His own position was complicated by a triple dilemma. Firstly, in regard to his family’s newly acquired East Prussian dominions, he was still a vassal of the Catholic King of Poland, who also happened to be his brother-in-law. Secondly, Georg Wilhelm and his East Prussian subjects were Protestants, so the leader of the Protestant cause, Gustavus Adolfus, King of Sweden, was his ‘brother in arms’. Thirdly, as the Elector of Brandenburg, which unlike East Prussia lay within the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire, he also had responsibilities and obligations towards the Habsburg Emperor, who had cast himself as the Defender of the Catholic Faith. In addition, Brandenburg-Prussia was poor and was not a military power of any description. During the conflict of the Thirty Years War, Georg Wilhelm’s fate, and that of his kingdom, hung in the balance and depended heavily on the fortunes of his neighbours, family and allies.
Georg Wilhelm has been accused of being weak and indecisive, but in all reality, faced with a conflagration that eventually engulfed the continent in thirty years of genocidal conflict, his kingdom — being one of the least developed in Northern Europe — had little to throw in the way of its more powerful neighbours. Georg Wilhelm’s kingdom was first overrun by the Danes, then the Holy Roman Imperial Army, followed by the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolfus (the most formidable land army of its time) and then again by the Imperial Army. Armies were largely made up of mercenaries who often changed sides (professional standing armies did not become the norm until after the Thirty Years War). Even armies that were supposedly defending the faith of the territory that they occupied, often terrorised and brutalised the population, stripping them of anything valuable or edible that could easily be carted away.
Georg was not inclined to try and save his kingdom by flying the flag for Catholicism or Protestantism. His father, Johann Sigismund, had proclaimed the Edict of Tolerance in 1614, after his conversion to Calvinism, but ruled that no institution or citizen was expected to follow his example, and that each subject was free to follow his own conscience. This was a remarkably liberal proclamation, and the earliest of its kind, coming just four years before the mother of all religious wars broke out in Europe. Georg Wilhelm continued what became an important facet and the basis of Brandenburg-Prussia; namely religious tolerance. He was clear that these wars had little to do with religion and more to do with dynastic territorial aggrandisement. In particular, a desire was born out of this agonising war, to create order out of the chaos that those religious differences had created, so they should not disturb the peace again. Brandenburg-Prussia became the first European state to consign religion to the sphere of private life. It was the first European state to preach and practise individual religious freedom, to allow for the equal standing of different Christian denominations, and to separate private from public life.
However, with no army to threaten or protect his neutrality, Georg Wilhelm constantly had to switch allegiances. Not out of conviction, but to try and keep his kingdom alive. Only one dynastic aim (that had been a constant throughout his reign) remained: the desire to gain a coastline for his possessions in Brandenburg, which meant securing Pomerania on the Baltic coast. But Gustav Adolfus also wanted Pomerania for ‘saving German Protestantism’ from the Catholic Emperor. After Sweden’s defeat at the Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, Georg switched his allegiance from Sweden back to the Emperor, in reward for which he was promised Pomerania as part of the Peace of Prague in 1635. But nothing came of it. Instead, the war raged on and continued to devastate Georg Wilhelm’s territories. The years of privation and destruction had weakened people’s physical resistance to disease. This, as well as the lack of food and the actions of the mercenary armies, cost Brandenburg half her population between 1618–48. Some transit towns, like Frankfurt on the Oder, lost up to two-thirds of their population.(11)
Georg Wilhelm did not live to see the end of the war, nor the resolution to the threats facing his provinces. It was his son, Friedrich Wilhelm, who had to learn the lessons from Europe’s most destructive conflict to date and try to find a way to preserve his inheritance for future generations. Friedrich succeeded Georg in 1640, and came to be seen by many as the real founding father of Brandenburg-Prussia. Friedrich realised that a renewed policy of neutrality was not sufficient to protect his domains. He knew he needed a strong army to dissuade his neighbours from using Brandenburg-Prussian territories as stationing grounds for their wars, plunder, looting or just plain annexation.
