The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Eight

Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Three/A
"The German Home Front"

Rationing in Germany was fairly limited during the early years of the war. With Germany in control of much of Europe, goods from other areas poured in for German consumers, and this all served to keep most Germans behind the war effort. The tight control of the nation by the Nazis did not allow much criticism of the regime, especially of Hitler, but it is interesting to note that in a film about Frederick the Great, released in 1942 and sanctioned by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels,* a group of German public officials approach the king's aide and tell him the public is complaining and grumbling about the war (it is set during the 1760s and the Seven Years War, covered earlier in this series here). The aide tells them "that is just the nature of things," and that the soldiers complain too, and that Frederick is aware of the complaints and understands them. Then, however, comes the warning. One of the officials says "people no longer believe in victory," and the aide declares this is "high treason."

In early 1942 the head of German war production, Fritz Todt, was killed in a plane crash. He was replaced by Hitler's former architect Albert Speer. Speer organized German industry to produce tremendous amounts of armaments, but with the aid of slave laborers, often, but not always, from eastern Europe. In spite of the Allied bombing attacks on German industry and cities, German factory output rose, reaching its peak in mid 1944.

Allied bombing attacks took their toll, but just as German air attacks on Britain had failed to destroy British morale, such was the case with the Germans. The Luftwaffe exacted a terrible price on Allied aircraft and pilots over Germany and parts of occupied Europe, but Allied production of aircraft was able to make good all of the losses. One of the biggest air attacks came on Hamburg during a one week period in the summer of 1943. British planes bombed the city by night and American planes bombed by day. Civilian casualties amounted to some 75,000, with about 40,000 of those being killed. Most of Germany's large and medium size cities were heavily bombed during the war, and Berlin itself became a major target from 1944 onward.

The surrender of the German forces at Stalingrad brought shock to the German public, and reports by Nazi officials and agents (spies) noted the German public's disheartened mood. Joseph Goebbels took to the podium at the Berlin Sports Palace (Berliner Sportpalast) in mid February 1943, just a couple of weeks after the surrender at Stalingrad. The speech was broadcast on radio and much of it was filmed for later showing as newsreel shorts in movie theaters. The crux of the speech was a series of questions Goebbels posed to the approximately 20,000 people in attendance. He so roused the passions of the audience, that his main question, "Do you want total war,"** was answered by a thunderous "Ja," and by chants of the familiar Nazi slogan, "Fuehrer command, we follow!" ("Führer befiehl, wir folgen!") If I remember correctly, I've read somewhere that Hitler was listening to the speech on the radio at his military headquarters. So German public opinion ticked up, but perseverance alone would not win the war.

Meanwhile, at camps in Germany and elsewhere, especially in occupied Poland, thousands of people were being killed EVERY DAY! Not because they were enemy soldiers or because they were spies, but they were killed just because of who they were.

Next..."The Greatest Shame of German History"

* The movie, "Der Grosse König" ("The Great King"), is available on DVD with English subtitles. It is well worth seeing, with a good deal of historical accuracy, and some stirring battle scenes, with bombardments, infantry assaults, cavalry charges and all, but be aware, there is also a good deal of propaganda in it, and it is only partially about Frederick the Great, as Frederick is often symbolic of Hitler in the movie, more obviously near the end.

** German: "Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?"

WORD HISTORY:
Storm-This word is closely related to "stir," a word from the Germanic roots of English that essentially means "to disturb," as a verb, and to mean "disturbance" as a noun; as the weather meaning of "storm" undoubtedly came from the notion of "disturbance in the skies, weather disturbance, agitated weather." Old Germanic had "sturmaz," with the basic notion of "agitate, disturb." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "storm," which has since remained the same. The word, usually the verb form, also came to mean "full attack, assault," as in "storm the enemy position." This meaning came about in the 1600s, and as it also has this same meaning in some other Germanic languages, it is unclear to me if English developed this extended meaning of the word itself, or borrowed it from a "relative." Further was the meaning "rage with anger," as in "He stormed about the room." Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Sturm" ("stürmen" is the verb form), Dutch has "storm," Icelandic has "stormur," Swedish & Norwegian have "storm," Danish has "storm, storme," Frisian has "stoarm," and Low German Saxon has "Störm."

