Prussia

A DESCRIPTION OF PRUSSIA IN 1829

The Prussians were not Germanic nor Slavic, and, like the Kashubians, they resisted the intruding Germans. Rather, the Pruzzen (Prusai) were a Baltic Tribe -- related to the Latvians and Lithuanians. When the Poles began to invade the area of the Pruzzen tribe around 992, the tribes fought back. Considered a "heathen race," the German Teutonic Knights were sent in to the area in 1226 to conquer/convert the Pruzzen or eject them from the land. The indigenous Baltic Pruzzen tribe occupied the area of what became East Prussia. From time to time they fought the Poles and Teutonic Knights but managed to stand their ground. It's interesting that the Pruzzen tribe united with the Kashubian tribe to fight the Knights. For a time they both regained and kept their land, but the Knights were bringing in German settlers from the west. By the early 1300s, many new villages were established and all were under German Law. The Kaszubi and Pruzzen tribes resisted Germanization, but the Kaszubians retained their identity and the Pruzzen did not. In time, some Pruzzen's fled to the east or south. Those who stayed and were not annihilated began to merge with the German settlers brought in by the Knights. By 1600, the old Baltic Pruzzen language became extinct. Prussian surnames differ greatly from the German surnames of other more German ethnic areas. Some Prussian names are Slavic in their derivation. Place or field names of Baltic Pruzzen origin have been found father west in the medieval Duchy of East Pomerania, etc., the heart of which became Kashubia, so it is believed the Pruzzen moved around a bit.

Source: Geographical View of the World embracing the Manners, Customs and Pursuits of Every Nation founded on The Best Authorities. By Rev. J. Goldsmith, 2nd Edition, 1829.

PRUSSIA

Prussia began as a small territory in what was later called East Prussia, which is now divided into the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave of Russia, and the Klaipeda Region of Lithuania. Before its abolition, the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia included West and East Prussia, Brandenburg, the Province of Saxony, Pomerania, Rhineland, Westphalia, Silesia, Lusatia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Nassau, and part of the south of Hohenzollern. Prussia was predominantly a Protestant German state. There were substantial Roman Catholic populations in the Rhineland and parts of Westphalia, as well as West Prussia, Warmia, Silesia, and the province of Posen. The area of Greater Poland became the Province of Posen after the Partitions of Poland. Poles in this Polish-majority province resisted German rule. Also, the southeast portion of Silesia had a large Polish population. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 the Second Polish Republic regained these two areas, but also areas with a German majority in the Province of West Prussia. After World War II, East Prussia, Silesia, most of Pomerania, and part of Brandenburg were taken over by either the Soviet Union or Poland.

EARLY HISTORY

In 1226, Duke Konrad I invited the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders. During 60 years of struggles against the Old Prussians, the order created an independent state which came to control Prussia. After 1237, they also controlled what is now Latvia, Estonia and western Lithuania. The knights were initially close with the Polish Crown, but this relationship deteriorated after they conquered Polish-claimed Pomerelia and Danzig, a town mainly populated by German settlers. The Knights were defeated in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 by Poland and Lithuania.

The Thirteen Years' War (1454-1466) began when the Prussian Confederation, a coalition of Hanseatic cities of western Prussia, rebelled against the Teutonic Knights and requested help from the Polish King. The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland, losing western Prussia to Poland.

In 1525, Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a branch of the House of Hohenzollern, became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order's remaining Prussian territories into the Duch of Prussia. This was the area east of the mouth of the Vistula River. For the first time, these lands were in the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg to the west. Brandenburg and Prussia were unified two generations later when Anna, granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Albert Frederick, married her cousin, Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg. When Albert Frederick died in 1618, with no male heirs, John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia. The resulting state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia, consisted of territories in Prussia, Brandenburg, and the Rhenish lands of Cleves and Mark.

During the Thirty years' War, the lands were repeatedly marched across by various armies, especially the Swedes. Finally, Frederick William (1640-1688) reformed the army to defend the land. Frederick William rendered homage to King Wladyslaw IV Vasa of Poland and he was given full sovereignty over Prussia (which had been a fief of the Polish Crown), in 1657.

KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA

On January 18, 1701, Frederick William's son, Frederick III, upgraded Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom, and crowned himself King Frederick I. The state of Brandenberg-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 during the reign of Frederick I. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713-1740) the "Soldier King". He is considered the creator of the famed Standing Army. This Army was one of the most powerful in Europe. Frederick William settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in eastern Prussia. He acquired Western Pomerania from Sweden in 1720.

