ECKHART HELLMUTH

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings in the Eighteenth Century

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MICHAEL SCHAICH (ed.), Monarchy and Religion: The Transformation of Royal Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)

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16 The Funerals of the Prussian Kings

in the Eighteenth Century ECKHART HELLMUTH

The court and court ceremonial are highly popular topics for historical research at present. Peter Burke's 1992 study, The Fabrication of Louis XIV, in particular, has been a major factor in ensuring that historians look more carefully at the forms in which kingly power is represented. 1 As a result, they have become much more aware that courts presented themselves in very different ways. Thus, for example, there are considerable differences between the relatively coherent policy of image-creation such as that pursued by Louis XIV (1643-1715) or the Spanish court under Philip IV (1621-65),2 and the loose programme of representation followed by the Viennese court at the time of Leopold I (1658-1705), as analysed by Maria Goloubeva. 3 When looking at life at court, historians' attention is drawn to a whole series of events.4

The spectrum ranges from coronations and first audiences to performances of baroque opera. And a canon of terms for the description of such events has developed, including 'self-legitima-tion', 'status affirmation', 'representation of power', 'glorification', 'the theatricalization of monarchical rule', 'image policy', and 'propaganda'. Recently, however, doubts have arisen about a

Linda Bri.iggemann helped in obtaining the sources used in this essay. Christoph von Ehrenstein provided important references to recent literature on the history of the court. I am grateful to both.

1 Peter Burke, The Fabrication ef Louis XIV (New Haven, 1992). 2 Jonathan Brown and John H. Elliott (eds.), A Palace for a Kmg: The Buen Retiro and the

Court ef Philip IV (New Haven, 2003). 3 Maria Goloubeva, The Glorification ef Emperor Leopold I in Image, Spectacle and Text

(Mainz, 2000). 4 See e.g.John Adamson (ed.), The Prince!, Courts ef Europe: RiJual, Politics and Culture

Under theAncien Regime 1500-1750 (London, 1999); Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, 'Zeremoniell, Ritual, Symbol: Neue Forschungen zur symbolischen Kommunikation in Spatrnittelalter und Fri.iher Neuzeit', Zeitschrifl far historische Forschung, 27 (2000), 389-405; ead., 'Symbolische Kommunikation in der Vormoderne: Begriffe--Thesen-Forschungsper-spektiven', .(eitschrifl.fiir historische Forschung, 31 (2004), 489-527.

452 ECKHART HELLMUTH

number of these terms. Thus in John Adamson's remarkable essay published a few years ago, 'The Making of the Ancien-Regime Court', we read: it is [now] apparent that key elements in the traditional interpretation need to be cast in a very different mould. First, the recovery of the liturgi-cal element in aulic ceremonial, largely pioneered by Italian scholars, has fundamentally modified the older analysis of household ritual in terms of 'theatre' and 'propaganda'. We are dealing with rituals where the 'message' is so deeply embedded in the 'medium', to borrow Clifford Geertz's phrase, 'that to transform it into a network of propositions is to risk ... both of the characteristic crimes of exegesis: seeing more in things than is really there, and reducing a richness of particular meaning to a drab parade of generalities'. Secondly, where these household practices are concerned, it should be remembered that the daily 'audience' for most court ceremonial was the courtiers themselves. Like the liturgies of the Church, to which it provided a complement, the act of participation in court ceremonial defined a cadre that shared in the 'holiness' ofpower.5

Adamson is not saying here that the issue of the audience was irrelevant to those who staged court ceremonial. Naturally there were events, such as coronation processions, which aspired to reach as large an audience as possible. To be sure, however, scholars of ceremonial have reminded us, with good reason, always to look carefully at the addressee of each particular ceremony. Barbara Stolberg-Rillinger has shown, using the example of Prussia, that the ceremonial of individual courts was frequently directed less at their own subjects than at a 'supra-territorial courtly public'. 6 This is illustrated, among other things, by the fact that important ceremonial events were captured in texts and images which subsequently circulated in European court society. The parvenus among the European powers in particular, including Prussia, saw these as a means of demonstrating the rank which they held, or aspired to hold.

The ceremonies which have exerted a particular fascination on historians undoubtedly include the obsequies held on the death of a monarch. In the cosmos of courtly self-representa-tions, the extravagant funeral rites which often stretched out

5 John Adamson, 'The Making of the Ancien-Regime Court 1500--1700', in id. (ed.), Prince!), Courts ef Europe, 7-41, at 31---2.

6 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, 'Hofische Offentlich.keit: Zur zeremoniellen Selbstdar-stellung des brandenburgischen Hofes vor dem europaischen Publikum', Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preussischen Geschicllie, NS (1997), 1451 6.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings 453

over several weeks or even months assumed a special place. They were an expression both of the true faith of a particular dynasty and of the continuity of its power. Thus it is not surpris-ing that funeral rites regularly filled many pages in the hand-books of ceremonial which experienced a remarkable boom in the German-speaking territories in the early eighteenth century.7

These books recorded how monarchs, princes, and high aristo-crats were buried in the past and the present. Pattern books, as it were, they provided orientation for contemporary courts in their competition for prestige. The staging of a court funeral, however, was not merely an act of imitation, constantly referring back to earlier funerals. On the contrary, it was often a creative act in which those who dictated the ritual took into account both the personality of the deceased and his rank, real or assumed. Norbert Elias's words: 'Death is a problem of the living. Dead people have no problems,' though written in a different context, are very apt here. 8

Although there is no doubt about the central significance of obsequies in the cosmos of the courtly world, the historiography of Prussia has paid relatively little attention to this subject.9 This is astonishing, because Prussia possessed a tradition of grand funerals. Although its kings-with the exception of Prussia's first king, Frederick I (1688-1713)10-were not crowned, they were extravagantly buried. Thus on the occasion of Frederick I's funeral in 1713, the Prussian court put on a display of all the splendour of which a baroque court was capable. 11 First the embalmed corpse was presented on a 'pearl bed' in the palace; then it was displayed for eight weeks in a magnificent castrum doloris in the palace chapel, to which the public was admitted.

7 Milos Vee, Zeremoniafwissensckaft im Fiirstenstaat: Studien zur juristischen und politischen Theorie ahsohltisti.scher Herrschefisrepriisenl,atwn (Frankfurt, 1998).

8 Norbert Elias, Uber di.e Einsamkeit der Sterbenden in unseren T agen: Gesammelte Schriften (Frankfurt, 2002), vi. 17.

9 There are, of course, exceptions, e.g. Uwe Steiner, 'Triumphale Trauer: Die Trauerfeierlichkeiten aus AnlaB des Todes der ersten preuBischen Konigin in Berlin im Jahre 1705', Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preussischen Gescmchte, NS, II (2001), 23-52.

