Katharina Kest

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Pastel by Johann Friedrich Dryander (1790)

Katharina Margaretha Kest (born March 1, 1757 in Fechingen , † December 11, 1829 in Mannheim ), Countess of Ottweiler , Duchess of Dillingen , was the mistress and later the wife of Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken . It is popularly called "the Fechingen goose rattle".

Life

View through the window into the green cabinet of Katharina Kest, 1780–1795, twelve-part paneling, formerly in the palace of Katharina Kest in Wilhelm-Heinrich-Straße, oak, linden tree, pine, glass, brass, iron, oil, canvas, 316 × 236 × 483 cm, Saarland Museum
Mannheim Palace of Katharina Kest since 1800; C 1.2; Black and white reproduction on cardboard; State of the house in the late 19th century when the house was owned by the Jewish Resource Society; Mannheim City Archives

Katharina Margaretha Kest was the daughter of the serf farmer Johann Georg Kest (1702–1762) and his third wife Anna Barbara Wohlfahrt (1717–1795). After the death of their father, mother and daughter moved to the nearby royal seat of Saarbrücken around 1770 , where Katharina von Freifrau Frederike Amalie von Dorsberg (1753–1802), mistress of Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken, was the nanny for the illegitimate children of the Couple, Luise Friederike Amalie (1771− ?, ⚭ François Leclerc d'Alteville) and Ludwig Carl Philipp (1774–1871) as well as a chambermaid .

Prince Ludwig had the young girl trained as a lady in Metz , Nancy and Paris . At the age of 16 she came back to Saarbrücken to her patroness, Baroness von Dorsberg, and worked again as a maid. During this time Katharina Kest became the mistress of Prince Ludwig and the latter parted with Baroness von Dorsberg. On September 1, 1774, Ludwig, who had been married to Wilhelmine von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1751–1780) since 1766 and had a son, Hereditary Prince Heinrich Ludwig and two illegitimate children with Frederike Amalie von Dorsberg, entered into a morganatic marriage with Katharina ("Marriage to the left hand"). Princess Wilhelmine died on July 17, 1780.

In 1781, Prince Katharina Kest had Duke Karl II August von Pfalz-Zweibrücken elevated to the status of wife von Ludwigsberg (named after the painter Ludwigsberg). The common illegitimate children were legitimized by marriage on November 20, 1781 by Emperor Joseph II . Katharina Kest was made Baroness of Ottweiler by the Emperor in 1781 , and Countess of Ottweiler in 1784 . Their home was the garden pavilion built by Friedrich Joachim Stengel .

On March 1, 1787, seven years after the death of Ludwig's wife Wilhelmine von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1780, Prince Katharina Kest married again on his right hand and on March 8, 1787 had her proclaimed the ruling princess of Nassau-Saarbrücken .

In 1788 the couple traveled to Paris in order to acquire territorial rule for Katharina Kest in keeping with their rank. On January 22, 1789, Prince Ludwig bought the Dillingen estate at a price of 225,000 francs and in April 1789, the French King Louis XVI. raise the previous rule of Dillingen to the Duchy and his wife Katharina to the Duchess of Dillingen. At the same time, he had Balthasar Wilhelm Stengel, the son of Friedrich Joachim Stengel , expand the previous Dillingen Palace into a small ducal residence.

On June 3, 1789, Adolph von Ottweiler was born in Saarbrücken as the first legitimate son of the couple . In 1791 the French revolutionary troops marched into Saarbrücken.

In the First Coalition War , the princely family fled from the troops of the French Revolution , first in exile in Mannheim in 1793 and then in Aschaffenburg . Ludwig died here in 1794. In 1799 the son of Ludwig and Katharina, Ludwig Carl von Ottweiler (1776–1799), died on the Gotthard Pass while serving in the Austrian army.

Katharina went back to Mannheim. Here she lived with her children in a palace near the Paradeplatz and near the Mannheim Palace . In 1802 there was a break between Katharina Kest and her daughter Luise von Ottweiler (1778–1855), who married the then famous Viennese opera singer and composer Joseph Fischer .

In the same year Katharina traveled to Paris with her son Adolph in order to be able to assert claims to the rule of Dillingen from Napoleon Bonaparte. The French state had taken in the Duchy of Dillingen during the revolution. On the orders of Napoleon, Katharina Kest got the rule and Dillingen castle back, but in 1806 she sold all goods (1,600 acres of forest and 400 acres of gardens, fields and meadows and the castle) to Dillinger Hütte . The castle then had the hut converted for residential purposes. The castle, the land and the forest have been owned by the Dillinger Hütte ever since. In addition, Katharina Kest negotiated with Napoleon to assert her son Adolph's claims to the Principality of Nassau-Saarbrücken. Katharina Kest was unsuccessful here.

Adolph von Ottweiler as a child in 1792, painting by Johann Friedrich Dryander oil on canvas, 102 × 112 cm, Saarland Museum

On September 25, 1810, Katharina Kests' youngest daughter Luise Katharina (1786–1818) married pastor Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelmi (1786–1860) in Mauer near Heidelberg . In 1812, Katharina's beloved son Adolph died while serving as a soldier in the Württemberg Army near Vilnius as a participant in Napoleon's Russian campaign in 1812 . Katharina Kest had hoped for the return of her son all her life and carried out extensive research over several years into his whereabouts. She even turned to Tsar Alexander of Russia about this, but he was unable to tell her anything about Adolph's fate. Until her death, Katharina Kest stuck to the fiction that her son was still alive, and after the break with her daughters made him the main heir. Only Luise was able to prove beyond doubt the death of her brother a year after the death of her mother Katharina Kest after a witness was called in various newspapers and was thus able to obtain her mother's blocked inheritance. Katharina Kest died in Mannheim on December 11, 1829.

progeny

From the morganatic marriage with Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken there were four sons and two daughters (von Ludwigsberg, later Count von Ottweiler, Duke von Dillingen); most of them died young.

