From the collection 1648 - 1870/71
The Prussian Army
The history of the Brandenburg-Prussian army is a significant chapter in the history of the German armed forces. Its nominal strength and military effectiveness were prerequisites for the rise of the Prussian state among the European great powers and for a long time established the Prussian-Austrian dualism. The following focuses on the organizational and…
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Uniformierung & Ausrüstung
The Dessau Specification of 1737
Below is an original photo series of the Dessau Specification 1737, which is in the possession of the author.
Uniformierung & Ausrüstung
J. C. H. v. Schmalen, Accurate Representation of the Entire (Prussian) Royal Army ... 1759.
This article presents the copperplate series described below of the Prussian army in the year 1759. The depiction is based on an original reproducing photo series presumably from the eighties (probably made by Otto Quenstedt). This is in the possession of the author.
Uniformierung & Ausrüstung
(Old-)Prussian uniforms in a series of copperplate engravings from the end of the 18th century ("Wenner manuscript").
Photo series of an original copy formerly in the Bleckwenn/ Münster archive. Left to the author. As soon as the color slides are fully digitized, they will be published on this website. Furthermore, the hussar regiments are missing. Whether from the outset or only in this copy is not certain.
Uniformierung & Ausrüstung
August Leopold Ramm, Tabular List of all Regiments and Corps....
Photo series of an original copy formerly in the Bleckwenn/Münster archive. Entrusted to the author. As soon as the color slides are fully digitized, they will be published on this website.
Organisation
Formation and Uniform History of the Old Prussian Cavalry 1740 - 86 - Part I - Introduction
Friedrich Wilhelm I left the following mounted troops (1740):
Heeressoziologie
The Prussian Officer Corps under Frederick the Great (1740–86)
In the Frederician era the history of the old Prussian army reached its culmination. In this period the political and functional integration of the social elites into the army structure was also completed. The creation of a bureaucratic military organization and the orientation of the domestic economy to the needs of the army had already been completed in the formative phase under Frederick William I (1713–40). Thus a long process of centralization was concluded and the military as a total organization had emerged. Characteristic of the old Prussian example is the mismatch between the sizing of the army and the state’s resources. The resulting overstretch produced on the one hand a high degree of efficiency, but on the other hand a certain one-sidedness with considerable feedback on political culture. The first half of Frederick the Great’s reign was marked by the high-stakes gamble of the Silesian conquest; the ordeal of the Seven Years’ War brought the still relatively young Prussian kingdom close to the abyss. A supporting element of the ultimately successful Prussian army was the officer corps, endowed with high social status, whose internal development in the years 1740–86 will be outlined in the following lines [1].
Historical context
About this collection
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.