Great, Margarethe Maria Magdalena

Born: 26.02.1717 in Wiesbaden

died: 16.12.1787 in Wiesbaden

Groß was the daughter of the deceased town mayor of Wiesbaden, Philipp Adolph Groß. She grew up as an orphan with a close relative, the Wiesbaden town councillor Johann Christoph Koepp.

From around 1741, she was married to Prince Karl zu Nassau-Usingen. The Wiesbaden church register records that in 1743, on the death of her illegitimate child Sophia Elisabetha (born around 23.06.1742), she is described as being "at the local princely court" without giving her name. After 1755, she was married to the Prince in a second - morganatic - marriage. This marriage produced two surviving children: Philippine Catharina von Biburg (17.05.1744 in Idstein - 17.07.1798 in Wiesbaden), married since 1773 to the Nassau government president Karl Julius Hermann Friedrich Freiherr von Kruse, and Karl Philipp von Biburg (25.03.1746 - 15.08.1789 in Wiesbaden), elevated to Count of Weilnau by Emperor Joseph II. Two other children died in infancy. Prince Karl had acquired the title "von Biburg" - the old name of Biebrich, his new residence - for his children from Emperor Charles VII.

The Prince bought a number of estates in Wiesbaden for his wife as security; she leased the land after his death. She lived in Wiesbaden on the Schröder estate as "Madame Grosin". Prince Karl had moved the princely residence from Usingen in the Taunus mountains to Biebrich on the Rhine in 1744. Christian Spielmann even suspected that love for Maria Magdalena Groß had prompted the prince to make the move.