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Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 24
Every post I can't believe this is still going on, and yet, here we are :D
Heh, mildred will find it hilarious that my passive memory is, while good, not nearly as useful as hers is because my passive memory doesn't cross-reference well! That is to say, once she used the keyword "redcoats" I was like "oh yeah, of course" (because we also did the American Revolution every year) but if you'd asked me "what colors did the Brits wear in the 18th century?" I would have flailed for at least a bit.
Only after lunch, once he was left in his rooms on his own, he wanted to live there as he pleased. Thus, he usually had his hair styled according to the then current fashion
Okay, I find it hilarious that he had different hairstyles for morning and afternoon! (I get the overall point, though.)
Quantz finally was freed from his tight corner once the King had left; but he was extremely careful during his subsequent visits to Berlin; he especially took care never to wear a red coat again, but only a grey or a blue one.
Heh, that is an excellent punchline. Poor Quantz.
Only after lunch, once he was left in his rooms on his own, he wanted to live there as he pleased. Thus, he usually had his hair styled according to the then current fashion
Okay, I find it hilarious that he had different hairstyles for morning and afternoon! (I get the overall point, though.)
Quantz finally was freed from his tight corner once the King had left; but he was extremely careful during his subsequent visits to Berlin; he especially took care never to wear a red coat again, but only a grey or a blue one.
Heh, that is an excellent punchline. Poor Quantz.
Quantz is frozen with panic (it sounds like), and Katte is ON IT. Just what I would expect of him. <3 And that's even more interesting given that Quantz is the narrator and has no incentive to make Katte sound better at his own expense.
Quite! It heightens the plausibility of the whole event and the reliability of Quantz as a narrator to no end.
Okay, this is really cool and also not something I had got from it on a first reading, so thank you both <3
Quite! It heightens the plausibility of the whole event and the reliability of Quantz as a narrator to no end.
Okay, this is really cool and also not something I had got from it on a first reading, so thank you both <3
Because I would feel like a cruel Royal Reader indeed if I didn't translate it for Mildred
You are the best of royal readers, truly! <3
Keith, who was stationed in Wesel, had the task to prepare the flight.
I wonder what was involved in that. Since Peter, as we know, left a week before Fritz was even due to arrive.
Katte had taken a leave of absence when the King had departed from Berlin in order to visit the countryside.
Per Koser, Katte and Holtzendorff (remember: the friend who receives a book from Katte in November for which we still have Katte's letter in his own handwriting bequeathing him the book; he shows up in Zeithain as a pre-Fritz lover) got permission to travel to Malchow on the 15th. He was arrested in the morning of the 16th.
He delayed his departure to the date when he supposed the King would arrive at Wesel, and the need to repair his carriage kept him a day longer than he wanted in Berlin.
FW arrived in Wesel on the 13th, give or take half a day, I believe.
Also, interestingly, Wilhelmine says he was waiting for a saddle to be made that could contain all the papers and money and stuff he needed to travel with.
At night, Colonel von Pannewitz, the commander of the Gens d'Armes, received the order to arrest Lieutenant von Katte; he delayed this until morning in the hope Katte would have been escaped by then, then he sent the regiment's AD to him who still found him and brought him the order to immediately report to the Colonel.
At 8 o'clock in the morning my father, who had then guard duty, the order to send a subaltern officer and four men to the Colonel's quarters
Reminder: according to the official August 30 protocol, the order arrived in the night of the 15th, the postmaster swore someone had overlooked the "urgent" postmark, and Glasenapp got the order to arrest Katte in the morning of August 16th between 6 and 7 am. So either it happened like that, or everyone is testifying that the order wasn't received until 6-7 am.
At any rate, the 8 am detail in the anecdote matches the protocol's 6-7 am quite closely. With all the back and forth, I could see an hour passing before Hertefeld was notified. That means at least one detail of this anecdote, and a surprisingly specific one, is attested.
Non, mon ami, le Tyran demande du sang
As noted downthread, the chronology actually works out on this. Which means no "Lang lebe der König" from Katte here! It also, if it actually happened like this, makes me question the point in the Puncta where Katte repeats that this is extremely not FW's fault, just God's will! Genuine piety or not, "the tyrant demands blood" is a little less saintly and more martyr-like than the document for FW's consumption shows.
