Why did the returning german soldiers from the First World War organize into Freikorps and fight the revolutionaries, in comparison to the russian soldiers who often formed soviets themselves and aided the revolution?

I know this is a wide question and hard to answer, but hopefully some of you experts can give me a bit of insight into what was going on!

How did the Teutonic Knights' neighbors react to their becoming a secular state? Particularly the Hansa, Sweden, Poland/Lithuania, and Muscovy.

"Prussia was not a country with an army, it was an army with a country."

Why was the Prussian army so famously effective? What did Prussia do that other nations didn't?

Hi, one of the guys from Paradox Interactive here;

If you had to describe a moment in Prussian history, that, if had a different outcome would have radically changed the history of Europe and the balance between the greater powers.

Also; Whilst Prussia held three minor colonies with the Reich holding a few more territories during the scramble for Africa, why did the German sea powers; Oldenburg, Bremen and Hamburg not establish a trading empire during the age of sail.

• How "Prussian" was the German Empire? Particularly in terms of bureaucracy, were the people and institutions largely Prussian? If so, was there much resistance to Prussian impositions in non-Prussian areas?

• Was there ever any thought of reviving the title of Roman Emperor?

• Something I have been curious about for a while: one of the "themes" of the eighteenth century is the rise of centralized monarchical states. What effect did this have on ordinary people? Did those outside of the nobility benefit from state centralization?

• The way I learned European history, we talked about the Thirty years War, then we talk about Frederick Wilhelm and Prussia. But what was Prussia's role in the Thirty Years War, and was it a major political power before then?

How did Prussia go from being a Baltic language (old Prussian) speaking region to a German speaking region?

Hey, great AMA, here's my Q:

Can someone explain the Schleswig-Holstein incident to me like I'm five? Unbelievably we covered this in high school but none of the particulars stuck with me; was it important, how was it important?

Was the separation between Prussia and the other Germanic states purely political, or was there a social and cultural difference as well?

1.How united was the German Empire? As in, by WWI, did citizens really think of themselves as Germans, or still largely as Prussians/Bavarians/Saxons/etc.

2.This might be slightly outside of the scope of the AMA, but could the militarism of Nazi Germany be considered an extension of Prussia's militarism?

Hi there! My father is actually a volunteer at Huis Doorn, the home of Wilhelm II for 21 years during his exile to the Netherlands after WW1. Too bad he isn't here, he would probably have lots of insightful questions.

My own feeble attempts:

1. The conquest of Silesia generally seems to be the point in time from where Prussia is first counted among the Great Powers, and it took them several wars to capture it. What made Silesia so important?

2. Did the Frankfurt Assembly of 1848 ever have any chance of succeeding? This might be too speculative for this sub, but what would a Germany abiding by their Constitution have looked like?

3. Prussia basically doubled in size and population after the Congress of Vienna. How were the new subjects treated? Were the new territories 'smoothly' incorporated into Prussia? Were pre-Napoleonic Rhineland/Westfalian aristocrats reinstated?

4. As a follow-up to 3: was the Confederation of the Rhine ever a functioning state? How 'revolutionary' were the Rhinelandic Germans really?

I was told to ask this in thread.

Anyways, what is the difference between Prussia and the Germanic Empire?

How progressive (free press, equal rights, that sort of thing) was the German Empire in the years leading up to World War I? How did this compare to other European powers at the time?

Why did it take so long for the german empire to form?

This may be a stupid question, but what kind of leader was Frederick the Great? Here in Germany he's still honored, mainly for his introduction of the potato to the Germans (people place potatoes on his grave, and he was on a coin back in the 1980s), but I've seen him being mentioned in a row with Attila, Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler as one of the big bad guys in history which struck me as odd.

I've considered visiting Kaliningrad aka Konigsberg which I've heard called the capital of Prussia (even though it lies in what is now Russia).

What of historical significance still exists there?

