On the 6th of November 1730, a Monday, former Lieutenant of the Gens d’armes Hans Hermann von Katte was executed in Küstrin, about 100 Kilometers east of Berlin.
The court had originally decided to have Katte spend the rest of his life behind bars, however, King Frederick William I. disagreed with the sentence and had the court make another decision.
“It is better to have [Katte] die than to have justice fade from this world.”
Katte was brought to Küstrin on the weekend preceding his death, arriving in the fortress on Sunday.
Crown Prince Frederick, who had been locked up in Küstrin for the past three months, was not informed of his friend’s fate until right before the execution. The Prince was devastated, crying for the execution to be delayed so he could write to his father and ask for forgiveness, saying that he would give up his right to the throne of Prussia or even his own life if Katte’s life were to be spared.
Frederick William’s original order was to have Katte beheaded right in front of his son’s window, forcing him to witness his friend’s death. However, there are no eyewitnesses to this actually happening, even though some sources suggest that the place Katte was executed at could still be seen from the Prince’s window. It is almost certain that the Prince could at least hear what was going on.
Katte was most likely lead past the Crown Prince’s window, giving the two young men the opportunity to say their goodbyes. While Frederick had spoken to the guards and soldiers in German, he switched to French when addressing Katte.
“Pardonnez-moi! Mon cher Katte, au nom de dieu, pardonnez-moi!”
Katte answered in the same language. There are multiple versions of those last words, the most popular being “There is nothing to forgive. I die for you with joy in my heart.”
Another version is “Death is sweet for such a lovely Prince”.
Frederick fainted shortly after and awoke after his friend had already passed. Katte’s body was left lying at the scaffold for the rest of the day and later buried in a pauper’s grave on the graveyard of Küstrin. His father asked the King for permission to take his son’s remains back to the family residence in Wust, where the coffin remains to this day.
In the following days Frederick fell ill, refused to accept medical help until threatened with the deaths of his sister and mother, and even hallucinated.
A letter he wrote during those days is known to contain the phrase
“The King thinks that he has taken Katte from me, but I see him standing right in front of me.”
