Absolutist Government in the Eighteenth Century: The Case of Prussia

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1 Nipissing University Histry Early Mdern Eurpe Abslutist Gvernment in the Eighteenth Century: The Case f Prussia Steve Muhlberger The pace-setting gvernment f the 17th century was the French gvernment f Luis XIV. But especially after 1748, when France was frced int a humiliating peace treaty with Britain, a wave f criticism against the abslutist state began t build. The Enlightenment was merely the mst literate and prgressive sectr f that criticism. This crisis f cnfidence in France did nt discredit abslutism.. The bvius cure fr present trubles was a new, better abslutism. The majrity f scial critics lked t ther abslutist cuntries fr their mdels f refrm. Prussia was the fremst f these. This lecture is an investigatin f Prussia, the ideals n which it was built, the methds f its gvernment, and its accmplishments. Let's begin by specifying what Prussia was: a grup f widely separated districts spread acrss nrthern Germany and Pland. There were three main parts. Electrate f Brandenburg centered in Berlin. Its ruler enjyed the rank f electr, which meant he was ne f seven German princes wh elected the Hly Rman Emperr. Cleves, Mark, and Ravensberg in nrthwestern Germany, East Prussia, frmerly the prperty f the Teutnic Knights; in 1701,the Electr f Brandenburg declare himself King f Prussia. Prussia was a cnglmeratin. Its unity whlly depended n the ruling princes and whatever institutins they culd create and maintain. Like many ther German states f the late 17th and 18th centuries, Prussia had been damaged by dmestic and freign armies. Deppulatin was the majr prblem. The ttal wealth f sciety and its prductive capacity had drpped drastically. Every prince had t be very cncerned with creating wealth, and needed an up-t-date, welldisciplined, well-supplied army.

2 One f best surces fr gals and attitudes f German gvernments are the plice rdinance recently investigated by Marc Raeff. Pineered by Charles V in the 16th c. Ordinances attempted t ensure that princely dmains wuld enjy gd rder in the bradest sense Up t 1650 and beynd, the plice rdinances f Germany in general reflected the harsh, mralistic attitudes f rulers in a perid f religius cnflict and mral refrm impsed frm abve. Early plice cdes were largely negative, frbidding actins in the hpe f restring a divinely rdained past rder. After the Thirty Years' War, hwever, the emphasis f rdinances began t shift twards making peple mre prductive and disciplined. Fr instance sumptuary laws were passed t frbid unseemly luxury amng the lwer classes. Sumptuary laws, as the name implies, seek t cntrl cnsumptin, and usually d s n the basis f rank. In ther wrds, such laws permit mre stentatin and luxury amng lrds than amng peasants. German sumptuary laws were part f an effrt t discipline scial life in a prductive directin. Nt nly was extravagance (in weddings, etc.) frbidden, but traditinal hlidays were banned. One f the chief prblems was a lack f peasant labr. Thus harsh punishments that destryed the wrk frce went ut f favr. It was beggars and gypsies wh threatened scial rder, nt witches. Cercin was used t turn all inhabitants int settled subjects, r t get rid f thse wh wuld nt. Paternalism. Laws prclaimed that an unstructured and disrderly life culd nt be tlerated, while thse wh did nt wrk were mrally evil. (Gypsies). Settled, hardwrking subjects, n the ther hand, were cared fr as never befre. The basic attitude was summed up by Frederick II: "Useful hardwrking peple shuld be guarded as the apple f ne's eye, and in wartime recruits shuld be levied in ne's wn cuntry nly when the bitterest necessity cmpels." Nt nly were the prductive t be sheltered frm the hrrrs f war, they were t be prtected as much as pssible frm the abuses f lrdly r state pwer. The prtectin f Prussian peasants frm injustice was an imprtant matter f plicy. Ecnmic cncerns far mre central in German abslutism than in French because f the greater pverty f German sciety. Prussia did the best jb in all f Eurpe t implement central ecnmic planning.

