Description: Prussian history needs new programs and ideas. Historical scholarship has so far focused on the Prussian state, its individuals, and its institutions. In doing so, the image of Prussia has become far too monolithic, and the historical impact of individual figures has become far too dominant. Wolfgang Neugebauer proposes a shift in the focus of historical scholarship on Prussian research, making the drastically underestimated fragility and regionality of the Prussian state in all its epochs the starting point for future work. Prussian history fluctuates between integration and secession, and this from the 17th to the 20th century. Regionalism was not particularism; factors of transnational influence on Prussia become tangible in the regions, thus transforming Prussia into a phenomenon of European, indeed ultimately global, networked history. The much-vaunted Prussian identity is increasingly fading into the background in more modern perspectives.
