Wilhelmine Encke-Ritz-Lichtenau: Writing and Reading the Life of a Prussian Royal Mistress

The life of Wilhelmine Encke, better known as Countess Lichtenau or "the German Pompadour," has been narrated extensively from her own best years into the twenty-first century. This article traces these life writings, and investigates how the issue of the legitimacy of female power in the realms of politics intertwined with discourses on gender roles and historical memory.