Description
Frederick William of Brandenburg (called The Great Elector, 1620 - 1688) from the House of Hohenzollern, was Margrave of Brandenburg since 1640 and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Prussia. His pragmatic, decisive and reform-minded government policy paved the way for the later rise of Brandenburg-Prussia as a great power and one of the leading German Hohenzollern dynasties, which is why he wore from 1675 also the nickname of the Great Elector. Woodcut engraving after a painting by Jacques Vaillant (Dutch painter, 1643 – 1691), published in 1881.