The Katte Trial
Jan. 17th, 2020 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rheinsbergCollection of the Judgment Transcripts
Here's a summary of the Katte trial protocols. Overall remark: Rokoko military German is a headache.
According to the foreword, they hail from the Schulenburg archives - Schulenburg having been appointed by FW as head of the tribunal.
The military tribunal consisted of: three General Majors, three Colonels, three Lieutenant Colonels, three Majors and three Lieutenants. Fifteen in all. Each of the groups of three gave their judgment in writing. Each considered Katte guilty of the charges - i.e. not notifying the King of the Crown Prince's intention to desert once it was clear Fritz wasn't joking, aiding and abetting instead, corresponding and conspiring with foreign powers, and intending to desert himself.
The reasons each of the groups of three gave for life long imprisonment instead of the death penalty - despite Katte being guilty as charged - were pretty consistent. Not in that order: the intention was not carried through, youth, admission of guilt on the part of the defendant, repentance (the last one wasn't named by all groups, though). I say "not in that order" because the No.1. reason most of the groups of three and thus also the group of fifteen gave for sparing Katte's life was that if Katte dies for this, "the Crown Prince will have to carry this on his conscience for the rest of his life".
Since this was a feature, not a bug for FW, you can see why he wasn't swayed (in addition to having made up his mind before hand), but while I was familiar with the overall conclusion and details such as the tribunal declaring themselves not up to judging the Crown Prince, which only a member of the Royal Family could do, I hadn't known before hand what their named No.1. cause for clemency had been.
In th opening statement in which they pass the responsibility for Fritz' judgment back to FW, they come to the conclusion that: "As these are matters which happened between father and son, since the Crown Prince has shown himself humble towards His Majesty and has submitted to His Majesty's Will completely, has asked for nothing but mercy and has promised to do what the King ordered, and has vowed to become a better person, we as vassals and subjects cannot pass a judgment on our King's son and family, nor can we judge it as a purely military affair."
In the judgment of the Majors, which is the first to be listed, they mention that this: "In his defense, Katte named the evil treatment the Crown Prince has received at his Majesty's hands, but we say that as an officer and a vassal, Katte was not in a position to meddle between father and son, between a King and his successor, but should have reported (Fritz) at once". (This is point 9. in their judgment.) They arrive at the conclusion that "Katte deserves to be brought from life to death by the sword; however we put it to his Royal Majesty to reflect mercifully on the fact that if Katte should be punished by the loss of his life, the Crown Prince will not have a quiet conscience for the rest of his life".
The Lieutenant Colonels are the only ones not using the Fritz argument. They argue for mercy because
1.) This badly planned enterprise has not come to a real execution.
2.) Many follies of youth went into it ("Viel Jugend Projecte darunter gelaufen")
2.) At the interrogation, heartfelt repentance was shown.
Schulenburg as the overall head of the tribunal in his summing up statement says:
"Common sense tells me that even with the greatest crimes, there is a difference between those intended and those actually executed, and the punishments for each should differ; the death penalty should be used in the later case but not in the former. And since in the case in question an actual desertion has not happened, I cannot in good conscience and following my oath as judge decide on a death penalty for Katte, but must decide for life long imprisonment."
Peter Keith, btw, is universally condemned to be hanged in effigy, since he's already high tailed it out of Prussia. No debates there. His name is consistently spelled "Kait".
You're already familiar with FW's response. The "..but it was better for him to die than for justice to leave this world" sentence is the one which concludes this book.
Jürgen Klosterhuis: Katte: Ordre und Kriegsartikel.
