When the Great Elector died he left an army 30,000 strong. Taxation and subsidies from other powers alone were no longer sufficient to maintain the army. The need to finance the army was one major factor responsible for his expanding trade and commerce in Brandenburg-Prussia. One of the major aspects of his domestic policy had been to attract immigrants to Prussia and in this context, during the last years of his life, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 had played into his hands because it brought some 20,000 French and Walloon Huguenot emigrants to Brandenburg-Prussia. Possessing more highly developed commercial and industrial skills than the majority of the native population, and having also a rather better education, the Huguenot immigrants represented an asset the value of which to the commercial, industrial and intellectual development of Brandenburg-Prussia can never be overestimated.
In terms of institutions it was the General War Commissary and the Secret Court Chamber, as well as the Secret Council, that represented the nucleus of the bureaucratic machinery which was to develop over the next century and impose a centralized administration over geographically, socially and economically highly diverse territories. Naturally even this nucleus changed in the course of time. The Secret Council declined into insignificance while the Secret Court Chamber, assuming the administration and control of all the electoral domains, gained immensely in importance until in 1713 it was transformed into the General Finance Directory.
Of the three aims of the Great Elector’s foreign policy, namely the achievement of sovereignty in Prussia, the acquisition of Vorpommern and a general rounding off of his territories to give his state greater coherence, only the first had been achieved. Of this he was very much aware, so much so that after the Peace of St. Germain, he had a memorial medal struck bearing a line of Virgil: Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor – may from my bones an avenger arise. He did.
The political subordination of the estates established the absolutist regime, a regime which in spite of the concessions that had been made to the nobility could, in the light of the political and economic circumstances, hardly afford to degenerate into a dictatorship of the nobility, let alone the dictatorship of one prince in the interest of one group. The very fragility of Brandenburg-Prussia demanded the integration of more than just one interest group into the state.
Brandenburg-Prussia was in the process of emerging as a European power, but its fundamental problem remained – its coherent vulnerability resulting from its geographical position, scattered dynastic possessions and poverty in natural resources. Within the confines of the Germanic body politic this emergence of the new state was of revolutionary long-term significance. But it was revolutionary also at its very sources. In terms of colonial territory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Prussia represented the north-eastern marches. As Great Britain’s American colonies were later to demonstrate, colonial existence tends to weaken the ties of tradition and encourage creative independence.
Like England, the Prussian state rested upon a single radical act of the secularization of land, carried out in Brandenburg-Prussia by its adoption of Protestantism. With one single stroke Duke Albrecht had cut the ties with the past and his excommunication inevitably elevated Protestantism into a constituent principle of state. The subsequent influence of Calvinist modes of thought simply underlined the fact.
A further revolutionary feature of Prussia the origin of which can be attributed exclusively to the Great Elector, was its character as a military state, a military state which extended its territory and maintained its existence on the battlefields of Europe for almost two centuries.
Prussia as a state was a work of art, a Renaissance state in the true sense of Jakob Bruckhardt’s term. ‘With immense effort, Brandenburg-Prussia raised herself from the debris of Germany’ (Burckhardt). It would hardly have survived had it served the interests of only one group exclusively or predominantly. During the reign of the Great Elector a major constituent principle of this new state became visible, namely a kind of etatisme an ideology of the state community which subjected dynasty, aristocracy, and subjects alike, and which represented a revolutionary break away form the still-prevalent feudal dynastic conception as represented by the Habsburgs.
By the time of the Great Elector’s death the general European situation was changed in a way that favored the rise of the Hohenzollern state rather more than had been the case during his lifetime. Sweden who external ambitions were in inverse proportion to its actual resources, lost its predominance in the Baltic, while Russia emerged as a great power. This did not immediately lead to Brandenburg-Prussia acquiring the position she desired in the Baltic region, but Sweden’s decline nevertheless removed a major threat. Poland, in the throes of dissolution under its future Saxon rulers, moved towards greater dependency on Russia, a situation which, for the time being, removed another threat from the frontiers of the Hohenzollern state.