1. Why did Prussia get involve in the Napoleonic wars?

2. In Prussia, who opposed German unification? Who supported unification? Why?

3. When did Prussia cease to dominate Germany?

4. What role did religious politics play in Prussia throughout its existence?

5. Were the people of Prussia nationalistic? Did they support their state, or were they alienated by its militaristic culture?

6. How did the people view their king?

7. What types of people inhabited Prussia? Were they mostly German? Polish? What other ethnicities?

8. What lessons did Prussian generals take from the Napoleonic Wars?

9. Was Prussia a particularly racist kingdom? Is there anything in their culture that can be linked to the rise of the kind of racist theories of the Nazis?

10. When do historians think Prussia became a great power?

Hello! I'd like to ask a few questions regarding the Battle of Tsingtao. I hope you guys don't mind.

My limited knowledge of the German side only comes from wikipedia. So what caused the animosity between the Germans and the British? Wiki's source says that the Germans turned their back on the British when they entered the port. The source newspaper article says a German officer even spit in a British officer's face!

What was it about the Napoleonic Wars that allowed Prussia to become a great power? They seem to get the worst of the war for the most part and in 55 years get to the Franco-Prussian war where they have gained allies and are ready to unify to form a new superpower.

Thank you all for giving good questions, I enjoyed working with all of you, especially thanks to /u/Sid_Burn for organizing this AMA. I would like to also thank /u/elos_, /u/TerribleTauTG, and /u/brution for putting up with my Francophilia and distrust of Frederick the Great.

Hi! This is an exciting topic and I can't wait to hear all your answers!

First, why did Prussia in particular come to grow and dominate Germany? Why not, say, Bavaria or other German states?

Second, what exactly did Prussia and Habsburg Austria/Austria-Hungary think of each other? Did the relationship between the two states often lean more towards rivalry or cooperation?

Third, what role did German colonies play in regards to their relationship with the Empire? Were they primarily just sources of raw materials/markets? Did they contribute combatants for the Empire's conflicts like what happened with British and French colonies? Was there a drive by certain people in those colonies to send their children to study in Berlin?

What was the relationship between Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire in the Eighteenth century?

Why was Berlin chosen as the capital of Prussia? Didn't Prussia control larger cities of more strategic value suck as Danzig or Kongisberg?

Prussia's military always gets lots of attention, but what about their civilian culture and policy? For example, I've often heard that Prussia/Germany was very progressive while industrializing, pioneering things like workers rights, childcare, and universal education. Care to elaborate?

I wrote my undergrad thesis on Johann Most, a Bavarian social democrat later turned revolutionary anarchist. I was curious as to whether or not anyone would consider a major force of the German radical labor movement shortly after the founding of the empire. In a biography about him, "Voice of Terror", author Fredric Trautmann makes him out to be a bug deal at the time. One assertion that Trautmann makes is that he even caused a general strike of 40000 (in Vienna)after he was put behind bars in 1870. He would have been big in Germany between 71-78. I focused mostly on his later work in London and New York. Have any of you heard about him and if so think he was a significant figure or not?

Why was the German empire so easily toppled by revolutionaries?

Also did any advancement in weaponry come from Prussia?

What happened to the people of other German states (like Westphalia, Hanover, in the Rhineland, etc.) after their countries were annexed by Prussia? Were there revolutionary or independence movements (not necessarily violent)? Did their lives change in any way? Did the economy and all around living situation get better or worse? Or was it mostly "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"?

Hi and thanks for a great AMA!

How much influence did the smaller kingdoms and stats have in the empire, and what could they control or decide by them self?

A Prussia AMA? Awesome, one of my favorite countries and frequently overlooked by the average Joe. So here are two questions from me:

1: Who actually gave Frederick the Great the epithet of "the Great"?

