Kingdom of Prussia
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The Kingdom of Prussia
The kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Brandenburg-Prussia, predecessor of the kingdom, became a military power under Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, known as "The Great Elector".[7][8][9][10] As a kingdom, Prussia continued its rise to power, especially during the reign of Frederick II "the Great".[11] Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), holding his own against Austria, Russia, France and Sweden and establishing Prussia's dominant role among the German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power through the victories of the powerful Prussian Army.[12][13] Prussia made attempts to unify all the German states (excluding the German cantons in Switzerland) under its rule, and whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain became an ongoing question. After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of the German Confederation, the issue of unifying the German states caused the German revolutions of 1848–1849, with representatives from all states attempting to unify under their own constitution.[5] Attempts to create a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when the Austro-Prussian War ensued between its two most powerful member states.
Prussia was subsequently the driving force behind establishing in 1866 the
With the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Kingdom of Prussia was transformed into the Free State of Prussia.
History
Background and establishment
The
.In 1618 the electors of Brandenburg also inherited the Duchy of Prussia, since 1511 ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hohenzollern. In 1525, Albrecht of Brandenburg, the last grand master of the Teutonic Order, secularized his territory and converted it into a duchy. It was ruled in a personal union with Brandenburg, known as "Brandenburg-Prussia". A full union was not possible, since Brandenburg was still legally part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Prussia was a fief of Poland. The Teutonic Order had paid homage to Poland since 1466, and the Hohenzollerns continued to pay homage after secularizing Ducal Prussia.
In the course of the Second Northern War, the treaties of Labiau and Wehlau-Bromberg granted the Hohenzollerns full sovereignty over the Prussian duchy by September 1657.
In return for an alliance against France in the War of the Spanish Succession, the Great Elector's son, Frederick III, was allowed to elevate Prussia to a kingdom in the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700. Frederick crowned himself "King in Prussia" as Frederick I on 18 January 1701. Legally, no kingdoms could exist in the Holy Roman Empire except for Bohemia. However, Frederick took the line that since Prussia had never been part of the empire and the Hohenzollerns were fully sovereign over it, he could elevate Prussia to a kingdom. Emperor Leopold I, keen to secure Frederick's support in the impending War of the Spanish Succession, acquiesced.
The style "King in Prussia" was adopted to acknowledge the legal fiction that the Hohenzollerns were legally kings only in their former duchy. In Brandenburg and the portions of their domains that were within the Empire, they were still legally only electors under the overlordship of the emperor. However, by this time the emperor's authority was only nominal. The rulers of the empire's various territories acted largely as the rulers of sovereign states, and only acknowledged the emperor's suzerainty in a formal way. In addition, the duchy was only the eastern bulk of the region of Prussia; the westernmost fragment constituted the part of Royal Prussia east of Vistula, held along with the title King of Prussia by the King of Poland. While the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia legally continued until the end of the empire in 1806, from 1701 onward Brandenburg was de facto treated as an integral part of the kingdom. Since the Hohenzollerns were nominally still subjects of the emperor within the parts of their domains that were part of the empire, they continued to use the additional title of Elector of Brandenburg until the empire was dissolved. It was not until 1772 that the title "King of Prussia" was adopted, following the acquisition of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland.
1701–1721: Plague and the Great Northern War
The Kingdom of Prussia was still recovering from the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and poor in natural resources. Its territory was disjointed, stretching 1,200 km (750 mi) from the lands of the Duchy of Prussia on the south-east coast of the Baltic Sea to the Hohenzollern heartland of Brandenburg, with the exclaves of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg in the Rhineland. In 1708 about one third of the population of East Prussia died during the Great Northern War plague outbreak.[14] The bubonic plague reached Prenzlau in August 1710 but receded before it could reach the capital Berlin, which was only 80 km (50 mi) away.
