PRUSSIANS
 
Defining the
“Prussians“ as a tribe is problematic. Often the name “Altpreussen = Old
Prussians“ is being used in this context. This name is however actually not
less problematic … and it would anyhow be strange to tell about a New-Tribe ”Old
Prussians“ ...
Therefore this
article shall start with a few definitions, which by the way also fits well
to the very Prussian philosophy of Enlightenment.
The heartland of
the Prussians is located at the Baltic Sea (German: Ostsee
= East Sea). It’s in the east of the old Germany (lat. Germania!
...). Once the Goths lived here.
- The people who
lived in this land, sold “Bernstein = amber” to the Romans. The famous roman
Historian Tacitus calls them Aestii and tells that they were Germanic.
- Aestii
can also mean, that these Germanic people were named for the east
(East Sea ...).
- In the second
half of the 9th century the people here are called Bruzi for the first
time. The source is the “Bairische Geograph
= Bavarian Geographer“. They
called themself “Prusai”. Historicans name them „Pruszen“ and
linguists call their language “Altpreussisch = Old Prussian“. Old Prussians
is however also the name of the Germans in the of the old Prussia, in
contrast to the much bigger Kingdom of Prussia ...
- Some
historicans regard the Bruzi as descendants of the Aestii.
Others say, that they had belonged to the „baltic“ peoples and would
not have been Germanic.
- The word “Balten = Baltics“ is however already known
to us from the Germans (from the Goths in the later Prussia!). Among the
Goths there was the kingsley line of the “Balthen“ (for example the
famous Alarich I.).
- Today’s
Bavarians call everyone a Prussian, as soon as it helps them to deal
with their grumpy mentality: “Saupreiß!“
At the end only
one thing is clear: We don’t know the origin of everything in this story(!),
but fortunately the history of those „Prussians“, that are meant in
this article, already starts with “Preussischen Tugenden = Prussian
Virtues“: order, discipline, thoroughness, chivalry - … and with very
familiar symbols.
(1) The “Ritterkreuz = Knights-Cross“ of the
Teutonic Order (1198). The similarity to the Iron Cross (3) from the time of
the Wars of Liberation (“German Campaign of 1813”) is obvious. While the Iron
Cross became the unreligious symbol for German Soldiership, for fidelity,
courage and bravery, the cross of the Order does however remain connected to
the cruel religious violence of the crusades.
Those who had been honored with the Iron Cross were
named "Ritter des Eisernen Kreuzes = Knights of the Iron Cross“ in the
19th century. This “title“ was however never official. In World
War II the highest version of the Iron Cross was awarded as the ”Ritterkreuz
des Eisernen Kreuzes = Knights Cross of the Iron Cross“ and worn around the
collar as well.
(2) The well-known “Hochmeister
= Highmaster/ Grand master“ Hermann von Saltza. The knights of the
Teutonic Order wore a white cloak with a black cross on it.
In
1198 the “Deutscher Orden = Teutonic
Order“ was founded (Order of the knights of the St. Mary’s Hospital of the
Germans in Jerusalem). It is highly remarkable that the Germans did already
found an order with such a national character in the Middle Ages!
At
about 1211 the Teutonic Order had obligations in Hungary
and strived for independence in parts of it’s territory.
In
1225 the Hungarian King wanted to get rid of
the powerful knights of the Teutonic Order and Konrad of Masovia requested
their help for the fight against the “heathen” Pruszen. People in the
Baltic area resisted Christianity stubbornly. The “Hochmeister = Highmaster/
Grand master“ Hermann von Saltza gained the Polish Duke’s and the Kaiser’s
promise that the Order would win the independent rule over all territories it
could conquer during the planned crusade in Eastern Europe.
Accordingly
the German “Ordensstaat = Order’s State“ (in Prussia) didn’t get
integrated into the Reich and avoided all the inner struggles for power that
would have been usual there. A state with a well-organized, modern
administration could arise out of the military structure of the order.
