Frederick the Great

The woman known to history as Catherine the Great of Russia was born as Sophie Auguste von Anhalt-Sebst on the 2nd of May 1729 in the city of Stettin, on the coast of the Baltic Sea in the Pomerania region, which was then in the Kingdom of Prussia, but which lies in northern Poland today.

Sophie's father was Christian August, Prince of Anhaltszerbst, a German nobleman who rose to prominence within Prussia as a military commander under its king, Frederick II, or Frederick the Great, and who, after a long military career, was made a Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, Prussia's highest chivalric order.

He was ultimately promoted to the rank of General Field Marshal of the Prussian Army in 1742.

Sophie's mother, Joanna Elisabeth, was the daughter of Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, who, in turn, was the youngest son of Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and his wife, the daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark, Princess Frederike Amalie.

The prospect of Peter becoming Russia's new Tsar inevitably made him the most eligible bachelor in Eastern Europe and it was this prospect, combined with both Sophie's and Peter's family connections within Prussia and Germany, that would eventually see her become his bride.

As well as this, the marriage also had powerful backers within the Prussian state itself.

Frederick the Great of Prussia, for instance, wanted to forge greater ties between Prussia and Russia against Austria, Prussia's great rival for dominance of Central Europe.

However, these plans were in turn Opposed by Elisabeth's Chancellor, Alexei Bestushov, who supported a pro-Austrian and anti-Prussian foreign policy.

The reasons for the neglect are probably twofold.

First, that the wider political interest of Frederick the Great's almost contemporary career focused on the latter, the attention of the general historians.

Second, that the historical sections of the continental general staffs, blinded by the brilliance of Napoleon, regarded his first campaign of 1796 as the year one of modern military history and affected a contempt for all his predecessors because of the contrast between their less decisive methods and the absolute war waged by Napoleon.

In a world exhausted, like France in 1815, through the attempt to copy slavishly the Napoleonic method, the present may be a fitting moment to revive the study of a commander in some respects so akin to that great master and in others so strongly contrasting.

If Saxe, hampered by the organic limitations of his time, fails to forecast the application of these swift concentrations and bold maneuvers to the wider fields of strategy, his conceptions in the sphere of grand tactics stamp him as the forerunner of the great Corsican.

In those days of parallel battle, when the possibilities of maneuver and concentration were almost untapped even by the best captains of the age, Saxe's intellect towers head and shoulders above his contemporaries.

Even the much-lauded oblique order of Frederick the Great, which came to full bloom a decade later, was but an insignificant step towards the fulfillment of these principles that Saxe grasped in their entirety.

He clearly understood not only the value of convergent attacks from two directions simultaneously, but also the necessity for fixing the enemy in front while maneuvering to attack him in flank.

Unfortunately, agreement is beyond the generation's reach.

We may remember that there are many who still regard the seizure of Silesia by Frederick the Great as a genuine expression of Prussia's mission, and that history is written to suit the country to which it is intended to appeal.

Limitations, whether geographical, political, or social, are the sworn foes of truth, and in the effort to remove them, an appeal to international common sense affords the best hope of success.

For many of the world's thinkers who stay at home today, neither physically fit to fight nor financially able to succor distress, there is this great work waiting to be done.

Their function has outgrown them, and the reverence they demand and receive is founded very largely upon ignorance and superstition.

To plunge Europe into war for purely personal ends has always seemed in the eyes of kings a reasonable action.

Frederick the Great admitted that he started the Seven Years' War by stealing Silesia from Austria for glory, and the records of Spain and Austria are full of similar crimes.

Now that Europe has been shaken from base to summit, will the sober manhood of the 20th century allow the present system to endure? On the other hand, I see a great movement toward giving kingship a fresh lease of life, toward perpetuating secret diplomacy, and developing clericalism.

When I'm talking about Prussian or Austrian leaders or generals or whoever, when I'm talking about German figures, I will be using the German name, not its English equivalent.

So Friedrich over Friedrich, Wilhelm over William, Albrecht over Albert, Franz over Francis, Josef over Josef.

This may sound odd at points, Friedrich the Great instead of Frederick the Great, but I'm trying for consistency.

Mainly because Kaiser William I just sounded silly.

On the other hand, I'm going to say Germany rather than Deutschland.

And finally, the Prussian and German military's preference for short and lively wars.

The need for a country surrounded by enemies to throw everything into that first massive attack and win the war quickly.

From Friedrich the Great to this story to the stormtroopers of World War I to the blitzkrieg of World War II, the Prussian-German military tradition is a straight line.

Wolfgang had to name tones and chords, sounded on keyboards, covered with a cloth, as well as guess the exact pitch of bells, glasses, and clocks.

The travellers went on to Bonn, Cologne, and Aachen, where lived the Princess Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, whose pressing invitations to Berlin left Leopold cold as soon as he realized she had no money.

He reflected that the kisses without number which she gave the children were would have pleased him better if they had had cash value finally after further progress through the low countries the little man reached paris where the father discovered that most of his letters of recommendation and introduction amounted to little only when they were taken in charge by the bavarian born baron melchior grimm a literary figure of some distinction did results begin to shape themselves a first-rate publicity man grimm launched a campaign for the youngsters in his correspondance littraire with the result that doors promptly opened and invitations began to pour in On New Year's Eve, 1764, the Mozarts were asked to a Grand Couvert at the court in Versailles.

Wolfgang stood next to the Queen, who fed him dainties, and translated for the King, Louis XV, what the boy said to her in German.

They were indeed to beset him to his end.

For all the air it created, the opera did not bring its composer the appointment he expected, and money was becoming a pressing necessity.

constanza's pregnancies were frequent during her married life and though only two children survived infancy to become it is ironic to reflect wretched but fairly long-lived mediocrities her various confinements and her slow recovery from them did not help to further her housewifely qualities it is not wholly surprising that mozart's religious convictions which had earlier been a sort of childlike faith weakened little by little the more so because he was brought into growing contact with men who were profound thinkers and of whom many belonged to the secret society of freemasons freemasonry had political implications and was frowned upon by the church frederick the great had been a freemason goethe was one likewise joseph the second gluck and joseph haydn eventually mozart persuaded his father to join the society who shall say that its principles and philosophies did not serve wolfgang as a protective armor enabling him the more bravely to endure his social and material tribulations pupils and friends Mozart took his wife to Salzburg in the summer of 1783.

He had made a vow the previous year that when he married Constanze and presented her to his father, he would bring along a newly composed mass for presentation in his native town.

The best things all come to Sleepy Hollow.

Among the piles of ponderous military traditions that cluster about the personality of Frederick the Great of Prussia is one rather pretty little story.

The emperor one day rang his bell, but it was not answered.

The king went out and found the boy who should have answered the summons fast asleep.

In Germany such masters are rare.

Frederick the Great,

Histoire des Montants, is an illustrious exception.

Writers of this order must occupy an elevated position.

Pitt had one core principle: keep France pinched at every seam of its empire.

That meant tightening blockades, securing the seas, and supporting allies like Frederick the Great in Prussia, whose victories at Rossbach and Leuthen kept Austrian ambitions at bay and opened up resources for Britain.

At sea, the Royal Navy was not just a backdrop.

It was the lifeline of British success.