The
The Great Elector had incorporated the Junkers, the landed aristocracy, into the kingdom's bureaucracy and military machine, giving them a vested interest in the Prussian Army and compulsory education.[17] King Frederick William I inaugurated the Prussian compulsory conscription system in 1717.[17]
1740–1762: Silesian Wars
In 1740 King
To the surprise of many, Austria managed to renew the war successfully. In 1744 Frederick invaded again to forestall reprisals and to claim, this time, the
Humiliated by the cession of Silesia, Austria worked to secure an alliance with France and Russia (the "Diplomatic Revolution"), while Prussia drifted into Great Britain's camp forming the Anglo-Prussian Alliance. When Frederick preemptively invaded Saxony and Bohemia over the course of a few months in 1756–1757, he began a Third Silesian War and initiated the Seven Years' War.
This war was a desperate struggle for the Prussian Army, and the fact that it managed to fight much of Europe to a draw bears witness to Frederick's military skills. Facing Austria, Russia, France, and Sweden simultaneously, and with only Hanover (and the non-continental British) as notable allies, Frederick managed to prevent a serious invasion until October 1760, when the Russian army briefly occupied Berlin and Königsberg. The situation became progressively grimmer, however, until the death in 1762 of Empress Elizabeth of Russia (Miracle of the House of Brandenburg). The accession of the Prussophile Peter III relieved the pressure on the eastern front. Sweden also exited the war at about the same time.
Defeating the Austrian army at the Battle of Burkersdorf and relying on continuing British success against France in the war's colonial theatres, Prussia was finally able to force a status quo ante bellum on the continent. This result confirmed Prussia's major role within the German states and established the country as a European great power. Frederick, appalled by the near-defeat of Prussia and the economic devastation of his kingdom, lived out his days as a much more peaceable ruler.
Other additions to Prussia in the 18th century were the County of East Frisia (1744), the Principality of Bayreuth (1791) and Principality of Ansbach (1791), the latter two being acquired through purchase from branches of the Hohenzollern dynasty.
1772, 1793, and 1795: Partitions of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
To the east and south of Prussia, the
After Frederick died in 1786, his nephew Fredrick William II continued the partitions, gaining a large part of western Poland in 1793.
In 1787,
In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist and a large area (including Warsaw) to the south of East Prussia became part of Prussia. These new territories were organised into the provinces of New Silesia, South Prussia, and New East Prussia.
The Partitions were facilitated by the fact that they occurred just before the 19th-century rise of nationalism in Europe, and the national self-awareness was yet to be developed in most European peoples, especially among commoners. The Kingdom of Prussia was perceived in Poland more as a nationality-neutral personal holding of the ruling House of Hohenzollern, rather than a German nation-state, and any anxiety concerned predominantly freedom to practice religion rather than rights to maintain national identity. The onset of Germanisation in the following decades, later joined by the Kulturkampf, changed quickly this benign picture and alienated Poles from the Prussian state, ultimately boosting their national self-awareness and eliciting their national resistance against Prussian rule.
1801–1815: Napoleonic Wars
Following the French Revolution and the Execution of Louis XVI, Prussia declared war on the French First Republic. When Prussian troops attempted to invade France, they were beaten back and the Treaty of Basel (1795) ended the War of the First Coalition. In it, the First French Republic and Prussia had stipulated that the latter would ensure the Holy Roman Empire's neutrality in all the latter's territories north of the demarcation line of the River Main, including the British continental dominions of the Electorate of Hanover and the Duchies of Bremen-Verden. To this end, Hanover (including Bremen-Verden) also had to provide troops for the so-called demarcation army maintaining this state of armed neutrality.
In the course of the
At Napoleon's instigation, Prussia recaptured British Hanover and Bremen-Verden in early 1806. On 6 August that year the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved as a result of Napoleon's victories over
But when Prussia, after it turned against the First French Empire, was defeated in the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt (14 October 1806), Frederick William III was forced to temporarily flee to remote Memel.[18] After the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, Prussia lost about half of its territory, including the land gained from the Second and Third Partitions of Poland (which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw) and all land west of the Elbe river. France recaptured Prussian-occupied Hanover, including Bremen-Verden. The remainder of the kingdom was occupied by French troops (at Prussia's expense) and the king was obliged to make an alliance with France and join the Continental System.
