Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Anhalt-Dessau


Frederick of Anhalt-Dessau, was a German prince of the House of Ascania and heir to the principality of Anhalt-Dessau.
He was born in Dessau, the only surviving child of Leopold III, Prince and later Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, by his wife Louise, daughter of Frederick Henry, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. His only sibling, a sister born on 11 February 1768, was either stillborn or died shortly after her birth.

Life

In 1786 he joined to the Prussian army, where he later obtained the rank of Generalfeldmarschall. In 1805 he contracted to build Kühnauer Park.
Frederick died in Dessau, three years before his father, thus never inherited Anhalt-Dessau. His place as Leopold III's heir was taken by his older son Leopold Frederick, who succeeded his grandfather in 1817 with the name Leopold IV.

Marriage and issue

In Bad Homburg vor der Höhe on 12 June 1792 Frederick married Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Homburg, daughter of Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg. They had seven children:
  1. Amalie Auguste, married on 15 April 1816 to Frederick Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
  2. Leopold IV Frederick, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau and since 1863 Duke of all Anhalt.
  3. George Bernhard.
  4. Paul Christian.
  5. Louise Fredericka, a deaf-mute from birth; married on 12 February 1818 to her uncle Gustav, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.
  6. Frederick Augustus.
  7. William Waldemar, married morganatically on 9 July 1840 to Emilie Klausnitzer, created Freifrau von Stolzenberg in 1842.

    Connection with Mozart

The text of the German song "Des kleinen Friedrichs Geburtstag", K. 529, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was originally written in 1778 by the poet Johann Eberhard Friedrich Schall to commemorate the ninth birthday of the Hereditary Prince Frederick. It is unknown how Mozart came across this text or why he chose to set it in Prague in 1787. All that is known is that it was entered into his own catalog of musical compositions as a completed work on 6 November 1787.