FREDERICK II OF PRUSSIA (1712 – 1786) WAS KNOWN AS FREDERICK THE GREAT.HE WAS THE MOST BRILLIANT MONARCH,A BRILLIANT REFORMER ,STATESMAN AND ADMINISTRATOR IN GERMAN HISTORY.THROUGH DIPLOMACY AND MILITARY CAMPAIGNS ,HE GREATLY EXPANDED PRUSSIA'S TERRITORIES.
Frederick II, ‘the Great’, Elector of Brandenburg and King in and, from 1772, of Prussia.Frederick II is born in Berlin to his parents, Frederick William I of Prussia and Princess Sophia-Dorothea. His childhood was spent in rigorous military training and education. He is part of the Hohenzollern dynasty. During his childhood, his mother introduces him to a wide range of Enlightenment ideas, including French culture and classical texts, while his strict father enrolls him in military training. At the time, Prussia’s education system was seen as one of the best in Europe. Frederick laid the basic foundations of what would eventually became a Prussian primary education system. In 1763, he issued a decree for the first Prussian general school law based on the principles developed by Johann Julius Hecker. In 1748, Hecker had founded the first teacher’s seminary in Prussia. The decree expanded the existing schooling system significantly and required that all young citizens, both girls and boys, be educated by mainly municipality-funded schools from the age of 5 to 13 or 14. Prussia was among the first countries in the world to introduce tax-funded and generally compulsory primary education, although it took several decades before universal education was successfully enacted.The Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I , had acknowledged the coronation of Elector Frederick III as Frederick I, King in Prussia (Rex in Borussia), in return for support during the War of the Spanish Succession, but only because the erstwhile Duchy of Prussia, as opposed to Brandenburg, lay without the Empire and also, falsely, as it would turn out, reassuring the Poles as to claims upon their territory.It would be thirty-two years after his accession, following the First Partition of Poland, before Frederick II would alter the preposition. Why, the reader might ask, is that of any relevance to an article concerning Frederick the Great and opera? Apart from the not entirely insignificant matter of bestowing the correct title, it reminds us of the monarch’s complicated relationship with German culture, for all the admiration felt for ‘der alte Fritz’ by later nationalists. Frederick’s statue may stand proudly on Berlin’s Unter den Linden, close to the opera house he commissioned shortly after succeeding to the throne; yet not only should he be considered more Prussian than German, he remained for the most part aloof from the rise in cultural German nationalism that characterised the eighteenth century just as well as the nineteenth.However, he is best known as a great military leader. He was able to expand his kingdom at the expenses of his neighbours and he was to turn Prussia into a major European power. It was under him that the Prussian army became one of the best in Europe. His army was able to inflict major defeats on the French, Austrians and Russians. The victories served to increase his reputation and many came to call him a genius. Frederick was unusually for a soldier and king a very cultured man and renowned for his wit.In December 16, 1740,Frederick invades the Austrian territory of Silesia without provocation, thus beginning the First Silesian War, which is caught up in the larger War of Austrian Succession. His goal is to expand and unify a Prussian empire.Frederick makes peace with Silesia and becomes the ruler of nearly the entire region. Between 1744 and 1745 Austria attempts to retake Silesia from Prussia, but in the Treaty of Dresden, Frederick forces Austrian ruler Maria Theresa to adhere to previous boundaries.Hoping to preempt a conspiracy between Prussia's neighboring countries, Frederick invades Saxony, allied with Austria, and begins the Seven Years' War, along with his ally, Great Britain. Despite several victories, the war soon turns into a stalemate for Prussia.In February 15, 1763,the Seven Years' War formally ends, leaving Prussia without any new territory. Nevertheless, Frederick is allowed to keep Silesia and his country becomes known as one of the most powerful in Europe.Frederick signs a treaty along with Russia and Austria that partitions Poland and removes 1/3 of its land area. The three countries divide up the winnings; Prussia gains a number of economically valuable provinces.He is particularly recognized for his maneuver of tropes both on and off the battlefield that allowed him often to outwit his enemies and to show up in unexpected places.His victories Rossbach and Leuthen is still considered masterpieces. While Prussia victory in the seven year war had a lot to do with luck at the end. It hard to think of many commanders who would have been able to win a four front war, against 5 of Europe's great powers or even hold out as long as he did.To sum it up Napoleon saw Frederick the Great as a bigger military mind then himself.But Frederick the Great was far more than just a war king. He was also one of the most enlightened monarchs of his time. While other monarchs at the time was seen as kinda like demigods, Frederick the Great was an open atheist, he stopped witches persecution and gave unexpected high religious freedom, with the exception of Judaism.He often avoided court life and lifted his hat for even ordinary Prussian, he promoted people based on their personal abilities instead of their blood. He was frist ruler who acknowledged that he served the state, and not the state there served him.His bureaucratic reforms made the Prussian civil service more efficient, methodical and also conscious of there public duty. He started a system of basic education. He codified the law and reformed the judicial system who made sure that the same law was used throughout Prussia.
