Prussia

(Preussen), a state that arose as a result of military expansion by German feudal lords in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. A bulwark of reaction and militarism in Germany, Prussia was finally abolished after fascist Germany’s defeat in World War II.

Prussia evolved out of the Electorate of Brandenburg, created in the course of German feudal aggression against the Slavic peoples from the 12th century onward and out of the state established by the Teutonic Knights. In founding its state, the Knights fought wars of extermination against the Prussian tribes (from whom the name “Prussia” is derived) in the 13th century and seized Slavic, chiefly Polish, lands in the 14th century. At the beginning of the 16th century Albrecht of the Ho-henzollern dynasty, which had come to power in Brandenburg in 1415, was elected grand master of the Teutonic Knights. After the Thirteen Years’ War with Poland (1454–66) the Knights became a vassal of Poland; Prussia remained a fief dependency of Poland until the 1660’s.

In 1618 the united state of Brandenburg-Prussia was established under the rule of the Electors of Brandenburg. Its policies reflected the dynastic interests of the Hohenzollerns and the Junkers (owners of estates employing serf labor and producing for the market). The most oppressive forms of serfdom prevailed in Prussia. Militarism, a characteristic feature of Hohen-zollern policy, left its imprint on the subsequent history of Prussia. The Hohenzollerns took advantage of Germany’s fragmentation and the weakness of the small German principalities to enlarge their state at the expense not only of Slavic lands but also of German territories. In 1701 the elector Frederick III received the royal title from the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in return for a contingent of troops for the imminent War of the Spanish Succession. Brandenburg-Prussia became the Kingdom of Prussia.

During the reign of Frederick II, who ruled from 1740 to 1786, some two-thirds of the annual budget of the kingdom was allocated for military expenditures, and the Prussian Army became the largest in Western Europe. A militaristic, police-bureaucratic regime was established that ruthlessly suppressed any manifestation of free thinking. Prussia waged numerous wars of expansion. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), it seized most of Silesia. In the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) it sought to gain control of Saxony, the part of Pom-erania that was still free of Prussian domination, and Courland, and it hoped to strengthen its influence among the small German states, thereby undermining Austria’s influence. However, it suffered a major defeat by Russian troops at Gross Jägersdorf in 1757 and at the battle of Kunersdorf in 1759. In 1760, Russian troops occupied Berlin, the Prussian capital. Disaster was averted only because of disagreements among Prussia’s greatest enemies (Austria, Russia, and France) and the accession to the Russian throne of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as Peter III after the death of Elizaveta Petrovna in 1761. Peter III made peace and formed an alliance with Frederick II.

During the last third of the 18th century, Prussia, together with tsarist Russia and Austria, took part in three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of which Prussia seized Poznań, central Poland (including Warsaw), Gdańsk, Toruń, and a number of other areas. By the end of the 18th century the Hohenzollerns had increased Prussia’s territory to more than 300,000 sq km.

During the Great French Revolution, Prussia and Austria formed the nucleus of the first anti-French coalition of European monarchies in 1792. However, after several defeats Prussia was compelled to sign the Treaty of Basel with France in 1795. In 1806, soon after Prussia joined the fourth anti-French coalition, the Prussian Army was defeated by Napoleon at the battles of Jena and Auerstädt. By the Treaty of Tilsit, concluded in 1807, Prussia lost about half of its territory. Prussia’s defeat, vividly demonstrating the rottenness of the Prussian state and feudal serf-owning system, prompted H. F. K. vom und zum Stein and K. A. von Hardenberg to introduce several bourgeois reforms, such as granting the peasants their personal freedom in 1807. A military reform proposed by G. von Scharn-horst and A. W. A. von Gneisenau was also implemented. The reform prepared the way for the introduction of compulsory military service for almost the entire adult male population.

