Beginning in 1925, some members of higher levels of the German nobility joined the Nazi Party, registered by their title, date of birth, NSDAP Party registration number, and date of joining the Nazi Party, from the registration of their first prince (Ernst) into NSDAP in 1928, until the end of World War II in 1945.[1]
From 1925, the newly formed Nazi Party began accepting these princes by their (abolished) former titles, and by their (abolished) princedoms, and registering these dukes, princes, and princesses as such, in the Nazi Party. There are two known Nazi Party lists of such princes and princedoms. Of the first list Historian Malinowski notes: "of 312 families of the old aristocracy 3,592 princes joined the Nazis (26.9%) before Hitler came to power in 1933." The second Berlin Federal archives list depicts 270 princely members of the Nazi Party (1928–1942), of which almost half joined the Nazis pre-Hitler. The Berlin list named 90 direct senior heirs, to their 22 abolished princedoms,[3] and also included claimants to the (former) Imperial Crown of Wilhelm II. After the proposed Prussian – "fourth Kaiser" died in the Wehrmacht in 1940, Hitler issued the Prinzenerlass, prohibiting German princes from the Wehrmacht, but not from the Nazi Party, SA or SS. Some German states provided a proportionally higher number of SS officers, including Hesse-Nassau and Lippe. Such German princes included SS–Obergruppenführer and Higher SS and Police LeaderJosias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
German Empire and Kingdom of Prussia
(Abolished 9 November 1918)
Kingdom of PrussiaEx-Kaiser Wilhelm II with his five sonsCrown Prince William, Reich President von Hindenburg, and von Mackensen, 19 January 1933. Field Marshal von Mackensen, a monarchist, was a military tutor to Wilhelm II, and his son. His high-profile black Life Hussars uniform was adopted by the SS. Von Mackensen was made a Prussian state councillor by Göring in 1933.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor issued his statement of abdication on 28 November 1918, from both the Kingdom of Prussia, and imperial thrones, thus formally ending the House of Hohenzollern's 400-year rule over Prussia. He also gave up his, and future succession rights to the throne of Prussia and to the German Imperial throne connected therewith.[5]
William, German Crown Prince was first son and heir of Prussia and the collective Kaiserreich of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Crown Prince is known to have abdicated around the same time as his father in 1918. Prince William was a military commander, as second in command to his Commander in Chief father, with GeneralfeldmarschallCrown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria and GeneralfeldmarschallAlbrecht, Duke of Württemberg, at German military headquarters throughout WWI, until the allied armistice of 11 November 1918. As such, Wilhelm II and Crown Prince William directly commanded their Chief of General Staff, General Paul von Hindenburg throughout WWI. In 1933, von Hindenburg appointed (Nazi Party Leader) Hitler as the new Chancellor of Germany. On Hindenburg's death, Hitler officially became Führer and Chancellor of the Realm/Reich. Previously in Germany (1871–1918), the Chancellor was only responsible to the Prussian Kaiser (as Leader of the reich). In 1933, the Nazi regime abolished the flag of the Weimar Republic, and officially restored the Imperial Prussian flag, alongside the Swastika.
An earlier meeting with a (later) senior Nazi figure occurred in 1916, when Crown Prince William invested Hermann Wilhelm Göring with his Iron Cross, first class, after Göring flew reconnaissance and bombing missions in a Feldflieger Abteilung 25 (FFA 25)– in Crown Prince William's Fifth Army.[6] Like many veterans, Göring believed the Stab-in-the-back legend, that the WWI German Army had not really lost the war, but was betrayed by Marxists, Jews, and especially Republicans, who had overthrown the German monarchy.[7] In 1933, with Hitler and the Nazi Party in power, Göring was appointed as Minister of the Interior for Prussia,[8] for which he established a Prussian police force called the Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo.[9] The headquarters of Reich Security Main Office, SD, Gestapo and SS in Nazi Germany (1933–1945), was symbolically housed at Prinz Albrecht-Strasse, off Wilhelmstraße, in Berlin.
In the early 1930s, Wilhelm II apparently hoped the successes of the German Nazi Party would stimulate interest in a restoration of the monarchy, with Crown Prince William's son as the fourth Kaiser.[10] After Crown Prince Wilhelm joined the Stahlhelm which merged in 1931 into the Harzburg Front, Adolf Hitler visited the former Crown Prince at Cecilienhof three times, in 1926, in 1933 (on the "Day of Potsdam") and in 1935.[11] In May 1940, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, the son of Crown Prince William, nominated by Wilhelm as the fourth Kaiser, took part in the invasion of France. He was wounded during the fighting in Valenciennes and died on 26 May 1940. The service drew over 50,000 mourners.[12] His death and the ensuing sympathy of the German public toward a member of the former German royal house greatly bothered Hitler, and he began to see the Hohenzollerns as a threat to his power. In 1940, Hitler issued the Prinzenerlass, prohibiting princes from German royal houses from military service in the Wehrmacht.[12]
Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia was the fourth son of Emperor Wilhelm II, by his first wife, Augusta Victoria. In 1933 August Wilhelm had a position in the Prussian state, and became a member of the German Reichstag. The former prince hoped "that Hitler would one day hoist him or his son Alexander up to the vacant throne of the Kaiser". In 1939 August Wilhelm was made an SA-Obergruppenführer, the second highest SA rank. Translated as "senior group leader",[13]Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA, and adopted by the Schutzstaffel one year later. Until 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank, inferior only to Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler.
