Germany's liberal emperor waited decades for the throne and reigned 99 days
Frederick III spent twenty-seven years as Crown Prince of Prussia, dreaming of a British-style constitutional monarchy. When his father finally died in March 1888, Frederick was already dying of cancer of the larynx. He ruled for 99 days, and historians still argue over how German history might have changed had he lived.
Born at Potsdam on 18 October 1831, Frederick, nicknamed Fritz, grew up in an unhappy household. His father, the future Wilhelm I, was a strict military disciplinarian; his mother, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, came from a more constitutional, artistic court and was known across Europe for her liberal views. She insisted on a classical education alongside the Hohenzollern drill. Frederick was commissioned a second lieutenant at ten, yet at 18 he broke with family tradition to study history, law and governance at the University of Bonn.
His marriage was a dynastic project with a political aim. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hoped a match with their eldest daughter, Victoria, would help liberalise Prussia, while Frederick's father would have preferred a Russian grand duchess. Augusta sent her son to London in 1851, officially to see the Great Exhibition. He proposed in 1855, when Victoria was 14, and they married in 1858. The arranged union became a loving partnership of shared liberal convictions, with Victoria the stronger personality, and they had eight children.
As Crown Prince, Frederick clashed with Otto von Bismarck, objecting to unification by force and arguing for a stronger Reichstag and weaker executive. He and Victoria, admirers of Prince Albert, planned to rule jointly and make ministers answer to parliament rather than to the emperor. Liberals in Germany and Britain pinned great hopes on his accession.
When Wilhelm I died aged ninety on 9 March 1888, Frederick inherited thrones he could barely use. Illness blocked meaningful reform, and his eldest son, Wilhelm II, whom his mother called a complete Prussian, abandoned the few steps he managed. Frederick died on 15 June 1888, aged 56, in what became the Year of the Three Emperors. Whether a longer reign would have produced a more liberal German Empire remains an open and much-debated question.
Source: Frederick III, German Emperor
