Incidentally, do we know who took care of the dogs afterwards, or even if someone did?
I was hoping you knew! It's something I often wonder about. (Okay, I make up fanfic in my head about August 16-17, because I have elaborate fanfics about the deaths of *all* my favorite characters, call me crazy.) I have read in multiple places that the dogs had their own dedicated servant (who had to Sie/vous them, of course), so I'd like to think said servant continued to get paid and to take care of the dogs? I know there's a Superbe buried next to Fritz, but he also reused names, so idk if it's the one who was there when he died, or an earlier one. At any rate, I hope she (and any others who were with him until the end) was well cared for until her end.
Do you know how FW 2 felt about dogs? I've read that he was in residence at Sanssouci (or maybe just Potsdam? he could have been at the Neues Palais, I guess) that last month or so waiting for Fritz to die, and the fact that he's never mentioned in any of the accounts of Fritz's last days just tells you that he was impatiently drumming his fingers waiting for it to happen. I imagine he was asleep when it did, and someone came to inform him.
those painful, lonely deaths
The difference between your description of MT's death (and Franz's, for that matter) and mine of Fritz's was striking. She had family coming and going, he was giving orders to a general, taking care of his dog(s), and dying in the arms of a valet because he had no friends or family left. :-( That's part of why I still mean to finish and post that chronology of his isolation.
I do suspect these people with their considerable will power subconsciously were sick of living and did want to die.
Hmm, difficult for me to say in this case. Judging by his last letters, Fritz was unhappy about his health, but apparently trying to reconcile himself to the actual fact of his imminent death. Even when you're suffering, and even when you've been quoted saying things like "The happiest day of your life is the one on which you leave it" throughout your often unhappy life, the survival instinct is strong. The fact that he was still trying to give orders on his last day and announcing maybe two hours before his death his intention of waking up at his usual ridiculously early hour to resume working tells me that, whatever may have been going on subconsciously, consciously he was resisting and denying death to the end.
Speaking of lonely, I have read somewhere, I would need to check the source for reliability, that in his last years he started thinking about whether there was maybe an afterlife after all, because he wanted to see his mother and sister again. I don't think he ever got to the point of believing in one intellectually, but quite understandably, emotionally he must have wanted there to be one.
On a cheerier note, see below for some distraction.
Re: Fritz's death
I was hoping you knew! It's something I often wonder about. (Okay, I make up fanfic in my head about August 16-17, because I have elaborate fanfics about the deaths of *all* my favorite characters, call me crazy.) I have read in multiple places that the dogs had their own dedicated servant (who had to Sie/vous them, of course), so I'd like to think said servant continued to get paid and to take care of the dogs? I know there's a Superbe buried next to Fritz, but he also reused names, so idk if it's the one who was there when he died, or an earlier one. At any rate, I hope she (and any others who were with him until the end) was well cared for until her end.
Do you know how FW 2 felt about dogs? I've read that he was in residence at Sanssouci (or maybe just Potsdam? he could have been at the Neues Palais, I guess) that last month or so waiting for Fritz to die, and the fact that he's never mentioned in any of the accounts of Fritz's last days just tells you that he was impatiently drumming his fingers waiting for it to happen. I imagine he was asleep when it did, and someone came to inform him.
those painful, lonely deaths
The difference between your description of MT's death (and Franz's, for that matter) and mine of Fritz's was striking. She had family coming and going, he was giving orders to a general, taking care of his dog(s), and dying in the arms of a valet because he had no friends or family left. :-( That's part of why I still mean to finish and post that chronology of his isolation.
I do suspect these people with their considerable will power subconsciously were sick of living and did want to die.
Hmm, difficult for me to say in this case. Judging by his last letters, Fritz was unhappy about his health, but apparently trying to reconcile himself to the actual fact of his imminent death. Even when you're suffering, and even when you've been quoted saying things like "The happiest day of your life is the one on which you leave it" throughout your often unhappy life, the survival instinct is strong. The fact that he was still trying to give orders on his last day and announcing maybe two hours before his death his intention of waking up at his usual ridiculously early hour to resume working tells me that, whatever may have been going on subconsciously, consciously he was resisting and denying death to the end.
Speaking of lonely, I have read somewhere, I would need to check the source for reliability, that in his last years he started thinking about whether there was maybe an afterlife after all, because he wanted to see his mother and sister again. I don't think he ever got to the point of believing in one intellectually, but quite understandably, emotionally he must have wanted there to be one.
On a cheerier note, see below for some distraction.
That is a cheerier note indeed!