Fortunately or unfortunately for Frederick, the
introducer of the Borgia system into Prussian
politics, the Red Cross was still unknown, or he
would doubtless have converted what victories
the Austrians did win against him into defeats.
introducer of the Borgia system into Prussian
politics, the Red Cross was still unknown, or he
would doubtless have converted what victories
the Austrians did win against him into defeats.
Treitschke - 1915 - Confessions of Frederick the Great
.
.
, IO6
MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE PROVINCE OF
MINDEN . . . . . . 107
TOBACCO . . . . . . 108
FORESTRY . . . . . . IO9
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? Contents xxv
PAGE
PROVINCE OF MINDEN -- REPORT SENT TO
THE COUNCIL BY THE SURVEYOR . . IIO
MEMORANDUM OF THE POSTAL SERVICE TO
THE KING . . . . . ? ir4
POST-HOUSES 115
STAMP OFFICE AND REGISTRATION OF DEEDS 1 1 7
CUSTOMS-DUTY ON FOREIGN GOODS . . II9
OCTROI DUTIES IN THE TOWNS . . 120
ARMY 123
Life of Frederick the Great . . . 129
By Heinrich von Treitschke
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? Introduction
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? INTRODUCTION
CARLYLE'S million words about Frederick the
Great are too tedious for this impatient
century, and, though there is an admirable life of
Frederick by Mr. W. F. Reddaway in the Heroes
of the Nations series, comparatively few English
people are acquainted with the great King's
frank effrontery and biting mother- wit, which are
so conspicuous in his Confessions. Here are a
few of the flowers which Mr. Reddaway has
gathered.
His father made him marry Elizabeth of Bruns-
wick-Bevern. Frederick's comment was :
When all is said and done, there will be one more
unhappy princess in the world. [Twice he declared:]
I shall put her away as soon as I am master. Am I
of the wood out of which they carve good husbands?
I love the fair sex, my love is very inconstant; I
am for enjoyment, afterwards I despise it. I will keep
my word, I will marry, but that is enough; Bon jour ^
Madame, et hen chemin.
Good counsel does not come from a great number
[was his maxim]. Newton could not have discovered
3
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? 4 Introduction
the law of gravitation if he had been collaborating
with Leibnitz and Descartes.
After a sweeping measure of confiscation, which
compelled the clergy to practise apostolic poverty,
he wrote to Voltaire: "We free them from the
cares of this world so that they may labour without
distraction to win the heavenly Jerusalem which
is their true home. "
"I know very well," wrote Frederick to his
brother. Prince Henry, as another King of Prussia
might very well be imagined writing to another
brother Henry, "that it is only our interest which
makes it our duty to act at this moment, but we
must be very careful not to say so. "
And to that same brother he wrote :
I, who am already more than half beyond this world,
am forced to double my wisdom and activity, and
continually keep in my head the detestable plans that
this cursed Joseph begets afresh with every fresh day.
I am condemned to enjoy no rest before my bones are
covered with a little earth.
"If there is anything to be gained by being
honest, let us be honest ; if it is necessary to deceive,
let us deceive. "
That was the Frederick who wrote the Con-
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? Introduction 5
fessions which were first published in his lifetime
in 1 766, and never disowned by him. The nephew
to whom he wrote was his successor. He tells his
descent in the first " Morning. " He was only the '
third King of Prussia, that monarchy having been
established at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, thirty-nine years before his accession,
and when he came to the throne Prussia included
neither Silesia nor West Prussia nor East Friesland.
But he inherited what was of more value in the
hands of a monarch with a mediaeval conscience --
namely, an overflowing treasury and an army of
eighty-five thousand men, of whom the infantry,
at any rate, were the best drilled in Europe, though
his cavalry lacked the dash of the Austrian cav-
alry, and he could not afford decent artillery and
engineers.
His father, Frederick William I, was a most
imlovable man; he was a bully in his own home,
a bully to his subjects, and as cowardly as a bully
to his enemies. Though he had the best army in
Europe, he was afraid to fight ; he coiild only snarl
and show his teeth when his kingdom was threat-
ened, except where his avarice was touched, as
when Charles XII of Sweden refused to pay him
his bill for holding Stettin. This was more than
he could stand, and in the joint attack on Sweden
which followed, he secured spoils of great value,
the mouths of the Oder. Treitschke has recorded
in this volume what the Austrians said about
Frederick William.
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? 6 Introduction
History has many unlovely things to record of
Frederick William I, who was so miserly that the
whole government of Prussia cost only fifty-five
thousand a year, and the whole royal expenses less
than eight thousand. His treatment of his eldest
son -- Frederick the Great, who might have been
more like Alexander the Great if his father had been
more like Alexander's father, Philip of Macedon,
was stupid and abominable. The comparison is
irresistible, for Philip, the rough northern neigh-
bour of Athens, laid the foundation of his son's
conquests, just as Frederick William, the rough
northern neighbour of the Empire, laid the
foundations of the conquests of Frederick the
Great.
And here I must define the expressions "the
Empire " and " German, " which will come so often
into these pages. It is incorrect to call it the
"German Empire. " There never was a German
Emperor actually so-called until WilHam the First
was crowned at Versailles, less than half a century
ago. Maria Theresa's father and husband, who
come into these pages, were Holy Roman Emper-
ors, the successors of the Emperors of the West,
who in their turn had succeeded to the western
half of the Empire founded by Augustus. And
until Maria Theresa's father died, the Emperors
for more than three hundred years in tmbroken
succession had been elected from the House of
Habsburg, who ruled the Austrian monarchy.
As Emperors, the Holy Roman Emperors, even
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? Introduction 7
Charles the Fifth, had no dominions. They were
merely the elected heads of the Holy Roman
Empire, which was, in fact, a loose confederation
of German electors and minor princes. But the
Empire had so long been identified with the Aus-
trian House that the hereditary Austrian domin-
ions became confused with it.
This arrangement seemed likely to go on for
ever, when Prussia, representing the Electorate of
Brandenburg, interfered to get a Bavarian chosen
to replace Maria Theresa's father; but, in point of
fact, in 1806 the I. '^oly Roman Emperor changed his
title to Emperor of Austria, on the groimd that
the Holy Roman Empire was no longer either
Holy, Roman, or an Empire.
