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152-593: In 1816 the districts Cochem and Zell were created, after the area went to Prussia . In 1969 the Zell district was dissolved and its northern and middle parts were added to the Cochem district, which was renamed Cochem-Zell. In 2014 the municipalities Lahr , Mörsdorf and Zilshausen were assigned to the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis . The district consists of three different landscapes. The Moselle valley with its vineyards , and

304-696: A fiefdom to the Teutonic Knights , a German military order of crusading knights, headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre . In 1225 he expelled them, and they transferred their operations to the Baltic Sea area. Konrad I , the Polish Duke of Masovia , had unsuccessfully attempted to conquer pagan Prussia in crusades in 1219 and 1222. In 1226 Duke Konrad invited the Teutonic Knights to conquer

456-667: A Germanization of the East, was unfortunately based on the same false inference. Here again it was thought that a Germanization of the Polish element could be brought about by a purely linguistic integration with the German element. Here again the result would have been catastrophic; a people of alien race expressing its alien ideas in the German language , compromising the lofty dignity of our own nationality by their own inferiority." The Nazis considered land to

608-436: A ban issued on the building of houses by non-Germans. (See Drzymała's van .) Germanisation in schools included the abuse of Polish children by Prussian officials . Germanisation stimulated resistance, usually in the form of home schooling and tighter unity in minority groups. There was a slight easing of the persecution of Poles during 1890–94. A continuation and intensification of measures restarted in 1894 and continued until

760-530: A black cross with gold insert and black imperial eagle. The combination of the black and white colours with the white and red Hanseatic colours of the free cities Bremen , Hamburg and Lübeck , as well as of Brandenburg , resulted in the black-white-red commercial flag of the North German Confederation , which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871. Suum cuique ("to each, his own"),

912-644: A coalition of Hanseatic cities of western Prussia, rebelled against the Order and requested help from the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon . The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of, and to pay tribute to Casimir IV in the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) , losing western Prussia ( Royal Prussia ) to Poland in the process. Pursuant to the Second Peace of Thorn, two Prussian states were established. During

1064-438: A constitution like the other provinces of my kingdom. Your religion will be upheld. [...] Your language shall be used like the German language in all public affairs and everyone of you with suitable capabilities shall get the opportunity to get an appointment to a public office. [...] As a result, there was an easing of Germanisation policy in the period 1815–30. The minister for Education Altenstein stated in 1823: Concerning

1216-650: A continental great power and Prussia satisfied its desire for merging the once separate territories and gaining strong economic and strategic power, particularly from the full access to the resources of the Ruhr. Bismarck desired Austria as an ally in the future, and so he declined to annex any Austrian territory. But in the Peace of Prague in 1866, Prussia annexed four of Austria's allies in northern and central Germany – Hanover, Hesse-Kassel , Nassau and Frankfurt . Prussia also won full control of Schleswig-Holstein . As

1368-477: A cross gules surmounted by a bugle-horn of the first, the bell to sinister, stringed Or, and sable issuant from base a lion rampant, his dexter paw couped at the line of partition, of the third armed, langued and crowned of the second. The upper part of the coat of arms shows the main charge of the coat of arms of the Zell district, the cross of Trier , as the Bishops of Trier had a castle at Zell. The horn stands for

1520-450: A crown from a revolutionary assembly without the sanction of Germany's other monarchs. The Frankfurt Parliament was forced to dissolve in 1849, and Frederick William issued a constitution by his own authority in 1850. This conservative document provided for a two-house parliament, the Landtag of Prussia . The lower house, or Prussian House of Representatives was elected by all males over

1672-579: A crown placed around its neck as a symbol of submission to Poland. Albert I, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order's Prussian territories. This was the area east of the mouth of the Vistula river, later sometimes called "Prussia proper". For the first time, these lands came into the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family, who already ruled

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1824-462: A desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement, by students who encouraged the use of the black-red-gold flag, discussions of a unified German nation, and a progressive, liberal political system. Because of Prussia's size and economic importance, smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s. Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of

1976-495: A relatively short period. This event also produced the first historical record of a major German thinker openly calling for the genocide of the Polish people; the 14th-century German Dominican theologian Johannes von Falkenberg argued on behalf of the Teutonic Order not only that Polish pagans should be killed, but that all Poles should be subject to genocide on the grounds that Poles were an inherently heretical race and that even

2128-486: A report of many well-fed Ukrainian children, he declared that the promotion of contraception and abortion was urgently needed, and neither medical care nor education was to be provided. When young women from the East were recruited to work as nannies in Germany , they were required to be suitable for Germanisation, both because they would work with German children, and because they might be sexually exploited . The programme

2280-464: A result of these territorial gains, Prussia now stretched uninterrupted across the northern two-thirds of Germany and contained two-thirds of Germany's population. The German Confederation was dissolved, and Prussia impelled the 21 states north of the Main river into forming the North German Confederation . Prussia was the dominant state in the new confederation, as the kingdom comprised almost four-fifths of

2432-582: A significant part of Prussia lost the majority of their German population after 1945 as the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet Union both absorbed these territories and had most of its German inhabitants expelled by 1950. Prussia, deemed "a bearer of militarism and reaction" by the Allies , was officially abolished by an Allied declaration in 1947. The international status of the former eastern territories of

2584-476: A territory free of any feudal obligations, which constituted the basis for their later elevation to kings. Frederick William I succeeded in organizing the electorate by establishing an absolute monarchy in Brandenburg-Prussia, an achievement for which he became known as the "Great Elector". Above all, he emphasised the importance of a powerful military to protect the state's disconnected territories, while

2736-475: A top-secret memorandum, "The Treatment of Racial Aliens in the East", dated 25   May 1940, Himmler wrote "We need to divide Poland's different ethnic groups up into as many parts and splinter groups as possible". There were two Germanisation actions in occupied Poland realised in this way: Germanisation began with the classification of people as defined on the Nazi Volksliste . The Germans regarded

2888-511: Is desirable for the Poles to understand the language of government. However, it is not necessary for them to give up or postpone their mother language. The possession of two languages shall not be seen as a disadvantage but as a benefit instead because it is usually associated with a higher flexibility of the mind. [..] Religion and language are the highest sanctuaries of a nation and all attitudes and perceptions are founded on them. A government that [...]

