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cahnAll 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
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
Frederick and Poland
Date: 2019-11-06 09:02 pm (UTC)Frederick: And now the king of Poland has died like a fool! I do not like these people who do everything at the wrong time.
Ghost of August III: >:(
In 1769, Friedrich began a work, Le Chant de Confédérés, on the Confederation of Bar in P-L. He depicts the Bishop of Kiev as a crazed bigot with a library whihc has no books, only relics and a painting depicting the St. Bartholemew's Day massacre in France. The Bishop of Kiev was Józef Andrzej Załuski, who was co-founder of the first public library in the Commonwealth and one of the first public libraries in Europe in general.
Władysław Konopczyński wrote a whole book (though not a long one) about Fritz and Poland. He mentions a work from 1779, L’ Orangoutang de l'Europe, alleging the Poles were descended from orangutans (not a general human evolution argument; it was not applied to other nations) and says that it was ascribed by contemporary opinion to Frederick's authorship. Later though, an officer expelled from the Corps de Cadets in Warsaw for theft, a man named Kermorwand, has been blamed. Apparently it was based on a lecture given at the Berlin Academy the decade before - by a Polish woman.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-07 12:30 am (UTC)~/Downloads/cahn_comments_script$ ./word_counts.sh refresh
Refreshing counts......
User | Words | Comments
---------------------------------------------
mildred 110119 474
selenak 80117 247
cahn 23352 300
deathsblood 603 2
taelle 582 4
Word Total: 214773
Comment Total: 1027
Maybe next time I'll get it to do some html formatting, so it displays better in DW. It's currently formatted for my terminal (and very nice it looks there indeed).
Now back to trying to figure out if I can do a Yuletide treat. Crackfic will have to wait. :DD
Re: Frederick and Poland
Date: 2019-11-07 05:35 pm (UTC)Frederick: And now the king of Poland has died like a fool! I do not like these people who do everything at the wrong time.
Ghost of August III: >:(
HEE.
Oh Fritz, you are so... Fritzian. ...Why did he depict the Bishop of Kiev like that? Had he ever met him? Did he just not like Zaluski?
no subject
Date: 2019-11-07 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-07 09:41 pm (UTC)So pulling one comment out of context and presenting it in isolation means some background needs to be supplied, as you found when you tried to link to my Austrian Succession chronology, which presupposed an understanding of the Pragmatic Sanction. So editing would be a non-trivial endeavor, and I'm not sure it would be as much fun.
Anyway, we have produced a performance art-style book for you, and I'm glad you've found it so enjoyable. :D
Casanova
Date: 2019-11-08 04:07 am (UTC)That is amazing and while I am sure it must have been stressful, I kind of love that detail. Holy cow.
It gets better! Casanova's memoirs provide an amazing example of what happens when you *don't* get a chance to study and it's pop quiz time! I'm going to quote at length from his memoirs here, because they're so readable, and he does a great job of conveying just how stressful it was.
When I got home I wrote a plain but respectful letter to the king, asking where and at what time I could introduce myself to him.
In two days I received a letter signed 'Frederick,' in which the receipt of my letter was acknowledged, and I was told that I should find his majesty in the garden of Sans-Souci at four o’clock.
As may be imagined I was punctual to my appointment. I was at Sans-Souci at three, clad in a simple black dress. When I got into the court-yard there was not so much as a sentinel to stop me, so I went on mounted a stair, and opened a door in front of me. I found myself in a picture-gallery, and the curator came up to me and offered to shew me over it.
“I have not come to admire these masterpieces,” I replied, “but to see the king, who informed me in writing that I should find him in the garden.”
“He is now at a concert playing the flute; he does so every day after dinner. Did he name any time?”
“Yes, four o’clock, but he will have forgotten that.”
“The king never forgets anything; he will keep the appointment, and you will do well to go into the garden and await him.”
I had been in the garden for some minutes when I saw him appear, followed by his reader and a pretty spaniel. As soon as he saw me he accosted me, taking off his old hat, and pronouncing my name. Then he asked in a terrible voice what I wanted of him. This greeting surprised me, and my voice stuck in my throat.
“Well, speak out. Are you not the person who wrote to me?”
“Yes, sire, but I have forgotten everything now. I thought that I should not be awed by the majesty of a king, but I was mistaken. My lord-marshal should have warned me.”
“Then he knows you? Let us walk. What is it that you want? What do you think of my garden?”
His enquiries after my needs and of his garden were simultaneous. To any other person I should have answered that I did not know anything about gardening, but this would have been equivalent to refusing to answer the question; and no monarch, even if he be a philosopher, could endure that. I therefore replied that I thought the garden superb.
“But,” he said, “the gardens of Versailles are much finer.”
“Yes, sire, but that is chiefly on account of the fountains.”
“True, but it is not my fault; there is no water here. I have spent more than three hundred thousand crowns to get water, but unsuccessfully.”
“Three hundred thousand crowns, sire! If your majesty had spent them all at once, the fountains should be here.”
“Oh, oh! I see you are acquainted with hydraulics.”
I could not say that he was mistaken, for fear of offending him, so I simply bent my head, which might mean either yes or no. Thank God the king did not trouble to test my knowledge of the science of hydraulics, with which I was totally unacquainted.
He kept on the move all the time, and as he turned his head from one side to the other hurriedly asked me what forces Venice could put into the field in war time.
“Twenty men-of-war, sire, and a number of galleys.”
“What are the land forces?”
“Seventy thousand men, sire; all of whom are subjects of the Republic, and assessing each village at one man.”
“That is not true; no doubt you wish to amuse me by telling me these fables. Give me your opinions on taxation.”