In 1812 the Prussian government, betraying the country’s national interests, sent contingents to take part in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. The defeat of Napoleon’s army in Russia sparked the German people’s war of liberation against the Napoleonic oppression. By the Vienna peace settlement in 1815, Prussia received two-fifths of the territory of Saxony, as well as lands along the Rhine (the Rhineland and Westphalia). Its population now exceeded 10 million. A customs union (Zollvereiri) that included many German states was established in 1834. The union was dominated by Prussia.

During the spring of 1848 a bourgeois-democratic revolution broke out in Prussia, as in a number of other German states. The main issue was the unification of the country on a democratic basis. The revolutionaries believed that this process could be carried out consistently and fully only by establishing a unified democratic republic in Germany. Such a move, however, was opposed by the Prussian ruling circles. For this reason, K. Marx and F. Engels advocated the abolition of the Prussian state, calling upon German democrats to come to the defense of the Poles so that together they might liberate both nations. The Prussian military elite, however, crushed the Polish liberation uprising in Poznań and later dealt harshly with the German revolutionary and democratic forces. The Revolution of 1848–49 in Germany did not succeed in overthrowing the monarchy and the reactionary forces.

An antidemocratic constitution was introduced in Prussia in 1850, remaining in effect until 1918. In the interest of the Junkers a law was passed permitting the peasants to buy their release from feudal obligations. The development of capitalism in agriculture along the “Prussian path” brought great misery upon the peasants. The Prussian government, headed by O. von Bismarck from 1862, persistently strove to establish Prussian domination in Germany. The Prussian rulers helped the tsarist government suppress the Polish liberation uprising in 1863–64, in return for which tsarist Russia did not oppose Prussia’s struggle for hegemony in Germany. In 1864, Prussia and Austria began a war with Denmark, seizing Schleswig-Holstein. Two years later Prussia fought a war with Austria and the small German states allied with Austria. At the end of the war, known as the Seven Weeks’ War, Prussia annexed Hanover, Hesse-Cas-sel, Nassau, Schleswig-Holstein, and Frankfurt am Main. By defeating Austria, Prussia eliminated its rival in the struggle for dominance in Germany and paved the way for the unification of Germany under its leadership. In 1867, Prussia created the North German Confederation.

In 1870–71, Prussia waged a war against France, as a result of which it seized the French regions of Alsace and eastern Lorraine and received an indemnity of 5 billion francs. The formation of the German Empire was proclaimed on Jan. 18, 1871. Prussia maintained its dominant position in the unified Germany. The Prussian king was simultaneously the German emperor, and the Prussian prime minister until 1918 usually occupied the post of imperial chancellor as well as that of Prussian minister of foreign affairs. The Prussian system, becoming firmly established in the German Empire, manifested itself with particular force under imperialism. Prussian German militarists played an enormous role in unleashing World War I.

During the November Revolution of 1918 in Germany the Hohenzollern dynasty was overthrown, but the dominant position of the monopolies and the Junkers was untouched. Prussia became one of the states (Länder) in the Weimar Republic, but it retained its hold on the country’s economic and political life. With the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in Germany in January 1933, the Prussian state machinery merged with that of the Third Reich. Along with the rest of Germany, Prussia was converted to fascism.

The defeat of fascist Germany in World War II and the abolition of the German fascist state, which had embodied in an extreme form the worst traits of Prussian German imperialism and militarism, dealt a strong blow to the forces of reaction and militarism in Germany. In accordance with the decisions reached at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) and the adjacent region were transferred to the Soviet Union, and Poland was given its original lands east of the Oder and Western Neisse, areas that Prussia had taken from Poland. Among these lands was the greater part of East Prussia, which over the centuries had been the bridgehead for German aggression against Russia and Poland. Prussian territory west of the Oder and Western Neisse remained within Germany.

Radical socioeconomic changes were carried out in 1945–46 on the Prussian territory that was included in the Soviet occupation zone. Agrarian reforms and the nationalization of large-scale industry removed the Junkers and monopolists from the economic and political life of the eastern part of Germany. Measures were taken to assure demilitarization, denazification, and democratization. On Feb. 25, 1947, the Allied Control Council in Germany adopted a law abolishing the Prussian state.