Frederick the Great and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern.Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was born on 8 November 1715 as the daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.In 1733, Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia was ordered by his father to marry Elisabeth Christine, who also happened to be the niece of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI’s wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
On 12 June 1733, Elisabeth-Christine married Frederick at her father's summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. On their wedding night, Frederick spent a reluctant hour with his new wife and then walked about outside for the rest of the night.Due to the circumstances behind their betrothal, Frederick was well known to have resented the marriage from the very beginning. He had only agreed to marry Elisabeth after his failed attempt to escape from his father's tyrannical regime. The King had thereafter ordered Frederick to marry the daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and Frederick had submitted to his father's will in order to regain his freedom.Thus, the position of Elisabeth-Christine, who was only seventeen on her marriage, at the Berlin Court, was difficult from the beginning, as the only support that she could count on was the King's. Her father-in-law, Frederick William I, had indeed remained attached to his daughter-in-law until his death and was particularly fond of her piety, which did nothing to endear her husband. However, Frederick was shrewd enough to recognise the opportunity his wife provided to improve his own relationship with his father, and systematically used her to gain favours from him. During the first year of their marriage, Frederick was garrisoned in Ruppin, while Elisabeth lived in Berlin at the King's Court, and he showered her with letters asking for travel permits, money, etc. from the King or even demanding that she run up debts in Brunswick to pay for his expenses. This pattern continued even after the couple moved to the palace in Rheinsberg in 1736.There, Frederick was allowed to maintain a court of his own for the first time, and there the couple's marital life seems to have been as normal as it would ever become; Elisabeth-Christine later recalled the Rheinsberg years as the "happiest of her life". However, the basis for this relationship, which was characterised by honest admiration, or even love, on Elisabeth's side, and cool calculation on Frederick's, disappeared with his accession to the throne in 1740.In 1740, Frederick's father died and he succeeded to the throne of Prussia as Frederick II. He then initiated the separation between the two. Elisabeth Christine began living separately from him, taking up her residence at Schönhausen Palace, nowadays in the north of Berlin, while Frederick resided in Potsdam. It should be mentioned that throughout his life, Frederick did not show any sexual interest in women, and the only woman whom he considered a close friend was his older sister, Wilhelmine. He had no known affairs and presided over a very spartan, almost military court, where women rarely appeared and never held any influence. Tradition has it that Elisabeth Christine could not understand Frederick's indifference and that she had an unrequited love for her spouse. Her mother-in-law felt sorry for her because of this and often invited her to her residence.Frederick the Great did not care for ceremonial court life and representation, which he associated with the undue influence of females upon state affairs, such as the influence of the royal mistresses in France, and left most of the posts in his own court vacant and thereby did not possess much of a court at Potsdam.During the first years of his reign, he did somewhat revive the court life, but after his palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam was completed in 1747, he spent his life more and more isolated in Sanssouci in the summer and the Potsdam royal residence in winter, and only appeared at the official royal court in Berlin at special occasions such as birthdays of members of the royal house and visits of foreign princes.Despite his personal contempt for representational court life, however, he realized its importance in the system of state, and therefore did not abolish court life in Prussia, but rather left virtually all representational duties to his wife. Queen Elisabeth Christine therefore had a very visible and official role as queen of Prussia: during the first seventeen years of his reign, she shared the representational duties of the court with her mother-in-law, and after the death of the dowager queen in 1757, she handled them alone. When he became king, Frederick gave Elisabeth Christine her own summer palace Schönhausen Palace outside Berlin as a summer residence, redecorated the state apartments in the Berlin Royal Palace, and appointed a large court for her to assist her in relieving him of upholding the court routine. Elisabeth Christine spent her winters in the Royal Palace in Berlin, where she received foreign princes, ambassadors and generals and hosted