Prussia

An influential German state throughout the 18th and 19th century and instrumental in the formation of the German Empire (1871-1918), Prussia historically extended from the Brandenburg region around Berlin to Danzig (Gdansk) in the east. Following World War I, Germany was forced to relinquish a corridor of land to Poland, thus separating East Prussia from West Prussia and the rest of Germany. A so-called “Free State” during the Weimar Republic, Prussia was absorbed into the German Reich in 1932.