Truly, it was a lose-lose position. I mean, there's a bloody war going on, of course if Wilhelmine doesn't hear anything from her beloved brother, she's going to assume the worst. Otoh, if your doctors explicitly tell you one more bad news/loss will finish her off, and you know she's also become close to brother AW, keeping her from finding this out for as long as possible is also something you'd want to do. (Especially since it's completely unexpected.Yes, Wilhelmine knew about AW having health troubles, starting in late 1757, see Heinrich enlisting her in the effort to cajole Fritz into allowing Dr. Cothenius to see AW when AW was in Leipzig. And she was sending AW her own suggestions for what might help, based on all the stuff she'd had to take through the last decade or several. But that entire family is always having health troubles, and he'd been among the healthiest members and was only 35. There was no reason for her to believe he'd die and prepare herself for news like that.
...I wouldn't have wanted to make that call, is what I'm saying, but I think in the end I'd have gone with not letting her imagine Fritz dead, because "first, indissolluble attachments" and all.
BTW, I remember in one of the earliest posts Mildred had asked me whether Fritz was ever known to visit Wilhelmine's grave (to get comparative data for him not visiting Katte's grave), and I couldn't say. That was before I had a clearer idea about the chronology. Given that the war doesn't end until 1763 and the Margrave dies early in that very year, succeeded by crazy uncle Christian who kicks out all the artists and scholars and cuts down contact to the main Hohenzollerns to the absolute mininum, I'm 100% sure he didn't.
(Wilhelmine's daugther the Duchess of Würtemberg who'd been living with her parents moves to Erlangen at this point and also takes up travelling - that's when she meets Voltaire - and visiting Berlin a lot.)
But yes, the letters are heartbreaking, and I'm frowning at Deconstructing Fritz biographer who claims he didn't love her (or any other family member), it was all rethorical posing.
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version V: And in the end...
...I wouldn't have wanted to make that call, is what I'm saying, but I think in the end I'd have gone with not letting her imagine Fritz dead, because "first, indissolluble attachments" and all.
BTW, I remember in one of the earliest posts Mildred had asked me whether Fritz was ever known to visit Wilhelmine's grave (to get comparative data for him not visiting Katte's grave), and I couldn't say. That was before I had a clearer idea about the chronology. Given that the war doesn't end until 1763 and the Margrave dies early in that very year, succeeded by crazy uncle Christian who kicks out all the artists and scholars and cuts down contact to the main Hohenzollerns to the absolute mininum, I'm 100% sure he didn't.
(Wilhelmine's daugther the Duchess of Würtemberg who'd been living with her parents moves to Erlangen at this point and also takes up travelling - that's when she meets Voltaire - and visiting Berlin a lot.)
But yes, the letters are heartbreaking, and I'm frowning at Deconstructing Fritz biographer who claims he didn't love her (or any other family member), it was all rethorical posing.