cahn

Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!

All the good stuff continues to be archived at

rheinsberg :)

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From:

selenak

Unlike certain royal brothers we could name, Lehndorff actually watches Shakespeare (Hamlet) in German in 1778. ZOMG. Likes it, but still thinks French theatre is superior, and all the swooning on the audience’s part not quite justified. And it's a bit strange that there are more and more German language theatres playing this stuff...

1778 starts with worries about Bavaria, since the Prince Elector has just died. Lehndorff, who with his family is in Berlin for the Carneval months, is not happy.

The sudden death of the Elector of Bavaria by smallpox upsets half of Germany. The first few days we spent in great concern. All officers were preparing themselves. All the world expected our army to get marching. One thought that the Emperor would take all of Bavaria. Since, however, the prince elector of the Palatinate has demanded homage as the legitimate heir, things have quieted down. But a certain concern remains, and I watch often enough how the face of Prince Heinrich gets longer and longer, so that I cannot get rid of my worry.(...)

January 18th: The King celebrates Prince Heinrich’s birthday. One dines from golden table wear. In the evening, the King hosts a great ball which he himself attends. But there is a terrible hurlyburly, so no one finds their place at the right table, and it’s even hard to get a glass of water. The people fill all the ballrooms, and it’s tiring and doesn’t allow for a real mood to be enjoyed. The King himself seems to have taken on too much, since he’s sick the next morning, and everyone is very concerned about him. (...)
Prince Ferdinand, too, celebrates a great party on the occasion of Prince Heinrich‘s birthday. Two days later, Kaphengst throws a ball for a hundred people due to the same reason. When the Prince sees the souper, the ball, the waste and the superflousness everywhere, he vents his exasparation with the words: „Since I‘m doing the honneurs for this - i.e. pays for it- you might as well amuse yourself.“ This favour is incomprehensible. I‘ve never seen two characters more different than the Prince and Kaphengst. All the quality is on the side of the former, and yet he’s dominated by the later. (...)

But enough about Heinrich's love life. On to politics!

As he's invited me to supper, I find Prince Heinrich darkly brooding, triggered by the news that the Emperor has taken Lower Bavaria. He wishes our King should try to foil this enterprise through negotiations, instead of reacting beyond measure. For he has said he wants war any price, even if he has to be carried in front of his army. He shared his plans with Prince Heinrich who remains convinced that peace could still be maintained.

The health of the King remains a matter of concern. He is often feverish. On the day after Prince Heinrich’s birthday party, an odd accident happened to the King. When he got undressed, people put his waistcoat and everything else pulled off him near the fireplace. The clothing caught fire, and everything was in flames. But since he only has incompetent footmen around himself, the fire remained unnoticed, and it could have spread, if not for another footman who thankfully woke up and quenched the fire. The King is very angry that his tobacco box, several important papers and especially his spectacles did get burned. To indicate the state of wardrobe of this great man, I shall note that on the next day, he did not have an overcoat to wear; they had to send a messenger on horseback to Potsdam in order to get him such a piece of clothing.

All this, Prince Heinrich discusses with me. He heaps a lot of deserved praise on the Heriditary Prince of Braunschweig, but he says in this war matter he will not argue with the King. I suspect that this Prince, who after all is still in the full vigour of his years, secretly does desire war in order to distinguish himself. He is a man of supreme qualities, and I consider him one of the great minds of Europe and especially admire his calm state of mind. One can’t read from his face that he’s pondering the matters of Europe and is aware of the various agencies of the different courts as usually only a prime minister would be. I don’t say all of this because I love him. This is my sincere, impartial judgment. This estimable prince presents his portrait to me as a gift, which I shall always consider a precious family heritage and will honor as such.

Since Heinrich first will drag out going to the front as long as he can and later will end up after an argument with Fritz stepping down from his command in favour of his Braunschweig nephew, after which the record one and a half years of fraternal silence ensue, I'm not sure that Lehndorff is right about him secretly wanting another war despite of what he says. Though on the other hand, he could be, or at the very least torn. He is restless, he knows he's good at war, and like all of FW's kids, he believes in being useful. Then again, he probably imagines, like MT at the same time in Vienna, what a disaster another bloody war would be for everyone involved and shudders.