3040-463: Is indifferent or even hostile against them creates bitterness, debases the nation and generates disloyal subjects. Later the first half of the 19th century, Prussian policy towards Poles turned again to discrimination and Germanisation. From 1819 the state gradually reduced the role of the Polish language in schools, with German being introduced in its place. This policy was likely also inspired by English and French examples of using schools for asserting

3192-478: Is the spread of the German language , people , and culture . It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In linguistics , Germanisation of non-German languages also occurs when they adopt many German words. Under the policies of states such as the Teutonic Order , Austria , the Kingdom of Prussia , and

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3344-507: The Junker class of landed aristocrats in the East who dominated first Prussia and then the German Empire. The main coat of arms of Prussia , as well as the flag of Prussia , depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white national colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights and by the Hohenzollern dynasty . The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with

3496-556: The Prussian House of Lords , was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority, and ministers were responsible only to him. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces. The constitution nevertheless contained a number of liberal elements such as the introduction of jury courts and a catalog of fundamental rights that included freedom of religion, speech and

3648-487: The Baltic Germans as deeply persecuted in their native lands. Packed into camps for racial evaluation, they were divided into groups: A, Altreich , who were to be settled in Germany and allowed neither farms nor businesses (to allow close supervision); S Sonderfall , who were used as forced labour; and O Ost-Fälle , the best classification, to be settled in the occupied regions and allowed independence. This last group

3800-557: The Battle of Jena-Auerstedt , leading Frederick William III and his family to flee temporarily to Memel . Under the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, the state lost about one-third of its area, including the areas gained from the second and third Partitions of Poland , which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw . Beyond that, the king was obliged to pay a large indemnity, to cap his army at 42,000 men, and to let

3952-625: The Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland , Westphalia , 40% of Saxony and some other territories. These western lands were of vital importance because they included the Ruhr region, the centre of Germany's fledgling industrialisation, especially in the arms industry. These territorial gains also meant the doubling of Prussia's population. In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow

4104-527: The Edict of Potsdam (1685) opened Brandenburg-Prussia for the immigration of Protestant refugees (especially Huguenots ), and he established a bureaucracy to carry out state administration efficiently. On 18 January 1701, Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III, elevated Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom and crowned himself King Frederick I . In the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700, Leopold I , emperor of

4256-472: The Free State of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. Subsequently, it was effectively dismantled into Nazi German Gaue in 1935. Nevertheless, some Prussian ministries were kept and Hermann Göring remained in his role as Minister President of Prussia until the end of World War II . Former eastern territories of Germany that made up

4408-574: The German Empire , non-German minorities were often discouraged or even prohibited from using their native language, and had their traditions and culture suppressed in the name of linguistic imperialism . In addition, the Government also encouraged immigration from the Germanosphere to further upset the linguistic balance, but with varying degrees of success. In Nazi Germany , linguistic Germanisation

4560-491: The German nobility . After the Napoleonic Wars, Austria remained in possession of parts of Lesser Poland , Galicia , Volhynia , as well as a minor share of Silesia . Prussia in turn not only retained the bulk of Upper Silesia but upon dissolution of the Duchy of Warsaw it also reclaimed the entire West Prussia (formed by Pomerelia , the northernmost part of Greater Poland and a strip of historical Prussia on

4712-590: The Holy Roman Empire , allowed Frederick only to title himself " King in Prussia ", not " King of Prussia ". The state of Brandenburg-Prussia became commonly known as "Prussia", although most of its territory, in Brandenburg, Pomerania, and western Germany, lay outside Prussia proper. The Prussian state grew in splendour during the reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury. Frederick I

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4864-500: The Iroquois . From the start of Prussian rule Poles were subject to a series of measures against their culture: the Polish language was replaced by German as the official language; most administrative positions were filled by Germans. Poles were portrayed as "backward Slavs" by Prussian officials who wanted to spread Protestantism in the German language. The estates of the Polish nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant members of

5016-602: The King of Poland , Jogaila , a Christian convert, ought to be murdered. The assertion that Poles were heretical was largely politically motivated as the Teutonic Order desired to conquer Polish lands despite Christianity having become the dominant religion in Poland centuries prior. Such views did not remain purely ideas but were also put into practice in the wake of events such as the Slaughter of Gdańsk whose German population only achieved

5168-758: The Kingdom of Hungary , triggering in Cisleithania the Czech National Revival and United Slovenia movements, in both parts of the Habsburg Monarchy the Croatian Illyrian movement , as well as in the Bosnia and Herzegovina condominium the Bosnian movement, some of them ultimately forming Yugoslavism , while the Polish and Ukrainian-speaking population of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria benefitted from

5320-674: The Late Middle Ages , the Silesian Piasts and Pomeranian Griffins invited German settlers to settle in many areas constituting the Kingdom of Poland prior to its fragmentation while the Santok Castellany was outright sold to Brandenburg by the Piast dukes of Greater Poland. As a result, Silesia , Pomerania (in the narrow sense) and Lubusz Land joined the Holy Roman Empire , as a natural consequence becoming gradually Germanised in

5472-598: The Margraviate of Brandenburg , since the 15th century. Furthermore, with his renunciation of the Order, Albert could now marry and produce legitimate heirs. Brandenburg and Prussia united two generations later. In 1594 Duchess Anna of Prussia , granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia (reigned 1568–1618), married her cousin Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg. When Albert Frederick died in 1618 without male heirs, John Sigismund

5624-599: The Namensänderungsgesetz (law of changing surnames), a significant number of "Ruhr-Poles" changed their surnames and Christian names to Germanised forms, in order to evade ethnic discrimination. As the Prussian authorities suppressed Catholic services in Polish by Polish priests during the Kulturkampf , the Poles had to rely on German Catholic priests. Increasing intermarriage between Germans and Poles contributed much to

5776-615: The North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order . The Knights had to relocate their headquarters to Mergentheim , but managed to keep land in Livonia until 1561. Prussia formed the German Empire when it united the German states in 1871. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of

5928-456: The Old Prussians ; in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights  – an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders  – conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Danzig . Their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany , and, in

6080-483: The Prussian Settlement Commission , financed by the national government, was set up to buy land from non-Germans and distribute it to German farmers. From 1908 the committee was entitled to force the landowners to sell the land. Other means of oppression included the Prussian deportations from 1885 to 1890, in which non-Prussian nationals who lived in Prussia, mostly Poles and Jews, were removed; and

