Theabolition of Prussia occurred on 25 February 1947 by decree of theAllied Control Council, the governing authority ofpost-World War II occupiedGermany andAustria. The decision was grounded in the view that Prussia had long embodied the most reactionary and militaristic elements within German political life. As the engine ofGerman militarism and a key promoter ofauthoritarianism andexpansionist policies, Prussia was seen as fundamentally incompatible with efforts to rebuild Germany as a peaceful and democratic state, and its dominance in German affairs had contributed directly to thewars of aggression that devastated Europe. By dismantling Prussia, the Allies aimed to eradicate the institutional structures most responsible for German aggression. This abolition referred strictly to the political entity of Prussia, not to theexpulsion of ethnic Germans from East Prussia between 1945 and 1950.
Prussia was for centuries a dominant power in north-central Europe, centred on the cities ofBerlin andKönigsberg (nowKaliningrad, Russia). Its rise during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was largely driven by an obsessive focus on military strength. Under the rule ofFrederick William (r. 1640–1688), known as the Great Elector, Prussia expanded its army to 40,000 men and established a rigid military bureaucracy. His grandson,Frederick William I of Prussia (r. 1713–1740), entrenched this militaristic culture further by directing around 80 percent of state expenditure to the armed forces, cultivating a war-driven society. By his death in 1740, Prussia had assembled a standing army of 83,000 men. His sonFrederick the Great (r. 1740–1786) continued this legacy by using military aggression to seizeSilesia from theHabsburgs in theWar of the Austrian Succession and again in theSeven Years' War, pushing Prussia into the ranks of Europe's great powers. Military dominance remained in the hands of the aristocraticJunker class, who maintained near-total control of the officer corps and entrenched class-based militarism throughout Prussian society.[1]
Prussia's defeats byNapoleon at thebattles of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 triggered military reforms that only deepened its warlike orientation. These reforms paved the way for a string of aggressive victories: over Denmark in the 1864Second Schleswig War,Austria in theAustro-Prussian War of 1866, and France in theFranco-Prussian War. These wars were instrumental in theunification of Germany, which took place under Prussian leadership and excluded Austria, cementing the kingdom's dominant position in the newGerman Empire. TheImperial German Army was shaped in Prussia's image, and the values of Prussian militarism were absorbed into broader German nationalism.[2] UnderOtto von Bismarck, military ideals such as discipline, order and punctuality were elevated to national virtues, reinforcing authoritarian structures even in civilian life.[3] After theFirst World War, theFree State of Prussia retained its dominant size within theWeimar Republic, even as it suffered most of the territorial losses imposed on Germany. Prussia's authoritarian legacy persisted, with its democratic institutions undermined as early as the1932 Prussian coup d'état, paving the way forAdolf Hitler's rise. AfterWorld War II, nearly all of Germany's territorial losses came from areas historically part of Prussia. The state was formally dissolved by Control Council Law No. 46 on 25 February 1947 by theAllied occupation authorities, and its revival was firmly opposed by influential German leaders such asKonrad Adenauer.[4]
The territories of Prussia as of 1937 (mainly its twelveprovinces) became the following entities after the Second World War:
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, theControl Council enacts as follows:Article I
ThePrussian 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 ofLänder or will be absorbed intoLänder.
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 appropriateLänder, 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]
TheGerman Democratic Republic (East Germany) suspended the law by a decision of theCouncil of Ministers of the Soviet Union when theSoviet 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 thePrussian Academy of Arts dropping "Prussian" from its name in 1945 before finally being disbanded in 1955.[7] ThePrussian Academy of Sciences was renamed in 1972. It was abolished and replaced by theBerlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1992 as part of the process ofGerman reunification.
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
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