Everything about Frederick The Great totally explained
Frederick II (;
January 24 1712 –
August 17 1786) was a
King of
Prussia (1740–1786) from the
Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a
prince-elector of the
Holy Roman Empire, he was
Frederick IV (
Friedrich IV) of
Brandenburg. He became known as
Frederick the Great (
Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed
der alte Fritz ("Old
Fritz").
Interested primarily in the arts during his youth, Frederick unsuccessfully attempted to flee from his authoritarian father, the "Soldier-King"
Frederick William I, after which he was forced to watch the execution of a childhood friend. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked
Austria and claimed
Silesia during the
Silesian Wars, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. Near the end of his life, Frederick united most of his disconnected realm through the
First Partition of Poland.
Frederick was a proponent of
enlightened absolutism. For years he was a correspondent of
Voltaire, with whom the king had an intimate, if turbulent, friendship. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and promoted religious tolerance throughout his realm. Frederick patronized the arts and philosophers. Frederick is buried at his favorite residence,
Sanssouci in
Potsdam. Because he died childless, he was succeeded by his nephew,
Frederick William II of Prussia, son of his brother,
Prince Augustus William of Prussia (the second son of King Frederick William I of Prussia).
Youth
Frederick was born in Berlin, the son of King
Frederick William I of Prussia and
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. The so-called "Soldier-King", Frederick William had developed a
formidable army and encouraged centralization, but was also known for his authoritarianism and temper. He would strike men in the face with his cane and kick women in the street, justifying his outbursts as religious righteousness. In contrast, Sophia was well-mannered and well-educated. Her father, George,
Elector of
Hanover, was the heir of Queen
Anne of Great Britain. George succeeded as King
George I of Great Britain in 1714.
The birth of Frederick was welcomed by his grandfather with more than usual pleasure, as two of his grandsons had already died at an early age. Frederick William wished his sons and daughters to be educated not as royalty, but as simple folk. He had been educated by a
Frenchwoman, Madame de Montbail, who later became
Madame de Rocoulle, and he wished that she should educate his children. Frederick was brought up by
Huguenot governesses and
tutors and learned
French and German simultaneously.
Although Frederick William was raised a devout
Calvinist, he feared he wasn't of the
elect. To avoid the possibility of Frederick having the same motives, the king ordered that his heir not be taught about
predestination. Although he was largely irreligious, Frederick adopted this tenet of Calvinism, despite the king's efforts. It is unknown if the crown prince did this to spite his father, or out of genuine religious belief.
Crown Prince
In early 1730, Queen Sophia Dorothea attempted to orchestrate a dual marriage of Frederick and his sister
Wilhelmina with
Amelia and
Frederick, the children of King
George II of Great Britain. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von
Seckendorff, the
Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed Field Marshal von Grumbkow and Benjamin Reichenbach, the Prussian Minister of War and Prussian ambassador in London, respectively. The pair discreetly slandered the British and Prussian courts in the eyes of the two kings. Angered by the idea of the effete Frederick being so honored by Britain, Frederick William presented impossible demands to the British, such as Prussia acquiring
Jülich and
Berg, leading to the collapse of the marriage proposal.
Frederick found an ally in his sister, Wilhelmina, with whom he remained close for life. At age 16, Frederick had formed an attachment to the king's 13-year-old page, Peter Karl Christoph Keith. Wilhelmina recorded that the two "soon became inseparable. Keith was intelligent, but without education. He served my brother from feelings of real devotion, and kept him informed of all the king's actions."
When he was 18, Frederick plotted to flee to
England with
Hans Hermann von Katte and other junior army officers. While the royal retinue was near
Mannheim in the
Electoral Palatinate, Robert Keith, Peter's brother, had an attack of conscience when the conspirators were preparing to escape and begged Frederick William for forgiveness on
August 5 1730; Frederick and Katte were subsequently arrested and imprisoned in
Küstrin. Because they were army officers who had tried to flee Prussia for
Great Britain, Frederick William leveled an accusation of treason against the pair. The king threatened the crown prince with the death penalty, then considered forcing Frederick to renounce the succession in favor of his brother,
Augustus William, although either option would have been difficult to justify to the
Reichstag of the
Holy Roman Empire. The king forced Frederick to watch the
decapitation of his friend Katte at Küstrin on
November 6.
