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rheinsbergOr, to give the full title: Life and Deeds of the Most Serene and Mighty King in Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I.
David Faßmann, as a reminder, came to FW's court in the later 1720s, gunning for Gundling's jobs, was, when various pastors refused to bury Gundling in a wine barrel, drafted by FW to hold the funeral service (and sermon) instead, wrote a satire on Gundling which formed Gundling's image for centuries, did get some of Gundling's jobs (though not Academy President) after Gundling's death, found the reality of working for FW so ghastly that he fled Prussia after a few months. His 1735 biography of FW which I'm reviewing here was written after FW's long and dangereous 1734 illness made a lot of people (including his oldest son and daughter) believe his demise was imminent (as can be seen from their letters). Presumably Fassmann wanted to get his royal biography out in time for the funeral, found there was no funeral, and published it anyway.
The result was a really lengthy book with a lot of royal declarations quoted. It's really noticeable that Fassmann didn't join FW's court until the later 1720s. Until that point, there isn't much about FW the person, it's just FW the model reform monarch. And good lord, pages upon pages of descriptions of SD's entrance in Berlin as a bride, or F1's wake and funeral procession. And so many royal declarations! There are some childhood anecdotes, though notably no unflattering ones (no Tiny Terror FW beating up his teacher or his cousin here!), for example the one where young FW swallows his golden shoe clip because he hates waste and splendor that much as a kid already.
The comparison to Morgenstern, writing just a few decades later, is instructive, because Fassmann and Morgenstern knew FW in roughly the same decade, and neither knew him when young, i.e. they're both referring hearsay. But Morgenstern is writing in Fritz' era, and so there's F1 bashing, Tiny Terror FW, SC criticism, and what might just be the earliest mention in a public source (as opposed to private correspondence not accessible to normal contemporaries) of young FW wanting to marry Caroline before he hooks up with SD. By contrast, Fassmann doesn't mention Caroline, SD was the perfect princess and then became the perfect Queen, and she and FW have the perfect marriage. What else!
Then we get into the later 1720s, and suddenly you get detailed stuff that actually feels like an eye wittness account, like this one about FW's 1728/1729 serious illness:
"As his majesty for as long as it took had many sleepless nights, he used to sleep a while in the morning starting at 4 or 6 am. When he awoke and if his great pain permitted it, he threw himself into the business of governing, as he signed, dictated or answered many letters. At noon he rose if possible from bed, put on a dressing gown and had lunch with her Majesty the Queen and some of the children who were at Potsdam. Such as his royal highness the Crown Prince, the current Margravine of Ansbach, and his Royal Highness Prince August Wilhelm. Her Royal Highness the Margravine of Bayreuth was then still in Potsdam, but because she was suffering from chicken pox had to be locked up with Fräulein von Sonsfeld in the later's room all the time.
After lunch His Majesty, pain and weakness permitting, either went back to bed or painted, an art which he had learned in his youth and mastered fairly well. His Majesty created various portraits of farmers from different nations. To this end, there always had to be a painter at hand in the afternoon who mixed the colors and made the first sketch. As his Majesty tried to push back sleep for the entire afternoon until 9 or 10 pm at night so he might have a calmer night thereafter, there needed to be certain people in the room at all times whom he tolerated, no matter whether they were sitting or lying with him in the bed. The Queen' s Majesty came and went, and one could see more than once that His Majesty once the pain had lessened a bit, put his hand into her Majesty's most lovingly, seeking either additional soothing this way or expressing the calmness of his heart. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the current Margravine of Ansbach went up and down through the room. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince used to either read French books, or listen to the conversation, while her Royal Highness the Margravine of Ansbach either knitted or wove. Most of all Prince August Wilhelm used to be in the room for the entire afternoon, and either wrote or painted, in which art he had already done a few things."
Sidenote: Morgenstern says FW only started to learn how to paint in 1730, not in his youth, and so does Förster; I'm inclined to believe them. But the rest is believable enough.
