Carl August
Also known as: Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Biography
Carl August, born in Weimar on 3 September 1757, was sovereign duke of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from his father's death in 1758, under his mother Anna Amalia's regency until his eighteenth birthday in 1775, and grand duke from 1815 until his death on 14 June 1828. He met Goethe in Frankfurt in December 1774, brought him to Weimar in November 1775, made him a privy councillor in 1776 and gave him the theatre, the palace rebuilding and the parks to run — the decision on which Weimar's classical age rests. He tried to found a league of princes in 1785, served as a Prussian general, joined the Rheinbund after Jena in 1806, came out of the Congress of Vienna a grand duke with a larger land, and gave it the constitution of 5 May 1816. He lies in the Fürstengruft he commissioned, beside Goethe and Schiller.
Weimar, 3 September 1757: a duke at nine months
Carl August was born in Weimar on 3 September 1757, the elder son of Duke Ernst August II. Constantin and Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. His father died on 28 May 1758, and from then on he was sovereign duke in name, with his mother governing as regent; in 1772 she called Christoph Martin Wieland to Weimar as one of his teachers.
3 September 1775: of age and in government; 3 October: married
On his eighteenth birthday, 3 September 1775, he was declared of age and took over the government from his mother. He had become engaged in December 1774 to Princess Luise of Hessen-Darmstadt and married her in Karlsruhe on 3 October 1775.
December 1774, 7 November 1775: Goethe
In December 1774 Karl Ludwig von Knebel, tutor to his younger brother, brought him together with Goethe in Frankfurt; the invitation followed, and Goethe arrived in Weimar on 7 November 1775. In 1776 the duke made him the third member of the privy council against the objections of his ministers, with the sentence that has stood for his rule since: to use a man of genius anywhere but where he can use his extraordinary gifts himself is to misuse him. He gave Goethe the garden house in the park in 1776 and, over the years, real work — the rebuilding of the burnt palace from 1789, the court theatre from 1791, the laying-out of the parks; for himself he had the Roman House built in the park between 1792 and 1797, with Goethe supervising the work.
1785–1806: the league of princes, Prussian general, Jena and the Rheinbund
With the attempt of 1785 to found a league of princes as a counterweight to the Prussian–Austrian dualism he entered imperial politics, and he served as a Prussian general, in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 among others. In October 1806 the French plundered Weimar after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt while he joined Blücher's retreat; in December 1806 he laid down his command and, on 15 December, joined the Rheinbund, Napoleon's confederation, the price of keeping his duchy.
October 1808: host to two emperors
In October 1808 the two most powerful men in Europe were Carl August's guests. While Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I sat with the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine at Erfurt, from 27 September to 14 October, the duke brought them to Weimar, and on 6 October he took them hunting on the Ettersberg, with the King of Saxony and a crowd of German and European dukes, princes and counts in the party. On a clearing in the forest an open pavilion on 26 posts, dressed for the occasion, stood ready for them. The duke did not let the day be forgotten: in 1817 he had a lime tree planted for every post of that pavilion, the 26 Kaiserlinden, and a plain stone cut with nothing but the year 1808 still marks the clearing.
1815–1816: Grand Duke, and the constitution of 5 May 1816
At the Congress of Vienna, with the help of his daughter-in-law Maria Pavlovna, he achieved his elevation to grand duke and a considerable gain of territory — the population rose from about 100,000 to 180,000. He turned the privy council into a ministry of state answerable to the prince, and on 5 May 1816 proclaimed the Grundgesetz über die Landständische Verfassung des Großherzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, the constitution that is counted his most significant act.
1817–1819: the Wartburgfest and the Karlsbad decrees
In 1817 he let the Jena students hold the Wartburgfest, not without misgivings, and in the years after had to enforce the Karlsbad decrees against the very freedoms his constitution had granted — the position of a small liberal state inside a restored Germany.
14 June 1828: death at Graditz, the Fürstengruft
He died on the journey back from Berlin, on 14 June 1828, at the Prussian stud of Graditz near Torgau, and was buried in Weimar's Historic Cemetery in the Fürstengruft — the vault he had commissioned from Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray, built between 1823 and 1828 on the cemetery consecrated in 1818, a principal work of classicist architecture in Thuringia. Its first burial had been the reinterment of the bones ascribed to Schiller on 16 December 1827; on 26 March 1832 Goethe was laid beside that coffin. The vault has belonged to the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble Classical Weimar since 1998; it opens Wednesday to Monday from 10 to 18 in the season, adults 7 euros.
Questions visitors ask
- Who was Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach?
- The duke, from 1815 grand duke, under whose rule Weimar's classical age happened: born 3 September 1757, sovereign from 1758 under his mother Anna Amalia's regency, in government from his eighteenth birthday in 1775, died 14 June 1828. He brought Goethe to Weimar in 1775 and gave the land its constitution in 1816.
- How did Carl August bring Goethe to Weimar?
- Karl Ludwig von Knebel introduced the two in Frankfurt in December 1774; the invitation followed, Goethe arrived on 7 November 1775, and in 1776 the duke made him a privy councillor against his ministers' objections, then gave him the palace rebuilding, the theatre and the parks to run.
- What is the constitution of 1816?
- The Grundgesetz über die Landständische Verfassung des Großherzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, proclaimed by Carl August on 5 May 1816 after the Congress of Vienna had made him a grand duke — counted his most significant act as a ruler.