Prussia was one of the States of the Empire,
and up to the period of Frederick certain Prussian
law-cases could be carried to the Imperial Courts.
It was once suggested to Frederick the Great
(perhaps prompted d, la Cccsar) that he should have
himself elected Emperor, but he dismissed the
suggestion with characteristic cynicisms about
the poverty of Prussia and the jealousy which it
would provoke from the other States. The
Empire was usually referred to as the Holy Empire
and the word German was not used to signify a
person of Teutonic race, but a member of some
State included in the Holy Empire.
The great Frederick was born with humanistic
ideas uppermost; he took up military studies to
escape some of the awful bullying inflicted on him
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? 8 Introduction
by his father, who hated him so that he tried to
persecute the unhappy child into his grave. Only
the creator of "Oliver Twist" could adequately
describe the boyhood of Frederick the Great.
Frederick had to do so many things to deceive
his father that everyone thought that his interest
and apparent progress in military studies were
only clever pieces of acting. "I have just drilled,
I drill, I shall drill, " he wrote.
So cruel was the father, that the son at the age
of eighteen attempted to flee from Prussia with
his "chum" and confidant, the youthful Katte.
They were arrested and flimg into prison, and
charged with high treason as military officers
who had deserted. Katte, in spite of his acquittal
by the court-martial appointed to try him, was
executed -- a refinement of cruelty -- before his
friend's eyes. Frederick, who had begged to die
in Katte's place, fainted with anguish, and would
have shared his fate but for the remonstrances of
the Emperor. The ambassadors of other sover-
eigns joined in the protest, but probably weighed
nothing in comparison.
Frederick William only listened to the Emperor
as his technical lord, from whom he lacked the
military courage to declare himself free. He
pursued his revenge in various ways. When he
was tired of treating his son as a convict, he made
him marry a woman he did not like, the same
woman who was giving a party at Schonhausen
while Frederick was dying. How Frederick dreaded
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? Introduction 9
his father is proved by an anecdote told by Mr.
Reddaway. "It was Hke a foretaste of death,"
he said, "when a hussar appeared to command his
presence at Berlin. "
I do not know whether to regard the letter which
Frederick wrote to express his submission to his
father as the bottom rung of sycophancy or as
a masterpiece of irony and treachery interblent.
I give Carlyle's translation:
"CusTRiN, 19th November, 1730.
"All-Serenest and All-graciousest Father, --
" To your Royal Majesty, my All-graciousest
Father, have" (i. e. , "1 have," if one durst write the
"I" -- Carlyle), "by my disobedience as Theiro"
(Youro) "subject and soldier, not less than by my
undutifulness as Theiro Son, given occasion to a just
wrath and aversion against me. With the All-obed-
ientest respect I submit myself wholly to the grace of
my most All-gracious Father; and beg him. Most
Ail-graciously to pardon me; as it is not so much the
withdrawal of my liberty in a sad arrest (malheureusen
Arrest), as my own thoughts of the fault I have com-
mitted, that have brought me to reason: Who, with
all-obedientest respect and submission, continue till
my end,
"My All-graciousest King's and Father's faithfully
obedientest
"Servant and Son,"
"Friedrich. "
But for his father's cruelty Frederick might
have borne one of the most honoured names in
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? 10 Introduction
history, instead of fouling his greatness as a
conqueror, and his goodness as a father of his
country, by reducing to a system for Prussia the
treachery and statecraft of Caesar Borgia. For it
was Frederick the Great who founded the Borgia
system, as avowed without shame by himself in
his Confessiojis.
Fortunately or unfortunately for Frederick, the
introducer of the Borgia system into Prussian
politics, the Red Cross was still unknown, or he
would doubtless have converted what victories
the Austrians did win against him into defeats.
I hold that the responsibility for the treachery
of Frederick the Great must be laid at the door of
his father, because without a system of smooth
lying he would have been murdered by that mon-
ster of cold-blooded cruelty.
With this single exception, Frederick comes well
out of that hellish ordeal. The breaking of the
flute which was his chief solace did not deprive him
of his love of music. His flute remained to him
what the harp of David was to Saul. He played
it for a couple of hours a day while he was solving
the stern problems of maintaining the national
existence. The depriving a born writer of all
books except the religious works which are to
literature what stones are to bread, could not rob
him of his desire to write or his literary gift. And,
above all, the harshness with which his governors
and gaolers were compelled to treat him, did not
lead to his revenging himself upon them, when he
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? Introduction ? il
came to have the power; and if he showed no
affection to his wife, or anyone else on earth except
the literary friends who were transfigured to him
by Genius, this also may be put down to Frederick
William, who not only gave him the gall of hatred
instead of the honey of parental love, but deliber-
ately cut him off from every soft breeze of affection.
His sister Wilhelmina of Baireuth, his fellow-vic-
tim imder the lash, jeigned alone in the one tender
spot in his heart.
His treachery included ingratitude and invested
it with a halo in militarist eyes. It may be due
to a distorted hero-worship for Frederick that the
obligations of hospitality meant less to the Ger-
mans of Antwerp than to the Bedouin of the desert.
Frederick owed his Hfe to Maria Theresa's
father, yet when the Emperor died, he not only
broke the Pragmatic Sanction, Hke the other
monarchs who had signed it, but actually marched
his armies into one of the girl-Princess's richest
provinces in a time of profoimd peace and seized
it. The acquisition of Silesia by Prussia was the
first fruit of Frederick's treachery and brigandage
-- the brigandage extolled by von Bernhardi and
practised by Potsdam. Treachery continued to
sully his glory through every alliance of his reign.
When his ally prospered too much, he went over
to the enemy; it was no part of his policy to let
France crush Austria or Austria crush France.
And though England deserted him instead of his
deserting England, he was offering to desert her for
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? 12 Introduction
France at the same time as he told the British
Ambassador, on Jtily 9, 1757, that "His Prussian
Majesty said that as he resolved to continue
firmly united with His [Britannic] Majesty, it
would be to their mutual interest to think of terms
of peace honourable and safe for both, " etc.
