cahn

Gustav, future Verdi tenor, makes his Berlin debut visiting his uncles - again, Lehndorff is not in the know that Fritz has asked Heinrich to team up to talk some sense into nephew, he just think it's splendid the brothers seem to get along currently - , and the rain, it pours. Err, the literal rain, not the metaphorical one.

I see both Kings return, wet to their skin. It is for us a very unusual event to see someone seated at the right of the great Friedrich. Both Kings separate, and the one from Sweden returns to his rooms. A moment later, he bids me enter. I find him leaning at a table and pay my compliments to him, which he returns om am amiable manner and with a charming tone of voice. He is of middle height, has very beautiful eyes, bad skin color, and a natural eloquence. After he has paid me some personalized compliments, he bids me farewell, and I go to his younger brother, the Prince Friedrich Adolf. The later is a delightful apperance, youth itself. I find him with my dear Prince Heinrich, who introduces me with the words: "But I must present you to Lehnsdorff, whom you'll meet again in Rheinsberg", and thus I don't have to say my compliments.

Some months later, Ulrike shows up for her state visit, and we get this exchange upon her first reunion with littlest sister, which totally cracks me up:

"When the Queen embraced her fiercely, she told her: "My dear sister, who fortunate you are to live with our family always!" Whereupon the Princess Amalie did not reply. Thus one can see that what is regarded by one as happiness is of no worth to the other."

So what does Lehndorff think about Ulrike in general, after having been exposed to her for some weeks? Well, first of all, unlike certain Queens who shall remain his boss, she's never boring. But:

I have rarely met a woman with more knowledge and more wit. But alas, these brilliant qualities only bring her misfortune. For she has not learned to make her life agreeable to herself, as she could in her high position. On the contrary, this position contributes to making her unhappy. She knows no higher happiness than despotic rule while living in a country where the very phrase is a crime. In religious matters, she's a free thinker while the higher clergy of Sweden clutches to the letter of the bible. She openly admits to not being able to disguise herself, and since she does not love Sweden, she uses the most terrible phrases for this country. She is a deist, scorns priests and praises despotism, all of which in mockery of her Swedish entourage, who of course hasten to report all of this back home. She is arrogant, though she is kind on a personal level, as long as she doesn't believe one is lacking in the proper respect towards her. And the later is true for the entire diplomatic corps in Berlin in her eyes. (...) A for me, I lunch with her daily and I have to say, she's incredibly amiable on these occasions. But it does annoy people she rarely talks to women. She does treat her ladies rather haughtily. When the poor Countess Sinclair wanted to sit down opposite of her a few days ago, her majesty told her: "My dear, you are my daily bread, sit elsehwere."

In Ulrike's favour (for us, not for Lehndorff): Lehndorff notes she tries to reconcile Heinrich to Mina. Fat chance, alas. I should say something about Lehndorff & the wife of his dearest prince: for obvious reasons, he's never jealous and speaks only positively about her until Heinrich starts to ostracize her for real, and then our courtier basically shrugs and thinks, well, tough, but c'est la vie.

Lehndorff is the source for the big sibling "who was worse?" argument, which it turns out Ziebura rendered almost verbatim, only slightly paraphrased, in her biography, so I shan't repeat it here again (you already know my own paraphrase and have the upload from Ziebura). However, what she doesn't include are two direct sentences, one from Amalie, one from Heinrich, both in German. (Again, Lehndorff's diary itself is written in French, so when he suddenly goes into German, it means people are actually using German.) Given Heinrich pretended not to speak it at all, it is, of course, telling that when things heat up in dear old Wusterhausen, he and Amalie switch to German to really have a go at each other. It's also noteworthy that they use "du", whereas otherwise Fritz & siblings are vous-ing each other in their French correspondance. The sentences are:

Amalie: "Min mutter hät mi einmal so geärgert, det ich fast the schwere Rothe von gekriegt!"
Heinrich: "Ich wollte dass du sie noch hättest weil du so übel von deiner Mutter sprichst!"

(Amalie - in nothern German dialect, btw - "My mother once so upset me that I nearly got smallpox!"
Heinrich : I wish you did if you talk so badly about your mother!")

But that exchange is the only thing Ziebura did not quote. Oh, and Mildred, you wondered whether Fritz heard about the big argument, and whether he had anything to say to Amalie about her stand: Lehndorff doesn't tell, but he does mention being bewildered Fritz gives Amalie another 5000 Taler as a present about a week later. (In general, one gets the impression that after Wilhelmine's death, Amalie got promoted to favourite sister, much to Charlotte's and Ulrike's Frustration.)

Re: Ulrike's visit in Rheinsberg, things are relaxed enough that she shows up in her morning gown instead of in full regal robes all of the time. Lehndorff reports on the festivities (including that Mara and Schmeling to a lot of musical numbers together), but doesn't clue into the budding Mara/Schmeling affair until afterwards. Last but one quote, representative of Lehndorff's takes on Heinrich's boyfriends in general:

Another matter which amazed me was that Prince Heinrich finally decided to fire the infamous Mara, who had such influence on him. He was the son of a local poor musician and was educated as a boy through the benevolence of the late Prince of Prussia who financed his study of music, at which he soon made great progress. After the death of this prince, Prince Heinrich took him into his service. Despite Mara playing pranks all the time, but Prince Heinrich in consideration of his great talents was lenient. Mara possesses a vivacious, passionate temper, and not fourteen days passed without him arguing with the Prince who nonetheless treated him leniently, which spoiled him completely. Four years ago, he already left the Prince once already and went to Paris, and the Prince not only paid for his journey but allowed him to come back upon his return. Last winter, Mara left him once already, and in order to win him back, the Prince had to concede him the greatest privileges. Thus Mara was allowed to get as many meals as he wanted and for as many people as he wanted from the kitchen, he had a courtly equipage, he had a large apartment in the Prince's town residence, in which he was allowed to install Fräulein Schmeling, our first singer, of whom he is enamored. This still wasn't enough for him, and he behaved so badly that the prince finally sent him away.

One can see why Fritz was able to predict Mara was not great husband material....On the bright side, Lehndorff considers the Mara news as a signal he should visit Rheinsberg again, for:

I travel to Rheinsberg. The joy of coming to such a beautiful place and to the amiable lord of it make the long tedious journey bearable. (...) Here, I lead a delicious life. No one on earth can make himself so agreable in day to day living with him as the Prince. Despite us usually being only four at the table - the Prince, myself, Lodwig Wreech and Baron Knyphausen - time flies and we rarely separate before one in the morning. At always spirited conversation, music, painting and reading time flies so pleasantly that one is full of regret to find it did, finally, end.

I hear you, Lehndorff. And thus I conclude, too, my write ups from your diaries. You probably did the right thing at finally calling it quits with the Hohenzollern court, but I must say, I shall miss you!