ABSTRACT
With the death of Frederick the Great ended a phase of the political development of the Prussian state which had begun with the reign of the Great Elector. Within a century and a half a state had been formed, but not only that, it had developed its own specific character, unique within the context of the Age of Enlightened Absolutism. Frederick as King, like his father, had demonstrated the professional aspect of monarchy in a manner which could hardly be continued or surpassed. His figure stands at the end of a thousand years of European history, at the beginning of which period there was interdependence between crown and church while at the end royal dignity had become entirely secularized. Frederick William I had still considered himself a servant of God; not so his son, whose concept of royalty was entirely secular yet ennobled through the monarch’s own absolute subjugation to his duty to the state.
