rheinsberg | Entries tagged with jacob paul von gundling

Letter about Gundling‘s death and funeral by Johann Heinrich Schubert to Gotthilf August Francke, dated April 16th, 1731

(Reprinted in the appendices of the essay Wurde Jakob Paul Freiherr von Gundling (1673-1731) in einem Sarg begraben, der die Gestalt eines Weinfasses hatte? Der Brief eines Potsdamer Pfarrers bestätigt es. by Hannelore Lehmann, Jahrbuch für Brandenburgische Kirchengeschichte, Berlin 1991.)

„R“ stands for „Rex“, i.e. FW. Some sentences of this letter were quoted by Martin Sabrow in his Gundling biography, but the entire letter is far longer, and with more details, and is well worth reading (and translating) in its entirety. The repeated switches from present to past tense and back in the letter are all as in the original. For further context about Gundling‘s life and death and the well documented abuse FW put him through, see this post!

( Speaking Truth to Power: Prussian Mariann Budde vs a Cruel Despot )

mildred_of_midgard

Authors:

selenak,

cahn
Original discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/200007.html?thread=4252999#cmt4252999

selenak: So, at fail fandom anon, they have this "am I the asshole?" meme where a fictional (usually emotionally clueless) character asks this question in universe. I thought this was made for the Hohenzollern (and many of their social circle), so, here we go:

I, m34, was just trying to look out for my bratty younger sibling, m20 - there's this ~~hot~~ guy, total prick tease, whom the brat is swooning about. I might have said the guy has STD and made fun of his everything, and now the brat isn't talking to me anymore, when I was just being concerned for his health! AITA?

I, f55, always wanted the best for my children, especially when it came to their marriages. Now my oldest daughter looks at me as if I'm a madwoman just because I told her she should treat her new husband like her brother and not have sex with him so we can still annul this wretched marriage she should never have agreed to in the first place! She knows how much this means to me, and yet she betrayed me this way, she should be grateful I'm still talking to her at all! AITA?

I should have known this would happen, but: here I am, making some money on the side while providing heroic beta-reading services and writing my own stuff and defending an unfairly attacked guy against a shitstorm - and what happens? The guy who's been hitting on me for 16 years before I finally agreed to move in with him all of a sudden leads the shitstorm, attacks me while he's at it, burns my latest masterpiece and has me arrested while complaining to all our mutual friends that IATA!!!!!

cahn: Now my oldest daughter looks at me as if I'm a madwoman just because I told her she should treat her new husband like her brother and not have sex with him so we can still annul this wretched marriage she should never have agreed to in the first place!

omg, lol SD! I am going to say, YTABPAC, an acronym I just now made up that means "you're the asshole but possibly also crazy" :) Because when you put it like that...

As for your third one, he got some replies:
(just to be complete, for mildred:
ESH = "Everyone sucks here"
YTA = "You're the asshole"
NTA = "Not the asshole")

RandomRedditAddict
I can't help thinking there are a heck of a lot of missing reasons here. How is that you "should have known" this would happen? It's a little hard to say without more details, but I'm leaning ESH on this one.

MyActualNameIsGreaterThanThis
YTA. RRAddict's post above has a great point, missing reasons galore. Maybe you were really mean and annoying and made fun of this poor guy behind his back, whose only crime was thinking you were amazing?? And, like, are you kidding me, people don't just get arrested for NO REASON. I bet there was totally a reason, like maybe you STOLE his stuff!!

selenak: So here I, m, am, having a long term affair with the love of my life (m), procreating in my marriage (with f), having an affair with a bimbo (f) on the side, and mentoring this guy who has admittedly exciting future job prospects in my non existant spare time - and then that utter bastard first has sex with the bimbo, then, when I complain about it, dumps me as an mentor! I'll never get over it! His mother totally agrees with me, but the jerk still refuses to apologize - I don't need to ask whether AITA, because I know I'm not!

Here I, m64, was, enjoying my retirement as a PRIVATE CITIZEN, mentoring a few promising young people both in my state of residence and state of (former) employement, when it occured to me that takingon one more young fellow as a protegé might result in a general improvement of affairs for a great many people due to the kid's future job prospects. Now I was intensely familiar with people in his future line of work and let me tell you, most of these are jerks, with a lot of people suffering for it. His father was one of the worst. Any improvement there was enough of an incentive to lure me out of my retirement. Now I might have used a few questionable methods at first, but those prostitutes could use the money, so could various male friends in his social circle, and also, the competitition did the same thing. For a while, we seemed to hit it off and he expanded his intellectual horizon by listening to my reading tips, but unfortunately, the combination of other influences and an admittedly ill advised photobombing let to an enstragement. Well, at least I got a golden knob for a walking stick out of it, but when the kid, once on the job, immediately initiated a hostile takeover of the worst type, I couldn't help but wonder: could I have prevented this? was I the asshole there?

