Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

She was born in Schloss Wolfenbüttel in Wolfenbüttel, the fifth child of thirteen of Karl I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia. Her maternal grandparents were Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. Her niece was Queen Caroline, wife of King George IV. == Education ==

Anna Amalia was well-educated as befitted a princess. She received an education befitting a princess of the high nobility, primarily from the theologians Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem and Matthias Theodor Christoph Mittelstädt. Religious instruction was the most important part of her education and was taught in both German and French. Anna Amalia's upbringing followed the Protestant traditions of the House of Brunswick but also incorporated 'rational' principles of knowledge and confessionally reconciling ideas. She was also taught the history of states, rulers and the imperial constitution, geography and the fine arts, and learned to dance and play the piano. She studied music with Friedrich Gottlob Fleischer and Ernst Wilhelm Wolf. Also her mother Princess Philippine Charlotte was a composer. == Marriage and issue ==

In Brunswick, on 16 March 1756, sixteen-year-old Anna Amalia married eighteen-year-old Ernst August II Konstantin, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach She was pregnant with their other son Prince Constantine, born three months after the father's death. The boy was brought up under the regency and supervision of his mother, a woman of enlightened but masterful temperament. His governor was Count Eustach von Görz, a German nobleman of the old strait-laced school; but a more humane element was introduced into his training when, in 1771, Christoph Martin Wieland was appointed his tutor. In 1774 the poet Karl Ludwig von Knebel came to Weimar as tutor to the young Prince Constantine. and Constantin, by Anna Rosina de Gasc, 1773-1774 == Regency ==

During Karl August's minority she administered the affairs of the duchy with notable prudence, strengthening its resources and improving its position in spite of the troubles of the Seven Years' War. Despite her heavy official responsibilities, she cultivated intellectual interests, especially music. She continued to take lessons in composition and keyboard playing from the leading musician in Weimar. Amalia von Helvig, a German-Swedish artist and writer, later became part of her court. She hired Christoph Martin Wieland, a poet and translator of William Shakespeare, to educate her sons. On 3 September 1775, her son reached his majority, and she retired. Anna Amalia died on 10 April 1807 after a short illness in the Wittum palace in Weimar. Goethe himself wrote an obituary on her death. At her own request, she was buried in the city church of Weimar. Unlike previous dukes, she was not transferred to the Princely Crypt commissioned by her son, Karl August, which was completed in 1828. == Cultural role ==

by Martin Gottlieb Klauer (1780)|left in 1788/1789|left As a patron of the arts, Anna Amalia drew many of the most eminent people in Germany to Weimar. She gathered a group of scholars, poets and musicians, professional and amateur, for lively discussion and music-making at the Wittum palace. In this ‘court of the muses’, as Wilhelm von Bode called it, the members included Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller. She succeeded in engaging Abel Seyler's theatrical company, Anna Amalia herself played a significant part in bringing together the poetry of 'Weimar Classicism'. Johann Adam Hiller's most successful Singspiel, Die Jagd (the score of which is dedicated to the duchess), received its first performance in Weimar in 1770, and Weimar was also the scene of the notable première on 28 May 1773 of the ‘first German opera’, Wieland's Alceste in the setting by Anton Schweitzer. Anna Amalia continued the tradition of the Singspiel in later years with performances in the amateur court theatre of her own compositions to texts by Goethe. She also established the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, which is now home to some 1,000,000 volumes. The duchess was honored in Goethe's work under the title Zum Andenken der Fürstin Anna-Amalia. and parkAnna Amalia lacked the financial means for extensive philanthropic ambitions, as an analysis of her treasury accounts showed. Anna Amalia was 'enlightened' in that she always aimed for external impact, where she appeared informed and up-to-date – to a broad, even non-courtly, audience. As open as she was to new ideas, she remained true to the dynastic mentality in which she had been raised. Even though she was not required to observe any ceremony at her widow's court, she always observed etiquette and proper behavior. Even if court norms sometimes seemed too restrictive to her, she nevertheless mastered the court system of granting and withdrawing favors. She guided her younger son Constantin, who wanted to marry first a German noblewoman and then a French commoner, into the more appropriate paths of social standing. == Music ==

Anna Amalia was a notable composer. The majority of her works belong stylistically to the Empfindsamkeit, in the manner of Hiller and Schweitzer, combining features of song and of arioso. In 2021–2023, further works of Anna Amalia were discovered by the academic Stephen Husarik in the collection of Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Her compositions include: Chamber • Divertimento (clarinet, viola, violoncello, and piano) c. 1780 Harpsichord • sonatas Orchestra • Oratorio (1768) • Sacred Choruses (four voices and orchestra) • Symphony (2 oboes, 2 flutes, 2 violins and double bass) 1765 Vocal • songs == Ancestry ==