Friedrich Leopold of Prussia
Joachim Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Leopold Prince of Prussia , known as Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia , (born November 14, 1865 in Berlin , † September 13, 1931 in Krojanke , Flatow district ) was the brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Colonel-General of Prussia . The prince was considered an enfant terrible in the Prussian ruling family Hohenzollern .
Life
Friedrich Leopold was the son of Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia and Princess Marie-Anne of Anhalt-Dessau , the daughter of Duke Leopold Friedrich of Anhalt-Dessau . Friedrich Leopold's siblings were Marie Elisabeth Luise Friederike , Elisabeth Anna (1857–1895) and Luise Margarethe Alexandra Viktoria Agnes .
In line with family tradition, Friedrich Leopold embarked on a military career. In 1875, at the age of ten, he became second lieutenant in the 1st Guards Regiment on foot in Potsdam and at the same time a cadet , but at this age he only took part in certain parades of the regiment. In 1885, when Friedrich Leopold was still a minor, he inherited the inheritance of his father, Prince Friedrich Karl, the extensive property in Krojanke , his birthplace, the Ordenspalais on Wilhelmplatz in Berlin, which he was never to use, and not far from Potsdam the Düppel Forest and the Glienicker Schlösser in Wannsee . After the end of the cadet in the same year he was promoted to prime lieutenant , in 1888 to Rittmeister , in 1890 to major and in 1893 to colonel . As such, he was appointed commander of the Gardes du Corps regiment in Potsdam on May 20, 1893 . In addition, in 1893 he became regiment owner of the Austrian Austro-Hungarian hussar regiment "Friedrich Leopold of Prussia" No. 2, which was named after him . From September 1, 1894 to September 9, 1898 he commanded the 4th Guards Cavalry Brigade in Potsdam and then the 22nd Division in Kassel when he was promoted to Lieutenant General . This was followed from June 7, 1900 to March 21, 1902 as an inspector of the 4th Cavalry Inspection in Potsdam. With the subsequent promotion to General of the Cavalry Wilhelm II released him from service . Since then, the prince has only performed his military functions formally.
The prince attracted attention in public due to bizarre faux pas , enormous expenses and countless costly court cases, which Friedrich Leopold brought almost always unsuccessfully with constantly new legal representatives. This created discord within the ruling family led the Hohenzollern head of Wilhelm II 1904th to a secret investigation into the private life and activity of the spouses by Gustav Steinhauer , whom he described as temporary bodyguard knew personally. The consequences were an extensive exclusion of the couple from social life and the transfer of their sons from the age of ten to cadet institutions. Wilhelm sent Friedrich Leopold in 1904 as an advisor to the headquarters of the Russian Army in the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria and appointed him General Inspector of the Army in 1907 and Colonel General on September 10, 1910 . Despite his high position, Friedrich Leopold spent the entire First World War on his estate in Glienicke without ever being deployed or appearing in public.
When the November Revolution broke out, it was immediately clear to Friedrich Leopold that the end of the monarchy also meant the end of his domination by Wilhelm II, which was enshrined in the house law . Overnight he had become what he always wanted to be: a private individual. True to his eccentric style, he raised a red flag at his residence in Glienicke on November 10, 1918 , which caused a great stir throughout Germany. The Hohenzollern family had already tried on various occasions to have Friedrich Leopold examined for his mental state and initiated an initially unsuccessful incapacitation procedure. Now he was the first member of the family to leave the family association and renounced his annual appanage as soon as the republican Prussian nobility law of June 23, 1920 permitted this. Previously, he was the 1919 Swiss Lugano moved, where even his son Friedrich Leopold jun. lived, and from where he continued his various arguments and continued to sell parts of his grandfather's valuable art collection. The prince completely disorganized his property in Germany in 1919. When the Free State of Prussia tried to resume the incapacitation proceedings initiated under Wilhelm II and to lead it to success, it failed in March 1921 because of dead witnesses in court. Friedrich Leopold's possession Krojanke went down in legal history in 1924. A ruling by the Reichsgericht on June 21 recognized his previous family entails, including Krojanke, as private property and thus made an important decision in principle on the compensation claims of the German nobility in the Weimar Republic. Friedrich Leopold died in Krojanke in 1931 in the middle of negotiations about leasing the Glienicke hunting lodge as a hotel. Because his older sons had already died and he Friedrich Leopold jun. had since disinherited, his underage grandson Friedrich Karl took over his inheritance.