Overall: Klosterhuis comes to the conclusion that FW acted according to law and had no other choice, though with one additional reason Fontane and grumpy 1980 speaker do not name, which is indeed an important one. As opposed to everyone else, he's terrific with source citations and delivers footnotes for (nearly) all. He also uses material the others I've read do not, from the Katte family. Bear in mind here that all the original family correspondance was destroyed in 1945 for war reasons. However, one Martin von Katte (deceased by now) repeatedly wrote about his famous ancestor (well, relation), the first time in 1934 in an unpublished manuscript. Most of Klosterhuis' Katte family correspondance quotes are from an unpublished Martin von Katte manuscript and one published essay: to wit: Martin von Katte: Hans Herrmann von Katte, Eine biographische Skizze aus dem späten Barock, in: Das Lerchennest, Dezember 1975, 2 - 8. (That's the citation in the footnote.) The unpublished manuscript is: "Hans Herrmann", Manuscript from 1934, transcription by Martin's daughter Maria von Katte in 1997 for the author. No, still not published.
Most (to me) interesting bits - and btw, clearly Klosterhuis was Michael Roes' main source for his "Zeithain" novel though they come to radically different conclusions about FW:
Eichel was the one FW dictated the various angry missives in 1730 to. (Should have figured this out, did not.) When Fritz ordered to the tribunal material in 1740, Eichel provided him with it and suggested burning it afterwards; Fritz said no and just had it sealed up again. Our author then does a Tacitean insinuation by observingt that of course we don't know whether Fritz returned all the material to the archives or destroyed some of it which was embarrassing to him. We do know he looked up the material repeatedly in his life, though.
FW2 had it looked up once when he came to the throne, then resealed.
The first non Hohenzollern (or Eichel) to see the Katte and Crown Prince material was Johannes von Müller in 1806; he was the official historian of FW3 and was supposed to write a biography of the great national hero, but then Napoleon, etc.
Preuß also had access to the entire material for his bio.
Mildred, since you asked: Hans Heinrich prä Wust lived in Angerburg.
Our author, based on Martin von Katte, claims Han Herrmann mostly grew up with Granddad Wartensleben in the later's palace in Berlin and that the big life style there influenced him more than Dad's more modest one in Angerburg. Klosterhuis draws attention to the fact that Granddad was an F1 era Prussian nobleman with baroque splendour whereas Dad Hans Heinrich was a good example of FW's remaking of the Prussian nobility into army men and servants to the crown, military first and foremost.
He also says Hans Herrman was most impressed by Great Uncle Balthasar Friedrich zu Vieritz who'd served with the Danes and who when called to serve by FW in 1724 gave him a proud declining of the invitation. (Source citation M v. Katte, Entwurf - like I said, all the Katte family stuff comes from Martin.)
Aunt Melusine von der Schulenburg the mistress of G1 was indeed aunt Melusine to Hans Herrmann; her brother Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg visited him in Halle an der Saale in in 1717 and in 1719. We also have quotes from her on Hans Herrmann, more in a moment.
HH was in school in Halle from age 13 to four years later.
We have teachers remarks, all quoted by Martin von Katte in his 1934 manuscript.
"Katte has followed orders and is eager. But he strives more for his father's sake than due to a proper reason" (here author adds "meaning a religious motivation") - 1718
"Ingersleben wants to be a soldier; Katte tends to poetry and dreaming" ("Poeterey und Träumerei") - 1719
"Katte is in all his matters not eager enough so does not make real progress" (1720)
Hans Herrmann goes to Königsberg for study in 1721, then one year in Utrecht 1722, then back to Königsberg 1723/24 (lectures attended to are law, but also music and painting)
1722/23 Grand Tour. Aunt Melusine compliments him on his elegant French.
Author quotes M. v. Katte quoting letters of Hans Heinrich to his father-in-law (Gandpa Wartensleben) about Hans Herrmann on the Grand Tour: "Freedom does not agree with him, and he's made dangerous aquaintances."
Could have gone either the judges career or diplomatic career like Schulenburg, but joins regiment gens d'armes in the winter of 1726 because of his father's urgings
Later, his regiment commander's judgment on him: "I can't make heads or tails off Katte; sans reproche - i.e. without fail - he seems to be only on horseback or playing the flute".
Eva Sophie Countess the Routtembourg, with to the French envoy: "charmant mais etourdi" - from a letter from her to Hans Herrmann's stepmom, quoted in M. v. Katte.
