1740 and All That

Friedrich Wilhelm I. and Sophia Dorothea of Hannover had thirteen children in their extremely dysfunctional marriage, ten of whom made it into adulthood. Here, I’m collecting summarizings and quotes about and from younger sisters Ulrike (Queen of Sweden) and her family as well as of Amalie, the sole unmarried and youngest Hohenzollern sister. Some crossover with earlier posts is inevitable. Sources are wikipedia entries, the various biographies of their brothers already posted about so far, and the correspondances as well as, in Amalie’s case, her maybe-boyfriend’s memoirs.

( Ulrike, or, Rokoko Dallas in Sweden )

Amalie

Since she was the unmarried sister who more or less lived with Fritz, there are plenty of quotes about her in Lehndorff’s diary, see the post there for additional material on Amalie. Like Big Bro and Big Sister, she had serious musical skills, composed and ended up with the best collection of Bach (both Johann Sebastian and his sons, one of whom worked for Fritz) manuscripts around. There is a big question mark about her younger days, which has inspired gossip and speculation ever since the 18th century. The question mark comes into the shape of one Friedrich von Trenck. (Memoirs available at Gutenberg.)

( The Mysterious Trenck Affair, Summarized According To Trenck )

In any event, Amalie during the 7 Years War was the only one of the sisters whom Fritz repeatedly asked to join him for a brief visit. Since the war aside, she mostly lived near him, I wasn‘t surprised that there aren‘t many letters preserved (or at least available, not necessarily the same thing) between them, but what there is does allow us a glimpse at Fritz and his younger siblings (plural, because there are repeated comments on Heinrich, not to mention that Amalie witnessed AW‘s death), especially the 7 Years War letters.

( Youngest Sister, Oldest Brother, Other Brothers )