The Spiegelkabinett in the Old Haupbtbau of Ludwigsburg Palace, where Charles Alexander died in 1737.
Charles Alexander of Württemberg (24 January 1684 – 12 March 1737) was a WürttembergDuke from 1698 who governed the Kingdom of Serbia as regent from 1720 until 1733, when he assumed the position of Duke of Württemberg, which he held until his death.
After 13 years of autocratically ruling over Serbia, in 1733 Charles Alexander inherited the Duchy of Württemberg from his cousin, Eberhard Louis. As Duke of Württemberg he moved the court back from Ludwigsburg to the nearby capital of Stuttgart. He ruled over the Duchy until his sudden death in 1737, and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Charles Eugene.
During his reign, he employed as his financier the ill-fated Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, who was executed in 1738 for abuse of office during the reign of the duke.
Although the story of Duke Karl Alexander and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer constituted a relatively obscure episode in German history, it became the subject of a number of literary and dramatic treatments over the course of more than a century; the earliest of these having been Wilhelm Hauff's 1827 novella, titled Jud Süß.[2] The most successful literary adaptation was Lion Feuchtwanger's 1925 novel titled Jud Süß based on a play that he had written in 1916 but subsequently withdrew.
Charles Alexander and his relationship with Oppenheimer is fictionally portrayed in Veit Harlan's 1940 Nazi propaganda film titled Jud Süß. He is portrayed by Heinrich George.
Although inspired by the historical details of Süß's life, Hauff's novella, Feuchtwanger's novel, and Harlan's film only loosely correspond to the historical sources available at the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg.
Ancestors
Ancestors of Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg
