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Entry tags:
Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 19
Yuletide nominations:
18th Century CE Federician RPF
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Voltaire
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
Catherine II of Russia
Hans Hermann von Katte
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758)
Circle of Voltaire RPF
Emilie du Chatelet
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour)
John Hervey (1696-1743)
Marie Louise Mignot Denis
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
Francesco Algarotti
18th Century CE Federician RPF
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Voltaire
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
Catherine II of Russia
Hans Hermann von Katte
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758)
Circle of Voltaire RPF
Emilie du Chatelet
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour)
John Hervey (1696-1743)
Marie Louise Mignot Denis
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
Francesco Algarotti
Re: Lehndorff readalong
The prose is way easier than any of the other nonfiction we've read, not least because you're on to something with the short paragraphs being much easier :P Though I contend it's not just because the paragraphs are shorter (though that is definitely part of it) but because the short journal entries are things like "Visited with Frau So-and-so." If reading this doesn't drum into my head the German for "visit" and "with," I think I'm beyond hope.
Lehndorff describes a marriage by saying the husband is stone blind, which is an advantage for the wife, since she's really ugly. Lol.
ahahaha I got a kick out of that too.
Lehndorff points out that this one woman squints horribly.
It also sounded like everyone was kind of annoyed that she was replacing someone they really liked? So maybe everyone was a bit inclined to be a bit BEC about her to begin with.
in keeping with "rubbish soaps" and "Cape stallion", Google has decided to translate Heinrich's boyfriend Reisewitz as "travel jokes."
LOL! Thank you for clearing that up :)
If it's not obvious, this is Fritz's "anonymous" pamphlet
Ah, thank you, because at first when I saw "illustrious writer" I immediately thought Voltaire, and then I was puzzled because wasn't Voltaire on the other side??
Voltaire: It was a natural mistake to make, given the writing ability of all the other parties involved.
Lehndorff saying that if Heinrich had been born a shepherd, he would have been the delight of his little village--I can hear [personal profile] cahn saying, "Endearing!" :)
:) I am afraid that the permanent consequence of having asked for endearing stories about FW is that I am always looking for whether any given character is endearing or not :) (On a scale from 1 to 10, Lehndorff is a 10, and FW is 1, and everyone else scales in between.)
What does Se. mean before the honorific? I assume Seiner?
Re: Lehndorff readalong
BTW, you can tell that Lehndorff while not quite as much a snob as Wilhelmine tends to me is still wedded to a 18th century sense of rank and formalities, because even years and years and years into the relationship(s), he writes sometimes the full "his highness the most serene Prince Heinrich"/"his highness Prince Heinrich" (or for AW and Ferdinand, too), which is, of course, why it's really telling about his emotional state when it's just "H." or, going totally extreme, "my H."
Oh, and another thing: between "Cape Stallion" and "Travel Jokes", I suppose Heinrich's other boyfriend Lamberg might show up as "Lamb Mountain"? Not to mention the upcoming arrival of Chalk Remorse?
Re: Lehndorff readalong
BTW, you can tell that Lehndorff while not quite as much a snob as Wilhelmine tends to me is still wedded to a 18th century sense of rank and formalities
Oh, I've definitely been noticing the not-quite-as-snobby-as-Wilhelmine remarks, and that works both ways, as you say: observe the formalities toward your superiors, be snide toward your inferiors.
Oh, and I meant to say, I see what you mean about Lehndorff being a possible candidate for Ravenclaw instead of Hufflepuff.
Oh, and another thing: between "Cape Stallion" and "Travel Jokes", I suppose Heinrich's other boyfriend Lamberg might show up as "Lamb Mountain"? Not to mention the upcoming arrival of Chalk Remorse?
OMG, I laughed so hard. Alas, Ctrl-f reveals neither. But it's not too late to change that with my algorithms! :D
Re: Lehndorff readalong
Re: Lehndorff readalong
Reading along with your notes is GREAT :D Thank you for the detailed notes!
You said this, and I was like, "Great, I'll make more notes as I go along, and I'll read at the computer because my computer time isn't quite as limited!"
