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Questions tagged [prussia]

Prussia: A German state formed by the merger of Brandenburg, "East" Prussia, and smaller states.

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Do wreaths have special significance in seals?

I'm currently working on designing a personal wax seal for use on correspondence and when wrapping gifts. I am basing it primarily upon the heraldry of one side of my family (which, if it helps, is ...
In Hoc Signo's user avatar
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Was Prussia afraid of German unity during the first Schleswig War?

Engels once sustained that Prussia was afraid of German unity during the first Schleswig war. Is there any historical validity to this claim? This would be very interesting since only a decade later ...
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Bismarck urged not to hinder Russia from going deeper into the "oriental dead end." What did he mean by "oriental dead end?"

In his letter of 03 May 1888, Otto von Bismarck, the then-Chancellor of Germany, wrote to Prince Heinrich VII Reuß, the then-Ambassador of Germany to Austria-Hungary: Durch einen Angriff auf das ...
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Why weren’t resettled Germans compensated for their confiscated land in Prussian Pomerania after WWII?

My great-aunt and her two children were expelled from their family farm in the Prussian Province of Pomerania, at Rummelsburg (now known as Miastko), near Wernershof (now Gołębsko). They were given no ...
Mojo Krup's user avatar
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Did the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (1795 - 1861) ever write: "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people makes me sick"?

Where does the Prussian king write "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people makes me sick," as claimed in 6:26 in Die Revolution von 1848 I musstewissen Geschichte? The video ...
ETathome's user avatar
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Was it widely known during his reign that Kaiser Wilhelm II had a deformed arm?

During Kaiser Wilhelm II's rule, was it widely known that he had a deformed arm? I remember watching a movie released in 1941 that depicted the Kaiser always using his right arm instead of his left ...
Warren's user avatar
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How did 19th century Germany pull so far ahead of its contemporaries? [closed]

I'm not well-read, but I got the impression that Europeans (e.g. Gilbert and Sullivan, Bizet, Smetena) rejected German art while they pulled ahead in engineering and mathematics. Stephenson may have ...
Ethan Miller's user avatar
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"We, who've been connected by blood to Prussia's throne and people since Düppel"

I was listening to an old German song on Youtube and heard the following mysterious lines: wir, die seit Düppel durch des Blutes Bande an Preußens Thron und Volk gekettet sind My translation of ...
Mitsuko's user avatar
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Where do the terms Red Team and Blue Team come from?

In both regular warfare and cyber-warfare, the terms "Red Team" and "Blue Team" are used. Red Team refers to the offensive side while Blue Team refers to the defensive side. Where ...
Unknown's user avatar
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Was there a Moresnet Conference of 1867? [closed]

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT today, asking questions about the Neutral-Moresnet territory. ChatGPT gave me quite a bit of misinformation about the subject. It stated for example that The ...
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Can anyone identify these uniforms (stated to be "Austrian")?

I recently purchased these uniforms, in which I was told that they were "Austro-Hungarian/Austrian." Upon looking further at the lighter-green one, I noticed that it had a trim pattern ...
user54463's user avatar
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What exactly was East Prussia between 1933 and 1945? Was it part of a larger government, and which one?

I've read some about WWII, but until I started reading the book "Inge's War" (Svenja O'Donnell) I had apparently misunderstood Germany. I had envisioned Germany as its own entity. Inge's ...
nuggethead's user avatar
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Why were the kingdom of Prussia's territorial ambitions focused in Saxony?

If I have remembered it correctly the Hohenzollerns tried several times to annex the electorate/kingdom of Saxony. From the reign of Frederick II (the great) to the aftermath of Napoleonic wars where ...
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Did the Prussian army commit atrocities?

We know the German armed forces, all of it, during WW2 committed atrocities. Same for the German army during WW1. I also found some references the Prussian army committed atrocities during the Franco-...
Jos's user avatar
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How tall was Frederick the Great of Prussia?

Frederick's father, Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia, was somewhat short at 5'3" (160 cm), as discussed in an article on the Potsdam Giants. But how tall was Frederick II?
Betterthan Kwora's user avatar
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Did line infantry units have designated marksmen?

I've found the picture below on the TotalWar game series forum, but doing the reverse image search, shows that it is actually quite popular (however, I couldn't find the author or the title): It ...
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Why was Austria given the best chunk in the First Partition of Poland, even while protesting it?

