Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

[cahn]

All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

Comments

Escape attempt

[mildred_of_midgard]

I have recently discovered that the barn Fritz and his father were sleeping in when he tried to escape is still there, is now a Fritz museum, and has a plaque on the outside reading "Hier blieb auf seiner Flucht am 4/5. Aug. 1730 Friedrich d. Große dem Vaterland erhalten."

Is it just my German being too rudimentary here, or do they sound as happy about the child abuse continuing so Prussia could have a warmongering general as I think they do? (I dug up some pictures of the inside of the museum, and they seem extremely battle-recreation-focused, lending credence to my suspicion.)

Re: Escape attempt

[selenak]

That description sounds as if it's distinctly 19th or early 20th century in the making, because post 1945 no one says "Vaterland" anymore. ("Heimat", otoh, is still okay.)

"Here during his flight on 4/5 August Frederick the Great got preserved for the fatherland" does sound like whoever wrote the inscription was glad that Fritz didn't escape, no doubt. You might take comfort in the fact that anyone supporting that idea is undoubtedly miffed there is no more Prussia and has not been for a hundred years. (It continued as a province post WWI but not as a Kingdom, and post WWII it was dissolved entirely.)

On that note, the latest from Current Hohenzollern Boss vs German States: Battle of the historians.

To recapitulate: Prinz of Hohenzollern: We want money, paintings and castles. You owe us for Fritz. And other glorious contributions my family made to German history.

Representatives of current day Brandenburg: Like Willy and WWI, you mean? No dice.

Current embodiment of Hohenzollern nuttery: But! There's this law from 1991 saying those nobles who got disowned by the Sowjets when the GDR got founded get their stuff back, or at least compensation.

State representatives: That law has an exception clause: "Unless said nobles supported the Nazis in significant ways." You want to talk Son of Willy chumming around with Hitler, your highness?

Prince: Son of Willy was misunderstood, AND I WILL HIRE THE HISTORIANS TO PROVE IT.

State guys: Bring it on!

And now the conclusion: Historians hired by current day Brandenburg: Stephan Malinowski and Peter Brandt.

Historians hired by Willy's great grandson: Christopher Clark and Wolfgang Pyta.

Christopher Clark: Eh, Son of Willy was an insignificant figure. He didn't matter to anyone.

Wolfgang Pyta: Son of Willy was a secret resistance fighter! He hung out with someone who knew Stauffenberg!

Peter Brandt and Stephan Malinowski: Son of Willy and Willy, for that matter, were deluded enough to believe Hitler would reintroduce the monarchy and were totally willing to play along to that end. Now let's talk about why the hell the Weimar Republic was so lenient to the German nobility in the first place that such a lot of them were still in positions of influence come the Third Reich!

Re: Escape attempt

[mildred_of_midgard]

That description sounds as if it's distinctly 19th or early 20th century in the making, because post 1945 no one says "Vaterland" anymore.

That is *exactly* what I thought! Thank you for confirming. I note that *somebody* has decided to leave this plaque up for the last 75 years.

And thanks for the latest installment of Hohenzollern nonsense!

Re: Escape attempt

[cahn]

ahahahaha the Hohenzollerns are still crazy!