Absolutely no mention of any father/son problems until we get to the FW and Fritz tour of the summer of 1730. And there Fassmann first gives us the tourist attractions and FW's reaction to each of them as if he's writing a travelogue, which made me wonder whether he's actually going to skip over the entire incident. But no. After talking about FW, Mannheim tourist, he suddenly says, only slightly paraphrased: Oh, and on this journey, something went down between the King and the Crown Prince, which has been talked about so much that I guess I have to include it. Now I don't know what really happened, and nor do you, reader, and since neither of us will ever find out, let's just be joyful that the cloud of this sad disagreement has disappeared and now the King and the Crown Prince are living in perfect harmony again. True, this sad affair has cost this officer of the Regiment Gens d'Armes, one Herr von Katte, his head, and this despite him being the son of ultra respectable FW buddy and officer Hans Herrmann and the grandson of rich and respected Wartensleben. V. sad. But look, these things happen between royals! Future F1 also ran away from his Dad when he was still a Kurprinz! And hey, we can all read in the newspapers that Fritz of Wales hardly ever shows up at court but keeps staying at a place called Richmond. FW and Fritz aren't unusual, is what I'm saying. I hope people in high places won't hold it against me that I mentioned this wretched affair at all, it's just that it's so well known that my readers wouldn't trust me if I didn't mention it. Okay, so FW then went to Wusterhausen and spend the rest of the year there...
By contrast, his report on the bonkers Clement affair actually is pretty matter-of-factly and much as I've found it in other accounts. Fassmann doesn't doubt for a moment Clement was a gifted conman (with untrustworthy black eyes!) (also of small stature and fat! So it can't have been his looks, I guess...) and a lying liar. He doesn't mention that FW had a hard time giving up on Clement, but other than that, his account, as mentioned, is very much on the money. Interestingly, he does mention that in the fallout of the Clement affair SD's lady in waiting, Frau von Baspiel, had to leave the court after a brief Spandau interlude with her husband, but he doesn't include the fact that this was because while Frau von Baspiel had nothing to do with Clement or insane kidnap plans, she did in fact spy for the Saxons (and had been Manteuffel's mistress). Whether this is because Fassmann truly doesn't know or whether he wants to be discreet, I have no idea.
One more trivia fact: if his account of FW breaking the "you're going to get married" news to Friederike Louise is in any way correct, the Hohenzollern called this sister of Fritz' "Louise".
You also can tell that after 1731, Fassmann is reporting hearsay again, but he's thorough, I'll give him that - he evidently uses the Berlin newspaper which Martin Sabrow also used for his Gundling biography for its various announcements about the royal family and about famous visitors. This is useful when FS visits in time to attend Fritz' engagement party, because Fassmann bothers to write down every single official engagement FS had during the three weeks he spent at the Prussian court, so if anyone ever wants to write Murder At the Wusterhausen Express with FS as Poirot, there's some good material there. (FS shows up on page 426.) Interestingly, when trying to explain why there's so much fuss about the young Duke of Lorraine, Fassmann does NOT mention "most likely future husband of MT, and thus future Emperor", he says it's because FS is related to FW via Lieselotte. (As in, Liselotte was FS' grandmother, and niece to FW's grandmother Sophie of Hannover.) I'm reminded of Stratemann mentioning FS prefered sitting at the kids' table during the festivities, and hey, who wouldn't, with FW and SD as the alternative? But Fassmann doesn't mention it, because he wasn't there, he's going by newspaper reports.
Also, unless I skipped it, which is possible, he doesn't explain why he left FW. (Stratemann, otoh, in his envoy reports explains it completely.) He's ultra discreet about that one. He defends FW's recruitment practices by royal prerogative and that the population owes it to its sovereign like it owes taxes, and no one is better to his soldiers and more careful with their lives than FW. And all other kings also draft and gangpress, without being as careful with their soldiers, so there! And Prussian soldiers learn how to have an excellent character, be clean, be god fearing and obedient, not like those evil whoring soldiers elsewhere.
Fassmann is your source for the royal pages: "There are several royal pages, as far as I recall, there are sixteen of them. These are directed by their Hofmeister and live all together at the royal palace. They are taught in all necessessary sciences, have a red uniform, and show up two times a day, always paired up, at the royal palace for their service, where they are directed towards their stations. These are all youngsters between 12 and 16 years of age. Additionally, his Royal Majesty has those pages who are always serving him and are always with him. These are somewhat stronger and more grown up than the other pages, approximately between 18 and 20 years of age, and if they behave well, they get promoted to Lieutenants thereafter."
He's also the source for the pages and the royal kids getting plenty of food. Not the exotic expensive stuff like when F1 was king, but good, season appropriate food, with lots of meat and meat soups for the royal kids! So there, doubters.
