Prince Frederick Ferdinand Constantine was a younger son of Ernest Augustus II Constantine (1737-1758) from his marriage to Anna Amalia (1739-1807), the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He was born three months after the death of his father, while his mother and his grandfather were acting as ducal regents for his older brother Charles Augustus.
He lived during the Age of Enlightenment. Görtz and Knebel accompanied Frederick during his Grand Tour to Paris. In Frankfurt, they met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his return to Weimar in 1775, Frederick moved into Tiefurt House.
Later, he found himself unable to build up a relationship with his sister-in-law or with Goethe. He turned to music and fell in love with Caroline von Ilten.
However, his relatives and Goethe held that she was lower nobility, and therefore unsuitable for a marriage and he had to end the relationship. Goethe wrote to Charlotte von Stein:.
I am being blamed for Caroline"s tears, and I"m guilty.
Anna Amalia, Frederick"s mother, held that only "beggar princes" would fall in love with ladies below their station. Frederick then went travelling. had no contents, except he wishes me a happy birthday. He was promoted to lieutenant general and maintained a regiment in Naumburg.
During the War of the First Coalition, he was a major general.
His regiment marched to the Rhine with a Prussian army. He was infected with dysentery when his regiment was encamped near Pirmasens and died when they reached Wiebelskirchen (today part of Neunkirchen).
He was buried in the Street.George church in Eisenach.
Illuminatis.
