Marie Magdalene Charlotte von Stoltzenberg

Marie Magdalene Charlotte in later years as Baroness Lauer von Münchhofen

Marie Magdalene Charlotte Baroness Stoltzenberg (* 25. January 1763 in Gotha , † 3. March  1838 in Plaue ), and Baroness von Stoltzenberg , born Cramer or Kramann , widowed Carl , his third wife Baroness Lauer of Münchshofen , was an actress , mistress , Mistress of the castle and ancestress of the von Stoltzenberg and Lauer von Münchhofen families .

Live and act

Actress and first marriage

Marie Magdalene Charlotte was born as the daughter of a Gotha court cellar master . It was early actress and married in 1780 at the age of 17 years in Munster to fellow actor Carl, who was stabbed to death already in the following year by a lieutenant of Schoenebeck in the dispute. The 18-year-old widow worked at the Dreyerschen Theater in Hamburg , had guest performances in Breslau and finally switched to the theater in Schwedt , whose patron was the over 70-year-old Margrave of Brandenburg and Prince of Prussia Friedrich Heinrich von Brandenburg-Schwedt , who was responsible for him numerous circumstances Der Schlimme Margrave was called. She had roles as a chamber and opera singer , in funeral and comedies .

Mistress and wife of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt

Margrave Friedrich Heinrich of Brandenburg-Schwedt

She is said to have become the margrave's mistress very quickly and moved to Schwedt Castle . On January 15, 1782 she gave birth out of wedlock to Friedrich Carl, later Baron von Stoltzenberg († January 3, 1845), whom Friedrich Heinrich von Brandenburg-Schwedt recognized as his son. A short time later, on January 27, 1782, Friedrich Heinrich's wife Leopoldine Marie von Anhalt-Dessau died . After her death, Marie Magdalene Charlotte Carl became more and more the lady of the house.

In 1784 the 75-year-old Margrave Friedrich Heinrich and the 20- and 21-year-old Marie Magdalene Charlotte entered into a marriage of conscience ( mariage de conscience ). From her husband she received the Stolzenberg estate for usufruct and financial donations. The margrave could not transfer ownership of Stolzenberg to his wife, as his daughters from their first marriage were entitled to this. In the following year Marie Magdalene Charlotte gave birth to a second son, Heinrich Carl, who died on August 10, 1786 at the age of one.

Was dated September 5, 1786 Marie Magdalene Charlotte at the instigation of her husband from the new King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg Friedrich Wilhelm II. , He had only the previous month throne climbed as Baroness Stoltzenberg ennobled .

The rise in status also affected her sons, including Heinrich Carl Baron von Stoltzenberg, who died the previous month and who was buried in the hereditary funeral of the Schwedt Hohenzollern family. The ennoblement is said to have been promised to Friedrich Heinrich von Brandenburg-Schwedt by Friedrich Wilhelm II during the lifetime of King Friedrich II , the old Fritz. In the matter, Friedrich Wilhelm II is said to have set a precedent as he also intended to ennoble his own mistress Wilhelmine Rietz . About two years later, on December 12, 1788, Friedrich Heinrich von Brandenburg-Schwedt died.

Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau commented on the ennoblement:

“The king ennobled the mistress of the Margrave von Schwedt and even made it baronized (as Baroness von Stoltzenberg; that is the name of a rulership of around 8,000 talers in income that the Margrave gave her). She is nothing more than a pretty pretty German, a former comedian, of whom the margrave has a son. They didn't want to refuse the 77-year-old old man the only thing he asked and could ask for. Perhaps this is also done to create an excuse to do the same for Madame Rietz. "

- Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau : Histoire secrète du cabinet de Berlin

Third marriage and life at Schloss Plaue

Plaue Castle

After the death of her husband, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, there was a long legal battle between his legitimate daughters from his first marriage and the morganatic widow . This concerned an indirect donation of promissory notes from a major von Levetzow for a loan of 20,000  thalers that her husband had given her in 1784. The young baroness was able to decide the legal dispute in her favor.

The Baroness von Stoltzenberg met Adolf Julius Lauer († 1831), who had been court , chamber and forest councilor in Schwedt with her husband Friedrich Heinrich von Brandenburg-Schwedt . The couple acquired a Münchhofen estate near Gotha. Adolf Julius Lauer became a Prussian war and domain councilor and on September 11, 1790, with an aristocratic diploma in Dresden in the Electorate of Saxony to Adolf Julius Freiherr Lauer von Münchhofen, he was also ennobled to the status of imperial baron . Marie Magdalene then married Charlotte Baroness von Stoltzenberg a third time, now Baron Lauer von Münchhofen.

This marriage produced five children, including three sons. One of the sons was Adolf Freiherr Lauer von Münchhofen , Prussian colonel and commander of the Guard Cuirassier Regiment . In May 1793, Plaue Castle and the associated lands were bought for 76,000 thalers , where Marie Magdalene Charlotte lived for 45 years until her death and which she ran after the death of her third husband. Theodor Fontane described her work in Plaue in the fifth volume, Five Castles of his work Walks through the Mark Brandenburg :

“He married Charlotte, Baroness von Stoltzenberg. [...] The fact that Plaue survived the period from 1806 to 1813 without any particular complaints, despite this destruction of the bridge, which almost eliminated traffic, was largely thanks to the new lordship of the manor and palace. Baron von Lauer-Münchhofen died considerably earlier than the baroness. After his passing she took over the administration and led it beneficially, also reminding of the Görne time. "

- Theodor Fontane : Walks through the Mark Brandenburg . Volume 5: Five locks

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Freiherrlichen Häuser to the year 1873. Volume three and twentieth, p. 378.
2. ↑ Hans-Georg Schede: Caroline Schede: A story of private life in the time of Goethe . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag , 2018 Berlin, p. 154, ISBN 978-3-8305-3754-0
3. ↑ The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families in an exact, complete and generally understandable description . Third volume. TO Weigel, Leipzig, 1856. Page 285.
4. ^ Heinrich Jobst Graf von Wintzingerode: Difficult princes. The Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt . Berlin 2011, pp. 510 to 512. ISBN 978-3-8305-1881-5 .