After the Battle of Kunersdorf, Frederick thought Prussia faced certain defeat. He wrote that it was "a cruel reverse! I shall not survive it. I think everything is lost.
Adieu pour jamais".
[2] 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".
[3] 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. Field Marshal
Daun was marching the rest of the Austrian army north from Saxony. All three forces aimed to march on Berlin.
Frederick massed 33,000 men to defend Berlin against enemy forces which he estimated totalled 90,000. However now came what Frederick called "the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg". The Austrians and the Russians proved 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 armies had concerns that their lines of communication were being stretched to the limit by marching so far. Also, one of Frederick's generals, his brother
Prince Henry, was not involved in Kunersdorf and still posed a threat to the Austrians and Russians. Frederick regained confidence.
[4]