The German Question, Part Thirty-Six

"German Liberation"

There were various coalitions formed by many of the states of Europe, including many German states (usually led by Austria and Prussia), which then went to war against Napoleon and his allies over the years, and I will not get into all of the wars and the multitude of individual battles fought on German territory during those times. There are, however, a couple of important events that I will briefly deal with. Napoleon defeated the Prussians, who were part of one of those coalitions I mentioned, in 1806, bringing about the occupation of Berlin* and forcing the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, to set up his government in the Prussian province of East Prussia for a time. In that same time frame, Napoleon reconstituted a "Polish state," called the "Duchy of Warsaw," which comprised a great deal of territory ceded by Poland to Prussia earlier in the various "Partitions of Poland."

The Prussian army was a total mess after defeat at the hands of Napoleon, but in one case, the Prussians managed to deprive the French of victory and simultaneously inspire some Germans to resist Napoleon.** This was at the town of Kolberg, located on the Baltic coast. The French besieged Kolberg for more than two months, and even heavy bombardment didn't bring a French victory. The Prussians held out until events elsewhere brought about a peace treaty. The military forces were led by someone who became famous in German history, Prussian officer August von Gneisenau.***

Gneisenau and Gerhard von Scharnhorst, another military man who became famous, pursued reform of the Prussian military. Already by that time, Scharnhorst had written a couple of manuals on military matters. The overall success by these two men helped foster a sense of German patriotism in the Prussian forces, and thus began the more "national" movement, not just Prussian, to liberate the German territories from French control. With Napoleon's famous defeat in Russia, the Germans rose up, inflicting a major defeat on the French near Leipzig, known to history as "The Battle Of Nations." Some of Napoleon's German allied states then defected to the cause to remove the French from German territory. The Confederation of the Rhine was abolished, and the defeated Napoleon (defeated by the coalition, which invaded France and forced Napoleon to abdicate) was exiled to the Italian island of Elba. Not long afterward, Napoleon escaped captivity, returned to France and mounted a new military campaign against his enemies. He was defeated at the famous "Battle of Waterloo" (located in modern Belgium, but then called the "United Netherlands") by British and Prussian forces, with the Prussians playing a decisive role near the end of the battle. Thus ended Napoleon. So what now for the Germans? (A Word History is below the notes)

* Napoleon went to visit the tomb of "Frederick the Great," which was in nearby Potsdam (about 15-20 miles south of Berlin). Napoleon so admired Frederick, that he ordered his officers to remove their hats in respect, and he "supposedly" said over the tomb, "If you were still alive, would we be here today?" (I've also seen it as, "If you were still alive, we would not be here today.") Whatever the case, the Nazis later made much of this Napoleonic visit to the tomb of one of Germany's most admired historical figures.

** It should be noted that there are numerous accounts from those times of German apathy about being subject to French dominance. In some areas actually occupied (or annexed) by the French, many French words crept into the German language (and the local dialects), displacing original Germanic words.

*** The Nazis, after seeing the potential for defeat in World War Two, began the production of an elaborate movie based on the historical siege of Kolberg, with the title simply, "Kolberg." While many Nazi themes echo through the scenes of the movie, the basic script has much based upon the actual historical events. No question though, it was a propaganda film with the main purpose of encouraging Germans to resist overwhelming odds. The movie is in color (I believe much of the color has been "restored," as it had faded a good deal), and it has English subtitles. The making of the film was considered so important by propagandist Joseph Goebbels and by Hitler himself, that thousands of soldiers, dressed in costumes from the 1800s, were made available for the battle scenes, even though German forces were under pressure in the real life war. There are some great battle scenes, for those who like such things. While many a German paid with their life for any kind of "defeatist" sentiment under the Nazis, it is interesting to note that the writing for the movie began in 1942, when Germany occupied much of Europe, and before Germany had suffered any of the major defeats which came later in the war. So, it looks to me as if the Nazis had a premonition of defeat, or at least of a long struggle. The movie was gradually filmed and edited over the next couple of years, only being released in the waning weeks of World War Two, in 1945.

WORD HISTORY: 
Foster-This word traces back to the Indo European base "pa," which meant "to feed, protect." In the Old Germanic offshoot the "p" became an "f" sound, giving Germanic the base "fo," (which also became the base of our word "food") and then "fostrom/fostra." This then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "fostrian," with the meaning "to feed, to nourish." The more extended meaning, "to support a child in growing up," came along in the 1100s or 1200s. As part of this, "fostor" (as it was frequently spelled long ago, then later "fostren"), was coupled with other words to indicate someone "supporting a child, or helping to raise a child, who was not the actual parent, as Old English had "fostorfæder," "foster father." Its Germanic relatives' words are all centered around "food, fodder," and the specific meaning and usage of "foster" appears to only have developed in English.

