, house = Ascania , father = Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt , mother = Princess Frederica of Prussia , birth_date = , birth_place =

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

, death_date = , death_place = Hummelshain } Princess Agnes of Anhalt-Dessau (Frederica Amalia Agnes; 24 June 1824 – 23 October 1897) was the eldest daughter of Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt by his wife Princess Frederica of Prussia.Martin, p. 188. She was a member of the House of Ascania, and by her marriage to Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchess consort of Saxe-Altenburg.

Family

Agnes' father Duke Leopold was a child of Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Anhalt-Dessau by his wife Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Homburg. Her mother Princess Frederica was the daughter of Prince Louis Charles of Prussia (brother of King

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, wh ...

) by his wife Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Agnes was an older sister of Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt and Maria Anna, Princess Frederick Charles of Prussia. Through Maria Anna, Agnes was an aunt of Elisabeth Anna, Grand Duchess of Oldenburg and Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn.

Marriage

On 28 April 1853, Agnes married Ernst of Saxe-Altenburg. He was a son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Marie Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and succeeded his father as Duke of Saxe-Altenburg later that year. They had two children: * Princess Marie Friederike Leopoldine Georgine Auguste Alexandra Elisabeth Therese Josephine Helene Sophie (2 August 1854 – 8 October 1898), married on 19 April 1873 to Prince Albrecht of Prussia. * Prince Georg Leopold Ernst Joseph Alexander Friedrich Ludwig Johann Albert (1 February 1856 – 29 February 1856). As their only son died as an infant, the duchy would be inherited by their nephew Ernst upon Ernst I's death in 1908.

Life

Agnes was regarded as a talented painter.Heinrich Ferdinand Schoeppl: ''Die Herzoge von Sachsen-Altenburg.'' Bozen 1917, Neudruck Altenburg 1992. Like many noblewomen of her time, she took an interest in charity, especially in nursing and the care of troops wounded in the Franco-German war. In 1878 on the 25th anniversary of the couple's marriage, Ernst gave his wife the miniature newly created Knight's Cross First Class of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, the so-called "Princesses Cross". On the occasion of the anniversary, the Ernst-Agnes-Stiftung (Ernst-Agnes Foundation) was established. Agnes died on 23 October 1897, at the age of 73. In the city of

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

, Agnesplatz is named after her. She is buried in the Herzogin-Agnes-Gedächtniskirche (Duchess Agnes Memorial Church).

Author

She was the author of ''Ein Wort an Israel'' ("A Word to Israel") (Leipzig, 1893), a book which dealt with antisemitism and Christianity in Germany. The book, published 1893 in German as ''Ein Wort an Israel '' as no. 37-38 of the academic series ''Institutum Judaicum zu Leipig. Schriften'', was also translated into Italian as ''Una parola ad Israele''.WorldCat
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Ancestry

References

Sources

* * Schoeppl, Heinrich Ferdinand: ''Die Herzoge von Sachsen-Altenburg.'' Bozen 1917, Neudruck Altenburg 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes Of Anhalt-Dessau 1824 births 1897 deaths People from Dessau-Roßlau House of Ascania House of Saxe-Altenburg 19th-century German writers Duchesses of Saxe-Altenburg 19th-century German women writers