Büsching: following your lead, I looked it up in "Charakter" and lo, it's right after Büsching's account of the tale of suicidal (and kicked) Kammerhussar Deesen, aka the other handsome hussar who committed suicide over Fritz (and since Fredersdorf had been dead for decades, he really can't have been the cause). Which is Büsching starts with "another"; I'll translate it for our archive:
Another favourite of the King, named Glasow, whom he had in Saxony with him in 1756 or 1757, was of a very amorous nature, and allowed himself to be talked into stealing a letter from the King's pocket by a woman and to hand it over to her. When this became known, the King sent him to Spandau, where he died after half a year. It is said that (the King) had intended to release him around the time of his death, and was sad about this.
No mention of an accomplice here, or of the financiai shenanigans which according to the archive letters to Fredersdorf definitely were an issue; the seducing is being done by "a woman". One thing that both Nicolai and Büsching feature is that it was a one time only offense by Glasow; with Nicolai, the forging and sealing of a letter (to arrest servant B.), with Büsching, the stealing of a letter. Meanwhile, all three contemporary accounts (Lehndorff, Kalkreuth, Henckel ovn Donnersmarck) as well as the archive letters talk about repeated offenses.
Büsching in "Beiträge" disses Zimmermann's fragments by starting with a Fritz quote from the letter to Charlotte that Nicolai printed: "Le medicin de Hannover a voulu se faire valoir chez nous", Friedrich II. wrote to his sister in Braunschweig on August 10 1786. The sharp-minded monarch correctly deduced that it is a main trait in the character of this gentleman to se faire valoir. It's the eviscerating review of Zimmermann's book for which I think we got this volume in the first place, as Büsching quotes the "Generalchirurgus und Hofrat Dr. Gottlieb Engel" who'd been in charge of cleaning up Fritz' body for the funeral and who gives it to Büsching in writing in a letter dated April 2nd, 1790, that the Fritzian penis was not deformed or broken but a normal piece of male equipment. Now, here's the passage Mildred found in which Büsching addresses Völker:
In the story of the attempted poisoning of the King (Sammlung 16, p. 69 f.) Völker has been confused with Glasow. (See my book about the King's character, p. 189 of the second edition.) Völker had been the coffee maker, but he didn't hand over the coffee to the King, that was done by chamber hussar Glasow, and the King only played the flute after having drunk coffee, not before. I put the story to Secret Councillor Schöning to judgment, and his take is that Völker was much too smart to contribute something to an assassination attempt on the King, let alone to advise it. His crime supposedly consisted of playing secretary for Glasow and writing some orders in the name of the King which Glasow then sealed with the King's small seal, and through this, both of them caused their misery.
Note that this is essentially the same story as Nicolai, but without making Völker the instigator/seducer, and also with the admittance that this happened more than once. Schöning shows up up a lot in this appendix, as he appears to be Büsching's (and possibly Nicolai's?) main source for all the "Fritz and servants" tales. So who is Schöning? Well, he shows up among other things in none other than Dr. Zmmermann's book, not the "Fragments" but an earlier book by Zimmermannn's, "Über Friedrich den Großen und meine Unterredung mit ihm kurz vor seinem Tode", as the Chamber Hussar who tells the good doctor that Fritz isn't taking the medicine which the royal physician Dr. Seele ordered him to take at all, except for a digestive made of "Rhabarber und Glaubersalz". Schöning, at least after his death, appears also have joined the ranks of Fritz memoirists, for I found this review of a book of his, full title: "Friedrich der Zweite, König von Preußen. Über seine Person und sein Privatleben. Ein berichtigender Nachtrag zur Charakteristik desselbem, vom verstorbenen Geheimen Rathe Schöning. 1808."
The reviewer says that the authenticity of this essay, which was presented to the publisher by the late Schöning who started out as Chamber Hussar to Fritz before becoming a Geheimer Rat can be no doubt, even though it was thought lost for some years. The reviewer says it's too short to quote from and mainly deals with contradicting some published stories in other anecdote collections, such as: no, Fritz wasn't into Burgunder as a wine, and no, he wasn't so cheap that he wore his coats turned inside out, but he did have them stitched up a lot, and also the servants got really measly salaries, that's true. This essay, otoh, includes the Schöning-told anecdote that Fritz was so cheap that he only had torn up shirts available at the time of his death, so in order to bury him in a new and clean one, Schöning had to donate one of his, and gives the source of this story: Caspar H: 300 Jahre Friedrich II. Schöngeist und wüste Tischsitten. Brandenburger Blätter, Historie, Natur, Gegenwart. Nr. 225, 10.08.2012.
Now, what all of this says about Schöning's cedibilility as a source: on the one hand, definitely a member of the royal household, knew Fritz up close. On the other hand, if he was chamber hussar in 1786, a job for which I had previously assumed you needed to be relatively young and strong, I doubt he was already around in the Glasow years (1755-1757), which means his recounting of the Glasow affair is likely hearsay, derived from stories from older members of Fritz' staff.
Otoh: if felis finds us a life and employment date for Geheimer Rat Schöning, ex chamber hussar, that shows he was already serving in 1755-1757, he's clearly a first hand witness!
Either way: he's also clearly prone to talk to journalists, err, memoirsts and anecdote collectors, after Fritz' death.
Unger: will report when I find it. ETA: could it be you have the wrong volumes? Because Büsching in his above quoted refutation says "volume 16", not 18, and my search machine doesn't find Glasow at all in the volume we now have.../ETA
Running the gauntlet 24 times: yes, that made me raise an eyebrow as well. Henckel mentions Völker/Wöllner had to run the gauntlet, but doesn't say anything about him having to do it more than once. Büsching doesn't mention any gauntlet running at all, but then, he doesn't present Völker as the villain who manipulated gullible Glasow, either, and since Nicolai (or his source) wants to get across Fritz being just and seeing Völker as the main culprit, Völker has to be punished extra hard, I guess, and so one gauntlet running becomes 24?
