What on Earth Happened to the Prussians?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ธ.ค. 2017
- What on Earth happened to the Prussians? A once proud and powerful nation, now relegated to the European history textbooks of 2nd grade Texas curriculum. Who exactly were the Prussians, and what was their impact on European history and their relation to the Germans, Poles, Russians and other European nations?
Today we're going to answer all these questions, while taking a look at the rise and fall of Prussia, and who exactly their people were. Thanks for watching!
• Toy Soldiers Soundtrac...
• Toy Soldiers Soundtrac...
• World War II : Intense...
don't cry because it's gone, smile because it happened.
Prussian Monarchist thats the best quote i ever read :')
Celtic culture was nearly wiped from our collective memories 30 years ago, but thanks to objects d'art, the interest, then the language was revived and is now common in some regions.
scott left celtic culture is alive and well.
I pretty sure he said the opposite "I died so you can come with me"
I’m crying because I let it happen.
"From the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire"
if you listen very closely you can hear the cries of an Italian
Someone gets it
*cries in distantance*
@@caiawlodarski5339 It was a more holy than pope who excommunicated bunch of Catholic leaders and led crusades against them while Ottomans took Christian kingdoms in the Balkans..
It was Roman ( by standards of that time, christian, spoke latin and put eagles on flags haha )
It was an Empire, it was ruled by emperor, that was elected by kingdoms which were ruled by monarchs... So monarchistic republic of federation of free cities, states and kingdom ruled by elective monarchs :P
In case you are still reading, this was a troll comment :D
MyBloodS_Tearss the Italians are like: how dare the barbarian stole our Roman empire's good name.
Video is 11:33 mins long and l read this when this guy was saying it....
prussia=preußen
russia=russland
english language failed
If we talking about failures: Berlin="swamp" (in West Slavic ofc) as it is one more Slavic city that you were kind enoght to steal...
The English language came from German. BOOM
PANZERFAUST90 ya but it evolved a little bit strange
@@einheiliger9564 Blame the French
@@einheiliger9564 It certainly did
/╲/\╭( ͡° ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ͡°)╮/\╱\
I've always been told by my great grandparents that we came from prussia. Never knew anything about it though so thanks for the video 😊
no
@@portugaltheman9717 aight ... Good feedback bro 👍
Thats interesting im from germany my grandfather used to live in prussia but germany lost all the territories there and he needed to emigrate in westgermany as a child after ww2
Dayum ;P
We always watch our guests until they are out of sight when they leave. That's what Prussians do.
150% infantry combat ability intensifies
^
Prussian Space Marines!
DID U MEAN DISCIPLINE ?
500% cavalery combat ability
Sans The skeleton fuck, Poland have only 150%. But we have winged hussars
"Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country" Friedrich von Schrötter
"Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball." Napoleon I
Citation stolen from Count Mirabeau,and a bit exaggerated.
kevin nielsen The mongols were an army with a country...
Yes, this is true. It was just a military outpost built on pagan prussian bodies by Teuton order. It was never an organic "nation" while under German control. This is why it vanished so easily.
Andy Wood Stop spreading your bullshit, the Kings of Prussia would turn in their Graves If they knew how you misuse an information Video about their Country
I'm an old man and second-generation American. Both sets of grandparents emigrated from Lithuania pre-WW1, and growing up our households spoke Lithuanian, not English. But as a child I was told that our name, Polmon, was actually Prussian, but I was not sure what that meant. Thank you for clearing it up for me.
Lithuanian here. Polmon is definitely not a lithuanian name, I can assure you of that.
@@ArturMINIMAL So, are the Lithuanians Germanic, or are some of them for sure, Nordic? I have been wondering about this.
@@lottivonhesse9382 Lithuanians aren’t Germanic or Nordic, but they do have German/Nordic influence from over the centuries.
@@lottivonhesse9382 They are Baltic.
My English teacher used to think Prussia was in south Russia & that they were socialist.
moron moment
An embarrassment to teachers everywhere... 😉
very cute
The "education" system everyone
@@lordofhostsappreciator3075 is broken
Prussia is Preussen in German so that name similarity with Russia is only an English thing.
And Latin of course.
Russia is Rossiya. So Preussen and Rossiya are complete different names.
Пруссия, Россия
In Latvian, we used to call this territory Prūsija, the baltic people of that territory were called Prūši.
@@spircix, on russian "prussia" because baltic people named ''prussi"
You didn’t mention the union of Prussia with Brandenburg. That’s important , because even if the Prussian kingdom was named after the Duchy of Prussia , it’s political , economic and cultural center of gravity was in Brandenburg , specifically in Berlin. Berlin is the capital of Germany for a reason.
He didn't also mention how the Teutonic knights got there and why did they speak german. Skipped the polish lithuanian-teutonic war. There are also some minor mistakes and misleads but all in all a +. Greetings from Alenstabs/Allenstein :)
he also forgot about frederick the great, who played a major part in prussian history. and how prussia won against several of the great powers in europe.
Yeah. I know a YT video has to find a balance between being short and being informative, but 1-2 extra minutes for those details really wouldn't have hurt.
About that union with Brandenburg - you really could say that the Prussia that united germany was more like a mix between Brandenburg and Teutonic/Baltic prussia.
Strangely Prussia really wasnt the powerhouse in the state of prussia. Berlin, in Brandenburg, was the capital for a reason. And the industrial base was mostly in Brandenburg and Silesia.
Prussia proper, such as Danzig and Königsberg, really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
So altho Prussia and Silesia are gone with the wind u could say that Prussia lives on, in the form of Brandenburg.
