In this post, I've collated some of Katte's final words, written and spoken.
Wilhelmine records a passage he wrote on his prison window, before he was condemned to death:
“With time and patience we obtain a good conscience."—If you would know who has written this, the name of Katt will inform you; still cheered up by hope.
He whom curiosity may induce to read this writing, must know that the writer was put under arrest, by order of his majesty, on the 16th of August 1730. He still has faint hopes of recovering his liberty, although the manner in which he is guarded seems to prognosticate something fatal.
Immediately after receiving his death sentence, on November 2, 1730, Katte wrote to the King asking for a pardon. I took the letter from Waldie's Select Circulating Library, because I haven't found a better source yet.
It is not to justify myself or to excuse my conduct up to this time, or to by reasoning and argument; no—but it is unfeigned repentance and sorrow for having offended your majesty, which impel me to lay at your feet, in all submission, the confession of the errors of my youth, my weakness, and my imprudence. My mind, which was guiltless of bad intentions, my heart, which was full of affection and pity, and the mere folly of youth, are the things, my king, which most humbly plead for grace, mercy, and compassion. God, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, permits grace to take the place of justice, and through that grace brings the sinner, walking in the paths of error, back to his duty. Be pleased then, my king, to grant the same grace to me, as a sinner and a criminal who has transgressed against your majesty. The hope of restoring the tree which is partially decayed, causes it to be spared and saves it from the flames. Why, then, should not the tree of my life, which already shows new shoots of loyalty and submission, find grace in the sight of your majesty? Why should it be cut down while still in its bloom, and not spared to show to your majesty and to the whole world what true loyalty and obedience are produced by grace and mercy? I have erred, O, my king! I acknowledge it with a contrite heart; therefore pardon him who honestly confesses his fault, and grant to me what God has not denied to the
greatest sinner. . .As many drops of blood as flow in my veins, so many shall attest the new loyalty and obedience which your grace and favour will produce. God's grace and goodness allow me to hope for his mercy, and so I do not despair. I, who implore and beseech, was once your disobedient vassal and subject, but am now brought back to my duty by suffering and repentance.
He also wrote to his grandfather, Field Marshal von Wartensleben. Wartensleben also wrote to the King asking for a pardon, but was refused. The following letter is taken from Wilhelmine's memoirs, who likely copied it from a pamphlet that began to circulate immediately after Katte's death. The letters in it, to his father, grandfather, and brother-in-law, appear to be genuine, and were circulating in Berlin already in November 1730.
Honoured grandfather,
I cannot express the grief and agitation with which I am writing this. I who have been the principal object of your solicitude; whom you destined to be the support of your family; whom you had educated in sentiments calculated to render me useful to my sovereign and my fellow-creatures; I who never left your house without being honoured with your kindness and your advice; I who was to be the comfort and happiness of your old age; wretch that I am! I am now become the object of your grief and despair. Instead of felicitating you with gladsome tidings, I am constrained to acquaint you with the sentence of my death, which has already been pronounced. Do not take my sad fate too much to heart: we must submit to the decrees of Providence; if it tries us by adversities, it also gives us strength to bear them with firmness, and to overcome them. Nothing is impossible to the Lord. He
may help us when he chuses. I place all my confidence in that Supreme Being, who may yet incline the king’s heart to clemency, and obtain for me as
many favours as I have experienced severities. If it be not the will of the Omnipotent, I shall nevertheless praise and bless him, being persuaded that what he orders is for my welfare. I therefore submit with patience to what your credit and that of your friends may obtain of his majesty. In the mean time, I ask you a thousand pardons for my past faults, hoping that the benevolent Creator, who forgives the greatest sinners, will have mercy upon me. I intreat you to follow his example towards me, and to believe me, &c.
November the 2d. 1730.
The following letter, to Katte's father, written the night of November 5 at Küstrin, only hours before his execution at 7 am on November 6, is taken from Fontane:
"Into tears, my father, that’s how I want to melt away, when thinking that this letter will cause the greatest grief to a faithful father's heart. That all the hopes for my future welfare and its comfort in old age has to disappear at once; that all applied effort and diligence for my upbringing to the maturity of the desired happiness even have been in vain; yes – that I will have to bow in the prime of my years without presenting to you in this world the fruits of my efforts and my achieved sciences. How didn't I think to ascend the world and make your conceived hope one satisfied; how didn't I think that I would not lack of happiness and well-being; how wasn't I occupied from the certainty of my reputation. But all in vain! How futile man's thoughts are: At once everything is falling apart; and how sadly is the scenery of my life coming to an end; and how is my current state distinguished from that with which my thoughts have gone; I must – instead of promenading the way of honor and reputation – walk the path of disgrace and a shameful death. But how incomprehensible, O Lord, are your ways, and your judgments unexplainable. It is quite right to say: God's ways are not man's ways, and man's ways are not God's ways. Wouldn't I have left security behind, forgotten God for all happiness and living well and set him aside? Wouldn't I have preferred the way of the flesh, good times, and sins to the way to God? Yes, surely this would have led me away from God.
Cursed ambition, which glides into the heart from early childhood, without giving any proper understanding, would have continued, and would have ultimately attributed to vain reason what comes only from God. The kind and righteous God wanted to forestall such things, and - since I did not listen to his frequent and varied incitements - he had to seize me in such a way that I did not plunge further into ruin, and even come to eternal damnation. For that let him be praised! Understand well, my father, and truly believe that it is God who disposes of me, without whose will nothing happens, not even the fall of a sparrow to the ground! He is the one who rules everything and guides through his holy word; that is why this my relationship comes from him. The harder, the more bitter the form of death, the more agreeable and sweet the hope of salvation! What is the shame and dishonor of this death, in comparison to the great future? Comfort yourself, my father! God has given you other sons, to whom He will accord, perhaps, more happiness in this world, and who will give to you, my father, the joy for which you have vainly hoped from me, and this, I sincerely desire, will come to pass. Meanwhile, I thank you with filial respect for all the father loyalty shown to me, from my childhood to the present hour. May the All-powerful God render to you a hundred-fold this love that you have given me! May He spare you to a ripe old age! May He nourish you in happiness, and quench your thirst with the grace of His Holy Spirit !
