Louis Günther II of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (also known as ''Louis Günther IV''), (22 October 1708 in

Rudolstadt Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, with the Thuringian Forest to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north. The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide va ...

– 29 August 1790, Rudolstadt) was the ruling prince of

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany, with its capital at Rudolstadt. History Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty lands. Since th ...

from 1767 until his death.

Life

Louis Günther II of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was the youngest son of Prince Louis Frederick I of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and his wife

Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Duchess Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (22 December 1670 – 28 December 1728) was a princess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Duchess in Saxony by birth, and by marriage a Princess of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Ancestry She was the daughter of Frede ...

. Prince Louis Günther grew up as the thirteenth and youngest child, among seven sisters and three brothers in Rudolstadt (two sisters had already died before he was born). In his youth, Louis Günther traveled to Italy. In this way, the Prince could marvel at the artistic heritage of Italy. He also took a job as

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

from 1726 to 1731 a Colonel Agent in Milan. Between 1722 and 1731, he visited Rudolstadt only twice. His military career was ended by problems with his ear. In 1767, Louis Günther inherited the principality of

at the age of 59. Most government business was transacted by his Chancellor, Christian Ulrich von Ketelholdt, with whom he had a good working relationship. One might say that the Chancellor was

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

. The prince had various occupations; among other things, he was very enthusiastic about horses. In 1784, Louis Günther granted a trade

concession Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...

to three

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish families from

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 ...

, thus creating the bases for the Jewish community in Rudolstadt. When he was born, Louis Günther II was fourth in the line of succession. By 1726, two of his elder brothers had died and he had moved up to the second place. Between 1734 and 1741, a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

palace named Ludwigsburg Castle was built for him below

Heidecksburg Heidecksburg is a Baroque palace in Rudolstadt, Thuringia, and served as the residence of the princes to Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. It is located prominently approximately 60 m above the old town. After a fire in 1735 and its reconstruction, it has ...

Castle. After his nephew, Prince John Frederick had died in 1767, he moved up from Ludwigsburg Castle to Heidecksburg Castle. After he left, Ludwigburg palace served as a princely art school and it housed the natural history collection owned by Hereditary Prince Frederick Charles and Louis Günther's collection of coins, which he had started in 1738. His mother, who owned collection of rarities herself, had aroused his passion for collecting. He had been shown the coin collection of his uncle, Duke Frederick II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg during a visit to Gotha. This collection, which had been extended in 1712 by purchasing the collection of Prince Anton Günther II was among the most important coin collections in the 18th century and included a separate collection of over 600 medieval

bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...

s. Louis Günther moved his coin collection to the Heidecksburg Castle and further extended it by purchases. In 1776, he archived his collection. However, his successors had little interest in the collection and sold off some of it. By 1919, 1,710 pieces were left; they are now part of a collection of 5,000 coins still housed in Heidecksburg Castle. In 1778, Louis Günther II established a court library in the west wing of Heidecksburg Castle, thereby laying the foundation for the Palace Library which today contains approximately 7,000 volumes. In addition to folios Louis Günther II had brought with him from Italy, he also purchased works of art by renowned artists. The scholar

Friedrich Karl Gottlob Hirsching Friedrich may refer to: Names * Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' * Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other * Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Year ...

points out in his ''Descriptions of German Libraries worth seeing" of 1786 that ''The Prince has enriched his library with a tasteful collection of several thousands of engravings, among them some by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...

.Thüringer Landesmuseum in Heidecksburg - Graphiscal Collection
viewed on 9 October 2011 Louis Günther II died on 29 August 1790 and was succeeded as ruling Prince by his son Frederick Charles.

Marriage and issue

Louis Günther II married on 22 October 1733 in

Greiz Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river ''White Elster''. Greiz has a large park in its center (Fürstl ...

to Countess Sophie Henrietta

Reuss Reuss may refer to: *Reuss (surname) *Reuss (river) in Switzerland *Reuss (state) or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the Republic of Reuss *Reuss Elder Line and Reuss Younger Line (House of Reuss), members incl ...

-Untergreiz (1711-1771). They had four children: * Friederike Sophie (1734-1734) * Christiane Friederike (1735-1738) * Frederick Charles (1736-1793), his successor * Christian Ernst (1739-1739)

References

* ''Die Fürsten von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt'', Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg, Rudolstadt, 1997 (3rd ed., 2001), * Johann Christian August Junghans: ''Geschichte der schwarzburgischen Regenten'', Leipzig, 1821
Online
* Heinrich Friedrich Theodor Apfelstedt: ''Das Haus Kevernburg-Schwarzburg von seinem Ursprunge bis auf unsere Zeit: dargestellt in den Stammtafeln seiner Haupt- und Nebenlinien und mit biographischen Notizen über die wichtigsten Glieder derselben'', Bertram, Sondershausen, 1890,

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis Gunther 02 Schwarzburg Rudolstadt House of Schwarzburg Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt 1708 births 1790 deaths 18th-century German people