Helene Charlotte von Friedland

Helene Charlotte von Lestwitz, called von Friedland, around 1800; Rochow Museum Reckahn

Helene Charlotte von Friedland, sculptor Heinrich Enrico Keller

Helene Charlotte von Friedland (born November 18, 1754 in Breslau ; † February 23, 1803 in Kunersdorf ) was a Brandenburg nobleman and landlady .

Life

Helene Charlotte von Friedland was born on November 18, 1754 as Helene Charlotte von Lestwitz . She was the daughter of the Prussian Major General Hans Sigismund von Lestwitz and Catharina Charlotte von Tresckow (* 1734, † 1789). At the age of 16, on February 10, 1771, she married Adrian Heinrich von Borcke (* 1736; † 1791), who was then the Prussian ambassador to the Saxon royal court in Dresden . Later he went to Stockholm .

In 1772 the marriage was annulled after Borcke committed adultery . Helene Charlotte von Friedland had previously given birth to a daughter, Henriette Charlotte , later Countess von Itzenplitz . King Friedrich Wilhelm II had given the divorcee the name "von Friedland" in order to limit the burden of the failed marriage. The Lestwitz coat of arms continued to lead von Friedland. She moved back from Dresden to her homeland and lived again at Kunersdorf Castle near Bliesdorf . There she devoted herself primarily to the upbringing of her daughter and the intellectual development of her mind.

When her father, General von Lestwitz, died in 1778, she took over the management of Lestwitz's estates. To put the work on a firmer financial footing, she sold all of her jewelry and other valuables. Von Friedland tried to be accepted as a woman by her neighbors and the rural population and fought for emancipation on a small scale . General Friedrich August Ludwig von der Marwitz auf Friedersdorf wrote about Helene Charlotte von Friedland:

“Most of the things in agriculture - about everything I didn't know from childhood and then acquired from experience - I learned from a very strange woman in our neighborhood, from a woman from Friedland. When I met her (1802), she had owned the property for about twelve years and managed everything with unprecedented perseverance and care. There were six large farms that she ran herself; She had no sub-civil servants other than peasants whom she herself had trained to do so. Not only was agriculture in the most prosperous state, but it had moved its forests from swampy lowlands to previously barren mountains, but turned these lowlands into meadows, and so in all parts. Such a phenomenon was, of course, widely criticized. It was said that she rode about in the fields (that was true) and always had the whip in hand, with which she drove the peasants to work - that was a lie. On the contrary, I found in her a true mother of her subordinates. Wherever she showed herself, and that was all day, now here, now there, she talked to them in a friendly way, and the joy shone in people's eyes. But everything had to obey. But she was not just a farmer, but a most witty and well-informed woman. I owe her a lot. "

These descriptions already indicate the point where von Friedland particularly excelled: her organizational and educational talent, her gift for making people from the peasant class into loyal and capable administrators, foresters and hunters. Her organizational and administrative talent made her popular and well-known in the Oderland in Brandenburg . As a rule, she resolved conflicts herself. In 1794, for example, she fought a legal dispute with the Quilitz community over fishing rights on Lake Kietz .

She died at the age of 48 on February 23, 1803 of complications from pneumonia which she contracted while putting out the fire in Wuschewier . She is buried at the hereditary funeral of the von Lestwitz-Itzenplitz family in Bliesdorf, district of Kunersdorf .

literature

Theodor Fontane : wife of Friedland. In: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg in 8 volumes. Volume 2 Oderland . Gotthard Erler , Rudolf Mingau (eds.), Aufbau-Verlag , Berlin 1997, pp. 174–178. ISBN 3-7466-5702-4 ( chapter Frau von Friedland in the text log )
Helene Charlotte von Friedland. In: Theodor Fontane: Wonderful women. Female life pictures from the "Walks through the Mark Brandenburg" . Manesse, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-7175-2500-4
Reinhard Schmook: Kunersdorf and the women of Friedland. Accompanying document to the permanent exhibition. Kunersdorf Musenhof . Published by VorOrt - Art, Culture and Communication eV With the collaboration of Hans Domnick. Findling book and magazine publisher, Kunersdorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-933603-41-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Antje Jakupi: On the reconstruction of historical biodiversity from archival sources: The example of the Oderbruch (Brandenburg) in the 18th century (PDF; 10.6 MB). Dissertation to obtain the doctoral degree of the mathematical and natural science faculties of the Georg-August University in Göttingen . Göttingen 2007, p. 262.

personal data
SURNAME	Friedland, Helene Charlotte von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lestwitz, Helene Charlotte von (maiden name); Borcke, Helene Charlotte von (during the marriage)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Brandenburg nobleman and landlady
DATE OF BIRTH	November 18, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH	February 23, 1803
Place of death	Kunersdorf

[1] Antje Jakupi: On the reconstruction of historical biodiversity from archival sources: The example of the Oderbruch (Brandenburg) in the 18th century (PDF; 10.6 MB). Dissertation to obtain the doctoral degree of the mathematical and natural science faculties of the Georg-August University in Göttingen . Göttingen 2007, p. 262.