Historical Snapshot-Frederick the Great

guten Morgen meine Blog-Leser!

If you are going to travel with us on this journey, you should at least be acquainted with all of the party members, right? Well, my name is Alex Burns, and if you want to know more than that, you can check out my profile on the side of the page. Our travel guide is the most important man who ever lived. You have probably heard of him, whether in passing or as the Lord of your life. He was a Jewish Carpenter who lived in the 1st Century, and is still alive today. You can find all you ever wanted to know about him, and His vital teachings on life in His best selling book, the Bible.

The last party member is a man you might remember from world history class in Highschool, but is not very well known. He is remembered by many names in the historical record: Frederick the Great, Der Alte Fritz, Le Mechant Homme, Unser Vater, and many others. He was the King of a small german country known as Prussia from 1740-1786.  A controversial figure, he is credited with setting Prussia on the path of dominance in Germany. He was foremost a soldier, but his favorite pastime was playing the flute. He was a brilliant statesmen and economist, yet wore the same plain military coat unit it was too ragged to wear any longer. He was careless and reckless with his life, and the lives of those in his command, yet wept on being reunited with his favorite hound. He was an absolute monarch, but considered himself, "the first servant of the state."

 This is a man that we historians will never fully understand. Historian Robert Asprey aptly described him as, "The Magnificent Enigma." Something that the official histories often leave out is Fritz' (as we shall know him) great sense of humor and irony. One day, while seeing to economic reform, Fritz noticed a group of Prussian citizens gathered around a wall, craning their necks to look at a cartoon. The cartoon depicted the King (Fritz) beating taxes out of a poor farmer. Rather than have the author arrested, or reprimand the villagers, as many Kings of the 18th Century would have done, Fritz simply smiled at the joke, and called out, "Hang it lower, so that the people do not have to crane their necks!"

He was the premier 18th Century monarch, and transformed Prussia from a second rate country to a world power in his life time. If you would like to get to know this member of the party a little better, than check out one of his many biographies; I would particularly recommend the one authored by Giles MacDonogh.