WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:06.719 transporting ourselves to a very specific spot 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:09.359 in Potsdam, Germany. Okay. We're standing on 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:11.439 the terrace of the Sanssouci Palace, looking 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:13.980 down at a grave. And if you were to visit this 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.250 grave today... You wouldn't just see the usual 00:00:16.250 --> 00:00:19.190 tributes flowers, maybe a wreath, a flag. Right. 00:00:19.309 --> 00:00:22.230 The typical things. Instead, you are almost guaranteed 00:00:22.230 --> 00:00:24.750 to see piles of raw potatoes. Which is a bizarre 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:26.809 sight if you don't know the context. You walk 00:00:26.809 --> 00:00:29.730 up expecting, you know, solemnity. And instead, 00:00:29.890 --> 00:00:31.730 it looks like someone spilled a grocery bag. 00:00:31.949 --> 00:00:34.469 Exactly. It looks like a prank, but it is actually 00:00:34.469 --> 00:00:37.409 a deeply sentimental tribute to the man buried 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:40.369 there. We're talking about Frederick the Great, 00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:44.259 or as the locals affectionately call him. Der 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:48.420 Kartoffelkönig. The Potato King. The Potato King. 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:50.000 It sounds like a character from a children's 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.140 book, doesn't it? It really does. Something whimsical. 00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:55.920 But that nickname hides a much more complex and, 00:00:55.979 --> 00:00:58.700 frankly, much darker reality. It refers to his 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:02.280 relentless, almost tyrannical campaign to force 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.040 Prussian farmers to adopt the potato to prevent 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.079 famine. And that really sets the stage for everything 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:10.099 we are going to talk about today. It really does. 00:01:10.540 --> 00:01:13.540 Because when you peel back the layers, Pun intended. 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:17.180 Yeah. Frederick is arguably one of the most confusing, 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:19.819 contradictory figures in European history. Absolutely. 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.180 We have a man who is remembered as a flute -playing 00:01:22.180 --> 00:01:24.719 philosopher, a guy who hated the German language, 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.500 wrote French poetry, and hung out with Voltaire. 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.640 And yet, simultaneously, this is the man who 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:33.719 single -handedly forged the Prussian military 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:37.200 state. He's the Iron King who plunged Europe 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:39.939 into decades of bloodshed, perfected military 00:01:39.939 --> 00:01:42.799 strategies, still studied at West Point. And 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.159 was later idolized by the Nazis as the ultimate 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:47.560 German hero. Exactly. That's the core contradiction. 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:49.560 That is the central tension we need to unpack. 00:01:49.819 --> 00:01:52.159 We have the sensitive soul on one side and the 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:54.620 ruthless warlord on the other. And the mission 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:57.280 for this deep dive is to figure out how those 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.519 two people existed in the same body. How does 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:02.799 a man who wrote a book called Anti -Machiavelli, 00:02:02.819 --> 00:02:05.519 literally arguing against Machiavelli's cynicism, 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:09.300 end up becoming the absolute master of Machiavellian 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:12.199 geopolitics? To understand that, we have to start 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:13.919 with what I would call one of the most brutal 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.599 origin stories in royal history. You cannot understand 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:20.099 Frederick the Great without understanding the 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:23.210 absolute nightmare that was his childhood. Specifically, 00:02:23.229 --> 00:02:25.550 his relationship with his father, King Frederick 00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:28.889 William I. The father is known to history as 00:02:28.889 --> 00:02:32.550 the soldier king. Right. And that title makes 00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:36.310 him sound kind of noble, maybe a bit stern. But 00:02:36.310 --> 00:02:38.949 from what I have read, noble is not the word 00:02:38.949 --> 00:02:42.210 I would use. Not at all. Psychopath feels closer. 00:02:42.409 --> 00:02:45.090 It's not far off. Frederick William was a very 00:02:45.090 --> 00:02:48.550 specific type of tyrant. He was violent, authoritarian, 00:02:48.849 --> 00:02:51.069 and obsessed with the military to a degree that 00:02:51.069 --> 00:02:54.889 bordered on mania. He viewed his entire kingdom 00:02:54.889 --> 00:02:58.310 as one giant barracks. He was famous for walking 00:02:58.310 --> 00:03:00.729 the streets of Berlin with a heavy cane, and 00:03:00.729 --> 00:03:02.449 if he saw a citizen who looked like they were, 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:04.469 you know, idling or spending money on something 00:03:04.469 --> 00:03:07.289 frivolous, he would beat them. Right there in 00:03:07.289 --> 00:03:09.740 the street. Just beat random citizens. Anyone 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:11.800 he felt wasn't contributing to the efficiency 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:14.759 of the state. He was frugal to the point of madness. 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:18.879 He sold off his father's crown jewels. He melted 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:22.120 down the silverware to buy muskets. And he had 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:24.849 this obsession with the... Potsdam giant. Oh, 00:03:24.870 --> 00:03:26.610 the giants. This is one of those details that 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:28.770 sounds completely made up. It does. But it's 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:31.509 true. He created a special regiment of soldiers 00:03:31.509 --> 00:03:34.590 who all had to be over six feet tall, which was 00:03:34.590 --> 00:03:38.069 enormous for the 18th century. Giants. He collected 00:03:38.069 --> 00:03:40.550 them like toy figures. He bought them from other 00:03:40.550 --> 00:03:43.870 monarchs. He even had agents kidnap tall men 00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:46.129 from other countries to force them into the regiment. 00:03:46.330 --> 00:03:48.610 That's kidnapping. It was. And it wasn't even 00:03:48.610 --> 00:03:50.610 about combat effectiveness. It was a fetish. 