Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Marwitz

Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Marwitz (alias Guillemette de Marwitz , married Countess Wilhelmine Dorothee von Burghausen , born April 1718 in Berlin , † January 16, 1787 in Vienna ) was the long-time lover of Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth and an influential Viennese salonnière of the 1780s Years.

origin

Wilhelmine Dorothee came from the old New Mark noble family von der Marwitz and was elected in April 1718 in Berlin as the second eldest daughter of the Prussian infantry general , military governor of Breslau and knight of the Black Eagle Order Heinrich Karl von der Marwitz and his wife Albertine Eleonore von Wittenhorst (1693-1721 ) born.

Life

At the court of Bayreuth

Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Marwitz grew up with her two younger sisters at the Prussian court and gained the favor of the nine-year-old king's daughter Wilhelmine of Prussia . When she was married to Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1731, she took Wilhelmine Dorothee with her to Bayreuth as her first lady-in-waiting. Later, the two younger ones were introduced to Bayreuth by the Marwitz sisters Albertine and Caroline. At the end of the 1730s, the Margravine's marriage was in crisis. Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth chose Dorothee Wilhelmine as his avowed favorite . To what extent Wilhelmine Dorothee was able to withstand the insistence of the margrave has to remain open due to her dependent position. The Margravine's criticism of Wilhelmine Dorothees remained correspondingly restrained, although, according to her notes, she suffered severely from the morning visits of her friend and first lady-in-waiting to the Margrave's apartments. Wilhelmine von Preußen presented her view of the character development of Wilhelmine Dorothees in the 20th chapter of her memoir.

The marriage arrangement

In 1744 the margravine tried to get rid of her rival and estranged friend by establishing a marital union between Wilhelmine Dorothees and the Austrian Count Otto Ludwig Conrad von Burghauß , Lieutenant Field Marshal (April 12, 1713 - May 31, 1795) on April 8, 1744. arranged. Count Burghausen from the Silesian nobility, who was almost penniless due to his father's waste, lived as a ward at the margrave's court. He held the position of captain. His advances were initially ignored by his maternal cousin Wilhelmine Dorothee. The marriage required the conversion of Wílhelmine Dorothees to the Catholic faith and the Viennese court was a long way off. The marriage in April 1744 did not break the close ties between the margrave and his favorite woman, but led to a serious brotherly and sisterly crisis between Wilhelmine of Prussia and Friedrich II. Of Prussia , as the Prussian nobility was not allowed to do so by decree without permission from the Prussian Marry limits. This was to keep Prussian property in the country. As a result, Friederich excluded Countess Wilhelmine Dorothee Burghausen from the inheritance (succession) on December 27, 1744.

In Austria-Hungary

Wilhelmine Dorothee received a high severance payment from Bayreuth and, after changing occupations (from 1761 in Buda and from 1773 in Trieste ), finally settled in Vienna with her husband from 1780. Giacomo Casanova characterized the aged Count Burghausen, with whom he met in Trieste in 1773, as an old gouty bon vivant and ore-wasting man who had been unfaithful to Mars for ten years in order to devote himself to Venus more undisturbed for the rest of his life. In the 1780s, the Countess Burghausen entertained in Vienna Assemblee , the researchers Georg Forster , the Emperor or writers such as Henry Swinburne visited. She belonged to the close circle of friends of the state chancellor and diary writer Count Karl von Zinzendorf and Count Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz . Ultimately, this gave her satisfaction for her stay in the “cursed nest” Bayreuth, where she had been “dog-like” bored. The Countess Burghausen took care of young talents, including Benjamin Thompson and Johann Hunczowski , and tried to give them a philanthropic orientation. Until the end she was in the favor of the emperor, who repeatedly supported her protégés. On January 16, 1787, Wilhelmine Dorothee Countess Burghausen died childless in Vienna.

A presumed portrait

A portrait of Wilhelmine Dorothee, who was considered an outspoken beauty in her day, or, according to another attribution, of her sister Albertine von der Marwitz by Antoine Pesne, has been preserved in the music room of the Hermitage in Bayreuth. The framing in the paneling of the music room and the creation around 1738 speak for a portrait of Wilhelmine Dorothee playing the violin.

literature

• Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Marwitz in the memoirs of Margravine Wilhelmine von Bayreuth. in the Gutenberg project (online)

Web links

• Portrait of Wilhelmine or Albertine von der Marwitz on Bildindex.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ruth Müller-Lindenberg: Wilhelmine von Bayreuth: the court opera as the stage of life. Böhlau Verlag Cologne / Weimar 2005, p. 50ff.
2. ^ General genealogical and state handbook. Frankfurt am Main 1811, p. 489, ( digitized version )
3. ↑ Giacomo Casanova: Story of my life. Volume XII, Propylaeen Verlag, Berlin, p. 228.
4. ^ Georg Forster, Robert L. Kahn: Georg Forster's works: pamphlets and fragments for world travel. Volume 4, Akad.-Verlag, 1989, p. 134.
5. ↑ Reading fruits from the field of the latest literature at home and abroad. Volume 1852, Issue 3, Hoffmann & Campe, 1852, p. 14.
6. ^ Karl Graf von Zinzendorf: Vienna from Maria Theresa to the French era: from the diaries of Count Karl von Zinzendorf. Wiener Bibliophilen Ges., 1972, p. 167.
7. ^ Wilhelmine of Prussia: Memoirs. Cotta, Stuttgart 1810, chapter 20.
8. ↑ Correspondance politique et anecdotique sur les affaires de l'Europe, et particulièrement sur celles de l'Allemagne: depuis l'année 1780 jusqu'à présent. 1789, p. 188.