Carl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Encyclopedia
Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (3 September 1757 – 14 June 1828) was a duke
of Saxe-Weimar
and of Saxe-Eisenach
(personal union
) from 1758, duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
from its creation in 1809, and grand duke
from 1815 until his death. He is noted for the intellectual brilliance of his court.
, he was the eldest son of Ernst August II Konstantin, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
His father died when he was only nine months old (28 May 1758), and the boy was brought up under the regency and supervision of his mother, a woman of enlightened but masterful temperament. His governor was the Count Johann Eustach von Görtz, a German nobleman of the old strait-laced school; but a more humane element was introduced into his training when, in 1771, Christoph Martin Wieland
was appointed his tutor. In 1774 the poet Karl Ludwig von Knebel
came to Weimar
as tutor to his brother, the young Prince Frederick Ferdinand Konstantin, and in the same year the two princes set out, with Count Görtz and Knebel, for Paris
. At Frankfurt
Knebel introduced Karl August to the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe and this would mark the beginning of a momentous friendship.
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 Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.
One of the first acts of the young grand-duke was to summon Goethe to Weimar, and in 1776 he was made a member of the privy council. "People of discernment," he said, "congratulate me on possessing this man. His intellect, his genius is known. It makes no difference if the world is offended because I have made Dr Goethe a member of my most important collegium without his having passed through the stages of minor official professor and councillor of state." To the undiscerning, the beneficial effect of this appointment was not at once apparent. With Goethe the Sturm und Drang
spirit descended upon Weimar, and the stiff traditions of the little court dissolved in a riot of youthful exuberance.
The duke was a heavy drinker but also a good sportsman, and the revels of the court were alternated with breakneck rides across country, ending in nights spent around the campfire under the stars. The Weimaraner
, a breed of gun dog
developed by August and his court for hunting, is still popular today. Karl August, however, also had more serious tastes. He was interested in literature, in art, in science, funding Goethe and the foundation of the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar and encouraging Weimar Classicism
. Critics praised his judgment in painting; biologists found in him an expert in anatomy. Nor did he neglect the government of his little state.
His reforms were the outcome of something more than the spirit of the enlightened despots of the 18th century, for from the first he had realized that the powers of the prince to play earthly providence were strictly limited. His aim, then, was to educate his people to work out their own political and social salvation, the object of education being in his view, as he explained later to the dismay of Metternich and his school, to help men to independence of judgment. To this end Herder was summoned to Weimar to reform the educational system and it is little wonder that, under a patron so enlightened, the University of Jena attained the zenith of its fame and Weimar became the intellectual centre of Germany.
Meanwhile, in the affairs of Germany and of Europe the character of Karl August gave him an influence 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
, and began to work for the unity of Germany
. The plans of Emperor Joseph II
, which threatened to absorb a great part of Germany into the heterogeneous Habsburg
monarchy, threw him into the arms of Prussia
, and he was the prime mover in the establishment of the league of princes (Fürstenbund
) in 1785, by which, under the leadership of Frederick the Great, Joseph's intrigues were frustrated. He was, however, under no illusion as to the power of Austria, and he wisely refused the offer of the Hungarian crown, made to him in 1787 by Prussia at the instance of the Magyar malcontents, with the dry remark that he had no desire to be another Winter King. 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 (14 September) and Kaiserslautern
(28–30 November). After this, dissatisfied with the attitude of the powers, he resigned, but rejoined on the accession of his friend King Frederick William III to the Prussian throne. The disastrous campaign of Jena (1806) followed. On 14 October, the day after the battle, Weimar was sacked, and Karl August, to prevent the confiscation of his territories, was forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine
. From this time till after the Moscow campaign of 1812 his contingent fought under the French flag in all Napoleon's wars. In 1813, however, he joined the Grand Alliance
, and at the beginning of 1814 took command of a corps of 30,000 men operating in the Netherlands.
At the Congress of Vienna
(1815) Karl August was present in person and protested vainly against the narrow policy of the powers in confining their debates to the rights of the princes to the exclusion of the rights of the people. His services in the war of liberation were rewarded with an extension of territory and the title of Grand-Duke (Großherzog), but his liberal attitude had already made him suspect, and his subsequent action brought him still further into confrontation with the reactionary powers. He was the first of the German princes to grant a liberal constitution to his state under Article XIII of the Act of Confederation (5 May 1816) and his concession of liberty to the press made Weimar for a while the focus of journalistic agitation against the existing order. Metternich dubbed him contemptuously der grosse Bursche for his patronage of the revolutionary Burschenschaften, and the celebrated festival held at the Wartburg
by his permission in 1818, though in effect the mildest of political demonstrations, brought down upon him the wrath of the great powers. The Grand Duke, against his better judgment, was compelled to yield to the remonstrances of Prussia, Austria and Russia. The liberty of the press was again restricted in the grand-duchy, but, thanks to the good understanding between the grand-duke and his people, the regime of the Carlsbad Decrees
pressed less heavily upon Weimar than upon other German states.
