ANNA AMALIA OF BRUNSWICK-WOLFENBüTTEL

'Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel' (b. Wolfenbüttel, 24 October, 1739 - d. Weimar, April 10, 1807), was German princess and by marriage duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; also, she was regent of the states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to 1775 and important influential cultural force in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar and the Holy Roman Empire.
She was the ninth child of Karl I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Philippine Charlotte of Prussia. Her maternal grandparents were Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.
In Brunswick on 16 March 1756 she married Ernst August II Konstantin, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Ernst August died in 1758 leaving her regent for their infant son, Karl August.
During Karl August's immaturity she administered the affairs of the duchy with notable prudence strengthening its resources and improving its position in spite of the troubles of the Seven Years' War.
As a patron of art and literature she drew many of the most eminent men in Germany to Weimar including Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. She hired Christoph Martin Wieland, a poet and translator of William Shakespeare to educate her son. She also established the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, now home to some 850,000 volumes.
Anna Amalia was also a notable composer; among her significant works is a ''Singspiel'' called ''Erwin und Elmire'' (1776), based on a text by Goethe.
In 1775 her son having attained his maturity, she retired. The duchess was honoured in Goethe's work under the title ''Zum Andenken der Fürstin Anna-Amalia''.

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References

★ F. Bornhak, ''Anna Amalia, Herzogin von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach'', Berlin, Germany: 1892

★ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 1, p. 886-887

External link

★ PRNewsWire: Goethe's forbidden love for Anna Amalia