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Friedrich Magnus IV. zu Solms-Wildenfels

26 Jul 1847 – Wildenfels, 25 Nov 1883

7 facts1 source

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 26 Jul 1847

    Born

  2. 25 Nov 1883

    Dies in Wildenfels, aged 36

  3. 30 Dec 1891

    A daughter is born

Family

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Partner

Children · 1

During his lifetime

He lived through 5 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1840s · Friedrich is born

In the news1846–1847

Hunger crisis of 1846-1847

A severe potato blight caused a major hunger crisis across Europe, leading to unrest in Prussian markets and bakeries.

What people wore

Festive attire and heated ruffles

For feast days, women wore black cashmere or silk dresses with a white ruffle at the collar that was permanently set into waves using a heated iron.

Daily life

Child labor and rudimentary schooling conditions

Children in rural areas were often tasked with labor, such as preparing and binding daily bundles of fuel for the household fire, a chore that frequently left their hands bleeding. Schooling was frequently held in the teacher's house, where the teacher was often a poorly paid local craftsman.

In the news1844

Weaver uprising in 1844

Handloom weavers in Upper Silesia led a famous protest against their publishers due to harsh competition from mechanized factories.

Music

The noisy brummtopf folk instrument

The brummtopf was a peculiar noise-making instrument used by groups of young people during winter festivities; it was made of a small wooden barrel covered with calfskin and played by rubbing horsehair strands inserted into the skin with wet hands.

In Europe1845–1852

The Great Famine in Ireland

Potato blight ruined harvests: a million Irish people died and a million more emigrated, many to America.

Getting around

Railways revolutionized travel speeds

The emergence of railways in the 1840s revolutionized travel, drastically reducing journey times compared to stagecoaches. For instance, the Cologne-Minden route, which previously took over 60 hours by coach, could be covered in 9 hours by train by 1847.