In 1740, Frederick William was succeeded by his son, Frederick II, also known as "Frederick the Great". He ordered the Prussian Army to march into Silesia, a possession of Habsburg Austria to which the Hohenzollerns laid claim based on an old and disputed treaty of succession. In the three Silesian Wars (1740-1763) Frederick succeeded in conquering Silesia from Austria and holding his new possession. In the last, the Seven Years' War, he held it against a coalition of Austria, France, and Russia. Silesia greatly increased the area, population, and wealth of Prussia. 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.

In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786, Frederick II 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 from France. Frederick the Great, the first "King of Prussia", 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 students for university studies. The Prussian education system became emulated in various countries.

During the reign of King Frederick William II (1786-1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory. His successor, Frederick William III (1797-1840), announced the union of the Prussian Lutheran and Reformed churches into one church.

Prussia went to war with France in 1806 as negotiations with that country over the allocation of the spheres of influence in Germany failed. Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon's troops in the battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Under the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, the state lost about half of its area, including the areas gained from the second and third Partitions of Poland. These lands now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw. Because of this defeat, reformers set about modernizing the Prussian state. Some of these reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the emancipation of Jews (making them full citizens) and self-administration in municipalities. The schools were rearranged, free trade was introduced, and in 1813, compulsory military service was introduced. After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, Prussia quit its alliance with France and took part in the Wars of Liberation against the French occupation. Napoleon was defeated in 1815. Prussia's reward was the recovery of the lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland, Westphalia and other territories. These western lands were important because they included the Ruhr area, the center of industrialization. Prussia's population doubled. In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under the Russians. Prussia was a dominant power in Germany again and in 1815 it became part of the German Confederation.

During the first half of the 1800's, there was a 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 states. The liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe in 1848. King Frederick William IV convened a National Assembly and created a constitution. The Frankfurt parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, but he refused. The Frankfurt parliament dissolved in 1849 and Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1850. This was a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Landtag, was elected by all taxpayers and assured dominance by the more well-to-do men. The upper house (Herrenhaus) was appointed by the king. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces. In 1862 King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck was determined to defeat both the liberals and the conservatives by creating a strong united Germany but under the domination of the Prussian ruling class and bureaucracy, not a liberal democracy. Bismarck realized that the Prussian crown could win the support of the people only if he himself took the lead in the fight for the German unification. So he guided Prussia through three wars which together brought William the position of German Emperor.

THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR

The Austro Prussian War (1866) was triggered by the dispute over Schleswig and Holstein. On the side of Austria were: Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Saxony and Hanover. On the side of Prussia were Italy, most northern German states, and some smaller central German states. The Prussians won the victory at the battle of Koniggratz. In the Peace of Prague in 1866, Prussia annexed Austria's allies: Hannover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, Frankfurt, and Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia now stretched virtually uninterrupted across the northern two-thirds of Germany and contained two-thirds of Germany's population. The German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia cajoled the 21 states north of the Main River into forming the North German Confederation. Prussia was the dominant state in the new confederation

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

The controversy with the Second French Empire over the candidacy of a Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne was escalated both by France and Bismarck. Bismarck took advantage of an incident in which the French ambassador had approached William. The government of Napoleon III, expecting another civil war among the German states, declared war against Prussia. Honoring their treaties, the German states joined forces and quickly defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Following victory under Bismarck's and Prussia's leadership, Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria accepted incorporation into a united German Empire.

GERMAN EMPIRE

The two decades after the unification of Germany were the peak for Prussia. But, the seeds for potential strife were built into the Prusso-German political system. The constitution of the German Empire assured Prussia's dominance over the empire. Prussia included three-fifths of its territory and two-thirds of its population. The Imperial German Army was an enlarged Prussian army. The imperial crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern, the royal house of Prussia. The prime minister of Prussia was, except for two brief periods (January-November 1873 and 1892-94), also imperial chancellor. While all men above age 25 were eligible to vote in imperial elections, Prussia retained its restrictive three-class voting system. This effectively required the king/emperor and prime minister/chancellor to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two completely different franchises. In both the kingdom and the empire, the original constituencies were never redrawn to reflect changes in population, meaning that rural areas were grossly over-represented by the turn of the century.

