Baroness Wilhelmine of Dörnberg


Baroness Wilhelmine Caroline Christiane Henriette of Dörnberg, was a member of the :de:Dörnberg |House of Dörnberg and a Baroness of Dörnberg by birth. Through her marriage to Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, Wilhelmine was also a member of the House of Thurn and Taxis. Wilhelmine was known to her family and friends as "Mimi."

Early life

Wilhelmine was the daughter of the former Prussian Vice President and Director of the royal chamber of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Baron Heinrich Ernst Konrad Friedrich von Dörnberg and his wife Baroness Sophie Wilhelmine :de:Glauburg |von Glauburg. She had two elder siblings; a brother, :de:Ernst Friedrich von Dörnberg|Count Ernst Friedrich von Dörnberg and one sister, Countess Sophie von Pückler und Limpurg.

Marriage and issue

Wilhelmine married Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, fourth child of Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis and his wife Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on 24 August 1828 in Regensburg. Wilhelmine and Maximilian Karl had five children:
Wilhelmine's family, the House of Dörnberg, was a Protestant Hessian noble family and was not, according to the laws of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis Family Act of 1776, equal to her husband Maximilian Karl. Despite the fierce resistance to the union from the members of the princely house, especially from Maximilian Karl's mother Therese, the two married.
Wilhelmine's brother, Baron Ernst Friedrich von Dörnberg, became chief of the Thurn and Taxis administration and was elevated to the title of Graf von Dörnberg in Vienna on February 21, 1865.

Illness and death

In 1834, Wilhelmine fell ill on a hard drive to :File:Chroustovice_-_zámek.jpg|Castle Chraustowitz, one many estates that Thurn and Taxis family possessed in Bohemia. At the beginning of 1835, she went to Nuremberg to receive a homeopathic treatment with Dr. Reuter. Wilhelmine was hopeful that the treatments would restore her quality of life. However, she died on 14 May 1835.

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