rheinsberg | Frederician Shipping Manifesto

This is salon's Frederick the Great shipping manifesto. Enjoy!

Major ships

Fritz/Katte

Do they have a trope? Starcrossed lovers

The story in short: Abused prince wants to escape with tragic boyfriend, both get caught, tragic boyfriend is executed in front of abused prince by tyrannical king.

Key quote(s):
Fritz: "Forgive me, my dear Katte! A thousand times, forgive!"
Katte: "Nothing to forgive, my prince - I die with a thousand joys for you!"

Tell me more:
- Tumblr overview
- A bunch of scholarly and occasionally fannish detail

Fritz/Fredersdorf

Do they have a trope? Magnificent Bastard/Trusted Lieutenant, Life Partners, Competent King/Hypercompetent Sidekick

The story in short: Imprisoned prince meets musical soldier, musical soldier becomes faithful servant, prince becomes king (and magnificent bastard), faithful servant becomes Consigliere, both become life partners until Consigliere retires for health reasons and dies.

Key quote(s):
Fritz to Fredersdorf: “If the sun is shining around noon today, I will ride out. Come to the window, I would like to see you; but the window must remain firmly closed, and the fire in your chamber must be strong.” (written after they'd already been together for more than 20 years)

Fritz to Fredersdorf: "I thought you loved me and wouldn't want to cause me grief by killing yourself. Now I don't know what to believe! But you must believe I only want what's best for you and that the diet and the medicine is only prescribed so you can recover your health again. I beg you, listen to me, and remember you promised me! Please recall Rothenburg who killed himself by infecting himself with podagra through drinking Hungarian wine and eating a hot soup. Your illness is no laughing matter, and if you don't follow a correct diet and take the right prescribed medicine, you'll die! Think about how this would grieve me! If you love me, then listen exactly to the prescriptions! God keep you! Don't write back!"

Tell me more:

- Write-up and quotes from the most comprehensive edition of the Fredersdorf letters.
- Website of Zernikow, the estate Fritz gifted Fredersdorf with at the start of his reign and where Fredersdorf is buried.

Fritz/Voltaire

Do they have a trope? Love/Hate, Slap Slap Kiss, Snark-to-Snark Combat

The story in short: Royal fanboy writes to Intellectual Celebrity, Mutual Admiration Society ensues, Fanboy Prince graduates to crowned Magnificent Bastard, Writer competes in bastardy as well as compliments, this goes on for decades, Europe munches popcorn and keeps trying to figure them out.

Key quote(s): Voltaire to Fritz: I admit to being very rich, very independent and very happy; but you are the one thing I am missing in my happiness, and soon I will die without having seen you again; you hardly care, and I try to work on not caring, either. I love your verses, your prose, your ésprit, your bold and firm mind. I couldn't live without you, nor with you. I do not speak to the King right now, to the hero, that is the business of monarchs. I speak to the one who has bewitched me, whom I have loved and who never ceases to infuriate me.

Fritz to Voltaire: You are indeed a unique creature; whenever I want to be angry with you, you speak two words to me, and my accusations die in the tip of my pen. (...) I know very well I have adored you for as long as I didn't regard you as a pest and a villain; but you have played so many dirty tricks on me - but let's no longer talk about this; I have forgiven you everything in my Christian heart. All in all, you've provided me with more joy than grief. I take more enjoyment in your works and only feel a little of the scratches. If you didn't have any flaws, you could make the human species look far too inferior, and the universe would have good cause to be envious of your qualities. As it is, one can say: Voltaire is the most beautiful genius of all centuries, but I am at least more calm, more agreeable and more soft hearted than he is. And this comforts a common man over the fact of your existence.

Tell me more:

- Their letters are online in their original French here: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3.
- The currently in print edition was translated into German by Hans Pleschinski
- You can read a selection of quotes in English here.

Fritz/Algarotti

Do they have a trope? The Charmer/The Workaholic

The story in short: Sexy Italian Scholar in search of a job meets young almost King with a thing for men and intellectuals; both fun and misunderstandings ensue; eventually, the sexy Italian proves he’s the master of the amiable breakup by staging a discreet (Fr)exit but remains in mail contact with his workaholic King for the rest of his life.

Key quote(s):

Fritz about Algarotti:

This night, vigorous desire in full measure,
Algarotti wallowed in a sea of pleasure.
A body not even a Praxitiles fashions
Redoubled his senses and imbued his passions
Everything that speaks to eyes and touches hearts,
Was found in the fond object that enflamed his parts.

