Foiled by history

[selenak]

I see that this year, someone nominated (future) Friedrich II and Katte again for Yuletide (Category: 18th Century Prussia RPF). Having just read Michael Roes' novel "Zeithain" about Katte, I was reminded of joking with rheasilvia about how fandom would react if someone (HBO, Netflix, BBC, whoever) ever does a tv series about Frederick the Great with lots of budget and good actors. To wit: everyone would love the first season, because the youth of Frederick the Great follows favored slash tropes to ridiculous perfection. There's the mean, abusive Dad to bury all mean, abusive Dads. No need to invent or exaggarate anything - Friedrich Wilhelm, "the soldier king" - der Soldatenkönig, did it all: verbal abuse (especially Fritz and his oldest sister Wilhelmine), physical abuse (think gruesome historic punishments used in education and military training, multiply), homophobia ("sodomite" as a favored taunt) complete with possible supressed desires as cause (Friedrich Wilhelm was at the very least very homosocial, thirteen kids or not, he adored his soldiers and wanted to be with them always while not thinking much of women) and then he capped it by forcing Fritz to watch his boyfriend's execution. Try to top that, fanon bad fathers!

Then there's the tragic love story both people fond of royal tales and more critically minded "off with their heads" folk can root for. Our abused prince finds true love with his best friend, dashingly Byronic Lieutenant Hans Herrmann von Katte. When the King's abuse becomes too much, he wants to run away, and despite knowing this could go dreadfully wrong even if they do make it abroad because of the desertion factor (they're both members of the army, after all), not to mention that princes in exile don't exactly have a guaranteed income, Katte agrees, because he can't bear to see the prince suffer anymore. Things promptly go wrong, both of them get imprisoned, but the prince because he's a prince doesn't get condemned to death. The military tribunal condemns Katte to a life long prison sentence. Friedrich Wilhelm, the King, promptly revokes that sentence, says desertion is desertion and changes it into an execution order, complete with order his son is to watch the whole thing. (Possibly because he knew that "life long" would mean release as soon as Friedrich ascended to the throne, or, if you want to think better of him, because he wanted the law to be followed and didn't want the tribunal to give Katte a lenient sentence on Friedrich's account.) Katte was brave and dignified at his execution, with a heartrendering last encounter with Friedrich. (In French, because like much of the German nobility of the day, Fritz loathed the German language and spoke & wrote French whenever he could. (What documents exist of him written in German are terribly spelled.) "Veuillez pardonner mon cher Katte, au nom de Dieu, pardonne-moi!" ("Please forgive, my dear Katte, in God's name, forgive me."). With Katte replying: "Il n'y a rien à pardonner, mon prince, je meurs pour vous la joie dans le cœur!". ("There is nothing to forgive, I die for you with joy in my heart!")

As I said: all the tropes are covered. (Except for the last minute reprieve and happy ending, alas.) For those who want an interesting, layered female character whom canon will never put in a position to come between the OTP, she's there as well, in the form of Friedrich's sister Wilhelmine. (Undoubtedly the hypothetical tv show would also spawn some incest tales because that's how fandom rolls, but since canon would not go there, slashers whose 'ship is canon would not mind... I think?) Female characters turned into Yenta Sues, eat your heart out: Wilhelmine is her brother's confidante, has gone through the same abusive childhood and adolescence, and gets put under house arrest as well. (Though Katte exonorates her at his interrogations.) As the first season would undoubtedly end with Katte's dramatic death, the season hiatus would be spent by AUs, denial fic (endless last minute rescues - "faked his death", otoh, is not an option, what with the beheading in front of poor Fritz), and hurt/comfort starring Wilhelmine in the comforter role.

Season 2, otoh, would be hated by nearly all the fandom. Wilhelmine gets reduced from regular to guest star by marriage to a nonetity and gets estranged from her brother. Friedrich reconciles with the wrong people (read: his father, though how sincere that reconciliation was is debatable). He even gets married. Quelle horreur! Though since that marriage was Dad's idea and he's never more than coldly polite to his wife, parting ways with her as soon as his father is dead, fandom would go from detesting Elisabeth Christine sight unseen to feeling vaguely sorry for her and then forgetting she exists (as Fritz does).

