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It was because of this perception that the Allied powers, still exercising joint occupation of Germany in 1947 and undertaking the task of reorganizing the country's grandfathered Imperial system of historic duchies into a more manageable system of federal states, made the declaration to legally abolish Prussia as a state entity. This despite the fact that Prussia, even after the territorial losses of two lost world wars, still made up nearly half of the total land area of modern day federal Germany, with not even the name preserved for one of the territorial states as many other kingdoms' were. When it was suggested in 2002 that the name be revived for a proposed merger of Berlin and Brandenburg, one German historian even went so far as to declare that "Prussia poisons us".
Some historians have tried to correct this view. Christopher Clark in ''Iron Kingdom'' rejected it as a caricature of Prussia as a "termite-state", arguing in favor of a long tradition of intellectual inquiry, scientific progress, and political tolerance. For instance, during the Catholic-Protestant convulsions that seized Europe in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries it even had a reputation for taking in refugees, such as Huguenots from France, Brethren from the Czech-speaking parts of Austria, and Lutherans from the bishopric of Salzburg. The view of Prussia as inherently authoritarian or that its path to modernization was inevitable or inherent in the system does not sit well with contemporary academics inspired by {{Postmodernism}} who generally reject such models. More contentious, however, is the question of Prussia's and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's responsibility for UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. In general those who argue in favor of the Sonderweg agree that Imperial Germany and Prussia were responsible for the outbreak of the war and that they hold primal agency for the outbreak of the conflict. Clark's follow-up book, ''The Sleepwalkers'', largely absolves Imperial Germany from primary responsibility by focusing on collective guilt, and while this book was popular in the Anglosphere (where unfamiliarity with Prussia and Eastern European politics makes them favor collective guilt) it was criticized by historians such as Hans-Ullrich Wehler and Volker Ullrich who noted that Clark rejected the great documentary evidence that showed that Imperial Germany did launch a war of aggression by escalating the Balkan crisis. Likewise, they note that during the Weimar era, many documents and archives were altered and doctored to downplay German guilt, and that the idea of "collective guilt" was encouraged by the Weimar Republic as a PR campaign to cultivate sympathy in the West and to pacify the interests of Junkers who were not fully on board with the democracy. Aside from the "collective guilt" premise, some of those arguing against Prussian (and more generally, German) responsibility for World War I instead assign blame to ''Russia'' (arguing that had the Tsar minded his own business, it would've just been a regional conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia), a premise which predictably gains more approval whenever there's increased animosity between Russia and the rest of Europe.
Some historians have tried to correct this view. Christopher Clark in ''Iron Kingdom'' rejected it as a caricature of Prussia as a "termite-state", arguing in favor of a long tradition of intellectual inquiry, scientific progress, and political tolerance. For instance, during the Catholic-Protestant convulsions that seized Europe in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries it even had a reputation for taking in refugees, such as Huguenots from France, Brethren from the Czech-speaking parts of Austria, and Lutherans from the bishopric of Salzburg. The view of Prussia as inherently authoritarian or that its path to modernization was inevitable or inherent in the system does not sit well with contemporary academics inspired by {{Postmodernism}} who generally reject such models. More contentious, however, is the question of Prussia's and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's responsibility for UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. In general those who argue in favor of the Sonderweg agree that Imperial Germany and Prussia were responsible for the outbreak of the war and that they hold primal agency for the outbreak of the conflict. Clark's follow-up book, ''The Sleepwalkers'', largely absolves Imperial Germany from primary responsibility by focusing on collective guilt, and while this book was popular in the Anglosphere (where unfamiliarity with Prussia and Eastern European politics makes them favor collective guilt) it was criticized by historians such as Hans-Ullrich Wehler and Volker Ullrich who noted that Clark rejected the great documentary evidence that showed that Imperial Germany did launch a war of aggression by escalating the Balkan crisis. Likewise, they note that during the Weimar era, many documents and archives were altered and doctored to downplay German guilt, and that the idea of "collective guilt" was encouraged by the Weimar Republic as a PR campaign to cultivate sympathy in the West and to pacify the interests of Junkers who were not fully on board with the democracy. Aside from the "collective guilt" premise, some of those arguing against Prussian (and more generally, German) responsibility for World War I instead assign blame to ''Russia'' (arguing that had the Tsar minded his own business, it would've just been a regional conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia), a premise which predictably gains more approval whenever there's increased animosity between Russia and the rest of Europe.