I, m, am a good looking career guy who used to be a in a steady relationship with someone in the same profession. Okay, my superior, but not the ultimate boss. (Could have had him, too, back in the day, if I'd wanted.) Now, maybe I was a bit high-handed when treating most of my s.o.'s hangers-on as the parasites they were, but I was just looking out for him! I mean, we've been through years of a high stress situation together, and now that's over, he's dumping me for some younger bit of fluff? Am I supposed to take that lying down?!!!! Of course I raised holy hell, I mean, who wouldn't, and okay, maybe hitting on his wife wasn't the best tactic, but I know he's been wanting to divorce her for eons. Anyway, the point is: I've been transferred to the back of beyond while the himbo got a gorgeous estate, and I still don't know how that happened. AITA?

I, m, really want everyone to be happy, and can't help it if many of them hit on me. I also want a steady job. Somehow, this evolved into a situation where this woman whom I had pay my travelling expenses thinks we'll live together while the guy in whose house I lived is having a fit because I had dinner with her on my last evening in town. But did either of them get me the job I wanted? They did not! So what's to complain about? AITA?

Some years ago I, m, and my long term companion, f, agreed to put our relationship on a non-sexual footing. AT the time, I thought it was a good idea, what with me being often ill and also way older. Since then, however, I discovered that I still can enjoy sex with a different woman. This doesn't impact on my relationship with my long-term companion, right? I mean, since we agreed to go platonic anyway, and I'm still as attracted as ever by her mind? It's just, there's this good looking younger guy hitting on her these days, and it looks like she's attracted to him, and I can't see that going anywhere good, so I said so, and we had an almighty row, especially after she found out about my other relationship. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said "it's not like we're married" or "ditch the he-man, he's just after your money", but was that a reason for calling me a love rat and an overrated hack?!? AITA?

I, m41, am a loving family man with a strong work ethic and good Christian values. All I want is for my family to share those, especially my oldest son. To that end, I appointed him the best teachers, ensured he's always supervised and thus does not feel neglected, and spared him the awful stupid lessons I had to endure as a kid. Like Latin and ancient history. All I want in return is for him to be exactly like me, is this too much to ask? But no. He keeps grimacing when I'm around, ridicules all I hold dear, keeps lying to me, gets into debts and in general shows every sign of becoming the kind of lazy slob bound to ruin my life's work! So naturally I took counter measures. Some of them might have been drastic, like sending bad influences away and dragging him in front of two armies, but they were for his own good! Anyone could see that! And now the kid has humilated me in front of Europe by trying to run away, even conspiring with my own employes in order to do so. I might have overreacted when telling his mother he was dead, slapping his sister and telling him his mother doesn't care anymore, but I don't think so. It's just, my other kid, who's usually good as gold, now doesn't want to join my favourite profession anymore. AITA?

cahn:

DerAlteD
NTA. Kid should be more grateful. Maybe the problem is that he doesn't really see how much you do for him. I bet more family time would help, bring him to your nights out with the guys or whatever you do for fun. Or find him a nice girl! That's what he needs. Bonus is that your other kid will see all this and realize that the male authority figures really do know best.

pastorb
Depends on what you mean by "bad influences" -- I hope you're not trying to totally cut him off from his friends, that would be YTA territory for sure.

BearsAreNotTheAnswer
YTA. I just feel like if someone wants to run away, then that's your answer right there, you know?

mildred_of_midgard

For

cahn.

FW: I will put a bear in Gundling's room!

Roman Emperor Elagabalus, many centuries earlier: I will put bears in everyone's room!¹

Ivan the Terrible: I will set bears on people just to see what happens!²

Charles XII: I will get the bear so drunk it falls out the window to its death!

Gian Gastone: Ooh, you have bears? I want to see the bears! Bring me the bears.

*shortly thereafter*

GG: I'm so turned on rn. I want to have sex with--

Mildred: Please don't say the bear.

GG: The bear-handler. He's such a big brawny guy, yum.

Mildred: Oh, thank god.

GG: Also his two young assistants, also hot stuff.

Mildred: Still could be worse.

GG: The bear-handler and his boys³ will be added to my collection of male prostitutes.

Mildred: I already know about the collection of male prostitutes and so am not batting an eye!

