Consort: | yes |
Baroness Wilhelmine of Dörnberg | |
Full Name: | German: Wilhelmine Caroline Christiane Henriette |
Reign: | 24 August 1828 – 14 May 1835 |
Succession: | Princess consort of Thurn and Taxis |
Spouse: | Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis |
Issue: | Prince Karl Wilhelm Princess Therese Mathilde Maximilian Anton Lamoral, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis Prince Egon Prince Theodor |
House: | Dörnberg |
Father: | Ernst, Baron von Dörnberg |
Mother: | Baroness Wilhelmine von Glauburg |
Birth Date: | 6 March 1803 |
Birth Place: | Ansbach, Kingdom of Prussia |
Death Place: | Nuremberg, Kingdom of Bavaria |
Burial Place: | Gruftkapelle, Saint Emmeram's Abbey, Regensburg |
Baroness Wilhelmine Caroline Christiane Henriette of Dörnberg, (German: Wilhelmine Caroline Christiane Henriette, Reichsfreiin von Dörnberg; 6 March 1803 - 14 May 1835) was a member of the 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."
Wilhelmine was the daughter of the former Prussian Vice President and Director of the royal chamber of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Baron Ernst Heinrich Konrad Friedrich von Dörnberg (1769-1828) and his wife Baroness Wilhelmine Sophie Henriette Maximiliane von Glauburg (1775-1835). She had two elder siblings, a brother, Count Ernst Friedrich von Dörnberg (1801-1878) and one sister, Countess Sophie von Pückler-Limpurg (1795-1854).
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 in rank to her husband's family. Despite the fierce resistance to the union from the members of the princely house, especially from Maximilian Karl's mother Therese, the two married.[1]
Wilhelmine's brother, Baron Ernst Friedrich von Dörnberg (1801-1878), became chief of the Thurn and Taxis administration and was elevated to the title of Graf von Dörnberg (Count of Dörnberg) in Vienna on February 21, 1865.
In 1834, Wilhelmine fell ill on a hard drive to Castle Chraustowitz, one of the 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.