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Frederick II of Prussia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   Frederick II of Prussia.
   Enlarge
   Frederick II of Prussia.


                                                 CAPTION: Prussian Royalty
                                                     House of Hohenzollern


                                             Frederick I (1701-1713)
                                       Children
                                           Princess Louise Dorothea
                                           Prince Frederick William
                                         Frederick William I (1713-1740)
                                       Children
                                           Princess Wilhelmine
                                          Prince Frederick
                                           Princess Friederike Luise
                                           Princess Philippine Charlotte
                                           Princess Sophia
                                           Princess Louisa Ulrika
                                           Prince August Wilhelm
                                           Princess Anna Amalia
                                           Prince Henry
                                           Prince Ferdinand
                                       Frederick II (The Great, 1740-1786)
                                        Frederick William II (1786-1797)
                                       Children
                                           Prince Frederick William
                                           Prince Louis
                                           Princess Wilhelmine
                                           Princess Augusta
                                           Prince Charles
                                           Prince Wilhelm
                                        Frederick William III (1797-1840)
                                           Prince Frederick William
                                           Prince Wilhelm
                                           Princess Charlotte
                                           Princess Alexandrine
                                           Prince Charles
                                        Frederick William IV (1840-1861)

   Frederick II of Prussia (German: Friedrich II.; January 24, 1712 –
   August 17, 1786) of Hohenzollern dynasty, ruled the Kingdom of Prussia
   from 1740 to 1786. He was the third and last King in Prussia and became
   the King of Prussia in 1772.

   Frederick was an " enlightened monarch" or "enlightened despot".
   Because of his accomplishments he became known as Frederick the Great
   (Friedrich der Große). He was nicknamed der alte Fritz ("Old Fritz").

Early years

   Frederick was born in Berlin, the son of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover and
   King Frederick William I. The so-called "Soldier-King", Frederick
   William had created a formidable army and efficient civil service, but
   is otherwise recorded in a negative light. Frederick William was known
   to 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.

   At 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 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.

Youth

   Frederick the Great
   Enlarge
   Frederick the Great

   Frederick found an ally in his sister, Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, with
   whom he remained close for life. At age 16, Frederick also formed an
   attachment to the king's 17-year old page, Peter Christopher Keith.
   Wilhelmine 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…
   Though I had noticed that he was on more familiar terms with this page
   than was proper in his position, I did not know how intimate the
   friendship was."

   Frederick William exiled the page soon after and assigned a young
   soldier, Lieutenant Borcke, to be Frederick's friend. Frederick became
   enamored of the Lieutenant, writing, "My wearisome affection breaks
   from me and discloses to you the feelings of a heart filled with you,
   and which cannot be satisfied save in knowing that you are fully
   convinced of the tender friendship with which it adores you." There is
   no record of the Lieutenant returning the interest.

   Interest was returned the same year, however, by Hans Hermann von
   Katte, the 22-year old son of a general major and squire of Wust, and
   also a lover of French literature and music. When he was 18, Frederick
   plotted to flee to England with Katte and other junior army officers.
   His escape was botched, however, and Frederick and Katte were arrested.
   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 Great
   Britain against Frederick William.

   The prince was threatened with the death penalty, and the king did not
   rule out his being executed. In the end, Frederick was forced to watch
   the execution of his friend Katte at Küstrin, who was beheaded on
   November 6, 1730. When his companion appeared in the courtyard,
   Frederick called out from his cell, "My dear Katte, a thousand
   apologies," to which Katte replied, "My prince, there is nothing to
   apologize for." Frederick fainted before the sword fell.

   The king imprisoned Frederick for a year, during which Frederick began
   two of his longest relationships, with Lieutenant Count von Keyserling
   and Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf. Voltaire wrote of Fredersdorf, "This
   soldier, young, handsome, well made, and who played the flute, served
   to entertain the prisoner in more than one fashion." Fredersdorf was
   the heir of a peasant, but as king, Frederick would name him royal
   valet, then director of the royal theatre, and eventually chancellor of
   the kingdom.

   The only way that Frederick regained his title of crown prince,
   however, was by marriage to Elisabeth Christine von
   Braunschweig-Bevern, a consort chosen by the king, on June 12, 1733.
   Frederick wrote to his sister that, "There can be neither love nor
   friendship between us." He considered suicide. After becoming king,
   Frederick largely ignored his wife, but she remained devoted to him
   nonetheless and never became pregnant by another man.

   After the crisis in the relationship with the King in the early 1730s,
   father and son made a chilly peace later in the decade. 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.

   The works of Niccolò Machiavelli, such as The Prince, were considered a
   guideline for the behaviour 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
   apparently disseminated by Voltaire 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, Vorpommern, and Hinterpommern in the
   east of the Empire; and the Duchy of Prussia outside of the Empire to
   the east.

