August II (Poland)

King August II painted by his court painter de Silvestre ; on his left the Polish crown jewels and the Saxon electoral hat (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ).

August's signature:

Friedrich August I of Saxony , called August the Strong (* May 12, 1670 in Dresden , † February 1, 1733 in Warsaw ), from the Albertine line of the Wettins, was from April 27, 1694 to February 1, 1733 as Friedrich August I . Elector and Duke of Saxony and of 15 September 1697 to 1706 and again from 1709 to February 1, 1733 in personal union as Augustus II. King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania .

He is considered to be one of the most dazzling figures of courtly splendor at the end of the 17th and early 18th centuries and, as a prototype of absolutist self-portrayal, mainly established Dresden's reputation as a splendid baroque metropolis through his lively building activity and very pronounced passion for collecting . Under him, the electoral state experienced an enormous economic, infrastructural and cultural boom. At the same time, however, he haplessly embroiled his countries in the Northern War , in the course of which, after converting from the Protestant to the Roman Catholic faith, he was able to regain the Polish crown , which soon afterwards led to further wars and the strengthening of the Russian one Influence in Poland.

Life

King August II in court costume and with the sash of the Order of the White Eagle

August was born on May 12, 1670, around 9 a.m., as the second eldest son of Johann Georg III. Duke of Saxony and Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark and Norway born in Dresden. He was brought up for a time in the Lichtenburg in Prettin and spent his childhood with his grandfather Johann Georg II , who ruled until 1680, and whose grandfather and luxury-loving court kept the young August very impressed.

He enjoyed a proper education early on, to which the following teachers, among others, were appointed in 1676:

• v. Bone for foreign languages ​​( Italian , French and Spanish )
• Christoph Bernhardi for music
• v. Klengel for the military , drawing , fortification and mathematics

In addition, he received lessons in theology and history , especially in the ruling houses of Europe.

The architectural environment ( castle , stable yard , riding house, palace in the Great Garden , pleasure house on the Jungfernbastei ) as well as the living habits and festive traditions of the high nobility gave him the awareness of being part of one of the most traditional German royal houses. One of these festivities was experienced in August 1678 at the Most Serene Gathering , at which all members of the Saxon house came together and in addition to opera, drama and ballet performances, carousel races (tournaments, jousting games) took place. Furthermore, there were many festivals that were not limited to the castle, but also included the whole city or the surrounding area, which were characterized by a variety of events. These glorious events in the boy's life are likely to have influenced him greatly.

At first August and his older brother Johann Georg grew up together, but there were more and more disputes between the two siblings, so that Friedrich August received Christian August von Haxthausen as his own court master at the age of 15 .

In 1686 he had his first love experience with the lady-in-waiting Marie Elisabeth von Brockdorf, who was expelled from the castle when the affair became public. But with the help of his father, who was not averse to beautiful women, she was allowed to return to the court. In the autumn of the same year, August went on his first long trip with his mother to see his uncle Christian V of Denmark .

This was followed by the mandatory Grand Tour , which was used to introduce Prince August to foreign courts. On this trip he should get to know the architecture and culture of other countries, expand his foreign language skills, learn manners and diplomatic knowledge and gain experience. The journey began on May 19, 1687, a few days after his 17th birthday, incognito as Count von Meißen. It was a planned “trip for three years” from Dresden via Frankfurt am Main , Strasbourg , Paris , Spain , Portugal , England , Holland , Denmark , Sweden , Nuremberg , Augsburg , Munich , Innsbruck , Milan , Venice (where he was met Count Königsmarck ) and brought Vienna back to Dresden, where he returned on April 28, 1689 on the orders of his father. August was accompanied by his Hofmeister v. Haxthausen, who also taught him horse riding, fencing and shooting, the pastor Anton, the stable master von Einsiedel, the chamberlain von Thielau as well as the doctors Pauli and Johann Jacob Bartholomaei , who became an arcanist in 1708 , and August the supervision and supervision of Böttger's gold experiments and porcelain extraction with transferred.

In 1690 he fell ill with the leaves , which at that time often ended fatally. But the prince's strong constitution and the happy course of his illness meant that the 20-year-old recovered quickly.

In the following three years he took part in the war against France on the Upper Rhine , then stayed for a while at the imperial court in Vienna and took part in a campaign in the Spanish Netherlands .

On January 20, 1693, in Bayreuth , he married Christiane Eberhardine , Princess of Brandenburg-Bayreuth , for whom his father had had to court for a long time for his younger, somewhat volatile son.

Government in the Saxon Electoral State

The Electorate of Saxony in the 18th century

Taking office

During the preparations for another campaign against France in the Palatinate War of Succession (1688-1697) August's older brother Johann Georg IV died on April 27, 1694 of smallpox. He was infected on the deathbed of his mistress Magdalena Sibylla von Neitschütz . Since Johann Georg IV had not fathered a legitimate heir to the throne because of the relationship with his mistress, his younger brother August unexpectedly rose from titular duke to reigning elector of Saxony. This began the so-called Augustan Age (1694–1763) in Saxony , which included the reigns of the two Saxon electors, who were also to rise to become kings of Poland. The term refers to Friedrich August I (reign: 1694–1733) and his son Friedrich August II (reign: 1733–1763). The economically and culturally highly developed Electorate of Saxony was the fourth largest territorial state in the Holy Roman Empire at the end of the 17th century . The electorate quickly recovered from the devastation and depopulation of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The large number of cities, silver mining and increasing agricultural yields had made a decisive contribution to this.

The official ceremonies for taking office were so-called tributes, consisting of representatives of the nobility and the townspeople. In the most important cities of Saxony ( Dresden , Torgau , Wittenberg , Leipzig and Bautzen ) they solemnly swore an oath of allegiance to the new elector.

From July 1695 to September 1696 August took part in the Great Turkish War as Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army in Hungary, with varying success . In the Battle of the Bega in 1696, which ended in a draw, the Imperial Army suffered considerable losses, but this was largely due to the resistance of the old Imperial General Donat Graf Heissler against the high command of the young Duke and Elector.

Attempts to establish absolutism

In Saxony, August pushed back the influence of the long-established nobility and ruled through the secret cabinet created in 1706 as the central control point for executive powers, whose most important ministers and officers v. Beichlingen , v. Flemming , v. Zech , v. Schöning , AMG v. Hoym , CH v. Hoym , HF v. Friesen , OH v. Friesen , v. Werthern , v. Löwendal , Wicardel , v. Wackerbarth , v. Manteuffel , AF v. Pflugk and OH v. Pflugk were. The secret cabinet was made the highest central authority through constant expansion of its powers , and the bureaucratic apparatus was filled with loyal commoners under a chamber president. A mountain council, a secret war council and a general court martial were established. But there was never any real absolutism. This became clear in 1717 in the dispute between the elector on the one hand and the Saxon nobility and the emerging bourgeoisie on the other, the reason for the revolt being the electoral prince's conversion to Catholicism . The Saxon court was smaller than the Bavarian court.

