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

[cahn]

Seriously, this is straight of a medieval relics playbook

ahahaha, so it is, and I wouldn't ever have thought of that!

Heinrich's possessions being all auctioned off to the highest bidder I knew about, because that actually turned out to be a great benefit for posterity - there was a very detailed list including each item, how it looked like and where it had been placed in Rheinsberg, so when Rheinsberg got finally restored after having served as a sanatorium in the GDR, that was a primary source for the restauration. (Which is why with the exception of two rooms - Fritz' study and the big room with the "rising of the sun/son" painting - Rheinsberg looks like it did in Heinrich's time today.)

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

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.)