(Legnica), Brieg (Brzeg) and Wohlau (Wolow) on the extinction of the native MICROCOSM: Portrait of a European City Piasts. The Great Elector had sought to press these claims in 1648 and had by Norman Davies (p. 200-218) contemplated military action twenty years later. But when the Piasts died out in 1675, their duchies were taken over by the . So Frederick Bresslau in the Kingdom of , 1741-1871 had a grievance to nurse. Yet, in reality, his actions in 1740 had little to do with legal niceties and everything to do with opportunism and power politics. He saw the invasion of as his personal 'rendezvous with fame' and, at The rise of Prussia was one of the primary political phenomena of early another level, as the first step on Prussia's rise to greatness. As he would eighteenth-century Europe. At the time of the coronation of Frederick I as candidly confess in his memoirs, 'it was a means of acquiring a reputation and 'King in Prussia' in 1701, his dominions, which consisted of little more than the of increasing the power of the state'. core territories of Brandenburg, Eastern Pomerania and , did not The first Silesian campaign of 1740 might reasonably be described as a rate as a great power. Yet by the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756, precursor of the Blitzkrieg. Prior to the invasion, utter secrecy was maintained virtually the whole of the European continent was in arms against a Prussian and every strategy of diplomacy exploited. Several regiments were sent on an agglomeration that had become the dominant force in northern Europe. The elaborate feint to the south-west of and, on the eve of the invasion, a chief architect of this meteoric rise was Frederick (Friedrich) II (r. 1740-86). masked ball was staged in the capital. The King disguised his advance, which His dynasty, the Hohenzollerns, was destined to eclipse the previous leader began on 14 December, as a preventative measure, claiming that Austria was among the German princes - the Habsburgs. on the brink of collapse. Yet, seen from his point of view, it was full of risk. An accomplished flautist and correspondent of Voltaire, yet described as Prussia itself was not yet the major respected power into which Frederick was ruthless, malicious and misanthropic, Frederick succeeded to the Prussian to transform it: throne at the age of twenty-eight. His youth had been an eventful one. Persecuted by his father for an apparent lack of interest in things military, he His officers were considered as mere adventurers ... his soldiers as vile mercenaries; and the had sought to flee the court in 1730 in the company of two friends, name of 'Prussian' seldom occurred without some contumelious jest . . . The country itself Lieutenants Katte and Keith. Following his arrest, Frederick was forced to formed an undescribed species of hermaphrodite monarchy, which partook rather of the witness the execution of Katte and, during solitary confinement in the fortress meanness of an electorate than the dignity of a kingdom. of Küstrin (Kostrzyn) on the , to endure the prospect of his own execution. He languished at Kiistrin for about fifteen months, during which he What is more, though all precautions were taken, the outcome of the march studied military theory and the workings of the Prussian administration. By could not be foreseen with any certainty: 1733, he had regained his father's esteem. He was to become 'perhaps the ablest tactician of military history'. At noon on 14 December, Frederick reached Krossen [Krosno], the last town in On his accession in 1740, Frederick is said to have recognised that Prussia Brandenburg . . . The superstitious townspeople were in a state of some alarm, for the King's could not stand still, that she either had to advance to greatness or accept the advent coincided with the fall of the bell in the great church. But Frederick assured them that lot of a second-rank player. So, backed by sound finances and a well-trained the omen was auspicious, signifying the collapse of the House of Habsburg. army of some 100,000 men, he resolved to abandon his father's cautious On 16 December, Frederick and the leading troops marched through a woodland zone and policies. The opportunity for action was to present itself five months after his crossed the Silesian border . . . The King was met just inside Austrian territory by two black- accession. When the Russian Empress Anna Ivanovna, and the last of the male cloaked figures who stood at the roadside like crows. These were Protestant clergymen from Habsburg line, Emperor Charles VI, died almost simultaneously, Frederick Glogau [Glogow], come to beg Frederick to spare the heretical churches in case of sensed the vulnerable position of the young in and the bombardment. The King greeted them as the first of his Silesian subjects. confusion in St Petersburg. Despite the Pragmatic Sanction (see page 160), he Frederick spent that night in a baronial house in Schweinitz [now Swidnica near Zielona saw his chance to seize the richest of the Habsburg provinces: Silesia. Gora] and wrote to Berlin: '. . . I have crossed the Rubicon with flying colours and beating The Hohenzollerns had been eyeing the Silesian duchies for a long time. A drums. My troops are full of enthusiasm . . . and our generals are avid for glory.' treaty of 1537 had secured them the succession to the duchies of Liegnitz . . . Bad weather set in on 18 December. The baggage and dragged far behind,

and the soldiers marched in mud and water up to their knees, ruining their white gaiters. was the depth of winter. The cold was severe, and the roads heavy with mire. But the Glogau proved to be rather better defended than . . . expected, and . . . the Prussian invasion Prussians pressed on. Resistance was impossible. The Austrian army was then neither threatened to bog down . . . Frederick was all the more anxious to press on to numerous nor efficient. The small portion of that army which lay in Silesia was unprepared because he knew that the city authorities . . . were engaged in talks to admit an Austrian for hostilities. Glogau was blockaded; [Bresslau] opened its gates; Ohlau [Olawa] was garrison. He accordingly left Glogau under blockade . . . and on 28 December set off for evacuated. A few scattered garrisons still held out; but the whole open country was subjugated; [Bresslau] with the advance guard . . . no enemy ventured to encounter the King in the field.

