Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Marie Princess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , actually: Maria Luise Alexandrina (born February 3, 1808 in Weimar , † January 18, 1877 in Berlin ) was Princess of Prussia by marriage . Her husband was Prince Carl of Prussia , the third son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia and Queen Luise .
Early years
Princess Marie was the eldest daughter of the Hereditary Prince and later Grand Duke Carl Friedrich von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach and the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanowa , a sister of Tsar Alexander I of Russia . While her father was a shy person whose preferred reading remained fairy tales until the end of his life , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called her mother “one of the best and most important women of her time”. Together with her sister Augusta , who was three years her junior , Marie received a comprehensive education that was geared towards later performing courtly duties of representation. One of the teachers was Espérance Sylvestre (1790–1842) from Geneva . This also included drawing lessons given by the court painter Louise Seidler , as well as thorough music lessons, for which the court conductor Johann Nepomuk Hummel was responsible.
The court in Weimar, where Marie grew up, was considered one of the most liberal; the first country in Germany to have passed a constitutional constitution in 1816 . Weimar was also very open to art and literature thanks to the continued influence of Duchess Anna Amalia von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, who died in 1807 . Goethe, who was in charge of the Weimar court theater until 1817 , remained a welcome guest at the grand ducal court.
In 1815, Marie's grandfather, Duke Karl August, was elevated to the rank of Grand Duke by the Congress of Vienna and under the influence of the Tsar. In addition, the Grand Duchy experienced a considerable expansion of territory. From then on, Princess Marie was allowed to use the title of Royal Highness .
Negotiating the wedding
Marie was sixteen years old when she first met her future husband, Prince Carl of Prussia, in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1824 . He was the third son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia
and Queen Luise, nee Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz .
Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was on her way to Russia with her two daughters and met her brother, Grand Duke Nikolaus and his wife Charlotte in Frankfurt . There they were welcomed by the Prince Brothers Wilhelm and Carl on behalf of the Prussian King. At this meeting, Prince Carl fell in love with Marie, his older brother, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm I , was still deeply in love with the Polish princess Elisa Radziwill .
King Friedrich Wilhelm III. immediately got in touch with the courts in Saint Petersburg and Weimar , where, however, neither the mother of the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna , who continued to embody the authority in family matters, nor the mother of the beloved, the Hereditary Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, received the hoped-for response. In both residences, it was wished to save Marie for an heir to the throne of a house, albeit a smaller one.
From the Russian side, a connection between Prince Wilhelm and Marie and between Prince Carl and the younger Augusta was considered, which would have been better in terms of age and would certainly have satisfied the Weimar court immediately. However, King Friedrich Wilhelm could not gain anything from these intentions.
The connection between Prince Wilhelm and Elisa Radziwill now took on a new dimension. Marie's mother in particular had a great interest in defaming the "Demoiselle Radziwill" with all possible means: in the event of Wilhelm's separation from Elisa, he would have been free for an equal marriage with heirs entitled to the throne. Maria Pawlowna found an ally in her strategy in Grand Duke Georg von Mecklenburg-Strelitz , the brother of Queen Luise, who died so early, and Prince Carl's uncle.
The negotiations dragged on for more than two years until the mother of the Tsarina, Maria Feodorovna , succeeded in changing her daughter's mind. The bride's parents were now both ready to agree to Marie's marriage to Carl without making any demands on Prince Wilhelm.
marriage
On May 26, 1827, Princess Marie and Prince Carl of Prussia married in Charlottenburg near Berlin. The happiness of the two, who had served as the bone of contention for dynastic interests for so long, was perfect ten months after the wedding with the birth of their son Friedrich Karl . Carl's brother Wilhelm and Marie's sister Augusta bowed to dynastic pressure and married two years later. In contrast to the love marriage of Carl and Marie, this marriage of convenience was not a happy one.
Living in Berlin and Glienicke
From 1829 the young family lived in their winter residence in the Palais Prinz Carl in Berlin at Wilhelmplatz No. 8–9, which had been rebuilt according to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . As early as 1824, Prince Carl had acquired a country house located in today 's Volkspark Glienicke and had it converted by Karl Friedrich Schinkel into Glienicke Palace by 1826 , which became the preferred place of residence for him and his wife. A casino and little curiosity followed; Carl had the latter building covered with antique mosaics from Carthage . The Rotunda Große Curiosity was built in 1835 and the park in Glienicke was consistently expanded in the following years.
In 1859 Prince Carl bought the Glienicker Jagdschloss for his son, Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia.
In recognition of the services of the 1st Westphalian Field Artillery Regiment No. 7 in the campaign of 1864, King Wilhelm I appointed his sister-in-law Princess Marie to head the regiment on December 7, 1865. She was the mother of Friedrich Karl von Prussia , who in 1864 as general of the cavalry had the supreme command of the Prussian troops in Schleswig-Holstein, on April 18, 1864 with the participation of batteries of the regiment , stormed the Düppeler Schanzen and thus in the German-Danish War won the decisive victory for Prussia and Austria.
Princess Marie died in 1877 at the age of 69. Prince Carl had a crypt laid out under the church of St. Peter and Paul in Wannsee near the Pfaueninsel , where he himself was buried next to Princess Marie on the night of January 24th to 25th, 1883.
The Prinzessinnentrift was named after her as a route in Cuxhaven - Döse because she took a cure here in 1835.
progeny
The marriage of Princess Marie and Prince Carl of Prussia on May 26, 1827 resulted in three children:
- Friedrich Karl von Prussia (1828–1885), Prussian field marshal ⚭ 1854 Marie Anne Princess of Anhalt-Dessau (1837–1906), daughter of Duke Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau
-
Marie Luise Anna von Prussia (1829–1901) ⚭ 1854–1861 Landgrave Alexis von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1829–1905)
She acquired Montfort Castle in 1873 and used it as a summer residence on Lake Constance until her death, especially in summer . - Marie Anna Friederike of Prussia (1836–1918) ⚭ 1853 Landgrave Friedrich Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel-Rumpenheim (1820–1884)
literature
- Harald Eschenburg: The Polish Princess (" Elisa Radziwill: the childhood love of Kaiser Wilhelm I. ") Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87203-015-9
- Karl Prinz von Isenburg: Family Tables on the History of the European States, 2 volumes, Marburg 1953
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maria Luise Alexandrina of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; Marie of Prussia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of Carl of Prussia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 3, 1808 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Weimar |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 1877 |
| Place of death | Berlin |