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

Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (1930)

[selenak]

The "Rothschild" in the title made me a bit wary because invoking the Rothschilds was such a popular antisemitic slander (these days, it's more George Soros who gets drafted for the same type of insinuation), but whatever else this book is, it's not antisemitic. In fact, even when the 7 Years War Fritzian war crimes complete with coin clipping are invoked, the author doesn't, as opposed to, say, Poniatowski in his memoirs, connects this with some antijudaistic slurs. Which doesn't mean the author doesn't have other axes to grind, because boy, does he ever. (More in a second.) But as this book is a passionate Brühl defense, "Rothschild" was - like Medici and Richelieu - meant as a compliment, signifying rich patron of the arts (in addition to master politician etc.).

Now, about those axes. Here's my experience reading the preface (as is my wont, and how we've discovered many an interesting thing, including Henri de Catt, RPF writer.)

AvB: WWI and the catastrophe of 1918 have caused many a historical study being written by many people. Same here. See, as a result of WWI France is dominant in Europe again by smashing Austria-Hungary, as was their cunning plan for centuries.

Self: Are you....?

AvB: MT. the great Empress, prevented this back in the day by first defeating France in battle and then taming her French opponents via diplomacy. MT's cause was Germany's cause!

Fritz fan reader before me in old German handwriting via pencil: NO!

AvB: The great Empress could have saved Germany for all time from French machinations, if Germany had united behind her as she fought the Erbfeind. You know who prevented this, thereby setting Germany on a course the result of which we've seen in WWI? Fritz!

Self: That's one way of putting it that I haven't seen. I mean, I'm familiar with the Fritz->Wilhelm II->Hitler theory, but you're writing in 1930, so Hitler isn't part of your agument yet, and even with this theory I'm familiar with, the argument isn't that an MT victory could have prevented this.

AvB: One man, a genius statesman and the coolest guy of his era, did his best to help in this noble cause and worked for a future where Austria and Saxony, side by side, would have created a wonderful future, and got smeared and slandered by Fritz in his demonic hate for his troubles: Brühl! Readers, I was familiar with his image, so imagine my surprise when I went to the archives and found nothing to support it. You know what Brühl's true guilt in Fritz' eyes was? That Saxony didn't help him destroying the HRE!

Fritzian fanboy reader before me in old fashioned German handwriting: RUBBISH!

AvB: Look, I'm an Hungarian, so I don't have any loyalties to any of the current political factions of today's Germany. But as an Hungarian, I'm closer to MT's pov than to that of bloody Fritz, and Brühl, too, was (mostly) on MT's side. We will understand him better, if we look at events from his pov.

Fritz fanboy reader before me: underlines "Hungarian" and "closer to MT's standpoint than that of bloody Fritz" but this time without a comment.

Self: OMG. You are a 20th century Hungarian Habsburg loyalist! I mean, I knew you guys existed even after WWI, but I haven't come across one of you before! The closest I read of was Joseph Roth addressing Otto von Habsburg as "my Emperor" in the 1930s, and Roth was from Galicia. Truly, AvB, you are a novelty in my readings.

After this introduction, it won't surprise you who the villain of this biography is. It's passionately defensive of Brühl, as mentioned, and blames most though not all of his bad reputation of Fritzian slanders which because of the Fritz cult and Prussian dominance in Germany later were adopted wholesale by historians, even though Austrian hstorians like Arneth exposed much of the most blatant propaganda. Arneth is quoted frequently, but AvB also did a lot of original work by using the Dresden archives, and he's good with the footnotes. This doesn't mean he's above manipulative presentation. For example, he goes from describing Saxon-Russian negotiations via Suhm (there's a lot of what Suhm did when not writing letters to Fritz, i.e. his actual job as envoy, which by itself I think will make Mildred glad I read this book) in the late 1730s back to Manteuffel bribing gentlemen from Fritz' social circle and the prostitute, which took place in 1733/34 before he had his in. Now, AvB does actually name the dates, but by mixing the two separate narratives and presenting them in reverse order, he creates the impression of a connection of actions because his main narrative has Brühl identifying Fritz early on as a threat to Saxony and doing everything he can to secure Saxony via alliances and spying from the inevitable demon rising.

