A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

Few royal princes ever had a more unfortunate childhood and youth than Frederick the Great. His mother, Sophia Dorothea of Hannover, a sister of George II. of England, was an amiable, mild-tempered woman who was devotedly attached to him, but had no power to protect him from the violence of his hard and tyrannical father. As a boy his chief tastes were music and French literature, which he could only indulge by stealth: the king not only called him "idiot!" and "puppy!" when he found him occupied with a flute or a French book, but threatened him with personal chastisement. His whole education, which was gained almost in secret, was chiefly received at the hands of French émigrés, and his taste was formed in the school of ideas which at that time ruled in France, and which was largely formed by Voltaire, whom Frederick during his boyhood greatly admired, and afterward made one of his chief correspondents and intimates. The influence of this is most clearly to be traced throughout his life.

1728.

His music became almost a passion with him, though it is doubtful whether any of the praises of his proficiency that have come down to us are more than the remains of the flatteries of the time. His compositions, which were performed at his concerts, to which leading musicians were often invited, do not give any evidence of the genius claimed for him in this respect; but it is certain that he attained a considerable degree of mechanical skill in playing the flute. In after-life his musical taste continued to influence him greatly, and the establishment of the opera at Berlin was chiefly due to him. His father's persistent opposition rather fanned than suppressed the eagerness which he showed in this and other studies, as a boy; and doubtless contributed to a thoroughness which afterward stood him in good stead.

In 1728, when only sixteen years old, he accompanied his father on a visit to the court of Augustus the Strong, at Dresden, and was for a time led astray by the corrupt society into which he was there thrown. The wish of his mother, that he should marry the Princess Amelia, the daughter of George II., was thwarted by his father's dislike of England; the tyranny to which he was subjected became intolerable, and in 1730, while accompanying his father on a journey to Southern Germany, he determined to run away.

His accomplice was a young officer, Lieutenant von Katte, who had been his bosom-friend for two or three years. A letter written by Frederick to the latter fell by accident into the hands of another officer of the same name, who sent it to the king, and the plot was thus discovered. Frederick had already gone on board of a vessel at Frankfort, and was on the point of sailing down the Rhine, when his father followed, beat him until his face was covered with blood, and then sent him as a prisoner of State to Prussia. Katte was arrested before he could escape, tried by a court-martial and sentenced to several years' imprisonment. Frederick William annulled the sentence and ordered him to be immediately executed. To make the deed more barbarous, it was done before the window of the cell in which Frederick was confined. The young Prince fainted, and lay so long senseless that it was feared he would never recover. He was then watched, allowed no implements except a wooden spoon, lest he might commit suicide, and only permitted to read a Bible and hymn-book. The officer who had him in charge could only converse with him by means of a hole bored through the ceiling of his cell.

1731. FREDERICK'S RESTORATION.

The king insisted that he should be formally tried; but the court-martial, while deciding that "Colonel Fritz" was guilty, as an officer, asserted that it had no authority to condemn the Crown-Prince. The king overruled the decision, and ordered his son to be executed. This course excited such horror and indignation among the officers that Frederick was pardoned, but not released from imprisonment until his spirit was broken and he had promised to obey his father in all things. For a year he was obliged to work as a clerk in the departments of the Government, beginning with the lowest position and rising as he acquired practical knowledge. He did not appear at Court until November, 1731, when his sister Wilhelmine was married to the Margrave of Baireuth. The ceremony had already commenced when Frederick, dressed in a plain suit of grey, without any order or decoration, was discovered among the servants. The King pulled him forth, and presented him to the Queen with these words: "Here, Madam, our Fritz is back again!"

In 1732 Frederick was forced to marry the Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick-Bevern, whom he disliked, and with whom he lived but a short time. His father gave him the castle of Rheinsberg, near Potsdam, and there, for the first time, he enjoyed some independence: his leisure was devoted to philosophical studies, and to correspondence with Voltaire and other distinguished French authors. During the war of the Polish Succession he served for a short time under Prince Eugene of Savoy, but had no opportunity to test or develop his military talent. Until his father's death he seemed to be more of a poet and philosopher than anything else: only the few who knew him intimately perceived that his mind was occupied with plans of government and conquest.

When Frederick William I. died, the people rejoiced in the prospect of a just and peaceful rule. Frederick II. declared to his ministers, on receiving their oath of allegiance, that no distinction should be allowed between the interests of the country and the king, since they were identical; but if any conflict of the two should arise, the interests of the country must have the preference. Then he at once corrected the abuses of the game and recruiting laws, disbanded his father's body-guard of giants, abolished torture in criminal cases, reformed the laws of marriage, and established a special Ministry for Commerce and Manufactures. When he set out for Königsberg to receive the allegiance of Prussia proper, his whole Court travelled in three carriages. On arriving, he dispensed with the ceremony of coronation, as being unnecessary, and then succeeded in establishing a much closer political union between Prussia and Brandenburg, which, in many respects, had been independent of each other up to that time.

1740.