Looking at Büsching without using Google translate, I can't tell if he's actually arguing against both anecdotes, as Rödenbeck seems to be saying, or just the bridge one, which is what it looks like to me. Furthermore, I don't see anything about the detailed account of Biche's return, just that she was returned. But our royal reader can tell us: page 23 and surrounding.
Just against the bridge anecdote. He says in his footnote that "Herr Geheimer Kriegsrat Schöning doubts with good reason the truth of this anecdote" which was on page 22 of the first edition of his book. (Meaning: the copy - which is from the Stabi, as I see - that you uploaded is the revised second edition.) Presumably Büsching got a lot of letters after the original publication and edited accordingly? And yes, he's saying that Fritz first ordered Alcmene (in a coffin) be put in his library study in Sanssouci, and then after his return indulged in his grief for her. Then, tearing himself from her remains, he ordered her buried in his own vault (it does say his own vault, where he wanted to be buried but wasn't, not where all the other dogs are. Mind you, Büsching does not name any source for this, and remember what we agreed on re: rumors? I still think it's more likely Alcmene lies with the other dogs.
f she really was, I wonder how that went down in 1991.
Ha. Well, if anything was left of her by then. I doubt that dog coffin was made of stone, after all. I don't think any dog skeletons in the vault got mentioned in the 1991 media reports.
Speaking of reports, being me, I also looked up what Büsching writes in the chapter "His behavior towards his family". And it's telling on what was and wasn't known in 1788. Büsching is the second contemporary who uses the name "Friederike Sophie" for Wilhelmine. Of course, in 1788, her memoirs were still unpublished, and I think those memoirs, and later the letters between her and Fritz, made it clear to all and sunder which of her first names she used. Büsching also claims that FW pressured Fritz to resign the succession before the escape attempt and wanted to make AW his successor all through AW's childhood. He tells the "FW beats Wilhelmine, including punching her with his fist in her face, upon his return until a stewardess intervenes" story, which is remarkable given, again, the memoirs are unpublished, the Dickens dispatch is unavailable, and Henri de Catt hasn't published, either. So where does he get that (correct) story from? He also reports correctly FW overriding Katte's tribunal, but incorrectly that Fritz' own tribunal would have gone for a death sentence for the crown prince if by then FW hadn't cooled down a bit. Re: Fritz' Küstrin conditions, here we have fantasy again with Münchow having to cut a hole into the door of Fritz' cell in order to be able to talk to him at all. It also has Fritz, AFTER Katte's execution, being willing to resign his succession rights so he could go and live abroad once he's released, and Münchow talking him out of this.
Büsching's footnote to the supposed death sentence for Fritz also contains the "the King later looked it up at the archives, and resealed it, but did not take any revenge" tale. Again, Catt hadn't published yet, but it makes me wonder whether Büsching talked to him and that's where all this is from. His summing up of Fritz & sibs relationships: "He liked the oldest sister best, but was great to the others as well. Doesn't seem to have held any grudge due to FW constantly trying to make AW crown prince through his life, because he was just noble like that. There was that fallout before AW's death, of course, but that was for military reasons. Younger brothers and Fritz: Um. Here's what I heard he left them in his last will! No further comment on the younger brothers from me." Büsching is also regretting that the EC/Fritz golden wedding anniversary hasn't been properly celebrated in 1783, because she'd have deserved it, being a fabulous Queen through the decades, and he's very glad FW2 honors her and is kind to her.
ETA: Good grief. Büsching claims Fritz never needed any foreign subsidies. Ever. I mean: look, Büsching, him getting money from the Brits was no state secret? Even if I don't expect you to know about what Poniatowski writes re: Fritz counterfeiting coins and devalueing money, or about the sugar daddies in crown prince times, the British subsidies at least were common knowledge. He bitched enough about it when they stopped, even in the Histoire de mon temps, or so biographies say. What the hell?/ETA
So basically, his reliability: some things he's amazingly accurate about, some are really wildly inaccurate, see above. When mentioning many European monarchs pleaded for Crown Prince Fritz, he quotes, entirely, the letter from Sweden, which could be another hint as to which sources he does have. What all of this says about the reliability of his dog stories: make up your own mind.
