Great Nations in Peril—Rise and Fall of Prussia

Abstract

What makes a strip of land, what a small electorate a nation? In the case of Prussia, it was the ambitious Franconian Hohenzollern clan that strived for more influence and power. A central means of their expansionist policy was marrying family members to strategic important people. Further means were violent acquisition of land, entering into intelligent strategic alliances, improving economic conditions of the population, professionalizing state administration and efficiency, introducing an educational system and elements of social welfare politics, increasing the motivation of the people, their identification with the state and the monarch. In this article the rise and fall of Prussia is described as a process with partly pioneering approaches and revolutionary reforms—at least up to the late 19th century. With World War I and the Third Reich Prussia's fall was definitely sealed. What were the reasons that first drove Prussia to the top of leading nations and then into the abyss? Motives and reasons are sought to explain why this large nation got into peril again and again.