Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
Auguste Viktoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg VA (born October 22, 1858 in Dolzig , Niederlausitz ; † April 11, 1921 in Haus Doorn , Netherlands ) was the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II and as such from 1888 to 1918 German Empress and Queen of Prussia.
Childhood and adolescence
Auguste Viktoria, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , was the eldest daughter of Duke Friedrich VIII of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1829-1880) and his wife Princess Adelheid zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (1835-1900), Daughter of Prince Ernst I of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife Princess Feodora of Leiningen .
She and her siblings first spent a quiet childhood in Dolzig in Lusatia (today: Dłużek, district of Lubsko ) in their father's mansion. When the crisis in Holstein came to a head at the end of 1863 because the Danish government had initially excluded the duchy from the constitutional community with Denmark and Schleswig , contrary to the international agreement of 1852 , her father went back there, like his father Christian August in the 1840s to register his inheritance claims to the duchies. In fact, after the Hanoverian and Saxon troops occupied Holstein in the course of the federal execution , Friedrich was enthusiastically received.
As Frederick “the eighth” (he saw himself as the legitimate successor to the recently deceased Danish king Frederick VII ), he tried to rule from Kiel after Prussia and Austria separated Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg from the Danish crown in the German-Danish War in 1864 had. The Austrians administrating Holstein initially let him go. But at the latest after Prussia had expelled Austria from the German Confederation and Holstein in 1866, Friedrich was finally sidelined politically and had to leave Holstein with his family. From then on she lived alternately in Gotha and at Primkenau Castle ( Sprottau district ), which had belonged to his father, Duke Christian August, since 1853. It was not until Auguste Viktoria's marriage to the Prussian-German heir to the throne Wilhelm that the Augustenburger officially reconciled with the new state.
Marriage and offspring
When the princess fell in love with Prince Ernst of Saxony-Meiningen (1859–1941), son of Duke George II of Saxony-Meiningen , she was sent to England in 1875 to visit relatives. Through her maternal grandmother, she was a great niece of the British Queen Victoria (1819-1901).
Wilhelm of Prussia, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm II, met her in 1868 in Reinhardsbrunn Castle in Thuringia . The acquaintance was renewed by the befriended parents in Potsdam in the summer of 1878 . The engagement on February 14, 1880 in Gotha (immediately after the death of her father) was entirely in line with the family policy of the Prussian Crown Prince couple, in contrast to the Prussian court society and initially also Emperor Wilhelm I. Family of the princess was not considered equal (by a middle-class great-grandmother and a grandmother who was only a countess). In addition, there was concern about political entanglements in Prussia because of the annexation of the duchies in 1866, since Duke Friedrich VIII upheld his claims. For this reason, the engagement was not officially announced until June 2, 1880.
On February 27, 1881, she married in Berlin Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1859-1941), son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Victoria of Great Britain, grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm I and the maternal side of Queen Victoria . The marriage had seven children:
- Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst (1882–1951), ⚭ 1905 Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- Wilhelm Eitel Friedrich Christian Karl (1883–1942), ⚭ 1906–1926 Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg
- Adalbert Ferdinand Berengar Viktor (1884–1948), ⚭ 1914 Princess Adelheid of Saxony-Meiningen
- August Wilhelm Heinrich Günther Viktor (1887–1949), ⚭ 1908–1920 Princess Alexandra Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1887–1957)
- Oskar Karl Gustav Adolf (1888–1958), ⚭ 1914 Countess Ina Maria von Bassewitz (1888–1973)
- Joachim Franz Humbert (1890–1920), ⚭ 1916 Princess Marie Auguste von Anhalt
- Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte (1892–1980), ⚭ 1913 Duke Ernst August of Braunschweig-Lüneburg
empress
With her husband's accession to the throne on June 15, 1888, Auguste Viktoria became German Empress and Queen of Prussia. She took over numerous protectorates, including about the German Red Cross Society and the Patriotic Women's Association . Under their patronage, the Evangelical Church Aid Association for the “Fight against Religious and Moral Emergency” was founded, from which the Evangelical Church Building Association emerged shortly afterwards . The Empress supported the construction of Protestant churches in Berlin with great commitment, primarily in the new workers' quarters. But this commitment also bore fruit elsewhere. After the Empress had accompanied her husband on his Palestine trip in 1898 , the Protestant " Empress Auguste Victoria Foundation " in Jerusalem was able to inaugurate the Church of the Assumption on the Mount of Olives in 1914 . The empress's strong commitment to Protestant church building earned her the popular name "Kirchenjuste".
