March 9, 1888: Death of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

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Franco-Prussian War, German Chancellor, German Emperor Wilhelm I, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, King of Prussia, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Otto von Bismarck, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Wilhelm I (March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) was King of Prussia and German Emperor. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858, when he became regent for his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV, whose death three years later would make him king.

Queen Louise of Prussia with her two eldest sons (later King Frederick William IV of Prussia and the first German Emperor William I), circa 1808

The future King and Emperor was born Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin on March 22, 1797. As the second son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia the future King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

His mother was Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father Charles was a brother of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom and wife of King George III. Her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

When Wilhelm was born his grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm II, was King of Prussia and Wilhelm was not expected to ascend to the throne. His grandfather died the year he was born, at age 53, in 1797, and his father became King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

He was educated from 1801 to 1809 by Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Delbrück [de], who was also in charge of the education of Wilhelm’s brother, the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm III. At age twelve, his father appointed him an officer in the Prussian army. The year 1806 saw the defeat of Prussia by France and the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1829, Wilhelm married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the daughter of Grand Duke Charles Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia a daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Their marriage was outwardly stable, but not a very happy one.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia was the sister of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia who married Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), sister of Emperor/King Wilhelm of Prussia.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Princess Charlotte of Prussia took the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted to Orthodoxy. Nicholas and Charlotte were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.

On January 2, 1861, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died and Wilhelm ascended the throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia. In July, a student from Leipzig attempted to assassinate Wilhelm, but he was only lightly injured.

Like Friedrich I, King in Prussia, Wilhelm travelled to Königsberg and there crowned himself at the Schlosskirche. Wilhelm chose the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, October 18 for this event, which was the first Prussian crowning ceremony since 1701 and the only crowning of a German king in the 19th century. Wilhelm refused to comply with his brother’s wish, expressed in Friedrich Wilhelm’s last will, that he should abrogate the constitution.

In 1867, the North German Confederation was created as a federation (federally organised state) of the North German and Central German states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. King Wilhelm assumed the Bundespräsidium, the Presidency of the Confederation; the post was a hereditary office of the Prussian crown.

Not expressis verbis, but in function he was the head of state. Bismarck intentionally avoided a title such as Präsident as it sounded too republican. King Wilhelm became the constitutional Bundesfeldherr, the commander of all federal armed forces. Via treaties with the South German states, he also became commander of their armies in times of war. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm was in command of all the German forces at the crucial Battle of Sedan.

German Emperor

During the Franco-Prussian War, the South German states joined the North German Confederation, which was reorganized as the German Empire (Deutsches Reich). The title of Bundespräsidium was amended with the title of German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).

Wilhelm is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France flanked by his only son, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and son in law – Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Baden. Painting by Anton von Werner

This was decided on by the legislative organs, the Reichstag and Bundesrat, and William agreed to this on December 8 in the presence of a Reichstag delegation. The new constitution and the title of German Emperor came into effect on January 1, 1871.

Wilhelm, however, hesitated to accept the constitutional title, as he feared that it would overshadow his own title as King of Prussia. He also wanted it to be “Emperor of Germany” but Bismarck warned him that the South German princes and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria might protest as that title indicated supremacy over all German monarchs.

Wilhelm eventually—though grudgingly—relented and on 18 January 18, he was formally proclaimed as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The date was chosen as the coronation date of the first Prussian king in 1701. In the national memory, January 18 became the day of the foundation of the Empire (Reichsgründungstag), although it did not have a constitutional significance.

To many intellectuals, the coronation of Emperor Wilhelm was associated with the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. Felix Dahn wrote a poem, “Macte senex Imperator” (Hail thee, old emperor) in which he nicknamed Wilhelm Barbablanca (whitebeard), a play on the name of the medieval Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (redbeard).

According to the King asleep in mountain legend, Barbarossa slept under the Kyffhäuser mountain until Germany had need of him. Wilhelm I was thus portrayed as a second coming of Barbarossa. The Kyffhäuser Monument portrays both emperors.

In 1872, he arbitrated a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States, deciding in favor of the U.S. and placing the San Juan Islands of modern-day Washington within U.S. national territory, thus ending the 12-year bloodless Pig War.

In his memoirs, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck describes Wilhelm as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by “female influences”.

This was a reference to Wilhelm’s wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal.

Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas. Despite possessing considerable power as Emperor Wilhelm left the task of governing mostly to his chancellor, limiting himself to representing the state and approving Bismarck’s every policy. In private he once remarked on his relationship with Bismarck: It is difficult to be Emperor under such a chancellor.

Wilhelm’s funeral procession, 1888

Emperor Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888 in Berlin after a short illness, less than two weeks before his 91st birthday. He was buried on March 16 at the Mausoleum at Park Charlottenburg.

He was succeeded by his son Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm who was already in ill health himself (suffering from throat cancer). Emperor Friedrich III spent the 99 days of his reign fighting his illness before dying and being succeeded by his eldest son Wilhelm on June 15 as German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II.

The Life of Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt

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Bellevue Palace, Duke Eduard of Anhalt, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Johannes-Michael Freiherr von Loën, King of Prussia, Prince Charles Franz of Prussia, Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, Prince Joachim of Prussia, Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt

Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt (June 10, 1898 – May 22, 1983)

Her Highness Princess Marie-Auguste was born in Ballenstedt, Anhalt, Germany, to the then Prince Eduard of Anhalt and his wife Princess Louise Charlotte of Saxe-Altenburg, the daughter of Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen. Her father was a son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and a younger brother of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg.

Her father, Eduard succeeded his brother Duke Friedrich II of Anhalt on April 21, 1918, but his brief reign came to an end five months later with his own death on September 13, 1918. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Prince Joachim Ernst under the regency of Eduard’s younger brother, Prince Aribert.

Prince Joachim Ernst’s brief reign came to an end on November 12, 1918 with his uncle abdicating in his name following the German revolution. The duchy became the Free State of Anhalt and is today part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Duke Joachim Ernst joined the ruling Nazi Party in 1939. He died at the Buchenwald concentration camp after World War II as a prisoner of the Soviet Union.

