Welcome to House of History and the documentary about the complete history of Prussia.
I want to start off this documentary with a citation from the 16th century topographer
Nicolaus Leuthinger about the lands we’ll be talking about.
On his travels, he left us with a description of Brandenburg, the heartland of what would
become Prussia.
His writings describe the land as ‘flat, wooded and for the most part swamp’.
This description, even in the 16th century, was more or less spot on.
Brandenburg had no natural borders, it was a political entity, assembled from the colonized
lands from pagan Slavs.
In large parts agricultural yields were low, the marshland’s soil was of poor quality.
Infrastructure was mostly absent throughout the early years and transportation difficult.
Nothing, at this time, even hinted at the fact this wet and cold swamp would grow to
be one of the most dominant European powers, shaking the foundations of European politics.
And yet, it would…
Welcome to the documentary about the complete history of Prussia.
As always, time stamps are in the description.
-intro-
Where did Prussia get its name?
Prussia’s prehistory is longer than its actual history.
It is difficult to find a starting point, but I think a good start is the story of the
origins of the name ‘Prussia’.
Because interestingly enough, Prussia originally was the name of a small heathen tribe in the
Baltics.
Documented records of this tribe are non-existent, and all we know is that after the brutal Christianization
by the Order of the Teutonic Knights, these Knights eventually took over the name of the
conquered.
The state established by the order became known as Prussia and its settlers called themselves
Prussians.
With the Vistula river as a natural border, there were East and West Prussians, depending
on which side they lived on.
For the next couple of centuries, far into the 20th century, East and West Prussia would
remain the respective names of Germany's two most north-easterly provinces.
Both these provinces together constituted Prussia.
The first identifiable historical strata of Prussian history is its colonial history.
In this case, the German monks and knights that trekked eastward to spread Christianity
and conquer territories.
Four main provinces would eventually constitute the heartland of Prussia: Brandenburg, Pomerania,
Silesia and 'Prussia', both East and West.
Each territory enjoyed a different form of colonization, though colonization is always
an aggressive conquest of weaker nations and civilizations.
For Prussian territories, there were 3 degrees of colonization, so to speak.
Prussian Colonization: Pomerania & Silesia
In both Pomerania and Silesia, situated in current day Poland, Christianization and colonization
was the mildest.
Reason for this was that the region had already encountered Christianity, even before the
Germans came there to spread their beliefs around the 12th and 13th century.
The Slav tribal rulers tended to be Christian, though their subjects were pagan.
German monks were often called in by the Slav ruler to Christianize the population and offer
developmental aid.
Considering the time frame, these missions more often than not turned violent against
the pagan population and they led to more Germans coming into the territory than were
invited.
Nevertheless, a real 'German conquest’ of Silesia or Pomerania did not happen, in contrast
to other provinces as we will see later.
Germanization proceeded gradually and on all levels of society.
In contrast to the Baltic lands: Kurland, Livland and Estonia where German land-owning
aristocracy imposed itself as an upper class upon the indigenous Slav peasantry.
Slowly but surely, the German language and Christian civilization overtook the former
pagan and Slav culture.
Prussian Junker family names until deep into the 20th century ending in the Slav 'ow' and
'itz' are testament of the Slav origin of the ruling classes.
In these areas there was no extreme military conquest, genocide or suppression - more a
case of infiltration... and eventually absorbtion.
Prussian Colonization: Mark Brandenburg
As for Mark Brandenburg, in the north-east of contemporary Germany, the colonization
of this area had a much more violent nature.
In the 12th century Albrecht the Bear colonized the Mark, consisting of a mixed-Slav population.
Albrecht was the founder of the Ascanian dynasty and, although he acquired a corner of the
Mark legally, inheriting it from the Wendish ruler, Privislav, Albrecht proceeded to conquer
the rest in military campaigns.
Following the seizure of land, decades of rebellions and suppression followed in an
attempt to Christianize and Germanize the region.
The region was inhabited by Wendish natives, of whom some princes had voluntarily converted
to Christianity.
Nevertheless, far up until the 18th and 19th centuries, Wends in the Mark lived among their
own, sparsely intermingling with the German settlers.
This is one of the things I personally think are so fascinating when it comes to history:
up to this day - in 2019 - Spreewald, about 100 kilometres south-east of Berlin, houses
a small Wendish ethnic group with their own language and customs.
