Susanna Margarete of Anhalt-Dessau


Susanna Margarete of Anhalt-Dessau, was by birth a member of the House of Ascania and princess of Anhalt-Dessau. After her marriage she became Countess of Hanau-Lichtenberg.
She was the eighth daughter of John George I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, but fifth-born daughter of his second wife Dorothea, daughter of John Casimir of Simmern.

Life

In 1641, at the age of thirty-one, Susanna Margarete was betrothed to John Ernest, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels, the last male heir of the line of Hanau-Münzenberg; however, he died of smallpox shortly before the wedding was to take place in 1642.
In Buchsweiler on 16 February 1651, Susanna Margarete married John Philip of Hanau-Lichtenberg, younger brother of the ruling Count Frederick Casimir, husband of her older sister Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau.
Probably on account of the substantial age difference between the spouses, the marriage was childless.