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[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard once said, every day is like Christmas in this fandom! It's true!

[community profile] rheinsberg
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From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
(Poking my head in for a little but leaving the computer again soon. :( )

Not unexpected to me; I had reported this before, and wasn't sure if it was the Burgdorf's Gregorii under a different name.

Looking back, I didn't recount the full anecdote, but I definitely remember all the details mentioned there, especially "When this was reported to the King, he first said 'but where did he get the loaded gun from?' and then 'I wouldn't have expected such courage from him'."

This is what I did report:

Preuss enumerates the valets/batmen/lackeys that got dismissed for stealing from Fritz. Glasow is mentioned, of course (in a "more on him later" kind of way), and so are a couple others. Including a Deesen, who was accused of stealing from Fritz, and ordered to become a drum-beater in the army as part of his punishment. Well, evidently he couldn't take the humiliation, and on July 23, 1775, shot himself at Sanssouci.

...I can't find any more on this guy, but I was reminded of something you found in Burgdorf: "'The King's love could be deadly. Katte wasn't the only one who lost his life. A young officer, Gregorii, shot himself when Friedrich turned towards a new favourite.'...I wonder if Deesen's first name might be Gregorii, or if Burgdorf might otherwise be reporting the same story under a different name.


Thank you for picking up my past self's slack and translating the full anecdote!

One suicidal hussar might be regarded as a misfortune. Two looks like carelessness, misquote Oscar Wilde.

Haha.

So clearly this had nothing to do with Fredersdorf, what with him being dead, and Old Fritz in 1775 isn't necessarily like young Fritz in 1741, but presumably this is the kind of thing Georgii might have been afraid would happen, quite independent from what Frederdorf did or did not do?

Sounds about right. Theirs was also a much more "death before dishonor" culture than ours, so suicide, while not by any means less tragic, was more likely to present itself as an alternative to disgrace. Which is not to say that everyone chose death, but there was a stronger emphasis on lost honor as the ultimate worst. Witness AW refusing medical treatment.

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