cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

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In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

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From:

selenak

ZOMG! Now that‘s what I call a discovery. I just checked, and here‘s what German wiki had to say. They‘re not sure he was in Prussia at all or whether that was a legend, but they are sure he went to Saxony afterwards:

Um 1723 muss Daniel Cajanus sein Heimatland verlassen haben. Einer alten Überlieferung nach ging er zunächst an den Hof Friedrich Wilhelms I. in Preußen, um sich dessen Langen Kerls anzuschließen, wurde aber wegen zu erheblicher Größe abgelehnt: Er hätte die anderen Soldaten um Haupteslänge überragt. In dieser Zeit soll sein Porträt gemalt und in einer Bildergalerie in Potsdam aufgehängt worden sein. Nach einem bizarren und illegalen Wettkampf, bei dem ein Mann zu Tode gekommen sein soll, soll Daniel Cajanus dann aus Preußen geflohen sein.

Diese Berichte sind aber nicht gesichert. Dagegen kann man davon ausgehen, dass Cajanus sich eine Zeitlang am Hof des Königs August II. von Polen aufgehalten hat und der polnischen Kavallerie angehörte, weshalb er auch später noch häufig seine polnische Uniform trug.

I.e. for not German practicers, supposedly - but it‘s all written in the conditionalis - he made the other Tall Guys look bad by being a head taller than all of them, and then there was an illegal and bizarre competition he took part in in which a man died, and thus he had to flee Prussia for Saxony, where he joined the Cavalry.

…I‘m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of someone being too tall for FW, though. Otoh he did punish even the Tall Fellows if they went against his rules, so the having to flee Prussia part I can believe.

From:

luzula

OK, so it might have been a legend, but it was a fun story, at least! : )

From:

selenak

Definitely!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

…I‘m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of someone being too tall for FW, though.

SAME!

Otoh he did punish even the Tall Fellows if they went against his rules, so the having to flee Prussia part I can believe.

I agree with this, though.

Thank you for the wiki update, Detective Selena!

From:

cahn

I... feel that I need to know more about the (even if apocryphal) bizarre and illegal competition. German wiki, why do you not pander to my sensationalist needs?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

There's a pretty good chance salon will turn it up at some point! I do miss being salon detective, but on the other hand, I'm planning to be SUCH a great detective and passer-on of gossipy sensationalism once I have two languages to work in. :DDD