Being afraid that a son in debts which he refuses to admit to would just turn out to be F1 reborn and reduce FW's life work to non existence was understandable in this context.
This is very true.
However, what FW was incapable of acknowledging was that some of what Fritz had wanted the money for - education, the arts, books - were hardly something any other father, noble or citizen, would have begrudged their child, and that by his own behavior he had made it impossible for his son to trust him.
Agreed. And even the food, which Fritz admittedly splurged on, all his life unless there was good reason (like being at war) not to, feels to me very like overcompensation for not getting enough to eat. FW wants them to eat plain food frugally, fine. FW is actually sending them away from the table hungry, which from a variety of sources seems to have been the case, even allowing for some Wilhelmine exaggeration...you can really mess kids up that way.
If FW had met Fritz halfway instead of insisting on total submission and a complete mirror of himself, I think Fritz's spending wouldn't have gotten that bad, oh, and he would have shown far more interest in the army at a younger age, if it hadn't been being rammed down his throat. FW was in some ways his own worst enemy, and he and Fritz got into a very bad feedback loop.
Now while I'm pretty sure Fritz saw through it in the autumn of 1730, I hope he stll saw through it in the summer of 1731, but I'm not entirely sure. Because life long distrust in humanity ensued. And when he did let people in, he micromanaged them.
:/
The one thing that gives me hope was that even at Küstrin, complete strangers were apparently coming together to make his life easier. And he knew about the marital warfare that was his parents' marriage. And he knew even austere army guy Hans Heinrich let his son get an education and play the flute, LIKE EVERY OTHER NOBLE FATHER IN EUROPE. FW was always the outlier in Fritz's life, and he knew that.
I suspect his lifelong distrust in humanity can be accounted for without him having believed his mother and sister had forgotten about him. There's enough other bad stuff going on in his life to account for all sorts of psychological issues. (When I'm making up stories in my head, it generally takes me about two consecutive rounds of reincarnation to plausibly get even half of them under control, lol.)
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Re: Grumbkow-Seckendorff protocol of the August 1731 submission
This is very true.
However, what FW was incapable of acknowledging was that some of what Fritz had wanted the money for - education, the arts, books - were hardly something any other father, noble or citizen, would have begrudged their child, and that by his own behavior he had made it impossible for his son to trust him.
Agreed. And even the food, which Fritz admittedly splurged on, all his life unless there was good reason (like being at war) not to, feels to me very like overcompensation for not getting enough to eat. FW wants them to eat plain food frugally, fine. FW is actually sending them away from the table hungry, which from a variety of sources seems to have been the case, even allowing for some Wilhelmine exaggeration...you can really mess kids up that way.
If FW had met Fritz halfway instead of insisting on total submission and a complete mirror of himself, I think Fritz's spending wouldn't have gotten that bad, oh, and he would have shown far more interest in the army at a younger age, if it hadn't been being rammed down his throat. FW was in some ways his own worst enemy, and he and Fritz got into a very bad feedback loop.
Now while I'm pretty sure Fritz saw through it in the autumn of 1730, I hope he stll saw through it in the summer of 1731, but I'm not entirely sure. Because life long distrust in humanity ensued. And when he did let people in, he micromanaged them.
:/
The one thing that gives me hope was that even at Küstrin, complete strangers were apparently coming together to make his life easier. And he knew about the marital warfare that was his parents' marriage. And he knew even austere army guy Hans Heinrich let his son get an education and play the flute, LIKE EVERY OTHER NOBLE FATHER IN EUROPE. FW was always the outlier in Fritz's life, and he knew that.
I suspect his lifelong distrust in humanity can be accounted for without him having believed his mother and sister had forgotten about him. There's enough other bad stuff going on in his life to account for all sorts of psychological issues. (When I'm making up stories in my head, it generally takes me about two consecutive rounds of reincarnation to plausibly get even half of them under control, lol.)