Elisabeth of Hessen-Darmstadt (1895–1903)

Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and the Rhine in 1903

Princess Elisabeth Marie Alice Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine (born March 11, 1895 in Darmstadt ; † November 16, 1903 in Skierniewice , Russian Empire , today Poland ) was the only daughter of the last reigning Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine and his first wife Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Life

Birth and separation of parents

Elisabeth with her parents (1897)

"Little Princess" Elisabeth looks out of her princess house (1902)

Elisabeth was the first child from her father's marriage to Victoria Melita von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha. The couple married on April 19, 1894 in Ehrenburg Castle near Coburg . The marriage was initiated by Queen Victoria , the grandmother of the two, of Britain . The princess was baptized on March 24, 1895, with the child taking the names of his godparents Grand Duchess Sergius of Russia (Ernst Ludwig's sister Elisabeth), Queen Marie of Romania (Victoria Melita's sister), Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (Ernst Ludwig's sister Alix) and Queen Victoria received. The latter two were not present at Elisabeth's baptism in the New Palace in Darmstadt, which was carried out by Oberhofprediger Bender with water from the Jordan . Also godfather was Duke Alfred von Coburg , the child's grandfather.

Titled by the people of Darmstadt as the “little princess” or “princess sunshine” (based on her aunt Alix), Elisabeth began early on to take on public representation, for example in 1901 at the opening of an exhibition by the Darmstadt artists' colony with her parents on Mathildenhöhe . Ernst Ludwig adored his daughter and later referred to her as “sunshine” in his life, who was “always friendly and happy”, but also often had “deeply sad eyes”. “Although only a child, she had a particularly deep feeling with a big heart [...] I have never seen a child who had so much influence on adults. Although they adored it, it always stayed the same because its inner personality was so strong. Anyone who was with the child has never forgotten it, because there was a kind of nimbus around it, which protected it above all from being pampered ”, says Ernst Ludwig.

The marriage of Elisabeth's parents was unhappy, which was mainly blamed on Victoria Melita: she was unable to fulfill the tasks that were expected of her at such a small and traditional court as the mother of the country. After the stillbirth of a son in 1900, the couple separated and divorced on December 21, 1901. Elisabeth suffered from the separation of her parents and is said to have preferred her father, with whom she continued to live from the end of 1901: “First, when she [Elisabeth] had to return to her mother, I explained to her how her mother loved her. Then she simply replies: 'Mom says so. You do it.'. I had to be silent ... “, so Ernst Ludwig.

Construction of the “Prinzessinnenhaus” in Wolfsgarten Castle

In 1902, the Grand Duke had the so-called princess house built for his daughter in the park of Wolfsgarten Castle , which still exists today. The one-storey playhouse with a ceiling height of 1.90 meters, built by the Austrian architect Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867–1908) in Art Nouveau style , is fully adapted to the dimensions and needs of a child and consists of a salon and a kitchen. The initial "E" for Elisabeth is often attached to and in the mixture of villa and country house. It is the last building in Olbrich preserved in its original substance. Lady-in-waiting Georgine Freiin von Rotsmann later told the story of the princess house in the form of a fairy tale, which Olbrich illustrated with five color lithographs .

Early death

Funeral procession for Princess Elisabeth in Darmstadt, November 19, 1903

Elisabeth's grave on the Rosenhöhe with the angel figure created by Ludwig Habich

Memorial stone Princess Elisabeth in the Herrngarten in Darmstadt

In November 1903 Elisabeth accompanied her father on a hunting trip with the Russian imperial couple Nicholas II and Alexandra to Skierniewice (now Poland ). There she died in the hunting lodge of the same name at the age of eight. The cause of death was initially given as children's cholera , then strychnine , which is said to have been used by the Russian tsar, and finally a typhoid infection .

Burial and aftermath

Elisabeth's body was transferred to Darmstadt in a silver coffin on a special train. A funeral procession to the Rosenhöhe took place there on November 19, with great sympathy from the population , in which six white-hung horses pulled the wagon with the coffin. The burial was carried out by the court preacher Ludwig Ehrhardt . Elisabeth's grave is adorned by a figure of an angel with outspread wings, which was created by the sculptor Ludwig Habich .

Almost two years after her death, a memorial stone was designed, also by Habich, which is still placed in the immediate vicinity of the south exit of Darmstadt's Herrngarten . The marble stone bears a medallion picture of Elisabeth and a relief of Snow White, guarded by seven dwarfs, in a glass coffin and was unveiled on October 25, 1905 in the presence of over 10,000 Darmstadt children who had donated to the memorial.

Ernst Ludwig found it difficult to get over the death of his daughter. He did not want to see Elisabeth's jewelery worn by anyone anymore and therefore had the grand ducal court jeweler Robert Koch in Frankfurt am Main set it in a communion chalice , a Bible cover and a traffic light according to his own ideas . Today the Bible is in the possession of the Stadtkirche Darmstadt .

Ernst Ludwig married Princess Eleonore zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich in 1905 and founded a new family with her that had two sons. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in 1937 near his deceased daughter Elisabeth. In the same year, on November 16, 1937, almost the entire Ernst Ludwigs family was killed in an aircraft accident near Ostend , the 34th anniversary of Elisabeth's death.

Pedigree

Pedigree of Princess Elisabeth
Great grandparents	Prince Karl of Hesse and by the Rhine (1809–1877) ⚭ 1836 Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (1815–1885)	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) ⚭ 1857 Queen Victoria (United Kingdom) (1819–1901)	Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861) ⚭ 1857 Queen Victoria (United Kingdom) (1819–1901)	Tsar Alexander II of Russia (1818–1881) ⚭ 1841 Princess Marie of Hesse and the Rhine (1824–1880)
Grandparents	Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and the Rhine (1837–1892) ⚭ 1862 Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland (1843–1878)		Duke Alfred von Coburg (1844–1900) ⚭ 1874 Grand Duchess Marija Alexandrovna of Russia (1853–1920)
parents	Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine (1868–1937) ⚭ 1894 (divorced in 1901) Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876–1936)
Elisabeth (1895–1903), Princess of Hesse and the Rhine

gallery

"Little Princess" Elisabeth (1899)
Elisabeth 1902
Princess Elisabeth in a folk costume, taken in 1901
Elisabeth with her Russian cousins Olga and Tatiana Nikolajewna Romanowa February 1901
Official portrait 1901

literature

Manfred Knodt : Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 .
Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1977, ISBN 3-87704-004-7 .

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth von Hessen-Darmstadt - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 12.
^ Departure of the tsarist couple to Russia, November 7, 1903. State History Information System of Hesse, accessed on December 11, 2019 .
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 65.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 70.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 128.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 298.
^ Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1977, ISBN 3-87704-004-7 , p. 129.
↑ ^a ^b Sights in the Herrngarten. (PDF; 2.6 MB) accessed on July 17, 2011.
↑ Prinzessinnenhaus im Park Wolfsgarten at gg-online.de; Retrieved July 17, 2011.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 71.
↑ Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999. From the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting. Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 34.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 207.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 72.
^ Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 404.

personal data
SURNAME	Elisabeth of Hessen-Darmstadt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	from Hesse and the Rhine, Elisabeth Marie Alice Victoria (full name); from Hessen and by the Rhine, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German nobles
DATE OF BIRTH	March 11, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH	November 16, 1903
Place of death	Skierniewice , Russian Empire

[1] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 12.

[2] Departure of the tsarist couple to Russia, November 7, 1903. State History Information System of Hesse, accessed on December 11, 2019 .

[3] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 65.

[Knodt70-4] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 70.

[5] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 128.

[6] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 298.

[7] Manfred Knodt: The regents of Hessen-Darmstadt. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1977, ISBN 3-87704-004-7 , p. 129.

[darmstadt.de-8] Sights in the Herrngarten. (PDF; 2.6 MB) accessed on July 17, 2011.

[9] Prinzessinnenhaus im Park Wolfsgarten at gg-online.de; Retrieved July 17, 2011.

[10] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 71.

[11] Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999. From the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting. Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 34.

[12] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 207.

[13] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 72.

[14] Manfred Knodt: Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. His life and his time. Schlapp, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-87704-006-3 , p. 404.