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.
LOL. Almost, but not quite true. He was definitely the main attraction, though. Because every bit of Goethe's life is even better researched than Fritz' life, we have his exact tourist program for his one and only visit to Berlin:
Opera house, St. Hedwig's Cathedral, painter and litographer Daniel Chodowiecki (1727-1801) who lived in the then called Großen Frankfurter Straße (a member of the academy of the visual arts, that one was allowed to have Germans and Poles, thanks, Fritz). Dinner at Prince Heinrich's (well, Carl August had dinner with Heinrich and brought Goethe along.) Nightly stroll through the Tiergarten, the relatively new Berlin Zoo. Visiting the then famous writer Anna Louisa Karschin (1722-1791), the Hessian composer Andräe, and the famous philospher Moses Mendelssohn. (Yes, grandfather of the composer, whom Goethe would in his old age watch perform as a Wunderkind and be reminded of Mozart.) And Sanssouci. (Apparantly when Fritz wasn't in residence, it was relatively easy to visit there for a, err, fellow citizen.) Writes Goethe to a friend later about his Berlin visit:
"Berlin I visited in spring. (...) We were just there for a few days, and I just caught a glimpse here and there like a child does with beautiful rarity box. And you know how much I live by viewing; a thousand lights have been sparked in me. I got pretty close to old Fritz, even, for I had an impression of his character, his gold, silver, marble, monkeys, parrots and torn curtains and have listened to his own dogs bark reasonably about the great man."
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 hear you. No one would have written "now that war bears the name of Friedrich" even during his original Silesia invasion. (Well, except Isabella of Parma in her "all men are bastards" mood. :) )
Re: Random facts
LOL. Almost, but not quite true. He was definitely the main attraction, though. Because every bit of Goethe's life is even better researched than Fritz' life, we have his exact tourist program for his one and only visit to Berlin:
Opera house, St. Hedwig's Cathedral, painter and litographer Daniel Chodowiecki (1727-1801) who lived in the then called Großen Frankfurter Straße (a member of the academy of the visual arts, that one was allowed to have Germans and Poles, thanks, Fritz). Dinner at Prince Heinrich's (well, Carl August had dinner with Heinrich and brought Goethe along.) Nightly stroll through the Tiergarten, the relatively new Berlin Zoo. Visiting the then famous writer Anna Louisa Karschin (1722-1791), the Hessian composer Andräe, and the famous philospher Moses Mendelssohn. (Yes, grandfather of the composer, whom Goethe would in his old age watch perform as a Wunderkind and be reminded of Mozart.) And Sanssouci. (Apparantly when Fritz wasn't in residence, it was relatively easy to visit there for a, err, fellow citizen.) Writes Goethe to a friend later about his Berlin visit:
"Berlin I visited in spring. (...) We were just there for a few days, and I just caught a glimpse here and there like a child does with beautiful rarity box. And you know how much I live by viewing; a thousand lights have been sparked in me. I got pretty close to old Fritz, even, for I had an impression of his character, his gold, silver, marble, monkeys, parrots and torn curtains and have listened to his own dogs bark reasonably about the great man."
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 hear you. No one would have written "now that war bears the name of Friedrich" even during his original Silesia invasion. (Well, except Isabella of Parma in her "all men are bastards" mood. :) )