Friedrich Leopold was the last protector of Prussian Freemasonry from the House of Hohenzollern. Admitted in 1889 in the Johannisloge "Friedrich Wilhelm zur Morgenröte", in 1894 he became protector of all three Prussian grand lodges. Since 1895 he was also Master of the Masonic Order . As early as 1893 he was made a knight of the Swedish royal order Charles XIII. beaten, which is only accessible to Freemasons. With the end of the Hohenzollern rule in Prussia, the protectorate of Prince Friedrich Leopold over the Prussian grand lodges also ended.
Prince Friedrich Leopold had been a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn since 1884 . From 1886 the prince was the protector of the Wesel Citizens' Rifle Club .
In the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf , the Prinz-Friedrich-Leopold-Strasse and the Prinz-Friedrich-Leopold-Kanal , which connects the Griebnitzsee with the Stölpchensee , remind of him in the Nikolassee district .
progeny
Friedrich Leopold married Princess Louise Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg in Berlin on June 24, 1889 . She was the sister of the German Empress Auguste Viktoria , the wife of Emperor Wilhelm II. The couple moved into the hunting lodge in Glienicke, which had previously been extensively renovated by Albert Geyer , while their father's Glienicke Palace was neglected. Both had four children together:
- Viktoria Margarete Elisabeth Marie Adelheid Ulrike (born April 17, 1890 - † September 9, 1923)
- ⚭ 1913–1922 Prince Heinrich XXXIII. Reuss to Köstritz (1879–1942)
- ⚭ 1916 Princess Marie Luise zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1897–1938)
- Tassilo Wilhelm Humbert Leopold Friedrich Karl (1893-1917)
- Franz Joseph Oskar Ernst Patrick Friedrich Leopold (1895–1959), unmarried.
Awards
Friedrich Leopold was a Knight of the Black Eagle Order . In 1886 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown .
literature
- John Röhl : Scandal in Glienicke Palace. in: Wilhelm II. The construction of the personal monarchy, 1888–1900. CH Beck, Munich 2001, pp. 737-740.
- Georg Zivkovic: Army and Navy Leader of the World. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1971, ISBN 3-7648-0666-4 , pp. 427-428.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ On this, also on the exemption (above) and on the following Gustav Steinhauer : I was the emperor's spy . Wunderkammer, Neu-Isenburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-941245-03-7 , p. 132 ff.
- ↑ Kurt Heinig gives a description of the almost irrational personality of Friedrich Leopold and his civil law struggles with the court , his house staff, the Nowawes workers 'and soldiers' council and the republican Prussia : Hohenzollern. Wilhelm II and his house. The fight for the crown possession . Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, Berlin 1921, pp. 150–156, there also the following
- ^ Anton Frans Karl Anjou: Riddare af Konung Carl XIII: s orden 1811-1900. Biografiska anteckningar. Eskjö 1900, p. 179.
- ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1910, 19 , 590
- ↑ Jürgen Julier , Susanne Leiste, Margret Schütte (Red.): Glienicke Castle. Residents. Artist. Parkland. Administration of the State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, Berlin 1987, p. 24.
- ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1907. P. 30.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Prussia, Friedrich Leopold von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Prussia, Joachim Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Leopold von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prussian Prince and Colonel General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1865 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1931 |
| Place of death | Krojanke , Flatow district |