Much like Hans Heinrich talking about the King's "gracious letter" but also struggling to forgive.
if Katte had managed to escape, he himself would have lost his head for sure, since the raging King would have demanded another sacrifice
Seems likely.
General von Spaen used to joke that the King had an excellent memory right up to 1730.
Well, I can see not wanting to reminisce about it! Not doing anything for him is less great-- Fritz!--but Spaen's in good company there.
under the pretense of a leisurely ride he happily leaves through the Brün Gate, from which he gallops until Dingden, the first village belonging to Münster, one mile away from Wesel; from there, he hurries through upper Wesel county straight the The Hague
Okay, I'm having way too much fun with this, but between this source, Seckendorff, and the Mylius report, I've got the following itinerary for Peter's flight!
Brün Gate (Wesel) - Dingden - Nijmegen - Rhenen - Utrecht - Hague (and of course the nearby port at Scheveningen, where everyone agrees he was smuggled to England from).
Also worth noting that Baron v. Hertefeld zu Boetzelaar near Xanten's family is from the area. Here's their family seat, and Xanten is just 15 km west of Wesel, just across the Rhine.
And the Brün gate (Brüner Tor) took some hunting, but I turned it up in this picture (upper right) on this page, which has great old black-and-white photos and maps and citadel plans of the old town!
Oh, wait, knowing exactly where to look, I found it on Google maps. Or at least a school/daycare/sth named after it, because the gate is no longer there (the nearby Berliner Gate still stands). Kita Brüner Tor.
You can see the Rhine off to the lower left, and a horizontal dotted line just north of the Kita Brüner Tor that outlines that segment of the old city wall.
The envoy advised Keith to go to England and from there to Portugal, where foreign officers were sought after.
Now, this is looking less reliable, because per his memoirs (via Formey's summary), Peter didn't end up in Portugal until 1736, and it was for reasons unrelated to escaping from FW. Nicolai/Hertefeld's not the only one who says Peter went straight to Portugal, though, and I suspect we have another simplification. (Peter's actually quite complicated, what the younger Keith brother who was with Fritz in the trip, being (like Katte) in a separate place from Fritz on the escape trip, fleeing Wesel without being warned, fleeing within the Hague after being warned, fleeing to England, fleeing Ireland, then coming back to England, then going to Portugal. "Fato profugus...multum ille et terris iactatus et alto" from the Aeneid comes to mind! (Fleeing before fate/driven forward by his fate, much tossed around on both land and sea.))
The envoy learned of this and that Keith's habit of reading late at night had given him away.
Peter, my low-key fave. <3 I'm sure he either developed this habit or put it to good use in his page days while trying to sneak some quality time with books after FW had gone to bed.
Dumoulin demanded a description of the officer, and from the circumstance that said man had been crosseyed, he concluded that it had been Keith.
It's hard to be incognito with a visible disability. This marks the 4th (?) account that mentions this: FW, Lehndorff, Formey, and now Nicolai.
Keith returned to Berlin in the year 1741
Late 1740, I think.
In conclusion, this guy seems to have a much more accurate account of the particulars of Katte's fate than of Peter's, which makes sense since Hertefeld, Sr. was present for much of Katte's, and only heard about Peter's 10-20 years later (and as we've discussed, Peter may have been fudging his own story, we don't know).
The big question: does this mean we can trust the Katte details that we haven't encountered elsewhere or that we have but not in a trustworthy source?
You are the best of royal readers, truly! <3
Keith, who was stationed in Wesel, had the task to prepare the flight.
I wonder what was involved in that. Since Peter, as we know, left a week before Fritz was even due to arrive.
Katte had taken a leave of absence when the King had departed from Berlin in order to visit the countryside.
Per Koser, Katte and Holtzendorff (remember: the friend who receives a book from Katte in November for which we still have Katte's letter in his own handwriting bequeathing him the book; he shows up in Zeithain as a pre-Fritz lover) got permission to travel to Malchow on the 15th. He was arrested in the morning of the 16th.
He delayed his departure to the date when he supposed the King would arrive at Wesel, and the need to repair his carriage kept him a day longer than he wanted in Berlin.
FW arrived in Wesel on the 13th, give or take half a day, I believe.
Also, interestingly, Wilhelmine says he was waiting for a saddle to be made that could contain all the papers and money and stuff he needed to travel with.
