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Friedrichs Größe: Inszenierungen des Preußenkönig in Fest und Zeremoniell 1740-1815

This work involved the collection and analysis of a considerable body of archival material and printed primary sources in four languages, the engagement with a 200-year-long historiographical tradition, and the generation of a particularly extensive thesis about the scope and character of Prussia’s international standing, domestic conflicts, and collective identity during and after the reign of Frederick “the Great”. The research and writing time was considerably longer than normally required to produce two items.

The book analyses how Frederick II of Prussia’s “greatness” was constructed and staged in ceremonial and patriotic festive culture by numerous groups and individuals (including Frederick himself). After his death in 1786, the king remained at the centre of debates about Prussia’s identity until Napoleon appropriated the figure of Frederick for his own propaganda after 1806. The book links research into early modern courts and ceremonial with the study of nationalism and cultural transfer, and is aimed at reassessing the cultural history of politics at the threshold of modern Germany.