I think you told me he started this obelisk the instant Fritz died, right?
Yep. It took some years to complete, of course. Fritz died in the August of 1786; the Obelisk was inaugurated in July 1791, with hundreds of surviving war veterans attending. Now of course war memorials were nothing new, all the way going back to the Egyptians. But this was probably the first throwing so much shade at the supreme commander of the army whose dead it is commemorating. In addition to brother AW, you have Schwerin ("on April 11th, 1741, he won the battle of Mollwitz" - read: him, not Fritz, see Mildred's summary on this), James Keith (" With the greatest integrity, he combined the most extensive and thorough knowledge. In Russia, during the war against the Turks, he acquired a well-deserved fame, which he confirmed in Prussian service. The regret of all soulful hearts, the tears of all warriors immortalized forever his memory. He remained at Hochkirch, 14 October 1758" - the defeat of Hochkirch, you'll recall, which was entirely due to Fritz ignoring every other general's advice), Wobersnow ("the king's first adjutant. He was distinguished by a lively sense of honour and great military knowledge. In 1757, at the Battle of Prague, when he gathered the Prussian left wing to lead it anew against the enemy, he was wounded. He was in all campaigns against the Russians. The Battle of Kai was ordered against his will; the Prussians lost it, and he fell as a hero") Before the later 20th century, when the attitude towards war in general changed significantly, I can't think of something comparable, and even then: the Vietnam War Memorial, say, doesn't include inscriptions saying "and this battaillion died because SOMEONE ordered an attack that got even more people killed in vain".
Now don't get me wrong: Heinrich was by no means a pacifist. He had different tactics than Fritz, which got way less people killed, but that doesn't mean he hesitated to order attacks when he thought they would work, and naturally he expected his soldiers to maim and kill their opponents until the day was won. (And since he personally engaged in battle (like his brother), I'm assuming he also personally killed people.) Not to mention that he had his own Machiavellian streak; screwing the Poles over had been his idea first (on the Prussian side, Catherine probably thought of it way earlier on the Russian side). All the same, the speech puts a remarkable emphasis on the cost and the sacrifices of war (in terms of what was usual in that era), and the inscriptions for the individual honored people often empasize their integrity and refusal to engage in plunder and oppression of the defeated. Layers again: the obelisk is both a "Fuck you, Fritz!" monument and a way to commemorate people he thought deserved to be honored and an expression of his own idea of military ethics.
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
Yep. It took some years to complete, of course. Fritz died in the August of 1786; the Obelisk was inaugurated in July 1791, with hundreds of surviving war veterans attending. Now of course war memorials were nothing new, all the way going back to the Egyptians. But this was probably the first throwing so much shade at the supreme commander of the army whose dead it is commemorating. In addition to brother AW, you have Schwerin ("on April 11th, 1741, he won the battle of Mollwitz" - read: him, not Fritz, see Mildred's summary on this), James Keith (" With the greatest integrity, he combined the most extensive and thorough knowledge. In Russia, during the war against the Turks, he acquired a well-deserved fame, which he confirmed in Prussian service. The regret of all soulful hearts, the tears of all warriors immortalized forever his memory. He remained at Hochkirch, 14 October 1758" - the defeat of Hochkirch, you'll recall, which was entirely due to Fritz ignoring every other general's advice), Wobersnow ("the king's first adjutant. He was distinguished by a lively sense of honour and great military knowledge. In 1757, at the Battle of Prague, when he gathered the Prussian left wing to lead it anew against the enemy, he was wounded. He was in all campaigns against the Russians. The Battle of Kai was ordered against his will; the Prussians lost it, and he fell as a hero") Before the later 20th century, when the attitude towards war in general changed significantly, I can't think of something comparable, and even then: the Vietnam War Memorial, say, doesn't include inscriptions saying "and this battaillion died because SOMEONE ordered an attack that got even more people killed in vain".
Now don't get me wrong: Heinrich was by no means a pacifist. He had different tactics than Fritz, which got way less people killed, but that doesn't mean he hesitated to order attacks when he thought they would work, and naturally he expected his soldiers to maim and kill their opponents until the day was won. (And since he personally engaged in battle (like his brother), I'm assuming he also personally killed people.) Not to mention that he had his own Machiavellian streak; screwing the Poles over had been his idea first (on the Prussian side, Catherine probably thought of it way earlier on the Russian side). All the same, the speech puts a remarkable emphasis on the cost and the sacrifices of war (in terms of what was usual in that era), and the inscriptions for the individual honored people often empasize their integrity and refusal to engage in plunder and oppression of the defeated. Layers again: the obelisk is both a "Fuck you, Fritz!" monument and a way to commemorate people he thought deserved to be honored and an expression of his own idea of military ethics.