Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860)

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Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, around 1830

Princess Charlotte of Prussia , full name Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia (* 13 July 1798 in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin , † October 20 jul. / 1. November  1860 greg. In Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg ) was a member of the House Hohenzollern and through marriage to Nicholas I as Alexandra Fyodorovna Empress of Russia .

Life

Charlotte of Prussia as a young girl

Princess Charlotte of Prussia was born on July 13, 1798 in Berlin as the third child and eldest daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia and Queen Luise , nee Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz .

Her childhood was shaped by the Napoleonic Wars . After the defeat of the Prussian troops in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in November 1806, the royal family fled the month after Konigsberg , where they, under the protection of Emperor I. Alexander stood. After the fall of Berlin and its occupation, the family settled in Memel .

Charlotte had just turned twelve when her mother died on a trip to see her family at Hohenzieritz Castle . As the eldest daughter, she was now the first lady at court and had corresponding representative tasks and duties to fulfill. Charlotte cultivated her connection to Prussia and the memory of her mother throughout her life.

In the fall of 1814, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia and his brother Grand Duke Michael visited Berlin. Negotiations broke out between the two families about a possible wedding of Charlotte and Nikolaus. During a second visit by Nikolaus the following year, the two fell in love. As you can see from her diary entries and the correspondence with her brother, Charlotte was very sure of her cause. Before Nicholas left, the couple got engaged. However, two years passed before the wedding.

On June 9, 1817, Charlotte reached Russia with her brother Prince Wilhelm . Exactly on her 19th birthday on July 13, 1817, she was married to the second brother of Emperor Alexander I , Grand Duke Nikolaus Pawlowitsch, who was to become Nikolaus I's successor in 1825 . Charlotte's conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church was connected with the marriage . She became Grand Duchess and was given the name Alexandra Feodorovna . Although it served primarily to strengthen the alliance between Prussia and Russia, the marriage between Nicholas and Alexandra can also be called happy. The couple spent a lot of time together and, by the standards of the time, lived rather modestly and withdrawn in the Peterhof Palace . The Ropscha hunting lodge outside St. Petersburg was transferred to the Grand Duchess in 1825.

The human being

Statue of Princess Charlotte as Juno of Peace at the National Monument for the Wars of Liberation by Christian Daniel Rauch (around 1820)

Alexandra Feodorovna was tall and slender, with a comparatively small head with fine features and blue eyes. She had a dignified charisma and an easy walk. However, she was generally of a poor constitution. Her voice was rather low and hoarse, but with a determined undertone.

She was an avid reader, and as a child she had chosen a white rose as a symbol. In the family circle she was nicknamed "Blanche-Fleur" after the heroine of a chivalric novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué , which was one of the royal siblings' favorite books. She also found great pleasure in music and dance. She was considered kind, humble, intelligent, and direct. She had many, if mostly superficial, interests. She dressed elegantly, in light colors, liked to wear jewelry and liked to attend balls or court events.

Her husband Nikolaus gave Alexandra little freedom to meet her personal preferences. He saw her duties primarily to be wife and mother. Nevertheless, she tried to deal with the problems of Russia and its people.

Grand Duchess of Russia

At the beginning Alexandra had problems settling in at the Russian court. The new faith and the new environment overwhelmed her. Under the supervision of the poet Vasily Schukowski, Alexandra learned the language and customs of her new home. However, in her opinion, Zhukovsky was a better poet than a teacher, and since the imperial family spoke German anyway and all correspondence was written in French, Alexandra never really mastered the Russian language.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with her two eldest children Maria and Alexander, painted by George Dawe (c. 1824)

Alexandra had a good relationship with her mother-in-law Maria Feodorovna , whereas she repeatedly came into conflict with her sister-in-law Empress Elisabeth Alexejewna , probably because of her childlessness. By Elisabeth's death in 1826, Alexandra had four children, while both Elisabeth's children had died in childhood.

A few weeks after their wedding, Alexandra became pregnant and gave birth to their first son, who later became Emperor Alexander II , on April 29, 1818 .

Alexandra gave birth to a total of nine children:

In 1820, after the third pregnancy within three years, she gave birth to a stillborn daughter and then fell into deep depression. On the advice of their doctors, she and Nikolaus traveled to Alexandra's family in Berlin in the fall of 1820, where they stayed until the summer of 1821. In the summer of 1824 the couple made another trip to Berlin. It was not until March 1825, when Emperor Alexander I asked for his brother's support because of his poor health, that the couple returned to Saint Petersburg.