10 See, most recently,Johannes Kunisch (ed.), Dreihundert]ahre Preujlische Kiinigskrii111lng: Eine T agungsdokumenJ,atwn (Berlin, 2002).

11 Geheimes Staatsarchiv, Berlin (henceforth GSA), Brandenburgisch-Preufiisches Hausarchiv (henceforth BPH), Rep. 45 K 4: Acta wegen des koniglichen Leichen-begangnisses Sr. Majest:at Konigs Friedrich I. (1713); Benjamin Ursin von Bar, Christ-Kiinigli.ches Trauer- und Ekrengedachtnis, des W~land Allerdurchl.auchtigsten, Gr'lflmiichtigsten Fiirsten und Herrn, Herrn Friderichs (Colin an der Spree, no year).

454 ECKHART HELLMUTH

The removal of the corpse from the chapel to Berlin's cathedral, accompanied by 10,000 soldiers, was a remarkable spectacle, and the exequies, held in the cathedral with temporary architectural structures, a wealth of armourial bearings and emblems, and a cult of light, had much in common with a performance of baroque theatre. The sarcophagus, finally, in which Frederick I was laid to rest was more of a memorial than a coffin. 12 These extravagant rites were modelled on the funerals of the Great Elector (1640-88) and Queen Sophie Charlotte (1668-1705). 13

This essay, however, will not examine these two funerals in greater detail because they do not appear to differ essentially from other baroque funerals. Instead, it will focus on the funerals of Frederick William I (1713-40) and his son, Frederick the Great (1740-86). Not only was there an inner connection between them, but each was remarkable in its own, special way.

I

Over a long period, Frederick William I had made careful preparations for his death. As early as 1731 he had ordered a simple tomb to be built in the newly erected garrison church in Potsdam. 14 Here, according to his will of 1733, he was to be 'incarcerated' until the Resurrection. 15 The choice of the garri-son church for his burial site was a clear break with tradition because until then, all the rulers of the House of Hohenzollern had been buried in Berlin's cathedral. It seems that the crypt in the cathedral, with its highly decorated sarcophagi, was too extravagant for Frederick William's taste. As Crown Prince he had already expressed clear reservations about the ostentatious ceremonial of burial and mourning cultivated at the European courts of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In 1705, when both his mother, Sophie Charlotte, and Emperor

12 See the illustration in Rudiger Hoth, Die Grufl tier Hohen,?,ollern im Dom zu Berlin (Munich, 1992).

13 Christian Cochius, Daouls des Kiinigs in Israel Heiiige Fiirbereitung zum Tode, und k:riifftige Ansprach an seinen Sohn und Naclifolger Solmno, betrac/aet Bry dem hiichstbetriibten Todes-Fall, Des Wryland Durchlauchtigsten . .. Herrn Friderich Wilhelmen (Colin, n.y.).

14 Bernhard Rogge, Die Kiinigliche Hef- und Garnisonskirche zu Potsdam (Berlin 1882), 6. 15 Hermann von Caemmerer (ed.), Die Test,amente der Kurforsten von Brandenburg und der

beiden ersten Konig,e von Preeflen (Munich, 1915), 371.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings 455

Leopold I died, he wrote a letter to Electress Sophia of Hanover in which he made it clear that he held a low opinion of the court's traditional forms of burial. Referring to the imminent funeral of Leopold I, he wrote:

In two weeks' time we will once again don the mourning cloaks and renew the suffering which is large and justified, but has no purpose, for I agree entirely with Your Electoral Highness about the purpose of the huge display associated with the burial of the Emperor. It makes little sense to me because I cannot understand why this poor corpse has to be quartered, like a criminal, and buried in so many different places. 16

Frederick William was referring to the practice, widespread among the Habsburg dynasty, of burying different parts of the body (the actual corpse, heart, intestines, etc.) in different holy places, such as monasteries and churches. Frederick William's reservations about this common Catholic practice grew out of a fundamental alienation from the funeral rites of his times. He similarly disapproved of the expense which, on his father's orders, was lavished on the burial of his mother, Queen Sophie Charlotte. Thus he mocked 'the custom in this country, where we think that spending enormous amounts of money on the funeral honours the dead, although they themselves do not benefit. The King only does it to express in public his love of the deceased Queen, and his sorrow at her death.'1 7 Despite such a critical attitude, Frederick William was unable to defy court convention on the death of his father in 1713. For Frederick I he arranged a funeral in accordance with his father's desire for opulence and craving for recognition.

Frederick William I wanted to be buried in a way that reflected his religious understanding of himself-that is, he wanted it to become apparent that, as he put it, he appeared before God as 'a great and poor sinner', 'seeking mercy from God and his Saviour'. 18 Consequently, in 1734 he ordered that a coffin be prepared for him, 'without decorations on it, but quite simple and plain, with a lid that is to be quite flat'. 19 Two days before his death the King had the coffin placed in his room,

16 Georg Schnath (ed.), Briefivechsel der Kurfiirstin Sopme von Hannover mit dem PreujJischen Kiinigshause (Berlin, 1927), 68.

17 Ibid. is Von Caemmerer (ed.), Testamente der Kurfiirsten, 392 ff. 19 Rogge, Komgliche Hqf urn/ Garnisonskfrche, 19-20.

ECKHART HELLMUTH

commenting: 'I will sleep peacefully in this bed.'20 On the same day, 29 May 1740, he laid down the procedure to be followed after his death.21 While Frederick I had left his successor only rudimentary instructions for what was to happen after his demise, Frederick William I gave the Crown Prince very detailed directions for the preparation and arrangement of his funeral.

Frederick William died on 31 May 1740, around midday. He had previously taken leave of his family and transferred the busi-ness of government to his son. In the present context, however, it is important to note that since 27 May, two clergymen had been at his side, preparing the monarch for his demise. These were the Calvinist court preacher Christian Cochius, and the Lutheran preacher at the garrison church, Oesfeld. Each wrote a report on the monarch's final days, and both convey one thing very clearly: the intensity with which Frederick William strug-gled to gain the grace of God.22 For four days the monarch prayed, recited psalms, and sang chorales. Above all, however, he conversed with the two clergymen, focusing on the question of how he could achieve eternal life. In these conversations, the clergymen did not give him an easy time. Cochius, in particular, affected him deeply by initially trying to deny any certainty of salvation. When Frederick William pointed to the deeds pleasing to God which he had committed during his life, Cochius would not acknowledge that they counted. Only when the monarch most profoundly repented of his sins was he satisfied. Thus we read in his report, in which he referred to himself in the third person:

20 Karl Ludwig von Pollnitz, Memoiren zur Lebens- und Regieru11{5sgeschichte tier vier /etzten Regenten des Preuj]ischen Staats mit einem berichtigenden Anha1/{Je, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1791), ii. 552; Reinhold Koser, Geschichte Friedrichs des Groj]en, 4 vols. (4th edn.; Stuttgart, 1913), i. 180.

