Having read Wilhelmine's memoirs eons ago didn't help there, since she hardly ever mentions anyone's first name as opposed to "my brother", "my sister", "my other sister" etc.
Wilhelmine: I have one *brother*, and also I occasionally see some rugrats running around that I'm told I'm related to.
Otoh, I bet you could have listed key battles and generals
Twenty years ago, absolutely. One year ago, without having refreshed myself on Old Fritz since then? ...Definitely Mollwitz and Schwerin, in detail, and I would have remembered some of Leuthen but possibly forgotten the name if you put me on the spot (though as soon as I saw it, it would have triggered a flood of memories).
And I definitely could not have named anyone from the Sanssouci intellectual circle other than Voltaire, with the awareness that this had ended badly (somehow).
He had an intellectual circle other than Voltaire? And same, it ended badly because two prima donnas sharing the same stage is a bad thing, is what I remember from high school days (and I would have used that metaphor). Anything about shady financial deals with Hirschel or pamphlets with Maupertuis, whooosh, gone.
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Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
Date: 2020-03-04 12:56 pm (UTC)Wilhelmine: I have one *brother*, and also I occasionally see some rugrats running around that I'm told I'm related to.
Otoh, I bet you could have listed key battles and generals
Twenty years ago, absolutely. One year ago, without having refreshed myself on Old Fritz since then? ...Definitely Mollwitz and Schwerin, in detail, and I would have remembered some of Leuthen but possibly forgotten the name if you put me on the spot (though as soon as I saw it, it would have triggered a flood of memories).
And I definitely could not have named anyone from the Sanssouci intellectual circle other than Voltaire, with the awareness that this had ended badly (somehow).
He had an intellectual circle other than Voltaire? And same, it ended badly because two prima donnas sharing the same stage is a bad thing, is what I remember from high school days (and I would have used that metaphor). Anything about shady financial deals with Hirschel or pamphlets with Maupertuis, whooosh, gone.