History - Berlin - page 513

The Age of Prussia
All cultural and intellectual life screeched to a halt under Friedrich's son, Friedrich Wilhelm
I (r 1713-40), who laid the groundwork for Prussian military might. Soldiers were this
king's main obsession and he dedicated much of his life to building an army of 80,000,
partly by instituting the draft (highly unpopular even then, and eventually repealed) and by
persuading his fellow rulers to trade him men for treasure. History quite appropriately
knows him as the Soldatenkönig (soldier king).
Ironically these soldiers didn't see action until his son and successor Friedrich II (aka Fre-
derick the Great; r 1740-86) came to power. Friedrich fought tooth and nail for two decades
to wrest Silesia (in today's Poland) from Austria and Saxony. When not busy on the battle-
field, 'Old Fritz', as he was also called, sought greatness through building. His Forum
Fridericianum, a grand architectural master plan for Unter den Linden, although never com-
pleted, gave Berlin the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (State Opera House), Sankt-Hedwigs-
Kathedrale, a former palace now housing the Humboldt Universität (Humboldt University)
and other major attractions.
Frederick also embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment, abolishing torture, guaranteeing
religious freedom and introducing legal reforms. With some of the leading thinkers in town
(Moses Mendelssohn, Voltaire and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing among them), Berlin blos-
somed into a great cultural capital that came to be known as 'Athens on the Spree'.
Napoleon & Reforms
Old Fritz's death sent Prussia into a downward spiral, culminating in a serious trouncing of
its army by Napoleon at Jena-Auerstedt in 1806. The French marched triumphantly into
Berlin on 27 October and left two years later, their coffers bursting with loot. Among the
pint-sized conqueror's favourite souvenirs was the Quadriga sculpture from atop the
Brandenburg Gate.
The post-Napoleonic period saw Berlin caught up in the reform movement sweeping
through Europe. Public servants, academics and merchants now questioned the right of the
nobility to rule. Friedrich Wilhelm III (r 1797-1840) instituted a few token reforms (easing
guild regulations, abolishing bonded labour and granting Jews civic equality), but meaning-
ful constitutional reform was not forthcoming. Power continued to be centred in the Prussi-
an state.
The ensuing period of political stability was paired with an intellectual flourishing in Ber-
lin's cafes and salons. The newly founded Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt Universität) was
helmed by the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and, as it grew in status, attracted other
leading thinkers of the day, including Hegel and Ranke. This was also the age of Karl