Well - Prussia was a fiefdom on Polish territory and on January 18th 1701 Frederick I, crowned himself as Frederick I., king in Prussia.
Yeah, it's in the middle of the German Empire. Geography reinforced a previous regional capital.
30 percent of Australians have a German ancestor. Most came from Prussia. They were the main reason Australia has a multi-billion dollar wine Industry. And a Big shout out to to my German Australian buddies !
Very interesting
70% of Americans have German ancestorsl
I'm awaiting my pan Germanic society
LIEEEEEEEE
@@orionnebula2605 lol oversimplified
*Prussia joins the Holy Roman Empire*
"So if you're German then why are you from the Baltics?"
"Oh my god, Austria, you can't just ask people why they're German"
HAHAHAHAHA
One thing that is important to know, is that the Emperors of the German Empire from 1871 onwards were also the Kings of Prussia until the end of WWI. In fact it would be more correct to say that the Kings of Prussia were also the Emperors of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The German name for holding both titles at the same time is called "Personalunion" and even though the title "Kaiser" or emperor is theoretically above the title "König" or king, the Kings of Prussia of the House of Hohenzollern deemed their kingship of Prussia as the higher honor. The right to be kings was seen as God-given and inherited while you were essentialy "made" emperor by humans. The state of Prussia continued to exist after the creation of the (so called) second Empire (Kaiserreich).
It wasn't a personal union though. According to the constitution the Prussian king would always be the German emperor. It would be a personal union if the two dominions had nothing else to do with each other other than the head of state happens to be the same person.
The first King of Romania, Carol I was part of a branch of the House of Hohenzollern, which was Sigmaringen-Hohenzollern.
Interesting
Prussia was basically Germany and then it unified with other german states......... and then the Germans lost Prussia.
Conservative not early on they where Baltic and Slavic
SkitBit Production, What? The Prussians speak German, not a Slavic or Baltic language!!!
ToiYeuYAHWEH they where baltic historically before German came over. and Germany "Dutch line" is a term england gave them the name, dutch is a english word which German mean DutchLand. Google it if you dont belive me or watch a history video.
SkitBit Production, But the Prussians speak German. That is a fact.
ToiYeuYAHWEH I never said they didnt they just wherent German people nor spoke it till Germany annex them in hundreds years ago. Most Prussia modern land is in poland and small peice owned by Russia.
I am from Prussian background.. very interesting documentary.
Thank you for posting it
Everywone is from Preußen!
Stalin thought Holland and the Netherlands were different countries.
During WWII his military officers were scared to correct him on this issue.
And "educated" Americans today call the Netherlands Holland all the time
Source?
@Serg Stalin had late 1800's education and Americans have modern education, yet dont know basic things like where Iraq is
@@Sceptonic Dude in South Africa we regularly refer to the Netherlands as Holland. Why? Wel die hel alleen weet. Dit sê net lekkerder
@@henrykeyter53 ok?
Being German myself, and having studied German and Prussian history in school and as a hobby, I have to say that both, your video, but especially your commentary, are not only factual, but also very objective and informative!
What might be added is, that the Prussian state government was, until 1932, one of the last bastions of democracy of the failing Weimar Republic, when the Free State of Prussia was taken over by the then German Chancellor Franz von Papen, in the so-called "Preussenschlag" (Putsch in Prussia).
A large number of Hitler's opponents, not last conspirators of the 20 July (1944) assassination plot (at Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia), e.g. Claus von Stauffenberg, were Prussian military officers, clergymen and (former) statesmen.
Sadly, many Prussians from Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia lost not only their heritage, but a large number also their lives, as a result of Hitlers "ambitions". Both, West and East Germany, for different reasons, after 1945, ignored and neglected Prussian history, heritage, and people. Actually, the communist East Germany, starting in the 1980s, did a better job preserving Prussian history than the more affluent West Germany, where the past was ignored, in favor of 'Wirtschaftswunder' and rapid economic expansion.
@ABSTERGOentertainment Angestellter indeed
True that, for the DDR the Prussian culture didn't fit their communist ideology, but at least their military traditions connected in some extend to the Prussian one. Western Germany on the other hand, I think that former rivals have been quite happy that the former German hegemonial power was gone. Also the former Eastern German population lost all their wealth and networks and had to start from ground up while the West Germans saw them as "Polacks" and saw them more as a liability.
It aint Hitler's fault entirely
Interestingly enough, the economy of the DDR still percentually grew more than the BRD.
It wasn't ignored it was purposely erased. Allies felt that Prussian Militarism and Nationalism influenced the German Empire and 3rd Reich so they made deliberate moves to erase Prussian history and culture.
You in America learn more about Prussia and Germany than in Germany. Many young people (in Germany) say: What was Prussia? I'm proud of you 👌
No. That is not true at all. xD
My parents were born/raised in Ost Preussen, specifically Memel.. The idiots calling this BS are simply .... IDIOTS.
@Herman ze German - A moron will always think he's right. YOU are simply a moron.
@@Kroonhorstdino1 - you have some context? Something you THINK you know? Please share your insipid thoughts.
@@wilhelmtaylor9863 I thknk I know because I learned about Prussia in school. A german school.
I’ve recently looked into my ancestry and found that I have ancestors from Prussia. How amazing that they were able to get away to safety. It is so interesting to learn more about the land they are from and the reasons they may have fled!
I always wonder if at some point someone in Germany will say that they want Kaliningrad back.
YES OF COURSE !
You mean Königsberg
@Mrożek Nein, Königsberg.