As listed, Prince August was given Nazi Party membership number 24, at number 12 was SS-ObergruppenführerPhilipp Bouhler. He was a SS-Reichsleiter, (the same SS rank as Himmler and Goebbels), he was second only to the rank of the Führer in the Nazi Party. Philipp Bouhler, worked alongside Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse who was a close friend of Göring. Bouhler was head of Nazi Action T4euthanasia program for children and the handicapped; (70,000 murders). Deputy Führer to Hitler, also ranked SS-Obergruppenführer, and also SS-Reichsleiter, Rudolf Hesse was number 16. Hesse and Hitler, like Göring, held a shared belief in the stab-in-the-back myth, that Germany's loss in WWI was caused by a conspiracy of Jews and Bolsheviks rather than a military defeat.[14][15]
Prince Alexander Ferdinand was the only son of Prince August Wilhelm and his wife Princess Alexandra Victoria.[citation needed] In 1939, Prince Alexander was a first lieutenant in the Air Force Signal Corps.[16][17] Like his father, Prince August hoped that Hitler "would one day hoist him, or his son, up to the vacant throne of the Kaiser". Prince Alexander’s, and his father’s, support for the Nazis caused disagreements among the Hohenzollerns, with Wilhelm II urging them both to leave the Nazi party.[18] In 1933, Prince Alexander quit the SA and became a private in the German regular army.[19] In 1934, Berlin leaked out that the prince quit the SA because Hitler had chosen 21-year-old Alexander Ferdinand to succeed him as "head man in Germany when he [Hitler] no longer can carry the torch".[19] The report said Joseph Goebbels was expected to oppose the prince's nomination.[19] Unlike many princes untrusted and removed from their commands by Hitler, Prince Alexander was the only Hohenzollern allowed to remain at his post.[20]
Born 29 January 1887. Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia was the fourth son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Prince August joined NSDAP on 1 April 1930, with the low membership number 24. In 1931, he was accepted into the SA with the rank of "Standartenführer", this rank later representing the SS-Standartenführer of the Waffen-SS. Prince August hoped "that Hitler would one day hoist him or his son Alexander up to the vacant throne of the Kaiser".
Born 26 December 1912. Prince Alexander of Prussia was son of Prince August Wilhelm and Princess Alexandra Victoria. As of November 1939, Prince Alexander Ferdinand was a first lieutenant in the Air Force Signal Corps, stationed in Wiesbaden.[16][17][21] In 1933 Prince Alexander Ferdinand quit the SA and became a private in the German regular army.[19]
Born 15 December 1916. Prince Karl Franz was the only child born to Prince Joachim of Prussia by his wife Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt. In World War II, Karl Franz served as a lieutenant in an armoured car division, and at one point was stationed on the Polish front.[22] He was awarded the Iron Cross.
As the war drew to a close, the German Revolution broke out in Bavaria, and Ludwig III was the first Kaiserreich monarch to be deposed. On 7 November 1918, King Ludwig fled from Munich with his family to Schloss Anif, near Salzburg. On 12 November 1918, King Ludwig gave Prime Minister Dandl the Anif declaration, releasing all government officials, soldiers and civil officers from their oath of loyalty to him. The republican government of Kurt Eisner declared the Wittelsbachs deposed, ending 700 years of Wittelsbacher rule over Bavaria.[25]
In a memorandum in 1943, Prince Rupprecht even mentioned his ambition for the German crown, (of the Kaiserreich), which had been held by the House of Wittelsbach in the past.
Frederick Augustus III was the last King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin. He voluntarily abdicated as King on 13 November 1918. 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."[28] Upon abdicating, he is supposed to have said "Nu da machd doch eiern Drägg alleene!" (Saxon for "Well then do your sh... by yourselves!"). 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, "You're a fine lot of republicans, I'll say!"[28] After his father's abdication in 1919, Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony, the king's first-born son and heir, renounced his rights on the Saxon throne to become a Catholic priest. This was very controversial among people who hoped that the monarchy might one day be restored. He worked in Berlin where he was credited with protecting Jews from the Nazi regime[29] in notable contrast to his pro-Nazi brothers-in-law, Prince Frederich of Hohenzollern and Prince Franz Joseph of Hohenzolllern-Emden, who joined the SS. As a leading Roman Catholic nobleman and near relative of the Habsburg, Bourbon, and Saxon dynasties, Prince Franz Joseph did much to lend respectability to the Nazi party.[30][31]
Born 3 September 1910. Frederick, Prince of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein. Prince Friedrich Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, was the son of Prince Johannes Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (b.1863) of Württemberg, and Princess Anna Austria-Toscana (b.1879) in Bavaria. He was husband of Marie Claire Buet.