At night, Colonel von Pannewitz, the commander of the Gens d'Armes, received the order to arrest Lieutenant von Katte; he delayed this until morning in the hope Katte would have been escaped by then, then he sent the regiment's AD to him who still found him and brought him the order to immediately report to the Colonel.
At 8 o'clock in the morning my father, who had then guard duty, the order to send a subaltern officer and four men to the Colonel's quarters
Reminder: according to the official August 30 protocol, the order arrived in the night of the 15th, the postmaster swore someone had overlooked the "urgent" postmark, and Glasenapp got the order to arrest Katte in the morning of August 16th between 6 and 7 am. So either it happened like that, or everyone is testifying that the order wasn't received until 6-7 am.
At any rate, the 8 am detail in the anecdote matches the protocol's 6-7 am quite closely. With all the back and forth, I could see an hour passing before Hertefeld was notified. That means at least one detail of this anecdote, and a surprisingly specific one, is attested.
Non, mon ami, le Tyran demande du sang
As noted downthread, the chronology actually works out on this. Which means no "Lang lebe der König" from Katte here! It also, if it actually happened like this, makes me question the point in the Puncta where Katte repeats that this is extremely not FW's fault, just God's will! Genuine piety or not, "the tyrant demands blood" is a little less saintly and more martyr-like than the document for FW's consumption shows.
Much like Hans Heinrich talking about the King's "gracious letter" but also struggling to forgive.
if Katte had managed to escape, he himself would have lost his head for sure, since the raging King would have demanded another sacrifice
Seems likely.
General von Spaen used to joke that the King had an excellent memory right up to 1730.
Well, I can see not wanting to reminisce about it! Not doing anything for him is less great-- Fritz!--but Spaen's in good company there.
under the pretense of a leisurely ride he happily leaves through the Brün Gate, from which he gallops until Dingden, the first village belonging to Münster, one mile away from Wesel; from there, he hurries through upper Wesel county straight the The Hague
Okay, I'm having way too much fun with this, but between this source, Seckendorff, and the Mylius report, I've got the following itinerary for Peter's flight!
Brün Gate (Wesel) - Dingden - Nijmegen - Rhenen - Utrecht - Hague (and of course the nearby port at Scheveningen, where everyone agrees he was smuggled to England from).
Also worth noting that Baron v. Hertefeld zu Boetzelaar near Xanten's family is from the area. Here's their family seat, and Xanten is just 15 km west of Wesel, just across the Rhine.
And the Brün gate (Brüner Tor) took some hunting, but I turned it up in this picture (upper right) on this page, which has great old black-and-white photos and maps and citadel plans of the old town!
Oh, wait, knowing exactly where to look, I found it on Google maps. Or at least a school/daycare/sth named after it, because the gate is no longer there (the nearby Berliner Gate still stands). Kita Brüner Tor.
You can see the Rhine off to the lower left, and a horizontal dotted line just north of the Kita Brüner Tor that outlines that segment of the old city wall.
The envoy advised Keith to go to England and from there to Portugal, where foreign officers were sought after.
Now, this is looking less reliable, because per his memoirs (via Formey's summary), Peter didn't end up in Portugal until 1736, and it was for reasons unrelated to escaping from FW. Nicolai/Hertefeld's not the only one who says Peter went straight to Portugal, though, and I suspect we have another simplification. (Peter's actually quite complicated, what the younger Keith brother who was with Fritz in the trip, being (like Katte) in a separate place from Fritz on the escape trip, fleeing Wesel without being warned, fleeing within the Hague after being warned, fleeing to England, fleeing Ireland, then coming back to England, then going to Portugal. "Fato profugus...multum ille et terris iactatus et alto" from the Aeneid comes to mind! (Fleeing before fate/driven forward by his fate, much tossed around on both land and sea.))
The envoy learned of this and that Keith's habit of reading late at night had given him away.
Peter, my low-key fave. <3 I'm sure he either developed this habit or put it to good use in his page days while trying to sneak some quality time with books after FW had gone to bed.
Dumoulin demanded a description of the officer, and from the circumstance that said man had been crosseyed, he concluded that it had been Keith.
It's hard to be incognito with a visible disability. This marks the 4th (?) account that mentions this: FW, Lehndorff, Formey, and now Nicolai.
Keith returned to Berlin in the year 1741
Late 1740, I think.