As he proceeded through Silesia, Frederick bargained with Vienna on the For three days the Prussians camped on the Oder islands while royal and move. He offered to maintain the Pragmatic Sanction and to vote for Maria municipal officials negotiated. It was then agreed that no Prussian garrison Theresa's husband, Francis of Tuscany, as Emperor, if Vienna would meet his would be imposed, so long as neutrality was maintained and the Austrians were terms. He received the Habsburgs' refusal at the gates of Bresslau on New excluded. Frederick preceded his assent with the phrase 'in the present Year's Day 1741. On that freezing day: circumstances and for as long as they prevail' (they were to do so for seven months). It was also agreed, on that same morning of 3 January 1741, that Frederick and his grenadiers arrived outside the massive ramparts of [Bresslau]. The main Silesia's new ruler should perform a ceremonial entry: gates were shut against them, but the wickets were open, and a stream of tradesmen's lads made for the lines of brass-capped Prussians, bearing wine, bread, fish and meat, and Just before noon the royal train entered by way of the Schweidnitzer Tor. Frederick's table dragging casks of beer behind them on little sledges. silver was first through the gate. It was borne on pack-horses which were draped with hangings of blue silk, all adangle with gold tassels and little bells. Frederick himself was Inside the fortress, the tension was tangible. Already burdened with refugees, mounted on a mettlesome steed. His blue silken cloak was bedaubed with the falling the citizens had watched the Prussian advance with an unease that snowflakes, but he repeatedly uncovered his head to acknowledge the greetings of the crowd. foreshadowed unrest. Though not overtly pro-Prussian, the majority of them He descended at the house of Count Schlangenberg in the Albrechtstrasse, and twice appeared were not demonstrably pro-Austrian either. Discontent with Vienna, stemming on the balcony in response to the continuing applause." from economic and religious grievances, was common. On 10 December, when an order had arrived stating that imperial troops were to be sent, it was The royal party tarried for three days, during which time the good behaviour not welcomed. If the long-cherished privilege of self-defence, the Ius praesidii, of its troops did much to make the annexation more acceptable. A was about to be compromised, the population also feared for their other communique sent to the Minister of War, however, betrayed a less peaceful liberties, not least for their freedom of worship. So on 14 December, the tone. 'I have [Bresslau],' Frederick wrote, 'and tomorrow I shall advance against council's proposed acceptance of the order had sparked a large-scale revolt. the enemy further.' What he did was to blockade the Austrian fortresses of Some 600 men, led by a cobbler named Johann Doblin, had stormed the City Glogau and Brieg, attempt the bombardment of Neisse (Nysa), billet his troops Hall and symbolically manned the defences. Their action prevented the entry in winter quarters in the towns and villages of Silesia and then ride home. 'This of imperial troops. But their boldness collapsed as soon as the Prussian monarch surely has some great project in mind,' commented the Danish envoy vanguard appeared at the end of the month. Frederick IPs attack on Silesia to Berlin. 'He will not be content with conquering a province, but will strive to inspired one of those wonderful pieces of dramatic writing on which young become the arbiter of the German Empire.' historians were once invited to base their style: Early in 1741, desultory warfare prevailed in Silesia. Hungarian hussars in Austrian service, who specialised in raids and ambushes, took to kidnapping Yet the King of Prussia, the anti-Machiavel, had already fully determined to commit the Silesian nobles who had welcomed the Prussians. In March, an Austrian force great crime of violating his plighted faith, of robbing the ally whom he was bound to defend, under General Neipperg crossed the hills and overran the southern districts, and of plunging all Europe into a long, bloody and desolating war; and all this for no end linking up with the fortress at Brieg. This time it was Frederick who was taken whatever, except that he might extend his dominions and see his name in the gazettes. He by surprise. He hurriedly returned to Bresslau, gathered his scattered troops determined to assemble a great army with speed and secrecy, to invade Silesia before Maria together and marched out to do battle. The clash of arms took place on the Theresa should be apprised of his design, and to add that rich province to his kingdom ... It afternoon of 10 April 1741 on the snow-covered fields at Mollwitz (now

Malujowice) near Brieg. The two sides were evenly matched. The Austrians had In all probability, Frederick IPs intentions in all this were quite limited. Yet the advantage in , the Prussians in . Frederick ceded command he had provoked what has been called 'the first world war'. For the War of the to the veteran Field Marshal Schwerin, who had fought alongside Marlborough Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War - of which the two Silesian wars at Blenheim and alongside Charles XII at Bender. In the heat of intense would form only a part - were to have worldwide repercussions. Lord fighting, when defeat looked imminent, Schwerin ordered the King to leave. Macaulay could not find words strong enough to express his outrage: Snatching some state papers and mounting a powerful English grey, Frederick galloped far from the field, only to learn that the well-drilled Prussian infantry Had the Silesian question been merely a question between Frederick and Maria Theresa, had rallied and carried the day without him. It was a near squeak. The it would be impossible to acquit the Prussian King of gross perfidy. But when we consider the Austrians had come within an ace of forcing the Prussians to surrender and effects which his policy . . . could not fail to produce, we are compelled to pronounce a hand Silesia back. Frederick would never again leave a still-disputed battlefield. condemnation still more severe . . . The plunder of the great Austrian heritage was indeed a The consequences of Mollwitz were manifold. The horse that had saved strong temptation . . . But the selfish rapacity of the King of Prussia gave the signal to his Frederick's skin, der Mollwitzer Schimmel, was given honourable retirement in the neighbours. His example quieted their sense of shame . . . The whole world sprang to arms. Lustgarten at Potsdam, where it lived for another twenty years. At an On the head of Frederick is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many international level, France, Spain and Bavaria joined Prussia in an alliance years and in every quarter of the globe, the blood of the column of Fontenoy, the blood of the against Austria, thereby starting the War of the Austrian Succession. At a local mountaineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by his wickedness were level, Bresslau lost its autonomy. In the summer of 1741, political agitation by felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown. And, in order that he might rob a Prussian agents coupled with extraordinary taxation sowed confusion, and neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel Frederick finally elected to make a move. Prussian troops entered Bresslau at and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America. six o'clock on the morning of 10 August, accompanied (as stipulated in the neutrality agreement) by the city militia. However, they moved swiftly to secure One wonders how many people in Bresslau recognised the power of the the fortifications and the City Hall; and by midday both the militia and the City Shockwaves radiating from the political earthquake at whose epicentre they Council had sworn allegiance. Reportedly the only injury was a clipped ear stood. sustained by a recalcitrant guard on the Ohlauer Tor. The incident was For the next year, Silesia came to terms with its new status. Military reflected in a contemporary refrain recorded in the diary of one Johann operations moved into , where, in May 1742, two further defeats Steinberger: persuaded the Austrians to sue for peace. The Treaty of Bresslau, on 11 June 1742, promulgated from the balcony of the House of the Golden Sun on the Glogau bei Nacht, Main Square, brought the First Silesian War to a conclusion. Austria recognised Brieg mit Macht, Prussia's annexation of Silesia. Prussia undertook to uphold the rights of [Bresslau] mit Lachen, Silesian Catholics. Neisse mit Donnern und Krachen. Mindful of Maria Theresa's successes on other fronts, Frederick re-entered the fray. He started the with a re-invasion of Bohemia in (Glogau by night, August 1744 and the capture of . But an Austrian counter-manoeuvre Brieg by might, forced him to retreat to Silesia. The campaigning season of 1745 opened with Bresslau with laughter, Frederick staying at the Abbey at Kamenz (Kamieniec), seeking to tempt the Neisse with crashes and thunder.) Austrians and Saxons down from the hills. When they eventually descended on to the Silesian plain near Striegau (Strzegom), their commander, the Prince of After 480 years of semi-independence, the Silesian capital had now been Lorraine, was unaware how close the Prussians' main force lay. On 4 June at subordinated to a centralised state. There was still no single established way of Hohenfriedeberg (Dobromierz), therefore, Frederick was able to advance spelling its name. But the form 'Bresslau', which was recorded at this time, under cover of darkness. He took the enemy flank by surprise in the early marked an apt, midway stage between the 'Presslaw' of the past and the morning, picked off the Saxons and Austrians separately, then finished off all 'Breslau' of the future. resistance with a sensational charge by the Bayreuth Dragoons - one of the

most celebrated episodes of the Silesian wars. By 9 a.m. the battle was over. victory to the lesser battalions. As he advanced to the town of Neumarkt Austrian losses outnumbered those of the Prussians by three to one. Further (Sroda Slaska) on the Sunday afternoon, Frederick had learned from some Prussian victories at Soor and Kesselsdorf convinced Maria Theresa to sue peasants that the main body of Austrians was bivouacking nearby in the again for peace. The Treaty of , signed on Christmas Day 1745, undulating, snow-covered countryside. They were stationary, and therefore renewed Austrian recognition for Prussia's annexation of Silesia. Frederick, vulnerable. He rose before dawn on the 6th, climbed a small hill, the who in five years of intermittent warfare had earned the sobriquet 'the Great', Schonberg, whence he observed the Austrian camp on a plateau, and carefully remarked that he would not, in future, attack 'even a cat'. In reality, his laid his plan. It worked to perfection. The Prussians approached at right sergeants were brutally impressing Saxon prisoners into Prussian service. One angles. The Austrians steadied themselves for a frontal attack. But some way Saxon carabineer who escaped declared that he 'would more willingly serve the short of their apparent destination, the Prussian infantry turned sharp right King of for twenty years than the King of Prussia for one'. into a shallow defile, running for a few kilometres hidden from view and Prussia, materially exhausted, welcomed the interval of peace. Yet peace was parallel to the front. They then emerged, not against the well-prepared Austrian all too fleeting. The third round of the struggle for Silesia, the Seven Years centre, but against the bewildered and exposed left wing. From there, they War, broke out in 1756. Following the formation of a fresh anti-Prussian could roll up the flank while denying the enemy the advantage of their alliance comprising France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and , Frederick was numerical superiority. Resistance was fierce