Introduction: Prussia, which was thoroughly liquidated. (The full text is about 8,000 words, expounding almost all aspects of Prussia, be patient)
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said that Prussia is the source of all evil.
This undoubtedly represents the sensory cognition of Prussia by countless people in Europe, and the evaluation of Prussia makes Russia ashamed of itself.
Why? In addition to the successive wars instigated by World War I and World War II, it may also be related to Prussia's past and toughness.
A person who is not strong enough cannot attract attention, jealousy, or even dislike.
The same is true of a strong country, when you surpass a number of countries, you will often become the target of the crowd.
After World War II, Prussia and the mighty Germany suffered a complete reckoning.
Churchill was only lip service and had no strength, the Soviet Union was different, and when they marched into Germany, they went with orders. The most important part of this order was the complete liquidation of Prussia, making this german land of dragons a historical imprint.
Thus the nobles of Prussia suffered, their ancestral graves were gone, the ancient manors were also suffering, their inheritance was gone.
After doing all this, the Soviets were still not satisfied.
After the war, they adopted a treaty that made Königsberg, the birthplace of Prussia, the territory of the Soviet Union, which is today Kaliningrad.
(Former Königsberg)
After all this, the Soviet Union was still not satisfied, and in 1947 it announced with the Western world that prussia would be completely destroyed and would never be recognized in the future.
Since then, Prussia, once known as a military country and a world-famous repute, has become a thing of the past.
So what was the historical Prussia like? Where did they come from? Why is it so powerful? How does Germany view Prussia?
With questions in mind, we continue to look at the legend of a nation and the story of a country that once trembled the world.
(Prussian Army)
One: The unpopular Prussia still affects Germany today.
German unification was completed in 1871 by Prussia, one of the most powerful states of the Holy Roman Empire, after three dynastic wars.
Part of the reason is that in the territory of the former Shinra, there were two of the most powerful states, Austria and Prussia.
If history has an analogy, there are similarities between China in the Spring and Autumn period and the warring states period and the fragmented Shenluo.
The theme of the Chinese landlords in the Spring and Autumn Period was the Struggle for Hegemony between Jin and Chu, and the Warring States Period was the Dispute of the Seven Heroes that ended in Qin.
(Geographical Concept of the Shinra Period)
Based on this, I am looking at the many kingdoms of Shinra.
Prussia is equivalent to the State of Chu, which has long fought with the State of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Qin when the Warring States Period finally unified the world, and Austria has great similarities with the State of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period and the State of Chu in the Warring States Period.
Why this is so, the answer is also very simple, Prussia has always been the biggest feature is the combat strength of the bravery.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Chu destroyed countless countries and fought against the State of Jin, and during the Warring States period, the State of Qin was even more courageous, which can be called the peak of classical militarism.
In contrast, the Jin state in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Chu state in the Warring States era are very similar to Austria, both are feudal systems, both are associated countries, although huge, but constantly have internal worries.
The habsburg tradition of marriage made the country seem large and not cohesive enough, and the united kingdom made of women was constrained by the lack of multi-ethnic centripetal force, and finally lost the battle with Prussia.
Austria's Greater German solution became a thing of the past, and Prussia's Lesser German solution gave birth to Germany.
After such a comparison, it can be seen that although the historical origins of the East and the West are different, there are many times coincidental similarities.
And this, let Prussia lead the unification of Germany, has a fatal drawback, internal disharmony.
(Qin and the world)
The root cause of this disharmony, see the unification of the six kingdoms of the Qin State, you can understand, which country that was annexed by the Qin State does not deeply hate the Qin State?
In the same way, Prussia defeated the roadblocks of unification with foreign wars, and integrated Germany in a relatively peaceful way, but there was still injustice in relative peace, and there was no doubt that the German Empire was an enlarged Prussian principality.
Because the kings of Prussia were German emperors, and the prime minister of the kingdom was also the prime minister of the empire most of the time.
It can be seen that people in other non-Prussian regions of Germany probably have this attitude when they see Prussia.