The German Question, Part Thirty

"The Dismantling of Poland" Part One

While this is about German history, you might wonder why a segment about Poland is included. Well, two of the German states, Prussia and Austria, were involved in what is known to history as "The Partitions of Poland," and both added Polish territory to their realms. The overall politics of these partitions (there were three partitions over about a 23 year period) is far more complicated than I want to deal with here, but I'll leave it as a basic effort to maintain a certain balance of power between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Just a little background: Poland and Lithuania had been joined in a commonwealth in the 1500s.* Initially it was very powerful, both militarily and economically, but over time its power and political stability declined. There were many reasons for this decline, but one reason was the vast diversity of its people, both ethnically and by religion. While Poles were the largest group in the commonwealth, there were substantial numbers of Lithuanians, Jews, Ukrainians, Ruthenians and Germans.** Roman Catholicism was the largest single religion, but there were significant numbers of Eastern Orthodox, Protestants (mainly Lutherans), Eastern Catholics (some referred to as Uniate members), and Jews. A decline in trade, uprisings by some Ukrainians, and out and out civil war conditions helped weaken the commonwealth, and eventually Russia became its protector.

The first partition, known by the unique name....ah..."The First Partition of Poland," was mainly engineered by Frederick the Great in 1772, even though he got the smallest amount of territory. Prussia took much of the northern parts of Polish territory, which included tacking on lands to northeastern Prussia, aka "East Prussia" (Ostpreussen, in German). It also obtained the lands along the Baltic coast and inland, thus depriving Poland of seaports (this issue would come back in the future, and I will cover it when we get to the aftermath of World War One). Much of this new land was called "West Prussia" (Westpreussen, in German). This new territory then linked East Prussia with the rest of Brandenburg/Prussia. Austria received a huge portion of what was known as "Galicia" (in southern and sw Poland) and a further part of southeastern Poland, including the town of Oświęcim, later to become infamous during World War Two, and better known by its German name...Auschwitz. Russia received large territories to the east and northeast. Russia at that time was ruled by Catherine II, better known as "Catherine the Great," who was a German by birth. Only a small rump of Poland remained at that time outside the borders of her neighbors.

The two German states together added more than three million people to their populations, although Prussia gained many people of German or mixed German-Polish background, and Austria gained many non-Germans. The fact that Austria had so many non-German populated territories was an issue that would gradually begin to disqualify Austria, more specifically the Habsburgs, from leading Germany in the eyes of some Germans.

One little humorous note, if there is anything humorous about carving up a country: While Maria Theresa's son and co-ruler of the Habsburg lands (and German Emperor), Joseph, had actually helped plan the partition of Poland, Maria Theresa initially opposed the plans as detrimental to Poland. Frederick the Great later noted something to the effect that (Maria Theresa) cried (in sympathy for the Poles) when she took their land, but the more she cried, the more land she took!

* As I've cautioned previously in this series, national and geographic terms, like in this case, Poland from those times, do not always correspond to our more modern concepts of these territories, as borders changed, sometimes, substantially so.

** The percentage of the population of these various groups changed as the borders periodically changed during the time the commonwealth lasted.

WORD HISTORY:
Court-This goes back to the Indo European root "gher," which meant "enclose/fence or wall in." This gave the Latin offshoot "cohors/cors," which meant "an enclosed area surrounding a house or building." From this, Old French, a Latin-based language, got "cort/curt," which took on the the more specific meaning of "king's or noble's enclosed yard around his residence." This came to English in the latter part of the 1100s from Anglo-Norman, but is more commonly rendered in modern English as the compound "courtyard" ("yard" is from the Germanic roots of English). This basic notion, perhaps associated then with the similar Latin word "curia," which meant "sovereign's assembly/personnel," gave us this further meaning, perhaps seen as "king's personnel assembled in the court(yard)." Further still, association with "curia," which meant "council," gave the term the more legalistic sense that we still use, as in "court of law," as originally, a king/ruler literally sat at the head of a council (or by himself) to decide legal matters of the citizenry. It seems some linguists believe that the verbal meaning "pay court to someone," came from the Italian form "corteggiare" (pay honor to someone) of the above Old Latin word. Others seem to feel it just came from the same path as "court" itself, simply meaning "to behave in a proper manner in court, or to behave as if in court." The verb seems to have come into English usage in the 1500s.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Eight

