Wilhelm (Anhalt-Harzgerode)

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Prince Wilhelm

Wilhelm von Anhalt-Bernburg-Harzgerode (born August 18, 1643 in Harzgerode ; † October 14, 1709 ibid) was the last Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode .

He was the son of Friedrich von Anhalt-Bernburg-Harzgerode (1613-1670) and his first wife Johanna Elisabeth von Nassau-Hadamar (1619-1647).

Life

Wilhelm's upbringing and education began in Harzgerode , continued for seven years from 1650 at the court of Johann Kasimir, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau in Dessau , and completed in 1660 after an examination in Harzgerode and further training at his father's court. On December 8, 1660, he began his Grand Tour through Europe. His father gave him a booklet entitled Monita paterna (Fatherly Admonitions) with him on the way. In it, Prince Friedrich asked his son, among other things, to attend a reformed university in order to broaden his intellectual horizons. Stops on the cavalier tour were West German princely seats, the Netherlands , France , England , Spain and Italy including Sicily .

After eight years, he returned on May 10, 1668 and prepared for a military career. When he wanted to enter the service of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg in 1670 , his father died and he had to take over the little principality. At that time, not all of the damage caused by the Thirty Years' War had been overcome in his principality and the population losses had not been compensated for.
Wilhelm concluded his first marriage with Countess Elisabeth Albertine zu Solms-Laubach . He designated a former manor in Güntersberge as their widow's residence , which was given the name Albertinenberg. The Albertine , an area south of Harzgerode, which was named after a silver mine named after her, is still a reminder of her . In her will, Elisabeth Albertine donated 3,000 thalers, the interest of which was to go to the sick and poor in the Harzgerode principality.

In 1682 Wilhelm founded the Wilhelmshof Vorwerk near Anhalt Castle , which also served as a hunting farm and summer residence. In 1688 he had a third suburb east of his residence town for 80 new settlers, which was initially called Neustadt, then Wilhelmsstadt and finally in 1705 after his second wife Augustenstadt.

In 1691 he tried his hand at mining with the help of the merchant Jean de Smeth and his brother-in-law Josia von Rheden . After a successful start of the Mountain Flyer 1692 had been 37 coal mines in a bid to Zubuße out. In 1693 a silver smelter was built in the Selketal, the starting point for the creation of a Harzgerode district of the same name. In 1695, after the establishment of a new mint in Harzgerode, coins could be minted again from newly extracted silver. The home of his second wife, Princess Auguste von Nassau-Dillenburg , was staged by Wilhelm as an elaborate celebration. North of the castle, the construction of a fourth, privileged suburb as a mining town began. An increase in population triggered by the flourishing mining and metallurgy industry gave the reason to considerably enlarge the Harzgeröder church, which was newly built between 1696 and 1698, compared to its dilapidated predecessor. Subsidized from the princely treasury, it was considered one of the most beautiful Reformed churches in Anhalt in its time, also with its function as court church. At the end of the century, the mining company, which was ultimately based only on fraud, collapsed. The ruin not only hit Harzgeröder citizens as believers, but also the prince's box . Poverty spread in the region, in 1699 a poor charity had to be organized in Harzgerode.

Prince Wilhelm died at the end of 1709 after a long suffering. The subsequently published visions of the deacon Paris, which had prompted him to foretell his imminent end to the prince, caused a great stir at the time. Since the land fell to Victor Amadeus von Bernburg and thus back to Anhalt-Bernburg after Wilhelm's death , he made his wife the universal heir of his fortune and decreed that after her death a legacy of 12,000 thalers and 6,000 thalers should be donated for the poor of his principality should be paid to the Halle Orphanage . This money was to be raised by selling the allodial goods of the Harzgerode prince line to the Bernburg princes.

Financially well cared for, but limited in her rights, the prince's widow took over the Harzgeröder Castle promised in the marriage contract as a widow's residence . Never ending quarrels with the Bernburg rulers prompted them to move to Usingen to a sister and in 1726 to sell their Harzgerode property to the Bernburg princes.

Prince Wilhelm found his resting place in the crypt of the Harzgerode church tower together with his first wife, a niece and a daughter of Prince Karl Friedrich von Anhalt-Bernburg.

family

His first wife was Countess Elisabeth Albertine zu Solms-Laubach (* May 6, 1631 - January 2, 1693) daughter of Albert Otto II zu Solms-Laubach in 1671. The couple had no children.

After her death in 1695 he married Princess Sophie Auguste von Nassau-Dillenburg (* April 28, 1666 - January 14, 1733) daughter of Prince Heinrich von Nassau-Dillenburg (1641–1701). This marriage also remained childless.

See also

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilhelm of Anhalt-Bernburg-Harzgerode
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1643
PLACE OF BIRTH Harzgerode
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1709
Place of death Harzgerode