21 'Instruktion Friedrich Wilhelm I. bzgl. seiner Bestattung (Potsdam, 21. Mai 1740)', printed as 'Die von dem hochseel Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I. dem damaligen Kron-prinzen, nachherigen Konig Friedrich II. ertheilte Instruktion zu seiner Leichenbestat-tung', O.ffi;:.ier-Lesebuch historisch-militiirischen lnhalts, mit untennischten interessanten Anekdoten, herausgegeben von einer Gesellschafi mililiirischer Freunde, 3 (1794), 155-65. See also GSA BPH Rep. 46 no. 79, pp. 159-60: Niederschrift der Verfiigung Friedrich Wilhelms I. ilber seine Bestattung und die Regierungsiibemahme durch seinen Nachfolger, Potsdam 29 May 1740.

22 GSA BPH Rep. 46 K 8, fos. 28::J: Extrait de la Relation des dernieres heures du Roi Frederic Guillaume, Faite par M.J. F. Oesfeld, Aumonier du Regiment du Roi, a Potsdam, en date du 17 deJuin 1740; ibid. fos. 22'-24v: Extrait de la relation des demieres heures de S. M. le Roy Frederic Guillaume faite par M. Cochius son Chappelain a Potsdam, en date du 17 Juin 1740.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings 457

A few moments later the King shouted: Ah! I am an evil person! Sire, Mr Cochius replied, that is a confession which uplifts me greatly; it is good to hear a great King confessing himself openly and without disguise to be a great sinner in front of God. Nor can the creature humble itself too much before its Creator, or the evildoer before his Judge; we are a thousand times more culpable than we know.23

In this dialogue, Cochius pushed Frederick William so far that he came to see the serious illnesses with which he had been afflicted since 1734 as a martyrdom which was pleasing to God and brought closer the salvation of his soul. At the end, accord-ing to Cochius's report, Frederick William had renounced all the things of this world, and had dedicated himself entirely to the love of God: 'I have separated my heart, the King told him, from all the objects of my affections, from my spouse, my children, my army, from the whole world! How blessed you are, Sire, responded Mr Cochius, this is the sign of the Faithful, that he loves God more than anything else.'24 Allegedly, Frederick William's last words were: 'LordJesus, I live for you, I die for you. In life and in death you are my gain.'25

Immediately after his death, his body was treated as Frederick William had decreed. In the instructions he had left for his funeral, he had said: 'As soon as I am dead, I want my body to be washed, dressed in a clean shirt, and laid on a wooden table. I am to be shaved, made clean, covered with a shroud, and left in this way for a number of hours.'26 This was a gesture of the deepest piety, for he clearly wanted his corpse to be dressed as a penitent. Frederick William had also left further instructions about what was to happen to his corpse. Thus he had decreed that an autopsy was to be performed on him in the presence of high-ranking generals and a number of doctors in order to estab-lish the cause of death. But he had added expressly: 'But I

23 'Quelques moments apres le Roi s'ecria: Ah!Je suis un mechant homme! Sire Jui repondit M. Cochius, voila un aveu, qui m'edifie beaucoup; ii est beau d'entendre un grand Roi s'avouer Ouvertement et sans deguisement, un grand pecheur devant Dieu. Jamais la creature ne peut trop s'humilier devant son Createur, ni le criminel devant son Juge; nous somes mille fois plus coupables que nous ne saurions'; ibid. fo. 23•.

24 jai detache mon coeur, Jui dit le Roi, de tous Jes objets de mes affections, de mon Epouse, de mes enfants, de mon Armee, du monde entier! Quel bonheur pour vous, Sire, reprit M. Cochius c'est la marque du Fidele, ii aime Dieu par dessus tout'; ibid. fo. 24•.

25 Pollnitz, Memoiren zur Lebens- und &gimtngsgeschi.chte, ii. 565. 26 'Die von dem hochseel Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I. dem damaligen Kronprinzen,

nachherigen Konig Friedrich II. ertheilte lnstruktion zu seiner Leichenbestattung', 155.

ECKHART HELLMUTH

absolutely forbid anything to be removed from my body.' And further: 'Only as much water and mucus as possible should be taken out of the body; then it is to be washed clean, and dressed properly in my best uniform.'27 After these instructions had been followed, the body lay in state for a few days in the palace. This, incidentally, did not accord with his wishes, for Frederick William had stated that he wanted to be buried on the following day. However, the coffin was not closed and taken to the garri-son church, escorted by a large contingent of troops, until 4 June. There the entombment took place in the vault which had been prepared for this purpose. The procession from the palace in Potsdam to the garrison church was accompanied by a mili-tary band playing the chorale 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden' on wind instruments, in accordance with Frederick William's wishes.28

The obsequies that took place after Frederick William's death also had another, quite different aspect. They can be seen as a theatrical production designed less to demonstrate mourning than the power of the Prussian crown, for the tradition of royal state obsequies (pompe funèbre) had by no means disappeared in the Spartan Prussia of the eighteenth century. Thus an elaborate mourning room had been set up in the palace at Potsdam. 29 All the rooms and staircases that led to this mourning room had been lined in black and decorated with silver candelabra. The room itself had received the same treatment. A contemporary observer described the situation as follows: 'In the mourning room one first saw the royal coat of arms . . . artfully embroi-dered in gold, and under it an armchair intended for the wax effigy of the late king.'30 Behind this rose the castmm doloris bearing the ceremonial coffin, which was empty. On it lay Frederick William's battle emblems, that is, helmet, dagger, command staff, sash, collar, and golden spurs. To the left of the

27 Ibid. 156. 28 Ibid. 157. 29 'Beschreibung des Leichenbegangnisses Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I., am Mittwoch

den 22stenjunius 1740', Qffizicr-Lesebuch historisch-militiirischen Inhalts, 3 (1794), 16y-73; see also .Neue Europiiische Fama, 61 (1740), 15"""32, at 19---20;Johann Gottfried Mittag, Leben und Absterben Friedrich Wzlhelmi, Konigs in Preujlen und Churfiirst.ens zu Brandenburg (Halle, 1740 ), 21 8; David Fassmann, Leben und Thaten des Allerdurcldauchtigst.en und GrefJmiichtigst.en Ko"nigs von Preiiflen Friderici Wzlhelmi bis auf gegenwiirtige ,?_ei.t aufrichtig beschrieben, 2 vols. (Hamburg, 1741), ii. 826,.