The
After the
1815: After Napoleon
Prussia's reward for its part in France's defeat came at the Congress of Vienna. It regained most of its pre-1806 territory. Notable exceptions included part of the territory annexed in the Second and Third Partitions of Poland, which became Congress Poland under Russian rule (though it did retain Danzig, acquired in the Second Partition). It also did not regain several of its former towns in the south. However, as compensation it picked up some new territory, including 40% of the Kingdom of Saxony and much of Westphalia and the Rhineland. Prussia now stretched uninterrupted from the Niemen in the east to the Elbe in the west, and possessed a chain of disconnected territories west of the Elbe. This left Prussia as the only great power with a predominantly German-speaking population.
With these gains in territory, the kingdom was reorganized into 10 provinces. Most of the kingdom, aside from the provinces of East Prussia, West Prussia, and the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen but including the formerly Polish Lauenburg and Bütow Land and the Draheim territory, became part of the new German Confederation, a confederacy of 39 sovereign states (including Austria and Bohemia) replacing the defunct Holy Roman Empire.
Frederick William III submitted Prussia to a number of administrative reforms, among others reorganising the government by way of ministries, which remained formative for the following hundred years.
As to religion, reformed
As a consequence of the
1848–1871: German wars of unification
During the half-century that followed the Congress of Vienna a
The establishment of the German Customs Union (Zollverein) in 1834, which excluded Austria, increased Prussian influence over the member states. In the wake of the Revolutions of 1848, the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849 offered King Frederick William IV of Prussia the crown of a united Germany. Frederick William refused the offer on the grounds that revolutionary assemblies could not grant royal titles. But he also refused for two other reasons: to do so would have done little to end the internal power-struggle between Austria and Prussia, and all Prussian kings (up to and including William I) feared that the formation of a German Empire would mean the end of Prussia's independence within the German states.[citation needed]
In 1848 actions taken by Denmark towards the Duchies of
Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1848, modifying it in the Constitution of 1850. These documents—moderate by the standards of the time but conservative by today's—provided for a two-chamber parliament, the Landtag. The lower house, later known as the Abgeordnetenhaus, was elected by all males over the age of 25 using the Prussian three-class franchise. Voters were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid. In one typical election, the first class (with those who paid the most in taxes) included 4% of voters and the third class (with those who paid the least) had 82%, yet each group chose the same number of electors.[19] The system all but assured dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population. The upper house, later renamed the Herrenhaus ("House of Lords"), was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority, and ministers were responsible only to him. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces. The constitution nevertheless contained a number of liberal elements such as the introduction of jury courts and a catalog of fundamental rights that included freedom of religion, speech and the press.[20]
Frederick William suffered a stroke in 1857, and his younger brother, Prince William, became regent. William pursued a considerably more moderate policy. Upon Frederick William IV's death in 1861 he succeeded to the Prussian throne as William I. However, shortly after becoming king, he faced a dispute with his parliament over the size of the army. The parliament, dominated by the liberals, balked at William's desire to increase the number of regiments and withheld approval of the budget to pay for its cost. A deadlock ensued, and William seriously considered abdicating in favour of his son, Crown Prince Frederick. Ultimately, he decided to appoint as prime minister Otto von Bismarck, at that time the Prussian ambassador to France. Bismarck took office on September 23, 1862.
Although Bismarck had a reputation as an unyielding conservative, he initially inclined to seek a compromise over the budget issue. However, William refused to consider it; he viewed defence issues as the crown's personal province. Forced into a policy of confrontation, Bismarck came up with a novel theory. Under the constitution, the king and the parliament were responsible for agreeing on the budget. Bismarck argued that since they had failed to come to an agreement, there was a "hole" in the constitution, and the government had to continue to collect taxes and disburse funds in accordance with the old budget in order to keep functioning. The government thus operated without a new budget from 1862 to 1866, allowing Bismarck to implement William's military reforms.
