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rheinsberg2020-08-14 04:28 pm
selenak) wrote in rheinsberg2020-08-14 04:28 pm
Rheinsberg (& Meseberg & Zernikow): Part II of the Big Brandenburg Photographic Tour
On to Part II. Frederick the Great said as early as the Seven Years War, and several times thereafter, that the only place where he'd been truly happy had been Rheinsberg, the namesake of our community. He was there for only four years (1736 to 1740). Later, he gave it to his brother Heinrich, who lived there for nearly half a century. When Fontane visited in the 1850s and 1860s, he was a bit frustrated that Heinrich by then was nearly forgotten, and the four years of Fritz were all anyone talked about, but I'm happy to report this is no longer the case. Lots of Heinrich stories provided by the audio guide and the inscriptions, though on the downside, the real life castellans are trying to convince you of Frederick's heterosexuality and swear he had a romance with a local Rheinsberg girl named Sabine. (In addition to being a married man, of course; this was the only time Frederick and his wife Elisabeth Christine truly lived together.) Never you mind, though: Rheinsberg!
This is Rheinsberg from the street side, complete with young Crown Prince Fritz standing in front of it:
You enter in the court yard and look at this:
The colonnade had been Fritz-inspired, as he'd told his architect he did not want a courtyard walled in from all four sides. Smart man. His study, where he wrote (the Anti-Machiavell and none too stellar poetry, mainly) and read was in the tower on the right. In non-Corona virus years, there's a summer festival for young opera singers whose gala performance takes place in this courtyard. And of course, if you look through the columns, you see...
...theFuck You, Fritz! Obelisk Heinrich put there to commemorate the screwed over by Fritz heroes of the 7 Years War in general and 28 in particular, lead by his dead brother August Wilhelm.
Rheinsberg was used as a health clinic during the GDR decades. This meant all of the original furniture was gone, but the building substance was far better preserved than, say, Oranienburg is. The restoration from the 1990s did a great job, though they had to make a choice: restore it to the Frederician or the Henrician era? In the end, they went with four Fritz era rooms, and the rest from Heinrich's time. Thankfully, when Heinrich died in 1802, there was a complete inventory with descriptions of how each room looked and what furniture was there, which was used as the basis for the restoration. One of the four Fritz era rooms is the hall of mirrors:
The painting on the ceiling was by Pesne, the Hohenzollern court painter who'd started young under Friedrich I., managed to somehow survive at the court of the austere Friedrich Wilhelm and would go on to paint the early years of Fritz' reign as well. This particular painting was somewhat daring because it's called "The Rising Sun banishes Old Sourpuss". This painting, mind you, was finished in 1739 when FW was still alive. (Though not expected at Rheinsberg, one presumes.)
This was one of the guest rooms from Heinrich's time, though not with the original paintings. It's part of a suite of rooms he had refurbished for his sister Amalie when she visited. Today, you can see among other things a painting of Heinrich himself hanging there, which wasn't the case during his life time; he didn't want his own portrait there, ruefully aware he wasn't handsome. Otoh, the paintings and busts featuring several of his boyfriends which were still there in Fontane's time did not survive two wars and are now gone. "But", says the audio guide, "we wanted Heinrich to take his place here in Rheinsberg".
The Chinese cabinet. "Chinoiserie" was a Rokoko craze, and you'll encounter it again at Sanssouci, big time.
Sister Ulrike, the Queen of Sweden, painted when Voltaire wrote poems to her. Also a visitor at Rheinsberg when she returned to Prussia in the early 1770s.
Some more guest rooms. Each looks different.
Observe the artistry of the detail:
One problem was that due to Corona, there weren't allowed more than four, in some rooms only two or one person at the same time. Hence queues. There it is, as Joseph II would say according to Peter Shaffer.
Antechambre with Mom's picture:
Room of shells:
Shell or Grotto Rooms were adored by Rococo builders, not least because the word "Rococo" is derived from the French word for shell. You'll see another one at Sanssouci.
Not all rooms are accessible; this was Fritz' bedchamber, which wasn't, you could just take a quick look through a door.
Whereas this bedroom is open for business:
In addition to regular paintings...
...you have fresci dirctly on the walls simulating natural landscapes in the basement, like this:
(They're just partially preserved, but you get the impression.)