30 'Beschreibung des Leichenbegangnisses Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I.', 166.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings 459

coffin lay the insignia of the Prussian monarch-crown, sceptre, the imperial orb, and sword. To the right of the coffin were placed his insignia as Elector of the Holy Roman Empire (elec-toral hat, sword, etc.). Behind the coffin hung the official portrait of Frederick William I. The whole arrangement represented, in the words of Ernst Kantorowicz, 'the immortal body politic'. 31

The wax effigy of Frederick William I,32 in particular, symbol-ized the continuity of rule which extended beyond the death of a monarch.

The official burial service took place on 22 June, that is, more than three weeks after Frederick William's death. On this day an impressive procession, accompanied by the thunder of canons and funeral music, transferred the ceremonial coffin from the Potsdam palace to the garrison church. 33 In front of the coffin marched military units, the court domestic staff, clergy, and high court and state officials, who carried Frederick William I's insignia of rule. Immediately behind the coffin followed the family led by Frederick II, members of the Prussian aristocracy, ministers and other high officials, and, finally, the magistrates of Potsdam and Berlin. The splendour and pomp of this procession clearly left a deep impression on contemporaries. Thus a Prussian aristocrat, reporting these events in a letter at the time, wrote: 'The variety of uniforms, and the large number of officers ... were the loveliest sight in the world. '34

The garrison church itself had been elaborately prepared for the burial service. The whole building had been hung with black. 35 It was illuminated by I ,500 lamps, and decorated with a large number of royal coats of arms. In the church, the coffin

31 Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The Kzng's Two Bodies: A Stuefy in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton, 1957; repr. Princeton, 1981), 312.

32 Neue Europaische Fama, 61 (1740), 15-g2, at 19. 33 Descriptions of the funeral procession are to be found in GSA BPH, Rep. 47 K III

no. 1: Reglement zu dem bevorstehenden Leichenbegangnis; Neue Europiiische Fama, 61 (1740), 15-g2, at 21-4; Fassmann, Leben und Thaten, ii. 828-go; 'Beschreibung des Leichenbegangnisses Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I.', 1681 0.

34 Jakob Friedrich von Bielfeld, Friedrich tier Gr<ifle und sein Hof oder So wares vor IOO

Jahrer,_· In vertrauten Brief en des Freiherm von Bu!feM geschruben von q38 bis q6o (Breslau, 1838), 171.

35 GSA BPH Rep. 47 K III no. 1: Reglement zu dem bevorstehenden Leichenbegangnis; Neue Europiiische Fama, 61 (1740), 15-g2, at 24--6; Fassmann, Leben und Thaten, ii. 830-1, 833-4; 'Beschreibung des Leichenbegii.ngnisses Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I.', 171-g.

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was placed on a pedestal under a canopy carried by Doric columns. Two huge paintings had been placed behind the catafalque. One depicted a female figure carrying a lamp that was going out; the other an angel flying up to heaven bearing the name of the deceased King. On each side of the pedestal stood four statues, representing the territories of the Prussian crown. On the pillars of the church were emblems celebrating the virtues of the deceased, including Castitas, Diligentia, Oeconomia, Experientia, Sapientia, Nominis Splendor, Pietas, Constantia, Religio, Temperantia, Valor, and Vigilantia. In line with Frederick William's wishes, the funeral sermon was based on the biblical text: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith' (2 Tim. 4: 7 and 8), and the chorale 'Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten' was sung. Incidentally, similar services were held in all other Prussian churches on that day. At the garrison church in Potsdam, a mourning cantata, a setting of a text written by a Lutheran pastor, was also performed. The ceremonies held on this 22 June had by no means been stripped of their religious content. Rather, an attempt was made to achieve a balance between Christian mourning rituals and elements that pointed to the Hohenzollern dynasty and the power of the Prussian state.

II

Forty-six years after these events, Frederick the Great died. In contrast to the death of his father, no member of his family, but above all, no clergyman was present at his death on the night of 16-17 August 1786 at Sanssouci. 36 Instead, his personal doctor, Christian Gottlieb Selle, assisted by a few lackeys, helped Frederick through his final hours. Also present, in a side room off the death chamber, were two high-ranking generals who were close to Frederick, and one of the highest Prussian officials, the cabinet minister Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, who stopped the clock at 2.20 and closed the dead monarch's eyes. It

36 Accounts of Frederick the Great's final hours can be found in, among others, Koser, Geschiclue Friedrichs des Groflen, iii. 546 ff.; Johannes Kunisch, Friedrich de, Grofle: Der Konig und seine Zeit (Munich, 2004), 528 ff.

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is alleged that in the hour of his death he sighed: 'La montagne est passee, nous irons mieux.'

Frederick had faced his death with stoic calmness, probably because as someone who was deeply alienated from the Christian belief in revelation, he did not believe in an afterlife. This also meant that he firmly rejected the notion of divine judgement, deeply rooted in Christian faith, and especially the idea of hell as the place of the damned. In his reflections in the form of a poem entitled 'Über die leeren Schrecken des Todes und das Bangen vor einemjenseits' (On the empty terrors of death and fear of the hereafter) we read: 'Ein Traum der Ort der Schmerzen, wo jeder Hoffnung bar, I Endlose Strafen abbüßt die bleiche Siinderschar. I Agyptens Wundermären sind gleicher Art wie die, I So unsere Väter glaubten, ein Werk der Phantasie, I Ein sinnlos Durcheinander, gestalt- und farbenreich, I Von Todesangst geschaffen und Pfaffenlist zugleich.'37 Frederick thought of 'das Totsein als einen tiefen Schlummer, Traumlos und ohn' Erwachen'.38 In his opinion, at death body and soul returned to the lap of nature whence they had sprung. He expressed it thus: 'lch werde dort, woraus ich dereinst hervorge-gangen, I Aufs neue untertauchen, allwo ich ewiglang I Mich schon einmal befunden, eh' ich ins Dasein sprang.'39

Reflections about his own death accompanied Frederick the Great throughout his life. 40 This also meant that he thought deeply about his own funeral. Early in the 1740s he had had a vault built at the eastern end of the garden terrace at Sanssouci, and this is where he wanted to be buried.41 The idea of a grave in nature is attested since antiquity. As a rule, rulers and aristo-crats of the early modem period were buried in consecrated earth or in the crypt of a church, but there were individual cases

37 'A dream the place of pain, where, devoid of hope, a pale host of sinners suffers endless punishment in atonement. Egypt's miracle tales are much the same as those which our fathers believed in, a work of fantasy, a senseless muddle, full of figures and colours, brought forth equally by fear of death and the tricks of priests.' From 'Ober die leeren Schrecken des Todes und das Bangen vor einemJenseits', in Gustav Berthold Volz (ed), I>ic Werke Friedrichs des Grq/Jen, ix. I>ichtungen (Berlin 1914), 124--s2, at 125.

