Frederick I (1701-1713)
Prussia at the height of power**1
Frederick William I (1713-1740)
Frederick II the Great (1740-1786)*
Frederick William II (1786-1797)
Frederick William III (1797-1840)
Frederick Willaim IV (1840-1861)
William I (1861-1888)
Frederick III (1888-1888)
William II (1888-1918)
Prussia (1807-1871) **2
Historically, the Prussians were pagans that were conquered by the Christian, German-speaking Teuton knights. By the 17th century, the original Prussians were assimilated to Germanic culture. A few rulers created what are called fiefdoms, but Prussia was largely made up of northern Germany, “Brandenburg,” and western Poland. Frederick I was the first king of Prussia, “crowning himself at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on January 18, 1701” (“Prussia”).
In 1713, Frederick William I, Frederick the Great’s father, began his reign and worked to build the military into a strong force. This was left for Frederick the Great’s 46-year reign. During this reign, a lot of land was added to Prussian territory. Silesia, a province in southern Poland, was the first to be invaded. This was a huge part of land that allowed him access to Poland but also gave a pathway to securing the land separating his father’s lands—East Germany (including Berlin) and current day Russia (in between Poland and Lithuania). When Frederick the Great died in 1786, Frederick William II took over after his uncle. “Frederick’s wars not only established his personal reputation as a military genius but also won recognition for Prussia as one of the Great Powers” (“Prussia”).
Prussia (1871-1918) **3
Frederick William II’s reign was largely a failure for the Prussian economy. His son, Frederick William III was more moderate but suffered a great loss under Napoleon. After Napoleon retreated from Prussia, revolution took place, inspired by the French Revolution. A constitution reunited the country, but after WWI, Prussia lost much of its power in a merge with Germany. The monarchy was abolished. Hitler allowed Prussia to “remain…for administrative purposes” (“Prussia”), but after WWII, Prussia was completely dissolved by the Allies in 1947.
[**Photo 1: “The Kingdom of Prussia within the German Empire” by 52 Pickup is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic **Photo 2: “Expansion of Prussia” by Adam Carr is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License **Photo 3: “Prussia map” by Adam Carr is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License]