Carola of Vasa

Queen of Saxony from 1873 to 1902

Carola of Vasa (Caroline Friederike Franziska Stephanie Amalie Cäcilie; 5 August 1833 – 15 December 1907), was by birth a titular princess of Sweden and styled Princess of Vasa as member of the House of Holstein Gottorp, and by marriage the last queen consort of Saxony. At the side of her husband, Carola dedicated herself to the charitable development of new social institutions in the Kingdom of Saxony. With the founding of the Albert Association (German: Albertverein) in 1867 and other nursing and training institutions, she set impulses in the areas of charity, poor and sick care as well as the care of the wounded. In addition, she was involved in aid, children's and women's associations for the support of the disadvantaged. She was a recipient of the Order of Sidonia and gave her name to the Carola Medal for charity, which was named after her. Numerous places are named after her, especially in Dresden.

Princess Carola of Vasa was born on 5 August 1833 in the Kaiserstöckl, an annex of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, as the second child and only daughter of the former crown prince of Sweden and Austrian field marshal Prince Gustav of Vasa and his wife Princess Louise Amelie of Baden. Her only sibling, Prince Louis, was born and died in 1832, so Carola remained the only surviving offspring from her parents' marriage. Carola did not come from the Vasa dynasty, as her name might suggest. Rather, she owed the suffix to her father, who, as a member of the deposed Swedish House of Holstein Gottorp, was no longer allowed to call himself "Prince of Sweden". Instead, he gave himself the nicknames Vasa and (to further affirm his claim to the throne) Holstein Gottorp, hence Vasa Holstein Gottorp. Consequently, Carola also received this surname. Carola's evangelical baptism took place on 7 August 1833 in Schönbrunn Palace with the full name of Caroline Friederike Franziska Stephanie Amalie Cäcilie, but her mother called her "Carola". Her godparents were, among other royal representatives, Emperor Francis I of Austria and his third wife Empress Caroline Augusta (born Princess of Bavaria), Stephanie, Dowager Grand Duchess of Baden (born of Beauharnais) and Cecilia, Grand Duchess of Oldenburg (born Princess of Sweden and Carola's paternal aunt); she received her names after her godparents, her paternal grandmother, Frederica of Baden (former Queen of Sweden) and another paternal aunt, Princess Amalia of Sweden. Until the divorce of her parents in the summer of 1844, Carola spent most of her childhood in the couple's summer residence in South Moravia, Veveří Castle. The princess, who was considered shy and reserved, was raised and instructed in a strict manner, but marked by parental love. After the separation of her parents, Carola and her mother settled in Moravec Castle in August 1846. Amalie von Ungern Sternberg took over the instruction of the princess: she developed a preference for drawing, painting and chess, but not for making music. Carola enjoyed performing her own plays. Apart from larger gatherings, rural life in Moravec was quiet and tranquil. During this time, the young princess developed great compassion for underprivileged children and the infirm, to whom she donated food and clothing financed by her mother. In doing so, she laid the foundation for her later involvement in the field of charitable care for the poor and sick. The stay was mostly interrupted for spa trips by her mother, who was suffering from asthma and a heart defect, or for visits to her father or relatives in Mannheim or Karlsruhe. During the Italian Wars of Independence in 1848–1849, Carola supported Hungarian wounded by submitting gifts. In the years that followed, her mother's health continued to deteriorate, which made it necessary for her and her daughter to have long visits to the spas in Merano, Venice, Bolzano and Baden. In the years leading up to 1851, the now 18 year old Carola, who was considered the most beautiful princess in Europe at the time, devoted herself intensively to oil painting. Carola, like her mother, converted to Catholicism in 1852, despite strong opposition from her father. He only gave his consent on the condition that his daughter separated from her mother for a long time in order to take religious instruction with his sister Sophie, Grand Duchess of Baden in Karlsruhe. The princess returned to her mother after graduation and professed her Catholic faith on 4 November of the same year in the parish church in Moravec.

