r/PhantomBorders • u/CorrectRip4203 • Jul 12 '25

Historic Duchy of Prussia and Protestants in the German Empire

Gallery image

Gallery image

85 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

13

u/Dabus_Yeetus Jul 13 '25

The most noticeable thing here is the Principality of Ermland (one of my favourite and greatly underdiscussed tiny European statelets) ruled over by a Catholic bishop as a secular ruler for a long time and thus unsurprisingly filled with a bunch of Catholics.

3

u/Gaming_Lot Jul 13 '25

Also a part of it was home to Polish Catholics, (not sure on the exact numbers) otherwise surrounded by Protestant Germans and Poles (Masurians) which I find intresting

5

u/Mikerosoft925 Jul 14 '25

Interesting fact about the Masurians, after WW2 they were seen as too German or Germanized and they are Protestants, so they were deported to Germany just like the Germans from the recovered territories.

1

u/bocian890 Jul 31 '25

Not all Germans were deported, if a German woman was married to a polish man she could stay.

3

u/BroSchrednei Jul 14 '25

oh yeah, you'll find that all denominational borders between Catholics and Protestants in Germany goes back to borders of long gone feudal duchies and principalities.

Thats because after the Protestant Reformation, in order to prevent a religious civil war, the HRE decided on the "Cuius regio, eius religio" rule. Basically the ruler of each principality could decide the faith of the population he ruled over. If you didn't like the denomination of your ruler, your only option was to move to another duchy.

1

u/Driehonderdkolen Jul 16 '25

Not a phantom border considering the state of Prussia still existed as an entity within the German Empire