The marriage was tense; Wilhelm actually wanted to marry his cousin, Elisa Radziwiłł, who was judged to be unsuitable by the Prussian court, and the political views and intellectual interests of the two spouses were also far apart.

[1] She was the third (but second surviving) child of Charles Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, sister of Emperor (Tsar) Alexander I of Russia.

[6] As Gall believes, the political climate in Weimar favored Augusta's later proximity to a circle in the so-called Wochenblattpartei, who advocated not only for a Lesser Germany unity without Austria, but also for an "alliance with the leading forces of the liberal bourgeoisie" and a continuation of the Prussian reforms.

[7] The GDR historian Ernst Engelberg, on the other hand, fundamentally denies Augusta's liberal stance: her political views are more likely to be located in the tradition of enlightened absolutism.

[10] Augusta's mother, Maria Pavlovna, made marriage plans for both daughters towards Prussia, which bordered Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach on several sides and was therefore perceived as a threat to the Grand Duchy.

A daughter of the Prussian King Frederick William III, Princess Charlotte, had already been married to Nicholas, Emperor Alexander I's second brother and eventual successor, in 1817.

[19] According to the historian Robert-Tarek Fischer, the marriage was tense for several reasons: On the one hand, William, who was 14 years older, made no secret of his continued affection for Elisa.

[21] Augusta had a great influence on the upbringing of the future heir to the throne: Frederick William completed a military career, but was also taught natural sciences, philosophy, literature and classical studies according to a neo-humanistic curriculum.

She saw her position as increasingly useless and complained that only Crown Princess Elisabeth, the wife of the future King Frederick William IV, was allowed to do charitable work.

As a builder, she had some influence on the palace's construction: after studying architectural theoretical works and engravings of English country estates, she made sketches herself and asked the responsible architects to implement their designs.

[35] According to the historian Caroline Galm, Augusta saw it as her duty to give her son Frederick William a chance at the throne through his own political involvement.

[39] Victoria showed sympathy for Augusta and said in a letter to the Belgian king: She is too enlightened and too liberal not to have enemies at the Prussian court, but I believe that I have found in her a friend who can be very useful to us.

[39]The correspondence between the British Queen and Augusta continued for several decades and ultimately initiated the marriage between her son Frederick William and Victoria's eldest daughter and namesake, the Princess Royal.

[50] The historian David E. Barclay estimates her role to the effect that "she successfully defended William's position as heir to the throne in the spring and summer".

[72] During the escalating conflict between her husband and the House of Representatives, Augusta and William tried to talk out of appointing Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister.

Crown Prince Frederick William commented on his decision with the words: "Poor Mama, how bitterly this [sic] appointment of her mortal enemy will hurt her".

According to Bismarck, his political opponents would form in Augusta's environment, including Crown Princess Victoria and the entire court faction that was hostile to him.

[83] Birgit Aschmann puts this assessment into perspective by referring to Queen Augusta's 4th Guard Grenadier Regiment, which was subordinate to her and which the monarch particularly supported.

To improve the care of the wounded in the hospitals, the Queen visited the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale and received Henry Dunant, who had founded the Red Cross in 1863–64.

William initially had a similar opinion, but in July 1870 he did not want to give the French government a promise that it would never approve a Hohenzollern's candidacy for the Spanish throne.

[98] For example, in order to gain sympathy in predominantly Catholic southern Germany, Augusta recommended that her husband diplomatically advocate for the Pope's rights in October 1870.

[116] Since Bismarck had not been on good terms with Augusta since the revolution of 1848, he painted a negative picture of the Empress in his autobiography, Thoughts and Memories: she had exerted a harmful influence on William I and was due to her sympathies for the French and English culture was unpatriotic.

[120] In addition to Bismarck, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, publicly positioned himself against the supposed dominance of the Empress and Crown Princess Victoria, his own niece.

The historian Helke Rausch interprets the erection of the Augusta monument "in the middle of the monarchical representation area" as an "attempt at politicization": since celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the founding of the German Empire were imminent at the time, the former head of the Berlin city council, Albert Stryck, pleaded in his speech at the monument to see Augusta as a representative figure of the German Empire alongside William I, the generals and statesmen.

At the top, the emblems of the German Empire, Alsace and Lorraine also refer to the newly created imperial state of Alsace-Lorraine; Augusta thus appears as a triumphant.

[55] According to Caroline Galm, there have so far been "only small, scientifically based studies" available, for example by the historians David E. Barclay, Alexa Geisthövel, Georg Wagner-Kyora, Frank Lorenz Müller and Susanne Bauer.

The Augusta biographies from the time of the German Empire lacked "any source basis and –depending on the author's political background– assessed the Empress either in a harmonizing, panegyric or grossly negative manner".

[153] According to Aschmann, research on Augusta is particularly interested in the fact that it was in conflict with "common patterns, gender expectations and political preferences of the time, not least the nationalist–militaristic mainstream".

[155] Frank Lorenz Müller sees Augusta's political influence only limited to two areas, the education of the heir to the throne Friedrich Wilhelm and his marriage into the liberal British royal family.

The crucial question was whether actors such as the British Queen Victoria or the Grand Duke of Baden, Frederick II, took her seriously as important political allies or merely saw her as a "relationship broker" close to the German Emperor.