Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters by Giles MacDonogh (PDF)

Description

Piet and soldier, misanthrope and philospher, Frederick the Great was a contradictory, almost unfathomable man. His conquests made him one of the most formindable and feared leaders of his era. But as a patron of artists and intellectuals, Frederick re-created Berlin as one of the continent’s great cities, matching his state’s reputation for military ferocity with one for cultural achievement.Though history remembers Frederick as a “Potsdam Fuhrer,” his father more rightly deserved the title. When, as a youth, Frederick attempted to flee the elder man’s brutality, the punishment was to watch the execution of his friend and co-conspirator, Katte. Though a subsequent compromise allowed Frederick to take the throne in 1740, he would remain true unto himself. His tastes for music, poetry, and architecture would match the significance of his military triumphs in the Seven Years’ War.Drawing on the most recent scholarship, Giles MacDonogh’s fresh, authoritative biograhy gives us the most fully rounded portrait yet of an often misunderstood king.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “In [MachDonogh’s] wide-ranging and often compelling portrait, all of the varied facts of this complex man are examined. While his scholarly research is excellent, MacDonogh employs his journalistic training to eloquaently convey the conflicts and immense personal dynamism that lay behind his subject’s ambitions and accomplishments. Both general readers and those with a strong background in European history will find great value in this outstanding biography.” ―Booklist“Sensitive, meticulous, and just, and well worth reading for the portrait it provides of this intelligent and spirited monarch.” ―Times Literary Supplement“Frederick the Great presents a wonderful subject for a biographer, and Giles MacDonogh certainly seizes his opportunity with both hands…writing with a verve and wit worthy of his subject.” ―Financial Times“Immaculately researched and beautifully written… In an extended and lavish account, MacDonogh brings us close to the smell of eighteenth-century battle.” ―Evening Standard About the Author Giles MacDonogh was born in London in 1955 and studied history at Oxford University. He has worked extensively in France as a teacher, a translator, a journalist, and an editor. After returning to England, he became increasingly well known as a gastronomic critic and authority on wine and spirits. For the last ten years, however, his consuming interest has been modern German history, and he has published several books on the subject, including The Last Kaiser. He has a regular column in the Financial Times and has written for many other papers and magazines. MacDonogh lives in London.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a great book! It’s over six hundred pages long but you may have trouble putting it down. Unlike too many other biographers, his biography is not an appraisal; rather he deals with the history of Frederick even-handedly, be it positive or negative. I was surprised by many things: that Frederick was gay, that he lost many battles, that he had to escape from his first battle (in which one his brother died), that he was a writer of some note ( he wrote a condemnation of Machiavelli, but then followed his principles), as well as a composer. His battles are discussed in detail and won the admiration of Napoleon, Hitler, Patton to name a few. Put this on your must-read list.

⭐After reading just about everything I can get my mits on when it comes to der Alte Fritz, I’ve found this work to be EXTREMELY HELPFUL in trying to understand Frederick’s early life, his relationship with is father, etc. Granted, the military parts aren’t that great–aren’t bad either–but that can be found in other works. Totally worth the time and $.

⭐I’ve read several books by this author and I think he is a terrific writer. This book is no exception.

⭐Excellent book! Really interesting and really useful for helping me with my essay on Frederick the Great!

