January Meme: Wust
Jan. 19th, 2021 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhen oracne asked about places to visit in Germany - a future topic - , mildred_of_midgard, jokingly, replied: Wust. The joke being that Wust, or, as it's referred to today in order to differentiate it from other places called "Wust" in Germany, "Wust-Fischbach", is a tiny village in the state of Brandenburg which attracts visitors for precisely two reasons. 1.) It has a beautiful Romaesque church which had gotten a baroque makeover in the seventeenth century, and was - a few decades after WWII and with much work and funding - restored, so that it's on the map for churches to visit, and 2.) the reason why it attracted funding when a great many other wrecked churches did not: it hosts the crypt and coffins of a family that once upon a time included the future Frederick the Great's dearest friend/possible lover, Hans Herrmann von Katte, who after a botched flight attempt was executed in front of young Frederick on the King (i.e. Frederick's father's) orders. This meant tourists in the 19th century already, not to mention some gruesome graverobbing. (Several bones from Hans Herrman's skeleton are gone because of that.) Last summer, when I was travelling through Brandenburg, I visited Wust for this reason as well, and you can see the photographic results here. You can't just enter the crypt even in non-Covid-times, you have to arrange a visit with one of the local historians ahead of time, and that's what I did, early in the morning, because last August was really really hot. Which meant I basically had the church and the crypt all to myself, and my local historian waited patiently while I took photos for Mildred, for the executed Hans Herrmann von Katte is her favourite.
I was also a bit reminded of the last obscure little church I visited because of who was buried there, which was St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall Torkard, which is where Byron (the poet) and his daughter Ada (aka Ada Lovelace of computer programming invention fame) are buried. (Being buried next to the father she hadn't known had been Ada's choice, and I very much suspect it was less about him and more about delivering a final slap to her mother, the relationship with whom had gotten worse and worse over the years. (To the point where said mother thought dying painfully of cancer would at least improve Ada's chances to repent and be a good Christian again before she died.) I visited decades ago, and there was no one there at the time, either, except for me, though the local custodian said an earlier visitor had left his calling card for correspondence with interested parties.
The local Wust historian and I traded Katte stories, some of which are mentioned in the earlier linked entry with the photos, and she also gave me some reading material for my friend the American scholar studying the Katte family (read: Mildred the Fritz/Katte shipper). Said material seems to have been lost in the transatlantic mail - though luckily I had scanned it before I mailed it to Mildred. My local historian from Wust, however, has now sent me another brochure full of local material, including some more Katte stuff. This includes a short biographical essay on Hans Herrmann von Katte by a much later member of the Katte clan, one Martin Katte, which we'd seen quoted elsewhere but so far had not been able to track down in accessible form. (Especially not in times of pandemic lockdown.) Martin Katte also wrote several memoirs, one of which I had read last year, and which depressingly showed me he was one of those early 20th century conservatives who manage to mention being bffs with a war criminal without as much as nodding to the fact he was a Nazi war criminal and in general think the major fault of the Third Reich was that it wasn't a monarchy headed by Hohenzollern. However, Martin K. had had access to family papers which other historians had not had, which is the biographical essay he wrote on the 18th century Kattes is still worth reading. (Despite having been quoted from elsewhere, I mean.) Among other things, he includes more of the letters Hans Heinrich von Katte, the executed man's father, wrote after his son's death than I saw in other sources, and as these are incredibly telling about the mentality of the time and place, as well as being both touching and stupefying, I am translating them here. All (...) were made by Martin von Katte. For interested readers who don't want to go through the whole extensive tale at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rheinsberg, here are are the most important facts to know about the writer of these letters: he's a devout Protestant, also a a career military who has done very well under the reign of the current King, Friedrich Wilhelm, the so called "Soldier King" who basically singlehandedly created the mentality we think of when we say "Prussian". (Friedrich Wilhelm's father had been a normal Baroque prince fond ouf splendour and art, and had died deeply in debt. FW put the country and himself under an austerity program, and build up the army like you wouldn't believe, with the result that in 1730, the year all of this takes place, tiny Prussia has the most modern and most drilled army on the continent. In yet ten years more, this will have fateful consequences for other countries.) Hans Heinrich von Katte, like I said, was fully on board with this programm, and is currently among other things the governor of Königsberg (capital of East Prussia then, today the Russian town Kaliningrad), when his oldest son gets arrested and tried for aiding and abetting the Crown Prince's attempt to flee the country. The war tribunal ultimately decides on imprisonment for young Hans Herrmann (and declares itself not able to pass judgment on the Crown Prince, saying only the King could do that). The King, furious, wants a revision of that sentence. The war tribunal won't budge. The King then overrides the tribunal's sentence and decides on the death penalty for Hans Herrmann, to be carried out in front of his son (currently a prisoner in the fortress Küstrin, which today is in Poland). Both father Hans Heinrich and grandfather von Wartensleben plead in mercy, in vain. Hans Herrmann then dies an exemplary death as far as 17th century executions go, praying with the garnison preacher (so the preacher later tells the bereaved father), writing letters to his family, famously saying farewell to the Crown Prince who asks for his forgiveness when they march him in front of said Crown Prince's window, and is beheaded by the sword. Three weeks later his father gets permission to remove the body from the Küstrin garnison's cemetery to the Wust family crypt.
