in 1799. The map shows the eastern regions of
Lithuania Minor,
Natangia,
Sambia and
Warmia, along with the western Oberland territories including
Marienwerder and the area surrounding
Marienburg. In the 1772
First Partition of Poland, King
Frederick the Great annexed neighbouring
Royal Prussia—the Polish voivodeships of
Pomerania (Pomerelia),
Malbork,
Chełmno and the
Prince-Bishopric of Warmia. This connected his Prussian and
Farther Pomeranian lands and cut the remainder of Poland off from the Baltic coast. The territory of Warmia was incorporated into former Ducal Prussia, which by administrative decree of 31 January 1772 was designated
East Prussia. The former Polish Pomerelian lands beyond the
Vistula together with Marienburg and the
Culmer Land formed the Province of
West Prussia with its capital at Marienwerder. The Polish
Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 30 September 1772, after which Frederick styled himself King ‘‘of’’ Prussia. Several former Ducal Prussian districts—
Eylau (now Iława), Marienwerder,
Riesenburg (now Prabuty) and
Schönberg (now Szymbark)—were also transferred to West Prussia. Until the
Prussian reforms of 1808, the government of East Prussia was administered through the General War and Finance Directorate in Berlin, represented locally by two chamber departments: • **German chamber department** at Königsberg, overseeing the districts of: •
Braunsberg • Brandenburg (Ushakovo) •
Heilsberg •
Mohrungen •
Neidenburg •
Rastenburg •
Samland •
Tapiau • **Lithuanian chamber department** at
Gumbinnen (now Gusev), overseeing the districts of: • Gumbinnen (Gusev) •
Olecko •
Insterburg •
Memel •
Ragnit •
Seehesten (Sensburg) •
Tilsit On 31 January 1773, Frederick II confirmed the final division: the newly annexed lands became the Province of West Prussia, while former Ducal Prussia together with Warmia became the Province of East Prussia. These administrative reorganizations shaped the political and economic structure of the Prussian state, integrating Polish, Baltic and German territories under a unified system that laid the foundation for later nineteenth-century reforms. They also set the stage for the significant restructuring that followed the post-1808 Prussian reform era.
Napoleonic Wars in February 1807 After the disastrous defeat of the
Royal Prussian Army at the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806,
Napoleon occupied Berlin and had the officials of the Prussian General Directorate swear an
oath of allegiance to him, while King
Frederick William III and his consort
Louise fled via Königsberg and the
Curonian Spit to
Memel. The French
Grande Armée troops immediately took up pursuit but were delayed in the
Battle of Eylau on 9 February 1807 by an East Prussian contingent under General
Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq. Napoleon had to stay at the
Finckenstein Palace, but in May, after a siege of 75 days, his troops led by Marshal
François Joseph Lefebvre were able to capture the city of
Danzig, which had been tenaciously defended by General Count
Friedrich Adolf von Kalkreuth. On 14 June, Napoleon ended the
War of the Fourth Coalition with his victory at the
Battle of Friedland. Frederick William and Queen Louise met with Napoleon for peace negotiations, and on 9 July the Prussian king signed the
Treaty of Tilsit. The succeeding Prussian reforms instigated by
Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and
Karl August von Hardenberg included the implementation of an appellation court at Königsberg, a
municipal corporation,
economic freedom as well as
emancipation of the
serfs and
Jews. In the course of the Prussian restoration by the 1815
Congress of Vienna, the East Prussian territories were re-arranged in the of
Gumbinnen and
Königsberg. From 1905, the southern districts of East Prussia formed the separate
Regierungsbezirk of
Allenstein. East and West Prussia were first united in
personal union in 1824 and then merged in a
real union in 1829 to form the
Province of Prussia. The united province was again split into separate East and West Prussian provinces in 1878.
German Empire as
King of Prussia at
Königsberg Castle in 1861 From 1824 to 1878, East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the
Province of Prussia, after which they were reestablished as separate provinces. Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the
German Empire during the
unification of Germany in 1871. From 1885 to 1890 Berlin's population grew by 20%,
Brandenburg and the
Rhineland gained 8.5%,
Westphalia 10%, while East Prussia lost 0.07% and West Prussia 0.86%. This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward to seek work in the expanding industrial centres of the
Ruhr Area and Berlin (see
Ostflucht). The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious makeup of 1,698,465
Protestants, 269,196
Roman Catholics, and 13,877 Jews. The
Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia, although
High Prussian was spoken in
Warmia. The numbers of
Masurians,
Kursenieki and
Prussian Lithuanians decreased over time due to the process of
Germanization. The Polish-speaking population concentrated in the south of the province (
Masuria and Warmia) and all German geographic atlases at the start of 20th century showed the southern part of East Prussia as Polish with the number of Polish-speakers estimated at the time to be 300,000.
