
Last grand duke before the 1918 revolution.
Charles Alexander supported the composers Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, hosting them in Weimar. He promoted the New German School of music, making Weimar a center for avant-garde musical innovation.
Charles Alexander inherited the grand duchy upon his father Charles Frederick's death. He ruled during a period of German unification and industrialization, navigating the duchy through the Austro-Prussian War and the founding of the German Empire.
Charles Alexander sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. After Prussia's victory, Saxe-Weimar was forced to join the North German Confederation under Prussian hegemony, losing some autonomy.
Charles Alexander integrated Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach into the newly proclaimed German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I. The grand duchy became a constituent state of the empire, with reduced sovereignty but continued internal autonomy.