When he was about to seize Silesia, he wrote to
Podewils, who urged that some legal claim could be
furbished up: "The question of right {droit) is
the affair of ministers: it is your affair; it is time
to work at it in secret, for the orders to the troops
are given. " And a quarter of a century later he
wrote: "The jurisprudence of sovereigns is com-
monly the right of the Stronger. "
I may now turn to the white side of his shield,
and I turn with pleasure, for Frederick the Great
was truly great -- perhaps it would not be too much
to say that no one has ever better deserved to be
the national hero. For Prussia would have dis-
appeared from the face of Europe if it had not been
for his invincible soul, instead of being blessed with
a vastly increased population and territory, and
when he had made her position secure on the
battle-field, he showed equal ability and resolution
in rehabilitating commerce and agriculture in his
ruined kingdom, which, after all his wars, he left
free from debt. Nor does the total number of
Prussian soldiers killed during his reign (180,000)
contrast unfavourably with the losses of his
descendant's armies in three months of the present
war.
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? Introduction 13
While his wars lasted, every interest in his
kingdom was sacrificed to the maintenance of his
army. He did not pay any of the salaries to the
civil employees of the Government from his min-
isters downwards, and he drained the country of
nearly everything except the men employed in
agriculture. But when war was over he employed
his war-treasure of 25,000,000 thalers saved for the
next campaign, and his war-horses -- sixty thousand
of them -- and even the personnel of his army in
restoring agriculture and re-starting industries,
and he not only restored them, but set about "pro-
tecting" them.
Justice has not been rendered to his efforts in
this direction, because most of our English lives of
Frederick were written at a time when Free Trade
was a fetish hymned by a chorus of half -persuaded
hypocrites. Frederick saw, as the founders of the
commercial greatness of the United States and the
new German Empire saw, that the creation of
industries depended on discouraging the importa-
tion of anything which could be manufactured in
the country.
The success of Free Trade in England for so
many years reminds me of what Barney Thompson,
the bookmaker, said to one of the richest men in
Australia, when the latter was being purse-proud
in the bar of Mack's Hotel after the Geelong Races :
"What's the good of you blowing about yoiir
money? -- a log could have made it when you did. "
At that time England's Free-traders had met with
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? 14 Introduction
no opposition, because no one else had anything
to sell. Frederick's policy of protection pre-
vented any of the sorely needed gold from leaving
Prussia, and resulted in the establishment of all
sorts of industries, notably those of an agricul-
tural nature. These he helped in a novel way,
and one which was of the highest importance, in a
direction the value of which is not only realized
still in Germany, but is being reaped by Germany
at this moment.
Frederick, who, when his reign began, had a
standing army of over eighty thousand men, raised
from a population of little over two millions, saw
that the amount of fighting men which any nation
can put into the field must ultimately depend on its
population, and Prussia's population was a widow's
mite compared with Austria's. Accordingly he
set to work to drain the marshes in his kingdom,
and settle them with foreigners selected for their
sturdiness, who were induced to accept the position
by gifts of land and exemption from taxes for so
many years. When he died Prussia contained five
million inhabitants and seventy-five thousand
square miles.
Frederick enjoys the further fame of being for
his time a very humane prince. He reduced
capital punishment as much as he could, and was
never vindictive in repressing the indiscretions of
well-disposed people.
This was of a piece with his extraordinary toler-
ance in religious matters. He allowed and pro-
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? Introduction 15
tected all creeds. He allowed his subjects to think
as they liked, provided that they let him do as he
liked. He not only restored the Lutherans, whose
religion was the most dynastic of German religions,
to all their liberties and privileges, but he wel-
comed the Jesuits when they were expelled from
other countries, and found a use for them, because
the supply of educators had rim short in his wars.
They acclimatized readily and impressed their
methods even upon Prussian diplomacy.
In spite of all the ravages of his wars, he left
Prussia immensely stronger than when he came to
it; he laid the foundations upon which Bismarck
reared the stately edifice of the new German
Empire, the edifice filled to overflowing with wealth
and prosperity by William II before he com-
menced the mad gamble now in progress -- a gamble
which recalls the prophecy of Mirabeau: "If ever
a foolish prince ascends this throne we shaU see the
formidable giant suddenly collapse, and Prussia
will fall like Sweden. "
Frederick had few pleasiires, except that of hos-
pitality. He liked good living, and for his boon
companions chose men of the highest intellect,.
chiefly Frenchmen. All the world knows of his
almost passionate friendship for Voltaire, tempered
as it was by Voltaire's contempt for Frederick
except as a man of action, and Frederick's con-
tempt for Voltaire except as a man of letters.
When Voltaire came to Frederick as a political
envoy, Frederick laughed at his diplomacy just as
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? i6 Introduction
much as Voltaire laughed at the King's French
verses. How malicious he could be about Voltaire
will be found in the Confessions. D'Alembert
was another friend of Frederick's, and he made
Maupertuis the head of the Berlin Academy.
He was an indefatigable worker. When he died,
it was said of him that his death was the only rest
he ever took in his life. He certainly worked just
as hard till the day of his death, for at eleven
o'clock on his last night he ordered that he should
be waked at four to work. But he died two hours
too soon in the arms of the faithful valet who had
been holding him up since midnight. The last
words he spoke were to ask for his favourite dog,
and to bid them cover it with a quilt.
Of his habits, Mr. W. F. Reddaway, the most
readable of his biographers, wrote:
His habit was to rise at dawn or earlier. The
first three or four hours of the morning were allotted
to toilet, correspondence, a desultory breakfast of
strong coffee and fruit, preceded by a deep draught of
cold water flavoured with fennel leaves, and flute-
playing as an accompaniment to meditation on busi-
ness. Then came one or two hours of rapid work with
his secretaries, followed by parade, audiences, and
perhaps a little exercise. Punctually at noon Freder-
ick sat down to dinner, which was always the chief
social event of the day, and in later life became his only
solid meal. He supervised his kitchen like a depart-
ment of State, He considered and often amended the
bill of fare, which contained the names of the cooks
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? Introduction 17
responsible for every dish. After dinner he marked
with a cross the courses which had merited his ap-
proval. He inspected his household accounts with
minute care and proved himself a master of domestic
economy. The result was a dinner that Voltaire
considered fairly good for a country in which there was
no game, no decent meat, and no spring chickens.