Kursenieki inhabited the areas around the Curonian lagoon, while Lithuanian-speaking Prussians concentrated in the northeast in (
Lithuania Minor). The
Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the
Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century.
World War I At the
German entry into World War I, East Prussia became a
theatre of war when the
Russian Empire invaded the country. The
Imperial Russian Army encountered at first little resistance because the bulk of the
Imperial German Army had been directed towards the
Western Front according to the
Schlieffen Plan. Despite early success and the capture of the towns of
Rastenburg and
Gumbinnen, in the
Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the
Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, the Russians were decisively defeated and forced to retreat. The Russians were followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory. After the Russian army's first invasion the majority of the civilian population fled westwards, while several thousand remaining civilians were deported to Russia. Treatment of civilians by both armies was mostly disciplined, although 74 civilians were killed by Russian troops in the
Abschwangen massacre on 8/29/1914. The region had to be rebuilt because of damage caused by the war.
Division after 1918 Weimar Republic With the forced abdication of Emperor
Wilhelm II in the
German Revolution of 1918–1919, Germany became a
republic. Most of the former Prussian provinces of West Prussia and
Posen, territories annexed by Prussia in the 18th century
Partitions of Poland, were ceded to the
Second Polish Republic according to the
Treaty of Versailles. East Prussia became an
exclave, being separated from mainland Germany. The
Klaipėda Region was also separated from the province. Because most of West Prussia became part of the
Second Polish Republic as the
Polish Corridor, the formerly West Prussian
Marienwerder region became part of East Prussia as the administrative district (
Regierungsbezirk) of West Prussia. Also, the
Działdowo district in the
Allenstein region became part of the Second Polish Republic. The
Seedienst Ostpreußen (Sea Service East Prussia) was established to provide an independent transport service to East Prussia. On 11 July 1920, amidst the backdrop of the
Polish-Soviet War in which the
Second Polish Republic appeared to be on the brink of defeat, the
East Prussian plebiscite in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia was held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join Poland or remain in the
Weimar Germany Province of East Prussia. 96.7% of the people voted to remain within Germany (97.89% in the East Prussian plebiscite district). The
Klaipėda Territory (Memelland), a
League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by the
Lithuanian Armed Forces in 1923 and annexed without giving the inhabitants a choice by ballot.
Nazi Germany and
Erich Koch in Königsberg, 1936 After
Adolf Hitler's rise to power, opposition politicians were persecuted and newspapers banned.
Erich Koch, who headed the East Prussian Nazi party from 1928, led the district from 1932. The Otto-Braun-House was requisitioned to become the headquarters of the SA, which used the house to imprison and torture its opponents.
Walter Schütz, a communist member of the
Reichstag, was murdered here. This period was characterized by efforts to
collectivize the local agriculture and ruthlessness in dealing with Koch's critics inside and outside the
Nazi Party. He also had long-term plans for mass-scale industrialization of the largely agricultural province. These actions made him unpopular among the local peasants. In the
March 1933 German federal election, the last contested pre-war German election, the local population of East Prussia voted overwhelmingly for
Adolf Hitler's
Nazi Party. Through publicly funded emergency relief programs concentrating on agricultural land-improvement projects and road construction, the "Erich Koch Plan" for East Prussia allegedly made the province free of unemployment: on 16 August 1933 Koch reported to
Hitler that unemployment had been banished entirely from the province, a feat that gained admiration throughout the
Reich. In actuality, the Erich Koch Plan had been a staged propaganda event organized by
Walther Funk and the
Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to promote the Nazi Party's work creation policies, with East Prussia chosen because it already had relatively low unemployment due to its agrarian economy. Koch's industrialization plans provoked conflict with
Richard Walther Darré, who held the office of the Reich Peasant Leader (
Reichsbauernführer) and Minister of Agriculture. Darré, a
neopaganist rural romantic, wanted to enforce his vision of an agricultural East Prussia. When his "Land" representatives challenged Koch's plans, Koch arrested them. In 1938 the
Nazis changed about one-third of the toponyms of the area, eliminating, Germanizing, or simplifying a number of
Old Prussian, as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from
colonists and
refugees to Prussia during and after the
Protestant Reformation. More than 1,500 places were ordered to be renamed by 16 July 1938 following a decree issued by
Gauleiter and
Oberpräsident Erich Koch and initiated by
Adolf Hitler. Many who would not cooperate with the rulers of
Nazi Germany were sent to
concentration camps and held prisoner there until their death or liberation. After the
1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, the Klaipėda region was integrated again into East Prussia.