Auguste Viktoria was particularly involved in the social field. Not least because of this, she was more popular and respected than her husband, whose actions in public were often criticized and mocked by the population. She supported the women's movement and, thanks to the suggestions of Marie Martin, advocated a better education for girls and young women. Through her commitment to charitable and church efforts in the German Reich, she came into contact with Christian reform efforts around Friedrich von Bodelschwingh and Adolf Stoecker .
During the First World War she worked in charitable organizations and took care of the hospital system in particular .
Exile and death
In the course of the November Revolution, she followed her husband into exile in the Netherlands on November 27, 1918, after a short stay in the Villa Ingenheim of her son Eitel Friedrich, and in 1920 she moved into the Doorn house in the province of Utrecht. Wilhelm II wrote in 1922: “The revolution broke the heart of the Empress. From November 1918 onwards she was visibly aging and was no longer able to counteract the physical ailments with the previous resistance. Her sickness soon began. Most of all, she was homesick for the German soil, for the German land. Nevertheless, she still tried to comfort me… ”In July 1920, her youngest son Joachim ended by suicide, which Wilhelm commented:“ That the kid did that to us and especially to his mother! ”
Auguste Viktoria, the last German Empress, died on April 11, 1921. One of her last words has been handed down: "I must not die, I cannot leave the Kaiser alone."
Many German newspapers put a black margin on the news of his death. The death of the empress after three years in exile was felt by her supporters as particularly difficult and the deceased was honored as the mother of the country. Her body was transferred to the Temple of Antiquities in the park of Sanssouci Palace (Potsdam); Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince were not allowed to attend the funeral. Thousands followed the Empress's coffin.
Shortly before her death, Auguste Victoria expressed the wish for the emperor to be remarried after her death. Wilhelm II married the widowed Princess Hermine von Schönaich-Carolath on November 5, 1922, just one and a half years after her death .
Honors
After Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg were named:
schools
- Viktoriaschule (grammar school) in Aachen
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria Gymnasium Celle (originally: Kaiserin-Viktoria-Augusta-Schule) in Celle -Neuenhäusen
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Gymnasium in Berlin-Charlottenburg , Bayernallee; after 1945 merging with the Mommsen-Gymnasium to the Charlottenburger Gymnasium , 1956 to the Erich-Hoepner-Oberschule and in 2008 renamed to the Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium .
- Empress Auguste Victoria High School in Linden (since 1948: Helene-Lange-Schule Hannover )
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Victoria-Gymnasium in Euskirchen (until 1937; now: Emil-Fischer-Gymnasium )
- Kaiserin-Augusta-Viktoria-Gymnasium in Plön (until 1933; now: Gymnasium Schloss Plön )
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Lyzeum in Berlin-Steglitz (now: Fichtenberg-Oberschule )
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Victoria-Schule in Emden (now: Max-Windmüller-Gymnasium Emden )
- Empress Auguste Victoria School in Stettin (until 1945)
- Auguste-Viktoria-Gymnasium in Trier
- Augusta Viktoria School in Cuxhaven (until 1916)
- Auguste Viktoria School in Bielefeld (until 1947; now: Gymnasium am Waldhof )
- Auguste Victoria School in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe (now: Humboldt School )
- Auguste Viktoria School in Itzehoe
- Auguste Viktoria School in Saarbrücken (until 1938; now: Gymnasium am Rotenbühl )
- Auguste Viktoria School in Flensburg
Hospitals
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Haus to combat infant mortality in the German Empire and Kaiserin Auguste Victoria-Gesellschaft für Pädiatrie e. V. in Berlin-Charlottenburg
- Auguste-Victoria-Heim in Bad Bevensen (now: DRK-Kurhaus)
- Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Hospital in Ehringshausen
- Auguste Viktoria Clinic in Bad Oeynhausen
- Auguste Viktoria Clinic in Bad Lippspringe
- Auguste Viktoria Clinic in Berlin-Schöneberg
- Auguste Viktoria Foundation of the City of Cologne in Windeck-Rosbach
- Cölner convalescent home Wilhelm Auguste Viktoria (today Haus Sommerberg ) in Rösrath
- Wilhelm Auguste Viktoria Hospital in Lünen
- Wilhelm and Auguste Viktoria Hospital (now: HELIOS Clinic) in Bleicherode
