In case you're wondering who actually called him Fritz, cahn: the German - not just the Prussians, but also fans like Hessian Goethe - people, plus it seems to have been a family nickname when he was younger; for example, when FW has his rant about his two oldest children in Wilhelmine's memoirs, he talks, err, shouts about "the villain of a Fritz and the English canaille of a Wilhelmine" in my edition. (Also Heinrich in the remark about young Napoleon which Ziebura quotes actually uses "Fritz", not Frederic or Friedrich, though he otherwise when not writing "the King" writes "Frederic".)
"Der Thronfolger" lets Wilhelmine use "Fritz" when they talk to each other without anyone else present. Films that take place when he's already King usually go with "your majesty" even when there's a sibling around, though I noticed that in the one scene where after all the psychological power play they bare their souls to each other, Bach (J.S.) calls him Friedrich in this exchange that comes in their improvised jam session:
Bach: I regret my sons cannot see this.
Fritz (hurt): I am here.
Bach: Forgive me, your majesty. Friedrich. You would have been a wonderful son. You as well." (Subtitles here say "even you", making Bach sound insulting, which I assure is not the case in the original. The German phrase implies "you, like my sons".
Fritz (turning away): To be a wonderful son it would have required a wonderful father.
Bach: Don't believe that, your majesty. I thought I had been a model father, but what am I to my sons? A shadow. A gigantic shadow. If one could start again, I'd have been a wine merchant. But one can never begin again.
Fritz (still with his back to him): As long as I can remember, my father was only shouting orders. He told everyone I was a guttersnipe" - subtitles here say "sissy", which probably comes closer to FW's actual words, but the German dialogue says "Schmutzfink", which is a bird dirtying itself, hence my different choice of equivalent - "and that I walked on tiptoe and pulled idiotic faces." (Cahn, this is all from an actual FW letter to his son.) "I played the lute in secret to comfort myself. He'd get terribly angry. He spat in my soup and forced me to eat it. And to kiss his feet. My older sister, Wilhelmine, and I, we loved each other. He forced her to marry to separate her from me. From then on, I was alone. A hostile father, that is the worst thing there is.
Bach (who had listened and come closer throughout this monologue), now silently hugs him).
(End of scene, we then switch to Friedemann and Amalie having their nightly rendezvous in the stables)
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Re: Fredersdorf letters
Date: 2019-12-14 08:22 am (UTC)"Der Thronfolger" lets Wilhelmine use "Fritz" when they talk to each other without anyone else present. Films that take place when he's already King usually go with "your majesty" even when there's a sibling around, though I noticed that in the one scene where after all the psychological power play they bare their souls to each other, Bach (J.S.) calls him Friedrich in this exchange that comes in their improvised jam session:
Bach: I regret my sons cannot see this.
Fritz (hurt): I am here.
Bach: Forgive me, your majesty. Friedrich. You would have been a wonderful son. You as well." (Subtitles here say "even you", making Bach sound insulting, which I assure is not the case in the original. The German phrase implies "you, like my sons".
Fritz (turning away): To be a wonderful son it would have required a wonderful father.
Bach: Don't believe that, your majesty. I thought I had been a model father, but what am I to my sons? A shadow. A gigantic shadow. If one could start again, I'd have been a wine merchant. But one can never begin again.
Fritz (still with his back to him): As long as I can remember, my father was only shouting orders. He told everyone I was a guttersnipe" - subtitles here say "sissy", which probably comes closer to FW's actual words, but the German dialogue says "Schmutzfink", which is a bird dirtying itself, hence my different choice of equivalent - "and that I walked on tiptoe and pulled idiotic faces." (Cahn, this is all from an actual FW letter to his son.) "I played the lute in secret to comfort myself. He'd get terribly angry. He spat in my soup and forced me to eat it. And to kiss his feet. My older sister, Wilhelmine, and I, we loved each other. He forced her to marry to separate her from me. From then on, I was alone. A hostile father, that is the worst thing there is.
Bach (who had listened and come closer throughout this monologue), now silently hugs him).
(End of scene, we then switch to Friedemann and Amalie having their nightly rendezvous in the stables)