Actually it was offered to Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but our foreign minister sadly refused...
@@terkkraft8057 Baker from USA and Thatcher were AGAINST reunification of Germany in 1991, and asked Gorbatschov to not reunite Germany.
When I was a kid I thought Prussians were some kind of exotic Germans or something like that.
Afro Siberian You know that joke is older than time itself?
prussia was indeed a powerful country that got destroyed. not geographically obliterated like atlantis though
I thought they were Old Belique peoples
xXxSkyViperxXx Atlantis is fiction. Right?
I always thought Polish-Russian (P-Russian)
I’m still here
Kaiser Wilhelm II Holly crap. Your majesty, I heard that you were working with the Americano in world war two. And that Kaiser corporation ship building venture was yours too...
I'm still here but i am unable to punch you
Fake account detected
Never tries attack first, your majesty it will start the counter attack.
@@francocavalletti9217 congrats, your plan was suceed.
*Laughs nervously in polish*
*hide im german*
"Pomarańczowy Król
" as in Trump??
Zibo Sun No, his nickname refers to former youtuber called "Testoviron". In his videos he has been pointing out bad sides of Polish mentality in peiorative way and now, almost 10 years after he had finished his yt career, he is still popular amongst Polish trollnet.
@@Montaggg33 legenda
@nowai90 Yeah, and? Your issue?
Short answer. The treaty of Versailles and the Soviet Union
Liberals and communists ruin everything...
@@thethanoskillingkind3180 cry about it
Short answer: The Nazis.
@@patriciabrenner9216 ur mom
@@shawnv123 I know you still cry about erstwhile USSR
I’ve always been interested in the Prussians. My dad told me while I’m technically German, that our family was located in what once was Prussia, and our ancestors were of Prussian Royalty. Great video.
Funny how every peasant tells stories of having "royalty" blood! If you had an ounce of royalty then you wouldn't have left!! Your a family of peasants.
@@jerryroman3075 you sound fun to be around
Wait a sec the Kaiser's were cousins with the Czars,and King George,wouldn't that mean you're also technically English?
@@jerryroman3075 bro are you stupid legit at least 80% of the humans in the world have some royal blood
@@mcsroom8930 80% of humans have royalty blood? ROFLMAO and who's the STUPID one? look in the mirror peasant.
Prussians with enough money moved to America before during and after the civil war. I still have prussian coins brought over by ancestors over 200 years ago.
those must be worth a load nowadays
County For Questionism-Ball Correct. That's his ancestry of a lost nation.
people with enough money stayed because their live was okay... people from poor regions left.
Thankfully your family chose America. One brother chose South Africa. Guess where I'm trapped? ;(
@@Getahin My Prussian ancestor came to America, purchased more than 1,000 acres of land in Texas and two of his sons fought in the Civil War.
lets clear something up Prussia's role in European wars was being the victor
That is why no one knows Prussian language, because they were so overpowered... and Germany is another example of people with strong believe that they are special and are more than happy to lose 3rd world war just to prove it... ;)
@@Bialy_1 you just exist cause the allies granted you
Didn’t the Prussians lost a battle against Napoleon?
@@neoarmstrongcyclonejetarms9326 we dont talk about that part
I love your videos! You’ve made a video about literally every historical thing that’s ever been confusing to me and you explain everything in such a clear, concise way. Keep it up!
This comment section consists of: German nationalists, Polish nationalists, Russian nationalists and Americans who think that because one of their great great great grandparents came from Prussia they are "Prussians".
How do you know they don't embrace the ideals and culture of their ancestors? It isn't exactly like those with Prussian heritage can return home now is it? Tell you what, drive the Polish, Russians and other invaders out of Germanic/Prussian lands, and we'll see how many Prussians are ready to return home
Sari Beep o.O I reckon a very small amount. Almost all the people who were born or lived in Prussia while it was part of Germany are now dead. Their descendants from my experience have no interest in resettling their ancestors homeland. My grandfather and his family for example were born and lived in Stettin in modern day Polish Pomerania (very close to the German border) and after the war they fled to Hildesheim in Lower Saxony where they had relatives who moved there before the war. Now we live there for 3 generations and I have no desire to "return to our homeland". A homeland where the population currently home to it would have to be "driven out" first as you so eloquently put it.
your reckoning is faulty. but only in part. it isn't the prussian state we would return home for. it is something much older and deeper than that.
+fritzorino
You can hardly count the perspective when wanting to return home for many has been driven into them that it is racist and evil for them to want to come home. Maybe it is not the case with yourself and your family, but there are many who would like to return home. As to these people being driven out... sorry I don't feel too bad for people who would be humanely moved out of lands they shouldn't have stolen in the first place, knowing the manor in which Germans/Prussians were driven out.
Do you know why the right to return has existed? There is an understanding that for many there is a tie to an ancestral home that can override a few generations on foreign soil, especially for those of us who are not so bless to live near Germany. I suspect that the more America is destroyed by multiculturalism, and the more that German heritage communities are shamed, and drove out, the more descendants will look into and wish to return to their roots. There is a psychology to it, even without the pressure from outside forces.
Oh stfu
My Prussian forefather arrived in, Cape Town, South Africa in 1803. My surname is rare in the Afrikaans culture, originally being Pansegrau
The name Pansegrau is rare in general, I'm German and never met anyone with that surname. It's nice !
Prussians are my kind of people. This world needs discipline, courage and honor so badly
Funny thing that, the Fatherland of Germany, and the ones who created them and freed them, is a Nation that no loger exists.... thats really really sad dude.... like some sort of epic story of a Glorious Nation of WonderTales that used to exist and then vanishes of existance...