This was the first conversation I had ever had with a monarch. I made a rapid review of the situation, and found myself much in the same position as an actor of the improvised comedy of the Italians, who is greeted by the hisses of the gods if he stops short a moment. I therefore replied with all the airs of a doctor of finance that I could say something about the theory of taxation.
“That’s what I want,” he replied, “for the practice is no business of yours.”
“There are three kinds of taxes, considered as to their effects. The first is ruinous, the second a necessary evil, and the third invariably beneficial.”
“Good! Go on.”
“The ruinous impost is the royal tax, the necessary is the military, and the beneficial is the popular.”
As I had not given the subject any thought I was in a disagreeable position, for I was obliged to go on speaking, and yet not to talk nonsense.
“The royal tax, sire, is that which deplenishes the purses of the subject to fill the coffers of the king.”
“And that kind of tax is always ruinous, you think.”
“Always, sire; it prevents the circulation of money—the soul of commerce and the mainstay of the state.”
“But if the tax be levied to keep up the strength of the army, you say it is a necessary evil.”
“Yes, it is necessary and yet evil, for war is an evil.”
“Quite so; and now about the popular tax.”
“This is always a benefit, for the monarch takes with one hand and gives with the other; he improves towns and roads, founds schools, protects the sciences, cherishes the arts; in fine, he directs this tax towards improving the condition and increasing the happiness of his people.”
“There is a good deal of truth in that. I suppose you know Calsabigi?”
“I ought to, your majesty, as he and I established the Genoa Lottery at Paris seven years ago.”
“In what class would you put this taxation, for you will agree that it is taxation of a kind?”
“Certainly, sire, and not the least important. It is beneficial when the monarch spends his profits for the good of the people.”
“But the monarch may lose?”
“Once in fifty.”
“Is that conclusion the result of a mathematical calculation?”
“Yes, sire.”
“Such calculations often prove deceptive.”
“Not so, may it please your majesty, when God remains neutral.”
“What has God got to do with it?”
“Well, sire, we will call it destiny or chance.”
“Good! I may possibly be of your opinion as to the calculation, but I don’t like your Genoese Lottery. It seems to me an elaborate swindle, and I would have nothing more to do with it, even if it were positively certain that I should never lose.”
“Your majesty is right, for the confidence which makes the people risk their money in a lottery is perfectly fallacious.”
This was the end of our strange dialogue, and stopping before a building he looked me over, and then, after a short silence, observed,—
“Do you know that you are a fine man?”
“Is it possible that, after the scientific conversation we have had, your majesty should select the least of the qualities which adorn your life guardsmen for remark?”
The king smiled kindly, and said,—
“As you know Marshal Keith, I will speak to him of you.”
With that he took off his hat, and bade me farewell. I retired with a profound bow.
Three or four days after the marshal gave me the agreeable news that I had found favour in the king’s eyes, and that his majesty thought of employing me.
I was curious to learn the nature of this employment, and being in no kind of hurry I resolved to await events in Berlin.
[Buuut, then, he nopes right out of Fritz-as-boss.]
Five or six weeks after my curious conversation with the monarch, Marshal Keith told me that his majesty had been pleased to create me a tutor to the new corps of Pomeranian cadets which he was just establishing. There were to be fifteen cadets and five tutors, so that each should have the care of three pupils. The salary was six hundred crowns and board found. The duty of the tutors was to follow or accompany the cadets wherever they went, Court included. I had to be quick in making up my mind, for the four others were already installed, and his majesty did not like to be kept waiting. I asked Lord Keith where the college was, and I promised to give him a reply by the next day.
I had to summon all my powers of self-restraint to my assistance when I heard this extravagant proposal as coming from a man who was so discreet in most things, but my astonishment was increased when I saw the abode of these fifteen young noblemen of rich Pomerania. It consisted of three or four great rooms almost devoid of furniture, several whitewashed bedrooms, containing a wretched bed, a deal table, and two deal chairs. The young cadets, boys of twelve or thirteen, all looked dirty and untidy, and were boxed up in a wretched uniform which matched admirably their rude and rustic faces. They were in company with their four governors, whom I took for their servants, and who looked at me in a stupefied manner, not daring to think that I was to be their future colleague.
Just as I was going to bid an eternal farewell to this abode of misery, one of the governors put his head out of the window and exclaimed,—
“The king is riding up.”
I could not avoid meeting him, and besides, I was glad enough to see him again, especially in such a place.
His majesty came up with his friend Icilius, examined everything, and saw me, but did not honour me with a word. I was elegantly dressed, and wore my cross set with brilliants. But I had to bite my lips so as not to burst out laughing when Frederick the Great got in a towering rage at a chamber utensil which stood beside one of the beds, and which did not appear to be in a very cleanly condition.
“Whose bed is this?” cried the monarch.
“Mine, sire,” answered a trembling cadet.
“Good! but it is not you I am angry with; where is your governor?”
The fortunate governor presented himself, and the monarch, after honouring him with the title of blockhead, proceeded to scold him roundly. However, he ended by saying that there was a servant, and that the governor ought to see that he did his work properly. This disgusting scene was enough for me, and I hastened to call on Marshal Keith to announce my determination. The old soldier laughed at the description I gave him of the academy, and said I was quite right to despise such an office; but that I ought, nevertheless, to go and thank the king before I left Berlin. I said I did not feel inclined for another interview with such a man, and he agreed to present my thanks and excuses in my stead.
I made up my mind to go to Russia, and began my preparations in good earnest.
[OMG, run away, run away!]
Baron Bodisson, a Venetian who wanted to sell the king a picture by Andrea del Sarto, asked me to come with him to Potsdam and the desire of seeing the monarch once again made me accept the invitation. When I reached Potsdam I went to see the parade at which Frederick was nearly always to be found. When he saw me he came up and asked me in a familiar manner when I was going to start for St. Petersburg.
