Frederick the Great

King of Prussia (r. 1740-1786)

• Born: January 24, 1712
• Birthplace: Berlin, Prussia (now in Germany)
• Died: August 17, 1786
• Place of death: Sanssouci, near Potsdam, Prussia (now in Germany)

As king of Prussia, Frederick raised the power and prestige of his relatively obscure state, transforming it—through despotic but progressive policies at home and spectacular military victories—into one of Europe’s most powerful nations.

Early Life

One of Prussia’s greatest kings, Frederick the Great was the son of Frederick William I and Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hannover. As prince and heir to the throne, Frederick had to study government and military matters, as his father prescribed, but the prince found them boring. Frederick William was anti-intellectual and cared only for his army, but Prince Frederick, under the influence of his tutor Duhan de Jandun, developed a passionate love for French language and culture. Relations between father and son became extremely hostile, and the king often beat his son and berated him in public. The queen, on the contrary, encouraged her son’s cultural inclinations.

As tensions with his father became unbearable, the prince tried to flee to England with two companions, but all were caught and arrested. Frederick William threatened to remove Prince Frederick from the royal succession if he ever rebelled again, and he imposed upon his son a regimen of training in state and military affairs, which his instructors pursued mercilessly.

At his father’s insistence, Frederick married Princess Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern in 1733, a loveless union without progeny. By that time, Frederick had capitulated to paternal demands, and, through services he performed in the province of Neumark, he gained a measure of respect from his father.

From 1735 to 1740, Frederick lived at Rheinsberg, an estate north of Berlin. There he enjoyed fellowship with learned friends, played his flute, read, and wrote under the influence of the French philosophes. He corresponded with the brilliant French scholar Voltaire, and he composed Anti-Machiavel (1740), a critique of amoral politics. While at Rheinsberg, Frederick improved his relationship with the king by completing all assigned duties competently.

Life’s Work

On May 31, 1740, the quasi-reformed prince became King Frederick II, monarch of Europe’s thirteenth largest state. He brought to the throne the conviction that the ruler was the first servant of the state. An atheist, he rejected the theory of divine right monarchy and began to cement his rule. He worked relentlessly for the kingdom, and he expected his subjects to do the same. Frederick made heavy demands upon the nobles, especially for military service. He managed to increase the army from 80,000 eventually to 200,000 men.

Although while at Rheinsberg Frederick had written against amoral politics, as king he made pragmatism the basis of his policy. A striking evidence of this may be seen in his seizure of Silesia from Empress Maria Theresa, which initiated the War of the Austrian Succession. His late father had allowed Austria to decide his foreign policy and had signed a pragmatic sanction, by which he recognized Maria Theresa’s right to succeed to the Habsburg throne. Frederick, however, revived a dubious Prussian claim to parts of Austrian Silesia, which he invaded in December, 1740. In this struggle, Prussia allied with France and Bavaria, both of which Frederick deserted once he had realized his objective. Victory enabled him to increase his kingdom by about one third and thereby acquire territory rich in agricultural lands and mineral resources. His skillful military leadership and the performance of his army impressed all the great powers. In his memoirs, the king admitted that he had taken Silesia simply to strengthen Prussia, and he did not think it necessary to justify that move morally.

Frederick’s impressive triumph over Austria produced a general alarm about his intentions toward Europe as a whole. The Habsburgs remained unreconciled to their losses, and Maria Theresa branded Frederick “the robber of Silesia.” She concluded alliances with Russia, Saxony, and France. Frederick had unwittingly effected a diplomatic revolution, which confronted Prussia with a coalition of Europe’s three largest states. Although Frederick was able to gain the support of Great Britain, the future looked bleak for Prussia. Rather than wait to be attacked, Frederick launched a preemptive strike against Saxony, thereby beginning the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).

Frederick had no illusions about the dangers that confronted Prussia. He instructed his mistress to pay no ransom should he be captured and his army to wage war as though he were there. He carried poison, apparently to end his life rather than fall into enemy hands. He led combat operations personally and often exposed himself to danger. The king’s heroism had an inspiring effect upon his troops and contributed to some amazing victories over much larger enemy forces.

At first, the Prussian armies won resounding victories and inflicted heavy casualties upon their foes. Finally, however, the sheer weight of numbers took its toll, and Prussia could not replace its losses. Defeat appeared certain, but Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia died in 1762 and left the throne to Peter III, a peculiar personality with an obsessive admiration for Frederick the Great. Russia withdrew from the war. This reenergized the Prussian effort, and by 1763 all combatants were nearing exhaustion. The Treaty of Hubertsburg ratified Prussian possession of Silesia and left Frederick’s kingdom the chief power in central Europe.

By 1763, the prestige of Prussia and its heroic king were at their height. No other power could afford to ignore Prussia, whose interests would have to be considered in all significant international matters. Frederick knew this and took full advantage of this hard-won status.

After his great victory of 1763, Frederick made the security of his domain his chief concern. His kingdom was powerful and prosperous as a result of success in postwar reconstruction, and he intended to keep it that way. National security required rapprochement with recent enemies; Frederick therefore turned to Russia, where Catherine the Great had replaced Peter III, her murdered husband, in 1762. Catherine required, as the price of an agreement, Frederick’s cooperation in the partition of Poland, over much of which Russia exercised control, and where a succession crisis had erupted. In 1772, Russia, Austria, and Prussia collaborated in dividing about a third of Poland among them.

