Auguste of Mecklenburg
Auguste, Duchess of Mecklenburg [-Güstrow], also Augusta , called " Princess of Dargun " (* December 27, 1674 in Güstrow , † May 9, 1756 in Dargun ) was the youngest daughter of Duke Gustav Adolf of Mecklenburg and his wife Magdalene Sibylle , b. Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf , daughter of Friedrich III. , and the younger sister of Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg .
Live and act
Duchess Auguste came from the 18th generation of the Mecklenburg Princely House and was the last princess (Duchess) of the House of Mecklenburg-Güstrow . She remained unmarried and initially lived with her mother in Güstrow Castle . After she died in 1719, Auguste received the office of Dargun as apanage in 1720 . She had a lively religious interest from an early age and developed her own piety, essentially shaped by Pietism , which contemporaries referred to as Alamodic cavalier Christianity . She made her court at Dargun Castle , a former monastery, where she lived with a handsome court of around 150 people, a center of pietism in the country. They took on the administration of their territory, which consisted of around 45 localities, and carried out a number of reforms, particularly in the school and health systems. All schools received new school regulations; Schools were set up in villages that did not yet have schools. Through the use of so-called “attendants” she created a preliminary stage for the later community nurse.
Under the influence of her older sister Christine, her piety increased in radicality and she began to be interested in Johann Wilhelm Petersen's mysticism . Preachers whom she had received from his county through her nephew Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode , Christine's son, and with whom she filled pastoral positions under her patronage in Levin, Groß-Methling and Röcknitz (all today districts of Dargun), brought the Halle variant, “conversion pietism”, in which one came to a “breakthrough of grace” after a “penance battle”, to Mecklenburg. At the age of 58, the Duchess herself had an intense conversion experience and from then on was full of certainty of salvation . She devoted all of her energy to bringing spiritual life into her realm in this sense. Their farm became a gathering point for a congregation of converts, but also a starting point for divisions and rumors. In 1735, the disputes over the “enthusiasm” of the Duchess and her supporters led to the dismissal of the conservative court preacher Stieber, who was critical of her, and the appointment of the Wernigeroder preacher Karl Heinrich Zachariae. The dispute drew circles: the ducal consistory in Rostock investigated, and the pros and cons of the doctrine of the "penance struggle" in the years 1736 to 1739 were discussed publicly in around 60 pamphlets. Augustes' plan to fill the pastorate in Jördenstorf with a pietistic preacher in 1736 led to long-lasting resistance from the Spiritual Ministry in Güstrow as well as to violence by the local community itself against those who they insulted as "Dargun heretics " and " Quaker priests" Pietists. An agreement was only reached in 1747. In 1752 Auguste succeeded in occupying Brudersdorf (now also a district of Dargun), the last of the five parishes under their patronage, with a pietistic pastor.
Auguste maintained close connections with her sisters and their families, especially with the farms in Wernigerode and Denmark, which were also religiously close to her. From the Danish Queen Sophie Magdalene von Brandenburg-Kulmbach , the wife of her nephew Christian VI. , she was awarded the Ordre de l'union parfaite .
Augustes Hof was a magnet for Pietists all over Mecklenburg, such as the von Maltzan family on Teschow (today part of Teterow ) and von Zeppelin on Wohrenstorf (today part of Cammin (near Rostock) ), and at the same time had a charisma that spread far beyond the country reached out; Missionaries from the Danish-Halle Mission also came here and found support. The Duchess maintained a rich correspondence with similar thinkers in East Frisia , Glückstadt , Copenhagen and in the Duchy of Schweidnitz-Jauer . Her influence on the intellectual and spiritual development of her great-nephew Duke Friedrich von Mecklenburg , who visited her frequently as a child and adolescent, was considerable.
Auguste was the last permanent resident of the castle at Dargun. During her time there were again major modifications and extensions. The princess chose the west and south wings for herself.
Auguste zu Mecklenburg was buried in the family crypt in Güstrow Cathedral .
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelmi: Augusta, Princess of Meklenburg-Güstrow, and the Dargun Pietists. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 48, 1883, pp. 89-284
- Karl Schmaltz : Church history of Mecklenburg. Third volume. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1950, pp. 151–165
- Martin Brecht: The Halle Pietism in the middle of the 18th century - its charisma and its decline. In: History of Pietism: Pietism in the eighteenth century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1995 (History of Pietism, Volume 2) ISBN 978-3-525-55347-3 , pp. 319-357, here p. 348
- Gerhard Voß : Princess Augusta of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and the Darguner Pietism (lecture) , in: Yearbook for Mecklenburg Church History - Mecklenburgia Sacra , Volume 15, Wismar: Redaria 2012, pp. 127-143.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The spelling of the name Auguste follows Friedrich Wigger : Family tables of the Grand Ducal House of Meklenburg. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 50, 1885, pp. 111–326, here p. 313 ( digitized version ( memento of July 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )); to the title question - see here .
- ↑ According to Schwartz (Lit.), p. 151
- ^ Eduard Jacobs: Zachariae, Karl Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 641-646.
- ↑ Gerald Graefe: Augusta - the princess of Dargun. In: Schweriner Volkszeitung of November 7, 2011, Mecklenburg-Magazin, p. 27.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Auguste of Mecklenburg |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Auguste of Mecklenburg-Güstrow; Augusta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Princess; Duchess of Mecklenburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 27, 1674 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Guestrow |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 9, 1756 |
| Place of death | Dargun |