Now, Hans Heinrich, faithful subject to his King, faithful Protestant and deep believer in the military has to face how feels about his oldest son being executed as a deserter on explicitly the King's orders (when a life sentence otherwise would have been possible). Here are two letters he wrote, the first to his sister-in-law, the other to his brother.
Königsberg, November 23rd
Noble Lady, Dearest Madam Sister!
The sad circumstances in which I have been put through God's holy incomprehensible will cannot be described by anyone's quill, and if I did not look to God, I would perish. My dear Madame Sister, consider my misery. Is it possible to endure this! At first, I did not know where I was.
No tear has escaped my eyes. (...) My wife has been visited by the doctor, the priest and the field medic. Consider the misery in my house. If the Duchess and the Princess had not come, my wife would have died in their hands. God may thank them for it.
I want to die of grief when thinking of my son. My son has granted his forgiveness; so must I. They've made the affair look larger to the King; its end hasn't come yet. My son is now facing the just Judge, and his beautiful ending comforts me. But every morning and evening his death torments me. The King's gracious letters cannot return him to me.
(...) I want to fulfill his last requests as much as I can. It is has been his last request to me that I should pay his debts, so no one should sigh because of him. Since this has come from a noble soul, I shall do everything in my power. (...)
My God, how I feel. The poor wretch did not even have four days to prepare himself, but the merciful God has done a miracle for him. Praise be to him! But what a harsh way does God lead me...
Königsberg, December 19th 1730
(...)I do need comfort in these sad circumstances most urgently; and despite the merciful God having provided me with much grace and having given me much comfort with the heavy cross I bear, natural love cannot be broken, cannot accept so soon!
I don't know what God brings to me that it must serve as my comfort. (...)
1. My dear brother, is it not comforting, this beautiful and exemplary ending?
2. Is it not comforting that the execution had to happen in Küstrin, to make all the people understand why he was a sacrifice?
3. Also that the war tribunal has not taken his life; it was the intervention of the King.
4.That my son is pitied and mourned for by all the world. (...)
The Crown Prince supposedly has taken leave of him with such melancholy.
Finallly, the King keeps writing many a gracious letter to me and asks me to content myself. But, my dear brother, it is hard for a father to lose his child in such a fashion. The King has sent me an information from the files. At first, I had not wanted to read it, but now I would not wish for all the world to be ignorant of this information. My heart wants to dissolve into tears in some mornings when I think of my dear son. Sometimes it is endurable, but then there is a push and I cannot contain myself. (...) God will not leave us. What we cannot experience, he will give to our children. My son has asked me several hours before his demise to send our Albrecht to Halle and to have him educated in awe of God there. He had heard Freylingshausen's "Theologia" four times there; this, he said, was comforting him now before his ending. I was not to be so sad about his farewell. He assured me that he will be among the blessed, and has given his hand to the preacher as a testimony of his faith. Now, my dear brother, farewell. I am your faithful servant, H.H. Katt.
"Our Albrecht" must be one of Hans Heinrich's younger sons. Who also died young, for very different reasons; the two younger brothers killed each other in a duel, which the Katte family hastily declared has been fought over a girl, but which later historians figured out had really been over Hans Heinrich's inheritance, for he died a rich man, thankfully not living long enough to experience yet more dead sons. He's buried in Wust as well, with all his children and both of his wives (his first one, Hans Herrmann's mother, had died young). It's a sad and very Prussian story, coming to an ending in the tiny church where the participants still get visited to this day.
