Hm, I don’t recall any reference to pre-destination in her letters (which weren’t written for public consumption), and she’s certainly cheerfully flippant about paying her respects to Calvinism in Geneva, but that’s Wilhelmine in conversation with her siblings, mainly (though not exclusively) Fritz the free thinker. And as you say, Wilhelmine in 1730 doesn’t have to have the same beliefs (or lack of same) she has in the 1740s and 50s.
In 1730, she’s under double pressure from both her parents (though for different ends) and separated from Fritz for the time being, and perhaps inclined to grab at any spiritual weapons she can find - both to win her argument with SD and to survive FW.
Then again: I’ve read the transcription of a speech about Wilhelmine given at the University of Bayreuth where the historian giving it says reading through the letters, she finds it striking that Wilhelmine despite her powerful resentment against both her parents (which btw is one of the way she differs from Fritz who I don’t think resented his mother) also never quite manages not to long for their approval and affection, and that her childhood had left her with the ability to lie and dissemble as much as it did Fritz. For example: when after the birth of her daughter her father-in-law, the old Margrave, gifts her a small estate complete with country mansion as a kind of reward, Wilhelmine writes three different letters to Prussia each tailored to their recipient: SD gets a letter about how her marriage is a success, her father-in-law has given her this gift and she’s now able to have concerts and parties in the mansion the way SD does at Monbijou, isn’t this nice? She’s so happy. FW gets a letter where her father-in-law has given her a country estate which she will frugally manage, and included in the package are some sausages which she knows FW will like, are you impressed with me being a good housewife, Dad? (Concerts and salons don’t get mentioned, but here, too, she assures her father she’s having a good life in Bayreuth.) And Fritz gets a letter where the new country mansion isn’t mentioned at all, which is all “miss you, people here are mostly boring and suck, ugh, at least it’s not home but home is still better if you are there”.
To get back to 1730, you have to also consider FW has accused her not just of having aided and abetted her brother but of having slept with her brother’s lover Bff, and he did that in the present of non-family members. Grabbing at a Protestant belief her father can’t object to - it’ s not Catholic, it’ s Protestant - but which is nonetheless very upsetting to him might accomplish the double purpose of reaffirming/restoring her reputation and retaliating. If she also knows Fritz is currently arguing pro pre destination at Küstrin, it’s also a way of expressing solidarity that can’t be held against her because again, this isn’t French philosophy, this is a quite popular Protestant interpretation of faith.
ETA: Okay, looked up some more theology in ye early 1730s quotes for you, helpfully already excerpted by a Bayreuth website. In letter 34 (“de la Margrave à Frèdèric (Baireuth, 20 dècembre 1735”) Wilhelmine talks philosophy with Fritz and explains her teacher La Croze’s theory that all things Material consist of atoms moving ceaselessly, but also that said atoms can’t have started this movement by themselves. From this, she concludes there has to be an absolute and independent being („un être absolu et indépendant“) which keeps the atoms moving. Which means there’s a God („cet être est Dieu“). This to me sounds like she’s a deist (comparable to what a great man enlightenment people saw themselves at).
Also, her father had her old governess Fräulein von Sonsfeld (Sonsine) who’d gone with Wilhelmine write to him a report as to how Wilhelmine’s day looks like. Sonsine swears that she reads a bit of the bible to Wilhelmine each morning right after breakfeast while Wilhelmine is doing womanly needlework with her ladies-in-waiting. This, err, is not quite how Wilhelmine describes her days to Fritz, and conspiciously lacks any mentions of concerts, composing and garden plannings which we know she did, so at a guess, Sonsine was covering for her, but it says something about FWs control fetish that he wants even his married off daughter to be supervised and to prove herself a good Christian.
Re: Wilhelmine
In 1730, she’s under double pressure from both her parents (though for different ends) and separated from Fritz for the time being, and perhaps inclined to grab at any spiritual weapons she can find - both to win her argument with SD and to survive FW.
Then again: I’ve read the transcription of a speech about Wilhelmine given at the University of Bayreuth where the historian giving it says reading through the letters, she finds it striking that Wilhelmine despite her powerful resentment against both her parents (which btw is one of the way she differs from Fritz who I don’t think resented his mother) also never quite manages not to long for their approval and affection, and that her childhood had left her with the ability to lie and dissemble as much as it did Fritz. For example: when after the birth of her daughter her father-in-law, the old Margrave, gifts her a small estate complete with country mansion as a kind of reward, Wilhelmine writes three different letters to Prussia each tailored to their recipient: SD gets a letter about how her marriage is a success, her father-in-law has given her this gift and she’s now able to have concerts and parties in the mansion the way SD does at Monbijou, isn’t this nice? She’s so happy. FW gets a letter where her father-in-law has given her a country estate which she will frugally manage, and included in the package are some sausages which she knows FW will like, are you impressed with me being a good housewife, Dad? (Concerts and salons don’t get mentioned, but here, too, she assures her father she’s having a good life in Bayreuth.) And Fritz gets a letter where the new country mansion isn’t mentioned at all, which is all “miss you, people here are mostly boring and suck, ugh, at least it’s not home but home is still better if you are there”.
To get back to 1730, you have to also consider FW has accused her not just of having aided and abetted her brother but of having slept with her brother’s
loverBff, and he did that in the present of non-family members. Grabbing at a Protestant belief her father can’t object to - it’ s not Catholic, it’ s Protestant - but which is nonetheless very upsetting to him might accomplish the double purpose of reaffirming/restoring her reputation and retaliating. If she also knows Fritz is currently arguing pro pre destination at Küstrin, it’s also a way of expressing solidarity that can’t be held against her because again, this isn’t French philosophy, this is a quite popular Protestant interpretation of faith.ETA: Okay, looked up some more theology in ye early 1730s quotes for you, helpfully already excerpted by a Bayreuth website. In letter 34 (“de la Margrave à Frèdèric (Baireuth, 20 dècembre 1735”) Wilhelmine talks philosophy with Fritz and explains her teacher La Croze’s theory that all things Material consist of atoms moving ceaselessly, but also that said atoms can’t have started this movement by themselves. From this, she concludes there has to be an absolute and independent being („un être absolu et indépendant“) which keeps the atoms moving. Which means there’s a God („cet être est Dieu“). This to me sounds like she’s a deist (comparable to what a great man enlightenment people saw themselves at).
Also, her father had her old governess Fräulein von Sonsfeld (Sonsine) who’d gone with Wilhelmine write to him a report as to how Wilhelmine’s day looks like. Sonsine swears that she reads a bit of the bible to Wilhelmine each morning right after breakfeast while Wilhelmine is doing womanly needlework with her ladies-in-waiting. This, err, is not quite how Wilhelmine describes her days to Fritz, and conspiciously lacks any mentions of concerts, composing and garden plannings which we know she did, so at a guess, Sonsine was covering for her, but it says something about FWs control fetish that he wants even his married off daughter to be supervised and to prove herself a good Christian.