#Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

[friedrich-2]

It’s like all in the title. Please comment if you think something should be different with arguments as to why lol

[postcard-from-the-past]

Monument of Friedrich Wilhelm IV in the Tiergarten Park of Berlin, Germany

German vintage postcard

[best-hohenzollern-ruler]

Round 2: Georg Friedrich vs Friedrich Wilhelm IV

Georg Friedrich (r. 1543-1603)

Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Regent of Prussia

Georg Friedrich's regency in place of Albrecht Friedrich was by all definitions a successful one. Adept at administration, he reformed the bureaucracy and currency of many of the regions he ruled. His reign was generally peaceful and stable, in contrast to Austria many of his neighbors at the time.

As today is the birthday of our greatest monarch, Friedrich der Große, we must mention that conflicts over the providence of Jägerndorf laid the groundwork for the First Silesian War and the rise of our beloved king. We must wholeheartedly commend him for standing up to the Austrian scourge and allowing one of our most important territories to remain Prussian.

Friedrich Wilhelm IV (r. 1840-1861)

The Erfurt Union was the Prussian response to the Deutsche Bund, unifying many of the north German states. The alliance between Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover was key. While it was ultimately unsuccessful, it laid the groundwork for the later North German Confederation under his sucessor.

Despite his previous hesitations, Friedrich Wilhelm IV did concede to the liberal revolutions and allow for Prussia's first ever constitution. Despite the creation of the Landtag and the allowance for universal male sufferage, the power afforded to the monarch preserved Prussia's conservative governmental traditions.

We here at the Kreuzzeitung must pay a special tribute to Friedrich Wilhelm IV. After the Revolutions of 1848, he assembled a group of conservative noblemen to help combat any further revolutionary fervor. It was that group that founded this esteemed paper, so for that, we thank him.

[sigalrm]

Eiszeit by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: Möglicherweise gibt es da gutes Eis.

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

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Some Prussian Glory to gild your Weekend :)

Statue of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in front of the Orangerie Palace, Potsdam

[chrisjohndewitt]

Berlin 2017. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV still rides his horse on Museum Island as the tourists crowd around.

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

Friends, enemies, comrades, Jacobins, Monarchist, Bonapartists, gather round. We have an important announcement:

The continent is beset with war. A tenacious general from Corsica has ignited conflict from Madrid to Moscow and made ancient dynasties tremble. Depending on your particular political leanings, this is either the triumph of a great man out of the chaos of The Terror, a betrayal of the values of the French Revolution, or the rule of the greatest upstart tyrant since Caesar.

But, our grand tournament is here to ask the most important question: Now that the flower of European nobility is arrayed on the battlefield in the sexiest uniforms that European history has yet produced (or indeed, may ever produce), who is the most fuckable?

The bracket is here: full bracket and just quadrant I

Want to nominate someone from the Western Hemisphere who was involved in the ever so sexy dismantling of the Spanish empire? (or the Portuguese or French American colonies as well) You can do it here

The People have created this list of nominees:

France:

Jean Lannes

Josephine de Beauharnais

Thérésa Tallien

Jean-Andoche Junot

Joseph Fouché

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Joachim Murat

Michel Ney

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Charles XIV of Sweden)

Louis-Francois Lejeune

Pierre Jacques Étienne Cambrinne

Napoleon I

Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet

Jacques de Trobriand

Jean de dieu soult.

François-Étienne-Christophe Kellermann

17.Louis Davout

Pauline Bonaparte, Duchess of Guastalla

Eugène de Beauharnais

Jean-Baptiste Bessières

Antoine-Jean Gros

Jérôme Bonaparte

Andrea Masséna

Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle

Germaine de Staël

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

René de Traviere (The Purple Mask)

Claude Victor Perrin

Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr

François Joseph Lefebvre

Major Andre Cotard (Hornblower Series)

Edouard Mortier

Hippolyte Charles

Nicolas Charles Oudinot

Emmanuel de Grouchy

Pierre-Charles Villeneuve

Géraud Duroc

Georges Pontmercy (Les Mis)

Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont

Juliette Récamier

Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey

Louis-Alexandre Berthier

Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald

Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier

Catherine Dominique de Pérignon

Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan

Charles-Pierre Augereau

Auguste François-Marie de Colbert-Chabanais

England:

Richard Sharpe (The Sharpe Series)

Tom Pullings (Master and Commander)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Jonathan Strange (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell)

Captain Jack Aubrey (Aubrey/Maturin books)

Horatio Hornblower (the Hornblower Books)

William Laurence (The Temeraire Series)

Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey

Beau Brummell

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Benjamin Bathurst

Horatio Nelson

Admiral Edward Pellew

Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke

Sidney Smith

Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford

George IV

Capt. Anthony Trumbull (The Pride and the Passion)

Barbara Childe (An Infamous Army)

Doctor Maturin (Aubrey/Maturin books)

William Pitt the Younger

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh)

George Canning

Scotland:

Thomas Cochrane

Colquhoun Grant

Ireland:

Arthur O'Connor

Thomas Russell

Robert Emmet

Austria:

Klemens von Metternich

Friedrich Bianchi, Duke of Casalanza

Franz I/II

Archduke Karl

Marie Louise

Franz Grillparzer

Wilhelmine von Biron

Poland:

Wincenty Krasiński

Józef Antoni Poniatowski

Józef Zajączek

Maria Walewska

Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski

Antoni Amilkar Kosiński

Zofia Czartoryska-Zamoyska

Stanislaw Kurcyusz

Russia:

Alexander I Pavlovich

Alexander Andreevich Durov

Prince Andrei (War and Peace)

Pyotr Bagration

Mikhail Miloradovich

Levin August von Bennigsen

Pavel Stroganov

Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna

Karl Wilhelm von Toll

Dmitri Kuruta

Alexander Alexeevich Tuchkov

Barclay de Tolly

Fyodor Grigorevich Gogel

Ekaterina Pavlovna Bagration

Ippolit Kuragin (War and Peace)

Prussia:

Louise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Gebard von Blücher

Carl von Clausewitz

Frederick William III

Gerhard von Scharnhorst

Louis Ferdinand of Prussia

Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Alexander von Humboldt

Dorothea von Biron

The Netherlands:

Ida St Elme

Wiliam, Prince of Orange

The Papal States:

Pius VII

Portugal:

João Severiano Maciel da Costa

Spain:

Juan Martín Díez

José de Palafox

Inês Bilbatua (Goya's Ghosts)

Haiti:

Alexandre Pétion

Sardinia:

Vittorio Emanuele I

Lombardy:

Alessandro Manzoni

Denmark:

Frederik VI

Sweden:

Gustav IV Adolph

[freetheshit-outofyou]

The Paris Gun

The Krupp arms-making dynasty was founded in Essen upon the fortune amassed by Arndt Krupp, who settled in that city in 1587. His son Anton expanded the family’s endeavors into making firearms during the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648, and the family progressively expanded its operations over the ensuing decades. In 1811, Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826) established a steel casting facility, and, although he successfully began casting steel in 1816, he expended considerable funds in the process. His son, Alfried (1812- 1887), continued his father’s work and eventually re-established the family fortune. By its nature steel was very difficult to cast, and internal faults were often impossible to detect through existing testing procedures. Defective cast steel pieces were also much more dangerous to crews than iron cannons, as the softer iron tended to split or burst with less energy than the harder steel, which more often ruptured with deadly violence. The Krupp firm’s success in casting steel was considered one of the major metallurgical achievements of its day.

Beginning in 1844, Alfried Krupp began experimenting in machining guns from solid cast steel blanks and in 1847 produced his first steel cannon. That same year he presented a steel gun to the King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm IV (1795-1861)-an act of entrepreneurial generosity that later won an order for 300 field guns. He went on to display a 6-pounder muzzleloading gun at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and began experiments in developing breechloading weapons. In 1856, Krupp introduced a 90mm field gun fitted with a transverse sliding breechblock that fit through a corresponding slot in the rear of the barrel.

Germany subsequently made the transition to rifled breechloaders during the 1860s, a move that gave it a distinct artillery advantage during the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. Shortly after the war it adopted 78.5mm guns for its horse artillery and 88mm pieces for field use. The logistical difficulties associated with supplying two sizes of ammunition in the field and recent advances in metallurgy and gun design then led to the Model 73/88 system, which used the 88mm caliber for both horse artillery and field use and the later Model 73/91 system, utilizing nickel steel barrels. The Model 73/91 was finally superseded by Germany’s answer to the French 75-the Model 96 or Feldkanone 96 neur Art.

The development of specialized antiaircraft artillery also intensified during the war. The first documented use of antiaircraft artillery occurred as early as the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. At Paris, the Prussian commander von Moltke ordered weapons from Krupp in order to shoot down balloons in which the French were trying to sail over the Prussian lines. Krupp eventually delivered a number of single-shot, caliber 1-inch rifles that were mounted on pedestals bolted to the beds of two-horse wagons; they theoretically could follow the balloons on the ground while maintaining a steady firing rate. The Krupp pieces were relatively ineffective, yet at least one French balloon was apparently downed by their fire.