FW, model husband, faithful alone among kings, also would never allow rude speech in front of his darling wife, best and most loving of queens. Now it's not like Fassmann doesn't include stories which are less than complimentary to FW, but not in a knowing way, I don't think. For example, like Morgenstern he has the bit where FW makes the Jews of Berlin buy the boars he's hunted, ha ha ha. (Ugh, FW. And Ugh, Fassmann.) Also, FW so can be merciful! Why, there was this husband who killed his slut of a wife, and he'd have gotten the death penalty for that, but when FW heard what a slut the wife was, he pardoned the guy!
Then there's this: In the year 1728, there were six young bears at Wusterhausen. These walked around on their hind feet, and in order to make them adjust better to this, their forefeet were bound together on their backs. Moreover, all their teeth had been knocked out in order to prevent any accidents. Now, when I had been called (to Wusterhausen) in the autumn of that year, I had no idea about these animals (....) But when one evening I was in the room where his Royal Majesty used to hold court and was one of the last to leave, I suddenly was surrounded by all these little black men when I crossed the courtyard in order to get to my quarters. This confused me at first, and I didn't know what to think until I realised these weren't little devils but young bears.
Two thoughts:
a) These aren't necessarily the same bears Gundling had to cope with, since the Gundling incident happened a decade earlier, I think, but I bet those bears were treated the same way. (Which would explain how Gundling survived being locked in a room with young bears and firecrackers to frighten them.)
b) Poor bears. Teeth knocked out, forelegs tied to the back? Ugh.
When Fassmann, near the end, lists all the members of the royal family, you can tell he likes Charlotte and Friederike Louise best of all the girls, because they get more than a page each, where Wilhelmine gets just a few lines saying she's a very virtuous and god fearing (!) model of a wife now. Fritz, future King, is now a wonderful person and all the world has only good things to expect from his reign. Heinrich he hasn't seen since Heinrich was five, but he thinks this is a smart kid who would make a good future Dompropst and theologian.
FW, model father:
His Majesty could enjoy himself thoroughly when taking the young prince (AW) by his hand at Wusterhausen or in Potsdam or in their rooms and debated with him. In the evening, when the princes had to be brought to bed, he first came to his Majesty in order to wish him a good night, kissed the King's hand and said: "Good night, dearest Papa!" Then the King's Majesty kept holding his hands a good while longer, asked various questions, lifted him upwards and kissed him. But when his Royal Highness Prince Heinrich had grown a bit (from being a baby), His Royal Highness August Wilhelm had to share the post of a royal Mignon with the later. Both royal brothers got drilled as soldiers sometimes in his Royal Majesty's evenings societies by an officer in 1731, and both proved themselves able to do these exercises which of course they loved doing. They showed themselves very spirited for as long as they were allowed to remain in the evening get together, which usually lasted until they were called to the table by the King's Majesty. Now when his Royal Highness Prince Friedrich Heinrich was five years old, it happened that during his spirited and energetic jumping around his sword got between his legs, so the little boy fell down. This frightened his Royal Majesty, so he pretended to be angry and demanded the sword back from the Prince, had it taken away from him while pretending the Prince was now under arrest. Oh, that resulted in the boy crying and lamenting! The Prince kissed the King's hand and asked to be pardoned, and said: "Oh, dearest Papa! I will not do it again!" But that didn't help, the Prince had to go, and go the most Serene Lady Mother (which was his arrest), and did not get the sword returned to him until Her Majesty the Queen pretended to have asked for him to be pardoned.
Okay. Bear in mind: this is 1731. Fritz is still in Küstrin. I don't know how much Heinrich at age 5 comprehended from all that had been going on, but since he was a bright kid, the basic "Oldest Brother got arrested" principle might have sunk down. And FW pretends to have him put under arrest, and makes him go through asking for a pardon, like Big Brother had done for real that same year? L'autre moi-meme indeed.
There's also a lot about FW's good deeds for the Salzburg Protestants (giving them a new home), founding the famous Charité hospital, founding orphan houses and schools etc., all of which he did do, but good lord, this is in general a white washing/spin-meister job of the first order. I suspect Fassmann after a few years in the wilderness was short of cash and toyed with the idea of going back in the hope of getting rehired?
Lastly: Fassmann early on mentions FW being fluent in French from childhood onwards (true) and later insisting on only talking German to his children (also true and often testified) in order to make them love the language.
Now remember which language FW's children used near exclusively when grown up, and also (most of) their religious commitment in adulthood.
Fontane, when commenting on Heinrich's pretending to have forgotten his German in his old age: "One is tempted to call this the logical consequence of a childhood where German was rammed down one's throat."