But SOMEONE had to go and post an amazing drawing of Fritz and dogs, and naturally, I spent the whole evening LOOKING at it instead of reading. :P
And THEN, when I *was* reading, I got distracted by doing detective work instead.
So as liveblogging goes, it was a success, as meeting German quota goes, it was a failure. :P
And not because the German's difficult, because...
The prose is way easier than any of the other nonfiction we've read, not least because you're on to something with the short paragraphs being much easier :P Though I contend it's not just because the paragraphs are shorter (though that is definitely part of it) but because the short journal entries are things like "Visited with Frau So-and-so."
Yep, it's definitely not just the paragraphs, but also the short, repetitive, often telegraphic sentences, which I fully expected from my flipping through it during the last month. I actually put together the machine translation of Krockow (double portrait of Fritz and Heinrich) this weekend, because Lehndorff isn't giving me the kind of German practice I need, and I was planning to do them in conjunction.
AND THEN I didn't even meet German quota today. :P
So, please yell at me, and I'm going to have to not liveblog tomorrow.
But for now, here's what I came up with. As usual, if I spot Google doing something weird and potentially confusing, I'll tell you about it, but I do not have time to read the English translation alongside the German. I only glance at it now and again.
1752, September: Pesne is the court painter who did a number of the paintings you're familiar with in this fandom.
1752, November 10: Bielfeld: Middle class friend of Fritz who gave the speech when Fritz became a Freemason. Fritz appointed him tutor to his younger brothers when he became King. He wrote a bunch of books (Lehndorff will explain some but not all of this in a later entry).
1753, February 18: Life was so great for the patriarchs, who kept their families in a permanent state of total dependence on them and living in fear of their violence! Yeah, I'm sure it was great for the patriarchs. (I get that Lehndorff's saying he misses his family, but what a way to say it.)
1753, March 4: Marschall has the pox, not the leaves.
1753, March 11: More Katte family drama! Marschall has the pox, dies, and all the property that his grandmother saved for 86 years, in hopes of making him happy, now goes to some Katte, whom she despised.
*an hour later*
Well, I *was* trying to figure this out, but then I got side-tracked by "pictures of Fritz smiling and looking happy." Now I've closed 24 tabs of Marschalls and Kattes, and 6 of Fritz pictures, and I'm going back to reading.
...I'm never making quota at this rate. :P
What I found was:
We had already figured out that the Staatsminister Katt is Heinrich Christoph, son of Heinrich Christoph (Hans Heinrich's brother). Wikipedia tells me he was the successor to Samuel von Marschall, but 1) that was a political appointment, 2) Samuel died in 1749.
I had been wondering if Samuel had a last male heir who died in 1753, but no, his heir lived until 1805. (He and Lehndorff's Marschall both had the title Legationsrat.) Samuel was from East Prussia, like our Marschall, and two of his sons were "Domherr in Havelberg", where Havelberg is near Katte territory. Samuel's wife--
Oh, interesting, in 1741/1742, Heinrich Christoph von Katte was appointed Kammerdirektor of Küstrin. Which was Hille's job. Ooh, yes, Hille died in 1740. Timing lines up.
So...a Katte cousin gets Hille's job almost immediately after Fritz becomes king. Coincidence?
Well, I hope he wasn't close to Hans Hermann (his brother Ludolf is supposed to have been), since imagine working every day where your favorite first cousin WAS BEHEADED.
Anyway, Samuel's wife was a Borstell, and the Borstells seem to hail from Bismarck territory, which is very very near Katte territory (which is why the two families keep intermarrying). Hmm. There is a Borstell in the Katte family tree, but only in the 1500s.
GAH. I'm not quite there, and I said I was going back to reading FORTY-FIVE minutes ago.
Bad Mildred!
*closes 10 more tabs*
A few minutes later...
*closes another 5 that somehow opened, they proliferate on their own, I swear*
1753, March 16: It's 1753 and the Abbe de Prades is already suspected of being an informer? (
Lehndorff: Well, all these intellectuals Fritz collects are terrible people, but I guess they have a purpose, since he's an exhausted and stressed workaholic who needs some entertaining conversations.