Rödenbeck: looking for the part you name, I come across about Rödenbeck, correctly, naming AW as a member of the Straßburg trip! (He lists AW, Algarotti, Fredersdorf, Colonels v. Borck and v. Stille and one of the Münchows as aide - presumably the older brother Jr. mentions as Fritz having favored? - as making up the group in totem. So now we know.) He also lists the following pseudonyms:
Fritz: Count Dufour AW: Count Schafgotsch. Algarotti: Count von Pfuhl.
(Algarotti: none of you could convincingly play a non-noble, so don't even try, highnessess. I, on the other hand, can play a German.)
Also, he says Fritz upon arriving in Straßburg lodged in the inn "Holy Cross" whereas AW lodged in the inn "Raven". So if you want to imagine Fritz and Algarotti getting it on, note he took care of not sharing rooms with younger bro for the night. Of course, that was before they were arrested. Arrival in Straßburg was on the 23, ignominious departure on the 26th.
Now, about page 126 - first of all, guess what the previous page says about the Pandur raid on the camp? Whom it names as a source? AUSTRIAN TRENCK! I first thought maybe Rödenbeck had his Trenck confused when saying "From Austrian Trenck's descripton of his life", but the quote is actually in first person and speaking as Franz von der Trenck, not Friedrich von der Trenck. Mind you, I'm sideeying the veracity of any Trenck, but apparantly Austrian Trenck has written his life down somewhere, too? Anyway. Rödenbeck doesn't quite make clear where his Austrian Trenck quote ends, but at a guess, when Biche is returned. (He also says that the wife of General Nadasty had taken to Biche, wanted to keep her and had to be asked repeatedly till she was ready to hand over the dog.)
Rödenbeck says that both anecdotes are defended and well supported in yet another collection of anecdotes.
So he does, but he says they were defended by "glaubwürdige Gewährsmänner", "credible sources" (literally "credible men vowing for it"), without naming the gentlemen in question. Again, if any of said gentlemen was named Trenck (Prussian Trenck was still alive and well and publishing memoirs at that point, don't forget)...
Re: Italian greyhounds
Looking at Büsching without using Google translate, I can't tell if he's actually arguing against both anecdotes, as Rödenbeck seems to be saying, or just the bridge one, which is what it looks like to me. Furthermore, I don't see anything about the detailed account of Biche's return, just that she was returned. But our royal reader can tell us: page 23 and surrounding.
Just against the bridge anecdote. He says in his footnote that "Herr Geheimer Kriegsrat Schöning doubts with good reason the truth of this anecdote" which was on page 22 of the first edition of his book. (Meaning: the copy - which is from the Stabi, as I see - that you uploaded is the revised second edition.) Presumably Büsching got a lot of letters after the original publication and edited accordingly? And yes, he's saying that Fritz first ordered Alcmene (in a coffin) be put in his library study in Sanssouci, and then after his return indulged in his grief for her. Then, tearing himself from her remains, he ordered her buried in his own vault (it does say his own vault, where he wanted to be buried but wasn't, not where all the other dogs are. Mind you, Büsching does not name any source for this, and remember what we agreed on re: rumors? I still think it's more likely Alcmene lies with the other dogs.
f she really was, I wonder how that went down in 1991.
Ha. Well, if anything was left of her by then. I doubt that dog coffin was made of stone, after all. I don't think any dog skeletons in the vault got mentioned in the 1991 media reports.
Speaking of reports, being me, I also looked up what Büsching writes in the chapter "His behavior towards his family". And it's telling on what was and wasn't known in 1788. Büsching is the second contemporary who uses the name "Friederike Sophie" for Wilhelmine. Of course, in 1788, her memoirs were still unpublished, and I think those memoirs, and later the letters between her and Fritz, made it clear to all and sunder which of her first names she used. Büsching also claims that FW pressured Fritz to resign the succession before the escape attempt and wanted to make AW his successor all through AW's childhood. He tells the "FW beats Wilhelmine, including punching her with his fist in her face, upon his return until a stewardess intervenes" story, which is remarkable given, again, the memoirs are unpublished, the Dickens dispatch is unavailable, and Henri de Catt hasn't published, either. So where does he get that (correct) story from? He also reports correctly FW overriding Katte's tribunal, but incorrectly that Fritz' own tribunal would have gone for a death sentence for the crown prince if by then FW hadn't cooled down a bit. Re: Fritz' Küstrin conditions, here we have fantasy again with Münchow having to cut a hole into the door of Fritz' cell in order to be able to talk to him at all. It also has Fritz, AFTER Katte's execution, being willing to resign his succession rights so he could go and live abroad once he's released, and Münchow talking him out of this.