GG: One night, the bear-handler will be drunk in his room when I get a hankering for him. I'm drunk also, it goes without saying. I will have him brought to me. But he's so drunk he doesn't want to get out of bed. But I'm the Grand Duke, and my pimp/boyfriend/life partner Giuliano will force him to come to my room. For more drinking, of course!

Mildred: Yep, sounds about right.

GG: We're having a great time, right up until I unleash a "prodigious vomit" all over his face and chest. I'm still having a great time, because I totally have a vomit fetish!

Mildred: ...Okay, you got me. I figured out you had an alcoholism fetish, but this one I didn't see coming.

GG: But he's furious and starts beating me black and blue to within an inch of my life. I bleat a little but am not really up for defending myself. Giuliano and other servants overhear the commotion and come running to save me from imminent death.

Mildred: Well, I don't blame him...

GG: Neither do I! In fact, he doesn't get punished at all and continues to draw his salary and live peaceably in Florence, probably because elsewhere in this narrative it's been recounted that I'm totally into getting beaten up, and I make the Ruspanti do it to me all the time!

Mildred: This narrative isn't very reliable, is it?

GG and Giuliano Dami, in unison: God no. Please treat this anonymous manuscript like the National Enquirer of the 18th century and don't believe anything you read about us in it. Unlike Harold Acton, who took it as gospel in his book.⁴

FW: My bears are the best attested!

Mildred and Gundling: ...That's not exactly a point in your favor.

Notes:

1. This is from a source that's so dubious that it's questionable how much it was even ever meant as history, so you shouldn't believe this happened so much as be aware that this is a story that was told and some people have believed it.

2. According to Massie in his Peter the Great bio. Not from any reliable source on Ivan the Terrible, which I have yet to read (but am starting to look into).

3. Called "boys", but the ages of the other "boys" that are given in the text as GG's prostitutes are around twenty, so not necessarily pedophilia here.

4. About which more when I've done some more research in the Italian books that draw on actual archival material that I recently bought and have started reading.

Later addendum:

If you give August III a bear, this happens:

"Numbers of wild beasts, taken in cages into the middle of the thickets in this charming spot, and forced to climb on little paths of planks between two walls, to the top of trees on the edge of the canal, were precipitated through a trapdoor into the water thirty feet below, and thus gave the King the chance, should he wish for it, of shooting wolves, boars and bears in the air. Hounds were waiting for them at the foot of the trees, to pursue them on land and water until the time came when the King thought fit to slay them. One of these bears, finding a boat, climbed on to the prow, in order to get away from the hounds. A young Rzewuski, brother of the Marshal, and Saul, chief clerk in the Saxon Foreign Office, in drawing back to the stern of the boat against the boatman who was steering, managed to make the craft heel over so far that she capsized. The bear for a second time described a circle in the air, and fell in the water close to these men, who got off with a fright, and gave the King much amusement by their adventure."

Courtesy of Poniatowski's memoirs, cited in the biography of Hanbury-Williams.

I *guess* it's better than locking Gundling up with bears and firecrackers, which the daily Frederician emails have just reminded us happened on October 10 (1716).

But from 2023, it's hilarious to read about! Flying bears catapulting through the air! What will 18th century monarchs with bears think of next?

selenak

Two Pietist pastors, Francke the younger and Freylinghausen, visited FW at his favourite palace of Wusterhausen in 1727, both kept diaries and notes of the visit which are quoted from in various biographies; this edition of Freylinghausen's diary was published in 1900.

( Bogdan Krieger's preface, outlining the backstory and circumstances of the visit )

( Hohenzollern family lunch (comes with antisemitism) )

( FW wants Freylinghausen to examine Fritz for his religion )

( Gundling has a chance for scholarly conversation, FW does not want to go to G2's coronation )

( How to successfully save someone's life when you're five: AW to the rescue )

selenak

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."

selenak

First of all, I encourage anyone who hasn't seen any pictures of Sanssouci before to check out my Sanssouci in Summer pic spam first, both because there's far more to see, and because that's what it was designed for, being a summer residence; our antihero spent the winter months in Berlin. However, having been there recently, I could not resist and walked the palace grounds in mid November.

( More autumnal impressions of Sanssouci await )

The trip to Potsdam was extra; mainly I was in Berlin on this visit, and between work did check out some Frederician buildings in the city centre when walking past them.

( Meanwhile in Berlin )

mildred_of_midgard

Author:

selenak,

mildred_of_midgard,

cahn
Original discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/185265.html?thread=3385009#cmt3385009, https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/185754.html?thread=3392410#cmt3392410

mildred_of_midgard's prompt: Poor Gundling. AU where he offs FW!