Too bad the Germans screwed up. They paid for their folly.
@@hallevingston6030 Your "people" are masters of paying for their folly, Levingston.
@@hallevingston6030
Stfu
@@EresirThe1st not only that, the french/brits were allied with Russia, but they both feared Russia... how can you kill your own ally? Well... finance the revolution and send communist thinkers to make even more unrest, thus they killed both allied an enemy empires that rivalled them, German, Austrian, Ottoman and Russian Empires....
@@sylvandomst5475 but thats because... they are and were forced dude...they dont have a chance, they were forced at gunpoint.
George Washington hired a Prussian to train the soldiers for the war of independence in the colonial army he also wrote the code of military justice the blue book that the U.S. army still uses today Col Barron Von Stubin later promoted to General by Washington
My town is named after a Prussian General from the American Revolution, De Kalb.
He also hired Tadeusz Kościuszko who was Polish freedom fighter and a general. He also started military academy of west point in US. the thing is Americans didn't give a shit about your ethnicity as long as you were not black
Maximilian hernandez martinez. Dictator of El salvador hired prussian officers. To build. The army and national guard.. in the central american state.
Yes, Washington gave barón von steuben 27,000 acres. In New York for his services.
Was he or the Polish guy gay
Fun Fact: Kaliningrad was meant to be transferred to the Lithuanian SR, that was in the Soviet Union. However, our communist leader refused, due to the fact that Kaliningrad area was not ethnically Lithuanian, it was mostly Russian by then. Had this not happened, we would be a bit bigger, however we'd also have a significantly bigger Russian minority.
Jurgis Neverdauskis
Plus the Communists already transferred some territory to Poland before, like Suwalki, which was a mistake.
Jurgis Neverdauskis You were lucky becouse having a Russian minority isn't the best thing to have in the world *cough* Ukraine.
Jurgis Neverdauskis Very interesting! I always thought it would have made more sense for the former Konigsberg to have been absorbed by Poland, Lithuania or split between the two, instead of being a Russian exclave in the middle of nowhere.
p.s. Canada, keep your eyes off Alaska
Masaman
Everyone should keep their eyes off of Alaska tbh.
Sthursen in fact nobody asked Lithuanians. Suwalki area is 98% ethnic Polish. you are big empire day-dreamers....
basically Prussian discipline over 9000
Thank you very much, Sir, this was a wonderful insight of Prussian history 👍
I have a family tree that goes back to the 1600 when my family lived in Prussia, they eventually migrated to Milwaukee
Jess Where is that? Germany?
Simon K. Prussia, I think now is Germany...Milwaukee is in Winsconsin in the U.S.
Jess So you're from USA. I thought you live somewhere in germany, i've never heard of milwakee before.
My great great grandparents migrated there, it's located in the Midwest of the USA. Luckily for me, I grew up in sunny California!
Jess Yeah, a lot of peple from central europe migrated to america. Does it ever snow in California? Just curious.
As a Romanian, I have to respect Prussia for house Hohenzollern who helped us establish Romania as an independent nation.
The firm Hohenzollern and Hohenzollern were a buzy little enterprise, wern't they.
scott It is the Prussian Royale house
Say what you will about them (and there IS much to be said) but they were generally patrons of the arts, sciences and at least some forms of modernization.
Apparently they still have living descendants, and the dude who'd be emperor if the monarchy hadn't been abolished is now a business consultant who works with universities to help to make companies more eco-friendly.
That's kinda poetic when you think about it. Our time has no use for kings or emperors anymore but we'll always need science nerds.
Possibly my kin, and you know them better than I.. quick to the Google!
The Hohenzollern family at the castle Peles had one of the first residential Otis elevators, a Pascal Taskin double manual harpsichord, a pipe organ, and a vast library of literature in almost any language - it's a really beautiful place to visit in Romania and feels like a 19th century German palace in the middle of the Carpathians
"Germanic EU"
So you mean the EU?
No. The EU is jewish.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Uhhhhh, no?
Baltu Lielkungs Gunārs Miezis no????????
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 wtf no
Germany, Russia and Poland are all seen in the comments fighting over who owns Prussia.
But not a single Lithuanian or Latvian despite the original people being neither German, Pole or Russian.
Edit: I forgot to add that the natives of Prussia, while being mixed slav and Baltic, are extremely close in language and culture to Lithuania.
nice observation Cloгох Вleacн lol
Or lithuanian or latvian...
@@boahkeinbockmehr The Old Prussians were a relative of Slav and Baltic people. (Mostly Baltic) so it's fair to say the Lithuanians _should_ have a stronger claim.
Well most of Prussia is in Poland but i dont care about it. Prussians are gone today it is Pomorze and in Polish it means "next to the sea" it have nothing to do with prussians
There are latvians and lithuanians . Like me
I learned a lot! This cleared up the whole Prussia/Germany confusion that I had and even answered questions that I hadn't even come up with yet.
Rip Prussia
PRIP Russia.
Meaning: *Please,* rest in peace, Russia.
That would be "finis Germaniae". "Germania" is in the Nominative, the Accusative form should be "Germaniae".
This is Latinum: Germania/e. The Name did the old Germaniens became from Julius Caesar 60 bc. "Ger" is the Germanic word for Spear and "mannen" = means =Spearmen ! The other version is: In the Gallic War (de belo Gallicum) Caesar saw 1 Clan and the Name of these 1Clan was Germanen so he call all other Clans behind the River Rhein Germanen !? Greetings
Prussia is the English word sounds like Russia but they have nothing to do with them !!! The German word for Prussia is Preußen.