Frederick III may have been a leader in Bismarck's mold, but he was already terminally ill when he became emperor for 99 days in 1888 upon the death of his father. He was married to Victoria, the first daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, but their first son William suffered physical and possibly mental damage during birth. At age 29, William became Emperor William II after a difficult youth and conflicts with his British mother. He turned out to be a man of limited experience, narrow and reactionary views, poor judgment, and occasional bad temper, which alienated former friends and allies. William, who was a close relative of the British and Russian royal families, became their rival and ultimately their enemy.

After forcing Bismarck out in 1890, William embarked on a program of militarization and adventurism in foreign policy that eventually led Germany into isolation. A misjudgment of the conflict with Serbia by the emperor, who left for holidays, and the hasty mobilization plans of several nations led to the disaster of World War I (1914–1918). As the price of their withdrawal from the war, the Bolsheviks conceded large regions of the western Russian Empire, some of which bordered Prussia, to German. German control of these territories lasted only for a few months, however, because of the defeat of German military forces by the western Allies and the German Revolution. The post-war Treaty of Versailles held Germany solely responsible for the war.

FREE STATE OF PRUSSIA IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Because of the German Revolution of 1918, William II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. Prussia was proclaimed a "Free State" (German: Freistaat) within the new Weimar Republic and in 1920 received a democratic constitution. All of Germany's territorial losses, specified in the Treaty of Versailles, were areas that had been part of Prussia. These were: Alsace Lorraine to France; Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium; North Schleswig to Denmark; the Memel Territory to Lithuania; the Hultschin area to Czechoslovakia. Posen, West Prussia and Upper Silesia went to the Second Polish Republic. Danzig became a free city under administration of the League of Nations. Now, there was no longer land connecting East Prussia and the rest of the country and now East Prussia could only be reached by ship or by railway through the Polish Corridor. The German Government considered braking up Prussia into smaller states, but traditionalist sentiment prevailed and Prussia became the largest state of the Weimar Republic.

From 1919 to 1932, Prussia was governed by a coalition of Social Democrats, Catholic Centre, and German Democrats. From 1921 to 1925, coalition governments included the German People's Party. In East Prussia, and some industrial areas, the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) of Adolf Hitler gained more influence and support, especially from the lower middle class. Prussia was a pillar of democracy in the Weimar Republic. This system was destroyed by the Preussenschlag (Prussian Coup) of Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. the Government of the Reich unseated the Prussian government on July 20, 1932 saying that the government had lost control of public order in Prussia. Papen took control of the government. The preussenschlag made it easier, only half a year later, for Adolf Hitler to take power in Germany, since he had the whole apparatus of the Prussian government, including the police at his disposal.

THE END OF PRUSSIA

After the appointment of Hitler as the new chancellor, the Nazis used the opportunity of the absence of Franz von Papen to appoint Hermann Goring federal commissioner for the Prussian ministry of the interior. In a propaganda-filled meeting between Hitler and the Nazi Party, the "marriage of old Prussia with young Germany" was celebrated, to win over the Prussian monarchists, conservatives, and nationalists and induce them to vote for the Enabling Act of 1933. The states were dissolved and the federal state governments were not controlled by governors for the Reich, appointed by the chancellor. Hitler became the governor of Prussia as well. The Prussian lands transferred to Poland after the Treaty of Versailles were re-annexed during World War II. With the end of National Socialist rule in 1945 came the division of Germany into Zones of Occupation, and the transfer of control of everything east of the Oder-Neisse line (including Silesia, Farther Pomerania, Eastern Brandenburg, and southern East Prussia), to Poland, with the northern third of East Prussia, including Konigsberg going to the Soviet Union. An estimated ten million Germans fled or were expelled from these territories as part of the German exodus from Eastern Europe. In Law #46 of February 25, 1947, the Allied Control Council formally proclaimed the dissolution of the remains of the Prussian State.

In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, which became East Germany in 1949, the former Prussian territories were reorganized into the states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. The remaining parts of the Province of Pomerania went to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the Western Zones of occupation, which became West Germany in 1949, the former Prussian territories were divided up among North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Schleswig-Holstein. Wurttemberg-Baden and Wurttenberg-Hohenzollern were later merged with Baden to create the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. After German reunification in 1990, a plan was developed to merge the States of Berlin and Brandenburg. Though some suggested calling the proposed new state "Prussia", no final name was proposed, and the combined state would probably have been called either "Brandenburg" or "Berlin-Brandenburg". However this proposed merger was rejected in 1996 by popular vote, achieving a majority of votes only in former West Berlin.