Büsching's footnote to the supposed death sentence for Fritz also contains the "the King later looked it up at the archives, and resealed it, but did not take any revenge" tale. Again, Catt hadn't published yet, but it makes me wonder whether Büsching talked to him and that's where all this is from. His summing up of Fritz & sibs relationships: "He liked the oldest sister best, but was great to the others as well. Doesn't seem to have held any grudge due to FW constantly trying to make AW crown prince through his life, because he was just noble like that. There was that fallout before AW's death, of course, but that was for military reasons. Younger brothers and Fritz: Um. Here's what I heard he left them in his last will! No further comment on the younger brothers from me." Büsching is also regretting that the EC/Fritz golden wedding anniversary hasn't been properly celebrated in 1783, because she'd have deserved it, being a fabulous Queen through the decades, and he's very glad FW2 honors her and is kind to her.
ETA: Good grief. Büsching claims Fritz never needed any foreign subsidies. Ever. I mean: look, Büsching, him getting money from the Brits was no state secret? Even if I don't expect you to know about what Poniatowski writes re: Fritz counterfeiting coins and devalueing money, or about the sugar daddies in crown prince times, the British subsidies at least were common knowledge. He bitched enough about it when they stopped, even in the Histoire de mon temps, or so biographies say. What the hell?/ETA
So basically, his reliability: some things he's amazingly accurate about, some are really wildly inaccurate, see above. When mentioning many European monarchs pleaded for Crown Prince Fritz, he quotes, entirely, the letter from Sweden, which could be another hint as to which sources he does have. What all of this says about the reliability of his dog stories: make up your own mind.
Rödenbeck: looking for the part you name, I come across about Rödenbeck, correctly, naming AW as a member of the Straßburg trip! (He lists AW, Algarotti, Fredersdorf, Colonels v. Borck and v. Stille and one of the Münchows as aide - presumably the older brother Jr. mentions as Fritz having favored? - as making up the group in totem. So now we know.) He also lists the following pseudonyms:
Fritz: Count Dufour
AW: Count Schafgotsch.
Algarotti: Count von Pfuhl.
(Algarotti: none of you could convincingly play a non-noble, so don't even try, highnessess. I, on the other hand, can play a German.)
Also, he says Fritz upon arriving in Straßburg lodged in the inn "Holy Cross" whereas AW lodged in the inn "Raven". So if you want to imagine Fritz and Algarotti getting it on, note he took care of not sharing rooms with younger bro for the night. Of course, that was before they were arrested. Arrival in Straßburg was on the 23, ignominious departure on the 26th.
Now, about page 126 - first of all, guess what the previous page says about the Pandur raid on the camp? Whom it names as a source? AUSTRIAN TRENCK! I first thought maybe Rödenbeck had his Trenck confused when saying "From Austrian Trenck's descripton of his life", but the quote is actually in first person and speaking as Franz von der Trenck, not Friedrich von der Trenck. Mind you, I'm sideeying the veracity of any Trenck, but apparantly Austrian Trenck has written his life down somewhere, too? Anyway. Rödenbeck doesn't quite make clear where his Austrian Trenck quote ends, but at a guess, when Biche is returned. (He also says that the wife of General Nadasty had taken to Biche, wanted to keep her and had to be asked repeatedly till she was ready to hand over the dog.)
Rödenbeck says that both anecdotes are defended and well supported in yet another collection of anecdotes.
So he does, but he says they were defended by "glaubwürdige Gewährsmänner", "credible sources" (literally "credible men vowing for it"), without naming the gentlemen in question. Again, if any of said gentlemen was named Trenck (Prussian Trenck was still alive and well and publishing memoirs at that point, don't forget)...