Reactions ranged from "Kill the bastard" to "I want your autograph" to the middle ground, summarized by the best description of Fritz I've ever seen, which I think is contemporary: "Thinks like a philosopher and acts like a king."

I might add that Voltaire managed to encompass all of these reactions during the course of his life, and possibly all at the same time. :P

It was like a very, very messy divorce where they eventually reconciled enough to be long-distance pen pals again.

Oh, Voltaire *also* wrote some character assassination memoirs (which he denied and claimed someone was impersonating him and pretended to be outraged, but I think historians have decided it was really him wanting deniability?) during the period of *his* messy divorce estrangement from Fritz, all about how Fritz is terrible in all possible ways, and definitely homosexual and not only that, but impotent so he has to settle for being a *bottom*, HAHAHA, TAKE THAT, FRITZ.

Fritz: *eyeroll* You all know he's saying that because of our falling out, right?

Fritz: *puts another statue of a naked guy in the yard outside his bedroom window*

His heir, upon his death: *removes statue immediately*

Nineteenth century Germans: our beloved hyper-masculine general hero? NO HOMO.

Twenty-first (late twentieth?) century: *puts statue back*