Okay, so what happened was that after doing a close reading of our textual sources for Katte's execution, I got curious about what the layout of Küstrin looked like visually. Then one thing led to another, as it does. ;)
[ETA: Just to be clear, not one of the pictures in these picspams is mine. I shamelessly stole them from all over the internet and collated them here.]
Note, this will all make much more sense if you've at least skimmed through the textual criticism.
Brief overview: FW gave the order that Fritz was to have a good view of Katte's head rolling. The dominant narrative, thanks primarily to Wilhelmine and Pöllnitz, has been that the execution took place below Fritz's window, and that only Fritz fainting in time spared him from having to see it.
But eyewitness accounts from people outside the fortress in which Fritz was imprisoned, people who accompanied Katte to his site of execution, contradict this. Putting these accounts together, we find that Katte was led past Fritz's window and they got to say their final farewells, but that while he was executed only about 30-50 paces away, the actual execution place was out of sight from the window.
So any story or imagery that has Katte's execution visible from Fritz's window is historically inaccurate. Furthermore, anything that has him executed on a scaffold is inaccurate; eyewitnesses agree there was no room for a scaffold and that he knelt on a pile of sand.
Now to the actual images. I've numbered each one, with its preceding commentary, for ease of reference.
1) In the later part of the nineteenth century, Fontane investigated the question of where Fritz was imprisoned, and where Katte's head fell. He is reasonably confident about Fritz being on the side of the building facing the Oder, on the far left, second floor. He's somewhat less confident about the site of execution, but deduces that it must be in the site marked "v.K." in the image below. Fritz's window is marked with an F.
If you've read the Münchow letter, you'll also notice the Weißkopf directly in front of Fritz's window. Münchow tells us that was a third-floor platform that had a good view over the wall to Katte's execution, from which Fritz could have watched the execution if his keepers had been dead set on following FW's orders to the letter, and from which he himself, young Münchow, watched Katte's blood spray high as a child.
2) So now that we have that picture in our minds, we're ready to take a look at the layout of the old Küstrin town. The first thing to know is that it was destroyed by the Russians in 1945. Wikipedia tells me the bricks were used to rebuild Polish towns elsewhere. It's now a ghost town with nothing but ruins. So when we look at pictures and plans of the town, we have to look at historical documents.
This is a layout of what it looked like in 1921.
3) Next, the same picture with some relevant sites marked. B, over on the left, is the Berliner Tor. Fontane quotes Schack saying that Katte was led in through this gate on the afternoon of the 5th, and that he was kept the rest of the day and the night in a room near this gate.
The next morning, Katte was led out toward his place of execution on a walk that was hundreds of paces long, along the walls. Since Münchow the younger tells us that Katte's execution site was 30-50 pages away from Fritz's window, a walk along the walls that was hundreds of paces must have meant Katte was not kept in the same building as Fritz (not something I had realized before looking at these images). So his last walk must have been an L shape, west along the wall toward the König/Krol bastion, then south toward the Brandenburg Bastion.
I've marked that walk on the map below. Then Fritz's window--last window to the left facing the Oder--as F and Katte's probable execution site as K. Note that this layout is from 1921, and there would have been more structures in 1730.
I've also noted the location of the third-floor (or higher?) Weißkopf platform (W) in front of and above Fritz's window.
4) Here is a closeup of the same, so you can see it more clearly.
5) Okay! Now it's time to look at historic pictures. Here's an old postcard showing the building that Friedrich was kept in, henceforth the Schloss. I can't quite read the annotation that someone else wrote on it: there's a "Quartier" and a "something[stube]", aka "something-room." Perhaps our German speaker can help us out.
Behind the Schloss, you can see the belfry of the church. Check out the layout on the preceding picture and you'll see the church indicated as number 32.
6) The same picture again, now with Fritz's window and Katte's approximate execution site marked. As you can see, the Weißkopf is gone by the early 20th century, as is the wall in front of the Schloss, and probably some other walls that would have made Katte's execution site even harder to see from the window. Also imagine fewer trees.
The large brick structure immediately to the right of Katte's execution site is the Brandenburg Bastion.
7) My impression is the next one is from the 1940s, and as you can see there are no trees. I included it solely for your viewing pleasure, because it's a much better quality picture than the postcard one.
8) Now a closeup of Fritz's window. The individual who captioned this and drew the arrows got Fritz's window correct, but was mistaken about the site of Katte's execution. This is not unusual: Wilhelmine's account has been the dominant one among posterity.