Once the tour inside is over, it's time to go out to the Gienicker Lake:
And turn around to the castle again:
Time to stroll through the park. Here's one of the earliest rondells you come across, with the bust of August Wilhelm, supposed to look as he did in his last year of life, spent in disgrace courtesy of Big Brother:
Then there's the "Green Theatre", where in regular years operas get played featuring young singers:
Heinrich's tomb, consisting of a pyramid with a broken away top; broken away by design, this is how it was supposed to look like. The only addition is the iron fence due to vandalizing.
The inscription:
Another 18th Century craze was for artificial antique ruins in parks. Especially for people like Heinrich and Fritz who never could go to Italy themselves. This is a good example (supposedly depicting Egreria):
And now: Obelisk time. Building this started as soon as Fritz had died in 1786. When it was inaugurated some years later, there were a lot of veterans or family members of dead ones present, but notably no member (other than Heinrich himself) of the immediate royal family. This was because they were in a tricky position. Every Prussian king after Frederick the Great was a direct descendant of August Wilhelm (so in this case, son and grandson), and they hardly could object to Heinrich honoring him. Otoh, Fritz was the big legend the entire dynasty drew their justification from, and a monument devoted to not just AW but other people pointedly selected by "did he neglect or wrong them? Here's my obelisk!" criteria, so participating in a ceremony which critisized The Great by implication was also out.
There are twenty eight people honored here. In GRD times, the inscriptions were taken away, but they've been put on again. In addition to the inscriptions, there was a bronze medaillon depicting AW, but that has not yet been replaced. The inscription was.
This is a typical inscription for one of the more famous generals, Ziet(h)en. He's praised here for his integrity and his commitment to protect civilians; Zieten's refusal to use the common punishment of beatings for his soldiers, and his ability to keep them from plunder or other atrocities against civilians regardless were indeed some of his enduring attractive qualities.
Seydlitz, whose use of the cavalry was instrumental for various Prussian victories and who was famous for interpreting orders very creatively:
Henc(k)el von Donnersmarck, Heinrich's aide-de-camp whose military journals provide a great source for the early years of the 7-Years War:
And Marwitz!
Turning away from the Obelisk, you have one of the best known glimpses of Rheinsberg:
And here's one of the more obscure ones, from the other side:
Though my very favourite is probably this one, which shall be our last look at the place in this post:
Now, not far away from Rheinsberg are the estates given to two boyfriends of Hohenzollern princes with very different fates. Say about Fritz what you want, but his taste in long term boyfriends was A plus, whereas Heinrich invariably, with only one or two exceptions, ended up with charismatic money spending jerks. None spent more money than Kaphengst, until at last according to legend Fritz told Heinrich in unprintable language to kick him out of Rheinsberg. Heinrich did this via setting him up with Meseberg, a beautiful palace in which today the Federal Republic of Germany puts its guests of state when they visit for more than a few hours. Meseberg is near enough so Heinrich could visit easily, but Kaphengst managed to run it down and get into debts again, at which point Heinrich had to sell his collection of paintings to Catherine the Great in order to bail him out, though he did call it quits then. Considering the currentn day use and the needs of top security, you can't visit Meseberg from the outside, but you can have a look (and conclude Kaphengst must have been spectacular in bed):
Meanwhile, the guy who has the claim of having been Frederick the Great's most long term partner, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, starting out as his valet, got the much more small scale estate of Zernikow as soon as Frederick ascended to the throne in 1740, but he made it florish, being the extremely competent organizer and business man he was.
Have a map first:
Then a model:
On to the photos of how it looks today:
The main building:
Fredersdorf was a top flutist, which was how he came to Frederick's attention originally. There were concerts here then, and now take place here again (well, that is, in non-pandemic times):
This is a way better portrait of Fredersdorf than the only other one I'm familiar with:
One big Fritz project was encouraging the local silk industry. Accordingly, Fredersdorf planted mulberry trees, some of which survive to this day:
This is one of those planted by him:
Four years before his death, Fredersdorf, already in a fragile state of health and with Fritz' permission, married Caroline Maria Elisabeth Daum (I've seen the spelling "Karoline" used in many a document, but in Zernikow they spell her name with a C; so be it.) She, as mentioned in this post, turned out to be a formidable young lady who took over the management of the estate and his various other businesses with the same competence, and as a tough old woman raised her grandson the poet Achim von Arnim. She was married three times - with the middle marriage a very brief affair that ended with her divorcing him - but told her grandson she'd loved Fredersdorf best of her husbands. She was buried with him, husband No.3 and their daughter in the same place, here:
Note that there are Fredersdorfs (Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf) and her (Caroline Maria Elisabeth Daum) initials, but no one else's:
The coffins survived WWII but not the aftermath; in the GDR, they were buried in the nearby cemetery and are now irrevocably lost.
