Moritz Wilhelm (Saxony-Merseburg)

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Mauritius Wilhelmus, Dux Sax (oniae) etc. etc., Administrator (is) Episcop (atus) Martisburg (ici) - Depiction of the Duke in armor and with an ermine coat, contemporary engraving, early 18th century.
Duke Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Merseburg and his wife Henriette Charlotte von Nassau-Idstein, engraving from the year 1716, Christian Gottschick

Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Merseburg (born February 5, 1688 in Merseburg ; † April 21, 1731 ibid) was a member of a sideline of the Albertine Wettins and fourth duke of the Saxon secondary school principality of Saxony-Merseburg . Moritz Wilhelm is also known as the "Violin Duke".

family

Moritz Wilhelm was the fifth son of Duke Christian II of Saxe-Merseburg and his wife Erdmuth Dorothea , a daughter of Duke Moritz of Saxe-Zeitz .

Life

Government in the Merseburg principality

After his eldest brother, Duke Christian Moritz , died after 25 days of reign on November 14, 1694 and because his other brothers, Princes Johann Wilhelm, August Friedrich and Philipp Ludwig, had not survived childhood years before, Moritz followed him Wilhelm followed as a 6-year-old in the Merseburg principality .

The old dispute with Electoral Saxony flares up

Moritz Wilhelm was, however, under the administration and guardianship of his closest adult relative, the Saxon Elector Friedrich August I. The guardianship for the young prince and thus the actual largest share of the government, however, exercised as under the young Christian Moritz up to Moritz Wilhelm came of age in 1709, the duchess mother and widow Erdmuthe Dorothea and his uncle August from Sachsen-Merseburg-Zörbig .

The fact that the Saxon elector did not relinquish the administration even after Moritz Wilhelm came of age and wanted to continue to rule the duchy from Dresden can be deduced from his political interest, the secundogenitures, which in the past decades increasingly differed from the restrictions imposed by the Kurlinie could loosen up to bind again more strongly.

Efforts by the cathedral monastery to declare the age of majority and the decrees of Emperor Joseph I on imperial immediacy were ignored by the elector and Moritz Wilhelm instead trained at the Dresden court, from where he also undertook his cavalier and educational trips.

Moritz Wilhelm, who in the past had already felt “ sensitive to the heart ” (letter to his mother, February 1706) because of this paternalism , finally tried to get his adulthood recognized and fled to the emperor's court, where he lived in Vienna and St. .Pölten stayed.

Although he was finally able to take office at the age of 24 due to the constant complaints, the relationship with his Albertine cousin in Dresden cooled down permanently. In addition, he soon got into a dispute again in matters of the Merseburg monastery government and the state parliaments in Niederlausitz , which could not be settled until 1724.

In order to give economic impetus by improving the infrastructure, he then had the country roads in Saxony-Merseburg expanded.

Duke Moritz Wilhelm as a patron

Duke Moritz Wilhelm was a great patron of art and culture in his principality. Even an avid viola da gamba player , he especially supported the music to the best of his ability. For his double bass collection , which earned him the nickname “Duke of the violin”, he even had a four and a half meter large bass violin specially made in 1721. The composer Johann Joachim Quantz received his musical training during his reign in Merseburg and the violinist Christian Heinrich Aschenbrenner was his court music director from 1713 to 1719. He had the organ in Merseburg Cathedral expanded.

Moritz Wilhelm was also interested in science. He had the inventor Johann Bessler's bike checked by a commission of leading scientists of his time.

The writers Johann Samuel Agner and Julius Bernhard von Rohr also worked under his government; the sculptor families Trothe and Agner came to Merseburg due to the cultural boom.

The baroque master builder and sculptor Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt designed the rooms in the east wing of the palace for the Duke from 1712 to 1715 as living and representation rooms with the famous mirror and porcelain cabinet (today in the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts ) and built the palace garden salon , a pavilion for the ducal garden festivals.

Death and burial

Duke Moritz Wilhelm died on April 21, 1731 at the age of 43 and was buried in a pewter coffin in the princely crypt of Merseburg Cathedral . Since he himself had not left any male descendants and his next younger brother Friedrich Erdmann had died in 1714, his uncle Heinrich , who had meanwhile founded the Spremberg branch , succeeded him on the throne .

Marriage and offspring

His only marriage was secretly on November 4, 1711 in Idstein with Henriette Charlotte von Nassau-Idstein , the daughter of Georg August Samuels, Prince of Nassau-Idstein from his marriage to Henriette Dorothea von Oettingen-Oettingen .

His wife had a daughter with Friedrich Carl von Pöllnitz :

  • Friederike Ulrike (* / † June 23, 1720 in Merseburg), Princess of Saxony-Merseburg

literature

  • Christoph Henzel: To the Merseburg court music under Duke Moritz Wilhelm. In: Central Germany in the musical splendor of its residences - Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia as musical landscapes in the 16th and 17th centuries , Peter Wollny (ed.), Beeskow, 2005, pp. 95-105

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Christian III Moritz Duke of Saxe-Merseburg
1694 - 1731 		Heinrich
personal data
SURNAME Moritz Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sachsen-Merseburg, Moritz Wilhelm von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Saxe-Merseburg
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Merseburg
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1731
Place of death Merseburg