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WEST PRUSSIA

In the Thirteen Years' War (1454-1466, the towns of Pomerlia and western Prussia rebelled against the Teutonic Knights and sought the assistance of King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland. In the Peace of Torun in 1466, Pomerelia and western Prussia became the Polish province of Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained with the Teutonic Knights. This territory became the Duchy of Prussia in 1525. Most of Royal Prussia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772, and became the Province of West Prussia the following year, with the exception of Warmia which was joined with eastern Prussia to form the Province of East Prussia. In the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city of Danzig was annexed into the Kingdom of Prussia and added to West Prussia. some of the areas of Greater Poland annexed in 1772 were added to West Prussia in 1793 as well.

During the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, southern parts of West Prussia were moved to the Duchy of Warsaw. From 1824-1878 West Prussia was combined with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, and they were later reestablished as separate provinces. The entire region became part of the German Empire in 1871.

After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, most of West Prussia was granted to the Second Polish Republic, while small parts of the west and east of the former province remained in Weimar Germany. The western remainder formed Posen-West Prussia in 1922, while the eastern remainder became part of the District of West Prussia within East Prussia. In 1945, after World War II, all of former West Prussia was placed under the administration of Poland. The remaining German population of the region was expelled westward and replaced with Poles.

In West Prussia, the Agricultural industry employs 30.7% of the population of West Prussia, manufacturing 17.7%, trade 6.7%, and 44.9% work in other fields. The area devoted to agriculture, gardens, meadows and pasture is 71.5% of the whole territory. Poultry farming is highly developed, as is the dairy industry. (Other occupations discussed at some length were: beekeeping, fishing, milling, the sugar industry). Other flourishing trades are: tanning, dyeing, printing, distilling, brewing, metallurgy, and pottery.

Some of my ancestors came from the Kreis Rosenberg area (Seegenau, Peterkau and Gros Herzogswalde). This area was primarily agricultural. It was the corn breadbasket of Germany. Kreis Rosenberg had a population of 50,000 in 1880. But there were only 4 towns that were "large", i.e., 1,000 to 2,000 people. All the rest were villages. Most were not really independent villages; they were places of residence on landed estates. After railroads were built, and health care and better standards of living came out of the cities onto the farms, the infant survival rate increased enough to alarm landlords, who were obligated to house and feed all who lived on a farm or estate (Gut, Vorwerk). So, the owners/managers simply forbade marriage among their workers! People had babies anyway, and the illegitimacy rate increased to a high as 15% in some places. Also, it was typical that men in the army were not permitted to marry. Since wars in the mid and later 19th century were frequent and long, there were additional illegitimate births. There were consequences, such as restricted legal and work rights. For instance, a guild in a town probably would not allow someone of illegitimate birth to join, but the guilds did not let anyone not born in town join anyway.

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EAST PRUSSIA

East Prussia was located along the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, where it enclosed the bulk of the ancestral lands of the now-extinct Old Prussians. It consisted of the territory of the Duchy of Prussia, which entered into a union with the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg in 1618. The Prince-Electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. After the annexation of most of Polish Royal Prussia in the First partition of Poland in 1772, the territory of the Duchy of Prussia was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia.

Between 1829 and 1878 East Prussia was joined with West Prussia in the Province of Prussia. The Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. The Treaty of Versailles, following World War I, made East Prussia an exclave from the rest of Germany. Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, the territory was partitioned between Russia, Poland and Lithuania. The East Prussian capital of Konigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was evacuated during the war, but several hundreds of thousands died during 1944-1946, and the remainder were expelled.

From the latter half of the 13th century to the 15th century, the crusading Teutonic Knights ruled over the lands of Prussia. Their expansionist policies brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Poland. There were several wars, and eventually Poland and Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Order in 1410. Western Prussia was left under Polish control as the province of Royal Prussia and eastern Prussia remained under the knights, but as a fief of Poland.

The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when, with the advance of Lutheranism, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525, after having converted to Lutheran Protestantism, establishing himself as Duke Albert of Prussia. Albert's line died out in 1618, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia.

Kingdom of Prussia

In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I, Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "King in Prussia" in 1701. The new Kingdom of Prussia was ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Warmia, part of the former Polish province Royal Prussia, was merged with the former Duchy of Prussia. In 1773, King Frederick II announced that the newly annexed lands were to be known as the Province of West Prussia, while the former Duchy of Prussia and Warmia became the Province of East Prussia. From 1824-1878 East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia. They were later reestablished as separate provinces.