The rapid proliferation of powered military aircraft at the turn of the century, however, spurred an equally dedicated effort to neutralize the threat of air attacks. During the 1909 Frankfurt International Exhibition, Krupp unveiled three antiaircraft guns in a bid to monopolize the emerging market. These included a caliber 65mm 9-pounder and a 75mm 12-pounder. Krupp claimed that the largest, a pedestal-mounted 105mm gun intended for shipboard use, achieved a maximum ceiling of 37,730 feet. The caliber 65mm gun had an 18,700-foot range, could elevate 75 degrees, and its carriage had unique hinged axles that allowed the wheels to be pivoted to a position perpendicular to their traveling position. With the trail spade acting as its axis, this arrangement enabled the crew to traverse the piece 360 degrees to track enemy aircraft. With a claimed maximum ceiling of 21,326 feet, the caliber 75mm gun was mounted on a truck bed, thus giving it a high degree of mobility. Not to be outdone, Erhardt, Krupp’s closest domestic competitor, also exhibited a 50mm quick-firing antiaircraft gun mounted in an armored car’s turret.

The period also witnessed considerable experimentation in antiaircraft shells and fuses. Krupp introduced a high-explosive shell for its 3-pounder equipped with a “smoke-trail” fuse, an early tracer round that both aided the crews in sighting and was an effective incendiary against the hydrogen-filled airships of the period.

During World War I the Germans continued to experiment in antiaircraft weaponry, beginning in 1914 with the 77mm Ballonen-AK. The Ballonen-AK was then, in turn, followed in 1915 by the 77mm Luftkanone, a basic 77mm field cannon barrel mounted on a rotating scaffolding. The more effective Krupp 88mm FlaK entered service in 1918 and eventually became the inspiration for the famous World War II German “Eighty-Eight.”

Popularly named after Alfred Krupp’s daughter, the 41.3-ton, 420mm “Big Bertha” had a horizontal sliding block and fired a 1,719-pound shell up to 10,253 yards. Big Bertha required five tractors to transport its components, and it had to be assembled on site. In conjunction with a number of Austrian Skoda 305mm howitzers, the L/14 was first used with devastating effect against Liege in August 1914; it saw other action on both the Western and Eastern fronts. Owing to its relatively short range and vulnerability to Allied fire, Big Bertha was obsolete by 1917. Another heavy piece, the 211mm Mörser was adopted in 1916. It weighed 14,727 pounds and fired a 250-pound shell up to 12,139 yards.

Designed by Krupp engineers and adopted in 1918, the Paris Gun used the basic 380mm Max railroad gun barrel fitted with a barrel liner and lengthened 20 feet. The 210mm Paris Gun weighed 1,653,470 pounds and mounted a 2,550-inch barrel with a horizontal sliding block. It fired a 264-pound shell up to 82 miles. Crewed by naval personnel, the Paris Gun was so powerful that it fired its shells into the stratosphere, where the thinner atmosphere exerted less resistance, allowing such long ranges. The stress on the bore, however, wore the barrel significantly, and each succeeding projectile had to have progressively larger driving bands and heavier powder charges to compensate for the increasing windage. Although hugely inefficient in the final analysis, the Paris Gun’s greatest value lay in its use as a propaganda tool rather than an artillery piece. Source

[er1chartmann]

The Wannsee Conference

These are some facts and curiosities about The Wannsee Conference:

On January 20, 1942, fifteen top officials of the Nazi Party and the German government gathered in a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss the execution of what was called the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."

The men gathered at Wannsee never questioned whether the plan should be implemented or not, but worked directly on identifying the most suitable systems to put it into practice.

Despite the various euphemisms used in the meeting protocols, the purpose of the Wannsee Conference was always clear to its participants: to coordinate the actions that would lead to the complete elimination of all the Jews of Europe.

The meeting took place on the scheduled day in the offices of the Rsha, Am Großen Wannsee, n. 56/58, with the following speakers:

Dr. Alfred Meyer, Gauleiter, State Secretary and Deputy Minister.

Dr. Georg Leibbrandt, director of the political department at the Ministry for the Occupied Territories in the East.

Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary for the Reich Interior Ministry.

Erich Neumann, Secretary of State, plenipotentiary for the four-year plan.

Dr. Roland Freisler, State Secretary at the Reich Ministry of Justice.

Dr. Josef Bühler, State Secretary of the General Government.

Martin Luther, undersecretary (Unterstaatssekretär) of the Foreign Ministry.

SS-Oberführer [Dr.] Gerhard Klopfer, permanent secretary of the party chancellery.

Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger, permanent secretary of the Reich Chancellery.

SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann, head of the Central Office for Race and Colonies (RuSHA).

SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, commander of the Gestapo.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, head of department IV B-4 of the RuSHA, secretary of the conference.

SS-Oberführer Dr. Karl Eberhard Schöngarth, commander of the SiPo and the SD (BdS) in the General Government.

SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Rudolf Lange, commander of the SD (KdS) in Latvia, representative of the SiPo and the SD (BdS) in the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, director of the Rsha and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia.

Sources:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Wikipedia: The Wansee Conference

I DON'T SUPPORT NAZISM,FASCISM OR ZIONISM IN ANY WAY, THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL POST

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Happy 153rd Birthday to Prince Friedrich “Frittie” of Hesse and By Rhine, October 7th 1870 ✨🖤

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse and By Rhine was born on October 7th 1870 in Darmstadt, Hesse. He was the 5th child and 2nd son of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the brother of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna.

He was a very lively baby and loved playing with his siblings, especially his brother Ernst Louis who he was especially close with. When he was around 1 year old he was diagnosed with Hemophilia because of a fall. Hemophilia is a genetic blood disorder that doesn’t allow the blood to clot which means that any bump or bruise could cause a fatal hemorrhage.

When he was almost 3 years old in 1873 he was playing with his brother Ernie and his mother Alice in her bedroom. Ernie ran into the adjoining room and looked out of the window to wave to Frittie, and Alice went to fetch him to bring him back into the room. Unsupervised Frittie looked out of the open window to try to find his brother which resulted in him falling 20 feet. The fall turned out to be fatal and he died of a brain hemorrhage. He would have survived the fall if not for his Hemophilia.

Fly high Frittie ✨🕊️❤️‍🩹

[archduchessofnowhere]

Why is so little known about Elizabeth Ludovika? She was Queen of Prussia yet her Wikipedia has barely anything! Very few portraits and pictures too. She was Queen Consort for 21 years and yet it's as if she barely existed. More is known about her sisters than about her, which is quite odd. Do you perhaps have more sources about her? Was she a prominent figure in the lives of the people you usually post about? Thank you!

Hello! I honestly wonder the same, it's so odd how little info seems to be available about her. The only sources I know of are the works of Dorothea Minkels, in German: her biography "Elisabeth von Preussen: Königin in der Zeit des AusMÄRZens", published in 2008, and "Briefwechsel des Königspaares", a three-volumes compilation of letters between Elisabeth and her husband, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, published between 2014-2020. I haven't read them, so I don't know if they are good.

She remained in close contact with all of her sisters for her whole life. I know of Elisabeth (always called "Elise" by her family) mediating in their favor at least once: when Franz Josef wanted to marry Princess Anna of Prussia in 1852, Elisabeth's niece by marriage. Archduchess Sophie wrote to her sister asking her to use her influence to try to get Anna's hand for her son (the princess was already engaged to someone else), and while she ultimately failed and the emperor had to look for a bride somewhere else, it does show how Elise could sometimes intercede for her family.

Sorry that I couldn't tell you more!

[friedrich-2]

[holundra]

Reiterstandbild von Friedrich Wilhelm IV. 🐎 #berlin #pferundkunst #museumsinsel #reiterstandbild #bronzeskulptur (hier: Alte Nationalgalerie)

[best-hohenzollern-ruler]

Round 1: Johann Sigismund vs Friedrich Wilhelm IV

Johann Sigismund (r. 1608-1619)

Converted to Calvinism, which led to Prussia being a bi-confessional state.

His marriage to Duchess Anna of Prussia officially created the state of Brandenburg-Prussia. Though said partnership, he also acquired the territory of Juelich-Kleve.

As his reign continued, his alcoholism consumed him. Schiller notes a particular incident involved him punching the ear of a prospective step son, ruining the chance for marriage. As his heath declined, he was described as halfway between life and death.

Friedrich Wilhelm IV (r.1840-1861)

A staunch romanticist, Friedrich Wilhelm was responsible for some of the most magnificent buildings in Germany. The Orangery Palace in Potsdam, the Old National Gallery in Berlin, and the renovation of the Hohenzollern Castle were all constructed during his reign.

His reign was interrupted by the terror of the People's Spring. Although the king initially conceded to the revolutionaries in Berlin, once things were settled, he swiftly crushed the uprising.

Perhaps his most famous statement is his refusal of "the crown from the gutter" offered to him by the Frankfurt Parliament. The King did initially favor a Großdeutschland solution with a Habsburg at the helm, though luckily he soon came around to the superior idea of a Prussian led union. (Note: May be too divisive - T)

We here at the Kreuzzeitung must pay a special tribute to Friedrich Wilhelm IV. After the Revolutions of 1848, he assembled a group of conservative noblemen to help combat any further revolutionary fervor. It was that group that founded this esteemed paper, so for that, we thank him.

