1740 and All That

Or, 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:

( A Model Monarch and his loving family: 1729 snapshot )

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".

( Post 1731: Fassmann stalks FW via the papers )

( Bears! )

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.

( That time FW had a son arrested and made him submit: little Heinrich edition )

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."

Continuing on the note of "contemporary envoy reports are a gold mine", we give you the 1728 - 1733 reports of Wilhelm Stratemann, envoy of the Duchy Braunschweig/Brunswick, whose employers would end up marrying three of their offspring to three of FW's children (Fritz marries Elisabeth Christine, AW marries Louise, Charlotte marries the next Duke of Brunswick), on the fateful years when Hohenzollern family life went from dysfunctional to death sentences for boyfriends and intermittent imprisonment for the oldest son and daughter, respectively. The way Stratemann spins this saga into the most wholesome FW praising account any envoy (including FW's pal Seckendorff, the Imperial envoy at the time) has given yet is something to behold. Furtherly, bear mind this edition of the reports, edited by one Richard Wolff, was published before World War One, which meant that Hohenzollern censorship still applied. This said, Stratemann, with his detailed focus on royal family stories and lack of access to hardcore secret political negotiations, does provide a treasure trove of what would later be called "human interest" stories and useful details on anything from how FW and family celebrated Christmas to the seating chart of Wilhelmine's wedding banquet.

( So, who was Stratemann? )

But before getting to the Katte relevant reports, let's have some pre-escape attempt wholesome family life. As mentioned, Strateman got his political intel generally either via rumors or as crumbs from Seckendorff whom he tried to hang out with as often as he could, and thus it's frequently slightly or strongly off the mark. Otoh, he clearly did have a source among the staff in the royal household, whom I have identified based on several factors listed below as the governess of the Princess Sophie (and her two younger sisters, Ulrike and Amalie), and thus anything that happens with the kids is usually first hand. It is pronounced how he flings himself into these stories as opposed to reporting anything like that the other envoys (say, Suhm for Saxony or Dickens for Great Britain) report about the father/ oldest son or husband/wife clashes. So instead of stories about Fritz getting yelled at, you get stories about AW getting gifted with miniature canons and indulged in his love for fireworks. Until it really, really becomes unavoidable to report something else, what with a locked up Crown Prince.

( A happy royal family and their shenanigans: 1728 till the escape attempt )

With this background, and no word on FW humiliating Fritz in front of the army at Zeithain, the fateful summer trip by father and son being used as an escape attempt comes completely out of the blue. As I mentioned earlier, Stratemann hasn't heard about it (or at least doesn't mention it) as late as August 18th, at which point all the other envoys know, and when he does report Katte's arrest, he doesn't mention Fritz by name as the reason of it. He keeps reporting through September and October that the father/son reconciliation is imminent, that FW if anything will lessen Katte's sentence, that all will be well. Then comes November with its execution, of which Stratemann suddenly has far better intel than he used to in matters Crown Prince and Katte. And he has a fascinating follow-up on this in the middle of his wholesome family anecdotes, as none other than little August Wilhelm has heard about Katte's demise.

( Katte and the Consequences: The Disney Version )

So much fo Katte. Back to Hohenzollern family affairs.

( How to celebrate Christmas and break your oldest daughter to your will )

( On marrying your oldest daughter and son and the difficulties of replacing your court historian )

( Aftermath: Crown Prince not blissfully happy after all? )

The rest of the dispatches has the news that Wilhelmine has written she's really happy with her new husband in Bayreuth, the Protestant religious refugees from Salzburg arrive, and then there's the sudden time jump of a year to 1733 when Fritz gets married. No more interesting stuff. But no matter; Stratemann certainly delivered before that.