"An Empress and Queen Of The Germans" Part One of Two

If you've noticed there haven't been any female German rulers, it's because women could not hold the throne of the German Empire.* They were designated as "Queen of the Germans" and "Empress,"** but it was not a ruling title, and it was given only as their title due to marriage to the Emperor and King of the Germans. The Habsburg family likewise only allowed males to assume the ruling titles of their various possessions. Kaiser Karl VI (Emperor Charles VI, in English) was of the Habsburg family, and he had only two daughters (as did his older brother). Without a male heir, the control of his lands (not the imperial throne, which was an elected position) would go to other members of his family, and not to his eldest daughter.*** To get around the Habsburg succession law of that time, Karl issued an edict, called the "Pragmatic Sanction of 1713," which permitted the Habsburg ruler to be a woman. In an effort to make the law effective if it were put into practice, Karl obtained the signatures of many of the other rulers of Europe, who agreed to recognize the law. These signatories included many of the rulers of the more powerful German states, as well as the German Imperial council, and the king of Great Britain, whose king was a German, and indeed, he held German lands in and around Hanover.

The problem was, with such vast holdings of the Habsburgs at stake, when Karl died in 1740 and his daughter, Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia, in German), took control of the House of Habsburg,**** the temptations for others were too great, and a number of signatories to the edict broke their word. This led to the "War of the Austrian Succession," as these rulers tried to grab whatever lands they could from the new "Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduchess of Austria." The war became a major European war, and even had an adjunct in North America, known as "King George's War." On one side was Prussia, France, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony and some others, and on the other side was the Habsburg Monarchy, Great Britain and its allied Hanover, the Dutch Republic,***** Russia (at times), and the Kingdom of Sardinia.^ Saxony later changed sides.

In late 1740, Prussia, under Frederick the Great, invaded the Habsburg territory of Silesia (Schlesien, in German), a very important region due to its abundant coal and copper.^^ The Prussians were victorious, and they occupied the region. The French and the Bavarians took Prague in 1741, and the Bavarian ruler, Karl, soon to be elected German Emperor Karl VII, was named King of Bohemia.^^^ The Austrian forces moved into Bavaria, as it had been left sparsely defended. The war swayed back and forth, and a treaty with the Bavarians in 1745 ("Peace of Füssen") took them out of the alliance against Maria Theresa, and in the end, in 1748, Maria Theresa regained all of her lost territories, except the Silesian lands, which she lost to Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Now for intrigue, some of which coincided with the above war. Maria Theresa could not become a ruling German empress due to her gender, so she strove to get her husband, Franz Stephan, selected as emperor. In order to get him a vote as an elector, she made him co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands, and the Hungarians approved his co-ruler status about a year later. In truth, Maria Theresa kept the actual power. As part of the "Peace of Füssen," mentioned above, not only did the Bavarian elector drop any claim to become German emperor, he agreed to support Maria Theresa's husband for the position, and to secure the votes of family members (the Wittelsbach family) of two other German electors. When Karl VII died, Franz Stephan was elected German emperor, as Franz I, and this formed the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (Habsburg-Lothringen, in German). As with the Habsburg lands, Maria Theresa was the real power. She remained German Empress and Queen of the Germans until her husband's death in 1765.
To be continued ...

(A Word History is below the notes)

* Allowing only males to occupy noble ruling positions was quite common among the German nobles of the various states in those times, as well as in many other European countries.  

** In German, queen=Königin (all German nouns are capitalized) and empress=Kaiserin.

*** The Habsburg ruler carried a number of titles, but I would say the main titles were "King of Hungary, Archduke of Austria, and King of Bohemia."

**** Karl VI was succeeded by Karl VII, as German emperor. This is mainly noteworthy as Karl VII was not a Habsburg, but rather from the Wittelsbach family and Prince-Elector of Bavaria, although he was married to a Habsburg. He was the first non-Habsburg German emperor in three hundred years!

***** Remember, the Dutch had been given total independence from the German Empire in 1648, but the southern districts of the former Low Countries, essentially the future Belgium, remained a part of the Habsburg possessions, and were thus ruled by Maria Theresa.

^ The Kingdom of Sardinia would eventually lead the movement to unite Italy into a modern nation, but that was not until the mid 1800s.

