George Frederick Charles, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

Georg Frederick Karl, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (b. Schloss Oberzulzbürg, 30 June 1688 - d. Bayreuth, 17 May 1735), was a German prince member of the House of Hohenzollern, nominal Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach (1708-35) and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1726-35).

Family

He was the eldest of the fourteen children born to Margrave Christian Heinrich of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach by wis wife, Countess Sophie Christiane of Wolfstein. Besides him, only six of his siblings survive adulthood: Albrecht Wolfgang -who was killed in action in 1734-; Dorothea Charlotte, Countess of Hohenlohe-Weikersheim -who died in 1712 after only seven months of marriage-; Sophie Magdalene, Queen of Denmark; Frederick Ernst; Sophie Caroline, Princess of Ostfriesland; and Frederick Christian, who later inherited Bayreuth.

Life

During his first years, Georg Frederick Karl was instructed by his very religious mother, and later received a careful formal education in Bielefeld. From 1700 to 1704 he travel to the Western Europe in the traditional educational journey (Grand Tour), and visit, among others countries, Denmark, France and Holland. Later, he studied four years at the University of Utrecht. After the death of his father in 1708 he returned with his family -who lived since 1704 in the Schloss Weferlingen near Magdeburg- and assumed the nominal title of "Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach".

The Schloss Weferlingen had been assigned to his family as an appanage by King Frederick I of Prussia, after the completely indebted Georg Frederick Karl's father had renounced in the Contract of Schönberg to his succession rights over the Franconian estates of the Hohenzollern (Bayreuth and Ansbach) in favour of Prussia. However, Georg Frederick Karl tried to recovered his rights after the death of his father and pursued the abolition of this contract. Besides, he got with the support of the Franconian states, which feared to be merged on the Franconian Circle by Prussia. Also, Georg Frederick Karl had with the decisive help of the Archbishop of Mainz and Prince-Bishop of Bamberger Lothar Franz von Schönborn and his nephew, the Imperial Vice-Chancellor (German: "Reichsvizekanzler") Frederick Karl von Schönborn, who support the abolition of the Contract of Schönberg. However, this succeeded finally only in 1722 after long and difficult discussions and the pay of substantial financial loads for him to Prussia.

When the Margrave Georg Wilhelm died in 1726 without surviving male issue, finally, Georg Frederick Karl could take the succession of the Principality of Bayreuth without bigger difficulties.

After his government assumption he put big value on the improvement of the wrecked finances and concentrated, first of all, upon the local government. However, in contrast to many of his ruling contemporaries he didn't had any political or military ambitions. Instead he took care as an engaged Pietism and supporter intensely August Hermann Francke in the importance of the religious life. Remarkable is his application for the promotion of school and social building (e.g., orphanages).

The Schloss had surely come down as a result of his savings will. The court society appeared rather joyless to him. In his last years he developed the Schloss Himmelkron, a former monastery, and probably planned also to withdraw there.

However, in the memoirs of his daughter-in-law Wilhelmine of Prussia he is described in a totally different way: a thin, bandy-legged, egoistically, wrongly, jealously and booting up person. The antipathy was mutuality. The Margrave harassed his daughter-in-law almost just like it her parents had always done. First he subordinated of the pregnant Hereditary Margravine only to pretend this to stand to himself in the center. When Wilhelmine gave birth a daughter, this disappeared the hopes of Georg Frederick Karl, who, according to the marriage contract of his son Frederick, must take of the education of the child only if he was a son. Frederick support his wife and the drunk margrave hit him with his stick but didn't hurt. Finally, both fought like drayman before were separated.

Marriage and Issue

In Reinfeld on 17 April 1709 Georg Frederick Karl married with Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck. They had five children:

#Sophie Christiane Luise (b. Weferlingen, 4 January 1710 - d. Brussels, 13 June 1739), married on 11 April 1731 to Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Thurn-Taxis.
#Frederick (b. Weferlingen, 10 May 1711 - d. Bayreuth, 26 February 1763), succesor of his father as Margrave of Bayreuth.
#Wilhelm Ernst (b. Weferlingen, 26 July 1712 - d. Mantua, 7 November 1733).
#Sophie Charlotte Albertine (b. Weferlingen, 27 July 1713 - d. Ilmenau, 2 March 1747), married on 7 April 1734 to Duke Ernst August I of Saxe-Weimar.
#Sophie Wilhelmine (b. Weferlingen, 8 July 1714 - d. Aurich, 7 September 1749), married on 25 May 1734 to Prince Karl Edzard of Ostfriesland. After seven years of unhappy marriage, Georg Frederick Karl and Dorothea became separated in 1716. Eight years later (1724), their marriage was formally dissolved. Dorothea later emigrated to Sweden, were she died in 1761, twenty-years after her former husband. None of them remarried.