Diana Rabe von Pappenheim

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Diana Rabe von Pappenheim

Diana Rabe von Pappenheim (also Diana von Pappenheim , born January 25, 1788 in Ollweiler Castle near Wuenheim in Alsace , †  December 18, 1844 in Weimar ) was temporarily lover of King Jérôme Bonaparte of Westphalia .

origin

Diana's father was Baron Gottfried Waldner von Freundstein (1757-1818), artillery officer, member of the General Council of the Upper Rhine Knighthood and the Imperial Knighthood in Ortenau and Wetterau , son of Count Franz Ludwig Waldner von Freundstein (1710–1788), Lord zu Schmieheim , and his wife Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Eleonore von Berckheim zu Rappoltsweiler . Her mother was Friederike von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1767–1797), daughter of Baron Dietrich Philipp August von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1741–1803) and his wife Maria Susanne Wilhelmine Elisabeth von und zu der Thann . Diana grew up with her brothers Theodor (1786–1864) and Eduard (1789–1880) and the sisters Isabelle, Cecile and Adele. Her brother Eduard Waldner von Freundstein (Edouard Waldner de Freundstein) became lieutenant general and senator under Napoleon . Henriette von Oberkirch (1754-1803) was a sister of her father. Her maternal uncle was the landowner Friedrich Georg von Stein .

Life

youth

As a result of the French Revolution , the family lost most of their property and the resulting income. In order to guarantee the future and care of the daughters, after they had reached the appropriate age and acquired the necessary education, they became court ladies in princely houses. Diana and her sister Isabelle first went to Kassel in 1802, and then went to Weimar two years later. Isabelle became the maid of honor of the Duchess Luise (1757-1830), the now 16-year-old Diana with the Hereditary Princess and Tsar's daughter Maria Pavlovna .

First marriage

In Weimar, the pretty and fun-loving Diana met Chamberlain Wilhelm Maximilian Rabe von Pappenheim (1764–1815), who was over 20 years her senior , who fell in love with her and married her in 1806. A year later their son Gottfried was born. 1808, Diana was pregnant with her second child, the couple had in the meantime by Napoleon for his youngest brother Jerome created Kingdom of Westphalia return, not to be expropriated: Jérôme's edict was that all living in "foreign" "Westphalen" on pain of confiscation their goods had to return to the country. Country nobles had to meet at the court.

Lover of the king

Shortly after the birth of their second son Alfred Otto in September 1808, the Rabe von Pappenheim couple went to the royal court in Kassel . Diana became Queen Katharina's chambermaid , her husband Chamberlain Jérômes. The marriage of the two was problematic, not only because of the considerable age difference, but also because of Wilhelm's nervous problems, which had forced him to leave the Hessian military years ago . While he was looking for relief in various therapeutic baths, and her two sons Gottfried and Alfred were retired to a pastor in the Harz Mountains , Diana enjoyed life at the court of "King Lustig". She apparently had a particularly close relationship with Jérôme's favorite, Pierre Alexandre le Camus : in August 1809, the Parisian ambassador to Kassel, Karl Friedrich Reinhard , noted that Le Camus had separated from Frau von Pappenheim because of his marriage to Countess Adelaide von Hardenberg . Since Le Camus had raved about her to the king, she had aroused Jérôme's interest, but initially resisted his advances, as Reinhard suggestively noted in a note dated August 10, 1809. In March 1810, however, she traveled with the royal couple to the wedding of Napoleon with Marie-Louise from Austria to Paris; her husband did not travel.

Daughter Jenny von Gustedt

Diana gave birth to a daughter on September 7, 1811. Jérôme himself baptized her , and she was given the name Jeromée Catharina. She became known as Jenny von Gustedt (1811–1890), grandmother of the women's rights activist and writer Lily Braun (1865–1916). Since Diana's marriage to Wilhelm Rabe von Pappenheim still existed, the latter recognized the child as his legitimate daughter.

Almost three months later, on November 30, 1811, Wilhelm Rabe von Pappenheim was raised to the Westphalian count . This helped him, meanwhile First Chamberlain and Chief Ceremony Master, but obviously not, to cope with the public and scandalous breakdown of his marriage. He withdrew more and more from the court, fell increasingly into depression and finally collapsed. After unsuccessful treatment at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière nervous hospital in Paris , he returned to his castle in Stammen , where he was dying and died two years later, on January 3, 1815.

It is not known where Diana stayed during this time until her husband's death. What is certain, however, is that she continued to enjoy Jérôme's attentions. On October 4, 1813, in the last days of the Kingdom of Westphalia - Kassel was on September 30th / 1. October was taken by the Cossacks of the Russian General Tschernyschow - she gave birth to another daughter in Schönfeld Palace in Kassel, who was named Marie Pauline von Schönfeld after her birthplace. Soon after, the child was secretly brought to Paris to the Notre Dame des Oiseaux convent, where she grew up with Diana's relatives in Alsace. In 1832 Marie Pauline entered this monastery as a nun with the name Marie de la Croix, became superior of the convent and died there in 1873.

Second marriage

Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff (1829)

After the death of her husband in 1815, Diana returned to Weimar with her daughter Jenny, where she was accepted by her sister Isabelle, who had meanwhile married General August Karl von und zu Egloffstein . Since the Hereditary Princess Maria Pavlovna accepted her again with open arms, her position in Weimar society was secured. In autumn 1815 she met the privy councilor, diplomat and later Minister of State Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff (1781-1852), who had been widowed since 1811 , who had led the Saxe-Weimar-Eisenacher delegation to the Congress of Vienna and had just returned to Weimar. The two married on January 20, 1816. The marriage lasted 28 years and appears to have been happy. Gersdorff took Diana's daughter Jenny with him, as did the two sons Gottfried and Alfred Rabe von Pappenheim as comrades of his own son Karl from his first marriage to Amalie von Damnitz. Their daughter Cécile was born in 1821. Diana now devoted herself entirely to her large family.

Sickness and death

She suffered from a chronic and steadily worsening gallbladder disease and therefore took fountain cures in Karlsbad or Bad Kissingen from 1830 . The disease worsened significantly in the early 1840s, but Diana refused to undergo surgery. She died on December 18, 1844 at the age of 56. Her life later provided the material for a novel.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelige Häuser A , Volume XXI, Volume 98 of the complete series, CA Starke, Limburg (Lahn), 1990, ISBN 3-7980-0700-4 (p. 216)
  2. ↑ Axel Westerwelle: Lost in History Returns - the story of Diana von Pappenheim embedded in a novel. Hamburger Verlag, Quickborn, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Rabe von Pappenheim, Diana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diana von Pappenheim; Diana von Gersdorff; Diana Waldner von Freundstein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of King Jérôme Bonaparte of Westphalia
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH Ollweiler Castle , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1844
Place of death Weimar