Prussia

Historical Context Essay

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Political Geography

Dates

Date of occurrence 1225-1947

Places

Germany (Location)
Poland (Location)

Resources

Recommended Reading

In 1947, after the end of World War II, the victorious Allies abolished the state of Prussia as they identified it with German militarism. Surprisingly, the prehistory of Prussia started outside the borders of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations in Polish East Prussia (1200s). At the peak of its power, the ruling house of Hohenzollern fought the Hapsburg Empire (1700s) and, with its decline, Prussia rose to dominate first Northern Germany and then united all of Germany under its leadership. Ironically, the conquest of Germany led to Prussia's gradual loss of identity and eventual demise (1871-1932) even before the decree of the Allies.

I. Prehistory

It took five centuries from its colonizing beginnings to the …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2646 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Prussia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 February 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1528, accessed 21 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here