Frederick the Great post links

[cahn]

More Frederick the Great (henceforth "Fritz") and surrounding spinoffs history! Clearly my purpose in life is now revealed: it is to encourage mildred_of_midgard and selenak to talk to me about Frederick the Great and associated/tangential European history. I am having such a great time here! Collating some links in this post:

* selenak's post on Frederick the Great as a TV show with associated fandom; a great place to start for the general history

* I have given up indexing all posts, here is the tag of discussion posts. Someday when I actually have time maybe I'll do a "best of."


Some links that have come up in the course of this discussion (and which I am putting here partially for my own benefit because in particular I haven't had time to watch the movies because still mainlining Nirvana in Fire):
Fritz' sister Wilhelmine's tell-all tabloidy memoirs (English translation); this is Part I; the text options have been imperfectly OCR'd so be aware of that (NOTE 11-6-19: THIS IS A BOWDLERIZED TEXT, I WILL COME BACK WITH A BETTER LINK)
Part II of Wilhelmine's memoirs (English translation)
A dramatization of Frederick the Great's story, English subtitles
Mein Name ist Bach, Movie of Frederick the Great and J.S. Bach, with subtitles Some discussion of the subtitles in the thread here (also scroll down)
2017 miniseries about Maria Theresia, with subtitles and better translation of one scene in comments

ETA:
Miniseries of Peter the Great, IN ENGLISH, apparently reasonably historically solid
ETA 10-22-19
Website with letters from and to Wilhelmine during her 1754/1755 journey through France and Italy, as well as a few letters about Wilhelmine, in the original French, in a German translation, and in facsimile
University of Trier site where the full works of Friedrich in the original French and German have been transcribed, digitized, and uploaded:
30 volumes of writings and personal correspondence
46 volumes of political correspondence
Fritz and Wilhelmine's correspondence (vol 27_1)
ETA 10-28-19
Der Thronfolger (German, no subtitles; explanation of action in the comment here)
ETA 11-6-19
Memoirs of Stanisław August Poniatowski, dual Polish and French translation
ETA 1-14-20
Our Royal Librarian Mildred has collated some documentation, including google translate versions of the Trier letters above (see the "Correspondence" folder)!

Comments

Re: Prussian sibling correspondance

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, I mean, mildred_of_midgard is the psychology expert here, but I was definitely getting a trauma bonding / emotional incest vibe from them even before that telling letter.

Haha, "expert", but yeah, they definitely banded together in the face of a traumatic situation. Some siblings do this; other siblings go in the opposite direction. Like most trauma coping mechanisms, this one had its downsides, but honestly, despite the many and obvious downsides, my opinion is that, given the situation and their limited options, their relationship was really the best thing in the world for them. In that, without it, they would have been much, much worse off, both of them.

(I want Wilhelmine fix-it fic too :P Can she escape with Fritz and Katte? or with Maria Theresia)

I know, right?! Every time I do a Fritz/Katte successful escape attempt, it turns dark the moment Fritz starts worrying about those left behind (which is like paragraph 2 in the one I'm currently working on). Seriously, you know what FW said to Fritz about what would have happened if he'd made it to England? I only have indirect discourse from a biographer here, but it goes like this:

"Had he thought of the consequences? his father asked. His mother would have suffered the greatest misfortune; Wilhelmina would have been imprisoned for life. Finally, 'I would have invaded Hanover and burned and ravaged it even at the cost of my life and kingdom.'"

(That's so incredibly common in abusive situations. There are so often hostages holding you back from escaping, and then if you do make it out, half the people you meet later in life are going to blame you, the fucking victim, for not caring about the ones left behind. Ugh.)

Keith and Katte: she has so many reasons for holding her brother's bond with them against them that it's not even funny.

Fix-it fic: the only one I've found is that modern AU, where Wilhelmine is not abused (except insofar as she has to watch her brother get abused, which is a form of abuse), gets married, has a kid, gets divorced, and becomes a successful conductor and composer. No estrangement period with Fritz, lives happily ever after.

W and MT fix-it fic: I like it! I don't think I can write it, but I like it! (I'm sorry I'm not up for doing research these days, I would totally get my hands on some books and give you MT fic. :/)