Frederick the Great discussion post 9

[cahn]

...I leave you guys alone for one weekend and it's time for a new Fritz post, lol!

I'm gonna reply to the previous post comments but I guess new letter-reading, etc. should go in this one :)

Frederick the Great links

Comments

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[selenak]

She was also the one who put us onto the track of Lehndorff, right?

Yes, she was. She kept quoting from him and mentioning him as Heinrich's friend with benefits. She also is the one who still gets the occasional indignant "no proof!!!!" review on Amazon by people who clearly haven't read her books.

I also can't help but compare her to Burgdorf, the "Gay, gay, and did I mention, gay!!!!" biographer who doesn't bother with citations and for whom bi people don't exist, nor does a youthful experimental stage in which a gay man can have sex with a woman before figuring out his preferences. Ziebura in her Prussian royals biographies, starting with the 1999 Heinrich one, is absolutely determined not to be coy and presents evidence for everyone's sexualities, but that's just it: she delivers quotes, citations, and rarely makes claims beyond what she can prove. (One of the few exceptions I can think of is when she thinks Marwitz was Heinrich's first love but does not say what her canon proof for this is. Maybe it's just that it's the earliest romantic/sexual relationship of his we do have proof on, but while that can be the same, it doesn't have to be.) And she's able to write about her subjects sympathetically without losing sight of their flaws and other people's pov, hence her biography of the three unwanted wives, which shows none of the royal brothers, including AW, in a good light.

This is just too sad.
Yes, and it makes reading Henri de Catt's memoirs where Fritz is all - "would totally have reconciled with my brother if evil advisors (tm) hadn't riled him up against me" such an exercise in eye rolling. Because reading those letters, the brother who keeps being riled up and lashing out is clearly not AW.

Diary entry from Lehndorff about a conversation with AW in February 1758:

I was worried because the Russians had taken possession of (Eastern) Prussia - where Steinort, aka the Lehndorff family seat and the Lehndorff-owned agrarian estates are, which means he's currently without an income beyond what EC pays him - and because I thought about my impending marriage with Fräulein von Häseler. When I talked with him about this, he said: "You are right, my dear Lehndorff, to consider founding a household which will protect you from many ills. I'm thinking about your happiness now, and once I get a hold of a Taler, I'll share it with you. But I don't promise anything if I ever get to be King, because then the Devil takes hold of one. (This last sentence is written by Lehndorff in German, not French, as 1907! editor notes and as one can tell by the sudden Rokoko spelling, which means AW said it in German.)

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[cahn]

Because reading those letters, the brother who keeps being riled up and lashing out is clearly not AW.

AW's letters are just so heartbreaking! No lashing out at all :((((((

OK, that Lehndorff journal entry, in the context of all this, is amazing. By which I mean illuminating and heartbreaking and I'm really glad we have it.

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[mildred_of_midgard]

OK, that Lehndorff journal entry, in the context of all this, is amazing. By which I mean illuminating and heartbreaking and I'm really glad we have it.

Yeessss.

But I don't promise anything if I ever get to be King, because then the Devil takes hold of one.

You mean the same AW who wrote to Ulrike: "If I was a Swedish senator, I would give the King the power to do good, but I would also use the laws to limit his authority to stop him from committing injustices"? Yeah. That kind of self-awareness checks out.

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[selenak]

That kind of self-awareness checks out.

*nods* That's why one of the few beefs I have with Christian von Krockow's double portrait of Fritz and Heinrich is that he says AW was "good-hearted if dull, and not worth writing about". Look here, Krockow, he may not have been a polymath or a genius in other regards, but he was anything but a dumb jock.

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[cahn]

I remember he was also the one Lehndorff said didn't like hunting, right? :(

Re: Brotherly Conduct II: The Main Act

[selenak]

Yes, on the occasion where Ferdinand hit a farmer by accident.