6232-507: The Ruhr area in the late 19th century, where they largely worked in the coal and iron industries. German authorities viewed them as a potential danger as a "suspected political and national" element. All Polish workers had special cards and were under constant observation by German authorities. Their citizens' rights were also limited by the state. In response to these policies, the Polish formed their own organisations to maintain their interests and ethnic identity. The Sokol sports clubs,

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6384-624: The defeat of Napoleon in Russia , Prussia quit its alliance with France and took part in the Sixth Coalition during the "Wars of Liberation" ( Befreiungskriege ) against the French occupation. Prussian troops under Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher contributed crucially (alongside the British and Dutch) to the final victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo of June 1815. Prussia's reward in 1815 at

6536-451: The main square of the Polish capital Kraków , Albert I resigned his position as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and received the title "Duke of Prussia" from King Zygmunt I the Old of Poland. As a symbol of vassalage, Albert received a standard with the Prussian coat of arms from the Polish king. The black Prussian eagle on the flag was augmented with a letter "S" (for Sigismundus) and had

6688-694: The papacy and to the Holy Roman Emperor . Their initially close relationship with the Polish Crown deteriorated after they conquered Polish-controlled Pomerelia and Danzig in 1308. Eventually, Poland and Lithuania, allied through the Union of Krewo (1385), defeated the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410. The Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) began when the Prussian Confederation ,

6840-400: The "Old Reich". Nazi authorities feared that these settlers would be tainted by their Polish neighbours and warned them not to let their "foreign and alien" surroundings have an impact on their Germanness. They were also settled in compact communities, which could be easily monitored by the police. Only families classified as "highly valuable" were kept together. For Poles who did not resist

6992-589: The (compulsory) protection of Prussia. Additionally, mutual defence treaties were concluded. However, the existence of these treaties was kept secret until Bismarck made them public in 1867 when France tried to acquire Luxembourg . The controversy with the Second French Empire over the candidacy of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne was escalated both by France and Bismarck. With his Ems Dispatch , Bismarck took advantage of an incident in which

7144-584: The 17th and 18th century in the Czech lands as the Dark Age. As a further step, Emperor Joseph II ( r.  1780–90 ) sought to consolidate the territories of Habsburg Monarchy within the Holy Roman Empire with those remaining outside of it, to centralise the government , and to implement Enlightenment principles through absolutism . He decreed that Austrian German was to replace Ecclesiastical Latin as

7296-486: The 18th century. The plague and subsequent immigration from Germany, notably from Salzburg, were the primary factors in this development. Germanisation policies were tightened during the 19th century, but even into the early 20th century the territories north, south and south-west of the Neman River contained a Lithuanian majority. Due to migration within the German Empire as many as 350,000 ethnic Poles made their way to

7448-533: The 19th century. Frederick the Great (reigned 1740–1786) practised enlightened absolutism . He built the world's best army, and usually won his many wars. He introduced a general civil code, abolished torture and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere in matters of justice. He also promoted an advanced secondary education, the forerunner of today's German gymnasium (grammar school) system, which prepares

7600-466: The Austrian Army at the Battle of Mollwitz on 10 April 1741, Frederick succeeded in conquering Lower Silesia (the northwestern half of Silesia). In the next year, 1742, he conquered Upper Silesia (the southeastern half). Furthermore, in the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War ) Frederick won a victory over Austria at the Battle of Lobositz on 1 October 1756. In spite of some victories afterward, his situation became far less comfortable

7752-404: The Austrian government, not only to divide and rule , but, more importantly, to create an alternative to the Tsarist-backed Galician Russophiles and to "return the favor" by similarly destabilizing the Russification of Ukraine . In defiance of the Valuev Circular , the Ems Ukaz , and censorship in the Russian Empire , Ukrainian-language literature was published in Galicia and smuggled across

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7904-426: The Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders. During 60 years of struggles against the Old Prussians , the Order established an independent state that came to control Prūsa. After the Livonian Brothers of the Sword joined the Teutonic Order in 1237, the Order also controlled Livonia (now Latvia and Estonia ). Around 1252 they finished the conquest of the northernmost Prussian tribe of the Skalvians as well as of

8056-414: The Baltic Sea for foreign countries. In the course of the Ostsiedlung (German eastward expansion) process, settlers were invited , bringing changes in the ethnic composition as well as in language, culture, and law of the eastern borders of the German lands. As a majority of these settlers were Germans, Low German became the dominant language. The Knights of the Teutonic Order were subordinate to

8208-411: The Baltic States the Nazis initially encouraged the departure of ethnic Germans by the use of propaganda. This included using scare tactics about the Soviet Union, and led to tens of thousands leaving . Those who left were not referred to as "refugees", but were rather described as "answering the call of the Führer". German propaganda films such as The Red Terror and Frisians in Peril depicted

8360-443: The Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper. The partition also added Polish Royal Prussia to the kingdom, allowing Frederick to re-style himself King of Prussia. During this period, he also opened Prussia's borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe, such as the Huguenots . Prussia became a safe haven in much the same way that the United States welcomed immigrants seeking freedom in

8512-471: The Czech population were not to be Germanised. Under Generalplan Ost , a percentage of Slavs in the conquered territories were to be Germanised. Gauleiters Albert Forster and Arthur Greiser reported to Hitler that 10 percent of the Polish population contained "Germanic blood", and were thus suitable for Germanisation. The Reichskommissars in northern and central Russia reported similar figures. Those unfit for Germanisation were to be expelled from

8664-431: The Danes, who surrendered both territories. In the resulting Gastein Convention of 1865 Prussia took over the administration of Schleswig while Austria assumed that of Holstein. Bismarck realised that the dual administration of Schleswig and Holstein was only a temporary solution, and tensions rose between Prussia and Austria. The struggle for supremacy in Germany then led to the Austro-Prussian War (1866), triggered by

8816-444: The Duchy of Prussia, which was still held in fief from the Polish crown. In January 1656, during the first phase of the Second Northern War (1654–1660), he received the duchy as a fief from the Swedish king who later granted him full sovereignty in the Treaty of Labiau (November 1656). In 1657 the Polish king renewed this grant in the treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg . With Prussia, the Brandenburg Hohenzollern dynasty now held

8968-423: The East". On 6 April 1941 Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis Powers. Part of the Slovene-settled territory was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Gestapo arrived on 16   April 1941 and were followed three days later by SS leader Heinrich Himmler, who inspected Stari Pisker Prison in Celje . On 26   April, Adolf Hitler , who encouraged his followers to "make this land German again", visited Maribor . Although

