And then, of course, Fritz writes to Voltaire. Bronisch admits that the double attack of Le Chetardie (the French envoy trying to steer the future King away from Vienna and to France) on the political and Voltaire on the pilosophical front wasn't the only reason why the Fritz/Manteuffel relationship started to get less close, then dissolve in later 1736 to 1737, he says Fritz probably became aware just how much Private Citizen Mantteuffel was involved with Team Habsburg, but he still thinks it's a key factor. Of course, Manteuffel didn't back off without a fight. Among other things, he financed the reprint in Prussia of not one but two anti-Voltaire pamphlets from Voltaire's arch enemies back home in France. This did not work as intended. Then there was the Pyrrhic victory of FW at long last coming around to not just tolerating but reading Wolff in 1739 (which took away from Wolff's remaining coolness in Fritz' eyes, though at that point he'd long since moved on in essence), of which the most blatant proof was in one of FW's hobby paintings from his last months of life. It shows Nossig, who Bronisch says was at that point one of Gundling's successor's as court fool (sigh, see above) and especially stupid. The painting depicts Nossic with asses ears and hung with bells reading various Pietist works, among them, prominently, several books by Joachim Lange, aka Wolff's arch enemy mainly responsible for his banishment, including Lang's "Exegese der Apostelbriefe" which had been printed on FW's orders just a few years earlier. (Manteuffel writes about this painting to Brühl.) However, as felis mentioned, at this point Manteuffel and the other Berlin Wolffians were actually not keen at all in the idea of FW doing the recalling and reinstating of Wolff, because the triumphant return of Wolff was supposed to happen on Fritz' orders, thereby associating Wolff as THE philosopher of the new regime, not some last moment note of grace for the old one. As FW had sent another "court fool" named Morgenstern (meaning: maybe he was a fool, maybe he was, like Gundling, a scholar with the bad luck of being treated like one; at any rate, FW had promotedim in 1735 to Vice President of the university of Frankfurt an der Oder, and ordered as Morgenstern's introduction a debate on the subject of "Scholars are Fools and Blabberboxes") ) to sound out Wolff. This, Morgenstern managed, and heard from Wolff over a shared cup of coffee that sure, he'd love nothing better than return to Halle, especially since his wife is heartily sick of exile and wants back to her old home, if only such and such minor impendiment didn't exist. Morgenstern goes back to Berlin to report this to FW.
Team Berlin Wolffians, mainly bookseller Haude, Reinbek and Manteuffel, do not like to hear this. Haude writes in umistakable terms to Wolff on 31st October 1739 that he should trust his true friends in Berlin, the Aletophiles, and not to a court fool, for God's sake, see attached also two letters from Manteuffel, your most influential patron, Wolff, remember? DO NOT ACCEPT FW'S OFFER. Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Other Manteuffel activities of the 1739 include preparing a translated into French volume of "Best of Wolff" extracts under the title Le Roi Philosophe, dedicated to the Crown Prince of Prussia. Fritz' reply when he gets the printed copy in 1740 a few days before FW's death, once more raises everyone's hopes (Gottsched, another new literary Manteuffel friend at this point) quickly translates into German and spreads it and made the Wolffians hope once more that the fight for Fritz wasn't all lost, as it's very gracious, on the notes that not only every citizen but every prince and king should read this and it is up to the wise of this world to teach princes etc etc., and he's studied this for a long time and is delighted, etc. Alas. Alack. History happens. Btw, to Fritz' credit, especially that he later catches a lot of deserved flack for his treatment of German writers, thinkers and scientists, once Wolff has made it back to Halle, he really does his best to make Wolff accept a membership of the Academy. Which Wolff absolutely won't. One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German. As for the other Academy members already called according to the papers, this Algarotti fellow (WTF Newton for Ladies?), Maupertuis (did he really compare exploring Lappland to exploring a woman's body ?!?) and Voltaire (Arggggggh), yeah, no. "I can't talk to them, and they don't understand me." He stays in Halle, thank you very much.
As for Manteuffel, he moves to Leipzig after Fritz kicks him out shortly before invading Silesia (on November 5th 1740). Even Bronisch admits this was a necessary and prudent measure, since Manteuffel after Grumbkow died in 1739 immediately wrote home to Dresden and asked for a budget raise to he could take over Grumbkow's spy network, which he got and which he did. Post successful Silesian invasion, the remaining Aletophiles in Berlin became splintered, as many were swayed to the Fritzian side. When Reinbek made the mistake of writing a "Silesia Fuck Yeah!" type of letter, Manteuffel fired off a reply that's also an evisceration of Fritz, rethorically asking there was either a legal by HRE law justification for the invasion, or one by natural law, or one on the basis of religion (which Reinbek had argued), i.e. Fritz needing to save the Silesian Protestants from Catholic MT? And his reply to each of these was no. Fritz has become a gangster with good PR just another despot and a robber donning the robes of monarch. So much for you, Alcibiades.
Still, Manteuffel keeps up the good networking work and continues to be an A plus encourager of writers and philosophers. The refounded Aletophiles in Leipzig even have a female member, Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Meanwhile, the remaining Berlin Aletophiles, if they haven't changed sides like Haude or miraculously managed remain friendly to both like Formey, don't fare so well. Primary example: Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits) as well as teacher to Heinrich and Ferdinand. (How this worked out geographically, I don't know.) He pointedly addresses Wolffian themes in his preachings. In 1741, he attempts to strike out against Voltaire in a major way and gets busy writing Cours abrégé de la philosophie wolffiene en formé de lettres, in wihch he says that Voltaire was just a rude religion mocker with the ability of making some neat verses, and an ugly, grimacing dwarf of a man to boot. Also, the works of the great Wolff naturally can't be understood by such a creature. Dechamps dedicates this to his two students and sends a copy directly to Fritz as soon as it's printed. The reaction doesn't take long. On November 1742, a one act play gets performed in Charlottenburg, Le singe de la Mode, in which a stupid provincial nobleman is looking for books to feel the shelves of his new library with. He discovers that the volumes best suited for this purpose are hundreds of copies of Dechamps' Cours abregé, which he can get to a bargain price since no one wanted to buy or read them. The author of this play: Fritz. How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand. Oh, and he doesn't get his salary for teaching Ferdinand and Heinrich, either, and Fritz appoints Bielfeld as competing teacher, and Dechamps doesn't get to be a member of the Royal Academy. In 1746, he's finally had it (why so late?) and leaves Berlin for The Hague and London.
Formey, otoh, gets asked by Voltaire whether he's one of those men paid to fool the people (Formey is a Calvinist clergyman) when first they meet, but he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter). His main work, other than obituaries, is the six volume philosophical novel "La Belle Wolffienne". In volume 2, which he works on in the early 1740s, he gets into a major spiritual crisis, which Manteuffel by mail manages to talk him through, so the rest of the magnum opus can be published. Manteuffel doesn't live long enough to witness the big Voltaire implosion, but he gets to see the first big Academy controversy from afar, see my write up of the Maupertuis biography. He also guides August III's son Christian August in his studies (Christian August, alas, will die in the same year his father will, in 1763), and dies a respected and admired private citizen (we swear!) in 1749.
As for Christian Wolff: in 1743, Fritz en route to Bayreuth stops in Halle. Wolff presents himself, but is told to wait in the antechambre and in the end is not received. This is of course on the same trip where Voltaire is with Fritz, visiting Wilhelmine, so Wolff notes in a letter to Manteuffel. Just to complete the humilation, in Histoire de mon temps, Fritz writes years later that there were only two German professors of genius ever: Only two men distinguish themselves through their genius and honor the nation: the great Leipniz and the learned Thomasius. I'm leaving Wolff aside. He just repeats Leipniz' system and repeats ramblingly what the later has written with fire and inspiration. Most German scholars were simple craftsmen, while the French ones were artists.
1790s German writer Boie, like many young men of the time a frustrated Fritz fan: I won't accept this.
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche", in which dead Fritz, with Voltaire at his side, meets dead Wolff in the underworld and tells Wolff he was the first one to make him think, the author of his soul and mind, everything he became as a thinker, he owes thus to Wolff. Wolff modestly says there's a much greater one he must present to Fritz and points to Lessing. Fritz and Wolff leave the unworthy shallow Voltaire behind and unite with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the Hereafter. Happy ending!
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story. One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
Morgenstern (meaning: maybe he was a fool, maybe he was, like Gundling, a scholar with the bad luck of being treated like one
Salomo Jacob Morgenstern seems to have been a scholar, if not a very good one. Interesting detail at the end: Für Friedrich Nicolai, der ihn 1779 besuchte, hob er sich immerhin positiv von Friedrich Wilhelms übrigen „Hofgelehrten“ ab. Seine in vielem wenig zuverlässige, aber lebendige und, da auf persönlichen Erlebnissen beruhend, nicht uninteressante Geschichte „Ueber Friedrich Wilhelm I.“ erschien erst 1793.
(His book about FW is here and I have to say, he has to be the first person who started a description of FW like this: The late blessed King Friedrich Wilhelm in his youth must have been a well built and handsome man, because his face was appealing until his last sickness and his eyes not just light, but piercing and, most of the time, friendly. ... ! Oh, man, further on: Since he could see to the bottom of your heart, he suspected a bad conscience in everyone who didn't look at him freely; or that he could never trust them because of deceitfulness and perfidity of their heart. There are only few occasions where he was wrong in his judgment. A Gundling successor who turned out to be a FW fan? Wow. Seems kind of accurate when it comes to FW's way of thinking, though.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe".
Argh. Manteuffel! Very interesting to get the details of the sabotaged Wolff return, though.
