Fredersdorfiana
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rheinsbergIt's only taken a few months, but yours truly was finally able to identify the original sources for two particular Fredersdorf-related claims in various biographies.
Firstly, there's what we dubbed "The Matter of the Handsome Hussar". This first came to our attention in Wolfgang Burgdorf's biography "Friedrich der Große". Burgdorf, as if to make up for centuries of biographical no-homo'ing, is of "he was GAY GAY GAY AND THERE WAS NO HETEROSEX WITH ANYONE ANYWHERE" persuasion (this leads, for example, to the bewildering statement that Fritz was life long utterly platonic pen pals with the Countess Orzelska, which would be nice except none of us has seen a single letter in any collection anywhere), and often given to not providing any citation. So his declaration that "the King's love could be deadly" not just for Katte, but for "a handsome hussar named Girgorijj" who committed sucide after Fritz withdrew his favour was taken by us with a pinch of salt.
Thenmildred_of_midgard came across the somewhat more reliable Tim Blanning making the following statement in his Frederick biography:
Only once did Fredersdorf appear to have lost his position, when ejected from Frederick’s tent while on campaign in favor of a handsome hussar. The mysterious suicide of his rival soon afterwards saw Fredersdorf back in Frederick’s favor.
Blanning provided a citation, to which, Peter-Michael Hahn, Friedrich II von Preußen., p. 62. I looked up said biography, and it did say what Blanning claims it did in as many words, but Hahn did not provide a citation as to where he had the story from. (Though Hahn is otherwise more given to provide footnotes than not.) So there we were, with a dead hussar, a potential temporary Fritz/Fredersdorf fallout with no date given, the insinuation that Fredersdorf might or might not have had anything to do with the death of said hussar, and no actual source. Until we came upon Gustav Volz, author and editor of many a Fritz-related book.
Gustav Volz, "Friedrich der Große im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen", volume 1, FINALLY turns out to have the original source of the "handsome husar", "the King's love could be deadly" "Fredersdorf jealous, soldier dead?" insinuations. It's on page 203. Context: part of a dispatch dated Hannover, March 9th, 1742, by one Baron August Wilhelm von Schicheldt, Secret Councillor to George II, Hannover department. In addition to writing a "hot or not?"profile of Fritz himself, he also profiles the entire court, politicians like Podewils (current Fritz minister, future envoy to Vienna and MT profiler), courtiers like Pöllnitz, relations like AW (who gets described as good natured but undereducated and not nearly the witty conversationalist or leader Big Bro is)...and finally he gets around to Fredersdorf. This report claims he's been enobled, which the books I've read so far said wasn't the case. Anyway, here's what the Baron says (drumroll...):
This von Fredersdorf is the first and oldest of the King's valets, and still does this service, despite the fact that after his ascension to the throne the King's majesty has enobled him and given him the title of Chamberlain. He's supposed to be the one who hasn't only been in his lord's confidence the longest, but has gotten closest to him. (The actual German phrase is more poetic - "am tiefsten in ihn gedrungen ist" - has dived deepest.) I haven't met him in person yet. But everyone praises his loyalty and supreme usefulness. I couldn't verify whether it is true that the King even talks about state business with him. That much is certan, that his majesty sketches out essays with his own hand, the content of which remains secret from his ministers for quite some time, while Fredersdorf busily is used as a copyist and in this way must have learned some secret or the other far sooner than anyone else.
In the past summer, his credit fell suddenly and starkly; for the King threw his favour at a subaltern officer of his personal guard named Georgii, while (Fredersdorf) was told only to enter the King's tent anymore when he'd been called for, when he used to have unlimited access to it at all times before. But after Georgii just a few weeks later intentionally put a bullet in his head, a deed for which so many contradictory and partly extremely impudent causes have been named, which I do not dare to put down here, (Fredersdorf) has reclaimed the former royal favor and grace entirely.
The next guy profiled is Eichel, if you care to know. AAAANYWAY: finally, there it was: a smoking gun! (I.e. a rumor written at the time, not centuries later. Mind you, that excerpt from the dispatch has at least one demonstrably false information - German-only-speaking Fredersdorf wasn't used by Fritz as a copyist for his exclusively French writings, to point out the glaringly obvious. And while there has been a question mark over whether or not Fritz ever ennobled him in some accounts, all I've seen so far have concluded that no, he didn't, not least because his widow (who ought to know) is listed as plain Madame Fredersdorf upon her remarriage.
Be that as it may, though, it's good to finally know that Hahn, Blanning and Burgdorf didn't invent stuff out of the blue. Early 1742 for the claim and summer of 1741 for the event itself is even early enough that Fredersdorf could actually have been with Fritz in the field (which would be necessary if he's seen as losing access privileges to the King's tent), which used to be a previous problem I've had with this tale, since in their preserved correspondance, which starts in 1745 or thereabouts, Fredersdorf tends to be in Berlin while Fritz is battling Austrians elsewhere. Now the good Baron admits that he doesn't know Fredersdorf himself, and he's reporting gossip. Which, of course, doesn't mean the gossip has to be wrong. So, questions, provided, of course, that the gossip as quoted by the Baron has any actual foundation (there's always the possibility it didn't; for a notoriously wrong but nonetheless incredibly popular bit of gossip, see also the non-quote given to Marie Antoinette through the centuries, "if they are hungry, let them eat cake", for example):
- Did Fritz have a fling with a handsome subaltern named Georgii (Burgdorf in his GAY GAY GAY bio spelled it differently, but that's how the originator of the tale spells it) with whom he locked himself in his tent, Heinrich and Kaphengst style?