Since Alexander I had no children and the rightful heir to the throne, Grand Duke Constantine, had waived his claim, Nicholas was now the designated heir to the throne. When Alexander I died in November 1825, he was crowned Emperor of Russia as Nikolaus I and Alexandra Empress. The couple didn't seem to have been thrilled about this. The beginning of Nicholas' reign was marked by the bloody suppression of the Decembrist uprisings .

Empress of Russia

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at her husband's coronation, 1826

In 1832 Alexandra and Nikolaus had seven children and were a happy couple. When large parts of the St. Petersburg Winter Palace were destroyed by fire in 1837 , it is said that the most important thing for Nicholas was that a box with Alexandra's letters from the time of her engagement was saved from the flames.

After minor heart attacks and because of her already weak constitution, the doctors advised Alexandra against strenuous activities, which should include sex (probably because of the risk of a new pregnancy). Thereupon Nikolaus, who had repeatedly not been so strict about marital fidelity, took a mistress , Alexandra's lady-in-waiting Barbara Nelidova. In the event of personal problems and concerns, he continued to consult with his wife, whom he nicknamed "Muffi". When her doctors ordered Alexandra to stay in Palermo for several months in 1837 , Nikolaus accompanied her there, but also took Barbara Nelidowa with him on the trip. Even if Alexandra was jealous at the beginning, she finally accepted her husband's relationship and later got along with the mistress.

Due to the favorable climatic conditions, Alexandra chose the Crimea as the location for her new winter residence Orianda in 1837 . The outbreak of the Crimean War meant that she could only visit Orianda Castle once, in 1852. In 1854 Alexandra fell seriously ill. Although the doctors gave her little chance of survival, she recovered from the disease. Surprisingly, her husband Nikolaus died on February 18, 1855 of complications from the flu .

Widow life

Portrait of Franz Xaver Winterhalter : Widow of the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna in 1856

Alexandra survived Nicholas by five years and made the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo her retirement home. The relationship with Nikolaus' mistress Barbara Nelidowa remained good, she made Nelidowa her personal reader.

Alexandra's poor health continued to deteriorate. Because of the harsh weather, she spent most of the year abroad, which was not always easy for her, as she felt connected to the Russian people and wanted to stay in her new home. In the autumn of 1860, the doctors ordered her to stay in warmer climes, otherwise she would not survive the following winter. Alexandra ignored the instruction to be able to die in Russia. She died on October 20, 1860 at the age of 62 in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. On the eve of her death, Alexandra is said to have called: "Niki, I'll come to you."

Traces in Berlin and Potsdam

In the vicinity of Berlin and Potsdam , some buildings and works of art are connected to her and the close ties between Prussia and Russia at the time:

The plant genus Alexa Moq is also named after her . from the legume family (Fabaceae).

literature

  • Andreas Kitschke: Planning and building history of the church . In: Wilfried W. Heidemann (Ed.): Evangelical Church of St. Peter and Paul on Nikolskoe 1837-1987. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary . Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-9801405-0-4 , pp. 19-35.
  • Fritz Schmidt: Peter and Paul 1837-1937. 1. The history of church building. In: Fritz Schmidt (Ed.): 100 years Peter and Paul on Nikolskoe. Paul Koch-Verlag, Berlin 1937, pp. 83-122.
  • Constantin de Grunwald: Tsar Nicholas I. Saunders, London 1954.
  • W. Bruce Lincoln: The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias. Anchor, 1987, ISBN 0-385-27908-6 .
  • Charlotte Zeepvat: Romanov Autumn. Sutton Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0-7509-2739-9 .
  • W. Bruce Lincoln: Nicholas I, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. Northern Illinois University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87580-548-5 .
  • Karl-Heinz Börner (ed.): Prince Wilhelm of Prussia to Charlotte. Letters 1817-1860. Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-001981-6 .
  • Je.W. Ptschelow: Monarch of Russia (Монархи России). Olma-Press, Moscow 2003, page 448.
  • Marianna Butenschön: The Prussian on the Tsar's throne. Alexandra, Empress of Russia. Piper, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3492054430 .

Web links

Commons : Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Ропша в XIX веке , ropshapalace.info
  2. Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
predecessor Office Successor
Elisabeth Alexejewna Empress of Russia
1825–1855
Maria Alexandrovna