Karl August died at Graditz
, near Torgau
, in 1828. Upon his contemporaries of the most various types his personality made a great impression. Karl von Dalberg, the prince-primate, who owed the coadjutorship of Mainz to the duke's friendship, said that he had never met a prince with so much understanding, character, frankness and true-heartedness; the Milan
ese, when he visited their city, called him the uomo principe, and Goethe himself said of him that he had the gift of discriminating intellects and characters and setting each one in his place. 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. 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.
He left two surviving sons: Karl Frederick
, by whom he was succeeded, and Karl Bernhard, a distinguished soldier, who, after the Congress of Vienna, became colonel of a regiment in the service of the King of the Netherlands, distinguished himself as commander of the Dutch troops in the Belgian campaign of 1830 (the ten days campaign
), and from 1847 to 1850 held the command of the forces in the Dutch East Indies. Bernhard's son, William Augustus Edward, known as Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar
(b. 1823 - d. 1902), entered the British army and ended his career as a Field Marshal
.
Karl August's only surviving daughter, Karoline Luise, married Frederick Ludwig, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
, and was the mother of Helene (b. 1814 - d. 1858), wife of Ferdinand, Duke of Orleans, eldest son of French King Louis Philippe
.
Karl August and Luise Auguste had seven children:
In addition, Karl August, a well-known womanizer, left five illegitimate children acknowledged by him:
—With Eva Dorothea Wiegand (b. 1755 - d. 1828)
—With Luise Rudorf (b. 1777 - d. 1852)
—With Henriette Karoline Fredericka Jagemann (b. 1777 - d. 1848), created Frau von Heygendorf
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
of Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar
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.-Division of Leipzig:...
and of Saxe-Eisenach
Saxe-Eisenach
Saxe-Eisenach was the name of an Ernestine duchy ruled by the Saxon House of Wettin. The State intermittendly existed at three different times in the Thuringian region of the Holy Roman Empire...
(personal union
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
) from 1758, duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was created in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach. It was raised to a Grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Vienna Congress. In 1877, it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony , but this name was...
from its creation in 1809, and grand duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
from 1815 until his death. He is noted for the intellectual brilliance of his court.
Biography
Born in WeimarWeimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, he was the eldest son of Ernst August II Konstantin, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
His father died when he was only nine months old (28 May 1758), and the boy was brought up under the regency and supervision of his mother, a woman of enlightened but masterful temperament. His governor was the Count Johann Eustach von Görtz, a German nobleman of the old strait-laced school; but a more humane element was introduced into his training when, in 1771, Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland was a German poet and writer.- Biography :He was born at Oberholzheim , which then belonged to the Free Imperial City of Biberach an der Riss in the south-east of the modern-day state of Baden-Württemberg...
was appointed his tutor. In 1774 the poet Karl Ludwig von Knebel
Karl Ludwig von Knebel
Karl Ludwig von Knebel , German poet and translator, born at the castle of Wallerstein in Franconia....
came to Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
as tutor to his brother, the young Prince Frederick Ferdinand Konstantin, and in the same year the two princes set out, with Count Görtz and Knebel, for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. At Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
Knebel introduced Karl August to the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe and this would mark the beginning of a momentous friendship.
In Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
on 3 October 1775, after he returned to Weimar and assumed the government of his duchy, Karl August married Luise Auguste, daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.
One of the first acts of the young grand-duke was to summon Goethe to Weimar, and in 1776 he was made a member of the privy council. "People of discernment," he said, "congratulate me on possessing this man. His intellect, his genius is known. It makes no difference if the world is offended because I have made Dr Goethe a member of my most important collegium without his having passed through the stages of minor official professor and councillor of state." To the undiscerning, the beneficial effect of this appointment was not at once apparent. With Goethe the Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang
Sturm und Drang is a proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism...
spirit descended upon Weimar, and the stiff traditions of the little court dissolved in a riot of youthful exuberance.
