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rheinsbergThree essays in the anthology "Mehr als ein Soldatenkönig", edited by Jürgen Kloosterhuis and Frank Göse and focused on Friedrich Wilhelm I. of Prussia, were of particular interest to the salon. Here are my reviews:
Jürgen Kloosterhuis' "Liebe Kinder, gute Kameraden: Friedrich Wilhelms I. Tabakskollegium als Sehnsuchtsort
The Kloosterhuis essay is mainly focused on analyzing the famous Tobacco Parliament painting in terms of whom it depicts and what this symbolizes. The eighteenth century document which provides a who is who list is actually written in two different hand writings and provides different identifications for a whole number of people, with Second Writer being the one who's actually way better informed, while the First Writer seems to have made guesses based on well known members of the Tobacco College. For example, First Writer identifies a figure as Grumbkow, aka THE best known pal of FW, whereas Second Writer crosses that out and identifies the figure in question as the far less prominent Camas instead; Kloosterhuis compares the figure in question with Grumbkow's portraits and is willing to bet Second Writer is as correct here as he is in the far more obvious mistake First Writer made. For First Writer identifies the figures at the left and right of the fool-symbolizing hare at the end of the table as Gundling and Morgenstern, who of course never were members of the Tobbacco Parliament (or even in Berlin!) at the same time, what with Gundling dying in 1731 and Morgenstern not getting noticed by FW until 1736. Second Writer instead identifies them instead as the far less prominent (again) Professor Johann Samuel Strimes, aka Strimesius (misidentified as Gundling by the first writer), and Otto von Graben zum Stein (nicknamed Astralicus, misidentified as Morgenstern by the first writer). Both of whom were among the various FW attempts to fill Gundling's position, and did indeed overlap at a point, which also allows for the narrowing of the date of this painting to 1737.
As you can see by this, Kloosterhuis does mention Gundling: (and even footnotes Sabrow's biography); his way of explaining why there were so many post Gundling candidates for the "Funny Councillor" position and none of them lasted long sounds thusly: On the one hand, this cross cut of the court modernization in Prussia offered chances to publish one's scholarly efforts, a financially beneficial collection of offices and a future court pension, on the other hand, a disrespectful treatment loomed, along with evil pranks and the lowering into the court fool status, especially if a "funny councillor" was or became an alcoholic.
Otto von Graben zum Stein/Astralicus lasted until FW's death though increasingly at the periphery with an ever shortened salary and rare court attendence, since Morgenstern became the main event in that position, while Strimesius was fired after three quarters of a year already.
Now, the list of names, even the first version, was definitely written after FW's death, since AW is identified as "Prince of Prussia", a title he only got in Fritz' reign when becoming heir presumptative. And since Second Writer knows about these really obscure figures, Kloosterhuis concludes he must have been a member of the Tobacco Parliament himself or one of FW's kids. He does consider AW but says the handwriting doesn't match either the first or the second writer, admits Heinrich's hand writing doesn't, either, but still thinks Heinrich is the most likely person to have dictated the crossing out and replacing of names, since the number of people still knowing Strimesius and Astralicus had even existed must have been severely limited, and Heinrich did have the required knowledge, did present the painting to FW3 when starting to spend some time in Wusterhausen, and had the past very much on his mind because my guess was right, this was also when he in turn had been given Wilhelmine's memoirs to read in manuscript by FW3.
(Strangely, one option Kloosterhuis does not consider at all is Ferdinand. What else is new? :) I mean, I think Heinrich is the most likely source for the identifications, too, but still, it might have been worth pointing out he wasn't the only person left alive even in 1799 who could have made them.)
Kloosterhuis defends the painter from the charge of stiffness and mediocrity by pointing out the subtleties of the painting, such as young AW, who doesn't have a beer mug in front of him, pointing to the beer mug of the man next to him, which Kloosterhuis interprets as teenage AW being eager to become a man and joining the merry tableround, or that the figure of Heinrich, who is the one closer to FW, has already transfered his hat to his other hand in order to be able to take and kiss his father's hand as per custom when greeting or taking leave the sovereign. He also says that with the painting, the painter gave FW the world as FW wanted it to be: a place of (male) comradery (and colorful characters, with worthy soldiers like Camas intermingling with professional shady anecdote deliverer and F1 era veteran Pöllnitz and the two unfortunate current Gundling replacements) and loving and obedient children, hence a "Sehnsuchtsort", thus: "the touching confession of the sensitive needs of a complicated King".
Sören Schlueter: Of "Nuns" and "Cadets": About Friedrich Wilhelm I.'s role as a father"
This is an essay by Sören Schlueter which right at the outset declares that FW as a father is both the most written about and the least written about aspect of his personality, due to otoh all the father/son conflict eximaninations focusing on him and Fritz, and to a somewhat lesser degree also him and Wilhelmine, but otoh the near complete silence on FW as a father to the seven other of his surviving into adulthood children. Schlueter says his intention isn't to white wash (and he does call FW's behavior towards Fritz and Wilhelmine abuse here and in some footnotes), but to differentiate and show that there were far greater nuances with the younger kids, meaning FW as a father was more nuanced, and why this might have been. Which is why he won't write about Fritz and Wilhelmine in relation to their father at all, though he promises he will do so in his upcoming dissertation, and entirely focus on the younger sibs.
