All the Beauty and Magic of the World

Their marriage caused a sensation: Lucie von Hardenberg, the wealthy daughter of the Prussian State Chancellor, mother of two daughters and recently divorced, married the much younger adventurer Hermann Prince Pückler at the age of 40. He was not yet the successful writer and famous landscape architect he would later become, but a lord with an old castle and astronomical debts. However, he was charming and eloquent – and people admired his flashes of genius and his elegant demeanour.

After nine happy years, they suddenly divorced, a scandal that shook society. The exorbitant expenses for Muskau Castle and Park had driven the couple to the brink of financial ruin; the prince wanted to find a wealthy heiress in England. His letters to Lucie from this journey, sparkling with wit and tender love, became a European bestseller under the title Letters from a Dead Man. His journey to the Orient was sensational, from which he brought back the very young slave Machbuba as his »concubine« – something that was unheard of at the time and still sparks discussion today.

Much has been written about Prince Pückler and his unique parks; little is known, however, about his wife Lucie, without whose loving devotion his life would probably have taken a different course. Dagmar von Gersdorff, known for her successful portrayals of Goethe's mother, Caroline von Humboldt, Julia Mann, and Goethe's daughter-in-law Ottilie von Goethe, tells the story of the most colourful couple of Goethe’s era.