Yes. I mean, nobody claims either of them were military or intellectual geniuses, but after reading all the material Ziebura first pointed me towards, I think "nice but dull" is just a facile, lazy dismissal. And I don't just mean in the positive sense. Sure, AW often comes across as very sympathetic, and despite having had, with first FW and then Fritz, two incredibly imposing authority figures in his life to influence him, clearly able to form his own ethical and intellectual opinions. (Including an admiration for constitutional monarchy and limited executive powers that's quite modern.) But even Lehndorff who consistently liked and admired him doesn't deny that the one person entitled not to mourn for AW was his (pregnant) wife. Because he was just as lousy a husband to her as his brothers were to their wives. He was a three dimensional human being, capacity for pettiness and cruelty along with the more laudable traits included.
As for Ferdinand, he is the most shadowy brother, but also the one whom managed to survive all the Hohenzollern drama while maintaining reasonably good relations with all the other siblings for as long as they lived. He also managed a decent marriage (incesteous as it was), as opposed to everyone else. Not to mention that opting out of the war post AW might not have been very patriotic, but it was a sound emotional and physical survival strategy in the face of what had happened. And he, too, wasn't without the Hohenzollern ability to be ruthless - doing a 180% on Mina from friendly flirting to complete coldness, whether it was for his marriage or because of AW issues or later because of Heinrich or all of the above being a case in point.
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Re: Tumblr fandom
Date: 2020-01-19 07:05 pm (UTC)As for Ferdinand, he is the most shadowy brother, but also the one whom managed to survive all the Hohenzollern drama while maintaining reasonably good relations with all the other siblings for as long as they lived. He also managed a decent marriage (incesteous as it was), as opposed to everyone else. Not to mention that opting out of the war post AW might not have been very patriotic, but it was a sound emotional and physical survival strategy in the face of what had happened. And he, too, wasn't without the Hohenzollern ability to be ruthless - doing a 180% on Mina from friendly flirting to complete coldness, whether it was for his marriage or because of AW issues or later because of Heinrich or all of the above being a case in point.