Frederick was granted a royal pardon and released from his cell on
November 18, although he remained stripped of his military rank. Instead of returning to Berlin, however, he was forced to remain in Küstrin and began rigorous schooling in statecraft and administration for the War and Estates Departments on
November 20. Tensions eased slightly when Frederick William visited Küstrin a year later, and Frederick was allowed to visit Berlin on the occasion of his sister
Wilhelmina's marriage to Margrave
Frederick of
Bayreuth on
November 20 1731. The crown prince returned to Berlin after finally being released from his tutelage at Küstrin on
26 February 1732.
Frederick William considered marrying Frederick to
Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of
Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was ardently opposed by
Prince Eugene of Savoy. Frederick himself proposed marrying
Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession. Instead, Eugene persuaded Frederick William, through Seckendorff, that the crown prince should marry
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern, a Protestant relative of the Imperial
Habsburgs. Although Frederick wrote to his sister that, "There can be neither love nor friendship between us,"
Frederick was restored to the
Prussian Army as Colonel of the Regiment von der Goltz, stationed near
Nauen and
Neuruppin. When Prussia provided a contingent of troops to aid Austria during the
War of the Polish Succession, Frederick studied under
Prince Eugene of Savoy during the campaign against
France on the
Rhine. Frederick William, weakened by
gout brought about by the campaign, granted Frederick
Schloss Rheinsberg in
Rheinsberg, north of Neuruppin. In Rheinsberg, Frederick assembled a small number of musicians, actors and other artists. He spent his time reading, watching dramatic plays, making and listening to music, and regarded this time as one of the happiest of his life. Frederick formed the "
Bayard Order" to discuss warfare with his friends;
Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué was made the grand master of the gathering.
The works of
Niccolò Machiavelli, such as
The Prince, were considered a guideline for the behavior of a king in Frederick's age. In 1739, Frederick finished his
Anti-Machiavel — an idealistic writing in which he opposes Machiavelli. It was published
anonymously in 1740, but Voltaire distributed it in
Amsterdam to great popularity. Frederick's years dedicated to the arts instead of politics ended upon the death of Frederick William and his inheritance of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Kingship
Before his accession, Frederick was told by
D'Alembert, "The philosophers and the men of letters in every land have long looked upon you, Sire, as their leader and model." Such devotion, however, had to be tempered by political realities. When Frederick ascended the throne as "
King in Prussia" in 1740, Prussia consisted of scattered territories, including
Cleves,
Mark, and
Ravensberg in the west of the
Holy Roman Empire;
Brandenburg,
Hither Pomerania, and
Farther Pomerania in the east of the Empire; and the former
Duchy of Prussia, outside of the Empire bordering the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was titled
King in Prussia because this was only part of historic Prussia; he was to declare himself
King of Prussia after acquiring most of the rest in 1772.
Warfare
Frederick's goal was to modernize and unite his vulnerably disconnected lands; toward this end, he fought wars mainly against
Austria, whose
Habsburg dynasty reigned as
Holy Roman Emperors almost continuously from the 15th century until 1806. Frederick established Prussia as the fifth and smallest European
great power by using the resources his frugal father had cultivated.
Desiring the prosperous Austrian province of
Silesia, Frederick declined to endorse the
Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a legal mechanism to ensure the inheritance of the Habsburg domains by
Maria Theresa of Austria. He was also worried that
Augustus III,
King of Poland and Elector of
Saxony, would seek to connect his own disparate lands through Silesia. The Prussian king thus invaded Silesia the same year he took power, using as justification an obscure treaty from 1537 between the Hohenzollerns and the
Piast dynasty of
Brieg (Brzeg). The ensuing First
Silesian War (1740–1742), part of the
War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), resulted in Frederick conquering the province (with the exception of
Austrian Silesia). Austria attempted to recover Silesia in the Second Silesian War (1744–1745), but Frederick was victorious again and forced Austria to adhere to the previous peace terms. Prussian possession of Silesia gave the kingdom control over the
Oder River.