HH made another big journey abroad in October 1728. Started as a mission for his father to Paris, then on his own initiative to Madrid where he met de Rottembourg (who'd been transfered there), then to London, where he had a fling with cousin Petronella von der Schulenburg. (Roes did not make that up! Which means Hans Herrmann did it with a Hannover cousin, albeit an illegitimate one.)
Now of course it‘s entirely possible to have an affair with G1‘s illegitimate daughter in winter/early spring and start another with the Crown Prince of Prussia in later spring, but still: fast work, Hans Herrman! And did you or did you not count on Melusine and Petronella as allies if the escape had succeeded?
(Source citation again M v. Katte, who quotes Hans Heinrich telling this to brother Hans Christoph.)
Now, Mildred, you said tumblr said this book claims Hans Herrman wanted to already desert on this journey. This is not true. The exact statement by our author : "Finally, Katte Junior seems to have been inclined to quit the Prussian service and remain at the British court, so his father in the spring of 1729 saw the need to give him a strict order to return to Berlin."
(I.e. he didn't want to desert, he wanted to offficially quit Prussian service and enter the Hannover/British one.)
Author says it's possible that Fritz met Katte as early as spring 1727 in Monbijou when the regiment Gens D'Armes was there a couple of times and noticed his flute playing, according to Rittmeister Christoph Werner von der Asseburg quoted in M. v. Katte, but says there were no close relations betwen them until spring 1729.
Spring 29: there's a possible war with Braunschweig and HH, returned as ordered from England, writes to Dad he's glad to be back and prefers a Prussian war to a French peace. (No war happened, btw.)
Yes, Katte was in Zeithain (he was part of the escort of Margrave Schwedt the Mad, future brother-in-law to Fritz though thankfully not through marriage to Wilhelmine, instead through poor Sophie). According to a Katte family anecdote, they talked about a mistress of Moritz von Sachsen who'd been killed for his sake, Fritz asks "but does loyalty deserve death?", HH replies, "But yes, death is the fruit of loyalty" - Author is sceptical of htis story but quotes the Italian saying: si non e vero si ben trovato.
In addition to the famous FW reply to Hans Heinrich's petition for mercy - "his son is a villain, so is mine; it's not the fathers's fault" , author quotes a later reply (September 24th to renewed petition) saying: "We are both of us to pity, but if all this blood is no good, one opens a vein. It is not our fault."
Brother-in-law Rochow got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Hans Friedrich von Katte to Major, both in October 1730, as a reward of their faithful reporting.
Something that made me go "I knew it!" - Absalom comparisons about on the part of FW. Especially Absalom turning the hearts of the men of Israel from David. Because, and here Klosterhuis delivers some indeed fascinating context for 1730:
FW was extra paranoid before Fritz ever tried to escape. Iin January in Potsdam there was actually a desertation conspiracy among 40 (!) members of the Royal regiment No.6, ,“Gardegrenadiere“, and since the source citation is another book by Klosterhuis titled „Lange Kerls“, I take it these were in fact long fellows, i.e. Potsdam Giants! Author says were were religious fanatics. (?) FW had the three leaders of the conspiracy punished as follows: one after being pinched with hot iron hanged; one got hot iron, as well as his nose and ears cut off and was brought back into prison where he died; one was slapped, then whipped by the executioner.
Klosterhuis therefore makes a case that FW did fear a military coup with foreign help come August.
Seckendorff reports to Vienna that the King complains after the first judgment that he thought he'd chosen honest officers for the tribunal but they seek to please "the rising sun" and is still convinced of a military foreign (read: England and France) supported conspiracy against him. The judgment for Hans Herrmann is very much informed by this. (And the earlier precedent from January of the three who were punished as see above.)
FW's letters to Hans Heinrich get kinder (for him) in November. "I am heartily sorry, but both justice and necessity demand for your son's crime to be properly punished. As the later was an officer of a regiment which is especially attached to my house and still did not hesitate to conspire in plots directed against the country and its people, I was forced to punish him in order that others may not follow his example and commmit similar crimes. I commiserate with you as a father, but hope you will collect yourself as a reasonable man, and will not prefer compassion to justce, to the welfare of the entire country, and to my quiet state of mind."
