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

[cahn]

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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Peter Hagendorf and tragedy

[mildred_of_midgard]

A while back, selenak mentioned that she learned from the Thirty Years' War documentary "Die Eiserne Zeit" that a soldier named Peter Hagendorf, one of the rare literate soldiers, kept a diary throughout the war.

Well, Münkler uses his diary extensively as a source, and I had to share this passage, because it reminded me so much of another -dorf, our Lehndorff, and what he went through (Google translated to spare me the time):

Of course, not everyone accepted the great death as stoically as the mercenary Hagendorf, who had to experience great suffering himself. When he is ordered from Freising to Straubing, his wife, who has just given birth, follows him. “But her child died on the way, and she also died a few days later in the hospital in Munich. May God grant her a joyful resurrection with the child and all her children [who previously died soon after birth], amen. Because in the eternal blessed life we ​​want to see each other again. So now my wife is asleep with her children." This entry from 1633 was followed two years later, after Hagendorf had remarried, by another death note: «On November 11 my wife recovered from childbirth. Was baptized right away. His name was Jürg Martin, lived 24 hours. God give him a happy resurrection." In the year 1640: «My wife recovered from a young son on February 18th. Was called Quirinus, lived 6 days and died. May God grant him a happy resurrection." And the following year: «On April 9th, my wife recovered from a young daughter. Was baptized here in Tirschenreuth, is in the Upper Palatinate in the Bohemian Forest. Her name is Barbara. May God grant her long life." But then: “On May 9, 1641, my daughter died in Ingolstadt. May the good Lord grant her a happy resurrection." A few years later: "At Pappenheim, my wife recovered from a young daughter, November 3, 1645. May God grant her a long life." And the next year: “My little daughter died on August 22nd. Margareta. May God grant her a happy resurrection."

At least, when the war ended, Hagendorf and his second wife had a six-year-old son and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Melchert Christoff and Anna Maria by name. The two surviving children, about whose further fate we know nothing because Hagendorf's records break off soon after the end of the war, are opposed to eight children who died during the war. Now, infant mortality was high in the 17th century, and the deaths of the eight children were not directly related to the war; indirectly, however, because life in the baggage train, the epidemics and diseases rampant there, and the constant moving on significantly increased the usual infant mortality rate. According to the records, Hagendorf accepted it calmly, and just as he associated the birth of a child with the wish for a long life, so he associated death with the wish for a “happy resurrection”. Throughout the years of war, his belief in God and the afterlife remained at least formulaic for him.

:-(

On a more cheerful note, that documentary *does* look good, Selena, and though it's not officially available to me in the US, at least the first couple episodes are on YouTube. I'll probably fork over for the DVD and *cough* make it work once the time comes for serious listening practice. But given that it took me ~20 minutes to get through the trailer and first 2 minutes of the first episode, this is good enough for non-serious practice. Thanks for the rec!

Re: Peter Hagendorf and tragedy

[cahn]

Arrrrgh, you could not pay me enough to live in the past!! :(