World War II After the 1939
invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany opening World War II, the borders of East Prussia were revised. Regierungsbezirk Westpreußen became part of
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, while Regierungsbezirk Zichenau (
Ciechanów) was added to East Prussia. Originally part of the Zichenau region, the Sudauen (
Suwałki) district in Sudovia was later transferred to the Gumbinnen region. In 1939 East Prussia had 2.49 million inhabitants, 85% of them ethnic Germans, the others Poles in the south who, according to Polish estimates numbered in the interwar period around 300,000–350,000, the
Latvian speaking Kursenieki, and
Lietuvininkai who spoke
Lithuanian in the northeast. Most German East Prussians, Masurians, Kursieniki, and Lietuvininkai were Lutheran, while the population of Warmia was mainly Roman Catholic due to the history of its bishopric. The East Prussian Jewish Congregation declined from about 9,000 in 1933 to 3,000 in 1939, as most fled from Nazi rule. During
World War II, the Polish ethnic minorities of Catholic
Warmians and Lutheran Masurians were persecuted by the Nazi German government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in Warmia and Masuria. The Jews who remained in East Prussia in 1942 were shipped to concentration camps, including
Theresienstadt in occupied
Czechoslovakia,
Kaiserwald in occupied Latvia, and camps in
Minsk in occupied
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Deportations began 24 June 1942 and continued throughtout the war. Most of those deported were killed in the
Holocaust. In 1939 the
Regierungsbezirk Zichenau was
annexed by Germany and incorporated into East Prussia. Parts of it were transferred to other regions, e.g.
Suwałki Region to
Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen and
Soldau (Działdowo) to
Regierungsbezirk Allenstein. In the annexed pre-war Polish territory, the Polish population was subjected to
various crimes, including mass arrests,
roundups, deportations to
forced labour and
concentration camps (including teenagers), executions, massacres (also as part of the
Intelligenzaktion and
Aktion T4) and
expulsions. The Jews were confined in
ghettos and afterwards deported either deported to
extermination camps or massacred in the region. ) in 1941 Germany operated the
Soldau and concentration camps, mostly for Poles, multiple subcamps of the
Stutthof concentration camp and several
prisoner-of-war camps, including
Stalag I-A,
Stalag I-B, Stalag I-C, Stalag I-D, Stalag I-E,
Stalag I-F,
Stalag Luft VI, Oflag 52, Oflag 53, Oflag 60, Oflag 63 and Oflag 68 with multiple subcamps, for Polish, Belgian,
French, British, Serbian, Soviet,
Italian, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Czech and other
Allied POWs in the province. Pre-war Polish citizens made up the majority of
forced laborers in the province, with their numbers gradually increasing, but due to the influx of forced laborers of other nationalities, their overall percentage declined from 90% in 1940 to 62% in 1944. Most Polish forced laborers in the province were deported from the pre-war Polish territories annexed into the province by Germany, with German labor offices recruiting forced laborers established in the cities of
Ciechanów,
Ostrołęka,
Płock and
Suwałki. sabotage actions, executions of Nazis, theft of German weapons, ammunition and equipment, and organization of transports of POWs who escaped German POW camps via the ports of Danzig and
Gdynia to
neutral Sweden. East Prussia was only slightly affected by the war until January 1945, when it was devastated during the
East Prussian Offensive. Most of its inhabitants became refugees in bitterly cold weather during the
Evacuation of East Prussia.
Evacuation of East Prussia in 1944 In 1944 the medieval city of
Königsberg, which had never been severely damaged by warfare in its 700 years of existence,
was almost completely destroyed by two
RAF Bomber Command raids – the first on the night of 26/27 August 1944, with the second one three nights later, overnight on 29/30 August 1944.
Winston Churchill (
The Second World War, Book XII) had erroneously believed it to be "a modernized heavily defended fortress" and ordered its destruction. Gauleiter Erich Koch delayed the evacuation of the German civilian population until the
Eastern Front approached the East Prussian border in 1944. The population had been systematically misinformed by
Endsieg Nazi propaganda about the real state of military affairs. As a result, many civilians fleeing westward were overtaken by retreating
Wehrmacht units and the rapidly advancing
Red Army. Reports of Soviet atrocities in the
Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organized rape spread fear and desperation among the civilians. Thousands lost their lives during the sinkings (by Soviet submarine) of the evacuation ships
Wilhelm Gustloff, the
Goya, and the
General von Steuben. Königsberg surrendered on 9 April 1945, following the desperate four-day
Battle of Königsberg. An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, or through mistreatment by the Red Army or from hunger, cold and disease. ==History after partition and annexation==