This said, the 1730s section was the most interesting one to me, because the 7 Years Wars stuff - i.e. Fritz the war criminal bleeding Saxony dry and then in his propaganda blaming Brühl's supposed corruption as having Saxony ruined already - was already familiar to me via Hahn and Poniatowski. (AvB presents a great many numbers from the archives supporting his claim that it was the 70 Million Fritz extorted out of Saxony that ruined the country while Brühl had left it in good shape as of 1756. ) Whereas most of the 1730s stuff was new and had not shown up in previous books, at least not that I recall. There's lots from the Suhm/Brühl correspondence, and also Manteuffel/Brühl (this was a bit more familiar, though the perspective certainly is new), and also Lynar/Brühl.

Before I get into details, I also have to share this general attitude, because it comes up repeatedly:

AvB: Not content with bashing my guy Brühl, Fritz was awful about the Poles in his memoirs.

Self: True enough.

AVB: I will say that I agree on one point with him...

Self: Now I'm curious.

AvB: ...the Polish Elective Monarchy system sucked and was ruinous to the country, and so was the Veto. But it's not like the Poles were bad as Fritz claims, they were like big children, who didn't understand what was good for them. Now my guy Brühl in working towards making the Saxony/Poland union permanent, one solidly ruled monarchy, could have prevented all the future Polisih tragedies! He would have been your saviour, Poles! No partitioned Poland under Saxon rule! And no bloody Prussian dominance in Germany with a Saxon/Poland superstate = > no Hohenzollern Emperors => no WWI.

Self: Good lord.

Okay, on to details. Defensive AvB says the slanders already start at claiming Brühl was an upstart from lower nobility, when his noble descend and family were solid. Also, despite him being the youngest brother, none of his older brothers begrudged him turning into the family head by virtue of his success. They were supportive of and affectionate towards him in letters not just to him but among themselves.

Zeithain as the first time young Heinrich Brühl starts to get noticed outside of August the Strong's inner circle: AvB says he must have witnessed the scenes between FW and Fritz as everyone did, and that FW gave him the Black Eagle order, but does not speculate whether this impacted the future Fritzian attitude towards Brühl and/or Saxony. What he does note is that Brühl, who was responsible for this part of the Zeithain preparations, was responsible for the first use of Meissen porcelain as part of a diplomatic event, i.e. Meissen porcelain table wear was used big time on all the meals. (Given how much Meissen porceillain Fritz stole appropriated during the 7 Years War, I dare say that part at least amidst all the FW caused misery must have left an impression. Zeithain will turn up much later in the book in a most surprising fashion, stay tuned.

Immediate aftermath of August the Strong's death:

AvB: Here Fritzian slander, subsequently taken as gospel, has spread the tale that my guy Brühl hastened back from Warsaw to Dresden, slimed himself into future A3's good graces by giving him the news of his father's death, fooled future A3's buddy Sulkowski into sharing power with him and subsequently ruled as a duo with Sulkowski until he could get rid of Sulkowksi to remain sole fave. Fritz claims he did this because Sulkoswki wanted to turn against Austria and Brühl provided Austria with the poof, thereby getting cash from them and engineering Sulkowski's downfall. Well, I say bollocks to that! Firstly, here's a letter from Kurprinz future A3 TO Brühl, co-written with Sulkowski, asking for his friendship, when August the Strong was still alive. I.e. Brühl didn't need to ingratiate hmself with future A3, future A3, evidently on Sulkowki's advice, approached him first. Secondly, sure, we could write off all the friendly letters between Sulkowski and Brühl as mutual expediency and political hypocrisy, but the thing is, these letters go on AFTER Sulkowski's downfall, when Sulkowski went from Hero to Zero in terms of having influence at court. Also, when Sulkowski's wife died, Brühl took Sulkowski's kids into his household and helped out and furthered the careers of the older ones, and here's Sulkowski's letter thanking him for this! As for Sulkowski planning to go anti Austria and being brought down for this, as Fritz claims, fact is MT gave him honors after his downfall. Why would she bother if he'd been planning to turn against her country?

Brühl's marriage:

AvB: A love match, not something he did to solidify his position because he was a Protestant and she was a Catholic. Look at the touching love letters years after the marriage where he call sher his Maruschl! Incidentally, no matter what the sensational novel which the tv show "Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria" is based on claims, of her first names Maria Anna Franziska she used Maria Anna or Marianne, not Franziska. Hence "Maruschl".

