Museumsportal Berlin

Frederick the Great – Friedrich II – (1712-1786) is one of the most distinctive figures in German history and remembrance culture. It is above all the image of “Old Fritz” that has marked the German collective memory up until the present day. In the year 2012 the German Historical Museum is taking the 300^th anniversary of the birth of the Prussian King as the occasion for an exhibition that examines his legacy in art, politics and historiography.

In the more than 200 years since the death of Friedrich II, his life has been subject not only to very different evaluations on the part of historians, but has been repeatedly used as a point of reference for political interests. In the Vormärz period leading up to the Revolution of 1848, liberals saw in him the enlightened ruler, while for conservatives he embodied Prussian virtues. In the German Empire he rose to the role of German national idol, under the Weimar Republic he was considered the representative of old values and strict order, and World War II propaganda stylized him as the unfaltering victor on the battlefield. After 1945 the Prussian King was at first reviled in the Federal Republic and the GDR as a warmonger, while public interest later began focusing on his intellectual and artistic qualities.

The German Historical Museum is presenting these chapters in the legacy of Frederick the Great on a surface area of some 1000 square meters. Around 600 objects in thirteen thematically arranged rooms will illustrate the various facets of the way Germany has dealt with Young and Old Fritz over the years. The Museum’s collections hold a vast treasure of objects on the history of the reception of Friedrich II, many of which will be displayed for the first time on this occasion. They will be supplemented by loans from home and abroad. This anniversary show on Friedrich’s 300^th birthday will not be retelling his legends, but rather shedding light on their genesis and on the various ways history and politics have staged the Prussian King.