Frederick of Prussia

1992

16min

Kluge here presents a portrait of Friedrich the Great by means of quotations, film clips, historical images, and film documents. The program is a contribution to a public discussion about the role of the Prussian king in German and European history that unfolded after the transfer of the Hohenzollern sarcophagi in 1991. The excerpt of an interview with Heiner Müller lasts 2:50 minutes. Müller calls Friedrich a "murdered Mozart," the only intellectual among the German rulers, and a source of dramatic material. He also talks about his play Gundling. An excerpt from an interview between Günter Gaus and Hans Bentzien, the former culture minister of the GDR, deals with the rescue of the Friedrich monument on Unter den Linden after 1945.