, IO6
MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE PROVINCE OF
MINDEN .
MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE PROVINCE OF
MINDEN .
Treitschke - 1915 - Confessions of Frederick the Great
.
The
evil produced by his wickedness was felt in lands where
the name of Prussia was unknown; and in order that
Frederick might rob a neighbour whom he had sworn
to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coro-
mandel and red men scalped each other by the Great
Lakes of North America.
The historian Treitschke on the other hand
finds Frederick a hero after his own heart. He
takes the same actions that had formed the text
for Macaulay's excoriation and describes these in
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? Foreword xvii
such manner as to show that in his judgment they
were necessary for the development of Prussia and
of Germany, and for the proper carrying out of the
destiny of the HohenzoUerns. Says Treitschke:
Since the days of Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the
Midnight Sun, Germany had had no picture of a hero
to whom the entire nation could look up with awe. . . .
Frederick strode through the middle of the Great
Powers and forced the Germans to believe again in
the wonder of heroism. . . . He was a German, and
the mainspring in this mighty nature is the ruthless,
terrible German directness.
The historian remarks that
not without arbitrariness Frederick arranged the facts
of history according to a one-sided view, but one-
sidedness, turned towards life and light, is, after all,
the privilege of the creative genius. . . .
And again :
Frederick recognized that it had become a necessity
to enlarge the territory of his state . . . and his policy
was to lift the new German state into expansion and
power through the frightfulness of its weapons.
It may be noted that this term "frightfulness" has
been utilized to-day in the instructions given to the
generals who are occupying conquered territories
in Belgium and in eastern France, as necessary
for the terrorizing of the people.
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? xviii Foreword
Treitschke finds no ground for criticizing his
hero "because no treaty or league could make him
resign the right of deciding for himself, " that is to
say, of selecting his own time for the breaking of
his obligation. The historian points out, and with
truth, that as early as 1756 Frederick had recog-
nized that the continuing issue in Germany was
whether it was to accept the supremacy of Prussia
or of Austria. The question was decided for Ger-
many a century later at Koniggratz by William I,
Bismarck, and Moltke. The soldier, reading the
account of the campaigns of the Seven Years'
War, cannot withhold a full measure of admiration
for the pluck, the persistence, the patience, and the
genius which carried the little army intact through
defeats, and through victories which were hardly
less exhausting than defeats, and which saved the
existence of the little kingdom; but the courage of
the troops and the genius of their leader had, of
course, nothing whatsoever to do with the morality
of the cause for which they were fighting, a cause
which for the larger portion of all the campaigns
of Frederick was simply the appropriation of the
territory of his neighbour.
Treitschke writes in reference to the "educa-
tional power of war" that the "alert self-reliance
of the Prussians contrasted strongly with the in-
offensive kindly modesty of the other Germans. "
The quality that Treitschke terms "self-reliance"
has in later years been described by those less
sympathetic with the Prussian spirit as self-
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? Foreword xix
sufficiency or dominating arrogance. The truth
of either definition depends, of course, upon the
point of view.
Treitschke says, naively,
that there then dawned upon Frederick the idea of the
partition of Poland. It was his purpose to combat
the grabbing land-greed of Russia. . . . The Poles
were, in any case, deserving of no sympathy, for [says
Treitschke] they were distinguished above all the na-
tions of Europe by an insolent disregard of the rights
and the nationalities of others.
In Treitschke's reference to the organization
given by Frederick to his army, he refers to the
decision to place the officers' commissions ex-
clusively in the hands of the nobility. He goes on
to say:
In the noble officers' corps there arose an aristocratic
arrogance (Junkersinn) , which soon became more
intolerable to the people than the coarse roughness of
earlier times.
It is the belief of many that this characteristic
of the corps of noble Prussian officers is stronger
and more troublesome in the twentieth century
than it was in the eighteenth.