What is Prussia in their opinion? In short: militarism.
At this point, an old World War I documentary "They Are No Longer Getting Old" is clearly interpreted.
In this work, countless British captive veterans recall the First World War and once said that many German soldiers were not bad and very friendly.
Then, they further added that the Bavarians and Saxons were the most polite and civilized, and finally did not forget to say, maybe this group of people is similar to the British blood?
The implication of this is that prussians are unfriendly people.
Subsequently, they also said that many Bavarians and Saxons did not like prussians, and they even complained to the British that the Prussians were a bunch of cruel bastards.
This is the attitude of countless non-Prussian Germans to prussians after Prussia was enlarged into Germany.
The cause of all this is also related to inequality, Prussia is Germany's richest and most powerful state, whether it is economic indicators, industrial indicators, military strength, or the standard of living of the population, Prussia is ahead of other states.
The richer the Prussians, the more confident they are, and then they have a little bit of contempt for people?
How can other Germans like such people?
(Germany remains Prussia first)
In that era when the feudal remnants still existed, the difference in the regions that once belonged to the various states would undoubtedly amplify the contradictions.
Although Prussia no longer exists today, the countless national characters in Germany still originate from the Prussian spirit.
For no other reason, Germany was once only a regional concept, and if it were not for the emergence of Prussia, how would the German nation come from?
The loose Shenluo was not the birthplace of today's Germany, but Prussia magnified the connotation of Germany.
This connotation influence is similar to the influence of the original Qin state on Chinese civilization.
The rise of the concept of great unification, the establishment of the bureaucracy, the perfection of the political system, the emergence of the nation-state.
The influence of the Qin Empire in Chinese civilization was not lost after Prussia established Germany.
Does the countless praises in the bones of today's Germans, such as punctuality, efficiency, responsibility, organization, and discipline, look very similar to the army?
So where did they come from? The answer is Prussia, the land of armies.
This is evidence that Prussia still influenced Germany, a fine tradition that came from the first unified empire that had left them unseemly.
(Teutonic Knights)
Two: The origin of the Prussian spirit?
What is Prussia? If history is traced, it goes back to a feudal military organization of a religious nature: the Teutonic Knights.
As a religious military organization, the Teutonic Knights are renowned!
Once upon a time, in obedience to the call of the Church of Rome, a group of knights spontaneously formed a military organization that shared the glory of the Lord, transformed the pagans, and fought for territory and territory.
The Teutonic Knights traveled all the way east from Europe, and by chance, they were invited into the Königsberg area, built their own castle, and then grew step by step, becoming a military state with an area of 170,000 square kilometers and a population of one million.
They use faith as a link and an army as their support, and they are already a force to be reckoned with in Europe, where princes are numerous.
The European Reformation followed, and The Protestantism advocated by Martin Luther attracted the Teutonic Knights.
After a baptism of the Reformation, Prussia became a Protestant state and a bridgehead for Protestantism in northeast Europe, and Königsberg became the first base of Protestantism in northeast Europe.
(Teutonic Knights in their heyday)
The organization of the army, the Protestant faith, and the presence in the northeastern European region made prussia's spiritual core begin to manifest.
This spiritual core is embodied in three aspects.
First of all: highly militarized, of course.
A country in which the Knights evolved was to survive and develop in an era of European princes, and discipline, organization, and martial arts were the foundations of their founding.
Second: of course, a Protestant feature.
What this feature is, look at the light of subsequent science and technology to understand, that is, rational, pure, secular, piety and effort, there are many words of praise, because the Protestantism at the time of its birth was indeed very pure, and this praise is only for believers.
Finally: the Slavicization of Prussia.
In the process of Prussia's continuous eastward development, it gradually moved away from the center of European Christian civilization in Rome and approached the Slavic territory of Eastern Europe, and in the long war, the brutality, obedience and tenacity in the bones of the Slavs also deeply affected Prussia.
