However, if Frau von Kameke specifically says to the preacher that Fritz "had to" do this these last two days ("mußte"), and since he's entirely silent throughout, I bet it was meant as a punishment, or at least as an exercise in humility.
That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to check. Especially the being silent part: I had to do lots of things when I was a kid that weren't punishments or humiliation, just doing what my parents told me. But in the absence of you knowing this was a standard thing for princes, I'm going with "FW is mad at him."
Btw, cahn, you may have looked at the German and figured this out, but I'm preeeetty sure FW didn't bake the apples himself. :P He himself presented the baked apples to the guest.
(ETA: no, got it wrong, looked it up again. Much loved "Mama" who is depicted at the flute concert and was hugged post 7 Years War was the Countess Camas. Sorry for the confusion./ ETA)
I was about to look up if somehow they were the same person in different marriages! Thank you for clarifying.
Jsyk, Countess Camas has a correspondence with Fritz in the Trier archive, which I haven't checked to see if it has anything interesting.
When exactly FW takes up painting: search me. The painting exhibited at Wusterhausen is from the 1730s, but that doesn't mean he didn't do it before.
So what I was remembering, in addition to my general impression that it was a couple years before he died, was a letter exchange you reported between Fritz and Wilhelmine, where Fritz is telling Wilhelmine that FW has taken up painting. Which means it would have to be 1732 or later. I turned up the comment in question, and sure enough, you said "around 1737":
And, around 1737:
W: Have just heard rumors that Mom and Dad have done a 180%. She's supposed to have gone religious while he's supposed to have discovered music. What the hell?
F: Don't worry, it's not true. Mom's no more religious than before and Dad has discovered painting, not music. That can still be our thing.
Since that jives with my 1737/1738 impression, I'm surprised to see Ziebura implying he was into painting in 1727.
Another interesting bit of chronology: in spring of 1739, Fritz sends AW some Wolff as consolation for having to put up with sick Dad. Ziebura says that AW had to keep FW from finding out that he was reading. (Whether this is a recorded fact or an inference, I'm not sure.) In October 1739, Fritz writes to Suhm that FW has now spent three hours reading Wolff and is retracting the banishment on pain of death and offering Wolff a pension!
Did AW read some Wolff at Fritz's suggestion and then tell FW that it was full of things he would agree with, and FW decided to give it a try on the basis of his favorite, not very bookish, son liking it?
So the point wasn't this particular soldier, it was saving a soldier from hanging, since she knew how serious FW took his military punishments. If little AW could achieve this, then maybe he could achieve more in the future. After all, her children were her weapons in the marital battle.
Ahhh, okay, that makes sense! Yeah, I bet that's it. Ditto Grumbkow and Seckendorff, who are always looking for ways to get what they want out of FW.
Re: AW readthrough
That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to check. Especially the being silent part: I had to do lots of things when I was a kid that weren't punishments or humiliation, just doing what my parents told me. But in the absence of you knowing this was a standard thing for princes, I'm going with "FW is mad at him."
Btw,
(ETA: no, got it wrong, looked it up again. Much loved "Mama" who is depicted at the flute concert and was hugged post 7 Years War was the Countess Camas. Sorry for the confusion./ ETA)
I was about to look up if somehow they were the same person in different marriages! Thank you for clarifying.
Jsyk, Countess Camas has a correspondence with Fritz in the Trier archive, which I haven't checked to see if it has anything interesting.
When exactly FW takes up painting: search me. The painting exhibited at Wusterhausen is from the 1730s, but that doesn't mean he didn't do it before.
So what I was remembering, in addition to my general impression that it was a couple years before he died, was a letter exchange you reported between Fritz and Wilhelmine, where Fritz is telling Wilhelmine that FW has taken up painting. Which means it would have to be 1732 or later. I turned up the comment in question, and sure enough, you said "around 1737":
And, around 1737:
W: Have just heard rumors that Mom and Dad have done a 180%. She's supposed to have gone religious while he's supposed to have discovered music. What the hell?
F: Don't worry, it's not true. Mom's no more religious than before and Dad has discovered painting, not music. That can still be our thing.
Since that jives with my 1737/1738 impression, I'm surprised to see Ziebura implying he was into painting in 1727.
Another interesting bit of chronology: in spring of 1739, Fritz sends AW some Wolff as consolation for having to put up with sick Dad. Ziebura says that AW had to keep FW from finding out that he was reading. (Whether this is a recorded fact or an inference, I'm not sure.) In October 1739, Fritz writes to Suhm that FW has now spent three hours reading Wolff and is retracting the banishment on pain of death and offering Wolff a pension!
Did AW read some Wolff at Fritz's suggestion and then tell FW that it was full of things he would agree with, and FW decided to give it a try on the basis of his favorite, not very bookish, son liking it?
So the point wasn't this particular soldier, it was saving a soldier from hanging, since she knew how serious FW took his military punishments. If little AW could achieve this, then maybe he could achieve more in the future. After all, her children were her weapons in the marital battle.
Ahhh, okay, that makes sense! Yeah, I bet that's it. Ditto Grumbkow and Seckendorff, who are always looking for ways to get what they want out of FW.