Princess Marie-Auguste was raised in Dessau, the capital of the duchy of Anhalt. She had five siblings, but her elder sister Friederike and brother Leopold died while infants. Marie-Auguste was an elder sister of Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt.

First marriage and Divorce

On March 11, 1916 in Berlin, Marie-Auguste married Prince Joachim of Prussia, the youngest son of German Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Princess Victoria Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Prince Joachim of Prussia

Marie-Auguste and Joachim, who was Wilhelm’s last unmarried child, had been officially engaged since October 14 of the previous year. The wedding was celebrated at Bellevue Palace, and was attended by Joachim’s father and mother Empress Augusta Victoria, the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt, as well as other relatives. They had a simple Lutheran ceremony.

The couple shared common ancestry in King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia who was Princess Marie-Auguste’s great-great-great grandfather through Prince Ludwig Charles of Prussia the second son and third child of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Marie-Auguste and her son Prince Prince Charles Franz of Prussia

Prince Joachim of Prussia was a great-great-great grandson of King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt through the couples eldest son King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

The couple had one son, Prince Charles Franz Josef Wilhelm Friedrich Eduard Paul (December 15, 1916 – January 23, 1975). Their grandson, Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, married Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, a pretender to the Imperial Russian throne.

Following the German Revolution in November 1918, German Emperor Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate, thus depriving Joachim of his titles and position. Unable to accept his new status as a commoner, he fell into a deep depression.

The relationship between Joachim and Marie-Auguste had already started to deteriorate. The couple were divorced soon after the end of the First World War. The direct causes of the divorce are not known to the public.

According to one report, Marie-Auguste had previously abandoned her husband and child to run away with another man, had been forcibly brought back home on the orders of the Emperor, and had filed for divorce as soon as the war ended, when she saw that her husband’s family were at their lowest ebb.

Only weeks after the divorce was finalized, Joachim shot himself in Potsdam on July 18, 1920. One source reports that he had been in financial straits and suffered from “great mental depression”. His own brother Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia commented that he suffered from “a fit of excessive dementia”.

After Joachim’s suicide, Marie-Auguste’s son Charles Franz was taken into the custody of his paternal uncle Prince Eitel Friedrich. As the acting head of the House of Hohenzollern, he claimed this right, due to the fact that Emperor Wilhelm had issued an edict placing Hohenzollern powers in Eitel’s hands.

This action was later declared to have been unlawful, and in 1921, Marie-Auguste was given full custody of her son, despite that fact that she had previously run away from her husband and despite numerous servants having testified against her, with Eitel’s counsel arguing that Marie-Auguste was unfit to have custody of Charles Franz.

However, she appeared in court and pleaded that she was heartbroken, which may have helped to win the case for her. In 1922, Marie-Auguste sued her former father-in-law for the financial support that had been promised in the marriage contract between her and Prince Joachim. Wilhelm’s advocate argued that the laws of the House of Hohenzollern were no longer in force, so there was no longer a financial obligation to support her.

Second marriage and divorce

On September 27, 1926, she married Johannes-Michael Freiherr von Loën (b. 1902), a childhood friend. They were divorced in 1935, and Marie-Auguste reverted to her maiden name.

In 1980, Princess Marie-Auguste legally adopted the businessman Hans Lichtenberg, who subsequently took the name Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt. According to Prinz von Anhalt, who thereafter proceeded to sell knighthoods and marriages related to his new station, he gave her $4,000 a month (German sources say 2000 Deutsche Mark a month) in financial support.

Death

Princess Marie-Auguste died on May 22, 1983 at Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz: 2nd Wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II

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German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Huis Doorn, King of Prussia, Prince Charles Franz of Prussia, Prince Joachim of Prussia, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, Princess Victoria, Princess Victoria of Prussia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (December 17, 1887 – August 7, 1947) was the second wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II. They were married in 1922, four years after he abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. He was her second husband; her first husband, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, had died in 1920.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz

They were the parents of five children.

Princess Hermine was born in Greiz as the fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (March 28, 1846 – April 19, 1902), and Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe (July 28, 1852 – September 28, 1891), daughter of Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe and Princess Hermine of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1827–1910).

Princess Hermine’s mother, Princess Ida of Schaumburg-Lippe, had a brother, Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe (1859–1917), who was married Princess Victoria of Prussia, daughter of German Emperor Friedrich III, and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom eldest daughter of Queen Victoria.

This means that Princess Victoria of Prussia was Princess Hermine’s aunt by marriage and Princess Victoria was the sister of German Emperor Wilhelm II, Princess Hermine’s second husband.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz

Princess Hermine’s father was the ruler of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a state of the German Empire, in what is present-day Thuringia. Princess Hermine’s disabled elder brother became Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz in 1902.

First marriage

Princess Hermine was married on January 7, 1907 in Greiz to Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath (September 11, 1873 – April 7, 1920).

Second Marriage

German Emperor Wilhelm II in Exile

In January 1922, a son of Princess Hermine sent birthday wishes to the exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II, who then invited the boy and his mother to Huis Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The two had much in common, both being recently widowed: Hermine just over a year and a half before and Wilhelm only nine months prior.

By early 1922, Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine. Despite grumblings from Wilhelm’s monarchist supporters and the objections of his children, 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on November 5, 1922 in Doorn.

Wilhelm’s physician, Alfred Haehner, suspected that Hermine had married the former kaiser only in the belief that she would become an Empress and that she had become increasingly bitter as it became apparent that would not be the case.

Hermine with Wilhelm II and her daughter Henriette in Doorn, 1931

Shortly before the couple’s first wedding anniversary, Haehner recorded how Hermine had told him how “inconsiderately [Wilhelm] behaved towards her” and how Wilhelm’s face showed “a strong dislike” for his wife.

Hermine’s first husband had also been older than she was, by fourteen years. Wilhelm and Hermine were fourth cousins once removed through mutual descent from Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and fifth cousins through common descent from King George II of Great Britain.

In 1927, Hermine wrote An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn, an account of her life until then. She cared for the property management of Huis Doorn and by establishing her own relief organization, she stayed in contact with monarchist and nationalist circles in the Weimar Republic.

Hermine and Wilhelm II

Hermine also shared her husband’s anti-Semitism. She remained a constant companion to the aging emperor until his death in 1941. They had no children.