- did Fredersdorf actually fell out of favour (after 10 years of same, if this was in the summer of 1741), or did Fritz simply want privacy for his fling during his first year of military Kingship? Or did they have an argument and this was a pointed gesture? If this was in the summer of 1741, it would additionally be less than a year after Fritz made Fredersdorf his chamberlain (and provided him with the estate of Zernikow)?
- do we think Fredersdorf was either insecure or murderous enough to arrange for the early demise of Georgii by faked suicide? I know we previously agreed it's unlikely, but that was before we had a date. I still think it's unlikely, but just to play devil's advocate: EVERYONE thought Fritz' behavior was different post-ascension, and wondered about their new standing with him. (Including Wilhelmine.) If there was a time when Fredersdorf could have been insecure despite all their years together, wouldn't it be in the year after Crown Prince Fritz became King Fritz, who suddenly could have everyone (if he wanted to) and started his quest for military glory in which Fredersdorf, who hadn't been a part of the army since almost a decade, couldn't really participate (unlike in every other department of Fritz' administration, as it otherwise turned out)?
- or, if Georgii the handsome soldier really did commit suicide: maybe gossip has reversed cause and effect here, and Georgii offed himself after realising he was just a fling and Fritz had no intention of letting him replace Frederdorf?
-mildred_of_midgard: or: Fredersdorf took action that drove Georgii to suicide. Most likely avenue, if you ask me, from the guy who was later--or already?--in charge of Fritz's spy ring: digging up some dirt on Georgii and blackmailing him with it. Georgii then commits suicide before the King can find out, which Fredersdorf did or didn't expect, but either way takes advantage of.
Intense discussion of all these possibilities followed here, but since it's pure speculation, not source quoting, it shan't go up atrheinsberg.
Continuing with documented evidence. No other document included by Volz mentions Georgii the Subaltern, though some others include Fredersdorf. There's Bielfeld (ennobled friend of Fritz from the Rheinsberg days onwards) writing from Rheinsberg when Fritz is still a Crown Prince:
The Prince's first valet, Herr Fredersdorf, is a tall, beautiful man, who has wit and intelligence. He's polite, attentive, skillful, smooth, likes his possessions but still likes splendour. I believe he'll play a large role one day.
Then there's Hofrat König from Saxony who mentions Fredersdorf's estate getting in 1740, and also that not Fritz but also Fredersdorf joined the Free Masons. (BTW: we already knew from the letters that Fritz called Fredersdorf "du" (while Fredersdorf writes "your majesty"). But according to the Free Masons I know, it's "du" all the way, because, you know, brothers, at least during lodge meetings and also when talking to each other a deux elsewhere.
Anyway, this Hofrat König describes Fredersdorf as: a very handsome, cheerful and courteous man who is not lacking either intelligence or manners.
Near the end of the volume (volume 1), Volz also includes Lehndorff's description of Fredersdorf from his diaries. (Remember, Volz helped Schmidt-Lözen decyphering handwritings, they were working buddies.) And there's one more Fredersdorf quote in between, from the duo who temporarily replaced Valory as French envoy until his return just before the 7 Years War, the Jacobite Exile Lord Tyrconnel and Latouche. They are the only other ones mention a temporary fallout between Fritz and Fredersdorf, but they don't give a date for this, nor do they mention Georgii the hussar or any other alternate favourite. Instead, what they, in the early 1750s, write is this, after complaining about how Eichel is practically invisible and it's impossible to get a hold of him (and bribe him to spy on Fritz):
Supposedly, (Eichel) owns half the share on all monopolies Monsieur Fredersdorf holds. (Fredersdorf) is the valet of the King and master of the treasury; he enjoys, as one knows, (the King's) confidence in a high degree. As Crown Prince, he took him out of his regiment where he'd been piper. It's also known that the King, when he was dissastisfied with his services as a valet, had put him back into his regiment. But since the King, as (Fredersdorf) knows, is very receptive for praise, (Frederdorf) has mastered the art of managing the King so well that he won back the highest favour, which he enjoys even today. As many claim (the King's) inclination regarding pleasure supposedly furthered (Fredersdorf)'s good fortune. But enough of this.
