Antoni Radziwiłł

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Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł
Lithograph after a sketch by Wilhelm Hensel, about 1810
Duke-Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen
In office
1815–1830
Preceded bynew creation
Succeeded byEduard Heinrich von Flottwell
(as Oberpräsident)
Personal details
Born(1775-06-13)13 June 1775
Eliza Fryderyka
Bogusław Fryderyk
Władysław
Wanda Augusta Wilhelmina
Parent(s)Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł
Helena Przeździecka
Residence(s)Palais Radziwiłł, Berlin

Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł (Polish pronunciation:

Reichsfürst of the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1815 and 1831 he acted as Duke-Governor (Polish: książę-namiestnik, German: Statthalter) of the Grand Duchy of Posen, an autonomous province of the Kingdom of Prussia created out of Greater Polish lands annexed in the Partitions of Poland
.

Biography

Contemporary portrait, 1797

Antoni Radziwiłł was born on 13 June 1775 in

Göttingen University and was invited to the court of King Frederick William II of Prussia. In 1796 he married Princess Louise of Prussia, the second daughter of Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia and hence a niece of the late Prussian king Frederick the Great. His new family convinced him that he should be a mediator between the Poles living under the Third Partition after the failed Kościuszko Uprising and the Prussian authorities in Berlin. Fluctuating between Berlin, Warsaw and Saint Petersburg, Radziwiłł developed the idea of making the province of South Prussia the nucleus of a renewed Polish kingdom, ruled by the Prussian king in personal union
.

During

Russian partition from the hands of Emperor Alexander I of Russia
.

Duke-Governor

Chopin plays piano in Radziwiłł's Berlin salon at Palais Radziwill (Henryk Siemiradzki, 1887);[1][2]

Upon the Final Act of the 1815

Elisa's engagement to Prussian Prince (later German Emperor) William I
was broken in 1824.

Shortly after the outbreak of the 1830 November Uprising in Russian Congress Poland led by his brother Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł, he was deprived of all powers, and the rule passed to Oberpräsident Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell. Next year the office of Duke-Governor was abolished, and the autonomy of the Grand Duchy was cancelled. It was incorporated into the Provinces of Prussia, renamed the "Province of Posen" in 1848.

Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł returned to his palace in Berlin, where he died on 7 April 1833. He was buried in the

Poznań Cathedral. His children with Louise were Germanized and never returned to Poznań; however, as owners of the Nieborów manor near Warsaw and huge family estates in today's Belarus
, they paid frequent visits to other parts of Poland.

Patron of the arts

Princes of the Holy Roman Empire
, appears in the center of a Black Eagle within a Golden Shield.

Antoni Radziwiłł is better known for his art patronage than for his ill-fated political career. His palaces in Berlin (the later

Maria Agata Szymanowska
dedicated to him the Serenade pour le Pianoforte avec le accompagnement de violoncelle. He was also a notable sponsor of Polish theatres and his wife opened the first public school for girls in Poznań in 1830.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ "Chopin u Radziwiłła — Berlin 1829" by Henryk Siemiradzki. In. Biblioteka chopinowska , Tom 7 Polskie Wydawn. Muzyczne, 1960
  2. ^ Frédéric Chopin as a Man and Musician by Frederick Niecks; Chopin: The Man and His Music by James Huneker
  3. ^ a b Preußen (1832). Handbuch über den Königlich Preußischen Hof und Staat: für das Jahr .... 1832. Decker. p. 6.
  4. ^ Preußen (1796). Handbuch über den Königlich Preußischen Hof und Staat. Decker. p. 27.
  5. ^ Liste der Ritter des Königlich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler (1851), "Von Seiner Majestät dem Könige Friedrich Wilhelm II. ernannte Ritter" p. 13
  6. ^ Bayern (1828). Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern: 1828. Landesamt. p. 7.

Literature

  • Witold Jakóbczyk, Przetrwać na Wartą 1815–1914, Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego, vol. III-55, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989

External links