Going back to your entry on the non-homo'ing with my Zimmermann addendum, it was indeed Heinrich von Schwedt - i.e. the very one Fritz in 1733 mentions visiting (and being rowdy) in his letter to Grumbkow - who according to Zimmermann reccommended Malchow the Quack for the STD to Fritz.
Zieten-Showalter: remind me again, from which book is this? You mentioning the wiki entry reminded me that said entry links the "life of Zieten" book by his niece Johanna von Blumenthal (based on the stories he told her), which is in the public domain, which I just looked up to get Zieten's take on Kolin, and yup, it's squarely in the "I warned Fritz, but he would not listen, and even said "I'm sorry Nadasty bamboozled you" ("einen blauen Dunst vormachen") regarding the numbers of the army Daun had with him corner. Now Zieten is that rarity, a fatherly figure appreciated and liked by Fritz (despite their ups and downs) and appreciated and liked by Heinrich (who financed a statue for him at the Wilhelmsplatz in Berlin and put him on the the Rheinsberg Obelisk), as well as a popular figure of legend and loved by historians alike. He's Fontane's firm fave; Fontane wrote a ballad about him, the last verse of which became proverbial in German for decades, and in the Rheinsberg Obelisk chapter, he likes the inscription for Zieten so much that he quotes it twice, once in German and once in French, as the best and warmest ("der alte Husar ist auch hier Sieger geblieben").
...all of which makes me curious as to why two centuries of historians wrote of Zieten's loathing of Winterfeldt as purely caused by personal rivalry. (I mean, any criticism of Winterfeldt by anyone is dismissed as biased until the later part of the 20th century. (Zieten hates him, it's jealousy because they got promoted at the same time despite Zieten's greater age and years of Service. AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand hate him before AW's death, they're jealous because he's close to Fritz and they are not. Heinrich REALLY hates him after AW's death, he's grief impaired and also spiteful. Henckel and Kalckreuth loathe him in their notes and memoir respectively? They're Heinrich influenced. (Lehndorff also, I suppose, but no one quotes Lehndorff on this, who heard nothing good about Winterfeldt's role in Berlin even before AW returned and less good after, since it's second hand, unlike Zieten's, the divine trio's and Henckel's & Kalckreuth's takes, which are based on personal Observation.)
Now I can buy all that, separately - like we said elsewhere, anyone favoured by the central figure of authority is bound to be envied and resented by many - plus Winterfeldt makes for a good lightning rod if you can't blame the King directly. But the thing is, Heinrich & Co. had no problem blaming the King directly where they thought it was due, and Zieten going by his niece's tale did not, either. And while it's annoying to share promotions with some younger guy, that alone hardly warrants continuing intense dislike years into retirement, when Winterfeldt is dead and Zieten is a legendary old war hero favored by Fritz, especially since Zieten otherwise is praised for his fairness and generosity.
...which is why I doubt Winterfeldt was the persecuted innocence older historians and English wiki present him as. (I also don't think he was the scum of the earth Heinrich ended up seeing him as; my current take is "ruthless career official 100% loyal to the King but to no one else", which is the difference to generals like Zieten or Seydlitz whose stellar careers in the Silesian and 7 Years War went along with them being popular and respected among other officers instead of being resented and disliked.
Re: The other one
Zieten-Showalter: remind me again, from which book is this? You mentioning the wiki entry reminded me that said entry links the "life of Zieten" book by his niece Johanna von Blumenthal (based on the stories he told her), which is in the public domain, which I just looked up to get Zieten's take on Kolin, and yup, it's squarely in the "I warned Fritz, but he would not listen, and even said "I'm sorry Nadasty bamboozled you" ("einen blauen Dunst vormachen") regarding the numbers of the army Daun had with him corner. Now Zieten is that rarity, a fatherly figure appreciated and liked by Fritz (despite their ups and downs) and appreciated and liked by Heinrich (who financed a statue for him at the Wilhelmsplatz in Berlin and put him on the the Rheinsberg Obelisk), as well as a popular figure of legend and loved by historians alike. He's Fontane's firm fave; Fontane wrote a ballad about him, the last verse of which became proverbial in German for decades, and in the Rheinsberg Obelisk chapter, he likes the inscription for Zieten so much that he quotes it twice, once in German and once in French, as the best and warmest ("der alte Husar ist auch hier Sieger geblieben").
...all of which makes me curious as to why two centuries of historians wrote of Zieten's loathing of Winterfeldt as purely caused by personal rivalry. (I mean, any criticism of Winterfeldt by anyone is dismissed as biased until the later part of the 20th century. (Zieten hates him, it's jealousy because they got promoted at the same time despite Zieten's greater age and years of Service. AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand hate him before AW's death, they're jealous because he's close to Fritz and they are not. Heinrich REALLY hates him after AW's death, he's grief impaired and also spiteful. Henckel and Kalckreuth loathe him in their notes and memoir respectively? They're Heinrich influenced. (Lehndorff also, I suppose, but no one quotes Lehndorff on this, who heard nothing good about Winterfeldt's role in Berlin even before AW returned and less good after, since it's second hand, unlike Zieten's, the divine trio's and Henckel's & Kalckreuth's takes, which are based on personal Observation.)
Now I can buy all that, separately - like we said elsewhere, anyone favoured by the central figure of authority is bound to be envied and resented by many - plus Winterfeldt makes for a good lightning rod if you can't blame the King directly. But the thing is, Heinrich & Co. had no problem blaming the King directly where they thought it was due, and Zieten going by his niece's tale did not, either. And while it's annoying to share promotions with some younger guy, that alone hardly warrants continuing intense dislike years into retirement, when Winterfeldt is dead and Zieten is a legendary old war hero favored by Fritz, especially since Zieten otherwise is praised for his fairness and generosity.
...which is why I doubt Winterfeldt was the persecuted innocence older historians and English wiki present him as. (I also don't think he was the scum of the earth Heinrich ended up seeing him as; my current take is "ruthless career official 100% loyal to the King but to no one else", which is the difference to generals like Zieten or Seydlitz whose stellar careers in the Silesian and 7 Years War went along with them being popular and respected among other officers instead of being resented and disliked.