38 'death as a deep sleep, dreamless and with no awakening'. Ibid 39 'I will immerse myself again whence once I emerged, where I already spent an eter-

nity before I sprang into life.' Ibid. 129. 40 Kunisch, Friedrich tier Grq/Je, 525--6. 41 Hans-Joachim Giersberg and Rolf-Herbert Kruger, I>ic Ruhestiitte Friedrichs des

Grq/Jen zy, Sanssouci ( 2nd edn.; Berlin, 1992 ).

ECKHART HELLMUTH

in which a sarcophagus in a park or in open countryside served as a burial place. The eighteenth century in particular had a number of prominent examples of such graves in nature.42 The tomb which Frederick the Great erected for himself, however, hardly fits into this tradition. It consisted of an underground vault, devoid of decoration, and lacking any monument above ground, such as a sarcophagus or pyramid, to indicate death or the identity of the person interred. Instead, Frederick had a white marble statue placed over the tomb reserved for himself. It represented the goddess of flowers, Flora, with the god of the wind, Zephyr. In addition, six busts of Roman emperors, which the Prussian king had acquired from the collection of Cardinal Polignac in 1742, were placed directly next to the tomb.

Not only did Frederick have this simple vault built for himself in the park of Sanssouci, but he also described precisely how he wanted to be laid to rest. His instructions deviated dramatically from the funeral ceremonial usual among the ruling houses of his time. In his personal wills, dated 1752 and 1769, and in two instructions of 1757 and 1758, Frederick specified that he wanted to be buried in the simplest form possible, without court conven-tions and church rites.43 Thus we read in his will of 1769: I am glad to return my life's breath to benevolent nature, which kindly lent it to me, and to allow my body to revert to the elements of which it is composed. I have lived as a philosopher, and want to be buried as one, without ostentation or pageantry, and without any ceremonies at all. I do not want my body to be opened or embalmed. Ifl die in Berlin or Potsdam, I do not want to be put on display to satisfy the idle curios-ity of the people; I want to be buried on the third day at midnight. I am to be brought to Sanssouci by the light of a lantern, without an entourage, and buried there quite simply at the height of the terrace, on the right hand side going up, in a vault which I have had erected there. Should I die while on a journey, I want my body to be buried wherever I am, and when the first frosts come, to be taken to Sanssouci without any ceremony.44

Thus Frederick the Great firmly distanced himself from the pompous, ostentatious funeral ceremonial still practised, even in

42 See e.g. H. M. Colvin, Archiiecture and the After-life (New Haven, 1991), 324 ff. 43 See e.g. von Caemmerer (ed.), T estommie der Kurfiirsten, 447 ff. 44 'Das Testament vom 8. Januar 1769', in Gustav Berthold Volz (ed.), Ausgewiihlte

Werke Friedrich des Gr'!flen, ii: Poliiische und philosophi.sche Schri.fien (Berlin, 1924), 75-8, at 75--6.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings

the 'enlightened' century, by a number of dynasties. Moreover, his idea of a funeral represented the end of the notion of the 'king's two bodies' which had permeated the history of the western monarchy up to this time, 45 for there was no longer a ritual to symbolize the permanence of the monarchy outlasting the death of the king. And, finally, the simple funeral, devoid of any religious symbolism, which the Prussian monarch planned for himself was also a renunciation of the idea of the divine right of kings.

This desire to be buried in the garden of Sanssouci had nothing in common with the Christian tradition, but this does not mean that Frederick planned an irreligious burial. The art historian Adrian von Buttlar has recently attempted to decode the horizon of meaning which provides the context for Frederick's plan.46 The key to understanding this plan, accord-ing to von Buttlar, is that Frederick the Great was a Freemason. His evidence for this is, among other things, a painting by Johann Christoph Frisch, depicting Frederick the Great with his friend, the Marquis d' Argens, watching as his tomb is being lined with bricks.47 Buttlar points out that this painting is full of Masonic symbolism. And indeed, we can find all the symbols that are important in Masonic rituals. These include the hammer, the trowel, the ruler, the hod, and the perpendicular. Moreover, there is a ladder, as a symbol of the steps towards the light. The figure of Frederick, according to von Buttlar, repre-sents the compass, which is so important in Masonic symbolism. His legs and walking stick represent the arms of the compass. And there is more: to the right of the Marquis d' Argens, who was considered by contemporaries to be an atheist, lies an untidy pile of stones. On Frederick's side, by contrast, there is a neatly stacked block of stones-symbol of ethical self-discipline and purified fellowship. This interpretation of Frisch's painting is not entirely unproblematic, because it was painted in 1802,

45 See Kantorowicz, The Kmg's Two Bodies. 46 Adrian von Buttlar, 'Sanssouci und der "Ewige Osten": Freimaurerische Aspekte

im Garten Friedrichs des GroBen', Die Gartenkunst, 6 (1994), 219---26; id., 'Das Grab im Garten: Zur naturreligiosen Deutung eines arkadischen Gartenmotivs', in Heinke Wunderlich (ed.), Landschaft und Landschaften im I8. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1995), 79-u9.

47 See Rainer Michaelis, 'Friedrich der GroBe und der Marquis d'Argens besichtigen den Gruftbau von Sanssouci: Ein Gemalde des Maiers Johann Christoph Frisch (1738-1815)',Ja/zrbuch.for Brandenburgische Landesgeschu:hte, 42 (1991), 102-ro.