9120-424: The Eastern Front. An unknown number of "stolen children" were taken to Nazi Germany for Germanisation. Ukraine was targeted for Germanisation. Thirty special SS squads took over villages where ethnic Germans predominated and expelled or shot Jews or Slavs living in them. The Hegewald colony was set up in Ukraine. Ukrainians were forcibly deported, and ethnic Germans forcibly relocated there. Racial assignment

9272-452: The French ambassador had approached William. The government of Napoleon III , expecting another civil war among the German states, declared war against Prussia, continuing Franco-German enmity . However, honouring their treaties, the German states joined forces and quickly defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Following victory under Bismarck's and Prussia's leadership, Baden , Württemberg and Bavaria, which had remained outside

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9424-399: The French garrison troops throughout Prussia, effectively making the kingdom a French satellite. In response to this defeat, reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernising the Prussian state. Among their reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom , the Emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them. The school system was rearranged, and in 1818 free trade

9576-429: The German Customs Union ( Zollverein ), which included most German states but excluded Austria. In 1848, the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe . Alarmed, King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution . When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, he refused on the grounds that he would not accept

9728-513: The German Empire was a version of the North German Confederation's constitution. Officially, the German Empire was a federal state. In practice, Prussia overshadowed the rest of the empire. Prussia included three-fifths of the German territory and two-thirds of its population. The Imperial German Army was, in practice, an enlarged Prussian army, although the other kingdoms ( Bavaria , Saxony and Württemberg ) retained their own small armies, coming under Imperial control in wartime. The imperial crown

9880-405: The Germanisation of Poles in Prussia, calling it "barbarous". Meanwhile, the Austrian-ruled Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria operated two Polish-speaking universities and in 1867 obtained even consent to adopt Polish as its official government language. The Galician Government also foolishly launched a Polonisation policy which triggered a Ukrainian language revival , which was encouraged by

10032-444: The Germanisation of ethnic Poles in the Ruhr area. Successive policies aimed at the elimination of non-German languages from public life and from academic settings, such as schools. For example, in the course of the second half of the 19th century, the Dutch language , historically spoken in what is now Cleves , Geldern and Emmerich , was banned from schools and the administration and ceased to be spoken in its standardised form by

10184-444: The Hanseatic League) until the decline of the League in about 1500. The expansion of Prussia based on its connection with the Hanseatic League cut both Poland and Lithuania off from the coast of the Baltic Sea and trade abroad. This meant that Poland and Lithuania would be traditional enemies of Prussia, which was still called the Teutonic Knights. In 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in Transylvania as

10336-451: The Kingdom of Prussia was disputed until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990, but its return to Germany remains a cause among far-right politicians, the Federation of Expellees and various political revanchists and irredentists . The terms "Prussian" and " Prussianism " have often been used, especially outside Germany, to denote the militarism, military professionalism, aggressiveness, and conservatism of

10488-405: The North German Confederation, accepted incorporation into a united German Empire . The empire was a "Lesser German" solution (in German, " kleindeutsche Lösung ") to the question of uniting all German-speaking peoples into one state, because it excluded Austria, which remained connected to Hungary and whose territories included non-German populations. On 18 January 1871 (the 170th anniversary of

10640-412: The Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army . Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin , decisively shaped the history of Germany . The name Prussia derives from

10792-416: The Russian border with Austrian Government backing. Prussian Lithuanians experienced similar policies of Germanisation restarting from the 15th century. Although ethnic Lithuanians had constituted a majority in areas of East Prussia during the 15th and 16th centuries – from the early 16th century it was often referred to as Lithuania Minor  – the Lithuanian population shrank in

10944-626: The Slovenes had been deemed racially salvageable by the Nazis, the mainly Austrian authorities of the Carinthian and Styrian regions commenced a brutal campaign to destroy them as a nation. The Nazis started a policy of violent Germanisation on Slovene territory, attempting to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene culture. Their main task in Slovenia was the removal of part of population and Germanisation of

11096-429: The age of 25. They were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid. In one typical election, the first class (with those who paid the most in taxes) included 4% of voters and the third class (with those who paid the least) had 82%, yet each group chose the same number of electors. The system but assured dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population. The upper house,

11248-704: The areas marked out for German settlement. In considering the fate of the individual nations, the architects of the Plan decided that it would be possible to Germanise about 50 percent of the Czechs , 35 percent of the Ukrainians and 25 percent of the Belarusians . The remainder would be deported to western Siberia and other regions. In 1941, it was decided that the Polish nation should be completely destroyed in about 10 to 20 years so that it could be re-settled by German colonists. In

11400-554: The army in relation to the total population, Mirabeau said later: "Prussia, is not a state with an army, but an army with a state." Frederick William also settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated East Prussia, which was eventually extended to the west bank of the Neman river, and other regions. In the Treaty of Stockholm (1720), he acquired half of Swedish Pomerania . Frederick William I died in 1740 and

11552-588: The back of this wheat production included: Stettin in Pomerania (now Szczecin , Poland); Danzig in Prussia (now Gdańsk , Poland); Riga in Livonia (now Riga, Latvia); Königsberg in Prussia (now Kaliningrad , Russia); and Memel in Prussia (now Klaipėda , Lithuania). Wheat production and trade brought Prussia into a close relationship with the Hanseatic League during the period of time from 1356 (official founding of

11704-452: The battleground against Austria and other powers proved Prussia's status as one of the great powers of Europe. The Silesian Wars began more than a century of rivalry and conflict between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states operating within the Holy Roman Empire (although both had extensive territory outside the empire). In 1744, the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following

11856-571: The beginning of three Silesian Wars (1740–1763). The First Silesian War (1740–1742) and the Second Silesian War (1744–1745) have, historically, been grouped together with the general European war called the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI had died on 20 October 1740. He was succeeded to the throne by his daughter, Maria Theresa . By defeating

12008-473: The border regions. Before its abolition, the territory of the Free State of Prussia included the provinces of East Prussia ; Brandenburg ; Saxony (including much of the present-day state of Saxony-Anhalt and parts of the state of Thuringia in Germany); Pomerania ; Rhineland ; Westphalia ; Silesia (without Austrian Silesia ); Schleswig-Holstein ; Hanover ; Hesse-Nassau ; and a small detached area in