and numerous confused actions obliged to return to war. He began with a pre-emptive strike against Saxony ensued. The Austrians recovered and reformed their lines. Leuthen village was and an advance into Bohemia. But defeats at Kolin in June 1757 and at Moys not carried until the late afternoon. But the verdict was not in doubt. When in September brought operations back into Silesia. On 22 December the Frederick led the pursuit towards Lissa (Lesnica) in the dark, snow was falling armies met on the outskirts of Bresslau. Heavily outnumbered, the Prussians again on the 10,000 dead and on the lines of prisoners. He lodged in the Castle under the Duke of Braunschweig-Bevern lost a quarter of their number and of Lissa with the Baron von Mudrach, displacing bemused Austrian officers were driven off. The city's garrison surrendered two days later. with a polite lBon soir, Messieurs?. That night, as his army marched into the night, Frederick, however, was not prepared to concede defeat. Adding singing ' Nun danket alle Gott' he confided to his host, 'You know what Va Braunschweig's survivors to the small detachment that had marched with him banque is ? That's what I played today.' from Berlin, he created a combined force of some 33,000. At Parchwitz (now In Bresslau, meanwhile, the Austrian garrison was not in surrendering mood. Prochowice near Legnica) he addressed them, unusually, in German and The Commandant, von Bernegg, erected a gallows on the Main Square to deal appealed to their patriotism: with defeatists. Yet five days of bombardment finally persuaded him to surrender; 17,000 Austrians, including seventeen generals, joined the 13,000 The enemy hold the same entrenched camp of [Bresslau] which my troops defended so captives from Leuthen. Frederick was present on 21 December to watch them honourably. I am marching to attack this position ... I fully realise the dangers . . . but in my streaming through the Schweidnitzer Tor 'in a seemingly endless column'. He present situation, I must conquer or die. If we go under, all is lost. Bear in mind, gentlemen, was escorted by a small party of officers, an easy target for any Austrian sniper that we shall be fighting for our glory, for the preservation of our homes, for our wives and who might have thought of shooting him. 'God be thanked,' he remarked, 'I children. Those who think as I do can rest assured, if they are killed, that I will look after have removed this terrible thorn from my foot.' their families. If anybody prefers to take his leave, he can have it now, but he will cease to Despite the success at Leuthen, Frederick's grip on Silesia was far from have any claim on my benevolence . . . secured, and 1759 was to be his blackest year. His army had already lost 100,000 men and could not replenish its reserves. In August at Kunersdorf He then moved off to face an Austrian army of 82,000 — more than twice (now Kunowice, near -an-der-Oder) it suffered its greatest ever his strength. He found it near the village of Leuthen (now Lutynia), drawn up defeat, losing a further 19,000 men and 172 guns. on a wide front, some sixteen kilometres west of Bresslau. In the summer of 1760, therefore, the Austrians and Russians closed on The (5 December 1757) finds a place in all the military Bresslau yet again. On 30 July some 50,000 Austrian troops appeared under textbooks. Apart from deciding Bresslau's fate for the next two centuries, it Gideon von Loudon, a general who had once been rejected by the Prussians. was Frederick's 'most celebrated day'. was to call it a 'masterpiece of Frustrated by a flooded moat, he threatened that neither children nor pregnant manoeuvre', which showed how speed, surprise and strategic skill could give women would be spared. His opponent, General Friedrich von Tauentzien,

replied furiously from behind decrepit fortifications, and with a mere 5,000 Frederick IPs Bresslau winters were times for reflection, correspondence defenders, that 'I and my soldiers are not pregnant!'. While directing operations and, sometimes, despair. In 1757-8, he wrote to Maria Theresa stating that, had beside the bastion to the south of the Schweidnitzer Tor, he narrowly escaped they been allies, they could have made all of Europe shudder. In 1758-9, he an Austrian cannonball. He silently covered it with his hat and expressed the complained to his friend, the Marquis d'Argens: desire to be buried where it had come to rest. His spirited resistance was to be rewarded. On 4 August a Prussian relief force arrived, setting the scene for the I am sick of this life ... I have lost everything in this world that was most dear to me. [He conclusive confrontation of the Silesian campaigns. instructed the Marquis to] eat oysters and crayfish in Hamburg; empty the chemists' pillboxes The battle of Liegnitz (15 August 1760) reran some of the remarkable . . . and enjoy the delights of the spirits in paradise . . . [but] do not forget a poor, cursed man features of Leuthen. An army with a numerical superiority of three to one was condemned to make war for all eternity. repulsed with heavy loss, thanks to the speed and skill of Prussian manoeuvring. On this occasion, Frederick had been marching along the In 1761-2, installed in the Spaetgen Palace with no prospect of a solution Katzbach in order to join up with his beleaguered forces in central Silesia. The and no firewood, he contemplated suicide. That winter he wrote again to the clash took place in the early hours by the village of Panten to the north-east of Marquis d'Argens: Liegnitz. The Austrian Field Marshal Daun had set troops in motion during the night, only to find that Frederick had vacated the camp that was due to be I seek escape from all this by looking at the world as if from a distant planet; then attacked and had taken up position on the commanding plateau that Daun everything appears to me very small and I feel sorry for my enemies who take so much trouble himself had aimed to occupy. After that, the Prussians were able to deal a fatal for so little. blow at Loudon's corps without ever facing Daun's main body. The engagement was over so quickly that a Turkish spy in the Austrian camp, It was at Bresslau that he learned of the 'Miracle of Brandenburg'. During working in the guise of a Greek baker, did such a brisk trade in baklava among the remaining decades of Frederick's reign, Silesia experienced renewed the troops that he missed the battle and was unable to make his report. In due economic growth, repopulation and a state-sponsored policy of course, Schweidnitz (Swidnica) was relieved. Bresslau never had to withstand a industrialisation and reconstruction. The Prussian statesman Karl Svarez (1746- direct Austrian challenge again. 