The Prussian Army

Law No. 46 in the Official Gazette of the Control Council in Germany of 31 March 1947 ordered the dissolution of the State of Prussia. Thus Prussia officially came to an end; it is disputed, however, whether the Prussian state had not already been lost within the German Reich and therefore whether the victors' diktat after the Second World War served only as political cosmetics. Settling the question of whether the short and eventful Prussian history ended in 1871 or 1947 is ultimately idle; a historical fact is that Prussia no longer exists today. In this respect the Prussian state, which entered European history relatively late, shares the fate of many vanished polities; noteworthy, however, is that — although the Prussian state no longer exists and thus belongs to the past — it still excites passions today and remains a controversial object of interest. This is also and especially true of the Prussian military system, which was closely linked with the social life of the old Prussian state. The Brandenburg-Prussian army plays a central role in the history of the German armed forces. Two centuries of Prussian military history up to the founding of the Reich in 1871 are presented below.