2: How was Prussia/Germany able to reconcile with Austria in time for WWI? Prussia had become Austria's arch rival for uniting and influencing the German states. The Prussians effectively became the top Germanic state which marginalized Austrian influence and power while further confirming the Austrians as has-beens. Wouldn't the Austrians have been pissed off at the Prussians?

How did Bismarck reform the Prussian army to make them perform so well in the Wars of Unification?

How much continuity was there from the the Prussian military to the WWI German military to the WWII German military? Did Prussia itself continue to form the core of the larger German military, or did non-Prussian German soldiers receive enough training to become indistinguishable from 'real' Prussia soldiers?

Frederick the Great was characterized in my high school history class as an Enlightened Despot (a very loaded term). To what extent is this a fair characterization? What would you say his relationship to the Enlightenment was like?

Would you ascribe the reasons for founding the Zollverein as more political or economical? What impact did the Zollverein have in general for the other German states, and what impact did it have specifically for the founding of the German Empire later?

Not a question about the topic, but can these types of AMAs happen more often? I think this is a fantastic way to share information, and it looks like it got some really good discussion going. I would love to see this happen with some regularity.

In what way did the culture, traditons, social norms, names etc. of the slavic old prussian people influence the then later german state in prussia?

Hey, here's hoping I'm not too late (and this questions fits the AMA):

I've recently started reading "Iron Kingdom" by Christopher Clark to shore up my knowledge on Prussia. How is this book viewed by historians? Is it "good" or "bad"? Either way, are there other books covering similar topics (the history of Prussia and the Germanies immediately before the unification and rise of the Empire, and their story up to the Weimar Republic) that any of you fine gentlemen may recommend?

Thanks in advance.

In the BBC miniseries "Edward the King", Bismarck is shown as having an enormously negative influence over Crown Prince Wilhelm, as well as poisoning him against his British-born mother, Victoria. Is there any truth to either of those?

Very excited about this as I'm actually considering applying to grad school in this area!

May I ask, in your respective fields of study, what would you say are some of the most important books or papers for someone interested in entering it? Unfortunately the subreddit wiki is a bit sparse when it comes to this period of German history, and at my university there is only one full time professor who specializes in Germany at all, and his focus is more on the intellectual history, so I've mostly been on my own with a bit of help from the departmental librarian when it comes to reading materials.

Why did the other German monarchs surrender their sovereignety and join the German Empire? It seems very rare that sovereign countries give up their independence voluntarily.

This might be a little late, but I'm hoping I can get an answer.

Why did the German states unite behind Prussia in a Prussian-dominated nation after the Franco-Prussian War? Some of these states, such as Bavaria, seem to have had a fiercely independent spirit.

In his Revolutions podcast about the French Revolution, Mike Duncan mentions offhand that Prussia was expansionist and a rival of Austria. I thought that as a member of the Holy Roman Empire Prussia was a vassal of Autria, so how can a vassal be an expansionist rival?

I'm not sure if this is in the scope of the AMA, but how did German politics change over the course of WWI? My impression is that the Kaiser got them into the war, became a puppet of the military as the war turned sour, and then the whole mess got dumped onto the unlucky social democrats by the victorious Entente after the war. Is this accurate and if so what are the details?

Why was Prussia/Germany so anti-Polish through its history?

I'm sure a lot of is was biased but the way we were taught history in Poland, Germany always came across as the quintessential evil guy. How much of this negative stereotype is true?

Why did modern Reform Judaism form in 18th-century Prussia? What was it about the cultural atmosphere of Berlin/Brandenburg in this period that saw such an unprecedented level of Jewish assimilation and integration into the larger cultural life of the city?

Given that Prussia played such a key role in the formation and early history of Germany as a nation, why isn't more Prussian territory part of Germany today? When I look at comparable maps, it looks like a lot of that old Prussian territory is in Poland.

