In January 1701, Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg, placed the crown on his head in Königsberg in East Prussia and from then on called himself “King in Prussia”. The self-coronation of the ostentatious provincial prince marks the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to a major European power. For more than 200 years, the Hohenzollern state decisively determined German history. Prussia conquers supremacy in the German Empire and becomes its center of power. In the end, Germany is in ruins. The state of Prussia, a symbol of German claims to power, was dissolved by a resolution of the Allies after the Second World War. Prussia has always provoked very contradicting judgments. Prussia is Enlightenment and absolutism, it is militarism and protection of minorities, it is discipline and the spirit of submission.