posen and West Prussia ), thus becoming
20352-597: The pro-French Second League of Armed Neutrality alongside Denmark–Norway and Russia, Britain started to capture Prussian sea vessels. After the Battle of Copenhagen the coalition fell apart and Prussia again withdrew its troops. At Napoleon's instigation, Prussia recaptured British Hanover and Bremen-Verden in early 1806. On 6 August that year the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved as a result of Napoleon's victories over Austria . The title of Kurfürst ( Prince-elector ) of Brandenburg became meaningless, and
20511-401: The region from Poland, integrating it into their monastic state , which already included historical Prussia, located east of the region. After the acquisition of Pomerelia in 1308–1310, the meaning of the term Prussia was widened in the German terminology to include areas west of the Vistula , including Vistula/Eastern Pomerania, although it was never inhabited by Baltic Prussians but by
20670-577: The region mostly for Polish prisoners, as well as several subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp , and several prisoner-of-war camps for Allied POWs, including Polish, Belgian, British, French , Dutch, Serbian, Italian, Soviet, Australian, Canadian, New Zealander, South African, such as Stalag I-A , Stalag I-B , Stalag I-C , Stalag I-D, Stalag XX-B , Stalag Luft VI and Oflags 52, 53, 60 and 63 with numerous forced labour subcamps. Many expelled Poles from German-occupied Poland were enslaved by
20829-465: The region of Prussia remains divided between northern Poland (most of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , and the four counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship east of Vistula ), Russia 's Kaliningrad exclave , and southwestern Lithuania (former Klaipėda Region ). Indo-European settlers first arrived in the region during the 4th millennium BC, which in the Baltic would diversify into the satem Balto-Slavic branch which would ultimately give rise to
20988-418: The ruling Electors of Brandenburg , in 1618, and Polish sovereignty over the duchy ended in 1657 with the Treaty of Wehlau . There was strong opposition to the separation of the region from Poland, especially in Königsberg. A confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over the city and region. The Brandenburg Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned
21147-565: The same man until the end of the monarchy. Bismarck's new empire was the most powerful state on the Continent. Prussia's dominance over the new empire was almost as absolute as it was with the North German Confederation. It included two-thirds of the empire's territory and three-fifths of its population. The imperial crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia also had a large plurality of seats in
21306-585: The south of South Prussia became New Silesia . With the Polish-Lithuanian state gone Prussia now shared its eastern borders with the Habsburg monarchy ( West Galicia ) and Russia ( Russian partition ). The Partitions were facilitated by the fact that they occurred just before the 19th-century rise of nationalism in Europe, and the national self-awareness was yet to be developed in most European peoples, especially among commoners. The Kingdom of Prussia
21465-522: The southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea in the 7th and 8th centuries. The largest trade centres of the Prussians, such as Truso and Kaup , seem to have absorbed a number of Norse people . Prussians used the Baltic Sea as a trading route, frequently travelling from Truso to Birka (in present-day Sweden ). At the end of the Viking Age , the sons of Danish kings Harald Bluetooth and Cnut
21624-570: The southern (city) side, flanked by four redoubts ( Redoute I and Redoute II to the west; Redoute IV and Redoute III to the east). At the eastern and western extremes were Ravelin I and Ravelin IV . The northern side of the fort consisted of (from west to east) Bastion I , Ravelin II , Bastion II , Ravelin III and Bastion III . The first and third redoubt were the first to be completed, in 1830, and
21783-555: The support of the Holy Roman Empire , and the Western nobility (e.g. French, English). The Teutonic Knights soon turned against their Polish benefactors in the same way, as they earlier did in Hungary. The Polish region of Pomerelia (including Gdańsk Pomerania and the city of Gdańsk as its parts) which was never inhabited by the Old Prussians , and which was called Pomorze ('Pomerania') in Polish language since