Katte's actual successor in Friedrich's affections, Fredersdorff, would be very controversial and start fandom's first shipping war. "Too much of a power differential", "boring!" and "not enough chemistry" complaints would be countered by "you're all too addicted to angst, what's wrong with a secure relationship!"

Friedrich Wilhelm gets killed off mid season 2, and after Fritz ascends the throne, it would start to dawn to the Breaking Bad familiar of fandom that they're in for a main character arc that can be roughly described as "Jesse Pinkman becomes Walter White". In non-BB terms: fandom's woobie (Froobie, in this case?) turns into a magnificent bastard at best and a large scale manipulative life destroyer and creator of other woobies at worst. Friedrich reconciling with Wilhelmine would only vaguely pacify fandom. "Bring back Katte!" would still be the overwhelming cry.

Seasons 3 and 4 would regain some popularity for the show, with our (Anti?)hero now in full gear magnificent bastard mode, set on turning Prussia into the new European superpower, and the more woobie-longing part of fandom being given his younger brother Heinrich as a new favourite. (Heinrich is also openly gay, a gifted soldier, can provide some sibling jealousy angst and since he'll never rule anything won't be in danger of letting his admirers down by increasing ruthlessness and life ruining.) There are now three female characters as Friedrich's three major antagonists: Maria Theresia of Austria, Madame de Pompadour in France, and the Czarina Elisabeth in Russia. This again provides interesting women in major roles without breaking up any m/m couples, though with three female opponents, discussions about how much a misogynist Fritz is start. (Especially if the scripts include some of his more infamous statements about women, including about the way they smelled.) His defenders point out that he's also the most reform-minded ruler in Europe (true), with the episode in which a miller successfully sues the King in court (only possible in Frederician Prussia) being their favourite, while a part of fandom would embrace the "hate the main character, love the rest of the ensemble" way of fannishness and would point out to the Seven-Years-War bodycount as Friedrich's fault. Shipping wise, the introduction of Voltaire would provide fandom with its first love/hate 'ship in this 'verse. Snarky Voltaire would be the type of ambiguous trickster character with uncertain loyalties who is guaranteed to become a fandom favourite, and Fritz/Voltaire snark-and-sex stories would outstrip Fritz/Fredersdorff h/c and curtain fic in number , though neither would ever gain the popularity of Fritz/Katte.

Season 5 would bring things full circle with old Fritz managing one last major war victory courtesy of the Czarina dying at just the right time, and would even include a surprise new 'ship for the fandom (Casanova visits the court, briefly, and Friedrich canonically notices he's good looking). Mostly, though, this season becomes a beloved farewell season because it brings back Katte in the form of a ghost with whom old Fritz increasingly holds conversations as he prepares to meet his maker. The "King goes anonymous among the people" tropes are also served (especially since those tales were tradition about Old Fritz), with Friedrich realising the world is very different now (the French Revolution is just around the corner), whether for better or worse, he can't say, but it's time for him to go. As the season finale ends with his death and young Fritz having a ghostly reunion with Katte, even affirmed Friedrich haters sob in their hankerchiefs, though whether in grief or satisfaction, no one could tell.

One more thing: Zeithain, the novel I just read which brought the resurrection of this frivolous speculation, tries to avoid the Froobie-to-Prussian-Machiavel dilemma by being about Katte, with Fritz making his entrance only around page 500 or thereabouts. Before, it's a Bildungsroman about Katte, which gives him a bad Prussian dad as well (honestly, I have no idea whether or not Katte's father was particularly strict as far as non-Friedrich-Wilhem Prussian aristocrats went, the one thing I knew of him was that he tried in vain to get his son pardoned, which was natural, but doesn't say anything about how he raised him) and generally tells about how awful it was to grow up gay in 18th century Prussia. Our hero crushes on a schoolmate but doesn't dare to do anything about it, and doesn't have any sex until his (female) cousin casually deflowers him, which makes him realise what he does and doesn't want (he then goes off and has sex with a sailor). When young Fritz does show up, Katte is aware that actually caring about the a future king can't lead to anything good (even as just friends, because of the future power differential), but they fall for each other anyway, and history proceeds. The one point where I'd say our novelist is cheating a bit is that he has Katte, while waiting for his death sentence, speculating that while Fritz is going to survive he'll be emotionally crippled for the rest of his life, which is more hindsight of history and less what the character is likely to know/guess in these circumstances. But still, the story is movingly told.