David Faßmann, as a reminder, came to FW's court in the later 1720s, gunning for Gundling's jobs, was, when various pastors refused to bury Gundling in a wine barrel, drafted by FW to hold the funeral service (and sermon) instead, wrote a satire on Gundling which formed Gundling's image for centuries, did get some of Gundling's jobs (though not Academy President) after Gundling's death, found the reality of working for FW so ghastly that he fled Prussia after a few months. His 1735 biography of FW which I'm reviewing here was written after FW's long and dangereous 1734 illness made a lot of people (including his oldest son and daughter) believe his demise was imminent (as can be seen from their letters). Presumably Fassmann wanted to get his royal biography out in time for the funeral, found there was no funeral, and published it anyway.
The result was a really lengthy book with a lot of royal declarations quoted. It's really noticeable that Fassmann didn't join FW's court until the later 1720s. Until that point, there isn't much about FW the person, it's just FW the model reform monarch. And good lord, pages upon pages of descriptions of SD's entrance in Berlin as a bride, or F1's wake and funeral procession. And so many royal declarations! There are some childhood anecdotes, though notably no unflattering ones (no Tiny Terror FW beating up his teacher or his cousin here!), for example the one where young FW swallows his golden shoe clip because he hates waste and splendor that much as a kid already.
The comparison to Morgenstern, writing just a few decades later, is instructive, because Fassmann and Morgenstern knew FW in roughly the same decade, and neither knew him when young, i.e. they're both referring hearsay. But Morgenstern is writing in Fritz' era, and so there's F1 bashing, Tiny Terror FW, SC criticism, and what might just be the earliest mention in a public source (as opposed to private correspondence not accessible to normal contemporaries) of young FW wanting to marry Caroline before he hooks up with SD. By contrast, Fassmann doesn't mention Caroline, SD was the perfect princess and then became the perfect Queen, and she and FW have the perfect marriage. What else!
Then we get into the later 1720s, and suddenly you get detailed stuff that actually feels like an eye wittness account, like this one about FW's 1728/1729 serious illness:
"As his majesty for as long as it took had many sleepless nights, he used to sleep a while in the morning starting at 4 or 6 am. When he awoke and if his great pain permitted it, he threw himself into the business of governing, as he signed, dictated or answered many letters. At noon he rose if possible from bed, put on a dressing gown and had lunch with her Majesty the Queen and some of the children who were at Potsdam. Such as his royal highness the Crown Prince, the current Margravine of Ansbach, and his Royal Highness Prince August Wilhelm. Her Royal Highness the Margravine of Bayreuth was then still in Potsdam, but because she was suffering from chicken pox had to be locked up with Fräulein von Sonsfeld in the later's room all the time.
After lunch His Majesty, pain and weakness permitting, either went back to bed or painted, an art which he had learned in his youth and mastered fairly well. His Majesty created various portraits of farmers from different nations. To this end, there always had to be a painter at hand in the afternoon who mixed the colors and made the first sketch. As his Majesty tried to push back sleep for the entire afternoon until 9 or 10 pm at night so he might have a calmer night thereafter, there needed to be certain people in the room at all times whom he tolerated, no matter whether they were sitting or lying with him in the bed. The Queen' s Majesty came and went, and one could see more than once that His Majesty once the pain had lessened a bit, put his hand into her Majesty's most lovingly, seeking either additional soothing this way or expressing the calmness of his heart. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the current Margravine of Ansbach went up and down through the room. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince used to either read French books, or listen to the conversation, while her Royal Highness the Margravine of Ansbach either knitted or wove. Most of all Prince August Wilhelm used to be in the room for the entire afternoon, and either wrote or painted, in which art he had already done a few things."
Sidenote: Morgenstern says FW only started to learn how to paint in 1730, not in his youth, and so does Förster; I'm inclined to believe them. But the rest is believable enough.
