TRIAN SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE.) Internal Administration.—Frederick was now, at' the age of 33, the most conspicuous sovereign of his time. He was a thor oughly absolute ruler, his so-called ministers being mere clerks whose business was to give effect to his will. To use his own famous phrase, however, he regarded himself as but "the first servant of the State"; and during the next 11 years he proved that the words expressed his inmost conviction and feeling. All kinds of questions were submitted to him, important and un important, even questions of trivial detail. A keen judge of character, he filled the public offices with faithful, capable, ener getic men, who were kept up to a high standard of duty by the consciousness that their work might at any time come under his strict supervision. The Academy of Sciences, which had fallen into contempt during his father's reign, he restored, infusing into it vigorous life ; and he did more to promote elementary educa tion than any of his predecessors. He did much, too, for the economic development of Prussia, especially for agriculture; he established colonies, peopling them with immigrants, extended the canal system, drained and diked the great marshes of the Oder bruch, turning them into rich pasturage, encouraged the planting of fruit trees and of root crops; and, though in accordance with his ideas of discipline he maintained serfdom, he did much to lighten the burdens of the peasants. All kinds of manufacture, too, particularly that of silk, owed much to his encouragement. To the army he gave unremitting attention, reviewing it at regular intervals, and sternly punishing negligence on the part of the officers. Its numbers were raised to 16o,000 men, while fortresses and magazines were always kept in a state of readiness for war. The influence of the king's example was felt far beyond the limits of his immediate circle. The nation was proud of his genius. and displayed something of his energy in all departments of life. Lessing, who as a youth of 20 came to Berlin in 1749, composed enthusiastic odes in his honour, and Gleim, the Halberstadt poet, wrote of him as of a kind of demigod. These may be taken as fair illustrations of the popular feeling long before the Seven Years' War.
The king lived as much as possible in a retired mansion, to which he gave the name of Sans-Souci. The new palace, which was not built until after the Seven Years' War, was never a favourite residence. He rose regularly in summer at five, in winter at six, devoting himself to public business till about eleven. Dur ing part of this time, after coffee, he would aid his reflections by playing on the flute, of which he was passionately fond, being a really skilful performer. At eleven came parade, and an hour afterwards, punctually, dinner, which continued till two, or later, if conversation happened to be particularly attractive. After dinner he glanced through and signed cabinet orders written in accordance with his morning instructions, often adding marginal notes and postscripts, many of which were in a caustic tone. These disposed of, he amused himself for a couple of hours with literary work; between six and seven he would converse with his friends or listen to his reader (a post held for some time by La Mettrie) ; at seven there was a concert ; and at half-past eight he sat down to supper, which might go on till midnight. He liked good eating and drinking, although even here the cost was sharply looked after, the expenses of his kitchen mounting to no higher figure than L1,800 a year. At supper he was always surrounded by a number of his most intimate friends, mainly Frenchmen; and he insisted on the conversation being perfectly free. His wit, however, was often cruel, and any one who responded with too much spirit was soon made to feel that the licence of talk was to be complete only on one side. At Frederick's court ladies were seldom seen, a circumstance that gave occasion to much scandal. The queen he visited only on rare occasions, though he provided her with a generous income, half of which she gave away in charity. Although without charm, she was a woman of many noble qualities; and, like her husband, she wrote French books, some of which attracted a certain attention in their day. She survived him by II years, dying in War and Reconstruction.—From to 1763 Frederick's energies were wholly taken up in the Seven Years' War (q.v.) in which virtually the whole Continent was in arms against him. Although Prussia was fearfully exhausted by this struggle, and at times seemed on the verge of ruin, Frederick's tenacity and military genius carried him through, and the peace of Hubertus hof (Feb. 15, 1763) restored the territorial status quo ante bellum. Morally, however, the Seven Years' War was a great victory for Prussia. She was now universally recognized as one of the great powers of the Continent, and definitely took her place in Germany as the rival of Austria. From this time it was inevitable that there should be a final struggle between the two nations for predominance, and that the smaller German states should group themselves around one or the other.
Frederick's first care after the war was, as far as possible, to enable the country to recover from its terrific losses; a task which he undertook with genius and energy. Pomerania and Neumark were freed from taxation for two years, Silesia for six months. Many nobles whose lands had been wasted received corn for seed; his war horses were within a few months to be found on farms all over Prussia ; and money was freely spent in the re-erection of houses which had been destroyed. The coinage, which had been debased, was gradually restored to its proper value, and trade received a favourable impulse by the foundation of the Bank of Berlin. All these matters were carefully looked into by Fred erick himself, who, while acting as generously as his circumstances would allow, insisted on the maximum of efficiency and economy.