As for the other Academy members already called according to the papers, this Algarotti fellow (WTF Newton for Ladies?), Maupertuis (did he really compare exploring Lappland to exploring a woman's body ?!?) and Voltaire (Arggggggh), yeah, no. "I can't talk to them, and they don't understand me." He stays in Halle, thank you very much.
:DDD
Manteuffel after Grumbkow died in 1739 immediately wrote home to Dresden and asked for a budget raise to he could take over Grumbkow's spy network, which he got and which he did
Also interesting! Honestly, the 00Diable - as you so nicely put it - version of Manteuffel has to be my favourite one from a storytelling perspective.
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway
Good for her! I really like that she had such a different perspective on it.
re: Deschamps
- official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
That, and possibly also for EC?
- as well as teacher to Heinrich and Ferdinand. (How this worked out geographically, I don't know.)
He became their teacher in 1740, when he wasn't at Rheinsberg anymore, see the excerpt at Trier here.
- On November 1742, a one act play gets performed in Charlottenburg, Le singe de la Mode
Premiered on the occasion of Keyserlingk's wedding and not played very well, as Fritz writes to Voltaire when he sends him a copy. (Of course he did.)
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche"
:DD This seems to have been a fanfic trend at the time, at least I remember coming across another "Totengespräch" between Fritz and Amelie at some point last year.
because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there.
Ah, I see. That's why he doesn't mention Suhm, he's a shipper, too. :P
Morgenstern: reading a few pages more, ZOMG! I found the source for Jochen Klepper's "FW had a tender youthful love for Caroline the future Queen of England, and never quite stopped" s tale! Jochen K., I wronged you, I thought you made that up because you disliked SD so much and wanted your tragic hero to have loved someone else and be loved by them at least once.
Also, Morgenstern is the source for the supposed "smart woman, bad Christian" from FW about his mother Sophie Charlotte, and for the "she spoiled him, F1 neglected him by not micromanaging him" characterisation which I've already seen in Hinrichs. And good lord, does he (Morgenstern) have a go at F1, marvelling FW showed such general respect for his Dad when the guy was such a weak, vain and bad King and what not, and for good measure, also blames F1 for the death of FW's first kid (dead baby Friedrich Ludwig; why? Because of the loud salute shootings) and for "marrying a third time without need". And then he adds that possibly FW was told by his mother that he, FW, wasn't F1's kid at all, that FW upon becoming King and being drunk said "how can you believe I'm the son of such a weak man!", only to have one of his generals return "hang on, if you're not F1's son, you're not our King and master, either", wereupon he sobered up and said "joking, ob course!"
Now, Morgenstern was present for none of this, since according to the bio you linked he didn't join FW's circle until 1736 (which btw also explains a lot - he only knew FW personally during FW's last four years of life), and it doesn't jive with how Barbara Beuys presented family relationships at all, which she backs up with letters between FW and his parents, and between Sophie of Hannover and Sophie Charlotte as as between Sophie and other folk. (Not to mention that cheerfully telling your kid he's a bastard is just not something any royal woman of the era would have done. That's downright suicidal. But IF Morgenstern didn't make it up entirely from scratch but bases it on some stuff FW actually said when drunk and sick during those last four years (say, about the first baby dying, or complaints that neither of his parents were good Christians in his eyes), then there's a shot that maybe he actually did have a youthful thing for Caroline. (Giving him additional reason to hate on G2!)
He became their teacher in 1740, when he wasn't at Rheinsberg anymore
Ah, that makes sense. Bronisch made it sound like it happened simultanously.
This seems to have been a fanfic trend at the time, at least I remember coming across another "Totengespräch" between Fritz and Amelie at some point last year.
Same. It wasn't very good, tough, so I never bothered to read more than a bit of it. But yeah, clearly a late 18th Century fanfic trend!
That's why he doesn't mention Suhm, he's a shipper, too.
Among other things, he financed the reprint in Prussia of not one but two anti-Voltaire pamphlets from Voltaire's arch enemies back home in France.
OOOOH, I didn't know this!
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
several books by Joachim Lange, aka Wolff's arch enemy mainly responsible for his banishment
I remind everyone that Lange as an enemy of Wolff has made an appearance in passing before, in the "Mimi burns Wolff" anecdote:
Our wits maintain that the monkey wanted to study the Metaphysics and, being unable to construe a word, put it to the flame. Others aver that Lange had corrupted her, and that she played that turn from motives of zeal inspired by the prig. Finally, others said that Mimi was annoyed at the number of prerogatives which Wolff accords to man over beast, and offered up to Vulcan a book which denigrated her race. (Translation MacDonogh's, with the exception of making Mimi female, as Fritz said she was.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Sigh.
One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German.
Huh, I didn't know that either. And lol to his opinions of the other scholars!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?)
Yes, thanks to you!
who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Ding ding ding we have a winner! Even as a kid, even with my terrible education, I always had the Nazis held up to me as prime examples of how educated people commit atrocities too. Good for her for noticing!
Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
He is mentioned in a footnote by the English translator of the Suhm letters (which I am still reading almost as slowly as cahn is reading Orieux!), who has this to say:
Jean Deschamps, second brother to him who died Minister at Berlin, in 17852 was attached to the service of the church at Reinsberg, as candidate, and having preached before the Court, he assumed the title of Chaplain. - The Prince Royal never attended his sermons. - M. Deschamps having been one of Wolff's disciples at Marbourg, translated first, his German Logic into French, the translation was well received by the public.-- He afterwards published an entire course of Wolf's philosophy, in a series of letters addressed to one of his friends, a young Theologian, called Cabrit, who died in 1741, Minister of the church at Francfort upon the Oder.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter
Indeed! Though, now I'm wondering: were the obituaries on the initiative of the Academy or Formey? IOW, did they continue after Formey, and would we still have them if Formey hadn't taken it upon himself to write them?
Speaking of the Academy, new findings in the library. In 1900, Harnack published a three volume (but like the seventh Harry Potter movie, the first one is split in two, and also there's a supplementary volume with documents, bless 19th century scholars) history of the Academy of Sciences, in excruciating detail (~600 pages per volume). In the interests of space, only the first volume (from the founding under F1 up to the death of Fritz) and the Urkunden volume are in the library, but I have the others if we need them for something.
Searching "Keith" (natch) in the first volume, I see that the author says that the post of Curator, which I've always been wondering what its specific duties were, meant almost nothing already in 1747 (when Peter was appointed), and nothing at all in 1753. They didn't even bother replacing curators when they died (Peter was the first to go :(), so that when Fritz died, there was only one left of the original four.
And speaking of the library, Dantal is now under memoirs and diaries, and Morgenstern under biographies. Good finds, felis!
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story.
Lol, well, we sympathize.
One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch. I see nothing incompatible with declaring that Rheinsberg was the only happy time of your life, that you'll never be happy again as long as you live, and longing for both the time before your current unhappy life and the time to come after it aka death.
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
No kidding, though who would have known that then? :)
Wolff: his statement re: French and his opinion on the other scholars also makes into both books. BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German, so I think we can take Wolff at his word - he oould read and understand French in written form well enough, but wasn't comfortable enough with it to write, let alone talk in the language. I can see why, even aside from everything else, this would make you balk at joining an instutition where the King has just decreed all conversation and all writing must be in French.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
Well, Dechamps is another who later wrote a vengeful memoir, so I assume that was the common source for both this editor and Bronisch.
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
LOL. I had a quick gander in the Bielfeld letter where he writes about taking over Ferdinand's education, and he says that while ten years old F's education clearly had been somewhat neglected so far, what with Ferd only showing enthusiasm for hunting (don't do it, Ferdinand, your aim is terrible!) and the military, NOW that Bielfeld has taken over, the scholarly bug has bit him. I note - as several biographers before me - that Fritz was on to something re: his brothers' education having been neglected under FW, but again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch.
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German
And as noted, this is what I would have naively assumed Fredersdorf and Fritz would start doing, so the fact that Fritz keeps writing (bad) German to him to the end is very touching.
again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I'm with you on this!
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
*spittake*
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
But, Bronisch, have you solved the *real* mystery, aka the mystery of the comma in "sans, souci.", which has been bugging people for centuries?
cahn, if you're not familiar, this picture shows the way Fritz had the phrase engraved on his palace.
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
Wikipedia. (German version) Which names both of Bronisch's books in as its sources, so that figures. Mind you, that entry says that a historical novel "Der Meister von Sanssouci" (which is actually about Knobelsdorff the architect) by Martin Stade from 1971 - thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory. Martin Stade also wrote a novel "Der König und sein Narr" about Gundling which is credited with changing a part of the reading public's mind about Gundling and which I've been meaning to read for a while.
- thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory.
Ha!
Ooh, yes, you should read both those books (when time permits) and tell us about them!
All the stuff about WOlff was very interesting, thank you!
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe".
Oh man.
Manteuffel fired off a reply that's also an evisceration of Fritz, rethorically asking there was either a legal by HRE law justification for the invasion, or one by natural law, or one on the basis of religion (which Reinbek had argued), i.e. Fritz needing to save the Silesian Protestants from Catholic MT? And his reply to each of these was no. Fritz has become a gangster with good PR just another despot and a robber donning the robes of monarch. So much for you, Alcibiades.
Ha! You go Manteuffel!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
I had forgotten, so thank you for the reminder, but when you reminded me I remembered her being awfully cool, and I am happy to see that she's still extremely awesome :D
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche", in which dead Fritz, with Voltaire at his side, meets dead Wolff in the underworld and tells Wolff he was the first one to make him think, the author of his soul and mind, everything he became as a thinker, he owes thus to Wolff. Wolff modestly says there's a much greater one he must present to Fritz and points to Lessing. Fritz and Wolff leave the unworthy shallow Voltaire behind and unite with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the Hereafter. Happy ending!
