Prussia: The Perversion of an Idea

Forty-seven years ago the Allies Control Council produced the final obsequies of a state which 'from its earliest days had been a bearer of militarism and reaction in Germany'. With this laconic text, Prussia, with its near millennium of history as one of the frontier states of Christian Europe, was cast onto the dung-heap. To many contemporaries, the gesture had a futile ring about it: 'a victorious donkey kicking a long-dead lion'. This book examines Prussia over the years following the creation of the German Empire in 1871. It shows its severe virtues were weathered away by the new imperial idea. It analyses all aspects of the state, entirely distinct, worshiped by some and feared by others. Prussia has been seen as a scapegoat for Nazi Germany. This important book questions the truth behind these charges, examines the historical background, analyses the nature of 'Prussianism' and looks at the traces it has left us with today.