Erdmuthe Dorothea, Countess of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf (née Countess of

Reuss-Ebersdorf Reuss-Ebersdorf was a county and from 1806 a principality located in Germany. The Counts of Reuss-Ebersdorf belonged to the Reuss Junior Line. Reuss was successively a part of the Holy Roman Empire, Confederation of the Rhine, German Confederatio ...

; 7 November 1700 19 June 1756) was a German

Pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...

and hymn writer.

Early life

Countess Erdmuthe Dorothea von

was born on 7 November 1700 in the village of Ebersdorf, in Thuringia.Erika Geiger, Erdmuth Dorothea: Countess von Zinendorf Noble Servant (Winston Salem: John F. Blair, 2000), 1. She was the daughter of Count Henry X of

and his wife, Countess Erdmuthe Benigna of

Solms-Laubach Solms-Laubach was a County of southern Hesse and eastern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The House of SolmsSee German article on the ''House of Solms'' or French article '' Maison de Solms. had its origins in Solms, Hesse. History Solms-Laubach w ...

(1670-1732).

Biography

She had a pietistic upbringing according to the principles

Philip Jacob Spener Philipp Jakob Spener (23 January 1635 – 5 February 1705), was a German Lutheran theologian who essentially founded what would become to be known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, '' ...

. In 1721, at the wedding of her brother, Henry XXIX, she met his friend Count

Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (26 May 1700 – 9 May 1760) was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major fig ...

. Exactly one year later, she married him. The marriage was described as combative, based on a mutual decision to strive for mutual goals, rather than convenience or love. They had twelve children, among them, Count

Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf Imperial Count Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (September 19, 1727 - May 28, 1752) was the charismatic leader of the Single Brethren's Choir of the Moravian Church and of Herrnhaag (The Lord’s Grove), a Christian religious commun ...

. Erdmuthe, who had learned from her mother how to administer a county, took over the business of managing her husband's possessions in

Berthelsdorf Berthelsdorf ( hsb, Batromjecy) is a former municipality in the district of Görlitz, in the southeastern part of Saxony, Germany. On 1 January 2013, it was incorporated into the town of Herrnhut.Herrnhut Herrnhut ( Sorbian: ''Ochranow''; cs, Ochranov) is an Upper Lusatian town in the Görlitz district in Saxony, Germany, known for the community of the Moravian Church established by Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf in 1722. Geography It is ...

. In the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...

, she ran the

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

, in addition to raising her own twelve children. After her husband's first expulsion in 1732, he transferred his possessions to her. She toured several European countries together with her husband and during his eleven years of exile, she administered his assets and managed the Moravian Church. In 1755 her husband returned from exile in London. They had grown apart during his exile, and lived separately after his return: he resided at his castle in Berthelsdorf; she lived in Herrnhut palace. After the death of her last son, Christian Renatus, her health began failing.

Legacy

Erdmuthe Dorothea wrote a number of hymns and initiated the annual publication ''

Daily Watchwords The ''Daily Watchwords'' (german: Herrnhuter Losungen) is an annual, globally distributed publication of the Moravian Church. It was started on 3 May 1728, and is now published in 50 languages, making it the oldest and most widely read daily d ...

''.

References

Bibliography

* Erika Geiger: ''Erdmuth Dorothea Gräfin von Zinzendorf'', SCM Hänssler, 3rd ed., Holzgerlingen, 2009, *

Wilhelm Jannasch Wilhelm Jannasch (8 April 1888, in Gnadenfrei – 6 June 1966, in Frankfurt am Main) was a German Protestant theologian and clergyman. He studied theology at the universities of Marburg, Bonn, Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1913 he was ordained as a ...

: ''Erdmuthe Dorothea Gräfin von Zinzendorf, geborene Gräfin Reuss zu Plauen, ihr Leben als Beitrag zur Geschichte des Pietismus und der Brüdergemeine dargestellt'', Verein für Brüdergeschichte, Herrnhut and Unitätsbuchhandlung, Gnadau; also in: ''Zeitschrift für Brüdergeschichte'', vol. 8, 1914; also: thesis, Heidelberg, 1914 *

External links

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20070607042610/http://www.uni-ulm.de/LiLL/3.0/D/frauen/biografien/Jh18/zinzendorf.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20130127034800/http://ekd.de/aktuell/48974.html
''Die Gräfin in der Republik Gottes''
in: ''Sonntagsblatt'', 18 June 2006 Christian hymnwriters Moravian Church House of Reuss German countesses 1700 births 1756 deaths 18th-century German people {{Germany-countess-stub