official court events such as royal birthdays and weddings, and she spent her summers at Schönhausen, where she entertained the royal family and the Prussian aristocracy with concerts and dinners in a circle of Lutheran theologians such as Büschning, Spaldning and ZöllneAt both residences, she presided at the weekly reception days, courtage, which were the only occasions were the entire Prussian royal court assembled as a whole during the reign of Frederick the Great.She was described in 1779 by the English tourist Dr. Moore: "The Queen has one Court-day in the week, when the Princes, nobility, and foreign ambassadors wait upon her, at five o' clock. After she has made the tour of the circle, and said a few words to each, she seats herself at the card-table. The Queen has her own table, and each of the Princesses has one. The rest of the company shows itself a moment at each of these card tables, and then the attendance for the day is over, and they walk in the garden, or form other card-tables in the other rooms, as it pleases them, and return to Berlin at dusk. Sometimes the Queen invites a good many of them to supper, and then they remain till midnight. These are the only assemblies where one meets the Berlin ladies in summer." Despite the fact that Frederic entrusted the role of representation to her, he did not always give her the funds necessary to play this role, and it caused surprise to foreigners that the king did not give the queen funds necessary to entertain more lavishly, as her court reception were the only one in Prussia; as the king became more spartan over the years, so did the receptions of the queen become more underfunded, Charpentier once joking: "The Queen must have a grand gala tonight; I saw an old lamp lighted on the staircase as I passed!"The king himself only very rarely attended any of the court events, while the queen was always present. He visited the birthday celebration of the queen only twice between 1741 and 1762, was often absent at royal weddings, such as for example the wedding of Prince Henry in 1752 and Prince Frederick William in 1765, where she also acted as his representative: he was often absent even at his own official birthday celebration, where she normally received birthday congratulations in his place, and when he did attend, he normally only appeared very swiftly and then left again.When he did appear in Berlin, he normally did not represent at his own apartment, but merely visited the queen's reception in her apartment.Frederick was often absent even at important functions, such as the state visit of the Russian Grand Duke in 1776. While he on rare occasions participated in Berlin court life, he never visited her court at Schönhausen, nor was she ever invited to Sanssouci. Though Elisabeth Christine was never involved in any politics and lacked any influence whatsoever, her receptions were always well attended as she hosted the only court life taking place in Prussia at the time, which made it an important social center and a place to meet important people.During the Seven Years' War, the king was permanently absent from the capital for six years. He had left the queen no formal responsibility or instructions, but she became the symbol of Prussian resilience in the capital during the crisis, and was greeted by cheering crowds when she appeared in public. When Berlin was threatened in 1757, it was she who took the responsibility for the royal house and court, and ordered for it to be evacuated to Magdeburg. She was able to return to Berlin in 1758, but was again forced to evacuate in 1760. It was on the first of these occasions that she saw Sanssouci for the first time. In 1763, when Frederick saw his wife for the first time in six years, he only commented: "Madame has grown quite fat." Despite his lack of interest in her person, Frederick demanded that Elisabeth Christine be respected in her capacity as a queen and her task in upholding the representational court life he avoided, but his separation from her and her subsequent lack of influence, in combination with her timid personality, aroused pity and made it hard for her to receive respect: on one occasion, for example, the opera singers refused to appear at her concert, and she was forced to ask Fredrick to demand that she be treated with respect
Frederick the Great himself is known to have composed 121 flute sonatas, four flute concertos, a "Symphony" in G major, a March in E flat major, various arias, and an overture to "Il Re pastore." Apart from the wholly Italianate arias, Frederick's works were written in the "mixed style" advocated by Quantz, an attempt to blend "Italian music of the senses" with "French music of reason". Remnants of baroque pathos are also intermingled with galant and "touching" elements. The three-movement sonatas are generally in the sequence slow - quick - quick, while the concertos are in the more customary form quick - slow - quick. The slow movements are characterized by "controlled singing." "If the first Allegro is serious, the last can be gay" (Quantz). In the fast movements of the concertos the solo episodes blossom in ever more brilliant arpeggios and passage work.