Fron Hohenzollern family drama to Lehndorff family drama:

I have a great grief through my nephew Schlieben, who has made such horrendous debts and pulls the most estimable of women into misfortune. (...) One fine morning, as I am sitting in my room, I’m told that my niece if I don’t send her on a journey in the next fifteen minutes will be arrested (for his debts) and brought into the Hausvogtei. The poor woman sees herself forced to leave her home with a bleeding heart. I send her to my wife‘s uncle, Count Schwerin, in Wolfshagen. All happens within the quarter of an hour, but it has so upset me that I haven‘t calmed down yet. I shall not miss naming the man who has done me such service and has informed me secretly of the shame which was supposed to fall on my niece. It is General Ramin, who has acted so honorably. I shall never forget it. And this man was supposed to be malicious! Again a proof one can be entirely wrong about someone. How different acts this hypocritical Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg, whom my mother has clothed and fed when he was Major in the regiment „Lehwaldt“! He, a close relation of my niece‘s, he who always plays the good Christian, he has caused this misfortune.

So: some people actually get out of town when told they should get out of town! Just saying. Lehndorff's niece is back in town next year, unarrested, so apparantly the matter is settled.

May 1778: Lehndorff the aristocrat meets Goethe and Carl August and isn‘t impressed. This is a great passage for illustrating the generational difference and the ongoing cultural shift in the German states, because you can see Lehndorff doesn‘t get that Goethe isn‘t along as his Duke‘s entertainment and really doesn‘t feel obliged to function as such, nor does Goethe see the job of a writer to occupy himself with the history of the House of Weimar. Which of course would have been what favoured court artists in Lehndorff‘s youth would have done. As for some middle class guy (who hasn‘t been ennobled yet by his Duke, that‘s still to come) fancying himself a key part of the government!!!

During the month of May, the Duke of Weimar arrives incognito under the name of Baron v. Altenstein, but the Queen doesn‘t give up until he shows himself in society. I dine with him, Prince Heinrich and Prince Ferdinand. He appears to be a pretty young man, but with an unfriendly trait on his face. With him, he had the famous author of „Werther“ and „Götz von Berlichingen“. Herr Goethe, whom the Duke has made a Councillor. This man now dominates him, after pushing aside the former chief minister, Count Görtz, who has now entered our services. This Herr Goethe sits next to me at dinner. I do my best to carry a conversation, but he seems quite laconic. He probably thinks himself too much a grandseigneur now to be a poet and entertain people. This is in general the mistake educated Germans make: whenever they achieve a certain position, they become insufferably arrogant.
Prince Heinrich asked Herr Goethe whether the Weimar archive didn’t have letters from the famous Bernhard of Weimar. The young Duke claimed they were there, but this great scholar doesn‘t know about them. This makes a very bad impression on me. Since this concerns one of the most glorious parts of the history of the ducal house, he ought to know about them.

Goethe: has zilch interest in Bernhard of Weimar. He‘s got a dukedom to co-govern, masterpieces of German literature to write, oh, and to keep Carl August from joining the Prussian army, which is the main purpose of this Berlin visit. That, and a side tourist trip to Sanssouci.

News from Rokoko Dallas: At the same time, I hear that (Baron Taube) has been commanded to tell the King that the King of Sweden has decided to banish his mother, since he cannot live with her any longer due to their constant arguments, to Stralsund. Their feud was caused by the Queen Mother having urged her other sons to protest when the young Queen of Sweden got pregnant. She claimed the King was impotent and that the child which the Queen was carrrying was from a certain Munk. The Queen-Mother in turn accuses her second son to be the origin of this gossip. Whatever is true about this, the noise caused will resound in all of Europe.
On this occasion, I can’t help but recall what the late Prince of Prussia used to say: „I’m glad my sisters aren’t foreign princesses, for otherwise I’d have gotten in the position of having to marry one of them. This would have been a misfortune since they are all extremely strong willed and argumentative.“ It is true that the widowed Queen of Sweden is an educated woman with wit; but she has a very unruly disposition which has caused her sufferings throughout her life.

