Biography

Dietrich von Anhalt-Dessau. (1702-1769) (aka. Prince Diederic)

Son of Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau (1676-1747) and Anna Luise Föhse (1677-1745).

He was a sometime Field Marshall in the Prussian army, and acting regent of Anhalt-Dessau from 1751 to 1758, during the minority of his nephew Leopold III. He died in 1769 without issue.

Life with James Boswell:

Boswell was introduced to Dietrich by G. H. Berenhorst on September 25, 1764. Boswell found him a tall, comely old man of sixty-two and just one of the old Germans, rough and cordial. The old Prince then showed Boswell his stables, and they both set out on a hunt together with most of the court of Anhalt-Dessau present in the city on that day.

At the end of the hunt Dietrich presented Boswell with the stag's foot, noting that it was a mark of distinction. Boswell apparently intended to have it laid up in the museum at Auchinleck together with an inscription on a plate, but no further mention of it seems to exist, except for a Latin inscription intended for that purpose, in a letter to Boswell from David Dalrymple.

Following a hunt on September 28, Boswell and others again dined with Prince Dietrich, and he this day described the Prince as a plain, warm-hearted old man.

This article was last updated at March 20 2008 12:29:31 CET

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