You could, but that’s also why even if both Katte and Peter get trials and capital sentences at the same time, I don’t think he’d have sent Peter to Küstrin but would have had him executed in Berlin, in public, the point being the same as with the soldiers who did suffer this way earlier that year: discourage mutiny and desertion among the troops. Since Peter had actually deserted.
The point of Katte’s death, otoh, was specifically aimed at Fritz. So even if their trials happen simultanously, I say Katte (son of Hans Heinrich, grandson of Grandpa Wartensleben) gets the Küstrin execution in front of Fritz, but with circumstances that allow him a quick death and people around him who respect him, while Peter Keith gets the ignominous traitor’s death to show the rest of the army what happens if you desert.
But, like I said: I really do think Katte would have had a good shot at survival if Peter had been caught. Because FW had to override the tribunal twice there, and didn’t have to at all in the case of Peter, who was universally condemned to death in absentia. No question about his guilt whatsoever. FW, for all his FWness, wasn’t a cartoon figure who couldn’t get enough of death sentences. So my money is on Peter getting the death sentence (and either Fritz is brought to Berlin for the execution, or Peter is executed in Küstrin, but either way, if only Peter gets the death sentence, then Fritz is there), and the tribunal sentence of life long imprisonment for Hans Herrmann stands, allowing FW to get praised by all and sunder for his mercy. (Since none of the influentual people care about Peter.)
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Re: Peter Keith
Date: 2020-10-07 09:19 am (UTC)The point of Katte’s death, otoh, was specifically aimed at Fritz. So even if their trials happen simultanously, I say Katte (son of Hans Heinrich, grandson of Grandpa Wartensleben) gets the Küstrin execution in front of Fritz, but with circumstances that allow him a quick death and people around him who respect him, while Peter Keith gets the ignominous traitor’s death to show the rest of the army what happens if you desert.
But, like I said: I really do think Katte would have had a good shot at survival if Peter had been caught. Because FW had to override the tribunal twice there, and didn’t have to at all in the case of Peter, who was universally condemned to death in absentia. No question about his guilt whatsoever. FW, for all his FWness, wasn’t a cartoon figure who couldn’t get enough of death sentences. So my money is on Peter getting the death sentence (and either Fritz is brought to Berlin for the execution, or Peter is executed in Küstrin, but either way, if only Peter gets the death sentence, then Fritz is there), and the tribunal sentence of life long imprisonment for Hans Herrmann stands, allowing FW to get praised by all and sunder for his mercy. (Since none of the influentual people care about Peter.)