^^ Silesia in those times was undoubtedly heavily German, but with a substantial Polish minority and a smaller Czech minority, both of which, however, formed majorities in certain locales.

^^^ Karl VII died during the war, in 1745, and this brought about a new election for German emperor.

WORD HISTORY:
Arch-I'd say the noun form, meaning "curved, bowed," as in "arch"way, is not the same word as the adjective, meaning "main, superior, chief, principal" as in "arch"enemy (chief, main enemy), "arch"duke (main, superior duke). The adjective goes back to Greek "arkos," which had the meaning "superior."  "Supposedly" this goes back to Indo European "arkhein," with a notion of "rule, command," which, if true, would certainly tie into the idea of "main, principal, superior." How English got the word is puzzling, but German has the related "Erz," which is used in the same way English uses "arch;" for example, "Erz"feind="arch"enemy, and both may well have gotten the term from Greek or from Church use, such as "arch bishop." The ultimate origin of the noun form is uncertain, but Latin had "arcus," which meant "curve, bow," and it is also the source of "arc." This gave Old French (a Latin-based language) "arche," and this was then borrowed by English from French in the 1300s.

The German Question, Part Twenty-Six

Slightly updated August 3, 2015


"Prussia Becomes A Military Power"

(Part 21 in this series has the foundation info for Prussia)

Just a note: When discussing these various "German states," please remember that while you may recognize some of the names as entities still today; like Bavaria, Austria, or Saxony, for instance, the "old" states do not really correspond in overall size to today's states, or even necessarily to states a little further on in our story. The borders were ever changing, as one duke married into the family of another duke, and then inherited certain territories, or of course, one state went to war with another over particular lands, and the results increased the victor's lands, and diminished the loser's. Further, the whole system was still based upon feudalism on a grand scale; with one noble being the master of his own territory, but then in turn being a vassal to another, more powerful noble. Often several layers of such cases were involved, and it is all quite complicated, but the particulars are not really all that relevant to our purposes here, only that the reader have a basic idea that this was the system.

So we have Prussia and Brandenburg united into the Kingdom of Prussia, and the state was usually, thereafter, referred to simply as Prussia, although most of its territories were not actually part of the original state of Prussia. King Friedrich Wilhelm I, of the Hohenzollern family, who became king in 1713, developed the Prussian military into a force comparable to the major European powers of his time: France, England and Russia. He was/is known for his love of tall soldiers, and he recruited these soldiers from all over Europe, forming them into a special grenadier regiment. Interestingly, while Friedrich Wilhelm loved military matters and was in fact known as "der Soldatenkönig," the Soldier King, he shunned going to war, and only rarely used his well-trained army. He was tight-fisted with his treasury, imposing taxes upon the citizenry to build-up his army, taxes which he himself paid to demonstrate compliance. He developed a solid basis for an educational system, and promoted agriculture throughout his realm. Even though he was king, he chose to live rather frugally, something that was not all that common among European royalty in those times. When he died, he left a substantial sum in the Prussian treasury. An interesting detail about Friedrich Wilhelm is, he married the daughter of the future King George I of England, who was his uncle; thus his wife was his cousin.

Upon his death, his son, Friedrich, became Prussian king as "Friedrich II" (his grandfather had been "Friedrich I"), in 1740, and he is better known to history as "Frederick the Great" (Friedrich der Grosse, in German). While his father was a strict disciplinarian and loved military matters, Friedrich showed little interest in the army or political affairs during his early life, preferring the arts, including music, and he was an accomplished flautist, and even composer. He had more than a contentious relationship with is father, as when he was 18, he tried to flee to England! He was apprehended, along with his closest friend, and his father had him imprisoned. He was then forced to watch the execution of his friend. It is possible that his father also planned to have Friedrich executed, but the German emperor intervened. Friedrich was later pardoned. He was forced into a marriage with a Protestant relative of the Habsburgs (the Habsburgs were largely devout Catholics), and the marriage bore no children. In fact, once he became king, Friedrich kept his wife in Berlin, while he lived at the palace in Potsdam (called "Sans Souci;" that is, "No Worries"), which is about 15-20 miles southwest of Berlin.

