Tag Archives: prussia

Lüttichau vor Paris (mit Eisernem Kreuz)

20 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in Books, Events

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Graf von Lüttichau vor Paris in 1870/1871.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Er war sehr stolz auf sein Eisernes Kreuz, persönlich am 9. November von Kronprinz Friedrich mit diesen Worten verleihen:

Es gereicht mir zur Freude, einem so braven, lieben Regimentskameraden diese wohlverdiente Auszeichnung selbst anlegen zu können. Nehmen Sie meinen und des Königs Dank für Ihr tapferes Verhalten entgegen!

—Maximilian Graf von Lüttichau, ein treuer Diener eines iridischen und himmlischen Königs,  F. Schmidt (1911). S. 117.

Die Schlacht bei Mollwitz

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Events

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Heute vor 277 Jahren fand die Schlacht bei Mollwitz statt.

Die Schlacht war eine der denkwürdigsten des Jahrhunderts, weil hier zwei kleine Heere das Schicksal von Schlesien entschieden, und weil die Truppen des Königs sich dabei einen Ruhm erwarben, den weder Zeit noch Neid ihnen entreißen können.

— Ausgewählte Werke Friedrichs des Großen, Erster Band.

 

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick

03 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in Books, Events

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The Hauptmann von Köpenick was a petty crook who in 1906 dressed up as a prussian officer, commandeered some passing troops and used them to imprison the treasurer and the mayor in  Köpenick Rathaus while he escaped with the contents of the safe. Somewhat surprisingly many people, including (angeblich) the King, found this amusing and when caught he was sentenced to only four years and pardoned by the King after two. Hardly the harsh militaristic Prussian state one expects.
The small exhibition and statue at Rathaus Köpenick is one of the few things left to see that would drag me back to the post-German horror that is modern Berlin.

Anyway, the story is better explained here, and the Heinz Rühmann film from 1956 is quite amusing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve always liked the story, and finally last week found a first edition of his memoirs from 1909. 120 Euros or so, but it makes me happy.

Auf Wiedersehen, v.d. Marwitz

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in Books, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

For now at least.

So yesterday morning before going to work I finally finished the second volume of v.d. Marwitz’s Nachlasse (on Frederick the Great’s birthday). It’s taken me a year near enough and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. The mixture of personal anecdotes, important events and political commentary has been fascinating.

At the moment the main thing I’ve taken from it is the nagging thought in the back of my mind regarding the direction of our society if we’d listened to Marwitz and people like him. Could Feudalism and the Stände have been sufficiently modernised without throwing the baby out with the bathwater? We’ll never know now, even the bath is gone.
I need to study more.

Anyway, now on to “Der Tag ist Angebrochen!”, looking at things from a somewhat different perspective. Twenty odd pages in and Dulon already seems like a loon, I bet his sermons were interesting.