Search results
Flags. The Prussian national and merchant flag was originally a simple black-white-black flag issued on May 22, 1818, but this was replaced on March 12, 1823, with a new flag. The revised one (3:5) was parted black, white, and black (1:4:1), showing in the white stripe the eagle with a blue orb bound in gold and a scepter ending in another eagle.
The German Empire (German: Deutsches Reich), also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic.
Flag of Ducal Prussia: 1701–1750 First flag of the Kingdom in Prussia: A black eagle holding a rod and orb on a white field, a crown on top 1701–1935 Civil flag of Prussia A bicolour design – white and black, split horizontally. 1750–1801 Second flag of the Kingdom in Prussia and first flag of the Kingdom of Prussia
- Overview
- Bismarck and the rise of Prussia
German Empire, historical empire founded on January 18, 1871, in the wake of three short, successful wars by the North German state of Prussia. Within a seven-year span, Denmark, the Habsburg monarchy, and France had been vanquished. The empire had its origin not in an upwelling of nationalist feeling from the masses but through traditional cabinet...
The Treaty of Prague concluded the Seven Weeks’ War with Austria and other German states on August 23, 1866, and cleared the way for a settlement both in Prussia and in the wider affairs of Germany. The Schleswig-Holstein question, which had threatened the balance of power in northern Europe for more than a decade, took on a new dimension with the cession of Schleswig and Holstein to Prussia. The Prussian parliament had been dissolved at the beginning of the war, and new elections were held on the day of the Battle of Königgrätz (July 3, 1866). The liberals in the parliament had a reduced majority, and they were now split in their attitude to Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck; his success had shaken their liberal principles. The moderates broke away from the Progressives (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei) to form the National Liberal Party, a party in which liberalism was subordinated to nationalism. Bismarck, on his side, made a conciliatory gesture by asking for an act of indemnity for the unconstitutional collection of taxes since the beginning of the parliamentary struggle with Prussian King William I in 1862. This act was passed on September 3, 1866, by a vote of 230 to 75.
It was a decisive step in German history. The Prussian liberals, hitherto genuine opponents of Bismarck, dropped their insistence on parliamentary sovereignty in exchange for the prospect of German unity and for an assurance that united Germany would be administered in a “liberal” spirit. Instead of a struggle for power, there was henceforth compromise. The capitalist middle classes ceased to demand control of the state, and the crown and the Junker governing class conducted the state in a way which suited middle-class needs and outlook. Since the middle classes ceased to be liberals, the Prussian Junkers became “Germans.” Neither side kept its bargain fully, and there were renewed alarms of constitutional struggle throughout the period of the empire. However, the decision of September 3, 1866, was not undone, and Germany did not become a constitutional monarchy.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The shield was surrounded by the "Kette des Schwarzen Adler Ordens" (chain of the black eagle order). Each of the four corners of the standard was equipped with two Prussian eagles and two Emperor´s crowns. Second Emperor´s Standard. October 15, 1871 - December 6, 1888. Soon there arose protest against this design.
Flags of Imperial Germany (Second Reich) 1871-1918. In 1862, a financial crisis arose in the Kingdom of Prussia, when the Diet refused to authorize funding for a proposed re-organization of the army by King William I (Wilhelm I).
Silesia. Prussia, in European history, any of certain areas of eastern and central Europe, respectively (1) the land of the Prussians on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, which came under Polish and German rule in the Middle Ages, (2) the kingdom ruled from 1701 by the German Hohenzollern dynasty, including Prussia and Brandenburg, with ...
