The Life of Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia (1874 – 1940)

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Evangelical Church of the Holy Cross, German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Homosexuality, House of Hohenzollern, King Frederick William III of Prussia, Prince Albert of Prussia, Prince Frederick Henry of Prussia, Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia

Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia (April 15, 1874 – November 30, 1940) was a Prussian officer, member of the house of Hohenzollern, and a great-grandson of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. He was persecuted for being homosexual.

Prince Friedrich Heinrich was the oldest son of Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837–1906) and his wife Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1854–1898), the only surviving child of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife Princess Agnes of Anhalt-Dessau. Prince Friedrich Heinrich he stood over six feet tall.

He studied law at Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn. In 1895, he became a member of the fraternity “Corps Borussia Bonn,” and later became an honorary member of the Burschenschaft Vandalia Berlin. He traveled to Italy, Norway, and Sweden.

Military career

After university, he took up a career as a commissioned officer. He began as a major in the 1st Guard Dragoon Regiment “Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,” and then was called to the command of the German General Staff in 1902.

In 1904, he became the commander of the 1st Brandenburg Dragoon Regiment Number 2; he would rise to colonel on May 21, 1906.

Homosexuality

He was relieved of his post as Commander of the Regiment at the beginning of 1907 and expelled from the Prussian Army because of his homosexuality. He was allowed to reenlist at the beginning of World War I as a private, but was denied promotion.

At the end of 1906, at the wishes of German Emperor Wilhelm II and as the heir of his deceased father, Friedrich Heinrich was voted the Herrenmeister of the Order of Saint John. However, due to increasing knowledge of his homosexuality, Prince Eitel Friedrich became the Herrenmeister instead. Journalist Maximilian Harden published an article on April 27, 1907 that this change in leadership was because the prince “suffers from an inherited version of inverted sex drive.” This is likely a reference to his homosexual ancestor Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1726–1802).

His ancestor, Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1726–1802), was a son of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, and the younger brother of King Friedrich II the Great. Prince Heinrich led Prussian armies in the Silesian Wars and the Seven Years’ War, having never lost a battle in the latter. In 1786, he was suggested as a candidate for a monarch for the United States.

In response to this publicity, Prince Friedrich Heinrich left Berlin on the advice of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg. He spent time in the south of France and Egypt before returning to Germany, where he lived in seclusion on his estates in Silesia.

At the beginning of 1910, he gave up his presidency of the Academy of Charitable Sciences at Erfurt to his brother Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia (July 12, 1880 – March 9, 1925) .

Later years

His inheritance included the towns of Kamenz and Zawidów in the southeastern area of Province of Lower Silesia; his contributions to the economic development of the area and care for the townsfolk made him locally popular. With his own money, he established the Evangelical Church of the Holy Cross in Wölfelsgrund in 1911 and the Church of the Resurrection in Zawidów in 1913, and brought in deaconesses for local nursing homes. He also promoted local forestry and dispensed honors to locals.

He was never married and died without descendants, ending the paternal line of his grandfather, Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1809–1872) youngest child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Two of Albrecht’s elder brothers were Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Prussia died on November 13, 1940 in Zawidów and was buried in the mausoleum there.

After his death, Waldemar, son of Prince Heinrich and the grandson of German Emperor Friedrich III inherited the castle in Kamenz.

The Life of Princess Charlotte of Prussia

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Duke Bernhard III of Saxe-Meiningen, Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen, Hereditary Prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, King Willem I of the Netherlands, Prince Albert of Prussia, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

Princess Charlotte of Prussia (June 21, 1831 – 30 March 30, 1855) was by birth a Princess of Prussia and member of the House of Hohenzollern. By marriage she became Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen.

She was the daughter of Prince Albrecht of Prussia and his wife and first cousin Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau who was the youngest child of King Willem I of the Netherlands and Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia. Princess Wilhelmine was the fourth child of eight born to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Princess Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia

Prince Albrecht of Prussia the fifth son and youngest child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Two of Prince Albrecht’s elder brothers were King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and King Wilhelm I of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

This meant Princess Charlotte of Prussia was the granddaughter of both King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and King Willem I of the Netherlands.

Her parents’ marriage was unhappy due to Prince Albrecht’s several affairs, and finally was dissolved on March 28, 1849 after which Princess Marianne began to live with her former coachman Johannes van Rossum, with whom she had a son, Johannes Wilhelm of Reinhartshausen.

The custody of Charlotte and her two surviving siblings Albrecht and Alexandrine was given to their father; however, their childless aunt Queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Prussia took care of them, moreover after Prince Albrecht’s second and morganatic marriage in 1853 with Rosalie von Rauch, who bore him two sons, Count William and Count Frederick of Hohenau.

Marriage

Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen

As a young woman, Charlotte was highly eligible, due to her Dutch fortune and Hohenzollern connections. In Charlottenburg on May 18, 1850, the nineteen-year-old princess married Georg, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, who was twenty-four years old.

The Hereditary Prince was the only son of Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and Princess Marie of Hesse-Cassel. Hereditary Prince Georg had led a battalion from Meiningen in support of the Prussians in the First Schleswig War in 1849.

After resuming his military career in Berlin, Georg soon became engaged to Charlotte, whose position as a niece of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia surely recommended her to him.