Was Austria excluded from the newly formed German nation for purely political reasons, or was there an insurmountable cultural/linguistic/etc divide? The German principalities seem like a pretty disparate lot to begin with

Sorry if this question doesn't go by the guidelines, but, if I have to know one thing about Prussia and Imperial Germany, what is it? Doesn't have to be the most important component, it could just be a coffee table book fact. What is the one thing you would stress to me if you had only two minutes to sum up the topic?

How did Germans living outside of the German Empire – in Austria, Hungary, the Volga Germans or the Baltic Germans for example – react to German unification and the rapid modernization experienced within the Kaiserreich?

Did Prussian recruiters during the Seven Years War really grab foreigners and sometimes kidnap people to keep the army's ranks filled?

Why does Russia have the former city of Konigsberg? Is their claim more legitimate than say the Polish?

Is it true when people say that ,Prussia in short did not have an industrial and commercial base that would even come close to rivaling that of the Rhineland?

What is the effect of the Rhineland on Prussia?

I know this question might be a bit outside of the bounds of your guys expertise, but how essential was Prussia to the unification of a Germany? Do you think without Prussia's rise to power there could be a united Germany under, say, Austria, or a more permanent federation than the NGF?

How did Frederick III (or was that Fritz? I forget) manage to survive Napoleon's conquest AND still raise an army against him later?

I've heard that Prussia started the Franco-Prussian War to annex the rest of the small German states. But I don't understand how fighting France makes you ruler of Germany, sooo explain please?

What exactly was the German reaction when Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War? I have heard that they were seen as liberators(to the protestants), and also war-hungry murderers.

This is a really broad question, but how did Prussia become the most powerful state in Germany? I'm seems maps of how Prussia is like 1/2 of Germany. How did the other German states not grow powerful as well?

I recently read All Quiet on the Western Front, and, if anyone has not read it, the main character's mother has cancer. While it is explicit that there was nothing the doctors could do, I have heard that Germany had the first national healthcare system in the world, coming about under Bismark. So my questions are: is this true, and, if so, what would care be like for a poor/lower-middle class person, especially one who has an illness or other malady that is often fatal. This is within the scope of the AMA, of course.

This is a more pre-Prussia related question and I'm not 100% sure if it's entirely relevant.

East-Prussia was controlled by the Teutonic order up to the 15th century. Did it have any cultural impact on the Prussians aside from being the source of the Iron Cross?

Frederick III was, oddly enough, very pro-liberal. I don't want to delve into "if" history but it is believed that had he not succumbed to cancer, ending his reign in 99 days, Frederick III could have been responsible for transforming the Imperial German state into that which would've been more likened to British government. Were there any reforms, programs, etc. which Frederick III sought to enact before his death which indicates this? Did he plan on proposing such reforms to the Reichstag?

Prussia was a home of many different cultures; did they have civil wars? Did they have problems with it within the kingdom, if so, how did they manage it?

To what extent was the North German Confederation seen as a 'country'? Would people at the time have seen it as a sovereign state with constituent 'nations', like the UK, or as something more like the EU?

Tying into that I guess, at what point (if at all) did it become apparent that a united German state was inevitable?

Can you tell me more about the kulturkampf in Gdansk ???

What impact did the Harden-Eulenburg Affair have on German notions of homosexuality? Were reactions mostly shock and outrage, or were their more subdued opinions? What did activists like Magnus Hirschfeld have to say about the Affair?

Is there anyone with the last name Thiessen that was important? My family lineage goes back to Prussa.

To what extent was Bismarck responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871?

On the Western Front Germany had to fight both the British and the French in the first months of the First World War - until the Marne, how were they able to achieve such battlefield supremacy? What changed?

1. What were the Prussian reformers of the post-1806 trying to accomplish? To what extent did they succeed in their goals?

2)So I asked this elsewhere and saved the recs but I was hoping somone else might chime in...

Any good books on Prussia in the Napoleanic period, particularly after 1806 and particularly in 1813?

Could the Central Powers have made a successful 1914 offense into France?