Latouche just adds that Fredersdorf has so much money of his own by now that they can't bribe him for their purposes, either. Now, like I said, Tyrconnel & Latouche don't give a date as to when this "putting him back into his regiment" supposedly had happened. They also are reporting an old rumor in any event, since by the early 1750s Fredersdorf is in no shape for the army, obviously. And no gossip seems to have told them about Georgii, so those two rumors might be entirely unrelated. But they might have a common origin, and that origin could be a temporary distance between Fritz and Fredersdorf in the summer of 1741; if so, and if Fredersdorf was indeed with Fritz in the field instead of home in Berlin managing things there as he'd later be, then I could see a decade later the rumor having reached the shape of "the King totally was going to put that upstart back into the army where he belonged!", especially since anyone to whom Tyrconnel & Latouche would be talking to in the early 1750s would be speaking with the frustratation of Fredersdorf not having lost his top position through the years.
(Incidentally, in terms of "how reliable are Tycronnel & Latouche as judges of character: it cracks me up that they report about Heinrich just like mid-1730s envoys report about Fritz, that he's smart but into arts and leisure, not military minded like the King at all, and not likely to do anything soldlierly ever. As with Crown Prince Fritz, you can see why they got this impression, and yet... (Evidentaly no one told them about the Heinrich & AW "how about another war" RPG in which Heinrich played Fritz.) The sole reason why they bring up Heinrich at all, btw, is that they wonder what would happen if AW became King. They do report he values his younger brother's advice a lot and thus think Heinrich would end up as a key voice in the next regime.)
So much for rumors about a Fritz/Fredersdorf temporary fallout as reported by contemporaries. Unexpectedly, Anton Friedrich Büsching in the 1788 "Charakter Friedrichs des II Königs von Preussen" - i.e. something published only two years after Fritz' death delivers a suicidal hussar... from 1775. When Fredersdorf, who died in the January of 1758, was long dead and thus definitely in the clear. Büsching writes thusly:
(Friedrich) had intentionally ignorant people who couldn't read or write as his servants, and not for the usual use, believing that nothing disadvantagegous or dangerous was to fear from them; he was however wrong about this. A case in point was the Chamber Hussar Deesen, for whom he had much favour and grace, but whom he, I don't know why, eventually put in such a great disgrace that the man grew desperate over it. If I'm not mistaken, both (disgrace and desperation) reached their peak in the July of 1775. The King was back then visited by family members, and during this visit he'd ordered that the man shouldn't appear in front of him. When the visited had ended, and the King was back at Sanssouci, he'd ordered the man to him one morning and gave him to the aide who'd read the rapport with the command that he'd be used as a drummer at the corps. The man fell to his feet, but he kicked him away, and when the man clung to his knees again, (the King) had him pulled away by force. Deesen asked the aide who went with him whether he was allowed to pick up his hat; and when he'd gone to his room, he shot himself with a prepared and loaded pistol he'd kept for such a case. When this was reported to the King, he first said "but where did he get the loaded gun from?" and then "I wouldn't have expected such courage from him". But one noticed much disturbance of the temper from the King about this event, and from the questions he put to his people afterwards, one could see this event had been very disagreeable to him. This man had not known how to read or write, but he had someone else read to him something which had been lying on the King's table.
Allow me to paraphrase Lady Bracknell at this point: one suicidal hussar may be regarded as a misfortune, but two look like carelessness.
The other Fredersdorf-related tale of uncertain origin we've been wondering about shows up in 19th century biographies like Preuss or Carlyle, but not so much in 20th century and later biographies, presumably because through later biographers, who had access to sources Preuss, Caryle et al did not, have dismissed it for the same reasons we did. This anecdote has Fredersdorf getting the permission from Fritz to marry Karoline Marie Elisabeth Daum in 1753 by pretending to be on death's door, and, being given the permission, marrying her within 24 hours to prevent Fritz from changing his mind. This is belied by, among other things, Lehndorff in his diaries mentioning the future Mrs. Fredersdorf as the future Mrs. Fredersdorf almost a year earlier; he also is informed of Fritz' wedding present for the bride. (December 15th 1752. Dinner with Frau von Grappendorf, a very charming lady who has a revolting husband; in his appearance, he is a monster, full of prejudices and rather ridiculous. I make the aquaintance of the Abbé de Prades, who had to leave France due to his preachings. I also see the fiancee of Fredersdorf; she has received 5000 Taler as a wedding present from the King.)
Unsurprisingly, the origin of the "24 hours" tale is a poet, to wit, Achim von Arnim. Reminder for non-Germans re: Achim von Arnim: grandson of Fredersdorf's widow on the maternal side, bff of Clemens Brentano, husband of Clemens' sister Bettina, both of whom are more famous in German literature than Achim. Who spent much of his childhood on the Zernikow estate. His mother had died shortly after his birth, his father didn't want to take care of him and his brother Karl Otto, and his grandmother, Karoline Maria Elisabeth Labes, widowed twice at this point (Fredersdorf was husband No.1, Johann Labes, also chamberlain to the King, was husband No.2, who died in 1776), literary bought the right the raise her grandkids from her son-in-law with 1.000 Taler and a contract saying as much. (Possibly to ensure he wouldn't suddenly change his mind again, the law favouring fathers.) This shows what an enterprising lady she was in her older years.
The estate website mentions she continued Fredersdorf's work on the estate and added, among other things, a hospice for workers who were either too old or for other reasons incapable of working anymore. She also built this crypta next to the village church, where Fredersdorf is buried.
