Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen

Frederick Ferdinand of Anhalt-Köthen (25 June 1769, Pless – 23 August 1830, Köthen) was a German prince, Ascanian ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Pless and, from 1818, of the duchy of Anhalt-Köthen. He was the second son of Frederick Erdmann, Prince of Anhalt-Pless, and his wife, Louise Ferdinande, daughter of Henry Ernest, Count of Stolberg-Wernigerode.

In 1786 he joined the Prussian army, where he obtained the rank of Generalmajor. From 1792 to 1794, he fought in military campaigns on the Rhine.

After the death of his father and his mentally retarded older brother's renunciation of succession rights (1797), Frederick Ferdinand inherited the non-sovereign Prussian state country of Pless, but in 1803 he returned to the Prussian army.

In Lindenau bei Heiligenbeil on 20 August 1803 Frederick Ferdinand married Princess Maria Dorothea Henriette Louise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (28 September 1783, Lindenau – 24 November 1803, Pless), daughter of Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, and by birth a princess of Denmark as a descendant in the male line of King Christian III. The union lasted only three months until Louise's death.

After the Battle of Jena, he commanded his own regiment at Zehdenick near the enemy lines, but was forced to withdraw to Bohemia in order to ensure the disarmament of the Austrians. Soon afterwards he retired from the military and made a trip to the Netherlands and France before his return to Pless. During the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1813, he was Commander of the Silesian countryside.

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