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:

selenak

See, all we have to do is find a hint that Hans Herrmann might have had a fling with a member of the Marwitz tribe in his youth, and you'll discover all the first names and birthdates. ;)

Seriously, I suspect someone (Voltaire?) might have trolled people by writing an anonymous "How to succeed at the court of Frederick II" list, and two items on said lists are "have an affair with a member of his family" followed by "then have an affair with the man himself". All the subsequent desasters are the result of people taking this trolling seriously.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Both of these things made me laugh so hard!

See, all we have to do is find a hint that Hans Herrmann might have had a fling with a member of the Marwitz tribe in his youth, and you'll discover all the first names and birthdates. ;)

It's funny 'cause it's true. :P

Blame Lehndorff for not reporting the Hans Hermann gossip.

Seriously, I suspect someone (Voltaire?) might have trolled people

This would make an awesome addition to the Fritz/Voltaire crackfic that

cahn and I would like to see ~~make~~ happen next year.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Seriously, I suspect someone (Voltaire?) might have trolled people by writing an anonymous "How to succeed at the court of Frederick II" list

I'm starting to think you're right. I now have two sources agreeing that in 1740, Voltaire was writing love poetry to an unmarried Ulrica, and Fritz was writing sarcastic poetry back, going, "No, you can't have."

And we all know about Katte's double portrait of Fritz and Wilhelmine.

Hohenzollerns are collectible items!

From:

selenak

Voltaire/Ulrike, now there's a crack pairing I never thought I'd see. :) Given her fondness for despotism, it would have crashed and burned even faster than any other pairing, but undoubtedly we'd have gotten good pamphlets out of it.

Gustav: So, let me see whether I understood that correctly. You, Mom, start a major scandal about my creative solution to the succession problem involving an expert, and now I hear that back in the day, you got wooed by the most notorious writing scoundrel of Europe who simultanously was flirting with Uncle Fritz?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Ulrike: Can I help it if everyone wants me? I said he wooed me, not that I invited him into my bed. No, I let your Uncle Fritz write him some poetry, which I figured having to read that would be enough to turn anyone off. Little did I know Voltaire was into bad poetry, and they had a poetry-reading "arrangement". *air quotes with her fingers* But trust me, there were no threesomes.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Correction: 1743, not 1740. It was Voltaire's second visit, not his first.

Googling just now, I found a scholarly article arguing that Fritz thought the flirtation was innocent, did *not* object, and was in fact trying to prolong it by adding some poetry to the mix. Well, well! (Crack pairing indeed.)