The essay quotes from primary sources who are mostly familiar to us (Stratemann, for example, and the visiting reverends Freylinghausen and Franck) by now with the exception of an FW biography by David "Getting the hell out of Prussia!" Fassmann, published in 1735, a collection of Charlotte's letters in the original French which he thoughtfully gives in the French original in the footnotes and paraphrased in German in the main text, and some letters from and to Friederike. (Incidentally, it seems FW wrote to the girls in German and received replies consistently in French, with the odd German word thrown in.) The title refers to letters FW wrote to his pal Old Dessauer, one where he comments on the arrival of Ulrike with the famous quote amounting to "ugh, another girl, can't marry them off all, they'll probably have to become nuns or get drowned"), and one where AW's arrival is greeted with "another cadet was born"). While the clear preference for boys is consistent (and not unusual for the era) in FW throughout his life, his treatment of his younger daughters still has a great variation. Friederike (the first one to get married, to the Margrave of Ansbach, but not the first one to get pregnant) hears that Wilhelmine expects a child from Dad, Dad adds "Shame on you, now get pregnant!" And when Wilhelmine has been safely delivered (of her one and only daughter), Friederike, offering her congratulations in a letter to Dad, hears "don't congratulate, get pregnant!" Friederike, married to one of the two godawful husbands, takes all this without talking back.
As opposed to Charlotte, who hears the same "get pregnant" admonishment but proves she really, as Fritz writes to Wilhelmine in 1733, is allowed to get away with everything, because she writes back, yeah, no, Dad, I'm 18 and feel I need a parent myself, I want a few more years before making you a Grandfather. Charlotte also cheeks FW about his handwriting in another letter - "mon cher Papa critzel si terriblement, que je ne puis pas lire les belles choses qui'il me ecrit" - , and when she does get pregnant, delivering a male grandchild first, then daughters, with the letter the Anna Amalia biographer also quoted: Si mon cher Papa consent de noyer mes souers Ulrique et Amélie, je suit content alors que ma fille périsse avec dans leur compagnie (...). But the most intriguing bit I learned through this essay is that while all the daughters (and I knew this from Wilhelmine) send food as presents to FW when he makes presents to them, Charlotte also sends opera scores, since he's into (Händel) arias. (Although, as Nicolai who had it from Quantz who had it from Fritz also notes, only in orchestrated, voice-less form.) What's more, we get this stunner, when writing about her own musical activities to FW: Je regrette infiniment que mon cher Papa ne me peut accompagner en pipant, quand je chante; car je crois que cela rendrait la musque encore plus belle.
Comments Schlueter: "Though a literal translation only names the activity in question as "piping", the context implies that playing the flute has to meant."
Now, I knew FW could play the flute, because I'd read his mother's biography, and this was part of his education in the arts which she as a baroque princess gave him. (Along with ballet dancing.) But I had assumed he'd stopped doing that once he was grown up for obvious reasons. Schlueter of course immediately addresses the obvious reasons, to wit, FW's well documented loathing of Fritz playing the flute (for which you don't need Wilhelmine's memoirs as a source; there are more than enough FW written letters and orders on the subject) and even before things went to hell between him and Fritz, an outburst against opera in his 1722 testament ("my dear successor must not allow that in his country and provinces comedies, operas, ballets, masquerades and redoutes are celebrated, he has to loathe them, as the ones enacting them are godless and fiendish and enrich Satan's temples"). So what's up with that? Schlueter's own speculation is that gender makes all the difference (loving music is okay for girls), as does FW not doubting Charlotte's loyalties, as does these musical activities being confined to a private performance. Whether FW would have reacted the same way if one of the younger sons, including fave AW, would have shown Fritz-like devotion to an instrument in his life time is questionable. Still, it's worth noting down: FW was capable of supporting a music loving child to the degree of exchanging favored musical scores with her, possibly to the degree of playing music together (unless Charlotte was joking, which is always a possibility, given her status as the family clown).
For AW, Schlueter delivers the quotes we already know, plus a new one, which is interesting because of the timing. On September 7th, Wusterhausen visiting Reverend Franck notes down: Rex observes that it wasn't possible to take complete joy in the children because one didn't know how they would turn out. "Even my Wilhelm," he said, "I don't know, whether he'll become a child of God or a child of the Devil."
On the same time, also visiting Reverend Freylinghausen notes down FW confiding in him about himself: Which Rex declared with a serious and moved temper, and connected it with an accusation of himself, that he was an evil man (ein böser Mensch) and so easily turned evil, angry and merciless.
In October, i.e. only a month later, Freylinghausen (the one who provides us with the scene if little AW successfully pleading for a deserter, and with himself having a nice chat with Gundling who sits at the table between members of the royal family), notes down in a more cheerful mode: (FW) praised the prince (AW) a lot, that he had a good nature, and was so obedient: that he (FW) wanted to swear (AW) would become an honnete homme, for an honnete homme was nothing but a good Christian, for otherwise one had still an inner scoundrel.