So is Karoline Maria Elisabeth. According to Achim, with the caveat that he's also the origin or "they tricked Fritz in order to get the wedding permission and got married within 24 hours" tale:
"Thus the sickbed was the entrance to a marriage in which my grandmother (...) lived with him in such blessed liberty, accordance and inner cheerfulness, until he died after many sufferings, that she wanted after her own death rest only at the side of the most beloved of her husbands."
Mind you, given Johann Labes was Achim's grandfather and also the husband who got ennobled to von Labes - Lehndorff somewhat cynically assumes this is why Mrs. Fredersdorf married him, though then again, she was an heiress and the widow of an immensly wealthy man, so if she wanted a title and nothing but that, she could have gone for actual Prussian nobility, lots of whom were heavily in debt, rather than an ennobled Chamberlain - , I'm going with the assumption that if Achim were to make a wrong declaration as to which of her husbands Karoline Maria Elisabeth loved best, he'd pick Grandpa. I'm therefore assuming that she told her grandson as much during the later's childhood. This of course tells us nothing re: how Frederrsdorf felt about her in return. But I find the phrase " in such blessed liberty" - in solch seliger Freiheit" - interesting (and presumably directly derived from Grandma). What we know about her is that on the one hand, she was a banker's daughter, presumably under the tight control not just heiresses tended to be in her day and age, and on the other that she was a strong-willed woman managing her estate and buying her son-in-law out of his paternal rights in her later years. So: I'm currently speculating that Fredersdorf, who was already in 1752 when he proposed and in 1753 when he married her a man with a lot of illnesses behind him and more ahead, and thus, even leaving his orientation and relationship with Fritz aside, hardly the model of a romantic lover, offered her not exactly a classic romance but something all too few women got: friendly companionship with a promise that she would get to live the life she wanted, instead of being patriarchally bossed around. And that this was why she ended up loving him (and remember him with such fondness).
The Zernikow website provides the history of the estate before and after. It was chronically mismanaged and in debt through F1 and FW's reigns, and often changed its owner accordingly. Fritz bought as Crown Prince in 1737 from the previous owner, a Lieutent de Beville (who himself had bought it in 1731), and at first rented it to six citizens in the area. In 1740, when he ascended to the throne, he ended the contracts and gave it to Fredersdorf, who despite all his work for Fritz found time to completely reorganize the estate. In 1741 Fredersdorf set up a brick factory. Construction of the manor house began in 1746 (a rectangular, two-storey, baroque plastered building with a mansard roof and 7/3 axes. In 1747, a mulberry tree plantation with 8,000 trees near the watermill and a silk house were built. (This was in accordance to Fritz wanting to stop Prussia from relying on foreign exports for its silk production and encouraging citizens to produce their own silk. For which, of course, you needed mulberry trees.) Extensive remedial measures took place from 1750 onwards. Fredersdorf also expanded. A year later, he had various avenues planted, of beech, poplar, oak, and walnut trees. The best-known avenue is that of mulberry trees, located between the village and the Zernikow watermill. About 70 trees can still be seen today. The estate was further expanded by a pheasant garden and a carp pond. Fredersdorf's beer, which was produced in his own breweries, became known beyond the borders of Zernikow. Unfortunately, nothing (especially the recipes) could be saved up to the present. Mostly because of severe mismanagement in the 19th century after Achim von Arnim's death, when numerous later owners had no interest in it and didn't find people to manage it competently for them, either.
The estate today:
Incidentally, the website - which like us believes Fredersdorf's interest in alchemy could have greatly contributed to his demise, also quotes one of Fritz' letters, from 1753 (the year of the marriage and the Voltaire implosion) , in his wonderful informal and badly spelled German, apropos returning an achemical recipe: "Ich danke Dihr vohr Deine Schöne Sachen; ich Schike Dihr alles zurüke. gesundtheit ist besser, wie alle Schätze der Welt. flege Dihr erst, daß Du besser wirst, dann Könen wihr goldt und Silber Machen."
("I thank you for your beautiful things; I'm sending it all back to you. Health is better than all the treasures of the world. Take care of yourself first so you get better, than we can make silver and gold.")
Again: contrary to what Wikipedia claims, Fritz clearly did not see the marriage as the end of his relationship with or fondness for Fredersdorf.
Firstly, there's what we dubbed "The Matter of the Handsome Hussar". This first came to our attention in Wolfgang Burgdorf's biography "Friedrich der Große". Burgdorf, as if to make up for centuries of biographical no-homo'ing, is of "he was GAY GAY GAY AND THERE WAS NO HETEROSEX WITH ANYONE ANYWHERE" persuasion (this leads, for example, to the bewildering statement that Fritz was life long utterly platonic pen pals with the Countess Orzelska, which would be nice except none of us has seen a single letter in any collection anywhere), and often given to not providing any citation. So his declaration that "the King's love could be deadly" not just for Katte, but for "a handsome hussar named Girgorijj" who committed sucide after Fritz withdrew his favour was taken by us with a pinch of salt.
