In the turmoil of the revolution of 1848 the vacillating Prussian king Frederick William IV found support in Carl Wilhelm Saegert, director of a school for the deaf and dumb in Berlin. This individual gave the king advice in all matters of domestic and foreign policy. Not being a member of the aristocracy Saegert could not gain access to a governmental post and therefore had do play his role through the back door. - In addition to their secret correspondence Saegert's diary for the revolutionary months of 1848 is published in extenso.