9) And, just to make it extra clear, I've marked Fritz's window, but not the execution site, which doesn't appear in this photo.
10) So that's what it looked like in the first half of the twentieth century. What does it look like today?
Well, first, a map. I've marked Fritz's approximate prison location as well as Katte's approximate execution location. "Zamek w Kostrzyne nad Odra" is "Ruins of Küstrin an der Oder", i.e. the ruins of the Schloss where Fritz was kept.
If you compare this map to the 1921 one, you'll see that the moat is gone.
11) Now here's the satellite view, unmarked.
12) And with Fritz and Katte's locations marked. You can see that despite the fact that everything is in ruins, enough remains that you can make out the old locations of buildings clearly, including the quadrangle of the Schloss that Fritz was kept in. Because he was kept in a corner, this means we can pinpoint his location with pretty high accuracy. (I am not actually sure where he was kept in Küstrin after he was removed from the Schloss, when he was under house arrest.)
13) Now we leave space and come down to Earth. Here's a head-on view of the site, standing out in the middle of the Oder, on the German-Polish border, and facing the old town of Kostrzyn on the Polish side.
The red brick structure is the Brandenburg Bastion. Immediately to the left of it, near those trees, is Katte's approximate execution site. A little further to the left and farther back are the ruins (not visible in this picture) of the Schloss where Fritz was near the execution site but not quite able to see it.
14) The placard in the next picture is Katte's approximate execution site. We're looking southwest, toward the Brandenburg Bastion and the Oder.
15) Now we're looking north toward the ruins of the Schloss, where Fritz would have been when all this was taking place. The Oder is on the left, and Fritz would have been facing it. (Whether the wall was high enough that he would have been able to see it, I do not know.)
16) Here's a closeup of the placard. You can see a big red dot indicating the location, as well as Fritz's window, which you should be able to locate by now, in a smaller red rectangle. This picture isn't high enough resolution to be able to read the text, but some months ago, I did find a picture that was (that I can no longer find) and ran it through Google translate, and it was basically talking about the debate around Katte's execution site. They follow Fontane in their final conclusions, as do I.
And now you don't need to go to Küstrin! although I still do
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Wanderungen: Katte at Küstrin
Date: 2020-01-05 12:01 pm (UTC)[ETA: Just to be clear, not one of the pictures in these picspams is mine. I shamelessly stole them from all over the internet and collated them here.]
Note, this will all make much more sense if you've at least skimmed through the textual criticism.
Brief overview: FW gave the order that Fritz was to have a good view of Katte's head rolling. The dominant narrative, thanks primarily to Wilhelmine and Pöllnitz, has been that the execution took place below Fritz's window, and that only Fritz fainting in time spared him from having to see it.
But eyewitness accounts from people outside the fortress in which Fritz was imprisoned, people who accompanied Katte to his site of execution, contradict this. Putting these accounts together, we find that Katte was led past Fritz's window and they got to say their final farewells, but that while he was executed only about 30-50 paces away, the actual execution place was out of sight from the window.
So any story or imagery that has Katte's execution visible from Fritz's window is historically inaccurate. Furthermore, anything that has him executed on a scaffold is inaccurate; eyewitnesses agree there was no room for a scaffold and that he knelt on a pile of sand.
Now to the actual images. I've numbered each one, with its preceding commentary, for ease of reference.
1) In the later part of the nineteenth century, Fontane investigated the question of where Fritz was imprisoned, and where Katte's head fell. He is reasonably confident about Fritz being on the side of the building facing the Oder, on the far left, second floor. He's somewhat less confident about the site of execution, but deduces that it must be in the site marked "v.K." in the image below. Fritz's window is marked with an F.
If you've read the Münchow letter, you'll also notice the Weißkopf directly in front of Fritz's window. Münchow tells us that was a third-floor platform that had a good view over the wall to Katte's execution, from which Fritz could have watched the execution if his keepers had been dead set on following FW's orders to the letter, and from which he himself, young Münchow, watched Katte's blood spray high as a child.
2) So now that we have that picture in our minds, we're ready to take a look at the layout of the old Küstrin town. The first thing to know is that it was destroyed by the Russians in 1945. Wikipedia tells me the bricks were used to rebuild Polish towns elsewhere. It's now a ghost town with nothing but ruins. So when we look at pictures and plans of the town, we have to look at historical documents.
