Katte family trees
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rheinsbergIn the process of preparing a bunch of Rheinsberg posts, I redid the Katte family trees to incorporate new information. Then I thought I'd better put it here, so new discussion (if any) at least doesn't start over there.
Family trees for the Katte family, annotated with a lot of what we know about the people in them.
1.
This one shows how Hans Hermann is related to the ancestors whose carvings are on the outside of the church in Wust. (See the Wust picspam.)
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Hans: Or Heinrich. Perhaps Hans Heinrich. Birth and death dates approximate. His carving is on the left side of the church door in Wust. See this picture for the church and this one for the closeup of the carving.
[2] Anna: Her carving is on the right side of the church door in Wust.
[3] Hans: His carving is on the south side of the church in Wust. See this picture for the wall of the church, and this one for the closeup of the carving.
[4] Hans Heinrich: Biographical entry in Wikipedia, which, however, seems to get the date and location of his death wrong: all evidence points to him dying on May 30 in camp at Gettien, not May 31 at Reckahn. Here is a picture of his tomb in the family crypt, at the church in Wust (pace Wikipedia, which has him buried in Berlin). The Wust picspam has the inscription in full.
[5] Hans Hermann: Biographical entry in Wikipedia, which should be taken with a grain of salt. Fontane, for instance, reports his birthdate as February 21 and cites the church register in Wust. A picture of his simple wooden coffin in the family crypt is here.
Moritz Hans was the one who renovated the Wust church into a Baroque style, and commissioned that Flemish ceiling. His tomb is in the tower crypt in the church. His carving is inside the church, in this picture
2.
The Katte family seat was in Wust, and the Bismarcks had residences in Schönhausen, only about 9 km away by road and fewer as the crow flies. The Bismarcks and Kattes had numerous intermarriages, being two major noble families of the region. Otto von Bismarck was born in Schönhausen, in a house that has the arms of the Katte family above the doorway and the name of Dorothea Sophia inscribed on the side.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Dorothea Catharina: A picture of her tomb behind the altar in the church in Wust.
[2] Moritz Hans: Died Jan 24, 1684, according to Wikipedia.
[3] Eva Auguste: Died Jan 26, 1684, according to Wikipedia. I have no proof, but I'm suspicious that her death and her husband's might have been related. It's worth noting that there was a major plague epidemic in Europe from 1679 through 1684, ending in 1683 in Germany. January 1684 is close enough that I wonder if they might both have died of the plague.
ETA: The information sheet in the Wust crypt says she died only hours after her husband, but doesn't say of what.
[4] Hans Heinrich: Observe that he was only two years old when both his parents died.
3.
Melusine von Schulenberg was the mistress of George I. Hans Hermann went to visit her when he was in England in 1722/1723 on the Grand Tour, and again in 1729. We have a quote from a letter from Hans Heinrich to his brother Heinrich Christoph that Hans Hermann was having a fling with Melusine's daughter Petronella in 1729.
As the family tree shows, "Aunt" Melusine is his father's mother's sister's husband's daughter by a second wife, so not related by blood to Hans Hermann.
Neither the genealogy sites nor Wikipedia (which are probably drawing on each other) show Anna Elisabeth and Eva Auguste von Stammer as related, much less sisters, but Kloosterhuis, according toselenak's wonderful write-up, says they were. It's very good about sources, much better than the abovementioned sites, and we do know Katte called her "Aunt" Melusine, so I'm going with it.
[ETA Dec 5, 2021: Now that I've read Kloosterhuis myself, I'm no longer going with it.
Kloosterhuis:
Über seine Großmutter väterlicherseits, Eva Auguste von Stammer, war Hans Hermann von Katte mit dieser altadligen Familie verwandt, denn deren Schwester Anna Elisabeth hatte den brandenburgischen Kammerpräsidenten Gustav Adolf von der Schulenburg geheiratet. Von dessen Kindern war insbesondere Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg...berühmt geworden; nicht minder seine Schwester Ehrengard Melusine unter dem Titel einer Herzogin von Kendal.
