Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

[cahn]

Yuletide signups so far:
3 requests for Frederician RPF, 2 offers
2 requests for Circle of Voltaire RPF, 3 offers !! :D :D

(I am so curious as to who the third person is!)

Comments

Re: Fredersdorf: The Dirk Fahlenkamp Version (I) - Generalities

[cahn]

(At which point I feel like exclaiming "Koser, thou hast lived in vain! Am I the only one who ever reads the goddam preface?!?)

LOL, ...maybe you are? (I like reading prefaces myself -- which reminds me, mildred got me to skip the Lehndorff one, but maybe if I get ahead of her I can go back and read it!)

Fredersdorf was the seventh and youngest child of town musician Joachim Fredersdorf

OOH. This is actually very cool to me, because I was wondering how he got to be so very good with people as you'd have to be to deal with Fritz, but yeah, being the youngest of seven would -- well, obviously having a bunch of older siblings is not a sufficient condition (Heinrich, for instance, having a much different personality :P ) but in my observation of large families it often seems to help a lot. (Though I headcanoned him as an older child in his family, for no real reason, so gonna have to undo that headcanon.)

the document doesn't just specify Zernikow will also go to Fredersdorf's descendant or otherwise heirs and their heirs, but says it will remain "his or her true property"; this is important because women inheriting isn't a given in German lands at this time (MT: Don't I know it!), but the document specifically says female heirs are just as valid

Oh wow, that is really cool. It does seem to suggest Fredersdorf insisted on it (I can't imagine Fritz would have).

Fritz uses the term "verreckt", which isn't just slang for dying, but contemptuous slang, so maybe "has bit the dust" would be a better translation

Yeah, "bit the dust" I think has a little more of that connotation (not a whole lot, but more than "kicked the bucket").

Fahlenkamp employs the art of the very selected quote when claiming that our Lehndorff "maliciously describes Fredersdorf as 'a common man from the most backward Pommarania without any education'"

Fahlenkamp don't DO that! Maligning both Fredersdorf and our man Lehndorff >:(

Re: Fredersdorf: The Dirk Fahlenkamp Version (I) - Generalities

[selenak]

I like reading prefaces myself -- which reminds me, mildred got me to skip the Lehndorff one, but maybe if I get ahead of her I can go back and read it!

There are, in fact, two prefaces in that edition. One is the original one by Schmidt-Lötzen from 1907, and the other is actually an article a female historian wrote about tracking down the surviving Lehndorff diaries in the Leipzig archive when she was trying to verify a quote about EC, who was her main subject.

I was wondering how he got to be so very good with people as you'd have to be to deal with Fritz, but yeah, being the youngest of seven would -- well, obviously having a bunch of older siblings is not a sufficient condition (Heinrich, for instance, having a much different personality :P

Heinrich and Amalie both - of the three youngest Hohenzollern (Amalie, Heinrich, Ferdinand, in that order born), only Ferdinand seems to have had a conflict-averse nature. However, these were siblings living under very different circumstances than Fredersdorf and his siblings would have. For starters, they only had to share the bedroom with one other sibling, not five. And had servants paying attention that they would be scrubbed and well dressed (and saying their prayers, with FW as a father).


Fahlenkamp don't DO that! Maligning both Fredersdorf and our man Lehndorff >:(

I know! I kept muttering "UNFAIR!" while reading this.

Re: Fredersdorf: The Dirk Fahlenkamp Version (I) - Generalities

[mildred_of_midgard]

There are, in fact, two prefaces in that edition. One is the original one by Schmidt-Lötzen from 1907, and the other is actually an article a female historian wrote about tracking down the surviving Lehndorff diaries in the Leipzig archive when she was trying to verify a quote about EC, who was her main subject.

I noticed the two prefaces and the introduction, which is why I skipped to the main text. I do intend to go back and read them! But I have to *work* for every line of German I read, there's 15 pages' worth, and I was just more excited about the entries themselves. So I skipped ahead.

But you and Koser have taught me the error of my ways, and I am making an effort to be better about reading introductory material these days! ;)

Re: Fredersdorf: The Dirk Fahlenkamp Version (I) - Generalities

[cahn]

I mean, I think just... not having FW as a father... and then not having your brother carrying on the tradition of familial dysfunction... might be enough to make a substantial difference? But yes, I imagine being the youngest kid sharing a bedroom with five other bigger siblings would get a kid good at being conciliatory pretty quickly, if it was in his personality at all :)