Okay, cancelled Leipzig book fair meets library time this week means I finish the retirement volume of Lehndorff. BTW, Schmidt-Lötzen never managed another, but the estimable Ms Ziebura has edited Lehndorff's 1799 diary.
So, when last we heard of our retired Chamberlain at the start of 1783, he'd been taken by the Marchese di Lucchesini, and so was Fritz, whose mood and health has improved to no end. It also put him into a fraternal mood, for:
18. Januar 1783: The King celebrates the birthday of Prince Heinrich through a big feast using the golden table wear. He himself has put on the Order of the Black Eagle and sends a box ornamented with diamonds made of Chrysopras, which costs at least 10 000 Taler, as a gift to his royal highness, together with a charming letter. The letter says, among other things: I wanted to throw you a ball, but neither you nor myself are up to dancing anymore. The Prince agrees with this, but the public would have very much liked to dance.
(cahn, the order of the Black Eagle was the highest that Prussia had to offer. Upon being saved by his fanboy, Fritz gave it to Peter, but being a pragmatist, he gave it to Catherine as well once Peter had met his demise at the hands of her minions. Hohenzollern princes got that medal pinned on them before they could deserve it, as kids, which is why you see Crown Prince Fritz wear it in Der Thronfolger and on portraits, for example.)
Prince Heinrich sends me a message to tell me that he’s alone and hopes I would spend the evening with him. I had a migraine through the entire day, so I get dressed only at 6 pm and am on my way to the Prince. We are midway through a most beautiful conversation when the door opens, and the Prince of Prussia enters. With the greatest amiability he says that he didn’t want to miss out of the pleasure to spend such a meaningful day with his royal highness.
Oh fortune why did it happen thus! one is tempted to say. But Lehndorff is loyally fond of his Crown Prince Jr. as well and so bids him welcome. Meanwhile, Fritz is still remarkably mellow:
January 20th: Our Carnival is coming to an end, and the King leaves well and content. The Master of the Horses Schwerin, who plays a kind of court jester to the King, tells him: „You‘ve behaved pretty well this winter; everyone is content with you.“. It is true that his majesty hasn‘t indulged in as many sarcasms this time as he used to. However, I am quite sure we owe this solely to the Marchese di Luchesini, who is always near him and knows how to captivate him through witty conversation. The men who used to surround the King were lacking in wit; their conversation was only gossip revolving around people the King didn’t even know. During the party Prince Ferdinand throws on the occasion of Prince Heinrich’s birthday, Luchesini told me: „If one can’t do any good, one should at least try to prevent evil, and if one believes that the daily news could cause damage, one has to talk about Greece or Egypt, especially when dealing with a prince who is receptive to such subjects.
Speaking of fraternal feelings: Ulrike is dead, Gustav keeps pissing off his nobility, and Heinrich is in a rare mood about the Swedish relations. The Duke of Södermanland is Charles, the second son who first used Mom to spread the word about Gustav's heir's illegitimacy and then blamed her when Gustav called him out on this.
I often talk with Prince Heinrich about the late Queen of Sweden, his sister, of all the grief she has had in her life, and especially of the terrible quarrel with her son, the current King of Sweden, which has eventually led to her death. The Prince is very bitter about the King and against the King’s brother, the Duke of Södermanland. As often as he talks about this subject, he is unforgiving. He often has had long arguments with Count Hordt, who takes the King’s party. It is indisputable that the late Queen of Sweden had extraordinarily much esprit, but she was very despotic, too, and passionate, and these two qualities have been her misfortune.
ETA: re Heinrich taking Ulrike‘s part - not surprising considering the combination of dead sibling who died heartbroken and sent away by despotic monarch. Otoh, it is interesting that Lehndorff is able to see the situation as more complex than that. / ETA.
Lehndorff's conversation with Heinrich on this subject leads him into musing about the Hohenzollern clan in totem. He's travelled a long road from the young man who was all "our princes are the best and all the others should be like them":
The main flaw of our royal family is jealousy. Their highnesesses are, it has to be admitted, jealous of everything, especially of the people who are devoted to one of them. This goes so far that the King hates those who love his brothers, and his brothers hate those who enjoy his majesty’s favour. Which creates a bad situation for us mere mortals. I can sing a song; I have had some experiences in this regard.
I‘ve heard a story which is hardly believable. The Abbé Prades had been banished by his majesty, but with a light sentence, to Glogau. The reason for his disgrace has been declared to be the fact that he‘d been a confidant of the Prince of Prussia during the time when the later after the misfortune of Zittau had been in disgrace with the King. Thus he’s spent 24 years in exile, when near the end of his life a clerical position got available which had been promised to him during the time when he’d still been enjoying the King’s favour. Now he’s written to his majesty and asked for the position. The answer was, according to rumor, that he should rather approach the manes of those whose favour he had courted. To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
(Our editor keeps reminding us that de Prades so was a traitor and his being banished had nothing to do with AW. I believe him, but otoh I'm not entirely sure that supposed Fritz quote was made up from thin air, because "the manes" is a Roman mythology allusion which does sound like Fritz.
Main topics of the day in the spring of 1783 for conversation are the Austro-Russian alliance (everyone's worried) and the Miller Arnold business from last year. Mildred already summarized it briefly elsehwere: in short, Fritz overruled his own judges, twice, on the matter of the Miller Arnold, which got him a reputation of standing up for the little man against the bureaucrats and nobles, except that the "honest miller" wasn't so honest after all, and historians pretty much agree the judges were in the right, and Fritz in the wrong. Lehndorff's sympathies are entirely NOT with the Miller, as in this story, which provides us with some Fritz quotes in German (our editor as well as the spelling point out Lehndorff here switches from French to German in the original manuscript):
Februar to March 1783: One afternoon I spend with the great chancellor Fürst who‘d lost his office. What he tells me of his story raises my hair. When the famous Miller Arnold brought his suit to the King, the later commanded the Großkanzler and the three Gerichtsräte to him. He began to dictate the judgment himself. When he confused the tribunal with the Kammergericht, the chancellor wanted to point this out to him. Then his majesty yelled: „Halt er das Maul!“ (Shut up!) and shortly afterwards, pointing to the door, „Marsch, ich habe seinen Posten schon vergeben“ - „out, I’ve already given his office to someone else!“ And the three councillors were brought to the Kalandshof, the prison for villains and thieves.
