Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great (1712-86) is one of the most successful and controversial European monarchs. He became King of Prussia at the age of 29, which he went on to weld into one of the most formidable powers of Europe. He created a Royal Court that was the envy of Europe, surrounding himself with intellectuals, musicians, artists, philosophers, and in many ways he was the embodiment of the enlightened monarch of the 18th century. He abolished physical punishment, he was the architect of his houses and several public buildings in Potsdam, he dabbled in musical composition, and was a brave and much-feared soldier. Admired and idolized in the 19th century, the defeat of the Germans after 1918 marked a downturn in his reputation with the creation of the bugbear of Prussian militarism: Frederick the Great was now seen as its founding father. In the Second World War he became the 'Potsdam Fuhrer', the evil progenitor of Adolf Hitler - who kept a portrait of Frederick above his desk and had Goebbels read him extracts from Carlyle's biography of Frederick. In this authoritative biography MacDonogh examines Frederick's life in the round, unlike his two most recent biographers who concentrated