Soon this German state contained almost the entire Baltic region. Castles and
about 100 German cities were built.
Kaiser Friedrich II. (1194-1250) allowed the Hochmeister to have the “Reichsadler
= Reich Eagle” on his shield. The eagle later always remained the symbol of
Prussia too.
In
1272 one began building the above shown Marienburg
= Maryburg (burg = castle) as the Centre of the Order’s State. So
far we don’t yet want to give up the “hope” for a prove, that a famous U.S.
military elite unite could be named for the “Marineburg” … -
At least there is probably no scientific study that would have ever
proved this “theory” to be wrong …
But
back to the serious facts:
In
1283 all of Prussia was conquered by the Order. Since 1300 the brought
settlement of German peasants started in about 1000 German villages, and in
the year 1309 the Hochmeister moved his seat from Venice to the Marienburg.
It was a masterpiece of architecture, with a high-tech floor heating system
and very hygienic sanitation facilities. Also the other castles were built of
bricks in accordance to similarly brilliant plans.
The
Pruszen continued to live in small villages. Most German settlements arose in
cleared areas of former forests between them. With time passing by, the
Pruszen assimilated to the Germans. The German settlers had mostly moved to
Prussia from northern Germany along the coast. Therefore a New-Tribe of
“Niederdeutschem = Lower-German“ background arose. One part of the land is
even called Prussian-Holland (Holland = the Netherlands).
In
1410 the Order incured it’s worst defeat
at Tannenberg against Poland-Lithuania. After the Lithuanians had
become Christian, the King of Poland had turned himself against the Order’s
knights with them. Their common cruel invasion made the Order’s knights face
them as quickly as possible. On a very hot day, after the long and hard
march, they defeated the Lithuanians but were successfully attacked by the
polish in the meantime. Later the Polish and Lithuanians besieged the
Marienburg. Their try to conquer the castle failed however. Within a few
weeks the Order conquered all the land back, that it had lost. Nonetheless it
was now of course extremely weakened.
In
1411 the 1st Peace of Thorn
followed – financial charges henceforth determined life in the Order’s State
and it’s extremely progressive administration changed nothing about the
problem that the Order itself was a concurrence for the traders. Therefore
cities and the rural nobility founded the ”Preussischen Bund =
Prussian Union” against the Order. The order prohibited the Union and this
one asked Poland for help.
1453-66 there was war again and than the 2nd Peace of Thorn
followed. Important territories went to the Polish King. The Order had to
accept military and political ties of Prussia to Poland.
Since the decline
of the Order’s State, Prussia was settled by Germans but had become a feoff
of the Polish King. It had never belonged to the Reich, despite it was a part
of Germany (the German culture area)! In 1618 (shortly before
the Thirty Year’s War) the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg obtained this
feoff for the Dukedom of Prussia.
During the Thirty
Year’s War the Electoral Prince flew from
Brandenburg to Prussia. At the same time he won the sovereignty of the
Dukedom of Prussia (treaty of Wehlau). Prussia was now independent of Poland
again and tightly connected to Brandenburg.
- The result is called Brandenburg-Prussia.
After the time of
the so called “Großer Kurfürst = Great Electoral Prince” of Brandenburg
(Friedrich Wilhelm; 1640-1688), his successor Friedrich III. could adopt the
title “King in Prussia” on the 18th of January 1701.
This was enabled by the Kaiser, because Brandenburg-Prussia had supported him
with 8000 excellent soldiers in the ”Spanish War of Succession“ against
France. Prussia still didn’t belong to the Reich. At the same time
Brandenburg (which was a part of the Reich!) was now also a part of this state
of the new king …
Berlin (in
Brandenburg) became the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, as it was
the residence of the “King in Prussia and electoral prince of Brandenburg“.
Accordingly Brandenburg stayed the heartland of this state, even though the
name of Prussia (the medieval heritage of the Teutonic Order) prevailed just
as much as it’s colors black and white, which were identical with those of
the Hohenzollern line (the rulers of Brandenburg).