The “ Codex Augusteus ” , first printed in Leipzig in 1724 , replaced the Electoral Saxon constitutions , the most extensive Saxon work for laws, ordinances, mandates and state parliament approvals up to that point. The new state parliament order of 1728 led to a further restriction of the rights of the estates . The publication of a state handbook in the form of the court and state calendar took place for the first time in 1728. For the time of his absence from Saxony, August appointed the Swabian Imperial Prince Anton Egon von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg from 1697 to 1706, without confirmation from the Estates, and from 1698 also President of the General Revision College for putting an end to grievances in taxation, to his governor, ibid. His most influential ministers, such as Flemming or Wackerbarth, were not born in Saxony and were therefore not associated with or dependent on the local estates. It was also Augustus the Strong who allowed the Jews to resettle in Saxony for the first time since their expulsion in 1430; His court Jew Issachar Berend Lehmann , whom he brought from Halberstadt to Dresden in 1696, also played a major role in this , where a Jewish community subsequently emerged.

King August II in armor and ermine cloak as well as with the sash of the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of the Golden Fleece , of which he was a knight since 1697 (painting at Stolpen Castle )

Finance and Economic Policy

In October 1694, he had a nationwide statistical record of all official registers, income and uses carried out according to a uniform scheme. According to his absolutist awareness of power, August wanted to act financially independently of the estates, as they were entitled to direct taxes, which is why he wanted to introduce indirect taxes. H. consumption-oriented taxes, which he succeeded against resistance with the creation of the completely new general consumption excise (including the highest tax authority) in 1703. In 1707, an upper accounting chamber and the upper accounting college were set up as the central auditing authority for all sovereign coffers for auditing and organizing state finances.

In 1712, the elector appointed Jacob Heinrich von Flemming , whose efforts as envoy in Warsaw had earned him the Polish crown in 1697 and who had been minister of war and foreign affairs since 1705, as army chief with the rank of field marshal and at the same time as minister director with the sole right to speak, thus effectively to the prime minister. This position, combined with the lasting favor of his employer and a systematically built network, enabled Flemming to maintain his now undisputed leadership role in Saxon-Polish politics until his death in 1728. Flemming ensured the development of a reliable civil service and separated the finances of the “court” and “state”. In 1712 he appointed the economist Marperger to the Saxon service, who, with his advice, was instrumental in many of the progressive reforms that were now systematically tackled.

The Saxon economy was promoted by the state according to the principles of mercantilism and oriented towards export ( Leipziger Messe ), whereby August also endeavored to establish a commercial college to make these efforts more effective, which was only implemented two years after his death. , The establishment of a state lottery in 1715, the introduction of: as an economically important to the establishment of the first state bank in the German area proved in 1698 (Leipzig seat) Gregorian calendar 1700 and the written test relations (from 1729) and the State Survey and reform of Saxon post to 1722, which was then the fastest in the German Empire .

The reinvention of porcelain by Tschirnhaus , Böttger , v. Ohain and v. Schönberg , which led to the establishment of the Meißen porcelain factory in 1710 . In addition to this achievement, he was also an entrepreneur himself , for example with the Olbernhauer armory and the faience manufacture from 1708 in the New Royal City . A total of 26 factories were created in Saxony during August's reign , including for the production of mirrors, rifles, cloth, gold and silver threads (so-called “ Leonische Waren ”), damask, blue paints and wallpaper.

Foreign relations, armed conflicts and politics in Poland

→ Main article : Saxony-Poland

Motifs for the Polish crown acquisition

King August II in the field, painted by Louis de Silvestre

On June 17, 1696 was with Johann III. Sobieski the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania died. In the Polish monarchy , foreigners were also allowed to apply for the crown of Poland. With the acquisition of the Polish royal dignity August wanted to achieve an increase in rank, which should secure him greater political sovereignty. Especially in the peace treaties, a crowned head took precedence over princes of a lower rank. Therefore, the Polish crown was not a mere prestige object for the Saxon elector, but politically extremely valuable. A rise in rank was a typical phenomenon in the Holy Roman Empire at the end of the 17th century. At the same time as August, negotiations began in Hanover about a possible succession to the throne of Elector Ernst August in Great Britain . His son actually became King of Great Britain as George I in 1714. In Koenigsberg in 1701 Friedrich I crowned himself "King in Prussia". The Elector of Bavaria Maximilian II Emanuel also strove, albeit unsuccessfully, for the royal crown. In addition, from August's point of view, raw material-rich Poland-Lithuania offered sales markets for Saxon products. The increase in the economic efficiency of Saxony and Poland should increase August's reputation in Europe and at the same time increase his tax revenues.

In order not to jeopardize his royal plans or to meet resistance from the great European powers France and Austria , negotiations with the Polish nobles had to remain secret until the royal coronation. The estates, potential opponents of such plans, were neither asked nor informed by August. This was closely related to religious political considerations of the Protestant estates.

Change of faith and consequences for religious denomination

Bernardo Bellotto , also known as Canaletto: Dresden from the right bank of the Elbe below the Augustus Bridge (left the Evangelical Frauenkirche , right the Catholic Court Church ).
“In Europe at that time, where denominational disputes still flared up, there was no other capital in which two of the most representative churches of the two major denominations jointly determined the cityscape in a small old town” ( Joachim Menzhausen ).

A prerequisite for the Polish royal dignity was August's conversion from the Evangelical Lutheran denomination to Catholicism . However, the Electorate of Saxony was considered the "motherland of the Reformation ". In the 16th century, the Saxon electors placed the reformer Martin Luther under their sovereign protection and led the Schmalkaldic League , a defense alliance of the Protestant princes and cities. Since the elector and Saxon subjects would belong to different denominations, the Saxon estates feared a re-Catholicization of the electorate on the basis of the Augsburg religious peace of 1555 when August's plans for the king became known . However, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 had already suspended the unofficial principle of the Augsburg religious peace - " cuius regio, eius religio - whose country, whose religion", according to which the sovereign had been able to determine the denomination of the subjects. The Peace of Westphalia instead wrote the territorial status of the denomination "normal year" in 1624 in the Holy Roman Empire established. In terms of imperial law, August could not have re-Catholicized the Electorate of Saxony. He took this important framework into account in the so-called religious insurance decree of September 29, 1697 , which allowed the subjects in Saxony to keep their evangelical faith. His change of faith, the decree explains, is merely a "personal work". Nevertheless, the change of faith, which had only taken place out of power-political calculations, alienated the sovereign from his Protestant subjects. The competition between the denominations manifested itself architecturally in the residential city of Dresden with the construction of two churches that were built almost at the same time; on the one hand the Lutheran Church of Our Lady commissioned by the city council (construction period: 1726–1743) and on the other hand that of August III. , the son of Augustus the Strong, commissioned Catholic Court Church (construction period: 1739–1755).