Tell me more:
- The "orgasm" poem by Frederick, from which the quote above is taken.
- Picture of Algarotti's tomb, commissioned by Frederick, from this essay on the cemetery.

Rare ships

Fritz/Keith

Do they have a trope? The One Who Got Away (can be applied in several senses to either)

The story in short: Kind page meets abused prince, conspires to escape with abused prince and tragic boyfriend, actually manages to escape, returns when prince graduates to Magnificent Bastard King, misunderstandings and alienation ensue, possible reconciliation happens, former page dies a respected man with friends, loving wife and kids.

Key quote(s):

Wilhelmine about Fritz:

[Fritz] entirely abandoned himself to debaucheries. One of the pages of the king, named Keith, was the pandar of his vices. This young man had found means to insinuate himself so much, that the prince was passionately fond of him, and gave him his entire confidence. I knew nothing of his irregularities, but I had noticed some familiarities which he had with this page, and I often reproached him about it; representing to him that such manners were unsuitable to his rank. But he excused himself, saying that as the young man reported to him all that passed, he was induced to treat him kindly; particularly as the information he conveyed to him, saved him from many vexations.

Lehndorff about Peter von Keith:

Colonel Lieutenant Keith has died, a charming and, what means more, a very decent man. He has had an extraordinary fate. In his youth, he served the late King as a page and was so fortunate as to please the current King when the latter was Crown Prince. (Friedrich) made him his confidant and included him in his 1730 plan to escape the rule of his despotic father through flight. The affair was uncovered, the Prince arrested, Katte, the other confidant, beheaded, but (Keith) who was posted in the garnison of Wesel managed to flee across the border. (...) The current King called him back. But the mature thinking of His Majesty could only condemn the services one had rendered to him by encouraging his youthful impulsiveness, and thus Herr v. Keith did not find the reward which his ten years of fears and troubles would have deserved. He received a pension of 1200 Taler and became nearly forgotten. I believe, though, that this was the happiest time of his life, for he made a good match with Fräulein von Knyphausen, and as a man of rich knowledge which he had acquired in his troubled existence was able to enjoy his modest income. Near the end of his life, His Majesty started to grace him with favors again. He was entrusted with the administration of Charlottenburg and the Tiergarten and received the mission to escort Princess Amalie to Quedlinburg. The King gave him the Jägerhof as a lifelong residence and his widow will keep it. He had a beautiful face and an honest demeanor which his being somewhat cross-eyed could not diminish, as is otherwise often the case. Due to his lengthy stay in England, he had acquired English manners, which did not take away from his natural politeness. In short, he was a very worthy man who could be a role model to others.

Tell me more:
- A bunch of scholarly detail

Fritz/Suhm

Do they have a trope? Erastes/Eromenos

The story in short: Warm-hearted envoy with scholarly inclinations befriends abused Prince, gets into the crosshairs of abusive King, survives due to running away; when Prince graduates to King, envoy rushes back to his side after a four-year absence, gets sicker and sicker en route, dies tragically without ever seeing him again. Entrusts his children to Monarch, who sees that they’re taken care of until the end of his own life.

Key quote(s):
Fritz to Suhm: Go, cross the seas, look for another sky and, if it were possible, another world: my friendship will follow you everywhere, and I will tell myself that the universe has no space that does not become sacred in containing you. Russia will become my Greece, and Saint Petersburg, a place I never deigned to think of, the object of my best wishes.

Fritz to Suhm (Diaphane): Remember, my dear Diaphane, that there is in Germany a small country situated in a pretty laughing valley and all surrounded by woods, where your name and your memory will not perish, as long as I live in it.

Suhm to Fritz: Yes, I said to myself, whatever my fate, I will always be the envy of everyone, as long as Your Royal Highness deigns to keep me with such feelings. You have restored my health, my lord, perhaps life; so it is to you that I owe it, and that I make a vow to consecrate it. Take possession of me, as of property which belongs to you by the most sacred rights. You have given me a peace of mind that nothing in the world is capable of altering, a firmness that nothing can shake, and I feel intimately that I can now be happy in spite of fate. The only thing that can still afflict me is the distance in which the circumstances still condemn me to live away from Your Royal Highness. You are, monseigneur, to express myself figuratively, you are my sun; for, as soon as I am no longer in a position to experience the gentle influence of your rays, I feel a cold creep so deep into my soul, that nothing is capable of warming it.

Tell me more:
- Summary of their friendship, with quotes from their letters.