German Empire

Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871. In 1875 the ethnic make-up of East Prussia was 73.48% German-speaking, 18.39% Polish-speaking, and 8.11% Lithuanian-speaking. 2,189 people of 1,958,663 living in East Prussia in 1890 were not German citizens. From 1885 to 1890, East Prussia lost 0.07% and West Prussia 0.86% of their populations. This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward seeking work in the expanding industrial centers of the Ruhr Area and Berlin (called Ostflucht). The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious make up of 1,698,465 Protestants, 269,196 Roman Catholics, and 13,877 Jews. The Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia. The numbers of Poles and Lithuanians decreased over time due to the process of Germanization. The Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I, East Prussia became a theatre of war when the Russian Empire invaded the country. The Russians encountered little resistance at first because the bulk of the German Army had been directed towards the Western Front. In 1914 and 1915, however, the Russians were decisively defeated and had to retreat. Treatment of civilians by the armies was mostly disciplined, however, in contrast to later conduct in World War II. The region had to be rebuilt owing to damage caused by the war.

Weimar Republic

With the abdication of Emperor William II in 1918, Germany became a republic. During the interwar period, East Prussia was an exclave of Germany. Most of West Prussia and the former Prussian province of Posen were ceded to Poland. In 1920, plebiscites in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia were held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join the Second Polish Republic or remain in Prussia. 96.7% of the people voted to remain within Germany.

Nazi Germany

In 1938 the Nazis Germanized the area by simplifying a number of the Baltic or Old Prussian names, as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from refugees to Prussia during and after the Protestant Reformation. All people who did not cooperate with the rulers of Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps.

World War II

In 1939 East Prussia had 2.49 million inhabitants. Eighty-five percent of them were ethnic Germans, the others describing themselves as culturally German and religiously Lutheran, but linguistically Masurian or Lithuanian. During World War II the province was extended. Many inhabitants of East Prussia were killed in the war, many of whom were young Germans conscripted into the Wehrmacht and killed in action.

Post-World War II

In May, 1945, some Germans who had fled in early 1945 tried to return to their homes in East Prussia. They were stopped. The remaining German population of East Prussia was almost completely expelled by the Communist regime. During the war and shortly thereafter, many people were also deported as forced laborers to eastern parts of the Soviet Union. German place names were changed to either Russian or Polish names. In April 1946, northern East Prussia became an official province of the Russian SFSR. The Memel Territory became part of the Lithuanian SSR. In July of that year, the historic city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad. After the expulsion of the German population, beginning in late 1947 ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians were settled in the northern part, and Polish expatriates from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union were settled in the southern part of East Prussia, now the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.

In the Soviet part of the region, a policy of eliminating all remnants of German history was pursued. In 1967 this resulted in the demolition of the remains of Konigsberg Castle by order of Leonid Brezhnev to make way on the site for the new "House of Soviets". Equally anti-German was the policy of communist Poland after the war, as German names were systematically removed, church yards and grave stones were ploughed under or demolished, houses were stripped of elements reflecting their German history, culture and language, and a policy was made which punished even the unofficial use of the German language by linguistically Slavic Masurian inhabitants, even though some continue to identify themselves with Germany and are able to speak fluent German, especially elderly inhabitants.

Since the fall of Communism in 1991, some German groups have tried to help settle Volga Germans from eastern parts of Russia in the Kaliningrad Oblast. This effort had small success, as most Volga Germans chose to immigrate to the richer Federal Republic of Germany. Although the 1945-1949 expulsion of Germans from the northern part of former East Prussia often was conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials seeking revenge for Nazi crimes in the Soviet Union, the present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad Oblast have much less animosity towards Germans. German names have been revived in commercial Russian trade and there is sometimes talk of reverting Kaliningrad's name back to the original name of Königsberg. Because the exclave during Soviet times was a military zone which nobody was allowed to enter without special permission, many old German villages are still intact, though they have become dilapidated over the course of time. The city centre of Kaliningrad, however, was completely rebuilt.