Later life

Following the death of Wilhelm, Hermine returned to Germany to live on her first husband’s estate in Saabor, Lower Silesia. During the Vistula–Oder Offensive of early 1945, she fled from the advancing Red Army to her sister’s estate in Rossla, Thuringia.

After the end of the Second World War, she was held under house arrest at Frankfurt on the Oder, in the Soviet occupation zone, and later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp.

On August 7, 1947, aged 59, she died suddenly of a heart attack in a small flat in Frankfurt, while under guard by the Red Army occupation forces. She was buried in the Antique Temple of Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, in what would become East Germany. Some years earlier, it was the resting place of several other members of the Imperial family, including Wilhelm’s first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

Hermine and Wilhelm II

Prince Charles Franz of Prussia married a daughter of Hermine from her first marriage.

Prince Charles Franz of Prussia was the son of Prince Joachim of Prussia and Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt.

Prince Joachim of Prussia was the youngest son and sixth child of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He committed suicide at age 29.

On October 5, 1940, Charles Franz of Prussia married Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath. She was a daughter of Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz, who had been the second wife of Charles Franz’s grandfather Emperor Wilhelm II since 1922 (Henriette was thus Emperor Wilhelm’s stepdaughter).

The wedding was at Wilhelm II’s private residence in Huis Doorn without much ceremony, he and Hermine attended the ceremony, as did a few other guests. The Mayor of Doorn performed the ceremony.

The eldest son of Charles Franz of Prussia and Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath is Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia (born September 3, 1943), he married the claimant to the Russian throne, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, of Russia. Their child is Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, Prince of Prussia, born March 13, 1981 in Spain.

November 21, 1840: Birth of Victoria, Princess Royal and German Empress and Queen of Prussia

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Baron Stockmar, Berlin, German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm I, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, King of Prussia, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess Victoria the Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, St. James’s Palace

From the Emperor’s Desk: In the honor of the Anniversary of Princess Victoria the Princess Royal I will focus on her marriage to German Emperor Friedrich III, King of Prussia.

Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; November 21, 1840 – August 5, 1901) She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was created Princess Royal in 1841. The Princess Royal was German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of German Emperor Friedrich III. She was the mother of Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Friedrich III (18 October 1831 – 15 June 1888) was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days between March and June 1888, during the Year of the Three Emperors. Known informally as “Fritz”, he was the only son of Emperor Wilhelm I and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, he was raised in his family’s tradition of military service.

In the German Confederation, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach were among the personalities with whom Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were allies.

The British sovereign also had regular epistolary contact with her cousin Augusta since 1846. The revolution that broke out in Berlin in 1848 further strengthened the links between the two royal couples by requiring the heir presumptive to the Prussian throne to find shelter for three months in the British court.

In 1851, Wilhelm returned to London with his wife and two children (Friedrich and Louise), on the occasion of The Great Exhibition. For the first time, Victoria met her future husband, and despite the age difference (she was 11 years old and he was 19), they got along very well.

To promote the contact between the two, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert asked their daughter to guide Friedrich through the exhibition, and during the visit the princess was able to converse in perfect German while the prince was able to say only a few words in English.

The meeting was therefore a success, and years later, Prince Friedrich recalled the positive impression that Victoria made on him during this visit, with her mixture of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity.

It was not only his encounter with little Victoria, however, that positively impressed Friedrich during the four weeks of his English stay. The young Prussian prince shared his liberal ideas with the Prince Consort. Friedrich was fascinated by the relationships among the members of the British royal family.

In London, court life was not as rigid and conservative as in Berlin, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s relationship with their children was very different to William and Augusta’s relationship with theirs.

After Friedrich returned to Germany, he began a close correspondence with Victoria. Behind this nascent friendship was the desire of Queen Victoria and her husband to forge closer ties with Prussia. In a letter to her uncle, the King Leopold of the Belgians, the British sovereign conveyed the desire that the meeting between her daughter and the Prussian prince would lead to a closer relationship between the two young people.

Engagement and marriage

Friedrich had received a comprehensive education and in particular was formed by personalities like the writer Ernst Moritz Arndt and historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann. According to the tradition of the House of Hohenzollern, he also received rigorous military training.

In 1855, Prince Friedrich made another trip to Great Britain and visited Victoria and her family in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. The purpose of his trip was to see the Princess Royal again, to ensure that she would be a suitable consort for hito

In Berlin, the response to this journey to Britain was far from positive. In fact, many members of the Prussian court wanted to see the heir presumptive’s son marry a Russian Grand Duchess. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had allowed his nephew to marry a British princess, even had to keep his approval a secret because his own wife,, showed strong Anglophobia.

At the time of Friedrich’s second visit, Victoria was 15 years old. A little shorter than her mother, the princess was 4 feet 11 inches. Queen Victoria was concerned that the Prussian prince would not find her daughter sufficiently attractive. Nevertheless, from the first dinner with the prince, it was clear to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that the mutual sympathy of the two young people that began in 1851 was still vivid.

In fact, after only three days with the royal family, Friedrich asked Victoria’s parents permission to marry their daughter. They were thrilled by the news, but gave their approval on condition that the marriage should not take place before Vicky’s seventeenth birthday.

Once this condition was accepted, the engagement of Victoria and Frederick was publicly announced on May 17, 1856. The immediate reaction in Great Britain was disapproval. The English public complained about the Kingdom of Prussia’s neutrality during the Crimean War of 1853–1856.

The Times characterized the Hohenzollern as a “miserable dynasty” that pursued an inconsistent and unreliable foreign policy, with the maintenance of the throne depending solely on Russia. The newspaper also criticised the failure of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to respect the political guarantees given to the population during the revolution of 1848.

In the German Confederation, the reactions to the announcement of the engagement were mixed: several members of the Hohenzollern family and conservatives opposed it, and liberal circles welcomed the proposed union with the British crown.

Preparation for the role of Prussian princess
The Prince Consort, who was part of the Vormärz, had long supported the “Coburg plan”, i.e., the idea that a liberal Prussia could serve as an example for other German states and would be able to achieve the Unification of Germany. During the involuntary stay of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in London in 1848, the Prince Consort tried to convince his Hohenzollern cousin of the need to transform Prussia into a constitutional monarchy following the British model. However, the future German emperor was not persuaded; he instead kept very conservative views.

