Friedrich Wilhelm I King of Prussia

Frederick William I, King in Prussia
(14.8.1688 - 13.5.1740)
place of birth: Berlin (Brandenburg)
König in Preußen: 25 February 1713

Also known as the Soldier King, he was the second successive King of Prussia (1713–40), and was the son of Friedrich I. He continued the administrative reforms and the process of centralization begun by his grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector, transforming his country from a second rate power into the efficient and prosperous nation that his son and successor, Friedrich the Great, would make into Europe's dominant military power.

Friedrich Wilhelm I practiced a rigid economy, so that at his death there was a large surplus in the treasury. The Prussian army was made an efficient instrument of war. Although he built up one of the most powerful armies in Europe, he was essentially a peaceful man. He intervened briefly in the Northern War but gained little territory. Later, he signed a treaty (1728) with Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in the hope of acquiring the territories of Jülich and Berg, to which he had a hereditary claim. The emperor subsequently went back on this agreement. Friedrich Wilhelm I was a coarse man, and he had contempt for his gifted heir, who was to succeed him as Friedrich II (Frederick the Great). At one point, he even had one of young Friedrich's boyhood friends executed. He died in May 1740 in Potsdam.