View transcript: Frederick of Prussia

Intertitle

Frederick of Prussia / “A murdered Mozart - "

Running Text

A man with the capacity to differentiate / Among other things composer of Flute Concerto Nr. 4 in D / A “Gambler Type” (Augstein) / The only intellectual among the kings in Germany / Philosopher, Enlightener - / What would have emerged if his father had not trampled this seed? / All the deeds of the great king brought misfortune to Germany - -

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Frederick of Prussia, Crown Prince The son, the father Frederick’s coffin in 1991 The father’s coffin Frederick’s coffin As the crown prince the father wanted to kill him - -

Film clip

\[T[he father]\]: Do you recognize this? Why are you lying to me? Coward, disgraceful\! Do you not have enough honor in your body to own up to your dirty tricks? There - there is a mirror. Look at yourself\! Look at yourself\! The Crown Prince of Prussia\! A liar, a gambler, a coward\!

Intertitle

Instead, his best friend is executed before his very eyes\- The playwright Heiner Müller on Frederick of Prussia / “A murdered Mozart”

Kluge

Frederick II. What was your reaction when these coffins were transported. Nothing at all?

Müller

Nothing at all, I think. No.

Kluge

Nada? Absolutely nada?

Müller

Nothing at all, yes. Yes, I thought it was perfectly normal and nothing to get upset about. Why shouldn’t he lie there?

Kluge

How would you characterize the king, Frederick II?

Müller

Yes. Well, he is, strangely enough, the only German monarch or the only ruling figure who is worthy of dramatization, because with him the discrepancies are so sharply defined. First of all the only intellectual on the German throne, probably. Then he was also a cynic, of course. And a king who had contempt for his people that even extended to their language and literature. He didn’t even know German and nevertheless had contempt for German literature. And he is the one who became an idol, the emblem for Prussian patriotism. And all this brings together so many contradictions, which is why he is interesting. And then it is also a murdered Mozart.

Kluge

And as dramatic raw material, as a kind of coliseum, with which one can always …

Müller

One can always do something with it, yes.

Kluge

At one point you located something in the vicinity, right? What was that?

Müller

That was Gundling.

Kluge

The Life of Gundling ([Leben Gundlings]). Gundling is …?

Müller

Gundling was the first president of the Prussian academy, and simultaneously court jester and the inventor of the “newspaper show.” At the smoking club of Frederick’s father, who was probably a very underestimated man, he had to do the newspaper show, had to report on . . .

Kluge

… what’s going on.

Müller

Yes, what is happening in the world. And then everyone drank, and he was an alcoholic. They drank him under the table, made fun of him, and he was even buried in a wine cask, I think.

Kluge

Is your position in the academy … is it the same academy?

Müller

It is similar… It considers itself to be the same academy.

Kluge

No, but I mean that there is continuity between this Prussian academy and …

Müller

In any case that is what they understand themselves to be.

Kluge

… the one that is now being phased out.

Müller

But another aspect is that as a part of the memorial that has now been replaced on Unter den Linden - I don’t know if you ever looked at it closely - the intellectuals, the artists, are standing under the tail of the horse, and the generals have the better positions. That also belongs to the tradition of the academy.

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7-Years War 1756-1763 “War as the continuation of music by other means - " Frederick “old Fritz” = “dreadful” / " - - because it is truly as dreadful as can be when the daemon becomes popular and gets a comfortable name” / Thomas Mann Map of the battle at Leuthen

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“When ministers are talking about war, it is as if an Iroquois is talking about music” Frederick Voltaire and King Frederick The handwriting

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The Anti-Machiavelli

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A refutation of the text “The Prince” by Machiavelli by the young Frederick / With the thesis: “The ends never justify the means - - "

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In the Freemasons’ lodge Concerto Nr. 4 in D Architectural drawing from the hand of the king. The death mask “After my death they shouldn’t mess with me - - " “Someone should carry a lantern forward - \-”

Running Text

“In the hour of his death”

Film Clip

[Frederick II]: Fredersdorff, they shouldn’t mess with me. No dissection, no embalming. Just let me lie and cover me with a cloth.

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“How a cultural minister of the GDR saved Frederick’s equestrian statue - \-”

Günter Gaus

Tell me the story about how you played a major role in saving the monument to Frederick the Great, as he is now riding on Unter den Linden again.

Hans Bentzien

Yes, I could say that Friedrich Ebert - the son of the earlier Friedrich Ebert - who was still thinking about a constitutional monarchy - didn’t want to have this equestrian statue. And don’t forget, for the Allied Control Council, Prussia was taboo. Where to put the thing? He gave it to his colleague in Potsdam.

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Hans Bentzien, former cultural minister in the GDR

Hans Bentzien

He put it there. There it lay. I have to say, to the shame of the Potsdamers and the people from Sansoucci. Nobody thought of a way to do something reasonable with it. Only a master mason. And he had party orders to make sure that nothing happened to it. He was from the firm Stuck und Naturstein, they made restorations and so on. So there it lay.

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Clip from a conversation between Günter Gaus and Hans Bentzien.

Günter Gaus

And how did you save it?

Hans Bentzien

Well, in a cloak-and-dagger operation with the help of a colonel in the police whom I knew. He sent two white mice, one in front, one in the back. The flat bed trailer was from Stuck und Naturstein, the master mason took care of that. And the economist from the ministry filled out a demolition certificate while we were driving. Because we were responsible for monuments. And the section leader for fine arts, Dr. Barka, sat on the flat bed truck, it drove once around the block. We set it aside, raked leaves over it, and in the next spring - it must have been in November, in winter - in the next spring it stood there. And then it couldn’t be taken away again. And it stood in Potsdam.

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The fields, on which the battles took place, are lonely and empty - - After the victory over Prussia Napoleon visited Frederick’s grave in the crypt of the Garnson church in Potsdam - - Propaganda images - - Potsdam Day in March 1933 Above Frederick’s coffin, in March 1933: The Day of Potsdam - -

Paul von Hindenburg

The place where we are gathered today reminds us to look back at the old Prussia, that . . .

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Friedr. sepulcher 1933 / 2 different viewpoints

Hindenburg

… became strong through godliness, through dutiful work, never waning bravery and devoted love of the fatherland, and on this foundation the German tribes united …

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Katte is brought to his execution Frederick

Hitler

The government of the national uprising is resolved to fulfill the task that it has been given by the German people. Therefore it is going to the German Reichstag today with the strong desire to find support there for the realization of its mission.

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“The king would have been arrested by the SS for being a freemason - - "