And thus it's time to head back from the province to the capital in this pic spam. On the Part III!
This is Rheinsberg from the street side, complete with young Crown Prince Fritz standing in front of it:
You enter in the court yard and look at this:
The colonnade had been Fritz-inspired, as he'd told his architect he did not want a courtyard walled in from all four sides. Smart man. His study, where he wrote (the Anti-Machiavell and none too stellar poetry, mainly) and read was in the tower on the right. In non-Corona virus years, there's a summer festival for young opera singers whose gala performance takes place in this courtyard. And of course, if you look through the columns, you see...
...the
Rheinsberg was used as a health clinic during the GDR decades. This meant all of the original furniture was gone, but the building substance was far better preserved than, say, Oranienburg is. The restoration from the 1990s did a great job, though they had to make a choice: restore it to the Frederician or the Henrician era? In the end, they went with four Fritz era rooms, and the rest from Heinrich's time. Thankfully, when Heinrich died in 1802, there was a complete inventory with descriptions of how each room looked and what furniture was there, which was used as the basis for the restoration. One of the four Fritz era rooms is the hall of mirrors:
The painting on the ceiling was by Pesne, the Hohenzollern court painter who'd started young under Friedrich I., managed to somehow survive at the court of the austere Friedrich Wilhelm and would go on to paint the early years of Fritz' reign as well. This particular painting was somewhat daring because it's called "The Rising Sun banishes Old Sourpuss". This painting, mind you, was finished in 1739 when FW was still alive. (Though not expected at Rheinsberg, one presumes.)
This was one of the guest rooms from Heinrich's time, though not with the original paintings. It's part of a suite of rooms he had refurbished for his sister Amalie when she visited. Today, you can see among other things a painting of Heinrich himself hanging there, which wasn't the case during his life time; he didn't want his own portrait there, ruefully aware he wasn't handsome. Otoh, the paintings and busts featuring several of his boyfriends which were still there in Fontane's time did not survive two wars and are now gone. "But", says the audio guide, "we wanted Heinrich to take his place here in Rheinsberg".
The Chinese cabinet. "Chinoiserie" was a Rokoko craze, and you'll encounter it again at Sanssouci, big time.
Sister Ulrike, the Queen of Sweden, painted when Voltaire wrote poems to her. Also a visitor at Rheinsberg when she returned to Prussia in the early 1770s.
Some more guest rooms. Each looks different.
Observe the artistry of the detail:
One problem was that due to Corona, there weren't allowed more than four, in some rooms only two or one person at the same time. Hence queues. There it is, as Joseph II would say according to Peter Shaffer.
Antechambre with Mom's picture:
Room of shells:
Shell or Grotto Rooms were adored by Rococo builders, not least because the word "Rococo" is derived from the French word for shell. You'll see another one at Sanssouci.
Not all rooms are accessible; this was Fritz' bedchamber, which wasn't, you could just take a quick look through a door.
Whereas this bedroom is open for business:
In addition to regular paintings...
...you have fresci dirctly on the walls simulating natural landscapes in the basement, like this:
(They're just partially preserved, but you get the impression.)
Once the tour inside is over, it's time to go out to the Gienicker Lake:
And turn around to the castle again:
Time to stroll through the park. Here's one of the earliest rondells you come across, with the bust of August Wilhelm, supposed to look as he did in his last year of life, spent in disgrace courtesy of Big Brother:
Then there's the "Green Theatre", where in regular years operas get played featuring young singers:
Heinrich's tomb, consisting of a pyramid with a broken away top; broken away by design, this is how it was supposed to look like. The only addition is the iron fence due to vandalizing.
The inscription:
Another 18th Century craze was for artificial antique ruins in parks. Especially for people like Heinrich and Fritz who never could go to Italy themselves. This is a good example (supposedly depicting Egreria):
And now: Obelisk time. Building this started as soon as Fritz had died in 1786. When it was inaugurated some years later, there were a lot of veterans or family members of dead ones present, but notably no member (other than Heinrich himself) of the immediate royal family. This was because they were in a tricky position. Every Prussian king after Frederick the Great was a direct descendant of August Wilhelm (so in this case, son and grandson), and they hardly could object to Heinrich honoring him. Otoh, Fritz was the big legend the entire dynasty drew their justification from, and a monument devoted to not just AW but other people pointedly selected by "did he neglect or wrong them? Here's my obelisk!" criteria, so participating in a ceremony which critisized The Great by implication was also out.