Warfare

   Frederick's goal was to modernize and unite his vulnerably disconnected
   lands; toward this end, he fought wars mainly against Austria, whose
   Habsburg dynasts reigned as Holy Roman Emperors 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 under the guidance of Otto von
   Bismarck.

   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 deceitfully invaded Silesia the same year he took power,
   using as justification an obscure treaty from 1537 between the
   Hohenzollerns and the Piasts of Brieg. The ensuing First Silesian War
   (1740–1742), part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748),
   resulted in Frederick conquering most of 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.

   As neighboring countries began conspiring against him, Frederick
   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 did not 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 his sovereign,
   Maria Theresa.

   Frederick frequently led his military forces personally. In fact, he
   had six horses shot from under him during battle. He was quite
   successful on the battlefield; 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 has studied intensively and on which he has
          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
          is well versed in history… A genius and a man who talks
          admirably. But everything he says betrays the knave."

   According to Voltaire, Frederick's success was also partially due to
   the personal closeness he enjoyed with his lieutenants: "…when His
   Majesty was dressed and booted, the Stoic gave some moments to the sect
   of Epicurus; he had two or three favorites come, either lieutenants of
   his regiment, or pages, or haidouks, or young cadets. They took coffee.
   He to whom the handkerchief was thrown stayed another quarter of an
   hour in privacy."

   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 would not
   be here".

   Frederick the Great's most notable and decisive military victories on
   the battlefield were the Battles of Hohenfriedberg, Rossbach, and
   Leuthen.

Partition of Poland

   The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the First Partition (1772)
   Enlarge
   The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the First Partition (1772)

   Empress Catherine II took the Imperial Russian throne in 1762 after the
   murder of Elisabeth's successor, 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 did not 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 Wenzel Anton Graf 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 Spiš region in 1769, Catherine and her advisor
   Czernichev suggested to Henry that Prussia claim some Polish land, such
   as Warmia. After Henry informed him of the proposal, Frederick
   suggested a partition of the Polish borderlands by Austria, Prussia,
   and Russia, to which 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. Although out of the partitioning powers
   Prussia annexed the smallest portion of the land (20,000 square miles)
   and received the fewest new inhabitants (600,000), the new West Prussia
   united East Prussia with Brandenburg and Hinterpommern and allowed him
   to control the mouth of the Vistula River.

   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. 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.

   However, Frederick looked upon many of his new citizens with scorn. He
   had nothing but contempt for the szlachta, the numerous Polish
   nobility, having told Voltaire in 1771 that the downfall of the Polish
   state would result from the "stupidity of the Potockis, Krasińskis,
   Oginskis and that whole imbecile crowd whose names end in -ki". He
   considered West Prussia as uncivilized as Colonial Canada and compared
   the Poles to the Iroquois. In a letter to Henry, Frederick wrote about
   the province that "it is a very good and advantageous acquisition, both
   from a financial and a political point of view. In order to excite less
   jealousy I tell everyone that on my travels I have seen just sand, pine
   trees, heath land and Jews. Despite that there is a lot of work to be
   done; there is no order, and no planning and the towns are in a
   lamentable condition." Frederick invited German immigrants to redevelop
   the province, also hoping they would displace the Poles. Many German
   officials also regarded the Poles with contempt. Frederick did befriend
   some Poles, such as Ignacy Krasicki, whom he asked to consecrate St.
   Hedwig's Cathedral in 1773.

Modernization

   Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War, painting by Richard
   Knötel.
   Enlarge
   Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War, painting by Richard
   Knötel.

   Frederick managed to transform Prussia from a European backwater to 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, including between the Vistula and the Oder, swamps were drained
   for agricultural cultivation, and new crops, such as the potato and the
   turnip, were introduced. Frederick regarded his reclamation of land in
   the Oderbruch as a province conquered in peace. With the help of French
   experts, he reorganized the system of indirect taxes, which provided
   the state with more revenue than direct taxes.

   During the reign of Frederick, 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 a 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.

   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. Prussia's education system was seen as one of the
   best in Europe. Frederick abolished torture and corporal punishment and
   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 througout the country, specifically in
   areas that he judged as needing a particular kind of development. For
   instance, Frederick, writing in his Testament politique, made
   suggestions on improving Prussia's border trade in a manner which we
   today would find indefensible, but at the time was very
   forward-thinking and equitable:

   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 have never persecuted anyone from this or any other sect
   [sic]; I think, however, it would be prudent to pay attention, so that
   their numbers do not increase.

