Dorothea Lieven

Dorothea Princess Lieven, née von Benckendorff (born 17 Dezemberjul / December 28 1785greg in Riga, Latvia, .. † January 27, 1857 in Paris) was the wife of the Russian general and later diplomat Christoph Fürst von Lieven.

Barely out of childhood, she was married to Christoph von Lieven, accompanied the same to Berlin and London and was regarded here as an influential member of the diplomatic circle. Already in 1828 made ​​an honorary lady of the Empress, she was awarded in 1834 at the Russian court an independent position.

In 1837 she settled in Paris down and left since this city only temporarily, so after the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, where she. According to London, and in February 1854 after the outbreak of war between Russia and the Western powers, where they moved to Brussels Since 1855 she never left Paris. Her salon in the old Hôtel Talleyrand was for some time neutral meeting place of European diplomacy and the political elite in France. She died on 27 January 1857 in Paris.

Historical attention gained Dorothea von Lieven because she, the wife of a Russian diplomat, beloved between two major European statesmen of her time has been of Prince Metternich and later of the French Prime Minister Guizot.

She was the sister of Alexander von Benckendorff and Konstantin von Benckendorff.