OMG that is hilaaaaarious. Sort of like the Philosophe version of the Divine Comedy, lol!
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His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Team Berlin Wolffians, mainly bookseller Haude, Reinbek and Manteuffel, do not like to hear this. Haude writes in umistakable terms to Wolff on 31st October 1739 that he should trust his true friends in Berlin, the Aletophiles, and not to a court fool, for God's sake, see attached also two letters from Manteuffel, your most influential patron, Wolff, remember? DO NOT ACCEPT FW'S OFFER. Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Other Manteuffel activities of the 1739 include preparing a translated into French volume of "Best of Wolff" extracts under the title Le Roi Philosophe, dedicated to the Crown Prince of Prussia. Fritz' reply when he gets the printed copy in 1740 a few days before FW's death, once more raises everyone's hopes (Gottsched, another new literary Manteuffel friend at this point) quickly translates into German and spreads it and made the Wolffians hope once more that the fight for Fritz wasn't all lost, as it's very gracious, on the notes that not only every citizen but every prince and king should read this and it is up to the wise of this world to teach princes etc etc., and he's studied this for a long time and is delighted, etc. Alas. Alack. History happens. Btw, to Fritz' credit, especially that he later catches a lot of deserved flack for his treatment of German writers, thinkers and scientists, once Wolff has made it back to Halle, he really does his best to make Wolff accept a membership of the Academy. Which Wolff absolutely won't. One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German. As for the other Academy members already called according to the papers, this Algarotti fellow (WTF Newton for Ladies?), Maupertuis (did he really compare exploring Lappland to exploring a woman's body ?!?) and Voltaire (Arggggggh), yeah, no. "I can't talk to them, and they don't understand me." He stays in Halle, thank you very much.
As for Manteuffel, he moves to Leipzig after Fritz kicks him out shortly before invading Silesia (on November 5th 1740). Even Bronisch admits this was a necessary and prudent measure, since Manteuffel after Grumbkow died in 1739 immediately wrote home to Dresden and asked for a budget raise to he could take over Grumbkow's spy network, which he got and which he did. Post successful Silesian invasion, the remaining Aletophiles in Berlin became splintered, as many were swayed to the Fritzian side. When Reinbek made the mistake of writing a "Silesia Fuck Yeah!" type of letter, Manteuffel fired off a reply that's also an evisceration of Fritz, rethorically asking there was either a legal by HRE law justification for the invasion, or one by natural law, or one on the basis of religion (which Reinbek had argued), i.e. Fritz needing to save the Silesian Protestants from Catholic MT? And his reply to each of these was no. Fritz has become
a gangster with good PRjust another despot and a robber donning the robes of monarch. So much for you, Alcibiades.Still, Manteuffel keeps up the good networking work and continues to be an A plus encourager of writers and philosophers. The refounded Aletophiles in Leipzig even have a female member, Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Meanwhile, the remaining Berlin Aletophiles, if they haven't changed sides like Haude or miraculously managed remain friendly to both like Formey, don't fare so well. Primary example: Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits) as well as teacher to Heinrich and Ferdinand. (How this worked out geographically, I don't know.) He pointedly addresses Wolffian themes in his preachings. In 1741, he attempts to strike out against Voltaire in a major way and gets busy writing Cours abrégé de la philosophie wolffiene en formé de lettres, in wihch he says that Voltaire was just a rude religion mocker with the ability of making some neat verses, and an ugly, grimacing dwarf of a man to boot. Also, the works of the great Wolff naturally can't be understood by such a creature. Dechamps dedicates this to his two students and sends a copy directly to Fritz as soon as it's printed. The reaction doesn't take long. On November 1742, a one act play gets performed in Charlottenburg, Le singe de la Mode, in which a stupid provincial nobleman is looking for books to feel the shelves of his new library with. He discovers that the volumes best suited for this purpose are hundreds of copies of Dechamps' Cours abregé, which he can get to a bargain price since no one wanted to buy or read them. The author of this play: Fritz. How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand. Oh, and he doesn't get his salary for teaching Ferdinand and Heinrich, either, and Fritz appoints Bielfeld as competing teacher, and Dechamps doesn't get to be a member of the Royal Academy. In 1746, he's finally had it (why so late?) and leaves Berlin for The Hague and London.
Formey, otoh, gets asked by Voltaire whether he's one of those men paid to fool the people (Formey is a Calvinist clergyman) when first they meet, but he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter). His main work, other than obituaries, is the six volume philosophical novel "La Belle Wolffienne". In volume 2, which he works on in the early 1740s, he gets into a major spiritual crisis, which Manteuffel by mail manages to talk him through, so the rest of the magnum opus can be published. Manteuffel doesn't live long enough to witness the big Voltaire implosion, but he gets to see the first big Academy controversy from afar, see my write up of the Maupertuis biography. He also guides August III's son Christian August in his studies (Christian August, alas, will die in the same year his father will, in 1763), and dies a respected and admired private citizen (we swear!) in 1749.
