Henriette Amalie of Anhalt-Dessau (b. Dessau, 7 December 1720 - d. Dessau, 5 December 1793), was a German princess of the House of Ascania from the Anhalt-Dessau branch.
She was the fifth (but fourth and youngest surviving) daughter of Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, by his morganatic wife Anna Louise Föse.
In 1741 the twenty-one-year-old Henriette Amalie gave birth to an extramarital son; the father was the son of a court retainer. When she refused to marry him, she was banished from the Dessau court. During the next eleven years she lived as a nun in Herford. Later her father (who himself had two illegitimate children) tried to find a suitable husband for her, but all marriage plans failed. In the meanwhile, she lived openly with the Baron of Rackmann, who was fifteen years her junior. Thanks to her intervention, he was raised to the rank of an Imperial Count and Baron of Bangert.
Probably to be near of her son (who had been put under the care of a banker's family), Henriette Amalie acquired a large house in Bockenheim (Frankfurt am Main), later named the "Villa Passavant," then built the former Franck-school and finally the current Saint Elisabeth's hospital.
In 1753 the princess acquired a property with a house and orangery attached. She pursued extensive agriculture activities and made the estate virtually self-sufficient. She introduced silkworm (Bombyx mori) breeding, kept bees, and sold oranges from her own residence. Also, she fostered the cultivation of asparagus and the growing of other fruits and vegetables.
In Kreuznach she acquired the feudal estate (German: Rittergut) of Bangert and established there a small castle (today a public museum) in the classicist style to replace the old manor house; it was completed about 1775.
The princess managed her extended properties herself, and was also an enthusiastic farmer. Her financial acumen became the basis for an independent and free life. She was said to have been five times richer than the richest farmer in that region. With her wealth she supported numerous artists.
In 1771 she extended her country house with annexes to the castle. Approximately 700 works of art were exhibited in the "Galerie" of the first floor of the remodeled castle. Near the castle a "Marmorbad" was created. Around this time her son died at approximately thirty years of age, a victim of consumption.
In 1790 she acquired a Frankfurt townhouse in Eschenheimer lane.
When French revolutionary troops moved approached Frankfurt in 1792, Henriette Amalie fled to her native Dessau and moved into the "Palais Dietrich" (named after its former owner, her brother Dietrich, who had died in 1769).
One year later Henriette Amalie herself died, two days before her seventy-third birthday. She was buried in Dessau without any of her family members present for the funeral.