Through his paternal grandmother, Eva Auguste von Stammer, Hans Hermann von Katte was related with this old noble family, since her sister Anna Elisabeth had married the Brandenburg chamber-president Gustav Adolf von der Schulenburg. Of his children, Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg especially became famous; not less his sister Ehrengard Melusine under the title Duchess of Kendal.
He cites Georg Schmidt, Das Geschlecht von der Schulenburg, II. Teil: Die Stammreihe, Beetzendorf 1899, 416 – 418.
I tracked that down on FamilySearch, and the page in question says his first wife was Petronella Ottilie Schwenken, and his second wife was Anna Elisabeth von Stammer. The children of the first marriage include Matthias Johann and Ehrengard Melusine. The children of the second marriage do not. The fact that Melusine's mother was the wife named Petronella is also way more consistent with her daughter being Petronella than her being descended from the other wife.
So in this case, Kloosterhuis' source doesn't say what he says it does.
There's also the part where he might be right, but he's not telling me where to find the info that Anna Elisabeth and Eva Auguste were sisters. Schmidt says Anna Elisabeth's parents were Jürgen Arnd auf Wörmlitz, Wedelitz, and Ballenstedt, and Anna Elisabeth von Königsmarck. Schmidt says nothing about Eva Auguste's parentage, but this other 19th century, possibly wrong, source (Nachrichten zur Geschichte des Geschlechts derer von Rochow und ihrer Besitzungen, by Adolph Friedrich August von Rochow, 1861) says Eva Auguste's parents were Hans Heinrich von Stammer and Margarethe Judith von Benningsen.
So even now that I've gotten away from Wikipedia and online genealogy sites that probably draw on Wikipedia or vice versa, I'm still not seeing how Eva Auguste and Anna Elisabeth were related. And all evidence points to Melusine and Katte being related by marriage, not blood. Evidently they kept close enough ties for him to call her "Aunt", but that kind of thing happens in families.
ETA 2025: Well, technically it says "his children," not "their children," so it's possible Kloosterhuis is accepting that as "related" even though he's aware that it's not by blood.]
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Melusine: Biographical entry in Wikipedia.
[2] Petronella: The one Hans Hermann is reported to have had an affair with.
[3] Philip: Yes, *the* Earl of Chesterfield. Biographical entry here.
[4] Philip: The fictional first-person narrator of Michael Roes' Zeithain.
[ETA December 5, 2021:
Corrigenda: Now that I'm reading Zeithain myself, I see that fictional Philip Stanhope is descended not from a fictional child of Melusine/Petronella and the 4th Earl, but from the real life illegitimate son of the 4th Earl, the one to whom the famous Chesterfield letters are addressed.]
4.
Heinrich Christoph was the older brother of Hans Heinrich and thus the uncle of Hans Hermann. His children are therefore of the correct generation to show up a lot on the fringes of history in our period. For the quotes from Lehndorff on the Katte family, see this entry. In the annotations to the family tree, I will identify which member of the family he's talking about in a given quote.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Ludolf August: The one who married Lehndorff's cousin whom Lehndorff wanted to marry and stayed friends with all her life. Fontane gives the following account of the marriage (write-up byselenak):
Well, according to Fontane the following happened:
Fritz: *gets to the throne, starts to marry people off (he did this a lot for financial and political reasons, his own opinion on marriage not withstanding*
Kattes: *get offered Demoiselle Rolas du Rosey, rich heiress and cousin to one Lehndorff, for Heinrich Christoph's second son*
Ludolf August, oldest son of Heinrich Christoph: *checks out rich bride, decides to have her for himself*
Another miserable marriage: *gets made*
Not that Fontane says it was miserable; as I said, he didn't have Lehndorff's diaries. Not that Lehndorff was unbiased, given his backstory with her, but I doubt that if his cousin had been wonderfully happy, he'd have invented a bad marriage for her. So anyway, Ludolf August is the husband of Frau von Katte my amiable cousin ("We were meant for each other!"). Fontane says Fritz didn't care which Katte got the rich bride, as long as the family profited. He also assumes it was a happy marriage, but, well, see above.
/Endselenak's write-up.