The liberals violently denounced Bismarck for what they saw as his disregard for the fundamental law of the kingdom. However, Bismarck's real plan was an accommodation with liberalism. Although he had opposed German unification earlier in his career, he had now come to believe it inevitable. To his mind, the conservative forces had to take the lead in the drive toward creating a unified nation in order to keep from being eclipsed. He also believed that the middle-class liberals wanted a unified Germany more than they wanted to break the grip of the traditional forces over society. He thus embarked on a drive to form a united Germany under Prussian leadership, and guided Prussia through three wars which ultimately achieved this goal.
The first of these wars was the
The divided administration of Schleswig and Holstein then became the trigger for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866—also known as the Seven Weeks' War. Prussia, allied with the Kingdom of Italy and various northern German states, declared war on the Austrian Empire. The Austrian-led coalition was crushed, and Prussia annexed four of its smaller allies—the Kingdom of Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt. Prussia also annexed Schleswig and Holstein, and also effectively annexed Saxe-Lauenburg by forcing it into a personal union with Prussia (which was turned into a full union in 1876). King William initially wanted to take territory from Austria itself and annex Saxony, but Bismarck persuaded him to abandon the idea. While Bismarck wanted Austria to play no future role in German affairs, he foresaw that Austria could be a valuable future ally. With these gains in territory, the Prussian possessions in the Rhineland and Westphalia became geographically connected to the rest of the kingdom for the first time. Counting the de facto annexation of Saxe-Lauenburg, Prussia now stretched uninterrupted across the northern two-thirds of Germany. It would remain at this size until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1918.
Bismarck used this opportunity to end the budget dispute with parliament. He proposed a bill of indemnity granting him retroactive approval for governing without a legal budget. He guessed, correctly as it turned out, that this would lead to a split between his liberal adversaries. While some of them argued that there could be no compromise with the principle of constitutional government, most of the liberals decided to support the bill in hopes of winning more freedom in the future.
The German Confederation was dissolved as part of the war.[citation needed] In its place, Prussia cajoled the 21 states north of the Main into forming the North German Confederation in 1866. Prussia entered the Confederation as a whole (including the East Prussian cradle of its statehood, as well as its share of dismembered Poland consisting of Province of Posen and West Prussia), thus becoming the dominant state in this new entity, with four-fifths of its territory and population—more than the other members of the confederation combined. Its near-total control was cemented in a constitution written by Bismarck. Executive power was vested in a president—a hereditary office of the rulers of Prussia. He was assisted by a chancellor responsible only to the president. There was also a bicameral parliament. The lower house, or Reichstag (Diet), was elected by universal male suffrage. The upper house, or Bundesrat (Federal Council) was appointed by the state governments. The Bundesrat was, in practice, the stronger chamber. Prussia had 17 of 43 votes and could easily control proceedings through alliances with the other states. For all intents and purposes, Bismarck dominated the new grouping. He served as his own foreign minister for virtually his entire tenure as prime minister of Prussia, and in that capacity was able to instruct the Prussian delegates to the Bundesrat.
The southern German states (except Austria) were forced[
The final act came with the
1871–1918: Peak and fall
Bismarck's new empire was the most powerful state on the Continent. Prussia's dominance over the new empire was almost as absolute as it was with the North German Confederation. It included two-thirds of the empire's territory and three-fifths of its population. The imperial crown was a hereditary office of the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia also had a large plurality of seats in the Bundesrat, with 17 votes out of 58 (17 out of 61 after 1911); no other state had more than six votes. As before, it could effectively control the proceedings with the support of its allies in the secondary states. As mentioned above, Bismarck served as foreign minister of Prussia for almost his entire career, and in that role instructed the Prussian deputies to the Bundesrat. The Imperial German Army was essentially an enlarged Prussian army, and the embassies of the new empire were mostly old Prussian embassies. The Constitution of the German Empire was essentially an amended version of the constitution of the North German Confederation.
However, the seeds for future problems lay in a gross disparity between the imperial and Prussian systems. The empire granted the vote to all men over 25, although Prussia retained its three-class franchise, in which votes were weighted by taxes paid.[19] Since the imperial chancellor was, except for two periods (January–November 1873 and 1892–94) also prime minister of Prussia, this meant that for most of the empire's existence, the king/emperor and prime minister/chancellor had to seek majorities from legislatures elected by two completely different franchises.
