Saxe-Eisenach, 1/2 Thaler 1813 LS

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Carl Augustus, 1775-1828, 1/2 Thaler 1813 LS

Obv.: Crowned coat of arms

Rev.: Between two rosettes XX / EINE FEINE / MARK / Jahreszahl / rosette

Historical

Carl August (1757-1828) from the House of Wettin was the eldest son of Duke Ernst August II. Konstantin of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach and Princess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

After the very early death of his father in 1758, Carl August, together with his younger brother Friedrich Ferdinand Konstantin (1758-1793), was placed under the guardianship of his mother. The resolute and enlightened Anna Amalia ensured that her two sons received a comprehensive education.

In 1775, at the age of 18, Carl August was declared of age and took over the government of the duchy from his mother. In the same year he married Princess Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt in Karlsruhe. It was not until 1783 that she bore him the Hereditary Prince Carl Friedrich. Meanwhile, the Duke enjoyed a number of love affairs, the most famous of which was with the actress Karoline Jagemann. He is said to have fathered at least 38 illegitimate children.

Carl August's contemporaries and well-known friends included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, both of whom also lived and worked in Weimar for many years, and the philosophers Hegel, Herder and Fichte.

Today, Carl August is regarded as the patron saint of the so-called Weimar Classicism, which was promoted throughout his life in the cultural region around Jena and Weimar, especially by his mother Anna Amalia.   

During the revolutionary and liberation wars, Carl August proved to be only a moderately successful commander, mostly fighting on the side of the Prussians. Nevertheless, his small and rather insignificant dominion was elevated to a Grand Duchy at the Congress of Vienna, probably also because his hereditary prince had married the Grand Duchess of Russia Maria Pavlovna and his line thus enjoyed the favour of the Russian Tsarist House.

Carl August ruled in an enlightened absolutist manner and was the first German state to give Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach a state constitution in 1816.

He died in 1828 on his way back from Berlin, where he had celebrated the birth of his first great-grandson.