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The former House of Representatives of the Prussian Landtag, now serving the Berlin state House of Representatives.

The Prussian estates (Template:Lang-de, Template:Lang-pl) were representative bodies of Prussia, first created by the Monastic state of Teutonic Prussia in the 14th century (around 1370s)[1] but later becoming a devolved legislature for Royal Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland. They were at first composed of officials of six big cities of the region; Braunsberg (Braniewo), Culm (Chełmno), Elbing (Elbląg), Danzig (Gdańsk), Königsberg (Królewiec) and Thorn (Toruń).[1] Later, representatives of other towns as well as nobility were also included.[1][2] The estates met on average four times per year, and discussed issues such as commerce and foreign relations.[1][2]

Era of Teutonic Prussia

Originally, the Teutonic Order created the Estate to appease the local citizens, but over time the relations between the Order and the Estates grew strained, as the Order of knights treated the local population with contempt.[1][3]

Different Prussian holders of the privilege of coinage (among them the Order and some cities), actually committed to issue a Prussian currency of standardised quality, had debased the coins and expanded their circulation in order to finance the wars between Poland and Teutonic Prussia. However, this expansion disturbed the equilibrium of coins circulated to the volume of contractual obligations, only coming down to a harsh depreciation of all existing nominally fixed contractual obligations by inflating all other non-fixed prices measured by these coins, ending only once the purchasing power of every extra issued coin equalled its material and production costs.[4][5]

"Obligations would be retroactively changed if new coins, too plentifully issued, would be counted as equal to the old ones (1526, lines 307-310[6])."[7] Thus a law was "passed by the Diet of Teutonic Prussia in 1418 (cf. Max Toeppen, 1878, 320seqq.[8]), smartly regulating the fulfilment of old debts fixed in old currency by adding an agio when repaid by new coins."[9][10] Thus creditors and recipients of nominally fixed revenues were not to lose by debasement-induced inflation.

As Prussia became increasingly tied economically and politically with Poland, and the wars became more and more devastating to the borderlands, and as the policies and attitude of the King of Poland were more liberal towards the Prussian burghers and nobility than that of the Order, the rift between the Teutonic Knights and their subjects widened.

The Estates drifted towards the Kingdom of Poland in their political alignment.[1][2] Norman Housley noted that "The alienation of the Prussian Estates represented a massive political failure on the part of the Order".[3]

At first, the estates opposed the Order passively, by denying requests for additional taxes and support in Order wars with Poland; by 1440s Prussian estates acted openly in defiance of the Teutonic Order, rebelling against the knights and siding with Poland militarily (see Lizard Union, Prussian Confederation and the Thirteen Years' War).[1][2]

Era of Ducal and Royal Prussia within Poland and Poland-Lithuania

The estates eventually became governed by Kingdom of Poland. First the western part of Prussia, which became known as Royal Prussia after the Second Peace of Thorn ended the Thirteen Years' War in 1466, and later the eastern lands, known as Ducal Prussia, after the Prussian Homage in 1525, became part of the kingdom.[2][3][11] On 10 December 1525 at their session in Königsberg the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order.[12]

Nicolaus Copernicus, then canon of the Prince-Bishopric of Ermeland, addressed the Prussian estates with three memoranda, in fact little essays,[13] on currency reform.[14] Debasements continued to ruin Prussian finances, the groat had been debased by 1/5 to 1/6 of its prior bullion content. In 1517, 1519 and again in 1526 he suggested to return to the law passed in 1418.[15] However, especially the cities refused that. They had raised most of the funds for the warfares, and now lightened their debt burden by debasing their coins, thus passing on part of the burden to receivers of nominally fixed revenues, such as civic and ecclesiastical creditors and civic, feudal and ecclesiastical collectors of nominally fixed monetarised dues. So Copernicus' effort failed. At least the estates refused to peg the Prussian currency to the Polish (as proposed by Ludwig Dietz), which even suffered a worse debasement than the Prussian.[16]

Under Polish sovereignty, Prussians, particularly those from the Royal Prussia, saw their liberties confirmed and expanded; local cities prospered economically (Gdańsk become the largest and richest city in the Commonwealth), and local nobility participated in the benefits of Golden Liberty, such as the right to elect the king.[2] Royal Prussia, as a direct part of the Kingdom of Poland (and later Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had more influence on Polish politics and more privileges than Ducal Prussia, which remained a fief (for example, while nobles from the Royal Prussia had their own sejmiks, Sejm and Senate representatives, those from the Duchy did not. Royal Prussia also had its own parliament, the Prussian Landesrat, although it was partially incorporated into the Commonwealth Sejm after the Union of Lublin, it retained distinct features of Royal Prussia.[2]