When the Thirty Years War formally ended, with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the peace terms were a bitter pill for the Brandenburg-Prussian Hohenzollern monarchy to swallow. They only retained part of Pomerania and not the part they really wanted, namely the coastline north of Brandenburg and the important port city of Stettin. In compensation, Friedrich Wilhelm was given the towns of Minden, Halberstadt and Magdeburg, the latter of which had been host to one of the worst atrocities of the entire war, having been looted and burnt to the ground, with 20,000 of its inhabitants slaughtered by imperial troops. What had once been one of the most important and richest trading cities in the empire now lay in ruins. The experience of the Thirty Years War and the catastrophic losses suffered, in particular by Brandenburg, were seared into the survivors’ memories. As historian Christopher Clark put it, ‘The argument that a State’s legitimacy is derived from the need to forestall disorder through the concentration of authority was widely employed in early modern Europe but it had a special resonance in Brandenburg.’(12)
Despite the protracted negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia, the wars did not end. In one of a number of what are loosely termed ‘the Northern Wars’ from 1655–60, Charles X of Sweden invaded Poland to extend his territories along the Baltic coast. Friedrich, just as his father did, got caught between conflicting obligations and expansionist neighbours. He was a vassal to Poland with regard to his Prussian possessions, and to Sweden with regard to blood and religion. During his reign he also faced threats from a predatory Louis XIV (‘the Sun King’) in the west, whose desire for French territorial expansion was only to be matched by that of Napoleon. Louis dramatically extended France’s eastern frontiers by taking the largely German-speaking Protestant provinces of Alsace Lorraine. Between 1667–68, Louis’ armies campaigned in the Spanish Netherlands plundering Friedrich Wilhelm’s neighbouring possessions in the duchy of Kleve, whilst the Swedes — France’s nominal allies — saw their chance to gain more territory by invading Brandenburg again. Louis XIV’s French armies followed this with an invasion of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire during the Palatinate Wars from 1688–97. A period of never-ending war, it would take a particularly gifted leader to try and put a stop to these ongoing foreign incursions in Brandenburg-Prussia.
Friedrich Wilhelm spent his childhood in the ancient fortress town of Küstrin, where he was taught Polish with the aim of helping him conduct business with the Polish king, his ducal overlord for his possessions in East Prussia. He studied at the best universities in the Netherlands and married a young Dutch Calvinist. The Netherlands became the kingdom that he admired most, and for good reason, as during this period the Netherlands was one of the pre-eminent trading and military powers in Europe. Friedrich, having seen what could be achieved by a small maritime trading power with good ports and a decent stretch of coastline, was determined that his state could learn much from Holland and emulate her ways. He invited many Dutch craftsmen and merchants into his realm to help him.lxxvii His dedication to office and his unrelenting efforts to rebuild and defend his ravaged lands earned him the love of his subjects and the respect of all future rulers of his Hohenzollern royal house, with every one of them taking at least one of his names. The Hohenzollerns are a bewildering dynasty of Friedrichs, Wilhelms and Friedrich Wilhelms.
When Friedrich began raising the finances to build his own standing army, it put a considerable strain on the resources of his kingdom, as Brandenburg in particular had been so utterly devastated by war: a kingdom which at this j
uncture was known as the ‘the sandpit of the Empire’. New taxes were introduced, a process that met with resistance from varied provinces, specifically East Prussia where it took the longest to enforce. Friedrich established the General War Commissariat in 1655, which took over the responsibility for all matters of finance, trade and the economy. This institution was under the direct authority of the King and its civil servants worked independently of their local authorities. The sole purpose of the General War Commissariat was to collect the taxes that were required for the creation and maintenance of a new army.(13)
Friedrich founded the first officer cadet school, introduced new artillery and faster firing flintlock rifles, standardised calibres of weapons, and generally did everything possible to create a small but cutting-edge military force. He did not have long to wait before putting them to the test. The trouble arrived in the only part of his domain that had been spared much of the ravages of the Thirty Years War, namely East Prussia. The area was not so fortunate during the Northern War (1655–60) between Sweden and Poland; both nations were intent on territorial expansion along the Baltic and East Prussia appeared to be easy pickings.