Spoilers for Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Don't click if you might want to read that book unspoiled someday!

( FW is murdered )

selenak

Three essays in the anthology "Mehr als ein Soldatenkönig", edited by Jürgen Kloosterhuis and Frank Göse and focused on Friedrich Wilhelm I. of Prussia, were of particular interest to the salon. Here are my reviews:

( Jürgen Kloosterhuis: The Tobacco College Painting and its mysteries )

( Sören Schlueter: FW as a father (to people not Fritz or Wilhelmine) )
( Isabelle Bosch: FW's daughters as mirrored in their libraries )

selenak

If you're new to the Frederician era and have at best read one biography or two, then congratulations if you remember the name Jacob Paul (von) Gundling at all. If you do, chances are that you've read a sentence or two claiming he was the court fool under Friedrich Wilhelm I., and was made head of the Academy of Sciences by him and thus was the symbol of in how low regard FW held the sciences. (If this comes up at all in Fritz biographies, it usually does when the author explains how the restructuring and refunding of the Academy in the Frederick the Great era was a symbol of the rebirth of Enlightenment and culture in Prussia.) While all of this is technically correct, it describes who Gundling was and what was done to him by Friedrich Wilhelm about as accurately as if I were to describe our antihero Frederick as "a maladjusted flute player who had a subsequent military career" . In fact, despite the huuuuge competition in the field, Gundling has a good head start in the race of being the most mistreated victim of the Soldier King. How so? Let me review a novel, a film and a non-fiction biography to explain.

( The novel: Intellect vs Absolute Power, or: How a Scholar becomes a Fool )

( The movie: In which Götz George and Wolfgang Kieling are brilliant )

( Screencaps supporting this claim )

( The biography: in which Martin Sabrow traces down Gundling's real life )

( The funeral: The Contemporary Acccount )

In conclusion: a completely harrowing tale, and infuriating in that for such a long time, it was written off as mildly embarrassing to FW at best, not as the testimony to cruelty it is.

selenak

Samuel Jacob Morgenstern's Über Friedrich Wilhelm I. was published postumously in 1793. He died in 1785, one year before Fritz, and it's not entirely clear when this memoir was written, but Richard Leineweber, who wrote his doctoral thesis about Morgenstern and this FW biography, narrowed it down to not earlier than 1766 and not later than 1782, due to various references in the text. More about this later. Morgenstern had a very interesting life, about which more below in the review of Leineweber's doctoral work; the preface to Morgenstern's biopgrahy by an anoymous editor yet to be identified touches on that, but manages to get most of it wrong, including the date of Morgenstern's journey to England, which the preface puts in the year 1739, and the reason for the journey, which the preface declares to have been making peace between a Prussia and Britain on the brink of war. (They weren't, not then.) The preface concludes that in his private life, Morgenstern distinguished himself by being a miser, stubborn, a cynic and through some excentricities as well as through considerable scholarly knowledge, and that one could add some well known anecdotes about him but won't because de mortuis nihil nisi bene. After this introduction, and given the key fact that Morgenstern was a successor to the unfortunate Jacob Paul Gundling (i.e. originally a scholar, hired by FW and treated as a court fool during the last four years of FW's life), you'd expect something critical. On the face of it, you'd be wrong. Leineweber has a fascinating theory about that, which he backs up, but first, my original impressions.

( FW: Misunderstood soul with a love tragically lost along with a crown, both to the same man )

( It's the parents' fault! )

( What FW looked for in a friend )

( Why FW wasn't cruel )

Now, at this point I thought I had Morgenstern's number, but he will surprise us, gentle readers, somewhat later, and massively so.

Keep also in mind Morgenstern only knew FW during the last four years of his life, too. Everything else he describes, he describes from hearsay. But what he writes about FW's daily routine and personnel in his last years, for example, I guess we can take at face value, and since it's the obvious model and yet a contrast to Fritz' daily routine, here you go:

( Days in the Life of FW )

And now we get to the surprise, i.e. where Morgenstern suddenly sounds... downright FW critical. Which made me wonder about my original estimation, because the following passage is anything but hagiographic:

( Attend the Tale of Gundling )

( FW as a father and some trivia )

Having finished the biography, I was in two minds; if it was simply meant as a hagiography, why then more than enough material for the FW prosecution along with all the praise, sometimes directly contradicting the praise? Mildred then discovered the estimable Richard Leineweber, whose dissertation proved to be quite illuminating. Starting with the biographical background on Morgenstern.

