Sexuality of Frederick the Great

It is almost certain that Prussian monarch Frederick the Great was primarily homosexual, and that his sexual orientation was central to his life.^[1][2][3][4] However, the nature of his actual relationships remains speculative.^[5] At age 16, Frederick seems to have embarked upon a youthful affair with Peter Karl Christoph von Keith, a 17-year-old page of his father. Rumors of the liaison spread in the court, and the "intimacy" between the two boys provoked the comments of his sister, Wilhelmine, who wrote, "Though I had noticed that he was on more familiar terms with this page than was proper in his position, I did not know how intimate the friendship was."^[6] Rumors finally reached King Frederick William, who cultivated an ideal of ultramasculinity in his court, and derided his son's effeminate tendencies. As a result, Keith was dismissed from his service to the king and sent away to a regiment by the Dutch border, while Frederick was sent to Wusterhausen in order to "repent of his sin".^[7] King Frederick William may have thought that Frederick's relationship with Hans Hermann von Katte was also romantic, a suspicion which may have played a role in Katte receiving a death sentence.^[8] While confined to Kustrin after the Katte affair, Frederick formed an intimate friendship with Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, whom Frederick romantically corresponded with and demonstrated frequent concern for. Fredersdorf initially became Frederick's valet, and when Frederick became king he was provided with an estate and acted as unofficial prime minister.^[9]

Frederick's first interview with the philosopher Voltaire (left) in the Duchy of Cleves^[10]

Even during his lifetime, much of European society assumed Frederick was homosexual.^[11] When Frederick was in Potsdam, he spent much of his time at Sanssouci with a circle that was exclusively male,^[12] and during Frederick's lifetime the phrase les Potsdamists was used throughout Europe to describe homosexual courtiers.^[13] In addition, William Hogarth's painting The Toilette may include a satirical depiction of Frederick as a flautist next to a mythological painting in which Zeus, in the form of an eagle, is abducting his male lover Ganymede^[14] – thereby publicly outing him as a homosexual as early as 1744.^[15]

Frederick also filled his palaces with erotic artworks that reflected his longing for homosexual relationships.^[16] The palace gardens also included a Temple of Friendship (built as a memorial to his sister, Wilhelmina), which celebrate the homoerotic attachments of Greek Antiquity, and which is decorated with portraits of Orestes and Pylades, amongst others.^[17] In the New Palace, a showcase palace that was also located on the grounds of Sansouci, Frederick kept the fresco Ganymede Is Introduced to Olympus by Charles Vanloo: "the largest fresco in the largest room in his largest palace", in the words of a biographer.^[18]

In 1739, Frederick met the Venetian philosopher Francesco Algarotti, and they were both infatuated.^[19] Frederick planned to make him a count. Challenged by Algarotti that northern Europeans lacked passion, Frederick penned for him an erotic poem, La Jouissance (ambiguously meaning The Pleasure or The Orgasm), which imagined what some have described as Algarotti in the throes of sexual intercourse with another partner, a female named Chloris.^[20] Not all Frederick scholars have interpreted the poem in such a way; it has also been suggested as describing a liaison between Frederick and Algarotti.^[20]It is known that similar poems were written by Frederick.^[21] However, none of these, including La Jouissance, unequivocally exposes him as being involved in such affairs, though they do highlight Frederick's homoerotic artistic tendencies.^[22]

Frederick also asked the French philosopher Voltaire to live with him at Sanssouci. Their literary correspondence and friendship, which spanned almost 50 years, began as a flirtation and maintained a mutual intellectual fascination.^[23] However, Frederick found Voltaire difficult to live with in person. In addition, Frederick was often annoyed by Voltaire's many quarrels with his other friends. Voltaire's angry attack on Maupertuis, the President of Frederick's academy, in the form of a pamphlet, Le Diatribe du Docteur Akakia (The Diatribe of Doctor Akakia) provoked Frederick to burn the pamphlet publicly and put Voltaire under house arrest, after which Voltaire left Prussia. When Voltaire left, he took with him poems by Frederick mocking other rulers that could compromise Frederick. Frederick had his agents detain Voltaire in Frankfurt am Main on his way back to France and forced him to surrender the poems.^[24] This episode, which has been called a "lover's quarrel",^[25] cooled Frederick and Voltaire's friendship. Eventually, they resumed their correspondence, aired their mutual recriminations, and remained on friendly terms until Voltaire's death.^[2]

However, when Voltaire began writing his Mémoires in the 1750s, Voltaire explicitly detailed the homosexuality of Frederick and his closest social circle. A copy of the manuscript was stolen,^[26] and after Voltaire's death, pirated excerpts from it were published in Amsterdam in 1784 as The Private Life of the King of Prussia.^[27] Publicly, Frederick acted unconcerned about the revelations.^[28] However, Frederick had its publication suppressed in France,^[29] and attempted to suppress it elsewhere as well.^[30]

After his defeat at the Battle of Kolín, Frederick wrote in a letter: "La fortune m'a tourné le dos....[E]lle est femme, et je ne suis pas galant."^[31] This has been translated as "Fortune has it in for me; she is a woman, and I am not that way inclined."^[32] The original phrase "je ne suis pas galant" is somewhat ambiguous. While it would not be inaccurate to translate it as "I am not a lover/suitor (of women)", it could also be translated as the rather less suggestive, "I am not chivalrous".

Though he was aware of Frederick's homosexual reputation, Frederick's physician Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann denied that Frederick was homosexual. Zimmermann claimed that Frederick had convinced himself that he was impotent^[33] due a minor deformity Frederick had received during an operation to cure gonorrhea in 1733. According to Zimmermann, Frederick pretended to be homosexual in order to appear as still virile and capable of intercourse, albeit with men.^[11] This story is doubted by Wolfgang Burgdorf, who is of the opinion that "Frederick had a physical disgust of women" and therefore "was unable to sleep with them".^[34] The surgeon Gottlieb Engel, who prepared Frederick's body for burial, indignantly contested Zimmerman's story, saying the king's genitalia were "complete and perfect as those of any healthy man". ^[35]

References[]

Sources[]

• Asprey, Robert B. (1986). Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma. New York: Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 978-0-89919-352-6.
• Blanning, T. C. W. (2016). Frederick the Great: King of Prussia. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6812-8.
• Clark, Christopher (2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600–1947. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02385-7.
• Crompton (2009). Homosexuality and Civilization. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03006-0.
• Fraser, David (2000). Frederick the Great: King of Prussia. New York: Fromm International. ISBN 978-0-88064-261-3.
• MacDonogh, Giles (2000). Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-25318-9.
• Mitford, Nancy (1984) [1970]. Frederick the Great. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-48147-8.