Frederick Adolphus, Count of Lippe-Detmold

Frederick Adolphus of Lippe-Detmold (Friedrich Adolf zur Lippe-Detmold; 2 September 1667 - 18 July 1718) was a German nobleman and the Count of Lippe-Detmold from 1697 to 1718.

Born in Detmold Palace, Frederick Adolphus was the eldest of sixteen children of Simon Henry, Count of Lippe-Detmold and Baroness Amalia of Dohna-Vianen, Burgravine of Utrecht and heiress of Vianen and Ameide.

He broke with the tradition of his predecessors, who had paid a subsidy to the Holy Roman Empire in lieu of their military obligations, by raising his own company of Lippe troops. This was increased to battalion strength as required by the Empire. However, during his rule the troops did not see any operational service. Frederick Adolphus apparently rewarded his followers with generous donations; for example, on 16 June 1699 he enfeoffed Frantz Dietrich Bohsen with the village of Ilendorf between Pömbsen and Nieheim, with the Court of Döringsfelde, and the tithes of Wintrup and Großen Heisten. In 1712, he enfeoffed the sons of his Lieutenant Johann Adolf von Schledorn with the town of Anröchte.

In October 1698, Frederick Adolphus took the Hamburg Baroque artist, Hans Hinrich Rundt, into his service. Rundt painted a number of portraits of the Count's family and also decorated the luxurious renovations of the comital palace, with wall and ceiling paintings.

The Count was a typical Baroque ruler. His building work overburdened the territory's finances. In 1716, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great commented on the occasion of a hunting visit in Bad Pyrmont: "Your Highness is too big for this country". His most famous project, the Friedrichstal Canal (German: Friedrichstaler Kanal) is still visible today in Detmold and is a popular Sunday walk for the local population. The Dutch hydraulic engineering specialist Hendrick Kock was responsible for the construction of the canal. His "Favorite Palace" (German: Schloss Favorite) was located on one side of the canal and, since 1954, has been part of the Detmold College of Music (Hochschule für Musik Detmold). The subsequent landscaped parks made in the English style Palace Garden (German: Palaisgarten) were opened to the public only in 1919. From the Garden Friedrichstal only remained the Mausoleum at Büchenberg, the Neuer Krug and the Krummes Haus on the site of today's Detmold Open-air Museum. In order to provide the appropriate framework of this project, the Count ordered the construction near the south gate of a cavalier house, now the Hotel Lippischer Hof and a group of new houses, who formed the today's vicinity of Neustadt.

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