The first Flag of the Kingdom of
Prussia
The Kingdom of
Prussia was accordingly based on the performances of it’s soldiers. The
second king, Friedrich Wilhelm I., was even called the “Soldatenkönig =
Soldier’s King“. So like the old Prussia had been marked by the knights of
the Teutonic Order, the modern Prussia was marked by the military. But
Prussia was and is more than a “military state“ - Prussia is an epitome
of values like reliability, discipline, precision, thoroughness,
intelligence. It were the people, who turned “Prussia” into this: the
Prussians!
Like already
mentioned above, most Prussians descended of Lower-Germans. The dialects of
the East- and Westprussians were always closely related to the so called
“Plattdeutsch“. However East Prussia was hit by the plague in 1709 and many
people died. Therefore King Friedrich Wilhelm I. invited further 29.000
German settlers to the country, which brought Swabian-Alemannic influences
from Switzerland, Frankish influences from the Palatinate -
and yes indeed even Bajuvarian(!) influences from Salzburg into
Prussia ...
In the Ermland
one spoke a Silesian dialect. The Ermländer horses there and the
famous Trakehners give testimony of the tradition of horse-breeding.
There were little mineral recourses in the old Prussia, despite amber is
undividably connected to Prussia. Also the famous “Bernsteinzimmer = Amber
Room“ can be mentioned here. Generally it’s not surprising that Prussia got
famous for the military and not for luxury. The soils in the old Prussia weren’t
more fertile than those in big parts of Brandenburg. The result was an indeed
hard, unpretentious mentality.
Of course values
like the “Prussian Virtues“ didn’t prevail just like that, but it’s a big
mistake to take modern ideas of liberal education as the standard for a
judgment over the rise of the “Prussian mentality“. Rather we talk about
times, when despotism ruled in most countries of the world -
and it’s this despotism that made people in America and France start
violent revolutions! - Cultural values always mean that people
have to perform in some way! They are however also the base for
a functioning society - and nobody would doubt, that the Prussians
were very successful, in the Order’s State and later in the Kingdom of
Prussia. Under it’s King Friedrich II. (Frederick the Grand/ The old Fritz)
Prussia was the most liberal State in Europe! Prussia was a philosophic
center of the Enlightenment. The Prussian motto “Suum quique = Jedem das
Seine = To each his own“ summarizes this.
- By the way: it was in
Prussia, where the philosopher Moses Mendelsohn created the base for a long
lasting, much more intensive German-Jewish identity, because of this spirit.
“Suum quique = To each his own”
(1)
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit from Danzig. Inventor of the Fahrenheit scale and the first
really functioning thermometer.
(2)
Immanuel Kant from Königsberg. -
One of the most important philosophers of freedom was a Prussian! ...
(3) Johann Gottfried Herder. Another
great philosopher and poet from East Prussia. He was an early opponent of the
fundamental ideas of racism and became Generalsuperindenent in Weimar. Herder
wrote about the deeper expressions of traditional folksongs and national
mentality, about the diversity of nations and their nonetheless equal value.
(4) Baron von Steuben, Prussian
General and Inspector General of the Continental Army in the War of
Independence. Steuben gave all orders in German. Than they were translated
into French and finally into English. He drilled the American troops in
accordance to Prussian standards. Already his training with the bayonet alone
won the battle of Stony Point, where the Americans hadn’t even had ammunition
anymore!
In 1742
Prussia started the first of the so called “Silesian Wars“ under it’s King
Frederick the Grand. More about this can be found in the article “Silesians”.
The three Silesian Wars lasted from: 1740-42; 1744-45 and 1756-63. -
The third one was the Seven Year’s War, which is especially
remarkable, because Prussia was absolutely outnumbered to it’s enemies (only
the United Kingdom was it’s ally), but Prussia did prevail! -
Apart from that, the Seven Year’s War also
took place in America, where
the French and British fought against each other. Thereby it led to a British
predominance in North America and accordingly influenced the following
American history very much.
