For you: These are the main passages from Fontane's "Rheinsberg" chapters in which he unabashedly proclaims his affections. (See, that's why body switching with Lehndorff would be something he'd take in stride!) Bear in mind that he's of course speaking of his own present. The later 19th century Prussia and Germany not only was very much at peak Fritz veneration, the new Empire also ideologically speaking legitimized itself as a sort of long distance follow up to the Prussia of Frederick the Great. There was the problem that all Hohenzollerns living then (or now, for that matter) are in fact the descendants of AW, not Fritz. But that got usually ignored - see also Wilhelm II declaring himself not just a successor but a descendant of Fritz, as in "no descendant of Frederick the Great would ever surrender" (during WWI); when AW's defense essay finally got published, it was promptly declared mistaken and unworthy. As for Heinrich, he was on the one hand a military hero but on the other the life long critic of his brother, and in a Germany where authoritarianism is emphasized more and more, not less and less, you don't want stories about critisizing the greatest national hero. So Heinrich got talked about less and less in Fontane's present, too.
Anyway, here's Theo about Heinrich:
When one steps back into the open to walk across the castle courtyard, the park and the lake, one cannot fend off the question, how is it that this wise, witty Prince Heinrich, this general sans peur et sans reproche, this human heart inspired by the most noble sensations while serving in war, is so little popular. You go to a village school and test it. Every day laborer child will know of Zieten, of Seydlitz, of "Schwerin with the flag", but the main teacher himself will only be able to explain stutteringly who Prince Heinrich was.
In the same place where he lived and reigned, created and donated through almost two human age, he is a half-forgotten one, simply because his brother's star is shining before him. And part of that misfortune will remain. But on the other hand, it is not improbable that the next fifty years will bring the merit and sound of the name more into harmony. In a word, the prince was missing the poet until this hour. From the moment that song, narrative, play will take him among their figures, the Prince-Heinrich-Rooms in the Rheinsberg Castle will begin to revitalise, and the castellans of the future will know what will be in this and that window niches happened, who handed over the flower box and under which chestnut tree the prince drank his tea and rose with a joyful "oh soyez le bien venu" when Prince Louis stopped at the castle gate and jumped out of the saddle laughing.*
(*Prince Louis = Louis Ferdinand, son of brother Ferdinand, Heinrich's favourite nephew. Died young, but thankfully after him.) (...)
It must be admitted (and I have already pointed out in the chapter "The Church of Rheinsberg") that something specifically French in custom, habituation, expression, as well as the small measure of that Brandenburg gruffness that we have in Frederick the Great, despite his Voltaire crush, so clearly recognizable and so admired, will always stand in the way of Prince Heinrich making it into folklore. But he is even missing that more modest part of popularity, to which he has absolute claim. His repliques were not in the style of the older Tauentzien, when Tauentzien was asked to hand over Wroclaw, under threat that "the child will not be spared in the womb".* But if in his answers Heinrich did not resemble Richard Lionheart, who smashed a duty-thick iron with his sword, he was like Saladin, who cut through the silk scarf thrown into the air with his half-moon blade. He was rarely gruff, vulgar never.
(*Tauentzien the Older said "Well, it's a good thing then that none of my men are pregnant.) (...) (Fontane translates each of the 27 plus AW inscriptions into German)
Thus the names of the twenty-eight who made the prince's election, a choice in which he himself felt that it was partisan. Why he added the following lines to the dedication already quoted, which speaks of the "Prussian heroes":
Leurs noms gravés sur le marbre Par les mains de l'amité, Sont le choix d'une estime particuliére Qui ne porte aucun préjudice A tout ceux qui comme eux Ont bien merité de la patrie Et participent l'estime publique.
Their names engraved on the marble By the hands of friendship, Are the choice of a particular esteem That does not cause any harm To all those who like them Have shown their merit for the fatherland well And share public esteem.
No prejudgment, then, against all those who also took part in the "estime publique". These words of consideration are spoken in the spirit of Prince Heinrich. He gives his opinion and gives it in part (diplomatic enough) only by remaining silent, but even this silence seems to him to be hurtful again, and he adds a mitigating "without prejudgment". This refers to the absence of three names in particular: Winterfeldt, Fouqué and Wedell. On one side there is a "Wedell", but this is an older general of the same name, who fell at Soor as early as 1745, not the Wedell, who was sent off as the king's darling and confidant eater to defeat the advancing Russians count Dohna in the command, and who was beaten the next day, for all his bravery, at Kay. He is missing, as Winterfeldt is missing, whereas all those who have been affected by the disgrace of the king on one occasion or another can be quite sure to see their account balanced at this obelisk. So the Duke of Bevern, von der Marwitz, Colonel of Wobersnow, Prince August Wilhelm himself. Each of these medallion inscriptions is important and, as long as the "critical commentary" that the fronding prince is said to have written about his brother's great book of history remains a mystery, can be regarded as a hint and a brief outline of what is said to be in that "commentary".