It was a love match and their marriage occurred after a short engagement. Among the wedding gifts was an opulent old villa on Lake Como from her mother Marianne, as well as a substantial collection of paintings and sculptures.

It was renamed the Villa Carlotta in the bride’s honour. Due to their Prussian connections, the couple spent the next five years in Berlin and Potsdam but returned to Meiningen for the birth of their children.

The two shared many interests, particularly with the theatre, as they were both ardent attendees; during their engagement, they had even acted in amateur court theatricals together.

Charlotte had a talent for music, and was taught by the likes of Wilhelm Taubert, Theodor Kullak and Julius Stern in her youth. She wrote a number of military marches, songs and piano pieces. Her daughter, Princess Marie Elisabeth, would inherit these interests.

Death

On January 27, 1855, their second son, Georg died. Charlotte followed him two months later, dying of childbirth complications on March 30 at the age of twenty-three.

Georg’s second wife Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, c. 1860. Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Georg was inconsolable, but would eventually remarry to Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in order to provide a mother to his remaining children. He succeeded his father as Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen in 1866, ten years after Charlotte’s death.

Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen’s second wife, Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, was a daughter of Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the youngest of six children. Her mother, Princess Feodora of Leiningen,
was an older half-sister to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, thus making the younger Feodora a niece of the Queen.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia and her husband, the then Hereditary Prince Georg of Saxe-Meiningen, had four children. The eldest was Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen who married his second cousin, another Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of German Emperor Friedrich III and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and she was both a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and German Emperor Wilhelm I.

October 14, 1872: Death of Prince Albrecht of Prussia

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Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Emperor Wilhelm I, House of Orange-Nassau, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Morganatic Marriage, Prince Albert of Prussia, Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, Wilhelmstraße, Willem I of the Netherlands

Prince Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht of Prussia (October 4, 1809 – October 14, 1872) was the fifth son and youngest child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and she was the fourth daughter and sixth child of Duke Charles of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz’s father, Charles, was a brother of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of the United Kingdom, and her mother Frederike was a granddaughter of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Louise’s maternal grandmother, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her paternal first-cousin Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom served as sponsors at her baptism; her second given name came from Princess Augusta Sophia.

At the time of her birth, Louise’s father was not yet the ruler of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (he would not succeed his brother as Duke until 1794), and consequently she was not born in a court, but rather in a less formal home.

Prince Albrecht’s parents fled to East Prussia after the occupation of Berlin by Napoleon, and Albrecht was born in Königsberg. Two of Albrecht’s elder brothers were Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia from 1840 till 1861, and Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from 1861 to 1888 and German Emperor from 1871 until 1888.

In 1819 Albrecht joined the Prussian Army as a lieutenant and held the rank of a general of cavalry in 1852. He took part in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War as a cavalry corps commander at the battles of Gitschin and Königgrätz. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 he led a cavalry division at the battles of Wissembourg, Wörth and Sedan.

Prince Albrecht later joined the forces of his nephew Prince Friedrich Charles of Prussia and Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the campaign against the Armée de la Loire.

After the war Albrecht was awarded the title of a Generaloberst. He died in Berlin, where he is buried at the Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum. He was the 74th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.

Family

In The Hague, on 14 September 1830 Albert married his cousin Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau the daughter of King Willem I of the Netherlands and Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia the fourth child of eight born to King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

The marriage was dissolved on March 28, 1849. They had five children:

Charlotte (1831 – 1855), married the future Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

A son (1832). He was either stillborn or lived only a few hours.

Albrecht (1837 – 1906), married Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, had 3 sons.

Elisabeth (August 27, 1840 – October 9, 1840).

Alexandrine (1842 – 1906), married Duke Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Princess Marianne was a woman who thought and lived very unconventionally for her time. Because she left her unfaithful husband Prince Albrecht of Prussia and had an illegitimate son (she openly recognized him) with her partner Johannes van Rossum (with whom she also lived in a common-law marriage), she was banished from the Kingdom of Prussia.

Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau

In Berlin on June 13, 1853, Albert married secondly, Rosalie Wilhelmine Johanna von Rauch, daughter of Gustav von Rauch, chief of the Prussian General Staff 1812-1813 and Prussian Minister of War 1837–1841. She was created Countess of Hohenau on May 28, 1853. They had two sons:

Georg Albrecht Wilhelm, Count of Hohenau (1854 – 1930). married to Princess Margarethe of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (1865-1940), daughter of Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen.

Bernhard Wilhelm Albrecht Frederick, Count of Hohenau (1857 – 1914).

As this second union was considered a morganatic marriage, the couple temporarily had to avoid the Prussian court. Albrecht acquired a vineyard in Loschwitz near Dresden, Saxony, where he had a residence, Albrechtsberg Castle, erected in 1854.

Aftermath

In 1830 Albrecht had acquired a city palace in Berlin on Wilhelmstraße, then called Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. An adjacent street off Wilhelmstraße laid out in 1891 was named Prinz-Albrecht-Straße. After the Nazi Machtergreifung it became notorious as the seat of the Gestapo and the Reichsführer-SS.

The Prinz-Albrecht-Palais itself from 1934 served as the headquarters of the SS Sicherheitsdienst under Reinhard Heydrich, from 1939 the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. In 1944 the building was heavily damaged by air raids and finally razed to the ground in 1955, leaving the foundations and cellars exposed to the open air. They remain so today, and are used as part of the Topography of Terror project.