Love all of Sabrow's primary source research! Great and very interesting. (And I immediately put the Berliner Adreß-Kalender to good use.) But I would not have imagined that all the humiliations got reported in the yellow press court news. Damn.
at one point even hiding with SD, who helps him. (!)
! indeed! (What's the source for that one?) Also, one more data point showing the deliberateness on FW's part and how clear it was to others what was going on there.
Atheism is also ! Hm. I'm kind of wondering if there was some weird psychological thing going on where FW tormented Gundling because he also allowed him some influence despite looking down on him. I mean, yes, bad temper and cruelty, but both the relentlessness and the deliberateness, when he didn't have a personal investment like he did with Fritz for example, seems weird.
I would not have imagined that all the humiliations got reported in the yellow press court news. Damn.
The 18th century equivalent to being posted on twitter. Awful for Gundling, but at least good for the historians.
SD: that's from Ortgies the news agent as well. Clearly Our Man In Potsdam.
Atheism: with the caveat that a newspaper in FW's Berlin probably calls everything atheism which departs from orthodox Protestant Christianity (see Voltaire being constantly called an atheist when he really wasn't, and even good old Christian Wolff), so that for all we know, Gundling simply said something sounding slightly agnostic: it would have been pretty reckless to actually profess atheism in FW's face. Of course, this is before FW starts to torment him, so a drunken Gundling might have risked it. More likely, though, he said something unorthodox and that was enough to be deemed atheistic. (This said, when I read Stade's novel in which Gundlng actually is an atheist, I thought this was because it is a GDR novel. But it seems he does have some canon to base this on.
I'm kind of wondering if there was some weird psychological thing going on where FW tormented Gundling because he also allowed him some influence despite looking down on him. I mean, yes, bad temper and cruelty, but both the relentlessness and the deliberateness, when he didn't have a personal investment like he did with Fritz for example, seems weird.
It's also worth pointing out that for all that he taunted Gundling with possibly replacing him with David Fassmann in his last years, he never actually did until Gundling was dead. So it was Gundling, specifically. I mean, obviously the successors which quickly came and went until Morgenstern were also bullied, but not to the same degree, nor were they made head of the Academy etc. (Though he had the Academy pay their salaries, as Bielfeld indignantly notes later.)
As for what psychological weirdness was going on there: Jochen Klepper in Der Vater made a valiant attempt at an explanation. Now he did excuse FW a bit in that Gundling is already a self destructive alcoholic when they meet, and they have something of a Lear/Fool relationship, but here's the key passage which Sabrow also quotes from in his biography:
Es hatte, so kündete der Professor von dem neuesten Ergebnis seiner Forschungen, vor alanger Zeit ein Herrscher gelebt, so gewaltig, so groß und zornig wie der Zar. Der zog schwer an seinem entsetzlichen Geschick, daß alle, die er je mit seinen furchtbaren Händen angerührt hatte, dem Tode verfielen. Er hatte Mörderhände. Professor Gundling stellte es sehr dramatisch dar. (...) König Friedrich Wilhelm hörte zu. (...) Er selbst trank viel. Dem Professor wurde am reichlichsten und häufgisten eingeschenkt. (...) Er betrank sich bis zum Tierischen. Er redete wirr. (...) Und das wollte der König. Alles sollte ein lächerlicher Unfug sein, was der hemmungslose Säufer und Schwätzer je geplaudert hatte. Alles, alles sollte nur ein schlechter und gemeiner Witz, eine Zote für Trinker gewesen sein. Auch das sollte nichts gewesen sein als Wahnwitz, Torheit, Lüge; daß es einen Herrscher gegeben habe, der sich so vor seinen Händen fürchtete, daß er sich sich binden ließ. (...)Die Schatten unter den Augen des zechenden Königs waren faltige, schwere Säcke geworden. Seine Blicke gingen unstet hin und her. Und immer wieder: unbewußt, hafteten sie lange auf Gundling. Von den Gedanken zu Tode verwundet, begehrte der KÖnig nach dem Trost, daß die Weisheit dieser Welt gar nichts anderes sei als Zote und Narrheit; so munterte er die Offiziere auf, es mit dem trunkenen Professor schlimm zu treiben. Aber er selbst tat nicht mehr mit. Er sah auf das Bild: die Weisheit tropfte als Spechel der Betrunkenheit von den Lippen des Klügsten.
Stade, I thnk, wants to get at something similar when letting Gundling hallucinate that FW is holding a mirror between them in which Gundling sees his entire degredation but which also protects FW from having to look in the mirror himself.
And yet another use of Gundling later on was as an instrument to torment others with. Because according to Loen, this also happened:
Ja, die Sachen gingen gar so weit, daß es hies, Gundling solte Hofmeister von dem cronprinzen werden; zum wenigsten ängstigte der König seine vornehmste Ministers. Man glaubte es bey Hofe, und Gundling glaube es selst.
So basically to shock both his ministers and Fritz. Who presumably was horrified at the thought that instead of Duhan or Jourdan, he should be taught by someone his father had taught everyone to despise as the lowest of the low.
More likely, though, he said something unorthodox and that was enough to be deemed atheistic.
Agreed. If you look into the history of the term "atheism" throughout the centuries, it's a generic insult flung around at people whose beliefs or behavior you want to criticize. Popes have been called atheist on the grounds that if they behaved as badly as they did, they must not believe in a God who was going to punish them in the afterlife. This had nothing to do with a Pope preaching what we would call atheism today. ;)
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Re: Martin Sabrow's Gundling Biography: I
yellow presscourt news. Damn.at one point even hiding with SD, who helps him. (!)
