Friederike von Bretzenheim

Friederike von Bretzenheim, Princess Abbess of Lindau, around 1790 at the age of 19

Countess Friederike Caroline Josephine von Bretzenheim (born December 9, 1771 ; † March 2, 1816 in Oberhausen Castle ) was a Countess of Bretzenheim and from 1782 to 1796 princess of the Lindau Canon Church .

Life

Friederike was the youngest of the four natural children of Elector Karl Theodor von der Pfalz from his relationship with Maria Josepha Seyffert (1748–1771), an actress and dancer at the Mannheim Theater, who was elevated to the rank of "Countess von Heydeck" by the Elector has been. Karl Theodor, who had no legitimate offspring, looked after his children born out of wedlock very lovingly. Her twin sister Eleonore (1771-1832) had been Countess of Leiningen since 1787; her older brother Karl August (1768–1823) was raised to Prince of Bretzenheim in 1801.

After Friederike fell down stairs with serious injuries to his spine, Friederike's father installed his ten-year-old daughter as the abbess of Lindau. It was not until seven years later that Friederike was solemnly consecrated by the Prince-Bishop of Constance . In the following years, Friederike von Bretzenheim was a capable, lively, amiable, but also glamorous abbess of the Lindau Abbey with an unusual charisma.

At the age of 24, Friederike married Count Maximilian Friedrich von und zu Westerholt-Gysenberg (1772-1854) on January 25, 1796 . Her husband's father was elevated to the rank of count as imperial vicar on August 6, 1790 by her father, Elector Karl Theodor . Her husband Maximilian Friedrich von Westerholt later received a prestigious court office in the Grand Duchy of Berg as court marshal Joachim Murats and had Oberhausen Castle built as his residence . Five days before the wedding, she gave up her position as abbess. Despite her handicap and the frequent absence of her husband, Friederike gave birth to eight children in their 20-year marriage (→ noble family Westerholt ). In the stillbirth of the last child, she died at the age of 44. Her husband died at the age of 82.

After the death of the last abbess Maria Anna von Ulm -Langenrhein in 1800, the Lindau canonical monastery continued to be administered, from 1802 by Friederike's brother Prince Karl August von Bretzenheim. He dissolved the monastery and swapped the holdings of the women's monastery together with the city of Lindau with Austria in 1804 for the Hungarian lords of Régecz and Sárospatak .

Friederike is one of the main characters in the 1922 novel Der liebe Augustin by Horst Wolfram Geißler . Since 1982, a fountain by the artist Reinhold Petermann (* 1925) in Lindau's captain's garden has been a theme for Friederike and Augustin.

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personal data
SURNAME	Bretzenheim, Friederike von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bretzenheim, Friederike Caroline Josephine von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Princess Abbess of the Lindau Canon Church
DATE OF BIRTH	December 9, 1771
DATE OF DEATH	March 2, 1816
Place of death	Oberhausen Castle