The three letters from Hans Herrmann (to dad and granddad and the king) from October and November 1730 - which Wilhelmine quotes form in her memoirs - were quoted in the 1731 anonymous pamphlet about Hans Herrmann's execution and our author says they were already making the rounds in Berlin in November 1730. Who copied and circulated them is unknown.
Klosterhuis does mention Doris Ritter but says that the files themselves do not say whether or not she was a virgin, that's what Guy Dickens the English secretary reports the midwife and Doctor said, and since he's clearly pro-crown prince/anti King partisan, he's not to be trusted and it's more likely she wasn't a virgin. (?) The "not a virgin, I don't think" insinuation seems mostly there so the case of FW the law believer remains intact, considering he ordered her whipped as a whore in six different public places in Spandau and then locked up in the workhouse for life (pardoned after three years).
Hans Heinrich asks for four week leave to bury his son and mourn, FW grants it.
Hans Heinrich gets elevated to count and family gets a new emblem granted on 6. August 1740, i.e. exact day of Fritz desertation attempt.
Among the appendices, there are lists of goods found in Fritz' rooms in the palace page (page 120 onwards. These include among the letters seven by SD, twelve by Wilhelmine, but none incriminating. The appendices also include the lists of goods found in Peter Keith's quarters, btw.
And that's it for me. Certainly a very informative book, but I do wish Martin von Katte had published his manuscript, and even more that the original letters survived, because as it is we have transcriptions of transcriptions of transcriptions (and some not even direct quotes but paraphrasings by Martin, then Klosterhuis.) Still, this is far more than we knew before.
Here's a summary of the Katte trial protocols. Overall remark: Rokoko military German is a headache.
According to the foreword, they hail from the Schulenburg archives - Schulenburg having been appointed by FW as head of the tribunal.
The military tribunal consisted of: three General Majors, three Colonels, three Lieutenant Colonels, three Majors and three Lieutenants. Fifteen in all. Each of the groups of three gave their judgment in writing. Each considered Katte guilty of the charges - i.e. not notifying the King of the Crown Prince's intention to desert once it was clear Fritz wasn't joking, aiding and abetting instead, corresponding and conspiring with foreign powers, and intending to desert himself.
The reasons each of the groups of three gave for life long imprisonment instead of the death penalty - despite Katte being guilty as charged - were pretty consistent. Not in that order: the intention was not carried through, youth, admission of guilt on the part of the defendant, repentance (the last one wasn't named by all groups, though). I say "not in that order" because the No.1. reason most of the groups of three and thus also the group of fifteen gave for sparing Katte's life was that if Katte dies for this, "the Crown Prince will have to carry this on his conscience for the rest of his life".
Since this was a feature, not a bug for FW, you can see why he wasn't swayed (in addition to having made up his mind before hand), but while I was familiar with the overall conclusion and details such as the tribunal declaring themselves not up to judging the Crown Prince, which only a member of the Royal Family could do, I hadn't known before hand what their named No.1. cause for clemency had been.
In th opening statement in which they pass the responsibility for Fritz' judgment back to FW, they come to the conclusion that: "As these are matters which happened between father and son, since the Crown Prince has shown himself humble towards His Majesty and has submitted to His Majesty's Will completely, has asked for nothing but mercy and has promised to do what the King ordered, and has vowed to become a better person, we as vassals and subjects cannot pass a judgment on our King's son and family, nor can we judge it as a purely military affair."
In the judgment of the Majors, which is the first to be listed, they mention that this: "In his defense, Katte named the evil treatment the Crown Prince has received at his Majesty's hands, but we say that as an officer and a vassal, Katte was not in a position to meddle between father and son, between a King and his successor, but should have reported (Fritz) at once". (This is point 9. in their judgment.) They arrive at the conclusion that "Katte deserves to be brought from life to death by the sword; however we put it to his Royal Majesty to reflect mercifully on the fact that if Katte should be punished by the loss of his life, the Crown Prince will not have a quiet conscience for the rest of his life".
