Check the king

An unknown friendship of the great Prussian king Albert von Hoditz was a connoisseur and life reformer who wanted to turn his castle on the contested border between Austria and Prussia into an "Arcadia in Moravia." His subjects were to become artists. Frederick the Great also took notice of Hoditz. For Frederick, Hoditz's free existence in Rosswald, which he visited twice, served as a reminder of a missed life of his own. Legendary is an outdoor chess game between the two with "living pieces." Frederick's relationship with Hoditz, to whom he wrote two poems, sheds new light on the strict, duty-bound king, whom the "eccentric epicurean" Hoditz also introduced to his oriental harem, and is likely to surprise even experts.