What happened to Prussia was genocide. i.imgur.com/DgQPES5.png
Good job! You managed to pack in a lot of information. Great maps and visuals too.
Excellent video. Thanks 4 sharing.
You’re lucky
When I was a kid I thought Prussia was some hybrid of Russia and Persia
Me too
Trap God
Well that's something.
How the fuc....Oh
Dat yuri pic doh
Trap God
In one way I was lucky because I knew Prussia was German when I first heard of Prussia.
But in another way I was unlucky because I didn't learn about Prussia at all in school; I learned via a video game.
Part of the confusion about the name Prussia is by design. When the Kingdom of Prussia was created in 1701, it was actually the electoral duke of Brandenburg who renamed and rebranded his own country. Brandenburg was within the HRE, and there could be no new kingdoms wihin the HRE. But Easter Prussia was outside the HRE, so it was possible to create a kingdom of Prussia. When that happened, the new king actually outlawed the use of the name Brandenburg for a few years. This had great effect as you know, as Prussia became very popular, while most people don't realise the political center of the kingdom was always Brandenburg with Berlin as capital.
That also means that while the Eastern Prussians were forced from their homeland (or killed right away), the rest of the Prussians just went back to beeing Brandenburgers.
Finally someone who gets it. Thank you very much for your comment and pointing out the inaccuracies of this video, which didn't even mention this most important fact that the Prussia known from history books was just rebranded Brandenburg. Even the famous Prussian militarism actually started in the Duchy of Brandenburg as well and had little to do with any "Teutonic" traditions of East Prussia.
Harte Ziele true, although the people from that region aren't "brandenburgers" they are Saxons
Lol what gave you that idea? Playing too much EU4?
Harte Ziele too much is an understatement lol
The game has marked those are as Saxon to simplify things. I can tell you right now that the people in that area never saw themself as that.
You are such a GIFT to all of us who love History and related subjects
Man, you answered my lifetime question/ curiosity! THANK YOU. :)
I am actually Prussian and I can tell you that my customs and that of my family are to a quite large degree different to other North Germans such as the people of Hamburg of Bremen.
As far as I know, My earliest descendants I know of are a Teutonic Knight and a Prussen (we call them that here the Prussen instead of Old Prussians) women. They lived there for centuries serving mostly as military officers and at some point gaining larger lands becoming what one would call a Junker.
1293ST is it true that Berliners consider themselves to be Prussians when I went to germany my tour guide described himself as Prussian
Well I suppose that quite a few Berliners can have Prussian ancestry as Berlin was the capital of Prussia but it is quite unlikely that 1. They actually have Prussian - Prussian ancestry so from Ostpreußen, Westpreußen or other Eastern Provinces and 2. That even if they had would know it or consider themselves to be. Most of them today consider themselves either to be Berliners or to be Brandenburgians which are quite different, though of course possible and if it was a historian giving you the tour then it most likely was true.
Living in Prussia was quite different from being Prussian as Prussia possesses quite large estates outside of the original West and East Prussian lands such as the provinces in the Rhineland or Silesia, which was indeed mostly German as all provinces besides maybe the regions in Posen nearest to Poland, but they were in their status rather similar to the Sudetendeutsche in Bohemia more Austrian, so part of the South German sub-culture one of from my point of view four sub-groups (North German, South German, Low Frankish and "Colonial German") which are found in the larger German / Central Germanic group.
The Silesians or Schlesier, of course, integrated into Prussia and saw themselves as more part of the Prussian state than of the Austrian but I consider them to be similar to the inhabitants of the Prussian Rhine and West Brandenburgians in that they were more of their own unique type.
There was as in most German countries a wide array of different German cultures within Prussia and that's kind of my reason why I only consider the descendants of the Teutonic Knights and Prussens to be the true Prussian Prussians which is not meant to be a kind of elitism but simply to sort and distinguish German cultures more easily as in the other case basically everyone living in Prussia would be Prussian so Saxons, Rhinelandians, Silesians, Brandenburgians, Sigmaringians and even German Jews would all lose their own unique German culture to become simply Prussians.
Berlin is as it is the capital additionally the most diverse city of Germans and foreigners in Germany and not so much bound to the actual Brandenburgian culture which by considering the geography should be most dominant around there.
yes I am quite sure about that the Prussen women, of course, converted to Christianity and it wasn't the first generation of knights. It was like the .. i dunno third or so maybe one more or one less.
I just discovered that the women which my great-great... grandfather married was a pure descendant of the Prussen people though of course Christian for some time.
I myself decent from the male line by primogeniture always through the oldest son to this knight and Prussen women while descending from the motherly side of my grandparents from Austrians of the Sudetenland. Quite funny that both of them were thrown off their land and then met in the East to become a pair.
1293ST nice to see someone actually care about their roots
Cool story bra. Are you still living in Germany?
"Iron Kingdom - the Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600 - 1947" by Christopher Clark is one of the best books ever written on the subject. I'm sure you also know about the Old Lutherans who emigrated en masse in the 1840's to Texas and South Australia?
Yes, I grew up in a close knit German community in South Australia. All of my mother’s ancestors came from Prussia. We have our family history books that trace our ancestry back to when our forefathers left Prussia. Most of mine came from the state of Posen, and some from Silesia. Both these states now lie in western Poland.
@@julieenglert3371 Posen is a cardle of Poland it's were the Poland has started . Prussians grabbed it in a secound partition of Poland but finally failed.
