(And yes, Goethe does write "Fritzian", i.e "fritzisch".)
Haha, I had just run across that yesterday in my 18th century military history volume: "The manifestations of faction, as here described, stood at an important remove from political commitment. Zeal for the cause of Frederick outside Prussia had nothing to do with a desire to become his subjects (God forbid!). Goethe and his young friends were first and foremost ‘Fritzians’, and not proto-Prussians."
Similarly, I can't find the quote because it's in a non-searchable actual paper book and my back pain won't even allow me to flip through and find it, but some contemporary said that with most countries, you want to see the king because you're in love with the country, but the only reason you want to go to Prussia is to see Old Fritz. [If he lets you, I might add. One guy apparently bribed the porter at Sanssouci to let him hide behind a fence and watch while Fritz was carried outside in an armchair.]
Now that war bears the names of Maria Theresia and Elizabeth
I should be used to it by now, but it always baffles me when a woman does something that men do all the time, and it's cast as an indictment against the whole sex. I end up reminding myself of this quote from a Jewish memoirist: "Why my new husband didn’t believe that German blood was stronger, that the child would always be an Aryan by virtue of his father’s participation, I will never understand. When an idea is idiotic to begin with, its applications never make any sense."
Re: Random facts
Haha, I had just run across that yesterday in my 18th century military history volume: "The manifestations of faction, as here described, stood at an important remove from political commitment. Zeal for the cause of Frederick outside Prussia had nothing to do with a desire to become his subjects (God forbid!). Goethe and his young friends were first and foremost ‘Fritzians’, and not proto-Prussians."
Similarly, I can't find the quote because it's in a non-searchable actual paper book and my back pain won't even allow me to flip through and find it, but some contemporary said that with most countries, you want to see the king because you're in love with the country, but the only reason you want to go to Prussia is to see Old Fritz. [If he lets you, I might add. One guy apparently bribed the porter at Sanssouci to let him hide behind a fence and watch while Fritz was carried outside in an armchair.]
Now that war bears the names of Maria Theresia and Elizabeth
I should be used to it by now, but it always baffles me when a woman does something that men do all the time, and it's cast as an indictment against the whole sex. I end up reminding myself of this quote from a Jewish memoirist: "Why my new husband didn’t believe that German blood was stronger, that the child would always be an Aryan by virtue of his father’s participation, I will never understand. When an idea is idiotic to begin with, its applications never make any sense."