Prussia - German Empire, Hohenzollern Dynasty, Unification (2024)

The reforming impulse flagged after 1815. Frederick William III promised in May 1815 to introduce a constitution but failed to carry out his promise, and the army lost much of its new spirit. By contrast, the Prussian educational system remained the best in Europe, the University of Berlin in particular enjoying an unrivaled reputation. The major parts of the kingdom’s western provinces, however, had never been Prussian before and, being mainly Roman Catholic, were alien to Prussia in outlook. This often produced a fierce conflict between church and state. The Prussian bureaucracy established a high standard of efficiency and honesty that was at this time unique in Europe. In 1818 a simplified tariff, with moderate customs dues, was introduced for the entire kingdom; and this tariff became the basis for the Zollverein (Customs Union) established in 1834, which by 1852 included all the German states except Austria and Hamburg.

Frederick William IV (reigned 1840–61), a romantic, aspired to revive in Prussia his imaginary conception of the Middle Ages. He ended the conflict with the Roman Catholic church, and in 1844 he actually attended the celebrations that marked the completion, after many centuries, of the Cologne Cathedral—the first king of Prussia to enter a Roman Catholic building. Although opposed to modern constitutionalism, he aspired to create Estates of the Realm on a medieval pattern. He sponsored a national Diet and then abandoned it.

In March 1848 revolution broke out in Germany, inspired by the February revolution in France. Although the Prussian army might have been able to repress the insurrection, the king withdrew the army from Berlin on March 19 and put himself at the head of the revolution. A liberal government was established, and a Constituent Assembly was summoned, but the liberal moves were abortive. The army reoccupied Berlin, and in December the Assembly was dissolved. The king finally imposed a constitution by decree in February 1850, a constitution which was to survive unchanged until 1918. Prussia received a parliament with two chambers. The First, or Upper, Chamber, officially named the Herrenhaus (House of Lords) in 1854, was composed of representatives of the great landed proprietors and of the large towns, and of members nominated by the king, some for life and some with hereditary right. The Second, or Lower, Chamber was elected by all taxpayers, divided into three classes according to the taxes paid. The king appointed the ministers, but it was difficult for them to govern against the express wish of the chambers. The constitution appeared inadequate by contemporary liberal standards, but its retention in the years of reaction after 1850 gave Prussia a higher standing than Austria in liberal eyes.

During the Revolution of 1848 Frederick William IV aspired to lead the movement for German unification and had even been tempted to accept the German imperial crown, which was offered to him by a delegation from the Frankfurt Assembly on April 3, 1849. He was dissuaded with difficulty by his conservative advisers, but he did thereafter try to establish the so-called Erfurt Union, a union of the German states without Austria. In 1850 Austria challenged this union, and Prussia was obliged to abandon its ambitions by the Punctation of Olmütz (November 29, 1850).

After Frederick William IV was incapacitated by a stroke in 1857, his brother took over as regent in 1858 and became king as William I on Frederick William IV’s death in 1861. William I appointed a liberal ministry under Karl Anton, prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Roman Catholic, and for nearly four years Prussia experienced the so-called New Era, during which it was hoped that Prussia would win the leadership of Germany by the force of moral example. But dispute soon arose between the king and the chambers over budgets and taxes for the army. Otto von Bismarck, who was appointed minister-president in September 1862, devised an ingenious theory. The constitution provided that the budget should be agreed between the two chambers and the king. Bismarck argued that, since the Lower Chamber had failed to agree with the Upper and with the king, there was “a gap in the constitution”; and he claimed that it was the king’s duty to spend money without a budget until agreement was reached. The government got its money. During the crisis of 1863–64 over the Schleswig-Holstein question, the Lower Chamber persisted in rejecting the military budget, but this did not prevent Prussia’s going to war against Denmark. It was Prussia’s Seven Weeks’ War against Austria in 1866 that ended the constitutional crisis. Bismarck apologized for the illegal expenditure of money, and in September the two chambers passed an Act of Indemnity.

The Danish War of 1864 led to an Austro-Prussian condominium over Schleswig-Holstein. The Seven Weeks’ War was followed by the annexation not only of Schleswig-Holstein but also of Hanover, Electoral Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt am Main to Prussia, which now extended across the northern two-thirds of Germany and contained two-thirds of Germany’s population.

The Franco-German War of 1870–71 established Prussia as the leading state in the imperial German Reich. William I of Prussia became German emperor on January 18, 1871. Subsequently, the Prussian army absorbed the other German armed forces, except the Bavarian army, which remained autonomous in peacetime. Bismarck combined the offices of imperial chancellor and Prussian minister-president, and Prussia’s history merged largely into that of the German empire.

The abolition of Prussia

Germany’s defeat at the end of World War I and the overthrow of the empire and the Prussian monarchy also ended Prussia’s supremacy. Prussia—which lost part of Silesia, Posen, West Prussia, Danzig, Memel, northern Schleswig, some small areas on the Belgian frontier, and the Saar district as a result of the Treaty of Versailles or the ensuing plebiscites—became a Land under the Weimar Republic, with more-restricted powers than before and with little influence on the government of the Reich. After the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, the Prussian constitution was set aside and the legislature abolished, though Prussia remained a unit for administrative purposes.

In 1945, after defeat in World War II, Germany came under the control of the victorious allies—the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France. Northern East Prussia was annexed by the Soviet Union; the rest of the Land east of the Oder-Neisse Line was transferred to Poland; and the remainder was divided between the Soviet, British, and French zones of occupation. One of the few acts of the Allied Control Council was the formal abolition of Prussia on February 25, 1947.