Frederick demonstrates that Freemasonry can create great
leaders of war as well as great leaders of peace.
tried to flee from his father, but was caught. His father forced
him to watch his best friend, Hans Hermann von Katte, be
executed as an accomplice in the plot to escape.
A man from such a family background might have ended up
with one of the worst reputations in history instead of one of the
best. Many Masonic historians think that it was Freemasonry
itself that made the difference in Frederick the Great.
Frederick absorbed the teachings of Freemasonry, and
had an unparalleled opportunity as the ruler of an emerging
nation to translate his ideals into statecraft. In many respects,
Frederick the Great was a Masonic king.
In the first degree of Masonry we are told that “…monarchs
have, for a season, exchanged the scepter for the trowel, to
patronize our mysteries and join in our assemblies.” That
might have described Frederick the Great more than any other
monarch in the 18th century, and more than any other great
Frederick attempted escape from his despotic father. When he was caught, his father’s punishment was fierce: Frederick was forced to watch the execution of his best friend, Hans Hermann von Katte (pictured).
leader of a nation, save for our own George Washington, who
was a younger contemporary of Frederick the Great.
In war and peace
In addition to being a king and a military leader of genius,
Frederick was known for his enlightened rule.
He promoted religious toleration at a time when it was not
popular to do so. He encouraged fine architecture; Berlin still
boasts many fine public buildings that were erected during
his reign. He was a gifted musician, and composed more than
one hundred sonatas for the flute, of which he was an expert
player, as well as four symphonies. He had a close friendship
with some of the greatest writers of the Enlightenment,
including Voltaire – a fellow Freemason. In addition to his
native German, Frederick spoke French, English, Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian, and understood and read Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin.
Frederick tried to live up to his ideal of an enlightened
monarch, following the model of the ancient Roman emperor
and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. But he was also a
military man of singular accomplishment.
His reign, to quote our ritual pertaining to the famous
King David, father of King Solomon, was “one of many wars
and much bloodshed.” The unification of Germany a century
later, essentially accomplished by another Prussian, Otto von
Bismarck, would not have been possible had it not been for the
military leadership of Frederick.
Frederick demonstrates that Freemasonry can create great
leaders of war as well as great leaders of peace. He was a leader
of both, and so history remembers a great Freemason who
translated his Masonic ideals into the political reality of the
dangerous world in which he lived.
The initiation of a Mason in the middle of the night
on August 14, 1738, in Brunswick, Germany, had great
implications for the future of the world.
