Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

[cahn]

Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

Comments

Re: Fredersdorf and Kiekemal: The Plot Thickens

[mildred_of_midgard]

I dimly seem to recall Wegfraß thinks the adoption business was done for the Kiekemal occasion specifically.

Oh, interesting. Yeah, I need to read this.

Here's something tangentially I'm curious about: Did either of the Trachtenbergs outlive Fredersdorf?

Same thing I was curious about! But I couldn't find them in a quick google yesterday. I will have to put on my detective hat and try again.

Okay! She was 66 in 1752, childless, and the sole heir of her family (her brother had died unmarried). She was thrown out of a carriage thanks to a careless driver in April, she lay in bed in pain dictating her last will, she died June 1.

Her two heirs are her husband, Colonel Baron von Trachenberg, and her adoptive son, Fredersdorf. Her husband gets most of the inheritance, Fredersdorf gets an estate, but he has to pay Trachenberg 800 talers in cash every year, for his support in his old age.

Ah! He dies in May 1757, aged 68, so just after Fredersdorf retired (April 1757).

But, in 1752 Trachenberg is very concerned that Fredersdorf will die before him, so he goes and gets a notarized document from the Saxon authorities saying that the payment will be made even if Fredersdorf dies, and also that Fredersdorf's not allowed to sell or mortgage it. "800 talers a year," says the author, "that will be a heavy burden on Fredersdorf until the death of the baron."

Now to tie this in with the Kiekemal chronology, from the Rheinsberg post: "On July 7th 1752, Colonel von Trachenberg transfers all his claims on the Bock property plus the Kiekenmal land to Fredersdorf."

So first the Trachenbergs adopt Fredersdorf, then the wife leaves a property to him, then she dies, then her husband transfers the Kiekemal property to him, then a few months later (January 1753) Fredersdorf offers to sell the Kiekemal property to Frau von Marschall.

Then Fredersdorf dies a few months after Colonel Baron von Trachenberg. His heirs for the estate in Saxony are his surviving siblings and children of his predeceased siblings.

In conclusion, it was kind of a race for who would die first, the elderly Trachenberg or the sickly Fredersdorf, but it doesn't seem like Trachenberg was expecting an inheritance from Fredersdorf if he died childless (esp. since he was apparently very worried about not even being able to get any money from the estate that used to belong to his wife, never mind the stuff that had nothing to do with him).

That's what I've got so far! More discoveries no doubt await us.

I have to say, though, it is really interesting to be linking up the chronology of Fredersdorf and the Trachenbergs at Kiekemal with the chronology of Fredersdorf and the Trachenbergs at Rübenau in Saxony, which apparently no one has ever done before!