As of right now I'm behind mildred, because, well, I am terrible at taking notes at things I want to talk about in the Heinrich bio because there's a significant delay between my reading something and getting to the computer, but I stopped short at this line about Kalckreuch (sp? I copied and pasted but I'm sure selenak had spelled it differently) and wasn't able to read any farther until I got to a computer.
"The expression 'dearest' [allerliebst] seems somewhat strange, because the young guard officer was a tall guy of over 1.80m."
HAHAHAHA ...I can name one person to whom it wouldn't sound strange at all! even if he wanted it to (I know it's probably a translation artifact, but I just laughed so hard at "tall guy")
Also, am I reading the bit with Ferdinand and Heinrich right when I parse it to mean that Ferdinand is all "hey, bro, your wife invited me to stay with her, is that OK with you? I mean, of course nothing would happen but you know she's smoking hot" and Heinrich goes "why are you even asking?? of course, anything that's mine is yours, bro!" because all of this is making me feel EVEN WORSE about what eventually happened to Mina :P
/gets on with reading
ETA: Heinrich to Ferdinand on his marriage: "I wish you to remain as constant in your present feelings as I am in mine, only with the opposite sign..." I am facepalming here and I don't even know whom I'm facepalming. I mean, Heinrich of course, though I can't really blame him for getting married given the circumstances. Fritz, I guess. GAH, poor Mina. I bet he would have gotten along with her splendidly, too, if they hadn't been married.
Re: Kalckreuth, actually Lehndorff originally confused me by first calling him Kalkreuther and then Kalckreuth in his diaries, but wiki says Kalckreuth.
Re: the translation of that sentence - "allerliebst" is a slightly old fashioned term meaning lovely, cute, which neither then nor now is commonly used to describe tall men. :) Whereas "tall guy" or "tall fellow" is actually a correct translation.
The Ferdinand and Heinrich exchange: yes, you've read that right. And yes, in a kinder AU Mina, if she must marry a Hohenzollern, marries either AW or Ferdinand, either of whom would have worked as a husband (AW because he actually did fall in love with her, and Ferdinand because he was attracted and liked her, and while he eventually completely ended that friendship did so under the specific circumstances of a) having married someone else, b) AW dying and leaving the last will he did, and c) Heinrich taking his post 7 Years War PtSD and depression out on her. I think as a sister-in-law, Heinrich would have gotten along well with her. Or as a lady-in-waiting. In any role but that of his wife.
Okay, in all of these fix-it AUs Mina has got to marry someone else :P Maybe in the AU where Voltaire saves Fritz and Heinrich is Regent Extraordinaire, he manages not to get married at all and Mina marries AW (...is it set early enough? I forget) and they become the One True Hohenzollern Love Story. (...okay, I couldn't even type that without looking at it veeeeery skeptically. But maybe it's possible?)
Heinrich's marriage to Mina: 1752 AW's cashiering: 1757 AW's death: 1758 Fritz's capture: We had tossed around a bunch of ideas and I forget if we settled on one, but the Seven Years' War is 1756-1763, and I *think* we were going for after Kunersdorf? So that would be late 1759.
Also, younger brother Heinrich as Regent presupposes AW's death and nephew FW2 as heir, so...it's hard to see what we'd do there.
Anyway, you know that in *my* fix-it AU, the story stops in the 1730s, *but*, Fritz has already given up his place in the succession, and AW will become king, so 1) AW's hardly going to force favorite brother Heinrich to get married, 2) he himself is king, so he can marry who he wants. Also, he's just about to turn 18 when FW kicks the bucket in 1740, so FW hasn't had the chance to arrange or force any marriages yet. So you know that in this universe, there's no Heinrich/Mina, and there's the possibility for AW/Mina. Or AW/Sophie von Pannewitz, or whoever AW wants.
Best of all possible worlds!
Really, Fritz not becoming king fixes SO MANY THINGS. The only thing it really breaks is us not learning about these people and getting our gossipy sensationalist fixes. :P Because as selenak pointed out, therapy for everyone means we never become fascinated.
I'm behind on Heinrich commentary, alas, because I'm reading on my phone, and it's very hard to take notes there on what I want to talk about. And the last few days, when I've been at the computer, I've been working on my fanfic! (I'm still in this fandom, iow, just in a more solitary way.)
But I had the same reaction to the "tall guy" line! That was hilarious.
Spelling: so it's Kalckreuth (the one Ziebura and wiki uses), or Kalkreuth (valid alternate spelling), but the OCR in the file you're looking at sometimes reads a 't' as a 'c' (I've seen 'cat' for 'tat' in German), hence the Kalckreuch. If you keep reading, you'll see it start correctly guessing Kalckreuth.
Looks like Stabi has both his and Henckel's memoirs online, which I assume our fearless reader is already on top of. If not, I can drop them into the library.
Mina: Yeah. I cringed when I got to that "why are you even asking?" line. Poor everyone.
My own notes:
* I got to the part where short!Heinrich charges into the water up to his chest and everyone is so impressed they had to follow him! I remember selenak telling us this story long ago. :D Go Heinrich.
* My review went well. I sing hallelujah! My food was just as good as my regiment. My maître d'hotel has placed large pies on the right and in the center and a soup on the left wing.
I thought the military terminology for the feast was hilarious. (I'm assuming "left wing" isn't normal tablesetting terminology.) If you've just spent the last several weeks in a high state of stress over your review, naturally you're going to automatically see everything in those terms!
Help Google Translate out with the next sentence, "Sire hat mächtig gespachtelt"? I'm guessing something like "really tucked in/ate his fill"? Google gave me "spatulated a lot," which is entertaining, but does not lend clarity.
* Ziebura says the brothers visited Berlin for ten days in early January 1757. I went and looked at Lehndorff, and I can't quite tell when they arrived, but he has them dining with SD on January 11. This makes me sad, because we had decided a while ago that Fritz and Peter might have seen each other one last time before Peter died on December 27 (and I had a whole plot!), but now I'm thinking not. :(
I know this is supposed to be the sibling thread, but some of us have boyfriend fic to write, or at least dream of writing. :P
* Looking at Lehndorff, I find that I still can't read German, but I can read it a bit better! It's the little things in life. :D I'm also seeing lots of words that I know I've seen a few times before, and if I just see them a few more times, I'll finally remember what they mean, so that's promising.
* There are probably other things I'm forgetting, but it's really hard to interrupt my German concentration long enough to switch to a different app and use the bluetooth mouse to type out notes on what I want to talk about. :/
Oh, speaking of Peter and chronology, it occurs to me that the fact that we think that he and Fritz got caught fooling around, may be related to the fact that he was totally ready to desert at the drop of a hat, not once but twice. In contrast to Katte, who we know did initially try to talk Fritz out of escaping, and who evidently didn't get caught having sex, because they were still allowed to hang out together until the end. So fix-it fic characterization is shaping up like so.
Suhm: Are you CRAZY? No! I love you, but someone has to think about the consequences here.
Katte: This is a really, REALLY bad idea, to go with your last bad idea. I don't know how I let you keep talking me into these things. Can we at least take some precautions?
Keith: Sodomy? Desertion? Sign me up!
:P
Now, why they're like this is an interesting question. For Keith, I'm going for some combination of impressionable in the face of Fritz's very strong personality, and a high tolerance for risk, especially for anything that involves shipping him/Fritz. This is related to why he will be the one who rides all the way back to Bayreuth from France to bring Wilhelmine word that Fritz is still alive in hiding, and she should totally desert too. Then everyone lives happily ever after, and we can imagine future Lehndorff waving his "true hero" fan club banner. :)
Well, Peter was also the youngest of the three. And the only one who hadn't left Prussia before, thus might have been yearning for an escape for his own reasons in addition to being gone on Fritz and risk friendly.
BTW: do you believe the description from FW's "Wanted" poster or from Lehndorff's diary re: his Looks? :)
RE: memoirs, are you sure we're the right Kalkreuth and the right Henckel von Donnersmarck? because there are numerous historical figures (and one living movie director, of course) with these names in the Stabi. I did get my hands on (the right) Kalckreuth's memoirs in an online version, but via the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, not München.
(Published Henckel von Donnersmarcks with Heinrich connections: Victor Leo Amadeus - the one serving with him in the Seventh Years War. Got a mention on the obelisk. His son: the one Heinrich took care of after his father's death, along with the widow. Is responsible for some of the excentric old age Heinrich anecdotes. Grandson: editor of Grandpa's letters and papers.)
(The library in Munich has the selection of letters from the Divine Trio to Henckel v. Donnersmarck, edited by his grandson, which the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie entry is fuming about because so unfair to The Great.)
Anyway, if you could find the correct Henckel v. Donnersmarck & Kalckreuth, and in German, not French, then by all means, put it in the library. I've been reading the Kalckreuth online, more below, but a pdf is handier.
"Sire hat mächtig gespachtelt"? I'm guessing something like "really tucked in/ate his fill"?
That is correct. And yes, lol at the military terminology which no, isn't usual for meals.
The ten days visit of the brothers in Berlin in January 1747: alas for Peter. Though in general, make sure you check the second Lehndorff volume which has more on this visit compared to the first one.
Now, I've got some quotes for you: Online, completely is an essay by Jürgen Luh (the deconstructing Fritz biographer) about AW in 1757, as well as the changing takes on the subject in historiography, here. Here's Luh having a go at various Fritz-was-right historians, in this case, Gustav Volz.
Luh quotiong Volz, Volz is speaking: "The Prince claims that he needed to wait for the orders of the King whom he's asked for - but didn't the war situation demand instant action? Winterfeldt hit the crucial point when reporting (to Fritz) on July 26th: "Nothing can result from all these war counselling, it needs someone to command with resolution."" Here Volz conveniently neglects to mention that the "war counselling" generals (advising AW) included the later celebrated by every historian generals Seydlitz and Zieten, as well as Normann, a protegé of Winterfeldts, and Lestwitz. To accuse them of incompetence would have been rather difficult."
Quite. Luh in general points out that contemporary writers like Henckel von Donnersmarck defending AW were later dismissed by historians due to their connection to Heinrich, and Heinrich himself as blinded by his love for AW and hate for Fritz, while the fact that later Prussian folk heroes like Seydlitz and Zieten had agreed with AW as well could be left out because neither had left memoirs. As for the critical matter itself, here's Luh's conclusion:
To retain Jungbunzlau, as Friedrich's orders for August Wilhelm had commanded, was impossible, as the Austrians could have circumvented the place either through the way from Nimburg to Backofen, or through the way from Nimburg via Eisenbrod to Turnau, and thus could have cut off the Prussians's way of' retreat into the Lausitz. August Wilhelm's decision to retreat was therefore correct. What he can be accused of at most, with hindsight, that is, is that he didn't march more quickly with his troops, that he took a sideway for the retreat and not the better main road via Münchengrätz, Gabel and Zittau. That he didn't do this was due to Friedrich's command to keep up the connection to Silesia - which, as we've seen, was impossible - and at the same time to keep up the connection to the King's army. In the end, what one can hold against August Wilhelm is only that he didn't go against his Friedrich's orders. Even this with a caveat, though the accusation has been made throughout historiography. For if the Prince of Prussia had ignored the King's orders and had - in his correct estimation of the situation - retreated as quickly as possible to Zittau and from there into the Lausitz, the King's army would have been completely surrounded by the Austrians, since the King wanted to remain in Bohemia. Heinrich and the Generals had recognized this danger early on and had therefore worked out a plan of retreat for the army after the defeat at Kolin. They wanted the troops to march to Saxony and into the Lausitz. This anticipated which - after some human and material losses - became reality at the end of July and in early August 1757. That the King took his brother's honour and army is probably mainly due to his anger at himself. This public slap in the face would not have been necessary, for except for a part of the baggage train, some canons and the magazine in Zittau, August Wilhelm had not lost more than the usual deserters, not the entire army as the King himself had done in 1744.