Also the success
of the Prussian army in the Silesian Wars was important for that, as it
caused the huge reputation of those Prussian
officers who came to America during the War of Independence. - It were the Silesian Wars that made Americans believe
in victory again, when General von Steuben started to train them!
As successful as
Prussia had been in the 18th century, the much it first failed
against the France of Napoleon Bonaparte.
– During
the war the very popular Queen Luise became the symbolic figure of
resistance. Politically Prussia reacted with extensive civil and military
reforms. “Commoners” could now become officers. People gained more rights and
liberties.
After the victory
over Napoleon hadn’t led to a German national-state, because the people had been
betrayed in the “Congress of Vienna” by the nobility, German history leads us
on into the “Vormärz = Pre-March” (time between 1815 and the beginning of the
German Revolution on March 13th 1848 in Vienna, Austria). In these
decades Austria’s chancellor Metternich was the epitome of police state deeds,
which is often being “forgotten“, when people deal with Prussia. Nevertheless
it is of course a fact that the revolution in 1848 was also in Berlin only
successful by violence, which didn’t occur in other German capitals (for
example Stuttgart, Württemberg).
That it was also
Prussian military that quelled the revolutionary revolts in Baden under
leaders like Hecker, von Struve, Herwegh, Sigel and Blenker, caused long
contempt towards the “Prussian name“ in South-Western Germany.
This leads us to
a time, in which the history of the Kingdom of Prussia melts with the
all-German history – this may however not be misunderstood(!), because the
founding of the German Reich was not a unification of Germany! It was part
of a new split-up with the violence of the “German War” of 1866. All Austrian
parts of Germany and thereby also big parts of the German people had nothing
to do with this state.
A brutal,
traitorous process that can’t be separated from the name of the anti-democrat
Bismarck. a West-Prussian, who made his king Wilhelm I
also become “Deutscher Kaiser = German Emperor” in the German Reich on
January 18th 1871.
An
assassination-attempt against Bismarck, that was supposed to prevent the many
victims of his “politics”, had failed on May 5th 1866. (That
Bismarck, since the very beginning, pursued the goal of winning Austria as a
steady ally of this Prussian-lead Reich after the war, does however also
belong to the truth - and henceforth these two German monarchies
were allies indeed)
Kaiser Wilhelm I
is a remarkable figure by the way: as a young man he was an enemy of the
revolution of 1848 and disgusted as the “Kartätschenprinz = Case Shot
Prince“. A few decades later he was celebrated as Kaiser, without having done
anything good. - Public opinions often change in a
grotesque way and very quickly. Therefore politics that are based on a spirit
of the time and ignore historic contexts are always very dangerous!
A dream in Prussian-Blue:
crown prince Friedrich Wilhelm (called Fritz) with the Iron Cross for a Prussian
Soldier.
So this picture makes it possible to
mention two things:
The colour Prussian-Blue (dark
strong blue) and the dream or vision of Friedrich Wilhelm, who
wanted to take the United Kingdom as a role model and turn the Reich
into a democratic state. His wife Viktoria was an English
princess (daughter of Queen Victoria). Unfortunately Fritz died in 1888 after
only 99 days as Kaiser Friedrich III.
The “Prussian“
state had grown extremely much.
- The “Prussian mentality“ had
influenced many Germans, who belonged to completely other tribes -
and in the “Kaiserreich” this Process continued. The Prussians, this
chapter is dealing with, do however mostly stay those Prussians in the old
land of the Teutonic Order - the ”Old Prussians“, the East
Prussians und West Prussians, who’re sometimes also called
“Stammpreussen = Tribe Prussians“
- our Prussians! ...
