Prussians

The Prussians were the inhabitants of the historical region of Prussia, located on the southeastern Baltic coast. The ethnonym originally referred to the Baltic Old Prussians, a tribal people speaking a now-extinct Baltic language; after the medieval period it came to designate the German-speaking populations who formed the Prussian state and its successor polities.

From the 13th century onward, the Old Prussians were gradually converted, displaced, or absorbed as German settlers moved into the region under the auspices of the Teutonic Order. The area was organized as the Duchy of Prussia in 1525, later joined in a personal union with Brandenburg to form Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1701 the dukedom was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia, which under the Hohenzollern dynasty became the dominant state in northern Germany.

Prussia played a leading role in the unification of Germany and in the modernization of its civil bureaucracy and military, and it remained the largest and most influential state within the German Empire after 1871. In the Weimar Republic, Prussia existed as the Free State of Prussia, though its powers were curtailed under the constitution and later Gleichschaltung.

After World War II, Prussia ceased to exist as a political entity; in 1947 the Allied authorities dissolved the state. Its eastern territories were largely transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union; East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Russian Federation. The western parts became part of modern Germany.

Today, Prussia is largely a historical and cultural reference rather than a political entity; “Prussian” identity persists in discussions of history, military traditions, and the legacy of Prussian administration and education on German governance.

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