With clever use of his new army and by tactically changing sides when the opportunity presented itself, Friedrich defeated the Poles at the battle of Warsaw on 30th July 1656 in alliance with the Swedes. He then later cleared the Swedes out of Western Pomerania in alliance with the Danes and Poles. At the Peace of Oliva in 1660, Friedrich received recognition of his sovereignty over his Prussian possessions from all the warring parties. He no longer had any obligations nominal or otherwise to the Polish crown. This was one of his greatest achievements.lxxviii The crusader state, which had been founded by the Teutonic Knights — whose over-lordship was given to the Polish crown by the Prussian League and its German merchants — was, after two centuries, back in the hands of the successors to the Order.
When Sweden invaded Prussia again in 1674, Friedrich’s new army astonished the world by dealing the Swedes a crushing defeat a year later at the Battle of Fehrbellin in 1675, and by continuing to harry them mercilessly in epic battles across the frozen Baltic shores of Prussia until 1679. For the second time, Friedrich occupied Western Pomerania and the port of Stettin, an area he had longed to gain for Brandenburg-Prussia. Although Sweden’s honour was soon saved by France (who was not prepared to see her ally humiliated further by losing territory in Pomerania after having just been beaten by a European minnow), Friedrich’s plucky new army had given him respect and greater room for manoeuvre on the European stage. Brandenburg-Prussia’s neighbours would not so wantonly attempt to use his kingdom as a doormat for their battles in future.
In 1680, Friedrich even went on to acquire Groß-Friedrichsburg, a small African colony on the coast of Ghana, taking a share in the gold and ivory trade on the west coast of the ‘Dark Continent’.(14) Frederick Wilhelm, who ruled from 1640–88, was the only personage of his era to be heralded as ‘the Great’, despite the fact that he was not even king, only a mere elector (a prince of the Holy Roman Empire).
PRUSSIA: FROM GEOGRAPHICAL REGION TO THE NAME FOR A STATE
The next ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, Friedrich III,lxxix inherited a strong legacy from his father (Friedrich Wilhelm) in 1688. He was de facto the second most powerful ruler of a German speaking state after the Habsburg Kaiser, and his state was in the ascendancy. But the meagre title of ‘elector’ was going to have to go.
Friedrich III was an exception in the Hohenzollern household. He liked the finer things in life, was exceptionally refined in his tastes and thrift was not one of his virtues. He was not the kind of warrior king who enjoyed leading his troops into the mayhem of battle, as his predecessors had done, yet he was determined to take his place and position his country among the great nations of Europe by other means. He started with the transformation of his capital city, Berlin, which gained the great Stadtschlosslxxx (Royal Palace), an extension to the beautiful Charlottenburg Schloss with a wonderful new pleasure garden, the Zeughaus (the arsenal), the Academy of Arts, the Academy of Sciences and the wonderful Bode Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island. Friedrich III also established the University of Halle in 1696, which was the first university to teach all its courses in German. Not surprisingly, as he supported the use, codification and refinement of the German language. The university itself became the high school for the Prussian officer corps and the Prussian state’s civil servants. Friedrich III also expanded Brandenburg-Prussia’s small fleet.(15) Under his stewardship, Prussia continued as Europe’s safe haven, attracting the lion’s share of immigrants from France with 30,000 Protestant Huguenots, as well as additional Wallonians, Scots and Swiss religious migrants, among others; many of whom, especially the French, formed their own clubs and associations. The Prussian kingdom did not practise policies of forced Germanisation of its immigrants, be they French or Polish; instead, it gave the same rights and duties to all — largely because a standing army was expensive. More people meant more taxes. A greater population generated more economic growth, which generated more income from taxation, which Fredrich III had no trouble spending. It was as if he was trying to draw the Continent’s attention to Prussia before his ‘crowning moment’, as Friedrich III wanted to become Friedrich I; the first King of Prussia.