Era of the Kingdom of Prussia

With the power of the Commonwealth waning from mid-17th century onwards the Estates drifted under the influence of the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg, ruling Ducal Prussia in personal union since 1618 (first the eastern Duchy of Prussia, sovereign after the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657 and upgraded to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, then the western Royal Prussia, annexed to the former after the First Partition of Poland in 1772). Under the Hohenzollern's absolutist rule the power of the estates would be increasingly limited.[11][17][18]

The West and East Prussian estates, separately, the latter gathering after 1772 representatives of newly formed East Prussia, comprising the former Duchy of Prussia and the parts of former Royal Prussia west of the Vistula, played again a role in the transformation from feudal traditional agriculture to agricultural business. The Silesian Wars had imposed high taxes so that many Prussian tax-payers went into debts. Feudal manor estates were no free property sellable at the will of their holders or – in case of over-indebtedness – by way of execution prompted by the creditors of the holders. So it was difficult for the holders of feudal manor estates to borrow against their estates. Therefore in 1787 the West Prussian estates, and the year after the East Prussian estates, took on the task to form each a credit corporation called the Westpreussische Landschaft and the Ostpreussische Landschaft, respectively.[19]

Members of the estates, then by status mostly noble landed manor holders, and the circle of potential debtors were literally the same. In order to overcome the restrictions on selling manor estates to fulfill outstanding debts the manor estate holders formed a corporation of mutually liable debtors. So solvent manor estate holders had to step in for over-indebted borrowers, thus transforming the manor estate holders into a corporation of collective liability. Coming up for over-indebted borrowers imposed hardship for the solvent manor estate holders. This strengthened many one's opinion and even aroused appeals to abolish the feudal system of manor estate holding, while others demanded the re-establishment of pure feudalism without borrowing at all.

In the Napoleonic era the East Prussian estates gained some political influence again. King Frederick William III of Prussia needed to raise funds in order to pay the enormous French war contributions of thaler 140 million imposed after Prussia's defeat, and making up about an annual pre-war budget of the government.[20] In 1807 the East Prussian Estates made a political bargain on accepting the king as a member within their credit corporation with his royal East Prussian demesnes, to be encumbered as security for the Pfandbriefe to be issued in his favour, which he was to sell to investors, thus raising credit funds.

In return the estates reached a wider representation of further parts of the population by integrating the East Prussian free peasants, called Kölmer (holders of free estates according to Culm law) and forming a considerable group only in former Teutonic Prussia holding about a sixth of the arable East Prussian land, and non-noble manor estate holders, which had meanwhile acquired 10% of the feudal land mostly by eventual, but complicated and – subject to government authorisation – purchases of manor estates from over-indebted noble landlords.[21] With representation in the estates they were also entitled to eventually raise credits, obliged to liability for credits of others, but simultaneously gained a say in the estates assembly.

On 9 October 1807 the Prussian Reform minister Heinrich vom und zum Stein prompted the king to decree the October Edict (Edict concerning the relieved possession and the free usage of real estate [landed property] as well as the personal relations of the rural population) which generally transformed all kind of landholdings into free allodial property.[22] This act enormously increased the amount of alienable real estate in Prussia apt to be pledged as security for credits, needed so much to pay the higher taxes in order to finance Napoléon's warfare through the compulsory war contributions to France. Serfdom was thus also abolished.[23] Most remaining legal differences between the estates (classes) were abolished in 1810, when almost all Prussian subjects – former feudal lords, serfs, burghers (city dwellers), free peasants, Huguenots etc., turned into citizens of Prussia, finally including also the last excepted group of the Jews in 1812.[22]

Yorck addressing the East Prussian Estates on 5 February 1813. History painting of 1888 by Otto Brausewetter.

