Prussian virtues
Pietism, which emphasized individual piety and leading an active Christian life, exerted a significant influence on the Prussian court and its nobility from the time of its founding in the late seventeenth century.
It was also embraced by some of Prussia's high-ranking military officers such as Field Marshal Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer who championed Pietist attempts to free the army of vices such as gambling and the use of brothels.
After King Frederick the Great (r. 1740–1786) brought Jews into the country, a total of four larger religious communities existed in the state, along with several smaller free churches.
When Frederick William I ascended the throne he found Prussia highly indebted, and he made order, diligence, modesty, and the fear of God the guiding principles for his successful reform and reorganization of the state.
He nevertheless felt himself bound to many of his father's ideals and deviated only slightly from Frederick William's self-image as the "first sergeant to the King of Prussia", saying that he wished to be the "first servant of his state".
The change came about in spite of Prussia's economically meager resources – it had suffered great devastation and depopulation during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and had sandy, poorly arable soils that led it to be called "the blotting-sand box of the Holy Roman Empire".
[4] The Prussian Reform Movement, which began after Prussia's 1806 defeat by Napoleon in the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt and lasted until the Congress of Vienna in 1815, also influenced the kingdom's later development.
The reforms affected municipalities, the army, schools, universities, and taxes and included the 1812 Edict of Emancipation that, with a few restrictions, granted Prussian Jews the same rights and duties as other citizens.
The reform of the army was particularly important for the development of Prussian values by permanently changing the relationship between king and soldier and "turning the uniform jacket into a cloak of honor".
[5] It is possible that the new leadership principle of mission-type tactics based on a willingness to assume responsibility, which was developed after the 1813 wars of liberation against Napoleon (but had precursors going back to Frederick the Great), also grew out of the ideals that created the Prussian symbiosis of Pietism and the Enlightenment.
[citation needed] The Prussian virtues are summed up in the first lines of Ludwig Hölty's poem "Der alte Landmann an seinen Sohn" ("The Old Farmer to His Son").
It was set to the tune of "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" ("A girl or little wife") from Mozart's 1791 opera Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") and performed daily by the carillon of the Potsdam Garrison Church[6] where Frederick the Great was originally buried.
"The inscription on the headstone of General Johann Friedrich Adolf von der Marwitz, who refused Frederick the Great's order to sack Hubertusburg Castle during the Seven Years' War reads: "He chose disgrace where obedience did not bring honor".
"[13]Prussian virtues were criticized from the beginning, as for example among the bourgeoisie, because of their remoteness from science and art, their hostility to democracy, and their state-controlled and militaristic characteristics – "command and obedience".