If you look at the chronology, Lehndorff reports being engaged to his cousin in 1751. It was in 1748 (see the annotations to the next family tree) that Hans Heinrich's branch died out and the Wust holdings reverted to Ludolf August. This is why Ludolf August is the first member of Heinrich Christoph's branch to be buried in the crypt in Wust, which previously held only members of Hans Heinrich's branch (now defunct in the male line with the death of the last remaining childless son).
So I imagine that the death of Hans Heinrich's last surviving son may have been responsible for Fritz trying to arrange a good marriage for one of Hans Hermann's first cousin's.
A picture of Ludolf August's tomb in the family crypt in Wust.
[ETA: All genealogical sources we've found agree that Ludolf's wife, Demoiselle Rolas du Rosey, died in 1776, but Lehndorff's own diary reports him having conversations with her in 1784, so these sources must be inaccurate. ETA2: Ludolf himself died in 1776, and the local Wust historians say that his widow moved away and remarried, never to be seen by the Kattes again. Also, Wikipedia has since been updated to give a death date of April 11, 1813.]
[2] Johann/Hans Friedrich: In 1730, he was a captain (Rittmeister). During the escape attempt, when Fritz was traveling and Hans Hermann was in Berlin, Johann Friedrich forwarded mail between them. He got suspicious about the amount of activity and reported it to the king. Several of my sources agree that Friedrich wrote a letter to Hans Hermann, but forgot to specify that the recipient Hans von Katte was the one in Berlin, so it went to the Hans von Katte in Erlangen, who forwarded the letter to the King, thus implicating his cousin Hans Hermann in the escape attempt. He was promoted to major in October 1730 as a reward.
During the Seven Years' War, Johann Friedrich negotiated the surrender of Schweidnitz in Silesia. He, along with others involved, was cashiered as a result.
[3] Henriette Catherine: Entertained Lehndorff at Bernhard's wedding.
[4] Heinrich Christoph: Red-headed Staatsminister so disliked by Lehndorff.
[5] Bernhard Christian: The one whom Lehndorff reports sleeping through his wedding night. He would have been 60 years old at the wedding.
[6] Henriette Wilhelmine: She was the half first cousin of her husband (note Bernhard's mother's maiden name).
[7] Dorothea Elisabeth: I have not been able to find a birth or death date for her.
5.
I.e., our Katte's immediate family.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1]: Alexander von Wartensleben: Field Marshal in the Prussian army. Kloosterhuis says that he was a nobleman in the old Baroque style, whereas Hans Heinrich fit the mold of militaristic austerity that Friedrich Wilhelm wanted to shape. It also says that Hans Hermann spent much of his youth with Wartensleben in Berlin, and that his grandfather was thus a formative influence on him. Wartensleben petitioned for Hans Hermann's life, and had to pay the executioner when he was unsuccessful.
[2] Dorothea Sophia: Wikipedia gives her death date as November 5, 1707. The sign on the wall in the Wust crypt gives it as 1706 (no date given). A number of my sources agree that the Wust crypt was built in 1706/1707 by Hans Heinrich to host her tomb after her unexpected death when the existing burial site was full. So 1706 seems likely. Wikipedia gives the birthdate of her youngest child as October 5, 1706.
Her tomb is the blue and white one in this picture, to the left of Hans Heinrich's tomb with the partial effigy.
[3] Katherina Elisabeth: Hans Hermann's stepmother. You can see from the dates that she was only eight years older than he was, and her first child was born when he was ten and she was eighteen. I imagine she didn't marry until she was sixteen or seventeen, making Hans Hermann about eight or nine. In his final letter to his father, written just hours before his death, Hans Hermann records that he loved his stepmother as if they were related by blood.
Her tomb is the full-length one very near to the photographer in this photo, i.e. the one between the one with the partial effigy (Hans Heinrich) and the one with a lot of writing.
[4] Friedrich Wilhelm von Rochow: One of Fritz's governors as a teenager. He accompanied FW and Fritz on the trip during which the escape attempt took place, and tried to prevent the escape. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in October 1730 for his role in hindering Fritz's escape.
