Henry, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen

Duke Henry of Anhalt- Köthen ( born July 30, 1778 in Pless, † November 23, 1847 in Köthen ) was succeeded his brother Friedrich Ferdinand, the last Duke of Anhalt- Köthen.

Life

Heinrich was born as the fourth son of Prince Friedrich Erdmann von Anhalt- Köthen - Pless and Countess of Stolberg- Wernigerode Luise Ferdinande. He married in 1819 Auguste (* August 3, 1794; † July 13, 1855 ), daughter of Prince Heinrich XLIV. Reuss to Koestritz (younger line) and Auguste Riedesel, Baroness Eisenbach.

In 1818 Henry the government in the Upper Silesian caste domination Pless as Prince of Anhalt- Pless on. To the throne of his brother Friedrich Ferdinand in the Duchy of Anhalt- Köthen this he left the Prussian caste domination. After the death of the childless Friedrich Ferdinand in 1830 Henry ascended the throne Köthener. Pless he left his younger brother Louis, who died in 1841.

Thanks to Henry's efforts, the first railroad reached already in 1840 the city of Köthen, as Bernburger Duke Carl Alexander had refused to transfer the route Magdeburg- Leipzig Bernburg (Saale ). The " Heinrichsplatz " next Köthen earliest train station reminded.

In the years 1841 to 1847 Duke Henry was also Prince of Anhalt - Pless, and here in Upper Silesia, he got to the deserving historian Gottlieb Krause, whom he brought in 1842 as Castle librarian and curator of the ducal collections to Köthen.

With the benevolent inclusion of similar Samuel Hahnemann, the personal physician of his brother and predecessor Duke Friedrich Ferdinand, homeless homeopathic " Miracle Healer " Arthur Lutze Heinrich in 1846 moved again the world's attention to his small country - even after his death, when Lutze 1855 imposing homeopathic clinic opened, which attracted every year tens of thousands of patients from all 5 continents to Köthen.

Duke Henry since 1796 still served in the Prussian army in the campaign of 1806 as a Major, in his farewell with the rank of major general. In 1830 he was awarded the Black Eagle. Since 1841 again in the Prussian service, he was still carried in his death 1847 to General of Infantry.

Duke Henry died in 1847 and was buried in the royal crypt of the church of St. James in Köthen. With the death of the childless Duke of Anhalt- Köthen in 1847 fell first at Anhalt- Bernburg and Anhalt-Dessau in 1853. On a division was omitted in view of the foreseeable extinction of Anhalt- Bernburg line and then entering succession of Anhalt- Dessau.