The Lieutenant Colonels are the only ones not using the Fritz argument. They argue for mercy because
1.) This badly planned enterprise has not come to a real execution.
2.) Many follies of youth went into it ("Viel Jugend Projecte darunter gelaufen")
2.) At the interrogation, heartfelt repentance was shown.
Schulenburg as the overall head of the tribunal in his summing up statement says:
"Common sense tells me that even with the greatest crimes, there is a difference between those intended and those actually executed, and the punishments for each should differ; the death penalty should be used in the later case but not in the former. And since in the case in question an actual desertion has not happened, I cannot in good conscience and following my oath as judge decide on a death penalty for Katte, but must decide for life long imprisonment."
Peter Keith, btw, is universally condemned to be hanged in effigy, since he's already high tailed it out of Prussia. No debates there. His name is consistently spelled "Kait".
You're already familiar with FW's response. The "..but it was better for him to die than for justice to leave this world" sentence is the one which concludes this book.
Jürgen Klosterhuis: Katte: Ordre und Kriegsartikel.
Overall: Klosterhuis comes to the conclusion that FW acted according to law and had no other choice, though with one additional reason Fontane and grumpy 1980 speaker do not name, which is indeed an important one. As opposed to everyone else, he's terrific with source citations and delivers footnotes for (nearly) all. He also uses material the others I've read do not, from the Katte family. Bear in mind here that all the original family correspondance was destroyed in 1945 for war reasons. However, one Martin von Katte (deceased by now) repeatedly wrote about his famous ancestor (well, relation), the first time in 1934 in an unpublished manuscript. Most of Klosterhuis' Katte family correspondance quotes are from an unpublished Martin von Katte manuscript and one published essay: to wit: Martin von Katte: Hans Herrmann von Katte, Eine biographische Skizze aus dem späten Barock, in: Das Lerchennest, Dezember 1975, 2 - 8. (That's the citation in the footnote.) The unpublished manuscript is: "Hans Herrmann", Manuscript from 1934, transcription by Martin's daughter Maria von Katte in 1997 for the author. No, still not published.
Most (to me) interesting bits - and btw, clearly Klosterhuis was Michael Roes' main source for his "Zeithain" novel though they come to radically different conclusions about FW:
Eichel was the one FW dictated the various angry missives in 1730 to. (Should have figured this out, did not.) When Fritz ordered to the tribunal material in 1740, Eichel provided him with it and suggested burning it afterwards; Fritz said no and just had it sealed up again. Our author then does a Tacitean insinuation by observingt that of course we don't know whether Fritz returned all the material to the archives or destroyed some of it which was embarrassing to him. We do know he looked up the material repeatedly in his life, though.
FW2 had it looked up once when he came to the throne, then resealed.
The first non Hohenzollern (or Eichel) to see the Katte and Crown Prince material was Johannes von Müller in 1806; he was the official historian of FW3 and was supposed to write a biography of the great national hero, but then Napoleon, etc.
Preuß also had access to the entire material for his bio.
Mildred, since you asked: Hans Heinrich prä Wust lived in Angerburg.
Our author, based on Martin von Katte, claims Han Herrmann mostly grew up with Granddad Wartensleben in the later's palace in Berlin and that the big life style there influenced him more than Dad's more modest one in Angerburg. Klosterhuis draws attention to the fact that Granddad was an F1 era Prussian nobleman with baroque splendour whereas Dad Hans Heinrich was a good example of FW's remaking of the Prussian nobility into army men and servants to the crown, military first and foremost.
He also says Hans Herrman was most impressed by Great Uncle Balthasar Friedrich zu Vieritz who'd served with the Danes and who when called to serve by FW in 1724 gave him a proud declining of the invitation. (Source citation M v. Katte, Entwurf - like I said, all the Katte family stuff comes from Martin.)
Aunt Melusine von der Schulenburg the mistress of G1 was indeed aunt Melusine to Hans Herrmann; her brother Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg visited him in Halle an der Saale in in 1717 and in 1719. We also have quotes from her on Hans Herrmann, more in a moment.