Eager to make his daughter the instrument of the liberalisation of Germany, Prince Albert took advantage of the two years of Victoria and Friedrich’s engagement to give the Princess Royal the most comprehensive training possible. Thus, he taught himself history and modern European politics and actually wrote to the princess many essays on events that occurred in Prussia.

However, the Prince Consort overestimated the ability of the liberal reform movement in Germany at a time when only a small middle class and some intellectual circles shared his views on the German Confederation. Hence, Prince Albert gave his daughter a particularly difficult role, especially facing a critical and conservative Hohenzollern court.

Domestic issues and marriage

To pay the dowry of the Princess Royal, the British Parliament allotted the sum of 40,000 pounds and also gave her an allowance of 8,000 pounds per year.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV provided an annual allowance of 9,000 thalers to his nephew Friedrich. The income of the second-in-line to the Prussian throne proved insufficient to cover a budget consistent with his position and that of his future wife. Throughout much of their marriage, Victoria relied on her own resources.

The Berlin court of the royal couple was chosen by Friedrich’s aunt, Queen Elisabeth, and his mother, Princess Augusta. They summoned people who had been in court service for a long time and were much older than Victoria and Friedrich. Prince Albert therefore asked the Hohenzollerns that his daughter could keep at least two ladies-in-waiting who were her age and of British origin.

His request was not completely denied but, as a compromise, Victoria received two young ladies-in-waiting of German origin: Countesses Walburga von Hohenthal and Marie zu Lynar. However, Prince Albert did succeed in imposing Ernst Alfred Christian von Stockmar, the son of his friend Baron von Stockmar, as his daughter’s private secretary.

Convinced that the marriage of a British princess to the second-in-line to the Prussian throne would be regarded as an honour by the Hohenzollerns, Prince Albert insisted that his daughter retain her title of Princess Royal after the wedding. However, owing to the very anti-British and pro-Russian views of the Berlin court, the prince’s decision only aggravated the situation.

The question of where to hold the marriage ceremony raised the most criticism. To the Hohenzollerns, it seemed natural that the nuptials of the future Prussian king would be held in Berlin. However, Queen Victoria insisted that her eldest daughter must marry in her own country, and in the end, she prevailed. The wedding of Victoria and Friedrich took place at the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace in London on January 25, 1858.

On these dates: November 9

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Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover), Edward VII of the United Kingdom, George II of Great Britain, German Emperor Wilhelm II, House of Hohenzollern, King of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Prussia, Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

George II (November 9, 1683 – October 25, 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from June 11, 1727 until his death in 1760.

Born and brought up in northern Germany, George is the most recent British monarch born outside Great Britain. The Act of Settlement 1701 and the Acts of Union 1707 positioned his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, and her Protestant descendants to inherit the British throne.

After the deaths of Sophia and Anne, Queen of Great Britain, in 1714, his father, the Elector of Hanover, became George I of Great Britain. In the first years of his father’s reign as king, George was associated with opposition politicians until they rejoined the governing party in 1720.

As king from 1727, George exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Frederick, who supported the parliamentary opposition.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, George participated at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, and thus became the last British monarch to lead an army in battle. In 1745 supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart (“The Old Pretender”), led by James’s son Charles Edward Stuart (“The Young Pretender” or “Bonnie Prince Charlie”), attempted and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions. Frederick died suddenly in 1751, nine years before his father; George was succeeded by Frederick’s eldest son, George III.

For two centuries after George II’s death, history tended to view him with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper, and boorishness. Since then, reassessment of his legacy has led scholars to conclude that he exercised more influence in foreign policy and military appointments than previously thought.

Edward VII (November 9, 1841 – May 6, 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from January 22, 1901 until his death in 1910.

The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and nicknamed “Bertie”, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called “Peacemaker”, but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward’s reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism. He died in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, George V.

Abdication of German Emperor Wilhelm II on November 9, 1918.

Wilhelm II (January 27, 1859 – June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, reigning from June 15, 1888 until his abdication on November 9, 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empire’s position as a great power by building a powerful navy, his tactless public statements and erratic foreign policy greatly antagonized the international community and are considered by many to be one of the underlying causes of World War I.

When the German war effort collapsed after a series of crushing defeats on the Western Front in 1918, he was forced to abdicate on November 9, 1918 thereby marking the end of the German Empire and the House of Hohenzollern’s 300-year reign in Prussia and 500-year reign in Brandenburg.

August 17, 1786: Death of Friedrich II, King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

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Elector of Brandenburg, Elisabeth Christine Of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Empress Maria Theresa, Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King George I of Great Britain, King in Prussia, King of Prussia, Silesian Wars, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Friedrich II (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. He was also Friedrich IV, Elector of Brandenburg.

Friedrich was the son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

Friedrich was born sometime between 11 and 12 p.m. on January 24, 1712 in the Berlin City Palace and was baptised with the single name Friedrich by Benjamin Ursinus von Bär on January 31.

The birth was welcomed by his grandfather, Friedrich I in Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, as his two previous grandsons had both died in infancy. With the death of Friedrich I in 1713, his son Friedrich Wilhelm I became King in Prussia, thus making young Friedrich the Crown Prince of Prussia.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich had nine siblings who lived to adulthood. He had six sisters. The eldest was Wilhelmine, who became his closest sibling. He also had three younger brothers, including August Wilhelm and Heinrich. The new king wished for his children to be educated not as royalty, but as simple folk. They were tutored by a French woman, Madame de Montbail, who had also educated King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Friedrich Wilhelm I, popularly dubbed the “Soldier King,” had created a large and powerful army that included a regiment of his famous “Potsdam Giants”, carefully managed the kingdom’s wealth, and developed a strong centralised government. He also had a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority.

In contrast, Friedrich’s mother Sophia, whose father, Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, was polite, charismatic and learned. The political and personal differences between Friedrich’s parents created tensions, which affected Friedrich’s attitude toward his role as a ruler, his attitude toward culture, and his relationship with his father.