Born 25 March 1893. Prince Max Hugo of Hohenlohe-Öhringen was the son of Max Anton Karl Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen and Helene Gräfin von Hatzfeldt. He married, firstly, Maria-Gabrielle Gräfin von Faber-Castell, daughter of Alexander Friedrich Lothar Graf von Faber-Castell and Sophie Ottilie Gräfin von Faber, divorced 1931. He married, secondly, Hella von Ramin in 1941. He and Hella divorced in 1942. He married, thirdly, Marianne Liselotte Diefenthal. He died on 17 October 1951 in Wurttemberg.
Born 31 July 1908. "According to His Royal Highest resolution. Highness graciously reigning Grand Duke Karl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from March 16, 1892 granted the rights of a legal personality".
Born 25 February 1883. Princess Hela was the wife of Prince Max-Hugo. Hella von Ramin was born on 25 February 1883. She was the daughter of Paul von Ramin and Gunhild von Ramin-Daber. She married, (third husband) Prince Max-Hugo in 1941. She and Max-Hugo divorced in 1942. She died on 7 January 1943.
Prince Frederick Charles was the brother-in-law of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Frederick Charles was elected as the King of Finland by the Parliament of Finland on 9 October 1918. However, with the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany ending monarchies in Germany, Finland adopted a republicanconstitution. His first son Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse joined the Nazi Party in 1930, and the SA. Stormtroopers in 1932. In 1933, his three other brothers joined the (SS) and the SA. Prince Philipp of Hesse became a particularly close friend of Hermann Göring, the future head of the Luftwaffe. After Hindenburg's appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, Philipp was appointed Oberpräsident (Governor) of Hesse-Nassau, and a member of the Reichstag, and of the Prussian Staatsrat. Philipp played an important role in the consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany. He introduced other aristocrats to NSDAP officials and, as son-in-law of the King of Italy, was a frequent go-between for Hitler and Benito Mussolini. As Governor of Hesse-Kassel, Philipp was complicit in the T-4 Euthanasia Program. In February 1941, Philipp signed the contract placing the sanitarium of Hadamar Clinic at the disposal of the Reich Interior Ministry. Over 10,000 mentally ill people were murdered there. In 1946, Prince Philipp of Hesse was charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped.
Philip of Hesse, second from right in first row. Kassel, 1933
Born 14 May 1901. Prince Christoph was a director in the Ministry of Aviation, and the Commander of the Air Reserves, and in 1933, held the rank of Oberführer in the SS.[citation needed] Oberführer was a rank of the Nazi Party dating back to 1921. Translated as “senior leader”, an Oberführer was a Nazi Party member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographical region.
NSDAP – 1187621
Joined: 1 May 1932
Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld
Hesse-Philippsthal
Born 1 May 1905. In 1932, Prince Wilhelm joined the Nazi party and the SS rising to the rank SS-Hauptsturmführer.[38][39][pageneeded] Prince Wilhelm married Princess Marianne of Prussia. During WWII Prince Wilhelm refused to join an SS unit, instead switching to the regular German Army, where he became a captain of infantry.[39][pageneeded][40] He was killed in action during the fighting at Gor on the Eastern Front.
Born 6 November 1896. Prince Wolfgang of Hesse-Kassel was the designated Hereditary Prince of the monarchy of Finland, (with a pretension to Estonia), and as such, called the Crown Prince of Finland officially until 14 December 1918, and also afterwards by some monarchists.
Born 1 May 1868. In 1893, Frederick Charles married Princess Margaret of Prussia, youngest sister of Wilhelm II and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. They had six children, including two sets of twins.