[5] Elisabeth Katharina: She is described by Lehndorff as having been high and mighty when young, but humble and modest when older and trapped in an unhappy marriage with a lot of children.
[6] Johann Gebhard: Not the same Winterfeld as the one who was a favorite general of Fritz's.
[7] Luise Charlotte: She shared the name of her half-sister who died at age 6 weeks (according to the dates in Wikipedia).
[8] Friedrich Wilhelm: He was killed by his brother in a duel that I have seen described as over the inheritance or over a woman. He died June 27, the day of the duel.
His tomb is the one on the far left in this picture, with the candelabra on it.
[9] Friedrich Albrecht: He was killed by his brother in a duel that I have seen described as over the inheritance or over a woman. [ETA: see below.] He died October 14, of wounds sustained during the duel. After he died without issue in 1748, the Hans Heinrich male line died out and the Wust holdings reverted to his cousin Ludolf August. Ludolf would then marry Lehndorff's cousin in or shortly after 1751.
His tomb is the one partially shown in the lower left corner of the frame of this picture, the one with a lot of writing on it. I would love to know what the writing says.
ETA: On the fraternal duel, see this post, where the local historian claims it was over the inheritance, but sanitized to "for love," because that was more socially acceptable.
ETA2 This discovery may also be relevant:
mildred_of_midgard: Hans Heinrich, when he was in East Prussia, was apparently lining his pockets?
zähneknirschend hatten Bürgermeister und Rat ständige Einmischungen des Gehorsam gewohnten Generalleutnants in ihr Stadtregiment zu ertragen, der dabei durchaus auch tüchtig in die eigene Tasche (etwa zugunsten seiner Brau- und Hökergerechtigkeit oder bei der Verbesserung seines Gutes Reussen) zu wirtschaften verstand.
Grudgingly, the Burgermeisters and council had to endure the constant interference of the lieutenant general in their town regiment, the lieutenant general who was accustomed to obedience and who knew how to do business economically in his own pocket (like in favor of his ?? or in the improvement of his estate Reussen).
"Gerechtigeit" I only know as "justice", but "interests" or "businesses" makes more sense in context here. Anyway, it does sound like he's using his position for his financial benefit, especially with this footnote:
Entschädigung von Bürgern durch die Erben des verstorbenen Generalfeldmarschalls von Katte für ihre von diesem zu unbilligen Kaufpreisen abgekauften und seinem Gut Reussen zugeschlagenen Ländereien, 1743 – 1748)
Compensation of the townspeople by the heirs of the late Field Marshal von Katte for their lands purchased by this man at unreasonable prices and added to his estate Reussen, 1743-1748.
The 1743-1748 date is fascinating. It sounds like a long, drawn-out lawsuit, and it must have ended either with or just before the deaths of the two brothers in the duel over the inheritance. I wonder if the lawsuit was something else they clashed over. Or was it just the ginormous amount of money (lol, I'm seeing how HH got so rich :P) they stood to inherit?
selenak: "Gerechtigeit" I only know as "justice", but "interests" or "businesses" makes more sense in context here.
Let me remind you of my write up of the Gundling biography, and specifically this bit from how he impressed FW at first: What's more, it's also documented that he made the suggestion to discontinue allowing every little estate to brew their beer according to their own standards but to introduce a single state standard which the breweries had to adher to, which made a lot of nobility hate his gut because it essentially created both state control and a state monopoly on said quality control; FW, though, was delighted.
Also of Fredersdorf making the Kiekemal colonists buy only his beer. Gerechtigkeit in this old fashioned sense is the right/privilege of a liege lord to brew and sell their beer ("Höker" is another old fashioned word which lives on in the modern German slang word "verhökern" = sell) and make their dependents take it as opposed to buying someone else's beer.
This lawsuit, btw, does sound very much like the entire Kiekemal business to me. I note no one thought Hans Heinrich lost his honor over it
mildred_of_midgard: Lol, yes, and I notice Fritz is still rewarding Kattes with heiresses after 1748, notwithstanding. Maybe HH being dead helped.
selenak: Though that would be yet another good reason why the Kattes keep the true reason for the duel super secret and go for "love" rather than "financial greed", I bet!
