Princess Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau (7 December 17205 December 1793) was the fifth (fourth surviving) and youngest daughter of

Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (3 July 1676 – 7 April 1747) was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Dessau from 1693 to 1747. He was also a ''Generalfeldmarschall'' in the Prussian army. Nickname ...

, by his morganatic wife,

Anna Louise Föhse Anna Louise Föhse, Princess of the Holy Roman Empire (22 March 1677 in Dessau – 5 February 1745) was a German imperial princess. Born as a commoner to Rudolf Föhse (d. 1698), the court pharmacist in Dessau, and his wife, Agnes Ohme (d. 170 ...

Life

In 1741 the 21-year-old princess Henriette Amalie gave birth to an extramarital son. When she refused to marry the father – the son of a court retainer – she was banished from the Dessau court. During the next eleven years she lived as a nun in

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford (district), Herford. Geography ...

. Later her father (who had himself fathered two illegitimate children) tried to find a suitable husband for her, but all marriage plans failed. In the meanwhile, she lived openly with the Baron of Rackmann, who was fifteen years her junior. Thanks to her intervention, he was raised to the rank of

Imperial Count Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...

and Baron of Bangert. Probably to be near her son (who had been placed in the care of a banker's family), Henriette Amalie acquired a large house in Bockenheim, later named the "Villa Passavant," then built the former Franck-school and finally the current Saint Elisabeth's hospital. In 1753 the princess acquired a property with a house and

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...

attached. She pursued extensive agriculture activities and made the estate virtually self-sufficient. She introduced silkworm (

Bombyx mori The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

) breeding, kept bees, and sold oranges from her own residence. Also, she fostered the cultivation of asparagus and the growing of other fruits and vegetables. In

Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in th ...

she acquired the feudal estate (german:

Rittergut Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes forti ...

) of Bangert and established there a small castle (today a public museum) in the classicist style to replace the old manor house; it was completed about 1775. The princess managed her extended properties herself and was also an enthusiastic farmer. Her financial acumen became the basis for an independent and free life. She was said to have been five times richer than the richest farmer in that region. With her wealth, she supported numerous artists. In 1771 she extended her country house with annexes to the castle. Approximately 700 works of art were exhibited in the "Galerie" of the first floor of the remodeled castle. Near the castle, a "Marmorbad" was created. Around this time her son died at approximately 30 years of age, a victim of consumption. In 1790 she acquired a Frankfurt townhouse in Eschenheimer lane. When French revolutionary troops moved approached Frankfurt in 1792, Henriette Amalie fled to her native

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 ...

and moved into the "Palais Dietrich" (named after its former owner, her brother Dietrich, who had died in 1769). Henriette Amalie herself died one year later, two days before her seventy-third birthday. She was buried in Dessau without any of her family members at her funeral.

Literature

*Walther Schmidt: ''Prinzessin Henriette Amalie von Anhalt-Dessau. Die Begründerin der Fürstlichen Amalienstiftung in Dessau''. Funk Verlag Bernhard Hein, Dessau 2009, {{DEFAULTSORT:Anhalt-Dessau, Henriette Amalie Of 1720 births 1793 deaths Henriette Amalie People from Anhalt-Dessau Henriette Amalie Daughters of monarchs