Two hours, sometimes even four, were spent at
table. Occasionally the time was devoted to the dis-
cussion of important business with high officials,
but in general Frederick used it to refresh himself after
his six or seven hours of toil. He ate freely, preferring
highly spiced dishes, drank claret mixed with water,
and talked incessantly. He was a skilful and agree-
able host, putting his guests instantly at their ease, and
by Voltaire's account, calling forth wit in others.
After dismissing the company he returned to his
flute, and then put the final touches to the morning's
business. After this he drank coffee and passed some
two hours in seclusion. During this period he nerved
himself for fresh grappling with affairs by plunging into
literature. In the year 1749 he produced no less
than forty works. About six o'clock he was ready to
receive his lector or to converse with artists and
learned men. At seven began a small concert, in
which Frederick himself used often to perform. Sup-
per followed, but was brief, unless the conversation was
of unusual interest. Otherwise the King went to bed
at about nine o'clock and slept five or six hours. In
later life he gave up suppers, but continued to invite
a few friends for conversation. He then allowed him-
self rather more sleep. In his last years he lost the
power to play his flute, and with it, apparently, the
desire to hear music.
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? 1 8 Introduction
Mr. Reddaway adds that Frederick would not
endure the presence of any woman -- that, strictly
speaking, he had no courtiers, and that his private
secretary, Eichel, whom he worked like a slave,
was never seen by any human being.
Frederick, who wrote a great deal more than
most professional authors, could be really witty,
though much of his wit consisted in drawing atten-
tion to other people's weaknesses -- an easy per-
formance for an absolute monarch, since most men
can do it when they are too drunk to fear the con-
sequences, which may be the origin of the saying
in vino Veritas.
Treitschke gives Frederick a very high rank as
an author, but nothing which Frederick ever wrote
is as readable in a translation as the Confessions
which are given in this volume. The truth is that
eighteenth century writings have to be excellent
before they are readable, because they lack the
human frankness of some other centuries. This
frankness Frederick achieved only in the poorest
of his literary productions, and for this reason
Frederick's fame as an author is dead out of his
own country; he is read only for the light which
he throws upon that cynical, valiant soul which
achieved one of the greatest works in the world --
the creation of Prussia.
A few dates may be useful in following Treitsch-
ke' s life of the great Prussian King, for Treitschke
deals in dicta rather than dates.
Frederick was bom on January 24, 17 12. His
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? X
Introduction 19
mother was a sister of George II. He was eighteen
years old when he tried to flee with Katte to France,
and twenty-eight when his father died in 1740.
He was married in 1733 to Princess EHzabeth of
Brunswick-Bevem, related to the Austrian House.
The Emperor Charles VI, Maria Theresa's father,
died on October 20, 1740, and on December i6th
Frederick entered Silesia with twenty-eight thou-
sand men, with the intention of annexing it. His
victory at MoUwitz, which practically gave him
the coimtry, was fought on April 10, 1741, but
he was not confirmed in it till his victory of
Chotusitz, May 17, 1742, which was followed
on June nth by the Peace of Breslau.
This is called the first Silesian war. In the next
war against Austria, in 1744 (the second Silesian
war), he took Prague, September 16, 1744, but
had to abandon it shortly afterwards. He had
his revenge at his great victories of Hohenfriedberg,
on June 5, 1745, and Sohr, September 30, 1745,
both against the Austrians, and Hennersdorf,
November 23, 1745, against the Austrians and
Saxons combined, while the Prince of Dessau
defeated another Austrian and Saxon army at
Kesselsdorf on December 15th. The second
Silesian war was terminated by the Peace of Dres-
den, signed on Christmas Day, 1745.
On August 29, 1756, Frederick crossed the
Saxon frontier and began the Seven Years' War.
The indecisive battle of Lobositz was fought
between Frederick and the Austrian Marshal
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? 20 Introduction
Browne, and before the end of the year he took
possession of Saxony. On May 6, 1757, he won
the battle of Prague, after enormous losses on both
sides, and blockaded the city; but on June i8th
he lost the great battle of Kollin, and had to raise
the blockade and evacuate Bohemia. On Novem-
ber 5, 1757, he won the great battle of Rossbach,
and a month later another supreme victory at
Leuthen. On the 2 ist, Breslau capitulated to him,
and a week later Liegnitz. But his General,
Lehwaldt, had been defeated by the Russian
General Apraxin at Gross-Jagersdorf on August
30th. In 1758 he marched into Moravia and
besieged Olmiitz, but was compelled to retreat
owing to the capture of a convoy of three or four
thousand wagons by the Austrian General Laudon ;
on August 25th he won the battle of Zomdorf
over the Russians, which ended their campaign,
but on October 14th he was surprised and heavily
defeated by the Austrians at Hochkirch, and on
the same day lost his sister, the Margravine of
Baireuth.
But for the English subsidy of 4,000,000 thalers
Frederick would have been starved out in 1759.
On July 25th his army was defeated by the Rus-
sians at Kay, and on August 12th he saw his army
utterly routed by the combined Austrians and
Russians at Kunersdorf, He lost Dresden by
surrender on September 24th, and on November
23d Finck and his army of 12,000 men laid down
their arms at Maxen.
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? Introduction 21
In the western field things had gone better.
Ferdinand of Brunswick had driven the French
army across the Rhine on June 23, 1758, at
Crefeld, and though the French took Frankfurt
on January 2, 1759, and won a battle at Bergen
on April 13, 1759, they were severely defeated
at Minden, August i, 1759.
On June 23, 1760, a Prussian corps was anni-
hilated at Landeshut and Glatz capitulated on
July 22d. But Frederick won a great victory
over the Austrians under Laudon at Liegnitz on
August 15th, and a hotly contested battle against
the Austrians under Daun at Torgau on Novem-
ber 3d, though Laudon had surprised and captured
the great fortress of Schweidnitz on October ist.