In the mid-1720s, Queen Sophia Dorothea attempted to arrange the marriage of Friedrich and his sister Wilhelmine to her brother King George II’s children Amelia and Frederick Louis, who was the heir apparent. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von Seckendorff, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed the Prussian Minister of War, Field Marshal von Grumbkow, and the Prussian ambassador in London, Benjamin Reichenbach.

The pair undermined the relationship between the British and Prussian courts using bribery and slander. Eventually Friedrich Wilhelm became angered by the idea of the effete Friedrich being married to an English wife and under the influence of the British court.

Instead, he signed a treaty with Austria, which vaguely promised to acknowledge Prussia’s rights to the principalities of Jülich-Berg, which led to the collapse of the marriage proposal.

Initially, Friedrich Wilhelm considered marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was ardently opposed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Friedrich himself proposed marrying Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession.

Instead, Eugene persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm, through Seckendorff, that the Crown Prince should marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Having failed in his attempt to flee from the tyrannical regime of his father, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia was ordered to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733 in order to regain his freedom. Elisabeth was the niece of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The match had thus been arranged by the Austrian court in the hopes of securing influence over Prussia for another generation.

On June 12 1733, the 17-years-old Elisabeth Christine was married to Friedrich at her father’s summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel.

Crown Prince Friedrich wrote to his sister that, “There can be neither love nor friendship between us”, and he threatened suicide, but he went along with the wedding. He had little in common with his bride, and the marriage was resented as an example of the Austrian political interference that had plagued Prussia.

Nevertheless, during their early married life, the royal couple resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin. Later, Elisabeth Christine accompanied Friedrich to Schloss Rheinsberg, where at this time she played an active role in his social life.

After his father died and he had secured the throne, King Friedrich II separated from Elisabeth Christine. He granted her the Schönhausen Palace and apartments at the Berliner Stadtschloss, but he prohibited Elisabeth Christine from visiting his court in Potsdam.

Friedrich II of Prussia

Friedrich and Elisabeth Christine had no children, and Friedrich bestowed the title of the heir to the throne, “Prince of Prussia”, on his brother August Wilhelm. Nevertheless, Elisabeth Christine remained devoted to him. Friedrich gave her all the honours befitting her station, but never displayed any affection. After their separation, he would only see her on state occasions. These included visits to her on her birthday and were some of the rare occasions when Friedrich did not wear military uniform.

His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment.

Friedrich II was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (German: Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed “Old Fritz” (German: “Der Alte Fritz”).

Europe at the time when Frederick came to the throne in 1740, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet.

Europe at the time of Frederick’s death in 1786, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet, shows that Prussia’s territory has been greatly extended by his Silesian Wars, his inheritance of East Frisia and the First Partition of Poland.

In his youth, Friedrich was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. However, upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked and annexed the rich Austrian province of Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. He became an influential military theorist whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

Friedrich was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats.

Friedrich also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, although he enacted oppressive measures against Catholics in Silesia and Polish Prussia. He supported the arts and philosophers he favoured, and allowed freedom of the press and literature.

King Friedrich II was presumably homosexual, and his sexuality has been the subject of much study. He is buried at his favourite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, he was succeeded by his nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II.

Friedrich II the Great of Prussia

Nearly all 19th-century German historians made Friedrich into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building Prussia into a great power in Europe.

Friedrich II remained an admired historical figure through Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the Nazis glorified him as a great German leader pre-figuring Adolf Hitler, who personally idolised him.

His reputation became less favourable in Germany after World War II, partly due to his status as a Nazi symbol. Regardless, historians in the 21st century tend to view Friedrich II as an outstanding military leader and capable monarch, whose commitment to enlightenment culture and administrative reform built the foundation that allowed the Kingdom of Prussia to contest the Austrian Habsburgs for leadership among the German states.

May 6, 1882: Birth of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia

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Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Head of the House of Prussia, House of Hohenzollern, King of Prussia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, World War I

Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; May 6, 1882 – July 20, 1951) was the eldest child of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. As Emperor Wilhelm’s heir, he was the last Crown Prince of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia.

Wilhelm was born on May 6, 1882 as the eldest son of the then Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, and his first wife, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He was born in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg, where his parents resided until his father acceded to the throne.

When he was born, his great-grandfather Wilhelm I was the German Emperor and King of Prussia while his grandfather Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was the heir apparent, making Wilhelm third in line to the throne.

His birth sparked an argument between his parents and his grandmother Crown Princess Victoria. Before Wilhelm was born, his grandmother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, had expected to be asked to help find a nurse, but since her son did everything he could to snub her, the future Wilhelm II asked his aunt Princess Helena to help instead. His mother was hurt and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who was the younger Wilhelm’s great-grandmother, was furious.

Wilhelm became crown prince at the age of six in 1888, when his grandfather Friedrich III died and his father became emperor.

Wilhelm married Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (September 20, 1886 – May. 6, 1954) in Berlin on June 6, 1905. After their marriage, the couple lived at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin in the winter and at the Marmorpalais in Potsdam.

Cecilie was the daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851–1897) and his wife, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (1860–1922). Their eldest son, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, was killed fighting for the German Army in France in 1940.

However, Crown Prince Wilhelm was a womanizer and the marriage was unhappy. After the fall of the German monarchy, at the end of World War I, Wilhelm and Cecilie lived mostly apart.

Wilhelm was crown prince for 30 years until the fall of the German Empire on November 9, 1918. During World War I, he commanded the 5th Army from 1914 to 1916 and was commander of the Army Group German Crown Prince for the remainder of the war.

After his return to Germany in 1923, he fought the Weimar Republic and campaigned for the reintroduction of the monarchy and a dictatorship in Germany.

After his plans to become president had been blocked by his father, Wilhelm supported Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, but when Wilhelm realised that Hitler had no intention of restoring the monarchy, their relationship cooled.

Wilhelm became head of the House of Hohenzollern on June 4, 1941 following the death of his father. Although the Monarchy had been abolished, to his supporters and monarchists he had become Wilhelm III, German Emperor and King of Prussia. He held the position until his own death on July 20, 1951. He was succeeded in the headship of the House of Hohenzollern by his second son, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia.