That's what we call populism these days, Fritz. Meanwhile, Lehndorff is far more sceptical towards another bit of gossip:
(..) Something else occupies the public. There are rumors that the King will celebrate his golden wedding anniversary. Which certainly won’t happen.
Spoiler: it did not. Although the court painter actually did a golden anniversary painting for which neither of the two marrieds posed. Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too. On to more fun subjects, to wit: it's time for Lehndorff's annual Rheinsberg visit:
March 16th: I leave for Rheinsberg in the most despicable weather and find the Prince alone with young Tauentzien. I still experience five pleasant weeks there. When Tauentzien leaves, I am completely alone with my Prince. He‘s never more charming than when he‘s able to talk about all kind of subjects without having to restrain himself, and then he talks with a fire, a clarity and a logic that one is dazzled. The morning, I spend in my room with reading. At 10, the Prince comes, and we chat. Then I get dressed in order to lunch with his Royal Highness. After lunch, we drive through the countryside. At 4 pm I’m back at home and read, till the Prince calls me at 6. Then I enter his gallery, which he calls his atelier, where he sits down behind his painting and I sit down behind mine. Toussaint reads out loud the journeys to India. Around 10 pm, we sit down for supper, and we never part before midnight. When the weather is nice, I walk a lot through the lovely gardens of Rheinsberg. (...)
Sounds lovely. However, you might remember who lives nearby?
On our way back,l we stop for a moment at Meseberg. This beautiful estate which the Prince has bought for 150 000 and given to Kaphengst as a present has been nearly run down completely by the creature already. I still marvel at this favour. Never have there been two men less fitting with each other than the Prince and Kaphengst. The former, all mind, passion and fire, loves a debauched, ignorant man who only loves women and gambling. When they are together, they bore each other. And still of all the men who‘ve enjoyed his favour, this one has evoked the most passion from him, and if the good Prince weren‘t in debts himself now, he‘d probably give as much to Kaphengst as he‘s already given him. I have so often pondered the human mind; my own stands still eavery time when I see he won‘t be led to reason. From now on, life at Rheinsberg isn‘t as cozy anymore, despite the Prince being doubly as kind to me. I often see him sad, and that grieves me. (...) Finally, I receive a letter and a messenger from my niece Schlieben with the news that her husband is in a very bad way. This causes me to return to Berlin. .
Lehndorff hears bad things in Berlin about the health and nature of Schlieben the no good husband of his niece, no big surprise there, who after some weeks of lingering on dies. Even Lehndorff finds it hard to be sorry about this. Otoh, he does feel sorry for one of Catherine's lovers whom he met just two years earlier:
May 1783: The famous Orlov has died in madness. He had owed everything to fortune. High favour has changed him from a small lieutenant to the Emperor of Russia and to the lord over all the riches of that country. I knew him. He was never happier than when drinking his beer together with the citizens of Königsberg. And he had to die with a disturbed mind!
In October, young Tauentzien, son of the Fritzian general of the same name, part of Heinrich's circle and about to finally topple Kaphengst there, causes a big scandal by getting one Fräulein von Marschall pregnant and hadtily marrying her without parental consent. Fräulein von Marschall is a lady-in-waiting to Mina, so everyone is upset - her parents, his parents, Mina and Heinrich. By December, however, Lehndorff writes:
I must report a noble action on the part of my splendid Prince Heinrich. He adopts the cause of Tauentzien and his young wife’s, arranges their reconciliation with General Tauentzien and provides the young couple both in Berlin and in Spandau with a free apartment and food, and with an equipage of their own.“
Next, we get a glimpse of Prussian recruiting practices in peace time many years after FW's death:
December 1783: I am in great distress because suddenly my carpenter gets drafted to the army. He’s five feet seven inches; consequently, it would be only a favour on the General‘s side that could allow me to free him. For now, I’m sending him to Königsberg, but give him a letter for General Anhalt. The later is indeed kind enough to return my carpenter to me.
Good for the carpenter, I guess. Lehndorff’s mother-in-law dies in March 1784 unexpectedly (a stroke and a very quick death), and since as opposed to his first mother-in-law, he liked this one, he's sad. Hers is not the only unexpected death:
On the occasion of my mother-in-law‘s death, I receive a lot of condolence letters, among them one by our dear Prince of Prussia, who shows again what an excellent heart he has. Prince Heinrich writes: „Your mother-in-law has taken everyone‘s respect with her in her grave. Her passing has been a quick and easy one. However, I have had to witness a painful dying.“ For Fräulein Marschall, whose surprising quick marriage to Tauentzien a few months ago I have noted down, has given birth and died nine days later in the most terrible torment. The Prince had provided her with rooms in his palace, and she believed herself the happiest of mortals, adored her husband and was adored by him. Now she had to die in her 20th year of life.
but the estimable Ms Ziebura has edited Lehndorff's 1799 diary.
She really is a treasure :D I wonder if she's going to edit them all? (How many more of them are there?)
Upon being saved by his fanboy, Fritz gave it to Peter, but being a pragmatist, he gave it to Catherine as well once Peter had met his demise at the hands of her minions.
HAHAHAHA oh Fritz, never stop being pragmatic.
But Lehndorff is loyally fond of his Crown Prince Jr. as well
Aww, of course he is, the sweetie.
Otoh, it is interesting that Lehndorff is able to see the situation as more complex than that.
*nods* Lehndorff is so perceptive! (I get on his case, especially in the earlier journals, for being unselfaware, but he's also really quite perceptive and sometimes I forget that.)
I can sing a song; I have had some experiences in this regard.
Aw Lehndorff, you have at that.
