Marianne of Orange-Nassau

Marianne von Oranien-Nassau, Princess of Prussia , 1837, portrait by Theodor Hildebrandt

Marianne of Orange-Nassau

Wilhelmina Frederika Louise Charlotte Marianne von Oranien-Nassau (born May 9, 1810 in Berlin ; † May 29, 1883 at Reinhartshausen Castle in Erbach , today a district of Eltville am Rhein ) was a born princess of the Netherlands and a divorced princess of Prussia . She was a woman who thought and lived very unconventionally for her time. Because she left her unfaithful husband Prince Albrecht of Prussia and lived with her partner Johannes van Rossum and their illegitimate son, she was banished from the Kingdom of Prussia. The art collector and patron made her new residence, Schloss Reinhartshausen in Erbach , a cultural attraction on the Rhine. Through her remarkable social commitment to the needy, especially in the Rheingau and Silesia, she gained great sympathy among the population. Closely linked to her fate is the Johanneskirche in Erbach , which was founded by the deeply religious Marianne of the community on the tragic death of her only 12-year-old son. This church is an extraordinary cultural monument and was the first Protestant church in the Rheingau.

Life

family tree

Friedrich Wilhelm II. (1744–1797)

Friederike von Hessen (1751–1805)

Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1776–1810)

Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1770-1840)

Wilhelmine of Prussia (1774–1837)

Wilhelm of the Netherlands (1772–1843)

Albrecht of Prussia (1809–1872)

Marianne of Oranien-Nassau (1810-1883)

Johannes van Rossum (1809–1873)

Friederike Luise Wilhelmine Marianne Charlotte (1831–1855)

Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Albrecht (1837–1906)

Friederike Luise Wilhelmine Elisabeth (August 27 - October 9, 1840)

Friederike Wilhelmine Luise Elisabeth Alexandrine (1842–1906)

Johann Wilhelm von Reinhartshausen (1849–1861)

Childhood and youth

Marianne was the youngest daughter of the future King of the Netherlands Wilhelm Friedrich von Oranien-Nassau and Wilhelmine of Prussia , daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia . In addition to her two older brothers Wilhelm II. Friedrich Georg Ludwig (1792–1849) and Wilhelm Friedrich Karl (1797–1881), she also had a sister who died in 1806 at the age of six. After France had conquered the Netherlands in 1795, the family fled to their father-in-law's court in Berlin. Marianne was born there in 1810 as the "baby boy" in the Dutch Palace . When their homeland was liberated from Napoleonic rule in 1813, the family returned to the Netherlands. From then on, the royal family lived in the residence Het Loo in Apeldoorn . The loving, non-authoritarian upbringing of her parents was characteristic of Marianne. In 1828 she was betrothed to the former Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden (Wasa) , although the bride and groom evidently had true feelings for each other. But the son of a dethroned king was not considered befitting, and the engagement was broken off in 1829.

Marriage to Prince Albrecht of Prussia

Prince Albrecht of Prussia

On September 14, 1830 Marianne married her cousin Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1809–1872), the youngest of ten children of the royal couple Friedrich Wilhelm III. and Luise . The couple lived in Berlin, initially in Schönhausen Palace in Pankow , and from 1832 in the Prince Albrecht Palais in Friedrichstadt, built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The initially very happy marriage resulted in five children:

• Charlotte (1831–1855)

⚭ 1850 with Hereditary Prince Georg, later Duke Georg II of Saxony-Meiningen (1826–1914)

• Stillbirth (* / † 1832)
• Albrecht (1837-1906)

⚭ 1873 with Princess Marie of Saxony-Altenburg (1854–1898)

• Elisabeth (August 27 - October 9, 1840)
• Alexandrine (1842–1906)

⚭ 1865 Duke Wilhelm of Mecklenburg (1827–1879)

The sensitive, deeply religious, artistically and socially interested Marianne and the militarily educated, Prussian drill-loving Albrecht did not match each other in character. Albrecht was also prone to extra-marital adventures. Marianne did not want to accept this without complaint and, as was expected at the time, to keep quiet for the sake of form. In 1844 it finally came to the separation. Albrecht von Prussia had entered into a love affair with her lady-in-waiting Rosalie von Rauch , the daughter of the Prussian War Minister Gustav von Rauch . Marianne asked for a divorce, but neither the Prussian nor the Dutch court gave their consent. Thereupon she left Albrecht, traveled through Europe or stayed on her estates in Italy, Silesia and the Netherlands. Until 1848 Marianne tried to achieve a reconciliation with Albrecht. The marriage was divorced on March 28, 1849.

