Adolf Friedrich III. (Mecklenburg)

Duke Adolf Friedrich III.

Adolf Friedrich III., Duke of Mecklenburg [-Strelitz] (born June 7, 1686 in Strelitz , † December 11, 1752 in Neustrelitz ) was the ruling Duke of Mecklenburg in the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz .

Life

He was the eldest son of Duke Adolf Friedrich II from his first marriage to Marie, daughter of Duke Gustav Adolf von Mecklenburg-Güstrow .

After the death of his father in 1708 he took over the regency in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz region. When the old Strelitz residential palace burned down on October 24, 1712 and reconstruction at the old location was impossible, he had a new palace built in Glienecke from 1726 to 1731 . For practical reasons, he founded a settlement next to it on May 20, 1733, which later became the residential town of Neustrelitz . In 1748 he arranged a secret treaty with Duke Christian Ludwig II , the regent of the Schwerin region, to dissolve the entire state of Mecklenburg. However, this plan failed because of the bitter resistance of the knighthood. As a result, his nephew, Duke Adolf Friedrich IV. , Concluded the constitutional settlement of inheritance with the estates in 1755 . This comparison of inheritance led to the consolidation of the power of the Mecklenburg knighthood and preserved the backwardness of the country until the end of the monarchy in Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1918). Adolf Friedrich III. Founded the poorly awarded order de la fidélité et constance around 1750 .

family

Adolf Friedrich III. married on April 16, 1709 in Reinfeld Dorothea Sophie (* December 4, 1692 in Plön ; † April 29, 1765 in Fürstenberg / Havel ), daughter and youngest child of Johann Adolf von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön .

The marriage resulted in two daughters:

• Marie Sophie (* May 5, 1710; † February 21, 1728), appointed abbess in the Rühn Abbey in 1719 , but probably never held this office.
• Magdalene Christiane (July 21, 1711 - January 27, 1713)

Since the marriage of Duke Adolf Friedrich III. remained without male descendants and his brother had died immediately before, his brother's son, Adolf Friedrich (IV.) , succeeded the Strelitz throne.

Web links

• Literature about Duke Adolf Friedrich III. in the state bibliography MV
• Adolf Friedrich III. at www.emecklenburg.de
• Family tree of the House of Mecklenburg ( Memento from July 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

predecessor	Office	successor
Adolf Friedrich II.	Duke of Mecklenburg [-Strelitz] 1708–1752	Adolf Friedrich IV.