Born 26 October 1914. Viktoria Cäcilie (1914–1998), Prince Wilhelm and Alexander Friedrich (1911–1939), were the children of Chlodwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld, an officer in the Prussian Army and head of the Hesse-Philippsthal line of the House of Hesse. In the early 1930s three of Landgrave Chlodwig's children (Wilhelm, Alexander Friedrich and Viktoria Cäcilie) joined the Nazi party. His third son Prince Alexander Friedrich, who suffered from epilepsy, was sterilised by the Nazis on 27 September 1938, he died a year later.[41]
During World War I, Grand Duke Ernest Louis served as an officer at Kaiser Wilhelm's headquarters. In July 1918, roughly sixteen months after the February Revolution, which forced his brother-in-law, Nicholas II from his throne, Ernst's two sisters in Russia, Elizabeth, who had become a nun following the assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei, in 1905, and Alexandra, the former tsarina, were killed by the Bolsheviks. At the end of the war, he lost his throne during the revolution of 1918, after refusing to abdicate.[42] Ernst was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918.[43]
NSDAP
Nazi Party
Military Rank
Title and Name
Royal House
Hesse and by Rhine Princes and Princesses in the Nazi Party
Following the 1918 suicide of Grand Duke Adolphus Frederick VI of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grand Duke Frederick Francis took up the regency of Strelitz, after the heir presumptive Duke Charles Michael, who was serving in the Russian Army at the time and had indicated that he wished to renounce his succession rights. Friedrich Franz abdicated the grand ducal throne on 14 November 1918 following the German Empire's defeat in World War I; the regency ended at the same time.[44][full citation needed] His son Friedrich Franz joined the Schutzstaffel (SS), and by 1936 held rank of Hauptsturmführer (Captain).[45] He was posted to Denmark during WWII where he worked at the German embassy as a personal aide to Werner Best.[45] He spent 1944 serving with the Waffen-SS tank corps.[45] In May 1943, Friedrich Franz was passed over as heir in favour of his younger brother Duke Christian Louis.[46]
NSDAP
Nazi Party
Military Rank
Title and Name
Royal House
Mecklenburg-Schwerin Grand Dukes in the Nazi Party
Grand Duke Frederick was forced to abdicate his throne at the end of World War I, when the former Grand Duchy of the German Empire joined the post-war German Republic.[47] He and his family took up residence at Rastede Castle, where he took up farming and local industrial interests.[16] 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".[16] In 1931, Frederick died in Rastede.[47]
Joachim Ernst succeeded his father as Duke of Anhalt on 13 September 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 1918 with his uncle abdicating in his name following the German revolution. The duchy became the Free State of Anhalt.
NSDAP
Nazi Party
Military Rank
Title and Name
Royal House
Anhalt Dukes, Duchesses and Princesses in the Nazi Party
Marie-Auguste married Prince Joachim of Prussia, the youngest son of German Emperor William II. The wedding was attended by Joachim's father Wilhelm II and mother Empress Augusta Viktoria, and the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt, etc. After Joachim committed suicide in 1920, in 1922, Marie-Auguste sued ex-Emperor Wilhelm for the financial support promised to her, in her and Joachim's marriage contract.[48]
Unknown? Anhalt nobility
NSDAP
Nazi Party
Military Rank
Title and Name
Royal House
Unknown? Anhalt Dukes, Duchesses and Princesses in the Nazi Party
When Germany lost the war, all the German princes lost their titles and states. Ernst was one of the first princes to realize major changes were coming for Germany, and quickly arrived at an amicable settlement with his subjects.[21] He was forced to abdicate the government of the duchy on 13 November 1918, and spent the rest of his life like a private citizen. On 1 May 1937, Ernst joined the Nazi party[52] 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 Schloß Fröhliche Wiederkunft 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 Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, he became the last survivor of the German princes who had reigned until 1918. One year later, on 22 March 1955, he died at his Schloß.
Born 31 August 1871. Prince Ernst II, was only son of Prince Moritz, the youngest son of Georg, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Princess Augusta. Ernst married Princess Adelaide, a granddaughter of Prince George William. Prince Ernst became the only former reigning prince who accepted GDR citizenship after World War II, refusing to relocate to the British occupation zone. In 1954, on the death of Charles Edward, he became the last of the German princes who had reigned until 1918. (d. 22 November 1955).
In 1977, Ottfried Neubecker, Director of the German General Rolls of Arms and of the Board of the International Academy of Heraldry, with the cooperation of J.P. Brooke-Little from the College of Arms, published "A Little Brown Book," later reprinted in 1988/89/97 as " Heraldry. Sources, Symbols and Meaning". ( ISBN0-316-64141-3). On page 96, Neubecker stated that; "The reigning royal family in Great Britain goes back to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, husband of Queen Victoria. Our summary of the family tree covers all those descended in the male line from Queen Victoria. As the princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were excluded from the British royal family in 1893, the labels chosen independently by them were not recognized in England. (Also), on 17 July 1917 the name of Saxe-Coburg was changed to Windsor."[54] By warrant of Sep. 12, 1917 and subsequent Order in Council of 1919, George V removed the inescutcheon of Saxony from the arms of all descendants of the Prince Consort.[55] Of George's 29 first-cousins on his father's side, 19 were German, the rest half-German; while on his mother's side, of the 31 first-cousins, six were German and 25 half-German.[citation needed]
In 1919, most, if not all of these Saxe-Coburg Gotha princes lost their titles and royal status, in accordance with the Weimar Constitution, which abolished their German monarchy. Although according to Neubecker; the princes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were excluded from the British royal family in 1893[citation needed], the labels chosen independently by them were not recognized in England.[56][pageneeded] Following the successions to the British throne of two such (Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) princes; as king Edward VII, and king George V, the 1893 (Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) exclusions of the British branch were finally enacted in 1919, at the end of WWI, shortly prior to the Weimar exclusions.[citation needed]
Saxe Coburg-Gotha exclusions from the British monarchy in 1893, and 1919.[citation needed]
Born 19 July 1884. Charles Edward formally joined the Nazi Party in 1933, and SA (Brownshirts), rising to the rank of Obergruppenführer. He also served as a member of the Reichstag representing the Nazi Party from 1937 to 1945. In 1936, Adolf Hitler sent Charles Edward to Britain as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society. His mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and to explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. his three sons served in the Wehrmacht.
