Frederick III, German Emperor
Frederick III (Frederick William Nicholas Charles) (
October 18,
1831 –
June 15,
1888), (
German:
Friedrich III., Deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen) was
German Emperor and
King of Prussia, ruling for 99 days until his death in
1888.
He was born the son of
Prince William of Prussia and Princess
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar. His father was a younger brother of King
Frederick William IV of Prussia.
In
1858 Frederick married
Princess Victoria (Vicky) of Great Britain and Ireland, the eldest daughter of
Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple had eight children during their marriage:
Wilhelm in 1859, Charlotte in 1860, Henry in 1862, Sigismund in 1864, Victoria in 1866, Waldemar in 1868, Sophie in 1870 and Margarete in 1872. The rigorously educated Vicky, also known as the
Princess Royal, influenced her husband towards her own liberal views.
In 1861, Frederick's father became King
William I of Prussia, and Frederick himself became
Crown Prince. As such, he formed a partnership with General Leonhard
von Blumenthal, his Chief of Staff, through whom he was able to command victorious armies in the
Austro-Prussian War of
1866 (where his timely arrival was crucial to the Prussian victory at
Sadowa) and in the
Franco-Prussian War of
1870.
When the German states united as a single
German Empire in
1871, Frederick became heir to the new
German monarchy with his father as Emperor. Never liked by the powerful German Chancellor
Bismarck, who distrusted his wife's
liberalism, Frederick was always kept out of any real position of power throughout his father's life.
| Germanykstyles>royal name=German Emperor Frederick III, King of Prussia|dipstyle=His Imperial and Royal Majesty|offstyle=Your Imperial and Royal Majesty|altstyle=Sire|}} |
By the time his father died in
1888, the heavy
smoker Frederick had developed incurable
cancer of the
larynx, which was misdiagnosed on
12 November 1887 by the English doctor
Morell Mackenzie (later knighted by
Queen Victoria). Due to a rivalry between German doctors of the local
Charité and the British doctors favoured by his wife, the misdiagnosis was sustained and surgery that might have cured the cancer was cancelled. When the error was caught, it was too late to operate. Later swelling by the tumor caused the prince to begin to suffocate, and so on
9 February 1888, a
tracheotomy was performed [
1] and a silver tube was put into the prince's wind pipe. Frederick was unable to speak for the remainder of his life, and communicated through writing. His attitude is described by
"Lerne leiden, ohne zu klagen!" ("Learn to suffer without complaining").
He was already in this state when his father died, leaving Frederick a very ill emperor, though only 56 years old. Frederick ruled for only 99 days before his own death and was not longer able to realize his plans, only
Robert von Puttkammer was forced to resign on the 8th of June. The emperor was succeeded by his 29 year old son
Wilhelm II.
Many people, then and now, have considered Frederick's early death particularly tragic, not only for himself but for the German nation, and later the whole World. History will never know whether he would have moved the
constitutional monarchy in Germany towards a more
liberal democratic course, perhaps towards such as that presided over by his mother-in-law
Queen Victoria -- nor whether he would have succeeded had he lived long enough to try. In contrast, his father lived over 91 years, making him wait quite a long time. Despite the hopes set on him, he was critized for complying with the policies of Bismarck and his father without giving stonger opposition.
Also, the attempts to raise his children in a different, more modern way must be considered a failure regarding the eldest, politically most important son. William II, his son and successor, turned against his father and especially his English mother, and hewed more to the militaristic and authoritarian ways of his grandfather William I, a course that would lead directly to
World War I and the end of
monarchy in Germany. Unlike his son, Frederick had served as an able military leader in several wars, and thus knew the cruelties first hand. For sure, Frederick could have at least delayed the developments under his son by simply living longer.
>*http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/kaiser_friedrich.htm
*AN IMPERIAL TRAGEDY: Frederick III and the Letters of the Empress - on-line article about the illness and death of Frederick III
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