“In five or six days, if your majesty has no objection.”
“I wish you a pleasant journey; but what do you hope to do in that land?”
“What I hoped to do in this land, namely, to please the sovereign.”
“Have you got an introduction to the empress?”
“No, but I have an introduction to a banker.”
“Ah! that’s much better. If you pass through Prussia on your return I shall be delighted to hear of your adventures in Russia.”
“Farewell, sire.”
Such was the second interview I had with this great king, whom I never saw again.
Does anyone else find this as hilarious as I do?
[Catt: And this is why I always take notes! (Catt observes in his memoirs that after the first year or so, he finally felt equal to the task of having a conversation with Fritz without freaking out, so his diary became less minute. Lol everyone.)]
Also, the Gutenberg copy of Casanova's memoirs has this delightful note at the beginning: "[Transcriber’s Note: These memoires were not written for children, they may outrage readers also offended by Chaucer, La Fontaine, Rabelais and The Old Testament. D.W.]"
I need to finish Wilhelmine's memoirs and also a few other items on my two other items on my 18th century to-read list, but Casanova's memoirs look fascinating. I might actually read them properly.
Re: Casanova
Date: 2019-11-08 04:20 am (UTC)Casanova does it too! Excerpted in full again:
My intimacy with Madame Denis commenced. One night when I was supping with her she was seized with convulsions which lasted all the night. I did not leave her for a moment, and in the morning, feeling quite recovered, her gratitude finished what my love had begun twenty-six years before, and our amorous commerce lasted while I stayed at Berlin. We shall hear of her again at Florence six years later.
Some days after Madame Denis took me to Potsdam to shew me all the sights of the town. Our intimacy offended no one, for she was generally believed to be my niece, and the general who kept her either believed the report, or like a man of sense pretended to believe it.
Amongst other notable things I saw at Potsdam was the sight of the king commanding the first battalion of his grenadiers, all picked men, the flower of the Prussian army.
The room which we occupied at the inn faced a walk by which the king passed when he came from the castle. The shutters were all closed, and our landlady told us that on one occasion when a pretty dancer called La Reggiana was sleeping in the same room, the king had seen her in ‘puris naturalibus’. This was too much for his modesty, and he had ordered the shutters to be closed, and closed they had remained, though this event was four years old. The king had some cause to fear, for he had been severely treated by La Barbarina. In the king’s bedroom we saw her portrait, that of La Cochois, sister to the actress who became Marchioness d’Argens, and that of Marie Theresa, with whom Frederick had been in love, or rather he had been in love with the idea of becoming emperor.
After we had admired the beauty and elegance of the castle, we could not help admiring the way in which the master of the castle was lodged. He had a mean room, and slept on a little bed with a screen around it. There was no dressing-gown and no slippers. The valet shewed us an old cap which the king put on when he had a cold; it looked as if it must be very uncomfortable. His majesty’s bureau was a table covered with pens, paper, half-burnt manuscripts, and an ink-pot; beside it was a sofa. The valet told us that these manuscripts contained the history of the last Prussian war, and the king had been so annoyed by their accidentally getting burnt that he had resolved to have no more to do with the work. He probably changed his mind, for the book, which is little esteemed, was published shortly after his death.
Madame Denis: Marie Louise Mignot, literary figure in her own right, Voltaire's niece and lover--yes, you read that right.
Portrait of MT in Fritz's bedroom: Who else thinks it was a portrait of someone else and Fritz told his staff to troll visitors by saying it was a young MT? :P
Also, here we have yet another reference to that old marriage AU!
Icilius
Date: 2019-11-08 04:21 am (UTC)They had another argument at some point, which Fritz won. Guichard insisted that the Roman soldier carried more weight on a march than the Prussian soldier and that therefore the Romans were superior. Well, you can imagine how Fritz reacted to that. He made Guichard put on the full kit of a Prussian soldier and stand at attention for an hour. Guichard found the task so difficult that he had to take back what he'd said. He was furious with Fritz, but, really, what did he expect?
Algarotti
Date: 2019-11-08 04:33 am (UTC)Maupertuis (remember Maupertuis? Captured by Austrians when joining Fritz on campaign, president of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, quarreled with Voltaire?), back in 1736 (aka when Fritz was still Crown Prince), went on an Arctic expedition to Lapland.
The reason is actually kinda cool. You know how the Earth bulges at the center and is kind of flat on the top, because of gravity and rotation and all that? Whether it was bulging at the center, or stretched out toward the poles like an egg, was a big scientific debate at the time. Maupertuis was convinced it was the former, so he led an expedition in the direction of the North Pole to take measurements. This expedition ended up proving him right.
Anyway, Algarotti was invited to help take measurements and also write poetry to immortalize and popularize the expedition. Which is pretty cool, because not everyone is qualified to be the scientist and the poet of the expedition.
Unfortunately, posterity didn't always appreciate Algarotti's polymathy. The Algarotti dissertation recounts a scene from a novel written in 1869:
"In a scene that is set in 1750, a party is held in honour of Algarotti's arrival in Venice. In it, one of the characters asks to know who the 'pallid, skinny little thing with the necklace, the medallions, and the cross on his chest' is. He is told that this person is Algarotti, who is then described with a touch of sarcasm as, 'member of all the universities, and of all the academies that ever were, that are, and that ever will be; astronomer, poet, painter, architect, violinist...Of many people it is usual to ask what they are...in his case, one ought rather to ask what he is not.'"
As someone who was given a good-natured ribbing by a fellow student in high school for monopolizing all the prizes and awards, to the point of being accused of being named "best male athlete" (I was neither male nor an athlete--although the track coach tried to recruit me for four years: I was notoriously faster than the male athletes)...I sympathize, Algarotti. I will join you in "Posterity: Mildred who?" land. <3
Long tangent: the reason Algarotti didn't end up going to Lapland with Maupertuis was that he was choosing between this offer and a simultaneous offer to come live with Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. He ended up choosing the latter, which was kind of interesting.