Habsburg Austria and
Bourbon France, traditional enemies, allied together in the
Diplomatic Revolution of 1756. As neighboring countries began conspiring against him, Frederick was determined to strike first. On
August 29,
1756 his well-prepared army crossed the frontier and preemptively invaded
Saxony, thus beginning the
Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Facing a coalition which included Austria, France,
Russia, Saxony, and
Sweden, and having only
Great Britain and
Hanover as his allies, Frederick narrowly kept Prussia in the war despite having his territories frequently invaded. The sudden death of Empress
Elizabeth of Russia, an event dubbed
the miracle of the House of Brandenburg, led to the collapse of the anti-Prussian coalition. Although Frederick didn't gain any territory in the ensuing
Treaty of Hubertusburg, his ability to retain Silesia during the Silesian Wars made him and Prussia popular throughout many German-speaking territories.
Late in his life Frederick also involved Prussia in the low-scale
War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, in which he stifled Austrian attempts to exchange the
Austrian Netherlands for
Bavaria. When Emperor
Joseph II tried the scheme again in 1784, Frederick created the
Fürstenbund, allowing himself to be seen as a defender of German liberties, in contrast to his earlier role of attacking the imperial Habsburgs.
Frederick frequently led his military forces personally and had six horses shot from under him during battle. Frederick is often admired as one of the greatest
tactical geniuses of all time, especially for his usage of the
oblique order of battle. Even more important were his operational successes, especially preventing the unification of numerically superior opposing armies and being at the right place at the right time to keep enemy armies out of Prussian core territory. In a letter to his mother Maria Theresa, the Austrian co-ruler Emperor
Joseph II wrote,
When the King of Prussia speaks on problems connected with the art of war, which he's studied intensively and on which he's read every conceivable book, then everything is taut, solid and uncommonly instructive. There are no circumlocutions, he gives factual and historical proof of the assertions he makes, for he's well versed in history… A genius and a man who talks admirably. But everything he says betrays the knave."
An example of the place that Frederick holds in history as a ruler is seen in
Napoleon Bonaparte, who saw the Prussian king as the greatest tactical genius of all time; after Napoleon's defeat of the
Fourth Coalition in 1807, he visited Frederick's tomb in
Potsdam and remarked to his officers, "Gentlemen, if this man were still alive I wouldn't be here".
Frederick the Great's most notable and decisive military victories on the battlefield were the Battles of
Hohenfriedberg,
Rossbach, and
Leuthen.
First Partition of Poland
Empress
Catherine II took the
Imperial Russian throne in 1762 after the murder of her husband,
Peter III. Catherine was staunchly opposed to Prussia, while Frederick disapproved of Russia, whose troops had been allowed to freely cross the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Seven Years' War. Despite the two monarchs' dislike of each other, Frederick and Catherine signed a defensive alliance on
April 11 1764 which guaranteed Prussian control of Silesia in return for Prussian support for Russia against Austria or the
Ottoman Empire. Catherine's candidate for the Polish throne,
Stanisław August Poniatowski, was then elected King of Poland in September of that year.
Frederick became concerned, however, after Russia gained significant influence over Poland in the
Repnin Sejm of 1767, an act which also threatened Austria and the
Ottoman Turks. In the ensuing
Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), Frederick reluctantly supported Catherine with a subsidy of 300,000 roubles, as he didn't want Russia to become even stronger through the acquisitions of Ottoman territory. The Prussian king successfully achieved a
rapprochement with Emperor Joseph and the Austrian chancellor
Kaunitz. As early as 1731 Frederick had suggested in a letter to Field Marshal
Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer that the country would be well-served by annexing Polish Prussia in order to unite the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Frederick's brother
Henry spent the winter of 1770–1771 as a representative of the Prussian court at
St. Petersburg. As Austria had annexed 13 towns in the
Szepes region in 1769, Catherine and her advisor General
Ivan Chernyshyov suggested to Henry that Prussia claim some Polish land, such as
Warmia (Ermeland). After Henry informed him of the proposal, Frederick suggested a partition of the Polish borderlands by Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Kaunitz counter-proposed that Prussia take lands from Poland in return for relinquishing Silesia to Austria, but this plan was rejected by Frederick.
After Russia occupied the
Danubian Principalities, Henry convinced Frederick and Maria Theresa that the
balance of power would be maintained by a tripartite division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth instead of Russia taking land from the Ottomans. In the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, Frederick claimed most of the Polish province of
Royal Prussia. Prussia annexed 20,000 mi² and 600,000 inhabitants, the least of the partitioning powers. However, the new
West Prussia united
East Prussia with Brandenburg and Hinterpommern and granted Prussia control of the mouth of the
Vistula River. Although Maria Theresa had reluctantly agreed to the partition, Frederick commented, "she cries, but she takes".