Your son Hans Hermann von Katt, faithful to death.
Postscript. But what about you, dearest Mama, whom I loved as much as if the ties of nature had bound us (she was his stepmother), and you, dearest siblings, how should I recommend my memory to you? My situation does not allow me to convey everything I have on my mind; I stand at the gate of death, so I must be careful to enter with a cleansed and sanctified soul, and I cannot lose any time.
He also wrote an undated letter to Fritz, urging repentance. The German text is found in Preuss, and the translation in Waldie. It's referred to as the "Puncta" in an August 1731 letter from Wolden to FW.
1. The prince royal may, perhaps, think that I consider him as the cause of my death, and that I die in anger with him, but that is not the case. I acknowledge that, for wise reasons, Divine Providence has decreed that these misfortunes should fall upon me, to bring me to true repentance, and to enable me to work out my salvation.
2. The causes to which I attribute this chastisement of Heaven are, first, my ambition; and secondly, my neglect of the Almighty.
3. I promise the prince royal to pray for him before the throne of God.
4. I beseech the prince royal to banish from his heart any anger that he may feel against the king, his father, on account of my punishment; for he is not the cause of my death, since in this he is only the instrument of divine justice.
5. The prince royal ought not to think that this calamity has befallen me for want of prudence, but rather to recognise in it the hand of God, who confounds the wisdom of the wise.
6. I entreat the prince royal to submit to the will of his majesty; in the first place, because he is his father, and in the second, because he is his king.
7. The prince royal must remember what I said to him one day in Brandenburg on the submission which he owes to his father, refering to the examples of Absalom.
8. The prince royal must remember that I remonstrated with him, in the strongest manner, first at the camp in Saxony, where we originally had the idea of absconding, and where I foretold what has now happened; and secondly, more recently, one night when I called upon him in Potsdam.
9. I again implore the prince royal most solemnly, by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, to submit to his father's will; both on account of the promises contained in the fifth commandment, and also for fear of the law of retaliation, which might some day cause him to suffer the like vexations with his own children.
10. I beseech the prince royal to consider the vanity of human projects planned without God. The prince royal's wish was to serve me and to raise me to dignities and honours; see how these schemes are frustrated! I therefore beseech the prince royal to take the law of God for the rule of his actions, and to try them by the test of His sacred will.
11. The prince royal ought to be certain that he is deceived by those who flatter his passions, for they have in view their own interests only, not his; and he ought, on the other hand, to consider as his true friends those who tell him the truth and oppose his inclinations.
12. I implore the prince royal to repent, and to submit his heart to God.
13. Lastly, I implore the prince royal not to believe in fatalism; but to acknowledge the providence and the hand of God in the minutest circumstances.
There are several variants on Katte's last words to Fritz, as he was led past his window on his way to his execution. All of the exchanges involve Fritz asking for pardon, often wishing he were in Katte's place, and Katte indicating that there's nothing to forgive.
Fontane: "Point de pardon, mon prince; je meurs avec mille plaisirs pour vous."
Pöllnitz & Wilhelmine: "Ah! monseigneur, si j'avois mille vies, je les sacrifierois pour vous."
Münchow, Jr.: "La mort est douce pur un si aimable Prince."
Dickens & Sauveterre (per Lavisse): "Monseigneur il n'y a pas de quoi."
And the one that's in Wikipedia, "Il n'y a rien à pardonner, je meurs pour vous la joie dans le cœur!" is still unsourced as far as I'm concerned!
Catt and Thiébault, both of whom I have reason to suspect may be using Voltaire as their source, give Fritz a very short exclamation when he sees Katte, and Katte no lines at all. Voltaire records no dialogue.
Catt: "Ah, Katte," from Fritz, nothing from Katte.
Thiébault: "Mon ami," from Fritz, nothing from Katte.
If they're not copying Voltaire, all three may independently have gotten their accounts from Fritz. He gives one to Mitchell, who's more reliable than all three, and Mitchell also doesn't record any dialogue. It's likely that Fritz, when he talked about this, never shared his last exchange with Katte. It's also highly unlikely he would remember it verbatim anyway.
Finally, Katte's literal last words, according to eyewitnesses, were "Lord Jesus"--just as the stroke of the executioner's sword removed his head.
We also had some thoughts on these documents. First, Katte's bullet-pointed last letter to Fritz.
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mildred_of_midgard: If you think this reads like it was dictated by FW, yeah. Down to the rejection of predestination. Remember, FW has a preacher standing by to step into Fritz's cell the moment Katte's head falls, to lead him back to the true faith, and most specifically, the lack of predestination.
It reads like such a perfect and instant conformity to FW's will that I'm not the only one who thinks that it's a performance. He rejects atheism when staring death in the face and reverts to the religion of his childhood? Sure, maybe. He's been raised in a world where fathers and kings have absolute power and perfect obedience is owed to them, and he buys into that? Sure.
He really, really cares, of his own accord, that Fritz not believe in predestination, so much that it's his second-to-last words to Fritz?
Riiiight.
Katte: Fritz, just do what he says or he'll chop off your head too!!!1!!11! #MyInterpretation
selenak: I'm with you. The predestination paragraph seals it. (That it's dictated and Katte's meaning is "just save your head, Fritz, please!")
mildred_of_midgard: Also, it occurred to me that selenak told us that FW was making Absalom comparisons during the lead-up to Katte's execution.