ECKHART HELLMUTH

after Frederick's death. Von Buttlar therefore also points to a number of other factors which seem to support his thesis that Frederick the Great's grave was that of a Freemason. These include the iconography of Sanssouci park, which, in a number of sculptures, reveals a programme. Among other things, von Buttlar sees the statue of a youth worshipping the sun, which Frederick had placed in a pavilion right next to his tomb as early as 1747, as confirming his assumption. The emblem of the sun surrounded by an aureole, von Buttlar argues, is a sign of Masonic illumination. And, finally, he suggests, the position of the vault on the eastern side of the terrace at Sanssouci also points to the Masonic tradition, for the deceased Mason goes to the 'Eternal East' (in contrast to the Elysian Fields of antiquity, which lie in the west); for the Masons, the east, as the origin of light, is the seat of the Master. If we accept von Buttlar's argu-ment, it becomes clear that the plan which Frederick drew up for his own funeral was not irreligious. It is just that the religion it drew upon was not Christianity in the generally accepted sense.

Although Frederick had made his wishes clear beyond any doubt, they were not respected. The tomb in the park of Sanssouci remained empty. The tomb and the area around it provided a final resting place only for Frederick's eleven grey-hounds. Frederick's successor, Frederick William II (1786-97), simply ignored his uncle's last will and his desire for a simple burial in the garden of Sanssouci, and instead gave orders for an elaborate funeral, which was largely modelled on that of Frederick William 1.48 First, after Frederick's body had been rubbed down with spirit, he was laid out in state for a short time on his camp bed at Sanssouci. 49 (He was wearing a small hat, held on by a napkin tied around his chin, and was dressed in an old silk coat, his feet in large gout boots.) This brieflying-in-state at Sanssouci was intended to give members of the family and generals who had been close to him, officials, and domestic staff a chance to say farewell. At this point, too, a death mask was

48 GSA BPH Rep. 47 no. 70: Reglement zu dem Leichenbegangnisse Seiner Hochstseligen Majestat Friderich des Zweiten, Konigs von PreuBen, so zu Potsdam gehalten werden soil, 3 Sept. 1786.

49 See esp. Paul Seidel's description of Crown Prince Frederick William, the later Frederick William III, in 'Bildliche Darstellungen Friedrichs des GroBen', Hohen<-ollcm-Jaltrbuch, 14 (19ro), 231 44, at 239 ff.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings

made (the first time that this had been done for a Prussian monarch). There was no autopsy.

On 18 August, the corpse of Frederick the Great, now dressed in uniform, was put on public display for a few hours at the palace in Potsdam in an open coffin, 50 although this had been expressly forbidden by Frederick. There were said to have been a few thousand visitors. On the evening of the same day a funeral procession transferred the coffin to the garrison church; soldiers provided a guard of honour between the palace and the church. At the church, two clergymen received the coffin, and the organ intoned the chorale 'Dein sind wir Gott in Ewigkeit'. Thereafter, Frederick's coffin was placed in the vault next to that of his father.

What followed was almost a copy of the mourning ceremonies of 1740. Thus a suite of mourning rooms was again set up in the palace, and opened to the public for a number of days. 51 There were said to have been 60,000 visitors. 52 Visitors walked through a flight of three rooms on a black carpet which muflled their footsteps, and were transported into a dream world. The first room, whose dimensions were about 25 by 15 metres, was lined with black. Hundreds of candles-as in the two following rooms--illuminated the darkness. 'A holy shudder', commented a contemporary, 'went through everyone who entered this room for the first time. '53 Down the length of the room were four imitation Corinthian columns on each side. The room was deco-rated with silver wall lamps, chandeliers adorned with white roses, flags, and helmets, and garlands of imitation oak leaves and laurel. The next room, known as the small presence chamber, contained Frederick the Great's audience chair, on which was placed a crown. Hanging on the wall behind it was the coat of arms embroidered in silver, and above it an eagle with spread wings. There was no effigy. Passing two guards, the visitor finally reached the room containing the empty ceremonial

50 See [Kletschke], Letzte Stunden und Leichenbegiingnifl Friedrichs des <:,weiten, Ki>nigs von Preuflen (Potsdam, 1786), 20 ff.; Friedrich Laske, Die Trauerfeierlichkeiten for Friedrich den Gro.fJen (Berlin, 1912), 8.

51 Descriptions of the mourning suite can be found in [Kletschke], Lel:i:.te Stunden, 37 ff.; Heinrich Ludewig Manger, Baugeschichte von Potsdam, besonders unter der Regicrung Kiinig Friedrichs des Z,weiten, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1789-go), ii. 505 ff.; Laske, Trauerjeierlich/ceiten, 15 ff.

52 This figure is given by Laske, Trauerjeierlichfceiten, 44 n. 73. 53 [Kletschke], Lel:i:.te Stunden, 39.

ECKHART HELLMUTH

coffin. The room was lined with violet-a colour used at the funerals of sovereign kings. The walls of this room had been decorated with candelabra and silver ornaments in 'Arabic style'. In the back part of the room rose a structure which referred to the tradition of the castrum doloris. The ceremonial coffin was elevated on a platform under a canopy, and surrounded by the insignia of the Prussian monarchy. As at the funeral of Frederick William I, the collar, sash, dagger, command staff, and spurs lay on the coffin. Behind it hung the official portrait of the deceased. The underside of the canopy was embroidered with Frederick the Great's motto, 'Suum cuique', and a black eagle. From the corners of the canopy black lengths of material, edged with ermine, were draped around two obelisks, which bore oval representations symbolizing the begin-ning and the end of Frederick the Great's life. Thus one obelisk depicted a spirit descending from heaven and alighting on earth. Underneath was written: 'Terris datus.' On the other obelisk could be seen an eagle flying towards heaven from a funeral pyre going up in smoke, over the inscription: 'Coelo Redditus.'

Ong September, Frederick the Great's ceremonial coffin was taken to the garrison church in a procession, whose details were largely the same as those for the procession of 1740.54 It should just be mentioned that religious music also played a prominent role in this procession. Thus, among other things, the chorales 'O Jesus Christ, meines Lebens Licht', and 'Jesus meine Zuversicht' were played. In contrast to the funeral ceremony of Frederick William I, no sermon was preached. However, the idea of intercession for the deceased was not entirely missing. One of the inscriptions inside the church read: 'Voris jam nunc a vocari' (Lord, graciously hear our prayers). The Christian tradi-tion, it seems, could not be dispensed with even in the case of a monarch who himself no longer professed it.