Frederick quickly began improving the infrastructure of the new territory. The Polish administrative and legal code was replaced by the Prussian system, and education improved; 750 schools were built from 1772-1775. Both
Protestant and
Roman Catholic teachers taught in West Prussia, and teachers and administrators were encouraged to be able to speak both German and
Polish. He also advised his successors to learn Polish, a policy followed by the Hohenzollern dynasty until
Frederick III decided not to let
William II learn the language. and compared the
Poles to the
Iroquois. Frederick invited German immigrants to redevelop the province, Many German officials also regarded the Poles with contempt.
Frederick gave his state a modern
bureaucracy whose mainstay until 1760 was the able War and Finance Minister Adam Ludwig von Blumenthal, succeeded in 1764 by his nephew Joachim who ran the ministry to the end of the reign and beyond. Prussia's education system was seen as one of the best in Europe. Frederick also abolished
torture and
corporal punishment.
Frederick began titling himself "King
of Prussia" after the acquisition of
Royal Prussia (
West Prussia) in 1772; the phrasing "
King in Prussia" had been used since the coronation of
Frederick I in
Königsberg in 1701.
Religious tolerance
Frederick generally supported religious toleration, including the retention of
Jesuits as teachers in Silesia, Warmia, and the
Netze District after their suppression by
Pope Clement XIV. He was interested in attracting a diversity of skills to his country, whether from Jesuit teachers, Huguenot citizens, or Jewish merchants and bankers, particularly from
Spain. He wanted development throughout the country, specifically in areas that he judged as needing a particular kind of development. As an example of this practical-minded but not fully unprejudiced tolerance, Frederick wrote in his
Testament politique that:
We have too many Jews in the towns. They are needed on the Polish border because in these areas Hebrews alone perform trade. As soon as you get away from the frontier, the Jews become a disadvantage, they form cliques, they deal in contraband and get up to all manner of rascally tricks which are detrimental to Christian burghers and merchants. I've never persecuted anyone from this or any other sect [sic]; I think, however, it would be prudent to pay attention, so that their numbers don't increase.
Jews on the Polish border were therefore encouraged to perform all the trade they could and received all the protection and support from the king as any other Prussian citizen. The success in integrating the Jews into those areas of society that Frederick encouraged them in can be seen by the role played by
Gerson von Bleichröder in financing Bismarck's efforts to reunite Germany.
Frederick's religious tolerance seemed to be motivated by more than a simple ploy to achieve advancement for his country. At a time when much of Europe still keenly remembered the invasions of the
Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, he said, "All religions are equal and good and as long as those practicing are an honest people and wish to populate our land, may they be
Turks or Pagans, we'll build them mosques and churches".
Architecture
Frederick had famous buildings constructed in his capital, Berlin, most of which still exist today, such as the
Berlin State Opera, the Royal Library (today the
State Library Berlin),
St. Hedwig's Cathedral, and Prince Henry's Palace (now the site of
Humboldt University). However, the king preferred spending his time in his summer residence Potsdam, where he built the palace of
Sanssouci, the most important work of Northern German
rococo. Sanssouci, which translates from
French as "carefree" or "without worry", was a refuge for Frederick. "
Frederician Rococo" developed under
Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff.
Music, arts, and learning
Frederick was a gifted musician who played the
transverse flute. He composed 100
sonatas for the flute as well as four
symphonies. The
Hohenfriedberger Marsch, a
military march, was supposedly written by Frederick to commemorate his victory in the
Battle of Hohenfriedberg during the Second Silesian War. His court musicians included
C. P. E. Bach,
Johann Joachim Quantz, and
Franz Benda. A meeting with
Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in
Potsdam led to Bach writing
The Musical Offering.
Frederick also aspired to be a
philosopher-king like the
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. The king joined the
Freemasons in 1738 and stood close to the French
Enlightenment, admiring above all its greatest thinker,
Voltaire, with whom he corresponded frequently. The personal friendship of Frederick and Voltaire came to an unpleasant end after Voltaire's visit to Berlin and Potsdam in 1750–1753, although they reconciled from afar in later years.