Happy birthday to Princess Sophie of Prussia

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German Emperor Wilhelm II, House of Hohenzollern, King of Prussia, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, princess Sophie of Prussia

Happy 44th birthday to Her Imperial and Royal Highness Princess Sophie of Prussia. She is the daughter of Franz-Alexander, Prince of Isenburg (born 1943), and his wife, Countess Christine von Saurma zu der Jeltsch (born 1941). Her father is head of a mediatized Catholic line of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, who lost their independence in 1815. She has two sisters, Archduchess Katharina of Austria-Este and Isabelle, Dowager Princess of Wied, and two brothers, Alexander, Hereditary Prince of Isenberg, and Prince Viktor.

In 2011 Princess Sophie married His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia who
is the current head of the Prussian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling dynasty of the German Empire and of the Kingdom of Prussia. He is the great-great-grandson and historic heir of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia.

November 1918: Abdication of German Dukes and Princes

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Abdication, Adolf II of Schaumburg-Lippe, Charles Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Ernst August of Brunswick, German Emperor Wilhelm II, German Empire, King of Prussia, Reuss-Gera, Saxe-Altenburg, Waldeck and Pyrmont, World War I

In the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary unrest, Chancellor Prince Max of Baden announced Wilhelm’s abdication of both titles on November 9, 1918.

Despite the announcement of his abdication and subsequent flight to the Netherlands, Wilhelm II didn’t officially abdicate until November 28, 1918 when he signed a Statement of Abdication.

Statement of Abdication. I herewith renounce for all time claims to the throne of Prussia and to the German Imperial throne connected therewith…. ” November 28, 1918 German Emperor Wilhelm II gave up his claims in a letter signed in exile from Amerongen in the Netherlands.

On November 11th I wrote about the abdication of German Emperor Wilhelm II, the other kings and Grand Dukes within the German Empire.

Today I will focus on the abdication of the German monarchs who reigned as Dukes and Princes.

Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Bernhard assumed the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen as Bernhard III after the death of his father in 1914. With the start of World War I Bernhard hoped to be assigned command over an army but was disappointed. In reaction he also withdrew from his role in the Duchy’s government.

After Germany lost the war, the German revolution forced Bernhard to abdicate as duke on November 10, 1918. Like all the German princes he lost his title and state. He spent the rest of his life in his former country as a private citizen. Bernhard died on January 16, 1928 in Meiningen.

Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1884 – 1954) was the last sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from July 30, 1900 until 1918. A male-line grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert ofSaxe-Coburg-Gotha, he was also until 1919 a Prince of the United Kingdom and from birth held the British titles of Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow.

Charles Eduard was a controversial figure in the United Kingdom due to his status as the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was part of the German Empire, during World War I. On November 14, 1918, however, after a revolution in Germany, he was forced to abdicate as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and lost his rights to the ducal throne. Under the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 Charles Eduard also lost his British titles of Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow.

Duke of Saxe-Altenburg

Ernst II of Saxe-Altenburg was the fourth child and only son of Prince Moritz, the youngest son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Meiningen.

The death of his father, on the May 13, 1907, made him first in the line of succession to the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg. He inherited the dukedom when his uncle and namesake, Ernst I, died without any surviving male issue.

World War I

During World War I, Ernst refused all honorary appointments at the Kaiser’s headquarters, which would have been considerably safer than other areas. Resigning from his courtesy rank of Generalleutnant, he requested and was granted the colonelcy and the command of his duchy’s regiment, the 153rd (8th Thuringian) Infantry.

Quickly promoted to General der Infanterie, Ernst II led several brigades on the western front. In 1915, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite award and was given command of the 8th Infantry Division, further distinguishing himself in the Battle of the Somme. In late 1916, he relinquished his field command because of illness and returned to Altenburg for the remainder of the war.

When Germany lost the war, all German princes lost their titles and states. Ernst was one of the first princes to realise that major changes were coming and quickly arrived at an amicable settlement with his subjects. He was forced to abdicate the government of the duchy on November 13, 1918 and spent the rest of his life as a private citizen.

Later life

After his abdication Ernst, with a moderate fortune, retired to a hotel in Berlin. Two years later, in 1920, his marriage ended in divorce. Later that year, Ernst announced his engagement to Helena Thomas, an opera singer. They had met while she was temporarily filling an engagement at the Ducal Theatre in Altenburg during the war. The marriage never took place, however.

On July 15, 1934 Ernst married his second wife, Maria Triebel, who had been his companion for many years, at his home, Schloss Fröhliche Wiederkunft (“Palace of Happy Returning”) at Wolfersdorf. It was a morganatic marriage, and she received only the title of “Baroness Reiseneck”. They had no children.

Still interested in science, Ernst established a modern observatory in Wolfersdorf, employing Kurd Kisshauer in 1922. On May 1, 1937, Ernst joined the Nazi Party.

Ernst became the only former reigning German prince who accepted German Democratic Republic citizenship after World War II, refusing an offer to leave his beloved “Palace of Happy Returning” and relocate to the British occupation zone.

The Schloß had been confiscated by the Soviet occupiers, but Ernst had been granted free use of it until his death. In March 1954, with the death of Charles Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he became the last survivor of the German princes who had reigned until 1918. One year later, he died at the Schloß.

Duke of Brunswick

On October 27, 1913, Prince Ernst August of Great Britain and Hanover, Duke of Cumberland formally renounced his claims to the duchy of Brunswick in favor of his surviving son, also named ErnstAugust. The following day, the Federal Council voted to allow Ernst August to become the reigning Duke of Brunswick.

The new Duke of Brunswick formally took possession of his duchy on November 1, 1913. In 1913 Ernst August married Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

The new duke and duchess of Brunswick moved into Brunswick Palace in the capital of Brunswick and began their family with the birth of their eldest son, Prince Ernst August, less than a year after their wedding.
During the First World War, Ernst August rose to the rank of major-general.

Abdication and later life

In 1917, the British dukedom of Ernest Augustus’s father, and his own title as a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, were suspended by the Titles Deprivation Act 1917, as a result of the Duke’s service in the German army during the war.