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Another favourite of the King, named Glasow, whom he had in Saxony with him in 1756 or 1757, was of a very amorous nature, and allowed himself to be talked into stealing a letter from the King's pocket by a woman and to hand it over to her. When this became known, the King sent him to Spandau, where he died after half a year. It is said that (the King) had intended to release him around the time of his death, and was sad about this.
No mention of an accomplice here, or of the financiai shenanigans which according to the archive letters to Fredersdorf definitely were an issue; the seducing is being done by "a woman". One thing that both Nicolai and Büsching feature is that it was a one time only offense by Glasow; with Nicolai, the forging and sealing of a letter (to arrest servant B.), with Büsching, the stealing of a letter. Meanwhile, all three contemporary accounts (Lehndorff, Kalkreuth, Henckel ovn Donnersmarck) as well as the archive letters talk about repeated offenses.
Büsching in "Beiträge" disses Zimmermann's fragments by starting with a Fritz quote from the letter to Charlotte that Nicolai printed: "Le medicin de Hannover a voulu se faire valoir chez nous", Friedrich II. wrote to his sister in Braunschweig on August 10 1786. The sharp-minded monarch correctly deduced that it is a main trait in the character of this gentleman to se faire valoir. It's the eviscerating review of Zimmermann's book for which I think we got this volume in the first place, as Büsching quotes the "Generalchirurgus und Hofrat Dr. Gottlieb Engel" who'd been in charge of cleaning up Fritz' body for the funeral and who gives it to Büsching in writing in a letter dated April 2nd, 1790, that the Fritzian penis was not deformed or broken but a normal piece of male equipment. Now, here's the passage Mildred found in which Büsching addresses Völker:
In the story of the attempted poisoning of the King (Sammlung 16, p. 69 f.) Völker has been confused with Glasow. (See my book about the King's character, p. 189 of the second edition.) Völker had been the coffee maker, but he didn't hand over the coffee to the King, that was done by chamber hussar Glasow, and the King only played the flute after having drunk coffee, not before. I put the story to Secret Councillor Schöning to judgment, and his take is that Völker was much too smart to contribute something to an assassination attempt on the King, let alone to advise it. His crime supposedly consisted of playing secretary for Glasow and writing some orders in the name of the King which Glasow then sealed with the King's small seal, and through this, both of them caused their misery.
Note that this is essentially the same story as Nicolai, but without making Völker the instigator/seducer, and also with the admittance that this happened more than once. Schöning shows up up a lot in this appendix, as he appears to be Büsching's (and possibly Nicolai's?) main source for all the "Fritz and servants" tales. So who is Schöning? Well, he shows up among other things in none other than Dr. Zmmermann's book, not the "Fragments" but an earlier book by Zimmermannn's, "Über Friedrich den Großen und meine Unterredung mit ihm kurz vor seinem Tode", as the Chamber Hussar who tells the good doctor that Fritz isn't taking the medicine which the royal physician Dr. Seele ordered him to take at all, except for a digestive made of "Rhabarber und Glaubersalz". Schöning, at least after his death, appears also have joined the ranks of Fritz memoirists, for I found this review of a book of his, full title: "Friedrich der Zweite, König von Preußen. Über seine Person und sein Privatleben. Ein berichtigender Nachtrag zur Charakteristik desselbem, vom verstorbenen Geheimen Rathe Schöning. 1808."
The reviewer says that the authenticity of this essay, which was presented to the publisher by the late Schöning who started out as Chamber Hussar to Fritz before becoming a Geheimer Rat can be no doubt, even though it was thought lost for some years. The reviewer says it's too short to quote from and mainly deals with contradicting some published stories in other anecdote collections, such as: no, Fritz wasn't into Burgunder as a wine, and no, he wasn't so cheap that he wore his coats turned inside out, but he did have them stitched up a lot, and also the servants got really measly salaries, that's true. This essay, otoh, includes the Schöning-told anecdote that Fritz was so cheap that he only had torn up shirts available at the time of his death, so in order to bury him in a new and clean one, Schöning had to donate one of his, and gives the source of this story: Caspar H: 300 Jahre Friedrich II. Schöngeist und wüste Tischsitten. Brandenburger Blätter, Historie, Natur, Gegenwart. Nr. 225, 10.08.2012.
Now, what all of this says about Schöning's cedibilility as a source: on the one hand, definitely a member of the royal household, knew Fritz up close. On the other hand, if he was chamber hussar in 1786, a job for which I had previously assumed you needed to be relatively young and strong, I doubt he was already around in the Glasow years (1755-1757), which means his recounting of the Glasow affair is likely hearsay, derived from stories from older members of Fritz' staff.
Otoh: if
Either way: he's also clearly prone to talk to journalists, err, memoirsts and anecdote collectors, after Fritz' death.
Unger: will report when I find it. ETA: could it be you have the wrong volumes? Because Büsching in his above quoted refutation says "volume 16", not 18, and my search machine doesn't find Glasow at all in the volume we now have.../ETA
Running the gauntlet 24 times: yes, that made me raise an eyebrow as well. Henckel mentions Völker/Wöllner had to run the gauntlet, but doesn't say anything about him having to do it more than once. Büsching doesn't mention any gauntlet running at all, but then, he doesn't present Völker as the villain who manipulated gullible Glasow, either, and since Nicolai (or his source) wants to get across Fritz being just and seeing Völker as the main culprit, Völker has to be punished extra hard, I guess, and so one gauntlet running becomes 24?