Elector Frederick III introduced his reign by establishing primogeniture in Brandenburg-Prussia in 1692, in part invalidating the will of the Great Elector. But with this action a precedent was established and inviolability of the territorial unity of the state of Brandenburg-Prussia secured. Frederick III showed none of the political ambition of his father, nor the desire to run the affairs of state himself. Preferring the appearance and the outward trappings of absolutist monarchy to its actual substance, the entrusted the conduct of affairs of state to the hands of prime ministers, first Eberhard von Danckelmann (1688-1697) and then Kolbe von Wartenberg (1702-1711). The first period was marked by Prussia’s membership of the Grand Alliance against France under Louis XIV, an alliance which ended with the Peace of Ryswick in 1697.
Danckelmann had been instrumental in once again ranging Prussia firmly on the side of the Netherlands, moving strong troop contingents to the lower Rhine to cover William III of Orange in his venture across the sea to carry out the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in England. One Brandenburg general, Marshal Schomberg, participated directly in the operation and landed with William in England.
Elector Frederick entire efforts at this point were concentrated on achieving his major ambition: the royal title and crown. Frederick the Great used to say that his grandfather aimed for and obtained the royal crown before he actually possessed the requisite power. This is quite true and Frederick III realized that he could not achieve his ambition by a stroke of power, but by remaining a faithful vassal of the Emperor and ignoring the slights and humiliations he suffered in the course of this relationship. But as king he did not wish to be the vassal of the Emperor and ignoring the slights and humiliations he suffered in the course of this relationship. But as king he did not wish to be the vassal of the Emperor, and so he based his royal claims upon the duchy of Prussia over which he was sovereign. This meant that he needed only the agreement of the Emperor rather than the conferment of the crown to him. Negotiations in this direction first took place in 1690, two years after he succeeded his father. Certain minor territorial issues complicated them and in Vienna the old phrase about a new Vandal King on the shores of the Baltic could be heard again. The religious issue also played a role. Conceding to the wishes of the Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia would mean establishing another Protestant royal house. Objections on religious grounds were only dismissed after the confessor of Emperor Leopold, Father Wolf S.J., endeavored to bring about a marriage between the Prussian Electoral Prince Frederick William and one of the daughters of the Emperor.
In the end it was the imminent resumption of war with France which was the decisive issue, for Austria was badly in need of Prussian forces, as well as Frederick’s promise to support the House of Hapsburg in a future imperial election. On 16 November 1700 the Emperor promised the immediate recognition of Frederick’s royal title, based on his duchy of Prussia, whenever he chose to assume it. Hardly had agreement had been reached when the news was received of the death of King Charles II of Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession was imminent. The Emperor, in a hurry to clinch the deal while the situation was in his favor, crowned himself King In Prussia in the city of Konigsberg on 18 January 1701. Considering that electorates such as Hanover or Saxony existed in connection with non-German territories – Great Britain in the one case, Poland in the other – the Hohenzollern crown ruled over exclusively German territory.
The new King was anointed by two Protestant bishops, but he gave no notification whatever to the Catholic church, which therefore until 1787 – after the death of Frederick the Great – listed the Kings of Prussia in its papal calendar merely as the Margraves of Brandenburg. The coronation ceremony was a fairly costly affair. The estates of Brandenburg made a grant of 10,000 thalers in advance and a special coronation tax was levied.
Frederick was aware that the position of his House rested very much on an effective army, which therefore needed always to be trained and disciplined in order that the neighboring states would fear it. His caution derived from the realization that because the territories of his kingdom could easily be isolated they were therefore very vulnerable. A kingdom such as his, spread in several pieces across northern Germany from East Prussia to the Rhine, made defense a permanent problem. In other words any military action directed against the Reich was bound to take place in the immediate vicinity of the Prussian borders and was likely to involve the risk of territorial losses.
Under the influence of his wife, Sophia Charlotte, Frederick became a great supporter of the arts in Brandenburg-Prussia. Early in his reign he engaged the famous international jurist Samuel von Pufendorf to write a work entitled ‘The Life and Deeds of Frederick William’. Historiography of the period was mainly interested in the history of antiquity, so Pufendorf’s work represents a major and important attempt at the writing of ‘contemporary history’, and is also free from the hagiographic distortions which one would normally expect in a work of this type. Together with Christian Thomasius he laid the foundation for the secular theory of enlightened absolute monarchy according to which the prince has only one duty: governing for the welfare of his subjects.