Yes my family ancestors came to south Australia eventually to settle in what now is the Barossa Valley going from Gawler to Davey’s Town to Tanunda & Nuriootpa & Angaston ,Loxton & Hahndorf & so many more towns it’s awesome & I love it 😁
@@julieenglert3371
Mine too my Grandmother was Amanda Sophia Altman & married Emil Herman Schultz we also have the books there was a big reunion in the early 80 ‘s
very nice job, cleared up some nagging mysteries and confusion. Keep up the detailed history and clarifications.
Thanks for the informative video.
*cue the Prussian anthem ear rape*
edit: look up prussian glory march, not the anthem
It's not bad
char jl I know. Anthem is good, glory march is better
th-cam.com/video/f_6AQA4uzD0/w-d-xo.html
This channel is awesome. Best description of Prussia ever. VIVAT BORUSSIA
Thank you for this video.
Very good video! You went over the whole thing in a way even someone with very little historical knowledge would find interesting!
thinking about Prussia always makes me sad
me to
Ateistyczna Prawica haha of course the polish person says that!! But I think long term the repatriation while unethical certainly help more equally divide and distribute Europe
especially "kaliningrad" :(
It doesn't make the poles feel sad,they live in the prussians owns and cities now.
ours isthefury Im 50:50 Russian-German... and i just say about "Kaliningrad": Königberg belongs to Germany.
Love this, my grandma was born in Prussia and I was always curious about it's history - thanks so much
R K lol you’re jealousy shows.
Fantastic video, keep doing things like this
Nicely done video. Really great work.
Why didn't you explain how Prussia got formed from Teutonic Order as a vassal to the Polish crown? It didn't just appear out of nowhere in the 19th century.
Łukasz Orzechowski yeah and a proper explanation of the partition of Poland and Prussian alliance with Brandenburg could have helped
Thats probably the most important information of all! He never touched the Prussian history of the 1700s.
what do you expect? this video is made by american
Łukasz Orzechowski i
which means organized, the Prussian nationality was up to the polish, occupied the territory on which it is now located,
Trust me Prussia is *awesome*
R K cough hetalia cough
atleast they are not nazi
Please visit Poland. We still have Prussian culture monuments and museums. Germans tried to destroy everything or convert to german but Poles are tolerznt and we treat Prussia as part of our history. Unfortunatelly big part of Prussia is in Russia.
@@dzezikus That's nice
Yeah but not hetalia
I have Prussian lineage, but the family migrated to UK
So you are a elite invading force from Prussia ? :o
@@Emrod82 technically yes ;)
Great video! Thanks!
i am swiss and still had no idea what prussia was, that, for a long time, i thought prussia was some kind of region in germany. i was very upset when i found out what it really was. a state. a kingdom. and not just a small one, but the major influences of what germany is today. a kingdom with long and outstanding history. it's very sad, as we in europa and specially in german speaking regions are so extremely focused on only the events of 1. (even that more little than it should) and 2. world war, that few of the younger generation has any idea of the europe before 1914. it's our history, even when it might not be shiny. we should be aware of it.
I'm actually German and living in Switzerland now - I remember that back in school, I was a bit shocked when I learned that Germany of the early 19th century was divided in around 40 countries, most of which of the size of today's Liechtenstein or Luxembourg.
By the time Germany was unified, Switzerland had been a modern nation for around 30 years already, and in some sense even earlier, as early as 1648 (but it depends on how independence and statehood are defined).
And I agree, history should be tought much more in schools, also pre-20th century history. :)
Not sad at all. Prussian influence represents all the bad and ugly things in German culture, most prominently militarism and kadaver-gehorsam (obedience to death, not thinking for oneself), while non-Prussian influence represents all the good and beautiful in German culture, most prominently poetry, music and philosophy. Switzerland is a good example of what a country with strong non-Prussian German cultural influences but no Prussian influences looks like.
Philosophy? What is about Kant from Königsberg (Prussia)?
A sunny day doesn't make a summer. Fact is that philosophers and writers were despised by Prussian authorities and society. They were considered "Querdenker", literally queer thinkers (in the original sense of the word queer, not the modern connotation of homosexual). A good Prussian was a person that would never think for themselves and always agree with and do without questioning what authority demanded of them.
It is no coincidence that the democracy movement in Germany started out in Southern Germany, far away from Prussian influence, not in Prussia. Prussia is to 19th century Germany what Sparta was to ancient Greece. It is the South that represents the equivalent of Athens. Nuff said.
Yes, here in Argentina there was a time that our troops had the prussian pickelhaube usually since from the start (independence) Argentina had excelent relationships with Prussia and then Germany
Melani Alarcon What!?!
Halfway through the video I forgot it was about the Prussians.
Very nice presentation.
Good times.
really really????
you are dead so stfu
Holland? JA I live in people's hearts.
Otto von Bismarck
Real nigga
Otto Von Bismarck will forever remain part of Germany. Otto is invincible and is practically Germany or at least one of the greatest Germans of all time. End of story whether BUTTHURT People like it or not. : )
I hate that the Soviet Union got away with so many ethnic cleansings.
vogelszijnlelijk rusland heeft ook een Jooden uitgemoord
Yotabota
Didn't video mention that Germans (Teutons) ethic cleansed original Prussians in Baltics?
DarkImplement Maybe you didnt Notice that it was Poland Who asked the Teutonic Order to convert/destroy the Old Prussians,because they came down Killing Poles and Pillaging their Lands.Also every Nation has Blood on their hands.
I love the Soviet Union
Well you only get "caught" if you were against the winners of the war.
Thank you excellent summary
Always love your videos!