Fritz/Keyserlingk

Do they have a trope? Hot Teacher/Absurdly Powerful Student

The story in short: Cheerful sexy governor befriends abused prince; when Prince graduates to Magnificent Bastard King, everyone thinks Sexy Former Governor will become all-powerful favourite; King both loves Sexy Former Governor and does not take him seriously at all; Sexy Former Governor dies young, entrusting wife and daughter to former student King.

Key quote(s):

Hofrat König: Not enough that he [Keyserlingk] has to live at the same place as the King all the time; the King also visits him - as often as his busy affairs allow - almost hourly, so to speak, in [Keyserlingk's] own chambers.

Fritz to Keyserlingk: My dear Keyserlingk! You are an awfully nice man, you have much wit and education, you sing and joke most charmingly, and you're an honest fellow, but your advice is that of a fool.

Tell me more:
- A collection of important Keyserlingk/Caesarion quotes

Fritz/Casanova

Do they have a trope? Sexy Conman/Sardonic Monarch (only they don’t get written this way)

The story in short: Casanova meets Frederick, gets complimented for his looks, gets eyed as potentially solving the problem of the Sanssouci Fountain (not a euphemism), runs for the hills.

Key quote(s):

Casanova's memoirs: (S)topping before a building he looked me over, and then, after a short silence, observed,—

“Do you know that you are a fine man?”

“Is it possible that, after the scientific conversation we have had, your majesty should select the least of the qualities which adorn your life guardsmen for remark?”

The king smiled kindly, and said,—

“As you know Marshal Keith, I will speak to him of you.”

With that he took off his hat, and bade me farewell. I retired with a profound bow.

Tell me more:
- Casanova’s encounter with Frederick the Great as described in his memoirs, with some historical context about the memoirs (and censorship of same), can be read in English here.

Fritz/Maria Theresia

Do they have a trope? Worthy Opponent

The story in short: They both ascend to the throne in the same year. He wants fame and invades her riches province, tries a protection racket on her, gets rebuffed, wins his territory, dumps his allies and makes peace; she defeats the allies, he gets suspicious and invades some more. They go through this cycle a couple of times through the decades while exchanging portraits until he gets to keep his original conquest for good and she makes peace between him and her son before dying.

Key Quotes:
Fritz using MT as an example to inspire his men in their second war, on 27th April 1745:

Just think that even the Queen of Hungary, a woman, had not given up hope when her enemies had arrived at the walls of Vienna, when they had conquered her richest provinces – and you don’t want to show as much courage as this woman, and in a moment, too, when we haven’t lost a single battle and had a single loss!

MT about Fritz to the Venetian Ambassador, also 1745: (Friedrich) she called a prince who, despite the ease with which he breaks his word - and that he does so can't be called a minor flaw - can't be denied to possess a great acumen, a comprehensive talent and a relentless occupation with his duties as a ruler. As a general, he adds to these qualities an always alert vigilance, which she judges to be absolutely essential for the profession.

MT about Fritz to her son Joseph who admires him, 14th Sepember 1766: But has this hero who won himself such fame, has this conqueror a single friend? Doesn't he have to distrust the entire world? What kind of life is this, that has humanity banished out of it?

Fritz about MT, 6th Jan. 1781: And yet, I have regretted the death of the Empress-Queen: she brought honor to her throne and sex; I have gone to war with her, but I was never her enemy.

Tell me more:
- An English-language selection ofquotes about each other.

Platonic

Fritz & Wilhelmine

Do they have a trope? Brother-Sister Team, Don’t Split Us Up, Possessiveness

The story in short: Two oldest royal children are intensely close growing up amidst parental warfare, get both abused by parents, brother’s escape attempt fails, Abusive Dad splits them up, sister gets married to help free brother, things get more difficult when brother becomes King, misunderstandings and arguments happen, as does reconciliation; intense closeness restored until sister dies breaking brother’s heart. Both give you the impression that only his gayness and her low sex drive stopped them from bringing on the incest subtext.

Key quote(s):

Last letter from Fritz to Wilhelmine, mid 7 Years War: My dearest sister,
Deign to receive kindly the verses I send you. I am so full of you, of your dangers and of my gratitude, that, awake as in a dream, in prose as in poetry, your image also reigns in my mind, and fixes all my thoughts. May the sky grant the wishes that I address to it every day for your convalescence! Cothenius is on the way; I will deify him, if he saves the person in the world who is most dear to my heart, whom I respect and venerate, and whose I am until I return my body to the elements, my dearest sister, etc.