August the Strong secretly converted to the Catholic faith on June 1, 1697 in the Catholic court chapel in Baden near Vienna and publicly in Deutsch-Piekar on July 27, 1697 , by presenting the prescribed Apostles' Creed in front of his great cousin Prince Christian August von Sachsen-Zeitz , the Bishop of Raab, who had also secretly instructed him in the new faith and issued a certificate after the conversion, which was authenticated by the papal Internuntius . In terms of foreign policy, with the change of faith, Saxony lost its leadership role among the Protestant imperial estates to Brandenburg-Prussia .

August first entrusted the position of head of the Evangelical Church in Saxony to the Privy Council and, with regard to certain powers, to his Ernestine cousin Friedrich von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg . From 1724 the senior consistory directed the fortunes of the regional church largely independently under the various Saxon court preachers . Nevertheless, until 1918 the Catholic electors and kings of Saxony remained nominally heads of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony as well as directors of the Corpus Evangelicorum and “guardians of Protestantism” in the empire. Pope Clement XII. tried to persuade the Saxons to return to the Catholic Church by promising them the possession of the earlier church property in the Bull Sedes Apostolica of 1732.

Obtaining the Polish crown

Friedrich August I is said to have cost 39 million Reichstaler to be elected by the Polish nobility, largely raised by his Jewish court banker Issachar Berend Lehmann . The sums were collected from the Saxon population through taxes. In order to get the money in the short term, he even sold his claims to the duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg , which would actually have fallen to the electoral line of the Wettins due to the extinction of the ducal dynasty of the Ascanians , but was also claimed by Guelphs and Danes, finally to the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, who had already occupied it. He also ceded other areas (see below) against payment.

Friedrich August's adjutant general Jacob Heinrich von Flemming , who spoke fluent Polish and was related by marriage to important Polish magnate families, was sent to Warsaw as an envoy in 1697 to lead the negotiations. When he saw that only about a quarter of the votes would go to August, he used an unconventional tactic: instead of directly favoring his ruler, he kept helping new candidates until there were at least eight more in the end and the competition was fragmented . The efforts of Prince Livio Odescalchi , a nephew of Pope Innocent XI. , as well as the son of the former king Johann III. Sobieski , Prince Louis Sobieski or Prince Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz and Duke Leopold von Lorraine or also Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden and Elector Max II of Bavaria and other candidates remained hopeless.

King election of August of Saxony in Wola in 1697
Oil painting by Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine, ca.1790

Despite this circumstance and the huge payments to the electorate, it was a neck-and-neck race in the end: When the Polish estates in the Senate and Sejm in Warsaw-Wola voted in June 1697, there were only two applicants for the Polish Krone remained as serious competitors: August the Strong and Prince Francois Louis de Bourbon-Conti , Louis XIV's unloved cousin , whom Louis XIV wanted to deport to Poland. Prince Conti was even able to gain a larger number of votes than August, but Flemming presented him with a fait accompli: While Conti was only sailing from France, Flemming publicly swore the oath on the Pacta conventa on behalf of August . But when a part of the Polish nobility met the French prince on 26/27. Proclaimed king in Wola on June 6, 1697, August marched into Poland with 8,000 soldiers. In the Oliva monastery near Danzig, August's soldiers were able to overwhelm Prince Conti's entourage and force them to turn back. The prince had to return to his homeland without success. On September 15, 1697, Elector Friedrich August was crowned King of Poland under the name August II Mocny in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow . The circumstances of the election cast doubt on its legitimacy among the Polish magnates. Not least because of this, after the defeat by the Swedes in the Great Northern War , August had to renounce the Polish throne in the peace of Altranstädt in 1706 , which he regained in 1709.

King August II, Speciesreichstaler from 1708 from his mint in Dresden with royal title in the legend, but without reference to Poland. Friedrich August had this thaler minted after he had to give up the Polish throne. (See also butterfly thaler )

The “Polish adventure” of their sovereign cost the Saxons dearly. Huge sums of bribes flowed from the Saxon state treasury to the Polish nobility and church dignitaries in Poland (around 39 million thalers during the reign of August) in order to incline them. August even sold some not insignificant Saxon lands and rights for this purpose. So he abandoned in 1689 to 733,333 dollars and cents 6 (corresponding to 1.1 million guilders) on its claim to Saxe-Lauenburg after the extinction of the local Askanier and sold Erbvogtei 1698 via the Reichsstift Quedlinburg 300,000 dollars to the Brandenburg Hohenzollern , which he also left the offices of Lauterberg, Sevenberg, Gersdorff and Petersberg and, in 1707, the Reichsschulzenamt over Nordhausen . The Counts of Schwarzburg were granted sovereign rights against money in 1699. However, the Duchy of Saxony-Zeitz was able to be reintegrated into the electoral state after a related branch line died out in 1718.

When Elector Friedrich August assumed the dignity of Poland, Polish money was also minted in the Leipzig mint . The first coins to be struck according to the Polish footing were eighteen and six-penny pieces with the crowned bust of the king, who was to be presented to the Polish population in this way.

Rule in Poland and the Great Northern War

→ Main article : Great Northern War

The Kingdom of Poland 1701

King August II on horseback and with a marshal's baton (painted by de Silvestre around 1718, oil on canvas (55 × 70 cm), Moritzburg Hunting Lodge )

The Kingdom of Poland at that time ranged from the Baltic to the Black Sea nominally, although the southern parts were occupied by the Ottomans, and was therefore strategically very exposed. After a military campaign in Moldova , August's Polish army defeated an expedition of the Tatars in the Battle of Podhajce in 1698 - a victory that was instrumental in forcing the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 .

As Poland's electoral king , August relied mainly on Saxony; for its officials, the Polish Crown Army and the state treasury were subordinate to the Sejm in Poland , whose policy was determined by the powerful magnate families and the Szlachta . Their tendency to form confederations turned the kingdom into a powder keg. Because of these private interests, the Diet of Poland was relatively incapable of action ( Liberum Veto ); the crown itself had only limited income, which was subordinate to the crown treasurer Przebendowski . Until 1700 he resided in Wilanów Palace .

The two unsuccessful sieges of Riga in February and June 1700 , initiated by August, are considered to be the beginning of the Great Northern War . They provoked the Swedish King Charles XII. for a counter-attack, which culminated in a five-year war and initially ended with the peace in Altranstadt , which was humiliating for August, on September 24, 1706. The Polish crown was temporarily lost to him. Only after the devastating defeat for Sweden in the Battle of Poltava did August re-enter the war, allied himself with Denmark in 1709 and invaded Swedish Pomerania in the same year after the Polish rival king Stanislaus dethroned along with the Swedish troops stationed in Poland and had been driven out. In the following years Saxony took part in the campaigns against Sweden, especially in the northern German possessions of Sweden.

