Map of East Prussia in 1881.
(, pronounced ; or
Rytprūsiai; ; or
Vostochnaya Prussiya) is the main part of the
region of Prussia along the southeastern
Baltic Coast from the
13th century to the end of
World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the
Province of East Prussia was part of the
German state of
Prussia. The capital city was
Königsberg.
East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic
Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading
Teutonic Knights. The indigenous Balts who survived the
conquest were gradually converted to
Christianity. Because of
Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries,
Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while
Poles and
Lithuanians formed minorities. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the
monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, which became the
Duchy of Prussia in 1525. The
Old Prussian language had become extinct by the
17th or early
18th century.
Following the death of
Hohenzollern Albert of Brandenburg Prussia, Duke of Prussia (1525-1568), Joachim II, the
prince-elector Kurfürst of Brandenburg, became co-inheritor of Ducal Prussia. In 1577,
House of Hohenzollern co-regents took over administration from Albert's only son, Albert Friedrich. In 1618 the Duchy of Prussia again passed by inheritance and in
personal union with the
Hohenzollerns of
Brandenburg and the territory was called
Brandenburg-Prussia. The territories of the
House of Hohenzollern were scattered in
Franconia,
Brandenburg, eastern Prussia and elsewhere.
Because the duchy was outside of the core
Holy Roman Empire (Prussia was under
HRE administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters), the
prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves
kings in Prussia beginning in 1701. After the annexation of most of western
Royal Prussia in the 1772
First Partition of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, East Prussia was connected by land with the rest of the Prussian state and was reorganized as the
Province of East Prussia the following year. Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with
West Prussia to form the
Province of Prussia.
The Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the
German Empire after its creation in 1871. However, the
Treaty of Versailles following
World War I restored West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of
Weimar Germany, while the
Memel Territory was detached and was annexed by
Lithuania in 1923. Following
Nazi Germany's defeat in
World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at
Stalin's insistence between the
Soviet Union (the
Kaliningrad Oblast), the
People's Republic of Poland (the
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship), and the
Lithuanian SSR (the constituent counties of the
Klaipėda Region). The capital city Königsberg was renamed
Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was largely
evacuated during the war or expelled shortly thereafter in the
expulsion of Germans after World War II. An estimated 300,000 (around one fifth of the population) died either in war time bombings raids or the battles to defend the province.
History
From Catholic monastic state to Protestant duchy
Ethnic settlement in East Prussia by the 14th century.
Upon the invitation of Duke
Konrad I of Masovia, the
Teutonic Knights took possession of
Prussia in the 13th century and created a
monastic state to administer the conquered
Old Prussians. The Knights' expansionist policies brought them into conflict with the
Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the
Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and
Lithuania, defeated the Teutonic Order at the
Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410. Its defeat was formalised in the
Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the
Thirteen Years' War, and leaving the former Polish region
Pomerelia and under Polish control. Together with
Warmia it formed the province of
Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights, but as a
fief of Poland. 1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the
Holy Roman Empire as well as the previous gains of the
Teutonic Knights were not verified.
The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master
Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to
Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525. Albert established himself as the first duke of the
Duchy of Prussia and a
vassal of the Polish crown by the
Prussian Homage.
Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the
Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. In 1569 the
Hohenzollern prince-electors of the
Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son, the feeble-minded
Albert Frederick.
The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order
Maximilian III, son of emperor
Maximilian II died in 1618. Albert's line died out in 1618, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming
Brandenburg-Prussia. Through the treaties of
Wehlau,
Labiau, and
Oliva, Elector and Duke
Frederick William succeeded in revoking king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660. The
absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia.
Kingdom of Prussia
Although Brandenburg was a part of the
Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian lands were not within the core
Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the
Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor. In return for supporting Emperor
Leopold I in the
War of the Spanish Succession, Elector
Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "
King in Prussia" in 1701. The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as the
Kingdom of Prussia. The designation "
Kingdom of Prussia" was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia. To differentiate from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as
Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia".
Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the
plague and
famine of 1709–1711, including the last speakers of Old Prussian. The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the
Great Northern War, killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions. Crown Prince
Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns. Thousands of Protestants expelled from the
Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia. The province was overrun by
Imperial Russian troops during the
Seven Years' War.
