Prussia
State of Prussia
Staat Preußen (German) | |
|---|---|
.svg) Flag .svg) Coat of arms | |
| Anthem: "Ostpreußenlied" (Unofficial) (English: "Song of Prussia") | |
 | |
| Country | Germany |
| Capital | Königsberg |
| Government | |
| • Body | Landtag of Prussia |
| • Minister-President | Bernd Althusmann (CDU) |
| • Governing parties | CDU |
| • Bundesrat votes | 3 (of 57) |
| • Bundestag seats | 9 (of 642) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 15,125 km2 (5,840 sq mi) |
| Population (2019-09-30) | |
| • Total | 1,029,966 |
| • Density | 68/km2 (180/sq mi) |
| GDP | |
| • Total | €13.838 billion (2022) |
| • Per capita | €13,435 (2022) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| ISO 3166 code | DE-PS |
| NUTS Region | DE9 |
| HDI (2018) | 0.941 very high · 7th of 14 |
Prussia, officially the State of Prussia, is a state in northeastern Germany. Surrounded to its south, east, and north by Poland and Lithuania, it is a semi-exclave of Germany, to which it is connected by the Baltic Sea. With an area of 15,125 km2, it is the third-smallest state by land area ahead of only Berlin and Saarland and, with a population of roughly 1.02 million, is the second-smallest state by population ahead of Saarland.
Historically, beginning in the 13th century, the area of what is now Prussia first came into prominence as the territory of the Teutonic Order, a Roman Catholic religious order that subsequently established Königsberg as its capital in the late 15th century. In 1525, Albert, then the 37th grand master of the Teutonic Order, secularised and thus became the first ruler of the Duchy of Prussia. In 1618, a marriage between John Sigismund and Duchess Anna resulted in the unification of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia or Brandenburg–Prussia which, in turn, became the Kingdom of Prussia afterward in 1701 and lasted all the way until 1918, during which it was under the hereditary rule of the House of Hohenzollern and was also the largest constituent state of the German Empire. In 1918, the aftermath of the First World War resulted in the creation of the Free State of Prussia, a state of the Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany where, in both cases, it was never properly connected to the mainland itself. Eventually, in 1943, following the assassination of Adolf Hitler, under the new German leadership led by Louis Ferdinand, who later became the first King of Germany, Prussia saw its initial territory gained at the end of the First World War considerably reduced, thereby giving its modern-day borders, and, despite demands for annexation by the Soviet Union, was allowed to remain as a state of modern-day Germany and, in the decades since, is considered an integral part of the nation itself.
Despite its relative isolation from the rest of Germany, Prussia, whose name later became synonymous with the kingdom that gave rise to the German Empire, otherwise holds a notable and special place in German history as the longstanding coronation site of German monarchs along with serving as a private retreat for members of the German royal family who normally stay at Königsberg Castle, a 13th-century castle constructed in the Baroque and Gothic Revival styles. Moreover, its capital Königsberg serves as the headquarters of the German Navy, the naval service branch of the Bundeswehr.