Emilie von Reichenbach-Lessonitz

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L. Grünbaum: Emilie Ortlepp, Countess von Reichenbach-Lessonitz

Emilie von Reichenbach-Lessonitz , b. Ortlepp, also Ortlöpp (born May 13, 1791 in Berlin ; † February 12, 1843 in Frankfurt am Main ), was the mistress and later second wife of Prince Elector Wilhelm II of Hesse-Kassel .

Life

Emilie was the second daughter of the Berlin goldsmith Johann Christian Ortlöpp and his wife Agnes Louise Sophie, née Weißenberg, and since 1812 she was the lover of the Prince Elector and later Elector Wilhelm II of Hesse, who she had met during a stay in Berlin. He brought her to Kassel in 1813, which led to the de facto termination of his marriage to the Elector Princess Auguste , who was refused a divorce for political reasons . In 1815 the electoral prince couple separated from table and bed .

Emilie was admitted to the court and lived in the Palais Gohr, the later Palais Reichenbach in the Obere Königsstrasse. After Wilhelm II came to power in 1821, she was raised to Countess Reichenbach (after Reichenbach Castle near Hessisch Lichtenau ) and received the Austrian title of Countess of Lessonitz in 1824 after the elector bought the Moravian estates of Lessonitz , Bisenz and Unter for her and her children Moschtienitz had acquired from Count Trauttmansdorff . At the same time, she and her children received Austrian citizenship.

The connection sparked a scandal, and there were even death threats against the elector (“ threatening letter affair ”). The countess was very unpopular; it is also said to have had a bad influence on the politics of the elector. However, it is also possible that some of his political errors were attributed to her. The hatred of the population was also expressed in ridicule. So it was said:

"Oh cholera , spare me,
take Prince Metternich ,
but
if you want something of your kind, something extra fine,
then Countess Reichenbach
and the Finance Council take yours."

The connection was one of the reasons why the elector did not initially return to his capital, Kassel , after the unrest of September 1830, during which he was staying in Karlsbad . A meeting in Arolsen in early January led to renewed unrest in Kassel. In mid-March 1831, the elector first moved to Schloss Wilhelmsbad near Hanau , and later to Frankfurt am Main , where he finally acquired a palace on Neue Mainzer Strasse and a little later a garden house in what is now the Gallus district .

Reichenbach-Lessonitz mausoleum in the Frankfurt main cemetery by Friedrich Hessemer

After the Electress Auguste died on February 19, 1841, Wilhelm married his long-time lover on July 8, 1841 in a morganatic marriage at Bisenz Castle in Moravia . Best man was u. a. the Austrian State Chancellor Prince Metternich .

Emilie died of a liver infection in Frankfurt am Main on February 12, 1843 and was buried in the main cemetery. The elector commissioned the architect Friedrich Hessemer to build a mausoleum in the Byzantine style . The crucifix inside was created by the sculptor Johann Nepomuk Zwerger . The marble sarcophagus was made in 1863 by the sculptor Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz on behalf of the Countess's children. Elector Friedrich Wilhelm tried to use all diplomatic means to oppose the display of his father's sculptures, who are buried in the Marienkirche in Hanau , but did not achieve anything with the Free City of Frankfurt . In the crypt with the keystone from 1847, there are now six coffins.

After the countess's death, the elector married Karoline von Berlepsch (* 1820; † 1877) a third time . He died on November 20, 1847 and was buried in the princely crypt of Hanau's Marienkirche .

progeny

Emilie and Elector Wilhelm II had eight children:

  • Louise (born February 26, 1813 in Berlin; † October 3, 1883 in Baden-Baden ) ⚭ May 15, 1845 Privy Councilor Imperial Count Carl August von Bose (born November 7, 1814 in Garmisch ; † December 25, 1887 in Baden-Baden) . Louise von Bose was an important patron.
  • Julius Wilhelm (born October 4, 1815 in Kassel; † January 15, 1822 there)
  • Amalie Wilhelmine Emilie (born December 31, 1816 in Kassel, † July 28, 1858 in Dresden ).
  1. ⚭ 1836 Count Wilhelm von Luckner (divorced 1839)
  2. ⚭ 1840 Karl von Watzdorff (born March 9, 1807 in Dresden; † December 5, 1846 ibid)
  3. ⚭ 1847 again Count Wilhelm von Luckner (born January 29, 1805, † February 19, 1865).
  • Karl (* August 24, 1818 in Kassel; † September 26, 1881 in Prague) ⚭ December 20, 1861 Clementine Richter (* August 28, 1842 in Prague; † July 13, 1902 in Ischl )
  • Emilie (born June 8, 1820 in Kassel; † January 30, 1891 in Budapest) ⚭ March 10, 1839 Count Felix Zichy -Ferraris von Zich and Vásonkeö (born November 20, 1810 - † September 8, 1885 in Szilvás , Hungary)
  • Friederike (* December 16, 1821 in Kassel; † February 23, 1898 in Weilburg ) ⚭ November 3, 1841 Freiherr Wilhelm von Dungern (* June 20, 1809 in Weilburg; † July 3, 1874 in Wildbad )
  • Wilhelm (born June 29, 1824 in Kassel; † January 19, 1866 in Neuchâtel ) ⚭ March 19, 1857 Amélie Göler von Ravensburg (born April 27, 1838 in Karlsruhe ; † March 14, 1912 in Frankfurt am Main )
  • Helene (born August 8, 1825 at Wilhelmshöhe Palace ; † May 14, 1898 in Munich ) ⚭ January 4, 1844 Baron Oswald von Fabrice (born January 8, 1820 in Bonn ; † June 3, 1898 in Munich)

literature

  • Walter Fraeb: About Elector Wilhelm II and Countess Reichenbach in Hanau . In: Magazin für Hanauische Geschichte 8 (1929), pp. 49–63.
  • Gustav Funke: Emilie Ortlepp Countess von Reichenbach-Lessonitz. The Frankfurt years of exile of Elector Wilhelm II of Hesse-Kassel . In: Frankfurt - a lively city. Quarterly issues for culture, economy and traffic 6 (1961), issue 4.
  • Michel Huberty: L'Allemagne dynastique. Les 15 familles qui ont fait l'empire . Vol. 1: Hesse - Reuss - Saxe. Le Perreux-sur-Marne 1976. ISBN 2-901138-01-2 .
  • Georg Koch: The Countess of Reichenbach . In: Reichenbacher Blätter [4] (1987), H. 5, pp. 62-81.
  • Hellmut Seier (Ed.): Files and letters from the beginnings of the Hessian constitutional period 1830–1837 , edit. by Ewald Grothe , Hellmut Seier, Marburg 1992 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 48.4; Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse , 8), ISBN 3-7708-0993-9 .

Web links

Sarcophagus in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margret Lemberg: Countess Louise Bose and the fate of her foundations (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , vol. 46, 4), Marburg 1998, ISBN 3-7829-1154-7 , p. 11.
  2. ^ Margret Lemberg: The burial places of the Hessian Princely House (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 71), Marburg 2010, p. 186.
  3. Werner Fritzsche: Entertaining and amusing from the family history of the Counts of Luckner , Dresden 2007.