Prussia Quiz

#4, #6, #7, and thumbnail: If you read Thomas Mann's essay "Frederick and the Grand Coalition", the Prussian king comes off a little like Vladimir Putin, or even Hitler. Note that Mann was trying to be sympathetic. Based on flimsy pretensions, Frederick seized Silesia from Austria. A few years later, he invaded neutral Saxony, claiming it was part of a secret conspiracy against Prussia. Thanks to a cruelly drilled army that was absurdly large for the size of its country, as well as relentless aggressive attacks, Prussia rose to the world stage within one generation. In Europe Frederick was known as a thief, a barbarian, and a wild beast. He was also a distrustful workaholic who controlled the whole state and a misogynist who once dubbed the queens of Russia, Austria and Madame Pompadour of France the three you-know-whats of Europe. He seemed to like dogs better than humans, in general. His favorite dogs were adressed like royalty by servants and they are buried next to Frederick.

On the other hand, Frederick was a delicate little man who played the flute, wrote treatises and invited philosophers such as Voltaire to his court. He also abolished the use of torture and largely abandoned censorship. Being attacked by a satirist's verses, Frederick said, "does this man have an army? No? He is no threat to me then".