HH was in school in Halle from age 13 to four years later.
We have teachers remarks, all quoted by Martin von Katte in his 1934 manuscript.
"Katte has followed orders and is eager. But he strives more for his father's sake than due to a proper reason" (here author adds "meaning a religious motivation") - 1718
"Ingersleben wants to be a soldier; Katte tends to poetry and dreaming" ("Poeterey und Träumerei") - 1719
"Katte is in all his matters not eager enough so does not make real progress" (1720)
Hans Herrmann goes to Königsberg for study in 1721, then one year in Utrecht 1722, then back to Königsberg 1723/24 (lectures attended to are law, but also music and painting)
1722/23 Grand Tour. Aunt Melusine compliments him on his elegant French.
Author quotes M. v. Katte quoting letters of Hans Heinrich to his father-in-law (Gandpa Wartensleben) about Hans Herrmann on the Grand Tour: "Freedom does not agree with him, and he's made dangerous aquaintances."
Could have gone either the judges career or diplomatic career like Schulenburg, but joins regiment gens d'armes in the winter of 1726 because of his father's urgings
Later, his regiment commander's judgment on him: "I can't make heads or tails off Katte; sans reproche - i.e. without fail - he seems to be only on horseback or playing the flute".
Eva Sophie Countess the Routtembourg, with to the French envoy: "charmant mais etourdi" - from a letter from her to Hans Herrmann's stepmom, quoted in M. v. Katte.
HH made another big journey abroad in October 1728. Started as a mission for his father to Paris, then on his own initiative to Madrid where he met de Rottembourg (who'd been transfered there), then to London, where he had a fling with cousin Petronella von der Schulenburg. (Roes did not make that up! Which means Hans Herrmann did it with a Hannover cousin, albeit an illegitimate one.)
Now of course it‘s entirely possible to have an affair with G1‘s illegitimate daughter in winter/early spring and start another with the Crown Prince of Prussia in later spring, but still: fast work, Hans Herrman! And did you or did you not count on Melusine and Petronella as allies if the escape had succeeded?
(Source citation again M v. Katte, who quotes Hans Heinrich telling this to brother Hans Christoph.)
Now, Mildred, you said tumblr said this book claims Hans Herrman wanted to already desert on this journey. This is not true. The exact statement by our author : "Finally, Katte Junior seems to have been inclined to quit the Prussian service and remain at the British court, so his father in the spring of 1729 saw the need to give him a strict order to return to Berlin."
(I.e. he didn't want to desert, he wanted to offficially quit Prussian service and enter the Hannover/British one.)
Author says it's possible that Fritz met Katte as early as spring 1727 in Monbijou when the regiment Gens D'Armes was there a couple of times and noticed his flute playing, according to Rittmeister Christoph Werner von der Asseburg quoted in M. v. Katte, but says there were no close relations betwen them until spring 1729.
Spring 29: there's a possible war with Braunschweig and HH, returned as ordered from England, writes to Dad he's glad to be back and prefers a Prussian war to a French peace. (No war happened, btw.)
Yes, Katte was in Zeithain (he was part of the escort of Margrave Schwedt the Mad, future brother-in-law to Fritz though thankfully not through marriage to Wilhelmine, instead through poor Sophie). According to a Katte family anecdote, they talked about a mistress of Moritz von Sachsen who'd been killed for his sake, Fritz asks "but does loyalty deserve death?", HH replies, "But yes, death is the fruit of loyalty" - Author is sceptical of htis story but quotes the Italian saying: si non e vero si ben trovato.
In addition to the famous FW reply to Hans Heinrich's petition for mercy - "his son is a villain, so is mine; it's not the fathers's fault" , author quotes a later reply (September 24th to renewed petition) saying: "We are both of us to pity, but if all this blood is no good, one opens a vein. It is not our fault."
Brother-in-law Rochow got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Hans Friedrich von Katte to Major, both in October 1730, as a reward of their faithful reporting.
