See, I knew I just had to include the magic K word in the title for you to reply. ;)
Your explanation as to what goes on inside Fritz work really well for me, as per usual. Love and resentment mix so often in trauma, and if someone dies as tragically as Katte, there's no obvious way to express the resentment without hating yourself for it, and thus it gets repressed and rarely boils over. Mind you, I do find it fascinating he picks Grumbkow of all the people for this outburst. I mean, he could have written the rest of the letter entirely without the paragraph about Katte, and could have left it as "poor old Mantteuffel, too bad, but you know me, totally learned my lesson, am Fritz the Superobedient Son now, isn't that what you all wanted?"
Perhaps because he doesn't care what Grumbkow thinks of him? That is, beyond Grumbkow being a political ally right now, with a mutual undestanding of being useful to each other, but it's not like he wants the man's affection or high opinion.
Mantteuffel: Saxon Diplomat, secret Habsburg Agent, but also writer and major major patron of Wolff the philosopher, which was how he and Fritz got into corresponding for a while, and why FW was against him (before FW's own pro Wolff turn). He was also a Free Mason, and he had build himself a nice country estate by the name of Kummerfrey. Kummerfrei (modern German spelling) means, of course… free of sorrow. Or, in other words: Sans Souci. (Plagiarism, Sire? Tsk.)
Mantteufel got officially banished by Fritz from Berlin a few days before the Invasion of Silesia began. He moved to Leipzig and continued to be a major patron of intellectual circles. He also pushed Leipniz' cause, and in 1746 managed to argue the Berlin Academy under Maupertuis into a partial reverse of their judgment against Leipniz' Monadenlehre.
Re: Happy Birthday, Fritz! You bastard. (Even towards Katte?)
Your explanation as to what goes on inside Fritz work really well for me, as per usual. Love and resentment mix so often in trauma, and if someone dies as tragically as Katte, there's no obvious way to express the resentment without hating yourself for it, and thus it gets repressed and rarely boils over. Mind you, I do find it fascinating he picks Grumbkow of all the people for this outburst. I mean, he could have written the rest of the letter entirely without the paragraph about Katte, and could have left it as "poor old Mantteuffel, too bad, but you know me, totally learned my lesson, am Fritz the Superobedient Son now, isn't that what you all wanted?"
Perhaps because he doesn't care what Grumbkow thinks of him? That is, beyond Grumbkow being a political ally right now, with a mutual undestanding of being useful to each other, but it's not like he wants the man's affection or high opinion.
Mantteuffel: Saxon Diplomat, secret Habsburg Agent, but also writer and major major patron of Wolff the philosopher, which was how he and Fritz got into corresponding for a while, and why FW was against him (before FW's own pro Wolff turn). He was also a Free Mason, and he had build himself a nice country estate by the name of Kummerfrey. Kummerfrei (modern German spelling) means, of course… free of sorrow. Or, in other words: Sans Souci. (Plagiarism, Sire? Tsk.)
Mantteufel got officially banished by Fritz from Berlin a few days before the Invasion of Silesia began. He moved to Leipzig and continued to be a major patron of intellectual circles. He also pushed Leipniz' cause, and in 1746 managed to argue the Berlin Academy under Maupertuis into a partial reverse of their judgment against Leipniz' Monadenlehre.