Which is still what we call a war crime, Fritz, even by the standards of your contemporaries Heinrich and Boswell.
Let’s not forget Andrew Mitchell, who got to watch this in real time and wrote: December 1760:
My other letters by this messenger will inform your Lordship of everything that has passed since the 12th, and I am very unwilling and very unfit at the present moment to make reflections. I cannot think of the bombardment of Dresden without horror, nor of many other things I have seen. Misfortunes naturally sour men's tempers, and the continuance of them at last extinguishes humanity.
3rd January 1761:
The very harsh manner in which the country of Saxony is treated fills me with horror, though there is now the fatal plea of necessity for adopting measures which were practised before that necessity existed.
Yeah, no, Showalter. I’m not impressed by the ignoring of post WWII German biographers, either. (Which as you guessed do exist. :)
And I know Fritz + militarism was a bit taboo for a while there, but by the end of the century, I fully expect that his "principal" military biographer is writing in German. I have to say, being limited to books that are affordable, on Kindle (mostly), and in English (for now!) does not always result in me getting to read the best of all possible scholarship. I really miss having access to a research library and the ability to use it. :/
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Dresden
Date: 2021-03-07 04:18 am (UTC)Let’s not forget Andrew Mitchell, who got to watch this in real time and wrote:
December 1760:
My other letters by this messenger will inform your Lordship of everything that has passed since the 12th, and I am very unwilling and very unfit at the present moment to make reflections. I cannot think of the bombardment of Dresden without horror, nor of many other things I have seen. Misfortunes naturally sour men's tempers, and the continuance of them at last extinguishes humanity.
3rd January 1761:
The very harsh manner in which the country of Saxony is treated fills me with horror, though there is now the fatal plea of necessity for adopting measures which were practised before that necessity existed.
Yeah, no, Showalter. I’m not impressed by the ignoring of post WWII German biographers, either. (Which as you guessed do exist. :)
Re: Dresden
Date: 2021-03-07 04:12 pm (UTC)And I know Fritz + militarism was a bit taboo for a while there, but by the end of the century, I fully expect that his "principal" military biographer is writing in German. I have to say, being limited to books that are affordable, on Kindle (mostly), and in English (for now!) does not always result in me getting to read the best of all possible scholarship. I really miss having access to a research library and the ability to use it. :/