Alternate capital for a Baltic Prussia?

I'm thinking of a Prussia who was humiliated and stripped of its Silesia and Polish territories after its defeat against Napoleon. As France achieved hegemony and allied with Austria and Poland in TTL, Prussia decided to move its capital further east for better defense. So I wonder which one among these 4 cities was the most suitable to be the new capital:

- Stettin: well-industrialized, sea access, defensible, but a bit too close to Austrian Silesia now.

- Koslin: potential to be a major transport hub connecting Stettin and Danzig but not a big town.

- Danzig & Konigsberg: good ports but too close to Poland.

I'm myself leaning towards Koslin but I would like to hear more about the advantages and disadvantages of these 4 cities as the new capital. And how long would it take for Prussia to build up this new capital to the level comparable to Berlin?
 
Koningsberg is not only a Major Port but also the ex-Capital of Prussia when they were under Polish Vassalage, it is a large city and a important Cultural Center for the Prussian Culture. I would bet my money on it.
 
Koningsberg is not only a Major Port but also the ex-Capital of Prussia when they were under Polish Vassalage, it is a large city and a important Cultural Center for the Prussian Culture. I would bet my money on it.

What about defensive capability? I'm a bit worried that it's rather close to Poland's center.
 
Beyond the loss of Silesia, how exactly does this Prussia differ from the 1807 borders (the orange territory on this map)? What parts of Prussia count as Polish territory, and how does this Poland compare to the Duchy of Warsaw?

Anyway, looking at the cities in question during the 1810s, Stettin had ~21,000 people, Danzig had ~50,000, and Koenigsburg had ~60,000. Koszalin had ~3,800 and if you really want to turn some little town like that into your capital I suspect the nearby city of Kolberg (then larger at ~5,600 people) would be a more obvious choice. Berlin, for reference, had ~190,000 people. It's also worth noting that following the Treaty of Tilsit, Danzig was made into an independent free city, and if your scenario has Prussia losing even more than IOTL, Danzig's probably not going to be a part of it. So leaving Danzig out of the running, and assuming we can't have the natural choice of Berlin, I'd pick Koenigsburg: a Prussia this badly beaten probably does not have the money or desire to build some big shiny new capital in Kolberg or wherever, and if neither Koenigsburg nor Stettin offers the desired strategic depth anyway, Koenigsburg, which is three times larger and was the historic capital of Ducal Prussia, is the obvious choice, although if the Poles get enough of East Prussia Stettin might be preferable.

As for how long it would take for whichever one of these you chose to be built up to a level comparable to that of Berlin, I'm not sure any of these choices would ever get to that point, to be honest. Berlin's much larger and more important than any of them are and historically stayed that way. Even without the distinction of being the capital of Prussia, it'll still probably overshadow whatever the actual capital is, especially if it's somewhere like Koszalin.
 
Beyond the loss of Silesia, how exactly does this Prussia differ from the 1807 borders (the orange territory on this map)? What parts of Prussia count as Polish territory, and how does this Poland compare to the Duchy of Warsaw?

Anyway, looking at the cities in question during the 1810s, Stettin had ~21,000 people, Danzig had ~50,000, and Koenigsburg had ~60,000. Koszalin had ~3,800 and if you really want to turn some little town like that into your capital I suspect the nearby city of Kolberg (then larger at ~5,600 people) would be a more obvious choice. Berlin, for reference, had ~190,000 people. It's also worth noting that following the Treaty of Tilsit, Danzig was made into an independent free city, and if your scenario has Prussia losing even more than IOTL, Danzig's probably not going to be a part of it. So leaving Danzig out of the running, and assuming we can't have the natural choice of Berlin, I'd pick Koenigsburg: a Prussia this badly beaten probably does not have the money or desire to build some big shiny new capital in Kolberg or wherever, and if neither Koenigsburg nor Stettin offers the desired strategic depth anyway, Koenigsburg, which is three times larger and was the historic capital of Ducal Prussia, is the obvious choice, although if the Poles get enough of East Prussia Stettin might be preferable.

As for how long it would take for whichever one of these you chose to be built up to a level comparable to that of Berlin, I'm not sure any of these choices would ever get to that point, to be honest. Berlin's much larger and more important than any of them are and historically stayed that way. Even without the distinction of being the capital of Prussia, it'll still probably overshadow whatever the actual capital is, especially if it's somewhere like Koszalin.

Berlin only became a major city in the 18th century, and it became so because of one reason, because it was the capital, if the capital move Berlin won't collapse but the new capital will grow faster and become bigger.

A good example of this was Norway, Bergen was double the size of Oslo in 1800, but as Oslo became the Norwegian capital (in Union with Sweden) the city saw massive growth and outgrew Bergen. We saw a similar process with Turku and Helsinki
 
Beyond the loss of Silesia, how exactly does this Prussia differ from the 1807 borders (the orange territory on this map)? What parts of Prussia count as Polish territory, and how does this Poland compare to the Duchy of Warsaw?