Now, re: the Kalckreuth memoirs from the Berlin Stabi, I've been reading bits and pieces, since a lot are battle descriptions. But there's one fascinating bit about Glasow I have to share. (Cahn, Glasow: the other handsome husar, Fredersdorf's successor as Fritz' valet. Went with Fritz on the trip to the Netherlands. Around the Easter holidays of 1757, Lehndorff notes in his diary the sensational gossip that Glasow has been arrested for attempting to poison the King in the Countess Brühl's employ (she's the wife of the Saxon PM). Glasow dies while under arrest in Spandau. Now, Kalckreuth isn't the most reliable himself (he's vain and of the "all Heinrich's great deeds? that was really me!" persuasion, plus after being dumped for Kaphengst, he has a beef there), and there's the skeevy part he played in Mina's fate to consider. But as to whether or not Glasow is guilty is irrelevant to Kalckreuth's own reputation, and therefore, he might be telling the truth when he writes thusly:
In Dresden, the unfortuante event with Glasow happened, which the public has distorted so much. This is the truth: This Glasow had been the King's husar of the chamber, i.e. a valet dressed up as a hussar, and very much in favour. Antinous could not have been more beautiful. He had started out as a tambour in the Regiment Schwerin. During the earlier winter quarter, the Countess Brühl had asked him twice to take a cup of chocolate with her, in order to sound him out whether there wasn't a means to soothe the King's anger against Saxony, and he'd accepted the invitation. It was quite ridiculous that the Countess Brühl, a universally respected lady, wanted to discuss such matters with a fop. Glasow had been wrong to keep this tete-a-tete from the King, admittedly. Later, in the spring, the Countess got exiled to Warsaw. Back then, Glasow had a servant, a disgusting creature, and at the same time the King had a page named Wulnitz, who wasn't able to love Glasow. The page became an officer in the regiment Garde du Corps - footnote: this was Kalckreuth's own original regiment before becoming Heinrich's AD - and took into his service the same villain whom Glasow had employed as a servant the previous winter. This same miserable creature was sent into town and encountered Glasow, who probably was harsh to him due to his bad conduct earlier. At once, he complained to his new master and added that he could ruin Glasow if he were to denounce Glasow's rendezvous to the King. It is said his new master encouraged him to do so. At once, Glasow was arrested and sent to Spandau, where he was locked up with the common criminals. With his weakened body, he soon died. My worthy commander - i.e. Heinrich - and myself were indignant, because Glasow had been a good egg, and hadn't harmed anyone. The public, which is prone to only believe the most stupid versions, deduced from this that the Countess Brühl had invited Glasow to seduce him into poisoning the chocolate he was serving to the King every morning.
I thiiiink I have the right Kalckreuth and the wrong Henckel. I'm looking at page 473 in the Heinrich volume, and I see Ziebura listing the Henckel son and grandson. I did deduce that it wasn't the "letters to my grandparents" guy, so I went for the other one. Did not occur to me that she wouldn't list the one that she said was the most important source for the Seven Years' War. Not sure what's going on here.
About Kalckreuth, I'm slightly confused. Ziebura has "Kalckreuth, Graf Friedrich Adolf von, Erinnerungen des Generalfeldmarschalls Grafen v. Kalckreuth. 1-4. Separatabdrucke um 1870 aus Minerva. "Paroles" du Feldmaréchal Kalckreuth. Paris 1841."
In contrast, Duffy has "Kalkreuth, F.A. (1839–40), 'Kalkreuth zu seinen Leben und zu seiner Zeit…Erinnerungen des General-Feldmarschalls Grafen von Kalkreuth', Minerva, (1839) IV, (1840) II–IV, Dresden."
I found Duffy's in the 1839-1840 volumes of Minerva in Hathitrust, except for the (1840) III, which was in the Munich Stabi, along with all the other 1840 volumes. I assumed the (1839) IV was there as well. The table of contents listed years like 1757, 1758, 1759, and battles like Zorndorf and Hochkirch, under the Kalkreuth entries, so I concluded it was our guy. I admittedly did not find the 1870 work Ziebura referred to, but since both Ziebura and Duffy both referred to a 4-part work, I guessed that in 1870 someone made a single-volume reprint of the 1839-1840 Minerva installments, and we were all referring to the same thing.
I did not look for the 1841 "Paroles", because French.
I'll work on getting the 1839-1840 Erinnerungen into the library, so you can tell me if it's the same thing you're looking at. Unless you can already tell me that it's not.
I don't *think* I found any living movie directors. ;)
Lehndorff: I did actually remember to check volume 2! :D What I didn't do was read each entry in both volumes thoroughly, because German and blackletter font. I saw January 5 (volume 2) and January 11 (volume 1), and what looked like a hint that Heinrich still wasn't home in the latter part of December, but nothing confirming their presence in super late December. (Again, very superficial skimming.) Anyway, I was hoping they came home for Christmas, but if Ziebura is right about 10 days, and I'm not finding evidence for Christmas in Lehndorff, I guess not. However, before I write any fic, which will presumably be after my German is a bit better, I will actually look at the relevant entries more closely. And then decide what to do in fiction.
Glasow: wow! I don't know what to believe, but I can see where if different-bodies-one-soul sister gets angry letters for lunch with MT during wartime, mere valet might get locked up for Saxon chocolate during wartime! Fritz is going to be hypervigilant around any Saxon sympathies in 1757, that's for sure.
That the King took his brother's honour and army is probably mainly due to his anger at himself. This public slap in the face would not have been necessary, for except for a part of the baggage train, some canons and the magazine in Zittau, August Wilhelm had not lost more than the usual deserters, not the entire army as the King himself had done in 1744.
FRITZ! >:(
Glasow, wow! (And as always thank you for reminding me, I had of course forgotten.) That actually makes a lot of sense relative to the story that he actually tried to poison Fritz.
I thought the military terminology for the feast was hilarious. (I'm assuming "left wing" isn't normal tablesetting terminology.)
Ahahahaha I read that but totally missed the implication! Hee, glad we are doing this as a joint effort.
I know this is supposed to be the sibling thread, but some of us have boyfriend fic to write, or at least dream of writing. :P
Lol! Nah, this isn't the sibling thread, this is the thread where we talk about the book. Talking about applications of the book to boyfriend fic totally counts!
I totally skipped ahead a few pages and picked up where Heinrich is changing Fritz's mind. Lots of gossipy sensationalism in this update:
Kalckreuth, whose guard regiment had moved to Silesia with the king, had reported sick to be able to stay with his dear prince in Leipzig. The king resented this and would rather have seen the slacker in prison than in his brother's entourage. When Heinrich asked for Kalckreuth as adjutant, he flatly refused.
Kalckreuth: It was totally because the King was after my hot ass too!
Henckel reacted like a jealous wife to the younger rival:
Now where have we seen this before? *cough* Fritz, Emilio
“Every evening there is Lieutenant Kalckreuth, whom the prince loves very much and to whom he entrusts the most important state secrets. This is a young man of 22 years, without any upbringing, but of common sense and an extraordinary naivety, which was found very amusing. He always seemed more raw than natural to me.”
Help Google out with "roh" and "natürlich"?
After reading the memories of the later field marshal of Kalckreuth, we can add that he was vain, conceited and not particularly intelligent. But Heinrich found pleasure in submitting to these tall, strong, handsome, and raw guys, who were the opposite of himself in everything.
AAHHAAAAAHAAA OH MAN, did you give us this quote during the "Who tops?" discussion, selenak? Unless both Google and I have misconstrued the German, it looks like Ziebura has an opinion on that subject. ;)
Heinrich flattering Fritz: LOL.
However, for Heinrich, in his own words, love was only madness, which from time to time attacked him like an illness, but friendship, daughter of reason, he placed far higher. He remained Henckel's friend until the end of his life. He had his name engraved next to that of the other heroes of the Seven Years' War on his obelisk in Rheinsberg and assumed the costs and responsibility for the upbringing of his son, who died when his father Victor Amadeus v. Henckel was only seven years old.
Indeed. As Lehndorff found out. <3
At first, however, the passion for Kalckreuth was stronger than anything else, and he used his power to force Count Lamberg out of Heinrich's favor and to dominate his successor Ludwig v. Wreech.
Kalckreuth: It was totally because the King was after my hot ass too!
:) He really did think that. Or rather, he tells his son that the refusal at first was because the King had been insulted because he wanted to be Kalckreuth's mentor, but the sentence is there.
Help Google out with "roh" and "natürlich"?
Okay, "roh" is only "raw" when used for, say, meat. For people, it means crude, rough. Which reminds me of a quote I'll have to translate for you from Koser, on our three favourite siblings in 1758, where he thinks Heinrich - whom he does credit for becoming emotionally important to Fritz at this point - was made of coarser stuff than Wilhelmine and Fritz, more like Voltaire. It's quite the quote. Back to Henckel's quote - "rough/coarse/crude rather than natural" is how I'd translate it.
ETA: Oh, and as für natürlich - natural in the sense of someone acting out of emotional and natural instincts (remember, Rousseau was just around the Corner), rather than out of calculation. "Unaffected", maybe. Henckel doesn't buy it./ETA
And yes, Ziebura was the first to give me the impression that Heinrich was into rough trade precisely because of her making such statements. (Kalckreuth: I so had an upbringing, too, Henckel! I was raised in a Berlin Boarding School, I'll have you know, run by a member of the French Colony. Heinrich adored my French.)
As for Kalckreuth dominating the other guys, that's why Lehndorff has fun in 1775, when: (...) On the 9th, we drive through the most beautiful area of the world to Insterburg, always through arches of honor. (...) About a mile away from Isenburg, I see Lieutenant Colonel Kalckreuth whose anger I can spot on his face, as this is the first time that he, who had once been Prince Heinrich‘s big favourite, will see the later after his disgrace. He has written to the Prince and his royal highness has asked me to tell him that he would not treat him badly, but also that there was nothing left between them in his favor. At last, I arrive in Insterburg, where I enjoy meeting Madame General Platen again. She entertains me with all types of outbursts Kalckreuth has made in her presence.
LOL at Ziebura putting scare quotes around Fritz's "condolence letter" to Heinrich, because we do the same thing! When we're not calling it an "uncondolence" letter.
That said, I think "is in its egocentricity hardly to be outdone" as the only thing you say about this letter is doing Fritz an injustice. Yes, it's egocentric. Yes, as something intended to comfort Heinrich, it could not have been more rage-inducing from the perspective of the recipient. No, intent is not magic. But quoting just the "But think of how many people I lost or am worried about losing! And think about your duty to fight this war I started!" part and summing it up simply as egocentric is to ignore the context of condolence/comfort letters in Fritz's life.
