Friedrich I King of PRUSSIA

                   Note: Friedrich Wilhelm I, son of Friedrich I, became King of Prussia in 1713, succeeding his father to the throne. Friedrich Wilhelm I ruled until 1740, and was succeeded by his son, Friedrich II, known as The Great. In 1688, the year in which Friedrich Wilhelm (the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia) died, his grandson was born on August 14 and was given the same name. The future Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia would live up to his name and would succeed in perfecting the institutions created by his grandfather, thus making Prussia a great European power. Further, no other single German leader would have such a profound influence on the shaping of the German national character. Many of the attributes normally associated with the German character (industriousness, thrift, piety, punctuality, a sense of duty, efficiency, practicality) were values exemplified by the Soldier King and were institutionalized through the pillars of Prussian power created by the King: the Army and the Bureaucracy (das Beamtentum). The father of Friedrich Wilhelm I., Friedrich I, succeeded in acquiring the title of 'King' for the rulers of Brandenburg and had promoted the arts and architecture in Prussia, but at a fearful price. The treasury was nearly empty and, worse still, the army had been neglected, now numbering barely 25,000 men. The young Friedrich Wilhelm was greatly disturbed by this state of affairs and resolved to remedy this situation when he became King. That day came in 1713. According to his father's wishes, he gave the departed King an elaborate funeral. This would be the last extravagance of the new regime, however. He immediately fired most of the palace servants and cut the royal household budget to a minimum. Sometimes, even his own children went to bed hungry in order to save money. At noon, the King would frequently be seen on the streets of Berlin, hoping to encounter citizens who would then feel obliged to invite the King home for dinner, thus saving the cost of a meal to the royal household. Deeply influenced by his Calvinist faith, the King sought to instill these values throughout Prussian society. He stripped the nobility of all power, subjected them to the same taxation as other citizens (unheard of in those days in Europe), and put them to work in government administration and the army, thus making them even more dependent on the crown. In place of their former power, he instilled a sense of pride in the nobility through emphasizing a highly developed sense of duty, honor, professionalism, competence, and service to the State. Despite its negative connotation today, the invention of Bureaucracy by Friedrich Wilhelm I was a revolutionary development in government at the time. Up to that point, the way in which government policy was formed in other European courts was through bribery, mistresses, court sycophants, and local officials stealing from the royal treasury in order to create their own fiefdoms. Friedrich Wilhelm I replaced the usual way of doing business with standard, codified procedures which could be objectively evaluated, and which were equally applied to all. Prussia emerged with the most efficient and non-corrupt government in Europe and Friedrich Wilhelm emerged as one of the first of the 'absolute monarchs' of Europe. But it was the Army which was the true passion of the Soldier King. From a force barely numbering 25,000 men at the time of his ascension to the throne, the Army would number more than 85,000 superbly trained men at the time of his death. Further, it was led by the most talented officer corps ever assembled under one command. Having served with the Prussian Army as Crown Prince during the War of Spanish Succession, Friedrich Wilhelm identified early on with the Army and sought to develop it into the best fighting force possible. Though discipline was harsh, even brutal, the King, nonetheless, cared for the material and spiritual well-being of the soldiers. Every soldier was given an elementary level of education in an age when education was rare among the common people. Further, all
soldiers were given religious instruction. And the King also provided for the orphans of soldiers by opening the first military orphanage in Potsdam. The ethos and values of the King were rigidly enforced throughout the Army. Though named the 'Soldier King', Friedrich Wilhelm treasured peace. He only used his cherished army once, during the latter phases of the Great Northern War against Sweden. Under the leadership of Leopold I. von Anhalt-Dessau, the Prussian Army quickly recaptured Stettin and Ruegen. The Swedish King, Karl XII was considered a military genius by his contemporaries, but was wounded in the action at Ruegen and barely escaped capture after his army was defeated. The Swedes proved to be no match for Friedrich Wilhelm's Prussian Army. Up to this time, armies in Europe were composed primarily of foreign mercenaries. Friedrich Wilhelm established a canton system throughout Prussia and recruited from the local population. Thus, Prussia established one of the first truly national armies. Furthermore, as the King regarded himself as 'the first servant of the State', he always wore his blue army uniform as an outward sign of his service. Likewise, former soldiers were allowed to keep their blue army coats when they left the service and many continued to wear their army coats in civilian life. This established a commonality of purpose and a sense of equality with the King himself. The Army, in a sense, promoted a certain type of democratic feeling in Prussia. For the first time, a feeling a patriotism, in the modern sense, emerged in Prussia. The King's passion for the Army sometimes took on bizarre forms. He collected an entire regiment consisting of the very tallest men (die langen Kerls) he could find throughout Europe, regardless of the cost. He personally drilled these men and took great pride in showing them off to other European royalty. However, there was a method to the King's madness. This mania helped to obscure the growing strength of the Prussian Army, thus preventing undue alarm at the Hapsburg court in Vienna. This probably saved Prussia from an attack by Austria. Indeed, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin reported back to Vienna that while the Prussian Army was impressive on parade, he didn't see how this could possibly be relevant on the battlefield. It would be Friedrich Wilhelm's even more famous son, Friedrich II. (The Great) who would teach them the relevance of discipline and professionalism when he seized Silesia from Austria in 1740 and decisively defeated Austria in three subsequent wars over its possession. Friedrich Wilhelm policies also helped to develop the economy of Prussia, particularly in relation to the needs of the Army. Much of Germany's future industrial strength developed in this time: Chemicals (gunpowder), textiles (to make army uniforms), foundries (to cast gun barrels for artillery). In addition, he invited persecuted Protestants from Austrian Salzburg to move to Prussia, exactly as his grandfather had done for the French Protestants, and resettled them in East Prussia. Additionally, at the end of Friedrich Wilhelm's reign, his treasury boasted a healthy surplus of over 30 Million Talers (The Prussian monetary unit from which the word 'dollar' is derived). When Prussia assumed the leadership of Germany in 1871, the Prussian model created by Friedrich Wilhelm I. for the Army and the bureaucracy was transferred to all the other German states. Their institutions were reformed, based on this Prussian model. The Prussian ethos filtered from these institutions down to the rest of society and were adopted, in large part, by the middle and working classes. This ethic is still evident to this day throughout Germany, and remains the guiding ethic of the 'Beamtentum' and the Bundeswehr. The King died at the relatively young age of 52 in 1740. Today, the Soldier King's final resting place can be visited at the Friedenskirche, near the entrance of Park Sanssouci in Potsdam. Friedrich Wilhelm I. of Prussia was truly the most 'german' of all Germans.