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HISTORICAL INFORMATION ABOUT PRUSSIA FROM VARIOUS BOOKS:

Before The Storm : Memories of My Youth in Old Prussia, by Marion Graf Donhoff

This book was an account of a woman who was born in East Prussia, and how she had to leave her estate when her male relatives were killed in the wars. She left during WWII with the Russians on her heels and gave up her estate, never to own it again. It was a great book. Here are my notes:

Housemaids and assistant coachmen came from the village, or as people called it, the earldom, that is, from one of its estates. People wanted to work in the castle, even though it was low wages. It was light work, and they got free housing, clothing and food. It was a moneyless economy and farmhands were paid with wood, housing, grain, hog fodder and milk or a piece of land for potatoes. People who failed to live up to the rigidly structured code of that time were automatically excluded from society or removed from sight and shipped off to America. The young rebelled against these conventions until they learned to appreciate the fact that instability follows when convention is trampled on. In the years 1812-1813, the Cossacks came through town, and the people prepared for dreadful scenes - arson and plunder. Estates in East Prussia were a mixture of owner-managed units called "the farm" and tenant farms on estate-owned land. The estate comprised a farm that employed its own workers THEN the village which comprised the tenants, artisans, and laborers, usually with an inn as the social center. These were Estates. Then there was the village. The estate employed some of the villagers, and the village also had people that worked their own tenant farms on land owned by the estate. Tenants had to work on the estate 1-2 weeks doing sharecropping. Their leaseholds were 2-3 hides (hide being a measurement of land). Rent was 10-20 thalers per hide.

The Emancipation Edict of 1807 said that peasants were proprietors of land but no longer got aid from the estates. So, it seems that they became land owners in their own right, but the estate didn't help them as much as it used to. However, the book went on to say that this Emancipation Edict didn't take affect all over all at the same time and it was decades before this was universal, and in some places, it never changed to this situation.

Entailed estate - in Prussia, land was generally given to the eldest son, but the younger kids could demand their share. (In East Germany and specifically in Wurttemberg, it went to all the kids and that's why the kids had to leave because the land was becoming too small to support a family). In Prussia, the younger sons were given a good education and the daughters given a dowry. And, the eldest son inherited the estate. However, this was NOT LAW, and the younger siblings could demand their share of the estate and it would have to be split up, but this never happened, because the siblings loved their estate with its nice castle/house, so they saw the wisdom in letting the eldest have it. They were guaranteed the right to live there all through their lives if they so wished. So, the estate owners would write up this thing called "Entailed Estate", so that the younger kids couldn't demand their share and made the eldest son a trustee and this kept the estate whole and was LAW.

"Intimate Prussia" - This book was written in 1918 and was about a student who went to East Prussia to live for a while. He wrote about his experiences and the people. He stayed in the city of Koenigsberg and this book is about what life was like in the big city. I never realized Prussians were so proud of their Prussian ancestry until I read this book.

My Prussian ancestors kept up with the Prussian traditions and were proud of their Prussian Heritage. SO, the one thing that I came away with from reading this book is this - the Prussians were STRICT disciplinarians. If you did something wrong as a child, you were getting a beating, either by the belt or a switch. My Grandfather said that his father was always going after him or any one of his 11 brothers or sisters. No guff for the parents from the kids. If you did something wrong, you were going to pay the price. This book talked about this a lot. The Prussians were VERY proud, and very particular about their clothing. They ALWAYS were dressed nicely, even if they didn't have much money, because they believed your manner of dressing told a lot about you. You went to work dressed nicely, and immediately came home and hung up your clothes. Then, you put on even nicer clothes to wear around the house. I can testify to this as well, because every picture that I have of my great-grandfather, he's in a suit, even if the picture was a casual one taken in the back ard. I have NO picture of him in anything but a suit and hat.

This book talks about the family that the author was lodging with. They had two grown daughters and two lodgers. One of the lodgers took a liking to one of the daughters. The girls were NOT allowed to be alone with any men. One day the Mother came home from the market and founds the man holding her daughter's hand and talking to her. The Mother kicked the man out of the house, and then the parents expected this man to marry their daughter because he had compromised her just by holding her hand! In the end, they did end up getting married. The second daughter was interested in a man who was a painter. He had these two sisters come to his house so that he could paint their portrait. The daughter and painter fell in love. Neighbors of the family told the Mother that they saw her daughter going to the painter's apartment. Because of this the Mother sent the daughter to a relative’s house in West Germany because the man was not a good match and didn't make a lot of money.

"Ordinary Prussians" by William W. Hagen

This is a great book that shows what the Prussians were like. Many of Hitler's generals were Prussian aristocrats, and while some of them participated in the 1944 plot to assassinate him, they were so intimately tied at the end of World War II to the German militarism, that they stood profoundly discredited. Today, there are few people still alive who would describe themselves as Prussians, unless they descend from the former far-distant Baltic province of East Prussia.