There are twenty eight people honored here. In GRD times, the inscriptions were taken away, but they've been put on again. In addition to the inscriptions, there was a bronze medaillon depicting AW, but that has not yet been replaced. The inscription was.
This is a typical inscription for one of the more famous generals, Ziet(h)en. He's praised here for his integrity and his commitment to protect civilians; Zieten's refusal to use the common punishment of beatings for his soldiers, and his ability to keep them from plunder or other atrocities against civilians regardless were indeed some of his enduring attractive qualities.
Seydlitz, whose use of the cavalry was instrumental for various Prussian victories and who was famous for interpreting orders very creatively:
Henc(k)el von Donnersmarck, Heinrich's aide-de-camp whose military journals provide a great source for the early years of the 7-Years War:
And Marwitz!
Turning away from the Obelisk, you have one of the best known glimpses of Rheinsberg:
And here's one of the more obscure ones, from the other side:
Though my very favourite is probably this one, which shall be our last look at the place in this post:
Now, not far away from Rheinsberg are the estates given to two boyfriends of Hohenzollern princes with very different fates. Say about Fritz what you want, but his taste in long term boyfriends was A plus, whereas Heinrich invariably, with only one or two exceptions, ended up with charismatic money spending jerks. None spent more money than Kaphengst, until at last according to legend Fritz told Heinrich in unprintable language to kick him out of Rheinsberg. Heinrich did this via setting him up with Meseberg, a beautiful palace in which today the Federal Republic of Germany puts its guests of state when they visit for more than a few hours. Meseberg is near enough so Heinrich could visit easily, but Kaphengst managed to run it down and get into debts again, at which point Heinrich had to sell his collection of paintings to Catherine the Great in order to bail him out, though he did call it quits then. Considering the currentn day use and the needs of top security, you can't visit Meseberg from the outside, but you can have a look (and conclude Kaphengst must have been spectacular in bed):
Meanwhile, the guy who has the claim of having been Frederick the Great's most long term partner, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, starting out as his valet, got the much more small scale estate of Zernikow as soon as Frederick ascended to the throne in 1740, but he made it florish, being the extremely competent organizer and business man he was.
Have a map first:
Then a model:
On to the photos of how it looks today:
The main building:
Fredersdorf was a top flutist, which was how he came to Frederick's attention originally. There were concerts here then, and now take place here again (well, that is, in non-pandemic times):
This is a way better portrait of Fredersdorf than the only other one I'm familiar with:
One big Fritz project was encouraging the local silk industry. Accordingly, Fredersdorf planted mulberry trees, some of which survive to this day:
This is one of those planted by him:
Four years before his death, Fredersdorf, already in a fragile state of health and with Fritz' permission, married Caroline Maria Elisabeth Daum (I've seen the spelling "Karoline" used in many a document, but in Zernikow they spell her name with a C; so be it.) She, as mentioned in this post, turned out to be a formidable young lady who took over the management of the estate and his various other businesses with the same competence, and as a tough old woman raised her grandson the poet Achim von Arnim. She was married three times - with the middle marriage a very brief affair that ended with her divorcing him - but told her grandson she'd loved Fredersdorf best of her husbands. She was buried with him, husband No.3 and their daughter in the same place, here:
Note that there are Fredersdorfs (Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf) and her (Caroline Maria Elisabeth Daum) initials, but no one else's:
The coffins survived WWII but not the aftermath; in the GDR, they were buried in the nearby cemetery and are now irrevocably lost.
And thus it's time to head back from the province to the capital in this pic spam. On the Part III!
no subject
Thank you for all the detail pics of Rheinsberg -- I thought those were really interesting, the paintings of the shells and the plants -- and those ceilings!!
I am glad the inscriptions were put back on. And those are beautiful pictures of Rheinsberg <3 Someday we shall have to go see opera there together <33 (well, we won't make mildred go to the actual operas, just to Rheinsberg :) )
Ooooh, that's nice to have a good pictures of Fredersdorf! And I love the mausoleum initials <3
no subject
no subject
no subject
He was there for only four years (1736 to 1740). Later, he gave it to his brother Heinrich, who lived there for nearly half a century. When Fontane visited in the 1850s and 1860s, he was a bit frustrated that Heinrich by then was nearly forgotten, and the four years of Fritz were all anyone talked about
LOL forever. This is why exactly I wrote that passage in "Lovers lying two and two":
No matter where he looked in Rheinsberg, he saw Friedrich. Heinrich knew he could live here fifty years, and renovate every corner and every blade of grass, and Rheinsberg would still have Friedrich's long ago stay imprinted on its soul.