Now, everyone is very steeped in the Bible, so, are two people going to come up with this independently? Yes, of course.
And Katte was raised in the 18th century, so did he tell Fritz that it was natural for fathers to be strict and you still had to obey them? I've always thought so. I worked it into fic before I'd even seen this letter.
But how plausible is it that irreligious Katte used the Absalom argument with irreligious Fritz in the pre-escape days? I.e. before Katte decided to go outspokenly 100% religious after apparently a lifetime of not caring?
And what are the odds that Grumbkow, or someone, came and had a talk with condemned Katte? "Look, kid, you're toast. You want to help save your prince? This is what the King wants to hear. 'It's not his fault, check. He's just an instrument of God, check. Don't listen to friends who support you, and only listen to friends who oppose you, because those are the ones who have your best interests in mind, check. Absalom comparison, check. Reject predestination, check.'"
selenak: As for Absalom, we know from the appendices in Forster and Preuss FW used the comparison himself (which I didn't know when I had the official Prussian propaganda use it as an Explanation for Fritz' death in my AU! -, and I think it's incredibly telling as to where the Puncta are coming from. Because Absalom didn't try to escape David. He led an uprising and "turned the hearts of the men of Israel" against his father. This is FW's fear. I doubt it would have occured to Katte on his own.
Then we had some thoughts on who leaked those letters to Katte's family so quickly that they were circulating in November 1730, and they were evidently never denied and are treated as genuine. (I haven't been able to find a copy of the brother-in-law letter reported by Wilhelmine.)
selenak: Did we ever go over suspects for who on earth leaked Katte's letters to his Father, grandfather and to FW? Because if according to Klosterhuis they were making the rounds in November in Berlin already, and in 1731 ended up in a pamphlet printed in the decidedly anti Prussian Rhineland, without ever a denial saying "nope, not what Katte wrote at all", someone must have.
So: Katte Family: obvious suspects, but would have infuriated FW by doing so. And Hans Heinrich still had more kids to lose.
Anyone from the Küstrin staff, who were in charge of going through all outgoing and incoming mail and sympathized with Katte, thus made copies? Mayyyybe, but again, very risky, and they just watched a guy losing his head at the King's displeasure.
Eichel, who presumably got copies of all three letters for the Archive? Hmmm. Does the most loyal bureaucrat and workoholic of the state have a sneaking "this was not cool, boss!" resister inside? Knowing himself to be the least suspected person ever and getting away with it?
mildred_of_midgard: Did we ever go over suspects for who on earth leaked Katte's letters to his Father, grandfather and to FW?
No, but here are two points I want to introduce into the discussion.
1) Katte specifically asked Pastor Müller if he could make a clean copy of the letter to his father, and Müller said no, there wasn't time. So Katte asked Schack if he would have a copy made after Katte was gone.
So there was not only incoming and outgoing mail that the Küstrin staff had access to, but there was an actual copy of the letter lying around waiting to be copied! That would have been the easiest letter to leak.
2) The letters to FW and his grandfather were written in captivity in Berlin, so I don't see how they ever could have passed through Küstrin staff hands. I don't know when/where the Fritz letter was written--do you? It reads extremely like a Berlin letter to me (i.e. still hoping for a pardon), but maybe not. Okay, Lavisse doesn't know when it was written, but thinks it might have been that last night in Küstrin. If he doesn't know, probably no one knows.
Anyway. It's weird that the letters to FW, the grandfather, and the father all leaked and ended up in the same pamphlet, when they were written in different towns. By the way, can you double check that it's all three of them and only those three in the pamphlet? Wilhelmine mentions a letter to the brother-in-law (i.e., Rochow) along with the letters to his father and grandfather, but none to FW. And if she's working from that pamphlet...
So what I'm getting at is that, unless they were all opened in transit, they must have been leaked when they were in the same place. Which is either the royal archives, or the Katte family home.
Now, mail did get opened a lot back then. And the Katte affair was a big scandal. If you were part of the mail delivery system and got your hands on a letter from the condemned, you might steam open that seal and make a copy too. But if they're all being sent from different places to different places, that seems like a hell of a coincidence.
Eichel seems like a super unlikely candidate to me. Blanning does say (no citation) that he would later disapprove of Finck's cashiering by Fritz for the Maxen fiasco, but it would really surprise me to see him leaking things. Not impossible! But very surprising. He's directly under the King's eye, and it's a huge risk, and keeping documents secret is his job at which he excels. You may be right about "least suspected person ever and getting away with it" for this very reason, and he may be laughing at me from beyond the grave. But I still suspect him least.
The Katte family, as you noted, has other children to lose, and even more significantly to my mind, they seem united in throwing Katte to the wolves rather than risk anyone else. They write letters asking for pardon, but that's not a real risk. That's permissible.
What I'm thinking, and this is wild speculation based on nothing whatsoever, is a shadowy figure, made safer by their very invisibility. Not having the protection of being from a noble family can go either way--you can be disposed of without consequences on the one hand, but on the other, you're not under the royal microscope so much.
So...Katte family servant? Maybe a governess or some loyal retainer who raised Katte as a child? Someone who was angry and rebelling in the only way they could: getting some visibility into this poor guy's fate?
Or possibly, it occurs to me, Katte kept copies, maybe drafts, of all the letters on him when he was taken from Berlin to Küstrin? And they all ended up there, hanging out on the same desk while the clean copy of Hans Heinrich's letter was being made before it was sent?
That actually strikes me as the least unlikely possibility, since before I realized two of the letters were written in Berlin, I always suspected the Küstrin staff, if not Schack himself.