To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
I can totally see that it's incomprehensible to him, he's so nice <3
Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too.
Oh, poor EC :(
However, you might remember who lives nearby?
AHAHAHA, I wouldn't have, only the way you phrased it I immediately leaped to the correct conclusion :D
For Fräulein Marschall, whose surprising quick marriage to Tauentzien a few months ago I have noted down
Oh no! Truly it sucked to be a woman in the 18th C. :(
She really is a treasure :D I wonder if she's going to edit them all? (How many more of them are there?)
That's pretty much it as far as still existant manuscripts are concerned if the Leipzig archive index is anything to go by, plus some "diary notes on lose papers" for 1785. What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff. Since they're all contained in one subsection, among with other people's letters, I take it that of the ca. 800 letters by Heinrich to Lehndorff which Schmidt-Lödtzen talks about in his 1907 preface as being in the family archive, not that many are left, sadly, but still, apparantly some survived 1945!
Lehndorff being gracious about Crown Prince Jr. interrupting his evening a deux with Heinrich: if you want to be cynical in a Fritzian way, of course this is the future King we're talking about, but at this point Lehndorff has long buried any career ambitions and is retired, so I do believe it's just that he's fond of young FW2, both because it's AW's kid and for the man's (no longer a boy at this point but a man of 30) own sake. His diary is pretty consistent about this from the first time kid FW shows up in it.
To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
I can totally see that it's incomprehensible to him, he's so nice <3
Various family members of the du Rosey clan and the Katte clan: Ahem. Ahem. Self: Look, Lehndorff presumably was nice to you as well if he had to interact with you. He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away being married to Ludolf v. Katte in his diaries.
Oh no! Truly it sucked to be a woman in the 18th C. :(
Yup. To the point that I'm surprised so many survived childbirth at all. When the Duc de Croy notes about Marie Antoinette finally (after the seven years delay WHICH WAS NOT HER FAULT) giving birth to her first child, he writes that the Queen had to be bled five times during birth, and otherwise would have died. Meanwhile, I'm thinking: childbirth and five openings of the veins, wtf? Good thing MA inherited MT's iron consitution, I guess. Alas, poor young Frau von Tauentzien had no such natural defense.
Poor Lehndorff, his words lost, although I suppose we can't really complain that we don't have a lot left. (Still gonna complain, though.)
What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff.
!! I didn't even know these existed! Yes I enthusiastically agree :D Also I wish we had access to all those Heinrich letters that she had access to and we don't, like the one about the family reunion ending in which parent was worse (which still totally cracks me up).
if you want to be cynical in a Fritzian way, of course this is the future King we're talking about, but at this point Lehndorff has long buried any career ambitions and is retired
Heh, yes. I don't think Lehndorff was really very good at sucking up just for politics' sake (if he were, he would presumably have gone after Fritz harder and Heinrich less, instead of the other way around!)
He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away
Haha, true. Also I suppose I wrote that replying to the same comment in which he talks about Kaphengst, again :)
Omg, childbirth has a nontrivial risk of hemorrhage (which I know because if she'd lived in the 18th C, one of my friends would in fact probably have died that way, though because of modern medicine it was not a big deal) and they bled her five times too?? Yeah, she must have been extremely tough. Poor MA :( And poor Frau von Tauentzien :((
!! I didn't even know these existed! Yes I enthusiastically agree
I mean, in all fairness, I don't think there can be many of them left, otherwise they'd be listed more prominently in the archive, and if we're in bad luck, they're just notes of the "meet me tomorrow evening in the opera" type, or, conversely, travel descriptions of the "Dear Lehndorff, Russia's great, here's whom I met in St. Petersburg so far, wanna come?" type. But I'd like to know for sure.
He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away
Haha, true. Also I suppose I wrote that replying to the same comment in which he talks about Kaphengst, again :)
But Kaphengst in his glory days locked himself in with the prince while letting "others" (I wonder whom he could possibly mean?) wait in the antechambre! This totally deserves a grudge!
Lehndorff & Heinrich's favourites in general:
Didn't like: Reisewitz, Kaphengst, Mara, Kalkreuth (though he softened on Kalkreuth enough to somewhat socalize with him in Königsberg now and then during the retirement years).
Was neutral to slightly hostile on: Marwitz.
Did like: Lamberg. (He's consistent there; even the 1752 diary entries where he's simultanously madly jealous say Lamberg is a nice guy.)
Thought that he should have been a favourite, because of loyalty and niceness: Ludwig v. Wreech. Wreech - who was Heinrich's chamberlain, i.e. the same job Lehndorff did for EC - shows up in Lehndorff's entries reapeatedly on the background, usually gets compared to the favourite du jour with the subtext of "if someone, why not this one who is so much more loyal and devoted than X!" and was indeed part of Heinrich's circle through the decades till his death in 1795. What I hadn't known before rereading all the Rheinsberg chapters was that he was in fact the son of the very same Madame de Wreech who FW thought would give him an illegitimate grandson, courtesy of Fritz supposedly having an affair with her in Küstrin, this lady. (No, Ludwig can't be an illegitimate Fritz kid from that time, he was born in 1734.) Fontane also says Ludwig loathed Fritz; whether the two things are connected, who knows. She had five children already when Fritz in later 1731 wrote love poetry for her (for some reason, English wiki only mentions two daughters, while German wiki mentions all seven kids), and Wilhelmine acquired the portrait Pesne painted of her in 1737, which is why it's in the Eremitage in Bayreuth today.
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
Whatever opinion Lehndorff had of the Comte, I don't know yet, the biographies didn't say.
