Anna Amalia
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Anna Amalia was born as a princess of Brunswick in the Wolfenbüttel castle. She was the fifth of thirteen children born to duke Karl I. (1713-1780). As a princess, Anna Amalia received a very comprehensive education, which for a woman was not expected as a matter of course. The Abbot Jerusalem, the private tutor at the court, instructed Anna Amalia in contemporary German literature. In 1756, for purely dynastic reasons, Anna Amalia was married to the ruling duke Ernst August II. Constantin of Saxony - Weimar - Eisenach. Through this sudden marriage the hereditary succession of the house of Saxony - Weimar was supposed to be guaranteed. In 1757 Anna Amalia became the mother of a son, the hereditary prince Karl August (1757-1828); the birth of a second child, Constantin (1758), her husband did not live to see. Ernst August II. Constantin, whose health had always been unstable, died in 1758 after twenty years of marriage. The testament of the deceased duke made Anna Amalia the regent of the small Saxon duchy. The regent Anna conducted the affairs of state very cautiously. The events of the Seven Years' War affected her duchy. In 1775 Anna Amalia handed the rule of the duchy debt free over to her oldest son Karl August. Then the ex-regent found more time for her intellectual interests. Beginning in 1775, the greats of intellectual history were regularly found at Anna Amalia's soon-to-be famous round table for the lively exchange of ideas concerning questions of art, music, literature, and theater. Among them were Goethe, Herder, Wieland, von Seckendorff, and Knebel. The last years of the duchess' life were marked by the Napoleonic wars, and she increasingly retreated from social life.
--Adapted from the website, Die Welfen
Sources
- Henkel, G. and W. Otte. Herzogin Anna Amalia. Brunswick, 1995.