Treitschke writes with full approval of Freder-
ick's upholding of Christian toleration. He cites
this as an old Prussian policy, and quotes Freder-
ick's own words, " the people's conceptions of God
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? XX Foreword
and godly things cannot be made subject to a
coercive law. "
The defenders of the war policy of Germany of
to-day contend that undue weight has been given
to the utterances of the historian Treitschke, of the
military scientist Bernhardi, and of the philosopher
Nietzsche. When, however, it is possible to make
clear that the germ of the teachings of historian,
philosopher, and militarist is to be found in the
recorded utterances of the greatest of the Hohen-
zoUems, and when the HohenzoUem of to-day
says frankly that he is doing what he can to carry
out the ideals of the King who made Prussia a
European power, it is not inaccurate to contend
that the spirit and principles of Frederick, Treitsch-
ke, Nietzsche, and Bernhardi are expressed by
the policies and enforced by the military power of
William II.
Frederick did not dread the antagonism of his
neighbours and had no fear of their criticism. He
was prepared to realize that he could hardly expect
friendliness of feeling from the states whose terri-
tory had been despoiled to make Prussia greater.
The defenders of the policy of Kaiser William II
point out that Germany is surrounded by a "steel
ring of enemies," states which are opposed to her
natural development. Every nation is, of neces-
sity, in touch with neighbouring nations; and
whether these nations are to hold one of their
neighbours in friendship or in enmity depends, of
course, largely, if not chiefly, upon her own
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? Foreword xxi
conduct and upon her observance in international
relations of the principles of justice or of fair
consideration. It is difficult to imagine that
Germany should expect sympathetic friendship
from Denmark (one third of whose territory had
been snatched from her in 1864), or from France
after the appropriation of Alsace-Lorraine and the
institution in old French Lorraine of the great
fortress of Metz threatening as it were with a
mailed fist the heart of France. If Germany
succeeds in the present struggle so that the
annexation of Belgium as a province of the
Empire {Reichsland) may be confirmed, it is
hardly to be expected that for generations to
come the Belgians, devastated by ruthless in-
vasion and by the official burning of their cities,
left in starvation through the appropriation of
their food supplies, and crushed with heavy
indemnities, some of which were imposed even
after the territory had in form become a part
of the German Empire, can regard with affec-
tion or with a feeling of loyal relation, their new
rulers.
The reign of Frederick is a great example of
the results of doctrines of efficiency carried to
the nth. power without scruples or limitations, or
consideration for the rights of others. It is this
Hohenzollern ideal of efficiency which has pro-
duced the finest fighting machine that the world
has ever seen, and which has placed back of that
machine the magnificently organized resources of
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? xxii Foreword
a great Empire. It is for Europe to decide
whether it will permit itself to be dominated by
the ideals, the policy, and the methods of the
Hohenzollerns
Geo. Haven Putnam.
New York, January, 191 5.
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? CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword . . . . . . . iii
Preface . . . . . . . xix
Introduction i
Morning the First:
ORIGIN OF our family . . . . 35
the situation of my kingdom . . . 37
OF the soil of my TERRITORIES . . 38
of the manners of the inhabitants , 38
Morning the Second:
ON religion . . . . . . 40
Morning the Third:
on justice . . . . -49
Morning the Fourth:
ON politics 54
on private politics . . . . 55
on literature . . . . . 59
conduct in the smaller matters of life 61
as to dress . . . . . . 62
as to pleasures 63
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? xxiv Contents
PAGE
Morning the Fifth:
on politics of the state . . . 66
principle the first -- of self-preserva-
tion and aggrandizement , . 66
principle the second -- on alliances . 69
principle the third -- of inspiring
respect and fear . . . -71
Morning the Sixth:
military 74
Morning the Seventh:
concerning finance . . . . 93
the memorial of the council . . 94
subsidies . . . . . . 98
memorandum . . . . . 99
the reply of the province of magde-
BURG lOI
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BURGOMASTERS OF
MAGDEBURG IO3
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BURGOMASTERS OF
VILLAGES . . . . . . 105
METHOD OF WORKING . . .
