Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
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Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (b. Weissenfels, 23 February 1682 - d. Sangerhausen, 28 June 1736), was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt and member of the House of Wettin.
He was the sixth but second surviving son of Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels and Johanna Magdalene of Saxe-Altenburg.
[edit] Government of the Duchy
Christian inherited the Duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels after the death of his older brother Johann Georg without surviving male issue (16 March 1712) and continued the policy of the Patronage as well as the promotion of the Sciences, Education and Culture of his predecessors -in such way he created the Seminarium illustre in Weissenfels on 1716-. The enormous costs, made excessives by far for the strained finances of the small duchy, so that the complete financial collapse occurred on 1719. For this, the Electorate of Saxony created a Debit Commission, which exercised the finance rule over the duchy until the line was extinct -both the duke and his brother did not have male descendants- by the requested of the Emperor, with which the capacity to act of the duke was substantially limited.
[edit] Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd (The lively hunt is all my heart's desire)
For his 31th Birthday on 1713, the compositor Johann Sebastian Bach for the duke the famous Cantata "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd" (BWV 208) as festive board music with a pastoralem character, which rang out in the evening after an expanded hunt meeting with the duke in the hunter park to the Nikolaistrasse.
Christan is called altogether four times in Salomon Franck libretto of the Cantata and high-praised equated with the mythical Pan. The hunt is represented as high virtue and thus as the princes which is entitled a privilege.
It is probable that Bach wrote the piece on behalf of his patron at that time, the Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar and should serve as a gift for Christian. A further cantata for Christian was followed with the specified cantata "Entflieht, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen" (en: "escapes, disappears, escapes, its ensuring") (BWV 249a), whose music, however unfortunately was partially lost; only a Parodie re-writings for the Easter Oratorio as well as parts of Picander still exist.
[edit] Marriage and Succession
In Stolberg on 12 May 1712, Christian married with Luise Christine of Stolberg-Stolberg-Ortenberg.
For this occasion, the Elector Frederick August I of Saxony made the Weissenfelser Hunt Cup (de: Weißenfelser Jagdpokal) as a gift for the couple. He was a precious and complex arranged gold forging work of the brothers Johann Melchior and George Christoph Dinglinger, which takes the idea of the duke's preference for the hunt. The cup stay in the ducal house of Saxe-Weissenfels until they was extinct; after this, he was again into the possession of the Electorate of Saxony and can be admired today in the Green Vault (de: Grünes Gewölbe).
The marriage was childless. Without heirs, on his death Christian was succeded by his younger brother, Johann Adolf II.
| Preceded by Johann Georg |
Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels 1712 – 1736 |
Succeeded by Johann Adolf II |