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It was because of this perception that the Allied powers, still exercising joint occupation of Germany in 1947 and undertaking the task of reorganizing the country's grandfathered Imperial system of historic duchies into a more manageable system of federal states, made the declaration to legally abolish Prussia as a state entity. [[note]]Unsurprisingly it was France that was most enthusiastic about the abolition of Prussia, as Prussia had never been anything other than a bitter enemy to them. The United States and Britain were entirely sympathetic to the French view. The Soviets were more ambivalent (Prussia had been Russia's ally almost as often as it had been an enemy), but ultimately decided they didn't particularly care what names the subdivisions of East and West Germany had.[[/note]] This despite the fact that Prussia, even after the territorial losses of two lost world wars, still made up nearly half of the total land area of modern day federal Germany, with not even the name preserved for one of the territorial states as many other kingdoms' were. When it was suggested in 2002 that the name be revived for a proposed merger of Berlin and Brandenburg, one German historian even went so far as to declare that "Prussia poisons us".
Some historians have tried to correct this view. Christopher Clark in ''Iron Kingdom'' rejected it as a caricature of Prussia as a "termite-state", arguing in favor of a long tradition of intellectual inquiry, scientific progress, and political tolerance. For instance, during the Catholic-Protestant convulsions that seized Europe in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries it even had a reputation for taking in refugees, such as Huguenots from France, Brethren from the Czech-speaking parts of Austria, and Lutherans from the bishopric of Salzburg. The view of Prussia as inherently authoritarian or that its path to modernization was inevitable or inherent in the system does not sit well with contemporary academics inspired by {{Postmodernism}} who generally reject such models. More contentious, however, is the question of Prussia's and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's responsibility for UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. In general those who argue in favor of the Sonderweg agree that Imperial Germany and Prussia were responsible for the outbreak of the war and that they hold primal agency for the outbreak of the conflict. Clark's follow-up book, ''The Sleepwalkers'', largely absolves Imperial Germany from primary responsibility by focusing on collective guilt, and while this book was popular in the Anglosphere (where unfamiliarity with Prussia and Eastern European politics makes them favor collective guilt) it was criticized by historians such as Hans-Ullrich Wehler and Volker Ullrich who noted that Clark rejected the great documentary evidence that showed that Imperial Germany did launch a war of aggression by escalating the Balkan crisis. Likewise, they note that during the Weimar era, many documents and archives were altered and doctored to downplay German guilt, and that the idea of "collective guilt" was encouraged by the Weimar Republic as a PR campaign to cultivate sympathy in the West and to pacify the interests of Junkers who were not fully on board with the democracy. Aside from the "collective guilt" premise, some of those arguing against Prussian (and more generally, German) responsibility for World War I instead assign blame to ''Russia'' (arguing that had the Tsar minded his own business, it would've just been a regional conflict between Austria-Hungary andSerbia), Serbia, and that Serbia was pretty clearly in the wrong and thus it was even more egregious for Russia to come to their defense), a premise which predictably gains more approval whenever there's increased animosity between Russia and the rest of Europe.