- Wilhelm and Auguste Viktoria Children's Hospital (later: University Children's Hospital) in Königsberg
- Auguste Viktoria Hospital in Jerusalem
Foundations
- Empress Auguste Victoria Foundation (Mount of Olives Foundation) in Jerusalem
- Wilhelm Auguste Viktoria Foundation in Alexandria (based in Hamburg ), Düsseldorf , Essen , Cologne , Israelitische Erziehungsanstalt Wilhelm-Auguste-Viktoria-Stiftung in Beelitz , cripple apprenticeship home Wilhelm-Auguste-Viktoria-Stift in Hanover
- Kaiser Wilhelm and Empress Auguste Viktoria Foundation in Tientsin (based in Hamburg)
- Kaiser Wilhelm Augusta Victoria Foundation Saarburg
- Wilhelm and Auguste Viktoria Foundation for Infant Care in Frankfurt am Main
- Wilhelm and Auguste Viktoria Foundation in Bergisch Gladbach
- Augusta-Viktoria-Stift in Erfurt
- Auguste Viktoria Foundation of the City of Cologne in Windeck-Rosbach
- Auguste-Viktoria-Stift in Hamburg
Districts
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Koog in Friedrichskoog
Streets and parks
- Auguste-Viktoria-Straße in Bad Nauheim , Berlin-Adlershof (until 1951, now Büchnerweg), Berlin-Grunewald , Berlin-Hermsdorf , Berlin-Karlshorst (until 1951, now Ehrlichstraße), Berlin-Schmargendorf , Brühl , Kiel and Wiesbaden
- Auguste-Viktoria-Allee in Bad Lippspringe , Berlin-Reinickendorf and Neustadt / Holstein
- Auguste-Viktoria-Platz in Berlin-Charlottenburg (until 1947, now: Breitscheidplatz )
- Dolziger Strasse in Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Victoriastraße in Marl
- Viktoriaplatz, Viktoriastraße and Augustastraße in Hamm and Lünen
- Kaiser-Wilhelm-Auguste-Victoria-Hain in Cottbus (now Volkspark)
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Park in Bad Neuenahr
- Auguste-Viktoria-Strasse in Kiel
miscellaneous
- In 1890 Peter Lambert christened a creamy white rose variety 'Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria', which became internationally known.
- Auguste-Viktoria-Warte in Neustadt / Holstein, restaurant with observation tower (hence the name: "Warte"; tower height: 26.5 m) existence 1903–1973; from 1923 the city's youth hostel.
- Wilhelm-Auguste-Victoria-Bücherei (today: City and State Library ) in Dortmund .
- Auguste Victoria colliery in Marl (closed at the end of 2015).
- Express steamer Augusta Victoria and Empress Auguste Viktoria of HAPAG .
- Steel bell "Auguste Viktoria" of the former Kaiserin-Augusta-Gedächtniskirche (also called Gnadenkirche or Invalidenkirche) in Berlin-Mitte , cast in 1893, and exhibited at the world exhibition in Chicago in 1894 , now in the Bochum district of Leithe .
- In the pedestrian zone of the Marl district of Hüls there is a well-known statue of the Empress, which originally commissioned Wilhelm II personally and has since been exhibited in the Louvre in Paris .
- From 1890 to 1918 she was regiment chief of the fusilier regiment "Queen" Schleswig-Holstein No. 86 .
- Kaiserin-Auguste-Viktoria-Brunnen in Bad Homburg.
- The fountain of the traditional Löhnberg company Selters has been called "Selters-Sprudel-Auguste-Viktoria" since it was discovered in 1896. The name of the company, which today belongs to the Radeberger Group, is also : “SELTERS Mineralquelle Augusta Victoria GmbH”.
- Wilhelm-Auguste-Viktoria-Haus in Königswinter (villa with attached gymnasium), as a donation from the factory owner Ferdinand Mülhens to the city of Königswinter as a public welfare building.
Philip Alexius de László : The Empress , 1908
Dedication inscription by the Empress from 1907 in the altar bible of the Reformation Church in Berlin
Personal correspondence
In 2018, around a thousand sealed private letters to Auguste Viktoria from the period between 1883 and 1889 were discovered in the Potsdam New Palace, which had been kept in a previously unknown secret cabinet in the wall above her safe. These come from close family members from Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, but also from the English Queen. The letters are to be opened, scientifically evaluated by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation with the Secret State Archives in Berlin and published as an edition in Auguste Victoria's 100th year of death in 2021.
Private letters, postcards and telegrams by Auguste Viktorias from 1880 to 1919 are kept in the Hohenlohe Central Archive in Neuenstein . They are addressed to her uncle, Prince Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg , his wife Leopoldine von Baden and their son Ernst II zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg .
reception
literature
- Viktoria Luise von Braunschweig : Germany's last empress. Göttingen Publishing House, Göttingen 1971.