They have survived the centuries of German settlers, military campaigns and even the
second world war.
Perhaps contrary to expectations after learning of the Wendish of the Spreewald, the Mark
Brandenburg rapidly became a strong and influential region after colonization - much faster than
the compliant Pomerania and Silesia.
Where the latter two continued as subdivided principalities for a long time, by the 13th
century the Margraves of Brandenburg rose to the top of the German Empire's nobility.
First they occupied the role of 'Reich Chamberlains', the exclusive club of Electors that were allowed
to cast their vote on the next Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Furthermore, during the heydays of Albrecht the Bear's Ascanian's, Brandenburg was a power
to be reckoned with within the Empire.
Up until early in the 14th century when the last Ascanian Margrave, Henry II, passed away
childless, ending the dynasty.
Immediately the power of Brandenburg declined.
Now, during the colonization of Brandenburg, the principal missionaries were members of
the Cistercian Order.
These so happened to be experts in the drainage of marshes.
Considering the area was referred to as a swamp, their expertise was very welcome and
aside from violent knights, the peaceful monks often influenced the region just as much.
As its power declined, the Mark became known as the 'Wild East', where the law of the strongest
and robber barons flourished.
For now those developments are not important - I just had to point out that the colonization
of the Mark took a different course from Pomerania and Silesia.
While it was more violent and bloody, it did result in a stronger political infrastructure.
Albrecht the Bear certainly was a ruthless and aggressive ruler, but it did allow the
Margraves of Brandenburg to rise to the top aristocracy of the Holy Roman Empire, up until
the demise of the Ascanian dynasty.
Prussian Colonization: East & West Prussia
Whereas we have seen that the contrast between Pomerania, Silesia and Brandenburg was evident
- the original Prussia certainly overshadowed the former.The Prussian lands around the Vistula
were colonized by the Deutschritter Orden, or Order of the Teutonic knights.
They made the former two examples seem peaceful.
Regardless of the atrocities, the state these knights established was considered a contemporary
miracle.
Not just that but the decline and fall of their proto-Prussia, we'll call it that, led
to the establishment of the great power called Prussia.
As a small teaser: the next video in this series will be about the history of the Teutonic
knights before they started their colonization of Prussia.
Alright, so early in the 13th century the beginnings of the colonization of this territory
started to take shape.
They were tainted by massacres and near extermination of the native Slav population.
The crusading spirit, which was the reason for establishment of the Teutonic Order in
the first place, did not just ensure bloodbaths around Jerusalem, but in the Baltic as well.
We'll have to quickly describe the native population and contrast them with similar
tribes living closeby: the pagan Slavs on the Elbe and Oder.
They lagged far behind their Christian colonizers when it came to material, cultural and religious
matters, but not too far behind to make it impossible to have them assimilate and develop.
But the pagan Prussians on the lower Vistula were regarded, both by Germans and Polish
contemporaries, as savages.
These tribes had no written language, no sense of time or dates, and spoke in a language
that was incomprehensible both to Germans and Slavs.
These people were at the same time warlike, tough and courageous.
Whereas in Mark Brandenburg occasionally peaceful monks aided the drainage of swamps, in Prussia
all conversion by the Teutonic Order was done by sword.
Forced baptisms were the rule, those that refused were put to death.
The Language and customs barrier led the frightened Prussians, in their confusion, being massacred
en-masse.
Between 1226 and 36 these atrocities were carried out, until a period of peace followed.
The Prussians, or what was left of them, seemed pacified.
That was, until 1260 when a rebellion broke out, out of nowhere.
Considering the lack of central organization this rebellion was very impressive, lasting
for 15 years and initially showcasing acts of revenge just as atrocious as those committed
by the Order.
A desperate act of resistance by the primitive Prussians - and after the war was over, it
was a surprise that they weren't completely wiped out.
Those that did survive, over the next few centuries, intermixed with the new settlers
to the degree that nothing of their language or history has survived.
The new settlers consisted not just of Germans, but of Christian Slavs as well.
After all, the Order was sterile in accordance with monastic rules.
Members were recruited, but ranks and offices weren’t hereditary.
The Teutonic Order Blossoms
As the bloodshed of the 13th century came to an end and the new Prussians settled, the
Teutonic Order started to blossom.
The state it had created was admirable to contemporaries and historians alike.