The part that's most egocentric to me is the "But it wasn't my fault! Here's a list of everyone who's not me whose fault it was! Especially the guy you're grieving, let me enumerate my grievances with him." You can tell Fritz feels extremely attacked, because he's being extremely defensive. Because he has behaved really, really badly, and this letter should never have been sent, neither the first half nor the second half.
But there's too much context for "your feelings are less important than your duty to other people" and "live for someone else!" to be ignored. Namely:
1727 Fritz to Lt. Borcke, close friend and possible lover: "I ask you to write to me as well and to give me news of you, as I can say that I am extremely sorry to see you in such a sad position [i.e. sick], and that whenever I think of you, as happens very often, I can hardly prevent myself from falling into melancholy from which only you alone can save me. So spare yourself, if not for the sake of me, then for the sake of your friends, among whom I have the pleasure to count myself and to the most loyal of whom I belong. So I ask you not to die, since death is what I fear most for my friends and least for myself. I confess that I should distract you through this letter, but instead of giving pleasure to others, I rather need distraction myself to dispel my melancholy."
1730 Fritz after Katte's death, from Wilhelmine's memoirs: "It was with extreme difficulty that he was prevailed upon to take medicine. Nothing could induce him to do it, but the representation that he would also cause the queen’s death and mine, if he persisted in his own destruction."
1736 Fritz to Suhm: "Live, my dear Suhm, live, since heaven allows it; live for your friends, who, by the true attachment which they have for you, could not support the appalling thought of being separated from you. I admit and understand that you only had to expect, in the last period when you touched, only the rewards with which heaven crowns virtue, and that thus, as concerns yourself, you lose more by prolonging your days than ending your career. But, my dear Suhm, do not forget the tenderness which you owe to an infant whom you have not yet weaned in the school of philosophy. What would I have become? for I feel that I need your eyes to see, and that, losing sight of my guide, I run the risk of losing my way."
Suhm to Fritz: "When my life is odious to me, the interest you deign to take in it would be enough to make it dear to me. I therefore come back with joy to life, since heaven wants it, and Your Royal Highness wants it; but, my lord, suffer me henceforth to live only for you."
1752 Fritz to Fredersdorf: "I thought you loved me and wouldn't want to cause me grief by killing yourself. Now I don't know what to believe! But you must believe I only want what's best for you and that the diet and the medicine is only prescribed so you can recover your health again...Your illness is no laughing matter, and if you don't follow a correct diet and take the right prescribed medicine, you'll die! Think about how this would grieve me! If you love me, then listen exactly to the prescriptions! God keep you! Don't write back!"
1757 Fritz: *suicidal ideation*
Wilhelmine to Fritz: "Your letter and the letter you wrote to Voltaire, my dear brother, almost killed me. What fatal resolutions, great God! Ah! my dear brother, you say you love me, and you stab me in the heart."..."For God's sake, calm down, dearest brother! Your military situation is desperate, but there is a prospect of peace. For heaven's sake, banish all dark thoughts. Do you want to kill so many subjects who place their only hope in your person?"
So what I think is that, while Fritz can and should be blamed for: - the way he treated AW, - not admitting fault there, - using the "condolence" letter as a venue to talk about how it wasn't his fault, - having a terrible relationship with Heinrich, - starting a war and expecting Heinrich to help him win it,
I don't think it's fair to call him egocentric for: - focusing on his own feelings and the people he's lost, - trying to motivate Heinrich to live for him, - telling Heinrich to live for duty/country.
That part, while emotionally tone-deaf given all the background in the first list, of actual Fritz faults, is literally the best he can do. He was being egocentric in many ways, but the second list is how he communicates with the people he loves most, and how they communicate with him. Suhm even gave this behavior positive reinforcement by telling him it worked!
Nevertheless. Given the way hundreds of Fritz biographers shortchange Heinrich in his every appearance on page, I'm hardly going to get on the case of a Heinrich biographer for a little Fritz shortchanging. ;) Especially on the occasion of his worst behavior ever. (Not so much the letter as the background that makes that letter not at all the same thing as writing to Suhm, "But our philosophy studies!")
I just wanted to put all this context out there, so that we can at least criticize Fritz for the right things. There's no shortage of those.
Context is for kings, to quote a dangerous Starship Captain. :) Anyway, I agree on the Fritz psychology of it all and would like to add that what strikes me is the black irony that even before AW's demise, even before AW's fall into disgrace, the dynamics between Heinrich and Fritz had taken another twist, because 7 Years War Fritz is suddenly emotionally needy for Heinrich's affection which (at least openly) never happened before. (I'm adding "openly" as a qualifier because who knows what that insulted "you didn't talk to me for six months and now you want to go on the Grand tour? Hell no!") was all about. But still, as I said elsewhere, until the war starts, if you'd asked people they might have been uncertain whether Heinrich or Ferdinand were Fritz' least favourite brother, but they definitely would not have said Heinrich was in any way important to Fritz. (Other than to boss around.)
And then the Kolin defeat happens, and suddenly we get this, partially quoted by Ziebura, in Henckel's Diary. (Cahn, context: the divine trio was actually not present at Kolin. Fritz had announced he'd go and defeat Prussia's enemies. Then the first big Prussian defeat of the war occurs. Also, Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig is EC's and Louise's brother, and Hahn thinks he, not either Fritz or Heinrich, was the best General of the 7 Years War.)
After 1 am in the night Major Grand, AD to the King, arrived with a few hunters at the Prince of Braunschweig's, who then went straight to Prince Heinrich. Since I hadn't undressed after the beginning of the Blockade - of Prague - , I went outside of my own tent and approached them. I saw on the face of Prince Ferdinand pain and grief even though he tried to suppress it. I woke up Prince Heinrich with emotions that were very different from yesterday's joy. Major Grand told the Prince that his Majesty had sent him to announce one of the biggest and most murderous battles ever fought. (Fritz, you don't know what's to come. Kunersdorf is still ahead of you.) Gods! The Prince exclaimed whle rising from his bed. His Majesty, Major Grand continued, had further said: Inform the generals of my misfortune. I have done everything I could to win the battle, but it wasn't possible for me. They should prepare everything to lift the Blockade at first command.
(Henckel then describes the battle according to the reports he's heard and is fully blaming Fritz, saying Fritz refused to listen to Ziethen and the Duke of Bevern about the number of enemies and their positions. He also has a Sketch of the battle positions. (Useful.) Our generals were in the greatest distress. One started to prepare for the retreat without knowing when and how the later should happen. Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig was so depressed by the misfortune that had struck us that he wasn't capable of doing anything. Prince Heinrich, despite also being struck in the most painful way, showed at this opportunity that great men can feel things deeply without losing their strength of Soul. He went to General Winterfelt on the left shore in order to talk with him about what to do. Then he met up with the Prince of Prussia, Princes Ferdinand of Braunschweig and Prussia, Prince Schönaich, and Field Marshal Keith, Generals Schmettau and Winterfeldt and General Majors Golz and Retzow at the villagen Branick in order to debate what had to be done immediately. He encouraged everyone in their their morale and became the soul of the Enterprise. He read out loud the dispositions he'd made to start the retreat in three colons to Brandeis. Marshall Keith should then follow the next morning. No sooner had the Prince returned to his quarters that he was told about the impending arrival of the King. On the 19th at 3 pm. HIs royal highness the prince thus immediately rode with the Princes Ferdinand to the house in Micheln in which the King had lived previously to his Departure for Kolin in order to await him there. What painful spectacle then awaited our Looks as we saw the man returning bent by pain and grief who had believed himself to be the conqueror of the world just a few days earlier! Since 36 hours, he'd sat on the same horse, and despite it was clear that he could hardly walk anymore, he still forced himself to show a good attitude. After he'd entered, he called for Prince Heinrich. The King lay on a sack of straw coverd with a sheet, since his luggage had not yet arrived. He kissed, maybe for the first time, his brother tenderly, admitted to him his lethal pain and assured him that everything he'd done until now had only been for the love of his family. He repeated several times that he wanted to die, and that he would kill himself. The Prince urged him to calm himself and to use the remaining time for a retreat before Daun or Nadasty had the time to advance and cause even more damage. The King replied to the Prince that he was now incapable of doing anything and that he needed to rest. He ordered the Prince to create the necessary dispositions, whereupon the later presented them as already finished, and the King agreed to them. Whereupon the Prince assembled all generals and told them the Disposition.
This is also when Fritz starts to write to Heinrich all the time (as you once pointed out, those are A LOT OF LETTERS), and some of this is needing every good officer he could get and realising Heinrich was in fact one, but some of it really is having decided he needs this particular brother emotionally, not to needle as in the Marwitz affair, not to submit (though that will come again post war), but now he needs him to provide affection and therapy. Again, this is before AW's disgrace. And there's Ferdinand the brother in law who has a good relationship with Fritz in General. And yet he asks for Heinrich, specifically, with whom he's had a stormy relationship at best, to tell him "I did it all for our family" and to be talked out of suicide by him. See, that's why I find their dsyfunctionality so fascinating.
GAH I typed a comment and seem to have lost it, so, uh... sorry if you get two of these :P
Yeah, I was also surprised by the part she excerpted, because like you I found that the least objectionable part of the letter! "by which he failed in what he owed me" (thank you selenak for posting the letter in rheinsberg!) was the part where I imagine Heinrich's head exploded, if it hadn't exploded already. It's where my head exploded on AW's behalf. OH FRITZ NO. In contrast, the "hey, you should live for me!" part was really only at the level of "oh Fritz, I'm sorry you didn't live in the age of the internet so you could google how to write condolence letters."
(ETA:) I had a lot of ~feelings~ about these two chapters, and I need to go back to find specifics (darn terrible memory and reading away from computer) but they mostly boil down to (a) the 7 years war makes me more convinced that in my work!AU, Heinrich is totally the engineer, OK, probably technical manager, who is extremely competent but Fritz is always pulling longer hours and working harder (b) Heinrich is so awful to Mina, OMG. And the worse thing is that I don't think I would have particularly noticed if selenak hadn't reported back about Ziebura's other book! (To be fair, I think I also see what you were saying, selenak, about her being a little more lenient towards the Hohenzollern in this book. I suspect it would have read a little differently if she'd written this one third instead of first.)
Since Mildred is just mid Heinrich's first Russian trip, have a neat visual Illustration via this clip from the movie Münchhausen. The scene: big reception at Catherine's court. Our hero Münchhausen (Hans Albers), unbeknowest to him, has in fact met Catherine the previous night and flirted heavily with Mysterious German Lady working at court. Now he shows up at the big reception and realises she's the Empress. The opulence of the reception (complete with child piano player inside of a cake) is modelled on the descriptions given of the receptions Heinrich got when he visited St. Petersburg. (Münchhausen being straight, he can of course have an affair with Catherine.) (There are English subtitles.)