Civil partnership with Johannes van Rossum

Johannes van Rossum, portrait by Johan Philip Koelman , Rome 1852

Johann Wilhelm von Reinhartshausen (1849–1861)

In 1848 Marianne entered into a love affair with her personal coachman, travel companion and later cabinet secretary Johannes van Rossum (1809–1873), a Dutchman from The Hague who was delicately married - out of wedlock and out of place. In doing so, she violated the principles of her class and provoked a scandal. When she was expecting a child from this man, in order to prevent an even bigger scandal, both courts finally gave their permission for the divorce that Marianne and Albrecht had longed for. The marriage was divorced in March 1849, in October Marianne gave birth to a son, Johann Wilhelm von Reinhartshausen (1849–1861) (the last name was given to him a few years later by Duke Adolph von Nassau, based on one of her trips to Sicily) the castle Reinhartshausen , where he grew up and that should he inherit). The courts of Haag and Berlin then broke off all contact with Marianne. In the Kingdom of Prussia, there was an official exile decree that allowed her to stay on Prussian soil for only 24 hours at a time. The upbringing of her children from her marriage to Albrecht was also withdrawn from her, and guardianship passed to Queen Elisabeth of Prussia . Soon after Johann Wilhelm was born, she traveled with Johannes van Rossum through Europe and the Orient (Egypt, Palestine, Syria) before finally settling in Rome in 1851 , buying the Villa Celimontana and bringing her son to her home. With her decision to raise her illegitimate child herself and not, as is customary in the aristocracy, to silently hand it over as a "misstep", she once again attracted the disapproval of the royal families. Marianne and van Rossum never married, but a morganatic marriage would have been possible. Van Rossum's Dutch wife died in 1861.

Marianne - mother and entrepreneur

For Marianne the banishment decree meant that she could only meet her children (and later grandchildren), with whom she remained closely connected throughout her life, outside of Prussia or during a 24-hour stay. The encounters therefore took place on Marianne's estates in the Netherlands and Italy and in Schloss Weißwasser in Austrian Silesia , acquired in 1853 , directly across the Prussian border. From here she was quickly in Prussia, could also reach her estates in Silesia (belonging to Prussia) and continue to take care of their management and administration. Marianne was a smart entrepreneur who increased her possessions over the course of her life and made her descendants the richest branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. On the occasion of her wedding, she gave the Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo on Lake Como to her daughter Charlotte, who died in 1855 at the age of only 23 giving birth to her fourth child. The Kamenz monastery in Silesia, where they had coordinated the construction of Kamenz Castle for many years , was the wedding present for their son Albrecht. At her children's weddings, as at all family celebrations, she was not tolerated throughout her life. In spite of the family and social ostracism, Marianne always confessed to her inappropriate partner and her illegitimate child and also appeared with them at public events.

The new home in the Rheingau

Park side of the Hotel and Schloss Reinhartshausen

In search of a permanent place of residence near the Prussian border, which would make it easier for her to visit her children, Marianne moved back from Italy to her homeland in 1855. She acquired Reinhartshausen Castle in Erbach (Rheingau) in the Duchy of Nassau (today a hotel), near the Westerwald headquarters of her house in Orange-Nassau (Laurenberg, Nassau , Dillenburg , Diez ). Here she settled with Johannes van Rossum and her son. It was to remain her residence until her death.

Patronage

Marianne and Johannes van Rossum had Reinhartshausen Castle expanded and added a gallery building in which Marianne housed her art collections, probably consisting of more than 600 paintings, graphics and numerous marble statues, most of which she had brought with her from Rome. Her castle became a cultural attraction, not least because she welcomed and supported young artists. Only a small part of their collections is still in the castle today, some statues in the castle garden and in the garden of the rectory of the Johanneskirche in Erbach , most of which was distributed in the family and probably sold. In 1932 there was also an auction in Berlin. In the 1870s she donated almost two thirds of the construction costs for the Wilhelmsturm in Dillenburg , a monument in memory of Wilhelm I of Orange .

Foundation of the Johanneskirche in Erbach

St. John's Church from the southeast, June 2011

Marianne and van Rossum had their son raised in a civil society, he was supposed to become a theologian or lawyer. From October 1861 on, Johann Wilhelm was no longer taught by private teachers, but attended a boarding school in nearby Dauborn . But during the Christmas holidays he fell ill with scarlet fever at home and died surprisingly on Christmas Day 1861. The deeply religious Protestant Marianne gave the Erbach community a piece of land and 60,000 guilders for the construction of the first Protestant church in the Rheingau (including the rectory and Parish office), the Johanneskirche . In doing so, she fulfilled her son's wish for his own place of worship for Protestant Christians in the Rheingau, which he had expressed a few weeks before his death.

