1.
Saxe-Weimar
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Saxe-Weimar was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar, the Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant branch of the House of Wettin. In the late 15th century much of what is now Thuringia, nevertheless, according to the 1552 Peace of Passau he was pardoned and allowed to retain his lands in Thuringia. Upon his death in 1554, his son John Frederick II succeeded him as Duke of Saxony, residing at Gotha. John Frederick II was succeeded by his younger brother John William at Weimar, in 1572 Maximilian II enforced the Division of Erfurt, whereby the Ernestine lands were divided among Duke John William and the two surviving sons of imprisoned John Frederick II. John William retained the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, while his minor nephews received the southern and western territories around Coburg, as a result, the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar shrank and grew more than once. The Thuringian states throughout this period consisted of several non-contiguous parcels of territory of various sizes. Facing their lack of power, the rulers of these petty states built up splendid monarchical households at their residences. Duke John William, chafing under the loss, died in 1573, upon his death in 1602 Saxe-Weimar was again divided among his younger brother John II and Frederick Williams minor son John Philipp, who received the territory of Saxe-Altenburg. Johns son Duke Johann Ernst I of Saxe-Weimar on occasion of the burial of his mother Dorothea Maria of Anhalt in 1617 established the literary Fruitbearing Society. Stripped of his title by Emperor Ferdinand II, he remained an opponent of the Catholic Habsburg dynasty. His younger brother Wilhelm, regent since 1620, assumed the dignities upon his death, nevertheless, like many German estates, the Weimar lands were devastated by combat actions as well as by plague epidemics. When in 1638 the Ernestine Saxe-Eisenach and Saxe-Coburg branch became extinct upon the death of Duke John Ernest, upon the death of John Georges descendant Wilhelm Heinrich in 1741, Duke Ernest Augustus I of Saxe-Weimar also inherited the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach. He then ruled both duchies in personal union and decisively forwarded the development of his estates by the implementation of the primogeniture principle. The regency of energetic Anna Amalia and the reign of Charles Augustus, in 1804 Duke Charles Augustus entered into European politics by marrying his son and heir Charles Frederick to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, sister of Emperor Alexander I of Russia. In 1809 Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been united only in the person of the duke, were merged into the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Saxe-Weimar, The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Columbia University Press, accessed December 22,2005 German genealogies Genealogy of Dukes of Saxe-Weimar
2.
Weimar
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Weimar is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately 80 kilometres southwest of Leipzig,170 kilometres north of Nuremberg and 170 kilometres west of Dresden. Together with the neighbour-cities Erfurt and Jena it forms the metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants. Weimar is well known because of its cultural heritage and its importance in German history. The city was a point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading characters of the literary genre of Weimar Classicism. Until 1948, Weimar was the capital of Thuringia, today, many places in the city centre have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites and tourism is one of the leading economic sectors of Weimar. Relevant institutions in Weimar are the Bauhaus University, the Liszt School of Music, in 1999, Weimar was the European Capital of Culture. Archaeological finds dating back to the Thuringii epoch show that the Weimar part of the Ilm valley was settled early, the oldest records regarding Weimar date to 899. Its name changed over the centuries from Wimares through Wimari to Wimar and finally Weimar, it is derived from Old High German wīh-, another theory derives the first element from OHG win. The place was the seat of the County of Weimar, first mentioned in 949, in 1062 it was united with the County of Orlamünde to the new County of Weimar-Orlamünde, which existed until the Thuringian Counts War in 1346 and fell to the Wettins afterwards. The Weimar settlement emerged around the wooden castle and two small churches dedicated to St Peter, and to St James. In 1240, the count founded the monastery in Oberweimar. Soon after, the counts of Weimar founded the town, which was an independent parish since 1249, from 1262 the citizens used their own seal. Nevertheless, the influence of the Weimar counts was declining as the influence of the Wettins in Thuringia increased. Hence, the new town was relatively marginal in a regional context. The settlement around St James Church developed into a suburb during the 13th century, after becoming part of the Wettins territory in 1346, urban development improved. The Wettins fostered Weimar by abolishing socage and granting privileges to the citizens, now Weimar became equal to other Wettinian cities like Weißensee and grew during the 15th century, with the establishment of a town hall and the current main church. Weimar acquired woad trade privileges in 1438, the castle and the walls were finished in the 16th century, making Weimar into a full city
3.
Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
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He is noted for the intellectual brilliance of his court. Born in Weimar, he was the eldest son of Ernst August II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach and his father died when he was only nine months old, and the boy was brought up under the regency and supervision of his mother. His governor was the Count Johann Eustach von Görtz and in 1771, at Frankfurt, Knebel introduced Karl August to the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In Karlsruhe on 3 October 1775, after he returned to Weimar and assumed the government of his duchy, Karl August married Luise Auguste, daughter of Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. One of the first acts of the duke was to summon Goethe to Weimar. “People of discernment, ” the duke said, “congratulate me on possessing this man and his intellect, his genius is known. ”The Weimaraner, a breed of gun dog is said to have been developed by August and his court for hunting. Karl August was also interested in literature, in art, in science, funding Goethe, critics praised his judgment in painting, biologists found in him an expert in anatomy. To this end Herder was summoned to Weimar to reform the educational system, Weimar became the intellectual centre of Germany. Meanwhile, in the affairs of Germany and of Europe the character of Karl August gave him an out of all proportion to his position as a sovereign prince. He had early faced the problem presented by the decay of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1788 Karl August took service in the Prussian army as major-general in active command of a regiment. As such he was present, with Goethe, at the Battle of Valmy in 1792, and in 1794 at the Siege of Mainz and the Battle of Pirmasenz and Kaiserslautern. After this, dissatisfied with the attitude of the powers, he resigned, the disastrous campaign of Jena followed. On 14 October, the day after the battle, Weimar was sacked, from this time till after the Moscow campaign of 1812 his contingent fought on the French side in all Napoleons wars. In 1813, however, he joined the Sixth Coalition, the grand duke was compelled to yield to the remonstrances of Prussia, Austria and Russia. Karl August died at Graditz, near Torgau, in 1828 and he was inspired by the noblest good-will, the purest humanity, and with his whole soul desired only what was best. There was in him something of the divine and he would gladly have wrought the happiness of all mankind. And finally, he was greater than his surroundings, everywhere he himself saw and judged, and in all circumstances his surest foundation was in himself. ”Karl Augusts correspondence with Goethe was published in 2 vols. at Weimar in 1863. Bernhards son, William Augustus Edward, known as Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, entered the British army, Karl August and Luise Auguste had seven children, Luise Auguste Amalie
4.
Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia
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Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia was a Duchess consort of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by marriage to Charles I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and a known intellectual in contemporary Germany. Philippine Charlotte was the child and third daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia. On 2 July 1733 in Berlin, Princess Philippine Charlotte married Duke Charles of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest son of Ferdinand Albert II, Charles inherited the dukedom on his fathers death in 1735, making her Duchess consort. The family ties of the two dynasties resulted the alliance of Brunswick and Prussia in the Seven Years War, and the career of Philippines sons in the Prussian service, Philippine Charlotte was described as subtle, highly educated and a child of the enlightenment. She worked independently of an extract of the writings of Christian von Wolff in French. The Duchess pursued, partly because of the influence of the ducal adviser Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem and she appreciated the poet Salomon Gessner and maintained a personal relationship Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The dramatist Lessing were also among her circle, in 1773, Charles I was obliged to make his son regent, and in 1780, he died, and was succeeded by her son. The Swedish Princess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte described her, as well as her family, at the time of a visit in August,1799, Our cousin, after he left us, I visited the Dowager Duchess, the aunt of my consort. She is an agreeable, highly educated and well respected lady, Philippine Charlotte left to the Wolfenbüttel Library her own collection of 4,000 volumes. Media related to Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Frederick William I of Prussia
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Frederick William I, known as the Soldier King, was the King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death, as well as the father of Frederick the Great. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel and he was born in Berlin to Frederick I of Prussia and Sophia Charlotte of Hanover. During his first years, he was raised by the Huguenot governess Marthe de Roucoulle and his father had successfully acquired the title King for the margraves of Brandenburg. During his own reign, Frederick William I did much to centralize and he replaced mandatory military service among the middle class with an annual tax, established schools and hospitals, and resettled East Prussia. The king encouraged farming, reclaimed marshes, stored grain in good times, in short, Frederick William I concerned himself with every aspect of his relatively small country, planning to satisfy all that was needed for Prussia to defend itself. His rule was absolutist and he was a firm autocrat and he practiced rigid, frugal economy, never started a war, and led a simple and austere lifestyle, in contrast to the lavish court his father had presided over. At his death, there was a surplus in the royal treasury. He intervened briefly in the Great Northern War in order to gain a portion of Swedish Pomerania, Frederick Williams reforms left his son Frederick with the most formidable army in Europe, which Frederick used to increase Prussias power. The observation that the pen is mightier than the sword has sometimes been attributed to him, although a highly effective ruler, Frederick William had a perpetually short temper which sometimes drove him to physically attack servants at the slightest provocation. His violent nature was further exacerbated by his inherited porphyritic illness, Frederick William died in 1740 at age 51 and was interred at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. The coffins were discovered by occupying American Forces, who re-interred the bodies in St. Elisabeths Church in Marburg in 1946. The original black marble sarcophagus collapsed at Burg Hohenzollern—the current one is a copper copy and his eldest surviving son was Frederick II, born in 1712. Frederick William wanted him to become a fine soldier, as a small child, Fritz was awakened each morning by the firing of a cannon. At the age of 6, he was given his own regiment of children to drill as cadets, the love and affection Frederick William had for his heir initially was soon destroyed due to their increasingly different personalities. Frederick William ordered Fritz to undergo an education, live a simple Protestant lifestyle. However, the intellectual Fritz was more interested in music, books and French culture, as Fritzs defiance for his fathers rules increased, Frederick William would frequently beat or humiliate Fritz. Fritz was beaten for being thrown off a horse and wearing gloves in cold weather. After the prince attempted to flee to England with his tutor, Hans Hermann von Katte, the enraged King had Katte beheaded before the eyes of the prince, the court declared itself not competent in this case
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Anna Amalia". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 59. This cites F. Bornhak, Anna Amalia Herzogin von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Berlin. 1892).
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 