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:52.810 He just liked looking at them. So this is the 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:55.550 environment. young frederick is born into a father 00:03:55.550 --> 00:03:58.490 who despises anything soft anything artistic 00:03:58.490 --> 00:04:01.669 anything he deems french which he saw as effeminate 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:04.629 and young frederick well he is basically an emo 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:07.310 kid chuckles that is a perfect description he 00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:10.729 is the ultimate emo kid he's sensitive he hates 00:04:10.729 --> 00:04:13.129 hunting he hates riding horses he just wants 00:04:13.129 --> 00:04:15.050 to stay in his room and listen to music and read 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:18.519 poetry He loves literature, he plays the flute, 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:20.759 and he speaks French better than he speaks German. 00:04:20.860 --> 00:04:24.379 In fact, he despised German. He called it a boar's 00:04:24.379 --> 00:04:27.300 language. A boar's language, which must have 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:29.680 driven the soldier king absolutely insane. It 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:32.759 made him apoplectic. Frederick had a secret library 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:36.920 of about 3 ,000 volumes, mostly French poetry, 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.180 Greek, and Roman classics, that he had to hide. 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.089 If his father found them, He would throw them 00:04:43.089 --> 00:04:45.490 in the fire. And when we say the father disapproved, 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:47.810 we weren't talking about a stern lecture or being 00:04:47.810 --> 00:04:50.370 grounded. No, we are talking about systematic 00:04:50.370 --> 00:04:52.990 physical and psychological abuse. It was brutal. 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:56.009 The king would beat Frederick publicly. He would 00:04:56.009 --> 00:04:58.470 humiliate him in front of the court. He dragged 00:04:58.470 --> 00:05:01.050 him by his hair through the palace. Wow. He would 00:05:01.050 --> 00:05:03.509 mock him, calling him a fife player and a poet, 00:05:03.670 --> 00:05:07.009 using those terms as slurs. He viewed Frederick's 00:05:07.009 --> 00:05:10.009 artistic interests as a personal failure, a sign 00:05:10.009 --> 00:05:12.509 that his heir wasn't man enough to rule Prussia. 00:05:12.790 --> 00:05:16.089 Imagine the psychological pressure. You are the 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:18.350 crown prince. You can't quit. You can't move 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:21.889 out. And your father, who has absolute power 00:05:21.889 --> 00:05:25.009 over life and death, thinks your very existence 00:05:25.009 --> 00:05:28.290 is a mistake. It created a pressure cooker. And 00:05:28.290 --> 00:05:30.730 eventually that pressure exploded in what is 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:33.550 known as the Catté Affair. Right. This is the 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:35.370 turning point. This is the moment that breaks 00:05:35.370 --> 00:05:37.709 the boy and makes the king. This is the escape 00:05:37.709 --> 00:05:41.449 attempt in 1730. Frederick is 18 years old. Right. 00:05:41.550 --> 00:05:43.389 He just couldn't take it anymore. He planned 00:05:43.389 --> 00:05:45.389 to flee to Great Britain with a close friend, 00:05:45.550 --> 00:05:48.689 a young oxer named Hans Hermann von Catté. And 00:05:48.689 --> 00:05:52.110 their relationship was... Intense. Very intense. 00:05:52.290 --> 00:05:54.589 Historians have debated the nature of their relationship 00:05:54.589 --> 00:05:58.089 for centuries. But let's be real. They're 18. 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:00.279 They are inseparable, they are writing these 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:02.899 incredibly emotional letters, and they're risking 00:06:02.899 --> 00:06:05.439 deaths to run away together. The consensus among 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.980 modern historians is that they were lovers. But 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:09.800 whether it was romance or just an incredibly 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:12.699 deep friendship, Cate was Frederick's rock. He 00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:14.879 was the one person who understood him. And the 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:17.519 plan went horribly wrong. A complete disaster. 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:19.980 They were caught before they could cross the 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.560 border. And because they were military officers, 00:06:23.019 --> 00:06:25.740 the king didn't see this as a teenage rebellion 00:06:25.740 --> 00:06:29.209 or a family squabble. No. He saw it as desertion. 00:06:29.209 --> 00:06:32.870 He saw it as treason. Frederick William actually 00:06:32.870 --> 00:06:36.329 considered executing his own son. Executing the 00:06:36.329 --> 00:06:38.750 crown prince of Prussia. He seriously debated 00:06:38.750 --> 00:06:41.990 it. He was that furious. The courts and foreign 00:06:41.990 --> 00:06:45.149 diplomats had to beg him not to do it. Unbelievable. 00:06:45.610 --> 00:06:47.470 He eventually relented on killing Frederick, 00:06:47.550 --> 00:06:50.410 but he decided to make an example of Kate. And 00:06:50.410 --> 00:06:53.110 the cruelty of this punishment is hard to fathom. 00:06:53.149 --> 00:06:55.509 It's straight out of a horror movie. It is. He 00:06:55.509 --> 00:06:58.050 imprisoned Frederick in the fortress of Kustrin, 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:00.930 he stripped him of his rank, and then he ordered 00:07:00.930 --> 00:07:03.250 that Kate be beheaded. But not just beheaded. 00:07:03.430 --> 00:07:05.589 No, there was a twist. He ordered that the execution 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:07.850 take place right outside Frederick's cell window. 00:07:08.110 --> 00:07:10.769 And he forced Frederick to watch. Soldiers held 00:07:10.769 --> 00:07:12.610 Frederick's head to the window so he couldn't 00:07:12.610 --> 00:07:15.339 look away. Accounts say Frederick shouted out 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:17.360 the window to Cate as he was being led to the 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:24.199 block, screaming, And Cate. What did he do? Cate, 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:26.339 with incredible dignity, called back that he 00:07:26.339 --> 00:07:28.500 forgave him, that he was happy to die for his 00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:31.879 prince. And then the sword fell. Oh, man. Frederick 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:34.660 fainted immediately. He was so distraught that 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:36.759 for days afterwards, people feared he would die 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.519 of grief or take his own life. He was hallucinating, 00:07:39.579 --> 00:07:42.540 seeing Cate's ghost. That is the moment. That 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:44.519 is where the potato king is really born. You 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:46.180 don't come back from that as the same person. 