The other days
oracne asked about places to visit in Germany - a future topic - , mildred_of_midgard, jokingly, replied: Wust. The joke being that Wust, or, as it's referred to today in order to differentiate it from other places called "Wust" in Germany, "Wust-Fischbach", is a tiny village in the state of Brandenburg which attracts visitors for precisely two reasons. 1.) It has a beautiful Romaesque church which had gotten a baroque makeover in the seventeenth century, and was - a few decades after WWII and with much work and funding - restored, so that it's on the map for churches to visit, and 2.) the reason why it attracted funding when a great many other wrecked churches did not: it hosts the crypt and coffins of a family that once upon a time included the future Frederick the Great's dearest friend/possible lover, Hans Herrmann von Katte, who after a botched flight attempt was executed in front of young Frederick on the King (i.e. Frederick's father's) orders. This meant tourists in the 19th century already, not to mention some gruesome graverobbing. (Several bones from Hans Herrman's skeleton are gone because of that.) Last summer, when I was travelling through Brandenburg, I visited Wust for this reason as well, and you can see the photographic results here. You can't just enter the crypt even in non-Covid-times, you have to arrange a visit with one of the local historians ahead of time, and that's what I did, early in the morning, because last August was really really hot. Which meant I basically had the church and the crypt all to myself, and my local historian waited patiently while I took photos for Mildred, for the executed Hans Herrmann von Katte is her favourite. I was also a bit reminded of the last obscure little church I visited because of who was buried there, which was St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall Torkard, which is where Byron (the poet) and his daughter Ada (aka Ada Lovelace of computer programming invention fame) are buried. (Being buried next to the father she hadn't known had been Ada's choice, and I very much suspect it was less about him and more about delivering a final slap to her mother, the relationship with whom had gotten worse and worse over the years. (To the point where said mother thought dying painfully of cancer would at least improve Ada's chances to repent and be a good Christian again before she died.) I visited decades ago, and there was no one there at the time, either, except for me, though the local custodian said an earlier visitor had left his calling card for correspondence with interested parties.
The local Wust historian and I traded Katte stories, some of which are mentioned in the earlier linked entry with the photos, and she also gave me some reading material for my friend the American scholar studying the Katte family (read: Mildred the Fritz/Katte shipper). Said material seems to have been lost in the transatlantic mail - though luckily I had scanned it before I mailed it to Mildred. My local historian from Wust, however, has now sent me another brochure full of local material, including some more Katte stuff. This includes a short biographical essay on Hans Herrmann von Katte by a much later member of the Katte clan, one Martin Katte, which we'd seen quoted elsewhere but so far had not been able to track down in accessible form. (Especially not in times of pandemic lockdown.) Martin Katte also wrote several memoirs, one of which I had read last year, and which depressingly showed me he was one of those early 20th century conservatives who manage to mention being bffs with a war criminal without as much as nodding to the fact he was a Nazi war criminal and in general think the major fault of the Third Reich was that it wasn't a monarchy headed by Hohenzollern. However, Martin K. had had access to family papers which other historians had not had, which is the biographical essay he wrote on the 18th century Kattes is still worth reading. (Despite having been quoted from elsewhere, I mean.) Among other things, he includes more of the letters Hans Heinrich von Katte, the executed man's father, wrote after his son's death than I saw in other sources, and as these are incredibly telling about the mentality of the time and place, as well as being both touching and stupefying, I am translating them here. All (...) were made by Martin von Katte. For interested readers who don't want to go through the whole extensive tale at
rheinsberg, here are are the most important facts to know about the writer of these letters: he's a devout Protestant, also a a career military who has done very well under the reign of the current King, Friedrich Wilhelm, the so called "Soldier King" who basically singlehandedly created the mentality we think of when we say "Prussian". (Friedrich Wilhelm's father had been a normal Baroque prince fond ouf splendour and art, and had died deeply in debt. FW put the country and himself under an austerity program, and build up the army like you wouldn't believe, with the result that in 1730, the year all of this takes place, tiny Prussia has the most modern and most drilled army on the continent. In yet ten years more, this will have fateful consequences for other countries.) Hans Heinrich von Katte, like I said, was fully on board with this programm, and is currently among other things the governor of Königsberg (capital of East Prussia then, today the Russian