SD: "How beautiful everything is here! How wonderfully well, with so much taste your brother has made this place his own. He truly is a marvel."
though on the downside, the real life castellans are trying to convince you of Frederick's heterosexuality and swear he had a romance with a local Rheinsberg girl named Sabine.
Bad castellans!
I'm glad the weather cooperated last week in terms of sunshine, even if it was hot.
Today, you can see among other things a painting of Heinrich himself hanging there, which wasn't the case during his life time; he didn't want his own portrait there, ruefully aware he wasn't handsome. Otoh, the paintings and busts featuring several of his boyfriends which were still there in Fontane's time did not survive two wars and are now gone.
Poor Heinrich.
Marwitz inscription! Seeing it is so cool.
(and conclude Kaphengst must have been spectacular in bed):
It's funny 'cause it's true. :P
<333 FREDERSDORF! Competence is sexy indeed. <3
Have a map first:
Thank you for knowing I would want a map. :P
This is one of those planted by him:
Planted by him personally, or planted under his direction?
She was married three times - with the middle marriage a very brief affair that ended with her divorcing him - but told her grandson she'd loved Fredersdorf best of her husbands
Again, Fritz's taste in serious boyfriends is validated.
Note that there are Fredersdorfs (Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf) and her (Caroline Maria Elisabeth Daum) initials, but no one else's:
AWWWIng so hard.
The coffins survived WWII but not the aftermath; in the GDR, they were buried in the nearby cemetery and are now irrevocably lost.
Lost as in destroyed, as in "somewhere in this cemetery but we don't know where," or as in, there's a parking lot over them now?
Oh, I see, you got that from the information plaque. Hmm. Well, if it's not the first one, then I say--archaeology solves many problems, people! We found Richard III. :P
Granted, DNA comparisons are harder with the sons of town pipers from the back end of Pomerania, but I have faith we can figure something out.
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
I'm totally in agreement with this reasoning.
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.
Man, just like the Kattes. Come on, heirs, don't you know posterity is going to be interested in Fritz's boyfriends?
no subject
What's more, they also said that "Friedrich and his valet" travelled through the countryside seducing girls together. I'm really lost as to where they got this one from. Not even Voltaire made up a story like this one!
Planted by him personally, or planted under his direction?
The later, I assume, what with him being a busy man.
archaeology solves many problems, people! We found Richard III. :P
We did, but there are some living Plantagenet descendants around, with Richard's sister as a common ancestor. If Fredersdorf had any siblings who could have ensured the family genes survived, we don't know about them, or at least I don't. You could sort by default - all the von Armins would have been related to Caroline and her third husband - but then this is a cemetary where a lot of other people not related to the von Arnims are buried, so...
no subject
What.
Moving on...
We did, but there are some living Plantagenet descendants around
I know, that's what my next sentence was all about! But it would be an interesting project to at least try. :P
no subject
Daring indeed! Especially since in one of the "Reasons why Katte has to die" write-ups, FW claimed that Katte's judges were trying to please the "rising sun." Wow.
This painting, mind you, was finished in 1739 when FW was still alive. (Though not expected at Rheinsberg, one presumes.)
Evidently not!
no subject
Mind you, the "rising sun" phrase wasn't exclusive to FW and Fritz; famously, Elizabeth I. told a Venetian ambassador that she'd learned in her siter Mary's life time that people always favored the rising sun over the setting one, and she would not name a successor in her life time, thank you very much. But still: Pesne and Fritz, of all people, would know the last time anyone had used that phrase.
no subject
And no, of course FW didn't invent the phrase, but that's exactly why the applicability is so obvious and why this was so daring! They must have really been convinced he was on his deathbed.
There's a story of a visit where FW scared the hell out of the local preacher, because being FW, he did stop at the Rheinsberg town church before going to the palace, wasn't satisfied with the pastor's performance and threatened him with his cane. The poor guy had a heart attack and died some days later.
That story is awesome and terrible, in a way that's very typical of our fandom. Thank you for sharing all the gossipy sensationalism!