Frederick the Great

Frederick II, also known as Frederick the Great, was the King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. He was born on January 24, 1712, in Berlin, Prussia (now Germany) and died on August 17, 1786, in Potsdam, near Berlin. He was a brilliant military campaigner who greatly enlarged Prussia’s territories and made Prussia the foremost military power in Europe through a series of diplomatic stratagems and wars against Austria and other powers. Frederick was an enlightened absolute monarch who favored French language and art and built a French Rococo palace, Sanssouci, near Berlin. He ranks among the two or three dominant figures in the history of modern Germany. Under his leadership, Prussia became one of the great states of Europe.

 

 Frederick is known for his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment, and his success in the Seven Years’ War. He seized parts of Silesia during the War of the Austrian Succession, strengthening Prussia considerably. He invaded Saxony in 1756 and marched on into Bohemia. Frederick was almost defeated in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), until his admirer Peter III signed a Russo-Prussian peace treaty that lasted until 1780. The First Partition of Poland in 1772 led to enormous territorial gains for Prussia.

 

In addition to modernizing the army, Frederick also espoused the ideas of enlightened despotism and instituted numerous economic, civil, and social reforms. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats. Frederick also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, although he enacted oppressive measures against Catholics in Silesia and Polish Prussia.

 

Frederick’s greatest achievement was perhaps the creation of an effective government bureaucracy, which became the model for the nineteenth century, and laws establishing religious and social freedoms, which were fundamental in defining the concept of liberty. Under Frederick’s leadership, Prussia became one of the great states of Europe, with vastly expanded territories and impressive military strength.

 

Frederick the Great’s reign ended with his death on August 17, 1786, in Potsdam, near Berlin. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Royal Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. He was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II.