I loved that part at the end about how prussia still lives on through its contributions to the world. That is how a country lives on even after dissolution.
Just look at the German in Chile - the people of Chile still do Prussian style military marches - they also, have women in marches - there are many Germans living there, too.
Listen to the Prussian anthem, you'll thank me later.
th-cam.com/video/f_6AQA4uzD0/w-d-xo.html
It is my wake up alarm, I love the sound of goosestepping in the morning :D
Prakhar Tiwari I am more thankful to
الياس فرحات
than to you.
Julian Baranyi-Nicholls
Chillian army tactics ar based on prussian ones. It was part of germans over seas effort to influewens smaller nation with tech and development programs
Even our old uniforms were basically the prussian ones with a little of our own identity
Very good explanation!
Really well explained, and comprehensive. I'd like to suggest having the century or years fixed in a corner and advancing as your story advances. I had trouble placing the year of each event and following along to keep in mind what else was happening around the area during those times. But other than that, this is fantastic!
My Grandmother lived in former Schlesien (South-Prussia) but got chased away when the soviets came.She told me that they lost all of their stuff and they saw so much suffering on the way to East-Germany (Saxony) where we now live....
Ślunsk
My grandfather was from a little village near Danzig that no longer exists.
Damn that sucks... And the whole anti-German rhetoric today has to add insult to injury. I'll never understand how monsters like Mao Zedong or Pol Pot got away with everything and nobody blames the countries they ruled. Japan didn't even get blamed for the actions of Hirohito. Truly an unfair, strange world we live in
@bombdiggidie
Before You'll shed a tear ask how many polish Grandmas were forced into boxcars and shipped out. How many polish Grandpas had quiet little orchards in small villages that stopped existing after 1st of September 1939. And how many polish children got buried under ruins of polish cities.
JagdWehrwolf okay Pole, I'm not gonna get into it with you. But know that by reinforcing the war guilt bs, you're just handing ammunition to those that wish to break Germany and quite frankly Europe. I mean Christ, you talk as if war was something new. I swear, too often I see these idiotic comments by hardheaded Slavs saying things like "Germany should have been pushed back all the way to the Elbe". Perhaps Poland should have been contained to Krakow. I have little sympathy for Poles because it happened to Germans on a larger scale and there is no recognition. Not to mention that Poles later reclaimed their land and then took that of which they never owned (Pommern). Seriously, I'm starting to think the only decent Slavs are Croatians, Ukrainians, and Slovaks.
My friend. I want to sincerely give you my praises. You are a genuine relief. I love history, but sadly , i can’t give this passion the many hours of research it needs to be fulfilled. Yours clips are a great summary of the basic stuff i want to know.
Ps I have a lot of confidence in your stuff, that i basically don’t second guess it like i useally do. So keep up the good work and don’t go the easy way.
Nice video!
Excellent historical overview!
Mes Prūsai ni asmai Mikšai be mes bāndimai etteikātun nūsan kultūrin, kwāi bēi pernaikintā prō skrīžas wāldwikans (urdenan) = We Prussians are not Germans and we are trying to rebuild our culture, which once was annihilated by the Teutonic knights (order )
Zeimāi stesses Pōlis ni asti miksiska adder tenā asti prūsiska. That means: The north od Poland is not German but it is Prussian (originally) - in Prussian language which as you can see is not German.
@@asmajatawis3514 My great great grandmother was born in Marienwerder, East Prussia back in the mid 1800s. As far as I know, I think she described her ethnicity as German although that may simply have been for convenience as many Americans tend to be pretty ignorant of geography. It’s interesting that the original Prussian culture survived the many centuries of cultural domination.
@@tedtimmis8135 Yes, the word 'convenience' might be the answer here. Thank for your supportive words.
Holy shit, just like that they decided to delete Prussia.
A fellow Texan doing a video on prussia? you might be my favorite person
Is there some connection between the two?
no, it just happens that i'm also from texas and interested in prussia
Henning85 yes both Prussia and Texas are awesome and "hard as steel." Prussia wasn't known as the Iron Kingdom for nothing and Texans are notorious for their fighting spirit.
@@texannationalist5887 Johann (see below) is my direct Prussian ancestor, my maiden name is Giesenschlag. I enjoy the YT videos about Prussia but am surprised by all of the angry comments that follow. I will never be ashamed of my ancestry or the history of past generations.
"Johan Joachim Giesenschlag emigrated from Prussia to Texas in 1855, settling first in Washington County. In 1877 he moved his family to Burleson County and in 1879 purchased sizable tracts of land in the Hollingsworth Survey and in the adjoining Moses Cummings survey. According to family tradition, Johann Giesenschlag set aside four acres of land in the Hollingsworth Survey for a family cemetery. He died of consumption in 1880 and was the first person, buried there. The land was legally conveyed in 1886 by his son, Christian Giesenschlag, to the Evangelical Trinity Lutheran Church for church and cemetery purposes. The Church ceased to function sometime around 1900, but the land has continued to be used as a cemetery for the relatives and descendants of Johann Giesenschlag and a few other persons."
It isn't mentioned above, but Johann & his wife Anna Schulze came to America from Damelack, Prussia.
@@texannationalist5887 There is a Texas Historical monument erected at the Giesenschlag Cemetery.
Very interesting! Thanks
Very nice video. Can I ask about the source of the photo appearing in 5:40? Thank you.
There are many Football Clubs in Germany with Prussian History ... Preußen Münster for example ... or the ones with Borussia (latin for Prussia).