However: the first person Katte narration is just one part of this book. It's interspersed by the increasingly tedious postmodern novel device, a contemporary character telling his story as well. Said contemporary is a fictional descendant from the Earl of Chesterfield, called Philip Stanhope like the Chesterfield's illegitimate son of famous letter fame, and thus distantly related to Katte as well, with the device connecting the two plots being that Stanhope has inherited some letters of Katte's to his British relations and is now tracing Katte's biographical steps. And the Stanhope part of the novel is just increasingly annoying. Because Katte and Friedrich between them don't provide enough daddy issues, Stanhope has a mean, distant dad as well. (Seriously, the only good father in the entire novel is Johann Sebastian Bach, because of course he is. Haven't come across a fictional take on Frederick the Great in which Bach doesn't get contrasted as the Good Father versus Friedrich Wilhelm as the Bad Father. The connection being that Friedrich had one of Bach's sons at his court as composer and met the great man himself once, too. In Zeithain, it's Katte who meets Bach decades earlier, watches him interact with his kids and for the first time realises that the harsh parenting he's experienced isn't without alternatives.) Stanhope's mean distant dad had a homoerotic interlude as a young man, as it turns out, in case we're missing the theme that homophobic dads are mainly homophobic because they themselves are repressed homosexuals. In conclusion, I really wish novelists would stop interjecting perfectly readable historical novels with present day interludes when these contribute nothing of interest to the tale.

Comments

[vaysh]

Now I want the Friedrich show, all 5 seasons of it. :) I am all with on the Please stop interjecting boring present day narratives in your perfectly fine historical novels.,

[selenak]

I suspect that at least some authors who do this have some issues with the genre (historical novel, that is) and don't want to be called a historical novelist, in much the same vein as Kazuo Ishiguro when publishing Never Let Me Go insisted that it wasn't really Science Fiction (despite the clones), and Daniel Kehlmann in interviews about Die Vermessung der Welt said it wasn't really a historical novel because he'd used only indirect speech for all the characters. Head. Desk.

And I want the Friedrich show, too. Would you cast different actors for Friedrich in the various stages of his life, or would you trust one actor to play him both in his teens and as an old man? If the later, who?

[vaysh]

I suspect you are right that it is fear of OMG genre that makes so many authors introduce a contemporary narrative. Seriously, their loss. (And knowing the German book scene, I am pretty sure it's what publishers and agents tell authors.) I think it has to do, too, with the current obsession with autobiography. Stichwort Knausgárdismus. I know so many people who are writing what are basically historical novels but they all feel the need to insert some autobiographical "what does this mean for my life" narrative. Which almost always is so boring.

O God, I am no Frederick expert. Just as a gut level response, I'd prefer the same actor. No idea who. And I'd want it to be a British or American show, sorry to say. I don't trust such themes in the hands of German film makers. Personally, I so would love to have a Karl May biopic. But not if it's done by German writers and directors.

[selenak]

Karl May: but but but what about Syberberg's movie? Excentric, but in a highly watchable way, and top cast because Syberberg was able to get these old UFA veterans whose mannerisms in this case were just what was needed - Kristina Söderbaum as Emma, Käthe Gold as Klara, and the late, great Helmut Käutner (yes, the director, but he did start out as an actor, and Syberberg persuaded him to give it ago again in the 70s for this) as Karl May.

Also, my dream May biopic would not be a biopic, it would be film version of Peter Henisch's novel "Vom Wunsche, Indianer zu werden", which pulls off its premise - Karl May (late in life, en route to finally see America after all) meets Franz Kafka (making one attempt to get away and go there as well) - in an inspired, witty way.

Otoh, I'm with you in wanting the Friedrich show to be made by non-Germans. Not least a British or US team would not have the baggage any German writers/directors/producers would bring into it. Mind you: we have by now several actors who are in fact fluent in English and have proven their range. *eyes Daniel Brühl*

[vaysh]

You know much more than me about Karl May movies. Will check everything out. This is thrilling, thank you for these tips.

Daniel Brühl, yesyesyes. He could pull off the younger Friedrich at least.

[watervole]

I can see the shipping wars already!