As for Christian Wolff: in 1743, Fritz en route to Bayreuth stops in Halle. Wolff presents himself, but is told to wait in the antechambre and in the end is not received. This is of course on the same trip where Voltaire is with Fritz, visiting Wilhelmine, so Wolff notes in a letter to Manteuffel. Just to complete the humilation, in Histoire de mon temps, Fritz writes years later that there were only two German professors of genius ever: Only two men distinguish themselves through their genius and honor the nation: the great Leipniz and the learned Thomasius. I'm leaving Wolff aside. He just repeats Leipniz' system and repeats ramblingly what the later has written with fire and inspiration. Most German scholars were simple craftsmen, while the French ones were artists.
1790s German writer Boie, like many young men of the time a frustrated Fritz fan: I won't accept this.
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche", in which dead Fritz, with Voltaire at his side, meets dead Wolff in the underworld and tells Wolff he was the first one to make him think, the author of his soul and mind, everything he became as a thinker, he owes thus to Wolff. Wolff modestly says there's a much greater one he must present to Fritz and points to Lessing. Fritz and Wolff leave the unworthy shallow Voltaire behind and unite with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the Hereafter. Happy ending!
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story. One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Salomo Jacob Morgenstern seems to have been a scholar, if not a very good one. Interesting detail at the end: Für Friedrich Nicolai, der ihn 1779 besuchte, hob er sich immerhin positiv von Friedrich Wilhelms übrigen „Hofgelehrten“ ab. Seine in vielem wenig zuverlässige, aber lebendige und, da auf persönlichen Erlebnissen beruhend, nicht uninteressante Geschichte „Ueber Friedrich Wilhelm I.“ erschien erst 1793.
(His book about FW is here and I have to say, he has to be the first person who started a description of FW like this: The late blessed King Friedrich Wilhelm in his youth must have been a well built and handsome man, because his face was appealing until his last sickness and his eyes not just light, but piercing and, most of the time, friendly. ... !
Oh, man, further on: Since he could see to the bottom of your heart, he suspected a bad conscience in everyone who didn't look at him freely; or that he could never trust them because of deceitfulness and perfidity of their heart. There are only few occasions where he was wrong in his judgment. A Gundling successor who turned out to be a FW fan? Wow. Seems kind of accurate when it comes to FW's way of thinking, though.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe".
Argh. Manteuffel! Very interesting to get the details of the sabotaged Wolff return, though.
As for the other Academy members already called according to the papers, this Algarotti fellow (WTF Newton for Ladies?), Maupertuis (did he really compare exploring Lappland to exploring a woman's body ?!?) and Voltaire (Arggggggh), yeah, no. "I can't talk to them, and they don't understand me." He stays in Halle, thank you very much.
:DDD
Manteuffel after Grumbkow died in 1739 immediately wrote home to Dresden and asked for a budget raise to he could take over Grumbkow's spy network, which he got and which he did
Also interesting! Honestly, the 00Diable - as you so nicely put it - version of Manteuffel has to be my favourite one from a storytelling perspective.
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway
Good for her! I really like that she had such a different perspective on it.
re: Deschamps
- official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
That, and possibly also for EC?
- as well as teacher to Heinrich and Ferdinand. (How this worked out geographically, I don't know.)
He became their teacher in 1740, when he wasn't at Rheinsberg anymore, see the excerpt at Trier here.
- On November 1742, a one act play gets performed in Charlottenburg, Le singe de la Mode
Premiered on the occasion of Keyserlingk's wedding and not played very well, as Fritz writes to Voltaire when he sends him a copy. (Of course he did.)
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche"
:DD This seems to have been a fanfic trend at the time, at least I remember coming across another "Totengespräch" between Fritz and Amelie at some point last year.
because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there.
Ah, I see. That's why he doesn't mention Suhm, he's a shipper, too. :P
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Also, Morgenstern is the source for the supposed "smart woman, bad Christian" from FW about his mother Sophie Charlotte, and for the "she spoiled him, F1 neglected him by not micromanaging him" characterisation which I've already seen in Hinrichs. And good lord, does he (Morgenstern) have a go at F1, marvelling FW showed such general respect for his Dad when the guy was such a weak, vain and bad King and what not, and for good measure, also blames F1 for the death of FW's first kid (dead baby Friedrich Ludwig; why? Because of the loud salute shootings) and for "marrying a third time without need". And then he adds that possibly FW was told by his mother that he, FW, wasn't F1's kid at all, that FW upon becoming King and being drunk said "how can you believe I'm the son of such a weak man!", only to have one of his generals return "hang on, if you're not F1's son, you're not our King and master, either", wereupon he sobered up and said "joking, ob course!"
