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FREDERICK WILLIAM IV

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 67 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FREDERICK See also:WILLIAM IV . (1795-1861), See also:king of See also:Prussia, eldest son of Frederick William III., was See also:born on the 15th of See also:October 1795. From his first See also:tutor, Johann See also:Delbruck, he imbibed a love of culture and See also:art, and possibly also the dash of Liberalism which formed an See also:element of his complex See also:habit of mind. But after a See also:time Delbruck, suspected of inspiring his See also:charge with a dislike of the Prussian military See also:caste and even of belonging to a See also:political See also:secret society, was dismissed, his See also:place being taken by the pastor and historian See also:Friedrich See also:Ancillon, while a military See also:governor was also appointed. By Ancillon he was grounded in See also:religion, in See also:history and political See also:science, his natural See also:taste for the See also:antique and the picturesque making it easy for his tutor to impress upon h:m his own hatred of the Revolution and its principles. This hatred was confirmed by the sufferings of his See also:country and See also:family in the terrible years after 18o6, and his first experience of active soldiering was in the See also:campaigns that ended in the occupation of See also:Paris by the See also:Allies in 1814. In See also:action his reckless bravery had earned him rebuke, and in Paris he was remarked for the exact performance of his military duties, though he found time to whet his appetite for art in the matchless collections gathered by See also:Napoleon as the spoil of all See also:Europe. On his return to See also:Berlin he studied art under the sculptor See also:Christian See also:Daniel See also:Rauch and the painter and architect Karl Friedrich See also:Schinkel (1781-1841), proving himself in the end a See also:good draughtsman, a born architect and an excellent landscape gardener. At the same time he was being tutored in See also:law by See also:Savigny and in See also:finance by a See also:series of distinguished masters. In 1823 he married the princess See also:Elizabeth of See also:Bavaria, who adopted the Lutheran creed. The See also:union, though childless, was very happy. A See also:long tour in See also:Italy in 1828 was the beginning of his intimacy with See also:Bunsen and did much to develop his knowledge of art and love of antiquity.

On his See also:

accession to the See also:throne in 184o much was expected of a See also:prince so variously gifted and of so amiable a See also:temper, and his first acts did not belie popular hopes. He reversed the unfortunate ecclesiastical policy of his See also:father, allowing a wide See also:liberty of dissent, and releasing the imprisoned See also:archbishop of See also:Cologne; he modified the strictness of the See also:press censorship; above all he undertook, in the presence of the deputations of the provincial diets assembled to greet him on his accession, to carry out the long-deferred project of creating a central constitution, which he admitted to be required alike by the royal promises, the needs of the country and the temper of the times. The See also:story of the See also:evolution of the Prussian See also:parliament belongs to the history of Prussia. Here it must suffice to See also:notice Frederick William's See also:personal See also:share in the question, which was determined by his See also:general attitude of mind. He was an idealist; but his See also:idealism was of a type the exact See also:reverse of that which the Revolution in arms had sought to impose upon Europe. The See also:idea of the See also:sovereignty of the See also:people was to him utterly abhorrent, and even any delegation of See also:sovereign See also:power on his own See also:part would have seemed a betrayal of a See also:God-given See also:trust. " I will never," he declared, " allow to come between Almighty God and this country clotted See also:parchment, to See also:rule us with paragraphs, and to replace the See also:ancient, sacred See also:bond of See also:loyalty." His See also:vision of the ideal See also:state was that of a patriarchial See also:monarchy, surrounded and advised by the traditional estates of the realm—nobles, peasants, burghers—and cemented by the bonds of evangelical religion; but in which there should be no question of the sovereign power being vested in any other hands than those of the king by divine right. In Prussia, with its traditional loyalty and its old-See also:world caste divisions, he believed that such a conception could be realized, and he took up an attitude See also:half-way between those who would have rejected the proposal for a central See also:diet altogether See also:asa dangerous " thin end of the See also:wedge," and those who would have approximated it more to the See also:modern conception of a parliament. With a See also:charter, or a representative See also:system based on See also:population, he would have nothing to do. The See also:united diet which was opened on the 3rd of See also:February 1847 was no more than a See also:congregation of the diets instituted by Frederick William III. in the eight provinces of Prussia. Unrepresentative though it was—for the See also:industrial working-classes had no share in it—it at once gave See also:voice to the demand for a constitutional system. This demand gained overwhelmingly in force with the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848.