Voltaire was jealous, saying that if it weren't so cold, he would have accepted a position as poet, if he had been invited. [Me: That's a lot of "if"s, Voltaire.] But since it was cold and he wasn't invited, he and du Châtelet were like, "Pleeeeease, pleeeease come live with us! We love you forever! We're way better than Lapland! We will appreciate you like you deserve!"
They won, but Algarotti ended up staying with them for only 6 weeks. I was kind of joking when I wrote "Live with Voltaire! *double take* Live with Voltaire? *sigh*" as his reason for leaving. My sources give *no* reason why Algarotti left so quickly. What we know is that he continued to be on very complimentary terms with both his hosts after leaving, and they with him. My wanton and unsubstantiated speculation is based on two things: 1) Voltaire is Voltaire. 2) This is also how Algarotti later broke up with Fritz, as you may remember. "ILU! ILU from very far away!" "ILU too! Come back soon!" "When pigs fly, but ILU anyway!"
Algarotti seems to have been master of the amicable unofficial breakup, IOW. Even Lady Mary was left in some doubt as to his interest in her until she showed up in Italy several years later trying to move in with him. [ETA: My library shocked me by having the 3-volume set of the complete letters! I have placed a hold and will scan the Algarotti letters as soon as they arrive. Wheeee.]
Plus 3) I couldn't resist throwing some shade at Voltaire. :P
Crackfic
Date: 2019-11-08 04:41 am (UTC)Atm, the only thing I have to say is a tangent inspired by the following:
in which case Fritz is sung by a castrato
This one would be deliciously ironic, given all the rumors about Fritz's apparent lack of interest in the female sex being due to castration and other forms of impotence.
Historian 1: Look, Old Fritz can't be gay. There's NO WAY. He was so manly! He invaded provinces and partitioned Poland! He won a three-front war! He spent years on campaign enduring all sorts of hardships. Could he have done that if he was gay? NO HOMO.
Historian 2: I'm with you so far, but what's with the lack of sex? He was king, he could have had *anyone*. Explain, plz.
Historian 1: Okay, so remember the ladies Orzelska and Ritter and Wreech and Formera and so on and so forth? What do they all have in common? He was young! Clearly, something happened in his twenties that made him impotent.
Historian 2: Like what?
Historian 1: Like his dad kept a close eye on him, so he couldn't have normal affairs like a young prince, so he had to resort to prostitutes. Naturally, he caught a venereal disease.
Historian 2: Oooh, so that operation on his penis he was supposed to have had in 1733?
Historian 1: Yeah, except the operation went wrong and he was castrated.
Historian 2: Right, right, gotcha. And then he *pretended* to be into "Socratic" love so people wouldn't guess anything was wrong. But really it was just homoerotic poetry in the classical Greek style, no action or anything.
Historian 3: No, no, you're both wrong! If he was impotent, how could he have been manly enough to invade and hold Silesia? Eunuchs are weak and effeminate. Clearly the botched operation caused a *cosmetic* disfigurement that made him *self-conscious* about his penis, hence the no sex. Obviously he was actually perfectly virile the whole time!
Historian 3: But I'm with you on the faking homoerotic interest via poetry.
Historian 4: Idk about any operation, but I promise you, dear readers, there was nothing "unnatural" about Fritz's sex drive, it was just "underdeveloped." It's MANLY to not be into women and only like waging war, k? If he wrote poetry at all, much less erotic poetry, you will not find any mention of it in my incredibly manly book.
Historian 5: No, no, you're all wrong! He was sekritly in love with EC but forced to pretend he wasn't, because he had trash-talked the marriage to defy his father before he'd met her, and Fritz was constitutionally incapable of backing down. He would totally cut off his nose to spite his face for 46 years.
Allow me to convince you with all the evidence. Remember how they lived together while his father was alive, and he claimed to be having sex with her? He was perfectly happy at Rheinsberg. Lonely and sad afterward. QED. HUGE TRAGEDY for our totally heterosexual hero. Everybody shed a tear for the tragic love of Friedrich II and Elisabeth Christine.
Historian 6: Okay, but you guys realize there is no evidence that there was any operation at all? And his naked body was examined by many people after his death, and *nobody* commented on any supposed disfigurement? The doctor who treated Fritz during his life and claimed to have seen this "disfigurement" is a totally unreliable source, who would claim anything to salvage his hero's reputation. YES HOMO. EXTREMELY HOMO. MAXIMUM HOMO. [ETA: okay, not *Philippe d'Orleans* maximum, but he may have been throwing some transgender in there too, hard to say. Anyway. Lots of homo. :P]
Margaret Goldsmith (writing in 1929): Nice job catching up, 2015 guy. I said all this a hundred years ago. Fritz/Katte 4ever. <333
(NB: I have placed all these accounts in dialogue form in the mouths of historians for the sake of entertainment. The actual details of the historiography, what was said by Fritz's doctor and what was said later and by who, are more complicated and irrelevant. Suffice it to say that these stories have all been bruited about by people EXTREMELY concerned to save Heroic Old Fritz's reputation from the awful and unsubstantiated gay rumors.)
Also, I entitled this comment "Crackfic" in reference to our Fritz/Joseph crackfic, but honestly, the whole venereal disease/operation/castration/cosmetic disfigurement stories should count as crackfic too. :P
And yet those of us who think he might actually have been interested in men are the "gossipy sensationalists," omg, smh.
