cahn | Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

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...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

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

I could buy either of those possibilities. Perhaps even in combination, i.e the reason Fritz knew Marwitz was cheating on 19-years-old Heinrich was because it was with him?

Definitely possible. Or possibly Marwitz had signaled his willingness to cheat and Fritz was all, "Haha, no, I enjoy the flirting, but on second thought, I don't have a real sex drive, you're not that great up close, I'm not sharing you with other self, and also you don't seem very reliable. Enjoy the wit, though!"

Life with Fritz might have been a high wire act where you needed to keep your focus and your balance all the time or you landed in the abyss (from Heinrich's pov), but this, he must have been horrified to discover, was what he'd thrived on, what had challenged him to be on top of his game.

That as an excellent and striking description. I also like to think that Heinrich discovered in retrospect that he felt some respect or at least sympathy for Fritz for caring about the same things enough to argue, even if he was clearly WRONG about them.

the later spend those twelve years realising just how much he'd been formed by his brother, in everything, and now the other part of the push-pull was gone.

Yeah. :/ Not the healthiest dynamic, but I can see how it was an addictive one. Re their tastes not updating: I don't have firsthand knowledge of this, but I gather Rheinsberg shows Heinrich having at least somewhat more up-to-date architectural tastes than Fritz and his perma-rococo.

From:

selenak

Wilhelmine Dorothea von Marwitz, married v. Burghausen, from the safe distance of Vienna: "What I'd like to know is how Fritz had the gall to call me Medea and what not, and to withhold my inheritance from Dad, while all this was going on. I mean, sure, I two timed his sister with her husband, but if there ever was a pot slandering a kettle... At least I didn't write Wilhelmine letters about her husband giving me the clap!

From:

selenak

I also like to think that Heinrich discovered in retrospect that he felt some respect or at least sympathy for Fritz

Well... not sure about that, but we get this gem from old Heinrich. Context: remember, Wilhelmine‘s widower died without a son from his brief second marriage, and Bayreuth went to crazy Uncle Christian, who‘d shot his wife‘s hot page. And also died son-less. Which meant that Bayreuth defaulted to the main Hohenzollern line. With all its interiors, including a certain manuscript. At which point the following happens.

FW2: Dear Uncle Heinrich, just to show you I do trust you and value your advice, just got my hands on Aunt Wilhelmine‘s memoirs. Please read them. Without making a copy. I just glanced briefly, but, zomg, I‘m just saying - no copy.

Heinrich: *reads*

Heinrich: Dear Ferdinand, guess what? Big sis wrote her memoirs. Lots of stories I had no idea about, though there was one that brought up a really bad memory from when I was four.

Self: Oh. You mean the hair drag scene where according to Wilhelmine the younger sibs, including you, begged FW for her life?

Heinrich: Friedrich she describes the way I remember him....

Self: She DOES?!?

Heinrich: ...a paranoid mean-tempered bastard once he got on the throne, though charming as a boy. I guess. Everyone is.

Self: Christ.

Heinrich: Have now been inspired to reread his letters.

Self: Have I mentioned yet you all need therapy?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

OMG. "Christ" is right.

from when I was four

For

cahn, Heinrich at 4 = 1730, the year of the escape attempt.

Bayreuth went to crazy Uncle Christian, who‘d shot his wife‘s hot page.

Had forgotten that, so thank you for the reminder!

From:

cahn

ahahahaha, thank you for as always filling in my date-challenged self!! I... would not have gotten that on my own, though it seems kinda obvious now.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I will try to remember to fill you in on things like dates and Peter III as Elisabeth's successor, things you will get when prompted but not necessarily on your own. I may not always be quite sure which instances those are, but I will try, because honestly, the best way to learn is not from forced memorization, but from encountering the same information in multiple contexts, through repetition.

Personal tangent:, I finally recently realized how much of my success in school, though definitely aided by having a good memory, came from studying the material on my own, outside the assigned lesson plans, because I got the repetition when the other students were having to rely on forced memorization. Ugh, why is our pedagogical system so bad? (I have actual thoughts on this for my blog, and for trying to re-master Latin and Greek more efficiently this time, which will all have to wait.)

From:

cahn

Hee, when it comes to dates (well, really everything, but particularly dates), you can pretty much always assume repetition is necessary (although I think I may finally have had the year of Katte's death drummed into me, at least :P )