Gerhard Ritter 
Frederick the Great 
A Historical Profile

GERHARD RITTER’S biography of Frederick the Great onglnated in a series of lectures, which were published with scarcely any revisions in 1936. In this translation, based on the third edition, published in 1954, Paret has tried to convey the hard and precise style that characterizes the German text, while eliminating some of the numerous adjectives and parallel phrases that a lecturer might have found useful for emphasis but which seem unnecessary on the printed page. With the author’s agreement also excluded is the brief introduction and epilogue of the original, since they are addressed specifically to the German reader and to German conditions. Gerhard Ritter died in 1967, shortly after the translation was completed.


This title is part of UC Press’s Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975.

GERHARD RITTER’S biography of Frederick the Great onglnated in a series of lectures, which were published with scarcely any revisions in 1936. In this translation, based on the third edition, published in 1954, Paret has tried to convey the hard and preci

Table of Content

Introduction by Peter Paret


1. Frederick and His Age: The System of Absolutism

2. The Brandenburg-Prussian Heritage

3. The Development of Frederick’s Personality

4. The King’s View of the World

5. The King’s View of the State

6. The Conquest of Silesia

7. Maintenance of Prussia’s New Power

8. Frederician Warfare

9. The Character of Frederician Government and Society

10. The Old King: Foreign Policy in the Last Decades of His Reign

About the author

Gerhard Georg Bernhard Ritter (April 6, 1888  – July 1, 1967) was a nationalist-conservative German historian, who served as a professor of history at the University of Freiburg from 1925 to 1956. Peter Paret is American military, cultural and art historian with a particular interest in German history.