On November 8, 1918, Ernest Augustus was forced to abdicate his throne, as were all the other German kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Thus, when his father died in 1923, Ernst August did not succeed to his father’s title of Duke of Cumberland. For the next thirty years, Ernst August remained as head of the House of Hanover, living in retirement on his various estates, mainly Blankenburg Castle in Germany and Cumberland Castle in Gmunden, Austria. He also owned Marienburg Castle near Hanover, although rarely ever living there until 1945.

Duke of Anhalt

Eduard was born at Dessau, the capital of the Duchy, in 1861 as the third son of Duke Friedrich I of Anhalt (1831–1904) and his wife Princess Antoinette of Saxe-Altenburg (1838–1908). As Eduard’s eldest brother, Leopold, died without male offspring in 1886, and the next brother, Friedrich, had no issue, Eduard became heir presumptive and Hereditary Prince following the death of their father, Duke Friedrich I, in 1904.

Reign

Eduard succeeded his brother Duke Friedrich II of Anhalt on April 21, 1918, but his brief reign came to an end five months later with his own death on September 13, 1918. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Prince Joachim Ernst under the regency of Eduard’s younger brother, Prince Aribert.

Joachim Ernst, Duke of Anhalt, succeeded his father as Duke of Anhalt on September 13, 1918. However, due to his age, his uncle Prince Aribert of Anhalt was appointed regent. His brief reign came to an end on 12 November 12, 1918, with his uncle abdicating in his name following the German revolution. The duchy became the Free State of Anhalt and is today part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Joachim Ernst died at the Buchenwald concentration camp after World War II as a prisoner of the Soviet Union, when it was called NKVD special camp Nr. 2. Following his death, the headship of the Ducal House of Anhalt was disputed between his elder son, Prince Friedrich, and brother Prince Eugen.

Principalities

Adolf II of Schaumburg-Lippe

Principality of Lippe

The Counts of Lippe-Detmold were granted the title of Imperial prince in 1789.

Shortly after becoming a member state of the German Empire in 1871, the Lippe-Detmold line died out on July 20, 1895. This resulted in an inheritance dispute between the neighbouring principality of Schaumburg-Lippe and the Lippe-Biesterfeld line. The dispute was resolved by the Imperial Court in Leipzig in 1905, with the lands passing to the Lippe-Biesterfeld line who, until this point, had no territorial sovereignty.

The Principality of Lippe came to an end on November 12, 1918 with the abdication of Leopold IV, with Lippe becoming a Free State. In 1947, Lippe merged into the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The princely family still owns the estate and Fürstliches Residenzschloss [de] in Detmold.

Principality of Reuss-Gera (Junior Line) and Reuss-Greiz (Senior Line)

At the death of his father on March 29, 1913 Prince Heinrich XXVII of Reuss-Gera inherited the throne of the Principality. He also continued as regent of Reuss Elder Line, because of a physical and mental disability of Prince Heinrich XXIV of Reuss-Greiz due to an accident in his childhood.

Prince Heinrich XXVII abdicated in 1918 after the German Revolution of 1918–19, when all German monarchies were abolished.

With the death of Heinrich XXIV in 1927, the Elder Line became extinct and its titles passed to Heinrich XXVII, who thus became the sole Prince Reuss.

Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe

Adolf II of Schaumburg-Lippe was born in Stadthagen to the then hereditary Prince Georg (1846–1911) and Princess Marie Anne of Saxe-Altenburg (1864–1918) during the reign of his grandfather Prince Adolf I.

He became heir apparent to Schaumburg-Lippe on May 8, 1893 following the death of his grandfather, and the accession of his father. He succeeded his father as prince on April 29, 1911, and reigned until he was forced to abdicate on November 15, 1918 following the German revolution: the principality became the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe. Adolf was exiled to Brioni in Istria. During his reign he developed the spa of Bad Eilsen and was responsible for many buildings there.

Adolf married Ellen Bischoff-Korthaus (1894–1936, previously married to Prince Eberwyn, son of Alexis, Prince of Bentheim and Steinfurt) in Berlin on January 20, 1920.

They were both killed in a plane crash in Zumpango, Mexico, on March 26, 1936, while flying from Mexico City to Guatemala City in a Ford Trimotor airplane.

His youngest brother Prince Friedrich Christian of Schaumburg-Lippe, who served as an adjutant to Joseph Goebbels, spoke out against letting Ellen be buried in Bückeburger Mausoleum next to her husband, because she was not of “Aryan origin”. He was succeeded as head of the House of Schaumburg-Lippe by his brother Wolrad.

Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt & Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

With the death of Prince Leopold of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen on 20 April 20, 1906 Prince Günther Victor then became heir presumptive to the other Schwarzburg principality. The death of the prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Charles Günther on March 28, 1909 united the two Schwarzburg principalities under Prince Günther in a personal union. This was the first time the two principalities had been united under the same ruler since the 16th century when the Sondershausen and Rudolstadt lines had been formed. Following his succession in Sondershausen Prince Günther Victor dropped the name Rudolstadt from his title and assumed the title Prince of Schwarzburg.

Following the outbreak of the German revolution Prince Günther Victor abdicated on November 25, 1918. Following his death in Sondershausen in the spring of 1925, he was succeeded as head of the House of Schwarzburg by Prince Sizzo.

Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont

Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1865 – 1946) was the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont from May 12, 1893 to 13 November 13, 1918.

Family

He was the only son and sixth child of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and his first wife Princess Helena of Nassau. He was a brother of the Dutch Queen consort Emma and Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany.

His maternal grandparents were Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau and his second wife Princess Pauline of Württemberg. Pauline was a daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and his wife Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Paul was a son of Friedrich I of Württemberg and his wife Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Augusta was the eldest daughter of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Princess Augusta of Great Britain, elder sister of George III of the United Kingdom.

Abdication of the German Monarchies. Part I

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Armistice, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, German Emperor, German Empire, German Revolution, Hesse and By Rhine, King of Prussia, Ludwig III of Bavaria, Oldenburg, Prince Max of Baden, Wilhelm II, Wilhelm II of Württemberg, World War I

The Armistice ending World War I was agreed upon at 5:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918, to come into effect at 11:00 a.m. Paris time (noon German time), for which reason the occasion is sometimes referred to as “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”.