We do have plenty of Lehndorff interacting Heinrich's wife, though. He correctly never saw Mina as competition (rather the opposite; it was in the year of Heinrich's marriage that Lehndorff went from being a general friend of the Divine Trio to becoming Heinrich's friend in particular, falling in love with him and getting singled out by him), and admired her beauty, poise and conversation. During the 7 Years War, he spent a lot of time with her, not just because of the court evacuations, but he also had no problem cutting ties with her post Kalkreuth disaster, so who knows what he really felt about her. There's one entry after the battle of Rossbach where Lehndorff can't help but roll his eyes in a somewhat exasparated fashion, with the subtext of "if somoene gets to angst about Heinrich, it's me, not you!". Reminder: The battle of Rossbach was a Fritz triumph against the French; Heinrich got slightly wounded by a passing bullet.
November 6th. (1757): Our concern is at an end when we hear of the happy battle near Roßbach. It's sunday, I had made Frau v. Häseler - his future mother-in-law, whose daughter he's currently wooing - a visit, and when I want to return to the Queen, I find the streets of Magdeburg so crowded with people that it's hardly possible to get through. Through the help of my elbows, I finally reach the Queen. Everyone is shouting, everyone is embracing each other, in short, there's a great towhowabohu and the most vivid joy. The battle has been won, the French were beaten, the King is well, all this fills us with jubilating happiness. But how great is my surprise when I find the Princess - Mina - in despaire and trying very hard to faint! One had taken all from her that could burden her breath, which is why one sees her billowing bosom undisguised. I keep asking what on earth has happened, and finally I learn that Prince Heinrich has been wounded, and start to tremble. A young Schulenburg who had brought us the news of the battle had told the Princess, whom he hadn't known before, this misfortune without any blandishment, which is why her royal highness found it suitable to fall into the most extreme desparation. The officer was so surprised that he forgot everything. Finally, after many questions from all of us, he remembers that he has a letter written by the King's own hand to the minister Count Podewils with him. Immediately, light is being brought, and now one learns of the advantages the King has scored, and especially that the Prince has been wounded only slightly. After we have shouted this news into the Princess' ears three or our times - and she hears just as well as we do - she regains consciousness, and when she sees the King's handwriting, she assumes her former countenance.
This, like the obituary for Katte's Uncle Wartensleben, is another example of what I mean when I say that Lehndorff in gushing mood is adorable, but Lehndorff in bitching mood is hilarious.
while letting "others" (I wonder whom he could possibly mean?)
Heeee!
(He's consistent there; even the 1752 diary entries where he's simultanously madly jealous say Lamberg is a nice guy.)
<33333 this is why I love Lehndorff :D
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
lol forever! Clearly Wreech has to show up in some story or another someone might be writing about Heinrich :P :)
After we have shouted this news into the Princess' ears three or our times - and she hears just as well as we do - she regains consciousness, and when she sees the King's handwriting, she assumes her former countenance.
the estimable Ms Ziebura has edited Lehndorff's 1799 diary.
Somebody deserves flowers! Have you tracked down this volume? Are we going to be able to get our hands on it (perhaps after libraries reopen)?
However, I am quite sure we owe this solely to the Marchese di Luchesini, who is always near him and knows how to captivate him through witty conversation. The men who used to surround the King were lacking in wit; their conversation was only gossip revolving around people the King didn’t even know.
Lol. No wonder Fritz was happy to resume corresponding with Heinrich!
because "the manes" is a Roman mythology allusion which does sound like Fritz.
It does, yes. Granted he's not the only one in the 18th century who knew his mythology, but it does add to the plausibility. That said, "manes of those whose favour he courted" doesn't necessarily have to mean AW: if Prades was guilty in Fritz's mind of treason, it could just as easily mean his long-dead paymasters.
Although the court painter actually did a golden anniversary painting for which neither of the two marrieds posed. Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too.
Wow.
Various family members of the du Rosey clan and the Katte clan: Ahem. Ahem.
HAHAHAA. But his grudge prevented him from gathering information about poor innocent Hans Hermann, who had never done Lehndorff any harm, that would be of great interest to future readers! My kingdom for a Fontane bodyswap.
What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff.
Maybe if we send her flowers and a nice note. ;)
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
LOOOL. Well, all the biographers I've read said she merely tolerated him as Crown Prince and wasn't that impressed, but maybe that changed after he became Frederick the Great instead of Frederick the Disgraced Prince With Whom It Is Dangerous To Socialize (see also Doris Ritter)?
That said, "manes of those whose favour he courted" doesn't necessarily have to mean AW: if Prades was guilty in Fritz's mind of treason, it could just as easily mean his long-dead paymasters.
True. Louis XVI, the Duc de Choisieul, Madame de Pompadour, or the Brühls - no matter whom worked for, they are all dead by 1783. (MT, too, though not Kaunitz, but presumably Prades would have been spying for the French (home team) or the Saxons (physical proximity + money by the Brühl clan), not the Austrians.
One of the books which I actually own has the wedding anniversary painting, though in black and white. You can tell, even within the formality such a pointing would have under the best of circumstances, that neither EC nor Fritz posed for it, least of all together.
Well, all the biographers I've read said she merely tolerated him as Crown Prince and wasn't that impressed, but maybe that changed after he became Frederick the Great instead of Frederick the Disgraced Prince With Whom It Is Dangerous To Socialize (see also Doris Ritter)?
Oh, I was just guessing as to why Ludwig Wreech (and his brother, also working for Heinrich) had it in for Fritz. It might not have had to do anything with his love poetry for their mother! German wiki thinks she was merely polite and not that impressed while it happened, too, and links the 19th century Allgemeine Deutsche Biography, which says there were no further relatons between her and Fritz post Küstrin until 1758, mid 7 Years War, when he saw the estate of Tamsel again after the battle of Zorndorf, on August 30th. The Russians had plundered the estate, burned some of it and had killed some people, including the teacher of the younger Wreechs, Fahndorff. Fritz still had to make his headquarters there and wrote a letter to Frau v. Wreech, apologizing and promising to pay for all the damage. She took him at his word and wrote back asking for more money for the farmers in the area, too, repeatedly, which he couldn't give, being short of money. She died in 1784, when this volume of diaries end. So for all I know, Ludwig W. might have been Fritz hostile because he blamed him for the war, not because he blamed him for his poetry.
