Ahh, okay, that makes sense. I saw the bit about foreign armies being useless (lol?), but also a lot about "you're my brother and I don't want you to die and maybe someday but not now," and I extrapolated too much. Thank you for clearing that up! (Their almost total lack of surviving correspondence from this period did not leave me much to work with.)

Good grief. He was her favourite brother.

I facepalmed so hard, you have no idea. Fritz fails ring theory again!

then it even turns out either her father or her brother had given her fake jewelry back in the day.

Oh no. The Hohenzollerns keep getting wackier and more in need of therapists!

Thank you for the Ulrike/AW summary!