King Frederick IV of Prussia

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I already have a thesis for you to start on, and some sources to work off of. Thesis: While his slowly-abandoned promises as a whole frame the him as strikingly hypocritical, King William Frederick IV’s core intentions for Prussia remained the same;  Though at no point did the monarch show that his love for the Prussian people was false, he proved at length that his distrust in the country’s ability to succeed without his total control fueled his actions more than any casual chat with a Berliner ever could. the included pdf. file is of the given reading that the topic came from. k My Essay proposal: The reading I chose was the retrospective from Carl Schurz ‘On Why He Became a Supporter of the Republican Form of Government during the Revolution of 1848’. The topic I have gathered from it will be about Prussian King Frederick William. Schurz describes his ‘for the people’ attitude as something that came about when his disposition warmed to revolution and faded seemingly when the facade was no longer needed. My curiosity for this paper is seeing if this revolutionary character was something King Frederick genuinely embodied, or if acting in favor of the people was a mask he put on purely out a greed for power.  BERLINER-RESIDENT, A. “RANKE, BUNSEN, AND FREDERICK WILLIAM IV.” Christian Union (1870-1893) 8, no. 13 (September 24, 1873): 4A–. Scholarly article written when Frederick IV’s reign was still relatively recent. This one sheds light on the open-minded ‘Berliner’ spirit that he connected to so many people with.  “FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. KING OF PRUSSIA.” The American Review: a Whig Journal Devoted to Politics and Literature (1848-1850) 1, no. 1 (January 1, 1848): 79–. Primary source that talks of Frederick’s reign to that point, that point notably being shortly before the revolution that was of chief concern to Carl Schulz in his retrospective. Krusch, Victoria. “Letters of Queen Victoria to Frederick William IV, 1848-9.” The English Historical Review 40, no. 157 (January 1, 1925): 106–10. The main interest of this paper is to fit a character study of Frederick into the historical narrative of his rule. Granted, the fact that his recipient is the literal queen does mean the tone will be more cordial than honest. Regardless of that, private discourse in this vein is likely the closest we can get to raw, unfiltered Frederick outside of travelling back in time and wiretapping his quarters. Lewis, Lewald. A Year of Revolutions : Fanny Lewald’s Recollections of 1848. A Year of Revolutions : Fanny Lewald’s Recollections of 1848. 1st ed. New York: Berghahn Books, 1997. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1x76fn6. This is the primary source as needed by the proposal, but is also arguably the most important source. Not only is this a historical narrative, but a primary source in the form of a second perspective. However well-respected and cited Carl Schulz may be, there still exists in the unreliable nature of of memory that his account of Frederick could be exaggerated. No better way to settle that doubt than to cross-reference it with another first-hand account. for other sources, there has to be an example of at least one academic journal article, one book, and one primary source.