Self: Having read an article on the Bruhls' marriage from only a decade or so ago which also quotes from their letters, I agree it was a very affectionate and solid marriage, and not the hate union from the novel/tv show, but that doesn't preclude it also having been a political match to start with.

Mistresses: AvB doesn't mention any, just says that pre marriage (but not after), Brühl lived like other noblemen at this court. Hanbury-Willliams claims otherwise, but Hanbury-Williams, like any potential or actual mistresses, is not mentioned in this biography at all. Incidentally, this discretion goes both ways - you won't find any insinuations about Fritz' sex life or any STD's, either. (Other than the mention of the woman Manteuffel bribed, who is called "a certain young lady", not, as in the Manteuffel political biography published years before this Brühl biography, a prostitute.) There are no sex stories about anyone.

Re: Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (19

[luzula]

I'm not sure I'll read all the details in the following comments, but wow, that author is really cocksure about what actions in the 18th century would have prevented WWI!

Re: Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (19

[selenak]

No kidding. I mean, I'm sometimes playing that game myself, but while you can wonder about which developments would have resulted in a better Germany (my answer to this is a succesful 1848 revolution, followed by a unification to a constitutional parliamentary monarchy as intended, meaning unification would have happened not as the result of a war and "from above", but as the result of a democratic process and "from below"), I'm not sure that would have made much difference to (a) WWI happening. All those Empire-minded European powers would have been on a collision course anyway. And our author while speculating a Germany led by House Wettin (that's the Saxons) and the Habsburgs instead of the Hohenzollern completely ignores the massive share the Austro-Hungarian Empire contributed by its sheer existence - all those non-Austrian nations who were part of it would have wanted independence in such an AU, too, and without a more flexible rule from the Habsburgs which would have allowed Serbia, Croatia etc. to gain that independence peacefully, well, what's changed? You'd have needed someone else than Franz Joseph as Emperor for the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century for this to happen, if you want to make it personal, and that had absolutely nothing to do with the Prussians.

Re: Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (19

[mildred_of_midgard]

But as this book is a passionate Brühl defense, "Rothschild" was - like Medici and Richelieu - meant as a compliment, signifying rich patron of the arts (in addition to master politician etc.).

I was worried about this book doing a lot of things, based on the title and date, but I didn't figure based on the Medici and Richelieu comparison that Rothschild was anything but a compliment.

I did not predict Hungarian Habsburg loyalist circa 1930! Your write-up of the intro had me in literal tears. I'm so delighted that you got not only this book but this copy of this book, with the angry Fritz fanboy with the old-fashioned handwriting!

Fritz fanboy reader before me: underlines "Hungarian" and "closer to MT's standpoint than that of bloody Fritz" but this time without a comment.

*dies*

(there's a lot of what Suhm did when not writing letters to Fritz, i.e. his actual job as envoy, which by itself I think will make Mildred glad I read this book)

I am glad you read this book! I haven't even gotten past the first installment, and I'm already glad. Even without Suhm, you know I like foreign policy and specifically Saxony's, and have read about Brühl's (thus discovering his attempt to negotiate the Diplomatic Revolution starting in the 1740s already).

This is great, on to read more!

Re: Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (19

[selenak]

I did not predict Hungarian Habsburg loyalist circa 1930!

So say we all. Like I mentioned, in theory, I knew they still existed, because not every Hungarian was into independence and against the k.u. k. monarchy, but never have I ever come across one before...

Your write-up of the intro had me in literal tears. I'm so delighted that you got not only this book but this copy of this book, with the angry Fritz fanboy with the old-fashioned handwriting!

So was I. I was hoping for more angry comments, but after the preface, he seems to have given up. Or she. I mean, for all I know it was an angry fangirl, not an angry fanboy!

Re: Aladàr von Boroviczény: Graf von Brühl. Der Medici, Richelieu und Rothschild seiner Zeit. (19

[cahn]

Like Mildred, my favorite was the Fritz fan reader before you! I laughed so hard at the RUBBISH! :D

But wow, that's a lot of Hapsburg loyalist!