In addition to homosexuality being a capital offense, so was bestiality. There are at least two accounts of Friedrich refusing to enforce this sentence against someone who'd had sex with a four-legged animal. In one case, it was a member of the cavalry who'd had sex with his horse. Fritz's punishment was to put him in the infantry, which, as it was both a demotion (the cavalry being the more prestigious of the two) and got him away from horses, I consider quite a neat little solution.
On the other occasion, Friedrich wrote, and you're going to love this, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis."
Now, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I HOPE, and I expect, that it was a lot easier to get away with homosexual intercourse under his reign than previous reigns. Still would have been infinitely better for all, e.g. people after he died, to lift the death penalty, but I accept that reformers run into problems getting their reforms accepted. And I would still love to see the data on prosecutions.
But anyway. CONSCIENCE AND PENIS. Yes, Fritz, I'm sure your subjects loved religion and sex being placed side-by-side like this. Go you!
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Date: 2019-08-28 01:34 pm (UTC)In addition to homosexuality being a capital offense, so was bestiality. There are at least two accounts of Friedrich refusing to enforce this sentence against someone who'd had sex with a four-legged animal. In one case, it was a member of the cavalry who'd had sex with his horse. Fritz's punishment was to put him in the infantry, which, as it was both a demotion (the cavalry being the more prestigious of the two) and got him away from horses, I consider quite a neat little solution.
On the other occasion, Friedrich wrote, and you're going to love this, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis."
Now, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I HOPE, and I expect, that it was a lot easier to get away with homosexual intercourse under his reign than previous reigns. Still would have been infinitely better for all, e.g. people after he died, to lift the death penalty, but I accept that reformers run into problems getting their reforms accepted. And I would still love to see the data on prosecutions.
But anyway. CONSCIENCE AND PENIS. Yes, Fritz, I'm sure your subjects loved religion and sex being placed side-by-side like this. Go you!