, 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.
evil produced by his wickedness was felt in lands where
the name of Prussia was unknown; and in order that
Frederick might rob a neighbour whom he had sworn
to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coro-
mandel and red men scalped each other by the Great
Lakes of North America.
The historian Treitschke on the other hand
finds Frederick a hero after his own heart. He
takes the same actions that had formed the text
for Macaulay's excoriation and describes these in
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? Foreword xvii
such manner as to show that in his judgment they
were necessary for the development of Prussia and
of Germany, and for the proper carrying out of the
destiny of the HohenzoUerns. Says Treitschke:
Since the days of Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the
Midnight Sun, Germany had had no picture of a hero
to whom the entire nation could look up with awe. . . .
Frederick strode through the middle of the Great
Powers and forced the Germans to believe again in
the wonder of heroism. . . . He was a German, and
the mainspring in this mighty nature is the ruthless,
terrible German directness.
The historian remarks that
not without arbitrariness Frederick arranged the facts
of history according to a one-sided view, but one-
sidedness, turned towards life and light, is, after all,
the privilege of the creative genius. . . .
And again :
Frederick recognized that it had become a necessity
to enlarge the territory of his state . . . and his policy
was to lift the new German state into expansion and
power through the frightfulness of its weapons.
It may be noted that this term "frightfulness" has
been utilized to-day in the instructions given to the
generals who are occupying conquered territories
in Belgium and in eastern France, as necessary
for the terrorizing of the people.
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? xviii Foreword
Treitschke finds no ground for criticizing his
hero "because no treaty or league could make him
resign the right of deciding for himself, " that is to
say, of selecting his own time for the breaking of
his obligation. The historian points out, and with
truth, that as early as 1756 Frederick had recog-
nized that the continuing issue in Germany was
whether it was to accept the supremacy of Prussia
or of Austria. The question was decided for Ger-
many a century later at Koniggratz by William I,
Bismarck, and Moltke. The soldier, reading the
account of the campaigns of the Seven Years'
War, cannot withhold a full measure of admiration
for the pluck, the persistence, the patience, and the
genius which carried the little army intact through
defeats, and through victories which were hardly
less exhausting than defeats, and which saved the
existence of the little kingdom; but the courage of
the troops and the genius of their leader had, of
course, nothing whatsoever to do with the morality
of the cause for which they were fighting, a cause
which for the larger portion of all the campaigns
of Frederick was simply the appropriation of the
territory of his neighbour.
Treitschke writes in reference to the "educa-
tional power of war" that the "alert self-reliance
of the Prussians contrasted strongly with the in-
offensive kindly modesty of the other Germans. "
The quality that Treitschke terms "self-reliance"
has in later years been described by those less
sympathetic with the Prussian spirit as self-
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? Foreword xix
sufficiency or dominating arrogance. The truth
of either definition depends, of course, upon the
point of view.
Treitschke says, naively,
that there then dawned upon Frederick the idea of the
partition of Poland. It was his purpose to combat
the grabbing land-greed of Russia. . . . The Poles
were, in any case, deserving of no sympathy, for [says
Treitschke] they were distinguished above all the na-
tions of Europe by an insolent disregard of the rights
and the nationalities of others.
In Treitschke's reference to the organization
given by Frederick to his army, he refers to the
decision to place the officers' commissions ex-
clusively in the hands of the nobility. He goes on
to say:
In the noble officers' corps there arose an aristocratic
arrogance (Junkersinn) , which soon became more
intolerable to the people than the coarse roughness of
earlier times.
It is the belief of many that this characteristic
of the corps of noble Prussian officers is stronger
and more troublesome in the twentieth century
than it was in the eighteenth.