Was there ever a realistic prospect of another German state being the driving force behind unification? Would this have likely led to a major change in German cultural identity as we know it?

What came first, Prussia or Russia? Cause I think the other would be like "Hey man, whats up with that? Why you been stealing my style like that?"

I've been told that the political back door maneuverings that eventually saw the first welfare programs enacted in the German empire are a great example of how Bismarck was able to manipulate the Reichstag. Could you go over this in more detail or maybe offer other examples of Bismarck's dealing on the domestic front?

Additionally, could anyone answer what led up to Bismarck's dismissal and how it was received by the public at the time?

Did the German leaders legitimately believe that they had a shot at winning World War I? How much were they banking on?

Did Prussia have any significant naval presence? Did any of the German states?

I need to think of a good thesis about the Prussian military from 1840-1918, any ideas? :P

What happened to the local governments and militaries of the various German states after being absorbed by Prussia?

How did a sense of German nationalism come about following unification, at the expense of Prussian, Bavarian etc particularlism?

What were Prussia and Germany's relations with China like after World War I through the second World War?

Was the spike on the iconic Pickelhaube actually meant for use as a weapon, or are there any documented cases of that happening? Or was it simply a stylistic choice?

What puts the 'Great' in Frederick the Great? Is there any more to his greatness than conquering places like Silesia? Did he pass any reforms or the like that benefited Prussian citizens?

Was Vladimir Lenin released from exile in Germany as a strategic tool against Russia?

How did Prussian change from a Slavic culture to an German one?

Crap, I know this is super super late and I probably won't get a reply, but how would I go about searching for a Prussian soldier's records c. 1890?

I am a Mennonite with Prussian roots. Please give me a quick version. Why did we leave Prussia? Where did we go first? ( I have family in Canada, Mexico and Bolivia. )

in your opinion how overlooked is Bismarck as a leader and shaper of world history?

What was the extent of German atrocities in WW1? I know that a lot of allied claims were pure propaganda or great exaggerations, but would I be wrong to suspect that there were some brutalities committed against civilians?

Was there every any chance (or public discussion, and so on) of Prussia/Germany uniting with Austria, to form Germany-Hungary or something along those lines?

And specifically why/why not?

The Prussian military went from losing in many Napoleonic Wars against the French, to steamrolling in the Franco-Prussian War, to stalemating and then losing in WWI. Did the French military stagnate between Napoleon I and Napoleon III or did their defeat have a separate cause? Likewise did the Prussian/German military get complacent in the run-up to WWI or was their defeat there simple a matter of overwhelming numbers?

Did Prussians see themselves as ethnic Saxons? Like did they acknowledge their Saxon identity?

I'm asking because I've never seen them referred to as Saxons in history books. It seems to me like they thought of themselves as simply Prussian and Germanic and nothing else.

What was the plan for Imperial German controlled Eastern Europe in the later years of The Great War? What was society like there? What was the affect of having to occupy such a large swath of land on the war effort?

What was the relationship between landed elites and politicians in prussia/germany during the 19th and early 20th century? were they the same, or were these 2 separate entities?

This is...oddly convenient. Yesterday I read up on Bismarck because he seemed interesting.
My question is this:

What was the main reason that Bismarck lost power prior to world war 1 when he seemed to be doing an excellent job of ensuring that germany only had to fight a war on one front?

To me it seems rather odd to remove him from power at such a sensitive time.

What were the final reasons that there was no great germany including Austria (like it was a possible goal in the 1848 revolution and in the first stanza of the german anthem)?

How did this Anglicization of Prussian names get started? It isn't hard for English language speakers to say Friedrich instead of Fredrick or Wilhelm instead of William. It just seems so unnecessary to me.

What were the cultural, political and blood ties between Prussia and the rest of Germany?

