Announcing Rheinsberg: Frederick the Great discussion post 10

[cahn]

So for anyone who is reading this and would like to learn more about Frederick the Great and his contemporaries, but who doesn't want to wade through 500k (600k?) words worth of comments and an increasingly sprawling comment section:

We now have a community, rheinsberg, that has quite a lot of the interesting historical content (and more coming regularly), organized nicely with lots of lovely tags so if there's any subject you are interested in it is easy to find :D

Comments

Fredersdorf

[mildred_of_midgard]

Given that Preuss says Fritz spotted Fredersdorf first as part of a student performance for Fritz in Frankfurt, I thought it's good to have it confirmed such a performance did indeed take place.

I've now tracked down a story of Fredersdorf's history, how he came to be at Frankfurt in a student performance, etc. as far as the 18th century. It's far from a primary source, but it's the source for Preuss, Hamilton, etc. (Hamilton, btw, gives a detailed account that's basically a translation of what I'm about to link to, in the second volume of Rheinsberg, which is apparently not entirely about how terrible Heinrich is!)

The story includes a few details not in or diverging from Wikipedia and MacDonogh, in that Fredersdorf is the son of the town fifer, his father tries to train him up into his profession, Fredersdorf joins the army instead, hates it, gets a leave of absence, goes to Frankfurt an der Oder to apprentice to the town fifer there in hopes of getting out of soldiering, and is there when the students ransack the town for the finest talents to play for the visit Crown Prince. That's how Fredersdorf gets roped into playing the flute.

Fritz loves his performance, asks who he is, asks Schwerin to release him, Schwerin does, and Fredersdorf becomes one of Fritz's "lackeys for musical entertainment," I kid you not. That's according to Hamilton. There's also a bunch of stuff on his love of alchemy and quack doctors (it's the 18th century, Hamilton, all doctors are quacks!) that I won't repeat.

Hamilton's also got an anecdote, that's in Manger, about how Fritz resisted Fredersdorf's marriage until Fredersdorf was almost on his death bed, Fritz was super freaked out, and a clergyman told Fritz it would be a great relief to Fredersdorf's dying mind if he could be formally married. Fritz allowed it, he was married, and poof! Fredersdorf gets better just like that. :P

Now, we know from Lehndorff that there was a long and public engagement, but at least now we have some idea where the story about Fritz putting up resistance to Fredersdorf's marriage comes from.

I've uploaded the pages I was able to download using my one-page-at-a-time download privileges to the library, and because the following page was Glasow, I included him too. :D Looks like Manger says he was imprisoned in Spandau in 1757 and died in 1758.

Nothing about any embezzlement on Fredersdorf's part, which is what I'm on the prowl for tonight and how I turned this up. Manger just has him stepping down because he's sick.

Oh! I should mention that our author, Manger, was an architect and construction official for Fritz, and *he* got arrested for financial dishonesty in 1786, according to his Wikipedia page, but as soon as Fritz died, FW2 decided to take Manger back and give him promotions and favor. I guess continuing with the theme of doing the opposite of what Uncle Fritz did.

I await any further exciting details at our reader's leisure. :D

Off to do further detective work!

ETA: Nothing on any embezzlements, but turned up some neat, unsourced details:

Despite or because of these diverse activities, Fredersdorf rarely left Berlin and Potsdam. In 1740 he was still in the company of the young king in Strasbourg and Wesel, then it was not until 1751 that a stay of several months in Paris was attested, where he went for medical treatment, but also for the purpose of shopping on the art market there for his royal master. Whether there was also a diplomatic mission, the promotion of a desired Prussian-French trade agreement, is not clear. The following year we find him in Aachen and Spa, where the always ailing Fredersdorf stayed for a cure.

He was on the Strasbourg trip too?? Truly, an embarrassment of riches for the fanfic writer. His secret diary would make an entertaining complement to AW's: the totally oblivious and the guy who knows everything.

Also, did everyone get to go to Paris except Fritz?

Also, the author of that page fell in love with the same passage from the letters that I did, the one where Fritz wants Fredersdorf to come to the window so he can see him as he rides by--but don't open the window, and keep a strong fire going in the room!