It goes on to say that the Prussian's had authoritarianism's defects. They were taught to be very subordinate to the ruling authority, and thus taught their children to be subordinate as well. Because of their subordination, this allowed the ideas of Nazism to spread, because they were taught to tow the line when it came to authority. Because the men were subordinate to the authority, that made them authoritarians in their own households. The children lived with their parents until their early teens. In one case among a deceased farmer's ten children, a daughter of fourteen was "still at home." Following their retired mother's wish, the new proprietor would keep the youngest son (aged 12) on the farm until he has taken communion. After religious confirmation, children often began work as servants and apprentices. So, this goes to show us that by the time children were 14 years old, the boys were sent out as apprentices and the girls were sent out to work as domestics. This book is all based on the research of one town, called Stavenow, because its records were incredibly intact to an early time. The author did a study of the vital records and the court records to show what life was like in Prussia.

Marriage - an unmarried pregnant woman's impending child's father could promise - assuming the baby arrived when expected - that "he will bring her again to honor" through marriage. Around age fourteen, children entered servant status, whether bound to parents at home or in another household. They anticipated the moment when they would marry. Marriage was also an important social and economic event to the uniting kin groups, and even the lordship. Among landholding farmers, first marriages coincided with previous proprietors' and wives’ retirement. Marriage portions were fixed when a new cultivator would pay his or his bride's unmarried siblings from farm resources. Incoming brides' dowries loomed large because they helped offset these impending losses. It was also essential that the man marry an able helpmate, and this was also true of women. The basic gist here is that fathers gave their daughters dowries so that a man would want to marry her and so that the groom had money to pay his sister's dowries (if he was the inheriting son of the farm). So, marriage was planned quite well by all involved. Another story told of two soldiers who confessed to fathering extramarital children with young women, and to escape Frederick II's deadly wars, they declared themselves ready to return home and marry the mothers. The Lordship pursued its interest in minimizing poor-relief and disorder in its bailiwick. So, they didn't want unmarried pregnant women on the poor relief rolls, and wanted marriage to occur. The rumor of an illegitimate pregnancy would come to the court's attention because the people wanted to preserve the moral order of the village. Men were usually fined 10 talers and women were fined 5 talers. The fine would be cut in half if the couple agreed to marry or the man agreed to pay child support.

"Germans, Poles, and Jews" by William W. Hagen

The general gist of this book was that when Poland was partitioned in 1795 (amongst Prussia, Austria, and Russia), it was the main aim of the Prussian government to "Germanize" the Poles that lived in their partition. They started out slowly, by buying up land owned by the Poles and offering settlement opportunities to the Prussians/Germans. This didn't move along quickly, so then they decided that they would ban the Polish language in schools and churches. The Poles didn't like this and protested vehemently. Prussia backtracked and tried to be nice, hoping that the Poles would accept the fact that they needed to be Germanized and follow the Prussian Government. That didn't work, so then they really got tough, but it never did work. After World War I, when Poland became a country again, Russia controlled a big portion of what was Poland. (The boundaries moved westward, with Germany shrinking in size, giving back the land they had to Poland), and Russia picked up a good bit of what was in Eastern Poland. Life was not good in the Russian sector. Hitler based his beliefs on the Germanization of the Poles, as he learned it from the Prussian experiment. Not only did the Prussians try to Germanize the Poles, but they also tried to Germanize the Jews as well. So, this is where Hitler got his ideas, and it just continued onward in World War II. Back in their time of control, the Prussians were tied to the nobility, the farm owners. These people voted for the Prussian leaders, so the leaders didn't want to make the people mad, so that is why the land that was Poland (and was ruled by Prussia) never flourished. The Prussian government should have been modernizing and going the industrial route, but they were trying to appease the nobility farm owners. The author explained that this is why Poland was so backwards and also why they never had their own strong military. So, basically, this book lays the blame on the troubles of Poland at the feet of the Prussians, and shows the strong emphasis that the Prussians had on Hitler.

Prussian Peasants:

Prussia began freeing its peasants during the Napoleonic wars, and these reforms were copied in other parts of Germany. However, after 1815 the rulers of Prussia reverted to a more conservative stance and slowed the freeing of the peasants, forcing them to "compensate the estate holders for their freedom both through payment in cash and through the forfeit of land." The end result was similar to that in the southern United States after the Civil War, when former slaves became tenant farmers, entering a new form of economic slavery as they could never earn enough to get out of debt to their landlords. In Prussia, many landlords became quite wealthy by exploiting this system, which lasted until after the First World War, and in some areas even until the communist era. It is likely that many Prussians chose to leave - escaping these legal obligations, if not literal serfdom. If they owed money to their landlord, it wouldn't be surprising if they wished to keep their whereabouts secret, perhaps never sending letters to their relatives that remained in the old country. Some emigrants funded their passage to the United States by using money they borrowed from the estate holder for the spring seed-corn. (Information from Rural Settlement and Farming in Germany, 1973 by Alan Mayhew).

