Reden, Frederica, Countess of

REDEN, rê´den, FREDERICA, COUNTESS OF: German philanthropist; b: at Brunswick May 12, 1774; d. at Erdmannsdorf (a village near Schmiedeberg, 31 m. s.s.w. of Liegnitz) May 14, 1854. In 1802 she married Count Reden, who, like herself, though humanitarian in ideal, was then devoid of special religious interests. The establishment of the Prussian Bible society in 1814, however, led him to found the Buchwald society in the following year 416 and to make his wife its president. After the count's death in 1815, she came into contact with the Moravians, for whom she entertained the highest esteem; she was also led to preside at private devotional meetings which were almost sectarian in character. In 1837 the countess was the prime mover in the settlement of the Zillerthalers (q.v.) near Erdmannsdorf and in providing for their instruction in Protestantism, even though she was confronted by opposition and discouragement. The closing decade and a half of the life of the countess of Reden was devoted chiefly to her Bible society and to the new edition of the Hirschberg Bible (Hirschberg, 1844; see Bibles, Annotated, and Bible Summaries, I., 5), which, under the patronage of Frederick William IV. of Prussia, was destined to replace the rationalistic Schullehrerbibel of Gustav Friedrich Dinter (q.v..).

(Otto Dibelius.)

Bibliography: E. F. Reuss, Friederike, Gräfin von Reden, Berlin. 1888; E. Gebhardt, Gräfin Friederike von Reden, Diesdorf, 1906; ADB, xxvii. 513.