12160-575: The brightest pupils for university studies. The Prussian education system was emulated in various countries, including the United States. During the reign of King Frederick William II (1786–1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. His successor, Frederick William III (1797–1840), announced

12312-697: The broadening of Galician autonomy . During the 18th-century, a more harsh and brutal form of Germanisation efforts , initially practiced in Farther Pomerania and East Prussia and extended following the Silesian Wars also to Silesia and County of Kladsko gained from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown as well as later to the terrories of Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Starostwo of Draheim pawned by Poland,

12464-460: The children of people executed for resisting Germanisation. If attempts to Germanise them failed, or they were determined to be unfit, they would be killed to eliminate their value to the opponents of the Reich. In German-occupied Poland, it is estimated that 50,000 to 200,000 children were removed from their families to be Germanised. The Kinder KZ was founded specifically to hold such children. It

12616-517: The circumstances that fell into place. Bismarck curried support from large sections of the people by promising to lead the fight for greater German unification. He successfully guided Prussia through three wars, which unified Germany and brought William the position of German Emperor . The Kingdom of Denmark was at the time in personal union with the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein , both of which had close ties with each other, although only Holstein

12768-528: The core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. The Kingdom ended in 1918 along with other German monarchies that were terminated by the German Revolution . In the Weimar Republic ,

12920-517: The coronation of King Frederick I ), William was proclaimed "German Emperor " (not "Emperor of Germany") in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles outside Paris, while the French capital was still under siege . The two decades after the unification of Germany were the peak of Prussia's fortunes, but the seeds for potential strife were built into the Prusso-German political system. The Constitution of

13072-531: The creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty. In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation . The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and conservatives , who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence. One small movement that signalled

13224-463: The crucial victory at the Battle of Königgrätz under Helmuth von Moltke the Elder . The century-long struggle between Berlin and Vienna for the dominance of Germany was now over. As a sideshow in this war, Prussia defeated Hanover in the Battle of Langensalza (1866) . While Hanover hoped in vain for help from Britain (as they had previously been in personal union), Britain stayed out of a confrontation with

13376-584: The current Austrian-Slovenian border. This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when the second process of Germanisation took place, mostly in Carinthia. Germanisation of the Ladino-Romantsch Venosta Valley in Tyrol was also undertaken by Austria in the 16th century. Following the 1620 Battle of White Mountain , the Lands of the Bohemian Crown , at the time one of

13528-480: The disconnected Hohenzollern lands, especially the occupying Swedes . The ineffective and militarily weak Elector George William (1619–1640) fled from Berlin to Königsberg , the historic capital of the Duchy of Prussia, in 1637. His successor, Frederick William I (1640–1688), reformed the army to defend the lands. Frederick William I went to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland for

13680-479: The dispute over Schleswig and Holstein, with Bismarck using proposed injustices as the reason for war . On the Austrian side stood the south German states (including Bavaria and Württemberg ), some central German states (including Saxony ), and Hanover in the north. On the side of Prussia were Italy , most north German states, and some smaller central German states. Eventually, the better-armed Prussian troops won

13832-578: The early Middle Ages ; especially the areas of modern southern Austria and extant part of German East Elbia . In East Prussia , decimation and forced resettlement of the original Baltic Old Prussians by the Teutonic Order as well as acculturation by immigrants from various European countries, primarily Germans, but also Poles (Catholic Warmians and Protestant Masurians who both descended from Masovians , as well as Catholic Powiślans who descended from Chełminians and Kociewians ), Lithuanians ( Prussian Lithuanians ) and Bohemians , contributed to

13984-558: The east – Poland , Ukraine , Belarus , Russia , and the Baltics  – to be Lebensraum (living space) and sought to populate it with Germans. Hitler, speaking with generals immediately prior to his chancellorship, declared that people could not be Germanised, only the soil could be. The policy of Germanisation in the Nazi period carried an explicitly ethno-racial rather than purely nationalist meaning, aiming for

14136-524: The eclectic adoption of German culture is the field of law in Imperial and present-day Japan , which is organised according to the model of the German Empire . Germanisation took place by cultural contact, by political decision of the adopting party, or by force. In Slavic countries, the term Germanisation is often understood to mean the process of acculturation of Slavic - and Baltic -language speakers – after conquest by or cultural contact with Germans in

14288-581: The elimination of non-German languages from public life and from academic settings, such as schools. Subsequently, there was an intensification of Germanisation and persecution of Poles in the Province of Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1830–41. After a brief period of thaw in the years 1841–49, Bismarck intensified Germanisation again during 1849–70 as part of his Kulturkampf against Catholicism in general, but in particular against Polish Catholics. It

14440-475: The end of World War I . In 1910, the Polish poet Maria Konopnicka responded to the increasing persecution of Polish people by Germans by writing her famous poem entitled Rota ; it immediately became a national symbol for Poles, with its sentence known to many Poles: The German will not spit in our face, nor will he Germanise our children . An international meeting of socialists held in Brussels in 1902 condemned

14592-631: The end of and after World War II, however, these territories have been mostly degermanised. Early Germanisation went along with the Ostsiedlung during the Middle Ages in Hanoverian Wendland , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Lusatia , and other areas, formerly inhabited by Slavic tribes – Polabian Slavs such as Obotrites , Veleti and Sorbs . Early forms of Germanisation were recorded by German monks in manuscripts such as Chronicon Slavorum . Since

14744-445: The eventual extinction of the Prussian language in the 17th century. Germanisation in its modern form was conducted from the beginning of the 19th century as a set of Prussian/German and (to a lesser degree and for a shorter time) Austrian state policies of forceful imposition of German culture, language and people upon non-German people, Slavs in particular. Since the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe at

14896-522: The extinction of its ruling Cirksena dynasty. In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786, Frederick II, who understood himself as the "first servant of the state", promoted the development of Prussian areas such as the Oderbruch . At the same time he built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia in 1772, an act that geographically connected

15048-634: The fact that Order's politics also resulted in Polonization in some areas of the Teutonic State, and Lithuanization in other areas. Correspondingly, even in villages under German right, there were Polish farmers and even a Polish Schultheiß is recorded. In respect to Austria, northern border of Slovene-speaking territory stabilised on a line from north of Klagenfurt to the south of Villach and east of Hermagor in Carinthia, while in Styria it closely followed