Between 1824
and 1878 the home-regions of these groups
were united in one “Province of Prussia“, as a part of
the Kingdom of Prussia. After World War I times became
just as hard in this „Prussia“ as for the Silesians in the south. The
“land” was torn apart, based on only one interest: harming the German nation and making it’s eastern neighbours
strong allies for France. Polish militias committed riots to terrorize the
German population in territories with both nationalities. This is mostly
important in the case of West Prussia. Only in some parts plebiscites
could avoid further partitionings
- in others the pro-German
results were ignored. - The economical plight in the
isolated East Prussia led to the so called “Osthilfe = East Help“ in
1928, a supply with the help of the
western parts of the Reich, despite there was of course a lot of poverty
there too at that time. The city of Danzig had been subordinated to the so
called “League of Nations”, only to tear it away from the Reich. The Polish
military state tried to “Polinize” the city. On the eve of World War II
Danzig was economically ruined.
This makes it
more understandable, why a big support for the dictatorship of the Nazis was
possible in this heartland of Prussia.
Nice little details: It’s not only
the fact that East Prussia was divided from the Reich geographically in parts
of history that can remind us of Alaska. Also that the winters are colder
than in the rest of the country is a parallel - most of all however
common symbols are remarkable: The ”Elchschaufel = moose palm” as the symbol
of East Prussia/ the East Prussians and the moose as the state-mammal
of Alaska.
As far as it is
about the “Wehrmacht“, there can be no doubts about a huge influence of the
Prussian military. The regime of the Nazis does however have
nothing in common with Prussian Virtues at all! The Prussian mentality
does not mean blind obedience. It expects reliability and thereby also
respect for rights. - That people trust in their government and
institutions is in America as usual as it was in Germany. Whether this
confidence is legitimated or maybe just “comfortable” is a question that
every “responsible” citizen permanently has to consider again and
again for her- or himself. It should never be declared “a lack of patriotism”!
So forget about a
Prussian mentality as the base of the Nazi regime! Rather the intelligence of
all those people gets insulted by primitively mixing up these things, who
became victims, because they trusted in the values and the mentality of the
German culture-nation and especially the “Prussian Virtues“, instead of
fleeing! What the Nazis created, was an (inside highly scheming) System of
dependencies towards Hitler and other rulers on lower levels. Respecting the valid laws would have been
Prussian, which the Nazis never did.
- Everyone, who mixes the
Prussian Virtues with the Nazi dictatorship this way, claims that the crimes
of the Nazis would have been based on virtues ... - This already
expresses everything that’s necessary to leave this topic (in this article)
behind now.
Rather it should
be mentioned that many names of the resistance were famous names in many
parts of the Prussian history.
Nonetheless the
time of World War II ended with an historic catastrophe most of all for the
Prussians. The arrival of the Red Army in October 1944 led to indescribable
acts of planned cruelty. The “Catastrophe of East Prussia“ caused 614.000
fatalities. 1,93 million people found sanctuary in Central- and
Western-Germany especially in Schleswig-Holstein. Nobody would doubt that the
ethnic cleansings in the Yugoslavia of the 1990s were crimes against
humanity - in East- and West Prussia an entirely German land was
hit by robberies, murders and expulsions! In 1947 the allied powers insulted
Prussia a last time, while they declared the Prussian state to be dissolved.
The more
important is it to contribute to maintaining the Prussian culture! -
Positive links are easy to find – or who for example has never seen
German athletes, dressed in white and black? ... - an OLD Tradition!
...
This spirit is
even of a special importance in the USA, as it’s decisively responsible for
the injustice of that time and a country itself were Germans live free and proud! -
Native American tribes have shown that this doesn’t mean a
contradiction to American patriotism, as real US-patriotism always
requires fidelity to values!
Positive Links
are simple – or who has never seen German athletes, dressed in white and
black? ... - an OLD Tradition ...
Accordingly it
would be “valuable“, if Americans took the strong ties of their
own history more into consideration. The world would be poorer and worse
without the liberal Prussian philosophy and without the “Prussian Virtues”
the USA would not exist!
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