⭐The uses and abuses to which generations of historians have put Frederick the Great have only served to cloud his reputation. So says Giles MacDonogh, who has no wish to rehash, for instance, Carlyle’s Frederick the Hero; if anything, he inclines towards Macaulay’s Frederick-the-Not-So-Great. But his overriding objective is to present Frederick the way he really was, as an accomplished flute player, man of letters, and the last European king to personally lead his troops into battle, wearing his familiar tobacco-stained coat. MacDonogh’s Frederick is far from the patriotic champion of German nationalism, which he regards as an imposter created by 19th century historians. One strength of this engaging biography is that MacDonogh is not only well-read in the literature of Frederick the Great, he also has a first-hand, intimate knowledge of Berlin and Potsdam. He has taken the trouble to inspect many of the surviving palaces and residences, though apparently not the battlefields. He writes with wit (the reason Frederick felt the German language had no rules was “because he never learned any,” pg. 200), and one imagines that he would make a well-informed tour guide with advice on the best beer and wine cellars, while quoting Frederick’s bon mot that “champagne carries happiness to the brain” (pg. 207). Throughout, he shows more interest in architecture, painting and music than in tactics or the dull intricacies of siege warfare. At the same time he avoids sugarcoating the king. “Frederick was a menace to all those who had the misfortune to come too close” (pg. 243). MacDonogh has a sharp eye for the petty jealousies and intrigues at the far-from-splendid Prussian court, and the way courtiers jockeyed for influence. He faults Frederick for not appreciating the great German writers of his age. This is perhaps somewhat unfair. When Frederick published his essay on German literature (1780), Goethe and Schiller were still considered iconoclastic young rebels, unlikely to appeal to someone of the king’s generation (he was born in 1712). After all, the king’s tastes were formed when the Rococo was fashionable. One could chastise him with greater justice for not appreciating Lessing, who was more his own age (born 1729). MacDonogh’s treatment of this topic would have been fuller if he had consulted the protocols of Frederick’s conversations with Gottsched, the so-called German literary pope, and Gellert, the revered author of popular fables. Naturally enough, Frederick’s relationship with Voltaire takes up a large chunk of this biography. One of the chief reasons the king wanted Voltaire to come to Potsdam was to be his tutor in the art of French poetry. They spent hours upon hours in this undertaking – which eventually paid off. Under Voltaire’s tutelage, Frederick turned into a decent versifier if not a first-rate poet. While MacDonogh’s translations of French poetry are certainly better than average, he fails to do justice to the strides Frederick took as a poet under Voltaire’s guidance. He spends rather more time taking a dim view of their shared anti-clericalism, saying that Voltaire fed Frederick’s prejudices. In a fight, it was an advantage to have Voltaire on your side, though perhaps not exactly at (italics) your side. Frederick’s chief mistake was insisting that Voltaire join him in Potsdam. The king tolerated his guest at first, playing the role of a patient father with a wayward son who was always up to some mischief or other. Soon enough, though, he came to think of him as a kind of highly intelligent but incorrigible monkey. Very likely their friendship would have been much less troubled if they had never met face to face. In the end, Voltaire plotted to make Frederick so angry that he would grant his wish to return to France. As a professional manufacturer of poisonous rumors, he did not find this difficult. If Frederick had had to learn the art of concealment at the rough hands of his father, Voltaire seems to have enjoyed indulging in duplicity as a kind of malicious sport. He carried on his sniping even after gaining Frederick’s permission to depart. MacDonogh shares Frederick’s skeptical view of the great skeptic, quoting his summary: “It is astonishing … that this man, so admirable for his talented mind, should be so despicable in his conduct.” It took years for them to resume cordial epistolary relations. Minor shortcomings to this generally first-rate book: First, owing to a dropped footnote, the last forty or so notes in Chapter Four are misnumbered. Also, Hephaestion was not a Greek god (pg. 104) but one of Alexander the Great’s closest friends and a commander in his army; generals may at times confuse themselves with gods, but historians should be more careful. Finally, Rudolf Augstein, the publisher of the newsmagazine “Der Spiegel,” wrote a thought-provoking and well-researched biography (in German), “Prussia’s Frederick and the Germans,” which MacDonogh archly brushes off in a single sentence on the next-to-last page. A somewhat more serious problem is MacDonogh’s reliance on certain sources. He is rightly suspicious of the memoirs of Frederick’s sister Wilhelmina and Baron Pöllnitz, saying they “may have exaggerated” (pg. 47). As for the allegations that Frederick was homosexual, he is dismissive of Voltaire and skeptical of Roger Peyrefitte. But when it comes to foreign affairs and its relevance to the relationship between Frederick and his father Frederick William, he relies uncritically on books published in the Third Reich (two by Carl Hinrichs, one by Ernst Poseck). Generally speaking, the Nazi agenda was to present Frederick William and his son as wise precursors of Hitler, as leaders who sought to advance the national interests of Germany. This idea would have seemed alien to both kings, whose goal was to consolidate not German but Prussian power and advance Hohenzollern dynastic interests. As MacDonogh himself points out in the opening chapter, the idea of unifying all the German lands under Prussian leadership was not even on Frederick’s horizon. So maybe Frederick William really did say, “No English people or Frenchmen should [have control] over German territories, and I will put pistols and daggers into the cradles of my children so that they can help keep foreign nations out of Germany” (pg. 42), but I would feel more secure about it if this quotation did not come from a book published in Hamburg in 1936.

⭐In a society stuffed with anglophiles and, more recently, celticphiles, we have little history available on Middle Europe and its grandeur. We know that it produced the most terrible army of the 20th Century. We also know of colorful snippets about how 18th Century German mercenaries lent a hand in Britain’s fruitless effort to keep 13 American colonies from becoming an indepent nation.The book gives a much deserved look at how Middle Europe’s nations evolved through marriage, annexing and (naturlich) war. Frederick is taken off of his pedestal for us to take a closer look, and the authors shows us Frederick’s warts and all. His family, especially his father, plays a vitol role in the book, which the author infers that this is a key element in driving Frederick to succeed.If there is a shortcoming in the book, it would be the battles. Though the book was not published to be a historical guide on tactics and strategics, I would like to know more on how the protagonist became so land rich at Prussia’s zenith.

⭐I enjoyed this book, but I’ve purchased it twice and, despite the list of illustrations in the front, there isn’t one picture in the book. I would love it if I could find a copy that was printed with the pictures.

⭐At times criticized and commended for its focus on merely Frederick, rather than Frederick the Great, MacDonogh’s effort merits the attention of amateurs and enthusiasts alike. In a relatively brief space, MacDonogh is able to reveal a great deal of primary insight about a man who distinguished himself not only with the sword, but also a pen, a flute, etc. MacDonogh also demonstrates his ability to use the personalities to illustrate the time; weaving a thread through the German principalities of Frederick’s youth is difficult enough without the need to discuss the circumstances of Frederick, his father and the machinations of foreign and Prussian envoys and courtiers. MacDonogh has given us an insightful piece about a man who lived a life full of something for everyone.

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