In conclusion, this guy seems to have a much more accurate account of the particulars of Katte's fate than of Peter's, which makes sense since Hertefeld, Sr. was present for much of Katte's, and only heard about Peter's 10-20 years later (and as we've discussed, Peter may have been fudging his own story, we don't know).
The big question: does this mean we can trust the Katte details that we haven't encountered elsewhere or that we have but not in a trustworthy source?
my father took leave of him with the words: j'espére de vous revoir bientot; and (Katte) replied: Non, mon ami, le Tyran demande du sang.
:( I know you'd summarized this for us before, but really: :(
Wait, had we seen this quote before? It's the first I remember seeing it. That's why Selena wasn't sure at first if it was real, before she realized the date.
I am sort of simultaneously charmed and saddened by the story of Keith being betrayed by his habit of reading late at night!
Same, but I'm mostly just glad that it didn't result in his death!
:( I know you'd summarized this for us before, but really: :(
Wait, had we seen this quote before? It's the first I remember seeing it. That's why Selena wasn't sure at first if it was real, before she realized the date.
I am sort of simultaneously charmed and saddened by the story of Keith being betrayed by his habit of reading late at night!
Same, but I'm mostly just glad that it didn't result in his death!
Edited 2021-02-27 19:20 (UTC)
Re: The FW-Fritz-Quantz-Katte tale (Nicolai version)
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mildred_of_midgard
2021-02-27 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
So have I, and I think what happened is the similar as with the MT quip made by someone else and then attributed to Fritz; at some point in the retelling, someone decided that no one cares what Quantz wore on that occasion, red or not, the point is what Fritz wears, so instead of just a golden brocade dressing gown, he gets a golden-brocade-and-red-silk dressing gown.
That makes sense, and also, if you, who haven't read Blanning, have also read it elsewhere, then Blanning might well have not only been going from memory of Nicolai but also remembering another source he had read.
BTW, since Quantz at this point has a well paid job in Saxony and is making these trips to Berlin solely for Fritz' sake, you can tell how emotionally invested he must have been, to put up with the prospect of angry FW.
Indeed, and you can also tell that he was completely unprepared. I have the impression that Katte is either a very quick thinker, or else he's done something like this before, and the latter seems quite likely.
Quite! It heightens the plausibility of the whole event and the reliability of Quantz as a narrator to no end.
Exactly!
That makes sense, and also, if you, who haven't read Blanning, have also read it elsewhere, then Blanning might well have not only been going from memory of Nicolai but also remembering another source he had read.
BTW, since Quantz at this point has a well paid job in Saxony and is making these trips to Berlin solely for Fritz' sake, you can tell how emotionally invested he must have been, to put up with the prospect of angry FW.
Indeed, and you can also tell that he was completely unprepared. I have the impression that Katte is either a very quick thinker, or else he's done something like this before, and the latter seems quite likely.
Quite! It heightens the plausibility of the whole event and the reliability of Quantz as a narrator to no end.
Exactly!
Völker is a terrible name for searching!
Haha, when I first saw this name, my immediate reaction was, "Detective or not, *I'm* not putting that name in Google! It's worse than Jägerhof. :PP"
Lastly: Fritz objecting to Glasow's "consorting with women", and noticing Glasow's nightly absence: I don't think Nicolai is trying to insinuate something - as valet, it would have been Glasow's duty to be available next door or in the King's room itself
I agree, that was my reading too.
Conclusion: could whoever told the story to Nioolai maybe a) have fallen for young Glasow himself back in the day, and/or b) bear a grudge against Völker/Wöllner?
Or, crazy out there theory: Nicolai was born in 1733, which means that when Glasow rose to prominence in 1755 (when he is Fritz' companion on the incognito trip to the Netherlands), he was Glasow's age - maybe he himself had fallen for the dashing young Glasow, wants to believe the best of his youthful crush and that's why he can't name sources when he does so everywhere else?
I had been wondering if it was something like this, yeah.
Haha, when I first saw this name, my immediate reaction was, "Detective or not, *I'm* not putting that name in Google! It's worse than Jägerhof. :PP"
Lastly: Fritz objecting to Glasow's "consorting with women", and noticing Glasow's nightly absence: I don't think Nicolai is trying to insinuate something - as valet, it would have been Glasow's duty to be available next door or in the King's room itself
I agree, that was my reading too.
Conclusion: could whoever told the story to Nioolai maybe a) have fallen for young Glasow himself back in the day, and/or b) bear a grudge against Völker/Wöllner?