98) was associated with many of these developments. He was born in The general settlement, however, was slow in coming. With the fall of Berlin Schweidnitz and had studied law in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder before practising in October 1760 and the subsequent union of Austrian and Russian forces in briefly in Bresslau. Appointed to the City Council in 1771, he masterminded early 1761, Prussia was outnumbered by three to one. Frederick was cut off at the reform of the Silesian credit and education systems, before being called to his fortified camp of Bunzelwitz (now Boleslawice) north of Schweidnitz. Berlin in 1780. His main works, the Allgemeines Landrecht and the Allgemeine Fortune appeared at last to have deserted him. Only the death of the Russian Gerichtsordnung fur die preufiischen Staaten, completed a thorough reorganisation of Empress Elizabeth in January 1762, which was to break the allied coalition, the antiquated Prussian legal system. Many of the effects of war had already saved Prussia from destruction - the so-called 'Miracle of Brandenburg'. been alleviated by the 1780s. Silesia became progressively more integrated into Europe was tired of war. At the Treaty of Hubertusberg in February 1763, the Prussian state. Observing this 'Prussification', the Bresslau philosopher Austria agreed to return to the status quo ante. Prussia's possession of Silesia was Christian Garve noted at the end of the eighteenth century that the finally confirmed. were hardly discernible from the other 'nations' of Prussia. Frederick had, in fact, condemned Silesia to a generation of war. Prussia had During the reign of , the increased had to defend itself from the repeated attacks of its indignant neighbours for in size from 119,000 to 195,000 square kilometres. Excluding its Rhenish and nearly a quarter of a century, and the contiguous territories of Silesia, Saxony Westphalian possessions, it formed a territorial complex that stretched from and Bohemia were fought over time and again. Between 1740 and 1763 there Magdeburg to Memel and from Stettin to Beuthen (Bytorn). Its population had were only seven years of peace. Frederick regularly set up his winter grown from 2.2 to 5.8 million. It had benefited from the collapse of Swedish headquarters in Bresslau, and four of the set-piece battles that were the power in the Baltic and from the weakness of Poland, which Frederick had hallmark of the period - at Mollwitz (1741), Hohenfriedeberg (1745), Leuthen done much to provoke. By the time of his death in 1786, Europe again stood (1757) and Liegnitz (1760) - were fought in the vicinity. on the brink of major upheavals, but Prussia's place in the constellation of

European powers was secure. these positions, the fortress was to be bombed into submission: Unfortunately for Prussia, his successor, Frederick William (Friedrich- Wilhelm) II, (r. 1786-97) was not of the same mould. Easy-going and Many good [Bresslauers] sought refuge underground. People began to creep into the cellars . intelligent, yet a 'frank polygamist' and inclined to mysticism, he did not . . We moved into a small flat in the Hatzfeld Palace, the seat of the government . . . since possess the qualities to guide Prussia unscathed through the Age of Revolution. our Minister-Viceroy had thought it sensible to remove himself . . . The bombs buzzed and His reign was notable for the influence of one Johann Christof Wollner, a hummed above us; there was a ceaseless racket of crashing, exploding and cracking. I got used Rosicrucian who pushed policy in the direction of religious bigotry. Despite to it very quickly, the others too, I think. The cannonades on both sides were sometimes so well-meant reforms, the economy went into decline. More seriously, Frederick heavy, that I imagined I was going deaf, as the walls and the floor groaned in protest. . . William had little taste for military affairs, and his establishment of a supreme college of war (Oberkriegs-Collegium) did nothing to improve Prussia's readiness for it. Though he presided over phenomenal territorial expansion during the Second and Third Partitions of Poland (1793-5), the acquisitions markedly increased the numbers of Catholics and non-Germans in the kingdom, thereby promising instability. The annexation of Warsaw in 1795 brought Europe's largest Jewish community under Prussian control. King Frederick William II´s connection with Bresslau might be seen as symbolic of his shortcomings. Of only two statues of him erected in Prussia, one - in the style of Trajan's Column in Rome - was raised on the occasion of the King's visit to Bresslau in 1786, in the newly established Scheitnig Park. But it was too high for most people to recognise the personage at the top. It was known as 'Old Mr Scheitnig'. Even-tempered and free from the vices of his father, Frederick William III (r. 1797-1840) had the makings of a model king. He began well, cutting expenses, dismissing ministers and rectifying the most oppressive abuses. Yet he was drawn out of his depth by his dealings with revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Neither his diplomacy nor his generals were effective. After the defeats at Jena and Auerstadt and the punitive Peace of Tilsit (1807), Prussia lost its earlier territorial gains. French exactions strained the economy to the limit.

