The former chief building superintendent in St Petersburg, chamberlain and privy councillor at the Russian tsar’s court Prince Nikolaus Abramowitsch Putjatin (1749-1830) lived from 1797 in Kleinzschachwitz near Dresden, where he had an extravagant villa with 16 balconies, a small observation tower and other special features built according to his own plans. He was regarded as a generous, free-thinking, knowledgeable and lovable eccentric who was positively bubbling over with inventiveness. In today’s Dresden district of Kleinzschachwitz, the memory of the former resident and patron is still alive and well. But Prince Putjatin was no stranger to Dessau either. He was one of the many notable contemporaries who wanted to see with their own eyes the measures taken by the enlightened ruler Leopold Friedrich Franz (1740-1817) to turn the principality (from 1807 duchy) of Anhalt-Dessau into a modern state. Prince Putjatin probably came to Dessau for the first time in 1789 and later repeatedly. His enthusiasm for the New Burial Ground (today: Historical Cemetery), which was laid out according to plans by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff (1736-1800) in 1787-1789, was so great that he had a mausoleum built there, in which both his daughter, his wife and Putjatin himself were also buried and which is still preserved today.

The German scholar Dr. Maria-Verena Leistner, probably the best connoisseur of the extremely diverse work of the poet Wilhelm Müller and already a frequent guest in Dessau-Roßlau, will introduce the Russian high nobleman and his relations to Dessau in her lecture “Patience, deliberation and courage, these are the best weapons in the struggle of life. Nikolaus Abramowitsch Putjatin in Dessau and Dresden. The lecture will take place on Tuesday, 25 April 2023, at 7 p.m. at the Archivverbund Dessau (Alter Wasserturm), Heidestraße 21. The Stadtarchiv Dessau-Roßlau and the Verein für Anhaltische Landeskunde invite you to attend.

Admission is free.