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.920 You don't. The soft, artistic boy died in that 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:53.379 tower along with Kate. The man who walked out 00:07:53.379 --> 00:07:56.240 had built a shell of iron around his heart. Survival 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:59.139 mechanism. Totally. He realized that to survive, 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:02.000 he couldn't fight his father openly. He had to 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.579 submit outwardly. He adopted a sense of predestination, 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.060 this chilling idea that his life was not his 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:10.370 own. He learned to wear the mask. Exactly. He 00:08:10.370 --> 00:08:12.910 became the good son. He started doing the administrative 00:08:12.910 --> 00:08:15.290 drudgery his father demanded. He studied war. 00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:17.930 He memorized the drill manual. Whatever it took. 00:08:18.009 --> 00:08:20.110 He even agreed to a marriage he didn't want, 00:08:20.209 --> 00:08:22.750 to Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick -Beverne. 00:08:23.110 --> 00:08:25.750 He wrote to his sister, There can be neither 00:08:25.750 --> 00:08:28.790 love nor friendship between us. But he went through 00:08:28.790 --> 00:08:31.290 with the wedding to please the king. He buried 00:08:31.290 --> 00:08:33.669 his true self deep down where the king couldn't 00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:37.350 hurt it anymore. And then, in 1740, the old soldier 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:40.320 king finally dies. And I imagine the rest of 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:43.279 Europe breathed a huge sigh of relief. Oh, absolutely. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.259 They looked at Frederick, this flute -playing, 00:08:46.419 --> 00:08:48.340 French -speaking intellectual who had been writing 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:50.840 letters about tolerance and philosophy, and they 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:53.059 thought, okay, Prussia's going to relax now. 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.639 The monster is dead. We are going to have a soft, 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:57.759 enlightened neighbor. And that is the biggest 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.340 bait -and -switch in history. Because almost 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:03.360 immediately, Frederick shocks everyone. He invades 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.029 Silesia. Out of nowhere. This was a rich industrial 00:09:06.029 --> 00:09:08.730 province belonging to Austria. The Holy Roman 00:09:08.730 --> 00:09:10.710 Emperor had just died, and his daughter, the 00:09:10.710 --> 00:09:13.169 young Maria Theresa, had taken the throne. And 00:09:13.169 --> 00:09:15.470 Frederick saw an opportunity. He saw a young 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:17.830 woman on the throne, he saw a disputed succession, 00:09:17.909 --> 00:09:21.269 and he thought, I can take this. It is pure cynicism. 00:09:21.809 --> 00:09:24.710 He writes a book called Anti -Machiavelli, and 00:09:24.710 --> 00:09:26.690 then pulls a move that Machiavelli would have 00:09:26.690 --> 00:09:29.669 given a standing ovation. It was pure opportunism. 00:09:30.129 --> 00:09:32.990 He famously said later, regarding his strategy, 00:09:33.909 --> 00:09:35.889 When you want to catch mice, you have to keep 00:09:35.889 --> 00:09:38.909 the mousetrap open. He let the Austrian troops 00:09:38.909 --> 00:09:40.830 cross the mountains so he could trap them. A 00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:43.269 classic maneuver. But, and this is important, 00:09:43.490 --> 00:09:46.289 his first major battle, the Battle of Molwitz 00:09:46.289 --> 00:09:50.029 in 1741, was actually a disaster for him personally. 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:52.190 This is a story I love because it makes him so 00:09:52.190 --> 00:09:54.809 human. We think of Frederick the Great, military 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:58.389 genius, but in his first battle... He panicked. 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:00.970 He panicked completely. The Austrian cavalry 00:10:00.970 --> 00:10:03.629 charged. The Prussian cavalry, which was the 00:10:03.629 --> 00:10:05.870 weak link at the time, collapsed. It was chaos. 00:10:06.110 --> 00:10:08.129 Snow was blinding them. And Frederick thought 00:10:08.129 --> 00:10:10.129 it was over. He thought the battle was lost. 00:10:10.429 --> 00:10:12.710 His advisors practically threw him on a horse 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:14.570 and told him to run to avoid being captured. 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:17.029 So the king gallops off into the night to hide 00:10:17.029 --> 00:10:19.610 in a mill. Meanwhile, back on the battlefield. 00:10:19.870 --> 00:10:22.909 Meanwhile, his infantry, the soldiers his father 00:10:22.909 --> 00:10:25.070 had drilled so relentlessly, the walking machines, 00:10:25.309 --> 00:10:27.919 they didn't break. They held the line. Under 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.820 the command of Field Marshal Schwerin, they stood 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:34.000 like a stone wall. They fired volley after volley 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.539 with mechanical precision until the Austrians 00:10:36.539 --> 00:10:38.980 broke. So Friedrich wakes up the next morning, 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:41.360 probably thinking he's lost his kingdom, and 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.100 his general rides up and says, Congratulations, 00:10:43.539 --> 00:10:46.460 your majesty, you won. While you were running 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:49.500 away, it was incredibly humiliating. I can't 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:51.759 even imagine. But Friedrich later called Malwitz 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:54.690 his school. He realized that his father's training 00:10:54.690 --> 00:10:57.149 had created a great army, but he wasn't a great 00:10:57.149 --> 00:10:59.149 general yet. And this is what's different about 00:10:59.149 --> 00:11:02.070 him. Yes. He didn't execute the people who saw 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:05.250 him flee. He analyzed it. He spent the next few 00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:08.470 years obsessively retraining his cavalry, studying 00:11:08.470 --> 00:11:11.509 tactics, and refining his approach. He vowed 00:11:11.509 --> 00:11:13.850 never to leave the field again. And he kept that 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:16.730 promise. This kicks off a series of wars that 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:18.850 basically consumes the next 20 years of his life. 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:22.250 And this is where we see him evolve from a student... 00:11:22.539 --> 00:11:25.679 into a master. We have to talk about the oblique 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:28.200 order. This is his signature move. It's what 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:30.440 Napoleon studied. It's what changed warfare. 00:11:30.779 --> 00:11:33.039 But help me out here, because when I read about 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.019 it, attacking on the flank, it sounds like military 00:11:36.019 --> 00:11:39.360 tactics 101. Why was this considered so revolutionary? 