News from Paris: For a short time, we stop talking about politics in order to talk about the death of Voltaire. (30. May 1778.) His end was brought about by an accident, for he took a dose of opium which he was supposed to take in ten parts all at once. The opium was sent to him by the Duke de Richelieu who - despite his eighty years being just as flighty as the other - forgot to name the exact dose which Voltaire was supposed to take.

Okay, Lehndorff, that story is one I hadn‘t heard before. Also, the Duc de Richelieu is of course Émilie‘s pre-Voltaire lover whom she remained friends with. I do find it interesting that Prussian gossip about Voltaire’s death picks this, and not the question of whether or not he repented, or his arguments with the priests who tried a deathed confession out of him, which is the direct opposite of the gossip as recorded by the Duc de Croy in Paris. Incidentally, if Voltaire did take too much opium, then, based on the fact he spent the last week of his life in tremendous physical pain, I'd speculate it was quite intentionally (on both his and Richelieu's part).

Lehndorff records the tale of the Miller Arnold, in German, not French, which makes it harder to read (sudden Rokoko spelling and vocabulary is sudden, with Fritz being wrong, and himself deeply shocked.

Throughout 1780: One announces the death of the Empress-Queen as impending, but one also keeps letting our King die, and I see people who don‘t consider the present anymore but live already entirely in the future. Happy the wise man who regards all events with an even mind and doesn’t lose this disposition!

Lehndorff, back in East Prussia now that any danger of war is over, becomes buddies with retired Austrian General Broune whom he meets at Königsberg and who reminds him of George Keith, Lord Merischal. He even warms up to Kalkreuth (!), though doesn't say why, just that they had a nice chat.

Future FW2 travels to Russia to meet Catherine after Joseph‘s journey to Catherine was a success and worried the Prussians who feel the need to send her a royal visitor of their own again. Remember, this is during the big - and last - Fritz-Heinrich non-talking era, so Fritz can't or at any rate doesn't ask Heinrich to go. Lehndorff is still full of love for Crown Prince Jr., whom he meets when future FW2 passes through East Prussia both times en route to and from Russia. But Catherine, our editor notes, wasn‘t impressed by this latest Hohenzollern, compared him to his uncles, and told her court, alluding to the medieval custom of apprentices going on their journeys in order to become masters of their craft: "The apprentice has travel a lot further than that in order to become a master!“

Biggest surprise of this couple of entries: Lehndorff knows about Fritz' spectacles and mentions them casually, so presumably this isn't newas or something lately learned by him. Now, Lehndorff only sees Fritz on court occasions (like Heinrich's birthday party or the party after the 7 Years War or the receptions for Ulrike and Gustav). Fritz can't have been wearing his spectacles then. So does he know via Heinrich? (Just like he knows about the fire?) Or via the staff after 30 years at court?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I'm not sure that Lehndorff is right about him secretly wanting another war despite of what he says. Though on the other hand, he could be, or at the very least torn. He is restless, he knows he's good at war, and like all of FW's kids, he believes in being useful. Then again, he probably imagines, like MT at the same time in Vienna, what a disaster another bloody war would be for everyone involved and shudders.

Mixed feelings makes sense to me. At the very least, I agree he wasn't gung-ho about it, not after the Seven Years' War.

So: some people actually get out of town when told they should get out of town! Just saying.

Lol. :P Clearly, she didn't have a princess to protect!

Incidentally, if Voltaire did take too much opium, then, based on the fact he spent the last week of his life in tremendous physical pain, I'd speculate it was quite intentionally (on both his and Richelieu's part).

That's exactly what I was thinking, having read your account of his last days.

Lehndorff knows about Fritz' spectacles and mentions them casually, so presumably this isn't newas or something lately learned by him.

Interesting! Maybe it's less of a problem to need glasses in 1778 (the man is 66) than in 1740? I mean, this is right around the time Fritz has to stop playing the flute because he's losing his front teeth, so everyone knows he's slowly falling apart (and reports of his impending demise have been greatly exaggerated). Maybe he even pretends, or Lehndorff assumes, he only needs them for reading, i.e. is farsighted like many people as they get older. Especially as the spectacles get mentioned right after "important papers."