[sovay]

Snarky Voltaire would be the type of ambiguous trickster character with uncertain loyalties who is guaranteed to become a fandom favourite, and Fritz/Voltaire snark-and-sex stories would outstrip Fritz/Fredersdorff h/c and curtain fic in number, though neither would ever gain the popularity of Fritz/Katte.

I feel if you present the internet with this possibility, they might write it anyway, show or no show. Who would you cast?

[selenak]

Voltaire: Francois Cluzet.

Friedrich: Well, Daniel Brühl has enough of a youthful look not to be entirely awkward as young Fritz while being in fact old enough for mature Friedrich (and with good make up for old Fritz), and he impressed me as Nikki Lauda in Rush, so I could see him pulling it off...

[monanotlisa]

Chapeau! This is wonderful. I'm still smiling.

[ratcreature]

Heh. This sounds delightful. Someone should get on that series.

[selenak]

It would be a breakout hit! :)

[ratcreature]

Someone should pitch it. Though I don't think Friedrich has that great of a name recognition internationally.

[selenak]

Not anymore. But hey, if you can get people interested in the dynastic struggles of fictional Westeros...

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

This is so brilliantly accurate about both history and fandom. The moment when you hit the "large part of fandom loves the show but hates the protagonist" made me laugh out loud!

And I too am with you in the inclusion of pointless modern-day interludes in otherwise decent historical novels, and sadly agree that it's about Fear of Genre. It feels so egocentric, though, to think people won't read about another time without their own being included.

And ironically it often leads to the cardinal sin lobbed against so many historical novels: bloat!

[selenak]

I know the ways of fandom by now.:) Re: bloat - no kidding. There are only two examples I can think of where I wouldn't want to miss the present day stuff. In all other cases I've read, the novels would gain by simply cutting it out. The two exceptions: Possession by A.S. Byatt, because there the present day story of discovery is key to the novel, not to mention that the various academics and their feuding are hilariously well drawn. (And I shall never forgive the film version of making shy British Roland into a brash "unconventional" (read: like every American in Europe in the movies ever) American while cutting out the novel's actual brash American, Maud's frenemy Leonora, out entirely.) The other exception is a slim German novella called "Das Spiegelbild" by Irina Korschunow which is actually a dialogue between the present day character (female journalist) and 19th century poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff which also muses on different ways of being a writing woman in different eras, performances of femininity (not just for narrator Amelie and poet Annette but their mothers and grandmothers), class and restrictions by same, and German history and manages to do so in less than 300 pages. Of course, Irina Korschunow who is sadly dead by now was mainly famous for her children's novels about green-haired goblins, so she didn't have hangups about genre and critical disdain for same.

[makamu]

If you ever pitch this to anyone that might do it, I'd be more than willing to back it with an excited letter (including the casting of Daniel Brühl, who might indeed be quite good in the role). I don't recall what Katte looked like, so can't make suggestions there, but I would definitely watch that show

And your predictions re fandom made me laugh as well :)

[selenak]

Katte's portrait looks like generic 18th century nobleman, but the painter (working for his father) might have flattered him there, because his contemporaries, including Wilhelmine, describe him as dark skinned (mind: for a 18th century Prussian, which probably in the age of white face paint means he looked normal for our eyes) and scarred, also intense. Surely there are tall, dark and intense types on both sides of the Atlantic ready to apply. :)

And of course there's a juicy scenery chewing role for a middle aged character actor who'll play the Mean Dad To End All Mean Dads. We need someone truly good, of course, who can also suggest the tragedy of the man beneath the horror. (Jochen Klepper's novel Der Vater did that.)

[lokifan]

This sounds SO GOOD and I want it so much. I love this kind of speculation, especially about fandom reactions :D

[selenak]

I think I know the ways of fandom by now. :). Would love to have such a tv series, too, of course!

[cahn]

Oh gosh I want this show so much! I suppose I'll have to find a good history book, at least :) And I was hugely entertained by your (I suspect very correct) reading of how fandom would react.