town Kaliningrad), when his oldest son gets arrested and tried for aiding and abetting the Crown Prince's attempt to flee the country. The war tribunal ultimately decides on imprisonment for young Hans Herrmann (and declares itself not able to pass judgment on the Crown Prince, saying only the King could do that). The King, furious, wants a revision of that sentence. The war tribunal won't budge. The King then overrides the tribunal's sentence and decides on the death penalty for Hans Herrmann, to be carried out in front of his son (currently a prisoner in the fortress Küstrin, which today is in Poland). Both father Hans Heinrich and grandfather von Wartensleben plead in mercy, in vain. Hans Herrmann then dies an exemplary death as far as 17th century executions go, praying with the garnison preacher (so the preacher later tells the bereaved father), writing letters to his family, famously saying farewell to the Crown Prince who asks for his forgiveness when they march him in front of said Crown Prince's window, and is beheaded by the sword. Three weeks later his father gets permission to remove the body from the Küstrin garnison's cemetery to the Wust family crypt. Now, Hans Heinrich, faithful subject to his King, faithful Protestant and deep believer in the military has to face how feels about his oldest son being executed as a deserter on explicitly the King's orders (when a life sentence otherwise would have been possible). Here are two letters he wrote, the first to his sister-in-law, the other to his brother.
Königsberg, November 23rd
Noble Lady, Dearest Madam Sister!
The sad circumstances in which I have been put through God's holy incomprehensible will cannot be described by anyone's quill, and if I did not look to God, I would perish. My dear Madame Sister, consider my misery. Is it possible to endure this! At first, I did not know where I was.
No tear has escaped my eyes. (...) My wife has been visited by the doctor, the priest and the field medic. Consider the misery in my house. If the Duchess and the Princess had not come, my wife would have died in their hands. God may thank them for it.
I want to die of grief when thinking of my son. My son has granted his forgiveness; so must I. They've made the affair look larger to the King; its end hasn't come yet. My son is now facing the just Judge, and his beautiful ending comforts me. But every morning and evening his death torments me. The King's gracious letters cannot return him to me.
(...) I want to fulfill his last requests as much as I can. It is has been his last request to me that I should pay his debts, so no one should sigh because of him. Since this has come from a noble soul, I shall do everything in my power. (...)
My God, how I feel. The poor wretch did not even have four days to prepare himself, but the merciful God has done a miracle for him. Praise be to him! But what a harsh way does God lead me...
Königsberg, December 19th 1730
(...)I do need comfort in these sad circumstances most urgently; and despite the merciful God having provided me with much grace and having given me much comfort with the heavy cross I bear, natural love cannot be broken, cannot accept so soon!
I don't know what God brings to me that it must serve as my comfort. (...)
1. My dear brother, is it not comforting, this beautiful and exemplary ending?
2. Is it not comforting that the execution had to happen in Küstrin, to make all the people understand why he was a sacrifice?
3. Also that the war tribunal has not taken his life; it was the intervention of the King.
4.That my son is pitied and mourned for by all the world. (...)
The Crown Prince supposedly has taken leave of him with such melancholy.
Finallly, the King keeps writing many a gracious letter to me and asks me to content myself. But, my dear brother, it is hard for a father to lose his child in such a fashion. The King has sent me an information from the files. At first, I had not wanted to read it, but now I would not wish for all the world to be ignorant of this information. My heart wants to dissolve into tears in some mornings when I think of my dear son. Sometimes it is endurable, but then there is a push and I cannot contain myself. (...) God will not leave us. What we cannot experience, he will give to our children. My son has asked me several hours before his demise to send our Albrecht to Halle and to have him educated in awe of God there. He had heard Freylingshausen's "Theologia" four times there; this, he said, was comforting him now before his ending. I was not to be so sad about his farewell. He assured me that he will be among the blessed, and has given his hand to the preacher as a testimony of his faith. Now, my dear brother, farewell. I am your faithful servant, H.H. Katt.
"Our Albrecht" must be one of Hans Heinrich's younger sons. Who also died young, for very different reasons; the two younger brothers killed each other in a duel, which the Katte family hastily declared has been fought over a girl, but which later historians figured out had really been over Hans Heinrich's inheritance, for he died a rich man, thankfully not living long enough to experience yet more dead sons. He's buried in Wust as well, with all his children and both of his wives (his first one, Hans Herrmann's mother, had died young). It's a sad and very Prussian story, coming to an ending in the tiny church where the participants still get visited to this day.