Also Lehndorff (earlier): The people I like are great, but whenever Fritz appears, for some reason they freeze up and become completely boring until he leaves.
1753, March 20: Lehndorff's hopes about his cousin are fading, and he's seeing the property he was expecting disappear into the hands of his rival. So the One Who Got Away still isn't married yet!
Good lord, what is taking so long?
1748: The fatal fraternal duel.
1749[?]: Lehndorff's proposal, according to the label on the box containing the relevant papers in the Saxon archives
1751: When Lehndorff was supposed to marry his cousin, according to a diary entry later in the 1750s.
1753: His hopes are fading.
1755: The marriage to Ludolf von Katte, according to Kloosterhuis.
This entry means "Lovers" is wrong, in that she's not married when Lehndorff talks to Peter at Heinrich's wedding in mid-1752. I was going for the 1751 date, as you know.
1755 is looking more plausible! But that's still another two years. I will keep my eyes peeled.
See, it's good to reread things a year later! Especially if the person doing the rereading is me and has to read them very slowly in order to understand them at all. ;)
Btw, no names are mentioned, just "cousin" and "rival", so this is why this entry neither turned up in our searches, nor jumped out at you when you were reading,
1753, March 24: "All my hopes are gone!" Nothing to do now but patiently endure fate (and complain to all my friends who are loyal enough to share my pain).
So it sounds like things are getting pretty final with Ludolf!
Same day: I make the acquaintance of Abbe Cristiani, an Italian, but one so dumb that he could take on the dumbest Pomeranian. !!
See, this is why it's so impressive that Fredersdorf, from the backend of Pomerania, with no education, managed to catch up so quickly. ;)
1753, March 30: Google translates Autodafé as "car dairy." It actually gets it if you paste it into the browser! But not so much in the API, I guess.
1753, April 3: The Queen's ladies don't come to AW's party, which annoys him. Sounds like him. :P
Sophie was married in 1751, though, so she wouldn't be one of them, if I'm not mistaken.
Oh, I forgot to mention earlier,
1753, April 14: The Margravine of Ansbach is Fritz's sister, of whom
Ansbach brother in law: in addition to this, he was also yet another lousy husband I am reminded of Fritz‘ unexpectedly touching reaction in a letter to Heinrich when his Ansbach sister died:
My dearest brother,
It is the heartbroken with pain that I write to you today. I have just learned of the death of our poor and unhappy sister in Ansbach. This comes back, my dear brother, to what I have been telling you lately, that what is left of our family is shaking up their sleeves. I have always thought of going to Ansbach to see my poor sister again; I never could find the moment. She was a very good and honest person, whose heart was full of integrity. I confess to you, my dear brother, that this distresses me so much, that I will put off another day to answer you.
Friederike Luise had once been a spirited girl whose cheeky telling FW that the food he gives his children is lousy triggered the occasion where he threw with the plates at Wilhelmine and Fritz; she was the first to get married, and by the time she died, she was an utterly depressed lonely woman hardly able to talk anymore.
Per Wikipedia:Even on the trip to Ansbach in June 1729 [when she was FOURTEEN] for her wedding, Luise Friederike was suffering from symptoms of the metabolic disease porphyria. She suffered from nausea, vomiting and faintings during which she was "dead as it seemed". Her spouse claimed she was lame and had bad teeth. Initially, he would not sleep with her. Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia commented on the marriage in February 1732 in these terms: "My sister and her husband the Ansbacher hate each other like fire." (»... ma soeur d'Anspac et son mari qui se Mr. haïssent comme le feu. ") At a window in the family room of the Ansbacher Residenz, she scratched this plea with a diamond in the glass:" Je souffre sans oser le dire. " (I suffer without daring to say it.)
When her 4-year-old son died in 1737:
The Margrave and the whole court blamed Friederike Louise for his death. She separated from her spouse and lived more and more in the seclusion of [her estate] Unterschwaningen, which she expanded artistically. Friederike Louise did not return to Ansbach until she became a widow in 1757. Her unhappiness was further compounded by the refusal of her surviving son to see or acknowledge her.
