Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Comments

Re: Narrowing in on Peter Keith's grave

[selenak]

Okay, I know what I'll to do when visiting Berlin on April 26th. :) Those Gothic murals look great.

Re: Narrowing in on Peter Keith's grave

[mildred_of_midgard]

*claps hands delightedly*

I hope your trip allows you time to enjoy the museum properly too, it looks great. :D

I would also not say no to a picture of the Nicolaihaus at Brüderstraße 13, if you can fit that in. Even just the front of the building from the street if you don't have time to go in and explore. I do know what the outside looks like, but if I ever publish and the publisher's game for including images, I'll need a picture that I have permission to use.

The Nikolaikirche and Nicolaihaus are 800 meters apart, across the Spree, so hopefully this isn't too much to ask. If you're too pressed for time, no worries, the Culemann Chapel is all I really need.

<3

Re: Narrowing in on Peter Keith's grave

[mildred_of_midgard]

So, continuing with Best Curator Ever, I just heard from him again, and here's the latest.

- He talked to the art restorer of the chapel and forwarded me two pictures showing the crypt doors.

- Art restorer will send better-quality ones with permission to use them for publication if and when I provide details about the intended publication.

- There aren't separate "graves" per se, just the coffins all held together underground in a single burying space beneath the chapel.

- They actually survived WWII pretty well, but after the church was bombed and abandoned, the crypt was exposed to weather and graverobbers/souvenir hunters.

- By the time restoration started circa 1980, there was very little left, just some unidentifiable bones.

- Outside of the burial records cahn and I found on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com, there is no evidence, either material or bureaucratic, to indicate that Peter was ever buried there--but, says the curator, this is totally normal and doesn't mean he wasn't. The people with the money to get the burial site named after them got all the artwork in the honor, everyone else got inscription plaques at best, but usually nothing.

- I have his personal email and instructions not to hesitate to keep asking him questions even now that he's retired.

Wow. This is awesome! I think I'm going to go ask him more questions. :D

Oh, and we're on a first-name basis now.

Also, as expected, I only got 2 pics, so I will still be utterly grateful for any more pictures showing the chapel, selenak, and I'm sure your DW readers wouldn't mind a picspam of the picturesque church as a whole!

Oh. And now that I know we have one large burying space beneath the chapel with a bunch of coffins, I'm even *more* inclined to think Peter and Friedrich Ludwig are both there: there was surely lots of space. Especially since the Culeman Chapel was brand-new qua burying space in 1746. There's still a scenario, of course, in which Peter was put with a different family in 1757, and it filled up, and Friedrich Ludwig took a spot in a new one in 1764...but we're never going to know, and we do know where 19-yo Friedrich Ludwig was buried, so the Culemann Chapel is still the best spot to pay respects to Peter's remains. (The Tiergarten and Nicolaihaus remain the best spots to pay respects to his life.)