Frederick is also the founder of the University of Halle, which opened its gates in 1694 to a total of 449 students. Its main purpose was to train future administrators, so in its early years the emphasis was on the law faculty, which had five professors, while other faculties, such as philosophy, were granted only a maximum of two chairs. Frederick had a good eye for talent, and by attracting Christian Thomasisus to the university gave immediate distinction to the new institution. Thomasisus himself the son of a university professor and a pupil of Pufendorf, challenged the purely biblical concept of ‘natural law’, basing his own interpretations of law upon the power of superstition, still expressed in various parts of Europe in the form of witch-hunts and torture. Furthermore he brought innovation into Germany university life by giving his lectures in German rather than Latin.
Finally, another important foundation associated with Frederick I is the institute which was later to be named the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. It was originally the brainchild of Leibniz who had conceived the idea during the reign of the Great Elector but was unable to put it into practice at the time. The claim that it served as an example for similar foundations in Leipzig, Gottingen and Munich, and outside Germany in Turin and Stockholm, cannot unfortunately be substantiated. Leibniz’s aim was threefold: to support and encourage the further development of the natural sciences (which had just made their first major strides); to preserve scientific results attained by individual effort which might otherwise be forgotten or disappear into oblivion; and to train scientists with wide intellectual horizons (he abhorred the narrow specialist).
After his coronation Frederick was officially called King in rather than of Prussia. This was because of objections from the Poles who still held some parts of the former territory of the Teutonic Order. Nevertheless he immediately began to refer to his entire possessions as the Prussian Kingdom, while the Prussian army and all his administrative organs began to carry the prefix ‘royal’.
In a purely German context the further expansion of the centrifugal forces within the German body politic is exemplified by the increasing jurisdiction obtained by Frederick I at the expense of the Empire. Whereas previously the Reich courts represented the ultimate legal arbiter, in December 1702 Frederick I received the imperial privilege, the privlegium de non appellando, of supreme jurisdiction in law suits up to the value of 2,500 gulden. An unlimited privilege had already existed in Brandenburg since 1356. Because a vast range of cases was now excluded from the right of appeal to any of the Reich courts, Prussia (the term being used in its widest sense) was in need of creating it own Supreme Appeal Court. By December 1703 this had been done. This does not mean that legal uniformity had now been established throughout the kingdom – far from it – but the first steps in this direction had been taken. The Supreme Appeal Court was as yet not the supreme court of the country. It was not the superior of but an equal institution to the Chamber Court. The province of East Prussia had its own superior tribunal, and even some of the new King’s Reich territories were exempt for some time from the jurisdiction of this new court. Only under Frederick the Great was the whole legal system in Prussia ultimately unified.
The King’s desire for the visible spectacular trappings of absolutist monarchy had their effects upon the finances of the kingdom. Expenditure trebled without new sources of revenue being opened up. Financial administration, the further development of the institutions which the Great Elector had founded to this end, were sadly neglected. The idea of a fixed budge matched by revenue received was completely abandoned. The Secret Chamber, originally the supreme central organ of the administration, was relegated to second place by the Supreme Directory of the Domains headed by Wartenburg. The Directory made policy, and the Secret Council executed it and was held responsible for it. Aided by Sayn-Wittgenstein and Wartensleben they milked the Prussian state for all it was worth to raise the funds which their Lord and Master required in order to live with pomp and circumstance.
Towards the last years of Frederick’s reign the Black Death, coming from the east during the terribly cold winter of 1709, reached East Prussia, causing immense suffering, depopulating vast areas and extending into neighboring regions. Bad harvests and starvation added to the problems and suffering. Again the administration failed abysmally to cope with the situation. A memorandum of 1 November 1710 from the Secret Court Chamber, also signed – somewhat reluctantly – by Wittgenstein, admitted the total inefficiency of the administration and its partial responsibility for the deterioration of the province. But in the wake of this disaster a whole series of embezzlements came to light. It was the end of Wartenberg and his camarilla. On 31 December 1710 he had to leave office, the King parting form him with tears and giving him an annual pension of 24,000 thalers.