When in 1813 the defeated and intimidated king, forced into a coalition with France since 1812,[24] refrained to take his chance to shake off the French supremacy in the wake of Napoleon's defeats in Russia, the East Prussian estates stole a march on the king. On 23 January Count Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten, president of the estates assembly, called its members for 5 February 1813.[25]

After debating the appeal of Ludwig Yorck, illoyal and – therefore by Berlin – outlawed general of the Prussian corps within Napoléon's army, to form a liberation army, which was widely agreed.[25] On February 7 the East Prussian estates unanimously voted for financing, recruiting and equipping a militia army (Landwehr) of 20,000 men, plus 10,000 in reserve, out of their funds following a proposal designed by Yorck, Clausewitz and Stein. The hesitant king could not stop this anymore, but only approve it on March 17.[24]

However, this civic act of initiating Prussia's participation in the liberation wars was not thanked by the monarch, who again and again protracted his promise to introduce a parliament of genuine legislative competence for all the monarchy. Only in the wake of the Revolutions of 1848 Prussia received its first constitution providing for the Prussian Landtag as the parliament of the kingdom. It consisted of two chambers, the Herrenhaus (Prussian House of Lords) and the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives).

In 1899, the Prussian Landtag moved into a new building consisting of a complex of two structures, one for the House of Lords (now used by the Bundesrat) in Leipziger Straße and one for the House of Representatives in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, today's Niederkirchnerstraße.

The House of Lords was reorganised and renamed into the Staatsrat (state council) of the Free State of Prussia after the abolition of the monarchy. Its members were representatives of the Provinces of Prussia. Konrad Adenauer used to be its long serving president.

Since 1993 the former House of Representatives is the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (House of Representatives of Berlin), and similar to the Reichstag, among Berliners it is still sometimes referred to colloquially as Preußischer Landtag.

See also

References

  • Acten der Ständetage Preussens unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens: 5 vols., Max Pollux Toeppen (ed.), Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1874–1886; reprint Aalen: Scientia, 1968–1974. ISBN 3-511-02940-6.
  • Die preussischen Landtage während der Regentschaft des Markgrafen Georg Friedrich von Ansbach: nach den Landtagsakten dargestellt, Max Pollux Toeppen (ed.), Allenstein: Königliches Gymnasium zu Hohenstein in Preußen, 1865
  • Karol Górski, "Royal Prussian Estates in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century and Their Relation to the Crown of Poland." in: Acta Poloniae Historica, vol. 10 (1964), pp. 49–64
  • Mallek, J., "A Political Triangle: Ducal Prussian Estates, Prussian Rulers and Poland; The Policy of the City of Koenigsberg versus Poland, 1525–1701", in: Parliaments Estate and Representation, 1995, vol. 15; number COM, pp. 25–36
  • Mallek, J., "The Royal Prussian estates and the Kingdom of Poland in the years 1454/1466–1569. Centralism and particularism in reciprocity", in: Parliaments Estate and Representation, 2007, vol. 27, pp. 111–128
  • Mallek, J., "The Prussian estates and the question of religious toleration, 1500–1800", in: Parliaments Estate and Representation, 1999, vol. 19, pp. 65–72
  • Max Pollux Toeppen, Die preussischen Landtage zunächst vor und nach dem Tode des Herzogs Albrecht: 3 vols., Hohenstein: Königliches Gymnasium zu Hohenstein in Preußen, 1855

