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Abolition of Prussia

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Not to be confused with Dissolution of the Russian Empire.

The abolition of Prussia took place on 25 February 1947 through a decree of the Allied Control Council, the governing body of post-World War II occupied Germany and Austria. The rationale was that by doing away with the state that had been at the center of German militarism and reaction, it would be easier to preserve the peace and for Germany to develop democratically.

Historical background

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Prussia during the Weimar Republic
Prussia during the Weimar Republic
See also: German militarism

Prussia was for many centuries a major power in north-central Europe, based around the cities of Berlin and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). It rose to particular prominence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, due for the most part to the strength of its military. During the reign of the Great Elector Frederick William (r. 1640–1688), Prussia increased its military to 40,000 men and instituted an effective military administration. When his grandson Frederick William I (r. 1713–1740) undertook large-scale military reforms, he began the country's tradition of an expansive military budget, which rose to consume 80% of Prussia's entire annual budget. By the time of his death in 1740, the Prussian Army had grown into a standing army of 83,000 men. In the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) and the Seven Years' War (1759–1763), his son Frederick the Great (r. 1740–1786) won Silesia from the Habsburg Empire and raised Prussia to the level of a great European power. By that time, the large Prussian landowners known as Junkers had a virtual monopoly on the kingdom's officer corps, a position that they would for the most part maintain throughout the remainder of Prussia's existence.[1]

Defeats at the hands of Napoleon's armies in the battles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 forced Prussia to modernize its army's tactics and weaponry. The improvements helped Prussia to victories over Denmark in the 1864 Second Schleswig War, Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and France in the Franco-Prussian War. The wars culminated in unification of Germany under Prussia's leadership and the exclusion of Austria from the new German Empire. Prussia was at the core of the Imperial German Army, especially its officers, and Prussian militarism became part of German nationalism.[2] Under Otto von Bismarck, who was chancellor of the Empire from 1871 to 1890, the military imperatives of punctuality, orderliness and discipline became civilian virtues as well.[3]

Following the First World War, the new Free State of Prussia bore most of Germany's territorial losses but remained the dominant state of the Weimar Republic, accounting for about three-fifths of both its land area and population. Even before Adolf Hitler came to power, the republican Prussian government had been effectively abolished by the 1932 Prussian coup d'état. Following World War II, almost all of Germany's territorial losses were again from areas that had been part of Prussia.

Prussia was officially abolished by Control Council Law No. 46, passed by the Allied occupation authorities on 25 February 1947. Its reconstitution was also opposed by powerful German postwar politicians, especially the first West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.[4]

Territories today

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Territory lost by Germany at the end of World War II

The territories of Prussia as of 1937 (mainly its twelve provinces) became the following entities after the Second World War:

Text of Law 46

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Control Council Law No. 46:

The Prussian State which from early days has been a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany has de facto ceased to exist.
Guided by the interests of preservation of peace and security of peoples and with the desire to assure further reconstruction of the political life of Germany on a democratic basis, the Control Council enacts as follows:

Article I
The Prussian State together with its central government and all its agencies are abolished.
Article II
Territories which were a part of the Prussian State and which are at present under the supreme authority of the Control Council will receive the status of Länder or will be absorbed into Länder.
The provisions of this Article are subject to such revision and other provisions as may be agreed upon by the Control Council, or as may be laid down in the future Constitution of Germany.[a]
Article III
The State and administrative functions as well as the assets and liabilities of the former Prussian State will be transferred to appropriate Länder, subject to such agreements as may be necessary and made by the Allied Control Council.
Article IV
This law becomes effective on the day of its signature.
Signed in Berlin on February 25, 1947.

Control Council Law No. 46, signed on 25 February, liquidates the State of Prussia, its central government, and all its agencies. This law is in the nature of a confirming action; the eleven provinces and administrative districts of prewar Prussia have since the beginning of the occupation been split up among the Soviet, British, and American Zones and Poland.[5]

Later history

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The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) suspended the law by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union when the Soviet Control Commission in East Germany was dissolved on 20 September 1955. The reunited Germany formally repealed Law No. 46 on 23 November 2007 when it enacted the Second Law on the Settlement of Occupation Law (Zweites Gesetz zur Bereinigung des Besatzungsrechts).[6]

Prussia's abolition resulted in the 1954 disbanding of the Prussian Academy of Arts.[7] The Prussian Academy of Sciences was renamed in 1972. It was abolished and replaced by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1992 as part of the process of German reunification.

Notes

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  1. ^ eventually the Basic Law for West and reunified Germany, as well as the Constitution of East Germany

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Prussian Militarism". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  2. ^ Llewellyn, Jennifer; Thompson, Steve (21 September 2020). "Militarism as a cause of World War I". Alpha History. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  3. ^ "Der preußisch-deutsche Militarismus" [Prussian-German Militarism]. Der Spiegel (in German). 12 February 2001. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. ^ Löttel, Holger. "Konrad Adenauer und Preußen" [Konrad Adenauer and Prussia]. Konrad Adenauer (in German). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  5. ^ Control Council Law No 46 (25 February 1947) Abolition of Prussia  – via Wikisource.
  6. ^ "Zweites Gesetz über die Bereinigung von Bundesrecht" (PDF). Bundesgesetzblatt. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  7. ^ Parker, Stephen; Philpotts, Matthew (16 October 2009). "Sinn und Form": The Anatomy of a Literary Journal. Walter de Gruyter. p. 377. ISBN 9783110217865. Künste Berlin contains the archives that have been accumulated since 1696 in the various incarnations of the present Berlin Academy of Arts: from the Prussian Academy of Arts, which ceased to exist with the abolition of Prussia after 1945

Bibliography

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  • Ernst Rudolf Huber (1951), Sources of Constitutional Law of the modern era, Volume 2, Matthiesen & Co, p. 648, OCLC 45536654
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