The movie Münchhausen is remarkable in many ways. The script was written by Erich Kästner under a peudonym - Berthold Bürger (Berthold Citizen) - since officially he wasn't allowed to work ever since the Nazis burned his books 1933. Kästner probably was the sole author who witnessed his books being burned in 1933 and remained in Germany throughout the Third Reich, surviving first by foreign royalties and then by doctoring and in some cases writing movie scripts (always under fake names). Münchhausen was one of the big UFA prestige objects - one of the early German movies in color - with most good German actors not driven into exile or killed in it. It's still immensly watchable (even the special effects of Münchhausen flying with his canon ball hold up) and has a lot of charm, but if you know it was made while real life bombs were reigning down on Germany (1943/44) to distract the masses, it's really eerie. A French friend of mine once asked whether the present day frame narration is subversive since no one says "Heil Hitler", but actually most German movies made between 1933 - 1945 set in the then present avoid the uniforms and the heil-hitlering, it's as if you're watching an AU where there's clearly SOMEONE reigning but not him. The reason for the lack of overt uniforms and flags is that Goebbels probably figured there was enough of that in rl, and also the 1933 propaganda movies like "Hitlerjunge Quex" flopped at the box office. Propaganda worked better in disguise.
Now Münchhausen is not propaganda and is subversive, but not for that reason. Kästner's script presents two time lines - there the present day where current Baron of Münchhausen and his wife are giving a costume ball (there's a nice fake out intro where the ball starts and sudddenly electric light is switched on). The wife is noticeable older than the baron, who is played by male sex symbol of his day Hans Albers. One of the young female guests is hitting on the baron, and her husband is a bit fascinated by him, too. The baron starts to narrate the story of his ancestor, who is the famous Münchhausen the storyteller/liar and lives in 18th century Rokoko Europe. Cue various adventures fantastical and historical, in which Münchhausen is more a lover than a fighter (hence him hitting it off with Catherine when visiting Russia), though he's brave when needs must. He's got a respected rival/frenemy relationship going on with Cagliostro who because of this makes him immortal. At which point it becomes clear that the present day narrating Münchhausen is in fact the original, and his wife isn't older than him, she's younger, she just ages and he (so far) does not, though in the course of telling his adventures, he finally figures out how he can get rid of the immortality Cagliostro gave him if he truly wishes to. What's extraordinary in a movie made at a time when Germans and Russians were dying by the thousands at each other's hands is that unlike in virtually any other historic movie made in Germany in those years, the Russians aren't the villains here. (Well, Potemkin is a bit of a tempestous braggart, but you know, Potemkin). They're not villainized, and nor is Catherine for her guilt-free sexuality. (She and Münchhausen have great fun together but also eventually take leave of each other without regrets.) In general, war is presented as there, unavoidable, but not glorious or an excuse for patriotic speeches by anyone (in stark contrast to what the propaganda movies at the same time do to Fritz), and Münchhausen, who gets along with people of all nationalities and whose inventiveness and survival skills are presented as the result of him being a clever trickster, is unlike any historic main character you'd expect to find in a German movie made at that time.
Wow, thank you for the clip and the contextual write-up! That was very interesting.
The reason for the lack of overt uniforms and flags is that Goebbels probably figured there was enough of that in rl, and also the 1933 propaganda movies like "Hitlerjunge Quex" flopped at the box office. Propaganda worked better in disguise.
Huh. I had not known and, like your French friend, would not have expected that, but it makes sense.
Münchhausen, who gets along with people of all nationalities and whose inventiveness and survival skills are presented as the result of him being a clever trickster, is unlike any historic main character you'd expect to find in a German movie made at that time.
Since I'm reading away from the computer, like cahn, I'm doing a very bad job of taking notes on my reading, but here goes what I've got off the top of my head:
Heinrich's (pre-obelisk) memorial to AW at Rheinsberg, awww. :-(((((
On that note, Fritz, it would be nice if we knew for SURE that the Antinous-library-grave juxtaposition was an homage to Katte, but okay. We'll just proceed on the assumption that it is. I know you have PTSD, and I won't tell you how to grieve. (I mean, not by roleplaying forced marriages with your brother, that's for sure. But ambiguous statues are kosher.)
Kalckreuth compromising Mina: I remembered that as something that he was doing to try to get back in favor, by giving Heinrich an excuse to set her aside. But that doesn't seem to be what Ziebura is saying. Was that another author, or was that your own idea, selenak? Or am I misremembering?
Heinrich making Kalckreuth pay military honors to Kaphengst, ha.
Google Translate deciding "Kaphengst" is a compound noun instead of a proper name and translating it "Cape Stallion" is hilarious. Google clearly agrees with Ziebura about who's on top in the Kaphengst/Heinrich ship. ;)
In general, Google translating proper names literally can be delightful. One of my favorites, before I stopped reading the translation, was "The king, who until then had kept the Austrians in check from his cheap warehouse in rubbish soaps," for, "The king, who until then had kept the Austrians in check from his favorable position in Schmottseifen." It was just so fortuitous that "cheap," "warehouse," "rubbish," and "soaps" all make a sort of sense when combined like that. I mean, the rubbish soaps aren't going to be in an expensive warehouse, after all!
Begin random mythological digression:
The "hengst" of "Cape Stallion," btw, is the same as Horsa and Hengist, the two brothers whose names mean "horse" to whom the Germanic settlement of England is attributed in legend, and to whom the Anglo-Saxon kings traced their ancestry. Having places founded by brothers associated with horses is a common trope in Germanic/Indo-European mythology, which means yours truly read *far* too much about them in her Indo-European PhD days, and thus cannot see the word "Kaphengst" without them coming to mind.
Tolkien digression: the two brothers who founded the Shire, Blanco and Marco, are thought to be a tribute to Horsa and Hengist, since "Marco" is a word meaning "horse" (it's related to "mare").
End random mythological digression.
Watching Heinrich and Fritz is sometimes entertaining, sometimes facepalmy, sometimes both.
Heinrich: Let's drag this war out as long as possible in hopes of a miracle, and meanwhile do as much damage as possible with as little bloodshed as possible. Fritz: Uniting the Prussian armies for a big, possibly catastrophic, but at least fucking DECISIVE battle is so tempting... Heinrich to Ferdinand: If idiot Big Bro tries that, I'm joining you on sick leave.
Heinrich: Fritz, let's flatter Catherine for now and try to change her mind gradually about her peace terms. Hopefully the Turks and Austrians will even do it for us, and spare us being the bad guys. Fritz: RomKat, this is *exactly* what I think of your WTF peace terms, and I want no part in them. Heinrich: Damage control! Damage control!
cahn, just a note that when Ziebura refers to (P)Russian Pete aka Peter III as Elizabeth's son, he's actually the nephew. I'm surprised that didn't get caught in the paperback revisions!
On Elizabeth's death being "unforeseen", I admit to not having a great personal familiarity with the primary sources, but from what I've gathered from secondary sources quoting them, it was more a case of her being sick for so long that people (Fritz) who'd been anxiously waiting for years for her to die were like, "Oh ffs, she's never going to kick the bucket in time." Wo when it did happen, it came as a surprise only in the sense that it had *finally* happened. It was not the case that she died out of the blue and suddenly there was an unexpected reversal of policy.
But she could very well have held out for another year, and then who knows?
Totally unrelated to this book or even Heinrich at all, but I had to share this:
I had a silly dream last night, in which I was attending Peter Keith's funeral and listening to his eulogy (this absolutely has to do with me wanting to get my hands on the real one from the Academy of Sciences). The speaker said that he was polite and soft-spoken, to which I nodded and said that I had always thought so from what I'd read of him. Then we learned that he had very good aim with a cannon, and we got a whole anecdote about how the army had discovered this when he saved the day one time. And ever after that, he was in charge of aiming cannons. It was all fine and dandy until I remembered that he was cross-eyed. "Really?" I said. "Even with the squint?" Then my sleeping brain scrambled to come up with an explanation, and settled on the person next to me telling me that a lifetime of learning to compensate for the squint was precisely what gave him such good aim!
A mixture of historical fact and dream logic. ;) I'm not even sure that being cross-eyed affects your aim with a cannon, but I was very concerned about it when asleep, apparently.
Kalckreuth compromising Mina: that‘s because I read the Three Wives Bio which Ziebura wrote many years later before the Heinrich bio (not least because the three wives book is way shorter), and Ziebura had changed her mind about what was going on with Kalckreuth somewhat in her more in depth take on Mina. I went with the Thee Wives presentation of the event.
Cape Stallion, lol. There‘s an online article from a gay magazine on Heinrich which makes the most of that name, too.The dirty soap and warehouse combinations google translate produces are divine. I once read an Italian fanfiction by using Google Translate, and it insisted on translating all the Italian names literally - so White for Bianca, for example - which was weird and funny to read at times, but nothing as good as your example.
As to Heinrich‘s love life in general: you know, one of the amazing things is that given the constant upset from Fritz you‘d think he‘d have gone for some tranquility there as an emotional balance, but noooo, not until the Comte in the last years of his life. (And Fritz was dead and buried for years and years by then.)
Two founding brothers legends: and let‘s not forget that Fritz and Heinrich both loved that story that Rheinsberg was really Remusberg, Remus made it out of the founding of Rome alive and settled down in Brandenburg and that they had his grave on the island on that lake. To take the quintessential foundation of empire on fratricide story and give it a twist where both brothers get to live, and Remus, unslain, finds a peaceful exile by living out his days in Rheinsberg: you could not make this up that these particular two brothers fell in love with that twist of the myth. (And while AW isn‘t literally buried in Rheinsberg he certainly was for Heinrich in spirit, with the two memorials, so the role of Remus is shared even more.)
Heinrich: Let's drag this war out as long as possible in hopes of a miracle, and meanwhile do as much damage as possible with as little bloodshed as possible. Fritz: Uniting the Prussian armies for a big, possibly catastrophic, but at least fucking DECISIVE battle is so tempting... Heinrich to Ferdinand: If idiot Big Bro tries that, I'm joining you on sick leave.
This is also when Mitchell writes that report home that I‘ve been quoting from in my MItchell write up, to be paraphrased thusly:
Mitchell: Prussian generals and officials, don‘t you want to help me to reconcile your beloved king wiht your beloved prince? SEEING AS BOTH ARE QUINTENSENTIAL TO THE WAR EFFORT?!? Prussians: You first, mate, you first. Mitchell: Dear Foreign Office, the Prussian offcials were strangely intimidated at the thought.
But she could very well have held out for another year, and then who knows?
I do, because I‘ve written one fo the MT & Fritz AUs about it:)
Peter‘s dreamed eulogy: your sleeping brain coming up with such a question is amazing. Sadly, my dreams so far have refused to provide me with a full name for Marwitz, so Antony will have to do.
Since I just looked up Fontane again and since the pre Obelisk memorial to AW as far as I know didn‘t survive WW 2, have Fontane‘s description (which is in the AW- Oranienburg chapter, where near the end he mentions how AW is memorialized in Rheinsberg):
Diese Stelle, in unmittelbarer Nähe des »bekannten Theaters im Grünen« gelegen, zeigt unter einer Baumgruppe zwei Marmorarbeiten: eine große Urne auf einem Piedestal und zweitens eine Art Herme, die die trefflich ausgeführte Büste des Prinzen August Wilhelm trägt. Beide Arbeiten stehen sich, in Entfernung von etwa sechs Schritt, einander gegenüber. Das Piedestal der Urne trägt die Inschrift: »Hic cineres Marmor exhibit«, und darunter: »August Gullielm, Princeps Prussiae Natus Erat IX Die Mens. Aug. Ann. 1722. Obiit Die XII Mens. Jun. Anno 1758«. Die Inschrift unter der Büste aber lautet: »Hic Venustum Os Viri, veritatis, virtutis, patriae amantissimi«. (Hier das freundliche Antlitz des Lieblings der Wahrheit, der Tugend, des Vaterlands.)
