Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Augusta Marie Luise Katharina; 30 September 1811 – 7 January 1890) was Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the wife of Wilhelm I, German Emperor. Early life Augusta was the second daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. While her father was an intellectually limited person, whose preferred reading up to the end of his life was fairy tales, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spoke of Augusta's mother Marie as "one of the best and most significant women of her time." Augusta received a comprehensive education, including drawing lessons from the court painter, Luise Seidler, as well as music lessons from the court bandmaster, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Meeting with Wilhelm Augusta was only fifteen years old when, in 1826, she first met her future husband, Prince Wilhelm (William), who was more than fourteen years older than her. William thought the young Augusta had an "excellent personality," yet was less attractive than her older sister Marie, whom William's younger brother, Karl (Charles), had already married. Above all, it was William's father who pressed him to consider Augusta as a potential wife.