<P> The Junkers (/ ˈjʊŋkər / YUUNG - kər; German: (ˈjʊŋkɐ)) were members of the landed nobility in Prussia . They owned great estates that were maintained and worked by peasants with few rights . These estates often stood in the countryside outside of major cities or towns . They were an important factor in Prussia and, after 1871, in German military, political and diplomatic leadership . The most famous Junker was Chancellor Otto von Bismarck . Bismark held power in Germany from 1862 to 1890 not as an emperor or president, but only as a parliamentary minister . He was removed from power by Kaiser Wilhelm II . </P> <P> Many Junkers lived in the eastern provinces that after World War II were annexed by either Poland or the Soviet Union . Junkers fled or were expelled alongside other German - speaking population by the incoming Polish and Soviet administrations, and their lands were confiscated . In western and southern Germany, the land was often owned by small independent farmers or a mixture of small farmers and estate owners, and this system was often contrasted with the dominance of the large estate owners of the east . </P>

The noble landowners of prussia were known as