Hans Hermann von Katte

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Hans Hermann von Katte as an officer of the cuirassier regiment Gens d'armes , oil painting by Georg Lisiewski , 1730
Memorial plaque in the ruins of the Küstrin Fortress , 2018

Hans Hermann von Katte (born February 28, 1704 in Berlin , † November 6, 1730 in Küstrin ) was a lieutenant in the Prussian army and childhood friend of Friedrich II. Katte was executed by beheading on the orders of Friedrich Wilhelm I , King of Prussia .

youth

He came from the Altmark noble family von Katte and was the son of the future General Field Marshal Hans Heinrich von Katte (1681–1741) and his first wife Dorothea Sophie (1684–1707), daughter of General Field Marshal Alexander Hermann von Wartensleben . After his mother's death, he grew up with relatives in Doorth near Deventer , in Berlin and on Wust . After attending the Hallesche Pedagogy from 1717 to 1721 , he studied for a few semesters in Königsberg and Utrecht and went on an extensive gentlemen's journey .

In 1724 he joined the cuirassier regiment Gens d'armes , where he rose to lieutenant in 1729 and to prime lieutenant in 1730 . Together with his father, he was made Knight of the Order of St. John in 1728 .

Friedrich II.

It is not known when Katte and Friedrich II met for the first time. When they took private lessons in mathematics and mechanics together in 1729, they quickly became closer. On Katte eight years his senior, Frederick II admired the sophistication of the world. Both were interested in the flute and poetry. Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz reports that the two treated each other "like a lover with his lover". In spring 1730, during the maneuvers of a camp set up by August the Strong in Zeithain ( Lustlager von Zeithain ), the Crown Prince got into a heated argument with his father, the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I. At Promnitz Castle , Friedrich revealed the plan to his friend Katte To flee France in order to evade the educational authority of his strict and sometimes brutal father. Katte tried to stop him, but finally supported him. On August 5, 1730, Friedrich tried unsuccessfully with the page Keith to escape from his travel quarters near Steinsfurt , while Katte, who was in contact in Potsdam, was exposed as a confidante by a compromising letter and was arrested a little later.

execution

Katte's execution in front of the window of Crown Prince Friedrich , copper engraving by Abraham Wolfgang Küfner

Frederick II. Father, King Frederick William I, threatened, both for desertion to be put to death. Both were before a court martial in Schloss Koepenick made and Katte to lifelong imprisonment sentenced (in terms of the Crown Prince, the court did not explain jurisdiction). Friedrich Wilhelm I tightened the condemnation of Kattes in a death sentence and ordered the execution by beheading . Friedrich's sister Wilhelmine was also charged with complicity and both were held in strict isolation for over a year.

Katte wrote a farewell letter to his father:

"I should like to melt away in tears, my father, when I think of the fact that this sheet is to cause you the greatest grief that such a loyal father's heart can feel; that the hopes of my temporal well-being and consolation in old age must suddenly disappear, that your efforts and diligence in my upbringing to the maturity of the desired happiness have even been in vain, yes that even in the bloom of my years I have to bow down without beforehand to be able to show you in the world the fruits of their efforts and my acquired sciences. How did I not think of soaring myself up in the world and of doing enough to satisfy your collected hope? how did I not believe that my temporal happiness and prosperity could not be lacking; how I was not impressed by the certainty of my great reputation! But all for free! How vain are not people's thoughts: suddenly everything falls in a heap, and how sadly the scene of my life does not end, and how completely different is my present state from what my thoughts became pregnant with; Instead of walking the path of honor and prestige, I must walk the path of shame and a shameful death [...] So take hold of yourself, my father, and you will certainly believe that God is in play with me, without whose will nothing can happen, too not even a sparrow can fall to the ground! […] Meanwhile, thank you with filial respect for all the paternal loyalty you have shown me, from my childhood up to the present hour […] Now there is nothing left but to conclude with this consolation: You have nothing noble and noble right away, my father experienced in me in this world, oh! so you can be assured that you will find your son who is faithful to death all the higher in heaven. Hans Hermann "

The king is said to have forced his son to watch the execution in the fortress of Küstrin . Reinhold Koser wrote in his contribution to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie that Friedrich had fainted after shouting goodbye to Katte, who was led past under his window. AL Rowse (see below) shared this opinion in 1977. The reasons that led the king to take such drastic measures are only partly explained by the principle of equality, according to which all subjects should be punished with death without distinction in the event of desertion and high treason . In the cabinet order to the court martial, Friedrich Wilhelm I reinforced the validity of the principle of equality also and especially for the nobility with the statement fiat iustitia aut pereat mundus . It is possible that the king wanted to make an example of the entire Katte family at the same time. However, this contradicts the granting of a milder form of execution, taking into account the benefits of the Katte family (“in consideration of his family”, 64th cabinet order).

East crypt of those von Katte at the church in Wust

Researchers suspect that the king viewed Katte as the “seducer” of his son and took revenge on his son's hated “ effeminate ” tendencies with the death sentence .

Katte was buried in the east crypt of the church in Wust .

Aftermath

One of the allegedly two examples of Katte's execution sword , with which Katte is said to have been beheaded, is in the city museum of Brandenburg an der Havel ( Frey-Haus in Ritterstrasse).

The friendship between Katte and the Crown Prince as well as the bloody drama provided material for numerous novels, epics, dramas, plays and films that attached more or less importance to the erotic component. The works that focus on the relationship between Friedrich and Katte and its tragic end include:

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Hermann von Katte  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ As a credible statement quoted by Christopher Clark : Prussia. Rise and fall 1600–1947 . DVA. Stuttgart 2006, pp. 135 and 800.
  2. ^ Theodor Fontane : Walks through the Mark Brandenburg , Volume 2 ( Oderland ) "Jenseits der Oder" - Küstrin: The Katte tragedy .
  3. ↑ a b Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller: Man for Man - A biographical lexicon . Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-518-39766-4
  4. ^ Gerhard Knoll:  Katte, Hans Hermann von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 329 f. ( Digitized version ).
  5. ↑ Richard Linsert: Cabal and love. About politics and sex life. MAN-VoJ, Berlin 1931, pp. 248, 250
  6. ↑ Rowse discusses the possibility that Katte was the active partner in a homosexual relationship with Friedrich. See AL Rowse: Homosexuals in History: A Study of Ambivalence in Society, Literature and the Arts. Dorset Press, New York 1977, ISBN 0-88029-011-0 .
  7. ↑ Hans Schmid: The Third Reich in self-experiment (17): The old and the young king - part 1. In: Heise.de . Telepolis , October 26, 2014, accessed July 30, 2017.
  8. ↑ Raoul Mörchen: The wound of the Hohenzollern. In: Berliner Zeitung , October 8, 1998.
  9. ↑ Bring me the head of the traitor Fritz. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 16, 2011, p. 32.
  10. ↑ musicalzentrale - Friedrich - Myth and Tragedy - spotlight musicals GmbH Fulda - No current performance dates. Retrieved April 23, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Michael Roes : Zeithain. In: schoeffling.de. Accessed July 30, 2017 (PDF; 1.5 MB).
personal data
SURNAME Katte, Hans Hermann von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lieutenant in the Prussian army and friend of Frederick II's youth.
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1730
Place of death Küstrin