Editing Frederick the Great (section)

== Later years and death ==
[[File:Friedrich der grosse grab hg.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of Frederick's headstone|Grave of Frederick at [[Sanssouci]] with potatoes, where he was buried after the [[German reunification]]. (He wished to rest next to his dogs, but this was originally ignored.)]]

Near the end of his life, Frederick grew increasingly solitary. His circle of close friends at Sanssouci gradually died off with few replacements, and Frederick became increasingly critical and arbitrary, to the frustration of the civil service and officer corps. Frederick was immensely popular among the Prussian people because of his enlightened reforms and military glory; the citizens of Berlin always cheered him when he returned from administrative or military reviews. He was nicknamed {{lang|de|Der Alte [[Fritz]]}} (The Old Fritz) by the Prussian people, and this name became part of his legacy.{{sfn|Richard|1913|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgermanc00richiala/page/383 383]}} Frederick derived little pleasure from his popularity, preferring instead the company of his pet [[Italian greyhound]]s,{{sfn|Ritter|1936|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_520010744/page/200 200]}} whom he referred to as his "[[Madame de Pompadour|marquises de Pompadour]]" as a jibe at the French royal mistress.{{sfn|MacDonogh|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatli00macd/page/366 366]}} Even in his late 60s and early 70s when he was increasingly crippled by [[asthma]], [[gout]] and other ailments, he rose before dawn, drank six to eight cups of coffee a day, "laced with mustard and peppercorns", and attended to state business with characteristic tenacity.{{sfn|MacDonogh|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatli00macd/page/380 380]}}

On the morning of 17 August 1786, Frederick died in an armchair in his study at Sanssouci, aged 74. He left instructions that he should be buried next to his greyhounds on the vineyard terrace of Sanssouci. His nephew and successor Frederick William II instead ordered he be entombed next to his father in the [[Garrison Church (Potsdam)|Potsdam Garrison Church]]. Near the end of [[World War II]], German dictator [[Adolf Hitler]] ordered Frederick's coffin to be hidden in a salt mine to protect it from destruction. The [[United States Army]] relocated the remains to [[Marburg]] in 1946; in 1953, the coffins of Frederick and his father were moved to [[Hohenzollern Castle|Burg Hohenzollern]].{{sfn|Alford|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_9sImYb5e1AC&pg=PA102 102]}}

On the 205th anniversary of his death, on 17 August 1991, Frederick's coffin lay in state in the court of honour at Sanssouci, covered by a Prussian flag and escorted by a {{lang|de|[[Bundeswehr]]}} guard of honour. After nightfall, Frederick's body was interred in the vineyard terrace—in the crypt he had built there—without pomp, in accordance with his will.{{sfn|Jones|1991}}{{efn|In his 1769 will, Frederick wrote "I have lived as a philosopher and wish to be buried as such, without pomp or parade...Let me be deposited in the vault which I had constructed for myself, on the upper terrace of San Souci."{{sfn|Frederick II|1769|p =[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreat0000snyd_t2l6/page/70 70]}}}} Visitors to his grave often place potatoes on the gravestone in honour of his role in promoting the potato in Prussia.{{sfn|Earle|2020|p=[{{Google books|id=s7HaDwAAQBAJ|pg=PA54|plainurl=yes}} 54]}}