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Daniel Stone, A History of Central Europe, University of Washington Press, 2001, ISBN 0295980931, Google Print, p.18-19
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569-1772, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0521027756, Google Print, pp. 21–24 Cite error: The named reference "kf21-24" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar, Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0198221363, Google Print, p. 339
  4. ^ Nicolaus Copernicus, Modus cudendi monetam (1519) [= Way of Coinage; i.e. the Latin title of Copernicus' own translation into German of his 'N.(icolai) C.(oppernici), Meditata XV Augusti anno domini MDXVII, 1517], published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 33–37, lines 26–31 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.
  5. ^ Cf. Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here pp. 216seq. ISBN 3-89518-775-9.
  6. ^ Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 307–310 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.
  7. ^ Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here p. 218. ISBN 3-89518-775-9.
  8. ^ „Disse nachgeschrieben verramung diss gantzen landes ist ausgangen von Marienburg am sontage nach Allerheiligen tag Anno 1418“, in: Acten der Ständetage Preussens unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens, Max Pollux Toeppen (ed.), see references for more detailed bibliographical information, vol. 1: Die Jahre 1233–1435, pp. 320seqq.
  9. ^ Ulf Heinsohn, "The Role of Good Bills and Covered Bonds in the Creation of Money", in: Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit: Otto Steiger zum Gedenken (Gedenkschrift), Detlev Ehrig and Uwe Staroske (eds.), Marburg: Metropolis, 2010, pp. 213–233, here footnote 78 on p. 218. ISBN 3-89518-775-9.
  10. ^ Cf. Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913-1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 331–334 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.
  11. ^ a b Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany: 1648-1840, Princeton University Press, 1982, ISBN 0691007969, Google Print, p.58
  12. ^ Albertas Juška, Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje, Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742–771, here after the German translation Die Kirche in Klein Litauen (section: 2. Reformatorische Anfänge; Template:De-icon) on: Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia, retrieved on 28 August 2011.
  13. ^ In these essays Copernicus also described, what has been later called Gresham's law by Henry Dunning Macleod.
  14. ^ Cf. Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978.
  15. ^ Nicolaus Copernicus, Monete cudende ratio per Nicolaum Coppernicum (1526), Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (ed.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 48–67, lines 307–310 and 331–334 of Copernicus' original text, as given by Sommerfeld.
  16. ^ Cf. Nicolaus Copernicus, "Epistola Consiliariorum Prussie ad Ludouicum Decium Cracouiensem de Ratione restituende monete Pruthenice" (Letter of the councillors of Prussia to Ludwig Dietz from Cracow, concerning the improvement of the Prussian coin) (1526), published in: Erich Sommerfeld (trl.), Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare; in memoriam Kurt Braunreuther 1913–1975, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 112–123, lines 13-15 of the Latin original as given by Sommerfeld on p. 112 (with German translation on p. 113).
  17. ^ F. L. Carsten, The New Cambridge Modern History: volume V: the ascendancy of France 1648–88, CUP Archive, 1961, ISBN 0521045444, Google Print, p.549
  18. ^ Margaret Shennan, The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia, Routledge, 1995, ISBN 0415129389, Google Print, p.34
  19. ^ This was initiated by Diederich Ernst Bühring, a merchant from Berlin, who adopted this idea from Dutch Indochina and gained Frederick II to introduce such a system, starting with a credit corporation of the manor estate holders in war-ridden Prussian Silesia in 1769. Cf. Claus Schrempf, Pfandbriefe und Kommunalobligationen als Geldanlage, Munich: Moderne Industrie, 1958, p. 10. No ISBN
  20. ^ Peter Brandt in collaboration with Thomas Hofmann, Preußen: Zur Sozialgeschichte eines Staates; eine Darstellung in Quellen, edited on behalf of Berliner Festspiele as catalogue to the exhibition on Prussia between 15 May and 15 November 1981, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1981, (=Preußen; vol. 3), p. 80. ISBN 3-499-34003-8
  21. ^ Peter Brandt in collaboration with Thomas Hofmann, Preußen: Zur Sozialgeschichte eines Staates; eine Darstellung in Quellen, edited on behalf of Berliner Festspiele as catalogue to the exhibition on Prussia between 15 May and 15 November 1981, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1981, (=Preußen; vol. 3), pp. 24 and 35. ISBN 3-499-34003-8
  22. ^ a b Peter Brandt in collaboration with Thomas Hofmann, Preußen: Zur Sozialgeschichte eines Staates; eine Darstellung in Quellen, edited on behalf of Berliner Festspiele as catalogue to the exhibition on Prussia between 15 May and 15 November 1981, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1981, (=Preußen; vol. 3), p. 82. ISBN 3-499-34003-8
  23. ^ The 1.9 million farmers, who were personally free, but whose land was subject to soccage, and the 2.5 million liberated serfs, now free peasants, had to redeem the former dues and soccage by a payment in instalments to their former lords organised as of 1811 and mostly fulfilled until 1850, with few cases lasting into the early 20th c. Cf. Peter Brandt in collaboration with Thomas Hofmann, Preußen: Zur Sozialgeschichte eines Staates; eine Darstellung in Quellen, edited on behalf of Berliner Festspiele as catalogue to the exhibition on Prussia between 15 May and 15 November 1981, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1981, (=Preußen; vol. 3), p. 103. ISBN 3-499-34003-8
  24. ^ a b Ferdinand Pflug, "Aus den Zeiten der schweren Noth. Nr. 8. Der Landtag zu Königsberg und die Errichtung der Landwehr", in: Die Gartenlaube (1863), Heft 3-4, pp. 44–56, here p. 44.
  25. ^ a b Ferdinand Pflug, "Aus den Zeiten der schweren Noth. Nr. 8. Der Landtag zu Königsberg und die Errichtung der Landwehr", in: Die Gartenlaube (1863), Heft 3–4, pp. 44–56, here p. 55.
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