Re: burial circumstances, having now read the non-fiction book on Gundling, I can tell you that this is another case - like Oncker with the Knyphausen-derived FW quote about Fritz - of 19th and early 20th century historians refusing to accept reality if it didn't fit with their idea of a character. For lo and behold, this happened:
David Fassmann in his Gundling-Mocking diatribe, among many other things: The King buried him in a barrel of wine.
Wilhelmine, in a letter to her sister Friederike (who was already married to Ansbach) from 1731: "The King had him buried in his beautiful robe and his gigantic wig in a barrel. He himself accompagnied the body till Borndstädt, where (Gundling) was buried."
Later Hohenzollern fan historians: Fassmann was a satirist and Wilhelmine is a Dad-hating liar. No way super Christian Protestant FW would have made a mockery of a funeral like that, having Gundling buried in in a wine barrel, letting his arch enemy hold the taunting burial speech. No way!
So we get from Louis Schneider, 1867, writing an essay "Ist Gundling in einem Weinfasse begraben worden?" to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (frequent wiki source, though not for the Gundling entry) from 1878 claiming that the doubts as to whether the mocking inscriptions on Gundlings coffin really were put there", to the Neue Deutsche Biographie from 1966 declaring that "especially the infamous burial of Gundling in a barrel of wine can't have happened in this form".
THEN, someone has the bright idea of checking for records of the people professionally concerned with burials, to wit, the clergy. And lo! In the archive of the Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle, there's a letter from Potsdam Reverend Johann Heinrich Schubert, written only five days after Gundling's burial. Which not only backs up the wine barrel tale 100% but also proves poor Gundling in his dying days knew FW wouldn't even let him be buried in peace. Writes Schubert: Poor Gundling has told me among many sighs and lamentations how he has been abused, and lamented especially that due to his distress over the fact he would be buried in a barrel with such an inscription could not properly collect himself. (For to face his death calmly, that is.) (Remember, that barrel with the inscription had to stand in the same room with the dying man.) Continues Reverend Schubert:
On the 8th of this month (April) I visited him, and departed from him rather sadly because of this matter. R(ex) learns of this and questions me on the 9th, why I went so sadly from Gundling? I replied that I regretted very much being unable to soothe the man's distress in his soul, and was begging R(ex) most humbly to have pity in the poor soul and give (Gundling) the assurance that he would be buried like other people. But alas! This petition has been received most uncharitably.
There are other documents from clergymen, too, because originally FW had demanded one of them hold the funeral. Five Lutheran Pastors (Gundling was originally from Nuremberg and thus not a Calvinist) teamed up, led by Pfarrer Schultze, Schubert the letter writer, and the preacher from St. Nikolai (which was the parish where Gundling would be buried), and decided to "rather suffer everything" than obey FW's instruction to participate in such a funeral. They told FW they'd be happy to bless and preach over Gundling's coffin as long as it was a proper coffin, as every Christian had a right to, not a wine barrel. FW then threatened that he'd get the Calvinist clergy to do it instead, but the Lutherans didn't back down, and so it turned out FW had bluffed, because the Calvinists refused to go along with this horrible mockery of a funeral, either. FW then had a colonel tell the clergymen "Wollen die Priester nicht mitgehen u(nd) haben Bedenken, so mögen sie zu hause bleiben."
Not having a preacher for the funeral rites, he then told Fassmann to do it.
Re: Book Review II: Der König und sein Narr (Novel and Film)
David Fassmann in his Gundling-Mocking diatribe, among many other things: The King buried him in a barrel of wine.
Wilhelmine, in a letter to her sister Friederike (who was already married to Ansbach) from 1731: "The King had him buried in his beautiful robe and his gigantic wig in a barrel. He himself accompagnied the body till Borndstädt, where (Gundling) was buried."
Later Hohenzollern fan historians: Fassmann was a satirist and Wilhelmine is a Dad-hating liar. No way super Christian Protestant FW would have made a mockery of a funeral like that, having Gundling buried in in a wine barrel, letting his arch enemy hold the taunting burial speech. No way!
So we get from Louis Schneider, 1867, writing an essay "Ist Gundling in einem Weinfasse begraben worden?" to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (frequent wiki source, though not for the Gundling entry) from 1878 claiming that the doubts as to whether the mocking inscriptions on Gundlings coffin really were put there", to the Neue Deutsche Biographie from 1966 declaring that "especially the infamous burial of Gundling in a barrel of wine can't have happened in this form".
THEN, someone has the bright idea of checking for records of the people professionally concerned with burials, to wit, the clergy. And lo! In the archive of the Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle, there's a letter from Potsdam Reverend Johann Heinrich Schubert, written only five days after Gundling's burial. Which not only backs up the wine barrel tale 100% but also proves poor Gundling in his dying days knew FW wouldn't even let him be buried in peace. Writes Schubert: Poor Gundling has told me among many sighs and lamentations how he has been abused, and lamented especially that due to his distress over the fact he would be buried in a barrel with such an inscription could not properly collect himself. (For to face his death calmly, that is.) (Remember, that barrel with the inscription had to stand in the same room with the dying man.) Continues Reverend Schubert:
On the 8th of this month (April) I visited him, and departed from him rather sadly because of this matter. R(ex) learns of this and questions me on the 9th, why I went so sadly from Gundling? I replied that I regretted very much being unable to soothe the man's distress in his soul, and was begging R(ex) most humbly to have pity in the poor soul and give (Gundling) the assurance that he would be buried like other people. But alas! This petition has been received most uncharitably.
There are other documents from clergymen, too, because originally FW had demanded one of them hold the funeral. Five Lutheran Pastors (Gundling was originally from Nuremberg and thus not a Calvinist) teamed up, led by Pfarrer Schultze, Schubert the letter writer, and the preacher from St. Nikolai (which was the parish where Gundling would be buried), and decided to "rather suffer everything" than obey FW's instruction to participate in such a funeral. They told FW they'd be happy to bless and preach over Gundling's coffin as long as it was a proper coffin, as every Christian had a right to, not a wine barrel. FW then threatened that he'd get the Calvinist clergy to do it instead, but the Lutherans didn't back down, and so it turned out FW had bluffed, because the Calvinists refused to go along with this horrible mockery of a funeral, either. FW then had a colonel tell the clergymen "Wollen die Priester nicht mitgehen u(nd) haben Bedenken, so mögen sie zu hause bleiben."
Not having a preacher for the funeral rites, he then told Fassmann to do it.
Later historians: FW WOULD NEVER!