The Soldier-King
Frederick I was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713–1740), the "Soldier-King" obsessed with the army and achieving self-sufficiency for his country. The new king dismissed most of the artisans from his father's court and granted military officers precedence over court officials. Ambitious and intelligent young men began to enter the military instead of law and administration. Frederick William I wore his simple blue military uniform at court, a style henceforth imitated by the rest of the Prussian court and his royal successors. In Prussia, pigtails replaced the full-bottomed wigs common at most German courts.
Frederick William I had begun his military innovations in his Kronprinz regiment during the War of the Spanish Succession. His friend, Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, served as the royal drill sergeant for the Prussian Army. Leopold introduced the iron ramrod, increasing Prussian firepower, and the slow march, or goose-step. The new king trained and drilled the army relentlessly, focusing on the firing speed of their flintlock muskets and formation maneuverability. The changes gave the army flexibility, precision, and a rate of fire that was largely unequaled for that time period. Through drilling and the iron ramrod, each soldier was expected to fire six times in a minute, three times as fast as most armies.
Punishments were draconian in nature, such as running the gauntlet, and despite the threat of hanging, many soldiers deserted when they could. Uniforms and weaponry were standardized. Pigtails and, in those regiments which wore it, facial hair were to be of uniform length within a regiment; soldiers who could not adequately grow beards or moustaches were expected to paint an outline on their faces.
Frederick William I reduced the size of Frederick I's gaudy royal guard to a single regiment, a troop of taller-than-average soldiers known as the Potsdam Giants or more commonly the Lange Kerls ("long fellows"), which he privately funded. The cavalry was reorganized into 55 squadrons of 150 horses; the infantry was turned into 50 battalions (25 regiments); and the artillery consisted of two battalions. These changes allowed him to increase the army from 39,000 to 45,000 troops; by the end of Frederick William I's reign, the army had doubled in size. The General War Commissary, responsible for the army and revenue, was removed from interference by the estates and placed strictly under the control of officials appointed by the king.
Frederick William I restricted enrollment in the officer corps to Germans and compelled the Junkers, the Prussian aristocracy, to serve in the army, Although initially reluctant about the army, the nobles eventually saw the officer corps as its natural profession. Until 1730 the common soldiers consisted largely of peasantry recruited or impressed from Brandenburg-Prussia, leading many to flee to neighboring countries. In order to halt this trend, Frederick William I divided Prussia into regimental cantons. Every youth was required to serve as a soldier in these recruitment districts for three months each year; this met agrarian needs and added extra troops to bolster the regular ranks.
The General Directory which developed during Frederick William I's reign continued the absolutist tendencies of his grandfather and collected the increased taxes necessary for the expanded military. The middle class of the towns was required to quarter soldiers and enroll in the bureaucracy. Because the excise tax was only applied in towns, the king was reluctant to engage in war, as deployment of his expensive army in foreign lands would have deprived him of taxes from the town-based military.
By the end of Frederick William I's reign, Prussia had the fourth-largest army (60,000 soldiers) in Europe, but was twelfth in population size (2.5 million). This was maintained with a budget of five million thalers (out of a total state budget of seven million thalers).
Read more about this topic: Prussian Army