The duke was a heavy drinker but also a good sportsman, and the revels of the court were alternated with breakneck rides across country, ending in nights spent around the campfire under the stars. The Weimaraner
Weimaraner
The Weimaraner is a dog that was originally bred for hunting in the early 19th century. Early Weimaraners were used by royalty for hunting large game such as boar, bear, and deer. As the popularity of large game hunting began to decline, Weimaraners were used for hunting smaller animals like...
, a breed of gun dog
Gun dog
thumb|right|A group of Gun dogs as printed in Dogs of All Nations by W.E. Mason in 1915Gun dogs, also gundogs or bird dogs, are types of dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game, usually birds. Gun dogs are divided into three primary types: Retrievers, flushing dogs, and...
developed by August and his court for hunting, is still popular today. Karl August, however, also had more serious tastes. He was interested in literature, in art, in science, funding Goethe and the foundation of the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar and encouraging Weimar Classicism
Weimar Classicism
Weimar Classicism is a cultural and literary movement of Europe. Followers attempted to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical and Enlightenment ideas...
. Critics praised his judgment in painting; biologists found in him an expert in anatomy. Nor did he neglect the government of his little state.
His reforms were the outcome of something more than the spirit of the enlightened despots of the 18th century, for from the first he had realized that the powers of the prince to play earthly providence were strictly limited. His aim, then, was to educate his people to work out their own political and social salvation, the object of education being in his view, as he explained later to the dismay of Metternich and his school, to help men to independence of judgment. To this end Herder was summoned to Weimar to reform the educational system and it is little wonder that, under a patron so enlightened, the University of Jena attained the zenith of its fame and Weimar became the intellectual centre of Germany.
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, and began to work for the unity of Germany
Unification of Germany
The formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German...
. The plans of Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
, which threatened to absorb a great part of Germany into the heterogeneous Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
monarchy, threw him into the arms of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, and he was the prime mover in the establishment of the league of princes (Fürstenbund
Fürstenbund
The Fürstenbund was a union of German minor princes in the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1785 under the leadership of Frederick II of Prussia, to oppose the ambition of Emperor Joseph II to add Bavaria to the Habsburg domains....
) in 1785, by which, under the leadership of Frederick the Great, Joseph's intrigues were frustrated. He was, however, under no illusion as to the power of Austria, and he wisely refused the offer of the Hungarian crown, made to him in 1787 by Prussia at the instance of the Magyar malcontents, with the dry remark that he had no desire to be another Winter King. 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
Battle of Valmy
The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the army of France during the French Revolution. The action took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris...
in 1792, and in 1794 at the Siege of Mainz and the Battle of Pirmasenz (14 September) and Kaiserslautern
Battle of Kaiserslautern
The Battle of Kaiserslautern was a battle of the War of the First Coalition , fought near the German city of Kaiserslautern...
(28–30 November). After this, dissatisfied with the attitude of the powers, he resigned, but rejoined on the accession of his friend King Frederick William III to the Prussian throne. The disastrous campaign of Jena (1806) followed. On 14 October, the day after the battle, Weimar was sacked, and Karl August, to prevent the confiscation of his territories, was forced to join the Confederation of the Rhine
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the...
. From this time till after the Moscow campaign of 1812 his contingent fought under the French flag in all Napoleon's wars. In 1813, however, he joined the Grand Alliance
Grand Alliance
The Grand Alliance was a European coalition, consisting of Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, the Dutch Republic, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Ireland, the Palatinate of the Rhine, Portugal, Savoy, Saxony, Scotland, Spain and Sweden...
, and at the beginning of 1814 took command of a corps of 30,000 men operating in the Netherlands.
At the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
(1815) Karl August was present in person and protested vainly against the narrow policy of the powers in confining their debates to the rights of the princes to the exclusion of the rights of the people. His services in the war of liberation were rewarded with an extension of territory and the title of Grand-Duke (Großherzog), but his liberal attitude had already made him suspect, and his subsequent action brought him still further into confrontation with the reactionary powers. He was the first of the German princes to grant a liberal constitution to his state under Article XIII of the Act of Confederation (5 May 1816) and his concession of liberty to the press made Weimar for a while the focus of journalistic agitation against the existing order. Metternich dubbed him contemptuously der grosse Bursche for his patronage of the revolutionary Burschenschaften, and the celebrated festival held at the Wartburg
Wartburg Castle
The Wartburg is a castle situated on a 1230-foot precipice to the southwest of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany...
by his permission in 1818, though in effect the mildest of political demonstrations, brought down upon him the wrath of the great powers. The Grand Duke, against his better judgment, was compelled to yield to the remonstrances of Prussia, Austria and Russia. The liberty of the press was again restricted in the grand-duchy, but, thanks to the good understanding between the grand-duke and his people, the regime of the Carlsbad Decrees
Carlsbad Decrees
The Carlsbad Decrees were a set of reactionary restrictions introduced in the states of the German Confederation by resolution of the Bundesversammlung on 20 September 1819 after a conference held in the spa town of Carlsbad, Bohemia...
pressed less heavily upon Weimar than upon other German states.