Family trees for the Katte family, annotated with a lot of what we know about the people in them.
1.
This one shows how Hans Hermann is related to the ancestors whose carvings are on the outside of the church in Wust. (See the Wust picspam.)
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Hans: Or Heinrich. Perhaps Hans Heinrich. Birth and death dates approximate. His carving is on the left side of the church door in Wust. See this picture for the church and this one for the closeup of the carving.
[2] Anna: Her carving is on the right side of the church door in Wust.
[3] Hans: His carving is on the south side of the church in Wust. See this picture for the wall of the church, and this one for the closeup of the carving.
[4] Hans Heinrich: Biographical entry in Wikipedia, which, however, seems to get the date and location of his death wrong: all evidence points to him dying on May 30 in camp at Gettien, not May 31 at Reckahn. Here is a picture of his tomb in the family crypt, at the church in Wust (pace Wikipedia, which has him buried in Berlin). The Wust picspam has the inscription in full.
[5] Hans Hermann: Biographical entry in Wikipedia, which should be taken with a grain of salt. Fontane, for instance, reports his birthdate as February 21 and cites the church register in Wust. A picture of his simple wooden coffin in the family crypt is here.
Moritz Hans was the one who renovated the Wust church into a Baroque style, and commissioned that Flemish ceiling. His tomb is in the tower crypt in the church. His carving is inside the church, in this picture
2.
The Katte family seat was in Wust, and the Bismarcks had residences in Schönhausen, only about 9 km away by road and fewer as the crow flies. The Bismarcks and Kattes had numerous intermarriages, being two major noble families of the region. Otto von Bismarck was born in Schönhausen, in a house that has the arms of the Katte family above the doorway and the name of Dorothea Sophia inscribed on the side.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Dorothea Catharina: A picture of her tomb behind the altar in the church in Wust.
[2] Moritz Hans: Died Jan 24, 1684, according to Wikipedia.
[3] Eva Auguste: Died Jan 26, 1684, according to Wikipedia. I have no proof, but I'm suspicious that her death and her husband's might have been related. It's worth noting that there was a major plague epidemic in Europe from 1679 through 1684, ending in 1683 in Germany. January 1684 is close enough that I wonder if they might both have died of the plague.
ETA: The information sheet in the Wust crypt says she died only hours after her husband, but doesn't say of what.
[4] Hans Heinrich: Observe that he was only two years old when both his parents died.
3.
Melusine von Schulenberg was the mistress of George I. Hans Hermann went to visit her when he was in England in 1722/1723 on the Grand Tour, and again in 1729. We have a quote from a letter from Hans Heinrich to his brother Heinrich Christoph that Hans Hermann was having a fling with Melusine's daughter Petronella in 1729.
As the family tree shows, "Aunt" Melusine is his father's mother's sister's husband's daughter by a second wife, so not related by blood to Hans Hermann.
Neither the genealogy sites nor Wikipedia (which are probably drawing on each other) show Anna Elisabeth and Eva Auguste von Stammer as related, much less sisters, but Kloosterhuis, according to
selenak's wonderful write-up, says they were. It's very good about sources, much better than the abovementioned sites, and we do know Katte called her "Aunt" Melusine, so I'm going with it.[ETA Dec 5, 2021: Now that I've read Kloosterhuis myself, I'm no longer going with it.
Kloosterhuis:
Über seine Großmutter väterlicherseits, Eva Auguste von Stammer, war Hans Hermann von Katte mit dieser altadligen Familie verwandt, denn deren Schwester Anna Elisabeth hatte den brandenburgischen Kammerpräsidenten Gustav Adolf von der Schulenburg geheiratet. Von dessen Kindern war insbesondere Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg...berühmt geworden; nicht minder seine Schwester Ehrengard Melusine unter dem Titel einer Herzogin von Kendal.
Through his paternal grandmother, Eva Auguste von Stammer, Hans Hermann von Katte was related with this old noble family, since her sister Anna Elisabeth had married the Brandenburg chamber-president Gustav Adolf von der Schulenburg. Of his children, Matthias Johann von der Schulenburg especially became famous; not less his sister Ehrengard Melusine under the title Duchess of Kendal.