French troops first appeared before Bresslau in November 1806. Their task was formidable:

Always one of the most significant fortresses of the land, [Bresslau] had gained in strength through the efforts of Frederick II. Her streets and markets hid themselves behind three strong walls, of which the main wall . . . inspired respect even from afar. Her broad and deep moats were filled by the Ohlau and the Oder. There was no hill which could dominate her; only the extended suburbs could offer the besiegers any sort of advantage.

The began on 6 December with the destruction of the Oder bridges and the Nikolai suburb. Four days later the Ohlau suburb was razed. From

Negotiations were started when a Prussian relief force failed to break will be if we do not end this struggle honourably ... It is the last decisive struggle, which we are through. Surrender came on 5 January 1807. The siege had taken more than waging for our existence, our independence and our prosperity. There is no solution, other 160 lives and had destroyed some 150 buildings in the Old Town. The suburbs than an honourable peace or a glorious defeat. had been almost completely reduced to rubble. The French garrison, headed by Apart from Steffens, the resultant rush of volunteers to Lützow's Freikorps Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother and King of Westphalia, included the ardent nationalist Ernst Moritz Arndt, the poets Joseph von remained for almost a year. During this time the fortifications were dismantled Eichendorff and Karl Theodor Korner and the 'father of gymnastics', Friedrich to be replaced by boulevards, and the Tauentzienplatz was built. Jahn. Ferdinande von Schmettau typified the spirit of sacrifice felt by those The dark years of Prussia's humiliation saw the launch of a reform who could not fight. She sold her hair for the cause, gaining two thalers, which programme in Berlin. Led by Stein, Hardenberg, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, she donated to the war effort. When held up as a symbol of patriotism by the the administrative and military machinery of the Prussian state was restored. authorities, she fashioned her hair into trinkets, thereby raising an additional After Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812, it gave Prussia the means to 196 thalers. Facing such determined opposition, Napoleon withdrew to the assume leadership of Germany's War of Liberation. , leaving isolated rearguard units at Danzig (Gdansk), Thorn (Torun), On 3 February 1813, King Frederick William III was advised to leave Berlin Stettin (Szczecin), Kustrin and Frankfurt an der Oder. for Bresslau to avoid seizure by French troops. Once there, he came under the The campaign of 1813 inevitably affected Silesia. Napoleon had been influence of the 'war party' and reluctantly placed himself at the head of the defeated in Russia and was withdrawing from Poland. But he still had large developing public mood for action. His timidity was summed up by a popular contingents at his disposal, and at every point of contact he proved himself saying. The official line ran: 'The King called and everyone came.' This was tactically superior. The unpredictable movements of his forces, and those of turned around to: 'Everyone called and the King finally came too.' Professor his pursuers, threw all the eastern parts of Germany into turmoil. In May, for Henrik Steffens of the University of Bresslau was one of those at the forefront example, having drawn the Russians and Prussians deep into Saxony, of demands for war. His speech on 10 February gained many adherents. He Napoleon twice turned on them and pushed them back into Silesia. On 21 later summed up the local mood: May, he outflanked the Russo-Prussian camp at Bautzen, killed 18,000 in a fierce engagement and drove them in disorderly retreat over the River Neisse. How often did you complain that you had rushed off to this far corner of Germany . . . In the course of the follow-up, he lost his closest comrade, Michel Duroc, who and now it has become the moving, inspiring centrepoint of everything. A new epoch of history had been with him since the siege of Toulon twenty years before: is starting here, and you can express what is stirring the surging masses.... I was seized by the thought - it is up to you to declare war, your position allows it, regardless of what the Court The cavalry general, Bruyere, a fine officer, had both legs carried away and died of the decides. dreadful injury; but the saddest event of the day was the result of a cannonball which, after killing General Kirgener, mortally wounded Marshal Duroc, Napoleon's oldest and best The King responded by introducing conscription, forming Jagerabteilungen or friend . . . The Emperor who was at his side showed signs of the greatest grief [and] parted 'troops of chasseurs'. He also allowed his commanders, Liitzow, Sarnowski and from him in tears having given him a rendez-vous 'in a better world'. Petersdorf, to form irregular Freikorps, which were to attract non-Prussian Germans into units designed to form the nucleus of a new German army. Soon the French were back at the gates of Bresslau. A skirmish occurred on Discussions with the Russians dragged on for weeks, and only on 10 March did 31 May and the Prussian garrison was panicked into withdrawal. Thereupon a Frederick William finally burn his bridges. Then, from his residence in deputation, headed by the Mayor, August von Kospoth, met Napoleon at Bresslau, he promulgated the decree An mein Kriegsheer ('To my army'), urging it Neukirch (now Nowy Kosciol) near Goldberg (Zlotoryja) to beg for mercy. to fight for the independence of the Fatherland. He also founded the Order of The Emperor replied: the Iron Cross, to honour service in the forthcoming war. On 17 March, he made the proclamation An mein Volk ('To my people'), calling for the It would break my heart if I were not in a position to grant that request. War is a terrible overthrow of the Napoleonic yoke: evil and brings suffering and misery with it. I will endeavour to keep it to a minimum, especially in such a beautiful land as Silesia. You know what you have endured for almost seven years; you know what your sorry fate

