Prussia

Source: Wikipedia Commons

The Kingdom of Prussia at its greatest extent (in blue), at the time of the formation of the German Empire, 1871 (in tan).
Source: Wikipedia Commons

The Free State of Prussia (blue), within Germany (tan) at the time of the Weimar Republic.
Source: Wikipedia Commons

Prussia was an earlier designation for the territory that later became the provinces of East Prussia (previously Duchy of Prussia or Ducal Prussia) and West Prussia (previously Polish Prussia or Royal Prussia), and in 1701 the Kingdom of Prussia, ruled by the Hohenzollerns, having orig­inated from the Electorate of Brandenburg.  After World War I Prussia became a Free State, and after World War II it was dissolved. In 1914 Prussia consisted of the "old provinces" (acquired before 1866) of East Prussia, West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Branden­burg, Saxony, Westphalia, and the Rhine Province, and of the "new provinces" (acquired in 1866) of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, and Hessen-Nassau. In 1850 the principalities of Hohenzollern were add­ed. In 1854 the principality of Neuenburg and Valengin (today the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel) was given up. The rulers were Friedrich I until 1713, Friedrich Wilhelm I until 1740, Friedrich II (the Great) until 1786, Friedrich Wilhelm II until 1797, Friedrich Wilhelm III until 1840, Friedrich Wilhelm IV until 1861, Wilhelm I until 1888, Friedrich III 1888, and Wilhelm II until 1918.

In Pomerania, Posen, and Silesia there were no great numbers of Mennonites. Within the other parts of the state the various groups of Mennonites long developed in regional independence of each other, also in relation to the state. Friedrich Wilhelm I took a very different attitude toward the Mennonites in East Prussia than to the Men­nonites in Krefeld. Friedrich II granted spe­cific privileges to the settlements in the Netzebruch in 1765 and to the Mennonites in the East in 1780. In 1830 Friedrich Wilhelm III, after careful preparation, issued a law particularly designed for the Mennonites in the West. But the Order of Cab­inet of 1827 concerning the oath was valid for the entire state; likewise the elimination of exemption from military service of 1867, the permission grant­ed the old Mennonite families to do noncombatant military service, and in 1874 the law concerning the rights of the Mennonite churches to incorporate.

Additional Information

The 1925 German census gives the following statistics (total population) for the Mennonites in Prussia:

District Königsberg	251
District Gumbinnen	491
District Allenstein	40
District West Prussia	3,120
Total Province of East Prussia		3,902
Berlin City	599
District Potsdam	144
District Frankfurt/Oder	74
Total Province of Brandenburg		218
District Stetten	40
District Köslin	50
District Stralsund	9
Total Province of Pomerania		99
Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia	24
District Breslau	128
District Liegnitz	11
Total Province of Lower Silesia		139
Province of Upper Silesia	10
District Magdeburg	105
District Merseburg	62
District Erfurt	9
Total Province of Saxony		176
Total Province of Schleswig-Holstein		227
District Hanover	75
District Hildescheim	29
District Lüneburg	49
District Stade	24
District Osnabrück	34
District Aurich	231
Total Province of Hanover		422
District Münster	131
District Minden	16
District Arnsberg	159
Total Province of Westphalia		306
District Kassel	46
District Wiesbaden	89
Total Province of Hessen-Nassau		135
District Koblenz	66
District Düsseldorf	1,121
District Cologne	76
District Trier	33
District Aachan	5
Total Rhine Province		1,301
Hohenzollern		21
Grand Total		7599

Cities - Mennonite Population
Berlin	599
Königsberg	78
Stettin	15
Breslau	74
Magdeburg	38
Halle/Saale	14
Erfurt	6
Kiel	29
Altona	87
Hanover	66
Münster	7
Dortmund	31
Bochum	15
Gelsenkirchen	12
Kassel	20
Frankfurt/Main	35
Wiesbaden	47
Essen	43
Düsseldorf	59
Duisburg	21
Barmen	8
Elberfeld	19
Krefeld	791
Mühlheim/Ruhr	8
Hamborn	11
München/Gladbach	2
Oberhausen	32
Cologne	58
Aachen	2
Total	2,227

Author(s)	Ernst Crous
Date Published	1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

Crous, Ernst. "Prussia." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 22 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Prussia&oldid=170125.

APA style

Crous, Ernst. (1959). Prussia. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 22 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Prussia&oldid=170125.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 224-225. All rights reserved.

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