Philippine of Brandenburg-Schwedt

Philippine von Brandenburg-Schwedt, Landgraveess of Hessen-Kassel

Philippine Auguste Amalie , Countess of Hessen-Kassel , b. Princess of Prussia from the Brandenburg-Schwedt branch line (born  October 10,  1745 in Schwedt ; † May 1, 1800 in Berlin ) was the second wife of Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Kassel (1720–1785).

biography

Philippine Auguste Amalie was the youngest daughter and fourth child of Friedrich Wilhelm , Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1700–1771), and his wife Sophia Maria , Princess in Prussia (1719–1765), a younger sister of Friedrich II. (Prussia) , called Friedrich the Great , was born. Her grandparents were through her father: Philipp Wilhelm , Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Prince in Prussia (1669–1711) and Johanna Charlotte , Margravine of Brandenburg-Schwedt, born. Princess of Anhalt-Dessau (1682–1750), about her mother Sophia: King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia (1688–1740) and his wife Queen Sophie Dorothea in Prussia, born. Princess of Hanover (1687–1757).

She received the name "Philippine" either from her grandfather or from her aunt Philippine Charlotte von Prussia , with whom Sophia Dorothee spent her childhood.

Philippines sisters were Federica , Duchess of Württemberg and Louise , Princess of Prussia

Philippine grew up unbound and free in Schwedt, after the death of her mother, at her request, her uncle Friedrich the Great took over the supervision of her and brought her up with her sister Princess Ferdinand ( Anna Elisabeth Luise ). Until the end of his life, Frederick the Great showed his niece warm interest, which she returned with deep admiration for the king. Several marriage projects failed because of her and her uncle's hesitation. At the end of 1772 the king arranged, in agreement with her, a political marriage with Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Kassel, who was hoping for greater support for his goals from Prussia. Philippine told the landgrave, 25 years her senior, on the day of the wedding that, for medical reasons, she should never be in danger of becoming pregnant.

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  Landgrave Friedrich II. , Painting by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder Ä., 1773

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  Landgravine Philippine, painting by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, 1773

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  Georg Ernst Levin Graf von Wintzingerode (stained glass in the Bodenstein castle chapel )

Governing Landgrave

In Kassel , Philippine led a life largely independent of the landgrave and established her own “young farm”. Among other things, the philosopher Adolph Freiherr Knigge , the world traveler Georg Forster and the later Württemberg statesman Georg Ernst Levin von Wintzingerode belonged to him . The Landgravine had a son from the latter in 1777, whom she secretly gave birth to in Mömpelgard with her sister Friederike Dorothea Sophia von Württemberg and named Georg Philippson. She made numerous trips through Germany and France, during which she was celebrated as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. In 1782 she arranged the reconciliation of the Landgrave with his children from his first marriage, whom he had not seen since his separation from Landgrave Marie in 1754.

Landgravine widow

The apartment furnished for Philippine has been preserved in the Wilhelmsthal summer residence

Philippine took her widow's seat in Hanau in 1786 . The sharp arguments that began at that time with her stepson Landgrave Wilhelm IX continued until well after her death . and led to diplomatic entanglements between Hessen-Kassel, Prussia and Russia. Georg Ernst Levin von Wintzingerode was appointed chief steward, whose elevation to the rank of imperial count she reached in 1794 and married him in a morganatic marriage after the death of his first wife in the same year . In 1792 she took the conquest of Mainz by the French revolutionary army as an opportunity to move to her residence against the will of Wilhelm IX. relocated permanently to Berlin after she had spent a few months at Wintzingerode's master castle in Bodenstein in Eichsfeld . In Berlin, she first lived with her sister Princess Ferdinand in Bellevue Palace and then moved into a spacious palace at Behrenstrasse 66, which her cousin King Friedrich Wilhelm II gave her in 1795. Her second husband Wintzingerode furnished it lavishly and Philippine established a side courtyard in Berlin. In 1796 she transferred the palace to her husband, and in 1798 she made him the sole heir. Since 1788, the Brandenburg-Schwedt branch line had expired in the male line, so that Philippine with her sisters and two cousins ​​were the heir to the allodial property of their family, one fifth of which fell to Wintzingerode. He furnished his Bodenstein Castle with valuable inventory from her estate, including portraits, porcelain, furniture, bronzes and miniatures from the property of the great king and his siblings, Marie Antoinettes and Napoleons.

She died of a stroke in 1800 . Wintzingerode had them buried in the crypt of the Berlin Cathedral . Your sarcophagus has been extensively restored in recent years and can now be viewed in the Hohenzollern Crypt.

literature

• Wolf v. Both, Hans Vogel: Landgrave Friedrich II of Hessen-Kassel, a prince of the plaited time. Munich 1973.
• Heinrich Jobst Count v. Wintzingerode: Philippine of Prussia, Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel - A biography. Master's thesis at the Humboldt University in Berlin 2005 (unpublished).
• Heinrich Jobst Count v. Wintzingerode: Doing right always keeps its price, The history of Bodenstein Castle and the Lords of Wintzingerode. Large floors 2004.
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin / Dom zu Berlin (ed.): All memory is present, the Hohenzollern crypt and its sarcophagi. Berlin 2005.