In November 1852, in Moravec, Carola and her mother received an unexpected visit from Princes Albert and George of Saxony, who were on a hunting trip. In truth, however, this was only a pretext, since Prince Albert had been looking for a bride since 1850, which had not been successful until then. Firstly, plans were made for a marriage with Amélie of Leuchtenberg (widow of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil), but Albert did not like her; then, other potential candidates were Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (widow of Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria Este) and of course Carola. During the banquet for the princes and other royals, Albert introduced himself to Carola and was struck by her grace and witty conversation. In later notes, Albert described meeting Carola as "love at first sight". A little later, Albert's father, Prince John of Saxony (who wanted his heir to marry someone with the same religious denomination), asked Carola's hand for his son in a letter to the princess' mother. Albert had feared that Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, who had also courted Carola, might forestall him. Another opponent for Carola's hand was Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia. After a second meeting, Carola accepted Albert's proposal on 5 December 1852, and the official engagement was celebrated in the same day. The couple spent that New Year together in Moravec. The imminent wedding of Albert and Carola initially met with little approval in Saxony. This was less because Carola was a rather penniless princess, and not because of the prevailing bad reputation of her divorced parents. Rather, the reason was that Carola had only converted to the Catholic faith shortly before the engagement. However, Prince John was more concerned about his son's happiness than any animosity towards the bride and did his best to promote the relationship that had developed. He also rejected arguments for or against the wedding for purely financial reasons. In January 1853, Carola and her mother moved to Brno. There, Albert often visited his fiancée in the coming months. The couple appeared together at balls, theater visits and other festivities, with Carola using the social appearances to prepare for her future position in the Saxon royal family, where the strict Spanish ceremonial applied. Prince John in particular was keen that his future daughter in law should demonstrate a high level of confidence in conversation and in the court environment, which Carola fulfilled without hesitation. Meanwhile, her mother's health continued to deteriorate. For the wedding scheduled for June 1853, Carola traveled from Brno to Prague and from there to Děčín. There she met Albert, with whom she continued in a decorated special train to Pirna, where the couple inspected a troop parade. They arrived with a mounted and horse drawn escort at Pillnitz Castle, where the Saxon court received the couple and invited them to the family dinner. The procession then traveled on to Dresden, where the wedding took place around noon on 18 June in the Palace in the Great Garden (German: Palais im Großen Garten). After the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds drove in a covered golden gala carriage to the Old Town Hall (German: Altstädter Rathaus), where the Lord Mayor (German: Oberbürgermeister) Wilhelm Pfotenhauer gave a reception. Bishop Joseph Dittrich performed the catholic wedding ceremony at Dresden Cathedral. The festivities continued through 2 July. The couple then moved into a spacious apartment in the Taschenbergpalais. Adolf Senfft von Pilsach took over the management of their household. Carola's new Chief Court Mistress (German: Oberhofmeisterin) came from the Werther noble family and instructed her in the court protocol.

In March 1854, Carola visited her seriously ill mother in Moravec, who died of lung paralysis on 19 July; twenty one days later, on 9 August, King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony died after a carriage accident during a trip to Tyrol and Carola's father in law became the new king. Her husband, as the eldest son and heir became the crown prince and Carola, as his consort, the crown princess. The following years were marked by extensive trips lasting several months at home and abroad for the couple, including to Switzerland, Italy and increasingly Austria. In the winter of 1855, Carola took over the protectorate of the Saxon Pestalozzi Association, which supported needy widows and orphans of teachers. In 1859 Carola and Albert moved into the Royal Villa in rural Strehlen. After recovering from measles in November 1860, Carola began to learn to play the piano and devoted herself to painting again. She gave up riding lessons due to increasing myopia.