From:

selenak

Mixed feelings makes sense to me. At the very least, I agree he wasn't gung-ho about it, not after the Seven Years' War.

Not even Fritz was, after all. I think they both had seen more than their share of bloodshed, and Heinrich knew if this actually got serious, it would stay limited to Bavaria. (See also MT's letter.)

Voltaire's death: I looked up the Duc de Croy again, since he's a simultanous contemporary witness who is in Paris at the time, and he does mention Voltaire taking opium, though not an accidental (or deliberate) overdose. (Mind you, given not just clerical but legal laws in Ancien Regime France were really firm on how to deal with the body of suicides, and people who helped other people to commit suicide, so I can see why not.) Anyway, the Duke had met Voltaire and Émlie 30 years earlier at Versailles.

When Voltaire returns to Paris for the first time sine a life time:

"When I had known and seen him thirty years ago, he already had been a skeleton and a hypochondriac. How did he look now? Well, he lived only of coffee and poetry. It seems that work and coffee are not always lethal, then. One has to recall that he wrote the Henriade when he'd been five or at least wrote his first tragedy with eighteen. The main purpose of his journey to Paris was the production of his play Irene which he was still working on. As one wasn't quite satisfied with the work and he was afraid for his fame, he rewrote an act within two nights into smoking verses. One really needs inner fire for this at the age of 83! He wanted everything to be recited differently and made the actors rehearse nonstop. On that occasion, he got so heated that he coughed blood and Tronchin had to treat him."

The Duke describes the theatrical triumph I already told you about as well as the "if your feelings are hurt, I'm sorry, Catholic Church" letter and the Archbishop of Paris being less than happy about it. Then, a few entries later, the Duke learns Voltaire has died and manages to get the story out of the doctor who embalmed him (not Tronchin) as well as one of the houseguests.

Apparently he'd been progressively worse through the last ten days due to his colics. Since he was still full of fiery energy working and composing tragedies for which he alwaays needed a lot of coffee, he poured up to 20 cups into himself and had a set back. On May 21, he became bed bound for good, and suffered terribly. He organized some opium and took enough to be calm, if not completely numb. That's how rumors started someone was trying to poison him. Others said his family would declare him insane, though he was completely sound of mind most of the time. Sometimes he was in delirium and fantasized, but even that was impressively intense, full of wit and sometimes fury. He made blasphemous speeches and ended badly. Tronchin has called it the end of a desperate man and preached at him to think of his conscience. But Voltaire replied to him: "To claim a religion which I wanted to destroy for sixty years, really?"

When the pastor of Saint-Sulpice learned that the time was approaching he hurred to him. He had to wait. He pushed, and when he entered and saw Voltaire was dying, he called out: "Monsieur de Voltaire, do you believe in Jesus Christ?" Voltaire stared at him with glowing eyes and said while turning away from him: "Leave me in peace!" Upon which the pastor withdrew and declared that Voltaire had denied God in his writings and could not receive a Christian burial. When shortly afterwards Mr. de Vllette stood crying next to his bed, Voltaire asked in a stage worthy manner: "Tears, my boy?" IN the night from Saturday to Sunday the 30th, he said goodbye around eleven pm to his servant, who was holding him, and died.

And then we get the farce with the burial, also described in detail. The Duke, who is a faithful Catholic, nonetheless is Team Voltaire's nephews there. About the man himself: It remains very regrettable taht Voltaire throughout his life knew neither honorable conduct nor any principles. His is one of the most beautiful and richly endowed geniuses to ever exist. His system to deny everything, never to follow a given path, to look at everything with scepticism, this meant he could make you believe anything like a lawyer would. And that is why he has written so much, and few writers have commented on everything so brilliantly.

Maybe he even pretends, or Lehndorff assumes, he only needs them for reading, i.e. is farsighted like many people as they get older. Especially as the spectacles get mentioned right after "important papers."

That is quite plausible, and yes, glasses at 66 when people have called you "The Great" for many years now are quite different than having to wear them at 28 when you're busy establishing yourself as a Mars-and-Apollo-hybrid. But as foreign visitors still don't mention them, I'm assuming he did take care not to wear them outside of a plausible "I'm reading now" context when in company.