At the time of the empire's creation, both Prussia and Germany were roughly two-thirds rural. Within 20 years, the situation was reversed; the cities and towns accounted for two-thirds of the population. However, in both the kingdom and the empire, the constituencies were never redrawn to reflect the growing population and influence of the cities and towns. This meant that rural areas were grossly overrepresented from the 1890s onward.
Bismarck realized that the rest of Europe was sceptical of his powerful new Reich, and turned his attention to preserving peace with such acts as the Congress of Berlin. The new German Empire improved its already-strong relations with Britain. The ties between London and Berlin had already been sealed in 1858, when Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia married Victoria, Princess Royal.
The new Kaiser Wiliam rapidly soured relations with the
Uprisings in Berlin and other centres began the civil conflict of the
Prussia was incorporated as the Free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic, gaining a new republican constitution in 1920.
State
Government
The joint authority,
Politics
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The Kingdom of Prussia was an
Constitutions
There were two constitutions during the kingdom's existence, those of 1848 and 1850. The first was granted by the reluctant Frederick William IV in response to demands that arose during the German revolutions of 1848–1849.[26] Elections were called in early 1848 for a Prussian National Assembly, with all males 25 and older able to vote. King Frederick William IV and his ministers presented a draft constitution in which the king retained many of his old rights. The Assembly responded with the "Charte Waldeck" which included an expanded list of fundamental rights, a Volkswehr ('people's guard') responsible to parliament and restrictions on feudal rights. The King declared to his ministers that "he would never accept [it] under any conditions". On 9 November he adjourned the Assembly and on 5 December 1848 unilaterally imposed the Constitution of 1848. It contained a significant number of liberal elements from the Charte Waldeck, including a parliament with two chambers, the introduction of jury courts, certain limitations on the monarch's powers and a mandate to ensure legal certainty. It also guaranteed many fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, the press and religion.[27]
In spite of the constitution's liberal clauses, Prussia was still far from a democratic state. The king had an absolute veto over laws, which restricted the separation of powers. It was possible for the monarch to circumvent the judiciary, and the military could be described as a state within the state. All adult male citizens regardless of class had the right to vote, but the Prussian three-class franchise that weighted votes based on the amount of taxes paid significantly limited the political voice of the middle and lower classes.[19]
The 1850 Constitution of Prussia was an amended version of the 1848 Constitution. Unlike the earlier version, the 1850 revision was a cooperative effort between the new Prussian Parliament, the King and his ministers.[28] The changes they made to the 1848 Constitution were mostly of a minor nature. The king remained in a position of dominance over the three branches of government, and parliament had no control over the military, but the liberal elements introduced in the 1848 Constitution remained largely in place.
The 1850 Constitution, frequently amended, was the fundamental law of Prussia until the end of the German Empire in 1918.
Religion
The Prussian Constitution of 1850 allowed for freedom of conscience, freedom of public and private worship and freedom of association with religious bodies. It stated that all churches and other religious associations should administer everything independently and privately from the state and that no part of the government may affect the Church. The constitution also stated that all children should be taught their religion from people of their own religion and not by someone else.[29][30]
According to a census taken in the early or mid 1800s, around the 1830s there was a division of six religions: this was, per million inhabitants, 609,427.0 practising Protestants, 376,177.1 practising
Although dominated by Protestant Lutherans (along with some Calvinist), it contained millions of Catholics in the west and in Poland. There were numerous Catholic populations in the Rhineland and parts of Westphalia. In addition, West Prussia, Warmia, Silesia, and the province of Posen had predominantly Catholic Polish-speaking populations. East Prussia's southern region of Masuria was mostly made up of Germanised Protestant Masurs.