And yes, they just watched Katte's head roll for incurring the King's displeasure. But they're farther away from the King than Eichel, are less under his microscope, and have more plausible deniability. "I left it on my desk to make a clean copy; a servant must have gotten to it." If Eichel tries that excuse, even if FW believes it, he'll have Eichel sacked if not worse in a day, because if three letters got leaked on Eichel's watch, who knows what more sensitive info is going to get leaked, with that kind of security.
And Münchow, Lepel, and/or Schack were sympathetic enough to both Fritz and Katte that they arranged the execution so that Fritz didn't have to watch, while still letting Fritz and Katte have their final exchange, and that was way more risky than leaking the letters, because it had 150 witnesses and couldn't be blamed on the servants. (I suspect the 150 witnesses on the ground weren't aware that Fritz couldn't see it from where he was, and nobody both put 2 and 2 together and talked.)
So I'm still leaning toward Küstrin staff, after considering all the options. Katte family servant would make good fanfic, though. ;) Too bad Fontane didn't think of that, when he was writing the loyal servant bringing Katte's body home for burial.
selenak: So...Katte family servant? Maybe a governess or some loyal retainer who raised Katte as a child? Someone who was angry and rebelling in the only way they could: getting some visibility into this poor guy's fate?
I like it! It's easy to forget the servants. Which were ever present and human beings, not machines. When I read that Fritz even during his hard core imprisonment months got assigned a servant to clean him and presumably dress him etc, I was reminded again of this.
mildred_of_midgard: Also, re the place of composition, everyone I've seen either says straight out that the letter to Fritz was composed at Küstrin, or that it was probably composed at Küstrin.
Now that I've read it closely, and seen all those Absalom and predestination and "the King is just an instrument of divine justice" elements...I'm kind of leaning toward it being written in Berlin/Spandau/wherever Katte was being held. Because while FW was beating everyone over the head with his priorities and wishes before the escape attempt, and it probably would have been possible to figure out exactly what he wanted to hear without outside assistance...that letter's so completely perfect and attuned to recent Biblical comparanda like Absalom that it kind of reads like Katte got some pointers. And that was probably in Berlin.
Also, remember that Müller was in Berlin and accompanied Katte on that final ride to Küstrin. So if Katte had had a completed letter in hand, he could have handed it to Müller in the carriage, or when they arrived, and asked him to give it to Fritz. And Müller would have read it and gone, "Wow, I couldn't possibly approve more of this letter," and passed it on.
That would also make sense if the Fritz letter *isn't* in that set of circulating letters to family members, because it neither ended up with the Katte family nor did it need a clean copy made that could have resulted in it getting left lying around at Küstrin, but went straight from Müller to Fritz.
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rheinsberg: Hans Heinrich got leave to go home. Maybe Grandpa Wartensleben went at the same time, they had a funeral, etc. But that's December, not November. And was brother-in-law Rochow really there in Wust grieving Hans Hermann? How did all three letters end up in that house in November for the servants to have access to?
Possibility: stepmom and younger kids were there, and letters got copied and forwarded immediately for their comfort? But if Katte wrote a letter to his father on November 5, it had to be copied, then sent from Küstrin to Königsberg, then from Königsberg to Wust, then copied at Wust along with the other letters and distributed in Berlin...maybe that could happen by November 30. Okay, I just did the math, and the earliest my guesstimate can get that letter from Küstrin to Königsberg to Wust to Berlin is November 22, assuming everything got copied and forwarded the same day. Doable, but pretty tight timing. Especially in winter, with the Katte family servants probably having limited opportunities to copy letters and send them to Berlin without getting caught.
Katte having drafts of all the family letters with him at Küstrin and someone (whether a servant or someone of rank) copying all three and getting them to Berlin seems to fit the timing much better.
And Katte made a *huge* impression on everyone at Küstrin, plus everyone there has plausible deniability. ("I just left it on my desk! Someone must have glanced at it and copied it from memory!" Everyone else: *whistles innocently*) Also, remember that at least one person at Küstrin has already smuggled two Fritz letters to Wilhelmine out, and there will be more smuggling in and out in the days and months to come.
Küstrin staff still has my vote. As long as they had access to all three letters, and that just requires Katte to have kept the drafts that he wrote a couple days prior, before he made his clean copies, they'd have had motive, opportunity, and a demonstrated willingness to do such things.
Fritz has to have read this knowing what we know: that it was a letter from FW in Katte's handwriting, and *also* what Katte was trying to tell him with it. And I think that possibly in addition to influencing his own future behavior--complying with Dad, rejecting predestination--there's a very good chance it colored his perception of everything Katte said and did after he received his death sentence. In other words, this letter undermines Katte's credibility so much that I start wondering how much of the repentance and piety was real, and I sincerely hope Fritz did too.
And then I'm back to Fritz's "One can compel by force some poor wretch to utter a certain form of words, yet he will deny to it his inner consent; thus the persecutor has gained nothing" when endorsing religious tolerance as king. He was compelled to utter a certain form of words to which he denied his inner consent; he has to have known that last letter did not fully reflect Katte's inner consent; that makes the whole Katte performance suspect.
And now I'm thinking that Katte has one more motive for that sudden outspoken piety at the end, if it wasn't genuine. Yes, in the first few days and perhaps even that last night there was the chance of a last-minute pardon. Yes, even as he's being executed, he has nothing to lose and it will comfort his family after he's gone, and we know he cares about that. But if he keeps up the performance to the last minute, and his last words are about Jesus, one, he can sell FW on the fact that his repentance was real and that might make Fritz look better by association (compared to if Fritz's BFF is denying Christ to the end in front of him), and two, he can reinforce that last message to Fritz: "Do whatever it takes to stay alive. You don't have to mean it, just wait him out." And that gives his death extra meaning and purpose.
