it's worth knowing that Ziebura read an article after publishing that book and switched her diagnosis of AW's death from meningitis to porphyria. Aka the hereditary disease that scholars think FW, Fritz, and Friederike Luise (among others?) may have had, and that the Hanovers may also have had (most notably mad King George III!).
Huh! But it obviously wasn't fatal to FW or Fritz for quite some time (did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :) ), so are we back to thinking that he died of grief that the emotions/stress of those years made it much worse? (Which I know is typical of many diseases! But I don't know anything about porphyria.)
Yeah, there are very few conditions stress can't make *worse*, because it negatively impacts your immune system, affects your life choices (like seeking medical treatment), and just generally undermines your mental heath.
But porphyria can attack the nervous system, so given the intracranial bleeding they found, it's possible AW would have died anyway.
Wikipedia is telling me that porphyria comes in both acute and chronic forms, and that even today the acute attacks can be fatal, so maybe AW was unlucky enough to get an acute attack that was fatal back then even if it wouldn't have been now.
did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :)
Judging by their symptoms, Fritz, FW, and Wilhelmine seem to have died of heart failure, aka dropsy, aka water retention because the circulatory system was slowly giving out. Probably in conjunction with other things, although in Fritz's case it may merely have been that he was 74 and had been imbibing tobacco by the metric ton for most of his life. I'm more surprised he lasted as long as he did!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-13 09:15 pm (UTC)Huh! But it obviously wasn't fatal to FW or Fritz for quite some time (did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :) ), so are we back to thinking that
he died of griefthat the emotions/stress of those years made it much worse? (Which I know is typical of many diseases! But I don't know anything about porphyria.)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-13 11:06 pm (UTC)But porphyria can attack the nervous system, so given the intracranial bleeding they found, it's possible AW would have died anyway.
Wikipedia is telling me that porphyria comes in both acute and chronic forms, and that even today the acute attacks can be fatal, so maybe AW was unlucky enough to get an acute attack that was fatal back then even if it wouldn't have been now.
did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :)
Judging by their symptoms, Fritz, FW, and Wilhelmine seem to have died of heart failure, aka dropsy, aka water retention because the circulatory system was slowly giving out. Probably in conjunction with other things, although in Fritz's case it may merely have been that he was 74 and had been imbibing tobacco by the metric ton for most of his life. I'm more surprised he lasted as long as he did!