[selenak]

Trust me, I want that show, too. There are a great many movies starring Friedrich II. Sadly, most of them were made during the Third Reich, and used for propaganda. (Here's an example of how propagandists believe their own lies: Come Stalingrad, Goebbels orders a movie about Friedrich losing a devastating battle and later winning the war anyway, since the death of the Czarina Elisabeth dying, which meant the anti-Prussian coalition lost a key member as her immediate successor was a Frederick fan. Fast Forward to 1945, Roosevelt dies, and Goebbels tells Hitler: The Czarina Elisabeth has died! No comment on the delusion(s) necessary.) Which is why post war German cinema & tv shied away from the subject for a few decades. There have been some attempts since, but Nothing reccommendable or available on the international market.


Book-wise, Thomas Carlysle wrote the classic Frederick II biography in English, though of course it's outdated as hell in terms of research, being a 19th century opus.

[alcanis_ivennil]

Oooh this show would be fun D:D Any casting ideas?

[selenak]

Not really, beyond that I would take a Crown approach and cast Fritz (& surviving important contemporaries) by several actors instead of just aging or de-aging one. I know it‘s risky, but it avoids pretending a thirty plus guy is really a teenager, or unconvincing old age make-up /special effects.

Also, if this is an American or British show instead of a German one, then please, for the love of the Enlightenment, teach the actors to pronounce everyone‘s names properly. Not just the German names the French ones as well. The last two or so versions of The Three Musketeers made me cringe every time someone said „D‘Artagnan“, especially the man himself.

[alley_skywalker]

This is really old and I came across is by accident, but damn, this would be such a great show, man.

[selenak]

Wouldn't it just? And to think, when I wrote this entry I didn't know half the details I know now, thanks to intense reading and debate on all things Frederick with my rheinsberg pals. I even have a Fredersdorf icon. ;)

[alley_skywalker]

I might just also be unnecessarily fond of made up historical drama shows that will never be lol. I def have one in my head about my own historical fave. But Fritz really has such a dramatization-worthy life. I really wonder how no one has tapped into it yet.

[selenak]

Well, plenty of people have... especially before and during WWII, that's the problem. The Nazis abused him horribly for propaganda, to the point where when Roosevelt died, Goebbels told this to Hitler by saying "The Czarina Elizabeth is dead!" (Because, see, Truman clearly felt about Hitler the way Peter III. felt about Fritz.) One of the most infamous Nazi propaganda movies, "Der große König", drew the Hitler = Fritz, Stalingrad = Kunersdorf" claim pretty blatantly. Even the Third Reich aside, though, the entire 19th century, blatantly ignoring the Francophilia, the homoeroticism and the disdaining of German culture, milked the nationalistic angle for what it was worth, and during WWI Thomas Mann (then a national conservative) actually wrote an essay arguing that invading Belgium was just like Fritz invading Saxony at the start of the 7 Years War, clearly just a preventive measure justified etc. etc. etc..

....which caused a general staying the hell away from the topic for decades in post WWII German media. However, there were some notable exceptions through the years, such as:

"Der Thronfolger": pretty good 1980s two parter about young Fritz, culminating with Katte's execution in Küstrin. Used to be on Youtube, last year, even, but no more. Fritz played by an actual 19 years old, Günther Stracke as FW (one of Germany's sold character actors), Maria Schell as SD).

"Mein Name ist Bach": 2003 movie about Johann Sebastian Bach's encounter with Fritz in the 1740s. Is still on Youtube, I think, with English subtitles, even. Co-starring Bach's sons Friedemann and Carl Philip Emmanuel (who used to work for Fritz), and Fritz' youngest sister Amalie, mixing Bach and Hohenzollern family drama. This one has a King Fritz on the jerk side with however his massive trauma causing part of the jerkness amply acknowledged. Notable for not shying from the gayness; he refers to Katte as "my lover" in his inner monologue.

"Die merkwürdigen Abenteuer des Freiherrn von Trenck": 1970s tv version based on Prussian Trenck's memoirs. About as faithful to history as Trenck's memoirs themselves, which is to say, not very, but entertaining. King Fritz first favors and then persecutes Trenck.

And of course Fritz keeps showing up as a bit part in the various Russian and English tv series about Catherine II, usually with the wrong dogs and muttering sinister intentions.

[alley_skywalker]

Thanks for all the citations! I really should have made it clearer that I meant like...modern anglophone adaptations mostly. I mean, if they’re gonna do all these shows about Catherine Ii, why not Fritz? ;) And I have heard about the Nazi’s unfortunate infatuation with him.