The other days
no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 04:11 pm (UTC)Wust
Date: 2021-01-19 01:27 pm (UTC)I am incoherent here. You *were* holding out new information from Wust! What a surprise to wake up to!
Selena, omg, I don't even have words, you are the best, shamelessly pandering to Katte-lovers! <333333
A copy of the Martin Katte manuscript? The whole thing? You're going to scan it when you have time/access to a scanner, right?
OMG. Did you write to the local historian afterwards and ask? Did you make it really clear in August that she should gather all the material she had and send it to you for your "friend the American scholar"?? If you're still in touch with her, please thank her for me!
Oh, wow.
Okay, so this clears up who Hans Heinrich is struggling to find forgiveness for, and it's NOT Fritz. Good!
I'm now revising my belief that, on balance, Katte's last minute return to the Christian fold was more likely to be a display for FW's and Hans Heinrich's benefits (and encouragement to Fritz to behave himself in the interests of saving his own neck) than sincere. Like I said at the time, we'll never know, but if he's asking for his brother to be educated as a good Protestant...the balance is now shifting more in the direction of "sincere" for me. Interesting!
And yes, Albrecht is a name that I recognize from my Katte genealogy studies. :D The two younger boys have names that are both clearly named after FW: Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig and Friedrich Albrecht Wilhelm. Albrecht (and it's good to know the name he went by!) was the younger one, five years old at the time of Katte's execution. He was thus the one Hans Heinrich later favored and wanted to inherit over his older brother. He was the one who survived the duel but died later of his wounds.
If the Duchess and the Princess had not come, my wife would have died in their hands.
Which duchess and which princess, do we know?
2. Is it not comforting that the execution had to happen in Küstrin, to make all the people understand why he was a sacrifice?
Oh, man. Hans Heinrich. (These are not the words of someone who is totally on board with what happened, omg, do people not do their historical research like responsible scholars??)
in the tiny church where the participants still get visited to this day.
Including by my wonderful friend who does all the things for me that I'm unable to do myself. <33333 THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH.
Re: Wust
Date: 2021-01-19 01:40 pm (UTC)I will scan it once I can. It had not been available (because outsold) when I was there, so she promised to send it to me once it became available again.
Duchess and Princess - I was wondering, and then it struck me - wasn't that when Stanislav Lescinsky was Hans Heinrich's house guest? Or was that later? So "Princess" could have been a younger daughter (if he had one.) Duchess, though: beats me. Someone from Stanislav's exile court? East Prussian nobility? Russian nobility? (Since Hans Heinrich is at Königsberg, far from Berlin.)
So which bit from the files (den Akten) did FW send Hans Heinrich which the later originally did not want to see but then didn't want to be without? Hans Herrman's interrogation protocols? The Punctae? Something else which has since been lost to history?
do people not do their historical research like responsible scholars??)
Ironically enough, the same brochure/book contains the abreviated biography of Hans Heinrich by the male local historian who wrote the full one I sent to you, and in it he insists again that FW was forced to override the tribunal which passed the wrong sentence, and Hans Heinrich was okay with that because greater justice and the law.
Re: Wust
Date: 2021-01-19 01:55 pm (UTC)Still, having the Hans Hermann bio now is GREAT!
Duchess and Princess - I was wondering, and then it struck me - wasn't that when Stanislav Lescinsky was Hans Heinrich's house guest? Or was that later?
If this was 1730, August the Strong doesn't die and thus the War of the Polish Succession begin until 1733, so that must have been later. And yes, I was thinking of Russian and Polish nobility, and Courland came to mind too, though I don't have time to research possible candidates rn.
So which bit from the files (den Akten) did FW send Hans Heinrich which the later originally did not want to see but then didn't want to be without? Hans Herrman's interrogation protocols? The Punctae? Something else which has since been lost to history?
Oh, I assumed it was the preacher's description of the request for Albrecht to be educated at Halle, etc. etc., but yes, there's a (...) there. Hmm.
