selenak: (James Boswell)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote in [personal profile] cahn 2019-11-25 07:08 am (UTC)

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

The problem is that someone removed all the AW/Heinrich correspondance from the archives. Now it's entirely possible that they burned their respective letters themselves. (After all, that's why we don't have any Wilhelmine letters pre late 1732, even discounting the big letter fire of 1730 - Fritz burned them all at her request for FW reasons - and hardly any Fritz letters - ditto.) But it's also possible the letters were destroyed later. But it's still odd that their correspondances with practically every other family member survives in large parts, including some explicit "Fritz sucks!" letters to brother Ferdinand.

re: AW's sexuality, Ziebura doesn't mention any m/m affairs for him, but she certainly describes him as an ally in this regard. Because, you see, with his usual talent of picking teachers for his kids who were supposed to do one thing and who did then just the opposite when his back was turned, FW hired a steward for teenage AW and his kid brothers Heinrich and Ferdinand who was supposed to ensure their utter chastity, one Lt. von Kreyzen. Writes FW, in a letter still preserved:

To that end, he must never let Prince Wilhelm sleep alone at night, he shall sleep in the same room as the prince, always, and he must see and be responsible for the Prince Wilhelm not to go to whores, fornicate, or commit silent sins. (...) If he visits places with the prince, he is never to leave him alone. The prince is to talk to everyone but never to have any sinful discourses.

I take it "silent sins" means masturbation. Now, you probably guessed where this is going: Kreyzen turns out to be gay. Very gay. As for sinful discourses, here's AW some years later, writing to brother Ferdinand who at that point is the sole one left in von Kreyzen's charge, inviting the both of them to visit him, AW, at the military revue in Spandau, and adding as a postscript/inducement to Kreyzen: "I'm holding a beautiful ass and fleshy tighs ready for him." And at another opportunity, writing to Kreyzen directly: "My prettiest fellows expect your thick priapus full of impatience."

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