Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
Christian of Saxe- Weissenfels (* February 23 1682 in White Rock, † June 28, 1736 in Sanger Hausen ) was the fourth Duke of Saxe- Weissenfels Saxon Sekundogenitur and Prince of Saxe- cross- ford and came from a branch of the Albertine Wettin
Family
Christian was the sixth son of Duke Johann Adolf I of Saxe- Weissenfels and his wife Johanna Magdalene of Saxe- Altenburg, daughter of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm II of Saxe -Altenburg.
Government in the Duchy
Duke Christian occurred after the death of his heritage loose brother Johann Georg in 1712 the government in the Duchy and led immediately continued the policy of patronage and the promotion of science, education and culture of its predecessor - so he founded in 1716 to White Rock the seminary illustrious -, gave himself However, as it were with his wife enormous waste and splendor back. The City of Sanger Hausen was increasingly used as a secondary residence and the New Castle Sangerhausen modernized accordingly. The enormous resources that were needed for the expenses of this worldly and artistic pleasures, overtaxed the already strained finances of the dwarf state by far, so that in 1719 the total financial collapse occurred. Electorate of Saxony, which still exercised supremacy over the Albertine branch lines and probably therefore made , in an already foreseeable Anheim traps of Saxe- Weissenfels - both the duke and his brother had no male offspring - the need to take over its debt, thus leaving the apply for Kaiser setting up a debit and debt Commission, which the act of the Duke was severely restricted.
Same time, the Protestant Christian his, by the defection of the Saxon Kurlinie incurred to Catholicism claims to give the leadership of the corpus Evangelicorums reprint tried as head of the oldest line of the friend Fraternal main comparison by each of the Reformation anniversaries in 1717 and 1730 on the occasion of the second Säkularfeier the Augsburg Confession was causing medal embossed.
" What pleases me is only the sprightly hunting "
Above all, Duke Christian, however, was completely forfeited the courtly hunt in his Ziegelrodaer forest and in the woods around White Rock, Pölsfeld and Neuenburg Castle in Freyburg. These major events of the nobility, the peasants of the entire circumference were obliged to give additional drudgery.
On the occasion of his 31st birthday in 1713, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach for the Duke 's famous hunting cantata " What pleases me is only the sprightly hunting " ( BWV 208) as a festive table music with a pastoral character, in the evening after an extended hunting event of the princes in the Jägerhof rang on Nikolaistrasse.
Christan is in Salomon Franck's libretto of Cantata called four times and equated with the shepherd god Pan - highly praised its rulers qualities in the then usual form of a homage and congratulations music. The hunt is represented as a divine virtue, and thus as a Prince attributable privilege.
It is likely that Bach wrote the piece on behalf of his then Mr. Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe- Weimar and should serve as a gift for Christian.
Another birthday cantata for Duke Christian followed with the so-called Shepherd cantata BWV 249a. The homage cantata O pleasant melody ( BWV 210a) dedicated to him during his visit to Leipzig Bach and performed it on January 12, 1729 for the first time on. For Bach, the orders were worthwhile since he was appointed in 1729 by the " Princely Saxon Court Conductor weißenfelsischen from home ".
Death, burial, and succession
Duke Christian died blind and was buried in a Zinnprunksarg in the royal crypt of the castle church of New Castle Augustus.
Since he left no descendants, the ducal throne passed to his brother Johann Adolf II.
Marriage and issue
He completed his only marriage on 11 May 1712 with Luise Stolberg Stolberg- Stolberg to Christiana, widowed Countess of Mansfeld, the daughter of Christoph Ludwig I, Count of Stolberg- Stolberg from his marriage to Christine Luise of Hesse- Darmstadt.
On the occasion of the marriage made Elector Frederick Augustus the Strong of Saxony, the couple's Weißenfelser hunting trophy as a gift - a precious and lavish gold work with enamels of the brothers Johann Melchior Georg Christoph and Georg Friedrich Dinglinger that picks up with all kinds of symbolism preference Christians for hunting. The trophy succeeded after the extinction of the side line again into the possession of the electoral treasury and can be admired today in the Green Vault.
The marriage remained childless.