Finished this a couple of days ago and the ending didn't get any easier from knowing it was coming. :( On the contrary, spending all the years of their correspondence with them beforehand just made it worse. (Fritz, shut up already, you've made your point!) Sigh.
That said, I feel like it wasn't as unpredictable as I thought! The letters aren't always easy to judge on their own - and AW's 1756 ones to Mina that Volz included show that he talked about things very differently to her than he did to Fritz, long before the big implosion - but there were a couple of conflicts even during the earlier years; not just the Heinrich one in 1749, but also two with AW himself in 1750 and 1755, both about matters concerning Fritz's handling of AW's regiments, i.e. Fritz going over his head and AW taking it very personally (mentions of honour and feeling useless included). Even Fritz' accusation of only listening to flattery/the wrong people shows up way earlier and when AW wants him to name names, Fritz only answers with "I see you want to involve me in a drawn-out argument, not happening, I'm done". My impression in general was that AW was rather insecure with Fritz (there's quite a lot of impersonal OTT praise for Fritz as king), that they talked at cross-purposes (and cross-expectations) at times, focusing on things very differently, and that Fritz' impatience did not help. And while Fritz' recurring "stop over-interpreting everything I say!" is his "who, me?" perspective, I do think - admittedly just from reading the correspondence, and as chosen by Volz - that he might have had a tiny point there. So you can kind of see some roots for 1757 if you know it's coming (but Fritz's explosion is still a shock).
One early and harmless illustration of disconnect that immediately stuck out to me was in September 1747: Fritz writes to AW from Sanssouci, in response to a letter in which AW said he'd be sad if he ended up like Moses and only got to see the beautiful vineyard and his brother from afar: I won't invite you to come here, nor will I send you fruit that you haven't picked yourself. You are old enough to do both and I told you often enough that nothing could delight me more than to see you. But I won't invite you. You will come when you want and go when you like. Brothers shouldn't be on flattery terms with each other ["nicht auf dem Komplimentierfuße stehen"]. I embrace you a thousand times.
It's on this fine line between sweet/playful and impatient/admonishing and where the relationship goes from there is quite open at that point, but turns into tragedy ten years later.
Staying on the positive side, I didn't know that AW got a Biche letter as well! In May 1749, right before the whole Heinrich kerfuffle, and a year after Wilhelmine's. Biche asks him to be godfather to her pups (their father is called Mylord by the way) and AW accepts in a letter to Fritz. Aw.
Amusing: November 1746, there are rumours that G2 might be dying. Says Fritz: If that's true, there will be a battle between him and our father at Pluto's. AW's answer: I'm sure one can talk to each other in the hereafter and I'm sure our father will treat him drastically and won't skimp on the most exquisite insults.
(Not many FW mentions otherwise, but, notably, AW implicitely invokes him in 1749, when trying to help Heinrich. I totally get his intention, but I feel like "you've been such a good and gracious king so far, don't become like dad now" might not have been the best course to take, and "you know how it felt" might seem like a sensible argument, but, well. Not with Fritz.)
Finally, while Fritz needling AW re: procreation and delivering heirs was another instance of "shut uuuup, Fritz", I was rather amused by a "the Stoics are tyrants, Epicurism all the way" letter from 1748. Unfortunately, Volz doesn't include the AW letter that prompted it (and Preuss has neither of them), but the context was Fritz taking the waters and everything that went with it, so I guess AW must have said something about Fritz' abstinence or something. Fritz then feels compelled to write a whole letter on natural drives and not suppressing them - he himself totally doesn't! - and I'm still wondering to what extent he's talking about sex here, when he lists hunger, sleep, and pleasure ("when our life and nature have accumulated surplus energy") as the three drives.
Fritz/AW Correspondence
On the contrary, spending all the years of their correspondence with them beforehand just made it worse. (Fritz, shut up already, you've made your point!) Sigh.
That said, I feel like it wasn't as unpredictable as I thought! The letters aren't always easy to judge on their own - and AW's 1756 ones to Mina that Volz included show that he talked about things very differently to her than he did to Fritz, long before the big implosion - but there were a couple of conflicts even during the earlier years; not just the Heinrich one in 1749, but also two with AW himself in 1750 and 1755, both about matters concerning Fritz's handling of AW's regiments, i.e. Fritz going over his head and AW taking it very personally (mentions of honour and feeling useless included). Even Fritz' accusation of only listening to flattery/the wrong people shows up way earlier and when AW wants him to name names, Fritz only answers with "I see you want to involve me in a drawn-out argument, not happening, I'm done".
My impression in general was that AW was rather insecure with Fritz (there's quite a lot of impersonal OTT praise for Fritz as king), that they talked at cross-purposes (and cross-expectations) at times, focusing on things very differently, and that Fritz' impatience did not help. And while Fritz' recurring "stop over-interpreting everything I say!" is his "who, me?" perspective, I do think - admittedly just from reading the correspondence, and as chosen by Volz - that he might have had a tiny point there. So you can kind of see some roots for 1757 if you know it's coming (but Fritz's explosion is still a shock).
One early and harmless illustration of disconnect that immediately stuck out to me was in September 1747: Fritz writes to AW from Sanssouci, in response to a letter in which AW said he'd be sad if he ended up like Moses and only got to see the beautiful vineyard and his brother from afar: I won't invite you to come here, nor will I send you fruit that you haven't picked yourself. You are old enough to do both and I told you often enough that nothing could delight me more than to see you. But I won't invite you. You will come when you want and go when you like. Brothers shouldn't be on flattery terms with each other ["nicht auf dem Komplimentierfuße stehen"]. I embrace you a thousand times.
It's on this fine line between sweet/playful and impatient/admonishing and where the relationship goes from there is quite open at that point, but turns into tragedy ten years later.
Staying on the positive side, I didn't know that AW got a Biche letter as well! In May 1749, right before the whole Heinrich kerfuffle, and a year after Wilhelmine's. Biche asks him to be godfather to her pups (their father is called Mylord by the way) and AW accepts in a letter to Fritz. Aw.
Amusing: November 1746, there are rumours that G2 might be dying. Says Fritz: If that's true, there will be a battle between him and our father at Pluto's. AW's answer: I'm sure one can talk to each other in the hereafter and I'm sure our father will treat him drastically and won't skimp on the most exquisite insults.
(Not many FW mentions otherwise, but, notably, AW implicitely invokes him in 1749, when trying to help Heinrich. I totally get his intention, but I feel like "you've been such a good and gracious king so far, don't become like dad now" might not have been the best course to take, and "you know how it felt" might seem like a sensible argument, but, well. Not with Fritz.)
Finally, while Fritz needling AW re: procreation and delivering heirs was another instance of "shut uuuup, Fritz", I was rather amused by a "the Stoics are tyrants, Epicurism all the way" letter from 1748. Unfortunately, Volz doesn't include the AW letter that prompted it (and Preuss has neither of them), but the context was Fritz taking the waters and everything that went with it, so I guess AW must have said something about Fritz' abstinence or something. Fritz then feels compelled to write a whole letter on natural drives and not suppressing them - he himself totally doesn't! - and I'm still wondering to what extent he's talking about sex here, when he lists hunger, sleep, and pleasure ("when our life and nature have accumulated surplus energy") as the three drives.