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Friedrich Wilhelm I. König in Preußen
(14.08.1688 - 13.05.1740)
place of birth: Berlin
Königreich Preußen:
Seine Majestät der König, Chef der
Armee
Friedrich Wilhelm I. was the second successive King of
Prussia, reigning from 1713 to 1740. Also referred to as the Soldier
King (der Soldatenkönig), he was the son of
King Friedrich I. Friedrich Wilhelm I. continued the
administrative reforms and the process of centralization begun by his
grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector,
transforming his country from a second rate power into the efficient
and prosperous nation that his son and successor Frederick the
Great would make into Europe's dominant military
power.
Friedrich Wilhelm I practiced a rigid economy,
so that at his death there was a large surplus in the treasury. The
Prussian army was made an efficient instrument of war. Although he
built up one of the most powerful armies in Europe, he was essentially
a peaceful man. He intervened briefly in the Northern War
but gained little territory. Later, he signed a treaty in 1728 with
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in the hope of acquiring the territories
of Jülich
and Berg, to which he had a hereditary claim. The
emperor subsequently went back on this agreement. Friedrich Wilhelm I
was a coarse man, and he had contempt for his gifted heir, who was to
succeed him as Friedrich II (Frederick the Great). At one point, he
even had one of young Friedrich's boyhood friends executed. He died in
May 1740 in Potsdam.
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König
in Preußen |
22.02.1713
- 13.05.1740 |
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General-Lieutenant |
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Schwarzer Adler-Orden |
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