Recreating life in the Kingdom of Prussia from the Year of Revolutions to the foundation of the German Empire.
Further to the previous post, here’s a Lithograph of General Ernst von Pfuel by Johann Kaspar Baum.
Anonymous asked: "Traditionally only members of the royal family, newly-arrived ambassadors, and descendants of General Ernst von Pfuel were allowed to enter through the central archway of the Brandenburg Gate." I second the royal family part, but is there an explanation for von Pfuel?
Yes - Ernst von Pfuel (1779-1866) was a Prussian hero of the so-called “Befreiungskriege” - the wars of independence against Napoleon between 1813 and 1815. He was the commandant of the Prussian sector of Paris after Napoleon’s defeat and helped to ensure the return of the Quadriga to its rightful place on top of the Brandenburg gate, the iconic statue having earlier been plundered by French troops. For this he and his descendants were awarded the right to enter through the central arch.
The Pfuel family had a long tradition of service to the House of Hohenzollern: 21 members served as officers in the armies of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years’ War, and many more held court and ministerial positions down the years. Pfuel himself became Minister President of Prussia for a short while in 1848.
Wilhelm I is named German Kaiser, 18 January 1871
The triumphal ceremony took place in Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.
Bismarck (seen here in the centre, wearing white) was highly worried by the idea that French loyalists might try to sabotage the ceremony, and instructed his secret police - who were then occupied with severing besieged Paris’ connections to the outside world - to secure Versailles beforehand. Bismarck also advised Wilhelm I not to take his preferred title of Kaiser von Deutschland (Emperor of Germany), but to settle for Deutscher Kaiser (German Emperor). A small difference, or so it seems - but the former implied that the Emperor had sovreignty over every small state and would have angered their rulers, whilst the latter title simply stated that he came from Germany.
Painting by Anton von Werner.
Burg Hohenzollern
The Hohenzollerns were the only family ever to reign in Prussia and possessed one of the oldest traceable noble lineages in Europe. Their original castle, from which they derived their name, was Burg Hohenzollern, some way south of modern-day Stuttgart - a long way from the northern part of Germany that was to become the family’s centre of power. By the 18th century the castle had lost strategic importance and fallen into disrepair.
In the 1840s, King Friedrich WIlhelm of Prussia expressed his desire to rebuild his family’s ancestral seat. “The memory of 1819 is tremendously dear to me and like a lovely dream,” he wrote in 1844, “particularly the sunset we watched from one of the castle bulwarks… A youthful dream is become a wish to see the Hohenzollern made inhabitable again.”
Starting in 1850, the king turned his dream into a reality, rebuilding the castle in a new-gothic style as a monument to his family history.
German Emperors and Empresses of the Prussian House of Hohenzollern
Wilhelm I (King of Prussia 1866 - 1888, German Emperor 1871 - 1888) and his wife Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Friedrich Wilhelm III (reigned 99 days in 1888 until his death from laryngeal cancer) and his consort Victoria of Great Britain, eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Wilhelm II (reigned 1888 until his abdication in 1918) and his wife Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
Prussian troops march through the Brandenburg Gate after victory over the Danish armies, 1864.
After the victorious conclusion of the German-Danish War, Prussian troops marched through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on December 7, 1864. It was the first in a series of three victory parades during the “German wars of unification” from 1864 to 1870-1871. Wood engraving after a drawing by Mende, 1864.
Traditionally only members of the royal family, newly-arrived ambassadors, and descendants of General Ernst von Pfuel were allowed to enter through the central archway of the Brandenburg Gate. Either the artist got that detail wrong, or a special dispensation was made in the case of a big parade such as this one. Unfortunately I can’t find any sources to confirm or deny that!
historicity-reblogs made some good points concerning an image I posted recently, which I’m taking the liberty of reposting up here where everyone can read what they have to say:
What a cool pic! It’s so wonderful that visual reminders of the vibrant Prussian Jewish community exist.
Although, really it isn’t all that surprising. The Jewish community has become a semi-accepted community within Prussian culture long before 1869. The mainstream did not necessarily accept them, but it certainly tolerated Jews long before the authorities made such things official.
For example, leading Jewish academics such as Moses Mendelssohn held roles in Prussian communities as early as the late eighteenth century, and in the early years of the nineteenth century, Prussian high society was virtually controlled by a group of elite, educated Jewish women (many of whom ultimately converted to Christianity) such as Rahel Levin.