When this triple spiritual core was injected into Prussia, a kingdom of difference was born.
He is both traditional and non-traditional, both secular and unworldly, wise and wild, both restrained and bold.
The Prussian spirit, like the poles of human nature, is full of variability.
In this regard, the famous King frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) is a representative figure.
Versatile, he has made great achievements in politics, economics, philosophy, law, music and other aspects, and can be called the emperor of literature and art.
In addition, he also has a sad and compassionate temperament.
He said that he was the first public servant of the country, and that in his country everyone was equal.
But on the other hand, he focused on the development of military expansion of territory, and fought countless wars and killed countless people in his life!
This alternative and unique national character often exposes Prussia, which is different from most countries, to criticism and discrimination.
Subsequently, the three differences in Prussia made this criticism and discrimination the source of all evil in Churchill's mouth.
Three: The Logic of the Rise of Europe and the Prussian Anomaly.
Modern Europe is an era of strong rise, why Europe can take the lead in rising at this key node, and then achieve world hegemony. From the most critical three things, Europe has done it right!
First of all, Europe used religious revolution to reform the decaying Catholic Church, which in turn gave birth to the Renaissance and untied the shackles of thought.
Secondly: after the Renaissance, Europe ushered in rationalism, limited by the needs of productivity and plunder, so that countless people began to explore science and geography, after a round of exploration and discovery, the light of science and technology and the age of great navigation, geographical discovery appeared in turn.
Finally: the great geographical discovery and the light of science and technology have made the already emerging capitalism more vigorous, and the demands of capital and the great discovery of geography have allowed Europe to enter the era of expansion from the inner volume of internal plunder to the era of external plunder.
(Geographical Discovery)
The rise of these three things has allowed Europe to lead the world.
This is the path of the rise of European countries, but although this path affected Prussia, it was not the root cause of prussia's rapid rise.
Because of prussia's particularity and geography, his rise is unusual compared with other European countries.
There are also three causes of this unusual path.
The first is the bureaucracy, the second is militarism, and the third is leading military innovation and change.
(Unusual Prussia)
Four: Prussia's distinctive, bureaucratic modern state.
The sign of national maturity begins with a sound bureaucracy.
In this regard, China is undoubtedly a thousand years ahead of Europe, when the Qin Empire established a unified empire, for the needs of centralized power, through the establishment of the county system, as well as the setting of grass-roots administrative organs, supplemented by the system of easy access, so that the bureaucratic class can penetrate into every corner of the empire, control and influence everyone, and then grasp enough taxes, forming a transcendent mobilization force.
At this point, Europe is undoubtedly lagging behind!
The most famous practitioner in Europe is Louis XIV, the Sun King of France. At the time of the unification and centralization of Louis XIV Lane, there was also a man in Prussia who, almost at the same time, also completed the militaristic centralization of Prussia!
This man was Friedrich Wilhelm, the founder of the Brandenburg-Prussian state.
A religious revolution, triggered by the 30-year war, made Germany the main battlefield, taking turns to fight, and countless foreign armies clashed, so that the people of the German region were not happy, and Brandenburg-Prussia, which insisted on the barrier in the war, still suffered a lot of losses.
(Friedrich Wilhelm)
The numerous princes and fierce competition on the European continent worried fried friedrich Wilhelm.
For the survival of Prussia, the standing army has become the most powerful guarantee of national security, but to feed the standing army, there must be sufficient taxes and sufficient mobilization.
So the question was put on friedrich Wilhelm's desk, creating a bureaucratic system that could collect taxes and exert its mobilizing power.
Based on this, Prussia underwent a far-reaching bureaucratic reform, followed by a professional and efficient bureaucracy.
This is the origin of the efficient organization of the state in Germany today, a bureaucracy that was facilitated by military necessity.
Only if we are efficient and professional enough can we survive and develop in a competitive Europe, and can we have the possibility of concentrating on doing great things.
This logic is well understood!