15200-426: The film Heimkehr , depicted these ethnic Germans as persecuted, and the use of military force as necessary to protect them. The exploitation of ethnic Germans as forced labour and persecution of them were major themes of the anti-Polish propaganda campaign of 1939, prior to the invasion . The bloody Sunday incident during the invasion was widely exploited as depicting the Poles as murderous towards Germans. In

15352-575: The following centuries. Proto-Slovene was spoken in a much larger territory than modern Slovenia, which included most of the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria, as well as East Tyrol, the Val Pusteria in South Tyrol, and some parts of Upper and Lower Austria. By the 15th century, most of these areas had been gradually Germanised. Historians have also noted that Ostsiedlung did not include deliberate Germanization, which in pre-national times

15504-408: The following years, as he failed in his attempts to knock Austria out of the war and was gradually reduced to a desperate defensive war. However, he never gave up and on 3 November 1760 the Prussian king won another battle, the hard-fought Battle of Torgau . Despite being several times on the verge of defeat Frederick, allied with Great Britain , Hanover and Hesse-Kassel , was finally able to hold

15656-450: The holding of active leadership roles as an Aryan trait, whereas a tendency to avoid leadership and a perceived fatalism was associated by many Germans with Slavonic peoples. Adults who were selected for but resisted Germanisation were executed. Such execution was carried out on the grounds that German blood should not support non-Germanic people, and that killing them would deprive foreign nations of superior leaders. The intelligenzaktion

15808-793: The installation of the new gauleiter and reichsstatthalter of Carinthia and later they dropped the plan for an indefinite period because of Slovene partisans. Only the Meža Valley became part of Reichsgau Carinthia. Around 80,000 Slovenes were forcibly deported to Eastern Germany for potential Germanisation or forced labour. The deported Slovenes were taken to several camps in Saxony, where they were forced to work on German farms or in factories run by German industries from 1941 to 1945. The forced labourers were not always kept in formal concentration camps, but often vacant buildings. Nazi Germany also began mass expulsions of Slovenes to Serbia and Croatia. The basis for

15960-414: The king/emperor and prime minister/chancellor to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two different franchises. In both the kingdom and the empire, the original constituencies were never redrawn to reflect changes in population, meaning that rural areas were grossly overrepresented by the turn of the 20th century. Germanisation Defunct Defunct Germanisation , or Germanization ,

16112-465: The lands of Our beloved son Wladislaw, duke of Cracow and Sandomierz, and in the town of Gdańsk killed more than ten thousand people with the sword, inflicting death on whining infants in cradles whom even the enemy of faith would have spared." The Teutonic Order did however not deliberately pursue Germanization. Germanization was rather the result of the colonial nature of the State. This is corroborated by

16264-608: The last meaningful territories of the HRE not dominated yet by the German language, was subjected to two centuries of re catholicization of the Czech lands accompanied by growing influence of German-speaking elites, at the expense of declining the Czech-speaking aristocracy, elite Czech language usage in general. Despite the great importance to Czech literature of poets and writers of the era like Bedřich Bridel , Czech nationalist historians and writers such as Alois Jirásek have referred to

16416-404: The majority after local Polish population was murdered and a new settlement was built by Teutonic Knights. The carnage was so extensive that it prompted the pope Clement V to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a bull which charged them with committing a massacre "Latest news were brought to my attention, that officials and brethren of the aforementioned Teutonic order have hostilely intruded

16568-604: The motto of the Order of the Black Eagle created by King Frederick I in 1701, was often associated with the whole of Prussia. The Iron Cross , a military decoration created by King Frederick William III in 1813, was also commonly associated with the country. The region, originally populated by Baltic Old Prussians who were Christianised, became a favoured location for immigration by (later mainly Protestant) Germans ( see Ostsiedlung ), as well as Poles and Lithuanians along

16720-854: The mountains of the Hunsrück in the east and the Eifel in the north and west. The highest elevation is the Höchstberg at 616 m above sea level , located in the Eifel. The German blazon reads: Schräglinks geteilt: vorne in Silber ein durchgehendes rotes Kreuz, belegt mit einem silbernem Hifthorn mit goldenem Riemen; hinten in Schwarz ein wachsender, rot bewehrter, gezungter und gekrönter goldener Löwe . This might in English heraldic language be rendered thus: Per bend sinister argent

16872-535: The national language. In 1825 August Jacob, a politician hostile to Poles, gained power over the newly created Provincial Educational Collegium in Poznan. Across the Polish territories Polish teachers were removed, German educational programmes were introduced, and primary schooling was aimed at the creation of loyal Prussian citizens. In 1825 the teacher's seminary in Bydgoszcz was Germanised. Successive policies aimed at

17024-417: The new state's territory and population. Prussia's near-total control over the confederation was secured in the constitution drafted for it by Bismarck in 1867. Executive power was held by a president , assisted by a chancellor responsible only to him. The presidency was a hereditary office of the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia. There was also a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Reichstag (Diet),

17176-403: The number of Polish children found to exhibit "Nordic" traits, but assumed that all such children were genuinely German children, who had been Polonised . Hans Frank exhibited such views when he declared, "When we see a blue-eyed child we are surprised that she is speaking Polish." The term used for them was wiedereindeutschungsfähig —meaning capable of being re-Germanised. These might include

17328-616: The official language of Government. Hungarians , however, perceived Joseph's language reforms as an act of linguistic imperialism and cultural hegemony , and they responded by insisting on using their heritage language . As a result, the lower Hungarian nobility launched a literary renaissance of the Hungarian language and culture. These lesser nobles often questioned the loyalty of the magnates, less than half of whom were ethnic Hungarians , and many of these had become French- and German-speaking courtiers . The Hungarian national revival

17480-664: The opinion could then be heard that the Austrian-Germans, with the promotion and aid of the government , might well succeed in a Germanization of the Austrian Slavs; these circles never even began to realize that Germanization can only be applied to soil and never to people . ... Not only in Austria , but in Germany as well, so-called national circles were moved by similar false ideas. The Polish policy, demanded by so many, involving

17632-529: The period of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire were granted lands by the Order and gradually formed a new landed Prussian nobility, from which the Junkers would evolve to take a major role in the militarization of Prussia and, later, Germany. On 10 April 1525, after signing of the Treaty of Kraków , which officially ended the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–21) , in