In the years before WWI, Jews were accepted within Prussian society (and general German society) in waves; there were periods of social and cultural acceptance punctuated by intense periods of anti-Semitism, and one of these intense periods occurred within the 1870’s. Thus, what’s actually interesting about this image is not that Jews were accepted within the Prussian military, but that this image is from the very beginning of that anti-Semitic wave.
Governments passed these laws of religious freedom and toleration not because they necessarily cared about those things, but because they assumed that once granted theoretical legal equality, Jews would no longer need to be Jewish. They expected that Jews would simply continue their assimilation and eventually unilaterally convert to Christianity.
While, especially in the early nineteenth century, many Jews did convert, the ultimate response to toleration and the Enlightenment was the Jewish Reform movement, not mass conversion. While it was the Reform Movement was assimilationist in nature, it was hardly the mass conversation that German authorities has been hoping for. This fact contributed to social anti-Semitism.
It’s always amazing how much history you can learn from Tumblr of all places, and how many well-informed people are on here! Thank you for the corrections and the interesting discussion :)
Negotiations at Nikolsburg (July 26, 1866)
At the armistice negotiations at Nikolsburg – three weeks after the momentous Prussian victory at the Battle of Königgrätz (July 3, 1866) – Prussia’s King Wilhelm I reluctantly agreed that the Austro-Prussian War (German Civil War) of 1866 should be concluded as quickly as possible, before possible intervention from Britain and Russia. France had already made it known that it expected any agreement to preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of the Kingdom of Saxony – a state that had lost over one-half of its territory to the victorious Prussians in the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and joined Austria among the defeated at Königgrätz. Wilhelm’s tortured decision to accede to the French demand was one of the most important aspects of the Nikolsburg accord. Wilhelm found this outcome particuarly difficult to accept because he regarded Saxony’s territorial integration into Prussia as a legitimate war trophy. Bismarck, however, understood that Saxony would play a vital role as Prussia’s junior partner in the North German Confederation. Moreover, Saxony’s valiant military efforts under the generalship of then Crown Prince Albert impressed the Prussians. Both King Johann of Saxony (1801-1873) and his successor King Albert (1828-1902) proved loyal Prussian allies in the North German Confederation and, later, the German Empire. Pictured from left to right are: Count Vincent Benedetti (French ambassador to Prussia); Baron Karl von Werther (Prussian ambassador to France); General Luigi Frederico Menabrea (representing Italy, which was allied with Prussia); Helmuth von Moltke (Chief of the Prussian General Staff); unknown; Bismarck; King Wilhelm I; Count August von Degenfeld-Schonburg (former Austrian minister of war and active general); Count Alois Károlyi (Austrian ambassador to Prussia); and Count Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly (Austrian foreign minister).
Woodcut (c. 1870) after a drawing by Eichler.
Jewish Field Service During the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71)
This fascinating lithograph gives an idea of the large number of Jewish soldiers in the Prussian army and demonstrates the respect shown to their customs on campaign. Both facts are surprising considering that Prussia’s Jews had only been legally emancipated by the Law on Freedom of Religion in 1869, a year before the war began.
Das Eiserne Kreuz (EK) war eine ursprünglich preußische, später deutsche Kriegsauszeichnung, die vom preußischen König Friedrich Wilhelm III. am 10. März 1813 in Breslau für den Verlauf der Befreiungskriege in drei Klassen gestiftet wurde. Formen von 1813 bis 1870 nach Louis Schneider.
William I (Wilhelm I), 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888
King of Prussia 2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888
Emperor of Germany 18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888
Initiated in a joined meeting by the Grand Officers of the three Prussian Grand Lodges on May 22, 1840
Protector of the Grand Lodges of Prussia
An earlier drawing of the Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince’s Palace) as it was before being remodelled for Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (later Friedrich III) in 1856. Prior to this, no royal family member had inhabited the building since 1840.
The Kronprinzenpalais (Palace of the Crown Prince of Prussia) in Berlin. This is where Wilhelm II, the last German Kaiser, was born in January 1859.
Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher (1796 - 1868), theologian and court chaplain at Potsdam from 1853. He attracted criticism from writers such as Goethe and Engels for his opposition to the Rationalist school of thought born out of the Enlightenment.