Wilhelmine records a passage he wrote on his prison window, before he was condemned to death:
“With time and patience we obtain a good conscience."—If you would know who has written this, the name of Katt will inform you; still cheered up by hope.
He whom curiosity may induce to read this writing, must know that the writer was put under arrest, by order of his majesty, on the 16th of August 1730. He still has faint hopes of recovering his liberty, although the manner in which he is guarded seems to prognosticate something fatal.
Immediately after receiving his death sentence, on November 2, 1730, Katte wrote to the King asking for a pardon. I took the letter from Waldie's Select Circulating Library, because I haven't found a better source yet.
It is not to justify myself or to excuse my conduct up to this time, or to by reasoning and argument; no—but it is unfeigned repentance and sorrow for having offended your majesty, which impel me to lay at your feet, in all submission, the confession of the errors of my youth, my weakness, and my imprudence. My mind, which was guiltless of bad intentions, my heart, which was full of affection and pity, and the mere folly of youth, are the things, my king, which most humbly plead for grace, mercy, and compassion. God, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, permits grace to take the place of justice, and through that grace brings the sinner, walking in the paths of error, back to his duty. Be pleased then, my king, to grant the same grace to me, as a sinner and a criminal who has transgressed against your majesty. The hope of restoring the tree which is partially decayed, causes it to be spared and saves it from the flames. Why, then, should not the tree of my life, which already shows new shoots of loyalty and submission, find grace in the sight of your majesty? Why should it be cut down while still in its bloom, and not spared to show to your majesty and to the whole world what true loyalty and obedience are produced by grace and mercy? I have erred, O, my king! I acknowledge it with a contrite heart; therefore pardon him who honestly confesses his fault, and grant to me what God has not denied to the
greatest sinner. . .As many drops of blood as flow in my veins, so many shall attest the new loyalty and obedience which your grace and favour will produce. God's grace and goodness allow me to hope for his mercy, and so I do not despair. I, who implore and beseech, was once your disobedient vassal and subject, but am now brought back to my duty by suffering and repentance.
He also wrote to his grandfather, Field Marshal von Wartensleben. Wartensleben also wrote to the King asking for a pardon, but was refused. The following letter is taken from Wilhelmine's memoirs, who likely copied it from a pamphlet that began to circulate immediately after Katte's death. The letters in it, to his father, grandfather, and brother-in-law, appear to be genuine, and were circulating in Berlin already in November 1730.
Honoured grandfather,
I cannot express the grief and agitation with which I am writing this. I who have been the principal object of your solicitude; whom you destined to be the support of your family; whom you had educated in sentiments calculated to render me useful to my sovereign and my fellow-creatures; I who never left your house without being honoured with your kindness and your advice; I who was to be the comfort and happiness of your old age; wretch that I am! I am now become the object of your grief and despair. Instead of felicitating you with gladsome tidings, I am constrained to acquaint you with the sentence of my death, which has already been pronounced. Do not take my sad fate too much to heart: we must submit to the decrees of Providence; if it tries us by adversities, it also gives us strength to bear them with firmness, and to overcome them. Nothing is impossible to the Lord. He
may help us when he chuses. I place all my confidence in that Supreme Being, who may yet incline the king’s heart to clemency, and obtain for me as
many favours as I have experienced severities. If it be not the will of the Omnipotent, I shall nevertheless praise and bless him, being persuaded that what he orders is for my welfare. I therefore submit with patience to what your credit and that of your friends may obtain of his majesty. In the mean time, I ask you a thousand pardons for my past faults, hoping that the benevolent Creator, who forgives the greatest sinners, will have mercy upon me. I intreat you to follow his example towards me, and to believe me, &c.
November the 2d. 1730.
The following letter, to Katte's father, written the night of November 5 at Küstrin, only hours before his execution at 7 am on November 6, is taken from Fontane:
"Into tears, my father, that’s how I want to melt away, when thinking that this letter will cause the greatest grief to a faithful father's heart. That all the hopes for my future welfare and its comfort in old age has to disappear at once; that all applied effort and diligence for my upbringing to the maturity of the desired happiness even have been in vain; yes – that I will have to bow in the prime of my years without presenting to you in this world the fruits of my efforts and my achieved sciences. How didn't I think to ascend the world and make your conceived hope one satisfied; how didn't I think that I would not lack of happiness and well-being; how wasn't I occupied from the certainty of my reputation. But all in vain! How futile man's thoughts are: At once everything is falling apart; and how sadly is the scenery of my life coming to an end; and how is my current state distinguished from that with which my thoughts have gone; I must – instead of promenading the way of honor and reputation – walk the path of disgrace and a shameful death. But how incomprehensible, O Lord, are your ways, and your judgments unexplainable. It is quite right to say: God's ways are not man's ways, and man's ways are not God's ways. Wouldn't I have left security behind, forgotten God for all happiness and living well and set him aside? Wouldn't I have preferred the way of the flesh, good times, and sins to the way to God? Yes, surely this would have led me away from God.
Cursed ambition, which glides into the heart from early childhood, without giving any proper understanding, would have continued, and would have ultimately attributed to vain reason what comes only from God. The kind and righteous God wanted to forestall such things, and - since I did not listen to his frequent and varied incitements - he had to seize me in such a way that I did not plunge further into ruin, and even come to eternal damnation. For that let him be praised! Understand well, my father, and truly believe that it is God who disposes of me, without whose will nothing happens, not even the fall of a sparrow to the ground! He is the one who rules everything and guides through his holy word; that is why this my relationship comes from him. The harder, the more bitter the form of death, the more agreeable and sweet the hope of salvation! What is the shame and dishonor of this death, in comparison to the great future? Comfort yourself, my father! God has given you other sons, to whom He will accord, perhaps, more happiness in this world, and who will give to you, my father, the joy for which you have vainly hoped from me, and this, I sincerely desire, will come to pass. Meanwhile, I thank you with filial respect for all the father loyalty shown to me, from my childhood to the present hour. May the All-powerful God render to you a hundred-fold this love that you have given me! May He spare you to a ripe old age! May He nourish you in happiness, and quench your thirst with the grace of His Holy Spirit !
