During the German revolutions of 1848–49, in November 1848, his half-nephew King Frederick William IV called him back to Berlin to succeed Ernst von Pfuel as Prussian minister president. The appointment reflected the king's intention to quell the ongoing uprisings. Jointly with Interior Minister Otto Theodor von Manteuffel, he had the Prussian National Assembly dissolved on 5 December, while on the same day the King unilaterally decreed a Constitution that kept the monarch firmly in control but that also included a catalog of fundamental rights and a parliament with a second chamber elected under universal manhood suffrage.[2]
In October 1850, he traveled to the Warsaw Conference to meet with Czar Nicholas and sound out the Russian stance in the Austria-Prussia rivalry. Though he had initially supported the implementation of the Prussian-led Erfurt Union, he shied away from an armed conflict with Austria as State Chancellor Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg was able to strengthen the alliance with the Russian Empire isolating the Prussian side. After his return, Friedrich Wilhelm spoke out against mobilising the Prussian Army as advocated by Foreign Minister Joseph von Radowitz. Shortly afterwards, he took seriously ill and died, it is said from the humiliation of the Czar's abandonment of the Erfurt policy. He was buried in the crypt of Berlin Cathedral.[3]
Personal life
On May 24, 1818 Count von Brandenburg married Mathilde Aurora von Massenbach (1795–1885) in Potsdam. They had eight children:[1]
Friedrich (1819–1892), who was a Prussian general.
^Carl Schurz, Reminiscences (3 volumes), New York: The McClure Company, 1907. In Chapter VI of Volume One, Schurz mentions Brandenburg's appointment as prime minister of Prussia as a step of reactionary character.
^Ferdinand Freiherr von Meerheimb,"Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm, Count" in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band 3 (Leipzig, 1876), S. 238-239. (in German)
