Hans Hermann von Katte (28 February 1704 – 6 November 1730) was a Lieutenant of the Prussian Army, and a friend, tutor and possible lover of the future King Frederick II of Prussia, who was at the time the Crown Prince.

Born in the Prussian capital of Berlin, Katte was a nobleman by birth, coming from a long line of aristocratic military men.

His father, field marshal general Hans Heinrich von Katte, was one of Frederick William I's most regarded cuirassiers.

After completing his studies he joined the Prussian Army, as temporary military service was a prerequisite for his desired judicial career.

A contemporary courtier, Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, reports that the two treated each other “like a lover with his mistress.”[2] As a close friend and confidant of the Crown Prince, Katte succeeded the page Peter Karl Christoph von Keith, whom the king had recently transferred to Infantry Regiment No.

For one hour Von Katte and visiting composer Johann Joachim Quantz hid in a small room behind the fireplace.

[4] Not long after, Frederick revealed to Katte that he had a plan to flee to Great Britain as a way to leave his harsh and despotic father.

A first attempt to escape from the Zeithain Encampment in June 1730, where they accompanied the king, failed because Frederick and Katte could not get horses.

Because they were army officers who had tried to flee Prussia for England, Frederick William I leveled an accusation of treason against the pair.

All petitions of mercy for Katte, including one from Frederick and one from Count Seckendorff, the ambassador of Emperor Charles VI, were ignored.

Katte's body was left overnight on the execution scaffold that reached up to Frederick's window by order of the king.

[7] However, four weeks after his accession to the throne in 1740, Frederick appointed Katte's father field marshal and raised him to the hereditary rank of count.