East Prussia ( ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878, with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871; following World War I, it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad, Russia). East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (2008), East Prussia
During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered in the Northern Crusades by the Teutonic Knights and then gradually converted to Christianity. In the medieval , Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles and Lithuanians formed sizeable minorities. From the 13th century, the region of Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. In 1525, the territory became the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal of Poland. It gained full sovereignty in 1657 when Poland renounced its feudal rights.
After the annexation of most of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772, eastern (Ducal) Prussia was reorganized as the Province of East Prussia the following year. Between 1829 and 1878, it was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia. The Polish and Lithuanian minorities were subjected to Germanisation policies.
From 1871 to 1918, East Prussia was part of the German Empire as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. The Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted most of West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany separated from it by the Polish Corridor. The Memel Territory was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of Poland. The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German, Masurian, and Prussian Lithuanian population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly afterwards. An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, through mistreatment by the Red Army, or from hunger, cold and disease.Andreas Kossert, Ostpreußen. Geschichte und Mythos, 2007 Pantheon Verlag, PDF edition, p. 342. According to Kossert East Prussia lost about 511,000 out of 2,490,000 inhabitants, thereof 311,000 civilians.
Geography
The landscape of East Prussia consisted of gently rolling plains and small hills, with flatter terrain in the north and more hills in the south. The province had a humid continental climate which was most pronounced in Lithuania Minor and at higher elevations in the south in the region of Masuria, while the northwesternmost coastal parts approached an oceanic climate.
In the northwest, the province bordered the Baltic Sea, with the Vistula Spit and Curonian Spit separating the sea itself from the Vistula Lagoon and Curonian Lagoon, respectively. The Sambia Peninsula () juts into the Baltic Sea between these two lagoons. Most of the rivers of East Prussia emptied into the two lagoons; the Pregel (), Passarge (), and Frisching () into the Vistula Lagoon, and the Memel (, ) and Minge () into the Curonian Lagoon.
In the northeast of the province, the river Scheschuppe (), a left-tributary of the Memel, formed the border with the Russian Empire, and today forms the border between Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania. The Klaipėda Region () was formed from the portion of the province located north of the Memel river. Adjacent to the Curonian Lagoon and the lower reaches of the Memel river could be found the , a vast partially-drained bog, much of it below sea-level.
Further south, the region becomes more hilly, with fewer bogs and more lakes. To the east, near the modern Polish-Russian border, is the Romincka Forest (), a former hunting-ground for Prussian nobility. On the eastern end of the forest is Lake Vištytis (), and to the south are the (). The Angrapa river (), a tributary of the Pregel, flows out Lake Mamry () on the northern end of the Masurian Lake District. The largest lake in the province was Spirdingsee (), at 113.8 square kilometers in area.
The headwaters of the Pregel's numerous tributaries were found in southern East Prussia, with the longest, the Alle (), extending almost to the southern border with Congress Poland, winding its course northward through southern Warmia () and the central portion of the province. In the southernmost regions, the rivers flow to the south, emptying into the Narew and Vistula rivers. The highest elevation of East Prussia at 312 meters above sea level was Kernsdorfer Höhe (), found in the southwest near the border with West Prussia.
Background
Medieval Prussia under the Teutonic Order At the instigation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century and created a monastic state to administer the conquered Old Prussians. Local Old-Prussian (north) and Polish (south) toponyms were gradually Germanised.
The Knights' expansionist policies, including occupation of Polish Pomerania with Gdańsk/Danzig and western Lithuania, brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania, defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.
In 1440, the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation was founded, and various cities and nobles of the region joined it. In 1454, upon the Confederation's request King Casimir IV of Poland signed the act of incorporation of the entire region into the Kingdom of Poland.
The Teutonic Knights' defeat was formalised in the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War. The restoration of Pomerelia to Poland was confirmed, and Warmia also was confirmed part of Poland, with both co-forming the newly created autonomous province of Royal Prussia (from 1569 within the larger Greater Poland Province).
According to the peace treaty the Teutonic Knights regained authority over the remainder of historic Prussia (the bulk of the territory that later formed East Prussia) as a fief of the Polish Crown.: "Cui quidem domino Kazimiro regi, successoribus suis regibus et regno Polonie nos, nostros successores, commendatores, prelatos, milites, vasallos et subditos, terrasque omnes nostras a nobis nunc possessas et in posterum possidendas, conquesitas et conquerendas, eciam in terris paganorum extra terras Prusie dicto domino Kazimiro regi et regno Polonie connectimus, jungimus, unimus et invisceramus, ea condicione et respectu, ut nos prefati Ludowicus magister, nostri successores, commendatores et conventus, prelati, barones, milites, terrigene et persone singule, tam ecclesiastice quam seeulares et omnes terre nostre, atque homines in illis degentes in Prusia simus amplius et de cetero cum prefato serenissimo domino Kazimiro rege, successoribus suis regibus et regno Polonie unum et individuum corpus, una gens, unus populus in annicicia, federe et unione, nullum alium, preter Summum Pontificem, quam prefatum dominum Kazimirum regem, et successores suos reges Polonie, pro nostro capite et superiore recognituri." 1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights, were not verified.
Early modern transformation
The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525. Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage.
Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. In 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick.
The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, son of emperor Maximilian II died in 1618. When Maximilian died, Albert's line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg–Prussia.
Prussia between Poland and Brandenburg Taking advantage of the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655, and instead of fulfilling his vassal's duties towards the Polish Kingdom, by joining forces with the Swedes and subsequent treaties of Wehlau, Labiau, and Oliva, Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking the king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660.
There was strong opposition to the separation of the region from Poland, especially in Königsberg (). A confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over the city and region. The Brandenburg Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned the leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth.
In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Elector Frederick William, swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland. The absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia.
The Kingdom of Prussia Although Brandenburg was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Prussian lands were not within the Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor. In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I in the War of the Spanish Succession, Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself "King in Prussia" in 1701.
The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as the Kingdom of Prussia. The designation "Kingdom of Prussia" was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia. To differentiate it from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia".
Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the Great Northern War plague outbreak and famine of 1709–1711, including the last speakers of Old Prussian. The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the Great Northern War, killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions.
Crown Prince Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns. In 1724, Frederick William I prohibited Poles, Samogitians and Jews from settling in Lithuania Minor, and initiated German colonization to change the region's ethnic composition. Thousands of Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia.
In 1756, Russia decided to go to war with the Kingdom of Prussia and annex the territory, which was then to be offered to Poland as part of a territorial exchange desired by Russia, however, ultimately Russia only occupied the region for four years during the Seven Years' War before withdrawing in 1762 and did not make Poland an offer of territorial exchange.
History as a province