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.Frederick’s concept of statecraft in turn convinced him that Prussia must fight only short, decisive wars partly to conserve scarce resources, partly to convince the losers to make and keep the peace, and partly to deter potential challengers. This required development of a forward-loaded military, able to spring to war from a standstill with strong initial results.While Frederick did not necessarily seek battle for its own sake, he held nothing back once the fighting started. The 1745 Battle of Soor began when the Austrians surprised the Prussian camp and ended when Frederick improvised victory from the sheer fighting power of his men. The 1758 Battle of Hochkirch was an even more comprehensive surprise that Frederick dismissed as an outpost fight until taught better by round shot from his own captured guns. He responded to these reverses by striving to make Prussia’s military indomitable, thus minimizing what Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) would later call the “fog and friction” of war. Even in peacetime, Frederick’s army would account for as much as three-fourths of public expenditure.
Following the outbreak of the seven years' War in 1756, Prussia found itself nearly surrounded by its enemies. So Prussian forces under Frederic the great won the battle of Rossbach. Casualties of the allied forces in the battle were around 5,000 dead/wounded and 5,000 captured. For the Prussians, the cost was a remarkably low only 169 were dead and 379 were wounded. The battle of Rossbach proved to be one of Frederic the Great's most dramatic victories. A month later, Frederic crushed the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen ending the threat of invasion in 1757. So stunning (astonishing) was Frederic's Rossbach- Leuthen campaign that even Napoleon the great, later referred do it as " a masterpiece in maneuver (plan) and resolution (decision)".
Frederick the Great at the Battle of Zorndorf (1758). Frederick commanded Prussian forces fighting Russian troops commanded by Count William Fermor. The painting was the work of Carl Röchling painted more than a century later during the German Imperial era. Röchling was one of the most popular artist depicting historical scenes in Imperial Germany. This no doubt was the image that Kaiser Wilhelm II had in his head when he made the decisions that led to World War I. Of course the Kaiser unlike Frederick made no battlefield appearances.
After the Napoleonic wars, Prussian thinkers were confounded by a question. Why was Prussia so successful under Frederick the Great and so unsuccessful against Napoleon? Their answer, Frederick the Great was a great commander, his successors were not. What should Prussia do to come up with another Frederick the Great when they needed one? Train leaders. This launched (or spurred on development of the Prussian general staff system that led to the armies that shocked the world in the 19th century and were imitated by everyone.Of course the original Prussian general staff was still the best at training leaders, so Germany in the 20th century wars still won most of its battles.Before the Seven Years War, Frederick busted his alliances with Russia and France, mostly because he dumped them and made bad jokes about symbolic characters such as Madame de Pompadour and tsarina Elisabeth. In 1756, war was on the menu again. Prussia faced France, Russia, Austria, and the German Empire. Its ally ? An England that was determined to face France and ready to provide economic and military support to Prussia. War destroyed Prussia’s resources. During the conflict, Frederick the Great showed his genius and military strategy, his troops were disciplined, and his generals extremely competent. Berlin got occupied twice and almost everything collapsed.Tsarina Elisabeth died in 1763. After taking over, Peter III changed Russia’s position take Prussia’s and England’s side, and then Catherine II assassinated him to grasp power. She simply stepped out of the conflict. This killed the morale of Frederick the Great’s opponents. The war was over. Total destruction was close, but Frederick’s bold moves paid off. In 1763, a new era began and Prussia became a major european power.The funniest thing is that those years of conflict will lead Prussia to a long lasting peace of 30 years. Frederick the Great will become a solid absolutist king just like Louis XIV. He will impose rational thought, secularization, legalist and humanist principles. The state is now everywhere in prussian life and it will respect Frederick’s dearest wishes. The army gets beefed up and efficiency is the only acceptable policy for the national administration. Prussia’s peace and security will barely be interrupted in this period until Bismarck’s easy victories from 1866 to 1870 and World War I in 1914. Frederick the Great’s successes gave birth to this nationalist tradition in Prussia and would also give birth to German pride.Frederick II was a very talented general, whose success in the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Year War helped elevate Prussia from a backwater to one