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:42.799 It's all about the execution and the geometry. 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.860 In the 18th century, armies were like two long 00:11:45.860 --> 00:11:48.659 walls moving toward each other. You line up parallel, 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:50.799 you march forward, you shoot. It's a shoving 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.740 match. The longer line usually wins. Just a numbers 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:57.519 game. Exactly. Frederick realizes, I am always 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.200 outnumbered. Prussia is a small state. If he 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:03.299 fights line against line, he loses. So he changes 00:12:03.299 --> 00:12:06.620 the geometry. Ow. He intentionally weakens one 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:09.769 side of his line. He refuses the flank, basically 00:12:09.769 --> 00:12:11.850 telling those guys, just stay back, act like 00:12:11.850 --> 00:12:13.690 you're gonna attack, but don't engage. So he's 00:12:13.690 --> 00:12:16.309 leaving half his army exposed on purpose. He's 00:12:16.309 --> 00:12:18.769 baiting the enemy. While the enemy is looking 00:12:18.769 --> 00:12:20.809 at that weak -looking plank, Frederick takes 00:12:20.809 --> 00:12:23.830 his elite troops and marches them rapidly, often 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:26.490 using hills or fog to hide the movement, all 00:12:26.490 --> 00:12:28.610 the way to the other side. To the opposite flank. 00:12:28.769 --> 00:12:30.809 He hits the enemy's weak spot with overwhelming 00:12:30.809 --> 00:12:34.080 local superiority. So instead of 40 ,000 versus 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.879 60 ,000 across the whole field, he creates a 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:40.299 situation where it's maybe 20 ,000 Prussians 00:12:40.299 --> 00:12:43.740 versus 5 ,000 Austrians on just the right tip. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.419 Precisely. He smashes that flank and then the 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:49.450 rest of the enemy line just sort of... Crumbles. 00:12:49.590 --> 00:12:52.210 He rolls them up like a carpet. And the ultimate 00:12:52.210 --> 00:12:54.230 example of this is Luthen, right? The Battle 00:12:54.230 --> 00:12:57.850 of Luthen in 1757 is the masterpiece. He's facing 00:12:57.850 --> 00:13:02.289 65 ,000 Austrians. He has maybe 39 ,000 men. 00:13:02.529 --> 00:13:04.070 That's almost two to one. He should have been 00:13:04.070 --> 00:13:06.289 crushed. He should have been. But he marches 00:13:06.289 --> 00:13:08.710 his troops in this bizarre formation hidden behind 00:13:08.710 --> 00:13:11.269 a ridge. The Austrians think he's retreating. 00:13:11.269 --> 00:13:13.049 By the time they realize he's actually on their 00:13:13.049 --> 00:13:15.289 flank, it's too late. He just demolishes them. 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:17.820 It is still studied today as a masterpiece of 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:20.200 tactical maneuvering. Napoleon Bonaparte later 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.259 visited Frederick's tomb and said, gentlemen, 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:24.440 if this man were alive, I would not be here. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.879 That is high praise coming from Napoleon. The 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.759 highest. But despite these tactical wins, the 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:31.519 Seven Years' War sounds like it was an absolute 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.299 nightmare for Prussia. It wasn't just Austria 00:13:34.299 --> 00:13:36.769 they were fighting, was it? No, it was Prussia 00:13:36.769 --> 00:13:39.690 against the world. A massive coalition formed 00:13:39.690 --> 00:13:43.970 against him. Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, 00:13:44.049 --> 00:13:46.289 and the Holy Roman Empire. The whole neighborhood. 00:13:46.549 --> 00:13:48.830 Basically, yeah. Prussia was surrounded. The 00:13:48.830 --> 00:13:51.710 odds were impossible. Frederick famously described 00:13:51.710 --> 00:13:54.830 himself during this time as fighting like a gladiator 00:13:54.830 --> 00:13:58.009 in the arena. He was constantly marching, constantly 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:01.129 outnumbered. And the toll on him personally must 00:14:01.129 --> 00:14:03.190 have been immense. This is the sensitive soul 00:14:03.190 --> 00:14:06.049 being forced to live in mud and blood for years. 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:08.649 It destroyed him physically and mentally. He 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:11.889 aged 20 years and five. He lost his teeth. He 00:14:11.889 --> 00:14:14.730 suffered from gout. And the losses were devastating. 00:14:15.129 --> 00:14:17.870 Kunersdorf. At the Battle of Kunersdorf in 1759, 00:14:18.049 --> 00:14:20.850 he suffered his worst defeat. Half his army was 00:14:20.850 --> 00:14:23.220 destroyed. Frederick himself was almost killed. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:25.559 He had two horses shot out from under him. And 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:27.500 this is where we get that cinematic detail about 00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:30.360 the snuff box. Yes. A bullet actually struck 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.720 him in the chest, but it hit a golden snuff box 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:35.740 he was carrying in his coat pocket. The box shattered, 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.080 but it stopped the bullet. It saved his life. 00:14:38.299 --> 00:14:41.200 That is incredible luck. But after Kundersdorf, 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.620 even he thought it was over. He was suicidal? 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.879 He carried a vial of poison around his neck for 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.779 the rest of the war in case of capture? He wrote 00:14:49.779 --> 00:14:52.179 to his ministers saying that all was lost, that 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:54.179 he would not survive the doom of his country. 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:57.539 Berlin was even raided by Russian and Austrian 00:14:57.539 --> 00:15:00.000 troops. So Prussia was on the brink of total 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.419 collapse. Absolutely. So how did he survive? 