Margraviate of Brandenburg
March/Margraviate of Brandenburg Mark/Markgrafschaft Brandenburg (German) | |||||||||||||||
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1157–1806 | |||||||||||||||
Top: Flag or naval ensign c. 1684 (based on L. Verschuier's painting[2])
Bottom: Flag 1660–1750 used by Hohenzollerns | |||||||||||||||
Margrave | | ||||||||||||||
• 1157–70 | Albert the Bear (first) 1417 | ||||||||||||||
• 1797–1806 | Frederick William III (last) | ||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||
• Established | 3 October 1157 | ||||||||||||||
• Raised to Electorate | 25 December 1356 | ||||||||||||||
27 August 1618 | |||||||||||||||
18 January 1701 | |||||||||||||||
• Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire | 6 August 1806 | ||||||||||||||
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The Margraviate of Brandenburg (German: Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe.
Brandenburg developed out of the
The House of Hohenzollern came to the throne of Brandenburg in 1415. In 1417, Frederick I moved its capital from Brandenburg an der Havel to Berlin. By 1535, the electorate had an area of some 10,000 square miles (26,000 km2) and a population of 400,000.[3] Under Hohenzollern leadership, Brandenburg grew rapidly in power during the 17th century and inherited the Duchy of Prussia. The resulting Brandenburg-Prussia was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia, which became a leading German state during the 18th century. Although the electors' highest title was "King in/of Prussia", their power base remained in Brandenburg and its capital Berlin.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. It was replaced after the Napoleonic Wars with the Prussian Province of Brandenburg in 1815. The Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia was the primary driving force behind the unification of Germany. The Prussian-dominated North German Confederation later transformed in 1871 into the German Empire; it was the legal predecessor of the united German Reich of 1871–1945, and as such a direct ancestor of the present-day Federal Republic of Germany,
Geography
The territory of the former margraviate, commonly known as the Mark Brandenburg,[
The region was formed during the
The Mark is defined by two uplands and two depressions. The depressions are taken up by rivers and chains of lakes with marsh and boggy soil along the shores; once used for peat collection, the riverbanks are now mostly drained and dry.[citation needed]
The Northern or
Between these two depressions is a low plateau that extends from the
The region is predominantly marked by dry, sandy soil, wide stretches of which have pine trees and erica plants, or heath. However, the soil is loamy in the uplands and plateaus and, when farmed appropriately, can be agriculturally productive.[citation needed]
Mark Brandenburg has a cool, continental climate, with temperatures averaging near 0 °C (32 °F) in January and February and near 18 °C (64 °F) in July and August. Precipitation averages between 500 mm and 600 mm annually, with a modest summer maximum.
History
Northern March
History of Brandenburg and Prussia |
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Present |
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By the eighth century,
The Bishoprics of
King
Prince Pribislav of the Hevelli came to power at the castle of Brenna (Brandenburg an der Havel) in 1127. During Pribislav's reign, in which he cultivated close connections with the German nobility, Germans succeeded in binding to the Holy Roman Empire the Havolane region from Brandenburg an der Havel to Spandau. The disputed eastern border continued between the Hevelli and the Sprewane, recognized as the Havel-Nuthe line. Prince Jaxa of Köpenick (Jaxa de Copnic) of the Sprewane lived in Köpenick east of the dividing line.
Ascanians
During the second phase of the German
In contrast to their leaders who had accepted Christianity, the Havolane population still worshipped old Slavic deities and opposed Albert's assumption of power.
With bloody victories on 11 June 1157, Albert the Bear was able to reconquer Brandenburg, exile Jaxa, and found a new lordship. Because he already held the title of margrave, Albert styled himself as
The territorial limits of the original margraviate differed from the area of the current Bundesland
Because of the sandy soil prevalent in Brandenburg, the agriculturally meager principality was denigrated as "the
After Albert's death in 1170, his son succeeded him as
Wittelsbachs
Having defeated the
Louis the Roman forced the False Waldemar to renounce his claims to Brandenburg and succeeded in establishing the Margraves of Brandenburg as
Luxembourgs
After the middle of the 14th century, Emperor Charles IV attempted to secure Brandenburg for the
The power of the Luxembourgs in Brandenburg declined during the reign of Charles's nephew
Hohenzollerns
In return for supporting
Frederick made Berlin his residence, although he retired to his
Brandenburg accepted the
The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg sought to expand their power base from their relatively meager possessions, although this brought them into conflict with neighboring states.
