Prussia

Prussia (pronounced pruhsh-uh)

(1) A geographical area on the Baltic coast of northeastern Europe (historic references only).

(2) A Baltic country located in this area, conquered by the Teutonic Order and later part of the Holy Roman Empire (retrospectively labeled the First Reich) and subsequently the former German state.

(3) A former German state (Preussen in German) in north and central Germany, extending from the borders of France and the Low Countries to those of Lithuania and Poland.  It developed into the most powerful military power on the Continent (said at the time to be “an army with a country” rather than “a country with an army”), leading the North German Confederation between 1867–1871 when a German Empire (retrospectively labeled the Second Reich) was created by Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898; Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890).  Associated with the militarism which led to the First World War and tainted by association with the Nazis (the Third Reich), pursuant to discussions at the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences  of World War II, the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia.  Comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), influenced by Imperial Russia’s historic relationship with Prussia, was initially sanguine about the name remaining but later agreed to its dissolution and the Allied Control Council issued a law on 25 February 1947.  On that day, Prussia was officially proclaimed dissolved

Pre 1100: From the Medieval Latin Borussi & Prusi (Prūssia in the New Latin), Latinized forms of the native name of the Lithuanian people who lived in the bend of the Baltic before being conquered in the twelfth century and exterminated by the (mostly) German crusaders who replaced them as the inhabitants.  It’s perhaps from the Slavic Po-Rus ((the land) near the Rusi (Russians)) but the New Latin Prūssia was a Latinization used by Peter of Dusburg of a Baltic (Old Prussian, or perhaps Lithuanian or Latvian) autonym. The primitive Indo-European source of the name is unclear but the root may be the one used in the very name of Prusa (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus existed on an early Bavarian map.  In Tacitus' Germania, the Lugii Buri were said to dwell within the eastern range of the Germans and, while speculative, Lugi may descend from Pokorny's leug (black, swamp), while Buri is perhaps the root of “Prussia”.

Although the documentary evidence is sparse, etymologists note the Proto-Balto-Slavic prus-sk which was cognate with the Sanskrit प्रुष्णोति (pruṣṇóti) (sprinkle), the Czech prskat (splutter, sizzle) and the Serbo-Croatian prskati (splash), thus signifying "watery land", interesting because the tribes of the Baltic Prussian region all adopted names reflecting the natural environment, many alluding to water, something not unexpected in lands with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps.  The first pre-Baltic settlers tended to name their villages after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled and the tribes or clans into which they coalesced then took these names.  The Middle English designation for the region, Pruce, derives from the same Latinization and is the source of the terms pruce and spruce.  It’s also one of the creations of inorganic chemistry on the World Health Organization's (WHO) List of Essential Medicines because it can be useful as a sequestering agent and therefore an antidote for certain kinds of heavy metal poisoning such as those caused by thallium and radioactive isotopes of caesium.

Prussian Blue

Lindsay Lohan in Prussian blue bikini with high-waist brief and halter-style top.

Famous for being among the first modern synthetic pigments created, Prussian blue was a serendipitous discovery in 1704 by Berlin-based color-maker Johann Jacob Diesbach (circa 1970-1748).  He was mixing a red lake pigment to use as a dye, made with iron sulfate and potash but unknown to him, the potash was contaminated with impurities (animal oil) so instead of a vivid red, a purple emerged, which when concentrated, transformed to a deep blue.  This accidental discovery provided an inexpensive alternative to the only permanent blue pigment then available, ultramarine (lapiz lazuli) which, being mined only in tiny quantities in Afghanistan, was ruinously expensive.  Prussian blue revolutionized both art and industrial production because, except for the rare aquamarine, blue dyes obtained from rocks and plants were unstable and unreliably color-fast.  Its manufacture escaped regulation by painters’ guilds since it was considered a chemical and not paint so use quickly spread. Cezanne’s mustache was stained with it, Ruskin hoarded it, it was Wordsworth’s favorite color and both EE Cummings & Baudelaire wrote of it.  Van Gogh told other artists his Starry Night (1889) wouldn't have been possible without Prussian blue and it's the most remembered shade from Picasso's blue period.

On the Street to Prussian Blue, oil on canvas by Victoria Kloch, 2017.