Your son Hans Hermann von Katt, faithful to death.
Postscript. But what about you, dearest Mama, whom I loved as much as if the ties of nature had bound us (she was his stepmother), and you, dearest siblings, how should I recommend my memory to you? My situation does not allow me to convey everything I have on my mind; I stand at the gate of death, so I must be careful to enter with a cleansed and sanctified soul, and I cannot lose any time.
He also wrote an undated letter to Fritz, urging repentance. The German text is found in Preuss, and the translation in Waldie. It's referred to as the "Puncta" in an August 1731 letter from Wolden to FW.
1. The prince royal may, perhaps, think that I consider him as the cause of my death, and that I die in anger with him, but that is not the case. I acknowledge that, for wise reasons, Divine Providence has decreed that these misfortunes should fall upon me, to bring me to true repentance, and to enable me to work out my salvation.
2. The causes to which I attribute this chastisement of Heaven are, first, my ambition; and secondly, my neglect of the Almighty.
3. I promise the prince royal to pray for him before the throne of God.
4. I beseech the prince royal to banish from his heart any anger that he may feel against the king, his father, on account of my punishment; for he is not the cause of my death, since in this he is only the instrument of divine justice.
5. The prince royal ought not to think that this calamity has befallen me for want of prudence, but rather to recognise in it the hand of God, who confounds the wisdom of the wise.
6. I entreat the prince royal to submit to the will of his majesty; in the first place, because he is his father, and in the second, because he is his king.
7. The prince royal must remember what I said to him one day in Brandenburg on the submission which he owes to his father, refering to the examples of Absalom.
8. The prince royal must remember that I remonstrated with him, in the strongest manner, first at the camp in Saxony, where we originally had the idea of absconding, and where I foretold what has now happened; and secondly, more recently, one night when I called upon him in Potsdam.
9. I again implore the prince royal most solemnly, by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, to submit to his father's will; both on account of the promises contained in the fifth commandment, and also for fear of the law of retaliation, which might some day cause him to suffer the like vexations with his own children.
10. I beseech the prince royal to consider the vanity of human projects planned without God. The prince royal's wish was to serve me and to raise me to dignities and honours; see how these schemes are frustrated! I therefore beseech the prince royal to take the law of God for the rule of his actions, and to try them by the test of His sacred will.
11. The prince royal ought to be certain that he is deceived by those who flatter his passions, for they have in view their own interests only, not his; and he ought, on the other hand, to consider as his true friends those who tell him the truth and oppose his inclinations.
12. I implore the prince royal to repent, and to submit his heart to God.
13. Lastly, I implore the prince royal not to believe in fatalism; but to acknowledge the providence and the hand of God in the minutest circumstances.
There are several variants on Katte's last words to Fritz, as he was led past his window on his way to his execution. All of the exchanges involve Fritz asking for pardon, often wishing he were in Katte's place, and Katte indicating that there's nothing to forgive.
Fontane: "Point de pardon, mon prince; je meurs avec mille plaisirs pour vous."
Pöllnitz & Wilhelmine: "Ah! monseigneur, si j'avois mille vies, je les sacrifierois pour vous."
Münchow, Jr.: "La mort est douce pur un si aimable Prince."
Dickens & Sauveterre (per Lavisse): "Monseigneur il n'y a pas de quoi."
And the one that's in Wikipedia, "Il n'y a rien à pardonner, je meurs pour vous la joie dans le cœur!" is still unsourced as far as I'm concerned!
Catt and Thiébault, both of whom I have reason to suspect may be using Voltaire as their source, give Fritz a very short exclamation when he sees Katte, and Katte no lines at all. Voltaire records no dialogue.
Catt: "Ah, Katte," from Fritz, nothing from Katte.
Thiébault: "Mon ami," from Fritz, nothing from Katte.
If they're not copying Voltaire, all three may independently have gotten their accounts from Fritz. He gives one to Mitchell, who's more reliable than all three, and Mitchell also doesn't record any dialogue. It's likely that Fritz, when he talked about this, never shared his last exchange with Katte. It's also highly unlikely he would remember it verbatim anyway.
Finally, Katte's literal last words, according to eyewitnesses, were "Lord Jesus"--just as the stroke of the executioner's sword removed his head.
We also had some thoughts on these documents. First, Katte's bullet-pointed last letter to Fritz.
mildred_of_midgard: If you think this reads like it was dictated by FW, yeah. Down to the rejection of predestination. Remember, FW has a preacher standing by to step into Fritz's cell the moment Katte's head falls, to lead him back to the true faith, and most specifically, the lack of predestination.It reads like such a perfect and instant conformity to FW's will that I'm not the only one who thinks that it's a performance. He rejects atheism when staring death in the face and reverts to the religion of his childhood? Sure, maybe. He's been raised in a world where fathers and kings have absolute power and perfect obedience is owed to them, and he buys into that? Sure.
He really, really cares, of his own accord, that Fritz not believe in predestination, so much that it's his second-to-last words to Fritz?
Riiiight.
Katte: Fritz, just do what he says or he'll chop off your head too!!!1!!11! #MyInterpretation
selenak: I'm with you. The predestination paragraph seals it. (That it's dictated and Katte's meaning is "just save your head, Fritz, please!")mildred_of_midgard: Also, it occurred to me that selenak told us that FW was making Absalom comparisons during the lead-up to Katte's execution.Now, everyone is very steeped in the Bible, so, are two people going to come up with this independently? Yes, of course.