1753, April 15: Ankunit = "Ankunft" = "arrival"
1753, April 28: Only you can prevent forest fires, AW! (He sets some trees on fire to see what will happen, a conflagration starts up quickly, everyone's afraid for the whole park, but then the trees burn down and it doesn't spread.)
Oh, this is great, their reactions while the fire is raging:
Heinrich: *only cares about saving everyone else* <-- Lehndorff sparkly hearts
AW: How on earth am I going to explain this?
Reisewitz: loses his head, dumps water on his boyfriend Heinrich instead of on the fire, which gave it time to spread. I guess that shows some priorities!
Bielfeld: *brave Sir Robin bravely ran away*
This whole episode is dying for crackfic!
Oh, and Lehndorff, of course: I totally kept my cool and observed everyone else's reactions, yes sir, I did.
Ooh, later that day:
Lehndorff talks to Countess Bentinck, when he learns Fritz is mad at her, he regrets that this means he won't be able to hang out with her any more, because prudence dictates you not make friends with people the great and powerful are mad at, especially when they're guilty of having worked against the interests of the King.
1753, April 30: Fritz goes to the bathroom, lol, Google. He goes to the *baths*.
1753, May 1: "The saddest day of my life." The previous saddest day of his life was when Marschall died of the pox. Today it's because Heinrich is going to be at Oranienburg and Rheinsberg for a few weeks.
Oh, Lehndorff, never change. :D
Omg, it continues. The tears, the speechlessness, the broken heart, the vows of eternal devotion, the sleeplessness!
I know you've told us about this very episode,
Oh, right, and now he's hiding behind a house at Heinrich's departure because he can't bear to face him I REMEMBER THIS. LOL forever.
OMG, now it's the line where pagans would have made him a god and now everyone just builds altars to him in their hearts. Wow, this was all from one entry. This is amazing. (Btw, when you reminded me of this line,
1753, May 3: Here we are visiting the Podewils in the village of Fredersdorf again, because that's not confusing AT ALL. :P
Okay, I have to stop, it's my bedtime. It's been a wild ride, but I have to keep my sleep together so I can do Yuletide this year!
Re: Lehndorff readalong
even if they are really cute and awesomely drawn dogs. YOU HAD A QUOTA AND YOU DID NOT MAKE IT.but I feel bad about yelling at you because I love your notes so much! Can you maybe do the ones where you explain to me what's going on without the research? Cause I am not going to understand what's going on otherwise -- which isn't all that bad, Lehndorff is still a sweetie and still sparkly hearts -- but...
But I really like the idea where you read more of something else to do the actual German practice and maybe read less of this per day! The other reason I like you reading less of this per day (besides that it would be easier for you to liveblog/annotate) is because it is too easy for your German practice... which means... whose German practice is it actually excellent for? :D Seriously... my German has gotten noticeably better in even the last couple of days, because Lehndorff is so repetitive and sometimes formulaic (though mostly because my German is so very shaky and incomplete that it's pretty easy to improve it). I don't usually try to translate his longer musings, just the very formulaic ones right now :) ) But if I have to keep up with you, I don't have time to go through the German at the slow pace I need to!
OK, I've made good headway on this (lol forever to him being confused about Voltaire and Fritz, that's all of us Lehndorff) and I'll do more of it tomorrow :)
Re: Lehndorff readalong
Yeah, I went to bed last night thinking we're going to have to figure out something different for this readalong.
First of which was, I meant to say this but was in a hurry and forgot:
But if I have to keep up with you, I don't have time to go through the German at the slow pace I need to! Can you maybe do the ones where you explain to me what's going on without the research?
Not if I'm at a computer, no. :P Believe me, I wasn't researching Staatsminister Katte and Marschall because I thought *you* were so interested. Looking things up is a compulsion with me. I can make the best resolutions to limit my googling, and it just. Does. Not Work. It's like gambling or gaming are for some people: it's an addiction for me.
But let's try the weekday/weekend split? Let me know much you think you can do in a week, and I'll let you know if I think I can comment that in a weekend.