Looking through 19th century biographer Koser, he is apparently a major source for the escape attempt, with huge amounts of precise detail, and reliance on primary sources. He is very good about chronology, which is a delight to the heart of yours truly, as you know by now. :)
He's also a major source for a lot of other resources, including Lavisse and Wikipedia. I found the source for a lot of things I'd seen before in unreliable sources. For example:
Fritz didn't like Katte at first but was won over by Katte's schoolfriends, including Ingersleben--Koser.
Katte and Fritz bonded over the study of mechanics and mathematics--Koser. selenak, can you help with the German here? I've almost got it, but not quite:
Mit einem ausgesprochenen Interesse für die Mathematik und Mechanik, das des Prinzen Lehrer Senning durch seinen Unter richt noch reger machte, verbanden sich künstlerische Anlagen;
Katte says that he was overwhelmed with compassion when Fritz used to cry ("weinen"--is this literal weeping with tears, or just lamenting?) over his sad lot, and loved Fritz so much that when Fritz pleaded with him so much, he couldn't say no--Koser.
Oh, something that surprised me very much: Katte said during his interrogation that Fritz said Seckendorff and Grumbkow were trying to make him a Catholic so he could marry an Austrian archduchess and be HRE.
FW: Say WHAATT??! Do you know anything about this, my wretched son?? Fritz: I'm sure there's some mistake! Ask him again. FW: No fucking way did that ever cross their minds, damnable boyfriend of my son. Fritz has no idea what you're talking about. You wanna take that back? Katte: I said what I said. All of Protestant Europe: WOE. Our HERO Fritz was just trying to escape an evil Catholic plot. Fritz, 6 months later: Convert to Catholicism and outrank Dad, huh? Actually, that's not a bad idea.
Here's the passage in Koser, if you're as disbelieving as I am:
Am meisten aber brachte es ihn auf, daß Katte von dem Prinzen gehört haben wollte, Seckendorff und Grumbkow beabsichtigten, ihn katholisch zu machen und ihm die Hand einer Erzherzogin und die römische Königskrone zuzuwenden. Friedrich Wilhelm setzte in die beiden gerade jetzt das unbegrenzteste Vertrauen. Vergebens beteuerte der Kronprinz, daß ein Mißverständ nis von Katte vorliegen müsse; Katte blieb bei seiner Aussage.
The MT marriage AU follows us wherever we go!
After the main interrogation of Fritz on September 16, FW is so furious that he says no more servants?? I think? The servant who was sleeping in town and visiting Fritz isn't allowed to enter the cell any more, and instead there's some kind of guard, who's not allowed to answer Fritz's questions?
Der Lakai, der anfänglich in dem Gemach des Prinzen aufgewartet hatte, sollte es jetzt nicht mehr betreten; statt seiner erschien ein Kalfaktor von der Wache, der ebensowenig wie die beiden diensthabenden Offiziere dem Gefangenen irgend eine Frage beantworten durfte.
Interestingly, Lavisse isn't trying to reconcile Wilhelmine and Fontane by saying the sand heap and Katte's body were visible from Fritz's room; he's following Koser. Koser's version is that the Weißkopf was a tower that had been torn down by 1730. Its ruins prevented 150 men from assembling at the foot of Fritz's window, but the execution site 50 paces to the left was perfectly visible from Fritz's room, next to the guardhouse. Unlike Münchow fils., who has the execution taking place "auf den Wall", Koser has it "unter dem Walle."
And Münchow has the Weißkopf still standing, and higher than the second-floor arrest room. Koser has it torn down and only about man-high.
I'm inclined to trust Münchow more on this particular point? It might have been torn down by Koser's time (almost certainly was, since he's writing in 1900 and by 1921, it's gone) but still standing for young Münchow to use as a playground in the 1720s and 30s.
I trust Koser more on things like documentation--I found him originally because he's the one who quotes the FW letter telling Lepel that Fritz is required to watch the execution--but Münchow more on things like what the fortress was like in 1730 when he had his playground there.
Koser also says that Fritz was informed of the execution 2 hours before it happened. I don't know, I kind of liked it better when he only had a few minutes to agonize. That must have been the worst two hours ever.
He seems to have access to the August 31 species facti and the various interrogations, which so far I have not tracked down. Hinrichs' 1936 Kronprinzenprozeß is looking promising, but it would be rather difficult/expensive to get my hands on.
But Koser is a nice dense 250 pages of German that I've only translated chunks of, so if you wanted to take a look at the whole thing, selenak, when you have time, it might reward your attention. I mean, I only found the marriage AU Katte wrote because I was looking for Katte! Who knows what else is in there?