Born 27 January 1912. Princess Irmgard was the daughter of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and Bertha Krupp. Gustav Krupp was "a super Nazi". Krupp was an avowed monarchist, and was persuaded the NASDP could end the Republic and restore the Kaiser and the old elites for renewed German expansion. Bertha Krupp never liked Hitler and she pleaded illness when he came on an official tour in 1934. Her daughter Irmgard acted as hostess.[61] Krupp secretly built artillery in Sweden, and built submarine pens in the Netherlands. In the 1930s, it also manufactured tanks and other war materials for Hitler. Krupp was a member of the Prussian State Council from 1921 to 1933. Gustav Krupp was named as a war criminal at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials.
Born 30 June 1901. Prince Bernhard was the third son of Prince Frederick Johann and Countess Adelaide. Bernhard and his first wife were declared guilty of a Nazi conspiracy against Austria in 1933; he was sentenced to six weeks in prison. After intervention of the German envoy, he was released from prison and they escaped to Italy. Three weeks later, he was arrested while trying to return to his castle of Pitzelstaetten.[63][64] He died in 1984.
Prince Leopold IV, was forced to renounce the throne on 12 November 1918. Following the end of his rule, Lippe became a Free state in the new Weimar Republic. All three of his sons by his first wife became members of the party. His eldest son Prince Ernst is reported to have been the first German prince to join the party when he signed up in May 1928.[65] When Leopold died in Detmold his three eldest sons were all disinherited and his youngest son Armin, Prince of Lippe became head of the house.[citation needed]
Darré at Reich Food, before 3000 Lower Saxony people, 13 December 1937.
Like the Hesse family, the Lippe dynasty joined the Nazi party in great numbers (ultimately eighteen members would eventually join).[67] Some German states provided a proportionally higher number of SS officers, including Hesse-Nassau and Lippe, Marie Adelheid's birthplace.[67] Marie Adelheid developed strong connections with the Nazi regime, and became a leading socialite during that time.[67] In 1921, Marie Adelheid became employed as an aide to the Nazi Minister of Food and Agriculture, Richard Walther Darré (a friend of her third husband's).[68] Her cousin Ernst, Prince of Lippe (son of Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe) was also employed under Darré.[67] Marie Adelheid devoted her writing talent to promoting Nazi ideals, in particular those of Darré.[69] Darré's views suffered as new plans were produced by Himmler and Göring.[70] As Darré's influence declined, so did that of Marie Adelheid and her cousin.
Born 12 June 1902. Ernst, Hereditary Prince of Lippe (1902–1987) married first (1924) Charlotte Ricken (1900–1974). He married secondly (1937) Herta-Elise Weiland (1911–1970). Prince Ernst was the first son of Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe, all three of his sons by his first wife became members of the party. His eldest son the Hereditary Prince Ernst is reported to have been the first German prince to join the party when he signed up in May 1928.[65]
In 1938 Prince Ernst worked with, and became second Adjutant to Walter Darré, the "Reich Peasant Leader", at the Nazi Minister of Agriculture. In 1939 he was one of three main aides to the Minister, in his functions as Reich Minister, and Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party. Prince Ernst actively supported Darré's activity as Reichsleiter of the NSDAP, whilst also being Darré's adjutant as Reich Farm Leader, Prince Ernst's official residence was in the Reich Office of Agricultural Policy. Prince Ernst's main task as a party aide, was to act as a liaison between the Reich Office, for country people in Munich and in Berlin. As an adjutant, Prince Ernst was a member of the SS (SS-Nr. 314 184), with the honorary rank of SS-Sturmbannführer. He is listed in the Race and Settlement Main Office. Prince Ernst testified at the Nuremberg Trials.
