As you said, a good counterargument to the claim that aside from a little family-hitting and sentence upgrading in 1730, FW was perfectly nice and the reputation for cruelty was a misunderstanding based on the beatings, executions, bears, and wig-fire-setting.
It's even an argument against his severe illnesses from the late 1720s onwards leading to his worst behavior. In October 1716, when he orders Gundling to be locked up in a room with young bears and firecrackers, he's as healthy as he'll ever be, in peak physical condition. It's even before the onset of "everyone is conspiring against me!" paranoia triggered by the Clement affair in late 1718/through 1719.
I do wonder of course how Gundling survived the bears under these conditions, even if Morgenstern is right about them having been declawed. The novel has him pull an Androcles and the Lion, basically, but of course Stade had to guess as much as we do. Also, it makes me mad that so many of the later descriptions of Gundling by FW excusing historians or even by "how bad were things for the sciences in Prussia under FW!" Fredericians call Gundling "cowardly". I'd like to see how courageous these people would be living in the absolute power of someone who can and does lock them up with bears! Gundling must have been in a state of constant existential fear for most of those years with FW, and it's a minor miracle he was able to produce books and have normal conversations (when with someone like Freylinghausen as opposed to the Tobacco Parliament) during them.
Good luck with your German and the reading. As I said before, I found Stollberg-Rilinger informative but pretty dry, so you might consider switching back to Horowski again for practice?
Re: Martin Sabrow's Gundling Biography: II
It's even an argument against his severe illnesses from the late 1720s onwards leading to his worst behavior. In October 1716, when he orders Gundling to be locked up in a room with young bears and firecrackers, he's as healthy as he'll ever be, in peak physical condition. It's even before the onset of "everyone is conspiring against me!" paranoia triggered by the Clement affair in late 1718/through 1719.
I do wonder of course how Gundling survived the bears under these conditions, even if Morgenstern is right about them having been declawed. The novel has him pull an Androcles and the Lion, basically, but of course Stade had to guess as much as we do. Also, it makes me mad that so many of the later descriptions of Gundling by FW excusing historians or even by "how bad were things for the sciences in Prussia under FW!" Fredericians call Gundling "cowardly". I'd like to see how courageous these people would be living in the absolute power of someone who can and does lock them up with bears! Gundling must have been in a state of constant existential fear for most of those years with FW, and it's a minor miracle he was able to produce books and have normal conversations (when with someone like Freylinghausen as opposed to the Tobacco Parliament) during them.
Good luck with your German and the reading. As I said before, I found Stollberg-Rilinger informative but pretty dry, so you might consider switching back to Horowski again for practice?