Now I've always thought that FW's negative feedback loop with Fritz and his positive feedback loop with AW was most closely connected to how they made him feel about himself, and that's as good a demonstration as any. FW feels miserable and sees himself as an evil, bad tempered man? Maybe even Wilhelm is a child of the devil, too. FW feels like a good father and merciful sovereign? Wilhelm is a good boy and good Christian.
Schlueter notes none of the three younger boys seems to have shown the initial dislike to the military education Fritz had, or if they did, it's not documented. However, Heinrich's status changes. Fassmann - who, as a reminder, hightails it out of Prussia in the summer of 1731, i.e. when Heinrich is five - says that while AW was first undisputed and sole fave of FW, Heinrich once being able to talk, play and join the drills is second fave. Otoh, Morgenstern, who becomes a part of the Tobacco College in 1736, notes Ferdinand as the second fave, which leads me to suspect that whoever was youngest, out of the baby state and in the adorable toddler stage but not yet as old as to show a personality with likes and dislikes was second fave. Fassmann otoh also provides an anecdote about five years old Heinrich stumbling across his sword in the Tobacco College which makes FW angry, but he only punishes Heinrich by sending him back to his mother, out of the manly circle.
A few years later, though, Schlueter provides a Charlotte quote from a letter of hers to Fritz from September 4th 1738 in which Heinrich is definitely in trouble: Je plains le pauvre Henri des soufflets qu'il recus. On a dit qu'il était en disgrace auprès du Roi, parcequ'il avait une fois dit, peut-etre dans son innocence, qu'il le connaissait comme s'il l'avait fait, et que depuis ce templslà le Roit était encore piqué contre lui.
(Given Heinrich was twelve by then, I'm a bit doubtful how "innocent" a remark like "I know how you've made me" might have been.) Schlueter quotes this in the context of investigating how far or little FW was physically abusive towards the younger children. He also quotes Henri de Catt's Memoirs version (i.e. the one where Fritz tells the story) of the "FW comes home in August 1730, Wilhelmine pleades, FW explodes, younger kids hide, Frau von Kamecke becomes the heroine of the hour" tale and while stating it's based and slightly rewritten diary entry where the story has a cryptic origin instead doesn't appear to have noticed what we did, i.e. the pov change and the implication. Otoh, he also quotes Heinrich's much later letter to Fritz apropos visiting Wusterhausen with Ulrike & Co. with the "where we were scolded and sometimes hit" passage, saying while this doesn't explicitly say that FW was the one to do the scolding and hitting, it's hard to see who else would have hit Heinrich as a royal prince. Still, Schlueter argues, given that Heinrich mentioned this in the overall context of trying to persuade Fritz to join the trip, and given that he himself wanted to go (and much later chose to spend some time in Wusterhausen towards the end of his life), it's likely that he had more positive than negative memories of the place, and that FW scolding and/or hitting him can't have been the rule it was for Fritz, but more the exception.
In a footnote, Schlueter says: "Certainly verbal and other non-physical forms of abuse did play a role in Friedrich Wilhelm's father-chilid relationships. However, they can't always be identified properly, since their nature and result very much depends on the perception of the potential victim. Such a difficult discussion would be beyond the scope of my essay. For the specific case of Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, though, there is a study of the different forms of violence used on her and her perception of them: .Claudia Jarzebowski, Gewalt und Erfahrung. Überlegungen zu den Memoiren der Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709 - 1758), in: dies./Jutta Eming (Hrsg.), Blutige Worte. Internationales und interdisziplinäres Kolloquium zum Verhältnis von Sprache und Gewalt im Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. (Berliner Mittelalter- und Frühneuzeitforschung, BD 4.) Göttingen 2008, S. 187 - 211."
Schlueter's overall conclusion: FW was a more peaceful father to his younger chlidren than could be expected by his treatment of the two oldest ones, and only by degrees, not in basic premises, was different from other royal fathers of his era as far as the younger kids were concerned. This, again, he says does not deny what he did to the older ones, just shows FW as more complicated than the cliché would allow.
Lastly, one aspect that's curiously missing: while Schlueter notes the importance FW placed on his sons' governors raising them as good Christians and quotes from the instructions, and while he footnotes Ziebura's AW and Heinrich biographies, there's no mention of their governor being gay and less than thorough in providing an atmosphere of manly chastity, or of the fact that none of the younger sons and the daughters ended up as the good Christians FW intended, instead adopting degrees of free thinking and Fritzian deism. Given how central the "my children must become good Christians" idea was to FW's life goals, you'd think this was included in this essay, but no. Other than that, though, it's a good overview, and I'm glad I've read it.
felis: All the Charlotte stuff is fascinating, particularly that she feels secure enough to talk back! And that's way past 1730, too. (... wait, aged 18, that would have been 1734? Ah, yes, Fritz mentions (to Wilhelmine, in October) that Charlotte isn't in Dad's favour for a hot minute there, in the context of Sophie's wedding (as you so helpfully pointed out when it was mentioned before), and that Sophie is the current favourite provided she'll be different than her other married sisters. Well, now I can't help but wonder if that means: going to get pregnant right away.)
Schlueter's own speculation is that gender makes all the difference (loving music is okay for girls)
Still wouldn't explain his playing, though, only the exchange.
