Maria Pavlovna (1786-1859)

Maria Pavlovna was born on February 4 (15), 1786 and was the fifth child and third daughter in the family of the Crown Prince, later Emperor Paul and Maria Fedorovna .

She was brought up in a parental home with her sisters, but already in early childhood she was different from them in her playfulness and “boyish” habits. “This one had to be born a boy ... she is a real dragoon,” Empress Catherine II wrote about her granddaughter, “she’s not afraid of anything, all her inclinations and games are male; I don’t know what will come of it. Her favorite pose is to push both sides with her fists, and so she paces. ” As a child, Maria was ill with smallpox , which left marks on her face. Catherine II noted this circumstance in a letter: "... my third granddaughter is unrecognizable: she was good as an angel before vaccination, now all her features were rude, and at that moment she was far from good." But with age she became so prettier that she was called the "pearl of the family." Maria Pavlovna was the favorite of her father, who distinguished her for her firmness, will, direct and sincere behavior. In addition, Maria Pavlovna early showed a craving for serious pursuits and outstanding musical abilities. In April 1795, Catherine wrote: “... Sarti (Italian composer and conductor Giuseppe Sarti) says that she has a wonderful musical talent, and in addition, she is very smart, has the ability to do everything and will eventually be a reasonable girl. She loves reading and, according to Generals Lieven, spends whole hours reading a book ... Moreover, she is very cheerful, lively and dancing like an angel. ”

In 1799, the two eldest daughters, Alexandra and Elena , were married. It was time to decide on the fate of the next princess - Mary. And already in 1800 , when she was only fourteen years old, the question arose about her possible marriage with the eldest son of the sovereign duke of the Saxe-Weimar duchy. On July 22, 1803, Crown Prince Karl Friedrich arrived in Petersburg ; he lived in Russia for almost a year. During this time, he and Maria Pavlovna could thoroughly get to know each other, to better study the characters, tastes, habits of each other. This long acquaintance played a positive role for the future family union of Karl Friedrich and Maria Pavlovna.

On July 23, 1804, in St. Petersburg, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna married the crown prince of Saxe-Weimar Karl Friedrich (1783–1853), son of the Grand Duke Karl August and Princess Louise-Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt (1757–1830) ^[1] , the cousin’s nephew Natalia Alekseevna (the first wife of the father of Maria Pavlovna - Emperor Paul I ) and cousin of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna . The spouses were each other a cousin and sister (they were great-great-grandchildren of the Prussian king Frederick William I and his wife Sofia Dorothea of ​​Hanover ).

Maria Pavlovna and Karl Friedrich had two sons and two daughters:

• Pavel Alexander ( 1805 - 1806 ), the firstborn, named after the father and brother of Alexander I , died in childhood.
• Maria Louise ( 1808 - 1877 ), wife of Prince Karl of Prussia ;
• Augustus ( 1811 - 1890 ), the German Empress and Queen of Prussia, wife of William I ;
• Karl Alexander ( 1818 - 1901 ), the next Grand Duke of Weimar (married his cousin Wilhelmina Sophia , daughter of the Dutch king Willem II and Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna ).

Thus, Maria Pavlovna was the grandmother of Kaiser Frederick III and great-grandmother of William II .

The young couple was still spending their honeymoon in Pavlovsk, and letters were already being sent from Weimar asking them to expedite the arrival of the prince and his wife. The young duchess was eagerly awaited. Friedrich Schiller wrote to his friend Volzogen: "... We are all anxiously awaiting the appearance of a new star from the East." Goethe, as the director of the Weimar theater, turned to him to write a theatrical play to greet Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. For four days, Schiller created The Greetings of the Arts in honor of the young wife of the Crown Prince. On the title page it was written: "It is respectfully devoted to Her Imperial Highness Maria Pavlovna, Crown Princess of Weimar, Grand Duchess of Russia." The performance took place at the Royal Weimar Theater on November 12, 1804 . The whole content of the small play was that the villagers planted an alien noble tree - orange, “so that it could become related to our land”, emphasizing the connection of the foreign princess with her new homeland.

Another country’s tree,
Transplanted by us
Grow up, take root
In this soil we are dear!

This work, which Schiller himself called the “work of the minute”, was his last finished work. The young Crown Princess was touched by such a technique to tears.

Maria Pavlovna made the most favorable impression on Weimar society. Wieland wrote to his friend:

She is inexpressibly charming and knows how to combine inborn greatness with unusual courtesy, delicacy and tact in handling. She is fluent in possessive behavior. One cannot but be surprised at how she, in the very first hours after her arrival, when the courtiers were introduced to her, tactfully treated each of them ... With her, a new era of Weimar will probably begin. She ... will extend and bring to perfection what Amalia began forty years ago.