Anyway, looking at the cities in question during the 1810s, Stettin had ~21,000 people, Danzig had ~50,000, and Koenigsburg had ~60,000. Koszalin had ~3,800 and if you really want to turn some little town like that into your capital I suspect the nearby city of Kolberg (then larger at ~5,600 people) would be a more obvious choice. Berlin, for reference, had ~190,000 people. It's also worth noting that following the Treaty of Tilsit, Danzig was made into an independent free city, and if your scenario has Prussia losing even more than IOTL, Danzig's probably not going to be a part of it. So leaving Danzig out of the running, and assuming we can't have the natural choice of Berlin, I'd pick Koenigsburg: a Prussia this badly beaten probably does not have the money or desire to build some big shiny new capital in Kolberg or wherever, and if neither Koenigsburg nor Stettin offers the desired strategic depth anyway, Koenigsburg, which is three times larger and was the historic capital of Ducal Prussia, is the obvious choice, although if the Poles get enough of East Prussia Stettin might be preferable.

As for how long it would take for whichever one of these you chose to be built up to a level comparable to that of Berlin, I'm not sure any of these choices would ever get to that point, to be honest. Berlin's much larger and more important than any of them are and historically stayed that way. Even without the distinction of being the capital of Prussia, it'll still probably overshadow whatever the actual capital is, especially if it's somewhere like Koszalin.

Thanks for the numbers and Kolberg idea. This is not my map but I would like to use it to refer to the Prussia in TTL. Poland, however was stronger than the OTL Duchy of Warsaw as Austria agreed to give back Galicia in exchange for Silesia from Napoleon.

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I'm thinking of a Prussia who was humiliated and stripped of its Silesia and Polish territories after its defeat against Napoleon. As France achieved hegemony and allied with Austria and Poland in TTL, Prussia decided to move its capital further east for better defense. So I wonder which one among these 4 cities was the most suitable to be the new capital:

- Stettin: well-industrialized, sea access, defensible, but a bit too close to Austrian Silesia now.

- Koslin: potential to be a major transport hub connecting Stettin and Danzig but not a big town.

- Danzig & Konigsberg: good ports but too close to Poland.

I'm myself leaning towards Koslin but I would like to hear more about the advantages and disadvantages of these 4 cities as the new capital. And how long would it take for Prussia to build up this new capital to the level comparable to Berlin?
Nappy would need to severely defeat Russia as well, for Russians to allow dismembering their ally like that and allow to practically recreate Poland - if you meant that Poland gets back the entire Prussian and Austrian partitions.
 
What about defensive capability? I'm a bit worried that it's rather close to Poland's center.
I mean, a capital isn't always picked for its strategic location, Bratislava for example in the interwar years and still today literally is near the border of Austria and Hungary
 
I would say that outside Berlin with the described territories there's four potential capital

Stettin: Major port, have a lot of growth potential
Frankfurt an der Oder: This city arte relative small, but it well place in a rump Prussia and have the placement on the Oder give it a potential for growth. But almost every positive aspect for this city are shared by Stettin.
Danzig: Major port also have a lot of growth potential, bigger than Stettin.
Königsberg: Still a major port, but far less important than Danzig or Stettin, the most easy to defend Prussian city. Also have a lot of history going for it.

I doesn't include Memel, it's only a realistic option, if the Prussia are a Russian vassal and plan to flee invaders fast.
 
Thanks for the numbers and Kolberg idea. This is not my map but I would like to use it to refer to the Prussia in TTL. Poland, however was stronger than the OTL Duchy of Warsaw as Austria agreed to give back Galicia in exchange for Silesia from Napoleon.
Those borders aren't very good ones for your scenario, mainly because they follow the Congress of Vienna borders in the east and in doing so give Prussia Posen, a territory which they lost to the Duchy of Warsaw IOTL and have absolutely no chance whatsoever of holding onto in this scenario. I'd highly recommend starting with the Treaty of Tilsit borders (sans Silesia) instead and adjusting things as needed from there.

Frankfurt an der Oder: This city arte relative small, but it well place in a rump Prussia and have the placement on the Oder give it a potential for growth. But almost every positive aspect for this city are shared by Stettin.
I'm not sure if it's particularly well-placed. It's central, but it's also uncomfortably close to Poland (assuming it gets Posen), Austria, and Saxony. One of the Baltic ports is probably preferable, although as previously noted, Prussia probably does not get to keep Danzig in this scenario and therefore its major options on that front are either Koenigsburg or Stettin.
 
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Thanks all, I have decided to use Stettin as the ATL capital for Prussia. As a bonus, this is my envisioned Europe in TTL. Prussia was able to keep some parts of Greater Poland as they already lost Silesia and other Polish territories. Russia later lost an ATL Crimean War, which gave Sweden, Prussia and Poland lands.

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