21942-746: The territory and its inhabitants. Pliny the Elder had already confirmed that the Romans had navigated into the waters beyond the Cimbric peninsula ( Jutland ). Suiones , Sitones , Goths and other Germanic people had temporarily settled to the east and west of the Vistula River during the Migration Period , adjacent to the Aesti , who lived further to the east. The region's inhabitants of
22101-464: The territory as Mentenomon and to the inhabitants as Guttones (neighbours of the Teutones , probably referring to the Goths ). A river to the east of the Vistula was called the Guttalus , perhaps corresponding to the Nemunas , the Łyna , or the Pregola . In AD 98 Tacitus described one of the tribes living near the Baltic Sea ( Latin : Mare Suebicum ) as Aestiorum gentes and amber -gatherers. The Vikings started to penetrate
22260-409: The time but conservative by today's—provided for a two-chamber parliament, the Landtag . The lower house, later known as the Abgeordnetenhaus , was elected by all males over the age of 25 using the Prussian three-class franchise . Voters were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid. In one typical election, the first class (with those who paid
22419-536: The title King of Prussia was still held by the Polish monarchs. Lithuanian culture thrived in the part of the region known as Lithuania Minor , while the Kursenieki lived along the coast in the vicinity of the Curonian and Vistula Spits . The Old Prussian language had mostly disappeared by 1700. The last speakers may have died in the plague and famine that ravaged Prussia in 1709 to 1711. In 1724, King Frederick William I of Prussia prohibited Poles , Samogitians and Jews from settling in Lithuania Minor in
22578-507: The west of Pomerelia, the Lębork and Bytów Land, was granted to the rulers of the Duchy of Pomerania as a Polish fief before it was reintegrated with Poland in 1637, and later again transformed into a Polish fief , which it remained along the Starostwo of Draheim until the First Partition of Poland . The realm of the King in Prussia established in 1701 from the former Ducal Prussia subsequently entered into an alliance with Austria and Russia, invading Polish territories of Royal Prussia. In
22737-517: Was able to instruct the Prussian delegates to the Bundesrat. The southern German states (except Austria) were forced to accept military alliances with Prussia, and Prussia began steps to merge them with the North German Confederation. Bismarck's planned Kleindeutschland unification of Germany had come considerably closer to realisation. The final act came with the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), where Bismarck maneuvered Emperor Napoleon III of France into declaring war on Prussia. Activating
22896-480: Was crushed, and Prussia annexed four of its smaller allies—the Kingdom of Hanover , the Electorate of Hesse , the Duchy of Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt . Prussia also annexed Schleswig and Holstein, and also effectively annexed Saxe-Lauenburg by forcing it into a personal union with Prussia (which was turned into a full union in 1876). King William initially wanted to take territory from Austria itself and annex Saxony, but Bismarck persuaded him to abandon
23055-464: Was disjointed, stretching 1,200 km (750 mi) from the lands of the Duchy of Prussia on the south-east coast of the Baltic Sea to the Hohenzollern heartland of Brandenburg , with the exclaves of Cleves , Mark and Ravensberg in the Rhineland . In 1708 about one third of the population of East Prussia died during the Great Northern War plague outbreak . The bubonic plague reached Prenzlau in August 1710 but receded before it could reach
23214-410: Was done to reinforce the fort's powder stores ( Kriegs-Pulver-Magazin No. 1 and No. 2). In the early 1890s an artillery laboratory ( Spezial-Kriegs-Laboratorium ) was built within the fort. In 1903 a telegraph station was added. The fort was further reinforced in 1910. Unlike the bulk of the city's inner fortifications, Fort Winiary was not demolished during the early twentieth century. It served as
23373-486: Was dropped. Nonetheless, King Frederick William III was now de jure as well as de facto sovereign of all of the Hohenzollern domains. Before this time, the Hohenzollern sovereign had held many titles and crowns, from Supreme Governor of the Protestant Churches ( summus episcopus ) to King, Elector, Grand Duke, Duke for the various regions and realms under his rule. After 1806 he was simply King of Prussia and summus episcopus . But when Prussia, after it turned against
23532-476: Was elected by universal male suffrage. The upper house, or Bundesrat (Federal Council) was appointed by the state governments. The Bundesrat was, in practice, the stronger chamber. Prussia had 17 of 43 votes and could easily control proceedings through alliances with the other states. For all intents and purposes, Bismarck dominated the new grouping. He served as his own foreign minister for virtually his entire tenure as prime minister of Prussia, and in that capacity