The condition of Prussia at the end of this year
appeared hopeless ; the army had declined to sixty
thousand men, and even more in quality than in
numbers. But on January 5, 1762, the Czarina
Elizabeth of Russia died, and was succeeded by her
nephew, Peter III, the husband of the great
Catherine, who was an idolatrous admirer of
Frederick and at once recalled the Russian army.
MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE PROVINCE OF
MINDEN . . . . . . 107
TOBACCO . . . . . . 108
FORESTRY . . . . . . IO9
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? Contents xxv
PAGE
PROVINCE OF MINDEN -- REPORT SENT TO
THE COUNCIL BY THE SURVEYOR . . IIO
MEMORANDUM OF THE POSTAL SERVICE TO
THE KING . . . . . ? ir4
POST-HOUSES 115
STAMP OFFICE AND REGISTRATION OF DEEDS 1 1 7
CUSTOMS-DUTY ON FOREIGN GOODS . . II9
OCTROI DUTIES IN THE TOWNS . . 120
ARMY 123
Life of Frederick the Great . . . 129
By Heinrich von Treitschke
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? Introduction
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? INTRODUCTION
CARLYLE'S million words about Frederick the
Great are too tedious for this impatient
century, and, though there is an admirable life of
Frederick by Mr. W. F. Reddaway in the Heroes
of the Nations series, comparatively few English
people are acquainted with the great King's
frank effrontery and biting mother- wit, which are
so conspicuous in his Confessions. Here are a
few of the flowers which Mr. Reddaway has
gathered.
His father made him marry Elizabeth of Bruns-
wick-Bevern. Frederick's comment was :
When all is said and done, there will be one more
unhappy princess in the world. [Twice he declared:]
I shall put her away as soon as I am master. Am I
of the wood out of which they carve good husbands?
I love the fair sex, my love is very inconstant; I
am for enjoyment, afterwards I despise it. I will keep
my word, I will marry, but that is enough; Bon jour ^
Madame, et hen chemin.
Good counsel does not come from a great number
[was his maxim]. Newton could not have discovered
3
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? 4 Introduction
the law of gravitation if he had been collaborating
with Leibnitz and Descartes.
After a sweeping measure of confiscation, which
compelled the clergy to practise apostolic poverty,
he wrote to Voltaire: "We free them from the
cares of this world so that they may labour without
distraction to win the heavenly Jerusalem which
is their true home. "
"I know very well," wrote Frederick to his
brother. Prince Henry, as another King of Prussia
might very well be imagined writing to another
brother Henry, "that it is only our interest which
makes it our duty to act at this moment, but we
must be very careful not to say so. "
And to that same brother he wrote :
I, who am already more than half beyond this world,
am forced to double my wisdom and activity, and
continually keep in my head the detestable plans that
this cursed Joseph begets afresh with every fresh day.
I am condemned to enjoy no rest before my bones are
covered with a little earth.
"If there is anything to be gained by being
honest, let us be honest ; if it is necessary to deceive,
let us deceive. "
That was the Frederick who wrote the Con-
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? Introduction 5
fessions which were first published in his lifetime
in 1 766, and never disowned by him. The nephew
to whom he wrote was his successor. He tells his
descent in the first " Morning. " He was only the '
third King of Prussia, that monarchy having been
established at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, thirty-nine years before his accession,
and when he came to the throne Prussia included
neither Silesia nor West Prussia nor East Friesland.
But he inherited what was of more value in the
hands of a monarch with a mediaeval conscience --
namely, an overflowing treasury and an army of
eighty-five thousand men, of whom the infantry,
at any rate, were the best drilled in Europe, though
his cavalry lacked the dash of the Austrian cav-
alry, and he could not afford decent artillery and
engineers.
His father, Frederick William I, was a most
imlovable man; he was a bully in his own home,
a bully to his subjects, and as cowardly as a bully
to his enemies. Though he had the best army in
Europe, he was afraid to fight ; he coiild only snarl
and show his teeth when his kingdom was threat-
ened, except where his avarice was touched, as
when Charles XII of Sweden refused to pay him
his bill for holding Stettin. This was more than
he could stand, and in the joint attack on Sweden
which followed, he secured spoils of great value,
the mouths of the Oder. Treitschke has recorded
in this volume what the Austrians said about
Frederick William.
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? 6 Introduction
History has many unlovely things to record of
Frederick William I, who was so miserly that the
whole government of Prussia cost only fifty-five
thousand a year, and the whole royal expenses less
than eight thousand. His treatment of his eldest
son -- Frederick the Great, who might have been
more like Alexander the Great if his father had been
more like Alexander's father, Philip of Macedon,
was stupid and abominable. The comparison is
irresistible, for Philip, the rough northern neigh-
bour of Athens, laid the foundation of his son's
conquests, just as Frederick William, the rough
northern neighbour of the Empire, laid the
foundations of the conquests of Frederick the
Great.
And here I must define the expressions "the
Empire " and " German, " which will come so often
into these pages. It is incorrect to call it the
"German Empire. " There never was a German
Emperor actually so-called until WilHam the First
was crowned at Versailles, less than half a century
ago. Maria Theresa's father and husband, who
come into these pages, were Holy Roman Emper-
ors, the successors of the Emperors of the West,
who in their turn had succeeded to the western
half of the Empire founded by Augustus. And
until Maria Theresa's father died, the Emperors
for more than three hundred years in tmbroken
succession had been elected from the House of
Habsburg, who ruled the Austrian monarchy.
As Emperors, the Holy Roman Emperors, even
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? Introduction 7
Charles the Fifth, had no dominions. They were
merely the elected heads of the Holy Roman
Empire, which was, in fact, a loose confederation
of German electors and minor princes. But the
Empire had so long been identified with the Aus-
trian House that the hereditary Austrian domin-
ions became confused with it.
This arrangement seemed likely to go on for
ever, when Prussia, representing the Electorate of
Brandenburg, interfered to get a Bavarian chosen
to replace Maria Theresa's father; but, in point of
fact, in 1806 the I. '^oly Roman Emperor changed his
title to Emperor of Austria, on the groimd that
the Holy Roman Empire was no longer either
Holy, Roman, or an Empire.
Prussia was one of the States of the Empire,
and up to the period of Frederick certain Prussian
law-cases could be carried to the Imperial Courts.