Born 29 June 1911. Prince Bernhard (1911–2004), later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was the husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and father of the Queen of the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix. After WWI, Bernhard's family lost their German Principality. Prince Bernhard joined the Nazi Party, and the Sturmabteilung (SA), which he left in 1934.[71] The Prince later denied that he had belonged to SA, to the Reiter-SS (SS Cavalry Corps), and to the NSKK. During WWII, Prince Bernhard was part of the London-based Allied war planning councils and saw active service as a Wing Commander (RAF) flying both fighter and bomber planes into combat. He was a Dutch General and Supreme Commander of the Dutch Armed forces, involved in negotiating the terms of surrender of the German Army in the Netherlands. After the War he was made Honorary Air Marshal of the RAF by Queen Elizabeth II. In England, Prince Bernhard asked to work in British Intelligence but the War Admiralty, and later General Eisenhower's Allied Command offices, did not trust him enough to allow him access to intelligence information. On the recommendation of Bernhard's friend King George VI, after being personally screened by intelligence officer Ian Fleming at the behest of Churchill, he was later given work in the Allied War Planning Councils.
Born 13 June 1914. Prince Aschwin of Lippe-Biesterfeld was the younger brother of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Aschwin openly supported the Nazis and become a Wehrmacht officer. Prince Bernhard is said to have cut off communications with Nazi supporters, including his brother.
Born 5 March 1855. Prince Kurt (1855–1934) married (I) Sophie von Klengel (1857–1945) married (II) Johanna Krischke (1894–1987) 1. Marie Sophie (1886–1946) 2. Karl Christian (1889–1942).
Adolph succeeded his father as Prince in 1911, until he was forced to abdicate on 15 November 1918. Following the German revolution: the Principality became the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe. Adolf married Ellen Bischoff-Korthaus, they were both killed in a plane crash in Mexico in 1936, in a controlled flight into the side of a volcano. He was succeeded as head of the House of Schaumburg-Lippe by his brother Wolrad.
Prince Adolph's brother Prince Friedrich Christian, was son of Georg, the reigning Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, and Princess Marie Anne. Friedrich's brother Adolf II was the "last German prince forced to abdicate.[72] After WWI, Friedrich Christian was an ardent Nazi Party supporter, and worked vigorously to gain noble and royal support for it, and eventually became an upper privy councillor and adjutant to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In 1939, Friedrich Christian was asked to become King of Iceland by Icelanders sympathetic to the Nazi party, but refused due to the opposition of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Prince Friedrich felt disillusioned by the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II, and even more unhappy over the "cowardly abdications" of the German princes in 1918.[73][full citation needed] The prince wished for a restoration of the monarchy, he believed that Adolf Hitler was also in tandem with these views, writing in his diary, "Hitler was in principle for the monarchy, but not for the continuation of that which, in his opinion, had failed totally."[73] The prince "liked to think the "National Socialists as true heirs of the old nobility."[74][full citation needed]
The House of Schaumburg-Lippe had ten members in the Nazi party.[75] Hitler wanted these high-ranking members of society for propaganda reasons – the more who joined, the more socially acceptable his new regime would be.[1] Like Friedrich and his brother Prince Wolrad, Hitler appointed many of these new members to the Sturmabteilung as stormtroopers.[76] Hitler made various assurances to its members, leading them to believe he intended to restore the monarchy.[77][full citation needed] Friedrich Christian was a speaker for the Nazi Party in 1929, and worked vigorously to gain the support of other noble families behind Hitler.[73][77][full citation needed] He worked closely with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.[78]> Goebbels gave him a position in the newly created Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.[79] By April 1933, Friedrich Christian was both an upper privy councillor and Goebbels' adjutant.[79] That year, the prince arranged for the Minister's involvement in the Berlin University book burning.[79] As evident from photographs and diaries during that time, Hitler and Goebbels both held Friedrich Christian in high esteem.[73] As WWII continued with German military defeats, Hitler became more suspicious of royal and noble families, questioning their loyalties.[80] By 1943, he secretly ordered all Nazi bureaucracies to compile a record of members, and then personally decided if they were to be "retired" or allowed to stay.[81] Most of the princes were unwillingly booted out of the party as a result.[82] Goebbels went to Hitler to protect Friedrich Christian, who obtained a special waiver, for the prince's "future deployment in the Propaganda Ministry".
In 1947, four German princes Friedrich Christian, Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, Prince Philipp of Hesse, and Hereditary Prince Ernst of Lippe, were brought under arrest to the war crimes jail at Nuremberg in order to appear as witnesses in a portion of the 16 trials of high-ranking Nazi criminals.[83] Viewed as an "old-line party member" who made propaganda excursions to many foreign countries on Goebbels' behalf, Friedrich Christian was the last of the four to testify.[83]
Friedrich was an ardent Nazi Party supporter, who worked to gain royal support for them, becoming an upper privy councillor and adjutant to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In 1939, Friedrich was asked to become King of Iceland by Icelanders sympathetic to the Nazi party, but refused due to the opposition of Joachim von Ribbentrop. SA-Standartenführer. (SA-Standard leader (regiment sized unit)).