Karl August died at Graditz
Graditz
Graditz is a village of 250 inhabitants in the Nordsachsen landkreis of Saxony. Since 1994 it has been a quarter of Torgau....
, near Torgau
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
, in 1828. Upon his contemporaries of the most various types his personality made a great impression. Karl von Dalberg, the prince-primate, who owed the coadjutorship of Mainz to the duke's friendship, said that he had never met a prince with so much understanding, character, frankness and true-heartedness; the Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
ese, when he visited their city, called him the uomo principe, and Goethe himself said of him that he had the gift of discriminating intellects and characters and setting each one in his place. 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. 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.
He left two surviving sons: Karl Frederick
Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Charles Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was a Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.-Biography:Born in Weimar, he was the eldest son of Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Luise Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt.Charles Frederick succeeded his famous father as Grand Duke...
, by whom he was succeeded, and Karl Bernhard, a distinguished soldier, who, after the Congress of Vienna, became colonel of a regiment in the service of the King of the Netherlands, distinguished himself as commander of the Dutch troops in the Belgian campaign of 1830 (the ten days campaign
Ten days campaign
The Ten Days' Campaign was a failed attempt to suppress the Belgian revolution by the Dutch king William I.- Prelude :...
), and from 1847 to 1850 held the command of the forces in the Dutch East Indies. Bernhard's son, William Augustus Edward, known as Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar
Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar
Prince William Augustus Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, KP, GCB, GCH, GCVO, PC was a British military officer of German parents.-Life:...
(b. 1823 - d. 1902), entered the British army and ended his career as a Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
.
Karl August's only surviving daughter, Karoline Luise, married Frederick Ludwig, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1348, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV...
, and was the mother of Helene (b. 1814 - d. 1858), wife of Ferdinand, Duke of Orleans, eldest son of French King Louis Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
.
Ancestry
Children
- Luise Auguste Amalie (b. Weimar, 3 February 1779 - d. Weimar, 24 March 1784).
- a daughter (b. and d. Weimar, 10 September 1781).
- Karl Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-EisenachCharles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-EisenachCharles Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was a Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.-Biography:Born in Weimar, he was the eldest son of Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Luise Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt.Charles Frederick succeeded his famous father as Grand Duke...
(b. Weimar, 2 February 1783 - d. Schloss Belvedere, near Weimar, 8 July 1853). - a son (b. and d. Weimar, 26 February 1785).
- Karoline Luise (b. Weimar, 18 July 1786 - d. Ludwigslust, 20 January 1816), married on 1 July 1810 to Frederick Ludwig, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
- a son (b. and d. Weimar, 13 April 1789).
- Karl Bernhard (b. Weimar, 30 May 1792 - d. Liebenstein, 31 July 1862).
In addition, Karl August, a well-known womanizer, left five illegitimate children acknowledged by him:
—With Eva Dorothea Wiegand (b. 1755 - d. 1828)
- Johann Karl Sebastian Klein (b. Stützerbach, 9 June 1779 - d. Weimar, 28 June 1830), married on 22 April 1817 to Anna Fredericka Henriette Müller. They had three sons who possibly died young.
—With Luise Rudorf (b. 1777 - d. 1852)
- Karl Wilhelm of Knebel (b. Templin, 18 January 1796 - d. Jena, 16 November 1861), married firstly on 6 February 1825 to Fredericka of Geusau, with whom he had one son, who died in infancy, before they divorced in 1837; secondly he married on 14 May 1839 Josephine Karoline Emilie Trautmann, with whom he had one son and two daughters.
—With Henriette Karoline Fredericka Jagemann (b. 1777 - d. 1848), created Frau von Heygendorf
- Carl of WolfgangKarl von HeygendorffKarl von Heygendorff was a German officer in the army of the Kingdom of Saxony, rising to major general. From 1809 he was known as Carl of Heygendorf.-Life:...
(b. Weimar, 25 December 1806 - d. Dresden, 17 February 1895) - August of Heygendorff (b. Weimar, 10 August 1810 - d. Dresden, 23 January 1874).
- Mariana of Heygendorff (b. Weimar, 8 April 1812 - d. 's Gravenhage, 10 August 1836), married on 15 October 1835 to Daniel, Baron Tindal.