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.179 How does Prussia not get wiped off the map? It 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:07.559 is what Frederick called the miracle of the House 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:11.419 of Brandenburg. The miracle. In 1762, just as 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:13.799 things looked completely hopeless, the Empress 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:16.860 Elizabeth of Russia died. She'd been a fierce 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:18.860 enemy of Frederick, obsessed with destroying 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:21.720 him. Okay. Her successor was her nephew, Peter 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.840 III. And Peter III was a bit different. Peter 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:28.059 III was a Frederick the Great superfan, a stan 00:15:28.059 --> 00:15:30.440 in modern terminology. You're kidding. Not at 00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:33.159 all. He idolized Frederick. He dressed his own 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:35.759 soldiers in Prussian -style uniforms. He called 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:38.840 Frederick, my king, my master. So the enemy leader 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:41.460 dies, and the guy who takes over is the president 00:15:41.460 --> 00:15:44.299 of your fan club. Exactly. One of the first things 00:15:44.299 --> 00:15:47.120 Peter did was switch sides. He pulled Russia 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.960 out of the war against Prussia and actually offered 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:53.169 troops. to help Frederick. Wow. It completely 00:15:53.169 --> 00:15:55.549 broke the coalition. It was a stroke of luck 00:15:55.549 --> 00:15:59.090 so massive that it reinforced Frederick's belief 00:15:59.090 --> 00:16:01.289 that he was destined for something, that fate 00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:04.450 was intervening. So he survives the war, he keeps 00:16:04.450 --> 00:16:07.549 Silesia, and Prussia emerges as a great power. 00:16:08.549 --> 00:16:10.970 But I want to pivot now to what he was doing 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:13.049 when he wasn't on the battlefield. His domestic 00:16:13.049 --> 00:16:16.250 policy. Because remember, this guy called himself 00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:19.330 the first servant of the state. That is a very 00:16:19.330 --> 00:16:21.669 different vibe from I am the king, I am chosen 00:16:21.669 --> 00:16:24.330 by God, do what I say. It is a core part of his 00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:26.610 philosophy, which historians call enlightened 00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:30.190 absolutism. The idea was that the monarch has 00:16:30.190 --> 00:16:33.730 absolute power, yes, but that power must be used 00:16:33.730 --> 00:16:36.769 for the benefit of the people, not for the monarch's 00:16:36.769 --> 00:16:38.850 luxury. It sounds great in a press release. Yeah. 00:16:38.850 --> 00:16:41.399 I work for you. It does. But when Frederick said 00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:43.240 servant, he didn't mean he was going to listen 00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:45.080 to voters. He meant he was going to work harder 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:47.820 than anyone else to tell them what to do. A micromanager. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:50.899 On a continental scale, we have accounts of his 00:16:50.899 --> 00:16:54.580 daily routine. He was up at 3 .0 or 4 .am. And 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:56.700 we have to mention the coffee. This detail stuck 00:16:56.700 --> 00:17:00.240 with me. Chuckles. The coffee. He brewed it incredibly 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.919 strong, often using champagne instead of water. 00:17:03.419 --> 00:17:05.140 Champagne and coffee. Or he would lace it with 00:17:05.140 --> 00:17:08.220 mustard and peppercorns. Wait, mustard? Was he 00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:10.880 trying to wake up or punish his stomach? He wanted 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:12.980 the kick. He needed to jolt his system awake 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:15.640 because he had mountains of paperwork. He reviewed 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.619 every expense. If a village wanted to build a 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:20.519 bridge, Frederick had to sign off on the timber 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:23.690 budget. He didn't trust anyone else. Not really. 00:17:23.789 --> 00:17:25.650 He believed that if he wasn't watching, everyone 00:17:25.650 --> 00:17:28.670 would become corrupt or lazy. And this service 00:17:28.670 --> 00:17:31.069 led to some pretty progressive policies, especially 00:17:31.069 --> 00:17:33.390 regarding religion. By 18th century standards, 00:17:33.569 --> 00:17:42.029 yes. He famously said, Which is a beautiful quote. 00:17:42.069 --> 00:17:44.650 It sounds very modern. It is. But we have to 00:17:44.650 --> 00:17:47.410 be careful not to project 21st century values 00:17:47.410 --> 00:17:50.230 onto him. He wasn't tolerant because he loved 00:17:50.230 --> 00:17:52.759 diversity. He was tolerant. because he was a 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:55.140 cynic and a pragmatist. He didn't care about 00:17:55.140 --> 00:17:57.599 the theology. Not at all. He was likely a deist 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.720 or an atheist. To him, Catholics, Protestants, 00:18:00.740 --> 00:18:02.839 Calvinists, they were all just taxpayers. Right. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:05.339 If you were willing to work, pay taxes, and serve 00:18:05.339 --> 00:18:07.420 in the army, he didn't care who you prayed to. 00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:10.779 He even built a massive Catholic cathedral, St. 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.400 Hedwig's, in the center of Protestant Berlin 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.579 just to show he could. But there was a limit 00:18:16.579 --> 00:18:18.759 to that tolerance. We have to talk about the 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:21.400 anti -Semitism. Because this is where the Enlightened 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.500 label really peels off. We do. This is the dark 00:18:24.500 --> 00:18:27.119 side of his pragmatism. While he didn't launch 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:29.599 violent pogroms like some other rulers, he was 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.480 deeply prejudiced. In his political testament, 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:35.859 he wrote very harsh, anti -Semitic things. So 00:18:35.859 --> 00:18:38.769 it wasn't just unspoken. Oh, no, it was written 00:18:38.769 --> 00:18:41.470 down. Yeah. He viewed the Jewish population entirely 00:18:41.470 --> 00:18:44.569 through a utilitarian lens. Useful but dangerous 00:18:44.569 --> 00:18:47.730 in his mind. Exactly. He limited the number of 00:18:47.730 --> 00:18:50.910 Jews allowed in cities. He levied special humiliating 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.190 taxes on them, like the porcelain tax, where 00:18:53.190 --> 00:18:55.430 Jews were forced to buy substandard porcelain 00:18:55.430 --> 00:18:57.329 from the royal factory just to get a marriage 00:18:57.329 --> 00:19:00.289 license. That's awful. He viewed them as a disadvantage 00:19:00.289 --> 00:19:03.539 to the state. except for their utility and trade 00:19:03.539 --> 00:19:05.539 and finance, especially on the Polish border. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.380 So it wasn't moral equality, it was exploitation. 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:11.519 And that pragmatism extended to his other reforms, 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:14.900 like law and agriculture. Yes. He abolished most 00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:17.440 forms of judicial torture and restricted the 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:19.640 death penalty, which was huge for the time. And 00:19:19.640 --> 00:19:21.619 he was obsessed with making the land productive, 00:19:21.859 --> 00:19:25.769 draining swamps. The Oderbrook region. He saw 00:19:25.769 --> 00:19:29.369 uncultivated land as useless barbarism. He drained 00:19:29.369 --> 00:19:32.109 these massive wetlands to create new farmland. 