Adolphus Frederick IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Adolf Friedrich IV, Duke of Mecklenburg [- Strelitz ] ( born May 5, 1738 in Mirow, † June 2, 1794 in Neustrelitz ) was 1752/53-1794 reigning duke part of the country Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Life
He was the eldest son of apanagierten in Mirow crown prince Karl ( Friedrich Ludwig ) and Elisabeth Albertine, born Princess of Saxe -Hildburghausen.
After the death of his father and his uncle, Duke Adolf Friedrich III. (1752 ), he was heir to the throne in the country part Strelitz. His accession to the throne, however, was accompanied by considerable turbulence, which fit in the bitter struggle between the state government and the united country stands for positions of power in the Mecklenburg State. In Mecklenburg -Strelitz, the country stands to win the future heir to the throne as a guarantor of their cause tried. As 1752 unexpectedly to the throne case had occurred, the situation escalated by troops of the Duke of Schwerin Strelitzer part of the country occupied and so sought to impose its political independence after disengagement from the Mecklenburg total state. The output of the succession dispute led to the further strengthening of the estates.
The heir to the throne itself had been taken in recent weeks to the Pomeranian abroad to Greifswald in safety, where he soon, however, honor Rector of the University of Greifswald was (initially under an assumed name ) student. Declared on January 17, 1753 for mature, Adolf Friedrich IV took over on April 4, 1753 regency in the country part of Mecklenburg -Strelitz.
He and his mother in her capacity as guardian of his younger siblings, ratified in 1755 the country's basic statutory hereditary settlement ( LGGEV ), which was given a new, the estates of the Constitution of the State of Mecklenburg. This led to the consolidation of power of the Mecklenburg knighthood, preserving the backwardness of the country until the end of the monarchy (1918). 1761, he married his younger sister Sophie Charlotte ( 1744-1818 ) with George III. , King of Great Britain. In 1764 he was awarded the Order of the Garter was the first prince of Mecklenburg.
Adolf Friedrich IV is described by witnesses as more economical, particularly receptive to the latest findings of the newly emerging science prince, but sometimes prone to fits of temper. In his subjects, he was said to be popular. He was baulustig and prompted messy construction, conversion, however, significantly exceeded initial and extensions such as the mansion in Ratzeburg or Playhouse and City Palace in Neubrandenburg, which shaped the face of he governed part of the country sustained its financial margins. Therefore, had been used in his lifetime an imperial commission for the settlement of debts.
Adolf Friedrich did not fit into the traditional image of a late Baroque princelings. He remained unmarried and lived with his older sister, Christiane (1735-1794) in temperate pietistic piety with rather modest royal court and for great love of nature. When he died childless in the age of 57, his younger brother Charles II became his successor.
Literary Figure
In the 1860s, Adolf Friedrich IV was the namesake of the title character in Fritz Reuter Humoresque Dörchläuchting. The literary heavily oversubscribed by Reuter figure, the historical person is not nearly meet.