Background
Her father, Johann Elias Enke, was a chamber musician in service of King Frederick II of Prussia.
Her father, Johann Elias Enke, was a chamber musician in service of King Frederick II of Prussia.
She is regarded as politically active and influential in the policy of Prussia during his reign. Wilhelmine met Crown Prince Fredrick William in 1764. The king preferred that the crown prince maintain a relationship with her rather than have changing relationships with foreign women, and in 1769 she became the crown prince"s official mistress.
The couple had five children, of whom only one survived to adulthood:
A daughter (born and died 10 August 1770).
Ulrike Sophie von Berckholz (March 1774 - 5 September 1774). Christina Sophie Frederica von Lützenberg (25-31 August 1777).
Count Alexander von der Marck (4 January 1779 - 1 August 1787), reportedly the King"s favorite child. He was probably poisoned.
She had four daughters in her three marriages, the eldest of them was the notorious poetess Countess Louise of Stolberg-Stolberg.
In 1782, Fredrick William arranged for her to marry his councillor and chamberlain Johann Friedrich Rietz (1755–1809), but the relationship between Wilhelmine and Fredrick William continued. lieutenant is debated whether Wilhelmine co-operated with Johann Rudolph von Bischoffswerder and Johann Christoph von Wöllner to keep the monarch under control. Wilhelmine was given the title Countess von Lichtenau in 1794, but that was not made public until 1796.
After Frederick William died in 1797, Wilhelmine was exiled and her property confiscated, although she was granted a pension (1800).
In 1811, Napoleon allowed her to return to Berlin. Wilhelmine, known popularly as "Beautiful Wilhelmine", is closely associated with the Marmorpalais in Potsdam.
As Friedrich Wilhelm II"s official mistress, she had great influence on the interior decoration of the palace. Following plans by Michael Philipp Boumann, an early classicist style townhouse called Lichtenau Palace was erected for her at the edge of Potsdam"s Neuer Garten, at a site on today"s Behlertstrasse.
She is a main character in Ernst von Salomon"s 1965 novel Die schöne Wilhelmine, which also was turned into a 1984 television serial.