When the external threat is too heavy, it is necessary to reorganize the armament war, when the armament war is needed, it is necessary to pay taxes and resources, and when it needs taxes and resources, it is necessary to improve the bureaucratic system and reorganize the national governance model!
(Qin Shi Huang)
Based on need, Friedrich Wilhelm became the first emperor of Germany!
Under his leadership, Prussia began to set up official positions, build canals, reclaim farmland, build a national transportation system, unify currency and weights and measures, promote agricultural development, ensure the transmission of information, improve the state structure, and strengthen the military composition.
A vigorous bureaucratization and organizational reform gave Prussia an efficient, professional, and systematic bureaucracy.
In this matter, the state is the promoter, the organizer, and the protector.
To promote all this, to organize all this, is to better protect the safety of Prussia and the safety of the people.
For such reasons, the people not only do not oppose, but are very supportive.
Finally, a centralized, government-driven modern state of Prussia was born.
The subsequent unification of Germany by Prussia was nothing more than a reproduction of this Prussian logic to all regions of Germany.
As the starting point for all these demands, the army became the symbol of Prussia, because it was the ultimate demand for state reform.
Based on this demand, there is another label of Prussia, militarized country.
(Army is the state)
Five: Prussian label, militarized.
There is a famous saying that expounds the prussian state character: other countries have an army, but Prussia is an army with a country.
There are many opinions about who said this, some said Voltaire, some said the Count of Mirabeau, but who said it does not matter, because this is the true portrayal of Prussia.
As the only country in Europe where there have been no coups or revolutions, it is enough to study Prussia and understand this sentence.
What is the root cause of a country's stability? Either the country is rich and the people are comfortable, or the army is the pillar of the country and cannot cause great chaos.
What is peculiar about Prussia is that his army is both a pillar of the state and a staunch conservative behind the state.
Why? The other identity of the King of Prussia, the commander of the army, is enough to explain all this.
When Friedrich Wilhelm built the bureaucracy based on the needs of the country's standing army, the successive Frederick I and II (Frederick the Great) carried forward this tradition, thus making the army the most special existence and staunch supporter of the state.
(Soldier King Frederick the Great)
Because the army and the officers in this army, along with the king, are the largest vested interest group in the country.
The ferocity of the Thirty Years' War and the strategic geography of prussia's four-world war made the army the key to protecting the country.
The formation of a strong army is the national consensus of Prussia, and the unprecedented elevation of the status of the army, who will command the army, has become the top priority of the stability of the country, so there is a unique composition of the Prussian army!
In this composition, the army is commanded by the king and commanded by a large number of great nobles!
The great nobles became military officers and subordinates of the monarch, filled the army, and also attracted countless nobles to the army, thus achieving the prestige of the Feng surname (Junker landlord class), and the Prussian army and the nobles formed an inseparable bond, and together with the king, they became the most unshakable vested interests in the country.
The first military policy was the basic state policy of Prussia, and it also became the path dependence of Prussia and Germany.
Under this path dependence, in order for the country to be stable, the king must set an example in the army.
Thus, the strange tradition of soldier kings emerged, which in turn made the legend of the latecomers.
The starting point of this legend is the founder of the Kingdom of Prussia: Friedrich Wilhelm.
Friedrich Wilhelm was a man who knew that money should be spent on a knife's edge, and that blade was really a knife's edge.
He was known for being miserly in everything, and being a dime was characteristic, and even his mother said, how can this miserly be king? But this miserly ghost was very generous with only one thing, and that was his own blade army.
He could personally review the national financial report to see where the money went, but he was very arrogant about the various expenses of the army.
Under his rule, the national standing army increased from 38,000 to 80,000 people.
In short, Prussia, with the 13th largest population among The European princes, had the largest five armies.
(Prussia in the Age of Small Nations)
Small countries and large armies must deform their financial situation, and most of the financial resources are spent on the army, and the proportion is more than 80% when the most exaggerated time is more than 80%.
In this regard, the military state is not exaggerated at all, because the money is spent on the army.