It was once suggested to Frederick the Great
(perhaps prompted d, la Cccsar) that he should have
himself elected Emperor, but he dismissed the
suggestion with characteristic cynicisms about
the poverty of Prussia and the jealousy which it
would provoke from the other States. The
Empire was usually referred to as the Holy Empire
and the word German was not used to signify a
person of Teutonic race, but a member of some
State included in the Holy Empire.
The great Frederick was born with humanistic
ideas uppermost; he took up military studies to
escape some of the awful bullying inflicted on him
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? 8 Introduction
by his father, who hated him so that he tried to
persecute the unhappy child into his grave. Only
the creator of "Oliver Twist" could adequately
describe the boyhood of Frederick the Great.
Frederick had to do so many things to deceive
his father that everyone thought that his interest
and apparent progress in military studies were
only clever pieces of acting. "I have just drilled,
I drill, I shall drill, " he wrote.
So cruel was the father, that the son at the age
of eighteen attempted to flee from Prussia with
his "chum" and confidant, the youthful Katte.
They were arrested and flimg into prison, and
charged with high treason as military officers
who had deserted. Katte, in spite of his acquittal
by the court-martial appointed to try him, was
executed -- a refinement of cruelty -- before his
friend's eyes. Frederick, who had begged to die
in Katte's place, fainted with anguish, and would
have shared his fate but for the remonstrances of
the Emperor. The ambassadors of other sover-
eigns joined in the protest, but probably weighed
nothing in comparison.
Frederick William only listened to the Emperor
as his technical lord, from whom he lacked the
military courage to declare himself free. He
pursued his revenge in various ways. When he
was tired of treating his son as a convict, he made
him marry a woman he did not like, the same
woman who was giving a party at Schonhausen
while Frederick was dying. How Frederick dreaded
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? Introduction 9
his father is proved by an anecdote told by Mr.
Reddaway. "It was Hke a foretaste of death,"
he said, "when a hussar appeared to command his
presence at Berlin. "
I do not know whether to regard the letter which
Frederick wrote to express his submission to his
father as the bottom rung of sycophancy or as
a masterpiece of irony and treachery interblent.
I give Carlyle's translation:
"CusTRiN, 19th November, 1730.
"All-Serenest and All-graciousest Father, --
" To your Royal Majesty, my All-graciousest
Father, have" (i. e. , "1 have," if one durst write the
"I" -- Carlyle), "by my disobedience as Theiro"
(Youro) "subject and soldier, not less than by my
undutifulness as Theiro Son, given occasion to a just
wrath and aversion against me. With the All-obed-
ientest respect I submit myself wholly to the grace of
my most All-gracious Father; and beg him. Most
Ail-graciously to pardon me; as it is not so much the
withdrawal of my liberty in a sad arrest (malheureusen
Arrest), as my own thoughts of the fault I have com-
mitted, that have brought me to reason: Who, with
all-obedientest respect and submission, continue till
my end,
"My All-graciousest King's and Father's faithfully
obedientest
"Servant and Son,"
"Friedrich. "
But for his father's cruelty Frederick might
have borne one of the most honoured names in
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? 10 Introduction
history, instead of fouling his greatness as a
conqueror, and his goodness as a father of his
country, by reducing to a system for Prussia the
treachery and statecraft of Caesar Borgia. For it
was Frederick the Great who founded the Borgia
system, as avowed without shame by himself in
his Confessiojis.
Fortunately or unfortunately for Frederick, the
introducer of the Borgia system into Prussian
politics, the Red Cross was still unknown, or he
would doubtless have converted what victories
the Austrians did win against him into defeats.
I hold that the responsibility for the treachery
of Frederick the Great must be laid at the door of
his father, because without a system of smooth
lying he would have been murdered by that mon-
ster of cold-blooded cruelty.
With this single exception, Frederick comes well
out of that hellish ordeal. The breaking of the
flute which was his chief solace did not deprive him
of his love of music. His flute remained to him
what the harp of David was to Saul. He played
it for a couple of hours a day while he was solving
the stern problems of maintaining the national
existence. The depriving a born writer of all
books except the religious works which are to
literature what stones are to bread, could not rob
him of his desire to write or his literary gift. And,
above all, the harshness with which his governors
and gaolers were compelled to treat him, did not
lead to his revenging himself upon them, when he
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? Introduction ? il
came to have the power; and if he showed no
affection to his wife, or anyone else on earth except
the literary friends who were transfigured to him
by Genius, this also may be put down to Frederick
William, who not only gave him the gall of hatred
instead of the honey of parental love, but deliber-
ately cut him off from every soft breeze of affection.
His sister Wilhelmina of Baireuth, his fellow-vic-
tim imder the lash, jeigned alone in the one tender
spot in his heart.
His treachery included ingratitude and invested
it with a halo in militarist eyes. It may be due
to a distorted hero-worship for Frederick that the
obligations of hospitality meant less to the Ger-
mans of Antwerp than to the Bedouin of the desert.
Frederick owed his Hfe to Maria Theresa's
father, yet when the Emperor died, he not only
broke the Pragmatic Sanction, Hke the other
monarchs who had signed it, but actually marched
his armies into one of the girl-Princess's richest
provinces in a time of profoimd peace and seized
it. The acquisition of Silesia by Prussia was the
first fruit of Frederick's treachery and brigandage
-- the brigandage extolled by von Bernhardi and
practised by Potsdam. Treachery continued to
sully his glory through every alliance of his reign.
When his ally prospered too much, he went over
to the enemy; it was no part of his policy to let
France crush Austria or Austria crush France.
And though England deserted him instead of his
deserting England, he was offering to desert her for
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? 12 Introduction
France at the same time as he told the British
Ambassador, on Jtily 9, 1757, that "His Prussian
Majesty said that as he resolved to continue
firmly united with His [Britannic] Majesty, it
would be to their mutual interest to think of terms
of peace honourable and safe for both, " etc.
