George William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
George William of Brandenburg -Bayreuth (* November 16, 1678 in Bayreuth, † December 18, 1726 in Bayreuth) was Margrave of the Frankish Principality of Bayreuth from 1712 to 1726.
Life
Origin and family
Georg Wilhelm, of the house of Hohenzollern, was the only son of Christian Ernst of Brandenburg- Bayreuth and his second wife Sophie Luise of Württemberg.
He was married to Sophia of Saxe- Weissenfels, who had four children with him. She married after his death the Earl Albert Joseph of Hoditz. Georg Wilhelm had no male offspring. His daughter gave birth out of wedlock twins who died shortly after birth, and was cast to Kulmbach, as the father of the twins was not befitting.
Military career
Georg Wilhelm went through a military career, since a study was eliminated because of its academic performance. Already the age of seventeen he fell while so-called meeting of Enghien to be extremely brave soldier. In 1701 he was regimental commander of the Frankish cuirassiers. He took on the imperial side successfully participated in numerous battles. Here he was in 1702 near Landau severely wounded by a musket ball. This injury never healed up completely. As Margrave he built the military out considerably. After the War of Spanish Succession Georg Wilhelm came into his military functions hardly in evidence.
Active construction
In his youth as Prince, he founded the suburb of St. Georgen am See. It was a planned city scale (today district of Bayreuth) in the baroque style with the Order castle at the lake. On artificial lake Brandenburg ( Brandenburg pond ), which was fed by the heat Steinach, he put on a hill and let battles with quite large vessels ( up to 18 meters long) list. He founded the Red Eagle and celebrated every year there his name day ( St. George's Day ) with sumptuous feasts. The Red Eagle Order also had its own church ( Ayasofya), the present monastery church with the arms of members of the Order of the 18th century. He was also an avid hunter. The hunting lodges Kaiserhammer, Falkenhaube and Thier garden, the Hermitage and the Neustädtlein castle ( now the town Ecker village) were built by him. In hunting lodge Himmelcron he let make the Red Eagle Hall.