Subdivisions
The original core regions of the Kingdom of Prussia were the
After the
Following the major western gains made by Prussia after the Vienna Congress, a total of ten provinces were established, each one subdivided further into smaller administrative regions known as Regierungsbezirke. The provinces were:
- Province of Brandenburg
- Province of East Prussia(outside of German Confederation)
- Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
- Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine
- Province of Pomerania
- Grand Duchy of Posen (autonomous, outside of German Confederation)
- Province of Saxony
- Province of Silesia
- Province of West Prussia(outside of German Confederation)
- Province of Westphalia
In 1822 the provinces of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and the Lower Rhine were merged to form the Rhine Province. In 1829, the provinces of East and West Prussia merged to form the Province of Prussia, but the separate provinces were reformed in 1878. The principalities of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen were annexed in 1850 to form the Province of Hohenzollern.
After Prussia's victory in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, territories annexed by Prussia were reorganised into three new provinces:
References
- Nordmarkhave also been applied to the Prussia of this period.
- ^ When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, the function of prince-electors electing its emperors had lapsed.
- ISBN 9780815630814.
- ^ a b "Königreich Preußen (1701–1918)" (in German). Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2007.
- ^ Ernest John Knapton. "Revolutionary and Imperial France, 1750–1815." Scribner: 1971. Page 12.
- ^ "German Empire: administrative subdivision and municipalities, 1900 to 1910" (in German). Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2007.
- ^ Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946.
- ^ "Prussia | History, Maps, & Definition". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ISBN 1-58477-077-5.
- ^ Danilovic, Vesna. "When the Stakes Are High—Deterrence and Conflict among Major Powers", University of Michigan Press (2002), p 27, p225–228
- ^ [1][dead link] Aping the Great Powers: Frederick the Great and the Defence of Prussia's International Position 1763–86, Pp. 286–307.
- ^ [2] The Rise of Prussia Archived June 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Horn, D. B. "The Youth of Frederick the Great 1712–30." In Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia, 9–10. 3rd ed. London: English Universities Press, 1964.
- ^ Horn, D. B. "The Seven Years' War." In Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia, pp. 81–101. 3rd ed. London: English Universities Press, 1964.
- ^ Atkinson, C. T. A History of Germany, 1715–1815. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969.
- ^ Walker, Mack, The Salzburg transaction: expulsion and redemption in eighteenth-century Germany, (Cornell University Press, 1992), 74.
- ^ a b c d Feuchtwanger, E. J. Prussia: Myth and Reality: The Role of Prussia in German History. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1970.
- ^ Shennan, Margaret. The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia. London: Routledge, 1995
- ^ ISBN 0-945466-22-6.
- ^ "History of Klaipėda (Memel) | True Lithuania". www.truelithuania.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d Peter, Jelena (1 February 2000). "Das Preußische Dreiklassenwahlrecht" [The Prussian Three-Class Franchise]. Deutsches Historisches Museum (in German). Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ Wikisource. – via
- Waldeck-Pyrmont.
- Schaumburg-Lippe, Württemberg.
- ^ Die Reichsgründung 1871 Archived 2014-08-18 at the Wayback Machine (The Foundation of the Empire, 1871), Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online, accessed 2008-12-22. German text translated: [...] on the wishes of Wilhelm I, on the 170th anniversary of the elevation of the House of Brandenburg to princely status on 18 January 1701, the assembled German princes and high military officials proclaimed Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles Palace.
- ^ Jacoby 1973, p. 34.
- ^ Hintze, Der Commissarius
- ^ Robinson, James Harvey (September 1894). "The Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: 12–13. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ "[oktroyierte] Verfassungsurkunde für den preußischen Staat vom 5. Dezember 1848 documentArchiv.de" [[imposed] Constitutional Charter for the Prussian State of 5 December 1848]. documentArchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
- ^ Robinson, James Harvey ( (September 1894). "The Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: 13–14. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- JSTOR 1009032.
- JSTOR 2139282.
- JSTOR 2337688.
Bibliography
- Hintze, Otto. Der Commissarius und seine Bedeutung in der allgemeinen Verwaltungsgeschichte. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- Jacoby, Henry (1 January 1973). The Bureaucratization of the World. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02083-2. Retrieved 15 June 2015.