Eugénie de Beauharnais

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Eugénie de Beauharnais, Princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen

Eugénie Hortense Auguste Napoléone de Beauharnais , Princess of Leuchtenberg (born December 22, 1808 in Milan , † September 1, 1847 in Freudenstadt ) was the last princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen . As the step-granddaughter of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the Franco-German noblewoman brought a considerable fortune to the small residence. As the wife of the Hereditary Prince and later Prince Konstantin von Hohenzollern-Hechingen , she was known for her charity , piety and closeness to the people . In particular, it stood out through numerous foundations that it donated to the church, children's homes, hospital hospitals and old people's homes. Under the princely couple, Hechingen achieved a cultural boom for a few years .

Family origin

Eugénie at a young age

parents

Eugénie Hortense Auguste Napoléone Princess of Leuchtenberg was the daughter of Eugène de Beauharnais , Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt (born September 3, 1781), and Princess Auguste Amalie of Bavaria (born June 21, 1788). Eugénie's father was the stepson and adopted son of Napoleon I. After Emperor Napoleon had elevated his adoptive son to French prince and in 1805 to viceroy of Italy, he married him in 1806 to Princess Auguste Amalie, daughter of Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph .

siblings

Childhood and adolescence

Eugensberg Castle around 1850

Eugénie grew up in the Palais Leuchtenberg on Ludwigstrasse in Munich, in Ismaning Castle and in the Eichstätt Residence and often spent the summer months with her parents at Eugensberg Castle, built by her father on Lake Constance in what is now Salenstein . Her upbringing was strictly Catholic. After the morning greeting from her parents, she attended the morning service. She was given religious instruction in Munich by court preacher Hauber, who also prepared her for First Communion . Parental relations were princely in every respect. The Marquis de la Moussay wrote in 1822: Le prince Eugène Beauharnais étale à Munich un luxe supérieur à celui de la cour. (Eng. "Prince Eugène Beauharnais unfolds a greater luxury in Munich than the court"). The Munich palace was built by the Bavarian architect Leo von Klenze for over two million guilders. When her father died in 1824, Eugénie inherited Eugensberg Castle from him.

Life in Hechingen

Eugenie as mother of the country

Marriage to Constantine

On May 22nd, 1826, the wedding with the also Catholic Hereditary Prince Constantine took place in Eichstätt Cathedral . Before the wedding, the couple had barely known each other, which was not unusual in aristocratic circles at the time. After Hechingen Eugenie brought the lights Bergisch Hofkavalier Gustav von billing as a financial consultant with who should wake up on behalf of her mother about the introduced high dowry and as a consultant also won the trust of Constantine quickly. Until 1833, the hereditary prince couple lived at Lindich Castle near Hechingen, the royal seat of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen . During the summer they spent many months at Eugensberg Castle, where they maintained contact with their aunt Hortense and their cousin Louis Napoleon, who later became Napoleon III. In Hechingen, Eugénie often visited the sick and poor, wrote many letters, read spiritual books, played the piano and worked on embroidery. Eugénie kept visiting her mother in Munich. On one of these visits, at Christmas 1837, her aunt Duchess Ludovika gave birth to a daughter in Bavaria . Eugénie became godmother and held the little duchess over the baptismal font on December 26, 1837. The baby is the future Empress Elisabeth of Austria , better known by her nickname "Sisi".

"Villa Eugenia"

Villa Eugenia

Eugénie was very fun-loving and even shot a stag on a hunt with her husband in 1831. The couple made many trips to Munich, to Lake Constance to Eugensburg Castle or to the summer residence of the Bavarian king in Tegernsee. In 1833 a long journey to Italy began, which lasted almost a year and a half and led to Sicily.

Eugénie then sold Eugensberg Castle. The buyer was Heinrich von Kiesow from Augsburg for 32,000 guilders. The proceeds were used to finance the renovation of the Villa Eugenia in Hechingen, which the hereditary prince couple moved into in 1834. The princess acquired the Gasthaus Zur Silberburg on the southern edge of the park and had it converted into a villa in 1844, which was also used as a guest house for the noble relatives. The surrounding gardens were also bought up and an English landscape garden created, what is now known as the Prince's Garden .