It's hard to imagine this situation. Germany is geographical term, Holy Roman Empire includes many non-German people and there's political and military competition between parts of Germany. How people felt about it, what Germans thought about each other? Did Prussian citizen saw Bavarian as the same as Prussian person? Was he closer "tied" than Bohemian or was there no difference between Bavarian and, say, French from Prussian point of view?

It may be not very historical question, but do modern Germans all view Prussia as the root and main part of German Empire or do they care about their own "smaller" motherland? So does Holsteinian think about Prussia the way Gasconian thinks about Paris or the way Scott thinks about England?

I was wondering if you could tell me why the Dutch accepted the asylum of Wilhelm II. What was their motivation?

Why did the allies feel it necessary to dismantle what was Prussia after World War 2?

What book would you recommend about the unification of Germany?

What was the significance of the North German Confederation, and how does that fit into German unification?

Did other european countries try to interrupt the creation of a united german state? If so who did and to which extent? What were their motives?

I'm very very late to this and hope someone will see this.

I am studying the birth of the Weimar Republic (masters) and feel it's quite unacceptable that I have not taken a single class on WWI (at my university, all classes on the subject gave a short overview and then focused on the Third Reich). Most of what I have learned about pre-WWI, I have found myself). I have 'The Guns of August' (Barbara Tuchman) and 'The First World War' (John Keegan). Are there any other sources that I should be reading (or listening to, etc.) in order to build a good understanding of the time and events immediately preceding my area of specialization?

I fear that I am not understanding much as my education has been, hm, lacking in military strategies.

Next question: What is one (or more) fact(s) about your specialization that you would want people to know or realize (something very interesting, or something that would change the way people view that period/event).

Although the allies put an end to Prussian culture after WWII, are there any remnants of Prussian culture or identity today?

If we take Prussia to be the core of the German Empire, around which the new Imperial German State was built and centered, why was it principally these regions that were ceded away for the recreation of Poland and the extension of it post WWII?

Did the other kings within the German Empire swear formal fealty to the Emperor? Maybe in some ceremony?

Am I late? I hope not!

I recently did some research on the importance of industrialisation in Prussia (and the developing industrial society in all German states) regarding the integration/eventual unification of Germany (under Prussian lead). So in other words: Why was Prussian industry essential to the unification of Germany? John Maynard Keynes actually gave me the idea. In his critique on the Versailles Treaty, he corrected Bismarck's famous 'blood and iron' and replaced it with 'coal and iron'.

Anyway, I'd love to hear an expert opinion on this. Could we call economic integration more important than the wars everyone keeps bringing up? What are your thoughts on the true intentions of the Prussian Zollverein? Was this customs union launched with actual intentions of stimulating the economy, or was it an initiative to show the German states that Prussia was fit to lead such projects of modernisation?

And what about railroads? It was up to the state to bring some order in the private chaos, forcing them to build some state owned railroad connections. This required a budget, which in turn forced the state to give in to some of the demands of the liberals (Ostbahn, 1942).

Was Keynes right to prioritise coal over blood when it comes to German unification? I'd love to hear some expert opinions!

I have a lot of family on my great grandmothers side that lived in Prussia. I know what dates they were born and usually the name of the city of where they were born in, but Google has a disappointing amount of information when it comes to detailed maps of Prussia. When I ask my grandfather he says that he was told they [family allegedly born in Prussia] were Polish.

Anyone know where I can find detailed maps of Prussia? Or am I just an idiot who isn't looking hard enough?

The US State Department's page on the Unification of German States (https://history.state.gov/countries/issues/german-unification) states:

The first effort at unifying the German states came in the revolutionary year 1848. Once news of the February 1848 revolution in Paris spread, many felt that the time was finally at hand for German unification. Rural riots broke out in the weeks after February 1848 and spread to the urban areas.

Why would the riots have begun in the rural areas then spread to the urban areas?

Any weird or interesting side-notes you've come across but never had any reason to talk about them?

If Wilhem II had not replaced Bismark, would Imperial Germany still have gone to odds with Britain, France, and Russia?