Once upon a time — if that time was mostly war and starched uniforms — there was Prussia:
the kingdom that didn’t just march to its own drumbeat, it invented the drum.
Rise of the Iron Kingdom
Prussia started as a medieval crusader state run by the Teutonic Knights, who traded salvation for territory. Over centuries, it grew into a cold, efficient, landlocked powerhouse in northern Europe.
By the 1700s, under Frederick the Great, it punched way above its weight — think: Enlightenment ideas with a bayonet.
Prussia = Discipline
It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t romantic.
But it was brutally effective.
- Rigid bureaucracy.
- World-class military.
- An education system that basically invented the modern classroom — bells, grades, obedience.
This was the country where being five minutes early meant you were late.
Then Came Bismarck
In the 1800s, Otto von Bismarck — the original cold-blooded strategist — used diplomacy and war to unify the German states.
In 1871, he created the German Empire, with Prussia as its core.
So Prussia won, right?
Wrong.
Because when Germany was born, Prussia started fading into the background.
It was now part of the empire it had created.
The Fall
Fast forward through World War I and World War II, and Prussia’s militaristic legacy had become toxic.
The Allies — especially the Soviets — saw it as the soul of German aggression.
So in 1947, they pulled the plug.
Prussia was officially abolished.
Territories split between Poland, the USSR, and East Germany.
Its name scrubbed from maps.
What’s Left?
Today, Prussia’s spirit survives in:
- German efficiency
- Western military doctrine
- Public education systems worldwide
But as a country, Prussia is dead.
It was too cold, too controlled, and too responsible for too many bad decisions.
A kingdom that built Germany…
…and then got erased by the very history it helped shape.