When he was about to seize Silesia, he wrote to
Podewils, who urged that some legal claim could be
furbished up: "The question of right {droit) is
the affair of ministers: it is your affair; it is time
to work at it in secret, for the orders to the troops
are given. " And a quarter of a century later he
wrote: "The jurisprudence of sovereigns is com-
monly the right of the Stronger. "
I may now turn to the white side of his shield,
and I turn with pleasure, for Frederick the Great
was truly great -- perhaps it would not be too much
to say that no one has ever better deserved to be
the national hero. For Prussia would have dis-
appeared from the face of Europe if it had not been
for his invincible soul, instead of being blessed with
a vastly increased population and territory, and
when he had made her position secure on the
battle-field, he showed equal ability and resolution
in rehabilitating commerce and agriculture in his
ruined kingdom, which, after all his wars, he left
free from debt. Nor does the total number of
Prussian soldiers killed during his reign (180,000)
contrast unfavourably with the losses of his
descendant's armies in three months of the present
war.
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? Introduction 13
While his wars lasted, every interest in his
kingdom was sacrificed to the maintenance of his
army. He did not pay any of the salaries to the
civil employees of the Government from his min-
isters downwards, and he drained the country of
nearly everything except the men employed in
agriculture. But when war was over he employed
his war-treasure of 25,000,000 thalers saved for the
next campaign, and his war-horses -- sixty thousand
of them -- and even the personnel of his army in
restoring agriculture and re-starting industries,
and he not only restored them, but set about "pro-
tecting" them.
Justice has not been rendered to his efforts in
this direction, because most of our English lives of
Frederick were written at a time when Free Trade
was a fetish hymned by a chorus of half -persuaded
hypocrites. Frederick saw, as the founders of the
commercial greatness of the United States and the
new German Empire saw, that the creation of
industries depended on discouraging the importa-
tion of anything which could be manufactured in
the country.
The success of Free Trade in England for so
many years reminds me of what Barney Thompson,
the bookmaker, said to one of the richest men in
Australia, when the latter was being purse-proud
in the bar of Mack's Hotel after the Geelong Races :
"What's the good of you blowing about yoiir
money? -- a log could have made it when you did. "
At that time England's Free-traders had met with
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? 14 Introduction
no opposition, because no one else had anything
to sell. Frederick's policy of protection pre-
vented any of the sorely needed gold from leaving
Prussia, and resulted in the establishment of all
sorts of industries, notably those of an agricul-
tural nature. These he helped in a novel way,
and one which was of the highest importance, in a
direction the value of which is not only realized
still in Germany, but is being reaped by Germany
at this moment.
Frederick, who, when his reign began, had a
standing army of over eighty thousand men, raised
from a population of little over two millions, saw
that the amount of fighting men which any nation
can put into the field must ultimately depend on its
population, and Prussia's population was a widow's
mite compared with Austria's. Accordingly he
set to work to drain the marshes in his kingdom,
and settle them with foreigners selected for their
sturdiness, who were induced to accept the position
by gifts of land and exemption from taxes for so
many years. When he died Prussia contained five
million inhabitants and seventy-five thousand
square miles.
Frederick enjoys the further fame of being for
his time a very humane prince. He reduced
capital punishment as much as he could, and was
never vindictive in repressing the indiscretions of
well-disposed people.
This was of a piece with his extraordinary toler-
ance in religious matters. He allowed and pro-
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? Introduction 15
tected all creeds. He allowed his subjects to think
as they liked, provided that they let him do as he
liked. He not only restored the Lutherans, whose
religion was the most dynastic of German religions,
to all their liberties and privileges, but he wel-
comed the Jesuits when they were expelled from
other countries, and found a use for them, because
the supply of educators had rim short in his wars.
They acclimatized readily and impressed their
methods even upon Prussian diplomacy.
In spite of all the ravages of his wars, he left
Prussia immensely stronger than when he came to
it; he laid the foundations upon which Bismarck
reared the stately edifice of the new German
Empire, the edifice filled to overflowing with wealth
and prosperity by William II before he com-
menced the mad gamble now in progress -- a gamble
which recalls the prophecy of Mirabeau: "If ever
a foolish prince ascends this throne we shaU see the
formidable giant suddenly collapse, and Prussia
will fall like Sweden. "
Frederick had few pleasiires, except that of hos-
pitality. He liked good living, and for his boon
companions chose men of the highest intellect,.
chiefly Frenchmen. All the world knows of his
almost passionate friendship for Voltaire, tempered
as it was by Voltaire's contempt for Frederick
except as a man of action, and Frederick's con-
tempt for Voltaire except as a man of letters.
When Voltaire came to Frederick as a political
envoy, Frederick laughed at his diplomacy just as
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? i6 Introduction
much as Voltaire laughed at the King's French
verses. How malicious he could be about Voltaire
will be found in the Confessions. D'Alembert
was another friend of Frederick's, and he made
Maupertuis the head of the Berlin Academy.
He was an indefatigable worker. When he died,
it was said of him that his death was the only rest
he ever took in his life. He certainly worked just
as hard till the day of his death, for at eleven
o'clock on his last night he ordered that he should
be waked at four to work. But he died two hours
too soon in the arms of the faithful valet who had
been holding him up since midnight. The last
words he spoke were to ask for his favourite dog,
and to bid them cover it with a quilt.
Of his habits, Mr. W. F. Reddaway, the most
readable of his biographers, wrote:
His habit was to rise at dawn or earlier. The
first three or four hours of the morning were allotted
to toilet, correspondence, a desultory breakfast of
strong coffee and fruit, preceded by a deep draught of
cold water flavoured with fennel leaves, and flute-
playing as an accompaniment to meditation on busi-
ness. Then came one or two hours of rapid work with
his secretaries, followed by parade, audiences, and
perhaps a little exercise. Punctually at noon Freder-
ick sat down to dinner, which was always the chief
social event of the day, and in later life became his only
solid meal. He supervised his kitchen like a depart-
ment of State, He considered and often amended the
bill of fare, which contained the names of the cooks
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? Introduction 17
responsible for every dish. After dinner he marked
with a cross the courses which had merited his ap-
proval. He inspected his household accounts with
minute care and proved himself a master of domestic
economy. The result was a dinner that Voltaire
considered fairly good for a country in which there was
no game, no decent meat, and no spring chickens.