23691-507: Was essentially an enlarged Prussian army, and the embassies of the new empire were mostly old Prussian embassies. The Constitution of the German Empire was essentially an amended version of the constitution of the North German Confederation. However, the seeds for future problems lay in a gross disparity between the imperial and Prussian systems. The empire granted the vote to all men over 25, although Prussia retained its three-class franchise , in which votes were weighted by taxes paid. Since
23850-422: Was made restricting civilian building in a strip in front of the planned fort. In May and June 1830, the villages of Winiary and the nearby Bonin farm were evacuated, the inhabitants being moved to an area to the north-west ( Neu Winiary ). This is the neighbourhood known as Winiary today, part of the city's Jeżyce district (there is also an estate there named Bonin). The fort had a main reduit ( Kernwerk ) on
24009-403: Was not until 1713 that Frederick William ascended to the throne. Therefore, in 1715, Prussia, led by Frederick William, joined the coalition for various reasons, including the danger of being attacked from both her rear and the sea; her claims on Pomerania ; and the fact that if she stood aside and Sweden lost, she would not get a share of the territory. Prussia only participated in one battle,
24168-543: Was organised the following year into the Province of West Prussia ; most of the rest became the originally separate Netze District , which was attached to West Prussia in 1775. The boundary between West Prussia and the territory previously known as the Duchy of Prussia, now the Province of East Prussia was also adjusted, transferring Marienwerder to West Prussia (which became its capital) and Warmia (the Heilsberg and Braunsberg [ de ] districts) to East Prussia. The annexed territory connected East Prussia with
24327-417: Was perceived in Poland more as a nationality-neutral personal holding of the ruling House of Hohenzollern , rather than a German nation-state, and any anxiety concerned predominantly freedom to practice religion rather than rights to maintain national identity. The onset of Germanisation in the following decades, later joined by the Kulturkampf , quickly changed this benign picture and alienated Poles from
24486-424: Was reintegrated with Poland in 1466, the designation Pomerania was restored and used when referring to the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Gdańsk Pomerania) and the Chełmno Voivodeship , while the entire territory conquered by the Kingdom of Poland from the Teutonic Order was known as Royal Prussia . The latter also included, however, also the truly Prussian historical areas of Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , as well as
24645-441: Was rejected, but Austria faced several other opponents in a desperate struggle for survival, 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 Kingdom of Bohemia . He failed, but French pressure on Austria's ally Great Britain led to
24804-413: Was returned to the Lithuanian SRR, while the remaining territory, annexed by the Russian FSSR, was in turn named the Kaliningrad Oblast in 1946. The inhabitants not evacuated during the war were expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, with the exception of Polish minorities of Powiślans , Warmians and Masurians , considered to be of Polish descent. The situation was different, however, for
24963-399: 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 of 1866—also known as the Seven Weeks' War. Prussia, allied with the Kingdom of Italy and various northern German states, declared war on the Austrian Empire. The Austrian-led coalition
25122-462: Was still legally part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Prussia was a fief of Poland . The Teutonic Order had paid homage to Poland since 1466, and the Hohenzollerns continued to pay homage after secularizing Ducal Prussia. In the course of the Second Northern War , the treaties of Labiau and Wehlau-Bromberg granted the Hohenzollerns full sovereignty over the Prussian duchy by September 1657. In return for an alliance against France in
25281-415: Was termed Polish Pomerania ( Pomorze Polskie ) since at least the 18th century to distinguish it from Hither and Farther Pomerania , territories long outside of Polish rule. In the late 19th century this term was used in order to underline Polish claims to that area that was then ruled by the German Kingdom of Prussia . The designation of Polish Pomerania became obsolete since Farther Pomerania and
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