00:19:32.410 --> 00:19:35.289 He called it his peopling policy, bringing in 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:37.809 thousands of colonists to settle these new lands. 00:19:37.970 --> 00:19:40.170 And this brings us back to the potato. The potato 00:19:40.170 --> 00:19:42.789 king. Exactly. Frederick realized that the potato 00:19:42.789 --> 00:19:45.230 was a nutritional powerhouse compared to grain. 00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:48.529 It was less susceptible to bad weather and could 00:19:48.529 --> 00:19:51.430 feed more people per acre. But the Prussian peasants 00:19:51.430 --> 00:19:54.279 were suspicious of it. It grew underground. It 00:19:54.279 --> 00:19:56.200 looked dirty. They thought it was poisonous or 00:19:56.200 --> 00:19:58.799 fit only for dogs. It wasn't in the Bible. You 00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:00.380 know, all these superstitions. So how did he 00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:02.759 convince them? There is a famous legend, and 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.240 while historians debate if it happened exactly 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:08.500 like this, it perfectly captures his style. Okay, 00:20:08.579 --> 00:20:11.700 the story. The story goes that he planted a field 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:14.740 of potatoes near Berlin and had it guarded by 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:17.559 his best soldiers during the day. Reverse psychology. 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:20.599 Exactly. The peasants looked at the guards and 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:23.059 thought, Well, if the king is guarding it, it 00:20:23.059 --> 00:20:25.400 must be valuable like gold. That must be some 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.240 special root. Right. So at night, when the guards 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.920 were instructed to look the other way, the peasant 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:34.180 snuck in, stole the plants, and started growing 00:20:34.180 --> 00:20:36.359 them in their own gardens. He tricked them into 00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:38.930 not starving. Whether that specific story is 00:20:38.930 --> 00:20:42.670 true or not, he did issue official potato edicts 00:20:42.670 --> 00:20:44.970 forcing the cultivation of the crop. He sent 00:20:44.970 --> 00:20:46.910 instructions on how to cook them, and it worked. 00:20:47.029 --> 00:20:49.769 It undoubtedly saved thousands from starvation. 00:20:49.869 --> 00:20:51.990 So we have the Soldier King 2 .0. We have the 00:20:51.990 --> 00:20:54.569 first servant of the state. Now let's go to his 00:20:54.569 --> 00:20:57.150 private life. Let's go to Sanssouci. Sanssouci. 00:20:57.269 --> 00:21:00.549 The name means without care or no worries in 00:21:00.549 --> 00:21:03.109 French. His happy place. This was his sanctuary 00:21:03.109 --> 00:21:06.240 in Potsdam. It wasn't a grand, imposing palace 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:08.859 like Versailles meant to intimidate. It was a 00:21:08.859 --> 00:21:12.380 private retreat on a human scale. It sits on 00:21:12.380 --> 00:21:15.059 top of these beautiful vineyard terraces. And 00:21:15.059 --> 00:21:17.380 the vibe there was strictly French. Strictly. 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:19.940 Frederick essentially created a French island 00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:22.420 in the middle of Prussia. At dinner, you had 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:24.319 to speak French. If you spoke German, you were 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:26.259 mocked. And this is where the philosopher king 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:29.339 really lived. He wasn't just posing as an intellectual. 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:32.640 Not at all. He was a prolific composer. He wrote 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:36.299 121 flute sonatas and four symphonies. And they 00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:38.650 are good. They are still performed today. He 00:21:38.650 --> 00:21:42.130 was a serious musician. Very serious. He practiced 00:21:42.130 --> 00:21:44.589 the flute four times a day, even during his military 00:21:44.589 --> 00:21:47.549 campaigns. Imagine being a general in the next 00:21:47.549 --> 00:21:50.130 tent, hearing the king practicing scales after 00:21:50.130 --> 00:21:52.789 a battle. The contrast is insane. And he had 00:21:52.789 --> 00:21:55.390 this famous encounter with J .S. Bach. The musical 00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:59.430 offering. Exactly. Bach visited Potsdam and Frederick, 00:21:59.529 --> 00:22:02.150 who admired him greatly, gave him this incredibly 00:22:02.150 --> 00:22:05.269 complex musical theme and challenged him to improvise 00:22:05.269 --> 00:22:07.410 a fugue on the spot. Which Bach did. And then 00:22:07.410 --> 00:22:09.730 he went home and wrote an entire collection of 00:22:09.730 --> 00:22:12.609 pieces based on the royal theme, which he called 00:22:12.609 --> 00:22:16.049 the musical offering. It's a legendary moment 00:22:16.049 --> 00:22:18.650 in music history. But the man writing these flute 00:22:18.650 --> 00:22:22.259 sonatas. was also, you know, debasing currency 00:22:22.259 --> 00:22:25.440 to fund brutal wars. The ultimate contradiction. 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:27.779 And he surrounded himself with the greatest minds 00:22:27.779 --> 00:22:30.880 of Europe. The most famous guest being Voltaire. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.009 The rock star of the Enlightenment. Frederick 00:22:34.009 --> 00:22:36.529 courted him for years. When Voltaire finally 00:22:36.529 --> 00:22:39.009 came to stay at Sanssouci, it was a meeting of 00:22:39.009 --> 00:22:42.170 the minds, but it was also a disaster. Too many 00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:44.690 egos in one palace. Way too many. They admired 00:22:44.690 --> 00:22:47.390 each other's intellect, but they clashed constantly. 00:22:47.950 --> 00:22:50.910 Voltaire was snarky and loved to gossip. Frederick 00:22:50.910 --> 00:22:53.809 was authoritarian and thin -skinned. It didn't 00:22:53.809 --> 00:22:56.529 end well. Not at all. Voltaire eventually fled 00:22:56.529 --> 00:22:58.630 Prussia and Frederick actually had him arrested 00:22:58.630 --> 00:23:01.250 at the border to get back a book of poetry. It 00:23:01.250 --> 00:23:04.009 was a messy breakup. Speaking of breakups, Sansushi 00:23:04.009 --> 00:23:06.450 was also notable for who wasn't there. His wife, 00:23:06.589 --> 00:23:09.250 Queen Elizabeth Christine. Frederick essentially 00:23:09.250 --> 00:23:12.809 banned her from his court. Once his father died, 00:23:13.049 --> 00:23:15.789 he separated from her completely. He set her 00:23:15.789 --> 00:23:18.410 up in a palace in Berlin, paid for her staff, 00:23:18.730 --> 00:23:21.289 visited her formally maybe once a year on her 00:23:21.289 --> 00:23:23.609 birthday, and that was it. No affection at all. 00:23:23.730 --> 00:23:25.990 None. He never showed her any. And this leads 00:23:25.990 --> 00:23:28.269 us to the topic of his sexuality. The outline 00:23:28.269 --> 00:23:30.269 mentions he was almost certainly homosexual. 