II of Prussia (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was a king
of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty, reigning from 1740 to
1786. He was one of the "enlightened monarchs" (also referred
to as "enlightened despots"). Because of his accomplishments
he became known as Frederick the Great (German Friedrich der Große).
He was born in Berlin, the son of Frederick William I, the so-called
"Soldier-King," who created a formidable army and efficient
civil service. His mother was Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (1687–1757).
Unlike her husband, Sophia was well-mannered and well-educated.
His maternal grandfather, George, Elector of Hanover, was the
heir of Queen Anne of Great Britain, whom George succeeded in
1714, as King George I of Great Britain.
the time of Frederick's birth, the Houses of Brandenburg and Hanover
were enjoying great prosperity; 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 princes and
princesses, but as children of simple folk. He had been educated
by a French-woman, 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.
Crown Prince, Frederick displayed passionate interests in French
literature, poetry, philosophy, and Italian music. This roused
the suspicions of his father, who wanted to see his son follow
more "masculine" pursuits like hunting and riding. He
called his son "an effeminate chap," and subjected him
to bloody and humiliating beatings. When he was 18, Frederick
plotted to flee to England with a group of friends, all junior
army officers. But he botched his escape, and was arrested with
friend (and possibly lover) Hans Hermann von Katte. An accusation
of treason was leveled against both the prince and Katte since
they were officers in the Prussian army and had tried to flee
from Prussia, allegedly even having hatched a plan to ally with
Britain against the Prussian king. The prince was threatened with
the death penalty, and the king did not rule out an execution.
The proud prince had to submit to his father's demands. Frederick
was forced to watch the execution by decapitation of his friend
Katte on November 6, 1730, and was strictly supervised in the
the GreatThe only way that Frederick atoned (and regained his
title of crown prince) for this in his father's eyes was in his
marriage to Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern on June
12, 1733. The involuntary matrimony did not lead to children as
after becoming king, Frederick mostly ignored his wife. While
Voltaire indicated that Frederick was homosexual, there is no
clear evidence of his having shown such behavior.
the crisis in the relationship with the King in the early 1730s,
father and son made a chilly peace in the late 1730s. Frederick
William gave his son the chateau Rheinsberg north of Berlin. 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.
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 "Antimachiavel, ou Examen
du Prince de Machiavel" - a writing in which he opposes Machiavelli.
It was published anonymously in 1740 but apparently disseminated
As king, Frederick did not have a vision for a unified Germany;
this had to wait until Bismarck planned the wars of unification
a century later. Frederick's goal was to improve his country of
Prussia. Toward this end he fought his wars mainly against Austria,
whose Habsburg dynasts reigned as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire
almost continuously from the 15th century until 1806). Frederick
established Brandenburg-Prussia as the fifth and smallest European
great power by using the resources his father had made available.
For 100 years the ensuing Austro-Prussian dualism made a unified
Germany impossible until Prussia's defeat of Austria in 1866.
led the Prussian forces during the War of the Austrian Succession
(1740-1748), during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and in the
War of the Bavarian Succession (1778) - not only as king, but
also as the military commander in the field. He was quite successful
on the battlefield; Frederick is often admired as one of the greatest
tactical geniuses of all time. Even more important were his operational
successes, especially preventing the unification of superior enemy
armies and being at the right place at the right time to keep
enemy armies out of Prussian core territory.
Frederick managed to better Prussia from being a European backwater
and make it an economically strong and politically reformed state.
His acquisition of Silesia was orchestrated so as to provide Prussia's
fledgling industries with raw materials, and he protected these
industries with high tariffs and minimal restrictions on internal
trade. Canals were built, swamps were drained for agricultural
cultivation, and new crops, such as the potato and the turnip,
were introduced. With the help of French experts, he reorganized
the system of indirect taxes, which provided the state with more
revenue than direct taxes. He abolished torture and granted wide
religious freedom (although he himself did not care much for religion).
He 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. The civil service code was based
on respect for law and ethics, as well as pride in one's profession.
This legacy was passed on into the modern German state and is
a main reason why he is still admired as a historical figure within
Germany. A major example of the place that Frederick holds in
history as a ruler is seen in Napoleon Bonaparte, who saw Frederick
as the greatest tactical genius of all time.
no children of his own, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew
as King Frederick William II of Prussia.
