20 ORIGINSmilitary glory. Dr Zimmermann, who had several long conversations
with him in his last illness, draws our attention in particular to the
frustrations which Frederick experienced as a young man when he
read about the progress that was being made by the Russian field-
marshal Miinnich in the Turkish war of 1735-9 (Zimmermann, 1788,
198).
Frederick William had already indicated that Prussia's military
power might justly be turned against Austria. The Habsburgs had
indeed lived in fear of Prussian competition in the German Empire
since the early years of the century (Ingrao, 1982, 58), hence
Frederick William encountered nothing but obstruction and delay
from the Austrians when he pressed the well-founded Prussian claim
to the succession to the duchy of Berg in western Germany. Emperor
Charles VI accepted Prussian help in the Rhenish campaign with
patent reluctance, and in 1735 he suspended hostilities with France
without so much as telling the Prussians what was going on.
Frederick William pointed to his son as one who would avenge him,
all the more so as he knew that Frederick was free of his own crippling
reverence for the institutions of the Empire.
The reconciliation of Frederick with his father was completed on
28 May 1740, when Frederick William, already mortally ill, was
embraced by his weeping son. The old king, to Frederick's admira-
tion, followed the advance of his illness with the detachment of a
doctor, and he died early on the morning of 31 May. 'What a terrible
man he was', said Frederick much later. 'But he was just, intelligent,
and skilled in the management of affairs ... it was through his
efforts, through his tireless labour... that I have been able to
accomplish everything that I have done since' (Catt, 1884, 34).