Then
mildred_of_midgard came across the somewhat more reliable Tim Blanning making the following statement in his Frederick biography: Only once did Fredersdorf appear to have lost his position, when ejected from Frederick’s tent while on campaign in favor of a handsome hussar. The mysterious suicide of his rival soon afterwards saw Fredersdorf back in Frederick’s favor.
Blanning provided a citation, to which, Peter-Michael Hahn, Friedrich II von Preußen., p. 62. I looked up said biography, and it did say what Blanning claims it did in as many words, but Hahn did not provide a citation as to where he had the story from. (Though Hahn is otherwise more given to provide footnotes than not.) So there we were, with a dead hussar, a potential temporary Fritz/Fredersdorf fallout with no date given, the insinuation that Fredersdorf might or might not have had anything to do with the death of said hussar, and no actual source. Until we came upon Gustav Volz, author and editor of many a Fritz-related book.
Gustav Volz, "Friedrich der Große im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen", volume 1, FINALLY turns out to have the original source of the "handsome husar", "the King's love could be deadly" "Fredersdorf jealous, soldier dead?" insinuations. It's on page 203. Context: part of a dispatch dated Hannover, March 9th, 1742, by one Baron August Wilhelm von Schicheldt, Secret Councillor to George II, Hannover department. In addition to writing a "hot or not?"profile of Fritz himself, he also profiles the entire court, politicians like Podewils (current Fritz minister, future envoy to Vienna and MT profiler), courtiers like Pöllnitz, relations like AW (who gets described as good natured but undereducated and not nearly the witty conversationalist or leader Big Bro is)...and finally he gets around to Fredersdorf. This report claims he's been enobled, which the books I've read so far said wasn't the case. Anyway, here's what the Baron says (drumroll...):
This von Fredersdorf is the first and oldest of the King's valets, and still does this service, despite the fact that after his ascension to the throne the King's majesty has enobled him and given him the title of Chamberlain. He's supposed to be the one who hasn't only been in his lord's confidence the longest, but has gotten closest to him. (The actual German phrase is more poetic - "am tiefsten in ihn gedrungen ist" - has dived deepest.) I haven't met him in person yet. But everyone praises his loyalty and supreme usefulness. I couldn't verify whether it is true that the King even talks about state business with him. That much is certan, that his majesty sketches out essays with his own hand, the content of which remains secret from his ministers for quite some time, while Fredersdorf busily is used as a copyist and in this way must have learned some secret or the other far sooner than anyone else.
In the past summer, his credit fell suddenly and starkly; for the King threw his favour at a subaltern officer of his personal guard named Georgii, while (Fredersdorf) was told only to enter the King's tent anymore when he'd been called for, when he used to have unlimited access to it at all times before. But after Georgii just a few weeks later intentionally put a bullet in his head, a deed for which so many contradictory and partly extremely impudent causes have been named, which I do not dare to put down here, (Fredersdorf) has reclaimed the former royal favor and grace entirely.
The next guy profiled is Eichel, if you care to know. AAAANYWAY: finally, there it was: a smoking gun! (I.e. a rumor written at the time, not centuries later. Mind you, that excerpt from the dispatch has at least one demonstrably false information - German-only-speaking Fredersdorf wasn't used by Fritz as a copyist for his exclusively French writings, to point out the glaringly obvious. And while there has been a question mark over whether or not Fritz ever ennobled him in some accounts, all I've seen so far have concluded that no, he didn't, not least because his widow (who ought to know) is listed as plain Madame Fredersdorf upon her remarriage.
Be that as it may, though, it's good to finally know that Hahn, Blanning and Burgdorf didn't invent stuff out of the blue. Early 1742 for the claim and summer of 1741 for the event itself is even early enough that Fredersdorf could actually have been with Fritz in the field (which would be necessary if he's seen as losing access privileges to the King's tent), which used to be a previous problem I've had with this tale, since in their preserved correspondance, which starts in 1745 or thereabouts, Fredersdorf tends to be in Berlin while Fritz is battling Austrians elsewhere. Now the good Baron admits that he doesn't know Fredersdorf himself, and he's reporting gossip. Which, of course, doesn't mean the gossip has to be wrong. So, questions, provided, of course, that the gossip as quoted by the Baron has any actual foundation (there's always the possibility it didn't; for a notoriously wrong but nonetheless incredibly popular bit of gossip, see also the non-quote given to Marie Antoinette through the centuries, "if they are hungry, let them eat cake", for example):
- Did Fritz have a fling with a handsome subaltern named Georgii (Burgdorf in his GAY GAY GAY bio spelled it differently, but that's how the originator of the tale spells it) with whom he locked himself in his tent, Heinrich and Kaphengst style?
- did Fredersdorf actually fell out of favour (after 10 years of same, if this was in the summer of 1741), or did Fritz simply want privacy for his fling during his first year of military Kingship? Or did they have an argument and this was a pointed gesture? If this was in the summer of 1741, it would additionally be less than a year after Fritz made Fredersdorf his chamberlain (and provided him with the estate of Zernikow)?
