he loved the truth, and convinced himself that it offended no one is the most telling accolade ever. :)
And yeah, while wiki has its own set of flaws, I'm thinking they're probably more reliable as to when Knobelsdorff met Fritz (and that it wasn't in Küstrin). BTW the novel doesn't have FW introduce them, he only meets Knobelsdorff during his cameo (a surprise visit to Rheinsberg), but he is positively impressed. (Due to Knobelsdorff's mixture of being a straight talker and having a good military record; like Duhan, he distinguished himself at Stralsund, and he served under FW's pal the Old Dessauer, so from FW's pov, his credentials are A+. If in real life he did point him Fritz' way, it could have been as a well meant rare compromise between his wishes and Fritz' wishes - someone whose artistic interests appeal to Fritz but who is also from FW's pov a dutiful Prussian of the new type molded by himself.
But now I'm also wondering if Manger is the sole source for some other details of their relationship and how reliable they are.
On the one hand, between Manger not joining the Potsdam Bauamt until the year of Knobelsdorff's death and not getting into supervising position there until the end of the 7 Years War, he can't have witnessed any of the rise and fall of the Fritz/Knobelsdorff relationship himself. Otoh, he certainly was in a position to hear lots of gossip from the other builders who did witness at least some of it. Some of said gossip might be exaggarated, but presumably the general tendencies are correct, i.e. Knobelsdorff really didn't like Bouman, did argue with Fritz about there being one floor at Sanssouci etc. Whether he said exactly what Manger has him say is, I guess, on a level with Voltaire's "dirty launtry" quip, the story of which in variations shows up in a number of non-Voltairian sources (even Boswell has heard about it in in 1764, before he himself visits Voltaire) during both Voltaire's and Fritz' life times. Or, on a tragic level, Katte's last words to Fritz. Mildred put together all the variations in the different sources, and the phrasing does differ, but the core content (Fritz asking for forgiveness, Katte saying there's nothing to forgive) remains identical. So I'm assuming Manger heard Knobelsdorff's snarky declarations quoted by a couple of the other builders and picked one variation.
Re: Book review I: Der Meister von Sanssouci - Fredersdorf and historical footnotes
And yeah, while wiki has its own set of flaws, I'm thinking they're probably more reliable as to when Knobelsdorff met Fritz (and that it wasn't in Küstrin). BTW the novel doesn't have FW introduce them, he only meets Knobelsdorff during his cameo (a surprise visit to Rheinsberg), but he is positively impressed. (Due to Knobelsdorff's mixture of being a straight talker and having a good military record; like Duhan, he distinguished himself at Stralsund, and he served under FW's pal the Old Dessauer, so from FW's pov, his credentials are A+. If in real life he did point him Fritz' way, it could have been as a well meant rare compromise between his wishes and Fritz' wishes - someone whose artistic interests appeal to Fritz but who is also from FW's pov a dutiful Prussian of the new type molded by himself.
But now I'm also wondering if Manger is the sole source for some other details of their relationship and how reliable they are.
On the one hand, between Manger not joining the Potsdam Bauamt until the year of Knobelsdorff's death and not getting into supervising position there until the end of the 7 Years War, he can't have witnessed any of the rise and fall of the Fritz/Knobelsdorff relationship himself. Otoh, he certainly was in a position to hear lots of gossip from the other builders who did witness at least some of it. Some of said gossip might be exaggarated, but presumably the general tendencies are correct, i.e. Knobelsdorff really didn't like Bouman, did argue with Fritz about there being one floor at Sanssouci etc. Whether he said exactly what Manger has him say is, I guess, on a level with Voltaire's "dirty launtry" quip, the story of which in variations shows up in a number of non-Voltairian sources (even Boswell has heard about it in in 1764, before he himself visits Voltaire) during both Voltaire's and Fritz' life times. Or, on a tragic level, Katte's last words to Fritz. Mildred put together all the variations in the different sources, and the phrasing does differ, but the core content (Fritz asking for forgiveness, Katte saying there's nothing to forgive) remains identical. So I'm assuming Manger heard Knobelsdorff's snarky declarations quoted by a couple of the other builders and picked one variation.