With such financial support, the army became the best existence of the state, the state gave support, the soldiers were motivated, and Friedrich Wilhelm was undoubtedly a friend of the soldiers.
This atmospheric method of giving money became a tradition, and only then did the results of the subsequent frederick I and II eras, and the Prussian army became the strongest army in Europe through continuous military training and tactical training.
Friedrich Wilhelm also injected nationalist thinking into the army, changing the army's faith from fighting for the king to fighting for the country.
The state and the king are inseparable, and the king and the army are inseparable, which makes the Prussian army's combat effectiveness explode.
(Seven Years' War Situation Map)
How strong are they? Look at the results and you will understand!
During the Seven Years' War, Prussia and Britain allied themselves on the European continent to fight against France, Russia, and Austria. At that time, Prussia was only a small country with a population of 5 million, but it still fought back and forth with the three major powers, and it did not admit it to the end.
How did all this come about? In addition to the wise and divine weapons of Frederick the Great, who personally came to the battlefield, a strong army is also the key!
Later Prussia, relying on the strength of this army, continued to develop in a small but strong posture in a powerful Europe, until it met Napoleon.
In the Battle of Jena in 1806, the Prussian army met the reformed Napoleonic army, the Prussian army was defeated, suffered the worst defeat, after the war the territory was divided by nearly half, not to mention the army was forcibly disarmed to 42,000, but also to compensate 120 million francs.
Although Napoleon was victorious, he was still worried, and treated Prussia with the most severe punishment, which showed that Prussia threatened Napoleon.
Soon after, in 1813-1814, Prussia turned over!
Frederick William III led Prussia into the Sixth Coalition, and with his battlefield performance, in the subsequent Vienna System, Prussia, the smallest country, became the five great powers alongside Austria, France, Britain, and Russia.
In the following years, the Prussian army did not change its iron-blooded nature, three dynastic wars, successive victories, the German army in World War I and World War II was the world of Prussian officer corps, their achievements needless to say, although the success of the defeat, but still called a miracle.
The humiliation of France twice in succession has made France suffer from the scourge of humiliation.
Militarized the country, Prussia deserved it.
(Europe of the Vienna System)
Sixth: The Prussian army and the country have strong roots, never stopping to innovate.
The Prussian army and the subsequent German army were the vanguard of military reform in European countries.
For example, in world war I, the German army used special warfare methods, the performance of the Storm Commando in the Battle of the Emperor, shocking the European continent, multi-weapon and multi-tactical cooperation tactics, making the opposite British and French coalition forces bitter.
For example, during World War II, the German army creatively invented blitzkrieg, rolling attack, key breakthrough, mechanized charge, three-dimensional attack, so that the French who held their positions quickly perished, and the Soviet army was captured by millions of people.
This is Prussia, a military nation that is constantly innovating, and what is even more amazing is that they all innovate from the top down.
Why is it amazing to be from the bottom up? The answer is simple: military reforms in countries such as Britain, the United States, and France are forced from the bottom up.
Prussian and German characteristics are led by the state and the army and actively promoted.
After each war, the Prussian or German army would learn enough from the battle to make up for its shortcomings.
For example, after the fiasco with Napoleon in Jena, this was the case!
(Napoleon and the French)
In their post-war summary, they analyzed that this fiasco was not weak in themselves, but stronger in their opponents, and this kind of toughness was the structural strength of the army and the strength of the military composition.
At that time, the Prussian army, relying on excellent discipline and organization, could play the "line shooting" tactic to the extreme.
But Napoleon's tactics were different from those of Prussia's former opponents, with artillery bombardment, cavalry charging, and finally infantry packing.
This was Napoleon's usual tactic.
Napoleon, the king of artillery, played with artillery so much that artillery could determine the outcome of the war, and the densely charged Prussian army of course suffered heavy casualties. Moreover, the division-level units created by Napoleon inspired the Prussian army that insisted on small military units.
The deployment of troops from division to division is undoubtedly conducive to mobilization, but it is a military unit that is too small, increasing the command burden.