Absolutely no mention of any father/son problems until we get to the FW and Fritz tour of the summer of 1730. And there Fassmann first gives us the tourist attractions and FW's reaction to each of them as if he's writing a travelogue, which made me wonder whether he's actually going to skip over the entire incident. But no. After talking about FW, Mannheim tourist, he suddenly says, only slightly paraphrased: Oh, and on this journey, something went down between the King and the Crown Prince, which has been talked about so much that I guess I have to include it. Now I don't know what really happened, and nor do you, reader, and since neither of us will ever find out, let's just be joyful that the cloud of this sad disagreement has disappeared and now the King and the Crown Prince are living in perfect harmony again. True, this sad affair has cost this officer of the Regiment Gens d'Armes, one Herr von Katte, his head, and this despite him being the son of ultra respectable FW buddy and officer Hans Herrmann and the grandson of rich and respected Wartensleben. V. sad. But look, these things happen between royals! Future F1 also ran away from his Dad when he was still a Kurprinz! And hey, we can all read in the newspapers that Fritz of Wales hardly ever shows up at court but keeps staying at a place called Richmond. FW and Fritz aren't unusual, is what I'm saying. I hope people in high places won't hold it against me that I mentioned this wretched affair at all, it's just that it's so well known that my readers wouldn't trust me if I didn't mention it. Okay, so FW then went to Wusterhausen and spend the rest of the year there...
By contrast, his report on the bonkers Clement affair actually is pretty matter-of-factly and much as I've found it in other accounts. Fassmann doesn't doubt for a moment Clement was a gifted conman (with untrustworthy black eyes!) (also of small stature and fat! So it can't have been his looks, I guess...) and a lying liar. He doesn't mention that FW had a hard time giving up on Clement, but other than that, his account, as mentioned, is very much on the money. Interestingly, he does mention that in the fallout of the Clement affair SD's lady in waiting, Frau von Baspiel, had to leave the court after a brief Spandau interlude with her husband, but he doesn't include the fact that this was because while Frau von Baspiel had nothing to do with Clement or insane kidnap plans, she did in fact spy for the Saxons (and had been Manteuffel's mistress). Whether this is because Fassmann truly doesn't know or whether he wants to be discreet, I have no idea.
One more trivia fact: if his account of FW breaking the "you're going to get married" news to Friederike Louise is in any way correct, the Hohenzollern called this sister of Fritz' "Louise".
You also can tell that after 1731, Fassmann is reporting hearsay again, but he's thorough, I'll give him that - he evidently uses the Berlin newspaper which Martin Sabrow also used for his Gundling biography for its various announcements about the royal family and about famous visitors. This is useful when FS visits in time to attend Fritz' engagement party, because Fassmann bothers to write down every single official engagement FS had during the three weeks he spent at the Prussian court, so if anyone ever wants to write Murder At the Wusterhausen Express with FS as Poirot, there's some good material there. (FS shows up on page 426.) Interestingly, when trying to explain why there's so much fuss about the young Duke of Lorraine, Fassmann does NOT mention "most likely future husband of MT, and thus future Emperor", he says it's because FS is related to FW via Lieselotte. (As in, Liselotte was FS' grandmother, and niece to FW's grandmother Sophie of Hannover.) I'm reminded of Stratemann mentioning FS prefered sitting at the kids' table during the festivities, and hey, who wouldn't, with FW and SD as the alternative? But Fassmann doesn't mention it, because he wasn't there, he's going by newspaper reports.
Also, unless I skipped it, which is possible, he doesn't explain why he left FW. (Stratemann, otoh, in his envoy reports explains it completely.) He's ultra discreet about that one. He defends FW's recruitment practices by royal prerogative and that the population owes it to its sovereign like it owes taxes, and no one is better to his soldiers and more careful with their lives than FW. And all other kings also draft and gangpress, without being as careful with their soldiers, so there! And Prussian soldiers learn how to have an excellent character, be clean, be god fearing and obedient, not like those evil whoring soldiers elsewhere.
Fassmann is your source for the royal pages: "There are several royal pages, as far as I recall, there are sixteen of them. These are directed by their Hofmeister and live all together at the royal palace. They are taught in all necessessary sciences, have a red uniform, and show up two times a day, always paired up, at the royal palace for their service, where they are directed towards their stations. These are all youngsters between 12 and 16 years of age. Additionally, his Royal Majesty has those pages who are always serving him and are always with him. These are somewhat stronger and more grown up than the other pages, approximately between 18 and 20 years of age, and if they behave well, they get promoted to Lieutenants thereafter."
He's also the source for the pages and the royal kids getting plenty of food. Not the exotic expensive stuff like when F1 was king, but good, season appropriate food, with lots of meat and meat soups for the royal kids! So there, doubters.