of the great powers of the world. Some of his battles, like Leuthen, are text book examples of great leadership.He modernized the state bureaucracy and is to a large extent responsible for the image of Preussian (and German) efficency.He was fairly progressive when it came to free speech and similar, and was to an extent the model of an enlightened despot. At the same time he cultivated an image of himself as a modest servant of the state, which always plays better with the masses than pomp and oppulence.Prussia faced many great defeats during the war, and often came near total collapse. Despite that, they always managed to recover and kept on fighting. Things got even better for Prussia when in 1762 the pro-Prussian Peter III became emperor of Russia. He signed peace with Prussia and then re-entered the war on Prussia's side.With Russians troops leaving Berlin and going after the Austrians, alongside the 12.000 troops Prussia received from Russia in exchange for an alliance definitely saved Prussia and Frederick from certain death, (he was willing to fight to the death) Britain was already pressuring Frederick to make concessions for peace.Peter III after reigning for 6 months, was overthrown by his wife Catherine (who would later also be nicknamed "the Great") she ended the alliance with Prussia and withdrew from the war. Britain had also stopped subsidising Prussia, whom managed to recapture most of Silesia and Saxony. No one felt like continuing the war as the casualties and economic damage was enormous. In Europe, a white peace was signed. No one gained any lands, no one lost any lands. While Britain made great gains in North America.Frederick managed to save Prussia, despite being greatly outnumbered, from a powerful coalition that sought to permanently cripple it. Many times all hoped seemed to be lost, and yet he managed to stand up and lead Prussia towards victory. He had proved himself to be a brilliant commander and turned Prussia into a recognised great power.
Frederick the Great addresses his generals before the march to the Battle of Leuthen 5th December 1757 in the Seven Years War.Frederick went out of his way to revive the spirits of his soldiers. He slept in the open air among their ranks. Extra rations were distributed. The foreign element in the Prussian army had largely deserted leaving only native Prussian soldiers, of whom the core were Pomeranians, Brandenburgers and Magdeburgers. Frederick revelled in their company. Ammunition was ample and the artillery was well equipped, Zieten having brought in a train of large field pieces from the armament at Glogau.
Frederick the Great and his staff at the Battle of Leuthen.The Battle of Leuthen was fought on 5 December 1757, at which Frederick the Great's Prussian army used maneuver and terrain to decisively defeat a much larger Austrian force commanded by Prince Charles of Lorraine and Count Leopold Joseph von Daun. The victory ensured Prussia control of Silesia during the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War).
Prussia doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation in these enlightened times. But if there’s one thing that even its most-die hard critics can agree on, its that its military was, for much of its history, a top-class fighting machine. No more so than the army of Frederick the Great.The military machine that Frederick inherited in 1740 was the product of his father, Frederick “The Soldier King” William, and the renowned drillmaster Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau. They had introduced a number of reforms into the Prussian army, such as the iron ramrod, improved bayonets, and the slow-march known as the goosestep.The military machine that Frederick inherited in 1740 was the product of his father, Frederick “The Soldier King” William, and the renowned drillmaster Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau. They had introduced a number of reforms into the Prussian army, such as the iron ramrod, improved bayonets, and the slow-march known as the goosestep.In 1772, Frederick the Great divides Poland with Catherine II of Russia. It would be one of the classic divisions of Poland’s territory between its surrounding enemies.Frederick the Great takes care of everything personally. 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.
Contestants at the Battle of Kolin: Prussians against an Imperial Austrian Army comprising the various nationalities that made up the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austrians, Hungarians, Bohemians, Netherlanders, Silesians, Croats, Italians and Moravians).Generals at the Battle of Kolin: King Frederick II of Prussia commanding the Prussian Army against Field Marshal Daun commanding the Austrian Army.
Prussian Grenadiers under Captain Möllendorf storm into the village of Leuthen during the Battle of Leuthen 5th December 1757 in the Seven Years War.At around 3.30pm the Prussians launched a heavy attack on the Austrians in Leuthen. Guns were used to batter breaches in the stone walls of the town buildings. It took half an hour of the subsequent infantry assault to clear the Austrians out of the town.