17784-412: The press. In 1862, King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia . Bismarck was determined to defeat both the liberals and conservatives and increase Prussian supremacy and influence among the German states. There has been much debate as to whether Bismarck actually planned to create a united Germany when he set out on this journey, or whether he simply took advantage of

17936-541: The ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom. It became increasingly large and powerful in the 18th and 19th centuries. It had a major voice in European affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great (1740–1786). At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleon's defeat, Prussia acquired rich new territories, including the coal-rich Ruhr . The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became

18088-513: The recognition of Slovenes as German nationals was the decision of the Imperial Ministry for the Interior from 14   April 1942. This was the basis for drafting Slovenes for the service in the German armed forces. The number of Slovenes conscripted to the German military and paramilitary formations has been estimated at 150,000 men and women. Almost a quarter of them lost their lives, mostly on

18240-600: The resettled ethnic Germans, Germanisation began. Militant party members were sent to teach them to be "true Germans". The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls sent young people for "Eastern Service", which entailed assisting in Germanisation efforts. Germanisation included instruction in the German language, as many spoke only Polish or Russian. Goebbels and other propagandists worked to establish cultural centres and other means to create Volkstum or racial consciousness in

18392-582: The rest. Two organisations were instrumental in the Germanisation: the Styrian Homeland Union ( Steirischer Heimatbund – HS) and the Carinthian People's Union ( Kärtner Volksbund – KV). In Styria the Germanisation of Slovenes was controlled by SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Steindl. In Carinthia a similar policy was conducted by Wilhelm Schick, the gauleiter's close associate. Public use of Slovene

18544-599: The right bank of Vistula ) and, most importantly, obtained the bulk of Greater Poland where an autonomous polity was formed under the name of Grand Duchy of Posen with an officially stated purpose to provide its overwhelmingly Polish population a degree of autonomy; in May 1815 King Frederick William III issued a manifest to the Poles in Posen: You also have a Fatherland. [...] You will be incorporated into my monarchy without having to renounce your nationality. [...] You will receive

18696-408: The settlers. This was needed to perpetuate their work; only by effective Germanisation could mothers, in particular, create the German home. Goebbels was also the official patron of Deutsches Ordensland or Land of Germanic Order, an organisation to promote Germanisation. These efforts were used in propaganda in Germany, as when NS-Frauen-Warte ' s cover article was on "Germany is building in

18848-446: The south called Hohenzollern , the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family. The land that the Teutonic Knights occupied was flat and covered with fertile soil. The area was perfectly suited to the large-scale raising of wheat. The rise of early Prussia was based on the raising and selling of wheat. Teutonic Prussia became known as the "bread basket of Western Europe" (in German, Kornkammer , or granary). The port cities which rose on

19000-479: The south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia . The imposed Second Peace of Thorn (1466) split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia , becoming a province of Poland, and the eastern part, called the Duchy of Prussia from 1525, a feudal fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. Prussia entered

19152-557: The spread of a "biologically superior" Aryan race rather than that of the German nation. This did not mean a total extermination of all people in eastern Europe, as it was regarded as having people of Aryan/Nordic descent, particularly among their ruling class. Himmler declared that no drop of German blood would be lost or left behind for an alien race. In Nazi documents even the term "German" can be problematic, since it could be used to refer to people classified as "ethnic Germans" who spoke no German. Inside Germany, propaganda , such

19304-443: The spread of the German language it is most important to get a clear understanding of the aims, whether it should be the aim to promote the understanding of German among Polish-speaking subjects or whether it should be the aim to gradually and slowly Germanise the Poles. According to the judgement of the minister only the first is necessary, advisable and possible, the second is not advisable and not accomplishable. To be good subjects it

19456-585: The status quo. In 1863, Denmark introduced a shared constitution for Denmark and Schleswig. This led to conflict with the German Confederation, which authorised the occupation of Holstein by the Confederation, from which Danish forces withdrew. In 1864, Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border between Holstein and Schleswig initiating the Second War of Schleswig . The Austro-Prussian forces defeated

19608-586: The territory of Beilstein. The lion in the bottom is the symbol of the Electorate of the Palatinate ; the Counts Palatine had a castle at Cochem. 50°10′N 7°10′E  /  50.17°N 7.17°E  / 50.17; 7.17 Prussia Prussia ( / ˈ p r ʌ ʃ ə / , German : Preußen [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ; Old Prussian : Prūsija, Prūsa ) was a German state centred on

19760-625: The turn of the century. Later in the German Empire , in parallel with Poles, Danes , Dutch , Alsatians , German Catholics and Socialists , were portrayed as "Reichsfeinde" ("foes of the Empire"). During the Weimar Republic , Poles were recognised as a minority in Upper Silesia. The peace treaties after the First World War contained an obligation for Poland to protect its national minorities (Germans, Ukrainians and other), whereas no such clause

19912-574: The union of the Prussian Lutheran and Reformed churches into one church . Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars , but remained quiet for more than a decade because of the Peace of Basel of 1795, only to go once more to war with France in 1806 as negotiations with that country over the allocation of the spheres of influence in Germany failed. Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon 's troops in

20064-453: The western Baltic Curonians , and erected Memel Castle , which developed into the major port city of Memel . The Treaty of Melno defined the final border between Prussia and the adjoining Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1422. The Hanseatic League officially formed in northern Europe in 1356 as a group of trading cities. This League came to hold a monopoly on all trade leaving the interior of Europe and Scandinavia and on all sailing trade in

20216-433: The whole of Silesia against a coalition of Saxony , the Habsburg monarchy, France and Russia . Voltaire , a close friend of the king, once described Frederick the Great's Prussia by saying "...it was Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon." Silesia, full of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns, became a vital region to Prussia, greatly increasing the nation's area, population, and wealth. Success on

20368-450: The workers' union Zjednoczenie Zawodowe Polskie (ZZP), Wiarus Polski (press), and Bank Robotnikow were among the best-known such organisations in the Ruhr. At first, the Polish workers, ostracised by their German counterparts, had supported the Catholic centre party. During the early 20th century, their support shifted increasingly towards the social democrats. In 1905 Polish and German workers organised their first common strike. Under

20520-596: Was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern, the royal house of Prussia. The Minister President of Prussia was, except for two brief periods (January–November 1873 and 1892–94), also imperial chancellor . But the empire itself had no right to collect taxes directly from its subjects; the only incomes fully under federal control were the customs duties, common excise duties, and the revenue from postal and telegraph services. While all men above age 25 were eligible to vote in imperial elections, Prussia retained its restrictive three-class voting system. This effectively required

