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Pat, first, my background includes six years studying history at the University of Munich in Germany, and I thus have a thorough knowledge of German history.
You have to be aware -- and I get the feeling that you aren't -- that just like the U.S., Germany, too, has always been made up of STATES. Until 1945, PRUSSIA was one of Germany's STATES, its largest, and the city of Berlin was its capital. In 1871, all of the German states with the exception of Austria became the unified country of Germany. Prussia's state capital, Berlin, then became Germany's national capital as well. It wasn't that Germany began and Prussia stopped in 1871, but rather, that the German states combined to form a unified country in 1871.
It was a similar situation in America back in 1789. The 13 individual states ratified the Constitution and the 13 states then became the unified country called the United States of America. You can't say that Pennsylvania stopped in 1789 and the United States began; you can't say that Virginia stopped in 1789 and the United States began; you can't say that Massachusetts stopped in 1789 and the United States began; etc. The 13 states at the time simply became a unified country, but the states themselves did not stop existing. It was the same with the German states -- Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden, Wuerttemberg, Hesse, etc. -- in 1871. They didn't stop existing in 1871, any more than the American states stopped existing in 1789. They simply combined to form a unified country.
Because of its vast size, the state of Prussia was divided into PROVINCES. Your area of interest appears to be what was until 1945 the Prussian province of WESTPHALIA, the capital of which was the city of Münster, or if written without the "Umlaut" (two dots) over the "u", Muenster.
Following World War II, the Allies broke up the vast state of Prussia and created new German states from its territory. At that time, the northern half of the Prussian Rhineland or Rhine Province, the Prussian province of Westphalia, and the very small German state of Lippe (capital: Detmold) combined to form today's new postwar German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with the city of Düsseldorf in the Rhineland as its capital.
Just out of curiosity: Were you not aware that just like the U.S., Germany, too, has always been made up of states, and that Prussia was one of Germany's states?
Robert
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