Some historians have tried to correct this view. Christopher Clark in ''Iron Kingdom'' rejected it as a caricature of Prussia as a "termite-state", arguing in favor of a long tradition of intellectual inquiry, scientific progress, and political tolerance. For instance, during the Catholic-Protestant convulsions that seized Europe in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries it even had a reputation for taking in refugees, such as Huguenots from France, Brethren from the Czech-speaking parts of Austria, and Lutherans from the bishopric of Salzburg. The view of Prussia as inherently authoritarian or that its path to modernization was inevitable or inherent in the system does not sit well with contemporary academics inspired by {{Postmodernism}} who generally reject such models. More contentious, however, is the question of Prussia's and UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's responsibility for UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. In general those who argue in favor of the Sonderweg agree that Imperial Germany and Prussia were responsible for the outbreak of the war and that they hold primal agency for the outbreak of the conflict. Clark's follow-up book, ''The Sleepwalkers'', largely absolves Imperial Germany from primary responsibility by focusing on collective guilt, and while this book was popular in the Anglosphere (where unfamiliarity with Prussia and Eastern European politics makes them favor collective guilt) it was criticized by historians such as Hans-Ullrich Wehler and Volker Ullrich who noted that Clark rejected the great documentary evidence that showed that Imperial Germany did launch a war of aggression by escalating the Balkan crisis. Likewise, they note that during the Weimar era, many documents and archives were altered and doctored to downplay German guilt, and that the idea of "collective guilt" was encouraged by the Weimar Republic as a PR campaign to cultivate sympathy in the West and to pacify the interests of Junkers who were not fully on board with the democracy. Aside from the "collective guilt" premise, some of those arguing against Prussian (and more generally, German) responsibility for World War I instead assign blame to ''Russia'' (arguing that had the Tsar minded his own business, it would've just been a regional conflict between Austria-Hungary and
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In modern historiography, Prussia remains a controversial subject. A lot of this is because of the Prussians themselves, who in their time described their model and approach to modernization as a ''Sonderweg'' ("special path") that was a third way between the plebeian democracy of the West (America, England, France) and the decadent autocracy of the East (the Russian Empire). Post-World War II historians reclaimed the term Sonderweg and applied it as a reason for why Germany, despite its considerable modern and intellectual advancements, became the crucible for [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust the worst crimes of the 20th century]] and a refutation of all models of linear development from barbarism to civilization. Prussia came to represent everything that was wrong with German historical development: expansionist, militaristic, intolerant, reactionary yet technically competent - in essence, the land which turned Germany into the land of "judges and hangmen" after its centuries as a seat of "[[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker poets and philosophers]]".
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In modern historiography, Prussia remains a controversial subject. A lot of this is because of the Prussians themselves, who in their time described their model and approach to modernization as a ''Sonderweg'' ("special path") that was a third way between the plebeian democracy of the West (America, England, France) and the decadent autocracy of the East (the Russian Empire). Post-World War II historians reclaimed the term Sonderweg and applied it as a reason for why Germany, despite its considerable modern and intellectual advancements, became the crucible for [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust the worst crimes of the 20th century]] and a refutation of all models of linear development from barbarism to civilization. Prussia came to represent everything that was wrong with German historical development: expansionist, militaristic, intolerant, reactionary yet technically competent - in essence, the land which turned Germany into the land of "judges and hangmen" after its centuries as a seat of "[[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker poets and philosophers]]".philosophers]]" (in German, "Richter und Henker" vs "Dichter und Denker").