Emotional isolation
Date: 2019-11-08 04:46 am (UTC)1740 death of Suhm
1742 estrangement from Algarotti
1744 estrangement from Wilhelmine
1745 death of Keyserlingk
1745 death of Jordan
1746 death of Duhan
1746 reconciliation with Wilhelmine
1747 Algarotti returns
1751 death of Rothenburg (in Fritz's arms)
1753 partial estrangement from Algarotti
1753 estrangement from Voltaire
1757 estrangement from Fredersdorf
1757 death of Sophia Dorothea
1758 death of Fredersdorf
1758 death of brother Wilhelm*
1758 death of Wilhelmine
late 50s/early 60s gradual partial long-distance reconciliation with Voltaire begins
1764 death of Algarotti
1767 death of Heinrich (the beloved nephew, not the unbeloved brother)
1768 estrangement from D'Argens
1768 death of Eichel
1773 death of Quantz
1774 death of Fouqué
1775 death of Quintus Icilius
1778 death of Voltaire
1778 death of Earl of Marischal
1782 estrangement from Catt
1786 death of Fritz
* As
So when we talk about Fritz's emotional isolation, there are two aspects:
1) To what extent was he isolated?
2) To what extent was he isolated by choice?
And while the answer to both is "more than the average person," both aspects have been overestimated by contemporaries and posterity alike. A huge reason is that the more famous he was, the older he was, and the older he was, the more isolated he was. Even the isolation of his last years has been overstated, but it's definitely true.
And if you break down the ways that he ended up both increasingly isolated with time, and with a reputation for isolation, it comes down to these factors:
1) He disliked the majority of people and did not casually welcome anyone and everyone into his circle.
2) He kept at arm's length people that he was expected by society to at least make the effort to interact with: his wife, his brothers, etc.
3) He outlived his inner circle (especially the Rheinsberg circle).
4) He was reluctant to add new people to the inner circle later in life.
5) He cut people off when they offended him.
6) He inadvertently drove people away through being impossible to live with.
1 and 2) don't necessarily reflect either misanthropy a preference for being alone. He was more open about his likes and dislikes, but those two plus the length of the chronology above make it pretty clear that he was committed to quality over quantity. A lot of people who are surrounded by family and casual friends out of fear of loneliness and/or need for a social safety net are actually *emotionally* isolated. The whole "I make nice with my family, even though they're really awful for my mental health, because I have financial problems/health problems/etc." is sadly common.
3 and 4) are also pretty common. Even today, the whole "I used to make friends easily in my 20s, but now I'm in my 40s and it's hard" phenomenon is seen all over social media, along with advice column articles on ways to get around that. People who outlive their social circle often end up alone. The way most people have historically gotten around the isolation of old age is through large extended families. Some people are lucky enough for that to work out well in their old age, but a large number of people are either stuck in a nursing home because they don't have family to take care of them, or stuck in an unhappy family situation because they can't afford an alternative. (This also goes for younger disabled people, younger people with a sucky job market, etc.) Fritz had staff and doctors, and so he didn't need to depend on family.
5 and 6) are the big two "oh, Fritz" ones.. And what they tell you are not that Fritz didn't like people, or that he wanted to be alone, but that he lacked the skills of making a long-term relationship work. The reason the chronology of people he loved is so long was that he was pretty willing to let people into the inner circle. (And I could have made that list even longer, but I had to draw a line around the inner circle somewhere.)
The way it usually worked was that he made snap judgments whether to like someone. If you were in, you were in (for as long as it lasted). If you were out, you were out, and changing his first impression of you for the better was hard. And once you were in, you got a mixture of "Fritz lavishing affection on you and begging you to stick around (or come back)" with "Fritz being Fritz," which was not easy to live with but was not necessarily intentionally aimed at driving you away.
As a counterexample to his total isolation after the Seven Years' War and an example of him actually knowing how to do the whole friendship thing, there was the Earl of Marischal. Fritz granted him some land on the Sanssouci grounds, paid for him to build a house there, and gave him a permanent place at the dinner table at Sanssouci. When the old Earl found it harder and harder to get up that steeply terraced hill, Fritz would make the trip down the hill and eat with him somewhere else. They were still good friends when Marischal died in 1778, yet another death that was hard on Fritz. Let's keep in mind also that if he hadn't driven anyone away or cut anyone off, he still outlived by many years all but one of the people he was estranged from. So from that list, it would have been basically him and Catt at the end.
In conclusion, on the one hand, obviously he was more isolated in 1786 than in 1736 (the "happiest years" being 1736-1740, at Rheinsberg). But too many people let that seduce them into a picture of either old or young Fritz being uniformly crabby and reluctant to let people get close. When in reality, he also had this emotionally open, even clingy, side that people tend to overlook in him after the age of about 18 or at best 28.
The saddest part about his increasing isolation is that he *cared*. His list is really long and mine is really short because my social interaction needs are really low. When I cut people off, I don't care, and when I outlive them, I don't care except in an abstract "death is bad" kind of way. Fritz latched onto people, hated being alone, grieved people intensely, and got really upset when he cut people off or they left him. He really needed better relationship skills than he had.
therapy for everyone
Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 04:59 am (UTC)"My brother had given this name to his flute: observing that he should never be truly in love with any princess but this...it was by way of reply that I called my lute my prince, saying that it was his rival."
Um, between this and Argenore, Wilhelmine, I'm starting to worry about you.
Fritz: Pretty sure I'm either gay or asexual.
Wilhelmine: Might actually be in love with my brother.
Also, granted the memoirs were written at least a decade later, but if Wilhelmine's remembering the aetiology of the name correctly, this is the earliest instance I've seen of Fritz indicating a lack of interest in women, by several years. That is very interesting (to us gossipy sensationalists). I'm even more inclined to take later encounters as het-posing or at best questioning.