Music, arts, and learning
Frederick was a gifted musician. He played the cross-flute and
composed one-hundred sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies.
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.
also aspired to be a philosopher-king like the Roman emperor Marcus
Aurelius. He stood close to the French Enlightenment and admired
above all its greatest thinker, Voltaire, with whom he corresponded
frequently. Their personal friendship, however, came to an unpleasant
end after Voltaire's visit to Berlin and Potsdam in 1750-1753.
the Great invited Joseph-Louis Lagrange to succeed Leonhard Euler
at the Berlin Academy.
addition to his native language, German, he spoke French, English,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; he also understood Latin, ancient
and modern Greek, and Hebrew. Later in his life, he learned Basque,
Slavic, and Chinese.
Frederick had famous buildings constructed in his chief residence,
Berlin, most of which still exist today, such as the Berlin State
Opera, the Royal Library (today the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin),
St. Hedwig's Cathedral, the French and German Cathedrals on the
Gendarmenmarkt, and Prince Henry's Palace (now the site of Humboldt
University). But 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.
this day Frederick remains a controversial figure in Germany and
Central Europe. He called himself the "first servant of the
state", but the Austrian empress Maria Theresa called him
"the evil man in Sanssouci." He was both: an enlightened
ruler and a ruthless despot. Through reform, war, and the first
Partition of Poland (1772), he turned his state of Brandenburg-Prussia
into a European great power.
did not believe in the Divine Right of Kings and would often wear
old military uniforms unlike the exaggerated French style. He
merely believed the crown was "a hat that let the rain in".
During the reign of Frederick the II, the effects of the Seven
Years War and the gaining of Silesia greatly changed the economy.
The circulation of depreciated money kept prices high. To revalue
the Thaler, the Mint Edict of May 1763 was proposed. This stabilized
the rates of depreciated coins that would be accepted and provided
for the payments of taxes in currency of prewar value. This was
replaced, in northern Germany by the Reichsthaler, worth one-fourth
of a Conventionsthaler. Prussia used a Thaler containing one fourteenth
of Cologne mark of silver. Many other rulers soon followed the
steps of Frederick in reforming their own currencies-- this resulted
in a shortage of ready money.
The following chronology of events took place during his life:
May 31: Death of the King Frederick William
1740 October 20: Death of the Emperor Karl VI.; The War of the
Austrian Succession begins
1741 April 10: Battle of Mollwitz
1742 June 11 and July 28: Separate peace treaties with Austria;
Silesia becomes part of Prussia
1744 August 10: War breaks out again with Austria
1745 December 25: Peace. Prussia and Frederick have won all 5
battles against Austria in the two Silesian Wars
1748 Austrian war ends.
1756-1763 Seven Years' War. Frederick is confronted with an Austrian-French-Russian-Saxon
alliance. Afraid of being attacked by a resentful Austria, he
decides to take the initiative. Initial successes against Saxony
and Austria in 1756-1757 are not severe enough to reach a conclusive
decision. The Prussians have to retreat from Bohemia. For the
rest of the war, Frederick is busy trying to defend the triangle
of Berlin - Silesia - Saxony. In the west Prussia is sheltered
by Britain-Hanover from France. Defence in Northern and Eastern
Prussia is only sporadic.
1757 June 6: First defeat of Frederick in the Battle of Kolin
1757: Frederick wins his greatest victory at the Battle of Leuthen
against Prince Charles of Lorraine
1758 August 25: Victory against superior Russian troops at the
Battle of Zorndorf.
1759 August 12: Disastrous defeat of Frederick and his army in
the Battle of Kunersdorf
1762 Armistice and peace with Russia; Austria is financially ruined
1763 Prussia neither gains nor loses territories
After the war Frederick begins immediately to rebuild his country.
1772 Prussia and Austria join Russian intervention in Poland's
War of the Confederation of Bar, resulting in the first of the
three Partitions of Poland. By seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia
instantly gains control over 80% of Poland's total foreign trade.
Through levying enormous custom duties on Polish trade using this
route, Prussia accelerates the inevitable collapse of Poland (Encylcopaedia
1778 After the death of the Bavarian Kurfürst (elector) Austria
tries to annex Bavaria. Frederick (aged 66) invades Bohemia. Austria
has to give in.
1781 Frederick publishes his Essay on the Forms of Government,
a recipe for efficiency in absolute governments.
1786 August 17 Frederick II dies.