This is a layout of what it looked like in 1921.
3) Next, the same picture with some relevant sites marked. B, over on the left, is the Berliner Tor. Fontane quotes Schack saying that Katte was led in through this gate on the afternoon of the 5th, and that he was kept the rest of the day and the night in a room near this gate.
The next morning, Katte was led out toward his place of execution on a walk that was hundreds of paces long, along the walls. Since Münchow the younger tells us that Katte's execution site was 30-50 pages away from Fritz's window, a walk along the walls that was hundreds of paces must have meant Katte was not kept in the same building as Fritz (not something I had realized before looking at these images). So his last walk must have been an L shape, west along the wall toward the König/Krol bastion, then south toward the Brandenburg Bastion.
I've marked that walk on the map below. Then Fritz's window--last window to the left facing the Oder--as F and Katte's probable execution site as K. Note that this layout is from 1921, and there would have been more structures in 1730.
I've also noted the location of the third-floor (or higher?) Weißkopf platform (W) in front of and above Fritz's window.
4) Here is a closeup of the same, so you can see it more clearly.
5) Okay! Now it's time to look at historic pictures. Here's an old postcard showing the building that Friedrich was kept in, henceforth the Schloss. I can't quite read the annotation that someone else wrote on it: there's a "Quartier" and a "something[stube]", aka "something-room." Perhaps our German speaker can help us out.
Behind the Schloss, you can see the belfry of the church. Check out the layout on the preceding picture and you'll see the church indicated as number 32.
6) The same picture again, now with Fritz's window and Katte's approximate execution site marked. As you can see, the Weißkopf is gone by the early 20th century, as is the wall in front of the Schloss, and probably some other walls that would have made Katte's execution site even harder to see from the window. Also imagine fewer trees.
The large brick structure immediately to the right of Katte's execution site is the Brandenburg Bastion.
7) My impression is the next one is from the 1940s, and as you can see there are no trees. I included it solely for your viewing pleasure, because it's a much better quality picture than the postcard one.
8) Now a closeup of Fritz's window. The individual who captioned this and drew the arrows got Fritz's window correct, but was mistaken about the site of Katte's execution. This is not unusual: Wilhelmine's account has been the dominant one among posterity.
9) And, just to make it extra clear, I've marked Fritz's window, but not the execution site, which doesn't appear in this photo.
10) So that's what it looked like in the first half of the twentieth century. What does it look like today?
Well, first, a map. I've marked Fritz's approximate prison location as well as Katte's approximate execution location. "Zamek w Kostrzyne nad Odra" is "Ruins of Küstrin an der Oder", i.e. the ruins of the Schloss where Fritz was kept.
If you compare this map to the 1921 one, you'll see that the moat is gone.
11) Now here's the satellite view, unmarked.
12) And with Fritz and Katte's locations marked. You can see that despite the fact that everything is in ruins, enough remains that you can make out the old locations of buildings clearly, including the quadrangle of the Schloss that Fritz was kept in. Because he was kept in a corner, this means we can pinpoint his location with pretty high accuracy. (I am not actually sure where he was kept in Küstrin after he was removed from the Schloss, when he was under house arrest.)
13) Now we leave space and come down to Earth. Here's a head-on view of the site, standing out in the middle of the Oder, on the German-Polish border, and facing the old town of Kostrzyn on the Polish side.
The red brick structure is the Brandenburg Bastion. Immediately to the left of it, near those trees, is Katte's approximate execution site. A little further to the left and farther back are the ruins (not visible in this picture) of the Schloss where Fritz was near the execution site but not quite able to see it.
14) The placard in the next picture is Katte's approximate execution site. We're looking southwest, toward the Brandenburg Bastion and the Oder.
15) Now we're looking north toward the ruins of the Schloss, where Fritz would have been when all this was taking place. The Oder is on the left, and Fritz would have been facing it. (Whether the wall was high enough that he would have been able to see it, I do not know.)
16) Here's a closeup of the placard. You can see a big red dot indicating the location, as well as Fritz's window, which you should be able to locate by now, in a smaller red rectangle. This picture isn't high enough resolution to be able to read the text, but some months ago, I did find a picture that was (that I can no longer find) and ran it through Google translate, and it was basically talking about the debate around Katte's execution site. They follow Fontane in their final conclusions, as do I.
And now you don't need to go to Küstrin!
although I still do