I was surprised by how few of Frederik's letters to Moltke involve "Du."
Well, Moltke isn't a former valet, Moltke is a nobleman. I'm more surprised there's any Du at all at this point in time.
Late in the 18th century, a young Goethe in love with noblewoman Charlotte von Stein annoys her by writing Du in his letters, while she keeps insisting on Sie. The letters are in German, btw, not French. And I had recently the chance to read the very touching engagement letters between a young Jewish-German couple written in 1803 - 1804, he's a peddler, she's a housemaid; they waver between Sie and Du, and it's exactly the transition period where the last vestiges of 18th century letter habits still cling on but are in the process of being discarded.
I mean, I can see why Gustav Volz when translating the Fritz/Wilhelmine letters changed the mode of address to "Du" and why the editors of the "Solange wir zu zweit sind" edition kept this, though it confused me a lot for a while. To us, using a formal mode of adress to someone you love is just weird. But it really was the standard for most of that century unless the recipient of the letter was of significantly lower rank, even among family members, so I'm more surprised that Frederik used Du at all. Now, obviously, in the last third of the century this changes, starting with the bourgoisie - when Goethe or Schiller as students write letters to their fellow student male friends, it's Du and last name (not first name), and of course the mode of address in "Don Carlos" is a direct plot point in the Carlos and Posa reunion scene early on, plus love letters go for Du more and more, too. But the consciousness of rank still applies even among non nobles. Again with the Mozarts because we have a lot of family letters as a good example of the second half of the 18th century non noble German speakers: It's Du between siblings and spouses, and from the parents to the children, but even adult children call their father Sie.
Incidentally, I have zero idea of how Danish language habits were in the 18th century, but in modern day Danish tv shows like Borgen, everyone says Du to everyone else. If the Danish equivalent to Du was already far more in use back then, then it might have rubbed off, despite the Oldenburg royal family not talking Danish but German (and French, presumably), given that Frederik hangs out with all those prostitutes on a regular basis (who presumably are non noble and non-German).
Note on your translation - my guess is that "erligen" stands for "ehrlichen", i.e. "honest". Otherwise, good lord, yes.
Another note on Du versus Er versus Sie and the transition: schoolboy Jacob Grimm (one of the fairy tale brothers), subject of the princes of Hesse-Kassel, who attends on a scholarship (due to being brilliant) a school where there are otherwise mainly nobles very much seethes in resentment when adressed as "Er" by the teacher, who calls the noble boys Sie, and sees it as a direct put down he still remembers decades later when writing about it. This is late 18th century as well.
Lastly: mind you, except for the Grimm example all I've said applies to letter writing habits, which are of course heavily influenced by and in direct imitation of French culture. The assumption is that there was more Du used in verbal communication even among the nobility. And we do have examples for that, like Lehndorff's diary entry about the Hohenzollern Sibling Argument on the occasion of visiting Dear Old Wusterhausen, where he transcribes the exchange between Heinrich and Amalie in German, and suddenly it's Du whereas we know in their letters all the siblings adressed each other as Sie. (Except for Heinrich's very first preserved letter to little Ferdinand, the half French, half German one, where it's Du, but that one is from a teenager to a kid still in single digits of age.)
Re: Fritz in the Media: The Extra History Series
Well, Moltke isn't a former valet, Moltke is a nobleman. I'm more surprised there's any Du at all at this point in time.
Late in the 18th century, a young Goethe in love with noblewoman Charlotte von Stein annoys her by writing Du in his letters, while she keeps insisting on Sie. The letters are in German, btw, not French. And I had recently the chance to read the very touching engagement letters between a young Jewish-German couple written in 1803 - 1804, he's a peddler, she's a housemaid; they waver between Sie and Du, and it's exactly the transition period where the last vestiges of 18th century letter habits still cling on but are in the process of being discarded.
I mean, I can see why Gustav Volz when translating the Fritz/Wilhelmine letters changed the mode of address to "Du" and why the editors of the "Solange wir zu zweit sind" edition kept this, though it confused me a lot for a while. To us, using a formal mode of adress to someone you love is just weird. But it really was the standard for most of that century unless the recipient of the letter was of significantly lower rank, even among family members, so I'm more surprised that Frederik used Du at all. Now, obviously, in the last third of the century this changes, starting with the bourgoisie - when Goethe or Schiller as students write letters to their fellow student male friends, it's Du and last name (not first name), and of course the mode of address in "Don Carlos" is a direct plot point in the Carlos and Posa reunion scene early on, plus love letters go for Du more and more, too. But the consciousness of rank still applies even among non nobles. Again with the Mozarts because we have a lot of family letters as a good example of the second half of the 18th century non noble German speakers: It's Du between siblings and spouses, and from the parents to the children, but even adult children call their father Sie.
Incidentally, I have zero idea of how Danish language habits were in the 18th century, but in modern day Danish tv shows like Borgen, everyone says Du to everyone else. If the Danish equivalent to Du was already far more in use back then, then it might have rubbed off, despite the Oldenburg royal family not talking Danish but German (and French, presumably), given that Frederik hangs out with all those prostitutes on a regular basis (who presumably are non noble and non-German).
Note on your translation - my guess is that "erligen" stands for "ehrlichen", i.e. "honest". Otherwise, good lord, yes.
Another note on Du versus Er versus Sie and the transition: schoolboy Jacob Grimm (one of the fairy tale brothers), subject of the princes of Hesse-Kassel, who attends on a scholarship (due to being brilliant) a school where there are otherwise mainly nobles very much seethes in resentment when adressed as "Er" by the teacher, who calls the noble boys Sie, and sees it as a direct put down he still remembers decades later when writing about it. This is late 18th century as well.
Lastly: mind you, except for the Grimm example all I've said applies to letter writing habits, which are of course heavily influenced by and in direct imitation of French culture. The assumption is that there was more Du used in verbal communication even among the nobility. And we do have examples for that, like Lehndorff's diary entry about the Hohenzollern Sibling Argument on the occasion of visiting Dear Old Wusterhausen, where he transcribes the exchange between Heinrich and Amalie in German, and suddenly it's Du whereas we know in their letters all the siblings adressed each other as Sie. (Except for Heinrich's very first preserved letter to little Ferdinand, the half French, half German one, where it's Du, but that one is from a teenager to a kid still in single digits of age.)