When in the spring of 1866 the war between Prussia and Austria to dissolve the German dualism began to emerge, the Saxon army mobilized its troops on 19 May under the supreme command of Prince Albert. The Kingdom of Saxony was wedged in the most unfavorable way at the interface between the two spheres of interest. As Prussia's demands, e. g. concerning the core question of the future administration of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, had been rejected by the Frankfurt Bundestag, it declared that the German Confederation would resolve the conflict. When Saxony then refused to join a new league to be concluded under Prussia's leadership and reaffirmed its adherence to the German Confederation, Prussia declared war on Saxony on 15 June 1866. In order to protect the kingdom from extensive war damage, the Saxon Army Corps was subordinated to the Austrian Northern Army in Bohemia. Carola and Albert moved into quarters in Prague. Albert commanded his army from there, while Carola increasingly took care of the needs of the wounded who were housed in a hospital on Karlovo náměstí. When Prague itself threatened to become a theater of war, the couple was brought to Regensburg and from there, when news of the defeat of the German Confederation after the Battle of Königgrätz on 3 July arrived, they took refuge in Vienna. In her native town, Carola devoted herself to caring for up to 5,000 wounded soldiers. She organized their food and medical treatment, donated medical equipment and gave comfort and support to the seriously injured, often for several hours a day. In addition, she had books and games distributed and organized the exchange of mail with relatives. When the peace treaty between Prussia and Saxony was signed in Berlin on 21 October, Carola and Albert returned to Dresden in November.

As the loser state in the war, Saxony was pressed into the North German Confederation by Prussia. The royal family of Saxony declared unlimited loyalty to German Emperor William I, who then had his troops withdraw from Dresden by May 1867. In June 1867, Carola and Albert incognito visited the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and were welcomed by Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie de Montijo. During the following years there was a political rapprochement between the Saxon and Prussian royal families. After her return, Carola, shaked by the experience of the war, increased her commitment to the care of the wounded in order to shape the Geneva Conventions that had been negotiated a few years earlier. Therefore, on 14 September 1867, together with Marie Simon, she founded the Albert Association (German: Albertverein), named after her husband, which from 1869 was primarily dedicated to the training of nurses, from which the interdenominational sister community of the Albertines emerged and whose instruction was carried out under the patronage of Carola in the former Gate House (German: Torhäuser) at Leipziger Tor, after their training in the Johannstadt "Carola House" (German: Carolahaus) that served as a mother house, or used in community hospitals. They were also sent to military hospitals in the Russo Turkish War of 1877–1878.

In the summer of 1870, the dispute over the candidacy for the Spanish throne sparked the Franco Prussian War between the North German Confederation (to which Saxony belonged from 1866) and the Second French Empire. On 16 July, the Crown Prince, as Prussia's ally, mobilized the Saxon troops, who were moved with him to the Rhine front. Carola stayed behind in Dresden and took over the Prinz Max Palais from the management of the entire female nursing in Saxony. In addition to the Albert Association, the institutions involved included the International Association for the Care of Sick and Wounded Warriors, the Saxon State Military Association, the Association for Saxon Field Diaconia and the aid associations for the families of conscripted warriors. Her tasks included the allocation of the Albertines and Deaconesses to home or front hospitals as well as the distribution of food, bandages and clothing to the three Dresden hospitals that had been set up. Added to this was the supply of up to 18,000 French prisoners of war in the state capital alone. As in the German War, Carola took over the support of numerous wounded, including in the foreign military hospitals in Leipzig, Wurzen, Großenhain, Zittau, Bautzen and Chemnitz. For this she was ridiculed by the military doctors who were present and occasionally perceived as annoying to obtrusive. After the victory of the North German Confederation and its allies over France, King John awarded Carola with the Order of Sidonia in recognition of her charitable services during the war on 15 March 1871; in addition, she was appointed as the 499th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa. Afterwards, Carola accompanied her husband to his military headquarters in Compiègne. In the Château of the same name, they moved into the former imperial apartments. From there, Carola traveled with Albert and held receptions. To help break up the Paris Commune, German troops intervened again in May; Carola traveled back to Dresden. After the restoration of French government, Crown Prince Albert succeeded her in June 1871. In the winter of 1872–1873, King John's health deteriorated rapidly. He died in Pillnitz on 29 October 1873, whereby the succession to the throne passed his eldest son, who now became King Albert and Carola, as his consort, became Queen of Saxony.