- do we think Fredersdorf was either insecure or murderous enough to arrange for the early demise of Georgii by faked suicide? I know we previously agreed it's unlikely, but that was before we had a date. I still think it's unlikely, but just to play devil's advocate: EVERYONE thought Fritz' behavior was different post-ascension, and wondered about their new standing with him. (Including Wilhelmine.) If there was a time when Fredersdorf could have been insecure despite all their years together, wouldn't it be in the year after Crown Prince Fritz became King Fritz, who suddenly could have everyone (if he wanted to) and started his quest for military glory in which Fredersdorf, who hadn't been a part of the army since almost a decade, couldn't really participate (unlike in every other department of Fritz' administration, as it otherwise turned out)?
- or, if Georgii the handsome soldier really did commit suicide: maybe gossip has reversed cause and effect here, and Georgii offed himself after realising he was just a fling and Fritz had no intention of letting him replace Frederdorf?
-
mildred_of_midgard: or: Fredersdorf took action that drove Georgii to suicide. Most likely avenue, if you ask me, from the guy who was later--or already?--in charge of Fritz's spy ring: digging up some dirt on Georgii and blackmailing him with it. Georgii then commits suicide before the King can find out, which Fredersdorf did or didn't expect, but either way takes advantage of.Intense discussion of all these possibilities followed here, but since it's pure speculation, not source quoting, it shan't go up at
rheinsberg.Continuing with documented evidence. No other document included by Volz mentions Georgii the Subaltern, though some others include Fredersdorf. There's Bielfeld (ennobled friend of Fritz from the Rheinsberg days onwards) writing from Rheinsberg when Fritz is still a Crown Prince:
The Prince's first valet, Herr Fredersdorf, is a tall, beautiful man, who has wit and intelligence. He's polite, attentive, skillful, smooth, likes his possessions but still likes splendour. I believe he'll play a large role one day.
Then there's Hofrat König from Saxony who mentions Fredersdorf's estate getting in 1740, and also that not Fritz but also Fredersdorf joined the Free Masons. (BTW: we already knew from the letters that Fritz called Fredersdorf "du" (while Fredersdorf writes "your majesty"). But according to the Free Masons I know, it's "du" all the way, because, you know, brothers, at least during lodge meetings and also when talking to each other a deux elsewhere.
Anyway, this Hofrat König describes Fredersdorf as: a very handsome, cheerful and courteous man who is not lacking either intelligence or manners.
Near the end of the volume (volume 1), Volz also includes Lehndorff's description of Fredersdorf from his diaries. (Remember, Volz helped Schmidt-Lözen decyphering handwritings, they were working buddies.) And there's one more Fredersdorf quote in between, from the duo who temporarily replaced Valory as French envoy until his return just before the 7 Years War, the Jacobite Exile Lord Tyrconnel and Latouche. They are the only other ones mention a temporary fallout between Fritz and Fredersdorf, but they don't give a date for this, nor do they mention Georgii the hussar or any other alternate favourite. Instead, what they, in the early 1750s, write is this, after complaining about how Eichel is practically invisible and it's impossible to get a hold of him (and bribe him to spy on Fritz):
Supposedly, (Eichel) owns half the share on all monopolies Monsieur Fredersdorf holds. (Fredersdorf) is the valet of the King and master of the treasury; he enjoys, as one knows, (the King's) confidence in a high degree. As Crown Prince, he took him out of his regiment where he'd been piper. It's also known that the King, when he was dissastisfied with his services as a valet, had put him back into his regiment. But since the King, as (Fredersdorf) knows, is very receptive for praise, (Frederdorf) has mastered the art of managing the King so well that he won back the highest favour, which he enjoys even today. As many claim (the King's) inclination regarding pleasure supposedly furthered (Fredersdorf)'s good fortune. But enough of this.
Latouche just adds that Fredersdorf has so much money of his own by now that they can't bribe him for their purposes, either. Now, like I said, Tyrconnel & Latouche don't give a date as to when this "putting him back into his regiment" supposedly had happened. They also are reporting an old rumor in any event, since by the early 1750s Fredersdorf is in no shape for the army, obviously. And no gossip seems to have told them about Georgii, so those two rumors might be entirely unrelated. But they might have a common origin, and that origin could be a temporary distance between Fritz and Fredersdorf in the summer of 1741; if so, and if Fredersdorf was indeed with Fritz in the field instead of home in Berlin managing things there as he'd later be, then I could see a decade later the rumor having reached the shape of "the King totally was going to put that upstart back into the army where he belonged!", especially since anyone to whom Tyrconnel & Latouche would be talking to in the early 1750s would be speaking with the frustratation of Fredersdorf not having lost his top position through the years.
(Incidentally, in terms of "how reliable are Tycronnel & Latouche as judges of character: it cracks me up that they report about Heinrich just like mid-1730s envoys report about Fritz, that he's smart but into arts and leisure, not military minded like the King at all, and not likely to do anything soldlierly ever. As with Crown Prince Fritz, you can see why they got this impression, and yet... (Evidentaly no one told them about the Heinrich & AW "how about another war" RPG in which Heinrich played Fritz.) The sole reason why they bring up Heinrich at all, btw, is that they wonder what would happen if AW became King. They do report he values his younger brother's advice a lot and thus think Heinrich would end up as a key voice in the next regime.)