He cites Georg Schmidt, Das Geschlecht von der Schulenburg, II. Teil: Die Stammreihe, Beetzendorf 1899, 416 – 418.
I tracked that down on FamilySearch, and the page in question says his first wife was Petronella Ottilie Schwenken, and his second wife was Anna Elisabeth von Stammer. The children of the first marriage include Matthias Johann and Ehrengard Melusine. The children of the second marriage do not. The fact that Melusine's mother was the wife named Petronella is also way more consistent with her daughter being Petronella than her being descended from the other wife.
So in this case, Kloosterhuis' source doesn't say what he says it does.
There's also the part where he might be right, but he's not telling me where to find the info that Anna Elisabeth and Eva Auguste were sisters. Schmidt says Anna Elisabeth's parents were Jürgen Arnd auf Wörmlitz, Wedelitz, and Ballenstedt, and Anna Elisabeth von Königsmarck. Schmidt says nothing about Eva Auguste's parentage, but this other 19th century, possibly wrong, source (Nachrichten zur Geschichte des Geschlechts derer von Rochow und ihrer Besitzungen, by Adolph Friedrich August von Rochow, 1861) says Eva Auguste's parents were Hans Heinrich von Stammer and Margarethe Judith von Benningsen.
So even now that I've gotten away from Wikipedia and online genealogy sites that probably draw on Wikipedia or vice versa, I'm still not seeing how Eva Auguste and Anna Elisabeth were related. And all evidence points to Melusine and Katte being related by marriage, not blood. Evidently they kept close enough ties for him to call her "Aunt", but that kind of thing happens in families.
ETA 2025: Well, technically it says "his children," not "their children," so it's possible Kloosterhuis is accepting that as "related" even though he's aware that it's not by blood.]
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Melusine: Biographical entry in Wikipedia.
[2] Petronella: The one Hans Hermann is reported to have had an affair with.
[3] Philip: Yes, *the* Earl of Chesterfield. Biographical entry here.
[4] Philip: The fictional first-person narrator of Michael Roes' Zeithain.
[ETA December 5, 2021:
Corrigenda: Now that I'm reading Zeithain myself, I see that fictional Philip Stanhope is descended not from a fictional child of Melusine/Petronella and the 4th Earl, but from the real life illegitimate son of the 4th Earl, the one to whom the famous Chesterfield letters are addressed.]
4.
Heinrich Christoph was the older brother of Hans Heinrich and thus the uncle of Hans Hermann. His children are therefore of the correct generation to show up a lot on the fringes of history in our period. For the quotes from Lehndorff on the Katte family, see this entry. In the annotations to the family tree, I will identify which member of the family he's talking about in a given quote.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1] Ludolf August: The one who married Lehndorff's cousin whom Lehndorff wanted to marry and stayed friends with all her life. Fontane gives the following account of the marriage (write-up by
selenak):Well, according to Fontane the following happened:
Fritz: *gets to the throne, starts to marry people off (he did this a lot for financial and political reasons, his own opinion on marriage not withstanding*
Kattes: *get offered Demoiselle Rolas du Rosey, rich heiress and cousin to one Lehndorff, for Heinrich Christoph's second son*
Ludolf August, oldest son of Heinrich Christoph: *checks out rich bride, decides to have her for himself*
Another miserable marriage: *gets made*
Not that Fontane says it was miserable; as I said, he didn't have Lehndorff's diaries. Not that Lehndorff was unbiased, given his backstory with her, but I doubt that if his cousin had been wonderfully happy, he'd have invented a bad marriage for her. So anyway, Ludolf August is the husband of Frau von Katte my amiable cousin ("We were meant for each other!"). Fontane says Fritz didn't care which Katte got the rich bride, as long as the family profited. He also assumes it was a happy marriage, but, well, see above.
