The idea of a united German nation was in the air since the Wars of Liberation. Liberal pioneers from East Prussia such as Johann Jacoby and Eduard von Simson played a central role in the 1848 revolution. The latter was at the head of the legation, which unsuccessfully offered Frederick William IV the German imperial crown in 1849.
When the Prussian King William I was proclaimed the German emperor in Versailles in 1871, the country became part of the German Empire as the easternmost province of Prussia. A now conservative nationalism, oriented towards Germanness, was quick to develop. While the Prussian kingdom was still tolerant of "its" Lithuanians and the Polish-speaking Masurians, school now was to be taught in German only. But even in the conservative agricultural country of East Prussia, opposition politicians such as Hugo Haase from Königsberg, chairman of the SPD from 1911 until his assassination in 1919 and later of the USPD, manged to rise in society.
Illustrations:
1.) Fritz Paulsen (1838-1898): Eduard von Simson (1810-1899), 1880
Born into a Jewish family, the native citizen of Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) studied law at his hometown university, the Albertina, where he later also taught and became its rector. In 1848 he was for a time the president of the Frankfurt National Assembly and chairman of the "Kaiserdeputation" (Emperor Deputation). Eduard von Simson was instrumental in shaping the first draft of the constitution of that time. In 1871 he became the first president of the German Reichstag (parliament) and later president of the Reichsgericht (supreme court of the German Reich) in Leipzig. In 1888 he received the Black Eagle Order and was ennobled.
2.) Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905), the coronation of William I in Königsberg 1861, 1865
After the revolution of 1848 the Prussian kings put forward their claim to sovereignty based on the divine right of kings in contrast to a royal title conferred by the people and parliament and bound by a constitution. The prince, who had demanded the violent suppression of the 1848 revolution and whose nickname was "Kartätschenprinz" (Prince of Grapeshot), was at first a controversial figure. He was the first king after 1701 to have himself crowned again in Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) in order to remind people of the traditional nature of his dignity. He put the crown on his head himself.
Title quote: Phrase with reference to the northernmost place in East Prussia and the German Empire