Borussia Dortmund is one of many German clubs with the Latin name for Prussia "Borussia." Basically means "Prussian Dortmund" in Latin. 🤔
A discussion of Prussian history with no mention of Frederick the Great. Hmmm.
Doby Pilgrim - well, I think it depends on the fact that he gave away 24 million thalers of his private wealth to his people. Such a scoundrel wasting money that way! I am sure you wouldn't have mentioned such a man, too!
BISMARCKKKKKKKKKKK
If Frederick the Great were alive in the napoleonic wars than Prussia would have been larger than Germany
no real point in mentioning him since its not about the history of prussia. But rather what it is and what happend to it
It had to be a name I'm not buying that.
You spoke so fast I had no time to capture your historical points. Now I need to listen to it. Its rich in information, but so quickly spoken. There are huge squisms.
Excellent. Explained all the same questions you had when younger.
There is some lingering legacy of Prussia today:
- Byzantine-like EU regulations of everything in general and the economy in particular.
- European retirement system based on direct re-distribution, first introduced by Bismarck.
US military
Thanks for this video.
A very well made video.
Your videos are great and it would be awesome if you could include dates on some of your slides. Thanks
The Sudetenland was part of Austria, not an isolated ethnic island somewhere in Europe.
Sthursen then why they are part of germany today
They aren't part of germany, They were during wwii but so was Austria and today they are part of czechia
der kaiser The territory was Germanic for centuries and part of the Austrian-Empire, then Austria-Hungary, then the Republic of German-Austria, then Czechoslovakia occupied it, then it was taken back by Germany and then ethnically cleansed by the Communists and now mainly part of the Czech Republic.
oko proroka No the Sudetenland was settled by Germans because Bohemia was a part of the Holy Roman Empire and then a part of Austria for centuries. Being a part of any political union for a long period of time will diffuse the populations, especially along the borders.
When the Sudetenland became Germanic, there were no Germans. It was Germanic, then Pannonian Avars conquered it and the conquests were stopped, leading to re-settlement by Germanics who would become Germans later. Germans and Czech co-existed peacefully for centuries.
Thank you. That was interesting and educational. 👍
This map of ethnicity at 6:16 seems not so true. Poles were an ethnic minority even in some territories in the west that were never part of Polish dominion, Prussians started prussification of Pomerania, Silesia and later Greater Poland (just historical name of one of several major polish regions, not some kind of nationalistic concept) throughout mostly XIX century, especially the latter half, with peak during Bismarck's reign. The cities started off with significant German population because historically there were many German families living in cities of Polish Kingdom, in some cities even a majority. The nobility and peasantry were extremely homogeneously Polish, the burghers not so much. But if you disregard population of cities, which was often Germanic for centuries as a result of welcomed settling from the west of specialists and traders etc., the countryside is where populations' ethnic composition changed much slower. Then on the map you can see very few signs of Polish influence in the east, when in fact the analogous process of high Polish influence in cities (and in nobility, in this case) was present. Finally, seeing how the map does not attribute Pomerania to Polish nation, the question remains why are Kashubians not a distinct group, making it look as if the region was homogenously Prussian. In fact the countryside was heavily dominated by Kashubians, who, if anything, should be regarded as Slavic and Polish for reasons linguistic, historical, cultural etc.
So my point is, Prussia was a nation that took over Old Prussian lands, then managed to unite them with former Eastern Marches and as a result it's raison d'etat was always uniting those lands and weakening Poland, to be able to control trade from Slavic lands through Baltic. Even if we accept that Prussian ethnicity could have rights to the Eastern Prussia lands, it was a very venomous neighbour to live next to and substantial in the fall of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and tragic Polish-German relations in the interwar. The Prussian culture's influence was what made the German nation as a whole turn into rabid creature it became until their loss in ww2 and destruction of Prussia will hopefully prove to be very beneficial for peaceful relations between Poland and Germany for coming decades.
Excellent!
Amazing vid! Thanks a lot. The maps are awesome and i learned a lot. Greetings from Switzerland
what is actually missing is the mentioning of the law that formally dissolved Prussia in 1947, and what about the the prussian heritage? For instance the state North Rhine-Westphalia is still today bound to the Prussian Concordat
Yes....its all like some dirty secret....in an age where all is availible and much is fair game....the silence is frighteningly deafening.
When you consider that the ethnic cleansing of 14 million Prussians was the largest incident of ethnic cleansing in history but somehow remains hidden, you can't help but wonder what else is hidden in plain sight and simply ignored.
@@johnmurphy3621 according to my knowledge 7 million of germzn speaking people left the territory. But you cznt call it ethnic cleansing. They were not ethnic. They were colonists. The colony finaly got freedom znd colonists decided to go home. They were affraid of Soviets. They were not affraid of Poles because they lived together by ages. So now the goverment was to became polish not german but in fact it was Soviet government. Finaly majority takes the rules. Poles was always majority in Prussia. But unfortunatlly until 1956 Poland was controlled directly by Soviet Union. So we Poles got new colonists. And new colonist just threw away old colonists to male space for Poles which they dont like in Soviet Union
Becsuse theybtpok big part of East Poland
@@dzezikus I hope poland gets nuked one day honestly. Everything good about that area left with the Germans.
@@dzezikus What do you mean they weren't ethnic? What is your definition then? One ethnic group was expelled from territories where they were native and had been citizens. Undeniable ethnic cleansing.
I've oft wondered this. Great video.
Very interesting wrap up thx. Learning about European history at school also left me wondering about the specifics of this word "Prussia", apart from the understanding that it became a highly militaristic state in the second half of the 19C. Seemed like a modern era version of Sparta