Friedrich Wilhelm IV (Friedrich Wilhelm IV)

(1795-1861)
The eldest son of Friedrich Wilhelm III and the brother of the first emperor of a united Germany Wilhelm I. Born October 15, 1795 in Berlin. The mentors instilled in him a love for art, science and culture, piety, and antipathy toward the ideals of the American and French Revolutions. In 1823 he married Princess Isabella of Bavaria. Friedrich tolerated religious differences of opinion, weakened the pressure of censorship on the press, promised to grant a constitution. But in the United Diet (1847) were represented only by nobles, Junker landowners and burghers, the revolution of 1848, though shaken at the time of the position of the king, could not overcome his antagonism to any form of representative government. In 1849 he refused the crown offered him Frankfurt national assembly, because it 'offers the crowd'. Requirements of the people forced him to provide military assistance to the Duchy of Schleswig and Holstein in the struggle for independence from Denmark, but he soon abandoned this attempt. In 1850, he was forced to make concessions and to convene a national parliament of Prussia, but the power was limited to the last royal constitution and election system leaves most of the subjects of King without voting rights. There triumphant reaction. In 1857, Friedrich Wilhelm suffered an attack of mental illness, and in 1858 was declared regent of his brother William - later emperor of a united Germany. Friedrich Wilhelm died in Potsdam on Jan. 2, 1861.