The German Empire consisted of 26 states, each with their own nobility, four constituent kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies (six before 1876), seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds of Empire’s population and territory, and Prussian dominance had also been constitutionally established, since the King of Prussia was also the German Emperor (German: Kaiser)

In this post I will give a brief summary of the abdications of the German monarchs at the end of the war. Today I will mention the four kingdoms and 6 grand duchess that made up the German Empire. On November 28th, the anniversary of the abolition of the monarchy, I will summarize the abdication of the 5 Duchies and 7 Principalities that constituted the empire.

Kingdoms

German Emperor and King of Prussia

As the war was nearing its end Wilhelm II’s hope of retaining at least one of his crowns,, that of the Kingdom of Prussia, was revealed as unrealistic when, in the hope of preserving the monarchy in the face of growing revolutionary unrest, Chancellor Prince Max of Baden announced Wilhelm’s abdication of both titles on November 9, 1918.

Wilhelm consented to the abdication only after Ludendorff’s replacement, General Wilhelm Groener, had informed him that the officers and men of the army would march back in good order under Hindenburg’s command, but would certainly not fight for Wilhelm’s throne. The monarchy’s last and strongest support had been broken, and finally even Hindenburg, himself a lifelong monarchist, was obliged, after polling his generals, to advise the Emperor to give up the crown. On November 10, Wilhelm crossed the border by train and went into exile in the Netherlands.

Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia

Kingdom of Bavaria

On November 2, 1918, an extensive constitutional reform was established by an agreement between the royal government and all parliamentary groups, which, among other things, envisaged the introduction of proportional representation. Ludwig III, approved on the same day the transformation of the constitutional into a parliamentary monarchy. On November 7, 1918, Ludwig III fled from the Residenz Palace in Munich with his family and took up residence in Schloss Anif, near Salzburg, for what he hoped would be a temporary stay. He was the first of the monarchs in the German Empire to be deposed. The next day, the People’s State of Bavaria was proclaimed. This effectively dethroned the Wittelsbachs and ended the family’s 738-year rule over Bavaria.

Kingdom of Württemberg

King Wilhelm II of Württemberg finally abdicated on November 30, 1918, ending over 800 years of Württemberg rule. He died in 1921 at Bebenhausen. King Wilhelm II was also the last German ruler to abdicate in the wake of the November Revolution of 1918.

Kingdom of Saxony

Friedrich August III was a member of the House of Wettin, and the last King of Saxony (1904–1918). Though well-loved by his subjects, he voluntarily abdicated as king on November 13, 1918, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I. He died in Sibyllenort (now Szczodre) in Lower Silesia and was buried in Dresden.

When the German Republic was proclaimed in 1918, he was asked by telephone whether he would abdicate willingly. He said: “Oh, well, I suppose I’d better.”

Upon abdicating, he is supposed to have said “Nu da machd doch eiern Drägg alleene!” (Saxon for “Well then take care of this crap yourselves!”), but there is no documentation of this.

When cheered by a crowd in a railroad station several years after his abdication, he stuck his head out of the train’s window and shouted “Ihr seid mer ja scheene Demogradn!” (Saxon for “You’re a fine lot of republicans, I’ll say!”).

Grand Duchies

Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine

During World War I, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine served as an officer at German Emperor Wilhelm II’s headquarters. In February, 1917, the February Revolution in Russia forced his brother-in-law, Emperor Nicholas II, to abdicate. Sixteen months later, in July 1918, his two sisters in Russia, Elizabeth, the widow of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and Alexandra, the wife of Nicholas II, were murdered by the Bolsheviks, Alexandra dying alongside her husband and children. At the end of the war, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig lost his throne during the revolution of 1918, after refusing to abdicate.

Wilhelm II, King of Württemberg

Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Following the 1918 suicide of Grand Duke Adolph Friedrich VI of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin took up the regency of Strelitz. This happened because the heir presumptive Duke Charles Michael was serving in the Russian Army at the time and had indicated that he wished to renounce his succession rights. Friedrich Franz IV abdicated the grand ducal throne on November 14, 1918 following the German Empire’s defeat in World War I; the Strelitz regency ended at the same time.

Grand Duchy of Baden

Grand Duke Friedrich II of Baden was the last sovereign Grand Duke of Baden, reigning from 1907 until the abolition of the German monarchies in 1918. He abdicated on November 22, 1918, amidst the tumults of the German Revolution of 1918–19 which resulted in the abolition of the Grand Duchy.

Following the death of his uncle Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden in 1907, Margrave Maximilian (Max of Baden) became heir to the grand-ducal throne of his cousin Friedrich II, whose marriage remained childless.

in October and November 1918 Maximilian briefly served as the last Chancellor of the German Empire and Minister-President of Prussia. He sued for peace on Germany’s behalf at the end of World War I based on U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which included immediately transforming the government into a parliamentary system, by handing over the office of chancellor to SPD Chairman Friedrich Ebert and unilaterally proclaiming the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II. Both events took place on November 9, 1918, the beginning of the Weimar Republic.

Grand Duchy of Saxe-Wiemar-Eisenach

In 1901 Charles Alexander was succeeded by his grandson Wilhelm Ernst. In 1903, the Grand Duchy officially changed its name to Grand Duchy of Saxony. However, many people continued to call it Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, to avoid confusion with the neighbouring Kingdom of Saxony.

Wilhelm Ernst abdicated the throne on November 9, 1918, thereby ending the monarchy in the state. It continued as the Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, until 1920, when it merged with most of its neighbours to form Thuringia, with Weimar as the state capital.

Grand Duchy of Oldenburg

Friedrich August III began his reign on June 13, 1900, when his father, Grand Duke Peter II, died. His reign came to an end on November 11, 1918, shortly before the German monarchy was formally abolished on November 28, 1918.

Friedrich August and his family took up residence at Rastede Castle, where he took up farming and local industrial interests. A year after his abdication, he asked the Oldenburg Diet for a yearly allowance of 150,000 marks, stating that his financial condition was “extremely precarious.”