With regard to that friend, speculation is rampant that friendship was only part of the story for the two young men, whose sexual orientation is also much discussed. (Frederick did marry but had no children.) There is no question about Frederick’s affection for his greyhounds. He asked to be buried beside them here, and 11 markers show where they rest on the same terrace of the rococo palace. Needless to say, Frederick was also a passionate builder, who helped define Berlin and Potsdam architecturally and drew his own sketches to aid in the design of Sanssouci.

But even some Frederick experts are surprised at the tidal wave of attention paid to his tricentennial.

“At the beginning I never would have thought there would have been so much happening,” said Jürgen Luh, a historian at the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, who helped put together a major exhibit that opens here in April. “But now really is a moment when we can examine Frederick again, unencumbered and without prejudice.”

A whole host of exhibitions, including one devoted to Frederick and the potato, which was transported from the New World to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century, compete with lectures and symposia for attention. He did not introduce it to Prussia, but did issue directives to promote its cultivation.

“In reality he was not the great benefactor of the common people that he appears to be in the legends,” said Marina Heilmeyer, an art historian and one of the curators of the potato exhibit. “But I think it is this multifaceted figure that fascinates people more than the hero on the pedestal.”

A new play about Frederick’s life opened this month, and a novel about his friendship with Voltaire has just been published, along with several nonfiction books. Traditional concerts of his symphonies and concertos compete with remixes and interpretations of the same music by younger D.J.’s and musicians.

At the ceremony on Tuesday morning in Potsdam, an anachronistic procession of admirers in the Pickelhaube spiked helmets and curled mustaches typical of the German empire that succeeded Prussia marched up to his grave.