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cahnNot 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.)
A Reverend at Dear Old Wusterhausen: Princes who lunch
Date: 2023-06-20 03:26 pm (UTC)From the theological debate on his day of arrival, Sept 4th 1727:
R: He found it so hard to love his neighbour, especially the Jews. Whether I believed that a sincere Jew could be decent; he could not love them.
E: One cannot hate a Jew for being a Jew, for our dear Saviour was in his human nature also a Jew, as were all the prophets and apostles, and whatever spiritual treasure we were given, we received from the Jewish people.
(...) Rex then said he would try a Jewish child and let him be taught in the Christian religion.
(I hope that was just a passing idea, because poor kid. But no one mentions he went through with it, phew.)
And then Freylinghausen gets invited to join the family at lunch. Here I'm translatilng a longer passage, as it's useful for fanfiction, he describes even the seating arrangement in detail:
The table was long and slender and had been placed under a colourful tent established between the high and thick lime trees. The other prince who is five years old said the prayer: "Lord God, our father in heaven", etc. The valet immediately took my coat from me and told me that the King had ordered it thus.
At the table the following people were seated: 1. Rex and to his right hand the 2. Queen, 3. at his left hand the other prince. Next to him on the same side 4. Colonel Kalckstein. 5. Margrave Carl. 6. Count Schlieben. 7. Colonel Krocher. 8. Colonel Kleist. 9. Colonel Jeeze. 10. General von Seckendorff. 11. The Crown Prince. 12. Ego. On the other side, after the Queen there were 12. the oldest and 13. the other princess. 14 Oberhofmeisterin von Kamcke. 13th The governess of the oldest Princess, Fräulein von Sonsfeld 17. General Gersdorff. 18th The Dutch Envoy Herr Koeppen. 19. General Pannewitz. 20. Herr von Sonsfeld, a Dutch Ship Captain. 21. Secret Councillor Gundling, which meant that I was sitting between him and the Crown Prince and thus directly opposite the Queen.
We ate from porcellain table wear, and the meal consisted of pork and Sauerkraut. The Crown Prince served the entire table by cutting the meat for them, and otherwise was entirely silent and did not say a single word. (Frau von Kameke later told me that the Crown Prince had been ordered to this for two days now.) The King was so gracious that when the Crown Prince wanted to observe the order of seating and thus wanted to serve me last, (FW) gestured at him to serve me something immediately, which promptly happened; the King himself handed me some baked apples and toasted me with a glass of wine. He asked: Whether I always ate and drank so little? Whereupon I replied that I didn't think I did. The King started: that I had only drunk one glass of beer and all the wine stood in front of me untouched, so I did take something. The King and the Queen quizzed me through the entire meal, so that I didn't even have the time to eat much, about one thing or the other, but with strangely intent graciousness, and they both wobth of a truly serene temper and affectionate manner.
Among other things the King began: "Be quiet, gentlemen" - even though no one was talking - and elbowed the Queen, saying: "Well, Herr Freylinghausen, tell us whether it is righteous to visit comedies. Whereupon a great silence began.
E: Your Majesty, I haven't dared to do so in good conscience.
R: Yes, I well believe you wouldn't, and it's not fitting for a preacher to do so. But what do you think about other people, may not they go?
E: Our rule be that all that we do should root in the faith and be for the honor of God; and I cannot see how one could go to comedies for this purpose.
Count Seckendorff immediately agreed with me. Regina, though, differentiated between comedies and wanted to state that as long as there weren't any obscenities and scurrilous sayings in them, which she herself condemmed, one was allowed to visit them, because it was surely better for young people to visit them than to go into beer halls or worse places. Next, the conversation turned to hunting and dancing, and the King wanted to know whether hunting was a sin.
E: I believe that one could commit a sin by hunting, but not not in general, since God created the wild beasts to be felled by men.
Of dancing, Count Seckendorff said that it was an actual lack of teachings that one didn't have scholars instructed by a dancing master to keep their bodies straight and how to bow. Learning sarabandes and minuets, though, was superflous.
Rex respondebat pro me: "Do you know, General, that I cancelled four dancing masters from the cadets' schedule and replaced them by four teachers of languages; for why should I have my people being led to the devil by dancing masters?"
But the General said that without fencing and dancing, no noble young man could make his way in the world. Whereupon Rex nearly all, me excepto, asked by name whether they had learned how to dance, which everyone replied to with a Yes. Which did not seem to please the King, and he said: "I believe if Doctor Breithaupt knew that someone had danced in his youth, or had done another evil thing, he wouldn't hire them." And this was said in such a manner as if Rex was more stating it than putting it as a question.
Next, Rex wanted to see the castellan and asked whether I had ever seen a Pharisee.
E: The old pharisees which the Holy Book talks about have long since died, but there are some among today's Christians who are of their type.
FW, you danced ballet as a boy according to your grandmother. Anyway, translating this, I realised the phrasing doesn't make it clear whether FW just instructed Fritz to cut the meat and serve the guests for two days or whether he also instructed him to remain slent, or whether Fritz being silent was his own decision. But Fritz sitting on the opposite end of the table next to Gundling is pretty telling. (Also a big contrast to the famous tobacco colleague painting where AW, in some older works misidentified as Fritz, sits next to FW while Heinrich and Ferdinand make their bows.)
Re: A Reverend at Dear Old Wusterhausen: Princes who lunch
Date: 2023-06-21 04:30 am (UTC)Ha, thank you!
The Crown Prince served the entire table by cutting the meat for them, and otherwise was entirely silent and did not say a single word.
<3
(Frau von Kameke later told me that the Crown Prince had been ordered to this for two days now.)
Ha, before reading your note at the bottom I was going to ask whether it was cutting the meat (is that not something he would regularly do at that age?) or being silent, but I see the answer is not known.
The King started: that I had only drunk one glass of beer and all the wine stood in front of me untouched, so I did take something.
Heh. Useful for fic indeed.
Regina, though, differentiated between comedies and wanted to state that as long as there weren't any obscenities and scurrilous sayings in them, which she herself condemmed, one was allowed to visit them, because it was surely better for young people to visit them than to go into beer halls or worse places.
HUH. But no mention on what FW thought of this mention of beer halls?
FW, you danced ballet as a boy according to your grandmother.
Ah, but that's maybe why he wouldn't hire other people like that!
Re: A Reverend at Dear Old Wusterhausen: Princes who lunch
Date: 2023-06-21 09:50 am (UTC)Nope. Possibly it didn't occur to him SD could equate beer halls and the noble Tobacco Parliament? :)
cutting the meat (is that not something he would regularly do at that age?)
I'm not sure what normal etiquette would have been. Presumably at court Fritz as Crown Prince would not have been expected to cut meat at all, that's what servants are there fore, but these kind of holiday outings are always more informal in royal circles even if you're not FW, determined burgher-on-the-throne. It would be interesting to check with other contemporary noble and/or royal families in similar circumstances.
Ah, but that's maybe why he wouldn't hire other people like that!
Good point. BTW, while he really had it in for dancing masters (among others), I think SD must have succeeded in having her children (boys and girls alike) be trained by them, otherwise teen Heinrich could not have danced all the contre dances and menuets with teen Sophie at AW's wedding.