East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen [ˈɔstˌpʁɔɪ̯sn̩] ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878, with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871; following World War I, it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad, Russia). East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.
During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered in the Northern Crusades by the Teutonic Knights and then gradually converted to Christianity. In the medieval Ostsiedlung, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles and Lithuanians formed sizeable minorities. From the 13th century, the region of Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. In 1525 the territory became the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal of Poland. It gained full sovereignty in 1657 when Poland renounced its feudal rights.
After the annexation of most of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772, eastern (Ducal) Prussia was reorganized as the Province of East Prussia the following year. Between 1829 and 1878, it was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia. The Polish and Lithuanian minorities were subjected to Germanisation policies.
From 1871 to 1918, East Prussia was part of the German Empire as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. The Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted most of West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany separated from it by the Polish Corridor. The Memel Territory was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of Poland. The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German and Masurian population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly afterwards.
Geography
The landscape of East Prussia consisted of gently rolling plains and small hills, with flatter terrain in the north and more hills in the south. The province had a humid continental climate which was most pronounced in Lithuania Minor and at higher elevations in the south in the region of Masuria, while the northwesternmost coastal parts approached an oceanic climate.
In the northwest, the province bordered the Baltic Sea, with the Vistula Spit and Curonian Spit separating the sea itself from the Vistula Lagoon and Curonian Lagoon, respectively. The Sambia Peninsula (German: Samland) juts into the Baltic Sea between these two lagoons. Most of the rivers of East Prussia emptied into the two lagoons; the Pregel (Russian: Pregolya), Passarge (Polish: Pasłęka), and Frisching (Russian: Prokhladnaya) into the Vistula Lagoon, and the Memel (Russian: Neman, Lithuanian: Nemunas) and Minge (Lithuanian: Minija) into the Curonian Lagoon.
In the northeast of the province, the river Scheschuppe (Lithuanian: Šešupė), a left-tributary of the Memel, formed the border with the Russian Empire, and today forms the border between Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania. The Klaipėda Region (German: Memelland) was formed from the portion of the province located north of the Memel river. Adjacent to the Curonian Lagoon and the lower reaches of the Memel river could be found the Elchniederung, a vast partially-drained bog, much of it below sea-level.
Further south, the region becomes more hilly, with fewer bogs and more lakes. To the east, near the modern Polish-Russian border, is the Romincka Forest (German: Rominter Heide), a former hunting-ground for Prussian nobility. On the eastern end of the forest is Lake Vištytis (German: Wystitersee), and to the south are the Szeskie Hills (German: Seesker Höhen). The Angrapa river (German: Angerapp), a tributary of the Pregel, flows out Lake Mamry (German: Mauersee) on the northern end of the Masurian Lake District. The largest lake in the province was Spirdingsee (Polish: Śniardwy), at 113.8 square kilometers in area.
The headwaters of the Pregel's numerous tributaries were found in southern East Prussia, with the longest, the Alle (Polish: Łyna), extending almost to the southern border with Congress Poland, winding its course northward through southern Warmia (German: Ermland) and the central portion of the province. In the southernmost regions, the rivers flow to the south, emptying into the Narew and Vistula rivers. The highest elevation of East Prussia at 312 meters above sea level was Kernsdorfer Höhe (Polish: Dylewska Góra), found in the southwest near the border with West Prussia.
Background
Medieval Prussia under the Teutonic Order
At the instigation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century and created a monastic state to administer the conquered Old Prussians. Local Old-Prussian (north) and Polish (south) toponyms were gradually Germanised.
The Knights' expansionist policies, including occupation of Polish Pomerania with Gdańsk/Danzig and western Lithuania, brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania, defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.
In 1440, the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation was founded, and various cities and nobles of the region joined it. In 1454, upon the Confederation's request King Casimir IV of Poland signed the act of incorporation of the entire region into the Kingdom of Poland.
The Teutonic Knights' defeat was formalised in the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War. The restoration of Pomerelia to Poland was confirmed, and Warmia also was confirmed part of Poland, with both co-forming the newly created autonomous province of Royal Prussia (from 1569 within the larger Greater Poland Province).
According to the peace treaty the Teutonic Knights regained authority over the remainder of historic Prussia (the bulk of the territory that later formed East Prussia) as a fief of the Polish Crown. 1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights, were not verified.
Early modern transformation
The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525. Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage.
Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. In 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick.
The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, son of emperor Maximilian II died in 1618. When Maximilian died, Albert's line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg–Prussia.
Prussia between Poland and Brandenburg
Taking advantage of the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655, and instead of fulfilling his vassal's duties towards the Polish Kingdom, by joining forces with the Swedes and subsequent treaties of Wehlau, Labiau, and Oliva, Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking the king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660.