So much for rumors about a Fritz/Fredersdorf temporary fallout as reported by contemporaries. Unexpectedly, Anton Friedrich Büsching in the 1788 "Charakter Friedrichs des II Königs von Preussen" - i.e. something published only two years after Fritz' death delivers a suicidal hussar... from 1775. When Fredersdorf, who died in the January of 1758, was long dead and thus definitely in the clear. Büsching writes thusly:
(Friedrich) had intentionally ignorant people who couldn't read or write as his servants, and not for the usual use, believing that nothing disadvantagegous or dangerous was to fear from them; he was however wrong about this. A case in point was the Chamber Hussar Deesen, for whom he had much favour and grace, but whom he, I don't know why, eventually put in such a great disgrace that the man grew desperate over it. If I'm not mistaken, both (disgrace and desperation) reached their peak in the July of 1775. The King was back then visited by family members, and during this visit he'd ordered that the man shouldn't appear in front of him. When the visited had ended, and the King was back at Sanssouci, he'd ordered the man to him one morning and gave him to the aide who'd read the rapport with the command that he'd be used as a drummer at the corps. The man fell to his feet, but he kicked him away, and when the man clung to his knees again, (the King) had him pulled away by force. Deesen asked the aide who went with him whether he was allowed to pick up his hat; and when he'd gone to his room, he shot himself with a prepared and loaded pistol he'd kept for such a case. When this was reported to the King, he first said "but where did he get the loaded gun from?" and then "I wouldn't have expected such courage from him". But one noticed much disturbance of the temper from the King about this event, and from the questions he put to his people afterwards, one could see this event had been very disagreeable to him. This man had not known how to read or write, but he had someone else read to him something which had been lying on the King's table.
Allow me to paraphrase Lady Bracknell at this point: one suicidal hussar may be regarded as a misfortune, but two look like carelessness.
The other Fredersdorf-related tale of uncertain origin we've been wondering about shows up in 19th century biographies like Preuss or Carlyle, but not so much in 20th century and later biographies, presumably because through later biographers, who had access to sources Preuss, Caryle et al did not, have dismissed it for the same reasons we did. This anecdote has Fredersdorf getting the permission from Fritz to marry Karoline Marie Elisabeth Daum in 1753 by pretending to be on death's door, and, being given the permission, marrying her within 24 hours to prevent Fritz from changing his mind. This is belied by, among other things, Lehndorff in his diaries mentioning the future Mrs. Fredersdorf as the future Mrs. Fredersdorf almost a year earlier; he also is informed of Fritz' wedding present for the bride. (December 15th 1752. Dinner with Frau von Grappendorf, a very charming lady who has a revolting husband; in his appearance, he is a monster, full of prejudices and rather ridiculous. I make the aquaintance of the Abbé de Prades, who had to leave France due to his preachings. I also see the fiancee of Fredersdorf; she has received 5000 Taler as a wedding present from the King.)
Unsurprisingly, the origin of the "24 hours" tale is a poet, to wit, Achim von Arnim. Reminder for non-Germans re: Achim von Arnim: grandson of Fredersdorf's widow on the maternal side, bff of Clemens Brentano, husband of Clemens' sister Bettina, both of whom are more famous in German literature than Achim. Who spent much of his childhood on the Zernikow estate. His mother had died shortly after his birth, his father didn't want to take care of him and his brother Karl Otto, and his grandmother, Karoline Maria Elisabeth Labes, widowed twice at this point (Fredersdorf was husband No.1, Johann Labes, also chamberlain to the King, was husband No.2, who died in 1776), literary bought the right the raise her grandkids from her son-in-law with 1.000 Taler and a contract saying as much. (Possibly to ensure he wouldn't suddenly change his mind again, the law favouring fathers.) This shows what an enterprising lady she was in her older years.
The estate website mentions she continued Fredersdorf's work on the estate and added, among other things, a hospice for workers who were either too old or for other reasons incapable of working anymore. She also built this crypta next to the village church, where Fredersdorf is buried.
So is Karoline Maria Elisabeth. According to Achim, with the caveat that he's also the origin or "they tricked Fritz in order to get the wedding permission and got married within 24 hours" tale:
"Thus the sickbed was the entrance to a marriage in which my grandmother (...) lived with him in such blessed liberty, accordance and inner cheerfulness, until he died after many sufferings, that she wanted after her own death rest only at the side of the most beloved of her husbands."
