Preussen Gloria Logo - Copyright ©2008 SBSK
Return to Main Page

CONTENTS

Introduction

Historical Articles

Other Materials/FAQ

Historical Movies

Letters from Readers

Contact PG

Restoring Königsberg

Links



    3. The Prussian Legacy

    It often surprises the poorly educated and biased student of Prussian history to learn that Prussia was the backbone of the Weimar Republic. In spite of being the German state that lost the most after the defeat of World War I (West Prussia, Posen, Upper Silesia, Memel, Malmédy-Eupen and most of the Saarland) and the humiliating and grossly unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles (which Hitler exploited to evil ends), Prussia remained the largest of the nations within the Reich and was thus able to exert an influence greater than the combined power of all the other ones, including secessionist and monarchistic Bavaria (which had briefly been a communist republic) where nazism was born and festered. And it was for this reason that it was the social democrats of our time - not the conservatives or right-wing reactionaries - who wished to honour Prussia in 2001. How can this be so?

    Although the 1918 revolution in Germany marked the end of what many outsiders regarded as the character elements of Prussia, and in particular the House of Hohenzollern which created the Prussian state in the first place, and the powerful landed Junker element within the Prussian political class, this did not mark the end of 'Prussia' per se. The democratic politicians were quick to realise that the continued existence and expertise of the Prussian administrative system was essential for the survival of the Weimar Republic.

    Moreover, Prussia survived as a constitutional entity within the Republic in spite of discussions to divide it into Länder such as obtains in the Federal Republic today, and in spite of the declaration of the Prussian Government of the November (communist) revolution which declared: "The old Prussia, reactionary to its very foundations, should be transformed as rapidly as possible into a fully democratic part of a unitary people's republic." What in fact prevented this being carried out was the fear on the part of the medium-sized German states like Bavaria of being likewise degraded to mere 'provinces' of a unitary German state. It was understood that tribal sentiments were far too strong still for such a course of action. The compromise that was reached was that the states would not be abolished but simply reduced in number.

    Map of the Weimar Republic with the Saarland and Danzig

    Though more unitary than the defunct Second Reich, the existence of separate states did mean strains were put on the Reichstag. It was not, however, Prussia that put strains on the Republic but the truly reactionary states like Bavaria which after 1920, with its monarchist government, found itself not only out of step with Berlin but refused to help the Reich Government in its war against hostile internal elements! The shady behaviour of the Bavarian government is seen in the murky story of the Hitler-putsch of 1923 which refused to take the proper action to disband the nazi party or cooperate with the Prussian-dominated government in Berlin which did. Let this be repeated clearly: had the Bavarians respected the Prussian-dominated central authority in Berlin NAZISM WOULD HAVE BEEN CRUSHED in its infancy. The survival, and subsequent rise, of nazism may therefore be squarely laid at the feet of Bavarian monarchist nationalists and not the Prussian people or the Prussian government. Had Bavaria seceeded from the Weimar Republic, as it wanted to, and pursued an independent course, or in union with Austria, the whole sad tale of nazism might have taken a different and inconsequential course. Bavaria was always - and still continues to be - a hotbed of nazism. Nazism is Bavarian in nature, not Prussian.

    No honest unbiased historian can contest that Prussia became the pillar of the Weimar Republic. It was the most staunchly republican of the Länder where previously it had been regarded as the bulwark of reaction. The parties of the 'Weimar Coalition' (Social Democrats, Zentrum and the Democrats) had always been strong in Prussia even in Imperial days. It was the peculiar three-tier form of government set up by the Prussian aristocracy that gave the illusion that the country was a conservative stronghold. It never was. The first post-war Prussian Prime Minister in 1918 was Paul Hirsch, a Social Democrat and Jew. In 1920, following the Kapp Putsch, another Social Democrat, Otto Braun, was elected Prussian Prime Minister. The Prussian Police, which controlled 60% of Germany, including Berlin, was essential for the stability of the Reich. Indeed, the Braun-Severing régime was known to their opponenents as the "red Czars of Prussia". In the light of these incontestible facts, is it any wonder that the Social Democratic Government of modern Germany in 2001 wanted to honour Prussia and rename the State of Brandenburg as 'Prussia'? Does it, therefore, make any sense that their desires were rejected because they were considered "reactionary"? None whatsoever. All that we witnessed in 2001, and indeed have witnessed since 1945, is the successful propagation of myth and propaganda, created with the sole intent to discredit Prussia's noble past to lend legitimacy to the criminal partition of Prussia at the end of the war, and the murder over one third (three million) of its population east of the Oder-Neisse Line which today forms the eastern border of a mutilated German Federal Republic with Poland.