( The Life and Times of Jacob Samuel Morgenstern )

( Leineweber's critique of the FW biography as biography )

So: FW hagiography or subversive FW critique? Both, says Leineweber.

selenak

Jochen Klepper's novel Der Vater is hands down one of the most famous and original German 20th century novels dealing with Prussian history, and also the one designed to get Fredericians protesting, as it is 900 plus pages of FW as the tragic hero of the tale. (SD is the villain.) Incidentally, the first time I read this novel I was still in school, and it was in a severely abriged version, only about 300 pages which centred on the father/son drama. At a guess, that edition existed because some post war publisher figured that the Fritz of it was why most readers were interested in FW. It wasn't until last year that I came across the complete, uncut version, which I read; this was also the first time I read Klepper
since aquiring enough historical knowledge to judge how Klepper works with or around the facts. With the caveat: what facts and research he had access to, writing in the 1930s in Nazi Germany as an harrassed Protestant theologian and writer with a Jewish wife and daughter who would end up committing suicide with them not rather than see them taken away to camps not too long after Der Vater became his success against the odds. I know a novel should speak for itself, but this biographical background of Klepper's is worth keeping in mind when looking at his characterisation of FW, why FW as a character spoke to him - keep in mind that the Third Reich had simultanously a cult of genius leader figures going, of which their distorted image of Friedrich II. was one; Klepper's FW is very much a counterpoint and antithesis to this, among other things. Klepper also had a strict pastor as a father himself, whom he was in conflict with, and trying to understand FW went hand in hand with trying to understand his father. Last not least, there was his own religious struggle to understand why God let the horror around him happen. After the war ended, Klepper's sister Hildegard gave his diary to the Allied trial against Adolf Eichmann where it was used evidence (in session 51).

So much for the author. On to the novel itself.

Some impressions: the 900 plus pages version is still immensely readable if you like well written 1920s/1930s style historical novels, which I do (by which I mean the language and psychology is of that time as much as it's rokoko when directly quoting from documents), and I can see from this version, as I could not from the 300 pages one, why so many literary historians say about Klepper's FW is that he's supposed to be a counter image to Hitler and Franco, the good, morally responsible ruler (despite being also a tragic human being) who reforms his country out of bankruptcy and despite his military fetish keeps it out of war. Klepper makes much of the lesson young FW draws from participating in the battle of Malplaquet in 1709, which was the bloodiest, most devasting European battle (as a part of the Spanish War of Succession - essentially, think old Louis XIV against the rest of Europe) of that century until the 7 Years War, which was on the one hand celebrating the anniversary with fellow veterans like Grumbkow and Seckendorff every year but on the other doing his best to ensure something like this does not happen again within his life time, at least not involving Prussian/Brandenburg armies.

Unsurprisingly, Klepper is good with FW's religious struggles throughout his life. If you do know more history, however, it's noticeable that he goes out of his way to mitigate FW's abusive streak (for which his behavior towards Fritz isn't the only example).

( How Klepper deals with Gundling, Doris Ritter, and Katte )

( Klepper's SD: Ron the Death Eater? )

( Klepper's Wilhelmine: Hermione in a Harry/Draco story )

( The FW/Fritz relationship: tragedy with a Grey Havens ending )

( Klepper: must have read Gustav Volz )

( On young FW falling in love with the future Queen of England )

( On who deflowered FW )

( Klepper's Fritz: Definitely Gay )

Overall: Klepper's FW is presented as tragic but essentially a good man with flaws, at in the end understood as such by his children, including the two oldest ones, with his painful death being written as both atonment (like I said, Katte's death isn't presented as necessary or justified by Prussian law, but strictly because FW has convinced himself he needs a replacement sacrifice for his oldest son to God, in which he's wrong) and martyrdom (FW dies as justified in the Lutherian sense). This is achieved by a lot of editing, hardly unusual for a historical novel, of course, but at least it is a novel, not a biography.

selenak

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.

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1740 and All That

Entries tagged with jacob paul von gundling

Pastor Schubert: J‘Accuse!

AITA, Rokoko Style

When you give a monarch a bear...

"Seven Days at the Court of Friedrich Wilhelm I", edited by Bogdan Krieger

David Faßmann: Life and Deeds of FW (1735)

Sanssouci in Autumn

Murder on the Wusterhausen Express

FW-Themed Essays: On Tobacco pals, children and libraries

Jacob Paul von Gundling: Tales of a Scholar and Fool

Friedrich Wilhelm and Samuel Jacob Morgenstern

Jochen Klepper: Der Vater

Disney Prussia: The Braunschweig Version

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