ABSTRACT
The rise of the future state of Brandenburg-Prussia is perhaps associated in our minds with blurred images of Teutonic Knights, crested helmets, and bloody crusades against the Slavs. The true founders of the eastern marches were in fact those German colonists who pushed slowly across the glaciated lowlands which extended from the Elbe to beyond the Oder. The Great Elector, who ruled Brandenburg-Prussia from 1640 to 1688, was succeeded by his son Frederick William II of Brandenburg, a man who, unusually for the new breed of Hohenzollerns, loved pomp and luxury. Frederick I died in 1713. By the age of eight his son, Crown Prince Frederick William, had owned an impressive array of military impedimenta, and two years later he wrote a solemn declaration to the effect that he had put aside all childish things. Frederick discovered more pleasure than ever in music, a recreation that was to sustain him through the trials of his military life.
