Selena's mention of Manteuffel's prostitute bribing reminded me that I wanted to report some things I read in the two mid-19th-century Weber essays, i.e. the ones which give some excerpts and mostly paraphrased anecdotes from the Suhm and Manteuffel reports in the Dresden state archive.
1. The anecdote where FW tells kid!Fritz "I want to know what's going on in this little head; I know it doesn't think like I do" etc, accompanied by the cheek patting that turns into slaps. (And also into breaking of porcelain.) It was yet another Suhm report, March 1724, and happened during the baptism of Grumbkow's son.
2. The FW reads Wolff anecdotes (here). Makes sense that this came from Manteuffel.
Other bits and pieces:
On the antisemitism front: After hunting boars, FW sent the killed ones to Jews who had to buy them at five Reichsthaler a piece, even though they obviously couldn't eat them.
On the "FW beating up teenagers" front: Wife of oboist Fischbach accosts FW during a stroll in Potsdam to complain about her husband's affair with the maid, FW decides to hold an impromptu court of justice and investigates. Their fourteen-year-old son gets summoned and interviewed and when he doesn't want to (or can't) tell on his father, he gets beat up by two of FW's lackeys. (The father gets his own beating afterwards.) Manteuffel: I admit that this performance filled me with terror from which I have not yet recovered: the stubbornness of the oboist and his son struck me, but less so than the tranquility with which the tormenting of these unfortunates was observed.
Finally, some reports on FW deterioration in 1740, which include the fact that Fritz gave money/reassurance to people who got their pensions/etc taken away due to FW's bad mood, and also the anecdote that FW forbid his cooks to taste any of the food they cooked (because he suspected them of stealing) and that he reduced food for SD's table, which Fritz supposedly supplemented.
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Reports from the Dresden State Archive - FW
Date: 2022-01-09 07:26 pm (UTC)The first one is Vom Berliner Hofe unter König Friedrich Wilhelm I. and to start with, it contains two things I knew about but didn't have a source for:
1. The anecdote where FW tells kid!Fritz "I want to know what's going on in this little head; I know it doesn't think like I do" etc, accompanied by the cheek patting that turns into slaps. (And also into breaking of porcelain.) It was yet another Suhm report, March 1724, and happened during the baptism of Grumbkow's son.
2. The FW reads Wolff anecdotes (here). Makes sense that this came from Manteuffel.
Other bits and pieces:
On the antisemitism front: After hunting boars, FW sent the killed ones to Jews who had to buy them at five Reichsthaler a piece, even though they obviously couldn't eat them.
On the "FW beating up teenagers" front: Wife of oboist Fischbach accosts FW during a stroll in Potsdam to complain about her husband's affair with the maid, FW decides to hold an impromptu court of justice and investigates. Their fourteen-year-old son gets summoned and interviewed and when he doesn't want to (or can't) tell on his father, he gets beat up by two of FW's lackeys. (The father gets his own beating afterwards.) Manteuffel: I admit that this performance filled me with terror from which I have not yet recovered: the stubbornness of the oboist and his son struck me, but less so than the tranquility with which the tormenting of these unfortunates was observed.
Finally, some reports on FW deterioration in 1740, which include the fact that Fritz gave money/reassurance to people who got their pensions/etc taken away due to FW's bad mood, and also the anecdote that FW forbid his cooks to taste any of the food they cooked (because he suspected them of stealing) and that he reduced food for SD's table, which Fritz supposedly supplemented.