Karl Wilhelm Prince of Nassau-Usingen

born: 09.11.1735 in Usingen

died: 17.05.1803 in Biebrich

As the son of Prince Karl zu Nassau-Usingen and Princess Christiane Wilhelmine von Sachsen-Eisenach, Hereditary Prince Karl lived in Biebrich Palace from 1744 and received his education in Utrecht and France. In 1775, he succeeded his father in the government of the Principality of Nassau-Usingen with residence in Biebrich.

He promoted Wiesbaden with a view to revitalizing the spa business. In 1778, he issued a police decree on the use of the manorial garden at the Wiesenbrunnen fountain in front of the Sonnenberger Tor. Under his reign, the Wiesbaden City Council issued a detailed ordinance regulating bathing operations in 1781. Between 1785-89, he had a new hospital for the poor built on the site of the old hospital building at Kochbrunnen. In 1777, a concession for a special Jewish hazard game was added to the general casino. Karl made it possible for the Reformed and Catholics to worship in Wiesbaden, made special concessions to the Roman Catholics of the city in 1800 and allowed them not only to worship but also to establish their own parish and a house of prayer, albeit without a tower, in the courtyard of the "Zum Rappen" inn they had purchased in Marktstraße.

When the Nassau-Saarbrück line died out, Karl also inherited the Saarland possessions of the House of Nassau. During his reign, Wiesbaden experienced the French Revolutionary Wars with marches, encampments and headquarters, which also caused Charles, who had fled from Biebrich to Idstein, financial difficulties at times. When the left bank of the Rhine was lost in the course of the French wars of expansion, he was richly compensated with secularized territories under the Imperial Deputation of 1803. Just a few days before his death, he issued a proclamation which initiated the structural redesign and expansion of Wiesbaden.

Karl, who had married Countess Caroline Felicitas von Leiningen-Heidesheim in 1760, was buried in Usingen.