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The Lehndorff Report: 1783
So, when last we heard of our retired Chamberlain at the start of 1783, he'd been taken by the Marchese di Lucchesini, and so was Fritz, whose mood and health has improved to no end. It also put him into a fraternal mood, for:
18. Januar 1783: The King celebrates the birthday of Prince Heinrich through a big feast using the golden table wear. He himself has put on the Order of the Black Eagle and sends a box ornamented with diamonds made of Chrysopras, which costs at least 10 000 Taler, as a gift to his royal highness, together with a charming letter. The letter says, among other things: I wanted to throw you a ball, but neither you nor myself are up to dancing anymore. The Prince agrees with this, but the public would have very much liked to dance.
(
Prince Heinrich sends me a message to tell me that he’s alone and hopes I would spend the evening with him. I had a migraine through the entire day, so I get dressed only at 6 pm and am on my way to the Prince. We are midway through a most beautiful conversation when the door opens, and the Prince of Prussia enters. With the greatest amiability he says that he didn’t want to miss out of the pleasure to spend such a meaningful day with his royal highness.
Oh fortune why did it happen thus! one is tempted to say. But Lehndorff is loyally fond of his Crown Prince Jr. as well and so bids him welcome. Meanwhile, Fritz is still remarkably mellow:
January 20th: Our Carnival is coming to an end, and the King leaves well and content. The Master of the Horses Schwerin, who plays a kind of court jester to the King, tells him: „You‘ve behaved pretty well this winter; everyone is content with you.“. It is true that his majesty hasn‘t indulged in as many sarcasms this time as he used to. However, I am quite sure we owe this solely to the Marchese di Luchesini, who is always near him and knows how to captivate him through witty conversation. The men who used to surround the King were lacking in wit; their conversation was only gossip revolving around people the King didn’t even know.
During the party Prince Ferdinand throws on the occasion of Prince Heinrich’s birthday, Luchesini told me: „If one can’t do any good, one should at least try to prevent evil, and if one believes that the daily news could cause damage, one has to talk about Greece or Egypt, especially when dealing with a prince who is receptive to such subjects.
Speaking of fraternal feelings: Ulrike is dead, Gustav keeps pissing off his nobility, and Heinrich is in a rare mood about the Swedish relations. The Duke of Södermanland is Charles, the second son who first used Mom to spread the word about Gustav's heir's illegitimacy and then blamed her when Gustav called him out on this.
I often talk with Prince Heinrich about the late Queen of Sweden, his sister, of all the grief she has had in her life, and especially of the terrible quarrel with her son, the current King of Sweden, which has eventually led to her death. The Prince is very bitter about the King and against the King’s brother, the Duke of Södermanland. As often as he talks about this subject, he is unforgiving. He often has had long arguments with Count Hordt, who takes the King’s party. It is indisputable that the late Queen of Sweden had extraordinarily much esprit, but she was very despotic, too, and passionate, and these two qualities have been her misfortune.
ETA: re Heinrich taking Ulrike‘s part - not surprising considering the combination of dead sibling who died heartbroken and sent away by despotic monarch. Otoh, it is interesting that Lehndorff is able to see the situation as more complex than that. / ETA.
Lehndorff's conversation with Heinrich on this subject leads him into musing about the Hohenzollern clan in totem. He's travelled a long road from the young man who was all "our princes are the best and all the others should be like them":
The main flaw of our royal family is jealousy. Their highnesesses are, it has to be admitted, jealous of everything, especially of the people who are devoted to one of them. This goes so far that the King hates those who love his brothers, and his brothers hate those who enjoy his majesty’s favour. Which creates a bad situation for us mere mortals. I can sing a song; I have had some experiences in this regard.
I‘ve heard a story which is hardly believable. The Abbé Prades had been banished by his majesty, but with a light sentence, to Glogau. The reason for his disgrace has been declared to be the fact that he‘d been a confidant of the Prince of Prussia during the time when the later after the misfortune of Zittau had been in disgrace with the King. Thus he’s spent 24 years in exile, when near the end of his life a clerical position got available which had been promised to him during the time when he’d still been enjoying the King’s favour. Now he’s written to his majesty and asked for the position. The answer was, according to rumor, that he should rather approach the manes of those whose favour he had courted. To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
(Our editor keeps reminding us that de Prades so was a traitor and his being banished had nothing to do with AW. I believe him, but otoh I'm not entirely sure that supposed Fritz quote was made up from thin air, because "the manes" is a Roman mythology allusion which does sound like Fritz.
Main topics of the day in the spring of 1783 for conversation are the Austro-Russian alliance (everyone's worried) and the Miller Arnold business from last year. Mildred already summarized it briefly elsehwere: in short, Fritz overruled his own judges, twice, on the matter of the Miller Arnold, which got him a reputation of standing up for the little man against the bureaucrats and nobles, except that the "honest miller" wasn't so honest after all, and historians pretty much agree the judges were in the right, and Fritz in the wrong. Lehndorff's sympathies are entirely NOT with the Miller, as in this story, which provides us with some Fritz quotes in German (our editor as well as the spelling point out Lehndorff here switches from French to German in the original manuscript):
Februar to March 1783: One afternoon I spend with the great chancellor Fürst who‘d lost his office. What he tells me of his story raises my hair. When the famous Miller Arnold brought his suit to the King, the later commanded the Großkanzler and the three Gerichtsräte to him. He began to dictate the judgment himself. When he confused the tribunal with the Kammergericht, the chancellor wanted to point this out to him. Then his majesty yelled: „Halt er das Maul!“ (Shut up!) and shortly afterwards, pointing to the door, „Marsch, ich habe seinen Posten schon vergeben“ - „out, I’ve already given his office to someone else!“ And the three councillors were brought to the Kalandshof, the prison for villains and thieves.
That's what we call populism these days, Fritz. Meanwhile, Lehndorff is far more sceptical towards another bit of gossip:
(..) Something else occupies the public. There are rumors that the King will celebrate his golden wedding anniversary. Which certainly won’t happen.