Advanced tactics, flexible strategy, and reasonable composition, abandoning the "line up and shooting" tactics in favor of flexible horizontal, column, and scattered tactics. This is the key to the French army, even if it is not long-trained, it is not professional enough to win the Prussian army.
After seeing the gap clearly, the Prussian army immediately carried out reforms under the leadership of the king and the instigation of the officers.
Set up a unified War Department, set up military schools to teach tactics, and learn the tactical command of Napoleon's army.
After several years of military reform, at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Napoleon helplessly shouted in the face of the reformed Prussian army: These animals have learned something, and then Napoleon is tragic!
(Decisive Battle of Leipzig)
In fact, the Prussian army not only learned Napoleon's tactical ideas and army composition, but also innovated.
This innovation was later acclaimed as the staff command staff.
When the scale of the war becomes larger and larger, the main general is not strong enough to control more than one hundred thousand or even millions of troops, which requires the help of the general staff and the staff corps.
In this regard, the French army in the Battle of Leipzig was a case of failure!
Napoleon, who had excellent command ability, was still unable to command the French army of 180,000, and nearly half of the troops were still not properly arranged.
Countless red dot strategic maps, napoleon is dizzy, want to arrange can not arrange ah?
Only a specialized military staff committee of the General Staff can cope with such a large army and intricate battlefield changes.
The rise of the General Staff and the Staff Corps was the first initiative of Prussia, the practice of advanced military ideas, and the key to Germany's longitudinal and horizontal struggle in World War I and World War II.
The continuous tempering of the flames of war and the innovation and change from top to bottom are the root causes of the strong combat effectiveness of the Prussian army. Keeping up with the times is never just talking.
(Kaiser and Chief of Staff during World War I)
Seven: The source of Prussia's hatred.
Above, I have spoken in the shortest possible terms about prussia's past and present lives, the spiritual core, the national characteristics, and the military characteristics.
After reading all this, you may be able to understand why Prussia is so hated!
The reason is not him, Prussia is different enough, his development path is different from countless countries in Europe and it is particularly extreme!
The difference was extreme, and Prussia was cursed.
Quite simply, how can a country that maintains a large army all year round and whose military expenditure is exaggerated can be measured by a normal mentality?
What is the impression of a country where all its institutions serve the military?
In addition to this, there is another reason that has made countless countries in Europe tremble.
That is, the efficiency, organization, discipline, specialization, and thus the extended combat effectiveness of Prussia and Germany, which made all the European countries, as Germany's opponents, dare not slacken off in the slightest.
Laziness is human nature, an opponent like this appears, do you dare to be lazy?
The history of alternative rise, the composition of paranoid countries, and the strong military strength make Germany like a powerful engine in the heart of The European continent, leading countless European countries to beat with their own pulses in an alternative way.
Such a country, like a first-class student who ignores it, constantly tries to look back at the scum behind him with a defiant look, and says contemptuously: Don't blame me for hitting you if you don't keep up?
(German scenery today)
Epilogue: Prussia's influence on present-day Germany.
A country's past is the product of a collection of historical experience, and a country's disposition is also the result of historical accumulation.
What is the so-called national nature? Probably the essence of historical precipitation.
For today's Germany, prussia is the slightly heavier past.
The prussian military priority of the past was a burden, and the impulse to rearm Germany today would alarm all countries. When East and West Germany merged, they encountered a lot of resistance, and if It were not for Germany's promise of eternal peace and no further war, there might have been no possibility of reunification.
Today's world is a peaceful world, and Germany has changed from a world power that once crisscrossed the world to a European economic engine!
Abandoning its military traditions, Germany practiced its national character and Prussian spirit in another way.
They have used rigor, rationality and organization in the manufacturing industry and have achieved the world's famous manufacturing power.
To put it another way, the Prussian spirit still continues in Germany, but with less force.
The fat house German army has become a network terrier, as for what will happen in the future? Who knows!