In the First Partition of Poland, Austria was given 2.7 million people, versus 1.3 million for Russia, and almost 1 million for Prussia. Austria got more than twice as much land as Prussia, and only ...
Tom Au's user avatar
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Was Kaliningrad offered to the Lithuanian SSR; was this offer rejected; and if so, why?

This is a follow up to this other question Why was Kaliningrad placed under the Russian SFSR rather than the Lithuanian SSR? Semaphore's answer states: ... a similar offer was made to give ...
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3 votes
1 answer
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Was the Vistula delta inhabited by Slavic tribes or Baltic tribes?

Specifically I'm talking about the area in between the Nogat and Vistula river. Googling maps of Old Prussian territory seem to have a mix of including this land and not including it. This map ...
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Why did the other Continental European powers keep trying to fight Napoleon before 1813 despite being beaten by him so often?

In the Napoleonic Wars the other major powers of Continental Europe, especially Austria but also Prussia and Russia, seemed to keep coming back every few years to have another go at fighting Napoleon, ...
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How did the Prussians work out what fraction of the population to recruit to the military?

Here's a quote from a teacher and author John Taylor Gatto, which I found intriguing: The military which is quite an expensive institution to maintain even in times of peace is always constituted ...
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Was there a city called "Margorin" or "Margorum" in Prussia in 1885?

According to genealogical research, my great-grandfather emigrated on the SS Coriolan in 1869 whose port of exit was Bremen. Records indicate that my great-grandfather was from the city of Margorin or ...
CJD's user avatar
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Were the lands of the Teutonic Knights part of the Holy Roman Empire? [closed]

This is a pretty simple question. The lands owned and ruled by the Teutonic Knights within Germany were certainly part of the Holy Roman Empire. Were the lands of the Teutonic Knights in the Baltic ...
MAGolding's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why did the Swabian Hohenzollern princes give away their power to the Prussian king in 1850?

The small independent country of Hohenzollern in southwestern Germany was run by two princes until 1850, when it was given away to the king of Prussia, who was a distant cousin to the princes (also ...
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Who considered themselves as "Prussian"?

This is very confusing to me. The word "Prussian" means a lot of different things and has a lot of connotations (such as imperialism, militarism, …), while simultaneously describing a geographical ...
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4 votes
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Was Fredrick the Great considered a strong military leader or was it all because of the superior officers that came out of Prussia at the time?

Was all the military success due to Fredrick II's strategic ability or was it due to his commanders During his reign 1740-1786
user16699's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
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Was 18th century Prussia really so militarily obsessed?

I'm reading A Military History of Germany by Martin Kitchen, and I was surprised at the description of 18th century Prussia. The country is described as a North-Korea like military obsessed nation, ...
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Annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia

The Kingdom of Hanover existed from its creation after the Congress of Vienna in 1814 (being a duchy and electorate within the HRE prior) until its annexation by Prussia after it lost the German-...
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Why were terminal train stations built in Germany?

I talked to a friend who mentioned reading a theory about the placement of terminal vs passthrough train stations in Germany. In this theory, the Prussians were responsible for this decision during ...
rumtscho's user avatar
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22 votes
3 answers
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Why was the shape of German states pre-WWII (especially Prussia) so complicated?

The shapes of the Länder territories in Germany were very complicated. There was hundreds exclaves and enclaves all over the place to the point it became ridiculous. Notably the shape of Prussia, ...
Bregalad's user avatar
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15 votes
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Was the Soviet Union in 1945 seeking to capture German soldiers and civilians, or drive them west?

The latter part of Prit Buttar's Battleground Prussia deals with the desperate attempts by German soldiers and civilians to escape from the ports and peninsulas of East and West Prussia in early 1945. ...
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Why did Frederick the Great do so much worse against the Russians than against his other enemies in the Seven Years' War?

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, made a name for himself and Prussia in the Seven Years' War, winning key battles against the French and Austrians at long odds. He won the battle of Rossbach ...
Tom Au's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
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Why did Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great of Russia have such different policies toward Frederick the Great?

Elizabeth of Russia seemed to consider Frederick the Great Russia's worst enemy. She waged the Seven Years' War in order to conquer East Prussia (which she planned to exchange to Poland for territory ...
Tom Au's user avatar
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