As usual, a small fraction of what I wanted to talk about, but here goes:
* I meant to say a while back, that Heinrich obviously isn't worried about his mail to Ferdinand being read by spies. !!
* Heinrich plans his trips like he plans his campaigns! Very, very cautiously and deviously. "I won't tell Fritz I want to go to St. Petersburg/Paris, I'll just go most of the way there, get an invitation from the monarch, and then ask for permission for what's juuuust short of being a fait accompli." It's what a former boss of mine calls the "foot in door" approach to negotiation: get what you want in small increments that the other person can agree to, instead of getting a flat no from asking for the whole thing up front. And I totally see why that works with Fritz.
Also, Heinrich is made of patience when it comes to political and military affairs, and Fritz only rarely has a concept of patience. Switch their birth order, and I suspect that distribution of patience inverts. The power differential makes a big difference, as does the fact that Fritz got targeted by the hardest abuse the youngest.
* Heinrich saying that in other countries, good service is rewarded, but here, you're lucky just to be left alone (i.e., "At least he hasn't pulled an AW on me yet"), coming one paragraph after Ziebura says he's been hanging out with Thiébault...is this where Thiébault got the idea that the only thing Fritz ever did for the Kattes was not persecute them?
Oh, wow, I just checked my writeup, and I wrote, I did find Thiebault claiming that the Katte family got *no* favor from Fritz, Heinrich was the only one who would employ any of them, and all they ever got from Fritz was not being persecuted.
Huh. I wonder if Heinrich is outright stating that Fritz never did anything for the Kattes, or if he's merely employing a Katte (which one?! in which role?! enquiring minds want to know) and complaining about his own lack of reward, and Thiébault is conflating the two. The latter seems more likely, but it's possible Heinrich wasn't entirely fair to Fritz.
Anyway, I think we have our source for that claim now.
* When Fritz says "A god, my dear brother, has given you this brilliant plan," he's being very classical. The Greeks (at least in Homer, I can't state this categorically about other places and times), did *not* specify "Zeus must have caused this" if they had no idea who it was. Because if they guessed the wrong god, the actual god might be offended. So when they wanted to attribute something to divine intervention, they say "a god." This is easy to miss, because the narrator, Homer, will compose stories in which specific gods do this or that, but the *characters* won't speculate about which god must have done something if they don't know.
I, um, may know this because I was reading Homeric scholarship while writing a fic many years ago, and had to go and replace a speculation about a specific god with "some god."
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rheinsberg
Heinrich readthrough!
"The expression 'dearest' [allerliebst] seems somewhat strange, because the young guard officer was a tall guy of over 1.80m."
HAHAHAHA ...I can name one person to whom it wouldn't sound strange at all!
even if he wanted it to(I know it's probably a translation artifact, but I just laughed so hard at "tall guy")Also, am I reading the bit with Ferdinand and Heinrich right when I parse it to mean that Ferdinand is all "hey, bro, your wife invited me to stay with her, is that OK with you?
I mean, of course nothing would happen but you know she's smoking hot" and Heinrich goes "why are you even asking?? of course, anything that's mine is yours, bro!" because all of this is making me feel EVEN WORSE about what eventually happened to Mina :P/gets on with reading
ETA: Heinrich to Ferdinand on his marriage: "I wish you to remain as constant in your present feelings as I am in mine, only with the opposite sign..." I am facepalming here and I don't even know whom I'm facepalming. I mean, Heinrich of course, though I can't really blame him for getting married given the circumstances. Fritz, I guess. GAH, poor Mina. I bet he would have gotten along with her splendidly, too, if they hadn't been married.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: the translation of that sentence - "allerliebst" is a slightly old fashioned term meaning lovely, cute, which neither then nor now is commonly used to describe tall men. :) Whereas "tall guy" or "tall fellow" is actually a correct translation.
The Ferdinand and Heinrich exchange: yes, you've read that right. And yes, in a kinder AU Mina, if she must marry a Hohenzollern, marries either AW or Ferdinand, either of whom would have worked as a husband (AW because he actually did fall in love with her, and Ferdinand because he was attracted and liked her, and while he eventually completely ended that friendship did so under the specific circumstances of a) having married someone else, b) AW dying and leaving the last will he did, and c) Heinrich taking his post 7 Years War PtSD and depression out on her. I think as a sister-in-law, Heinrich would have gotten along well with her. Or as a lady-in-waiting. In any role but that of his wife.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Okay, in all of these fix-it AUs Mina has got to marry someone else :P Maybe in the AU where Voltaire saves Fritz and Heinrich is Regent Extraordinaire, he manages not to get married at all and Mina marries AW (...is it set early enough? I forget) and they become the One True Hohenzollern Love Story. (...okay, I couldn't even type that without looking at it veeeeery skeptically. But maybe it's possible?)
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Sadly, not unless we make it even more AU.
Heinrich's marriage to Mina: 1752
AW's cashiering: 1757
AW's death: 1758
Fritz's capture: We had tossed around a bunch of ideas and I forget if we settled on one, but the Seven Years' War is 1756-1763, and I *think* we were going for after Kunersdorf? So that would be late 1759.
Also, younger brother Heinrich as Regent presupposes AW's death and nephew FW2 as heir, so...it's hard to see what we'd do there.
Anyway, you know that in *my* fix-it AU, the story stops in the 1730s, *but*, Fritz has already given up his place in the succession, and AW will become king, so 1) AW's hardly going to force favorite brother Heinrich to get married, 2) he himself is king, so he can marry who he wants. Also, he's just about to turn 18 when FW kicks the bucket in 1740, so FW hasn't had the chance to arrange or force any marriages yet. So you know that in this universe, there's no Heinrich/Mina, and there's the possibility for AW/Mina. Or AW/Sophie von Pannewitz, or whoever AW wants.
Best of all possible worlds!
Really, Fritz not becoming king fixes SO MANY THINGS. The only thing it really breaks is us not learning about these people and getting our gossipy sensationalist fixes. :P Because as
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
I'm behind on Heinrich commentary, alas, because I'm reading on my phone, and it's very hard to take notes there on what I want to talk about. And the last few days, when I've been at the computer, I've been working on my fanfic! (I'm still in this fandom, iow, just in a more solitary way.)
But I had the same reaction to the "tall guy" line! That was hilarious.
Spelling: so it's Kalckreuth (the one Ziebura and wiki uses), or Kalkreuth (valid alternate spelling), but the OCR in the file you're looking at sometimes reads a 't' as a 'c' (I've seen 'cat' for 'tat' in German), hence the Kalckreuch. If you keep reading, you'll see it start correctly guessing Kalckreuth.
Looks like Stabi has both his and Henckel's memoirs online, which I assume our fearless reader is already on top of. If not, I can drop them into the library.
Mina: Yeah. I cringed when I got to that "why are you even asking?" line. Poor everyone.
My own notes:
* I got to the part where short!Heinrich charges into the water up to his chest and everyone is so impressed they had to follow him! I remember
* My review went well. I sing hallelujah! My food was just as good as my regiment. My maître d'hotel has placed large pies on the right and in the center and a soup on the left wing.
I thought the military terminology for the feast was hilarious. (I'm assuming "left wing" isn't normal tablesetting terminology.) If you've just spent the last several weeks in a high state of stress over your review, naturally you're going to automatically see everything in those terms!
Help Google Translate out with the next sentence, "Sire hat mächtig gespachtelt"? I'm guessing something like "really tucked in/ate his fill"? Google gave me "spatulated a lot," which is entertaining, but does not lend clarity.
* Ziebura says the brothers visited Berlin for ten days in early January 1757. I went and looked at Lehndorff, and I can't quite tell when they arrived, but he has them dining with SD on January 11. This makes me sad, because we had decided a while ago that Fritz and Peter might have seen each other one last time before Peter died on December 27 (and I had a whole plot!), but now I'm thinking not. :(
I know this is supposed to be the sibling thread, but some of us have boyfriend fic to write, or at least dream of writing. :P
* Looking at Lehndorff, I find that I still can't read German, but I can read it a bit better! It's the little things in life. :D I'm also seeing lots of words that I know I've seen a few times before, and if I just see them a few more times, I'll finally remember what they mean, so that's promising.
* There are probably other things I'm forgetting, but it's really hard to interrupt my German concentration long enough to switch to a different app and use the bluetooth mouse to type out notes on what I want to talk about. :/
Peter
Suhm: Are you CRAZY? No! I love you, but someone has to think about the consequences here.
Katte: This is a really, REALLY bad idea, to go with your last bad idea. I don't know how I let you keep talking me into these things. Can we at least take some precautions?
Keith: Sodomy? Desertion? Sign me up!
:P
Now, why they're like this is an interesting question. For Keith, I'm going for some combination of impressionable in the face of Fritz's very strong personality, and a high tolerance for risk, especially for anything that involves shipping him/Fritz. This is related to why he will be the one who rides all the way back to Bayreuth from France to bring Wilhelmine word that Fritz is still alive in hiding, and she should totally desert too. Then everyone lives happily ever after, and we can imagine future Lehndorff waving his "true hero" fan club banner. :)
Re: Peter
BTW: do you believe the description from FW's "Wanted" poster or from Lehndorff's diary re: his Looks? :)
Re: Peter
Memoirs, Defenses and Glasow, Oh My!
(Published Henckel von Donnersmarcks with Heinrich connections: Victor Leo Amadeus - the one serving with him in the Seventh Years War. Got a mention on the obelisk. His son: the one Heinrich took care of after his father's death, along with the widow. Is responsible for some of the excentric old age Heinrich anecdotes. Grandson: editor of Grandpa's letters and papers.)
(The library in Munich has the selection of letters from the Divine Trio to Henckel v. Donnersmarck, edited by his grandson, which the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie entry is fuming about because so unfair to The Great.)
Anyway, if you could find the correct Henckel v. Donnersmarck & Kalckreuth, and in German, not French, then by all means, put it in the library. I've been reading the Kalckreuth online, more below, but a pdf is handier.
"Sire hat mächtig gespachtelt"? I'm guessing something like "really tucked in/ate his fill"?
That is correct. And yes, lol at the military terminology which no, isn't usual for meals.
The ten days visit of the brothers in Berlin in January 1747: alas for Peter. Though in general, make sure you check the second Lehndorff volume which has more on this visit compared to the first one.
Now, I've got some quotes for you: Online, completely is an essay by Jürgen Luh (the deconstructing Fritz biographer) about AW in 1757, as well as the changing takes on the subject in historiography, here. Here's Luh having a go at various Fritz-was-right historians, in this case, Gustav Volz.
Luh quotiong Volz, Volz is speaking: "The Prince claims that he needed to wait for the orders of the King whom he's asked for - but didn't the war situation demand instant action? Winterfeldt hit the crucial point when reporting (to Fritz) on July 26th: "Nothing can result from all these war counselling, it needs someone to command with resolution.""
Here Volz conveniently neglects to mention that the "war counselling" generals (advising AW) included the later celebrated by every historian generals Seydlitz and Zieten, as well as Normann, a protegé of Winterfeldts, and Lestwitz. To accuse them of incompetence would have been rather difficult."
Quite. Luh in general points out that contemporary writers like Henckel von Donnersmarck defending AW were later dismissed by historians due to their connection to Heinrich, and Heinrich himself as blinded by his love for AW and hate for Fritz, while the fact that later Prussian folk heroes like Seydlitz and Zieten had agreed with AW as well could be left out because neither had left memoirs. As for the critical matter itself, here's Luh's conclusion:
To retain Jungbunzlau, as Friedrich's orders for August Wilhelm had commanded, was impossible, as the Austrians could have circumvented the place either through the way from Nimburg to Backofen, or through the way from Nimburg via Eisenbrod to Turnau, and thus could have cut off the Prussians's way of' retreat into the Lausitz. August Wilhelm's decision to retreat was therefore correct. What he can be accused of at most, with hindsight, that is, is that he didn't march more quickly with his troops, that he took a sideway for the retreat and not the better main road via Münchengrätz, Gabel and Zittau. That he didn't do this was due to Friedrich's command to keep up the connection to Silesia - which, as we've seen, was impossible - and at the same time to keep up the connection to the King's army.
In the end, what one can hold against August Wilhelm is only that he didn't go against his Friedrich's orders. Even this with a caveat, though the accusation has been made throughout historiography. For if the Prince of Prussia had ignored the King's orders and had - in his correct estimation of the situation - retreated as quickly as possible to Zittau and from there into the Lausitz, the King's army would have been completely surrounded by the Austrians, since the King wanted to remain in Bohemia. Heinrich and the Generals had recognized this danger early on and had therefore worked out a plan of retreat for the army after the defeat at Kolin. They wanted the troops to march to Saxony and into the Lausitz. This anticipated which - after some human and material losses - became reality at the end of July and in early August 1757. That the King took his brother's honour and army is probably mainly due to his anger at himself. This public slap in the face would not have been necessary, for except for a part of the baggage train, some canons and the magazine in Zittau, August Wilhelm had not lost more than the usual deserters, not the entire army as the King himself had done in 1744.
Now, re: the Kalckreuth memoirs from the Berlin Stabi, I've been reading bits and pieces, since a lot are battle descriptions. But there's one fascinating bit about Glasow I have to share. (Cahn, Glasow: the other handsome husar, Fredersdorf's successor as Fritz' valet. Went with Fritz on the trip to the Netherlands. Around the Easter holidays of 1757, Lehndorff notes in his diary the sensational gossip that Glasow has been arrested for attempting to poison the King in the Countess Brühl's employ (she's the wife of the Saxon PM). Glasow dies while under arrest in Spandau. Now, Kalckreuth isn't the most reliable himself (he's vain and of the "all Heinrich's great deeds? that was really me!" persuasion, plus after being dumped for Kaphengst, he has a beef there), and there's the skeevy part he played in Mina's fate to consider. But as to whether or not Glasow is guilty is irrelevant to Kalckreuth's own reputation, and therefore, he might be telling the truth when he writes thusly:
In Dresden, the unfortuante event with Glasow happened, which the public has distorted so much. This is the truth: This Glasow had been the King's husar of the chamber, i.e. a valet dressed up as a hussar, and very much in favour. Antinous could not have been more beautiful. He had started out as a tambour in the Regiment Schwerin. During the earlier winter quarter, the Countess Brühl had asked him twice to take a cup of chocolate with her, in order to sound him out whether there wasn't a means to soothe the King's anger against Saxony, and he'd accepted the invitation. It was quite ridiculous that the Countess Brühl, a universally respected lady, wanted to discuss such matters with a fop. Glasow had been wrong to keep this tete-a-tete from the King, admittedly.
Later, in the spring, the Countess got exiled to Warsaw. Back then, Glasow had a servant, a disgusting creature, and at the same time the King had a page named Wulnitz, who wasn't able to love Glasow. The page became an officer in the regiment Garde du Corps - footnote: this was Kalckreuth's own original regiment before becoming Heinrich's AD - and took into his service the same villain whom Glasow had employed as a servant the previous winter. This same miserable creature was sent into town and encountered Glasow, who probably was harsh to him due to his bad conduct earlier. At once, he complained to his new master and added that he could ruin Glasow if he were to denounce Glasow's rendezvous to the King. It is said his new master encouraged him to do so. At once, Glasow was arrested and sent to Spandau, where he was locked up with the common criminals. With his weakened body, he soon died. My worthy commander - i.e. Heinrich - and myself were indignant, because Glasow had been a good egg, and hadn't harmed anyone. The public, which is prone to only believe the most stupid versions, deduced from this that the Countess Brühl had invited Glasow to seduce him into poisoning the chocolate he was serving to the King every morning.
Re: Memoirs, Defenses and Glasow, Oh My!
About Kalckreuth, I'm slightly confused. Ziebura has "Kalckreuth, Graf Friedrich Adolf von, Erinnerungen des Generalfeldmarschalls Grafen v. Kalckreuth. 1-4. Separatabdrucke um 1870 aus Minerva. "Paroles" du Feldmaréchal Kalckreuth. Paris 1841."
In contrast, Duffy has "Kalkreuth, F.A. (1839–40), 'Kalkreuth zu seinen Leben und zu seiner Zeit…Erinnerungen des General-Feldmarschalls Grafen von Kalkreuth', Minerva, (1839) IV, (1840) II–IV, Dresden."
I found Duffy's in the 1839-1840 volumes of Minerva in Hathitrust, except for the (1840) III, which was in the Munich Stabi, along with all the other 1840 volumes. I assumed the (1839) IV was there as well. The table of contents listed years like 1757, 1758, 1759, and battles like Zorndorf and Hochkirch, under the Kalkreuth entries, so I concluded it was our guy. I admittedly did not find the 1870 work Ziebura referred to, but since both Ziebura and Duffy both referred to a 4-part work, I guessed that in 1870 someone made a single-volume reprint of the 1839-1840 Minerva installments, and we were all referring to the same thing.
I did not look for the 1841 "Paroles", because French.
I'll work on getting the 1839-1840 Erinnerungen into the library, so you can tell me if it's the same thing you're looking at. Unless you can already tell me that it's not.
I don't *think* I found any living movie directors. ;)
Lehndorff: I did actually remember to check volume 2! :D What I didn't do was read each entry in both volumes thoroughly, because German and blackletter font. I saw January 5 (volume 2) and January 11 (volume 1), and what looked like a hint that Heinrich still wasn't home in the latter part of December, but nothing confirming their presence in super late December. (Again, very superficial skimming.) Anyway, I was hoping they came home for Christmas, but if Ziebura is right about 10 days, and I'm not finding evidence for Christmas in Lehndorff, I guess not. However, before I write any fic, which will presumably be after my German is a bit better, I will actually look at the relevant entries more closely. And then decide what to do in fiction.
Glasow: wow! I don't know what to believe, but I can see where if different-bodies-one-soul sister gets angry letters for lunch with MT during wartime, mere valet might get locked up for Saxon chocolate during wartime! Fritz is going to be hypervigilant around any Saxon sympathies in 1757, that's for sure.
Re: Memoirs, Defenses and Glasow, Oh My!
Re: Memoirs, Defenses and Glasow, Oh My!
Re: Memoirs, Defenses and Glasow, Oh My!
FRITZ! >:(
Glasow, wow! (And as always thank you for reminding me, I had of course forgotten.) That actually makes a lot of sense relative to the story that he actually tried to poison Fritz.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Ahahahaha I read that but totally missed the implication! Hee, glad we are doing this as a joint effort.
I know this is supposed to be the sibling thread, but some of us have boyfriend fic to write, or at least dream of writing. :P
Lol! Nah, this isn't the sibling thread, this is the thread where we talk about the book. Talking about applications of the book to boyfriend fic totally counts!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Kalckreuth, whose guard regiment had moved to Silesia with the king, had reported sick to be able to stay with his dear prince in Leipzig. The king resented this and would rather have seen the slacker in prison than in his brother's entourage. When Heinrich asked for Kalckreuth as adjutant, he flatly refused.
Kalckreuth: It was totally because the King was after my hot ass too!
Henckel reacted like a jealous wife to the younger rival:
Now where have we seen this before? *cough* Fritz, Emilio
“Every evening there is Lieutenant Kalckreuth, whom the prince loves very much and to whom he entrusts the most important state secrets. This is a young man of 22 years, without any upbringing, but of common sense and an extraordinary naivety, which was found very amusing. He always seemed more raw than natural to me.”
Help Google out with "roh" and "natürlich"?
After reading the memories of the later field marshal of Kalckreuth, we can add that he was vain, conceited and not particularly intelligent. But Heinrich found pleasure in submitting to these tall, strong, handsome, and raw guys, who were the opposite of himself in everything.
AAHHAAAAAHAAA OH MAN, did you give us this quote during the "Who tops?" discussion,
Heinrich flattering Fritz: LOL.
However, for Heinrich, in his own words, love was only madness, which from time to time attacked him like an illness, but friendship, daughter of reason, he placed far higher. He remained Henckel's friend until the end of his life. He had his name engraved next to that of the other heroes of the Seven Years' War on his obelisk in Rheinsberg and assumed the costs and responsibility for the upbringing of his son, who died when his father Victor Amadeus v. Henckel was only seven years old.
Indeed. As Lehndorff found out. <3
At first, however, the passion for Kalckreuth was stronger than anything else, and he used his power to force Count Lamberg out of Heinrich's favor and to dominate his successor Ludwig v. Wreech.
The gossipy sensationalism continues!
Skipping ahead was definitely the right move. :P
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
:) He really did think that. Or rather, he tells his son that the refusal at first was because the King had been insulted because he wanted to be Kalckreuth's mentor, but the sentence is there.
Help Google out with "roh" and "natürlich"?
Okay, "roh" is only "raw" when used for, say, meat. For people, it means crude, rough. Which reminds me of a quote I'll have to translate for you from Koser, on our three favourite siblings in 1758, where he thinks Heinrich - whom he does credit for becoming emotionally important to Fritz at this point - was made of coarser stuff than Wilhelmine and Fritz, more like Voltaire. It's quite the quote. Back to Henckel's quote - "rough/coarse/crude rather than natural" is how I'd translate it.
ETA: Oh, and as für natürlich - natural in the sense of someone acting out of emotional and natural instincts (remember, Rousseau was just around the Corner), rather than out of calculation. "Unaffected", maybe. Henckel doesn't buy it./ETA
And yes, Ziebura was the first to give me the impression that Heinrich was into rough trade precisely because of her making such statements. (Kalckreuth: I so had an upbringing, too, Henckel! I was raised in a Berlin Boarding School, I'll have you know, run by a member of the French Colony. Heinrich adored my French.)
As for Kalckreuth dominating the other guys, that's why Lehndorff has fun in 1775, when: (...) On the 9th, we drive through the most beautiful area of the world to Insterburg, always through arches of honor. (...) About a mile away from Isenburg, I see Lieutenant Colonel Kalckreuth whose anger I can spot on his face, as this is the first time that he, who had once been Prince Heinrich‘s big favourite, will see the later after his disgrace. He has written to the Prince and his royal highness has asked me to tell him that he would not treat him badly, but also that there was nothing left between them in his favor. At last, I arrive in Insterburg, where I enjoy meeting Madame General Platen again. She entertains me with all types of outbursts Kalckreuth has made in her presence.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
That said, I think "is in its egocentricity hardly to be outdone" as the only thing you say about this letter is doing Fritz an injustice. Yes, it's egocentric. Yes, as something intended to comfort Heinrich, it could not have been more rage-inducing from the perspective of the recipient. No, intent is not magic. But quoting just the "But think of how many people I lost or am worried about losing! And think about your duty to fight this war I started!" part and summing it up simply as egocentric is to ignore the context of condolence/comfort letters in Fritz's life.
The part that's most egocentric to me is the "But it wasn't my fault! Here's a list of everyone who's not me whose fault it was! Especially the guy you're grieving, let me enumerate my grievances with him." You can tell Fritz feels extremely attacked, because he's being extremely defensive. Because he has behaved really, really badly, and this letter should never have been sent, neither the first half nor the second half.
But there's too much context for "your feelings are less important than your duty to other people" and "live for someone else!" to be ignored. Namely:
1727
Fritz to Lt. Borcke, close friend and possible lover: "I ask you to write to me as well and to give me news of you, as I can say that I am extremely sorry to see you in such a sad position [i.e. sick], and that whenever I think of you, as happens very often, I can hardly prevent myself from falling into melancholy from which only you alone can save me. So spare yourself, if not for the sake of me, then for the sake of your friends, among whom I have the pleasure to count myself and to the most loyal of whom I belong. So I ask you not to die, since death is what I fear most for my friends and least for myself. I confess that I should distract you through this letter, but instead of giving pleasure to others, I rather need distraction myself to dispel my melancholy."
1730
Fritz after Katte's death, from Wilhelmine's memoirs: "It was with extreme difficulty that he was prevailed upon to take medicine. Nothing could induce him to do it, but the representation that he would also cause the queen’s death and mine, if he persisted in his own destruction."
1736
Fritz to Suhm: "Live, my dear Suhm, live, since heaven allows it; live for your friends, who, by the true attachment which they have for you, could not support the appalling thought of being separated from you. I admit and understand that you only had to expect, in the last period when you touched, only the rewards with which heaven crowns virtue, and that thus, as concerns yourself, you lose more by prolonging your days than ending your career. But, my dear Suhm, do not forget the tenderness which you owe to an infant whom you have not yet weaned in the school of philosophy. What would I have become? for I feel that I need your eyes to see, and that, losing sight of my guide, I run the risk of losing my way."
Suhm to Fritz: "When my life is odious to me, the interest you deign to take in it would be enough to make it dear to me. I therefore come back with joy to life, since heaven wants it, and Your Royal Highness wants it; but, my lord, suffer me henceforth to live only for you."
1752
Fritz to Fredersdorf: "I thought you loved me and wouldn't want to cause me grief by killing yourself. Now I don't know what to believe! But you must believe I only want what's best for you and that the diet and the medicine is only prescribed so you can recover your health again...Your illness is no laughing matter, and if you don't follow a correct diet and take the right prescribed medicine, you'll die! Think about how this would grieve me! If you love me, then listen exactly to the prescriptions! God keep you! Don't write back!"
1757
Fritz: *suicidal ideation*
Wilhelmine to Fritz: "Your letter and the letter you wrote to Voltaire, my dear brother, almost killed me. What fatal resolutions, great God! Ah! my dear brother, you say you love me, and you stab me in the heart."..."For God's sake, calm down, dearest brother! Your military situation is desperate, but there is a prospect of peace. For heaven's sake, banish all dark thoughts. Do you want to kill so many subjects who place their only hope in your person?"
So what I think is that, while Fritz can and should be blamed for:
- the way he treated AW,
- not admitting fault there,
- using the "condolence" letter as a venue to talk about how it wasn't his fault,
- having a terrible relationship with Heinrich,
- starting a war and expecting Heinrich to help him win it,
I don't think it's fair to call him egocentric for:
- focusing on his own feelings and the people he's lost,
- trying to motivate Heinrich to live for him,
- telling Heinrich to live for duty/country.
That part, while emotionally tone-deaf given all the background in the first list, of actual Fritz faults, is literally the best he can do. He was being egocentric in many ways, but the second list is how he communicates with the people he loves most, and how they communicate with him. Suhm even gave this behavior positive reinforcement by telling him it worked!
Nevertheless. Given the way hundreds of Fritz biographers shortchange Heinrich in his every appearance on page, I'm hardly going to get on the case of a Heinrich biographer for a little Fritz shortchanging. ;) Especially on the occasion of his worst behavior ever. (Not so much the letter as the background that makes that letter not at all the same thing as writing to Suhm, "But our philosophy studies!")
I just wanted to put all this context out there, so that we can at least criticize Fritz for the right things. There's no shortage of those.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
And then the Kolin defeat happens, and suddenly we get this, partially quoted by Ziebura, in Henckel's Diary. (Cahn, context: the divine trio was actually not present at Kolin. Fritz had announced he'd go and defeat Prussia's enemies. Then the first big Prussian defeat of the war occurs. Also, Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig is EC's and Louise's brother, and Hahn thinks he, not either Fritz or Heinrich, was the best General of the 7 Years War.)
After 1 am in the night Major Grand, AD to the King, arrived with a few hunters at the Prince of Braunschweig's, who then went straight to Prince Heinrich. Since I hadn't undressed after the beginning of the Blockade - of Prague - , I went outside of my own tent and approached them. I saw on the face of Prince Ferdinand pain and grief even though he tried to suppress it. I woke up Prince Heinrich with emotions that were very different from yesterday's joy. Major Grand told the Prince that his Majesty had sent him to announce one of the biggest and most murderous battles ever fought. (Fritz, you don't know what's to come. Kunersdorf is still ahead of you.) Gods! The Prince exclaimed whle rising from his bed. His Majesty, Major Grand continued, had further said: Inform the generals of my misfortune. I have done everything I could to win the battle, but it wasn't possible for me. They should prepare everything to lift the Blockade at first command.
(Henckel then describes the battle according to the reports he's heard and is fully blaming Fritz, saying Fritz refused to listen to Ziethen and the Duke of Bevern about the number of enemies and their positions. He also has a Sketch of the battle positions. (Useful.)
Our generals were in the greatest distress. One started to prepare for the retreat without knowing when and how the later should happen. Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig was so depressed by the misfortune that had struck us that he wasn't capable of doing anything. Prince Heinrich, despite also being struck in the most painful way, showed at this opportunity that great men can feel things deeply without losing their strength of Soul. He went to General Winterfelt on the left shore in order to talk with him about what to do. Then he met up with the Prince of Prussia, Princes Ferdinand of Braunschweig and Prussia, Prince Schönaich, and Field Marshal Keith, Generals Schmettau and Winterfeldt and General Majors Golz and Retzow at the villagen Branick in order to debate what had to be done immediately. He encouraged everyone in their their morale and became the soul of the Enterprise. He read out loud the dispositions he'd made to start the retreat in three colons to Brandeis. Marshall Keith should then follow the next morning. No sooner had the Prince returned to his quarters that he was told about the impending arrival of the King.
On the 19th at 3 pm. HIs royal highness the prince thus immediately rode with the Princes Ferdinand to the house in Micheln in which the King had lived previously to his Departure for Kolin in order to await him there. What painful spectacle then awaited our Looks as we saw the man returning bent by pain and grief who had believed himself to be the conqueror of the world just a few days earlier! Since 36 hours, he'd sat on the same horse, and despite it was clear that he could hardly walk anymore, he still forced himself to show a good attitude.
After he'd entered, he called for Prince Heinrich. The King lay on a sack of straw coverd with a sheet, since his luggage had not yet arrived. He kissed, maybe for the first time, his brother tenderly, admitted to him his lethal pain and assured him that everything he'd done until now had only been for the love of his family. He repeated several times that he wanted to die, and that he would kill himself. The Prince urged him to calm himself and to use the remaining time for a retreat before Daun or Nadasty had the time to advance and cause even more damage. The King replied to the Prince that he was now incapable of doing anything and that he needed to rest. He ordered the Prince to create the necessary dispositions, whereupon the later presented them as already finished, and the King agreed to them. Whereupon the Prince assembled all generals and told them the Disposition.
This is also when Fritz starts to write to Heinrich all the time (as you once pointed out, those are A LOT OF LETTERS), and some of this is needing every good officer he could get and realising Heinrich was in fact one, but some of it really is having decided he needs this particular brother emotionally, not to needle as in the Marwitz affair, not to submit (though that will come again post war), but now he needs him to provide affection and therapy. Again, this is before AW's disgrace. And there's Ferdinand the brother in law who has a good relationship with Fritz in General. And yet he asks for Heinrich, specifically, with whom he's had a stormy relationship at best, to tell him "I did it all for our family" and to be talked out of suicide by him. See, that's why I find their dsyfunctionality so fascinating.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Yeah, I was also surprised by the part she excerpted, because like you I found that the least objectionable part of the letter! "by which he failed in what he owed me" (thank you
(ETA:) I had a lot of ~feelings~ about these two chapters, and I need to go back to find specifics (darn terrible memory and reading away from computer) but they mostly boil down to (a) the 7 years war makes me more convinced that in my work!AU, Heinrich is totally the engineer, OK, probably technical manager, who is extremely competent but Fritz is always pulling longer hours and working harder (b) Heinrich is so awful to Mina, OMG. And the worse thing is that I don't think I would have particularly noticed if
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
The movie Münchhausen is remarkable in many ways. The script was written by Erich Kästner under a peudonym - Berthold Bürger (Berthold Citizen) - since officially he wasn't allowed to work ever since the Nazis burned his books 1933. Kästner probably was the sole author who witnessed his books being burned in 1933 and remained in Germany throughout the Third Reich, surviving first by foreign royalties and then by doctoring and in some cases writing movie scripts (always under fake names). Münchhausen was one of the big UFA prestige objects - one of the early German movies in color - with most good German actors not driven into exile or killed in it. It's still immensly watchable (even the special effects of Münchhausen flying with his canon ball hold up) and has a lot of charm, but if you know it was made while real life bombs were reigning down on Germany (1943/44) to distract the masses, it's really eerie. A French friend of mine once asked whether the present day frame narration is subversive since no one says "Heil Hitler", but actually most German movies made between 1933 - 1945 set in the then present avoid the uniforms and the heil-hitlering, it's as if you're watching an AU where there's clearly SOMEONE reigning but not him. The reason for the lack of overt uniforms and flags is that Goebbels probably figured there was enough of that in rl, and also the 1933 propaganda movies like "Hitlerjunge Quex" flopped at the box office. Propaganda worked better in disguise.
