I agree with everything you say here. Unfortunately, we may know everything we're going to know about the Marwitz episode, which would mean all claims by biographers to have a clear account of what was going on are mistaken (which would hardly be a first). That would also explain why secondary accounts contradict each other. (Of course, why biographers can't just *say* we don't know instead of making up narratives...)
She does think Fritz maligned Marwitz, but her basis for assuming this is that she identifies Marwitz the page with Marwitz the quatermaster from the Rheinsberg obelisk, and states that surely, Heinrich, decades later after he was well out of love, would not have done Marwitz the honor of being listed with AW and other military guys if he'd been an STD-ridden cheat? But a) the Marwitz family was unfortunately large, and b) it's entirely possible that a guy gets STD and still is an honorable man who years later proves his valor in the 7 Years War.
What? Didn't Seydlitz have an STD? Yes, Wikipedia says syphilis. There is no logical connection between the two!
Since Lehndorff's diary entry is the only source that outright was Fritz was after Marwitz hismelf, it is of course possible that he was mistaken about this. Otoh, this sentence from the letters, put into the mouth of Marwitz-as-imagined-by-Fritz - "Doesn't everyone have to love me, adore me, worship me? What, you little villain, you resist? You haven't yet put your heart at my feet?" - makes me think Fritz was at the very least attracted and rather wanted to blame the page for that, no matter whether or not the guy actually as much as flirted.
Agreed on both counts. And there's a good chance Fritz was attracted but had no interest in acting on the attraction. Which does not mean he wanted the object of his attraction being more attracted to someone else, especially younger self.
Von Krockow thinks there's a parallel between Fritz wanting to spoil young Heinrich's Marwitz romance, and be it with sarcasm, and much later in the letter after AW's disgrace where Fritz makes things even worse with his "the only thing you're fit to command is a seraglio of court ladies!".) Of course Fritz didn't want the court ladies, and he might not even have wanted Marwitz in particular, but someone was having sex and getting affection here, and it wasn't him.)
This, and the part where if any of his friends (see also Fredersdorf, Catt) wanted to get married, he got pretty ticked off about that. He was less awful toward other people's love lives than FW was toward his, but that's about all you can say. He clearly resented the heck out of anyone having more success in that department than he did.
I think my take on FW-Fritz is that Fritz was not broken by his father, as is so often claimed, but emotionally stunted. As in, he was able to hold on to his own sense of self, but did not develop certain kinds of emotional maturity that he might otherwise have. (Which, after scrolling through volume 2 of the Catt memoirs for my map-making work, I see Fritz has now said *twice* to Catt.)
Also, a little digression on Fredersdorf, since he's been on my mind...it's entirely possible that those two had a satisfying, loving romantic relationship with as much sex as Fritz's sex drive was interested in (we will never know how much of that was trauma vs. personality, of course), and Fritz was *still* nasty about other people's relationships. It's not like relationships magically cure PTSD. And it's possible Fredersdorf *still* decided to get married after twenty years together--for one thing, they seem to have been seeing less of each other by that point, due to Fritz's constant travel and Fredersdorf's illnesses.
But the combination of all these factors makes me think that Fritz might not have been getting something he needed on the romantic front. Maybe he was, and it was just deep-seated trauma that meant that nothing would have been enough short of therapy. Maybe he and Fredersdorf had everything Fritz could possibly have wanted, and it still wasn't enough to let him be chill about everyone else's relationship success, because relationships are not therapy.
But given the circumstances under which Fredersdorf and Fritz met--in Küstrin, right after Katte's death, while Fritz was being watched closely and his movements reported to FW...that might not have been the best time to kick off a homosexual/homoromantic relationship with someone you didn't want to lose. Maybe, between Keith and Katte, Fritz had learned to hold back, to protect his significant relationships.
Maybe Fritz spent those twenty some years together consciously or subconsciously longing for something he didn't have, and I'm not talking sex here so much as relationship security. And maybe that's because Fredersdorf wasn't that way inclined, and maybe he was, but Fritz was holding back, or otherwise unable to figure out how to get his emotional needs met in a relationship. Which meant everyone around him who did, was going to suffer his displeasure.