The most beautiful words are undoubtedly addressed to Zieten, which is why I cannot help but repeat them here:
"General von Zieten achieved a happy and honorable age. He won in every battle. His belligerent sharpness, united with a heroic bravery, ensured him the happy outcome of every fight. But what lifted him above all was his integrity, his unselfishness, and his contempt for all those who enriched themselves at the expense of the oppressed people."
Intimacy and true veneration speaks from every line. The old Hussar has remained the winner here as well.
Re: Andrew Hamilton: Rheinsberg
Anyway, here's Theo about Heinrich:
When one steps back into the open to walk across the castle courtyard, the park and the lake, one cannot fend off the question, how is it that this wise, witty Prince Heinrich, this general sans peur et sans reproche, this human heart inspired by the most noble sensations while serving in war, is so little popular. You go to a village school and test it. Every day laborer child will know of Zieten, of Seydlitz, of "Schwerin with the flag", but the main teacher himself will only be able to explain stutteringly who Prince Heinrich was.
In the same place where he lived and reigned, created and donated through almost two human age, he is a half-forgotten one, simply because his brother's star is shining before him. And part of that misfortune will remain. But on the other hand, it is not improbable that the next fifty years will bring the merit and sound of the name more into harmony. In a word, the prince was missing the poet until this hour. From the moment that song, narrative, play will take him among their figures, the Prince-Heinrich-Rooms in the Rheinsberg Castle will begin to revitalise, and the castellans of the future will know what will be in this and that window niches happened, who handed over the flower box and under which chestnut tree the prince drank his tea and rose with a joyful "oh soyez le bien venu" when Prince Louis stopped at the castle gate and jumped out of the saddle laughing.*
(*Prince Louis = Louis Ferdinand, son of brother Ferdinand, Heinrich's favourite nephew. Died young, but thankfully after him.)
(...)
It must be admitted (and I have already pointed out in the chapter "The Church of Rheinsberg") that something specifically French in custom, habituation, expression, as well as the small measure of that Brandenburg gruffness that we have in Frederick the Great, despite his Voltaire crush, so clearly recognizable and so admired, will always stand in the way of Prince Heinrich making it into folklore. But he is even missing that more modest part of popularity, to which he has absolute claim. His repliques were not in the style of the older Tauentzien, when Tauentzien was asked to hand over Wroclaw, under threat that "the child will not be spared in the womb".* But if in his answers Heinrich did not resemble Richard Lionheart, who smashed a duty-thick iron with his sword, he was like Saladin, who cut through the silk scarf thrown into the air with his half-moon blade. He was rarely gruff, vulgar never.
(*Tauentzien the Older said "Well, it's a good thing then that none of my men are pregnant.)
(...) (Fontane translates each of the 27 plus AW inscriptions into German)
Thus the names of the twenty-eight who made the prince's election, a choice in which he himself felt that it was partisan. Why he added the following lines to the dedication already quoted, which speaks of the "Prussian heroes":
Leurs noms gravés sur le marbre
Par les mains de l'amité,
Sont le choix d'une estime particuliére
Qui ne porte aucun préjudice
A tout ceux qui comme eux
Ont bien merité de la patrie
Et participent l'estime publique.
Their names engraved on the marble
By the hands of friendship,
Are the choice of a particular esteem
That does not cause any harm
To all those who like them
Have shown their merit for the fatherland well
And share public esteem.
No prejudgment, then, against all those who also took part in the "estime publique". These words of consideration are spoken in the spirit of Prince Heinrich. He gives his opinion and gives it in part (diplomatic enough) only by remaining silent, but even this silence seems to him to be hurtful again, and he adds a mitigating "without prejudgment". This refers to the absence of three names in particular: Winterfeldt, Fouqué and Wedell. On one side there is a "Wedell", but this is an older general of the same name, who fell at Soor as early as 1745, not the Wedell, who was sent off as the king's darling and confidant eater to defeat the advancing Russians count Dohna in the command, and who was beaten the next day, for all his bravery, at Kay. He is missing, as Winterfeldt is missing, whereas all those who have been affected by the disgrace of the king on one occasion or another can be quite sure to see their account balanced at this obelisk. So the Duke of Bevern, von der Marwitz, Colonel of Wobersnow, Prince August Wilhelm himself. Each of these medallion inscriptions is important and, as long as the "critical commentary" that the fronding prince is said to have written about his brother's great book of history remains a mystery, can be regarded as a hint and a brief outline of what is said to be in that "commentary".
The most beautiful words are undoubtedly addressed to Zieten, which is why I cannot help but repeat them here:
"General von Zieten achieved a happy and honorable age. He won in every battle. His belligerent sharpness, united with a heroic bravery, ensured him the happy outcome of every fight. But what lifted him above all was his integrity, his unselfishness, and his contempt for all those who enriched themselves at the expense of the oppressed people."
Intimacy and true veneration speaks from every line. The old Hussar has remained the winner here as well.