Or, crazy out there theory: Nicolai was born in 1733, which means that when Glasow rose to prominence in 1755 (when he is Fritz' companion on the incognito trip to the Netherlands), he was Glasow's age - maybe he himself had fallen for the dashing young Glasow, wants to believe the best of his youthful crush and that's why he can't name sources when he does so everywhere else?
I had been wondering if it was something like this, yeah.
Very good finds, Holmes!
I haven't found a copy of Schöning's own book
Neither have I, just a physical copy in the Munich university library (as well as various other libraries in Germany). Not sure if even post-pandemic Selena has access to that library.
Also an 1809 review, which is...somehow not in a ridiculous font??
The Munich uni library calls him Kurd von Schöning, but they seem to be confusing him with the later military history writer Kurd von Schöning who was born in 1789 and whom I turned up in my searches earlier.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?)
I know they did sometimes! Wikipedia tells me leeches really took off in the early 19th century, but they'd been around in the 18th as well. (They'd been *around* forever, since ancient Egypt, but were still in use in the 18C.)
But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Huh. I thought we'd established that he did (hence that making it into my fanfic), but perhaps we extrapolated that from me (and Selena?) needing glasses to read and right. I pushed my glasses up on my head just now, and I had to increase the font size up to 300% just to be able to make out DW text with a lot of difficulty, and at 500% it was still noticeably blurry and hard to read. And 500% is as high as Chrome will take me. :P
Otoh, as I remember Selena pointing out, it was the 18th century, and everyone was holding the page up to their nose, because lighting was terrible!
Also, if he wasn't far-sighted at all by 74, that's impressive.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
I haven't found a copy of Schöning's own book
Neither have I, just a physical copy in the Munich university library (as well as various other libraries in Germany). Not sure if even post-pandemic Selena has access to that library.
Also an 1809 review, which is...somehow not in a ridiculous font??
The Munich uni library calls him Kurd von Schöning, but they seem to be confusing him with the later military history writer Kurd von Schöning who was born in 1789 and whom I turned up in my searches earlier.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
leeches ("Blutigel" :D - this shows up quite often, did they do the bleeding that way?)
I know they did sometimes! Wikipedia tells me leeches really took off in the early 19th century, but they'd been around in the 18th as well. (They'd been *around* forever, since ancient Egypt, but were still in use in the 18C.)
But he didn't need glasses to read and write.
Huh. I thought we'd established that he did (hence that making it into my fanfic), but perhaps we extrapolated that from me (and Selena?) needing glasses to read and right. I pushed my glasses up on my head just now, and I had to increase the font size up to 300% just to be able to make out DW text with a lot of difficulty, and at 500% it was still noticeably blurry and hard to read. And 500% is as high as Chrome will take me. :P
Otoh, as I remember Selena pointing out, it was the 18th century, and everyone was holding the page up to their nose, because lighting was terrible!
Also, if he wasn't far-sighted at all by 74, that's impressive.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
This is interesting because Büsching also says that nearly of of Fritz' personal servants were uneducated to illiterate near the end, because he'd gotten paranoid about being spied at. Clearly, if so, Schöning was an exception.
Oh, Fritz. Maybe if he trusted you not to spy on him, he liked the company? He was getting kind of lonely at the end, even with Lucchesini.
I say again: oh, Fritz.
Oh, Fritz. Maybe if he trusted you not to spy on him, he liked the company? He was getting kind of lonely at the end, even with Lucchesini.
I say again: oh, Fritz.
The condoling letter is very Fritz (in a mild way way, I hasten to add): we must all die, alas, be a philosopher, accept it, even though I totally feel your pain as a tender mother, live for me, you are the happiness of my life.
Ha! Yes. (So was the poem for Amalie thatfelis linked, at least from my mild browsing in google translate.)
also that people peeping through keyholes (?!) saw repeatedly that D'Argens took off his two caps which he was otherwise wearing all the time before reading the letters.
Okay, I laughed -- peeping through keyholes?? (Though it's a rather sweet story.)
(Book selling tactics are also eternal.)
Ha!
Ha! Yes. (So was the poem for Amalie that
felis linked, at least from my mild browsing in google translate.)also that people peeping through keyholes (?!) saw repeatedly that D'Argens took off his two caps which he was otherwise wearing all the time before reading the letters.
Okay, I laughed -- peeping through keyholes?? (Though it's a rather sweet story.)