Despite Napoleon's reassurances, Bresslau lived through some anxious days right, he had little grasp of political realities. As a result, the 'United Diet' that in June 1813 when the French, the Russian and the Prussian armies were all in opened in Berlin in 1847 was no more than the congregation of the the neighbourhood and a major battle between them seemed likely. Napoleon, unrepresentative provincial Diets that had been initiated by his father. By that with 40,000 men, had set up camp at Neumarkt, and the Russians were drawn time, liberal frustrations were combining with acute economic and social up in massed ranks only a kilometre to the east of the city. The French, whose grievances to create revolutionary tensions. troops were bivouacked on the streets, observed good discipline and prevented The 'Prussian Revolution' of 1848 was foreshadowed by persistent unrest. In looting except in the outer suburbs. They did not exact any financial 1843, the radical journalist Wilhelm Wolff (1809-64) had published a disturbing contributions, but they did make a compulsory purchase of rice for the sum of article in the Breslauer Zeitung detailing the miserable conditions endured by the 10,000 thalers. They built palisades in front of the east-facing gates and armed city's prisoners. The next year, a revolt of Silesian weavers found a powerful them with cannon, because Cossack patrols had been raiding right up to the echo, especially when Prussian troops en route to suppress the rising, were walls: attacked in Bresslau by an angry mob. The events of 1848-9 were triggered in Prussia by news of the February The most terrible night was the one when people living in the suburbs were ordered by the Revolution in Paris. Bresslau, in fact, responded before Berlin did. On 17 French to gather up their belongings and take them into the city. It was said that the suburbs March, a 'sanguinary collision' was reported by the Silesian Gazette and troops were about to be torched and that a great battle was being prepared. A truce put an end to all were temporarily withdrawn. The inhabitants were fully armed, and neither those [false rumours] . . . police nor soldiers were on the scene. Later that month, when the rebels were attacked with customary brutality, they fought back. Repeated confrontations The French were not seen again in Bresslau except as prisoners of war. resulted in the resignation both of the Chief of Police, Heinke, and of the The year of 1813 brought Bresslau enormous prestige. Not only had the city Governor, von Wedell. By the autumn the Citizens' Militia had occupied all the served as the launchpad of the War of Liberation, but it had given birth both municipal offices and was blocking tax payments to Berlin. The clampdown to the Iron Cross, the most famous German military decoration, and to finally came in the spring of 1849. On 7 March, the dispersal of a popular Germany's national colours, of black, red and gold, which were first used by meeting sparked widespread unrest. A body of rioters descended on the City the Lützow Freikorps. As Steffens had claimed, Bresslau really did become the Hall and erected barricades; they were met with bayonet charges and musket 'inspiring centrepoint of everything'. volleys. That evening, the military commander declared a curfew and a state of Frederick William III´s reign lasted for another generation. But it was spent siege. In the aftermath, nineteen lay dead and sixty-five injured. An outbreak of following the reactionary political lead set by the Austrian Chancellor, cholera claimed the lives of a further 3,000. Metternich, who demanded that the popular forces unleashed by the War of No event during 1848-9 was more pregnant for the future than the German Liberation were to be suppressed - if necessary by force. So the Prussian King Par lament which convened at Frankfurt am Main. Intended as the constituent reneged on the promise of a constitution and called instead for the formation assembly of a unified German state, it did not realise its main aims. But in of Landtage, or 'provincial Diets'. Contrary to the original intention, these twelve months of passionate debate it aired many of the issues that were to assemblies were overwhelmingly dominated by the landowners. They met in come to the fore in the following decades. Silesia sent a total of fifty-five private and acted in a purely advisory capacity. As one German official parliamentarians to Frankfurt, among them four representing Bresslau - Bruno admitted, their establishment was 'the safest way to bring calm and happiness Abegg, Eduard von Reichenbach, Wilhelm Wolff and, as the leader of the to [the King's] subjects'. National-liberal hopes had been dashed. The first Bresslau Security Committee, Heinrich Simon (1805-60). The Bresslau Silesian Diet