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Maria Theresia Ahlefeldt

1755–1810

Born
16 Jan 1755, Regensburg
Country of birth
Holy Roman Empire, today Germany
Died
20 Dec 1810, Prague
facts
9
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Regensburg

    Birth, Regensburg

  2. Died · Prague

    Death, Prague

What was it like?

The world around Regensburg, 1755: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Maria was born around the same time as Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers, Georg Forster, and Muzio Clementi.

Born around the same time

  • Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers

    1758 · German physician and astronomer (1758-1840)

  • Georg Forster

    1754 · German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary (1754-1794)

  • Muzio Clementi

    1752 · Italian-born English composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer

  • Adolph Freiherr Knigge

    1752 · German writer and leading Illuminati member (1752–1796)

  • Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli

    1752 · Italian composer (1752–1837)

  • James Monroe

    1758 · president of the United States from 1817 to 1825 (1758–1831)

Fashion

Noble Men Preferred Wigs Over Beards

In the 18th century, noble men famously wore wigs and makeup, while facial hair was strictly shunned for most men, marking a major departure from later masculine standards.

Practical Work Clothes for Women

Working women wore practical, loose-fitting clothing like an apron, headscarf, and cap, with shorter skirts and wide sleeves to allow free arm movement while handling water, fire, or animals.

Music
Around 1748–1748

Extensive hymn book for Prussian churches

A comprehensive hymn book published in 1748 contained 1,062 selected spiritual songs used in evangelical churches across the Kingdom of Prussia.

Everyday singing in homes and workrooms

Singing was a common activity in daily life, often performed without sheet music while working, such as during textile work in spinning rooms, or at church services and social gatherings.

Getting around

Dangers and Hardships of 18th-Century Travel

Travel was often physically demanding and dangerous, with carriages that were frequently uncomfortably sprung or unsprung, causing travelers to suffer from motion sickness or injury. Due to the poor state of roads and the threat of highwaymen, travelers often carried weapons or avoided unnecessary trips, with some prominent figures never leaving their home region.

Stagecoach Travel at Walking Speed

In the mid-18th century, the stagecoach was the primary mode of travel for those who could afford it, moving at a walking pace of about 4 to 5 kilometers per hour. A trip from Nuremberg to Leipzig typically took around 70 hours, while the journey from Nuremberg to Regensburg required 20 hours.

Daily life

Homes with Sanded Floors and Lead Windows

In homes with stone or brick floors, families often scattered sand across the floor and stairs. Windows featured small round glass panes set within lead frames.

Open Hearth Cooking and Pump Well Water

Cooking took place in the living room over an open fireplace or a masonry hearth with a recessed grate, using wood or brown coal for fuel. Drinking water was typically sourced from communal pump wells located in the village center.

Food

Beer and coffee substitutes as staples

Ordinary people drank low-alcohol thin beer daily, which was considered nutritious and sometimes served as a soup to children. Coffee was expensive, leading many to drink substitutes like chicory or roasted cereals, a mixture often referred to as Bauernkaffee or Muckefuck.

Kitchen tools for open fire cooking

To save time while cooking soups, housewives used hooks with a sawtooth design to quickly adjust the height of pots over the fire. They also used a specialized iron tool called a Cold Hand to remove hot pots because oven mitts were not yet in use.

Prices and wages
Around 1752–1752

Annual servant wages in 1752

Annual wages for a head farmhand were set at 12 Taler, while a maid earned 6 Taler under the 1752 servant regulations.

Grain prices in Berlin

In 1740, a bushel of rye in Berlin cost 1 thaler and 21 groschen due to a bad harvest, though prices typically stabilized between 19 and 20 groschen until the Seven Years' War. At the time, one thaler was equal to 24 groschen.

Work

Common jobs and multiple occupations

Most people worked as farmers, laborers, or in cottage industries like spinning and weaving, often combining multiple trades to survive. Families commonly engaged in seasonal outwork, such as weaving in winter and bricklaying in summer, to supplement meager agricultural income.

Long working days and quotas

Daily routines for farm laborers started before daybreak with breaking flax or chopping fodder and continued until late at night, often including mandatory spinning quotas. A 13-year-old stable boy, for instance, received an annual salary of 4 Reich thalers and clothing.

News and letters

Costs for receipts and complex fees

To obtain a receipt for money or valuable letters, senders had to pay an extra fee of 1 or 2 ß (Schilling) to the postmaster. Fees for postal services were complex and often led to heated arguments between clerks and customers.

Newspapers as a lucrative postal monopoly

Newspapers were a profitable monopoly for postmasters, who bought them at a fixed price and charged readers a high premium to resell them. In smaller towns, readers paid dearly for this service and often suffered from significant delivery delays.

During their lifetime

  1. 1756

    Seven Years' War casualties and destruction

    During the Seven Years' War, some 160,000 Prussian soldiers died in battle or from disease, devastating the population.

  2. 1766

    State monopolies on consumer goods introduced

    A new tax and excise ordinance in 1766 created state monopolies on items including tobacco, coffee, and porcelain.

  3. 1770

    Devastating famine strikes Czech lands

    A devastating famine between 1770 and 1772, caused by multiple years of crop failure, claimed up to 500,000 lives, or 10-15 percent of the population.

  4. 1770

    Migration during the 1770-71 famine

    During the great famines of 1770–71, peasants from other parts of Germany migrated to Prussia where food supplies were more accessible.

  5. 1775

    Major peasant revolt in Bohemia

    In 1775, thousands of peasants rose up against oppressive labor duties, resulting in a major defeat at the Battle of Chlumec nad Cidlinou.

  6. 1781

    Abolition of serfdom in Habsburg Empire

    In 1781, Emperor Joseph II issued a patent abolishing serfdom, granting peasants the right to move, marry, and study without their lord's permission.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.