Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Marwitz (April 1718 – 16 January 1787), was the royal mistress of

Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (May 10, 1711 in Weferlingen – February 26, 1763 in Bayreuth), was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. He was the eldest son of Georg Frederick Karl, nomin ...

, from the late 1730s until 1744. She was also the host of an influential salon in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in the 1780s.

Life

She was the daughter of the Prussian noble knight Heinrich Karl von der Marwitz, governor of Breslau, and Albertine Eleonore von Wittenhorst (1693-1721). She was employed at the court of Prussia as maid of honour to

Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth Princess Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine of Prussia (3 July 170914 October 1758) was a princess of Prussia (the older sister of Frederick the Great) and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of H ...

, and followed the princess to Bayreuth upon the princess' marriage in 1731. In 1730s, Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, made her his official favorite: is regarded likely that he abused his position and that Wilhelmine Dorothee did not become his mistress voluntarily. In 1744, Wilhelmine arranged her to marry the Austrian count Otto Ludwig Conrad von Burghauß (1713-1795), which required her to leave Bayreuth and settle in Austria, thereby ending her position as favorite. She lived in Budapest and Trieste with her spouse. In 1780, she moved to Vienna, where she hosted an influential and famed literary salon, frequented by

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold ...

Henry Swinburne Henry Swinburne (1743–1803) was an English travel writer. Life He was born at Bristol on 8 July 1743, into a Catholic family, and was educated at Scorton school, near Catterick, Yorkshire. He was then sent to the monastic seminary of La Ce ...

, Graf

Karl von Zinzendorf Count Karl von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (5 January 1739 – 5 January 1813) was a Saxon-Austrian civil servant. He served the government of Austria in a variety of capacities, including as governor of Trieste, and rose to high rank at the ...

and

Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (german: Wenzel Anton Reichsfürst von Kaunitz-Rietberg, cz, Václav Antonín z Kounic a Rietbergu; 2 February 1711 – 27 June 1794) was an Austrian and Czech diplomat and statesman in the Habsburg monarc ...

: she supported the Josephine reforms and acted as benefactor of

Benjamin Thompson Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS (german: Reichsgraf von Rumford; March 26, 1753August 21, 1814) was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolut ...

and Johann Hunczowski.

References

* Karl Graf von Zinzendorf: Wien von Maria Theresia bis zur Franzosenzeit: aus den Tagebüchern des Grafen Karl von Zinzendorf. Wiener Bibliophilen Ges., 1972, S. 167. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marwitz, Wilhelmine Dorothee von der Mistresses of German royalty 1718 births 1787 deaths Austrian salon-holders Wilhelmine Dorothee