Frederick the Great

choi

Nicholas Kulish, Germany Permits Itself to Celebrate Prussian King. New York Times, Jan 25, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/2 ... 300th-birthday.html

Note:
(a) Frederick the Great
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
(1712-1786; born in Berlin; reign 1740-1786; mother Sophia whose father, George, Elector of Hanover, was the heir of Queen Anne of Great Britain and succeeded as King George I of Great Britain in 1714; section 3.9 Later years [died in Sanssouci palace, where he was reburied in 1991 according to his will)
(b) Potsdam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam
(capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region; situated 24 km (15 mi) southwest of Berlin city centre; The name "Potsdam" originally seems to have been "Poztupimi" from a West Slavonic name meaning "beneath the oaks", highlighting the area's many grand oak trees)

Quote: "it [Potsdam] was chosen in 1660 as the hunting residence of Frederick William I[father of the Great] * * * Later, the city became a full residence of the Prussian royal family. The majestic buildings of the royal residences were built mainly during the reign of Frederick the Great. One of these is the Sanssouci Palace (French: 'without cares,' by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1744), famed for its formal gardens and Rococo interiors.

(c) Silesia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesia
(a historical region located mostly in [present-day] Poland; rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas; Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław; section 1 Etymology; In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession [1740-1748; from Austria])
(d) Seven Years’ War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years’_War
(1756-1763; This war is often said to be a continuation of the War of the Austrian Succession)
(e) Partitions of Poland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitions_of_Poland
(by the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria; in 1772, 1793 and 1795; With this [the last] partition, the independent Polish state ceased to exist)

Please check the map. Obviously Prussia needed the first partition to reach the present-day Germany.
Prussia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia
(section 4 Kingdom of Prussia [1701-1918]: The state of Brandenburg-Prussia became commonly known as "Prussia", although most of its territory, in Brandenburg, Pomerania, and western Germany, lay outside of Prussia proper; he [Frederick the Great] built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia (1772), an act that geographically connected the Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper)
(f) Renaissance man (n): "a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas"
(g) Voltaire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
(François-Marie Arouet; 1694-1778; better known by the pen name Voltaire; section 1.1 The name "Voltaire")
(h) For "a sow’s ear," see
"You can't make a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear." Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... -out-of-a-sow-s-ear
(i) potato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
(Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century; The potato originated in the region of southern Peru. Potatoes were first domesticated in Peru between 8000 BC and 5000 BC)
(j) For three-cornered hat, see tricorne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorne
(k) The report stated, "Dirk Gieseke, 49, wore white gloves to honor Frederick, a fellow Mason."

"The king joined the Freemasons in 1738."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
(l) For Breslau, see Wrocław
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wroc%C5%82aw
(Wrocław in Polish is identical to Breslau in German; section 1 Etymology)