[sigalrm]

Ich Chef, du Reiter by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: Wie hieß das Pferd gleich noch mal?

[eggi1972]

[Rezension] Karl Marx beim Barbier – Uwe Wittstock

Klappentext: Leben und letzte Reise eines deutschen Revolutionärs Am 18. Februar 1882 besteigt Karl Marx in Marseille den Dampfer »Said« und verlässt zum ersten Mal in seinem Leben Europa. Am Kai von Algier nimmt ihn Albert Fermé in Empfang, der sich in der Pariser Kommune engagiert hatte. Doch an politische Kämpfe ist für Marx nicht mehr zu denken. Den Tod seiner Frau Jenny drei Monate zuvor hat er nicht verwunden, und das wärmere Klima kann seine chronische Rippenfellentzündung nicht kurieren. Karl Marx lässt sich ein letztes Mal fotografieren, bevor er beim Barbier Haarpracht und Bart opfert. Ein Akt, der ihm selbst beinahe symbolisch vorkommt. Seine größte Sorge gilt dem Wohlergehen seiner Töchter. Während er die Eindrücke einer ihm ganz neuen Kultur auf sich wirken lässt, zieht er unsentimental eine Art Resümee seines Lebens und Wirkens: der liberale Vater mit jüdischen Wurzeln, die wilden Studienjahre in Bonn und Berlin, seine frühen poetischen Ambitionen, seine seltsam bremsende Rolle im Revolutionsjahr 1848, dann das ewige Exil, die Zumutungen der Armut. Der renommierte Autor Uwe Wittstock erzählt eine bisher wenig beachtete Episode des späten Karl Marx und beleuchtet aus ihr heraus das Leben und Wirken dieses großen, aber auch zutiefst widersprüchlichen Geistes. »Es ist ein wunderbares Buch. Uwe Wittstock wechselt immer wieder elegant zwischen Biographie und Erzählung und ihm gelingt sogar das Kunststück, die philosophischen Ideen dieser Zeit mühelos zu erklären.« Rezension: Eigentlich wollte ich was zum entspannen lesen, aber dann blieb mein Blick immer wieder am Buch „Karl Marx beim Barbier“ von Uwe Wittstock hängen! Also, so viel vorneweg, ein Buch zum entspannen ist es nicht, sondern ich erwischte mich immer wieder bei der Suche nach Zusammenhängen, also wie war das damals mit Friedrich Wilhelm IV oder mit Napoleon III, um nur zwei Beispiele zu nennen. Schwer getan habe ich mir mit Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, der mit seinen fortschrittlichen Gedanken wohl einige Menschen damals beeinflusst hat. Für mich war es schwere Kost. Angenehm waren immer wieder die Berichte über den Aufenthalt von Karl Marx in Algier gewesen. Diese Einschübe lassen sich schnell lesen und verarbeiten. Bei den anderen Kapiteln geht es immer wieder um wichtige Ereignisse und Orte, die mit dem Leben von Karl Marx zu tun haben. Man lernt vieles über Karl Marx Frau Jenny von Westphalen, wie die Familie gelebt hatte und wie wichtig eigentlich Engels war, damit die Familie von Karl Marx überhaupt überleben konnte. Es ist schon  bewegend, wie sehr der Tod von Jenny von Westphalen Karl Marx mitgenommen hatte und wie wichtig ihm auch seine Kinder waren. Interessant auch wie eng die Freundschaft zwischen Engels und Marx überhaupt war. Für mich, war dies alles enorm interessant, da ich auch vieles über die Entwicklung der politischen Parteien gelernt habe, und dass auch Karl Marx ziemlich gerne das Sagen hatte und er eigentlich keine Götter neben sich haben wollte. Deswegen stand er sich auch immer wieder selbst im Wege. Es war ein Buch, welches nicht zum entspannen war, sondern eher eines, welches mich viel zum Nachdenken angeregt hat. Uwe Wittstock schafft es, einen auf eine Reise mitzunehmen, um einen der wichtigsten deutschen Philosophen und Gesellschaftstheoretiker kennen zu lernen. Es ist eine Reise in die Vergangenheit, in der man einen kleinen Einblick in das arme Leben eines Staatenlosen Menschen bekommt. Titel: Karl Marx beim BarbierAutorin: Wittstock, UweISBN:978-3-89667-612-2Altersempfehlung: ab 14 JahreVerlag: Blessing VerlagPreis: 20,00 €Erscheinungsdatum:  05. März 2018 Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel