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Frederick the Great, discussion post 6
...I think we need another one (seriously, you guys, this is THE BEST) and I'd better make it now before I disappear into the wilds of music performance.
(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)
Frederick the Great masterpost
(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)
Frederick the Great masterpost
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Wait, so, was this actually the case?
Over to Mildred. I have no idea whether or not the fact that Prussian Trenck became Austrian Trenck's universal heir settled his guilt in Fritz' eyes. Trenck himself thinks so, because he also claims he later found out his one year in Glatz was just supposed to be some loyalty test from Fritz and if he hadn't escaped and gone to Vienna then, he totally would have been released just a few days later and reinstated. He does not tell us who exactly told him this Fritzian plan.
As you might guess, Trenck/Amalie proved irresistable to 19th century novelist and 20 century scriptwriters. The latest of many efforts is called "Zwei Herzen gegen die Krone" - "Two hearts against a crown" - and no, I haven't watched it, but the internet tells me that here, the two even get a happy ending as Fritz relents at the end and allows Amalie to leave Prussia with Trenck.
...somehow the fictional Amalie/Friedemann subplot in "Mein Name ist Bach" complete with Fritz/Friedemann UST scene strikes me as more realistic...
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Wait, so, was this actually the case?
Over to Mildred. I have no idea whether or not the fact that Prussian Trenck became Austrian Trenck's universal heir settled his guilt in Fritz' eyes.
If we're asking what Fritz thought, I can speculate. If we're asking what the Trencks were up to, LOLOLOL I have no idea, no one I know of has any idea. Those two are such shady characters. I had to read up on Austrian Trenck as part of research for my fic set at Soor, the battle where Austrian Trenck was busy plundering Fritz's camp instead of fighting, was accused of letting Fritz escape capture, and returned Prussian cousin Trenck's horses, thus leading to suspicions that Austrian Trenck was working for the Prussians and that Prussian Trenck was working for the Austrians, omg, you guys.
With them, it really becomes a question of what you should attribute to malice and what to incompetence. Austrian Trenck keeps giving things to Prussian Trenck. Because Austrian Trenck has Prussian sympathies? Because he's trying to implicate Prussian Trenck as an Austrian spy? Because he's an idiot? Neither of these two seems to have any common sense at all, which is how they both end up in and out of prisons and death sentences.
As for what Fritz thought, honestly, I'm sure it didn't help, but my gut instinct is that it was a drop in the bucket of reasons Fritz had for suspecting this guy of, like, everything that had ever happened in the history of ever. Fritz is ready to believe the worst to begin with, and this guy gives off vibes even to me, and god help him if Fritz *had* been attracted to him, because hell hath no fury, and...yeah.
...somehow the fictional Amalie/Friedemann subplot in "Mein Name ist Bach" complete with Fritz/Friedemann UST scene strikes me as more realistic...
Somehow I agree. "You're always saying in your country everyone has freedom of the penis, but by 'everyone' you mean 'you'."
Re: Trenck affair, continued
No kidding. It strikes me as a not so minor miracle that Prussian Trenck lived long enough to get himself beheaded by French Revolutionaries after name dropping how MT personally got him out of prison.
Austrian Trenck made it into the movies as well, btw, though not as often as Prussia Trenck. Otoh, Austrian Trenck's movie has him played by the (very unAustrian and NorthGerman) Hans Albers, the male sex symbol of his day, so there was that.
How famous was Prussian Trenck for his shenanigans and his memoirs (which, as I'll remind you, he started publishing during the last years of Fritz' life), though? So famous that Lorenzo da Ponte, in his memoirs half a century later, thinks he can throw shade at Casanova by (wrongly) claiming Casanova shamelessly ripped off Trenck's story and even titled his memoirs "The Second Trenck".
(DaPonte had a (one sided) competitive thing going on with Casanova in general, more on Da Ponte below because it belongs in the Mozart/Salieri thread.)
Basically the one thing Prussian Trenck undoubtedly achieved was making later 17th century readers, out of and in Prussia, going "OMG! What a gallant fellow! How could Fritz be so heartless? And that's totally one of the sisters, amirite?" Which is probably what FW2 gave him the pension for, along with feeling for the guy because those years chained to a wall in Magdeburg truly do sound horrid.) (I guess that's why MT asked for his release as part of the peace talks.)
One more Trenck thing: he hadn't completely given up on his idea of getting money out of the Habsburgs that did not come in the shape of a rich widow by the time he settled down in Aachen and got married. He then tried to pull this one:
Trenck: Dear Joseph, congratulations on your mother's death and finally achieved single rule, your majesty! Now, it just so happens I've become a Dad, and you know what I've decided my boy will be called? JOSEPH! Of course, you'll totally become his godfather and send appropriate gifts and MONEY on a regular basis, right?
Joseph: Dear Baron Trenck, congratulations on the birth of your son, thanks for the unasked for honor of naming him after me. I wish you two all the best for the future. Yours not at all, Joseph.
Trenck: ...and that, dear readers, was that from Joseph. WHAT A HEARTLESS BASTARD!
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Re: Trenck affair, continued
They are so going for a sibling love triangle in this one!
ETA: And a Trenck Music vid based on "Zwei Herzen gegen eine Krone" (Two hearts against a Crown) (That one is straight, by contrast.)
Not to be outdone, Austrian Trenck got his own open air theatre Festival play with trailer:
Trenck the Pandur trailer - theatre edition
And there's the old black and White movie:
Trenck the Pandur trailer - Hans Albers Edition (co-starring MT in the later section)
Re: Trenck affair, continued
LOL omg even the DVD cover has the trio looking soulfully at each other!
Although I must admit my favorite bit is the part where he jumps onto his horse and misses, lol.
That was my favorite, but hee.
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Part 1: (ZDF: January 1, 1973) King and Cadet
"I hear wonderful things about your mind. But it seems that you are spoiled," says Prussian King Frederick II at Königsberg University to Friedrich Freiherr von der Trenck, who is as intelligent as he is willing to duel. He asks the young man to be trained in the army. Trenck obeys. In Potsdam he soon proves to be the most talented cadet of all. Trenck will soon be promoted. In the beginning, Frederick II sees in him the friend of his youth Hans Hermann von Katte reborn. (Note by Selenak: this is not something Trenck, not suffering from modesty, claims in his memoirs. But I can see why the scriptwriter went for it - it provides as good a psychological explanation for the subsequent events as any. If Trenck did resemble Katte in whatever ways, it would indeed explain a lot..)
Trenck falls in love with Amalie, the king's sister. He gives Amalie a precious fan. But his love for Amalie is doomed. On the orders of the king, who dislikes the relationship between Amalie and the baron, Trenck is arrested. Note by self: We're not mentioning those anonymous letters and the business with the Austrians then?
Part 2: (ZDF: 7 January 1973) On the Run
On the orders of Frederick II, Trenck is held at the Glatz fortress. The king also forbids his sister Amalie from dealing with the rebel and plans to buy her into a nunnery as abbess. Amalie is deeply hurt. Note by self: Quedlinburg was indeed a Protestant nunnery of sorts, a "Frauenstift", but above all it was a source of income for unmarried high ranking female members of the royal family. Amalie didn't spend much time there, she was mostly at the court; when Fritz made her abbess, it was an acknowledgment she would never marry and provided her with an income beyond his own lifetime.
In Glatz, Trenck meets Lieutenant Nikolai, who is planning a desertion. The matter is revealed, Lieutenant Nikolai has to run a skewer, Trenck has to attend the punishment. When the commanding officer lets the already unconscious Nikolai drag through the alley, Trenck manages to push the captain off the horse, grab his swords and flee. He passes two guards in the fortress Of Glatz. Although he bravely and skilfully uses the weapon, he is caught again a short time later. After several failed attempts and a total of eleven months in prison at the Fortress of Glatz, Trenck manages to break out. After an adventurous escape, he finds shelter at the castle of Baroness Lazar in Bohemia, which is already known to him. Women have little resistance to the charm of the young daredevil.
The way to Vienna to his cousin, the Pandurenoberst, is open to him.
Part 3: (ZDF: January 14, 1973) The Pandur
Friedrich von der Trenck meets his cousin in Vienna, who is feared under the name Trenck der Pandur because of his unbridledness. The Pandur Franz von der Trenck enjoys the most miserable reputation imaginable. He is simply regarded as a murderer. Friedrich also feels something of this bad reputation when he points out his relationship with Baron Franz von der Trenck in Vienna. He learns that his cousin has now clashed with the top army leadership and is expected to face a highly distressing trial for bribery and other offences. The Pandur not only scolds his Prussian cousin in the worst possible way, he even lets him be ambushed by two friendly officers. When Friedrich fights back, he is arrested. He can only save himself by fleeing to Russia quickly.
Part 4: (ZDF: January 21, 1973)
Baron von der Trenck can make his way to Moscow. He enters the Russian service as a riding master. At the Russian court, he falls in love with Anuschka of Lieven and also has a relationship with Anastasi Bestuscheff, the chancellor's wife. When he is found, he is tried to be suspected of counterfeiting coins. Trenck can justify himself, but he has to leave the Russian court.
He settles down in Austria, where after the suicide of his cousin a large fortune is to wait for him. Note by me: not a suicide in Trenck's memoirs.
Part 5: (ZDF: January 28, 1973) In the Trap
His cousin's inheritance turns out to be an evil trap. The late Pandur Franz has run 63 asset trials alone. The Austrian state bureaucracy is trying by all means to prevent Trenck from owning the huge estates. One does not even shy away from an attempted murder.
Things become dangerous for Trenck when he returns to Danzig because his mother has died. The Austrians intercept him with the help of a beautiful woman and deliver him to the Prussian king. Note by self: no Austrian handover happening in the memoirs; it's all Prussians who take him prisoner. I suppose the scriptwriter wanted to avoid Trenck looking dumb for entering Prussian territory despite a warrant on him in the first place? Trenck is chained by him.
Part 6: (ZDF: 4 February 1973) The Tomb
Under the harshest conditions, Trenck is imprisoned in the Magdeburg fortress on the orders of Frederick II. On the floor of his cell, the Prussian king had a grave slab with a skull and the name "Trenck" walled in as psychological torture. But Trenck cannot be worn down despite iron chains on his hands and feet. He is still planning to escape from the gloomy dungeon, especially as help is offered from outside: Lieutenant Sonntag maintains the connection with Princess Amalie. But a well-planned escape attempt fails.
It was not until 1763, at the end of the Seven Years' War, that the king ends the harsh punishment of his former favourite. We're not mentioning MT petitioning him to do this?
Trenck immediately settles down and begins to write open-hearted memoirs. He thus annoys the imperial court, flees to Paris, falls into the turmoil of the French Revolution and dies through the guillotine. Note by self: okay, the scriptwriters here really depart from both the memoirs and historical reality. Trenck didn't start to publish his memoirs until after he'd settled down in Aachen, where he married, made a living by Hungarian winen trade, and produced 13 children before going to France when he was already over 70; there was certainly no "fleeing" involved this time, as one of the possible explanations as to what the hell he was doing in revolutionary France was that he might have been spying for the Austrians (again) (though I really doubt it). I guess the tv show didn't want to make a time jump and show Trenck as an old man?
Re: Trenck affair, continued
This seems to be a *thing* for people to do with Fritz. I've now seen three examples: the one you cite here, a documentary maker speculating that Catt was chosen for the similarity of his name to "Katte", and the playwright of "The Sorrows of Frederick" having Frederick decide that "freedom of conscience and penis" applies to soldiers who sodomize their horses only if said soldier is coincidentally named Fredersdorf (and "the" Fredersdorf is dead and Fritz misses him):
Frederick, after pardoning random Fredersdorf: What would have happened had his name been Schmidt?
General: He'd have been shot.
Frederick: I'm glad you have a logical mind.
I'm not convinced, myself, but okay, Trenck is probably the example that bothers me least, as far as fiction goes. (Personally, I just think Fritz was drawn to charismatic, quick-witted individuals: Katte, Trenck, Voltaire, Algarotti, Marwitz, Glosow, Keyserlingk, what seems like the entire Rheinsberg circle...)
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Oh, me too, but not all of those ended up in Magdeburg chained to a wall without a trial for years and years. That‘s what I was thinking of when I said „as good an explanation as any“. If nothing worse had happened to Trenck than that one year in Glatz, I would say, scriptwriter, that‘s way over the top. Even if Trenck had gotten a trial, and had been subsequently executed for desertion, or whipped. But ten years chained to a wall on the command of a monarch who otherwise prides himself on being enlightened? And those ten years starting seven years after the original offense (whatever it was), after Trenck already had been a year in prison (Glatz), and had subsequently not lived in Prussia and become someone else‘s subject? That speaks of an anger on a FW kind of scale (and like I said, even FW bothered with a trial for Katte, before overriding the sentence).
So I can see the scriptwriter concluding: If he‘d been just another guy Fritz had for a while felt interested in only to feel disappointed/betrayed/jealous because of the Amalie affair and the „Austrian spy“ rumor, why then THIS much? If, otoh, Fritz subconsciously thought he was getting Katte back and then found himself rejected/betrayed: presto, descent into tyranny.
Re: Trenck affair, continued
I think the problem is that due to the lack of trial, we're doing a lot of guesswork as to *what* Fritz was reacting to. Maybe the lack of trial in itself was to protect Amalie, but I kind of doubt that's the only charge, given the over-the-top-ness of the reaction. Maybe Trenck pushed some Katte buttons, yeah.
Or maybe he didn't directly, but Trenck and Fritz did some late-night Katte/Crown Prince roleplay that didn't make it into the memoirs.:PRe: Trenck affair, continued
But would even 1744 attracted to Trenck Fritz have trusted him that far? And would chatty Trenck later on resisted at least dropping a hint? I see I must read the uncut version after all, or at least the early Prussia part.Bearing in mind that Thiébault wrote his memoirs well after Trenck's memoirs had been published and had become an international bestseller, and that he himself never talked to either Fritz or Amalie about the whole business, and only knew them in their late middle to old age, here's his theory on their relationship and the role Trenck played in it.
Something everyone noticed and no one could understand was the steady and deep friendship between the King and the Princess. While Frederick was polite and considerate to all his sisters, he did not pay as much attention to any of them as to this one, at all opportunities. He never came to Berlin without at once sending one of his pages to her to ask how she was doing; always, his first visit was to her, or rather, he did not visit anyone but her. He never rode through the town without stopping by for at least a quarter of an hour; if he received new rare fruit, he immediately shared them with her, and the anecdote of the page whom he sent with fresh cherries in the middle of the winter to her, of how this page greedily ate half the cherries and of the punishment Frederick declared is well known. (...)
The Princess, unhappy in many regards and especially in what was closest to her heart - here the German translator adds a footnote to say: "The explanation for the princess' unahappiness is to be found in the article: Trenck, Fr. v. - must have felt deeply that only in her royal brother she could find a purpose to her sufferings; that he was able to provide a goal for them; and one could interject: that he was the one who had caused them, but what I really want to say is that she had to understand that he had only been so strict due to the necessity of politics which, however, did not suppress fraternal love or compassion in him; all this, I think, must have led her into the arms of the King and must have caused her to say: "Here I am in my pain; do with your sister what you want, for only you can console her, as only you can save her from the world's mockery and its gossp."
And assuming this - which fits the facts as we know them -, did not have the King to tell himself: "My poor sister, once beautiful and amiable, now disfigured and unhappy, did become so through me! I will show her how I pity her, how her fate pains me! My friendship shall console her for the misfortune which I cannot spare her. And does she not deserve compassion? How great is her accdeptance of her sufferings, her devotion to me!" I do not believe one could truly know Frederick, as I have done, and not come to this conclusion.
Mildred: what say you?
Incidentally, her German wiki entry claims the Breslau visit wasn't Amalie's first in the field - she actually visited Fritz immediately after the defeat of Hochkirch & Wilhelmine's death. Looking this up in Lehndorff, he puts it somewhat differently; he says the court in Berlin had hoped Fritz would come post-Hochkirch but instead Fritz ordered Amalie to come to him at Trebatsch (ten miles away from Berlin) and remained there with her 24 hours before moving on to Silesia. Now I wasn't in charge of improving Fritz' French, as Thiébault was, but my own arm chair psychology tells me that Fritz wanting to see Amalie post Hochkirch and losing Wilhelmine - when Heinrich was still stone cold furious at him on AW's behalf and had, remember, written to him after visiting Bayreuth that once Wilhelmine would learn of AW's death, any hope for her recovery was doomed - was because he wanted consolation from at least one family member in this really dark hour, and he chose the one entirely dependent on him, for better or worse, and thus - despite her reputation for moodiness and a sharp tongue - unlikely to blame him. Conversely, however strongly (or not - we just don't know) Amalie might have felt about Trenck, Thiébaut was probably on to something in speculating this became the one relationship in her life that she could rely on. It's its own kind of messed up and close. Hohenzollern siblings: would have provided therapists with material for centuries to come!
Re: Trenck affair, continued
But would even 1744 attracted to Trenck Fritz have trusted him that far? And would chatty Trenck later on resisted at least dropping a hint?Probably not, and hell no, in that order. The latter is why I used strikethough: just me being silly about scriptwriter's choices. ;)
I see I must read the uncut version after all, or at least the early Prussia part.
Truly, you must!
Mildred: what say you?
What you said: centuries' worth of material for therapy here.
I don't know Amalie that well, but you said that she spoke of wanting to follow Fritz into the grave in his final years. Now, she may have the world's worst case of Stockholm Syndrome (I've seen these kinds of cases), but that's notably *not* what Fritz said about FW1 or FW2 said about Fritz. So maybe he did convince her of the political necessity beyond "I think he had an affair with you, and that's a no-no because I wanted him to have an affair with me."
Or Stockholm.
Re: Trenck affair, continued
I suppose the scriptwriter wanted to avoid Trenck looking dumb for entering Prussian territory despite a warrant on him in the first place?
HAHAHAHAHA
This is kind of amazing. Thank you for translating the synopsis! :D
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Thank you for highlighting this; I had missed it on my first read-through.
Did he enter Prussian territory, though? IIRC, Danzig wouldn't be part of Prussia for a few more decades, not until after Fritz's death. Arguably, it's nearly equally stupid to go right up to the Prussian border, what with how easily Fritz gets confused about borders--drawn in pencil and all that--but I always thought Fritz snatched Trenck from Danzig like he arrested Voltaire in Frankfurt: outside his own territory.
Did Trenck pass through East Prussia on his way to or from Danzig? I haven't read his memoirs, not even the abbreviated Gutenberg version.
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Honestly, don't remember, am too overwhelmed to look it up again right now, but geographically speaking - he pretty much would have had to, no? Unless he'd have come by sea?
Re: Trenck affair, continued
Re: Trenck affair, continued