(unless Charlotte was joking, which is always a possibility, given her status as the family clown)
I didn't think of it, but now that you mention it... I mean, a couple of other quotes are clearly teasing him as well, be it the handwriting or the drowning one, so she might even be joking about this because she knows he didn't like the flute? Seems quite dicey to me, but... hm.
selenak: another possibility is simply that Schlueter errs in translating "en pipant" as referring to flute playing, and Charlotte could mean FW whistling to her singing. Because for her to suggest flute playing (even in jest), she'd have had to know FW could actually do it, which in turn would mean he practised flute playing well into Charlotte's childhood instead of stopping after his own mother's death. And surely someone of the envoys would have noticed the huge glaring contradiction there? Or even Disney envoy Stratemann who pays his sources for adorable royal family stories would have reported the King concerting with his daughter? Not to mention that Fritz and FW might have had a chance of a semi-sane relationship if FW had given Fritz the impression of liking one of Fritz' key passions? Whereas if Charlotte makes a joke that her singing would sound better if FW whistles at the same time, she might haven be self-deprecating about her singing and teasing him at the same time, and it would be in the same spirit as the other quotes.
felis: I've found "piper" used in connection to birds and in the sense of "not saying a peep" and while there's the word "pipeau" for a simple flute (like shepherds use, or to lure animals), I feel like if she meant an actual flute, the French words - both "flûte" and "flûter" - are right there. Sure, "pipant" could be a colloquial way of saying it, but, as you say, it seems like someone else would have mentioned him playing at some point. So whistling seems indeed more likely and I can see FW doing that if he's in a good mood. (For what it's worth, no instance of "pipant" or "piper" in all of Fritz' works at Trier, just "pipeaux" as the instruments of satyrs and of Céladon(?).)
Isabelle Bosch: Friedrich Wilhelms Töchter im Spiegel ihrer Bibliotheken
The essay about four of FW's daughters (Wilhelmine, Charlotte, Ulrike and Amalie) as mirrored by their libraries is by Isabelle Bosch, and contains some interesting and telling tidbits, such as:
- Wilhelmine's huge library, which demonstrates a great variety of her interests, still contains not a single book connected to her Bayreuth surroundings
- in addition to being into the Romans and the Greeks (here the essay says while she did have secondary sources, like "Histoire ancienne" by Charles Rollin, she chiefly had primary sources, i.e. the Roman and Greek authors themselves, though the essay doesn't say whether in French translation, like Fritz, or in the original languages) she was very curious about China and the Chinese, and thus had books like "La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de la Chine"
- while her "Philosophical Cabinet" was decorated with the usual suspects as portrait busts (Voltaire, Newton, Locke, Leipniz, Descartes, Maupertuis and brother Fritz - btw, Newton AND Leipniz? Orieux is right, she so would have hosted Émilie in 1743!), her library antechambre and audience room had lots of great women instead
- Charlotte, as I told you before, disagreed with Fritz about German literature and her and Amalie's visit famously triggered the publication of "De La Literature Allemande" for that reason; Bosch points out that her library contains her scholar Jerusalem's refutation of Fritz' pamphlet, but: it contains it in French; Charlotte's collection of German books is limited to those written by her librarian Lessing and a single one by Goethe
- because the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library was so well curate and catalogued, we know Charlotte ordered "L'Histoire d'Angleterre" to be read by her daughters before a family trip to Hannover where they'd meet G2 (How much this was helpful with G2 whose interest in l'histoire d'Angleterre was somewhat limited, though, I wonder)
- when Charlotte's old governess Montbail (mentioned by Fritz and Wilhelmine negatively in their correspondence, but as "the learned Montbail" in a letter from Fritz to AW as someone to give his regards to) died, she left Charlotte her private library containing a stunning (for a private, non-royal library) number of 852 books, which meant the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library added a third of hits former size as additional content
- Ulrike proves herself as the later life SD fave in book terms, too; over 70 of the books in her library were owned by SD before (and do have the letters "SD" as their ex libris signature); books also are discussed in the SD/Ulrike correspondence, and Ulrike's letters to Amalie frequently contain requests to send her books she couldn't get in Sweden
- Ulrike actually did want to hire Voltaire to write a "History of Sweden" for her, but one condition was that he should move to Sweden for the duration of the writing (this despite the fact only three years earlier a Swedish author had started a court-patronized "History of Sweden" and the first volume had been published already); presumably Voltaire, poem or not, wasn't charmed enough to spend some years in Scandinavia
- all four sisters had their personal copies (with personal dedications) of both Fritz' published work (i.e. "L'Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg") and the "Ouuvres du Philosophe de Sanssouci" which he had printed only for a small circle of and not for the general public. When the Bayreuth town palace burns down, Wilhelmine is happy to report that the Fritzian works have survived this.
- Amalie left her books (not her musical manuscript collection, though, that was separate) to a school, the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium; today, they're part of the state archive.
cahn: Heh, when was Ulrike trying to get Voltaire to move to Sweden? I could also see Mme Denis not being so excited about it.
selenak: Ulrike's letter talking about getting Voltaire is dated September 25th, 1750. Presumably she thought, well, Émilie is dead, and he hasn't yet settled down for good with brother Fritz, so....
