Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau

Henriette Amalie Princess of Anhalt- Dessau ( born December 7, 1720 in Dessau, † December 5, 1793 ibid ) was the youngest daughter of Prince Leopold I of Anhalt -Dessau from the House of Ascanians and Anna Luise Föhse.

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Your grandmother Henriette Catharina of Orange- Nassau (1637-1708) was a Dutch princess of the House of Orange, the grandfather Johann Georg II of Anhalt- Dessau married in 1659. As a princess she participated in the construction and in the development of the relatively poor principality. In 1660 she received the village Nischwitz as personal property, which was renamed in 1673 in memory of their origin in Oranienbaum. As of 1683 the city had here, park and Oranienbaum palace built as their personal residence. After the death of her husband, Johann Georg II in 1693 they had the castle Oranienbaum expand the widow's seat, she lived until her death. The couple had several children, including her father, Leopold I and his sister Princess Henriette Amalie of Nassau- Dietz ( 1666-1726 ). Their eponymous aunt was born a Princess of Anhalt- Dessau, who had married Prince Henry Casimir II of Nassau- Dietz ( 1657-1696 ). Princess Henriette Amalie not only inherited from the estate of her mother Henriette Catharina important Dutch paintings, but also the castle Oranienstein whose shape they much impressed and let baroque design by architect Daniel Marot in the years 1704-1709. She was also namesake of her niece and daughter of her brother, Henriette Amalie of Anhalt- Dessau (1720-1793), which is due to their coverage of the same name is often confused with it. Not only the name but also their sense of art, their passion for collecting and their management skills seem to have inherited it from his grandmother and aunt.

Life

As a 21 -year-old in 1741 she gave birth to the illegitimate boy Heinrich August from nine years elder son of hunting stuff Master Wilhelm Gustav Werner and refused to marry the father of the child. This led them into exile. During the next eleven years she lived as a pin lady in a free secular nunnery in Herford. Her father, Leopold I, who fathered two illegitimate children themselves, trying to continue to marry off his daughter befitting, but all marriage plans failed. She lived in that time, together with the recent fifteen years of Rackmann Baron, who was raised by her intervention in 1788 in the imperial baron as Baron of the Bangardt. The name Bangert ( = Baumgarten ) was borrowed from the name of the manor Kreuznacher Bangert, derived from its numerous fruit trees.

Presumably, in order to be near her son, who had been given to a Frankfurt banking family in care, they initially acquired in Bockenheim near Frankfurt a large estate on which later the Villa Passavant, the former Francke school and finally the present St. Elisabethen hospital were built. The farm buildings they used some years as a residence to supervise the completion of their 1753 acquired the so-called small castle from here. After the death of Princess this first property served as a retirement home for her long-time lover, before she was sold in 1804 to the banker Johann Georg Meyer and from that then in 1820 Samuel Passavant. In 1938 the city acquired the property and built the Frankfurt former Francke school. Today, only a few sparse ruins on the Ginnheimer road and built in 1829 by Friedrich Christian Hess Garden Villa Passavant family are obtained ( now used as a nursery " The Ark " of St.Elisabethen Hospital ) from this property.

1753 acquired the Princess a Good, which included a country house and an orangery. She let operate large farming and soon became by purchase and leaseback of all large estates in Bockenheim the largest landowner on the spot. She led the sericulture one, kept bees, leaving tread the cider and sold oranges from their greenhouses. She let asparagus crops, fruit and vegetable plantations and mulberry plantations for their silkworms create and led on their estates both sheep farming and cattle breeding.

Investment in Kreuznach

In Kreuznach it acquired in 1771 an additional property, which also Bangert was named after her partner Baron von Bangert later. After her death in 1802 In 1793 Andreas van Recum ( 1765-1828 ) this property. The property in its present form is called (today Schlossparkmuseum ) as Puricelli lock. A large portrait of the princess in this museum witnessed by still of her stays and property rights in Kreuznach.

The princess acquired in Kreuznach but not only that Bangert, but there also stately homes from the 17th century as the Simmerner court, the crown Hof and in 1766 the owner of the Hundsheimer court, was it called Dessauer courtyard and now houses the Mayor and reside his office itself. The pattern with character domain Bangert they proved to be innovative agricultural entrepreneur. Your investment in Kreuznach without regard to their emotional familial ties, especially to her grandmother Henriette Catharina of Orange- Nassau (1637-1708) and Aunt Henriette Amalie of Anhalt- Dessau (1666-1726), can not be explained. Your attachment to the House of Orange was also manifest them and record the tradition of Marie of Orange- Nassau (1642-1688), died in Kreuznach, again, who had temporarily resided at this property during the summer months.

Principal residence Bock home near Frankfurt am Main

The princess manages its vast estates in Bockenheim itself, not by administrators. She was enthusiastic farmer, open to reforms and meticulous in accounting. By and economically, financial foresight she created the basis for an independent and befitting life. It was said of her that she was five times as rich as the richest farmer on the spot. With her wealth, she supported numerous artists by acquiring their works.

In 1771 she expanded her villa by additions to the castle. In the " gallery " on the first floor of the building which is approximately 700 works of art found a place. Next to the castle is a " marble " was grown.

1771/72 In this time frame her beloved son died young, with about 30 years, of consumption.

In 1790 she earned a prestigious Frankfurter townhouse in the Great Eschenheim alley.

Flight and last residence

Before 1792 moved the French revolutionary troops closer and on 27 October conquered General Adam Philippe de Custine Frankfurt, Henriette Amalie fled with their belongings in their home city of Dessau and moved there the Palais Dietrich, one of her father for his son Dietrich ( the 1769 deceased was ) built city residence, where she died a year later. In Dessau, she was buried without the presence of the family.

Her legacy: the Amalie Foundation

After her death reached her possession in the Amalie Foundation, which should address the needy Dessau. The collection ranges were limited be made ​​available to the public since they, like their natural history collection, were very extensive. With over 4,000 volumes she possessed a considerable library of the most important works of intellectual history, natural history and fiction. From over 700 images, the Anhalt Art Gallery Dessau kept still 482 paintings today.

Your so-called " Bockenheimer castle" was destroyed on September 12, 1944 by air raids. There is a large apartment building was erected later. This left only remnants of the former castle grounds, among others, reduced by new roads and housing, now called Von- Bernus Park. The memory of Henriette Amalie Princess of Anhalt- Dessau reduced today to instructions in the plaque on a newly created entrance area of ​​your former castle grounds.