Famous personalities were guests of the Hechingen princely couple: Eugénie's cousin Emperor Napoleon III, Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt , who spent several months in Hechingen and was housed in Lindich Castle. The court orchestra under the direction of Thomas Tagbeck enjoyed a good reputation. From 1843, members of the Museum Society and the Music Society were also admitted to the Sunday court concerts in the villa, in which Konstantin and Eugénie took part. Konstantin himself composed and worked as a singer; Eugénie sang in the choir in performances such as Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross on Good Friday 1830 in the Hechingen collegiate church .

Constantine had numerous extramarital affairs, which Eugenie did not hide. One can assume that the marriage was not very happy. To her court belonged Marie von Wagner as a lady-in-waiting, two chambermaids, a decision maker, two servants and the body coach.

The pious benefactress

Bust of Eugénies in front of today's Hechingen District Court

Eugenie remained childless and sought solace in an increasing piety. The day began and ended with prayers. She founded a nursing home and in 1839 the large children's institution in Hechingen - the building with her bust is now the seat of the local court. It was set up for those children whose parents "were often prevented from supervising, caring for and bringing up their small children because they ran a trade or because they did their house and field business".

Memorial window in the collegiate church Hechingen

For ten years she lovingly looked after her sick father-in-law, Prince Friedrich , who had never recovered from the war injuries and died in Lindich Castle in 1838 . Together with her husband, Eugénie washed the feet of twelve old and needy residents every Maundy Thursday in order to then invite them to an apostles' meal in the billiard house in the prince's garden, where stockfish with sauerkraut was served after a prayer.

Eugénie fell ill with tuberculosis . From 1842 the signs of the disease increased. After participating in the baptism of her cousin Ludwig , she was bedridden in Ismaning Castle until the summer of 1845 and was only able to return to Hechingen in mid-September. In the winter of 1846 she moved to the so-called court kitchen directly behind the Villa Eugenia, as there was better heating here. Her doctors treated her with methods that are curious from today's perspective. This included inhaling cow dung fumes and burning moxa sticks on her chest. Because of the risk of infection, she was only rarely allowed to see her husband from a distance. In the summer of 1847 she went to Badenweiler for a cure . On the return journey she died in the Hotel Post in Freudenstadt on September 1, 1847.

Eugénie was buried in the crypt in front of the high altar in the collegiate church. Her heart, which was kept in an urn in the house chapel of Palais Leuchtenberg in Munich at the request of her mother, has been housed in a niche at the right choir entrance of the collegiate church in Hechingen since 1952. In her will, Eugénie designated a significant part of her fortune, which at her death amounted to around 850,000 guilders, for charitable purposes. The values ​​bequeathed to their “dear Hechingians” for social purposes were roughly 273,000 guilders.

literature

  • Anton-Heinrich Buckenmaier, Michael Hakenmüller: Friedrich-Wilhelm Constantin. The last prince. Glückler, Hechingen 2005.
  • Ulrich Feldhahn, Stefan Schmidt-Lawrenz, Otto Werner: Princess Eugenie of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Booklet accompanying the memorial exhibition. Hohenzollern State Collection, Hechingen 1997.
  • Rudolf Marti: Eugensberg, a castle and 2500 years of history. Huber, Frauenfeld 1997.

Web links

Commons : Eugénie de Beauharnais  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 6
  2. ^ Letter to the Viscount de Montmorency dated February 1, 1822, cf. Bavarian Academy of Sciences: Series of publications on Bavarian national history , Vol. 18, 1935, p. 168.
  3. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 9
  4. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 10, p. 13 and p. 15.
  5. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century, Munich 2019, p. 184
  6. ↑ Buckenmaier et al. (2005), p. 70.
  7. ^ Thurgauer Zeitung of January 14, 2004, Untersee and Rhein section .
  8. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 13
  9. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 10
  10. ↑ Quoted from Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 16.
  11. ↑ Feldhahn et al. (1997), p. 17.
  12. ↑ Cf. Carola Nathan: Eugenie brought the shine. In: Monuments online , January 2005.
personal data
SURNAME Beauharnais, Eugénie de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Leuchtenberg and by marriage Princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1847
Place of death Freudenstadt