By the way, I tracked Wikipedia's source on Katte being raised partly in the Netherlands: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie again, wiki's main source. They list so many Katte references at the end, without signaling which one goes with which fact, that I haven't been able to track it any further back than that. I trust Kloosterhuis's "raised largely by Grandpa Wartensleben in Berlin" more at this point.
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Re: Katte! - The Koser take
Date: 2020-02-11 04:17 am (UTC)He's also a major source for a lot of other resources, including Lavisse and Wikipedia. I found the source for a lot of things I'd seen before in unreliable sources. For example:
Fritz didn't like Katte at first but was won over by Katte's schoolfriends, including Ingersleben--Koser.
Katte and Fritz bonded over the study of mechanics and mathematics--Koser.
Mit einem ausgesprochenen Interesse für die Mathematik und Mechanik, das des Prinzen Lehrer Senning durch seinen Unter richt noch reger machte, verbanden sich künstlerische Anlagen;
Katte says that he was overwhelmed with compassion when Fritz used to cry ("weinen"--is this literal weeping with tears, or just lamenting?) over his sad lot, and loved Fritz so much that when Fritz pleaded with him so much, he couldn't say no--Koser.
Oh, something that surprised me very much: Katte said during his interrogation that Fritz said Seckendorff and Grumbkow were trying to make him a Catholic so he could marry an Austrian archduchess and be HRE.
FW: Say WHAATT??! Do you know anything about this, my wretched son??
Fritz: I'm sure there's some mistake! Ask him again.
FW: No fucking way did that ever cross their minds, damnable boyfriend of my son. Fritz has no idea what you're talking about. You wanna take that back?
Katte: I said what I said.
All of Protestant Europe: WOE. Our HERO Fritz was just trying to escape an evil Catholic plot.
Fritz, 6 months later: Convert to Catholicism and outrank Dad, huh? Actually, that's not a bad idea.
Here's the passage in Koser, if you're as disbelieving as I am:
Am meisten aber brachte es ihn auf, daß Katte von dem Prinzen gehört haben wollte, Seckendorff und Grumbkow beabsichtigten, ihn katholisch zu machen und ihm die Hand einer Erzherzogin und die römische Königskrone zuzuwenden. Friedrich Wilhelm setzte in die beiden gerade jetzt das unbegrenzteste Vertrauen. Vergebens beteuerte der Kronprinz, daß ein Mißverständ nis von Katte vorliegen müsse; Katte blieb bei seiner Aussage.
The MT marriage AU follows us wherever we go!
After the main interrogation of Fritz on September 16, FW is so furious that he says no more servants?? I think? The servant who was sleeping in town and visiting Fritz isn't allowed to enter the cell any more, and instead there's some kind of guard, who's not allowed to answer Fritz's questions?
Der Lakai, der anfänglich in dem Gemach des Prinzen aufgewartet hatte, sollte es jetzt nicht mehr betreten; statt seiner erschien ein Kalfaktor von der Wache, der ebensowenig wie die beiden diensthabenden Offiziere dem Gefangenen irgend eine Frage beantworten durfte.
Interestingly, Lavisse isn't trying to reconcile Wilhelmine and Fontane by saying the sand heap and Katte's body were visible from Fritz's room; he's following Koser. Koser's version is that the Weißkopf was a tower that had been torn down by 1730. Its ruins prevented 150 men from assembling at the foot of Fritz's window, but the execution site 50 paces to the left was perfectly visible from Fritz's room, next to the guardhouse. Unlike Münchow fils., who has the execution taking place "auf den Wall", Koser has it "unter dem Walle."
And Münchow has the Weißkopf still standing, and higher than the second-floor arrest room. Koser has it torn down and only about man-high.
I'm inclined to trust Münchow more on this particular point? It might have been torn down by Koser's time (almost certainly was, since he's writing in 1900 and by 1921, it's gone) but still standing for young Münchow to use as a playground in the 1720s and 30s.
I trust Koser more on things like documentation--I found him originally because he's the one who quotes the FW letter telling Lepel that Fritz is required to watch the execution--but Münchow more on things like what the fortress was like in 1730 when he had his playground there.
Koser also says that Fritz was informed of the execution 2 hours before it happened. I don't know, I kind of liked it better when he only had a few minutes to agonize. That must have been the worst two hours ever.
He seems to have access to the August 31 species facti and the various interrogations, which so far I have not tracked down. Hinrichs' 1936 Kronprinzenprozeß is looking promising, but it would be rather difficult/expensive to get my hands on.
But Koser is a nice dense 250 pages of German that I've only translated chunks of, so if you wanted to take a look at the whole thing,
By the way, I tracked Wikipedia's source on Katte being raised partly in the Netherlands: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie again, wiki's main source. They list so many Katte references at the end, without signaling which one goes with which fact, that I haven't been able to track it any further back than that. I trust Kloosterhuis's "raised largely by Grandpa Wartensleben in Berlin" more at this point.