Qualla: Kingdom of Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ivan1785-1725, CC BY-SA 4.0. There is no Prussia anymore. The Allied Control Council formally abolished it by decree in 1947, declaring that the state which had once dominated Central Europe was "a bearer of militarism and reaction" and would cease to exist. The kingdom that bore the name had already collapsed in November 1918 with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. But for 217 years before that — from the day Frederick III crowned himself King in Prussia at Königsberg on 18 January 1701 — Prussia was the state that taught Europe what discipline and conscription and bureaucracy could do when they were aimed at a single purpose. By 1871, that purpose was Germany itself.

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Image: Ivan1785-1725 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kingdom of Prussia: The Soldier-King and His Sons

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gustav Droysen, Public domain. Brandenburg-Prussia was a poor, scattered patchwork of territories around Berlin and across the Holy Roman Empire when the Hohenzollern dynasty took it in hand. Frederick William, the "Great Elector," started building the army that would define everything afterwards. His grandson...

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Image: Gustav Droysen | Public domain

Kingdom of Prussia: The Defeat That Made the Reform

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit O. Meinke, Public domain. In October 1806 Napoleon shattered the Prussian army at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt in a single day. The Treaties of Tilsit the following year stripped Prussia of about half its territory and left French troops occupying the rest at Prussian expense. Out of that humili...

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Image: O. Meinke | Public domain

Kingdom of Prussia: Bismarck's Three Wars

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Domen von Wielkopolska, CC BY-SA 4.0. Otto von Bismarck became Prussian Minister-President in September 1862, in the middle of a constitutional crisis with parliament over the army budget. His method of resolving it was to ignore parliament and proceed. Then he engineered three short wars in eight years: against Denm...

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Image: Domen von Wielkopolska | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kingdom of Prussia: The Three-Class Vote

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Domen von Wielkopolska, CC BY-SA 4.0. Prussia ran on a famously unequal franchise. Adult men over 25 could vote, but votes were weighted by taxes paid. The richest 4 percent of voters elected one-third of the Prussian House of Representatives. The poorest 82 percent elected another third. The system locked the landow...

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Image: Domen von Wielkopolska | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kingdom of Prussia: The End

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Deutsches_Reich1.png: kgberger derivative work: Wiggy! (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Defeat in the First World War cost Prussia its monarchy. Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November 1918 and fled to the Netherlands, where he died in 1941 having seen his cousin's regime overrun his country of refuge. The Free State of Prussia within the Weimar Republic was governed for...

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Image: Deutsches_Reich1.png: kgberger derivative work: Wiggy! (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0