Simultaneous letter to Heinrich: What you tell me about my sister from Bayreuth makes me tremble; she is, after our worthy mother, whom I have most dearly cherished in the world; she is a sister who has my heart and all my confidence, and whose character could not be paid for by all the crowns of the universe. I have been brought up with her since my childhood; so you can count on the fact that between us two, these indissoluble bonds of tenderness and attachment for life reign, which all other bonds and the disproportion of age can never equal. May Heaven give that I perish before her, and that this last blow does not take the life without which I am truly lost (...) If you can, I beg you to tell my dear Sister of Bayreuth on my behalf all that the warmest and most tender friendship can inspire in you.

Tell me more:
- Wilhelmine’s memoirs are available in English, but alas only in bowdlerized versions: volume 1, volume 2.
- Large parts of the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondence online in French.
- Wilhelmine’s correspondence from France and Italy:
- English language write-up and quotes from the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondence.

Fritz & Heinrich

Do they have a trope? Aloof Big Brother/Annoying Younger Sibling, Bash Brothers, Alter Ego

The story in short: Formerly Abused Magnificent Bastard King treats much younger brother much like their abusive father treated him for therapy, triangle involving hot page, “Reason you suck” book (and later obelisk), resentful loyalty in war and having each other’s back while radiating hostility ensues, along with decades long power play and mind messing. After the death of the older brother, younger brother first goes “free at last!” and then comes to realize with horror that he misses the bastard.

Key quote(s):
Fritz to Heinrich about Marwitz the page: My dear Heinrich, no, there is no crueller martyrdom than separation! How to live for a moment without the one you love? (...) Our sighs travel on country roads, and we pour our heart out as messages of our unhappy souls flying away like doves. Oh! Oh! The faithless man has forgotten me! says a certain person. Already a day has passed without a sigh of his has reached me! Surely, he's become faithless! He doesn't love me anymore! No, he doesn't love me anymore! If I had the courage, I'd tell this charming sad person: "That's no more than you deserve, you damned whore! Didn't you want to infect my poor brother with your gonorrhea? Oh! If he listened to me, he'd turn his love towards a worthier object and would send you to hell with all your nice little qualities, of which your STD, your vanity, your lies and your recklessness are but the least.

I do apologize for having committed the sacrilege of having dared to speak so dismissively of your angel's qualities. I do hope you'll forgive me.

Biographer Krockow: In his way, Friedrich acknowledged his brother's achievement. At a banquet which he gave for his generals soon after the war, he provided a manouevre critique and dispensed both praise and blame, which included himself. At the end, he turned towards Heinrich and said: "Now, Gentlemen, let us toast the one general who did not make a single mistake throughout this entire war. To you, my brother!"

Tell me more:
- A selection of their letters online in the original French.

English language overview of and quotes from
- Their lifelong correspondence.
- The tragedy of their brother August Wilhelm, forming the toxic core making their relationship so dysfunctional.
- The Marwitz (hot page) love triangle.

Fritz & dogs

Do they have a trope? Lonely King/Emotional Support Animals

The story in short: Friendly noble presents formerly abused prince and current Magnificent Bastard Monarch with first Italian Greyhound; it’s love at first sight; Monarch loves and depends on Italian Greyhounds till his dying day and is buried with them.

Key quote(s):

Fritz to Wilhelmine: I have had a domestic loss which has completely upset my philosophy. I confide all my frailties in you: I have lost Biche, and her death has reawoken in me the loss of all my friends, particularly of him who gave her to me. I was ashamed that a dog could so deeply affect my soul; but the sedentary life I lead and the faithfulness of this poor creature had so strongly attached me to her, her suffering so moved me, that, I confess, I am sad and afflicted. Does one have to be hard? Must one be insensitive? I believe that anyone capable of indifference towards a faithful animal is unable to be grateful towards an equal, and that, if one must choose, it is best to be too sensitive than too hard.

Biche (Fritz’s dog) to Folichon (Wilhelmine’s dog): I am not used to receiving gallantries. I have constantly preserved the strict chastity of the women of my country and romantic heroism, apart from one little adventure, which spoilt my waistline; but I forgive Folichon what I wouldn’t forgive a bourgeois dog. The great love which my master [Frederick] has for your mistress [Wilhelmine] requires me to only take one dog as a lover. Yes, Folichon, I will not only accept your presents but also your graceful paw and I send you all the more gladly my heart, as I was always of the opinion that a philosophical creature suited me best.

Tell me more:
- The letters that Fritz and Wilhelmine exchanged on behalf of their dogs.