Adolf Friedrich IV. (Mecklenburg)

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Duke Adolf Friedrich IV. In the costume of the Royal Swedish Seraphine Order .

Adolf Friedrich IV., Duke of Mecklenburg [-Strelitz] (* May 5, 1738 in Mirow ; † June 2, 1794 in Neustrelitz ) was the ruling Duke of Mecklenburg in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz region from 1752 / 53–1794 .

Life

Duke Adolf Friedrich IV.

Adolf Friedrich IV. Was the eldest son and third of ten children of the Hereditary Prince Karl (Ludwig Friedrich) and his wife Elisabeth Albertine , born in Mirow . Princess of Saxony-Hildburghausen .

After the death of his father († June 4, 1752) he became heir to the throne and with the death of his uncle, Duke Adolf Friedrich III. († December 11, 1752), ruling duke in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz region. However, his accession to the throne was accompanied by considerable turbulence, which is part of the bitter struggle between the sovereign rulers and the united estates for positions of power in the Mecklenburg state. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the estates tried to win the future heir to the throne as a guarantor of their cause. When the succession to the throne unexpectedly occurred in 1752, the situation escalated, as troops of the Duke of Schwerin occupied the Strelitz part of the country and wanted to enforce its political independence after decoupling from the state of Mecklenburg. The heir to the throne had been brought to safety in Greifswald abroad during these weeks , where he (initially under a foreign name) became a student, but soon became honorary rector of the Greifswald University. The intervention of the Schwerin Duke failed. The outcome of the succession controversy further strengthened the estates.

Declared of legal age on January 17, 1753, Adolf Friedrich IV. Took office on April 4, 1753 in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz region.

In 1755, he and his mother, in their capacity as guardians of his younger siblings, ratified the Land Constitutional Constitution (LGGEV), with which the Mecklenburg state received a new, rural constitution. This led to the consolidation of the power of the Mecklenburg knighthood and preserved the backwardness of the country until the end of the monarchy (1918). In 1761 he married his younger sister Sophie Charlotte (1744-1818) to Georg III. , King of Great Britain. In 1764 he was the first prince of Mecklenburg to receive the Order of the Garter .

Adolf Friedrich IV is described by contemporary witnesses as a thrifty prince who was particularly open to the latest discoveries in the emerging natural sciences, but who was sometimes prone to attacks of fury and showed little ambition for fundamental reforms. He is said to have been popular with his subjects. He was keen to build and arranged for costly new constructions, conversions, extensions and extensions of princely castles and other representative buildings, such as the manor house in Ratzeburg or the theater and city ​​palace in Neubrandenburg , which left a lasting mark on the part of the country he ruled. However, this also exceeded his and the financial leeway of the part of the country he ruled. That is why an imperial commission for debt settlement had to be set up during his lifetime.

Adolf Friedrich did not fit into the traditional image of a late Baroque duodec prince . He remained unmarried and lived with his older sister Christiane (1735–1794) in a moderate pietistic piety with a rather modest royal court and a great closeness to nature. When he died childless at the age of 57, his younger brother Charles II became his successor. On June 28, 1815, he became the first Grand Duke of Mecklenburg in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz region.

Duke Adolf Friedrich IV. Died of a stroke and was buried on June 9, 1794 in the 2nd section of the Princely Crypt in Mirow .

The inscription on his coffin reads: “Adolph Friedrich IV, Governing Duke of Mecklenburg | Prince of Wenden, Schwerin and Ratzeburg, also Count of Schwerin, the Land of Rostock and Stargard Herr etc. | The Blue Garter - Seraphine - Black Eagle - White Eagle and Red Eagle - Order of Knights - Born on May 5th, 1738, the government entered on December 11th, 1752, passed away on June 2nd, 1794. “ The cover plate of his oak inner coffin, which was probably damaged in 1945, received (later?) a glass plate so that one could see the embalmed body. Until 1988 the crypt could still be visited under guidance, since 1998 it has been open to the general public, but not accessible. Since then, Duke Adolf Friedrich's grave has been closed again by the outer coffin lid.

Literary figure

In the 1860s, Adolf Friedrich IV was named after the eponymous hero in Fritz Reuter's Humoreske Dörchläuchting (= Low German belittling of the predicate serenity). The literary figure, heavily exaggerated and alienated by Reuter, does not come close to doing justice to the historical person.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Adolf Friedrich IV. (Mecklenburg)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolf Karge, Hartmut Schmied, Ernst Münch: The history of Mecklenburg from the beginnings to the present. 4th edition. Rostock 2004. p. 106.
  2. ↑ The arrangement of the coffins in the Mirow Princely Crypt has since been changed several times.
  3. ↑ His coffin is: Adolph Friedrich IV, Governing Duke of Mecklenburg | Prince of Wenden, Schwerin and Ratzeburg, also Count of Schwerin, the Land of Rostock and Stargard Herr etc. | The Blue Garter - Seraphine - Black Eagle - White Eagle and Red Eagle - Order of Knights - Born on May 5th, 1738, entered government on December 11th, 1752, passed away on June 2nd, 1794. (The date of his accession to government is the date of death of Predecessor in the regency.)
predecessor Office successor
Adolf Friedrich III. Duke of Mecklenburg [-Strelitz]
1752–1794 		Charles II
personal data
SURNAME Adolf Friedrich IV.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adolf Friedrich IV., Duke of Mecklenburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Mecklenburg; ruling Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1752–1794)
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1738
PLACE OF BIRTH Mirow
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1794
Place of death Neustrelitz