Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera


Henry II of Reuss , nicknamed the Posthumous' because his father died two months before he was born, was Lord of Gera, Lord of Lobenstein and Lord of Oberkranichfeld.

Life

Henry II was born posthumously, as the only son of Henry XVI of Reuss-Gera, the founder of the Younger Line, and his wife, Countess Dorothea of Solms-Sonnewalde.
Henry successfully promoted education and the economy of his country. In 1608, he founded the Rutheneum Gymnasium in Gera. Against the advice of his theological councillor, he granted asylum to Calvinist refugees from Flanders and housed them in his capital city Gera. This led to an upsurge in wool production and an economic boom. During his reign, Gera also developed into the cultural centre of the Reuss areas. He had a particular fondness for "ring riding", and was a frequent guest at the courts in Vienna and Dresden.
Henry II died on 23 December 1635 and was buried in the Salvator Church in Gera. The composer Heinrich Schütz wrote his Musikalische Exequien for this occasion. His elaborately decorated copper outer coffin, with biblical proverbs and evangelical chorals, was transferred from the Salvator Church to the St. John church in 1995. In 2011, it was displayed in an exhibition about funeral practices in the early modern age in the city museum of Gera. It has also been on display in the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel.

Marriages and issue

In Weikersheim on 7 February 1594, Henry II married firstly Magdalena, daughter of Wolfgang, Count of Hohenlohe-Weikersheim-Langenburg. They had one daughter:
In Rudolstadt on 22 May 1597, Henry II married secondly Magdalena, daughter of Count Albert VII of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. They had seventeen children:
Since 2008, the motor car of one of the trams in Gera bears his name.