Prussia Wilhelm I der Grosse Deutscher Kaiser - Koenig von Preussen 1797 - 1897 

• 1897 
• Commemorative tokens 
• Prussia 
• Jubilees 

5925461

Tokens / Medals

Prussia Wilhelm I der Grosse Deutscher Kaiser - Koenig von Preussen 1797 - 1897

1897

Zum Andenken an dem Hundersten Geburtstag des Grossen Kaisers Wilhelm .I. 1797 - 22 Maerz - 1897

Wilhelm der Grosse Deutscher Kaiser - Koenig von Preussen

50 mm

Wilhelm I (full name: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig, 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888), of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia (2 January 1861 – 9 March 1888) and the first German Emperor (18 January 1871 – 9 March 1888), as well as the first Head of State of a united Germany. Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Despite his long support of Otto von Bismarck as Minister President, William held strong reservations about some of Bismarck's more reactionary policies, anti-Catholic, tough handling of subordinates, etc. Contrary to domineering Bismarck, William was described as polite, gentlemanly, and while a staunch conservative, more open to certain classical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II. Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centered on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually organized and effective army. Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 moved to Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favor of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, a state of Germany from 1918 until 1933. From 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its "Gleichschaltung" laws in pursuit of a unitary state. With the end of the Nazi regime, the division of Germany into allied-occupation zones and the separation of its territories east of the Oder–Neisse line, which were incorporated into Poland and the Soviet Union, the State of Prussia ceased to exist de facto in 1945. Prussia existed de jure until its formal liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No. 46 of 25 February 1947.