Spoiler: it did not. Although the court painter actually did a golden anniversary painting for which neither of the two marrieds posed. Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too. On to more fun subjects, to wit: it's time for Lehndorff's annual Rheinsberg visit:
March 16th: I leave for Rheinsberg in the most despicable weather and find the Prince alone with young Tauentzien. I still experience five pleasant weeks there. When Tauentzien leaves, I am completely alone with my Prince. He‘s never more charming than when he‘s able to talk about all kind of subjects without having to restrain himself, and then he talks with a fire, a clarity and a logic that one is dazzled. The morning, I spend in my room with reading. At 10, the Prince comes, and we chat. Then I get dressed in order to lunch with his Royal Highness. After lunch, we drive through the countryside. At 4 pm I’m back at home and read, till the Prince calls me at 6. Then I enter his gallery, which he calls his atelier, where he sits down behind his painting and I sit down behind mine. Toussaint reads out loud the journeys to India. Around 10 pm, we sit down for supper, and we never part before midnight. When the weather is nice, I walk a lot through the lovely gardens of Rheinsberg. (...)
Sounds lovely. However, you might remember who lives nearby?
On our way back,l we stop for a moment at Meseberg. This beautiful estate which the Prince has bought for 150 000 and given to Kaphengst as a present has been nearly run down completely by the creature already. I still marvel at this favour. Never have there been two men less fitting with each other than the Prince and Kaphengst. The former, all mind, passion and fire, loves a debauched, ignorant man who only loves women and gambling. When they are together, they bore each other. And still of all the men who‘ve enjoyed his favour, this one has evoked the most passion from him, and if the good Prince weren‘t in debts himself now, he‘d probably give as much to Kaphengst as he‘s already given him. I have so often pondered the human mind; my own stands still eavery time when I see he won‘t be led to reason. From now on, life at Rheinsberg isn‘t as cozy anymore, despite the Prince being doubly as kind to me. I often see him sad, and that grieves me. (...) Finally, I receive a letter and a messenger from my niece Schlieben with the news that her husband is in a very bad way. This causes me to return to Berlin. .
Lehndorff hears bad things in Berlin about the health and nature of Schlieben the no good husband of his niece, no big surprise there, who after some weeks of lingering on dies. Even Lehndorff finds it hard to be sorry about this. Otoh, he does feel sorry for one of Catherine's lovers whom he met just two years earlier:
May 1783: The famous Orlov has died in madness. He had owed everything to fortune. High favour has changed him from a small lieutenant to the Emperor of Russia and to the lord over all the riches of that country. I knew him. He was never happier than when drinking his beer together with the citizens of Königsberg. And he had to die with a disturbed mind!
In October, young Tauentzien, son of the Fritzian general of the same name, part of Heinrich's circle and about to finally topple Kaphengst there, causes a big scandal by getting one Fräulein von Marschall pregnant and hadtily marrying her without parental consent. Fräulein von Marschall is a lady-in-waiting to Mina, so everyone is upset - her parents, his parents, Mina and Heinrich. By December, however, Lehndorff writes:
I must report a noble action on the part of my splendid Prince Heinrich. He adopts the cause of Tauentzien and his young wife’s, arranges their reconciliation with General Tauentzien and provides the young couple both in Berlin and in Spandau with a free apartment and food, and with an equipage of their own.“
Next, we get a glimpse of Prussian recruiting practices in peace time many years after FW's death:
December 1783: I am in great distress because suddenly my carpenter gets drafted to the army. He’s five feet seven inches; consequently, it would be only a favour on the General‘s side that could allow me to free him. For now, I’m sending him to Königsberg, but give him a letter for General Anhalt. The later is indeed kind enough to return my carpenter to me.
Good for the carpenter, I guess. Lehndorff’s mother-in-law dies in March 1784 unexpectedly (a stroke and a very quick death), and since as opposed to his first mother-in-law, he liked this one, he's sad. Hers is not the only unexpected death:
On the occasion of my mother-in-law‘s death, I receive a lot of condolence letters, among them one by our dear Prince of Prussia, who shows again what an excellent heart he has. Prince Heinrich writes: „Your mother-in-law has taken everyone‘s respect with her in her grave. Her passing has been a quick and easy one. However, I have had to witness a painful dying.“ For Fräulein Marschall, whose surprising quick marriage to Tauentzien a few months ago I have noted down, has given birth and died nine days later in the most terrible torment. The Prince had provided her with rooms in his palace, and she believed herself the happiest of mortals, adored her husband and was adored by him. Now she had to die in her 20th year of life.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
She really is a treasure :D I wonder if she's going to edit them all? (How many more of them are there?)
Upon being saved by his fanboy, Fritz gave it to Peter, but being a pragmatist, he gave it to Catherine as well once Peter had met his demise at the hands of her minions.
HAHAHAHA oh Fritz, never stop being pragmatic.
But Lehndorff is loyally fond of his Crown Prince Jr. as well
Aww, of course he is, the sweetie.
Otoh, it is interesting that Lehndorff is able to see the situation as more complex than that.
*nods* Lehndorff is so perceptive! (I get on his case, especially in the earlier journals, for being unselfaware, but he's also really quite perceptive and sometimes I forget that.)
I can sing a song; I have had some experiences in this regard.
Aw Lehndorff, you have at that.
To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
I can totally see that it's incomprehensible to him, he's so nice <3
Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too.
Oh, poor EC :(
However, you might remember who lives nearby?
AHAHAHA, I wouldn't have, only the way you phrased it I immediately leaped to the correct conclusion :D
For Fräulein Marschall, whose surprising quick marriage to Tauentzien a few months ago I have noted down
Oh no! Truly it sucked to be a woman in the 18th C. :(
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
That's pretty much it as far as still existant manuscripts are concerned if the Leipzig archive index is anything to go by, plus some "diary notes on lose papers" for 1785. What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff. Since they're all contained in one subsection, among with other people's letters, I take it that of the ca. 800 letters by Heinrich to Lehndorff which Schmidt-Lödtzen talks about in his 1907 preface as being in the family archive, not that many are left, sadly, but still, apparantly some survived 1945!
