The rise of Napoleon marks the end of German Kleinstaaterei: congeries of hundreds of separate principalities, free cities, and enclaves, with more than 300 small and medium-sized sovereign states joining together to form larger ones. Napoleon seeks to increase their efficiency in the campaign against Austria. At the same time, he modernizes both the administrative and tax systems. Numerous ecclesiastical principalities are secularized and handed over to secular principalities and duchies. The dissolution of the monasteries means that religious art also changes hands and loses its ritual significance.
While Pomerania, and thus Greifwald, remains Swedish for the time being, Friedrich’s new home Dresden, capital of the Electorate of Saxony, joins Napoleon’s side.