(Book selling tactics are also eternal.)
Ha!
He had worn a flannel under-waistcoat four years and durst not take it off for fear of catching cold. The King drove out one fear by another, and told him that if he persisted to wear that waistcoat, his perspiration would be entirely stopped, and he must inevitably die. The marquis agreed to quit his waistcoat. But it had so fixed itself upon him that pieces of his skin came away with it.
Ha! Thank you for reminding me! (I did remember it once you brought it up.)
Uh. Well, I guess Fredersdorf and Wilhelmine are dead after 1758, but...Heinrich? Trusted with military and personal confidences! General and therapist rolled into one. :P
Everyone forgets about Heinrich! Probably because there can't be two suns in a firmament :PPPP
Ha! Thank you for reminding me! (I did remember it once you brought it up.)
Uh. Well, I guess Fredersdorf and Wilhelmine are dead after 1758, but...Heinrich? Trusted with military and personal confidences! General and therapist rolled into one. :P
Everyone forgets about Heinrich! Probably because there can't be two suns in a firmament :PPPP
Got it! :D
Additional info via Volz: this was apparently slightly edited by the 1808 editor (after Schöning's death) and is based on several things Schöning wrote - for Büsching, against Unger/Zimmermann, ... - starting right after Fritz' death. In the state archive, Volz also found a 1795 manuscript Schöning sent to one of FWII's ministers in 1795 (per request), which contains a mix of all that. The quotes that Volz gives in the article I linked above are (mostly) anecdotes from the 1795 manuscript that aren't in the published 1808 one.
The 1809 review is the one that Selena linked above, see "The reviewer..."
And yeah, I saw the Kurd von Schöning confusion as well. Volz doesn't give a first name either, and he says that we don't know much about him - I mentioned most of it - and nothing about his life before 1766. Haven't read the actual Schöning book yet, but I doubt there's more in that one, or Volz would probably have mentioned it.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
Sadly, no.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not. Another Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch essay (truly a treasure trove), Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen, which I just realized is actually written by two people instead of one: first part by Koser, who collects a lot of quotes about Fritz' looks, starting with F1's comments about baby Fritz, second part by Seidel about Fritz paintings and sculptures etc.
Additional info via Volz: this was apparently slightly edited by the 1808 editor (after Schöning's death) and is based on several things Schöning wrote - for Büsching, against Unger/Zimmermann, ... - starting right after Fritz' death. In the state archive, Volz also found a 1795 manuscript Schöning sent to one of FWII's ministers in 1795 (per request), which contains a mix of all that. The quotes that Volz gives in the article I linked above are (mostly) anecdotes from the 1795 manuscript that aren't in the published 1808 one.
The 1809 review is the one that Selena linked above, see "The reviewer..."
And yeah, I saw the Kurd von Schöning confusion as well. Volz doesn't give a first name either, and he says that we don't know much about him - I mentioned most of it - and nothing about his life before 1766. Haven't read the actual Schöning book yet, but I doubt there's more in that one, or Volz would probably have mentioned it.
Felis, do you have non-pandemic access to a physical library that I should be including in my searches?
Sadly, no.
which is included in Seidel's essay about Fritz' looks
Ooh. Where is this?
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not. Another Hohenzollern-Jahrbuch essay (truly a treasure trove), Die äußere Erscheinung Friedrichs des Großen, which I just realized is actually written by two people instead of one: first part by Koser, who collects a lot of quotes about Fritz' looks, starting with F1's comments about baby Fritz, second part by Seidel about Fritz paintings and sculptures etc.
Got it! :D
*applauds* In the library now. And I'm adding SLUB to my list of digitized book sources to check from now on!
So now our Anecdotes folder has Zimmermann (2 works), Nicolai (2 works), Büsching, Schöning, and Unger!
I also added some Hohenzollern yearbooks (not all, maybe tomorrow) to the Articles folder.
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not.
Maybe you did! Clearly I can't even keep track of which review Selena found and whether it's the same as mine (there is too much happening too fast!). But it's not ringing a bell, so regardless--thank you!
*applauds* In the library now. And I'm adding SLUB to my list of digitized book sources to check from now on!
So now our Anecdotes folder has Zimmermann (2 works), Nicolai (2 works), Büsching, Schöning, and Unger!
I also added some Hohenzollern yearbooks (not all, maybe tomorrow) to the Articles folder.