Re: Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 07:01 am (UTC)I also suspect all those illnesses, migraines etc. in her later years were her body rebelling against a state she didn’t want but which she consciously couldn’t object to. After all, providing a male heir was a wife’s first duty, she’d been raised to believe that, her mother, no matter how terrible her parents’ marriage, had provided thirteen children, and the Margrave was a far more agreeable husband than FW had ever been. There was no reason she could have voiced, even to herself, for not continuing to have sex with him in order to produce a son after all, especially since her having a daughter proved they could have children.
But emotionally, certainly, she loved Fritz above and beyond (remember that “you could just write ‘my sister, I love you, I love you, my sister’ and I’d be content” outburst I quoted a few posts back) in whatever fashion, and their interactions certainly had at times romantic overtones (secret meeting when Fritz was with Prince Eugen’s army and FW had expressedly forbidden any side trips to Bayreuth, or that time he left a love poem for her to find after another visit to Bayreuth (post estrangement and reconciliation), oh, and he wrote her on his wedding night to EC, dated as such, “I never loved you as much as now, and I want you to believe me”). Also, if you look at their estrangement, all the triggers - Wilhelmine sympathizes with the widowed Duchess of Württemberg about wanting custody of her sons back (and may or may not consider alternative matches for her daughter than the one Fritz wants her to make), the Erlangen journalist writes anti-Fritz articles without immediately getting flung into the dungeon, the Marwitz affair and finally the MT meeting near the end of the second Silesian War - come, in Fritz’ reactions, down to the complaint that she’s prioritizing other people and hence can’t love him anymore. And he gets finally over it when believing her not just on “Marwitz: here’s what happened, and why”, but “of course I still love you more than anyone, please believe me for you are my life”.
Now we do have to take into account that the style of the period was overwrought, and people wrote “your servant, always” and “be assured of my utter devotion” to each other even when having no deep connection at all. There’s at least one Deconstructing Fritz biographer I’ve read who is of the “he didn’t love any of his siblings, including Wilhelmine, he was just being rethorical and obeying the emo letter writing mode of the era” conviction. Which, okay. If you think so, biographer. But I think when he’s writing that suicidal letter mid 7 years war after the defeat of Kolin 1757 that everyone is free to end their misfortunes and “you alone tie me to this earth”, he’s voicing the truth as he feels it at that point. And he’s writing it to someone whom this very suspicious man does believe to feel the same way about him.
Re: Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 07:07 am (UTC)Unsurprisingly, I agree with you. And yes, overwrought style and all, and even I sometimes follow rhetorical conventions (e.g., I will write "love" or "miss you" in places in emails when I feel like a normal human would, even though I'm kind of emotionally detached from other human beings), but while I think Fritz's willingness to express his emotions and the language in which he expresses them is a function of his time and shouldn't be interpreted in a modern context, his reaction to people's deaths alone gives the lie to the idea that all his declarations of love were just a stylistic convention. Stylistic convention is addressing fellow monarchs as "my brother" and then betraying them at every possible opportunity.
Mutual low sex drive: makes perfect sense to me.
Re: Casanova
Date: 2019-11-08 07:14 am (UTC)Incest: just a thing in this era. Given Casanova in his later life had a one night stand with an old flame of his and their mutual (adult) daughter, he certainly wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.
The memoirs are a treasure trove for period detail, observations on interesting people all over the continent and of course his own life (as remembered as a librarian in Bohemia). Occasionally also horrifying not necessarily for the reason the people of his era would have considered it to be so. Starting with his childhood; he’s the oldest son of a singer/actress and her less successful husband who’s also an actor because she’s, and simultanously admiring and deeply resentful of his glamorous mother, so he doesn’t speak until he’s about eight (and is considered dumb accordingly), and then he doesn’t shut up. Which gets him his mother’s interest in as much as she pays for his schooling in Padua (since he’s not so dumb after all), but not so much that she considers taking him with her on her tours through Europe (as opposed to a younger brother and sister - of several, the other siblings end up with their grandmother, the dad is already dead). What also happens in Padua before he’s even hit puberty: he gets fingered by his teacher’s sister. This to contemporary readers looked like “lucky dog, early initiation, eh” and to us like “child molestation much?”. And so forth.
Portrait of MT in Fritz’ bedroom
Date: 2019-11-08 08:01 am (UTC)I think it’s quite likely that Fritz wanted to troll people, and possibly (while she was still alive) MT herself if reports get to her, and yes, period portraits look very similar to us, what with the wigs and the beauty ideals needing to be observed, but just for the sake of argument: MT was actually one of the few people whose portrait would have been recognizable to people within the HRE. Partly due to Fritz. Because those portraits of her and her family were a loyalty declaration, just as Fritz’ portraits were. For example, recently I was at the castle in Würzburg, which at the relevant era was held by the Schönborn family (v important Catholic family through several centuries all over the HRE and there’s a cardinal von Schönborn in Vienna even now), and sure enough, there was MT, both young and old, and Joseph (younger), too. For non-nobles, there were prints.
Now how much those portraits actually resembled the person - shrug. (Though I’d say Wilhelmine’s pastel is recognizable MT if you’ve seen some of her other portraits.) But they certainly had created an iconic look, identifiable to the casual observer.
(BTW, I was v amused at Fritz complimenting MT on her complexion in the crack fic, ,because, Cahn, that’s another insult if you consider the Prussian ambassador wrote to Fritz she was ruining her face with all that outdoorsy stuff. (Remember the period ideal for female skin was soft, white and rosy, not tanned and wind-weathered!)