Treitschke writes with full approval of Freder-
ick's upholding of Christian toleration. He cites
this as an old Prussian policy, and quotes Freder-
ick's own words, " the people's conceptions of God
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? XX Foreword
and godly things cannot be made subject to a
coercive law. "
The defenders of the war policy of Germany of
to-day contend that undue weight has been given
to the utterances of the historian Treitschke, of the
military scientist Bernhardi, and of the philosopher
Nietzsche. When, however, it is possible to make
clear that the germ of the teachings of historian,
philosopher, and militarist is to be found in the
recorded utterances of the greatest of the Hohen-
zoUems, and when the HohenzoUem of to-day
says frankly that he is doing what he can to carry
out the ideals of the King who made Prussia a
European power, it is not inaccurate to contend
that the spirit and principles of Frederick, Treitsch-
ke, Nietzsche, and Bernhardi are expressed by
the policies and enforced by the military power of
William II.
Frederick did not dread the antagonism of his
neighbours and had no fear of their criticism. He
was prepared to realize that he could hardly expect
friendliness of feeling from the states whose terri-
tory had been despoiled to make Prussia greater.
The defenders of the policy of Kaiser William II
point out that Germany is surrounded by a "steel
ring of enemies," states which are opposed to her
natural development. Every nation is, of neces-
sity, in touch with neighbouring nations; and
whether these nations are to hold one of their
neighbours in friendship or in enmity depends, of
course, largely, if not chiefly, upon her own
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? Foreword xxi
conduct and upon her observance in international
relations of the principles of justice or of fair
consideration. It is difficult to imagine that
Germany should expect sympathetic friendship
from Denmark (one third of whose territory had
been snatched from her in 1864), or from France
after the appropriation of Alsace-Lorraine and the
institution in old French Lorraine of the great
fortress of Metz threatening as it were with a
mailed fist the heart of France. If Germany
succeeds in the present struggle so that the
annexation of Belgium as a province of the
Empire {Reichsland) may be confirmed, it is
hardly to be expected that for generations to
come the Belgians, devastated by ruthless in-
vasion and by the official burning of their cities,
left in starvation through the appropriation of
their food supplies, and crushed with heavy
indemnities, some of which were imposed even
after the territory had in form become a part
of the German Empire, can regard with affec-
tion or with a feeling of loyal relation, their new
rulers.
The reign of Frederick is a great example of
the results of doctrines of efficiency carried to
the nth. power without scruples or limitations, or
consideration for the rights of others. It is this
Hohenzollern ideal of efficiency which has pro-
duced the finest fighting machine that the world
has ever seen, and which has placed back of that
machine the magnificently organized resources of
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? xxii Foreword
a great Empire. It is for Europe to decide
whether it will permit itself to be dominated by
the ideals, the policy, and the methods of the
Hohenzollerns
Geo. Haven Putnam.
New York, January, 191 5.
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? CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword . . . . . . . iii
Preface . . . . . . . xix
Introduction i
Morning the First:
ORIGIN OF our family . . . . 35
the situation of my kingdom . . . 37
OF the soil of my TERRITORIES . . 38
of the manners of the inhabitants , 38
Morning the Second:
ON religion . . . . . . 40
Morning the Third:
on justice . . . . -49
Morning the Fourth:
ON politics 54
on private politics . . . . 55
on literature . . . . . 59
conduct in the smaller matters of life 61
as to dress . . . . . . 62
as to pleasures 63
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? xxiv Contents
PAGE
Morning the Fifth:
on politics of the state . . . 66
principle the first -- of self-preserva-
tion and aggrandizement , . 66
principle the second -- on alliances . 69
principle the third -- of inspiring
respect and fear . . . -71
Morning the Sixth:
military 74
Morning the Seventh:
concerning finance . . . . 93
the memorial of the council . . 94
subsidies . . . . . . 98
memorandum . . . . . 99
the reply of the province of magde-
BURG lOI
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BURGOMASTERS OF
MAGDEBURG IO3
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BURGOMASTERS OF
VILLAGES . . . . . . 105
METHOD OF WORKING . . .
, 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.
