Prussia

Prussia enters the novel as both a major historical power and a complicated label for regions and ancestry. Its reach helps frame the conflict with Denmark in 1864, while its shifting meaning later complicates the family history Ollie uncovers for Shay.

Historical Extent and Changing Meaning

Ollie describes Prussia as a large German state that once covered a broad area of Northern Europe, including parts of Poland and Lithuania, as well as Kaliningrad. He emphasizes that what it meant to be Prussian had many definitions, so the name cannot be treated as a simple, timeless marker of identity. The term fell out of official use under the Nazis in 1934, and Prussia was abolished entirely in 1947.

Prussia and the Danish-Prussian War

The history lesson turns to 1864, when Rudolph Kaspersen served as a second lieutenant in the Danish army. A photograph shows him on 17 April, the day before the Battle of Dybbøl. Ollie explains that Prussian forces had besieged the Danes and bombarded them for two months; on 18 April 1864, the conflict reached the battle that anchors this part of the family story. Prussia is therefore introduced not only through its broad geography but through the pressure its military campaign exerted on individual lives.

Family History and Regional Ancestry

Prussia also complicates Shay’s understanding of his origins. Ollie explains that Shay’s Danish ancestry comes from his maternal side and that Anna was Lithuanian. The region where Ollie found records for Anna would have been considered Prussian at some point. That qualification matters: the records connect family history to a territory whose political identity shifted, without reducing Anna’s Lithuanian background to a single national label. Prussia thus serves as a historical frame for interpreting ancestry, rather than a definitive answer to it.