How a remote Baltic province became the cradle of the Prussian state

History · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: East Prussia was once a monastic state, a Polish fief, and the heart of a kingdom that unified Germany. From its medieval origins under the Teutonic Knights to its eventual division after World War II, this region’s complex history reflects the shifting borders and identities of Central Europe.

The region’s history began in the 13th century when the Teutonic Knights conquered the native Prussians during the Northern Crusades. By 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the territory, establishing the Duchy of Prussia as a vassal of the Polish Crown. Sovereignty was finally achieved in 1660 under Elector Frederick William, who leveraged the Swedish invasion of Poland to revoke Polish authority. By 1701, his successor Frederick III crowned himself King in Prussia, marking the rise of the Hohenzollern dynasty.

The province’s demographics and borders were constantly reshaped. In 1709–1711, a devastating plague and famine claimed roughly one-third of the population, including the last speakers of the Old Prussian language. Subsequent rulers, such as Frederick William I, actively promoted German colonization while restricting the settlement of Poles and Jews. By 1772, the First Partition of Poland allowed Frederick the Great to connect his Prussian lands, formally designating the region as the Province of East Prussia in 1773.

The 19th and 20th centuries brought further upheaval. Following the defeat of the Royal Prussian Army in 1806, Napoleon occupied the region, forcing the king to flee to Memel. Later, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 turned East Prussia into an exclave of the Weimar Republic, separated by the Polish Corridor. The province’s end came in 1945; following Nazi Germany's defeat, the territory was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland. The capital, Königsberg, was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946, and the native population was largely expelled or lost to the ravages of war, famine, and disease.

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