Unfortunately, he adopted the French ideas of excise, and the French methods of imposing and collecting taxes—a system known as the Regie. This system secured a large revenue, but led to much petty tyranny, all the more intolerable because it was carried out by French officials, It was continued to the end of Frederick's reign, and nothing did so much to injure his other wise immense popularity. He was quite aware of the discontent the system excited, and the good-nature with which he tolerated the criticisms directed against it and him is illustrated by a well known and well-authenticated incident. Riding along the Jager Strasse one day, he saw a crowd of people. "See what it is," he said to the groom who was attending him. "They have something posted up about your Majesty," said the groom, returning. Fred erick, riding forward, saw a caricature of himself : "King in very melancholy guise," says Preuss (as translated by Carlyle), "seated on a stool, a coffee-mill between his knees, diligently grinding with the one hand, and with the other picking up any bean that might have fallen. `Hang it lower,' said the king, beckoning his groom with a wave of the finger; `lower, that they may not have to hurt their necks about it.' No sooner were the words spoken, which spread instantly, than there rose from the whole crowd one universal huzzah of joy. They tore the cari cature into a thousand pieces, and rolled after the king with loud `Lebe Hoch, our Frederick for ever,' as he rode slowly away." Frederick took particular interest in the proper administration of justice. He disliked the formalities of the law, and in one instance, "the miller Arnold case," where he thought injustice had been done to a poor man, he dismissed the judges, condemned them to a year's fortress arrest, and compelled them to make good out of their own pockets the loss sustained by their sup posed victim—really a violation of justice, but one springing from a generous motive. He once defined himself as "1'avocat du pauvre," and few things gave him more pleasure than the famous answer of the miller whose windmill stood on ground which was wanted for the king's garden. The miller sturdily refused to sell it. "Not at any price?" said the king's agent; "could not the king take it from you for nothing, if he chose?" "Have we not the Kammergericht at Berlin?" was the answer, which became a popular saying in Germany.
Looking ahead after the Seven Years' War, Frederick saw no means of securing himself so effectually as by cultivating the good will of Russia. In 1764 he accordingly concluded a treaty of alliance with the empress Catherine for eight years. Six years afterwards, unfortunately for his fame, he joined in the first partition of Poland, by which he received Polish Prussia, without Danzig and Thorn, and Great Poland as far as the river Netze. Prussia was then for the first time made continuous with Branden burg and Pomerania.
Frederick never abandoned his jealousy of Austria, whose ambi tion he regarded as the chief danger against which Europe had to guard. He seems to have had no suspicion that evil days were coming in France. It was Austria which had given trouble in his time; and if her pride were curbed, he fancied that Prussia at least would be safe. Hence one of the last important acts of his life was to form, in 1785, a league of princes (the "Fiirstenbund") for the defence of the imperial constitution, believed to be im perilled by Joseph's restless activity. The league came to an end after Frederick's death; but it is of considerable historical interest, as the first open attempt of Prussia to take the lead in Germany.
He was rather below the middle size, in youth inclined to stout ness, lean in old age, but of vigorous and active habits. An expression of keen intelligence lighted up his features, and his large, sparkling grey eyes darted penetrating glances at every one who approached him. He was uncleanly in his personal habits. In his later years an old blue uniform with red facings was his usual dress, and on his breast was generally some Spanish snuff, of which he consumed large quantities. He shared many of the chief intellectual tendencies of his age, including its scepticism.
Of Christianity he always spoke in the mocking tone of the "en lightened" philosophers, regarding it as the invention of priests; but after the Seven Years' War, the trials of which steadied his character, he sought to strengthen the church for the sake of its elevating moral influence.
In his judgments of mankind he often talked as a misanthrope. When a school inspector named Sulzer expressed to him the opinion that "the inborn inclination of men is rather to good than to evil," he replied. "Ah, my dear Sulzer, you don't know this damned race" ("Ach, mein Lieber Sulzer, er kennt nicht diese verdammte Rasse"). This fearful saying unquestionably expressed a frequent mood of Frederick's; and he sometimes acted with great harshness, and seemed to take a malicious pleasure in tormenting his acquaintances. Yet he was capable of genuine attachments. He was beautifully loyal to his mother and his sister Wilhelmina ; his letters to the duchess of Gotha are full of a certain tender reverence ; the two Keiths found him a devoted friend. In his lonely old age, his best-loved companions were his greyhounds, who slept in his bed ; he erected monuments to them, and gave orders that he was to be buried near them. As a king, however, he laboured genuinely for humanity.
Taking the reign of Frederick II. as a whole, it must be said that he looked upon his power rather as a trust than as a source of personal advantage; and the trust was faithfully dis charged according to the best lights of his day. He has often been condemned for doing nothing to encourage German literature; and it is true that he was supremely indifferent to it. Before he died a tide of intellectual life was rising all about him; yet he failed to recognize it, declined to give Lessing even the small post of royal librarian, and thought Gotz von Berlicliingen a vulgar imitation of vulgar English models. But when his taste was formed, German literature did not exist ; the choice was between Racine and Voltaire on the one hand and Gottsched and Gellert on the other. He survived into the era of Kant, Goethe and Schiller, but he was not of it, and it would have been unreason able to expect that he should in old age pass beyond the limits of his own epoch. It was better, indeed, that he let German litera ture alone, thus letting it become a thoroughly independent product. Indirectly he powerfully promoted it by deepening the national life from which it sprang. At a time when there was no real bond of cohesion between the different States, he stirred among them a common enthusiasm; and in making Prussia great he laid the foundation of a genuinely united empire.
189o-1913) . See also G. Kunstel, Politisches Testament Friedrichs des Grossen von 1752 (191I) ; G. Kuser, Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (4 vols., 1912-14) ; N. Young, The Life of Frederick the Great (1919) ; Werner Hegemann, Friedrich der Grosse (1924, English trans. by Wini fr,d Ray, Frederick the Great, 1929) . For a list of other works see Dahlmann-Waitz, Quellenkunde (Leipzig, 1912) . U. SI.; X.)