page_title: Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
section_title: Return to Berlin
hierarchical_section_title: Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach / Return to Berlin
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Victoria and Empress Augusta
context_page_description: Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the consort of William I, German Emperor.
context_section_description: In 1858, William became Regent after his brother was no longer able to lead his government due to suffering several strokes. He and Augusta traveled to the court at Berlin.
  William soon dismissed the old ministry when he succeeded his childless brother as king in 1861 and appointed liberal ministers of his own, notably from his own court at Koblenz, including: Alexander von Schleinitz, who became Foreign Secretary; August von Bethmann, who became Minister of Culture; and Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen who became Minister President of Prussia. The conservative opponents saw this as the work of Augusta, but her political influence on William was rather small. This became evident a few months later when he dissolved parliament, which was not bending to his will. The King appointed Otto von Bismarck as the new Prussian Minister President. Augusta, now Queen, regarded Bismarck as her mortal enemy and Bismarck likewise despised Augusta for her (albeit small) influence on her husband.
  Augusta was particularly horrified at Bismarck's foreign policy and his cause in the commencement of the Austro-Prussian War. At the same time, she became more and more estranged from the king and Bismarck began to comment negatively on the Queen in parliament; the Queen reacted by being rude to Bismarck's wife, Johanna.
  The Queen soon began to suffer from her manic-depressive phases again and started making frequent trips to Baden-Baden, in search of a cure. At this time, the Prussian population was rejoicing in the victory at Königgrätz, but Augusta began mourning for the dead and injured. Augusta also became estranged from her daughter-in-law, Victoria who, contrary to custom, inherited the former Queen Elisabeth's jewelleries, which were supposed to be left to Augusta. 
  Augusta, who clearly abhorred war, founded the National Women's Association in 1864, which looked after wounded and ill soldiers and convened with Florence Nightingale for ideas. Several hospital foundations exist today from Augusta's initiative, including the German Society of Surgery. Augusta was an avid supporter of the Red Cross movement, and the Augusta Fund at the International Committee of the Red Cross still exists today .
caption: Queen Victoria with Königin Augusta of Prussia in the gardens of Frogmore House, circa 1867.
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP psc1310", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "110", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:01:07 18:48:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "480", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "640", "EXIF Saturation": "3296", "EXIF Sharpness": "3312", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}