At the death of his father on 29 March 1913, Heinrich inherited the throne of the Principality, as well he continued the regency of Reuss Elder Line, because of a physical and mental disability of Prince Heinrich XXIV 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. After the death of Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss Elder Line in 1927, the titles passed to Heinrich XXVII.
Heinrich XLV was the head of the House of Reuss, and last male member of the Reuss-Schleiz branch of the Younger Line. Heinrich XLV was the only surviving son of Heinrich XXVII. During the 1930s Heinrich XLV became a Nazi sympathizer and member of the Nazi Party.[91] In 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet military and disappeared. In 1962, he was declared dead by a court in Büdingen.
Born 30 August 1895. Like the Hesse family, the Lippe dynasty joined the Nazi party in great numbers (ultimately eighteen members would eventually join).[87] Some German states provided a proportionally higher number of SS officers, including Hesse-Nassau and Lippe, Marie Adelheid's birthplace.[87] As an ardent believer of the party's views, Marie Adelheid developed strong connections to the emerging Nazi regime, and became a leading socialite during that time.[87]
Born 13 May 1895. Heinrich XLV became head of the House of Reuss after the Younger and Elder Lines merged in 1927. In 1935 he adopted Prince Heinrich I Reuss of Köstritz (1910–1982), who married his niece Duchess Woizlawa Feodora of Mecklenburg. In August 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet military and disappeared. In 1962, he was declared dead by a court in Büdingen. His entire fortune was confiscated in 1948 by the Soviet Military Administration, including three Castles in Gera. Heinrich XLV remained unmarried and childless.
Born 28 March 1890. Heinrich Harry, Prince of Reuss, Graf von Plauen, was the son of Heinrich XXVI, Prince of Reuss (b. 15 December 1857) and Viktoria, Gräfin von Fürstenstein (b. 11 September 1863). He was the husband of Huberta Valeska Sascha Eva Anna Dorothea, Freiin von Tiele-Winckler. Prince Heinrich joined the Nazi Party at the same time as Princess Huberta.
Born 14 April 1889. Princess Edina-Huberta of Reuss, was the daughter of Heinrich Harry, Prince Reuss, Graf von Plauen (b. 28 March 1890) and Huberta Valeska Sascha Eva Anna Dorothea, Baroness von Tiele-Winckler (b. 14 April 1889).
Born 10 August 1888. Brother of Heinrich XXXIII, and XXXII. Heinrich XXXV (1887–1936) married firstly in 1911 (divorced 1921) Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1888–1947), married secondly in 1921 (divorced 1923) Princess Marie Adelaide of Lippe (1895–1993).
Prince Christoph of Hesse was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was an SS-Oberführer in the Allgemeine SS and an officer in the Luftwaffe Reserve, killed on active duty in a plane crash during World War II. His brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, fought on the British side and married the future Queen Elizabeth II after the war.
Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont was the heir apparent to the throne of the Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont and a general in the SS. From 1946 until his death, he was the head of the Princely House of Waldeck and Pyrmont. After World War II, he was sentenced to life in prison at the Buchenwald Trial for his part in the "common plan" to violate the Laws and Usages of War in connection with prisoners of war held at Buchenwald concentration camp, but was released after serving about three years in prison.
Events in the year 1888 in Germany, the 'Year of the Three Emperors'.
Events in the year 1899 in Germany.
Events in the year 1907 in Germany.
Events in the year 1911 in Germany.
Events in the year 1910 in Germany.
Events in the year 1901 in Germany.
Events in the year 1892 in Germany.
Events in the year 1876 in Germany.
Events in the year 1916 in Germany.
Events in the year 1908 in Germany.
Events in the year 1889 in Germany.
Events in the year 1894 in Germany.
Events in the year 1877 in Germany.
Events in the year 1882 in Germany.
Events in the year 1887 in Germany.
Events in the year 1917 in Germany.
Events in the year 1918 in Germany.
Chlodwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld was an officer in the Prussian Army and head of the Hesse-Philippsthal line of the House of Hesse.
↑ Article 109 of the Weimar Constitution constitutes: Adelsbezeichnungen gelten nur als Teil des Namens und dürfen nicht mehr verliehen werden ("Noble names are only recognised as part of the surname and may no longer be granted").
↑ Müller, Heike; Berndt, Harald (2006). Schloss Cecilienhof und die Konferenz von Potsdam 1945 (German). Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten. ISBN3-910068-16-2.
↑ See, e.g.,Toland, John (1976). Adolf Hitler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp.57–58. ISBN0-385-03724-4. ("Toland") andLarge, David C. (1997). Where Ghosts Walked: Munich's Road to the Third Reich. New York: Doubleday & Company. pp.48–49. ISBN0-393-03836-X. ("Large").
