Stephan, Peter Friedrich I.

Die Erfindung Preußens. Eine Biografie

Frederick I (16571713) was long regarded as an unworldly aesthete who, out of a desire for pomp and splendour, proclaimed himself King of Prussia in 1701. Peter Stephan, on the other hand, describes the crooked Fritz as the systematic inventor of the Prussian state, who symbolised his understanding of himself and his state in the art and architecture of his capital, Berlin. His elegantly written biography is also a fascinating rediscovery of a forgotten Prussia that had no chance under Frederick's successors. Even his father, the Great Elector, did not have much faith in his physically disabled, highly sensitive son, and posterity associated the Berlin Palace he built, a major work of European Baroque architecture, primarily with the name of the architect Andreas Schlüter. For generations of historians, Prussian history actually began with his successor, the Soldier King Frederick William I. Peter Stephan thoroughly revises this image on the basis of years of research. He describes how Frederick, as Elector of Brandenburg, systematically planned his coronation in Prussia, thereby linking the grand design of a Prussian state based on tolerance, culture and the rule of law. In doing so, he masterfully succeeds in bringing works of art such as the equestrian statue of the Great Elector, the Armoury and the Berlin Palace to life as eloquent testimonies to the life and political ideology of the first and most misunderstood Prussian king.