Frederick William, known as the Great Elector 1620-88
Elector of Brandenburg

He was born near Berlin, and his childhood was greatly affected by the Thirty Years War (1618-48). He lived in Holland (1634-38), where he studied briefly at the University of Leiden, and gained an appreciation of Dutch art, architecture and technology. After his accession in 1640 he was responsible for rebuilding the war-ravaged and sparsely populated electorate, adding to the Hohenzollern territories, trebling his revenues, establishing an effective standing army, crushing the Estates, and reorganizing the privy council and Civil Service. He supported Sweden, then Poland in the First Northern War (1655-60), switched from the anti-French alliance of 1674 to support for Louis XIV in 1679, and returned to his anti-French stance in the 1680s. Tolerant over religion, he granted asylum by the Edict of Potsdam (1685) to Huguenots expelled from France following Louis's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, recognizing their economic potential. A discriminating patron of the arts and education, he established the Royal Library and Art Gallery in Berlin, and founded the University of Duisberg.

Bibliography: Ferdinand Schevill, The Great Elector (1947)