Lehndorff is careful with critisizing Fritz directly except for the occasional "why won't he notice and promote me out of this job!" outburst and of course apropos the refusal to let him go with Hotham. But when you pay attention, he's good with the implied/indirect diss, such as when in his Wilhelmine obituary he says that of the royal sisters, she was the most like Fritz in mind and heart and two sentences later states she felt only comfortable with other celebrities and that her subjects had the impression she felt above them and disliked them. Another indirect critique comes when he reports on young future FW2 turning 16, because it seems that despite being an 18th century nobleman, Lehndorff isn't a subscriber to the Hohenzollern way of child raising (Borck was the Fritz-appointed steward/governor):
I find he's much more amiable when Count Borck isn't around him. The prince is one of those shy beings whose trust one has to win through loving behavior and not through harshness, the way Count Borck does it. I have much affection for this prince. I venerated his father, and thus the son will always be dear to me.
As for his own kids, two bookends:
January 10th 1760: As I get dressed this morning, an urgent messenger brings me the news that my wife has born a son. While this event fills me with supreme joy, I am afraid the child will not live, for it has been born fourteen days too early at least. At once, I hasten to the Countess Camas, who advises me to depart as quickly as possible. (...)
January 11th ff: Without any interruption, I arrive at 6 pm in Magdeburg. The first thing I hear is that the child is so weak that it has been given an emergency baptism. He was named Friedrich Ahasverus Heinrich. I visit my wife, and when they bring me the child I take it into my arms with the greatest joy of the world. In such moments, very strange emotions overwhelm one. I would never have believed it possible that you can feel such intense affection for such poor little creature. For three days, I indulged in the joy of looking at him about a thousand times, and wanted to do nothing but make plans for his future and watch it. But all my hopes were of a short endurance. One morning, they woke me up and told me that the child was dying, and not an hour later, he was dead. I am so unhappy about this that I can't enjoy anything. The poor child, so beautiful and well proportioned, will be buried here in Magdeburg in the Heilig Geist Kirche in a coffin clad in red velved with silver tresses.
For contrast, a joyful entry, which is Lehndorff, after having finally resigned as EC's chamberlain, five dead children, one dead wife and a living second wife (their first shared child died as well, alas, no.5 for him) later, returning home to his estate in 1777 when:
As I climb up the stairs, a pretty boy rushes towards me. While I wonder who he could be, a cry tells me it is my son. This child, who had been so thin and sick that I gave him to Doctor Muzelius and then to my dear niece in Halle for treatment, has changed so much within the last six months that I did not know him at first. I cannot describe my joy. It is as if my soul became one with the child's, so happy did I feel.
Lehndorff and children
I find he's much more amiable when Count Borck isn't around him. The prince is one of those shy beings whose trust one has to win through loving behavior and not through harshness, the way Count Borck does it. I have much affection for this prince. I venerated his father, and thus the son will always be dear to me.
As for his own kids, two bookends:
January 10th 1760: As I get dressed this morning, an urgent messenger brings me the news that my wife has born a son. While this event fills me with supreme joy, I am afraid the child will not live, for it has been born fourteen days too early at least. At once, I hasten to the Countess Camas, who advises me to depart as quickly as possible. (...)
January 11th ff: Without any interruption, I arrive at 6 pm in Magdeburg. The first thing I hear is that the child is so weak that it has been given an emergency baptism. He was named Friedrich Ahasverus Heinrich. I visit my wife, and when they bring me the child I take it into my arms with the greatest joy of the world. In such moments, very strange emotions overwhelm one. I would never have believed it possible that you can feel such intense affection for such poor little creature. For three days, I indulged in the joy of looking at him about a thousand times, and wanted to do nothing but make plans for his future and watch it. But all my hopes were of a short endurance. One morning, they woke me up and told me that the child was dying, and not an hour later, he was dead. I am so unhappy about this that I can't enjoy anything. The poor child, so beautiful and well proportioned, will be buried here in Magdeburg in the Heilig Geist Kirche in a coffin clad in red velved with silver tresses.
For contrast, a joyful entry, which is Lehndorff, after having finally resigned as EC's chamberlain, five dead children, one dead wife and a living second wife (their first shared child died as well, alas, no.5 for him) later, returning home to his estate in 1777 when:
As I climb up the stairs, a pretty boy rushes towards me. While I wonder who he could be, a cry tells me it is my son. This child, who had been so thin and sick that I gave him to Doctor Muzelius and then to my dear niece in Halle for treatment, has changed so much within the last six months that I did not know him at first. I cannot describe my joy. It is as if my soul became one with the child's, so happy did I feel.