Margravine Philippine of Brandenburg-Schwedt
Philippine Auguste Amalie, Countess of Hesse- Kassel, born Princess of Prussia from the sideline Brandenburg- Schwedt ( born October 10, 1745 in Schwedt, † May 1, 1800 in Berlin) was the second wife of Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse- Kassel ( 1720-1785 ).
Parents
- Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg- Schwedt, Prince of Prussia (1700-1771)
- Sophie, Princess of Prussia (1719-1765)
Grandparents
- Philip William, Margrave of Brandenburg- Schwedt, Prince of Prussia (1669-1711)
- Johanna Charlotte, Margravine of Brandenburg- Schwedt, née Princess of Anhalt- Dessau (1682-1750)
- King Frederick William I of Prussia (1688-1740)
- Queen Sophie Dorothea of Prussia, born Princess of Hanover (1687-1757)
Sisters
- Friederike Sophie Dorothea, Duchess Friedrich Eugen of Württemberg (1736-1798)
- Anna Elisabeth Luise, Princess Ferdinand of Prussia (1738-1820)
Youth
Philippine grew initially unbound and free in Schwedt on, after the death of her mother took over at their request her uncle Frederick the Great, the superintendence of them and brought them under her sister Princess Ferdinand (Anna Elisabeth Luise ). By the end of his life Frederick the Great brought his niece against warm interest which she replied with a deep reverence for the king. Several projects failed marriage to her and her uncle's hesitation. End of 1772, the king arranged in agreement with it a political marriage to Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse -Kassel, the so hoping for greater support for its goals by Prussia. Philippine explained the 25 year old Landgrave on the wedding day, for medical reasons, they should never get in the risk of becoming pregnant.
Reigning Countess
In Kassel Philippine led a largely independent of the Landgrave of life and established its own " young court ". Among other things, to him belonged to the philosopher Adolph Freiherr Knigge, the world traveler Georg Forster and the later Württemberg statesman Georg Ernst Levin of Wintzingerode. 1777 From the latter got the countess a son, whom she secretly brought in Mömpelgard with her sister Friederike Sophie Dorothea to the world and Georg Philippson called. You made numerous trips through Germany and France, where it has been hailed as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. 1782 she arranged the reconciliation of the Landgrave with his children from his first marriage, he had not seen since his separation from Countess Marie, 1754.
Landgravine widow
Your widow's residence took Philippine 1786 in Hanau. By far the then incipient sharp disputes attracted their death with her stepson Landgrave Wilhelm IX. back and led to a diplomatic imbroglio between Hesse -Kassel, Prussia and Russia. For Oberhofmeister Georg Ernst Levin has been ordered by Wintzingerode, whose elevation to the imperial counts it reached in 1794 and married him after the death of his first wife in the same year in a morganatic marriage. In 1792 she took the conquest of Mainz by the French revolutionary army as an opportunity to reside against the will of William IX. permanently relocate to Berlin, after she had spent some months at Wintzingerode on whose ancestral castle Bodenstein in the calibration field. In Berlin, she initially lived with her sister Princess Ferdinand at Bellevue Palace and then moved into a spacious palace in Behrenstraße 66, which gave her cousin King Frederick William II you 1795. Her second husband Wintzingerode furnished it lavishly and Philippine established in Berlin a Nebenhof. Already in 1796 they transferred the Palais her husband in 1798 she appointed him sole heir. Since 1788 the branch line of Brandenburg - Schwedt was extinct in the male line, so that Philippine with her sisters and two cousins was the heiress of the Allodialbesitzes their family, so fell to fifth on Wintzingerode.
She died in 1800 of a stroke. Wintzingerode let them be buried in the crypt of the Berlin Cathedral. Your sarcophagus has been extensively restored in recent years and can today be seen in the Hohenzollern crypt.