! indeed! (What's the source for that one?) Also, one more data point showing the deliberateness on FW's part and how clear it was to others what was going on there.
Atheism is also ! Hm. I'm kind of wondering if there was some weird psychological thing going on where FW tormented Gundling because he also allowed him some influence despite looking down on him. I mean, yes, bad temper and cruelty, but both the relentlessness and the deliberateness, when he didn't have a personal investment like he did with Fritz for example, seems weird.
Re: Martin Sabrow's Gundling Biography: I
The 18th century equivalent to being posted on twitter. Awful for Gundling, but at least good for the historians.
SD: that's from Ortgies the news agent as well. Clearly Our Man In Potsdam.
Atheism: with the caveat that a newspaper in FW's Berlin probably calls everything atheism which departs from orthodox Protestant Christianity (see Voltaire being constantly called an atheist when he really wasn't, and even good old Christian Wolff), so that for all we know, Gundling simply said something sounding slightly agnostic: it would have been pretty reckless to actually profess atheism in FW's face. Of course, this is before FW starts to torment him, so a drunken Gundling might have risked it. More likely, though, he said something unorthodox and that was enough to be deemed atheistic. (This said, when I read Stade's novel in which Gundlng actually is an atheist, I thought this was because it is a GDR novel. But it seems he does have some canon to base this on.
I'm kind of wondering if there was some weird psychological thing going on where FW tormented Gundling because he also allowed him some influence despite looking down on him. I mean, yes, bad temper and cruelty, but both the relentlessness and the deliberateness, when he didn't have a personal investment like he did with Fritz for example, seems weird.
It's also worth pointing out that for all that he taunted Gundling with possibly replacing him with David Fassmann in his last years, he never actually did until Gundling was dead. So it was Gundling, specifically. I mean, obviously the successors which quickly came and went until Morgenstern were also bullied, but not to the same degree, nor were they made head of the Academy etc. (Though he had the Academy pay their salaries, as Bielfeld indignantly notes later.)
As for what psychological weirdness was going on there: Jochen Klepper in Der Vater made a valiant attempt at an explanation. Now he did excuse FW a bit in that Gundling is already a self destructive alcoholic when they meet, and they have something of a Lear/Fool relationship, but here's the key passage which Sabrow also quotes from in his biography:
Es hatte, so kündete der Professor von dem neuesten Ergebnis seiner Forschungen, vor alanger Zeit ein Herrscher gelebt, so gewaltig, so groß und zornig wie der Zar. Der zog schwer an seinem entsetzlichen Geschick, daß alle, die er je mit seinen furchtbaren Händen angerührt hatte, dem Tode verfielen. Er hatte Mörderhände. Professor Gundling stellte es sehr dramatisch dar. (...) König Friedrich Wilhelm hörte zu. (...) Er selbst trank viel. Dem Professor wurde am reichlichsten und häufgisten eingeschenkt. (...) Er betrank sich bis zum Tierischen. Er redete wirr. (...) Und das wollte der König. Alles sollte ein lächerlicher Unfug sein, was der hemmungslose Säufer und Schwätzer je geplaudert hatte. Alles, alles sollte nur ein schlechter und gemeiner Witz, eine Zote für Trinker gewesen sein. Auch das sollte nichts gewesen sein als Wahnwitz, Torheit, Lüge; daß es einen Herrscher gegeben habe, der sich so vor seinen Händen fürchtete, daß er sich sich binden ließ. (...)Die Schatten unter den Augen des zechenden Königs waren faltige, schwere Säcke geworden. Seine Blicke gingen unstet hin und her. Und immer wieder: unbewußt, hafteten sie lange auf Gundling. Von den Gedanken zu Tode verwundet, begehrte der KÖnig nach dem Trost, daß die Weisheit dieser Welt gar nichts anderes sei als Zote und Narrheit; so munterte er die Offiziere auf, es mit dem trunkenen Professor schlimm zu treiben. Aber er selbst tat nicht mehr mit. Er sah auf das Bild: die Weisheit tropfte als Spechel der Betrunkenheit von den Lippen des Klügsten.
Stade, I thnk, wants to get at something similar when letting Gundling hallucinate that FW is holding a mirror between them in which Gundling sees his entire degredation but which also protects FW from having to look in the mirror himself.
And yet another use of Gundling later on was as an instrument to torment others with. Because according to Loen, this also happened:
Ja, die Sachen gingen gar so weit, daß es hies, Gundling solte Hofmeister von dem cronprinzen werden; zum wenigsten ängstigte der König seine vornehmste Ministers. Man glaubte es bey Hofe, und Gundling glaube es selst.
So basically to shock both his ministers and Fritz. Who presumably was horrified at the thought that instead of Duhan or Jourdan, he should be taught by someone his father had taught everyone to despise as the lowest of the low.
Re: Martin Sabrow's Gundling Biography: I
Agreed. If you look into the history of the term "atheism" throughout the centuries, it's a generic insult flung around at people whose beliefs or behavior you want to criticize. Popes have been called atheist on the grounds that if they behaved as badly as they did, they must not believe in a God who was going to punish them in the afterlife. This had nothing to do with a Pope preaching what we would call atheism today. ;)