Do you think the most important people from literature and history were fully respectable, dull people? Then you were fooled.
Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Walt Whitman were tangled in a love-triangle. Lord Byron is responsible for Twilight and his...
Okay, okay, I may have overwhelmed myself when I said that I will publish a lot. But hey, I need the time for my research, so forgive me. Oh, and merry Christmas to you all :)
So. I know that you guys read Hamlet, and that you love tragic stories, and if not, this may not be the right chapter for you.
Why? Because we will talk about Friedrich II and Hans Hermann von Katte. Trust me, we get a movie-worthy telenovela-story here. Get your handkerchiefs out.
I guess some of you have already heard the first name.
Friedrich II of Prussia was born on January 24, 1712, as the oldest son of king Frierdich Wilhelm I., also known as the "Soldier King" - the father still had his reveling, lavish father in mind and therefore thought that austerity, discipline and rigour should be the main principles in life. Talking about dysfunctional families, you know.
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(I put this portrait up here, only for the aesthetic. The others are more well known, but who cares.)
But his oldest son disappoints the king: Friedrich is a sensible, thoughtful child. He loves to play the flute and would spend most time with reading, if his father would not start 'educating' him in his way.
For example, the king noticed that his small son is afraid of the sound of gunshots. He orders that the child shall be woken up with gunshots every single morning. He also lets him train with the soldiers from a very young age. The queen, Friedrich's mother, despised her husband and encouraged Friedrich in his interest for music and the arts - not because she wants him to be happy, mind you, but because she wants to show her husband that she hates him. Thus, the young prince soon becomes the object of a power-play.
Friedrich's sister Wilhelmine later described the family as a 'Hades' - the Greek equivalent to Hell. The children all suffered under the heel of the father.
Friedrich, as the oldest and heir the most, of course, but also Wilhelmine or Heinrich do their best to upset the father. Wilhelmine later escapes by marrying into the dukedom of Bayreuth, where she spends her days writing operas, building castles and theatres and being cool. Heinrich, unlike his older brother, never makes his secret about his sexuality - he is not the heir, he can basically do what he wants. When both brothers were teenagers, both fell in love with the same page-boy - but seemingly, Heinrich was more successful. Friedrich's descriptions of the same page get much less flattering after a certain moment. Maybe because the page didn't want to burn his hands on a relationship with the crown prince. Again, Friedrich is isolated.
So, brutal father and horrible childhood: Check!
To complete his education, the seventeen-year-old prince is sent to take mechanics-lessons with the soldiers of the royal guard. It must have been there where Friedrich and von Katte met first.
So, let us set the scene: Friedrich is a sensible young man with no real friend. His childhood was isolated and overshadowed by his tyrannical father -. Now he is sitting on his bench, waiting for the mechanics class, in which he couldn't be less interested, to begin. Probably he fidgets with a small gear when the door opens and one of his class-mates enters.