Re: Portrait of MT in Fritz’ bedroom
Date: 2019-11-08 08:20 am (UTC)Now, of course Fritz may actually have had a portrait of MT in his room! For trolling, for gloating, for coming across as superior for having defeated such a worthy ally and for treating her with such "respect", for many reasons. But I also like the idea of him testing people's gullibility. :P
(BTW, I was v amused at Fritz complimenting MT on her complexion in the crack fic, ,because, Cahn, that’s another insult if you consider the Prussian ambassador wrote to Fritz she was ruining her face with all that outdoorsy stuff. (Remember the period ideal for female skin was soft, white and rosy, not tanned and wind-weathered!)
Indeed, that was intended to be an insult on more than one level, disguised as a compliment. :D I had fun with that one.
Re: Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 09:26 am (UTC)I admit I always thought Fritz's commitment was more a case of defiance than real undying conviction (God knows, I professed belief in things I didn't have strong convictions about as a teenager just because it upset my parents), but so far I haven't seen Wilhelmine doing anything quite this blatant to piss FW off, especially at a time like this--end of 1730. How on earth does she even feel safe enough to do this? Just because she trusts SD not to pass this infraction onto FW, and she's willing to take the risk of someone overhearing?
I mean, what are the options here?
1) Our future freethinkers both genuinely still believe in predestination, to the point where pleasing God is more important than pleasing FW, despite FW treating it as one of Fritz's cardinal sins that he needs to be broken of in Küstrin.
2) Our future freethinking teenagers are both committed to defying FW at all costs just to hang onto some self-respect.
3) Wilhelmine only breaks out the supposed predestination belief to win arguments with her mother (so far, I don't remember any references to her being a good Calvinist until it came time to convince her mother she couldn't promise to adhere to the English marriage at all costs); FW doesn't know anything about it.
4) 1740s Wilhelmine is inserting this into the past to explain how she won the argument with her mother.
5) Technically, I suppose it's possible one of the siblings genuinely believes as a teenager and the other doesn't. I mean, belief is a continuum, but I still think Fritz shows more signs of defiance than conviction.
Any input from people who know Wilhelmine better than I do?
Okay, I searched for "predestination", and there's one occurrence later in volume 1, where 1740s Wilhelmine is stating that she still tends to believe in it...but 1) this is a document intended for (eventual) public consumption, much like her trip to Geneva, 2) it's actually possible to be a freethinker and believe in, or at least entertain the possibility of, a deterministic universe, even a materialistic deterministic universe.
I'm more interested in her dynamic with FW circa 1730, because that seems pretty important, considering the forcefulness of his opinion on the subject. Believing or not believing in a particular tenet of your religion: eh. Professing a belief in the face of your father the absolute monarch forbidding it: actually kind of significant, one way or another.
Re: Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 12:25 pm (UTC)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.
One woman, two pen pals
Date: 2019-11-08 01:51 pm (UTC)“Fritz and Music” book says that after Wilhelmine’s death, she became his go-to correspondant for all matters musical. Hang on, thought I, I know of her, but as Maria Theresia’s most frequent correspondant among German royalty and sort of spy! Back I go to my MT biography, and yep, it’s the same lady. Daughter of MT’s rival on the throne, the short termed Wittelsbach Emperor, sister to that same Max whom MT blackmailed into voting for FS as Emperor and abandon the Wittelsbach claim on the throne if he wanted his dad’s duchy back. During the 7-Years-War (when, you know, Fritz had invaded Saxony) she went into exile to Prague but returned when the dust had settled. Her musical credentials were indeed impeccable, see wiki entry, and she not only composed operas but published them under the nome de plume Ermelinda Talea Pastorella Arcadia, ETPA for short. Because Wilhelmine isn’t the only one who can compose fictionalized RPF operas, one of ETPA’s operas, Talestris, pitches Talestris, Queen of the Amazons, versus Orontes, King of the Scythians. (That opera has a happy ending and war is averted by Amazon/Scythian marriage.)
What I’d like to know: how come Fritz, renowned misogynist with a very very few exceptions, made another one of these for MT’s pen pal?
What the Prussian Ambassador Wrote
Date: 2019-11-08 04:13 pm (UTC)"Her numerous births have made her quite heavy. Nonetheless, she carries herself vivaciously, and has a majestic bearing. Her looks are impressive, though she spoils them by the way she dresses.(...) She has a round face, the hairs are blond without being reddish. Her eyes are large and sparkling, yet due to their bright blue colouring also benevolent. A small nose, neither an eagle's beak nor a pointed stub. The mouth is quite large, but still beautiful. Her teeth are white. A pleasant smile. Her neck and breasts are well formed. (...) Her expression is open and amused. Her look smiling and gracious. One cannot deny that she is a beautiful person."
(At this point, I imagine Fritz drumming his fingers and grumbling "Dude, did I ask ou to write a "MT, Hot or Not?" assessment? Do I need to replace you? What is she like?"
"The Queen (of Hungary) is a good actress. When she ascended the throne, she discovered the secret of appearing lovable and admirable by putting her sex, her beauty and her pregnancies in the foreground. She observed herself and only showed her good sides, friendly, pious, liberal, compassionate, courageous generous; thus, she won the hearts of her subjects. (...) Everyone competed to sacrifice themselves for the best of princesses. But it is hard to maintain an assumed character. The queen could not force herself to do this for long."
So, after the first Silesian War, says the good Ambassador, she revealed her true nature:
Her efforts to disguise her ambition beneath the veil of the dangers she was under relented. One slowly realised that far from being touched by the misery of her people, she was only driven by the ambition to enlarge her territory and thus continued the war without blushing. All the praise the world had heaped on her and a lot of her own self regard gave her a high opinion of her own abilities and made her authoritarian. Now, she listens to little advice, shows as much pride as her ancestors did and shows herself vengeful and unforgiving.
