Landgravine Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
Karoline Luise of Hesse- Darmstadt ( born July 11, 1723 in Darmstadt, † April 8, 1783 in Paris) was by marriage Margravine of Baden and philanthropist, art collector and botanist.
Life
Childhood and youth
Karoline Luise was a daughter of the Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse- Darmstadt (1691-1768) from his marriage to Charlotte (1700-1726), daughter and heiress of Count Johann Reinhard III. of Hanau. After her mother's death she was with her siblings mainly carefully brought up by their father in Buchsweiler. A marriage project with the Duke of Cumberland failed. The Crown Prince of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt dismissed the independently minded and talented princess herself, after he had asked for her hand.
They married on January 28, 1751 in Darmstadt, the Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden -Durlach ( 1728-1811 ), who, after the attack of the Margraviate of Baden -Baden, 1771 ruled as Margrave of Baden.
Margravine of Baden
The Margravine coined the courtly life in the city and Residenz Karlsruhe newly founded by the grandfather of her husband in 1715 the Margraviate of Baden. Due to their exposure to the humanities and cultural issues Karoline Luise spoke five languages and was well versed in many areas of knowledge. As an ardent admirer of Voltaire, she stood in the rain with this correspondence.
The residence developed at this time as one of the intellectual and artistic centers of the empire. Among her guests, in addition to Voltaire, as significant contemporaries such as Johann Gottfried von Herder, Johann Caspar Lavater, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Christoph Martin Wieland.
Karoline Luise was a time as a member of the Margrave of Baden harpsichordist Court Orchestra, which has been greatly expanded and promoted by her and the Marquis. She was also a talented illustrator, and numerous red chalk drawings and pastels with portraits from the hand of the Countess have been preserved. She was a member of the Copenhagen Academy of Arts.
The Marchioness had a special fondness for science and worked intensively with botany, zoology, physics, medicine, mineralogy, geology and chemistry. Lavater described it in a letter to Goethe as the " Vielwisserin and Vielfragerin of Baden ". To their living area in the Karlsruhe castle belonged next to a studio and a laboratory in which they conducted experiments.
Linnaeus has it the Money Tree Carolinea L. princeps named in honor (now as a houseplant Pachyra aquatica Aubl. Known). Karoline Luise was planning an extensive botanical collection work with pictures of all the plant according to the Linnaean system to bring out, but failed the task because of lack of financial resources. In addition, the hall Forensic botanist Friedrich Wilhelm von Leysser was for many years the official collector of minerals on behalf of the Countess. She also visited personally sites, such as the Riester transition in Sulzburg.
Your right bank estates managed Karoline Luise yourself here was economically very successful, promoted the cultivation of madder and maintained a soap and candle manufactory. After a staircase fall 1779 health Karoline Luise was impaired. During a trip to Paris, accompanied by her son, Frederick, died after a stroke.
The " Mahlerey Cabinet " and the Natural History Collection of the Margravine formed the basis for today's Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe.
Progeny
His marriage to Karl Friedrich of Baden Karoline Luise had " verfürsteln " to let three sons, which they themselves educated and taught not to them:
- Karl Ludwig (1755-1801), Prince
- Friedrich (1756-1817)
- Ludwig I. Wilhelm August (1763-1830), Grand Duke of Baden