Through negotiation rather than war, he won the acceptance of all, with one proviso from Poland; that he call himself King in Prussia as opposed to King of Prussia (since Poland had held sway over West Prussia since 1466). His coronation took place on 18th January 1701 and the ceremony almost bankrupted the entire family. He led over a thousand carriages to Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, when thirty-nine years later Frederick the Great took only one. The Hohenzollerns’ esteem and their position of power in Europe demanded such extravagance. From this point on, kings in Prussia were not merely ‘sub princes’ of this or that German state within the empire, they were independent European sovereigns of their own kingdom: Prussia. The opportunity to revel in this new-found splendour was, however, abruptly cut short when between 1709–10 the East Prussian part of the kingdom was devastated by plague and famine which resulted in a staggering death toll of 250,000 lives; a third of the region’s population. An urgent recruitment drive to make up for these terrible losses followed; with her policy of religious tolerance, Prussia was able to offer a new start to the persecuted from all over Europe.
Friedrich’s son, Friedrich Wilhelm I, who ruled from 1713–40, continued his father’s vision of increasing the flow of immigrants to his lands. However, his greatest passion, if not obsession, was reserved for the growth and improvement of the Prussian Army. Thrift was also clearly back in vogue; on becoming king he sacked virtually the entire court staff, sold off the royal silver and crown jewellery and cut the court budget by three-quarters. Friedrich Wilhelm I also took to wearing a military uniform, as it was cheaper than following the fashions of the day. He loved all things military; his favourite hobby became scouring Europe for his Lange Kerls (tall lads) so he could form units of intimidating giant soldiers, and he even ploughed up the French gardens at the palace and replaced them with a drill yard. Consequently, he was nicknamed the ‘Soldier King’. During the Soldier King’s reign, he doubled the size of the standing army from 40,000 to 80,000 men, making Prussia’s army the fourth largest in Europe — totally out of proportion to her size and population, let alone her resources. Eighty per cent of the state’s revenues were used to finance the military and the bureaucrats who were required to administer and collect the taxes.(16) In 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm I accelerated the much-needed flow of immigrants by admitting 20,000 more Protestant immigrants, this time from Salzburg in Austria, to come and settle in the plague-depleted areas of East Prussia.
He continued the family’s dynastic ambitions, even eyeing the throne of England that his uncle, William of Orange, had taken in 1688. William of Orange’s marriage had remained childless and the search for an heir was on for the English and Dutch thrones. The Dutch r
oyal house liked Friedrich Wilhelm I’s son (who later became Friedrich II — the Great) but Friedrich put up more distant relatives for the successions and the Dutch lost interest. In England the Act of Settlement eventually brought the Hanoverian George I to the throne but had Friedrich Wilhelm I put forward his son there could have been a Hohenzollern, a relative of the future Kaiser, who succeeded to the throne of England in 1714, rather than another German dynasty, the Hanoverians, or Georgians as they are better known to us today.lxxxi As it was, Friedrich Wilhelm I managed to establish a different kind of link to the English throne by marrying George I’s sister Sophie Charlotte, whom he cannot be said to have made very happy as she made no secret of the fact that she preferred the company of the court philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, to her husband. Friedrich Wilhelm I also suffered from porphyria, the same disease as George III of England (the mad one), a condition known to cause extreme mood swings and excruciating pain, which bizarrely manifests itself in blue urine.
Friedrich Wilhelm I, the Soldier King, may have created the army and filled the coffers of the state treasury, allowing his son the foreign adventures that made him so renowned, but it is often forgotten that he also passed on to him the reason for the onset of the Silesian wars. In another complex European dynastic succession, the Holy Roman Emperor had asked for Friedrich Wilhelm I’s support in the accession of his daughter, Maria Theresa, to the imperial throne. Known as the Pragmatic Sanction, Friedrich agreed to accept, if in return he received the Emperor’s support in his claim to the Rheinish Duchy of Berg and Duesseldorf. The Emperor, Karl VI, accepted this in the Treaty of Berlin of 1728, but later reneged when the province came up for grabs and supported another candidate instead. Friedrich Wilhelm I reportedly pointed to his son and cried out, ‘There is the man who will avenge me!’ Dynastic pride had been tossed aside by the Emperor with dire consequences for the next generation.(17)
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