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: Acrylic Adventures

[selenak]

hich is more than what I can think of for SD because the concept of her... specific kind of motherly love is difficult to capture in an object :'D

See, I hear you on not wanting to draw them, but one idea that immediately came to mind when I read this sentence was her pinning English flaggs on Wilhelmine and Fritz. :)

AW and Heinrich: well, the most visual of objects connecting them is the Obelisk.:(

Also the bust of AW in the Rheinsberg park which strikes me as probably being more life like than the stylized portraits. And of course there's that striking passage in a 1799 letter from Heinrich to Ferdinand, when he sets up temporary quarters at Wusterhausen (the first time since the ill fated family reunion one Hohenzollern is there): I have preserved as much of the old days as I could. I believe I can forget here what happened in the last twelve years, and I don't want to think of what will happen in the fuiture. I have put up the portrait of our mother next to my bed, and the portrait of our brother Wilhelm at the opposite wall where I can see it always. I indulge in illusions about the past and push away the present. One can't burden the mind too much with matters one cannot change.

(As we've said elsewhere - if Katte's death and its circumstances was the thing Fritz could never really get over with, AW's death and its circumstances was this for Heinrich. At the same time, forgetting the "the last twelve years" in the March of 1799 just happens to be the time during which Fritz is dead. It's as close as Heinrich ever got to admitting he misses the bane of his life.)

An object/circumstance for living AW and Heinrich: how do you feel about illustratiing rl crackfic? I.e. the Lehndorff reported event where AW, Heinrich, Heinrich's boyfriend Reisewitz, Fritz' pal Bielfeld (who also taught Heinrich and Ferdinand after FW's death) and Lehndorff himself are having a picknick at the Tiergarten, AW puts fire on a fir tree to see what happens before realising this is a terrible idea (he lucked out in that the fire didn't spread far), and everyone reacts as follows:

- Bielfeld: runs away
- Reisewitz: panicks and dumps the water meant to extinguish the flames on the tree on Heinrich
- AW: How am I going to explain this?
- Heinrich: rescues everyone else
- Lehndorff: "I kept my cool and observed"

(Reisewitz: yes, you "observed" soaked to his skin Heinrich, alright.)

If this is too complicated, I would venture two scenarios for AW as a child illustrating his character. One is when he (successfully) asks FW to pardon a Potsdam Giant who deserted when he was just four years old (because SD and various other courtiers evidently treated this as a test case to see how much FW's favourite kid could get from him; this starts AW's near life long role as family mediator), and the other we discovered just recently, as reported by Braunschweig envoy Stratemann. Here's eight years old AW after Katte's death:

It's also told that the second royal prince the other day during drilling grew exhausted when an officer was supposed to teach him all the right grips, and hadn't wanted to continue; then the King came to him, he told him, if you don't want to drill anymore, you'll have to return your sword, to which the Prince replied: Dear Papa! I want to return it at once! and the King answered: Wilhelm! Then you can't be an officer! To which the Prince supposedly returned, I don't care for it, my dear Papa orders his officers' heads to be cut off.
What then happened should rather be covered with silence; by now the King suspects someone has been talking in front of the Prince with such speeches, and he's approached him somewhat harshly to confess to this; but (AW) did not provide anyone's name; but still, the Councillor Lindener as the likely informant has been in hot waters because of this.

I could imagine a visualization of this by little AW returning his toy sword to Dad. Which also works as a long term symbolism; AW's non-fulfillment of the military hero role which is the only one Prussian princes were taught to regard as viable would break him, after all. Speaking of breaking - broken sword for AW in general? That's also one of the things done at casheerings (though not at AW's as far as I know), so people might get the symbolism.

Mythology wise, the fact that Fritz and Heinrich were both charmed and latching on to the ridiculous "Remus doesn't get killed by Romulus, he escapes and lives out a long life at Rheinsberg where he's buried on an island in the Gienicker See" has inspired me to connect the Romulus and Remus symbolism to them in two ways. Either way, Fritz is Romulus. But you can both code AW as Remus - the brother killed by his brother, with the murder being one key steop on the brother becoming supreme ruler of the newly founded Rome; but Romulus will die alone and without children, and in one version of the story hated by his people, in the other taken by the gods to be among them - or you can code Heinrich as Remus, the Rheinsberg version - the brother who doesn't die, fratricide is avoided, he may never become King, but he lives out his long life in Rheinsberg.

(The gallery at Sanssouci does have a Romulus and Remus painting, but it shows the baby twins being found, not the fratricide. Still, the story evidently stuck with Fritz and kept meaning something to him beyond an anecdote to amuse his correspondants with when he lived at "Remusberg".)

For Heinrich and Fritz, there's also, I think, (slightly distorted) mirror imagery that might work, as they are each other's might-have-beens and other selves.

Re: Acrylic Adventures

[mildred_of_midgard]

See, I hear you on not wanting to draw them, but one idea that immediately came to mind when I read this sentence was her pinning English flaggs on Wilhelmine and Fritz. :)

Hee. The two things that came to mind for attributes for her were the English flag and a crown.

AW and Heinrich: well, the most visual of objects connecting them is the Obelisk.:(

Me: What about the bu-

Also the bust of AW in the Rheinsberg park

:)

I could imagine a visualization of this by little AW returning his toy sword to Dad.

OMG I want grieving and extremely not reconciled Hans Heinrich at the big revue laying his sword down before FW!! There are paintings of Hans Heinrich, this is doable! (I mean, by someone with artistic talent, not me. :P)

Context:

Stratemann: Berlin, June 31st 1731: Supposedly General Lieutenant v. Katte after leading his regiment at the revue before the King got off his horse and put his sword at the King's feet, and asked again for his demission, whereupon his majesty showed itself very much displeased. Rumor even has it (Hans Heinrich) got arrested as a consequence.

selenak: Now, obviously the arrest didn't happen - I don't think biographers would have overlooked that! -, but this is also the first time I heard about Hans Heinrich making this gesture. Since the revue was a really big public spectacle (this is also why Fritz was pissed off when Heinrich didn't salute him properly in the after the 7 Years War, remember), such a gesture would have been quite something. And does argue it's FW Hans Heinrich is struggling for forgive. Not to mention that it gives the lie to the "Hans Heinrich totally on board with FW executing his son!" version. All the more so since Stratemann is really the most FW friendly envoy ever.

WANT.

That's also one of the things done at casheerings (though not at AW's as far as I know)

Fritz: See? Our family is so harmonious!

AW puts fire on a fir tree to see what happens before realising this is a terrible idea

Sounds complicated, but I would love it! Would also love it as fic if someone were inspired, just saying.