MILITARY

The LDS catalog shows entries for Ilawa (Deutsch Eylau). Ilawa was close to Gros Herzogswalde and Peterkau in West Prussia. The microfilms titles show the following:

1. Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths for the 1st regiment of the Old Prussian Army. The regiment was headed finally by Elias Maximilian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck and was garrisoned in numerous locations including Bischofswerder, Deutsch Eylau, Freystadt, Garnsee, Liebemuhl, Marienwerder, Riesenburg, Rosenberg, Malzahn, Breslau, Schweidnitz, etc. Continued after 1806 by Leibkurassier Rgt. 1 of the new army. 1730-1809

AND

2. Military parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Deutsch Eylau, Westpreussen, Germany now Ilawa, Olsztyn, Poland. 1833-1937

The first entry ends with 1809 and I assumed that this regiment ended in 1809 due to Napoleon. The second entry shows that the regiment was active from 1833-1937. I wondered what this regiment was doing at the time – who was it protecting the area from? I searched the internet for the 1st regiment of the Old Prussian Army and found some information, but I could not find anything about "Leibkurassier Rgt. 1" of the new army which continued until 1809. And, since #2 above does not give a name of the regiment that continued from 1833-1937, I wondered what the name of the military organization was that would have covered this 1833-1937 time period. I posted a query and the above question to the Prussia mailing list and received the following reply:

"I just finished reading a history of Prussia by Koch. One of the things the various Fredrick's (Ruler of the area) did was to establish a standing army. That army fought for Napoleon, against him, against Russia, Austria, Sweden and who knows who else, as well as with them at various times in Prussian history. This group could have been part of that standing army, or could be part of the build up at various times they were needed. If there was a fort nearby or it was a garrison town, troops would have been there the whole time. There were a number of towns that had garrisons/troops stationed near/in them prior to Napoleon, as well as later. Records can be found for these military people in the church's records in these areas. What the soldiers were supplied by the government was pitifully little, and many were only 'temporarily' on duty for part of the year, expected to work/farm/etc. for the rest of the year - on call, so to speak. The Napoleonic wars continued until 1815, and others occurred after that as Prussia went its way into becoming Germany. This did not happen peacefully. Check out the history of Prussia and the other surrounding countries during that time, and you will see that Europe was quite a hot bed... Among other events, in about 1831 there was a revolution primarily in Polish Russia, as there was in 1861. In the 1848 timeframe, many countries had peasant revolutions, and in the Czech Republic it led to freedom for the serfs. Russia was in there too with various 'threats' that Prussia had a finger in. All was not goodness and light after Napoleon's march through the countryside."

PRUSSIA'S DISTRICTS AND KREISE (COUNTIES):

Westpreussen's (West Prussia) capital was in Danzig. Its districts and Kreise (counties) were:

District of Danzig had the following Kreis:

Berent

Danzig-Stadt

Danziger Hoehe

Danziger Niederung

Dirschau

Elbing-Stadt

Elbing-Land

Karthaus

Marienburg

Neustadt

Putzig

Preussisch-Stargard

District of Marienwerder had the following Kreis:

Briesen

Deutsch-Krone

Flatow

Graudenz

Konitz

Kulm

Loebau

Marienwerder

Rosenberg

Schlochau

Schwetz

Strasburg

Stuhm

Thorn

Tuchel

Ostpreussen’s (East Prussia) capital was in Koenigsberg. Its districts and Kreis (counties) were:

District of Koenigsberg had the following Kreis:

Allenstein

Braunsberg

Preussisch-Eylau

Fischhausen

Friedland

Gerdauen

Heiligenbeil

Heilsberg

Preussisch-Holland

Koenigsberg-Stadt

Koenigsberg-Land

Labiau

Memel

Mohrungen

Neidenburg

Ortelsburg

Osterode

Rastenburg

Roessel

Wehlau

District of Gumbinnen had the following Kreis:

Angerburg

Darkehmen

Goldap

Gumbinnen

Heydekrug

Insterburg

Johannisburg

Loetzen

Lyck

Niederung

Oletzko

Pillkallen

Ragnit

Sensburg

Stallupoenen

Tilsit