To be sure, however, these obsequies had another dimension, which was expressed mainly in the temporary structure which was erected inside the garrison church. In the central space of this church, which had also been lined in black and decorated with thousands of lights, a twelve-metre-high Temple of Immortality had been erected to house the ceremonial coffin and

54 [Kletschke], Let;:,t,e Stum/en, 27 ff., 69 ff.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings

the royal insignia.55 On top of the temple was an eagle about to take wing. Along the front wall of the temple stood four statues, each two metres high and dressed in classical costume. They represented the virtues of the ruler: steadfastness, bravery, politi-cal wisdom, and fairness. Large silver, branching candelabra had been placed between the columns, 'so that', as a contemporary described the impression created, 'from a distance, the temple seemed to be engulfed in flames'. 56 In addition there were incense burners in classical style. The whole structure, referring so strongly to classical antiquity, must have seemed like an alien intrusion in the setting of a Christian church. This was no longer a castrum doloris, which, in the words of Liselotte Popelka, was the site of the 'ascension of the soul to heaven'.57 The purpose of this structure was primarily to celebrate the great Prussian monarch as the bearer of virtues important to the state. Heaven still existed, but it was no longer the destination of those who received God's divine grace; heaven was now the imagined home of the virtuous. During the ceremonies, a banner hung over Frederick's vault bearing the following inscription: 'Immerito mori coelum recludit virtus' (virtue unlocks heaven for those who never deserved to die). And, characteristically, the sermons that were preached for the monarch up and down the country in the days that followed on the biblical text 'I have made thee a great name' (1 Chr. 18: 3) hardly mentioned Frederick as a Christian. Rather, he was styled a man of virtue.58 In this context, virtue meant two things. First, it referred to civilian virtues such as concern for the general good, justice, doing one's duty, a capac-ity for tireless work in the office of monarch, goodness, and wisdom; it also meant the military virtues such as ruthlessness, perspicacity, courage, and the capacity to suffer.

55 Descriptions of the Temple can be found in [Kletschke], Letzte Stunden, 58 ff.; Manger, BaugeschichJe von Potsdam, 523 ff.; Laske, Traue,jei.erlichlceiten, 21 ff.

56 Johann Georg Krtinitz, Okorwmisch-t,echnologische Encycloptidie oder allgemeines System tier Staats-, Stadt-, Haus- und l.andwirtscha.ft, wie auch tier Erdheschreibung, Kunst- und NaturgeschichJe, in alphabetischer Ordnung, pt. 73 (2nd edn.; Berlin, 1798), 659.

57 Liselotte Popelka, 'Trauergeriiste', Romisch Historische Mitteilungen, 10 (1966/7), 184--gg, at 197.

58 See e.g. Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack, Gediichtnispredigt auf den allerdurcldauchtigsten, greflmiichtigsten Konig und Herrn, Herm Friderich den ,Zweiten, Konig von PreujJen (Berlin, no year); Wilhelm Abraham Teller, Predigt zum Gediichtnis des Hochstseligen Konigs Friedrich des ,Zweyten gehalten in tier Kirche zu St. Petri am IO. Sept. q86 (Berlin, no year).

ECKHART HELLMUTH

To a certain extent, these were also the leitmotivs of the Latin mourning cantata, specially composed for the occasion, which was performed during the ceremony by an orchestra numbering almost seventy musicians, a choir of fifty, and nine soloists.59

This mourning cantata was entirely devoid of all religious content, providing instead, a unique apologia for Frederick the Great. Among other things, we read there:

Which man, which father, snatched from his people, is mourned with public tears? The people's cry of lamentation that is filling the air--whence does it come? He, whom even the Sun cannot wish to see bigger, despite the immense space which it illuminates-he, King Frederick, is sinking, eternally mourned, into the grave ... But his fiery spirit breaks through the bonds of the grave; he is offered the seat which Virtue reserves for the spirits of the eternally blessed. Your name, Frederick, had already reached the threshold of the heights of Olympus before you even joined the Heavenly Ones, and graciously allowed our solemn vows to reach you. 60

This apologia was underlaid with references to Frederick the Great's practice of government. Thus, in this cantata, he was celebrated as, among other things, a military hero, a just sover-eign, and a promoter of land improvement.

These elaborate and ostentatious funeral ceremonies were addressed to the subjects of the Prussian crown. Although there were high-ranking foreign aristocrats, such as the Prince of Anhalt-Kothen, the Prince of Wiirttemberg, and the Duke of Holstein-Beck in the mourning procession,61 the court commis-sioned no expensive documentation to record the event in word and image for the benefit of the courts of other territories. The obsequies were quite clearly directed at a broad public which was relatively open socially. Thus Consistory Councillor Kletschke, who in 1786 wrote a detailed account of Frederick the Great's funeral, described the lying-in-state as follows: 'Every resident, from the highest to the lowest, citizen and soldier, in short, everyone could go there and weep tears of the warmest thanks for all the good things that their beloved sovereign had

59 See report in Koniglu:h-prwiligurte Berlinische :{,eitung von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen, 109tes Stuck. Dienstags, den 12ten September 1786.

60 Ibid. The quotation here is an English rendering of the German translation by Karl WIihelm Ramler printed there.

61 [Kletschke], l.etzte Stunden, 78"""9.

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings

done for them. '62 It is equally remarkable that according to contemporary estimates the mourning suite was visited by about 23,000 people. 63 And the funeral procession turned into a public spectacle. Thus we read in Kletschke's account:

Especially large stands to accommodate the enormous numbers of spectators had been erected in front of almost all the houses in the wide street and in all the squares in the area where the solemn funeral procession had to pass. Almost all the roofs in this street had been uncovered, with structures built partly on these and partly projecting from the windows, and all the windows were filled to a depth of three or four people-yet there was still a fear of big crowds on the street. 64

The obsequies after the death of Frederick the Great raise a number of issues which have never been clarified. These include the question of what motivated Frederick William II to override the clearly stated will of his uncle with respect to his funeral. The answers which have been suggested are not satisfactory. Kletschke attributed Frederick William's behaviour to some extent to ignorance. Thus he writes:

It cannot be established with complete certainty whether it was the late King's true and serious intention to be buried at Sanssouci. There are many circumstances that make the matter doubtful. It could be that he [Frederick the Great] once expressed this wish. But it was just a passing fancy, the sort of thing one does not imagine being fulfilled to the letter when one believes one is near to death, and Frederick the Great was the last person to spend his time thinking about the place where he would one day decay. Enough! Because there was nothing certain available, His Majesty ordered that he should be laid to rest next to his late father, Frederick William I, under the pulpit of the garrison church.65

And Friedrich Laske, who in 1912 attempted a precise recon-struction of the funeral ceremonies, replied as follows:

It seemed an obvious thought to lay the son to rest next to his father, to place the genius of a ruler well versed in war next to his predecessor on the throne, to whose creative power and wisdom he owed the creation of the instrument of the army which he used for his wars. It was felt that these two rulers who, both historically and with respect to the develop-