Also, note he doesn't get undressed alone. Which is not a symptom of old age but one of those things one tends to forget about this period often, but which is worth keeping in mind in terms of how the nobility and royalty lived - the presence of servants from morning till night and beyond for all these tasks.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

(Mind you, given not just clerical but legal laws in Ancien Regime France were really firm on how to deal with the body of suicides, and people who helped other people to commit suicide, so I can see why not.)

Agreed! Plausible deniability is a thing.

But Voltaire replied to him: "To claim a religion which I wanted to destroy for sixty years, really?"

Really? Do you know who I am?

when you're busy establishing yourself as a Mars-and-Apollo-hybrid

Haha. Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon, as Voltaire said of Fritz's court.

I'm assuming he did take care not to wear them outside of a plausible "I'm reading now" context when in company.

Agreed. I could see him ostentatiously taking them off to look up from what he was reading to whoever he was talking to, and fix them with his "My eyes appear to be boring through your skull because I can't see a thing otherwise, but feel free to be intimidated!" stare. ;)

Also, note he doesn't get undressed alone.

Normally, I would have assumed that from the get-go, but for Fritz specifically, I've been going by MacDonogh's "...his extreme prudery. His servant Schöning, who occupied a position of great trust at the end of Frederick's life, maintained that he could not suffer anyone to see him without his clothes on, and would not even attend to a call of nature in their presence." Citation: Either Volz's 3-volume bio or Halmsten's Friedrich II in Selbstzeugnisse und Bilddokumenten or neither (he cites both in the same endnote at the end of a paragraph that contains a bunch of stuff, and he's been known to have uncited claims in the paragraph when he does that).

On the one hand, never trust MacDonogh and it *would* be weird for Fritz not to be undressing with servants around; on the other, I found it just plausible enough because Fritz is weird wrt his fellow monarchs, and isolation is one of his notable qualities. Even from the early days when he wanted to build a palace that was a private residence and not hold any kind of proper court there, and almost never allow guests at his musical performances.

So we'll see if Volz supports this claim. Currently waiting on delivery from our royal patron.

Also,

cahn, notice that not wanting to attend to a call of nature while talking to other people is "extreme prudery" by the standards of the day--it really was!

From:

cahn

But enough about Heinrich's love life. On to politics!

lolololol. Are we ever really done with Heinrich's love life? :D

Though on the other hand, he could be, or at the very least torn. He is restless, he knows he's good at war, and like all of FW's kids, he believes in being useful. Then again, he probably imagines, like MT at the same time in Vienna, what a disaster another bloody war would be for everyone involved and shudders.

Yeah, like you guys, I can see mixed feelings making a lot of sense. Like he really doesn't want another war, but he knows he'd do well in one.

This is a great passage for illustrating the generational difference and the ongoing cultural shift in the German states

Thank you for this commentary -- it's really cool to be able to read this in context (and since I'm used to thinking of Lehndorff as a clueless 19-year-old, it's interesting to shift my view of him to an older guy in his 50's).

"I’m glad my sisters aren’t foreign princesses, for otherwise I’d have gotten in the position of having to marry one of them."

LOL.
Fritz: Whereas if Wilhelmine were a foreign princess, that would have solved a lot!

I do find it interesting that Prussian gossip about Voltaire’s death picks this, and not the question of whether or not he repented, or his arguments with the priests who tried a deathed confession out of him, which is the direct opposite of the gossip as recorded by the Duc de Croy in Paris.

So I wonder if this is partially Catholic vs. Protestant and partially Lehndorff just being uninterested? Like, as far as I know, confession specifically to a priest/pastor is a rather bigger deal in Catholicism than in Protestantism (though wikipedia tells me that prior to the nineteenth century it was more of a thing). Also, I mean, I know we're getting a highly curated version, but our man L. doesn't seem to be particularly invested in theological questions :)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Fritz: Whereas if Wilhelmine were a foreign princess, that would have solved a lot!

You know, my reaction to SD looking in the Mirror of Erised and seeing, "not Wilhelmine getting crowned as Queen of England, [but] Fritz getting crowned as King of England somehow while his proud mother watches," was:

Fritz and Wilhelmine: Why not both, Mom? Why not both. :D