Enlightened Absolutism 341

Frederick the Great playing the flute at Sans Souci.

claimed somewhat disingenuously that he was nothing more than the “first
servant” of his people as king: “I well know that the rich have many advo­
cates, but the poor have only one, and that is 1.” Frederick freed the serfs
of the royal domains (1763) and ordered the abolition of the lords’ right to
punish their own serfs physically. Judicial reforms ended some flagrant
abuses by magistrates. The Prussian king relaxed censorship and abolished
capital punishment, except in the army. Yet he refused to emancipate Prus­
sian Jews, while continuing to depend on loans from them. Nonetheless,
the Prussian Code, finally completed and promulgated in 1794, eight years
after Frederick’s death, granted “every inhabitant of the state... com­
plete freedom of religion and conscience.”
Frederick the Great’s “enlightened” reforms were, above all, intended to
make the Prussian state more powerful, not more just (see Chapter 1 1).
He made Prussia a more efficient absolutist state. Frederick intended his
law code to enhance the reach of the state rather than to make his people
equal before the law7. When he freed the serfs of the royal domains, it w'as
because he needed them in the army. Nobles (Junkers) dominated most of
the plum positions as military officers and high officials. Yet some com­
moners did in fact rise to important posts, including some army officers,
who were subsequently ennobled. Frederick improved the state bureaucracy
by introducing an examination system to govern entry. In the courts of jus­
tice, candidates had to pass the most difficult examinations, and in Berlin
only a third of all judges were nobles.