Mind you, given Johann Labes was Achim's grandfather and also the husband who got ennobled to von Labes - Lehndorff somewhat cynically assumes this is why Mrs. Fredersdorf married him, though then again, she was an heiress and the widow of an immensly wealthy man, so if she wanted a title and nothing but that, she could have gone for actual Prussian nobility, lots of whom were heavily in debt, rather than an ennobled Chamberlain - , I'm going with the assumption that if Achim were to make a wrong declaration as to which of her husbands Karoline Maria Elisabeth loved best, he'd pick Grandpa. I'm therefore assuming that she told her grandson as much during the later's childhood. This of course tells us nothing re: how Frederrsdorf felt about her in return. But I find the phrase " in such blessed liberty" - in solch seliger Freiheit" - interesting (and presumably directly derived from Grandma). What we know about her is that on the one hand, she was a banker's daughter, presumably under the tight control not just heiresses tended to be in her day and age, and on the other that she was a strong-willed woman managing her estate and buying her son-in-law out of his paternal rights in her later years. So: I'm currently speculating that Fredersdorf, who was already in 1752 when he proposed and in 1753 when he married her a man with a lot of illnesses behind him and more ahead, and thus, even leaving his orientation and relationship with Fritz aside, hardly the model of a romantic lover, offered her not exactly a classic romance but something all too few women got: friendly companionship with a promise that she would get to live the life she wanted, instead of being patriarchally bossed around. And that this was why she ended up loving him (and remember him with such fondness).
The Zernikow website provides the history of the estate before and after. It was chronically mismanaged and in debt through F1 and FW's reigns, and often changed its owner accordingly. Fritz bought as Crown Prince in 1737 from the previous owner, a Lieutent de Beville (who himself had bought it in 1731), and at first rented it to six citizens in the area. In 1740, when he ascended to the throne, he ended the contracts and gave it to Fredersdorf, who despite all his work for Fritz found time to completely reorganize the estate. In 1741 Fredersdorf set up a brick factory. Construction of the manor house began in 1746 (a rectangular, two-storey, baroque plastered building with a mansard roof and 7/3 axes. In 1747, a mulberry tree plantation with 8,000 trees near the watermill and a silk house were built. (This was in accordance to Fritz wanting to stop Prussia from relying on foreign exports for its silk production and encouraging citizens to produce their own silk. For which, of course, you needed mulberry trees.) Extensive remedial measures took place from 1750 onwards. Fredersdorf also expanded. A year later, he had various avenues planted, of beech, poplar, oak, and walnut trees. The best-known avenue is that of mulberry trees, located between the village and the Zernikow watermill. About 70 trees can still be seen today. The estate was further expanded by a pheasant garden and a carp pond. Fredersdorf's beer, which was produced in his own breweries, became known beyond the borders of Zernikow. Unfortunately, nothing (especially the recipes) could be saved up to the present. Mostly because of severe mismanagement in the 19th century after Achim von Arnim's death, when numerous later owners had no interest in it and didn't find people to manage it competently for them, either.
The estate today:
Incidentally, the website - which like us believes Fredersdorf's interest in alchemy could have greatly contributed to his demise, also quotes one of Fritz' letters, from 1753 (the year of the marriage and the Voltaire implosion) , in his wonderful informal and badly spelled German, apropos returning an achemical recipe: "Ich danke Dihr vohr Deine Schöne Sachen; ich Schike Dihr alles zurüke. gesundtheit ist besser, wie alle Schätze der Welt. flege Dihr erst, daß Du besser wirst, dann Könen wihr goldt und Silber Machen."
("I thank you for your beautiful things; I'm sending it all back to you. Health is better than all the treasures of the world. Take care of yourself first so you get better, than we can make silver and gold.")
Again: contrary to what Wikipedia claims, Fritz clearly did not see the marriage as the end of his relationship with or fondness for Fredersdorf.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 04:09 pm (UTC)That's all I have to say, just Fredersdorf! Also "You ought to give me wedding rings."
contrary to what Wikipedia claims, Fritz clearly did not see the marriage as the end of his relationship with or fondness for Fredersdorf.
Thank goodness! Also, we've still failed to find any evidence for the supposed dismissal in disgrace reported by Wikipedia, and some counterevidence.
(I still think Fredersdorf proactively presented the marriage as a nursing opportunity, as part of his Fritz-management approach. And then this technique caught on. Lol Seydlitz.)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 04:27 pm (UTC)Also, I'm sure Fredersdorf presented it entirely as a nurse-getting opportunity, see also the relevant letter from Fritz, but there's a difference between this and, as the anecdote implies, saying "I'm dying right now, right here.
(Incidentally, even the "you want a hunter and a page to go with that?" joke doesn't work if Fritz thought Fredersdorf was at death's door, as opposed to being in the general bad state of health he was in the 1750s.)
And again, that all this went down in parallel to the Voltaire drama makes me convinced Mike really needed a vacation after Frankfurt. ;)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-16 04:38 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, definitely. I'm just saying, I think Fritz might have been less supportive of the marriage if Fredersdorf hadn't handled him just right. There was no need to engage in outright trickery and lies, but a little spin doctoring goes a long way. (I think Fredersdorf was smart enough to keep from letting Fritz's opposition build up to outright refusal; he just got Fritz on board with the plan from the get-go. Go Fredersdorf.)
And again, that all this went down in parallel to the Voltaire drama makes me convinced Mike really needed a vacation after Frankfurt. ;)
No doubt! I do think you're onto something.
"BTW, did Mike seriously marry? Mike?!? And was your brother okay with this? Enquiring minds want to know - CGV."
LOL forever.