Sophie of Orange-Nassau

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Princess Sophie of Orange-Nassau, later Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, painting by Charles Verlat , 1870

Wilhelmina Sophie Marie Luise von Oranien-Nassau (born April 8, 1824 in The Hague , † March 23, 1897 in Weimar ) was a princess of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach .

Life

Sophie was the only daughter of King Wilhelm II of the Netherlands (1792-1849) and his wife, the Russian Grand Duchess Anna Pawlowna , a daughter of Tsar Paul I and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Sophia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg . The princess was trained very carefully. Sophie's father took over religious instruction and also made sure that the princess was instructed in rural activities such as milking, cheese-making and spinning.

Sophie married her cousin on October 8, 1842 in The Hague, later Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1818–1901), the only son of Grand Duke Carl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Sophie's aunt, the Tsar's daughter Maria Pavlovna Romanova . She moved to live with her husband in Weimar in the residential palace .

After the death of her brother's three sons, Wilhelm III. , King of the Netherlands, next in line to the throne of the Netherlands from 1890.

After the death of her eldest son, Sophie largely withdrew from the public eye. She died of a weak heart after catching a cold .

The Sophienhütte , a glassworks founded in Ilmenau in 1852 , was named after Sophie .

Sophie and the written Goethe estate

The Goethe-Schiller Archive in Weimar, created on the initiative of Grand Duchess Sophie - front view of the middle and right-hand part of the building
Commemorative plaque for the Sophien edition of the Goethe-Werke, attached to the Weimar City Archives, the former Böhlau publishing house

As the sole heir to Goethe's written estate, the Grand Duchess was primarily responsible for far-reaching decisions that have remained formative to this day, which kept the written legacies of Goethe and then Schiller and other great intellectuals together and the accommodation as well as the scientific development and research in a castle-like castle built especially for this purpose Archive building - today's Goethe and Schiller Archive - resulted.

Walther von Goethe , the last descendant of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had designated the Grand Duchess in his will as sole heir to the written legacy of his ancestor. In 1885, at Sophie's suggestion, the Goethe Society was established in Weimar with the support of Grand Duke Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach .

The example of Walther von Goethe was followed by the grandchildren and great-grandson of Schiller, who donated his library to the Grand Duchess in 1889. Sophie also initiated the first critical edition of 143 volumes of Goethe's published works by Hermann Böhlau in Böhlau Verlag , the so-called "Sophien-Ausgabe". A plaque at today's Weimar City Archives, the former Böhlau publishing house (address: Kleine Teichgasse 6), commemorates this “Sophien-Ausgabe”.

Princess Sophie of Orange-Nassau

social commitment

Sophie was very socially committed as the mother of the country. The Grand Duchess had significant financial resources at her disposal from her royal inheritance. In 1854 she founded the first secondary school for girls, the so-called “Sophienstift” (which was considered her “favorite foundation”), and in 1875 the Sophienhaus Sisterhood as a nursing home, the institution for the blind and deaf-mute in Weimar, the Sophienheilstätte near Bad Berka and a hospital in Kaltennordheim . She promoted the school system and the establishment of infant care institutions. Sophie was also the founder of the children's spa in Stadtsulza (today Bad Sulza ), which was named after her. Especially in the poorer part of the Grand Duchy, the Rhön , Sophie supported communities, schools and churches - quite deliberately far from the public eye.

In 1886, at the suggestion of Dr. Ludwig Pfeiffer build the so-called "Sophienhaus", the deaconess mother house of Weimar. In 1887 the systematic training of nurses began at the Sophien Hospital. - A commitment whose tradition continues to this day: Today's modern hospital in Weimar - the Sophien- und Hufeland-Klinikum gGmbH - is the successor to the Sophien-Krankenhaus that has been in operation for decades and has part of its roots in the social responsibility of the Grand Duchess Sophie.

One of the almost forgotten facts is that Grand Duchess Sophie, as a patroness, played a key role in the reconstruction of the Wartburg . The Sophienbad in Eisenach , named after her, is one of the oldest Art Nouveau baths in Germany. Opened in 1899, it is used differently today - the entire complex is protected.

The time in which she and her husband ruled the Grand Duchy is called the "Silver Age" in Weimar .

School is named in honor of Grand Duchess Sophie

In 1902 the Second Weimar Citizens' School consisted of three school buildings. Therefore, on October 21, 1902, the reinforced school board decided to give each of the three schools a name: the one in Bürgererschulstrasse became the Karl August School , the one in Sophienstrasse in honor of the Grand Duchess became the Sophien School and the one in Röhrstrasse Honoring Grand Duchess Luise to the Luisen School .

The first school built as a school building in Apolda was named Sophienschule and was inaugurated on July 3, 1890 (renamed Pestalozzischule after 1945).

progeny

The following children were from her marriage to Carl Alexander:

  • Karl August (1844–1894), Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
⚭ 1873 Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1852–1904)
⚭ 1876 Prince Heinrich VII. Reuss zu Köstritz (1825–1906)
⚭ 1886 Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg (1857–1920)

literature

Web links

Commons : Sophie von Oranien-Nassau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Contemporary biography of Grand Duchess Sophie
  2. ^ About the Weimar City Archives
  3. ↑ a b p. 76 in: Hannelore Henze; Ilse-Sibylle Stapff: Forays through old Weimar. Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-86160-156-7
  4. ↑ http://www.zehlendorfer-verband.de/gemeinschaften/schwesternschaft-des-sophienhauses-weimar.html
  5. ↑ Eckart Behr: A salty affair . P. 27 in: The bagpiper. The magazine for our clinic (= Sophien- und Hufeland-Klinikum Weimar ), No. 2/2011, issue 13
  6. ↑ Oberin Rosmarie Grunert: Streiflichter der Geschichte . S. I-III in: 125 Years of Evangelical Nursing School Weimar . 10-page anniversary edition, stapled in: Der Sackpfeifer. The magazine for our clinic (= Sophien- und Hufeland-Klinikum Weimar ), No. 1/2013, issue 15
  7. ↑ Protestant Nursing School Weimar at the Weimar Clinic
  8. ↑ On the history of the Weimar clinics
  9. ↑ http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz41703.html
  10. ↑ P. 12 in: On the history of the Sophiengymnasium and its namesake. Part 1: From the establishment of the school in 1886 to the naming in 1902. Published by the Sophien-Gymnasium (Weimar) at the suggestion of the headmaster Dietrich Lindauer, developed by the history project group (chronicle) under the direction of history teacher Elke Deparade. Weimar, May 1992, brochure with 32 pages (A5), without ISBN. - The information about the school name is quoted in the brochure from the Weimar daily newspaper of October 23, 1902.
personal data
SURNAME Sophie of Orange-Nassau
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilhelmina Sophie Marie Luise of Orange-Nassau; Sophie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of the Netherlands, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH The hague
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1897
Place of death Weimar