Ironically enough, the same brochure/book contains the abreviated biography of Hans Heinrich by the male local historian who wrote the full one I sent to you, and in it he insists again that FW was forced to override the tribunal which passed the wrong sentence, and Hans Heinrich was okay with that because greater justice and the law.
Lolsob.
my local historian waited patiently while I took photos for Mildred, for the executed Hans Herrmann von Katte is her favourite.
<33333
no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 10:58 pm (UTC)Everyone reading this, you need to understand that she took a MILLION pictures for me, even more than are posted publicly at the link, because she is the BEST and the NICEST. \o/
He's buried in Wust as well, with all his children
Children, or sons? The daughters are buried with their husbands' families, presumably, right?
in the tiny church where the participants still get visited to this day.
Including by one person who has the undying gratitude of this American scholar!
Btw, the name of the architectural style in English is "Romanesque". I'm guessing it's something like "romanisch" in German?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 11:17 pm (UTC)Also, I forgot, do we know if Fritz ever met Hans Heinrich afterwards?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-19 11:59 pm (UTC)Since Algarotti was in the same carriage with Fritz on that trip, and the talk got VERY bawdy (Algarotti was singing songs like "In Praise of the Bum" and arguing with Fritz about whether northern Europeans could be as passionate as southern Europeans, the outcome of which was the orgasm poem), we profoundly hope HH was either more chill about sex than FW, or was traveling in a different carriage. :D
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 12:08 am (UTC)For those just joining:
Stratemann writes: Berlin, July 28th 1731: Supposedly General Lieutenant v. Katte after leading his regiment at the revue before the King got off his horse and put his sword at the King's feet, and asked again for his demission, whereupon his majesty showed himself very much displeased. Rumor even has it (Hans Heinrich) got arrested as a consequence.
Rheinsberg post here.
And now that we've seen the full context for the "my son has granted his forgiveness, so must I" quote, it's preeeeetty darn clear it's FW he's struggling to forgive. Not, like, Fritz (whose only mention is having a melancholy parting from Katte, which makes it sound like HH's sympathies are rather with Fritz than against him on the subject of his son's death).
Also, did everyone notice Hans Heinrich saying 1) everyone pities and mourns for Katte, and 2) describing Katte as a *sacrifice*?? This is like Besser stopping just short of describing him as a martyr, all clad in white before the throne of God.
Fucking FW.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 07:35 am (UTC)Btw, "melancholy parting" - if you're interested in the original phrasing, it's "Der Kronprinz soll so wehmütig von ihm Abschied genommen haben". The similarity to Besser reminds again that of course Besser wrote his account for HH.
Lastly - did you notice HH says "they" have made the affair (the flight attempt) look larger to the King? Whom does he blame here, that enterprising duo, Grumbkow & Seckendorff (who for a change weren't actually to blame, it was all FW), or someone else?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 01:43 pm (UTC)I did notice! I was going to ask you if you had any idea!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-22 06:05 am (UTC)2. Is it not comforting that the execution had to happen in Küstrin, to make all the people understand why he was a sacrifice?
3. Also that the war tribunal has not taken his life; it was the intervention of the King.
Okay, these just broke my heart, even more than it was broken already. Like, it's really clear what he thinks from those two lines. Mildred, I think it's even stronger than you said! Not only does he describe him as a sacrifice, but he wants all the people to understand why. :((((((( <3
The King has sent me an information from the files. At first, I had not wanted to read it, but now I would not wish for all the world to be ignorant of this information.
Okay guys, what is this?? Is this the part where the King has told him that it wasn't the war tribunal, it was him specifically? Or... what?
I also found the part about visiting St. Mary Magdalene, that is Ada Lovelace and Byron and her mother, to be very interesting -- I knew that he was her father, but that's pretty much all I knew.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-23 09:10 am (UTC)Why Byron is still worth reading (and fun to read)
Review of a novel about the Romantics (the Shelleys, Byron and Keats) in which I get into some biographical detail about Byron, his sister and his wife.
Okay guys, what is this?? Is this the part where the King has told him that it wasn't the war tribunal, it was him specifically? Or... what?
As you can see from the above comments, it's a mystery to Mildred and me as well. Current guess: maybe Hans Herrman's interrogation protocols or the punctae (i.e. the supposed last letter to Fritz which is full of "obey your father, don't hold my death against him, and remember, predestination is evil"?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-23 10:05 pm (UTC)NOT lost! :DDD <333