Waiting in the wings was Crown Prince Frederick William and an administrator who enjoyed his confidence, the Secret Councilor von Kameke. When they began to move into the center of affairs they immediately abandoned Luben’s very promising reform project, but tarred as it was with Wittgenstein’s and Wartensleben’s brush, it was too discredited to be pursued any further, especially in the face of opposition form the East Prussian nobility who justifiably pointed to the previous corruption. They also abolished the Superior Domain Directory and resorted the Secret Court Chamber as the highest administrative body for the royal domains. It was a restoration of the old order, but one that was reasonably clear, precise and efficient. Kameke became President of the Secret Court Chamber in 1711 and immediately began to assume responsibility for other sources of revenue, turning the Chamber ultimately into the permanent administrative organ which it became under Frederick William I.
In the realm of foreign policy the major event after the accession of Frederick to the royal title was the War of Spanish Succession. By agreement Frederick was obliged to support the Emperor with 8,000 men, but that was out of a total of 30,000. The question of how and where to deploy the rest of his forces was to a large extent determined by the powers which paid his subsidies, for without them the Prussian army could not have kept in being. At the same time as the War of the Spanish Succession the threat from the north re-emerged. But subsidies could not be expected from Russia, Poland or Sweden, whereas the Netherlands and Austria were prepared to pay. Consequently necessity required the concentration of Prussia’s military effort in the west. The Spanish succession was only one major consideration. The other was the Orange Legacy. William III of Orange had died in 1702 leaving no issue, and Frederick I was his nearest relation. Theoretically the possibility of Frederick’s succession to the throne of England could not be excluded, but it was never seriously considered. From a practical point of view the territorial possessions of the House of Orange, spread across the Netherlands, Germany and Burgundy, were rather more attractive. In Germany there was the duchy of Morse, bordering directly on to Cleves and the county of Lingen. On Swiss territory there was the duchy of Neufchatel with the county of Valengin. Apart from these there were several other territories and towns belonging to the House of Orange had left a will in which he appointed a remote relation as universal heir. Therefore as far as the House of Hohenzollern of Brandenburg-Prussia was concerned there was, besides the question of the Spanish succession, also the question of the succession to the legacy of the House of Orange- a question not finally resolved until 1732. But it also represented a major influence on Frederick I’ decision to assemble his troops on the Lower Rhine rather than in the north-east of his territory.
Brandenburg-Prussia joined the Grand Alliance against France on 30 December 1701 and, in contrast to the policy of the Great Elector, adhered to it with remarkable consistency. The military significance of Prussia’s contribution in the War of Spanish Succession is difficult to assess because Prussian troops were deployed here and there but never in very large formations. The reports to Vienna about conditions in Bavaria stress time and again the exemplary discipline of the Prussian troops, discipline which stood in strong contrast to that of the other Reich troops. The Austrian forces were especially bad and their behavior precipitated a major peasant rising which for a time seemed to jeopardize the whole position of the imperial troops in Bavaria.
But the Prussian contribution to the war was judged by the major powers, especially the Emperor, to be especially an auxiliary one, so Frederick, and his demands, were treated accordingly. His claim to the succession in the Netherlands was dismissed and he was fobbed off with territorial morsels like Lingen, Mors, Geldern, and Neufchatel.
Towards the end of his life Frederick’s baroque splendor began to wear thin under the hammering of fate. The two eldest sons of the Crown Prince and Sophia Dorothea, the daughter of the future George I of England, died very early. A third marriage which Frederick had entered into in the autumn of 1708 with Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg ended in disaster when, not long after the wedding, his wife became mentally ill. And his own friends began to die. The only happy event left for him was the birth on 24 January 1712 of another grandson, Frederick. A little more than a year later, on 25 February 1713, Frederick I died. The influence of Versailles disappeared; that of Sparta was to come.