Two hours, sometimes even four, were spent at
table. Occasionally the time was devoted to the dis-
cussion of important business with high officials,
but in general Frederick used it to refresh himself after
his six or seven hours of toil. He ate freely, preferring
highly spiced dishes, drank claret mixed with water,
and talked incessantly. He was a skilful and agree-
able host, putting his guests instantly at their ease, and
by Voltaire's account, calling forth wit in others.
After dismissing the company he returned to his
flute, and then put the final touches to the morning's
business. After this he drank coffee and passed some
two hours in seclusion. During this period he nerved
himself for fresh grappling with affairs by plunging into
literature. In the year 1749 he produced no less
than forty works. About six o'clock he was ready to
receive his lector or to converse with artists and
learned men. At seven began a small concert, in
which Frederick himself used often to perform. Sup-
per followed, but was brief, unless the conversation was
of unusual interest. Otherwise the King went to bed
at about nine o'clock and slept five or six hours. In
later life he gave up suppers, but continued to invite
a few friends for conversation. He then allowed him-
self rather more sleep. In his last years he lost the
power to play his flute, and with it, apparently, the
desire to hear music.
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? 1 8 Introduction
Mr. Reddaway adds that Frederick would not
endure the presence of any woman -- that, strictly
speaking, he had no courtiers, and that his private
secretary, Eichel, whom he worked like a slave,
was never seen by any human being.
Frederick, who wrote a great deal more than
most professional authors, could be really witty,
though much of his wit consisted in drawing atten-
tion to other people's weaknesses -- an easy per-
formance for an absolute monarch, since most men
can do it when they are too drunk to fear the con-
sequences, which may be the origin of the saying
in vino Veritas.
Treitschke gives Frederick a very high rank as
an author, but nothing which Frederick ever wrote
is as readable in a translation as the Confessions
which are given in this volume. The truth is that
eighteenth century writings have to be excellent
before they are readable, because they lack the
human frankness of some other centuries. This
frankness Frederick achieved only in the poorest
of his literary productions, and for this reason
Frederick's fame as an author is dead out of his
own country; he is read only for the light which
he throws upon that cynical, valiant soul which
achieved one of the greatest works in the world --
the creation of Prussia.
A few dates may be useful in following Treitsch-
ke' s life of the great Prussian King, for Treitschke
deals in dicta rather than dates.
Frederick was bom on January 24, 17 12. His
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? X
Introduction 19
mother was a sister of George II. He was eighteen
years old when he tried to flee with Katte to France,
and twenty-eight when his father died in 1740.
He was married in 1733 to Princess EHzabeth of
Brunswick-Bevem, related to the Austrian House.
The Emperor Charles VI, Maria Theresa's father,
died on October 20, 1740, and on December i6th
Frederick entered Silesia with twenty-eight thou-
sand men, with the intention of annexing it. His
victory at MoUwitz, which practically gave him
the coimtry, was fought on April 10, 1741, but
he was not confirmed in it till his victory of
Chotusitz, May 17, 1742, which was followed
on June nth by the Peace of Breslau.
This is called the first Silesian war. In the next
war against Austria, in 1744 (the second Silesian
war), he took Prague, September 16, 1744, but
had to abandon it shortly afterwards. He had
his revenge at his great victories of Hohenfriedberg,
on June 5, 1745, and Sohr, September 30, 1745,
both against the Austrians, and Hennersdorf,
November 23, 1745, against the Austrians and
Saxons combined, while the Prince of Dessau
defeated another Austrian and Saxon army at
Kesselsdorf on December 15th. The second
Silesian war was terminated by the Peace of Dres-
den, signed on Christmas Day, 1745.
On August 29, 1756, Frederick crossed the
Saxon frontier and began the Seven Years' War.
The indecisive battle of Lobositz was fought
between Frederick and the Austrian Marshal
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? 20 Introduction
Browne, and before the end of the year he took
possession of Saxony. On May 6, 1757, he won
the battle of Prague, after enormous losses on both
sides, and blockaded the city; but on June i8th
he lost the great battle of Kollin, and had to raise
the blockade and evacuate Bohemia. On Novem-
ber 5, 1757, he won the great battle of Rossbach,
and a month later another supreme victory at
Leuthen. On the 2 ist, Breslau capitulated to him,
and a week later Liegnitz. But his General,
Lehwaldt, had been defeated by the Russian
General Apraxin at Gross-Jagersdorf on August
30th. In 1758 he marched into Moravia and
besieged Olmiitz, but was compelled to retreat
owing to the capture of a convoy of three or four
thousand wagons by the Austrian General Laudon ;
on August 25th he won the battle of Zomdorf
over the Russians, which ended their campaign,
but on October 14th he was surprised and heavily
defeated by the Austrians at Hochkirch, and on
the same day lost his sister, the Margravine of
Baireuth.
But for the English subsidy of 4,000,000 thalers
Frederick would have been starved out in 1759.
On July 25th his army was defeated by the Rus-
sians at Kay, and on August 12th he saw his army
utterly routed by the combined Austrians and
Russians at Kunersdorf, He lost Dresden by
surrender on September 24th, and on November
23d Finck and his army of 12,000 men laid down
their arms at Maxen.
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? Introduction 21
In the western field things had gone better.
Ferdinand of Brunswick had driven the French
army across the Rhine on June 23, 1758, at
Crefeld, and though the French took Frankfurt
on January 2, 1759, and won a battle at Bergen
on April 13, 1759, they were severely defeated
at Minden, August i, 1759.
On June 23, 1760, a Prussian corps was anni-
hilated at Landeshut and Glatz capitulated on
July 22d. But Frederick won a great victory
over the Austrians under Laudon at Liegnitz on
August 15th, and a hotly contested battle against
the Austrians under Daun at Torgau on Novem-
ber 3d, though Laudon had surprised and captured
the great fortress of Schweidnitz on October ist.
The condition of Prussia at the end of this year
appeared hopeless ; the army had declined to sixty
thousand men, and even more in quality than in
numbers. But on January 5, 1762, the Czarina
Elizabeth of Russia died, and was succeeded by her
nephew, Peter III, the husband of the great
Catherine, who was an idolatrous admirer of
Frederick and at once recalled the Russian army.
