Flutes and Flogging: How Frederick the Great Was Punished for Loving Music

Before he became the Iron King of Prussia, Frederick the Great was a boy who loved books, poetry, and the sound of the flute. Unfortunately, his father—Frederick William I, the "Soldier King"—had other plans. To him, the arts were soft, unmanly, and a threat to the hard-edged ruler he intended to forge from his son.

So when young Frederick showed too much interest in music and literature? His father retaliated—not with a scolding, but with military exile. His father sent Frederick to a remote garrison, stripping him of courtly comforts and forcing him to eat with common soldiers in the guardhouse. Gone were the fine meals, the tutors, the privacy. In their place: rough barracks, gruff company, and a daily dose of humiliation.

It wasn’t discipline. It was domination.

Young Frederick The Great, playing the flute in a garrison with Soldiers

Frederick William believed he could beat the artist out of the prince. But here’s the twist—it didn’t work. Yes, Frederick learned to survive, to perform strength when needed. But he never let go of his love for the arts. He composed music, played the flute for foreign dignitaries, and filled Sanssouci with Enlightenment thinkers and classical beauty.

The boy who once dined with soldiers for liking sonatas became the monarch who hosted Voltaire and played Bach-style concertos in his palace.

Frederick didn’t become “Great” by rejecting who he was—but by surviving long enough to reclaim it.