A philosopher on the throne.

A warrior obsessed with power.

A beautiful musician,
a tough ruler.

A reformer, rebel,
self-absorbed king.

A lover of people and dogs.

We could conjure up many more images

about Frederick II,

King of Prussia.

He will go down in history as “the great one”

.

But who was this monarch,

whom even the

National Socialists later

glorified as heroic?

Why is it still so important today?

All about it now.

(Single, bright tone)

Maybe you know the sentence:

"I am the first servant

of the state."

This was almost revolutionary at the time

and had nothing to do

with the previously common

view of power.

Friedrich heralds a turning point

.

From the baroque, mostly strongly

religious order

to an enlightened, rational
order

of state and society.

But let's go back to the beginning.

Old Fritz, as we
still call him today,

was born on January 24, 1712

in Berlin.

He is not only a child of

Friedrich Wilhelm I,

King of Prussia,
and therefore the future ruler,

but he is also a child

of the Baroque period.

This is a very formalized world. Strict rules and court etiquette

apply to the young heir to

the throne. A governess

raises him for the first four years of his life

.

This strict teacher

raised his father. A teacher

joins the team at the age of four and

two officers join the team at the age of six. His father sets

the goals of his upbringing

.

Moral rigor,
the love of being a soldier,

the pursuit of fame and honor

as life goals

and a solid general education

including Latin, mathematics,

geography, economics and history.

A few centuries later, Friedrich could

have subscribed to this channel,

but unfortunately such a baroque YouTube did

n't exist yet.

Friedrich is learning French anyway.

Because French was spoken at the courts back then

.

At just 13 years old, the

heir to the throne becomes a captain

in the royal body regiment.

Friedrich is
constantly at odds with his father.

The father is a hard man

who often beats his son

.

Friedrich has a mind of his own

and he rebels.

How do you think the royal

teenager rebels?

It's probably not the first thing

that comes to mind.

He reads modern French

literature.

Constitutional lawyers and philosophers.

He gets a library
with 4,000 books.

When his father finds out,

he has the books sold.

You can't look inside a person

.

But that probably didn't strengthen his bond with his father
.

The father chooses

a wife for Friedrich.

Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig. It is common for

the father to get involved, as people

married
for dynastic reasons back then.

He confides this to his sister.

The marriage remains childless. This is

not the only reason

why there is always speculation

about supposed homosexual

tendencies.
Whether he is gay or not
doesn't matter

when we look at Frederick's work

as a ruler.

He has a clear self-image.

His claim
to be the first servant of the state

gives him a modern state.

Characterized by pragmatism and

efficiency

in business, administration and

the military.

Always with the aim of

increasing the power of the state.

And Friedrich retains all power with

himself.

This form of rule is called enlightened absolutism.

Everything for the people -

but nothing by the people. In

concrete terms, this means:

Frederick carries out reforms for the people

.

The abolition of torture,

introduction of freedom of belief and

conscience.

Separation of administration and justice.

A start to the separation of powers.

State training
for lawyers, compulsory schooling.

The abolition of serfdom.

He ensures that the potatoes

are grown in Prussia.

Rivers are straightened

and dykes are built.

Swamps drained so that the land

can be cultivated. He recruits
foreign craftsmen and manufacturers

with subsidies and

tax exemptions.

It promotes the Berlin Academy

and thus knowledge and education

on nature, physics, chemistry, biology

and humanities topics.

All of this goes towards

enlightenment.

He hardly
resorts to his government.

She just has to implement what he says.

Instead, he bases his

decision-making

on a circle of advisors
and friends.

The nobility plays

a major role in his militarized state.

Even if his
social policy

partly questions the position of the nobility

.

That is not his goal,

but some developments have

that effect.

Two other key words

about Frederick's rule are:

war and military expansion.

He does everything he can to make Prussia into

a great power.

To do this, he has to prevail against his

competitor Austria.

Friedrich's policies began

the conflict

that
would determine German politics for a good 100 years.

Throughout his
reign
he does everything he can
to weaken Austria.

He reveals himself as a clear

real and power politician

and not at all as a Roi Philosophe,

as a philosopher king,

as he wrote essays at a young age

about

how a good monarch

should rule.

Accordingly, war should not simply

be a means of politics.

It should be short, cost little

and cause little suffering.

In terms of real politics, it looks

like this in 1740:

Friedrich wants to become a big player

in Europe. Above all,

he wants to strengthen the country economically

and has a well-equipped

and well-trained army. He

uses it
to achieve his goals.

In contrast to how he
describes it in his books.

With ice-cold calculation.

Even today, people are almost shocked

by his ruthlessness and

harshness.

At that time, contemporaries felt

no different. At the

end of 1741,
Prussian troops

invaded Austrian Silesia.

The First Silesian War lasted two years and

Prussia won.
In the summer of 1744, Frederick took
the initiative again.

He wants to forestall the Austrians

,

who want to repeat the lost territories

,

and attacks again.

He remains victorious and secures

possession of Silesia.

In 1756, Frederick mobilized

his troops again

and attacked.

This time in the Duchy of Saxony.

This is allied with Austria,

France and Russia, among others.

This great alliance is

superior to Prussia

and its allies,

especially England.

Frederick's defeat seems

inevitable.

After three years,

it's almost time.

The Austrians and Russians

could take Berlin,

but they choose otherwise.

Friedrich speaks ironically of the

“miracle of the House of Brandenburg”.

So about the miracle that

saves his ruling family.

Prussia only managed to

survive this seven-year war with extreme difficulty.

The Prussian subjects suffered

greatly during these years. There is

fighting not only in Europe,

but also in the colonies

overseas.

And then Old Fritz is

lucky in misfortune.

In January 1762,
the Russian Empress Elisabeth died.

Her son, Tsar Peter III,

is an admirer of the Prussian King.

He is ready to make peace.

And Peter's successor,

Tsarina Catherine the Great, also

remains there.

War weariness has set in among all those fighting.

The cruel war ended in 1763.

The result: more than 500,000 deaths

and no territorial
changes.

Friedrich persevered,
at a high price.

But Prussia is confirmed as a great power

and he as a glorious ruler.

Years followed in which he also

set standards in other areas.

He invites Voltaire to his court,

discusses, plays music

and writes works about politics.

The Sanssouci Palace,

which he had magnificently furnished,

became his refuge.

It's a nice symbol

to take stock of.

On the one hand, this magnificent building testifies to Frederick the Great's
thirst
for fame

and self-image
.

On the other hand, he wrote

philosophical and political
writings

that reflect the basis of his thinking

.

by not only making Prussia strong,

but also more modern.

A small example:

During his reign,

many foreigners

who were persecuted elsewhere because of their faith moved to Prussia

.

Prussia is considered a country of immigration

where it is known

that foreigners bring knowledge and ideas with them

.

But over the past 200 years,

parties and movements have

also

made use of the myth of the Prussian King in other ways.

In the Empire he was considered a

pioneer of the Reich, and for

the National Socialists he served

as an example of perseverance.

How do you rate this ruler?

A man who inspires or just a

king like many others?

Write it in the comments.

Here is a video
about the history of Prussia

and below it a video

from our colleagues at Terra X

about three of
Frederick the Great's bad qualities.