(Berlin, 9 November 1723 – Berlin, 30 March 1787)
She was a Prussian princess, composer and abbess. Anna Amalia was the younger sister of Frederick II of Prussia as the daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.
Born in Berlin, she was born with a particular predisposition for music and musical instruments. She learned early to play the harpsichord, flute, and violin, receiving her first lessons from her brother, whom she had been 11 years apart.
At first her father thought of marrying her to the crown prince of Sweden, considering her much more suitable than her sister Luisa Ulrica, defined by Frederick II himself as having an arrogant and intriguing temperament, which would only have brought havoc on such a delicate throne for relationships of Prussia with other countries, while the young Anna Amalia would have been a flexible instrument for Prussian politics in Sweden. Despite this and perhaps sensing the power play, the Swedish crown opted for Luisa Ulrica and Anna Amalia remained alone and abandoned one step away from marriage.
In 1743, Anna secretly married Baron Friedrich von der Trenck, a man whose adventures inspired Victor Hugo and Voltaire's works. The marriage was obviously kept secret because, for dynastic reasons, she would have had to marry a prince of the reigning house of high lineage. When her brother Frederick II, who had come to power in 1740, discovered the deception and the fact that his sister was pregnant, he immediately locked her up in Quedlinburg Abbey, a place of importance where many aristocratic women were sent in case of births uncomfortable outside of marriage. Anna Amalia's marriage was annulled at the request of Frederick II, and Baron von der Trenck was imprisoned for 10 years, although he continued to correspond closely with her beloved until her death.
Given her position, Anna became Abbess of Quedlinburg in 1755, thus becoming a wealthy and prominent woman. However, this position was purely formal and practically only allowed her a rich income to dispose of. It was for this reason that the young princess chose to live mainly in Berlin, where she was able to cultivate her passion for music, becoming patron of many composers of the time.
In 1758, Anna began a systematic study of musical theory and composition, hiring Johann Philipp Kirnberger, who had been a student of Johann Sebastian Bach, as her tutor. She composed chamber music such as flute sonatas and wrote the music for the cantata of the Ramler Passion (The Death of Jesus); the latter was also one of the pieces she most appreciated. However, only a part of her compositions have come down to us as many of these were destroyed by herself, fearful and self-critical of her own productions. She also distinguished herself as a collector of ancient music, conserving approximately 600 volumes by important composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann, and others.
She died on 30 March 1787 in Berlin, and her body was buried in the Hohenzollern chapel of the Berlin Cathedral.
