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FREDERICK WILLIAM II
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See also:FREDERICK See also: Wollner, whom Frederick the Great had described as a " treacherous and intriguing See also:priest," had started See also:life as a poor See also:tutor in the family of See also:General von Itzenplitz, a See also:noble of the See also:mark of See also:Brandenburg, had, after the general's death and to the See also:scandal of king and See also:nobility, married the general's daughter, and with his See also:mother-in-See also:law's assistance settled down on a small See also:estate. By his See also:practical experiments and by his writings he gained a considerable reputation as an economist; but his ambition was not content with this, and he sought to extend his influence by joining first the Freemasons and after-wards (1779) the Rosicrucians. Wollner, with his impressive See also:personality and easy if superficial eloquence, was just the man to See also:lead a See also:movement of this kind. Under his influence the order spread rapidly, and he soon found himself the supreme director (Oberhauptdirektor) of some 26 " circles," which included in their membership princes, See also:officers and high officials. As a Rosicrucian Wollner dabbled in See also:alchemy and other mystic arts, but he also affected to be zealous for See also:Christian orthodoxy, imperilled by Frederick II.'s patronage of "enlightenment," and a few months before Frederick's death wrote to his friend the Rosicrucian Johann See also:Rudolph von Bischoffswerder (1741–1803) that his highest ambition was to be placed at the See also:head of the religious See also:department of the See also:state" as an unworthy See also:instrument in the See also:hand of Ormesus " (the prince of Prussia's Rosicrucian name) " for the purpose of saving millions of souls from perdition and bringing back the whole See also:country to the faith of Jesus See also:Christ." Such was the man whom Frederick William II., immediately after his accession, called to his counsels. On the 26th of Au gust 1786 he was appointed privy councillor for See also:finance (Geheimer Oberfinanzrath), and on the 2nd of See also:October was ennobled. Though not in name, in fact he was See also:prime See also:minister; in all See also:internal affairs it was he who decided; and the fiscal and economic reforms of the new reign were the application of his theories. Bischoffswerder, too, still a See also:simple See also:major, was called into the king's counsels; by 1789 he was already an See also:adjutant-general. These were the two men who enmeshed the king in a See also:web of Rosicrucian See also:mystery and intrigue, which hampered whatever healthy development of his policy might have been possible, and led ultimately to disaster. The opposition to Wollner was, indeed, at the outset strong enough to prevent his being entrusted with the department of See also:religion; but this too in See also:time was over-come, and on the 3rd of See also:July 1788 he was appointed active privy councillor of state and of See also:justice and head of the spiritual department for Lutheran and See also:Catholic affairs. See also:War was at once declared on what—to use a later term—we may See also:call the ' modernists." The king, so See also:long as Wollner was content to condone his immorality (which Bischoffswerder, to do him justice, condemned), was eager to help the orthodox crusade. On the 9th of July was issued the famous religious See also:edict, which forbade Evangelical ministers to See also:teach anything not contained in the See also:letter of their See also:official books, proclaimed the See also:necessity of protecting the Christian religion against the " enlighteners " (Aufkldrer), and placed educational establishments under the supervision of the orthodox See also:clergy. On the 18th of See also:December a new censorship law was issued, to secure the orthodoxy of all published books; and finally, in 1791, a sort of See also:Protestant See also:Inquisition was established at Berlin (Immediat-Examinationscommission) to See also:watch over all ecclesiastical and scholastic appointments. In his zeal for orthodoxy, indeed, Frederick William outstripped his minister; he even blamed Wollner's " idleness and vanity " for the inevitable failure of the See also:attempt to regulate See also:opinion from above, and in 1794 deprived him of one of his See also:secular offices in order that he might have more time " to devote himself to the things of See also:God "; in edict after edict the king continued to the end of his reign to make regulations " in order to maintain in his states a true and active See also:Christianity, as the path to genuine fear of God." The effects of this policy of See also:blind obscurantism far outweighed any See also:good that resulted from the king's well-meant efforts at economic and See also:financial reform; and even this reform was but spasmodic and partial, and awoke ultimately more discontent than it allayed. But far more fateful for Prussia was the king's attitude towards the See also:army and See also:foreign policy. The army was the very See also:foundation of the Prussian state, a truth which both Frederick William I. and the great Frederick had fully realized; the army had been their first care, and its efficiency had been maintained by their See also:constant See also:personal supervision. Frederick William, who had no See also:taste for military matters, put his authority as " War-See also:Lord " into See also:commission under a supreme See also:college of war (Oberkriegs-Collegium) under the duke of Brunswick and General von See also:Mollendorf. It was the beginning of the See also:process that ended in 1806 at See also:Jena. In the circumstances Frederick William's intervention in European affairs was not likely to prove of benefit -to Prussia. The Dutch See also:campaign of 1787, entered on for purely family reasons, was indeed successful; but Prussia received not even the cost of her intervention. An attempt to intervene in the war of Russia and See also:Austria against See also:Turkey failed of its See also:object; Prussia did not succeed in obtaining any concessions of territory from the alarms of the See also:Allies, and the dismissal of See also:Hertzberg in 1791 marked the final See also:abandonment of the See also:anti-See also:Austrian tradition of Frederick the Great. For, meanwhile, the French Revolution had entered upon alarming phases, and in August 1791 Frederick William, at the See also:meeting at See also:Pillnitz, arranged with the See also:emperor See also:Leopold to join in supporting the cause of Louis XVI. But neither the king's character, nor the confusion of the Prussian finances due to his extravagance, gave promise of any effective See also:action. A formal See also:alliance was indeed signed on the 7th of See also:February 1792, and Frederick William took See also:part personally in the See also:campaigns of 1792 and 1793. He was hampered, however, by want of funds, and his counsels were distracted by the affairs of See also:Poland, which promised a richer See also:booty than was likely to be gained by the anti-revolutionary crusade into See also:France. A See also:subsidy treaty with the See also:sea See also:powers (See also:April 19, 1794) filled his coffers; but the insurrection in Poland that followed the See also:partition of 1793, and the See also:threat of the isolated intervention of Russia, hurried him into the See also:separate treaty of See also:Basel with the French See also:Republic (April 5, 1795), which was regarded by the great monarchies as a betrayal, and See also:left Prussia morally isolated in See also:Europe on the eve of the titanic struggle between the monarchical principle and the new See also:political creed of the Revolution. Prussia had paid a heavy See also:price for the territories acquired at the expense of Poland in 1793 and 1795, and when, on the 16th of See also:November 1797, Frederick William died, he left the state in See also:bankruptcy and confusion, the army decayed and the See also:monarchy discredited.
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Frederick William II. was twice married: (1) in 1765 to See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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