(born Oct. 15, 1795, Cölln, near Berlin, Prussia—died Jan. 2, 1861, Potsdam) King of Prussia (1840–61).
The son of Frederick William III, he was a disciple of the German Romantic movement and an artistic dilettante, but his conservative policies helped spark the Revolutions of 1848, in opposition. In 1849 he refused the imperial crown offered by the Frankfurt National Assembly. His subsequent efforts to create a German union under Prussian leadership were thwarted by Austria (&see; Punctation of Olmütz). A stroke left him paralyzed in 1857, and his brother, the future William I, became regent in 1858.
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