/End
selenak's write-up.If you look at the chronology, Lehndorff reports being engaged to his cousin in 1751. It was in 1748 (see the annotations to the next family tree) that Hans Heinrich's branch died out and the Wust holdings reverted to Ludolf August. This is why Ludolf August is the first member of Heinrich Christoph's branch to be buried in the crypt in Wust, which previously held only members of Hans Heinrich's branch (now defunct in the male line with the death of the last remaining childless son).
So I imagine that the death of Hans Heinrich's last surviving son may have been responsible for Fritz trying to arrange a good marriage for one of Hans Hermann's first cousin's.
A picture of Ludolf August's tomb in the family crypt in Wust.
[ETA: All genealogical sources we've found agree that Ludolf's wife, Demoiselle Rolas du Rosey, died in 1776, but Lehndorff's own diary reports him having conversations with her in 1784, so these sources must be inaccurate. ETA2: Ludolf himself died in 1776, and the local Wust historians say that his widow moved away and remarried, never to be seen by the Kattes again. Also, Wikipedia has since been updated to give a death date of April 11, 1813.]
[2] Johann/Hans Friedrich: In 1730, he was a captain (Rittmeister). During the escape attempt, when Fritz was traveling and Hans Hermann was in Berlin, Johann Friedrich forwarded mail between them. He got suspicious about the amount of activity and reported it to the king. Several of my sources agree that Friedrich wrote a letter to Hans Hermann, but forgot to specify that the recipient Hans von Katte was the one in Berlin, so it went to the Hans von Katte in Erlangen, who forwarded the letter to the King, thus implicating his cousin Hans Hermann in the escape attempt. He was promoted to major in October 1730 as a reward.
During the Seven Years' War, Johann Friedrich negotiated the surrender of Schweidnitz in Silesia. He, along with others involved, was cashiered as a result.
[3] Henriette Catherine: Entertained Lehndorff at Bernhard's wedding.
[4] Heinrich Christoph: Red-headed Staatsminister so disliked by Lehndorff.
[5] Bernhard Christian: The one whom Lehndorff reports sleeping through his wedding night. He would have been 60 years old at the wedding.
[6] Henriette Wilhelmine: She was the half first cousin of her husband (note Bernhard's mother's maiden name).
[7] Dorothea Elisabeth: I have not been able to find a birth or death date for her.
5.
I.e., our Katte's immediate family.
If Google is blocking the image from appearing in the post, try this link.
[1]: Alexander von Wartensleben: Field Marshal in the Prussian army. Kloosterhuis says that he was a nobleman in the old Baroque style, whereas Hans Heinrich fit the mold of militaristic austerity that Friedrich Wilhelm wanted to shape. It also says that Hans Hermann spent much of his youth with Wartensleben in Berlin, and that his grandfather was thus a formative influence on him. Wartensleben petitioned for Hans Hermann's life, and had to pay the executioner when he was unsuccessful.
[2] Dorothea Sophia: Wikipedia gives her death date as November 5, 1707. The sign on the wall in the Wust crypt gives it as 1706 (no date given). A number of my sources agree that the Wust crypt was built in 1706/1707 by Hans Heinrich to host her tomb after her unexpected death when the existing burial site was full. So 1706 seems likely. Wikipedia gives the birthdate of her youngest child as October 5, 1706.
Her tomb is the blue and white one in this picture, to the left of Hans Heinrich's tomb with the partial effigy.
[3] Katherina Elisabeth: Hans Hermann's stepmother. You can see from the dates that she was only eight years older than he was, and her first child was born when he was ten and she was eighteen. I imagine she didn't marry until she was sixteen or seventeen, making Hans Hermann about eight or nine. In his final letter to his father, written just hours before his death, Hans Hermann records that he loved his stepmother as if they were related by blood.
Her tomb is the full-length one very near to the photographer in this photo, i.e. the one between the one with the partial effigy (Hans Heinrich) and the one with a lot of writing.
[4] Friedrich Wilhelm von Rochow: One of Fritz's governors as a teenager. He accompanied FW and Fritz on the trip during which the escape attempt took place, and tried to prevent the escape. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in October 1730 for his role in hindering Fritz's escape.
[5] Elisabeth Katharina: She is described by Lehndorff as having been high and mighty when young, but humble and modest when older and trapped in an unhappy marriage with a lot of children.