The funeral ceremonies of King John lasted until January 1874. Having largely been relieved of their foreign policy powers by the previous unification of the empire, the new king and queen devoted themselves in particular to representation at the beginning of the integration of the Kingdom of Saxony into the German Empire. Among the first acts was an extensive tour of inspection of the kingdom, followed by a tour of friendly principalities and abroad. In 1874 the royal couple moved from the Taschenbergpalais to the Dresden Residenzschloss, where Carola moved into her rooms in the Georgenbau annex. In the same year, Tsar Alexander II of Russia paid his respects to the royal couple. In 1878 the Carola and Albert celebrated their silver anniversary. The participation of the Prussian royal family supported the further rapprochement of Saxony and Prussia and at the same time symbolized the further integration of the kingdom into the empire. Primarily, however, such anniversaries served to present the people to their king as the educational and political father of the country, while Carola was portrayed as the caring and comforting mother of the country. On 4 August 1877 Carola's father died at the Riverside Palace (German: Wasserpalais), one of the three main buildings of Pillnitz Castle complex in Dresden, and his residence during the last years of his life. The following decade was marked by a variety of trips and receptions, including visits from the Italian royal family in 1880, King Ferdinand II of Portugal and King Carol I of Romania in 1883, and King Louis I of Portugal in 1886 and King Chulalongkorn of Siam in 1897. On 29 May 1884, the deposed Swedish branch of the House of Holstein Gottorp finally made peace with the new Swedish Bernadotte dynasty through Carola and her first cousin once removed the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria (born Princess of Baden), when the remains of Carola's grandfather, King Gustav IV Adolf, her father Prince Gustav of Vasa and her infant brother Prince Louis were taken to Stockholm and interred in the royal crypt at Riddarholmen Church. In 1888, Carola and her husband made an official visit to Sweden. During her years as Queen of Saxony, Carola gave up political activities and left them to her husband, "compensating for many of his political clumsiness with her affable manner". In 1898 the royal couple celebrated their 25th anniversary of government. As Albert began to become ill in his final years, Carola increasingly took on his representational duties and lovingly looked after her husband. He died on 19 June 1902 in Sibyllenort (now Szczodre). He was succeeded by his younger brother Prince George as King of Saxony.

With Carola's accession to the throne, Saxon social welfare received important funding impulses. In the residential city of Dresden in particular, the proportion of the working population increased under the impression of growing industrialization and with it at the same time the social needs, which were alleviated by the creation of new welfare institutions. This included the laying of the foundation stone for the "Carola House" in 1876, which was inaugurated two years later. In the same year the Johannes Association (German: Johannes Verein) was founded, which bundled all four of the Queen's previously founded associations. This included the sewing machine acquisition association in Leubnitz Neuostra to get women into paid work by buying sewing machines, the Pestalozzi Association for the support and care of needy widows and orphans, the domestic service home for female servants over the age of 60, which provided free housing and covered the costs of treatment in the event of illness, as well as the children's employment association in Dresden Neustadt and Antonstadt. Furthermore, the private Loschwitz Sanatorium (German: Heilstatte Loschwitz) was taken over. Under Carola's direction, the Johannes Association built six houses in Dresden in which 144 poorer families could live. In addition, Carola was responsible for setting up and maintaining pulmonary sanatoriums, which primarily specialized in treating tuberculosis. Furthermore, Carola could always count on her husband for her charitable projects. The couple celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1878. From 1859 onwards, the couple's further private life largely took place in their Strehlen villa, which was the main residence away from the royal court, whereas the castle was only used as a residence when the couple was at court. In later years, the couple also occasionally used the Rehefeld hunting lodge (German: Jagdschloss Rehefeld), a gift from Carola to her husband, or the Sibyllenort Castle. In addition, both Albert and Carola loved traveling and nature trips.