To Frederick William these came as a See also:

complete surprise, and, rudely awakened from his See also:medieval dreamings, he even allowed himself to be carried away for a while by the popular See also:tide. The loyalty of the Prussian See also:army remained inviolate; but the king was too See also:tender-hearted to use military force against his " beloved Berliners," and when the victory of the populace was thus assured his impressionable temper yielded to the general See also:enthusiasm. He paraded the streets of Berlin wrapped in a See also:scarf of the See also:German See also:black and See also:gold, See also:symbol of his intention to be the See also:leader of the united See also:Germany; and he even wrote to the indignant See also:tsar in praise of " the glorious German revolution." The See also:change of sentiment was, however, apparent rather than real. The See also:shadow of See also:venerable institutions, past or passing, still darkened his counsels. The united Germany which he was prepared to See also:champion was not the democratic state which the theorists of the See also:Frankfort See also:national parliament were evolving on See also:paper with interminable debate, but the old See also:Holy See also:Roman See also:Empire, the heritage of the See also:house of See also:Habsburg, of which he was prepared to constitute himself the See also:guardian so long as its lawful possessors should not have mastered the forces of disorder by which they were held See also:captive. Finally, when See also:Austria had been excluded from the new empire, he replied to the See also:parliamentary deputation that came to offer him the imperial See also:crown that he might have accepted it had it been freely offered to him by the German princes, but that he would never stoop " to pick up a crown out of the See also:gutter." Whatever may be thought of the manner of this refusal, or of its immediate motives, it was in itself See also:wise, for the German empire would have lost immeasurably had it been the cause rather than the result of the inevitable struggle with Austria, and See also:Bismarck was probably right when he said that, to weld the heterogeneous elements of Germany into a united whole, what was needed was, not speeches and resolutions, but a policy of " See also:blood and See also:iron." In any See also:case Frederick William, uneasy enough as a constitutional king, would have been impossible as a constitutional See also:emperor. As it was, his refusal to See also:play this part gave the deathblow to the parliament and to all See also:hope of the immediate creation of a united Germany. For Frederick William the position of leader of Germany now meant the employment of the military force of Prussia to crush the scattered elements of revolution that survived the collapse of the national See also:movement. His See also:establishment of the See also:northern confederacy was a reversion to the traditional policy of Prussia in opposition to Austria, which, after the emperor See also:Nicholas had crushed the insurrection in See also:Hungary, was once more See also:free to assert her claims to dominance in Germany. But Prussia was not ripe for a struggle with Austria, even had Frederick William found it in his See also:conscience to turn his arms against his ancient ally, and the result was the humiliating See also:convention of See also:Olmutz (See also:November 29th, 1850), by which Prussia agreed to surrender her separatist plans and to restore the old constitution of the See also:confederation. Yet Frederick William had so far profited by the lessons of 1848 that he consented to establish (185o) a national parliament, though with a restricted See also:franchise and limited See also:powers. The House of Lords (Herrenhaus) justified the king's insistence in calling it into being by its support of Bismarck against the more popular House during the next reign.

In religious matters Frederick William was also largely swayed by his love for the ancient and picturesque. In See also:

concert with his friend Bunsen he laboured to bring about a rapprochement between the Lutheran and See also:Anglican churches, the first-fruits of which was the establishment of the See also:Jerusalem bishopric under the See also:joint patronage of See also:Great See also:Britain and Prussia; but the only result of his efforts was to precipitate the See also:secession of J. H. See also:Newman and his followers to the See also:Church of See also:Rome. In general it may be said that Frederick William, in spite of his talents and his wide knowledge, lived in a See also:dream-See also:land of hisown, out of See also:touch with actuality. The See also:style of his letters reveals a mind enthusiastic and See also:ill-balanced. In the summer of 1857 he had a stroke of See also:paralysis, and a second in October. From this time, with the exception of brief intervals, his mind was completely clouded, and the duties of See also:government were undertaken by his See also:brother William (afterwards emperor), who on the 7th of October 1858 was formally recognized as See also:regent. Frederick William died on the 2nd of See also:January 1861. Selections from the See also:correspondence (Briefwechsel) of Frederick William IV. and Bunsen were edited by See also:Ranke (See also:Leipzig, 1873); his proclamations, speeches, &c., from the 6th of See also:March 1848 to the 31st of May 1851 have been published (Berlin, 1851); also his correspondence with Bettina von See also:Arnim, Bettina von Arnim and Friedrich Wilhelm IV., ungedruckte Briefe and Aktenstucke, ed. L. Geiger (Frankfort-on-See also:Main, 1902).

See L. von Ranke, Friedrich Wilhelm IV., See also:

Konig von Preussen (See also:works 51, 52 also in Allgem. deutsche Biog. vol. vii.), especially for the king's See also:education and the inner history of the debates leading up to the united diet of 1847; H. von Petersdorff, Konig Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (See also:Stuttgart, 1900); F. Rachfahl, Deutschland, Konig Friedrich Wilhelm IV. and See also:die Berliner Mdrarevolution (See also:Halle, 1901) ; H. von Poschinger (ed.), Unter Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Denkwurdigkeiten See also:des Ministers See also:Otto Fehr. von See also:Manteuffel, 1848—1858 (3 vols., Berlin, 1900—1901) ; and Preussens auswdrtige Politik, 1850–1858 (3 vols., ib., 1902), documents selected from those See also:left by Manteuffel; E. See also:Friedberg, Die Grundlagen der preussischen Kirchenpolitik unter Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (Leipzig, 1882).

End of Article: FREDERICK WILLIAM IV

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