After the Great Northern War, he therefore sought to overthrow the Reichstag in a coup . His representatives there demanded the merger of the Saxon troops with the Polish Crown Army, after all Polish fortresses had been occupied, camps set up and arrests carried out as early as 1713. As this would have meant a first step towards the establishment of an absolutist hereditary monarchy in Poland, it provoked the uprising of the Tarnogród Confederation in 1715/16 , led by Marshal Ledóchowski and Count Branicki , whereby August risked his throne. It was mainly a revolt of the petty nobility against the king; important magnates such as Lithuania's hetman Ludwik Pociej (a friend of Peter I ) tried to mediate. The Saxon troops were victorious in all major battles, but could not end the uprising, so that the funds were tight. August accepted the czar's mediation brought into play by the Confederate and only achieved partial success in the Peace of Warsaw in 1716 and in the Silent Sejm in 1717. In return, the Saxon army had to leave the country.

After 1716, however, a certain stabilization of his government in Poland became apparent, which made some reforms possible - but there was no prospect of such reforms in the sense of absolutism. Several diets collapsed, and August unsuccessfully tried to secure the elector 's successor. At least in the 1920s Poland recovered economically from the effects of the Great Northern War. The aristocracy produced intensive production, the exchange of goods between Poland and Saxony, promoted by the Leipzig trade fair and facilitated by customs agreements , increased. Preferably the raw materials came from Poland and finished products from Saxony. Palaces, parks and numerous new churches testified that Poland still had resources. Only the aristocratic republic , which was constantly in a state of internal blockage and powerlessness, lacked the will to make something out of it. A central economic and financial policy was not enforceable in Poland, a large part of the taxes (up to 20%) got stuck on the collection routes and mercantilist thinking was limited to the self-interest of the magnate families.

The sensational blood court of Thorn of 1724 also fell under his reign .

Towards the end of the Northern War, August secured his Polish policy towards Russia and Prussia in the Vienna alliance treaty of 1719 with the emperor and Great Britain .

Great power dreams and military ambitions

Personal union Saxony-Poland, each outlined in green and white

August had already made the plan in 1704 to marry his son to the Austrian Archduchess in order to better assert himself against the increasingly stronger Prussia. In addition, he hoped that if the House of Habsburg died out, he would have the opportunity to win the imperial crown for himself or his son - but these intentions had to be abandoned soon. After the death of Emperor Joseph I in 1711, August held the office of imperial vicar associated with the Saxon electoral dignity until his successor was elected . He used the event as an opportunity to mint numerous vicariate coins in gold and silver, which he also had struck for the Kingdom of Poland. At the same time, he assumed a seemingly neutral position in the empire on the question of the Habsburg succession . August planned secretly to make Emperor Charles VI. to put aside, but he lacked the means; his poor health after 1726 also made further steps in this direction impossible. Plans to convert the Kingdom of Poland into a hereditary monarchy and thus to secure the Wettin family permanently also failed .

In 1722 the customs war with Prussia , which had been smoldering since 1721, intensified . In 1725, the emperor gave Electoral Saxony the representation of the interests of the Magdeburg knighthood against their liege lord, King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia .

August had the Saxon standing army , which had existed since 1682, considerably strengthened around 1700/01 and reorganized in 1706. In 1712 an engineer corps was founded and in 1723 the knight academy for officer training in Dresden . The latter step then led to the Augustan army reform , which, due to increasing economic power, could be tackled according to the Prussian model until 1732 and with which August sought to prepare for the conflict with Habsburg and Prussia in the threatened War of the Austrian Succession .

In the summer of 1730 August II led the Zeithain Lustlager , the “spectacle of the century”, under the motto Sic fulta manebit. Sic pax ("On such (the army is meant) based, the peace remains") 48 invited European princes and their military officers a strong, 30,000-strong army in maneuvering actions . These great festivities, concluded with fireworks, not only displayed the military capabilities, but also the high level of Saxon art and culture. The soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia noted appreciatively: “The three regiments, Crown Prince good, Weissenfeld good, very good. Pflugk very miserable, bad. Giving orders good. I have seen commands from the cavalry that I think are very propre ”- remarks that already indicate an interest in gaining information about the military weaknesses of the southern neighbor. The Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich , who was also present , experienced some insults on the diplomatic floor, which may have contributed to his aversion to Saxony and his ruthless action against the country in the Seven Years War .

In 1703, Kursachsen participated in the Imperial War against France with a regiment under Count Schulenburg in the Upper Palatinate and on the Upper Rhine.

Title

Royal flag of August II

August described himself as "By God's grace king in Poland , Grand Duke in Litthauen , Reussen , Prussia , Masovia , Samogitia , Kyovia , Volhynia , Podolia , Podlachia , Lieffland , Smolenscien , Sewerien and Tschernikovien , hereditary Duke of Saxony , Jülich , Cleve , Berg , Engern and Westphalen , the Holy Roman Empire Archmarshal and Elector , Landgrave in Thuringia , Margrave of Meissen also Upper and Lower Lusatia , Burgrave of Magdeburg , Prince Count of Henneberg , Count of the Mark , Ravensberg and Barby , Lord of Ravenstein etc. ". Such an abundance of titles was typical for monarchs of this time and was more of a decorative value - it resulted primarily from claims to territories that they no longer or never actually owned, or at least had a controversial character, or from previous tenancies by the Wettins as a whole Hand that made it possible for every member of the family to bear certain titles of lands whose government, or at least claims to them, were in the hands of other lines of the entire house.

Legendary power and death of the ruler

Castrum doloris for August the Strong in Warsaw ( Joachim Daniel von Jauch 1733)

His nickname “the strong one” refers to the physical strength that is sometimes displayed. On February 15, 1711, he is said to have broken a horseshoe with his bare hands. He also had a certificate made and the horseshoe and certificate kept in the art chamber. His height of 1.76 meters was above average for that time. His strength is sometimes compared to his distant ancestor Cimburgis of Mazovia , who is said to have pulled iron nails out of the wall with her bare hand and lifted hay powder. August also benefited from his physical strength as a symbol: Permoser's Hercules Saxonicus , who carries the globe, stands on the roof of the Wallpavilion in the Dresden Zwinger , the figure weighs 5.5 tons. In the baroque garden August left a copy of the Farnese Hercules up.

Capsule with the heart of Augustus the Strong in the Hofkirche in Dresden

August suffered from diabetes mellitus  - which is why a toe had to be amputated -, high blood pressure , lipid metabolism disorders and most recently weighed over 110 kilograms. He died on February 1, 1733 at 4 o'clock after a fit of weakness at the age of 62 in Warsaw and was solemnly buried on January 25, 1734 in the presence of his son in the royal crypt of the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow Castle. His entrails were buried separately in an urn in the Capuchin Church in Warsaw for the Transfiguration of the Lord .

