1740 and All That

I've now watched three of the 1986 five parts tv version of Fontane's Wanderungen. It's well done and interesting in more than one historical way - i.e. the then contemporary pictures of the Mark capture the GDR (well, the PR licensed part of same) as it was then - and the dramatizations of various Fontane related anecdotes for the most part work well. It's also interesting which stores were used from the book, and which weren't. I mean, I could be wrong, but I doubt the last two episodes will contain Küstrin, for the simple reason that it's in Poland, though of course a GDR team could have gone there. But it's still noticable that the scriptwriters went more for "clever commoner gets the better of a noble" type of story than for "tragedy between the nobility" kind of tales. (Like I said, I could be wrong, maybe the last episode will include Wust and all the Katte deaths.) And as the Rheinsberg Obelisk in 1986 did not contain any of the inscriptions for the varous 7 Years War heroes anymore - these plates had been removed and had to be restored post reunification - , it's not surprising that the Obelisk gets a mention, but Fontane's extensive description is shortened to "he built it in memory of his brother August Wilhelm". Otoh, the scriptwriters chose to dramatize the story of Heinrich getting ordered to dump Kaphengst and responding by buying him gorgeous real estate nearby, and the story of the triangle between Heinrich's last boyfriend/adjudant, the Comte de la Roche-Raymon, his wife the Comtesse, and Heinrich's nephew Louis Ferdinand, plus the subsequent fallout, in which the Heinrich/Comte relationship is the only to to survive undamaged. And you know what that means - time for screenshots! (I mean, two of Heinrich's boyfriends and Heinrich himself on screen, how could I not?)

( Heinrich's love life: The Fontane Version )