↑ This account is based on Hitler's recollections in Mein Kampf. Kershaw holds that Hitler's story is simply not credible and suggests that bureaucratic error, rather than bureaucratic efficiency, was responsible for Hitler's enlistment; indeed, as a national of an allied country, he should have been sent to Austria for service in that army. Based on Bavarian government investigations in 1924, the more likely scenario in Kershaw's view is that Hitler applied for enlistment, along with thousands of other youths, on or about 5 August 1914, was initially turned away because the authorities were overwhelmed with applicants and had no place to assign him, and eventually was recalled to serve in the 2nd Infantry Regiment (2nd Battalion), before being assigned to Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (the List Regiment), which was principally made up of raw recruits. Kershaw, Ian (1999). Adolf Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp.89–90. ISBN0-393-04671-0. ("Kershaw").
↑ Manfred Berger (2003). "Rupprecht, Maria Luitpold Ferdinand, Kronprinz von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, Herzog von Bayern, Franken und in Schwaben usw.". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol.22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1173–1186. ISBN3-88309-133-2.
↑ Burleigh, Michael; Wipperman, Wolfgang (November 29, 1991). The Racial State: Germany, 1933–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press. p.274. ISBN978-0-521-39114-6.
↑ Thomas, W Hugh (March 22, 2002). The strange death of Heinrich Himmler: a forensic investigation. New York: St. Martin's Press. p.32. ISBN0-312-28923-5.
1 2 "Duchess Elisabeth". The New York Times. 5 September 1955.
1 2 Scott-Keltie, J. (2016). The Statesman's Year-Book. Springer. p. 682. ISBN9780230270299.
↑ MacNeil, Swift (18 November 1914). "ALIEN PEERS". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). His Majesty's Stationery Office. pp.HC Deb 18 November 1914 vol 68 cc437-8W. Retrieved 28 November 2011. Mr. Swift MacNeill asked the Prime Minister (1) whether he is aware that the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, in the peerage of Great Britain, and Earl of Armagh, in the peerage of Ireland, and a prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, is in command of troops in the German Army, engaged in active hostilities against the Sovereign and people of the British Empire; whether he is aware that the first Duke of Cumberland, the paternal grandfather of the present duke, after his accession to the throne of Hanover, took the oath of allegiance in England, and sat in the House of Lords as a peer of Great Britain by hereditary right; whether the present Duke of Cumberland, who was born a British subject, has since divested himself of his British nationality and, if so, how and when; and whether, having regard to the fact that the present Duke of Cumberland is in arms with the enemies of the British Empire against the Sovereign of that Empire, and guilty of high treason, any and, if so, what steps will be taken to secure that he shall no longer retain British and Irish titles or peerages and a seat in the House of Lords; and (2) whether he is aware that the Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, prince of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, is in command of troops in the German Army, engaged in active hostilities against the Sovereign and people of the British Empire; whether he is aware that the Duke of Albany was born in England, a subject of the British Crown, and succeeded, at his birth as a posthumous child, to these United Kingdom titles or peerages held by his father, who swore allegiance and sat as a peer of the United Kingdom in the House of Lords by hereditary right; whether the Duke of Albany has ever divested himself of his British nationality and, if so, how or when; and whether, having regard to the fact that the Duke of Albany is in arms with the enemies of the British Empire against the Sovereign of this Empire, and guilty of high treason, any and, if so, what steps will be taken to secure that he shall no longer retain United Kingdom peerages and titles and a seat in the House of Lords?
↑ Bottomley asked the Prime Minister whether it is proposed to abolish the peerages of which the Dukes of Albany and Cumberland have recently been deprived; and, if not, whether the heirs of such dukes will ultimately become eligible for the assumption of the titles?
↑ Under settled practice dating to 1714, as a male-line descendant of George III, Prince Ernst August III of Hanover also held the title of Prince of Great Britain and Ireland with the style of Highness. In the Court Circular printed in The Times and in the London Gazette, he was frequently styled Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland.
↑ Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S.505.
↑ ISBN0-316-64141-3. (A Little Brown Book. 1st published 1977. Reprinted 1988/89) Edition 1997: Heraldry. Sources, Symbols and Meaning: (pg 96). By Ottfried Neubecker, Director of the German General Rolls of Arms, on the Board of the International Academy of Heraldry. (With contributions by J.P. Brooke-Little. College of Arms. London.)
↑ (in German) Ernst Klee, Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 [The Cultural Dictionary of the Third Reich: Who was What Before and After 1945] (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2007), p. 261.
Nesbit, Roy Conyers; van Acker, Georges (2011) [1999]. The Flight of Rudolf Hess: Myths and Reality. Stroud: History Press. ISBN978-0-7509-4757-2.
Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-979607-6.
Stein, Harry (2004). Buchenwald concentration camp 1937–1945. Wallstein Verlag. ISBN3-89244-695-4.
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