After the
First Partition of Poland in 1772,
Warmia, part of western
Royal Prussia, was merged with the former Duchy of Prussia. On 31 January 1773, King
Frederick II announced that the newly annexed lands were to be known as the Province of
West Prussia, while the former Duchy of Prussia and Warmia became the
Province of East Prussia.
From 1824–1878, East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the
Province of Prussia, after which they were reestablished as separate provinces.
German Empire
Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the
German Empire during the
unification of Germany in 1871.
In 1875 the ethnic make-up of East Prussia was 72.48% German-speaking, 17.39% Polish-speaking Masurians, and 8.11% Lithuanian-speaking (according to
Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego). 2,189 people of 1,958,663 living in East Prussia in 1890 were not German citizens. From 1885 to 1890
Berlin's population grew by 20%,
Brandenburg and the
Rhineland gained 8.5%,
Westphalia 10%, while East Prussia lost 0.07% and West Prussia 0.86%. This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward to seek work in the expanding industrial centres of the
Ruhr Area and Berlin (see
Ostflucht).
The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious make up of 1,698,465
Protestants, 269,196
Roman Catholics, and 13,877
Jews. The
Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia, although
High Prussian was spoken in
Warmia. The numbers of
Masurians and
Prussian Lithuanians decreased over time due to the process of
Germanization. The Polish-speaking population concentrated in the south of the province (
Masuria and Warmia), while Lithuanian-speaking Prussians concentrated in the northeast (
Lithuania Minor). The
Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the
Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century.
World War I
At the beginning of
World War I, East Prussia became a
theatre of war when the
Russian Empire invaded the country. The
Russian Army encountered at first little resistance because the bulk of the
German Army had been directed towards the
Western Front according to the
Schlieffen Plan. In the
Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the
Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, however, the Russians were decisively defeated and forced to retreat, followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory. The majority of the civilian population fled before the invading Russian Army, while several thousand remaining civilians were deported to Russia. Treatment of civilians by both armies was mostly disciplined, although 74 civilians were killed by Russian troops in the
Abschwangen massacre. The region had to be rebuilt because of damage caused by the war.
Weimar Republic
East Prussia from 1923 to 1939 between the wars
With the forced abdication of Emperor
William II in 1918, Germany became a
republic. Most of West Prussia and the former Prussian
Province of Posen, territories annexed by Prussia in the 18th century
Partitions of Poland, were ceded to the
Second Polish Republic according to the
Treaty of Versailles. East Prussia became an exclave, being separated from mainland Germany. The
Seedienst Ostpreußen was established to provide an independent transport service to East Prussia.
On 11 July 1920, amidst the backdrop of the
Polish-Soviet War, the
East Prussian plebiscite in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia was held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join the
Second Polish Republic or remain in
Weimar Germany Province of East Prussia. 96.7% of the people voted to remain within Germany (97.89% in the East Prussian plebiscite district).
The
Memel Territory, a
League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by
Lithuanian troops in 1923 and was annexed without giving the inhabitants a choice by the ballot.
Nazi Germany
In 1938 the
Nazis altered about one-third of the
toponyms of the area, eliminating, Germanizing, or simplifying a number of
linguistically Baltic,
Old Prussian names, as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from
refugees to Prussia during and after the
Protestant Reformation. Many who would not co-operate with the rulers of
Nazi Germany, including activist members of minorities with Slavic roots (Masurians and
Kashubians), were sent to
concentration camps and held there prisoner until their death or liberation.
World War II
In 1939 East Prussia had 2.49 million inhabitants, 85% of them ethnic Germans, the others
Poles in the south, or
Lietuvininkai speaking
Lithuanian (Baltic) in the northeast. Most German East Prussians, Masurians, and Lietuvininkai were Lutheran, while the population of
Ermland was maintly Roman Catholic due to the history of its bishopric. The East Prussian Jewish Congregation declined from about 9,000 in 1933 to 3,000 in 1939, as most fled from Nazi rule. Those who remained were later deported and killed in the
Holocaust.
In 1939 the
Regierungsbezirk Zichenau was
annexed by Germany and incorporated into East Prussia. Despite
Nazi propaganda presenting all of the regions annexed as possessing significant German populations that wanted reunification with Germany, the Reich's statistics of late 1939 show that only 31,000 out of 994,092 people in the annexed Polish western territories were ethnic Germans.
East Prussia was only slightly affected by the war until January 1945, when it was devastated during the
East Prussian Offensive. Most of its inhabitants became refugees in bitterly cold weather during the
Evacuation of East Prussia.