His heart came to Dresden at his own request in a silver capsule with a gilded interior, where it was initially kept in the old Catholic court church chapel between the palace and Taschenbergpalais , until it finally found its final place in a wall niche of the donors' crypt of the Catholic court church, which was completed in 1755 ( heart burial ).

His death caused a flood of mourning and praise poems by the court poets who were obliged to do so. The work of the theology student Zimmermann , commissioned by the Saxon-Polish envoy in Hamburg and the Hamburg council , which was used by Telemann for Friederich August's immortal fame of 1733, also incorrectly called Serenata eroica , the funeral music for August the Strong, gained greater fame .

A bust of him was erected in the Bavarian Walhalla at the beginning of the 19th century .

Art, culture and courtly pleasures blossomed

The Zwinger of Dresden

→ Main article : Dresden Baroque

August had his residence cities in Dresden (hence the nickname " Florence on the Elbe ") and Warsaw - but at the expense of other Saxon cities and regions - expanded into the most magnificent in Europe. Although August had Pöppelmann make new and grandiose designs for the construction of a huge new residential palace, which would have surpassed Schönbrunn and at least reached Versailles , these plans, for which the Zwinger temporarily kept an open side flank, were always postponed for lack of money. Because more important was the cult of the beautiful moment, the public confirmation of L'État, c'est moi , as it manifested itself above all in the permanent court festivals, whose programs, costumes and backdrops were usually designed by the king himself. While he - in his opinion for the time being - continued to live in the baroque redesigned Residenzschloss , he used the Zwinger and the Great Garden or the Grosssedlitz Baroque Garden for lavish court parties, which, like a constant spectacle, put himself in the foreground as the main character, just like Ludwig did XIV. Demonstrated. But there were also role models in Rome, where Bernini was not only a great sculptor and architect, but also a sought-after party decorator; The ancient Roman arenas were also built for large-scale games and celebrations with a political program, and the myths of the Roman Empire offered August the Strong the templates for his costume parties and parades. The festive culture of the European courts, with Dresden as the German high point, reached a splendor never seen before or after in the Baroque period, in which the majesty by God's grace exposed itself to public veneration - not only to the veneration of court society, which among them For her, not only amusing, but also often strenuous festivities, usually days and nights long , had to appear elaborately costumed as extras at their own expense , but above all that of the people, who were allowed to look on without prejudice and who reacted to these glories with a tumult of joy . You took the ceremony home as a picture and in this way could imagine something very concrete under the state, in the person of the absolute king .

The Japanese Palais was intended as a porcelain palace after Kändler accidentally discovered the secret of porcelain production and August then founded the Meissen Manufactory , which soon gained great economic importance with the production of sought-after export goods. Moritzburg was used for the court hunts, Pillnitz for the water festival on the Elbe , the so-called "Canal Grande", and the baroque garden Großsedlitz for the festivities for the award of the Polish Eagle Order . August invited his hunting parties to the Hoflößnitz to hold wine festivals there. Specifically for the purpose of parforce hunting , which August had taken a great liking, the Wermsdorf Forest , which is rich in game, was redesigned by a network of trails based on the French model and the new Hubertusburg hunting lodge was built . In Warsaw, the reconstruction of the royal palace , the construction of the Saxon Palace (destroyed in 1944) and also a reorganization of the urban development (so-called " Saxon axis ") are recorded. The king also leased castles in Poland, as the conditions in the country made building difficult, so that his work here did not extend beyond the great magnate.

New building regulations (such as the 13 “Flemmingsche Baupunkte” from 1708, Karcher's building regulations from 1710 and another from 1720) required the urban development of the former Renaissance city ​​of Dresden into a Baroque city (many of the narrow gabled houses of the Gothic and Renaissance periods disappeared ) the exclusive stone construction and prescribed the number and height of the floors as well as a standardization of the plaster color. It was mainly used for the baroque reconstruction of the New Royal City, but new streets with a uniform appearance were also created in the Neumarkt area . The engineer officer August Christoph von Wackerbarth headed the electoral Saxon building industry from 1697 and in 1706 became general manager of the civil and military buildings as well as the superior of the civil construction office; as a de facto "building minister" he became the "director of the Dresden Baroque " ( Fritz Löffler ).

"Golden Rider" - equestrian statue of August the Strong in Dresden-Neustadt

At that time, Dresden was one of the first German cities to have museums that were open to the public, which became the model for many others (for example in Vienna and Munich). In 1705 a painting school was founded, from which the Dresden Art Academy emerged . The Dresden art collections , especially the porcelain collection , the precious collection in the Green Vault , the picture gallery , the antique collection , the copper engraving cabinet , the coin cabinet and the mathematical-physical salon were expanded in line with contemporary tastes and, thanks to August and his son's passion for collecting, have been part of it ever since the richest and largest in Europe. In the Zwinger you can still admire vases and other vessels made of Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi era, of which August received 151 pieces in an exchange deal with the soldier king, in which in 1717 he left 600 Saxon country children, including horses and equipment, as a dragoon regiment .

Artist at the court of Augustus the Strong

Important artists from many European countries were active at the Saxon court , and all in all he was able to make Dresden the leading German cultural metropolis of the Baroque ( Dresden Baroque ). Under his rule worked among many others:

• the composers Benda , Buffardin , Hasse , Hebenstreit , Heinichen , Lotti , Pisendel , Quantz , Ristori , Schmidt , Veracini , Volumier , v. Westhoff , Weiss , Zelenka and several members of the Bach family in the Electoral Saxon and Royal Polish chapels
• the poets, philosophers, lawyers and doctors Beckh , CH v. Berger , JG v. Berger , JH v. Berger , JW v. Berger , v. Besser , Dedekind , Glafey , Gribner , Günther , v. Heucher , v. König , Mencke , Schirmer , Trömer and v. Zinzendorf ,
• the cartographer Zürner ,
• the sculptors, builders, wood carvers and building artists Bähr , de Bodt , Coudray , Dietze , Eigtved , Fäsch , Fritzsche , v. Göthe , Grone , Haase , v. Jauch , Jentzsch , Karcher , Kirchner , v. Klengel , Knöffel , Kretzschmar , Longuelune , v. Naumann d. Ä. , Permoser , le Plat , MD Pöppelmann , Schumann , Schwarze and Thomae
• the painters and wallpaper artists Bottschildt , Ertel , Fehling , Grone , Mercier , JA Pöppelmann , Rossi and de Silvestre ,
• the organ builder Silbermann ,
• the engraver Zucchi ,
• the glass cutter Noor ,
• the goldsmiths, stone cutters, jewelers and enamellers Bolt , GF Dinglinger , JM Dinglinger , Ertel , Döring , Heermann , Huebner , Irminger , Koehler , Lücke d. Ä. , Meyer and Triquet ,
• the glass artists and inventors of porcelain in Europe Böttger and Tschirnhaus as well
• the porcelain designers Höroldt and Kellers .