Prussia's territories were not all interconnected, and Friedrich sought to unite these lands and move Prussia into the ranks of the European powers by military action, not just reputation. He fought a series of battles and wars, primarily with Austria, the main component of the Habsburg possessions. Friedrich's successes expanded Prussian lands, notably most in "Silesia,"* and posed a serious challenge to Habsburg dominance of Germany. It should be noted that Friedrich also suffered reversals, and during the Seven Years' War, the part of which that took place in North America is known as "The French and Indian War," almost took him down. He faced a major coalition against him in Austria, Russia, France, Sweden (then a formidable military power), and smaller states, and he had only England and Hanover as allies.** At one point, after suffering defeat by Austrian-Russian forces at the Battle of Kunersdorf (approximately 50 to 55 miles east of Berlin; since the end of World War Two, Kunersdorf has been part of Poland), Friedrich wrote to Berlin that the situation was so bad,*** that he felt he would not survive as king. When things looked darkest for him, however, the Tsarina of Russia, Elisabeth, died, bringing to the Russian throne her nephew and Friedrich's close friend, Peter III.**** Peter immediately made peace with Prussia and Friedrich escaped an almost certain defeat, and possible loss of his throne. A peace treaty ended the war on all sides.

Friedrich is known for many things in German history: canals, agriculture, currency and tax reform, religious tolerance, music, architecture, and philosophy. He was a friend of French writer-philosopher Voltaire, who even lived in Berlin for a time at the invite of Friedrich. Friedrich also spoke many languages, including English. Interestingly, although in those times French was the language of diplomacy, Friedrich preferred French to his native German, even criticizing the complicated grammar of standard German. While Friedrich was "enlightened," he was still an autocrat, and many people died during the many wars he fought, although he was affectionately called by some, "Alter Fritz" (Old Fritz). No question, he really put Prussia on the map, and this helped foster an increasing nationalism in those north German lands. Friedrich died peacefully in 1786. His original burial site in a church in Potsdam was complicated by removal of his body during the latter stages of World War Two to keep it from falling into Russian hands, and then its storage at the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen, Germany, but since 1991 he has been buried on the grounds of his palace ("Sans Souci") in Potsdam, where he was laid to rest with full military honors. (A Word History is below the notes)

* Silesia, or Schlesien," in German, was an area with an abundance of coal and copper. This brought about the development of heavy industry in the region, thus making it a coveted area for any ruler. The population has been very mixed for centuries, with Germans much in the majority in most of the area, but with substantial Polish minorities (and majorities in some locales), and even a Czech minority (but majority in its part). The Habsburgs controlled the area for quite some time, until Friedrich successfully wrestled most of the region (except the Czech part) from them. (Note: Since the end of World War Two, Silesia has few Germans.)

** England and Hanover (or Hannover, in German, double "n") were united by the House of Hanover. Hanover provided the king of England, who was simultaneously "Kurfürst," elector prince, of Hanover. A "Kurfürst" was a prince who had a vote in the election of the German emperor. King George I had taken the throne of England in 1714, but knew little or no English. He was succeeded by his son, George II, who knew English, but was born in Germany, and he was succeeded by his grandson, George III, who was actually born in England and who spoke English from childhood. George II died before the end of the "Seven Years' War," and George III took over. He is better known to Americans, as he was king during the Revolutionary War. Interestingly, he never visited his holdings in Hanover during his long life.

*** Of some 50,000 men, only 3000 were still available to Friedrich immediately after the battle, although many more had simply been scattered, gradually making their way back to Berlin and forming the basis for a new army.

**** Tsar Peter III was the grandson of Russia's Peter the Great (Peter I), one of whose daughters married a German duke. Peter III was born and raised in Germany, but came to the Russian throne when Tsarina  Elizabeth, his aunt (his mother's sister), died. Having grown up as a German, Peter heavily favored Prussia and Frederick the Great. Peter married a German, who became famous in history as Catherine the Great, who became Tsarina of Russia when Peter died (likely murdered, with Catherine's deep involvement).

WORD HISTORY:
Dollar-This goes back to German Joachims"taler" (pronounced almost like English "taller"), which was a term used for the silver mined near Joachimstal (Joachim's Valley), now part of the Czech Republic, which was used to make a coin then termed a "taler," in the early 1500s. The Low German form was "dolar/doler," which is how English acquired the word in the mid 1500s. Eventually English made the spelling with a double "L." Modern German money doesn't use the "taler," as they eventually went to the "Mark," and now they use  the "Euro." The word exists in German as a historical reference, and is der Taler, the "der" denoting that it is a masculine noun, for those learning German.