   Those Jews on the Polish border were 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 of Frederick in
   integrating the Jews into those areas of society that Frederick
   encouraged them can be seen by the role played by Gerson Bleichroder in
   financing von Bismarck's efforts to reunite Germany. (see Gold and
   Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder and the Building of the German Empire by
   Fritz Stern)

   Frederick began titling himself "King of Prussia" in 1772; the phrasing
   " King in Prussia" had been used since the coronation of Frederick I in
   Königsberg in 1701.

Architecture

   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). 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 "Without Cares", was a refuge for Frederick.
   When he moved in, he wrote the following poem to his longtime
   companion, Count von Keyersling:

          In this new palace of noble architecture
          the two of us will enjoy complete liberty
          in the intoxication of friendship!
          Personal ambition and enmity
          will be accounted the only sins against nature.

   The South or Garden facade and corps de logis of Sanssouci
   Enlarge
   The South or Garden facade and corps de logis of Sanssouci

Music, arts, and learning

   "The Flute Concert of Sanssouci" by von Menzel, 1852, depicts Frederick
   the Great playing the flute in his music room at Sanssouci.
   Enlarge
   "The Flute Concert of Sanssouci" by von Menzel, 1852, depicts Frederick
   the Great playing the flute in his music room at Sanssouci.

   Frederick was a gifted musician. He played the cross-flute and 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. He stood close
   to the French Enlightenment and admired above all its greatest thinker,
   Voltaire, with whom he corresponded frequently. Voltaire referred to
   Frederick as, "great king, charming tease" and said

          For four years you have been my mistress…
          Yes I go to the knees of an adored object,
          But I leave behind what I love,"

   when he returned to his companion, Madame du Châtelet, in 1740. 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. Voltaire described their
   falling out as, "a lovers' quarrel: the harassments of courts pass
   away, but the nature of a beautiful ruling passion is long-lasting."

   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 anywhere else 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 Stein, were also inspired by Frederick's
   statesmanship. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe gave his opinion of Frederick
   during a visit to Strasbourg by writing:

          Well we had not 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…

Later years

   Near the end of his life Frederick grew increasingly solitary. When his
   longtime companion Fredersdorf sought marriage, Frederick cynically
   replied, "Have your marriage ceremony today rather than tomorrow if
   that will contribute to your care and comfort; and if you want to keep
   a little page and a little scout with you as well, do so." Frederick's
   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. He died on 17th August
   1786 in an armchair in his study in the palace of Sanssouci.

   Upon Frederick's death, his doctor, Johann Georg Zimmermann, published
   a book denying Frederick's reputation as a lover of men. Zimmermann
   conceded that, "Voltaire, la Beaumelle, the Duke de Choiseul,
   innumerable Frenchmen and Germans, almost all the friends and enemies
   of Frederick, almost all the princes and great men of Europe, even his
   servants — even the confidants and friends of his later years, were of
   opinion that he had loved, as it is pretended, Socrates loved
   Alcibiades." Zimmermann presented the theory that Frederick started
   this rumor to draw attention away from an accidental castration which
   happened during a gonorrhea treatment, but court physicians
   specifically noted that Frederick was in no way emasculated when they
   examined his body.

   Frederick had wished to be buried next to his greyhounds on the
   vineyard terrace on the side of the corps de logis of Sansscouci. „Im
   übrigen will ich, was meine Person anbetrifft, in Sanssouci beigesetzt
   werden, ohne Prunk, ohne Pomp und bei Nacht..."(1757) (transl. "Apart
   from that, as far as my person is concerned, I wish to be buried in
   Sanssouci, without splendour, without pomp and at night." )

   His successor instead ordered the body to be buried next to the grave
   of Frederick's father in the church of the Potsdam garrison. During the
   Second World War, the catafalcs of both kings 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 Frederick and his father first to the University
   Chapel of Marburg and then on to the Burg Hohenzollern close to the
   town of Hechingen. After the German reunification, the body of
   Frederick William was entombed in the in the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum
   in the Church of Peace (Sanssouci). There was a highly emotional debate
   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 the Third Reich and the German Democratic Republic, should be
   regarded as public matter or not. Despite numerous protests, on the
   205th anniversary of his death, on 17th August 1992, Frederick's
   catafalc lay in state in the court of honour 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.

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 did not 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.

Popular culture

     * King of Prussia, Pennsylvania is named after the King of Prussia
       Inn, itself named in honour of Frederick.

     * Frederick II of Prussia is one of the leaders of the German
       civilization in the Civilization video game series. The German
       civilization was actually added to replace the Turks in the
       original version of the game.

     * Frederick the Great is also one of the eight AI players in the game
       Age of Empires III.

     * Frederick the Great is one of the leaders in the board game
       Friedrich, which loosely simulates the events of the Seven Years'
       War.

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