Last week we have seen Prussia shock the European theatre under Frederick the Great. As he passed away childless, his nephew, Frederick Wilhelm II succeeded him. This new King was quite different from his uncle. This new King chased women, was good-natured, impulsive and a lover of the arts and high-culture. It earned him the nickname ‘Fat Wilhelm’ and historians have been rather harsh on him. Now, during his reign, Prussia expanded to unprecedented heights, increasing over a third in size. But the politics of this King also signalled the beginning of a period of decline for the Prussian Kingdom. All in all, it can be said this King stood in the Hohenzollern tradition of being the complete contrast of his predecessor.

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0:00 Introduction
0:57 Fat Wilhelm
2:52 Domestic and Foreign Policy
8:13 The Partitions of Poland (1793-1795)
11:32 Abandoning Allies (1795)

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Before we get to the new King’s foreign policy, it is worth having a look at his domestic politics.

As I mentioned, this new king was the opposite of his predecessor, certainly not a free-thinker, but a religious, art-loving, impulsive and enterprising king. He could be somewhat compared to Prussia’s first King Frederick I, who was a lover- and patron of the arts as well. He married several times - his first marriage to Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was disbanded after he cheated on her and in turn, Elisabeth decided to cheat on him with officers and court musicians. His second marriage led to seven children. He had another seven children with his mistress all the while marrying two other women in secret. The King was very interested in mysticism and astrology, joining an esoteric offshoot of the Freemasons.

During his reign much was done for Prussia’s architecture. The famous architect Carl Gotthard Langhans’ buildings in Silesia, Berlin and Potsdam belong to early Neoclassical architecture. The King commissioned him to build the Brandenburg Gate with Johann Gottfried Schadow’s chariot on top of it. During the King’s reign, August Wilhelm Iffland put the Berlin Royal Theatre on the European map, and Carl Friedrich Zelter did just this as leader of the Singakademie. Although a fruitless attempt, the King even attempted to get Mozart to move to Berlin. Under his reign, Berlin turned into a city of literary-political salons and of German romantics. Obviously, all these fantastic cultural endeavours came at a cost, which is why historians generally aren’t favourable when judging this King’s reign. Under his rule, the Prussian gold coffers he inherited were depleted at an incredible pace. Court expenditure reached 2 million thalers per year, which was around 15 per cent of the state budget (a ten-fold increase from the expenses of Frederick the Great!). As a matter of fact, Frederick the Great left Prussia with a massive treasury of 51 million thalers, something the new King managed to blow within 11 years.

Sources:

Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons

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