Lehndorff being gracious about Crown Prince Jr. interrupting his evening a deux with Heinrich: if you want to be cynical in a Fritzian way, of course this is the future King we're talking about, but at this point Lehndorff has long buried any career ambitions and is retired, so I do believe it's just that he's fond of young FW2, both because it's AW's kid and for the man's (no longer a boy at this point but a man of 30) own sake. His diary is pretty consistent about this from the first time kid FW shows up in it.
To carry such a grudge for twentyfour years is incomprehensible to me.
I can totally see that it's incomprehensible to him, he's so nice <3
Various family members of the du Rosey clan and the Katte clan: Ahem. Ahem.
Self: Look, Lehndorff presumably was nice to you as well if he had to interact with you. He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away being married to Ludolf v. Katte in his diaries.
Oh no! Truly it sucked to be a woman in the 18th C. :(
Yup. To the point that I'm surprised so many survived childbirth at all. When the Duc de Croy notes about Marie Antoinette finally (after the seven years delay WHICH WAS NOT HER FAULT) giving birth to her first child, he writes that the Queen had to be bled five times during birth, and otherwise would have died. Meanwhile, I'm thinking: childbirth and five openings of the veins, wtf? Good thing MA inherited MT's iron consitution, I guess. Alas, poor young Frau von Tauentzien had no such natural defense.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff.
!! I didn't even know these existed! Yes I enthusiastically agree :D Also I wish we had access to all those Heinrich letters that she had access to and we don't, like the one about the family reunion ending in which parent was worse (which still totally cracks me up).
if you want to be cynical in a Fritzian way, of course this is the future King we're talking about, but at this point Lehndorff has long buried any career ambitions and is retired
Heh, yes. I don't think Lehndorff was really very good at sucking up just for politics' sake (if he were, he would presumably have gone after Fritz harder and Heinrich less, instead of the other way around!)
He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away
Haha, true. Also I suppose I wrote that replying to the same comment in which he talks about Kaphengst, again :)
Omg, childbirth has a nontrivial risk of hemorrhage (which I know because if she'd lived in the 18th C, one of my friends would in fact probably have died that way, though because of modern medicine it was not a big deal) and they bled her five times too?? Yeah, she must have been extremely tough. Poor MA :( And poor Frau von Tauentzien :((
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
I mean, in all fairness, I don't think there can be many of them left, otherwise they'd be listed more prominently in the archive, and if we're in bad luck, they're just notes of the "meet me tomorrow evening in the opera" type, or, conversely, travel descriptions of the "Dear Lehndorff, Russia's great, here's whom I met in St. Petersburg so far, wanna come?" type. But I'd like to know for sure.
He just writes about his immortal grudge re: his One Who Got Away
Haha, true. Also I suppose I wrote that replying to the same comment in which he talks about Kaphengst, again :)
But Kaphengst in his glory days locked himself in with the prince while letting "others" (I wonder whom he could possibly mean?) wait in the antechambre! This totally deserves a grudge!
Lehndorff & Heinrich's favourites in general:
Didn't like: Reisewitz, Kaphengst, Mara, Kalkreuth (though he softened on Kalkreuth enough to somewhat socalize with him in Königsberg now and then during the retirement years).
Was neutral to slightly hostile on: Marwitz.
Did like: Lamberg. (He's consistent there; even the 1752 diary entries where he's simultanously madly jealous say Lamberg is a nice guy.)
Thought that he should have been a favourite, because of loyalty and niceness: Ludwig v. Wreech. Wreech - who was Heinrich's chamberlain, i.e. the same job Lehndorff did for EC - shows up in Lehndorff's entries reapeatedly on the background, usually gets compared to the favourite du jour with the subtext of "if someone, why not this one who is so much more loyal and devoted than X!" and was indeed part of Heinrich's circle through the decades till his death in 1795. What I hadn't known before rereading all the Rheinsberg chapters was that he was in fact the son of the very same Madame de Wreech who FW thought would give him an illegitimate grandson, courtesy of Fritz supposedly having an affair with her in Küstrin, this lady. (No, Ludwig can't be an illegitimate Fritz kid from that time, he was born in 1734.) Fontane also says Ludwig loathed Fritz; whether the two things are connected, who knows. She had five children already when Fritz in later 1731 wrote love poetry for her (for some reason, English wiki only mentions two daughters, while German wiki mentions all seven kids), and Wilhelmine acquired the portrait Pesne painted of her in 1737, which is why it's in the Eremitage in Bayreuth today.
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
Whatever opinion Lehndorff had of the Comte, I don't know yet, the biographies didn't say.
We do have plenty of Lehndorff interacting Heinrich's wife, though. He correctly never saw Mina as competition (rather the opposite; it was in the year of Heinrich's marriage that Lehndorff went from being a general friend of the Divine Trio to becoming Heinrich's friend in particular, falling in love with him and getting singled out by him), and admired her beauty, poise and conversation. During the 7 Years War, he spent a lot of time with her, not just because of the court evacuations, but he also had no problem cutting ties with her post Kalkreuth disaster, so who knows what he really felt about her. There's one entry after the battle of Rossbach where Lehndorff can't help but roll his eyes in a somewhat exasparated fashion, with the subtext of "if somoene gets to angst about Heinrich, it's me, not you!". Reminder: The battle of Rossbach was a Fritz triumph against the French; Heinrich got slightly wounded by a passing bullet.
November 6th. (1757): Our concern is at an end when we hear of the happy battle near Roßbach. It's sunday, I had made Frau v. Häseler - his future mother-in-law, whose daughter he's currently wooing - a visit, and when I want to return to the Queen, I find the streets of Magdeburg so crowded with people that it's hardly possible to get through. Through the help of my elbows, I finally reach the Queen. Everyone is shouting, everyone is embracing each other, in short, there's a great towhowabohu and the most vivid joy. The battle has been won, the French were beaten, the King is well, all this fills us with jubilating happiness. But how great is my surprise when I find the Princess - Mina - in despaire and trying very hard to faint! One had taken all from her that could burden her breath, which is why one sees her billowing bosom undisguised. I keep asking what on earth has happened, and finally I learn that Prince Heinrich has been wounded, and start to tremble. A young Schulenburg who had brought us the news of the battle had told the Princess, whom he hadn't known before, this misfortune without any blandishment, which is why her royal highness found it suitable to fall into the most extreme desparation. The officer was so surprised that he forgot everything. Finally, after many questions from all of us, he remembers that he has a letter written by the King's own hand to the minister Count Podewils with him. Immediately, light is being brought, and now one learns of the advantages the King has scored, and especially that the Prince has been wounded only slightly.
After we have shouted this news into the Princess' ears three or our times - and she hears just as well as we do - she regains consciousness, and when she sees the King's handwriting, she assumes her former countenance.
This, like the obituary for Katte's Uncle Wartensleben, is another example of what I mean when I say that Lehndorff in gushing mood is adorable, but Lehndorff in bitching mood is hilarious.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
Heeee!
(He's consistent there; even the 1752 diary entries where he's simultanously madly jealous say Lamberg is a nice guy.)
<33333 this is why I love Lehndorff :D
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
lol forever! Clearly Wreech has to show up in some story or another someone might be writing about Heinrich :P :)
After we have shouted this news into the Princess' ears three or our times - and she hears just as well as we do - she regains consciousness, and when she sees the King's handwriting, she assumes her former countenance.
AHAHAHAHA. omg, yes, this is hilarious <3
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
Somebody deserves flowers! Have you tracked down this volume? Are we going to be able to get our hands on it (perhaps after libraries reopen)?
However, I am quite sure we owe this solely to the Marchese di Luchesini, who is always near him and knows how to captivate him through witty conversation. The men who used to surround the King were lacking in wit; their conversation was only gossip revolving around people the King didn’t even know.
Lol. No wonder Fritz was happy to resume corresponding with Heinrich!
because "the manes" is a Roman mythology allusion which does sound like Fritz.
It does, yes. Granted he's not the only one in the 18th century who knew his mythology, but it does add to the plausibility. That said, "manes of those whose favour he courted" doesn't necessarily have to mean AW: if Prades was guilty in Fritz's mind of treason, it could just as easily mean his long-dead paymasters.
Although the court painter actually did a golden anniversary painting for which neither of the two marrieds posed. Poor painted EC has to hold a fertlity symbol in her hand, too.
Wow.
Various family members of the du Rosey clan and the Katte clan: Ahem. Ahem.
HAHAHAA. But his grudge prevented him from gathering information about poor innocent Hans Hermann, who had never done Lehndorff any harm, that would be of great interest to future readers! My kingdom for a Fontane bodyswap.
What I wish she'd translate and edit are Heinrich's and Ferdinand's letters to Lehndorff.
Maybe if we send her flowers and a nice note. ;)
(Ludwig v. Wreech: Fritz wrote love poetry to my mother. Which throughout my childhood we were forced to hear recited out loud, along with her gushing about what a great man he's become. Isn't that enough reason to hate him? Heinrich: You're hired.)
LOOOL. Well, all the biographers I've read said she merely tolerated him as Crown Prince and wasn't that impressed, but maybe that changed after he became Frederick the Great instead of Frederick the Disgraced Prince With Whom It Is Dangerous To Socialize (see also Doris Ritter)?
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
Yes, the Stabi has it. In print, as it's new.
That said, "manes of those whose favour he courted" doesn't necessarily have to mean AW: if Prades was guilty in Fritz's mind of treason, it could just as easily mean his long-dead paymasters.
True. Louis XVI, the Duc de Choisieul, Madame de Pompadour, or the Brühls - no matter whom worked for, they are all dead by 1783. (MT, too, though not Kaunitz, but presumably Prades would have been spying for the French (home team) or the Saxons (physical proximity + money by the Brühl clan), not the Austrians.
One of the books which I actually own has the wedding anniversary painting, though in black and white. You can tell, even within the formality such a pointing would have under the best of circumstances, that neither EC nor Fritz posed for it, least of all together.
Well, all the biographers I've read said she merely tolerated him as Crown Prince and wasn't that impressed, but maybe that changed after he became Frederick the Great instead of Frederick the Disgraced Prince With Whom It Is Dangerous To Socialize (see also Doris Ritter)?
Oh, I was just guessing as to why Ludwig Wreech (and his brother, also working for Heinrich) had it in for Fritz. It might not have had to do anything with his love poetry for their mother! German wiki thinks she was merely polite and not that impressed while it happened, too, and links the 19th century Allgemeine Deutsche Biography, which says there were no further relatons between her and Fritz post Küstrin until 1758, mid 7 Years War, when he saw the estate of Tamsel again after the battle of Zorndorf, on August 30th. The Russians had plundered the estate, burned some of it and had killed some people, including the teacher of the younger Wreechs, Fahndorff. Fritz still had to make his headquarters there and wrote a letter to Frau v. Wreech, apologizing and promising to pay for all the damage. She took him at his word and wrote back asking for more money for the farmers in the area, too, repeatedly, which he couldn't give, being short of money. She died in 1784, when this volume of diaries end. So for all I know, Ludwig W. might have been Fritz hostile because he blamed him for the war, not because he blamed him for his poetry.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1783
Sweet! More Lehndorff in our future. If the plague goes on long enough and we get desperate, it looks like it can be obtained for 20 euros.
Oh, I was just guessing as to why Ludwig Wreech (and his brother, also working for Heinrich) had it in for Fritz.
Oh, I didn't think you were claiming this was a historical fact! I was just wondering how likely it is as a private headcanon. ;)
10-yo Heinrich raiding Big Bro's larder the moment he gets a chance--now, that's as plausible as it gets!