Ernst August (Braunschweig)
Ernst August von Hanover (III.) Duke of Braunschweig, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, Prince of Hanover (born November 17, 1887 in Penzing near Vienna ; † January 30, 1953 at Marienburg Castle in Pattensen ). From November 1, 1913 until his abdication on November 8, 1918, he was the last ruling Duke of the Duchy of Braunschweig and the last ruling monarch of the House of Hanover (Braunschweig-Lüneburg) .
Life
Ernst August Christian Georg von Hanover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland 1 , was the third and youngest son of the last Crown Prince of Hanover, Ernst August , Duke of Cumberland , and Princess Thyra of Denmark , daughter of King Christian IX. from Denmark . He was born in exile in Austria in 1887 and was a soldier in a Bavarian cavalry regiment .
When the ruling Duke Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Bevern , a distant cousin, died without heirs in 1884 , the 3rd Duke of Cumberland, Ernst August's father, as head of the Welfenhaus, announced his claims to the territory. Since the former Crown Prince did not want to give up his inheritance claim to the Kingdom of Hanover, which was annexed by Prussia in 1866 , the German Federal Council, at Bismarck's instigation, excluded him from succeeding him in Braunschweig. Instead, Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837–1906) and, after his death in 1907, Duke Johann Albrecht zu Mecklenburg (1857–1920) became regents of Braunschweig .
On May 24, 1913, Ernst August married Princess Viktoria Luise , the only daughter of the Prussian King and German Emperor Wilhelm II. The wedding cemented the decades-old crack between the houses of Hohenzollern and Hanover. It was also the last major meeting of European sovereigns (many of whom were descended from Queen Victoria or King Christian IX) before the outbreak of the World War . Besides the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, u. a. also King George V of Great Britain and Ireland with Queen Mary and Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia the invitation to the wedding. In announcing the engagement between Ernst August and Viktoria Luise vowed Ernst August the Emperor a loyalty oath and was AKO of 24 May 1913 was promoted to captain to chief of the 4th Squadron of the Hussars "from Zieten" (Brandenburg) no. 3 , a Prussian regiment in which his grandfather Georg V and his great-grandfather Ernst August were colonels.
On October 27, 1913, the 3rd Duke of Cumberland formally renounced his claims to the Duchy of Braunschweig in favor of his son, and on the following day the Federal Council decided that the Prince and Princess of Cumberland should become the ruling Duke and Duchess of Braunschweig and Lüneburg. However, the former Kingdom of Hanover remained a Prussian province. The new Duke and his wife formally took possession of the Duchy of Braunschweig on November 1, 1913 and moved into the Braunschweig Castle .
During the First World War he was promoted to major general and served in the general command of the X Army Corps . He transferred the reign of the duchy to his wife for the time of his absence. He also stood à la suite of Infantry Regiment No. 92 and Hussar Regiment No. 17 of the Prussian Army and the 1st Heavy Rider Regiment "Prince Karl of Bavaria" of the Bavarian Army .
November Revolution in Braunschweig and abdication
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In the course of the November Revolution in Braunschweig , Ernst August had to abdicate to the local workers 'and soldiers' council under the leadership of August Merges on the afternoon of November 8, 1918 - one day earlier than his father-in-law Kaiser Wilhelm II . The very next day he left Braunschweig and moved with his family to Gmunden in exile in Austria at Cumberland Castle , which his father had built after his dethronement as King of Hanover . From there he led numerous lawsuits, including those against the German Empire and the Free State of Braunschweig .
The Duke's abdication certificate was offered for sale to the ducal house in Gmunden by the former President of the Free State of Braunschweig in 1920 .
Nazi era
In 2014, the NDR documentary Adel ohne Skrupel reported on the activities of the Guelphs during the National Socialist era based on research by the Viennese historians Ulrike Felber and Sabine Loitfellner . Accordingly, Ernst August appropriated several Jewish companies through " Aryanization ". The connection between the Welfen and the armaments company Flugzeug- und Metallbauwerke Wels (FMW) could also be proven by this research. Ernst August turned the company into an armaments company in August 1939, which made high profits during the war years by exploiting forced laborers . The company maintained maintenance and repair workshops for the Air Force . For the secret production of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter , an entire mountain range was hollowed out by slave labor.
Processes
In 1924 he was reimbursed the castles Blankenburg and the domain Calenberg , the domains Hesse and Heimburg (near Blankenburg), the manor Westdorf and the former manor Michaelstein monastery (a total of approx. 10,000 hectares) from the state of Braunschweig . He also owned the Herrenhausen Palace and Great Garden in Hanover and Marienburg Palace . 1924–1933 he sued for the return of the so-called Welfenfonds (also known as " Reptile Fund "). The court ruled on a reimbursement of eight million Reichsmarks. In 1930 he sold the Welfenschatz pledged to banks to a consortium of art dealers.
In 1930 he and his family moved from Gmunden to Blankenburg Castle in the Harz Mountains. From here he and his family fled from the Soviet troops after the end of World War II . However, since British troops had initially occupied the Harz, a move by the British army was carried out beforehand. Approx. 30 trucks cleared the locks in Blankenburg. Most of the removal goods went to Marienburg Castle. Ernst August died on January 30, 1953 at Marienburg Castle near Hanover.
On February 6, 1953, a funeral service for the deceased was held in the Marktkirche in Hanover , the body was transferred to the Berggarten in Herrenhausen and buried in front of the Guelph mausoleum.
After reunification, Ernst August's grandson sued for the return of the goods and castles in the eastern German states (value 2005: approx. 100–150 million euros), he lost these lawsuits. His great-grandson Ernst August jr. Sotheby’s auctioned large parts of these relocation goods in 2005 and achieved around 25 million euros.
family
ancestors
Marriage and offspring
His marriage to Viktoria Luise von Preußen (1892–1980) in 1913 resulted in the following children:
- Ernst August IV. (1914–1987)
- Georg Wilhelm Ernst August Friedrich Axel (1915-2006)
- Friederike Luise Thyra Viktoria Margarete Sophie Olga Cecilie Isabella Christa (1917–1981), later Queen of Greece
- Christian Oskar Ernst August Wilhelm Viktor Georg (September 1, 1919 - December 10, 1981)
- Welf Heinrich Ernst August Georg Christian Berthold Friedrich Wilhelm Louis Ferdinand (born March 11, 1923 - † July 12, 1997)
literature
- Ernst August , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 15/1953 of March 30, 1953, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Web links
- NDR: Nazi Forced Labor - Part 1–4
- Certificate of abdication dated November 8, 1918 on kulturerbe.niedersachsen.de
- Historical film recordings of Ernst August's wedding in May 1913 , filmportal.de
- Newspaper article about Ernst August in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ In the Vossische Zeitung of January 3, 1921: The Braunschweiger Abdankindurkunde ; accessed on November 24, 2017.
- ↑ Nazi forced labor in the Welfs armaments company. In: NDR.de , August 18, 2014, accessed on November 6, 2018.
- ↑ No mercy: "Aryanization" for the benefit of the Guelphs. In: NDR.de , August 18, 2014, accessed on November 6, 2018.
- ^ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : 1953. in: Hannover Chronik . P. 245 below.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Regent Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg |
Duke of Braunschweig 1913–1918 |
Title expired |
| Ernst August II. |
Head of the House of Hanover 1913–1953 |
Ernst August IV. |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ernst August |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ernst August of Hanover |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | last ruling Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 17, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Penzing (district of Vienna) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 30, 1953 |
| Place of death | Pattensen near Hanover |