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Prussia (''Preußen'' in German), named after the duchy and former ''Ordenstaat'' but born of the margravate and electorate of Brandenburg (coincidentally by merging with said ''Ordenstaat'', by then secularized), historically the land of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussian_language Baltic]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussians Old Prussians]], was the descendant of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights and became the dominant state in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} (having more than half of Germany's land area and population) by the time it was unified (by Prussia, incidentally) in 1871 after the UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar. Brandenburg, Prussia was the location of the German capital, Berlin. From 1701 until the abdication of UsefulNotes/WilhelmII at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in 1918, it was known as "The Kingdom of Prussia", and post-WWI as "The Free State of Prussia" because "republic" sounded too French. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Prussia ceased to exist because the four Allied powers, in their bid to destroy UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and its legacy, laid blame on Prussia and its militarism as a large part of what had gone wrong with Germany and thus dismembered its territory. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, all of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line[[note]] plus the city of Stettin, now called Szczecin, which is actually on the west bank of the Oder but was given to Poland anyway[[/note]], most of which was Prussia, was handed over to Poland, partly to compensate her for her own territorial losses to Ukraine and Russia (the northern part of East Prussia, including its capital, went directly to the Soviets). East Germany recognized those borders in 1950 (unsurprisingly, being a satellite of the USSR and a member of the Warsaw Pact), while West Germany kept a claim on those areas until 1970, when it signed the Treaties of Moscow and Warsaw. This was again confirmed with the 1992 Treaty of Good Neighbourship, which formally and finally recognized East Prussia, along with Pomerania and Silesia, as part of Poland. The area remains a part of Poland to this day, and almost everyone is happy for it to stay that way. The northern half of East Prussia, however, outlasted the USSR and remains part of Russia as the Kaliningrad Oblast, where there is still talk by some locals (odd, considering said locals are almost all Russians, or perhaps not so odd given that it's currently named after a member of Stalin's inner circle who was personally responsible for some Soviet atrocities, and post-Soviet Russia has reversed most ''other'' Stalin-era renamings) to rename the titular city back to Königsberg.[[note]] For what it's worth, the local slang term for the city in Russian is ''Kyonig'', an obvious call-back to its original name.[[/note]]
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Prussia (''Preußen'' in German), named after the duchy and former ''Ordenstaat'' but born of the margravate and electorate of Brandenburg (coincidentally by merging with said ''Ordenstaat'', by then secularized), historically the land of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussian_language Baltic]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussians Old Prussians]], was the descendant of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights and became the dominant state in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} (having more than half of Germany's land area and population) by the time it was unified (by Prussia, incidentally) in 1871 after the UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar. Brandenburg, Prussia was the location of the German capital, Berlin.
From 1701 until the abdication of UsefulNotes/WilhelmII at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in 1918, it was known as "The Kingdom of Prussia", and post-WWI as "The Free State of Prussia" because "republic" sounded too French. AfterUsefulNotes/WorldWarII UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Prussia ceased to exist because the four Allied powers, in their bid to destroy UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and its legacy, laid blame on Prussia and its militarism as a large part of what had gone wrong with Germany and thus dismembered its territory. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, all of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line[[note]] plus the city of Stettin, now called Szczecin, which is actually on the west bank of the Oder but was given to Poland anyway[[/note]], most of which was Prussia, was handed over to Poland, partly to compensate her for her own territorial losses to Ukraine and Russia the Soviet Union (the northern part of East Prussia, including its capital, went directly to the Soviets). East Germany recognized those borders in 1950 (unsurprisingly, being a satellite of the USSR and a member of the Warsaw Pact), while West Germany kept a claim on those areas until 1970, when it signed the Treaties of Moscow and Warsaw. This was again confirmed with the 1992 Treaty of Good Neighbourship, which formally and finally recognized East Prussia, along with Pomerania and Silesia, as part of Poland. The area remains a part of Poland to this day, and almost everyone is happy for it to stay that way. The Meanwhile, the northern half part of East Prussia, however, outlasted Prussia (the one that was ceded to the USSR USSR) is currently divided between Lithuania (the city of Klaipėda, formerly Memel, it was put under the administration of the UsefulNotes/LeagueOfNations after WWI for four years, before being handed over to Lithuania, which controlled it until 1939, when the Nazis demanded its return at gunpoint) and remains part of Russia as (under the Kaliningrad Oblast, where there surrounding the capital Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg[[note]]There is still talk by some locals (odd, considering said locals are now almost all Russians, or perhaps not so odd given that it's currently named after a member of Stalin's inner circle who was personally responsible for some Soviet atrocities, and post-Soviet Russia has reversed most ''other'' Stalin-era renamings) to rename the titular city back to Königsberg.[[note]] Königsberg. For what it's worth, the local slang term for the city in Russian is ''Kyonig'', an obvious call-back to its original name.[[/note]]
[[/note]]).