(But yeah. Madame Denis wasn't keen on Prussia; no way she'd have gone for Scandinavia!)
Jürgen Kloosterhuis' "Liebe Kinder, gute Kameraden: Friedrich Wilhelms I. Tabakskollegium als Sehnsuchtsort
The Kloosterhuis essay is mainly focused on analyzing the famous Tobacco Parliament painting in terms of whom it depicts and what this symbolizes. The eighteenth century document which provides a who is who list is actually written in two different hand writings and provides different identifications for a whole number of people, with Second Writer being the one who's actually way better informed, while the First Writer seems to have made guesses based on well known members of the Tobacco College. For example, First Writer identifies a figure as Grumbkow, aka THE best known pal of FW, whereas Second Writer crosses that out and identifies the figure in question as the far less prominent Camas instead; Kloosterhuis compares the figure in question with Grumbkow's portraits and is willing to bet Second Writer is as correct here as he is in the far more obvious mistake First Writer made. For First Writer identifies the figures at the left and right of the fool-symbolizing hare at the end of the table as Gundling and Morgenstern, who of course never were members of the Tobbacco Parliament (or even in Berlin!) at the same time, what with Gundling dying in 1731 and Morgenstern not getting noticed by FW until 1736. Second Writer instead identifies them instead as the far less prominent (again) Professor Johann Samuel Strimes, aka Strimesius (misidentified as Gundling by the first writer), and Otto von Graben zum Stein (nicknamed Astralicus, misidentified as Morgenstern by the first writer). Both of whom were among the various FW attempts to fill Gundling's position, and did indeed overlap at a point, which also allows for the narrowing of the date of this painting to 1737.
As you can see by this, Kloosterhuis does mention Gundling: (and even footnotes Sabrow's biography); his way of explaining why there were so many post Gundling candidates for the "Funny Councillor" position and none of them lasted long sounds thusly: On the one hand, this cross cut of the court modernization in Prussia offered chances to publish one's scholarly efforts, a financially beneficial collection of offices and a future court pension, on the other hand, a disrespectful treatment loomed, along with evil pranks and the lowering into the court fool status, especially if a "funny councillor" was or became an alcoholic.
Otto von Graben zum Stein/Astralicus lasted until FW's death though increasingly at the periphery with an ever shortened salary and rare court attendence, since Morgenstern became the main event in that position, while Strimesius was fired after three quarters of a year already.
Now, the list of names, even the first version, was definitely written after FW's death, since AW is identified as "Prince of Prussia", a title he only got in Fritz' reign when becoming heir presumptative. And since Second Writer knows about these really obscure figures, Kloosterhuis concludes he must have been a member of the Tobacco Parliament himself or one of FW's kids. He does consider AW but says the handwriting doesn't match either the first or the second writer, admits Heinrich's hand writing doesn't, either, but still thinks Heinrich is the most likely person to have dictated the crossing out and replacing of names, since the number of people still knowing Strimesius and Astralicus had even existed must have been severely limited, and Heinrich did have the required knowledge, did present the painting to FW3 when starting to spend some time in Wusterhausen, and had the past very much on his mind because my guess was right, this was also when he in turn had been given Wilhelmine's memoirs to read in manuscript by FW3.
(Strangely, one option Kloosterhuis does not consider at all is Ferdinand. What else is new? :) I mean, I think Heinrich is the most likely source for the identifications, too, but still, it might have been worth pointing out he wasn't the only person left alive even in 1799 who could have made them.)
Kloosterhuis defends the painter from the charge of stiffness and mediocrity by pointing out the subtleties of the painting, such as young AW, who doesn't have a beer mug in front of him, pointing to the beer mug of the man next to him, which Kloosterhuis interprets as teenage AW being eager to become a man and joining the merry tableround, or that the figure of Heinrich, who is the one closer to FW, has already transfered his hat to his other hand in order to be able to take and kiss his father's hand as per custom when greeting or taking leave the sovereign. He also says that with the painting, the painter gave FW the world as FW wanted it to be: a place of (male) comradery (and colorful characters, with worthy soldiers like Camas intermingling with professional shady anecdote deliverer and F1 era veteran Pöllnitz and the two unfortunate current Gundling replacements) and loving and obedient children, hence a "Sehnsuchtsort", thus: "the touching confession of the sensitive needs of a complicated King".
Sören Schlueter: Of "Nuns" and "Cadets": About Friedrich Wilhelm I.'s role as a father"
This is an essay by Sören Schlueter which right at the outset declares that FW as a father is both the most written about and the least written about aspect of his personality, due to otoh all the father/son conflict eximaninations focusing on him and Fritz, and to a somewhat lesser degree also him and Wilhelmine, but otoh the near complete silence on FW as a father to the seven other of his surviving into adulthood children. Schlueter says his intention isn't to white wash (and he does call FW's behavior towards Fritz and Wilhelmine abuse here and in some footnotes), but to differentiate and show that there were far greater nuances with the younger kids, meaning FW as a father was more nuanced, and why this might have been. Which is why he won't write about Fritz and Wilhelmine in relation to their father at all, though he promises he will do so in his upcoming dissertation, and entirely focus on the younger sibs.