Moritzburg Hunting Lodge - view from the south (main portal)

His legendary and almost constant balls, fairs, animal rushes, masquerades and rifle festivals (around 60 a year), such as those on his inauguration in 1694 and the anniversaries of the Polish crown, the exuberant celebration of the carnival based on the Venetian model or the knightly "carousel of the four parts of the world ”with a triumphal chariot and disguised protagonists on the occasion of the visit of the Danish king Friedrich in 1709, on whose occasion August had a golden sun mask made for himself and with whom the court was in peasant costumes and led by August as the French innkeeper In contrast, they were well thought-out state actions, but devoured huge sums of money (well over 25,000 thalers per year). Like his new castles and art collections, they served the royal self-expression based on the model of Louis XIV of France .

Wedding of the son of Augustus the Strong

Wilanów Palace , Warsaw

The electoral prince's wedding of 4 million thalers with the emperor's daughter in 1719 was particularly lavish: the bride, who reached Pirna on September 2nd, boarded the Bucentaur , a replica of the Venetian state galley, and sailed with it, accompanied by other magnificent ships and gondolas as well as with music by Hebenstreit , Buffardin , Weiss , 6 oboists and 2 horn players in Dresden. The bridal couple then met with August on the bird meadow decorated with Turkish tents and moved into the palace with over 100 decorated carriages . The magnificent parade was accompanied by trumpet and timpani music from the triumphal arches and church towers . On September 3, the court attended a celebratory Te Deum with music by the court trumpet corps in the Catholic court chapel. 330 gun salutes were fired during the play, followed by a banquet in the castle, accompanied by court band music and singing, as well as a visit to Lotti's Opera seria pastorale “ Giove in Argo ” in the new opera house in the evening. On September 4th there was a dance evening with 94 musicians in the huge hall of the castle as well as French ("Ariane") and Italian plays on September 5th and 6th. In addition, a so-called "fight-hunt" took place: accompanied by the sounds of horns, trumpets and kettledrum, as well as over 4000 visitors, various wild animals (2 lions, 1 panther, 1 baboon, 6 bears, wild boars and aurochs) were seen in a wooden amphitheater. let loose on each other and then shot down by August and the bride and groom. On September 7th, Antonio Lotti's opera “Ascanio overro Gli odi delusi dal sangue” and an Italian play were performed. On September 8th and 9th, “ladies races” and “ring games” took place in the inner courtyard of the Marstall, as well as Italian comedies and French tragedies (“l'Inconnue”) in the evening. On September 10th, the day of the sun festival, Heinichen's festival oratorio “La gara degli dei” and later fireworks, accompanied by 64 trumpets, 8 timpani and table music, were performed. The performance of the French play "Hypermnestre" followed on September 11th. The Mars Festival took place on September 12th : competitions on horseback and on foot as well as theater in the evening. On September 13th and 15th, “Teofane” was performed in the opera house and “Li quattro elementi accompanimenti” (both by Antonio Lotti) in the palace garden - supplemented by the French theater on September 14th. Then on September 15th the festival of Jupiter with a "carousel of the four elements" - a horse show with military music and Italian theater in the evening. The next day there was a dance evening, and the next day the festival in honor of the earth goddess Erda took place, at which a performance of 300 Janissaries with 24 Moors and 12 pagans (German and Polish lackeys) in Turkish robes took place - in the evening “Night Shooting ".

The serenate "Diana sul 'Elba" by Johann David Heinichen in honor of the goddess of the hunt was performed on September 18th on a lavishly decorated ship in the form of a giant clamshell with 4 " nymphs " on board and pulled by 4 " seahorses " . In the subsequent water hunt, 400 stags, roe deer and wild boars were driven into the Elbe , only to be shot down afterwards - in the evening Italian theater. On September 20th the Merkurfest took place, which included a festive procession, the performance of an Italian cantata, a large “Fair of Nations”, a mass and a lottery in the kennel - the bride was driven into the festival area in a splendid shell car. The next day there was a theater. Among the many other activities were the performance of the French divertissement "Les quatres saisons" with a text by Poisson and the music of Kapellmeister Schmidt on the day of the Venus Festival (23 September) in the open air in the Great Garden , which also had over 100 members of the court danced in the Venus Temple next to the palace itself and to which Georg Friedrich Handel from London and Georg Philipp Telemann had also traveled - certainly also to see the new opera house at the Zwinger , the largest and most magnificent of its time. Most recently, the Saturnus Festival took place on September 26th in Plauenschen Grund , which included a mountain parade , a lavish banquet, a hunt, vocal music and an Italian comedy. August commissioned an elaborate book of copperplate engravings from this festival. Then there was a "knock-hunting" session. The festivities came to an end with further performances of Antonio Lotti's opera “Ascanio” on September 24th and 29th, as well as the Italian theater on September 28th.

The hierarchy and intrigues also shaped August's court, which was given an almost exotic flair by the Polish nobility. His court jester and pocket actor Joseph Fröhlich also became famous .

Marriage, mistresses and offspring

Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth , wife

On January 20, 1693, he married in Bayreuth Christiane Eberhardine (born December 29, 1671 in Bayreuth; † September 5, 1727 in Pretzsch ), Princess of Brandenburg-Bayreuth . They only had one child together:

• Friedrich August II / August III. (* October 17, 1696 in Dresden; † October 5, 1763 in Dresden), Elector and Duke of Saxony and King of Poland ⚭ (August 20, 1719 in Vienna) with Maria Josefa of Austria (* December 8, 1699 in Vienna ; † November 17, 1757 in Dresden), daughter of the Roman-German King and Emperor Joseph I and the Empress Amalie Wilhelmine born. Princess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Archduchess of Austria , Princess of Hungary and Bohemia etc. and older sister Empress Maria Amalia married. with Karl Albert von Bayern / Kaiser Karl VII. He succeeded his father on the thrones of Saxony and Poland.

Christiane Eberhardine, who remained Protestant and therefore never became Queen of Poland, but was only the king's wife in Poland, later retired to Pretzsch Castle on the Elbe, probably out of bitterness about her husband's conversion to the Catholic faith also died.