From 1701 until the abdication of UsefulNotes/WilhelmII at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in 1918, it was known as "The Kingdom of Prussia", and post-WWI as "The Free State of Prussia" because "republic" sounded too French. After
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* Prussia is one of the playable nations in ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'' and its expansions, centering around the 17th and 18th centuries. The expansion ''The Art of War'' has a Prussian campaign set during the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar in particular. The battle in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} that took place in October 1760 [[AlternateHistory can actually be won]] there.
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* Prussia is one of the playable nations in ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'' and its expansions, centering around the 17th and 18th centuries. The expansion ''The Art of War'' has a Prussian campaign set during the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar in particular. The battle in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} that took place in October 1760 [[AlternateHistory can actually be won]] with Prussia there.
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* There was a big trend of historical "Prussian Films" in Germany between the early 1920s and 1945. A number of them had actor Otto Gebühr starring as King Frederick II the Great (it helped that he looked a lot like the king). Those made in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany served as [[PropagandaMachine propaganda pieces]] for the ''Führerprinzip'' (full obedience to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler) and such. The very last of them is ''Film/{{Kolberg}}''.
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* There was a big trend of "Prussian films" in Germany between the early 1920s and 1945. Actor Otto Gebühr portrayed UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat no less than ''sixteen times'', culminating with the EpicMovie ''Film/TheGreatKing''. Others not related to Frederick's time included ''Film/{{Kolberg}}''.
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The Hohenzollern monarchy was overthrown in the closing days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and the victorious Allied powers forced Germany to give up a significant chunk of its eastern territory to the newly-recreated state of Poland[[note]] Territories lost to Poland were Posen and a small bit of Silesia (both of which had Polish majorities), as well as West Prussia (which had a Polish-speaking majority, although it should be noted that in places where referendums were held many Polish-speakers voted to stay with Germany and Prussia). Germany was forced to give up West Prussia mostly because the League of Nations wanted Poland to have a seaport (the major port in the area, Danzig, was almost entirely German at the time, and despite the Versailles Treaty legally separating it from the rest of Germany, had zero desire to become part of Poland)[[/note]]. This left East Prussia and the old imperial capital Königsberg (plus the neighbouring “Free City” of Danzig, legally under League of Nations oversight) physically separated from the rest of Germany by a small strip of land known as the Polish Corridor; anger over these territorial losses were part of what undermined support for the democratic UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic. In spite of these losses, Prussia remained the largest state in Germany, comprising a majority of both its population and territory. Notably (and in contrast to its authoritarian history), Prussia was regarded as the largest bastion of liberal democracy within Weimar Germany, and the democratic parties held nearly-uninterrupted control of its state government until 1932. This was ended by federal chancellor Franz von Papen’s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_Prussian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat coup]], which placed Prussia under his direct control.
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The Hohenzollern monarchy was overthrown in the closing days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and the victorious Allied powers forced Germany to give up a significant chunk of its eastern territory to the newly-recreated state of Poland[[note]] Territories lost to Poland were Posen and a small bit of Silesia (both of which had Polish majorities), as well as West Prussia (which had a Polish-speaking majority, although it should be noted that in places where referendums were held many Polish-speakers voted to stay with Germany and Prussia). Germany was forced to give up West Prussia mostly because the League of Nations wanted Poland to have a seaport (the major port in the area, Danzig, was almost entirely German at the time, and despite the Versailles Treaty legally separating it from the rest of Germany, had zero desire to become part of Poland)[[/note]]. This left East Prussia and the old imperial capital Königsberg (plus the neighbouring “Free City” of Danzig, legally under League of Nations oversight) physically separated from the rest of Germany by a small strip of land known as the Polish Corridor; anger over these territorial losses were part of what undermined support for the democratic UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic. In spite of these losses, Prussia remained the largest state in Germany, comprising a majority of both its population and territory. Notably (and in contrast to its authoritarian history), Prussia was regarded as the largest bastion of liberal democracy within Weimar Germany, and the democratic parties held nearly-uninterrupted control of its state government until 1932. This was ended by federal chancellor Franz von Papen’s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_Prussian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat org/wiki/1932_Prussian_coup_d%27état coup]], which placed Prussia under his direct control.