[6] Johann Gebhard: Not the same Winterfeld as the one who was a favorite general of Fritz's.
[7] Luise Charlotte: She shared the name of her half-sister who died at age 6 weeks (according to the dates in Wikipedia).
[8] Friedrich Wilhelm: He was killed by his brother in a duel that I have seen described as over the inheritance or over a woman. He died June 27, the day of the duel.
His tomb is the one on the far left in this picture, with the candelabra on it.
[9] Friedrich Albrecht: He was killed by his brother in a duel that I have seen described as over the inheritance or over a woman. [ETA: see below.] He died October 14, of wounds sustained during the duel. After he died without issue in 1748, the Hans Heinrich male line died out and the Wust holdings reverted to his cousin Ludolf August. Ludolf would then marry Lehndorff's cousin in or shortly after 1751.
His tomb is the one partially shown in the lower left corner of the frame of this picture, the one with a lot of writing on it. I would love to know what the writing says.
ETA: On the fraternal duel, see this post, where the local historian claims it was over the inheritance, but sanitized to "for love," because that was more socially acceptable.
ETA2 This discovery may also be relevant:
mildred_of_midgard: Hans Heinrich, when he was in East Prussia, was apparently lining his pockets?zähneknirschend hatten Bürgermeister und Rat ständige Einmischungen des Gehorsam gewohnten Generalleutnants in ihr Stadtregiment zu ertragen, der dabei durchaus auch tüchtig in die eigene Tasche (etwa zugunsten seiner Brau- und Hökergerechtigkeit oder bei der Verbesserung seines Gutes Reussen) zu wirtschaften verstand.
Grudgingly, the Burgermeisters and council had to endure the constant interference of the lieutenant general in their town regiment, the lieutenant general who was accustomed to obedience and who knew how to do business economically in his own pocket (like in favor of his ?? or in the improvement of his estate Reussen).
"Gerechtigeit" I only know as "justice", but "interests" or "businesses" makes more sense in context here. Anyway, it does sound like he's using his position for his financial benefit, especially with this footnote:
Entschädigung von Bürgern durch die Erben des verstorbenen Generalfeldmarschalls von Katte für ihre von diesem zu unbilligen Kaufpreisen abgekauften und seinem Gut Reussen zugeschlagenen Ländereien, 1743 – 1748)
Compensation of the townspeople by the heirs of the late Field Marshal von Katte for their lands purchased by this man at unreasonable prices and added to his estate Reussen, 1743-1748.
The 1743-1748 date is fascinating. It sounds like a long, drawn-out lawsuit, and it must have ended either with or just before the deaths of the two brothers in the duel over the inheritance. I wonder if the lawsuit was something else they clashed over. Or was it just the ginormous amount of money (lol, I'm seeing how HH got so rich :P) they stood to inherit?
selenak: "Gerechtigeit" I only know as "justice", but "interests" or "businesses" makes more sense in context here.Let me remind you of my write up of the Gundling biography, and specifically this bit from how he impressed FW at first: What's more, it's also documented that he made the suggestion to discontinue allowing every little estate to brew their beer according to their own standards but to introduce a single state standard which the breweries had to adher to, which made a lot of nobility hate his gut because it essentially created both state control and a state monopoly on said quality control; FW, though, was delighted.
Also of Fredersdorf making the Kiekemal colonists buy only his beer. Gerechtigkeit in this old fashioned sense is the right/privilege of a liege lord to brew and sell their beer ("Höker" is another old fashioned word which lives on in the modern German slang word "verhökern" = sell) and make their dependents take it as opposed to buying someone else's beer.
This lawsuit, btw, does sound very much like the entire Kiekemal business to me. I note no one thought Hans Heinrich lost his honor over it
mildred_of_midgard: Lol, yes, and I notice Fritz is still rewarding Kattes with heiresses after 1748, notwithstanding. Maybe HH being dead helped.selenak: Though that would be yet another good reason why the Kattes keep the true reason for the duel super secret and go for "love" rather than "financial greed", I bet!