- Elizza Heirloom: Empress Auguste Victoria. Attempt a biography . Sutton, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 3-86680-249-8 (also dissertation , Frankfurt / Main 2008).
- Karin Feuerstein-Praßer: The German Empresses . 6th edition, Piper Verlag, Munich / Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-492-23641-3 .
- Iselin Gundermann: Church building and diakonia. Empress Auguste Victoria and the Evangelical Church Aid Association . In: Issues of the Evangelical Church Building Association , 7, Berlin 2006.
- Heinrich Freiherr von Massenbach: The Hohenzollern then and now . Verlag Tradition und Leben Schleching, 15th edition 1994, ISBN 3-9800373-0-4 .
- Gottfried Traub : Auguste Viktoria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 452 ( digitized version ).
- Angelika Obert: Empress Auguste Victoria. How the provincial princess became the empress of hearts. Wichern, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-88981-312-1 .
- Jörg Kirschstein : Auguste Victoria. Portrait of an Empress , Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3861247395 .
Documentary film
- Auguste Viktoria - The last empress . ZDF-History Production, Germany, 2021, 52 min.
Web links
- Literature by and about Auguste Viktoria von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Auguste Viktoria von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in the German Digital Library
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Information on Auguste Viktoria von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage . Attention : The database has changed; please check result and
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set - Newspaper article about Auguste Viktoria von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Kai-Britt Albrecht, Gabriel Eikenberg: Auguste Viktoria. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
- Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. In: FemBio. Women's biography research (with references and citations).
- Burial in the Potsdam Temple of Antiquities
- Report on the 150th birthday of Auguste Viktoria , WDR October 22, 2008
- Historical film recordings of Auguste Viktoria's funeral in April 1921. In: filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Polska 51 ° 46 '11 0964 "N, 14 ° 55' 45 282" E. See map: Google Maps: The palace in Dluzek. Retrieved April 8, 2021 .
- ↑ Angelika Obert: Kirchenjuste - a portrait. Deutschlandradio Kultur , April 10, 2011.
- ↑ Angelika Obert: Empress Auguste Victoria. How the provincial princess became the empress of hearts. Wichern, 2011.
- ↑ Angelika Schaser: Helene Lange and Gertrud Bäumer. A political community. Cologne: Böhlau, 2010, p. 121 f.
- ↑ Harenberg's personal dictionary 20th century, data and services . In: Harenberg (Ed.): Lexicon . 1st edition. Harenberg Lexikon-Verlag, Dortmund 1992, ISBN 3-611-00228-3 , p. 61 .
- ^ Wilhelm II .: Events and characters from the years 1878-1918 . P. 288.
- ^ SZ quotations from Wilhelm II.
- ↑ Friedhild den Toom, Sven Michael Klein: Hermine - the second wife of Wilhelm II.
- ↑ Auguste-Viktoria-Platz . In: Street name dictionary of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
- ↑ Dolziger Strasse. In: Street name dictionary of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
- ↑ slesvigske.dk ( Memento of the original dated June 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ selters.de ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ selters.de
- ↑ Letters to the last German Empress could shed light on a dramatic epoch ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: arte, August 7, 2018, on: arte.tv
- ↑ Markus Wehner: Treasure trove of letters from the last German Empress found . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 7, 2018, at: faz.net
- ↑ Vanja Budde : Find of Empress Auguste Victoria Letters, 100 years hidden in a secret safe . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, August 7, 2018, on: deutschlandfunkkultur.de
- ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, HZAN La 140 Bü 110: Letters from the niece of Prince Hermann Auguste Victoria, later wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II, to her uncle. Retrieved August 16, 2018 .
- ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, HZAN La 141 Bü 56: Letters to Leopoldine from her niece in law, Empress Auguste Viktoria (1858–1921). Retrieved August 16, 2018 .
- ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, La 142 Bü 743: Letters and telegram to Ernst II from his cousin Empress Auguste Viktoria, née Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg. Retrieved August 16, 2018 .
predecessor | Office | Successor |
---|---|---|
Victoria (Empress Friedrich) |
German Empress and Queen of Prussia 1888–1918 |
Title expired |
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Auguste Viktoria von |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schleswig-Holstein, Auguste Victoria Princess of; Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Empress and wife of Wilhelm II. |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 22, 1858 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Dolzig , Sorau district |
DATE OF DEATH | April 11, 1921 |
PLACE OF DEATH | House Doorn , Netherlands |