And Katte was raised in the 18th century, so did he tell Fritz that it was natural for fathers to be strict and you still had to obey them? I've always thought so. I worked it into fic before I'd even seen this letter.
But how plausible is it that irreligious Katte used the Absalom argument with irreligious Fritz in the pre-escape days? I.e. before Katte decided to go outspokenly 100% religious after apparently a lifetime of not caring?
And what are the odds that Grumbkow, or someone, came and had a talk with condemned Katte? "Look, kid, you're toast. You want to help save your prince? This is what the King wants to hear. 'It's not his fault, check. He's just an instrument of God, check. Don't listen to friends who support you, and only listen to friends who oppose you, because those are the ones who have your best interests in mind, check. Absalom comparison, check. Reject predestination, check.'"
selenak: As for Absalom, we know from the appendices in Forster and Preuss FW used the comparison himself (which I didn't know when I had the official Prussian propaganda use it as an Explanation for Fritz' death in my AU! -, and I think it's incredibly telling as to where the Puncta are coming from. Because Absalom didn't try to escape David. He led an uprising and "turned the hearts of the men of Israel" against his father. This is FW's fear. I doubt it would have occured to Katte on his own.Then we had some thoughts on who leaked those letters to Katte's family so quickly that they were circulating in November 1730, and they were evidently never denied and are treated as genuine. (I haven't been able to find a copy of the brother-in-law letter reported by Wilhelmine.)
selenak: Did we ever go over suspects for who on earth leaked Katte's letters to his Father, grandfather and to FW? Because if according to Klosterhuis they were making the rounds in November in Berlin already, and in 1731 ended up in a pamphlet printed in the decidedly anti Prussian Rhineland, without ever a denial saying "nope, not what Katte wrote at all", someone must have.So: Katte Family: obvious suspects, but would have infuriated FW by doing so. And Hans Heinrich still had more kids to lose.
Anyone from the Küstrin staff, who were in charge of going through all outgoing and incoming mail and sympathized with Katte, thus made copies? Mayyyybe, but again, very risky, and they just watched a guy losing his head at the King's displeasure.
Eichel, who presumably got copies of all three letters for the Archive? Hmmm. Does the most loyal bureaucrat and workoholic of the state have a sneaking "this was not cool, boss!" resister inside? Knowing himself to be the least suspected person ever and getting away with it?
mildred_of_midgard: Did we ever go over suspects for who on earth leaked Katte's letters to his Father, grandfather and to FW? No, but here are two points I want to introduce into the discussion.
1) Katte specifically asked Pastor Müller if he could make a clean copy of the letter to his father, and Müller said no, there wasn't time. So Katte asked Schack if he would have a copy made after Katte was gone.
So there was not only incoming and outgoing mail that the Küstrin staff had access to, but there was an actual copy of the letter lying around waiting to be copied! That would have been the easiest letter to leak.
2) The letters to FW and his grandfather were written in captivity in Berlin, so I don't see how they ever could have passed through Küstrin staff hands. I don't know when/where the Fritz letter was written--do you? It reads extremely like a Berlin letter to me (i.e. still hoping for a pardon), but maybe not. Okay, Lavisse doesn't know when it was written, but thinks it might have been that last night in Küstrin. If he doesn't know, probably no one knows.
Anyway. It's weird that the letters to FW, the grandfather, and the father all leaked and ended up in the same pamphlet, when they were written in different towns. By the way, can you double check that it's all three of them and only those three in the pamphlet? Wilhelmine mentions a letter to the brother-in-law (i.e., Rochow) along with the letters to his father and grandfather, but none to FW. And if she's working from that pamphlet...
So what I'm getting at is that, unless they were all opened in transit, they must have been leaked when they were in the same place. Which is either the royal archives, or the Katte family home.
Now, mail did get opened a lot back then. And the Katte affair was a big scandal. If you were part of the mail delivery system and got your hands on a letter from the condemned, you might steam open that seal and make a copy too. But if they're all being sent from different places to different places, that seems like a hell of a coincidence.
Eichel seems like a super unlikely candidate to me. Blanning does say (no citation) that he would later disapprove of Finck's cashiering by Fritz for the Maxen fiasco, but it would really surprise me to see him leaking things. Not impossible! But very surprising. He's directly under the King's eye, and it's a huge risk, and keeping documents secret is his job at which he excels. You may be right about "least suspected person ever and getting away with it" for this very reason, and he may be laughing at me from beyond the grave. But I still suspect him least.
The Katte family, as you noted, has other children to lose, and even more significantly to my mind, they seem united in throwing Katte to the wolves rather than risk anyone else. They write letters asking for pardon, but that's not a real risk. That's permissible.
What I'm thinking, and this is wild speculation based on nothing whatsoever, is a shadowy figure, made safer by their very invisibility. Not having the protection of being from a noble family can go either way--you can be disposed of without consequences on the one hand, but on the other, you're not under the royal microscope so much.
So...Katte family servant? Maybe a governess or some loyal retainer who raised Katte as a child? Someone who was angry and rebelling in the only way they could: getting some visibility into this poor guy's fate?
Or possibly, it occurs to me, Katte kept copies, maybe drafts, of all the letters on him when he was taken from Berlin to Küstrin? And they all ended up there, hanging out on the same desk while the clean copy of Hans Heinrich's letter was being made before it was sent?
That actually strikes me as the least unlikely possibility, since before I realized two of the letters were written in Berlin, I always suspected the Küstrin staff, if not Schack himself.
