Wilhelmine of Bayreuth
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Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine, Princess of Prussia (July 3, 1709 - October 14, 1758), was a daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and his Queen consort Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. In 1731 she was married to Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. The baroque buildings and parks built during her reign constitute much of the present appearance of the town of Bayreuth, Germany.
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[edit] Life
Born in Berlin, Wilhelmina shared the unhappy childhood of her brother, Frederick the Great, whose friend and confidante she remained, with the exception of one short interval, all her life. Their mother, Sophia Dorothea wished to marry Wilhelmine to her nephew Frederick, Prince of Wales, but on the British side there was no disposition to make the offer except in exchange for substantial concessions, to which the king of Prussia was not prepared to assent. The fruitless intrigues carried on by Sophia Dorothea to bring about this match played a large part in Wilhelmina's early life. After much talk of other matches, which came to nothing, she was eventually married in 1731 to Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
This marriage was only accepted by Wilhelmina under threats from her father and with a view to lightening her brother's disgrace. It was happy at first, though it was clouded at first by narrow means, and then by the infidelities of the future margrave with Dorothea von Marwitz, whose rise at the court of Bayreuth was bitterly resented by Frederick the Great and caused an estrangement of some three years between Wilhelmina and the brother she so devotedly loved.
When Wilhelmina's husband came into his inheritance in 1735, the pair set about making Bayreuth a miniature Versailles. Their building operations included the rebuilding of their summer residence, the Ermitage, the great Bayreuth opera-house, the building of a theatre and the reconstruction of the Bayreuth palace and of the new opera house. This so-called Bayreuth Rococo is still famous today. The pair also founded the University of Erlangen; these undertakings brought the court to the verge of bankruptcy.
The margravine made Bayreuth one of the intellectual centres of the Holy Roman Empire, surrounding herself with a little court of wits and artists which gained added prestige from the occasional visits of Voltaire and Frederick the Great. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Wilhelmina's interests shifted from dilettantism to diplomacy. She acted as eyes and ears for her brother in southern Germany until her death at Bayreuth, on 14 October 1758, the day of Frederick's defeat by the Austrian forces of Leopold Josef Graf Daun at the Battle of Hochkirch.
On the tenth anneversary of her death, her devastated brother had the Temple of Friendship built at Sanssouci in her memory.
[edit] Works
In addition to her other accomplishments, Wilhelmine was also a gifted composer and a supporter of music. She was a lutenist, a student of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and the employer of Bernhard Joachim Hagen. She wrote an opera, Argenore, performed in 1740 for her husband's birthday, as well as some chamber music that still survives.
The margravine's memoirs, Memoires de ma vie, written or revised between 1748 and her death, are preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin. They were first printed in two forms in 1810a German translation down to the year 1733 from the firm of Cotta of Tübingen; and in French published by Vieweg of Brunswick, and coming down to 1742. There have been several subsequent editions, including a German one published at Leipzig in 1908. An English translation was published in Berlin in 1904. For the discussion on the authenticity of these entertaining, though not very trustworthy, memoirs, see G. H. Pertz, Uber die Merkwürdigkeiten der Markgrafin (1851). See also Arvede Barine, Princesses et grandes dames (Paris, 1890); E. E. Cuttell, Wilhelmine, Margravine of Baireuth (London, 2 vols., 1905); ' and R. Fester, Die Bayreuther Schwester Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin, 1902).
[edit] Children
Wilhelmine's only child was Elisabeth Friederike Sophie of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (August 30, 1732-April 6, 1780). Described by Giacomo Casanova as the most beautiful girl in Germany, she was married to Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg in 1748.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Some of the information in this article is based on a translation of its German equivalent.
- Thea Leitner: Skandal bei Hof. Frauenschicksale an europäischen Königshöfen, Piper, München 2003, ISBN 3-492-22009-6
- Uwe A. Oster: Wilhelmine von Bayreuth. Das Leben der Schwester Friedrichs des Großen, Piper, München, 2005, ISBN 3-492-04524-3
[edit] External links
- Free scores by Wilhelmine of Bayreuth in the Werner Icking Music Archive
