Duchess Anna Amalia
Also known as: Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Biography
Anna Amalia, born a princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on 24 October 1739, married Duke Ernst August II. Constantin of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach at sixteen, was widowed at eighteen and governed the duchy as regent for her son Carl August from 1759 until she handed him the government on 3 September 1775. In those years she moved the ducal library into the Rococo Hall in 1766 and called Wieland to Weimar to educate the princes in 1772; after the castle fire of 1774 she made the Wittumspalais her widow's seat and its evening gatherings the meeting place of Goethe, Herder and Wieland, kept a summer court at Ettersburg and, from 1781, at Tiefurt, composed the music to Goethe's Erwin und Elmire in 1776, and spent the years 1788 to 1790 in Rome and Naples. She died in Weimar on 10 April 1807 and lies in the town church; the library has carried her name since 1991.
Wolfenbüttel 1739, Weimar 1756: a duchess at sixteen
Anna Amalia was born in Wolfenbüttel on 24 October 1739, a daughter of Duke Carl of Brunswick. On 16 March 1756, aged sixteen, she was married to Duke Ernst August II. Constantin of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Their first son, Carl August, was born on 3 September 1757; the duke died on 28 May 1758, and their second son, Friedrich Ferdinand Constantin, was born after his father's death, on 8 September 1758.
1759–1775: regent of the duchy
By her husband's will she became sole guardian of her two sons and regent of the land, and from 30 August 1759 she led the government in their name. The duchy came out of the Seven Years' War in debt; with capable advisers she repaired its finances, oversaw her sons' education and promoted the arts. On 3 September 1775, his eighteenth birthday, she handed the government to Carl August, and lived another thirty-two years without an office — the years in which she did the most.
1766 and 1772: the library's Rococo Hall, and Wieland for the princes
In 1766 she decided that the ducal book collection, which went back to Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous's Wittenberg library of 1547, should leave the residence palace for a newly fitted hall — the Rococo Hall of today's Duchess Anna Amalia Library. In 1772 she called the poet Christoph Martin Wieland into the group of the princes' teachers; he arrived in September and stayed for the rest of his life, the first of the writers who made the town's name.
1774: the Wittumspalais and its evening gatherings
After the castle fire of 1774 she acquired the baroque town palace built in 1767–69 for her minister Jakob Friedrich von Fritsch and kept a separate widow's court there until her death. Her famous evening gatherings were held in this house — the Tafelrunde of Goethe, Herder and Wieland — and its rooms are shown today: the Tafelrunde room, the Green Salon, the music room and the banqueting hall with its ceiling paintings. Her son inherited the art and furnishings in 1807.
Ettersburg and Tiefurt from 1781: the summer court
At Ettersburg, the ducal hunting lodge on the north side of the Ettersberg, she gathered a literary and musical circle around herself. After Prince Constantin left Weimar in 1781 she moved her summer seat to Tiefurt, to the tenant's house of the estate in the Ilm valley, continued the laying-out of the park as a sentimental garden and received her guests there away from court ceremony — Goethe, Herder, Wieland and Schiller above all. In 1781 she initiated the Journal von Tiefurt, the circle's handwritten paper, and her own music includes the setting of Goethe's Singspiel Erwin und Elmire of 1776.
1787–1790: Italy
In 1787 she left for Italy and stayed almost two full years, spending 1788 to 1790 in Rome and Naples — an unusual journey for a widowed Protestant princess, made in the years Goethe had just come back from the same road.
10 April 1807: death in Weimar, burial in the town church, the name on the library since 1991
Anna Amalia died in Weimar on 10 April 1807 and was buried, at her own wish, in the town church of St Peter and Paul. The library whose move she decided in 1766 has carried her name since 1991. The Wittumspalais, Am Palais 3, is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 to 16 in winter and 10 to 18 in summer, adults 8 euros; Tiefurt's house and park, Hauptstraße 14, are open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 to 17 in the season, entry free.
Questions visitors ask
- Who was Anna Amalia?