met in Bresslau in 1823. historian, Gustav Stenzel (1792-1854), also attended as a member of the Frederick William IV (r. 1840-58) did not live up to the popular hopes Catholic Party, as did the Prince-Bishop of Bresslau, Melchior von invested in him. He relaxed press censorship, reversed his father's ecclesiastical Diepenbrock, as a representative for Oppeln (Opole). The Bishop did not find policy and stopped the campaign of Germanisation in Prussia's eastern the discussions in Frankfurt to his taste and promptly returned home. But the provinces. Yet he refused to promulgate the long-postponed constitution, others, especially Wolff, Simon and Stenzel were extremely active. Unlike the justifying his decision with the words 'no piece of paper should come between representatives from the neighbouring duchy of Posen, the Germanity of me and my people'. A romantic idealist and a believer in the principle of divine whose constituents was called into question, the Bresslauers were less

concerned with the national issue than with constitutional and social matters. weakened by their simultaneous operations against Italy, were forced to On one side stood Stenzel. He joined his fellow historian, Richard Roepell abandon all thoughts of invading Silesia. Nonetheless, the Crown Prince's (1808-93), in demanding a constitutional monarchy and - as a supporter of the Second Army made slow progress crossing the mountains into Bohemia; and it Kleindeutsch concept, which excluded Austria - opposed Polish sovereignty on arrived very late in the day, like Blucher at Waterloo, to deliver the decisive the grounds that it would somehow increase Russian influence. On the other blow in the driving rain at the battle of Sadowa (3 June 1866). At the end of side stood Simon and Wolff. Simon demanded the abolition of the nobility, the campaign, both the King and the Crown Prince stood together in Bresslau and also wished to see the restoration of an independent Poland. Once the to take the salute at a march-past of the Silesian Corps, and to thank the Parlament was dissolved, he became one of the five 'Reich-Regents'. Soon citizens for their steadfast loyalty to the Prussian cause. afterwards, he was condemned in absentia by the Prussian courts and departed Less than five years later, the novelist and playwright Gustav Freytag for a lifetime's exile in Switzerland. Wolff was a radical schoolmaster and accompanied the Crown Prince during the Franco-Prussian War. He noted journalist, who shared Simon's democratic views and joined him in calling for a with gloomy foreboding the growing passion of the Hohenzollerns for the idea German republic. He followed Marx and Engels into exile in England, where of Empire and the trappings of power. The German Empire, he thought, he died in 1864. Engels later wrote of Wolff: 'With him, Marx and I lost our would corrupt Prussia: most faithful colleague and the German revolution a man of irreplaceable worth.' Marx dedicated the first volume of Das Kapital to Wolff, as 'an A certain Spartan simplicity and rigour has maintained discipline in the civil service, the unforgettable friend' and the 'intrepid, faithful and noble champion of the army and the people. The new Imperial dignity will change that . . . The splendour ... the Proletariat'. pomp ... the costumes and decorations . . . will claim greater and greater importance . . . The years after 1848 were something of an anticlimax. Frederick William IV Courtliness and servility will creep in. presided over a phase of economic recovery and the beginnings of German economic union. But internationally he tamely submitted to Austrian plans at These things, Freytag believed, had no place in 'old Prussia', and their the Punctuation of Olmutz in 1850, thereby abandoning Prussia's distinctive influence would destroy her. At the end of that campaign, after the defeat of vision of Germany's future. Having once paraded through Berlin wrapped in France, Freytag was a witness in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles as the King the revolutionary tricolour, he now sided decisively with the forces of and the Crown Prince stood together once again, this time presiding over the conservatism and reaction. Moreover, he soon proved to be inconsistent and declaration of the German Empire. unbalanced to the point of insanity. He took no further interest in wider German politics. His brother Wilhelm, who was Regent from 1858, succeeded to the throne three years later. Under William (Wilhelm) I (r. 1861-88) and his 'Iron Chancellor' Otto von Bismarck, Prussia seized the initiative and led Germany to unification. Three wars were fought, against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870-1), which swiftly secured Prussia's uncontestable supremacy among the German states. Bresslau inevitably took a front-row seat in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. When the conflict loomed in May, the recovery of Bresslau was known to be a 'primary war-aim' of the Emperor Franz-Joseph. For its part, the City Council sent a loyal address to Berlin, expressing in the most fervent terms their willingness to fight for Prussia. In his response, King William noted with satisfaction that 'the spirit of 1813' was still alive and promised full support. As a result, the strongest of the three Prussian armies facing Austria was sent to central Silesia. Crown Prince Frederick set up his headquarters in Bresslau on 28 May. During the fighting, which took place in the summer, the Austrians,