And yes, they just watched Katte's head roll for incurring the King's displeasure. But they're farther away from the King than Eichel, are less under his microscope, and have more plausible deniability. "I left it on my desk to make a clean copy; a servant must have gotten to it." If Eichel tries that excuse, even if FW believes it, he'll have Eichel sacked if not worse in a day, because if three letters got leaked on Eichel's watch, who knows what more sensitive info is going to get leaked, with that kind of security.
And Münchow, Lepel, and/or Schack were sympathetic enough to both Fritz and Katte that they arranged the execution so that Fritz didn't have to watch, while still letting Fritz and Katte have their final exchange, and that was way more risky than leaking the letters, because it had 150 witnesses and couldn't be blamed on the servants. (I suspect the 150 witnesses on the ground weren't aware that Fritz couldn't see it from where he was, and nobody both put 2 and 2 together and talked.)
So I'm still leaning toward Küstrin staff, after considering all the options. Katte family servant would make good fanfic, though. ;) Too bad Fontane didn't think of that, when he was writing the loyal servant bringing Katte's body home for burial.
selenak: So...Katte family servant? Maybe a governess or some loyal retainer who raised Katte as a child? Someone who was angry and rebelling in the only way they could: getting some visibility into this poor guy's fate?I like it! It's easy to forget the servants. Which were ever present and human beings, not machines. When I read that Fritz even during his hard core imprisonment months got assigned a servant to clean him and presumably dress him etc, I was reminded again of this.
mildred_of_midgard: Also, re the place of composition, everyone I've seen either says straight out that the letter to Fritz was composed at Küstrin, or that it was probably composed at Küstrin.Now that I've read it closely, and seen all those Absalom and predestination and "the King is just an instrument of divine justice" elements...I'm kind of leaning toward it being written in Berlin/Spandau/wherever Katte was being held. Because while FW was beating everyone over the head with his priorities and wishes before the escape attempt, and it probably would have been possible to figure out exactly what he wanted to hear without outside assistance...that letter's so completely perfect and attuned to recent Biblical comparanda like Absalom that it kind of reads like Katte got some pointers. And that was probably in Berlin.
Also, remember that Müller was in Berlin and accompanied Katte on that final ride to Küstrin. So if Katte had had a completed letter in hand, he could have handed it to Müller in the carriage, or when they arrived, and asked him to give it to Fritz. And Müller would have read it and gone, "Wow, I couldn't possibly approve more of this letter," and passed it on.
That would also make sense if the Fritz letter *isn't* in that set of circulating letters to family members, because it neither ended up with the Katte family nor did it need a clean copy made that could have resulted in it getting left lying around at Küstrin, but went straight from Müller to Fritz.
Small problem with the Katte family servant idea now that I've done the escape attempt chronology for
rheinsberg: Hans Heinrich got leave to go home. Maybe Grandpa Wartensleben went at the same time, they had a funeral, etc. But that's December, not November. And was brother-in-law Rochow really there in Wust grieving Hans Hermann? How did all three letters end up in that house in November for the servants to have access to?Possibility: stepmom and younger kids were there, and letters got copied and forwarded immediately for their comfort? But if Katte wrote a letter to his father on November 5, it had to be copied, then sent from Küstrin to Königsberg, then from Königsberg to Wust, then copied at Wust along with the other letters and distributed in Berlin...maybe that could happen by November 30. Okay, I just did the math, and the earliest my guesstimate can get that letter from Küstrin to Königsberg to Wust to Berlin is November 22, assuming everything got copied and forwarded the same day. Doable, but pretty tight timing. Especially in winter, with the Katte family servants probably having limited opportunities to copy letters and send them to Berlin without getting caught.
Katte having drafts of all the family letters with him at Küstrin and someone (whether a servant or someone of rank) copying all three and getting them to Berlin seems to fit the timing much better.
And Katte made a *huge* impression on everyone at Küstrin, plus everyone there has plausible deniability. ("I just left it on my desk! Someone must have glanced at it and copied it from memory!" Everyone else: *whistles innocently*) Also, remember that at least one person at Küstrin has already smuggled two Fritz letters to Wilhelmine out, and there will be more smuggling in and out in the days and months to come.
Küstrin staff still has my vote. As long as they had access to all three letters, and that just requires Katte to have kept the drafts that he wrote a couple days prior, before he made his clean copies, they'd have had motive, opportunity, and a demonstrated willingness to do such things.
Fritz has to have read this knowing what we know: that it was a letter from FW in Katte's handwriting, and *also* what Katte was trying to tell him with it. And I think that possibly in addition to influencing his own future behavior--complying with Dad, rejecting predestination--there's a very good chance it colored his perception of everything Katte said and did after he received his death sentence. In other words, this letter undermines Katte's credibility so much that I start wondering how much of the repentance and piety was real, and I sincerely hope Fritz did too.
And then I'm back to Fritz's "One can compel by force some poor wretch to utter a certain form of words, yet he will deny to it his inner consent; thus the persecutor has gained nothing" when endorsing religious tolerance as king. He was compelled to utter a certain form of words to which he denied his inner consent; he has to have known that last letter did not fully reflect Katte's inner consent; that makes the whole Katte performance suspect.
And now I'm thinking that Katte has one more motive for that sudden outspoken piety at the end, if it wasn't genuine. Yes, in the first few days and perhaps even that last night there was the chance of a last-minute pardon. Yes, even as he's being executed, he has nothing to lose and it will comfort his family after he's gone, and we know he cares about that. But if he keeps up the performance to the last minute, and his last words are about Jesus, one, he can sell FW on the fact that his repentance was real and that might make Fritz look better by association (compared to if Fritz's BFF is denying Christ to the end in front of him), and two, he can reinforce that last message to Fritz: "Do whatever it takes to stay alive. You don't have to mean it, just wait him out." And that gives his death extra meaning and purpose.