Now, Morgenstern was present for none of this, since according to the bio you linked he didn't join FW's circle until 1736 (which btw also explains a lot - he only knew FW personally during FW's last four years of life), and it doesn't jive with how Barbara Beuys presented family relationships at all, which she backs up with letters between FW and his parents, and between Sophie of Hannover and Sophie Charlotte as as between Sophie and other folk. (Not to mention that cheerfully telling your kid he's a bastard is just not something any royal woman of the era would have done. That's downright suicidal. But IF Morgenstern didn't make it up entirely from scratch but bases it on some stuff FW actually said when drunk and sick during those last four years (say, about the first baby dying, or complaints that neither of his parents were good Christians in his eyes), then there's a shot that maybe he actually did have a youthful thing for Caroline. (Giving him additional reason to hate on G2!)
He became their teacher in 1740, when he wasn't at Rheinsberg anymore
Ah, that makes sense. Bronisch made it sound like it happened simultanously.
This seems to have been a fanfic trend at the time, at least I remember coming across another "Totengespräch" between Fritz and Amelie at some point last year.
Same. It wasn't very good, tough, so I never bothered to read more than a bit of it. But yeah, clearly a late 18th Century fanfic trend!
That's why he doesn't mention Suhm, he's a shipper, too.
Most def.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
OOOOH, I didn't know this!
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
several books by Joachim Lange, aka Wolff's arch enemy mainly responsible for his banishment
I remind everyone that Lange as an enemy of Wolff has made an appearance in passing before, in the "Mimi burns Wolff" anecdote:
Our wits maintain that the monkey wanted to study the Metaphysics and, being unable to construe a word, put it to the flame. Others aver that Lange had corrupted her, and that she played that turn from motives of zeal inspired by the prig. Finally, others said that Mimi was annoyed at the number of prerogatives which Wolff accords to man over beast, and offered up to Vulcan a book which denigrated her race. (Translation MacDonogh's, with the exception of making Mimi female, as Fritz said she was.)
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe". That does it. Wolff says of course he's the boss in his marriage and yeah, no accepting of FW's offer, promise.
Sigh.
One of the main arguments is the langugage: Wolff says that while he can read French, he can't understand it when it's spoken out loud and so quickly (I emphatize), let alone speak it, and Fritz has just nixed the previous Academy language, which was Latin, and which Wolff could speak, and won't accept German.
Huh, I didn't know that either. And lol to his opinions of the other scholars!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?)
Yes, thanks to you!
who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
Ding ding ding we have a winner! Even as a kid, even with my terrible education, I always had the Nazis held up to me as prime examples of how educated people commit atrocities too. Good for her for noticing!
Dechamps. Manteuffel protegé Dechamps in 1736 managed to score a double employment - he became Fritz' official court preacher at Rheinsberg (if you're surprised Fritz had an official court preacher at Rheinsberg, remember FW being alive and making surprise visits)
He is mentioned in a footnote by the English translator of the Suhm letters (which I am still reading almost as slowly as cahn is reading Orieux!), who has this to say:
Jean Deschamps, second brother to him who died Minister at Berlin, in 17852 was attached to the service of the church at Reinsberg, as candidate, and having preached before the Court, he assumed the title of Chaplain. - The Prince Royal never attended his sermons. - M. Deschamps having been one of Wolff's disciples at Marbourg, translated first, his German Logic into French, the translation was well received by the public.-- He afterwards published an entire course of Wolf's philosophy, in a series of letters addressed to one of his friends, a young Theologian, called Cabrit, who died in 1741, Minister of the church at Francfort upon the Oder.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
he does get to be an academy member (and a good thing, too, or Mildred would never have read his obituary for Peter
Indeed! Though, now I'm wondering: were the obituaries on the initiative of the Academy or Formey? IOW, did they continue after Formey, and would we still have them if Formey hadn't taken it upon himself to write them?
Speaking of the Academy, new findings in the library. In 1900, Harnack published a three volume (but like the seventh Harry Potter movie, the first one is split in two, and also there's a supplementary volume with documents, bless 19th century scholars) history of the Academy of Sciences, in excruciating detail (~600 pages per volume). In the interests of space, only the first volume (from the founding under F1 up to the death of Fritz) and the Urkunden volume are in the library, but I have the others if we need them for something.
Searching "Keith" (natch) in the first volume, I see that the author says that the post of Curator, which I've always been wondering what its specific duties were, meant almost nothing already in 1747 (when Peter was appointed), and nothing at all in 1753. They didn't even bother replacing curators when they died (Peter was the first to go :(), so that when Fritz died, there was only one left of the original four.
And speaking of the library, Dantal is now under memoirs and diaries, and Morgenstern under biographies. Good finds,
Bronisch: yeah, I know. Even the idea that Wolff would have admired Lessing doesn't fit, never mind Fritz. But I still wanted to tell you the story.
Lol, well, we sympathize.
