Kingdom of Prussia ~ Grunge Flag (1892 - 1918)

The Kingdom of Prussia (German: Königreich Preußen) was a German kingdom established in 1701 by Frederick III, who crowned himself ‘King in Prussia’ that year. It was made up of the Electorate of Brandenburg and Duchy of Prussia, which had been ruled in personal union by the House of Hohenzollern since 1618. The monarch’s title became ‘King of Prussia’ in 1772, during the reign of Frederick the Great, who turned Prussia into a great power by annexing Silesia from Austria and participating in the First Partition of Poland-Lithuania. Prussia was all but destroyed by Napoleon in 1807, but nevertheless played a major role in the fall of Napoleonic France by 1815. Prussia then spearheaded the process of German unification, entering the German Confederation in 1815, forming the North German Confederation in 1867 and ultimately declaring the German Empire in 1871 after victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War. The kingdom was dissolved in 1918, following the German defeat in the First World War.

Prussia had several flags over its history, usually displaying a white field with the Prussian eagle in the centre, a design dating back to the Duchy of Prussia in the sixteenth century. From 1892 until 1918, two black horizontal stripes were added to the white field and the eagle was offset towards the hoist.

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