Something that made me go "I knew it!" - Absalom comparisons about on the part of FW. Especially Absalom turning the hearts of the men of Israel from David. Because, and here Klosterhuis delivers some indeed fascinating context for 1730:
FW was extra paranoid before Fritz ever tried to escape. Iin January in Potsdam there was actually a desertation conspiracy among 40 (!) members of the Royal regiment No.6, ,“Gardegrenadiere“, and since the source citation is another book by Klosterhuis titled „Lange Kerls“, I take it these were in fact long fellows, i.e. Potsdam Giants! Author says were were religious fanatics. (?) FW had the three leaders of the conspiracy punished as follows: one after being pinched with hot iron hanged; one got hot iron, as well as his nose and ears cut off and was brought back into prison where he died; one was slapped, then whipped by the executioner.
Klosterhuis therefore makes a case that FW did fear a military coup with foreign help come August.
Seckendorff reports to Vienna that the King complains after the first judgment that he thought he'd chosen honest officers for the tribunal but they seek to please "the rising sun" and is still convinced of a military foreign (read: England and France) supported conspiracy against him. The judgment for Hans Herrmann is very much informed by this. (And the earlier precedent from January of the three who were punished as see above.)
FW's letters to Hans Heinrich get kinder (for him) in November. "I am heartily sorry, but both justice and necessity demand for your son's crime to be properly punished. As the later was an officer of a regiment which is especially attached to my house and still did not hesitate to conspire in plots directed against the country and its people, I was forced to punish him in order that others may not follow his example and commmit similar crimes. I commiserate with you as a father, but hope you will collect yourself as a reasonable man, and will not prefer compassion to justce, to the welfare of the entire country, and to my quiet state of mind."
The three letters from Hans Herrmann (to dad and granddad and the king) from October and November 1730 - which Wilhelmine quotes form in her memoirs - were quoted in the 1731 anonymous pamphlet about Hans Herrmann's execution and our author says they were already making the rounds in Berlin in November 1730. Who copied and circulated them is unknown.
Klosterhuis does mention Doris Ritter but says that the files themselves do not say whether or not she was a virgin, that's what Guy Dickens the English secretary reports the midwife and Doctor said, and since he's clearly pro-crown prince/anti King partisan, he's not to be trusted and it's more likely she wasn't a virgin. (?) The "not a virgin, I don't think" insinuation seems mostly there so the case of FW the law believer remains intact, considering he ordered her whipped as a whore in six different public places in Spandau and then locked up in the workhouse for life (pardoned after three years).
Hans Heinrich asks for four week leave to bury his son and mourn, FW grants it.
Hans Heinrich gets elevated to count and family gets a new emblem granted on 6. August 1740, i.e. exact day of Fritz desertation attempt.
Among the appendices, there are lists of goods found in Fritz' rooms in the palace page (page 120 onwards. These include among the letters seven by SD, twelve by Wilhelmine, but none incriminating. The appendices also include the lists of goods found in Peter Keith's quarters, btw.
And that's it for me. Certainly a very informative book, but I do wish Martin von Katte had published his manuscript, and even more that the original letters survived, because as it is we have transcriptions of transcriptions of transcriptions (and some not even direct quotes but paraphrasings by Martin, then Klosterhuis.) Still, this is far more than we knew before.
Lange Kerls
Date: 2020-01-18 11:39 pm (UTC)I went and looked this up, since I think we'd all love to know this guy's take on the Lange Kerls! It turns out it's a 700-page (!!) source document book that looks fascinating and is nearly impossible to get. I only found one copy, for $60, and even if I managed to ILL it, that would be a lot of pages to scan, assuming the spine held up.
Perhaps something to add to your future library reading list? There may be too much minutiae for it to be worth reading cover to cover, but surely there will be at least some goodies, like mass conspiracies that helped pave the way for Katte's death.
Review here, which hinted that there might be some minutiae fit for skimming. The review also says that the height was no
kinkfrivolity about the height requirement but a serious experiment in getting taller men who could handle long guns better,which of course explains why they were kept off the battlefield and painted individually and paraded past the king when he was sickidk, you tell me. :P