Miracle of The House of Brandenburg - Miracle at The House of Brandenburg

Miracle At The House of Brandenburg

After the Battle of Kunersdorf, Frederick thought Prussia and himself faced certain defeat. He wrote that it was "a cruel reverse! I shall not survive it. I think everything is lost. Adieu pour jamais". Prussia had lost 19,000 soldiers and was left with 18,000. On 16 August he wrote that if the Russians crossed the Oder and marched on the Prussian capital, Berlin, "We'll fight them – more in order to die beneath the walls of our own city than through any hope of beating them". That day the Russian Field Marshal Saltykov and his army crossed the Oder and the day before the Austrian Field Marshal Laudon and his army had done the same. Daun was marching the rest of the Austrian army north from Saxony. All were aiming to march on Berlin.

Frederick massed 33,000 men to defend Berlin against what he estimated were enemy forces totalling 90,000. However now came what Frederick called the Miracle at the House of Brandenburg. The Austrians and the Russians were reluctant to follow through their victory by occupying Berlin and in September began withdrawing their forces. The Austrians and Russians had lost 20,000 men at Kunersdorf and both were concerned that their lines of communication were being stretched to the limit by marching so far west. Also, one of Frederick's allies, Prince Henry of Saxony, was not involved in Kunersdorf and still posed a threat to the Austrians and Russians. Frederick was again confident.