The Year of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Auguste von Harrach – “An expression of great modesty” (Part three)

Read part two here.

Suspicion of the new Catholic Princess of Liegnitz ran high in Berlin. Strange rumours began to spread, including one that claimed that Auguste had been sold to the King by her parents.¹ Auguste’s parents also received the displeasure of the public.² It would take some time before Auguste would win the public’s affection.

Meanwhile, Auguste moved into her new residence at the Princesses’ Palace at Unter den Linden. Her apartment was located on the first floor with two rooms overlooking the beautiful street. Auguste was delighted and later wrote to her cousin Mathilde, “How beautiful it is in the afternoon, I cannot describe. I am sitting here in my pleasant little room by the open window, where the sun shines in, and the air is fragrant with hyacinths and a blossoming jasmine tree…”³ While at Charlottenburg Palace, Auguste resided in what is now called the Knobelsdorff wing. One observer wrote, “In the actual royal palace, the former rooms of Frederick the Great are occupied by the Princess of L… Here, too, the greatest simplicity prevails.”⁴

Auguste now needed to navigate her difficult position in the court’s hierarchy. She was the King’s wife, but she was not the Queen. During the celebrations for the Crown Princess’s birthday, Auguste was escorted in with the two youngest princes. One of the pages later reported, “But however proud and elevated she could have felt, quite rightly, as the King’s wife, she showed little sign of it – on the contrary, she displayed an expression of great modesty, coupled with an equally great, but at that moment all too understandable, awkwardness.”⁵ In public, the King’s children ignored her to such an extent that the situation was reported on in diplomatic reports.⁶ The situation in private soon turned much friendlier, and Auguste blamed “false rumours” in a letter to her cousin Clara.⁷ After the King’s daughter Charlotte became Empress of Russia in 1825, she bestowed the Order of St Catherine on Auguste.⁸

Her conversion to protestantism would also have helped her acceptance at court. On 25 March 1826, Auguste’s conversion took place in the chapel of Charlottenburg Palace, with her husband receiving Holy Communion at the same time.⁹

Auguste filled her days with feminine pursuits such as needlework. She was often being read to as she worked, and her projects were often for her husband. She worked together with her cousins, and embroidered squares were sent between Berlin and Dresden.¹⁰ She often attended the theatre with her husband.¹¹ Not long after their marriage, there were rumours of a pregnancy, but the King assured everyone that Auguste was a virgin and that a “pregnancy would never occur.”¹² Auguste took an interest in the children of her relatives. She was much loved by her step-grandchildren, Louise and the future Emperor Frederick III, who were “under her spell” according to their mother.¹³ Their mother also noted how “consumingly she [Auguste] longed for a child.”¹⁴

On 14 December 1826, King Frederick William fell down a short flight of stairs and fractured his tibia and fibula just above the ankle. While this was not life-threatening, he would require a lot of care. Auguste took care of him day and night for the next few weeks. The King later recorded, “When I was ill, she was my nurse, and what a compassionate and tender nurse she was when she considered me seriously ill! […] I myself sometimes told her that I would gladly become ill so that she could care for me, as she would then be far too kind to me.”¹⁵ The court noticed her loving care, and she managed to win the approval of many who had previously looked down on her.¹⁶ One observer wrote, “The Princess of Liegnitz is gaining more and more stability in the royal family, where she initially had to endure great coldness.”¹⁷

Auguste didn’t just care for the King. She was very charitable to institutions for orphans and sick children. She was the patron of the Friedrichstift, which educated 60 children of soldiers, and a children’s hospital in Breslau.¹⁸ The hospital was renamed in her honour. In her will, she named 13 legacies for charitable institutions.¹⁹

Auguste and the King often travelled together, and they usually returned to Teplitz in July or August. Auguste was also able to see her parents again in Teplitz. Even when the King visited military manoeuvres, Auguste came with him. During one of their travels, the King was informed that Auguste’s mother had died. He initially kept the news from her so as not to disrupt the extended family’s meeting. Auguste later wrote, “I was seized with such fear when I saw the King looking so serious  that bad news had come from Dresden, that I wept all day.”²⁰ In 1833, the King met with Emperor Nicholas I, his son-in-law, during their stay in Teplitz.²¹ He was very kind to Auguste, and she would always remember him fondly.²²

Read part four here. 

1. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.51
2. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.52
3. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.54
4. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.55
5. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.56
6. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.57
7. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.65
8. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.66
9. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.71
10. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.73
11. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.79
12. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.84
13. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.84
14. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.84
15. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.90
16. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.91
17. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.91
18. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.104
19. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.105
20. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.110
21. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.111
22. Fürstin von Liegnitz by Paul and Gisela Habermann p.112