Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 44

[cahn]

Not only are these posts still going, there is now (more) original research going on in them deciphering and translating letters in archives that apparently no one has bothered to look at before?? (Which has now conclusively exonerated Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf from the charge that he was dismissed because of financial irregularities and died shortly thereafter "ashamed of his lost honor," as Wikipedia would have it. I'M JUST SAYING.)

Comments

Re: Royal souvenirs

[mildred_of_midgard]

That's really cool actually. Sorry Heinrich, kind of sucks for you, but at least you did a favor for posterity!

Okay, but what I'm saying is, you can have both! Fritz's rooms were inventoried after he died, I've seen it in the archive catalog, *and* his relics were auctioned on the basis of "chair that great man died in!" not "chair that doesn't have an owner anymore, does anyone want a chair?" which is what apparently happened to Heinrich.

Giloi tells me the chair Fritz died in, which several of us in salon have seen on display (reupholstered) in Sanssouci, was given away by Amalie after his death, and passed through several hands before eventually making its way back to a museum display. I had not realized that! (I hope the provenance has been traced and the one I saw was the real one.)