Frederick the Great on Immigration and Religion

“All religions are just as good as each other, as long as the people who practice them are honest, and even if Turks and heathens came and wanted to populate this country, then we would build mosques and temples for them”(1)

As quoted in Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947, by Christopher Clark, pp. 252-3. It’s a good book, about which more anon.

(1) Clark cites Otto Bardong (ed.), Friedrich der Grosse (Darmstadt, 1982), p. 542.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 10:42 pm and is filed under A Fistful Of Euros, Culture, Germany, Governments and parties, History, Minorities and integration, Political issues, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Oliver Says:
   April 1st, 2008 at 12:24 pm

   This neglects to mention what would have happened to any preacher, mullah or shaman who told the king how to govern or told the public which of the king’s orders should be headed or ignored.

2. Martin Wisse Says:
   April 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm

   Amazon.co.uk just recommended this book for me (because I once bought Nancy Mitford’s Frederick the Great biography for my sweetie (Mitford also mentioned the mosques, as does Ludwig Reiners)) and I was wondering whether it would be worth buying. If you think so, it probably is.