Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (November 9, 1723 - March 30, 1787) was one of eight surviving children of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and Sophie Dorothea von Hannover, and was the younger sister of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Friedrich the Great. November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... Events February 16 - Louis XV of France attains his majority Births February 24 - John Burgoyne, British general (d. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Frederick William I of Prussia (in German: Friedrich Wilhelm I), of the House of Hohenzollern (August 14, 1688 - May 31, 1740), often known as the Soldier-King, reigned as King of Prussia (1713 - 1740). ... Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ...

Born in Berlin, she was eleven years younger than her brother, and would have been seven years old when he made his abortive attempt to run away from home, after being humiliated by his father. Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ...

Both children were musically inclined, however for Anna formal musical instruction was only possible after the death of her music-hating father. Music was her secret consolation against his cruelty to her (he would often drag her across a room by the hair during his rages).

Anna learned to play the harpsichord, flute, and violin, receiving her first lessons from her brother, which her more 'civilised' mother encouraged.

In 1743, Anna secretly married Baron Friedrich von der Trenck, a man whose adventures inspired works by literary greats such as Victor Hugo and Voltaire. When her brother, who had ascended to the throne in 1740, discovered she had married and was pregnant, he packed her off in a rage to the Abbey of Quedlinburg, a place where many aristocratic women were sent to give birth to children out of wedlock. Anna's marriage was annulled at the request of Friedrich II, and von der Trenck was imprisoned for ten years. However, Anna continued to correspond with him until her death. Victor Hugo Victor Hugo (February 26, 1802 - May 22, 1885) was a French author, the most important of the Romantic authors in the French language. ... Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher. ... Events May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). ... The city of Quedlinburg in the German Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt has existed since at least the early ninth century, when a settlement known as Gross Orden existed at the site of the modern Quedlinburg. ...

Anna became the Abbess of Quedlinburg in 1755, making her a wealthy woman. She chose to spend most of her time in Berlin, where she devoted herself to music, and became known as a musical patron and composer. 1755 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1758, Anna began a serious study of musical theory and composition, engaging as her tutor Johann Philipp Kirnberger, a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. She composed chamber music, such as flute sonatas, and wrote music to Ramler's Passion Canata 'The Death of Jesus'. Only a few of her works have survived, and it is probable that she may have destroyed many of her compositions. After all, she did describe herself as being very 'timorous and self-critical'. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1748 portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685[1] (O.S.) – July 28, 1750[2] (N.S.)) was a German composer and organist of the Baroque period, and is universally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. ...

Anna was also a collector of old music, preserving over 600 volumes of works by notables such as J. S. Bach, Handel, Telemann, and others. This act in itself was a significant contribution to Western culture. Her library was split between East Germany and West Germany after World War II and still survives today. George Frideric Handel (German Georg Friedrich Händel), (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German-born British Baroque music composer. ... Georg Philipp Telemann (March 14, 1681–June 25, 1767) was a German Baroque music composer, born in Magdeburg. ... For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture Western Culture refers to the culture that has developed in the Western world. ... East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...