Frederick invited
Joseph-Louis Lagrange to succeed
Leonhard Euler at the
Berlin Academy. Other writers attracted to the philosopher's kingdom were
Francesco Algarotti,
d'Argens,
Julien Offray de La Mettrie, and
Pierre Louis Maupertuis.
Immanuel Kant published religious writings in Berlin which would have been censored elsewhere in Europe.
In addition to his native language, German, Frederick spoke French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; he also understood Latin, ancient and modern Greek, and Hebrew. Preferring instead French culture, Frederick disliked the German language, literature, and culture, explaining that German authors "pile parenthesis upon parenthesis, and often you find only at the end of an entire page the verb on which depends the meaning of the whole sentence". His criticism led many German writers to attempt to impress Frederick with their writings in the German language and thus prove its worthiness. Many statesmen, including
Baron vom und zum Stein, were also inspired by Frederick's statesmanship.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe gave his opinion of Frederick during a visit to
Strasbourg (Strassburg) by writing:
Well we hadn't much to say in favour of the constitution of the Reich; we admitted that it consisted entirely of lawful misuses, but it rose therefore the higher over the present French constitution which is operating in a maze of lawful misuses, whose government displays its energies in the wrong places and therefore has to face the challenge that a thorough change in the state of affairs is widely prophesied. In contrast when we looked towards the north, from there shone Frederick, the Pole Star, around whom Germany, Europe, even the world seemed to turn…
Sexuality
Some historians have speculated that Frederick the Great was
homosexual,
bisexual, or
celibate, but what is known with certainty is that he showed no interest in his wife, and his relationship with
Hans Hermann von Katte was widely speculated in the Prussian court to be romantic.
Frederick's youth was marked by his father's ill-treatment. He exposed Frederick to frequent public beatings and other humiliations. At age 18, Frederick could stand no more, and planned to flee to
France with Katte, a handsome officer who shared Frederick's French tastes. The king, already suspicious of a sexual relationship between them, intercepted their escape plans, and had both arrested. He ordered Katte to be beheaded outside Frederick's prison window. The weeping prince blew Katte a kiss and asked for forgiveness. Katte replied,
No need for forgiveness, sir, I die for you with the greatest of joy, then knelt for his decapitation. Frederick fainted dead away, and suffered hallucinations for two days following.
After Katte's death, Frederick's father forced him to marry
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern. He immediately separated from his wife when
Frederick William died in
1740. Frederick was no woman-hater, however. He had at least two affairs with women during his youth, and was very close to his sister Wilhelmine. Nevertheless, he'd very little in common with his bride. Morevover, he resented his political marriage as an example of the Austrian interference which had plagued Prussia since
1701. Their marriage produced no children. In later years, Frederick would pay his wife formal visits only once a year.
Outside the military milieu, Frederick spent much time in
Potsdam at
Sans Souci, his favourite residence, built in 1745-1747, pursuing erotic interest in regal seclusion. The grounds there even included a Friendship Temple celebrating the homoerotic attachments of Greek Antiquity, decorated with portrats of
Orestes and
Pylades, among others.
At Sans Souci Frederick entertained his most privileged guests, especially the French philospher
Voltaire, whom he asked in
1750 to come to live with him and be his love. The correspondence between Frederick and Voltaire which spanned almost 50 years was marked by mutual intellectual fascination and homoeroticism. In person, however, their friendship was often contentious. Voltaire abhorred Frederick's militarism. On the other hand, Frederick, whom Voltaire once described as a 'lovable whore', was unnerved by the Frenchman's way of flirting with him and then backing off. Voltaire's jealous attack in the press on one of Frederick's literary companions made him no longer welcome in Prussia; on his return to France in
1753 he anonymously published
The Private Life of the King of Prussia, wittily exposing Frederick's homosexuality and parade of male lovers. Frederick neither admitted nor denied the contents of the book. Voltaire and Frederick soon thereafter amicably resumed their correspondence, only able to love each other from a distance.
Frederick became misanthropic and withdrawn during his old age, having outlived the ones dearest to him. After a long illness, he died at age 74, accompanied in his last days by a young Italian count, whom he rewarded with an ambassadorship .