FW, model husband, faithful alone among kings, also would never allow rude speech in front of his darling wife, best and most loving of queens. Now it's not like Fassmann doesn't include stories which are less than complimentary to FW, but not in a knowing way, I don't think. For example, like Morgenstern he has the bit where FW makes the Jews of Berlin buy the boars he's hunted, ha ha ha. (Ugh, FW. And Ugh, Fassmann.) Also, FW so can be merciful! Why, there was this husband who killed his slut of a wife, and he'd have gotten the death penalty for that, but when FW heard what a slut the wife was, he pardoned the guy!
Then there's this: In the year 1728, there were six young bears at Wusterhausen. These walked around on their hind feet, and in order to make them adjust better to this, their forefeet were bound together on their backs. Moreover, all their teeth had been knocked out in order to prevent any accidents. Now, when I had been called (to Wusterhausen) in the autumn of that year, I had no idea about these animals (....) But when one evening I was in the room where his Royal Majesty used to hold court and was one of the last to leave, I suddenly was surrounded by all these little black men when I crossed the courtyard in order to get to my quarters. This confused me at first, and I didn't know what to think until I realised these weren't little devils but young bears.
Two thoughts:
a) These aren't necessarily the same bears Gundling had to cope with, since the Gundling incident happened a decade earlier, I think, but I bet those bears were treated the same way. (Which would explain how Gundling survived being locked in a room with young bears and firecrackers to frighten them.)
b) Poor bears. Teeth knocked out, forelegs tied to the back? Ugh.
When Fassmann, near the end, lists all the members of the royal family, you can tell he likes Charlotte and Friederike Louise best of all the girls, because they get more than a page each, where Wilhelmine gets just a few lines saying she's a very virtuous and god fearing (!) model of a wife now. Fritz, future King, is now a wonderful person and all the world has only good things to expect from his reign. Heinrich he hasn't seen since Heinrich was five, but he thinks this is a smart kid who would make a good future Dompropst and theologian.
FW, model father:
His Majesty could enjoy himself thoroughly when taking the young prince (AW) by his hand at Wusterhausen or in Potsdam or in their rooms and debated with him. In the evening, when the princes had to be brought to bed, he first came to his Majesty in order to wish him a good night, kissed the King's hand and said: "Good night, dearest Papa!" Then the King's Majesty kept holding his hands a good while longer, asked various questions, lifted him upwards and kissed him. But when his Royal Highness Prince Heinrich had grown a bit (from being a baby), His Royal Highness August Wilhelm had to share the post of a royal Mignon with the later. Both royal brothers got drilled as soldiers sometimes in his Royal Majesty's evenings societies by an officer in 1731, and both proved themselves able to do these exercises which of course they loved doing. They showed themselves very spirited for as long as they were allowed to remain in the evening get together, which usually lasted until they were called to the table by the King's Majesty. Now when his Royal Highness Prince Friedrich Heinrich was five years old, it happened that during his spirited and energetic jumping around his sword got between his legs, so the little boy fell down. This frightened his Royal Majesty, so he pretended to be angry and demanded the sword back from the Prince, had it taken away from him while pretending the Prince was now under arrest. Oh, that resulted in the boy crying and lamenting! The Prince kissed the King's hand and asked to be pardoned, and said: "Oh, dearest Papa! I will not do it again!" But that didn't help, the Prince had to go, and go the most Serene Lady Mother (which was his arrest), and did not get the sword returned to him until Her Majesty the Queen pretended to have asked for him to be pardoned.
Okay. Bear in mind: this is 1731. Fritz is still in Küstrin. I don't know how much Heinrich at age 5 comprehended from all that had been going on, but since he was a bright kid, the basic "Oldest Brother got arrested" principle might have sunk down. And FW pretends to have him put under arrest, and makes him go through asking for a pardon, like Big Brother had done for real that same year? L'autre moi-meme indeed.
There's also a lot about FW's good deeds for the Salzburg Protestants (giving them a new home), founding the famous Charité hospital, founding orphan houses and schools etc., all of which he did do, but good lord, this is in general a white washing/spin-meister job of the first order. I suspect Fassmann after a few years in the wilderness was short of cash and toyed with the idea of going back in the hope of getting rehired?
Lastly: Fassmann early on mentions FW being fluent in French from childhood onwards (true) and later insisting on only talking German to his children (also true and often testified) in order to make them love the language.
Now remember which language FW's children used near exclusively when grown up, and also (most of) their religious commitment in adulthood.
Fontane, when commenting on Heinrich's pretending to have forgotten his German in his old age: "One is tempted to call this the logical consequence of a childhood where German was rammed down one's throat."