After the end of hostilities in Europe in World War II, old General George Patton (1885–1945) worried the US high command so much they arranged for him quietly to be observed by an Army psychiatrist so reports could be submitted.  Patton was widely read in military history and during the war referred to Germans as “the Prussians” and Soviet forces as “the Mongols” and perceived the latter as a threat even while they were his allies.  The concern in Washington DC was Patton might take some action against the Russians which would trigger at least a diplomatic incident and possibly what glumly was referred to as “a shooting war”.  Indeed, publically he’d stated “…America had been fighting the wrong enemy—Germany instead of Russia” and that was a notion which even by 1945 would have had some support in British and US establishment circles.  Theories about the reasons for Patton’s increasingly erratic behaviour vary but there’s long been a focus on his many head injuries, the consequence of a lifetime of traffic accidents and tumbles from horses.

1995 Jaguar XJS 2+2 V12 Convertible in Sapphire over Cream leather (left) and 1986 Porsche 928S in Prussian Blue Metallic over Blue leather (left).

Neither of these machines are wholly original, the gold “Growler” XJS’s hood (bonnet) replaced with a “Leaper”, a modification many owners have been unable to resist although the factory never included them and they weren’t used on most of Jaguars post-war sports cars.  The gold Growler appeared on V12 Jaguars in 1994 and was there as a marker of the enlargement of the V12 engine from 5.3 litres (326 cubic inch) to 6.0 (366), not, as is sometimes claimed, to mark the 50^th anniversary of the resumption of civilian car production in 1945.  The Porsche is finished in “Special Color 33 X (Prussian Blue Metallic), one of a number offered in addition to the standard range and it deviates from its original specification in being fitted with 16 inch “phone dial” wheels, replacing the 17 inch “7-Slot” units, a not uncommon swap because it made possible the use of a higher profile tyre, the taller sidewall making for a smoother rise.

Prussian blue is a color often used by car manufacturers although for various reasons (sometimes historic) few use the name to describe the shade, Jaguar in the 1990s preferring “Sapphire” (sometimes seen as “Sapphire Blue”).  Another connection between the XJS and 928 is that each still is thought in some way “unsuccessful”, essentially because they’ve always lived in the long shadows cast by what came before, respectively the E-Type (1961-1974) and 911 (in production since 1964 and still with us).  However, the 928 was in continuous production between 1977-1995 and over 60,000 were sold; it was much-praised for its dynamic qualities and for what most people did most of the time (at least away from race tracks) it was a better car than the 911 but the salient point was it “wasn’t a 911” so never achieved the same allure.  Additionally, early in the twenty-first century, the 928 gained an unsavoury reputation as the transport of drug dealers and people with maxed-out credit cards but as used cars they often were the cheapest 160 mph (260 km/h) on the market so there was always some appeal.  In recent years, they’ve come to be better appreciated.

The Jaguar XJS (originally dubbed XJS) enjoyed an even longer and more prolific life than the 928.  Between 1975-1996, in three distinct generations (encompassing the original “flying buttress” coupé, a kind of targa and finally a more traditional convertible), over 115,000 were made and although there was some success in competition, Jaguar never attempted to make the XJS the sort of “sports car” the E-Type had once been and it was indicative of changing times that after in 1975 building 352 with a four-speed manual gearbox, all the subsequent V12 models were automatic and according to interviews later conducted with the engineers, the manual versions existed only because the transmissions were “left-over” stock from the E-Type; had the surplus components not been in the warehouse, none would ever have been built.  So it was by any measure a success and in sheer numbers it shades the 72,000-odd E-Types.  Nor did it end there because when after 21 years production ended the platform was used as the underpinnings for the new XK8, serving until 2005.

Prussian Blue publicity shot, 2005.

Fraternal twin sisters Lynx & Lamb Gaede (b 1992) were in 2003 marketed as the pop duo Prussian Blue, the musical content including racist messaging and Holocaust denial.  The svengali behind them was their mother who exploited (1) their youthful innocence, (2) the telegenic qualities and (3) the First Amendment to the US Constitution to use them to promote her white separatist agenda.  As soon as they became historically and politically aware, they disavowed their mother’s views, saying they’d been “traumatized” during the years spent under her control.