August was best known for its mistress tavern :

• before 1694 with Anna Eleonore von Kessel, née von Horn (a Saxon woman), later Mrs. von Haugwitz
• 1694–1696 with Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck
• 1696–1699 with Maximiliane Countess Hi (es) serle / Esterle von Chodau
• 1698–1704 with Ursula Katharina von Altenbockum , later Princess von Teschen
• 1701–1706 with the Turkish woman Fatima , baptized Maria Aurora, later married. mirror
• 1704–1713 with Countess Anna Constantia von Brockdorff , later Countess von Cosel
• 1706–1707 with Henriette Rénard -Duval (landlady, daughter of a French-Polish wine merchant)
• 1708 with Angélique Duparc (French dancer and actress)
• 1713–1719 with Maria Magdalena Bielinska (* 1693), married. Countess von Dönhoff , later married. Princess Lubomirska
• 1720–1721 with Erdmuthe Sophie von Dieskau , married. from Loß
• 1721–1722 with Freiin Henriette von Osterhausen, married. by Stanislawski

Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, for example, gave him the exaggerated number of over "354 children". However, these eight further descendants have been handed down and recognized by him:

• with Maria Aurora (born April 28, 1662 in Stade , † February 16, 1728 in Quedlinburg ), Countess of Königsmarck and provost of Quedlinburg:
  • Hermann Moritz (born October 28, 1696 in Goslar ; † November 30, 1750 at Chambord Castle ), Count of Saxony, General Marshal of France ⚭ (on March 12, 1714 in Moritzburg ; divorced on March 26, 1721) with Johanna Victoria Tugendreich ( * February 8, 1699; † 1747), Countess von Löben
• with Ursula Katharina von Altenbockum (born November 25, 1680 in Warsaw, † May 4, 1743 in Dresden), Imperial Duchess of Teschen , mistress of Hoyerswerda , vorm. mated Princess Lubomirska , aft. mated Princess of Württemberg-Winnental
  • Johann Georg (born August 21, 1704 in Dresden, † February 25, 1774 in Dresden), Knight of Saxony
• with Fatima (dates of life unknown, evidence from 1686 to 1724), alias Maria Aurora married. mirror
  • Friedrich August (born June 19, 1702 in Warsaw or Dresden; † March 16, 1764 in Pillnitz ), Count Rutowski ⚭ (on January 4, 1739) with Ludovika Amalia (* May 3, 1722; † July 27, 1778), princess Lubomirska
  • Maria Aurora (* 1706; † before 1750), Countess Rutowska ⚭ (1st 1728, divorced around 1732) with Michał († 22 May 1746), Count Bieliński, Voivode of Chełmiński; ⚭ (2. 1732) with Claude Marie Noyel (* 1700; † February 26, 1755), Count of Bellegarde and Entremont
• with Anna Constantia von Brockdorff (born October 17, 1680 in Depenau, † March 31, 1765 in Stolpen ), formerly. mated Baroness von Hoym, Imperial Countess von Cosel (with whom he was temporarily connected by a marriage contract)
  • Augusta Anna Constantia (February 24, 1708 - February 2, 1728), Countess von Cosel ⚭ (June 3, 1725) with Heinrich Friedrich (August 25, 1681 - December 8, 1739 in Zette or Montpellier ), Count of Frisians
  • Friederike Alexandrine (* 1709; † 1784), Countess von Cosel ⚭ (on February 18, 1730) with Johann Xantius Anton († September 14, 1737), Count Moszyński
  • Friedrich August (* August 27, 1712; † October 15, 1770), Count von Cosel ⚭ (on June 1, 1749) with Friederike Christiane (* 1723; † 1793), Countess von Holtzendorff
• with Henriette Renárd / Duval
  • Anna Karolina (born November 23, 1707 in Warsaw; † September 27, 1769 in Avignon ), Countess Orzelska ⚭ (August 10, 1730; divorced 1733) with Karl Ludwig (September 18, 1690; † September 22, 1774 in Königsberg ), Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

In contemporary literature, the legitimate son was named:

• with Henriette von Osterhausen, married. by Stanislawski
  • Albrecht Siegmund von Seeguth-Stanisławski (born August 10, 1688 in Rößel ; † September 16, 1768 in Lindenau ), 1735 General Post Inspector in Prussia Royal Share , 1736 Imperial Count, ⚭II Luise Albertine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (* 27. August 1694; † January 10, 1773)

However, this is unlikely because August would have to have fathered him at the age of 17, and Henriette von Osterhausen's maidenhood is only documented for 1721/22.

- See also : Butterfly thaler (series of coins by Friedrich August from the time of Countess Cosel)

ancestors

Pedigree of August II of Poland and Friedrich August I of Saxony
Great-great-grandparents	Elector Christian I of Saxony (1560–1591) ⚭ 1582 Sophie of Brandenburg (1568–1622)	Duke Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia (1553–1618) ⚭ 1573 Marie Eleonore von Jülich-Kleve-Berg (1550–1608)		Elector Johann Georg von Brandenburg (1525–1598) ⚭ 1577 Elisabeth von Anhalt (1563–1607)	King Frederick II (Denmark) (1534–1588) ⚭ 1572 Sophie von Mecklenburg (1557–1631)	Elector Joachim Friedrich of Brandenburg (1546–1608) ⚭ 1570 Katharina von Brandenburg- Küstrin (1549–1602)	Duke Wilhelm the Younger of Braunschweig- Lüneburg (1535–1592) ⚭ 1561 Dorothea of ​​Denmark (1546–1617)	Landgrave Ludwig V of Hesse-Darmstadt (1577–1626) ⚭ 1598 Magdalena of Brandenburg (1582–1616)
Great grandparents	Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony (1585–1656) ⚭ 1607 Magdalena Sibylle of Prussia (1586–1659)		Margrave Christian of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1581–1655) ⚭ 1604 Marie of Prussia (1579–1649)		King Christian IV (Denmark) (1577–1648) ⚭ 1597 Anna Katharina von Brandenburg (1575–1612)		Duke Georg von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1582–1641) ⚭ 1617 Anna Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt (1601–1659)
Grandparents	Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony (1613–1680) ⚭ 1638 Magdalena Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1612–1687)				King Friedrich III. (Denmark) (1609–1670) ⚭ 1643 Sophie Amalie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1628–1685)
parents	Elector Johann Georg III. von Sachsen (1647–1691) ⚭ 1666 Anna Sophie of Denmark and Norway (1647–1717)
August II of Poland and Friedrich August I of Saxony (1670–1733)

Fonts

• Creed and abjuration form Friedrich August II. King of Poland and Elector of Saxony on his conversion from the Lutheran to the Roman Catholic Church filed on July 2, 1697 in Baden near Vienna against the Bishop of Raab. Kanitz, Gera 1845 ( digitized version ).

reception

The ruler was first portrayed on film in 1935/1936 in the film August the Strong with Michael Bohnen in the title role and Lil Dagover as his mistress Aurora von Königsmarck . Directed by Paul Wegener .

