Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin

Princess Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin (also known as Amaliia Samuilovna Golitsyna or in Russian as Амалия Самуиловна Голицына; 28 August 1748 – 17 April 1806) was the daughter of the Prussian Field Marshal Count Samuel von Schmettau and the mother of Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin.

She was born in Berlin on 28 August 1748, the daughter of Prussian Field Marshall Samuel von Schmettau. Her father died when she was very young, and at the age of four or five, her mother placed her in a convent school in Breslau. At the age of nine, she was brought back home to Berlin and taught by private tutors. At the age of fourteen or fifteen she attended a French finishing academy in the city for two years.

After leaving finishing school, Amalie was introduced into society and invited to become one of the maids of honor to Princess Ferdinand, wife of Prince Ferdinand, brother of Frederick the Great. It was while on an excursion with Princess Ferdinand and other ladies of court to the spa at Aachen, that she met Prince Dimitri Gallitzin. Prince Gallitzin was returning to Saint Petersburg, having completed fourteen years serving as Catherine the Great's ambassador to France.

On 28 August 1768, her twentieth birthday, she married the Prince in a chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle. The couple proceeded to Saint Petersburg, where her husband was given a posting as Imperial Ambassador to Holland. On the way to The Hague, they stopped in Berlin, where her daughter Princess Marianna was born on 7 December 1769. The family stayed there some time before continuing to The Hague, where on 22 December 1770, her son Prince Demetri was born.

At the age of 24 she forsook society suddenly and devoted herself to the education of her children. She applied herself to the study of mathematics, classical philology, and philosophy under Franz Hemsterhuis, who kindled her enthusiasm for Socratic-Platonic idealism, and later under the name of "Diokles" dedicated to her the "Diotima", his Lettres sur l'atheisme.

...
Wikipedia