Now Münchhausen is not propaganda and is subversive, but not for that reason. Kästner's script presents two time lines - there the present day where current Baron of Münchhausen and his wife are giving a costume ball (there's a nice fake out intro where the ball starts and sudddenly electric light is switched on). The wife is noticeable older than the baron, who is played by male sex symbol of his day Hans Albers. One of the young female guests is hitting on the baron, and her husband is a bit fascinated by him, too. The baron starts to narrate the story of his ancestor, who is the famous Münchhausen the storyteller/liar and lives in 18th century Rokoko Europe. Cue various adventures fantastical and historical, in which Münchhausen is more a lover than a fighter (hence him hitting it off with Catherine when visiting Russia), though he's brave when needs must. He's got a respected rival/frenemy relationship going on with Cagliostro who because of this makes him immortal. At which point it becomes clear that the present day narrating Münchhausen is in fact the original, and his wife isn't older than him, she's younger, she just ages and he (so far) does not, though in the course of telling his adventures, he finally figures out how he can get rid of the immortality Cagliostro gave him if he truly wishes to. What's extraordinary in a movie made at a time when Germans and Russians were dying by the thousands at each other's hands is that unlike in virtually any other historic movie made in Germany in those years, the Russians aren't the villains here. (Well, Potemkin is a bit of a tempestous braggart, but you know, Potemkin). They're not villainized, and nor is Catherine for her guilt-free sexuality. (She and Münchhausen have great fun together but also eventually take leave of each other without regrets.) In general, war is presented as there, unavoidable, but not glorious or an excuse for patriotic speeches by anyone (in stark contrast to what the propaganda movies at the same time do to Fritz), and Münchhausen, who gets along with people of all nationalities and whose inventiveness and survival skills are presented as the result of him being a clever trickster, is unlike any historic main character you'd expect to find in a German movie made at that time.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
The reason for the lack of overt uniforms and flags is that Goebbels probably figured there was enough of that in rl, and also the 1933 propaganda movies like "Hitlerjunge Quex" flopped at the box office. Propaganda worked better in disguise.
Huh. I had not known and, like your French friend, would not have expected that, but it makes sense.
Münchhausen, who gets along with people of all nationalities and whose inventiveness and survival skills are presented as the result of him being a clever trickster, is unlike any historic main character you'd expect to find in a German movie made at that time.
That does sound astonishing.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
And holy cow that cake :P And that was actually real!
Catherine the Great
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Heinrich's (pre-obelisk) memorial to AW at Rheinsberg, awww. :-(((((
On that note, Fritz, it would be nice if we knew for SURE that the Antinous-library-grave juxtaposition was an homage to Katte, but okay. We'll just proceed on the assumption that it is. I know you have PTSD, and I won't tell you how to grieve. (I mean, not by roleplaying forced marriages with your brother, that's for sure. But ambiguous statues are kosher.)
Kalckreuth compromising Mina: I remembered that as something that he was doing to try to get back in favor, by giving Heinrich an excuse to set her aside. But that doesn't seem to be what Ziebura is saying. Was that another author, or was that your own idea,
Heinrich making Kalckreuth pay military honors to Kaphengst, ha.
Google Translate deciding "Kaphengst" is a compound noun instead of a proper name and translating it "Cape Stallion" is hilarious. Google clearly agrees with Ziebura about who's on top in the Kaphengst/Heinrich ship. ;)
In general, Google translating proper names literally can be delightful. One of my favorites, before I stopped reading the translation, was "The king, who until then had kept the Austrians in check from his cheap warehouse in rubbish soaps," for, "The king, who until then had kept the Austrians in check from his favorable position in Schmottseifen." It was just so fortuitous that "cheap," "warehouse," "rubbish," and "soaps" all make a sort of sense when combined like that. I mean, the rubbish soaps aren't going to be in an expensive warehouse, after all!
Begin random mythological digression:
The "hengst" of "Cape Stallion," btw, is the same as Horsa and Hengist, the two brothers whose names mean "horse" to whom the Germanic settlement of England is attributed in legend, and to whom the Anglo-Saxon kings traced their ancestry. Having places founded by brothers associated with horses is a common trope in Germanic/Indo-European mythology, which means yours truly read *far* too much about them in her Indo-European PhD days, and thus cannot see the word "Kaphengst" without them coming to mind.
Tolkien digression: the two brothers who founded the Shire, Blanco and Marco, are thought to be a tribute to Horsa and Hengist, since "Marco" is a word meaning "horse" (it's related to "mare").
End random mythological digression.
Watching Heinrich and Fritz is sometimes entertaining, sometimes facepalmy, sometimes both.
Heinrich: Let's drag this war out as long as possible in hopes of a miracle, and meanwhile do as much damage as possible with as little bloodshed as possible.
Fritz: Uniting the Prussian armies for a big, possibly catastrophic, but at least fucking DECISIVE battle is so tempting...
Heinrich to Ferdinand: If idiot Big Bro tries that, I'm joining you on sick leave.
Heinrich: Fritz, let's flatter Catherine for now and try to change her mind gradually about her peace terms. Hopefully the Turks and Austrians will even do it for us, and spare us being the bad guys.
Fritz: RomKat, this is *exactly* what I think of your WTF peace terms, and I want no part in them.
Heinrich: Damage control! Damage control!
On Elizabeth's death being "unforeseen", I admit to not having a great personal familiarity with the primary sources, but from what I've gathered from secondary sources quoting them, it was more a case of her being sick for so long that people (Fritz) who'd been anxiously waiting for years for her to die were like, "Oh ffs, she's never going to kick the bucket in time." Wo when it did happen, it came as a surprise only in the sense that it had *finally* happened. It was not the case that she died out of the blue and suddenly there was an unexpected reversal of policy.
But she could very well have held out for another year, and then who knows?
Totally unrelated to this book or even Heinrich at all, but I had to share this:
I had a silly dream last night, in which I was attending Peter Keith's funeral and listening to his eulogy (this absolutely has to do with me wanting to get my hands on the real one from the Academy of Sciences). The speaker said that he was polite and soft-spoken, to which I nodded and said that I had always thought so from what I'd read of him. Then we learned that he had very good aim with a cannon, and we got a whole anecdote about how the army had discovered this when he saved the day one time. And ever after that, he was in charge of aiming cannons. It was all fine and dandy until I remembered that he was cross-eyed. "Really?" I said. "Even with the squint?" Then my sleeping brain scrambled to come up with an explanation, and settled on the person next to me telling me that a lifetime of learning to compensate for the squint was precisely what gave him such good aim!
A mixture of historical fact and dream logic. ;) I'm not even sure that being cross-eyed affects your aim with a cannon, but I was very concerned about it when asleep, apparently.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Cape Stallion, lol. There‘s an online article from a gay magazine on Heinrich which makes the most of that name, too.The dirty soap and warehouse combinations google translate produces are divine. I once read an Italian fanfiction by using Google Translate, and it insisted on translating all the Italian names literally - so White for Bianca, for example - which was weird and funny to read at times, but nothing as good as your example.
As to Heinrich‘s love life in general: you know, one of the amazing things is that given the constant upset from Fritz you‘d think he‘d have gone for some tranquility there as an emotional balance, but noooo, not until the Comte in the last years of his life. (And Fritz was dead and buried for years and years by then.)
Two founding brothers legends: and let‘s not forget that Fritz and Heinrich both loved that story that Rheinsberg was really Remusberg, Remus made it out of the founding of Rome alive and settled down in Brandenburg and that they had his grave on the island on that lake. To take the quintessential foundation of empire on fratricide story and give it a twist where both brothers get to live, and Remus, unslain, finds a peaceful exile by living out his days in Rheinsberg: you could not make this up that these particular two brothers fell in love with that twist of the myth. (And while AW isn‘t literally buried in Rheinsberg he certainly was for Heinrich in spirit, with the two memorials, so the role of Remus is shared even more.)
Heinrich: Let's drag this war out as long as possible in hopes of a miracle, and meanwhile do as much damage as possible with as little bloodshed as possible.
Fritz: Uniting the Prussian armies for a big, possibly catastrophic, but at least fucking DECISIVE battle is so tempting...
Heinrich to Ferdinand: If idiot Big Bro tries that, I'm joining you on sick leave.
This is also when Mitchell writes that report home that I‘ve been quoting from in my MItchell write up, to be paraphrased thusly:
Mitchell: Prussian generals and officials, don‘t you want to help me to reconcile your beloved king wiht your beloved prince? SEEING AS BOTH ARE QUINTENSENTIAL TO THE WAR EFFORT?!?
Prussians: You first, mate, you first.
Mitchell: Dear Foreign Office, the Prussian offcials were strangely intimidated at the thought.
But she could very well have held out for another year, and then who knows?
I do, because I‘ve written one fo the MT & Fritz AUs about it:)
Peter‘s dreamed eulogy: your sleeping brain coming up with such a question is amazing. Sadly, my dreams so far have refused to provide me with a full name for Marwitz, so Antony will have to do.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
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Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
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Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
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Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Diese Stelle, in unmittelbarer Nähe des »bekannten Theaters im Grünen« gelegen, zeigt unter einer Baumgruppe zwei Marmorarbeiten: eine große Urne auf einem Piedestal und zweitens eine Art Herme, die die trefflich ausgeführte Büste des Prinzen August Wilhelm trägt. Beide Arbeiten stehen sich, in Entfernung von etwa sechs Schritt, einander gegenüber. Das Piedestal der Urne trägt die Inschrift: »Hic cineres Marmor exhibit«, und darunter: »August Gullielm, Princeps Prussiae Natus Erat IX Die Mens. Aug. Ann. 1722. Obiit Die XII Mens. Jun. Anno 1758«. Die Inschrift unter der Büste aber lautet: »Hic Venustum Os Viri, veritatis, virtutis, patriae amantissimi«. (Hier das freundliche Antlitz des Lieblings der Wahrheit, der Tugend, des Vaterlands.)
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
* I meant to say a while back, that Heinrich obviously isn't worried about his mail to Ferdinand being read by spies. !!
* Heinrich plans his trips like he plans his campaigns! Very, very cautiously and deviously. "I won't tell Fritz I want to go to St. Petersburg/Paris, I'll just go most of the way there, get an invitation from the monarch, and then ask for permission for what's juuuust short of being a fait accompli." It's what a former boss of mine calls the "foot in door" approach to negotiation: get what you want in small increments that the other person can agree to, instead of getting a flat no from asking for the whole thing up front. And I totally see why that works with Fritz.
Also, Heinrich is made of patience when it comes to political and military affairs, and Fritz only rarely has a concept of patience. Switch their birth order, and I suspect that distribution of patience inverts. The power differential makes a big difference, as does the fact that Fritz got targeted by the hardest abuse the youngest.
* Heinrich saying that in other countries, good service is rewarded, but here, you're lucky just to be left alone (i.e., "At least he hasn't pulled an AW on me yet"), coming one paragraph after Ziebura says he's been hanging out with Thiébault...is this where Thiébault got the idea that the only thing Fritz ever did for the Kattes was not persecute them?
Oh, wow, I just checked my writeup, and I wrote, I did find Thiebault claiming that the Katte family got *no* favor from Fritz, Heinrich was the only one who would employ any of them, and all they ever got from Fritz was not being persecuted.
Huh. I wonder if Heinrich is outright stating that Fritz never did anything for the Kattes, or if he's merely employing a Katte (which one?! in which role?! enquiring minds want to know) and complaining about his own lack of reward, and Thiébault is conflating the two. The latter seems more likely, but it's possible Heinrich wasn't entirely fair to Fritz.
Anyway, I think we have our source for that claim now.
* When Fritz says "A god, my dear brother, has given you this brilliant plan," he's being very classical. The Greeks (at least in Homer, I can't state this categorically about other places and times), did *not* specify "Zeus must have caused this" if they had no idea who it was. Because if they guessed the wrong god, the actual god might be offended. So when they wanted to attribute something to divine intervention, they say "a god." This is easy to miss, because the narrator, Homer, will compose stories in which specific gods do this or that, but the *characters* won't speculate about which god must have done something if they don't know.
I, um, may know this because I was reading Homeric scholarship while writing a fic many years ago, and had to go and replace a speculation about a specific god with "some god."
Re: Heinrich readthrough!