The essay quotes from primary sources who are mostly familiar to us (Stratemann, for example, and the visiting reverends Freylinghausen and Franck) by now with the exception of an FW biography by David "Getting the hell out of Prussia!" Fassmann, published in 1735, a collection of Charlotte's letters in the original French which he thoughtfully gives in the French original in the footnotes and paraphrased in German in the main text, and some letters from and to Friederike. (Incidentally, it seems FW wrote to the girls in German and received replies consistently in French, with the odd German word thrown in.) The title refers to letters FW wrote to his pal Old Dessauer, one where he comments on the arrival of Ulrike with the famous quote amounting to "ugh, another girl, can't marry them off all, they'll probably have to become nuns or get drowned"), and one where AW's arrival is greeted with "another cadet was born"). While the clear preference for boys is consistent (and not unusual for the era) in FW throughout his life, his treatment of his younger daughters still has a great variation. Friederike (the first one to get married, to the Margrave of Ansbach, but not the first one to get pregnant) hears that Wilhelmine expects a child from Dad, Dad adds "Shame on you, now get pregnant!" And when Wilhelmine has been safely delivered (of her one and only daughter), Friederike, offering her congratulations in a letter to Dad, hears "don't congratulate, get pregnant!" Friederike, married to one of the two godawful husbands, takes all this without talking back.
As opposed to Charlotte, who hears the same "get pregnant" admonishment but proves she really, as Fritz writes to Wilhelmine in 1733, is allowed to get away with everything, because she writes back, yeah, no, Dad, I'm 18 and feel I need a parent myself, I want a few more years before making you a Grandfather. Charlotte also cheeks FW about his handwriting in another letter - "mon cher Papa critzel si terriblement, que je ne puis pas lire les belles choses qui'il me ecrit" - , and when she does get pregnant, delivering a male grandchild first, then daughters, with the letter the Anna Amalia biographer also quoted: Si mon cher Papa consent de noyer mes souers Ulrique et Amélie, je suit content alors que ma fille périsse avec dans leur compagnie (...). But the most intriguing bit I learned through this essay is that while all the daughters (and I knew this from Wilhelmine) send food as presents to FW when he makes presents to them, Charlotte also sends opera scores, since he's into (Händel) arias. (Although, as Nicolai who had it from Quantz who had it from Fritz also notes, only in orchestrated, voice-less form.) What's more, we get this stunner, when writing about her own musical activities to FW: Je regrette infiniment que mon cher Papa ne me peut accompagner en pipant, quand je chante; car je crois que cela rendrait la musque encore plus belle.
Comments Schlueter: "Though a literal translation only names the activity in question as "piping", the context implies that playing the flute has to meant."
Now, I knew FW could play the flute, because I'd read his mother's biography, and this was part of his education in the arts which she as a baroque princess gave him. (Along with ballet dancing.) But I had assumed he'd stopped doing that once he was grown up for obvious reasons. Schlueter of course immediately addresses the obvious reasons, to wit, FW's well documented loathing of Fritz playing the flute (for which you don't need Wilhelmine's memoirs as a source; there are more than enough FW written letters and orders on the subject) and even before things went to hell between him and Fritz, an outburst against opera in his 1722 testament ("my dear successor must not allow that in his country and provinces comedies, operas, ballets, masquerades and redoutes are celebrated, he has to loathe them, as the ones enacting them are godless and fiendish and enrich Satan's temples"). So what's up with that? Schlueter's own speculation is that gender makes all the difference (loving music is okay for girls), as does FW not doubting Charlotte's loyalties, as does these musical activities being confined to a private performance. Whether FW would have reacted the same way if one of the younger sons, including fave AW, would have shown Fritz-like devotion to an instrument in his life time is questionable. Still, it's worth noting down: FW was capable of supporting a music loving child to the degree of exchanging favored musical scores with her, possibly to the degree of playing music together (unless Charlotte was joking, which is always a possibility, given her status as the family clown).
For AW, Schlueter delivers the quotes we already know, plus a new one, which is interesting because of the timing. On September 7th, Wusterhausen visiting Reverend Franck notes down: Rex observes that it wasn't possible to take complete joy in the children because one didn't know how they would turn out. "Even my Wilhelm," he said, "I don't know, whether he'll become a child of God or a child of the Devil."
On the same time, also visiting Reverend Freylinghausen notes down FW confiding in him about himself: Which Rex declared with a serious and moved temper, and connected it with an accusation of himself, that he was an evil man (ein böser Mensch) and so easily turned evil, angry and merciless.
In October, i.e. only a month later, Freylinghausen (the one who provides us with the scene if little AW successfully pleading for a deserter, and with himself having a nice chat with Gundling who sits at the table between members of the royal family), notes down in a more cheerful mode: (FW) praised the prince (AW) a lot, that he had a good nature, and was so obedient: that he (FW) wanted to swear (AW) would become an honnete homme, for an honnete homme was nothing but a good Christian, for otherwise one had still an inner scoundrel.
Now I've always thought that FW's negative feedback loop with Fritz and his positive feedback loop with AW was most closely connected to how they made him feel about himself, and that's as good a demonstration as any. FW feels miserable and sees himself as an evil, bad tempered man? Maybe even Wilhelm is a child of the devil, too. FW feels like a good father and merciful sovereign? Wilhelm is a good boy and good Christian.