He was played by the actor Dietrich Körner in the film series Sachsens Glanz und Preussens Gloria . He was also portrayed as an actor in the 1984 television play August the Strong by Gert Frobe .

literature

Biographies

• Hermann Schreiber: August the Strong. Drei Ulmen Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-86047-090-6 .
• Paul Haake: August the Strong . Leipzig 1926.
• Cornelius Gurlitt: August the Strong. A princely life from the time of the German Baroque . 2 vols. Dresden 1924. online in the Heidelberg historical holdings - digital

individual aspects

• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Claudia Schnitzer (Ed.): Constellatio Felix. The planetary festivals of August the Strong on the occasion of the marriage of his son Friedrich August to the imperial daughter Maria Josepha in Dresden in 1719. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-083-3 .
• Jutta Bäumel: On the way to the throne. The coronation journey of August the Strong. Hellerau Verlag, Dresden 1997, ISBN 3-910184-58-8 .
• Heinrich Theodor Flathe :  Friedrich August I., Elector of Saxony . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 781-784.
• Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time. Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-492-24636-2 .
• Reinhard Delau: August the Strong and his mistresses. Edition Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-938325-06-2 .
• Katja Doubek: August the Strong. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-50688-8 .
• Christine Klecker (Ed.): August the Strong and his time. Contributions from the colloquium on 16./17. September 1994 at the Königstein Fortress. (= Saxonia. Volume 1). Dresden printing and publishing house, Dresden 1995 DNB 947672206 .
• Hellmut Kretzschmar :  Friedrich August I .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 572 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Klaus Kühnel: August the Strong and the Weak Sex. The love affairs of Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony. Dreikastanienverlag, Wittenberg 2005, ISBN 3-933028-92-2 .
• Georg Piltz : August the Strong. Dreams and deeds of a German prince, biography. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-355-01422-2 .
• Rex Rexheuser (Ed.): The personal unions of Saxony-Poland 1697-1763 and Hanover-England 1714-1837. A comparison. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005 ( online here ).
• Reinhold Müller: The Army of August the Strong - The Saxon Army from 1730 to 1733. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1984.
• Jacek Staszewski: Establishment and continuation of the personal union Saxony-Poland 1699 and 1733 in: Sources and Studies Volume 18 2005, pages 37 to 50, online document published at perspectivia.net , the online publication platform of the Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA )

Nekrolog online

• Voltaire : life and deeds of Friedrich Augusti II. The great, King of Pohlen - and Elector of Saxony. Frankfurt / Leipzig 1733. (online)

Fiction

• Józef Ignacy Kraszewski : King August the Strong. Historical novel. Structure, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-7466-1309-4 .

Movies

• Direction Guido Knopp and Peter Arens, authors Jan Peter and Yury Winterberg: The Germans II., Part 6, August the Strong and Love. ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Gruppe 5 Filmproduktion GmbH, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-8312-9952-2 . (Info on zdf.de)

See also

• Coronation mantle of August the Strong
• August the Strong as a furrier

Web links

Commons : August II. (Poland)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Renewed mandate again the unauthorized blowing of trumpets and hitting army drums (1711)  - sources and full texts

• Literature by and about August II in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about August II  in the German Digital Library
• Literature by and about August II in the Saxon Bibliography
• Publications from and about August II. In VD 17 .
• The Electorate of Saxony and the great European politics
• Psychogram of August the Strong
• Website about the Saxon princes
• Mara R. Wade: Politics and Performance: Saxon-Danish Court Festivals 1548–1709. ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) About the courtly pleasures of Denmark and Saxony in the 17th / 18th Century
• dresden-und-sachsen.de
• schloesserland-sachsen.de
• Article about August the Strong
• ZeitZeichen : 04/27/1694 - Friedrich August I becomes Elector of Saxony

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time: Elector of Saxony, King in Poland . Unabridged paperback edition. Piper, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-492-24636-2 , pp. 19th f .
2. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 21st f .
3. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 26th f .
4. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 27 .
5. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 30 .
6. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 35 .
7. ↑ Reiner Groß: The Wettins . 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018946-1 , pp. 171 .
8. ↑ Volker Klimpel: Famous Dresdeners: historical-biographical handbook of important personalities, born in Dresden . Hellerau-Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-910184-85-5 , p. 44 .
9. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 41 .
10. ↑ Karl Czok: August the Strong and his time . 2006, p. 48 .
11. ↑ Christopher Clark: Prussia: Rise and Fall . 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05392-3 , pp. 101 .
12. ↑ Rex Rexheuser (ed.): The personal unions of Saxony-Poland 1697–1763 and Hanover-England 1714–1837: a comparison . 2005, ISBN 3-447-05168-X , pp. 142 .
13. ↑ Joachim Menzhausen , Kulturlandschaft Sachsen, A Millennium History and Art , Amsterdam / Dresden 1999, p. 164.
14. ^ Enno Bünz: Humanism at the University of Leipzig . 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-06079-0 , pp. 12 .
15. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus: Germany in the Age of Absolutism (1648–1763) . ISBN 978-3-525-33504-8 , pp. 85 .
16. ↑ Rex Rexheuser (ed.): The personal unions of Saxony-Poland 1697–1763 and Hanover-England 1714–1837: a comparison . 2005, p. 107 .
17. ↑ Peter Müller: The Frauenkirche in Dresden: building history, comparisons, restorations, destruction, reconstruction . 1994, ISBN 3-412-07294-X , pp. 22 .
18. ↑ Ernst Günther: The thumb impression of August the strong. 16 royal Saxon miniatures. 2nd Edition. Husum, Husum 2007, ISBN 978-3-89876-153-6 , pp. 87 f.
19. ^ Walter Fellmann: Heinrich Graf Brühl: a picture of life and time . 1989, ISBN 3-7338-0091-5 , pp. 96 .
20. ^ Herbert Rosendorfer: German history. An attempt . tape 5 : The War of the Spanish Succession , 2015, ISBN 978-3-485-01083-2 , pp. 233 .
21. ↑ Dagmar Sommer: Princely buildings on Saxon medals: Studies on the medial communication of sovereign architecture and building activity (=  writings on residential culture ). 2007, ISBN 978-3-86732-014-6 , pp. 201 .
22. ^ Udo von Alvensleben : Visits before the sinking, noble seats between Altmark and Masuria. Compiled from diary entries and edited by Harald von Koenigswald. Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1968, DNB 454570589 , pp. 19-30.
23. ^ Friedrich August Freiherr ô Byrn: On the life story of Count Friedrich August Rutowski. In: Karl von Weber (ed.): Archives for the Saxon history. New episode. Second volume, Verlag Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1876, p. 328 including footnotes ( digitized from digital.slub-dresden.de)

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Georg IV.	Elector of Saxony 1694–1733	Friedrich August II.
Johann III. Sobieski	King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania 1697–1706 and 1709–1733	August III. Stanislaus I. Leszczyński (as the opposing king)