In domestic affairs, Frederick’s achievements are almost as impressive as his triumphs in war and diplomacy. Frederick aspired to be an enlightened ruler. He sought the good of his subjects, but he never relinquished despotic authority over them. He maintained the traditional class structure by relying upon the nobles to fill the army officer corps and the most important posts in the state. He nevertheless enacted many reforms that improved life for all classes of society.

To combat waste and corruption, Frederick eliminated the sale of government offices and conducted regular audits of state funds. He protected peasants against abusive landlords, made the dispensation of justice more equitable, and banned the use of torture for crimes other than treason.

Frederick had no faith, but he believed that religion had social utility by teaching public morality. He respected the rights of Catholics in occupied Silesia, but he pressured priests to support his policies. He employed Jesuits to teach in some schools even after the pope had dissolved that order. The king granted both toleration and citizenship to Jews in his dominions, although Protestantism remained the dominant faith in Prussia. Frederick actually ridiculed Christianity as a superstition. Some of his French critics complained that the only real liberty in autocratic Prussia was the freedom to scorn religion. Frederick could afford to tolerate diverse religions because he was indifferent toward all of them.

Frederick’s economic policies reflect his subscription to mercantilism, a government-regulated economy. Salt, coffee, and tobacco were state monopolies, and families were required to buy a stipulated amount of salt annually. When he opened Crown lands to settlement, the king required colonists to pay him dues. They could not leave the land without finding replacements, and they were subject to forced labor. Many features of feudalism remained in Prussia long after they had disappeared in France.

The king owned a third of Prussia’s agricultural lands, and he regulated timber, iron, and lead production. Frederick required farmworkers to learn the art of wool spinning, and he gave free looms to immigrant weavers. He was a paternalist who sought to direct the profits from state enterprises toward the public welfare. He assumed that no one knew better than he what was good for his subjects. Yet his economic policies protected the old class structure and thereby retarded the growth of a vigorous middle class. The king placed taxation in the hands of French revenue agents, who were more efficient than any officers who might have been recruited in Prussia. Although government income increased considerably, the presence of foreign officials caused much resentment, which the monarch chose to ignore.

The Seven Years’ War exhausted Frederick, and he retired to the seclusion of Potsdam and thereafter seldom appeared in public. In old age, he became irritable and sometimes irrational. When, for example, some Berlin magistrates rendered a verdict that angered him, the king sentenced them to forced labor for a year, despite his subscription to the rule of law.

Significance

Voltaire, who had been a sort of philosopher-in-residence at the palace from 1750 to 1753, bestowed upon Frederick the title “the Great.” The king’s remarkable achievements surely justify that appellation, but Frederick was, nevertheless, an authoritarian ruler, a militarist at times, and an advocate of enlightenment only insofar as it would strengthen the state and his control over its affairs. In military matters, he was one of the greatest commanders in history.

Subsequent events seem to indicate that Frederick’s Prussia depended too much upon him personally, and when he was gone, his far less able successors were unable to maintain the strength it needed. The Napoleonic Wars brought humiliating defeats, but on the foundation that Frederick the Great laid, Otto von Bismarck built the mighty German Empire, Europe’s most powerful state, by the opening of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Asprey, Robert B. Frederick the Great. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1986. A work of fine scholarship and extensive research, placing Frederick in the context of his times and skillfully evaluating his role in history. The lucid style makes it accessible reading for anyone interested in the subject.

Daniels, Emil. “Frederick the Great and His Successors.” In The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 6, edited by A. W. Ward et al. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1909. Although this treatment appeared years ago, it remains a highly useful analysis containing extensive coverage of Frederick’s economic policies and their far-reaching effects. Frederick is portrayed as a progressive ruler with a keen understanding of his nation’s needs who improved the quality of life for his subjects and greatly enhanced Prussia’s international standing.

Fraser, David. Frederick the Great: King of Prussia. New York: A. Lane, 2000. Fraser, a general and biographer, focuses on Frederick’s military career. The book contains detailed descriptions of battles and military strategy, placing these conflicts within the context of eighteenth century European diplomacy and political history.

Horn, D. B. Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. A delightfully written work combining a biography with a political history of eighteenth century Prussia. Intended for general readers, it nevertheless displays erudite research and scholarship.

Johnson, Hubert C. Frederick the Great and His Officials. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975. Scholarly examination of Prussia’s development under Frederick’s scrupulous and relentless direction, aimed at readers who have some previous knowledge of Frederick and this period in history. Johnson explains how Frederick demonstrated unusual managerial abilities in supervising the political and economic administration of his state.

MacDonogh, Giles. Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Comprehensive biography, based on meticulous research into primary documents, including Frederick’s correspondence. Readers already familiar with Frederick will not find new revelations, but the book is a useful introduction for students and others who want to know more about the man and his times.

Paret, Peter, ed. Frederick the Great: A Profile. New York: Hill & Wang, 1972. Despite his overwhelming importance in European history, Frederick has always been a controversial figure. Paret unites diverse interpretations of Frederick’s policies and his role in history, allowing readers to ascertain how Frederick’s career has impressed a variety of scholars.

Ritter, Gerhard. Frederick the Great: A Historical Profile. Translated by Peter Paret. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Widely acclaimed critical biography by a renowned scholar of German history, best understood by readers with some previous acquaintance with Prussian history and Frederick’s role in it.

Schieder, Theodor. Frederick the Great. Edited and translated by Sabina Berkeley and H. M. Scott. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999. Abridged English translation of a biography published in 1983. Although the original notes, bibliography, and a chapter on Frederick and the concept of “historical greatness” have been deleted, the remaining book provides a useful introduction to Frederick’s life and career.