- A princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, born 24 October 1739, who married the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach at sixteen, was widowed at eighteen and governed the duchy as regent from 1759 to 1775 for her son Carl August. She then built the court circle around Wieland, Goethe and Herder that made Weimar's name, and died there on 10 April 1807.
- What did Anna Amalia do for Weimar?
- As regent she repaired the duchy's finances and called Wieland to educate the princes in 1772; in 1766 she moved the ducal library into the Rococo Hall. As a widow she made the Wittumspalais the meeting place of Goethe, Herder and Wieland, kept a summer court at Ettersburg and Tiefurt, and composed.
- Where did Anna Amalia live in Weimar?
- From the castle fire of 1774 until her death in 1807 in the Wittumspalais, the baroque town palace at Am Palais 3, built in 1767–69 for her minister von Fritsch. Her summers she spent at Ettersburg and, from 1781, at Tiefurt.
- Why is the library named after Anna Amalia?
- Because in 1766 she decided that the ducal book collection should move out of the residence palace into the newly fitted Rococo Hall. The collection itself goes back to 1547; the library has carried her name since 1991.
- Where is Anna Amalia buried?
- In the town church of St Peter and Paul in Weimar, the Herderkirche, at her own wish. She died on 10 April 1807.
- Can the Wittumspalais and Tiefurt be visited?
- Yes. The Wittumspalais is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 to 16 in winter and 10 to 18 in summer, adults 8 euros, with the Tafelrunde room, the Green Salon and the music room shown. Tiefurt's house and park are open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 to 17 in the season, entry free.
Notable Works & Achievements
The ducal library's move into the Rococo Hall (1766)
The setting of Goethe's Erwin und Elmire (1776)
The Journal von Tiefurt (from 1781)
Connected Places in Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
The library carries her name because of her decision of 1766 to move the ducal book collection into the Rococo Hall; the name is hers since 1991.
Schloss Belvedere Allee 1, 99425 Weimar
One of the two duchesses who favoured it as a summer residence.
Am Schloß 1, 99439 Ettersburg
She gathered a literary and musical circle around herself here — the court's second address, outside the town.
Schillerstraße 9, 99423 Weimar
The duchess was among the shop's regular customers.
Hauptstraße 14, 99425 Weimar-Tiefurt
Her summer residence from 1781 until her death in 1807, kept for sociability away from court ceremony.
Schillerstraße 16, 99423 Weimar
The Tafelrunde — her round table — is one of the museum's staged scenes.
Wielandplatz, 99423 Weimar
She called him to Weimar in 1772 as tutor to the princes — the fact the monument commemorates.
Am Palais 3, 99423 Weimar
She bought it from her minister after the 1774 fire and lived here until her death in 1807.
Historical Context
Regent until 1775 and then the host of the court's circle: she called Wieland in 1772 and gathered Goethe, Herder and Wieland at the Wittumspalais and Tiefurt.
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
1739
1807
German
On stage
On stage
Walter Hesse
The widowed duchess whose court drew Goethe to Weimar — and the other half of the rumour.
Events
Events
Two days a year — International Women's Day and the Buß- und Bettag
The duchess is one of the three the tours trace through the town.
Historical figures
Historical figures
1757–1828 • duke • grand duke • patron
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.
1777–1848 • actress • singer
It was Anna Amalia who sent her to Mannheim to train under Iffland and Beck.
1742–1827 • lady-in-waiting • author
Taken into the duchess's service as a lady-in-waiting in 1758, at sixteen.
1733–1813 • writer • poet • translator
She called him to Weimar in 1772 to educate her sons, and received him among her guests at Tiefurt.
1744–1834 • poet • translator • tutor at court
Brought to the court in July 1774 as tutor to her second son, Prince Constantin.
1757–1830 • duchess • grand duchess
Her mother-in-law, who moved to the Wittumspalais when the young couple took the Fürstenhaus in 1775 and whose dominance at court left the duchess in the shade.
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.
The regent: widowed in 1758, governing until her son came of age in 1775.
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.
She had just laid down the regency; her court, which had housed Seyler's company until the fire, was the town Goethe walked into.