Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

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Karl Alexander August Johann, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. Weimar, 24 June 1818 - d. Weimar, 5 January 1901) was a Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

He was the second but eldest surviving son of Karl Frederick, Gran Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisemach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.

When he was the Hereditary Grand Duke, Karl Alexander established a strong friendship with Fanny Lewald and Hans Christian Andersen, but this close relationship stopped in 1849 for the war against Denmark in favor of the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein (The First German-Danish War). On 8 July 1853 his father died, and Karl Alexander became Grand Duke; but he stopped his constitutional accession until the Goethe's birthday, on 28 August 1853.

The Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen was reportedly infatuated with Karl Alexander writing that "I quite love the young duke, he is the first of all princes that I really find atractive". ^[1]

Karl Alexander renewed the Wartburg Castle and left in many places of Eisenach his traces. He was the protector of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, retained the tradition of Weimar classical period and gave the old part of Weimar a better and new appearance with the establishment of the monuments Herders, how/as country and the double monument of Goethe and Schiller. In 1860, he created the Art School of Weimar (with Arnold Böcklin, Franz of Lenbach and the plastic artist Reinhold Begas).

In the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Karl Alexander participated only in "Samaritan"; stressed, however, for his war entrance in favor of Schleswig in 1849.

In The Hague on 8 October 1842 Karl Alexander married with his first cousin, the Princess Sophie of the Netherlands, daughter of William II and Anna Pavlovna of Russia, sister of his mother. They had four children:

Karl August Wilhelm Nicolaus Alexander Michael Bernhard Heinrich Frederick Stefan, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. Weimar, 31 July 1844 - d. Cap Martin, France, 20 November 1894).
Marie Anna Alexandrine Sophie Auguste Helene (b. Weimar, 20 January 1849 - d. Trebschen, 6 May 1922), knowly as Marie; married on 6 February 1876 to Prince Heinrich VII Reuss.
Maria Anna Sophia Elisabeth Bernhardine Ida Auguste Helene (b. Weimar, 29 March 1851 - d. Weimar, 26 April 1859), knowly as Anna.
Elisabeth Sibylle Maria Dorothea Anna Amalie Luise (b. Weimar, 28 February 1854 - d. Wiligrad, 10 July 1908), knowly as Elisabeth; married on 6 November 1886 to Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

His reign ended with that Weimar Congress of the Goethe Federation (also called Lex Heinze) in November 1900, and this event called his government as the Silver Age of Weimar.

Following his death, he was succeeded as Grand Duke by his grandson Wilhelm Ernst, because his only son Carl August had predeceased him.