Cultural Activities

Gifted with a natural mind, and, according to Schiller , with “great abilities for painting and music and a true love of reading,” Maria Pavlovna in the early years of her marriage replenished her education with conversations with prominent people and lessons from professors at Jena University . Under the guidance of Professor Kerstner, she seriously took up logic, history, and philosophy. Since 1837 he read books to her and gave reviews by the theologian and archaeologist S.K. Sabinin . When her husband became the Grand Duke, Maria Pavlovna took over the patronage of science and the arts, and to some extent she rewarded the poets and artists of Germany for the loss they suffered in the person of her famous father-in-law. The works of Maria Pavlovna created an unusual museum dedicated to the memory of Goethe , Schiller, Christoph Martin Wieland and Herder, who glorified Weimar with his literary work. In the new building, which was attached by the architect Kudre to the old palace, chambers were allocated, called Dichtersale - “Halls of poets”. Each of the chambers was dedicated to one of the four poets. And on the stairs leading to these rooms were busts of people who at one time contributed to the glory of Weimar: artist Lucas Cranach , composer Johann Sebastian Bach, conductor Johann Hummel . In 1842, the first idea came to her to attract Liszt to Weimar, which again raised the glory of a small town. Goethe, who was one of the friends of Maria Pavlovna, called her one of the best and most outstanding women of our time. Having already ascended the ducal throne, she was organizing literary evenings at the court (it was the famous “Weimar circle” throughout Europe), at which the Jena professors gave lectures, usually Maria Pavlovna herself chose the topic of reading. The Duchess encouraged the study of the history of the Duchy of Weimar and its principalities. Subsequently, the accumulated materials made it possible to establish the Society of History in 1852 .

With the support of Maria Pavlovna, the most modern astronomical instruments, physical instruments and chemical preparations were acquired for the university in Jena, and collections were replenished. One of them - a collection of oriental coins - owes its wealth exclusively to the acquisitions of the Duchess. The collection of geographical maps, manuscripts, seals, archaeological finds has been replenished. Maria Pavlovna expanded the Weimar Library, founded by the Duchess Anna Amalia . In 1831, with the assistance of Goethe and Mayer, Maria Pavlovna founded the Society for the Distribution of the Best Works of New German Literature.

Maria Pavlovna facilitated the opening of a gardening school, supported the laying of new parks and gardens. The Duchess donated considerable sums for planting plantings along the roads. Test scientist Alexander Humboldt brought from Brazil seeds of an unknown plant in Europe as a gift to Maria Pavlovna, who gave the Latin name Paulovnia Imperialis. Under Maria Pavlovna, new gardening ideas began to appear in the ducal park: the "Russian Garden", "the theater in nature."

Years of war with Napoleon

Twice the Grand Duchess was forced to leave Weimar for a long time. In the fall of 1806, in connection with the advancement of the French army, she moved to Schleswig for several months. In April 1813, Weimar again hastily left, so as not to fall into the hands of the Napoleonic detachments that occupied some German cities. This time she went to Austria under the protection of the Russian army. In 1814 - 1815, together with her father-in-law, who received the title of Grand Duke, and brother Alexander I, Maria Pavlovna participated in the Vienna Congress, which brought together the heads of European principalities and prominent statesmen.

Charity

After the end of the war with Napoleon, after a long time of disasters, it was necessary to restore normal life in Weimar. Seeing before my eyes the example of a mother who founded a whole network of charitable institutions, Maria Pavlovna also began to establish similar departments. Loan funds for "helping the poor" began to be created, work houses for adults, various craft schools appeared. Maria Pavlovna created the Women's Charity Society and wrote its charter. These committees organized donations for maternity wards at hospitals to care for poor women, provided free medical care at home, provided the poor with medicines, and organized social nurseries.

Recent years

Despite worries in Weimar, Maria Pavlovna tried to maintain relations with the imperial family and Russia. After the early death of the older brothers Alexander I and the sisters Alexandra and Elena, Maria Pavlovna became the oldest in the family. The younger brothers Nicholas I and Mikhail Pavlovich remained in St. Petersburg, but both of them were children when she left Russia, and neither shared childhood memories nor games connected with them. Nikolai wrote: "I honored her as a mother, and confessed to her all the truth from the depths of my soul." Her authority was indisputable by virtue of her mind and firmness of character.

On July 8, 1853, the husband of Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duke Karl Friedrich, died in Belvedere. Then his body was transported to Weimar, carried past the Russian church (as the duke bequeathed, emphasizing respect for his wife’s faith). A new reign began - the Grand Duke Karl Alexander and the wife Sophia-Wilhelmina.

In 1855, after the death of Nicholas I, his son Alexander II entered the throne. Despite her venerable age (she was seventy), Maria Pavlovna went to his coronation. This was the last visit to the homeland.

On June 11 (23), 1859, Maria Pavlovna suddenly died. She got the flu, but in a mild form. On the same day, after breakfast, she went to the Belvedere to wish her son a happy birthday. Congratulating him, she got into her carriage and left. Less than an hour and a half after her departure, the courier jumped up with the message that an apoplexy hit had happened to her. Back in the year of her husband’s death, Maria Pavlovna expressed a desire to be buried next to him in the mausoleum, but in Russian soil. The land was indeed brought from Russia, and a sarcophagus with a body was solemnly installed on it to the sound of bells from all Weimar churches. Three years after death, the Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene was erected next to the mausoleum, decorated with an iconostasis created by the hands of masters from Russia.

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• Lily von Kretschman . Die literarischen Abende der Grossherzogin Maria Paviovna (Deutsche Rundschau, 15 Juni und 1 Juli 1893).