AFter one of the most horrific chapters of German colonization history, Prussia became
a model colony during the 14th century.
In the middle of the feudal monarchies surrounding it, a monastic republic was headed by an elected
Grand Master - strangely modern for that time.
The country was divided into 20 districts, ruled by a Komtur with his own convention,
the Knights of the order.
I don't wish to draw comparisons with contemporary heads of state with ministers and civil servants,
but it is not strange if you were to draw that comparison.
Because the Order prohibited personal property and marriage - there was no feudal order and
ranks were replenished by recruits from the Grand Master.
The Order became a much willed institution for the off-spring of German aristocratic
families if they wanted to get higher up.
The Order was able to choose the best of the best, and this mutually beneficial system
resulted in the country being very well-governed for a long while.
This state, Prussia, a people of immigrants.
Upon arrival a ready-made state and administration was there to welcome them.
Bestowed upon settlers was fertile land, abandoned after the onslaught the century previous.
The efficient and hard-working people led Prussia to grow both in population and wealth.
Large cities such as Danzig and Königsberg grew larger and the economic aristocracy oversaw
a freer and more prosperous peasantry than any other feudal state surrounding this Prussia.
It is easy to mistake this for a fortunate country.
But as Prussia grew richer, its population felt it was dominated by the Order.
The population felt this way because the Order kept replenishing its ranks from the Empire
and not the Prussian aristocracy.
This aristocracy now became envious of its neighbouring Poland, which was slowly transforming
into a republic of nobles.
When in the fifteenth century a series of wars between the Order and Poland and Lithuania
broke out, the Order found its own estates and population partly, but eventually entirely
on the side of the enemy.
There are many things I glossed over: The Battle of Tannenberg of 1410, several famous
Grandmasters such as Hermann von Salza among others.
The next video will explore the Teutonic Order in Prussia more in-depth.
It is a topic that certainly deserves a video on its own.
First step to Prussia and Hohenzollern
The wars between the Teutonic Order and Poland lasted for another half a century.
1466 is a date that is key to understanding contemporary Prussia.
It was the year of the Second Peace of Thorn, concluding a 13 year war between the Order
and Poland.
The Order was defeated and had to cede West Prussia to Poland.
For the next couple of centuries Polish settlers would leave their mark on the region.
East-Prussia remained to the Order, but only if they paid the Polish an annual fee.
This is the major break in history which can be traced to the establishment of what would
become a new, sovereign Prussia: due to this treaty, Prussia was no longer territory of
the Holy Roman Empire.
As a matter of fact, Emperor Frederick III did not stir a finger.
It would take multiple centuries for it to regain its independence, but the crucial first
step had been taken.
The second major break in Prussian history followed in 1525.
It was then the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht, decided to crown himself
as Duke of Prussia.
There were many of these types of stories during these years: the reformation was in
full swing and princes from many regions decided to use the reformation as a pretext to seize
ecclesiastical buildings, riches and territory.
While this in itself could be seen as questionable, this Grand Master, on top of that, betrayed
his office and those Knights that had elected him.
The Holy Roman Emperor wasn't too delighted with Albrechts course of action, but the Grand
Master turned Duke did not mind and the Emperor did not intervene.
Albrecht ended up ruling for several decades, with some noteworthy achievements such as
the finding of the Königsberg University, that would stand until the end of the Second
World War.
Albrecht got married, as adhering to his oath of celibacy was the least of his broken vows
by this point, and his marriage left him with a son that inherited the Duchy.
Now, this entire story about this Grand Master that didn't exactly play by the rules wouldn't
even be worth mentioning, had it not been for the rest of his name.
Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach namely, was a Hohenzollern.
It was thanks to him that East Prussia came into the Hohenzollern family, creating a hereditary
line of succession.
The Hohenzollerns co-incidentally happened to rule over the Margravate of Brandenburg
as well.
They would now undertake every possible effort to unite their Margravate Brandenburg and
their Duchy, Prussia.
This unpromising territory became the heartland of a powerful European state thanks to the
prudence and ambition of the Hohenzollerns.
Next episodes we'll look into the Teutonic Order, before covering the early years of
the Hohenzollern clan, the dynastic history of their house, and relation to Prussia.
If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing to my channel.
Thank you for watching this video.
Make sure you check out the playlist with the Complete History of Prussia on the screen.
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