Evacuation of East Prussia
In 1944 the medieval city of
Königsberg, which had never been severely damaged by warfare in its 700 years of existence, was almost completely destroyed by two Allied air raids on the night of 26/27 August 1944 and three nights later on the 29/30 August 1944.
Winston Churchill (
The Second World War, Book XII) had erroneously believed it to be "a modernised heavily defended
fortress" and ordered its destruction.
Gauleiter Erich Koch protracted the evacuation of the German civilian population until the
Eastern Front approached the East Prussian border in 1944. The population had been systematically misinformed by
Endsieg Nazi propaganda about the real military state of affairs. As a result many civilians fleeing westward were overtaken by retreating
Wehrmacht units and the rapidly advancing
Red Army.
Reports of Soviet atrocities in the
Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organised
rape spread fear and desperation among the civilians. Thousands lost their lives during the sinkings by Soviet submarine of the refugee ships
Wilhelm Gustloff, the
Goya, and the
General von Steuben. Königsberg surrendered on 9 April 1945, following the desperate four-day
Battle of Königsberg. The number of civilians killed is estimated to be at least 300,000 with most dying under horrible conditions.
However, most of the German inhabitants, which then consisted principally of women, children, and old men, did manage to escape the Red Army as part of the largest exodus of people in human history.
[Beevor, Antony, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, chapters 1-8, Penguin Books (2002). ISBN 0-670-88695-5] "A population which had stood at 2.2 million in 1940 was reduced to 193,000 at the end of May 1945."
Germany's shift of borders after the world wars, dividing East Prussia among other countries.
Expulsion of Germans from East Prussia after World War II
Shortly after the end of the war in May 1945, Germans who had fled in early 1945 tried to return to their homes in East Prussia. An estimated number of 800,000 Germans were living in East Prussia during the summer of 1945. Many more were prevented from returning, and the German population of East Prussia was almost completely
expelled by the communist regimes. During the war and for some time thereafter forty-five camps for about 200 to 250 thousand forced labourers were established, the vast majority of them were deported to the Soviet Union, including the
Gulag camp system.
The largest camp with about 48,000 inmates was established at
Deutsch Eylau (Ilawa).
Southern part to Poland
Representatives of the Polish government officially took over the civilian administration of the Southern part of East Prussia on 23 May 1945.
Subsequently Polish expatriates from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union as well as Ukrainians from Southern Poland, expelled throughout the Operation Wisla in 1947, were settled in the southern part of East Prussia, now the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. In 1950 the Olsztyn Voivodeship counted 689,000 inhabitants, 22.6% of them coming from areas annexed by the Soviet Union, 10% Ukrainians, and 18.5% of them pre-war inhabitants. The remaining pre-war population was treated as Germanized Poles and a policy of re-Polonization was pursued throughout the country Most of these "Autochthones" chose to emigrate to West Germany from the 1950s through 1970s (between 1970 and 1988 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to Western Germany).
Local toponyms were polonized by the Polish Commission for the Determination of Place Names.Northern East Prussia to the Soviet Union
"House of the Soviets", built on the site of the former Königsberg Castle
Russian "Königsberg" licence plate, 2009
In the Soviet part of the region, a policy of eliminating all remnants of German history was pursued. All German place names were replaced with new Russian names. The exclave was a military zone which was closed for foreigners and even Soviet citizens could only enter with a special permission. In 1967 the remains of Königsberg Castle were destroyed by demolitions on the orders of Leonid Brezhnev to make way on the site for a new "House of the Soviets".Modern situation
Since the fall of Communism in 1991, some German groups have tried to help settle the Volga Germans from eastern parts of Russia in the Kaliningrad Oblast. This effort was only a small success, however, as most impoverished Volga Germans preferred to emigrate to the richer Federal Republic of Germany, where they could become German citizens through the right of return.
Although the 1945–1949 expulsion of Germans from the northern part of former East Prussia was often conducted in a violent and aggressive way by Soviet officials seeking revenge for Nazi crimes committed in the Soviet Union, the present Russian inhabitants of the Kaliningrad Oblast have much less animosity towards Germans. German names have been revived in commercial Russian trade and there is sometimes talk of reverting Kaliningrad's name back its historic name of Königsberg. The city centre of Kaliningrad was completely rebuilt, as British bombs in 1944 and the Soviet siege in 1945 had left it in nothing but ruins. See also
