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Frederick the Great discussion post 9
...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
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
Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
screwed over by Fritz, was finished and was officially revealed to the world.Our intention is to provide the Prussian army with a testimony of gratitude. Following the inspiration of our heart, we want to deliver proof of our respect to those we knew ourselves. So why is Friedrich missing among the number of these well known names? The history the King himself has written of his own life as well as all the praise after his death do not leave anything left for me to say.
But great service, rendered in darkness, is not immune to being deleted by oblivion, and the next generation is missing the record of the deeds of the previous one, the names are lost, and history becomes an imperfect sketch, held together only by flattery and phlegma.
I wish I could give you a painting of these thirteen campaigns! The sad pictures in it are formed by thirteen battles, a lot of meetings, some sieges, numerous violent marches, some nightly ones, fields covered with dead bodies, victories drenched with tears! (…) Friends lost their benefectors, fathers their children. While on the one hand the defenders of the state won, on the other they had to learn of the devastation of their estates, the flight of their wives and children.
Think of the number of enemies, too, and how both the warriors who gave the orders and those who obeyed were forced to follow their genius without neglecting the great rules of war. Think of how the least too slow movement, the least too quick movement could be equally dangerous, (…) that there were armies from all sides to fight, that the Prussians got weaker by the day, that the Generals did not dare to count their numbers anymore, that one had to hurry from one province to the next to save towns and retake fortresses; that in the end, it was to win or to die, and that there has been no war in our time comparable to this one. (…)
But how do monuments serve the dead? Their ashes can no longer be moved by passion. A cold earth keeps from from both love and hate. One owes the comfort of a tender memory to the survivors. The mothers and widows of the departed, orphans who have lost their protectors, sisters who have lost their tenderly loved brothers, and friends who have lost the comfort of friendship; all of them are owed a monument to the people so dear to them, so that looking at it, they can recall the sensations of the past into their souls. (…)
You will, gentlemen, turn your gaze to the central image which has been positioned on top of the monument. The reasons to put it there are the same that caused me to dedicate it to the memory of a brother so very dear to me. It is not enough for me to see merely his name on top of those he had been destined to rule one day. Victory columns get erected to the mighty, even if they do not deserve that honor. Which man of impartial judgment would deny it to the memory of Prince August Wilhelm? I will not exaggarate his virtues and talents just because he was my brother. While he lived into his thirtysixth year, he could not distinguish himself through brilliant deeds. But he had all the virtues of a citizen, without which no true greatness of character is thinkable. Courage, love of humanity, charity and integrity, these were his virtues. Pride and vanity never darkened his good qualities. His mind had been formed through his education; his duties ruled his acts. In his military career, he was honored and loved by officers and common soldiers alike. All who knew him and yet live, especially if they have served with his two regiments, can attest to this. In four battles and five compaigns, he achieved the glory of bravery and intelligence. As Generallieutenant, it was he who made the victory of Hohenfriedberg possible by attacking the Austrians near Guntersdorf. Czaslau, Soor, Lowositz deliver proof of his correct military judgments. In the year 1757, he led an army in the most difficult circumstances. Only let me add that he bore his misfortune with gentleness, modesty and endurance. Only one wish remains for me: may today’s youth follow the example of the virtuous who could unite the qualities of a citizen with the splendid deeds of a hero!
(Linguistic footnote: as Heinrich is holding this speech in French in the year 1791, i.e. with the French Revolution in full swing, the approving use of "Citoyen" is fascinating. I find the English "Citizen" inadequate, I admit; in German you can at least say "Staatsbürger".)
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
Rheinsberg and the big screw-you-Fritz monument are on my to-visit list for the next time I make it to Germany, provided I have a driver. (I will do my level best to ensure I have a driver, because you know the other places that are on my list. ;))
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
You absolutely need a driver, because while there's a great and very fast railway connection to Berlin from practically everywhere else in Germany, Wust, Rheinsberg and Küstrin are a public transport nightmare as far as I can see. Now if you should, in theory, come during the summer months, and warn me ahead of time, we could, in theory, work something out...
Heinrich's birthday up to Fritz' birthday in 1786 was the last time he saw Fritz alive since he came to Potsdam for the occasion(s).
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
This one I know by heart, and you will be unsurprised that I have a calendar reminder in case the day came and went without me noticing. Just as I did for November 6 so we could observe our moment of silence.
(whether or not Fritz himself was present, EC had to throw a reception for it)
Lol, Fritz.
Look, EC, I know you think you want him to show up, but what you really want is a guy with a different personality to show up, so...count your blessings when he's not there.
You absolutely need a driver, because while there's a great and very fast railway connection to Berlin from practically everywhere else in Germany, Wust, Rheinsberg and Küstrin are a public transport nightmare as far as I can see.
Exactly what I had established. I've managed to get in, out, and around Berlin and Potsdam on public transit, but that does not seem to be a thing for small villages and ghost towns in Poland.
Our royal patron is my usual driver on vacations, but your very kind offer I may take you up on, even if he's with me, both because it would be nice to finally meet in person, and because the only thing better than a driver in Wust would be a driver and a German speaker, which criterion sadly neither I nor the royal patron+coachman can fill.
I would almost certainly be there in summer and with plenty of warning, and if we can't make our schedules align, I may ask you to call the relevant parties in Wust and arrange a visit to the church and crypt, preferably with an English-speaking tour guide. (What is the Katte manor's English summer school for if not so I can have an English speaker give me the Katte tour of Wust?) :D
Heinrich's birthday up to Fritz' birthday in 1786 was the last time he saw Fritz alive since he came to Potsdam for the occasion(s).
The only reason I knew before this post what month Heinrich's birthday fell in. :)
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
LOL FOREVER HEINRICH
We know what you really meant, it's OK
But great service, rendered in darkness, is not immune to being deleted by oblivion
Heinrich: AW needed (a) a hug (b) NOT TO BE EMOTIONALLY ABUSED BY HIS BROTHER
Which man of impartial judgment would deny it to the memory of Prince August Wilhelm?
omg BURN
All who knew him and yet live
I think you told me he started this obelisk the instant Fritz died, right?
Anyway. Happy (somewhat belated) birthday, Heinrich!
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.
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
etc.
Wooooow. The shade, it is thick! (Man, I love Heinrich for it, though. He is my problematic fave.)
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.
That's really cool. <3 And thanks for the context on him not being a pacifist.
Re: Happy Birthday, Heinrich!
That's not even shade, that's fact!
Somebody on the internet put together an impressive pilot project on "best generals of all time", and I saw that Mollwitz was listed as a Fritz victory, and I was like, "Look."
Did even *Fritz* take credit for winning that battle? I'm not saying he didn't shortchange Schwerin, or gloss over leaving the field in his memoirs, but at any point did he ever try to say he won it?