Other historians disagree on the nature of Frederick's sexuality, saying that Frederick's writings indicate that he simply had greater priorities than women. The French professor Dieudonné Thiébault declared that Frederick had mistresses at Neuruppin. Frederick's physician, Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann, claimed that the king let rumors of homosexuality appear to be true in order to avoid the public knowing that his genitalia were harmed by "a cruel surgical operation" to save his life from an unnamed venereal disease. Historian
Christopher Clark concludes "it is impossible - and unnecessary - to reconstruct the king's sexual history; he may well have abstained from sexual acts with anyone of either sex after his accession to the throne, and possibly even before. But if he didn't do it, he certainly talked about it; the conversation of the inner court circle around him was peppered with homoerotic banter."
Later years
Near the end of his life Frederick grew increasingly solitary. His circle of friends at Sanssouci gradually died off without replacements, and Frederick became increasingly critical and arbitrary, to the frustration of the
civil service and officer corps. The populace of Berlin always cheered the king when he returned to the city from provincial tours or military reviews, but Frederick took no pleasure from his popularity with the common folk, preferring instead the company of his pet
greyhounds, whom he referred to as his 'marquises de Pompadour' as a jibe at
Madame de Pompadour. Frederick died in an armchair in his study in the palace of Sanssouci on
17 August 1786.
Frederick had wished to be buried next to his greyhounds on the vineyard terrace on the side of the corps de logis of Sansscouci. His nephew and successor
Frederick William II instead ordered the body to be buried next to the grave of his father in the church of the Potsdam garrison. During
World War II, the
catafalques of both Frederick and
Frederick William I were transferred first to an underground bunker, later to a mineshaft close to the town of
Bernrode to protect them from destruction. In 1945 the
US Army transported both kings first to the
Elisabeth Church (Marburg) and then on to
Burg Hohenzollern close to the town of
Hechingen. After the
German reunification, the body of Frederick William was entombed in the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum in Sanssouci's
Church of Peace.
There was an emotional debate in Germany whether the funeral of a former king of Prussia, who was responsible for many wars during his time and who had been exploited as a symbol both by
Nazi Germany and the
German Democratic Republic, should be regarded as a public matter or not.
Despite numerous protests, on the 205th anniversary of his death, on
17 August 1991, Frederick's
casket lay in state in the court of honor of Sanssouci, covered by a Prussian flag and escorted by a
Bundeswehr guard of honour. After nightfall, Frederick's body was finally laid to rest on the terrace of the vineyard of Sanssouci, according to his last will without pomp and at night ("... Im übrigen will ich, was meine Person anbetrifft, in Sanssouci beigesetzt werden, ohne Prunk, ohne Pomp und bei Nacht..." (1757))..
Legacy
Frederick remains a controversial figure in Germany and Central Europe. With the rise of German
romantic nationalism in the 19th century, he was admired by German nationalists. In the 20th century, Frederick was often cited as a precursor for the Prussian and German
militarism that would inspire
Otto von Bismarck and
Adolf Hitler.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Frederick didn't believe in the
Divine Right of Kings and, disregarding the
exaggerated French style of the time, often wore old military uniforms; he merely believed the crown was "a hat that let the rain in". He called himself the "first servant of the state", but the Austrian empress
Maria Theresa called him "the evil man in Sanssouci." His wars against Austria weakened the Holy Roman Empire, yet gave to Prussia land and prestige that would prove vital for the 19th century
unification of Germany. He was both an enlightened ruler and a ruthless despot. Through reform, war, and the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, he turned the Kingdom of Prussia into a European great power.
Regarding Frederick,
Lord Macaulay wrote:
If he hadn't made conquests as vast as those of Alexander, of Caesar, and of Napoleon, if he'd not, on fields of battle, enjoyed the constant success of Marlborough and Wellington, he'd yet given an example unrivalled in history of what capacity and resolution can effect against the greatest superiority of power and the utmost spite of fortune.
Frederick in popular culture
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is named after the King of Prussia Inn, itself named in honor of Frederick. In popular culture, Frederick has been included in the
Civilization computer game series, the computer games
Age of Empires III and
Empire Earth II, and the board game
Friedrich. In the 2004 German film
Der Untergang,
Adolf Hitler is shown sitting in a dark room forlornly gazing at a painting of Frederick shortly before he took his own life.
Ancestry
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Frederick The Great'.
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