cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 44

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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.)

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From:

felis

Huh, that's interesting - Preuss wrote that everything between 1721 and 1728 was lost. I'm wondering if 1726 might actually be the 1728 one. The volume of German correspondence at Trier doesn't really have anything interesting 1740-45 - not only that, it also shows how rare German letters are, especially to important people. The one to Fouque for example is a secretary one - the rest of their correspondence is in French and in another volume entirely.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Huh, that's weird, because it's not just one letter from 1722-1726, it's 5 of them.

But nothing from 1728--but the catalogue isn't comprehensive, as we found with the Gröben letters that weren't in the catalogue.

Anyway, maybe the 1722-1726 letters turned up after Preuss's time?

But speaking of weird dates, 1754 or 1755 Fritz/Peter, amirite? Fritz must have been *lonely*. Btw, I know I keep saying 1753-1755, but if Wilhelmine was there in October 1753 and he kept going back and forth between Berlin and Potsdam, my tentative dating is narrowed to 1754 or 1755.

Oh, interesting, he writes to Wilhelmine in October 1, 1755, "I am now going to lead a solitary life until Christmas, when, in spite of myself, I have to stay in Berlin." Which we know from Rödenbeck he did, but he seems already sure he's not coming back until mid-December at that point, whereas with Peter he's not sure yet. Of course, things might have come up in October or early November making Fritz wonder if he would have to return sooner than he wanted.

I'm still voting for autumn 1754, though, just because Wilhelmine is in Italy and he's worried she's not coming back. And he's probably still more raw from 1753 (Voltaire, Fredersdorf's marriage, Algarotti's Frexit)...and he probably hasn't even met Glasow yet! :P

Edited Date: 2023-06-23 09:12 pm (UTC)

From:

selenak

While we're speculating: maybe an encounter with the well travelled Peter that's less formal than their previouis ones as monarch and subject and allows for some confidential conversation inspires Fritz at this point to FINALLY make a successful trip abroad to the Netherlands? (Which will be with Glasow, in 1755.) I mean, that's as close to holidaying as he ever got as a King, and he did it anonymously, no less, and in the country where he and Peter and Katte had been planning to meet up.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Ooh, I like it! Poor Peter if he was left wondering why Colonel Balbi got to go and he didn't, though. :(

felis's AU forever!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

What about the Old Dessauer, did Fritz correspond with him in French or German, do we know? There seem to be approximately one gazillion pages of correspondence between them, and I could at least ask if the archive could scan just the ones with Fritz's signature.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

German! They were published in 1894, Fritzian spelling and all (I see his favorite "vohr"). Haha, the opening sentence says, "A researcher who was familiar with part of the letters of Crown Prince Friedrich to Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau thought that the only thing valuable in them was the signature."

Also, I see an undated one that the editor footnotes as, "Judging by the handwriting, the letter must have been composed around 1727."

Well, that's perfect, that's exactly what we want! And it looks like we've got 1720, 1722, undated circa 1727, 1728, and then from 1731-1739 (these are only the Crown Prince letters).

Since the archive contains their correspondence until 1747, and it's all this military stuff...WHAT. The archive only contains their correspondence 1740-1747; the 1717-1740 stuff is a different Anhalt-Dessau, a Prinz Dietrich von Anhalt-Dessau? Well, maybe that's in German too. Ugh, I really need someone to go to the archive and just take pictures of Fritz's signatures and handwriting in German. I missed my chance to ask Prinzsorgenfrei when they were in the archive looking at Katte stuff in May!

Well, maybe I can ask the archive if the Prinz Dietrich stuff is in German. The 1717-1740 stuff at least might be!

Oh, interesting, looking further through the published material in 1735, his letters to the other Anhalt-Dessau princes are mostly but not exclusively in German. The 3 Dietrich letters listed are summarized, so of course I can't tell.

Still, looks like the Anhalt-Dessau correspondence might be a good place to start, after the FW correspondence.

ETA: Oh, I see, the editor says the crown prince letters are in the archive at Zerbst. Makes sense! All right, I'll see if I can find them there.

ETA 2: Remember that Manteuffel called the Alte Dessauer "Prince Moustache"? Our editor says he was called the "alten Schnurrbart"! Well, like I said last time, makes sense.

Edited Date: 2023-06-23 10:14 pm (UTC)