Schlueter notes none of the three younger boys seems to have shown the initial dislike to the military education Fritz had, or if they did, it's not documented. However, Heinrich's status changes. Fassmann - who, as a reminder, hightails it out of Prussia in the summer of 1731, i.e. when Heinrich is five - says that while AW was first undisputed and sole fave of FW, Heinrich once being able to talk, play and join the drills is second fave. Otoh, Morgenstern, who becomes a part of the Tobacco College in 1736, notes Ferdinand as the second fave, which leads me to suspect that whoever was youngest, out of the baby state and in the adorable toddler stage but not yet as old as to show a personality with likes and dislikes was second fave. Fassmann otoh also provides an anecdote about five years old Heinrich stumbling across his sword in the Tobacco College which makes FW angry, but he only punishes Heinrich by sending him back to his mother, out of the manly circle.
A few years later, though, Schlueter provides a Charlotte quote from a letter of hers to Fritz from September 4th 1738 in which Heinrich is definitely in trouble: Je plains le pauvre Henri des soufflets qu'il recus. On a dit qu'il était en disgrace auprès du Roi, parcequ'il avait une fois dit, peut-etre dans son innocence, qu'il le connaissait comme s'il l'avait fait, et que depuis ce templslà le Roit était encore piqué contre lui.
(Given Heinrich was twelve by then, I'm a bit doubtful how "innocent" a remark like "I know how you've made me" might have been.) Schlueter quotes this in the context of investigating how far or little FW was physically abusive towards the younger children. He also quotes Henri de Catt's Memoirs version (i.e. the one where Fritz tells the story) of the "FW comes home in August 1730, Wilhelmine pleades, FW explodes, younger kids hide, Frau von Kamecke becomes the heroine of the hour" tale and while stating it's based and slightly rewritten diary entry where the story has a cryptic origin instead doesn't appear to have noticed what we did, i.e. the pov change and the implication. Otoh, he also quotes Heinrich's much later letter to Fritz apropos visiting Wusterhausen with Ulrike & Co. with the "where we were scolded and sometimes hit" passage, saying while this doesn't explicitly say that FW was the one to do the scolding and hitting, it's hard to see who else would have hit Heinrich as a royal prince. Still, Schlueter argues, given that Heinrich mentioned this in the overall context of trying to persuade Fritz to join the trip, and given that he himself wanted to go (and much later chose to spend some time in Wusterhausen towards the end of his life), it's likely that he had more positive than negative memories of the place, and that FW scolding and/or hitting him can't have been the rule it was for Fritz, but more the exception.
In a footnote, Schlueter says: "Certainly verbal and other non-physical forms of abuse did play a role in Friedrich Wilhelm's father-chilid relationships. However, they can't always be identified properly, since their nature and result very much depends on the perception of the potential victim. Such a difficult discussion would be beyond the scope of my essay. For the specific case of Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, though, there is a study of the different forms of violence used on her and her perception of them: .Claudia Jarzebowski, Gewalt und Erfahrung. Überlegungen zu den Memoiren der Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709 - 1758), in: dies./Jutta Eming (Hrsg.), Blutige Worte. Internationales und interdisziplinäres Kolloquium zum Verhältnis von Sprache und Gewalt im Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. (Berliner Mittelalter- und Frühneuzeitforschung, BD 4.) Göttingen 2008, S. 187 - 211."
Schlueter's overall conclusion: FW was a more peaceful father to his younger chlidren than could be expected by his treatment of the two oldest ones, and only by degrees, not in basic premises, was different from other royal fathers of his era as far as the younger kids were concerned. This, again, he says does not deny what he did to the older ones, just shows FW as more complicated than the cliché would allow.
Lastly, one aspect that's curiously missing: while Schlueter notes the importance FW placed on his sons' governors raising them as good Christians and quotes from the instructions, and while he footnotes Ziebura's AW and Heinrich biographies, there's no mention of their governor being gay and less than thorough in providing an atmosphere of manly chastity, or of the fact that none of the younger sons and the daughters ended up as the good Christians FW intended, instead adopting degrees of free thinking and Fritzian deism. Given how central the "my children must become good Christians" idea was to FW's life goals, you'd think this was included in this essay, but no. Other than that, though, it's a good overview, and I'm glad I've read it.
felis: All the Charlotte stuff is fascinating, particularly that she feels secure enough to talk back! And that's way past 1730, too. (... wait, aged 18, that would have been 1734? Ah, yes, Fritz mentions (to Wilhelmine, in October) that Charlotte isn't in Dad's favour for a hot minute there, in the context of Sophie's wedding (as you so helpfully pointed out when it was mentioned before), and that Sophie is the current favourite provided she'll be different than her other married sisters. Well, now I can't help but wonder if that means: going to get pregnant right away.)Schlueter's own speculation is that gender makes all the difference (loving music is okay for girls)
Still wouldn't explain his playing, though, only the exchange.
