So I'm fascinated by that letter from a liar to a liar. Particularly this line:
you are my witness to what I have done for Katte. You know: I did offer my life not once but a thousand times to save his.
"you are my witness"
"not once but a thousand times"
How is Grumbkow a witness? Even allowing for hyperbole, how did Fritz have the opportunity to offer his life on more than one occasion? Every single version of the story we have, he finds out about Katte's execution on the same morning it happened, and though I'm sure he repeatedly begged for Katte's life on that occasion, the only witnesses reported were Münchow and whoever was with him. That isn't the kind of thing I would describe as "not once," but rather "only once, in the heat of the moment, even if in several sentences, one right after another."
But given what we've talked about with Catt, I now think *none* of these stories comes from Fritz's mouth, and even if he talked to Wilhelmine, she obviously has a very skewed picture of what happened. So is the timing way off?
There were only a few days between Katte's sentence and his execution. Five? Okay, FW's decision is dated November 1, execution is 7:45 am November 6. Less than five days. There wasn't a lot of time for Fritz to offer his life more than once. But did he find out before Katte showed up? Did he have time to maybe write a letter? That Grumbkow saw?
Or did he start bargaining before there was a death sentence? It didn't seem like he thought there was that much danger of death, in his letters to Wilhelmine, but maybe there was some bravado.
Was Grumbkow at Küstrin on November 6? I have unreliable secondary sources saying he showed up later in November, when Fritz was pardoned, but I've seen no one say he was there that early in the month.
Or is Fritz just bluffing Grumbkow and rewriting history in hopes Grumbkow goes along with it?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Grumbkow and Katte
Date: 2020-01-27 03:50 am (UTC)you are my witness to what I have done for Katte. You know: I did offer my life not once but a thousand times to save his.
"you are my witness"
"not once but a thousand times"
How is Grumbkow a witness? Even allowing for hyperbole, how did Fritz have the opportunity to offer his life on more than one occasion? Every single version of the story we have, he finds out about Katte's execution on the same morning it happened, and though I'm sure he repeatedly begged for Katte's life on that occasion, the only witnesses reported were Münchow and whoever was with him. That isn't the kind of thing I would describe as "not once," but rather "only once, in the heat of the moment, even if in several sentences, one right after another."
But given what we've talked about with Catt, I now think *none* of these stories comes from Fritz's mouth, and even if he talked to Wilhelmine, she obviously has a very skewed picture of what happened. So is the timing way off?
There were only a few days between Katte's sentence and his execution. Five? Okay, FW's decision is dated November 1, execution is 7:45 am November 6. Less than five days. There wasn't a lot of time for Fritz to offer his life more than once. But did he find out before Katte showed up? Did he have time to maybe write a letter? That Grumbkow saw?
Or did he start bargaining before there was a death sentence? It didn't seem like he thought there was that much danger of death, in his letters to Wilhelmine, but maybe there was some bravado.
Was Grumbkow at Küstrin on November 6? I have unreliable secondary sources saying he showed up later in November, when Fritz was pardoned, but I've seen no one say he was there that early in the month.
Or is Fritz just bluffing Grumbkow and rewriting history in hopes Grumbkow goes along with it?
What's going on here?