Huh, I thought I'd mentioned it before, but maybe not.
Maybe you did! Clearly I can't even keep track of which review Selena found and whether it's the same as mine (there is too much happening too fast!). But it's not ringing a bell, so regardless--thank you!
Oh wow, that's a stunning story. (In both good and bad ways.)
Moses at first didn't want to do it. He said: "It pains me that I should have to ask for the right of my existence, which should be given to every human being living as a decent citizen. If the state sees cause to tolerate people of my nation only in very limited numbers, why should I be privileged among my brethren to demand an exception?"
However, Moses Mendelsohn's friends pointed out to him that he was the head of a family who had to take this step for their sake, as they depended on him. He finally was persuaded.
The most depressing aspect? The only one aware that the law itself is wrong (i.e. that the crux isn't that exceptions for great thinkers should be made) is Moses Mendelsohn. :(
Yeah. :( I gotta say I'm super impressed by Mendelssohn, though!
Likefelis, I also appreciate the portrait of D'Argens, who does as you say seem super likeable <3
Okay, question that may hinge on translation:
Un philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant, de donner le privilege a un philosophe mauvais juif.
I get the philosophe mauvais catholique and the philosophe mauvais protestant (also, I assume that "mauvais" modifies "catholique" rather than "philosophe"?), but is he just being clever/ironic/parallel by referring to Mendelssohn as un philosophe mauvais juif? I didn't get the impression that Mendelssohn was particularly non-devout, but maybe D'Argens is just making a joke there about his and Fritz's lack of piety, and just assumed Mendelssohn was the same?
Moses at first didn't want to do it. He said: "It pains me that I should have to ask for the right of my existence, which should be given to every human being living as a decent citizen. If the state sees cause to tolerate people of my nation only in very limited numbers, why should I be privileged among my brethren to demand an exception?"
However, Moses Mendelsohn's friends pointed out to him that he was the head of a family who had to take this step for their sake, as they depended on him. He finally was persuaded.
The most depressing aspect? The only one aware that the law itself is wrong (i.e. that the crux isn't that exceptions for great thinkers should be made) is Moses Mendelsohn. :(
Yeah. :( I gotta say I'm super impressed by Mendelssohn, though!
Like
felis, I also appreciate the portrait of D'Argens, who does as you say seem super likeable <3Okay, question that may hinge on translation:
Un philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant, de donner le privilege a un philosophe mauvais juif.
I get the philosophe mauvais catholique and the philosophe mauvais protestant (also, I assume that "mauvais" modifies "catholique" rather than "philosophe"?), but is he just being clever/ironic/parallel by referring to Mendelssohn as un philosophe mauvais juif? I didn't get the impression that Mendelssohn was particularly non-devout, but maybe D'Argens is just making a joke there about his and Fritz's lack of piety, and just assumed Mendelssohn was the same?
When the Marquis visited the King that evening, he started to chide him as soon as he had stepped into the room.
- made me smile. Probably a tale that became a bit bigger in the telling, but still, it's a great scene.
Yes!
- made me smile. Probably a tale that became a bit bigger in the telling, but still, it's a great scene.
Yes!
However, one couldn't trust him. For often the musicians, upon noticing he'd fallen asleep, skipped several arias in order to finish earlier. No sooner did they try that he opened his eyes and called "But you're leaving something out". Or he called "The aria - is missing" and sang the beginning of this aria."
Ha! I guess it says something about me that this is the first story I've heard about FW that actually strikes me as endearing, like I was all "aw, FW!" (Don't get me wrong, I really like the meeting his maker in uniform story, but I didn't have the visceral response to it that I do to this one.) Probably partially because I'd always thought he was totally against music!
(FW: finding a way to save money, look at Tall Men and enjoy music at the same time. Gotta respect that.)
HAHAHAHAHA
Ha! I guess it says something about me that this is the first story I've heard about FW that actually strikes me as endearing, like I was all "aw, FW!" (Don't get me wrong, I really like the meeting his maker in uniform story, but I didn't have the visceral response to it that I do to this one.) Probably partially because I'd always thought he was totally against music!
(FW: finding a way to save money, look at Tall Men and enjoy music at the same time. Gotta respect that.)
