Gertrude von Hanau

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Gertrude, Princess of Hanau. Countess of Schaumburg

Gertrude Falkenstein , later Countess von Schaumburg , Princess of Hanau and zu Hořowitz (born May 18, 1803 in Bonn , †  July 9, 1882 in Prague ) was the morganatic wife of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Hesse , the last Elector of Hesse-Kassel .

Life

Origin and first marriage

Gertrude was the daughter of the Catholic couple Gottfried Falkenstein and Marie Magdalene Schulz in Bonn. Her father was a pharmacist in Bonn and died early, after which the mother married a second time, a Mr. Frings in Buschdorf near Bonn .

Gertrude married the Prussian lieutenant Karl Michael Lehmann on May 29, 1822 (born June 16, 1787 in Bischofswerder , Rosenberg district , West Prussia ; † 1882 in Wandsbek near Hamburg ). From this marriage she had two sons who stayed with her after the divorce of the Lehmann marriage and were raised together with their children from their second marriage. Friedrich Wilhelm I gave both step-sons the name of Hertingshausen in 1835 , but the name of Scholley as early as 1837, and in 1846 elevated them to the status of baron in Hesse .

  1. Otto (1823–1907), Imperial and Royal Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal ,
  2. Eduard (1827–1896), Royal Prussian Rittmeister.

Friedrich Wilhelm I met Gertrude during his studies in Bonn and persuaded the lieutenant to divorce Gertrude. Lehmann then had to say goodbye to the military. The divorce of their first marriage took place as part of a default judgment by a Prussian court in Marienwerder . The date of the divorce is unknown. Karl Lehmann later married three more times.

Marriage to the electoral prince

The coat of arms of the Princess von Hanau , Countess von Schaumburg, as well as her descendants with the Elector, awarded in 1853

But since Gertrude was Catholic, she was still considered married - even after her marriage to the prince, which took place in the county of Ravensberg . With that, Friedrich Wilhelm I and Gertrude initially lived in bigamy . Only after Gertrude converted to the Reformed faith in 1831 could this problem be resolved by the electoral prince remarrying her on June 26, 1831 in Rellinghausen near Essen . At least the first two children were thus out of wedlock. The couple lived in the Palais Reichenbach in Kassel , known from 1843 as the “Kleines Palais” or “Palais Hanau”.

The electoral prince Friedrich Wilhelm, who was appointed co-regent on September 30, 1831, elevated his wife to Countess of Schaumburg on October 10, 1831 with a letter of arms dated May 1, 1832 and awarded her and all of her descendants the title of “Prince” on June 2, 1853 in Kassel or Prince of Hanau ” . The Austrian recognition as Princess Hanau von und zu Hořowitz took place on March 6, 1855. The electoral Hessian confirmation of this title and name for the children of the elector and the descendants of his sons from a befitting marriage (at least of counts of origin) finally followed on June 10, 1862 at Wilhelmshöhe Palace with Austrian recognition on January 20, 1877 in Vienna.

Gertrude went into exile in Bohemia and Austria with her husband in 1867 , after the latter had been dethroned by Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War . They lived there on their estates, Hořowitz Castle and a city palace in Prague. Friedrich Wilhelm died on January 6th, 1875. Gertrude lived in the City Palace in Prague after the death of her husband. She inherited the considerable private fortune of the last elector with her six sons and three daughters, all of whom bore the title of their mother ( "Prince of Hanau" ). The princess was buried on July 12, 1882 in the " New Totenhof " in Kassel.

progeny

August Embde : The three princes of Hanau - the eldest sons of Gertrude and the elector: Wilhelm, Moritz and Friedrich Wilhelm (from left to right)

From the marriage with Elector Friedrich Wilhelm emerged:

  1. Augusta (* September 21, 1829; † September 18, 1887), ∞ Prince Ferdinand Maximilian zu Ysenburg and Büdingen († June 5, 1903)
  2. Alexandrine (* December 22, 1830; † December 20, 1871), ∞ Felix Eugen Wilhelm Ludwig Albrecht Karl zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen-Oehringen (* March 1, 1818; † September 8, 1900)
  3. Friedrich Wilhelm (born November 18, 1832; † May 14, 1889), ∞ (I) Augusta Birnbaum (born October 9, 1837; † June 29, 1862); ∞ (II) Ludovika Bertha Luise Gloede (* May 6, 1840; † April 20, 1912)
    1. Friedrich August , Prince of Hanau, Count of Schaumburg (April 14, 1864 - April 26, 1940)
    2. Ludwig Cäcilius Felix, Prince of Hanau, Count of Schaumburg (born May 19, 1872 - † January 8, 1940)
  4. Moritz Philipp Heinrich , 1st Prince of Hanau and zu Hořovice (* May 4, 1834 - March 24, 1889), ∞ Anna von Lossberg (* August 14, 1829 - October 27, 1876)
  5. Wilhelm , 2nd Prince of Hanau and zu Hořovice (February 19, 1836 - June 3, 1902), ∞ (I) Elisabeth Wilhelmine Auguste Marie zu Schaumburg-Lippe (March 5, 1841 - November 30, 1926); ∞ (II) Elisabeth zur Lippe-Weissenfeld (* July 1, 1868; † October 24, 1952)
  6. Maria Auguste (* August 22, 1839; † March 26, 1917), later received the title Princess von Ardeck , ∞ Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (* October 3, 1831; † January 17, 1890)
  7. Karl , 3rd Prince of Hanau and zu Hořovice (born November 29, 1840 - † January 27, 1905), ∞ Countess Hermine Grote (* October 8, 1859 - † March 31, 1939)
  8. Heinrich Ludwig Hermann , 4th Prince of Hanau and zu Hořovice (* December 8, 1842 - July 15, 1917), ∞ Martha Riegel (* October 26, 1876 - March 10, 1943)
  9. Philipp (December 29, 1844; † August 28, 1914), ∞ Albertine Hubatschek-Stauber (* December 8, 1845; † April 11, 1912)
    1. Philipp, Count of Schaumburg (April 17, 1868 - September 19, 1890)
    2. Friedrich, Count of Schaumburg (December 18, 1875 - December 26, 1898)
    3. Karl August Friedrich Felix, Count of Schaumburg (* August 10, 1878 - December 2, 1905)

Class problem

The family relationships of Friedrich Wilhelm I showed serious shortcomings for an heir to the throne by the standards of the 19th century: Gertrude was not befitting as a bourgeoisie and as a divorcee an “impossibility” in society. So there was no prospect of getting the equality of Gertrude and their nine children recognized by other courts. Foreign princes - with rare exceptions - refused the corresponding protocol honors to the princess. The elector closed himself off completely against other courts, in particular against the Prussian royal house, from which his mother, Auguste von Prussia (1780–1841), came from. In this respect, the marriage was a foreign policy disaster. The country's nobility also alienated themselves from the court because their daughters were not to become court ladies at the princess.

Gertrude was overwhelmed by her role as the elector's wife under these massively aggravating circumstances and tried to compensate for her insecurity and the insecurity she experienced from others with arrogance and especially stately behavior, which was reflected in her image in the courtly world and at large Public was all the more devastating.

The marriage, on the other hand, was reasonably happy, even if the elector repeatedly considered divorce for political reasons in order to still be able to marry appropriately and be the father of an heir to the throne. The children from this marriage were after the Hessian House Law regarding the Fideikommissvermögens not entitled to inherit and the line of succession, but in terms of private wealth already. The endeavors of Friedrich Wilhelm I and his wife were therefore aimed at increasing this private fortune, also at the expense of public money or the tasks incumbent on him as sovereign. This earned Gertrude and her husband a bad reputation among their subjects, which contributed to the fact that the annexation of the electorate by Prussia after the Austro-Prussian War was generally welcomed by the Hessian population.

literature

Grave of Gertrude von Hanau in the Kassel main cemetery

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The US Mormon Archives Internet file names 1803 as the year of birth and baptism. Other sources give 1805 or 1806. But this is clearly denied by Losch: Die Fürstin von Hanau , p. 33.
  2. ↑ See: Hassenpflug, pp. 77–79.
  3. ↑ See Hassenpflug, pp. 192f., 215f., 329f.
personal data
SURNAME Hanau, Gertrude von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Falkenstein, Gertrude; Lehmann, Gertrude; Hanau, Gertrude, Princess of; Schaumburg, Gertrude Countess von; Rellinghausen, Gertrude Countess of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION morganatic wife of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Hessen-Kassel
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1882
Place of death Prague