On 5 November 1757, Prussia seemed to be finished. At Rossbach a superior French army marched on and threatened to eliminate Prussia as a European power.

Contrary to expectations, Frederick the Great won, which he owed above all to the skill of his young general von Seydlitz.

With his hard-won victories, Frederick the Great solved his self-created problems at the expense of his subjects – what else is new for the observer of contemporary politics?

How would history have gone without his gambling – without his invasion of Silesia, without his pointless provocation of Tsarina Elisabeth (at an evening round table!)?

No war and no trauma in every generation? No “German mission” of Prussia? No 1871? No World War I? No cultural and social decadence?

[1] Berthold Seewald: Friedrichs Ass hieß Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, WELT, 5.11.2017