3 Why? 1. Prussian rulers, and nt just their ministers, tk prductin f wealth seriusly. 2. Prussian mnarchs had a mre fluid sciety t deal with, and thus culd rearrange it mre easily than, fr instance, Luis XIV. 3. Prussia had tw capable rulers in a rw. Frederick William I ( ) and Frederick II the Great ( ). Cmpare the gdlike image Luis XIV had t the pressing need FW I had t pay attentin t mundane reality. Prtestant Prussian culture may have helped discurage excessive ryal psturing. But pressing prblems kept FW I fcused n the bttm line. FW I had a Spartan curt. Prussia may have been pr, but the mnarchs had a great deal f cntrl ver peasants and nbility alike. Prussia had been devastated and impverished, and much f the land was abandned. Frederick William able t lay claim t 30% f land in the kingdm, thanks t his strng army, and thus cutting dwn the independence f the nbility and gaining fr himself an independent pwer base and incme. This wealth used t implement an impressive bureaucratic gvernment. Cmpare t France, where ffices had been sld fr generatin.. In Prussia, ffices had seldm been sld, and were nt sld at all after Frederick William I and Frederick II were able t d this because they were slvent and s pwerful that they culd keep discipline amng nbles and fficers alike. The greatest accmplishment f these wealthy, puritanical kings was perhaps the new ruling class that they created. Bth Frederick William and his mre cultured sn thught f themselves as prtectrs and patrns f the ld landed nbility, the Junkers, whm they depended upn t cmmand the army n which their pwer was ultimately based.. But at the same time they knew that they needed educated men t plan and versee the technical aspects f gvernment., including industrial and trade plicy and mst f all the supplying and feeding f their huge army. Prussia, as usual, was mst successful in creating such a class, drawn frm bth nbility and middle class. These Prussian bureaucrats were bth: mre businesslike than any merchants f the 18th century, in ur mdern sense f managing huge enterprises systematically, (there were n huge private crpratins back then) and the riginal scialist techncrats.

4 Successful in building nt just an army, but a cre f skilled industrial wrkers, and became the furth manufacturing cuntry in 18th c. Eurpe, despite its small size. Limitatins n success f the Prussian abslutist system: 1. Prussia, thugh ecnmically prgressive, was entirely authritarian in its attitudes. In particular, the welfare that the Prussian welfare state sught t create was the welfare f the state. The individual meant nthing, except in s far as his r her existence benefited the crprate bdy and the interests f the ruler. Examples: Peasants as class prtected, but any peasant family culd be exprpriated if replaced by anther ne. Nbles, t, were regulated very strictly in their private lives. Fr instance they were nt even allwed t leave the cuntry withut permissin, which was almst never granted. 2. The success f the system is cnsistently exaggerated by the neglect f significant factrs. Fr instance, the rle f plunder: success largely financed by cnfiscatins f FW I (used t build an army), the use f that army (by F II) t cnquer Silesia (increase in size f state by 25%). Even this plunder did nt guarantee success. Frederick II's savings (fur years' state revenue) ran ut lng befre the end f the Seven Years' War. War had t be financed by savage taxatin f cnquered Saxny, and later partitin f Pland. Much f Prussian ecnmy was theft n a grand scale. Often verlked in discussin f Prussian "welfare state.": 1/9 f Prussian ppulatin died in Seven Years' War. Fighting such wars nt an unfrtunate necessity fr Frederick: the whle pint f being king. The Prussian system was nt immune frm the nrmal prblems f a mnarchical, centralized regime. The chief danger, and an almst inevitable ne, is that the rulers will get cmfrtable and spend their lt in ttally unprductive ways, n patrnage and palaces, rather than n prductin r even armies. Frederick William II, Frederick the Great's sn, spent his father's savings f 52 millin thalers and ran up a debt f 40 millin thalers. Frtunately he died befre he culd cmpletely wreck the state. New refrms (after humiliating defeats by Naplen) gave Prussia a new lease n life. The nineteenth century success f Prussia is partly due t the fact that in this crisis, the abslutist gvernment tk the daring step f eliminating mercantilist restrictins n trade, dysfunctinal privileges, and indeed mst features f the sciety f rders.

5 BIBLIOGRAPHY M.S. Andersn, War and Sciety in Eurpe f the Old Regime, (Leicester, 1988). C.B.A. Behrens, Sciety, Gvernment and the Enlightenment: The Experiences f Eighteenth-century France and Prussia (Lndn, 1985). William W. Hagen, "Seventeenth Century Crisis in Brandenburg: The Thirty Years' War, the Destabilizatin f Serfdm, and the Rle f Abslutism," AHR 94(1989): Rbert Muchembled, Ppular Culture and Elite Culture in France (Batn Ruge, 1985). Marc Raeff, The Well-Ordered Plice State: Scial and Institutinal Change thrugh law in the Germanies and Russia, (New Haven, 1983). Respnd t Steve Muhlberger Early Mdern Histry Curse Hme Page. Originally psted February 16, Yu are visitr # since February 25, Cpyright (C) 1998, Steven Muhlberger. This file may be cpied n the cnditin that the entire cntents, including the header and this cpyright ntice, remain intact.