https://warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-importance-of-the-battle-of-leuthen/In the snowy evening of Dec. 5, 1757, a Prussian grenadier sang out the chorus of the hymn Nun danket alle Gott (“Now Thank We All Our God”), and was joined by thousands of voices, as his army gave thanksgiving for one of the greatest battlefield victories of their king, Frederick the Great. The army had just fought a battle outside of the village of Leuthen, in modern Poland. This scene, famously retold across German history, became synonymous with the warrior prowess and military genius of Frederick II of Prussia, as well as the rise of the Prussian state.
The Battle of Leuthen was a critical juncture in the Seven Years’ War and the history of Central Europe. Modern military professionals should care about the battle because the results achieved by Frederick the Great at Leuthen highlight the contingency and dynamism of war. As important, Leuthen demonstrates the dangers of mirroring: assuming that the enemy would react in the same way that we would in a given operational situation. Frederick’s Austrian opponents observed the king’s maneuvers and interpreted them through the lens of what they would do in the same environment. The results were fatal for them, and forged Frederick’s military reputation.
Great Power Conflict in Eighteenth-Century EuropeIn early December 1757, it appeared as though, at least in continental Europe, Prussia and its allies had lost what would come to be called the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). A series of hammer blows, delivered in late summer by the French and Austrian enemies of the Prussian King Frederick II, “the Great,” threatened to end the war. Frederick had suffered his first serious defeat at Kolin in June, and his Anglo-Hanoverian allies suffered catastrophe in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastenbeck in July. While Frederick had turned to confront the French, his Austrian enemies had established a base on his territory by taking the fortress of Schweidnitz and smashing the Prussian field army in Silesia at Breslau in November.
The last two developments were especially troubling for Frederick, as they both occurred in the Duchy of Silesia. In Central Europe, the Seven Years’ War was fought for control of Silesia: a vital territory at the intersection between the northern and southern Holy Roman Empire (roughly analogous to Germany and parts of Poland today). Silesia was also an economically important borderland lying between German-speaking Europe and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the east. Control of Silesia would (barely) vault Prussia’s status into the great European powers with the likes of France, Austria, Russia and Great Britain, while an Austrian-dominated Silesia would ensure that Prussia would never again rise above the ranks of middling powers in Germany: suffering a fate like Bavaria after the Wars of Spanish and Austrian Succession.
Thus, while Frederick II’s army had won an important victory at Rossbach on Nov. 5 over the French and Holy Roman Imperial armies, the future of Prussia hung in the balance as Frederick’s forces retraced their steps back into Silesia in the later part of November and early December 1757. If the Prussian army won the forthcoming battle, it would ensure that the war would go on, with Prussia’s fate still in doubt. If the larger Austrian army waiting for Frederick’s Prussians won the coming fight, at least part of Silesia would almost certainly remain in Austrian hands at the end of the war.