  • Ludwig Albrecht (1775–1784)
  • Ludwig Carl (1776–1799)
  • Luise (1778–1855) ⚭ 1802 Berlin the chamber singer Anton Joseph Fischer (1780–1862)
  • Heinrich (1779–1781)
  • Ludwig (1785–1796)
  • Luise Katharina (1786–1818) ⚭ September 25, 1810 Wall near Heidelberg the pastor Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelmi (1786–1860)

After the marriage, the fifth son was born “to the right hand” with the title “Reichsgraf von Ottweiler, Duke of Dillingen” - and as the last legitimate descendant of Ludwig - also as “Prince of Nassau”. He died in the Russian campaign in 1812 .

memory

Portraits of Katharina are in the old collection of the Saarland Museum in Saarbrücken , where since 2013 her Green Cabinet from her Saarbrücken City Palace, which was previously in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld , has been on display .

literature

  • Ernst Meyer Camberg: The adventurous curriculum vitae of Count Adoph von Ottweiler, in: Special print from: Einst und Jetzt, yearbook of the Association for Corps Student History Research, o. O., 1963.
  • Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Katharina Kest - Gänsegretel, Mätresse, Duchess, Annweiler 2013.
  • Kurt Hoppstädter: The Saarbrücker Hofadel in the 18th century, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 16, 1968.
  • Willibrord Lithardt: Katharina Margaretha Kest from Fechingen called Gänse-Gretel - Baroness and Countess of Ottweiler, Duchess of Dillingen, Princess of Nassau-Saarbrücken, in: Brebach-Fechingen once and now, published by the community of Brebach-Fechingen, 1973.
  • Memoirs of Countess Luise von Ottweiler, married fishermen, in: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein für die Saargebiet, Issue 7, Saarbrücken 1900, pp. 278–328.
  • Paul Menoti: The Ludwigsberg, Princely Garden Art in Saarbrücken (1769–1793), Saarbrücken 2009.
  • Albert Ruppersberg : History of the County of Saarbrücken, After Friedrich and Adolf Köllner, revised and expanded by Albert Ruppersberg. 4 volumes. Part I: From the earliest times to the introduction of the Reformation. With illustrations in the text and a collotype plate. Part II: From the introduction of the Reformation to the unification with Prussia. 1574-1815. With 23 illustrations in the text and 2 maps. III. Part: History of the cities of Saarbrücken, St. Johann and Malstatt-Burbach. With 2 views, 4 plans and 38 illustrations in the text. III. Part, Volume 1: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann up to the year 1815. (folding map), Saarbrücken 1899–1903.
  • Karl August Schleiden : Illustrated History of the City of Saarbrücken, Dillingen / Saar 2009.
  • Gertrud Schmidt: Castle and Castle Dillingen, From the Lorraine domination to the French duchy , Dillingen 1990.
  • Friedrich Schön: The Gänsegretel from Fechingen, Stettin 1940.
  • Doris Seck : The Countess of Ottweiler: The eventful life of Katharina Kest , SDV Saarländische Druckerei and Verlag, 1996.
  • Hermann Usener-Klipstein: Gänse-Gretl, The life of Princess Katharina von Nassau-Saarbrücken, A contribution to the cultural history of the 18th century, Saarbrücken 1937.
  • Friedrich Walter: History of Mannheim from the transition to Baden (1802) to the founding of the empire (Mannheim in the past and present, 2 volumes, vol. 2), Mannheim 1907, pp. 85–86.
  • Theodor Wilckens: Countess Katharina von Ottweiler and her relationship to Mannheim, in: Mannheimer Geschichtsblatt 1900, Sp. 134-141.
  • Rolf Wittenbrock (Ed.): History of the City of Saarbrücken, Vol. 1, From the beginnings to the industrial awakening (1860), Vol. 2, From the time of rapid growth to the present, Saarbrücken 1999.

Web links

Commons : Katharina Kest  - More pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Katharina Kest on the portal "Saarländische Biografien" ( Memento from April 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Ingrid and Klaus Berndt: The residents of Fechingen before 1900 , Saarbrücken 2006, p. 31ff. and p. 221f.
  3. ↑ Dominika Kolodziej: Katharina Kest - Life and Time, in: Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Katharina Kest - Gänsegretel, Mätresse, Herzogin, Annweiler 2013, pp. 84–85.
  4. ^ A b c Uta Plisch: My Fair Lady in the county of Nassau-Saarbrücken or how Katharina Kest advanced to countess . Katharina Kest on the "Saarland-Reading" portal
  5. ↑ Meinrad Maria Grewenig (ed.): Katharina Kest - Gänsegretel, Mätresse, Herzogin, Annweiler 2013, pp. 8–9.
  6. ↑ Charly Lehnert : The Saarland Geheichnis, Volume 1: Stories and glosses . Lehnert Verlag, Bübingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-939286-18-9 , My fair Lady von der Saar: Katharina Krest, das Gänsegretel von Fechingen, p. 119-121 .
  7. ↑ Dominika Kolodziej: Katharina Kest - Life and Time, in: Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Katharina Kest - Gänsegretel, Mätresse, Herzogin, Annweiler 2013, SS 46, pp. 84–85.
personal data
SURNAME Kest, Catherine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goose felony from Fechingen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Countess of Ottweiler, Duchess of Dillingen, mistress and wife of Prince Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Fechingen
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1829
Place of death Mannheim