He so is, and it does rate pointing out. I think I might have said it before, but the timing of it still strikes me as remarkable. I mean, Heinrich is never warm towards Mina, but he's perfectly civil in the first few years (including even doing some shopping for her)... right until AW's death. The first time Heinrich is on record on doing something awful to Mina is on page 126 when he as AW's appointed executor gets leave from Fritz to return to Berlin to see the legal stuff with AW's will through, Mina travels to meet him en route and he ignores that so she waits in vain for twelve hours in vain in a miserable country inn and only sees him on the next evening when he has dinner at Amalie's. (And she'll continue to see him during this visit only at his sister's, not at the town residence they're supposed to share.)
This switch from not warm but civil to hostile and rude (and later icy at best), with no in between stage, and without even an attempt to mourn for AW together still sounds to me like the condition of AW's will (not just leaving Mina the jewel ring he's always worn but more importantly wanting her to raise his children, which btw of course was cruel towards Louise on AW's part, thereby ensuring AW, too, joined the rank of jerk Hohenzollern husbands) made Heinrich conclude AW had had an affair with Mina.* And despite having no sexual interest in her himself, and despite having told Ferdinand and AW he was fine with them spending as much time with her as they wanted, he minded. Or maybe he just used that as an excuse to himself because he wanted to put all the grief and anger about AW's death somewhere (other than in seething letters to Ferdinand about Fritz), was forced to swallow it down when actually interacting with Fritz and used the one person who was in his social power without being a soldier or servant, and who additionally symbolized his oldest brother's hold on him to act out on. I.e. the "kicking down" principle.
Or maybe I'm overthinking it, and it was simply a parallel of Fritz going from living with EC (as long as Dad was alive) to instantly removing her from him as soon as FW had breathed his last. I.e. as long as AW who deeply cared for Mina was still alive Heinrich wouldn't have effectually separated for her, but with AW dead and Fritz otherwise occupied, there wasn't any reason not to do what Fritz had done with EC post ascension to the throne, i.e. make it as clear to her by drastic gesture that their marriage was in effect over and she was to stay as far away from him as possible.
*ETA: It's perhaps worth pointing out that AW himself, who had a lot of adulterous affairs (err, not just on his part adulterous, I mean affairs with married women), seems to have regarded having a sexual affair with Mina as going against the Bro Code. See his letter to Ferdinand early on which Ziebura quotes, and also his statement to Lehndorff a month before his death where he says that "if not for the love to my brother Heinrich", he'd have gone for it.
I can't really speak to the likelihood of Heinrich believing that AW had an affair with Mina, but the likelihood of him kicking down seems extremely high to me. She was also very likely a PTSD trigger for him, a reminder of the power that Fritz had to ruin his brothers' lives, and of Heinrich's ongoing powerlessness. After AW's death, the intensity of the emotions that kind of reminder aroused would have been multiplied beyond belief. Lashing out at her, the trigger, would have been extremely...I don't want to say "understandable" in the exonerating sense, but comprehensible. Like most of Fritz's actions are comprehensible in context.
I think on the side of Heinrich concluding that AW had had an affair with Mina is that everyone started dissing her, not just Heinrich, am I remembering that right? (And perhaps he minded partially because he expected them to abide by the Bro Code, like, if she'd had an affair with someone else who wasn't his brother, or he thought she had, maybe he would have minded less?)
But --
Or maybe he just used that as an excuse to himself because he wanted to put all the grief and anger about AW's death somewhere
this, ugh, this seems extraordinarily plausible. :(((((((((((((((
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rheinsberg
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
He so is, and it does rate pointing out. I think I might have said it before, but the timing of it still strikes me as remarkable. I mean, Heinrich is never warm towards Mina, but he's perfectly civil in the first few years (including even doing some shopping for her)... right until AW's death. The first time Heinrich is on record on doing something awful to Mina is on page 126 when he as AW's appointed executor gets leave from Fritz to return to Berlin to see the legal stuff with AW's will through, Mina travels to meet him en route and he ignores that so she waits in vain for twelve hours in vain in a miserable country inn and only sees him on the next evening when he has dinner at Amalie's. (And she'll continue to see him during this visit only at his sister's, not at the town residence they're supposed to share.)
This switch from not warm but civil to hostile and rude (and later icy at best), with no in between stage, and without even an attempt to mourn for AW together still sounds to me like the condition of AW's will (not just leaving Mina the jewel ring he's always worn but more importantly wanting her to raise his children, which btw of course was cruel towards Louise on AW's part, thereby ensuring AW, too, joined the rank of jerk Hohenzollern husbands) made Heinrich conclude AW had had an affair with Mina.* And despite having no sexual interest in her himself, and despite having told Ferdinand and AW he was fine with them spending as much time with her as they wanted, he minded. Or maybe he just used that as an excuse to himself because he wanted to put all the grief and anger about AW's death somewhere (other than in seething letters to Ferdinand about Fritz), was forced to swallow it down when actually interacting with Fritz and used the one person who was in his social power without being a soldier or servant, and who additionally symbolized his oldest brother's hold on him to act out on. I.e. the "kicking down" principle.
Or maybe I'm overthinking it, and it was simply a parallel of Fritz going from living with EC (as long as Dad was alive) to instantly removing her from him as soon as FW had breathed his last. I.e. as long as AW who deeply cared for Mina was still alive Heinrich wouldn't have effectually separated for her, but with AW dead and Fritz otherwise occupied, there wasn't any reason not to do what Fritz had done with EC post ascension to the throne, i.e. make it as clear to her by drastic gesture that their marriage was in effect over and she was to stay as far away from him as possible.
*ETA: It's perhaps worth pointing out that AW himself, who had a lot of adulterous affairs (err, not just on his part adulterous, I mean affairs with married women), seems to have regarded having a sexual affair with Mina as going against the Bro Code. See his letter to Ferdinand early on which Ziebura quotes, and also his statement to Lehndorff a month before his death where he says that "if not for the love to my brother Heinrich", he'd have gone for it.
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
I can't really speak to the likelihood of Heinrich believing that AW had an affair with Mina, but the likelihood of him kicking down seems extremely high to me. She was also very likely a PTSD trigger for him, a reminder of the power that Fritz had to ruin his brothers' lives, and of Heinrich's ongoing powerlessness. After AW's death, the intensity of the emotions that kind of reminder aroused would have been multiplied beyond belief. Lashing out at her, the trigger, would have been extremely...I don't want to say "understandable" in the exonerating sense, but comprehensible. Like most of Fritz's actions are comprehensible in context.
OMG, you guys.
:-((((
Re: Heinrich readthrough! - Mina
But --
Or maybe he just used that as an excuse to himself because he wanted to put all the grief and anger about AW's death somewhere
this, ugh, this seems extraordinarily plausible. :(((((((((((((((