The builder of the church was Eduard Zais , son of the famous Nassau master builder Christian Zais . Marianne's son was finally buried in the crypt behind the altar of this church, which was inaugurated in 1865. A small angel figure by the Dutch sculptor Johann Heinrich Stöver commissioned by her adorns his sarcophagus. Stöver also created three Carrara marble statues based on motifs by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen , which were placed in the chancel and symbolize faith, love and hope. In honor of the apostle Johannes and in memory of Johann Wilhelm, the church was named Johanneskirche .

social commitment

Marianne supported social and church institutions into old age. She was extremely popular not only in the Rheingau because of her great social commitment. She financed the pastoral office of the Johanneskirche she founded and improved the pastor's salary, supported the needy in the parishes of both denominations ("everyone is equal before God") as well as the school in Erbach and the Wiesbaden institution for the blind. In Silesia she supported widows' funds, orphanages, hospitals and also here the construction of a Protestant church with a rectory.

death

Grave site in the Erbach cemetery

Marianne von Oranien-Nassau died a few weeks after her 73rd birthday on May 29, 1883 at Reinhartshausen Castle.

Grave site

In the deed of foundation of the Johanneskirche , she had reserved two more grave sites in the church crypt in order to be buried there with Johannes van Rossum at the side of their son. But after van Rossum's death in 1873 there had been arguments with the pastor, most likely due to the couple's unconventional way of life. In any case, Johannes van Rossum was not buried in the crypt with his son, but in the public cemetery in Erbach. Marianne then ordered in 1876 to be buried there too, in a simple oak coffin side by side with her partner Johannes van Rossum. She appointed her son Albrecht as executor.

Tombstone

Christ figure by Johann Heinrich Stöver in the Erbacher Friedhof

As for her son's grave, Marianne had a work made by the Dutch sculptor Johann Heinrich Stöver for van Rossum's grave , a blessing statue of Christ made of Carrara marble , again based on a figure by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen . It still adorns the joint grave of Marianne and van Rossum in the Erbach cemetery. The base of the Christ statue with the inscriptions from the Gospel of John , the decorated grave border made of Lahn marble and the grave slab with inscription were made by Josef Leonhard (1833–1901), offspring of the renowned Nassau sculptor dynasty Leonhard from the marble metropolis Villmar an der Lahn. He was apprenticed to the famous Wiesbaden sculptor Emil Hopfgarten and in 1856 he opened a studio in Eltville am Rhein , which still exists today.

inscription

Marianne's partner Johannes van Rossum , with whom she spent 25 years together, is not mentioned on the grave slab . It is unknown whether he was buried anonymously or whether his grave slab had to give way to Mariannes 10 years later. However, reference is made to Marianne's marriage to Albrecht von Prussia , from whom she had been divorced since 1849 and who was morganatically married to Rosalie von Rauch from 1853 until his death in 1872 . The inscription on Marianne's grave slab reads:

Here in God rests in
the expectation of a happy resurrection
Wilhelmine Friederike
Luise Charlotte
Marianne
von Nassau Oranien, Princess of the Netherlands
born. in Berlin on May 9, 1810
married in The Hague on September 14. 1830 with
Friedrich Heinrich
Albrecht
Prince of Prussia
died at Reinhartshausen near Erbach

A second grave slab on the base of the Christ statue mentions Elisabeth Mees, a born Princess of Prussia and great-granddaughter of Mariannes, who died in 1961 at the age of 42 and was buried here.

Honors

In 1896 the Rheinaue in front of Reinhartshausen Castle was renamed Mariannenaue in her honor on the initiative of the then owner of the island, Marianne's son Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837–1906) . It is the largest Rhine island on the Middle Rhine between Erbach and Hattenheim.

Marianne's 200th birthday in 2010 was used by Schloss Reinhartshausen and the local evangelical parish Triangelis (Eltville, Erbach, Kiedrich) as an occasion for festive events in which her life and work were honored.

On the Reformation Day weekend in 2015, the St. John's Church was reopened after 10 months of renovation work with a glamorous festival program of church services and concerts. At the same time, their 150th anniversary was celebrated and the founder was remembered.

