# The rise and fall of Prussia: the soldier-state that made Germany The soldier-state that made Germany: from the Teutonic Knights and the Soldier King through Frederick the Great, compulsory schooling and the Humboldt university, to the unification of 1871 and the Allied abolition of Prussia in 1947. ## 1281 — Teutonic Knights secure control of conquered Prussian lands Gatto recounts that the Order of Teutonic Knights Christianized Prussia by exterminating the native population and replacing it with Germans. By 1281 the Order's hold on the former Slavic lands was secure. > "By 1281, the Order’s hold on lands once owned by the heathen Slavs was secure." > — The Underground History of American Education, p. 118-119 ## 18 January 1701 — Prussia becomes a kingdom Frederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself King in Prussia at Konigsberg, raising the Hohenzollern lands to a kingdom. The new royal title gave a scattered northern state the ambition to become a great power. ## 1713 — Prussia's Soldier King builds a mass conscript army King Frederick William I of Prussia introduced a cantonal conscription system requiring each district to supply and train a quota of recruits, while pouring a disproportionate share of state revenue into the army. By his death Prussia, a state with a small population, had built the fourth-largest army in Europe. This militarized administrative culture shaped the Prussian state his son Frederick the Great inherited. ## c. 1740 — Frederick the Great makes Prussia a great power Frederick II seized Silesia from Austria and fought off a coalition in the Seven Years War, doubling Prussia’s weight in Europe. An enlightened despot who codified law and welcomed philosophers, he also drilled the army that became the state’s defining institution. ## 1763 — Prussia makes primary schooling compulsory Frederick II issued the Generallandschulreglement, requiring all children aged 5 to 13 or 14 to attend school. It built on a 1717 decree and became the template for state-run compulsory education copied across the world. ## 1806 — Prussia's defeat by Napoleon triggers Stein-Hardenberg reforms Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon in 1806 forced the opening of the bureaucracy to the middle classes under the Stein-Hardenberg reforms. > "Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon in 1806 forced the opening of the bureaucracy to the middle classes under the Stein-Hardenberg reforms." > — Political Order and Political Decay ## 1810 — Humboldt founds the University of Berlin Wilhelm von Humboldt founded the University of Berlin in 1810 on the idea of uniting teaching with original research and academic freedom. This research university model was copied around the world. ## 14 June 1866 to 26 July 1866 — Austro-Prussian War 1866 military conflict between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire ## 18 January 1871 — Proclamation of the German Empire Wilhelm I is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors after Prussia's victory over France. German unification is nationalism's greatest triumph of the century and reshapes the European balance. ## 1902 — Junker-industrialist tariff and navy bargain The alliance created by Bulow, agreed in May 1900 and consummated in December 1902, traded a high grain tariff for the industrialists' naval program. The 1902 tariff gave Germany one of the world's most protected agricultures. > "This alliance, of which Bülow was the creator, was agreed on in May 1900, and consummated in December 1902. The tariff of 1902, which gave Germany one of the most protected agricultures in the world, was the price paid by industry for the Navy bill of 1900" > — Tragedy and Hope, p. 354-356 ## 25 February 1947 — The Allies abolish the state of Prussia The Allied Control Council formally dissolved Prussia by Law No. 46, calling it "a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany." The state that had unified Germany was wiped from the map, its lands split among new provinces and Poland and the Soviet Union.