- Where is Carl August buried?
- In the Fürstengruft on Weimar's Historic Cemetery, the vault he commissioned from Coudray and had built between 1823 and 1828, where Schiller's coffin had been placed in 1827 and Goethe's was placed in 1832. He died at Graditz near Torgau on 14 June 1828.
- What did Carl August build in Weimar?
- The Roman House in the Park an der Ilm, built for him between 1792 and 1797 under Goethe's supervision; the rebuilding of the palace after the fire of 1774, from 1789; the court theatre of 1791 under Goethe's direction; and the Fürstengruft of 1823–1828.
- Can the Fürstengruft be visited?
- Yes. It stands on the Historic Cemetery at the Poseckscher Garten and opens Wednesday to Monday from 10 to 18 in the season, closed in winter; adults 7 euros, reduced 5.
Notable Works & Achievements
The constitution of 5 May 1816
The call of Goethe to Weimar, 1775
The Roman House (1792–1797)
The Fürstengruft (1823–1828)
Connected Places in Weimar
Bad Berka, at the edge of the Kurpark
The duke who ordered a bath built at Berka after the springs were found in 1813 — this is what came of it.
Historischer Friedhof am Poseckschen Garten, 99423 Weimar
He commissioned the vault; Coudray built it for him between 1823 and 1828.
Fürstengraben 26, 07743 Jena
The house was rebuilt for his fiftieth jubilee in office in 1825, recorded on the east gable, and Goethe entertained him here more than once.
Ilm Park, 99425 Weimar
With Goethe he laid the park out from 1776; from 1778 the western slope, and the Borkenhäuschen of that year was his retreat.
Park an der Ilm, 99423 Weimar
They were dug under him, between 1794 and 1796, for a brewery that was never built.
Park an der Ilm, 99423 Weimar
Built for him, and described by the foundation as his favourite residence and his retreat.
Wielandplatz, 99423 Weimar
The bronze was unveiled during the celebrations of his hundredth birthday.
Am Palais 3, 99423 Weimar
Her son inherited the art and the furnishings when she died in 1807.
Historical Context
The period ran under his rule and began with his invitation to Goethe in 1775.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1757
1828
German
Stay and eat nearby
Where to eat
Herderplatz 16, Weimar
The house says the duke lived in this building — it is why the restaurant carries the Jagemann name.
On stage
On stage
The title line — "Die Vulpius hat alles verdorben!" — is the duke's, as the house prints it.
Historical figures
Historical figures
1739–1807 • duchess • regent • patron • composer
Her son, born 3 September 1757, for whom she governed as regent until his eighteenth birthday in 1775, and who inherited her art and furnishings in 1807.
1783–1853 • hereditary prince • grand duke
His father, whose councillors he kept in office in 1828 and whose choice of a middle-German customs league he inherited before joining the Zollverein in 1834.
1777–1848 • actress • singer
He became her lover around 1802, ennobled her as Frau von Heygendorf and gave her an estate.
1733–1813 • writer • poet • translator
His pupil from 1772 to 1775 — the prince he was called to educate, and the duke who later called Goethe.
1775–1845 • architect • Oberbaudirektor
Carl August engaged him as Oberbaudirektor on 20 April 1816 and commissioned the Fürstengruft from him.
1747–1822 • publisher • entrepreneur • court official
His privy secretary from 1775, later legation councillor.
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
He met him in Frankfurt in December 1774, brought him to Weimar in November 1775, made him a privy councillor in 1776 and gave him the palace, the theatre and the parks to run; they lie in the same vault.
1744–1834 • poet • translator • tutor at court
He made the introduction that gave the duke his Goethe; he had come to court as tutor to the duke's brother.
1757–1830 • duchess • grand duchess
She married him in Karlsruhe on 3 October 1775 and was his duchess for fifty-three years; after 1806 he treated her as his closest political confidante.
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
A widow of eighteen took over a bankrupt duchy and ran it for seventeen years — and handed her son a court worth coming to.
Her son, born in September 1757, to whom she handed the government on 3 September 1775.
In December 1774, on a journey to Frankfurt, a tutor at the Weimar court brought the hereditary prince together with a young lawyer who had written a scandalous novel.
He was seventeen, and hiring Goethe is the decision his reign is remembered for.
On 7 November 1775 a carriage from Frankfurt brought the twenty-six-year-old author of Werther into a town of six thousand people. He had come for a short visit; he stayed for the rest of his life.
He invited Goethe twice on the road through Frankfurt in September and October 1775, sent Kalb with the carriage, and kept him with gifts and office.
The duke handed Weimar's most famous writer a theatre to run, and he opened it with a box-office hit by somebody else.
The duke established the court theatre and placed Goethe in charge of it.
From 27 September to 14 October 1808 Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in Erfurt with the princes of the Rhine Confederation — and on 6 October the congress came to Weimar.
Duke Carl August hosted the emperors in Weimar and Jena on 6 and 7 October 1808 and called Goethe to Erfurt for the congress.
The Congress of Vienna made Carl August a grand duke with a larger land in 1815; on 5 May 1816 he gave it the first constitution in Germany after the wars against Napoleon, with an elected Landtag and full freedom of the press.
He came home from Vienna a grand duke in 1815 and proclaimed the constitution on 5 May 1816, the act his reign is counted by.
Around Weimar
South
The duke ordered the sulphur bath at Berka to be built, which is where the spa begins.