OTD 24 October 1739 Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

On October 24th. 1739 Anna Amalia was born in Wolfenbüttel (located in
Lower Saxony in Germany) as the ninth child of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-
Wolfenbüttel and Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia.

Duchess Anna Amalia - Source picture: Wikipedia

Her maternal grandparents were King Frederick William I of Prussia and
Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.

On March 16th. 1756 Anna Amalia married Ernst August II Konstantin,
Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach. The couple had children and their eldest
son Charles Augustus became the new duke, but he wasn't eighteen at the
moment of his father's death. 

So Anna Amalia became regent which she did with notable prudence. 
She wanted to improve the position of her son. In 1775, with her son's maturity,
she retired.

Anna Amalia could transform the court and its surrounding into the most
influential cultural center of Germany. As a patron of art and literature she
drew many of the most eminent men in Germany to Weimar inter alia
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Abel Seyler's theater
company. She also established the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, which is
now home to some 1,000,000 volumes. That would be very impressive.

Duchess Anna Amalia was a notable composer too. She made an opera 
called Erwin & Elmire based on a text by Goethe.

This remarkable lady died on April 10th. 1807.

The duchess was honoured in Goethe's Work under the title
Zum Andenken der Fürstin Anna-Amalia
(to remember Duchess Anna-Amalia).

Source piture: Wikipedia



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