This is wild, wild speculation and fanon rather than headcanon--i.e. one possible option among many. But it's my take on Fritz/Fredersdorf.
Re: Two Brothers, One Marwitz
She does think Fritz maligned Marwitz, but her basis for assuming this is that she identifies Marwitz the page with Marwitz the quatermaster from the Rheinsberg obelisk, and states that surely, Heinrich, decades later after he was well out of love, would not have done Marwitz the honor of being listed with AW and other military guys if he'd been an STD-ridden cheat? But a) the Marwitz family was unfortunately large, and b) it's entirely possible that a guy gets STD and still is an honorable man who years later proves his valor in the 7 Years War.
What? Didn't Seydlitz have an STD? Yes, Wikipedia says syphilis. There is no logical connection between the two!
Since Lehndorff's diary entry is the only source that outright was Fritz was after Marwitz hismelf, it is of course possible that he was mistaken about this. Otoh, this sentence from the letters, put into the mouth of Marwitz-as-imagined-by-Fritz - "Doesn't everyone have to love me, adore me, worship me? What, you little villain, you resist? You haven't yet put your heart at my feet?" - makes me think Fritz was at the very least attracted and rather wanted to blame the page for that, no matter whether or not the guy actually as much as flirted.
Agreed on both counts. And there's a good chance Fritz was attracted but had no interest in acting on the attraction. Which does not mean he wanted the object of his attraction being more attracted to someone else, especially younger self.
Von Krockow thinks there's a parallel between Fritz wanting to spoil young Heinrich's Marwitz romance, and be it with sarcasm, and much later in the letter after AW's disgrace where Fritz makes things even worse with his "the only thing you're fit to command is a seraglio of court ladies!".) Of course Fritz didn't want the court ladies, and he might not even have wanted Marwitz in particular, but someone was having sex and getting affection here, and it wasn't him.)
This, and the part where if any of his friends (see also Fredersdorf, Catt) wanted to get married, he got pretty ticked off about that. He was less awful toward other people's love lives than FW was toward his, but that's about all you can say. He clearly resented the heck out of anyone having more success in that department than he did.
I think my take on FW-Fritz is that Fritz was not broken by his father, as is so often claimed, but emotionally stunted. As in, he was able to hold on to his own sense of self, but did not develop certain kinds of emotional maturity that he might otherwise have. (Which, after scrolling through volume 2 of the Catt memoirs for my map-making work, I see Fritz has now said *twice* to Catt.)
Also, a little digression on Fredersdorf, since he's been on my mind...it's entirely possible that those two had a satisfying, loving romantic relationship with as much sex as Fritz's sex drive was interested in (we will never know how much of that was trauma vs. personality, of course), and Fritz was *still* nasty about other people's relationships. It's not like relationships magically cure PTSD. And it's possible Fredersdorf *still* decided to get married after twenty years together--for one thing, they seem to have been seeing less of each other by that point, due to Fritz's constant travel and Fredersdorf's illnesses.
But the combination of all these factors makes me think that Fritz might not have been getting something he needed on the romantic front. Maybe he was, and it was just deep-seated trauma that meant that nothing would have been enough short of therapy. Maybe he and Fredersdorf had everything Fritz could possibly have wanted, and it still wasn't enough to let him be chill about everyone else's relationship success, because relationships are not therapy.
But given the circumstances under which Fredersdorf and Fritz met--in Küstrin, right after Katte's death, while Fritz was being watched closely and his movements reported to FW...that might not have been the best time to kick off a homosexual/homoromantic relationship with someone you didn't want to lose. Maybe, between Keith and Katte, Fritz had learned to hold back, to protect his significant relationships.
Maybe Fritz spent those twenty some years together consciously or subconsciously longing for something he didn't have, and I'm not talking sex here so much as relationship security. And maybe that's because Fredersdorf wasn't that way inclined, and maybe he was, but Fritz was holding back, or otherwise unable to figure out how to get his emotional needs met in a relationship. Which meant everyone around him who did, was going to suffer his displeasure.
This is wild, wild speculation and fanon rather than headcanon--i.e. one possible option among many. But it's my take on Fritz/Fredersdorf.