00:23:30.990 --> 00:23:33.950 The historical evidence is quite strong. Beyond 00:23:33.950 --> 00:23:36.089 the tragic relationship with Kate and his youth, 00:23:36.250 --> 00:23:39.349 his private circle at Sanssouci was almost exclusively 00:23:39.349 --> 00:23:41.109 male. And there were specific relationships. 00:23:41.549 --> 00:23:44.430 Yes. He had close, ambiguous relationships with 00:23:44.430 --> 00:23:47.329 figures like Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, his 00:23:47.329 --> 00:23:49.950 valet who became a close confidant and arguably 00:23:49.950 --> 00:23:52.230 the most powerful man in Prussia behind the scenes. 00:23:52.529 --> 00:23:54.970 And then there was the Italian intellectual Count 00:23:54.970 --> 00:23:57.190 Elgarotti. It's interesting because today he 00:23:57.190 --> 00:24:00.529 is often viewed as an icon of LGBTQ history. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.319 But in his own time, he had to be incredibly 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:05.799 discreet. While sodomy was still a capital crime 00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:08.359 in many places, even for a king, openness was 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:10.759 impossible. But his contemporaries knew. People 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:13.420 talked. An open secret. It was an open secret 00:24:13.420 --> 00:24:15.740 in the courts of Europe. Enemies would write 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:18.839 pamphlets calling him the King of Sodom. It added 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:22.059 to his image as an eccentric, an outsider. He 00:24:22.059 --> 00:24:23.680 didn't have a mistress. He didn't produce an 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:27.259 heir. He was a singularity. So we have painted 00:24:27.259 --> 00:24:31.059 a picture of a complex, brilliant man. But we 00:24:31.059 --> 00:24:33.900 have to go to the darker side. We already touched 00:24:33.900 --> 00:24:36.240 on his anti -Semitism, but there is also his 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:38.920 foreign policy later in life, specifically regarding 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:41.440 Poland. This is one of the darkest stains on 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:43.579 his legacy, the partition of Poland. Frederick 00:24:43.579 --> 00:24:45.980 looked at the map and saw that his kingdom was 00:24:45.980 --> 00:24:49.660 split. He had East Prussia on one side, Brandenburg 00:24:49.660 --> 00:24:51.859 on the other, and Polish territory in the middle. 00:24:52.170 --> 00:24:54.769 He wanted to connect the dots. And he did that 00:24:54.769 --> 00:24:57.690 by carving up a neighboring country. Yes. In 00:24:57.690 --> 00:25:01.109 1772, along with Russia and Austria, he orchestrated 00:25:01.109 --> 00:25:03.589 the first partition of Poland. They literally 00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:05.750 just redrew the map and took what they wanted. 00:25:05.869 --> 00:25:07.970 He took the land in the middle. He annexed a 00:25:07.970 --> 00:25:10.309 huge chunk of Polish territory, which he called 00:25:10.309 --> 00:25:13.369 West Prussia. It connected his lands, but the 00:25:13.369 --> 00:25:15.269 way he did it and the way he talked about it 00:25:15.269 --> 00:25:17.789 was chilling. He mocked Maria Theresa about it, 00:25:17.829 --> 00:25:20.630 didn't he? He did. Maria Theresa of Austria was 00:25:20.630 --> 00:25:23.509 very religious and felt guilty about dismembering 00:25:23.509 --> 00:25:26.569 a sovereign Catholic state. She was weeping while 00:25:26.569 --> 00:25:28.630 signing the treaty. And Frederick's response? 00:25:29.029 --> 00:25:32.089 He quipped, she cries, but she takes. He was 00:25:32.089 --> 00:25:34.710 completely cynical about it. And his view of 00:25:34.710 --> 00:25:36.930 the Polish people wasn't exactly enlightened. 00:25:37.150 --> 00:25:39.769 No. This is where his colonial mindset comes 00:25:39.769 --> 00:25:42.009 out. He referred to the Polish territories as 00:25:42.009 --> 00:25:45.779 barbaric. He said he found in West Prussia nothing 00:25:45.779 --> 00:25:50.059 but sand, fir trees, heath, and juice. Wow. He 00:25:50.059 --> 00:25:52.960 even compared the Poles to the Iroquois, which 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.140 gives you an idea of how he viewed indigenous 00:25:55.140 --> 00:25:57.920 peoples in general. As savages to be civilized. 00:25:57.980 --> 00:26:01.319 Exactly. He wanted to Germanize the region, replacing 00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:03.700 Polish culture and laws with Prussian efficiency. 00:26:04.450 --> 00:26:07.190 He viewed himself as bringing civilization, which 00:26:07.190 --> 00:26:09.829 was a common justification for imperialism, but 00:26:09.829 --> 00:26:12.049 he applied it right in the heart of Europe. That 00:26:12.049 --> 00:26:14.710 cynicism contrasts so sharply with the flute 00:26:14.710 --> 00:26:17.250 playing humanitarian. It's hard to reconcile. 00:26:17.529 --> 00:26:19.670 It really is. And speaking of dark legacies, 00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:21.509 we have to talk about who his biggest fans were 00:26:21.509 --> 00:26:24.450 in the 20th century. The Nazis. This is tragic 00:26:24.450 --> 00:26:26.869 because it really distorted how the world saw 00:26:26.869 --> 00:26:30.130 Frederick for a long time. The Nazis, and Hitler 00:26:30.130 --> 00:26:33.710 specifically, absolutely idolized Frederick the 00:26:33.710 --> 00:26:36.559 Great. They saw him as the ideal German. The 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:39.240 ultimate German hero. The man who stood alone 00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:42.240 against the world and won by sheer will. I read 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:44.440 that Hitler kept a portrait of Frederick in his 00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:47.220 bunker right until the end. He did. It was an 00:26:47.220 --> 00:26:50.619 oil painting by Anton Graf. When Hitler was in 00:26:50.619 --> 00:26:53.500 the Führerbunker in 1945, refusing to surrender 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:55.980 while Berlin burned above him, he was staring 00:26:55.980 --> 00:26:58.500 at that portrait. Hoping for a miracle. He was 00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:00.920 hoping for another miracle of the house of Brandenburg. 00:27:01.339 --> 00:27:03.599 He thought that if he just held on, the alliance 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:05.519 between the U .S. and the Soviets would break, 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:07.599 just like the coalition against Frederick broke. 00:27:07.779 --> 00:27:09.920 But the Nazis were selective history readers, 00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:13.160 weren't they? Extremely selective. They glorified 00:27:13.160 --> 00:27:15.380 the militarism, the discipline, the will to power. 00:27:15.539 --> 00:27:18.079 They loved the soldier king aspect. And ignored 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:20.619 everything else. They conveniently ignored the 00:27:20.619 --> 00:27:24.000 Francophile who hated German culture. They ignored 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:26.279 the philosopher who believed in tolerance. They 00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:28.000 ignored the fact that Frederick probably would 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.559 have despised the Nazis as boorish thugs. They 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:32.539 hijacked his image. They did. And because of 00:27:32.539 --> 00:27:35.240 that, after World War II, Frederick was seen 00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:38.910 by the Allies as a bad guy. His statue on Unter 00:27:38.910 --> 00:27:41.089 den Linden in Berlin was taken down by the East 00:27:41.089 --> 00:27:44.029 Germans. Prussia itself was abolished as a state. 