62 Ibid. 22. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 70. 65 Ibid. 23.

470 ECKHART HELLMUTH

ment of the power of the state, formed an inseparable unit, representing premise and conclusion as it were, should be spatially united after death. They were both to find their final resting place in the church erected for the Household Troops drawn from their glorious army. The King's command cannot be interpreted in any other way.66

This way of arguing derives more from the logic of the Borussian historiography of the Wilhelmine era than sober reflection. The question remains, therefore, why such elaborate funeral ceremonies were retained in Prussia as late as the end of the eighteenth century. This question is all the more relevant because during the eighteenth century other monarchies went in other directions. For example, the funeral ceremonies held in eighteenth-century England for members of the royal family became increasingly private (reduced access to the ceremonies, elimination of the castrum doloris). Ultimately, we can only specu-late as to why Prussia retained such a strong hold on tradition. It could be argued, although such a statement is almost banal, that there is something like a power of tradition. In this particular case, bringing this tradition up to date seemed the obvious course to take because it would allow Frederick William II to share to some extent in the prestige and special aura surround-ing his uncle. In addition, Frederick William was a deeply reli-gious man, firmly committed to Protestant orthodoxy, and burial according to Christian rites must have been something like a duty for him. Further, we can also refer to the liturgical charac-ter of the ceremonies, which John Adamson has so powerfully indicated. And finally, the new cult of monarchy as it developed at the end of the eighteenth century may have played a part. The work of Linda Colley67 has made us increasingly aware that at this time the monarchy was undergoing a re-evaluation. This also applied to Prussia. From the celebration of Frederick the Great in the context of his funeral service it was but a short step to an apotheosis as depicted, for example, by Daniel Chodowiecki in one of his famous copperplate engravings. Here motifs from antiquity were used to celebrate a man who had sacrificed himself for the Prussian state, who had distinguished

66 Laske, Traueifeierlu:hkeiJen, 1 I. 67 Linda Colley, 'The Apotheosis of George Ill: Loyalty, Royalty and the British

Nation 1760-1820', Past and Present, 102 (1984), 94-129; ead., Britons: Forging the Nation, £701 1837 (New Haven, 1992).

The Funerals of the Prussian Kings 471

himself, above all, as a war hero. Chodowiecki's work formed part of a cult of Frederick the Great which developed with great intensity after 1786. With patriotic connotations, this cult went beyond the person of the monarch. 68

To be sure, there is a completely different way of reading the obsequies of 1786. In their classic studies, anthropologists such as Arnold van Gennep and Robert Hertz have pointed out that the death of an individual, and especially a great man, is perceived by society as a threat, evoking the possibility of chaos and social collapse. 69 The death of an individual inflicts a wound on the social body, and ritual is required to heal this wound and restore the social balance. According to van Gennep, all rituals can be divided into three phases: (1) separation; (2) transition; and (3) incorporation. In van Gennep's view, the first phase is the simplest in the case of a burial, while the rites of the second phase are sometimes so protracted and complex that we must concede them a certain degree of autonomy.70 The rites of the third phase, in which the deceased is incorporated into the next world, are the most developed, and they are accorded the greatest signif-icance. 71 It is not difficult to distinguish these three phases in the funeral ceremonies of Frederick the Great. The march past his open coffin in the palace at Potsdam corresponds to the first phase of separation; the procession to the garrison church repre-sents the transitional phase; while the service in this church completes incorporation into a new state. From this perspective, the ritual of 1786 is an act of healing for the social body.

Avner Ben-Amos has used van Gennep's model to interpret state funerals during the French Third Republic. 72 He has not

68 Edman Hellmuth, 'A Monument to Frederick the Great: Architecture, Politics, and the State in Late Eighteenth-Century Prussia', in John Brewer and Eckhart Hellmuth /eds.), R.ethinking Leviathan: The Eighteenth-Century State in Britain and Gennany (Oxford, 1999), 317-41; id., 'Die "Wiedergeburt" Friedrichs des GroBen und der "Tod furs Vaterland": Zurn patriotischen Selbstverstandnis in PreuBen in der zweiten Ha.Ifie des 18.Jahrhunderts', Aujkliirung, JO (1998), 23-54.

69 Arnold van Gennep, The Rites ef Passage (Chicago, 196o); Robert Hertz, Death and the Right Hand (London, 1960).

70 Van Gennep, Rites ef Passage, 146. 71 Ibid. 72 Avner Ben-Amos, Funerals, Poatics, and Memory m Modern France, 178g-1996 (Oxford,

2000); id., 'Der letzte Gang des groBen Mannes: Die Staatsbegrabnisse in Frankreichs Dritter Republik', in Etienne Franc;ois, Hannes Siegrist, andJakob Vogel (eds.), Nation und Emotion: Deutschland und Franlr:reich im Vergleich. 19. und 20. ]ahrhundert (Gottingen, 1995), 232-51.

472 ECKHART HELLMUTH

only identified the individual phases of the funerals in these terms, but he has also examined the function of these rituals of mourning. Thus we read: The function of the state funeral as a rite of transition was to ensure a gentle transfer of the great man from the world of the living to the afterworld. . . . At the state funeral, the great man was conveyed from the profane realm into the holy one, and underwent a radical transfor-mation during the ceremony .... No longer a person, he became a sign standing for the abstract and eternal values of the Republic, which were materialized in him .... The dead man [became] the forefather ... who continued to inspire the living with his example.73

To some extent, this is precisely what happened with Frederick the Great. A significant part of the funeral rites of 1786 were designed to convey Frederick into 'secular eternity' (Avner Ben-Amos). To be sure, in this case the process took place not in the republican context of the nineteenth century, but in a monarchy at the end of the eighteenth. To draw such an analogy between republic and monarchy, however, is by no means as ahistorical as it might appear at first glance. Avner Ben-Amos himself points out that the idea of 'subjective immortality', that is, living on in the memory of following generations and of society, was an idea of the Enlightenment. This is where the idea first spread that by respecting future generations, one could achieve immortality. The sumptuous funeral rites of 1786, as it were, passed historical judgement on Frederick the Great. The Prussian monarch was accepted into the community of great men. The transformation process required an elaborate ritual, theatrical staging, and complex spatial and temporal arrange-ments in order to allow the extraordinary nature of the deceased to emerge. And there had to be witnesses to attest to the fact that the deceased had attained 'secular eternity'. Thus it was no coin-cidence that the public played such a big part at Frederick the Great's funeral. The obsequies of 1786, therefore, were anything but a backward-looking act of nostalgia. Rather, they pointed forward to the future cult of the great man.

73 Ben-Amos, 'Der letzte Gang des groBen Mannes', 235-6.