Adrian Diel , German physician and founder of pomology , put a pear named Princess Marianne after the young princess in 1818 , probably on the wave of enthusiasm after the establishment of the independent Kingdom of the United Netherlands in 1815 under the rule of the Orange-Nassau families .

literature

• Annette Dopatka: Marianne of Prussia. Princess of the Netherlands. Life and work of a self-confident woman for whom Reinhartshausen Castle in the Rheingau became the center of life. Oberursel 2003
• Gorch Pieken / Cornelia Kruse: Prussian love luck. Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-549-07337-7
• Volker Feuerstein: The castle of the exiled princess. In: Fuldaer Zeitung of September 13, 2008, p. 26.
• Hartmut Heinemann: Princess Marianne of the Netherlands (1810-1883) and the Rheingau. A woman between tradition and emancipation. In: Rheingau Forum, Volume 11/2002, Issue 2, pp. 1–11.
• "Nassau-Orange, Princess of the Netherlands, Princess Marianne of". Hessian biography. (As of March 25, 2010). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Puhe, Ferdinand: From Kamenz to Reinhartshausen. The Hohenzollern in Silesia and the Rheingau. In: Rheingau-Forum 9/2000, Issue 2, pp. 22–31.
• Otto Renkhoff, Nassauische Biographie, 2nd edition 1992, no.3404.
• Gerhard Schiller: Marianne of Prussia, Princess of the Netherlands. Memories of the life of the self-confident princess in Berlin, Kamenz, Weißwasser and the Rheingau. 1st chapter. In: "Schlesien heute", No. 5 (2010).
• Gerhard Schiller: Marianne of Prussia, Princess of the Netherlands. Memories of the life of the self-confident princess in Berlin, Kamenz, Weißwasser and the Rheingau. Part 2. In: "Schlesien heute", No. 8 (2010).
• Jos de Wit: Princess Marianne of Orange-Nassau and her relationship with the County of Glatz. In: "AGG-Mitteilungen", No. 15 (2016), pp. 31–40.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schiller, Gerhard: Marianne von Preußen, Princess of the Netherlands - memories of the life of the self-confident princess in Berlin , Kamenz, Weißwasser and the Rheingau. In: Schlesien heute, 5/2010, p. 26.
2. ↑ Schiller, Gerhard: Marianne von Preußen, Princess of the Netherlands - memories of the life of the self-confident princess in Berlin, Kamenz, Weißwasser and the Rheingau. In: Schlesien heute, 5/2010, p. 28.
3. ↑ Heinemann, Hartmut: Princess Marianne of the Netherlands (1810-1883) and the Rheingau - A woman between tradition and emancipation. In: Rheingau-Forum 2/2002, p. 4.
4. ↑ Heinemann, Hartmut: Princess Marianne of the Netherlands (1810-1883) and the Rheingau - A woman between tradition and emancipation. In: Rheingau-Forum 2/2002, p. 9.
5. ↑ Klipstein, HU: From the memoirs of a Nassau pastor's wife. In: Nassovia 13, 1912, p. 56f.
6. ↑ Heinemann, Hartmut: Princess Marianne of the Netherlands (1810-1883) and the Rheingau - A woman between tradition and emancipation. In: Rheingau-Forum 2/2002, pp. 10/11.
7. ^ Directory of the deceased in the church play of the upper Rheingau, Amt Eltville, directory 1873, no.3
8. ↑ Schiller, Gerhard: Marianne von Preußen, Princess of the Netherlands - memories of the life of the self-confident princess in Berlin, Kamenz, Weißwasser and the Rheingau. In: Schlesien heute, 8/2010, p. 56.
9. ^ Annette Dopatka: Marianne von Preußen, Princess of the Netherlands. Waldemar Kramer Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-7829-0538-5 .
10. ↑ Website of the Evangelical Church Community Triangelis (Eltville-Erbach-Kiedrich) - church donor became 200
11. ↑ Triangelis celebrates the reopening and 150th birthday of the Erbacher Johanneskirche in Wiesbadener Tagblatt from November 2nd, 2015
12. ↑ Henryk Grzybowski, Grafschafter Obst or fruits that bear the name of Grafschafter noblemen in Altheider Christmas Letter , 2014, pp. 124–125.

Web links

Commons : Marianne of the Netherlands  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Schloss Reinhartshausen Deluxe Hotel in Eltville-Erbach (Hotel)
• Maren Gottschalk: ZeitZeichen : May 9th, 1810 - birthday of Marianne von Nassau-Orange