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Prussian Army

The Royal Prussian Army (1701–1919, German: Königlich Preußische Armee) served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Prussia as a European power.

For the succeeding German army of the Weimar Republic (1919–1935), see Reichsheer.

Prussian Army

1701–1919

Kingdom of Prussia Kingdom of Prussia

House of Hohenzollern

Army

Land forces

Ranging between 70,000 and 700,000 during the period.

Potsdam

King of Prussia

War of the Spanish Succession
Great Northern War
War of the Austrian Succession

Seven Years' War

War of the Bavarian Succession
French Revolutionary Wars

Napoleonic Wars

First Schleswig War
Second Schleswig War
Austro-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
World War I

Frederick William I
Frederick the Great
Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Gerhard von Scharnhorst
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg
August Neidhardt von Gneisenau
Carl von Clausewitz
Kaiser Wilhelm I
Moltke the Elder
Albrecht von Roon
Friedrich Karl
Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz
Paul von Hindenburg
August von Mackensen
Erich Ludendorff
Erich von Falkenhayn

The Prussian Army had its roots in the core mercenary forces of Brandenburg-Prussia during the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648. Elector Frederick William developed it into a viable standing army, while King Frederick William I of Prussia dramatically increased its size and improved its doctrines. King Frederick the Great, a formidable battle commander, led the disciplined Prussian troops to victory during the 18th-century Silesian Wars and greatly increased the prestige of the Kingdom of Prussia.


The Prussian army had become outdated and under-resourced by the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, and France defeated Prussia in the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806. However, under the leadership of Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian reformers began modernizing the Prussian Army, which contributed greatly to the defeat of Napoleon during the War of the Sixth Coalition. Conservatives halted some of the reforms, however, and the Prussian Army subsequently became a bulwark of the conservative Prussian government.


In the 19th century, the Prussian Army fought successful wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, allowing Prussia to unify Germany, establishing the German Empire in 1871. The Prussian Army formed the core of the Imperial German Army, which was replaced by the Reichswehr after World War I.

Prussian Navy

German General Staff

Prussian virtues

Blackbourn, David (2003). History of Germany, 1780–1918: The Long Nineteenth Century. Blackwell Publishing. p. 544.  0-631-23196-X.

ISBN

(2005). The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich. University Press of Kansas. p. 428. ISBN 0-7006-1410-9.

Citino, Robert M.

Koch, H. W. (1978). A History of Prussia. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.  0-88029-158-3.

ISBN

(2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600–1947. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard. pp. 776. ISBN 0-674-02385-4.

Clark, Christopher

Clemente, Steven E. For King and Kaiser!: The making of the Prussian Army officer, 1860–1914 (Greenwood, 1992)

(1964). The Politics of the Prussian Army: 1640–1945. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 538. ISBN 0-19-500257-1.

Craig, Gordon A.

Fulbrook, Mary (1983). . Cambridge University Press. pp. 223. ISBN 0-521-27633-0.

Piety and Politics: Religion and the Rise of Absolutism in England, Wurttemberg and Prussia

. Blood and Iron: Rise and Fall of the German Empire (Pegasus Books, 2021)

Hoyer, Katja

MacDonogh, Giles (2001). Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 436.  0-312-27266-9.

ISBN

Nash, David. The Prussian Army, 1808–1815 (Almark Publishing, 1972)

Reiners, Ludwig (1960). . Translated by Lawrence P. R. Wilson. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons. pp. 304.

Frederick the Great: A Biography

(1974). Frederick the Great: A Historical Profile. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 207. ISBN 0-520-02775-2.

Ritter, Gerhard

Showalter, Dennis E. "Hubertusburg to Auerstädt: The Prussian Army in Decline." German History (1994) 12#3 pp : 308–333.

Summerfield, Stephen (2009) Prussian Infantry 1808–1840: Volume 1 Line and Guard 1808–1814, Partizan Press,  978-1-85818-583-5; (2009) Prussian Infantry 1808–1840: Volume 2 Jager, Reserve, Freikorps and New Regiments, Partizan Press, ISBN 978-1-85818-584-2

ISBN

Trumpener, Ulrich. "Junkers and Others: The Rise of Commoners in the Prussian Army, 1871–1914." Canadian Journal of History (1979). 14#1

White, Jonathan Randall. The Prussian Army, 1640–1871 (University Press of America, 1996)

Zabecki, David T., ed. Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History (2015)

(in German)

Grosser-Generalstab.de

Prussian Army of the Napoleonic Wars

(in German)

Die Regimenter und Bataillone der deutschen Armee

Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library