Sam A. Mustafa examines the changing role of Prussia in the lives of German people, from the founding of the empire in 1871 to the present. He addresses the steady diminution of Prussia's power within the Reich, its crisis during the Weimar Republic, and the symbolic uses of Prussia by the Nazis. He also explores the historical preservation efforts and the revisions of Prussia in East and West Germany, and the remnants of Prussia in landscapes and popular culture. Mustafa concludes by analyzing the restoration of Prussian structures after 1990 and the surprising return of Prussia to the public consciousness in the twenty-first century.