    How, then, did the propagandists manage to tie Protestant Prussia together with nazism and in the process whitewash the complicity of Catholic Bavaria? By the same methods that the nazis used to blame every woe of the country on the Jews.

    Though the Social Democrats always wanted a unitary German state, and indeed obtained it (minus one third of its territory) after the war, in practice they realised that the Prussian state had virtues which would be obliterated if a unitary government was created. And what were those virtues? The virtues of the Prussian State were, beyond question, clean administration and Protestant Christian social responsibility. Within the fairly narrow limits set by the Weimar Constitution, the Prussian administration had considerable achievements to its credit, particularly in the cities, and traces of this, for example, progressive housing developments, can still be seen in Germany today.

    Flag of Prussia in the Weimar Republic

    It is an undeniable fact that after the disasterous September 1930 elections which catapulted the nazis from being a fringe splinter group to that of second largest party, making Germany even more ungovernable, Prussia became the last bastion of Republican legitimacy. Prussia thus became the object of nazi fury, whipped up in Berlin by Goebells. When machinery was put in motion for a referendum to require the dissolution of the Prussian Landtag, the 'respectable' national opposition made common cause with the nazis, aided and abetted by the Communists who sided with the nazis because of their blind hatred of the Social Democrats (whose voters they regarded as 'theirs'), and nearly achieved their aim.

    Prussia's lonely walk of integrity was therefore undermined by the extreme right and the extreme left. Severe street fighting in Altona in 1932 gave the unholy band of conspirators the pretext they needed to undermine the Republican Prussian Government and create an authoritarian régime led by the Catholic von Papen (who was to become nazi Ambassador in Turkey during the war) who proceeded to debar the Prussian Ministers from their offices, von Papen appointing himself Reich Commissar for Prussia and Göring being installed in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. The illegal subversion of the Prussian Government, with its dominant position in the Reich, thereby paved the way for complete control by the nazis in 1933. The majority of the Prussians themselves were no more responsible for the rise of Hitler than the majority of the Russian people were for putting Lenin into power. The Prussians were not subversive but intensely loyal to integrity and honour.

    You might think in reading this that I am a Social Democrat. I am not that either. But then the hereditary values of Prussia were never really socialist but Christian and conservative. That conservative Christians were willing to serve a Social Democratic régime out of respect for democracy speaks mountains to me of Prussian decency and honour. And that is why I respect them.

    All of this was forcibly crushed between 1944 and 1947 when the Prussian state was disbanded by the Allies and blamed for the war. That this was a gross travesty of justice, designed to conceal the vile war crimes of the Russians, Poles and Czechs which were only marginally 'less' than those of the nazi thugs who destroyed Prussian Democracy and ravaged Europe, is really beyond dispute when the facts are viewed under the spotlight, and the myths, lies, and propaganda are exposed for what they are: the political weapons of mass murderers and thieves.

    If as Christians we believe in justice - as we must, in spite of the ruthless power of political correctness which has been imposed upon us by those same liberals and socialists who were so abused during and after the Weimar period themselves, then we must believe that the Prussian question remains unresolved, forced treaties between Poland and Germany notwithstanding. And I am sure I would find a sympathetic ear amongst the Armenians (the majority of whom live outside Armenia) and the Kurds (who have never had a national homeland of their own at all but are scattered in four countries) who have likewise suffered the most dispicable attrocities against them.

    This is why I am an advocate of Prussia. This is why I believe the Oder-Neisse question is unresolved. It is in Poland's and Russia's best interests to resolve this fairly because if they do not they will continue to be cursed by the demonic powers they have unknowingly invoked in their lust for vengeance and land. Germany - and especially the Prussian scapegoat - paid a terrible price for her crimes and to this day is in many ways still cursed. Her acquisition of East Germany has meant a substantial decline in prosperity because, amongst other things, she has inherited the injustice of the stolen Prussian east. The wound that was East Germany's belongs now to all of Germany ... and to Europe.

    return to articles page


    Created 19.11.2003 | Updated 19.11.2003
    Copyright © 2003-2008 SBSK Preussens Gloria
    Alle Recht vorbehalten - All Rights Reserved