There was strong opposition to the separation of the region from Poland, especially in Königsberg (Polish: Królewiec). A confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over the city and region. The Brandenburg Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned the leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth.
In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Elector Frederick William, swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland. The absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia.
The Kingdom of Prussia
Although Brandenburg was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian lands were not within the Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor. In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I in the War of the Spanish Succession, Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "King in Prussia" in 1701.
The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as the Kingdom of Prussia. The designation "Kingdom of Prussia" was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia. To differentiate it from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia".
Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the Great Northern War plague outbreak and famine of 1709–1711, including the last speakers of Old Prussian. The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the Great Northern War, killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions.
Crown Prince Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns. In 1724, Frederick William I prohibited Poles, Samogitians and Jews from settling in Lithuania Minor, and initiated German colonization to change the region's ethnic composition. Thousands of Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia.
In 1756 Russia decided to go to war with the Kingdom of Prussia and annex the territory, which was then to be offered to Poland as part of a territorial exchange desired by Russia, however, ultimately Russia only occupied the region for four years during the Seven Years' War before withdrawing in 1762 and did not make Poland an offer of territorial exchange.
History as a province
In the 1772 First Partition of Poland, King Frederick the Great annexed neighbouring Royal Prussia – the Polish voivodeships (provinces) of Pomerania (Pomerelia), Malbork, Chełmno and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia. This connected his Prussian and Farther Pomeranian lands and cut the remainder of Poland off from the Baltic coast. The Polish Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 22 September 1772, after which Frederick styled himself King "of" Prussia rather than "in" Prussia. The territory of Warmia was incorporated into the former Ducal Prussia, which was designated "East Prussia" by administrative decree of 31 January 1773. The former Polish Pomerelian lands beyond the Vistula together with Marienburg and the Culmer Land formed the Province of West Prussia with its capital at Marienwerder.
Several former Ducal Prussian districts – Eylau (now Iława), Marienwerder, Riesenburg (now Prabuty) and Schönberg (now Szymbark) – were also transferred to West Prussia. Until the Prussian reforms of 1808, the government of East Prussia was administered through the General War and Finance Directorate in Berlin, represented locally by two chamber departments:
German Chamber Department at Königsberg, overseeing the districts of:
Braunsberg
Brandenburg (Ushakovo)
Heilsberg
Mohrungen
Neidenburg
Rastenburg
Samland
Tapiau
Lithuanian Chamber Department at Gumbinnen (now Gusev), overseeing the districts of:
Gumbinnen (Gusev)
Olecko
Insterburg
Memel
Ragnit
Seehesten (Sensburg)
Tilsit
These administrative reorganizations shaped the political and economic structure of the Prussian state, integrating Polish, Baltic and German territories under a unified system that laid the foundation for later nineteenth-century reforms. They also set the stage for the significant restructuring that followed the post-1808 Prussian reform era.
Napoleonic Wars
After the disastrous defeat of the Royal Prussian Army at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon occupied Berlin and had the officials of the Prussian General Directorate swear an oath of allegiance to him. King Frederick William III and Queen Louise fled to Memel ahead of Napoleon. The French Grande Armée immediately took up pursuit but were delayed in the Battle of Eylau on 9 February 1807 by an East Prussian contingent under General Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq. In May, after a siege of 78 days, Napoleon's troops led by Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre were able to capture the city of Danzig, which had been tenaciously defended by General Count Friedrich Adolf von Kalkreuth. On 14 June, Napoleon ended the War of the Fourth Coalition with his victory over Russia at the Battle of Friedland. Frederick William and Queen Louise met with Napoleon for peace negotiations, and on 9 July the Prussian king signed the Treaty of Tilsit, under which Prussia lost almost half of its territory.
The succeeding Prussian reforms instigated by Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg included the implementation of an appellate court at Königsberg and emancipation of the serfs and Jews throughout Prussia.
Shortly after the conclusion of the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), which restored and expanded the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia was divided into the new or renamed administrative districts (Regierungsbezirke) Gumbinnen and Königsberg. In 1905, the southern districts of East Prussia became the separate Regierungsbezirk of Allenstein. East and West Prussia were united in personal union under Oberpräsident Theodor von Schön in 1824 and then merged in a real union in 1829 to form the Province of Prussia. The united province was split back into separate East and West Prussian provinces in 1878.
German Empire
Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia (then still joined with West Prussia in the united Province of Prussia) became part of the German Empire with the unification of Germany in 1871.
Some 920,000 East Prussians left the province between 1871 and 1933 to look for work elsewhere. The majority went to the industrially expanding Ruhr region; others went overseas to North and South America. In spite of the emigration, East Prussia's population continued to increase, although less rapidly than in the industrialising areas.
In 1900, 85.1% of the population was Protestant, 13.4% Roman Catholic, 0.8% other Christian denominations and 0.7% Jewish.