00:27:44.190 --> 00:27:46.470 Why? Because the Allies saw it as the source 00:27:46.470 --> 00:27:49.109 of German militarism. It has taken a long time 00:27:49.109 --> 00:27:51.289 for historians to reclaim the real Frederick 00:27:51.289 --> 00:27:53.670 from that shadow. It has. Since reunification 00:27:53.670 --> 00:27:56.029 in Germany, there has been a more balanced view. 00:27:56.250 --> 00:27:58.950 We can now see him as he was, an enlightened 00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:02.150 absolutist, a man who modernized the legal system, 00:28:02.289 --> 00:28:04.529 abolished torture, promoted education, but also 00:28:04.529 --> 00:28:07.640 waged brutal wars and held prejudiced views. 00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:10.619 He is a figure of his time, not a proto -Nazi. 00:28:10.779 --> 00:28:12.759 Let's fast forward to the very end of his life. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:17.160 The year is 1786. Frederick is an old man. He 00:28:17.160 --> 00:28:20.299 is lonely. His friends are mostly dead. Who is 00:28:20.299 --> 00:28:23.440 he with? He is with his greyhounds. He loved 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:25.940 his dogs more than he loved most people. He had 00:28:25.940 --> 00:28:29.660 a favorite named Biche. He once said, dogs have 00:28:29.660 --> 00:28:32.460 all the virtues of men without their vices. So 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.049 it's just him and his dogs? He died in an armchair 00:28:35.049 --> 00:28:37.869 at Sansushi, quiet and alone, with his dogs at 00:28:37.869 --> 00:28:40.170 his feet. And he had a very specific request 00:28:40.170 --> 00:28:42.670 for his burial, which I think says everything 00:28:42.670 --> 00:28:45.269 about who he really was inside. He wanted to 00:28:45.269 --> 00:28:48.049 be buried on the terrace at Sansushi in a simple 00:28:48.049 --> 00:28:50.269 crypt he had prepared right next to his dogs. 00:28:50.430 --> 00:28:53.269 Not in some grand church. No, he wanted a simple 00:28:53.269 --> 00:28:56.660 funeral without pomp. He explicitly said he wanted 00:28:56.660 --> 00:28:59.160 to be buried as a philosopher, not a king. He 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:01.119 wanted to rest in the place where he was happiest. 00:29:01.380 --> 00:29:03.819 And naturally, his successor ignored that completely. 00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:06.599 Completely. His nephew, Frederick William II, 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:09.140 thought it was undignified to bury a king next 00:29:09.140 --> 00:29:11.700 to dogs. It was an embarrassment. So what did 00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:14.079 he do? So he had Frederick buried in a church 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:17.359 in Potsdam, the Garrison Church, right next to 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:19.950 his abusive father, the soldier king. That is 00:29:19.950 --> 00:29:22.430 a cruel irony. Yeah. To be trapped in death next 00:29:22.430 --> 00:29:24.910 to the man who tormented you in life, the man 00:29:24.910 --> 00:29:27.150 who made you watch your best friend die. It is 00:29:27.150 --> 00:29:29.349 heartbreaking. And he stayed there for over 200 00:29:29.349 --> 00:29:32.349 years. His coffin was moved around during World 00:29:32.349 --> 00:29:34.529 War II to protect it from bombing hidden in a 00:29:34.529 --> 00:29:37.410 salt mine, then moved to a castle. And it wasn't 00:29:37.410 --> 00:29:40.390 until after the fall of the wall. Finally, in 00:29:40.390 --> 00:29:44.069 1991, after the Berlin Wall fell, his body was 00:29:44.069 --> 00:29:46.849 brought back to San Susi. A final homecoming. 00:29:46.849 --> 00:29:49.730 Yes. There was a ceremony, though still perhaps 00:29:49.730 --> 00:29:52.450 more pomp than he would have liked. And he was 00:29:52.450 --> 00:29:54.930 finally laid to rest in the grave on the terrace 00:29:54.930 --> 00:29:57.609 next to his greyhounds. And that brings us back 00:29:57.609 --> 00:30:00.069 to the potatoes. Exactly. That is why people 00:30:00.069 --> 00:30:02.589 leave potatoes on that grave. It is a tribute 00:30:02.589 --> 00:30:05.029 to the complex legacy of a man who conquered 00:30:05.029 --> 00:30:08.029 provinces and drilled soldiers, but also cared 00:30:08.029 --> 00:30:10.630 enough to ensure his people didn't starve. It's 00:30:10.630 --> 00:30:12.670 a nod to the first servant. It really is a fascinating 00:30:12.670 --> 00:30:14.970 story. You have this man who was beaten for being 00:30:14.970 --> 00:30:17.720 soft, who then became the heart. man in Europe, 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:21.680 but who never quite lost that love for the flute 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:24.220 and the philosophy book. It is the ultimate paradox. 00:30:24.539 --> 00:30:26.559 He built the foundation of the modern German 00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:29.559 state, the bureaucracy, the military, the economy, 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.740 but he did it while despising the German language 00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:35.579 and culture. A man of contradictions to the very 00:30:35.579 --> 00:30:37.880 end. He believed in reason and the Enlightenment, 00:30:38.059 --> 00:30:42.279 but he practiced ruthless conquest. So what does 00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:45.119 this all mean for us? I think Frederick forces 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.420 us to ask a really difficult question about leadership. 00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:51.299 He called himself the first servant of the state. 00:30:51.779 --> 00:30:54.319 In our modern world, we hear politicians say 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.680 they are public servants all the time. But Frederick 00:30:56.680 --> 00:30:58.819 actually lived it. He worked himself to the bone. 00:30:59.140 --> 00:31:02.779 Yet he was an absolute dictator. That is the 00:31:02.779 --> 00:31:04.970 provocative thought I would leave you with. Can 00:31:04.970 --> 00:31:07.150 you truly be a servant when you hold absolute 00:31:07.150 --> 00:31:10.390 power? Frederick believed he knew what was best 00:31:10.390 --> 00:31:12.049 for the people better than they did themselves, 00:31:12.309 --> 00:31:14.309 whether it was planted potatoes or going to war. 00:31:14.509 --> 00:31:17.690 He served the state, the abstract idea of pressure, 00:31:17.990 --> 00:31:20.230 sometimes at the expense of the actual people 00:31:20.230 --> 00:31:22.670 living in it. It is the difference between serving 00:31:22.670 --> 00:31:25.509 the people's will and serving the people's interests. 00:31:25.730 --> 00:31:28.509 Yeah. As defined by one man. Exactly. And that 00:31:28.509 --> 00:31:31.150 is a tension between efficiency and liberty. 00:31:31.269 --> 00:31:33.529 Between the strong leader and the democratic 00:31:33.529 --> 00:31:36.569 process, that didn't die with Frederick the Great. 00:31:36.910 --> 00:31:39.230 Something to chew on, maybe while eating a potato. 00:31:40.829 --> 00:31:42.930 Thanks for joining us for this deep dive into 00:31:42.930 --> 00:31:45.089 one of history's most fascinating figures. We 00:31:45.089 --> 00:31:46.089 will catch you next time.