(Three guesses towards whom. However, the ambassador admits that she's not entirely undeserving of praise even now, for:)
"She has a quick and thorough mind and knows to devote herself to the matters of state with an eagerness that helps her solve difficulties. She combines a good memory with an assured judgment. She also knows very well to pretend and to keep her thoughts to herself so I find it difficult to read what is in her heart from her face. Nearly always, she appears to be friendly, warmhearted and encouraging towards those who are shy. Her manners are uncomplicated and thoughtful. She speaks clearly, acts graciously, and sometimes enjoys hearing herself talk. It is still relatively easy to address her, though not as much as at the beginning of her rule. She listens to the suggestions one makes with patience and kindness, and sometimes accepts the petitions for help directly."
But what does her army think of serving a woman who can't command them in the field?
"She is much beloved by the troops whose respect she earned by the courage she showed during the cruel defeats at the start of her rule. It is said that for a time, she was even seriously determined to command her armies herself, before being dissuaded. Generall speaking, she appears to stay away from the weaknesses of her sex and seeks to cultivate the virtues least fitting for it. (...) She seems to dislike being born a woman, for she does not pay enough attention to preserving her beauty,exposing herself without caution to the dangers of the weather, walking outside for hours in searing heat or bitter coldness, which she can endure even better than the heat. She lacks care for her finery, and except for holidays dresses in a simple fashion, with the court following her example."
Now if you've seen any portrait of MT, at whatever age, you might be tempted to exclaim "simple?". But leaving aside all portraits use carefully chosen costumes; what the ambassador here in particular is referring to is that MT, which we know from her letters as well, had no time for those extremely wide hoop skirts which for example her daughter MA favoured; in her every day life, she preferred as small a hoop as she could get away with in the fashion of the day, which made movement easier (especially once she'd gained weight).
Re: Wilhelmine
Date: 2019-11-08 05:17 pm (UTC)But yeah, I seem to remember that my reading was that Wilhelmine kind of hit on it as a method to protest about the whole marriage thing to SD in a way SD and FW couldn't object to; I didn't get the impression she was super committed to it. And is SD really going to tell FW that Wilhelmine is using a method he might not approve of to get out of promising to adhere to a marriage he is totally against? (SD seems to undermine herself sometimes, so maybe? but I can see Wilhelmine taking that gamble.) But I should go back and look when I have time.
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
I have a very good impression of Sonsine from the memoirs <3 Haha, I can imagine that Sonsine did that... for about five minutes. Then she can swear to it and Wilhelmine can go off and do her music and gardens. :D
FW and predestination
Date: 2019-11-08 05:54 pm (UTC)"The originally Lutheran princes electors of the House of Brandenburg had with Johann Sigismund's conversion in the year 1631 accepted the reformed faith." (I.e. Calvinism as opposed to Lutheran Protestantism.) "In that doctrine, FW, too had been raised. His teacher Rebeur" - why yes, FW had a French Huguenot teacher, are you suprised? He also had a French nurse and a French governess and actually learned German as a second language - "had terrorized the wild and hot tempered crown prince into obedience. Especially the teaching of predestination, being chosen by God, in wich the middle class self confidence of the Calvinists expressed itself had been Rebeur's main means of frightening his student. His adolescent experience, the deep life long fear not to be one of the Chosen Ones caused Friedrich Wilhelm to reject this particular doctrine which the German version of Calvinism had largely abandoned anyway by the time he'd reached his majority. In his state, predestination doctrine was actively fought. It was completely left out of his son's education plan.
For said son, however, it became a tool to fight his father's expectations. (...) If God predestined the path a person chose, thus Friedrich concluded from predestination, then God had also formed a man's character, so how could another man's will change this character? This claim to his individuality lay at the core of his acceptance of the predestination doctrine."
Re: One woman, two pen pals
Date: 2019-11-09 12:53 am (UTC)What I’d like to know: how come Fritz, renowned misogynist with a very very few exceptions, made another one of these for MT’s pen pal?
I'm less surprised: I feel like Fritz was pretty willing to make exceptions in general, especially in a musical and poetical context. None of which exceptions, of course, ever changed his opinion of the sex as a whole, or led him to treat women as equals, or, say, want them at Sanssouci. "Some of my best friends" etc., etc.
Incidentally, he also attributed some of the apparent inferiority of women to nurture rather than nature. He proposed giving them (at least the nobility) better education, so they had something to think about besides their appearance and pleasure-chasing, and he had some nice things to say about the potential of individual women to be at least as smart/talented as men, as well as the fact that the whole sex could be doing better if they weren't so neglected.
How can you be so close, and yet so far, Fritz? Oh, well.
As far as her being MT's pen pal, Fritz's correspondence with her seems to begin in 1763, at which point he can presumably afford to be more chill about MT? When he went ballistic on Wilhelmine, he was kind of in the *middle* of his wars. And then they made up, what, 1746? You're the one who knows their correspondence in detail, but I'm thinking it was right around the time he got to keep Silesia for reals and calmed down a bit.
Re: FW and predestination
Date: 2019-11-09 01:28 am (UTC)- FW has a chaplain standing by in the room while Katte's head is cut off, ready to bring Fritz back to the true faith (foiled by Fritz promptly fainting and becoming hysterical for 3 days).
- Much of the correspondence during the post-Katte rehabilitation period is months and months of FW going WHEN WILL HE GIVE IN ALREADY? on the subject of predestination.
- Rejecting it was one of the first things Fritz was required to do during that reconciliation with his father, in which he falls to his knees and agrees that his father is right about everything and he'll do anything his father wants forever and ever, just PLEASE let him out of Küstrin
so he can go back to sneaking around and doing and thinking whatever he wants.But maybe Wilhelmine didn't feel more unsafe than usual professing it in the lead-up to Küstrin, especially if she didn't do so to her father's face. I don't actually have any accounts of him beating either her or Fritz up over this doctrine specifically. Just being really, really opposed to it.