HAHAHAHAHA
:D I feel like I must have said this before (maybe I didn't?) but I love that Antinous shot in particular, it's so nicely framed <3
Isn't it just? Those poor Tall Musicians, though! Fredersdorf so lucked out, clearly. If FW had known he could play the oboe (!!!!), he'd have been drafted to serve in FW's personal orchestra.
OMG.
Isn't it just? Those poor Tall Musicians, though! Fredersdorf so lucked out, clearly. If FW had known he could play the oboe (!!!!), he'd have been drafted to serve in FW's personal orchestra.
OMG.
Okay, [personal profile] cahn, we need this in the sequel, FW falling asleep (or pretending to fall asleep to music), and FW's painting hobby!
Clearly there does need to be an outtake, at least :)
omg, can you imagine the AU where Fredersdorf gets conscripted by FW??
Clearly there does need to be an outtake, at least :)
omg, can you imagine the AU where Fredersdorf gets conscripted by FW??
Re: Nicolai Volume 2: It's Antinous Time! (Also: FW, Music lover)
mildred_of_midgard
2021-02-28 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
:D I feel like I must have said this before (maybe I didn't?) but I love that Antinous shot in particular, it's so nicely framed <3
I've definitely said it before! The same shot as taken by someone else and turned up by me on the internet, before the great Selena Brandenburg tour, has been the background on my desktop for almost a year now. It's *gorgeous*. It was the first shot that made me not see the trellis as ugly and understand why Fritz wanted it that way. It's all about lighting. I was delighted to see Selena had gotten the same shot!
And envious; I must go back so I can get it too!
I've definitely said it before! The same shot as taken by someone else and turned up by me on the internet, before the great Selena Brandenburg tour, has been the background on my desktop for almost a year now. It's *gorgeous*. It was the first shot that made me not see the trellis as ugly and understand why Fritz wanted it that way. It's all about lighting. I was delighted to see Selena had gotten the same shot!
And envious; I must go back so I can get it too!
Re: Nicolai Volume 2: It's Antinous Time! (Also: FW, Music lover)
mildred_of_midgard
2021-02-28 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
ZOMG
But yes, outtake! Your fans demand an outtake! But not yet because I have no time to beta. :P
But yes, outtake! Your fans demand an outtake! But not yet because I have no time to beta. :P
(BTW, how's that for humiliation: having your marital sex life, or lack of same, discussed by the international press?)
I had two reactions to this: a) seems par for the course these days b) I guess it could be worse, it could be Marie Antoinette's marital sex life discussed by the international press? (Which I assume it wasn't.)
Johnson leaves you with the impression that he gained the money by taxing his poor subjects and never did anything with it but bath in it like Scrooge McDuck.
Heeeeeee! I laughed :D
I had two reactions to this: a) seems par for the course these days b) I guess it could be worse, it could be Marie Antoinette's marital sex life discussed by the international press? (Which I assume it wasn't.)
Johnson leaves you with the impression that he gained the money by taxing his poor subjects and never did anything with it but bath in it like Scrooge McDuck.
Heeeeeee! I laughed :D
Not sure if this was directed at me (selenak seems to have no problem seeing your images in general) but yes I can see it! :D (Also the previous pic that I replied to, obviously, and I am also seeing some maps that you posted today :D )
selenak seems to have no problem seeing your images in general) but yes I can see it! :D (Also the previous pic that I replied to, obviously, and I am also seeing some maps that you posted today :D )Yay for the new Google Photos embedding html-generator site I found! It's the only way I've been able to generate a link that you can see. (A Google Photos link, as opposed to Google Drive, which is my fallback method that always seems to work.) Now, we still have to hope they're not ephemeral like most of the other links (I kind of suspect Selena checks more often than you and thus gets the images into her browser cache, whereas by the time you check, the link has expired), but so far so good!
Oh lol, of course FW would have wanted to save money on embalming! Heh.
I suppose it could have been religious, at that. I was shocked to find when my mother-in-law died that there are American Protestants (their pastor, in particular) who have decided religious opinions against cremation, because in his mind it was correlated with not taking resurrection seriously. (Most Protestants I know don't necessarily choose cremation, but have no real religious opinion on it.)
I suppose it could have been religious, at that. I was shocked to find when my mother-in-law died that there are American Protestants (their pastor, in particular) who have decided religious opinions against cremation, because in his mind it was correlated with not taking resurrection seriously. (Most Protestants I know don't necessarily choose cremation, but have no real religious opinion on it.)
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