One more thing: Fritz totally named Sanssouci after Manteuffel's Sanssouci, and it wasn't because he was looking for his grave, it was because he was pining for the happy time with his mentor in the mid 1730s. So there. The end.
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch. I see nothing incompatible with declaring that Rheinsberg was the only happy time of your life, that you'll never be happy again as long as you live, and longing for both the time before your current unhappy life and the time to come after it aka death.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Fritz: I write my own anti-Voltaire pamphlets, thank you very much. :P
No kidding, though who would have known that then? :)
Wolff: his statement re: French and his opinion on the other scholars also makes into both books. BTW, the Manteuffel/Wolff correspondence is bilingual, in that Manteuffel writes French and Wolff writes German, so I think we can take Wolff at his word - he oould read and understand French in written form well enough, but wasn't comfortable enough with it to write, let alone talk in the language. I can see why, even aside from everything else, this would make you balk at joining an instutition where the King has just decreed all conversation and all writing must be in French.
The editor then tells roughtly the same story of the literary war between Fritz and Deschamp, and his flight to Kassel and London. No idea how accurate the details are, but this is what 1787 guy says!
Well, Dechamps is another who later wrote a vengeful memoir, so I assume that was the common source for both this editor and Bronisch.
How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
LOL. I had a quick gander in the Bielfeld letter where he writes about taking over Ferdinand's education, and he says that while ten years old F's education clearly had been somewhat neglected so far, what with Ferd only showing enthusiasm for hunting (don't do it, Ferdinand, your aim is terrible!) and the military, NOW that Bielfeld has taken over, the scholarly bug has bit him. I note - as several biographers before me - that Fritz was on to something re: his brothers' education having been neglected under FW, but again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I love how this matters SO much to Bronisch.
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
And as noted, this is what I would have naively assumed Fredersdorf and Fritz would start doing, so the fact that Fritz keeps writing (bad) German to him to the end is very touching.
again I say: if you're a teacher and have seen how Fritz' teachers have faired, what would you do?
I'm with you on this!
So much that it's even included in the blurb printed on the back of the "Kampf um Kronprinz Friedrich" book - ...(Bronisch) solves the mystery of the naming of "Sanssouci"....
*spittake*
Was he really the first person who published this? You mentioned it to us back in January 2020, but I'm not sure what your source was.
But, Bronisch, have you solved the *real* mystery, aka the mystery of the comma in "sans, souci.", which has been bugging people for centuries?
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Wikipedia. (German version) Which names both of Bronisch's books in as its sources, so that figures. Mind you, that entry says that a historical novel "Der Meister von Sanssouci" (which is actually about Knobelsdorff the architect) by Martin Stade from 1971 - thus predating Bronsich's doctoral theses by decades - already includes a scene where Manteuffel tells someone else Fritz plagiarized the name. So Bronisch is not the first one to come up with that theory. Martin Stade also wrote a novel "Der König und sein Narr" about Gundling which is credited with changing a part of the reading public's mind about Gundling and which I've been meaning to read for a while.
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Ha!
Ooh, yes, you should read both those books (when time permits) and tell us about them!
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Who has always shown Fritz friendship!
Heeeee I laughed. I think that will just always be funny :D
Re: His Name is Diable. Le Diable: Bad Times
Mantteuffel's own argument is of the psychological type, using period sexism very effectively; if Wolff now attempts, one has to assume that he was "un homme absulement gouverné par sa femme et qui par consequent n'est grand Philosophe".
Oh man.
Manteuffel fired off a reply that's also an evisceration of Fritz, rethorically asking there was either a legal by HRE law justification for the invasion, or one by natural law, or one on the basis of religion (which Reinbek had argued), i.e. Fritz needing to save the Silesian Protestants from Catholic MT? And his reply to each of these was no. Fritz has become a gangster with good PR just another despot and a robber donning the robes of monarch. So much for you, Alcibiades.
Ha! You go Manteuffel!
Louise Gottsched (remember her? Émilie fan and translator?), who points out to him in a letter even before the Silesian invasion that this Roi Philosophe dedication to Fritz and the whole Roi Philosophe concept is a mistake because she knows of not a few princes who had a great education and knew damm well what they were doing and did it anyway. Philosophy does not keep them from this.
I had forgotten, so thank you for the reminder, but when you reminded me I remembered her being awfully cool, and I am happy to see that she's still extremely awesome :D
Boie: writes RPF titled "Totengespräche", in which dead Fritz, with Voltaire at his side, meets dead Wolff in the underworld and tells Wolff he was the first one to make him think, the author of his soul and mind, everything he became as a thinker, he owes thus to Wolff. Wolff modestly says there's a much greater one he must present to Fritz and points to Lessing. Fritz and Wolff leave the unworthy shallow Voltaire behind and unite with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the Hereafter. Happy ending!
OMG that is hilaaaaarious. Sort of like the Philosophe version of the Divine Comedy, lol!