Court life was subject to annual regularity. Around the turn of the year, the royal couple sometimes stayed in Dresden Castle to receive New Year's greetings and blessings. This was followed in the first months of the year by the time of the court festivals. The court balls that took place at the same time included up to 900 people, the chamber balls up to 300 people. In April, the royal couple moved to their estate in Strehlen and from June to September to Pillnitz Castle, from where they went on nature and hunting trips to Moritzburg, Bad Schandau or the Tharandt Forest. In the very hot summer months, the royal couple sometimes lived in Rehefeld or later at Sibyllenort Castle (which Albert had inherited from his relative William, Duke of Brunswick in 1884). In October, the couple returned to their villa in Strehlen, where they hosted suppers for high ranking civil servants, generals and foreign guests well into the winter.

After Albert's death, Carola wore mourning ribbon or simple middle class clothing until the end of her life. She turned down King George's offer to continue living in the Royal Palace. Instead, Carola withdrew to her villa in Strehlen and only appeared in public occasionally. The now visibly aged Queen Dowager, who was considered undemanding by her servants and sometimes stingy, worked for several years on her will, which eventually ran to 140 pages. In it she bequeathed a total of 783,000 marks to individuals and charities. In the last years of her life, according to her servants, Carola prepared for her death. In addition to the noticeable decrease in her strength, she had scattered a large number of framed photographs of deceased relatives on their deathbeds in her bedchamber, intended to remind her of her own impermanence.

The Dowager Queen had been suffering from diabetes for some time, which later developed into a gradual infection of the bladder and kidneys. A few days before her death, Carola developed chills and a high fever, accompanied by temporary drowsiness that ended in apathy. The attending physician diagnosed a life threatening functional impairment of the urinary organs, which had led to severe uremia. Carola died at the age of 74 on 15 December 1907 at around 3:30 in the morning in her villa in the presence of the royal family. After the funeral mass, Carola was publicly laid out in the conservatory of her villa, where thousands bid her farewell. The coffin was then transferred to the Catholic Court Church while all the Dresden bells were ringing, where it was buried the next day in the New Crypt at Dresden Cathedral next to that of her husband. Messages of condolence reached the Saxon court from all parts of Germany, and obituaries and tributes to the late queen appeared in the daily newspapers. The Queen Carola Foundation (German: Königin Carola Stiftung), founded by the Saxon state parliament in memory of Carola, existed until the end of the World War II.

In Dresden in particular, the last queen of Saxony was commemorated by naming a large number of places and institutions. These include the Carola Allee (today Stauffenberg Allee), dedicated in 1879, the Carola's Bridge (German: Carolabrücke) over the Prießnitz river, another Carolabrücke over the Elbe with the subsequent Carolaplatz and the Carola Lake (German: Carolasee) in the Großer Garten with the Carolaschlösschen restaurant. The 2nd Royal Saxon Hussar Regiment No. 19 received its honorary name after her in 1891. In September 1892, King Albert created the Carola Medal (German: Carola Medaille), which was awarded for helpful charity. Carola received the Diplome d'honeur and the Diplome de Grand Prix in Brussels in 1897 for her efforts in the education for girls. Also while she was still alive, the Carola Theater in Leipzig in 1887 and the Queen Carola Gymnasium (German: Königin Carola Gymnasium) built in 1902 were named after her, as was the cruiser frigate SMS Carola commissioned in 1879 and a bay (the Queen Carola Harbour) on the Buka Island. In addition, the Carolafelsen (the highest point of the Affensteine is one of the most visited vantage points in the rear Saxon Switzerland) bears her name, as does the district of Carolathal in the municipality of Breitenbrunn and the Queen Carola mine (German: Königin Carola Schacht) in today's Freital. A healing water spring in Tarasp is also named after her. A wounded French soldier whom she cared for during the Franco Prussian War named a rose variety after her in memory of her, the "Reine Carola de Saxe" (Queen Carola of Saxony). Today, the figure of Carola, together with other historical personalities, regularly strolls through the baroque garden in the Franconian town of Bad Bocklet, where she stayed in the summer of 1857, as part of the Rondo historica.