Brandenburg-Prussia
When Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, died without a son in 1618, his son-in-law John Sigismund inherited the Duchy of Prussia. He then ruled both territories in a personal union which came to be known as Brandenburg-Prussia. In this way, the fortuitous marriage of John Sigismund to Anna of Prussia, and the deaths of her maternal uncle in 1609 and her father in 1618 without immediate male heirs, proved to be the key events by which Brandenburg acquired territory both in the Rhineland and on the Baltic coast. Prussia lay outside the Holy Roman Empire and the electors of Brandenburg held it as a fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to which the electors paid homage.
The electors of Brandenburg spent the next two centuries attempting to gain lands to unite their separate territories (the Mark Brandenburg, the territories in the Rhineland and Westphalia, and Ducal Prussia) to form one geographically contiguous domain. In the
Kingdom of Prussia
In return for aiding Emperor Leopold I during the War of the Spanish Succession, Frederick William's son, Frederick III, was allowed to elevate Prussia to the status of a kingdom. On 18 January 1701, Frederick crowned himself Frederick I, King in Prussia. Prussia, unlike Brandenburg, lay outside the Holy Roman Empire, within which only the emperor and the ruler of Bohemia could call themselves king. As king was a more prestigious title than prince-elector, the territories of the Hohenzollerns became known as the Kingdom of Prussia, although their power base remained in Brandenburg. Legally, Brandenburg was still part of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Hohenzollerns in personal union with the Prussian kingdom over which they were fully sovereign. For this reason, the Hohenzollerns continued to use the additional title of Elector of Brandenburg for the remainder of the empire's run. However, by this time the emperor's authority over the empire had become merely nominal. The various territories of the empire acted more or less as de facto sovereign states, and only acknowledged the emperor's overlordship over them in a formal way. Thus, Brandenburg came to be treated as de facto part of the Prussian kingdom rather than a separate entity.
From 1701 to 1946, Brandenburg's history was largely that of the state of Prussia, which established itself as a major power in Europe during the 18th century. King
Brandenburg, along with the rest of Prussia, became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany.
Later years
During the Gleichschaltung of provinces by Nazi Germany during the 1930s, the Province of Brandenburg and the Free State of Prussia lost all practical relevancy. The region was administered as the Gau "Mark Brandenburg".
The state of Prussia was de jure abolished in 1947 after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II; the Gau "Mark Brandenburg" was replaced with the Land Brandenburg.
Brandenburg west of the Oder–Neisse line lay in the
This division of Brandenburg continued until the German reunification in 1990. The GDR districts were dissolved and replaced with the state of Brandenburg with its capital in Potsdam. The 850th anniversary of the foundation of the March of Brandenburg was celebrated officially on 11 June 2007, with preliminary celebrations at the Knights' Academy of Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 June 2006.
See also
- List of rulers of Brandenburg
- Prussian virtues
Footnotes
- ^ Based on some original preserved depictions:
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Berlin Bear with Brandenburg coat of arms, late 18th / Early 19th Century; Märkisches Museum Berlin
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Ceiling painting (detail: female allegory with wreath of grain ears and the Brandenburg eagle), oil on canvas, 1751 (destroyed in World War II)
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Museum Senftenberg (Senftenberg Castle)
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- ^ Die kurbrandenburgische Flotte (1684)
- ^ Preserved Smith. The Social Background of the Reformation. 1920. Page 17.
- ^ Koch, p. 23.
- ^ a b Koch, p. 24.
- ^ a b c Koch, p. 25.
- ^ Koch, p. 28
- ^ Koch, p. 29.
- ^ Koch, p. 30.
References
- H.W. Koch (1978). A History of Prussia. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. p. 326. ISBN 0-88029-158-3.
External links
- (in German) Hochmittelalter in der Mark Brandenburg at Brandenburg1260.de.
- (in German) Der Brandenburger Landstreicher
- Historical map of Brandenburg, 1789
- (in German) Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg by Theodor Fontane, 1899 at Lexikus.de.