20672-432: Was beyond imagination. Outside of the HRE, the Old Prussians , originally a Baltic ethnic group, were Germanised by the Teutonic Knights who adopted a very different approach. When the State of the Teutonic Order unexpectingly seized Polish Pomerelia by force and decimated its population , launching at the same time a massive campaign to attract and ressetle to these areas as many German colonists as possible within

20824-451: Was carried out in a confused manner: the Reich rule was three German grandparents, but some asserted that any person who acted like a German and evinced no "racial concerns" should be eligible. Plans to eliminate Slavs from Soviet territory to allow German settlement included starvation. Nazi leaders expected that millions would die after they removed food supplies . This was regarded as advantageous by Nazi officials. When Hitler received

20976-412: Was elected by universal male suffrage . The upper house, or Bundesrat (Federal Council) was appointed by the state governments. The Bundesrat was, in practice, the stronger chamber. Prussia had 17 of 43 votes, and could easily control proceedings through alliances with the other states. As a result of the peace negotiations, the states south of the Main remained theoretically independent, but received

21128-451: Was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia, then still a Polish fief. From this time the Duchy of Prussia was in personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The resulting state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia , consisted of geographically disconnected territories in Prussia, Brandenburg, and the Rhineland lands of Cleves and Mark . During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), various armies repeatedly marched across

21280-539: Was introduced by Frederick the Great as a result of the partitions of Poland to the newly gained Polish territories of Greater Poland , Pomerelia , Warmia and Malbork Land . The Prussian authorities settled German-speaking Protestants in these areas. Frederick the Great settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia . He aimed at a removal of the Polish nobility, which he viewed with contempt, describing ethnic Poles in newly reconquered West Prussia as "slovenly Polish trash" and compared Poles to

21432-598: Was introduced by the victors in the Treaty of Versailles for Germany. In 1928 the Minderheitenschulgesetz (minorities school act) regulated the education of minority children in their native tongue. From 1930 onwards Poland and Germany agreed to treat their minorities fairly. Such position was officially maintained by Germany even for some time after the Nazi takeover, but ceased towards the end of 1937. The Nazi party advocated an explicitly ethno-racialist and bio-political concept of Germanization. Adolf Hitler wrote in " Mein Kampf ": "Even in Pan-German circles

21584-405: Was introduced. The process of army reform ended in 1813 with the introduction of compulsory military service for men. By 1813, Prussia could mobilize almost 300,000 soldiers, more than half of which were conscripts of the Landwehr of variable quality. The rest consisted of regular soldiers that were deemed excellent by most observers, and very determined to repair the humiliation of 1806. After

21736-420: Was justified, even though these elites were regarded as likely to be of German blood, because such blood enabled them to provide leadership for the fatalistic Slavs. Germanising "racially valuable" elements would prevent any increase in the Polish intelligenstia, as the dynamic leadership would have to come from German blood. In 1940 Hitler made it clear that the Czech intelligentsia and the "mongoloid" types of

21888-848: Was often given Polish homes where the families had been evicted so quickly that half-eaten meals were on tables and small children had clearly been taken from unmade beds. Members of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were assigned the task of overseeing such evictions and ensuring that the Poles left behind most of their belongings for the use of the settlers. The deportation orders required that enough Poles be removed to provide for every settler – that, for instance, if twenty German master bakers were sent, twenty Polish bakeries had to have their owners removed. This colonisation involved 350,000 such Baltic Germans and 1.7 million Poles deemed Germanisable, including between one and two hundred thousand children who had been taken from their parents, and about 400,000 German settlers from

22040-407: Was part of the German Confederation . When the Danish government tried to integrate Schleswig, but not Holstein, into the Danish state, Prussia led the German Confederation against Denmark in the First War of Schleswig (1848–1851). Because Russia supported Austria, Prussia also conceded predominance in the German Confederation to Austria in the Punctation of Olmütz in 1850, resulting in a return to

22192-460: Was praised for not only allowing more women to have children as their new domestic servants were able to assist them, but for reclaiming German blood and giving opportunities to the women, who would work in Germany, and might marry there. "Racially acceptable" children were taken from their families in order to be brought up as Germans. Children were selected for "racially valuable traits" before being shipped to Germany. Many Nazis were astounded at

22344-433: Was prohibited, geographic and topographic names were changed and all Slovene associations were dissolved. Members of all professional and intellectual groups, including many clergymen, were expelled as they were seen as obstacles to Germanisation. As a reaction, a resistance movement developed. The Germans who wanted to proclaim their formal annexation to the "German Reich" on 1   October 1941, postponed it first because of

22496-420: Was replaced by a policy of genocide against certain ethnic groups, even when they were already German-speaking. Historically there are different forms and degrees of the expansion of the German language and of elements of German culture. There are examples of complete assimilation into German culture, as happened with the pagan Slavs in the Diocese of Bamberg (Franconia) in the 11th century. An example of

22648-550: Was so successful that the Government in Budapest did not learn anything from the failure of Emperor Joseph II's linguistic policies and, following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , unwisely launched a coercive Magyarization policy aimed at forcibly assimilating the many speakers of other minority languages within the Kingdom of Hungary , which ultimately triggered a domino effect . Anti-Hungarian and heritage language revival movements arose in Transleithania among Slovaks , Romanians , Serbians , and Croatians within

22800-419: Was succeeded by his son, Frederick II , whose accomplishments led to his reputation as "Frederick the Great". As crown prince, Frederick had focused, primarily, on philosophy and the arts. He was an accomplished flute player and composer. In 1740, Prussian troops crossed over the undefended border of Silesia and rapidly conquered the region. Silesia was the richest province of Habsburg Austria . It signalled

22952-403: Was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713–1740), the austere "Soldier King", who did not care for the arts but was thrifty and practical. He was the main creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the professionalised standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe. His troops only briefly saw action during the Great Northern War . In view of the size of

23104-407: Was the policy of the Kingdom of Prussia to seek a degree of linguistic and cultural Germanisation, while in Imperial Germany a more intense form of cultural Germanisation was pursued, often with explicit intention of reducing the influence of other cultures or institutions, such as the Catholic Church. In the German Empire , Poles were portrayed as " Reichsfeinde " ("foes of the Empire"). In 1885

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