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: Archive updates

[selenak]

Doing research into 1848 right now, I can confirm that future W1 was a total reactionary jerk (even more so than his brother) about it, and that decades later when he becaue Good Kaiser Wilhelm (as opposed to Bad Kaiser Wilhelm, aka his and Queen Victoria's grandson Willy), whom even monarchy-critical voices described as this grandfather figure, all that was swept under the carpet. But I didn't know Schleinitz' son got a payout for the evidence!

Fritz trash talking nephew future FW2 to Ulrike: no surprise there. And given FW2 was everyone's ancestor while Fritz was everyone's claimed ancestor and most used propaganda myth, also not surprising W1 wanted to keep that under the lid. I mean, historians were already bashing FW2 and weak and dominated by women and spiritualists at the time, but a) they took FW3's lead and mostly blamed the women for it, and b) other people doing it is not the same like letting a royal do it, plus someone might actually ask the question: Yes, but Fritz, why did he turn out that way, given his education was entirely in your hands, and also, are you getting deja vu to how FW1 talked about you?

Sorry about the lack of Suhm stuff. But otoh: no new Suhm letters gives you more time for other things, hint, hint!

Re: Archive updates

[mildred_of_midgard]

But I didn't know Schleinitz' son got a payout for the evidence!

The book looks interesting! The Amazon blurb says, This innovative book illuminates popular attitudes toward political authority and monarchy in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Prussia, and twentieth-century Germany. In a fascinating study of how subjects incorporated the material culture of monarchy into their daily lives, Eva Giloi provides insights into German mentalities toward sovereign power. She examines how ordinary people collected and consumed relics and other royal memorabilia, and used these objects to articulate, validate, appropriate, or reject the state's political myths. The book reveals that the social practices that guided the circulation of material culture – under what circumstances it was acceptable to buy and sell the queen's underwear, for instance – expose popular assumptions about the Crown that were often left unspoken.

I know you won't have time to read books for a few weeks yet (the Bendas are still on my list to remind you about), but if you someday wanted to check this one out and tell us about it, I would not say no!

And given FW2 was everyone's ancestor while Fritz was everyone's claimed ancestor and most used propaganda myth, also not surprising W1 wanted to keep that under the lid.

Same thing I was thinking!

But otoh: no new Suhm letters gives you more time for other things, hint, hint!

Hee! Yes, and I had plans for this weekend, but SADLY my back pain has been acting up to the point where I've been working half days (despite being behind on my backlog at work) and avoiding salon. So, alas, I am probably not going to be able to transcribe anything or reply to more comments this weekend, and it may be a while before I can tackle this latest Prussian batch. :(

I will try to take advantage of my computer-less time to get some reading done, if my back will let me. There are a few interesting salon-related books I uncovered in the last couple weeks, and maybe I can fit some German reading practice in (which I am v.v. behind on).