(unless Charlotte was joking, which is always a possibility, given her status as the family clown)
I didn't think of it, but now that you mention it... I mean, a couple of other quotes are clearly teasing him as well, be it the handwriting or the drowning one, so she might even be joking about this because she knows he didn't like the flute? Seems quite dicey to me, but... hm.
selenak: another possibility is simply that Schlueter errs in translating "en pipant" as referring to flute playing, and Charlotte could mean FW whistling to her singing. Because for her to suggest flute playing (even in jest), she'd have had to know FW could actually do it, which in turn would mean he practised flute playing well into Charlotte's childhood instead of stopping after his own mother's death. And surely someone of the envoys would have noticed the huge glaring contradiction there? Or even Disney envoy Stratemann who pays his sources for adorable royal family stories would have reported the King concerting with his daughter? Not to mention that Fritz and FW might have had a chance of a semi-sane relationship if FW had given Fritz the impression of liking one of Fritz' key passions? Whereas if Charlotte makes a joke that her singing would sound better if FW whistles at the same time, she might haven be self-deprecating about her singing and teasing him at the same time, and it would be in the same spirit as the other quotes.felis: I've found "piper" used in connection to birds and in the sense of "not saying a peep" and while there's the word "pipeau" for a simple flute (like shepherds use, or to lure animals), I feel like if she meant an actual flute, the French words - both "flûte" and "flûter" - are right there. Sure, "pipant" could be a colloquial way of saying it, but, as you say, it seems like someone else would have mentioned him playing at some point. So whistling seems indeed more likely and I can see FW doing that if he's in a good mood. (For what it's worth, no instance of "pipant" or "piper" in all of Fritz' works at Trier, just "pipeaux" as the instruments of satyrs and of Céladon(?).)Isabelle Bosch: Friedrich Wilhelms Töchter im Spiegel ihrer Bibliotheken
The essay about four of FW's daughters (Wilhelmine, Charlotte, Ulrike and Amalie) as mirrored by their libraries is by Isabelle Bosch, and contains some interesting and telling tidbits, such as:
- Wilhelmine's huge library, which demonstrates a great variety of her interests, still contains not a single book connected to her Bayreuth surroundings
- in addition to being into the Romans and the Greeks (here the essay says while she did have secondary sources, like "Histoire ancienne" by Charles Rollin, she chiefly had primary sources, i.e. the Roman and Greek authors themselves, though the essay doesn't say whether in French translation, like Fritz, or in the original languages) she was very curious about China and the Chinese, and thus had books like "La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de la Chine"
- while her "Philosophical Cabinet" was decorated with the usual suspects as portrait busts (Voltaire, Newton, Locke, Leipniz, Descartes, Maupertuis and brother Fritz - btw, Newton AND Leipniz? Orieux is right, she so would have hosted Émilie in 1743!), her library antechambre and audience room had lots of great women instead
- Charlotte, as I told you before, disagreed with Fritz about German literature and her and Amalie's visit famously triggered the publication of "De La Literature Allemande" for that reason; Bosch points out that her library contains her scholar Jerusalem's refutation of Fritz' pamphlet, but: it contains it in French; Charlotte's collection of German books is limited to those written by her librarian Lessing and a single one by Goethe
- because the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library was so well curate and catalogued, we know Charlotte ordered "L'Histoire d'Angleterre" to be read by her daughters before a family trip to Hannover where they'd meet G2 (How much this was helpful with G2 whose interest in l'histoire d'Angleterre was somewhat limited, though, I wonder)
- when Charlotte's old governess Montbail (mentioned by Fritz and Wilhelmine negatively in their correspondence, but as "the learned Montbail" in a letter from Fritz to AW as someone to give his regards to) died, she left Charlotte her private library containing a stunning (for a private, non-royal library) number of 852 books, which meant the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel library added a third of hits former size as additional content
- Ulrike proves herself as the later life SD fave in book terms, too; over 70 of the books in her library were owned by SD before (and do have the letters "SD" as their ex libris signature); books also are discussed in the SD/Ulrike correspondence, and Ulrike's letters to Amalie frequently contain requests to send her books she couldn't get in Sweden
- Ulrike actually did want to hire Voltaire to write a "History of Sweden" for her, but one condition was that he should move to Sweden for the duration of the writing (this despite the fact only three years earlier a Swedish author had started a court-patronized "History of Sweden" and the first volume had been published already); presumably Voltaire, poem or not, wasn't charmed enough to spend some years in Scandinavia
- all four sisters had their personal copies (with personal dedications) of both Fritz' published work (i.e. "L'Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg") and the "Ouuvres du Philosophe de Sanssouci" which he had printed only for a small circle of and not for the general public. When the Bayreuth town palace burns down, Wilhelmine is happy to report that the Fritzian works have survived this.
- Amalie left her books (not her musical manuscript collection, though, that was separate) to a school, the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium; today, they're part of the state archive.
cahn: Heh, when was Ulrike trying to get Voltaire to move to Sweden? I could also see Mme Denis not being so excited about it.selenak: Ulrike's letter talking about getting Voltaire is dated September 25th, 1750. Presumably she thought, well, Émilie is dead, and he hasn't yet settled down for good with brother Fritz, so....(But yeah. Madame Denis wasn't keen on Prussia; no way she'd have gone for Scandinavia!)
