# 23
Prussia Part One
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Prussia (German: Preußen) was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg and centered on the region of Prussia.
For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army.
Prussia shaped the history of Germany, with its capital in Berlin after 1451.
In 1871, German states united in creating the German Empire under Prussian leadership.
Kingdom of Prussia
To avoid offending Poland, where a part of the old Prussia lay, Leopold I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire where most of the lands of Prussia lay, allowed Frederick only to title himself "King in Prussia", not "King of Prussia".
The state of Brandenburg-Prussia became commonly known as "Prussia", although most of its territory, in Brandenburg, Pomerania, and western Germany, lay outside of Prussia proper. The Prussian state grew in splendour during the reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury.
Frederick I was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713–1740) the austere "Soldier King", who did not care for the arts but was thrifty and practical.
He is considered the creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the professionalized standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe, although his troops only briefly saw action during the Great Northern War.
In view of the size of the army in relation to the total population, Mirabeau said later: Prussia, is not a state with an army, but an army with a state.
Also, Frederick William settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated eastern Prussia, which was eventually extended to the west bank of the River Memel, and other regions. In the treaty of Stockholm (1720), he acquired half of Swedish Pomerania.
King Frederick William I, "the Soldier-King"
The king died in 1740 and was succeeded by his son, Frederick II, whose accomplishments led to his reputation as "Frederick the Great".
As crown prince, Frederick had focused, primarily, on philosophy and the arts.
He was an accomplished flute player.
In 1740, Prussian troops crossed over the undefended border of Silesia and occupied Schweidnitz.
Silesia was the richest province of Habsburg Austria.
Silesia, full of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns, became a vital region to Prussia, greatly increasing the nation's area, population, and wealth.
Success on the battleground against Austria and other powers proved Prussia's status as one of the great powers of Europe.
The Silesian Wars began more than a century of rivalry and conflict between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states operating within the Holy Roman Empire (although, ironically, both had extensive territory outside the empire).
In 1744, the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following the extinction of its ruling Cirksena dynasty.
In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786, Frederick II, who understood himself as the "first servant of the state", promoted the development of Prussian areas such as the Oderbruch.
At the same time he built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia (1772), an act that geographically connected the Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper.
During this period, he also opened Prussia's borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe, such as 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, the first "King of Prussia", practiced enlightened absolutism.
He introduced a general civil code, abolished torture and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere in matters of justice.
He also promoted an advanced secondary education, the forerunner of today's German gymnasium (grammar school) system, which prepares the brightest pupils for university studies.
The Prussian education system was emulated in various countries, including the United States.
Reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernizing the Prussian state.
Among their reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the Emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them.
The school system was rearranged, and in 1818 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 its alliance with France 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 (with the British) in the Battle of Waterloo of June 1815 to the final victory over Napoleon.
Prussia's reward in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland, Westphalia, and some other territories.
These western lands were to be of vital importance because they included the Ruhr Area, the centre of Germany's fledgling industrialization, especially in the arms industry.
These territorial gains also meant the doubling of Prussia's population.
In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty.
Prussia emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the dominant power in Germany, overshadowing long-time rival Austria, which had abdicated the imperial crown in 1806.
In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation.
The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and conservatives, who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence.
One small movement that signaled a desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement, by students who encouraged the use of the black-red-gold flag, discussions of a unified German nation, and a progressive, liberal political system.
Because of Prussia's size and economic importance, smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s.
Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union (Zollverein), which included most German states but excluded Austria.
King Frederick William IV
In 1848, the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe.
Alarmed, King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution.
When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, he refused on the grounds that he would not accept a crown from a revolutionary assembly without the sanction of Germany's other monarchs.
The Frankfurt Parliament was forced to dissolve in 1849, and Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1850.
This conservative document provided for a two-house parliament.
The lower house, or Landtag was elected by all taxpayers, who were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid.
Women and those who paid no taxes had no vote.
This allowed just over one-third of the voters to choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population.
The upper house, which was 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 a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces.
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