1849 Prussia Or Massachusetts Brass Foot and similar items

1849 PRISSIAN? BRASS FOOT WARMER Wilhelmine Riedel and Ernst Oertel sp? 170 years old Possibly American around Massachusetts as there was a similar listing dated 1874 or so in the past. Measures 8" wide x 13" long x 3" thick, plus 1 1/2" for the screw cap and then another inch for the height of the handle. Total tall with handle standing up is about 5 1/2" After researching the names and Ellis Island data the foot warmer is believed to be from Lischnitz, Prussia or Hamburg Germany or made in the US as a commemorative piece to the people inscribed on the top of the item. I attached a photo of the sir names researched and their approximate origins. There is a Wilhelmine Riedel born Jan 23 1825 in Lischnitz, Prussia, d. Nov 8 1895 Wheeling, IL. An amazing example of valued personal possessions mid 1800's and of immigration to the US from Europe. Condition: A few dings, one place on the rim is dented and there are some stains on the brass. There is a weld around the bottom rim, zoom in on photos. Purchased in Long Beach, California 2007. There was a piece of tape on the bottom with the name Royer (see photo) but I removed it because it was turning to dust and I looked for a maker mark but found none. Nice old piece of history. Some call this a buggy warmer, used in a carriage while traveling. History of Prussia and areas in association with name Wlihelmine Prussia was a former German kingdom (before it reunited). It became German when the Teutonic Order invaded the region to make it Christian. After the Reformation the Teutonic Order became Protestant and it became Prussia. Prussia and Austria were the two biggest German kingdoms and competed for power. Prussia defeated Austria in a war and excluded Austria from German reunification in the late 19th century. Prussia was the dominant state in the newly reunited Germany, and the capital became Berlin which was in Brandenburg (just west of the region of Prussia) a Prussian territory. They reunited after Prussia's who's Chancellor was Auto Von Bismarch and King was Wilhelm, defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war. Bismarck led a very smart policy of governing Germany however Wilhelm disposed of it. Waldheim slowly dissolved many German alliances and eventually lost WW1 for Germany. Wilhelm was disposed of and Germany became a republic. As part of the Treaty of Versailles Prussian territory was given to Poland including the city of Danzig (Gdansk in Polish). Eastern Prussia was separated from the rest of Germany to give Poland a coastline. With the end of Nazi rule in 1945 came the division of Germany into Zones of Occupation, and the transfer of control of everything east of the Oder-Neisse line, (including Silesia, Farther Pomerania, Eastern Brandenburg, and southern East Prussia), to Poland, with the northern third of East Prussia, including Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, going to the Soviet Union. Today the Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. During the Soviet Army's takeover of eastern Germany an estimated ten million Germans fled, were expelled from (or were not able to return) to these territories as part of the Potsdam Agreement and the sanctioned German exodus from Eastern Europe. Map of current states of Germany that are completely or mostly situated inside the old borders of Imperial Germany’s Kingdom of Prussia As part of their war aims the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia. Stalin was initially content to retain the name, Russia having a different historical view of its neighbour and sometime former ally. In Law #46 of February 25, 1947 the Allied Control Council formally proclaimed the dissolution of Prussia. The region was repopulated by non-Germans by new inhabitants, and today most Europeans are unaware of its existence.