Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau

Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau (b. Dessau, 7 December 1720 - d. Dessau, 5 December 1793), was a German Princess member of the House of Ascania in the branch of Anhalt-Dessau.

She was the fifth but fourth -and youngest- surviving daughter of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau called the "Old Dessauer" (der alte Dessauer) by his morganatic wife Anna Louise Föse, created Imperial Princess of Anhalt in 1701.

Life

In 1741 the twenty-one-years-old Henriette Amalie gave birth an illegitimate son; the father was the son of the Hunting stuff master. When she refused to marry him, she was banished from the Dessau court. During the next eleven years she lived as a nun in Herford. Later her father (who himself had two illegitimate children) tried to find a propper husband to her, but all the marriage plans failed. In the meanwhile, she oppenly lived with the Baron of Rackmann, who was fifteen years her junior. Thanks for her interference, he was raised to the rank of Imperial Count and Baron of Bangert.

Probably to be near of her son -who had been put under the care of banker's family-, Henriette Amalie acquired first a big house in Bockenheim (Frankfurt am Main) who was later named "Villa Passavant", then the former Franck-school and, finally, the current Saint Elisabeth's hospital were established.

In 1753 the Princess acquired a property to which a house of a person of high standing and an Orangery belonged. She was allowed to pursue an extensive agriculture land and soon became by purchase all big goods at were near to her biggest estate. She introduced the Silkworm ("Bombyx mori") breeding, held bees and sold oranges from her own residence. Also, she fomented the asparagus culture and plantations for her vegetables and fruits as well for her silkworms.

In Kreuznach she acquired the feudal estate (German: "Rittergut") of Bangert and establish there a small castle (today public park museum) in the classicistic style instead of the old manor house which was completed about 1775.

The Princess managed her extended propertis herself, and also she was an enthusiastic farmer, openly for reforms and precisely in the bookkeeping. By economic businesses and financial foresight she created to herself the basis for an independent and free life. She was said been five times richer than the richest farmer at that place. With her property she supported numerous artists, while she acquired her works.

In 1771 she extended her country house by annexes to the castle. In the "Galerie" in the first floor of the remodelated castle approximately 700 art works found a place. Near the castle a "Marmolbad" was created. During this time her son died, with approx. thirty years, victim of consumption.

In 1790 she acquired a representative Frankfurt townhouse in the big Eschenheimer alley.

When in 1792 the French revolutionary troops moved nearer, Henriette Amalie fled to her native Dessau and moved to the "Palais Dietrich" (named after his former owner, her brother Dietrich, who had died in 1769).

One year later Henriette Amalie died, two days before her seventy-three birthday. She was buried in Dessau without the presence of any member of her family.