Erdmuthe Dorothea of Reuss Ebersdorf

Life

Erdmuthe Dorothea Von Reuss was born November 7, 1700 in the village of Ebersdorf, in Thuringia. She was the daughter of Count Henry X of Reuss-Ebersdorf and his wife, Erdmuthe Benigna of Solms-Laubach. She enjoyed a pietistic upbringing according to the principles Philip Jacob Spener.

In 1721, at the wedding of her brother, Henry XXIX, she met his friend Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who had originally wanted to marry Henry's bride, Sophia Theodora of Castell-Remlingen (1703–1777). Exactly one year later, she married him. The marriage was described as combative, based on a mutual decision to strive - fight, if you will - for mutual goals, rather than convenience or love. They had twelve children, among them, Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf.

Erdmuthe, who had learned from her mother how to administer a county, took over the business of managing her husbands possessions in Berthelsdorf and the newly founded settlement of Herrnhut. In the Moravian Church, she ran the orphanage, in addition to raising her own twelve children. After her husband's first expulsion in 1732, he transferred his possessions to her. She toured several European countries together with her husband and during his eleven years of exile, she administered his assets and managed the Moravian Church.

In 1755 her husband returned from exile in London. They had grown apart during his exile, and lived separately after his return: he resided at his castle in Berthelsdorf; she lived in Herrnhut. After the death of her last son, Christian Renatus, her health began failing.

Legacy

Erdmuthe Dorothea wrote a number of hymns and initiated the annual publication of the Daily Watchwords.